Tagged: Marvel Universe
Disney XD Launches Marvel Universe Block on April 1
Disney XD will launch Marvel Universe, a dedicated Marvel programming block, with the new series Ultimate Spider-Man as its centerpiece, on SUNDAY, APRIL 1, it was announced today by Gary Marsh, President and Chief Creative Officer, Disney Channels Worldwide at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, California. Marvel Universe on Disney XD will be the ultimate place for fans to find exclusive Marvel content, including new animated short-form series, live-action interstitials and the series return of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The block will be home to Marvel’s biggest superstars, such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America and many more to introduce dynamic stories of action, adventure and heroism to a whole new generation.
Marsh said, “Iconic Marvel heroes and villains and stories with core values of accomplishment, discovery and growth make Marvel Universe a perfect complement to Disney XD and a destination for parents and kids to experience together.” (more…)
Marvel Partners with Williams-Sonoma
In the what won’t thiey think of next department, we just received this release about Kitchen ware. Yes, when you’re ready to get back to baking as the summer heat fades, you can decorate your fall cupcakes for school with Marvel heroes. Interestingly, as seen in the graphic, classic Marvel Age artwork is being used, clearly appealing to an older demographic.
New York, NY, August 3, 2011 – Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a global character-based entertainment licensing company, and Williams-Sonoma, a member of the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. portfolio of brands, today announced the launch of an exclusive collection of Super Hero kitchen and bakeware merchandise exclusively sold at Williams-Sonoma. Designed exclusively for the retailer, the products include renowned Super Heroes from the Marvel Universe including Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America and Iron Man. Featuring retro character art and graphics, the Williams-Sonoma collection captures the charm and artistry of the original Marvel Comics.
The program launches with an array of bakeware and kitchen essentials including Cookie Cutters, Pancake Molds, Adult and Child Aprons, Spatulas and Iced Cookies. Product will be available at all Williams-Sonoma stores in the U.S. and Canada, and also via catalog and online at www.williams-sonoma.com/.
“Building upon our incredibly successful relationship with Williams-Sonoma Inc., we are excited to launch a great new line of merchandise at Williams-Sonoma stores, bringing the Marvel brand to another audience and product segment,” said Paul Gitter, President of Consumer Products for North America, Marvel Entertainment. “We are working with Williams-Sonoma on helping kids and adults spend time together in the kitchen.
Women Is NOT Losers
Marvel Comics is a couple months into their “Women of Marvel” promotion, and that raises an issue or two. The whole idea is fine – honor… well… promote the several hundred female characters that toil in the Marvel Universe. Remind the readers
that many are among Marvel’s best. After all, women-starring superhero comics generally don’t sell very well and women-starring superhero movies are, without fail, failures.
I realize there’s a reason why the movies flop. Most of them really suck. Supergirl, Elektra, and Catwoman deserved better. But they stunk up the box office so badly I doubt they’d make a Black Widow solo movie
right now even if Scarlett Johansson had a half-dozen nude scenes.
Well… I could be wrong about that last point.
But the fact is, these are just made-up characters. It is
not intrinsically harder to write, draw, direct and/or act as a woman superhero as it is a man. I understand avoiding crappy movies, but a lot of the women superhero comics are as good as anything on the racks. Given the growing percentage of women readers, you’d think there would be a chance here.
So kudos to Marvel for their promotion. And go to your friendly neighborhood comic book shop and take a super-heroine out to lunch.
ComicMix
editor-in-Chief Mike
Gold performs a weekly two-hour Weird
Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking music and blather radio show on The Point every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern,
replayed three times during the week (check the website for times). Likewise,
his Weird Scenes Inside The Gold Mind political
and cultural rants pop up each and
every day at the same
venue. Thanks to Janis Joplin for the headline.
Review: ‘Iron Man: The Ultimate Guide’
Anticipating today’s release of [[[Iron Man 2]]], DK Publishing released [[[Iron Man: The Ultimate Guide to the Armored Super Hero]]] back in February. The book, like last year’s [[[Wolverine]]] offering, is in their new thicker but shorter trim size and at 200 pages is chock full of information regarding only the comic book career of the Golden Avenger.
Matthew Manning, who also wrote the Wolverine volume (and is my co-author on [[[The Batman Vault]]]), returns to tell us everything about Tony Stark, his metallic alter ego and his friends and foes.
The book takes us through the origins of the character up through the beginning of the acclaimed Matt Fraction “Stark: Disassembled” storyline. Sections are devoted to his Stark Industries staff, his friends, his foes, and of course the many, many women in his life.
Maybe it’s because of Marvel’s own Iron Manuals, but the section devoted to his many armored incarnations is perhaps the weakest portion of the book. We get a few pages detailing how the more current armor works and then artwork depicting many but not all the variations. By using pick-up art in this manner, we’re treated to the work of many different artists but many of the shots are details and not full figures so for a visual guide, it feels oddly lacking.
Matt does a better job detailing the other sections starting with the various versions of Stark’s family business. Oddly, his spread on Pepper Potts seems written for people only familiar with her from the movie, ignoring her elopement and troubled marriage to Happy Hogan. Instead, that aspect of her life can be found in Happy’s own section.
A six page timeline concisely gives you what you need to know about the character’s career before getting into decade by decade sections with additional details. The 1960s was the decade it all got stated and the foundation was built. A little too much space is given to team-ups and battles and not enough given to the feature’s early Cold War-inspired stories or Stark versus Congress, rooting the series to the real world setting it apart from the other Marvel titles at the time.
The 1970s sadly gets the shortest shrift, with emphasis entirely on the classic “[[[Demon with a Bottle]]]” story. Yes, the series floundered after Archie Goodwin stopped writing it in favor of many hands until settling in with David Michelinie and Bob Layton in the latter 1970s. Still, the feature endured and should have been explored a little more.
Stark and Iron Man’s growing prominence in the Marvel Universe over the last decade does get a much stronger review and is among the best portions of the book.
Rather than devote two-pages to a montage of covers and splash pages at the end, the book could have benefitted from expanding the Ultimate incarnation of Iron Man from two to four pages to better explore how this Stark differs from the core Marvel Universe version.
Matt does a solid job keeping many of the convoluted storylines clear for readers – not an easy feat – and his affection for the character is clear. Similarly, the publication design is a little more straight-forward than some of DK’s hyperkinetic earlier offerings.
To be honest, this is one of those dream jobs I wish I had a shot at writing, but Matt does a fine job here and makes the character, his world, and his importance to the Marvel Universe clear. At $24.95, you couldn’t find a better resource on the Armored Avenger.
X-Men Forever: What was the Marvel Universe like in 1991?
In light of the annoucement of X-Men Forever and Chris Claremont‘s intention to continue exactly where X-Men #3 left off in 1991, we thought it would be a good idea to remind ourselves what the state of the Marvel Universe was in 1991– before Stamford, the Super-Hero Registration Act, and Skrulls. Here’s all you need to know:
X-MEN:
Charles Xavier is adjusting to having lost the use of his legs again recently. The X-Men have recently reformed into two teams, with Cyclops leading the blue strike force and Storm leading the gold strike force. Gambit has just joined and is still a mystery to the others.
During the gold strike force’s latest mission, they investigated the recent death of the Hellions and have recruited the time-traveling Bishop. At this time, Bishop is still unaware who the “X-traitor” will turn out to be. Much of the world still thinks the X-Men are dead and it’s possible they are still invisible to technology (due to a spell cast by Roma).
During their latest mission, the blue strike force met the newly formed Acolytes and witnessed the apparent death of Magneto (at the hands of his Acolyte Cortez) on Asteroid M, which has just been destroyed.
X-FORCE:
Cable is still leading this team, which has only recently formed, and at this point in time all we know about the white-haired mutant is that he and Stryfe are identical to each other and that he apparently did some military missions in ‘Nam where he met Chord of the New Warriors. He also has an unclear history with Wolverine. G.W. Bridge of SHIELD is investigating Cable since he believes that Cable is also running Stryfe’s organization the Mutant Liberation Front.
As of yet, there has been no revelations about Cannonball being an “Ex-Ternal” and there has been no revelation that Domino is actually Copycat while the real Domino is a captive of Mr. Tolliver.
X-FACTOR:
X-Factor has just replaced “Freedom Force” as the government’s mutant counter-terrorist team. Havok is in charge and is very green as a leader, still concerned about living up to his brother’s example. Wolfsbane cannot really turn to human form at this point, stuck between her half-lupine form and full lupine form.
EXCALIBUR:
The London based team still includes Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde in its ranks. At this point, half the team’s adventures seem to involve parallel realities and alternate timelines. Lockheed the Dragon has recently been revealed to be a sentient member of a telepathic race (though only we readers know that) and is recovering from injuries. At this point in time, Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde have not seen their X-Men teammates since the events of the team’s apparent death.
WOLVERINE:
Wolverine is still wearing the brown and tan uniform. In his own series, as 1991 closes, Wolverine has only just discovered the Weapon X facility and realized that some of his memories are false implants based loosely on real memories. He also now has the first inkling that he and Sabretooth are not related but perhaps used to work together for some kind of government unit. He has not yet learned about Team X, the group he was part of with John Wraith and Maverick.
AND NOW, THE REST OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE… (more…)
Piñata may Open HeroClix
HeroClix may live on yet. WizKids’ Brand Manager Jake Theis and Director of Brand Management and Marketing Justin Ziran are forming Piñata Games with the intent of acquiring the HeroClix Collectible Miniatures Game. To raise funds for the new effort, they have turned to the rapidly expanding Save HeroClix movements.
The game first arrived in May 2002 with a set of characters from the Marvel Universe and was rapidly followed in September by DC heroes. Since then, most major comic book publishers have had some or all of their characters become players in the game. Rare variants and exclusive figures fueled collectors’ imaginations.
Marvel Lets Japan Recreate Its Heroes
Marvel Comics announced a deal with
Essentially, the heroes will experience new origins taking into account Japanese culture and society. Their problems, foibles ands villains will all reflect the country of origin, using “something that is part of the fabric of society” according to Jungo Maruta, the president and chief executive of Madhouse. He told the New York Times, “Marvel gives creators freedom to fly.”
The first characters to undergo transformation will be Iron Man and Wolverine in thirty-minute anime intended for Japanese television in 2010. “Although they say, ‘I want Japanese anime,’ it’s not what they actually want. They want a hybrid between Japanese and Western animation,” Alex Yeh, the chief operating officer of the studio, told the Times.
“Marvel has continuously looked to push the boundaries with the Marvel Universe and seek new mediums for our characters. Madhouse is helping us expand the Marvel brand with a truly global vision tailored to themes and artistic styles popular in Japan, creating a uniquely localized and cross-cultural adaptation of the Marvel Universe,” said Simon Philips, President, International & Worldwide Head of Animation, Wireless & Gaming for Marvel Entertainment in a release.
Marvel previously attempted this concept with an India-inspired Spider-Man which was a commercial and critical flop from Gotham Entertainment Group in 2004.
Madhouse was founded in 1972 and is seen as a creative powerhouse in
Marvel Universe and Marvel Legends Images From Comic-Con
Hasbro recently sent over a pile of images from the new 3.75" Marvel Universe figures that debuted at Comic-Con International last weekend, as well as the two new "Build-A-Figure" lines that premiered. Since it’s that typically slow post-SDCC weekend, I figured I’d post them here.
Seen here are two of my favorite figures from the lines, Black Bolt from the Ares Build-A-Figures and Captain America from the new Marvel Universe line. I’m not even a very big fanof Cap, but something about that figure is really impressive. As for Black Bolt, well… he’s just another one of my favorite characters in the Marvel U. ‘Nuff said.
I’ve posted a big ol’ gallery of the rest of the figure photos Hasbro sent over after the jump.
Marvel Releases ‘Secret Invasion’ Primers Online
In its continuing efforts to get readers pumped up for Secret Invasion, Marvel Comics has released two new stories as digital comics.
From the official press release:
First up from Marvel is the Secret Invasion Saga, which is filled with the history of the Skrulls from their first appearance up to their current Infiltration. Loaded with clues, this is the best primer available for the biggest event in comics this year.
Next, from the creative team behind Secret Invasion, Brian Bendis and Leinil Yu, comes the Secret Invasion Prologue, in which one key member of the Marvel Universe was replaced by a Skrull, an infiltration that will lead to the downfall of S.W.O.R.D.
The Secret Invasion Saga comic was available in printed form if you happened to be at Wizard World LA a couple weeks ago. If you missed it there and still need to know what’s happening in the Marvel Universe before the invasion begins, having these two comics available online in digital form is a cool resource that can tell you all you need to know.
The invasion begins Wednesday April, 2 with the release of Secret Invasion #1.
