Tagged: X-Men

20th to Rely on Mutants and Blind Men to Lead Them Back to Health

  • News
  • September 10, 2008

xmen-origins-wolverine-still2-8708204As reported during our weekly box office items, this was not a good summer for 20th-Century Fox. We’re not the only ones to notice and an analysis in Variety shows the depth of their troubles as the studio has tumbled from its number one spot, getting through the lucrative season without a single film to break the $100 million box office barrier for success.

The lack of a break out film is partly being blamed on X-Men Origins: Wolverine being a year behind its anticipated release.  This was precipitated by Hugh Jackman agreeing to star in Australia, opening this fall, but pushing back Wolverine’s schedule. The production proved troubling with the studio nearly firing director Gavin Hood until Richard Donner flew to the Outback to smooth things over on the project, being produced by his wife, Lauren Shuler Donner.

Coming to their rescue, could be other Marvel Super-Heroes.  In addition to Wolverine, David S. Goyer’s X-Men Origins: Magneto inches towards green light.  Following could be the Young X-Men project we tipped you off to a while back. Now they include on their development slate Deadpool, possibly spinning out of Wolverine.  Ryan Reynolds plays the merc with a mouth and could gain his own spotlight.

They’re even thinking of rebooting Daredevil, the way Paramount rebooted Universal’s Hulk.  A director’s cut of Mark Steven Johnson’s film is due out September 30 and its performance could influence the decision.

First, they need to win back to the fanboys who are outraged that Fox’s lawsuit might deprive them of seeing Watchmen next March.
 

Review: ‘Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg!’

 

american-flagg-1794127Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg!
By Howard Chaykin
Dynamic Forces, July 2008, $49.99

Science Fiction has never been quite as successful in comics form as it seemed it should have been. Oh, sure, there have been plenty of vaguely SFnal ideas and premises – from [[[Superman]]] to [[[Kamandi]]] to the [[[X-Men]]] to the [[[Ex-Mutants]]] – but they were rarely anything deeper than an end to the sentence “There’s this guy, see? and he’s….” One of the few counterexamples was Howard Chaykin’s [[[American Flagg!]]], starting in 1983 – that series had many of the usual flaws and unlikelihoods of near-future dystopias, but it also had a depth and texture to its world that was rare in comics SF (and never to be expected in even purely prose works, either).

American Flagg! suffered from Chaykin’s waning attention for a while, and then crashed and burned almost immediately after he finally left the series, with a cringe-making overly “sexy” storyline utterly overwritten by Alan Moore. American Flagg! limped from muddled storyline to confused characterization for a couple of years afterward – but the beginning, when Chaykin was fully energized by his new creation and the stories he was telling, is one of the best SF stories in American comics.

The series has never been collected well, though a few slim album-sized reprints were once available, and may be findable through used-book channels. This Dynamic Forces edition, reprinting the first fourteen issues of the series, is quite pricey. (Especially for a book with no page numbers, and one in which the pages are precisely the size of the original comics – not oversized, as those previous album reprints had been.) This book has a strong, thoughtful introduction by Michael Chabon – which has already appeared in his [[[Maps and Legends]]] collection, presumably due to the delay in the American Flagg! book – a gushing afterword by Jim Lee, and a new short story written and drawn by Chaykin.

(more…)

Manga Friday: Lawless, Winged, and Unconfined

  • News
  • August 22, 2008

Poking through the stack of manga to be reviewed, earlier this week, I noticed several books featuring characters with wings of one kind or another. Quick to sense a theme, I dragged them together, and here they are:

Koi Cupid, Vol. 1
By Mia Ikumi
Broccoli, April 2008, $9.99

Koi Cupid is an all-ages series about cherubs-in-training – yes, cute little girls in white outfits, running around making people fall in love. It’s not quite as kawaii (cute, often cloyingly so) as it could be, though, so I came to think of Koi Cupid as actually fairly restrained.

(Of course, that’s by manga standards – recalibrate your cuteness detectors from American settings, or you’ll be instantly deafened by the alarm.)

Anyway, the story focuses on three cupids-in-training: Ai, the cheerful one; Koi, the shy one; and Ren, the way-ahead-of-the-others one. They’re taught by a full cupid named Rin, who is deferring her own promotion to Guardian Angel to continue to mentor them. Kou actually is a guardian angel who pops in for added firepower now and then; Sister Yuuri is a winged, talking cat who supervises the cupid training program, and Lizette is a sneaky demon who tries to foil their work, but whom Ai wants to be friends with. (more…)

Origin of Magneto in New Marvel Knights Series

  • News
  • August 20, 2008

I really enjoyed previous Marvel Knights projects Spider-Man: Reign and Silver Surfer: Requiem, as the pairing of writers, artists and subject matter of each miniseries seemed to really catch lightning in a bottle. I’m not sure that these series fit in with past titles falling under the "Marvel Knights" banner, but I know that they felt like a fresh look at both characters — and that’s saying a lot, given the saturation of Spider-Man and Silver Surfer stories the past few years.

I mention all of this because I can’t help but look forward to next month’s debut of X-Men: Magneto Testament #1, which pairs writer Greg Pak (World War Hulk) with artist Carmine Di Giandomenico, whose work I really enjoyed in Daredevil: Battlin’ Jack Murdock. The five-issue series promises to take a look at the early life of Magneto, and I’m itching to see if the MK crew can capture the same vibe of Reign and Requiem in this one.

Pak told Marvel.com, "Like so many classic Marvel characters, [Magneto] has to grapple with the typical problems of any scrawny outsider: family problems, schoolyard bullies, and first crushes…But every little conflict takes on a terrifying, new dimension as the scope and inexorable advance of the Nazi menace becomes clearer."

The first issue hits shelves September 10, and I’ve posted the Marko Djurdjevic cover to #1 here, with larger versions of the cover and pages posted after the jump. (more…)

Stan Lee and Hioryuki Takei’s “ULTIMO” Manga

  • News
  • August 6, 2008

Attention, true believers! Next month’s issue of manga magazine Shonen Jump will feature the premiere of Stan Lee and Hioryuki Takei’s Ultimo, which was announced back in April during New York Comic Con.

While the series is old news for readers in Japan (the issue has already been out for a few months over there), North American readers will get their chance to pick up a copy of the debut story in September.

Here’s what to expect from the series, according to the press release (which is posted after the jump):

High above Farmless City, citizens are stunned by the sudden appearance of two floating figures. Are they human boys, monolithic robots, or something much more strange? As the battle ensues between them, destruction and devastation falls on the hapless city. One figure is Vice, and seems to be as evil as his name implies. The other is Ultimo, intent on trying to stop Vice from wreaking more havoc. But who are Vice and Ultimo really? Where did they come from? A new mystery begins with the fate of the world possibly hanging in the balance!

My favorite part of the PR? The quote from Stan Lee about the project that is so very, well… Stan Lee. Check it out:

“Wow! This is just what I’ve been waiting for!” says an excited Stan Lee. “For the very first time I’m able to create superheroes in the fantastic Japanese manga style thanks to my lucky partnership with the great Hiroyuki Takei. What a kick it’ll be to join Hiroyuki-san in offering brand new, action packed stories to an army of readers in both the Eastern and Western worlds!”

Can’t you just hear him saying it in your head? Keep an eye out for the September 2008 issue of Shonen Jump for the first chapter of Ultimo. (more…)

San Francisco Media Examines the New X-Men HQ

  • News
  • August 6, 2008

SFGate, the website for the San Francisco Chronicle, has put together a pretty interesting analysis of the recent relocation of the X-Men from Westchester County, NY, all the way out to the West Coast in X-Men #500.

According to X-Men Editor (and Bay Area native) Axel Alonso, San Francisco’s often controversial status as a "sanctuary city" made the move long overdue for Marvel’s most persecuted superteam.

"Anyone who looks at the X-Men, the analogy is right there: If you’re different in any way due to race or sexual orientation or just being nerdy, there’s an X-Men character for you. They’re about being different and finding strength in that weakened position."

In order to get accustomed to basing the team’s adventures in the new city, Marvel staffers will be brushing up on their West Coast savvy in the coming months.

Marvel Comics artists will be visiting San Francisco frequently to get a feel for the fashion, architecture and even the way residents walk and talk. There are no cable cars in the first issue, but the artists did include a KRON TV news truck and a panel where the iconic mutant Wolverine walks through Noe Valley. The heroes make their base in the concrete bunkers beneath the Marin Headlands and join the protest of a controversial art installation at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

While Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada hesitated to comment on the permanency of the X-Men’s new home, the article goes on to provide a nice roundup of parallels between the mutant superteam and the real-life groups that have found sanctuary in San Francisco over the years.

“Venom” Spin-Off Film Moves Forward?

  • News
  • August 3, 2008

The Hollywood Reporter recently indicated that Spider-Man spin-off project Venom could be moving forward, with the Sony hoping to revive the web-slinger’s movie franchise much like the upcoming Wolverine spin-off looks to accomplish with the X-Men film franchise. The article also notes that the attention Heath Ledger’s Joker is receiving with regard to The Dark Knight has made studios rethink the viability of a villain in a lead role.

Of course, first they’ll have to get past a few pesky details… like, for instance, deciding on a script and a lead actor.

The studio had commissioned a draft of the script from Jacob Estes, a writer of the specialty film "Mean Creek," released several years ago by Paramount Classics. He’s also attached to the Plan B drama "The Gifted."

But the studio is considering going in a different direction from Estes’ script and is seeking writers for a new draft.

Casting also is no simple matter. Topher Grace played the character in the film, but agents have been eyeing the role for their clients, as Sony is not yet convinced the actor can carry a tentpole picture.

Well, all I can say is that it really can’t be any worse than the Daredevil spin-off, Elektra… can it?

SDCC: Leaked Comic-Con Movie Trailer Round-Up

  • News
  • July 29, 2008

As many know, Comic Con International has become more about showing off secret footage of upcoming TV and Film projects than about actual comic books, and for those unable to attend this year, or the attendees who weren’t fortunate enough (or patient enough) to make it into the major halls for the presentations, we’ve put together a small round-up of the leaked footage from this year’s show.

      NOTE: This footage was not taken by anyone on the ComicMix staff, and we are only linking to previously published video files, so don’t sue us.
wolverine poster
Starting it off is the biggest of the projects: the trailer (in two parts) for X-Men Origins: Wolverine:

  1. Part 1
  2. Part 2
  3. The trailer for Disney’s Tron sequel
  4. Saw V Teaser Trailer
  5. Friday the 13th Trailer
  6. Smallville Season 8 Trailer
  7. A sneak peek at season 5 of Lost
  8. Finally, an extended scene from the film Twilight

I’d apologize about the unsteady handicam work, but it beats flying across the country and waiting in line for four hours to get a seat, trust me. This seems to be all the footage that has made its way onto the web so far, keep checking back for updates, plus our exclusive Comic Con ’08 video coverage! 

SDCC: The ‘X-Men Origins: Wolverine’ Trailer

  • News
  • July 28, 2008

Didn’t make it to San Diego for the surprise debut of a rough X-Men Origins: Wolverine trailer? Luckily for you, it’s now online.

Watch it below and have your say.

 

SDCC: ‘Wolverine,’ ‘Twilight,’ ‘Watchmen’ Interviews

  • News
  • July 26, 2008

watchmenewcover-3169171Entertainment Weekly has posted a load of video interviews from Comic-Con, including a handful with Stephanie Meyer, creator of the Twilight novels, which have been made into a film.

Teen-age girls, commence your screaming.

Another guest to the interview room includes Hugh Jackman, who surprised everyone when he showed up to talk about X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The interview with him is right here.

Then, of course, there’s a collection of Watchmen interviews, with the first being r

ight here

.

And, lastly, EW chatted up Robert Rodriguez and Rose McGowan about Red Sonja, which your eyeballs can find by clicking right here.

While you’re at it, EW has a pretty expansive bit of

coverage

of the Hollywood side of Comic-Con, including TV and movie news.

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