Archive for May, 2013

Reblog: Guardians Of The Galaxy Plot And Villain Details, John C. Reilly’s Role Revealed

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , on May 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

From BleedingCool

guardians-of-the-galaxy

As pre-production work on Guardians of the Galaxy draws Marvel’s ambitious sci-fi epic ever closer to shooting, some specifics of the plot are finally starting to leak out. It seems, from these scraps, that certain details have been changed from the original comic books, and there’s a whole patchwork of interrelated ideas and characters drawn together into something rather new. You may consider some of what follows to be rather spoilery.

First of all, let’s address Rhomann Dey. According to HitFix, Marvel have made an offer to John C. Reilly to take this part, “the Agent Coulson of the Guardians movies.” In the comics though, Dey is the head of the Nova Corps. and not a human being from planet Earth. Why the change? Well, it looks like they’ve mixed up some elements of his storyline, which originally saw him select Earthling Richard Rider to join the Nova Corps. It’s not clear, as yet, but those story pieces seem to have been rewoven somewhat…

What’s more, Dey will have a key liaison back on Earth and, while Marvel haven’t settled on any actor yet, they’ve apparently been looking at Hugh Laurie, Alan Rickman, Ken Watanabe… basically, anybody filed under A for Authorative at Casting Central.

We do know that the Nova Corps. are in the film, and not just because Nova ships appeared in some of the concept art. It seems they’ve been reworked, as you might expect, but it worked – is still working, and will continue to work, I expect, with SHIELD, so I see no reason to worry.

Just because the film is going full-on Galactic, it doesn’t mean we won’t be seeing any of the characters from previous Marvel movies. Nick Fury, for example, is set to play an important part when he convinces Groot not to experiment on the human race but to respect and assist them instead. Drax still has his human origins, having been a saxophone player called Art who was killed by Thanos in the Mojave Desert.

While Hit Fix believe that Zoe Saldana hasn’t yet committed to the part of Gamora, there can’t be a lot between her and that final dotted line, what with costume and make-up already in advanced stages of development and testing.

The movie version of Gamora was raised by Thanos and trained to be a deadly killer for his forces, but as soon as she realised what nefarious naughtiness he had on the cards, she went on the run. She’s now looking to put her super strength, super speed and super knife fighting skills to use on the side of the good guys.

It’s not clear how all of the characters will come together, but we can expect to meet Rocket Raccoon alongside his buddy Wal Russ – another anthropomorphic animal, and if any of you think you can guess which kind, I’ll accept answers on a postcard or the back of stuck down envelope. The two critters are initially employed at The Keystone Quadrant, the intergalactic asylum for those who are criminally insane at a cosmic level.

The villain of the film, according to current info, is Michael Rooker as Yondu who, as I previously understood it, was a member of a different Guardians lineup in the comics and not just some kind of space pirate. But yes, Marvel Movieverse rewiring has often been pretty dramatic, but it’s almost always effective.

Also billed as a villain is the role that Lee Pace has taken, but we don’t know – yet – just who that is. Interestingly, though, it’s suggested that he’s being set up for his own spin-off movies, at least in theory. Not that Marvel are looking to make a movie named for and centred around a bad guy – Guardians will see the character switching sides.

I can’t even start to guess who he might be but it’s good to know Pace will get a nice meaty part, though.

There’s still more polishing to be done to the screenplay, with Marvel stalwarts Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely taking the pages through this final scrub-up. Still, planning is at a very advanced stage and there are, relatively speaking, very few pieces left to click into place.

Guardians of the Galaxy is set for release in August of next year. It certainly looks like this one is going to be a big, wild, unpredictable adventure, and I hope James Gunn can really knock it out of the park. I certainly respect the ambition and free-wheeling invention the production has shot for so far.

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Head Canon: American Pyro is Magneto’s Grandson

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , on May 24, 2013| 2 Comments »

I posted this on tumblr but I’m going to put it here too. I had a head canon moment for the X-Men films.

X2 Magneto and PyroHead Canon: American Pyro is Magneto’s Grandson

Ever since I ran across it in the X-Men: Evolution fandom, Jonda (aka John & Wanda aka Pyro & Scarlet Witch) is my favorite non-canon OTP. With the news that Quicksilver (and by default Scarlet Witch) will be in X-Men: Days of Future Past, it meant that any ideas of a Jonda happening in the movies was null and void.

Then it clicked. Evan Peters is 26 and will be playing a character in 1973. Likely Quicksilver will be younger than this (actors often play younger characters) and it makes sense otherwise Magento would be really young when he started having kids. So let’s say, conservatively, Quicksilver and Wanda are 22 in 1973. Wanda then meets Aussie Pyro (St. John) who’s of a similar age. Jonda ensues and they have a kid.

Aaron Stanford who played American Pyro (John) in X2/X3 was born in 1976, three years after DOFP will take place. But, again, actors usually play younger roles. If John was 16 in X1 then he was born in 1984 (Wanda would be 33, still could have a baby). But John could be a few years older, or Wanda a few younger. In any case, you can make the ages line up where John is realistically the child of Wanda and St. John.

But there’s more… It’s insinutated that John had a crappy childhood, maybe he grew up in foster care? In canon, Wanda believed her children died so for something similar to happen to John (named for his dad) is legit. And if John is in American foster care at a young age he could lose any trace of accent and sound pure-blood American.

Roll X2, when John bugs Magneto he notices John looks a lot like either St. John or Wanda (the twins don’t exactly look alike in the comics) and discovers John has the same name, same mutant-name, and same power as St. John. At that moment he knows this is his grandson. That’s why Magneto then says:

“You are a god among insects. Never Let anyone tell you different.”

He’s saying this to his own grandson! How epic and deep does this moment then become?

Of course Magneto can’t share that information on the plane at that time. John goes with Magneto who later tells him the truth of his parentage and John dyes his hair (X3) to be more like his father. In X3, there really isn’t a chance to explore this so it never comes up on camera.

Head Canon: Accepted. (until DOFP comes out and it may need adjusting)

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DOFP: Quicksilver

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , on May 23, 2013| 5 Comments »

Well, doesn’t this just throw us for a loop…

https://twitter.com/BryanSinger/status/337643722953080832

You read correctly, Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver, is going to be in Days of Future Past…

First off, this comes only days after it’s announced that the Maximoff twins will be in Avengers 2. Before we shout ‘rip-off’ to the Fox camp, we have to remember a few things:

DOFP is already in production. Likely Quicksilver was already planned or else they would literally be making last minute changes to the script. Which yeah, is completely plausible, but there is auditions and contract negotiations before an actor is even signed on so could they really have done all that in such a short space of time (I guess they could have started back when Whedon hinted at the twins but still). Plus, the casting board Singer showed us had blank spots, he could have easily been one of them. So I’m willing to give Singer the benefit of the doubt on this.

It will all come down to how the character plays on screen… will his role be substantial or an obvious last minute shoe in?

Evan PetersNow, going to the character himself, what can we conclude? Well, Bryan says that ‘he was a really fast kid’ and the actor, Evan Peters, is 26 years old (which he could easily pass for younger though not a teenager). So Pietro was likely born somewhere between 1947 to 1953. Going with canon, and the fact there is no mention or thought by Mags about having a son in First Class (you think Xavier would use Pietro in his quest to keep Magneto from heading off the deep end), Mags is not going to know Pietro exists so he’ll have no clue he’s his son when they meet (or at least be surprised).

There is a going to be a fine line here because a decent portion of the audience will know Pietro is Mags son, though there will be some in the dark. They can’t drag this part out too much, at least audience wise, cause it will get old real quick. They could keep Mags in the dark the whole film though, as long as the audience is aware of what’s going on.

Speaking of parentage, will Magda still be the mother or will they change that? And will Anya, Mag’s first born with Magda, exist? Anya’s death triggered an epic PTSD moment in Magneto and led him straight down the path of super-villain. Could we get a flashback in DOFP of this moment? It wouldn’t take much time and would explain where Magneto was all that time between WW2 and the Cold War. It will also go a long way towards any type of redemption that they might try to play against future Magneto, assuming he’s not working against Xavier in the future.

As for what Pietro will be doing, will it be a ‘like father/like son’ trope? Will Pietro start off working with Magneto, as is canon, then switch sides? Though where is he in the later X-Films? Could he just go neutral since he can’t go to the Avengers? Or maybe he goes and works for the Non-Avenging government? Like most things in this film, they could play it really well… or really bad…

And last but certainly not least… what about Wanda? Will Pietro be an ‘only child’ or his twin simply not in the film? There was no double gap on the casting board, but then he could have done that on purpose or Wanda may just have a smaller role as the father/son aspect could be played up. Hopefully she a reveal they are holding on to for later. (and could we get an Australian Pyro in the film, you know, maybe a relative of the X-films American Pyro (maybe he was named for his great uncle?) and then we can get some Jonda going? yeah, I know, I’m incorrigible).

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‘Kindle Worlds’ to allow authors to get paid for Fan Fiction but don’t sign up just yet.

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , on May 22, 2013| 3 Comments »

Amazon put out a press release today unveiling Kindle Worlds.

Today, Amazon Publishing announces Kindle Worlds, the first commercial publishing platform that will enable any writer to create fan fiction based on a range of original stories and characters and earn royalties for doing so. […] Kindle Worlds will allow any writer to publish authorized stories inspired by these popular Worlds and make them available for readers to purchase in the Kindle Store.

Basically, Amazon gets licensing rights to the ‘world’, such as Vampire Diaries, so it can publish fan fiction under that license (so far only Warner Brother’s owned Alloy Entertainment is signed up, they are refered to as the World Licensor). Kindle Worlds can only publish works written for that license and no crossovers are allowed. People buy your stuff, then you get royalties off of it just as if it was an original work.

Sounds great, but there is a ton of catches that I think fans should really take note of.

In June, […] the Kindle Worlds self-service submission platform, where any writer can submit completed work, will also open.

It’s submission based, it’s not like FanFiction.net or Archive of Our Own or any other world specific areas were you post for all to see. Your fan fiction will have to be submitted and if it’s an example of “a poor customer experience” then it won’t make it. Most fan fiction would fall under poor customer experience because, let’s be honest, this is how Fan Fiction breaks down when you go looking for it.

  • 60% – Straight out crap.
  • 20% – Serviceable. Has problems but it’s good enough to overlook them.
  • 15.5% – Good. Generally written well, perhaps a little basic or straight forward.
  • 4% – Excellent. The kind of stuff that is layered and well written.
  • 0.5% – Stuff worth paying for it’s just that darn good.

And I’ll be the first to say that most of my stuff falls under Good, a couple under Excellent, and nothing I’ve written I think anyone should pay money for.

Then we have to acknowledge the whole reason fan fiction exists. Dunc over at ClubJade says it best:

Part of the point of fanfic, to my mind, is the complete lack of tether. It rarely pays off, but when it does, those are the moments that make the whole enterprise worth it.

Having to go through submissions and following guidelines kinda kills the whole point of fan fiction. We write fan fiction because we want to see things that either haven’t, or won’t ever, happen in the world we’re writing. If that means going out on the deep end, then so be it. Sure, there is plenty of good fan fic that will fit under the submission’s guidelines but you’re still only looking at a small, very small, portion of what fan fiction has to offer (and I’m not talking about the PWP (porn without plot)).

Also, the cardinal rule of Fan Fiction can be seen at the top of most all fan fictions: “I do not own [Insert Fandom].” (I have it on the right hand nav-bar of this site.) Just because one company says “go ahead and play in our sandbox” doesn’t mean you have any more right to the source content. In fact, it says so itself: “the World Licensor will retain the copyright to all the original elements of the World.”

This is why all fan fiction is free to browse on several sites. And people have a bad habit of not paying for stuff when they can get it free, legally no less. And I know we’ve all said to authors of our favorite stories “oh, I’d buy this if I could” but how many of us really would if it came down to it? Probably the same amount of people who actually buy their friend’s original book when they put it up on something like Create Space.

All of this kinda splitting hairs… the real alarm bell is this:

We will also give the World Licensor a license to use your new elements and incorporate them into other works without further compensation to you. [source]

Yeah, let’s say they sign Marvel in on this and I put up my fan fiction series where I make Sentinel an A.I. program instead of a robot. They read it, they like it, they use it in their comics. That’s the end of it. All I get is a little footnote in Wiki if I’m lucky.

Granted, being that Fan Fiction is not really copyrighted because the original Creator keeps their original copyright, this stuff could happen anyway (Gambit’s middle name for example), but at least if it happened then there could be some legal recourse depending on exactly what went down. Like my original characters for Mara Jade’s parents, they are mine, not theirs. This is why it’s a steadfast rule that authors and executives do not read fan fiction, they do not want to be accused of stealing someone’s idea.

Kindle Worlds absolutely circumvents that. In fact, it’s allowing the World Licensor access to loads of new content and stories without them having to actually pay authors for their hard work. The money only comes from other fans. So if you only get one person to buy your story, but the World Licensor love the idea/character and use it, they can make millions off of it and you only get those few sales. Granted, a character you made becoming famous might kick up sales… right until someone posts and it ends up free file shared…

To make matters worse, there is another rather blaring alarm bell:

Amazon Publishing will acquire all rights to your new stories, including global publication rights, for the term of copyright. [source]

I’m just going to quote John Scalzi cause he’s said best.

Which is to say, once Amazon has it, they have the right to do anything they want with it, including possibly using it in anthologies or selling it other languages, etc, without paying the author anything else for it, ever. Again, an excellent deal for Amazon; a less than excellent deal for the actual writer.

Note that on its page Amazon makes a show of saying that the writer owns the copyright on the original things that are copyrightable, but inasmuch as Amazon also acquires all rights for the length of the copyright and Alloy is given the right to exploit the new elements without further compensation, this show about you keeping your copyright appears to be just that: show.

So, yeah, you do all the hard work and get a little money out of it while Amazon and the World licensor laugh it up.

It also brings up a very important legal question. When does your original work fall into that copyright? In the words of a post on tumblr I wish I could find again to link to… “there is nothing worse than a poorly written fan fiction with a really great plot”.

So let’s say my writing isn’t up to spec for Kindle Worlds but they love the idea of the A.I. Sentinel… if they don’t publish my fiction, can they still keep the idea?

I don’t know… there is nothing in the fine print that says either way.

That alone is worrisome enough.

Lastly, what about plagiarism between Fan Fictions? Fan Fiction writers inside of fandoms can and will borrow from each other. Sometimes an idea is so great that one person reads it in a Fan Fiction, thinks it’s actually canon that they missed, and puts it in their story. I’m guilty of that because the idea that Tycho Celchu was talking to his fiance when Alderaan was destroyed was a beautiful idea and I honestly thought it was canon. When I asked the writer, they also had thought it was canon then realized it wasn’t and unfortunately I was never able to trace back to the person with the original idea.

But at least in Fan Fiction, it’s free and we can call each other out on it without needing legal recourse. Now that we start making money off of the ideas? Oh boy…

So let’s say I publish a story with the event I just mentioned and it gets picked up for use by Lucasfilm. Granted, I’m still not going to get anything out of it but if the original person who came up with it read it in the canon they would probably not be too happy to find out that no only was their idea taken but they don’t even get credit for it. Would they have any legal recourse because they are the original creators of that unique idea?

Again, a nice big gray area there.

I’m not going to lie, the idea of getting paid for fan fiction is very tempting… and somewhat validating. After all, fan artists can make money off their work (to an extent) so why shouldn’t we? But the way it’s been set up here by Amazon isn’t the way to go. It’s got too many holes, way to dodgy, and really is set up to make the writers feel used and likely abused.

Maybe once it’s fully launched they will be able to work out these details and make something that is more workable to the uniqueness that is fan fiction… but considering the mega-giant corporation that is spear-heading this… I’m not holding my breath.

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The Wolverine: Trailer 2

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , on May 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

A new trailer for The Wolverine has been released, you can watch it here:

First off, called it on the Jean thing being a dream/memory, turns out it’s a dream, though more like a nightmare. It’s actually kinda lame in its presentation, content and acting… though that could be how it’s cut for the trailer, I’m assuming there is more to it… or I would hope so.

Yukio get’s a little more screen time kicking butt in a ‘I don’t really have to try’ kind of way.

Then some more of the action is shown, the train sequence does look to be rather fun and possibly intense, can’t wait to see it on the big screen.

There is also a little more of the Silver Samurai who looks to be attacking Logan when he is sleeping with Mariko, though not sure what kind of ‘sleeping’ is being had.

As for Viper, she literally is a snake-like woman, at least has a snake tongue, which would mean her shedding seen in the trailers is actually probably real (though could still be drug induced hallucination).

And what the heck is up with the robot/Silver Samurai? Is there someone inside that thing like a mech? I think I need to go back and reread these issues cause I know it’s been awhile but I honestly don’t remember this… though it could be an interesting twist if done right… though they just kinda gave it away…

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Deadpool: The Video Game

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , on May 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I haven’t reported too much about the Deadpool video game except in the news briefs because, well, Deadpool kinda sells himself. He’s freaking Deadpool afterall. But upon looking at the Deadpool cover art, I am just a little more excited for the game, but confused as well.

Deadpool video game front cover

Now, Psylocke, Domino, Wolvie and Cable I get… they were all members of X-Force at some point… but Rogue? Not that I’m complaining, I do love Rogue and love to see her in anything, but I can’t figure out how she fits into this as she was never an X-Force member nor really had any connection to Deadpool as far as I’ve ever seen.

Oh well, it will be an interesting twist nevertheless… and there is no way they could screw her up worse than Rick Remender has…

As for Deadpool… like I said, he sells himself.

Deadpool video game back cover

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DOFP: Mystique

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , on May 20, 2013| 4 Comments »

Bryan Singer has tweeted what he’s calling a ‘vengeful’ Mystique, played by Jennifer Lawrence.

So the question is, what does she have to be vengeful about? Going with the comic-canon Mystique… that would be quite a list of true and perceived injustices for her to be miffed about. Going from First Class… she kinda gets what she wants. She goes off with the hot guy to do whatever the heck she wants and seemed to be only moderately sad for leaving her ‘brother’ Xavier. If anything, old-Mystique from X3 is the one who should be pissed… though will Jennifer be playing her older self as well? Even though Rebecca owned the role in the first X-films, being a shapeshifter, Jennifer could play her old-self, once the cure wore off.

Or, is something going to happen (or did happen in the intervening years) which will make Mystique so vengeful? (Please let that involve Kurt… oh please, oh please.)

Going from a film/technical perspective. It was reported back in February that Jennifer would forgo the body paint and instead wear a body suit for the role. With the original body paint there was several pieces which were ‘glued’ on to do the scale effect and to preserve Rebecca and Jennifer’s dignity. From this photo, I’m pretty sure it’s a body suit as I can see a ridge line at her neck. It looks good, well matched color to the face paint and it’s very form fitting. However, Jennifer is standing still at the moment, it will be the action sequences which will be the most telling if this works or not.

In any case, I know Jennifer is a big star now, but, dunno, if Rebecca could do the paint three movies in a row, don’t see why Jennifer couldn’t… of course I’m not an actor so what do I know?

UPDATE: I missed the story were apparently Jennifer had issues with the paint, giving her hives and stuff, which then makes the switch make total sense.

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Avengers 2: Maximoff Twins confirmed

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , on May 19, 2013| 2 Comments »

Maximoff TwinsIGN has the scoop from Whedon himself, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver will be in Avengers 2.

“You know, they had a rough beginning. They’re interesting to me because they sort of represent the part of the world that wouldn’t necessarily agree with The Avengers. So they’re not there to make things easier. I’m not putting any characters in the movie that will make things easier.”

To me this reads that, as I earlier suggested, and what is canon, these two will start out as villains. He talks about their rough beginning (which can allude to their being orphaned and growing up gypsies or to the fact they started out as villains in the Brotherhood), and that they represent people who wouldn’t necessarily agree with The Avengers and won’t make it easier for them (which means they could be villains in the sense that at first they don’t work with the Avengers, but against them, just perhaps not for truly villainess reasons).

Upon some consideration about the twin’s back stories, seeing as they can’t be mutants due to the licensing issues, Whedon could completely ignore most of their background, as they do Black Widow and Hawkeye in Avengers. These twins are simply two people who have amazing abilities with a general blanket statement “this is magic/tech/whatever” and be done with it. They don’t have to go into their parentage or even being raised by gypsies or anything, or, again, just a quick statement to the fact such like BW’s “I’m Russian, or I was” moment. In a movie that will be full of heroes and villains, they don’t have a lot of time and they can probably get away with only some minor background, especially if the twins might be utilized in the Dr Strange movie (my conjecture).

Though, in reality, due to the licensing, I doubt we’ll ever get an origin story for them or their own movie, which kinda sucks but at least they aren’t being completely ignored.

Anyway, at the moment, things are looking good… but please can news outlets stop using the Ultimate’s version of the twins for their stories? This isn’t Game of Thrones people…

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Gambit solo cancelled

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , on May 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Gambit #16 cover artWell hells freaking bells.

Marvel’s August solicitations have come out and here is what is listed for Gambit.

GAMBIT #16
JAMES ASMUS (W)
CLAY MANN (A/C)
• Who is Gambit’s friend Fence? How did they meet? And what secrets is he hiding?
• To save those dear to him, Gambit must attempt the impossible – and he’ll need all of his thieving skills to succeed!
• The past is gone but not forgotten in this explosive penultimate issue!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

Penultimate, i.e., second to last.

And Asmus has confirmed it.

https://twitter.com/JamesAsmus/status/335080887484051456

This unfortunately comes as no surprise as Gambit had dropped below the 20k mark in sales according to April’s figures. I had predicted a little while go that at the rate Gambit was dropping he might be cancelled before he was legal to drive… with the series stopping at #17 I was pretty much on the mark, unfortunately.

Asmus really tried to get into the mind of Gambit in the beginning, showing he does know Gambit quite well, and really knows his ROMY, but it all came a little to late into the series for the casual reader. Not to mention Gambit has competition in the solo realm with the popular Hawkeye who is milking off the success of the movies (and I say that having several friends who only read Hawkeye now because they saw him in the Avengers movie). Still, it was a good run and let us pray other writers build on both Gambit’s expansion as a character and the building blocks Asmus put in place for a return to canon ROMY.

Unless I miss my guess, Gambit is only in Liu’s great run of Astonishing X-Men. He’s mentioned as a teacher at the school but is not actually utilized in Wolverine and the X-Men or any of the other titles which take place at least partially there. Hopefully he’ll be snatched up and given more face time, he’s just too good of a character to let wither away. Let’s hope the man gets his due.

Now, the only good thing about this cancellation… is maybe they can replace Remender with Asmus on Uncanny Avengers? A girl can dream, right?

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Review: Arrow S01E23 “Sacrifice”

Posted in Reviews, tagged , , on May 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

CW's ArrowHere’s an idea… you’re shot, bleeding out, you have a phone… dial 911, dial the clinic you set up, dial one of the doctors/nurses you surely have in your phone book…

And why only send three cops to get Captain Jack? I mean, they were heavily armed so they must have assumed it wouldn’t be an easy takedown. And no one noticed the cops didn’t check in?

And when the camp goes kaboom, wow, only the three lead characters survived, not a single other person who could help out the boss (and it got dark really quickly).

This show continues to baffle me with crap like this.

Oh, catching the exploding arrow… that was Loki’s schtick (again with forgetting that they are DC, not Marvel).

As for the “Laurel hangs back for no reason and gets trapped, Tommy saves her and doesn’t run out with her so he can get trapped just in time for Oliver to see him die”… seriously?

The only cliffhanger we’re left with is basically “Mom’s arrested, quarter of the city is trashed, and what happened to Red Arrow and Annoying Sister?”

Yeah, not sure I care.

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