X-Treme X-Men #7.1

X-Treme X-Men #7.1

Review: X-Treme X-Men #7.1

After a nice solid run of issues, 7.1 is a little on the weaker side but still fairly good.

Sage is indeed a regular character now and is pretty awesome. The idea of an Xavier Skywhale is insane… but in a good way.

The interesting touch was that halfway through you start to think that maybe they have come back to Earth 616 and turns out that yes, they have. The comment “Yours was evil, right?” perfectly set the tone and gave the reader some food for thought.

A little more on the nose at the end than I’d like but all the same a nice transition piece to a Savage Land dimension next up.

All-New X-Men #2

All-New X-Men #2

Review: All-New X-Men #2

Issue one set us up for the time travel and was surprisingly good (because I thought it was going to be very trite and cheesy).

Issue two is a bit slower, mostly giving us the download of getting this guys to the future.

Bobby meeting Bobby was a classic trope but it worked because Bobby is, well, Bobby. Jean putting the whammy on Logan was also pretty darn hilarious.

I was afraid this might be a case of just ‘trying to relive the glory days’ with the old team but so far everything does feel organic and everyone has real reasons to be doing what they are doing. Scott wants to understand how he could have turned into Revolutionary!Scott. Jean wants to know why she is dead. Hank wants is facing down his own mortality as well. Bobby and Angel are along for the ride, trusting their friends.

It really makes you want to know what’s going to happen once these people intersect.

An article on CinemBlend says Alan Cummings has expressed interest in reprising his role as Nightcrawler saying “It was funny, that film, because I really like it and everyone really responded to Nightcrawler and enough time has elapsed that I would like to go back to it.”

The writer of the article doesn’t know his Nightcrawler that well because continuity could still be used to make Nightcrawler Mystique’s son. Since she tried to kill him at birth he didn’t know Mystique was his mother for quite some time. The conversation in X2 could still stand as he just thinks he’s talking to another mutant and she could be thinking “he looks like that kid of mine who I killed…. ooooo….”

In any case, as Alan points out, if they wanted him they would have said something by now in all likelihood. Maybe if DOFP does well the sequel to it could find a place for either Alan!Nightcrawler or a young!Nightcrawler. He is a pretty awesome character, a fan favorite!

Marvel revealed the artwork for the massive Phase One dvd collector set. The dvd covers are below, created by Matthew Ferguson. Pretty awesome.

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One Art Work by Matthew Ferguson

Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One Art Work by Matthew Ferguson

CinemaBlend points out that there is evidence that Singer is all over the 48 frames per second Peter Jackson used in the Hobbit and may be eyeing this for Days of Future Past. I haven’t seen a 48fps movie yet but… I do know that the US and the UK film their tv shows on two different fps which is why when you watch an older british tv show before they were better at fixing this for US dvd release it looks… well… flat. Apparently a lot of critics had the same thing to say about The Hobbit.

As the article points out there is still time for ‘the kinks’ to be worked out but I’m a bit wary of this as sometimes it takes a long time for this to happen and Singer will start filming next year.

As for the 3D, this is no surprise, everyone wants 3D right in Hollywood because of the inflated pricing. X-Men, though, could be a decent film to see in 3D due to the mutant powers and three-story tall Sentinels. Let’s just hope that he actually films in 3D and not a crappy conversion. Personally, I’ll see the 2D version anyway cause I can’t see 3D very well.

CinemaBlend reports Fox has given a release date for the new Fantastic Four reboot. It will hit early, March 6th, 2015, likely attempting to get a jump on Avengers 2 and the Justice league movie.

I will say this… this new Fantastic Four doesn’t have a very high bar to be held against considering the last outing… and the one before that which never actually made it onto the screen.

CW's Arrow

CW’s Arrow

Review: Arrow (S1E08) Vendetta

Vendetta, or the ‘oh yeah, we’re on the CW’ episode.

Seriously, 80% of this episode was relationship drama. ‘Don’t hurt me cause I can’t be hurt anymore’. ‘You still love him/her’. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if the dialogue wasn’t… so bad.

Really, if you have to say this stuff bluntly and outloud then you’ve already lost the game.

Once again, the only really good stuff is the supporting characters like Digby and the computer tech. I couldn’t give a hoot-n-nanny about Oliver and his ‘I can’t open myself to anyone’ or whatshisface’s ‘I’m broke now and I want to make it on my own’ tripe.

The show almost reads like bad fanfic… yes… I went there.

According to SuperHeroHype: “X-Termination [the newest crossover event from Marvel] will tell the story of the ‘Age of Apocalypse’ Nightcrawler wanting to go back to his own timeline (currently he’s in the 616 Marvel universe on X-Force). The series will start and end with its own X-Termination Alpha and Omega issues and in between will spill into Astonishing X-Men, X-Treme X-Men, and (of course) Age of Apocalypse.”

“The AoA is Nightcrawler’s home,” said Age of Apocalypse writer David Lapham. “That’s where his family and friends are, that’s where he’s spent his whole life fighting Apocalypse and then Weapon Omega.  That’s what he was trying to liberate. Just because he leaves to another place and has an adventure doesn’t mean he turns his back on all that and says “this new universe is a lot safer and cushier. I think I’ll stay here while my loved ones suffer.

“As much sympathy as he’s had for what he’s seen and done here in the Marvel Universe, he just can’t bring himself to feel it’s a completely real place. The Marvel Universe is some kind of dreamland. The AoA is real. As far as the greatest damage he could cause. Well, that’s part of our crossover event…”

I’m a fan of Astonishing and X-Treme X-men so I will likely be picking this up when it comes out in March 2013 in order to keep in line with events happening in those comics. At least this doesn’t look to have the major ‘let’s just muck with everything’ that AvX had, could actually be kinda interesting.

From ComicBookMovie:

Marvel’s  International Vice President, Nigel Cook, took to a convention in Italy, dubbed  the “Professional Cinema Days in Sorrento,” to present the first bit of (raw)  footage from next year’s much-anticipated Thor: The Dark World film. And  roughly-translated descriptions, courtesy of @Thor2Fans and @vingadoresdepre via Lavik Web Magazine, ScreenWEEK and Primissima, have surfaced dishing out a few  spoilers for the Alan Taylor-directed Marvel sequel. Check them out!

“In the preview, a voice-over is heard with the oath of the God of  Thunder as the new supreme ruler. We see a clash between Thor and the enemy  army, in a world that is neither Asgard let alone the Earth. We see Chris Hemsworth wielding his hammer and Tom Hiddleston as Loki first wounded without a  helmet, with long, loose hair and then imprisoned; his anger increasingly  desperate and irrational.

Then there’s a scene later in which he is free again,  but still furious. Against the backdrop of a forest, in the middle of a  clearing, among the dust, we in fact face off anthropomorphic creatures, but  also a big “gorilla” krosan tusker: a rather alien fauna varies so, although not  extreme in size (there are also some envoys/ambassadors of a people mysterious, with oval face and black eyes, elongated and sunken)

The rest of the  images show glimpses of Asgard, with Anthony Hopkins as Odin and Natalie Portman  in clothes that seem more like a princess; an Asgardian princess. In between,  there are images of an epic battle on horseback, who seems to have left an epic  cloak-and-dagger. The threat to the Asgardians is certainly a  new alien race  pale (now identified as the dark elves).

A black spaceship shaped  irregularly looks like a serious threat to Asgard. More sequences show Natalie  Portman then alongside Thor lying on the ground, probably overwhelmed in a  clash.”

After the clips were shown, Nigel Cook reassured  the audience that Thor: The Dark World begins and ends on Earth. And he  added that the sets built for the sequel were the largest ever built for a  Marvel Studios movie. Cook apparently also expressed concern that the film  may not receive the same attention as Marvel’s first outing next year, Iron  Man 3, which the executive says takes place a year after the events of Marvel’s The Avengers.

ComicBookMovie has a poll, who would win, Magneto or Gandalf? McKellen says Gandalf and the ComicBookMovie guys think Magneto has a better than even chance, and I believe them.

See, Gandalf, for all his power, is a bit of an idiot sometimes. We’ve all seen the joke of how “why didn’t they just take a flying ship/bird to the mountain” and a bunch of other stuff that he really should have figured out a lot quicker. Magneto isn’t without his own faults as well but he’s also a lot more ruthless when he has to be.

I’d definitely say that this is anyone’s fight.