Posts Tagged ‘Newsarama’

Reblog: 10 Things Worth Noticing in the New X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST Trailer

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , on March 24, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I haven’t had time to properly digest both the new trailer and the new set picks of Wanda and Pietro… so going to let some professionals do the heavy lifting.

via Newsarama

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Monday saw the release of another X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer. While there are some notable absences, like just a quick running glimpses of Bishop, a character who may be important in this time travel story, there are plenty of things you should be watching out for.From the obvious – like the official debut of the Sentinels (even future versions like on the left) – to the not so obvious interpersonal dynamics of Xaviers young and old, here are ten important things we noticed in the new X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer.

EVEN MORE STORM
Despite conflicting reports of whether Storm’s role in Days of Future Past has been reduced, she sure has gotten a lot of screen time in both trailers so far. That suggests that either she is in fact a core character in the movie, or that her scene is pivotal or important.From the looks of it, Storm’s fate in the movie may be pretty similar to her fate in the Days of Future Past comic. If that’s the case, it would indeed be a major scene, allowing her to still play a big role in the film despite a lack of actual screen time.

MYSTIQUE: FREE AGENT?
We know that Mystique’s defection to Magneto will be a major sticking point between young Erik and Charles – Xavier specifically says as much – but where do her loyalties actually lie?From the looks of things, Jennifer Lawrence’s young Mystique could be the ‘x-factor’ (sorry) that sparks the Sentinel revolution. She certainly seems closer to her early comic portrayal as a more politically-minded agent of subterfuge in these trailers.

XAVIER IS WALKING?
In one scene, it looks as though James McAvoy’s young Xavier is up and about, rather than being confined to a wheelchair as was his fate at the end of the X-Men: First Class.We know Xavier has alternated between mobility and paralysis in the comics, and at least one character – the bouncing, blue-furred Beast – has already received an “out” for the fate that befell him in the last film.

Of course, the short clip of the young Xavier up and about in the long “X-Mansion” hallways turning on lights is directly followed by him in a wheelchair. It could be simply a scene inside Xavier’s mindscape – which would also explain the Xavier-meets-Xavier scene teased in the trailer

XAVIER IS FIGHTING!
On the other hand, it looks like Patrick Stewart is getting in on the action like never before. Several short moments in today’s trailer make it look like he’s going to go toe to toe with Sentinels at least once in the film.We’ve yet to see Xavier – especially old Xavier, at the height of his power – really cut loose in an X-Men film yet. While First Class saw him don the yellow and blue flight suit with the rest of his team, he still wasn’t exactly “hands on.”

THE POWER IS YOURS!
It looks like Xavier won’t be the only one getting his moment to shine, either. Several key scenes in the trailer show Iceman at what could finally be considered “full power,” even sliding on ice trails.On top of that, we’ve got scenes of Colossus, Blink, and Sunfire all cutting loose. It may be a matter of FX catching up to ideas, or it may just be a willingness to go bigger, but Days of Future Past will likely see some of the most dazzling mutant powers yet on screen.

PHYSICIAN, HEAL THYSELF
This trailer is really all about Xavier; how his two incarnations team up, and how his dream has evolved from his early idealism. The interaction between McAvoy and Stewart has been central to the film’s promotion so far, and is even more on display here.The important thing to note is that it seems as though old Xavier is counseling young Xavier, offering him guidance and solace. The print X-Men are no stranger to time paradoxes, but are we seeing the birth of a time-loop, or something less complex.

DARKER, GRITTIER
One of the things that really stood out about Matthew Vaughan’s X-Men: First Classwas the brighter, more lighthearted tone, especially as compared to Bryan Singer’s first two films, and even Brett Ratner’s X3.But this trailer all but disavows those bright colors and campy moments for something much bigger, darker, and altogether more troubled. That said, there may be an interesting dichotomy at play between the scenes of the X-Men’s bright past and dark future, but the costume direction alone, even in the scenes of the past, is step back towards the much grittier take on the team.

IT’S CURTAINS!
Call it an opportunity to clean house, a chance to trim down the cast, or even just a shot at showing some big, shocking events that could theoretically come undone through the magic of time travel, but it sure looks like not everyone is walking away from Days of Future Past.Even major characters are in trouble in this trailer, and while in comics, nothing is permanent (especially when it comes to the X-Men), would the films go so far as to partially reboot? X-Men: First Class took some opportunities to contradict the much-maligned X3. Could Days of Future Past be looking to settle that score?

ACTION!
While the last trailer was all about tone and mood, this trailer takes a big leap into the action. We’ve got mutants. We’ve got Sentinels. We’ve got soldiers, guns, lasers, powers, a post-apocalyptic wasteland. This is widescreen, blockbuster stuff on display.Keeping that in mind, it will be very interesting to see the interplay between the deeper, emotional moments hinted at here, especially between the two versions of Erik and Xavier, and the major, edge-of-your-seat action sequences Days of Future Past promises to deliver.

SENTINELS
You wanted Sentinels? You got Sentinels.Thousands of Sentinels. This is the component of this film many fans have been waiting desperately to see. And while we only got a few brief glimpses at the small-scale battles between mutants and Sentinels, there’s plenty of eye candy flying around.From scenes of Xavier and Storm taking on the mutant-hunting robots, to Magneto seemingly taking control of their metal components, to scores of them pouring out of the sky, the Sentinels are absolutely central to this story, and that’s on full display in this trailer.

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Reblog: Who Goes Where? Surveying The Complicated Movie Rights Situation of MARVEL COMICS

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

via Newsarama

Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver

One of the things that set Marvel’s superhero universe apart in the early days was how the characters from each individual title co-existed in a shared universe, prone to numerous crossovers, chance meetings and even relationships between books. Since then that inter-connective continuity has become a staple of superhero comics, but it’s also coming back to haunt Marvel when it comes to their movie ambitions. It all came to light earlier this year when the productions for Marvel Studios’ The Avengers: Age of Ultron and 20thCentury Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past both announced it would feature the mutant character Quicksilver, albeit with different actors playing that role – (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Evan Peters, respectively). This unique conundrum brings into focus an interesting and unintended aspect of movie adaptations of Marvel properties and the rights which Marvel sold prior to having its own movie studio, as well as other characters which  might follow Quicksilver in becoming Marvel characters that are able to literally co-exist in two (or perhaps three) separate superhero movie continuities. But first, a lay of the land.
Up until 2004 when Marvel announced plans to finance their own movies, they instead sold the movie rights to its popular characters to movie companies to be developed into feature films. Its cross-town competitor DC avoided this fate by the fact that it was owned by actual movie studio – Warner Bros. – going as far back as 1970. But Marvel, who was in bankruptcy for several years in the late 1990s, sold the movie rights for virtually all of its characters to movie studios far and wide. Some of those movie rights turned into movie successes such as Fox’s X-Men movie franchise and Sony’s Spider-Man, but other movie rights owned by outside parties (including Sony) reverted (or were sold) back to Marvel as they began getting their own movie studio in order. Marvel successfully reacquired the movie rights to Iron Man and Black Widow from New Line in 2005, and the Hulk and Thor one year later from Universal and Sony respectively. Recently Marvel’s also retained the rights to Daredevil, Ghost Rider and Punisher as well – something they put to quick use, with Daredevil as the flagship of its Netflix line of television shows. Although they hadn’t been able to reacquire the movie rights to their entire character library, Marvel used an extensive line of credit to reacquire the central heroes that would form the Avengers – and Marvel’s in-house movie studio – and build what we know of today.
Currently, Sony owns the movie rights to Spider-Man, while 20thCentury Fox owns both the successful X-Men movie franchise (both have new films hitting in 2014, and have already announced more for 2016 and beyond) as well as the soon-to-be rebooted Fantastic Four film series. With those rights agreements comes the use of ancillary characters of those leading characters, and while some characters are clearly associated to Spider-Man – say for example Aunt May – others had a more complicated backstory with association with multiple character families, some owned by Marvel in-house and some under these rights deals to Sony and 20th Century Fox. Quicksilver is an interesting example, as he was introduced in 1964 as the mutant son of the prime X-Men villain Magneto; sure thing to be considered part of the X-Men family of movie rights, yes? But after his early appearances in Uncanny X-Men, Quicksilver and his sister Scarlet Witch broke from mutantkind and became some of the earliest recruits into Avengers in 1965. For the most part, both Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch’s stories have been told in Avengers andits related titles. That complicates things, because apparently in these contracts – which haven’t been released to the public or the press – they weren’t completely specific on which characters they covered.
X-Men Days of Future Past
“It’s a little tricky, “Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige said of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch back in 2012 in an interview with HeyUGuys. “”If they want to use them in the X-Men movies they could, if we want to use them in the Avengers movie we could.”

The first thing that comes to mind for anyone who’s read comics for a significant amount of time is “crossover,” but you’ll have to hold your horses on that front. In comic book terms, you have to think of these families of Marvel characters at Sony, 20thCentury Fox and Marvel as separate companies… because, well frankly they are. And just as the idea of an official crossover between major companies like Marvel and DC in comics is a rarity, in Hollywood it’s even more so, due to the exponentially higher budgets, dividends and stock-holders involved. That’s not to say it couldn’t happen as Feige once attempted to insert Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in one of the Sam Raimi era Spider-Man movies, but the red tape involved is even stronger than that webcrawler’s webbing.

Quicksilver
What instead is happening, in the case of Quicksilver, is that two versions of the character are appearing in X-Men: Days of Future Past and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Each named Quicksilver, each with the same powers, but played by different actors and with a strong possibility of different backstories and characterizations. For instance, marvel Studios can’t use the word Mutant to describe the character, or mention his connection to Magneto. Fox, likewise, won’t have mentions of his superheroic teammates of Iron, Godly, or Captain status. Quicksilver has become the face of this conundrum, but the super-fast speedster wasn’t the first to sit in this precarious position.

Stan Lee, the billed co-creator and writer of many of the Marvel characters that have been translated successfully to the big screen, and made a name for himself to mainstream audiences for his well-received cameos in nearly all of Marvel’s Hollywood outings, both in film and television; even in movies for characters he didn’t create such as Captain America: The First Avenger. In a majority of these roles he’s played unknown bystanders (or in the case of Fantastic Four, the lovable mailman Willie Lumpkin), but in two instances “The Man” in fact played the over-the-top character his parents created and he defined, himself. In both 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and the original Iron Man from 2008 he is billed as Stan Lee. While it might not be too factual to call him a Marvel character and someone whose movie rights are tied up in legal contracts, it’s still worth noting.

Stepping back into the completely fictional characters of the Marvel comics universe, there are a number of characters like Quicksilver who could be prone to shared rights between movie studios and simultaneous co-existence in separate movie universes. The easiest one to name is Quicksilver’s sister, the Scarlet Witch; she’s already been announced as having a major role in Avengers: Age of Ultron, but Sony has yet to say if the mutant will play a role in X-Men: Days of Future Past or future movies. The third example is a mutant like the Maximoff siblings, and like them an offspring of a popular pair of characters: Cable.

Debuting in comics as the infant Nathan Summers in 1986’sUncanny X-Men #201, the character who would later become known as Cable was born as the only son of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor. Four years later in New Mutants #87, Summers returned from the future as a hardened warrior named Cable. At the time the connection between Cable and the infant Summers wasn’t made, but soon after the 1990 debut it was revealed. As a character he’s almost exclusively appeared in X-Men related books for his 27 year history, so logic would dictate that his character would also be a clear part of the raft of intellectual property acquired when 20th Century Fox bought the movie rights for the X-Men in 1994. But not so, apparently, as in 2009 Variety Senior Editor Marc Graser reported Cable was one of slate of characters Marvel Studios was developing as standalone movies. The co-creator of the adult Cable persona, Rob Liefeld, has stated unequivocally that Cable is part of the planned X-Force movie, which if true would by extension make the character a part of 20th Century’s movie rights holdings. Who’s right? Could they both be right?

The facts as they’ve been revealed don’t illuminate any clues as to why this might be. It’s certainly possible that Variety was simply mistaken to list Cable as a character in development at Marvel as a feature film. But if that was the case, wouldn’t Marvel, or especially 20th Century Fox, ask for a correction from Variety? To date that hasn’t appeared, but neither has any official confirmation of any of the properties Graser mentioned. Factual answers to this lie in the 1994 contract between Marvel and 20thCentury Fox, but that is highly unlikely to ever come to light in the public. More likely, fans will find out which studio has Cable’s rights when he appears on the big screen for the first time. But perhaps, like Quicksilver, his rights are evenly split with the character able to be used by both indiscriminately; or perhaps for some reason the infant-aged Nathan Summers character is tied up in 20th Century Fox’s rights while the adult Cable in another; or vice-versa.

There are additional characters that have paths that crisscross different sectors of the Marvel Universe whose movie rights are owned by separate companies; two of which have already appeared, Sabretooth and Mystique. Although both of these characters are ardent parts of the X-Men side of the Marvel Universe and have appeared in numerous X-Men movies, both of these characters’ origins are rooted outside of the X-Men titles. Sabretooth was originally created for 1977’s Iron Fist #14by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, and fought against heroes such as Iron Fist, Luke Cage and even Spider-Man. It wasn’t until 9 years later that he first stepped into the X-Men titles, with 1986’s X-Factor #10. Likewise, Mystique first appeared in 1978’s Ms. Marvel #16 under the pen of Claremont and Dave Cockrum; the character wouldn’t segue over to her more well-known haunts of the mutant side of the Marvel U until 1981’s Uncanny X-Men #141. In many ways, Mystique and Sabretooth’s complicated path in comics are reverse mirror images of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, but with them being extensively used in 20th Century Fox’s X-Menmovies. But given this evidence, could they show up in a Marvel Studios’ movie? Imagine that for a second. Heck, even Rogue first appeared in Avengers Annual #10 (From yes, you guessed it, Chris Claremont), as a villain under the watch of Mystique. Now that she’s been cut from X-Men: Days of Future Past, maybe she can make her big screen return in a future Marvel Studios film.
Inhumanity #2
This whole conversation doesn’t even bring in 20th Century Fox’s other Marvel superhero franchise, the Fantastic Four. Although currently in dry dock awaiting a reboot, when Fox bought the rights for Marvel’s First Family they also bought the title that during its first fifty issues was the crossroads for Marvel’s then-budding comic book universe. Numerous characters such as Black Panther, Uatu the Watcher, and Kang appeared there, as did entire races such as the Inhumans, the Kree and the Skrulls (and many other space-faring races). Marvel’s already made announcements about being in early development on Black Panther and Inhumans movies in-house, so perhaps those rights were carved out when they sold the rights to the FF to 20th Century Fox? The current push for the Inhumans in Marvel Comics has been speculated as being the first step to bring them into the movie spotlight. Perhaps, but there’s still a lot of question marks. Another big one to consider is Mephisto, who first appeared in Silver Surfer, a title whose titular star is squarely in the movie-verse of 20th Century Fox’s Fantastic Four franchise.

Again, it’s all down to the contracts signed by Marvel and these various outside studios. But much like some comics creators have had second thoughts about contracts signed with publisher years or decades after the fact, so might Marvel now as they build their comics empire.

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Reblog: BRUCE WAYNE to Be Regular Cast Member On Fox’s GOTHAM

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , on December 7, 2013| 2 Comments »

Batman-404-Covervia Newsarama

A 10-year-old Bruce Wayne, that is…

TV Show Auditions is reporting Friday that pre-teen Bruce is among the roles currently being cast as series regulars on Fox’s upcoming Batman ‘prequel’ TV series Gotham.

The show has already received a straight-to-series commitment with The Mentalistcreator Bruno Heller serving as executive producer, head writer, and showrunner.

As previously announced Gotham will explore “the origin stories of Commissioner James Gordon and the villains who made Gotham City famous.”

According to Deadline at the time of the series announcement, Gordon is still a detective with the Gotham City Police Department and has yet to meet Batman, who will not be part of the series. However, TV Show Auditions reports the series will center on “Gotham City PD rookie homicide detective James Gordon who investigates the double murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne,” putting the show firmly in the formative years of Bruce Wayne’s youth and the Batman mythos.

“Set in the early days of James Gordon’s police tenure, when he meets a boy named Bruce Wayne…” the casting call description on the series reportedly reads.

If accurate, it would almost certainly follow Alfred would be among the regular cast members as well.

Shooting on the pilot will reportedly begin in March. No roles have been cast as of Friday,TV Show Auditions reports.

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Reblog: 10 BEST Comic Book Live-Action TV Series of All Time

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , on November 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

via Newsarama

If you’re a comics fan with a television, you’ve been having a pretty good year. Television has long been a home for comic book heroes, from early shows like Adventures of Superman on to more recent successes like Smallville, but 2013 has been a bumper crop of new programming running the gamut from zombie drama with AMC’s The Walking Dead, street-level superheroics with WB’s Arrow and ABC’s spy-shop procedural Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

And 2014 looks to be even better. You might want to add some space to your DVR’s storage capacity, as DC has four television series in development (Hourman, Flash, Constantine and Gotham), and Marvel has one upped them with four unnamed shows as well as a miniseries in the works. That’s all in addition to the aforementioned Arrow, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Walking Dead. And that’s not counting AMC and Robert Kirkman’s partnership to develop his comic series Thief of Thieves and Outcast, and everyone else working outside the Big Two.

So as we enter what looks to be a golden age for comics on TV, we’re taking stock of what’s already made its way to the small screen. There’s a lot of ground to cover and it’s more than just superheroes, so we’re narrowing our focus to American television programs.

We’re holding off on including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. just yet – it’s not Level 7 security, it’s just that they haven’t even completed their first season yet; Nick Fury wouldn’t want us to be trigger happy.

 

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10. WONDER WOMAN
Although some joke about the show’s costume changes and formulaic nature, this primetime series starring Lynda Carter in the title role made a definite impact. Over four years and a mild reboot at the end of season one, the Wonder Woman TV series cemented the character’s place as the most popular female comic book hero and, in some ways, a feminist icon.The Carter Wonder Woman series was preceded by two earlier attempts to make the character work on the small screen. First came a ’60s era comedy in the vein of the Adam West Batman series, followed by an early ’70s attempt that downplayed the superhuman abilities in favor of spy gadgets akin to James Bond. It wasn’t until a third pilot, one more faithful to the source material, that a full-length TV series was commissioned, and found success at ABC and later CBS.

Lynda Carter’s portrayal of Wonder Woman proved so popular that it defined the actor going forward, leading Carter to reprise the role in everything from The Muppet Show to a reference in the film Sky High. In a way, Carter’s portrayal of Diana Prince casts a shadow on the character not unlike Christopher Reeve’s Superman or the more recent star turn of Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man.

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09. DENNIS THE MENACE
Although it’s the sole entry on this list that originated from comic strips, not books though the character has certainly appeared in a considerable amount of comic books over the decades Dennis The Menace made a big impact when it debuted on the small screen in the late ’50s. This story of a precocious kid that cuts a “menacing” but lovable path through his neighborhood became an instant hit when adapted to black-and-white live-action.Child actor Jay North excelled in this star-making role, and under the guidance of TV impresario Harry Ackerman it became one of the highest ranking series on CBS at the time. The series ran for four years and was only canceled because North was growing out of the young role literally and the network didn’t want to recast the part.

Later generations discovered the show through frequent reruns in the dawn of cable television, and the popularity of the series both on screen and in newspapers led to several other adaptations in films and television, though they never matched up to the original show’s early success.

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08. THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN
Superman has become one of the most filmed comic book characters of all time, but one of his earliest appearances the 1950s era Adventures of Superman continues to leap and bound over its counterparts.Despite its first two seasons being filmed in black and white, the George Reeves-led show brought a feature-budget feel to television and gave the mainstream public the best portrayal of DC’s flagship character it had seen at that point.

Looking back on the series now, it has a lot in common with Grant Morrison’s recent take on the character in Action Comics gone are the cartoonish array of supervillains like Brainiac, in favor of the more classic villains like evil scientists, maligned businessmen, gangsters, thugs and spies. The closest thing to a superhuman you’ll see facing Superman in this is a midget Martian similar to Mr. Mxyzptlk named “Mr. Zero.”

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07. THE FLASH
Although it only ran for one season, 1990’s The Flash stands out to this day as a major accomplishment in the world of live-action superheroes on the small screen. Developed for TV by the future screenwriters of The Rocketeer, the series showed a modernized Flash with soap actor John Wesley Shipp playing Barry Allen.Influenced by Tim Burton’s Batman movie released one year earlier, the short-lived The Flash had a darker tone than one might expect, but it became catnip for devoted comics fans at the time. The television series was cut short due to the high costs of filming a live-action superhero series and had stiff competition in its time slot from then-new series The Simpsons and The Cosby Show.

One long-term positive that the series did was the introduction of Star Wars star Mark Hamill to DC’s roster of characters. Hamill made his DC debut as The Trickster on The Flash series, and went on to become the definitive voice for the Joker in DC’s animated works and video games for two decades.

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06. THE MIDDLEMAN
The Middleman is the most unknown of our entries, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t great. The short-lived ABC Family show took the indie comic series and made one of the truest comic book to small-screen adaptations thanks in part to series co-creator/writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost,Medium) being an accomplished television writer/producer that stayed on to helm the show.It received high marks from TV Guide and other industry magazines, but Variety‘s review of the pilot gave what would become fateful praise by calling it “almost too smart” for the network.

Borrowing some of its tongue-in-cheek tone from earlier genre success story Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Middleman featured guns, spy action and witty banter on par with modern critical darlings like 30 Rock and Community. Ultimately the show was done in after one 2008 season by the oversized budget compared to its audience, especially among ABC Family’s comedies and low-budget high school dramedies.

DC October 2013 solicitations - Beyond New 52
05. ARROW
They may have made some missteps with the scripting of the Green Lantern movie, but writing duo Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim (along with Andrew Kreisberg) have been making up for it (and then some) with the WB series Arrow. They’ve taken DC’s archer hero the Green Arrow and made him a man with a purpose – and a bow & arrow – in the streets of Starling City. Season One exceeded everyone’s expectations, and so far Season 2 has continued on that upward trajectory.Between Arrow, Deathstroke and Paul Blackthorne’s great portrayal of Quentin Lance, the series has been jumping from high point to high point. With the recent reveal of the Canary (Black Canary, for you comics fans) and Sin, it’s opened to door to even greater stories. And the rest of the season promises some more debuts (cough BARRY FREAKING ALLEN cough) as well as more surprises, giving fans and some Newsarama staffers something to look forward to every week.

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04. BATMAN
If there’s one show that defined comics for the mainstream public, then the ’60s-era Batman series starring Adam West is it. This campy send-up of DC’s Dark Knight was anything but dark, but for its time period it worked, becoming an unprecedented success. Despite only being on air for two years, it was a massive hit, airing twice a week on ABC and producing more than 100 episodes.Far removed from the dark crusader we’ve seen in movies, Adam West’s Batman was a more jovial and lighthearted adventurer, starring alongside guest stars hamming it up for the camera. The series became so popular that it gave some of its stars short-lived careers in music, with West even recording a country song that he performed in costume at some live appearances.

The series was ultimately cut short when ABC attempted to slash the budget by eliminating a number of characters including Robin, bringing a close to the series. It’s also one of the most prominent television series never to be officially released on VHS or DVD due to complicated rights issues, with bootleg copies of the show becoming mainstays at comic conventions large and small.

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03. THE INCREDIBLE HULK
Although DC has proved more successful in adapting its characters to live-action TV in sheer number, Marvel’s late ’70s The Incredible Hulk showed just how different a superhero show could be. The long-running series saw TV veteran Bill Bixby sharing screen time with bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno as they played Bruce Banner and alter-ego the Hulk, turning them both into massive stars on the small screen. Although created 15 years before, it was this seminal series that brought Marvel’s Green Goliath into the minds of the mainstream public and went on to influence the comic books for years to come.The journeyman nature of the show allowed for an ever-rotating cast of guest stars to play opposite Bixby and Ferrigno, including cameo appearances by the character’s creators, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, at one point. The series ultimately ended in 1981, but found new life with a series of made for TV movies that continued for several years before Bixby’s death in 1993.

The Incredible Hulk show became an integral part of the Hulk mythos, influencing the character’s comic series to varying degrees over the years. The 2008 film The Incredible Hulk was heavily influenced by the TV series, with lead actor Edward Norton basing much of his performance on Bixby’s original portrayal.

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02. SMALLVILLE
The only entry in our list not specifically tied to one comics title, the long-running Smallville series borrowed liberally from the entire breadth of the Superman and DCU catalog to become the hit it is today.Over the course of 10 years and two networks, the show covered the early years of the man who would one day become Superman in a bare bones approach. As the series went on, it became a showcase of the diversity of the DCU with guest stars ranging from future Justice League members to the time-traveling Legion of Super-Heroes.

On its debut in 2001, Smallville became the highest rated show in the WB’s history and landed on the cover of TV Guide. The endorsement by former Superman Christopher Reeve (who guest starred on the series) gave the then-budding show a burst of enthusiasm amongst hardcore comics fans, paving the way for the show and its unique dynamic of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor being childhood friends who are slowly torn apart.

As the series went on it explored the early life of Superman in more detail than any of its comic adventures, leading Geoff Johns to fold in some of the show’s elements in his later revision of Superman’s origin in the comic series Superman: Secret Origin.

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01. THE WALKING DEAD
AMC’s The Walking Dead has gone from being a pleasant surprise to a sure thing if you’re looking for riveting television. Robert Kirkman’s zombie drama became a cult hit in comics and bucked sales trends with ever-increasing sales, and once cable channel AMC put its adaptation on screen seven years later starting on Halloween 2010, the whole world got to see just how big the zombie phenomenon could be. And it only looks to getting bigger, with the recently debuted fourth season earning over 16 million viewers – over three times it’s series premiere in 2010, up nearly 5 million from its season 3 premiere just a year ago.Despite some shaky staffing issues behind-the-scenes, The Walking Dead has had a steady upward climb with no signs of stopping under new showrunner Scott M. Gimple. They’ve already announced a season 5 for 2014 (with Gimple signed on for another year, too), and have a wealth of stories to draw from in the comic series or if the series decides to take its own path into the zombie apocalypse. 2014 should also see a spin-of series debut, with Kirkman teasing a whole new location in the world of The Walking Dead. One more thing: Man of Steel screenwriter and defacto DC Movies’ head writer David S. Goyer is coming to direct the penultimate episode – the shows fiftieth – early next year.

Although previous zombie films were often pigeon-holed as simply genre material, the critical acclaim for the Frank Darabont-led show went all the way to The Wall Street Journal and Salon.com.

Based on the long-running Image series of the same name, the Walking Dead television adaptation was further strengthened by the feature-quality direction of Darabont combined with the expert hand of producer Gale Ann Hurd (Terminator, Armageddon). The show got on the good side of hardcore fans by the inclusion of Kirkman and series artist Charlie Adlard in the production, with Kirkman going so far as to write several episodes of the show and serve as a very hands-on executive producer.

There is little about this show that hasn’t gone right, making it the hands-down best comic book live-action TV series of all-time.

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Reblog: X-MEN-FANTASTIC FOUR Movie Crossover Is ‘Without Question’ Says Fox’s Marvel Man

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , on August 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Via Newsarama

Cover from Marvel mini-series X4
CREDIT: Marvel Comics

Fox just wrapped principle photography on 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past this past weekend. So while next up on the studio’s plate will be post-production work and gearing up production for 2015’s Fantastic Four reboot by Chronicle’s Josh Trank, if their Marvel movie consultant Mark Millar has his way, those two things could be very closely related.

In an excerpt from an upcoming longer interview in SFX #239, Millar tells that “without question” he thinks crossover between the X-Men and FF universes (ala the Marvel Cinematic Universe) is in Fox’s future.

“I think you have to see some of these guys showing up in each other’s movies,” he said. “I think the most exciting thing in superhero movies, until The Avengers came along, was when Nick Fury showed up in Iron Man. Even though it was a guy with an eye patch it was really cool – and I expect we will see more of that.”

Next year’s Days of Future Past post-credit scene might be the first opportunity Fox will have to co-opt Marvel Studios’ marketing roadmap, and given The Wolverine’s post-credit baton-passing to Days, staying to the very end of next summer’s X-Men epic would be advisable for FF fans.

And even though Millar has a sentimental attachment to Fox’s first FF movie, the writer was upfront in his assessment of the film and its director, Tim Story.

“These first two movies were not very good but I’m quite sentimental towards them,” Millar responded, asked by SFX what the new film will need to get right. “I took my youngest daughter to see the first one, she was only five when it came out, and she thought it was the best film ever made. At the end, when Johnny Storm says, ‘Flame on!’ for the first time, she thanked me for taking her to see it. So even though it was a crap movie that memory makes me sort-of like it in a strange way.”

“Sam Raimi gave us a great Spider-Man. Christopher Nolan gave us a great Batman. So a brilliant director is probably the most important thing for a great Fantastic Four,” continued Millar. “Tim Story was seen as an odd choice for Fantastic Four but when you have a Josh Trank you know you are in safe hands.”

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Serial Storytelling and the Modern Age

Posted in News and Editorials, tagged , , , , , on January 30, 2013| 2 Comments »

There is a great article below I’m rebloging from Newsarama about the recent uphevel in the comic book world over something that ‘might’ happen.

You see, the point of a serialized anything is to get you to come back each week, month, or whenever to buy the next issue or watch the next episode. This is why things like cliff-hangers were invented, not to mention teasers, solitations, trailers, etc. This can often be very fullfilling as you have something new to look forward to each week both in whatever the plot of that week’s issue/episode is and whatever you might learn about the over-reaching arc.

It’s natural to speculate on how things will play out: who might live/die, who might hook up, who is the killer, that kind of thing. However, in the modern age of instant feedback and instant gratification, that speculation is not left to languish over the week in a person’s own thoughts or a message board, instead, a million conversations take place instantly all feeding together like a hydra monster of sorts. When this happens, well, read the article below for a nice case study which can easily be applied to television as well:

Op/Ed: Super Serial – Monthly Storytelling Gets the Shaft

By Lucas Siegel, Newsarama Site Editor posted: 30 January 2013 02:55 pm  ET

It was the kiss heard round the world.

Doctor Octopus, who had recently taken over Spider-Man’s body, kissed Mary Jane Watson (unaware of the switch) passionately in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #700, telling her he intended to renew their relationship. Before the kiss itself, he expressed how he was plotting to be with her, and she at one point tore open his shirt (revealing the Spider-Man costume). The villain pretending to be a hero looked at her lasciviously and clearly desired to have a romantic relationship with her…

And that, coupled with Superior Spider-Man #2‘s cover of the pair kissing again (or more accurately, Ock/Spidey stealing a kiss from the redhead), set off an internet firestorm, led by many respected commentators who one would assume know comics. People who have contributed to the industry through reports, criticism, and intelligent discussion started a fierce argument based, in the end, seemingly entirely on assumption and speculation.

MILD SPOILERS FOR SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #2 AHEAD

And now, with Superior Spider-Man #2 out and on the shelves, it all ends with Otto (again, somewhat gross and lasciviously) accessing Peter’s memories about his time with MJ. With great memories come great feelings, and now legitimately caring for her, decides to break things off entirely. Aside from that first big kiss in ASM #700 that set off the internet, all Otto wound up getting was a few pecks on the cheek.

 Now, the conversation about rape and how it’s portrayed/the subject is handled in comics and indeed all media is an extremely important (and sensitive) one, but not the subject of this article. We won’t be covering that today, and indeed, Steve Wacker didn’t discuss it at the time because it doesn’t actually happen in either of these comics. As Wacker said himself on Twitter when this first came up, “It’s an important topic, but I think it’s diminished by this kind of craziness.” Indeed, the only problem with how people approached the issues raised by ASM #700 and the subsequent covers is that they went after writer Dan Slott and editor Stephen Wacker simply because of potential. It seems to imply an ignorance of the serial nature of comic book storytelling, or at least a refusal to acknowledge it.

In two days of Twitter conversation about the subject, Wacker consistently tried to roll with any questions, and merely argued that readers should continue reading. His only direct comments about the issue itself were that the scene in ASM did not depict sex (true), and that people needed to read the first few issues of Superior to know how the story would play out. In other words, he did his exact job as editor of a serialized story — he told people to read it serially, as it came out, and didn’t spoil what his writer had, at that point, already written.

The ASM kiss

What this really speaks to is the nature of serialization in the internet age. With feedback and conversation truly instantaneous via Twitter and other social networks, solicitations showing covers and teasing at storylines three months ahead of time, and a constant need for immediate gratification, it seems that comic book readers may be losing the ability to simply enjoy serial fiction. Rather than thinking about what actually happens in the pages of a just-read book, readers have been trained — partially by themselves and peers in the internet indignation machine, partially by the culture of previews and interviews (of which we acknowledge our role in) — to always be thinking several months ahead in the future.

But covers have traditionally been misleading. Quick moments and cliffhangers and provocative covers — these are not only intended but necessary parts of a serial. Covers have nearly always had misleading elements, from announcing the death or retirement of a character to a misleading moment of passion between an unlikely pair. The whole point is to have a reader say “wait – what?” and have an intense desire to see what happens next. About a year and a half ago, another Marvel Comics cover showed a surprising kiss. Was Cyclops cheating on Emma Frost (who he had cheated with — mentally — on Jean Grey, of course)? Why would Storm be in his embrace and not with, you know, her husband at the time? Of course, it wound up being a misleading cover, showing an alternate reality. Indeed, scenes of romance and death are a traditional method of teasing readers to try to bring more eyes to the next issue. Again, it’s merely the definition of serialization.

 What people were angry about at first was the mere suggested possibility of more than a kiss, then the anger turned more towards Wacker and Slott’s unwillingness to accept their argument, or, in their own defense to tell readers how the story would play out a month in advance of the issues where the resolution took place. And that’s just not how serial storytelling is supposed to go.

So what’s the solution? Should solicitations not go out over the internet? That seems impossible at this stage, and fans have clear and easy access to the monthly Previews catalogue, anyway. Should creators and editors stay off of social networks and not interact with fans? Again, both impossible and frankly a bit silly. The positive examples of interaction are often overshadowed by the extreme fringe negatives with attacks and death threats, but the positeves tend to actually be more frequent and outweigh the negatives, with fans getting a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the media they so enjoy.

No, the only real solution is for fans themselves to take a step back into the days when serial adventures were taken one at a time. Just because there can be an instant reaction doesn’t mean there has to be one.

At the very least, the tone of the far-too frequent internet indignation machine should be measured against both what we know and what we just think we know.

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