Prometheus still of Noomi Rapace courtesy 20th Century Fox
“Prometheus, are you seeing this?”
The full length trailer to director Ridley Scott’s return to the Alien universe is here. This is beautiful with jaw dropping and awe inducing imager. The DNA of Alien is truly in this film yet it feels new and different. The final minute is extremely intense. Take a look.
Noomi Rapace looks to make a great heroine. Michael Fassbender as the android is particularly chilling at the end. I’ve always wondered about the “Space Jockey.” When I was a kid and saw the original Alien the image of him scared me even though I knew he was dead.
Artist Frank Cho will join writers Brian Michael Bendis and Jason Aaron to kick off the event of the year with AvX #0 which sets the stage for the return of the Scarlet Witch. The mighty artist told Ben Morse who shows up on the issue.
“Pretty much everyone in the Avengers shows up, so I had a blast drawing Ms. Marvel again. But my favorite character to draw in this book was Cyclops—skinny and tall.”
Cho was asked which character he wants to see in AVX and that turned into a tease.
“I’m personally looking forward to Wolverine’s development since he’s in both teams. Also I may have some involvement with that character down the road. Stay tuned, kids.”
I got the opportunity to meet Frank Cho at last year’s Emerald City Comicon and get a copy of his sketchbook plus his autograph on a Ms. Marvel #1 and Mighty Avengers #1.
Marvel revealed a new X-treme X-Men title at the Talk to the Hat Wondercon pan. The new series by Greg Pak and Stephen Segovia debuts this July. This spins out of Pak’s Astonishing X-Men run in an alternate reality. The cover by Julian Totino Tedesco shows the Logan (with a serious stache) from that storyline. The release says Dazzler and a team of mutants from various worlds will team up for reality bending missions.
Update:
“We’re going all new, all the time,” Pak tells Marvel.com, “The joy of a book like X-TREME X-MEN is that literally anything can happen—we’re running wild, pressing all the danger buttons, and pushing our characters to their limits. So as much as I love so many of the existing alternate Marvel realities, we’re going to cut loose as creators as well and dream up new worlds that feed our big storyline and create the right kind of crises for our characters’ emotional arcs.”
Astonishing X-Men #46 courtesy Marvel.com
Pak’s starting lineup will be Howlett and Kid Nightcrawler from this recent Astonishing run and Emma Frost and Armor from Warren Ellis’s Ghost Boxes.
“There’s always something fun about the curmudgeon and the smart alec running around together,” he says. “And visually, the contrasts between the silhouettes just works—a bear and an elf, right.”
“With Howlett and Kid Kurt, we have the chance to explore that relationship and push those great visual and dramatic contrasts even more. Howlett’s the old, experienced adventurer who’s seen everything; Kid Kurt is the fresh-faced grade-schooler who’s seeing everything for the first time.”
But the team member Pak is most excited about?
“Oh, man, Dazzler, I’m a believer, y’all,” Pak exclaims. “When I sat down with the X-Office editors to brainstorm ideas for the book, we all agreed that we wanted a big character from the mainstream Marvel Universe to play a key role. And our conversations kept circling back around to Dazzler. And the more I thought about it, the more sense it started to make. She’s wry and tough and vulnerable and very, very funny. And she’s a straight up hero who will save the world through rock and roll.”
This Geek’s Opinion: Like Captain Marvel this is a another surprise. I didn’t think the Claremont/Larroca book would be reborn. I didn’t know what to expect. This has been done before with Exiles. And most of the X-books dive into alternate realities: Uncanny X-Men, Age of Apocalypse.
No disrespect to fans that enjoy the alternate takes but I think it’s been done and the focus should be on the X-Men of this universe. I do enjoy Greg Pak’s writing so maybe I’ll be wrong. I’ll give it a try. And I’m a Dazzler fan.
Carol Danvers will ditch the Ms. and become the Captain in a new series announced by Marvel at Wondercon. The character will change her long blonde hair and skin bearing bathing suit for a short cut and revamped uniform.
Carol takes on the legacy of the legendary Mar-Vell in a new series by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Dexter Soy premiering this July.
Captain Marvel #2 courtesy Marvel.com
“My pitch was called ‘Pilot’ and the take can pretty much be summed up with ‘Carol Danvers as Chuck Yeager,’” DeConnick tells Marvel.com. “Carol’s the virtual definition of a Type A personality. She’s a competitor and a control freak. At the start of our series, we see Carol pre-Captain Marvel, pre-NASA even, back when she was a fiercely competitive pilot. We’ll see her meeting one of her aviation heroes and we’ll see her youthful bravado, her swagger. Then over the course of the first arc we’re going to watch her find her way back to that hungry place. She’ll have to figure out how to be both Captain Marvel and Chuck Yeager—to marry the responsibility of that legacy with the sheer joy being nearly invulnerable and flying really [expletive] fast.”
“Carol has an incredible respect for Mar-Vell, as a person and as an icon,” notes DeConnick. “She is hesitant to take the name because of that. The line is something like, ‘So much has been taken from him. I won’t take his name.’ It’s on Captain America to help her understand that Captain Marvel wasn’t his name, it was his mantle. And he would have wanted her to have it.”
This Geek’s Reaction: This is not what I expected. I was sure Mar-Vell was being resurrected. I’m excited to see a great character like Carol Danvers evolve. I really like her new militaristic look in the Ed McGuinesscovers. Painter Dexter Soy has a cool style. It’s great to see a strong female writer take a popular team character into a new solo direction.
Emerald City Comicon welcomes Top Cow Founder Marc Silvestri to the 10th Annual Seattle event. The legendary artist created this year’s cover featuring Image Comics icons atop Seattle’s iconic landmark the Space Needle. The amazing illustration will be available as a print at the Top Cow booth and a t-shirt at the ECCC booth.
“ECCC is known as one of the best comic shows around and I can’t wait to hang out with the fans and share the love of comics!” said Silvestri. “I was honored when asked to do the cover for the con program to help celebrate ECCC and the 20th anniversary of Image Comics, and I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate than a West Coast version of King Kong! But, unlike the original chest-thumping ape, these Image monkeys aren’t falling off the building!”
“Marc Silvestri is a creator that our fans have been asking about for a long time,” commented ECCC Convention Director Jim Demonakos. “To not only have him appear at the show, but for him to have created this amazing piece that celebrates both Emerald City Comicon and Image Comics, is really something special.”
Thanks to Jim and ECCC for bringing such a stellar lineup of guests, stars and exclusives for this year’s 10th anniversary! See you soon!
Batman must survive the Night of the Owls, an upcoming crossover clawing into all the Batman family of books. Batman #8 includes the first of a series of back-up stories exploring history of the Court of Owls, the mysterious secret society manipulating Gotham City. DC Comics revealed a first look at the issue’s variant cover by fan-favorite artist Jason Fabok.
“The description for this cover was that Batman was being tackled, or smothered by the Court of Owls,” Fabok told THE SOURCE. “The idea of the court reaching down to Batman in a zombie like manner immediately sprang to mind. Artistically I really wanted to play with the shadows on both Batman and the owl-masked men so I added a strong source light on one side to light the shot. I used my camera on my Macbook to get some rough shadow reference and went from there. I penciled the piece traditionally but inked it digitally on my cintiq. Peter did a great job as usual on colors. I’m very humbled to have had the opportunity to do a Batman cover, especially in connection with such an excellent Batman run.”
Batman #8 is by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. The back-up story is co-written by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV and illustrated by Snyder’s American Vampire artistic partner Rafael Albuquerque. The issue flies into stores on April 18th.
Emma Frost may be the most sought after woman in the Marvel Universe but her heart belongs to Scott Summers. Namor, Tony Stark and Sebastian Shaw (once he regains his memory)all want the former White Queen.
Two of Marvel’s richest heroes are caught in battle in a new Avengers Vs X-Men #2 image by John Romita Jr. Emma and Tony Stark are trading quips and he’s taking a diamond packed punch.
I had predicted that an X-Woman might fall in AvX. I hope it’s not Emma. In an earlier teaser Emma was battling the Hulk. Never underestimate the former White Queen.
Johnny Depp in Dark Shadows courtesy The Hollywood Reporter
The Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter connection continues with Dark Shadows. The upcoming movie is inspired by the 1970’s daytime gothic soap opera. Depp plays vampire Barnabas Collins. Michelle Pfeiffer (Catwoman in Batman Returns) is another Burton alumni in the cast. Bond girl Eva Green (Casino Royale) plays the witch villainess. I have never experienced a trailer take a 180 turn like this. Enjoy! I sure did!
