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Hawkeye Series by Fraction & Aja

Hawkeye #1 courtesy Marvel.com

  Matt Fraction reunites with David Aja for a brand new Hawkeye series debuting this August. The duo (along with Ed Brubaker) last worked together on The Immortal Iron Fist. The announcement was made at C2E2 in Chicago.

  Aja told Marvel.com his lifelonglove for the Avenging Archer is what led to the reunion.

 “Hawkeye was one my favorite characters when a kid,” he recalls. “One of first Marvel comics I read was Avengers #25, and I [fell] in love with [the] guy; he acted as real person, was a complete jerk, so I suppose I identified with him.”

 For Fraction Hawkeye represents a challenge after taking on the X-Men, Iron Man, and Thor.

 “Never had the chance to write a character like him, or to do a book like this before,” the writer reveals. “And I wanted to chronicle him in an ongoing series because it’d keep me from getting bored. Repetition bores me to death. I had this idea for how to do a book that wasn’t like anything else we’d seen him in before, wasn’t like anything I’d done before, and couldn’t stop thinking about.”

Hawkeye #2 courtesy Marvel.com

 Fraction went on the describe this series as Clint’s life outside of team and what drives him after the events of AvX. I was excited that Kate Bishop (you could call her Lady Hawkeye of the Young Avengers) will be in the series.

  “She’s his junior partner, his apprentice,” says Fraction. “It’s a very Avengers relationship—meaning Steed and Peel—and she’s as adrift as he is. What the hell are these two doing with their lives? Turns out, helping people is what they have to do to get through the night. In costume, in life, doesn’t matter. Good guys don’t punch a time card at 5:00.”

For the more quotes from Fraction and Aja here’s the Marvel.com link.

Fraction is one of the luckiest writers at Marvel. Iron Man and Thor movies were released during Fraction’s early runs on the those series. I don’t remember his clever quote exactly (at an Emerald City Comicon panel) but I think it went something like “nice of Marvel to do a million dollar promo for my comic book.”

  Hawkeye awareness will be at at all time high with Marvel’s The Avengers out May 3rd and then Jeremy Renner (who plays Clint Barton) is on the big screen again in August for The Bourne Legacy. Good timing for a Hawkeye launch.

  Hawkeye is currently leader of Secret Avengers under Rick Remender but that book is changing direction to tie-in with AvX. I hope after the event Hawkeye and his covert team return to their secret missions and Remender can continue The Descendants plotline he started.

By Editor

James Bond Action and Emotion in “Skyfall”

Skyfall photo courtesy Empire

  When the Oscar winning director of American Beauty takes on 007 fans might be worried that James Bond may be getting emotional instead of kicking — but Daniel Craig tells MTV not to worry. The actor says he and director Sam Mendes found a balance between action and drama in Skyfall.

  “I sat down with Sam Mendes two years ago, three years ago — now it’s getting on four — and we discussed what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it, and he’s one of the biggest Bond fans around,” said Craig.

Skyfall set photo courtesy Empire

“He’s not out to do an angst-ridden movie, some chamber piece about people’s emotions,” Craig continued. “It’s a Bond movie. But we both agreed that if he cast the film, which he did really well, and we brought in older characters and new characters, that we’d have something really rich and sort of exciting to watch.”

For the full story and video here’s the MTV link.

 

AvX: A Geek Divided

  I am a geek divided and torn. When it comes to AvX– there’s no doubt, I want the X-Men to win. They were my first comic book. They are the characters I can identify with the most. I love Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Luke Cage and more Avengers but I’ll always love mutants more.

 I’ve been declaring “Cyke is Right” and now I realize how close that is the “Magneto Was Right” t-shirt worn by Quentin Quire and other radical young mutants.

  Cyclops has been the leader the mutants needed. Even Professor X and Magneto have bowed to him. With AvX even Erik is questioning Scott. I think in her heart Emma Frost may be too.

Avengers vs. X-Men #2 interior preview art courtesy Marvel, a Comics Newsarama exclusive

  I just saw a preview of AvX #2 Marvel provided Comics Newsarama. The way this is written, the way the other characters react to Scott – it just made me think even more about a theory of mine – Cyclops is under the influence. He still has a remnant of the Void locked in his head. Scott is a great leader and strategist but is his zealot like attitude against the Avengers due to that sliver of evil that existed in the Robert Reynolds/The Sentry?

  Maybe the Phoenix can burn the Void out of him? I hope the X-Men win but I believe Cyclops will pay a terrible price for victory.

Michael Fassbender’s Android Inspiration for “Prometheus”

Michael Fassbender in Prometheus courtesy 20th Century Fox

  Michael Fassbender plays an android named David in Ridley Scott’s (it has Alien DNA) Prometheus. Viral marketing (under the guise of a commercial from Weyland Industries) revealed David is a product of Weyland, the company that connects Alien and Prometheus.

  Pocket-lint makes a great point: You might assume that Fassbender based his performance on Ash (played by Ian Holm) in Alien or Bishop (Lance Henricksen) in Aliens. But the actor says he looked to another Ridley Scott directed sci-fi classic and…Olympic medalist Greg Louganis?

“I watched Blade Runner,” said Fassbender during a Q&A in London that Pocket-lint attended. “I watched The Servant with Dirk Bogarde. Laurence of Arabia. The Man Who Fell to Earth. And Greg Louganis.

“It’s the way he moved. When I was younger, his weird walk made me laugh.”

“It’s very centred,” he continued. “There’s an economy of movement. I thought that would work out.”

Thanks to Pocket-Lint.com for the story. I just discovered this site – very cool, great layout!

This story makes me picture Fassbender uttering that famous line, “If you could see what I’ve seen with your eyes.”

Who Fights Black Widow in The Avengers Movie?

Marvel's The Avengers courtesy Marvel

  Scarlett Johansson is smoking at Black Widow in Marvel’s The Avengers. The actress apparently took a beating while making the flick. On the red carpet before the world premiere Johansson revealed talked about her stunt work and almost revealed a spoiler to MTV News.

“The stunt sequence that I’ve been the most proud of is probably my fight with…” Johansson stops. “Actually, I don’t know if I can say!”

She looks at someone off camera and asks, “Can I say? I don’t know if I can.”

When MTV News asked her if it’s Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Johansson replied, “No,” and her eyes became playfully shifty as she continued, “All I can say is that I had to fight someone else in this film, and they beat the crap out of me in stunt rehearsals. I have to say I could not believe it.”

This Geek’s Opinion: Wouldn’t it be a cool sequence if Loki -being the trickster that he is – turns Black Widow and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) or Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) against each other?

 

The Next Great X-Villain Is Here

Uncanny X-Men #10 courtesy Marvel

  Kieron Gillen is firing on all wicked cylinders with Uncanny X-Men #10. AvX is taking over for a while but I can’t wait to see what happens next with the devious plot threads he launched with this issue.

  Unit is an alien computer-like creation that’s cold and clinical. He’s a chilling hybrid of C3PO and Hannibal Lecter – that’s Gillen’s description and it’s spot on! I say he could be the X-Men’s Ultron. 

  Unit stages a prison break unleashing alien criminal across Earth and uniting the X-Men and Avengers one last time before AvX. But Unit’s real objective is the mutant messiah.

  Scott’s Extinction team of most powerful mutants is skillfully taken apart with cold precision by Unit. The monster’s endgame is an audience with Hope with the promise (or is it a lure) of learning about the Phoenix.

  Watch for two big confrontations for Cyclops in this event filled issue. Due to Scott’s actions Steve Rogers sees a different side of the mutant – planting the seeds for how each leader may strategize against each other in AvX. Abigail Brand of S.W.O.R.D. and Cyke have a testy moment where they share dark secrets and the beginning of  darker covenant.

  Oh and I if you love Emma Frost and Colossus – there are some surprises for them in this issue too that will reverberate into future stories.

And I freakin’ love Adam Kubert’s cover – it’s a perfect representation for what Gillen does to the team and this book.

By Editor

Batman & Catwoman Cover

courtesy Entertainment Weekly

  Prepare to howl and purr for the Bat & the Cat! Take a look at Christian Bale and Anne Hathaway as Batman and Catwoman on the upcoming cover of Entertainment Weekly’s Summer Preview issue.

  From the upcoming story it looks like director Christopher Nolan treated Selina Kyle as a camp-free world-class criminal in The Dark Knight Rises.

  “She has a very strong way of protecting herself and those she cares about, which implies an underlying darkness.” Hathaway says she prepared for the role by reading the comics and studying the moves of Hedy Lamarr and Jean Harlow, the two screen legends that inspired the original conception of the comic book villainess.”

  For more of the story here’s the EW link and here’s my picks for great Catwoman stories you might enjoy.

Thunderous New Avengers Spot

Marvel's The Avengers courtesy Marvel.com

 

  I admit I had my doubts about taking the Asgardian God of Thunder from comic book to big screen was a challenge but Marvel and director Kenneth Branaugh pulled it off majestically. Chris Hemsworth displayed all the charm, swagger, and power as Thor.

 In this new Avengers extended television spot we get to see more of Hemsworth laying the hammer down and radiating the Thunder God aura. Thanks to Marvel and Spinoff Online.

 Take a look and feel the Thunder! By Editor