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Phoenix Return and Revenge?

Uncanny X-Men #135 cover courtesy Marvel.com. Art by John Byrne

  Marvel’s live press event tomorrow may reveal details about the return of the Phoenix Force after months of teasers.

  A friend and fellow comic reader gave me something to think about. In Uncanny X-Men #137 Dark Phoenix flies into Shiar space and consumes the D’Bari star to satisfy her ‘hunger” and kills five billion peaceful aliens living on the fourth planet of that system.     Empress Lilandra and the Shiar Empire sought justice and revenge on Jean Grey and the X-Men for their connections to the Phoenix Force on behalf of those aliens.

“What if some aliens from that world destroyed by the Phoenix were off planet during the annihilation? Wouldn’t they seek revenge?” Mitch Cook said.

  An interesting thought full of good story potential. It was the motivation driving the Romulan Nero in Star Trek. It’s been decades since the Dark Phoenix Saga and the whole Jean ‘sacrifice’ became a moot point due to a retconning of the storyline. Always fun to speculate with a fellow fan.

Phoenix Returns? Marvel’s Live Event

It's coming Live Event this Wednesday. Image courtesy Marvel.com

  It’s payoff time this Wednesday. After months of teasers, today Marvel announced a live event Wednesday at 3pm eastern, high noon pacific.

  The teasers with the fiery image have been promoting that Marvel’s top creators are attached to the project meaning this will not be just an X-Men storyline.

  In the Point One issue Nova was seen speeding away from the Phoenix image as it appeared to be consuming a planet like it did in Uncanny X-Men #135 during the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Uncanny X-Men #135 cover courtesy Marvel.com. Art by John Byrne

  The Watcher was a central figure in Point One. Marvel teased that Ed Brubaker may be working on a Watcher project in 2012. The alien has always been tied to the Phoenix. If Ed Brubaker is involved, I hope this means the return of Vulcan, Scott and Alex’s revenge crazed brother who took over the Shiar Empire. The entity is tied to Shiar legends, a Shiar warrior once wield the Phoenix Force via a giant blade. If Vulcan is able to host or manipulate the entity the universe should be quaking with fear.

‘The Phoenix is about destruction and rebirth,” Marvel Editor in Chief Axel Alonso told Comic Book Resources. Could that signal a huge shakeup of the Marvel Universe titles and perhaps this might explain why so many titles were cancelled.

  If the Phoenix is coming who will be the host? Will this mean we go back inside the ‘white hot room’ and revisit Grant Morrison’s Here Comes Tomorrow storyline?

  The image of the Phoenix appeared to Emma Frost twice recently around the young mutant Hope. With titles like Messiah Complex and Second Coming, the X-events featuring the young mutant fanned of flames that Hope might be Jean reborn or the future host of the Phoenix.

Phoenix: Endsong #1 Cover by Greg Land. Marvel.com

  As I have posted before I hope the return of the Phoenix does means the resurrection of Jean Grey Summers. Jean has suffered enough rebirths. I know a lot of fans love Jean and want her back with Cyclops but I want her to stay dead. Thanks for the information Robot 6.

 

Avengers Star Colbie Smulders

Colbie Smulders in The Avengers courtesy Marvel Films

  Maria Hill is one of the coolest new characters to join the Marvel Universe in the 21st century. Colbie Smulders of How I Met Your Mother is playing the SHIELD lieutenant in The Avengers next year.

  Colbie Smulders talked to IFC about playing Nick Fury’s second in command and working with director Joss Whedon.

SHIELD Agents Concept Art for The Avengers courtesy Marvel.com

“We had so much fun shooting [‘The Avengers’]. We had days when it was just us working — and, oh, 200 extras — but, you know, in the inner circle, it was nice to sit by the monitor with [director Joss Whedon] and watch him take on this ginormous project with great ease,” she said.

Maria does not possess super powers unless you count how she wears her uniform. In the comics Maria took over SHIELD and held her ground in conflicts with Iron Man and Captain America. You can read more about Maria’s adventures at Marvel.com. Secret War and Civil War are two excellent epics featuring Hill.

Loki’s Army in The Avengers? Agent Coulson Speaks

  In Marvel Comics history Loki’s scheming causes the Avengers to assemble. Loki is the main villain behind the big screen assembling of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes but who has his back against combined forces of Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and SHIELD?

  Clark Gregg plays SHIELD Agent Coulson in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor and The Avengers. Comic Book Movie has an exclusive with the actor.

  When asked if fans will recognize Loki’s army, Gregg responded, “Well I guess that will depend on the fan and what they’ve read and what they’ve seen,” said Gregg. Jokingly, he went on to say, “I mean if they’re fans of Land of the Lost then they won’t be surprised to see Loki show up with a bunch of Sleestaks. I think everyone is going to be surprised to see Loki get out of a Romulan ship is all I’m going to say.”

Secret Invasion #5 cover courtesy Marvel.com

  The answer could get minds warping with all kinds of speculation. It certainly could add fuel to the fire that the Skrulls are allied with Loki. The Skrull are reptilian aliens with shapeshifting powers.

  In Marvel history, when Kree-Skrull War threatened Earth the Avengers held the line. In the epic Secret Invasion – the Skrulls infiltrated every super hero team with shapeshifters in their plot to conquer our planet.

  Being the God of Mischief, Loki is likely to be the instigator of a conflict between Earth and the Skrulls – if that turns out to be the case.

  Special note: The Tesseract was a device from Asgardian myth sought after by the Red Skull in the Captain America movie. This device is a variation (different name though) of the Cosmic Cube. In Marvel history, it was theorized that the Skrulls created one of the Cosmic Cubes.

The Avengers Villain’s Favorite Filming Moment

Avengers Character Banners courtesy Marvel.com

Tom Hiddleston will once again don the horned helmet of Loki in The Avengers next summer. The actor playing Thor’s brother revealed his favorite moment of filming to UK’s Elle magazine via the Winnepeg Free Press.

“My favorite moment on set was filming at a NASA location the size of a cathedral. I flew around like a trapeze artist in a rocket-testing facility in the company of Samuel L. Jackson and Jeremy Renner. That was a pretty good day at work,” he said.

Hiddleston revealed the mood on the set of a movie with such a big cast of stars.

“All of the actors in ‘The Avengers’ are so nice. Marvel has these code names for projects and the code name for ‘The Avengers’ was Group Hug. It felt very much like a group hug on set.”

Thanks to SuperHeroHype for the updates. The Avengers assembles in theaters May 4, 2012. Hiddleston will be seen in War Horse next.

George Takei Beams to Emerald City Comicon

I’m excited to report George Takei is coming to Emerald City Comicon in 2012. The Star Trek legend is best known as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the U.S.S. Enterprise and later Captain of the U.S.S. Excelsior.

In addition to his iconic Star Trek role, Takei thrilled a new generation of sci fi fans with this role on Heroes as Kaiten Nakamura, mysterious father of the time jumping Hiro Nakamura.

George Takei come out in 2005 revealing he and his partner, Brad, had been in an 18 year relationship. The couple was married in 2008. George Takei will be appearing Saturday and Sunday, March 31st and April 1st.

Congratulations to Emerald City Comicon for this stellar media guest and to all the happy Seattle Trek fans who will have a chance to get close to this icon.

From Dark Knight to Flowers of War

The Dark Knight Rises Teaser Poster from thedarkknightrises.com. Courtesy: Warner Brothers Entertainment

  After Christian Bale’s final performance as Batman the Oscar winner will be the first Westerner to play a lead role in a Chinese movie.

  After filming The Dark Knight Rises and Bale and Director Zhang Yimou talked with the Hollywood Reporter about their collaboration. The Flowers of War is the most expensive Chinese movie ever made.  

  Bale plays an American mortician in a Catholic cathedral and becomes caught in a war. The film is based on The Rape of Nanking when Japan invaded China in 1937.

  “I like the adventure aspect of making movies, to the opportunity to work in China, not on an American movie, but on a Chinese movie appealed to me” Bale said and added this film “could be China’s Saving Private Ryan.” 

  For more of Bale’s interview and what this film could mean for the movie industry in China visit this link. Batman fans will learn more about The Dark Knight Rises when the 6 minute prologue debuts in IMAX later this month.

 

Daniel Craig’s Bond Swims Again

Four Seasons London photo courtesy MI6

  Daniel Craig made a lasting impression with some fans in his first James Bond film with this swimsuit scene. Bond came out of the water in a blue squarecut swimsuit in the Bahamas in Casino Royale. It was almost a male version of Ursula Andress breakthtaking first appearance in Doctor No.

  Daniel Craig is swimming again at the Four Seasons in London on the set of Skyfall.

  MI6 reports that Skyfall is filming at the hotel’s rooftop pool. This Canary Wharf hotel is doubling for scenes in the movie set in Shanghai. No word on 007’s swimsuit cut this time but I suspect a Bond girl will appear in the scene.

Skyfall Filming Shoot courtesy MI6.Still no updates or theories on the meaning of the movie title but still working on it!