Superior Spider-Man Kissing Mary Jane?

 

Superior Spider-Man #2 courtesy Marvel

  Amazing Spider-Man will end with issue #700 but Superior Spider-Man #1 launches in 2013. Artist Ryan Stegman shared his insight on the new Spidey on Marvel.com but first I have to talk about his cover to Superior Spider-Man #2. Is this new guy under the mask making a move on Peter Parker’s main gal? This sure looks like Mary Jane getting a kiss from the new webslinger.

Back to Stegman who shared why his style is perfect for Dan Slott’s darker take.

 “My style has been edging darker anyway. My favorite styles are sort of cartoony with a certain amount of looseness to the finish. It allows your work to cover a wide range of expression. So when it needs to be light it can and when it needs to be dark it can.

I’ve found that my style slightly changes on almost every book I do to suit what it is that I’m working on. It’s not always overt, and it’s certainly not conscious. But I just finished a run on FANTASTIC FOUR and I think my style on this has been different even though I never consciously decided that. It’s just that the tone of the writing is different.”

Slott and Stegman are throwing a new Sinister Six at the Superior Spider-Man.

“I re-designed Overdrive. But for the most part we stuck with classic designs. I think one of the great things about the villains in this book is that the ones that stick generally have pretty cool designs. For example, the Living Brain is something that I would never design. It’s blocky and crazy looking. But somehow it’s awesome. So I didn’t want to fiddle with it. I just wanted it to look exactly like it always did.”

  Back to that famous redhead, Stegman calls MJ the most important supporting cast member.

  “I’ve always wanted to draw her. And I want to do her justice as all the great Spidey artists have done. Especially Romita Sr. That’s a huge part of Spider-Man to me. Without Mary Jane this book probably wouldn’t be everything that it is.”

For his entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.

Superior Spider-Man #1 swings into the Marvel Now in January.

By Editor

Justice League Movie Summer 2015?

Justice League #1 DC Comics, Art by Jim Lee

  The Summer of 2015 could be a superhero showdown between DC’s Justice League vs. Marvel’s The Avengers!

  Warner Brothers is expected to move ahead with a Justice League movie following the result of a battle over Superman rights according to The Los Angeles Times. The studio would shoot next year for a Summer 2015 release. A script is already in the works.

  So what could the big screen roster look like?

  If Man of Steel is a success we can assume Henry Cavill will reprise the role of Superman in sequels and in this Justice League film. Armie Hammer was attached to play Batman in George Miller’s attempt at a Justice League film before his star rose and is said to be a front-runner to play the Dark Knight in this team film.

  The current DC Comics The New 52 Justice League comic book roster also includes Cyborg, Aquaman, Flash, and Wonder Woman (she and Superman are becoming a romantic couple after their passionate kiss in Justice League #12.) Green Lantern Hal Jordan just quit but other Lanterns could join the movie. John Stewart was in the Justice League animated series.

Justice League #3 from DC Comics. Cover by Jim Lee

  Personally I would prefer to see DC Comics Trinity only – Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman – in a clash against Darkseid.

The Summer of 2015 could be Avengers (2) vs. Justice League at the box-office! Marvel’s sequel to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes opens May 1, 2015.

By Editor

How THE DARK KNIGHT Inspired SKYFALL Director

 

Daniel Craig in Skyfall courtesy MI6-HQ.COM

  How did Batman influence the latest James Bond adventure?

  Skyfall is already scoring great reviews. Director Sam Mendes tells IndieWire he was “directly inspired” by Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy.

  “In terms of what [Nolan] achieved, specifically ‘The Dark Knight,’ the second movie, what it achieved, which is something exceptional. It was a game changer for everybody,” he explained about how it influenced his approach.

  “We’re now in an industry where movies are very small or very big and there’s almost nothing in the middle,” he continued. “And it would be a tragedy if all the serious movies were very small and all the popcorn movies were very big and have nothing to say. And what Nolan proved was that you can make a huge movie that is thrilling and entertaining and has a lot to say about the world we live in, even if, in the case with ‘The Dark Knight,’ it’s not even set in our world. If felt like a movie that was about our world post-9/11 and played on our fears and discussed our fears and why they existed and I thought that was incredibly brave and interesting. That did help give me the confidence to take this movie in directions that, without ‘The Dark Knight,’ might not have been possible. Because also, people go, ‘Wow, that’s pretty dark,’ but then you can point to ‘Dark Knight’ and go ‘Look at that – that’s a darker movie, and it took in a gazillion dollars!’ That’s very helpful. There’s also that thing – it’s clearly possible to make a dark movie that people want to see.”

Skyfall hits U.S. theaters November 9th.

Christopher Nolan has expressed how a classic 007 film influenced Inception and his potential involvement with the Bond franchise. You can read that here.

By Editor

Captain America’s New Enemies and Costume

 

Captain America #1 courtesy Marvel

  Rick Remender, John Romita Jr and Klaus Janson relaunch the Sentinel of Liberty in a brand new Captain America #1 next month.  Marvel.com shared a first look inside the premiere issue and acclaimed artist talked about the adjusted design of Cap’s uniform.

  “I don’t think it’s a full redesign. You still know it’s Cap, you can see things in it that are Captain America. But there’s a difference, absolutely. I think the spandex and the spandex shorts have gone the way of the dodo only because they were overused and so on. This is a little more realistic. You’ll see seams on pants, you’ll see shoelaces on boots etc. And I enjoy that.

 

Captain America #1 courtesy Marvel

  Arnim Zola is the first major villain of this new volume that sends Steve into Dimension Z – which means new characters to design.

  “There are a couple of characters that are unnamed. Well, there’s one that’s named. If you watch the Phrox, these outer worldly creatures, I designed them visually. They’re interesting. The minions of Armin Zola are interesting also. And Rick wanted to use a reference from Jack Kirby’s version of the characters, and that’s good and bad. Great because I love Kirby’s stuff, but bad because I didn’t just want to completely base it on Kirby’s stuff, so I went a little bit in a different direction.

  Arnim Zola’s minions are not the aberrations that they were from Jack Kirby’s days. I went a little bit more demonic, so to speak. And then the other outer worldly characters have to be different. Everything looks different and we have species, but yet each species has eyes, nose, ears. They walk, they crawl, and they have legs. So I tried to do that with these two sets of species.

  You have Arnim Zola’s strange characters and you have these Phrox and I tried to give them at least one tiny bit of commonality, so there’s a little bit of an armor look, and a little bit of a lizard-demonic look to them that might be a little bit of commonality. At least in my mind, they’re from completely different planets, and yet they’re on the same planet. That’s probably too much thinking, but I can’t help myself. I’m always trying, and I don’t always succeed, but I’m always trying to do something different than I have done in the past. And if it doesn’t work out that way, it’s not from lack of trying.”

Captain America #1 courtesy Marvel

  Salute a brand new Captain America #1 on November 21st. The cover for issue #3 features a shaggy Steve Rogers against an alien warrior – a minion of Zola in Dimension Z. The warrioer looks like he could have been on Planet Hulk.

Captain America #3 courtesy Marvel

For more of his interview here’s the Marvel.com link.

By Editor

Black Panther Takes Command in New Avengers

New Avengers #1 courtesy Marvel

  The Illuminati are back in 2013 as part of the new era for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Jonathan Hickman will be writing a new Avengers and New Avengers – featuring a new version of the Illuminati.

  This secret cabal working behind the scenes will be Black Panther, Iron Man, Mister Fantastic, Doctor Strange and Beast. Black Bolt will return and Namor will be involved.

  In Marvel’s recently announced January solicitations we learn why this secret group convenes: to prevent our universe from colliding with another universe. And we learned Black Panther will lead this new supergroup.

  Black Panther’s homeland was devastated by Namor’s invasion during Avengers vs. X-Men. Hickman says T’Challa’s home will be the focus on the new series. In the original Illuminati stories Black Panther refused to join the inner circle but he will need them in the Marvel now Hickman revealed on Marvel.com.

 “The catalyst is an event in Wakanda with Black Panther, the only man who told the original Illuminati it was a mistake. Something occurs so earth-shattering he sees no other course of action than to call on them,” Hickman teases, “This event is so huge than even the people in the Illuminati who do not currently like each other are forced to put differences aside.”

New Avengers courtesy Marvel

   I’m thrilled to see T’Challa as a central character in the Marvel Now. He’s a single man now. He’s the leader of a broken country and now leader of the biggest brains in the Marvel universe.

 “Black Panther is the lynchpin character of New Avengers. The central character. He’s very important to the Avengers franchise as a whole,” Editor Tom Brevoort explained.

 “Black Panther is certainly the moral center of New Avengers,” adds Hickman.

New Avengers #1 and #2 arrive in January.

By Editor

 

Loki’s Young Avengers

courtesy Marvel

Loki was the inspiration for the assembling of The Avengers. Loki is at it again in this week’s Marvel Now! Point One. Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie set the stage for their upcoming relaunch of the Young Avengers with their story within this mega issue of tales.

On Earth 212 Loki invites Miss America to lunch to recruit her for a mission. When Loki shows her Wiccan he teases that the multiverse would be better off with the son of the Scarlet Witch in it. The feisty Miss America delivers a punch and warning for the trickster.

The art pops. The humor and action are perfectly paced. Loki breaks the fourth wall to ask our help in recruiting his team. If this is what we can expect from the new series then I’m in! I’m eager to see what the arrogant, hot-headed Marvel Boy does to Kid Loki!

Young Avengers #1 courtesy Marvel

By Editor

 

X-Men 2013: New Mutants, Dead Mutants?

Uncanny X-Force #1 courtesy Marvel

New characters, new books and endings pack the January Marvel solicitations out. Here are some of the X-related highlights that might inspire some fan frenziness and frustration.

  Uncanny X-Force #1 Sam Humphries and Ron Garney relaunch the covert team concept with Psylocke in command, Storm sporting a mohawk, Spiral and Puck and new character named Cluster? Any relation to Fantomex aka Charlie Cluster Seven I wonder? Could the X-team be pulling a genetic twist (in the tradition of Loki and Miss Sinister) and giving us a female Fantomex?

  X-Men Legacy #4, #5 In previous issues of this new book by Simon Spurrier Professor X’s son will go to Japan in search of new mutant twins. In this month’s preview two new villains out to destroy Legion: one is in his mind, one is hiding within the X-Men? Could this be an entity like Malice and a new shapeshifter?

  Wolverine and the X-Men #23 The fight with the murder circus continues and the “circus claims its victims!” Does this mean another student of the Jean Grey School will die?

  X-Men #40 is “the end of an era.” Does this mean an end to this title? The tension and distrust has been building and the “security team’s” insecurity may be their undoing.

Thanks to Comic Book Resources.

Cat Fight in Justice League #13

Justice League #13 courtesy DC Comics

  Love Bites! Wonder Woman’s romantic kiss with Superman is interrupted by the bite of a classic villainess reborn!

  The Cheetah roars and rips her away into DC Comics The New 52 this week in Justice League #13. Superman and Wonder Woman’s passionate kiss from last issue leads a hero left alone but the attraction is still burning when they reunite later in the Watchtower.

  The real stars of this issue are the Cheetah, Wonder Woman and Tony Daniel! The Batman/Detective Comics writer creates a savage showdown between the Amazon and her friend turned mortal enemy in Central Park. The title splash page should be a poster on the walls of Diana worshipping geeks. By the end of the issue the team is in the Congo tracking down the villainess when she attacks and Geoff Johns leaves us with a savage cliffhanger. Johns and Daniel transformed a villain with a silly past into a badass with a ferocious future!

  Writer Jeff Lemire joins Johns on the backup story with Steve Trevor drinking after being dumped romantically by Wonder Woman and professionally by the Justice League. The appearance of another hero sets the stage for Trevor’s comeback in Justice League of America #1 coming soon.

By Editor