James Bond is dead….long live James Bond. Daniel Craig returns as 007 in Skyfall. The trailer for the new 007 film is live. Bond is assassinated by one of his own under orders from M but as Ian Fleming wrote “you only live twice.”
Here’s what we know: M (Dame Judi Dench) loses a drive containing covert agents in terrorist organizations. Eve (Naomie Harris) is ordered to “take the shot” killing Bond. Ralph Fiennes is a government agent cleaning up the mess made by M. Javier Bardem plays the villain Silva who says “mommy was very bad.” Both men appear to want to make M pay for her sins.
Berenice Marlohe’s Severine works for Silva. And we met Q (Ben Wishaw) and he’s just a kid but what a cool delivery, “less of a random killing machine…more of a personal statement.”
Director Sam Mendes and Daniel Craig have said Skyfall echoes the Sean Connery 1960’s Bond films. I definitely get a From Russia, With Love vibe but with a modern, faster pace from this trailer. Silva reminds me of a Red Grant (Robert Shaw) but much more powerful and crazier with a touch of Hannibal Lecter. Bardem kills it and steals the show!
The Avenging Archer’s solo comic book debuts this week. Hawkeye #1 marks the reunion of writer Matt Fraction and artist David Aja. The duo (along with Ed Brubaker) last worked together on The Immortal Iron Fist.
Aja told Marvel.com his lifelong love for Clint Barton 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 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 an all time high with the success of Marvel’s The Avengers then Jeremy Renner (who played Clint Barton) is on the big screen again this month for The Bourne Legacy. Good timing for a Hawkeye launch.
Hawkeye also is currently leading Secret Avengers by Rick Remender. No word on if Clint will be part of Jonathan Hickman’s Marvel NOW! Avengers relaunch.
It may be a teaser for a trailer and wow does it deliver! In the Skyfall teaser we learn about M’s past coming back to haunt her. Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) in a cool tone confronts M (Dame Judi Dench) over losing a disc with the “identity of every covert agent embedded in terrorist organization across the globe.”
During that dialogue you see 007 (Daniel Craig) is the agent who lost it and then he’s on top of a train. M orders “take the bloody shot” and as assasin shoots James Bond on a moving train and he falls.
…And I freaked out! The trailer arrives tomorrow. Skyfall opens this November.
The countdown is on to Tony Daniel’s final Detective Comics after a spectacular Batman run starting way back with Grant Morrison on R.I.P. The artist will be moving on to Justice Leaguein which he’ll draw DC’s biggest icons and the New 52 debuts of classic villains like the Cheetah.
Detective Comics #12 courtesy DC Comics
DC Comics The Source provided preview art from Detective Comics #12 written and drawn by Daniel and a promise of the final fate of Charlotte Rivers, a guest appearance by Robin. Plus Two-Face the hero you cheer for? Daniel’s backup story starring Harvey Dent continues.
Marvel revealed this teaser- let the speculation begin!
Invincible. Kieron Gillen. Greg Land. Coming November 12.
Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca are ending their run on Invincible Iron Man. This tease has to mean the Uncanny X-Men team of Gillen and Land are taking over with a brand new series starring the Armored Avenger.
Marvel NOW! starts in October 2012 and will include 20 new titles from the publisher.
A brand new, old school adventure with Marvel’s mutants drawn and co-written by a living legend. The First X-Men #1 is out this week kicking off a 5 part limited series written and drawn by Neal Adams with Christos Gage scripting.
“You guys probably know I was at one time associated with X-Men…then they canceled the book. I had great fondness for the original X-Men, had the time of my life, then they canceled it,” said Adams referring to this era (1969-70.)
“At the beginning, Stan and Jack were experimenting. You had Professor X, bald and in a wheelchair. These strange kids already in costume. It seems to me like this was not the beginning of the story, but the middle,” Adams tells Marvel.com.
“Of all the mutants on Earth, Professor X could easily pass as a human. Why would he want to get involved in this? Maybe all this was going on before Professor X was Professor X…when Professor X was a teenager. Maybe mutant kids were getting abused by the military, by the government. Somebody would have been looking out for them, but maybe that person came to Charles Xavier, realizing he couldn’t protect these kids. That was my pitch,” Adams revealed.
“Marvel was very generous to provide Christos Gage to me, who is an expert in all this stuff. He’s taking my pitch and turning it into scripts that are in my opinion groundbreaking. It’s the X-Men before there were X-Men,” Adams said about his partner.
The First X-Men by Neal Adams courtesy Marvel.com
From the preview it appears Logan is the leader of this team before the team.
“How deeply is Wolverine entrenched in the X-Men? Why was this first team…maybe a failure? Lots of questions to answer.
It takes place before the original X-Men and at a time when the government was snatching mutants up and doing scary things to them. Logan notices this and thinks somebody needs to look out for them. He recruits Sabretooth, who asks ‘Why?’ and so he pays him. Professor Xavier is a young man studying at Oxford, who’s engaged and wants nothing to do with this,” Adams reveals about the lineup.
“In those early X-Men stories, everybody hates and fears them, but we never really know why. It’s so core to the concept, but it was there before the series started. Here we found out why mutants are so hated and feared in a way that is different from any other super heroes,” adds X-Men Editor Nick Lowe.
Wolverine targets the future master of magnetism for his team. Gage says “They recruit this guy Erik Lensherr who is out there killing Nazis…”
“The natural instinct is that this is like the ‘X-Men: First Class’ movie, but it’s not,” Adams states but adds, “We didn’t mind stealing the Nazi Hunter version of Magneto though.”
Gage calls Wolverine a soldier putting together a unit not a school in this series and Adams reveals more of Logan’s team.
“There’s a character who calls himself Bombastic Aghast, but they call him Bomb. Wolverine saves him from a cave-in then gives him a leather jacket that fits like a tent. He looks ridiculous, but he thinks it’s his costume. Later, Wolverine buys him a jacket that fits, but he throws it back in his face. That jacket means so much to him and represents his relationship with Wolverine. That’s the origin of his costume,” Adams confirms.
Fans may assume this retro tale is from an alternate timeline but the X-Office says this is not
“This is firmly set in continuity. This is not a What If. This is canon. This is key to Wolverine’s history and his relationships with other characters. This will answer questions that have been out there for decades,” says Lowe
“They do encounter ‘hobo’ Sub-Mariner at one point.” Christos Gage reveals. “He throws a car at Wolverine!” adds Adams
“We wanted this to be something you could hand to somebody who just saw the X-Men movies and they’d enjoy it as a good X-Men story. At the same time, for giant nerds like me, FBI agent Fred Duncan from the early stories is in there, and when Professor X talks about his brother you know it’s Juggernaut,” says Gage.
“There will be early versions of the Sentinels. I did the giant ones, now I’m getting to do different one,” revealed Adams
The First X-Men by Neal Adams courtesy Marvel.com
“Wolverine was a mercenary, and mercenaries make a lot of money. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find that Wolverine’s mercenary work funded…” Adams teased.
“The concept that Charles Xavier could pass for a human I don’t think has ever really been explored. At some point in his life, he made the difficult decision to step forward as leader of the X-Men and as a mutant. He could have wiped all of this out of the world’s collective mind. Why didn’t he? Stuff to think about,” Adams says of the mutant leader.
The First X-Men arrives this Wednesday 8/1/12. For the entire transcript here’s the Marvel.com link.
The Dark Knight Rises teaser poster courtesy Warner Brothers
If you want to read a compelling story that inspired The Dark Knight Rises then check out Batman: No Man’s Land. A new edition of volume three is out this week.
SPOILER WARNING
KEY PLOT POINTS OF “THE DARK KNIGHT RISES” AHEAD
SERIOUSLY
HERE IT COMES
Batman: No Man’s Land Volume Three New Edition courtesy DC Comics
In The Dark Knight Rises Gotham City is cut off from the rest of the world and under siege from criminal factions thanks to Bane. In the comic books an earthquake rocks Gotham City in Cataclysm. The governor declares the city uninhabitable and orders everyone to leave. Those left behind in No Man’s Land are caught in the turf war between Gotham’s biggest and new crime lords. Batman and his family (Catwoman, Robin, Batgirl, Nighwing) are the only protection for those stranded.
The big difference in the comic book storyline is Bane is on a mission for Superman villain Lex Luthor. The Joker plays a critical role in the finale of the crossover in a showdown that affects Commissioner Gordon. This storyline featured many top writers (Chuck Dixon, Greg Rucka, Dennis O’Neill) at the top of their game.
Rogue is an Avenger? Rick Remender recruited the star of X-Men Legacy to be the wild card of his upcoming Uncanny Avengers – the first book of the Marvel NOW! relaunch. The mutant once took on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (she was under the influence of Mystique at the time) before becoming a heroic X-Man.
Rick Remender reveals to Marvel.com why Rogue is part of this Avenger/X-Men hybrid team and why longtime Avengers will accept her.
“There’s a chaos factor in the first arc. It’s not necessarily somebody going through a list for all of the members. That would be a perfect person. There is a story that unfolds and the team is sort of forced to come together and work together during the course of this very heinous plot that The Red Skull is hatching, and Rogue is involved in that. I don’t want to give away all of the reasoning as to why she sticks around, but it’s definitely tumultuous. Thor is not a fan of her at all. He sees her as the exact opposite kind of mutant they need on this team. Now they’ve got two women who have both been in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and if they’re trying to do something that’s going to be public and help sort of heal mutant/human relations, having two former members of something called the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is probably frowned upon by the PR people. But then again, there’s recollection and the reality is the X-Men almost disbanded when Rogue first joined. It was Xavier who said every mutant deserves a second chance. He was the one who vouched for her and put himself out there for her. In the case of this, there’s a somewhat similar situation. And it’s somebody who doesn’t have a track record like Wanda at this point. So when Thor points at her and sees the woman who was with the Brotherhood and attacked him, all she has to do is point and go “Hey, there’s Magneto’s daughter who almost wiped out reality and she’s an Avenger. You’re okay with her though, right? ‘Cause you have history.”
X-Men Legacy #262 courtesy Marvel
“There’s so much great character grist there. Everybody’s got a very unique perspective and I wanted there to be a lot of chaos here because that also helps me define the argument between humans and mutants and what the problems are with this movement in the Marvel Universe. Each one of these characters is having this very unique history and this very unique perspective—Rogue included. Rogue doesn’t necessarily want to be an Avenger. You have to remember she was basically raised through her teens by Mystique to be a terrorist and hate the Avengers. The Avengers were, like you said, one of her very first targets. So she’s got her own issues with the fact that these golden super heroes who everybody loves didn’t do a damn thing to come to the X-Men’s aid on so many occasions. Her landing on the squad— it’s definitely a lot of drama coming up.”
Uncanny Avengers arrives this October. It’s the first of 20 new Marvel NOW! titles. X-Legacy is going away. Remender confirmed Rogue will only appear in the new book.
As Rogue moves on and X-Men Legacy ends I can’t help but think of Mike Carey’s long run on the title. Carey wrote Rogue better than anyone since Chris Claremont. I look forward to seeing how Remender writes one of the best X-Women.
