Emerald City Comicon is only 3 weeks away! As we count down to the big event in Seattle I want to share some of my favorite ECCC memories. Before they face the Avengers in AvX some of the X-Men gave us mutant magic in the Emerald City. I met a squad of X-Men (Cyke, Emma, Jean, Logan and Remy) and then a dazzling duo (Storm & Pixie, she was so happy I knew she was Pixie!) I salute you amazing X fans and hope you enjoy this year’s con!
While promoting The Cabin in the Woods and checking on Alan Silvestri’s score for The Avengers, Joss Whedon talked with Empire magazine. Sharp eyed fans noticed Tony Stark’s armor on the Empire cover is different from his solo films. The director confirmed Tony will have more than one suit in the film.
“Marvel said, ‘We like to see the suits evolve,'” he says, “and I said, “Great! Then you’re going back to the circle because the triangle is ass’. I’m a classicist. The circle has meaning, the triangle does not.”
Check out the clever clip here.
Marvel’s The Avengers is out on May 4th. The Cabin In The Woods starring Chris Hemsworth (Thor) scares up audiences on April 13.
Emerald City Comicon announced that Lea Thompson (Back to the Future I, II, III, Red Dawn, Some Kind of Wonderful, Jaw 3D, Howard the Duck) will be attending this year’s event in Seattle. Thompson has a place in our hearts at Lorraine McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy and recently appeared in J. Edgar.
Christopher Lloyd will not be able to attend due to a filming commitment.
A new tangle in the web of mystery surrounding Marvel’s Spider-Men teaser from last month. Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli have been announced as the creative team for a new Spider-Men series launching in June. Bendis & Pichelli are the team that launched the Ultimate Comics Spider-Man starring Miles Morales. Thanks to Comics Newsarama.
Miles Morales seems a definite for this series but who will join him? Peter Parker, Ben Reilly aka the Scarlet Spider, the Ultimate Peter Parker back from the dead or maybe a brand new Spider-Man?
Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Full Monty, 127 Hours) is writing the sequel to The Hunger Games. Beaufoy is fine tuning the script for Catching Fire. He tells 24 frames he’s charmed by the trilogy’s author, Suzanne Collins, and her knowledge for warfare.
“She’s fascinating,” said Beaufoy. “Her dad was a military expert, historian and lecturer and used to be in the forces. It’s fascinating hearing her talk about the thesis for the three novels: The first is about survival, the second is rebellion and the third is about all-out war. She’s very compelling about all of that.”
I agree with his point that gender doesn’t matter in the series which centers on a heroine (played by Jennifer Lawrence of X-Men: First Class.)
“What I really love about the books is it isn’t even up for discussion that she’s a girl,” Beaufoy said. “There’s no discussion that she shouldn’t be killing people because she’s a girl, and she shouldn’t be killed because she’s a girl. We’ve done gender politics. This is about life and death. It makes the gender politics seem finicky and not terribly interesting.”
For the entire interview click here.
The Hunger Games cast tour concludes in Seattle this weekend. I will be there.
Marvel’s biggest teams join forces one final time before they go to war against each other in Avengers Vs X-men. Kieron Gillen talks with Marvel.com about the significance of this 2 part Uncanny X-Men arc.
“It’s the final compare and contrast,” Gillen says. “It’s showing everyone involved as the greatest super heroes on Earth. It’s about showing how we hope they’ll never fight. It’s about showing why they’re going to.”
Earth’s first line of defense against aliens cracks. The S.W.O.R.D. facility, The Peak, fails.
“There’s a catastrophic failure aboard the Peak’s brig and all its prisoners are dropped,” says Gillen. “The main villain of the arc is actually UNIT, who I introduced in [the S.W.O.R.D. series] as a cross between CP-30 and Hannibal Lecter.
“Many [prisoners] explosively decompress. The ones who don’t, who fall to Earth—well, you’re talking about the sort of number of threats that would make up a year of stories if we were to tell them all. There are some elements of the approach that do remind me of S.W.O.R.D. That was a book which moved at enormous pace. For a story that’s only two issues, we manage to fit an enormous amount of actual story in here. If there’s one part of S.W.O.R.D. which crosses over well to Uncanny X-Men, it’s that. So it’s a case that there are so many things happening, the Avengers and X-men talk to each other [and decide] ‘If we mobilize and act together, we can pull this off.’”
“It’s all about saving the world,” Gillen declares. “That’s all that matters. Generally speaking, Captain America seems entirely on the X-Men’s side. Cyclops is a little more cautious, but that’s just in his personality. The team-up works spectacularly. And then something changes, which, even if it doesn’t go to blows, really does show that the teams are in different places.
“There’s obvious tension in Cyclops having to be even vaguely in the same area as Wolverine,” he notes. “It’s at the level of a glance. The story’s mostly about the team in action and throwing them against the threats, and seeing what they can do. Do several people not like Magneto? Sure. But that takes a back seat. This is them all pulling together.
“Until they don’t.”
Uncanny X-Men #9 is out April 11th. It looks like Terminus was on board the Peak. I don’t think he’s been seen since The Evolutionary Wars back in the 90’s Marvel Annuals.
For the entire interview and more preview pages by Carlos Pacheco here’s the Marvel.com link.
Daniel Craig’s James Bond is famous for his style in tuxes, suits and swim trunks! Naomie Harris tells MI6 about her experience filming Skyfall.
“It’s going really well but we don’t finish until May. It’s a big movie. [Daniel]’s great. He’s such a nice guy. There’s been no trunks,” she lamented.
Harris is playing an MI6 field agent named Eve. The actress says don’t expect full on glam from her character.
“It’s nothing too sexy. She’s more of a tomboy, which I love.”
The Daily Mail has a photo of the latest Bond girl on holiday from January. Harris was on vacation in the Maldives with her family. If only she could be wearing his in the new 007 film.
Marvel revealed a variant cover to Avengers Vs X-Men #6 by Nick Bradshaw showing an angry Scarlet Witch at full power with the Phoenix claws ready to grab the mutant.
This week in Avengers The Children’s Crusade #9 Scarlet Witch was redeemed and ready to make up for M-Day. Looks like Wanda may be on the edge of losing control of her powers again or losing her life to the Phoenix Force.