A driven Captain America. A battered but defiant Cyclops. The latest AVX teaser image by John Romita Jr on Marvel focuses on the two generals in the war of superhero teams.
Cap will lead Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in an invasion of Utopia to seize Hope when he gives the order, “Take the beach.”
Two great leaders, master strategists, both devoted to their causes will clash. The big question is just how much will one leader sacrifice to win the war?
Marvel unveiled the first of six new movie posters for The Avengers. Captain America (Chris Evans) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) are ready for battle in this new design.
Steve Rogers and Clint Barton have had an often rocky relationship in the comics. The boy scout from an old-fashioned era and the hot-headed bad boy with a criminal past didn’t always connect. So far all we know is this cinematic Hawkeye is a good soldier and SHIELD operative that follows orders. Hopefully we learn more of this Clint’s back story on May 4th.
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.
Earth’s Mightiest Heroes assemble on a brand new movie poster revealed on Marvel.com. The Avengers are in the rubble of a battle weary Big Apple ready for action. A new trailer debuts tomorrow on Apple.
What is that I spy in the sky behind our heroes? Is that an alien or SHIELD ship on fire? Maybe tomorrow we’ll know more about Loki’s secret army? And I’d like to see Maria Hill in action too.
Best Film: X-Men: First Class
Best Actor: Michael Fassbender as Erik Lensherr/Magneto
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence as Raven Darkholme/Mystique
Best Supporting Actor: Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy/Beast
Best Supporting Actress: Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
Best Director: Matthew Vaughn X-Men: First Class
Best Villain: Tom Hiddleston/Loki
Best Script: X-Men: First Class
Most Inspiring Moment: Captain America bringing back Bucky and his unit back!
Best Special Effect: Asgard and the Bifrost
Best Human Special Effect: Chris Hemsworth (male) January Jones(female)
Best Costumes: Thor
Best Decision to Change a Costume for the Big Screen: Captain America
Gone Too Soon: Darwin, X-Men: First Class
Coolest Comic Book to Movie Makeover: Azazel (Jason Flemying) X-Men: First Class
Coolest Male Character I Hope to See in a Sequel: Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan)
Coolest Female Character I Hope to See More of in a Sequel: Lady Sif (Jaime Alexander)
Most Perfect Casting: Chris Evans (Steve Rogers) and Hugo Weaving (Red Skull)
Best Mix of Marvel Mythology in one movie while still keeping it accessible: Captain America: The First Avenger
Honorary Award: James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier. Michael Fassbender received most of the praise but he had the more demanding role. Everyone roots for the anti-hero. Xavier was the optimistic, steady yin to Erik’s passionate, revenge driven yang. Xavier is the mentor to the other characters and McAvoy was the rock for the rest of the cast.
Honorary Award: Kenneth Branaugh! I had serious doubts about making Norse Gods, Asgard, and the Nine Realms accessible and enjoyable but he pulled it off beautifully. His Shakespearean background was perfect to infuse the Odin, Thor, Loki conflict with power and drama.
A stellar year for Marvel superhero fans at the box-office. Great action, inspiration, and emotion. Thanks to all the creators and actors who accepted the challenge of bringing our heroes to the big screen.
Thor and Loki’s sibling rivalry explodes to threaten the world in Marvel’s The Avengers this May. Tom Hiddleston gave insight into Loki’s interactions with Captain America and the Hulk in a new interview with Total Film.
“I had huge fun with Chris Evans, as Captain America, because super-soldier though he may be, he’s still a man, up against a God who in his own mind is infinitely superior,” Hiddleston said. “Then, in the ring with The Hulk, we’ve got this silver tongued, lightening quick mind up against the embodiment of rage…Loki has this mercurial, transformative ability, not just physically but intellectually, so not all the fights are purely physical. Mind games? Maybe..”
Thanks to Spinoff Online for the story and I salute their description of the film as “Earth’s Mightiest Movie. The best kept secret of the big screen movie is still a secret – Loki’s army he unleashes on Earth.
Valkyrie Vs Storm! Fear Itself: The Fearless #9 featured a blistering battle between the X-Men’s Weather Goddess and the Warrior Woman of Asgard. This is one of the smartest written sequence with Ororo I’ve read in a long time. The power, passion and devotion of these women’s causes is felt in every panel.
We learn Valkyrie’s hidden reason for her mission to collect the Hammers. Doctor Strange and Captain America confront her with the truth when Sin’s forces strike. If Valkyrie is the haunted angel then Sin is the devil. I can’t wait to see these opposite forces finally clash.
I really love this book. As a longtime fan of Valkyrie – it’s great to see her in the spotlight and taking on the Marvel universe.
Salvador Larroca is one of my favorite creators. The Spanish artist’s style has evolved over several X-Men titles, Invincible Iron Man and does any recall the short lived but beautiful New Universal?
Marvel gave Comic Book Resources several AVX preview covers. This is one of my favorites. Spidey faced a Cyttorak powered foe before in the classic Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut. Looks like Peter Parker will have to fight Colossal Juggernaut now that the X-Man can summon the power of the Cyttorak.
Captain America and Gambit are clashing on the cover too. It’s tough to root for one over the other: the boy scout against the bad boy. Gambit’s luck may have run out on this fight.
AVX: VS. #2 is by Kieron Gillen with art by Larroca and Steve McNiven.