Tag: Joss Whedon

A Fan’s Avengers Sequel Dreams

Avengers Origins: Ant-Man & The Wasp courtesy Marvel.com

  Marvel’s The Avengers exceeded all expectations! The ending left us with the promise of cosmic level villain and storyline. More on that ending here – careful there be spoilers!

  I would love to see Earth’s Mightiest Heroes take on Ultron because that would also mean the introduction of Henry Pym and Janet Van Dyne (aka Ant-Man & the Wasp!) (I can’t be root for Firefly reunion with Nathan Fillion and Summer Glau in those roles)

  Ultron is a criminally insane sentient robot obsessed with the eradication of humanity. Dr. Henry Pym used his own brain patterns in experiments to create a sentient artificial intelligence. The robot gained Pym’s intelligence and his mental instability but without any human conscience.

Avengers #22 courtesy Marvel.com

  Ultron created the Vision to infiltrate and destroy the Avengers but he betrayed his maker and became an Avenger (and husband of the Scarlet Witch.) Janet was Henry’s girlfriend and eventually became known as the Wasp. Ultron created a robot bride Jocasta modeled after Jan. Jocasta turned on her maker too.

Maybe that’s too many new Avengers and too many robots but what a villain! This cover is from the excellent Kurt Busiek and George Perez Avengers era.

 That’s just a geek dream. After Joss Whedon’s direction and Marvel Films production of The Avengers I’d even be excited about Egghead as the villain in the sequel!

By Editor

What do you hope to see in a sequel? Leave a comment or join us on Facebook.

Fan Expo Vancouver Sketch Duel Round 1

Sketch Duel Round 1 at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com

  3 artists. 1 hour. A room packed with fans – 3 lucky ones would leave with a sketch. We all left with great stories in a unique non-panel panel experience. This was one of my favorite part of Fan Expo Vancouver this past weekend.

  Mike Choi, Stephen Sadowski and Georges Jeanty were pitted in this friendly competition. While they created art, fans asked questions, laughed at the name-dropping (I’m talking to you Mr. “Joss Whedon called me up “Jeanty) and the wisecracks (Mr. “Well Nathan Fillion called me” Mike Choi with the quick wit comebacks.)

 

Sketch Duel Round 1 at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com

When asked about their favorite heroes: Stephen Sadowski revealed Nightwing. Sadowski is usually sporting a Nighwing logo t-shirt at most cons and he was showing his Nightwing pride here. He reflected that seeing Burt Ward at Fan Expo reminded him of why he loved Robin. Dick Grayson didn’t have powers. He just wanted to be a hero. He said his favorite work was on JSA with Geoff Johns.

  Georges Jeanty named the Thing as his favorite hero and references the classic Marvel Two-in-One series in which Ben Grimm was paired up with a different hero each issue.- Jeanty also named Tigra and couldn’t believe he saw a fangirl dressed as the Avenger at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. I remember seeing her too – great body paint work!

  What were the weirdest fan requests? Sadowski said there’s a guy who goes around collecting sketches of superheroes eating pie. After many close encounters, Sadowski said he finally gave in and did the hero/pie sketch. I asked from the audience “who was the hero eating the pie?”

 “Wildcat,” he responded. I can see that, he’s a boxer, needs the carbs.

  Jeanty revealed his biggest fan request was a commission of Buffy kissing Willow. He produced a rated G version of the Slayer kissing the witch on the cheek – much to the disappointment of the guy who expecting a racier kiss.

Mike Choi's Round 1 Sketch at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com

  The results – Choi produced a beautiful Emma Frost sketch. The White Queen in the audience didn’t win.

 

Georges Jeanty Sketch Round 1 at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com

 Jeanty revealed an adorable but empowering Buffy, the Vampire Slayer sporting a Supergirl uniform.

 

Stephen Sadowski Sketch Round 1 at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com

Stephen Sadowski showed that Aquaman is awesome – and a fangirl dressed as Mystique walked away with! By Editor

Sketch Duel Round 1 at Fan Expo Vancouver, photo by ComicsBlend.com

Astonishing X-Men Flashback

Astonishing X-Men #50 courtesy Marvel

  This takes me back! John Cassaday provides a variant for Astonishing X-Men #50 out this June. This is an homage to his astonishing X-Men #1. This upcoming landmark issue by Marjorie Liu will feature an X-Men wedding but this cover celebrates the Joss Whedon/John Cassady era.     Marvel provided this peek to Comic Book Resources. I wanted to share because it brings back memories of that excellent run: Colossus back from the dead, Colossus and Kitty finally hooking up, Emma Frost’s Hellfire Club, Breakworld, Armor and Danger.

SHIELD Agent Coulson on The Avengers

Marvel's The Avengers courtesy Marvel.com

  Clark Gregg plays it cool and professional as SHIELD Agent Coulson in the cinematic Marvel universe (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor). Gregg tells Collider he’s a cut of The Avengers.

  “I’m very excited for people to see this movie. I think the fans, like me, will be as excited as I was, when I saw it. From the minute I read Joss Whedon’s script, I thought, “Oh, man, this is going to be fun to do!” The hardest thing to get right is to figure out how to bring all those characters together, and to fulfill the promise of The Avengers. They really set a very high bar for themselves because you’ve been setting this coalition up, for these five movies, and they better deliver. And in my opinion, they thoroughly deliver.”

For Gregg’s entire interview including his voice work on Ultimate Spider-Man here’s the Collider link.

Nathan Fillion Is a Greek God

Nathan Fillion in Castle courtesy ABC

  Nathan Fillion is a Geek God (for his roles in Firefly, Serenity, Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog) and now he’s play a Greek God. Fillion has been cast as Hermes in Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters the sequel to Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief according to The Hollywood Reporter.

  The sequel is based on the second book in Rick Riordan’s young adult adventure series starring Percy, demigod son of Poseidon. Logan Lerman returns as Percy. The sequel is scheduled to open March, 2013. Fillion plays Richard Castle on the ABC hit series Castle airing Mondays at 10pm.

 

What Joss Cut From The Avengers Movie

Marvel's The Avengers courtesy Marvel.com

  The Avengers director Joss Whedon says his original cut of the film was 3 hours which he trimmed down to a 2 hours and 15 minutes. What got cut out?

  “There’s a lot of me that got cut out, but I think part of the process in a situation like this is you make the movie, you make your movie, then you remove yourself out of the equation. At some point you stop looking beyond The Avengers movie at your own stuff, you don’t look at that horizon you look at this movie and you go, ‘You know what, The Avengers are more important than I am so these things that I’m obsessed with aren’t necessarily moving the story forward, and therefore they are baggage.’ You can do that in a TV show, you can bring your baggage and sort of lay it out because you have a season to do it, but in a movie you actually have to remove yourself from the equation a bit and when I was finally able to do that, I saw a much clearer road to how to get the best experience for the audience.”

  And again Whedon denies the appearance of two Marvel’s most infamous alien empires as Loki’s army.

  “I will say only this: It is not the Kree or the Skrulls… Those two aliens are Marvel mainstays and have enormous backstories. They have a big life of their own that just could not be contained in a film where I already had seven movie stars… The Skrulls — they can shape change. That’s a whole thing. I’ve already got Loki. He’s got magic. Once you got magic along with your Iron Man and your Black Widow — it’s a real juggling act.”

  For more of his interview here’s the Collider link.

  This Geek’s Opinion: No Kree. No Skrulls. Shiar are more X-Men territory. Maybe Loki has somehow given tech to the Frost Giants? Maybe the Badoon?

Joss Whedon on Iron Man’s Avengers Suits

 

Iron Man from Marvel.com

  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.

 

Joss Whedon on Hulk in Avengers

Marvel's Avengers The Hulk courtesy Marvel Studios

  Will the third time be the charm for the big screen version of Marvel’s Green Goliath in The Avengers? Director Joss Whedon talked with SFX magazine about what he need to get right to make the Hulk work.

  “So much. A Bruce Banner who’s not obsessed with his own problems. A Hulk who not only feels flesh and blood, but is clearly an extension of Banner himself and not just a CGI thing that roars. A Hulk who feels dangerous, who might actually hurt someone we care about, who belongs in a classic horror film. And much more. He’s the hardest character by far, and ended up being the most fun.”

  Whedon revealed what Mark Ruffalo brings to the team as the new Bruce Banner.

  “Mark is such a delightful mensch it’s stupid. His Banner is a bunch of contradictions: graceful and awkward, meek and confident, erudite and working class, funny and sad. And contradictions are what the Banner/Hulk dynamic are all about. Also, Mark kinda looks like the Hulk. So we got to build our Hulk from him.”

The entire interview is in SFX #220 out today.

This Geek’s Opinion: Based on the awesome trailer I still wonder if Banner is on control of the Hulk since he’s working with the Avengers. I’m hoping we see Betty – at least in a cameo.