Fandango has Iron Man 3 Tickets!

Tickets are now available for Marvel’s Iron Man 3 from Fandango!
(See? The title kinda gave it away.....)
https://www.fandango.com/

Iron Man and Pepper From Iron Man 3

Not hating the armor as much as I was.
Maybe it's growing on me.
(LOL)

http://marvel.com/news/story/19956/iron_man_pepper_share_a_moment_in_new_photo

One Extreme Or The Other.....

It doesn't have to go this far...

As I kinda feared, Watchmen opened well, but the box office dropped suddenly.
Is this the death knell of comic book movies?
Hardly.
You cannot compare Watchmen to say Batman or Iron Man or Spiderman.
I don't think you will see product tie-ins like with the "colorful" superheroes.
Can you imagine a Rorschach Happy Meal?
Or a Comedian dress up set?
Nope, kids aren't supposed to emulate the Watchmen.
It's an adult story.
But Batman, The Hulk, Wolverine, now there are your commercial tie ins.
I think the movie industry had better think twice before "darkening" the more popular heroes.
The Dark Knight was just about as far as Hollywood needs to go and stay profitable.

Actually I keep wondering if we may be looking at a backlash soon.
I watch "Batman: The Brave and The Bold" and I love it.
It's not the dark brooding Batman. It's the 50s and 60s detective with gadgets.
But he's still bad.
They show a lighter Batman, but I don't get it confused with the Dark Knight.
BTW, I absolutely loved Batman: The Animated Series and I think both cartoons work, just on different levels.

Maybe we are making our heroes too dark.
Some of course, it suits.
But a darker, edgier Fantastic Four?
Heck, lets just get Frank Miller to do the Power Puff Girls.
Lets make it all so dark and bloody and gory that you really can't tell the heroes from the bad guys without a scorecard.

We need the dark avengers like Bats and the Punisher.
But we also need the "boy scouts".
I know I seem to keep harping on this, but I feel pretty strongly about it.

Maybe I'm schizophrenic since I liked Watchmen and The Rocketeer.
I like Batman AND Superman.

But there has to be a middle ground.
And no it's not Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin.

Iron Man 2 Casting

The first rumors for Iron Man 2 really got my attention.
Apart from the regular cast, Mickey Rourke as the Crimson Dynamo and Emily Blunt as the Black Widow?
Wow!
But now Mickey's camp is saying no to Iron Man 2, and Emily Blunt cant do it because of scheduale conflicts.
AND...now Samuel L. Jackson is a maybe because Marvel is lowballing him?

Okay, the Nick Fury they are using is the Ultimates Nick Fury which is physically based on Jackson.
They need him.
Had they not done this, I'd say pull David Hasselhoff up and go with the *ahem* comic book version of Fury.
C'mon, I actually liked The Hoff in the old Nick Fury TV movie.
Can you see the over the top Hoff snarling and getting up in Stark's face with the stogie clenched in his teeth?



And the Black Widow.
How long have I waited for a Widow movie?
Since her and DD were going steady a long time ago.
Emily Blunt I think would have been good.
But now they are talking about Scarlett Johansson?
Can Scarlett pull off sexy, sleek, dark and mysterious?
Will she wear the catsuit with the low slung belt and the Widow Bites?
The best Widow I have seen so far wasn't even in a Marvel movie, it was in NBC's Chuck.
Check out the episode "Chuck Versus the Seduction".
Melinda Clarke (Lady Heather from CSI) plays a red haired, Russian female spy known as the Black Widow.
????
Yep, and her name was Sasha Banacheck.
Sasha....Tasha.....
Even the hairstyle was right.

Superhero Top Ten. Who's More Popular? Superman...Batman?

Back in the old days, all we had to determine comic book superhero popularity was sales.
Now we have the Interweb!
And I tell you, doing some research on who is the most popular comic book character is a little strange.

1. Batman
Of course with the awesome movie and dying (what..twice recently?) I figured this would happen.
2. Robin
Robin? The Boy Hostage? He hasn't even been in a good movie. Unless you count the amazing "Grayson" fan film.
3. Spiderman
Even Obama couldnt help Spidey get up over Bats.
4. Superman
Superman Returns....meh
5. Iron Man
The movie rocked, no question.
6. X-Men
Through ups and downs, bad and good, I've always considered The X-Men to be Marvel's flagship.
7. The Incredible Hulk
Second movie was decent. And the Hulk stirs that "Forget logic, I just wanna pound something" feeling we all get from time to time.
8. Wolverine
He goes anywhere from maniac with razor sharp blades to Byronic hero. And he has a movie coming out.
9. Watchmen
I really expected them to be higher.
10. Wonder Woman
One of DC comics Trinity. And if they EVER finally make a movie.......

Notice that with the exception of Robin, and maybe Wonder Woman, all of these have movie tie ins?

Batman, Joker, Iron Man and the Oscars

As expected Heath Ledger got a supporting-actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the Joker in "The Dark Knight".
But The Batman got shut out of other top categories like best picture and director.
Oddly, Robert Downey Jr. is in the running against Heath Ledger, not for Iron Man, but for his supporting role in "Tropic Thunder".
I'm really gonna have to watch that.

"The Dark Knight" did get Oscar nominations, but they were for catagories like Achievement in art direction, Achievement in cinematography, Achievement in film editing, Achievement in makeup, Achievement in sound editing, Achievement in sound mixing, Achievement in visual effects

“Iron Man” actually racked up a couple of nominations, Achievement in sound editing and Achievement in visual effects


“Wanted” which is kinda sorta a comic book movie (well not really), got a nomination for Achievement in sound editing.

Obama, Spiderman and Batman

With the sales of the Obama/Spiderman book doing so well and "The Dark Knight" raking in awards, 2009 looks like it's off to a good start for the comic book industry.

Amazing Spider-Man #583 with President Obama and Spiderman sold out, so another run is scheduled to hit comic book stores on Wednesday.
The Jan. 21 issue will have a variant cover.

The Dark Knight has already garnered tons of awards and nominations. Now everyone is looking at the Oscars and waiting.
On January 23rd, The Dark Knight will be re-released to stir up even more Oscar buzz.
Could the late Heath Ledger get an Oscar nomination? He's already won a posthumous Golden Globe award for his portrayal of the Joker.
A comic book movie getting an Oscar?
Even if that doesn't pan out, there's Iron Man in the special effects catagory.
Comic book movies (plural this time) getting Oscars?
And let's not forget Wolverine is hosting the show.

I checked out Grant Morrison's website (I like Grant. He is one person I would really LOVE to sit down and talk to) and Grant not only raved about The Dark Knight, but he said he thinks the movie screen is the future of Super Heroes.

I have to agree with him, but I'm biased because I can't actually say there has been a comic book based movie I have hated.
Okay, not counting the Superman movies after 2, and the dread Joel Schumacher Batman Forever.
And the Dolph Lundgren Punisher.
Okay. I've liked MOST of the Comic Book Movies.
What scares me is that if The Dark Knight does well in the Oscars, the movie studios will just start tossing out Super Hero movies left and right.

But here is my question.
Who is going to create the first all original superhero, make a movie and turn that character into an icon?
A non comic book based superhero that captures the imagination and reaches the Spiderman, Batman, Superman level?

'Iron Man' up to $252.3 million

'Iron Man' up to $252.3 million - Story @ Comics2Film.com:

"Marvel's 'Iron Man' movie continues to show legs of...well...iron. In the film's fourth week of release it's still holding strong as the #3 movie, collecting another $20.1 million. The four-week domestic total now stands at $252.3. By comparison, the highly-anticipated sequel 'Prince Caspian' was in the #2 spot and earned $23 million in its second week."

Comic books dominate this action-packed summer

Comic books dominate this action-packed summer

The Tartan has a list of this summers movies, and the important comic book based movies such as Iron Man, May 2 and The Dark Knight, July 18.
I left off Speed Racer, even though it has been a comic and looks really wild.
The full write up is here:
http://www.thetartan.org/2008/4/28/pillbox/summer_movies

The Superhero as Society’s Mirror, From World War II to Iraq

The Superhero as Society’s Mirror, From World War II to Iraq
By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES
Published: July 14, 2007

MONTCLAIR, N.J., July 11 — Michael E. Uslan is a lifelong comic-book fan, but “crusader” might be more accurate. For years, Mr. Uslan, a film producer (“Batman Begins,” among others), has collected comics and original art, written books about the industry and produced movies about his muscled and macabre childhood heroes.

full story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/14/arts/design/14comi.html?ref=design


technorati tags: spiderman,comic books, marvel comics, infinite crisis, comics, movies, batman, superman, supergirl, daredevil

Iron-Man's Armor

We interrupt this Spider-man series to bring you a leaked photo of Iron-Man's first armor from the movie (which you have probably already seen....)

You know, this looks like it falls right in line with the animated DVD they released earlier...Hmmmm.....

technorati tags: Iron Man,armor, Iron Man Movie