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

New Thor Armor

Here is a stunt double in the new armor from Thor: The Dark World.
I like it.

Spiderman / Venom Spinoff

Writers confirm a Spider-Man Venom spinoff is in the works

Sony is officially moving forward with its Spider-Man spinoff movie focusing on Venom and has hired Zombieland writing team Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese to pen the script, the writers told a group of reporters.

"We had a really great relationship with Sony on [Zombieland], and so that was a nice in for us there," Reese said in a group interview. "It gave us a leg up."

The duo is already working on the script, but they are sworn to secrecy on the details. "We're under strict orders on Venom," Wernick said. "We can't talk about it. It's just super secret."
http://scifiwire.com/2009/04/writers-confirm-a-spider-.php

Barack Obama, Savage Dragon and Spiderman

The Barack Obama / Spiderman issue sold like hotcakes.
(Is that even a viable reference anymore?)
But not everyone is overjoyed with Marvel Comics success.
Savage Dragon also had a cross over with The President, and Eric Larson (the creator of Savage Dragon) is a little miffed at Marvel for what he sees as stealing his thunder.
You can see what Eric has to say about the situation here.
And Marvel made a rebuttal here.

I understand the book is a huge seller.
But does it remind anyone else of the Hostess ads they used to run in the old comic books?
If you want an example of what I mean, head over to Seanbaby's page where I think he has ALL of the old Hostess ads reprinted.

But if the Obama / Spiderman issue is such gold....what's next?
Maybe DC comics can revive "Prez" and instead of Prez Rickard they could have.....
Nah, they'd never go for it.

Aurora - Alpha Flight

I really loved the beautiful and messed up Aurora (Jeanne-Marie Beaubier) when she first appeared in X-Men #120 as a member of Alpha Flight.
Heck, I liked Alpha Flight in general when they first showed up.
I even had an" Alpha Flight Auxillary Member" bumper stiucker on my car.
Anyway, Aurora was the twin sister of Northstar (Jean-Paul Beaubier) and the former girlfriend of Sasquatch (Walter Langkowski).

She was plagued with dissociative identity disorder and also being retconned to be half-human, half-elf. But as for the latter, she got better.
Aurora can fly REALLY fast (theoretically approaching light-speed) and has super human speed and reflexes.
Still not fast enough to touch the Silver Age Flash, but Jeanne-Marie is way cuter.
As usual with Marvel characters she has had her mental state pounded to oblivion, been abused, used etc.
Is there a happy comic character anymore?
I mean not counting the crazy ones.......

Arana, Marvel Comics

Art by Mark Brooks

Araña is a superheroine in the Marvel Universe created by Fiona Avery and Mark Brooks.
Unlike the accidental creation of Spiderman, Anya Corazon was recruited by a mystical clan called the Spider Society to act as their agent, a Hunter.
Arana's abilities include enhanced strength (able to lift 3 tons) , speed, and agility (she can jump over 25 feet) .
Like Spiderman, she has the ability to cling to walls and she had a spider-like exoskelton around her body which enhanced these abilities.
I say "had" because Doomsday Man ripped her exoskeleton out.
Ouch.
To me, Arana's main claim to fame is having one of the most realistic "super hero costumes".
Big goggle-eyed sunglasses, red and blue sneakers, blue track pants, red backpack and red gloves with pockets.

Superheroes are older than we think

Superheroes are older than we think
Robert Hudson reviews Our Gods Wear Spandex by Christopher Knowles

Alan Moore's Watchmen was the only graphic novel to appear in Time magazine's 2005 list of the finest 100 novels written in English since 1923. Moore also wrote The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta, both of which have been turned into movies. Open any of these books and you are plunged into an allusive world of post-modern playfulness, analogy and reference. Symbols of Egyptian gods and sinister Masonic uniforms appear on Professor Moriarty's evil airship as he battles the Invisible Man, Alan Quartermain and brutal Mr Hyde.

Moore is a self-proclaimed magician, and one interpretation of his worldview is the old dictum that when you stop believing in God, you start believing in everything. The more generous interpretation is that the world of the superheroes is a richer one than most people give it credit for, and its authors and artists work within a fascinating tradition, reaching unbroken back into antiquity, in which archetypes are constantly revised, revisited and reinterpreted.

full story here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/01/03/bokno130.xml




technorati tags: comic book publisher , comic book collectors , old comic books , comic book merchandise , comic book collector , comic book collections , comic back issues , new comics , marvel comic , marvel comics , marvel heroes , comic

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

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is a 2007 superhero film which is the sequel to the 2005 film Fantastic Four and based upon the comic of the same name.
Tim Story returns to direct Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer with Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans, Ioan Gruffudd, Julian McMahon and Kerry Washington reprising their roles.
Doug Jones and Beau Garrett appear in the sequel as the Silver Surfer and Frankie Raye, respectively, along with Laurence Fishburne as the voice of the Surfer.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer has a target release date of June 15, 2007. Mark Frost, co-writer of the first film, provided a treatment from which Don Payne wrote the screenplay.

technorati tags: silver surfer,galactus, fantastic four, movie, fantastic four 2, marvel,movies, comics, jessica alba, movie, film

More Spiderman 3 News

Spiderman-3 Pirates Spanked by MPAA

33 people have been busted trying to tape Spider-Man 3. The MPAA sounded positively jubilant with its Gotcha! announcement detailing a crackdown in which theater employees helped nab camcorder-wielding audience members.

http://blog.wired.com/business/2007/05/spiderman3_pira.html


Spiderman 3 London Premiere opened Pandora's Box

(openPR) - It was West Midlands based AV production house, Show Support, that assisted in creating the largest media extravaganza ever seen at the movie premiere of Spiderman 3. The stars, including Toby Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and James Franco, were out in force on the red carpet in Leicester Square.

http://www.openpr.com/news/20654/Spiderman-3-London-Premiere-opened-Pandora-s-Box.html


Exum's take on Spiderman 3

Director Sam Raimi's hit "Spider-Man" movie franchise returns with new characters and darker themes in "Spider-Man 3."

Although things appear to be going well for Peter Parker, he faces more problems and choices than ever before. Peter has a new competitor, Topher Grace's Eddie Brock, who will do anything to be the Daily Bugle's top freelance photographer. Meanwhile, Mary Jane's failing career causes resentment for Spider-Man's fame and the attention he receives from the police captain's daughter, Gwen Stacy.

http://www.gotriad.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070517/GTCOM01/70516030/1071/GTCOM0224

technorati tags: movies, comics, venom, trailer, marvel, spiderman 3, superman, movie, video,
cine

Spiderman 3 News

Spiderman 3—The video game

If he's swinging back into theaters, that of course means he's also once again crawling back into your gaming console. So what makes Spiderman 3 the game different from all the Spiderman games of the past? Well, for starters, it follows along closely with the movie which means you get to be Spiderman in black suit.

http://news10now.com/content/all_news/?ArID=105249&SecID=83



Movie Review: Spiderman 3

The summer blockbuster season kicks off with the third entry in the Spiderman series. Director Sam Raimi is once again in the director's chair and it looks more than likely that it will be his last time.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/05/14/102402.php



Weekend Box Office Totals – Spiderman 3 Big Winner But 28 Weeks Later Debuts Second

The movie “Spiderman 3” was the big winner at the box office for the second weekend in a row. The saga continues as Spiderman, played by Toby Maguire (“Seabiscuit” and “Ciderhouse Rules”) delves into his dark side. While he is doing well in school and his alter-ego Spiderman is popular, things take a turn for the worse in this third installment.

http://www.bestsyndication.com/?q=051307_box_office_totals.htm

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

Spiderman/Spiderman 3 ,part 6

The Six Arms Saga is a story arc written by Stan Lee and drawn by Gil Kane. It spans the issues Amazing Spider-Man #100-102 (1973).

The story arc is mostly remembered for the striking aesthetic of Spider-Man, swinging through the city with four extra arms.

Spider-Man has had enough of being Spider-Man. Peter feels miserable about all the anguish he had to endure. His best friend Harry Osborn has become a junkie, and his close friend Captain George Stacy died in his arms. His daughter Gwen Stacy - Spidey's girlfriend - wrongly blamed Spider-Man for this. Peter has a fatal thought: for Peter Parker to live, Spider-Man must die!

So, Spidey brews up a chemical cocktail which is intended to exterminate his spider powers. Peter takes the cocktail and falls into a troubled sleep, in which he fights all his enemies while enduring excruciating side pains. When he wakes up, he notices a ghastly thing: he has six arms! The potion increased his spider powers rather than to nullify them!

He then visits his only possible confidant, Dr. Curt Connors, alias the Lizard, and fight a vampiric villain called Morbius. Using Morbius' blood, both brew an antidote that turns Spidey back into normal.

technorati tags:spider man, spider man 3, spider man comic books, spiderman, superhero comic books, marvel comic, marvel comic book, marvel comic books, marvel comics,

Spiderman/Spiderman 3 ,part 5

Peter graduates from high school and enrolls at Empire State University, where he meets Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy. His aunt introduces him to Mary Jane Watson, whom he dates for a short time, but Peter soon falls in love with Gwen. Meanwhile, Harry becomes Peter's roommate and best friend, but starts using illegal drugs.

Harry's father, Norman Osborn, is revealed to be the Green Goblin and discovers Spider-Man's secret identity. After her father is killed in a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus, Gwen's relationship with Peter is put on hold when she travels to England. It was later revealed in a highly controversial retcon that Gwen had an affair with Norman Osborn, and gave birth to two children while in Europe. Harry suffers a drug overdose shortly after she returns.

technorati tags: spider man, spider man 3, spider man comic books, spiderman, superhero comic books, marvel comic, marvel comic book, marvel comic books, marvel comics,

Spiderman/Spiderman 3 ,part 4

Peter Benjamin Parker is the son of Richard and Mary Parker, who worked as NSA agents, and were killed on a mission involving an impersonator of the Red Skull. The infant Peter Parker is left in the care of his Uncle Ben and Aunt May Parker, who live in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens, New York. The aging couple love Peter, but he grows to be unpopular among his peers. Between an uncle who is too old to join him in physical activities and an aunt over-protective of the orphaned child, Peter gravitates to more non-physical hobbies such as photography and home chemistry, encouraged in these endevours by his guardians. Over time, he grows to be a lonely, timid but exceptionally bright teenager who shows more interest in his studies (especially science, which he has an affinity for that is nothing short of genius) than in any kind of social life. He is often the target of jokes by more popular students like Flash Thompson, the high school's star athlete.

Spider-Man's origin story is told in the first 12 pages of Amazing Fantasy #15. Peter Parker attends a science exhibition where he is bitten by a radioactive spider. The spider bite gives Peter an array of spider-like powers, including wall-crawling, superhuman strength, speed and agility, and an extra-sensory "spider-sense". Peter initially sets out to find fame and fortune, winning a match in a makeshift disguise against professional wrestler Crusher Hogan. He attempts to interest a television network in the idea of featuring him as a costumed hero (with the advantage that he can actually do the things his character can), and creates the Spider-Man name, costume, and web-shooters. After quickly becoming a minor celebrity, Peter appears on a television special, but afterward allows a thief to escape the TV station, asserting that it isn't his problem. He comes to regret his inaction when he finds out that the same burglar subsequently killed his Uncle Ben.

Peter blames himself for Uncle Ben's death. Art by Steve Ditko.Realizing that he could have prevented his uncle's death, the guilt-ridden Peter commits to a life of crimefighting and lifesaving, driven by his uncle's words, "With great power there must also come great responsibility" (the phrase is often shortened to: "With great power comes great responsibility"). This disarming mix of selfless obligation and self-recrimination brought about by his uncle's death arguably makes up Spider-Man's moral core.

In the earliest Spider-Man stories, Peter Parker attends Midtown High School. After his uncle's death, he and his aunt become desperate for money, so he gets a job as a photographer at the Daily Bugle selling photos to J. Jonah Jameson. Peter dates co-worker Betty Brant and clashes with his high school rival Flash Thompson (whose girlfriend, Liz Allen, he informally tutors). He encounters many of his most famous enemies for the first time during this period.

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

Spiderman/Spiderman 3 ,part 2

Comics historian Greg Theakston says that Lee, after receiving Goodman's approval for the name Spider-Man and the "ordinary teen" concept, approached Kirby. Kirby told Lee about his 1950s Silver Spider/Spiderman, in which an orphaned boy living with an old couple finds a magic ring that gives him superpowers. Lee and Kirby "immediately sat down for a story conference" and Lee afterward directed Kirby to flesh out the character and draw some pages. Steve Ditko would be the inker."A day or two later", Kirby showed Lee the first six pages, and, as Lee recalled, "I hated the way he was doing it. Not that he did it badly — it just wasn't the character I wanted; it was too heroic". Simon concurs that Kirby had shown the original Spiderman version to Lee, who liked the idea and assigned Kirby to draw sample pages of the new character but disliked the results — in Simon's description, "Captain America with cobwebs".

Lee turned to Ditko, who developed a visual motif Lee found satisfactory, although Lee would later replace Ditko's original cover with one penciled by Kirby. Ditko said,

“ "The Spider-Man pages Stan showed me were nothing like the (eventually) published character. In fact, the only drawings of Spider-Man were on the splash [i.e., page 1] and at the end [where] Kirby had the guy leaping at you with a web gun... Anyway, the first five pages took place in the home, and the kid finds a ring and turns into Spider-Man.”

Ditko also recalled that,

“ One of the first things I did was to work up a costume. A vital, visual part of the character. I had to know how he looked ... before I did any breakdowns. For example: A clinging power so he wouldn't have hard shoes or boots, a hidden wrist-shooter versus a web gun and holster, etc. ... I wasn't sure Stan would like the idea of covering the character's face but I did it because it hid an obviously boyish face. It would also add mystery to the character... ”

Much earlier, in a rare contemporaneous account, Ditko described his and Lee's contributions in a mail interview with Gary Martin published in Comic Fan #2 (Summer 1965): "Stan Lee thought the name up. I did costume, web gimmick on wrist & spider signal". Additionally, Ditko shared a Manhattan studio with noted fetish artist Eric Stanton, an art-school classmate who, in a 1988 interview with Theakston, recalled that although his contribution to Spider-Man was "almost nil", he and Ditko had "worked on storyboards together and I added a few ideas. But the whole thing was created by Steve on his own... I think I added the business about the webs coming out of his hands".

technorati tags: spiderman, captain america, marvel comic books, marvel comics, marvel comic book, marvel comic,

Spiderman/Spiderman 3

Well since the Spiderman 3 publicity machine is getting really cranked up now, I thought I'd devote a little time to the character and the movie.
CAUTION!
There may be SPOILERS when I get to the movie, so dont read that part if you dont wanna know.......

Spider-Man (Peter Benjamin Parker) is a Marvel Comics superhero created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Since his incarnation and first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962), he has become one of the world's most popular, enduring and commercially successful superheroes.
When Spider-Man first saw print in the 1960s, teenage characters in superhero comic books were usually sidekicks. The Spider-Man series broke ground by featuring a hero who himself was an adolescent, to whose "self-obsessions with rejection, inadequacy, and loneliness" young readers could relate. Spider-Man has since appeared in various media including several animated and live-action television series, syndicated newspaper comic strips and a successful series of films.

Marvel has published several Spider-Man comic book series, the first being The Amazing Spider-Man. Over the years, the Peter Parker character has developed from shy high school student to troubled college student to a married teacher and a member of the superhero team the Avengers.

By 1962, with the success of the Fantastic Four and other characters, Marvel editor and head writer Stan Lee was casting about for a new superhero idea. He said that the idea for Spider-Man arose from a surge in teenage demand for comic books, and the desire to create a character with which teens could identify. In his autobiography, Lee cites the non-superhuman pulp magazine crime fighter The Spider as an influence and both there and in a multitude of print and video interviews said he was inspired by seeing a fly climb up a wall — adding in his autobiography that he has told that story so often he has become unsure of whether or not it is true. Artist Ditko, in a 1990 article by himself, gave a more prosaic origin story for the name:

“ "In a discussion with me about Spider-Man, Stan said he liked the name Hawkman but DC had the name and character. Marvel would add Ant-Man [and the Wasp] so it would have the insect category. (Technically a spider is not an insect). From that I believed Stan had named the character. ”

Lee approached Marvel publisher Martin Goodman to seek approval for the character. In a 1986 interview, he described in detail his arguments to overcome Goodman's objections. Goodman agreed to let Lee try out Spider-Man in the upcoming final issue of the canceled science-fiction/supernatural anthology series Amazing Adult Fantasy, which was renamed Amazing Fantasy for that single issue, #15 (Aug. 1962).

Jack Kirby, in a 1982 interview, claimed Lee had minimal involvement in the character's creation, and that it had originated with Kirby and Joe Simon, who in the 1950s had proposed a character called The Silver Spider for the Crestwood comic Black Magic until the publisher went out of business.

Simon, in his 1990 autobiography, disputes Kirby's account, asserting that the supernatural anthology Black Magic was not a factor, and that he (Simon) devised the name "Spiderman" (later changed to "The Silver Spider"), while Kirby outlined the character's story and powers. Simon later elaborated that his and Kirby's character conception became the basis for Simon's Archie Comics superhero The Fly, introduced in early 1959.

technorati tags: spider man,spider man 3,comic book,fantastic four ,marvel comic ,dc comic

Thor (2009)

Thor (often called The Mighty Thor) is a fictional character and a superhero appearing in the Marvel Universe.
Based on the god of the same name from Norse mythology and created by editor-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and penciller Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Journey into Mystery # 83 (Aug. 1962). The uncredited initial inker was Joe Sinnott.

In mid-2006, Marvel Studios announced plans to release a Thor feature film scripted by Mark Protosevich.

UPDATE: In December 2008, Kenneth Branagh confirmed to MTV News that he has been hired to direct the Thor movie. He described it as "a human story right in the center of a big epic scenario.”The film has a scheduled release date of July 16, 2010.