Newest & Final Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer

Two days ago, the third and, sadly, final AoU trailer premiered online and as they say, third time's the charm. Not that the first two didn't kick ass as well, but this one takes first price. Among other things this trailer gives us the first real look at the Vision, played by Paul Bethany, known as Jarvis from the Iron Man films. How Jarvis evolves into the Vision, the humanoid looking android, a so-called synthezoid as he is dubbed by his maker Ultron, is yet unknown. Though the part with Ultron being the creator of the Vision is pleasing to a fan, staying true to the comics there, evolving from Jarvis is not. It always kind of bugged me that we didn't get a real live butler Jarvis, like in the comics. The Alfred Pennyworth of the Marvel universe basically, Anyways, Bethany's gonna make a good Vision for sure, true to the comics or not. 

Even though it's always nice to see new things, the thing that gets to me the most in this one is the same as the first two trailers. Ultron. Jams Spader. Both, what's the difference, honestly. Typical Spader, to completely become whatever character he's portraying. That voice, I mean, wtf. Don't think I've had chills from a movie villain like that since Darth Vader, which is not even an exaggerating comparison. 

But as they say, show it, don't tell it, so without much further ado, ladies and gentlemen, The Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailer 3. Cue the music!

So, there you go. Even though it's difficult to choose a favorite trailer, you know, considering they're all amazing, imo, this one tops them. It seems every trailer gives a little more reason to fear and worry about what Ultron has planned for Earths mightiest heroes. As I said, Spader's voice is the perfect fit for the part and he sure is making it hard to decide which of his quotes is the most menacing. Just for the heck if it, here comes my personal top 4:

• 1: "I was designed to save the world. People would look to the sky and see... hope... I'll take that from them first."
• 2: "I'm gonna show you something beautiful. Everyone screaming.. For mercy."
• 3: There's only one path to peace... Their extinction."
• 4: "you are all puppets... Tangled in, strings... Strings."

In general, this film seems to have a much creepier and darker tone than the first one and Ultron's Vader-like voice definitely helps that along nicely. 
Besides Ultron, we also get a glimpse of Ulysses Klaw (Andy Serkis) in the first two trailers. 

Ulyssed Klaw

This is important for several reasons. First of all, Klaw is traditionally a Black Panther villain, meaning that this character is at least hinted at in AoU. We know for a fact he's coming later on, but perhaps we could get a first look already this summer. More importantly, the connection to BP and therefore his nation Wakanda, might very well mean the first appearance of Vibranium as well. The ultra strong and resilient metal came from space to Earth thousands of years back and is the main source for Wakanda's wealth and technological advances. Plus, in the comics, Vibranium is part of what makes up Cap's shield. Since we see the shield shattered in the first trailer, there's every chance a new one will be made through some connection to Wakanda and the Black Panther.

Pietro & Wanda Maximoff

The trailers all also gave us better looks at the two new candidates for the team, the maximoff twins, Pietro & Wanda Maximoff. In the comics, their name and origin is important since they are the mutant children of Magneto. This connection will without a doubt not be featured in AoU, simply because Marvel studios doesn't hold the rights to Magneto or mutants in general. Which also means they won't be mutants.

The Inhumans, King Black Bolt

As seen in Winter Soldier's post-credits scene, Hydra affiliated Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker refers to the two captive twins as part of the "age of miracles". They might be referred to as such or perhaps they'll turn out to be Inhumans. Recently, the Inhumans was introduced in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Roughly put, they are a race of people in the MU, regular people at first, but with the Inhuman gene in them. When exposed to Terrigenesis, the mists of Terrigen crystals, the gene is unlocked and transforms them into their true self, their form as an Inhuman. Whatever the twins origin will be, they are an exciting addition to the team. 
Naturally, there are tons and tons of more things I could talk about from these trailers, but all good things must come to an end. Besides, they speak volumes by themselves and for good measure, the first and second trailer is here as well.
Until next time, keep reading. Comics, that is!
Mo

CapMoComics . Take Two

Back in Business!

As it is with most of our superheroes, so is the way of this blog; Nothing stays dead and gone forever. In the spirit of that, I decided to make a second attempt at keeping this thing updated regularly. I could explain why nothing has happened here for so long, but why talk about life when we can talk about what’s really important? comics.

First of all, my latest entry here revolved around the death of Peter Parker. At that point, I predicted Parker would be back within a year or less and as it turned out I was a bit off on that. The Superior Spider-Man, with Dr. Ock’s mind in Spidey’s body, lasted for 31 issues, about 14 months. I’ll admit, it was kind of fun seeing Spider-Man acting a little more villainous and selfish. But thankfully and damn straight rightfully so, Parker is now back in the red and blue, web covered outfit. No more superior, simply your good old fashioned, friendly-neighborhood Spider-Man.

Of course, tons and tons of other things has happened both in the MU and comics in general, new movies and what not. It would be impossible to try and get it all in here, too much time with too many news and changes. So instead I decided to list some of the most important and biggest in my own opinion.

Guardians of the Galaxy came out last year and smashed everything. Of course it did, how could it not with a talking, gun slinging raccoon, voiced to perfection by Bradley Cooper. And let’s not forget Chris Pratt aka Peter Quill/Star-Lord. Easily the best casting in Marvel film history to date. There is no longer any Chris Pratt, there is only the Star-Lord. Soundtrack hit the spot, as no soundtrack has ever done for me before and I’m still muttering ooga-chaka, ooga-chaka, all the time. Even though The Avengers and Guardians are two extremely different teams and worlds, making it difficult to compare the two, I’m torn between favorite MCU directors now; Joss Whedon or James Gunn? Calling it a tie and loving them both seems to be the best solution. 

Staying in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for a minute, I have to talk about their big announcement last November. At a press conference, head of studios Kevin Fiege announced their film slate, going as far ahead as 2019. Once phase 2 ends with Ant-Man in November this year and more importantly before that, Avengers: Age of Ultron in May, the final and third phase of the MCU commences in 2016. On May 6, Captain America: Civil War premieres. Fans of the comics will know that this title means Cap vs. Iron Man. How the story is handled on the big screen is yet unknown, but one thing is for sure; Only one of the two will walk away at the end of it. More than that, Cap 3 is set to introduce the long awaited arrival of the Black Panther, T'Challa, King of the fictional African nation Wakanda. A solo film is set for 2018. 

Following Civil War comes the debut of the mystical and magic parts of Marvel with Doctor Strange, November 2016. Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast as the sorcerer supreme Stephen Strange. 

GotG 2 is coming may 2017, nothing is known about this except the cast, crew and director returns and we can expect new characters. Perhaps that cocoon spotted in the Collectors museum was Adam Warlock’s? Wouldn’t that be something. 

Thor: Ragnarok, November same year, promises to reinvent the character and franchise as a whole, same way Winter Soldier did for Cap. As we all know, at least those of us living in Scandinavia, Ragnarok means the end of everything, doomsday etc. so expect major outcome from this one.

Then the biggest thing of the whole press conference, the announcement of the culmination of everything the MCU has been building forward to. Avengers: Infinity War part 1 is released on May 4 2018 and part 2 on May 3 2019. The Infinity War subtitle means the long awaited confrontation with Thanos, whom we can expect to have collected the infinity stones and therefore wielding the infinity gauntlet. Very, very bad for everyone.

Between the two IW parts, we have aforementioned Black Panther in 17 and in 18 we get the debut of a female solo Marvel character Ms. Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel. 

Concluding the Phase 3 brings us a little something already touched upon in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s second season, the Inhumans. Blackagar Boltagon/Black Bolt, the king of the Inhumans,  who’s voice can shatter mountains and leave cities in ruins, is an interesting add to the MCU, along with his wife Queen Medusa.

Lots and lots of great things happening in the MCU, but that’s not all. Marvel and Netflix together are producing four series of 13 episodes all leading to a fifth show, The Defenders. The four characters getting their own series are Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. All of them are what you’d call the street-level kind of heroes, among other things meaning we can expect these shows to be darker, grittier and bloodier than the MCU. Daredevil recently released a first trailer and it looks good and it’s great to finally see DD portrayed in live action.

What’s that? Fox already made a theatrical release back in 2003? 

Nah, can’t seem to recall that, must’ve been a fever induced nightmare. Anyways, DD’s first REAL live portrayal is coming this April, followed by JJ in November and the rest has yet to get a release date attached.

Manu Bennet- Slade Wilson/Deathstroke

Staying in tv but switching to DC, I recommend both Arrow and The Flash. A funny thing they have in common; both shows has average to good lead and support actors in good guy roles, but in each show, it’s the villains that make them worth watching. From Arrow’s John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn/The Dark Archer, Manu Bennet as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke or the current third season’s Matt Nable as Ra’s Al Guhl and to The Flash’s Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells/Reverse-Flash, the supreme acting of the main antagonists, is what keeps me coming back. 

Cavanagh is Harrison Wells/Reverse-Flash

There’s also some sort of Batman related show going on, but somehow I didn’t care much for the idea of a Batman show not involving.. Well, Batman, imagine that. 

Something that will involve Batman however, is the 2016 release of Batman VS. Superman: Dawn of Justice. This will be the first time ever they appear on live action film together and naturally it has the nerd community in a frenzy. Also because this film is set to mark the real beginning of a shared cinematic DC universe, much like Marvel’s. Difference is, the lead guy on DC’s front, Zack Snyder, is a no-talented hack. Yes, I’ll watch it, but considering the director, the mess that was Man of Steel and the fact that Ben Affleck is playing Batman, I keep my expectations low.

I could keep going on about the massive amounts of comic related stuff that’s happened the past two years, but these were a couple of the biggest I think. Lastly, I’d like to mention this summer’s big Marvel Crossover event, Secret Wars, which bring the word crossover to a whole new level. The Marvel universe is ending, this is what Jonathan Hickman’s run on the Avengers titles has been leading too. Speculation has it that this is Marvel’s attempt at a semi-reboot of their universe/continuity, similar to DC’s New 52 a couple of years back. All we can do is wait and see. In any case, Hickman’s Avengers has been some the best stories of these titles for years and years back and once it wraps up, I’ll do an entry on it here. 

As usual, this ended up being longer than planned, nothing new there. 

Hope you enjoyed and until next time, here’s a quote summing up well how sometimes it difficult to find the time for these looong posts:

“the older I get, the more life just seems to be all the stupid stuff, getting in between me and reading comics.” Danny Rand/Iron Fist. 

Mo

Spider-Man Is Dead. Long Live Spider-Man.

This Wednesday saw the release of the 700^th issue of the Amazing Spider-Man and the ending of the series. Writer Dan Slott has been teasing for months of the big reveal ending of this issue since it leads into the new series the Superior Spider-Man whom readers has known for months NOT to be Peter Parker. A week ago I read the issue myself, but waited to voice my opinion to prevent spoilers. Here’s the kicker though; there are no spoilers. Spoilers are something that occurs when you don’t know what’s gonna happen; anyone with half a brain would’ve seen this outcome. I’m just gonna go right out and say it before going any furtherer: Doctor Octopus, Otto Octavius is the new Superior Spider-Man!!!

Now how did this happen you might ask? Well, I could take you through the whole shebang of *cough* “story”, but I’ll keep it short. Through Spider-Man’s recent and repeated interaction with the hive mind of Ock’s octobots, the villain obtained access to Spidey’s mind and was able to swap mindframes with him. Dr. Octopus now had Peter Parker’s body, memories, mind and worst of all, all the powers of Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Peter is trapped in the dying body of his enemy and makes one last desperate attempt to win back his body and life. With the help of some villains, Peter in Octopus’ body tries to lure “Spider-Man” in a trap to switch back their minds. In the end though, when the transfer is supposed to happen, it’s revealed that Ock has imbued the Spidey outfit with carbonadium, making the swap impossible. He deals Parker in Ock’s body one final blow, but as our hero is dying in the body of his enemy, something happens. Dr. Octopus experiences Peter’s memories fully; the loving home and childhood provided by Uncle Ben and aunt May, the loss of his uncle Ben, Captain Stacy and Gwen Stacy’s deaths. He feels how all the things Peter’s ever done took immense amounts of courage, will and determination. The scope of Spider-Man’s entire existence and willingness to do it all over again, including saving Octavius’ life even after all that’s happened overwhelms Otto.  He’s reluctant, scarred of the unimaginable task he has taken upon himself by stealing Peter’s identity and asks his dying archenemy HOW he can do this to which Peter answers: “Because you have to. Because with great power…” “… Must come great responsibility, I understand” Octavius finishes. As Peter is dying in Octatvius’ arms, the former villain promises to carry on the mantle of Spider-Man and protect New York. At the same time he proclaims to become an even better Spider-Man than Parker was, with his intellect and powers he proclaims himself the Superior Spider-Man.

And that’s it. Apparently, all it took to change YEARS of evilness in Dr. Octopus was experiencing Peter Parker’s memories. Finally, he understands how precious a life really is and how with great power comes great responsibility. Give me a fucking break; Octavius already HAD great powers and he had decided to squander them and become a supervillain, because he was selfish and small-minded, end of story. Slott calls this “giving Dr. Ock a new lease on life” and that, I can be just fine with. It’s the fact that he has to take over Spider-Man/Peter Parker’s identity in order to obtain this lease. I find it ridiculous and I find it extremely out of character for Octavius to make this switch to the “good side” that fast. I mean, it happens in less than 3 pages?

I will admit it, I’m an old school Spidey fan so of course I prefer Peter Parker to be Spider-man, but that’s not the main reason I’m unsatisfied with this turn of events. It’s just really bad storytelling. I won’t really loose anything because of these changes since I haven’t been reading Spider-Man ever since Dan Slott took over as writer. I gave the man a shot, found it terrible and decided not to go on reading it. But since this would be the last issue of the Amazing Spider-Man and it was well known somebody would replace Parker, I had to check it out. It was as bad as the rest of Slott’s writing and most of all, it simply made me appreciate that I hadn’t spent any money on Amazing Spider-Man issues for the past 2 years. The fact that Peter Parker dies isn’t really that significant; comic book characters die every now and then and returns as well and I find it doubtful we won’t see PP again one day. It might be a while, my money is on somewhere between 1-2 years, but we’ll see. Should it happen that the new Superior Spider-Man becomes a complete failure the status quo could be reversed sooner than planned. In any case, it’s not as if anything is ever truly permanent in the comic industry, no matter what the writers or companies might say. All of this can also be attributed to the value of shock. The “oh NO, they did NOT” effect is a good way of increasing sales and it’s been seen before in comic books.

According to Slott, one of the exciting things of this new Superior Spider-Man is that we get to see a more dark and gritty Spider-Man, although still a hero; a more Batman-like Spidey. My answer to that is if I want to read Batman I’ll read Batman. Which, I might add, I do and do you know why? Because it’s actually worth reading. We already have a VERY Batman-like comic; it’s called Batman and there’s only one.  Spider-Man is and has always been a more light-hearted comic. Somehow, this seems sort of as an attempt to make Spidey appeal more to older readers, but GOD I hope that’s not the case. Simply because an awesome writer already did that with the character and he did it with the real Spider-Man, Peter Parker, and that man was Joe Michael Straczinsky. And some idiot boss at Marvel decided to erase all of that and have Dan Slott and a bunch of other mediocre writers do the Brand New Day stories which basically saw Peter Parker reduced to the nerd/looser he used to be as a teenager. Of course, it’s a matter of taste in these things, but if the desire is to have a more mature audience read the comic, why the fuck would you go along with this new lame approach? “Archenemy takes over hero’s mind/memories and hero dies in archenemy’s body”? Wow, that’s really a weak move in my opinion, simply because it seems to depend on the reader finding it believable that a villain changes his life perspective in a matter of mere minutes. How is this a better way of going about it than having the original hero character, in this case Peter Parker, evolve as a person/hero/character? That’s exactly what Straczinsky did and it was awesome.

What bothers me the most though, and I should properly say that I really am pissed at how shitty a story issue 700 was, is something the writer said about writing Dr. Octopus as Spider-Man:

"Doc is kinda like me: He's short and schlubby. This is a guy who now gets to be in the body of Peter Parker.”
Read more at http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=71777#MvB1tJDvauXcyFOO.99 

I’m sorry, but seriously? Is that what all this is about? Gee, poor Dan Slott, he couldn’t see himself in Spider-Man, only Dr. Ock. So now he went and got the opportunity to turn Ock (Himself) into Spider-Man. This whole horrible parody of a story is really about a case of the grumpy kid tantrum. Well I’m sorry mr. Slott, you’re still a terrible writer and you killing off Peter Parker just proves how little understanding you’ve ever had of this character.

In the end, no matter how long Slott or anyone else claims this new stat quo will last, I will at this moment swear to you on my life: Peter Parker will be back.

Star Wars ep. 7 - House of The Mouse

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away… STAR WARS.

And the familiar yellow letters keep rolling up the screen. The last time any of us saw this phenomenon in the cinema, at least as introduction to a new film, was back in 2005 when Revenge of The Sith premiered. This third and final part of the new trilogy was supposed to be the last SW film we would ever see.  As fate would have it though, the Disney Corporation recently bought Lucas Arts and with that the rights to any former and future SW films and announced that a sequel to the original intended ending of the saga would be released in 2015. Oh, but the madness doesn’t end there, no no. Disney simultaneously proclaimed that a new SW film would be released every 2-3 years. Now, what I’m missing in that statement is an add-on to that last sentence “released every 2-3 years… If there is a story worth telling”. 

Tilføj billedtekst

So, what’s a geek like me to think of all this? Well first of all, let me make it clear that to me, Star Wars is over.  At the end of Return of The Jedi, Luke managed to reach whatever was left of the good in his father Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.  As we all know, Vader at the last minute turned to the light side of the force and destroyed the Emperor, thus fulfilling his destiny of bringing balance to the force, THE END. The story of the Skywalker’s is over as far as I’m concerned. So if that devil mouse absolutely has to keep making films within the SW universe, they should focus on different characters. Sadly, that is not the case as far as we know. Even though this isn’t for sure, it seems that Luke, Leia and Han Solo might return for episode 7. Nothing is set in stone, but all three actors, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fischer and Harrison Ford has expressed their willingness to return for the new film. Only problem is that it’s been 29 years since ROTJ was released which mean the actors has quite a different look than the characters they last portrayed in SW. Because of these age issues, I find the idea that the new trilogy will focus on these characters ridiculous. I could go along with them showing up, cameo style (or Luke as a Jedi ghost, giving advice to his descendants much like Obi-Wan did with him) with no more than a few lines and minutes on-screen, but that’s it. There is also a rumor of Darth Vader making a return and that… Well that would mean I’d have to off somebody at Disney, doesn’t matter who, as long as they’re affiliated with the mouse. Because that would be an atrocity; a heresy; blasphemy. There is NO story to justify the return of Vader and bringing him back would be to take a giant dump on the sacrifice Anakin Skywalker made and the role he played in the Emperors downfall.  Again, this is still just a rumor, but Darth Vader is THE most well-known icon of the Star Wars universe. Therefore, there is plenty of reason to believe that this might happen, no matter how much it might piss off some of us older fans. 

Image via TheEvilNae on deviantart.com

Little has been revealed about this new saga’s story. All we know for a fact is that there is a screenwriter attached to pen the entire trilogy of episodes 7, 8 and 9, but so far no director is locked in. Michael Arndt is the man who’ll be responsible for the writing and I can’t stress enough how much of a burden there is on this guy’s shoulders. Not because the last three films were anywhere near as great as the original ones, but whether each of the previous films was a masterpiece or not, Star Wars is a huge responsibility for any filmmaker to undertake. Arndt has previously written the screenplays for Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine; both of which received much critical acclaim. I myself have only seen the former of the two and found it a disappointment to be frank. Since I to this day still consider the first TS a great film, I can’t help but wonder if Arndt’s script in the third is to blame. That being said, I’m trying to keep an open mind on this whole new saga and pray to god that the house of the mouse won’t completely destroy what I consider to be one of, if not the, greatest cinematic epics ever. Lucas did a great job trying to do so with the new trilogy and enough damage has been done; either bring back the glory of the original saga or leave the whole damn thing alone. 

On a more positive note, Disney did also buy Marvel Comics a couple of years ago and while I’ll always be able to find something wrong with the films based on my beloved comic book characters, I’ve been mostly satisfied with Marvel studios’ productions. So maybe all hope isn’t lost, maybe these new SW films will bring back some of the magic from the original ones. Still, the first thing that came to mind when I heard that Disney now owned Star Wars, was a scene from episode 3, only with Mickey Mouse replacing Emperor Palpatine. I’m talking about the scene in which the Emperor murders Mace Windu. Imagine Mickey in his place, saying the same lines in his high pitched voice “POOOWEEEER, UUUNLIMITED POOOOWEEEER”. Pure evil is all I’m saying, gave me chills as fuck.

Above is the end scene of episode 6, the original conclusion of the SW series. One of my favorite endings of all time.

May the force be with us all!

Mo

The Dark Knight Rises Review

So, it’s finally here; the last installment in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. The Dark Knight Rises premiered in most of the world Friday the 20^th and I went to see it that evening. Now, unlike with The Avengers, my expectations weren’t as high for this one. Not because I’m not a Batman fan, huge fan right here, that’s for sure. It’s just that as a reader of the comics you’ll never be able to overlook some of the changes Nolan has made to the characters, the dark knight in particular. Mind you, I’m not saying that the two previous films weren’t great entertainment. Batman Begins stands out as my favorite of the two even though it’s in this film that the worst and biggest change occurs. Joe Chill, the man that shot and killed Bruce Wayne’s parents is caught the very same night of the crime, in effect removing the original desire for vengeance and fighting crime. The thing is that the fact that Chill was never caught is what creates the obsession that drives Batman in his fight. Deep down, he’s still looking for the man responsible for making him an orphan.  That being said, I did enjoy the film, just like I did with The Dark Knight. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about TDKR… I was extremely disappointed to be honest; I hardly know where to begin with this. But first things first, the 8 year gap between TDK and TDKR; I don’t find that believable at all and I think it’s due to me obviously disagreeing completely with Nolan on how Batman as a character should be interpreted. As I mentioned, his crime fighting is basically an obsession which means there’s no way he just stops being Batman all of a sudden, it’s simply not in his nature, but more on that later. There is of course a very good reason why the Joker isn’t featured in the movie, since Ledger sadly died from an overdose of sleeping medicine shortly before TDK premiered. That’s a reason for him not being physically in the film, it’s certainly no excuse not to make one single mention of him in TDKR at all. The Joker escaped custody within 30 minutes or so in TDK. Are we really supposed to believe authorities were capable of holding him for 8 years, much less catch him without Batman when he did escape? Not plausible in my opinion. I’m aware of the fact that Nolan has said it is due to respect of Ledger that there’s no mention of the Joker in TDKR. Personally I disagree and thinks the character would’ve been done more justice with a sort of easter egg, perhaps in the form of a news headline declaring “Joker escapes custody – Last seen leaving Gotham” or whatever, the point is that the Joker should’ve been mentioned in some way, not included for real, but not ignored either.  

TDKR’s main villain was the character known as Bane, infamously known in the comic book world as “the man who broke the bat”. This isn’t the first time we’ve had an interpretation of Bane on the big screen; Jeep Swenson portrayed him in Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin from 1997. Possibly the worst Batman film EVER in history, I sincerely doubt that there will never be a worse Batman film. In any case, this version, while it might have been more faithful to the characters original design, was basically a braindead goon acting as a bodyguard to Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman).  In TDKR, Tom Hardy delivers a Bane that is very much different from aforementioned version and even though the character is different in appearance and origin, in other ways it is a much more faithful interpretation than seen before. Hardy definitely manages to make Bane a brutal looking villain, but also an intelligent one which is what Bane really is. Aaaaandd that was the positive things; his voice…! I don’t know who had a mental breakdown at the studio when they decided it was a good idea to make him sound like a poor Sean Connery parody, but the people in question should be fired; that voice was nothing less than laughable.  

Now on to “Catwoman” or Selina Kyle since she is never addressed or titled as Catwoman in the movie itself. I’m not really sure how I feel about her in the film. I love the character of Catwoman as she is seen in comics, but this was something else. Anne Hathaway portrayed a good cat burglar/femme fatale, but it wasn’t Catwoman.  Catwoman is sexy as hell, simple as that and I know that Nolan has proclaimed that his films take their depature in realism which certainly means a female cat burglar most likely wouldn’t run around half naked. Then again, realism isn’t much of an issue in lots of other aspects of this film so I don’t really think his arguments hold tight, but I’ll get back to that.  Conclusive, I think Hathaway’s acting is fine, but ultimately, she isn’t Catwoman which is what I expected and wanted and her inclusion in the film seems mostly to be just to have her there. 

I could go on for a long time about the things wrong with this film, but I honestly don’t want to spend all my time bitching. A couple of things more that needs mentioning  of which the first one is closely related to that whole “Nolan’s universe being a realistic one”  is Bruce Wayne’s healing his broken back. Apparently, it’s not considered unrealistic that all you need to do, to fix a broken back is slam the broken bones back into place and hang in a rope for a mere couple of months. Plus, once the back has healed it has no effect despite his fragile state, that Wayne climbs the prison wall to escape and repeatedly falls down a distance that looks like 10-15 meters and ending in a snap from the rope tied around him. No effects on a former broken, newly healed (how exactly?) back whatsoever? Seriously? This wouldn’t be as much of an issue if the argument of realism didn’t cause other things in the film being changed for the worse, such as “Catwoman’s” costume. The broken back thing is just one of several plot holes in the story, but the only other one I personally want to address is Bruce’s dismissal of his faithful servant and friend Alfred Pennyworth, also the closest thing he has to a family. Upon being told that Alfred hid Rachel’s choosing Harvey Dent over Bruce and that Alfred think he can’t be Batman again, Bruce banishes Alfred and 5 minutes later he seems to have forgotten so. This is an unjustified treatment of these two characters relationship and seems extremely forced, presumably to create a sense of Wayne being alone, even though this is hardly the case.

Left to right: Robin John Blake, Jim Gordon, Batman, Bane, "Catwoman"

Last, but certainly not least is the ending of the film which is what bugs me the most. Batman does not; I repeat DOES NOT retire… There’s no discussion in this matter, the character of Batman is as mentioned obsessed with his mission and would never retire, let alone trust others to do the work for him. Bruce Wayne would never be able to be at peace with himself without being Batman due to the simple fact that he is first Batman, second Bruce Wayne. The “revelation” that Miranda Tate was in fact Talia Al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s Al Ghul whom we all remember being excellently played by Liam Neeson in BB, was predictable to be frank and just as indifferent as Bane and Batman’s “final battle”. What the #%%# was that about? Catwoman coming in to save the day and blast Bane away because Batman doesn’t kill, that’s just weak. Sure, the caped crusader doesn’t kill, Nolan got that right, but then he should’ve beaten Bane to a bloody pulp; it should be Batman’s victory, there’s no other way for him to come back from being beaten by Bane in the first place. Speaking of the fighting, the fighting scenes in the film were really disappointing as well. Most of them seemed visibly fake, the acting and choreography was waaay off, which is too bad since this worked fine in the previous films. Last bit of critique I have is about the character John Blake and the way he worked in the ending. All I have to say about that is “Robin John Blake? Are you fucking kidding me?” and that’s the last I’ll ever talk about him, gone and forgotten.

The most positive I myself can say about the ending of Nolan’s take on one of my favorite comic book characters is that even though I’ve been somewhat happy with two out of three, I’m happy to see him go. It’s time to see someone else’s vision of what a Batman film should be. There’s absolutely no rush, Sony sure as hell rushed along with their Spider-Man reboot which was completely unnecessary and I think WB should give it some time now. And hey, just so there are no misunderstandings about things, even though I myself was disappointed in TDKR, I’m very happy that most everyone else, critiques and audiences alike loves the film. Lots of money made from one comic based film ensures better opportunities for other adaptations being made. I might give TDKR another shot at some point, but I have no need to hurry it, I understood and followed the story fine the first time and I’m not impressed, but there’s also such a thing as films that “grows on you”

Sadly, I'm ending this on a quite different note: at the midnight screening of TDKR, a man shot and killed 12 and injured 59 people in a theater in Aurora, Colorado. My Thoughts to those related to or otherwise familiar with anyone involved in this meaningless tragedy.

MO

Marvel NOW! Relaunching The Marvel U

Left to right: Spider-Man, Hulk, Cable, Thor, Iron Man,
Nova, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Invicible Woman, Cyclops,
Wolverine, Captain America, Nick Fury jr. and Rocket
Raccon at the bottom 

A couple of weeks ago, I read the news that author Ed Brubaker,  who’s work include runs on titles such as Uncanny X-men,  Daredevil and Batman, would end his current work on Captain America in the near future. Now, Brubaker’s been writing Cap since 2004 and fans, myself included, all over the world are sad to see him leave this title and to some extent, I think a lot of us also worries about who is going to take over the series?  Brubaker’s decision to leave the title gave the idea to do a piece on his work on Captain America and his work in general. But let me tell you right now, the topic of this piece is so much more than one author’s departure. Shortly after the news of Brubaker’s farewell to the star-spangled Avenger, rumors about some sort of reboot or relaunch at Marvel started stirring. Talk like this has been going on for some time, rumors about various authors of Marvel books rotating aren’t exactly news, but now it’s confirmed: Marvel NOW! has been announced and to make sure there are no misunderstandings, this is a relaunch and not a reboot. Which means that unlike DC’s New 52, no continuity will be erased, but some authors and artists will rotate between titles, new titles will emerge and a number of titles will be renumbered starting out with Uncanny Avengers in October. Other confirmed titles so far are All New X-men written by Brian Michael Bendis (Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man) and artist Stuart Immonen (New Avengers, Fear Itself, AvX), Avengers written by Jonathan Hickman (Secret Warriors, Fantastic Four, FF, S.H.I.E.L.D.) and the art will be handled by Jerome Opena (Uncanny X-Force, Punisher), New Avengers also by Hickman and with Steve Epting (Captain America, FF, Avengers) on art. These four are the ones confirmed, but news regarding several more titles is to be expected.
Remender is best known for his, in my opinion, great work on Uncanny X-force, Venom and Secret Avengers and Cassaday for his art on Astonishing X-men, written by Avengers director Joss Whedon. This new team/title will consist of members from both the Avengers and the X-men with Captain America, Wolverine, Thor, Havok, Scarlet Witch and Rogue as confirmed members so far and a couple of more has been promised. According to Remender, Uncanny Avengers will be a bridgebook, giving the reader the best of both worlds and since members come from both sides in the currently running Avengers vs. X-Men storyline, some tension will still exist between the members.  Personally I think it sounds good, great writer/artist and awesome characters, plus it addresses an issue that was brought up in AvX # 1. When Cap confronts Scott Summers/Cyclops about the coming of the phoenix force, Summers accuses Cap and the Avengers of never standing up for mutants. Cap. America argues that he kept a distance due to respect of Cyclops, the latter being the leader of the X-men and sort of a spokesperson/”leader” to Mutants.  To a certain degree, there’s some truth in his accusation which is why it does have an impact on Cap and results in him forming the new team.
It’s definitely a book I’m going to check out and the same can be said about the rest of the confirmed titles I mentioned earlier. Both Hickman and Bendis are some of my favorite writers, with Hickman probably being the best. His work on Secret Warriors blew me away; it was the kind of story that keeps building itself up to something more and bigger than you originally thought.  Anybody interested in a comic with a little less bright-colored superheroes   and a little more spy/conspiracy/thousand-year-old-secrets kind of story, should definitely give it a read. But be sure to include his S.H.I.E.L.D. series if you do pick up Secret Warriors. It’s not mandatory, but it will make the experience even better. That and it’s really fun seeing people like Leonardo Da Vinci, Isac Newton, Nikola Tesla, Nostradamus and Michelangelo alongside Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark (fathers of Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic and Tony Stark/Iron Man), agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as part of a superhero/secret agency comic book. Hickman on two Avengers titles is, in short, a dream come true. There’s no one better to take over the title after Bendis and I can’t wait to see where he’ll take the team.

As I said, more announcements are expected to come on other titles and rumors say these might include Iron Man getting a new creative team, same with Captain America of course since Brubaker is leaving, Fantastic Four and Wolverine too as well as new runs of Guardians of The Galaxy and Nova.  In general, this relaunch sounds exciting to me, I think it’s unnecessary to change the numbering of the titles, but it doesn’t really matter to me. It might attract new readers, which is great and the most important thing is that no continuity is erased. Costume designs are also going to be different on a lot of characters as seen in the top photo. Except for Rocket Raccoon looking pretty damn ridiculous, I think most of it looks good, but I’ll need to see more to tell for sure of course.  Marvel NOW! will be a progress that takes place from October and continuing into February so there’s probably a lot more of new stuff to come and I’ll write about whatever I find interesting in here.

Mo

Thoughts on The Avengers! Spoilerfilled!!!

I’m back! It’s been a while since my last entry here, been busy with exams and the likes, but it’s all done now, school is officially out for summer as far as I’m concerned. Which means now, I have the time to talk a little about some of the stuff that’s happened the last month or so, things like the long awaited premiere of Marvel’s The Avengers. I naturally made sure I had a seat in the first screening of the day on the premiere and ever since, I’ve been pondering what to write in a review of it. Since it’s been so long since it premiered, I decided not to do a review per se, but just run through a couple of the things that really got my attention. My expectations for The Avengers have been high to say the least and thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. It was awesome; it was pure comicbook-superhero-geek awesomeness. Everyone’s been talking about whether director Joss Whedon could make this work, if he could make these totally different characters believable as a team, if they would all be given enough screentime, would they work as a group etc. And, well, as far as my personal take on those issues, I think the picture below says it all: yes, yes he could!!! Whedon manages to make The Avengers accessible to a stranger to the Marvel U, but at the same time makes it a joy watching it to any geek familiar with the MU. If there’s anything to complain about as a fan, it’s only that the movie wasn’t twice as long. I can’t help but feeling that it only just got started after those little under 2,5 hours, I was definitely craving more at that point. But hey, that’s a positive thing, wanting more at the end of the movie, thumps up for that. 

And it was at that point my favorite scene of the entire movie came in to save the day. Had I hated the entire movie, the mid-credits scene would’ve saved the whole thing anyways. Rumors had been circulating in regards of a second villain besides Loki in the movie and a lot of us comic geeks was expecting this moment. Ever since we glimpsed the item known as the infinity gauntlet for a millisecond in the beginning of Thor, we all expected a certain someone to show up sooner or later. I’m referring of course, to Thanos the Mad Titan, who is revealed to be the one that lend Loki the chitauri army. In the mid-credits scene, we see The Other reporting to his master that the invasion of Earth failed and that humans aren’t as weak as they thought. The other goes on to state that “To challenge them would be to court death” at which point Thanos rises from his throne, turns to the camera and smiles. I can’t stress enough how amazing this is to a fan. Bringing Thanos into the Marvel cinematic universe is the kind of thing you always hope for, but never really dares to expect. But who is Thanos? I could spend a lot of room here explaining his origin, but I’d rather recommend you google him for extensive information. In short, he’s an intergalactic warlord and worshipper of death, who by any means seeks to impress the embodiment of death (mostly depicted as a female figure, Mistress Death, sometimes as a little girl) with whom he is in love. He is one of the few to ever collect the infinity gems and assemble them in the infinity gauntlet (the six infinity or soul gems mind, soul, time, space, reality and power grants their wielder immense god-like power and basically ensures absolute dominion over the universe). To sum up, Thanos is one of the biggest bad-asses in the MU and since we can more or less assume he’ll be the main villain in the sequel, we as an audience are in for something way way way better than the first one. There IS a chance he won’t be in Avengers 2, maybe he won’t show up until the third one. Again, Thanos is a freaking big deal, there WILL be casualties. In my opinion, the Avengers can’t face him without one of them dying; it’s just not going to happen. Also, there’s a need for more firepower on the team before they are capable of fighting the Mad Titan, so we might have to wait a bit, giving the opportunity of introducing additional members to the team before having to face this major threat. And yes, I know it might seem presumptuous to talk about a third movie already at this point, but since The Avengers is currently the third highest-grossing movie ever, I’d say things are looking pretty good.

There are seriously a million things I could talk about that I like about this movie, it’s overwhelming… I think that’s what describes it best, it was overwhelming. To have ones expectations met, seeing these characters that you know and love coming to life on the screen was truly amazing. Before I finish, or try at least, I really could go on and on about this movie, there are a few more things I need to mention.

Everyone talks about the Hulk and how he steals the picture entirely… And the reason for this is its true; the Hulk/Banner absolutely stands out as the one that really succeeds of these characters. The reason for this is simple, actually; we never had a Hulk/Banner on screen that worked before. All of the other characters has been handled well in their respective movies. The first Hulk movie was terrible, pure and simple. Don’t’ care how critically acclaimed Ang Lee is, keep your crouching Hulk, a hidden Hulk, the movie sucked and Eric Bana just wasn’t a believable Bruce Banner to me. The second Hulk movie was slightly better, still not really worthwhile though. This time, Edward Norton took over as Banner which didn’t exactly help things. Norton is usually a good actor, there’s just one problem; he’s Edward Norton! And that’s who he was in that movie, himself as opposed to being Bruce Banner whom he was supposed to portray. Now, in The Avengers, Mark Ruffalo has taken over as Banner/Hulk and I must say the result is impressive. I have a hard time deciding which I love the most, Ruffalo as Banner or as the Hulk because he’s remarkable as both. From depicting the nervous and uncomfortable genius Bruce Banner to the brutal god-smashing green giant, Ruffalo IS both.

Finally, I just need to highlight the effort of actor Clark Gregg whom we’ll have to do without from now on. His character, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson, died at the hands of Loki in the movie. At least that what it looked like, you never know with Marvel. A lot of fan speculation has him returning as the Vision (synthezoid android member of the Avengers), but it’s important to remember that this is just fans talking and has been refused by both Gregg and Marvel. Naturally, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen and Coulson could really return any number of ways, we’ll just have to wait and see. I’m good either way. Coulson was an awesome character and I’d love to see him return if there’s a good story behind it. But on the other hand, he died a hero; ordinary human agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. taking on Loki the god of mischief, it takes balls.

The Avengers was great, it’s that simple and I can’t wait to see the next step in the Marvel cinematic universe. Until then, we’ve all got The Dark Knight Rises to look forward to. While I’m not nearly as enthusiastic about this one as I was about The Avengers, I’m very much starting to look more forward to it now that I feel safe about Avengers. The last (maybe) of Nolan’s trilogy, rumor has it he might kill off the dark knight? I doubt it, even though it could prove a great emotional way to finish his take on the character… If you haven’t seen The Avengers yet, stop being a retard and get going and remember TDKR July 20^th.