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President-elect Obama To Team-Up With Spider-man
Posted by Jeffrey Harris Categories: Editorials, Reviews, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
USA Today recently got the scoop about the latest issue of The Amazing Spider-Man #583, appearing on store shelves today. In the issue, Spider-Man gets to team up with the next President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama. The story penned by Zeb Wells, Todd Nauck, and Frank D’Armata will depict the Chameleon trying to thwart Obama’s inauguration. The issue will be sold for a cover price of $3.99, and the limited-edition cover by artist, Phil Jimenez, will be limited to half the printing run.
Preview panels from USA Today show Obama going up to Spider-Man and performing a legendary fist-bump to end all fist-bumps as Obama expresses his fandom and support for Spider-Man. Reflecting on the incident, Spider-Man thinks, “I can’t shake the feeling that if I hadn’t showed up, he would have handled the Chameleon all by himself. Guess it’s time to head back to New York. It looks like Washington is in capable hands.” Joe Quesada, Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics, was excited about Obama having a cameo in a Spider-Man comic after the President-Elect said he was a fan of Spider-Man in an Entertainment Weekly pop-culture survey. Obama’s then opponent, Senator John McCain, only mentioned liking Batman, the flagship character of Marvel publishing rival, DC Comics.
The mainstream media outlets and the overt love over Obama getting elected is hardly a secret. But this appearance just feels so blatantly overt with Spidey basically hero-worshiping Obama in the story. Yeah, Obama could’ve handled Chameleon because everyone knows Obama has had training sessions with Captain America like Spider-Man. Also, if I was Spider-Man, I would be telling him to watch out for Norman Osborn, who is now in charge of HAMMER in the Marvel Universe in the fallout of Secret Invasion. Just saying, if Obama trusts Spider-Man and the admiration is for real, “Mr. President, the guy in charge of HAMMER is a psychopath and admitted former super-villain that’s killed a ton of people. Might want to do something about that.”
Just saying.
Read More | USA Today
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1.13.09 - Tuesday Preview
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
Welcome to what I hope will be a series of Tuesday previews to let you know what to look forward to on comic day.
Tomorrow, Amazing Spider-Man 583 comes out with a variant cover and a five-page Obama back-up story. The variant cover is a one of fifty so, as usual, I didn’t get any. And, as usual, I have people coming out of the woodwork to buy it. Luckily Marvel is coming to my rescue by issuing a second printing variant next week and I will have plenty. Of course what this does to the resale value of the original variant is anyone’s guess.
X-men Manifest Destiny should be here tomorrow to make up for the screw up of last week. Those miscover books were up immediately on E-Bay, but they tell me the real book will be free to me to make up for it, but as they are not on my invoice I won’t know until they get here. Destiny?
Also appearing is Adam, Legend of the Blue Marvel 3 and the first two have been pretty good.
On the other hand, there is Death Defying Devil which is part of Project Super Powers. They could call it Hard to Read Devil because the entire series makes it difficult to follow this storyline, but we’ll give it another try.
Final Crisis 6. What can I say? When Final Bar Mitzvah comes out I will comment.
And last but not least is Mad Magazine. I know everyone thinks I am old and senile (Thanks Dennis; ED: No problem, buddy. Hahaha.), but compared to the past Mad this is horrible and not funny. Pick up a few Mad trades if you don’t believe me.
And to cap everything off we have Obama trading cards. Now I once asked a distributor why cards don’t come out before the movie opens? It would be great to sell cards before an anticipated hit (Iron Man) or bomb (The Spirit) comes out, but I was informed that movie cards contain scenes from the movie so they don’t want to give away spoilers. But folks only buy the cards for the inserts anyway. Bikini swatches and kiss cards from Benchwarmers and costume cards and autographs from Iron Man are big hits. They say there are inserts in these cards and I am wondering what they are.
That’s all for this preview. Tune in next Tuesday for our hopefully second installment.
Random Thoughts
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials,
Presented for your enjoyment a series of random thoughts:
* Is it possible that they are publishing more Captain America comics now that he is dead then when he was alive?
* Is the Superman/Supergirl Maelstrom mini-series drawn by someone who had never seen the characters before he got the assignment?
* Isn’t the Secret Wars Requiem a real rip-off because it is mostly old Ant-Man stories?
* With all the different colored Lanterns showing up in the DC universe, will we get to see the Pink Lanterns? You know, the gay ones? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
* Wasn’t it cool when in Ultimate Spider-Man, Peter answers the phone with “Hall of Justice”?
* Exactly how many named characters in the Marvel universe has Tony Stark slept with? Apparently She-Hulk and the Lady Liberator’s are taking a census. And who thought up the name Lady Liberators anyway? Sounds 1940ish to me.
* If Batman 683 is picking up from 682, a miracle in itself, don’t we still want to know where the heck in continuity this story line lies?
* Didn’t we just have a year without Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman?
* Can we find out once and for all if Earthlings and Kryptonians can reproduce? All-Star Superman says no, but aren’t the All-Star books set in a different universe? Apparently Clark and Lois spent a year together without Super-powers so shouldn’t we know something by now?
* How could they send off SuperGirl in Smallville? In a Smallville filled with gorgeous women wasn’t she the tops?
Review- Amazing Spider-Man 581
Posted by Todd Matthy Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Marvel Comics,
It’s almost been a year since Mephisto took his magic pencil and erased the Spider-Marriage from the minds of the Marvel Universe. The benefit of the magical reboot was a “Brand New Day” for Peter Parker, where no one remembers he’s Spider-Man, allowing creators to retell stories from the seventies in a modern setting. A crucial element of this reboot was the resurrection of Harry Osborn.
For months we have wondered how Marvel was going to explain Harry’s sudden reappearance and in number 581 we got an explanation that made us wonder why Marvel needed Mephisto in the first place.
Click to continue reading Review- Amazing Spider-Man 581
Wood is Broadway’s Mary Jane
Posted by Todd Matthy Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Television, Marvel Comics,
It looks like Mary Jane’s dream to light up Broadway is about to come true. Newsarama reports that Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen) has been cast as the titular redhead in the upcoming “Spider-Man: The Musical”.
Yes, Virginia you read that right, a Spider-Man musical is coming with rehearsals set to begin in the summer of 2009.
Not much is known about the musical other than Julie Taymor who did “The Lion King” with music being composed by Bono and the Edge will produce the show. Playbill reports that the musical will revolve around a female character called Arachne who is described as a “beautiful, boastful, young woman turned into a spider for her hubris and lack of respect for the gods” who will try to woo Peter Parker (and give Bond yet another forum to preach). The play will also feature Norman Osborn and J. Jonah Jameson as further thorns in the webhead’s side.
I really don’t know what to make of this. There hasn’t been a superhero musical since “It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s Superman” and if anyone doesn’t remember that play there’s a good reason - the two genres don’t mesh. Is Spidey going to sing zingers to J. Jonah Jameson? Will the final battle with the Green Goblin be a dance off? Most importantly, how are they going to do the web swinging? Questions aside, I think Evan Rachel Wood would make a good Mary Jane. From what I’ve seen of “Across the Universe,” she has an okay voice. She could play Mary Jane in the movies if Kristen Dunst decides not to return. No one has been chosen for Peter at this time. Either way I’ll be in the cheap seats for this.
Read More | Newsarama
JLA/Avengers
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, Reviews, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
This week Diamond Comics shipped the paperback version of the classic JLA/AVENGERS saga. These came out in comic book form in 2003, but was only compiled in hardcover format for $75. Now we have a softcover at $19.99 and it is time to revisit this story.
I believed at the time that the entire concept was flawed. Kurt Busiek wrote a story in which every Avenger and every Justice Leaguer that ever existed made at least a token appearance. He succeeded in his mind, but not mine. By putting too many characters in a story, you lose the ability to focus deeply on any of them. Recall the series of Marvel/DC Crossover books. These stories usually had one hero and one villain from each universe and you had a real interaction among the heroes and villains. Remember Crossover One with a full Superman/Spider-Man story, Hulk/Superman, etc. You really got into how the characters reacted to each other. In Crossover 2 we had Batman/Punisher, Silver Surfer/Superman and Batman/Captain America. The other two books weren’t as good, but it is always fun to match heroes from different universes. In my opinion, confining the epic to 7 or so stars from each universe would have made things much less cluttered and a better read. Characters kept coming and going so quickly it is difficult to keep track.
The story itself starts as one of the generic contest of champions ideas we have seen a million times before. Mystic artifacts being sought by both sides being manipulated by cosmic beings. Ho-hum.
No real detail in the battles to get an artifact and the 12 items are quickly divided up. They we get a mish-mash of heroes from diferrent universes interacting in a confusing way and then A Crisis on Infinte Earths climax against the super-duper villian with everyone throwing in a few shots. Been to the Source, done that.
It was, I suppose, a noble effort and it is certainly a better buy at $20 rather than $75. But as the pundit said about Dicken’s Great Expectations, I hoped for more.
Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau Talk Iron Man 2
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: Paramount, Action, Adaptation, Adventure, Political, Thrillers, Celeb News, Corporate Shakeups, Distribution, Filmmaking, Rumors, Scripts, Upcoming Releases,
UPDATE: Thanks to one of those smarter people who actually brought a camera, The Game Jerk has posted a video of the Q&A that you can check out after the jump.
Although I have continuously kicked myself repeatedly for not bringing a camera last night, I was still at least able to mentally hold on to the great moments witnessed last night at a special screening of Iron Man. While the director was already scheduled to appear for a live commentary at Santa Monica’s Aero Theater, fans of Marvel’s first self-financed film were in for an even better treat when Tony Stark himself, Robert Downey Jr., showed up at the last moment.
Because of the fact that he had not recorded a commentary for the upcoming DVD, director Jon Favreau was quite exuberant over the fact that he was able to do so in person (also because he was not obligated to be politically correct).
Click to continue reading Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau Talk Iron Man 2
Is Maguire Gearing Up for Two Spidey Sequels?
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Columbia Pictures, Sony, Action, Adaptation, Adventure, Sequels, Casting, Celeb News, Rumors,
Had you asked me last year whether I saw another Spider-Man in Tobey Maguire‘s future, I would have easily said “No.” Thank goodness, I didn’t put any money down on that.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the chances of Maguire of participating in two more sequels are actually quite strong. Maguire and director Sam Raimi are reportedly very close to sealing new deals with Columbia Pictures.
This news comes months after a premiere date was announced by the studio. Back in June, producer Laura Ziskin said she would like to see a fourth installment in theaters on Memorial Day 2011.
Assuming casting is determined soon, Columbia may opt to schedule back-to-back productions as early as fall 2009.
Hollywood Reporter
Spider-Man’s Venom Set for Spinoff
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Sony, Action, Adaptation, Adventure, Rumors,
Hero, schmero. Thanks to the popularity of Heath Ledger‘s Joker, Hollywood may soon be looking to exploit the audience’s love for much darker characters.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Sony is tossing around the idea of giving Venom his own film. Most probably remember the character as the villain played by Topher Grace in last year’s Spider-Man 3.
As for when we could see the spinoff in theaters is unknown. Right now, the studio is still trying to produce a suitable script. The execs also have to agree on a lead actor. Although Tobey Maguire was given a chance to play the webbed one, those behind the scenes are apparently nervous about Grace’s box office appeal. Fortunately, since Venom is technically a gooey substance and not necessarily a person, they could actually attach any person they want to the project. (Pun intended.)
Whether or not Venom gets off the ground, Sony still intends on producing Spider-Man 4. That installment is expected to debut in 2011.
Hollywood Reporter
Projected Spider-Man 4 Release Date
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Columbia Pictures, Sony, Action, Adaptation, Adventure, Sequels, Celebrity Gossip, Rumors,
Even though the main characters appeared disinterested during their interviews last year, the buzz about another Spider-Man sequel has already begun.
According to E!, the franchise’s producer has already informed theater owners that a fourth installment could happen…though it would be 2011 before anyone would see it. (Apparently you need a script, a willing actor and an interested director before you can get the ball rolling on these big-budget flicks.)
Click to continue reading Projected Spider-Man 4 Release Date
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