If you’ve been on the internet for any length of time, you’re familiar with memes. Everything from creepy girlfriends to various feline shenanigans are available for us to peruse and laugh along with. One of our favorite meme themes here at BSR are the ones that showcase the fondly remembered (but also poorly animated and sometimes completely crazy) 1967 Spider-Man cartoon. It was quite a treat then to randomly find a YouTube video where Josh Keaton, the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man from the excellent, cancelled before its time Spectacular Spider-Man. We just had to share it. While it could be considered NSFW, all naughty language is bleeped out, so no worries.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX8MOSAkLsI

I don’t care who you are, that’s pretty great right there. Our only hope is that the Vol. 1 in the title means there is more of this to come, because this is gold. Now, if we can convince the likes of Neil Patrick Harris, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Dan Gilvezan, and Rino Romano to follow suit, we can have a Spidey voice actor meme showdown! Stranger things have happened, right?

Marvel announced today that they will be releasing graphic novels once again, starting with a Warren Ellis penned/Mike McKone pencilled Avengers epic this October.

“Avengers: Endless Wartime” features a team consisting of Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye… And Wolverine and Captain Marvel. When asked what prompted the feature of this particular team in Marvel’s return to the format, EiC Axel Alonso replied “a little movie called ‘Marvel’s The Avengers.'”

Ellis did most of the casting himself, all the while keeping in mind which Avengers are hottest in the public eye right now (and which ones have major motion picture releases in the next 12 months). Alonso said that Thor and Cap were “must-haves,” but everyone else was Ellis’s choice. I appreciate Marvel’s honesty in the marketing department, but also appreciate that they know that Thor is an Avengers staple; Alonso says “Thor is one of—if not the—most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. He’s a bedrock member of the Avengers. For long-term fans—and casual cineplex fans—he’s the guy who brings the thunder. Literally.” The team will face an as yet undisclosed “force of pure evil,” and Alonso and Senior VP Tom Brevoort assure Ellis fans that the darkness at which he is so skilled will be a prominent presence in the GN.

It’s a smart move for the publisher, and one that addresses many cross-walks the industry can utilize to bridge reader gaps – the format allows film fans/new readers as well as fans of Ellis to get involved with an Avengers story without the commitment to a monthly book (and you know what, I think it’s OK to not want to commit to a monthly book and still consider yourself a comics fan). I myself am happy to see some energy spent on OGN content, even if it means taking some focus from huge seasonal crossover events.

The creative team will be working with colorist Jason Keith, and McKone will be doing his own inking on the project.

For more images from “Avengers: Wartime,” be sure to check out Marvel’s tumblr, and click here for the full interview with Alonso and Brevoort.

James Mangold took to twitter to release this six second sizzle reel from The Wolverine. It goes by so fast, I’m not even sure of what I saw.

Tomorrow we get 20 seconds. Wednesday, a full and proper teaser trailer.

BleedingCool is reporting that Brian Muir, the man who sculpted Vader’s helmet and the stormtroopers and droids and a whole bunch of other things for the Star Wars saga, as well as The Ark of the Covenant in Raiders, and the Space Jockey in Alien, is working at Pinewood Studios working on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

This is big news for Marvel fans, Star wars fans, and fans of science fiction in general. This strengthens the ever tightening connections between Marvel, Disney, and Star Wars.

There’s no official word about who or what he might be sculpting, but the obvious choice would be Star Lord:

BleedingCool did their best to verify, but came up with nothing official.

And our most sincere thanks to Jeff Vice, our very own Jerk-Bot, for the tip.

An exceedingly trustworthy, but former, Big Shiny Robot! who must remain nameless passed along this major scoop about the nature of a couple of aspects of The Avengers 2. We will not be referring to names to protect the identities and jobs of those who brought us this report. If anyone traced it back to the actual source, they would most certainly lose their jobs over this. And since we’re not making this up (how could we?) there are people’s jobs at stake here.

Now, first and foremost, bear in mind that these are things going on in the Marvel operation that are still in flux. Perhaps shedding light on them and voicing our enthusiasm will be more likely, but these scenarios have a lot of players at the table, so the stakes are high and the ability for negotiations to fall through are immense, especially considering the size of the players.

Secondly, bear in mind that if these negotiations succeed and turn out to be more than rumours, these are MAJOR spoilers. Turn away if you’re concerned.

Now, this former robot was plying a person of stature in the Marvel operation with adult beverages and learned the following:

• Agent Phil Coulson would be returning to Avengers 2, but not as himself. This cameo would arrive possibly as Vision or Deathlok. The details are sparse, but part of the iffy-ness about this particular bit of decision-making is to see what comes of the SHIELD series and Coulson’s place inside it. Deathlok might be more canon, since he’s traditionally “inhabited” by a deceased individual, but the makers of these films aren’t shy about creating their own film continuity for the good of the franchise and story.

• The Avengers will have cameos. But whose, you ask? We have learned that Marvel is in talks with Fox to get cameos from the X-Men and Fantastic Four. Storm. Wolverine. The Human Torch. Reed Richards.
• More cameos. Those aren’t all. They’re also negotiating separately with Sony to get a Spider-Man cameo.

These are in continuing negotiation and might not happen, but this tells us that Marvel (and Disney) is serious about getting us the Marvel Universe into a cohesive unit. By all rights, Avengers 2 might well be the biggest super-hero movie of all time, and it would behoove Fox and Sony to allow the Marvel characters they have in play to cameo in that filmed universe and film. It’s a win for Marvel to up the visibility of the characters and create something unified (unless the future X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man movies suck), but it would speak volumes to the fans.

And it’s not so unheard of. Disney/Marvel were in negotiations with Sony to get the Oscorp Building in Avengers, but the process was too slow to get it into the film in time. I imagine those same wheels have been turning since then.

Reminder: take these things as rumours or possibilities. There is no guarantee any of this will shake out, but it is being discussed at the higher echelons of Marvel.

You can learn more details on this month’s episode of the Big Shiny Podcast, where Kill-tacular-tron goes into more detail.

KMC-1138 and Kill-tacular-tron contributed to this report.

When someone writes their next history of the changing word of comics, they are going to have to include this last week as one of the turning points in the industry, and major announcements coming out from the Titans of the industry both in and immediately prior to their panels at SXSW.

Comixology, the third most popular app of 2012 on the iTunes store and the most popular non-game app, is poised to change the comics industry forever by allowing independent creators to upload their comics and sell them on the Comixology platform through Comixology Submit. Marvel announced similar large digital initiatives, including a limited time free offer of 700 of their digital comics and a revolutionary addition to digital comics: sound and music!

The effects of both of these announcements are far-reaching and their importance can’t be overstated. On the one hand, you have the major digital distributor opening up their marketplace for anyone to sell. On the other, one of the top publishers and owners of popular, innovative, and valuable intellectual properties is both expanding their digital footprint and changing how we think of comics as a medium.

Marvel’s announcement (or was it Comixology’s?) made traffic on Comixology’s servers skyrocket and slow to speeds reminiscent of… well, the traffic around Austin during SXSW. Their other major game-changers came from the House of Ideas’ earlier announcements of the expansion of their all-you-can-eat digital comics subscription Marvel Unlimited, which has undergone a major transformation to move away from using Flash so it can work on Apple products. Ditto for a major overhaul of Marvel.com.

But the biggest game-changer from Marvel is likely the introduction of Project Gamma, which aims to integrate music and sounds effects into digital comics offerings. Not just a soundtrack that syncs up to a digital comic, each panel is cued to an adaptive musical soundtrack that shifts as you “turn the pages.” I got to spend some time up close and personal with it on an iPad, and the best word I can use to describe it is seamless. Not matter how fast or how slow I tried to advance the panels on the issue of Avengers #1, the music and effects worked. You would expect you’d get something like the effect you have when you fast-forward through an mp3 or cd track or make a record skip, but none of that happened at all.   Perfectly seamless.

And they also promised that they were going to develop specific themes for each character. This was apparent when Bruce Banner Hulks out and we get and awesome splash page of The Hulk jumping into action, then a baroque feeling bam-da-da-bum. It’s supposed to sounds like Hulk. And they promise that no matter what the musical mileu of the issue, whether it’s rock, classical, dubstep, or country, these themes will follow characters around from “book” to “book.”

As flashy as Marvel’s announcements are, I think the announcement with the biggest implications was Comixology’s. Comixology was the top grossing non-game app on the iTunes store last year, leading the charge of digital comics that seem to  be not only changing the industry, but possibly saving it, as print sales have increased right alongside digital sales. By opening this platform to everyone, Comixology is doing for comics what Amazon did for self-published prose. All criticism aside (we know it’s garbage), but the Fifty Shades of Grey books were huge in 2012, and this was all because Amazon allowed someone to publish their awful Twilight fanfic and let bored housewives everywhere enjoy it on the Kindles. Now an aspiring Robert Kirkman, Frank Miller, or Art Spiegelman can simply make their comics, publish, and hopefully get the recognition they deserve.

Shannon Wheeler, the creator of Too Much Coffee Man, was along for the ride along with Comixology’s co-founders David Steinberger and John D. Roberts to talk about Comixology Submit during their SXSW panel.  Wheeler, whose comics were among those published through the Submit program’s launch, pointed out that back in the 90’s he’d put everything on the web for free, because that wasn’t the best way to experience comics. He was, at the time, using a xerox machine and hand-stapling comics, then taking them from shop to shop to ask them to carry it.

Now with digital, that isn’t the case anymore. Digital is, in some ways, the best way to experience comics, and the shops (while essential: support your local comics shops, people!) are dwarfed by the ability of someone like Comixology to conceivably carry… well, pretty much anything. And just like copy machines made it possible to publish ‘zines in the 90s, this digital platform will empower creators today. As someone who has often thought about writing a comic, this is incredibly inspirational. Now to find someone who wants to draw it for me…

Launching just under a week ago, they’ve already approved several submissions. Their quality control so far has consisted of, “Will someone buy this? Sure… someone will buy this.” They have no interest in censoring or doing anything but the most basic of quality control, basically taking a laissez faire approach to their marketplace. Ultimately, what makes the artists the most money makes them the most money, since their profits are split 50/50 according to the Comixology Submit.

Comixology, in the spirit of spreading merriment, also sponsored an open bar happy hour last night after their panel. Awesome gesture from an awesome group of people.

Marvel Comics made major announcements last year in their first appearance here in Austin last year, including Infinite Comics and their AR app.  Thanks to them for coming back this year. Oh, and thanks for this exclusive Age of Ultron #1 variant. Got it signed by Axel Alonso and Peter Phillips… so, yeah. It was a good panel.

Thanks to Andoridika for throwing up all of the breaking news as soon as it was announced. You know, for a tech conference and the Palmer Events Center area being set up as the video game area, it’s ridiculous that there is no wifi there. So I had to head back to the Austin Convention Center before I could post this. It also allowed me to collect my thoughts about just how monumental these announcements are.

Keep watching for more movie and tech news from SXSW from me… unless I decide to bag the rest of it and just read 700 free digital comics and get started writing my indie comic to upload to Comixology.

Over the last week Marvel has released a bunch of teases that have had people speculating some out there theories. Talk of rebooting the Marvel Universe a la Flashpoint style seemed to be the most popular. Well on Sunday Marvel had their panel at SXSW and explained what those teases actually are. They have to do with a lot of things Marvel will be doing digitally. The first tease that came out last week was this:

And with that we get the announcement that Marvel is, for a limited time, offering 700 #1 issues and one shots for free on their digital site and app. This promotion will run until 11pm eastern time on Tuesday March 12th. This even includes the first issues of the recent Marvel Now titles. So if you’ve been wanting to check out some of the new series, but weren’t too sure, the first issues are all available. You may be waiting a bit though because comixology’s website crashed shortly after this announcement was made. I hope they have it fixed soon since this promotion is only running for 2 more days.

Let’s move on to the next tease:

The running joke on the internet was that this was going to be “The Now 52.” What could the 52 hashmarks be? Well there are 52 weeks in a year, and with that we’ll be getting 52 weekly digital infinite comics. We will see four seperate series with each one being 13 parts. The first is “Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted” written by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour and drawn by Paco Diaz. “What we’re doing with Infinite Comics is developing a new language for telling comic book stories” said Axel Alonso, Marvel’s Editor in Chief. The first issue comes out July 9th and is available for pre order right now on Marvel’s digital store.

&list=PLK5HARgNfgj8pKgwNqc7R-J8h4KlSZcs0

If you want a free taste of how the Infinte Comics work, Marvel released a free issue earlier this week spotlighting Drax the Destroyer from Guardians of the Galaxy written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Michael Avon Oeming. For more preview pages check the gallery at the end of the article.

The last tease Marvel had posted was about somthing called Project Gamma:

Project Gamma actually sounds pretty cool to me, but won’t be launching until later this year. Project Gamma is an initiative to add music and sound effects to your digital comics. This is being worked on by the same companies that composed and produced music for the Looper, Drive, The King’s Speech, and the Harry Potter films.

Marvel also announced that they are launching another weekly web series hosted by Blair Butler called “Marvel’s Earths Mightiest Show.” It will bring you news from Marvel, in addition to interviews and behind the scenes looks at their films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CIMKWefySg&list=PLK5HARgNfgj8pKgwNqc7R-J8h4KlSZcs0

Marvel also pimped their AR app, which offers dvd like extras to comics.

I would have had this article up about seven minutes ago, but I couldn’t stop watching the trailer over and over. More details about The Mandarin, the Iron Patriot suit, Pepper in danger… Explodey, loud, awesomeness…

Don’t tune out too early, because the last few seconds of this trailer easily make this my most anticipated Marvel film EVER.

Editor’s Note: Holy shit! -Arse-bot

After “X3: The Last Stand”, fans of the X-Men series had a glimmer of hope when Berry later expressed interest in returning to the series.

Now it’s official.

Berry is back as everyone’s favorite mutant weather maven, Storm, for the 2014 Bryan Singer project.

Singer Tweeted today: “Couldn’t be more excited that #HalleBerry has joined the cast of#XMen #DaysofFuturePast. Hopefully she can improve the weather in Montreal.”

Many of the original cast are already slated to join her and with Singer back in the helm, this Storm cosplayer is all a-buzz this will be a great flick.

What do you think? Now that Berry is joining McKellan, Stewart, Jackman and the rest, are the X-fans excited?  Talk to me in the comments.

Cover img: Diyah Pera

Main img: Tom Sorenson

So the news has been trickling in about casting for the “The Amazing Spider-Man” sequel, scheduled to be released May 2, 2014.

The latest casting news is Chris Cooper will be the Green Goblin. The first thing I thought, “Oh, heck yeah! He’s perfect!” Then I remembered something. Jamie Foxx briefly mentioned Spidey on the red carpet at the Oscars this year. He’s going to be Electro.

Oh, and didn’t you hear? Paul Giamatti will be cast as Rhino.

Individually, these all sound like amazing casting choices. These are all award-winning actors, and these are characters I’m not as familiar with. It’ll be great to see how they fit into the Spider-Man universe.  But doesn’t this seem all too familiar?

James Franco as the New Goblin. Thomas Haden Church as Sandman. Topher Grace as Venom. Yep, that’s the cast from 2007’s “Spider-Man 3”, which disappointed a lot of fans of the series. I believe it ultimately led to this reboot. I really don’t want to say it, but I think the curse of the overstuffed villain plot may resurface.

I am not a movie “expert”. Like most people, once you’ve seen what works and what doesn’t, it’s not too hard to ascertain future projects. Casting 3 villains in one movie didn’t work.

“The Amazing Spider-Man” was a great, fun, flick, but it was a bit weak as far as plot flow. There were moments that were a smidge boring. So their remedy is to throw in more characters?

The Spider-Man franchise has always been a wonderful part of my life growing up. I really hate to see a reboot fall the way its predecessor did.

Here’s hoping I am proven wrong.

What do you think? Is the next Spider-Man doomed to fail like Spider-Man 3? Or is there hope? Sound off in the comments below.