It’s time for another installment of This Week IN Comics!
Big Shiny Robot! has a weekly column in the Salt Lake City alt-weekly IN Magazine and every week we bring it to you on the site.
If you live in the greater Salt Lake area, you can pick up a copy of IN Magazine up from one of their ubiquitous newsstands, and we would highly suggest that you do.
The cause of the delay? Apparently, Samuel L. Jackson’s script had been leaked and they want to rewrite compromised scenes.
There is no word about how long this delay will last, but the film has been shooting for less than a week. It’s bad news for all parties involved, anything to make the film behind schedule risks the integrity of the film Joss Whedon has been wanting to make.
How drastic will the rewrites be that would require a complete production halt?
This is not heartening news. Will we get a substandard script because of these leaks? On the other hand, could this mean a better script? Could the leak be a ploy to give Whedon more time to turn in a better script?
It’s a little hard to believe we’ve done 26 of these, but here we are.
We feature a convention sketch here every week. We’ve got a whole pile of our own, but we want to see yours, too. Email us convention sketches you want to show off and let us know what website you’d like credited for it. (bigshinyrobot(at)gmail.com)
This week, Sean Leslie from the Wednesday Warriors podcast sent in this sketch of Thor he had done by Olivier Coipel at Comic Con ’09.
I thought it was fitting since Thor comes out this week and I expect every single one of you to get out to see it. It’s a really incredible film.
If you grew up at any time between 1975-1996, you’re probably familiar with the phenomenon of trading cards. For a quarter, you could get a pack of 10 or so cards of your favorite licensed property, along with a stick of gum that can double as a deadly projectile. Arguably, some of the best ones were based on the burgeoning summer movie blockbuster. I remember poring over my collection of cards from Tim Burton’s Batman all through the summer of 1989-90. Sadly, aside from a few holdovers like Batman Begins, they are few and far between nowadays. And even when they do surface, they simply aren’t as pure “fun” as the cards of yore.
An Example of the Batman (1989) cards.
I have to give huge props then to Blaine Hefner. He took this year’s slew of blockbusters and made his own cards, via the power of the internet and graphics programs! Originally done for the Salt Lake Tribune, these cards look so authentic, that if I didn’t know they weren’t real, I’d be hard-pressed to figure it out on my own. Be sure to check Blaine’s blog for a scan of the actual article from the Tribune, but he was kind enough to share some of the individual card images as well. In out gallery below, you can see what cards from Thor, Captain America, Green Lantern, Conan, Cowboys & Aliens and many more would look like is Topps was still as prominent now as they were then.
Well, if you watched last week’s exciting episode, you learned two things. First, this incarnation of Captain America is way different from just about any other. Second, flying in the face of movie serial tropes, you know who the mysterious Scarab is right off the bat! As for the cliffhanger? Let me tell you, that is definitely the most realistic building collapse a 1940’s serial budget could buy! That is to say, well, not terribly convincing. How do you think Captain America will get out of this one? If it were Steve Rogers, I’d bet he’d just shrug off a building, using his shield as a brace. For District Attorney Grant Gardner though? I dunno, maybe he’ll shoot it or something. At any rate, we’ll find out in chapter 2: Mechanical Executioner!
Hope you all liked that! As a bonus, here is the one-sheet poster for this very chapter!
It’s no secret that just about everyone here at BSR is a fan of pinball. Sadly, we can’t get to a local arcade (or even find one), when we want to knock around silver balls. Thankfully, companies like Zen Studios know the score and make incredible, amazing and uncanny pinball tables for home use. Their next endeavor is well, fantastic!
Coming next month for download on both Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network (if it ever goes back up), is the first DLC for Marvel Pinball: Fantastic Four! Personally, I’m really excited about this. When the original Marvel tables came out, I was pretty disappointed that the FF weren’t there already. Marvel’s first family definitely deserves to be represented in pinball form. Judging by the trailer, I’d say that the wait is definitely going to be worth it, take a look for yourself, and then I’ll gush some more.
Just awesome. I love love love the way that each member of the FF is integrated into the table mechanics themselves. You could probably replicate The Thing manipulating the ball, and have transparent ball saves like the Invisible Woman’s on a physical table, but there is just no way that Mr. Fantastic could do his thing on anything but a video table. And that vortex mid-playfield? forget about it! I can hardly wait for May 17th when it releases! I’m hoping that with Dr. Doom, the Mole Man and freaking Galactus showing up means the boss battles will be epic, but Zen’s track record is pretty good, so I’m pretty hyped. Here’s some nice high-res screenshots to further whet your appetite.
Things get added to Netflix’s Instant Watch service all the time. Normally we don’t deem it newsworthy unless it’s a significant add, like the recent CBS deal. This is one of those times. Marvel has announced that they’re bringing nearly their entire catalog of animated shows, spanning nearly 50 years, to Netflix Instant watch! Starting tomorrow, April 29th, you can relive someone the greatest adventures ever put to thousands of frames of celluloid! Here’s the list of launch day shows and what’s coming later. Check back with me afterward, and I’ll tell you what’s missing.
Streaming April 29th:
The Incredible Hulk (1996-97)
Spider-Man Unlimited (1999-2001)
Iron Man: Extremis (2010)
Astonishing X-Men: Gifted (2010)
Spider-Woman: Agent of the S.W.O.R.D. (2010)
Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes (2006)
Silver Surfer (1998)
Black Panther (2010)
Iron Man: Armored Adventures Season 1 (2009)
Coming Later This Summer:
Marvel Action Hour: Iron Man (1994-1996)
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Season 1 (2010)
X-Men: Evolution (2000-03)
X-Men (1992-97)
Spider-Man (1967-68)
Spider-Man (1981-82)
Spider-Man (1994-98)
Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends (1981)
Coming This Fall:
Iron Man (1966)
Thor (1966)
Captain America (1966)
Hulk (1966)
Sub-Mariner (1966)
That my friends, is a mighty impressive lineup. Some of these shows are more obscure than others, and I’m not personally a fan of the motion comics. The fact that they are adding shows like Silver Surfer and Spider-Man Unlimited are simply astounding (in the good way)! I am a bit sad that there are a couple shows missing from this list though. Notably, The Incredible Hulk (1981-82), Marvel Action Hour: Fantastic Four (1994-1996). Those two were pretty great. Also missing is Avengers: United They Stand (1999-2000), but well, that’s ok by me.
Let us know what you think, is Marvel missing anything else? Are you excited?
Want to know a secret? X-men: First Class looks awesome. Seriously.
I don’t care how bad the posters and marketing department working on this film is, every trailer that has come out has made me extremely happy. This film looks really, really cool and I can’t wait to see it.
It’s pretty obvious that Matthew Vaughn is tying visual motifs from the first two X-men films into this and it makes me even happier.
Really, what is there to complain about in this trailer? I say there isn’t anything.
Fair warning for everyone: If you don’t want to see the after the credits scene from the upcoming Thor movie, turn back now! While Marvel’s next movie won’t officially open for another 2 weeks stateside, that doesn’t mean it’s hasn’t been seen elsewhere. In this age of smartphones, with full video capabilities, it’s also really hard to stop someone from taking bad quality footage direct from the theater either.
The folks at The Flick Cast got their hands on said footage. While it doesn’t have much to do with ‘Thor’ itself (aside from one thing, but well, spoilers!), it’s pretty obvious that it ties in heavily to both ‘Captain America’ and ‘Avengers’. Watch at your own risk, although in my opinion, it’s not too bad, especially considering some of the concept art from Captain America already showed it. At any rate, we take no responsibility if you get spoiled and are angry about it afterwards. If you so dare to watch, enjoy!
UPDATE: Paramount asked the Flick Cast Guys to remove the video. If you haven’t seen it yet, you successfully avoided the spoiler, congrats!
This week, we’re starting a new serial! This one is really quite interesting, and it ties into the current movie season! Captain America is a Republic serial, that usually means a couple of things for serial fans. A) Expect a lot of fun and B) Don’t expect a faithful adaptation. Watching this, you’ll find that Captain America is not Steve Rogers, doesn’t carry a shield, but doesn’t have any qualms about gunplay. The thing that jarred me the most though is the lack of ears and wings on the cowl. It’s very surreal, but really fascinating to watch. It’s kind of the poster boy for keeping tight rein on your adaptation. As opposed to Green Hornet, I actually have a lot of stuff related to this serial, so I’ll be sharing some each week, but first, let’s watch Chapter 1 of Captain America: The Purple Death!
Crazy stuff. Anyway, here are some of the cool extras I have from this chapter of the serial:
