We got this teaser in the mail this morning from Marvel.
I can’t believe they found a way to make Gambit look even more lame.
I promise though, I will read this if Gambit meets his demise.
Survive the Age Of X with GAMBIT and HELLION!
AGE OF X: ALPHA #1 (NOV100514)
AGE OF X: ALPHA #1 COIPEL VARIANT (NOV100515)
Written by MIKE CAREY
Pencils by PAUL DAVIDSON & MORE
Cover by CHRIS BACHALO
Variant Cover by OLIVIER COIPEL
Rated A …$3.99
FOC – 1/3/11, On-Sale – 1/26/11
Marvel and DC split the top ten last month with five books each. Rick Remender and Jerome Opena won the big prize with Uncanny X-Force #1, while the other 4 books belonged to DC in the top 5. I like to see these lists and Diamond is good about providing them and reminding consumers that the numbers reflect how many books were sold to shops not costumers.
Variant covers have unfortunately made a huge comeback since the 90’s and they are definitely a factor in how many copies of a book a shop orders. I don’t know how many covers were available for Uncanny X Force #1 but I’ve seen at least three. If publishers can give shop owners more money by offering an issue to sell for twice the cover price or more it makes me wonder how easy it would be to buy your company in the top spot.
I actually purchased 8 of the top 10 books last month and I agree that they all deserve their spot but I have the feeling there’s more than a few copies laying around in shops across North America. At the bottom of the list The Walking Dead #78 came in at #71. It will be interesting to see how well the new weekly Walking Dead reprints.
See the entire list HERE.
Online Comics:
It’s been a few weeks since my last update and I’ve been getting a gigabyte worth of email a day, non stop phone calls, and teenage girls chasing me down the street begging for a digital comic book run down, so here it is!
DC Comics wants you to know that they are offering multiple issues to peek inside every month as downloadable PDF’s.
And If you click the Heroes and Villains tab on the main page you’ll find some great in-browser reading including some awesome origin stories and more importantly Superman Daily newspaper reprints, all for the price of FREE.
Take that Marvel!
And Marvel wants you to know they’ve added some awesome all ages books including some wonderful Franklin Richards stories. Check out the free previews and read them to the kids in your life.
Apps:
Viz Media announced their free Viz Manga app for the iPad. I suggest you check out this smooth looking app now and take advantage of the free download of the full DEATH NOTE Vol. 1.
Evil Dead Video game:
This is Comic book, digital, and video game related so it warrants inclusion because it looks fun.
the Walking Dead:
Seeing as everyone has a hard-on for the Walking Dead (as well they should) I have to mention the Dedicated app again!
WEB COMICS:
The medium that consumes more time to create than any other keeps getting better and the artists toil in obscurity until you actually read them.
I’ve gotten hooked on quite a few in the last month but the stand out is Drew Pocza’s POKEWEED
Consistently funny with a great cast of characters including Phil the optimist, Clint the flamboyantly straight dog and my favorite Chuck the Cthulhu looking ex monster. I get as many laughs out of this comic as I do from early Liberty Meadows strips, and that’s saying a lot. Please check it out.
That it for now see you in 3 months!
Digital comic distributors, app designers, and web comic creators get in touch with me @ krderrick 3 at gmail dot com
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Martin Sheen is in final negotiations to play Uncle Ben in the new Marc Webb Spider-Man picture.
Sheen will join a cast that includes Andrew Garfield as Parker, Emma Stone as love interest Gwen Stacy and Rhys Ifans as the movie’s unnamed villain.
The movie, under the direction of Marc Webb, is heading for a December start.
Half of this is terribly exciting for me, the other half is incredibly boring.
On the one hand: Martin Sheen is a tremendous actor and will add a gravitas to this film that would rival the weight Cliff Robertson brought in the Sam Raimi films. His work has been consistently good and roles like Captain Queenan in The Departed make me completely sure he can pull this off. Remember that scene in The Departed where he brings Leonardo DiCaprio into his kitchen and was all like, “Let’s get you supper.”? There was a paternal warmth in that scene that was fantastic and will be great for Uncle Ben.
On the other hand: apparently we’re effing idiots and need another Spider-Man origin story, as though anyone in the galaxy doesn’t know how Peter got his powers and came to learn that with great power comes great responsibility.
Really? Another one?
The Spider-Man movies were some of the highest grossing films of all time. Why the hell do we need to see his origin again? There’s nothing Marc Webb can add to it that would make me care anymore about the character.
On the third hand: Perhaps Webb will use Uncle Ben much the same way Raimi used him in Spider-Man 2.
We won’t know until we see it.
What do you guys think. You think we need another origin story? If you do, what do you think of Sheen in the role?
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.
You can read the online version of the story here.
Click on the image below to read the article as it appears in print:
And here are the pictures that accompanied the article, but they were cut for space:
It’s time again for Tag Team Thursday, where Clobber-Tron and Shaz-Bot take one of this week’s comics and share their opinions! This week the gruesome twosome take on:
THE MASSIVE 64 PAGE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #647
S-B: Amazing #647 is touted as the end of the Brand New Day storyline. To be honest, I thought that was just the name of the first arc after the status quo change and already considered it finished a long time ago.
C-T: Yes after the huge reboot that almost broke the Internet in 2008, I thought there’ve been a few different story arcs including ‘New Ways to Die’ and Grim Hunt, but apparently they’ve all been BND stories.
S-B: This issue does tie a bow on various goings on of the last 100 or so issues. There has a been a lot of stuff going on in the book, so if you haven’t been keeping up, many of the winks the writers give might be lost on you. Thankfully, if you’ve only been reading recent issues, this wraps up the “Osborn baby” storyline of the past few issues as well.
C-T: ‘Tie a bow’ is a great way to put it, I actually went back and read the first few issues penned by Dan Slott and this book feels more like a love letter to him than a wrap up issue. There are so many similarities between this issue and #547, from panel layouts to the car chase it’s worth it to go back and take a look. In fact if you want to have a lot of fun read this issue backwards Manga style and then read 547 forward to really catch it all.
S-B: In the main story, everyone’s getting together to throw Harry Osborn a going away party. Y’see, he’s going into hiding because the whole of Spidey’s Rogues’ Gallery was just on a manhunt for his ex-lover’s kid.
C-T: I was hoping we’d start out with a really fun beginning despite having to wrap up the “Origin of the species’ story arc, because it’s been a bit lackluster. Everyone having a party for Harry should be fun but this doesn’t play out that way at all. Aside from the Spider-mobile making and appearance and Spidey in an off the rack Halloween costume this didn’t feel Amazing, Spectacular or even Web of.
S-B: I don’t care who you are, if you have no love of the Spider-Mobile, well… Anyway, it turns out that Peter Parker’s old cop roommate Vin is getting out of stir on the same day. Shenanigans go in in the usual Spidey manner, where we have Peter having romance issues, angst-a-plenty and the ever looming shadow of the Green Goblin manifesting in a somewhat interesting way.
C-T: No matter what kind of spin the put on re introducing the Green Goblin it’s going to seem trite compared the previous Lee/Ditko stories, so I don’t see how any appearance will be interesting.
S-B: To each his own. So in summary, I guess I would call this an adequate wrap up on the whole “Brand New Day” thing, as it nicely parallels with the beginning. Honestly though, I don’t feel that BND needed wrapping up. It isn’t like next issue Peter and MJ are going to be married again.
C-T: That’s a great point, I don’t see how BND can be over if it doesn’t even slightly change the status quo.
S-B: Of the other stories in the book, we get a Harry Osborn story taking place 5 minutes after the lead, a completely pointless vignette of an extremely minor character’s adventures through BND, an entertaining look at why J. Jonah Jameson may not be the best mayor NYC has ever had, a one page gag of JJJ: The Musical. Also included are a pretty good Flash Thompson story, a Norah Winters story (really?), a preview of the next storyline and a BND-era cover gallery. The latter of which immediately reminded me how many needless variant covers are out there in the wild. I will admit I like the parody of the Obama cover featuring Nixon. I may have to track that one down.
C-T: And if you’re on the fence don’t forget This book is huge, three times what you usually get, so $4.99 is justifiable.
S-B: All in all, I would say if you’re already a fan of Spidey and have been following him, go ahead and pick up the book, all of the content is new, so you won’t feel like you’ve wasted the extra money the book costs. If you’re a casual Spider-phile, this issue won’t really do much for you.
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.
This week we take a look at the release of Kick-Ass 2 #1, by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.
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.
You can read the online version of the story here.
Click on the image below to read the article as it appears in print:
In recent years, Christopher Yost has quickly become one of my favorite comic book writers on some of my favorite titles, demonstrating a particular knack for breathing life and energy and treatability into young characters and situations, like those featured in New X-Men (one of my personal favorites), X-23 Innocence Lost/Target X (further must-reads) as well as Red Robin for DC comics.
In addition to his impressive catalog of comic book works, Yost, often alongside frequent collaborator Craig Kyle boasts an impressive track record in film and television, having filled a variety of key roles in numerous comic book related works ranging from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Fantastic Four: Worlds Greatest Heroes and his most recent foray into animated television: Wolverine and the X-Men,which hit shelves recently.
Mr. Yost was kind enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to speak with Big Shiny Robot!
Big Shiny Robot!: You seem to straddle the comics and animation worlds fairly equally, which came first and did they naturally lead to the other?
Chris Yost: Animation came first, then comics. The comic work came directly out of the animation through the character of X-23 that Craig Kyle created for the show ‘X-Men: Evolution’ Craig had pitched the character to Marvel for the show, and then she even showed up in a comic called NYX. She proved popular, and Marvel was interested in doing an origin mini-series for her… and came to Craig and I for it.
BSR!: Why don’t you give us your take on the latest televised incarnation of the X-Men. What distinguishes Wolverine and the X-Men as a series from what we’ve seen before?
CY: Seeing the whole series on Blu-Ray really hit it home, but head writer Greg Johnson came up with the initial concept, and he and Craig Kyle developed the show based on the notion that a mysterious event tore apart the X-Men and Professor Xavier and Jean Grey went missing… and it was up to Wolverine to re-unite the X-Men to save the day.
What I like about it is that it flips the usual X-Men dynamic on its head. Wolverine is usually the loner that breaks the rules, that won’t listen to the leader… and now he’s the leader. He’s making the rules. So seeing him relate to the X-Men, to Cyclops in this new role is something we haven’t seen before, and it was a lot of fun both to watch and to write.
BSR!: This series seemed to really up the ante for action and drama and darker tone from what we’ve seen before, are you finding children’s television a less restrictive venue for these type of stories in recent years or where you guys just testing the limits?
CY: There’s a big range of animation out there, and audiences for everything. Wolverine and the X-Men falls somewhere between ‘Super Hero Squad’ and ‘Hulk Vs.’ where the violence and blood isn’t so evident, but it’s not for the pre-school crowd.
Wolverine and the X-Men is honestly more like the comics in tone. There’s still fun to be had, but the X-Men story is a drama, a serial drama… watching the whole series on DVD is pretty gratifying, from a story perspective. You’re really taking a journey with these characters. And I think kids of all ages can find something to relate to in it.
BSR!: Super-heroes have obviously made an indelible impression on the mainstream media outside of comic books in recent years – Did this sort of “super-hero literacy” factor in to the process of writing Wolverine and the X-Men?
CY: Not really. Each episode has to make sense, it has to tell a clear story. We stick in some things for fans, but if you don’t recognize a character here or there in the background, it’s not going to affect your enjoyment of the story.
Watching the whole thing like this, on DVD… it’s fun to see the stand alone stories, but at the same time seeing the whole X-Men comic universe come to life.
BSR!: “The Inner Circle: Reflections on Wolverine and the X-Men” was a really in depth look at the making of the project – an incredibly passionate and talented team behind the project. What was it like working with such an experienced group of people on such an ambitious project?
CY: It was amazing. From top down, everyone working on the show is a fan, and has a great love for the characters and stories. It’s a passionate, creative environment, working with the best – honestly, it’s a great job. I won’t lie. Getting the whole series on blu-ray was just icing on the cake.
BSR!: I think I speak for a lot of people in my generation when I say that the first X-Men animated series served as a potent gateway into X-Men comics to which I am unabashedly hooked for life – As a writer for both TV and comics do you treat your work in television as a gateway to good old fashioned paper comics?
CY: I hope so. I love comics, and like to think of the shows, which reach a much larger audience, as a first look of sorts to the comics. If you liked this show, then you’ll love the comics… but there are kids out there today that don’t even know what comics ARE. They know these characters from the show, from movies or video games. Unless they’ve actually been in a comic book store, they have no exposure to comics.
Hopefully we can help change that.
BSR!: On the subject of comics – Your work on New X-Men really absorbed me in to a title that I had only casually read in the past, taking the sort of teen angst that is so often disingenuous, transparent or just plain annoying in comics and making it really identifiable, compelling and even moving while spinning it into some of my favorite X-Men sagas in the last decade. Anyway, enough ass kissing – Where young characters really seem to stifle many writers (or are simply boiled down to a bad attitude, bad haircut and a skateboard), they really seem to be a perfect fit for you. Talk about that.
CY: I love Spider-Man and Cap and Thor, don’t get me wrong. I love ‘em. But in some ways, the young characters are more fun. When the Avengers fight Kang, it’s like – oh, you again. With the Young Avengers, you’re seeing it fresh through new eyes for the first time. These characters haven’t seen everything, haven’t done everything, and as teenagers, their emotions are so raw… it’s an explosive mix. Kids are fun!
BSR!: While you certainly didn’t shy away from dark subject matter in New X- Men, your X-Force was easily the darkest X book I have ever read and I loved it. Talk about what it like to write someone like Wolverine for a children’s program vs. Wolverine gutting religious zealots by the building full.
CY: Well, Wolverine’s a blast to write in any medium, but in X-Force, we can really cut loose. In the cartoons, a lot of robots get cut. A lot of doors and walls get cut through. But in the comics, and in ‘Hulk Vs,’ well, those claws are put to the use you and I all know [what] they’re for. I don’t prefer one over the other, per se, but realistically… people would get cut around Wolverine. I’m just saying.
BSR!: Taking into account all the television, the animated features you’ve written for Lionsgate and the comics you’ve done for Marvel – are there any character’s left that you’re itching to get your hands on that you haven’t had the opportunity to yet?
CY: I’ve been extremely lucky. There’s a few characters I’d still like a crack at… Cloak and Dagger, the Defenders, Quasar, Alpha Flight… I’m greedy. I want them all.
BSR!: With that, I will hand the reigns over to Swank who has a couple of DC related question… Thanks for your time. Clang! Boom! Steam! Out.
Your run on Red Robin (Part 1, Part 2) is probably 12 of the best issues the Bat-family has had in the last ten years. You really understood Tim better than a lot of writers who took up his reigns and your love for the genre and world is apparent. Do you have more DC stories to tell?
CY: Well, thanks! I’m wrapped up in a few things right now outside of comics, but one day I’d love to jump back in.
BSR!: If you could get your hands on an animated DC property, what would it be?
CY: I’d make a animated DVD of Grant Morrison’s JLA story ‘Rock of Ages.’
BSR!: Last question: What comic books are you reading for entertainment right now?
CY: Hickman’s FANTASTIC FOUR. Love it.
BSR!: Thank you, sir!
With that, be sure to get yourselves a copy of the complete Wolverine and the X-Men. And be sure to follow Chris on Twitter!
I’ve been catching up on the Hulk comics after watching the Planet Hulk DVD and they’re getting unbelievably good. I might have to double dip and pick these up in trade too.
Marvel is pleased to present your first look at Hulk #27! The critically acclaimed creative team of Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman team Red Hulk with Steve Rogers, Thor, and the brilliant Dr. Bruce Banner to put and end to the Intelligencia’s nefarious plans! Except in order to do so, Red Hulk must dive to the depths of the ocean and find an unlikely ally – the King of Atlantis, Namor!
HULK #27 (SEP100620)
Written by JEFF PARKER
Penciled by GABRIEL HARDMAN & MARK ROBINSON
Cover by ED McGUINNESS
Rated T+ …$3.99
FOC – 10/22/10, On Sale – 11/17/10
Just today I was thinking to myself, “Self, what would it look like if you mixed Marvel superheroes and TRON?”
Well, I’llbedamned, would you look at this!
Marvel has revealed the variant covers of some of it’s most popular titles “celebrating” TRON: Legacy‘s release – which still is just about two months away. Starting in November you can pick up these TRON variants featuring your favorite Marvel superheroes all TRON’d-up at your local comic shop.
Kind of a weird mash-up idea, but it definitely looks pretty cool with some of these characters. You can check them all out over at Marvel.com!