The leaked videos from Marvel’s press conference keep coming and here is another one. In this clip Tony and Cap argue about Tony’s actions and intentions of creating Ultron in the first place.

Enjoy!

“Age of Ultron” hits theaters May 2015.

Everybody wants to play in the pool that Marvel is building over at Disney. Even Hugh Jackman. But saying you want to do something is a far cry from actually doing it.

In the lead up to the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past (or X:DOFTP as it is commonly referred to online where character space is at a premium and reading ability is at an all time low) Jackman happily chats up how cool it would be if his character, Wolverine, showed up in an Avengers movie.

According to the ever vigilante and professional Variety as they quote another source which I now quote here:

“I would love to see him as part of ‘The Avengers,’” Jackman told IGN. “Because there’s a great dysfunction among that team, and I think Wolverine would fit right into that. He’d like that.”

He then upped the ante by dragging the big green one into the conversation:

“There’s no doubt he’d get in a fight with Hulk at some point,” he said. “Those two bad, rage-filled characters are going to square off at some point. It would be quite fun. I don’t know how much fun to shoot it would be, because I’m sure I’d be on the worst end of it, but hey, he can heal.”

The problem with this kind of reporting (not so much by a site like ours or a site like IGN because it is our job and place in the ecosystem to get super crazy around the minutiae of these geeky properties), is that a site like Variety should be more upfront and indepth on the business sides about how low the  possibilities of stuff like this coming to pass are. There is much more involved than Fox only having the rights currently.

The thing that is keeping stuff like this from happening, this studio red tape (as referenced in the Variety article), is that Marvel Studios is at the top of their game right now and they have no reason to support these other movies. Doing an inter-Studio crossover would open the gates for all kinds of business, financial, and creative complications (just look at the history of X-Men already, and Spider-Man’s much too quick reboot). And the sooner these other movies crash and fail, the sooner the rights revert back to Marvel where they can fit them into a somewhat more coherent structure.

I’m not saying it will never happen, but I am pretty sure that if at some point it does, it will be because Marvel has lost their edge and Kevin Feige is the new Chairman of Warner Brothers. 

After a long week off to take care of some personal business in an alternate universe – before said universe is eaten by Galactus of 616 – I’m back to bring you my favorite things in comics this week. Let’s not dilly dally and get right into the covers!

There’s been some big news in the Star Wars Comics world as Marvel will back the helm to the stories they now own the rights to. Brian Wood’s run on this batch of Star Wars tales has been fantastic. “Star Wars” issue 14 has a terrific cover and some even better insides so pick up what is sure to be one of the last great runs of Star Wars tales under the watchful eye of Dark Horse Comics.

I love a good cover that reminds me of The Rocketeer. I also love a great World War 2 cover, so that’s why I picked the cover to “The Royals Masters of War” issue 1. I flipped through the insides of this one and there is a spectacular two page spread of bombers and dog fights that’s worth the cover price alone.

The cover to “Winter Soldier: The Bitter March” issue 1, by Andrew Robinson, is a sort-of tie in to the upcoming film “Captain America: Winter Soldier” is nicely 60’s with a great psychedelic font. I love how the title is very 60’s and comes directly out of the lamp light. I can see some homage to the Winter Soldier’s look inside the book but I don’t think it does much for the movie. I’m staying for the full mini-series though and we’ll get to see if it has any play with the movie in two short months.

I had to go to Bleeding Cool to find a decent size image of the “Memory Collector” issue 3. I saw the books cover on Comixology and new I had to include it. The reviews I read for the book say that the insides are judged nicely by the cover as they’re full of digital oils and a fully mind melting story. If you’ve read this one, let me know what you think of it in the comments. For now though, the cover by Menton3 is certainly one that needs to be mentioned.

If you haven’t read “Death Sentence” you’re missing out on a great story about people who get powers from a sexually transmitted disease that is very terminal and very incurable. “Death Sentence” is created by independent creators and the writer and cover artist Montynero fills the back pages of each issue with in depth tips and insider info on how his publishing experience went. It’s priced a little steep but well worth it to support independent creators and great story telling.

For the panels this week I picked some easy ones but didn’t include Batman. I’ve picked him a lot and this time I wasn’t really thrilled by anything that isn’t a “Spoiler”. So, let’s start things off with “Avengers” issue 26 where we get a sight glimpse into what The Avengers are doing in their off-time. Most of the answers surprised me but Thor’s did not.

I really like “Superman/Wonder Woman” and issue 5 was no exception. The art by Tony S. Daniel is superb. Every panel and ever y page was a potential pick for this week but instead of his beautiful rendition of Wonder Woman I went with this great little conversation between Batman and Superman. The characters really come off perfect here by Charles Soule. He was certainly my favorite writer from this week.

“Fatale” is soon coming to a close at issue 24 and the tension and story are just beginning their crescendo for the inevitable climax. This panel struck me because of the beauty of Brubaker’s characters given life by Sean Phillips. The foreboding nature of the lead male character’s inner dialogue and the fact that he looks like he’s literally seen a ghost all made this a perfect panel from one of the mediums perfect comics.

That’s all we have for this week. If you’re after some more great comic book covers and panels you can check out last week’s issue of “5 and 3” right here. Here’s a big THANK YOU to Androidika who picked last week’s best moments in comics for all of us to drool over.  You can follow that fine bot on Twitter @MrMiah. Let him know if you’d like him to guest star again in the future. For now though, I’ll be seeing you next week and every week after that right here on Big Shiny Robot dot Com.

Whenever a new trailer for a comic book movie comes out my fellow geeks and I look for possible clues to what may or may not be in the movie. So just in case you haven’t seen the trailer here it is again. After that, plenty of spoilers. You’ve been warned.

So now that you’re all caught up let’s dig in shall we?  The first thing I noticed is Cap’s new suit. He has traded in his old Stars and Stripes for a more modern look (at least during this scene) and it’s awesome. Comic fans will recognize it from the pages of Marvel’s “Secret Avengers.” This is by far my favorite look that Cap has and I hope we see it a lot thoughout the movie. Looking at the pics below it is easy to see where the movie got it’s inspiration. 

 Image from liveforfilms

                                                                              Image from themarysue

Next on the list are the numbers 42,88, and 65 that we see painted on the planes. The numbers are important to me, I don’t think they just chose numbers at random and here is why. The number 42 is the most frequented number in the trailer we see it at least 4 seperate times that I could count. Why is 42 such a big deal? Well in a story arc called “Death of Captain America” issue #42 is when Bucky Barnes is reveiled as the rightful heir of the Captain America title once Steve Rogers (the Cap we all know and love) has been killed.The number 88 ties in nicely to Captain America issue #88 “Tales of Suspense” which is when we discover that Cap’s sidekick Bucky Barns is still alive. If you remember Bucky fell off the train and “died” in the first movie. The last number 65 goes hand in hand with “Captain America Comics issue #65” entitled “When Friends Turn Foe.” Telling the story all through the numbers on the planes, nicely done Marvel, nicely done. Let’s move on to the new characters Introduced in the trailer.

We meet Alexander Pierce played by Robert Redford. In the comics he is a good guy and an agent of SHEILD. Nick Fury relies upon him quite a lot and Pierce actually helps take control of SHEILD from some villains. I think in the movie he will be the one responsible for The Winter Soldier and try to take over SHEILD from Fury but we shall see.

Next we have Sam Wilson aka The Falcon played by Anthony Mackie. Falcon’s past is a tragic one, both his parents died at the hand of sensless crime and drove Sam down a path of crime. He eventually was recruited by the Red Skull to be used as a pawn against Cap but the plan backfired and Falcon became Captain America’s partner. Falcon has a suit that allows him to fly and he also can communicate telepathically with birds even to the point that he can see what they see. How much of that will be in the movie (other than his flying suit) remains to be seen. 

                                                  Image from Marvel

 Image from comicbook.com

Last and most exciting is The Winter Soldier himself. For those that don’t know The Winter Soldier is Bucky Barns. In the comics Bucky “dies” while an a mission with Cap only to resurface later as his enemy simply because he has been brainwashed by the Russians. I would assume Marvel would like to keep this a secret for those who don’t read the comics but who knows how much of a secret it will really be. The Winter Soldier costume looks to be taken right off the pages of the comics as well which is awesome.

Image from screencrush

                                                                                                   Image from wikipedia

I would assume that for the movie version Bucky underwent some sort of experimentation from the first movie which is why he wasn’t with the others when Cap first showed up to rescue him. I have to say though that other than the numbers on the planes tying so close to the comic book issues this part of the trailer gave me chills.

So what do you think of the numbers on the planes? Are they meant to have the deep meaning I have connected them with or are they just numbers? Also If I missed any easter eggs let me know and I’ll be sure to add them. 

Marvel is no longer a stranger to the Japanese market with their Anime adaptations of Iron Man, Wolverine, The X-Men, Blade and lets not forget Stan Lee’s Heroman, their doing pretty well in the of land of the rising coin I’d say.

So with Avengers 2 coming up naturally it’s a great time to make a brand new Avengers Anime but not so fast fanboys, the press release we have tells us that this show is targeted mostly towards Japanese boys ages 6-12 and the characters all look they’ve had some heavy re-designs. Is it just me or do Cap and Thor look like Mega Man X and Zero? I can’t be the only who sees this.

One more observation I have is look at the kids in the back ground, notice how there’s one for each of our heros? If I had to hazard a guess with my trained Anime eye (stop laughing) I’d say each one of our heros will have a partner. We may be looking at the first ever Avengers show that works just like digimon… Maybe I do want to see this?

Meguro-ku, Tokyo, October 23, 2013 — The Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd. announced today that it will produce the first Japanese Marvel animated television series targeted at boys. Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers is based on Marvel’s most popular team of Super Heroes, The Avengers and will premiere nationwide on terrestrial television in spring 2014.

 

      Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers will be produced by Nerima-ku, Tokyo-based Toei Animation Co., Ltd., which has produced multiple successful animated series for kids in Japan. Taito-ku, Tokyo-based Bandai Co., Ltd., which has a highly successful track record with major titles, will be responsible for character merchandising. The three companies will collaborate in creating a fully localized Japanese series as well as providing a lineup of attractive products and merchandise targeting the boys market.

 

      The story will revolve around how The Avengers – Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the Hulk together with the help of Spider-Man and a group of teens, will harness their respective fighting skills and superhuman powers to foil Loki’s scheme to take over the world. Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers will target boys in the 6-12 age group.

 

      Walt Disney Japan, through its local content strategy—delivering content tailored to meet the needs of local consumers—is actively localizing content to fit the tastes and sensibilities of Japanese audiences. Though the company has produced and broadcast several localized programs, from the animated short-form series Fireball in 2008, Disney’s first animated series produced entirely in Japan, to Stitch!, which stars the popular Disney character with a change of setting from Hawaii to Okinawa. Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers will be its first animated television series specifically targeted at boys and will delight Japanese viewers with an entirely new action-packed storyline that unfolds before their eyes in a high quality 2D animated format. Most recently, this Super Hero team was seen in the 2012 live-action movie, Marvel’s The Avengers, with a world-wide box office revenue that exceeded $1.5 billion and was the third-top grossing film of all time.

 

      Through this collaboration, Marvel, Walt Disney Japan, Japan’s top animation studio Toei Animation, and character merchandising leader Bandai will together leverage their respective strengths to deliver a television series for nationwide broadcast and a range of merchandise that is sure to breathe new life into the boys market in Japan.

A new poster hit the Captain America Facebook page. Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” poster. There will also be a teaser trailer posted exclusivley on itunes in just two days.

Al Ewing and Greg Land made an outstanding opening statement with Mighty Avengers issue #1, and their follow up attack is more of the same. Greg land continues to deliver on pencils despite what his detractors would say. The diverse group of characters comes to life on the page with Land’s restless style – which is perfect for the electric dialogue provided by Ewing. Al is extremely humble on his Twitter feed. He was handed “yet another” Avengers book and has made it intriguing to anyone suffering from event fatigue. The story is bigger than life, the characters are compelling and funny, the stakes couldn’t be higher, and there’s still a nunchaku wielding neon Spider-man.

Despite being an Infinity cross-over, Mighty Avengers is easily read as a standalone. Despite that, in Marvel style, it still fills you in on what’s going on over in the main Marvel Now event. It’s refreshing that this rag-tag bunch of super-heroes gets to take on Thanos and his minions but it’s a treat when the Watcher shows up in this comic just one week after appearing over in Guardians of The Galaxy.

The book starts with Dr. Strange being manipulated by Thanos’ Knight Maw into performing dark magic against his will. We then meet up with the latest member to make an appearance, The Blue Marvel. He responds to the attack on New York because it’s a “level 7” and his monitoring system has only ever seen a level 4. While he speeds towards New York, things get out of hand and our Mighty Avengers are taking a beating. That’s when something beautiful happens and the citizens of New York call on the Avengers to assemble. Proving they may be down but not out, this new Avengers team still led by Luke Cage, gives the beating right back.

Al Ewing has been very vocal about his passion for this book and these characters. When I asked him over Twitter why he was so excited about the Mighty Avengers, he answered me very succinctly tweeting, “It’s fun super heroics with a communitarian streak. It’s the people’s Avengers. This first arc, I get to lay out those concepts.” The community aspect he was talking about comes through clearly in this issue. The heart of this book really is the about the people’s Avengers, and that’s what makes it so good.

To keep the conversation going, follow Al Ewing on Twitter @Al_Ewing and Me, Mark Avo @MarkAvo.

Joss Whedon crashed the Starfury “Serenity Forever” convention in London this past weekend. One of our readers and fans, Roel, was on hand at this small con, which headlined Jewel Staite and Sean Maher as the main Firefly/Serenity guests. Roel has this report on Joss Whedon’s surprise appearance at the convention’s dance:

Starfury cons in London are always fun, they are small gatherings of a few hundred fans coming together to celebrate their favorite shows with what has become a giant happy family. The three day cons consist of an opening ceremony on Friday, photo and autograph sessions Saturday and Sunday morning and guest talks/Q&As the rest of the Saturday and Sunday. Each of the three days ends with a themed disco party in the ballroom from 9PM to 2AM where the invited actors and writers can choose to mingle with the attendees at the bar or join them on the dance floor, which is always great fun.

 

This past weekend (Sept 13th – 15th) ‘Serenity Forever’ focused on Firefly, Battlestar Galactica and Stargate with Jewel Staite, Sean Maher, Nectar Rose, Magda Apanowicz, Aaron Douglas, Leah Cairns, Stephanie Jacobsen, Elyse Levesque and Jonathan Woodward attending the con, sharing amazing stories with the attendees and just having a lot of fun.

 

This con was already amazing, but no one was prepared for what happened Saturday night. Jewel and Sean were not at the disco party, but had chosen to go to their hotel, which is totally fine, no one is forced to do anything they don’t feel like doing. But sometime after midnight the attendees who were sitting outside the lobby getting some fresh air or smoking a cigarette were treated to a very strange sight. Jewel and Sean were giddily walking towards the hotel escorting a man, whose face was wrapped in a scarf. This was such a weird sight that lots of people started staring, which made Sean and Jewel realize their ‘clever trick with the scarf’ wasn’t as effective as they had hoped, so they lost the scarf, and made the hearts of a few dozen people skip a few beats.

 

The man with the scarf around his head was no other than Joss Whedon himself!

 

The trio walked to the bar (with the con organizer running after them desperate to find out what was going on!) where they got a drink and talked to some fans, most of the attendees had heard that Joss arrived, although most of them didn’t believe a word of it at first more and more people started to flock around Joss welcoming him and saying hi. After a little while the trio moved to the dance floor where they proceeded to dance till the hotel staff turned up the lights and announced it was time to clear the ballroom. At which point Joss grabbed a microphone, got up on stage and said a few words to thank all the attendees for being so amazingly cool and welcoming before he left the building with Sean and Jewel while every one in the room cheered his name.

 

When the DJ announced Joss had left the building back stage and asked everyone to kindly leave the ballroom in an orderly fashion so it could be cleaned and set up for the next day every one started spontaneously singing the Firefly theme song in unison, which I for one sincerely hope Joss was able to hear, because it was such an amazing moment to witness, the whole thing brought tears to many a fan’s eye. Though I stand by my statement that I got some dust in my eye… honest!       Okay fine, I cried… there you have it.

 

Afterward the attendees gathered in groups in the lobby, at the bar and outside, sharing their happiness with each other, telling each other the story of how they just shook Joss Whedon’s hand and how sincerely nice the guy was. And he was not a bad dancer either, his robot is simply amazing.

 

The next day Sean and Jewel explained what actually happened, that Joss was in London for work and that he came over to their hotel to hang out, after mentioning that he felt like dancing Sean and Jewel didn’t really know anywhere they could go. Except maybe to the dance party for this con, which is always low key and nice, and since the con is always attended by amazing people Sean and Jewel felt like it would be totally fine if Joss came over to dance.

 

I am so glad that all of the attendees proved them right by being totally respectful and keeping their distance for the most part letting Joss just have fun with his friends without hassling him for photos or autographs. Obviously there were some people to protect him from lunatics or drunk people pushing boundaries, but I am glad that they didn’t really have to do anything because every one was just amazing in respecting the man’s privacy. 

 

Without a doubt this con is one the attendees will NEVER forget, a random appearance of Joss is rare, being able to talk to him or dance with him is rare and for a lot of us just a once in a lifetime opportunity. I am truly grateful and honored that Sean and Jewel felt they could trust the lot of us enough to just bring Joss over to have fun, and I am truly grateful that the lot of us proved them right. This is definitely a con I personally will never forget, and Sean got a big hug for making this happen.

 

In the off chance that Joss ever reads this. Thank you so much! You made a lot of geeks really happy, and I hope you had fun. And now I’m going to get a tissue because there is dust in my eye again.

Thanks to Roel for this convention report! So what is Joss Whedon working on in the United Kingdom? Is he preparing to film The Avengers: Age of Ultron, which is scheduled to shoot in London in 2014 (via Screen Rant)?

Starfury Conventions (http://www.starfury.co.uk/) hosts a variety of different genre cons in the UK. Color photo by Bénélie Blanlain, and black & white photo by Jo Leslie.

Back at San Diego Comic Con, it was announced that the big Avengers sequel baddie would be Ultron – hence, Marvel’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron. It wasn’t long after that that it was revealed that Ultron’s origin would be modified for the movie universe and Hank Pym, Ant Man, would not be Ultron’s creators but instead Tony Stark.

This immediately got my gears turning with theories. The one that always made sense to me is this:

In Iron Man 3 we are introduced to an Iron Man suit that doesn’t need Tony in it to operate – Tony can operate it remotely. Already established in the Iron Man movie universe is the artificial intelligence that serves as Tony’s assistant known as JARVIS, who we already know can take control of the Iron Man suits. So perhaps Tony builds a suit specifically for JARVIS to inhabit? Perhaps JARVIS just decides to take control of a suit for other reasons? Or maybe JARVIS makes his own “suit” (ala Ultron form) to gain a physical presence to pursue his own goals?

These were my immediate thoughts on how Ultron would come about in the Avengers sequel, and according to UnleashTheFanboy.com, this just might be the case.

Well, that’s what we’ve theorized . . . but we couldn’t get anyone involved in the project to confirm it… not until our usually tight lipped friend at Disney decided to chime in.

When we asked if JARVIS, or a form of the AI software, would become Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron, our source said:

“That’s the plan so far from what I’ve heard. Obvious, isn’t it?”

And since Paul Bettany has portrayed JARVIS in every Marvel Studios film since the cinematic universe’s creation, we asked our source if the thespian would return for a proper physical role, instead of just the voiceover:

“He’s returning, but I’m not sure if they’re doing motion capture with him, or if they’ll use someone else. Since he’s only done voiceovers, the contract is new.”

Unleash the Fanboy also has some interesting ideas about Paul Bettany portaying Ultron and Vision that I don’t believe are completely out of the realm of possibilities and worth considering.

As always, take this as just a rumor until we hear it straight from the proverbial horse’s mouth. But I know I’m not the only one who theorized this right out of the gate, and to me it seems like the logical origin for the Marvel Movie Universe version of Ultron. We’ll just have to wait and see.

You can follow Arse-bot and all the pointless thoughts he puts out into the interwebs on Twitter @Arse_bot

I am a life-long lover of Marvel Mutant Mayhem, and lately, my cup runneth over. I’ve been out of the loop for a long time, but the launch of Marvel NOW has pulled me back with a vengeance. I haven’t been reading everything (I’m only mildly wealthy, after all), but I have been reading more comics lately than I have in nearly two decades. Mission accomplished, Marvel. Your mom and I are so very proud!

I’ve been a fan of Rick Remender’s writing since Fear Agent. He has a way with dialogue that is engaging, flippant, and poignant all at once. Uncanny Avengers has not be an exception. Starting with the Red Skull stealing the brain of Charles Xavier and starting a wave of anti-Mutant hysteria, and then moving into the current Heirs of Apocalypse storyline, Remender has been keeping his story moving along quite nicely.

Eimin and Uriel, the children of Archangel and heirs apparent to the throne of Apocalypse assassinated a Celestial in issue 7. Now, they are back on Earth (after destroying a SWORD orbital station) and trying to woo Sunfire back into the fold as their agent of Famine. Thor and Sunfire team up to save Rio De Janeiro from burning orbital wreckage. Wasp tries to get cozy with Havock. Captain America crash lands in the Sudan. Parts of the Avengers team start to suspect their mutant team-mates of keeping secrets. Thor’s old axe makes a comeback.

The Good: Wolverine is in the background here, unless needed for the overall story. Havock shrugging off the Wasp’s advances. Eimin and Uriel are interesting, to say the least.

The Rad: Shiro and Thor are my new Abbot and Costello: “Do you require a hug to sort out your disposition”? “Would you risk hugging the core of the sun itself”? Sunfire in Rio:”No, please. no need to thank me, Rio. Thank the Avengers for having the foresight to beg Sunfire to join”. Captain America in the Sudan is AWESOME.

The Fugly: That smack was for blasphemy, Junior! Remender’s pacing is excellent. This isn’t mere Fights and Tights, kids. Daniel Acuna’s artwork is very sharp, and keeps you focused on the overall story from start to finish. I’m sure I could find something not to like here, but why bother? Uncanny Avengers is a great read!

Uncanny Avengers #8 is available at your local comic shop now.