TheOneRing.Net has brought us news that Warner Brothers officially announced the names and release dates of the two Hobbit films.

The first is called “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and will hit theatres December 14, 2012. The second is called “The Hobbit: There and Back Again” and will hit cinemas December 13, 2013.

It’s going to be a very long wait, but I’m very glad they’ve got a solid date and titles for these films. It was a great time from 2001 to 2003 to see a new Lord of the Rings movie every year and we’ll get 2/3rds of a taste of that back next year.

From the press release:

Both films are set in Middle-earth 60 years before Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar®-winning “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” The adventure of “The Hobbit” follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug.

Under Jackson’s direction, both movies are being shot consecutively in digital 3D using the latest camera and stereo technology. Filming is taking place at Stone Street Studios, Wellington, and on location around New Zealand.

Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey, the character he played in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and Martin Freeman, who just won a BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the BBC series “Sherlock,” takes on the central role of Bilbo Baggins. Also reprising their roles from “The Lord of the Rings” movies are: Cate Blanchett as Galadriel; Orlando Bloom as Legolas; Ian Holm as the elder Bilbo; Christopher Lee as Saruman; Hugo Weaving as Elrond; Elijah Wood as Frodo; and Andy Serkis as Gollum. The ensemble cast also includes (in alphabetical order) Richard Armitage, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, Mike Mizrahi, James Nesbitt, Dean O’Gorman, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott, Jeffrey Thomas, and Aidan Turner.

Let’s hope Jackson can make lightning strike a fourth and a fifth time. Something tells me he can.

This week on Anime Update: The co-founder of X Japan and Stan Lee have teamed up for a new project, and Durarara is coming to Adult Swim this June.

First up in this week’s anime update:

Pow Entertainment has confirmed that Stan Lee recently collaborated with X Japan founder Yoshiki on a new “music super hero comic book and motion comic series.” Issue zero is set to launch at Comic-Con International in San Diego this July. The series, which was first announced last October, is not the first work shared by the two icons. Lee also appeared in one of X Japan’s music videos last year – “Born to Be Free.” Yoshiki told eager fans earlier this month at FanimeCon that he and Lee would be holding a press conference together at Comic Con.

“When I met Yoshiki, I was so impressed with his musical talents and unique creative eye that I knew immediately I wanted to work with him on something special where we could combine both our strengths. Creating a music Super Hero character was the natural evolution of our efforts,” said Stan Lee, Founder, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer (CCO) of POW! Entertainment.

The comic will portray Yoshiki as a “Gothic-styled superhero / vigilante” (Perfect for a Visual Kei artist of Yoshiki’s caliber!). His influences in the writing of the project included his interest in dragons and music. Lee has said that Yoshiki’s powers will activate “when certain musical notes are played on (his) drumsticks.” Yoshiki will also be composing music that will be heard during the motion comic, making it a truly unique collaboration for this type of media.

“Just like the rest of the world, I have admired Stan Lee and his creations my entire life. Just meeting him was so great and now working with him is one of the most fun and creative experiences I have ever had. To watch his mind at work is amazing and inspiring,” said Yoshiki.

Stay tuned for more announcements about this project in July when the press conference is held at San Diego Comic-Con.

Next up on this week’s update:

Aniplex of America announced today that its breakout anime Durarara!! will make its U.S. network television debut on Adult Swim this June. The 26-episode series is slated to air during the network’s Saturday evening programming block. Subsequent episodes will also be available on adultswim.com. The series will air in English dub format.

A pitch-black headless motorcyclist who roams the city?! High-tension suspense and action are taking over Ikebukuro, Tokyo! “Durarara!!” the animated TV series is based on the hit self-titled novel by Ryohgo Narita.

I’ve seen up to about the first half of Durarara and can say that so far it’s pretty good. The story revolves around a headless motorcycle rider who works as an underground courier in Ikebukuro, the Dollars gang, and the general mayhem that ensues. Check out Durarara when it comes to Adult Swim, and support more awesome anime series making their way onto major networks!

For more anime, manga and geek news from Japan and around the world, keep reading Big Shiny Robot!

I know in my lead ups, I always tend to talk about the cliffhanger from last week. It’s mainly because those are my favorite parts of the serials. Sometimes they can be incredibly goofy, but when they are done well, they actually still work in a suspenseful way. Take the last cliffhanger for example, Gail is about to be guillotined for failing to reveal Cap’s identity. Sure, it’s a tried and true death trap, but the way they lead up to it in this case gives me a case of white knuckled thrills if ever there was one! Will Cap save Gail, or will she be getting a head in life? Let’s watch Chapter Six: Vault of Vengeance and find out!

And for this week’s supplementary material, I don’t have anything directly related to this chapter, but I do have a giant scan of the poster art I used for the header image. Wheras most movie posters are one sheets, this baby is a three sheet! Apologies for slower load times, but I didn’t want to sacrifice quality. Enjoy!

UPDATED:  Congrats to our contest winners Christopher Tarbell of Portland, ME and Jeff Sudgen from one of the Jordans, UT.  I’ve added their essays at the bottom of the post for your perusal as they gave awesome answers. I’m getting to see X-men First Class tomorrow at a press screening and will have a review for you as soon as I can post one.

Early word on X-men First Class is surprisingly positive. I’ll be seeing it Tuesday and have a full review for you on Thursday.

In the meantime, we were contacted by the great folks at Junk Food Clothing to see if you lucky readers would like some FREE T-SHIRTS!!!!!?!

Knowing the awesome quality of what Junk Food puts out, we jumped at the chance. If you’re not familiar, Junk Food specializes in vintage tee’s and have a huge selection of superhero shirts, both in the Marvel and DC flavors.  You could (and totally should) go stock up and get one shirt for each of the rest of the movie premieres for the rest of the summer: an X-men, a Green Lantern, a Captain America, and get a Thor just to round things out.

So their shirt we’re giving away will be two of the following three varieties:

Nice, huh?

So, how to give these away to you, dear readers?

Well, I love the X-men. They were my gateway drug into Marvel comics. I loved the concept: a bunch of misfits, outsiders, scorned by society as freaks, who individual powers and personalities weren’t that compelling, but working as a part of a team, they could really kicks some ass. Plus, giant robot sentinels that scan your DNA is hella-scary and a pretty awesome vision for a dystopian future.
My geek coming-of-age was at the height of Chris Clairmont’s run on X-men, so my original X- team was Wolverine, Storm, and new recruits Rogue, Psylocke, Dazzler, and Longshot.  Colossus was frozen in his metal form, Nightcrawler was in a coma, Kitty Pryde was permanently “phased” and her molecules were floating apart. . . Havok and Polaris came in and out of the ongoing story, and, oh right, Professor X was missing and Magneto had become a good guy.  Crazy, and awesome.

Meanwhile, X-Factor was ongoing, featuring Cyclops, Angel (I cried when he lost his wings and then committed suicide), Jean Grey, Iceman, and a not-yet-furry Beast.

Marvel was also reprinting old X-comics as “Classic X-men” so I was also introduced to the original X-team and experienced the Phoenix origin as a monthly title thank to the spinner rack at Days Market on Canyon Road in Provo, UT.  One of these Classic X-men was a reprint of X-men 100, which inspired this contest:

“Old X-men vs. New X-men.”

Hmmmmm. . . and I thought of the other lineup changes X-men went through over the years: The Fall of the Mutants and their “Death”/exile to Australia. The addition of two characters , Jubilee and Gambit, who I hated and tolerated, respectively. There was the 90’s X-men cartoon. There was Age of Apocalypse. Cable. Bishop.
The Legacy Virus. The hiatus I took from comics. . . and picked them back up with Ultimate X-men and Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-men (with Emma Frost as a good guy?!?) The X-men movies, of course, blew my mind, and X2 remains at the top of the heap for my favorite superhero films ever.

So that’s the contest: Old X-men vs. New X-men.

Tell me, briefly, which X-men lineup is the best ever. And why. Which is your favorite?

Email me at citizenbot@bigshinyrobot.com with the subject line “X-men lineup” before the end of the Memorial Day weekend and include a name, address, and shirt size (S to XL).  I’ll go through all entries in my inbox Tuesday morning and post the two winning answers here.

Good luck, happy nostalgia-ing, and so, until Wolverine’s adamantium claws start to rust, MAKE MINE MARVEL!

Jeff:
My very first X-men comic was Uncanny X-men 226, and it was enough to get me hooked. This was towards the end of the “Fall of the Mutants” story line by Chris Claremont. The line-up consisted of Colossus (still my favorite X-men), Wolverine, Havok, Longshot, Rogue, Dazzler, Storm, non-ninja Psylocke, and Forge. I had no idea who the original team was, nor did I care at the time. As the story progresses the team ultimately sacrifices themselves to defeat their enemy the Adversary. While this team isn’t the most powerful, the most classic, or even the most memorable, it was the team that won me over.

Christopher:
When thinking over the greatest X-Men line ups over the ages, people usually mention one of Claremont’s reinventions, whether it be the late 70s team with Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Thunderbird, or the 90s team which was split into two separate teams, and led to a much larger X Team and a very successful toy line and cartoon. Claremont’s 70s line up was better than his 90s one, but neither were the best. Claremont’s 70s run was small enough to work. Afterall, the biggest downfall of the 90s X-Men was too many X-men, and the overwhelming popularity of Wolverine. The 70s run was small enough to work, but the characters, except for a few here and there, were not fully established in the canon yet and the team didnt gel as well as it would later. Claremont was responsible for fleshing out so many of these characters. But is it really believable that Claremont’s Wolverine would take orders from Claremont’s Cyclops? Or that any of these X-Men would continue to follow Claremont’s Xavier so blindly? So this brings me to my point. When initially thinking over this question, my immediate response was Grant Morrison’s New X-Men team. The team consisted of a totally different, Apocalypse tainted Cyclops, an insecure Jean Grey, an untrustworthy Emma Frost, sarcastic Beast, and Wolverine being his regular self. This series team gets my attention mainly because the series itself is so good. But what makes this series so good, is that it is a transitional period for the X-Men. We start to see that Xavier is a jerk, Cyclops cheating on his wife, and Wolverine who seems too focused on the goals of the team to really come across as the lone wolf anymore. The team is small enough, which always helps, but it becomes apparent that there is no room for two strong female leads in any X team, and that either Cyclops or Xavier will have to take over the X helm as neither will be able to work with each other for much longer. Joss Whedon takes Morrison’s take on the X-Men and creates the greatest line up of the X-Men so far. Cyclops becomes defacto leader. It is now his job to run the school, and he is officially done being Xavier’s lapdog. This makes his take no crap from anyone role as leader all the more believable. With Jean dead, Emma becomes the central lead female of the team. Although not the main female character of the story (this honor is bestowed on the excellently written Kitty Pride), she is the central leading role of the team. She does it well. While I have always loved Jean, there is not enough of a woman to be with the new and improved Scott Summers. Emma is a perfect leadership and romantic counterpart to Cyclops. Beast is still the same sarcastic, comic relief character that he is in most X stories. Although, in Whedon’s run, the comedian shows his real demons (every comedian has them) when confronted with his rapidly mutating self. He is terrified that he will one day become an animal and lose that intellect and wit, the one thing that has always defined him. This gives a real gravity to a character that, in my opinion, was always kind of kitschy and throw away. Colossus and Kitty are the perfect antithesis to the romance of Scott and Emma. They are the young couple, stumbling over the beginnings of love. Their youthful love helps to further define the parent/leader role of Scott and Emma, and really Astonishing X-Men is the story of Kitty and Colossus. It begins with Kitty and it ends with Colossus. Someone reading it begins to really understand how far Kitty Pryde will not only go for her race, but also how far she will go for one particular mutant. Wolverine, and eventually Armor, are the final two members of the team. In my opinion, Wolverine was never meant to be a lead character. That being said, he is an excellent character, and Whedon uses him perfectly. Wolverine is the lone wolf, and naturally all writers and readers are attracted to this kind of character, but in order for Wolverine to be successful he needs to remain morally ambiguous and his reason for being part of the team should remain a mystery. This is why Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine is unbelievable, and James Marsden is forced to play a whiny boyscout Cyclops in the movie. Wolverine is not a leader. He is the seasoning on the steak. Too much of the seasoning ruins the steak, just the right amount makes it perfect. Armor is also a nice addition. She becomes the young up and comer, like Kitty Pryde, Jubilee and Rogue (movies) were before her. She makes a great counterpart to Wolverine and is a joy to read. So, in summation, while there have been so many great X-Teams, Joss Whedon’s got to the heart of it all and made the team that much more believable.

“He doesn’t use the Force because the Force uses him. He is…the Most Interesting Geek In The Galaxy.”

GeekToMe on Twitter has created a page inspired by the Dos Equis “The Most Interesting Man in the World” commercials.  However, his site takes “The Most Interesting” idea in a whole new direction and focuses on geeks.  He began with his own hilarious ideas and then began accepting submissions from Twitter with the hashtag #mostinterestinggeek.  You can see the entire list at Geek To Me.

It would be remiss of me not to mention that he even included my own submission:  “He was on Alderaan when it blew up . . . and survived.” (via @yodaprncss)  (yes, I know . .. sheer genius!)

Though the submissions are primarily Star Wars-related, geeks of other fandoms have not been neglected.  Star Trek, Firefly, Dune, and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy also make appearances.

I know the Dos Equis commercials usually get a chuckle out of me, but these submissions are truly inspired.

I will leave you with one more gem from the page:  “He never has to go to Toshi Station to pick up his power converters.  They deliver to him.”

The second teaser trailer for the new Muppet movie (entitled simply The Muppets) is out now, and it appears to be a parody of the Hangover 2 teaser.

While it doesn’t provide much in the way of story, you can see most of your favorite characters together at the end (and YES!  I do believe I spot the Swedish Chef, sans hat).  This trailer is called “The Fuzzy Pack.”

I’ve also included the Hangover 2 teaser for comparison:

When I first heard that a new Muppet movie was in the works, I admit I was rather skeptical.  The quality of Muppet projects has waxed and waned since their creator Jim Henson left this world, but I have hope that this new film will be a shot of adrenaline to the franchise.

The appeal of the Muppet movies is that they are funny while still having heart.  The wedding scene at the end of Muppets Take Manhattan makes me a little teary-eyed, but the playroom scene with Kermie and friends as babies is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.  Okay, well, one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.  (I’ve seen a lot of cute things).

The first teaser, known as “Green with Envy” also debuted very recently, and at first glance it looks like a romantic comedy.  Amy Adams is as adorable as ever, looking perky and very much like she did in Enchanted, and I’ve heard over and over that Jason Segel is a huge fan of the Muppets and will likely be mindful of how much people need a GOOD Muppet movie after years of nothing.

And boy, how we hope this movie will be good.

The Muppets debuts in theaters on November 23, 2011.

After the wringer marvel put Daredevil through last year, a fresh start is always nice, and from these preview pages, I’d say they’re doing it right. Marcos Martin is one of the best artists to break out in recent times and Mark Waid is, well, Mark Waid. Marvel was even nice enough to break their tradition and actually include captions and dialog this time around. It all adds up to me wanting to pick up a Daredevil book, and that has never happened before. If you dig it as much as me, get your LCS on the phone stat, and reserve a copy!

Marvel is pleased to present your first look at Daredevil #1, from the creative dream team of Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin! Daredevil’s exciting new journey begins as he retakes the alleys and rooftops of New York City with monumental life changes, new enemies, new friends and a new role in the Marvel Universe! Billy club in hand, Matt Murdock must tackle his greatest challenges yet, but will he be welcomed back to New York with open arms? Who will stand in his way and can Daredevil be trusted? Find out as Daredevil soars to new heights in the double-sized Daredevil#1, this July!

DAREDEVIL #1 (MAY110660)
DAREDEVIL #1 ROMITA SR. VARIANT (MAY110661)
DAREDEVIL #1 MARTIN VARIANT (MAY110662)
DAREDEVIL #1 ADAMS VARIANT (MAY110664)
DAREDEVIL #1 BLANK COVER VARIANT (MAY110663)
Written by MARK WAID
Pencils by PAOLO RIVERA and MARCOS MARTIN
Cover by PAOLO RIVERA
Variant cover by JOHN ROMITA SR.
Variant Cover by MARCOS MARTIN
Variant Cover by NEAL ADAMS
Blank Cover also available
Rated T+…$3.99
FOC – 6/27/11, ON SALE – 7/7/11

FIGHTING AMERICAN (trade paperback collection, one-shot, $19.95)

WHO’S RESPONSIBLE? Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (writers/artists), as well as various uncredited art collaborators.

There’s no overstating the incredible influence the Joe Simon-Jack Kirby partnership had on the Golden Age of Comics. Together, the writer-artists created Captain America for Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel, as well as revamping the character Sandman and creating Manhunter, both for National Comics. After serving stints in World War II, the two returned to help popularize the Western comics genre (with Boys Ranch), romance comics (with Young Romance) and crime comics.

The Simon-Kirby partnership extended well through the ‘40s and ‘50s. And in the ‘60s, Kirby experienced true superstardom as the co-creator and artist on such Marvel Comics titles as Fantastic Four, Captain America, the Avengers  and many others. (Later, at DC, he created his mind-bending Fourth World comics and characters, as well as The Demon.)

Titan Books is releasing a series of volumes that concentrates on their collaborative works. The latest of these is simply title Fighting American.

Fighting American was Simon and Kirby’s response to Atlas Comics (the other Marvel precursor) reviving the Captain America title in the early ‘50, to mostly poor results. As Simon put it, “We thought we’d show them how to do Captain America.”

The title character was frail, bookwormish Nelson Flagg, who had his mind transferred into the revived body of his dead brother, Johnny. During the day, he broadcasted news and combatted Communist propaganda. At night, he wore a star-spangled suit, and battled the Red Menace physically. And like Captain America, he had a sidekick: Speed Boy, a studio page/usher.

Seven issues comprised the original series, for the duo’s Prize Group company, though Harvey Comics later produced two more issues featuring more Simon and Kirby Fighting American tales.

THE GOOD.

Really, how can you go wrong with a Jack Kirby-illustrated comic? There’s a reason why such modern artists as Erik Larsen and Eric Powell continue to sing “The King’s” praises.

For example, there’s a spectacular, full-page battle between Fighting American and Poison Ivan that presaged Kirby’s equally unforgettable fight sequence between Captain America and Batroc the Leaper in Tales of Suspense #85 by more than 10 years.

Also, you get to some the origins of some of the later weirdness of Kirby’s works. Once the McCarthy era was over, the stories got even more cheeky and goofy. (Fighting American and Speed Boy were pitted against such enemies as the Mad Inker, the Sneak of Araby, Deadly Dolittle and Invisible Irving.)

THE BAD.

It’s pretty obvious which of the stories were written by Kirby, as compared to Simon. His stories were more broadly comic, sometimes to overwhelmingly silly degree.

(As much as we all might hate to credit the boastful Stan Lee, it was his collaborations with Kirby that truly made him “The King,” and the Marvel Comics writing style allowed Kirby to fully utilize his art and writing skills.)

And these reprints may have been re-mastered, but the colors are still grotesquely garish. (I almost needed sunglasses to read some of the tales.)

THE UGLY.

And … sigh. There’s the accompanying xenophobia, ethnophobia and racism of the time on shameful display. The “Reds” are sometimes depicted as monstrous and hygienically challenged. (Though it’s interesting to see Simon and Kirby’s softer, more sympathetic portrayal of Japanese character here … as compared to their World War II depictions.)

Also, later issues featured several uncredited art assists. It appears such contemporaries as Wally Wood and George Tuska either penciled certain pages and panels, or worked over Kirby’s “breakdowns.” (It would be nice to know if they did. And if that is actually Milton Caniff who did some of it as well.)

IN CONCLUSION: If you’re a fan of Simon and Kirby … and who isn’t, really? … $20 is a pretty cheap price for 200 pages’ worth of fun comics by two of the form’s masters.

Jerk-Bot is the robotic nom de plume or Utah-based writer/reviewer Jeff Michael Vice. He would like you to listen to him rant about movies and other geeky stuff on both the Geek Show Podcast (www.geekshowpodcast.com) and the Mediocre Show (www.mediocreshow.com), as well as watch him review movies on the Big Movie Mouth-Off (www.facebook.com/bigmoviemouthoff).

The full Japanese trailer is out for Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the 3DS. Despite having played this game many times on my Nintendo 64, I have to admit that this trailer has me excited to play the game again on the new console. The graphics have been fully re-mastered and enhanced (and look great!). You’ll also have the new option of controlling Link’s slingshot with the gyro-sensor function on the 3DS. Master Quest will come included, so you can scale up the difficulty level if you only had the chance to play the original version back on the N64.

Watch this stunning new trailer from Nintendo:

The Japanese release date is set for June 16th, 2011 at 4,800 JPY (About USD $50). The US Release date is June 19th and it looks like our retail price will be USD $40. Pre-orders are already available at local retailers and Amazon.

Check out more about the forthcoming title here at Nintendo’s website.

As I sat at my desk today minding my own business, I got an instant message from my buddy, and BSR web-designer-guy-thingy, Chris that read, “DUUDE. Bungie did a mass credit reset on idlers. :)”

Hell. Yes.

If you aren’t familiar with the Xbox game Halo: Reach is the fourth installment of the wildly popular Halo series on the Xbox console. In this game as you play through the single-player campaign and battle other players online you earn “Credits” for each match you play. As you earn these credits you “rank up” to higher ranks, unlocking new armor pieces to pimp out your Spartan along the way. Since the release of this game there has been a bit of a problem with “AFK” (Away From Keyboard) players – players who just turn on the game, enter the lobby for online multiplayer matches, and walk away. The game will continue to keep putting them into matches despite the fact that they are doing nothing, and they will be earning credits along the way. Essentially, they are being rewarded to doing nothing but turning their Xbox on and letting it sit there for hours on end, hitting the maximum 60,000 credits you can earn in a single day.

As someone who plays Halo: Reach 3-12 hours per week with Kill-tacular-tron, his brother, and Chris, this can be a bit frustrating. Part of the appeal of the game is to play it and earn your rank as you progress through the game and earn new armor pieces. Sure, this is a small part of the appeal – most of it is just getting online with your friends and having fun trying to destroy the other team of n00bs – but it’s a fun and rewarding way to measure your progression and time spent in the game. These people who “AFK” ruin the experience of the game for those unfortunate enough to be stuck with a team mate who just stands there as a sitting target for the other team, or is of no help in a game of Firefight.

Bungie implemented a Credit Reset and a two-week ban on earning any more credits for every person they deemed to be a chronic “AFK”-er. Meaning the rank that they have spent hours obtaining and then in turn bragging about has been set back to the beginning, their credits are now at a zero balance, and they can’t even start earning more credits for two weeks. Justice. Has. Been. Served.

As soon as I heard this news I immediately rushed over to the official Halo: Reach forums for all the bitching and moaning goodness that was surely there. And it was. You’d be hard-pressed to find a forum for a video game so full of people leaving long-winded explanations as to why this game “sucks” and why they won’t play it any more – despite the fact it apparently took them a few hundred hours of play time to come to this conclusion. Sure enough, with this Credit Reset and temporary credit ban comes a bevvy of crying about how unfair it is even though Bungie has been warning the community this was coming for literally several months now. This credit reset and temporary credit ban is not a one time thing either. Going forward Bungie and/or 343 Studios will be monitoring for “AFK” players and should you fall into that category the same fate will befall you.

I think this is a great move by Bungie, and I’m sure most who play Halo: Reach will agree. The punishment is harsh, letting this group of cheaters know there are consequences for trying to cheat the ranking system, and hopefully the rest of the Halo community who actually play the game will experience far less online matches in which one player or more are non-playing “AFK”-ers.