In one of the coolest crossovers we’ve seen in a while, the game Portal 2 which is being released today, has an interactive teaser trailer for the upcoming J.J. Abrams movie Super 8 set to be release on June 10th. The teaser isn’t very much, but it’s still pretty cool that you get to play around inside the teaser instead of the game just having a preview for the movie inside the extras section. To access it in the game type “map e1912” in your console at the main menu and press enter. Or if you haven’t gotten the game yet you can watch a clip of someone else doing it that just hit the internet.
This is incredibly cool and possibly something that could happen in future games as well. Have you played Portal 2 yet? How do you like it? Are you excited for Super 8?
CONTEST: Avengers: The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Vol. 1 & 2
We are giving away two DVD sets of The Avengers: The Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Vol. 1 & 2.
For those of you getting more and more excited about the upcoming Marvel films, this series is a must see. Together, these volumes contain the first 13 episodes from the popular TV show. The DVD’s come out on April 26th, 2011.
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Volume 1 includes episodes 1-7 plus an exclusive look at the evolving characters and storyline of Season 2, and The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! Volume 2 includes episodes 8-13 plus another exclusive sneak peek at Season 2 that reveals what makes the Marvel Super Heroes and Villains so unique.
Featuring your favorite animated Super Heroes – Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and The Hulk – The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes! sees planet Earth threatened by Super Villains, time traveling conquerors, alien invaders, mythical beasts and rampaging robots — all bent on the total destruction of humanity. Unfortunately against these impossible odds, no individual hero has the power to save the world and just when all appears to be hopeless, the most skilled champions in the Marvel universe join forces to form the mightiest Super Hero team in history. The Avengers come to the rescue when the fate of the world rests on their shoulder
These sets will be released Tuesday, April 26. For those who don’t want to wait for the contest results, you can preorder them on Amazon here.
The contest will be open until Friday, April 29th. Winners will be announced on Monday, May 2nd.
To enter, all you need to do is shoot us an email at editor (at) bigshinyrobot.com. Make the subject “AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!” For an extra chance to win, you can go to our facebook page and invite all of your friends to like us. Or you can ask your followers on twitter to follow us @BigShinyRobot. Just be sure to mention in your email that you’ve done it.
Anyone who has read this site for any extended length of time should be well aware of my deep love for Woody Allen films. The man is a titan and has written and directed about a movie a year for the last 40 years. He’s incredibly prolific and he hits way more often than he misses. And even his misses have a lot to love about them.
This new trailer for Midnight in Paris, starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Michael Sheen, and Adrien Brody (among others) has a very old-school Woody Allen. It kind of felt like a vibe somewhere between Manhattan, with Owen Wilson in the Woody Allen sort of part, and something like The Purple Rose of Cairo, with just a hint of something fantastical.
For the most part, I’ve enjoyed Woody Allen’s forays into Europe and I am quite excited to see this latest effort. It’s set for release on May 20th, and I’m positive I’ll take a break from seeing Thor to catch this picture.
Thank you all for participating in our Batman Mimobot contests! Winners are listed below!
If you weren’t fortunate enough to win, don’t hesitate to head over to the Mimoco website and buy one for yourself.
And I want to thank everyone who entered! We had more than 300 entries and were only able to randomly choose four. If it were up to me, you’d all get a Batman Mimobot.
Marvel certainly like to reveal plot details in nationally read news outlets. Today, one such establishment, the New York Post revealed details on what’s going on in Ultimate Spider-Man after the current “Death of Spider-Man” storyline. While it’s unclear is Spider-Man/Peter Parker actually dies, there is apparently a new webhead on the block. Here’s what the Post article has to say about the matter.
Marvel Comics’ most popular character is getting a hip new look – and a new person wearing the webs.
“That’s not Peter Parker,” Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso told The Post. “There’s going to be someone new wearing the costume.”
The new webslinger and the new look – a sleek black and red costume revealed here for the first time – will make their debut at some point this summer, after the conclusion of the ominously titled “Death of Spider-Man” storyline in June’s Ultimate Spider-Man No. 160.
The comic will be polybagged, and will shake the comic book world to the core. “It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before,” Alonso said.
The shakeup marks the first time someone else will be catching thieves just like flies in the “Spider-Man” titles besides Peter (or a clone of Peter – don’t ask) in the character’s almost 50-year history in either the traditional “Marvel Universe” or the more recent “Ultimate Universe.”
Alonso wouldn’t reveal much more about the new wallcrawler – “there’s significance in the color scheme,” he teased – but the image’s release is another bad sign for Peter Parker, who in the ten-year-old Ultimate line of comics is still a Queens high school student.
The perpetually hard luck teen was shot through the gut by anti-hero the Punisher at the close of last week’s issue while trying save Captain America. Comic fans have been burning up the internet speculating whether Peter might survive the storyline, even if his web slinging days are over. Alonso wouldn’t reveal his ultimate fate, but said, “We did call it ‘The Death of Spider-Man’ for a reason.”
An adult Peter Parker will still be manning the role of friendly neighborhood wall-crawler in the regular Marvel Universe “Amazing Spider-Man” title.
And here’s a better look at the new Spider-Person…
Now, I don’t begrudge Marvel wanting to get this news out to a public that may not actually read the comic books, but it still irks me for a few reasons. First, even though it specifies in the article that it’s Ultimate Spider-Man in the story, the man on the street doesn’t know the difference between two versions of the same character. Second, Axel Alonso’s claim that this will “shake the comic world to the core” smack of hyperbole, and not the good Stan Lee kind of hyperbole. Lastly, there is a new Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon debuting soon. In the name of corporate synergy, I can see this lasting anyway.
Apologies for the rant, there are some positives. I really like the costume, for one. The fact that Alonso is being kind of cagey and wording things carefully in my mind, makes me think that only “Spider-Man” dies, not Peter Parker. Time will tell I suppose. What do you all think?
Our Game of Thrones expert, Gingerbot, was kind enough to review the first episode in this long anticipated series for us. So without further ado here are her thoughts on the debut episode:
Game of Thrones, the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series written by George R.R. Martin, premiered in its first television adaptation created by David Benioff and Dan Weiss on HBO last night. As a long time fan of these books I was impatiently waiting for this show to begin and went in with high hopes and expectations. All of which were met.
The first episode starts off in the far north beyond the Wall before quickly diving into Winterfell and introducing us to Ned Stark and his family. By the end of the episode they have introduced many of the key players of the Stark family as well as the ruling family the Baratheons and the Queen’s family the Lannisters. They even jump across the sea to Pentos and introduce the Horse Lord Khal Drogo and his nomadic horde along with his new wife Daenerys Targaryen and her brother who were members of the ruling family before Robert Baratheon took over the Iron throne sending these two into hiding.
It surprised me how much information they worked in and how much ground they were able to cover in one episode. But anyone who has read the books knows how much they contain and I’m sure were wondering how it would be possible to accurately tell the whole story in one season. Benioff and Weiss so far have done an incredible job of creating the world of Westeros and the casting job was very well executed. Personally I was most excited to see Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Sean Bean ( Eddard “Ned” Stark), and Mark Addy (King Robert Baratheon) among the large cast of characters and I must say they did an excellent job of bringing these men off the page and onto the screen. From what I have seen so far in this first episode I can’t say there was anyone I felt was wrong for the part they play. Isaac Hempstead-Wright portrayal of Bran Stark matched almost exactly the image I had in my head.
Attention to details like this are everything I was looking for in this series and I know that anyone who loves the books as much as I do will be watching closely to make sure they get it right. The story has a lot to offer but it is the characters and attention to detail that makes it what it is. Fans can be brutal when they don’t feel it is treated with the respect and attention it deserves but I can assure you that those involved with this show are doing their job amazingly well and I am already impatient for the next episode. I feel the already loyal fans will be impressed but I am sure that those that have yet to read the books will be just as entertained as the rest of us. I watched along with my mom who has never read any of the books and while I pointed out a few things here and there (usually about 2 seconds before it was then addressed on the show) she said that it was not confusing at all and she liked it and will be watching it every week with me.
This is an amazing story but it is not for the faint of heart. HBO is the perfect platform for a show like this because this is not a light-hearted fantasy. It is dark and gritty with a lot of sex, betrayal, and war which you cannot gloss over and still keep the integrity of the story.
It’s that time of the month again – time for the Big Shiny Podcast in which some of your favorite (or, least favorite) robots wrap up the last month’s slew of geek news, comic book reviews, video game releases, and collectibles that you should be . . . collecting!
In this month’s ‘cast we tell you why you need to be visiting Superhero of the Month on a regular basis, talk the latest news on Green Lantern, Justice League, Amazing Spider-Man, Dare Devil, Deadpool, and other various geek movies. Arse, Vag, and Mexicus share their thoughts on Sucker Punch. Kill-tacular-tron tells you why Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime sucks balls while Zombietron gushes over his Nintendo 3DS and it’s various titles (except for you, Lego Star Wars III! You know what you did . . .), and he and Kill talk about some breaking news regarding Nintendo’s new console! Vagatron tells you what comics you should be reading right now, especially if you are a fan of Swamp Thing! We also figure out how much semen Mexicus Prime has wasted over the last ten years, and haphazardly throw around some derogatory words we instantly regret.
So plug in your headphones and mentally prepare yourself for 2 hours of geeky podcast goodness!
For those of you that haven’t heard, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark isn’t the only superhero stage production opening this year. Batman is getting one of his own. Batman Live is a touring arena show that will start its in the U.K. on July 19th and will run through October 8th. After the U.K. tour it will move on to Europe and then to North America. This show cost $20 million dollars to produce and takes 20 trucks to move the show from arena to arena.
Last week there was a press event in London that gave us a deeper look into the setup of the show, along with revealing the rogues gallery Batman and Robin will have to face. The villains showed up live and in costume. Among them were the Joker, Harley Quinn, Riddler, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, and Penguin. Gordon Murray, who is famous for designing Formula One cars, will be designing the Batmobile that will be used. Es Devlin, known as a costume/stage designer for Lady Gaga will also be working on the show.
The video clips below are from the press event that was held last week. Below the videos are pictures that are taken from Superhero Hype. You can see the costumes in better detail in those pictures. I likes the look of most of the costumes, but for I cannot stand the Robin. It looks a too Joel Schumacher-y for this bot!
It’s time for this week’s issue of Convention Sketches.
We all go to cons and we all occasionally pick up those dainty little sketches comic creators dash out in notebooks or cards or what have you.
Every week we feature a convention sketch sent in from readers or from our own collections. We’d love to see more of yours though: if you have a sketch you’d like to see featured on the site, please email it to editor (at) bigshinyrobot.com
This week, we have one from my daughter’s personal collection. Yesterday, we went to Tom Hodges‘ signing at Dr. Volts in Salt Lake City where he was selling books (like the Star Wars: Tales from The Clone Wars webcomic collection that I can’t seem to find online anywhere.
My daughter asked for a sketch of Jar Jar Binks and Tom obliged happily, drawing the much beloved (by children) Gungan without reference.
It’s the weekend, and news is kind of slow, so I thought I’d share something I found with you all. We’re all aware of the Chinese Zodiac, you can always tell someone “I was born in the year of the Rat!” or whatever. Sadly, aside from Year of the Dragon, there isn’t much inherently cool about the old zodiac. Thanks to the joint efforts of James Wright and Josh Eckert, that has all changed with the Geek Zodiac. It works just like the Chinese version, but each of the 12 signs has a keystone year. That is to say, a year that is special to that particular sign.
I myself am proud to have been born in the year of the Time Traveler. I have such greats as Marty McFly and The Doctor to look up to, and I’d say it fits me, because I love vintage everything, especially when it’s geeky. I like Old Time Radio, classic Video Games and Silver Age comics. You can find your sign below (click to make it bigger), and let us know what your sign is, and if it fits you!
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