UPDATE: Marvel has an embedded version:

And you can read the first part of their new Captain America movie tie-in webcomic.

Also read the first issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA: FIRST VENGEANCE, the official comic book tie-in to the film, online for FREE right now at captainamerica.marvel.com!

So, we have our first look at Captain America.

Holy shit.

I think this just made my brain explode.

Yahoo has the exclusive on it here. Go and watch it.

These are the first moving images of the film and our first glimpse at The Red Skull, and… I’m just having a hard time putting words together. This really blew me away. I can’t wait for this film to come out. This is going to be a great summer.

And it looks like Chris Evans really has nailed the part. And Stanley Tucci looks great, as well as Hugo Weaving and… just… Everything about this looks incredible. It was really great to see both the emaciated Steve Rogers and the Serum version as well. It looks like Joe Johnston is going to knock this out of the park.

And is it just me or is it eerie how this is perfectly the Red Skull, but so clearly Hugo Weaving? It think he may ACTUALLY be The Red Skull…

Thanks to Egg Fou for the screen shot.  He’s a stand up guy.

So say we all?

(And in case you missed it, here is the trailer for Thor!)

UPDATE: Marvel has an embed:

The Thor trailer is online. Sadly, it’s on Yahoo movies, but you can download it in 720.

Arse-bot texted me and told me that it didn’t have much more than we hadn’t seen, but I watched it and it floored me. I’ve been reading so much Thor lately though, that I couldn’t help but be moved by this trailer. (Speaking of which, grab the beginning of Walt Simonson’s run…)

What do you guys think of this spot? I think Hemsworth is going to be great in this part. He just exudes the arrogant confidence and fun that I love seeing in Thor.

Do you think it’s a rehash of what we’ve seen, or did it pump you up for the film?

And in case you missed it, here is the Captain America trailer!

The nerd movies are being represented in force during the least geeky event of the year.

Up now we have Battle: Los Angeles. This film stars Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent and Two Face from The Dark Knight) and is directed by Jonathan Liebsman.

When are we getting to Captain America and Thor?

What do you guys think of the selection of trailers so far?

We have two new Superbowl trailers for you.

First is the new Gore Verbinski/Johnny Depp film Rango. This is the first completely animated film that ILM is producing completely in house and it actually looks really good. (The Clone Wars movie was produced by Lucasfilm Animation, not ILM.)

Next, we have Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro. I have no idea what it is, other than it looks like a high tech sort of Wall Street rip or something.

We’ll have more as they become available.

We’re all drooling over the Captain America and Thor commercials, waiting for them to happen, so we’ll see.

Superbowl Sunday is today apparently.  Ordinarily I wouldn’t care, and even now I pretty much don’t.  But since all of the movie studios are advertising every single movie I want to see with a new trailer during the festivities, it makes it a little bit interesting to me.

Just not interesting enough to watch the Superbowl.  Particularly since the trailers will more than likely hit the Internet today no matter what.

Case and point, Jon Favreau unleashed the Superbowl spot for Cowboys and Aliens on his twitter about 10 minutes ago:

Check back through the day and we’ll be posting the rest of the trailers premiering today as we find them. Most notably, Captain America and Thor.

Welcome back to the fourteenth issue of Convention Sketches!

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 comes from Bizarrobot’s personal collection.

The problem is, she has no idea who gave it to her. She was at a con and at an Artist’s Alley but the name of the artist completely escapes her.

If you drew this Daredevil with a seeing eye dog, chime in and let us know!

Are you ready for more adventure and excitement? Have you been sitting on the edge of your seat since last Saturday champing at the bit to get another taste of two-fisted justice? Well, you’ve come to the right place! To get you up to speed, last week, our intrepid heroes were on the trail of those shady contractors, and found themselves on a runaway train! How can the Hornet get out of this one, fellows? Strap yourself in for fun and find out in chapter 3 of The Green Hornet: Flying Coffins!

And just in case you’ve missed previous episodes, be sure to click here.

Legion of Super-Heroes… It’s hard to review this title objectively. The fandom who enjoys it probably have for a long time, and the sheer immensity of the cast makes it a seemingly difficult to jump on. Coupled with that, the current series not only takes up the reins of what Geoff Johns has done with the characters in the Super-titles, it also picks up on 20-year-old continuity threads. That being said, how does the new series first annual fare? Is it an insurmountable mess, or can the casual reader enjoy it? The simple answer is yes, but let’s get a little more in-depth.

First off, the big selling point of the annual for long-time fans of the Legion is that Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen have re-teamed up to tell the tale. Both men are well-respected for their work in the past, and their work is just as fine here. As an aside, I will admit it’s not for everybody. The dialog is definitely of the old school and the art… takes some getting used to. This isn’t a story you’ll be done with in five minutes, which in my mind is a good thing. And the art is good. Backgrounds are especially great, I personally am not a huge fan of Giffen’s faces/characters however.

Onto the story proper. This issue is a done-in-one that tells the tale of a new Emerald Empress, mainly seen with Legion villains, the Fatal Five, but known to be scary and evil on her own as well. The fact that this is a new character with an old name help immensely if you’re not deep into Legion lore, but if you are, there are many nods to you as well. The cast is kept to a manageable size, and never overwhelms. There are lasting repercussions in the story as well. While the ending is “happy”, we probably won’t be seeing one Legionnaire for a while. This is one thing that make the Legion great to me. Unlike say, the JLA, who always have to end up back at the status quo, The Legion’s actions have consequences, sometimes dire ones. I would say that if you’ve never read a Legion book, this isn’t a bad one to try out, you get a taste of what the Legion is, if you like it, by all means start getting the regular series, if not, you’re only out $4.99.

$4.99. That may seem a little steep to you, but unlike some annuals, this is worth it. Not only are there 40 pages of story, but there are supplemental extras in the back, like a Legion board game drawn by Brian Douglas Ahern which is a lot of fun, just to read, let alone play. There’s also an Interlac A to Z guide. The purpose this serves is twofold. First, it shows off Interlac, which is the specialized alphabet used in the Legion’s 31st century. If you pick this book up, and they use it in the series, you can decode it! Also, each letter describes something in the Legion’s world. It’s a nice primer for those of you just getting started on the book. So the bottom line is, if you’re already a Legion fan, this book is a no-brainer, but if you’re not but are Legion-curious, this book could be your gateway to the wild and sometimes wacky* world of the 30th century.

*Seriously, they have a member who got his powers of super-bouncing by mistaking an experimental formula for soda, and another guy who has the power to eat any form of matter!

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1 is on sale for $4.99 right now at your local comic shop!

After last week’s incredible episode, I knew it would be hard to top. And though I don’t think this episode tops it, ‘Altar of Mortis’ certainly maintains the pace and leaves us off heading in an incredible trajectory. In order to keep Anakin on Mortis, the Son (voiced by Sam Witwer, the apprentice from The Force Unleashed) kidnaps Ahsoka right from their ship and infects her with the Dark Side.

Obi-Wan and Anakin take separate paths to gain her return. Driven with purpose, Anakin seeks a direct route, wishing to confront the son in order to rescue Ahsoka. Obi-Wan knows that the Son will not be so easily cowed, and wishes to seek the help of the Father and the Daughter.

Neither option works out very well.

There is a lot to love in this episode and as a middle act, it was very reminiscent of Attack of the Clones, both visually and thematically. When Ahsoka is captured and finds herself shackled to the wall, the lighting in the room looks very much like the prison Obi-Wan spent time in on Geonosis. And in the finale, the Daughter and the Son have a “wizard’s duel” much like the showdown between Yoda and Count Dooku in Episode II.

Thematically, we have the Master Vs. Apprentice fight between Anakin and Ahsoka (under the toxic influence of the Son) that hearkens back to both Dooku and Yoda, but also foreshadows the future conflict between Obi-Wan and Anakin. Aside from that, you have Anakin struggling with loss (in Ahsoka) and a drive to prevent her from dying. The Dark Side wins in this installment and is strengthened, just like the end of the Attack of the Clones, and we are left wondering if the world can ever be right again.

But on the other hand, is this really a world? This entire episode seemed hazy, and, to quote Luke, like something out of a dream. The edges of the screen were feathered with a white haze most of the episode. And nothing on Mortis is what it seems, like the Star Wars equivalent of Wonderland. Though the most bizarre thing in this episode must have been the gnomish form taken by the Son to bamboozle Ahsoka. It was weird, and a little creepy in all of the right ways.

While I’m thinking about it, did anyone else catch all of the pretty overt references to classic Star Wars film dialogue? This episode was littered with things from the saga just like last week. Have I mentioned that I love it when they do that?

And before I forget, I’d like to call attention to Ahsoka here. Aside from the facial animation and voice work being the best it’s been with the character since her inception (kudos to Ashley Eckstein), Filoni and his crew are using this character like an emotional bartering chip. I’ve talked a lot about this before, that we’re all expecting her to die at any moment and she won’t. And the second we let our guard down and we’re in the middle of laughing at a joke, she’s going to be killed. In this episode, I really thought there were three or four moments where I actually thought she was going to die and tears were ready in my eyes.

The Clone Wars team is playing with us. Completely toying with our emotions. And they’re particularly deft at it and it had my heart completely racing.

And they’re going to keep playing with our emotions concerning the fate of Ahsoka until it’s too late.

Though this episode was really good (and better the more I seem to chew on it), it is easily overshadowed by the power of the trailer for next week’s episode. I’m just bursting with excitement for next week I can’t even begin to explain. James Arnold Taylor doing moments directly out of Revenge of the Sith? That’s just exciting.

I can’t wait to see where they take things from here.

We heard the rumors forever now, and if you ever venture into the hellish dimension that is the bungie.net forums, you’ve heard the rumors for forever and a day. Well, it looks like the rumors have finally be confirmed and Halo fans can rejoice because a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved is coming on November 15 – the 10 year anniversary of it’s original release date.

Joystiq broke the story, and included some interesting tidbits:

Sources explain that the re-release is not Bungie’s 2001 Xbox game simply running at a higher resolution — it’s being remade with new art assets. While Halo’s audio will likely remain unaltered, the controls will allow for more recent Halo configurations.

The Halo: Combat Evolved remake is allegedly being developed by New Jersey-based Saber Interactive, the company behind TimeShift and Namco’s upcoming Inversion, but we’ve been unable to confirm the nature of the engine powering it. We understand that it’s something other than the Reach engine.

So it looks like we are getting a true remake of the game graphics-wise, and it’s also my understanding that 343 Industries -the owners of the Halo franshise, now, who are rumored to be working on a Halo 4 game continuing the story of Master Chief- will have a hand in its development as well. Joystiq also went on note that the game will be in full 1080p and be 3D TV compatible, as well as that campaign co-op is “likely” but had no further details on what other multiplayer aspects may be included.

I can’t believe that it has already been 10 years since the original Halo: CE game was released, and I am more than thrilled knowing now that this holiday season I will be able to jump in and kick some Covenent ass with my friends! I’m hoping they will introduce some online head-to-head multiplayer that was in the sequels that followed so we can jump into some original Halo maps and talk shit to all those annoying 12-year olds that are kicking our asses – afterall, I do have a 77% avoidance rate that I need to keep up! I couldn’t be more thrilled with this news and I’m hoping that Saber Interactive will do this classic title justice with this upgrade! Now if we could just get a Halo 2 remake in the pipes as well – or at least some Halo 2 map remakes for Halo: Reach, because all of us Halo fans know, it had the best multiplayer maps of any Halo game to date!

As I mentioned before, the Halo: Combat Evolved remake is currently slated to hit stores (or will it be the XBL Marketplace?) on November 15, 2011!

If you’re a Halo fan, there’s no way you’re not excited about this news! Sound off with your thoughts in the comments below!