def

Interesting X-Men news today. Matthew Vaughn has dropped out suddenly, and may be replaced by the original, Bryan Singer! http://www.hitfix.com/news/director-matthew-vaughn-exits-x-men-days-of-future-past And there's another article about Wolverine, but I'm not so excited about that one to summarize it. http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/james-mangold-makes-some-surprising-claims-about-the-wolverine-timeline

Building Stories. The greatest comic ever made. No superheroes in it, sorry. Just pure comic awesomeness. This is a picture of the 14 different size and format comics contained in the box in the center. And, remarkably, Chris Ware comics go up in price much more reliably than anything from the major publishers...

At this point, the less origin stories we see the better. In comics, origins used to be the exception to the rule, and were often handled in one page flashbacks. Darth Vader was cool. Seeing Darth Vader as a kid, crying over his mom? Not so cool. Boba Fett was cool. Seeing Boba Fett as a kid crying over his dad? Not so cool. There have been good origin stories in movies (like Iron Man I), but generally, they are the most boring parts of the movie. We can accept that crazy stuff happens, and hit the ground running. "There's this scientist working for SHIELD named Hank Pym who has discovered what we're calling 'Pym particles.' Please meet Hank Pym," says Samuel L. Jackson. Pym walks out and shrinks. Done. Movie starts kicking megablocks from there. ~~~~~~~~~~~ With the Fantastic Four movies, I think the biggest crime they made was not having a James Bond/Indiana Jones style, 'crazy action' set up to emphasise how they deal with 'fantastic' things all the time... Like, a 10 minute opener set in the negative zone with Reed Richards out-smarting Annihilus. Fox owns the rights to the characters, why not make better use of them? At this point, Marvel would be better served to make it seem like there are more and more crazy costumed villains in the universe. Start Iron Man 3 with Iron Man fighting the Absorbing Man and wiping his hands clean before the real flick starts. Spider-Man takes on the Scorpion in the opening of a film, encasing him in concrete then trying to make it to class on time. They could broaden out the film universe a lot, and cut out a lot of the parts that people want to fast forward to by accepting the fact that the mass-market has already accepted the concept of super-heroes in film.

I rather hear this version of the song, and I think this MOC suits it. I have to say, I like this song in a non-ironic way, and I like the MOC too

Commander Wolf, you're perspective and detailing are great, almost photographic!

Thank you so much! I'm glad you see the humour in it. That means it's at least 50% successful.

New markers this week! New markers! More diary work! Enjoy!

I don't think there will for a few reasons, all having to do with expectations: 1) Lego has long had a reputation as an intelligent toy, meaning that traditional gender-stereotype toys and gender-based marketing from them were disappointing to a lot of people 2) MegaBloks has no reputation, except among Lego people as being crap. For real, I hear "Legos" name-dropped in pop-culture once or twice a month. I've never ever heard MegaBloks ever referred to anywhere except this site. 3) Barbie is a famously bad toy for girls (google "math is hard"). That a toy that is somewhat popular, but with almost no critical approval, is producing pink-girl sets is not news. The Lego Friends bruh-hah-hah was mainly rooted in the fact that people had such a high opinion of the company and the product, and it was "lowering" itself to the level of other toy manufacturers. MegaBloks can only wish it had such a reputation to do damage to.

Not quite. The original Guardians (1970's~1990's) were set in the 31st century, and were mostly genetic off-shoots of humanity that had colonized the other planets in our solar-system The guy with the shield is Vance Astro, a friend of Captain America who travelled to that time, and carried his shield to honor him or something (That's the gist of it; I just read these comics once 20 years ago). The title was used again in the 00's, but it was a completely different team, and takes place in current time (and had Thanos appear). This is the team that will be in the movie. If people are looking for good Thanos stories, the suggested one is the Infinity Gauntlet. There are Thanos stories from the 70's, then he was missing in the 80's, and came back big in the 90's. But some of the stories aren't so great. From what I remember, the Infinity Gauntlet was the most successful one. Plus, the "gauntlet" made a brief appearance in Thor, suggesting that at least one of the movies will deal with that book and/or its ideas.

For general comic info, I read http://www.comicsalliance.com and http://www.comicbookresources.com, which are fairly mature, intelligent sites about comics. But what you need is likely something more nerdy and detailed, so a site like http://www.comicvine.com might be good for you: a comic community of obsessives. Here is links to the Thanos bio-page, with links inside to forum posts and articles on him: http://www.comicvine.com/thanos/29-7607/

I spend hours a week scouring comic websites, so I've kept my eye on news. I really want to get into the new Guardians of the Galaxy. The stories got solid reviews, and I bought every issue of their late 80's series, plus Rocket Racoon, and Groot! But I just haven't gotten round to it. I bought a trade of Annihilation II this summer, which has the origins of the new team, it seems. I liked it, but wasn't blown away. It was also written by Keith Giffen, and not A & D, who brought the 00's Guardian series out, and drummed up attention for it. For me, the Guardians will always be this: But I'm not so attached to it that I'd bitch about a change. I'm looking forward to this film. When you say iconic, what do you mean?

Some big news today. http://www.hitfix.com/news/kick-megablocks-creator-mark-millar-to-consult-on-marvel-film-franchises-for-fox Mark Millar has been hired to guide Fox in their next few Marvel movies. This is both good and bad. The good? -Millar writes a lot comics like they were movies. He knows how to make comics that work as movies, and some of them have been made into movies: Ultimates was heavily retooled into the Avengers, and Kick-megablocks was Kick-megablocks. Wanted was his too, but largely reworked into something different. -He has read comics, which is more than can be said for the people who worked on X-Men 3 or either Fantastic Four. The bad? -He's a slave to concepts, and sometimes ignores good stories for a hooky story. -He's been known to rework characters to suit a story, like the Captain America in Ultimates, who was a real dick, and not what you think of when you think of Captain America. -He is a massive sell-out, and a lot of the stories he produces today are intended to be sold to movie studios, which doesn't make him a great comic writer. In the last few years, he's done stuff with some of the characters. He did a year on Fantastic Four which got a bad reception. And he did a Wolverine story called Old Man Logan which got both adoring and loathing reception. He tends to be divisive writer, with people loving or hating him, but not so many in-between But he can't be worse than what Fox has had, and should actually be a lot better, since he's not wholly in charge.

Confirmed last July: http://www.hitfix.com/news/guardians-of-the-galaxy-will-feature-star-lord-rocket-raccoon-groot-gamora-and-drax That's the reason all the original reports were packaged with this pic, I guess (I don't know the character Gamorra, but I guess that's her on the right) I would think it's too soon for casting. I've read very little of this team. I mostly just know the Guardians from the 31st century that were around from the 70's to the 90's... But I do have that original Rocket Racoon series from the 80's (drawn by Mike Mignola! ) and it was a childhood favourite.

I'd think he'd need to be a straight-up Avenger. I doubt Marvel is going to work the Invaders (The Invaders ) into Winter Soldier since Winter Soldier is big enough a story as it is. The movies will probably not get Ultron, but they should have Hank Pym join since Ant-Man is in production. I'd like to see him in Avengers 2, but it might make more sense in Avengers 3, if it covers Civil War. If you've never read them in comics, I can't even make a recommendation They have a lot of great books, but the stuff before 2000 is kind of wordy and hard to read, and personally, I don't like the Bendis Avengers (the guy who's been writing them for the last decade). He's the guy who got Spider-Man and Wolverine to join the team, despite it making no sense (Spider-Man is a young character based on instability, so a job makes no sense for him, and Wolverine is a killer already in every version of X-Men and has zero free time)... Anyway, checking out a Civil War trade might be of interest, though Iron Man acts like a complete dick in it, and you'll like the character less Ant-Man will be on the team, the other two should be. Marvel/Disney got a lot of flack for the white-male problem they have (that's all they have), and will be addressing it. I think the Black Panther is a no-brainer, and would be really popular.

That was never the controversy. You seem to have misunderstood something somewhere. It's been explained ad nauseum in this thread, so if you skim through, you'll get a better idea

It could be, but the Chitauri were called the Skrulls in the Ultimates book: they are Ultimate universe Skrulls. So, in the Ultimate universe, the skrulls are Avengers enemies. I recall reading a long time ago that the Super-skrull was tied to the FF license, so it would make sense if they all officially were. It would be a bizarre case to bring to court, regardless. (I was thinking the Skrulls first appeared in Avengers, but Wikipedia tells me it was Fantastic Four. How did they defeat them? They tricked the skrulls into thinking they were cows. I love it!) Marvel definitely won't get their characters back, except Daredevil, who they weren't able to rush into production in time. The horror stories about Fox are maddening. The company president, Rothman (who was possibly fired this week, but definitely is finished there) basically has no respect for all these properties, thinking they are moronic, and the two good movies Fox has made (X-Men 2 and X-Men First Class) were by accident. X-Men one made lots of money, so they threw more money at number two. Brian Singer genuinely cared about the property and made a solid movie. Then they said 'megabluck it' and made crap movies for #3 and Wolverine, under the assumption that Americans have no taste (both those movies made heaps of cash, more than the first two ). Public reception was pretty negative though, and there was a chance they'd given up on the franchise. Then after Marvel started making even more cash, they rushed First Class into production in order to not lose the license , and the reason that turned out so well was that the time restraints meant the studios couldn't go into rewrites in order the make the movie more 'accessible'. As for Fantastic Four, the same philosophy held true: they believed Americans would pay to see any super-hero, and they made two of them that both sucked. It really wasn't until Marvel started out-performing them by being more true to the comics and not watering down their properties that Fox decided to maybe not suck so bad. X-Men Days of Future Past is in production, and the director of Chronicle is making the new Fantastic Four, so fingers crossed that the studio has learned that making shit movies doesn't pay off in the long run. But regardless of the quality of the movies, Fox will own them for another five years. With Avengers being so fricking massive, I doubt any company will let go of any rights they have, possibly forever, or until there is no interest in Marvel, which may as well be the same thing I'm sure you know lots of this stuff, so I guess I'm just recapping it for myself

Disney owns the right to all Marvel characters unless otherwise specified. Sony has rights to Spider-Man and his cast of characters (so no Osborne in a Disney Marvel film for now) and Fox owns all the characters from Fantastic Four, and all mutants, which is a conflict of sorts since Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver can't be Avengers for now. As far as I know, those are the only licenses that Marvel and Disney can't play with, for the movies. The Avengers have a pretty interesting history, so there is a lot to explore, and a massive roster. The question for me is why they chose Thanos for the sequel rather than the Kree-Skrull war Thanks

If you only know the Avengers from the movie and cartoon show, you wouldn't. To be fair, the Avengers have only been a public team for a few years now. Up until then, they were for the comics only. Captain America, Thor and Iron Man had somewhat of a life in public culture, but the team didn't. Hawkeye is the same way, pretty much just known for being an Avenger, and only publicly popular in the last few years. But here's the thing with the Vision: he exists almost 100% as a by-product of Avengers stories, and has almost never worked solo. The Vision's origin is that founding Avenger, Hank Pym (Giant Man/Ant Man) created a killer robot that loves him, Ultron. Ultron 5 or so (I forget which version) created an android using the body of the original Human Torch (an android from the 1930's, briefly seen at the Stark fair in the Captain America movie, and in comics fought with Cap in WWII). That android was then programmed with the brain waves of Wonderman, another Avenger who had died. This android was the Vision. The Vision tried to kill the Avengers and ended up becoming one. It's batshit crazy stuff, and some of it would make for an awesome part of a movie. And the stuff about Coulson becoming the Vision is purely a rumour, but it would be pretty cool, and jive with the original stories. Plus, the Vision had one of the most iconic covers and stories in all of comics This is the cover, which has been ripped off countless times. This is the story, which became prime pulp inspiration in the 60's He is as awesome a character as those two pics suggest

He was just introduced as a character in comics continuity, plus, I think he's in the Spider-Man cartoon, so I think they'll have to bring him back...Google LMD... It's how Nick Fury always comes back to life

I think you're writing that as a fanboy, and I imagine a majority if the 137 reviews on Amazon are also written by fanboys... which is totally fine, but it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The average person is fine with a stripped down version of the movie. Most people don't care about the commentary tracks. The people who do care about them write reviews for Amazon, often before the film is released. Anyway, it's been a common practice for some movies with diehard fans to offer the stripped down movie first, then a few months later, offer a deluxe edition. The Lord of the Rings was the first I remember doing this, managing a deluxe edition in time for Christmas. It's called double-dipping. For you, I would recommend just holding out, and waiting for the deluxe edition to come out in the UK as it inevitably will. If you really need to watch it now, download it or something, with a personal promise to buy it later. Really, it's going to be 10 pounds a year from now, in the bargain bin at whatever store Brits buy DVDs at. The movie studio is counting on you needing it now, buying it, and hoping to get you to pay more for the deluxe one when it comes out later. Don't get suckered

It's the #3 movie of all time, and this is a thread dedicated to the movie and its like. I'm pretty sure everyone who wants to see it has seen it In other news, Kevin Feige has nudged a possible direction for a Hulk movie after Avengers 2, if it were to be done: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/58505 Thing is, there really aren't that many popular Hulk print stories. I really liked the Peter David era, which had mean grey Hulk, and smart Bruce Banner Hulk, but I can't imagine a movie with anything other than big dumb Hulk, so Planet Hulk is the best choice... I'd watch it Check this out for info. It's not a big deal at all, just an image is altered. http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2012/09/17/why-did-marvel-alter-pivotal-scene-for-avengers-u-k-dvd-release/ I do dig Coulson as the Vision. I would love to see the Vision in a film. For me, he is the heart of the Avengers.

They changed a single image from the theatrical version, and it hardly makes a difference. When Coulson dies, the blade is no longer seen coming out his chest. That's it. It's not known if it is for British censors, or to make Coulson's inevitable return from the grave more plausible. It's not worth boycotting the DVD over

They were a parody of Frank Miller's Wolverine and Daredevil work, to the point that their origin is tied up with Daredevil, and the endless ninja horde they fight are called the Foot, while Wolverine fought the Hand

Just puttering around at work... Some animals: And some diaries: Hope to keep doing diaries as long as work is boring