Comic Book Resources

Blackest Night vs. Siege: Place your bets!

Blackest Night #7

Siege #2

They say nice guys finish last, but when event comics will finish is anybody's guess. The demands of a high-profile series around which entire shared universes revolve can play havoc with scheduling. Naturally, editors and publishers love to maintain the artistic quality and consistency (and sales levels) provided by the big-name writer-artist teams that tend to lend such books a sense of "this is a big deal." On the other hand, they need to get books out on time so that other series whose storylines depend upon what happens in the event can proceed as planned -- and so that they don't end up alienating retailers and readers. But these same readers and retailers can end up just as irritated if they get the sense that the creators are being rushed, or if fill-in artists aren't up to snuff. It's a tough row to hoe.

With his front-row seat for a variety of events this decade, including Avengers Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, and Secret Invasion, Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort knows this better than anyone. So it was with an obvious mix of boldness and trepidation that he made the following prediction on his Twitter account:

It's height of hubris time: I'm willing to bet that SIEGE will wrap up before BLACKEST NIGHT does.

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Marvel's Heroic Age begins here

...or, rather, over on the new Techland blog. Just in case it wasn't clear what happens after Dark Reign and Siege, this teaser image posted on Time.com's newest blog should give you an idea:

Stark Industries working around the clock on new Mets uniform

The new Mets uniform?

The Real Dirty Mets Blog revealed some good news for fans of the New York Mets in late August -- apparently they're getting a new injury-proof uniform for next season.

"It will make sure that all the injuries of 2009 will never happen again," the blog reports. "No word on how much it will cost to put into production but sources say the first two will go to Carlos Beltran and Johan Santana."

(Thanks David!)

R.I.P. George Tuska, 1916-2009

Iron Man #18

George Tuska, the Golden/Silver/Bronze Age artist whose career in comics spanned six decades, has died at the age of 93. As noted by Tom Spurgeon, The Art of George Tuska author Dewey Cassell broke the news in a Yahoo group; Cassell had relayed word of Tuska's retirement from drawing commissions just six days ago.

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Jon Favreau's not directing Avengers

Sounds like some other director will be hollering "Avengers Assemble!" to peel a gaggle of high-paid actors away from the craft services table: Jon Favreau confirms to MTV News that he won't be directing Marvel Studios' big movie mash-up of its various superhero franchises. As reported at MTV's Splash Page blog, Favreau says he won't be available to direct the Avengers film, though he is one of its executive producers and will have a hands-on role in that regard. Moreover, Favreau argues that his years-long immersion in Iron Man's "tech-based" milieu might have made him a poor choice to bridge the gap with, say, the Lord of the Rings mysticism and Shakespearean grandeur of Kenneth Branagh's upcoming Thor movie. Which is a good point, now that I think of it: The Avengers movie will most likely include three relatively realistic super-science-based heroes (Iron Man, Captain America, and the Hulk) and a Norse god. That's a tough row to hoe even in the wilder and woollier world of superhero comics.

Anyway, check out more from Favreau, including musings on potential cameos in Iron Man 2, at the link or in the video above.

Bendis: Dark Reign-ending Siege starts in December

Siege: The Cabal

In an extensive interview with Attack of the Show's Blair Butler, Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis confirms that Marvel's "Dark Reign" storyline will come to an end with a "big Marvel event" called Siege. It starts in December with a one-shot called Siege: The Cabal, which is followed in January by a four-issue Siege series.

Michael Lark will draw the Cabal one-shot, while Olivier Coipel will draw Siege. Both are written by Bendis. He says the storyline will bring a "seismic shift" in the Avengers titles on the level of what happened in Avengers: Disassembled and will reunite Thor, Iron Man and Captain America.

Siege was just one of several subjects Butler asked Bendis about; he also talked about Powers, various Marvel films, Fortune & Glory's 10th anniversary edition and much more. Check out the second part of the interview below (he talks about Siege at the very end) and go here to find the first half.

Also be sure to check out Dave Richards' interview with Bendis on Dark Avengers over on the main CBR site.

SDCC '09 | Another round of pictures

Iron Men

Here are a few more pictures I took at the San Diego Comic-Con last week, many of which appeared on the CBR Live blog already, but I thought I'd group them all together over here. The picture above shows the four sets of Iron Man armor (Iron Men?) from the Marvel booth this year.

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SDCC '09 | Marvel costumes coming for LittleBigPlanet

Wolverine Sackboy

During yesterday's "The Next Generation of Marvel Video Games" panel in San Diego, Marvel debuted three new costumes they've developed for the Playstation 3 hit LittleBigPlanet, the game that combines platform adventure with community gameplay, enabling gamers to create and share their own levels. In addition to Wolverine (above), they also have made Sackboys -- as the game's characters are called -- of Iron Man and Captain America.

According to Kotaku, "Marvel showed off three concept renders of Sackboys that may be coming to the PlayStation 3 exclusive, but did not offer dates for the costumes, nor confirm that this would be the extent of the Marvel characters that would be licensed for LittleBigPlanet use." Click over to see Cap and Iron Man.

SDCC '09 | Saturday and Sunday at the con

Comic-Con

The programming schedules for Saturday and Sunday have been released.

What was once the most insane day at the con is now the most pleasant one to spend on the dealer room floor, for the most part ... with every single day being a sellout, the crowds never let up, but last year there were so many huge media panels on Saturday that you could actually walk across the movie section of the dealer room floor and get a decent look around. So bring on those pilot premieres and Q&A's, Hall H ....

Here are some of the Saturday highlights:

• Comic-wise, you've got publisher panels for Wildstorm, SLG Publishing, Dark Horse, IDW's Angel panel, Marvel's Dark Reign event, BOOM!'s Farscape books, Aspen, Del Rey Manga and Del Rey Comics, Archaia, American Original and DC's Blackest Night event, among others. Gerard Way will be announcing his next project, while Terry Moore will talk about Echo.
• Marvel and DC also have panels for their big upcoming video game releases, Marvel Ultimate Alliances 2 and the DCU MMORG.
• There are lots of TV panels on Saturday, for old con stalwarts like Lost, Heroes, Chuck, Spongebob SquarePants, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Ben 10, Venture Bros. and Futurama as well as new shows like Eastwick, The Cleveland Show, Glee, Warehouse 13, Human Target, The Vampire Diaries, V and Marvel's The Super Hero Squad Show.

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The Fifth Color | Marvel Solicitations for September 2009

Okay guys, this is September. Time to get serious. The summer blockbusters are either put to rest or coming to an end, and we have 11 different #1 issues to sort through, not to mention the other 11 #2 issues that are kicking it into high gear from last month. And what about the eight issues we know NOTHING about?? Pencils down, kids. The Marvel U just got real.

Or kind of ridiculous in regards to the ongoing narrative. But don't be afraid, not everything is all new and different. Let's take a gander at the September solicitations for the House of Ideas and see what we can look forward to hearing about when we're darn good and ready.

Okay, no joke, there are indeed 11 #1 issues coming out, from the benign Thor and Punisher Annuals (I actually find myself missing when they used to number annuals by the year they came out) to the long-awaited Spider-Woman #1 and Wolverine: Old Man Logan Giant-Size #1. There's even the ridiculous, but I'll get to that later. Point is, this is just as much a month for starts of things to come as August, which tips the scales at 14 #1 issues. Marvel may tout their 600th Captain America, Spider-Man or Incredible Hulk, but let's face it: #1 on a cover gives the book that delectable little collector's spice.

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Marvels' general counsel on state of the business, movies and recent price increases

Marvel

John Turitzin, Marvel's general counsel and EVP of the executive office, presented at the Cowen & Company 37th Annual Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York earlier this week. You can find a link to his presentation, which includes audio and his slides, here (it was at 1:05 p.m. in Holmes 2).

During the presentation, he gave an overview of Marvel -- which he called a "cash machine" -- and the various ways it makes money, from publishing and licensing to the more recently added Marvel Studios division. One of the more interesting portions that's probably most relevant to those of us who buy comics came when a comic fan in the audience asked about the recent cost increase on some of Marvel's titles. You can hear it after the formal presentation ends in the link above.

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Teenage armor: A review of the new Iron Man cartoon

Iron Man: Armored Adventures

"I couldn't stand boy companions. If the theory behind Robin the boy Wonder, Rory the Superboy, the Sandman's Sandy, the Shield's Rusty, the Human Torch's Toro, the Green Arrow's Speedy was to give young readers a character with whom to identifiy it failed dismally in my case. The super grownups were the ones I identified with. They were versions of me in the future. There was still time to prepare. But Robin the Boy Wonder was my own age. One need only look at him to see he could fight better, swing from a rope better, play ball better, eat better and live better ... He was obviously an "A" student, the center of every circle, the one picked for greatness in the crowd -- God how I hated him."

-- Jules Feiffer, The Great Comic Book Heroes

So what is it with Marvel these days taking all their core characters and turning them into sulky teen-agers? First there was Wolverine: Prodigal Son, the Marvel/Del Rey book which attempted to "mangify" the character by turning him into a generic angsty shonen hero -- thereby robbing everything that made him interesting to begin with -- and now there's Iron Man: Armored Adventurers, which imagines Tony Stark not as gadabout playboy but nerdy youth.

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Marvel confirms Branagh directing Thor, Iron Man 2 filming start

Marvel

Marvel held their fourth quarter/year-end earnings call this morning, where they discussed their financial performance for 2008 and gave a couple of updates for their upcoming film slate.

As far as movies go, they set a release date for Thor and said Iron Man 2 would start filming soon:

• Kenneth Branagh is set to direct Marvel Studios’ Thor, which Paramount Pictures will distribute worldwide. The film will come to theaters domestically on July 16, 2010.
• Iron Man 2 will begin principal photography in early April. The film features a returning Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, as well as Don Cheadle, who replaces Terrence Howard as James Rhodey. The film's directed by Jon Favreau.

Performance wise, Marvel Entertainment overall had a damn good 2008:

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