iron man
The Fifth Color | Iron Man Expo’d
Director, Actor, Punching Bag
Iron Man 2 is still awesome.
It’s still a fun movie with all sorts of emotional beats and explosions and characters and lead-up and all those great things that, to be honest, make me read comics every week. If you pick up a monthly, you expect to see something of the character on the cover in the book, you expect to see him (or her) do something incredible and, by all rights, you should be interested in what the next issue is going to do. In a perfect world, I would be a millionaire with a unicorn and comics would always be recognizable, satisfying and leave you hungry for whatever is coming next.
Iron Man 2 worked almost as a film second, and a movie first because they devoted a lot of time to talk about the past and the future. Samuel L. Fury tries to get Tony Stark’s life back on track so they can use him for this “Avengers Initiative.” We go through an overwhelmingly Walt Disney-inspired piece for Howard Stark and the better future he saw when he put together the first Stark Expo. This is the continuation of something big, larger than life or even the life that the movie contained it in.
Settling down the the fanciest-schemanciest Blu-ray copy I could get my hands on, I wanted to see what it was like when you took this movie home. Did the lukewarm reception still come from the wide variety of audiences the movie tried to please? Or was it just not that great? Come with me and see.
- October 1, 2010 @ 04:30 PM by Carla Hoffman
Business cards for LexCorp, Stark Industries and more
If you’ve ever dreamed of working at LexCorp, Stark Industries or even Acme Labs, here’s the first step to making that dream come true — business cards. Fro Design Co. has created a print featuring business cards for Wayne Enterprises, Duff Breweries, Sterling Cooper, the Dharma Initiative and several other fictional companies.
- September 9, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Patrick Zircher’s variant cover for Carnage #1
Carnage #1 variant by Patrick Zircher
Marvel was kind enough to share Patrick Zircher’s variant cover for the first issue of Carnage, which hits stands Oct. 13. The book pits Iron Man and Spider-Man against Venom’s crazier cousin, Carnage, by the creative team of Zeb Wells and Clayton Crain.
More info on the book, plus two more of its covers, can be found after the jump.
- September 7, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | A look at Hasbro’s exclusive action figures
Hasbro sent over images of the action figures and toys they’ll be selling at Comic-Con International next week, including Thor, Galactus, Spider-Man and Captain America figures. Some of them will be available on HasbroToyShop.com after the show.
Check’em all out after the jump …
- July 16, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Hello Kitty gets extreme makeovers by designer Joseph Senior
The Design Scene blog points us to these inspired Hello Kitty reinterpretations by designer Joseph Senior, whose MySpace page contains versions of the popular feline made up to look like Wolverine, Batman, Dr. Manhattan, Buzz Lightyear, Robocop, countless Star Wars characters and even Ugly Betty.
- July 16, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Suit up as Iron Man in LittleBigPlanet
Iron Man suit for Little Big Planet
As promised, Marvel.com is unveiling the costumes you’ll be able to download for LittleBigPlanet, starting with this summer’s big movie star, Iron Man. They also confirmed that the costumes will work in the upcoming sequel to the hit PlayStation 3 game.
Check out a couple more pieces of art after the jump.
- June 28, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Geoff Johns and Matt Fraction plot Iron Man/Green Lantern crossover, sorta
Tony Stark and Hal Jordan, together at last? Not quite: The big Iron Man/Green Lantern crossover plotted out by writers Matt Fraction and Geoff Johns yesterday exists only in their respective Twitter accounts. But still, it’s fun to read what the writers in charge of their respective universes’ cocky skirt-chasing sci-fi superheroes who are the basis of big blockbuster movies have to say about the two heroes meeting up.
Inspired by Fraction’s facetious tweets about the powers of each of the ten rings wielded by Iron Man villain the Mandarin (including making phone calls that never drop and the ability to TiVo three shows at once), Johns got the ball rolling. Below you’ll find their crossover conversation, tweaked slightly for clarity and featuring guest appearances by editor Steve Wacker and Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis…
artist unknown (let us know in the comments)
Johns: @mattfraction What can the Mandarin’s rings do? Iron Man/Green Lantern xover…!
Fraction: @geoffjohns0 together, all of ‘em can save the direct market…! #LETSDOTHISTHING
Fraction [later]: wait weren’t me and @geoffjohns0 plotting our GreenLantern/IronMan xover in real tweettime? wasn’t mandarin getting a red ring or something?
Johns: Then Hal loses his ring, but finds one of Tony’s suits. And thinks it’s the coolest thing to ever pilot…
Fraction: Tony rebuilds a shattered power battery with repulsor tech and discovers he can make this weird ring do what he thinks…
Stephen Wacker: @GeoffJohns0 @mattfraction SinestrO.D.O.K.
Johns: And the SinestrO.D.O.K. Corps
Fraction: how big of a red ring would a red ring have to be to fit around fin fang foom’s neck like a collar? #blooddragon!!!AAIIEEEEEEEE
Johns: Fin Fang Foom you have great rage in your heart! Welcome to the Red Lantern Corps!
Fraction: “Pepper Potts, this is Carol Ferris. Carol, meet…”
Johns: “Hal? I was,um, just having a drink with…” “Tony. Tony Stark. I hear this ring belongs to you…but I can’t get it off.”
Johns: In the suit, Hal plays chicken with the Quinjet. The Avengers want to know who stole Tony’s armor.
Brian Michael Bendis: @GeoffJohns0 @mattfraction hey!! No quinjet or avengers unless i get some tie in/ spin off action!!
Johns: @BRIANMBENDIS @mattfraction Avengers/Green Lantern/Iron Man We last left Hal Jordan in Iron Man’s armor battling the Avengers…
Red Lantern Fin Fang Foom and the SinestrO.D.O.K. Corps alone make a real-world version of this imaginary crossover worth the price of admission, don’t you think?
- June 9, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Your video of the day | Iron Baby suits up
Are the Young Avengers still hiring? If so, they should talk to Patrick Boivin‘s baby girl, who suits up into some famous armor and tackles a handful of scary bunnies in this really awesome parody video. The young hero even gets an endorsement from Iron Man director Jon Favreau.
- May 27, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Aldridge and Tartakovsky reinterpret Iron Man for Marvel variant covers
Alan Aldridge's variant cover for Avengers #2
As wonderful as those “Iron Man By Design 2.0″ covers by animation artists Ronnie del Carmen and Bill Presing were, I think Marvel may have topped them this morning with two from legendary graphic designer Alan Aldridge and renowned animator and director Genndy Tartakovsky.
Aldridge, who’s widely known for creating illustrated lyric books for the Beatles, album covers for the Rolling Stones, the Who and Elton John, and the children’s book The Butterfly’s Ball, and the Grasshopper’s Feast, offers his psychedelic take on Iron Man for the variant cover for Avengers #2.
Tartakovsky, creator of Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack, and director of 2003′s Star Wars: Clone Wars, delivers a quirky clockwork Armored Avenger for Invincible Iron Man Annual #1.
Both issues will be released in June. See the full covers and solicitation text after the break.
- May 26, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
At least there’s one superhero movie that doesn’t suck…
Is the superhero genre a cinematic dead-end? Since Salon’s Matt Zoller Seitz made the case last week, the topic has been much on the minds of the comics commentariat. Recently, Tom Spurgeon, Tim O’Neil, Charles Hatfield and yours truly have all weighed in on the matter, focusing on aspects like the power of individual moments or performances vs. that of the story as a whole, the storytelling techniques mandated by Hollywood’s need to get a return on the massive investments required for the genre, the question of why fans get so worked up for the movies when they have any number of (usually superior) comics about the same characters to read, and personal film-by-film rundowns of the genre’s high and low points.
Of course, this was all before I saw Black20′s magnificent made-up mash-up trailer for Iron Man IV. Now, it’s possible that this is a parody of super-sequels’ tendency to over-stuff themselves with new characters, extra villains and half a dozen subplots. On the other hand, when you’re presented with an Iron Man movie starring Robert Downey Jr., Fred Gwynne, Jim Carrey, James Brown, Vanilla Ice, Carl Weathers, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Barack Obama, M. Bison, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, David Arquette, Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Johnny 5, who’s gonna complain? If you can make it through the 2:19 mark without laughing out loud, maybe you’re a superhero.
(Via Topless Robot)
- May 11, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Tintin
Publishing | Stanley Pignal takes a look at the transformation of the Tintin brand since the death of Hergé in 1983, as the cartoonist’s widow Fanny Vlamynck and her husband Nick Rodwell drastically changed merchandising strategies. In the process, the prickly Rodwell has become a controversial figure, running afoul of fans and journalists alike in his effort to exert control over Tintin’s image.
Of particular interest is a brief profile of Bob Garcia, a novelist and fan who published a series of books examining Hergé’s possible inspirations for Tintin. Garcia believed he could legally reproduce a few copyrighted illustrations for the purpose of critique, but Moulinsart saw things differently: The writer is now fighting to keep his home as penalties and legal fees mount. [Financial Times]
Crime | Danny Wayne Barton, owner of Kryptonite Komics in Carbon Hill, Alabama, was arrested Thursday after he allegedly sold marijuana to police informants on four separate occasions. Three of those incidents reportedly occurred in Barton’s shop, which also sells smoking devices as the Good Karma Store. The 38-year-old retailer faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison on four counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance within a three-mile radius of a school. [Daily Mountain Eagle]
- May 10, 2010 @ 08:07 AM by Kevin Melrose
Is Tony Stark still a dickhead?
By Joshua S Hill
The way things pile up is probably not a new conundrum for comic book fans, especially those who have a hard time a) saying no and/or b) saying goodbye. The proverbial “stack” has become much less proverbial and more … verbial? Whether the stack is compromised of issues, TPB’s or a mixture of both with a healthy helping of prose books thrown in, the problem is the same each time:
Where oh where is the time to read it all?
Well, I finally found some time stuffed down behind the couch-cushions and decided to read through Invincible Iron Man volume 5, including the storylines “The Five Nightmares,” “World’s Most Wanted,” and “Stark: Disassembled.”
I really enjoy reading through a whole story, that’s why waiting for Patrick Rothfuss to finish ‘A Wise Man’s Fear’ is slowly killing me inside and why I refuse to read Invincible and Captain America in anything but the great big hardcover omnibus size (and let’s not mention the fact that I only just found out that there was an Invincible Iron Man omnibus from Marvel). So it’s no surprise that I really enjoyed reading through the first 24 issues of Invincible Iron Man.
And let’s be honest with ourselves. I could get distracted and talk about how in issue 25 Pepper Potts seemingly forgets that she was getting frustrated being Tony’s “girl-Friday” and I could mention the weird Hammer twins who are actually mother and daughter which just make it even freakier.
But I won’t.
Because those things detract from what I felt was a really fantastic story, and one that led me to asking one simple question: is Tony Stark still a dickhead?
- May 7, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
I’d totally buy a Kate McMillan & The Super Apes spinoff series
CBR posted a preview of one of Marvel’s Free Comic Book Day offerings earlier this week, which features a tale by Paul Tobin and Craig Rousseau starring Iron Man, Nova and a brand-new Marvel U. character named … Kate McMillan:
Iron Man, Kate and Nova
As it turns out, “Kate McMillan” is also the name of our own Graeme McMillan’s wife. Coincidence? It turns out no, it isn’t. “Kate McMillan is a supporting character-cum-heroine in Paul Tobin’s FCBD book from Marvel,” Graeme said. “I saw the script way back when, Douglas Wolk showed me the finished comic on Saturday. It’s hilarious, if only because it really kind of looks like her. I have to ask Paul if he sent the artist reference.”
I knew she was a great web designer, but I had no idea Kate was the keeper of the Super Apes when they weren’t out causing trouble. The things you learn in comics …
- April 30, 2010 @ 11:15 AM by JK Parkin
One custom-made JARVIS, Stark family fortune not required
Tony Stark and JARVIS, from "Iron Man"
It may not be able to help him construct an armor suit — not yet, anyway — but Chad Barraford’s Project Jarvis greets him and his dog by name, controls his apartment lights and temperature, and can even cook a hot dog.
Inspired by, and named after, JARVIS, Tony Stark’s personal artificial intelligence computer system from 2008′s Iron Man, Barraford’s “digital life assistant” (DLA) runs on a four-year-old Mac Mini with built-in speech recognition.
The 27-year-old tech-support worker, who communicates with Jarvis via RFID tags, microphones, webcams, tweets and instant messages, has spent a grand total of $691.98 on his DLA. The Boston Globe has the full story (with video).
(via TUAW.com)
- April 7, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Detroit Steel: ‘Blackwater-meets-NASCAR’ in new Iron Man storyline
from Invincible Iron Man #25
Following up on the earlier report today from G4 on the storyline for Invincible Iron Man #25, Marvel.com talks to writer Matt Fraction about Detroit Steel, “a new line of corporate enforcers” that will plague Tony Stark in a new storyline called “Resilient.”
“He is what follows in the hole left behind by Iron Man once Tony Stark leaves the world stage,” Fraction said. “Tony hasn’t been around to protect the regular interests that he might have during his time running Stark Industries or running S.H.I.E.L.D. And now that he’s back, he’s made it clear he doesn’t want to get back into the geo-political side of things necessarily. Detroit Steel is what happens in that absence. He is a sort of Blackwater-meets-NASCAR corporate-sponsored armored enhanced guy available for hire to the highest bidder for whatever cause around the round. [Laughs] Basically, Iron Man’s worst nightmare of what he could become. An absolute perversion of everything he is.”
Read more about the new character and check out more of Salvador Larroca’s art at the link above.
- April 1, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin