Ever since Matt Reeves stepped into the director’s chair for The Batman, there’s been no concrete information on what we can expect from the film. Today, however, we learned from the director that his film will be influenced and inspired by the films of the great Alfred Hitchcock. If any comic book film could fit in with Hitchcock’s filmmaking style, it’s Batman!
Category Archives: Comic Books
Comic-Con: Todd McFarlane Teams with Blumhouse for Spawn Reboot
Todd McFarlane teams with Blumhouse for Spawn reboot
For years now, the prospect of a Spawn reboot has made the rounds in movie news, but the character’s creator Todd McFarlane has now taken to Facebook to officially announce that the film is coming and he has big guns behind him.
Before it gets a new host in Mary Jane, review the symbiote selections!
On June 14, the Venom symbiote gets a brand new, untarnished host in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS #8 written by Gerry Conway with art by Ryan Stegman. That’s right, responsible mom, loving wife, and trend setting fashion blogger and boutique owner Mary Jane Watson-Parker tackles a new challenge: showing that alien space suit who’s boss.
To see just where the bar is set let’s take a look back on past hosts…
Spider-Men II: Double Your Pleasure
Peter Parker and Miles Morales reunite for a milestone story!
In 2012, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli gave us the legendary team-up of Peter Parker and Miles Morales with SPIDER-MEN. Through the dimensional tampering of Mysterio, Peter ended up in the “Ultimate” universe and came face-to-face with his own death as well as a brand-new and younger hero with the mantle of Spider-Man. Five years, one Secret Wars and a Civil War II later, and the two now live together in the Marvel Universe, but one massive question still remains: Who is the Miles Morales of Earth-616? The first five-issue event left that particular juicy nugget of information on a cliffhanger that has yet to be resolved…until now.
The highly-anticipated follow-up to SPIDER-MEN arrives this summer from the reunited team of Bendis and Pichelli along with colorist Justin Ponsor. Luckily, you won’t have to wait until the first issue of SPIDER-MEN II drops in July for some answers. We spoke with Brian about the long-awaited sequel, the iconic web-slinging legacy of Spider-Man, and the question he’s been asked the most on social media for half a decade.
Star Wars Spotlight: Splinter of the Mind’s Eye
Luke and Leia fight for their lives and try to escape the Empire!
Each week Star Wars Spotlight combs through the digital archives of Marvel Unlimited to showcase one classic story from that distant galaxy filled with Jedi, Sith, princesses, scoundrels and droids.
Blowing up the Death Star at the end of “A New Hope” might have seemed like a final nail in the coffin to some viewers back when the film came out, but as we all saw in the ensuing sequels, the Rebellion still had its work cut out for it. In the wake of those heroic events, Luke and Leia continued their efforts to unify more people against the evils of the Empire as seen in adaptations like SPLINTER OF THE MIND’S EYE by Terry Austin and Chris Sprouse.
The story began with the siblings who didn’t yet know they were related flying to Circarpous IV, but having to land on the fifth planet in the system due to Leia’s ship being damaged. While trying to land, the pair find themselves hit by a strange energy that downs both ships. Eventually, the two heroes of the Rebellion—as well as R2-D2 and C-3PO—met up with one another and discovered the source of the unusual signals they’d received: An Imperial mining operation! To survive, Leia and Luke dressed as miners and infiltrated the colony.
X-Men Blue: Sentinels Strike
Cullen Bunn digs up his favorite stories starring the killer robots!
Ever since they first debuted back in the mid-1960s, the Sentinels have become an indelible part of X-Men mythology. Created by the dynamite duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby—and by Bolivar Trask in the comics—they’ve taken different forms and served several masters over the years, but one thing remains constant about the purpose of their existence when it comes to the X-Men: Detecting and destroying mutants.
“Sentinels are so iconic,” says Cullen Bunn, author of the currently running X-MEN: BLUE, which will host the return of the malevolent mechanical menaces this May. “I can barely imagine the X-Men without them. They’re terrific adversaries, because—in most cases—they simply have no human personalities. They exist for one purpose—to destroy mutants—and they follow that directive with cold mercilessness.”
Since “[X-MEN: BLUE] issues #2 and #3 are loaded with Sentinels,” according to Cullen, we asked him to recount his favorite Sentinel stories from over the years.
Read on for some rock em’ sock em’ robot mayhem!
Uncanny X-Men (1963) #98- Published: April 10, 1976
- Added to Marvel Unlimited: November 13, 2007
- Rating: T+
- Writer: Chris Claremont
- Penciller: Dave Cockrum
- Cover Artist: Dave Cockrum
“Merry Christmas, X-Men–The Sentinels Have Returned!,” “Deathstar Rising,” and “Greater Love Hath No X-Man” in UNCANNY X-MEN #98, #99, and #100:
“Sentinels know no holidays. They attack the X-Men…on Christmas! That’s just eeeeeeevil! And then, we get some crazy Sentinel versus mutant action…in space!”
Uncanny X-Men (1963) #142- Published: February 10, 1981
- Added to Marvel Unlimited: November 13, 2007
- Rating: T+
- Writer: Chris Claremont, John Byrne
- Penciller: John Byrne
- Cover Artist: Terry Austin
“Days of Future Past” in UNCANNY X-MEN #141 and #142:
“I remember picking up [UNCANNY X-MEN] #142—I read them out of order back in the day—and thinking that the image on the cover could not possibly be reflective of the contents. But it was. I can barely think of a scarier representation of the lethal capabilities of the Sentinels.”
Uncanny X-Men (1963) #194- Published: June 10, 1985
- Added to Marvel Unlimited: May 26, 2014
- Rating: T+
- Writer: Chris Claremont
- Penciller: John Romita
- Cover Artist: John Romita
The Nimrod stories in UNCANNY X-MEN #194, #209, and #210:
“Nimrod—and later Bastion—has always been a favorite character of mine. He had all the cold mercilessness of the Sentinels, but he also had a bit of personality, too. And I loved that he had these automatic countermeasures for anything his mutant prey [threw] at him.”
New X-Men (2001) #114- Published: July 01, 2001
- Added to Marvel Unlimited: November 13, 2007
- Rating: Marvel Psr
- Writer: Grant Morrison
- Penciller: Frank Quitely
- Cover Artist: Frank Quitely
“E Is for Extinction” in NEW X-MEN #114-#116:
“Not only did this story give us Casandra Nova, but it provided one of the most chilling examples of Sentinel power. 16 million mutants killed in the blink of an eye. It was terrifying and grim and awful. After so many years as X-Villains, the Sentinels get a big shot of nastiness in the arm.”
See the Sentinels back in action with X-MEN: BLUE issues #2 and #3, available April 26 and May 10 respectively from Cullen Bunn and Jorge Molina!
Guarding the Galaxy: Original Sin
Discover what happened to Star-Lord, Nova, and Thanos in the Cancerverse!
Celebrate this incarnation of the Guardians of the Galaxy’s tenth anniversary while also prepping for the May 5 release of the new film with these gems from Marvel Unlimited!
One of the biggest mysteries ever surrounding the Guardians of the Galaxy finally got answered as part of the Original Sin event in the pages of Brian Michael Bendis’ first run on the series during issues #18–20. Drawn by Ed McGuinness and Valerio Schiti, these issues explained exactly what happened to Star-Lord, Nova, Drax, and Thanos when they locked themselves away in the Cancerverse at the end of THE THANOS IMPERATIVE. Readers knew that Peter Quill along with Drax and Thanos had mysteriously returned from that death-defying dimension sans Nova, but didn’t know the how or the why until Gamora literally knocked Star-Lord out, tied him to a chair and demanded to hear the truth.
X-Men Gold: Bring on the Bad Guys
Writer Marc Guggenheim reveals the roster of the newest Brotherhood!
Before the X-Men can even begin to signal their return to Charles Xavier’s dream, there arises a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to derail that plan. As the X-MEN GOLD title opens, these sides create the classic tension of the X-Men franchise.
While much of the Brotherhood’s motives and means remain hidden so as to ensure no spoilers, we did our best to pry some information out of writer Marc Guggenheim.
Marvel.com: To start very generally, one of the long debated issues when it comes to the Brotherhood is whether or not they should be the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants or just the Brotherhood of Mutants. Where do you stand on this long-running debate? What makes sense for them? Any insight into why you think about as you do?
Marc Guggenheim: I feel like I may have made a joke in one of the issues with something like, “Calling themselves the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants? They should probably just call themselves the Brotherhood of Self-Aware Mutants.”
In general, evil people don’t tend to self-define as evil, but by the end of the arc you will understand why they call themselves evil. In fact, there is a very specific reason for it. It is not a random thing. All will be revealed.
Update on Marvel Comic’s Mysterious Hulk/Wolverine Hybrid Story
So about a month ago, we all were shown an interesting image of a Hulk looking thing with Wolverine looking claws in a test tube. Well, some new light has been shown on what many are calling ‘Hulkverine”. That sounds terrible. Please say they get a better name for it.
Anyway, the largest mystery was who or what this creature is considering Banner is dead and original Wolverine is dead. Now granted, this could be some weird resurrection cult. In a different issue of comics, namely Uncanny Avengers some ninjas from the Fist which is like a weird offshoot of the Hand stole Bruce Banner’s body and tried bringing him back to life as a Hulk Ninja. Ya. Kindof the worst combo in the world. Take what is quite possibly the WORST stealth character in Marvel and make him a ninja. That’s like turning Spiderman into a responsible adult… which I guess they did. Ok, it’s like turning Deadpool into a Pacifist… which they also did kinda recently. Fine, it’s like turning Iron Man into a Kindergarten Teacher. Am I good? Has marvel done that yet? Oh. Iron Man’s dead? ok then. We good.
This new image which was posted on Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso posted on Twitter a few days ago shows a blueprint on the Hulk with claws. Now, the biggest flaw I can imagine right from the get-go is does the Hulk stay the hulk,? Because if he shrinks and the bones are adamantium he’s gonna rip up.
We now have a little more info about where this Hulk/Wolverine is going to fit in. There is a new Weapon X that is in the comics and they are messing with all things crazy. Namely Batch H. It will play a main role in a crossover titled “Weapons of Mutant Destruction”. This crossover of the Totally Awesome Hulk and Weapon X comic series will have current Hulk, Amadeus Cho, teaming up with a team of mutants led by Old Man Logan trying to stop Weapon X from killing the mutant race. Finally, back to stories that make sense. The team that Logan leads includes Old standby’s like Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, Domino and Warpath. We’ll have to see where this all leads to in April when the crossover begins but you can start reading the first issue of Weapon X and Amadeus Cho now.
Most disturbing moments in Marvel comics
Comic books aren’t known for shying away from strange subject matter. But even among brain-meltingly convoluted story lines and utterly bizarre characters, Marvel somehow managed to whip up a few moments that went further than we’d ever imagined possible. These things are meant for kids, after all. Here’s a look at the most disturbing moments in Marvel comics. Some of these events caused major controversies while others flew below the radar, but all of them haunted us after we put them down. Continue reading