Everything Marvel

[JackFetch]

Yeah, wasn't that what the end of 3 set up?

Also

Wasn't Xavier alive in a new body for some reason.

That was so they didn't have to pay him a boatload of money to come back and play Xavier.

[KnightWing]

That was so they didn't have to pay him a boatload of money to come back and play Xavier.

Nonononono...

if you listen to that movie's commentary, they say that it's actually

Xavier's identical twin brother, whose mind he accidentally wiped while still in the womb. Apparently they kept the mind-wiped brother's body alive so that Charles could transfer his mind into the guy if/when-ever he died. So when Xavier comes back, he will look the same (now with working leg action!™).

No, I'm not making that up.

Also, Patrick Stewart will do anything for any price; I think he's one of the rare actors of his caliber that's really not in it for the money.

[JackFetch]

That was so they didn't have to pay him a boatload of money to come back and play Xavier.

Nonononono...

if you listen to that movie's commentary, they say that it's actually

Xavier's identical twin brother, whose mind he accidentally wiped while still in the womb. Apparently they kept the mind-wiped brother's body alive so that Charles could transfer his mind into the guy if/when-ever he died. So when Xavier comes back, he will look the same (now with working leg action!™).

No, I'm not making that up.

Also, Patrick Stewart will do anything for any price; I think he's one of the rare actors of his caliber that's really not in it for the money.

If that's true then they turned Xavier into an asshole. Keeping a body alive for himself seems dickish.

[SuaveStar]

It's like an insurance policy.

A downright sick and disturbing one, but still.

[KnightWing]

It's like an insurance policy.

A downright sick and disturbing one, but still.

More accurately, the minds behind X-Men 3 are downright sick and disturbing.

[Guest DCAUFan1051]

I'm watching Iron Man, #1 because it's awesome, #2 because I'm reviewing it on MWIRE this week. Can someone either give me a brief explanation on the history between The Starks and The Stains? Or point me in the right direction to read about it.

[JackFetch]

Music industry vet Michael Cohl has joined megabudget tuner "Spider-Man, Turn Off the Dark" as the new lead producer and thesp Reeve Carney has been cast as Peter Parker in the fiscally challenged show, which producers have confirmed is still expected to happen.

They didn’t, however, peg an exact date for the musical’s bow, saying only it will open in 2010 at Broadway’s Hilton Theater.

In a statement that came out of a much buzzed-about meeting of producers and creatives on Friday, the show’s backers said they expect to have full financing for the hugely ambitious endeavor in place in the near future, at which point the musical will resume full production.

Jeremiah J. Harris, already on the producing team of "Spider-Man," has moved up the list of producers to second in line behind Cohl ("November," "Monty Python’s Spamalot"). Former lead producer Hello Entertainment/David Garfinkle is now listed third.

Cohl, the former chairman of Live Nation, has worked in the past with U2, whose members Bono and The Edge penned the songs for "Spider-Man."

Carney collaborated with "Spider-Man" helmer Julie Taymor ("The Lion King") on the director’s upcoming film version of "The Tempest," in which he plays shipwrecked prince Ferdinand. He joins a cast that includes previously announced thesps Alan Cumming (as villain Green Goblin) and Evan Rachel Wood (as Parker’s paramour Mary Jane).

Cohl comes aboard a technically enormous production that has had a bumpy ride since the project was announced. Work on the tuner, with a budget estimated by observers to be in the $50 million range and running costs expected to hit a sky-high $1 million per week, was halted over the summer due to what producers called cash flow issues.

Production did not pick up again until last month — a significant delay for a musical that had announced a Feb. 25 start date. It’s generally thought that the show, which had initially looked to be the behemoth of the season, now won’t make it to the boards until sometime after the Tony cutoff in late April.

Current list of "Spider-Man" producers includes Cohl, Harris, Garfinkle, Marvel Entertainment/David Maisel and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118010975.html?categoryid=15&cs=1&nid=2562

This will either be the greatest thing ever, or the biggest clusterfuck ever.

[SuaveStar]

I hear Sega has the rights to make the Thor movie tie in game.

[Molly]

Julie Taymor is a genius. Even if everything else goes to shit, that woman will have this show making the most out of whatever she has.

[Venneh]

Cummings as the Green Goblin. Well, damn, if I'm ever in a position to see this, I might well go see it.

[JackFetch]

Subsidiaries of Marvel Entertainment, LLC today filed suit in federal court in Manhattan seeking a declaration that notices of termination of copyright assignments served by the heirs of long-time Marvel artist Jack Kirby are invalid.

Last September, attorneys acting for the Kirby heirs sent 45 notices to Marvel seeking to terminate purported assignments by Kirby of copyright interests in Marvel Super Hero characters such as X-Men and Fantastic Four. Kirby's heirs are claiming that from 2014 to 2019 various rights supposedly transferred to Marvel will revert to them. The Marvel lawsuit asserts that those claims are baseless because all of Kirby's contributions to Marvel's publications, like those of other comic book writers and artists of the same period, were works made for hire, making Marvel the sole owner of the copyrights.

"The notices filed by the heirs are an attempt to rewrite the history of Kirby's relationship with Marvel," said John Turitzin, Marvel's General Counsel. "Everything about Kirby's relationship with Marvel shows that his contributions were works made for hire and that all the copyright interests in them belong to Marvel."

Under federal copyright law, works that were created at the "instance and expense" of a publisher during the time Kirby was a creator for Marvel were "works made for hire" and owned by that publisher. If, for example, Marvel gave a writer or artist an assignment to create a comic book story populated with new characters or to illustrate a comic book story with depictions of its characters and paid the writer or artist for carrying out the assignment the publisher, not the writer or artist, would own the copyright. All of Kirby's contributions to Marvel comic books the heirs are claiming for themselves fall into this category.

Marvel editors determined which publications Kirby would work on, just as they did with all the other artists and writers engaged to work on the publications, and always retained full editorial control. In addition, Kirby was paid for his contributions. As a result, all of Kirby's contributions were solely owned by Marvel, which was standard practice in the comic book publishing industry.

Kirby's situation at Marvel is completely different from the facts that gave rise to the Superman litigation. The initial Superman story was written and illustrated by its creators well before they had any business relationship with its ultimate publisher.

"The purpose of the lawsuit filed today is simply to set the record straight and obtain a judicial declaration that the Kirby termination notices have no effect," said Mr. Turitzin.

This is exactly the way I feel. If a company pays you to create characters, then they own them.

[Stavros]

Did anyone else know about the Planet Hulk animated feature being released soon? I swear I had no idea, and I'm usually pretty up on these things. Should be good, hopefully they go full downbeat with the end and have Hulk headed for earth to seek revenge.

[KnightWing]

Did anyone else know about the Planet Hulk animated feature being released soon? I swear I had no idea, and I'm usually pretty up on these things. Should be good, hopefully they go full downbeat with the end and have Hulk headed for earth to seek revenge.

I totally had no idea that was coming out.

[Stavros]

Did anyone else know about the Planet Hulk animated feature being released soon? I swear I had no idea, and I'm usually pretty up on these things. Should be good, hopefully they go full downbeat with the end and have Hulk headed for earth to seek revenge.

I totally had no idea that was coming out.

It should be odd that I'm so much more into DC releases than Marvel ones, but frankly the DC stuff is almost always better. Ultimate Avengers 1 & 2 had crappy bad guys, Invincible iron man was uninspiring and I recall almost nothing about Dr Strange. Next Avengers was just for the kids really, only the Hulk portions of that were worth it. Of course the Hulk Vs thing was pretty good as well, maybe Marvel only does good stuff with Hulk involved. In which case this should be fun.

Still way more excited for Crisis on Two Earths though, DC's got far more home runs in this department.

[Molly]

Ultimate Avengers was worth it for the Hulk/Thor throwdown. Awesome.

[Stavros]

Ultimate Avengers was worth it for the Hulk/Thor throwdown. Awesome.

As I said, they do the Hulk well, those films just suffered from a shit baddie. They couldn't have used a big Avengers villain of long standing? I know those things are meant to be the Ultimate Skrulls but they really didn't work as animations.

[Guest tnr105]

Doctor Strange was the only one that mildly interested me, the Wolverine portion of Hulk VS is good if you want to turn your brain of and enjoy the action While the Hulk/Thor throwdown was good in ultimate avengers, the one in Hulk VS was pitiful.

[Molly]

Doctor Strange was the only one that mildly interested me, the Wolverine portion of Hulk VS is good if you want to turn your brain of and enjoy the action While the Hulk/Thor throwdown was good in ultimate avengers, the one in Hulk VS was pitiful.

Really? I thought it was pretty solid.

Loki Controlled Hulk: I will have your hammer, brother.

Thor: Nay, you shall have it's THUNDER!

*cue explosion of lightning*

[Guest tnr105]

Hulk was too insanely powerful. Yeah I know the madder he gets, the stronger he gets, but he took down nearly all the asgardian gods in less than 10 minutes. It would be like Superman trying to beat up the spectre, or batman beating up Jesus. (the former would probably win though.)

[Guest tnr105]

The avengers tomorrow one was kinda decent too if I recall. All the heroes kids, Hulk,Thor,and Iron Man are the only surviving heroes. Kinda had an old-man logan feel, but it wasn't really anything to write home about.

[elnino14]

Yes DC has had better productions but not much better.

Each one has had one hit, Wonder Woman and Hulk Vs.

Yes, DC has had better than average productions, but not much better. Gotham Knight was a mixed bag, Green Lantern was uninspired. Public Enemies was blah. And I didn't like the old school one as much as others did.

Marvel is the same way. Iron Man sucked, Dr. Strange was not that great. The two Ultimate Avengers movies were ok but had shitty villains and was afraid to pull out all the stops. And Next Avengers was basically a kids film.

Both Planet Hulk and the newest DC one could be good. But you never know.

I'm honestly surprised Marvel isn't doing another Iron Man feature considering the movie is coming out pretty soon. I definitely expect a Deadpool feature down the line to match up with the film, considering he stole the Hulk vs. Feature and that had Hulk, Wolverine, and Thor in it, and he outshined everybody.

[Stavros]

Yes DC has had better productions but not much better.

Each one has had one hit, Wonder Woman and Hulk Vs.

We are going to disagree here. Since it was the same team behind the DCAU I think Mask of the Phantasm and Return of the Joker should be included in the count, since they are part of the record of that production crew. On top of that New Frontier was excellent, meaning that DC has produced a clear four films that can be considered great, compared to Marvels none.

[KnightWing]

We are going to disagree here. Since it was the same team behind the DCAU I think Mask of the Phantasm and Return of the Joker should be included in the count, since they are part of the record of that production crew. On top of that New Frontier was excellent, meaning that DC has produced a clear four films that can be considered great, compared to Marvels none.

Mask of the Phantasm and ROTJ both had the advantage of having a whole series (and, in ROTJ's case, a whole animated universe) to rely upon. I don't think they can quite be put in the same category as these new DC movies.

The thing is, for me, the production quality is so much higher with the DCU movies that a crappy DCU film beats an equally crappy Marvel film.

[Stavros]

We are going to disagree here. Since it was the same team behind the DCAU I think Mask of the Phantasm and Return of the Joker should be included in the count, since they are part of the record of that production crew. On top of that New Frontier was excellent, meaning that DC has produced a clear four films that can be considered great, compared to Marvels none.

Mask of the Phantasm and ROTJ both had the advantage of having a whole series (and, in ROTJ's case, a whole animated universe) to rely upon. I don't think they can quite be put in the same category as these new DC movies.

The thing is, for me, the production quality is so much higher with the DCU movies that a crappy DCU film beats an equally crappy Marvel film.

Also true. Marvel's character models are all fairly consistent in type across the board but mechanically the DC animations seem far smoother, far better suited to dynamic action and real superheroics regardless of the overall style of the film.

[JackFetch]

Feige talked about how Iron Man, Iron Man 2 (May 7), Thor (May 6, 2011) and The First Avenger: Captain America (July 22, 2011) will lay the foundation for what should be the ultimate superhero epic - The Avengers (May 4, 2012).

"It's fun now, and we're introducing some new characters in ['Iron Man 2']," he told the magazine. "But it's not about just cramming in lots of new people; that's sort of the cardinal sin of the sequel - adding in too many characters. This is totally Tony Stark's story. And that's gonna weave into Thor's story, and Steve Rogers' story, and it's already ingrained with Nick Fury's story and an organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D."

He says that it is important to first focus on each character. "My only concern is that when we launch a franchise--whichever character's franchise that may be--it should stand on its own two feet... So by the time 'The Avengers' comes in 2012, it's not just a team superhero movie with a bunch of characters with powers. It's three people - four including the Hulk; five including Nick Fury - who you've seen before in other movies, coming together for the very first time."

Catch that Hulk bit? Feige also said that he won't rule out the possibility of a second Incredible Hulk film with Edward Norton. "That would be post-'Avengers,' if it happened... I think there's a chance. It's certainly our intention to use the same actors from film to film where we can."

Feige was asked it will be difficult to meld the fantasy of Thor with the high-tech science fiction in Iron Man and The Avengers. "No," he said, "because we're doing the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee/Walt Simonson/J. Michael Straczynski 'Thor.' We're not doing the blow-the-dust-off-of-the-old-Norse-book-in-your-library 'Thor.' And in the 'Thor' of the Marvel Universe, there's a race called the Asgardians. And we're linked through this Tree of Life that we're unaware of. It's real science, but we don't know about it yet. The 'Thor' movie is about teaching people that."

The magazine asked Feige what other characters may come to the big screen after The Avengers. "I love Doctor Strange. Ant-Man is like Whiplash - one of those chracters where you're like, 'Really?' that we've got a fun story with. I've always wanted to do something with Black Panther. I think what Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction have done with Iron Fist lately is great, and the Iron Fist mythology opens up a whole other part to us. I'd love to break into the cosmic side of the Marvel Universe even more- it's kind of there in 'Thor.' J.J. Abrams' 'Star Trek' got me jonesing to do that. It's what I grew up on - 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars.' I want to do a big space epic. And we've got them in Marvel."

http://superherohype.com/news/thornews.php?id=9019