[Random] Neil Gaiman returning to Marvel

Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book, American Gods) is returning to Marvel Comics to co-write 5 issues of Guardians of the Galaxy. Gaiman and Todd McFarlane's character Angela is set to join the Guardians for these five issues. Gaiman is co-writing these issues with Brian Bendis, a quite famous writer/artist for Marvel Comics, Image Comics, and Calber Comics.

There is no word on whether Gaiman will continue after the five issues. Angela originally appeared in Spawn #9 and could very well continue in the Marvel Universe.

[Update] Mikkelson will not be in Thor 2

It was previously confirmed that Mads Mikkelson was set to play a villain in the upcoming Marvel film, Thor 2. However, new news has surfaced that Mikkelson will not be in Thor 2 after all. Mikkelson was nabbed for Hannibal Lecter so he unfortunately had to drop out of the project. He has also dropped out of the upcoming Daredevil reboot.

Oh well.

Pixar interested in doing a Marvel movie?

Apparently so... if the opportunity presented itself.

John Lasseter, one of the founding members of Pixar, said in a recent junket while promoting the upcoming Disney/Pixar film Brave that if a filmmaker presented an idea related to the Marvel universe to Pixar that he would be open to it. With that said, he also emphasized that Pixar prides themselves on original filmmaking.

"Well, I can’t say anything about that because Marvel just got—[they’ve] been a couple years as part of the Disney company, we’ve been six years as part of the Disney company.  And at Pixar, we stay focused on making original films.  Even our sequels are kind of created internally and we come up with ideas [on our own].  I’m also leading the Walt Disney Animation Studio and all of that.  These studios are filmmaker driven studios, so if a filmmaker comes to me and says, ‘Hey, I wanna do this,’ then I would be really open to it."

I think this is kind of a cool idea because I love Pixar, but a lot of the main Marvel characters have been claimed already. Depending on the character I think it could be a cool idea to pair up Marvel and Pixar. It just has to have the right superhero. 

4-minute preview of The Amazing Spiderman

Maybe it's still just me, but I personally think this movie looks ridiculous. I like the fact that they are making Peter Parker an asshole, as he should be, but I just can't seem to wrap my head around it. I don't know if it's the casting, underlying anger that we already have a reboot of Sam Raimi's movies, or whatever. Even after this sneak peek I am still not planning on seeing The Amazing Spiderman. I'll watch it on DVD... maybe.

The Avengers - Review

Now that I was able to control myself and actually sit down and watch The Avengers without feeling like my brain was exploding I think I can talk about it. I will warn you when spoilers are coming.


If you don't know the basic plot... basically SHIELD gathers "The Avengers" (Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye) to fight against Thor's brother Loki and his army in an attempt to take over Earth and/or destroy it. The movie is kinda split into parts, or chapters if you will. It starts with kind of a re-introduction of each hero/character, it morphs into the main plot set up of the problem, and then the resolution with the major battle against Loki and his army.

Overall, this movie is badass. The effects are great, the sound design was well done, the character development (for the most part) was decent, and the general flow of the movie was smooth and fun. They evenly mixed comedy and action, like great comics do, and it worked out very well. I was dying laughing at parts along with everyone else in the theater. It was a bit closer to the newer Ultimate Avengers rather than the older ones but I think that was more for the characters than the storyline. I do have some complaints which I will mention with spoilers, but honestly the minor gripes don't take away anything from the overall movie. I still loved it just as much if not more.
If you haven't seen it yet, definitely stay through the credits. There is a mid-credit scene and a scene after the credits. Both times I haven't stayed all the way through but from what I have heard the scene after the full credits is pretty minor and was stuck in just for fun. When I see it a third time I'll stay all the way through.


Now for SPOILERS! If you haven't seen The Avengers yet don't read on. Seriously. Don't spoil it for yourself. Let the awesome be a surprise.



























So... I will start off with my gripes which, like I said, are quite minor.

1. I didn't like how Iron Man was basically the main character. It was almost like he was the #1 leader of the group and was basically just an asshole to everyone until the very end. Granted Tony Stark is an asshole in general, but come on. Even assholes have their limits.

2. Thor didn't have nearly enough screen time. Even Hawkeye had more screen time than Thor did. Not to mention it was barely mentioned how he made it to Earth. Loki briefly says Odin must have used a lot of dark magic to get Thor back to Earth but it is left at that. Even the guys at SHIELD including Agent Coulson and Nick Fury didn't question Thor's presence. None of the other Avengers questioned it either. I assume that full explanation will be saved for Thor 2, though. Especially since Jane Foster has been confirmed to return in Thor 2.

3. Bruce Banner's sudden control of "the other guy" was a bit confusing. When he first changes on the aircraft in Black Widow's presence he nearly kills her and can't seem to control himself whatsoever. He fights Thor and practically destroys the aircraft in the process, but when he arrives in NYC mid-battle he magically is like "I'm always angry" and has full control of himself and knows which team he's on. I didn't quite understand it.

4. Black Widow and Hawkeye both were a bit pointless, imo. Her main motivation the whole time was to keep Hawkeye safe. Set up for a future plot line I think. I doubt either of them will ever have their own movie the way the rest of the characters have had.

5. Agent Coulson dies. wtf...


That's about it, though. I loved the way they eventually found a way to work together and all that junk. It was funny how they were all kind of paired up, too. Iron Man and Captain America kind of stayed together, The Hulk and Thor made a good pair, and Hawkeye and Black Widow were a good team as well. I also loved how we now know that Thor can stop Banner with almost no effort.

And like I mentioned above, definitely stay for the mid-credit scene. The big character reveal is none other than Thanos. He is the one who provided Loki's army and apparently found the way to get Loki to Earth to capture the Tesseract. If you don't know who Thanos is he is basically one of the big bad villains in the Marvel universe. He is a part of the Titan Eternals who exercises superhuman strength, stamina, and durability. He also possesses a certain level of telekinesis, manipulation, and is able to project and absorb cosmic energy. In a way it makes sense for him to use Loki to try and obtain the Tesseract. However... Thor took the Tesseract and Loki back to Asgard with him so who knows is Thanos will appear in Thor 2, Iron Man 3, or The Avengers 2. Or all of the above. Either way, Thanos' presence is definitely a big and exciting reveal.
I kind of am wondering if there will be any explanation of how the Tesseract escaped Asgard to begin with. The way this movie made it seem, in slight contradiction to Captain America, is that Asgard is its rightful owner and that it belongs in the artifact room along with the Yodenheim casket.


Anywho, I could just go on and on. My most basic advice is to go see The Avengers. Despite the gripes I have now it is a great movie, both as a comic book movie and a general movie. It has a lot of fun elements for anyone to enjoy.

Official run-time for The Dark Knight Rises?

An Australian cinema website has posted a run-time for The Dark Knight Rises and they are pegging it at 2 hours and 40 minutes.

There have been rumors circulating around that the film will be 3 hours long, or somewhere in that ballpark, so seeing a 2:40 run-time doesn't really surprise me. If I remember correctly The Dark Knight was about 2 hours and 30 minutes so it's nothing unheard of, especially for a Christopher Nolan film. Inception was long, too. Either way I will be seeing this movie. I'll do what I did before The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and dehydrate myself 2-3 hours prior to going to the theater so I don't have to step out.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/rorschachsrants/news/?a=58391