Fantastic Four: Animated Series
May 31, 2007 | 1 Comment
Marvel and Cartoon Network launched an animated Fantastic Four series last fall. The DVD of Season 1 has been released. Season 2 will start on June 16th.
I found the first season only mildly entertaining. The animation is relatively modern with an anime type style to it. I would assume this appeals to many brought up on Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc. The story lines are fairly involved and true to the characters and history of the Fantastic Four, the best part of the series. My biggest complaint, though, is with the voice acting. Specifically, Johnny Storm sounds like a complete idiot. Maybe it got better later in the season, I need to go back and watch…
Tags: dvd, fantastic 4, fantastic four, johnny storm, pokemon, sue storm, The Thing, thing, yu-gi-oh
Fantastic Four 2: Movie Posters
April 8, 2007 | 7 Comments
This new poster for Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer came out this week. It shows Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, and Sue Storm standing in front with Silver Surfer flying in from the back ground.
It is definitely cool, but I like these two international posters better.
This one is simply the Silver Surfer bursting in on his surf board with the word RISE prominently displayed.
This other poster includes Sue Storm, The Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba) semi-transparent over the Fantastic Four logo with the tag line “They Will Return 2007″.
During Marvel Civil War, I really came to like the character of Sue. This has me additionally excited about this film. Hopefully the writers can capture the powerful character strengths I have recently come to appreciate.
Tags: ben grimm, fantastic four, fantastic four rise of the silver surfer, international, Invisible Woman, johnny storm, marvel, movie, movie posters, movies, poster, Reed richards, Silver Surfer, sue storm, The Thing
Fantastic Four 2 Rise of the Silver Surfer: TV Spot
February 27, 2007 | 1 Comment
This sweet TV ad ran during Monday night’s Heroes episode. There are multiple indirect references to Galactus leading us to hope he will in fact make his debut in this film. I am now more excited about this movie than I ever would have expected.
Tags: comic, comic book, fantastic four, Galactus, heroes, movie, Rise of the Silver Surfer, Silver Surfer, tv ad, tv spot
Army of Darkness and Marvel Zombies Crossover
January 8, 2007 | 1 Comment
Spinning out of the pages of Ultimate Fantastic Four, Marvel launched a highly successful Marvel Zombies limited series written by Robert Kirkman. The popularity of that series has lead Marvel into many new horror genre comics.
The most exiting of which is the Marvel Zombies/Army of Darkness crossover.
From the Marvel solicitation:
This is it true believers, the cross-over of the century begins here! The Marvel Zombies come face-to-face with Dynamite Entertainment’s Ash from the Army of Darkness! Ash has faced legions of the undead before, but never like this…as he lands in the heart of New York just as the Zombie outbreak begins! See how his actions help turn more heroes and villains into Zombies! Under the watchful eye of Marvel Zombie guru Robert Kirkman, this might just be the comic event of 2007! Plus: The entire series will feature classic “homage” covers from painter Arthur Suydam!
The five issue limited series begins in March. It will be written by John Layman and penciled by Fabiano Silva Neves.
Tags: army of darkness, arthur suydam, ash, comic, comic books, comics, Fabiano Silva Neves, fantastic four, John Layman, marvel, Marvel Zombies, robert kirkman, ultimate fantastic four, zombie
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - First Silver Surfer Image
December 22, 2006 | 8 Comments
The first image of the Silver Surfer in the upcoming Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was revealed today. This movie is a sequel to the partially successful Fantastic Four movie from the summer of 2005. Personally, I really enjoyed the first movie and have been eagerly awaiting this sequel.
The choice of the Silver Surfer and I would assume Galactus storyline was quite welcome. This is a story from Fantastic Four that is classic and core the the Marvel mythology.
From USA Today on the Silver Surfer:
With computer-generated imagery techniques similar to those used to create Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, the slippery Surfer, voiced by Doug Jones, “will look somewhere between gun metal and fluid metallics so you can see the body motion, the breathing, the muscle tone, the mood,” says Marvel Studios CEO Avi Arad.
The Surfer’s mood is key to the story. After striking a deal with the evil Galactus to save his planet, the once-human Surfer wreaks havoc throughout the cosmos. “He is a highly emotional being, trapped inside fluid metal,” Arad says.
As a side note, the first Fantastic Four trailer debuts tonight only in theaters with Night at the Museum. Hopefully the trailer extends to the Internet as a whole this weekend.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer hits theaters June 15th, 2006!
Tags: avi arad, doug jones, fantastic four, fantastic four rise of the silver surfer, Galactus, marvel, movie, movie trailer, movies, Rise of the Silver Surfer, Silver Surfer
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
August 23, 2006 | 5 Comments
I didn’t used to be much of Fantastic Four fan. In fact, I watched the movie for the first time long after it had been out of theaters. However, my expectations were low and I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed this movie as a popcorn action, fun filled romp, with super heroes.
With this in mind I was actually happy a sequel was planned. I am even happier now knowing the title: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
The title is wonderfully along the same fun filled lines. Additionally, Jessica Alba had been hinting at a Silver Surfer appearance, it was great to see this come true. The real question now is what about Galactus?
For those not familiar with back story, Silver Surfer first comes to Earth as the herald of Galactus. Galactus is a being of immeasurable power who consumes planets. In the original story he is only defeated when Silver Surfer switches sides and helps the Fantastic Four to defeat him. This is the classic Stan Lee/Jack Kirby story from the Marvel Universe. It defines epic in many ways with effects that are still felt in Marvel stories today.
Just coming off reading the Ultimate Galactus trilogy and the Last Planet Standing limited series, I am seriously pumped to see this story played out on the big screen. In fact, I’m antsy just to see the first trailer!
(Who’d have though I’d ever be excited about a Fantastic Four movie sequel?)
Tags: comic books, comics, fantastic four, Galactus, jessica alba, last planet standing, marvel, movies, Rise of the Silver Surfer, sequel, Silver Surfer, ultimate galactus
Ms. Marvel - A Great New Series
August 1, 2006 | 5 Comments
Female protagonist heroes generally stand out for me as favorites. I’m not sure if writers are trying to reach female audiences by spending a lot of time on character of female heroes, or if they just take a more tender approach to these powerful women. Any way you figure it, I can’t help but like almost every female hero Marvel has presented me with in the last few years. With this in mind, I was immediately intrigued by Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) when she had a cameo in New Avengers. Her positioning as a reluctant and somewhat unsuccessful hero left me wanting to know more about her.
I hurriedly picked up the Giant Sized Ms. Marvel one-shot which explained some good back story, and was the direct lead-in for her new series. Since then I’ve been following the new series and it has been wonderful.
I decided to look into where this character had come from, learning that this is Marvel’s second attempt at a series. The first series ran 23 issues in the late 1970s. The Giant-Size Ms Marvel features a few of the classic stories which highlighted a lot of overlap with classic Spider-Man characters including J Jonah Jameson and Mary Jane Watson. The writer at the end of her first series was X-Men legend Chris Claremont. Shockingly, Claremont had originally planned on using Ms Marvel instead of Jean Grey for what later became the classic Dark Phoenix series.
Enough of the classic series… The new series is written by Brian Reed, penciled by Roberto De La Torre, and colored by Chris Sottomayor. Ms. Marvel is back with cosmic-like powers. Her primary power is to absorb and manipulate all forms of energy, in addition to this she can fly, is resistant to injury and has superhuman strength. Yet, with all this power, Carol Danvers is still self conscious and personable. You just can’t help but like her.
One of my favorite things about the new series are the frequent guest appearances. So far we’ve seen: Jessica Jones, Captain America, Tony Stark/Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, and Doctor Strange. It would appear that they are setting up a bit of a romantic relationship between Carol and Doctor Strange. It’ll be fun to see how that plays out. They set Jessica Jones up as her best friend which has already played out as important as they are on differing sides of the Civil War.
I also appreciate that Ms. Marvel is drawn somewhat realistically (excluding covers). Certainly she is a very attractive woman with a great figure, but that’s true even of the actors and actresses we see… My point is that she is drawn with idealized dimensions, but at least she shouldn’t be overtly insulting or degrading to women.
She is about to become involved with Civil War in the next issue (#6). Carol is being recruited to startup and manage a super hero training camp. As an ex-Avenger, Tony Stark feels he can trust her to properly train the more amateur of heroes who are registering. Others involved in training include Wonder Man and Arachne, formerly Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter).
I’d love to see them consider this for production as a film. It seems like it would be an easy and appealing project. Especially if they could keep the feel of an entangled universe by throwing a couple cameos from some other successful Marvel properties.
I’ve even convinced Sara to start reading this series. I’m hoping this will be a series which can be as successful as Spider-Girl and hang around for 100+ issues.
Tags: arachne, Brian Reed, captain america, carol danvers. jessica jones, chris claremont, Chris Sottomayor, comic book, comic books, comics, doctor strange, fantastic four, heroine, iron man, Jean Grey, julia carpenter, marvel, ms marvel, Roberto De La Torre, spider-woman, super hero, tony stark, wonder man