Ok, saw WORLD WAR G… firmly wound up in the “boring characters + not enough Godzilla = hard to care” camp. Sort of knew from having seen MONSTERS that things would go in this direction, but didn’t really anticipate how much standing around staring at nothing, mouth breathing, and automatically written dialogue there really would be. I could sense the good intentions and reverence underneath, but the focus is forever in the wrong place and the balance is always off. And when the “fun” happens, instead of working up a genuine sense of wonder, there’s just Legendary Pictures’ continued insistence on pulverizing destruction (MAN OF STEEL) and on-the-nose topical references to recent events (Nolan’s BATMAN movies). Yes, there are some cool shots (ok, like 3 of them) of some big humanoid thing doing some big cool kaiju stuff, but nothing to hold onto: just 30 min of falling debris and concrete slabs. Even the little kid in me would not be OK with that and would probably just prefer a Slurpee and the Marvel comic. The Monster is Zero.
Lostphrack
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the obligatory godzilla reboot review
LostphrackI think it was a little better than this, but.. yeah.
Fan Stitches Together LEGO Human Centipede Playset
The LEGO Company recently announced release plans for a Ghostbusters-inspired playset, which is likely as far as they'll ever be delving into the horror genre. But a fan can dream, and one fan has just brought his delightfully twisted dream to life, in the form of ass to mouth LEGO people. It was inevitable, I suppose.
Check out the hilarious mock-up image below, which we spotted over on Bloody Disgusting. They found the image on the Deviant Art page of user AsparagusTrevor, who is needless to say our new favorite person.
On a related note, The LEGO Movie hits VOD outlets today, so this was pretty well perfectly timed. Thanks for making this week just a little bit less shitty, Trevor. Well, actually, you just made it a whole lot more shitty, but you get what we mean...
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Will underperforming Amazing Spider-Man 2 tamp down Sony’s expansion plans?
Over at Badass Digest, Devin Faraci looks at Amazing Spider-Man 2 and it’s slightly disappointing box office returns. Yes yes, it has made $630 million globally, so it is hardly After Earth 2, but someone either at Sony or in an attempt to embarrass Sony leaked that they were expecting to make $1 billion worldwide…and
The global box office is harder to track across all five films; the global marketplace has exploded in the 12 years since the first movie was released. What we can do is see that the reboot made $752 million globally, and that Sony was feeling so confident in this new film that they in-house projected it to reach one billion dollars, that new global magic supernumber. I remember when a movie making $100 million domestic was a big deal – now that’s an opening weekend! One billion bucks is where it is when it comes to these mega-franchises.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will not make one billion dollars.
Where this gets interesting is that Sony has huge plans to spin out Spider-man into at least one a year, with Spider-Man 3 directed by Marc Webb due in 2016, and a stand-alone Sinister Six movie before that, with shooting to begin in 2015 and a standalone Venom also due. Faraci speculates that that plan may be in jeopardy given the drop off in Spider-man’s appeal:
I think they’re going to back off the expanded universe idea. There’s barely an appetite for Spider-Man, so what interest is there in his villains? I want only the best for Drew Goddard, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Sinister Six, previously scheduled to shoot in January, sort of fades away. Sony needs to focus on The Amazing Spider-Man 3 first, and any good ideas that could have gone into a Sinister Six movie should get folded into the third film. In fact it seems absolutely bizarre to me that there was going to be a Sinister Six before The Amazing Spider-Man 3, considering what a shitty job The Amazing Spider-Man 2 did setting them up.
Again, all speculation, but doing it Marvel’s way ain’t as easy as it looks.
Koichi Sakamoto Directs new Space Sheriff V-Cinema
LostphrackYAY!
Two Brand New Space Sheriff V-Cinema Movies have been announced for the end of the year, coming to Blu-Ray and DVD! Hit the jump for more information and trailer. According to the announcement, the two films are written by Arakawa, with Director and Action Director being the fan favorite Koichi Sakamoto. The “Space Sheriff Sharivan: […]
The post Koichi Sakamoto Directs new Space Sheriff V-Cinema appeared first on Henshin Justice Unlimited.
Top Five Greatest Godzilla Fights Against Marvel Heroes
LostphrackWish they'd do something with Red Ronin. :(
Manga in Minutes: Countdown 7 Days, Vols. 1 – 3
LostphrackPlug, plug, plug.
Manga in Minutes: The Flowers of Evil, Vols. 4 + 5
LostphrackShameless self plug!
Frank Miller and Geof Darrow are back with Big Guy and Rusty for DHP
LostphrackKinda curious as to whether Miller going off the rails in recent years will affect the new Big Guy & Rusty stuff.
A news byte from C2E2: Dark Horse Presents, the long running anthology, will be back in a slimmer format but with some added content heft, including a new “Big Guy & Rusty” story by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow. Previous issues of the long running anthology had been 80 pages but a new 48 page format will be a bit easier to put out, said Dark Horse publisher MIke Richardson.
Rusty and the Big Guy is a comics series from 1995 about a young boy with a giant robot, that classic set up. It was turned into a Saturday morning cartoon for Fox, and ran for a whole season. That’s right, THERE WAS A FRANK MILLER SATURDAY MORNING CARTOON SHOW IN THE 90S. ANd yuo wonder why the 90s were the apogee of the Golden Age of human civilization.
The new story is just a “simple thing” Darrow told Comic Book Resources, which Miller is dialoging.
Other stories that will run in DHP according to CBR:
• David Mack’s “Kabuki”
• New “Resident Alien” stories by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse
• Brendan McCarthy’s “Dream Gang”
• Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and Andy Kuhn’s “Wrestling With Demons”
• More “Sabertooth Swordsman” by Damon Gentry and Aaron Conley
• Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey’s “Action Philosophers”
• Ricardo Delgado’s “Age of Reptiles”
• Horton and Dialynis’s “Amala’s Blade”
• Tyler Jenkins’ (Peter Panzerfaust) “The Chaining”
• Jerry Ordway and Alex DeCampi’s “Semiautomagic”
• Peter Tomasi and Keith Champagne’s “The Mighty” drawn by Leonard Kirk
• Ed Brisson’s “Murder Book” with Declan Shalvey, Michael Walsh, and more
• Shannon Wheeler’s “Too Much Coffee Man”
Manga in Minutes: Vinland Saga, Vol. 3
LostphrackShameless self plug!
Movie Posters With Quotes From Dumb Amazon Reviews Instead of Reviewers
Enable JavaScript to check out our fancy slideshow.
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1.Leon: The Professional
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2.Jaws
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3.Die Hard
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4.Skyfall
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5.2001: A Space Odyssey
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6.Cool Runnings
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7.Captain America: The First Avenger
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8.Fargo
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9.Labyrinth
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10.Alien
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11.Battle Royale
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12.Mean Girls
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13.Iron Man
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14.District 9
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15.The Avengers
The Tumblr Awful Reviews is a brilliant idea. When you hate a movie, you can be amused by a quip taking it down. When you don’t, you can be amused by feeling superior to the sort of person who could watch The Professional and not be totally into Gary Oldman‘s performance as another scene stealing villain. I mean, everyone loves him in that movie.
Everyone.
(via lots of places, including BuzzFeed and The Daily Dot.)
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S.H.Figuarts Hikaider and Kikaider Teased
LostphrackTwo more expensive action figures I want..
Another scan of this month’s issue of Figureoh Magazine teases the release of Ishinomori’s classic Kikaider character. He’ll making his long awaited debut into the S.H.Figuarts line, perfect with the new Reboot film looming on the horizon! Unfortunately, the image seen above is in low quality so his release details for now are hard to […]
The post S.H.Figuarts Hikaider and Kikaider Teased appeared first on Henshin Justice Unlimited.
xombiedirge: Lego Ghost in the Shell 2 - The Doll by The Arvo...
LostphrackThat's creepy as fuck.
Lego Ghost in the Shell 2 - The Doll by The Arvo Brothers / Flickr
I wasn’t super keen on the second movie, but damn if I wouldn’t pay good money for this set regardless.
It's Batman vs. Terry In A Clip From Darwyn Cooke's Batman Beyond Short
First Bruce Timm brought back The Animated Series' version of Batman , and now Terry McGinnis is back in his cartoon Batsuit in this clip from Darwyn Cooke's upcoming Batman Beyond animated short.
Fox and Sony cross-over in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 secret scene — SPOILERS
LostphrackWeird, but interesting.
It seems that Fox—which controls the X-men and Fantastic Four film franchises— and Sony—which controls Spider-Man—have come to an agreement to create their OWN variant earth-2 Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting with a cut scene at the end of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2. Foreign viewers are already tweeting about it. I’ve greyed out the relevant info below.
The “Amazing Spider-Man 2″ opens today overseas, and fans are already buzzing on Twitter over its end credits. The Sony Pictures release concludes with a teaser for the upcoming “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” a new sequence that has been added since “Spidey 2″ premiered in London last week.
The montage, which features a blue Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, is meant to mimic the coda scenes that conclude the Disney and Marvel Pictures juggernauts, including “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” which introduce new characters.
And yes, it’s a Fox-controlled X-character.
But is this REALLY the start of a titanic cross studio promotion? According to Variety a more prosaic contract detail is the cause. It seems SPIDEY director Marc Webb had a deal with Fox Searchlight, who only let him out of it to make Spidey for Sony on the condition that the movie promote the X-men for free.
So don’t expect to see Spidey in the FF any time soon. That’s ONLY for the comics, folks.
Amazing Spider-Man 2 opens on May 2.
Manga in Minutes: Catchup Corner
LostphrackShameless self plug!
Real First Look at Ultraman Victory
LostphrackSo many V's.
A bit ago an outline of the newest Ultraman was shown. Now they’ve released a look at the full body of Victory. As you can see he’s colored differently from other Ultra with black being the predominant color outside of the red and silver alongside the gold Vs on the body. It is, being […]
The post Real First Look at Ultraman Victory appeared first on Henshin Justice Unlimited.
Manga in Minutes: My Little Monster, Vol. 1
Year of the Artist, Day 83: Jill Thompson, Part 5 – Beasts of Burden #1
Year of the Artist, Day 71: Gray Morrow, Part 2 – Savage Tales #1
Manga in Minutes: Brave 10, Vol. 1
Manga in Minutes: Vinland Saga, Vol. 2
Guardians of the Galaxy, Day 3: What's NOT in the trailer
One of my favorite games when I sit down to watch a new comic-book movie is catching all the little references to the larger body of source material. Little things like Bucky picking up Captain America’s shield in The First Avenger, just as his comic-book counterpart was carrying it around in the comics.
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| This can't possibly be a reference to that, can it? |
You know comics—there’s no such thing as an original concept. The GotG we know is actually the second major incarnation of the team. The first Guardians of the Galaxy first appeared in 1969 and popped up sporadically from the 1970s through the 1990s. They were a 31st-century superhero team fighting a race of alien would-be conquerors known as the Badoon. They played an interesting role in the 2008 GotG series, when they were revealed as one potential future of Star-Lord’s team. They also inadvertently gave the 2008 team their name when Major Victory, a mutant telekinetic who had inherited Captain America’s shield, traveled back in time and joined up with Star-Lord’s gang of misfits. He introduced himself (shortly before passing out) like this:
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| Hello, my name is Vance, and I will be your mythos for today. |
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| Star-Lord makes his best command decisions based on what will shut Rocket Raccoon up. |
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| Oh, look, it's a set photo of Yondu. And some dead guy. |
What, you thought that was the whole team in that trailer? Please. GotG went through team members like James Bond goes through love interests. Here are some members whom you haven't seen, but who might show up anyway.
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| Phyla during her Quasar phase. |
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| Mantis knows everything and tells the most irritating bits. |
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| Not Karen Gillan. |
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| Nickname: "Loverbug". Not embarrassing at all. |
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| Jack Flag and his unofficial battle cry. |
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| I can't read this panel without giggling hysterically. Only Star-Lord gets captured by bad guys who take his pants. |
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| Nice accessorizing. |
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| No explanation would be sufficient, ever. |
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| Peter's thoughts need no translation here, I think. |
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| The Kree rock the underwear-outside look. |
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| Star-Lord on diplomacy. |
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| They don't always have wings, but they're always like flying monkeys. |
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| Adam and Adam. Don't trust the smiley one. |
10. Adam Warlock. A big player in the Guardians universe, Adam was both a team member and a major adversary. An artificial human created to be perfect (and superpowered, of course), Adam spent most of the 1970s using his “soul gem” and assorted other nifty powers flying around space and alternate universes as a kind of cosmic messiah. (No connection to Mantis, though. Cosmic messiahs just kind of turned up in the seventies.) He’s died and come back to life a bunch of times, and somewhere along the way picked up an evil version of himself, which he can sometimes turn into if you screw up his timeline. This evil version is basically a silver-tinted Adam Warlock called Adam Magus, and he is big, big trouble. In Adam’s run with the Guardians, he started out as their navigator slash mystic advisor slash big gun, and he ended up (SPOILER ALERT) having to sacrifice his “good” future to save his team and the universe. He turned into the Magus, nearly killed all his teammates, and forced Star-Lord to shoot him in the head in what’s arguably the biggest emotional gut punch of the entire series. “Damn it, Adam,” Star-Lord mutters, as he stands alone on a platform, surrounded by the bodies of his teammates. “Look what you made me do.” If Adam shows up, expect to soil your pants, cry, or both.
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| Beam me up, Scotty ... er, Cosmo. |
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| Skulls. What a surprise. |
Why does he get his own section? Because he’s pretty much guaranteed to show up, even though he wasn’t in the trailer. We know from the advance materials that Ronan is working for Thanos, we saw his bumpy purple face at the end of The Avengers, and if there’s any villain who consistently ruined the Guardians’ day, it was him.
Thanos is a big purple alien who can’t be killed very easily and who is in love with Death. Yes, the skeleton in the robe. He’s got a thing for her. He would get her flowers, except she doesn’t like flowers, so mostly he gets her mountains of skulls. They have a stormy on-again-off-again relationship, and whenever he’s not dead (i.e. spending time with his lady friend), he really wants to be dead so he can be with her. Except he’s really hard to kill, partly because Death gets tired of him and periodically decides she doesn’t want anything to do with him … so he can’t die. This ticks him off. Anyway, Thanos’s major thing, other than being in love with Death, is wanting to kill every living thing in the universe in order to impress her. To do that, he periodically goes after the Infinity Stones, a group of magic gemstones that control things like psychic power, all known energy, or the fabric of reality itself. They can be conveniently mounted into something called the Infinity Gauntlet—a big golden glove with slots for each of the Stones. If you looked closely, you saw it in Odin’s treasure room in Thor. Obviously, the Infinity Gauntlet is just dandy if you want to kill a universe. Which Thanos does.
Here’s Thanos having a fight with his girlfriend. Sums him up nicely:
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| You thought YOUR breakup went badly? You didn't have a talking raccoon and a space dog in the peanut gallery. |
Tomorrow: Why I invented the term “nerdsad” for this movie.
Japanese Superheroes
LostphrackJohn Rozum-sempai noticed me! :D
Lostphrack asked me: You've occasionally used Japanese yokai in your works, and you've talked a little about your fondness for Godzilla in the past as well.
I was wondering if you had any interest in Japanese superhero franchises like Ultraman or Kamen Rider?
I've never seen Kamen Rider, but based on some of the vinyl toys I've seen that were made in the likenesses of the characters from this show, I'd really like to. I've watched some others, including a few incarnations of Ultraman, Kikaida, Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot, Iron King, Red Baron, Gatchaman, Mirror Man, and Space Giants, are all series I've seen. I've also seen sporadic episodes of others, and would like to see more. There's a crazy inventiveness that's unique to Japan that I love about these programs, but I find they are best enjoyed in small doses, as the plots themselves tend to be repetitively formulaic, which can make them tiresome if you watch more than a couple at a time.
I really admire the character design and concepts for the shows more than anything else, except for the monsters which are like nothing else. I do have a comic book project that I hope to do one day that's a love letter to these shows.
First look at Marvel’s new street racing inspired All-New Ghost Rider #1
Marvel continues its sneaky move towards more interesting, quirky takes on its heroes with ALL-NEW GHOST RIDER #1 by Felipe Smith and Tradd Moore, with a new Latino hero—Robbie Reyes—and a story about street racing in East LA clearly based on the video game/Hong Kong street racing vibe of Grand Theft Auto, Initial D and of course The Fast and the Furious. Smith has lived in both LA and Japan and his manga MBQ is a lost classic of the TokyoPop OEL line. Moore is best known for his Image work, and add it all up and it says “Who needs a house style?”
A high speed street race in East LA leads a young man down the fast and furious road of destiny. Amid an East Los Angeles neighborhood full of gang violence and drug trafficking, 18-year old Robbie Reyes explodes onto the scene as the newest Ghost Rider!
“In Robbie Reyes, Felipe Smith and Tradd Moore have created one of the most complex and likable characters to be granted great power — and a great ride! – and learn the great responsibility that comes with both,” says Editor In Chief Axel Alonso. ”Reyes comes from a very different zip code than Peter Parker, but his story is universal.”
“His vehicle of choice, the automobile, very clearly sets him apart visually,” says series writer Felipe Smith in an interview with Marvel.com “In comparison to his vengeance seeking predecessors, he’s very young and inexperienced in most aspects of life; but as a the product of a harsh inner city upbringing, Robbie’s street smarts, overall distrust for most people, and clear contempt for his violent surroundings make him the perfect host for a Spirit of Vengeance.”
ALL-NEW GHOST RIDER #1 (JAN140660)
Written by FELIPE SMITH
Art & Cover by TRADD MOORE
Variant Covers by FELIPE SMITH (JAN140663)
MIKE DEL MUNDO (JAN140663)
SKOTTIE YOUNG (JAN140664)
FOC –02/24/14 On-Sale -03/19/14
02.15.2014: Godzilla Lovin’
There’s a death metal song about Stan Lee, because why not?
He’s been a comics writer, editor and publisher, a television host, an actor, an action figure, a video-game character and a social-media sensation. What’s left for Stan Lee to conquer? If you said death metal, you’re too late. Ottawa-based death metal band Killitorous, which has written a song about the legendary creator titled “It’s Not […]
The post There’s a death metal song about Stan Lee, because why not? appeared first on Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources.
Manga in Minutes: No. 6, Vols. 3 + 4
Welcome to another installment of Manga in Minutes! Before jumping into the weekly review, here are a few manga related news items from the past week that caught my attention. The New York Times posted their list of the Top 10 Best Selling Manga for the week of the 16th. It’s a regular feature on […]
The post Manga in Minutes: No. 6, Vols. 3 + 4 appeared first on Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources.