cyrus.mortazavi

Adi Tantimedh writes,

The latest sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is out, and that’s the other major publishing event this season after Go Set A Watchman, and like the latter novel, it’s not a clear-cut good thing as the publishers would like you to believe.

In The Girl in the Spider’s Web, journalist Mikael Blomkvist and outlaw computer hacker Lisbeth Salander reunite to protect the autistic son of a scientist from a conspiracy that’s after his father’s research in artificial intelligence, putting them against Salander’s evil twin sister who now heads the criminal empire their father built, and even the NSA. In a post-Buffy age of pop fiction, Salander has become a new female superhero for millions of men and women to fall in love with. A producer friend of mine considers her an archetypal dark avenger not dissimilar to Batman, and that’s part of her appeal. The popularity of the novels certainly bear that out.

Steig Larsson, the creator and author of the first three books, died suddenly of a heart attack in 2004 just as the first book was hitting the bestseller lists, and since the signature of his will wasn’t witnessed, rendered it invalid. Under Swedish law, his next-of-kin, his reportedly estranged father and brother, inherited his property, including his intellectual property by default. He didn’t marry Eva Gabrielsson, his partner of 30 years, and since there are no laws in Sweden with provisions for common-law partners, she was left out in the cold, despite the fact that she was his sounding board and collaborator – possibly even his co-writer – on the books.

The Girl In The Spider’s Web is written by David Lagercrantz, a journalist and writer previously known for biographies and some novels. He was hired by the publishers and Larsson’s estate to come up with a completely new story independent of whatever Larsson might have originally planned for a fourth book. Larsson had said he wanted to write ten books and reportedly had the manuscript of a fourth book, probably unfinished, and copious notes on his laptop that Gabrielsson has refused to give to his estate and the publishers. The first three novels had sold 82 million copies worldwide and had movies made. It’s a major franchise and the only reason to continue the series without its original writer is money, after all.

As far as I’m concerned, any story not by the original author, written without the approval or wishes of the original author, is fan fiction. Lagercrantz has spoken in interviews publicising the new novel about how he re-read and absorbed the characters and ideas of Larsson’s original novels in order to put him in the right mindset to write Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander in a new plot that captures the feel and complications of Larsson’s books. From the reviews and what I’ve read so far, The Girl In the Spider’s Web is a very competent and perfectly entertaining act of literary mimicry, recreating the feel of the characters and the world of the first three books as well as the technothriller procedural plots. But the question is, is there more than that to it? Does it have Larsson’s undertone of political anger and activism against injustice, misogyny and corruption, or is it just a fun pulp romp for the beach? Is it more than just fan fiction? Is that all the fans want? How does it feel to read this knowing that had he lived, Larsson would almost certainly have written a fourth book completely differently?

The other question is whether we should support a book that might have been published for cynical reasons that screws over the author and his partner? Larsson had said one reason he started writing novels outside of his journalism work was to provide financial security to Gabrielsson. Is it enough for us just to want a fun thriller to read with that at the back of our minds? If you love the original books and respect the author, can you buy or read this new one in good conscience? If Eva Gabrielsson had entered a partnership with Larsson’s father and brother and the publisher, and approved of the new book, then that would cast a different light on the situation. That they went ahead and commissioned this new book against Larsson and Gabrielsson’s wishes makes it feel shady.

Man, fan fiction is so much more complicated than we think.

The Guy Who Reads Too Much at lookitmoves@gmail.com

Follow the official LOOK! IT MOVES! twitter feed at http://twitter.com/lookitmoves for thoughts and snark on media and pop culture, stuff for future columns and stuff I may never spend a whole column writing about.

Look! It Moves! © Adisakdi Tantimedh

Steig Larsson’s The Girl Who Came Back As Fan Fiction – Look! It Moves! by Adi Tantimedh

This week we got our first look at how Michael Fassbender will appear in the Assassin’s Creed movie. One of the cool things, I think, is that the movie isn’t a retelling of any of the old titles, but instead is a totally new narrative, that exists in the same universe as the games.

On that note, Aymar Azaïzia, head of Assassin’s Creed content at Ubisoft, has confirmed that the events of the movies will be felt in the games, on top of other media. In a tweet to a fan, he said:

IWe share the same universe. Elements in the film have consequences as in our games, comics, and books -Aymar https://t.co/FSpepKARt7

— Assassin’s Creed (@assassinscreed) August 28, 2015

I’m all for this. Bringing the universe together might well help with the lost sense of direction and overarching narrative the series has lost a little of. Now, I don’t expect huge sweeping connections, but still, little nods will all play their part in making this universe feel bigger.

Assassin’s Creed Movie Will ‘Have Consequences’ On The Games

With Straight Outta Compton hitting the screens, on Facebook, Rob Liefeld reminisced about NWA member and the Godfather of gangsta rap,

to that time Eazy-E came to my comic store signing. I was shocked and thrilled when Eazy showed up at the Golden Apple for the launch of Youngblood #1. I acted like a fool because I was intimidated by his presence. I remember thinking “Eazy E reads my comics?? What?? AWESOME! He was persistent and insisted we do a comic together so we decided to develop a comic “The Hood” and we worked on it until he became ill. Really sweet guy, incredible talent. Give way too soon! I’m seeing ‪#‎StraightOuttaCompton‬ this weekend as the‪#‎NWA‬ story is a compelling on for all artists! I know I have the sketches for The Hood in my files, I’ll dig em up and share them soon. ‪#‎robliefeld‬‪#‎imagecomics‬

He dug them up.

Here are some of the sketches for The Hood, a project about urban men with powers developed/created with Eazy-E in 1992-93. The designs are dated but reflect the time of that era. #Youngblood had a huge urban audience with characters as Sentinel and Chapel. Would have been a blast to complete but Eazy-E had fell out of contact due to complications with his illness.#NWA #eazyE #robliefeld #imagecomics

Note, one of them is actually called Compton.

When asked “maybe you should bring them back as now would be the most appropriate time”, Rob replied

Never say never…

We won’t, Rob!

The Hood – Straight Outta Rob Liefeld

This is what happens when actors are asked about projects on the horizon.

Chiwetel Ejiofor tells Entertainment Weekly that he’s excited to reunite with Benedict Cumberbatch when they shoot Marvel’s Doctor Strange. The two appeared together in 2013’s 12 Years A Slave, for which Ejifor received an Academy Award nomination.

As announced at the D23 Expo, Ejiofor will play Baron Mordo, the film’s primary antagonist. On sparring with Cumberbatch, he said “He’s a good friend of mine … So, it’s gonna be fun.”

The actor also said he is excited to work with Tilda Swinton, who will play the Ancient One and … not much else. Between the usual security Marvel operates under — at least until production begins — and it still being early days for Ejiofor on the project, it must be hard for him to even think of much else to say when asked about the role.

One thing I wonder about: will magic actually enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe? The major studios are fairly gunshy about magic as a plot element in their product despite the world wide success of the Harry Potter and Tolkien-inspired franchises. I imagine they fear audiences will laugh at the traditional depictions of mysticism. Will the magic on display in Doctor Strange be unquantifiable sorcery with candles and arcane powers or, to quote Arthur C. Clarke, will it be “a sufficiently advanced technology?”

Doctor Strange will reveal its flavor of magic on November 4th, 2016.

Chiwetel Ejiofor “Excited” for Doctor Strange

A rather interesting photo has been released for season 2 of the CW hit series The Flash. We learned that the series will pick up 6 months after the season finale and from the looks of things most everyone survived. We see Joe West (Jesse L. Martin), Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), Iris West (Candice Patton), Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker), Martin Stein (Victor Garber) and Cisco Ramon (Carlos Valdes). We also see the Flash suit in the background and it already has the white symbol on the chest.

So the question becomes, who do we not see? Everyone is obviously looking at someone and Joe has his gun out… so it’s got to be someone dangerous. If I had to guess, knowing that Tom Cavanagh is still a regular in the series… I’m guessing they’re looking at Dr. Harrison Wells.

We’ll find out for sure on October 6th when The Flash returns to the CW.

First Image From The Flash Season 2 Has A Bit Of A Mystery

It’s that time of year, right as preseason is winding down, and players are getting caught taking performance enhancing substances. Well, okay, just LaRon Landry. Okay, he was caught months ago, but let’s be honest, he’s probably doing steroids right now.

Despite the League’s fierce crackdown on PED use, football will forever be stereotyped by stupid people as “a bunch of roided-up hulking brutes smashing into each other.” People will always assume that a sport full of freakishly gigantic athletes has rampant PED use. When players do get busted, nobody really seems too surprised, nothing like the fervor that gripped Major League Baseball fans. Plus, because steroids are medically useful for injury recovery, a sport that features injuries as heavily as football will always have some sort of close connection with steroids. Of course, now that Russell Wilson has discovered RECOVERY WATER (with healing #NANOBUBBLES), maybe steroid use can vanish completely.

But it made me wonder. What if the NFL embraced performance enhancers? Several bottles of alcohol later, we come to this. NFL logos if they took steroids. I hope you like biceps, because you are about to see a lot of biceps.

NFC WEST

NFC South

NFC East

NFC North

AFC West

AFC South

AFC East

AFC North

I never want to draw biceps again.

PREVIOUS LOGO REDESIGNS
Manningface
British
Fat
Hipsters
Anime
Potheads
Scary
Canadian
Butts
Male Genitalia 

Yesterday, during the D23 Expo celebration the first image of the cast of the first stand-alone Star Wars movie was release, Star Wars: Rogue One. So what is the film? Well, if you ever wondered exactly how the Rebels got the plans for the Death Star… this is the story. Kathleen Kennedy said:

Rogue One’ takes place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope and will be a departure from the saga films but have elements that are familiar to the Star Wars universe. It goes into new territory, exploring the galactic struggle from a ground-war perspective while maintaining that essential Star Wars feel that fans have come to know. Gareth is such an innovative director and I’m so excited to be working with him and the extraordinary ensemble cast he’s selected for ‘Rogue One.

The film will be directed by Godzilla’s Garth Edwards. It will star Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk, Mads Mikkelsen, Forest Whitaker, and Riz Ahmed. Veteran ILM visual effects supervisor John Knoll, who shares a long history with the Star Wars movies, dating back to the mid-1990s, originated the idea for the movie.

Star Wars: Rogue One is scheduled to be in theaters December 16th, 2016

[Source: Lucasfilms]

What Is Star Wars: Rogue One?

With the loss of the Arrow Cave during last season, it was time for Team Arrow to get a new place to call home… and EW.com got the first look at it.

This new set up looks pretty fancy. So how can they afford it? Just speculating here… but when we pick up in the new season, Ray Palmer will have been missing and presumed dead. Add in the scenes with him having Felicity Smoak sign some papers that makes her the owner of Palmer Technologies if he dies. Hence she has the money to put something together like that. And the design feels like something Felicity would come up with.

Arrow returns October 7th to the CW.

Green Arrow Gets A New Place To Hang His Quiver And Bow

The talk of a World of Warcraft 2 has long creeped around on the internet. The mainframe of the original game is already over a decade old, so there might be benefit in completely revamping everything by releasing an entirely new game to get ready for the next years of MMO dominance.

Well, according to executive producer J. Allen Brack who spoke to IGN at Gamescom, a sequel to the MMO isn’t being considered right now. He cites past failings of other MMOs as the reason why Blizzard don’t want to do it, but did admit, even though the next expansion Legion was only announced last week, the expansion after that is already being considered.

You know, there’s not really a great model for a successful sequel MMO. Virtually all of them have been very significant failures and I think we’re very conscious of that – not just small failures, either.

We’re not actively working on anything on the MMO front that is not World of Warcraft. We were completely dedicated to the Warlords of Draenor expansion and now the Legion expansion. We’re even thinking about the expansion after that – we’re already talking about what comes next.

I for one would actually be totally up for a World of Warcraft 2. Seeing Azeroth in an updated world engine ready for the next 10 years would be quite something. Alas, it would seem not. Seeing how long this 10 year old game can keep going should be equally interesting though.

World Of Warcraft 2 Isn’t Being Considered, But The Expansion After Legion Already Is

One of the most asked for games on the internet, especially where Blizzard are concerned, is Warcraft 4. The RTS game spun off in to the MMO behemoth we all know now, but some fans have longed for a return to what it once was.

Speaking to IGN, StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void producer Tim Morten, revealed that both Warcraft 4 and Starcraft 3 are on the table once the latest Starcraft expansion hits.

This isn’t the end of StarCraft, but it’s the end of this story for these characters. We don’t have any specific plans, but I’ll say that the universe has so much potential for more stories, clearly other stories could be told.

“It’s very rewarding for us to hear that there’s demand out there for more RTS content in the Warcraft universe so once we’re done with Void I think we’ll get together as a team and talk about what would inspire us to work on next. There’s no question, though, that we’ll consider Warcraft, StarCraft, or even new ideas. Anything is possible.

That is pretty exciting! Warcraft was a great game, and laid all the blocks for the now giant franchise. I’d love to see Blizzard go back and iterate on the formula in new and exciting ways with modern technology.

Blizzard Are Going To Consider StarCraft 3 And Warcraft 4 Soon

Well, fans of Constantine can take some solace that the Matt Ryan version of the character is not fully dead… as the actor will reprise the role of John Constantine this season on Arrow. The CW announced today during their Television Critics Association presentation. The street-wise magician will appear in a one-shot episode.

Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim had said the show would like to bring the character in but didn’t go so far as to say it was a done deal. With the introduction of magic and mysticism in the new season, Constantine should fit right in.

Arrow returns October 7th to the CW.

Constantine To Appear On New Season Of Arrow

I know, they finally just got Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) together and they’re already casting a new love interest… but the Olicity shippers can breath a sigh of relief, this will be for the flashback scenes in season 4.

Elysia Rotaru will be joining that cast as part of Oliver’s missing years. Rotaru, who has appeared on Supernatural and iZombie, will be playing an as-of-yet unnamed character. The fact that we haven’t gotten a name may mean that she is playing an established character from the DCU.

The flashback for season 4 should start off in Coast City and will involved the group known as Shadowspire and Baron Reiter played by Jimmy Akingbola.

Arrow returns October 7th to the CW.

Oliver Queen’s New Love Interest For Season 4

Adi Tantimedh writes,

So the second season of True Detective has been and gone, and it’s been an interesting exercise in how a show can fall from public favour in the course of just one season.

There’s probably been more column inches spent knocking the show as there were praising the first season. Reviews and tweets have been expressing confusion and disappointment in it after the focused, atmospheric first season with its mix of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, existential ruminations and hardboiled machismo. Viewer and critics seemed to be disappointed that the second season was… less so.

Were expectations too high? Was it due to too much hype? Both the media and social media seemed eager to elevate creator and writer Nic Pizzolato into another auteur in this age of serialised television as a bastion of deep and complex fiction, down to a cringe-inducing Vanity Fair profile where the interviewer worked embarrassingly hard to stick his tongue up as far up Pizzolato’s arse as humanly possible.

The interview isn’t Pizzolato’s fault. He didn’t tell the guy how to write it up, and it was during the period prior to the premiere of the new season that the network was making the usual PR campaign to push awareness of the show. It’s more a symptom of media and celebrity culture’s need for new idols, and then the current knocking of the show seems part of a cycle where the culture needs to knock down what it previously propped up. We’ve seen that happen to Lindsay Lohan and a long list of other celebrities, but this is the first time I’ve seen it done to a TV show, and only in its second season.

HBO and Pizzolato had already warned viewers beforehand that the second season was a straight-up cop thriller, not the gonzo cosmic horror-tinged head-trip of the first, and so far that has come to pass. Unfortunately that did nothing to stave off the disappointment viewers have felt. Maybe the disappointment also stems from the feeling that the central mystery and narrative feel more obscure this season. The murder victim is a corrupt money guy we never met before his body turned up and not someone we particularly care about. The lip service paid to a conspiracy involving money, property investments, and an unsolved robbery-and-murder feels like too much tell-not-show, and are far too abstract, like common plot tropes from the detective genre that were just strewn across the story rather carelessly. When gangster-protagonist Frank’s henchman turns up murdered, we were hard-pressed to care because we couldn’t even remember who he was. I’m sure the whole mystery and whodunnit had been plotted out beforehand, but they seemed to be withholding far too much of it for viewers to get a grasp on. The scripts feel like they could have used another two drafts before going into production.

Despite all that, it doesn’t make the show a complete disaster creatively. It’s actually still a perfectly adequate cop show. Maybe that’s not enough for an upmarket cable show anymore. Many people have pointed out season two has actually been a serviceable adaptation – or rip-off, if you’re feeling less charitable – of James Ellroy’s crime fiction. Ellroy specialises in Los Angeles-based thrillers about flawed, angst-ridden and pathological cops seeking redemption who visit vengeful justice on evil men plotting vast conspiracies. Someone on Reddit even charted how much the main characters and plot trajectory of season two have been lifted straight from Ellroy’s novel The Big Nowhere. There’s also an attempt to replicate the surreal, dream-like menace of David Lynch in the show this season. This seems of a piece given that season one lifted from Lovecraft, Thomas Ligotti, From Hell, and even direct lines from Alan Moore and Gene Ha’s Top Ten. I’m having a perfectly good time watching it. It’s not going to change my life, but I don’t expect a cop show to do that.

The thing about US network television is that it always had magpie tendencies, lifting plots and ideas from popular movies and books without acknowledging the original source. This goes all the way back to the 1970s and even earlier. Think about how many shows since the 1990s has had their Groundhog Day episode where the heroes were forced to relive the same day over and over again. To me, True Detective continues that tradition of lifting plots and ideas from classic and popular sources, only this time for what’s supposed to be an upmarket show. You could argue that it’s part of its postmodern aesthetic: a bricolage made up from pieces of other stories and movies to create its own whole. The only difference here is that season two has not been met with the viewing public’s approval. Could it be that what they really want is what they loved in season one, the dark, mysterious, cosmic, existential horror that informed a murder mystery that blew open the audience’s head to new spaces? Is the current disappointment that season two is just a cop show?

This throws up an interesting lesson for anyone looking to create and maintain a popular franchise. Once you establish a format, a story genre, an atmosphere, a theme that the audience falls in love with and latches onto, woe betide you if you decide to stop doing that. True Detective was supposed to be an anthology show: each new season would have a new setting, characters and story. It’s loss in ratings and popularity seems to be down to not continuing what the audience loved in season one. After all, look at Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story, which established that anthology format three years before True Detective did. It managed to continue that same brief of over-the-top horror tropes, emotional melodrama, savage satire and left-leaning politics successfully in each new season without losing ratings or popularity.

If there’s going to be a third season of True Detective, maybe it needs to bring back that layer of existential and cosmic horror. I would suggest another popular franchise for it to lift from:

Persona 4.

Why not? Hear me out. Persona 4 is a popular video game about a Scooby Gang of teenagers in a small town who investigate a series of killings that take place in a twilight world of shadows and cosmic horrors that lurk under the normal world. Along the way, they have to grapple with moral and existential dilemmas involving identity, sexuality, gender identity, depression and madness. And its main cast has over half a dozen heroes playing detective. That’s rich pickings for a US network out to lift from popular pop culture sources. It could put True Detective back on the map, and since it’s a video game, snobby TV critics and media pundits won’t have heard about it and will happily rave about the originality of the new concept!

True Defective at lookitmoves@gmail.com

Follow the official LOOK! IT MOVES! twitter feed at http://twitter.com/lookitmoves for thoughts and snark on media and pop culture, stuff for future columns and stuff I may never spend a whole column writing about.

Look! It Moves! © Adisakdi Tantimedh

The True Fall of True Detective – Look! It Moves! by Adi Tantimedh

20th Century Fox’s latest attempt to bring the Fantastic Four to the big screen has not been received well by critics. The website Rotten Tomatoes pulls together all of the reviews for the film and comes up with a percentage of being “fresh”…  the Josh Trank film came in at 9%. To compare that to two other recently released films gives you a better idea of just what that means. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is sitting at 93% and Ant-Man is at 79%.

So what does that mean for the franchise? We can look at other poorly received super-hero films, how they did on the scale and what happened next.

Folks are hoping that the poor performance by the FF will lead to a Sony / Marvel style deal with Fox to allow the first family of Marvel to join the MCU. Just how bad did the last three Spider-Man films do to lead Sony to make the deal? Spider-Man 3, Sam Raimi’s last film which made Sony turn to a new vision and actor, that film came in at 63%. And Amazing Spider-Man 2 which was considered a flop and ended Marc Webb’s run with the Wall Crawler was at 53%.

The Daredevil movie that folks thought was so bad that comic fans spoke of Ben Affleck like he had personally tore the character apart… that scored a 44%.

The trailer for Fox’s upcoming Deadpool film openly picks on two other films that had Ryan Reynolds in it… X-Men Origins: Wolverine which received a 38% and Green Lantern which got a 26%.

And since this is a reboot of a franchise, we should look at how the previous incarnations did. The original Fantastic Four with Michael Chiklis as a pants wearing Ben Grimm scored a 27%, while Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer is slammed for its gas cloud version of Galactus… it sill received a 36% on the scale.

But to truly put the response to the film in perspective, here are the scores of some of the worst received superhero movies ever.

Ghost Rider 26%

Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance 17%

The Spirit 14%

Superman IV: The Quest For Peace 12%

Batman And Robin 11%

Elektra 10%

And what may be the most tell-tale sign of just how poorly the film has been reviewed… it has the same score as the Halle Berry Catwoman.

Putting The Response To The Fantastic Four Into Perspective

Here is the character design for what Arrow (he’s not Green Arrow at this point) will look like in the upcoming CW Seed series Vixen. Since the Vixen series takes place in the CW / Arrowverse, Stephen Amell will be voicing the character of Arrow / Oliver Queen. It’s believed the art here is by Phil Bourassa

Vixen starts August 25th.

From @DCComics​, #Vixen is coming to @CWSeed​ in just 3 weeks, and she’s bringing #Arrow with her. pic.twitter.com/AqSyukCOrv

— Arrow (@CW_Arrow) August 4, 2015

What Arrow Will Look Like In The Vixen Animated Series

By Octavio Karbank

Click here to view the embedded video.

This last weekend, everyone and their brother watched as Ronda Rousey utterly destroyed her opponent, Bethe Correia, in their UFC fight in just 34 seconds! Suffice to say, the woman is a living weapon and champion if ever there was one. It should then come as no surprise that her favorite cartoon character is none other than Vegeta (from Dragon Ball Z), the prince of all Saiyans! Watching her briefly go full on fangirl, gushing about her love for Vegeta, is nothing short of adorable!

Octavio Karbank is a writer and bona fide Whovian. Living in Massachusetts, you can find him on Twitter @TymeHunter and his blog www.cozmicventures.com

Ronda Rousey Loves Vegeta More Than You

Just in case anyone had forgotten, and just in case we do get a Mark Waid/Chris Samnee relaunch of Black Widow for All-New All-Different Marvel, this is what a Chris Samnee Black Widow looks like.

In pretty safe hands, don’t you think?

This Is What A Chris Samnee Black Widow Looks Like

Fifteen years after Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson thrilled us with the vacuous lifes of male-models as action heroes, the duo are back as Derek Zoolander and Hansel. The two have returned to modeling when a rival company decides to take them out from the business. Will Ferrell will reprise his role of Mugatu.

Zoolander 2… or 2oolander… opens February 12th, 2016.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ben Stiller Is Back To Ask The Ultimate Question In Zoolander 2 Teaser

Potential Spoiler here for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice…

Turn back now if you don’t want to know.

You have been warned.

Okay, we’ve known for a while that Jena Malone was going to be in the film, but not specifically which part. Now Latino Review is saying they know. The original thought, based on her appearance it seems, is that she was going to be playing Carrie Kelley, the female Robin from The Dark Knight Returns. But now they are saying that she will be playing Barbara Gordon. There is no word on whether she will be either of her alter egos, Batgirl or Oracle, in the film though.

Of course this still falls into the rumor category until we get some official confirmation.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opens March 25th, 2016.

Who Is Jena Malone Playing In Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice

Jessica Jones showrunner Michelle Rosenberg appeared for the Television Critics Association to promote the upcoming Netflix show. And talked about the comic Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos that the upcoming Netflix series is based on, the story of what a superhero does after she no longer wants to be one.

“It all starts with Brian Michael Bendis’s Alias series,” Rosenberg said. “He created this incredibly flawed, damaged interesting character. Regardless of gender, it was the character that drew me. He wasn’t afraid to go there and we went even further. We’ve gone further in all of our storytelling.”

All their storytelling?

The series opened with one of the more controversial scenes in Marvel’s comics, so much so that their original Alabama printer refused to print it. What has been interpreted as an anal sex scene between Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.

Oh, and I suppose, it was interracial as well. That probably had something to do with it. Either way, this is a world that has been comfortable with an interracial lesbian strap-on scene from Netflix’s Sense-8. So, you know, maybe that’s where they are going.

Could Jessica be the giver and Luke the receiver this time round?

Could Jessica Jones Really ‘Go There’ And Further?

When Marvel launched their Marvel Now! relaunch lead title Uncanny Avengers #1 by Rick Remender and John Cassaday, it brought in over 300,000 orders.

Their lead title for All-New All-Different Marvel relaunch, Invincible Iron Man #1 by Brian Bendis and David Marquez, while selling well, is quite a drop. ComicBook.com has it at 200,000 pre-orders. Despite plenty of promotional covers, a Party launch, the cover of Previews, and being the first post-Secret Wars title set in the All-New All-Different Marvel Universe…

However, it is a large jump based on how the title was selling previously.

It’s all a matter of perspective.

Invincible Iron Man #1 To Bring In 200,000 Orders