Newest Spiderman News

Earlier Cecelia posted that Spider-man was officially coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.   Fanboys rejoiced and then began to wonder who would write and direct. Now that has been answered.
Recent reports say that Drew Goddard has been tapped to both write and direct the new Spider-man series.  Goddard is known for writing World War Z, Cloverfield and has also written episodes for the Netflix Original: Daredevil coming out this year.  He has directed...nothing other than the Cabin in the Woods.
Not being a huge Spidey fan to begin with the fact that he was coming to the MCU wasn't a big deal for me personally.  Now seeing who the director/writer is I still question this whole thing.  I will not write it off completely though.   I can still hope that Spider-man will be recast.  Fingers crossed on that.
What does everyone else think about this news.  Happy, excited, or like me questioning the choice of director?  Let me know in the comments.

Spider-Man Comes to the MCU

    Huge news in the Marvel universe was announced yesterday. Sony and Marvel have made a deal to bring Spider-Man back into the Marvel Universe and into their new movies.

     What this deal means is that all future Spider-Man movies will be co-produced by Marvel and Sony. The first movie will be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Then, Sony will release a  movie on July 28, 2017.

That film will be produced by both Kevin Feige (Marvel) and Amy Pascal (Sony).

      There are still a lot of questions regarding this partnership and all future movies. We are not yet sure how this affects the Sinister Six movie, Venom or The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Most likely ASM3 will be scrapped all together. Sinister Six was supposed to come out next year, so that means it is either scrapped or will just bet set back a few years. Not much was ever released on the Venom movie so the future of that is unknown as well. 

      Perhaps the biggest rumor and question is who will play Spider-Man? Some websites are saying that Andrew Garfield is completely out and others say that he is still in. Right now, no one really knows except for Marvel/Sony. Personally, I would be happy to see someone else play Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield was the reason why I hated the first Amazing Spider-Man. The second movie was better but for me, that was because of Electro.  

      As much as I think that it is wonderful that Spider-Man is partially home with Marvel, it is a little bit of a cause for concern. There will be two different companies working on the same movie. That means, two different teams of creative minds and opinions. The movie will show how well that they all worked together. If the planning/producing process doesn't go to well, the audience will be able to tell once the movie is released. It's a big risk but hopefully this partnership produces a much greater reward. 

New Fantastic 4 Trailer

The newly re-booted version of The Fantastic 4 released it's trailer today.

    I have only seen the first Fantastic 4 movie and I wasn't that impressed. It wasn't as terrible as I expected it to be. I really liked the Dr. Doom character in that version. There is no mention of him in the new trailer though. There are some very inconsistent things with this new version of the movie. Most noticeably and the elephant in the room, the different races of the Storm siblings. Not that I really care but aren't they supposed to be twins?
    I have read that The Thing will be able to control his "power" and make himself look normal. They don't mention that in the trailer so who knows how true that is. I think that by doing that, you lose a lot of character development for him. I really hope that this new movie does a good job with Dr. Doom. I really did like him in the original movie but thought he needed more screen time to be effective.
    The trailer shows promise for this movie, but more trailers are needed for me to get completely on board with the reboot.

Avengers Merchandise Coming Soon!

With Age of Ultron on the horizon, toys and collectibles are going to hit shelves soon.
I recently came across an article about my favorite toy company, Funko. They have the best figures for Marvel.

First things coming out are the Mystery Minis. Notably missing are Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. I love these little boxes and being surprised with what I get.



Next are the Pop! Vinyl Figures. I will be grabbing Hawkeye as soon as I see him. Also in the Pop! collection will be; Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Ultron and Vision.


I have never seen keychains by Funko before. Thor, Captain America, Hulk and Iron Man will be the first in the keychain line.


Another new item, is a 4-pack of bobble heads. These are a little weird looking. I will  stick to the more traditional Funko figures.


Last things are the new Fabrikations figures. These are soft little, plush figures that Funko started making.


The Fabrikations will be out in April and everything else will be out in March. I have had really good luck finding this brand in Hot Topic. I know Barnes and Noble sells a bunch of these too.

Top Superhero Animal Sidekicks

I recently adopted a pup.  He is my new best friend and a family member.  When trying to come up with a name for the little guy I turned to comic book characters for inspiration.  At one point his name was going to be Loki since he is mischevious and another idea was Ace who is Batman's canine sidekick.  This got me thinking of a post of other animal sidekicks to heroes.  Most people know about Krypto the superdog, whereas Ace doesn't seem to be very well known.  Here is my list of animal sidekicks to our wonderful heroes.

Ace the Bathound
Ace appeared in the comics in the 1950's and 60's.  He was inspired by the success of Krypto and was based on a German Shepherd dog.  Ace was found by Batman and Robin when his scientist owner was kidnapped.

Krypto the Superdog
Krypto first appeared in 1955 as a white dog of unkown pedigree.  Krypto has most of the same abilities as Superman such as super strenth, speed, and flight.  He is the family dog from Krypton of Kal-El as a toddler.  One Superman was sent to earth, Krypto was used as a test subject.  But his rocket went off course and to Earth.

The Legion of Super-pets
DC really got into the whole super-pet thing with the Legion of Super-pets which was first published in 1962.  Not only does the Legion of Super-pets include Krypo, but it also has Comet the Super-Horse, Streaky the Super-Cat and Beppo the Super-Monkey.  Yea, that's right, Super-Monkey.   I swear I am not making this up, the picture is proof.

Lockheed
Lockheed is the alien, dragon companion of Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat).  He first appeared in 1963 and is a member of the X-men along with Kitty Pryde.  In addition to flight and fire power like other dragons, Lockheed is immune to telepaths.  He also has the power of empathy and can understand human speech.  He has even spoke on a few occasions.

There is more comic animals where that came from.  I found evidence of Throg the Frog and Jumpa the Kangaroo, as well as an octopus.  Yea, an octopus.  This is however TOP Superhero Animal Sidekicks.  Not little known, odd, and useless animal sidekicks.  Lockheed and Ace are probably my favorite two listed.

Mutant of the Week: Professor X

Name: Charles Frances Xavier
Powers and Abilities: Telepathy.  He is quite possibly the worlds strongest telepath.  He can read minds and project thoughts into other peoples minds.
First Appearance: X-Men #1 (1963)

Most everyone who has seen the X-Men films or even seen even a page of the comics knows who Professor X is.  Therefore, I do not feel the need to explain his whole story.  Instead, this week I am just giving quick bullet points and important notes.  As always, you can read his full story at the Marvel page here.

-Born to a nuclear physicist Brian Xavier and his wife Sharon.  His father passed away and Sharon remarried his partner Kurt Marko.  Charles was then bullied by his step-brother Cain.   Kurt knew and beat Cain as punishment.  Charles could feel this pain due to his emerging abilities.
-His mother and stepfather died in a house fire.
-Went to Oxford University
-Fell in love with Moira Kinross.  Entered the army to win her affection.  He was put into the same unit as his stepbrother and witnessed what he thought was his death.
-Spine shattered during battle with his old enemy Farouk.

Professor X is portrayed by Sir Patrick Stewart.

 

Mutant of the Week: Onyxx

This week I have a much lesser known mutant again.  Actually, I had never heard of him until I hit random page on the X-Men info page.  I wasn't sure who to feature this week and decided to let destiny decide.  Hence; Onyxx.

Name: Sidney Green
First Appearance: X-Men Vol. 2 #171
Powers and Abilities: Superhuman strength and resistance to physical energy due to his craggy granite body.
Other Attributes: his granite body.  He also has a second set of eyes.

Onyxx was born Sidney Green and was orphaned at a young age and grew up in an orphanage and foster homes.  He was often bullied as a child.  When his mutation manifested he went to Xaviers school and was put on Gambits team.
He was critically injured by William Stryker.  Sadly there is not much more info on Onyxx since he was killed by Wither during an attack.

To find out all of the information you can check out the full page on Onyxx here. 

Mutant of the Week: Destiny

Last week I featured Rogue whom was taken in by Irene Adler (Destiny).  Personally, I had not heard of this character and was intrigued.  Especially, since she shares the name of Sherlock Holmes love interest.  Therefore this week I am featuring Destiny.

Name: Irene Adler

            Destiny

First Appearance: X-men #141 (1981)

Powers and Abilities: Can see into the future.  Can mentally scan alternate futures and perceive probable events.  

Quick Bio:  Irene was born into a wealthy family in Austria in the 19th century.  She was originally overwhelmed with her ability and spent nearly a year writing her visions into books.  Destiny met Mystique when trying to understand her powers more.  The two became lifetime companions and eventually lovers.  They took in Rogue.  Destiny helped Mystique create the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.   Later she was killed by Legion-an event which she had foreseen (1989 issue)

Looking at it now, I realize why I had never heard of Destiny.  She didn't seem to last in the Marvel Universe to long.  First appearance was in 81 and she died in 89.  Check out the full story of Destiny here. 

Everything We Learned at the Marvel Press Conference Today

Marvel held a press conference today at the El Capitan Theatre. President, Kevin Feige was there to announce everything. 

Below are all the movies that will be released in the coming years. 

First up is the 3rd Captain America movie. Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans were there to talk about it. This will also be the beginning of Phase 3!

No word on who will play Dr. Strange yet.

Yay!

There better be Loki in this!

Chadwick Boseman will play Black Panther.

Before this was announced, footage was shown that pictured the Infinity Gauntlet.

Captain Marvel will be known as Carol Danvers.

Very little was said on this one. 

There was also a very short Q&A section. We learned that right now, there will be no solo movies for Black Widow or The Hulk. They did mention that Black Widow will have a very key role sometime in the future. I am very excited for all of these movies! Hopefully Dr. Strange will be announced soon. Marvel will not be releasing any writer/director/actor information until it's 100% confirmed.  

Mutant of the Week: Rogue

Name: Anne Marie
            Rogue
First Appeearance: Avengers Annual #10 (1981)
Powers and Abilities: Can absorb the powers, memories, personality of others through skin to skin contact.  This can be dangerous in the fact that too much contact can kill the other human/mutant

Quick Bio: Rogue was born Anne Marie (last name unknown) and was raised by her Aunt Carrie after tragedy struck her parents.  Young Rogue ran away from home at a young age and was taken in by Mystique and Irene Adler (Destiny).  She discovered her powers while kissing her then boyfriend and she gained his memories. This made her realize she could not be around "normal" people and she joined the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.  During her first mission with the Brotherhood she permanantly absorbed the powers of Ms. Marvel.  This upset Rogue because she couldn't control her abilities and she turned to the X-Men and Charles Xavier for help.

Other Interesting Note: Fell in love with Gambit even though they could not touch.  They later sought telepathic therapy with Emma Frost to help with this.

Rogue was portrayed by Anna Paquin in the first three X-Men films as well as Days of Future Past