Still Shots From The Avengers Trailer

I meant to post these last Tuesday, but whoopsie! Some wonderful person slowed down the quick-cut Avengers trailer and posted these stills so everyone could get a better look at everyone.
First we have Chris Evans as Captain America, in a modernized, sleeker look than in his solo movie. I guess I'm okay with that, although I liked how his WWII costume looked more functional and realistic yet was still bright and "comic book-y." In the comics, his shirt is chain mail armor. This just looks like spandex or some-such. I guess it moves freely, but Cap isn't the mightiest hero out there, so the added protection made sense. But overall, not bad at all.
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Not much to comment on there.
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, out of costume, so once again, not much to comment on.
And ditto Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. Is he wearing a purple shirt? If so, cute reference!
RDJ as Tony Stark rocking a Black Sabbath tee, so once again, cute reference.
RDJ and Chris Hemsworth's ass.
Thor and his mighty guns. The tunic part looks good. It's faithful to the comics. The suit of armor in the Thor movie, I though, looked good, but I know some people thought it looked too rubbery and fake, so maybe those folks will like this look better. I still miss the helmet!

I was missing the cape in the earlier pics, but here we see it's added back in for the action sequence, so that makes me happy.
Black Widow has a boring look to begin with, so there's not much to say about her here. It just looks like a generic uniform. Like Cap's costume, it looks perfectly functional. In fact, it looks like it was clearly designed by whoever designed Cap's suit, so that's nice and adds a sense of "team" to their costumes. Hopefully, Hawkeye's also fits in the same way.

So far, looking good!

I'm just going to borrow these from Artastic Avenjer's blog. These are some VERY sexy images of male super heroes by Joe Phillips.
I LOVE Joe Phillips' style! If I could draw LIKE anyone, he is my pick. He doesn't do a lot of actual comic work. Usually, he does these awesome gay themed illustrations that are published in books or calenders and lots of merchandising.It's like hot and cute at the same time. One thing he does really well is capture age. He draws clear adults or younger characters. Not every illustrator does that. But anyway, enjoy!












This one's my favorite. It's so hot! Although I think Beast should be bigger. Ice Man looks like a young Ben McKenzie and ain't nuthin' wrong with that! Also Angel seems to be the least endowed and when I think about it... that sounds about right. Ha ha!

Captain America: The First Avenger (Plus the Other Avengers)!

First of all, Captain America was GREAT! Marvel is just killing it! I was actually not very impressed with Iron Man the first time I saw it, but I've rewatched it a couple of times and I've come around. RDJ just does an excellent job with the role. I'm still rather apathetic about the big battle sequence in it, though, but overall, it's pretty good. I completely enjoyed Thor, but I think I liked Captain America even more! I'm already a sucker for things set in the 1940s. Chris Evans does an EXCELLENT job embodying Steve Rogers' altruism, patriotism and just overall all-consuming passion for justice. You really believe him!
The special effect of making him scrawny in the beginning is just mind-blowing!
I must admit, there are gaps in logic and points where I was like "That doesn't make any sense" but I was willing to let it go, because overall, I just enjoyed the movie that much. (I think Thor was the same way.) Even moreso than Thor or Iron Man, you got the sense of tying the entire Avengers universe together. Howard Stark, Tony's... dad? Grandfather? Grandfather would probably make more sense, but I think it's his dad. But anyway, Howard Stark plays a supporting role in the movie and there's a cameo appearance of the original robot Human Torch in a scene at the beginning.
I liked that Bucky was reinterpreted from being a kid sidekick into Cap's best friend. In fact, in the beginning, Steve is more Bucky's sidekick. Also, SPOILERS, Bucky's death is reworked to give it more drama and I think it works much better than the last-minute comic book death.
I wasn't expecting the movie to involve Cap's awakening in the present (taken heavily from The Ultimates) nor the previews of The Avengers movie. THAT is going to be awesome!

It just worked. I think Marvel has tapped into the fact that for the most part, people want their super hero movies fun. They don't want the psychoses and neurotics of 80s comics. They want popcorn and that's what Marvel delivers.
At ComiCon, Marvel gave out four posters to fans featuring the characters as they will appear in the upcoming movie. Cap's costume has been simplified a bit from his movie costume. (My source.)
The utility straps are gone. I actually liked the fact that the stripes on his torso were redone that way. It was a fun nod, but made it seem more useful. The brown elements are converted to blue and red. I liked the brown actually, but this is more faithful to the comics. Overall, the new suit is more bright and comic book-y, so I can't argue with that. Some people don't like the painted on wings on the cowl, but I do. They're faithful to the original design, but not silly. Also, they're hardly even that noticeable.
Iron Man just looks like Iron Man. I couldn't tell you what, if any changes had been made.
Hawkeye's costume is basically his suit from The Ultimates. It's kinda funny that with Cap and Thor, they sort of made their suits LESS realistic and more cartoony and bright, but with Hawkeye, he looks more utilitarian. I can't quite make out what COLORS are used, but they are muted and dark. I wish they'd worked in some purple in homage to the regular comic book costume. I mean, they can skip the loincloth and buccaneer boots, but a matching color scheme would be nice. I'm completely alright with them not covering up Jeremy Renner's adorable face, though.
Black Widow's costume is fine. That's really all I got.
They didn't do a Thor poster, which is odd, since I think my right hand more people would have wanted that than a Black Widow or Hawkeye poster. But anyway, in Thor's movie, his costume was very much like a suit of armor and looked heavily based on the costume he wears now in the comics.
In the Avengers preview clip though, he has a short sleeve shirt, seemingly more closely based on his original classic look. I mean, why does an indestructible Thunder God need armored sleeves? Show off them guns, baby! (No cape, though... now that I think about it, I think Ultimate Thor has no sleeves and no cape, so maybe that's the real inspiration.)
Exciting! I really can't wait to see this movie! Joss Whedon, heed the wise advice of scholar RuPaul: "Don't fuck it up!"

Avengers Movie SPOILERS?! (And a COOL Wonder Woman Illo)

THIS is Wonder Woman done right! (By joshwmc on Deviant Art.) It's really about as flawless as you can get! The addition of the gladiator skirt pumps up her warrior nature, I love reinterpreting the white stripe on her boots as shin-guards, the leather material looks durable and tough. I realize it isn't as radical a change as the pants and jacket, so if DC were to have gone with this revision, no one would have cared and there wouldn't have been that all-media shitstorm they were so desperately courting when they made the change. But yeah, whether in the comics or in any media adaptation, if they went with this costume, fans would be all on board!

Okay, now for the latest Avengers movie SPOILERS! Well, they're just rumors, but the source is Latino News, and they are almost always RIGHT! So don't read if you don't want to know...
Latino News, for whatever reason, tends to get the hard core scoop on super hero movie news. I find it odd, simply because these movies have like... um, yeah approximately NO Latinos in them. I suppose the argument is that Latinos like super hero movies? That's as good an explanation as I can concoct. So their latest scoop is on the villains in the Avengers movie. The post-credit scene in Thor apparently supports this revelation, but I wouldn't know as I still haven't seen it. But it was semi rumored that the shape-shifting aliens, The Skrulls, would be the involved, as would Thor's brother/enemy Loki.
The Skrulls are riding high after their involvement in Secret Invasion a couple summers ago. They can shape-shift in any way they want. There was this classic Fantastic Four villain, Super Skrull, who also had the ability to mimic all their powers. In Secret Invasion, they created an army of Super Skrulls who could mimic many different super heroes and teams. They also used their abilities to replace a bunch of heroes on Earth and attempt to destroy them from within.

But wait! Apparently, Loki and The Skrulls are just the beginning. The big scoop is that this is all lead up to the REAL big bad...
Thanos! Thanos is probably the most powerful, most cosmic super villain in Marvel Comics. He's their version of Darkseid. When he possesses the Infinity Gauntlet, he can do ANYTHING! He is also in love with Death and uses his abilities to attempt to please her, which always involves killing lots and lots of living beings.
The Infinity Gauntlet DID appear in Thor, so the groundwork is there!
Okay soooooo... that's a whole lotta movie, right there. This is supposed to be less than two hours and you have THREE MAJOR villains?! I wouldn't be surprised if Thanos actually only had a cameo, setting up the inevitable sequel. I can't imagine all three having huge roles in the movie, as in the comics, every time they pop up, the story runs for several issues!

Also, Thanos is way too powerful for THIS Avengers team. Hawkeye and Black Widow have ZERO super powers between them... technically neither does Iron Man, but that suit is powerful enough, but even Captain America isn't like super powerful. He's just slightly tougher than a normal person. To fight Thanos, I mean you need COSMIC level heroes like Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock. Dude with a bow and arrows and chick with wrist gatlings are doomed! I mean this match-up boils down to Thor and Hulk versus Thanos and some cannon fodder.

Which leads back to my idea that Thanos just pops up at the end to tease the sequel. If they are going to survive that battle, The Avengers are going to have to beef up their ranks with some real heavy hitters. My suggestions for Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel (who, if both heroines were used, would definitely go by Photon) are plausible, given there are extraterrestrial origins for both their powers.
Oh man! Wouldn't that be SWEET?!

Wonder Wednesday

So Truth, Justice and The American Way , huh? I guess that's the biggest news in comics right now. It's also the news that I have absolutely no reaction to. I seriously have no opinion. "Okay... so?" I don't get why people care. Number one, um, he's a fictional character. Number two, technically, was he ever an official American citizen? (Apparently.) Like, does he actually have a Social Security number and a card that says "Superman" on it? Number three, I already kinda thought of characters like him and Wonder Woman and all the aliens are being citizens of the world. Like they just happened to live in America.

It is rather coincidental that this storyline came about right around the time as Obama went over there an d shot Osama Bin Ladden in the head. (What? That's not how it actually happened?) But yeah... I don't really care. It just sounds like stirring up shit to get in the news.

I'm sure you're all aware that Thor comes out this weekend and as I said, I'll be out of town. I do think I'll go see it while David and the boys are at the game. I was hoping to see it here with my friends, though. I even bought this peachy keen Tokidoki shirt to wear! I think I'll just wear it today. The reaction to the film so far has just been "It's pretty good." It's not blowing anyone away, but it doesn't appear to be terrible either. One disturbing reaction I read was that Chris Hemsworth is "slightly better than Channing Tatum in GI Joe." Yikes! That's not a ringing endorsement! (Also, I just remembered, didn't Channing Tatum also play a Duke in She's The Man?)

Topless Robot ran this commentary. Basically, Marvel is throwing around the idea of spin-off movies for Avengers characters Hawkeye and Black Widow and they have had an Ant-Man movie in the works for a while and Dr. Strange is also one they hope to movie-ize. And... well, DC has a final Nolan Batman coming and Superman. That's it. Like the writer of this article said, "If Marvel Films makes either an Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Black Widow or Dr. Strange movie before DC and Warner Bros. makes at least a Wonder Woman or Justice League movie, everyone at DC/WB should just kill themselves out of shame. That is all." Yeah.