Avengers Premiere In India Gets Bollywood Treatment

When The Avengers opens in the United States, as well as most other countries, the movie’s main end credit song will be Live To Rise by Soundgarden who reunited for the first time in fifteen years in collaboration for this song. Soundgarden also has plans to release an album, their first in almost twenty years, later this year. See, comics fans? The 90s is back and as inescapable as Rob Liefeld’s short long term plans for Deathstroke.

However, if you happen to be in Mumbai on April 26, you can attend an early screening of The Avengers, complete with a live performance of the song that will play over the Indian movie version’s credits, Hello Andheron (Hello Darkness), performed by the band Agnee.

Wonder what The Avengers would be like through the lens of a Hindi music video? Check out Agnee and Hello Andheron, after the jump!

The Man Is Back And He’s Got A Little Something For You – Review Of Stan Lee’s Mighty 7 #1

Stan Lee wants us True Believers to know he hasn’t given up on superhero stories.

In an interview with Lee in USA Today, Stan The Man discussed the inspiration behind his new book, Stan Lee’s Mighty 7, which will be released under the imprint of his new publishing brand, Stan Lee Comics. Stan Lee Comics is the result of a partnership between Lee’s POW! Entertainment, A2 Entertainment and Archie Comics.

Lee bills Mighty 7 as “the world’s first reality comic book” — it stars fictional superpowered characters, of course, but also Archie head Jon Goldwater and “Stan the Man” himself.

“I myself am very modestly a part of the story,” says Lee, adding that real-life celebrities will be making appearances as the story progresses.

The core characters of Mighty 7 are a group of aliens — five “criminals” and the two star marshals who are transporting them through the cosmos — who crash-land on Earth.

The characters are completely new — “Nothing ever kicks around in my head until I have to write it,” Lee jokes — but each one has a different superpower “and a bit of personal problems and prejudices and desires and wants, even as you and I,” says the creator, who teams with writers Tony Blake and Paul Jackson and artist Alex Saviuk.

But, just how original is this new team’s concept, and, is it worth reading?

Spoilers and other dangers, after the jump.

Brain Bleach: Twilight Of The Horror Villain Edition

Oh, I just love that Matlock!

Good news, everyone! We no longer have any reason to be afraid. All those iconic, creepy bad guys from the movies of our childhood that kept us awake at night? Horror Vacui is a photography project in which make-up effects artist Carolina Trotta and photographer Federico Chiesa have reimagined the likes of Freddy, Jason, and Darth Vader in their twilight years. Just look at old fart Darth over there – the Force? Not so strong with him now that he’s on a diet of strained peas and Lipitor.

I suppose we might still have to worry about him being able to choke us out from across the room with his mind. But, that assumes he has enough of his faculties left to remember who he is. I’m guessing he’s at that adorable age where he gets lost from his house and turns up in a grocery store the next town over, wearing his robe and slippers and looking for his childhood friend, Kevin, because somehow his brain has him believing it’s 1934 and he’s seven years old. It’s ok though; we can fix this with pudding and cholinesterase inhibitors. And whiskey.

I will not "come play with you". In fact, I'm getting the hell off your lawn.

Although, that isn’t to say that once the creepy characters get old, they can’t get even more creepy in a variety of other ways. These twins are going to haunt my nightmares for the foreseeable future. I thought I gave up seeing inappropriately dressed old people when I stopped going to family reunions. I was wrong.

See more images of Big Bads in their declining years at Horror Vacui. See more old people dressed inappropriately at my step sister’s cousin’s wedding at the Fish And Game this July. But, you’ve been warned.

Via The Laughing Squid

First Look At “The Wolverine” Teaser Poster?

A. J. Mester has tweeted this image of a theoretical poster from the next installment in the Wolverine franchise of X-Movies. According to Screen Rant, who write,

The Wolverine has had a bit of a bumpy development road with some slight delays due to the weather situation in Japan, compounded by director Darren Aronofsky dropping out of the project for personal reasons.

With James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma) now set to helm the feature based on Christopher McQuarrie and Mark Bomback’s adaptation of the classic Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s 1982 story arc in the Wolverine comics, production is on the right track with a solid release date locked down for next summer.

It is from Mangold’s offices where our first look at The Wolverine may have leaked through an Instagram photo which we’ve straightened out for a clearer image. Check out what may be the first teaser poster for The Wolverine, featuring the Japan flag in the background being sliced by Wolverine’s claws.

Is it for real? Who knows. Does it get you excited for the next movie? Maybe. If you’re me, you really like the Claremont/Miller trade and hate the way they fucked up Deadpool in the last movie, so, you’re proceeding with caution.

And, if you’re me, you’re hung over and have to go to that filthy day job that pays the bills. So, that’s enough of that.

The Wolverine drops in US theaters on July 26, 2013.

Ms. Marvel Gets Promoted To Captain

This is in no way at all inspired by Rosie The Riveter...or Frank Quitely.

Yesterday at Wondercon in Anaheim, California, Marvel announced that starting this July, the character currently known as Carol Danvers, aka Ms. Marvel, will move into the role of Captain Marvel – complete with a haircut and costume change. Character concept designs were developed by Jamie McKelvie. Cover art will be handled by Ed McGuinness on issues 1 and 2, with Dexter Soy on interior art. Writing the new series will be Kelly Sue DeConnick (Osborn: Evil Incarcerated, Castle: Deadly Storm w/ Brian Michael Bendis). Says DeConnick:

My pitch was called ‘Pilot’ and the take can pretty much be summed up with ‘Carol Danvers as Chuck Yeager,’” says DeConnick. “Carol’s the virtual definition of a Type A personality. She’s a competitor and a control freak. At the start of our series, we see Carol pre-Captain Marvel, pre-NASA even, back when she was a fiercely competitive pilot. We’ll see her meeting one of her aviation heroes and we’ll see her youthful bravado, her swagger. Then over the course of the first arc we’re going to watch her find her way back to that hungry place. She’ll have to figure out how to be both Captain Marvel and Chuck Yeager—to marry the responsibility of that legacy with the sheer joy being nearly invulnerable and flying really [expletive] fast.

Huh. Chuck Yeager? That sounds a bit similar to the pitch her husband, Matt Fraction, gave when he announced his plans for Invincible Iron Man back in February 2008:

Tony Stark is equal parts James Bond and Chuck Yeager–a pioneer, a test pilot, an engineer, an adrenaline junkie visionary.

Well, Chuck Yeager is pretty cool. I suppose it’s entirely possibly that DeConnick just picked up a Chuck Yeager comparison through some kind of idea osmosis from being in such close proximity to Fraction for so long. Heck, now that Rob lives with me he can tell you exactly how and why you need to temper eggs before adding them to a custard. And he’ll only whimper a little bit when you ask him. I don’t see why he gets upset. Those brain cells were just going to be killed by whiskey anyway.

But is there anything else going on with this relaunch that calls to mind similarities with other creative properties?

If You Have To Explain The Joke, There’s No Joke – Suicide Squad #7

In order to do due diligence for this review of Suicide Squad #7, “The Origin Of Harley Quinn”, I was going to re-read 1994’s The Batman Adventures: Mad Love by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. Dini, after all, created Harley Quinn and, frankly, my first reaction after reading the conclusion to Adam Glass’s reboot of her character was that I wanted to read the original. However, Mad Love doesn’t appear to be on any of our book shelves at the moment – which means it’s in any one of 23 separate, unlabeled long boxes that are stashed in the closet of the Home Office’s second bedroom, and I just don’t have the patience to go digging.

You know what is out and easily accessible on the book shelves of Home Office Command Central? Batman: Son Of The Demon…just in case Rob wants to get into a drunken pissing contest with a 12 year-old who has a theory that Batman is gay and that Damien was grown in a petri dish in the Bat Cave.

Stranger things have happened. Both here and in the Bat Cave. But, I digress…

The thing is, this issue, and most of the Suicide Squad run in general, isn’t bad. Some of it is pretty good – but it’s not as good as what Dini and company first came up with, even if it’s trying for darker, edgier, clown car…ier, whatever. Perhaps that just my own failing that I can’t get past that.

Or is it? Spoilers and whatnot after the jump.

We Can Leak That For You, Wholesale – Total Recall 2012 Teaser

Bleeding Cool reports that footage from the Total Recall remake, probably intended to be shown at Wondercon sometime this weekend, has found its way into the wilds of the internet. The remake will star Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Bryan Cranston, Jessica Biel, Bill Nighy, Ethan Hawke and John Cho.

I have no grand illusion that the original film from 1990, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone, was high art, but it does hold a sentimental place in my heart as “that movie we snuck into that one time because we were drunk and in college and in Maine”. I was even less interested when interviews with Colin Farrell surfaced in which he said that the new movie wasn’t going to be “as dark as the original.” Movie? Short story? Use your words, Colin! However, watching Farrell in this teaser does get me the teensiest bit more interested than I was before I found the clip. So, marketing people involved with “leaking” this teaser: Bravo! I might not just wait for it to go to cable now.

Watch the teaser after the jump. Unless it gets yanked by the marketing suits. Again.

Iron Man 3 Speculation – Extremis?

The Avengers movie hasn’t even hit theaters yet and, already, speculation has become rampant as to the plot of Iron Man 3 – which is still in pre-production. Over at Latino Review, columnist Da7e, has posted a video in which he claims that “an anonymous source from the New York test screening of The Avengers” told him that the villains in Iron Man 3 would be “extremely dangerous” – Da7e’s emphasis, not mine. There were air bunny quote gestures and everything. From there, Da7e postulates that Tony Stark’s next story line would be taken from Warren Ellis’s Invincible Iron Man: Extremis story run, in which Stark injects himself with experimental nanotechnology to fight a similarly powered bad guy. A motion comic version of Extremis can be found at Hulu.

Beyond the anonymous source, Da7e himself points out that part of his post comes from his own “geeky fanboy conjecture” – Stark may demonstrate a willingness to create what The Film Stage refers to as a “‘technology-based solution to replicating the super solider serum that turns Steve Rogers into Captain America,’ known in layman’s terms as nanobots.” The good Captain knew Stark’s dad from back in World War II and has been dismissive of little Tony as merely being a guy in a super powered suit in the trailer. Does Tony Stark have unrequited daddy issues? Why not just ask me if Tony has a Jackson Pollock and impending cirrhosis of the liver?

Are there other hidden clues that point to an Extremely Extremis threequel? Maybe! After the jump.

Love Makes You Weak – New Trailer For HBO’s Game Of Thrones

“The more people you love, the weaker you become.” At least according to Cersei Lannister, manipulative, incestous force behind the royal throne in Game Of Thrones. All the cast members you grown to love (or hate – Sansa Stark, I’m looking at you) are back, along with some new ones as well. Look for Carice Von Houten as Melisandre this season. According to this Game Of Thrones Wiki she is:

…a priestess of an eastern religion which is little-known in Westeros. She visited the island stronghold of Dragonstone and has become a close advisor of Stannis Baratheon and his family.

Also joining the cast in episode one of the second season will be Natalie Dormer as Margaery Tyrell, daughter of another royal family who will get in on the fray. The plot, truly, does thicken. Here’s the new trailer:

Imperious Sex! – Review Of Uncanny X-Men #8

Uncanny X-Men has come to the end of its second story arc in eight issues. Let us all throw up a rousing cheer of “meh”.

This arc has found the X-Men playing clean-up crew to a mess left by Psylocke and the other members of the mutant wetwork team, X-Force, which left a small town in outer most Mongolia Montana devastated and gave rise to an alien biosystem called Tabula Rasa. When I say “clean-up crew”, what I really mean is that Magneto (yes, for those of you not reading X-books and playing along at home, Magneto is currently an X-Man) figured out that Psylocke’s (who is also an X-Man) other team caused it. Cyclops (“Hi, my name is Scott Summers. I’m covered from head to toe in latex and appear to only have one eye!”), leader of the X-Men, has no idea what’s going on. As usual. Must be a day.

I said, back in October, that the one thing to come out of Schism/Regenesis would be me finally putting Uncanny back on my pull list after a ten year absence. Right now, I’m thinking that it’s about to come right the fuck back off again.

Fun fact – Tabula Rasa means “blank slate”, just like the heads of the pretty little porn stars Greg Land traces. Oh, and spoilers ahead.