Full List of Marvel Media Projects in the Works

Not many surprises on the list, but it's a good reminder of some far-off productions that you should be very excited about. My most anticipated? The Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) adaptation of Ant-Man. Let's hope he's been reading Robert Kirkman's take on the character, because Wright's storytelling style would fit quite nicely into that framework. Also to be anticipated is Julie Taymor's (Lion King: The Musical, Frida) Spider-Man: The Musical, with music and lyrics by U2's Bono and The Edge. With Taymor's unique visual flair, you can bet this production will be off the wall (punpunpunpun). Also, it appears there is a new X-Men animated series in the works, called Wolverine and the X-Men, from which the above image comes from. Putting Wolverine at the fore seems like an odd move, but I guess they know who their money-maker is. Read the full list of projects after the jump.

Licensed Marvel Character Feature Film Line-Up
Wolverine, Fox - Director engaged (Gavin Hood)
Punisher 2, Lionsgate - Director (Lexi Alexander) and lead actor engaged (Ray Stevenson)

Film Projects Being Developed by Marvel - partial list
Iron Man, Marvel - Completed principal photography; May 2, 2008 release
The Incredible Hulk, Marvel - Commenced principal photography; June 13, 2008 release
Ant-Man, Marvel - Writer (Edward Wright, Joe Cornish) and director (Edgar Wright) engaged
Captain America, Marvel - Writer engaged (David Self)
Nick Fury, Marvel - Writer engaged (Andrew Marlowe)
Thor, Marvel - Writer engaged (Mark Protosevich)
The Avengers, Marvel - Writer engaged (Zak Penn)

Marvel Character Animated TV Projects
"Spider-Man," Sony - In development; US distribution agreement with Kids' WB
"Wolverine and the X-Men," First Serve Toonz (India) - 26, 30 minute episodes in development
"Iron Man," Method Films (France) 26, 30 minute episodes in development

Marvel Character Animated Direct-to-DVD Projects
Doctor Strange, Lionsgate - August 14, 2007 release
Teen Avengers, Lionsgate - Targeted July 2008 release
Hulk Smash, Lionsgate - Targeted October 2008 release

Marvel Character Live Stage Projects
"Spider-Man the Musical," Hello Entertainment/David Garfinkle, Martin McCallum, Marvel Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment - In development/opening date to be determined; Julie Taymor director; music & lyrics by U2's Bono and The Edge

Marvel 2008 Video Game Releases (Release dates controlled by Publishing partner)
"Iron Man," Sega - Targeted 2008
"The Incredible Hulk," Sega - Targeted 2008

Via Superhero Hype!

Panel Discussion: The Best, Worst, and Weirdest Panels of the Week

SPOILER ALERT: Some panels contain plot points...those who haven't read their books this week should beware.

INAPPROPRIATE FUNERAL BEHAVIOR: Countdown #43
Faux Pas abound at Bart Allen's funeral. This segment comes in three parts:

Part One: Things Not to Bring to a Funeral
Intent on bringing something to entertain herself during gray-haired Jay Garrick's long-winded eulogy, Ravager settles on her... muscle massager.

Continued after the jump.

Part Two: Things Not to Wear to a Funeral
Namely, civvies that look exactly like your supervillain costume:

Voicemail From Trickster to Pied Piper:
"Hey P, just wanted to remind you, the funeral is today if you want to go. Not sure what the mood there is gonna be like, but we should probably play down the supervillian thing. I think the days of going out to dinner in full costume are pretty much over. Still, I'm going to wear a hat with my colors just to keep it real, so I don't know, maybe you could get like a green tie or something. Just remember the idea is not be recognized, so for the love of God, do NOT wear something that looks exactly like your costume. Kay, see you at three thirty."

Part Three: Things Not to Say at a Funeral
MOST NSFW REUNION: Y The Last Man #57
Kind of like the "Nice to see you again, let's hump like bunnies" reunion of Jesse Custer and Tulip in the final story arch of Preacher, except way naughtier. Yorick and Beth are naked for no less than seven pages of this book. Definitely not one to read on public transportation. Or in a restaurant. Or around loved ones. Or anywhere but alone at home. With a flashlight under your blankets.

BEST SOCIAL APPLICATION OF A SUPERPOWER: Irredeemable Ant-Man #10

Now that's a hard argument to rebut. Thankfully for our hero, The Incredibly Upset Hulk lands his spaceship just in time.


MOST GRUESOME, SHOCKING CONCLUSION: Astounding Wolf-Man #2
And everything seemed to be going so well...

Seemingly well-adjusted werewolf Gary goes into a bit of a freak-out and executes a Robert Kirkman trademark: the shocking disemboweling punch from someone thought to be a good guy.

Link: More of Geekanerd's Panel Discussions

World War Old Spice UPDATED with Phil Hester Statement

Forget the Incredibly Upset Hulk and his promise to wipe out Earth's Mightiest Heroes... The real danger facing the Marvel Universe is an alien invasion from the planet Oldspiceooine in the Productplacementylat Sector of the Sellingoutlikeabitch Galaxy. See all SEVENTEEN signs of the invasion from the latest issue of the Irredeemable Ant-Man #10 after the jump.

Seriously, there is an Old Spice billboard behind everyone, Old Spice in apartments, Old Spice flying through the air, and TWO UNIQUE Old Spice products in the stomach of the Incredible Hulk. Like somewhere along his long space journey to New York he stopped off to snack on an Old Spice factory?! I just don't get it. I really love this book, and I hate to have the experience soured like this. I understand that comics are a business like any other and money must be made, but this is not the way to do it. Shame on editor Aubrey Sitterson.

UPDATE: The Blog @ Newsarama picked up the story, and it's been getting some interesting comments. Commenter Caleb spotted a reflection of the S.S. Old Spice that I missed:And Phil Hester himself showed up to explain a bit: "The product placement was required, but we took it upon ourselves to do it on every page as a laugh. And it is on every page." Asked if being forced to shoehorn advertisements into his work was frustrating, he said "Yes, but we tried to be funny and semi-subversive about it, so it wasn’t so bad. Then I think about the many artists who spend their entire careers working in advertising and thank my lucky stars."

Weekanerd: "Cool" Shit To Do!

If you've got any energy-points left after this marathon of a weekend (Wiimbldon, MOCCA, Big Apple Con - hope you made it to at least one!), here are a few hot picks on Geekanerd's weekday calendar.

Disclaimer: As we're based in NYC, this feature is New York-centric, but will often include national-scale fun stuff.

TUESDAY (6-26-07)

• Rescue Dawn - Preview Screening w/ Steve Zahn in person
• 7pm @ the Regal E-Walk, 247 W. 42 Street, Manhattan.

This is Werner Herzog's first big Hollywood picture! That alone makes it required viewing for film snobs, and films geeks are covered too, cause it stars BATMAN! There was a great New Yorker article about the film and Herzog's very dangerous style of filmmaking. Rescue Dawn is a survival movie set in the Thai rain forest, so let's just say we should all be glad Christian made it out alive!

Tickets are $20 bucks, or $14 for members of the Museum of the Moving Image. They're no longer available online, but as of this writing, they were still available over the phone: 718.784.4520

WEDNESDAY (6-27-07)

• MGFF Short Program at the NY Asian Film Festival
• 4:40pm @ The IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, Manhattan
  

Who doesn't like shorts programs? Especially when the line-up includes a bunch of K-Horror and sci-fi stuff, chosen by Jang Joon-Hwan (director of Save the Green Planet) and Bong Joon-Ho (director of The Host! That movie kicked ass!)

Tickets are $11 bucks at the door, buy em online here.

• The Irredeemable Ant-Man Trade Paperback Comes Out!
• @ your local comic store!

Seriously, pick this up. It's one of the few comics on the stands today that offers consistent LOLs. Plus it challenges the idea of what makes an acceptable superhero protagonist. A big, mean, scary anti-hero is one thing, but what if the lead character is just as selfish ass who happened into a supersuit? It's a Robert Kirkman project so the writing is great, and not just by hazy comic-book standards. Makes a great gift!

Review: Invincible #42

Being a big fan of the early Invincible story arcs, but afraid to pick up any new issues in fear that I'd be lost, you can imagine how excited I was to see this cover.

"NEW READER FRIENDLY!"

"DON'T MISS OUT A SECOND TIME!"

"INCLUDES A COMPREHENSIVE RECAP OF THE ENTIRE SERIES!"





Tacky, sure, but VERY alluring to a lapsed fan like myself. Unfortunately these things never work out the way you want them to.

So the gagillion-page recap in the back is written by a fella named David Campbell, and I don't know what Robert Kirkman was busy doing (Other than Ant-Man, Walking Dead, Wolf-Man, and Lord knows what else) that he had to hand the recap duties over to someone else, but it has none of the charm and wit that pervades the book itself. It's just dry dry dry.

Which would be fine if the issue itself were snappy and exciting. Unfortunately, by page two the train's already pulling into Talky-town. They spend so much time talking about what happened PRIOR to this issue that they run out of space for anything to happen DURING this issue.

Which I suppose I should expect from a recap issue. Maybe it's my fault that I didn't come in with reasonable expectations.

Maybe when I saw "NEW READER FRIENDLY" I shouldn't have interpreted that to mean "MORE ATOM EVE HINEY." Sigh.

THE GOOD

On the sunny side, there are short bursts of action that show off one of Kirkman's greatest talents: creating compelling throwaway villains for Our Hero to fight.

First we meet The Giant, an eight year-old boy who was pulled into another dimension when his grandmother accidentally opened a portal while making an herbal remedy for her cat. The boy was enchanted by a sorcerer, turned into a monster and over the course of a year became the king of a vast empire before being sent back to Earth by an enemy, whereupon he embarks on a rampage meant to win him the Presidency of the United States. And you know how many pages he's in the book? Two. He is introduced, given an origin, and dispatched in TWO PAGES. And we'll probably never see him again. Kirkman pulls these guys out all the time, and I love him for it.
Also of note is the awesome-looking one-pager Octoboss, who came to this world and was frustrated that no one understood him so he "take time off" to learn the language as best he could. He also claims to have watched some TV.

THE VERDICT

This issue was not good. I certainly would not recommend it to someone who has never read Invincible before, because then they might get the mistaken impression that it's a boring book. Everyone, including me, should read all the Invincible trades. People that want to catch up without spending all that dough should at least go buy the first trade and read the Wikipedia article (which I swear is better written than the recap in this ish) to prepare for next month's issue, which looks to be the beginning of a new story arc. The last panel of this issue hints at where it may be going (Invincible's rapidly-growing purple half-brother developing powers), and I'm sure Kirkman has some tricks up his sleeve to make it worth your while. Hopefully one of those is the back end of a cute redheaded superheroine.