The Amazing Spider-Man

Here's the latest picture for the new Spider-Man film, with its official title 'The Amazing Spider-Man'.

Now, as great as this looks... when did Peter Parker become a master costume maker or did Aunt May give him a hand?

X-MEN First Class trailer

This looks suprisingly good, touche Marvel!

Captain America

Check out the new poster for Captain America (The First Avenger).

Ryan Reynolds to become Green Lantern

This is the news that is getting the comic nerds really excited! Ryan Reynolds will be the first actor (apparently) to star in both a DC and Marvel film to be released in the same year. The other film is Marvel's Deadpool by the way!

Reynolds, a huge comic fan, must be loving this.

Read more about it by clicking here.

Comic/Movie News

Wow, I was just 'randomly' clicking on the news items to the left of this page and came across a load of cool Comic/Film related movie news from MTV's awesome Splash Page blog.

Here's some links that caught my eye;

• Stan Lee's role in the new Venom movie
  
• Watchmen returns to the cinema with 25 extra minutes (probably US only though)
  
• Ryan Reynolds talks about the 'Deadpool' movie spin-off
  
• 300 sequel on the cards
  
• Brandon Routh's 'Superman' contract has expired
  
• Most anticipated Marvel film

Obama to star in Spider-Man comic

US President-elect Barack Obama is to appear on the cover of a special edition of a Spider-Man comic.

A six-page story, with the superhero saving the day when an imposter tries to take Mr Obama's place as president, will hit shelves next Wednesday.


For the full story click here.

Captain America (2011)

Filmmaker Joe Johnston will take the helm of the eagerly anticipated Captain America movie.

The Jurassic Park III director has signed a deal with Marvel Studios to bring the comic book superhero to the big screen in 2011.

It is the third Marvel film in the pipeline, including Thor and the Avengers, after Robert Downey Jr.'s turn as Iron Man earlier in the year proved a huge success with superhero fans.

Although Johnstone has signed the deal, it is unknown who will take on the patriotic U.S. role.

Comic book creator Stan Lee has given his backing to Will Smith to wear the red, white and blue suit, although other insiders have suggested Matthew McConaughey may land the part.

* Pinched from IMDb, 10/11/2008

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

The Incredible Hulk is back on screen for its second attempt at starting a celluloid franchise after the failure of the 2003 Hulk movie.

Edward Norton has taken over the lead and seems to have used Bill Bixby interpretation of Bruce Banner (from the seventies TV series) for his inspiration, the quiet loner!

*** SPOILERS ***

The story starts pretty much where the first Hulk movie finished (although this isn't an official sequel!) in Brazil with Bruce Banner hiding from the US military, trying his best to avoid turning green whilst trying to find the antidote to turn him back into a normal person.

Inevitably he gets tracked down and is pursued by soldier Tim Roth who's working for the US military, they want to use Banner's DNA to perfect super-soldier's. Banner, now the Hulk smashes his way out of Brazil to mainland US. His main objective to find the scientist that has been helping him find the cure.

Its all pretty standard stuff. The whole film itself is pretty mediocre, keeping firmly within the boundaries of the comic book adaptation code. Its fairly enjoyable but nothing spectacular. I guess after Ang Lee's version Marvel wanted to keep the film fairly safe from any experimental techniques.

This to me is what made the 2003 Hulk so special. Lee had the guts to try some truly interesting direction and editing techniques. I loved the transitional effects from scene to scene and the comic style windows. It made the film feel like a comic book. I know I'm in the minority here, most people hated it.

...anyway, back to the 2008 version.

Roth's character volunteers to restart the military's experiments in DNA and gamma technologies so he can fulfill his vendetta with the Hulk and gain some sort of common ground with the green dude.



As we've all come to expect from watching super hero movies, if a bad guy gains super powers its not usually a good thing. The addictive nature of the new powers mutate Roth into a Hulk-like monster (named 'The Abomination'), uncontrollable by the military and hellbent on causing mayhem.

The film ends with a massive punch-up between the two, with the Hulk now fighting on behalf of the military.

Now, its the very last scene of the film that caused me to pay attention with the appearance of Tony Stark (Iron Man's alter ego, played by the awesome Robert Downey Jr.). Speaking on behalf of the agency S.H.I.E.L.D he wants to recruit Hulk to join his task force of super heroes.

This will eventually lead to what will be a totally awesome comic book crossover - possibly in the form of the Avengers. Marvel will probably need to establish all the other members in their own films first so it will probably take a good 5-7 years to come around but when it does its going to be pretty special!

Stan Lee's movie schedule

Stan Lee's a busy guy. Spider-man 4 (with Jake Gyllenhaal rumoured as taking over the lead)... hmm, interesting!

Punisher: War Zone (2008)

Its nice to see Marvel haven't given up on previous comic-to-movie failures. As well as the new Incredible Hulk film a second Punisher film will also be released later this year.

Tom Jane has stepped down from the lead to be replaced by the relatively unknown Ray Stevenson in Punisher: War Zone.

Lets wait and see if this'll be a 'hit' or a 'miss'.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Oh wow, the Hulk is back on the big screen this year with 'The Incredible Hulk'!

Edward Norton's playing the big green dude, the film also stars Liv Tyler and Tim Roth and looks to be a great blockbuster for the summer and another worthy addition to Marvel's already well established comic-to-film adaptions (with Iron Man also out this year). Speaking of Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. will be appearing in the new Hulk movie as Tony Stark (Iron Man's alter-ego), that's pretty awesome and a step forward to having film crossovers.


I'm not a huge Hulk fan but did really enjoy the Ang Lee 'Hulk' film of 2003. I'm not sure if this is actually a sequel or just a re-telling of the story. Judging from what I've seen, 'The Incredible Hulk' follows a similar story seen in the brilliant 'Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction' video game of 2005.

Check out the official movie site, www.incrediblehulk.com for the trailer and further information.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Here's a couple of early photos taken from the 2009 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' movie, Hugh Jackman playing the lead once again.


Wolverine was always the most interesting character in the previous X-Men films so I'm sure this will be an enjoyable ride if nothing else.

Toei Spider-Man

Here's the titles for the little known seventies Japanese Spider-Man (a.k.a 'Toei no Supaidâ-Man') series. Made by the Toei film studios famous for pioneering giant kung-fu fighting robot transformations seen in shows such as Power Rangers.

Fully endorsed by Stan Lee at Marvel, this series saw quite a different Spider-Man to the one seen in the comics and cartoons, mostly due to the toy company Bandai sponsoring the show. This Spider-Man wouldn't always be climbing walls and shooting web at villains, this version drives around in a Spidey-Car and fights weird looking Ninjas on a mostly flat surface judging from the clips I've seen on YouTube. Oh, and he can summon a giant flying Spidey-Robot (known as Mabera) to use in battle!



Up until seeing these clips I wondered why in comic shops (such as Forbidden Planet in London) toys such as the Spidey-Car and other vehicles were available, the US version never needed transportation.

Its had a limited DVD release in Japan but if you want it be prepared to spend a load of money (well over £200). Pirate versions can be found on the web and some episodes are available to download via torrent sites like Mininova (I'm currently downloading an episode).

UPDATE
I've now watched a full episode. Its really funny especially when Takuya (the Japanese equivalent to Peter Parker) transforms into Spidey. The suit is summoned via his wrist band communicator and out from nowhere a very flat, almost paper thin cut-out of Spider-man floats in front, one quick zip and Spider-man is complete.
No subtitles or Japanese language skills are required to enjoy this as the story is very easy to follow.

Iron Man (2008)

Here it is, the trailer for Iron Man. Looks absolutely awesome!

Good use of the excellent Black Sabbath track 'Iron Man' (from the album 'Paranoid'), it had to be in there somewhere.

Thanks to Joe for sending me the link.

Iron Man (2008)

I'm really looking forward to this comic book adaption of Iron Man, thats partly to do with the great images released showing the suit in all its glory and also that Robert Downey Jr. (I'll call him RDJ for short) is playing the lead.


I love the quirky characters he has played in previous films such as the hilarious 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' and the strange but interesting 'A Scanner Darkly'. The self narrating, fast talking, semi-crazy missfits that I expect mirror certain aspects of RDJ's personal yet very public life. I hope in Iron Man he'll play a similar type of character.

This film is being directed by former 'Swingers' actor turned director Jon Favreau who already has a few films (Zathura & Elf) under his belt (non of which I've seen though). It'll be interesting to see what he can do with this movie, can he turn it into the new big franchise to take over from Spider-Man?

I'm sure a teaser trailer will become available soon so watch this space.