JoBlo.com shared with the internets some villain pictures from upcoming Marvel movies. Continue after the jump for mirrored images of two Spidey 3 baddies, and also Dr. Doom from Fantastic Four 2. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil #1 (of 4)
story and art by Jeff Smith

What’s that? Can’t read the title of the post? Well, thank God you’ve got your handy dandy Secret Decoder! What’s that? You don’t? Oh. Well, thank God I’ve got a spare!

This is the kind of effort that Jeff Smith (known for his career-defining work on Bone) is putting into this book. He’s been providing regular updates on his blog, using the code-speak as an added treat, and he says it’ll even be handy when you’re actually reading the book. For example, take a quick glance HERE, and see not only his mindset about putting Talking Tawny in the book, but also the process of creating the art for the page. And hell, you even get another chance to use the decoder. Interested? Don’t even know who Captain Marvel is? Want some preview pages? Well, read on for more!
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Hot on the heels of the announcement of Goyer’s dismissal, the Hollywood Reporter brings us news of the new director – Shawn Levy. So, what’s the man done before to warrant helming such a film? Well, according to IMDb, his most recent movies are: Night at the Museum, The Pink Panther, Cheaper By The Dozen, Just Married, and Big Fat Liar.

Holy. Crap. What an unimpressive list of action-movie/comic-movie credentials. Now, don’t get me wrong – I thoroughly enjoyed Night at the Museum, but I know some here at Powet cringe at its mention, and that’s not even touching the rest of the movies on that list. To be fair though, Levy did direct one episode of the short-lived Birds Of Prey show. And maybe it was a really well-directed episode. I’m pretty sure no one ever bothered to watch it, so it’s hard to say.

In the end, it’s only fair to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, especially until we find out a lot more (like, say, the writer). But this doesn’t exactly strike me as a step in the right direction.

Joss Whedon (who really needs no introduction at this point) was previously set to write and direct the upcoming Wonder Woman movie. David Goyer (whose recent movie-writing includes Batman Begins) was previously set to write (and potentially direct) the upcoming Flash movie. Now? Both have been de-attached from these two films. The reason – for both of them, it turns out – had to do with the studios having a different vision than them. Ah, non-creative executive types telling successful, proven creative types how to create. DC’s already a couple steps behind in the movie-franchise game, and these kinds of decisions really can’t be helping.

Regardless, new writers and directors have yet to be announced; read on after the jump to see what each of the two writer/directors had to say as they broke the news. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Ghost Rider Finale
written by Ivan Velez, art by Javier Saltares & Mark Texeira

Time for a history lesson.

In 1998, the then-current Ghost Rider series was canceled at issue #93. The catch is, the big end of the storyarc was scheduled to take place at issue #94. Issue #93 simply ended with the death of Dan Ketch, leaving fans with one crapper of a cliffhanger. As Mike Sterling – comic book shop owner – says, “The result? My having to tell customers for eight years that, no, there never was a #94, honest, I’m not kidding, and having them look at me like I’m 1) an idiot, or 2) lying to them.” This took place during some of the harshest time for the comic book industry, and the simple fact of the matter was, Marvel couldn’t afford to publish it. If you want some more of the details, as well as see a glimpse of the unpublished pages and the script, you can see read on here.

However, tomorrow, with the Ghost Rider movie looming near, Marvel has seemingly decided to increase product on the shelf (despite the lack of any connection to the movie characters or its story), and they’ve done a good turn by finally bringing issue #94 to the stands. While 12 pages were originally penciled, it seems (based on solicitation info) Saltares and Texeira were brought back together to finish the thing, which is a pleasantly surprising effort from Marvel. This “Finale” issue will also include issue #93 (to give the reader a complete story), and also some undescribed “bonus material,” whatever that includes.

Whether or not this book will be worth your money … well, your mileage may vary. But at least now you’ll know what the hell this thing is when you see it on the stands.

Stephen Colbert is scheduled to make an appearance at New York’s Comic Con, which runs this February 23-25th. He’s only going to be there on Friday the 23rd, at 3:30 PM, but come 3:31, he’s GONE. Or so I assume. The press release didn’t say any specifics about a departure time. Don’t get too worked up yet though – he won’t be doing any panels or any other scheduled public speaking. Apparently he’s mostly just available to sign stuff, like busoms. On the side, he’ll be helping to promote the upcoming 5-issue comic from Oni Press, Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen, which should be out in stores sometime in March. Please note – Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen is not actually written or drawn by Stephen Colbert. Consider yourself informed.

To celebrate 20 glorious years, New England Comics is putting together “The Tick’s 20th Anniversary Special Edition #1,” featuring almost 30 creators (with more to be announced), including creator Ben Englund…….’s father, Richard Englund. (Okay, Ben too. But his dad?  I can’t work with my dad on the the VCR, let alone a comic.) According to the press release, “the creators were each asked to to write and draw a one page (in some special cases, 2 pages) Tick short tale as if they had total control over the character.”

While the list isn’t generally populated with the “big” names in comics right now, there are definitely some interesting names, from Fred Hembeck to Arthur Suydam (who also does one of the two covers – you might recognize him from all those Marvel Zombie covers he does). For a character that’s spawned two TV shows, Taco Bell toys, and a moderately not bad Super Nintendo game, it’s a happy 20th birthday indeed! Click through HERE for the full press release and list of creators, and look for the 48-page book in April, for $5.95.

UPDATED – 1/26/2007, 10:47 PM
DC sent out a new teaser image today, coupled with the sentence, “Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great destruction.” It’s unclear exactly what this ties to, but keep reading after the jump for a full shot of the image, and a rundown on the surprisingly shocking characters present for it.

WARNING – “52” AND OTHER POTENTIAL DCU SPOILERS AHEAD… [Read the rest of this entry…]