I am a week or two late on this, but it still hasn’t hit most areas just yet. Marvel Legends MODOK series has begun to hit stores in some areas. This is the last wave of Marvel Legends from Toy Biz before Hasbro takes over and revamps everything. Be sure to get the figures you want when you see them because its not certain how long the figures will be on the shelves after the new year.

The wave includes:

• Wasp (Modern Outfit)
• Thor-Buster Iron Man
• Beta Ray Bill
• Captain Marvel
• Spider-woman (Jessica Drew, Red Outfit)
• Moon Knight
• VARIANT: Wasp (x2, Blue outfit and Classic Red outfit)
• VARIANT: Genis Vell
• VARIANT: Destroyer
• VAIRANT: Moon Knight
• VARIANT: Spider-woman (Julia Carpenter, Black/Blue Costume)
• BAF: MODOK

Toys News International is showing off some of the first wave of Marvel Legends under the direction of Hasbro. While a few fans have expressed distaste for the future of this line, I’m going on record as saying Planet Hulk looks cool.

See the gallery of Emma Frost, Ultimate Iron Man, Banshee, Planet Hulk and Hercules here: Hasbro Marvel Legends Series 1

One thing I think all can agree on, the new bubble packaging looks really nice. Its a big departure from the rather rectangular boxes Legends has has for years now, but its a lot more vivid and eye catching. Now it appears we’re losing the pack-in comic book, but we’re gaining a much better logo.

Ultimately we’re going to have to get these in hand before we can really tell whether Hasbro has improved or doomed this line. Either way, distribution is about to get a lot better and we’ll have to chase a lot less variants.

Thanks Josh!

Ramping up to the big Iron Man feature and follow on the heels of 2 successful Ultimate Avengers direct-to-DVD releases, Lions Gate and Marvel will release Invicible Iron Man on January 23rd. The invincibly tiny cover art was provided by DavidDVD and heres a synopsis of the plot:

While raising the ruins of a long buried Chinese kingdom, billionaire inventor Tony Stark digs up far more than he bargained for. He unleashes an age-old prophecy that foretells the resurrection of the Mandarin, the emperor of China’s darkest and most violent dynasty. To confront this destructive force, Stark creates an armored suit infused with high-tech weaponry to stop the evil that he himself has raised form the earth.

I’m supposing this will take place inside the Ultimate Avengers continuity as a prequel or something.

Special features include featurettes on the origin of Iron Man, a gallery of Iron Man armor, and a first look at the 4th Marvel DVD feature, Dr. Strange. Suggested retail is $20 as usual but theres a Gift Set planned with Iron man and both Ultimate Avengers movies and a Marvel Icons Iron Man bust. That will set you back $60. They obviously carefully planned this gift set release for the busy Valentines day season. Ladies, you now know how to charm your comic nerd boyfriend, and its with cartoons and the torso of an alcoholic in a suit of armor.

SuperHeroHype brings us lots of updates on comic-based movies coming out.

• Ron Perlman and Kelly Hu are joining Samuel L. Jackson on the Afro Samurai project for Spike TV.

  • The five-part animated series is produced by Japanese studio Gonzo in association/partnership with GHK K.K. and FUNimation and premieres on SPIKE Thursday, January 4, 2007

• I just noticed that IMDB is listing Kelly Hu as Yuriko Oyama in the Wolverine movie, listed as ‘in pre-production’. So expect to see a rematch of Wolverine vs. Lady Deathstrike, or at least some interesting flashbacks.
• A Superman sequel looks like a go with Bryan Singer on board to produce and direct.
• Superman Returns hits 200 million domestically, clearing an obstacle for a sequel which already looks to be given the go ahead now.
• Fourth Spiderman 3 villain revealed to be Bruce Campbell?
• Marvel’s Moon Knight property is heading for a TV series!

[UPDATE – CRAZY: Just noticed that IMDB is listing Kelly Hu as ‘rumored’ for Wolverine and not yet confirmed.]

After the smash success of the Marvel Zombies mini, Marvel’s going back to the well TWICE next year! First, Kirkman’s going to be writing a sequel mini – though other reports have it as a prequel one-shot. It’s probably a sequel though, as the OTHER mini is a prequel.

So what’s this prequel mini that’s got people talking? Well someway, somehow the infamous Ash gets to take a break from fighting the Army of Darkness… so he can fight an army of Marvel Zombies! Lucky guy, huh? As you can see in the image, he’ll be up to his usual zombie-wrecking chores, but since it’s a prequel, he’s also going to have some uninfected heroes on his side. For a while anyway. All in all, next year sounds like a good year for zombies in Marvel – or bad, for the ones that get stuck facing Ash.

The Incredible Hulk #100
Written by Greg Pak, art by Carlo Pagulayan

What more can be said about this issue? It’s not like we haven’t talked about it before. And tomorrow, it’s finally here! To reiterate – We launch headlong into the last leg of Planet Hulk, an excellent and exciting story that you need to be reading already, and we also get a Civil War connection in the backup story drawn by the awesome Gary Frank. AND, there are reprints. Honestly, God only knows which issues are being reprinted in this now though – Reports are saying it’s only #152 and #300 getting reprinted. I’ve given up on believing what’s being said about that part – when the book’s in my hands, that’s when I’ll know for sure.

That said, enjoy the preview pages, now with text!

A while ago I posted a note saying that Toy Biz was cancelling distribution overseas of the rest of their product lines for the year. It seems this is not as true as it first appeared. Jesse Falcon of Toy Biz addressed the question in a Q&A thread on Fwooshnet.com, the same site that I first got the news from.

Key quote from the thread:

I understand that Toy Biz has decided not to ship out the newer ML series’ to overseas, and that this is due to the licensing agreement, and that Hasbro’s “time” begins from the start of January next year. However, you’ve also mentioned before that there’s a “grace period” of sorts (ie those toys don’t have to be taken off the shelves immediately after the end of december 06). So, by that reasoning why isn’t the newer ML series’ going to reach us overseas collectors and consumers? A shame, too- seeing that Christmas is coming up and all that.
– not true they will be released but in smaller numbers.

Good news to Marvel fans around the world!

Ever since 2000, Activision has made good use of the licencing rights to Spiderman, putting out some of the best games based on the webslinger. The video game adaptation to the second movie is no different. Taking a page out of Grand Theft Auto, Spiderman 2 features an open world design where players can websling thier way around New York city and stop crimes. (Although at times some of them can get pretty repetitive and lame) Players can earn hero points, which are spent on upgrades and new attacks. In typical gaming fashion, the game follows the plot of the movie while adding additional material from the comics. Along with Doctor Octopus, you’ll also run into Mysterio (the final battle with him ranks as one of the funniest moments in video games) Shocker, Rhino, and the Black Cat throughout the course of the game. Only bad spot is the lack of real unlockables, considering how much extra bonus stuff Activision has packed in the past. Instead you earn badges for doing a certain amount of tasks, which do nothing, except maybe as act as a precursor to Xbox Live 360 acheivements. Even so, Spiderfans owe it to them selves to check out this game.