Movie blog Screen Rant got a hold of some designs that are not going to be used in the Iron Man movie.

I post this as news in hopes that if this extremely cool looking armor is whats not being produced, then I anxiously anticipate what they think looks better. It doesn’t look directly like any of the variations I know (Stark has so many, I could be wrong…), but its got the color and style right.

Episode 4 of PowetToys brings us a look at Marvel Legends Icons Captain America and Iron Man with twist of Civil War.

Tonight Spike TV‘s Blade the Series concludes it’s first season. There’s been no confirmation of whether or not the show is being renewed. When asked about the possibility of having a second season the show’s star Kirk “Sticky” Jones was quoted to say in an interview with MediaBlvd Magazine that “I’ve been told, unofficially, that it will. I’ve got the inside scoop.”. The show did quite well with it’s pilot episode with ground breaking ratings for Spike TV. Though ratings dropped for the rest of the season the show still had a good deal of success.

This season really didn’t pull any punches. With some pretty graphic violent scenes and sexual content it’s nice to see something like this on TV where in the past you’d be hard pressed to find it in theatres.

I think the show so far has been excellent. The story has been quite gripping and I find the characters to be very well fleshed out with tons of personality. One problem as I see it is they’re spending so much time giving the vampire vilains great personality that in contrast the hero Blade and his gimp sidekick seem boring. Though one shouldn’t fault the writters and actors for outshinning them. It’s just that the concept of having a very solitary broody character like Blade makes it difficult to give him much depth. Going against this wouldn’t really be good for the series. Still I find they do a great job of compensating for this with the other characters. You can’t really have a series who’s heroes are villains so Blade just sort of needs to be there.

The cast has done a great job. Kirk “Sticky” Jones is great as the stoic bad ass Blade. He’s not Wesley Snipes but he fills his shoes and brings more than just emulating. The stylish and cool Marcus, protrayed by Neil Jackson plays both a very civilised and clean cut business man and viscious and capable adversary to Blade. Jessica Gower who plays Chase plays a wonderfull bitch. Whether that’s her natural demeaner or not doesn’t affect the fact that she delivers a sweet performance who’s hotness is superceeded only by the smokin’ hot Jill Wagner as Krista, Blade’s mole/love interest/antagonist/whatever! The character of Shen by Nelson Lee hasn’t had an excessive amount of screen time. He’s no Whistler but then it would be pretty lame if his character was just like him. My favourite performance of the season by far had to be Emily Hirst as the incredibly creepy Charlotte, the young pure blood vampire who verbally chastises otherwise intimidating characters and shows a disturbing preference for the blood of newborn babies. I wouldn’t have thought that a child could give such a performance as to make me believe that she was really a few hundred years old but here we are. I was starting to worry about how they’d deal with a vampire character who’s actress was so young that she would in time show clear signs of aging. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem with her…

Hats off to a great season filled with action packed excitement and a slew of powerfull scenes that made me cringe and look away more than once. In a time with a lot of crap on TV here’s hoping we get a lot more of this great show.

Links:
Spike TV’s official site
Official forum
Blade: The Series Myspace page
Series page at IMDB
Blade: The Series on Wikipedia
A popular fan site
Original powet.tv post about Blade: The Series premiere

Popbox Collectibles is putting together a line of statues that link together at their base and form a diarama. The line will be made exclusively for the asian market. It supposedly features major players in the Civil War conflict currently playing out in the Marvel Universe. I say supposedly because the first wave is compromised of almost noone from the actual storyline. You can see the line ups below. Wave 1 is slated for October and Wave 2 is slated for December of this year. Pictures are below.

• Wave 1:
  • Wolverine (old yellow costume, not Astonishing X-Men outfit)
  • Cyclops (in old Jim Lee uniform)
  • Juggernaut
  • Beast (Astonishing X-Men outfit)
• Wave 2:
  • Captain America
  • Iron Man
  • Spider-Man
  • Thing

 

Captain America #21
written by Ed Brubaker, art by Steve Epting

If you haven’t heard the praises of this book yet, you’ve been living under a freaking rock. Basically, since issue 1 the Winter Soldier’s been running around, making Cap’s life into off-the-walls hell, initially by fighting him, and then later with the revelation that he’s actually Bucky. But now that Bucky’s memories are coming back together, he’s been going after the people that’ve brainwashed him and made him into a killing machine for the last few decades. At the very end of last issue, that trail FINALLY crossed with Cap’s, bringing the two of them to the same place at the same time.

Even though this is supposed to be part 3 of 4 in the storyarc, this should be a big issue, because Cap and Bucky haven’t yet had a chance to speak to one another – at least, not since Bucky’s mind started really healing, and it looks like they’re about to get a chance to at least fight side-by-side, if nothing else.

Basically, the Winter Soldier is badass, Brubaker writes a fantastic Cap, Brubaker also writes intelligent and excellent stories, and Epting sells these guys in the serious situations and makes the costumes work damn well. As much as I dig Ultimate Cap’s outfit, Epting makes normal Marvel U’s Cap look just as believeable.

Last but not least – We’re not being dragged down with Civil War crossovers, keeping the book from being published during the delay months, or taking us away from the wonderful, hard-hitting stories they’re telling month after month. I suppose eventually the registration issues will catch up to us, but for now, the book is keeping on steady course for awesomeness.

Holy Hannah, there is a crapload of Marvel news overflowing the news sites from all the info blabbed at Baltimore’s Retailer Summit. Let me cut straight to the talking points, most linked to full-length articles of their own. There are some serious whoppers (Thor! Whedon! Mary-Jane’s tombstone! Last of the Mohicans?) in here, all the way to the end, so please please please read through, at least until you reach Marvel’s Guiding Light crossover. (Am I kidding? You’re dying to know, aren’t you. Because I’m probably not. Read on after the jump.)

[Read the rest of this entry…]

The preview pages of The Mighty Avengers can now be viewed online, thanks to ¡Universo Marvel! There’s 7 pages total, counting the splash page as the 2 pages it will be in print. Clicky, clicky for the preview.

So… Just asking, who else finds Wonder Man’s old red-trenchcoat duds a little odd looking in the current day?

Captain America scribe Ed Brubaker joins artist Billy Tan on Uncanny X-men for the 12-part series, “Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire“. Basically, Vulcan (the other Summers brother) resurfaced, left Earth, and is hell-bent on seeking revenge on the Shi’ar for killing his mother and making him a slave. Of course, the X-men must stop him.

I was not familiar with Billy Tan before this arc, but I must say I quickly became a fan. He and inker Danny Miki have put together a book that is crisp and vibrant. His characters convey real emotion and his action scenes are fluid. For anyone unfamiliar with Ed Brubaker (and shame on you), he’s the current writer of Captain America and Daredevil and recently finished a six-issue mini, Books of Doom. He is currently one of the best writers in the field and Shi’ar is no exception. He’s put together a great and dynamix X-team: Professor Xavier, Marvel Girl, Havoc, Polaris, Nightcrawler, Warpath, and a mutant I was unaware of, Darwin. The team dynamic is excellent and has many moments of pure, unadulterated baddassitude. With most of the Marvel universe preoccupied with the evnts of Civil War, it’s nice to have a story that is seperate from that. This series gets my highest recommendation.

Parts 1-4 (of 12) already in stores.