Marvel’s Iron Man will be making his cinematic debut May 2nd, 2008. We mentioned a while back that Jon Favreau will be directing. From the press releases, it sounds they’ll be changing his origin a bit from the original. It sounds like the direction they’re going sets up a pretty good replacement origin, though. Judgement will be made in May of 2008!

There are a number of statues coming from Diamond Select on the horizon in addition to the Age of Apocalypse busts we posted yesterday. First and foremost, I’m extremely pleased to say that Colossus of the X-Men is getting a new kick-ass Marvel Milestone statue reenacting the cover of Uncanny X-Men issue 122. The item description of their page talks about a motorcycle which is clearly the wrong info, so I wouldn’t go by most of it. It appears the statue will retail for about US$ 175. I’m not normally one to get excited over a statue, but I make exceptions for Colossus and his total kick-ass-ness.

Next up is the Dark Phoenix Saga: Phoenix Medium Statue. Phoenix is displayed in her red costume with flame detailing around her. She measures 14″ tall and is limited to 3000 pieces. Each base is hand numbered and comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. Considering this is a Phoenix statue, Dark Phoenix no less, I would have liked to have seen a LOT more flame. The statue will be retailing for about US$85.

The Green Goblin will also be added to the 5″ line of Marvel Icon Busts retailing for about US$45. A Ghost Rider movie bust is also on its way for about US$60 limited to about 5000 pieces. A replica of Wolverine’s Astonishing X-Men mask is being made available in a special display case. The mask should retail for about US$89.99 and is limited to 1000 pieces.

Cover from UncannyXmen.net

Diamond Select Toys are continuing their line of busts in commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the Age of Apocalypse storyline from Marvel Comics. They have chosen Weapon X as next in the line followed by Phoenix and Psylocke. I was hoping more of these busts would be based upon Joe Madureira’s character designs, but it seems Art Asylum doesn’t agree. Weapon X is, however, based on art by Chris Bachalo, another artist that I am a fan of. Although, I’m not so sure how representative this bust is of his art though.

  

Diamond Select Toys announced another exclusive for the 2006 San Diego Comic Con. This time around, they have announced a bust of Storm from her days during the Chris Claremonts run on the X-Men featuring most prominently, her mohawk. The bust will be limited to 750 pieces and if last year’s Black Queen bust is any indication, this bust will sell out fast.

 

Ultimate Avengers 2 will be making its way to DVD shelves in August of this year. This sequel continues Marvel’s effort to make a presence in the straight to DVD animated video market. With titles such as Iron Man and Doctor Strange on the way, Ultimate Avengers 2 is solidifying the Marvel Animation Line. IGN has posted a video trailer.

You can see my review of the first dvd here.

iF Magazine spoke with recently resigned Marvel Entertainment head Avi Arad about upcoming film projects he’s working on for Marvel. In additon to breaking news that the next Hulk movie will be a complete “do-over” of the first one, he also says new cartoons for Spider-Man, Wolverine And The X-Men, Fantastic Four, and even Iron Man after that movie is done.
And he clarifies some of this ToyBiz confusion as well:

iF: Switching to toys how do the new HASBRO toy lines look in comparison to the previous TOY BIZ lines?
ARAD: TOY BIZ is very involved in the design of the toys, but the distribution will be through HASBRO. The scale isn’t going to change.

Maybe Marvel Legends isn’t in as much danger as I thought, because Hasbro seems to have no trouble getting mountains of Star Wars, GI Joe and Transformers to market…

Spidey swings through a crowd of fans in Foley Square in New York. Man Highways has still pictures and provided this video.