Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

When Steve Rogers was forced to either blindly serve the government or give up his identity as Captain America, he chose the later, and was replaced by John Walker. When Bruce Wayne’s back was broken by the villain Bane, leaving him unable to continue being Batman, he handpicked Jean Paul Valley, previously known as Azarel, to take over the cape and cowl. When Tony Stark succumbed to his alcoholism, he asked long time friend Jim Rhodes to take over his role as Iron Man. When Superman perished in battle with Doomsday, no less than 4 successors showed up, each either claiming to be him or wanting to pick up where he left off.

If there is one thing comics teaches us, it’s that no one is anybody until they’ve been killed, crippled, or forced to retire under dubious circumstances, only to be replaced by a younger, cooler, sexier, more badass version of themselves. However, there is another side of the coin as well. Usually this replacement doesn’t last very long, maybe a year or two, until the successor is killed, goes insane, or is revealed to be a pawn of a sinister plot, and the original hero is either resurrected (or revealed to not have been dead at all), recovered from their ‘crippling injury’, or is forced to come back out of retirement and resume their identity. Indeed, John Walker’s stint as Captain America was revealed to be a plot by the Red Skull, and soon Steve Rogers resumed his identity as Captain America. Jean Paul Valley had gone off the deep end, forcing Bruce Wayne (whose spine was miraculously healed) to retake his identity of Batman. Iron Man recovered from his alcoholism to battle Obadiah Stane after Rhodes was injured by the villain, while Superman recovered in the Fortress of Solitude and reclaimed his identity after the Eradicator sacrificed himself to restore his powers.
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Sony pictures has released the first picture of Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man from the new Spider-Man reboot currently in production. Pictures were released earlier this month of Garfield as Peter Parker, but this is the first look at the design of the new Spider-Man costume.

Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

As Marvel Comics emerged into the 21st century, they were also emerging from bankruptcy. Thanks partially to the success of the hugely popular X-Men and Spider-man cartoons, along with Capcom’s widely successful Marvel fighting games, more people were reading the comics more than ever. With a sure-to-be blockbuster X-men movie on the horizon, along with an influx of new readers, things were only looking up for The House of Ideas.

There was only one problem: accessibility. With over 40 years of history behind them (60 if you count their years as Timely/Atlas), it was, to say the least, difficult for the average ‘man on the street’ to pick up a comic book and know what’s going on as well as a hardcore reader would. Heck, look at some of these things. Clones? Alternate Universes? Dystopian future timelines? Resurrections? 4 different versions of limbo? Clones of people from alternate universes battling resurrected people from alternate versions of dystopian timelines (and I’m not exaggerating either. All of these things were in a Marvel storyline at one time or another, often times, more than one at a time). Hardcore readers were having a hard enough time keeping up, so imaging how hard it would be for someone whose X-men and Spider-man knowledge came primarily from the cartoons. However, Marvel devised a solution: Ultimate Marvel.

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Art Asylum has unveiled a new exclusive pack of Marvel Mini-mates on their blog.

From their blog:

Here they are finished and in final package for the first time, the Heroes and Adversaries 4 pack. This is a great pack that features some of the Marvel Universe’s most popular characters. Available through Toy Brigade/Xtreme Toys

I did a quick search for these two outlets and didn’t turn much up aside from that one is a toy retailer somewhere in California. Its not clear if this deadpool is the same as the one from Wave 28. Gotta say, that Venom looks terrible.

  

Marvel.com had news that Rhys Ifans will be joining the cast of the forthcoming Spider-man film from Sony. He will be playing the part of the villain, but it is not clear just who that is currently. You may remember Rhys as the kicker from the Replacements among many other films.

From the article:

The filmmakers prefer to not reveal which character Ifans will be playing in the forthcoming film.

Webb added, “What sets the Spider-Man villains apart is the complexity of their relationships with Peter Parker. Rhys’ incredible ability to embody both warmth and rage makes him the ideal choice for this character.”

Based on this clue, I’m taking a wild stab in the dark and calling that the villain is going to be one Dr. Curt Connors. Have a guess of your own? Leave it in the comments below!

Here’s the current line-up for who’s on board with this film so far:
Spider-Man/Peter Parker: Andrew Garfield
Gwen Stacy: Emma Stone
Villain: Rhys Ifans
Screenplay: James Vanderbilt
Director: Marc Webb (punny Webb of Spider-man jokes go here)
Producers: Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin

The film is expected to start production in December and release to audiences on July 3rd, 2012.

In this week’s PowetCast, we referred to a news article on i09 suggesting that Emma Stone was likely to play Mary Jane Watson in the rebooted Spider-man film. The more I thought about this casting, the more perfect I thought it was, especially after the poor casting of Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane in the former Spider-man films. In a complete reversal of this news, though, Marvel.com has announced that Emma Stone will, in fact, be playing GWEN STACY, and not Mary Jane Watson. Emma will be playing opposite Andrew Garfield, who will be portraying Peter Parker/Spider-man. You may be familiar with Emma Stone from Easy A, currently in theaters, and the fantastic Zombieland.

It seems that they are doing things right by getting Gwen Stacy in the story first, but I’m disappointed Emma Stone won’t be playing Mary Jane. I think the part fits her quite well. Also, my mind keeps asking the question why they casted a blonde for redhead Mary Jane in the previous films, while casting a redhead for blonde Gwen Stacy? Kind of a moot point, but I needed to type that out loud, or whatever I just did there.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

Amongst the myriad of new characters being revealed this week at Tokyo Game Show 2010 for Marvel vs Capcom 3, add two more definitive names to the list: Spider-Man and Albert Wesker.

Color this Resident Evil fan insanely happy.

Watch. Its too hard to put into words.