Black Panther gets his arse kicked

The Black Panther seems to have fallen foul to either film critics or rampaging DC fans in South Korea. Apparantly a 32 year old man has been arrested and charged with hero abuse or some such.

The Walt Disney Co. sent two statues of the superhero to Busan to celebrate Marvel Studios’ filming along Korea’s southern coast. But on March 17, according to The Korea Herald, a 32-year-old drunk man was arrested after he vandalized the statue in the Gwangbok-ro shopping district, and on April 21, the statue near Gwangalli Beach was toppled and part of its head broken off.

An official from the Korea Film Council thought someone had probably tried to climb the statue, despite numerous off-limits signs.

Avengers - Marvel rips off UK fans

Fans of Marvel's record breaking Avengers movie are in for a raw deal when the blu-ray is released this September. The US region 1 disc will be triple play which means the movie will come on blu-ray, standard DVD and a digital copy all in the one box, while the UK region 2 version is just the standard blu-ray. There is also a director's commentary which is reported to be missing from the UK version.

This was standard practise in the early days of DVD with the region 1 version often containing far more special features than the UK versions, but recent years have seen some kind of parity between region 1 and 2.

Region 2: One Disc
Region 1: 3D, Blu Ray, DVD, Digital Copy AND a Music CD!!!

Fans have hitten back by giving the dvd bad reviews on Amazon.

No doubt there will be a UK special edition a few months down the road.

New Avengers, New Hulk and New Marvel

Joss Whedon is now officially confirmed to both write and direct The Avengers 2 which looks to be released in May 2015 - alongside the new movie Whedon will also develop a weekly Marvel TV series of which details are scarce, but it is expected to feature much of the Marvel universe with the most popular characters possibly turning up in the Avengers 2. Wasp, a character Whedon originally wanted for the Avengers movie, is expected to dominate an early story arc with possible cameos for Captain America,Iron Man and Thor.

It is also expected that a new Hulk movie will hit screens sometime before the Avengers sequel. The all new Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo has been universally acclaimed as the best thing about the Avengers movie, and in a movie full of good things that is quite an achievement.

The Avengers Assemble

It could have been terrible, in fact I was expecting it to be terrible, but what a surprise and Joss (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Whedon nailed it with this movie, and also gave us the best big screen Hulk yet. In my opinion this new Hulk is the best thing about the movie and Mark Ruffalo is excellent in the role - if there's  not a standalone Hulk movie with Ruffalo  during the next few years then it will be a missed opportunity. The rest of the characters are excellent too and some of the movie's best bits are the quieter moments where the various heroes are bickering among themselves.

I saw the movie in my local multiplex with my two young daughters and they were glues to the screen throughout. We went for the 3D viewing and although I still think 3d is a gimmick that will eventually die out, the action scenes did benefit from the added dimension, the missiles flying at the screen looked cool in any case.

If you were brought up reading the comic books, as I was, then you'll love this but non comic book fans will find much to enjoy. It's a summer blockbuster for the entire family and whilst it may be big, bold and stupid it's also very good...very, very good.

Batman, Superman and the Marvel Crowd

A few of the blogs that I read daily have lately been posting Batman information so I wanted to highlight Batman Legends. This is a UK magazine published by Titan Magazines. It's bi-monthly and is made up of reprint material from the American originals.

When I was a kid it always used to annoy me that the American super hero comics seemed that much better than the UK versions but these days I think, that although made up of reprint material and thus never gaining the collector value of the original, the UK have the edge. The comics are bound in a nice limp back covers, like trade paperbacks and they are much more durable than the American originals. Titan also publish Superman Legends but I can't say I'm a regular reader of that title since I've never really been one for The Man of Steel.

Panini Books publish, in identical formats, the Marvel range over here in the UK and some of these titles are essential reading.

These titles are monthly and the company are currently running the Civil War storyline across their range of titles. I don't buy all of these but I do like Marvel Legends and Mighty World of Marvel. Avengers Unconquered is also very good. The company also publish A Fantastic Four title as well as Spiderman and the X men.

They're certainly a vast improvement over the UK editions we had as a kid - then the Marvel/DC adaptions were often printed in black and white as most UK comics were at that time.

Batman Legends is my favourite title in terms of story as I like the noir feel of the modern Batman. But the Marvel comics have the edge of the DC ones because each title has a lively letters page. Neither Batman or Superman have much of a letter page and, as with the American titles, I always enjoy the readers letters. Maybe that's the aging fanboy inside me.

Marvel's Civil War

The Marvel Civil War storyline is now being published in the UK Marvel Collectors Editions from Panini Comics.

Now I'm not a regular comic book reader but I had heard a lot about this reconstruction of the Marvel universe when it took place a couple of years ago.

I picked up the information from the Around Comics podcast which I still listen to. It's a great forum based show that is both amusing and informative. I'd promised myself that I'd catch up o the story one day.

Now I know these multi-book crossover storylines are really a marketing ploy but this story which is set in post 911 American sounded enticing.

The story kicks off in Avengers Unconquered issue 1, which is a repackaging of Avengers united (another marketing ploy). Still it's a 100 page issue and I do love these UK editions. They are better constructed than the US originals - in that they come with a soft card binding and the quality of printing is excellent. Course they'll never have the collectors value of the US originals but they are excellent for archiving.

I intend to follow this entire story arc, across however many different books, simply because I was so impressed by this issue.

The story starts with a group of heroes, created for a super hero reality TV show - anyway things get out of hand when one super villain effectively turns himself into a nuclear bomb and explodes himself.

What follows is the new America sick of costumed freaks doing more harm than good. And there is even talk of banning the costumed crime fighters - in the end it is made law that all costumed heroes must sign a disclosure of powers and identity and then take a wage and work for the government.

Captain America is the first rebel and he soon finds himself not only at war with heroes who had once been allies but with the country he loves. And he's not the only one as others are forced to take sides.

Almost every major character in the Marvel universe takes part in the storyline. The illustration on the left features all the characters involved in the war.

The artwork is moody and the writing generates an intense feeling of paranoia. This is a story with genuine depth and relevance to the real world.





...a world that could do with one or two super heroes.

But besides all that - many years ago me and my mates always used to wonder what would happen if hero x met hero y. Now Marvel are answering that boyhood fantasy.
This issue features the issues Civil War 1 , Disassembled 1
The Decision
Choosing Sides
Disassembled 2

The storyline then continues in other books on sale this month.

It's hard not to be cynical of these multi comic book storylines but when the quality of story and art is up to this standard that fact becomes acedemic. This is high quality storytelling with truly adult themes presented in the fantastical and much loved comic book super hero universe.