Captain America co-creator dies

Joe Simon, a comic book industry pioneer whose defining career moment came in the dark days of March 1941 when he delivered a star-spangled superhero named Captain America, has died. He was 98. Simon died Wednesday night in New York City after a brief illness, according to a statement from his family, and his death adds a solemn final note to the 70th anniversary of his greatest creation, Captain America, who leaped across the big screen this summer with the Marvel Studios film "Captain America: The First Avenger." That film grossed $369 million in worldwide box office and earned strong reviews despite early skepticism about the 21st century pop culture potential of a Roosevelt-era character who looks like a walking American flag.


Simon created Captain America with Jack Kirby, a key figure in American comics, and the two would work together for various publishers and as comic books went from quirky confections to American mythology.

CAPTAIN AMERICA STORMS THE UK

America's First Avenger will battle his foes on the streets of Manchester and Liverpool during filming on the big-budget superhero film.

Manchester's Northern Quarter is to be transformed into 1940s New York for a dramatic car chase in Captain America: The First Avenger.
It has been chosen by Hollywood studio Marvel Productions for the company's first film shoot outside the US.
US actor Chris Evans, who was also in Fantastic Four, plays the title role.
Producers chose the Northern Quarter to recreate New York because of its towering buildings and pre-war architecture.

Captain America's U.K. shoot is expected to start in September with scheduled scenes yet to be finalized. However, BBC is reporting that the streets of northern Manchester will be used as the backdrop for a dramatic car chase.

The area was also used as a shooting location for 2009's Sherlock Holmes, which may give fans an idea of what a film based on the earliest days of the Marvel universe might look like.

Captain America: The First Avenger should wrap shooting by late 2010 with a release date of July 22, 2011 now set in stone.

The stars and stripes

Producers of the forthcoming movie, Captain America: The First Avenger knew they had a problem with the iconic costume. Unlike Batman, where the black suits lends itself well for the transition from comic book to silver screen, Cap's costume is little more than the stars and stripes and could leave theatregoers giggling. The producers have tweaked the characters origin somewhat and come up with a great explanation for the suit.

"The costume is a flag, but the way we're getting around that is we have Steve Rogers forced into the USO circuit. After he's made into this super-soldier, they decide they can't send him into combat and risk him getting killed. He's the only one and they can't make more. So they say, 'You're going to be in this USO show' and they give him a flag suit. He can't wait to get out of it." Director Joe Johnson.

The news the fans are waiting for is who will be cast as the super-soldier?

"Well, we're testing five or six guys," Johnston said. "The youngest is 23, the oldest is 32. Most of the guys in the war are just kids, 18 or 19, but we want to go a little bit older. We have to have somebody locked in before I leave March 1 for London."

A challenge, he said, is finding an actor that can play scenes as "98-pound-weakling" Steve Rogers and also pull off the brawny hero scenes, although some visual effects wizardry will come into play. Johnson has plenty of experience on that front as the director of "Jumanji," "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and "Jurassic Park III" He also had art director credits on major Lucasfilm projects, including "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Empire Strikes Back."

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.