Sunday 7: Fan-Made Movie Poster For THE AVENGERS May Be Prophetic

Fitting nicely into place for the Sunday 7 four-spot is the latest fan-made movie poster to make the world wide rounds -- Tony Trinh's vision of  The Avengers.

Trinh's dubious inclusion of Iron Man 2's War Machine aside, we think the poster kicks some avenging a**!  Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow isn't said to be in Whedon's movie, but Marvel has loved her performance and already is pushing for a solo Widow flick.  Plus, considering that Black Widow's been a long-time if not original Avengers member, her popping up on  screen 04 May 2011 is certainly possible.  (Johansson wants 'in,' too - and she told MTV that much this weekend - here.)

Trinh also made great use of Chris Hemsworth as Thor - and an image we'll be sharing with dabblers very soon! Interesting that Sam Jackson's Nick Fury is the most prominent dude; of course, with the possible exception of  Chris Evans and Captain America, Jackson and his eye-patched Fury will be popping up in more of Marvel's future films than anyone. Don't look for either of them in Thor, however; if Marvel had any early plans to write Jackson into that film, his salary disputes with the studio last fall were more than enough reason to change up Thor's final draft.  To see Trinh's Avengers poster in super-size, right click our image or go [here].

BREAKING! JOSS WHEDON Is Directing AND Writing 'The AVENGERS'

Hollywood's biggest buzz is once again the sound of Marvel.  Joss Whedon,  most-recognized as the creator of the long-running TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer,  will both direct and write The Avengers,  Marvel Studios' fast-tracked superhero team movie that will unite the rest of their upcoming film slate under one celluloid roof.

Rumors and speculation have been circulating for months about who Marvel might select to helm their Avengers,  a film that is unquestionably the studio's coup-de-grace and the all-important culmination of everything Marvel Entertainment has been working towards since 2008 and the release of Jon Favreau's first Iron Man and Louis Leterrier's remake of The Incredible Hulk.  Whedon was identified by IESB.com as a contender on Marvel's 'short list' of directorial picks just two weeks ago, and the story - which coincidentally broke on 01 April - was regarded as joke by many and its circulation was low as a result.

Understandably, then, Whedon's confirmation as The Avengers director, which hit the net late Tuesday and took the comicsblogosphere by storm Wednesday morning, came as a huge surprise to literally everyone. But the news, while shocking,  has been welcomed across the board by critics and fans alike a Christmas present. For legions of fans that span the spectrum from comics to horror to sci-fi, Whedon's a household name:  other than his flagship creation Buffy, Whedon is also the creator - as well as writer and director of many episodes - of Angel, Firefly, and the recently-canceled cult-favorite, Dollhouse. 

But Whedon, who turns 47 in June, has only directed one feature film, Serenity, the  2005 big screen adaptation of his science fiction series, Firefly.  Serenity grossed just $25.5 million at the box office, and if any question exists about Whedon's credentials as The Avengers best choice, it resides here. 

Marvel, however, seems to be anything but worried. In an unprecedented move, one to which even Thor's Kenneth Branagh and Iron Man 2's Jon Favreau cannot attest, the company announced last night that Whedon control of The Avengers won't be limited to directing the film; he'll be writing it, too. 

More accurately, Whedon will be re-writing The Avengers.  Screenwriter Zak Penn delivered the film's initial script, which itself became an event of no minor importance after Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada announced via Twitter that he'd received it on 03 March.   

To what extent Whedon will be tweaking Pen's screenplay is anyone's guess, but nobody's worried.  Confidence in Whedon, noted to possibly be the world's first third-generation television writer, and his writing talent is unilateral. After graduating with a film degree from Wesleyan, Whedon's first writing gigs were on the writing staffs of Roseanne and Parenthood (1990).  His Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode "Hush" was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2000 for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series, and, though uncredited, Whedon wrote a script for Twister ad the final draft screenplay for Speed.  Most recently, Whedon wrote the screenplay for The Cabin in the Woods, a horror/thriller due early 2011.

Despite his impressive resume, Marvel's decision to go with Whedon likely stems less from his previous accomplishments in either TV or film and more from just one simple fact: Joss Whedon loves comics. He knows comics, he understands superheroes, and he's written his fair share of them Marvel Comics. 

Dabblers following the periodic appearances of abbracadabbling's mysterious Time Traveler will be pleased to see the dude's back on the comicsblog today. We pleaded with him to not interrupt our hot coverage of Joss Whedon's ascendancy to The Avengers director's chair, but after having the same argument twenty-three times in a row, we finally gave in to the disarmingly suave chronal bully.  Of course, we agree that picking up today on the promise he blogged back on 31 March - namely, to tell y'all about Clash of The Titan's director Louis Leterrier future aspirations and bring 'em full circle- really is good timing.   We love good stories, and while assume Leterrier does, too, the tale of his Marvelous tomorrow doesn't have a happy ending.


Since the premiere of his first Marvel movie, The Incredible Hulk,  Leterrier made no secret of his desire to direct The Avengers - and while making the rounds to promote Clash of the Titans, took every opportunity to remind Marvel that he's the guy for the big job.  He also tossed several of his ideas for the film out into the public arena - making Avengers a quadrology, being one - and admitted that, while at the bottom of it,  his name was on Marvel's short list of directorial choices.

Time Traveler saw the writing on the wall, but our dude knows not to say a peep lest the time stream become distorted and our reality cease to exist. That'd be a major bummer for all involved, and in this case, even the Traveler's mad time-hopping talents weren't needed to predict the outcome of Leterrier's self-hyped Avengers quest.   It's possible Leterrier was in the game until recently (he's still contracted to direct one more feature for Marvel), but if he was, he forfeited it two weeks ago with the first showing of Titans.  We can only hope that his future endeavors meet with more success, and that Leterrier reads plenty of comic books before he's behind the camera of his next Marvel movie  -- or, for that matter, a Warner Bros./DC Comics movie.  Leterrier is reportedly in talks to direct a film adaptation of the Award-winning comic book series, Y The Last Man.

Feeding his comic geek might be Leterrier's best bet - if not for tomorrow, then for that glorious day after.  Comic books have clearly been the secret of Joss Whedon's success, and the style and substance of his romance with Marvel Comics. 

One of the best examples of that romance, and Marvel's high regard of Joss Whedon, came in mid-February, when the publisher announced their new Astonishing line of comic books, so named after the incredibly successful series Astonishing X-Men that Joss Whedon and artist John Cassaday launched in 2004.  Though the dynamic duo helmed the Eisner-award winning comic for two years, Astonishing overshadowed and overtook Uncanny X-Men in less than a year to became the flagship title of the X-Men franchise.  Astonishing's  initial storyline was also used as the premise for X-Men: The Last Stand, the third X-Men feature film, in 2006.

After departing his Astonishing X-Men with the series' twenty-fifth issue, Whedon wrote six issues of the comic Runaways before turning his full comics attention to the launch of his next ongoing Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Eight  series, published by Portland's Dark Horse Comics.  Marvel Comics, however, didn't fully let their "superstar scribe" go; Whedon returned to Marvel to adapt the initial story-arc from his series for The Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, the first of Marvel's motion comics, which debuted on iTunes last October. Here's the preview:

 More info on Marvel's motion comics can be found [here].

The Avengers is scheduled to hit theaters in summer of 2012, the ten-figure payoff that teams Marvel Studios' franchise superheroes in an Ocean's Eleven-sized all-star cast clad in Spandex. Headlining Whedon's eventual super roster are Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson.) Ed Norton, who played The Hulk in Leterrier's 2008  movie, is also a possibility for the film. 

Whedon's absolutely no stranger to ensemble casting - he astonished with his X-Men and did the same weekly for years with the cast of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel.  But making the The Avengers  work - and work well - would be an unbelievable task for any director.  With the stories of three different films culminating in The Avengers, not to mention  the three different yet relatively new superhero celebrities whose respective egos will be vying for screen time,  the newbie Whedon will need to find a way to make a great comic book film while still staying true to the storylines and characters already developed by Favreau and Branagh. 

Placing The Avengers script into Whedon's hands proves Marvel knows what they're doing,  and by playing to his strengths, they've already taken their first, best step to ensure success for the most ambitious and important film the Studio has (or has plans to) produced.

No matter how big a success The Avengers proves to be, that it succeeds is critical- not just   for Marvel, but for the future of superhero cinema. The Avengers marks  a brave, new world for comics coming to the big screen. The film will be a litmus test of the viability of incorporating the demands, strengths, and complexities of comic book continuity into a brand new medium. It won't be an easy fit, but if all goes well, Whedon will  be the author of  Hollywood's next 'gold standard.' And while superheroes may reap the early benefits,  The Avengers might just be the first in a long line of films from any genre to embrace tomorrow's newest model of storytelling.

* * * * *

Check out everything from Joss Whedon on Whedonesque [here]. Avengers movie and related Marvel Comics events can be found [here].  And full episodes of The Astonishing X-Men motion comic are available for download via iTunes, and can be watched free online at Hulu.com [here].

NEWS of the BLOG: HEROES Huge Audience...We Get Heroic 4 HAITI ...Jackson Out of AVENGERS...And MORE!!

Yo, dabblers, we are back! And what better way to get back to the grind of comics blogging than with... NEWS OF THE BLOG! This would be a great opportunity to launch into 'The Week In Review,' but the comics industry can't be summarized so simply -- you know that. Instead, we'll seize the moment and throw out this question: Did you know that today's National Frustrated Writer's Day? Yeah, we were surprised, too. (We thought it was in April.) But calendars don't lie, and neither do we. Two-thirds of the Home Office staff is already at the pub, while the rest of us -- and me, your Dabbler -- are here once again to hold down the fort.  If you're a frustrated writer of any kind, today's your day -- and abbracadabbling salutes you. Have fun, and drive safe. 

Here's another question (because it seems like we're full of 'em this morning): Is NBC's Heroes going to be cancelled or what? We're rooting for the show - don't get us wrong.  The show still has a good eight or nine episodes left in the season, though cast and crew have already wrapped production for the year.  Now, Springfield has a direct line to Hollywood (it's a little known secret here) and from those sources, we've heard that our Heroes are feeling pretty upbeat about their possible predicament. Mainly because  the season ends again on yet another cliff-hanger -- which means, of course, they think they'll be back like a sinister Sylar.  We'd hate to be the one's to tell them quite a few shows before them have seen season-ending cliffhangers...then went right off that cliff after them.  It's called denial, guys. Wear parachutes.

Then again, in the wake of NBC's clash with Conan O'Brien, anything's possible. Shaking up their late night TV has put a gap in the Peacock's schedule -- and we think the wise move would be to gym-it for a stronger Heroes rather than go for the unknown.   Heroes has had a lot of buzz this year: all eleventh-hour improvements then nothing but cancellation chat since Episode One. Entertainment Weekly even quoted one source as saying, “Everyone is expecting this to be the last season. The cast, the crew, everyone.”  Reasonable fears, given the show's pulling in just over six million viewers a week (down from the 14 million it had back in 2005), but hey, that's about three times what Leno had before they, uh, cancelled him.  

However, despite what those numbers suggest, Heroes story does have more to it. Both Heroes and the CW's Smallville were blasted for their early poor ratings last Fall, but both shows were rescued from almost certain comicide* at that point when the DVR data finally rolled in. It seems that the comic book crowd isn't necessarily sitting on the sofa when their favorite shows come on -- but that doesn't mean they're not watching them.  In fact, Heroes may have a larger viewing audience than anyone suspects, because this audience can't be measured directly. 

For the second time in a row, Heroes has topped the list of the year's most-pirated television shows.  According to Torrentfreak, Heroes was downloaded 6.58 million times in 2009, which if you've been paying attention is a larger number than the show's weekly ratings.  In our modern world of 52-inch LCD's, it might be difficult to image that not everybody tunes in to television, even if they have a set. We've known several tech-heads with all the nice toys who get all their TV kicks from Torrents, and considering digital is the way we're headed, it'd be foolish of NBC to overlook its pirating peeps.  Don't be the music industry, NBC, and blame poor physical sales (or weekly ratings shares) on actual Nielsen ninnies. Just as more pirates buy more digital music than the average music junkie, your Heroes' bread is buttered by digital demographics.

We abbracadabblers spent a good part of the week in the Present Magic Comics Shop -- our eBay  store where we sell all sorts of comics and action figure goodness.  As you know, your favorite comicsblog has joined the Heroes 4 Haiti effort to raise money through online auctions for the victims of the Haitian earthquake on January 12th.   We now have FOUR  (4) active auctions in support of the cause -- our latest being another great set of Spider-Man limited series, including Spider-Man: The Final Adventure and Spider-Man: The Lost Years, the latter by fan favorites, writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist- extraordinaire John Romita, Jr. The auction's for a total of eight (8) Spider-Man comics, and you can find them on eBay HERE.   For the list of our first three auctions, go HERE.

You might think we've been too busy with our charitable work (which we have) to even think about  being among the Comic Blog Elite. Nothing could be farther from the truth, though, and we hope that many of you had a chance to check out the Elite's website to see what the fuss is. If you haven't (shame, shame on you, dabbler), don't fret -- Matt Bergin, the CBE's E-I-C, is now posting a weekly CBE feature on Pop Culture Shock, which will introduce you to everything you've ever wanted to know about the comics blogosphere and its member blogs.  But Matt's first blog HERE covers more than just an intro; he's got mini-reviews of several sites (he'll get to us eventually) and he posts the Top 10 Comics Blogs of the week, too. We're not on that privileged list yet -- but with your help and back-links, we will be. 

Samuel L. Jackson, however, may not be making The Avengers' list, though.  Jackson's an actor so ubiquitous that we'd expect to find him hiding in our own home movies, so when The Hollywood Reporter told us last year that he'd reportedly signed a long-term deal with Marvel Studios to play 'Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.', in nine upcoming films we weren't surprised. 

The reverse is true of the latest news, in Jackson's own words:  "There was a huge kind of negotiation that broke down. I don't know. Maybe I won't be Nick Fury. Maybe somebody else will be Nick Fury or maybe Nick Fury won't be in it.  There seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world so [they're saying to me], 'We're not making that deal'."    The 'it' in question isn't just one thing; Jackson's referring to those guest-starring roles he's been slated to play in Iron Man 2, Thor, The First Avenger: Captain America, and finally, The Avengers.   Marvel's movies -- which are narratively ambitious and set a new standard for superhero cinema, bringing it more in-line with comic book storytelling -- find their origins rooted not in Marvel's primary 'universe,' but in it's modernized 'Ultimate Universe', which presents different, twenty-first century versions of its characters. Creators Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch used Jackson himself as the model for Ultimate Fury, which took the traditional white, grizzled, aging commando with salt-and-pepper hair Nick Fury character (created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the 1960's) and re-imagined him as a younger, bald African American ass-kicker. 

Jackson wasn't playing when this news broke last week, and he seemed clearly dissatisfied with Marvel and Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau.  The Los Angeles Times article that broke the story does mention that Jackson may be trying to stir the fanboys to pressure Marvel and with the hopes of a bigger paycheck, as clearly many an actor before him have done. But the issue involved does highlight just one of the  potential 

problems Marvel's ambition will encounter -- the cost of bringing the two distinct art forms of film and comics ever closer.  As the Times points out, Marvel will have to weigh each film's budget with the calculating eye of pro-sports franchises who want marquee players but have to fit them under a team salary cap.  

The Times doesn't so clearly or directly mention the assumption that underlies most of their article: the belief that comics and films are different sides of the same coin. With comics today becoming movie properties in record numbers - and many of them being created with an eye on cinematic adaptation from the get-go -- the view that comics are little more than storyboards or, at best, underdeveloped movies, has become quite popular.  We think that there's nothing wrong -- in fact, there's a lot exciting -- about having one's favorite reads and longtime super friends find their way to the silver screen -- the best stories and characters are ones that are able to find life across artistic media.  But comics are unique, and much about them is not translatable to film -- and that, dear dabblers, is a good thing.   From Jackson's problems, it looks like recurring minor characters aren't translatable, either -- if they're played by actors with big names and even bigger tax returns.  Considering comic book lovers acceptance of big screen treatments in the first place, Jackson's model for Nick Fury in the comics is a truth that can be left on the pages of Ultimate Marvel. He's trivia, it's cute, and there are other actors in Hollywood who'd be happy to shave if the role of Nick Fury knocked on their trailer door. * * * * * *  *Comicide - the act of killing a comic book, or a comic book related property.

THIS MAN SHOULD BE SMILING: NEWS OF THE BLOG!

Disney and the Many Possibilities of MARVEL TV

Mickey's corporate Mousketeers have had a busy two weeks.  Yes, it's been exactly fourteen days since Disney officially assumed ownership of Marvel Comics, and it doesn't surprise us to hear that the reverse-imagineering has already begun full throttle.

According to our buddy  'Honor Hunter' on the quite excellent, Disney-centric Blue Sky Disney blog,  Mouse execs are closely scrutinizing Marvel's many Tier 2 and Tier 3 characters to identify those heroes   best positioned to attract the attention of the elusive young boy demographic.  Although their DisneyXD Channel (formerly Toon Disney) is geared towards young males, Disney's been unsuccessful capturing their attention a la Hannah Montana.  If you've ever tuned into DisneyXD, you'll fully understand why.

Disney's CEO Bob Iger's never made a secret of the goldmine his company believes Marvel's lower rungs to be, and the rest of us will likely find out how prescient he was before the end of this year.  Considering Iger wants as close to instant cred as he can get with his new heroes, maybe even before then.  

We've always harbored a secret desire for an exclusive cable  superhero channel, and Disney's definitely going in that direction. They're expected to green light at least two new Marvel projects for DisneyXD  shortly, with more to follow.  While no official time-line's been given, we're thinking DisneyXD's lineup will become very superhero-heavy just before we're buying tickets for Thor.                                                                                               

Of course, there's still the small and potentially conflicting matter of Marvel's animated  projects in development pre-Disney. A Black Panther cartoon is set to debut this Spring, and The AVENGERS: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, featuring Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Giant Man and Wasp, is expected to  for broadcast in 2011 to coincide with the release of The Avengers feature film.   Will Disney be assuming these developing projects, or be limited by pre-existing deals  set to prevent the Mouse from reaping Avengers guaranteed bank?    

With all that's involved, it's a tad premature to be calling DisneyXD MarvelTV.   But with everyone's attention tuned into TV, we've got to wonder how Disney's XD Directive will impact the future of Marvel comic books.  After all, isn't that about what we're most concerned?  

If the new Disney 'toons prove as popular at Marvel's Super Hero Squad,   we can probably count on each new show getting the comic treatment. Bolstered by Disney marketing and distribution, we're as certain of their success as we are of the precedents these comics will be setting.  Disney's superhero cartoons may be the first real litmus test of their Marvelous purchase,  as well as a clear sign of what's to come. Perhaps it's in this way that Disney will wrest editorial control, with the extent of its reach being measured in cable subscriptions and by boys twelve and under.   Source: [link]