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Last year, Batman artist Greg Capullo announced he’d be leaving the series to work on a new project with Kick-Ass co-creator Mark Millar.  Yesterday, the star duo revealed the fruits of their labor. Reborn is a six-issue limited series that will begin this October.  It follows 80-year old Bonnie Black, who ends up in a fantasy world after […]

Marvel Entertainment has unleashed the first trailer for the Captain America: Civil War.

Entertainment Weekly reports that the plot “was inspired by the seven-part storyline written by Mark Millar in 2006-07 which pitted heroes against heroes in a crossover event that had the entire world of characters choosing up sides behind either Captain America or Iron Man. That happens in this movie, too, with veteran characters Black Widow, Falcon, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, and Scarlet Witch, among others, taking up arms against each other.”

The video embedded above features scenes with Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., and Scarlett Johansson reprising their roles as Captain America, Iron Man, and Black Widow. The Russo Brothers teamed up to serve as the directors for this movie. The theatrical release date has been set for May 06, 2016. (via ComicBook.com)

Mark Millar is at it again. Following a prolific period at Image with — Jupiter’s Children and sequel, Starlight, MPH and Chrononauts—he’ll have some new treats, having just sent out a teaser for a new book which will be announced, one presumes, at Image Expo next week. (Although he’s been blabbing about it on Twitter for a while.)

The title “Huck” suggests notes of American provincialism, along with common man concerns. Given Millar’s love of controversy this could have that in spades.

It could also be the book he’s been teasing doing with the suddenly very popular—and justly so— Bill Sienkiewicz? Or another A-lister?

Via Comicbook.com

Per a report today at THR, and hot on the heels of Kingsman: The Secret Service accumulating $370 million worldwide, comes the news that Mark Millar is teaming up with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura to adapt his Image superhero saga with Frank Quitely, Jupiter’s Legacy.

di Bonaventura told the outlet why Jupiter’s Legacy was a good fit for movie-goers:

What appealed to me was the emotional weight of the family dynamic in Shakespearean fashion. It is also unique in a world where there are many similar super hero movies and IP.

Legacy, which tells the story of a group of superheroes who first got their powers in the 20’s after the discovery of a mysterious island, and their children who haven’t quite lived up to their standards, recently wrapped its first five issue arc and has a prequel series, entitled Jupiter’s Circle, releasing today.

Currently writers are meeting with the team to adapt the material, but given di Bonaventura’s success rate (his credits include the Transformers and GI Joe franchises), it’s likely that we’ll see Jupiter’s Legacy move quickly into production. The producer is also working on an adaptation of Millar’s MPH.

Millar is repped by Paradigm and attorney Harris Miller.

Writer: Mark Millar

Penciller: Sean Gordon Murphy

Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth

Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos

Writer Mark Millar is a polarizing creator, but with the recent critical success of Starlight, interested in his work has been reignited. Teaming the author with a killer creative team including both artist Sean Gordon Murphy and the excellent colors of Matt Hollingsworth & letters of Chris Eliopoulos should be a case for instant success. Fortunately, Chrononauts #1 reads as if it is cut from the same cloth of Starlight. The tale builds out a world and personality for our characters recalling some of the intense interpersonal work that Millar crafted in what is arguably his strongest Big Two work: The Ultimates.

Within the space of this one issue Millar fills these characters with heart and nuance. Corbin Quinn and Danny Reilly are both written with an immense amount of pathos and love in this tale. As soon as this comic establishes these two as interesting human beings with engaging backstories, it starts collapsing and shifting the dynamic. The high science aspects of this issue take a similar approach to the works this story is based off of like Back to the Future with similar color schemes, aesthetics, and heart. Those influences suit this comic well, and so long as we invest in the two personalities of these characters throughout the more action heavy parts of this story, Chrononauts is likely going to be a tale that’s engaging during the full span of the story.

Artist Sean Gordon Murphy is an incredible asset to the storytelling of this issue. Millar’s focus on cinematic presentation simply requires excellent artists fleshing out his environments and spreads added to the work. Perhaps the most mesmerizing sequences of this comic are the incredible instances of technology in which Murphy draws futuristic vehicles with all the bells and whistles that futuristic machinery could possibly have. Millar has always worked with top flight artists in the industry, and with the right project he and Murphy are a match made in comic book heaven. The vehicles aren’t the only excellent part of this comic, office spaces and scenic vistas are jam-packed with an immense amount of detail. This is the comic that you remove the staples from and tack to the wall. A crowd shot in the middle of the tale is filled with individuals that Murphy pencils in an immense amount of detail. Due to the nature of the title, time travel is a necessary component to the book – which is another strength of the penciller. The eras represented here feel authentic and unique. This book jumps to the future and the past, so clarity is a requirement.

The personal lives of our main characters is fleshed out to an excellent degree, giving them the right amount of emotion and comedic elements. On multiple occasions, I was shocked with just how funny this story was. Murphy and Millar both nail the comedic elements of this story with some physical humor from the leads to small instances of funny fervor hiding in the background of this story. More importantly, this comic never strays too far into either comedy or drama, but instead moves into the dramedy section of entertainment, as the stakes for our heroes is clearly and cleanly laid out amongst the first installment of this story.

Cinematic is a term that is sometimes daunting for the medium. It’s something that can absolutely be applied in this context, with a story that is lighter on dialogue and heavier on splash pages and big wide panels. These stories mix great on the comic store shelf next to complicated pieces covered with dialogue. Still, these cinematic comics shouldn’t read like movie scripts, they should read like comics. The medium should be taken advantage of at all times. That attitude of trying to get everything up on the screen is a turn off, and something that has distracted fans from Millar’s own writing. Chrononauts #1 reads like a comic, and it’s made all the better for being written, drawn, and created as such.

Here’s your Friday round-up of all things Entertainment-related, have a great weekend everybody!

– Yesterday, recently announced Deadpool star Morena Baccarin tweeted out a photo while on set. The photo in question was of her chair, which lists her character name as “Vanessa”. Presumably this means the actress will be playing Vanessa Carlysle aka the mutant shape-shifter Copycat, who meets and falls in love with Deadpool before becoming a mercenary herself.

Here’s the photo in question:

Let’s do this. pic.twitter.com/pNqcCGReSz

— Morena Baccarin (@missmorenab) March 19, 2015

– After adding Ruth Negga as Tulip this week, AMC’s Preacher cast is starting to grow rapidly, as last night it was announced that young actor Ian Colleti has joined the series as “Arseface”. Deadline describes the character thusly:

Even with his horribly disfigured face and severe speech impediment, Eugene’s still the nicest kid you’ll ever meet and really looks up to Jesse. Stomach-churningly difficult to look at, Eugene’s the town’s reviled Frankenstein’s monster, but that won’t change his earnest, sweet and pure outlook on life. However, he is troubled by something terrible he’s done in the past — something he fears might have turned God himself against him.

– Surprise, surprise, another Mark Millar comic has been picked up for a movie deal. This time, it’s his brand new collaboration with Sean Murphy: Chrononauts. The series is centered around the concept of the first two scientists to travel back through time (and we’ll have a review of the first issue up shortly). Chris Morgan, who has written 5 of the Fast and Furious franchise films, will produce under his Chris Morgan Productions banner in a deal negotiated by Paradigm and the law offices of Harris M. Miller II.

Along with Superior and Starlight being in development for feature length adaptations, it looks as though Millar’s presence in multiplexes will be getting bigger than ever.

– Captain America: Civil War begins shooting in two weeks here in Atlanta, and I’ll certainly be fighting the temptation to drive down and stand outside the set every day. Word spread about the upcoming shooting via a casting notice that went out for extras in the area, which included the following synopsis:

Following the events of Age of Ultron, the collective governments of the world pass an act designed to regulate all superhuman activity. This polarizes opinion amongst the Avengers, causing two factions to side with Iron Man or Captain America, which causes an epic battle between former allies.

Sounds about right.

– Upcoming Sandman feature producer, and kinda-sorta former Robin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has signed on to produce and star in a Fraggle Rock feature film for New Regency, though what role he’ll be playing has not been revealed. Variety got the scoop along with Levitt’s thoughts on the project:

“The first screen personas I ever loved were Henson creations, first on ‘Sesame Street,’ and then on ‘Fraggle Rock,’” Gordon-Levitt said. “Jim Henson’s characters make you laugh and sing, but they’re also layered, surprising, and wise. From Oscar the Grouch, to Yoda, to the Fraggles. I’ve never stopped loving his work, even as a young frisky man, and on into adulthood. Collaborating with Lisa Henson makes me confident we can do something that Jim would have loved. I’m grateful and excited to be working with New Regency on this project.”

Adapted from the Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons’ The Secret Service, the longer titled Kingsman: The Secret Service sees Matthew Vaughn taking on another Millar property, having previously adapted Kick-Ass to some acclaim (before the Jeff Wadlow-directed sequel squashed any and all of that franchise’s goodwill). Whereas the latter film was a subversive take on super-heroes, with Kingsman, Vaughn sets his sights squarely on the spy genre, or more specifically, the Roger Moore-era James Bond films and all of the gadgets, paper-thin female characters, and British patriotism that are hallmarks of that iteration of 007.

For about 2/3rds of its running time, I enjoyed myself. And then the film takes a turn that left me outright hating it. It was a strange experience and left me wondering how I could put it into words.

But let’s get the key details out of the way:

Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is a troubled chap, living with his mother and her thug boyfriend, and finding himself in constant dire straits both with other street toughs and the law. After a particularly damaging incident with the authorities, it seems like Eggsy has reached the end of the line – until he’s saved from imprisonment by Harry Hart (Colin Firth), a gentleman spy. Harry once mentored Eggsy’s now-departed father within an organization of spies, and as with all guilt-debts of this type, Eggsy is intended to replace his father. It’s typical hero’s journey stuff, but Vaughn handles much of this with panache. The film reveals a rich organization, where its members are all named after Knights of the Round-table including Hart’s Galahad, Merlin (Mark Strong, the Q of the group), and their leader Arthur (Michael Caine, another casting coup if you love The Italian Job as much as I do).

Eggsy is forced to compete with a number of other young proteges for the role of “Lancelot.” It’s here where the film shines. We get a number of exciting training sequences and tests for the prospects, and it’s all wrapped together with a fairly knowing wink. This is the point where Kingsman knows exactly what kind of film it is, relishing the old cliches that are inherent within its genre while still declaring itself not that kind of movie. Even the villains are right in line with that formula. Samuel L. Jackson‘s Evan Valentine, a tech mogul that gags at the site of blood (and who has a masterplan that’s about as ridiculous as something out of Moonraker) is workable enough, though the riff on Spike Lee is less funny than Vaughn and co. thinks it is. His having a hench-woman that’s straight out of the Jaws/Oddjob playbook is a good, if obvious, touch.

I also cannot express enough what Firth bring to the proceedings. For my money, he’s one of the best actors in Hollywood and the level of gravitas and authoritative manner that he excels at is right at home in Kingsman. In this kind of film, you need an actor that can exude that debonair quality, especially given how forgettable Egerton is in the lead.

Yet for all the things Kingsman does enjoyably well from its outset, I found myself leaving the theater with a bad taste in my mouth. There’s a point when the film turns from a fun, action-based satire into all out carnage and, from there, it never really lets up. Once that moment comes, and the film shifts its focus to just one character, everything falls apart. It’s here where all of the Millar-isms come into full force, and I was reminded more of the side of Millar’s work that highlights an over-indulgent attitude regarding sex and violence. In one of the film’s worst moments, there’s a scene where we’re forced to endure the mass slaughter of innocents (despite being a group of admittedly awful people), and I was unsure what I was supposed to be feeling. It was clear the film had the same problem, playing to both anguish and glee at the same time.

And the less said about the final pre-credits scene, the better. To be frank, the gender politics of the film are a bit of a mess. Sophie Cookson‘s Roxy really had no reason to exist at all other than to play on the potential of romance with Eggsy and/or her own capability as a rival, though neither really play into the plot in any significant fashion. Like I spoke to above, there’s a point to which this is another cliche of a well-worn genre, but this would have been a great place to transcend that source if Vaughn and Jane Goldman‘s script was anywhere near as clever as it pretends to be.

Kingsman, is at its heart, a film focusing on men celebrating the concept of being “gentlemen.” This is all well and good, except Vaughn and his team defy those very lessons in the final turn, where the overall treatise seems to be more: “A gentleman is all well and good, but it’s better to be a sleaze”. Metaphorically you could even say “they shot their own dog”. If you see the movie, you’ll get what I mean.

Or not. You’d be better off saving your money.

§ A new Abhay Khosla review, this time of The Names by Peter Milligan and Leandro Fernandez is always a Cadbury Milk Tray of unexpected flavors, and this one includes a brief but smooth swipe at The Vertigo Brown:

A quick note to Vertigo colorists: If you are working for Vertigo, there is a belief that both Vertigo and you get a gross, throbbing weiner-boner everytime you get to make a page all brown. People believe that because it’s 100% true, and the only possible explanation for why all Vertigo comics ever published have been so drenched in the color brown. Nothing else makes sense; no other solution to that equation. Please consider defying your brown-obsessed masters. Look into your hearts. You know what you see? If you see the color brown, something has gone horribly wrong. I’m not a doctor, but that probably means someone has shit into your heart and you have feces pumping through your arteries. At the very least, it just sounds unhealthy from a cardiac-perspective.

Why are Vertigo comics so brown? I’ve never been able to answer that question and I worked there, and all my books were brown, too.

§ Several attractive covers were floating around on my social media yesterday:

Bill Sienkiewicz for Jupiter’s Circle, the sequel to Jupiter’s Children by Mark Millar and Wilfredo Torres.

Goran Parlov also for Jupiter’s Circle.

And a teaser image and cover for Invisible Republic #1 by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman with colors by Jordan Boyd.  It hits March 18. Lookin; good.

§ Jennifer Sorenson contributes a comic about Charlie Hebdo and all the rest. If you haven’t been following the comics section at Fusion.net you need to.

§ Robert Kirby has the lowdown on New Minis from Kus!

Kuš! (pronounced “koosh”), the Latvian comics collective launched in 2007, released this new quartet of minicomics late 2014. Each Kuš! mini is a 24-page stand-alone story culled from their growing roster of international artists. Many stories feature elements of fantasy, science fiction, or magical realism, but even the ones that don’t exhibit fanciful or otherworldly qualites. The artists featured by Kuš! tend to dwell in the conceptual rather than the actual, using the art of cartooning in unique and sometimes challenging ways.

These books are so awesome. I’m not really into mail order but the Kus gang doesn’t often some to my hemisphere so…

§ A British politician totally ripped off the ‘V for Vendetta’ logo for a new nationalist party he’s trying to get off the ground. If you’re going to rip off some one rip off the best, but come on.

§ Matthew Meylikhov has announced he’s stepping down as EIC of Multiversity Comics. I always enjoyed my interactions with Matt so I’m going to miss him but send my best regards.

To some this may seem a bit of a shock. I told a few people about this before our public announcement, that I had made the decision to move on, and the most consistent response I got was, “How are you feeling?” I think people expect me to say that I am sad, which is perhaps inevitable; how could anyone not be in this situation? After all, when you spend over five years of your life working and developing something like this, it’s not exactly easy to just pack your bags and go. But I’m not sad, nor do I think should anyone else be. If I could, I’d make a video montage of all the fun memories and things I’ve gotten to do because of this site overlayed with “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles, because I have nothing but warm thoughts and fuzzy feelings for the site, its past with me and its future without me. I couldn’t be more proud of the site and everyone here, all the accomplishments and the adventures we’ve shared; from our various annual charity events at conventions, to late nights out until 3:00 AM or that time I got food poisoning at a White Castle while rooming with 5 other staffers during a con. This site and its staff encapsulate some of my favorite people and fondest adult memories.

§ Fashion retailer Poprageous is offering an outfit made from Benedict Cumberbatch images. The complete outfit sells for $125 but just the leggings—which are the essential fashion item of this time and place in the universal meta stream—are only $80. completely your red carpet look NOW. Bam! Benedict Cumberbatch leggings. BAM!

By Davey Nieves

JUPITER’S LEGACY #5

Story: Mark Millar, Frank Quitely

Art: Frank Quitely, Peter Doherty

Publisher: Image Comics

Full disclosure, I never pick up Mark Millar books when they first hit the stands. It isn’t because I don’t like the man’s work, because I think he’s tremendously talented and few writers’ craft dialogue as well as he does. I don’t know maybe it’s because Robin Williams always said it’s hard to understand Scotsmen. Who knows? Well it’s been over 10 months since the last issue of Jupiter’s Legacy and about 10 years since I’ve read a Millar comic book that wasn’t in trade form. So we’re all in for a bumpy ride.

Based on my read though of Jupiter’s Legacy #5, I can safely say I’ve missed out on one hell of tale by Millar and one of the best comic artist of this generation Frank Quitely. Issue five is the conclusion to the first book of hopefully many more to come. The dapper, matter- altering, superhuman hunting, villain Barnabas Wolfe tracks down a young boy named Jason who happens to have a lineage of superheroes in his blood. Jason and his super powered parents Chloe and Brandon battle Wolfe and his government army to keep from being thrown in this world’s version of the Guantanamo Bay.

Millar crafts another superb villain in Barnabas. He gets quick to the enticement of the character as he opens with Wolfe using his cunning to deceive a secretary into revealing herself to be an illegal superhuman. Throughout this issue the entire cast manages to have earned moments in these pages from Chloe demonstrating her overprotective mothering nature by chewing out her son on the moon to Jason who’s just trying to follow the footsteps of his family and rally the remaining superhumans. I haven’t read the first four issues but it appears as though this comic rounds out this first volume’s call to arms theme nicely and leaves readers in a place where they will definitely want more.

For all the words purveyed in this issue, it wouldn’t feel whole without what Frank Quitely brings to the table. Jupiter’s Legacy is yet another example of why Quitely is one of the best visual storytellers in comics. His use of body language and posture make the pages come to life. The visual design of these characters is what he excels at; simplicity that catches the eye. Peter Doherty’s color work is a subtle compliment to the artist’s masterful line work and blends cool and warm tones very smoothly.

The 10-month gap between issues might be a deterrent for anyone who’s been following this series since issue one. However there’s enough in issue five to justify the wait. If we scored books this one would come in damn near perfect. Jupiter’s Legacy mixes influences such as Watchmen, The Incredibles, and V for Vendetta to craft Millar’s best superhero project since Civil War.

Anyone else for casting Christoph Waltz as Barnabas Wolfe?

If hockey is on your mind and Avengers Assemble is on your netflix follow Dave on twitter and leave him a cat gif.

Look, The Beat had a bad day yesterday and made lots and lots of mistakes. Tonight we’re getting a full five hours of sleep and things should be much better. Okay? Sorry about all that, but it happens. Our “hire a copy editor” fund is to the right in the box marked “Patreon.”

Also, it is going to snow soon, so send hot cocoa.

Photo of Wentworth Miller as Captain Cold via Geoff Johns’ Instagram

§ The Wrap looks at all the LGBT actors being hired for superhero roles, like Ezra Miller in that far off Flash movie, Ellen Page in the X-Men movies and Wentworth Millar as Captain Cold:

“I’d like to believe the industry is more LGBT-friendly,” openly gay actor Wentworth Miller, who stars as villain Captain Cold on CW’s “The Flash, told TheWrap, “I see LGBT characters on TV and I can think of actors who are out and paying the rent. Again, mostly on TV. Most out actors I can name are either exclusively or primarily associated with television. I don’t know why that is, why I can’t think of more out movie actors. It feels like change might be coming more slowly on the feature side.”

§ Do you remember the first time that comics tried to break the internet? Brian Cronin does. It did not involve photoshop nor an oiled up butt, but it did involve a superhero believed dead!!!

§ First Seconds’s blog questions some of its authors on self publishing vs publishing. Self-publishing involves many trips to the post office so be forewarned.

§ Dr Naif al-Muawa describes the time he had to go to the police station and defend himself on charges of being a heretic:

“Leading up to it, there’s been a whole series of death threats.” Mutawa chatted with Al-Monitor on the margins of the World Innovation Summit on Education (WISE) last week in Doha, where he was on the opening panel. He’s facing a lawsuit by a self-proclaimed defender of the Sunni faith as well as a recent fatwa from the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, both of whom have attacked “THE 99″ for allegedly disparaging Islam — even though both the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments gave their blessing for the project years ago. “I went there with my lawyer and when I was asked the question at the police station, I just burst out laughing,” Mutawa told Al-Monitor. “It’s just so ludicrous what’s happening. I’m the one who’s giving Islam a bad name? I’ve been giving Islam a good name for over 10 years.” “It’s very schizophrenic,” he added. “They keep honoring me from here, and then they sue me from here — it’s like they don’t know what to do with me.”

§ Comics news I missed in yesterday’s meltdown — a new comic from the Mark Millar and Sean Gordon Murphy team called Chrononauts. It is very very pretty and will look great when they turn it into a movie as they do with all Mark Millar projects.

Described by Millar as “Apollo 13 meets The Time Machine,” Chrononauts aims for big sci-fi fun that will appeal to fans of last summer’s Guardians of the Galaxy. “‘Man’s first step into the past’ was really the starting point for this, planting an American flag in the soil the day before even Columbus arrives,” Millar says. “But of course it all goes horribly wrong and so we have these two guys stranded in the time-stream, trying to get home, but at the same time at this incredible advantage the people around them don’t have.” It’s a deliberate step away from the grounded and more serious sci-fi fare of recent memory, an escapist time travel adventure in the vein of Doctor Who. “It’s essentially a buddy story about two best friends who can jump around between 16th-century Persia, the American Civil War or New York in the ’20s,” Millar says.

§ Comics event in Riga, Latvia, courtesy of kuš!

§ I was cleaning out some links and was reminded that Meathaus has a blog, mostly posting really cool art, like this from Christine Bian. In case you weren’t around 15 years ago, Meathaus ws a comics/art anthology that featured early works by Brandon Graham, Tomer Hanuka, Farel Dalrymple and James Jean among others. No big whoop.

§ The Batman tv show DVD is out and I have a copy. That is the only thing I wanted for my birthday so I’m super happy. Mark Evanier has a few comments including photographic evidence of him Adam Ward was made to look dumpy via the positioning of his Bat logo.

§ Evanier’s piece led me to this well researched and somewhat definitive piece on how the show finally got released after decades of legal wrangling and neglect.

The wait is over. Next week, Batman hits retail in all its kitsch-laden glory just in time for the holidays. After decades of rumors, corporate wrangling, and the foresight of an actor who recorded his commentary early in case he dropped dead before the collection materialized, the series finally escapes legal purgatory. But don’t give much credit to corporate lawyers. Instead, it’s due to a tireless, clever campaign by a small band of fans that started when Stacks started digging into the show’s archived paper trail. “That’s when one fat guy in Florida shook the whole thing up,” he says.

Indeed in reading the story about the conflict—which pitted Warner and Fox against one another with the scattered heirs of producer William Dozier in the mix—one is struck by just HOW LITTLE CORPORATIONS WANTED THIS TO HAPPEN. If it hadn’t been for dogged fans and the vision of Eric Ellenbogen at Classic Media this might never have happened at all, and Warner and Fox execs were mostly engaged in a war of “I don’t want the other guy to have the money!!!”. Ellenbogen, who was briefly a high level mucky muck at Marvel, is a preatty smart executive when you look at all the deals he’s made. But see the next post for more on that..

Among the fun facts in the piece: Mark Hamill had Fox make him a special VHS copy of the entire series; and Adam West recorded audio commentary years ago before there was even a DVD in case he passed away before it was finally put on the media storage of the moment. West is 86 and we’re very glad he lived to see this, even if his uniform was dumpy.

§ A look behind another nerd lore classic: James Dallas Egbert III, a troubled teen whose dissapearance in a bunch of tunnels in 1979 sparked protests against D&D. Police believed that Egbert had wandered into the tunnels as some kind of role playing thing (The term LARPing may not have been invenetd then) casting a lot of shade on the then-underground game. The truth, however, was much sadder.

§ Finally, Ellen Pao, a Silicon Valley whistle blower who filed a lawsuit for harassment which laid open a lot of the tech industries sexism, is now acting CEO of Reddit. Good luck with that!

You know how sometimes people “Float an idea”? Well I think this idea is floating in a little leaky toy boat that will soon sink to the bottom of nightmare pool. According to Latino Review the Sony movie folks are now so flummoxed about what to do with the Spider-Man franchise that they are thinking about making a solo Aunt May movie. Now your first thought on this would be, “Oh like The Whales of August or Philomena? Well Helen Mirren and Judi Dench are always looking for good roles.” But the idea is young Aunt May as…a spy?

Yes, an Aunt May movie. A movie about Aunt May as a youth, before she was shouldered with the responsibility of raising Peter Parker. The target mood is some sort of espionage story in the vein of AMC’s Mad Men, which sounds like a way of saying “classier Agent Carter” without name-dropping Marvel’s upcoming series.

But the whole point here is that I NOT mention Marvel, because Sony isn’t giving up the Spider-Verse before they make an attempt at a movie based on the completely fabricated past of May Parker. Well, the espionage part is fabricated.

Latino Review brings up, as I will Trouble by Mark Millar and Terry Dodson which was all about young May Reilly as a sexually active your lady and her getting knocked up on a singing weekend and…what was that I was saying about Philomena?

Aunt May has of course been used as a supporting character in many ways but this is the wildest idea for the whole “comic book movie craze” we’ve yet heard. Although, Avi Arad, surrent Spider-verse movie producer, was around when Trouble was green-lit and…

Not toyetic, Avi. Not toyetic.

If anything all this crazy movie news makes it clear just what a steady hand Marvel Studio head Kevin Feige has. Please, keep Kevin Feige alive. He is all that stands between us and the abyss.

With this week’s epochal news that the Marvel Cinematic UNiverse will be adapting the Civil War event storyline, many are wondering…why? Few of the superheroes introduced in the MCU even have secret identities—which were the crux of the kerfuffle between Iron Man and Captain America. Some just think it’s a bad idea on other terms.

Noelle Stevenson, of Lumberjanes and Nimona fame, is one of the sharpest commentators on Twitter, with incisive character analysis delivered in short 140-character bursts. Her thoughts on Avengers characterization are below.

Librarian Ivy Noelle Weir suggested Dear Marvel: Literally No One Wants a Civil War Movie:

Let’s be real: Civil War was a hamfistedly allegorical post-9/11 pseudo-intellectual machoist posturing slapfight between Tony and Steve.

Okay, maybe I’m editorializing a bit. But it is true that Civil War has long been one of the most contested and disliked events in Marvel history, with the major critique being that the behavior of all the characters involved was way off the map and that it dismantled years of continuity for what ultimately was not that compelling of a story. In my experience as both a fan and a retailer, Civil War is often cited as the reason a lifelong reader dropped Marvel for a while.

Mark Sampson at ScreenCrush suggests how all the movie and comics storylines might tie together. In addition, all the rumours about Spider-Man joining the MCU for a bit in a deal with SOny would suggest that he could be recruited to play the cenral role in a movie he plays in the comics.

Finally, what about Mark Millar, who wrote Civil War? Millar is very busy with his own cinematic universe, including the upcoming The Secret Service., When the news broke he tweeted

Delighted to hear Marvel will be adapting my Civil War comic as a movie. More details in Hollywood Reporter: http://t.co/CynPtZPseB

— Mark Millar (@mrmarkmillar) October 14, 2014

@lunaphyle No, Ultimates and Civil War were written work for hire, which is absolutely fine. I was paid well for the comic.

— Mark Millar (@mrmarkmillar) October 14, 2014

Before sensibly adding:

Anyone excited by Marvel’s Civil War movie announcement yesterday can pick up my book RIGHT HERE: http://t.co/M5srOXXIh4

— Mark Millar (@mrmarkmillar) October 15, 2014

Civil War is currently the #2 graphic novel on Amazon and #235 in Books.

Not content to resurrect Secret Wars, their most successful mega-event ever, Marvel just sent out a Civil Wars teaser image showing Iron Man and Captain America once again battling for the soul of Spider-Man, as he was in the 2005 Civil War event. The cover image is by Adi Granov.

In the original, Spidey switched sides from Iron Man, who favored the Superhero Registration Act, to Cap, who believed such an act violated our civil liberties. Spider-Man was given an Iron Spidey costume however which reappears on this teaser.

Bringing back old concepts to boost sales isn’t exactly the most creative or reassuring move on Marvel’s part, but you always knew the villain or hero would come back even if they looked dead; these day’s its the story concepts that come back.

PS: a number of people have been wondering if the original Civil Wars storyline  would show up in the Marvel Cinematic U. A site called Movie Pilot lays out the pros and cons for that.

20th Century Fox has unveiled an official trailer for the Kingsman: The Secret Service film adaptation. The video embedded above features scenes with actors Colin Firth, Michael Caine, and Samuel L. Jackson. According to Deadline, the story is based on a comic series called The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn took the helm of this project. A release date has been scheduled for October 24, 2014.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Yesterday Mark Millar took to CBR to reveal that he kinda missed the boat on that whole digital thing, when he refused to allow his books to have day and date digital release for 2 and a half years. He did it, he said at the time, because he wanted to support comics retailers and didn’t want to hurt physical sales of the book. This was kind of a smart move, because you may recall that digital comics used to make a lot of comics folks crap their pants, but interestingly that attitude ended about 3 years ago when the day and date New 52 was a huuuuge hit. Anyway, Millar explained his findings:

I never expected people to go entirely digital because the comic-reading experience is such a unique one. Flipping pages and stacking on a shelf feels very different from downloading whereas music and films look and taste almost identical in either format. My great concern, and I still can’t believe it didn’t turn out to be a problem, is that twenty, ten or even five percent of the traditional print readership didn’t disappear when day-and-date digital became the norm for comic-book publishers and a very sizable number of people started reading online. Those digital readers had to come from somewhere and my fear was a very simple combination of micro and macro-economics where I suspected even a modest ten percent switchover from print to digital would mean all those comic-stores hanging on by their fingernails (and in Nov 2011 that felt like rather a lot of them) would be dealt the same deathblow as so many record stores, suddenly switching from a small profit and into a loss.

Well, he was wrong! By withholding digital copies he was just penalizing people who didn’t live near a comics shop and wanted to read Jupiter’s Children, Kick-Ass and so on.

Luckily, he’s changed his mind just in time for STARLIGHT, his new comic with Goran Parlov, which goes on sale on Wednesday. They seem to be doing the old Moebius thing but you know what, that always works.

It was not a very good day for DC comics yesterday. Not only did their editor in chief and executive editor engage in a humiliating display of Kool-Aid fueled happy talk with enough papering over to remodel Versailles, but a whole new round of enthusiasm-sapping rumors about the Justice League movie made the rounds The word this time: Will Beall's script sucks and has to be scraped before a decent director can be hired. Juicy rumors abound:

Abusive attacks via Twitter aren’t new, but have certainly increased in media visibility over the past few months. Racist and sexist comments and threats have been detailed repeatedly in the mainstream press recently, often aimed at various prominent people in society. It also exists on a personal level, sadly, with personal attacks and bullying on the rise online.

And sadly, this is true for the comics industry as well. I hadn’t been aware of this myself, but today Ron Marz alerted his followers to one twitter user in particular, who has for the past few months been anonymously attacking prominent women in the industry with gender-specific abuse and threats. Writers, artists and journalists have all targeted by this poster over an extended period of time, whose attacks tend to refer back to rape, submission and misogyny at every opportunity. These were explicit threats made to women simply because they were women.

Mark Millar was one of those who saw Marz’s call for awareness, and made a post to his Millarworld forum in which he not only detailed the comments, but also made plans to take a stand against them. Asking for legal advice and people affected by the poster to step forward, several people contacted Millar via twitter and his message board with what could be done about the comments.

Following which, he posted again later today, explaining that he has contacted a lawyer with a view to taking legal action against this poster – who has used various accounts over the past few months to attack people, but left behind an IP trail. The police, Millar says, have been informed, and will now be following up on this. Action will be taken within the next few days.

The threats are misogynistic in the extreme. I won’t link to them.

It’s a reminder that while abuse does exist online, they come from the minority voice. For every person who decides to use the internet to try and threaten other people, there are tens of thousands of other people who won’t tolerate prejudice. If you ever find yourself to be a victim of online abuse, please do not suffer it in silence. Let other people know.

CBR has a nice roundtable on creator-owned comics that rounds up Robert Kirkman, Mark Millar and Steve Niles. Since they are all “strongly for” the piece doesn’t really ignite any banter, but it does allow many long, entertaining manifestos. For instance, how Millar terrorized Alan Moore when he was a teen.

Millar: And then I met Alan Moore when I was 13. It was around the same time, and there was a small comic convention in Glasgow where Alan showed up. He was still a new superstar then. He hadn’t really made his name in American comics except for a couple of issues of “Swamp Thing.” So he introduced me to “Warrior” where his early worked appeared. I’d never heard of him, but he was a really nice man and stood with me for an hour, which must have been torture for him, but for me it was fascinating because I got to talk to a comic book writer. And Alan was explaining to me about “Marvelman” and “V For Vendetta” and that he was starting on “Swamp Thing.” I remember I didn’t have enough money on me, so he bought me an issue of “Swamp Thing” and one of “Warrior,” which was the British independent comic that made me realize there was more going on beyond Superman and Batman.

Niles: I think content wins out in the end. In the end, you can sniff out those companies and those comics. You can tell when a comic is just a movie pitch or when it’s made with a genuine love of the medium. And I’ve been accused myself of just doing stuff to make movies, but everything I’ve done at its core is about loving comics and putting out good comics. There’s always that pile on where if something good happens for comics, EVERYBODY starts trying to do it, but we’re starting to see a lot of those companies that you’re referring to…well, I haven’t heard from a lot of them in a while. So I think the good stuff is floating to the top now.

Niles: On top of the fact that you’re not told what to do – which is amazing since every time I’ve done DC and Marvel stuff, the things I’ve been criticized for are the things I was pushed into doing – I am totally ready to get shredded for anything I chose to do in a creator-owned book. I can take that criticism. But when you do something with a character that’s against your better judgement because it’s the order, that’s not very smart publishing – to hire a creator because you think they’re talented and then you don’t allow them to do what they want to do.

Kirkman: But I do think there’s one t

6 Comments on Kirkman, Millar & Niles gab about the creator owned world, last added: 7/8/2012

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Jeffrey O. Gustafson said, on 7/6/2012 10:26:00 AM

“I’m pretty sure Chew has a longer running regular team than any mainstream comic at this point.”

Incorrect: INVINCIBLE IRON MAN by Fraction and Larroca has had the same creative team for four years now, their *55th* consecutive issue coming out this month. And it has shipped more than 12 times a year. AND it is arguably Marvel’s best superhero comic.

(The exception to the rule in the Big Two, I know.)

Oh, and (the superb) CHEW by Layman and Guillory is not the best example for timely shipping – it has skipped months at least seven times in its run, with multiple instances of two-month gaps.

And are any of these folks going to call Millar out on his transparent movie-pitch comics? Because that’s most of them, honestly.

Josh said, on 7/6/2012 11:24:00 AM

Millar is not the worst offender of the movie pitch comic. Pretty much everything from Top Cow’s pilot season felt like a movie pitch.

Apollo9000 said, on 7/6/2012 12:06:00 PM

A lot of Millar’s comics are what he would do with Big Two characters if the Big Two would allow it and pay handsomely for said work.

Niles is right about the Big Two companies hiring talent but not allowing them to actually use their talent. DC in particular feels like that is the work environment that have in place with the New 52. ( Johns, Morrison, and Snyder being the exceptions)

Kirkman is right about there being more variety available. With webcomics and the increased digital efforts, there’s even more titles around.

I do think that there’s room for growth in terms of genres to be explored ( re explored) in the current American comics landscape.

There’s an awful lot of creator owned titles that veer close to horror/ sci-fi just as the Big Two titles leaning heavily on superheroes.

Josh said, on 7/6/2012 1:52:00 PM

If feels like writing for the big two and other people’s IPs these days is a completely different skill set.

Gosh darn it said, on 7/6/2012 4:41:00 PM

“If feels like writing for the big two and other people’s IPs these days is a completely different skill set.”

Yeah and only half of it creative!

Blade X said, on 7/8/2012 12:59:00 AM

Millar: I like the Marvel and DC guys, so I don’t want to do any name calling. But I don’t like them so much that I’d create a character for them. [Laughter] I wouldn’t give them a free concept, but they’re fun to work with

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I guess Millar forgot about SKRULL KILL KREW (which was inspired by a Byrne FF story) and AZREK:THE ULTIMATE MAN that he co-created with Grant Morrison.

OMT, Millar is the poster boy for creating movie pitch comics.

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