Star Wars Rebels meet the rest of the cast...

The final three characters have had there "meet" videos released. Joining the earlier videos for Chopper, Kanan and Ezra are Zeb, Sabine and Hera check out there videos below! Now we just wait for more on the villains and a date the feature length episode will be released.

Guardians of the Galaxy Official Poster

(For some reason the upload makes the colours go a little odd.)

Meet the Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy Trailer! It's here!

It's here! It's here! Your new favourite cosmic team and comic, get to your local comic store now and get to know the characters that little bit more! For more on the characters check out the official site;

http://marvel.com/guardians

And for good measure here is the World Premier trailer that debuted during Jimmy Kimmel Live;

Star Wars Rebels: More Character Reveals and a couple of Teasers.

So this post had started to be written last week when Kanan was revealed but since then several other members of the main cast for Star Wars: Rebels have been revealed, coinciding with the release of images for the upcoming Hasbro action figures for the series at the New York Toy Fair 2014.

Kanan is a survivor of Order 66 and voiced by Freddie Prince Jnr, his character is almost, to me anyway, what you would expect a Jedi Han Solo to be like. Something happens which leads Kanan to reignite his lightsaber, this show sure is looking to be shaping up and hopefully will fill the hole that was left behind when Clone Wars was announced to have come to an end.

Next up we have Ezra, a 14 year old character, who is force sensitive, although he doesn't know it yet. He has grown up during the age of the Empire and has had to use his skills and cunning to survive. It would seem fate brings Ezra and Kanan together, and putting two and two together it would be apparent that Kanan senses Ezra's connection with the force and trains him. But for more on the character and to get your own take check out the video below.

There is another video out there for Zeb the character based on Ralph McQuarrie's original Chewbacca concept and I will post the video once it is released on the Star Wars youtube channel.

Finally there were a couple more teasers released for the show in two videos entitles "Spark" and "Ignite". Its evident that we will be seeing this in the Fall as they so ever politely repeat several times during the trailers. Check them out below;

Guardians of the Galaxy Trailer to debut within the next 24 hours!

So I have a long list of draft posts to be completed but I just have to post about this. The Guardians of the Galaxy trailer will hit tonight, well tomorrow morning in the UK! I can not wait for this trailer and film, I've been getting excited for this over the weekend with the reveals of the action figures and more films pics being revealed. If my calculations are correct the trailer will debut at 4:35am UK time and hopefully be online some point after that. To get you through those next few hours Marvel have released a 15 second teaser for the incoming trailer check it out below.

All-New Ghost Rider Concept and Character Design from Felipe Smith and Tradd Moore

It's an evening for concept art and character design. Newsarama released an article today with some very exciting images for the upcoming All-New Ghost Rider from Felipe Smith and Tradd Moore, of whom both have produced Character Design work. I was already excited for this series the moment Tradd Moore was announced but it looks here, as with my previous post about Latour, that Felipe Smith could hold his own if he was to illustrate an issue. The design for the main character and his Ghost Rider look are incredible and its great to get a glimpse of the thought process these two creators have gone through to get the final product. Check out the images below and for more on the article by Newsarama click on the link;

http://www.newsarama.com/20276-under-the-hood-of-the-all-new-ghost-rider-character-design.html

All-New Wolverine & The X-Men Concept Art by Jason Latour

Recently Jason Latour has been teasing some of his character design work and concepts for his upcoming series with Mahmud Asrar, and although Mahmud Asrar is an incredible artist after seeing these images I wish we would be seeing at least an issue illustrated by Latour himself. These concepts are exciting and I hope that the puzzle pieces of some of these images may be a variant cover drawn by the writer himself, which if this is the case I will certainly be picking up. If you weren't already excited for the prospect of Latour working on this book after checking out these designs you should be. For the images by Latour check them out below, these were released on his Tumblr and Instagram...

Captain America: Winter Soldier Character Posters

With all the news having been announced over the last week and the Super Bowl trailers that hit at the weekend I completely forgot to post the new Cap character posters. We get Nick Fury, Black Widow, Captain America and a group poster. Not to sure on the ear cut outs on Caps helmet on the American ones but here in the UK we get a helmetless Cap. Also have you seen the Super Bowl trailer? Nick Fury is getting beaten down by Winter Soldier, and a quick clip of a crying Widow, will we see Fury 'Die'? I've probably interpreted the trailer completely wrong though but only a few months to see. Check out the posters below.

Superman gets a new creative team this Summer! John Romita Jnr and Geoff Johns!

Geoff John's and John Romita Jr on Superman this summer from DC Comics. No exact month has been announced for when they will take over the title but it is an exciting announcement. I have enjoyed Romita Jnr's art that I've seen in his previous Marvel books, but of recent times with all the books he has been on I have had a little of a JRJR overload but I'm definitely excited to see his work on Superman especially if the released image is anything to go by. Geoff John's is a writer I am only really familiar with from New 52 Justice League, which started off really strong but I began to get less interested in as the months go by, I am aware that he is a very good writer so I have high hopes for what he will do with the character, much like I was when Snyder and Lee were announced on Superman Unchained.

Check out the announcement video below alongside some of the art work.

Star Wars: Rebels, New Character, New Posters!

There has been a serious PR push by Disney for Star Wars: Rebels over the past week. With a character announcement and also some propaganda posters for the Empire. I am looking forward to this, having enjoyed Clone Wars as much as I did, where's those final episodes Filoni? The art style that had been teased so far for the series may take some getting used to, looks to be trying to differentiate itself from the Clone Wars style. Chopper seems like a fun character and I love the idea of the character being inspired by McQuarie's original art.

Word on the 'street' is we will get a feature length TV movie to introduce us to the series this Summer/ Fall along side a few mini-sodes before going full swing into the series next year. As cons like San Diego loom along with Star Wars only celebration events there is sure to be plenty more news to come. For the posters & video revealing Chopper check them out below.

Super Bowl XLVIII Brings new Amazing Spider-Man 2 Trailer and Captain America: Winter Soldier Trailer

Well I'm not really into American football. But the one good thing about the Super Bowl is it tends to bring along some good Movie trailers during the half time break. This year we have an extended trailer for Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Captain America: Winter Soldier. Both this films look to be shaping up to be great films, out of the two to my surprise Captain America edges in on my most anticipated, but the day they finally release the first trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy well my mind might just explode.

For Amazing Spider-Man check out the trailer below;

For Captain America: Winter Soldier the trailer is below along with a new UK trailer which appears to be a little different but basically contains the same scenes as the Super Bowl trailer. Falcon certainly looks cooler than I first expected from the scenes they show;

DC Entertainment Original Animated Movie: Son of Batman

Marvel may well be winning on the cinematic movie front with there well structured Marvel Cinematic Universe. But when it comes to animated movies DC Entertainment sure are the winners. Recently announced come May 2014 Grant Morrison's Son of Batman will be the next comic to receive the animated movie treatment. After watching Batman Dark Knight Returns I have high hopes for this check out the trailer for Son of Batman Below;

I still plan on watching Flashpoint Paradox and this week will see the release of Justice League War, bringing the first volume of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee's New 52 Justice League to our screens. February 4th it will be available for the trailer check it out below.

Uncanny Avengers #16 29/01/2014 Pick of the Week

Uncanny Avengers #16

Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Steve McNiven
Inkerer: John Dell & Jay Leisten
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles

My Thoughts;

So with a delay to a few titles last week to the UK this was a bumper week. It made it much more difficult to decide my pick, with the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy and All New X-Men and the beginning of there first ever cross over in the "Trial of jean Grey". But even with those two titles I was easily won over by Uncanny Avengers #16.

Rick Remender has really hit the ground running in his current arc on the series "Ragnarok NOW". Bringing Steve McNiven on to this book was a stroke of editorial genius as he illustrates some of the most detailed and energetic action scenes producing easy to read storytelling. McNiven and Remender were a team made in heaven for this arc.

We continue to get the teases of future teams through the eyes of Kang the Conquerer,this time in the form of the "Infinity Watch" from year 3193, that looked to me to be Vision as a host to the Phoenix Force, awesome, and who I imagine is Noh-Varr as Captain Marvel. Will this team also be involved with the likes of Kang's other team his "Chronos Corps" containing characters grabbed out of there times as they were being unwritten. I sure hope so, and while Remender drops these little hints of the possibilities to come he then heads straight into the present and the dire situation his team is currently in.

Thor is the main character in this arc with his past actions and in many ways demons being influential in the events that are taking place. Remender has been writing a perfect portrayal of the character, on par with Jason Aaron's in Thor: God of Thunder, with some great character moments. Portraying the many emotions he is going through throughout the issue, guilt, anger, sorrow. His battle with Uriel is one of the highlights of the issue, showing the lengths he will go to right his wrong.

These pages and sequences once again showing why Steve McNiven is one of the best in the business, I've been enjoying his art since the day I picked up my first comic book the collection of Civil War. However with all his arrogance and strength and thirst for vengeance Thor still shows he is a team player, his sorrow and anger at the loss of his friends is evident along with his respect for Captain America heeding the great tacticians advice to split the apocalypse twins up and battle them singularly.

This battle against the apocalypse twins alone would have made enough for the issue. But we don't just get one great battle we also get to see Iron Man rallying the Avengers to fight the celestial, Exitar the Executioner, who has come to destroy earth. This is a great page where you see the Avengers ascending to the Earths atmosphere to fight and stall the cosmic force while Thor is battling to re-obtain his weapon Jarnbjorn. Thor hopes to reason with the Celestial but should he not be able to he will have to stop it by force.To top it all off the issue ends with Thor getting his revenge by killing Uriel, however he doesn't manage to get Jarnbjorn back just yet as in the explosion the weapon is blown into space. Only to be retrieved by the other Apocalypse Twin Eimin.

With the imminent battle between Thor and Eimin for the next issue, well I can't wait to get my hands on it. I begin to get worried when writers are being announced on multiple titles, and currently at Marvel Remender is working on Captain America, Winter Soldier and Uncanny Avengers alongside his creator owned work at Image, Black Science and Deadly Class, but the writer keeps hitting the nail on the head and while teaming up with the best artistic talent is also producing enjoyable and engaging stories. There is one issue remaining of this arc and the story up to now, I imagine it will be an epic last issue to be illustrated by Steve McNiven before the return of Acuna come issue 18.

Deadly Class #1 22/01/2014 Pick of the Week

Deadly Class #1

Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Wes Craig
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Rus Wooton

My Thoughts;

Recently I have had to reduce my list, I found I was buying more than I could read, and also several comics I wasn't really enjoying. Deadly Class caught my attention when announced at the Image Expo last year and with a lot of positive feedback from a member of staff at my local comic store I thought I will give it a go. Rick Remender is certainly one of the best writers around right now and having enjoyed the work I have read by him, Secret Avengers, Venom, Uncanny X-Force, Captain America and Uncanny Avengers, along with a few of his creator owned comics there was really no reason not to pick up Deadly Class #1.

Remender has teamed up with Wes Craig and Lee Loughridge on art duties for the title. Wes Craig is a very promising new talent who has already produced work for two of DC's top level characters, Superman and Batman, in Batman Annual #2 and in Adventures of Superman #10. Although his style from that issue to his work in Deadly Class is very different and certainly a step forward, his inventive layouts and use of panels are used perfectly to tell the story. The use of dynamic diagonal panels during the action scenes, layered panels to help portray the chaos during the chase. Also his character work and facial expressions do a great job of illustrating the emotion in the scenes. Loughbridges colours are beautiful and really compliment Craig's work. His use of flat colours, and layering of different shades does a great job of creating depth without having to use gradient colour. My favourite panels are the chase seen coloured in red, catching my eye and immediately making me realise the danger the characters are in.

The three of these creators work perfectly together to introduce the characters and the story. Remender's writing as always is easy to follow and engaging. Introducing the main character, Marcus Lopez, through the use of his journal was a great way to learn about the character even though his back story is harrowing. The characters situation grabs my attention straight away and I want to know how he has got into the position he is in. As we journey with the character through the months, alongside his journal you learn more about the character up until the point where his past catches up with him and we are finally introduced to the other main cast of Deadly Class.

After being introduced to the character comes my favourite part of the comic the arrival of one of the students of "Kings Dominion School of the Deadly Arts" as she saves him from the cops and the superbly illustrated action sequences grab my eyes darting from panel to panel as she systematically saves Marcus and takes down the authorities chasing him. Whether Marcus considers her arrival as positive after he witnesses her kill a cop and then he gets kidnapped. We are finally introduced to the rest of the cast and there teacher. After initially rejecting being offered the opportunity to become the World's greatest assassin, would you really jump at the opportunity? He is persuaded by the female character who saved him to join and attend the school and as we are introduced to the rules of joining we are journeyed to the secret location of the school.

In this one issue Remender and his team have done a great job of introducing us to Marcus Lopez and also introducing the school and setting up the world that I will certainly now be entering each month an issue is released. Remender continues to produce great work, even with such a heavy work load, and with all his other titles currently being released this is certainly going to be a great year for the writer. Wes Craig and Lee Loughridge have combined to create a partnership that could rival and the formidable David Aja and Matt Hollingsworth, and I look forward to opening the next issue and seeing what the two have produced.

Nova #12 15/01/2014 Pick of the Week

Nova #12

Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Paco Medina
Colorist: David Curiel
Letterer: Albert Deschesne
Publisher: Marvel Comics

My Thoughts;

After taking the reins on Nova from #100 Gerry Duggan is weaving together an intricate storyline for Nova, Sam Alexander, hunting down the helmets of the recently deceased Nova corps. Duggan is doing a great job of portraying a young super hero, who although being involved in several cosmic threats, Phoenix Force, invited to the Avengers by Thor and taking on the threat of Thanos, he is still naïve when it comes to being a super hero.

In this issue Nova stumbles across a derelict Nova Corps ship where he happens upon a "Pirate" who has come into trouble as the dead Nova who was powering his commandeered ship is no longer doing so and requests the help of Sam to power up his ship again. Being to trusting Sam obliges to do this and, showing off somewhat, he re-powers the ship and heads back home. Would you see the likes of Captain America be so trusting of a Pirate who has somehow come across a Nova Corps ship, I don't think so.

It will come as no surprise to you that this spacefaring Pirate wasn't the innocent galactic bystander he made himself out to be and was in fact a slaver on his way to make profit from aliens recently kidnapped from various planets. The big twist in this issue is whose attention this receives, none other than the cosmic interpretation of Thor, Beta Ray Bill who is now on the tail of our inexperienced Nova to work out just why he helped out this evil doer.

It is apparent in this issue that Sam is maturing as a Super Hero and has much better control of his powers taking down the fleet attacking the commandeered Nova Corps ship. Although in his haste to help what he thought to be a fellow Nova he didn't hesitate to assess the situation. Ignorant to the real reason this ship was under attack he mistakenly helped the wrong side.

It is this maturing of the Super Hero that makes Nova one of my favourite monthly books to read. The events of the Nova book up to now have been a great showing of how Sam stumbled upon his fathers Legacy into becoming the new Black Nova and how becoming a super hero doesn't happen in a day. I continue to enjoy reading Sam's adventures and misadventures as Nova and look forward to seeing how Beta Ray Bill helps Nova in taking that next step in his heroing career.