Marvel's Agent Carter January 2015 an 8 Part Television Event

The TV spot during last nights episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been doing the rounds and for those of us who did not know already, it will be appearing on our screens on Tuesdays beginning January next year, and is a 8 Part Television Event!

 

Get a Special Look at Marvel's "Avengers: Age of Ultron"

So we have the announcement of every Marvel film of phase 3. More news and a date for Marvel's Agent Carter TV series and now Marvel Entertainment have posted the extra footage shown during Tuesdays episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Check it out below;

Marvel Studios: Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 3!

Squeeeee!! Well I stayed late at work to watch the event unfold on twitter and live blog and I wasn't disappointed! Quite frankly I was bouncing around the room at each announcement and my cinema trips for the next 5 years are already in the calendar.

Also those of you who may have been wondering like I had Ant Man is the final film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2.

So to make this easier I will put the announcements into date order below.

May 6th 2016: Captain America: Civil War;

This sees Robert Downey Jnr join Cap in the film that will be based around the popular Marvel comics event created by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, and in my opinion is the best event in a long time but I am biased as this is what got me into comics. But obviously this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe take on the Civil War and unless certain agreements come about much as has been rumoured, Spider-Man and the X-Men will not be involved.

November 4th 2016: Doctor Strange;

So far all that is confirmed for this is the director Scott Derrickson. No confirmation was made regarding Benedict Cumberbatch having been given the role. But as always this doesn't mean it isn't true, but to be fair Marvel gave us all of this, can we really be upset they haven't announced the leading man for this film yet.

May 5th 2017: Guardians of the Galaxy 2;

Well this has been moved forward by a couple of months. Which is great news as it means I have a little less time to wait for my favourite Marvel film yet! I have a feeling this may get a new title before it is released like the previous sequels to the Marvel Cinematic Universe have received. We already know that James Gunn is directing again and he has confirmed he is happily working on the script right now!

July 28th 2017: Thor: Ragnarok;

Taking the original slot that was originally filled with the Guardians sequel. Christopher Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston have been confirmed to be returning to their roles of Thor and Loki. And for those who may not be familiar, and I will try not to go on for to long as this is one of my favourite mythologies, that Ragnarok is the end of the world scenario. So this has the potential to really be the best Thor film yet. Thor The Dark World was definitely a step up from the previous and I look forward to when we start to get more news regarding this third installment.

November 3rd 2017: Black Panther;

This title has been rumoured for a long while now, and has apparently been planned for some time and has been seeded with the universe prior to this announcement. There is certainly a few elements regarding Age of Ultron that people feel links with the Black Panther. Also the leading man of the film was announced and introduced to the crowd at the event, Chadwick Boseman, for me a relatively unknown actor.

May 4th 2018: Avengers: Infinity War Part I;

Well the film we all knew would be coming and also involving a certain item and obvious character, the Infinity Gauntlet and Thanos; and considering the films announced to this point then I can't wait to see which team will be lining up for this film. Maybe running up to Avengers Age of Ultron I'll take a look and the currect and prospective rosters by the time this film is released. Joss Whedon will be returning as Director and I am fairly certain we will be seeing the return of several actor/ actresses so far. Plus Downey Jnr has already been confirmed for Avengers 3 right? Or was that 2? I'll look that up.

July 6th 2018: Captain Marvel;

The biggest surprise for me was the announcement of the Captain Marvel film to be led by the female take on the character Carol Danvers. I for one hope this takes inspiration from the Jamie McKelvie redesign, the obvious casting choice is Katee Sackhoff but I have a feeling they may go for someone less known and not from a previous Sci Fi franchise, but hopefully I'm wrong. This is an exciting announcement and I look forward to finding out more regarding the character and will be intrigued as to how the announcement or first appearance of the character will take place.

November 2nd 2018: Inhumans;

Many believe this is Marvel's answer to the fact they do not own the X-Men franchise. But take a look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far has there been any requirement for the X-Men, NO! Considering the galactic nature that many of the films are moving too do the Inhumans make more sense? In my opinion yes! But being the Marvel fanboy that I am I am of course slightly biased. It will be interesting to see how things are set up for this film beforehand, Guardians of the Galaxy? Infinity War Part I? Its also heavily believed that the Inhumans are being set up in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Well theres plenty more to look forward until we hear more about this film.

May 3rd 2019: Avengers: Infinity War Part II;

Marvel's Avengers Age of Ultron Trailer!!

NYCC 2014: Marvel announce Secret Wars coming May 2015

Well they certainly managed to keep that one quiet. It's been a week for surprises the end of Batman #35 and now the announcement of Marvel's Secret Wars with no teasers running up to NYCC 2014. I must admit that I am not that familiar with Marvels previous Secret Wars event, other than it was the birth of event books and also had a huge commercial push through other avenues, plus I have an issue in my collection with the first appearance of Spidey's black suit.

Sadly from the promo image released I begin to realise my lack of knowledge of the expanded Marvel Universe, reminding me that I've only been collecting comics for the past 6 years, only managing to name the core 616 universe characters and Miles Morales, it certainly seems like I have some catching up to do.

But from what has been released, the fact this is the culmination of what Hickman has been working towards since taking over the Avengers core titles, leaves me excited, add the fact that super star artist Assad Ribic is on art duties, and come May next year we are certainly going to have a book to look forward to.

It has been confirmed that this event will span a year, so 12 issues in total plus cross over. I'm sure we will learn more as May gets closer, in the press and the comics where we get a month closer in each issue of the Avengers with Time Runs Out.

Now I'm off to the book store to buy myself the Marvel Encyclopaedia to work out who these other characters are on the promo image. To take a closer look at the promo check out the link below for a super size image.

http://www.newsarama.com/images/i/000/136/368/original/Secret-Wars.jpg

In 4 Months Past... Time Ran Out

So there has been a long absence since I last posted something on here. The incredible thing for me was that I didn't even get anything SDCC related onto the blog through July, life has just been far to busy and quite frankly my chrome book doesn't stand up to my previous laptop and can be annoyingly frustrating at times.

But back to the blogging, I'm not going to make any promises of this being my return, it may well even be another 4 months from this post that I finally post something else again, but we will just have to wait and see.

It has been a busy 4 months for the comic world and film and here is a quick well actually fairly long look at what caught my eye and I had hoped to post about.

Image Expo (Tokyo Ghost, Drifter, Injection, Southern Cross)

To begin, and to my surprise it is not Marvel related. The Image Expo that tagged itself to to the beginning of SDCC this year had some of the most exciting announcements of the convention. Image continue to produce some of the best independent comics out there, there philosophy is luring and attracting some of brightest and most promising talents in the business and the titles announced at this expo were testament to that. I am only going to write about the ones which caught my eye but there are plenty of titles to keep an eye out for in the Image solicitations as they are released month by month.

Injection #1 (Source Comic Book Resources)

The two which shouted out at me the moment they were announced while I was keeping up with the live blog of the event were Injection from the creative team of Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire, who just finished their run on probably one of the best arcs of Moon Knight I have read. The creative team alone has gotten me really excited for this one. The other title that screamed manically at me is Southern Cross from Becky Cloonan and Andy Belanger, if any of you have read my previous posts you will be well aware of my love for Cloonan's comics. Andy Belanger is a creator I am not particularly familiar with but I look forward to seeing his artistic talents in this creator owned voyage.

Other titles that grabbed my attentions were Tokyo Ghost from Rick Remender and Sean Gordon Murphy, Drifter from Ivan Brandon and Nic Klein. For all the other exciting titles keep your eyes peeled to the Image Solicitations as and when they are released.

DC Bat Universe (Gotham Academy, Batgirl, Gotham by Midnight, Arkham Manor)

Next, and still not Marvel, DC have suddenly and surprisingly announced a new group of Bat-centric titles from creators that have mainly had a independent background. In order of my favourites, Gotham Academy with the incredibly exciting creative team of Becky Cloonan, Brendan Fletcher and Karl Kerschl who will be taking us into the halls of a school funded by Bruce Wayne and being Gotham this will not be your run of the mill highschool. Then there is the re-vamp of Batgirl which sees the long standing fan favourite writer Gail Simone handing the character over to Brendan Fletcher, Cameron Stuart and newcomer Babs Tarr, this is yet another exciting line up and the preview work and what has been revealed so far has already gathered quite the online following including it's own tumblr by the creators for the flurry of fan art. Finally not to be forgotten from the hype of the previous two announcements there will also be Arkham Manor from Gerry Duggan and Shaun Crystal along with Gotham by Midnight from Ray Fawkes and Ben Templesmith. Arkham Manor sees Bruce Wayne's home become the new Arkham Asylum and Gotham by Midnight sees a group of detectives that investigate the mysterious in Gotham led by Spectre.

Gotham By Midnight

Spider-Verse (Spider-Gwen)

Okay now it's time for some Marvel news. Spider-Verse begins this month well the run up to with the Edge of Spider-Verse titles beginning to roll out. These being 5 one shot issues focusing on alternative universe Spider-Men or Women. From the known to the new, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Gwen which I am most excited for and already hope will receive her own stand alone title, Dustin Weaver creates is own alterate universe Spider-Man, there looks to be a sort of pulp horror Spider-Man and the second favourite of the 5 I'm looking forward to is the team-up of Gerard Way and Jake Wyatt for there interpretation of a alternate universe Spider-Man.

As mentioned the most exciting title for me from the 5 is Edge if Spider-Verse #2 from Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez, who sounds like a Marvel character himself but is part of the creative team from Vertigo comic FBPD. They will be bringing us an alternate universe Gwen Stacy who was in fact bitten by the spider. Rodriguez has killed it on the design and there have already been several Spider-Gwen cosplayers at comic conventions. I have high hopes for this issue and really hope I'm not disappointed, Latour has already stated should there be a demand he would be more than happy to write more Spider-Gwen.

The other Edge of Spider-Verse title that has caught my eye is the offering from Gerard Way and Jacob Wyatt. This has potential on so many levels as Jacob Wyatt is one of the rising stars, having worked on his creator owned title and recently on a couple of Ms Marvel issues and well Gerard Way has been around long enough with Umbrella Academy and Killjoys for us to know he can write a good comic it will be interesting to see what he does with his own take on a Spider-Man origin.

Marvel Star Wars (Star Wars Jason Aaron/ Cassaday, Darth Vader Gillen/ Larocca/ Granov &, Leia Waid/ Dodson)

SDCC saw the a announcement of some long awaited news since Disney acquired Lucasfilm and it was officially announced that Marvel will be taking over the Star Wars franchise when it comes to the comics and so the titles and creative teams were finally announced.

There will be a stand alone Star Wars title written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by John Cassaday. Darth Vader will get his own title written by Kieren Gillen and illustrated by Salvador Larocca and Adi Granov and finally Princess Leia will get her own solo title from Mark Waid and Terry Dodson. I can't help but think a better artist could have been found for Leia that more suited the Princess but Dodson may well prove me wrong. These have been confirmed for 2015 so I imagine in the coming months more info and hopefully preview art will be released.

Avengers NOW! All- New Captain America (FalCap) Thor (Female) Superior Iron Man (Tony Stark Gone Mad Scientist) 

Marvels big SDCC announcement was the upcoming Avengers NOW! initiative much like the Marvel NOW! and All-New Marvel NOW! initiatives this sees many new titles and characters beginning from #1 with creative changes, mainly focusing on the characters within the Avengers team. The 3 big announcements are the upcoming changes to the big three Avengers, Captain America, Superior Iron Man and Thor. The mantle and shield of Captain America will be finding a new wielded in Sam Wilson a.k.a Falcon now dubbed Falcap, Steve Rogers has had the super soldier serum removed from his system and now resembles a man of his proper age so obviously he is required to hand over the mantle to someone he trusts. This will be brought to us in the pages of All-New Captain America from Rick Remender & Stuart Immonen starting in November. 

Tony Stark will be moving to San Francisco and after the major fall out from Original Sin, his antics in New Avengers and the events at the beginning of AXIS see him become the Superior Iron Man, an adjective once again made popular by the successful run of another Marvel heavyweight Spider-Man, this sees Tony go a little mad scientist and he will come head to head with another Marvel character recently moved to the area Daredevil. This take on the character certainly sounds interesting and with a new creative team to Marvel of Tom Taylor & Yilidray Cinar may well be worth checking out.

Thor also gets a major shake up. Thor Odinson no longer being deemed worthy of Mjolnir finds the hammer in someone else's hands, a mysterious female. It has been pointed out that this is not Thorita, Lady Thor. This is Thor and the God of Thunder is now a woman. In Jason Aaron I trust and he will be joined on this new era of Thor by Russell Dauterman, he will certainly need to be giving his A-Game as he will be replacing the critically acclaimed Essad Ribic on art duties for the character. This female character who now holds the hammer is shrouded in mystery and it has been confirmed we will have to wait to find out who it is.

Other new titles announced for Avengers NOW! included Angela: Asgards Assassin from Gillen/ Bennett/ Jimenez and Stephanie Hans, Bucky Barnes: Winger Soldier from Ales Kot and Marco Rudy. Deathlok is getting a new series starting in October from Nathan Edmondson and Mike Perkins. Two Inhumans feature in the image, Medusa and Inferno, this may be a continued push for the Inhumans as a whole or NYCC may see the announcement of a solo Medusa title can't really see a solo series for Inferno. Scarlet Witch features in the image also another character that is currently in Uncanny Avengers I have more on my ideas as to why she is in the image in the AXIS section below. Doctor Strange and Ant-Man both are present in the image and with there solo films confirmed or in production it is likely they will see there own individual titles especially considering they were both heavily involved in Original Sin it's only a matter of time.

AXIS

With Original Sin coming to an end, well ended by the time this is posted, AXIS now known as Avengers & X-Men AXIS has been getting a big promotional push. From Special Edition NYC we learnt about the first arc of 3 issues coming in October "The Red Supremacy" which sees the return of the Red Skull in his Onslught duds. This arc sees both the Avengers and X-Men battling the Red Skull on Genosha where he has turned the once mutant country into his base with enslavement camps and this is where he is spreading his message of hate across the world with his new found Charles Xavier mutant powers.

We learnt more about the 2nd arc 'Inversion' during SDCC and since. This arc sees heroes becoming 'bad' guys and villains becoming 'good'. The X-Men team up with one of their greatest villains. Tony Stark goes a little mad scientist and moves to San Francisco to become the Superior Iron Man as teased during the Avengers NOW! initiative. With the AXIS of Evil apparently winning where does that lead the Marvel Universe and what can possibly take place in the third arc to rectify this. Marvel are churning out event after event at the moment and it is understandable why many are apprehensive about this but from the solicitation for both the first and second arc this may be just as exciting and successful as the Avengers vs X-Men event from 2 years past.

Theres also several big teases in the solicitations for the issues during the second arc. The formation of the Astonishing Avengers in issue 6, and with the Uncanny Avengers on hiatus during this event and Remender teasing he will be on a new book by the end of this AXIS is it difficult to put two and two together and believe this will be Astonishing Avengers? Looks as though Remender is just working his way through all the pre-fix adjectives that haven't been before the word Avengers. Bleeding Cool certainly seem to think so and they also think Esad Ribic will be on art duties. Also from the solicits that have since been released issue 5 teases a new sorceress supreme, could the Scarlet Witch be gaining the mantel of Sorceress Supreme and with Marvel's big publishing push for female led titles and the character appearing in Avengers: Age of Ultron next year could she be getting her own title, 'Scarlet Witch Sorceress Supreme'? This would certainly answer why she is in the Avengers NOW! promo image.

Guardians of the Galaxy

So the film I had been waiting 3 years for was finally released at the end of July and is now the highest grossing film in America this year, surprised? I'm not. I've seen the film 3 times now and it was everything I expected and some. I'm counting down the days until the release date is confirmed for the Blu-Ray and then I will be counting down the days until the release date. This film take the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a completelt new and exciting direction and with Guardians of the Galaxy 2 confirmed to be directed by James Gunn and already announced to be released in July 2014 I now only have another 3 years to patiently and excitedly await the sequel. If you haven't yet got to see this I stongly recommed you find a cinema that it still showing it and see it NOW!

And so to end this long and wordy post why not a few teaser videos for some TV shows and Video Games I'm looking forward to coming this Fall.

Star Wars Rebels: October

Agents of Shield Season 2: