SDCC 2013: ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’ Panel!

X-Men: Days of Future Past has already had a somewhat impressive showing in San Diego this year. Early on we got our first look at  the head of a Sentinel, and then later new character portraits featuring Bishop, which was another first look. While no panel was on the schedule, fans were hopeful for something during Fox’s time at SDCC.

Not that unexpectedly, Fox did indeed have a secret panel yesterday for X-Men: Days of Future Past. Rather unexpectedly, The entire cast from the film appeared on stage, an then held a panel. It was pretty extraordinary to see that many people on stage, and there is no doubt the fans were surprised.

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SDCC 2013: DC Comics “Con Away From Con”

Are you a DC Comics fan who couldn’t make it to San Diego for Comic-Con this year? Well DC feels your pain and have done what they can to make you (us, as I’m sitting at home as well) to feel as if we were there. Think of “Con Away From Con” as a modern age “Wish You Were Here” postcard.

They’ve got a bit of everything – chats with directors and stars, tours of DC booths, interviews, “DC University” highlights… pretty much everything you might check out it you were actually there.

Enough chit-chat, let’s get to the videos!

First a look at the upcoming Flashpoint Paradox. Of course with the new Flash movie being announced this weekend (along with the Man of Steel sequel featuring Batman), all eyes are on “The Fastest Man Alive”. This new animated movie features Justin Chambers as Barry Allen, C. Thomas Howell as Reverse-Flash, and Michael B. Jordan as Cyborg. Incidentally, we have Jordan in the Cyborg role in our Justice League cast.

How about a few on the upcoming documentary on DC Comics Rogues Gallery? Necessary Evil will be released on October 25th.

You can check out the full trailer here!

Of course, DC Comics wouldn’t be much without the incredible artists that work for them. With “DC Universe” Comic-Con attendees got the chance to see these artists as work, including Amanda Conner who, with her husband and partner Jimmy Palmiotti, will be writing a Harley Quinn solo book in the New 52.

One of the biggest things at a convention of San Diego’s Comic-Con magnitude, are the booths on the convention floor. This year DC Comics had a display of Superman costumes through the years.

I think it’s written in some writer’s code somewhere that if a Neil Gaiman interview exists and relates at all to what you are doing, you must include it. So… Neil Gaiman talks Sandman: Overture as well as artist J.H. Williams III.

For more Comic Con coverage check here!

SDCC 2013: Marvel’s Revolutionary War – The Return of Marvel UK!

Hot off the press from the Marvel website comes this news straight from Comic Con about their next big story arc, Revolutionary War. Andy Lanning and Alan Cowsill are behind this mini-series and they had this to say.

“[Alan Cowsill and I] plan to be setting up all you need to know in the story itself but the main thing readers need to know is that back in the 1990’s Marvel UK had a brief glorious spot in the sun where we got to develop our own UK based heroes as part of the greater Marvel Universe.”

marvel uk return deaths head

The UK characters joining with the Marvel Universe proper is long overdue. Death’s Head has just recently popped up again in Iron-Man (the original design, not Death’s Head 2 or 3.0), so this is great news.

Living in the UK myself, these were some of the first heroes I was exposed to after I had sought out the X-Men and Spider-Man annuals. Titles like Overkill featured some incredible stories all set in their own universe, but including the Marvel main stream characters (the X-Men popped up regularly). For UK readers these were our characters, operating in areas that we knew about and even lived in. The sense of excitement reading these characters made directly for the UK was amazing. It seems that Lanning remembers these days fondly, as he had this to say.

[box_dark]“It was a very exciting time to work in comics in the UK and I have a lot of fond memories of the time we spent working on our own, UK-centric versions of super heroes. I was given one of my early breaks into comics by Paul Neary at Marvel UK along with a great number of current comic creators [including] Liam Sharp, Carlos Pacheco, Salvador Larroca, Gary Frank, Bryan Hitch, Pascal Ferry, Doug Braithwaite, Simon Coleby, Richard Elson, Gary Erskine, Cam Smith and more.”[/box_dark]

marvel uk return overkill cover

The fun thing about this new series of stories was the new villains that were created. The Mys-Tech Corporation were the main villains here. They pulled all the strings in the Marvel UK universe and almost all of the characters in these stories were affected by this company. Looks like Lanning has also remembered how popular and unique this new villain group were as his quote below elaborates.

[box_dark]“It’s been over 20 years since then and it seemed like a good time to revisit the Marvel UK landscape and see what has happened to the heroes since the last Marvel UK comic was published. The biggest surprise has been rereading the old issues and rediscovering how cool the characters and their stories were. Many of the stories revolved around the evil machinations of a shadowy organization called Mys-Tech, which was formed of 7 ‘techno-wizards’ who, in 987, sold their souls to Mephisto in exchange for immortality. As part of their pact the board must supply a steady stream of souls to the demon or else forfeit their own. Many of the stories and characters were linked to Mys-Tech’s efforts of finding a way to escape their compact with Mephisto and becoming immortal in their own right and the machinations and the numerous nefarious plots that they hatched to do this”[/box_dark]

marvel uk return mys tech

But who will we see in this mini-series? There is such a diverse amount of characters created for the Marvel UK Universe it seems difficult to fit them all in. Luckily, Lanning has taken all this on board and has clear plans on what he and Alan Coswill wants to include.

“In re-reading the Marvel UK titles and researching old continuity we’ve realized there’s actually a very large and diverse cast of UK based characters available to us. We’ll be revisiting most of the popular old Marvel UK characters and a few of the more obscure ones. I think it’s safe to say that Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom will be involved. It would be sacrilege not to feature them in a story set in the UK. Fans of heroes like Warheads, Knights of Pendragon, Death’s Head, Warheads, Dark Angel, Super Soldiers, Motormouth and Killpower will be pleased. We will strive to fit as many in as possible so keep your eyes peeled as your own old favorite may very well make an appearance!”

This is incredible for all comic fans, not just UK ones. The return of these characters is awesome news and will be a welcome treat for older readers who remember them in their prime, and new readers who have yet to experience them. How they will be used is yet to be seen but with the extracts from this interview makes this reviewer feel that these characters are in safe hands. Keep your eyes on this new series because I think it will be full of surprises. Make sure you are prepared for the return of the UK heroes by checking with Grizzly Bomb for a who’s who of the Marvel UK comic characters which will be coming soon.

marvel uk return logo 2

Check out more from Comic Con here!

SDCC 2013: Arrow Season Two Sizzle Reel, Plus Highlights of the Comic-Con Panel!

Let’s start right off with the Arrow season two sizzle reel. Now, if you have not seen all of Arrow season one, you might want to skip this as it has a lot of spoilers in it. A lot, a lot.

So much action packed into so little time! Taken from footage of the season premiere, we get a good look at Summer Glau as Isabel Rochev.
Arrow Season Two Sizzle Reel

As exciting as that is, I think we all echo Roy Harper’s question to the mysterious blonde in a mask (Caity Lotz as not Black Canary), “Where the hell did you come from?” Of course this Arrow season two sizzle reel didn’t answer any big questions, like who exactly Caity Lotz’s character is, but we do see Oliver Queen make the beginnings of his move from “the Vigilante” to actually being called Arrow. As Marc Guggenheim said in this interview, they are moving from Hood Guy, to Arrow, to ultimately Green Arrow.

Arrow season two sizzle reel

Same with Black Canary apparently. Laurel will eventually be Black Canary but she needs to start on that journey and Caity Lotz is there to help her begin.

Apparently everyone is moving along in their storylines, including Roy Harper and Deathstroke. During the Comic-Con panel, Colton Haynes referred to season two as Roy’s “island” and Andrew Kreisberg made a point of telling fans that those who are interested in if/how Manu Bennett’s Slade Wilson becomes the Deathstroke, then they should make sure to watch season two.

The other big news from the panel is that although it seems as if Malcolm Merlyn met his end in the season finale of Arrow season one, perhaps he’s not as dead as we assumed. John Barrowman appeared on stage saying “I would be more than happy to come back into this family fold. And if I’m being invited back, it’s more than the 50th anniversary of ‘Doctor Who’s’ ever done.”

As great as all that news is, two big guest spots were also announced.

Arrow season two sizzle reel

That’s right, Suicide Squad’s own Bronze Tiger is coming to Starling City! Or the island, his story hasn’t been revealed. Michael Jai White will play the martial artist sometime in season two. Given that they are announcing it this early, you’d have to imagine it’d be early in the season.

Kevin Alejandro as Sebastian Blood in Arrow

Same goes for Kevin Alejandro, guest starring as a character named Sebastian Blood, aka Brother Blood. Longtime foe of the Teen Titans. It’s a little easier to see the martial arts fighting of Bronze Tiger making the leap to the Arrow-verse, but there will be some definite changes in the Brother Blood character to comply with the “no superpowers/metahumans” thing that they’ve committed to. But we’ve seen how Count Vertigo was able to be adapted so I’m not too worried about it.

So I think that about covers it. Laurel Lance is still going to be Black Canary. Caity Lotz is going to help her. Roy Harper and Slade Wilson both have changes in store for them. Oh yeah, Thea is taking over Oliver’s club, and Summer Glau’s Isabel Rochev is coming to town.

Can’t wait for October 9th when Arrow season two premieres!

Arrow-City-of-Heroes

SDCC 2013: ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Panel, & All the News from Comic-Con!

Starting off this years Comic Con strong, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 released a short teaser that brought us our first footage of Jamie Foxx as Electro. This whet the appetite of fans, until the actual Amazing Spider-Man 2 panel on Fri, in which a ton of new information was teased, including some new footage shown.

We’ll cover some of the news, descriptions of the footage, and discussions with the cast about the film today. We’ll try to move through quickly so try and keep up! First up…

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SDCC 2013: Watch the Marvel Studios Panel!

Yesterday we brought you the big news and some of the descriptions from the Marvel Studios Panel, which did not disappoint. Today we actually get to watch the entire Marvel Studios panel, minus the footage that was shown.

After the jump is the entire Marvel Studios panel, in all it’s glory:

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