It’s crazy how successful the line of films based on the world’s most popular superhero team has been. We’ve entered an age where a ton of Marvel Comics’ properties are getting ready for another wave of big efforts on the big screen. It may seem a bit daunting to get into the universe centering on The Avengers, which is why author Peter A. David put together a book that will make team history easier to comprehend.
Marvel’s been quite the purveyor of change with diversity in super heroes: a black Captain American, a female Thor and strong LGBT characters have given Marvel a fiercely diverse voice in the world of comics. Keeping the momentum going, Marvel announced the A-Force, the newly christened all-female Avengers team.
Of all the super hero films announced for 2015, Fantastic Four has been the most elusive of them all. Without showing footage at any of last year’s cons and keeping “leaking” under control, all fanboys received was a brief synopsis of the film (one that certainly made us scratch our heads.)
Fox has actually done an awesome job getting the X-Men movie franchise back on track. The respectability garnered from fans thanks to the first two films may have been tainted by The Last Stand, but First Class and Days of Future Past have done a great job of restoring Marvel’s mutant back to their prominent state.
It now looks like Fox is ready to bring the X-Men to the small screen. The Hollywood Reporter first got wind of this news, as they reported that preliminary discussions have already begun regarding the show’s development. This live-action TV series seemingly has some credible names already looking to bring this show to life – 24 producers Evan Katz and Manny Coto are said to be in talks, along with the current Star Trek 3 writing duo of J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. Katz and Coto are said to be the main frontrunners for the show’s development, but Payne and McKay will receive creation credits for their work with the show.
Marvel’s suite of superheroes are currently dominating movie theaters and TV, thanks to shows such as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter and the upcoming Netflix show Daredevil. Simon Kinberg previously offered up some comments on the odds of an X-Men TV show coming to fruition:
We’re still in this place of figuring out what the future of the franchise will be, but when you look at S.H.I.E.L.D. to some extent and what Marvel is doing now with Daredevil and other shows on Netflix, it makes sense to tell some of these stories in TV partly because there’s just not enough screens to do all these characters, and also because the serialized format of comic books is better suited for TV. Because that’s it, every week you come back to the same characters different story, and in comic books every week it’s the same characters, different story. I think what [Fox is] seeing now is with the proliferation of new kinds of visual and special effects, there’s a way to make these stories that doesn’t cost $300 million every time you have to make a huge movie.
We’re interested in seeing the X-Men hit the small screen again. If it’s half as good as the previous animated interpretations of Professor X and his world saving crew, then we have high hopes for this show. We’re slightly worried about the negotiations that will undoubtedly go down between Fox, ABC and Marvel. But we think cooler heads will prevail and this live-action X-Men show will soon become a reality.
It wouldn’t be a new year without a new Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer. The titan studio released the new AoU trailer during ESPN’s College Football National Championship game. The trailer arrives in the wake of last week’s Ant Man trailer debut, which was aired during the premiere of new primetime TV show, Agent Carter. Right on schedule, the second trailer (while still withholding Vision) shows us several new clips, and as per usual we’re bursting with questions.
They say knowledge is power and in the case of collectors that is certainly the case. With the foresight that comes from pre-order release dates, no fan need ever worry again about missing the release of a treasured piece of memorabilia. DC is by far the best at this particular market tactic and they’ve already given us a look at some of the releases that will be winging their way to specialist stores in 2015. Below is a list of a few that have taken Grizzly Bomb’s fancy.
DC Entertainments Black and White series continues to impress, with a huge range and variety of choice in sculpt designs available to the consumer. Included in the collection this time around is a superb sculpting of Barbara Gordon Batgirl statue (in her Batgirl issue 35 gear). More commonly known as the Batgirl of Burnside, it presents a more modern take on the Batgirl costume. The figure sculpt is by artist Irene Matar (Batman: The Animated Series action figures) who has done a great job of keeping the Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr original design style. It is due to ship in September 2015 (price to be announced).
Joining her we have a Dave Johnson inspired piece with a limited run of 5,200. It is due for release on March 2015. Then we have Ivan Reis take on the Dark Knight coming out in June 2015 and the incredible looking Mike Mignola Batman design, which comes in August 2015, all priced at $79.95.
There are many more DC releases that may be of interest to collectors, like the WonderWoman: ArtofWar statues by Tony Daniel and Cliff Chiang, showing two different Wonder Woman designs, both ready for battle. They are both priced at $79.99 and arrive on May and February 2015 respectively. More entries into the Jim Lee comic book busts collection are coming are way to with Deathstroke and Nightwing each making an appearance (both $49.99 and coming in February and June).
Finally there is the dynamic duo of crime; The Joker and Harley Quinn, each coming in July of next year. What makes Harley’s figure that extra bit special is the fact she is decked out in her roller derby gear from her new 52 series. The design work (based on the Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti and Chad Hardin series) is spot on and will complement nicely the dark, knife wielding Joker figure.
If you cannot wait to get your DC freak on, then you can always pick up a life-sized batman utility belt from $299.95.
Marvel never seems to be as on the ball as DC are with regards to advanced orders. This may be due to the wide array of figure creators working under the Marvel umbrella, making it slightly more difficult to track their new products down. Still there are a few pieces of interest coming in 2015. One of the more interesting sets is the oversized return of an old Marvel figure line; Secret Wars. These 12 inch figures are based on the old sculpts from the ’80s and are just quirky enough for collectors to take interest. I myself owned the Hobgoblin figure in my youth, so it’s a nice surprise to see it reappear. Joining him will be the black suited Spider-Man and two other figures in the near future (one of which looks to be Wolverine). These will be coming via Gentle Giant Limited around for summer 2015, and will roughly retail for about $89.99. The backing itself certainly harkens back to the figures that were released originally and it’s a nice retro touch by Gentle Giant.
Also appearing in 2015 (February) will be the anticipated dancing Groot bobble head figure which Marvel fans have been salivating for ever since he appeared in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. From Pop! Vinyl it has the same trademark cuteness you would expect from that brand and will retail for about $12.99. Entertainment Earth has an exclusive variant version of this as well as a variant version of the dancing Groot mug (also coming in 2015 at $14.99).
But if you cannot wait until 2015, then Marvel has a ton of collectible content out there already. Here is a sneak peek at a few of them. My personal favorite is the Egg Attack War Machine ($79.99) figure just for the fact it looks so darn cute and it lights up too! But for great sculpt likeness it has to be a tie between the extremely menacing Green Goblin life-sized bust ($599.50 and limited to 300) or the positively revolting Zombie Magneto mini bust ($99.95 and limited to 5000).
As this year draws to an end and comic fans far and wide look forward to what delights 2015 will have to offer us, it is comforting to know that if nothing else, we will have these new collectibles to look forward to.
Images: DC Collectibles, Pop! Vinyl, Gentle Giant LTD, Entertainment Earth, Sideshow Collectibles, Egg Attack.
Grizzly Bomb 