Our Favorite Kirby Stuff on His 98th Birthday

Jacob Kurtzberg, better known as Jack “The King” Kirby, passed away back in 1994, but he would have been 98 if he’d lived to today. In honor of that birthday, we wanted to put out a list of his 98 best creations . . . which would have represented a very, very small percentage of his output. And with such a rich catalog, a best of list is very, very hard to put together in any methodological manner.

Instead, we thought we’d share our favorite Kirby creations in a slightly more digestible list, which ranges from the weird to the heroic, from the goofy to the outlandish, from the innovative to the arch-evil – yet are, to an item, wonderfully creative:

Fox Places Review Embargo on Fantastic Four, Shared Universe Off To Rocky Start?

Shortly after reports of Fox’s newly established cinematic universe, and a potential X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover, things seem to be quickly falling apart. It was announced that Fox has placed an embargo for all Fantastic Four reviews for a day prior to the films release. This does not bode well for Fox. Embargoes are rarely used for films and when they are, it’s usually an indication that the said film isn’t any good.

New Fantastic Four Trailer Features More Powers, More Plot and More Doom!

It’s clobberin’ time.

Thank Sweet Aunt Petunia! Up until this point, all of the Fantastic Four footage we’ve seen has been of the teaser variety. A bit of Human Torch here, and Invisible woman there – nothing too concrete. But alas! Fox released the second trailer and slowly but surely, fans are eager to see Marvel’s First Family on the big screen again.

Hero Express 04/09/15: Daredevil, Suicide Squad, Fantastic Four, and The Vision!

Welcome back to the Hero Express! It’s been a minute since we’ve gathered together to go over the latest crop of comic book-related movie news, but there couldn’t be a better time for the Hero Express, so let’s jump right into it.

It’s Clobberin’ Time: FOX Reveals New Fantastic Four Teaser!

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.)

Comic Book Cinema: A Look At What’s Next For Marvel and DC (2015-2016)

“It’s a good time to be a comic fan.”

I find myself making the above statement more and more every month, but it’s the truth. There is no better time than now to love comics, because there are so many avenues available to enjoy the characters and stories. Great comics coming from great creators, a new era of fresh TV adaptations, and an unprecedented slate of films heading to the big screen are all a part of what make this a damn good time to be a Marvel and DC comic fan.

Exclusive Simon Kinberg Interview: Rogue, Apocalypse & The Future of X-Men

With X-Men: Days of Future Past coming out on DVD/Blu-ray on Tuesday, October 14, 2014, we get to view what is arguably the best of the X-movies right in the comfort of our own homes. Of course, there will be a lot of special features on the discs and we know that there will be some deleted scenes and features we’ll be dying to see, like the previous incarnation of the kitchen sequence. We know that X-Men: Apocalypse will be coming along in a few years with a gaggle of other X-Movies to accompany the franchise. One of the people shepherding these movies to a new phase is screenwriter and producer Simon Kinberg. Not only did he write and co-produce X-Men: Days of Future Past, he is also produced and wrote the new Fantastic Four reboot for 20th Century Fox, and helped create the Star Wars: Rebels series, so he definitely has a lot on his plate. We managed to catch a few minutes with Simon and found some great insights into this X-Trilogy, the deleted scenes for Days of Future Past, as well as the future of the franchise and what he’d like to see.

Hero Express: Spidey’s New Suit, Nolan Producing ‘Justice League’, & Matthew Vaughn on ‘Fantastic Four’!

Welcome back to the Hero Express, your one-stop sometimes SPOILER filled shop through the top stories in comic based Film & TV news!

The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Chris Cooper as Osborn, Marc Webb Reveals Set Photos, and the New Spidey Suit!

Horse whisperer – check. Homicidal closeted gay man – check. Traitorous spy – check. Orchid poacher – check.

What on earth is left for Chris Cooper to play? Apparently it’s Norman Osborn, aka The Green Goblin.

Cooper will join Jamie Foxx as Electro and Paul Giamatti as Rhino as they tackle Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield, of course) in the upcoming sequel. Will Cooper’s Green Goblin be on par with Willem Dafoe’s from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man? That will be difficult as Dafoe plays the unhinged supervillain so well, but if anyone is up to the task, it would be Chris Cooper.

If you follow no one else on twitter (besides Grizzly Bomb of course), make sure you follow The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s director, Marc Webb. He’s been tweeting photos from the set everyday and it’s always fun to get a look behind the scenes, and commentary from the director isn’t too shabby. Yesterday he sent out a picture of an upended car on top of a crushed cab… Rhino’s handiwork? [Ed. Note: I’ve included a shot of Shailene Woodley as MJ from the set. No reason.]

In addition to the day to day photos, some pics of the new Spider-Man suit have been released. Now you aren’t going to make everyone happy, and there were quite a few people displeased with the suit in the first film of this trilogy, but I like this one. The eyes look great, much better than the first attempt.

Now that filming is underway, I’m sure there will be plenty more in the way of news and such from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 so stay tuned!

Justice League

Christopher Nolan is Allegedly Producing with Zack Snyder Possibly Directing, and Christian Bale Might be Batman! But Probably Not.

I can not be the only person who feels like this movie has been in the works for decades now and with every passing day comes another rumor only to be shot down the following day. At this rate, my grandchildren might get to see a Justice League movie, but only if they are lucky.

The latest of these rumors was that Christian Bale was going to be returning as the Dark Knight, but that has been apparently dismissed. However, it was confirmed that Christopher Nolan is involved in some capacity, most likely as a producer. Also a producer is Man of Steel director Zack Snyder and there are hints that he might be directing Justice League as well.

Of course the biggest statement in the ComicBookMovie report is that we will probably not be getting much Justice League news until after Man of Steel is released on June 14th of this year. What that really means is we won’t be getting any “official” information but if it’s like anything else in the internet age, we’ll know plenty. It may not be completely factual but we will know it!

Fantastic Four

Vampire Hunter Scribe Takes a Stab at the Script, And a Producer is Named!

What do Pride and Prejudice, zombies, Abraham Lincoln, vampires, and Mr. Fantastic have in common? Well, thanks to the Fantastic Four reboot, Seth Grahame-Smith. He’s taken on the task of “polishing” the script and one can only hope that means this reboot will be much better than Rise of the Silver Surfer because I think we can all agree, that is a movie that just needs to be forgotten about, for all eternity. Burned from the annals of geek history. Grahame-Smith wrote the screenplay to last year’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer based on his novel of the same title (he also wrote the incredibly popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) and the Johnny Depp vampire movie, Dark Shadows. Also of note, he is the writer of the hopefully upcoming Beetlejuice 2.

Matthew Vaughn has been announced as the producer of  the FF reboot, directed by Josh Trank. Vaughn is obviously no stranger to the geek world with a resume including Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, so I think we can rest easy knowing that the Fantastic Four family will be treated right.

Speaking of Matthew Vaughn and X-Men…

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Peter Dinklage, Richard Nixon, and Halle Berry!

Ever since Game of Thrones (and the movie Station Agent,  that everyone should see) actor Peter Dinklage was announced for X-Men: Days of Future Past, there has been speculation as to who he would be playing. Now it appears as if there’s a character emerging from the rumors as a front-runner.

[quote]But thanks to a tipster who prefers to remain anonymous, but is extremely reliable, we can tentatively confirm: Dinklage is playing Bolivar Trask, inventor of the mutant hunting robot Sentinels in the movie sequel. -MTV[/quote]

Obviously fans have been waiting for the Sentinels to feature into the story for a long time, and Peter Dinklage as any character in the world is fine with me.

While that is fun news, it’s still technically a rumor so it could easily change. However, director Bryan Singer has said that there is one person we are sure to see in Days of Future Past and that is none other than the 37th President himself, Richard Nixon. Apparently part of the movie is based in the ’70s, and Singer has promised that Tricky Dick has a role in the story. If I have no other reason to watch this movie, it will be to see how Richard Nixon factors into the X-Men universe.

Also official? Halle Berry is returning as Storm. Is there really much more to say on that besides an underwhelmed “that’s good, I guess, for her, maybe?”

Didn’t think so.

That about does it for this edition of Hero Express! Let us know what you think of these stories in the comments and we’ll see ya next time!

Josh Trank’s ‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot Gets Release Date

The Fantastic Four franchise never really got up and running, mainly because it was just not well received among fans [Ed. Note – That’s an understatement]. So the decision to reboot the product came as no surprise to anyone. Now this reboot has an official release date, but do not get excited quite yet as it is a while.

ERC Box Office have it down as March 6^th 2015, a year that will put it in competition with the likes of Avengers 2, Justice League, and the final installment of The Hobbit (probably). I do not know if I would take this news as real either, because it is far enough away that it could get set back if problems arise. This release date also means that there is going to be a lot of time before we find any juicy news about the movie. The positive of this is that because of the luke warm response of the first two movies and the eight year gap there will be before we see another one, it seems the right time for the fab four to fly back into action. As good as I felt Amazing Spider-Man was, Sam Raimi’s version was still fresh in people’s heads when it came out this year.

We already know that Chronicle director Josh Trank is on board and newbie Jeremy Slater is on hand with the writing. This information came out during Comic-Con, so the project is slowly coming together, which is probably a good thing. Trank has a superb eye and his visuals are stunning, as well as him having a good grasp on character interaction. So here is hoping that this translates over to the reboot as the original suffered greatly from miscasting and no real chemistry between the cast (aside from Michael Chiklis as The Thing, he was fantastic). So now us fans have to play the waiting game. Will this keep fans excited about the franchise or will the long wait make them forget about it and move on to the next big super hero flick? Only time will tell, but I do not mind waiting for a bit to see how it all pans out.

The Griz Bin: NYCC CosPlay, PokeVengers, and Superman’s a Douche.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please find enclosed 1 (one) Griz Bin. We hope that you find its contents of comic randomness to your taste and we apologize for the lateness of its arrival.

5 Classic Superman Comics That Prove He Used To Be A Dick – Think the Man of Steel was always the big boy scout we usually think of him being today. Nope. He used to be a massive tool and here’s the proof. [Cracked]

Comic Covers Recreated With Family Guy – See Peter Griffin as (amongst others) Spider-Man, Batman and Superman in these recreations of classic comic covers. My favourite is the Fantastic Four one that includes the entire Griffin clan. [Herochan]

9 Reasons To Elect A Supervillian President – The US is to shortly head to the polls, and for all of you Americans yet to make up your minds, here are some decent reasons to vote for the greater, rather than the lesser, of evils. [io9]

Pokevengers – Do you like Pokemon? Do you like The Avengers? Than you’ll love Pokevengers fan art by AstroZerk! [deviantART]

Kia’s Batman Themed Car – DC and Kia have joined forces to make a range of Justice League themed cars. Here is the Batman one and it’s no Tumbler. [Geekologie]

Fantastic (Four) Pumpkin Art – Made from 11 pumpkins here is the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing. [io9]

DC Collectibles Unveils High-End Prints – They may be more expensive by some of these would look good on anybody’s wall. Who could resist Ace the Bathound, Krypto and Streaky? [Comics Alliance]

New York Comic-Con Cosplay – There was a vast array of great cosplay at the recent con. Whilst it’s not all comics related it’s all far too fabulous to not include. [io9, Comics Alliance 1, 2, 3, Gamma Squad 1, 2, 3, and Geeks Are Sexy 1, 2]

Old Iron Man – Is this Tony Starks Future? Fan art by gimaldinov. [CG Hub]

And Finally – We end with the news that Superman is quitting the Daily Planet as told in the inimitable CG style of Taiwan’s NMA. [Comics Alliance]

So until next time…’keep watching the skies!’