Marvel Update: New Images For THOR: THE DARK WORLD And THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, ANT-MAN Changes Release Date

Ready for some Marvel news? You should be 'cause any Marvel news is of course 3D news! We've got new images for THOR: THE DARK WORLD and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 - ok, it's a new poster for THOR 2 but the post's title would have been too long so...

But I digress. First up is that poster. LOKI. Looking gothic, regal, crazy and formidable all at once. Asgard has seen better days! The flying objects look fascinating with two very different and distinct shapes. OF COURSE there's sparks. That's a no-brainer these days, but I like the message getting across here:  Tom Hiddleston has definitely arrived as an actor and Loki is his main vehicle. Perhaps even rivaling Chris Hemsworth's Thor? Perhaps indeed. 

The image for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 leaves much to be desired for me. In fact it wouldn't mean all that much without the tagline that director Marc Webb added to the tweet that revealed it:

“This is what happens when you try to give Electro a ticket.” - @MarcW #AmazingSpiderMan2 #ThroughTheWebb

Suddenly it takes on new meaning and I like the humor. Electro was my second fav villain for Spidey after The Lizard. Yes, I wasn't all that enthusiastic about Green Goblin. So, that's an "ok" reveal Marc :-)

Finally, the braintrust at Marvel are doing something very interesting. Something either very smart or something very stupid. They're putting director Edgar Wright's ANT-MAN up against BATMAN VS. SUPERMAN! Marvel has moved ANT-MAN from a November 6, 2015 date to the July 31, 2015 date which is of course in harm's way with the aforementioned DC Comics juggernaut opening on July 17. Is this a sacrifice play to lessen the box office of the mighty tandem that will eventually anchor JUSTICE LEAGUE? Or do they want to take advantage of the superhero media coverage that will be amped up during that period and boost ANT-MAN's box office sky high? Both?

Regardless, it's an interesting move. It could backfire but I doubt it. Don't forget that Marvel also has THE AVENGERS 2: AGE OF ULTRON opening in the summer of 2015 as well. It's a summer to remember absolutely.

Must Watch: New Trailer For THOR: THE DARK WORLD

I can't tell you how much I love seeing these comic book heroes come to life on the screen! Thor. I couldn't have imagined 10 years ago a scenario where suspension of disbelief could exist with this character, but here it is yet again! The trailer for THOR: THE DARK WORLD sets up expectations for the sequel just about perfectly.

Nice to see Idris Elba getting some more much deserved screen time in this movie. His star keeps on rising and Heimdall's character was practically begging for more exposure in Asgard.

Another cool add-on that YouTube has implemented (for awhile now) is the "POW" button which pixelizes videos to seem like moving comic books - check it out on this trailer. Kind of a fun thing.

Here's the storyline for the movie:
Marvel’s THOR: THE DARK WORLD continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the aftermath of Marvel’s Thor and Marvel’s The Avengers, Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos…but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.

THOR: THE DARK WORLD opens on November 8.

Comic-Con 2013: Marvel's Time To Shine - THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON Hits Theaters May 1, 2015

We all heard the thunder of DC Comics and Warner Bros. with their announcements of WORLD'S FINEST (as I'm calling it, i.e. Superman vs. Batman), FLASH and JUSTICE LEAGUE and now the thunder is seemingly echoing back in Hall H with Marvel taking the stage. What a time to be a movie AND a comic book fan! (Especially in 2015)

So not to be outdone, Marvel announced their title for THE AVENGERS 2 yesterday and it's THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (official logo is top left).

Videos of the Marvel panel and Loki's entrance and speech are below!

Below you will see a few things, not the least of which is the importance of ANT-MAN to the franchise now and also the fact that a lot of this story will have to be changed. Obviously we can't have Spider-man and Wolverine in a Disney movie yet and the world being vastly destroyed can we? Suspension of disbelief is important to maintain and it's hard to constantly relate and revisit a devastated world.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say specifically about AGE OF ULTRON from the comic books:

New York is in ruins. Ultron has returned and has taken over everything and everyone. His Ultron Sentinels are guarding the streets looking for any fugitives. Locating where Spider-Man is being held hostage by the Owl and Hammerhead, Hawkeye attempts to rescue him. Upon Hawkeye's location of Spider-Man, Ultron locates their position and launches a full assault in an effort to kill the two heroes. Hawkeye destroys the Ultron sentinels as the two make their way to an underground area beneath Central Park, where a group of survivors including Iron Man, Emma Frost, She-Hulk, Luke Cage, Invisible Woman and Wolverine have taken refuge. Defending his one-man mission, Hawkeye responds that at least he did not give up on the world. Iron Man responds that they have not as he shows Hawkeye a saddened Captain America sitting by his broken shield and states he was thinking.

Sneaking around on the streets of a decimated San Francisco, a partially disfigured Black Widow rendezvouses with Moon Knight in one of Nick Fury's old bases. Back in New York, Spider-Man recalls how he simply woke up and found the world under attack. As the heroes ponder why Ultron would take over the world just to make deals with low-level criminals like Owl and Hammerhead, Captain America informs the other heroes that he now has a plan.

He states that if superheroes can be offered to Ultron as Spider-Man was, they could offer up one of their own, sending someone in who can damage the inside of Ultron's fortress. Luke Cage and She-Hulk step in to take the trade. Luke agrees to deliver She-Hulk to Ultron's forces. Meanwhile in Chicago, Black Panther, Red Hulk, and Taskmaster watch a group of Ultron Sentinels. Red Hulk decapitates one, giving the head to his allies. Back in New York, a group of Ultron Sentinels meet with Luke Cage and She-Hulk and guide them through the fortress to make the deal. Luke Cage is shocked when he discovers that they are to negotiate with the Vision instead of Ultron.

The Vision reveals to Luke Cage and She-Hulk that Ultron is using him as a conduit and is punishing humankind from the future. After learning this, She-Hulk forces Cage out of Ultron's lair and is killed by Ultron's sentinels while protecting him. Cage survives a nuclear explosion from Ultron's Sentinels while the superhero resistance flees from Manhattan. In the San Francisco base they had discovered, Black Widow and Moon Knight discover Fury's fail-safe plans for different apocalyptic scenarios, including one involving Ultron taking over the Earth. In Chicago, Red Hulk catches up to Taskmaster who has in his possession the head of one of the Ultron Sentinels. Red Hulk declares that he can no longer trust Taskmaster and kills him. Eight days later, the heroes who had survived capture in New York arrive in the Savage Land where they meet Ka-Zar who leads them to a refuge area. The heroes arrive as Luke Cage dies from radiation poisoning after telling them what he has learned. Red Hulk, Moon Knight, and Black Widow arrive and reveal a plan made by Nick Fury to defeat Ultron.

As Ultron's forces lay waste to Austin, Texas, the heroes in the Savage Land find a hidden bunker. They meet Nick Fury, who relates his plan to use Doctor Doom's Time Platform to go into the future with a strike force to defeat Ultron before he attacks the present. Tony Stark points out that Ultron will know they are coming and will be ready for them. Wolverine suggests using the platform to go back in time to kill Henry Pym before he creates Ultron but most of the others disagree with this idea. Valkryie suggests going back to tell Pym to not build Ultron, but Wolverine points out that will just dare Pym to do it anyway. Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury, Red Hulk, Storm, Quake and Quicksilver use the platform to go into the future. After they leave, Wolverine announces his intention to carry out his plan to travel into the past and kill Henry Pym so that Ultron's creation never comes to pass.

While the heroes travel to the future, Wolverine arrives in the past, only to be surprised to learn that Invisible Woman has followed him. Despite her reluctance to go along with his plan, she accompanies him when stealing a S.H.I.E.L.D. hovercar from a younger Nick Fury to travel to New York. As the heroes in the future are overwhelmed by an army of Ultron Sentinels, Wolverine and Invisible Woman find Henry Pym analyzing Dragon Man. Despite Invisible Woman's attempts to find another way and Wolverine's acknowledgement of the good Pym has done, they finally accept that Wolverine must kill Pym. This leads to a fight between Wolverine and Henry Pym which ends with Pym's death.

Wolverine and the Invisible Woman return to the present only to find the Savage Land covered by wreckage of crashed ships. Sue recognizes them as Kree and theorizes that in this new timeline, the Kree-Skrull War came to Earth. They see men in armor calling themselves the Starkguard checking the area out. The two then go to New York City, with multiple S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarriers around. Their flying car is shot down as they find themselves attacked by the Defenders (consisting of a one-eyed Captain America, Doctor Strange, Hulk, Wolverine, the Thing, a one-eyed Cyclops, the Wasp in Captain Marvel's costume, and Star-Lord). The Thing is surprised to see Susan "back" but the rest of the group believe the two are Skrulls. A fight breaks out with the two Wolverines going at it hard, with the time-traveling Wolverine putting down his double and saying they did what they had to do to make a better world. The Defenders realize they are not Skrulls and reluctantly realize they have to talk to "him." At that moment, a half-cyborg Tony Stark flies in with a platoon of armored robots demanding to know what is going on.

Iron Man runs a psychic scan on Wolverine and the Invisible Woman, stunned to see the alternate reality alongside Professor X and Emma Frost. They tell Iron Man these memories are real but Stark believes Morgan le Fay planted them as spies. Iron Man meets the original timeline Wolverine and explains that his injuries are due to a war between Latveria and Asgard in which Thor vanished and Morgana conquered half the world. Wolverine is shown the footage of Henry Pym's death while Iron Man recounts that the Avengers broke up afterward and magic overcame technology and "you broke the world." At the Helicarrier, the Defenders' Wolverine decides to talk to his other self and the others help him push past Emma Frost with the Thing wanting to help the Invisible Woman. Iron Man chastises Wolverine on simply killing Hank Pym saying he could have gotten Pym to use a virus to stop Ultron instead. The Invisible Woman breaks free causing Iron Man to believe this is all a Morgan le Fey trick. At that moment, Morgan le Fey attacks with a swarm of magically-powered Doombots. The Defenders fight them with Iron Man controlling hundreds of drones and accusing le Fey of responsibility for the time travelers. She claims innocence and then points out to Iron Man that a pair of Helicarriers are crashing into the heart of New York City.

The explosion kills most of the heroes present as Wolverine pulls himself from the wreckage. A dying Tony Stark tells him he cannot simply go back and try to change this again, that time is a living organism that will break if ripped too much. In the past, the previous Wolverine is about to kill Henry Pym when the newer Wolverine (clad in his classic costume) comes to stop him. After using an incident from their past to convince his double of who he is, the newer Wolverine warns that killing Henry Pym will just make things worse. Henry Pym claims he will not build Ultron, but Wolverine says he has to in order to allow history to continue. Pym says he can build a better A.I., but with a shut-off switch if he needs it. The Invisible Woman arrives to tell him he has to forget all this too with Pym confused as to how that happens. The Invisible Woman and the two Wolverines return to the Savage Land. The two Wolverines enter a cave. The newer Wolverine tells his double that he does not want to live with the memories of the world he saw. The past Wolverine kills his double and returns to a stunned Invisible Woman. Back at his laboratory, Henry Pym is putting together the first version of Ultron who calls him "Daddy."

Months before Ultron's attack, Henry Pym is working in his lab when he has given a package from a hidden Invisible Woman. He watches a video of his younger self which supplies a pack of equations on how to stop Ultron. The Avengers attack the headquarters of the Intelligencia to rescue Spider-Woman, the event that led to Ultron's revival. When Ultron is revived, Pym contacts Iron Man to supply the equations he was given and upload them into Ultron. Ultron is jarred to realize he is being defeated despite holding off the Avengers. The code is fully uploaded to shut him down and the virus destroys him. Wolverine and the Invisible Woman return to the present happy to see New York City back to normal. Before they can celebrate, a massive shockwave echoes through time and space as reality seeming to shatter before being pulled back together. At Avengers Tower, Henry Pym, Iron Man, and the Beast theorize that Wolverine's time travel journeys caused too much stress to the space-time continuum and has created various tears across the fabric of the multiverse. In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Miles Morales is out as Spider-Man when a flash of light echoes to reveal Galactus. Henry Pym talks to himself on what went wrong and suddenly realizes what he has to do. High above Earth, Angela appears vowing revenge on whoever has pulled her from her world.

Henry Pym reviews the data that Wolverine has brought back and is starting to slip into insanity. Fresh off the disaster he just saw, Pym has sat in his lab for four days straight. Not one but two apocalyptic timelines were shown in Wolverine's data and neither would have happened if he had acted differently. He is considering suicide. A sudden thought occurs: the other timeline was worse because it lacked Henry Pym. Not just Hank Pym the scientist workaholic, but Henry Pym, the ant-commanding, size-changing, second-guessing, science-adventurer. Henry Pym has had a positive effect on the world, and can again. Henry Pym is going to save lives by doing what Henry Pym does best...heroics and science with a strong theatrical flair.

Whew! Lots of back story courtesy of Wikipedia - thank you!

So where do we go from here? Looks like Joss Whedon must be hard at work adapting this storyline to the new Marvel cinematic universe. Would love to see Doctor Strange fit in sometime soon too! A friend of mine said he'd love to see The Avengers on their last legs with the world on the brink of destruction and have Doctor Strange suddenly appear, wave his hand and BOOM everything is fine. Roll credits. Everyone thinking, "Who is this guy??" :-)

I'm really pleased with how Joss Whedon, Kevin Feige, Marvel and Disney are helming the direction of these characters. I have complete faith in them. No missteps since IRON MAN (skipping HULK in 2008, which I really didn't mind).

More when we get it!



Here's the entire Marvel panel from Comic-Con 2013:




AND... Loki's now infamous speech to Hall H:

Must Watch (If You Dare): Latest Clip From THE AVENGERS! Loki And Nick Fury!!

How can you resist? You are going to have to break down eventually and at least this clip doesn't feature any action scenes - just some awesome dialogue between Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston)!

Just kidding. If you have managed to lay off of the Marvel marketing barrage to date, my hat is off to you. Enjoy the pristine movie experience! But if you're like me - READ ON... :-)

The clip really does underscore just how powerful dialogue can be in this movie, especially between these two fine actors. Who needs action when you have this? I was hanging on every word. Of course I was hoping there wouldn't be large spoilers (there wasn't) but there were some clues as to what's going on.

Check it out!



Couple of key (spoilerish) points:
- Loki can't control what he's tapped into
- Nick Fury has the Tesseract (but may not be able to control it according to this clip)
- The Avengers have a reading supply of magazines

I can't wait for this movie to happen...

via Collider

THE AVENGERS At NYCC 2011 - Trailer Most Viewed Ever On iTunes! New Short Featuring Agent Coulson!!

We have some Avenger photos / clips for you from the NYCC 2011 show - wish I was there this year!

Mark Ruffalo was a surprise visitor apparently as it was not advertised he would be there, but why not? He is an Avenger after all.

Love the energy in that room for the panel! A lot of confidence being displayed - I guess I would be confident of my movie too if it had 10 million trailer downloads on iTunes in the first 24 hours (Oct 11)! That my friends, is a new record.

Marvel has also released a new short featuring Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg - who is also on the Avengers panel clip). The clip will also be on the CAPTAIN AMERICA DVD / Blu-ray coming out October 25. Great to see him in action! Hope that carries through to THE AVENGERS.

Here are the clips (the panel is first followed by Coulson's short) - ENJOY!

New Images For Marvel's THE AVENGERS!

Click to enlarge...

We have six new images from Joss Whedon's THE AVENGERS for you!

Here's the synopsis:
Continuing the epic big-screen adventures started in “Iron Man,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Iron Man 2,” “Thor,” and “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Marvel’s The Avengers” is the super hero team up of a lifetime. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series, first published in 1963, “Marvel’s The Avengers” brings together the mightiest super hero characters as they all assemble together on screen for the first time.

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark
Chris Evans as Captain America
Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk
Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow
Tom Hiddleston as Loki
Don Cheadle as Col. James Rhodes
Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill
Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson
Stellan Skarsgård as Professor Erik Selvig

The promo quality is improving as the marketing folks for Marvel start to edge closer to releasing a full trailer. That day is coming I assure you! Great to see Nick Fury getting down and dirty...

In the meantime, have a look at the new shots - ENJOY! THE AVENGERS assemble May 4, 2012.

Source: SuperHeroHype