I don’t know if that’s every superhero movie ever, but it’s damn close.

Now, hit the break for Avengers stuff (yes, there’s still lots of it)–including Minecraft Avengers!–and news about the Spider-Man game, and another President fighting monsters. Lots of stories this week, so don’t delay…Hit the break!

AWARD WINNERS!

I’m heading up the news of the week by congratulating the winners of the Stumptown Awards—Oregon’s own Stumptown Comics version of the Eisners. The picks are a quality eclectic bunch of books worth reading. In particular: Green River Killer!

The winners of some of the categories were:

  • Best Artist: Jonathan Case, Green River Killer
  • Best Writer: Brandon Graham, Prophet
  • Best Cartoonist: Jaime Hernandez, Love and Rockets
  • Best Letterer: Stan Sakai, Usagi Yojimbo: Fox Hunt
  • Best Colorist: Dave Stewart, Hellboy: House of the Living Dead; Chimichanga \
  • Best Anthology: Lies Grownups Told Me edited by Nomi Kane, Jen Vaughn, Caitlin M.
  • Best Small Press: Fugue #1 by Beth Hetland
  • Best New Talent: Jonathan Case, Dear Creature, Green River Killer
  • Reader’s Choice: Vic Boone by Shawn Aldridge, Geoffo Panda

THE AVENGERS. Oh, and congrats to Avengers, too, for having the best opening weekend of all time, by far. Great movie. But in this interview with the cast, Mark Ruffalo claims that one of his favorite comics growing up was “Frank Miller’s X-Men.” Of course, my readers are smart enough to know that there’s no such thing. Way to be badly coached, dude. It’s now obvious you’ve never been a comic book fan.


AVENGERS 2. It’s a no-brainer. It’s also probably pretty smart that Marvel Studios is not going to change its current slate, which has various sequels scheduled through April 2014 (IM3, Thor2, Cap2, in that order). It means we won’t see The Avengers until, at the earliest, summer of 2014, but that makes sense. It should be an event. Marvel Studios already staked out a May 2014 release date for an “unnamed” movie, which everyone expects will be Guardians of the Galaxy. My only big fear is that it still will be Guardians of the Galaxy. I’m not saying it should be Avengers 2, but there’s so many other movies I’d rather see…Including ones already mentioned for development, like Runaways or Ant Man. (Although frankly if they do a b-lister movie like that, one thinks they should change their “2-flicks-a-year” rule to two movies about established characters, and one smaller breakthrough type.) Another contender is Hulk. Here’s hoping the third time’s the charm…Although, I must say: They are much maligned, but I enjoyed both Ang Lee’s “first” Hulk and the second with Ed Norton. Seen both of ‘em several times.

THE AVENGERS: BATTLE FOR EARTH. Finally, a videogame tie in—and it looks like it will be by the guys at Ubisoft, who recently found success with the pretty-darn-fun platformer Rayman Origins (and are also behind the Ghost Recon series).

FOX STUDIOS. You know Fox, right? They’re the ones who own Marvel properties and make Marvel movies but aren’t affiliated with Marvel Studios. On the heels of the success of X-Men: First Class, it’s no surpise that a sequel begins filming in January—but they’re also working on the constantly-in-turnaround Deadpool Movie, and restarting Daredevil and the F4….And launching a New Mutants franchise?!? Hm. Even I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t just a bit too much of the superflicks…

BULLET TO THE HEAD. I’m not a huge fan of the French graphic novel, but it was pretty good. I do, however, anticipate being a fan of the movie that is coming out in 2013, starring Sylvester Stallone, and written/directed by the great Walter (48 Hrs, Crossroads, The Warriors and HBO’s Deadwood) Hill.

IRON MAN 5. I titled this one IM5 because I don’t see Downey lasting more than two more pix, and they’re filming 3 and 4 simultaneously (at least, that’s the rumor). Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, as well as Robert Downey Jr., have publicly stated that when Downey is done being Tony, someone else will take up the mantle…And they WON’T do a reboot. They say that now, because they’re successful. We’ll see if it holds true in 5 years when the bloom is off the rose and the market has been overinundated with superflicks. I hope it holds true, though. There are decades worth of good Iron Man stories—no need to tell one you’ve already told. Take note, DC, when it comes time to bring Batman back with a different crew….

THEODORE ROOSEVELT: ZOMBIE HUNTER. In the summer issue of Indie Comics magazine.

CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK 2. Let’s get one thing straight: Pitch Black was an awesome, underrated flick. Chronicles of Riddick…Wasn’t. Now the release date for the sequel to the sequel has been pushed to January 2013: The dumping ground for turkeys. Poor, poor Vin Diesel.

COMIC BOOK COVERS!  This terrific web site has thousands of them….

SAM RAIMI’S POLTERGEIST. He’s in talks to do a “remake.” Really? We don’t need a remake. Just do a movie about a poltergeist. Don’t touch the original. It’s one of the greatest movies ever.

BPRD: HELL ON EARTH. When Wolverine went to Hell and came back, it kinda sucked. But BPRD is a better book—it’s actually a lot better than the Hellboy main title (which I like, but don’t love). When we last saw Hellboy, he died. Since then, we’ve seen a new era in the Hellboy universe: Hell on Earth.

IN OTHER HELLBOY NEWS…Dude has his first motion comic, The Fury. Hellboy in Hell (dude’s dead and burning eternally, remember?) won’t hit the stands until December.

SWEET TOOTH ENDS. Jeff Lemire had already hinted that he concluding arc in mind with his absolutely brilliant, and emotionally powerful, book about a kindly, child-like “freak” in a dystopian future who is forced to team up with The Punisher (okay, not really, but basically) in order to survive. I just had no idea it would come so soon. The current arc will be the last one, and the book will end at #40. The perfect size for a beautiful hardbound omnibus. Which I would like to preorder now.

TALKING DEAD AND COMIC BOOK MEN. AMC’s two comic-book-based reality shows have been renewed. I don’t watch the former. The latter was OK, but a little smarmy. There was a lot of nerd-on-nerd bullying, which seemed unnecessary and mean. If you make a show about and for comic book fans, is it really necessary to make fun of them? Which brings to mind Morgan Spurlock’s new doc about Comicon—it was a loving tribute, which dug a little into the lives of comic fans without portraying them as idiotic shut ins. Now that’s the way you do it!

SPIDER-MAN INTERVIEWS SPIDER-MAN. Tobey Maguire chats with Andrew Garfield on VMan. It’s interesting, but I’m a little sick of actors who say they don’t want to be famous/can’t handle being in the public eye. Come on, guys. No one’s buying that. Whatever happened to guys like Stallone, Schwartzeneggar and Willis, who were proud to be famous and opened restaurant chains together? Oh, yeah. They got old and made a movie together that looks balls-out awesome. Check it out here.

AND SPEAKING OF THE NEW SPIDER-MAN…If you preorder from Amazon the console game, made by Activision (who’ve already made several awesome Spidey games), you get Stan Lee as a playable character, complete with his own unique “missions.” (Actually, it looks more like he’s a “skin”—he’ll be able to do whatever a Spider-Man can.) The screen shots from this game are amazing. Gamestop’s preorder bonus let’s you play as Rhino. Wish you didn’t have to pick between the two….