Category: Marvel

Comic Book Cover of the Week: Dale Keown Rules The Hulk!!!

We’ve got some artists in the comic book industry who really were meant to draw certain characters and one who always needs mention when it comes to The Incredible Hulk is Dale Keown!! Yep it really doesn’t get much better than Keown’s version of the Hulk & from 1990 to ’92 when he took over the art on the title it was clear his version of the Hulk would go down in history as one of the best. He’s right up there with Sal Buscema and John Byrne in my book as all time best Hulksters. In fact back in 1990 his artwork on Hulk reminded me a lot of Byrne’s version of the character. Keown would go on to Image to introduce us all to his own “Hulk” type character, “Pitt”. Anyway Here’s a great Keown cover from 1990 that shows he’s one of the best Hulk artists of all time!! 

Oh and if you still don’t think Keown was one of the best Hulk artists ever here’s a few more images to prove my point!

OMG! Have You Seen the Boring “New” Jeremy Renner Hawkeye Costume?!!

I’ve seen the big hype all over lately about Jeremy Renner’s “new” Hawkeye costume for  the upcoming Civil War movie and you know what….so WHAT of if?! If they really wanted to impress us comic book fans they could have done waaaay better than that! When I first saw the headlines I was actually really really excited! In my mind I was fully ready to see this:

Or This:

but in reality something like this most likely:

But instead it was..yawn..this… 

Ok so now that picture above isn’t really bad at all, it’s just really nothing new. In fact Isn’t that pretty much what he’s been wearing in every other movie? So everyone please calm down about Hawkeye’s new costume, it’s really nothing to get your undies in a bundle over, at least if you’re a long time fan of the comic book character. Peace!!

Hey Hugh Jackman, Here’s Why ‘Old Man Logan’ SHOULDN’T be the “Final” Wolverine Movie!

Ok, So Hugh Jackman went on Twitter the other day asking the fans exactly what they wanna see for the “final” Wolverine movie. So listen up Hugh I’m a real fan of Wolverine and here’s my real thoughts on your final movie outing as the character! First let me get this out of the way, I loved the “Old Man Logan” storyline and that is why this next Wolverine movie should absolutely NOT be based on it. Primarily Hugh you’re just not OLD enough yet!! Seriously, you should do “Old Man Logan” ten years to fifteen years from now. How rad would that be to see you come back for this when you are actually an older guy?!

Hugh you’re still too young for this one…

Right now focus on the final flick being just a great Wolverine story that can be done right giving the fans exactly what they want. Second ‘Old Man Logan’ done right would feature Clint Barton (Hawkeye) and The Incredible Hulk. That at the moment just does not seem possible due to legal reasons so HOLD OFF on this until it IS the right time where you can really do the story justice. Don’t fuck this up Hugh!! Work on getting these things figured out and then come back and give the fans what they truly deserve. There’s no Rush for this storyline.

Ok now let’s get onto what I have seen the fans asking for. Number one of most all the comments I have read want to see you suit up in one of the classic costumes!! I can say personally that I agree with this. Give us the classic comic Wolverine before you sign off on the character. Fans have been asking for this forever, it’s a no brainer. Do it Hugh. You might wanna consider the black, brown and tan costume or the version worn in X-Force which would probably translate better to film. Let’s face it the blue, yellow and black one might be a bit much.

wolverine

Alright then, the other most common comment I’ve seen is concerns about the rating of the movie. Fans want and R-rated Wolverine movie dammit! Seriously we need to see what a real bezerker rage would look like from a guy with unbreakable metal claws would really look like. Wolverine needs to stab, slice and dice like he does in the comics. It’s crazy how little blood is seen on screen from an enraged animalistic mutant. Let’s really see wolverine go nuts one last time . I think this WILL happen once the studio sees how Deadpool fares. No more mediocre, watered down Wolverine go out with a real bang!

Lastly give us a truly great villain for him to face! Let’s see Lady Deathstrike come back looking more like she did in the comics along with The Reavers! How awesome would that be?

Or have Wolverine head off to Madripoor to retire and face off against Razorfist, Bloodsport and Roughhouse! That was a super cool & huge part of Logan’s past and could include some great almost Indiana Jones style of jungle adventure.

Or how about Omega Red tracking down Logan he’d be quite a sight on the big screen and a great classic villain!

Or have Wolverine head off to the woods of Canada to get away from it all and end up trying to survive and save innocents from The Wendigo?! Now that’d be intensely creepy adventure…

Or Lastly have Wolverine tracked down by Alpha Flight, this would be a great way to introduce a new team franchise and an intense part of Logan’s history that has yet to be told or even mentioned.

So there you have it thoughts from a real fan! Make this shit happen already!! What do you all think would be the best Wolverine story for Hugh to star in as his “final” appearance?

Comic Book Cover of the Week: The Hulk’s Vintage Magazine Career!!

So this week I wanted to take a trip down memory lane and showcase some of my favorite comic covers that are actually covers from the Hulk’s magazine career back in the late 1970’s. There were two, The Rampaging Hulk and The Hulk were both in magazine format and usually featured back up stories from lesser know superheroes or extra’s on the Hulk and many times his villains. These were extra special because the covers were almost always super spectacular paintings of the big ol’ green guy! So here a re some of my favorites check em’ out-they just don’t make em’ like this any more! These are truly INCREDIBLE!

Sal Buscema’s Greatest Hits: Anatomy of the Most Powerful Comic Book Punches!!

Sal Buscema has been one of my all time favorite comic book artists ever since I was just a little kid! His name is synonymous with The Incredible Hulk as one of the longest artists ever on the classic book as well as drawing much of the Hulk-ified Defenders comics way back in the day. The guy is a legend. Period. Well one of my favorite things about his artwork in the comics is the classic Buscema powerful punch! He loves to draw incredibly painful punches that send both heroes and villains flying upside down in the air straight at the reader! It’s really his trademark, so let’s take a good long look at some of Buscema’s greatest hits in all their glory!!!

And finally just a few non-flying Sal Buscema punches that totally look like they hurt big time!

Phew! My head hurst just looking at all these painful punches! Thanks to 80 Page Giant Blog for many of the images!!

Comic Book Cover of the Week: The Other Thor!

This awesome comic book cover from 1983 has gotta be one of my favorites ever! Thor #337 features my favorite character from the norse god’s mythos-Beta Ray Bill! This super weird character made his first appearance in this issue and as odd as this guy looked he was deemed worthy of Thor’s hammer! So Beta Ray to me is just as cool as Thor, even more so I’d dig it if rather than a woman Thor, we’d just get him to take place of the character completely for a while instead. Also Walt Simonson uses simplicity to make this one of the coolest covers ever for The Mighty Thor comic series. I also really love it when characters affect the comic book covers logo’s and such-I’ve gotta sit down and dig this one out of my collection and give it another read pronto!! They need to put this guy into the next Thor flick dammit!

Conspiracy Theory: The Owl & Wolverine are the SAME person?!!

I’ve always wondered if perhaps there is some secret connection to Wolverine and The Owl in Marvel comics? Is it just me or do these two legendary characters share some unexplained similarities! Have they ever met in the comics? From what I can tell they’ve never crossed paths. So what’s up here are they long lost brothers? The Same person?! Distant relatives or did perhaps Wolverine rip off Leland Owsley’s style? Let’s compare!

hmmm…..

Well let’s see Wolverine again…even though we all know what he looks like!

I’m sure i’m not the first to notice this ahem…striking similarity! but just for the record The Owl first appeared in Daredevil #3 in 1964! Well good ol’ boy Wolverine didn’t appear until 1974 in Incredible Hulk #181! So looks like Wolverine just might have copied Leland’s look for his own! Damn! But still I’m fairly certain The Owl decided he realllllly like Logan’s claws so he had to make a pair for himself. I’m not sure just when The Owl’s claws made their first appearance…STILL though I think it’s totally possible that Logan just might be Leland! Most people make aliases with the same letters in the first name right??! The conspiracy deepens!!

Comic Book Cover of the Week: The Hulk’s Painful Punch!

This awesome cover from The Incredible Hulk #293 sure does pack a powerful & pissed off punch!! A great piece of work from Brett Blevin’s rad cover from 1983, you can almost feel how much pain the Thing must be feeling here and not to mention the sheer agony of Reed Richards as we notice he’s tied in knots! Interesting enough this epic battle takes place in Banner’s mind where a savage “nightmare” version of the Hulk has been plaguing his own dreams! Soon enough we all know just who’s controlling Banners nightmares and sending the Banner Hulk back into a savage mindless beast! This leads up to a storyline that is basically Planet Hulk but sending him into the Crossroads-a mutli-dimensional realm where anything can happen and The Hulk is no longer the strongest one there is! This is a great era for hardcore Hulk fans…

Nightcrawler, Michael Jackson & More Jared Joker!

Ok we’re off to a good start today as some pics have been posted of Nightcrawler and a few of the other X-men from Bryan Singer’s “Age of Apocalypse” which is filming right now. So far it seems Singer is on track with promo images as this Nightcrawler image looks pretty awesome to me so far. I’m so excited for this new X-men film to take place in the eighties dammit!

Now some people are saying that Nightcrawler has a emo boy hairdo, but I call bullshit on that, in fact back in the 1980’s I had a similar hair style that we all referred to as “skater bangs”.

Also I’m loving this Michael Jackson jacket he’s wearing-so perfect and compliments the colors of his original costume to a T!

I can’t wait for this movie as the last one was one of the best comic book movies ever by a long shot. Here’s Jubilee too looking perfect as ever…

Oh yeah here’s a total douche bag photo just released of Jared Leto’s muscular body for the “beefcake” version of The Joker, a role which really required the opposite body type. Come on DC stop releasing photos please, it’s cinematic suicide…

Maybe Leto thinks he’s actually playing Superman?!

Archangel Coming to the Big Screen in Age of Apocalypse?!

This new pic released as concept art for Bryan Singer’s X-men: Age of Apocalypse has got me pretty damn excited. It clearly shows that this “final” installment of the movie franchise will feature once again The Angel, (Warren Worthington III) making an appearance on the big screen! Unfortunately we got a pretty flimsy version of the iconic X-man in Ratner’s X-men in 2006, that’s not to say the casting wasn’t pitch perfect with Ben Foster in the role. It really featured him in a bit role as an easily forgettable part of the critically un-acclaimed movie. So now we’ve possibly got Ben Hardy being cast as that same character in the upcoming movie and really that can mean only one thing. Apocalypse and The Angel on the sliver screen together=Archangel. Check out this pic released yesterday…

So in the pic it looks like Warren is on display, caged in some sort of auditorium. People think this might be some sort of traveling carnival, or an alternate dimension but I think it’s Angel perhaps held captive by some anti-mutant group before they “clip his wings” for show. It also reminds me of  an image of Warren when his wings were taken from him viciously by The Marauders during the Mutant Massacre storyline(one of the best), however in the above concept picture it’s not clear if his wings have been impaled.

To me it was a sad day back in the 1980’s for The Angel when this happened and the loss of his wings ultimately lead to him “committing suicide” by crashing a plane he was piloting. We all know though he was far from dead and the next chapter for the character was perhaps the most compelling. Apocalypse saved him from his suicide and turned him into a blue skinned killing machine with razor sharp metal wings. No longer was Warren the blonde pretty boy, now he was a deadly character that could go one on one with the likes of Wolverine and Sabretooth. Archangel is easily one of my favorite Marvel characters of all time but over time they decided to transform him back into the his original form with the feather wings.

 

We however in the past few years saw the Archangel persona return and join X-Force where he lead the team to murder the resurrected incarnation of Apocalypse as a young boy. So I can say with certainty that we are going to see Archangel on the big screen because lets face it to include Warren Worthington and Apocalypse in the same flick and not follow this story line would be a crime! Don’t screw this up Singer!!!