Saw “The Incredible Hulk” and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought it would. The best way to describe it is just sub out Jason Borne for Bruce Banner and then add in an occasional green monster who smashes things. What surprised me most about the movie was just how close my plot guessing based off the trailers was. I got several key points wrong (partially because the scenes in the trailers weren’t even in the movie) but I got the majority of it right.

This clip alone shows just how hilarious and great of an actor Edward Norton is.

Apparently there have been internet roomers that Marvel has been lowballing Jon Favreau in regards to “Iron Man 2” but Nikki Finke says that’s not true:

I learned this morning that Marvel Studios boss David Maisel very recently put out an offer to Jon Favreau to direct the sequel and that the offer is “definitely” richer than what the helmer received for the original.  Even so, the negotiation has only just begun. So all that Internet blather about how Marvel doesn’t want to bring back Favreau because the studio is lowballing him is just b.s. As an insider told me, “They’re not paying him the same wage. They’re definitely paying him a higher fee to direct this one. What, do people think Marvel is stupid? Of course, the movie was successful, so they’re offering him more.”

“Iron Man 2″ was announced for May 2010, but apparently John Favreau isn’t too happy about that. He did a brief rant on his myspace page explained that neither he nor Robert Downey Jr. were

I am concerned, however, about the announced release date of April 2010. Neither Robert nor I were consulted about this and we are both concerned about how realistic the date is in light of the fact that we have no script, story or even writers hired yet. This genre of movie is best when it is done thoughtfully and with plenty of preparation.

In this new trailer for “Hulk” you can see Tony Stark at the very beginning.

Marvel announced this morning that “The Avengers” will hit the big screen in July 2011 as will “Captain America” in May 2011. Other previously announced films still in the works include “Punisher: War Zone” (Dec. 2008), “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (May 2009), Iron Man 2 (2010), Thor (2010), and Ant-Man (2010).

So from this we can conclude that “The Avengers” movie will consist of the cast defined in the first four issues of the series: Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, and Wasp. It should be interesting to see if Hulk, Sub-Mariner, or Loki end up as the main villain of the movie.

According to Nikki Finke’s math, “Iron Man” made over $200 million this weekend!

With this addition, the total estimated box office is $104,250,000. The estimated international box office for the weekend is $96,750,000 from 57 territories. The total combined estimated global box office for Marvel Studios’ Iron Man is $201,000,000.

Not only are those numbers insane (most box office gurus were saying it would only make around $70 million), but its second highest opening for a non-sequel (The first being “Spider-Man” which made over $140 million).

The problem with “The Incredible Hulk” trailers is that they show the whole movie. In fact, based on the two trailers I’ve put together a plot breakdown. Now I don’t know for sure what is going to happen in the movie, so nothing below is an actual spoiler, just speculation based on the trailers. However beware… (Read on …)

Holy crap! Marvel Boy’s predictions from last week were apparently true. Marvel sent out a press release today announcing that Joe Quesada is no longer the editor and chief of Marvel Comics. NY Times ran the following article:

In a move designed to enhance its existing management team, Marvel Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:MVL - News) announced a strategic re-alignment of existing management to position the Company for the next phase of growth. Editor and Chief Joe Quesada will be shifting into a non-executive role with the new title of “Chief Marketing Officer.”

I have the full press release after the break, of course no word yet on who will be replacing him. (Read on …)

The cast of “Wolverine: Origins” was seriously fleshed out this past week. Left to right we have:

• Agent Zero – played by Daniel Henney
• William Stryker – played by Danny Huston
• Sabertooh – played by Live Schreiber
• Beak – played by Dominic Monaghan
• Gambit – played by Taylor Kitsch
• Silverfox – played by Lynn Collins
• Deadpool - played by Ryan Reynolds

Wanna read the longest thread ever on the Marvel Forum? Then go here. Of course it’s all Tom Brevoort’s fault because he asked the internet public to post about what they gripe about.

So let’s all gripe here for a second. What is there about what we’re doing at the moment that you don’t like? You can be specific if you like (although I don’t really need to read the same four posts about “One More Day” again), but I’m speaking more in broad strokes, in generalities. By the same token, I’m not really looking to control the terms of your gripes.

Way back in 2006, Marvel announced they were making an MMORPG in the vein of “Hero City.” Nearly no news or updates have been released since then, so it isn’t too surprising that Marvel and Microsoft have canceled the project. In a press release the following statment was released:

Marvel and Microsoft have agreed to end development on the MMO. It’s just something that we felt that, for us and for them, it would be better if we ended development. When we first entered into the development and agreement of the development of ‘Marvel Universe Online,’ we thought we would create another subscription-based MMO. And if you really look at the data there’s basically one that’s successful and everything else wouldn’t meet our level or definition of commercial success.

So basically they were scared of “World of Warcraft?”

The CW announced that “Spectacular Spider-Man” will premier on Saturday March 8th. What’s really cool, and something I didn’t realize, is that “Gargoyles” creator/executive producer Greg Weisman is running the show. I was indifferent about the cartoon, but now I’m really excited.

With Marvel Studios having formed an deal with the WGA, their writers have gotten back to work and word on the street is that instead of moving forward with a “Spider-Man 4″ script the are searching for a writer to handle a “Venom” spin-off. Since the strike (for the moment) is still ongoing they are actually going after higher-end writers who normally wouldn’t be interesting in writer a summer tent-pole movie.

The “Iron Man” super bowl spot is now on the movie’s official site.

In “New Avengers” #41, the crew is heading back to The Savage Land. On his blog, Tom B. revealed the page displayed above.

Let me preface this post by saying that I didn’t read Messiah Complex. I’m a trade guy and will read it once it’s been collected. However, the internet is the internet and even if you aren’t looking for spoilers you stumble across them. So before I continue, this is your spoiler warning… (Read on …)

Joe Quesada appeared on last night’s “Colbert Report” to hype the skrull invasion and to talk about Captain America’s return. There was no mention or hard pressing questions about Peter Parker’s and Mary Jane’s divorce, but Joe Q did announce that in the Marvel Universe Colbert is still running for president and is polling extremely high.

If you missed it, don’t worry. You didn’t miss anything, plus we all know that someone will eventually post it on You Tube. Besides the Conan/Jon Stewart bit was a billion times funnier and more interesting then Joe Quesada talking out of his butt.

Since the Mary Jane Watson and Peter Parker wedding never happened, someone removed MJ from the cover of their wedding issue. I received this in a random email so I’m not sure who did it, but it did make me laugh.

Rumors were first swirling that Liev Schreiber was going to be playing a young Striker, but instead he has been cast as Sabertooth in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The film will be set in the 1970’s during Logan’s involvement with Weapon-X.

It also seems that “Dexter” star Michael C. Hall is in talks for the role of Stryker, while Michelle Monaghan is being sought for Silver Fox.

I don’t normally like to repost links to blogs that were linked to by the big comic book sites… but after I saw this picture of the “Runaways” cast by their new regular artist Humberto Ramos I just had to point it out.

For his 1,000th post, Tom Brevoort talks about how to turn down submissions.

Ask any editor who’s been in the business for any length of time: there’s always that one moment when somebody shows you their stuff, it’s amateurish enough and the person is old enough that you just absolutely know that they’re never going to be able to make a living drawing comics.

He goes on to say that generally he does his best to get his point across without being totally evil. Man, doesn’t Marvel sound like such a fun place to work?

Newsarama posted the above pic (click to enlarge) that explains Spider-Man’s new status quo after the “One More Day” reboot. I knew about the reboot months before the first “One More Day” book came out, so I’m not all worked up about it as most people are. But even so, I think I’m going to stop reading the book. If “Brand New Day” turns out to be a well written piece of work then I’ll eventually pick it up in graphic novel form, but otherwise, the Spider-Man I know is gone so its not like I’m missing anything.

Hints of an “Avengers” movie, the Marvel Comics equivalent of the Justice League, may be closer than you think with the upcoming “Hulk” reinvention with Edward Norton. According to a scooper for AICN, a scene was shot for Universal’s “The Incredible Hulk” featuring General Thunderbolt (William Hurt) having a meeting with the “Iron Man” himself Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.).

Stan Lee is telling the press that Marvel is planning a “Power Pack” movie.

“They’ve been talking about…now they’re not working on it but they have been discussing whether to do it–Power Pack.”

The Power Pack is the first team of preteen superheroes ever in the Marvel Universe and first appeared in their own comic book series in 1984. The series lasted a little over the year, but recenty its become an all-age book with nonstop crossovers with all the major Marvel Characters.

What is going on with Marvel’s editorial staff? First they decide to re-write history so that Peter Parker and Mary Jane were never married and now they are resurrecting Jean Grey as a baby! The infant incarnation of The Phoenix is apparently being cared for by her future-son, Cable (gee thats not confusing) and will play a prominent role in the X-men Universe post-Messiah-Complex. Lame.

Pop Candy pointed out in a link-dump that Marvel has finally launched their online database of readable comics. The system is definitely glitchy and the interface isn’t easy to use, but my real question is… what do retailers think of this? Marvel is saying that they will only put up comics that are six months old, but that’s still fairly recent. Is this going to cut out retailers because fans who would have bought the comics or the trades will now be reading online?

Mark Bagley, most known for his extra-long stint on “Ultimate Spider-Man,” is moving to DC Comics. Newsarama broke the story but neither DC nor Bagley are sharing quotes or answering questions.

The Stuff reports that the upcoming “Wolverine” movie will be set in the 1970’s and much of the explosive finale will be shot on New Zealand’s south island. The scenes, which include a sniper rocket blowing up a barn of a farmhouse property called Hudson Farm, will be shot around Arcadia Station in mid-January for eight days. Sets are being constructed there and at Deer Park Heights. Other scenes will be shot at Kingston Beach, Milford Sound, Rees Valley, Skippers Canyon and Naseby Forest. Pre-production is currently under way at Fox Studios in Sydney.

Marvel has delayed the final two issues of “Spider-Man: One More Day.” They didn’t say why but it’s most likely because Joe Q. is really really slow at drawing. Instead of coming out on October 31^st and November 28^th the final two issues will come out on November 28^th and December 27^th.

The real problem with this situation is that Amazing Spider-Man’s tri-monthly debut was supposed to start on December 5^th and continue on the 12^th and 19^th. Since the series is heavily dependent on the status quo being re-written in “One More Day” Marvel will most likely delay the title by a month.

Then, just because I’ve not posted it enough, to find out what happens in “One More Day” read the spoilers after the break… (Read on …)

The new look for the new Captain American was revealed last week. Fanboys were in rage. Everyone else just kinda shrugged it off. Personally, I think the artist has some sort of freaky saran-wrap fetish. Oh and the new Captain America is Bucky.

Screenwriter Skip Woods (”Hitman,” “Swordfish”) has been brought in to revise David Benioff’s screenplay for “Wolverine” reports IGN Movies.

Meanwhile director Gavin Hood talked about the film to IESB.Net this weekend and confirms the shoot should last 3-4 months, almost all taking place in Sydney’s Fox Studios, and it will be a PG-13 rating.

He adds “We start shooting the film in December, we start shooting the film in December, possibly January, we are very involved in the process and now and we’ll be casting over the next couple of months.”

Oddly enough, Perez of all places has an update on the Spider-Man Musical:

Bono and The Edge have been chosen as the team behind the musical version of Spider-Man. The fellas from U2 will work on the score and lyrics for the in development show and The Lion King mastermind, Julie Taymor, has been tapped to direct.

Things are moving along and the production team is looking for a space. “It’s a a big extravaganza, which needs a huge theater,” says Taymor.

“Punisher: War Zone” has been through a number of cast and crew changes, from Ray Stevenson (”Rome”) replacing Thomas Jane as Frank Castle to director Jonathan Hensleigh being replaced with lesser known director Lexi Alexander.

And now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, two new actors are in negotiations to join the cast. (Read on …)

Even though the show hasn’t premiered yet, “Spectacular Spider-Man” has been picked up for another season. Both the first and second season will run for 13 episodes each. The art and general direction seems to be very “Ultimate Spider-Man” but I’m reserving judgment until I actually see it.

I have returned and with my return comes spoilers. Check after the break to findout what exactly happens in “Spider-Man: One More Day.” (Read on …)