My movie is out already but I was in the neighbourhood ok!
They seek them here. They seek them there. They seek those superhero’s everywhere!
Actually there’s isn’t much seeking required because your TV, streaming channel and cinema are set to be positively chock-full of heroic comic adapted action over the next 12 months. And if you have some comic adaptions to get fans pants wet with anticipation about then Comic Con is the place to tease them. Here’s a round-up of a few of the more interesting from Mostly Films theTramp and James Moar.
Super-telly! With theTramp
Well first up there is A LOT, and I do mean A LOT, of comic based TV coming our way. Of course it has been building for some time, but it seems that just like cop shows audiences can’t get enough of ’em. Or at least that is what the folks commissioning new seasons and new series’ will be hoping. Here are a few of the more interesting trailers they teased us with at Comic Con.
Netflix takes its 4 devils kitchen heroes – Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil and Iron Fist – and throws them together so that they might save New York. Sigourney Weaver is clearly the bad-guy, well gal and Lance Henrikson; well Lance is making me think of the rat from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Just me? OK fine. “More death is coming, and the only thing keeping it from crumbling into a pile of dust is the 4 of you.” He says sagely. Are you shivering? You should be shivering, but just in case you aren’t let it be known that the bad ass female ninja you just saw evil Sigourney caressing, that is Electra. Hoo yea! The musical switch to Nirvana’s Come as You Are at the end is a nice touch. The injection of humour helps too – something I’d argue was lacking from the singleton outings for the Defenders, although I know others disagree. Hopefully their shared adventures will prove more fun than not. Regardless, Netflix has invested in these characters and it is planning on getting its tuppence worth.
The first season of Preacher was unabashedly nuts. I know some fans were unhappy with the casting, but seriously I don’t think any TV or film comic adaptation is anywhere close to being as anarchic, fun, dark as hell and benefiting from the desire to experiment and find new audiences as Preacher is. Streaming on Amazon in the UK at the moment but clearly coming soon in the States, this trailer is like watching one long comedic strand of acid induced consciousness. The excellent choice of music – Poison by Bell Biv DeVoe – a divine slice of early 90s hip hop against which the quest for God, slapstick, pratfalls, roll-out of ever increasingly odd characters and road trip based hijinks play out – tells you all that you need to know about whether or not you will love this show. I’m in the love camp and this trailer has more fun packed into it than all the rest put together. “Like a 10 inch dick I need to see it to believe it.” Yes you do.
They’re on a mission for God…
The time travelling adventures of the super-B listers continues. Or – the costume department’s favourite show ever gets another run and even more fun as the mix between future lycra and historical costumes steps up a gear. Never watched Legends of Tomorrow? Well this trailer gives you a good idea of its appeal. It kicks off with a crashing spaceship, which by the way also travels through time, and a few dinosaurs rampaging about a timeline even the cursory viewer is aware that they have no place hanging out in. Moving on to the shows narrative pivot “a great evil is coming!” and reason for viewing – watching the gang in differing costumes kicking arse – and finishing off with a nice in-joke that references actor Victor Garber’s role in Titanic. This is one aimed squarely at the geeks.
Iwan Rheon was fantastic in Misfits. He managed to pull off creepy loaner and heroic stranger. But of course most people know him from Game of Thrones and in that he embodied one of the nastiest screen villains TV has ever seen. So perhaps it is no surprise to see him black clad and Machiavellian as the kings brother in the Inhumans trailer. And what does the trailer tell us, apart from the fact that Iwan is back as a baddy? Well it tells us that Inhumans have their own world, they don’t like humans very much, there’s a bird with bad ass long red hair and the King can’t speak because when he does something awful seems to happen. Oh yea, and there’s some sort of interdimensional dog who can whisk you away. It is very large and pretty terrifying despite the fact that it looks like it is ready to roll over and have its belly rubbed. Rag’n’Bone Man’s “human” may be an obvious music choice, but who cares? It is an excellent choice and the choreographed snippets of drama, plot and action fit marvellously against it. Oh yea and the Throne is coming to an Ikea near you. (Oh ok that last bit was a fib).
You last saw Stephen Moyer as vampire Bill and Amy Acker is best known from her Angel days, but whilst the trailer suggests Midnight Special meets Carrie meets Beverly Hills 90210, it doesn’t really tell us much. What we do know is Mr Moyer is a cop who doesn’t like mutants. Until it turns out that’s what his kids are – ZING! So now they are on the run, with a few other gifted kids. What could happen? Will they be captured? Hounded? Can they escape to some sort of Shangri-La for the gifted?! I can honestly say that on the basis of this trailer I don’t think I care, but I do like Amy Acker and she may prove draw enough to make me tune in. Which is probably what those clever casting folks were up to when they chose the adult leads, she says cynically. Of course those in the know will be excited because it is part of the X-Men universe and Bryan Singer has helped bring this to the screen. But Inhumans has the better trailer.
And last but not least there is the Krypton teaser. Shot in Belfast and leaving us with a flash of the supes iconic S emblem this gives very little away, but that won’t stop the super-fans from getting excited.
Looks like someone has blown the budget on their latest gameshow.
Not covered, but also trailed and coming soon we have new seasons of Arrow (I’m still fighting, yea yea yea!), Supergirl (I’m still shiny, yea, yea, yea!) and the Flash (I’m so speedy, yea, yea yea!).
Cine-roics – theTramp with James Moar
For viewers getting a bit tired of all this superhero malarkey tough tits because there is a lot more of it coming to a multiplex near you. So buckle up sunshine and have a sip of what’s to come because the studio’s think these are sure things and the execs there want to earn their points.
Thor: Ragnarok brings in Taika Watiti (What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople) as director, and looks to fully commit to Chris Hemsworth’s willingness to make Thor the charming lunk of the Marvel movies. Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk is brought in as an outright co-star, as the film partially adapts the “Planet Hulk” storyline. The comics also contribute the sort of big cosmic quest that always suits their version of Thor, while the Norse myths contribute Ragnarok.
Phwoar!
Oh OK, so it isn’t adapted from a comic (as far as I know) but I’m featuring it anyway. A human cop is forced to work with an Orc. Will Smith is the cop and he swats a fairy in his front yard and finds himself a magic wand. Oh yea, and his partner is an Orc, which means the film is facing down prejudice in a new and interesting way. No really it is. You can tell because Will says that different races are just different, no one is better. So there. This is Netflix flexing its muscles with a starry cast, big budget and geek pleaser. Or at least so it hopes.
So no-one liked Batman v Superman (although you wouldn’t know it), but they did like Wonder Woman and the studio knows it, which is why she features highly in this trailer. It is a “world without hope”. Superman is dead, villains are rampant; who will save us?! Why the Justice League of course. DC’s answer to the X-Men should be something to get excited by, but I dunno; the trailer is a bit ‘meh’ isn’t it. Some rock guitar. A bit of heroic crescendo music. A lot of slow mo. A camera zooming up to Batman’s codpiece for no good reason. And it’s 4 minutes long. Do we need 4 minutes to get excited? Zac Snyder is directing; which is unlikely to excite many critics who, Gadot love aside, are unlikely to go in with blunt knives. Certainly from the trailer I can’t say that I’m itching to watch it.
Oh look Martin Freeman! And a South African chap tied up. He’s talking about El Dorado and he sounds like a bad ‘un. There’s some folks listening in to this interrogation and they look unimpressed. Could one of them be the Black Panther? Indeed where is the Black Panther? There’s a voice over here talking about how hard it is to be a good man and a good king. There’s some United Nations type action taken straight out of the Star Trek book of United Nations action. And some space ships. And an SUV. OK I am confused now, although the Black Panther is leaping from the SUV to a car so I don’t care. Hoo Ha!
Yes I know it is Lego, not a comic adaptation, but it counts ok. OK! So if Star Wars’ parental embarrassment narrative was made as a ninja comedy movie pitting son against father using Lego figures rather than actors and Yoda was played by Jackie Chan you’d have this. Brilliant! It kicks off with a bit of old man ninja dancing to Taylor Swift. The jokes seem as adult as they were in Lego Batman, which was all kinds of excellent and meowther is a stroke of genius. So in short – Lego Ninjago Movie, I’m in. Now watch the trailer because it is grrreat!
Don’t you, forget about me. No, no, no, no!
And a handful more
Of course that’s not all folks! Not every superhero can be ready in time for Comic Con. I mean, think of all the SFX guys hard at work would ya. So here’s a summary by James Moar of more to come.
Avengers: Infinity War
The trailer for this hasn’t been publicly released yet — well, why bother when descriptions and wobbly smartphone video give you all the buzz you need? It sounds like the teaser that might be expected, though, light on plot details but very clear that it’ll be featuring the Avengers, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, the Winter Soldier, Loki, Thanos, and all the Guardians of the Galaxy. Also, a moon as a projectile weapon.
The Russo Brothers are directing, and the skill they showed wiring together character arcs in Civil War will hopefully stand them in good stead here. If these mega-crossovers bore you, though, don’t worry; I’m sure superhero fatigue is due to set in any decade now.
X-Men
Fox continues to take its X-Men license in several directions at once. The Gifted (noted above) follows Legion as a TV series loosely connected to the films. It looks the more conventional of the two, dealing with a family discovering their children are mutants, with a sprinkling of newly introduced X-characters along to help. It premieres in October.
Looking further ahead, there’s the film New Mutants.
This is based on one of the comics’ earliest X-Men spinoffs, about a group of teenage mutants being educated as a new generation of the X-Men, and promises an adaptation that leans heavily into the horror elements introduced by artist Bill Sienkiewicz.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (or, The One Where Sansa Stark Eats a Sun) is due to more faithfully readapt a story already featured in X-Men: The Last Stand, as this time Jean Grey’s struggle with her dark side looks set to go cosmic is a way these films have avoided before.
There’s also Deadpool 2, which is sure to be as clean-minded and family-friendly as the first film.
MostlyFilm 