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10/09/16 @ 11:21 am EST
Byron Brewer talks with Max Marks about the upcoming WolfCop #3, on sale in December from Dynamite. Cover by Mario Gully. BYRON BREWER: Max, why the decision to bring the road trip to a close so soon and return Lou to Woodhaven?MAX MARKS: WolfCop’s got something very specific to deal with from the second comic that makes him have to return home. But my personal decision to bring him back to Woodhaven was for a few reasons: First, I wanted to bring Tina into the comics, and she’s very bound to Woodhaven. Second, I think that the town itself is almost a character in its own right, and I wanted it to be able to play even a brief role in the comics. Third, since this is the conclusion of WolfCop’s first trilogy run into this medium, I thought bringing it all home would be a nice way of giving this foray a nice little send-off. BB: Now that Lou is “wolfed out” full-time, will you be exploring what that does to his psyche? I know he’s always enjoyed being WolfCop more than Lou Garou, but being trapped in the one form would, I would think, bring some type of mental angst … or maybe elation?MM: This third comic is action-packed and WolfCop takes a lot of physical punishment. His mental anguish doesn’t really come up… Yet. But I did some experimenting with internal monologues for Lou in this one, which is a bit different, so you can see a bit more of what goes on in his head when he’s WolfCop. BB: Any clues as to what’s going on in the hometown … or hints as to who/what may be behind it? Is it a threat Lou has encountered before? (Non-spoilery, of course!)MM: This is an entirely new threat. What they want is similar to what other shady Woodhaven villains have, but what WolfCop’s facing here is… Well, it’s something we absolutely could never afford in the budget for the film. BB: Aside from WolfCop, what character along the way has been the most interesting to explore … even if briefly?MM: Willie is in many ways my favorite character in the WolfCop series. He seems like the crazy sidekick, but there’s more to him. A lot of the return to Woodhaven is about pushing this mystery of his. But aside from the core cast, there’s a lot of mythology I’ve built in the background about the villains of each issue. The villain in #3 is visually my favorite by a wide margin, and I do hope I’ll have a chance to explore him further. BB: Will there be any new characters in #3, on sale in December? Since Lou is returning to his hometown, perhaps some of his very old friends/acquaintances who can flesh out who Lou is outside of a lupine policeman?MM: If there’s one thing we learn about Lou in the film, it’s that he doesn’t have many friends in Woodhaven, and after the events of the first film, most of the ones he does have are dead. But he’s always got one person he can rely on when he’s in trouble, and that’s Tina. I’m really happy I got to bring her into the comics, even briefly. There’s no good reason she’d ever leave her hometown, so her appearance always has to coincide with a return to Woodhaven. BB: Max, have you been digging the art for this mag? It has been spot-on, and very faithful to Lowell Dean’s film. Thoughts?MM: The art’s been great. Our artist, Allan Otero, has been amazing at giving WolfCop the right feel. There’s just the right mix of horror, action hero, and superhero. WolfCop’s just so iconic, I feel like any artist is lucky to work with that visual. For this one we got Mario Gully, creator of Ant, to do the cover, and that one is just totally bad-ass. Lowell got a real kick out of that one too. BB: So, will Lou and Willie be hitting the road again come the end of #3, or in #4, or are we back in Woodhaven?MM: This visit to Woodhaven was a brief one with a very distinct purpose. The dangers he encounters on the way are indicative of the fact that WolfCop isn’t quite ready to be home yet. I have some killer, crazy plans for the next few issues that certainly couldn’t stay in Woodhaven. I want WolfCop to be bigger than his town, bigger than his country… Hell, bigger than this dimension.
04/29/24 @ 3:22 pm EST
Image Comics is pleased to reveal a sneak peek at the highly anticipated Blood Squad Seven by Joe Casey (MCMLXXV, Butcher Baker the Righteous Maker) and Paul Fry (Spider-Man 2099, Star Wars) set to hit shelves this May from Image Comics. Spinning out of the recent Dutch miniseries, this upcoming launch will explore ’90s superteam dynamics through a contemporary lens and feature surprise cameo appearances from some recognizable fan-favorite Image characters.
Thirty years ago, Blood Squad Seven was America’s most popular superhero team. Its members were seen on television, on magazine covers, scoring million-dollar endorsement deals…. They were celebrities and they were everywhere.
But that was then... this is now. And so, a new generation of modern-day heroes takes up the mantle—or perhaps, the poisoned chalice—fulfilling a promise made decades ago: to be the heroes that a fractured America needs.
While deconstructions of superhero nostalgia typically center around the classic characters of the Silver Age, Blood Squad Seven will delve deep into ’90s comic book themes with this reimagining of what would happen if heroes from that decade returned to action after a 30-year absence.
Variant covers for each issue of Blood Squad Seven will be provided by an army of celebrated artists, including: Chris Weston (Ministry of Space), Nick Pitarra (The Manhattan Projects), Jim Rugg (Street Angel), Chris Cross (Captain Marvel), Elizabeth Torque (Captain America: Secret Empire), Mike Hawthorne (Deadpool), Cory Walker (Invincible), Ryan Quackenbush (Junior Baker the Righteous Faker), Mirko Colak (Punisher MAX), Chris Sprouse (Tom Strong), Dustin Nguyen (Little Monsters), and many more.
Blood Squad Seven #1 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, May 22:
Cover A by Paul Fry - Lunar Code 0324IM161 Cover B by Chris Weston - Lunar Code 0324IM162 Cover C (1:10) by Nick Pitarrra - Lunar Code 0324IM163 Cover D (1:20) by Jim Rugg - Lunar Code 0324IM164 Cover E (1:50) by Fry - Lunar Code 0324IM165 Blood Squad Seven will also be available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play. Check out DYNAMIC FORCE'S interview with BLOOD SQUAD SEVEN writer JOE CASEY by Byron Brewer. https://www.dynamicforces.com/htmlfiles/interviews.html?showinterview=IN04112484115         
... 04/29/24 @ 3:09 pm EST
Disney has dropped a teaser for Mufasa: The Lion King, a prequel for the studio’s 2019 photorealistic version of the animated 1994 classic The Lion King.Directed by Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), the film sees the baboon Rafiki to relay the legend of Mufasa to his granddaughter Kiara. According to the trailer description, the story will be told in flashbacks and follows Mufasa (meaning ‘king’ in Swahili) as an orphaned cub, lost and alone until he meets a sympathetic lion named Taka—the heir to a royal bloodline. The film is being released December 20, 2024. (via Deadline) Trailer: https://youtu.be/MjQG-a7d41Q 04/28/24 @ 3:00 pm EST
Is the future of physical media coming to an end? It used to be that DVD and Blu-Ray sales were the saving grace for some movies and you could walk into various stores and browse by genre in the same way you could for music. But like the music stores of the past, the days of swinging by your local shop and picking up the latest release are fading fast. Last year Netflix announced they were no longer doing the movie-by-mail program, so they wouldn’t be buying any more DVDs and Best Buy announced they were removing their Music/Movie sections as well. Now Target has come out and said they would be doing the same this year. A lot of studios have moved away from creating physical media, the exception being Disney who just made a deal with a third party to create their media and it has led to releases of WandaVision, Loki, Moon Knight, and the Mandalorian with SteeleBook editions. And when you purchase a movie or album digitally, there is always the chance that the hosting service you bought it on goes out of business, you will lose your purchases. While I don’t think there are any clear-cut answers here yet, I think the discussion definitely needs to be had. Physical media may seem antiquated to some, but when you computer crashes, your internet goes out or a company files bankruptcy… physical media may start looking a whole lot better.  04/28/24 @ 2:37 pm EST
The ouroboros created by the success of Marvel Studios is continuing with the latest round of speculation driven by nothing. With Marvel and other superhero films becoming so popular that it led to websites and YouTube channels focused on them and now those places need to keep feeding content to their viewers. So, when Michael B. Jordan reposts the trailer for the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine, we get stories of how this means he is going to return as Johnny Storm from the 2015 Fantastic Four film. Jordan did play a version of the Human Torch, but he’s also played Kilmonger in Black Panther so he could return as either character… or he could just be promoting the next movie from Marvel because he feels connected to the studio? This is the same type of thing as James Gunn posting the original Superman logo to social media last week and everyone running around trying to figure out what it means. It could just mean that Gunn had some free time and wanted to post something Superman related. This week he posted the bloodied fist of a Green Lantern as drawn by Dave Johnson. There are now articles trying to figure out what this means. He also posted a picture of his cat and then his two dogs… I’m sure this is supposed to mean we’re getting a Krypto & Streaky movie soon…  04/28/24 @ 2:13 pm EST
In an interview the other day, Nathan Fillion told the story of how he found out that he was going to be playing Guy Garner / Green Lantern in the upcoming Superman movie. The problem is that he made a slight error in his story, and it has led to a lot of online controversy. In the interview he said he ran into James Gunn at the premiere of Suicide Squad and was told there. Gunn took to social media to correct the statement, saying that it took place at the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 premiere instead. This made Zak Snyder fans come out and claim that Fillion’s story proves that Gunn had been lying about Henry Cavill and that now he was just trying to cover it up with his post. Supposedly the lie came about when Gunn said that he had no interest in taking over the DCU until Peter Safran came on board to do the “exec stuff” and could leave Gunn to do the creative stuff. Gunn stated he was confused and not sure who is supposed to have lied, he also made it clear that his Superman pitch was always geared for a new Superman from the beginning so it doesn’t really matter at which event Fillion found out, Gunn was never lined up to make a Cavill lead film.  04/27/24 @ 11:36 am EST
Being in Los Angeles in the late 90s gave you access to a local radio station, KROQ and their morning show Kevin & Bean. While the show was on for just shy of thirty years, it is notable for a couple of the people who made their name there before moving on. Impressionist and frequent Kevin Smith collaborator Ralph Garman was on the show from 1999 to 2017 and Matt “Money” Smith was on from 1999 to 2006 before going to work at ESPN. But the two biggest names were Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel was “Jimmy the Sports Guy” from 1994 to 1999 before leaving with Carolla to start The Man Show before creating Win Ben Stein’s Money and eventually getting his own late-night variety show on ABC. Comedian Carolla was on the show from 1995 to 1997 as a character named Mr. Birchum, a woodshop teacher who would call in to give messages to his students. That character is coming back in a new animated series for the Daily Wire. And joining Carolla will be a voice cast that includes: Megyn Kelly, Brett Cooper, Roseanne Barr, Danny Trejo, Rob Riggle, Patrick Warburton, Tyler Fischer, Alonzo Bodden, Kyle Dunnigan and Jay Mohr. It was recently announced that Sage Steele would be replacing Candace Owens who recently left the news platform. The show is set to premiere on May 12 on the DailyWire+.  04/27/24 @ 11:12 am EST
New on Netflix is the Dead Boy Detectives, based on the comics from The Sandman creator Neil Gaiman. It follows a pair of ghosts who instead of crossing over into the afterlife, decide to stay and help other phantoms with their problems. In the comics, the boys exist in the same world as Morpheus and the other characters from The Sandman, which is the plan here as well, but because of timing the producers needed to tweak a few things. Showrunner Steve Yockey said: “We knew we wanted to hang on to the boys’ backstory as much as we could. We obviously couldn’t do the full “Season of Mists” backstory, because they have not done that on The Sandman yet. And we were trying to exist within The Sandman universe without stepping on any toes. So we had to slightly tweak their backstories. We held on to the friendship as the core thing, and obviously the detective agency. And then Crystal, to a certain extent, has the same backstory from the comics. Everybody else is either a new creation or a new version of something that was in the comic books. We did a lot of reappropriating and moving things around. So it will feel familiar to readers of the comic book, but also hopefully surprise them in good ways.” But they did keep how the ghosts work directly from the comics. “The rules about how ghosts operate are laid out like in a two-page spread in the comic book, where it’s like, ‘Here are the ghost rules.’ So we took that and we ran with it. Then we did everything in our power to just work that internal logic pretty rigorously. But these rules are the rules.” As for the theme of the series, Yockey gave what might be the best elevator pitch line ever, “I’ve said from the beginning that we were trying to make The Hardy Boys on acid.”  ... 04/27/24 @ 10:44 am EST
Recently we reported that Robert Downey Jr. has shown interest in returning to the role of Tony Stark / Iron Man in the future. The problem is that Iron Man sacrificed himself at the end of Avengers: Endgame, something that the directors of the movie mentioned when asked about RDJ’s comments. Anthony Russo told GamesRadar, “I don’t know how they would do it. I don’t know what the road to that would be.” Joe Russo added, “I mean, we closed that book, so it would be up to them to figure out how to reopen it.” And previously Kevin Feige had said, “We are going to keep that moment and not touch that moment again. We all worked very hard for many years to get to that, and we would never want to magically undo it in any way.” So, that’s the end of that, right? Probably not as anyone who reads comics know that a character death only lasts until the sales start to drop and if the MCU continues to have a few underperforming films, I would expect the writers would come up with a way for RDJ to suit up again.  04/26/24 @ 9:41 pm EST
Sony has pushed its reboot of Karate Kid from December 13 this year to May 30, 2025. This has created a bit of a backward domino effect but won’t rob the year of theatrical releases. Backfilling Karate Kid‘s spot is Sony/Marvel’s Kraven the Hunter, which goes from August 30, the Labor Day weekend frame, to December 13. The Aaron Taylor-Johnson movie will have Imax and PLF screens. Kraven the Hunter will be the only R-rated movie during the holidays, directed by J.C. Chandor, it will go up that frame against Warner Bros’ animated Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim. The plus here on Karate Kid‘s move: The movie will now follow the sixth and final season of Cobra Kai, which was delayed due to the strike. The summer date will see 50% K-12 out on its opening day with great family-film spacing. Warner Bros has the weekend reserved for an untitled movie. Through five movies, the Karate Kid cinema franchise counts north of $620 million worldwide. (via Deadline) 04/26/24 @ 9:35 pm EST
The two most talked-about comic book icons of the year are co-starring in their latest team-up-series—DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE: WWIII. Brought to you by two of the characters’ most legendary creators, writer Joe Kelly and artist Adam Kubert, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE: WWIII is a three-issue epic that’s a must-have for fans and a perfect entry point for newcomers to Wade and Logan’s comic book adventures. The debut issue hits stands next week, and to celebrate this highly-anticipated launch, comic shops will receive a special surprise DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE: WWIII variant cover! The Promo Surprise Variant Cover is an all-new take on acclaimed artist Gabriele Dell’Otto’s regular variant cover that features Wolverine in his beloved brown costume. WADE WILSON AND LOGAN AT THE ENDS OF THE EARTH - AND EACH OTHER'S THROATS! The most intensely mismatched team-up in comics and pop culture - the best there is and the merc with the mouth - undergoes a radical change in this three-part, globe-spanning saga for the ages! The mysterious Delta believes in change. Change is good. But as he sets his sights on Deadpool, and Wolverine is caught up in the plot, is the third time really the charm, or the curse? Get ready for WWIII to erupt on the scene with the wildest duo in comics! The DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE: WWIII Promo Surprise Variant Cover is the latest complimentary cover delivered from Marvel to show appreciation for retailers and build excitement for readers. Check out Dell’Otto’s variant cover below and inquire with your local comic shop regarding availability.  |
