Comics Alliance: An AOL Comic Book Community

This cool Iron Man cartoon over at the new site Marvelkids.com looks to be the first of three CGI cartoons by ULTIMATE ALLIANCE animators Blur Studios. According to Marvel, this "Marvel Adventures Iron Man advervideo" is "a thrilling, cutting-edge adventure!"


Why is there an ad before my advervideo?
"Hey! Little kids! You know you love Iron Man, but did you know that Iron Man loves the University of Phoenix?!"

In conversations with comic geeks lately about the various funnybooks-to-movies adaptations in 2008, to my surprise, it's Iron Man -- not The Dark Knight -- that has many stoked, making that a decision (by Paramount or IM director Jon Favreau) to screen a trailer at Comic-Con a smart one.

Add one more fan to the list of "True Believers": The Wall Street Journal. Not only did the film receive primo front page real estate in Thursday's WSJ next to the B-52s first album in 16 years, the popular image of Robert Downey, Jr. sporting "Iron Man" hands also graces the online piece. Speaking of images, Marvel.com released a new digital of ol' Shellhead for you to drool over until May 2, but not much different than the one we saw this past fall...

Enjoy this sneak peek straight from Neil Gaiman.com of the animated adaptation of the Sandman muse's non-quite-a-children's-book Coraline by Laika Entertainment and director Henry Selick who directed Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Great thanks to Neatorama for the link to this Fast Company story about the Portland, Ore., production company that's making Coraline and its direct connection to Nike.

After reading the latest posts by Dave Gibbons from the past two weeks on the Warner Bros. sponsored Watchmen blog, I'm feeling a strong vibe that director Zach Snyder could be a good choice to helm the movie adaptation of this classic 80s tale after all.

Count me among the many comic folks who were very surprised Snyder's adaptation of Frank Miller's 300 was as enjoyable and interesting as it was. Still, Watchmen is one complex animal, and the track record of movie adaptations based on works written by Alan Moore to date has been poor at best, with V For Vendetta being the best of the lot.

That said, I can't help but think Watchmen would've been better served -- along with V and From Hell -- as a HBO limited run series a la Deadwood or Rome in formats that would have given producers enough flexibility, time and room to better capture and expand on the multi-tiered stories Moore told over the course of 12-issue series. But it's not my money on the line and nobody asked me.

Like the other films that came before it, I'll venture into Watchmen with expectations low and hope to be pleasantly surprised. And wonder when Hollyweird's appetite for superheroes will finally cease...

I braved the rain, fog and a 160-mile round trip to San Antonio Friday just to spend five minutes examining The Dark Knight's arch nemesis The Joker, as channeled by Aussie Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger, in a very well publicized prologue sequence preceding the IMAX debut of I Am Legend.

Understanding that no human can live a day without avoiding a good justification, I made the gray, grim and gritty drive down I-35 already expecting to be pleased with the action sequence as teased in the IMAX featurette by director Christopher Nolan. The $64,000 question posed by many in this space and comic shops all over -- will Ledger's turn as the Clown Prince of Crime be almost as good as Jack Nicholson's from the 1989 Tim Burton /Michael Keaton film? -- wasn't my concern.

Instead, could Ledger inhabit The Joker's skin in a radically different way that would make Bat-fans like me forget all about Nicholson? That's all I really wanted to know.

I came away from The Dark Knight prologue feeling that if you enjoyed pouring through the early days of The Joker -- a mere 67 years ago in Batman #1 -- with a dollop here and there of the psychopathic force of nature Alan Moore brought to life in The Killing Joke, you'll wonder why fans' underoos were tied in knots at all about Heath Ledger wearing the clown makeup at all...

If you don't have the time, spare cash or an IMAX theater near you, our friends at Dark Horizons broke the news that a high-def Dark Knight trailer will debut Sunday at a site conveniently called A taste for the theatrical and Monday on MTV.com. Also, check out the Dark Horizons site for a link to some of the newest TDK movie posters, besides the official teaser plastered all over the Internets, including here...

One question for those of you who make it to see I Am Legend, IMAX or not: Did you see the same well-worn but very strategically placed Superman/Batman poster with the date of 5.15 in the beginning as Will Smith's Neville chased down deer through a deserted Manhattan?

As longtime readers of this site already know, I love me some Speed Racer. That said, it certainly came as a nice surprise to hear that IDW is planning the return of Speed to comics beginning in January with Speed Racer: Chronicles of the Racer. They're even plotting a generational saga, with writer Arie Kaplan and artist Robby Musso planning to explore Racers both known and unknown in these all-new adventures.

Toonzone.net quotes IDW honcho, Chris Ryall, as saying that the miniseries will "expand the entire Speed Racer legend. We look at the Speed Racers of the past-incarnations throughout history, from the Roman times to the medieval era, and even the swashbuckling high seas."

All of which has me thinking this miniseries could either be really cool ... or really lame. Fears aside, however, it's Speed Racer, it's a bold new direction, and it's comics, so you can bet I'll be tuning in next month to find out which way the wind blows.

While we're on the subject, for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, you've GOT to check out the super-sweet trailer for the upcoming movie, which premiered in HD on Moviefone last week.

Thousands of apologies if this space has become too Batman-centric lately for its own good, but I just couldn't resist sharing these news items involving Batmobiles, past and present. Goofball news first...

A number of car enthusiasts blogs jumped on a posting from Hemmings Auto Blogs about the shabby showing of a promotional Batmobile used to promote Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever that was recently up for auction in Florida. Although auctioneers pegged the pre-sale value of BF Batmobile at somewhere close at $800,000, all they could muster was a measley $297,000. True, the movie was a knife in the gut to most Batfans after Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns, but a Batmobile -- attached to a craptastic movie or not -- still is a Batmobile, right?

Not if buying one prevents its owner from driving it out on public... And, that's just one of seven rather restrictive conditions spelled out in the purchase agreement from DC Comics and Warner Bros. (Scroll down the page of cars recently up for auction from RM Auctions to #863 to read the entire list of restrictions.)

Now, for something completely better...

You'll have a smile on your face after watching this short video interview with car empresario George Barris, who built the classic 60s Batmobile along with a slew of cool rides for other gone-but-not-forgotten TV series, such as The Munsters, Beverly Hillbillies and Green Hornet. Ever wondered how the back end of the Batmobile rocketed through the streets of Gotham with its tail on fire? Watch the video to learn the answer...

Had nice conversations with Tony Millionaire, nee of Maakies, Sock Monkey and Billy Hazelnuts fame, and Dave Herman, voice actor extraordinaire whose animation credits include Futurama, American Dad, Bee Movie and the upcoming Drinky Crow Show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim next spring at a signing hosted last Saturday at nationally reknowned Austin Books and Comics.

If Dave's name doesn't ring a bell with you, no doubt you'll remember his unforgettable collaborations with the wicked funny Mike Judge on the Texas comedy of record, King of the Hill, and his film roles as the Secretary of State in Idiocracy and the non-musically inclined Michael Bolton in the classic Office Space. Catch up on Dave's post-Office Space career in this great interview with Lumino, just one of 11 done with all of the principal actors in this seminal office comedy for the ages.

And, Millionaire is just as warm and funny and normal in person (a doting dad to two little girls) as his Maakies strips are wonderful and depraved and hilarious.

Ah, At World's End, the final chapter to the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow and crew finally comes to DVD and Blu-Ray on 12/04. I found the movie very enjoyable in theaters, minus that boring white crab drek at the end of the world. If you've seen the first two movies, if you own the first two movies, this final chapter is a must to complete your collection and with all the pretty people in this movie it makes for a splendid viewing on an HD-TV, especially the final battle in the maelstrom. It used to be nothing beat seeing a movie in the theater, but now with high-def discs and TV's nothing beats a great home viewing.

The movie is good and looks great on an HD-TV and ok on a regular TV, but we knew we'd get this. What this set is about are the bonus features. So let's take a look at what we get on the 2-disc DVD set.

Disc 1
So we've got the movie (duh) as well as bloopers. The bloopers are standard fare with very famous folks who are paid large sums of money messing up on the job, or joking around and then laughing about it. The outtakes are indeed fun, but only worthy of one viewing. Overall disc 1 does what it should, gives you the movie you want.

Can't wait another two weeks for the debut of the featurette/prologue of The Dark Knight before I Am Legend on IMAX screens across the U.S.? Hopefully, this groovy image of Heath Ledger as The Joker from the January 2008 cover of the UK-based film magazine Empire -- along with a short interview -- will whet your appetite in the short term.

So, how will Ledger play the Clown Prince of Crime? "I ended up landing more in the realm of a psychopath - someone with very little to no conscience towards his acts. He's just an absolute sociopath, a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown, and Chris has given me free rein. Which is fun, because there are no real boundaries to what The Joker would say or do. Nothing intimidates him, and everything is a big joke," Ledger told Empire.

Don't know about you, but I'm looking for a copy of the new Empire today!

Evidently, helming the current Batman movie franchise hasn't dimmed Christian Bale's interest in superherodom, as the versatile and gifted actor will play John Connor in a planned Terminator sequel from Warner Bros. for the summer of 2009.

I like the idea of the Terminator movies forging ahead post-Schwarzenegger into new territory, and Bale is a terrific, chameleon-like actor who gives depth to most any role he plays -- even in B-movies like Reign of Fire. I wonder, however, if the quality bar has been set a bit higher for Bale since Batman Begins? And, will moviegoers enjoy watching Bale in another ongoing movie franchise?

Talking about Bale and the further adventures of the Caped Crusader, many thanks to Cinematical for pointing me in the direction of this awesome making of featurette with The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan about filming in the IMAX format.

My close friends at Top Shelf Productions in suburban Atlanta and Portland, Ore., are giving a little bit of extra thanks for unexpected blessings this Thanksgiving after Variety broke the news earlier this week that Bruce Willis will star in director Jonathan Mostow's upcoming adaptation of The Surrogates, the company's initial venture into "mainstream comics" some two years ago by Rob Vendetti and Brent Weldele, for Disney.

No surprise to me that Willis was cast as the cop who never leaves his house to solve crimes, as he's been one of America's better actors in film over the past two decades with roles in a slew of interesting actioners including the Die Hard series, 12 Monkeys, Sin City and the terrific pre-pre-pre-Heroes film Unbreakable.

BTW, expect to see another Surrogates book from Vendetti and Weldele, perhaps about the time the film debuts in 2009...

Kevin and Seacord touched on the WANTED trailer in the Explosion a couple of weeks ago, but after another viewing, I'm thinking this trailer merits a spotlight of its own:



Since we already had a pretty good idea that costumes were out for the movie, I've gotta say this looks every bit as sweet as I could've hoped. "The sheep or the wolf?" This sucker sure looks "big and bad" to me.

What do you think?

(Missed our exclusive interview with WANTED co-creator J.G. Jones? Find it here!)

Experience Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker as never before with the Limited Edition Star Wars ARTFX Statue from Kotobukiya. With 29 statues already created ranging from Jango to Boba Fett, Kotobukiya has established a reputation for detailed and beautiful figures that true fans can display proudly. This tradition continues with Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader – Ralph McQuarrie version, the 30th Star Wars statue form Kotobukiya to celebrate Star Wars 30th Anniversary.

This 1/7 scale statue is pre-painted, comes on a base that measure 16.5 inches long with Vader being the taller of the two figures at 11 inches. This is a limited edition, one time print figure, numbered to 7,097 total worldwide (1,977 Japan, 3,030 in North America, 1,250 in Europe and 840 in Asia Pacific). The figure itself if based on the original concept art of Ralph McQuarrie. He was a design consultant on the original Star Wars trilogy and worked with Lucas script to create this visual of Luke against Darth Vader. While the early image of Vader would soon become a reality, Luke is a wee-bit different. Now that the details are covered, onto the figure itself.