The Avengers movie toys: Coming sooner than you think

Here's a look at the first wave of action figures from the upcoming Thor movie. It's worth noting there are still Iron-Man 2 figures on the shelves, while Captain America toys will be available by the start of summer. It's entirely likely you'll find toys for the lead characters in The Avengers film on the shelves together within just a few months ... and the film hasn't even started shooting yet.

Wait ... that shield's not "mighty" at all!

Set photos from the Captain America movie are appearing online, giving non ComicCon folk the first real look at the costume as it will appear in the film. Not just that, it's also our first look at the shield ... and I'm guessing it's not made of the unbreakable vibranium/adamantium alloy from the comics because it looks pretty fucked up. There's also images floating around showing the badguys sporting much more impressive rides (below.)

Via and Via.

Captain America has a question

From Thisisrabbit's ficker stream, A Doodle a Day,

HeroesCon Booty: Captain America

(Not long ago, I purchased a few dozen comicbook trade paperbacks at the HeroesCon in Charlotte, N.C. I'm reading all of them.)

Ugh. It's not often than I've got no interest in finishing a comic, but Captain America: The Chosen has simply defeated me. I'm half way through the trade paperback edition and pretty sure I won't go any further.

I was looking forward to this book, too. David Morrell is a terrific writer. Best known as the author of First Blood, he also penned the novelizations to the two Rambo sequels and made them much more visceral and gritty than their screen counterparts. (I'm also a fan of his short story Orange is for Anguish, Blue for Insanity, which is worth searching out.)

Naturally, I was excited about seeing Morrell working on a Captain America story. It seemed like a golden opportunity for a kick-ass action piece. Instead, The Chosen is a slow, ponderous tale about a psychic Captain America guiding a U.S. soldier through some hairy situations in the Middle East. Cap spends the first three issues in a coma, communicating via telepathy and ... you know what? Fuck it. This book is a tedious disappointment. I'm a fan of what Marvel has done over the last decade, but Captain America: The Chosen gives credence to just about every complaint some fans have had about the inconsistency of celebrity writers, the vacant nature of "decompressed" storytelling and pretentious ideas.

New pics of Hemsworth as Thor

This looks to be the week the Avengers will finally assemble, even if it's only in the Photoshop renderings of a million comicbook fans.

Not long after the release of concept renderings of Chris Evans as Captain America come these pics of Chris Hemsworth as Thor. Like the Captain America pics, these look to be artificial digital creations and not actual photos. Still, it gives us a better idea of what the character will look like in the film ... not to mention allowing us to imagine what The Avengers movie could look like once shooting rolls.

Concept art for Captain America REVEALED

Well, that didn't take long. On May 28, Mike Sampson at JoBlo.com posted a written description of concept art he saw for the costume in the forthcoming Captain America film. That lead to some interesting attempts by artists to draw the costume using Sampson's description.


Today, though, that artwork has surfaced online. Check it out while you can, before Marvel/Disney/Paramount/Hydra send out their legal goons.

The Daily Wire

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No Tony Stark for Thor or Captain America

The Daily Wire

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Wolfman/Perez Teen Titans graphic novel FINALLY gets release date!

Mr. and Mrs. Vader (below)

NEWSFLASH: Captain America doesn't exist

I hope that headline didn't burst too many bubbles. But it's the truth.
Certain areas of the Internet are currently bubbling over in rage over a rumor that The Office's John Krazinski has been cast as Captain America. If true, I have no real problem with that idea. But I'll get to that in a moment.
This kind of nonsense has been the way of comic fandom since Tim Burton's first Batman film. Reactionaries didn't have the benefit of a full-blown WWW back when Michael Keaton's casting was announced in 1988, but the rage still spilled over into the mainstream media. Warners rushed a trailer into theaters to show the kind of film they were making and managed to silence a few naysayers. The rest shut their mouths soon after the movie was released.
Today, when people tick off the problems with Burton's original film, Keaton's name never makes the list. Most people don't remember the furor created by the DC Comics Fundamentalists over his casting.
But the process seems to have carried over into the development of just about ever superhero movie since. The problem, I think, is that many comic fans spend so much time engrossed in fantasy that they lose all perspective on the characters. You will never find a human being who looks like Alex Ross' version of Captain America. If you were able to genetically engineer such a specimen, they'd lack certain talents to actually carry a film (such as acting, charisma or general talent.)
The origin of Captain America is a pretty simple story about an ordinary guy who becomes a superhero (in many ways it's a story that mirrors our own nation's humble origins and rise to world power.)
You don't tell that story by casting the embodiment of the Golden Mean (or, more to the point, the Aryan Ideal) in the role of the everyman. If you do there is no character arc. Before the movie even begins the audience can see the artifice behind the story. It makes about as much sense as casting Rebecca Romijn as a mousy waitress.
In the end, there's more to acting than putting on a costume. Krazinski might not be the first person I think of when I read a Captain America comic (he's always looked a little too much like Chevy Chase's illegitimate child to me.) But I'm ready to give him a chance. Because life's too short to waste it bitching about a movie that doesn't yet exist.