10 X-MEN Characters That DIDN'T Come From X-MEN Titles

MARVEL and FOX can apparently trade characters. Could one of these be next?

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/24882-top-ten-x-men-characters-that-debuted-outside-of-x-men-books.html

INHUMANS Moved Up For 2017 IMAX Debut... And TV Series

After being shuffled back by Marvel Studios, the Inhumans make a break for it with a unique partnership.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/32000-inhumans-moved-up-for-2017-imax-debut-and-tv-series.html

DC Universe: Rebirth (2016) #1 - Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis & Phil Jimenez

DC Universe: Rebirth (2016) #1 Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis & Phil Jimenez Genre: Graphic Novels Price: $2.99 Publish Date: May 25, 2016 Publisher: DC Comics Seller: DC Comics

It all begins here. Do not skip to the last page. Do not let a friend or message board ruin this comic for you. The future (and past) of the DC Universe starts here. Don’t say we didn’t warn you! THEY SAID IT: “Rebirth is about focusing in on the core of the character and their respective universe,” says writer and DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns. “It brings back what has been lost: the legacy of the characters, the love and the hope of the DCU!”

get it now at https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/dc-universe-rebirth-2016-1/id1097946059?mt=11&uo=2&partnerId=11&at=1010ldoE

Retailers See Change & Success In 2016, But Cautious about Future

What worked, what didn't, and where their hopes are for 2017.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31998-retailers-see-change-success-in-2016-but-cautious-about-future-of-comics.html

Report: LAW & ORDER: SVU Star Cast In GRANT MORRISON TV Pilot

Christopher Meloni comes does another comic book adaptation.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31999-law-order-svu-vet-cast-in-grant-morrison-tv-pilot.html

Exclusive Preview - INJUSTICE: GROUND ZERO #7

Exclusive Preview - INJUSTICE: GROUND ZERO #7

INJUSTICE: GROUND ZERO continues its thrilling tale of the first Injustice: Gods Among Us v

Read more

Sara Ruiz
via DC Comics

http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2016/11/14/exclusive-preview-injustice-ground-zero-7

The Claws Are Out In New LOGAN Poster

Logan's run.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31997-new-logan-poster.html

Wonder Woman: Warbringer Cover Released

By Karen Valenzuela (@VictoriaNoir89)
 
2017 will be the year of Wonder Woman.
 
With her first big-budget live action film set to hit the big screens June 2, 2017, Wonder Woman is already surging in popularity. There have been dolls, toys, action figures, animated television shows, graphic novels, comics…
 
There will also be a young adult novel starring the Amazonian war princess, “Wonder Woman: Warbringer”, written by #1 New York Times Bestselling author Leigh Bardugo, known for the insanely popular Grisha series. Random House and DC Comics recently revealed the YA novel’s cover.
 
Random House and DC Comics are partnering to release four young adult novels starring Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, and Catwoman, each of them written by bestselling young adult authors. The novels will “embrace themes of good vs. evil, coming-of-age romance, and super heroes from unexpected places who have the determination to achieve seemingly impossible dreams.”
 
Bardugo has created fantastically nuanced, complicated female characters in her bestselling novels, and Diana, Princess of Themyscira, deserves the same detailed, complex characterizations. There is also the decades upon decades of work DC writers have done building Wonder Woman’s world–the setting she grew up on, the lore of her creation and her beginnings, the mythological aspect to her story. If you go deep into the 75 years of Wonder Woman graphic novels and comics, her story and her world can become pretty convoluted. Bardugo is continually praised on her world building in the Grishaverse, so she might be the best person to handle that.
 
Here is the novel’s synopsis:
 
“She will become one of the world’s greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning. . . .

 
Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law—risking exile—to save a mere mortal. Even worse, Alia Keralis is no ordinary girl and with this single brave act, Diana may have doomed the world.

 
Alia just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn’t know she is being hunted. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer—a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery.

 
Together, Diana and Alia will face an army of enemies—mortal and divine—determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. If they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.”
 
“Wonder Woman: Warbringer” can be pre-ordered on Amazon now. The release date is August 29, 2017, almost three months after the film starring Gal Gadot and directed by Patty Jenkins hits theaters.
 

admin
via The Nerd Machine

http://www.nerdhq.com/wonder-woman-warbringer-cover-released/

Best Shots Review: BLACK PANTHER - WORLD OF WAKANDA #1, ALL-STAR BATMAN #4, More

As well as SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOW #1 and THE MUMMY: PALIMSEST #1.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31996-best-shots-review-black-panther-world-of-wakanda-1-all-star-batman-4-more.html

Classic Canadian Character FREELANCE Revamped as Globetrotting Gay Hero

Jim Zub, Andrew Wheeler, and Vaneda Vireak expand Captain Canuck's Chapter-verse.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31939-classic-canadian-character-freelance-revamped-as-globetrotting-gay-hero.html

WALLER Gives Out Headbutts In SUICIDE SQUAD #6 Preview

You know what they said about not hitting your head against the wall? Yeah.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31995-waller-gives-out-headbutts-in-suicide-squad-6-preview.html

Preview Monday: Suicide Squad #6!

Preview Monday: Suicide Squad #6!

Read more

Nicole Valdez
via DC Comics

http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2016/11/14/preview-monday-suicide-squad-6

MR. BEAN Comes To Comic Books

Rowan Atkinson's iconic character returns in 2017.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31993-mr-bean-comes-to-comic-books.html

How About That Trailer? Ghost in the Shell (2017)

Paramount Pictures released the first trailer for the upcoming live-action remake of Ghost in the Shell yesterday, and it set the internet on fire. Despite a few controversies surrounding the casting of a key role, this remake looks to be sticking close to the source material, and boy does it look epic. Don’t take our word for it, check out the trailer below and formulate your own thoughts! Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

 

Matt Goodman
via The Nerd Machine

http://www.nerdhq.com/how-about-that-trailer-ghost-in-the-shell-2017/

RYAN REYNOLDS Addresses DEADPOOL Director's Departure

DEADPOOL himself addresses Tim Miller's departure.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31992-ryan-reynolds-addresses-deadpool-director-s-departure.html

Marvel's KINGPIN Writer Will Do Cons In Any U.S. States But They Must Donate To 'Progressive Charities'

Matthew Rosenberg looking for charitable cons and dialogue with fellow Americans.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31989-marvel-s-kingpin-artist-will-do-cons-in-any-u-s-states-but-they-must-donate-to-progressive-charities.html

How About That Trailer? Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Right off the bat, the live action Beauty and the Beast looks to be a gorgeous recreation of the 1991 classic. In a time of divide and tension in this world, this film is a hopeful, joyous ray of light. Disney looks to be going all-in on this one with the talking candlesticks, cups, clocks, teacups and other surreal elements from the animated feature. Keep an eye out for this one, nerds.

 

Beauty and the Beast hits theaters on March 17.

 

Matt Goodman
via The Nerd Machine

http://www.nerdhq.com/how-about-that-trailer-beauty-and-the-beast-2017/

DARTH MAUL Gets His Own STAR WARS Spinoff

DARTH MAUL's early days, explored.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31991-darth-maul-gets-his-own-star-wars-spinoff.html

MARY JANE vs. MOLE MAN's Minions In AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: RENEW YOUR VOWS #2 First Look

With May Parker's life on the line.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31988-mary-jane-vs-mole-men-s-minions-in-amazing-spider-man-renew-your-vows-2-first-look.html

Supergirl: A New Hero Steps Up

Supergirl: A New Hero Steps Up

What is it about heroes that make them want to fight? What is the spark inspiring people to help others? The quality isn't something we can throw a scientific label on and dose humanity with (though, boy, wouldn't that be great?).

Read more

Amy Ratcliffe
via DC Comics

http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2016/11/14/supergirl-a-new-hero-steps-up

The Secret DEADPOOL - GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Vol. 2 Character Exchange Revealed

FOX had to trade a character back to MARVEL to make DEADPOOL.

via The Nerd Machine

http://www.newsarama.com/31990-the-secret-deadpoool-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2-character-exchange-revealed.html

Interview with Actor Ben Cotton of NatGeo Miniseries MARS

By: Haylee Fisher (@haylee_fisher)

From the creative and prolific minds of Brian Grazer and Ron Howard comes tonight’s global miniseries event, MARS.

Inspired by Stephen Petranek’s book “How We’ll Live on Mars,” NatGeo’s MARS depicts the first voyage to the Red Planet and the success and tribulations that might entail through a unique storytelling format: scripted scenes set in 2033 that depict the mission intermixed with interviews with real-life scientific experts like Elon Musk and Neil DeGrasse Tyson to give accurate, documentary-style context.

Ben Cotton portrays one of the astronauts on this pioneering mission. I recently spoke to him about why the project excited him even before he auditioned, what sets this project apart from other Mars-related media, whether he would actually ever want to go to Mars, and more.

What was it about this project that drew you in and made you want to be a part of it?

I looked at the audition notice and I looked at the names on it and before I even read anything, I see “National Geographic” and as I’ve learned since we shot this thing, anywhere you go, people perk up when they hear that. They do! I’ve had the good fortune of being in many different places where I’ve spoken to people with whom it was difficult to communicate because we didn’t have a common language and we were struggling through trying to speak each others’ languages and having trouble communicating until National Geographic comes up, and it’s something everyone’s like, “Ooohhhh!” Everybody loves it. So seeing that, and seeing Brian Grazer and Ron Howard and Radical Media – I had just finished watching a few of their documentaries and loved them, actually right before I got the audition, so all of that together made it look like a very thrilling project and of course reading the scripts just helped to solidify that feeling.

Tell me about the training that went into accurately portraying an astronaut. Did you go through anything real astronauts go through?

I wish we had! We didn’t actually get to. I was kind of hoping we’d get to go on that thing – what do you call it? The vomit comet? [Laughs] The thing that flies up and down like a roller coaster and lets you feel zero gravity. We didn’t get to do all that stuff, but I certainly spent hours watching videos of astronauts and interviews with them. Lots of different videos, like things from up on the space station. And we got to spend a lot of time with Dr. Mae Jemison, who is a former astronaut with NASA. She’s also got nine Ph.D’s. Let’s just think about that for a second. Nine of them! And she is the first African American woman in space. So we had a wonderful and privileged time to hang out with her and to learn from her everything she certainly figured we would need to know to do this show. She taught us everything from what the effects are on your body when you’re in zero gravity, then what happens when you re-enter into gravity; she taught us about her training and what sort of things she went through; what you go through mentally when you have to prepare yourself for possibly not returning to Earth, because of course, as we’ve seen, unfortunately with any space travel, it’s got potential dangers to it; and she taught us how to deal with one another and how to communicate with one another, because, of course, people in the shuttles and in different areas of the space programs are taught a certain cadence and a certain way of dealing with each other so you don’t get too emotional when things are going wrong and there’s a stressful situation – you’re meant to stay calm and be very clear with one another. So she helped us understand all of that stuff and it was great.



What was the most challenging aspect from the project? The training, the research, the shoot in hot Morocco…?

Yeah, I would say that was probably the most challenging, the hot shoot in Morocco. There were days where we would go out there and it was 125 degrees on a couple of them, and I’m not a religious man, but there were times when I was looking up at the sky going, “Please, not today!” But we all made it through. They had suits inside of our suits that had cooling systems in them that would pump cold water through and cool us down and help us to regulate, which almost made it hard because you’d cool down and you’d un-tether from the ice water and you’d immediately be roasting again. But all in all, we had a great time and a lot of laughs, so it was cool.

Obviously lots of movies and TV shows explore what it might be like to go to Mars, but a more recent project to do so was The Martian. Andy Weir is even interviewed for this project, but how did y’all seek to make this show look and feel different so as not to seem like a re-hash of the same locations and stories from it?

I think it’s a very different storyline from The Martian. I don’t know how much I can give away, in terms of what the plot is like. I think when you watch it, you’ll see it’s quite different from The Martian. What I think sets this thing apart is the story for this is born out of the interviews with all of the experts we’ve got, the list of 21 “big-thinkers,” as we’re calling them. And they’ve all been interviewed about what a mission to Mars will look like and what will need to happen in order to make it happen, what sort of challenges arise, and the storyline that we have that I’m a part of is born out of those interviews, so everything that happens in the story is based on fact. You know, one of our producers was calling it, rather than science fiction, science factual. And I think they’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that everything that you do see is based on fact. Of course, it’s National Geographic, so I think that’s certainly part of their M.O., isn’t it? Making sure what you’re seeing is the truth.

Why do you think humanity is so obsessed with Mars and possibly actually going there some day?

I think there are a number of things. Any kid that’s looked up at the sky at night has sort of had a fantasy about going up there, or certainly going in to the stars, and Mars is the one place in our solar system that could possibly support us. Most of the other places will kill you dead before you even get close to them, so I think that’s maybe a big part of it – that it’s the most inhabitable thing we’ve got close to us. And also there’s the idea that, at some point in our future, there will be some sort of extinction event that will happen on the planet, as has happened a number of times already, and whether that comes from global warming or a meteor hitting the planet or could be a nuclear thing – it could be anything! – and the idea is that if we can get human beings to Mars and become an interplanetary species, we lower the risk of extinction down to nearly zero. So there are a lot of people who are looking at it that way, that this is about hope for the continuation of humankind, with or without our planet.

The cast is very diverse and it’s because in 2033 where your part of the show is set, all of the space-going nations have merged to form an international space program. Do you see something like that happening in real life and why do you think the joining of forces would be advantageous (Or disastrous! Either way.) in exploring more of space?

I think it would certainly be advantageous. You’d have the expertise coming from a lot of different backgrounds and countries and I don’t think that could do anything but help the situation. It’s also something that I think, if we are going to get to Mars, it’s going to require a lot of the world coming together and starting to think together on that goal. I don’t know that it’s a one-nation thing to do. And I think making the cast as diverse as that and the group of private and public entities coming together in the story is symbolic of where we would like to go in the future, both here on Earth and in space. The question of whether there would be problems, I certainly don’t know what they would be.



The show is a hybrid series, with some set in 2016 like a documentary, but some set in 2033 as a “what if” situation. How do you think such a creative style will influence future filmmakers to tell more and more ambitious stories?

I hope it opens up doors and gives them different ways of looking at storytelling. I think that’s been part of the goal and the aim: to break genres down and build something new. I gotta say, as we were shooting it, all I got was the scripts. We saw a few of the talking heads – the interviews – but I didn’t see all of it, so I really had no concept of how it would be woven together. So I’ve seen the first two episodes now, and to see the way they’ve woven it together, I think it works beautifully and I think it’s a really interesting way to start telling stories. Usually when you get interviews in that kind of way, people are talking about the past or an event or something that has already transpired and so to see somebody speaking about the future in the way that they are, and then to have the story go along with it, I’ve certainly never seen anything like it and we’ve screened it for a few audiences and that’s been the thing reflected back to me again and again is that everybody keeps saying how exciting it is because they’ve never seen anything like it. So hopefully that inspires storytellers to try something new.

What do you hope people learn or take away from this miniseries?

I hope they are inspired. That’s one of the main things. If this mission is to succeed in the future, and certainly there are people planning on doing it – the process is happening and people are working towards it right now – so I hope people who watch it, maybe young people watching it, get inspired and that might direct them toward science programs where they might not have gone that way before so that it will start to cultivate a new generation of people who will actually be the astronauts who go. So I hope it inspires peoples’ sense of adventure, I hope it inspires their thirst for knowledge, and I hope they’re just straight-up entertained by it.

Finally, and I know you’ve probably been asked this a million times, but would you ever want to go to Mars?

[Laughs] You know, I don’t know that it’s for me. I’ll put it this way: certainly not the mission that we’re depicting, which would be the first group to go. I don’t think I would want to be a part of that. Maybe the seventh or eighth mission? There’s nice beds and there’s a coffee shop and a movie theater and places to go and once they’ve sorted out how to deal with the water and oxygen issues that would be present. Or to shield you from the radiation. Mars is not going to be an easy place. Would you want to go?

I would not!

MARS premieres tonight at 9/8c on National Geographic Channel.

admin
via The Nerd Machine

http://www.nerdhq.com/interview-with-actor-ben-cotton-of-natgeo-miniseries-mars/