Marvel: Heads Up Kiddo, We're on Rocky Turf

So have you heard? Marvel is canceling Daken: Dark Wolverine! As well as basically ALL its (good) comics. What's up Marvel? Where are you hemorrhaging money that you can't publish comics that are NOT your lowest selling books? I mean, I thought Disney buying you was going to be this great funding extravaganza that would let you explore new markets and NOT pull another slight to the queers everywhere on par with the extradition of Xavin from Runaways. But I guess it's the opposite.

WTF, Marvel? W? T? F?

Scarlet Betch Episode 46: Messy X-men Storylines

Hey Betches!

We continue on our marathon of coverage this week with discussions on the conclusion and fall out of the Age of X storyline, the denouement of the latest New Mutants arc (and some awesome OTP Yuri pairings!), Astonishing X-men (also known as the book no one knows if it's in continuity or not), the racial awkwardness of Flashpoint, and finally, where-the-hell-is-the-new-runaways-book? Stay tuned for our next episode this week cuz we have SO much more to cover!

Let us know what you think! Plus, any comics you think we missed in our coverage let us know! Send us a tweet @ScarletBetch or by email at scarletbetch@gmail.com

Racebending - 0, Marvel - 1

We posted earlier about how the casting call for the Runaways movie neglected to mention Nico's ethnicity, a move that struck fear into the hearts of Runaways fans everywhere. Would Marvel, so soon after M. Night's The Last Airbender debacle, be so callous as to whitewash away Nico's Japanese-American ethnicity?

Well, racebending.com is reporting that Marvel issued a press release in response to their concerns, stating:

"To address your concern over casting for the role of Nico, as we do with all of our films, we intend to stay true to the legacy and story of the comic when casting these parts. Thus, our goal is to cast an Asian American actress as depicted in the comic series and the casting notice will be adjusted accordingly."

Well, I think Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and Michael Clarke Duncan's Kingpin would argue that racebending is, in fact, something that Marvel does, but clearly the comic book giant has done the right thing today by opting to spotlight the diverse nature of America and its superheroes. Keep it up, Marvel!

(At least until the day when people expect you to racebend out as many or more of the ethnic majority as you racebend in. Then please make your movie casts diverse and interesting! #reimagining #firstnationsironfist)

New Thor Trailer released at San Diego Comic Con

More news coming out of San Diego this morning. Attendees have recently uploaded recordings of the trailer for the upcoming Thor movie slotted for release in May 2011. I've had some mixed feelings about this film. Most of them revolve around the use of a golden eye patch. But after seeing this trailer a little more faith has been restored. A large part of that might be because of Chris Hemsworth's muscles. Just sayin' [via i09]

Marvel Unveils Newest Rainbow Brigade Member: Hercules (and maybe Namor)

I have never been particularly drawn to the character of Marvel's Hercules. He always seemed like the poor man's Thor, and his costume choices were uninspiring to say the least. Between the boisterous drunken carousing and the stylized "have at thee" dialogue, I always wrote off Hercules as a B-list brick Marvel editors would pull out every now and then to fulfill a cameo role.

His partnership and close friendship with Amadeus Cho brought him back onto my radar, as Amadeus is one of Marvel's more interesting rising stars, plus created by the ever dreamy Greg Pak. But it was not until Hercules' death that I have become truly interested in the character.

As some of you may know, it's hard out there for a god-- at least in the Marvel Universe. Between the besieged Asgard and New Olympus falling apart, those mythic heroes seem to be falling left and right. The most recent has been the long-time Avenger, Hercules.

I picked up a copy of Hercules: Fall of an Avenger #1 this past week just to peruse. I am very interested by Amadeus' eventual rise to become Hercules' replacement as the Prince of Power, so I thought I'd brief myself on the happenings. What I was shocked by was the seeming acknowledgement that Marvel's most piggish, sexist, hegemonically masculine character, Hercules... is in fact, bisexual. Check out the scan after the jump:

Read more »

Marvel & Tokidoki: Unholy Awwwwwlliance

A few Christmas seasons ago, my brother and I pitched in to buy our best friend (yes, we shared, and looking back, it's not so surprising that he hasn't called or written since I moved away from home) a set of Marvel Monopoly with the removable labels that let you put whatever character's names you wanted on the properties (we usually put Doom as Boardwalk and Wolverine as one of those crappy purple ones at the beginning). We spent many a subsequent winter evening arguing for half an hour on whether or not Free Parking should come with a prize, another half hour setting the board up, and then, finally, two hours of tedious, joyless gaming that would make Risk look like strip poker. At some point I realized that I really hated Monopoly, and was confused as to why dressing it up in a comic book theme suddenly made it more tolerable.

One day, while bitching to our friend about how tired I was getting of Monopoly, we spotted a Marvel Edition of Guess Who? and must have played that for a week straight before I realized I hated that game, too. Despite my misgivings about Marvel's comics, I simply can't stop myself from buying every piece of Marvel-licensed merchandise I come across and playing with it until the novelty of it wears off and I realize I now own something I loathed in its original form. My life provides no greater example of this than my video game collection. I own every Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men, etc video game released on NES, SNES, Sega, Playstation and arcade (as soon as I get a real job I intend to get a Dreamcast and Xbox to fill out my collection). I've played all the Marvel: Ultimate Alliances, even the shitty one for the Game Boy Advance. I've even gone to Marvel vs Capcom 2 tournaments, and I can probably tell you what teams I played as and how fast I got my ass beat.

This creates in me a sort of remorse, as I feel bad for saying the things I do about Marvel while shamelessly enjoying their products. I am ultimately no better than all those Marvel fans who hate on the direction of the label but still buy every issue of every comic to justify their hate by claiming it's all part of their loyalty. I took some solace in being able to tell myself that it's all just part of my love of gaming, both board and video, and that as long as I didn't buy things I didn't have an established interest in, like action figures or trading cards, then somehow I'd be less of a hypocrite.

And this happened to fuck up all my plans.

Read more »

My Mind Is At DoomWar With Itself

I treat Marvel the same way I treat a Republican friend who blogs; I'll see them at social functions and offer my (unwarranted) opinion on their projects and ideas, and although I might pretend to have read what they've written as a sign of tact and etiquette, the fact is stooping to read their nonsense would only drive me insane with rage, and I don't care how immature admitting that makes me.

I've seen all the movies, played all the video games, and even bought into that Heroclix trend that was all the rage (but quit after someone beat my entire team with just a Nimrod piece. Say what you will about Magic, but that kind of shenanigan wouldn't fly at their tournament). It's a decent product. I simply refuse to read their crossovers.

Because I fell for it once, with Civil War. We were promised an epic story of betrayal and injustice that would tear the Marvel universe apart. Instead we were treated to propaganda dressed in spandex onesies, with each writer having his own political axe to grind onto the readership's face. I don't need comic books to give me the 411 on socio-political issues. I have cable television and an inbox full of junk mail from the Green Party to do that for me.

On top of that, Civil War marked one of the first instances in comic history where the audience was told they had backed the wrong horse. When the majority of readers made it clear that they were taking the side of Captain America's resistance, Marvel went ahead and told us that we were supposed be rooting for Iron Man the whole time. You could read this one of two ways: either 1) Marvel was so embarrassed at their colossal failure that they only way they could save face was to make us look stupid by telling us that we "just didn't get it", or 2) Marvel has become so inept over time that they can no longer establish protagonist and antagonist, which is not only a fundamental element of comic books, but of ALL FICTION. Take your pick. Either way, it will end in tears.

Read more »

Jack Kirby's Dreamland Starring Astro Boy

Heirs to comic book royalty Jack Kirby have sent 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel, Disney, Sony, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Universal, and other studios who hold media-licensing rights to Marvel characters. The notices expressed intent to regain the copyrights of certain characters as early as 2014. Representing the heirs are Toberoff & Associates, the firm that helped Jerry Siegel's heirs reclaim a share of Superman's copyright from DC last year.

What characters are mentioned in the notices have not been disclosed. Kirby is credited with co-creating such Marvel staples as The Fantastic Four, Thor, The Hulk, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom, and Captain America. The termination notices could allow for Kirby's heirs to a) reap in a share of the profits from the films featuring said characters, and/or b) shop the characters to other studios.

While it's too early to speculate what could come of all this, I'm a blogger, and giving my unwarranted opinions on topics I'm not entirely read up on is sort of my thing. The hopeful fangirl in me, that is, the one who sat through two Fantastic Four movies, likes to think that if the heirs win their claims, they'll sell the characters to studios that will better serve Kirby's vision, or that competing franchises will give audiences the ability to choose what movie/cartoon/comic we enjoy rather than simply footing the bill for something we all hate because it's the only opportunity we'll get to enjoy our heroes. Comic book media doesn't have to suck.

Read more »