Iron Man: Box Office Smash

In it's first two weeks out, Iron Man made over $150 million in just the US alone and was the top grossing movie both weekends. That's expecting not to be the case with the new Narnia movie coming out, but I have to say that it's nice to see the movie lived up to the hype in terms of performance and critiquing. Sure it took a dozen years or so to finally get it done, but good things come to those that wait. I'm also sure long time Iron Man fans going to see it one, two or eight times helped out, but who's counting?

It was really no surprise then that Marvel officially announced Iron Man 2 after the first weekend along with a host of other movies, inlcuding the Avengers which will also feature Iron Man.

I still remember when the footage from the San Diego comicon leaked onto the web. Favreau seemed a bit nervous presenting a movie that had had so much turmoil in getting it made, switching writers and directors numerous times. Then after the preview finished the audience erupted, and so began the massive hype of the movie. But what I actually remember most is the looks on Favreau's and Howard's faces once the crowd went into an uproar: they were genuinely surprised and happy of how the fans reacted. It was kind of a "wow, we're part of something big here" look, and they were.

So the movie will probably continue to do good for another few weeks, then have good DVD sales. I honestly think the second movie will do better as now that the origin and background have all been taken care of, it will leave more room for action and the like. I'd say I cant wait for it, but since I waited a dozen years for the first, I don't think I will have that much of a problem.

Favorite Villains

So a few weeks ago I did the best Iron Man villains, and I’ve decided to somewhat of a follow up by listing my favorite (not the best) Marvel villains. I admit, they may not be the greatest but they are the ones I like the most. So, in no particular order, here are my favorite Marvel Universe villains.




Venom

The original Venom that is; the one where Eddie Brock was driven by revenge and he was a sociopath and completely deranged killer. Not the “lethal protector” or the anti-hero incarnations that really watered down the character. The original Venom was great, a true force to be reckoned with and not just for Spiderman, the one with the huge mouth, gnarling teeth and a roided out appearance. When he was turned into a hero he justified everything he did as heroic and kept telling himself he was really a hero. All he was is a shadow of the real character. Alas, even with a new villainous Venom, it just isn’t the same.



Omega Red

Personality wise there is nothing so great about Omega Red. Sadistic killer, no remorse, standard psychopathic villain. But his design and his powers I think are absolutely great. His death aura and carbonadium tendrils are interesting weapons at his disposal, and he definitely uses both to good use. Coming from the cold war has become a bit nostalgic for us anymore too, a reminder of an era past.


Dr. Doom

Doom always haws an ulterior motive for his actions and despite knowing this he is able to convince the heroes to bring him along or fall into his trap time and time again. His intellect and cunning is surpassed only by a few and his lust for power insatiable. He has a grasp on both technology and magic, a rare mix for any character. Plus unlike many other villains Doom is very calm and collected and has a wit and threatening tone about him that is more fearful than the villains who boast their powers.



Magneto

Magneto is a perfect example of what happens when a man with power is supremely driven. Hell bent on his quest of ascending mutant kind he returns again and again, and though he may preach a new cause it all boils down to the same thing, with the same result: Magneto feeling provoked and attacking. Though his actions may be repetitive, seeing someone with such power is always awe striking especially since he has the will to use it. That is a big reason he has lasted so long: Magneto never ceases to amaze.



Thanos

Thanos is one of the most powerful characters and he displays it time and time again. Driven by the concept of death he hatches scheme after scheme that takes multiple heroes to stop. But his character isn’t that shallow. He was always smart enough to see when greater dangers arose and he needed to ally himself with his enemies. In addition Thanos has evolved over time. At one point he was a murderer with only selfish intentions, and while he is still driven for his own reasons, it’s really not a lot different from anyone else. Every time we see him he seems to have a new outlook and you can expect something different so his character stays refreshing.

Go See Iron Man

If the title of the post didn’t give it away you know I am going to say this movie is good. It definitely lived up to the hype and a hundred million over the weekend suggested that many others agree. And to think, it all started with a few minute clip Favreau showed at the San Diego Comicon. But enough of that, on the review.


Acting
I admit, I am not a fan of Robert Downey Jr. I’ve felt in many of his roles he portray the character the same way, same tone, quirks and all. But I have to say he did a very good job with Stark. His portrayal was very believable and I truly felt like I was watching the comic book character in the flesh. Kudos to RDJ for nailing it.

Jeff Daniels did a good job as Stane also, pulling of the sly, manipulative and greedy persona. Though there wasn't nearly enough time to play out the character like in the comics I thought there was enough that the relation was there.

Paltrow did a good performance with Potts and her chemistry with RDJ was noticeably good. Though maybe a bit more stern and perky than I pictured Potts, I liked the character.

Howard did a good job with Rhodey, but I felt the character was written wrong. He seemed like a pushover at times, just taking whatever Stark dished out at him, and Howard’s soft voice added to that, though I digress that I was used to the gruff tone of the 90’s cartoons that Rhodey had. I don’t blame Howard for Rhodey being a bit of a lame duck so to speak, but the character was definitely lacking the grit and intensity Rhodey has.


Plot
The first half hour was basically the set up and origin, but it was entertaining enough that at no point where you impatiently wanting the movie to move along. The origin was a bit different, but along the comics enough that at no point would you shake your head knowing the true origin.

The action was good, and there was enough to keep the movie interesting. Seeing the suit be built by Stark and him doing the various tests was entertaining and you were genuinely intrigued by it.

The movie was much more humorous than the other non-comedic comic movies, Starks witty one liners prevalent in that along with a few other things that I won’t tell you since I will keep this spoiler free.


The Suit
It was awesome. Even after all the previews, all the pictures and videos, it was still awesome even in the clips we had already seen. At no point did it look fake, but seeing all the moving parts was a bit strange, but that was to be expecting since we wouldn’t see much of it in the comics. It looked real, acted real and was believable in its construction. And frankly, I thought it looked a lot better than the current extremis armor. In combat or in flight you truly got a feel for how powerful the suit was.


All in all the movie was very good, and there were hints at the sequel which again, I won’t be giving away at all, but you’ll like it. The characters were true to the comic and the performances good, and the action while not constant was entertaining. If you haven't already seen it, once, twice or five times like others have, make time to.

No Update Today, Sorry : /

I started a new job earlier this month and gone out of town a few times so it has really messed with my schedule, so I apologize for not getting a real update in this week. There is a very good chance I will be seeing the Iron Man movie this Friday, so if that happens I will have a review posted next Monday, promise.

Armor Design

Since I was out of town most of last week I didnt get a chance to get a good entry in, so I'm going to post an armor design I did about seven or eight years ago.

For lack of a better name, we'll just call it the Chaos armor. As you can tell at first glance it was influenced by the Heroes Reborn Prometheum armor with the smoke stacks and the leg attachments and also the modular armor with the more streamlined look and lack of mouth. Though it may look like I went purely for aesthetics, the big parts do have functions.

The armor is meant to be modular, able to swap out systems like boots and gauntlets, plus the shoulder armor and back pack could be removed for different units.

The leg attachments as you can see have straps to hold them on, they are actually battery units for extra power. Think of them as bigger versions of the disks the Classic armor had on the hips. They were completely optional and could be discarded with ease.

Much the same manner was the backpack, which was also a power generator and had its own thrusters for extra speed.

The shoulders (whose design actually came form the Wing Zero Gundam mecha) are three separate thermocouple units for extra energy conversion. While in flight the two lower segments lift up into the top one for greater aerodynamic stability.

The uni-beam, well that was pure aesthetics there. I was going for something different and thought the straps would look good there. The gauntlets have overhangs above the hands and elbows for protection, plus giving en elbow would hurt a lot more with that thing.

But yeah, that's an old design I came up with but always liked. Not every one's cup of tea I know, and admittedly I would do some things different now, but all in all I am proud of the design.

Best Iron Man villains

Just like every other hero, Iron Man has his share of villains, some one shot guys and some who have been around as long as he has. Of course some stick out more than others, and to no surprise they last the longest because they tend to be the most original and interesting. So which do I feel these are? Well, I give you what I believe to be Iron Man’s best villains.




5) Crimson Dynamo

I wanted to put him as the first because the Dynamo always represented Tony if he was born in Russia, plus at the time with the Cold War that meant a lot more. It was two men whose only real difference was that they grew up on the other side of the world. Unfortunately the problem with the Dynamo was the guy in the armor kept changing, so it became more a suit than anything. I guess you can call it the Tin Man: the character lacked a heart. His latest appearance was little more than a joke, wearing armor like the original and getting beat with no real effort. The Dynamo really needs to get an established wearer so it can be used to full potential. Still he has managed to continually be interesting, so he makes the list.


4) Justin Hammer

Tony with no morals is probably a good way to explain Hammer. He was driven by money and power and didn’t care who he stepped on to get it. Of course, he didn’t get where he was by being stupid and every time he looked down for good something he did in the past blew up in Tony’s face and he was back in it. Until that whole Bad Blood thing, but of course in comics, is anyone ever truly dead?


3) Titanium Man

The T-Man always represented a bit of a step up from Iron Man, a David vs Goliath if you will. Plus he represented somewhat of a great fear at the time: an unstoppable Russian weapon. He was loyal to a fault and would never give up. Even after Tony had upgraded his armor multiple times, the T-Man was still a match in the same armor he wore. It says something when after beating the T-Man with the classic armor, the far superior Modular armor was having trouble taking him down. It shows how powerful the Titanium Man truly was, and it was only death that really stopped him.


2) Obadiah Stane (Iron Monger)

Stane was Tony’s most crafty and intelligent enemy, and in ways actually smarter than him. Stane avoided direct conflict seeking instead to stay behind the scenes and ruin Tony emotionally, taking away his company and driving him to alcoholism. Tony was at his worst when Stane wanted him. But in the end Stane underestimated Tony, thinking Tony was broken for good and he had won, Stark came back with the Silver Centurion armor and not only outfought Stane in his Iron Monger but out-thought him. Everything Stane threw at him Tony waded through with little problem. Unwilling to give Tony the final victory Stane took his own life. Of all the Iron man villains, none have ever managed to make Tony steep so low.


1) Mandarin

It’s really hard to put Mandarin anywhere but the top spot. Not only is he the most intriguing, but he is the only villain who continually evolves. After every battle the Mandarin comes back with a changed philosophy and strategy, and sometimes new powers. He has done everything from creating his own armor to trying to control Fing Fang Foom and Ultimo. He always has a new scheme vastly different from the last, and he has the intelligence to use his supreme powers. The only thing I don’t like is that he is almost always been physically frail, so the battle between him and Iron Man is usually the Mandarin dodging repulsors. But still, what the Mandarin brings more than offsets that. Intelligent, resourceful and driven the Mandarin time and again has proven to be Stark’s greatest enemy.

Review: Age of Apocalypse

I’ve decided to take the time to review one of the major alternate realities in the Marvel Universe: The Age of Apocalypse. For those that don’t know this was an alternate timeline created within the mainstream Marvel Universe by the death Charles Xavier (this alternate timeline was portrayed in the regular monthly titles). An attempt to kill Magneto in the past to prevent him from being a mutant terrorist is disrupted when Xavier jumps in to save him, dying in his place. Mutants are not as unified by Xavier’s ideals and the rift between mutants and humans grows which Apocalypse takes full advantage of, resulting in his conquering of the United States in a dark and apocalyptic (no pun intended) setting where humans are slaughtered like cattle and Europe is the only free place for humans left after the destruction of much of the rest of the world.

What I liked most is really how dark this series was. More graphic and realistic in the sense that no one was safe, anyone could dies and heroes didn’t always win, AoA as it is referred to had a completely different feel to it than mainstream Marvel. There were few happy moments, even in victories and everyone was constantly divided not only with others but with themselves. The feeling at times is a bit akin to the Terminator future: dark, desolate and violent with only glimmers of hope where war is constant.

Also many characters were flip flopped, such as Cyclops and Havok both being agents of Apocalypse and Magneto being the last thing standing in front of Apocalypse’s rule of the Earth. It was interesting to see such established characters in a new light, and what it would be like if someone like Magneto was a force of good rather than evil. It’s really something us as readers always wondered: “what if this character was on the other side” and this series answers some of those. Though you could normally see hints of the characters regular personas for the most part the characters were a fair amount different not only because they had switched allegiances, but also because the world they lived in was so much harsher (a bit of a spoiler, do we honestly ever think Night Crawler would deliver a killing blow to a bad guy with no remorse?).

The art too I thought was very good. Led by artists like Ian Churchill, Steve Epting, Salvador Larrocca and Adam and Andy Kubert just to name some, I would say the art was all in all fantastic for the series. I know we all have our own tastes and not everyone can be impressed, but all things considered I can’t see people not liking the art. If you're a fan of detail heavy art, this is definitely for you.

The one thing I didn’t like about this series was the end. What happened wasn’t bad, but how fast it happened was. It seemed like all of a sudden things came to a head all too quick and people started dying left and right. It really should have been drawn out over another month at least to really get a good fulfilling ending in. This was also a bit of a problem for the whole series. It jumped around a lot, often months or sometimes years passing between issues. Though I realize they didn’t want to drag this on forever, at points you really feel gypped of a good story.

All in all this was a very good series. It is more adult oriented and mature and the writers get the despair and darkness of the world across very good. I picked up the series in the four volume trade paper backs and thoroughly enjoyed everyone, included the special “Chosen” issue where you see Apocalypse’s profiles on the more prominent characters of the series. If you got some spare cash (about $25 US for each) I suggest this series.