Star Wars hero Poe Dameron returns in ongoing Marvel comic
Marvel Comics is going to fill in more of the gaps between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, with a new, ongoing Poe Dameroncomic set to launch in April.
Written by Charles Soule, with art by Phil Noto, the series will focus on Dameron’s life with the Resistance movement and battling against the First Order, prior to the events of JJ Abrams’Episode VII. And yes, Poe’s loyal droid BB-8 will be co-starring.
The series will explore Poe’s standing as one of the top X-Wing pilots working for General Leia, leading his squadron on an important mission — track down Luke Skywalker. However, a new villain working for the First Order is hot on his heels, set to become Dameron’s own personal nemesis.
It’s the third time Soule has penned stories in the Star Warsuniverse, following his earlier Star Wars: Lando and the just-launched Obi-Wan and Anakin mini-series. But the appeal of Dameron as a solo star is clear.
“It’s silly not to explore the idea of a guy who grew up steeped in the Rebellion and the older Republic and all of those myths and legends,” Soule told USA Today. “If you think about it, he grew up the way we did, hearing all of these stories.”
“Sometimes it can feel like the Star Wars universe is so well trodden and so many stories have already been told,” he added, “but the way the Episode VII galaxy is set up, there are opportunities for new archetypes almost, and the bad guy we’re working with is going to feel fresh and cool.”
Poe Dameron, played by Oscar Isaacs, was one of the breakout characters of The Force Awakens, and is set to continue serving a key role as the sequel trilogy progresses. However, given the new comic is set before the opening of the new film, the focus will be on his relationships with his fellow X-Wing jockeys rather than with Finn or Rey — at least until Rian Johnson’s Episode VIIIis released in 2017 and the comic can jump forward a little.
Marvel has previously dabbled in the era between the classic and the sequel trilogies, with Shattered Empire set immediately in the wake of Jedi. The four-issue mini-series dealt with the fallout — both literal and metaphorical — of the destruction of the second Death Star, and introduced Poe’s parents Shara Bey and Kes Dameron.
Star Wars: Poe Dameron launches in April, though readers keen to get an insight into Poe’s earlier adventures can get a head start withBefore the Awakening, an anthology exploring the new cast’s lives.
MARVEL ANNOUNCES “STAR WARS: POE DAMERON” SERIES FROM SOULE & NOTO
Following the record-obliterating box office run enjoyed by“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” it seemed like only a matter of time before Marvel announced a comic book tie-in. Now, USA Today has announced that Poe Dameron, the best fighter pilot in the Resistance, will get his own ongoing comic book series.
Launching in April, the ongoing “Star Wars: Poe Dameron” comes from a pair of comic creators — Charles Soule andPhil Noto — that are veterans of Marvel’s Star Wars line. The series marks writer Soule’s third entry into the canon, following the “Lando” and “Obi-Wan & Anakin” limited series. Noto will serve as Soule’s co-pilot, making “Poe Dameron” the artist’s second Star Wars series following “Chewbacca.”
Poe as played by Oscar Isaac has become a breakout character from “The Force Awakens,” and series writer Soule told USA Today that seeing “people reacting to him so strongly now just feels like we’re hopefully in a great position.” Soule reacted strongly to Poe, sharing his enthusiasm for the character during “Force Awakens'” opening weekend.
“I’ve seen people on Twitter and Instagram looking for Poe Dameron in the comics,” added Noto. “Now the pressure’s on us to deliver.” Writer Charles Soule was also one of those people tweeting praise for Poe Dameron.
The series will be set prior to the events of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” in the gap between “Return of the Jedi” and the latest Star Wars film. The series will also introduce a new threat from the First Order that will serve as Poe’s primary antagonist, with Soule commenting that the new villain “is going to feel fresh and cool.” BB-8 and some of the newly introduced X-wing pilots will round out Poe’s supporting cast.
“Poe Dameron” will be the second series set in that 30-year gap, following last year’s “Journey to the Force Awakens – Shattered Empire” limited series. A prose novel, “Before the Awakening,” also explored Poe Dameron in this time period.
“Star Wars: Poe Dameron” arrives in April.
MARVEL ANNOUNCES “STAR WARS: POE DAMERON” SERIES FROM SOULE & NOTO
Marvel Confirms Shelving ‘Fantastic Four’ as Ongoing Comic Book Concern
Marvel Confirms Shelving ‘Fantastic Four’ as Ongoing Comic Book Concern
This will be the first time Marvel has not had a Fantastic Four comic in publication or development in more than five decades. Jack Kirby/Marvel Enterprises
This will be the first time Marvel has not had a Fantastic Four comic in publication or development in more than five decades.
It’s not a good time for Marvel’s first family. Not only did Fox’s second attempt at the Fantastic Four movie franchise crash and burn at the box office last year, but with the release of the much-delayed final issue of Marvel’s Secret Wars series, the publisher has brought the comic book adventures of the team to a close as well. Spoilers for Secret Wars follow.
By the close of Secret Wars No. 9, Reed Richards, his immediate family — wife Sue, and children Franklin and Valeria — and group of students the Future Foundation end up outside reality, creating new universes in an attempt to repopulate a comic book multiverse decimated by events leading up to the series. A bearded Richards makes a metatextual comment to emphasize his retirement to the reader: “No more superheroes for a while, just science. And no more Mister Fantastic, just Dad. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it?”
In an interview with Comic Book Resources, Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort said that, “at a certain point, we set out [in Secret Wars] to do the last Fantastic Four story, at least for the time being,” although he admitted that, “we didn’t necessarily start with that as the original goal.”
The end of the Fantastic Four as a comic book property has been a matter of much speculation for months, with the title not being listed among the many relaunches as part of the publisher’s All-New, All-Different Marvel comic book line reboot. The idea that the comic book was a casualty of a struggle between Marvel and Fox was often floated, but Brevoort said that the reason for the decision has more to do with reader and creator apathy toward the concept.
“Fantastic Four has been one of those books that, for a number of years, has been effectively taken for granted,” he told CBR. “It’s been considered stodgy, or old school, or some people see it as a thing that’s there and people are comfortable because it’s there, but they’re not particularly passionate about it. So we’re not going to have that book for a while.”
Fantastic Four was the series that launched Marvel Entertainment as it’s known today, with the success of the book’s 1961 debut leading to the creation of such characters as Iron Man, Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Hulk. A handful of Marvel characters, most notably Captain America, predate the creation of the Fantastic Four, but it was the response to the work of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four that led to those characters being brought back into use, as well as the creation of the shared “Marvel Universe” seen in Marvel Studios movies today. This will be the first time Marvel has not had a Fantastic Four comic in publication or development in more than five decades.
Some of the FF characters will continue to appear in other series — the Thing is part of the Guardians of the Galaxy cast, with the Human Torch appearing in both Uncanny Avengers and Uncanny Inhumans — and Brevoort said that “inevitably and invariably” the rest of the cast will return at some point in time. (An evil alternate universe version of Reed Richards is already appearing in the New Avengers series.)
“We didn’t have a Thor book for a while,” he explained. “For a couple of years, there was absolutely no Thor book, and when Thor came back, it was a huge book. It continues to be a huge book to this day. I think that absence was part of what made people cherish its return, and then it was just having great talent to execute that return. If the same sort of thing happens with Fantastic Four that would not be the worst thing in the world.”
Marvel Confirms Shelving ‘Fantastic Four’ as Ongoing Comic Book Concern
Secret Wars’ Finale Says Goodbye to the Marvel Comics of Old
The final issue of Marvel’s everything-changing event series bids farewell to the fictional father figure of its superhero reality. Reed Richards doesn’t exit the stage quite the way we’ve been led to believe, either.
The end of Secret Wars comes a few months deep into an aftermath that’s well underway. Marvel Comics’s All-New, All-Different initiative is a complete re-imagining of their universe’s characters and status quos. The changes so far have given readers a Spider-Man who runs a global tech conglomerate, a female Wolverine and a Hulk who isn’t Bruce Banner. All of this takes place eight months after the end of Secret Wars. The Fantastic Four is no more, and the Human Torch and the Thing fight evil on different super-teams. The whereabouts of Reed Richards (the original, not his evil alt-reality counterpart) have been an ongoing mystery for a while, with allusions to his apparent death.
Secret Wars #9—out this week from Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic—shows what happened to Mr. Fantastic just before the Marvel Universe gets reborn.
Secret Wars has been happening on a cosmic scale. It is set on a patchwork planet created by Dr. Doom after snatching omnipotence from mysterious beings who were orchestrating the end of all existence. What’s made the series the best mainstream crossover event in recent memory, though, is that it’s actually a focused character study. It’s largely been concerned with Victor Von Doom and the way that the archvillain has embodied godhood, but there’s been an increasing focus on his lifelong enemy, too. After surviving the erasure of the multiverse, Reed Richards has found himself in a reality where his life has been stolen. He’s been focused on working with the Black Panther, Namor and other survivors to come up with a way to defeat Doom-turned-God. The scenes where he reckons with what’s been lost, like the ones below from Secret Wars #6, have been wrenching.
The difference between superficial and meaningful change can be hard to chart in superhero comics. Death, estrangement and other reversals are just storytelling tools used in panels and word balloons. But Marvel Comics’ latest mutations have been consequential in game-changing ways. The company whence Iron Man, Captain America and the X-Men sprung isn’t just a comics publisher anymore. Even before its acquisition by Disney five years ago, Marvel was acting on ambitions to make their characters the source of an ambitious multimedia business. Those ambitions have been largely met, manifesting in a reality where multiple Marvel-branded movies and TV shows come out every year.
This issue’s best subtext is in how Hickman comments on the real-world shifts that are seemingly influencing how Marvel is grooming its stable of characters. Despit rampant speculation, it’s never been explicitly confirmed that 20th Century Fox’s command of the Fantastic Four film rights is the reason that Marvel isn’t publishing a monthly series featuring their beloved super-family. But the way that the publisher has reconfigured its fictional landscape is clearly prioritizing characters whose film and TV rights are under Marvel’s control. For example, the X-Men franchise is another one whose multimedia rights are controlled by a non-Marvel/Disney entity so the new Marvel Universe is a place where mutants are becoming extinct while the Inhuman population booms. Those are the same Inhumans who are a major part of Disney-owned ABC TV show Agents of SHIELD. If they are what they seem to be, editorial decisions like these—driven by outside factors—are a big change from how Marvel used to craft its storylines.
That change is deeply felt in Secret Wars #9, which reads like an explosion of all the series’ various attributes. There are giant battles of epic scale, shot through with heated monologues revealing how characters see themselves and others. The issue ends with a glimpse of the new reality Marvel’s heroes inhabit and teases the reason that Miles Morales got his mother back. Early on, as the Black Panther and Doom face off in a prelude to the series’ final showdown, Doom sneers at the attacks on his rule, characterizing them as “machination.”
It’s a sly beat that reminds readers that all superhero universes are the aggregate results of decades of tweaks, feints and left turns. Machinations, both metafictional intratextual, aren’t anything new in cape comics. What’s changing now is the fact that the successes of various adaptations appear to be filtering back into the wellspring that the TV shows and movies came from. It’s an undeniably plausible reason that, say, Daredevil has a secret identity again.
There’s also a sense of closure here, as Hickman returns to characters and scenes from his tenures on various Marvel series. The Black Panther counsels young charges in his kingdom like he did in New Avengers #1, but it’s the beginning of a new universe—and not the impending death of many—that serves as a backdrop. Epitomized by a stellar stint on the Fantastic Four family of titles, Hickman’s time at Marvel linked many of the publisher’s franchises into a sprawling mega-story, concerned in part with the hard choices superheroes have to make to preserve entire societies. Fittingly, Secret Wars ends with Reed Richards peacefully resigning himself to the idea of a new Marvel Universe built off of the emotional resonances of the old one. He can’t be part of it now, but serves in a role that’s a tacit acknowledgement that he’ll always be the foundation stone upon which Marvel’s superhero successes were built
Did You Forget What Marvel’s Secret Wars Was About? Let Us Remind You!
Marvel finally did it. Eight months after it began, Secret Wars came to a close today, after nine issues of reality-bending madness. No idea what the fuss is? Want to get in on the event that brought us an All-New Marvel universe, juuuust as it’s ending? What the hell happened to the Fantastic Four? Here’s our guide.
Just a warning, going in—we’re not going to be spoiling the final issue of Secret Wars #9, which was released today. But obviously, plot points from the first 8 issues of Secret Wars, by Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic, Ive Svorcina, and Clayton Cowles, will be detailed below. You’re been warned!
So. Secret Wars. Didn’t that happen in like, the ‘80s?
It did! The 2015 series shares its name with the classic Marvel “event” series that took place in 1984. The new Secret Wars only really shares a name and the concept of the “Battleworld”, which all 9 issues of Secret Wars and its various spinoff series took place on.
Battleworld?
We’ll get to that, first, you have to deal with the Universe exploding.
Whaaaaaaaaaa?
Okay, let’s actually dial it back a little bit further, because Secret Wars is essentially the culmination of a plot that’s been swinging around in writer Jonathan Hickman’s New Avengers comic series. Basically, the New Avengers—Captain America, Tony Stark, Reed Richards, Namor, Doctor Strange, and Black Bolt—faced a terrible battle. Parts of Marvel’s various alternate universes were smashing into each other, creating “Incursions” that essentially destroyed either one of the universes or both in the process. The Avengers had to be willing to do anything to stop that happening to their own reality.
Sounds dark.
It was very dark—Hickman’s New Avengers saw some of Marvel’s greatest heroes sacrifice a lot to ensure the safety of their universe. They erased Steven Rogers’ memory when they decided they needed to go beyond Cap’s moral code. They kept a woman from an alternate universe captive. Hell, at one point they actually destroyed another universe to save the main Marvel reality. In the end, even these heroes sinking to their lowest didn’t save them. The Ultimate Marvel universe, known as Earth-1610, smashed into the main Marvel Universe, Earth-616, destroying both.
Wait a second. What the hell is Ultimate Marvel? Doesn’t that mean the best Marvel? Why isn’t that one the main universe if it’s the Ultimate one!?
The Ultimate universe first appeared in 2000, an alternate take on Marvel’s most iconic heroes that updated their origins and stories for the modern day. Peter Parker’s no longer a freelance photographer but the Daily Bugle’s website admin—things like that. The Ultimate universe was one of Marvel’s most popular alternate takes on its heroes, and home to some fantastic characters. Like Miles Morales, who took over from Peter Parker as Spider-Man.
So it was a big deal when it ended, seemingly for good, by taking out the prime Marvel universe in a big fiery explosion. Many heroes from the 616 and 1610 Earths survived though, after figuring out there was no point fighting each other and instead getting on some spaceships, hoping to ride out the cataclysm.
So where does Secret Wars take place, if the Marvel universe is dead?
Remember when I mentioned Battleworld earlier? The Battleworld is a mish-mash of different alternate worlds, smushed together into one. The escape crafts of the surviving heroes crash land there, only to find out each region—populated by alternate versions of many heroes, with recreations of old Marvel events, like Age of Ultron or X-Men Apocalypse, alongside new things like the wild-western 1872—was ruled by the iron fist of Doctor Doom, the God-King of the new universe.
Wait. How the hell did Doctor Doom survive? And become god?
While the New Avengers were going around being morally problematic in their quest to save the world, arguably Doom tried to be the most noble—in his own, Doom-y way. Victor realized that the Beyonders, godlike beings who played a part in the creation of the Marvel cosmos, were the ones behind the destruction of the alternate realities. Doom, with the help of Doctor Strange and Molecule Man, managed to thrash the Beyonders, hoping that by taking their power he could save reality. He couldn’t, but he used it to reforge the remaining shards of different universes into one single remaining world.
Seems kind of benevolent, for a Supervillain.
Well, having absolute power let Doom basically create a fantasy world for himself to play about it. The “Baron” of each region of Battleworld had to report to Doom, the ultimate ruler of the world—something Doom has wanted forever—and a man who could reshape reality at the click of his fingers.
He commanded an army of alternate Thors to police the world (they were called the Thor Corps. Cute name aside, they were not to be trifled with). He erased the memory of Reed Richards from the mind of Sue Storm and Richard’s children, Valeria and Franklin, and made them his own family, to spite his longtime nemesis. Hell, he even made Galactus his personal lapdog, for christ’s sake.
Okay, less benevolent. No one tried to stop him?
No—the Thor Corps ensured that there was no travel between different regions of the Battleworld, and after all, Doom had godlike powers. He could do whatever he wanted, and Battleworld was mostly fine to exist with him ruling it all. He did so happily for eight years, until the escape ships containing the survivors of the Ultimate and Prime Marvel universes arrived. Being the superheroes we know and love, they didn’t take too kindly to Victor Von Doom being god.
But how do you fight god?
Good question. They tried to battle Doom, but with his almighty power they couldn’t beat him. Before he could deal the killing blow that would’ve snuffed out Marvel’s most iconic superheroes, Stephen Strange—who had spent those eight years as Doom’s lackey, believing his closest allies were lost—used his magic to scatter the heroes across the Battleworld, something Doom snapped his neck for.
Oh, and he blamed Strange’s death on the heroes, charging Valeria Richards, who still thought Doom was her father, with hunting them down.
Okay. But when this Secret Wars thing started, Marvel cancelled a bunch of my comics and replaced them with all these Battleworld comics. What’s the deal with that?
With the universe destroyed, those comics couldn’t really continue. Secret Wars was designed to be a total reboot of the Marvel comic universe, something they hadn’t really done on this scale. Its current crop of comics ended, and were replaced by tons and tons of new miniseries that were set in the different regions of Battleworld, exploring these strange places and offering twists on old stories like Civil War or Armor Wars or even things that weren’t wars!
Do I have to read all of them to understand Secret Wars then? I don’t have the time, money, or sanity to do that.
No one does. If you just want to catch up on the main thrust of Secret Wars, just read the main Secret Wars series, which ran for 9 issues and ended today.
Great! So, heroes scattered, Doctor Doom triumphant. What happened next? Were our heroes… doomed?
See what you did there. Well, the heroes were scattered, but not broken. They even managed to find regions that were disgruntled with Doom’s long rule, and slowly built an army of resistance that could march upon Doom’s castle in the appropriately-titled region of Doomguard.
And Black Panther got hold of the all-powerful Infinity Gauntlet, because how else are you going to fight a dude with the powers of a god?
So Doom’s armies fight the heroes’ armies. What about Doom himself?
Well, you’ll have to find out by reading the final issue—the heroes and villains of Marvel’s old universe have made their move, and Doctor Doom stands to lose everything he’s made. Suffice to say, it’ll have some big questions about the fate of certain Marvel heroes, especially the Fantastic Four. But this catches you right up, so you can dig in straight away.
Marvel director Joe Russo hints at looming Avengers cull
Film-maker set to helm Captain America: Civil War and Infinity War movies says studio may jettison key superhero characters from its ‘cinematic universe’
Russo told an audience at the Wizard World New Orleans convention that film-makers planned to deal with an increasing proliferation of costumed heroes in Marvel’s “cinematic universe” by removing some of its key players. The film-maker, who will oversee Captain America: Civil War, due to be released in the UK in April, and the two-part Avengers epic Infinity War alongside brother Anthony, also said lesser-known figures might move to the fore.
“I want to see some storytelling from some of the secondary characters,” Russo told fans at the Wizard World New Orleans convention. “We’re focusing on that right now with Infinity War while we’re breaking into those movies, [to see] which characters we can pull to the forefront who potentially haven’t had their own ‘A’ story arc to this point. I think you’ll see that the supporting Avengers are going to become primary Avengers.
“Everything is finite, right? Nothing can last for ever,’ he added. “It’s cyclical. Some new Avengers in [future movies] are going to become prominent and then maybe some Avengers might not be around any more.”
There have been rumblings of change for some time at Marvel, with Robert Downey Jr, who played Iron Man, now 50 and having failed to sign up for future solo outings as the power-suited hero. The looming debut of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange, a key member of The Avengers in some of the original comic books, has also inspired speculation that the sorcerer supreme could eventually join the superhero team on the big screen.
There is also a precedent for the disappearance of Captain America, currently played by Chris Evans, from the Marvel universe. In a 2007 comic book chapter, the original patriotic hero, Steve Rogers, was revealed to have died after being shot at close range by sometime paramour Sharon Carter, who had been hypnotised into committing the murder. Rogers remained “dead” for two years before a 2009 series, Captain America: Reborn, revealed he had simply been phasing in and out of space and time.
Infinity War parts one and two will be released in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Doctor Strange, with Scott Derrickson directing, marks Cumberbatch’s debut lead role in a big-budget Hollywood production and will be released in November.
Alan Rickman, Harry Potter and Die Hard actor, dies aged 69
Actor Alan Rickman, known for films including Harry Potter, Die Hard and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, has died at the age of 69, his family has said.
The star had been suffering from cancer, a statement said.
He became one of Britain’s best-loved acting stars thanks to roles including Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films and Hans Gruber in Die Hard.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling led the tributes, describing him as “a magnificent actor and a wonderful man”.
She wrote on Twitter: “There are no words to express how shocked and devastated I am to hear of Alan Rickman’s death.”
She added: “My thoughts are with [Rickman’s wife] Rima and the rest of Alan’s family. We have all lost a great talent. They have lost part of their hearts.”
A look back at some of Alan Rickman’s most memorable rolesEmma Thompson, who appeared with Rickman in productions including Love Actually and was directed by him in The Winter Guest, said he was “the finest of actors and directors” and “the ultimate ally”.
She wrote in a statement: “Alan was my friend and so this is hard to write because I have just kissed him goodbye.
“What I remember most in this moment of painful leave-taking is his humour, intelligence, wisdom and kindness.
“His capacity to fell you with a look or lift you with a word. The intransigence which made him the great artist he was – his ineffable and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me, and the fact that he never spared me the view. I learned a lot from him.”
She added: “He was, above all things, a rare and unique human being and we shall not see his like again.”
Announcing his death on Thursday, a family statement said: “The actor and director Alan Rickman has died from cancer at the age of 69. He was surrounded by family and friends.”
Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe said Rickman was “undoubtedly one of the greatest actors I will ever work with”.
He wrote on Google Plus: “Working with him at such a formative age was incredibly important and I will carry the lessons he taught me for the rest of my life and career.
“Film sets and theatre stages are all far poorer for the loss of this great actor and man.”
Sir Michael Gambon, who appeared with Alan Rickman in Harry Potter as well as on stage, told BBC Radio 4 he was “a great friend”.
He added: “Everybody loved Alan. He was always happy and fun and creative and very, very funny. He had a great voice, he spoke wonderfully well.
“He was intelligent, he wrote plays, he directed a play. So he was a real man of the theatre and the stage and that’s how I think of Alan.”
Director Ang Lee, who cast Rickman opposite Kate Winslet in 1995’s Sense and Sensibility, called him a “brilliant actor… a soulful actor… [and] a great human being.”
Alan Rickman
1946-2016
- 41 when he played Hans Gruber in Die Hard, his breakthrough film performance
- 68 film credits to his name
- 16 awards, including an Emmy, golden globe, and BAFTA
Actor Richard E Grant wrote on Twitter: “Farewell my friend. Your kindness and generosity ever since we met in LA in 1987 and ever since is incalculable.”
TV star and Bafta ceremony host Stephen Fry wrote: “What desperately sad news about Alan Rickman. A man of such talent, wicked charm and stunning screen and stage presence. He’ll be sorely missed.”
Actor David Morrissey also paid tribute. He said: “So sad to hear the news of Alan Rickman. A wonderful actor and lovely man. Tragic news.”
The London-born star began his career in theatre, including with the Royal Shakespeare Company, before winning roles in TV dramas like Smiley’s People and The Barchester Chronicles in the 1980s.
His performance as the manipulative seducer the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses on Broadway in 1986 brought him the first of two Tony Award nominations.
It also brought him to the attention of Die Hard producer Joel Silver, who offered him his film debut as a result.
He went on to become best known for playing screen villains – including the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, for which he won a Bafta award, and Judge Turpin opposite Johnny Depp in 2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
But he showed his gentler side in films like 1990’s Truly Madly Deeply, in which he played Juliet Stevenson’s ghost lover and which also earned him a Bafta nomination.
Further Bafta nominations came for his roles as Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility and the calculating Irish politician Eamon de Valera in 1996’s Michael Collins.
The following year, he won a Golden Globe for best actor in a miniseries or television film for the title role in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny.
Other film credits ranged from Tim Robbins’ 1992 political satire Bob Roberts to Richard Curtis’s 2003 romantic comedy Love, Actually, 1999’s sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest and the voice of the Blue Caterpillar in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.
He also moved behind the camera in 1997 directing Thompson and her mother, Phyllida Law, in The Winter Guest.
Two years ago, he also directed period saga A Little Chaos, in which he co-starred with Kate Winslet.
Meanwhile, he continued to be a major presence on the stage in London and New York.
Another Tony nomination came for Private Lives in 2002, in which he appeared opposite Lindsay Duncan on Broadway following a transfer from London.
He recently revealed he had married Rima Horton in secret last year. The couple had been together since he was just 19 and she was 18.
Avengers: Age of Ultron – 5 Marvel Universe Stories That Defined the Character
Without getting into Avengers: Age of Ultron spoilers, we look at the Marvel Comics stories that inspired the movie.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is nearly here (and we have a spoiler-free review that you can read). So while fans look to the future for the next upgrade in the history of the robotic menace, Den of Geek peers into the past and focuses on the greatest Ultron stories of all time.
Since the time-travelling, reality-warping comic story that bears the “Age of Ultron” name is wholly inappropriate for the big screen (at least, for now), and hardly even features any actual Ultron, we’ve got five other tales of robotic evil for you to check out.
Here we go…
“The Origin of Ultron”
Avengers #54-58 (1968)
Writer: Roy Thomas Artist: John Buscema
The first time Marvel fans met the mechanical despot they didn’t even know they were meeting Ultron. He was hidden beneath the disguise of the Crimson Cowl and took a card from Baron Zemo’s deck by assembling a team of Masters of Evil to go against the Avengers. When the Avengers finally confront the Cowl, he shocks everyone by revealing he is not a flesh-and-blood human but a robot with a massive hate for all things organic!
Ultron was created by Hank Pym, who used his own brain patterns in the experiment, and his creation instantly developed a sci-fi Oedipus Complex, displaying very disturbing feelings for Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. the Wasp. Ultron also grew a festering hate for his “father.” Ultron upgrades himself, giving himself number designations for each new version long before Apple thought of it, and hypnotizes Pym to forget his creation. Yes, an Oedipal, evil robot with hypnotism powers and a metal chubby for the Wasp. Comics, ladies and gentlemen!
This all led to Ultron creating Avengers icon the Vision out of the android body of the Golden Age Human Torch who, during the course of the story, turned against his evil master and joins the Avengers. So what from this classic origin will appear in the film? Well, we know that Hank Pym isn’t in this film (he’s busy being played by Michael Douglas in the Ant-Man movie) and so Tony Stark will be the creator of Ultron. The Crimson Cowl stuff will be deleted for sure and I’m pretty sure robotic hypnotism is out, but you can bet your repulsers that the father hate stays. The Vision plays a pivotal role in Ultron’s origin, and we know he shows up, too.
“The Bride of Ultron”
Avengers #157- 166 (1977)
Writers: Gerry Conway, Jim Shooter Artists: Don Heck, Sal Buscema, George Perez, George Tuska, and John Byrne
Things just got weirder and cooler from there. Ultron, still harboring inappropriate and disturbing feelings for the Wasp, decided he was going to make his own metallic bride and pattern her after Janet the same why he was patterned after Hank Pym. Ultron kidnaps the Wasp and once again uses his hypnotic powers to control Pym into downloading the Wasp’s thought patterns into his robotic bride. Never one to miss a literary softball, Marvel named the female robot Jocasta after Oedipus’ own wife/mother.
On the surface, this is a pretty kick ass Bronze Age tale, but one only need to peer underneath to see the disturbing sexual underpinnings of this story: a machine who is unable to couple with an organic person who tries to force the essence of that being into a metal shell so the robot can have his way with her. There’s no Wasp in this movie, either (again, see: Ant-Man) but one can only hope that Whedon’s Ultron is more than just motivated by killing organics. Ultron isn’t just Skynet from the Terminator films. Skynet never plotted to duplicate its creator’s wife and make sweet, oily, robot love to her.
“The Ultron Imperative”
Mighty Avengers #1-6 (2007)
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis Artist: Frank Cho
Set after the events of Marvel’s Civil War (which is getting its own Marvel movie soon enough), the Mighty Avengers team needed an a-list threat to cut their teeth on. Ultron hijacks Iron Man’s armor transforming it into his new body, and in a perfect bit of well-established character weirdness, Ultron’s body is now an exact robot duplicate of the Wasp! He kills Sentry’s wife, forever altering the status quo of that particular Avenger and is only defeated by Ares who sends Ultron’s disembodied consciousness into space, but not before reminding the Avengers and the readers that Ultron is the pinnacle of badassery…and can look pretty good in a tube top.
Annihilation: Conquest (2008)
Writers: Keith Giffen, Christos Gage, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Javier Grillo-Marxuach
Artists: Kyle Hotz, Sean Chen, Timothy Green, Mike Lilly, Mike Perkins
Yes, Ares sends Ultron’s consciousness into space during “The Ultron Imperative,” but the metallic menace is not lost. Instead, he is revealed as the big bad of Marvel’s second sweeping space opera, Annihilation: Conquest. As radio waves, Ultron contacts the robotic X-Men villains, the Phalanx, and decides the directionless conquerors need a singular consciousness to lead them. Always ready to fill the role of dictator and cold-blooded killing machine, Ultron gleefully accepts the role, eventually possessing the artificial body of Adam Warlock.
A rag-tag group of heroes including Star Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Drax, Gamora, Groot, Quasar, Moondragon, and the newly introduced Wraith join forces to stop Ultron. Yes, Ultron was directly responsible for assembling the Guardians of the Galaxy! It’s not too tough to envision an Avengers film where Ultron is defeated by being sent into space only to become the villain of a future Guardians sequel, but we might be getting ahead of ourselves.
Finally we have the granddaddy of all Ultron stories:
“Ultron Unlimited”
Avengers #19-22 (1998)
Writer: Kurt Busiek Artist: George Perez
There are some stories that just stay with you. “Ultron Unlimited” begins with Ultron destroying the entire Western Europe nation of Slorenia, transforming each horribly murdered citizen into an Ultron clone. The Avengers, shocked and exhausted from the mindless carnage around them, are pushed to the limit to defeat Ultron.
The stakes never felt higher than in this classic tale as Ultron essentially becomes robot Hitler. This characterization of Ultron would follow him into each subsequent appearance. He was not the robot that desired to commit genocide to punish his “father” he is the robot that DID commit genocide, and Hank Pym had to live with it. It was one of the rare instance where the Avengers weren’t just protectors and heroes, they truly had something to “avenge.”
Thor’s words, “Ultron, we would have words with thee,” as he busts through countless robot clones to finally find the monster responsible for the carnage still resonates. Just imagine that moment on a big screen. Here’s hoping Chris Hemsworth gets to say it!
Avengers: Age of Ultron – 5 Marvel Universe Stories That Defined the Character
Video Game Records That Will Never Be Broken
Video Game Records That Will Never Be Broken
The King of Kong (2007) demonstrates that video game scores, and mullets, are a very serious business. You can play Kickle Cubicle until your thumbs are as thick as your neck and never come close to the masters’ scores, but at least you’ll have a good time doing it. If getting your name etched into the annals of gaming history is your thing, you can aim really high… but there are some records you’ll have a really hard time beating.
Pac-Man (Arcade) – Turbo Mode Kill Screen
Pac-Man perfection is a combination of robotic timing, relentlessness, and adult diapers. The player’s goal is to break the game by reaching the “kill screen,” a point in the game’s code in which the screen decays into random symbols due to a memory shortage. Glitching Pac-Man is the Grail of competitive retro gaming, officially reached by only seven people. But playing the game in turbo mode is an even more hellacious challenge, with only two confirmed kill screen players, neither of whom are Billy Mitchell. Beat that, joystick jockeys.
Why you’ll never beat this score: You don’t have rad hot sauce hockey hair.
The Simpsons (Arcade) – Highest Kill Streak
The Simpsons takes many weird liberties with Springfield, including turning Mr. Smithers into a bank-robbing kidnapper, but the game is universally regarded as a hugely fun beat-’em-up adventure. The highest recorded kill streak in The Simpsons is a paltry 263, beating the next nearest competitor by 25 points—but you try beating up zombies with a vacuum and see how it goes. The game’s notorious difficulty and increasing scarcity make this a record that’ll be very hard to beat.
Why you’ll never beat this score: Try finding an arcade. You won’t.
Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64) – Fastest Time
Super Mario 64 is a revolutionary game that contains a complex 3D world for Mario to traverse as he collects 120 stars, all from levels that can be freely accessed and repeated. Because it was the first game of its kind, it’s also pretty glitchy. The fastest recorded completion of the enormous game clocks in at just over 1 hour and 22 minutes, but the rules are strict: you must collect at least 70 stars, and you can’t use any glitches.
Why you’ll never beat this score: Fat Italian plumbers aren’t known for their speed.
Tetris (Game Boy) – High Score
Tetris was first released in 1984, but it wasn’t until being bundled with Nintendo’s Game Boy that it truly exploded into a system-spanning Russian juggernaut. One of the first great puzzlers of home gaming, geometry-minded nerds have always strived for tetromino mastery, with Uli Horner coming out on top with 748,757 points on the Game Boy version, beating the next nearest competitor by over 140,000 points.
Why you’ll never beat this score: If you have access to modern medicine, you were already cured by Dr. Mario.
Sonic The Hedgehog (Sega Genesis) – Fastest Time
If there’s one game in which a speed run makes sense, it’s Sonic. The super-fast player wants to zip through the game in a “minimalist run”, eschewing any bonuses or continues. The fastest recorded time is 28 minutes and 22 seconds, whereas a full playthrough generally runs over an hour. Charles Ziese holds the record for this fastest minimalist time, as well as the fastest run while collecting all of the game’s emeralds, in only 33 minutes.
Why you’ll never beat this score: Even fictional hedgehogs have their limits.
The Legend Of Zelda (NES) – Extreme Challenge
The rules of the Zelda Extreme Challenge are harsh, and it opens with leaving your sword behind as the quest begins. You cannot collect most treasures, you can’t accidentally kill overworld enemies, and you can only use bombs and fire on bosses. Your quest ends when you encounter the final boss, who cannot be defeated without the treasures you’ve skipped. So, while you’ve certainly accomplished something, you’ll never know sweet victory. Only four people have completed the challenge in both the first and second quest modes…but why?
Why you’ll never beat this score: It’s like a nightmare conjured by Kafka and Bosch. Don’t go there.
E.T. (Atari) – Highest Score
One of mankind’s worst video games, the awfulness of E.T. is legendary. While you may be able to beat Glenn Case’s high score of 1,058,399 points, you may go insane in the process. The nearest competitor tuckered out at just over 1 million, before presumably changing his name and going into seclusion to recover from garbage poisoning.
Why you’ll never beat this score: Playing E.T. is like rolling around on a barbershop floor. It’s gross.
Call Of Duty (Playstation 3) – Longest Continuous Game
The Guinness Book of World Records marks 135 hours as the longest game of CoD, but it comes with a caveat: the record holder was allowed to take a ten-minute break for every hour of play, netting himself some pretty swanky naptimes once these breaks accumulated. Guinness allowed these rests after a teenager died while in his 40th consecutive hour of Diablo 3 in a separate record attempt. Indeed, spending six days in a nonstop warzone would destroy anyone’s psyche.
Why you’ll never beat this score: You’ll probably die in real life.
10 Promising Video Games You Didn’t Know Were Coming In 2016
As we approach the end of 2015, we’ve already got one eye on the glorious things that await us on the gaming scene in 2016. Uncharted 4, Deus Ex: Mankind Divide and Mass Effect: Andromeda are just few of the big hitters to look forward to, but those are the kinds of games that’ll be getting so much pre-release hype that they’re pretty much guaranteed to imprint themselves into your mind whether you want them to or not.
The majority of games coming out in 2016 won’t have a multi-million dollar marketing budget or name value or AAA name value, and will rely instead on small yet dedicated followings of fans, Kickstarter campaigns, or just ingenious ideas to get noticed.
So why not check out the promising titles you might not have heard of, because by the end of 2016 they could well be ranking among the year’s biggest hitters, giving you the bragging rights to say you heard about them ‘before they were famous’.
10. The Witness (PC, PS4)
The Witness rests in that strange limbo of being one of the most eagerly anticipated indie games of recent years, while remaining relatively unknown to the mainstream crowd. It’s the long-awaited first-person puzzle game from the visionary mind of Jonathan Blow (Braid), and is finally set to come out early next year.
Right from the off, you can see that The Witness takes heavy inspiration from legendary 90s puzzle game Myst. You wander around a gorgeous island in the first-person, solving brain-bending puzzles across a series of distinct regions with the ultimate aim of reaching the mountain at the island’s centre.
There will be a total of 650 puzzles in The Witness, though not all of these will be necessary for the player to complete the main game. Just as well, considering Mr. Blow said that there’s one puzzle that only 1% of players will be able to solve (cue millions of players attempting to solve it to just to prove that they’re geniuses).
9. Unreal Tournament (PC)
It feel strange to mention the illustrious Unreal Tournament in a list of games you might not know about, but there’s a high chance you weren’t aware that a new one is in the works, and it’ll be completely free. Not freemium, not ‘free-to-play’ or any of that devious toss – just free.
The reason for this is that the game is being made in a collaboration between developer Epic and the gaming community. Gamers have open access to the game’s source code and Unreal Editor, and are being invited to submit their own character designs, mutators and blueprints to tweak the gameplay. Epic is still overseeing the core design of the game, but its reliance on volunteers means that what we’re getting is a labour of love and ode to that long-lost Unreal Tournament gameplay of old – but revamped beautifully in Unreal Engine 4.
The pre-alpha for Unreal Tournament is available to download here, so you can join in as a player and give your feedback to help build the latest chapter in the much-loved arena shooter.
8. Firewatch
Who’d ever have thought that playing the role of what is essentially a professional buzzkill would be so fascinating? You control a fire lookout in the Shoshone National Forest in 1989, soon after the infamous Yellowstone fires that ruined huge swathes of the forest and nearby towns.
As the fire lookout, it’s your job to wander around the park, dealing with regular daily incidents in multiple-choice ways. One gameplay clip showed the player trying to tell two teenagers to get out of the water and put their clothes on, then when they refused he chose to steal their clothes as a way of getting back at them – much to their chagrin and the player’s amusement.
There is a deeper story at play too, as you’re constantly in touch with your supervisor Delilah via walkie-talkie, and as the game progresses you start encountering more mysterious – possibly supernatural – incidents that take you well beyond your daily park duties.
All this is takes place in a gorgeous, heavily stylised world that gives a unique take on the raw beauty of the Yellowstone wilderness.
7. Yooka-Laylee (PC, PS4, XBO, Wii U)
Banjo-Kazooie was never the same after it left the N64. Rare was bought out by Microsoft, who failed to make the most of the developer’s talents – as evidenced by the fact that the best post-N64 Rare game was the perfectly average Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.
The Kickstarted 3D platformer Yooka-Laylee promises to be far more of a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie than Nuts and Bolts ever was. It’s being developed by Playtonic Games, which is made up of several members of the N64 Rare team – including three of the designers, and the great composer of Rare’s N64 games, Grant Kirkhope.
The game sees you control Yooka, a chameleon with a bat called Laylee sitting atop his head (you can see where this is going). The pair have a Banjo-esque set of abilities, which include rolling, jumping, punch, and of course flying thanks to the small but deceptively powerful wings of Laylee. They also have new abilities unique to their respective animals, such as tongue-licking and sonic sound attacks.
Players will traverse pretty 3D worlds, tackling platforms, solving puzzles, and collecting ‘Pagies’, used to unlock access to new worlds. Could this finally be the new Rare platformer we’ve been waiting for?
6. Salt And Sanctuary (PC, PS4)
When a game openly declares Dark Souls as its inspiration, a dedicated hardcore section of the gaming community are always going to pay attention. But before you get all apprehensive and start accusing it of copycatting, it’s worth knowing that Salt and Sanctuary is entirely 2D – giving it its own distinctive character.
Salt and Sanctuary is anD action role-playing game, in which you create a lone wanderer in a faded fantasy world, then head out in search of adventure, XP (in the form of ‘salt’), and menacing bosses.
But look beyond the pretty, hand-drawn 2D aesthetic, and you’ll see that beneath the surface this is Dark Souls through and through. You constantly have to manage your stamina when attacking, death is punished severely, and timing, dodging and positioning are crucial to survival. There is even talk that the game will feature both co-operative and PVP multiplayer modes.
The Souls-like genre has been steadily gaining momentum in the past year, but this is the most promising example of the burgeoning genre yet. Salt and Sanctuary is set to come out in ‘early 2016’ for PS4, and to PC shortly afterwards.
5. Hellblade (PC, PS4)
Ninja Theory, who brought us games like the Devil May Cry reboot and Heavenly Sword, know their stuff when it comes to fast-paced, combo-centric action games, so there’s good reason to be excited by the prospect of Hellblade – their new, PS4-exclusive IP.
The game looks set to have a much darker and more nightmarish tone than previous Ninja Theory games, and sees players guide a sword-wielding young woman called Senua through an underworld that blends reality with her traumatised psyche.
Hellblade is still in its early stages, but the gameplay will revolve around close-up ninja-sword encounters based on timing and reflexes. While the gameplay looks like it still needs some work based on what we’ve seen so far, the dark story and brooding atmosphere of the game shows plenty of promise, and leaves us intrigued to know more…
4. Torment: Tides Of Numenera (PC)
Planescape: Torment is an example of a game that those who’ve heard of it will find it unbelievable that there are other so-called ‘gamers’ out there who haven’t heard of it. It’s a much-loved relic of the cRPG golden age of the late 90s, and boasts one of the greatest video game storylines of all time – following the tortuous tribulations of a plane-shifting, ever-resurrecting being called the Nameless One.
Tides of Numenera is the spiritual successor to Torment, and takes place in the same surreal fantasy world. The game was funded through a Kickstarter campaign by Brian Fargo’s (Fallout 2, Wasteland 2) inXile Entertainment, and raised over $4 million, making it one of the highest-funded Kickstarters of all time.
Tides will use a similar isometric perspective to its predecessor, with gorgeous pre-rendered backgrounds combining with 3D character models. The game looks set to recreate the excellent writing and strong focus on player choice in approaching encounters – rarely forcing you into combat unless you seek it out, and having NPCs throughout the game respond to you differently depending on your past actions.
3. Slain! (PC, PS4, XBO)
Our second gruelling, ultra-hard platformer on this list takes its inspiration from 90s classics like Rastan and Super Ghouls N’ Ghosts. With a chugging metal soundtrack and a moody colour palette, Slain evokes the 90s while being animated and designed with the kind of technical finesse that wasn’t possible back then.
You control a hardy Viking-esque dude with a two-handed sword, and slash your way through environments that look like they’ve come straight out of the psyches of Iron Maiden – all rain-soaked, wind-swept levels with twisted, gnarled trees and giant skulls whose mouths open for you to walk into, brimming with zombies, spectres and giant hard-as-nails knights.
As the name suggests, this game’s not going to treat you nicely, but if it’s true to its inspirations then it’ll be a brilliantly-designed platformer than rewards skill and brutally punishes mistakes. And by ‘brutal’, we really mean it, judging by the floods of beautifully-animated blood and gore in the trailer.
2. Styx: Shards Of Darkness (PC, PS4, XBO)
Styx: Master of Shadows was a promising stealth-em-up that never quite made the most of its potential. The fantasy world was original, the goblin protagonist intriguing, and the stealth mechanics at their finest offered the kind of gameplay that we haven’t seen since Splinter Cell and the Thief games of old.
The game was undone by mechanical clunkiness, but there was enough promise in the original that it’s great to see Cyanide Studios returning to make a 2016 sequel. At a time when when new IPs die a quick and painful death if the first game isn’t a blockbuster, Styx is among those that really deserves a second chance.
Details are fairly thin on the ground, though we do know that it will entail a “fully realised world” and a “nimble, more refined Styx”. Among the characteristic goblin’s new abilities will be ropes, zip-wires integrated into Styx’s knife, and new assassination mechanics.
The gaming scene is lacking in pure stealth games at the moment, with the disappointing latest entry in the Thief series showing a fear to be a pure stealth game in a meek attempt to ‘appease everyone’. Watch this space, because Shards of Darkness could be one of the sleeper hits of 2016.
1. Deliverance: Kingdom Come (PC, PS4, XBO)
History is so packed with intrigue, incredible stories and excessive violence that you sometimes wonder why more role-playing games don’t do away with all the witchcraft and sorcery, and focus instead on recreating an authentic historical experience.
Deliverance does just that, offering us a realistic vision of medieval central Europe, complete with the strife, dodgy gender and racial politics, armours, weapons and combat techniques that were actually prevalent in those times. Players won’t be confined to a starting class, instead honing their skills as the game goes on towards being a warrior, bard, or whatever medieval profession they fancy (that’s at least vaguely skilled with a sword, mace or axe).
You will wander the medieval open world, carrying out quests, while seeing to your own basic needs such as eating and sleeping. The physics-based combat in the game looks particularly visceral, as players will need to master blocking, counter-attacking and dodging with the heavy weaponry of the time. Mis-hits can slide off armour or cause you to stumble, and one wrong move can see you skewered like a wild boar.
The first Act (there are three in total) of Kingdom Come is likely to be released around August 2016 for PC, then in September for consoles.
10 Promising Video Games You Didn’t Know Were Coming In 2016
Why Most People Will Never Become Great At a Video Game
Although multitasking is a great skill to have, it is often the aspect of a gamer’s personality that holds them back from reaching the top tier of competitive play.
The vast majority of gamers fall into the casual or hardcore classifications. These are people who love gaming, keep up with big releases, and generally know their way around a console or PC. There is another group of gamers, which we’ll call competitive, that takes gaming to another level and make it a career with ESPN appearances or at least an incredibly time consuming hobby and passion. Although that seems like something most gamers would want, there is a reason it’s the minority that go in that direction. Sacrifices must be made to reach a certain professional level of competition.
I’ve always been a competitive person when it comes to sports, academics, and everything else; so it’s no surprise that the competitive side of gaming appeals to me as well. I travel almost every weekend to play in competitive Magic: The Gathering tournaments and I spend my other free time trying to reach top rank in games like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. Despite my love of competition and my dedication to each of these games, there’s one glaring fault that is holding me (and so many other gamers) back from reaching the top tier: Multitasking.
The best League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and DOTA2 players in the world may not exclusively play their one game of choice, but they definitely play it an exponential amount more than other games. While the rest of us are sinking dozens (if not hundreds) of hours into Fallout 4 and Star Wars Battlefront, the most competitive gamers in the world are sharpening their skills. I’ve always been aware that my competitive edge suffers from my jack of all trades nature, but it wasn’t until this fall that I started to realize just how quickly an edge can be lost.
Like most gamers, I rushed out to buy Batman: Arkham Knight on opening day (despite the launch problems) and spent hours driving around Gotham. Before the game’s launch I had been clocking at least two hours a night in Heroes of the Storm and after just a few days in Gotham I was shocked to find myself at a disadvantage when I returned to HotS to get a quick match in. My skills hadn’t really deteriorated, but I definitely hadn’t gotten any better (which the competition had). It’s healthy to take a break and give your mental muscles a chance to relax often, but it’s also very easy to lose your edge after even a brief hiatus.
Some gamers, including myself, may forever be stuck in that realm between casual and competitive. We have the drive to get better and want to master a game, but also can’t fight our curiosity and love of new things enough to say no to the rush of new games every fall. Although it would obviously be fantastic to reach the top of the leaderboards in LoL or win a Magic pro tour, variety is a spice of life and some of us are always going to prefer to sink a month into the latest Fallout or Halo, rather than stay at the top of our competitive game.
Do you have a game that you dedicate hours every week to? Do you feel like you lose your edge when you take a break to play a new game? Let us know in the comments.
Full Marvel Movie Release Calendar
Full Marvel Movie Release Calendar
A complete list of upcoming Marvel movies, from Captain America: Civil War and Doctor Strange to Avengers: Infinity War and beyond!
We’ve got everything you need to know about the upcoming Marvel movie schedule all in one place. The Marvel superhero movie plan now stretches all the way to 2020. The amazing thing is, it’s even more ambitious than we anticipated, with new movies getting announced all the time.
We’ve compiled as much information as we can find on every Marvel movie coming out in the next few years in a handy release calendar for you. This is where you can check out all the details on Marvel Phase 3 right here.
Buy Marvel Gear on Amazon
But now it’s on to the new Marvel movie release schedule! Here goes…
May 6th, 2016: Captain America: Civil WarRobert Downey Jr. is joining up with Captain America 3 in order to bring the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the brink of Civil War. Joe and Anthony Russo are back as directors, with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely writing. Nearly everyone who has ever been an Avengers will make an appearance. Spider-Man will make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, too.
There’s an official synopsis for this one, too:
Captain America: Civil War picks up where Avengers: Age of Ultron left off, as Steve Rogers leads the new team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. After another international incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability and a governing body to determine when to enlist the services of the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers while they try to protect the world from a new and nefarious villain.
We’re pretty sure that Captain America: Civil War will have a ridiculous impact on the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We wrote more about that right here.
See also: Captain America: Civil War – Everything We Know
November 4th, 2016, Doctor Strange
Marvel is betting pretty heavily on Doctor Strange, with Benedict Cumberbatch now set to star as Stephen Strange. The movie also stars Tilda Swinton as Strange’s mentor The Ancient One and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Strange’s rival, Baron Mordo. Mads Mikkelsen is the film’s big villain. Scott Derrickson is directing, from a script by Jon Spaihts.
Here’s the official plot synopsis:
Doctor Strange follows the story of neurosurgeon Doctor Stephen Strange who, after a horrific car accident, discovers the hidden world of magic and alternate dimensions.
We expect good things from this one, too.
[related article: A Reader’s Guide to Doctor Strange Comics]
May 5th, 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
James Gunn will be back to direct the sequel to the most unlikely superhero hit of recent years. Recent plot details indicate we’re going to meet some very important new characters in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Yes, that’s the real title.
We’re just waiting for that new soundtrack…
[related article: A Movie Fan’s Guide to Guardians of the Galaxy Comics]
July 28th, 2017: Spider-Man
Spidey entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a seismic event. We’ll first meet Spidey in Captain America: Civil War, but this will be his first solo outing onder the Marvel banner. We don’t know much about the story yet, other than that it will focus on a high school aged Spider-Man, feature villains we haven’t seen on screen before, and have a “John Hughes” vibe.
Tom Holland will play Marvel’s new Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Marisa Tomei will play Aunt May.
Drew Goddard, the man previously set to helm Sony’s Sinister Six movie, was once mentioned to write or direct this one, but the job ultimately went to Jon Watts (Cop Car). John Francis Daley and Jonathan M. Goldstein (Vacation) will write the script.
[related article: Where Spider-Man Fits in the Marvel Cinematic Universe]
November 3rd, 2017: Thor: Ragnarok
For the record, when folks talk about “Ragnarok” in Norse mythology, it usually isn’t a good thing. This should be, by far, the biggest of the Thor films. No director or writer announced yet, but we know that Loki will return for this one, and that’s a good thing. It’s a film that could conceivably take Thor off the playground for a bit, but it could, as a long shot, also set up the female Thor currently running in Marvel Comics. There’s also an excellent Thor: Ragnarok comic you should probably seek out.
[related article: Why Thor: Ragnarok Might be the Most Important Marvel Movie]
February 16th, 2018, Black Panther
Finally! T’Challa is coming to the big screen, and he’ll be played by Chadwick Boseman. Marvel is beating its Distinguished Competition to the punch with an African-American headlining a superhero movie by about three years. He’ll first be introduced in Captain America: Civil War, and just over a year later, we’ll see his first solo adventure.
It looks increasingly likely that Creed and Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler will occupy the director’s chair for this one. Kevin Feige recently described the vision for the film as…
“It’s a big geo-political action adventure that focuses on the family and royal struggle of T’Challa in Wakanda, and what is means to be a king. T’Challa’s story is very important to us as it links to the next Avengers films, which is why we brought it forward.”
The Black Panther is a fascinating character, whose exploits can be as high-tech as Iron Man’s or as high-adventure as Indiana Jones. We provided a few helpful suggestions for stories Marvel should take a look at for the movie right here.
May 4th, 2018, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1
Well, we always had a feeling that Thanos couldn’t be contained by one movie…now we know the truth. Avengers 3 and Avengers 4, here we come! The Russo Bros. will move directly from their directing duties on Captain America: Civil War into this one, which begins shooting in 2016. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are writing.
We get the feeling, though, that Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 is going to have to do some heavy lifting in terms of introducing characters and concepts from Captain Marvel and The Inhumans films, before these things carry over into Avengers: Infinity War Part 2. We went into much greater detail about what this all might mean right here.
July 6th, 2018 – Ant-Man and The Wasp
Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne will return, marking the first female superhero to have her name in the title of a Marvel movie. It looks like Peyton Reed will return to direct. We’ll get you more details as we hear them.
May 3rd, 2019, Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2
The story that’s too big to be contained in one movie. We figure the team will get their asses handed to them in Part 1, but by the time the Inhumans and Captain Marvel join the fight for part two, things will be a little different. Once again, we direct you to this detailed unpacking of the Marvel Comics stories that the Avengers: Infinity War saga might have to draw on for inspiration.
March 8th, 2019, Captain Marvel
It seems likely that Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 is going to introduce Carol Danvers (assuming we don’t see her sooner), a character who will become the cosmically powered Captain Marvel. Her origin story would make a fine superhero film, and Captain Marvel has the kinds of power levels necessary to take on a threat like Thanos. If you’re going to make the leap with a female-fronted superhero film, a character with a power set more impressive than Wonder Woman is just be the one to do it with.
Nicole Perlman, who famously helped develop Guardians of the Galaxy for the screen, is pairing with Meg LeFauve (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, Inside Out) to write the Captain Marvel movie.
July 12th, 2019, Inhumans
We knew this was coming, we just didn’t know when. Inhumans characters and concepts are already being introduced on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD TV series. For one thing, though, the Inhumans may help take the place of mutants in the X-less Marvel Cinematic Universe, and we’d be surprised if Thanos’ arrival isn’t also met by the Inhumans in some form, before we meet them for real in their own movie. There’s also the tantalizing possibility that Peter Quill’s father is one of their ranks…
[related article: How Marvel is Making the Inhumans A-Listers]
If you’d like to know more about The Inhumans, who are admittedly some of the more far-out concepts Marvel offers, we have a guide to their most essential stories right here.
May 1st, 2020 – Untitled Marvel Movie
July 10th, 2020 – Untitled Marvel Movie 2
November 6th 2020 – Untitled Marvel Movie 3
Your guess is as good as ours about these untitled Marvel movies, so feel free to speculate away down in the comments!
2015 Top 100 DC and Marvel Comic Book Characters Master List
You all voted (over 1,200 ballots cast! Wow!) and here are the complete results of your votes for the Top 100 DC and Marvel Comic Book Characters. Click on any character for a write-up on that character!
DC COMICS
50. Superboy (Kon-El) – 288 points (3 first place votes)
49. Green Lantern (John Stewart) – 289 points (4 first place votes)
48. Animal Man – 290 points (1 first place votes)
47. Alfred Pennyworth – 300 points
46. Spoiler/Batgirl (Stephanie Brown) – 306 points (6 first place votes)
45. Lois Lane – 307 points (4 first place votes)
44. Spectre (Jim Corrigan) – 310 points (7 first place votes)
43. Batwoman (Katherine Kane) – 311 points (2 first place votes)
42. Starman (Jack Knight) – 312 points (9 first place votes)
41. Dr. Fate (Kent Nelson) – 319 points (5 first place votes)
40. Green Lantern (Guy Gardner) – 323 points (1 first place vote)
39. Question (Vic Sage) – 336 points (4 first place votes)
38. Poison Ivy – 340 points (6 first place votes)
37. Starfire – 344 points (3 first place votes)
36. Sinestro – 347 points (8 first place votes)
35. Midnighter – 356 points (8 first place votes)
34. Hawkman – 403 points (8 first place votes)
33. Power Girl – 438 points (6 first place votes)
32. Death – 467 points (6 first place votes)
31. Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) – 474 points (11 first place votes)
30. Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) 502 points (8 first place votes)
29. Red Hood (Jason Todd) – 523 points (5 first place votes)
28. Deathstroke (Slade Wilson) – 525 points (3 first place votes)
27. Robin (Damian Wayne) – 551 points (2 first place votes)
26. Rorschach – 559 points (5 first place votes)
25. Captain Marvel/Shazam (Billy Batson) – 633 points (18 first place votes)
24. Booster Gold – 634 points (11 first place votes)
23. Zatanna – 669 points (7 first place votes)
22. Swamp Thing (Alec Holland-ish) – 700 points (15 first place votes)
21. Sandman (Dream) – 719 points (18 first place votes)
20. Kyle Rayner – 725 points (17 first place votes)
19. Black Canary (Dinah) – 731 points (6 first place votes)
18. Darkseid – 742 points (3 first place votes)
17. Red Robin (Tim Drake) – 794 points (14 first place votes)
16. Lex Luthor – 815 points (7 first place votes)
15. Martian Manhunter – 879 points (15 first place votes)
14. Catwoman (Selina Kyle) – 900 points (7 first place votes)
13. John Constantine – 981 points (14 first place votes)
12. Harley Quinn – 1016 points (10 first place votes)
11. Aquaman – 1033 points (14 first place votes)
10. Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) – 1423 points (17 first place votes)
9. Batgirl/Oracle (Barbara Gordon) – 1535 points (19 first place votes)
8. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) – 1852 points (29 first place votes)
7. Flash (Barry Allen) – 1853 points (27 first place votes)
6. Flash (Wally West) – 2019 points (32 first place votes)
5. Joker – 2675 points (36 first place votes)
4. Wonder Woman – 2922 points (53 first place votes)
3. Dick Grayson – 3337 points (84 first place votes)
2. Superman – 3962 points (129 first place votes)
1. Batman – 6217 points (334 first place votes)
MARVEL COMICS
50. Galactus – 311 points (2 first place votes)
49. Wasp (Janet Van Dyne) – 315 points (5 first place votes)
48. Spider-Man (Miles Morales) – 319 points (6 first place votes)
47. Squirrel Girl – 325 points (8 first place votes)
46. Colossus – 336 points (2 first place votes)
45. Vision – 349 points (5 first place votes)
44. Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) – 370 points (4 first place votes)
43. Sub-Mariner (Namor McKenzie) – 372 points (5 first place votes)
42. Magik (Illyana Rasputin) – 374 points (6 first place votes)
41. Hank Pym – 391 points (8 first place votes)
40. Venom (Eddie Brock) – 396 points (4 first place votes)
39. Invisible Woman – 401 points (4 first place votes)
38. Psylocke – 424 points (5 first place votes)
37. Nova (Richard Rider) – 428 points (10 first place votes)
36. Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes – 436 points (7 first place votes)
35. Mr. Fantastic – 456 points (6 first place votes)
34. Scarlet Witch – 499 points (8 first place votes)
33. Beast – 502 points (7 first place votes)
32. Loki – 504 points (4 first place votes)
31. Iron Fist – 517 points (3 first place votes)
30. Black Widow (Natalia Romanova) – 548 points (9 first place votes)
29. Rogue – 582 points (14 first place votes)
28. Emma Frost – 583 points (5 first place votes)
27. Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) – 595 points (12 first place votes)
26. Thanos – 600 points (13 first place votes)
25. Gambit – 618 points (22 first place votes)
24. Moon Knight – 655 points (17 first place votes)
23. Punisher – 726 points (15 first place votes)
22. Black Panther (T’Challa) – 785 points (14 first place votes)
21. Silver Surfer – 815 points (10 first place votes)
20. Jean Grey – 871 points (20 first place votes)
19. Dr. Strange – 882 points (17 first place votes)
18. She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters) – 917 points (13 first place votes)
17. Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) – 1055 points (13 first place votes)
16. Nightcrawler – 1061 points (18 first place votes)
15. Kitty Pryde – 1145 points (21 first place votes)
14. Hawkeye (Clint Barton) – 1169 points (22 first place votes)
13. Storm – 1191 points (25 first place votes)
12. Deadpool – 1209 points (20 first place votes)
11. Thing (Ben Grimm) – 1308 points (26 first place votes)
10. Cyclops – 1530 points (46 first place votes)
9. Iron Man (Tony Stark) – 1547 points (15 first place votes)
8. Hulk (Bruce Banner) – 1643 points (28 first place votes)
7. Thor (Odinson) – 1716 points (27 first place votes)
6. Magneto – 1739 points (18 first place votes)
5. Dr. Doom – 1839 points (19 first place votes)
4. Daredevil – 2691 points (58 first place votes)
3. Wolverine – 2902 points (66 first place votes)
2. Captain America (Steve Rogers) – 3532 points (81 first place votes)
1. Spider-Man (Peter Parker) – 5099 points (257 first place votes)
That’s the list! Thanks for voting, everyone!
2015 Top 100 DC and Marvel Comic Book Characters Master List
Season of Infamy is the DLC that Batman: Arkham Knight deserves.
I’m going to be straight with you guys: I freakin’ adored Batman: Arkham Knight. Yes, the game was a massive mess on PC but for everyone else who played it on a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, it was sublime. There’s so many moments in that game, that make it simply the best of the Arkham bunch. Sure, certain Batmobile sections may feel tacked on, but when you step back and see how much Rocksteady’s final caped crusader game got right when compared to a few missteps here and there, the good easily outshines the bad.
And that’s because the core game, is just so damn good. As a Dark Knight simulator, Batman: Arkham Knight was immensely satisfying. All the gadgets, moves and a Batmobile combined into one billionaire who fights the root cause of crime and poverty by shattering the teeth inside the face of anyone who dares to even illegally cross a street in his city. Perfection.
And then there’s the DLC. The season pass content of Arkham Knight is more divided than Harvey Dent’s face and personality, a mix of fan service and the lacklustre. On the more pristine side of the former district attorney, you’ve got a mix of fantastic AR challenges, races, costumes and modifiers. Good stuff then, and the kind of content I’d like to see more of.
And then on the horribly burnt side of the former Batman buddy for life, you’ve got the story content. Content which is the Batman & Robin to the superb The Dark Knight of the core game. Twenty-minute episodes of middling action and returns that puts players in the boots of the rest of the Gotham City vigilantes, with only Batgirl’s single outing being worthwhile due to it having the distinct saving grace of being “not that crap”.
And that’s the problem with this kind of DLC. After spending several hours as the ultimate combination of man, money and machine, who the hell wants to play as Robin or the Red Hood and face bad guys with a slimmed-down arsenal of wonderful toys? That’s like EA announcing Jedi Knight 3: Jedi Hard With A Vengeance and then forcing you to play as Jar Jar Binks in the season pass DLC.
Season of infamy makes up for that however as it sends Rocksteady’s (perhaps last) Batman off with the kind of DLC content that puts the others to shame. This time you’re tackling cases as the Dark Knight once again as you uncover more of Gotham’s most wanted during the Arkham Knight and Scarecrow siege. Easy and simple.
And for once, it’s not just a quick bit of fan service focused on one villain. Instead, you’ve got four Arkham regulars to deal with: Killer Croc, the Mad Hatter, Mr Freeze and Ra’s Al Ghul. It’s the combination of this quartet that plays out like a highlight reel of the best moments of the Arkham series. With the Mad hatter, you’ve got a few quick puzzles and some mind-bending combat to deal with as players find themselves battling across a gigantic storybook of Lewis Carroll inspirations.
With Killer Croc, excpect tighter exploration and more visceral combat as you make your way through the grounded Iron Heights prison airship. Ra’s Al Ghul has survived the events of Arkham City and now looks like a walking advert for the after-effects of Redbull energy drink abuse as you contend with a rebel faction of the League of Assassins.
And then there’s Mr Freeze. The most tragic member of the Batman rogues gallery, Mr Freeze has always been a victim of circumstance. A frozen felon driven by the desire to cure his wife Nora Fries of some rare medical malignancy, Mr Freeze has always felt like a sad extreme of love gone wrong. And while Mr Freeze is present in his Most Wanted mission, he’s not the bad guy here. He doesn’t want to fight you for something as trivial as the soul of Gotham or petty cash. He just wants to save his wife.
On its own, the Freeze episode isn’t much longer than any of the preceding Arkham Knight episodes that built up the DLC content for most of Arkham Knight, but it’s massively satisfying to see Batman’s cold-hearted cryogenics expert get some much-needed closure – as well as see Batman: Arkham Knight wrap up on at least one post-launch high note.
Season of Infamy is the DLC that Batman: Arkham Knight deserves.
From a cure for cancer to the ability to fly, kids make predictions for 2026
A group of students were asked what they expect life to look like in ten years, and their predictions ranged from superhuman abilities to world peace.
CTV Toronto asked six Grade 4 and 5 students at Brampton’s Thorndale Public School to write a letter to their future selves, describing what they expected in 2026.
“In 2026, I will look forward to take care of my parents. I will take care of my parents because they took good care of me,” 9-year-old Dishanthan Sutharsan read from his letter.
“In 2026, I look forward to being a good student in university.”
Like Dishanthan, many of the students wrote about going off to university and finding a job.
“I would like to graduate with Masters of Management because I want to be a human resources manager,” Pari Sandhu wrote.
“In 10 years, I want to see myself in Harvard University,” Niket Bajwa read.
Though most wrote about school, the children’s letters also touched on what they hope for the world.
“I am hoping in 10 years scientists find a cure for all cancers and diseases. I also home the world is at peace and the world is a better place,” Bajwa wrote.
“When I will have lots of money I will make clothing for the poor people who don’t have clothing,” Simran Bhinder pledged.
Ganeev Singh filled his letter with questions: “Are we safe from guns? Are buildings taller? Can we fly? Is global warming still affecting the world?”
The students also wrote about current issues, like the conflict in Syria, and all wrote about the importance of peace.
Bajwa wrote, “I desire that the war will end and ISIS will be defeated.”
Atheka Jeyatharan said she hopes that “no such thing as war still exists.”
The letters were filled with hope for positive changes in their lives and the world around them.
“I can’t wait to read this letter in 10 years. I will keep my fingers crossed my wishes and goals come true. Sincerely, Atheka.”
From a cure for cancer to the ability to fly, kids make predictions for 2026
‘Imagine a private company deciding what your kids can read or watch’
Vivek Wadhwa, an Indian American entrepreneur turned academic, has been called one of the world’s top thinkers on tech policy. Neelam Raaj spoke to the Stanford University fellow on the ongoing controversy over Facebook’s Free Basics plan
What did you think of Mark Zuckerberg’s defence of Free Basics in TOI? Were you convinced by his case for digital equality which cited the example of a farmer named Ganesh, who would be able to access weather information, commodity prices, etc?
Zuckerberg doesn’t realize that Ganesh cherishes the freedom that India gained from its British colonizers in 1947 and doesn’t want a handout from a western company. Ganesh may be poor, but he doesn’t want anyone to dictate what sites he can visit, what movies he may watch, or what applications he can download.
Zuckerberg is right about the benefits of internet access: it will enable village artisans to access global markets; farmers to learn about weather and commodity prices; and labourers and domestic help to find work through sharing-economy applications.
But here is the problem with Free Basics: the internet access on offer is not unrestricted. Facebook and the mobile carriers get to decide what websites people can visit, and Facebook becomes the centre of the internet universe. Zuckerberg compares this limited service to libraries and hospitals. But imagine a private corporation being allowed to decide which books your children could read and which videos they could watch — and to monitor everything that they did. Would you accept that?
The aggressive nature of FB’s campaign in India has surprised many. Will the fate of net neutrality here have a global impact?
This is not an Indian issue; we are fighting these battles in the US. The Federal Communications Commission enacted rules in March 2015 to require broadband providers to treat all data equally rather than provide preference to some sites. A federal appeals court is challenging these rules at the behest of the telecommunications industry.
Google has the same motivations as Facebook — to bring billions more people online. But it is pursuing a more sensible strategy: it is setting up fast and free Wi-Fi internet access points at 400 railroad stations all over India. Facebook could one-up Google by setting up access points at thousands of schools, libraries, and villages. This “no strings attached” approach would earn it gratitude — and signups — rather than resentment.
If the solution to making internet connectivity accessible to everyone isn’t Free Basics, then what is it?
The ultimate solution, unrestricted internet for everyone, is something that Facebook, Google, and others are already working on providing, via drones, balloons, and micro satellites.
With its Aquila Unmanned Aircraft and laser technologies, Facebook has demonstrated the ability to deliver data at a rate of tens of gigabytes per second to a target the size of a coin — from 10 miles away. This is ten times faster than existing land-based technologies. With interconnected drones, it will, within two or three years, most likely be able to provide internet access to the remotest regions of the world.
Google is further ahead in its efforts. Its balloons, called Loons, are essentially floating cell towers that can relay a signal to a mobile device on the ground.
And then there are low-orbit micro satellites, which Oneweb, SpaceX, and now Samsung are building. These beam internet signals by laser to ground stations.
Google is launching Loons in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. It was also supposed to launch them in India, but India’s defence, aviation, and telecom ministries raised technical and security concerns and stopped the project. When the telecom providers figure out that with unlimited, inexpensive internet access, their cell and data businesses will be decimated, they too will place obstacles in the way of these technologies.
This, therefore, is the real battle that Facebook should be fighting. If the goal is to provide everyone with internet access, Facebook and the internet-freedom groups that it is fighting should be working together to lobby for a change in government policies — for when the new space-based technologies are ready.
Which tech advance are you most excited about in 2016?
To start with, let’s look at what happened in 2015. Knowledge became globalized, with one quarter of India’s population gaining access to the internet (this is without Free Basics). And then, the medical revolution got in high gear with inexpensive medical devices that connect to smartphones and incredible breakthroughs in genomics. Just watch over the next few years as our smartphones become doctors.
Most important of all, in 2015, we reached a tipping point in clean energy, with solar and battery storage becoming affordable and practical.
By 2030, all of India will have off-the-grid clean energy and this will be cheaper than cellphone calls. India won’t need the nuclear plants that it is purchasing.
Next up, starting in 2016, we will see amazing advances in robotics, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence, internet of things, and the space race.
‘Imagine a private company deciding what your kids can read or watch’
Library pajama party: story time holds “answers and worlds” for kids to explore
“Now it’s time for story time, story time. Now it’s time for story time, on the red mat!” Library aide and children’s programming organizer Daryl Anne Stangle sang to six kids at the Winona Public library Saturday morning, signaling the start of the story time pajama party.
The six children in attendance, all in comfy pajamas, cheered and rushed to the red mat in the youth fiction room.
On the menu today: “The Incredible Book Eating Boy,” “Snow on Snow on Snow” and “Rabbit’s Pajama Party.”
“Hey, I got that book from the library. It’s pretty silly!” said five-year-old Vera O’Shea of “The Incredible Book Eating Boy.”
Vera and her three sisters, Evie, Mimi and Nora, attend library story times often. “He eats books and that’s crazy, and I like being crazy,” Vera added.
Kids quieted down as Stangle began reading, drawn into a book whose main character literally devours books to become smarter.
“So everything he ate, he learned,” said Stangle to her attentive audience.
Stangle said she organizes Saturday programs for kids not only because she enjoys working with them, but also because she believes public libraries are a vital part of a childhood and the community.
“For me [the library]…was a place I could find answers,” Stangle said. “Kids learn that books do hold answers and worlds they can travel to in their mind. I think that’s really important.”
Vera’s seven-year-old sister Evie, who Vera describes as a “bookworm,” said her favorite part of library story time is being read to.
“I like that we got to pretend to sleep and that I got to snuggle with Piggy,” she said, clutching her stuffed toy pig to her chest. During “Rabbit’s Pajama Party” — an appropriate book for the pajama party occasion — Stangle asked her audience to act out what the characters in the book did. Rabbit gobbled a snack and so did her audience. Rabbit made an ice cream sundae and the kids pretended to put whip cream and a cherry on top.
Although Saturday programs for kids are irregular now, Stangle said she tries to do them every other month. Tuesday and Friday story times for kids occur weekly.
Saturday programs draw anywhere from five to 50 children, Stangle said, while story times during the week draw 20-30 children.
Each Saturday story time is followed by crafts or games. These activities showcase opportunities for children and parents to learn skills beyond reading at their public library, Stangle said.
“Kids learn that books do hold answers and worlds they can travel to in their mind. I think that’s really important.” Daryl Anne Stangle, library aide and children’s programming organizer
Library pajama party: story time holds “answers and worlds” for kids to explore
Mike Tyson gets knocked out by a hoverboard, Internet counterpunches
Hoverboards have been getting a lot of bad press since reports started surfacing that theycatch fire without warning.
If hoverboard companies can make one that definitely doesn’t explode (though that seems like something that should be on all product manufacturers’ to-do list long before they start printing the shipping labels), they’re going to need a serious PR adjustment. Perhaps a celebrity endorsement deal could turn things around and give them a more positive image.
Should they ever decide to take that route, however, you can bet former professional boxer Mike Tyson won’t be returning their calls.
Tyson took a nasty spill on his daughter Milan’s hoverboard at his home and posted a video of the accident to his Twitter account on Tuesday. The video features Tyson taking a little spin on the self-balancing scooter in what appears to be his living room. He takes a couple of 360-degree turns and then attempts to move forward but he loses his footing and falls flat on his back with a loud thud.
Check out Tyson’s loss with gravity below in the embedded tweet.
Seemed like a good idea to ride my daughter #milantyson#cyboard#hoverboard but guess not…pic.twitter.com/Cjn4s22E5l
— Mike Tyson (@MikeTyson) December 29, 2015
Naturally, Tyson’s funniest home video went viral on social media and picked up over 45,000 retweets. So it was only a matter of time before some of the Internet’s more clever users came up with ways to make an already hilarious fall even more hilarious.
The most popular remake of Tyson’s great fall comes from a Vine user named Ry Ry. His video features Little Mac, the playable hero from the classic NES boxing game Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, scoring one last knockout against the champ.
The pixelated version of Tyson seems to be just as clumsy on a clumsy piece of transportation as his real-world counterpart, according to this Vine from an account for a meme-making app called Spun.
You might not know this, but Tyson is also an avid pigeon racer and lover of the urban world’s most populous avian. He has his own reality show on Animal Planet dedicated to his favorite hobby and also wrote a column in 2011 for The New York Times that explains his love for this scorned urban creature. So keep that nugget of wisdom in mind as you watch the Vine below created by Evan Zugin.
No celebrity is officially a celebrity meme until one of their videos or sound bites has been turned into some form of repetitive house music or an auto-tuned remix. This Vine by Antiski helps Tyson’s video fulfill that requirement with his blending of Tyson’s fall with the booming bass line from a song by The Black Eyed Peas.
Finally, the folks behind the YouTube channel Game Worm found a way to mix Tyson’s latest meme with one of the boxer’s other memes by mashing up the hoverboard video with footage from one of his most infamous post-bout interviews.
Tyson isn’t the only parent to take a spill on their kids’ hoverboard this holiday season. A report that aired on CNET sister site CBS This Morning Tuesday showed that hoverboard fails are trending on YouTube and Twitter, as well as throughout hospital emergency rooms. The US Product Safety Commission announced just before Christmas that it noticed a 35 percent increase in injuries caused by hoverboards.
The Sun-Sentinel newspaper, headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, reported Wednesday that it alone found “at least 40 [hospital] visits due to hoverboards” to hospitals located in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties in South Florida. US Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida was one of those 40 names that showed up on hospital records. He posted a picture of himself with his injured arm on his Twitter account with a Tweet that read, “Confirmed – #hoverboard is for kids. My daughter got it. I ended up in #BaptistHealthSF #ER.”
I never thought I’d say this, but after seeing Tyson’s nasty fall and reading about all these accidents, I’m actually very happy jetpacks aren’t commercially available to the public yet.
Mike Tyson gets knocked out by a hoverboard, Internet counterpunches
Destructoid’s award for Best Xbox Game of 2015 goes to…
Destructoid’s award for Best Xbox Game of 2015 goes to…
Before Nathan Drake, there was Lara Croft. This is important to note because recently, for a good number of years, Nathan Drake was Lara Croft. Shrewdly, developer Naughty Dog took the cinematic action baton and ran far, far away with it. The Sony subsidiary was so effective in copping from Tomb Raider that it actually made Lara feel like a relic of a bygone era, just as old as the treasure she was always chasing.
Square Enix eventually reinvented the Tomb Raider property under the tutelage of the Crystal Dynamics studio. Ironically (or maybe just fittingly), this was done by, you guessed it, copping from the Nathan Drake Uncharted formula. So, if you’re keeping score at home, the Uncharted franchise was hugely successful for being better Tomb Raider games and then Tomb Raider later took that influence to become even better versions of Uncharted games. Crazy, eh?
The parallels between the two aren’t exactly tenuous either. Just a month back, Steven was moved to write an editorial wondering if the newest Crystal Dynamics game, Rise of the Tomb Raider, is simply the best Uncharted. It probably is, because, if nothing else, it has the benefit of coming out a few years after the latest Uncharted. That’s how cyclical this relationship will likely be as long as both franchises continue to see success.
It’s enough to make you wonder why exactly Crystal Dynamics isn’t held in the same public regard as Naughty Dog. It’s certainly making games that are the same quality. The pedigree is there. That’s nowhere more evident than in November’s Rise of the Tomb Raider, the developer’s best title yet.
We’re giving Rise of the Tomb Raider some hardware as the Best Xbox One Game of 2015. In a year where so many of Xbox One’s best experiences could also be found elsewhere, Rise of the Tomb Raider is a true (timed) exclusive that helps justify owning the big black box. It’s not just good under the qualifier of “…for an Xbox game;” it’s one of 2015’s standouts, period.
It seems right to saddle Lara, an adventurer who spends so much of her time after fortune, with the treasure of an end-of-year award. And, because Uncharted 4 doesn’t come out until 2016, this is one of the few times Lara Croft and Nathan Drake won’t have to jockey for position.
[Incomplete products like Steam Early Access titles and episodic games that are not fair to assess as standalone experiences, without a full episode count, were not eligible for this year’s awards. The cutoff for entry into Destructoid’s 2015’s Game of the Year awards is December 4, 2015.]
‘Mike & Molly’ Star Reveals Sad News on Facebook
Melissa McCarthy‘s TV show has been cancelled.
Mike & Molly—which Melissa has starred in since 2010—will end after its upcoming sixth season, which has been cut to just 13 episodes.
CBS Cancels ‘Mike & Molly’ After Six Seasons
Rondi Reed—who plays Mike’s mother Peggy on the show—wrote on Facebook: “[T]his is the final and sixth season of Mike & Molly on CBS…. We are done taping as of January 27th. Other venues were explored by [Warner Bros. TV] and [Chuck Lorre’s] Bonanza Productions after CBS announced their intentions, but did not turn up a future for our show (sic).”
During her time on the show Melissa has seen her film career go from strength-to-strength, with an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for Bridesmaids in 2011.
Earlier this week she also received her first ever Golden Globes nomination for her role in the movie Spy and will compete against Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Schumer, Dame Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture—Comedy or Musical.
She also recently launched her own fashion collection, the Melissa McCarthy Seven7 line.