Rolling Marvel Cinematic Universe thread (+ a poll: Classic or Dud?)

I may be wrong, but I think DC have to publish Wonder Woman regularly or else lose the rights, so they keep her going even when it's not very financially sensible because of her importance to the DC Universe as a whole

OK, that no longer seems to be the case: from http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2005/06/03/comic-book-urban-legend-revealed-1/
COMIC URBAN LEGEND: DC must publish at least four issues of Wonder Woman a year or else lose the rights to the property.

STATUS: False

It has long been said that if DC did not publish Wonder Woman at least four times a year, that the rights would revert back to the estate of William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman.

Writer Kurt Busiek addressed the rumors earlier this year,

They are no longer true, but they were true for a long time – as I understand it, the terms were that DC had to publish at least four issues with “Wonder Woman” as the banner lead feature or rights would revert. That’s why DC did the LEGEND OF WONDER WOMAN mini-series that I wrote and Trina Robbins drew – the Perez revamp was in development, but coming along slowly, and they had to publish something to fulfil the contract terms.

They specifically didn’t want something that would be attention-getting, because they didn’t want to undercut the revamp. So they wanted something gentle and nostalgic, and we had fun doing it.

In the intervening years, though, I’m given to understand that at some point DC bought the character outright, and thus those contract terms are no longer in force.

really curious about the details of that - did all-american publications make a special deal with marston? the implication otherwise is that ALL those JSA types were at least partially creator owned

I think Marston was a special case--in more ways than one, tbh

Oh my god the new Fantastic Four movie is going to bomb so hard:

KEBBELL: He’s Victor Domashev, not Victor Von Doom in our story. And I’m sure I’ll be sent to jail for telling you that. The Doom in ours—I’m a programmer. Very anti-social programmer. And on blogging sites I’m “Doom”.

also

http://www.latino-review.com/news/exclusive-sonys-now-working-on-an-aunt-may-movie

In the context of the topic of discussion ITT, that is the most insane thing I've ever read.

that this was even spitballed is indeed a sign of how desperate they are to keep and exploit the brand, but studios spitball all kinds of shit. this prequel may have just been on a long list of spidey stories they have the rights to, and considering agent carter it does belong on that big list

also gotham. an exec might have said "give me a list of 15 spideyverse titles" to which some assistant said "jesus fuck, i dunno that stupid aunt may prequel that flopped" when they got home

I... what

If this is honestly where they're at, selling the Spider-Man rights back to Marvel has to be the better business decision for Sony at this point.

Maybe Sony could partner up with Fox and finally adapt Aunt May, Herald of Galactus. (Only if Rosemary Harris reprises the role!)

sony are straight-up trolling at this point

Wasn't Trouble written as a teen girl romance comic that just happened to feature Spiderman's family?
I think it was part of an effort to see if they could do old genres in a new way and get a new audience.

How are they going to turn that into a franchise film? This is several steps beyond Smallville.

teen girl romance by... mark millar

It's still a stupid idea but to be clear it is a different stupid idea to Trouble

The target mood is some sort of espionage story in the vein of AMC’s Mad Men, which sounds like a way of saying “classier Agent Carter” without name-dropping Marvel’s upcoming series.

finally the aunt may romance we've all been waiting for

unless elizabeth moss walks out at the nexy sony shareholders meeting under a sign saying MAY RISING - MAY 2019 i think this gossip is all that will come of it.

captain mayvel

the real takeaway here is that sony is a) determined to keep the spidey rights and b) open to suggestions as to how to make the most of them

personally i vote for THE BUGLE, a new workplace mockumentary starring jk simmons

they should just start adapting the hostess ads

I thought that's what they were already doing

This desperate attempt to maintain the Spider-License without actually making another Spider-Man film feels very AfterM*A*S*H/Hogan Family-esque.

I actually think a Daily Bugle show isn't a half bad idea.

peter parker making jim-face to the camera every time jonah yells about spidey

the newsroom except with pictures of spiderman occasionally

i wonder if simmons, elizabeth banks, tobey maguire and bill nunn would actually be down to do a like eight-episode thing for cable or whatever. i mean maguire did the spoils of babylon.

Of course that's already been done, albeit with a character that Marvel owns

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pulse_(comics)

The strongest runs on Spider-Man IMO are those that focus more on the ensemble and reduce Spider-Man to something like a supporting role. The Pulse is definitely in line with that, yes.

Like, I think I'm starting to realize that I just don't care that much about Spider-Man/Peter Parker as a character divorced from the context of his supporting cast.

I for one would LOVE to see a Trouble trainwreck adaptation

"And that baby that her future husband's brother's future wife eventually had...became the Amazing Spider-Man."

Millar is such a creep. Remember the covers for these things?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marvel_Trouble_1.jpg

I remember lots of suggestions in the lead-up to its release that it was gonna be something sleazy.

tbf they're not that off from other YA-targeted book covers. i didn't actually get a crepey vibe from those

http://www.comicvine.com/spider-mans-tangled-web/4050-7255/

This series was mostly about his supporting cast. The Rhino two part story was my favourite, it was much like that Simpsons episode in which Homer gets the crayon removed from his head and can't deal with being intelligent.
Nothing else really grabbed me.

Venom had quite a lot of titles so that wouldn't be too hard. But those were mostly reliant upon insatiable Venom fans in the 90s.

Hi, I remember that Flower for Algernon-style Rhino story. It was pretty all right.

Milligan and Fegredo, IIRC?

Yeah, I just checked and it's even called "Flowers For Rhino". I'm sure they did the Frogman story too. Paul Pope and Bruce Jones did some stories too.

Back then I didn't appreciate Fegredo but now I realise he really can draw.

Tangled Web was kind of an anthology series with each arc (or issue) being a different writer/artist combo, right? I remember picking up the Paul Pope one, and maybe a couple others

Yeah, there was a Greg Rucka issue about one of the Kingpin's goons which got a lot of praise

that was a good issue! all those are available on marvel's ipad app.

Milligan did not write the Frog-Man story that Fegredo drew.

Spider-Man didn't appear at all in Paul Grist's b&w Daily Bugle series iirc?

There is an issue about a supervillain bar where they all drink and talk. When it came out I thought it was one of the best Spidey stories ever because the ending sent a shiver down my spine but I have mixed feelings about it now for a reason that I've soured on the genre in general: it doesn't generate it's own heat. The awe comes from the reference to big stories of the past.

That's how too much of the genre works now. It exploits the feelings people have for past stories by building stories around them that enshrine the old ones but don't shine by themselves.
But now I don't even think the death of Gwen Stacy was that good either. In fact it was probably the start of an awful superhero trend.

http://deadline.com/2014/12/krysten-ritter-cast-jessica-jones-marvel-1201309398/

i didn't know mike colter was up for the role of luke cage - he's fantastic in the good wife and i can totally see him as luke.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh that dude! Yeah that is excellent casting

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/12/09/sony-marvel-discussed-spider-man-movie-crossover/