Joss Whedon Archives | Otaku No Culture

Not a Justice League of Their Own, or Are They?

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The problem with the live action Justice League not living up to its pedigree is that it’s missing its seventh member. We have Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman (Henry Cavill), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) leading the charge. In the film, he’s dead but everyone knows he’ll come back to at some point. Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Flash (Ezra Miller) round off the team. In the comics, there were seven founding members. This number is also very symbolic, usually a measure of completeness. Depending on the culture, just what it means will vary.

As a film which hints at a possible add in the future, the wait will be long to see who that will be. In other mediums, either Green Lantern or Martian Manhunter will become a member. But before this can even happen, a set of solo films are in store for the other half of the team. This baggage is unneeded; let’s just assume audiences know them and offer story arcs which can shake up the DC multiverse (conveniently enough, Flashpoint will be the story in Flash’s solo outing even though no date has been set).

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Colouring Books for All Ages Are Coming this October from Dark Horse Comics!

Bait: Off-Color Stories for You to Color — Available to pre-order on Amazon

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Dark Horse Comics says colouring books are no longer for kids and this will become a fact come October 2016. In addition to the first release by best-selling author Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) and featuring art from Lee Bermejo, Kirbi Fagan, Duncan Fegredo, Alise Gluškova, Joëlle Jones, Steve Morris, Tony Puryear and Marc Scheff, Bait: Off-Color Stories For You To Colour a collection of eight short stories with nearly 50 pieces of black and white illustrations for readers to put their mark in, two more books are being offered! For fans of Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko‘s Avatar: The Last Airbender and Joss Whedon‘s Serenity, perhaps this company is saying to those big boys and girls that it’s okay to “borrow” those crayons, watercolour sets and coloured chalk from their little brothers or sisters (conversely, the adults to play with their kids) to paint onto heavyweight paper their own interpretations of the costumes worn by Aang, Katara, Toph or Azula — to name a few — or Malcolm Reynolds, Zoe Washburne or Hoban.

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The Problems Defining the Age of Ultron, A Movie Review

Avengers-Age-Of-Ultron-Poster-2 By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

* Spoiler Alert

The Avengers are back together for one final mission and what they’re looking for is Loki‘s sceptre. It contains a stone with a ‘mind’ of its own and since Winter Soldier, this film’s immediate predecessor, the country of Sokovia has become a place of interest for Earth’s mightiest heroes (and villains too) in Age of Ultron.

This film begins in the middle of the action director/writer Joss Whedon wastes no time in getting fans salivating at magnificent special effects and combat choreography. Between these set pieces are moments of exposition to tell a story about how Ultron (sweetly voiced by James Spader) gets created and what his goals are. He’s supposed to be part of a special global defence program that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) want to fully develop. What is born is the ultimate artificial intelligence that deems mankind is flawed.

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Tying the Strings Back in Avengers: Age of Ultron’s Three Trailers

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

avengers-age-of-ultron

Just what can fans of Marvel Entertainment’s Avengers: Age of Ultron learn about this movie, due in theatres May 1st, now that all three trailers are out? One fact is certain: someone is pulling the strings that will see a new dawn (of enslavement) for all of humanity. Mutants will be revealed and a global watch dog system built by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) shows that Ultron will keep an eye at all the problems plaguing society.

However, there’s a secret figure who will emerge and it’s face looks like a red faced vision of hope — perhaps. This android was created by Ultron (voiced by James Spader) in the original 60’s comics to use against his creator, Dr. Hank Pym (Ant-Man). When considering that there is an Ant-Man movie being developed, just how much crossover potential will happen depends on how much retconning writer/director Joss Whedon has done to the Marvel Universe.

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James Spader is Ultron!

The two-year wait for the next film is going to be exciting as more casting news and plot hints come forth. All hail Ultron!

The morning wire is abuzz with news that James Spader is going to play Ultron in Avengers 2. But is that going to be the voice or be an incarnation of this robotic master villain or something more? Is the production going to be similar like in how Darth Vader was crafted, with a man in a motion-capture suit and the actor overlaying his voice on top?

No detail has been mentioned in this press release, and whatever the plans are for writer/director Joss Whedon, for this mechanical terror, the casting decision and story direction is going to be well in hand.

Spader is a excellent choice. When considering his past roles include Alan Shore of Boston Legal and Daniel Jackson from the movie Stargate, he has the chops to play a suave and even awkward artificial intelligence that can menace the world. Part of the film will no doubt be an origin of this terror. And Spader is no stranger to voice over work. He’s provided his voice for Discovery Channel as the narrator for the series Discovery Atlas for the first episode.

marvel-classic-ultron-on-throne-sideshow-collectibles-2001201

Despite past reports, Whedon has indicated that the story will not follow the recent Marvel comic book series of the same name, the Age of Ultron.

According to TheWrap, to make the story work, Whedon said, “a lot of stuff has to fall by the wayside … we sort of are crafting our own version of it, where his origin comes from the Avengers we already know about.”

The two-year wait for the next film is going to be exciting as more casting news and plot hints come forth. All hail Ultron!

Looking Deeper into Marvel Comics’ Avengers Movie & Guessing at What’s Next

Marvel Studio’s magnum opus The Avengers kicked off the 2012 season of summer blockbusters and with Robert Downey Jr. confirmed to play Stark in Avengers 2 for 2015, this universe will no doubt be sizzling

The Avengers Movie Poster

Marvel Studio’s magnum opus The Avengers kicked off the 2012 season of summer blockbusters and with Robert Downey Jr. confirmed to play Stark in Avengers 2 for 2015, this universe will no doubt be sizzling. Answers have to be made to address what Iron Man has witnessed after entering that worm hole. With more comic book films like Thor: The Dark World to come, the stories being introduced will no doubt concentrate on each individual hero and maybe tease at how each film will tie in to the next movie. The focus may move away from the mysterious cube that was introduced in this first film, but for fans in general, they will be asking the question of for what reason will the Avengers reassemble in the sequel coming up?

Like every other first movie in Marvel’s long line of theatrical releases, the first film develops the origins first, camaraderie second and the high octane fights last. In the case of this film, it is to resolve the story thread that started in Iron Man 2, where Howard Stark has in his notes a sketch of a hypercube, called the Tesseract, which is said to hold unlimited power. Just what’s next will have to be in locating Loki’s sceptor, said to hold another mysterious power just as equal to the hypercube.

Director and writer Joss Whedon is tasked to develop this plot. Instead of always focusing in about who has this magic cube now, this producer has to now showing how the team of Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans) and the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) gets along. As the first film concluded, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) revealed that not all of them are all that really interested in working as a team.

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