Yearly Archives: 2018
McFarlane Toys Bringing Back Movie Maniacs, Tortured Souls
Todd McFarlane informed IGN during an interview at New York Comic Con that McFarlane Toys plans to revive two of its past toy lines, Movie Maniacs and Clive Barker's Tortured Souls.
While hyping up the licenses and plans in store next year for McFarlane Toys, the comic book icon and toy industry fixture revealed that his company plans to go back to basics while also selling directly to the consumer, a result of many of the retailers they used to do business with having gone under in the ensuing years.
"We live in a brave new world now where you can go literally from production to the consumer, right? You can cut out all the middle men and we're seeing that with Kickstarters and people doing direct, you know, dot com," McFarlane said. "So what we're gonna do is, when we started McFarlane Toys twenty-plus years ago, we were built on the detailed stuff, doing all these cool monsters and all this sort of wicked stuff. Unfortunately, the stores we were selling to at that point, like Tower Records and Suncoast and Babbage's and KB Toys, and all these other ones, they've all fallen to the wayside."
David Harbour’s Hellboy Reboot Is a Horror Film More Than a Superhero Film
Hellboy is back, and the red-skinned, horn-headed hero hit New York Comic-Con today to show off a trailer for the upcoming reboot of the character. Stars David Harbour, Sasha Lane and Daniel Dae Kim were joined by creator Mike Mignola to discuss the film, which reimagines Hellboy for a potential new series of films as he battles an ancient sorceress who is out for revenge.
Lionsgate won't be releasing this footage just yet, so for now we'll have to tide you over with our description of the trailer that was screened, which you can find below or in the video above.
As things kicked off, Mignola talked about how he created Hellboy in the first place; it was mainly because while working at Marvel and DC he just wanted to draw monsters, and he figured the best way to do that was to create his own!
Into the Spider-Verse New Footage Impressions
Sony Pictures Entertainment debuted the first 35 minutes of footage from the upcoming animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse today at New York Comic Con. To make a long story short, it looks awesome.
Warning: Spoilers for the first 35 minutes of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse below!
Some parts of the footage screened were unfinished -- co-executive producer Chris Miller accurately described them as looking like a '90s video game -- but the vast majority showed off the same gorgeous animation glimpsed in the trailers so far. It's a unique blend of fluid motion with little stylized static beats sprinkled here and there to evoke both old school cartoons and the stationary nature of comic books panels.
Daredevil Trailer Reveals Bullseye Is a Villain in Season 3
Netflix and Marvel finally confirmed that Bullseye will be one of the major villains for Daredevil Season 3 at New York Comic Con, releasing a new trailer that teased the reveal.
"I think it’s safe to say that - and it may be the worst kept secret in the history of Marvel - this season we would be telling an origin story for one of the more iconic characters," Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb teased, allowing actor Wilson Bethel to be the first to say the villain's name.
"Honestly it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life to be able to tell the story of how Benjamin Poindexter will ultimately become Bullseye," Bethel said, before star Charlie Cox got up from his seat and ran over to draw a bullseye on Bethel's forehead in Sharpie.
Fortnite’s First Action Figure Revealed!
It was recently announced that McFarlane Toys would be producing collectibles based on Fortnite, including action figures and role-play items, and we just got our first look!
Here at New York Comic Con, Todd McFarlane himself revealed the very first action figure prototype of Cuddle Team Leader!
There's no price point or specific street date yet, but McFarlane is hard at work getting these out before the end of the year.
If you're interested in some other toys based on beloved Fortnite skins, these dark, brooding John Wick collectibles we also saw at NYCC might be of interest.
In Defense of Venom
Ruben Fleischer's Venom opened Friday, and the reaction has been, well, less than glowing. As of this writing, the film's Rotten Tomatoes approval rating is at a not-so-impressive 30%, with critics citing its chaotic storytelling, middling special effects, and weird campy/comic tone.
Rafer Guzman of Newsday compared Venom to midnight movie classics like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (which would be a positive in my book, but which Guzman meant to be a criticism), while NPR's Chris Kilmek compared it unfavorably to the '80s sitcom ALF. Stephanie Zacharek of TIME gave Venom a 3.5 out of 10, and even IGN's own Laura Prudom gave it a 4.0 out of 10, employing one of the film's more notorious lines of dialogue as a descriptor: “A turd in the wind.”
The Best Venom vs. Carnage Comics
With the Venom movie featuring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock now in theaters, we're looking to the comics for what to expect for a possible sequel featuring the Spider-Man antihero.
Warning: beware spoilers for Venom!
The Venom mid-credits scene introduces Woody Harrelson's Cletus Kasady and directly sets the stage for the rise of Carnage in Venom 2. While we wait for the sequel to take shape, now would be a good time to go back and read some of the classic Venom vs. Carnage stories from the comics. Here's a little recommended reading to tide you over.
The Amazing Spider-Man: Carnage
Johnnie Walker partnered with Game of Thrones to bring you a unique, limited-edition White Walker scotch whiskey.
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man Series Coming From DC’s Injustice Writer
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, a comic series that looks closely at both the daily, neighborhood life of Peter Parker and the action packed heroics of Spider-Man, is coming in January 2019.
Announced during the NYCC 2018 Spider-Man panel and detailed on Marvel’s official website, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is being written by Tom Taylor with art by Juann Cabal - the two previously worked together on the All-New Wolverine series. Taylor is also known for his work on the Injustice: Gods Among Us comic series that acted as a prequel to the video game of the same name.
Every Game on Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far, Reviewed
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This morning Square Enix announced a new Kingdom Hearts compilation coming to PS4 at the end of this month.
The Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far collection is a combination of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue, which themselves are made up of different Kingdom Hearts games. We've put together a slideshow of every game review for every game featured in the Kingdom Hearts: The Story So Far collection.