500 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, the U.S. ballistic missile submarine Colorado receive their orders. Over a radio channel, designed only to be used if their homeland has been wiped out, they’re told to fire nuclear weapons at Pakistan.

Captain Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher) demands confirmation of the orders only to be unceremoniously relieved of duty by the White House. XO Sam Kendal (Scott Speedman) finds himself suddenly in charge of the submarine and facing the same difficult decision. When he also refuses to fire without confirmation of the orders, the Colorado is targeted, fired upon, and hit. The submarine and its crew find themselves crippled on the ocean floor, declared rogue enemies of their own country. Now, with nowhere left to turn, Chaplin and Kendal take the sub on the run and bring the men and women of the Colorado to an exotic island. Here they will find refuge, romance and a chance at a new life, even as they try to clear their names and get home.

 

Okay ABC you had me at Andre Braugher. I love that guy, I met him on the set of Hack way back in the early aughts and found him to be a really cool guy.  Military intrigue with an end of the world scenario? I’m down.  That says a lot since I really don’t spend any of my weeknights watching hour-long dramas anymore.

Credit: [Ain't It Cool News]

The programming begins Thursday night with a Superhero Pub Crawl and a Jedi Lightsaber Master Class (if you’re into that sort of thing).  Friday and Saturday is where a majority of the highlights can be found: special meet and greets with Chris Hemsworth, Stan Lee, William Shatner and Bruce Campbell.  Looks like most of the high profile guest’s panels are part of the VIP package, so I hoped you ponied up the bucks.

Regardless, it looks as though we are in a for a decent show.  I will be there covering the show Friday and Sunday.  I’m a fan, but I’m not intrepid enough to test the waters on Saturday … which looks like it could be a real zoo.

Three word review: FUCK and YES

More spoilerish discussion after the jump.

The Avengers is the movie I’ve been waiting for since May 2008 when Tony Stark was approached by Nick Fury in the post-credits to talk about the “Avengers Initiative”.  In that time Marvel has strung together a series of successful big screen adaptations of their most iconic characters.   What I experienced in a packed theater for a 11:30PM showing on Friday night was damn near perfect.   When critics start to talk about the death of the superhero genre, Joss Whedon comes through with a perfectly balanced take on Marvel Comics’ mightiest super team (the X-Men can suck it).

Unfortunately for my wife, we got out of the theater at 2:30AM and I was just too excited to even comprehend and digest what I had just seen.  Even now, two days later I’m going to stick to bullet points from here on out.

• The Hulk.  As much as I loved Edward Norton’s take on Bruce Banner, Mark Ruffalo fucking nailed it.  The shift from the angry, misunderstood Hulk from the previous two movies is gone.  The “puny god” line got uproarious laughs, and when he punched out Thor after taking down one of the space whales … priceless.
• Robert Downey Jr. is a force to be reckoned with, he owns Tony Stark.  It was interesting to see the dynamics between Stark, Thor, and Captain America.
• Black Widow totally made up for whatever exactly she did in Iron Man 2.
• The “team-up montage” was not insulting or a rehash of the previous films.  It made perfect sense, like when Thor showed up …
• The final hour is everything I could have possibly wanted in a feature film version of The Avengers.  Each one individually kicking ass, sometimes teaming up.  The Iron Man repulsor blast off of Cap’s shield gave me such a nerd boner.
• Loki was a treat, I had no idea who Tom Hiddleston was when he was cast in Thor, and may not have been seen as marquee villain for the Avengers first outing, but he was absolutely phenomenal.
• Here’s where I’m conflicted … Agent Coulson.  I have an unrequited man-crush on Coulson.  And his death was so Joss Whedonnish I couldn’t even believe what I saw.  Part of me wants to throat punch Whedon, while another part of me wants to give him a deep, long, passionate kiss.
• Even though Gwenyth Paltrow may be vapid and soul sucking in real life, I can’t help but love her as Pepper Potts.
• The end of credits scene with FUCKING THANOS! Infinity Gauntlet!!! Fargle Bargle … which means Marvel is committed to The Guardians of the Galaxy and to taking the Avengers off of planet Earth.
• The post-post credits scene in the restaurant … loved it.

As always, it’s a small edition size at 750 at $60.00.  The variant, which can be seen here is limited to 350 pieces and will be $110.00.  Good luck people, because I will be in the queue today trying to make this happen.

via [Cool & Collected]

This trailer has some new footage, mainly of bad guy The Lizard (in his lab coat even!) and what appears to be a glimpse of the “final battle”.  I must admit, this trailer definitely has me interested despite two major misgivings I have about this film.

The first being that I’m still not sold on the look of the suit, it’s too modern for my liking.  The second item being that I’m not a big fan of this “we’re telling the untold story” angle.  Look, we know it’s a reboot so just call it a reboot.

Overall, I think it looks pretty darn entertaining and I’ll be willing to give it a shot once it hits theaters July 4th weekend.

via [JoBlo.com]

If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m thoroughly excited for GI JOE: Retaliation.  The latest theatrical trailer fleshes out more of the plot, and has a few more new scenes to tease the fans.

Retaliation is a more grounded, and less comical take than their 2009 GI JOE: The Rise of Cobra. And from what I’ve seen so far, Director Jon M. Chu nailed it.  Cobra Commander actually looks like Cobra Commander! Firefly! Snake Eyes and Jinx fighting Red Ninjas on the side of a mountain!!@!@

Seriously,  I need to see this right now.

Credit: [First Showing]

My affinity for Big Trouble In Little China has been well documented here over the years.  In the Fall of 2002, I walked into Suncoast Video (remember those) in the Oxford Valley Mall to find my hero, Jack Burton, in collectible plastic form. Without thinking, I rushed to the cash register before anyone was able to muscle good ‘ol Jack out of my sweaty grip.

A little history about this figure, it was produced by a company called N2 Toys, which came and went in the early 2000s.  The Big Trouble In Little China line was set to include most of the main characters: Jack Burton, Lo Pan, Wang Chi, Egg Shen, the Chinese Wildman, & Lightning (Three Storms).  There were even rumors of a 12″ Jack Burton, prototypes of which were shown at SDCC in the summer of 2002.

The sculpt is a great representation of Drew Struzan’s truly wonderful one sheet for the film. The paint applications are pretty great by 2002 standards, and does Jack Burton’s iconic tank top justice.  Over the years, I’ve had friends and aquaintances offer me varying sums of money to take Jack Burton home with them.  I’ve ignored every offer, I can assure you that in the event of a natural disaster, fire, or a zombie apocalypse that after ensuring that my wife and kids are safe … I will be sure to take Jack Burton with me.

From Across The League:

Life With Fandom would run into a fire for his original He-Man

The fact that Haxbee has a Small Soldier diorama that sat in the office of Stan Winston has me insanely jealous.

Branded In The 80s showed off their original Return of The Jedi Yub Yub Wicket.  I never even knew this existed.

Apparently my father is not alone in his confusion, and HBO has put together a pretty succinct video which breaks down all of the gods we come across in Game of Thrones.  I will warn you that there are some spoilerish images for the remainder of the second season ahead.

via [Blastr]

I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I will never be able to obtain a Mondo print at the time of the release (I came *this* close during their Planet of the Apes series).  As much as I love the work of the artists, I can’t bring myself to pay the huge markup on the secondary market.

As always, the posters will be going up at a random time which will be announced on Twitter.  Black Widow goes on sale April 19th and Hawkeye will follow on April 20th.  Both are priced at $45 and the runs are extremely limited.

Despite my previous bouts of bad luck, I will be making an effort to pick up Hawkeye.  Tom Whalen is a favorite of mine, a local guy who I’ve bought various pieces from over the years at different conventions.  I just love the composition and the color palette.

Credit: [Robot6 @ ComicBookResources]