In an interview with Entertainment Tonight about his role as Commissioner Gordon in Justice League, J.K. Simmons revealed that he is open to returning as J. Jonah Jameson in the revitalized Spider-Man franchise.
“Never say never. I had an amazing time with Sam Raimi and those movies… that was a great, great time and huge for my career and my life and just pure fun.”
Simmons’ role as the editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle is still, after over a decade, one of the single greatest performances in any comic book film ever. The subtlety he gave the role, with the occasional outburst of emotion, is exactly what the character needs to be performed well.
I’m not against Marvel Studios recasting the part for the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel, but I’m also not opposed to the idea of Jameson coming back to play the role yet again.
Would you be interested in seeing Simmons return as J. Jonah Jameson? Sound off in the comments below.
In a surprise move to all, Brian Michael Bendis has signed an exclusive contract with DC Comics. After over a decade of being one of the major scribes at Marvel, he now takes his talent to DC in a “multi-year, multi-faceted” deal.
Which projects he’ll be working on haven’t been released as of yet, or when his tenure with Marvel will actually end. What we do know is this is the end of an era for Marvel Comics.
Bendis tweeted “This is real. I love you all. Change is good. Change is healthy.” For Marvel fans, change is good indeed. This move opens up a lot of creative space for new voices.
While not every title he’s currently writing could use a shakeup, one in particular could greatly benefit. Having created Miles Morales, the character has almost exclusively been written by Bendis.
Spider-Man has been a book trending in the wrong direction. Miles Morales is an amazing character but his solo title hasn’t lived up to the Ultimate Spider-Man series since bringing him over to the 616 following Secret Wars.
This is a major opportunity for somebody new to come in and right the ship for our beloved web-slinger. Perhaps the new creative team will finally address some of the lingering questions fans have had about the Morales family, post-Secret Wars.
For Bendis’ other Marvel titles, it means characters like Riri Williams and Jessica Jones will also be getting new voices. His Defenders series is by far the strongest in his current lineup, as well as one of Marvel’s most well-received comics. There are a number of holes for the publisher to start filling.
This change could potentially be the shakeup Marvel needed. Losing a major player like Bendis gives way to some of their other talented writers. Creators like Charles Soule, Donny Cates, Al Ewing, Kelly Thompson, and Tom Taylor should all be considered when replacing the Bendis output.
A shift like this could mean bringing back some fans as well, not everybody in the comic community is a huge Bendis fan. With him moving on, Jason Aaron’s role as the Geoff Johns of Marvel should be solidified.
At the end of the day, DC gains a powerhouse writer and Marvel doubles down on Marvel Legacy’s mission statement. This is a new era for Marvel, it’s up to them to push forward and continue down the right path with fresh blood and a new direction.
How do you feel about Bendis leaving for DC? What does it mean for both Marvel and DC? Who should be the first to takeover Spider-Man? Let us know in the comments below!
Although Warner Bros. has said they don’t plan to follow Marvel’s formula, it looks like they’re continuing the trend of after-credits scenes. While in an audio interview, Aquaman actor Jason Momoa confirmed the fact, saying “[Fans] gotta sit through the whole thing and go through the credits”.
Momoa said he even forgot it was in the script during a screening of the film, and had to run back in to catch it:
“I forgot that it was in the script. It’s fantastic, so there you go.”
Naturally, the internet is likely going to be set a fire after this announcement, as speculation will probably begin to run rampant over the next couple weeks. What do you think the end-credits scene will be about? Sound off in the comments below.
Antonio Banderas at 57 years-old can still scrap with the best of them, and for that reason alone the low-budget ‘Acts Of Vengeance’ is worth watching.
The film is your stereotypical 1980s action revenge plot, but the twist is Banderas’ character Frank Valera takes a vow of silence until justice is served. The silence led to a more intimate film as Banderas narrated the film. It also eliminated the possibility of over the top dialogue that you would traditional get in an action film of this type. Instead, you got the hard cold stare of Banderas.
Even though I described this film as an 80s action movie, filmmaker Isaac Florentine beats the pulp out Banderas’ character. The beatings had a purpose and drove the story to its next arc. Florentine has been directing martial arts films since 1992 and even has more than a few Power Rangers episodes under his directorial belt.
The limited budget led to poor set designs and weak police uniforms. On the opposite end, solid casting choices with Robert Forster, Karl Urban, and Paz Vega helped the film tremendously.
Banderas is part of three fight sequences in the film, and they are all distinctly different, which is a good thing because it gives the feel of a faster-paced movie. The best fight of ‘Acts of Vengence’ is when Banderas’ character takes on five Russians and a dog. The flow of the fight was quite impressive, and the end result creates a friend for life.
‘Acts Of Vengeance’ doesn’t change the action genre, but it does use enough creativity to warrant your attention. A double feature with Jackie Chan’s ‘The Foreigner’ would be the ultimate man-date in 2017.
Are you a fan of Antonio Banderas? Comment below with your favorite Banderas film.
I met Dylan Campbell as a fan. I discovered his great webcomic Scared By The Bell and reached out to him. At the time I wasn’t even doing comics journalism, I just really liked the concept and execution of his great idea. Right off the bat (pun intended!), Dylan was not only friendly but generous in sharing art, ideas, and thoughts on comics. So as soon as I got the chance to make one of our talks official, I jumped at the chance. What follows is a chat we had over…well Facebook Chat. And as always Dylan had a lot to say about the medium of comics, especially webcomics. Enjoy!
Creator Dylan Campbell
MFR:So Dylan, how long have you been making your own comics? Dylan Campbell: About five years ago I took a class at Meltdown Comics. The course was designed to do a mini-comic. So, I did my first mini-comic, “To Catch a Tooth” in that class. That’s when the confidence to move forward started. After that, I did little one-page comics to get my confidence up. Then I started Scared by the Bell. Hmm, I started penciling just 25 minutes a day in January of 2016.
MFR: Oh nice! So Back to the Meltdown thing? Were they already doing their whole partnership with Nerdist then? Yeah, as long as I’ve known about Meltdown, there has been a big Nerdist presence. They have a big space in the back for comedy shows, podcasts, etc. It’s kind of a neat scene. When I took the first class, it was a Wednesday night. So there would be long lines for a comedy show, food truck outside. Made the whole class a bit more exciting. The first class I took was with Jim Higgins. He used to edit over at DC comics I think, back in the day. He was really instrumental in opening up my worldview of comics.
Interesting. How so?
Well, I think a big hurdle for me for a long time was my “idea” of what comics were.
I grew up reading Jim Lee on X-Men and Todd McFarlane on Spider-Man. And those guys are so stupid talented; it’s a hard bar to live up against. When I first took the class, I wasn’t even going to draw. I thought, “Oh I’ll write a mini-comic and hire someone off Deviant Art”. But then he started showing us all these different Indie comics and my reaction was like, “wait… I can do that.” So I decided to write and draw it and it was hands down the most satisfying thing I’ve ever done.
How soon after that did you think you could do something longer?
It took a while. I did the mini comic. And then I just got busy with life. Then I started doing one-page comics. Because I think a lot of comics folks get into trouble by tackling a huge story for their first outing. So, I thought – I’ll just do little funny bits, whatever I think of, black and white (no tones, nothing) just hand lettering, and then I’ll post it on TUMBLR.
After a while, I got antsy and started roughing out ideas for Scared by the Bell. I’m a big advocate of starting small and then iterating off. That’s one of the great things about webcomics, it’s not fixed. I can post something, change it later, swap out the image, and I didn’t have to lay down money for a print run. It’s a great sandbox.
Damn. That is something I never thought about. That aspect of webcomics. That’s something unique to the medium.
Definitely. I have a previous life as a tech recruiter. So I would talk to lots of software engineers. And I was exposed to something called “Agile Development.”
Basically, if you’re building this giant banking application – you don’t build the whole thing (log on, online transfer, bill pay, etc) you build it one feature at a time. That really made an impression on me. So I’ve been going about Scared by the Bell – one feature at a time. First, it was, well just get it up and out, black and white, hand-lettered. Then as I got more confident, I would “update” the changes. So now when you go to the site, the first issue is all in color now (just like the print) whereas before it was just black and white line art. I think it takes a lot of pressure off of “making it perfect” because you can change it as you go, fix, update, get feedback, etc. Kind of in line with that Jake Parker video, “Finished, Not Perfect.” Except this would be “begun and tweaked”.
So I’ve read Scared by The Bell and I really love it. But for our readers out there, why don’t you describe it.
Scared by the Bell is about a 6th grader named, Peter who started a new middle school… full of monsters! We all know middle school is full of monsters in general, but this school is full of vampires, werewolves, mummies, gorgons, aliens, cyborgs, etc. The series will explore themes like “coming of age” “friendship” and “tolerance.” Along with a heavy helping of adventure and monsters. So we’ll see if he can “survive” the experience.
I spotted a ton of monsters; even the dreaded Cthulu!
Yesssss!
How long have you been a monster fan?
Monsters, Sci-Fi, Fantasy…forever. I’m sure the old Clash of the Titans got me going.
Oh man. Clash of the Titans was on TV constantly when I was a kid! That was a big one for me.
It was just amazing. All that claymation. I’m also a big sci-fi fan, specifically Star Trek. Star Trek has a lot of monster-like aliens that are humanized throughout the course of the story – which is a big influence. All those Greek mythology monsters are such a fun sandbox to play with. And then, of course, the old monster movies, the Universal ones (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc), were on when I was growing up. And of course Young Frankenstein.
Ok, back to the comic. I know you just very recently released a print version right?
I did! Just last week. That will start to be in a few LCS (Local Comics Shop! -ed.) and then I’ll be doing signings and conventions here in Southern California for starters, then via the website you can read online, buy a digital copy, or order a print version.
How many print issues do you hope to have then?
I will do a similar approach to the webcomic. I’ll do small batches of print runs.
Sell them, then order more. I’m curious to see how I’ll do at conventions. I have an author fair, and then a signing at a local comic shop here in Ventura. Then I’m doing Long Beach comic con in February of next year. I started with 100, but I’ll need to order more. I found a printer in Michigan I really like called Comix Well Spring. They did a solid job on the comic, and they’re U.S. based which is nice.
So how much of the story do you have planned?
I have six issues outlined. I’m halfway through coloring the third. But I’ll keep going after that. The plan is to just keep going with it. With the monsters and magical element, I can kind of do whatever. I want to have different arcs that focus on different characters as well. Not unlike Star Trek: Next Generation, or DS9 or Voyager, where it was like, yes this is an ensemble, but this episode is the Warf episode about his family. So hopefully after a while, readers will get really attached to all the different kids and have their favorites.
Who is your favorite?
I have a soft spot for Maggie and the Mummy. And of course, Peter!
Would you ever want to take the concept outside of the comics medium? Or do you see yourself wanting to do justsequential art?
Like animation or something?
Yeah. For film, TV. Or storybooks.
I feel like something like TV or Film is a little out of my control. I don’t imagine I would turn down any development prospects. But I could see writing a middle-grade prose book with the characters. I think, especially because a huge part of my audience will be the elementary school age, I’ll probably start doing video trailers, or little video things on YouTube to reach the kids eventually. Also, I’m toying around with Unreal Engine, so I might fool around with a game of some sort. But that’s very early. One of the things I really like about comics is you can do it all yourself with just a pencil and a piece of paper.
There’s this Brandon Graham comic about getting a pencil and paper out of the trash and doing comics.
Yeah. I agree. Also, I love Brandon Graham!
Prophetwas my gateway to Brandon Graham. He’s been a real inspiration. Also the nicest guy I’ve ever met at a con. And the tallest. That man is Goliath.
Monster reference!
When I draw Brandon Graham into a comic, I’ll make him a Goliath with an elephant tattoo
dragging around a pencil. (laughs).
Well, Dylan thanks for taking the time to talk to us here at Monkeys Fighting Robots. I just want to add that I was reading the comic to prepare for this and my nephew saw what I was reading and was into it. He starting asking questions and after a bit, I just gave him my tablet so he could read it.
Yes!! I really appreciate you taking the time for the interview. Thanks for the support. You’ve been commenting and reading for a while. I hope people read and enjoy, and show their kid. Feel free to go online and check out the comic at: www.scaredbythebell.com!
All images copyright and courtesy of Dylan Campbell
It’s no surprise that Aquaman is a big step in the DC film universe. Although we’ve seen the character briefly and will see more of him in Justice League, the solo movie will be Jason Momoa’s first chance to lead a major motion picture as the character. Keeping this in mind, ComicBook.com talked to Momoa about the tone of the movie. Here’s what he had to say:
“In the story, we’re going to see a couple different younger versions of me. And even before I was born, so you’ll know where my mother came from, Atlantis. We’ve got to establish seven different kingdoms and the threat. Surpassing Justice League, this moment in time is his call to become king. The only thing that can save Atlantis is me fighting my own brother. There’s a big battle, and there’s an epic [fight]. It’s also a big road movie, because we travel all over the world. It’s got that Star Wars quality of gigantic ships and guys riding sharks. It’s going to be this whole world you’ve never seen before. You’re going to see him start as this guy who probably rides bikes, works on cars. You get to see him this one way as kind of a dirty, dark, drunkard, and then turn into this regal king.”
Aquaman stars, along with Momoa, Amber Heard portraying Mera, Willem Defoe as Vulko, Patrick Wilson as Orm, Dolph Lundgren as King Nereus, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the villainous Black Manta.
The film will be released theatrically on December 21, 2018.
As we all know, earlier in the year Zack Snyder had to step away from Justice League due to personal reasons regarding his daughter. After his departure from the film, Warner Bros. signed Joss Whedon to finish directing the picture.
Fox 5 DC talked to Justice League cast members Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, and Ben Affleck; Affleck discussed Snyder’s importance to the movie.
“Zack cast this movie, he made the two movies prior, [Justice League] is very heavily informed by the work that went into it ahead of time — including design and script and everything else. So it’s Zack’s movie.”
Following that, he mentioned that Whedon improved the overall film.
“We got lucky, we had [Joss Whedon] come in who kind of worked off Zack’s template, and also added his own flavor and his own stuff to it, and I think made the movie better,” Affleck added. “Although, I wouldn’t necessarily want to have two directors on every movie, I do think it was an interesting way of doing it.”
It remains to be seen how the two directing styles will blend. Snyder has continually brought darker tones to the DC Universe, wheereas Whedon usually takes a lighter approach.
“Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.”
Justice League comes to theaters on November 17? Are you looking forward to the DC team-up movie? Comment below, let us know.
The fallout continues from the disturbing Kevin Spacey developments. The once revered actor has already been removed from his hit show, House of Cards. Now, it seems his upcoming performance in Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World, which had been campaigned heavily as an Oscar hopeful, has been appropriately torpedoed.
Sony had pulled the Oscar campaign for Spacey, who plays J. Paul Getty under a mountain of makeup, and they are considering canceling the AFI Fest premiere and pushing the release date from December 22 to June, 2018. Either way, Ridley Scott’s big biopic shot at Oscar gold has probably forever lost any chances it may have had.
The allegations against Kevin Spacey are still accumulating as victims are speaking out left and right. It’s getting worse before it can ever get better, and the accusations Spacey faces are horrific. Way down the list of grievances lie the movies he has in the can or television shows he’s been apart of, or theater production where he was the star. These things involve hundreds of people putting in hard work, taking pride in their product, and it’s now being ripped away from them. Again, not the biggest issue here by a mile, just another shitty thing pinned to Kevin Spacey’s expanding ledger of bullshit behavior.
Personally, I’d like to hear what Ridley Scott has to say about this development.
21st Century Fox has been holding talks to sell most of the company to Walt Disney Co., according to CNBC.
Fox would then focus on news and sports.
For Disney, the opportunity to take control of another movie studio and significant TV production assets as it readies a direct-to-consumer entertainment streaming offering is attractive as is Fox’s significant exposure to international markets, such as the U.K., Germany, and Italy — both through its networks and 39 percent ownership of Sky. Disney recently announced it will pull all of its movies from the Netflix platform and will establish two direct-to-consumer offerings: one for sports and one including its key franchises such as “Star Wars” and Marvel.
The sale to Disney would mean that the X-Men and Fantastic Four Cinematic Universes would come back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the report, it has Fox selling FX to Dinsey as well. ‘Legion’ is part of FX.
Back in September, we broke down why Disney should buy the X-Men film rights from FOX for $6 billion (read here). It will be interesting to see how much the entire movie studio will go for, $10 – $15 billion?
It should be noted that this process will take a very long time, but the fact that conversations are starting to happen is encouraging.
This is a breaking news story, and we will update you as the story develops.
What do you think? Are you excited to see the X-Men in the MCU?
After the shocking news that Zachary Levi (Chuck) will be portraying the original Captain Marvel, Variety is now reporting that Disney Channel star Asher Angel has been cast as Billy Batson in Shazam!
Directed by David Sandberg (LightsOut),Shazam! tells the story of a young boy (Angel) who has the ability to transform into an adult superhero (Zachary Levi) by saying the word Shazam. Angel is best known for his role on the Disney Channel series Andi Mack.
Shazam! will be the next DC Extended Universe movie to enter production and will land in theatres after James Wan’s solo Aquaman movie.
The first class I took was with 
