Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows Preview

We are about two weeks away from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows everybody! I have been excited to talk TMNT ever since I started writing for this site and you should  expect more articles regarding TMNT once the show comes back for the second half of its fourth season soon. That’s in the future though. For now, lets take a look at TMNT 2 and what you should expect to see in it!

For me and many other fans of the Ninja Turtles one thing we are looking forward to most is the first appearances of Bebop and Rocksteady in a live-action film. Bebop and Rocksteady were two characters first introduced in the original Ninja Turtles cartoon. They have also been featured in the most recent cartoon series.

They are two henchman of Shredder who just happen to be a rhino and warthog. They actually were originally human though, similar to Master Splinter. I would be excited to see these characters in any form but I am even more excited to see a person I am a fan of play one of them. If you have read any of my articles for this site before, you know I am a giant wrestling fan. Rocksteady will be played by former multiple time champ, Sheamus. It will be an exciting time to finally see these two on the big screen together.

Two other frequent villains of the Turtles will also make their live-action film debuts. Those two being Baxter Stockman and Krang. Stockman is an evil scientist and Krang is essentially a brain in a body but Krang is arguably number one on the list of people you don’t want to mess with in the world of TMNT. It could be argued that Stockman was in the last film but I don’t believe he even had a line.

These two characters actually worry me quite a bit. Brad Garrett is playing the role of Krang. I enjoy Garrett’s work but I don’t think he will make a particularly good Krang. They have recently used Roseanne Barr and Gilbert Gottfried as Krang Prime and Subprime, so they could have chosen worse than Brad Garrett. Fred Armisen would have been interesting in the role, but I don’t think he would have been a particularly good Krang either. In my opinion, nothing will ever beat the 80’s version voiced by Pat Fraley.

As I mentioned previously, I am also a bit worried about the actor playing Baxter Stockman. Tyler Perry will be the one playing Stockman and I can’t think of a time where I have seen him not play an elderly woman in a dress. That being said, I enjoyed the little pieces we’ve seen of Stockman in the trailers. He looks like he may be playing the role a bit overboard but he seems to be having fun with it.

We are also getting Casey Jones in this film. Casey Jones is the best friend of the Turtles that isn’t named Splinter or April O’Neil. I use the term friend somewhat loosely though. Him and the turtles have their arguments but he is a great ally to them on many occasions.

Stephen Amell will be playing Jones. Amell is best known as the Green Arrow aka Oliver Queen. I loved the first season of the show but did not enjoy the second season and have not watched since. Amell is the star but is rarely the best part of the show in those seasons. I’m highly intrigued to see him play the role of Casey Jones. I think he can knock it out of the park. I think he’s a talented actor. It’s just for whatever reason I don’t love the character of Oliver Queen.

Aside from that, almost everyone from the first film will be returning and we will also see an increased role for Karai, the daughter of Splinter who thinks she is the daughter of Shredder.

I loved the first film in this series and expect to enjoy this one even more. Not only do we get Shredder, Stockman, Bebop and Rocksteady. We also get Krang coming down from Dimension X to fight the Turtles as well! You can’t ask for much more than that!

Harley Quinn Set To Star In An All-Female Superhero Film – Go DC!

Hey all you ‘pumpkins’ and ‘puddins’ out there, check it: Margot Robbie, Suicide Squad’s very own Harley Quinn, is producing and starring in an all-female superhero movie!

It’s about freaking time, amiright?

This won’t even be the first female-led superhero film. DC’s Wonder Woman is set to release next year, with Israeli actress Gal Gadot reprising her role from Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Despite the fact that Marvel had a ridiculous head start on this whole superhero movie trend, DC continues to pull ahead in terms of diversity and mold-shattering.

Meanwhile, Marvel is frustratingly dragging their heels on their one female superhero film: Captain Marvel. Production has been delayed twice, with the estimated release date now tentatively set for 2019. Marvel doesn’t even have an actress lined up to play the powerful and popular Carol Danvers – or, if they do, they’ve stayed mum on the subject. Shoot, they don’t even have a director.

Setting that aside, the thing that really gets my goat is the lack of a Black Widow film. I mean, seriously? Yes, Marvel’s been making some ‘noises’ about finally creating one, about how a film starring Scarlet Johansson as Natasha Romanoff is at the ‘top of their wishlist’.

Frankly, the fact that Marvel has the next eight male-led films lined out, but we’re only getting vague whispers of a film for one of the most hard-hitting, dynamic, powerful, brilliant, clever, intriguing, backstory-rich characters of the MCU – shoot, the entire Marvel-verse, period – is incredibly frustrating.

C’mon Marvel, you’re doing great almost everywhere else! Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Agents of SHIELD… why do you continue to fall short on the big screen? (I’m not going to give you Agent Carter… dropping her is an unconscionable mistake and tragedy. Shame on you, Marvel. Shame.)

… … …

Whew. Sorry for that rant. Now lets talk about what DC is doing right.

Even though Dawn of Justice got mixed reviews from fans and critics alike, Warner Brothers and DC continued to produce and film Wonder Woman.

When Margot Robbie pitched the idea for an all-female super- and anti-hero film, Warner Bros picked it up right away, despite the fact that Suicide Squad hasn’t even been released in theaters.

Basically, DC and Warner Brothers have realized something that Marvel has yet to comprehend – that female superhero films shouldn’t rely on whether or not their male-counterpart films are successful. They should be allowed to stand on their own, because they’re heroes and bad-asses in their own right.

And what a line-up of bad-asses, too. Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Batgirl, Birds of Prey, Katana, and Bumblebee.

For those who aren’t complete tenth-level geeks, lemme give you a brief description of each super-heroine.

Harley Quinn: an incredibly complex, unique anti-hero. Her story is fantastically layered. Yes, she is a young woman who fell in with the wrong guy. And yes, that guy frequently beats, puts down, and nearly kills her. And yes, like the battered-wife cliché, she always returns to him. But she’s so much stronger than just that. She does have a set of morals (even if they’re easily screwed by her ‘Mistah Jay’). She does often want to do the right thing. She has a close (if complicated) relationship with Batgirl and Poison Ivy. She does eventually stand up for herself and metamorphasize into an amazingly strong, dynamic anti-hero. I will always love her, and I have high hopes for Margot Robbie’s portrayal of her. She clearly not the version from the original Batman show that I came to know and love, but Margot has the potential to make her own, unique version of the ever-famous harlequin.

Poison Ivy: although she’s often drawn very scantily clad, Ivy is an environmentalist at heart. Well, more of an eco-terrorist, but you get the idea. She loves the earth and wants to protect it from all those who are destroying it. She’s a brilliant scientist, who uses a combination of toxins and pheromones from her plants to commit her ‘evil deeds’ – although most of those selfsame deeds are to protect endangered species and the environment. She has an extremely close relationship with Harley Quinn, a sort of very-close-forever-friends-with-benefits-sometimes. Ivy also sometimes has a relationship with Batman, but we won’t get into that right now.

Batgirl: does she really need an explanation? I will say that I hope she’s the Barbara Gordon incarnation of Batgirl. Daughter of Commissioner Gordon, she has an incredibly unshakable sense of justice and right and wrong. She pushed herself to become a crime fighter all on her own, without the Bat-training that Robin had. And, of course, who doesn’t love a redhead that can kick ass like a boss?

Birds of Prey: this is a comic book team that has a long and complicated history, with a wide range of different female members. The team was originally founded by Black Canary (Dinah Lance) and Barbara Gordon (called Oracle at the time), although two other potential main characters we might see are Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) and Lady Blackhawk (Zinda Blake). There are a ton of possibilities, here.

Katana: another character from the upcoming Suicide Squad film, Tatsu has an intricate and incredibly sad ‘origin story’. Two brothers loved her, but she loved only one, Maseo. When she married Maseo and had two children with him, his brother, Takeo, become consumed with jealousy, and killed Maseo with a magical katana. In the fight, a fire was started, and while Tatsu was distracted defeating Takeo and taking his swords, her children were caught in the blaze. Encouraged to flee by the soul of her husband within the sword, Tatsu barely escaped with her life, and began training under a samurai master. Shortly after her ‘graduation’, she moved to the United States to become a superhero.

Bumblebee: she is DC’s first African American superhero. I knew and fell in love with her during the show Teen Titans (the original, amazing version, not this new baby-fied monstrosity). She is absolutely brilliant, and although she has no superpowers of her own, she created her own super-powered battle suit. It enhances her in every way, and gives her the ability to fly and shoot electrical blasts that mimic bee stings. She’s all kinds of sassy, and I can’t wait to see who’ll play her.

And that’s it. Sorry for the long nerd-splosion, but I wanted to be sure that you’d appreciate how fantastically awesome this upcoming film is.

An all-female super- and anti-hero film, pitched and produced by Margot Robbie, picked up by Warner Bros, and directed by an as-of-yet-unnamed female director… this has all the makings of something new and revolutionary and perfect.

It’s about time we got a carnage film where chicks get to blow a bunch of stuff up.

Bring. It. On.

For those who are interested, here’s the trailer for Suicide Squad, starring the fantastic Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, who’s now my absolute hero. Here’s hoping that the tone of her film is just as fun and violent as this one.

‘Iron Man 3’ Reveals Main Villain Was Re-Written as a Man – For Toy Sales.

Yep. Yep, yeah, you read that correctly.

Iron Man 3, the first movie in Marvel’s Phase 2, and the third Iron Man movie, was supposed to star a female villain, namely, Maya Hansen. And this would have made a lot of sense – she created Extremis alongside Aldrich Killian. He then stole it and sold it on, resulting in his suicide.

Shane Black was excited about this too – having the whole world focus on the formidable “Mandarin” – and then it’s a small brunette woman who’s been running the show the whole time.

Being a character who was so important to the original plot, and who also you know, was a key factor in Extremis existing, you think that would earn her the spot as the Big Bad, right?

Well, according to Shane Black, Marvel execs didn’t think so, and figured toy sale success was much more important, and that a female villain toy would not sell. Thus, Shane Black was made to re-write the script.

Yeah. Because of toy sales. Because I sure remember the shelves being stocked with Killian toys, and kids begging their parents for the Aldrich Action Figure for Christmas.

Shane Black said in a statement;

“All I’ll say is this, on the record: There was an early draft of Iron Man 3 where we had an inkling of a problem. Which is that we had a female character who was the villain in the draft. We had finished the script and we were given a no-holds-barred memo saying that cannot stand and we’ve changed our minds because, after consulting, we’ve decided that toy won’t sell as well if it’s a female.”

He continued, “So, we had to change the entire script because of toy making.”

Now, given that there weren’t really any Killian Toys outside of the mini-mates double pack (pictured above), most are a little unsure about the logic behind this statement beyond the mere “that is a ridiculous and outdated point of view .” Black did, however, go on to say that the powers-that-be that made this decision are no longer at the head of those decisions.

These statements came shortly after backlash towards toy companies for not including Rey in the initial release of toys for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. You know, Rey – the main character.

But hey, I suppose now the ending isn’t the only awkward thing about that movie now.*

Hopefully, Marvel and other large franchises will continue to take fans comments on board, to help improve, impress and expand their fanbases.

(*Just a note – I like Iron Man 3 – I’ve watched it multiple times. However, the ending made no sense to me because of the whole “Yay I just got my arc reactor removed!” – did no one remember Iron Man 2? When it was literally killing him from the inside out? Surely that whole movie would have been solved if he could just cut it out? Or the Avengers, when he called it his Terrible Privilege and used it to bond with Bruce Banner? Because I do. And I am still so deeply confused.)

 

Daredevil SN1 EP1 – ‘Into the Ring’

They say you only get one chance at a first impression. So being the first episode of a new show means Daredevil needed to get off to a good start.

Bryan Singer Pitches Female Wolverine

So it appears that Bryan Singer is already preparing for life without Hugh Jackaman as Wolverine by pitching the idea of a female Wolverine to Fox. So as we know Jackman is hanging his claws after the third installment of the movie, Singer has revealed in an interview with fandango that he pitched a Fox studios with replacing Jackman with the new female Wolverine Laura Kinney previously X-23.

“I have discussed that with the studio” Singer advised fandango “I actually initially pitched the X-Force and the female”

I’m not 100% convinced that a female Wolverine would work I started reading the comics and did not really connect with the character so stopped after issue 4 as I thought I would give it more of a chance.

Singer also revealed that he has started work on the X-Force movie but it is still just at the ideas stage. He told fandango “Simon Kinberg is the earliest script stage, so that’s kind of where it stands and we’ll see how it evolves”

For all your mutant needs stick with @Deadpool_1984 only at skatronixxx.com

 

Harley Quinn Movie Reportedly in Works

Suicide Squad hasn’t even made it’s theatre debut yet, but rumours have arisen of a Harley Quinn-centric movie in the works at Warner Bros., with Margot Robbie to reprise the role, as revealed by The Hollywood Reporter.

Margot Robbie, who currently holds the role in Suicide Squad, is reported to not only star as the character again, but produce as well. The movie also won’t just be a solo act – it’s rumoured to feature other female DC Comics stars, including Batgirl and Birds of Prey. Warner Bros. certainly isn’t commenting on this. The Hollywood Reporter also let on that a script is being written – it’s not confirmed who, but the writer is reportedly a woman.

With DC’s huge line up of popular and incredible heroines and villainesses, it would be one hell of a movie to present – and with it’s already large female fanbase, coupled with DC’s amazing “DC Superhero Girls” (a project involving a line of comics and products deliberately targeted to a young female fanbase, also rumoured to be partly Margot Robbie’s work) it’s an absolute no-brainer that this movie would be a massive success with Warner Bros., and fans should keep their eyes open for further news. Hopefully this isn’t an instance of too good to be true.

A Look At ‘Me Before You’ By Jojo Moyes

If the book title Me Before You doesn’t ring a bell, well then just wait a month and you’ll be sure to see a few movie trailers air on TV.  Me Before You is a romantic novel first published on January 5th, 2012, written by U.K. author Jojo Moyes. This will be a short review, as the novel itself is short and I don’t want to get into too much detail as to spoil it for you.

Usually I’m not one for the romantic genre, but this novel came highly recommended by my fellow readers. While it is fictional, be warned ―it will pull at your heart-strings. Besides marking the book’s success with a movie, a sequel book entitled After You was released on September 29, 2015. Anyway, back to the beautiful book at hand, here’s the excerpt:

‘Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn’t know is she’s about to lose her job or that knowing what’s coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he’s going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn’t know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they’re going to change the other for all time.’

Me Before You follows two characters, Louisa Clark and Will Traynor as their paths converge after, what I would call, a series of tragic events that have occurred over the years. Louisa and Will are complete opposites: Will is a high achieving, wealthy man, while Louisa is an unambitious, cheerful woman. Like most opposites that attract, their paths merge because of Will’s accident that has left him paralysed and reliant on a caretaker, Louisa. While Will doesn’t warm to Louisa at first, over time he opens up more to her, as she continues to be the ray of sunshine in his grey world.

[Spoiler alert!] What really pulled on my heart-strings wasn’t the idea that, simply put, Louisa fell in love with some guy with a death wish. It was that in the six short months they had together, they fell in love with each other for who they were. Will’s disability wasn’t some great flaw for Louisa —she respected him, she treated him with dignity, and she was inclusive towards him, the same way she would treat someone who had the ability to use their entire body. Most importantly, she respected Will’s final decision to end his life, no matter how painful it would be for her to bear it. Will likewise cared for Louisa, not just her well-being but the life she was leading. It’s really all the little things they do for each other in those six months spent together that add up. It’s truly a beautiful story.

A Brief History of Comic Books

Hi! I’m Cole. I’m a new author on Skatronixxx, and I love comic books. I have my own blog at Comic City and I am so excited to be an other here, in the Comics and books section. Well, enough of me blabbering, let’s get to the history of comic books!

Comic books have been around for 80+ years, and there is a long and confusing, but intriguing history behind them. I will try to break the history down into less confusing chunks.

The first ever comic books were just comic strips collected fro various newspapers put into a book form. The first full story comics were usually eith
er mystery comics such as Detective Comics (1937) and comedy comics such as The Funnies (1936) or Fun Comics (1935). When Action Comics 1 debuted in 1938, it started a whole new genre of comic books: superhero comics. Detective Comics saw the success of Superman in Action Comics, they introduced another world famous comic book hero, Batman. All American comics (1939) also switched to the action genre, introducing famous characters from the Justice Society of America such as the first Green Lantern, Flash and other heroes. Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, the man behind Famous Funnies, Fun Comics and many other popular comic book titles, merged New Comics, All American Comics, Fun Comics, Detective Comics, and almost every other comic book title published and founded DC Comics, one of the most known comic book publishers today.

While all this was going on, other publishers were trying to enter the comic book business, such as Marvel Comics. In 1939, a man named Martin Goodman started the company called Timely Publications, which will later be called Marvel Comics. Marvel Comics 1 was debuted in October, 1939, introducing heroes like the Human Torch and the Submariner. In 1941, Captain America 1 was published and had great success.

Marvel and DC continued their success, and by the mid 1950’s, the silver age of comics began. In 1960, Justice League of America 1 was debuted, and a team of DC’s superheroes unite to fight the terrifying Starro, the giant starfish. In 1962, Amazing Fantasy 15 introduced Spiderman and in 1963, Avengers 4 re-introduced Captain America, after his solo comic was cancelled a few years before.

People are unsure of when the silver age of comics and the bronze age started, but it is some time in the 70s. Comics still thrived, and they still are today. Around 1985, the bronze age of comics ended and the modern age began.

There is so much more to the history of comics. If you would like to look into it so more, check out some of these books:

• The Classic Era of American Comics by Nicky Wright
• Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones
• Marvel Comics The Untold Story by Sean Howe

It is amazing to see the progress and history of comic books. If you liked this blog (and even if you didn’t) make sure you follow Skatronixxx.com to get blogs from myself and the other of the amazing authors on Skatronixx. Also, be sure to check out my blog at Comic City and follow me on twitter at @TheNicolasTweet.

Until next time,

-Cole

 

Michael B. Jordan Joins ‘Black Panther’ Cast

It’s been announced that Michael B. Jordan has officially joined the cast of Marvel’s Black Panther.

Jordan, known recently for his roles in Creed and Fantastic 4 (Marvel, once again rescuing the Johnny Storms!) hasn’t revealed his role yet, but a source has mentioned it could very well be a villain character.

Black Panther, due for release in 2018, will focus on the warrior king of Wakanda and his sudden ascension to the throne, and therefore the esteemed Black Panther mantle. Introduced to Marvel audiences in Captain America: Civil War, Chadwick Boseman will return as the lead role for the standalone feature, and will also star alongside Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong’o.

Black Panther, being directed by Ryan Coogler, is due for release on February 16th 2018, with production scheduled to begin in 2017.

April Wrap Up & Haul

In the latest video from our resident vlogger Aly ‘The Little Librarian’ she takes us through her April Wrap Up and latest haul! Enjoy!!!