The Lost City arrived in theaters a little more than a month ago, but it’s already made its way to streaming provider Paramount+. It’s a step above your average rom-com, a better than average new release and a worthy unofficial remake of the 1980s classic Romancing the Stone. If you miss classic rom-coms steeped in adventure and lighthearted fantasy, this should be your next watch, a Sandra Bullock star vehicle with 16 years younger actor Channing Tatum as the potential love interest, a rare and welcome Hollywood choice–when was the last time you saw an older woman with a younger man in a major production? Add Brad Pitt and Daniel Radcliffe, and some goofy humor and high adventure and The Lost City is movie that would have been difficult for anyone to get wrong.
With a small but significant first–and possibly only–season now behind us, the latest Marvel series proved the promise of the series opener wasn’t just a fluke. With unusually fantastic superhero storytelling and backstory, top acting, and unparalleled art production and music, Moon Knight is a serious contender for not only the best of Disney’s era of superhero series, it also springs ahead as better than all the Netflix Marvel series and any series (DC, Marvel, or indie) that came before in the superhero genre, complete with a Dark Knight villain done right, and a Wonder Woman who finally delivered on the excitement and potential of nearly a century of comic book superheroines. The sixth and final episode of the season is now streaming on Disney+. We’re only through four months of 2022, and even with some high calibre shows so far, if you see only one series this year, so far this is the one not to miss.
Streaming service Paramount+’s 2021 release Infinitehas elements of Fast & Furious, Doctor Strange, Bloodshot, Captain America: Winter Soldier, New Mutants, The Adjustment Bureau, and Mortal Kombat. Lots of tropes are blended into this expensive, giant, sci-fi action fantasy mash-up. Infinite isn’t as good as any of these movies, but if you subscribe to Paramount+ you’ll find worse ways to spend a few hours.
The biggest surprise is Infinite is not derived from an existing property like a video game or comic book. At the center is Mark Wahlberg as a man named Evan McCauley, raised to believe he was schizophrenic (a la Moon Knight) only to find he is part of a supernatural truth where 500 people have the power to recall their reincarnated pasts, and he’s one of them–only he doesn’t remember.
The best of the Marvel Cinematic Universe happens when a new writer or director’s vision is something we haven’t seen before. For the movies, that’s merging into the MCU a quirky space fantasy crew in Guardians of the Galaxy, superheroes with restricted powers as in Thor: Ragnarok, or starring a less than super superhero like in Ant-Man. In the TV series it’s introducing a unique, cool style like in Luke Cage or featuring an ex-military antihero with serious drama like in The Punisher. In Disney’s Moon Knight, which is premiering its pilot episode now on Disney+, it’s building an intense, thrilling character who finds that something or someone has taken over his body, and he–and the audience–have no idea why. It’s a mix of ancient mythology, magic, and adventure of the level of Raiders of the Lost Ark, with the best of today’s actors creating some truly fantastic and exciting characters. And that’s just the first hour.
“I can’t tell the difference between my waking life and dreams.”
Anyone else see the Jason Isaacs series Awake? It, too, followed a hero who was alive in two different worlds, each where he believed he was awake and the other, the world in his dreams. That’s the path Marvel Studios is taking with Moon Knight, the next MCU superhero series, which stars Oscar Isaac (is he Steven Grant or Marc Spector?), coming later this month to Disney+.
Marvel released a brief featurette providing some insight into the character, including interviews with Isaac, plus Ethan Hawke, who plays Arthur Harrow, and Disney exec Kevin Feige. Check it out below, along with previous trailers for the series:
The second and third most famous genre Jareds take center stage in this trailer from the Sony side of the Marvel universe. Academy Award winner Jared Leto(Suicide Squad, Blade Runner 2049) stars as Marvel’s own bat-man, Dr. Michael Morbius, and BAFTA Award-winning actor Jared Harris(Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Fringe, The Expanse) is Emil Nikols. Yes, Marvel has shaken its tree a lot to get us down to movies featuring the likes of Moon Knight and the “living vampire.” The appeal for most audiences will be more of Michael Keaton in the superhero realm, back as Vulture, Keaton’s villain of Spider-Man: Homecoming. And who isn’t still waiting to see what movie will be Matt Smith′s post-Doctor Who breakout role? The movie also stars Fast & Furious’s Tyrese Gibson, and 6 Underground’sAdria Arjona.
The first two episodes of Marvel’s Hawkeye series are less than two weeks away. After the mental anguish of this year’s first round of Marvel streaming series–depression and loss as the themes of WandaVision, self-doubt and imposter syndrome as the themes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and regret and hopelessness as the themes of Loki–Marvel fans have earned themselves a fun Marvel series, and Hawkeye looks like it will fit the bill.
In yesterday’s quick Disney Plus Day event, the streaming service previewed what should be another fun series, as critically acclaimed Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany looks like she finds it easy being green as the title superheroine of She-Hulk. It’s a little harder to see what angle will be taken with Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight. A deadly war of the gods with Egypt as a backdrop feels and looks like Isaac in X-Men: Apocalypse. And Iman Vellani stars in Ms. Marvel, which looks a lot like Marvel’s version of DC Comics’ Stargirl. New announcements include series Echo starring Alaqua Cox, Ironheartstarring Dominique Thorne, Agatha: House of Harknessstarring Kathryn Hahn, and Secret Invasion starring Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn.
Take a look at another great Hawkeye trailer, and our first glimpses (barely) at She-Hulk, Moon Knight, and Ms. Marvel below.
It was only a year ago here at borg we were discussing some of the projects expected to arrive in 2020. That didn’t happen, but a pandemic later and some juggling by the execs at Disney and we seem to have a realistic schedule for the projects we’ll see in 2021. So let’s gather some excitement for Marvel superheroes heading our way, at least from the first looks at these shows we’ve seen via their movie and series trailers. What does it look like we’re going to actually see in 2021 via streaming Disney+ or Vudu streaming? As Phase IV of the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues with the final episodes of WandaVision on Disney+, next up will be The Falcon and the Winter Soldier starting on Disney+ March 19. Probably the most eagerly awaited of all Marvel projects since Spider-Man: Far from Home is Black Widow, delayed and delayed some more, now expected to arrive May 7, probably for a theater run and a pay version via Disney+. Which leaves the six episode mini-series Loki, also expected to arrive in May, via Disney+. The common link? All of these feature characters and storylines still heavily anchored to Phase III of the MCU, and all are an opportunity to tweak the past via time travel or a changed past to allow for new characters and new storylines.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage is expected to arrive in theaters June 25, and Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings has a July 9 premiere date, but Disney hasn’t issued a trailer for either yet. As a bonus we’ll throw in the trailer below for the animated series What… If? which doesn’t have anything but a 2021 projected Disney+ series launch date, and the trailer for Morbius, a Sony production tying into the MCU–at least via a cameo by Michael Keaton as Vulture, the villain from Sony’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. It’s now slated for a January 2022 theatrical premiere. Although an Eternals movie is expected around Thanskgiving and another Spider-Man movie could slip in around Christmas, all the other Phase IV projects have been pushed out beyond 2021–the next movies featuring Doctor Strange, Thor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man and The Wasp, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Fantastic Four, and TV series featuring a new Hawkeye, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Guardians of the Galaxy (a special), Secret Invasion, Ironheart, Armor Wars, and a Wakanda series.
Marvel Contest of Champions is a 2014 mobile fighting game from Kabam, released four years ago on iOS and Android, boasting more than 100 million players. Based on ideas generated from the 1982 three-issue Marvel Comics series Contest of Championsby Mark Gruenwald, John Romita Jr., and Bob Layton, players select superheroes from across the history of the Marvel universe to battle each other. Both the original comic and the game key in on the scheming machinations of Grandmaster and the Collector, and if the idea sounds familiar, it may be because it was also featured in Marvel’s big screen Thor: Ragnarok, with Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster pitting Chris Hemsworth’s Thor against Mark Ruffalo’s Planet Hulk-inspired gladiator Hulk.
Initially intended to be based on Marvel’s Super Heroes Secret Wars comics, the Contest of Champions video game features more than 100 playable characters, and includes dozens of others. The characters as realized for the game and the game environments is the focus of a new book from author Paul Davies, Marvel Contest of Champions: The Art of the Battlerealm. The book represents one of the rare assemblages of so many characters from all segments of the Marvel universe. Showcasing the story by Sam Humphries and artwork by Gabriel Frizzera, Luke Ross, and others, the book is full of great character designs, concepts, and final selections. It even takes readers beyond the events of Infinity War, although the game does not adhere to the movies.
Readers and game players will find it difficult coming up with characters from Marvel Comics not incorporated into Contest of Champions. In the book they’ll find updated versions of all the superheroes (and many villains) from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, plus the X-Men, Deadpool, Old Man Logan, X-23, Spider-Gwen, Ghost Rider, Howard the Duck, Hyperion, Jane Foster’s Thor, Miles Morales’s Spidey, Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel, Spawn, Dark Phoenix, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, Cable, Gwenpool, Mephisto, Blade, Carnage, and the Inhumans. Plus there’s the Netflix Marvel series characters, lesser used characters like the future evil Hulk called Maestro, Magik, M.O.D.O.K., Sentry, Sentinel, Sabretooth, Agent Venom, Morningstar, Guillotine, Karnak, Kang, Doctor Voodoo, Black Bolt, and Venompool. Both Angela, grand-daughter of Odin, and King Groot are brilliantly realized in the game and the book (shown above).
Here are some preview pages fromMarvel Contest of Champions: The Art of the Battlerealm:
Our borgBest of 2016 list continues today with the Best in Print and a bonus wrap-up of other year’s bests. If you missed it, check out our review of the Top Picks and Best Movies of 2016 here, the Kick-Ass Heroines of 2016here, and the Best in Televisionhere.
Without further ado, this year’s Best in Print:
Best Comic Book Series – Old Man Logan (Marvel). With just enough backstory from prior series focused on the future world version of Logan/Wolverine, writer Jeff Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino took us through the struggle of the superhero that survived all his contemporaries, only to be plunged into a parallel world where everything is familiar but nothing is the same.
Best Graphic Novel – Wonder Woman: The True Amazon, Jill Thompson (DC Comics). Writer/artist Jill Thompson is probably the best creator in comics today. Her origin story of Wonder Woman is vibrant, and she presents a flawed, complex, and ultimately strong and fearless heroine. The best Wonder Woman book we’ve ever read.
Best Comic Book Limited Series/Best Crossover Comic Book Series – Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (DC Comics/IDW). James Tynion IV and Freddie Williams II pulled together an impossible team-up of characters that ended up working great together. An action-packed, nostalgic fun trip.
Best Comic Book Writing – Matt Kindt, Dept.H (Dark Horse). Kindt pulls together an incredibly nostalgic assemblage of the best action concepts: classic science fiction of the H.G. Wells variety, G.I. Joe Adventure Team-inspired characters, and a fun character study and whodunit that will have you searching out your old game of Sub Search. We just hope he makes a prequel at some point so we get to see a similar quest with an old fashioned copper-helmeted deep sea diver. A fun read month after month and the best writing comics have to offer.
After the cut we continue with the best in comics, books, and more from 2016:
