Among some other comic-inspired art, I found these wonderful little watercolor pieces done by David Bisbal Gallart on his DeviantArt page, which can be found here. I’m not sure if these are for sale, but I hope they are because I’d love to hang them up on my wall.
I’m not sure how I missed it, but James Gunn tweeted a photo of Dave Bautista “getting a facial” (har har) last month.
My pal @DaveBautista in the macho process of getting a facial (not makeup, sorry, folks) pic.twitter.com/jVKmrQoEk3
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) May 17, 2013
Obviously, it’s a make-up test. It’s not much, but it’s enough to give me a pretty good idea of what he’ll look like fully made up and I have to say I think it’ll be pretty solid.
Found this really great black & white, DnA-era Star-Lord by Jeffrey Huet and, man, does it kick some serious ass. If you like this (or just black & white comic art in general) I highly recommend you check out the rest of his work here.
JoBlo Confirms Villains and Locations!
This week, JoBlo.com posted an article with some pretty spoilery material, so for those of you avoiding spoilers, you might not want to read any further.
SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!
John C. Reilly Confirmed to Play Rhomann Dey
This week, Deadline confirmed that John C. Reilly will, in fact, be joining the cast of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. He’ll be playing the role of Rhomann Dey, the leader of the Nova Corps as suspected.
I still say it’s a weird casting choice, considering John C. Reilly doesn’t exactly strike me as the superhero type, but then again, neither did Rainn Wilson and he was great in Super. Until the first trailer, at least, I guess I’ll have to just maintain faith in his acting ability.
by Bendis, and McNiven & Pichelli
Last issue, the Guardians were taken captive by the Spartax because of their involvement in a battle against the Badoon in London, England, disobeying J’son’s (king of Spartax and Star-Lord’s dad) orders to stay away from Earth.
The Guardians are quickly put into stasis chambers, but not before Tony Stark can get a message out to the Avengers, urging them to assemble. Meanwhile, J’son’s men seize all the weapons they can from the Guardians’ ship.
J’son meets with the rest of the galactic leaders in the Negative Zone, and chastises the Badoon leader for deliberately disobeying his orders. The rest, however, are getting just a little fed up with him bossing everyone around.
Back on the Spartax ship holding the Guardians, the Spartax soldiers seem to remember seeing another Guardian, who they don’t have in captivity…
Once again, the Guardians are saved, in typical Groot fashion. With all of their weapons conveniently stashed in the same room they were being held, they quickly arm themselves and prepare to take over the ship. Gamora, for one, is pretty jazzed about that.
After they completely annihilate the Spartax crew, the Guardians make their way to the bridge, where Star-Lord sends out a transmission to all ships in the Spartax fleet.
Holy cow! What another great, exciting issue from Brian Michael Bendis! If there’s one thing I enjoy about this book, it’s the pacing. Boy, does it move. In three issues, we’ve been introduced to these characters, they’ve gotten into exciting battles, been captured, escaped and that’s only the half of it.
King J’son’s still got some cards up his sleeve. I don’t believe for a second that the Badoon attacked Earth on their own volition. He’s playing some kind of long game I haven’t figured out yet, though I’m sure Peter Quill and his “band of pirates” just screwed that up.
And we got to see the return of Groot! Sure, he was only gone for an issue, but even one issue without some Groot feels too long. He’s not afraid to wreak a little havoc or sacrifice himself for the good of the team. And look at those adorable eyes.
I hope Bendis can keep this up. He’s really doing an excellent job of keeping the Guardians busy with plenty of action set pieces without losing focus of the big picture. And it’s never not fun. I can tell this story’s going to some big places and I can’t wait to get there.
June, 1975, saw the release of Strange Tales #180, a pretty Warlock-centric book that also happened to feature the first appearance of the most dangerous woman in the universe: Gamora. Here’s the synopsis:
“While battling a couple of the Black Knights the Soul Gem almost takes control again and Warlock decides, that he must destroy it, however as he takes it off Warlock collapses and realizes, that he can no longer exist without the Gem as it has been sucking out Warlock’s Soul in the last three Years thus becoming his life force. The Matriarch wants to make a Slave out of Warlock now instead of killing him. After trying to remove the Gem Warlock is invited by the Matriarch to the Sacred Palace, an obvious trap, but since she claims, that she knew that the gem would become a danger even to Warlock himself, Warlock decides to accept the invitation and ditches Pip. The Matriarch reveals to Warlock, that the Magus is his future self and not a conjuring of the Soul Gem as he believes, at first he refuses to believe. Warlock falls through a trap door and lands in front of Kray-Tor for trial. Kray-Tor’s statement makes it quite obvious that Warlock’s trial is a sham, Warlock argues that he cannot be tried by this Court because it has its power from the Magus – thus from a part of Warlock himself gone mad, so he insists, that he be tried by the Magus himself – the motion is denied. The Prosecutor calls for a witness – a rebel and infidel, to Warlock’s satisfaction the witness Yon-Lok doesn’t blame him to be guilty of High Church Crimes but Kray-Tor and his Court, for this he gets killed and the Jury is ordered to ignore that statement, all other witnesses point to Warlock as the perpetrator of a dozen false crimes. As Warlock strongly objects he gets gagged and is sentenced to a Church-House of Correction, Warlock however resists and Kray-Tor reverses his ruling and sentences Warlock to death. Gamora finds Pip and tells him, that she wants to find out if Warlock can indeed defeat the Magus, if so she joins him and if not she will kill him. Warlock uses the Soul Gem to kill Kray-Tor saying, that he now knows, that the gem was sent to him by some higher power beyond his comprehension to destroy evil such as Kray-Tor, afterward Warlock knows Kray-Tor’s thoughts and realizes, that he truly believed in what he was doing, truly believed that Warlock was threatening his beliefs and realizes, that by stealing Kray-Tor’s Soul he truly became the villain. “
Looks like this book helped set up what would later turn into Marvel’s massive Infinity Gauntlet event. I can’t help but laugh at the monster on the cover, though. It just looks really stupid. I’m definitely going to see if I can get my hands on this book somehow. Looks like a blast.
Go pick up or download the new issue of Guardians of the Galaxy! Review on Monday!
Just a couple casting rumors today.
Benicio Del Toro Could Be Playing The Collector.
Last week, it was announced that Benicio Del Toro was added to the cast of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movie. This week, the first rumor is that Del Toro will be playing The Collector. The Collector is one of the Elders of the Universe, who, after experiencing a vision of the Universe being destroyed, decides to start collecting as many living creatures as he can to repopulate the Universe after its destruction. With Thanos involved in the overall arc of Marvel’s series of movies, it does seem logical to include this character, though there’s been no official word. Only a “very reliable source.”
Karen Gillan Could Be Playing Angela
Another actor added to the cast last week was Karen Gillan, who is rumored to be playing Angela, a character created by Neil Gaiman for Spawn and who has (uncoincidentally) been added to the Marvel Universe this year in the Age of Ultron crossover event, as well as upcoming issues of Guardians of the Galaxy. Of course, this is all speculation, but with the character appearing in the Guardians title this year, it seems highly possible that they’d want to reintroduce readers to this character in preparation for the movie.
With all of these stars being added to the cast, it makes me wonder if they’re not going to be relying on star power, rather than a great script, to draw in audiences for this flick. Or maybe they’re hoping to use Guardians as a launch pad for a bunch of other movies. Either way, it seems like things are getting way too big. I’m really starting to think they’re going to cram as much as they can into this movie and it’s going to suffer for it as a result. I hope I’m wrong, though. I hope, hope hope.
Well, sort of. Last week, director James Gunn, who previously mentioned studying live raccoons for the Guardians of the Galaxy, tweeted a photo of himself with a little furry friend:
I’ve just hired a new gaffer for the shoot. Chewing on wires is good, right?say.ly/BIP5ZcM
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) June 6, 2013
Awwwww. What a cute little guy.
So, even though there’s been no official casting news for the voice of Rocket, I’m really glad to see they’re trying to go for a more realistic-looking raccoon, as opposed to some goofy, cartoony raccoon. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that before. I just can’t help but feel giddy looking at James Gunn playing with a little raccoon.
The Guardian Log 