Captain American is such a winner!

Everyone knows by now how I love data morphs and mutates like a virus on the Internet. I just read an interesting teaser at Digg for "Iron Man 2, 3 and 4" and the "may have Captain American and Hulk" comment. Now, I know we have our own typos here (and will continue to do so until we can afford a copy editor to take a pass at our posts), so no ill will about the good Captain's name, but I do have a pet peeve for the link-aggregator-post-that-has-something-rather-sensationalistic-as-a-title-but-is-actually-wishful-thinking-based-on-misinterpretation-of-something-else.

See, on Digg, where 500+ people have already "dugg" it (meaning they like it, they enjoy it, they support it, or maybe they just wanted to bookmark it for later and don't know how to use standard bookmarking) it's passed off as a possibility that Cap and Hulk will show up in these movies.

The article that is being "dugg" doesn't actually suggest that headline. Instead, that article says "Favreau does intend to include background links to the likes of Hulk and Captain America in the sequel, but finds Thor a little difficult to do so" and that this information came out during an interview with "Jon Favreau sitting down with a major contingent of online press".

And then at the end it points to the transcript of said interview with a "major contingent" (which was apparently just ComingSoon.net/Superhero Hype! the way I read the transcript's intro.) The intro itself translates the interview as saying:

Marvel's current plans to set its upcoming slate of films – including Iron Man 2, Captain America, Thor and The Avengers – in the same shared universe as Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk is a tricky but still inviting prospect for Favreau, who plans to utilize his improvisational background to find clever ways to integrate certain elements of the other films into the sequels, enhancing and not disrupting his own storytelling needs. He thinks Cap and Hulk fit fairly easily into Iron Man's world, while Thor is more of a challenge.

And of course, the actual interview itself features Favreau just talking about how cool it is to throw in Nick Fury or Captain America's shield, the continuity problems inherent in these things (since Iron Man is looking to start a team at the end of Hulk, the story probably doesn't take place the day after Nick Fury approaches him at the end of Iron Man), and giving a ridiculously flippant dismissal of Marvel Comics continuity. When discussing the issue of timing between Hulk and Iron Man (and sequels) he wonderfully says:

That's clearly not the day after "Iron Man" ended. Where does it fit in the time continuum? I don't want to just ignore it or do what the comic books have done. I guess you could do what Marvel has said: "It's an alternate universe." They've gotten away with that one for a couple of decades, but how do you make all that work within that world?

Which is just sort of insulting to Marvel. Let's be honest, the "alternate universe" is not Marvel's answer for continuity problems... they've long since mentioned their sliding time-line principle to explain aging issues and pride at never having had to "fix" their continuity a-la Crisis. If someone nit-picks how Captain America couldn't have had a beer with the Juggernaut on the same night Ben Reilly and Jubilee were locked in deadly battle with the Checkermaster, Marvel doesn't "alternate universe" it away. They give a no-prize, or they say say it's not a big deal (and these things usually aren't that big a deal) and everyone moves on, or maybe a later writer will come in and fix things. Sorry, that's just a personal nitpick, that this guy lauded by some comic fans as so "respectful to the material" thinks Marvel has just spent "decades" dismissing every uncomfortable plot point as "alternate universe." If Marvel HAD been throwing plot points out as alternate dimension, many fans would probably be a lot happier.

Back to the interview though... Favreau doesn't suggest appearances by Captain America or Hulk in any of the Iron Man sequels. He says that these callbacks and nudge-nudge-wink-wink references are fun, they're a way to prove themselves to the fans, and that he sees problems in incorporating some of the superheroism of Avengers mythology (which Favreau says isn't tech but rather "dealing with inter-dimensional portals and all the sh*t that makes you jump the shark if you don't handle it right").

He goes on to talk about the difficulty of these convergent elements by saying:

Then "Hulk" went a little the same way. It's still kind of tech-based. You get to Cap and you say, "Okay, he was frozen in that thing –" and it's like, "Okay, I could maybe buy that, with the super-soldier thing." Then you get into Thor and it's like, "Okay, well now..." and so how do you make that all feel like it's in the same world as our movie is? That's going to be the challenge moving forward.

So long story short, we start with an interview where Iron Man's director says mixing these elements are difficult. The same article summarizes the interview as Favreau planning on using improvisation to "integrate certain elements of the other films into the sequels". And when this article is re-summarized by Dark Horizon it becomes an intention "to include background links to the likes of Hulk and Captain America in the sequel, but finds Thor a little difficult to do so." And by the time it gets to Digg, it becomes "Captain America and Hulk in Iron Man 2, 3 and 4?"

Now, does that mean Captain America and Hulk won't appear? No. It just means that there's nothing suggesting they will. A director saying that the shared universe is fun and challenging at the same time, and that some aspects work together better than others, is not the same as (or anywhere close to) suggesting character appearances or whatever else.

Ah telephone game... how we love you. Now everyone reading this post... quick... go out and post that Tigra and the other-dimensional Cat People are going to be in Iron Man 2. Post that everywhere... tell everyone! Oh, and say that a Hawkeye movie is in development too! What else... oh... and that the Doctor Strange movie is retroactively being including into Marvel's movieverse so Peter Hooten is going to reprise his role for the Captain America movie. I can't wait to see what these rumors turn into.

Collector's Guide to Iron Man

We've just finished the first (of likely many) Visual Collector's Guides. The concept? Side-by-side comparisons of various repaints and resculpts of major characters in the Super Hero Squad line. First up is the Collector's Guide to Iron Man, thanks to the repaint-heavy Genius of Tony Stark and Crimson Dynamo Attacks 4-packs.

Obviously, thumbnails link to larger shots, but please, don't steal the photos. They took time to shoot, time to resize (and someday, when we have more webspace to use, we'll use the higher-quality larger shots) and time to prepare for uploading. They're not watermarked, but that could change with the next round. And besides, my camera skills are no better than (and possibly worse than) the next person's, so you might have better luck simply taking your own photos. If you do want to use the pictures, asking is a good start. Giving a link to indicate where you took the photos from is a great follow-up. Besides, not only can you probably take better photos, but your figures might have fewer paint-application mishaps than these.

What're you still reading this for? Why aren't you checking out Iron Man (who looks better when not automatically resized by blogger)?

Marvel Financials for Q2

Since a fair number of people are posting about Marvel's earnings we figured what the hay, we'll post a link to them. We might do a more comprehensive break down of the release later, but for now, interesting tidbits include:

- "Licensing Segment net sales increased to $94.9 million in Q2 2008 from $65.6 million in Q2 2007. The increase was driven primarily by the recognition of revenue previously deferred due to earliest-in-store restrictions related to the Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk feature films."

Marvel's Licensing Segment is where they have chosen to record income from the Hasbro deal, and while this is a recent decision, the numbers from previous quarters have been altered to reflect this change in treatment (it's like having a fruit company where you report the money you have tied up in apples and oranges on different lines. If next year you combine apples and oranges in one line, it produces anomalies, like your apple and orange assets sinking to 0, while "fruit" assets skyrocket. You can better represent this to shareholders by explaining in notes that last year's "fruit" was so much, and that it's really a combination of the two previous years categories apples and oranges).

That allows us to see, in part, the increase in overall licensed product sales from 2008 (Iron Man, Hulk) and 2007 (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four), but it's not conclusive.

Another interesting bit?

- "Revenue from Marvel’s film production segment commenced in the second quarter with the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. We’re very pleased with the success of these films which have generated $817 million in global box office receipts -- $571 million from Iron Man and $246 million from The Incredible Hulk -- with Iron Man still to open in Japan"

Now, of that, they only acknowledge 29 million give or take on the balance sheet, but that's because their distributors have different revenue recognition (aka, money counting) timelines, so that 29 or so million is just foreign pre-sales. That also means that Q3's figures will likely have revenues from those films and we'll finally be able to see how much of that $817 million (and counting) makes it back to Marvel.

The other interesting thing to note is that World War Hulk was wrong, and Iron Man can beat the Hulk. It would be interesting to know how much of that disparity in box office receipts has to do with (1) the previous Hulk movie and resultant bad press, (2) the tremendous critical acclaim Iron Man received (93% at Rotten Tomatoes, 92% for the top critics) compared to Hulk (68% at Rotten Tomatoes, 58% for the top critics), and (3) the word-of-mouth/viral campaign surrounding Iron Man and the Nick Fury connection. But we'll likely never get that type of information. Oh well.

The New Iron Man box-sets!

Marvelousnews has hi-res shots of the new Iron Man Super Hero Squad figures that were seen at SDCC (Dreadknight, Iron Monger, et al.) Apparently they're going as 2 more 4-packs. So go and enjoy, but be warned they don't have a release date posted yet!

Who's in what? Well, we can't quite see the top of the box, but it looks like "Iron Monger Attacks" is the name of the set with "1st Appearance Iron Man" (Movie), Iron Monger, War Machine, and Iron Man (Movie), while the set called "The Danger of Dreadknight" (again, can't see the top of the box that well), has Iron Man, Stealth Armor Iron Man, Dreadknight and "Zhang Tong" (the name the Mandarin used back in the Heart of Darkness storyline.)

Edit: Just changed "___________" to "Danger" because that's what the photos are apparently named as.

Animated Iron Man villains

This slipped by earlier this week (because Comics Continuum, while a great site, still hasn't embraced RSS feeds and so if we don't remember to check it out, we forget) but Comics Continuum has pictures of the new Mandarin, Whiplash and Blizzard designs for the upcoming Iron Man animated series. Also check it out for possible developments for Spectacular Spider-Man's second season (suggesting it won't be on the New Kids CW after the full shift to 4kids), and Marvel's Nicktoons deal. For those who haven't been paying attention, Nicktoons is the network scheduled to air Wolverine and the X-Men in the US (and premieres in the UK and likely on torrent sites everywhere this upcoming Saturday, August 2nd) and Iron Man: Armored Adventures. Marvel's upcoming Hulk: Gamma Corps, and Super Hero Squad were at last word still waiting on networks.

Hasbro talks of price increases...

In the same article detailing how its net income is up, and how sales of Iron Man related toys was better than expected, we learn about Hasbro's impending September 1 increase in wholesale prices for its products due to increased oil prices.

"'Iron Man' was particularly strong at the box office and our toys performed extremely well at retail," Goldner said in a conference call. "In a number of instances, we were in short supply during the quarter. We recently began shipping new 'Iron Man' product and we will be well stocked for the DVD release this fall."

Here's another article, and another for those that follow these things.

No word yet on how this price change could affect prices on Hasbro Toy Shop. Currently, Super Hero Squad toys on HTS go for $6.00, while in stores like Walmart and Target the prices are approaching $7. Comic stores and specialty retailers who get products through Previews, etc, price SHS at $8 a pack.

Also, it's a shame that with Iron Man exceeding their sales expectations all we're getting for additional Iron Man Super Hero Squad figures are the two four-packs of repaints. Maybe this news will make them re-think that decision and decide to put out some of the more demanded figures like Mandarin and Chemistro, the 90's armor or any of the other Iron Man related suggestions. Or maybe it'll just mean every wave will have 2 Spider-Men and 1 Iron Man. Yikes. I wish we had a crystal ball here.

Iron Man Battle Packs Wave 2 correction?

Entertainment Earth and Cmdstore are both listing the next wave of Iron Man packs as including the Genius of Tony Stark 4-pack and something called "Desert Face Off" while Hasbro is calling it "Crimson Dynamo Attacks" so that may be a new pack, but, let's remember the solicitation text still available on Hasbro.com:

"The nuclear-powered Super Villain known as the CRIMSON DYNAMO attacks one of Stark International's secluded desert storage facilities, intent on stealing what technology he can sell, and destroying the rest. Luckily, IRON MAN is there, testing his new desert combat armor. Using his remote systems, he takes control of two other powerful armor systems and turns the tables on his attacker!"

I've added bolding and italics to the references to the desert. No official word yet, but Desert Face Off could very well just be a renamed version of Crimson Dynamo Attacks, so hopefully we can hold off on telling the world that there's been a new 4-pack announced.

Hollywood Reporter on Super Hero Squad, the Cartoon

Hollywood Reporter is the first to bring us actual news about the Super Hero Squad cartoon. (Go on, you can read the link... it's quick.)

Highlights? 26 episodes. No network yet. Film Roman (known for the Simpsons) handling the project.

"It will feature such well-known heroes as Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine, Thor, Fantastic Four and Captain America; all occupy a caricatured Super Hero City and are thrust into humorous adventures as they thwart the villainous plans of Doctor Doom, Magneto, Loki, the Abomination and others."

And also of note:

"Marvel also is developing a multimedia and merchandising campaign for the show, with Hasbro handling the toy line. Marvel Comics is introducing a "Squad" book series in the fall, and a direct-to-video animated feature is in development for 2010."

What kind of book? A direct to video feature coming one year after the TV series? Gah! So many questions, so little information. It's interesting to me at least that the rights to animated Iron Man, Hulk, and Wolverine aren't locked up by the producers of their individual cartoons. It's also interesting that Spider-Man wasn't mentioned despite being the star of the toy line.

Attack of the Iron Man Repaints!

Yup, those photos from NYC of 8 carefully grouped Iron Men were a sign of things to come.

The Crimson Dynamo Attacks Item Number 78767

and

The Genius of Tony Stark Item Number 78768

And the solicitation text:

Crimson Dynamo Attacks

"The nuclear-powered Super Villain known as the CRIMSON DYNAMO attacks one of Stark International's secluded desert storage facilities, intent on stealing what technology he can sell, and destroying the rest. Luckily, IRON MAN is there, testing his new desert combat armor. Using his remote systems, he takes control of two other powerful armor systems and turns the tables on his attacker!

Team up with these funky figures and create exciting adventures right in your own living room! Small in stature but big on fun, these cool characters are sure to save the day from a boring afternoon. So get ready to do battle with the Super Hero Squad!

Includes CRIMSON DYNAMO, WAR MACHINE, Classic IRON MAN and Desert Armor IRON MAN figures."

and The Genius of Tony Stark:

"No matter where Tony Stark goes, he never stops inventing. He is a restless thinker, and a constant engineer. Over the years, he has built dozens of battle suits, both for himself and his friends and allies. Every single one is the best of its kind, a top-of-the-line suit of armor designed to seek and destroy evil wherever it hides.

Team up with these funky figures and create exciting adventures right in your own living room! Small in stature but big on fun, these cool characters are sure to save the day from a boring afternoon. So get ready to do battle with the Super Hero Squad!

Includes Iron SPIDER-MAN, Ultimate WAR MACHINE, HULKBUSTER IRON MAN and 1st Appearance IRON MAN figures."

In short, it looks like the ugly brown Iron Man is now "Desert Armor" and not "Extremis Iron Man" as some sites have decided. Iron Spider-Man looks more metallic and a more classic Crayola red. The Crimson Dynamo looks like he's got some metallic reds, so here's hoping we have at least moderate repaints for all the characters (that way variant hunters aren't stuck with dupes.)

And on a semi-related note, did I already mention how you shouldn't keep calling a character "First Appearance" when you've already released 2 different versions of his "first appearance" look, and now you're onto his next armor design/color scheme?

Ever wonder who does that great Super Hero Squad artwork?

Not necessarily a rumor, per se, but it's hard to find out information regarding the artists involved with these very distinctive designs. However, Create Magazine has some of the art from the latest Iron Man 4-packs.

Also check out Harry Moore Design's website for other promotional art Harry Moore Designs has done for past Marvel toy lines like the Avengers United and X-Men Onslaught lines from the 90's.

Stealth Iron Man: Blue vs. Black.

I've noticed that one trend in Super Hero Squad rumors tends to be costumes. I've previously discussed 616 Mr. Fantastic, Sabretooth, and even Ultimate Hulk (although that was more of a size thing than a costume) and now I'm addressing the greatest burning question right now: Why do customizers make Stealth Iron Man dark blue?

The answers tend to vary... I've heard that customizers do it because that's the way the other action figures represent Stealth Iron Man, which is too simplistic. I've heard that it's easier to do blue, which, once again is rather simplistic.

Actually, let me back up a bit... the question of why the armors are painted blue comes from the perception that stealth means black. While yes, the original Iron Manual does refer to the stealth armor as jet black, color was not such an issue with later designs as the "stealth" aspect of the armor came from energy bending, wave evading, super-duper technology.

Back to the blue armor...

The mother of all answers came from a gent who said, and I'll paraphrase to make it sound LESS crazy... "before digital printing, there was no way to produce black, so dark blue was used."

Note, the actual language had a little dis-jointed language and some talk of "pre-90's digital printing", but without proper structure so it's impossible to tell if he's talking about (a) printing before the 1990's digital printing, or (b) digital printing before the 1990's. I'm going to assume he means (a) because... well... that's the crazy answer that makes more sense.

Now, the actual answer as to why Stealth Iron Man is dark blue: Because it almost always gets drawn that way! All the way back to Iron Man 152. Cover Browser shows a nice cover of Iron Man 152.

Yes, the background, which was some early photo/art collage style (and in my opinion, done much more tastefully than the Marvel Universe card set from the late 90’s that tried the same thing) is blue, but to the discerning eyes (or, as I like to call ‘em, “most people”) you’ll notice black. The armor is black, the text is black, the line art is black.

Now, having never had a chance to interview the artist, I can’t tell you if the dark blue highlights were chosen for pure aesthetics (as opposed to using, say, gray-tones, or white highlights) but I can tell you the look is sharp. Green highlights? Dark red? A gray-tone Iron Man in a full-color comic? Maybe the right artist could pull them off, but the dark blue on black just works.

So why blue? I can’t speak for each customizer, but it’s either a mistaken perception that the blue highlights are the actual color of the armor, an attempt to recreate the classic, iconic armor color scheme, or maybe just because it looks good.

Either way, lack of pre-90’s black ink isn’t the answer.

Now, of course, I feel the urge to address the no-black ink rumor (well, I guess it’s more of a belief or an assumption.) It’s bunk. Total bunk. As fans of the “dot” art look that resulted from half-toning in pre-90’s printing will know, (see recent issues of Mighty Avengers for Iron Man, Doctor Doom and the Sentry in a half-toned adventure) that dot look from old comics comes from the CMYK printing process that was used in early printing.

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (aka Black) inks are used in various combinations to create the remaining spectrum of colors. Layman’s answer: the pattern of the ink “dots” results in what we see.

For good (but more technical than I want to get into) explanations, try Tech Color’s explanation, or, Manga Tutorials explanation of the difference between CMYK and RGB printing techniques, off-set printing versus digital printing, or this piece from Comic Artists Direct, which is dated, but so isn’t all good history, and finally the fine folks at Gutter Zombie discuss the differences in CMYK and RGB printing in depth.

When all is said and done though, the fact that black ink is one of the 4 essential parts of color printing in “pre-90’s digital coloring”, pretty much shuts down the claim that the Stealth Armor is blue because black wasn’t available.

Now, keep in mind I've simplified the explanations to make it more user-friendly, but if you're at all interested in the secret world of four color printing, check out those links and use them as a gateway. Who knows... maybe now you'll enjoy that Mighty Avengers story a little more.

Edit: Confession time... the "no black ink in pre-90's digital printing" guy was my word count stalker. I was going to give idiocy the benefit of anonymity, until I ran across him randomly flamebaiting me in a forum thread I'd never participated in and telling me to not bother posting. On top of being called stupid for not believing Hasbro reps secretly pulled Collector's Pack out of anti-wheelchair sentiment and then explaining their rational to a friend of some guy on the internet (and then having my insulter backpeddle by saying he never said I was stupid, just that I've never said anything smart) I wonder why I was trying to be nice. Try and do a nice thing for someone and this is what you get. Sheesh!

New York revelations

So NYCC has hit, and so have photos.

Marvelousnews is the big source of photos.

If you flip through you'll see shots of Golden FA Iron Man (uh, it's not First Appearance if it's not a first appearance... but why am I calling it that? Cause others are doing it and I want to be cool), Ultimate Iron Man repainted in War Machine colors, Crimson Dynamo (doesn't look like a repaint to me... maybe it's a little more metallic?), Silver Centurion armor repainted in yellow, the Hulk wave Hulkbuster IM (again... doesn't look repainted to me but maybe?), Tony Stark repainted in brown/gold, War Machine repainted in Iron Man colors, Iron Spidey (again, repaint or not?).

And still going we've got Spider-Man hanging from a lamp-post (back to original sculpts!), a repainted Sandman II (from the Venom set), Crossbones, Falcon, background shots of the recently released Deadpool and Spider-Woman wave, better shots of Red Skull, Sentry (who looks better than I expected after the photo I saw yesterday), Electro and those Spidey re-paints, a less-metalic Thor and Ares (is this a sign of a running change or of an early repaint set?), blurry Green Goblin.

Then some shots of the Hulk toys including the Hulk box set (boxed Abomination's colors are swapped with 2-pack Abomination, and it does look like the box-set will have 2 soldiers, Hulk, Abomination and a larger-than-I-expected Hulkbuster vehicle.

But poke around the photos and see if you find any easter eggs.

The 3-inch Switch/The Iron Man 5-Pack

This two-fer has it's basis in a poorly fact-checked listing at Forbidden Planet

See, this site, which has a few other erroneous listings I might go into later on, posted a wonderfully wrong ad for an Iron Man Movie 5-Pack, based on the booming line of new "3-inch" toys. When it was revealed that the Iron Man movie SHS were going to be 2 4-packs, not 4 2-packs as earlier thought, the 5-pack rumor was forgotten, the wise rumor-list keepers started pretending they never said there'd be a 5-pack and all is forgotten.

As for the switch to 3-inch figures, a few diligent rumor-busters pointed out that it was probably just a typo and everyone who believed in the switch quieted themselves and disappeared. And all is well with the world.