Comic-Con: Marvel movie “Next Avengers”
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The comic-book biz has been branching out not only to film, but also in the original DVD market. The strategy, it seems, is to create the same kind of ‘gotta-have-it’ mentality that they’ve fostered in their comics. Marvel’s DVD releases have been pretty successful, at least in terms of likability by the fans, with ‘Doctor Strange,’ ‘Iron Man,’ ‘Ultimate Avengers’ and more.
Last night, the comics company, along with Lionsgate, premiered a new offering in the form of ‘Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow.’ The toon feature paints a grim view of a future in which the crazy and powerful robot Ultron returns after the Avengers have retired and defeats an older, reassembled team. Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, is tasked with protecting the children of the Avengers. So he takes the kids and runs.
Stark doesn’t tell the kids much about their heritage or parents, other than through fanciful tales. James, the son of Captain America and Black Widow; Azari, son of the Black Panther (and Storm?); Pym, the son of Giant-Man and the Wasp; and Tauryn, the daughter of Thor, live their lives in relative seclusive peace. That is until Ultron finds them.
The kids join forces with the son of Hawkeye and an aged and semi-crazed Bruce Banner/Hulk to take down Ultron. A hasty panel afterward consisted of the project’s writer, a producer, a director and two voice actors (Fred Tatasciore, who voiced the Hulk, constantly used his gamma voice during the panel).
There was a lot of angry chatter on message boards and comments sections berating not only this movie, but also the fact that Marvel hadn’t done one with the mainstream Avengers characters yet. This movie was based on kids, and was probably for kids. We’re not sure if it’ll hit it’s target demo, but it doesn’t look to enjoy the success of other Marvel releases. In a treat for the assembled, a trailer was shown for the upcoming Marvel animated DVD release ‘Thor vs. Hulk.’
An aside ... though I was coming here anyway, the line to get into an adjacent room (6B) was just as long. People in both of the lines were told that they would most likely not get in to the panel. The ‘Next Avengers’ panel was within 30 minutes, the other panel and screening were still more than two hours away. It was for ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.’ Although the program had no mention of ‘special guest stars,’ we did pass Nathan Fillion on the street around 10 p.m. walking back toward the Convention Center.
-- Jevon Phillips
