Fandom Review(05/19/17)

Sorry about the lateness of this article but there have been some other big things going on such as Guardians and Secret Empire so here’s an article of just different quick hits that I’ve missed over the last few months.

Fox Marvel

So Fox is off and doing some big things with their side of the Marvel Universe and hopefully it pays off for them much better than the Horrendous X-Men : Apocalypse did.

First up we have “The Gifted” it’s an X-Men show directed by Bryan Singer and it’s focusing on a family on the run after their two children develop mutant abilities. It features well known X-Men like Polaris, Psylocke and Blink while not actually focusing on The X-Men team itself. This is something that I wouldn’t do because I think the X-Men are perfect for a television series but if you’re gonna go with a more basic storyline of Mutants on the run then this works and I think that Singer’s best work has been in televison(House) and so this might actually surprise me and be really good. Here’s the official trailer for the show :

Next, Fox has released the dates for three different X-Men films in 2018.

April 13: The New Mutants

I find it odd that the one that’s less than a year away is the one that I know the least about. Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nat Wolff have all been rumored to have different roles in the film but nothing’s confirmed yet, not even Xavier’s role is confirmed.

Josh Boone is the official director of the film and has hinted at Wolfsbane, Mirage, Cannonball, Sunspot, Magik, and Warlock being the main characters with Williams as Wolfsbane and Taylor-Joy as Magik. I’d be perfectly fine with those choices for them and I love all the other characters so I guess I’m ready for the new mutants…even though I hardly know anything about it.

June 1: Deadpool 2

Deadpool 2 is finally on it’s way for everyone who loved the first one. Josh Brolin has officially been cast as Cable and Zazie Beets will be playing Domino in this new film directed by David Leitch(John Wick)

My thoughts on the first one were of the minority of a lot of people but Ryan Reynolds does play a good Wade Wilson and if they focus on Deadpool more as an actual hero then I’ll be happy with this one.

November 2: Dark Phoenix

Now this one, I’m just struggling to have faith in. This isn’t the first time we’ve tried the Phoenix storyline and it’s also focusing on a Jean Grey that’s willing to kill someone in Cold Blood.(Angel, sorry about the spoilers but honestly the movie isn’t worth it.) I might just be ready for the entire series to go back to Marvel, who’s consistently given us great films. Unfortunately, Fox won’t do a merger. So we’re gonna have sub-par X-Men films for a long time.

Injustice 2

Injustice 2 is nothing short of Brilliant. It’s been an incredible playthrough and I haven’t completed the story just yet but I can say that the gameplay mechanics are incredibly improved for just about every character and the new characters fit into the roster very well. The balance between fighters is about as perfect as you can get for a fighting game and the only issue I had was with Green Lantern losing a good amount of his previous abilities but maybe I just need to play as him more because he’s honestly the only character I have a problem with so far.

The Multiverse Mode and The ability to customize your character only make for a more immersive experience and allow you to really get more out of your game. It makes it a lot more interesting to try out different loadouts for different play styles.

Overall, I can’t say enough good things about Injustice 2 and it’s definitely worth picking up if you’re a DC fan or a Fighting game fan.

Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite

Obviously I’m really excited for this one. Although the previous outing had a few different issues for a modern day fighting game this one looks like it could more than redeem the series and bring it back to the forefront where it belongs. The two trailers reveal some pretty big additions to the game such as characters like Ultron, Sigma and Captain Marvel being in the game as well as the new infinity stone dynamic. According to the MVCI website you can choose an infinity stone before you fight to help out your character in a different way. So far the power and space stones are all we see being used in the trailers but we’ll no doubt see more soon enough.

Here’s the story trailer for you :

And here’s the gameplay trailer :

Shadow of War

Shadow of War is the sequel to monolith’s hit, Middle Earth : Shadow Of Mordor game. I’m very excited for this as I am a huge fan of the Middle Earth mythos, as well as the first game, and I just think that they’re going to improve on everything that made the first one great. The combat looks fresh and even more brutal and the nemesis system featuring attacking and defending strongholds is definitely a welcome change in dynamic for the series. I’m sure there will still be some stealth elements but I’m really happy to see a switch for larger battles that can test our consoles hardware.

And for those of us worried about exploration and being tied down to one area too much then check out this trailer :

I can’t wait for this game and I’ll probably be pre-ordering it soon.

 

Star Trek Discovery 

Star Trek is one of those fandoms that I just never got into. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it or that it wasn’t interesting to me. It just seemed Daunting to jump into a series that had 5o years of backstory. I had the same issue getting into shows like Doctor Who or animes that had hundreds of episodes like Dragon Ball or Naruto but after watching this trailer and falling in love with the reboot films then I have to say that I am incredibly ready for this series. James Frain as Sarek is basically fan-casting in my opinion and featuring multiple throwbacks to the original series while also going to new planets and new stories. Which makes me wonder, is there a big discovery that they find or is it just a fitting title for Star Trek in general? We’ll have to wait and see this fall.

 

Inhumans

Now a lot of people have been giving this picture a lot of crap and yes, Karnak and Gorgon don’t look perfect but honestly they kinda look deformed in the comics so maybe this is a good change in the aesthetic. Medusa is supposed to have a lot more hair but I’m assuming that it’ll expand and recede around her during fight scenes and anything else like that. Crystal looks like she’s just straight from the comics so I’m perfectly fine with her but the part of this image that really sticks out to me is Black Bolt and Maximus. I’ve never watched Hell on Wheels but I’ve heard that Anson Mount is great and I’m excited to see the gravitas he brings to the King of Inhumans and as for Maximus…Iwan Rheon was practically meant for this role. We know how great he is at playing a villain from Game Of Thrones and I think he’s gonna do some great things here.

Overall, I’m excited for this show and if I have the opportunity then I’m gonna go see it in Imax when it comes out but I do worry about both it, and Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. struggling with a Friday night time-slot. It’s typically considered to be a death sentence for most shows and I hope this one breaks that rule.

DC Dark Days and Beyond…

There’s some big stuff going on over at DC, first off we have the major summer crossover that’s being spearheaded by Scott Snyder. Yeah, take that in for a bit. Snyder, arguably the best writer of the last ten years, is doing a major DC Crossover. First up is the two Dark Days Preludes : “The Forge” and “The Casting” and the only thing that’s really been revealed is that The Forge will have the first appearance of the Joker since Rebirth started…which is pretty huge in itself but there’s also been a secret of The DC universe that’s set to be revealed and then pave the way for “Dark Nights : Metal” which is the return of Snyder and Capullo working as a team. Here’s a preview image :

Batman with battleaxes, a bloody mouth and a tattered cape in front of a giant fire is about as Metal as it gets. Want more? I know. Here’s Capullo drawing the Justice League as Gladiators :

I might be too excited for this book. I have no idea what it’s actually about yet but I know it’s going to be fantastic.

Now as interesting as I think Metal is going to be this next image is what makes me have a lot of questions :

So we know from the above image that Dark Days, Night and Matter are banners for each different/period of Comics. According to reports from DC these new stories will focus heavily on the artworks as well as the writing and will even give the artists the top billing on the covers. Metal is going to be one of six different series but they’ve kept a lot of it close to their chests and I don’t blame them. They did release this image telling us which artist is working on what :

So far the only writer that I know of Scott Snyder, Who’s working on Metal with Capullo and on New Challengers with Andy Kubert. But I’m excited to see where some of these series go because these are genuinely some of the better artists in the world.

All of this is what will be leading us to Doomsday Clock which is due out in November.

Obviously I’m happy to see Johns and Frank coming back together to do anything but I’m especially happy that they’re handling the major crossover between DC and Watchmen. Apparently it’s been heavily influenced by different things that are happening in the world following the anger, fear and general divided state of the world and it’s people. It’s being described as Optimism Vs Pessimism by Johns and will mainly focus on Dr. Manhattan and Superman. Other characters will show up but they’re the main focus and I think that’s the best way to do it. My thoughts on Watchmen have always been a minority and I’m glad that from the sound of it, Johns and I fully agree on the story but we’ll get to that and more on this crossover soon enough in my article : “Rebirth Revisited”

About Jacob Hardesty

Jacob Vance Hardesty is the Editor-In-Chief of The Fandom Correspondents and is currently working on a book of Short Stories as well as a full length novel. He loves Comics, Movies, Music and Video Games. Really, he just loves good storytelling in any fashion it can be received.

View all posts by Jacob Hardesty →

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