Why send sample pages of the latest story arc in the Marvel universe when you can send a trailer instead. Lately this has been the comic company’s mantra to promote their signature book events.

Marvel Comics (MC) is pulling out all the stops to create buzz for the next big multi-pub series, The Siege. Here’s how MC describes the upcoming series:

SIEGE is coming! It’s all been leading up to this universe shattering four issue limited series from the superstar team of Brian Michael Bendis and Olivier Coipel! Following the events of Dark Reign: The List, Norman Osborn sets his sights set on Asgard and nothing will stop him from completing his mission. But what does he want? How do Loki and Thor figure in? And just how does this relate to the inner strife between the Cabal? Marvel’s greatest heroes unite against the deadliest threat they’ve ever faced, but even they have no idea what’s coming next. It’s time for the most jaw dropping comic book event of the decade begins in December with Siege: The Cabal and continues in January’s SIEGE #1!

I have to admit I’m still playing catch up with the Marvel series. Right now Dark Reign is barely keeping my interest, but the thought of Asgardians raining pain down on the Avengers is just to delicious to miss.

Marvel Comics released a trailer of their upcoming motion comic Astonishing X-Men: Gifted today. The story was written by Buffy series creator Joss Whedon and illustrated by John Cassaday (Captain America series).

The story according to Marvel:

Cyclops and Emma Frost re-form the X-Men with the express purpose of “astonishing” the world. But when breaking news regarding the mutant gene unexpectedly hits the airwaves, will it derail their new plans before they even get started? As demand for the “mutant cure” reaches near-riot levels, the X-Men go head-to-head with the enigmatic Ord, with an unexpected ally – and some unexpected adversaries – tipping the scales!

Gifted is Marvel Comic’s second motion comic release. Last month, Marvel launched its first series, Spider-Woman on August 19th.

Astonishing X-Men: Gifted is scheduled for release on October 26, 2009. Marvel motion comics are available for download exclusively on iTunes.

Instead of reaming the annals of the new movie G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, I thought it may be better to give potential movie goers a G.I. Joe primer and let them be their own critics for a change.  As all Joe fans know, “Knowing is half the battle,” so here’s all you need to know about G.I. Joe and the movie’s relation to the long running comic and various animated series.

G.I. Joe and Cobra organizations FYI
First off, G.I. Joe isn’t America’s elite covert strike force anymore. Instead they’re some NATO empowered military group that doesn’t have a clue of what’s going on in the world around them. Believe it or not, this is not that far of a stretch.  In Devil’s Due Publishing’s (DDP) G.I. Joe: Cobra Reborn, Cobra rises and makes surgical strikes around the U.S. and at that point in time, there is no Joe team to combat them. The Joes, a group of active and inactive military specialists are recruited and get organized in the follow up book G.I. Joe: G.I. Joe Reborn.

Reborn successfully depicts the world of Joe in a more realistic and believable setting. In the series, Cobra’s maniacal attempts to take over the world are stripped away and replaced with a leaner, more plausible right-wing group set on destroying America and the democracy Cobra believes ruined this country. This is very similar to the movie except for the America part. Cobra is once again an international terrorist group hell bent on ruling the world, but acts more like a shadow organization causing calamity and manipulating governments to bend to their will.

Meet the Joes
I scoured a couple stacks of Joe comics and cartoons to figure out where the hell these characters were derived. At the top there’s the General Hawk (Dennis Quaid), who helms the team. Hawk’s home base was split between the Pentagon and the U.S.S. Flag and had very little to do with team operation and focused more as a liaison between the government and the team. Quaid’s Hawk is very much a hands-on leader which incidentally manifests more in this manner in the DDP comic series.

Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is an enigma to me in the movie. He was introduced in the Joe series in the early 90’s and is a heavy ordinance trooper, that equates to being a big dude with a big gun. In the film, he’s the field team leader FROM ENGLAND who seem to get there a little too late in most instances. In the animated series, G.I. Joe Sigma Six, he’s still just a trooper with big guns so where how HD ends up taking point on missions is confusing.

Scarlett (Rachel Nichols) character really gets under my skin. In the film, Scarlett is a type-A know it all who doesn’t even know she has a feminine side let alone know what to do with it. Nichol’s portrayal of the team’s favorite red head is oblivious to human interaction and faults her strict upbringing for her cold fish demeanor.  In the cartoon series and the books, Scarlett is a counter intelligence, martial arts prodigy whose weapon of choice is the crossbow. Scarlett gets her name from her red hair and being an ATLANTA NATIVE (Scarlett O’Hara, get it) which is completely loss in this movie. Scarlett is Duke’s on again off again girl until later comic series when Scarlett and Snake Eyes make a go of it, unsuccessfully. In the film, she takes a reluctant shine to Ripcord (Wayans).

Next we meet Breaker (Siad Taghmaoui), he’s the Joe’s FRENCH chief communications officer and intellectual heavyweight during the movie. You know how it is, he’s the one who defuses the bombs, figures out ways to cypher cryptic messages and solve technical anomalies. Taghmaoui’s character is necessary since you need brains on any team, but here’s the problem I have – HE’S DEAD IN THE G.I. JOE SERIES! There’s several other living Joes they could have drawn from for the role. For example, in G.I. Joe Sigma 6, they used technogeek High Tech to deliver the smarts for the team, he created the gauntlets, vehicles and artillery the team used to combat Cobra. Did they just pull his name from a hat, I think so.

The coolest and deadliest member of the Joe team is and will always be Snake Eyes (Ray Park). Dressed in his visored ninja bodysuit and wielding his katana sword, he is THE commando you want in your corner to get things done. In the series, Snake Eye’s is disfigured and mute from a helicopter crash but in the film he’s taken on a vow of silence as a promise to exact revenge on his nemesis Storm Shadow, who murdered is marital arts sensai. In the later versions of the comic book series, Snake Eyes removes his mask revealing a huge scar across his face.

The last members of the movies assault team are Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) who get recruited to help fulfill G.I. Joe’s first mission against the soon-to-be-identified Cobra organization. Tatum’s Duke lacks the focus you’d expect from the cartoon and comic’s field leader, especially when confronted with his lost love/fiancee Ana, who turns out to be The Baroness, one of the bad guys. Ripcord is a HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) jumper in the comics but its pretty obvious Wayans is the designated comic relief for the movie. His lighthearted attempts to take the edge off the action and multiple but whoopings falls flat. Wayans’ action scenes are ok even though he doesn’t engage in much hand to hand combat. One plus on Ripcord’s character in the film is a scene where he makes a HALO jump after destroying a warhead in the upper atmosphere.

The Bad Guys
James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston) is head of MARS corporation, a technology company responsible for most of the worlds defensive weaponry. Little do his NATO customers know, he’s also Destro, a known weapons dealer who sells the same arsenal to NATO’s enemies to fund his shadow organization (soon to become Cobra). In the earlier books and the cartoon series, Destro is portrayed as a brilliant but scorned scientist who partners with Cobra making the world his laboratory. In later books (Cobra Reborn) we see Destro as McCullen who believes it’s his destiny to stongarm the world into submission and deliver the much needed order only he can provide.

Ana (Sienna Miller) is the Baroness, a ruthless assassin and McCullen’s right hand man. The Baroness is cold and calculating martial arts master who’ll stop at nothing to complete her mission. The film’s re-imagining of this character is probably the most disappointing. In the books and cartoon, she’s a sports a thick German accent and a master of disguise and espionage. Her character role takes a true Hollywood twist towards the end that will make true Joe fans moan out loud.

Like the Joes, Cobra has its own resident ninja to take care of business - Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee). Unlike his good guy counterpart Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow craves the spotlight and tends to make bold statements, like using throwing stars (his calling card) when sent on a kill. Shadow’s beef with Snake Eyes is in line with the comics and cartoon. They both attended the same martial arts school and as their skills developed Shadow’s jealosy of Snake Eye’s prowess drove him down a dark path of validation and revenge. Lee’s portrayal of Storm Shadow is pretty good, he shows his mastery of his choice weaponry and delivers the same deadpan tone you’d expect from a ninja.

Zartan (Arnold Vosloo) is probably the most dramatic departure from his original Cobra character. In the animated version and earlier comic versions, Zartan was a master of disguise who had a particular skin abnormality which made him sensitive to light. When in contact with bright light/sunlight, his skin would turn dark blue and painful. In the later Reborn series, Zartan is reinvented as simply a master chameleon with a twisted murderous tendency. Vosloo’s version of Zartan is clearly culled from the new comic’s vision and strays very little from the what you see in the book.

The last member of the team is the mysterious Doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a creepy deformed husk of a man hidden behind goggles and a breathing mask. Not much is known about the Doctor until his true identity is revealed and he dons the mantle of Cobra Commander. In the series and earlier comics, Cobra Commander has had multiple origins in several story arcs. The most memorable origin is from G.I. Joe – The Movie in which he’s a brilliant scientist from the secret mutate land of Cobra-La. After a being disfigured from a forbidden lab accident he sets out to fulfill his destiny to take over the world. In the book Cobra Reborn, The Commander is merely a small businessman whose world is torn asunder from government bureaucracy and vows to fight the oppressive American government by taking power through his secret group, Cobra.

The Lowdown
As a longtime fan of the animated series and comic books, I straddled the fence on this one, trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t.  The CGI vehicles throughout the movie resemble plastic instead of metal at times so it feels like you’re looking at retail grade toy models instead of cool, realistic metal arsenal. Overall its entertaining and a relatively good thrill ride, but gets corny and sadly laughable with some of the relationships and plot twists.

What’s Missing

Check out this parody of the animated series classic PSAs. Its actually funnier than what Marlon Wayans does in the movie.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Rated PG-13, In theaters August 7, 2009, Directed by Stephen Sommers

Nick Cage has decided that he’ll muddy the water’s once again with sequel to the 2007 bomb Ghost Rider with a sequel, Ghost Rider 2 (no colon and subtitle as of yet).

According to brief interview with MTV during the promotional tour for his latest film G-Force, Cage mentioned he would like to deviate from the “western” feel the first movie had and steer it towards a more “international” view.

In Ghost Rider, Cage plays Johnny Blaze, a daredevil motorcyclist who at a young age sold his soul to the devil. In return for Satan’s favor, he’s impervious to harm and channels an inner demon who acts as a bounty hunter for fugitive demons.

According the IMDB, no information is available for the project, meaning Cage is still fishing looking for a writer and director to helm the project.

Here’s the MTV interview where Cage spoke briefly on the subject and what he’d like to see happen with the direction of the franchise.

As a special feature to DC’s latest animated release, Wonder Woman, viewers get a sneak peek at the next release from their comic cavalcade – Green Lantern: First Flight.  According to the DVD featurette, its a retelling of the origin of DC’s most popular ring bearer Hal Jordan.

The film is produced by veteran animator, Bruce Timm (Justice League: New Frontier) and Directed by Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman). Hal Jordan is voiced by Law and Order: SVU’s Christopher Meloni while his mentor turned nemesis Sinestro is voiced by Victor Garber (Alias). Other actors who are lending their voice to the movie include Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer who plays the warrior GL, Boodikka and film actor, Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs) will portray the fan favorite GL – Kiliwog.

Now this doesn’t mean Warner Brothers will not be releasing their live action film version of Green Lantern.  Internet Movie Database still has the release of Green Lantern set for 2011.

Green Lantern: First Flight is schedule for release on DVD, Blu-Ray and On Demand, Summer 2009.

Visit the official movie website.

One of the larger criticisms of movies adapted from books, especially comic books, is so much of the character, plot and subtext is lost in translation when adapting the story to a general audience.

When news of Watchmen, probably the most popular graphic novels of all time was slated to become a live-action feature film, fanboys around the web lit up bulletin boards speculating how on Earth would they be able to pull this off. Watchmen is not one story, but a series of subplots, wrapped around the main plot -  an enigmatic murder of a retired costumed hero. To make it even more conflicting, there’s a completely separate comic book, The Black Freighter wrapped within the book. Watchmen fans were buzzing and practically demanded the essence of their beloved comic not be butchered in Zach Snyder’s version.

Warner Premiere’s Watchmen: The Motion Comic is a modestly animated, unabridged version of the book. The DVD is true to the novel and breaks the story down into twelve chapters on two discs. Every single frame of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s graphic novel has been brought to life with seemingly low-tech finesse reminiscent of cartoons from the mid 60’s circa Marvel’s Spider-man, The Incredible Hulk and The Mighty Thor. Unlike a cartoon, the animation relies on the composition of the comic book cells completely. This includes the original drawings, the text bubbles and even narration boxes to create the illusion.

You definitely appreciate the brevity of film as you make your way through the chapters. The entire series is over five hours long and has a series of lull points where the story meanders during character subplots. Still, the novelty of the concept will hold your interest and get you through the slow spots.

While so much attention is given to the visual elements in the series, its surprising and disappointing that very little depth was added to the audio. Sure, the original soundtrack complements the animation brilliantly and every “zap” and “boom” is there for added effect. However, voice acting range for the characters is unfortunately missing. Instead of the expected movie cast voicing the characters, the entire series is voiced by one person. TV veteran actor Tom Stechschulte lends his talents to define each character which gets a bit unnerving at times as he voices everyone from a pubescent Silk Specter to a middle aged African-American psychologist, Dr. Malcolm Long analyzing costumed vigilante, Rorschach. Eventually his voice blends completely into the canvas of the picture and you rarely notice effort he provided.

I was surprised that no special features were included on the DVD. There are trailers for Warner Premiere’s The Black Freighter, a full length animated feature taken from the Watchmen novel, and the highly anticipated Wonder Woman but there are no interviews or behind the scenes offerings.

Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic can be considered a comic book fan’s dream come true, but it offers very little to someone who is not a fan of animation or the book. If you’re not interested in reading the graphic novel, this is a great primer to wet your appetite for the upcoming film.

[rating: 4]

Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic, directed by Jake S. Hughes, starring Tom Stechshulte, 325 minutes. Not Rated. List Price $19.99. Blu-Ray $26.99. Individual chapters available on iTunes $1.99 each.

As we near the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration, all you Obamaphiles may want to swing over to your local comic shop on Wednesday and pick up a copy AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #583. In this issue, Spider-Man is in D.C. on Inauguration Day and teams up with the “Yes we can” man himself to stop a plot to thwart the swearing in of America’s 44th president.

Obama has been a long-time collector of Spider-Man comics so it seems only fitting that Marvel will give him some props. Now don’t expect to see Obama in a super suit, but you you’re sure to see an “Obama bop” between he and the web slinger to show up in a frame or two.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #583 hits the shelves nationwide Wednesday, January 14, 2009.  Look for special variant covers featuring the President-Elect and Spider-Man to be featured on nearly half of the printed issues.