Panel Vision - 2001: A Space Odyssey

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Today marks the 50^th anniversary of the premiere of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the pinnacles of weird speculative sci-fi films of the late ‘60s alongside the likes of Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green.  The film actually wasn’t a huge success immediately upon release but slowly became a cult classic, allegedly because audiences of stoners would enjoy tripping out to the psychedelic images on display.  

The film proved popular enough to warrant getting a comic book adaptation by the king of comics himself: Jack Kirby.  Kirby liked doing the comic so much and it did so well for Marvel that this led into a new ongoing comic by Kirby exploring his own interpretation of the Monolith and the attendant 2001: A Space Odyssey mythos, which is what I’ll be looking at today. 

Panel Vision - Blockbusters According to Comics 2015

The end of one year and beginning of a new one is a time of serious duality, a time to look back and reminisce while also dream of the future yet to come.  In that respect I’ve got my own blend of year appraisal and prognostication/wishful thinking for the year to come in the form of “Blockbusters According to Comics.”  This is where I look over some of the biggest hit films, TV, and trends of the past year and try and find the comic book property that could be adapted to fit well into that particular cresting wave.  Currently I’m limiting my suggestions to DC and Marvel properties but we’ll see, in the years to come maybe Image and Darkhorse and friends will have enough properties and clout to consider an adaptation.  Till then, here are the blockbusters according to comics. 

10 Marvel Superheroes to Fill in the 3 New Mysterious Marvel Films in 2020

Edited by Robert Beach

In case you haven’t heard, Marvel has made a major announcement. After making a bundle of cash at the box office (more than Captain America: The First Avenger incidentally), Ant-Man is officially getting a sequel. This is a big victory lap for Marvel, turning a troubled and public production history on a C-list hero into a financial hit and a real cultural connection with audiences. The sequel, entitled Ant-Man and The Wasp is slotted to come out July 6, 2018. This has lead to some pretty major shake-ups. 

Black Panther will now be released in February 2018 to coincide with Black History Month and Captain Marvel has been pushed back yet again, this time to 2019. Though I’m glad we’re getting more Ant-Man because I was a big fan of the first film, I don’t think it was really worth the price. Captain Marvel is getting so continually delayed it only feels like a matter of time before Marvel delays it into oblivion, and I certainly don’t like that Ant-Man 2’s title frames Wasp as his sidekick. 

I don’t want to judge too quickly too soon. Marvel still has 3 years to hammer Ant-Man 2 into something great, and it’s possible Wasp will get to take more of the center stage she deserves in this follow up. The Marvel announcement also came with the date of 3 new, unnamed Marvel releases: May 1, July 10, and November 6 all in the year 2020. This mysterious update is what we’ll be discussing today. It’s time for some wild speculation with 10 guesses on Marvel’s secret projects.

Panel Vision - The Origins of Devil Dinosaur

Edited by Robert Beach 

Based on the monster success of Jurassic World, the hype for Pixar’s upcoming The Good Dinosaur, and the knee-jerk reactionary nature of geek media reporting that I so thrive in, dinosaurs are about to be the next big thing. Even if that’s not the case, Marvel comics certainly seems to think so as they’ve green lit a new comic iteration of the 1978 character Devil Dinosaur. 

This new comic will revolve around the adventures of Devil Dinosaur in modern day as he pals around with his new human friend Moon Girl, a young black girl. This is great news for me because I’ve been a fan of Devil Dinosaur since high school, but it occurs to me a lot of folks excited about this announcement don’t know much about the classic Devil Dinosaur. Allow me to enlighten you. 

 

Devil Dinosaur, Clone Saga, & Marvel's Future

So the numbers are officially in and Jurassic World has beaten Avengers as the third highest grossing film of all time, earning it a sequel that will go head-to-head with Avengers: Infinity War part 1.  This marks yet another major defeat for Marvel who’ve shaped up to have a pretty bad year all around.  Age of Ultron has been subsumed in the wake of hits like Furious 7 and Jurassic World with more competition coming this fall between Spectre and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  What’s more Ant-Man hasn’t shown a lot of audience interest and critically it’s only served to raise a lot of problematic issues with the Marvel universe as a whole.  The only Marvel projects that seem to really be gelling with audiences these days are episodic in nature, stuff like the major interest in Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD finally finding a major audience, and Daredevil ending up a major cultural hit.  What does all this mean for Marvel going forward?  Could we be seeing the end of Marvel Studios?