Worth Your Consideration #028

• Speaking of red band trailers, here’s the international red band trailer for Kick Ass, a film that seems poised to imprint its boot heel upon the tuchus of every geek in the world come this April.
• The heroes of Kick Ass seem hell-bent on proving that you can be a superhero in real life if you try hard enough. Meanwhile, in the two-dimensional unreality of the Marvel Universe, there is word that a rather classic-looking team of Avengers will be debuting in the aftermath of that company’s ongoing Siege event. This is all part of the “Heroic Age” direction that the company is taking its characters, a promotion that is so interesting to this writing that I’m even salivating over a teaser featuring Gorilla Man. And I don’t even know who that is!
• I’d be salivating even more if Marvel—my favorite comics publisher—would get with the program and announce some sort of service for the upcoming iPad from Apple. According to Gizmodo, “comic books will look incredible on the iPad”.
• But anyway, in the interest of keeping things upbeat, how about the news from Ain’t It Cool that Red Skull will be the villain in the upcoming Captain America flick, and that the Invaders will feature heavily in the second half of the film? I’m personally thinking that we won’t get an Invaders team quite like the one highlighted over at AICN, but I think it’ll still be cool. What I think will happen is that the Invaders will be one hero from each of the allied powers, with Cap as their leaders. So, we’ll probably get Union Jack or Captain Britain. But, beyond that, I have no idea.
• Speaking of things from my childhood—did I ever mention that I first became acquainted with Captain America through a hardbound introductory book they had at the Chelmsford Children’s Library?—Sonic the Hedgehog is back! You know me: I’m a sucker for old school games. And, since I never owned a Genesis myself, I’m psyched to learn that I’ll be able to pick up a copy of this for my Wii and finally get a Sonic fix whenever I feel like it.
• While we’re talking childhood, how about this iPhone app that allows you to create your own Sesame Street monster? I’m buying that for my daughter as soon as I get home.
• A lollipop flavor you’d probably never catch Elmo eating: bacon maple, which now, coincidentally, comes laced with caffeine!
• My favorite Super Bowl ad: It’s a tie between the Leno and Letterman ad (which I didn’t see live), the Bette White Snickers commercial (which I did see live), and the LeBron vs. Dwight Howard dunk contest that we got courtesy of McDonalds, complete with a Larry Bird cameo (which took me too long to find online).
• Last, but not least: Kottke is talking up a new service called Chatroulette, which you can find at chatroulette.com (apparently it’s very NSFW). I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, but have you? Is it as awful (and awfully good) as Kottke describes?

Worth Your Consideration #027

I’m collecting links like mad lately, so it’s time for another edition of Worth Your Consideration.

• Let’s start off by linking up the Star Wars burlesque story that Jon mentioned during this week’s episode of Generation Goat. And, if the still image above and other images in that first link aren’t enough to sate you, here’s video of the debauchery courtesy of Geekologie. And, if that still isn’t enough for you, be sure to check out this video of Princess Peach shaking it for Bowser and all the other toads in the audience.
• You know that we love amazingly disgusting (yet somehow mouth-watering) burger photos. Well, here’s another one: Krispy Kreme Donut Bacon Cheeseburgers.
• You know that we also love Nine Inch Nails. Here’s a video of former NIN drummer Josh Freese kicking ass and taking names on a live version of “Wish.”
• Also on the video front, here’s an oldie but goodie: a circa 1984 dealer training video for the then brand-new Macintosh computer.
• Speaking of Apple, didja know that they confirmed they’ll be announcing their “latest creation” on January 27? Rumors indicate that we’ll hear about the fabled iTablet, iPhone OS 4.0, and iLife 2010 (the WSJ seems pretty sure about the tablet’s arrival, and is suggesting that families will share the device). There are also whispers that we’ll soon be hearing about our iTunes media collections living in the cloud.
• One more Apple link: Every Get A Mac Ad in One Place.
• Moving on! It looks like Spider-Man 4 has a director, and it’s Marc Webb, whose (500) Days of Summer is still on my to-watch list.
• Marc Webb once directed a Green Day video ("21 Guns"), and Green Day is going to be the center of the next Rock Band video game. Dude! How’d you like that transition?
• And, oh, if Green Day ever needs a drummer to replace the maniacally, indecently awesome Tre Cool, then they should check out this kid, whose chops, according to Mashable, “will melt your face off.”
• I’ve become kind of obsessed with videos of talented kids lately. Something else I’ve been obsessing over: stats for things that don’t need stats. And here’s a prime example: Charlie Brown’s lifetime baseball stats.
• Moving on! How long until someone runs over a real prostitute in their real car while too busy running over a digital prostitute in the new iPhone version of Grand Theft Auto to pay attention to the road?
• Something that keeps me from tearing my eyes away from the iPhone or the computer, wherever it is I happen to bump into these things: promos for season six of Lost and jokes about how the sixth season is going to make fans like me even more obnoxious than ever.
• Something I wish I could experience for real, and not just through the hype machine: Marvel Comics. I am really digging the poster for Siege that Joe Quesada did, but the pricing for comics is out of control and I ain’t coming back until they get real and bring cover prices down (which will probably never happen).
• Well, never say never, I guess. I mean, if Marvel’s new overlords at Disney keep making decent money on films like the rumored Tim Burton version of the Sleeping Beauty tale, called Maleficent, then maybe they’ll find some way to bring prices down.
• And, not that the House of Mouse needs any suggestions from me on how to make some dough, but here’s one: Disney princesses dressed up as the villains from their movies.

Geek Force FiveCast 286: Kitty Pryde

In which ECC geeks out about the return of Kitty Pryde to the pages of Uncanny X-Men.

Geek Force FiveCast 285: No More Spider-Man 4

In which ECC expalins why the Spider-Man movie reboot may not be such a bad thing after all.

Thanks to Jon, Buj, and everyone else who e-mailed, DMed, or Tweeted about this story.

The Trailer for IRON MAN 2

Oh, Iron Man 2 trailer, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Continue reading.

Geek Force FiveCast 272: Malkovich in SPIDER-MAN 4

In which ECC geeks out about the news that John Malkovich might star in Spider-Man 4, then freaks out about the plans for that movie’s version of Felicia Hardy.

Super-Powered Viking Destroys Chicago’s Soldier Field

The inciting incident of Marvel Comics’s 2006-2007 event, “Civil War”, was the destruction of Stamford, Connecticut (at the hands of a team of reality TV superheroes and the villains they were battling). But that was nothing compared to what they’ve decided to do to open up their 2010 crossover. That crossover, titled “Siege”, will open with the destruction of Soldier Field, the home stadium of Chicago’s football team, the Bears. And here’s the real kicker: the dude responsible for the destruction is a super-powered viking! The Minnesota Vikings, if you’re not already aware, are divisional rivals of the Bears in the NFL. Coincidence? I think not!

Thanks to Newsarama for linking up the Siege #1 seven-page preview, which totally and completely washed the bad taste of Image United #1 out of my mouth.

IRON MAN 2 Teaser Poster Revealed

The Iron Man 2 teaser poster, revealed yesterday by Yahoo Movies, gives us our first official glimpse at War Machine, the friend and sidekick of good ol’ buckethead. War Machine, if you’re not familiar, is actually Don Cheadle’s James Rhodes in disguise, and he is among the most beloved and bad-ass characters in the Iron Man pantheon.

I don’t know about you, but every time I see anything new about this film I get a little bit more excited. They have a lot to live up to with this sequel, but I have yet to see anything that’s given me pause.

Thanks to Ain’t It Cool News for linking this up.

Rebooting GHOST RIDER

Ain’t It Cool News has an interesting write-up of what a Ghost Rider film reboot might look like. Longtime GF5 readers will remember Shawn Lampron took a look the first film in his three-part Ghost Rider series (1, 2, and 3) and told us that it made him want to weep. But AICN is intimating that the new film could be “The CASINO ROYALE Of Flaming Skulled Motorcycle Dude Movies,” so maybe Shawn won’t be left crying this time around.

“It’s not exactly a reboot,” said Goyer, who’s currently hard at work on his “FlashForward” television series. “I hate to say it’s more realistic, because he’s got a flaming skull for a head, but it’s a bit more stripped down and darker. It’s definitely changing tone. What ‘Casino Royale’ was to the Bond movies, hopefully this will be to ‘Ghost Rider.’”

..."This story picks up eight years after the first film,” said Goyer. “You don’t have to have seen the first film. It doesn’t contradict anything that happened in the first film, but we’re pretending that our audience hasn’t seen the first film. It’s as if you took that same character where things ended in the first film and then picked it up eight years later—he’s just in a much darker, existential place.”

An existential Ghost Rider sequel? Well, as long as he doesn’t spend too much time waiting for Godot, you can sign me up. How about you?

Marvel Comics on the iPhone

Rounding out today’s Geek Force Five, here’s a nifty story from Mashable on the arrival of Marvel Comics on the iPhone. This latest bit of awesomeness comes to us courtesy of the fine folks at Comixology, who are selling select Marvel books from the archives at $1.99 a pop.  And we’re not talking about the terrible motion comics bullshit they’ve been pulling all year—no, now we’re finally talking about the real deal.

Here’s their announcement, if you’re curious. Titles on offer include Astonishing X-Men, Captain America, and Marvel Zombies. I’m actually tempted to pick up an issue or two of Cap, just to see what the big deal is, as I never picked up the issues they’re selling back when they were on newsstands.