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.

Comics Coming to iTunes and More

Comic books might be coming to iTunes in time for the fabled Apple Tablet’s release, according to articles from TUAW and MacNN, and this is one development that would get me to pick up an Apple Tablet for sure. If this thing was a big iPod, an “essentials"-type portable computer, and an e-book/e-comics reader all rolled into one—man, that would be something. I understand Cali Lewis’s frustration with the recent offerings from Cupertino, but I think we may all be treated to something massive and awesome come next year. That’s just a hunch. This Apple Tablet is, I think, going to change the game as much as the iPhone did.

In other comics news, Joe Quesada is saying that the Captain America movie is “very unexpected, the kind of movie it is” and that it will set up a future Avengers flick in “a fantastic way.” So, that’s exciting. But, for me, even more exciting than that is watching Jim Lee draw while he shoots the shit with Stan Lee. I’ve embedded that video above, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I’m a sucker for fly-on-the-wall videos of creators doing what they do, and I wish more of my favorites would do stuff like this. There’s a section in Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It where he talks about the different social media platforms available to us, and I think a lot of artists and writers could get huge mileage out of things like YouTube and Ustream (as Gary suggests).

Geek Force FiveCast 241: X-Men First Class

In which ECC geeks out about what an X-Men: First Class feature film might entail.

Geek Force FiveCast 240: DeNiro in THOR?

In which ECC wonders who Robert DeNiro might play in Kenneth Branagh’s Thor film.

No AVENGERS for Jon Favreau

According to MTV’s Splash Page blog, Iron Man director Jon Favreau will not be at the helm of Marvel’s anticipated Avengers film. Hercules at Ain’t It Cool smells a conspiracy—he thinks this is all about Favreau’s nervousness about the blending of the tech world of Iron Man with the supernatural world of Thor—but I think this is just a matter of scheduling. Favreau certainly makes it sound like that’s all it is.

What do you think about all this? And who do you think would be a good Avengers director, now that we know it won’t be Favreau?

Geek Force FiveCast 237: Wolverine

In which ECC geeks out about X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Kenneth Branagh Finds a Sif for THOR

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jaimie Alexander of Kyle XY fame is joining the cast of Kenneth Branagh’s Thor as the Asgardian warrior Sif, a sometime lover of the god of thunder.

In Marvel’s epic fantasy, Alexander is playing Sif, a skilled Asgardian warrior who can hold her own against any man. She also is one of Thor’s loves.

Alexander joins a cast that already includes Natalie Portman (Jane Foster), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), and Colm Feore (Unknown Villain). Thanks to Ain’t It Cool News for linking this up.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Available Now for Every System Except the Ones I Own

Available today, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 looks like a pretty freakin’ sweet video game. The premise seems to include bits of Marvel’s Civil War storyline as well as the stories that followed it. You get to “create and customize your Marvel dream team” of four heroes, play online or offline with friends, and just generally kick a lot of ass. Unfortunately, it’s not available for PC or Mac, so I won’t ever get to play it. But I’m definitely looking forward to hearing what others think. If you get a chance to play it, drop me a line at .