Avengers 8 Pack Only At Target!

Got this from www.MUREVIEW.com. It's an Avengers movie 8 Pack for the Marvel Universe scale and it is only a Target Exclusive. The figures individually go for around $10 each so I am wondering the price point on this. I am going to guess, since these are lacking the clunky springloaded accessories that this will be a discounted set. My estimated price point for this should be around $50.

For some reason totally inexplicable to anyone, Target is going to be selling an exclusive Avengers 8-Pack 3 and 3/4 figure set featuring Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Cap, Black Widow, Nick Fury and Loki.  Nevermind, I guess there is probably a reason, the Avengers Blu-Ray is coming up in a few weeks, so it’s probably in support of that.  If you don’t have these figures, it’s a good chance to swoop em all up at once.  Plus, it’s probably also great for the little ones that will be seeing Avengers for the first time on the home screen.

Marvel NOW! Update

This looks rather promising. The new Marvel Now! Information looks like it might be a great read. Though, I am not sure if I will be reading this series.

Marvel NOW! teaser by Joe Quesada

By Paul Montgomery -
From Marvel.com
Long ago, Charles Xavier had a dream, a halcyon vision of prosperity for humans and mutants alike. Despite his best efforts, it’s been a dream long deferred and a mission often warped and contested by zealous pretenders to his legacy.
Starting this November, writer Si Spurrier and Eisner award winning artist Tan Eng Huat chronicle the efforts of David Charles Haller to assume his father’s mantle as shepherd of Homo Superior. Revamped and revitalized, X-MEN LEGACY looks not to the past, but to the next self-assured steps in the evolution of a species.
If the reality-revising son of Professor X gets his way, the future of mutantkind will be Legion.
We spoke with Spurrier about the fragmented psyche of the brash bastard known as Legion and his bid to reshape mutant society in his father’s name.
Marvel.com: The concept for the new X-MEN LEGACY certainly lives up to the book’s name…
Si Spurrier: [Laughs] Yeah, David does feel like a natural fit for the title, doesn’t he? We’ve got the son of Professor Charles Xavier slicing, smashing and exploding his name into the history books of mutantkind. I’m kind of in love with that LEGACY tag, because in the run-up to the announcement so many of the readers speculating blindly on the Internets—we’ve all done it—have been saying “it can’t possibly be X-MEN LEGACY, that word doesn’t work as a title any more, it doesn’t make sense, it’s gotta be something else, oh God please let it be Stiltman Legacy, no, no, let it be Squirrel Girl Legacy, or Devil Dinosaur Legacy, or yadda yadda.”

X-Men Legacy #1 cover

Actually, I would read the [expletive] out of all those titles, so ignore me.
Anyway, I kinda like the idea that rather than launching something new with a whole new X-adjective attached—Ebullient X-Men! Gibbous X-Men! Arousing X-Men!—we’ve made it our business to make the LEGACY tag relevant. This time it really is all about how mutantkind in general, the X-Men in particular, and the name “Xavier” specifically, will be regarded in the light of the dawning future.
Marvel.com How long has this been in the works? Why is this David’s time to step into that light?
Si Spurrier: As far as I know the idea of basing the series round David has been in the works since the plotting of Avengers Vs. X-Men. David’s story grows organically from those events. In fact I’d go so far as to say it’s the tale that really needs to be told in the aftermath period. My brief was pretty simple: take a thoroughly screwed-up young character—who’s been handled so differently by so many narrative teams down the years that it’s tricky for anyone to say for sure exactly who he is or what his voice might be—and launch him into the Marvel Universe as a definitive, dynamic, tormented, likeable character cooler than an Inuit’s arse. “Show us who he is, Si. What he can do. What he wants to do but can’t yet. Think differently.”
It’s a pretty wonderful remit, when you think about it. Here’s a character almost everyone’s heard of but nobody feels familiar with—yet. So, who’s David? David is one of the most powerful beings alive on the planet, who has spent the majority of his life unable to trust his own brain.
That’s a cool starting point.

Professor X

Marvel.com: At any given time, the mutant community seems to rally around one of two opposing leaders. It obviously started with the clash between Professor X and Magneto. In recent years Cyclops and Wolverine have reluctantly adopted that two-party system. How does Legion figure into the mutant political landscape, both in his own mind and to the larger population?
Si Spurrier: Very good question.
Without giving too much away, nothing’s ever that easy with David. When we join him at the start of this story he’s very much alone, confused [and] lost. In many ways the controlling idea behind everything he does is about finding himself—but of course that manifests with all the explodo insane villain-blasting fun you’d expect, as well as the soul-searching and, ah, internal struggles particular to David.
But—yeah. This book isn’t going to work like the other X-books. It—like David—is the black sheep of the family. It’s tricky to define. It worms its way between the cracks. It’s not a team book, although we’re going to see a lot of team stuff along the way. It’s not a straight-out fight book, although a [lot] of stuff explodes all the time. It’s not a horror book, although we’re going to see a lot of horror vibes. David isn’t really one of the X-Men at all when we first meet him, but we’ll certainly be seeing a great deal of those guys throughout the tale.
For much of the time David doesn’t actively “belong” to any of the political or resource-structures we’re used to associating with mutantkind. He may have a “side” he prefers—he does—but it’d be stretching things to say he “belongs” to it. It’s easier to think of him as the Joker in the pack, or the Independent Candidate. The only side he belongs to it his own. None of the above, right? There may come a time when he isn’t the only one occupying that niche, but you can bet your bottom dollar he won’t be working with anyone on any terms beside his own.

Legion

Marvel.com: Given his checkered history, who’s aligning themselves with Legion? Who’s standing in his way?
Si Spurrier: David’s journey, as well as all of his thoughts, goals and fears, are intrinsically linked to his relationship with his father. Or, rather, the way he sees his relationship with his father, which isn’t the same thing at all.
Even if you take away all David’s “tangible” problems—I’ll come back to those in a minute—it would’ve been kinda a miracle if he’d turned-out super well-adjusted. This was a kid who’d been bumped around between parents, foster parents and guardians, then later he’s a young man whose father is the nearest thing his species has to a living saint. A father so devoted to his chosen cause that—from a child’s point of view—nothing seems able to compete for his attention or affection. How’s that going to make a son feel? Unloved? Judged? A disappointment? A guilty distraction? Does he want to follow in his father’s footsteps or rebel against that path totally? Make dad proud, or make dad pay? All these things are going to go crackling through David’s already complicated head at one time or another, and the choices he makes—the things he learns and the ways he grows along the way—are going to define which of the other X-characters—and wider Marvel Universe characters—become his allies or his enemies.
And also worth remembering, there’s a lot of turbulent water under David’s proverbial bridge: through no particular fault of his own he’s caused an awful lot of misery, madness and collateral damage down through the years. Hence it stands to reason that a lot of other characters, even the ones who’re sympathetic to David’s various goals and agendas, are going to find it very hard to trust that he’s stable and safe.

Legion

…which, totally, he’s not. You mentioned the multiple personality thing, and—yeah. Historically, that’s always been David’s “thing.” This guy has pretty much every conceivable power accessible to him, but each one is under the control of a separate dissociative personality, many of whom want nothing more than to take over control of the host. Different writers have handled that setup in very different ways, and that’s part of the problem of how best to approach writing David as a cool, proactive, interesting but empathetic character. Frankly, all too often in the past he’s been used as a walking, talking plot point: the Angry Young Liability, the Ticking Time Bomb, whatever. The real trick with this brand new start was to find a way to rationalize—and, yes, visualize—David’s mental condition, so it’s not just this Deus Ex Machina to be deployed whenever we need a problem or a solution. If we’ve done it right—and I think we have—it should provide just as much drama, conflict, action and explodo as the more classical “external” adventures our guy is off having at the same time.
Which is the longwinded way of saying David’s inner-demons, and inner-angels, are very much a part of his story. And they take a very, very weird form indeed.
Marvel.com: It can’t be easy writing a character with Legion’s seemingly limitless power-set. How do you contain all that potential energy? Or do you even try? How off-the-wall are we talking?
Si Spurrier: Totally off the wall. Like, the wall is just a dot in the distance. It’s the anti Spider-Man. That’s how not-sticking-to-the-wall it is. If the wall was alcohol, we’d be in tee-total rehab. Seriously, the wall is a distant memory. Something spoken of in hushed whispers—ten thousand generations have our people journeyed away from the wall—and depicted in chalky cave drawings. But, um, not caves which are part of the wall itself, because, as has been established, the wall is not something with which we are presently acquainted.

Legion

I have no idea what I’m saying.
Okay. How does one contain all that potential energy bottled-up in David?  Same way all the best Marvel characters work: “hero with a problem.” You can’t make these guys amazing and likeable and empathetic if you make life easy for them. I like to think David’s a sort of explodo ultimate expression of that: he’s one of the most powerful beings alive, but his particular problem is so tricksy, so self-inflating and dangerous, that nothing’s ever going to be effortless.
As I hinted above, it was important to us all from the outset that David’s problem be approached in such a way that it avoids all the pitfalls of that sort of thing. “Split personalities” risks being a bit of a daft concept at the best of times, but when you start having to invent “rules” for how the control mechanism works it gets super-wordy and gobbles up real estate on the page. So we’ve spent a long time coming up with something very visual which we can show rather than explain; something very simple but beautifully weird and full of all the same narrative stakes—Life and Death! Empathetic characters! Goals! Sex, Drugs, Rock’n’Roll!—as we’ll be getting in the “outside” world.
My aim is to infuse David’s “external” adventures with a dose of the classic Claremont-era vibe—mining all the accumulated fun and craziness of the X-verse as well as generating loads of new stuff—but then tangle, infuse and interweave it with some really bizarre, creepy and pants-on-head-insane next-level stuff.
Marvel.com: How about the setting? Where can we expect David’s journey to take him?  

Legion

Si Spurrier: I’m seeing this as a truly global story, for now. We’re going to start out in a very unfamiliar place, a thoroughly awesome and amazing place packed full of very cool stuff.  After which we’ll be mostly staying on the move. But, this being X-MEN LEGACY, we’re naturally going to be encountering some classic locations as we go.  I think I can quietly reveal that, yes, we will be hanging out at the X-Mansion. But for how long, and in what capacity, are things you’ll have to wait and see.
Marvel.com: Let’s talk about hair. The offspring of Charles Xavier seems to revel in flaunting flamboyant hairstyles, maybe out of spite for the old man. Will taking charge of the family business tone Davey-boy down?
Si Spurrier: If David, in his old school MC Hammer EnorMo’ guise, went wandering up some of the media-wanker pretentious streets here in London, today, he’d be applauded as the trendy types’ Lizard King.
I kinda like that his look is recognizable but versatile;  within a couple of issues he’ll be getting a “costume” of sorts, in the sense that it’s What He Usually Wears rather than because he’s made the “logical” link between wearing a leotard and fighting crime; and the old eraserhead Do can be worn up or down as he pleases. One of the things we’re going to be exploring eventually is David’s conflicting ideas about how best to approach the knotty notion of Integration, so we’re going to see him doing his best—and failing—to hipster-himself-up specially. There’s a lot of really fun weirdness on the horizon.
For more on Marvel NOW!, visit the official hub page, and stay tuned to Marvel.com for all the latest news!

More on Marvel.com

Assemble with Marvel Now!

While rumors were aroundthat Mark Waid would be taking over Avengers Assemble instead of Brian Michael Bendis for the Marvel Now changes, it looks like Kelly Sue DeConnick and Stefano Caselli will be the new team as Marvel Now ‘relaunches’ Avengers Assemble this upcoming November.

Marvel NOW! Q&A: Fantastic Four

This is cool! It's some information about the new Marvel NOW! Fantastic Four. Anyone else going to be getting into this? I mean, the first family super team does get to be interesting sometimes!

From Marvel.com

Marvel NOW! teaser by Joe Quesada

By Jim Beard
Now it can be told: The fabled 

Fantastic Four flies forward in two new Marvel NOW! titles by writer Matt Fraction this November. FANTASTIC FOUR and FF will feature all-new frantic flights of fancy courtesy of Fraction and two legendary artists: Mark Bagley and Mike Allred.In FANTASTIC FOUR, the first family of super heroes launches a vacation into the far reaches of the universe to expand their children’s view of life, while in FF a hand-picked team of costumed characters holds the fort down back on Earth against a multitude of menaces.
Here’s what Matt and Mike had to say about taking on the characters who kick started the Marvel Universe proper.
Marvel.com: Matt, What are some of your earliest memories of the Fantastic Four characters?
Matt Fraction: I suppose what any other lifers’ memories are. I knew them from the cartoons. I knew the comics and I remember understanding the pedigree. They were first, aside from being the “First Family.”
Marvel.com: What impacted you most about them then and now? What is it that makes you want to tackle the concept?
Matt Fraction: The family unit of it all; adventure dad, adventure mom, that whole thing, when you’re a kid, is great. And The
Thing. Greatest comics character of all time, or super greatest?  Now I’m struck that in 102 issues, Stan and Jack pretty much built a universe. That’s a tall order, creatively, an impossibly high bar.I want to tackle that kind of challenge, to take on a book whose mandate, whose creative soul, means to invent wildly and with reckless abandon.

Fantastic Four (2012) #1 cover by Mark Bagley

Marvel.com: What kind of tone are you going for in the prime FANTASTIC FOUR book?
Matt Fraction: “The Incredibles.” That “The Incredibles” was kind of the perfect modern Fantastic Four story and wasn’t a Fantastic Four story is, like, a provocation of creative war, y’know? Again, talk about impossibly high bars, but there you go. Can there be a Fantastic Four that’s wildly new, wildly inventive, and that appeals to everybody that might encounter it, regardless of their age or how many comics they’ve read? Let’s find out.
Marvel.com: What will it mean to you to be working on FANTASTIC FOUR with an artist like Mark Bagley? What strengths of his will you play to in your writing?
Matt Fraction: He’s a legend! He’s classic. He’s a great choice for FANTASTIC FOUR. He can draw anything and, most importantly to a book like FANTASTIC FOUR, he can do action and acting, emotion and excitement. And he’s got Kirby’s own speed.
Marvel.com: How’s it feel to be working with Mike Allred on FF?
Matt Fraction: Everything good about comics I attribute to Mike Allred, who was the first pro I ever met at a convention that was above and beyond cool. I remember it and carry it with me every time that I do a show, how important it was to me. Aside from embarrassing Mike when I tell that story and probably making him feel old, to get a chance to actually collaborate with him now is nothing short of amazing.
Marvel.com: Mike, what about you? What did it feel like when you were offered the FF gig?

FF (2012) #1 cover by Mike Allred

Mike Allred: When I was approached with a project starring one of my all-time favorite, and vastly under-rated, characters, Ant-Man, I leapt out of my shoes. Literally. Those shoes are ruined now. Ant-Man has been there from the beginning. One of the very first Marvel heroes, folks; I think the first or second behind the Fantastic Four. Most people don’t know that.
Then add claiming the Baxter Building with my fave Marvel lady,
Medusa, big and sexy She-Hulk, and one of the cleverest creations in recent memory, Miss Thing—now I’m almost out of my skin. Fortunately that’s just a figure of speech. I’m still tucked nicely away into my skin.Seriously, I’m going nuts with excitement. I’m living the dream I dreamt when I was a kid, laying on the living room floor making comics with my big brother Lee.
Marvel.com: And what about working with Matt? What are you looking forward to there?
Mike Allred: I’ve been eager to work long-term with fellow Oregonian and pal, Matt Fraction. I get a big kick out of him. His writing as well as his performance skills. If you haven’t seen him belt out a tune you simply haven’t lived. His [comic] work always has a great balance of intelligence, humor, adventure, and charm that I predict will make this new tale an instant classic. And it’ll give us Oregonians more to talk about between singing songs
Marvel.com: Matt, how will FF both connect with FANTASTIC FOUR yet also stand on its own?

Fantastic Four by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby

Matt Fraction: I can say that both titles stand on their own after the initial storyline sets up the status quo for each, but each one relates and interrelates.
Marvel.com: Mike, what will be your main artistic inspirations as you proceed forward on FF?
Mike Allred: I’d like to think I’ve grown somewhat artistically since I last worked in Marvel’s playground. I’m eager to up my game. For inspiration sake I’m always surrounded by the work of “those who came before us.” And I can’t help but want to infuse a dose of Kirby Krackle into the proceedings. At least in spirit. Because, ultimately, I want to dig into what I can uniquely bring to the page. I want to make a deep and indelible mark that will require stitches.
For more on 
Marvel NOW!, visit the official hub page, and stay tuned to Marvel.com for all the latest news!
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It All Starts... NOW!

So I’ve been quiet recently and that’s been possibly a bad thing because that means that there hasn’t been a real surge in news to talk about, right? Yes, that seems to be the situation.

For starters, I found out that I move to Hoth. Please notice these pictures are where I live. Tonight, I am proud to say that I was successful in taking Wicket out with me for a nice run seeing what he thinks about this. He just seems to be too stuffed.

There has not been much to really post about with the Ghostbusters. Sure Mattel is giving us another Venkman figure that most collectors will end up getting just because we want the accessory of the Scoleri ghost pack in. With a Louis Tully figure due later in this year, I can say that we haven’t moved into the end exact end of the first Ghostbusters movie merchandise and will only be seeing Ghosbusters II products; but the hopes for a Janine, Gozer, Zuul, and Vinz Clothro to be made are starting to look a bit dimmer. 

Allegedly, Ghostbusters III is now looking to be CGI; according to findings at this site: http://www.thirdage.com/news/ghostbusters-3-update-ghostbusters-3-film-may-be-3d-production_1-13-2011. Now, my personal opinion to a CGI Ghostbusters movie is that it’s not going to be the same as the first two. My thoughts on a live action movie are that it’s definitely not going to be the same. The actors have aged a bit and replacement casting would not be too promising. I’m not exactly a fan of replacement characters either; Extreme Ghostbusters already fulfilled that task.

But Atari has made the idea of a CGI Ghostbusters movie seem like the best option as their 2009 video game has demonstrated that the effects that they can pull off of a video game with the voices of the real crew could hold a promising edition to the Ghostbusters movie franchise. Voice actors used from The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters since Lorenzo Music, voice of Peter Venkman for The Real Ghostbusters has passed on.

But then again, there is this ugly rumor about no one backing the movie will not happen unless Bill Murray agrees to star; as supported by Moviefone; http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/01/12/ghostbusters-iii-bill-murray-required/&sa=U&ei=I3UwTdnjD4udgQerh6TVCw&ved=0CBsQFjAB&usg=AFQjCNGjFzeThTVCZeDsDV1DhdxbNxxu8Q. Honestly, I think it’s all a publicity stunt. Murray’s mentioned on again and off again feelings about being part of a third movie; was quoted that he enjoyed doing the voice for the video game, and the rest of the crew has basically green lighted the idea for a third movie. So where does that take us? It takes us to the point where I’m willing to bet that Ghostbusters III will happen with Murray publicly finally agreeing to do it but acting reluctant. He’s an actor; this is in his nature. Plus the payola involved that he’d get would be worth his time. Even if he all does is just offer his voice for the production; like Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Mattel would clearly benefit  with all the new action figures and merchandise and well, we all know about the upcoming Atari Ghostbusters game… yes, Sanctum of Slime. However, with the CGI models made for the movie, I’d think Ghostbusters the TV Show would be a great SyFy or Cartoon Network series. Heck, Nickelodeon has been showing some promise with their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles CGI cartoon show talk and Wolverine and the X-Men was a good run so why can’t we get a Ghostbusters show again? To be honest, I’d rather see the PS2/ xbox style animation because it has that Real Ghostbusters feel to it.

IDW’s soon to kick off their INFESTATION run with Ghostbusters, GIJoe, Transformers, Star Trek, and probably some of their own titles if I understand things correctly. I’m not too sure if this crossover of zombies will spread the Ghostbusters into Transformers and such because the legality of that will be a mess.

So with that being the current Ghostbusters news, let’s move on to the other news.

At the bitter end of Christmas shopping, I happened to be out with my friend Dana at a Walmart and scored not just Supernatural Season 1 on DVD but Season 2 for around $10 each. I figured $20 on forty some hours of a TV show that I’ve only caught a couple fragments of episodes of was a worthwhile investment. And so is the fact that it’s something else to review about.

So Sam and Dean Winchester are the sons of a family of (ghost/demon/freaks of nature) hunters and end up going around mostly North America to investigate and exterminate them. That or stopping the Apocalypse. Or possibly fighting angels. Dark and dramatic drama demons and devils (HOLY ALLITERATION BATMAN!) or slapstick cases including talking teddy bears. For those wanting to catch this series, I strongly recommend watching the episodes. To do so, check out what a guy named Marty put together; http://www.iwatchsupernatural.com.  Or catch it on SyFy. For the new episodes, catch up on CW. But you might want to get a little bit of the back story because it’s one of those shows where if you miss a bit, you miss a lot. Also, be on the lookout for Ghostbusters, Thundercats, and a ton of other science fiction references.

Now that I’ve ingested six seasons of Supernatural in about a month, I’m about to investigate Warehouse 13 and The Walking Dead, which both have lesser episodes.

While on the TV talk, Psych is returning with new episodes to USA in the summer. December’s season finale was really great with a conclusion to the Yin and Yang story arc. Or was it? Their Christmas episode was probably one of their best episodes ever.

Mattel has mainly been keeping my interests with their Ghostbusters toyline. Their DC figures are impressively sculpted and so are the Masters of the Universe, but I just can’t really get into them as much as I’d want to. Perhaps their price points are crosshairs to my interests.

Hasbro’s Transformers are becoming more and more topnotch with each of their G1 tribute figures. I’ll be touching this in more detail soon. As well as the Iron Man II: The Clearance Finds.

I’m also now toying with my side business that I’m finally really going to start launching as a part time gig that will hopefully pay off. ScrapMetal Industries is about to finally be taken seriously by me as a career option and next week, the first product we offer will finally be available for ordering. It will be unveiled in a couple days…

I also love my new staff. Not that I ever had a real staff prior but John is a coworker of mine and he’s doing a great job starting into this. Then there is awesome Ryan Dawson. These two are just pretty damned sweet to have on staff. I talk with John almost daily about the site and ideas that I’m in the process of getting things set for this year and all the kick ass event planning. Ryan, on the other hand, I’ve never met but I know him through Transfomers: 2005 and his impressive knowledge of science fiction is trumped by his musical talent.

Lastly, since writing about Ghostbusters has become really limited and opening the site up to almost a freedom of the minds, I haven’t been able to really find what my niche is anymore. So I’m going with structure. And the structure, for now, is suggested to run like this:

Sunday – TV Series

Monday – Movies and/or Music

Tuesdays – Toys

Wednesday – Comic Books

Thursday – Tech Talk

Friday- Video Games, Fight Night

Saturday – Cartoons

Now, I’m not too sure if staff will follow and join in on these topics and I’m not asking them too. I’m flattered to have the diverse and talented on my team and there is no reason to change them.

This week’s sneak preview of the agenda is going to be possibly something like this:

Sunday – Supernatural

Monday – The Green Hornet

Tuesdays – Transformers

Wednesday – Staff’s Comic Book Picks

Thursday – MASK and Exo-Squad? Almost Realistic!

Friday- Iron Man II

Saturday – The Real Ghostbusters

I’m also on the verge of merging Ghostbusting.net with the some Web 2.0.

Thanks for the reads, gang. 2011 will be the year of Ghostbusting.net!