Gosling stars as Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider, set for release in theaters July 28, 2028.

Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine) will be directing the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, with Jonathan Tropper (Star Wars: Starfighter) writing.

In the comics, Johnny Blaze is a stunt motorcycle driver who makes a deal with the devil and becomes bonded with a demon named Zatharos. It transforms the stunt driver into a flaming, skull-headed, fiery motorcycle-riding spirit of vengeance. The character was created by writer Gary Friedrich and artist Mike Ploog.

Johnny Blaze is, of course, the most iconic and well-known Ghost Rider. Nicolas Cage brought Blaze to life on screen in both 2007’s Ghost Rider and 2011’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, while Gabriel Luna more recently played the Robbie Reyes version of Ghost Rider in the series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

Luna was set to star in his own Ghost Rider spinoff series in the wake of that small screen appearance, but that Hulu project ended up being squashed before it ever had a chance.

As for villains and who Storrie might play, well, that’s trickier to determine, as Ghost Rider faced a variety of demonic foes, though Mephisto might be at the top of his arch-enemy list for tricking Johnny into selling his soul in the first place. The Cage films previously featured Mephisto and his son, Blackheart, while Sacha Baron Cohen portrayed Mephisto in the Disney+ series Ironheart.

Ghost Rider is aiming to shoot in New York next year. Dune Part 3‘s Linus Sandgren has been hired as director of photography and the project will shoot on film, THR reports.

Marvel boss Kevin Feige produces with Louis D’Esposito, Stephen Broussard, Shawn Levy and Ryan Gosling. Executive producing are Richie Palmer and Jessie Henderson.

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Kirkman’s powerful storytelling sensibilities were evident from early on, which is why Marvel Comics enlisted him to develop the limited comic series Marvel Zombies. This wasn’t the first time characters in that universe had come up against the living undead, but this storyline made some of the most iconic heroes of all time grotesque and deformed versions of their former selves. The series was an immediate success, paving the way for sequel series, spin-offs, and crossovers.

The Disney+ series What If…? capitalized on that excitement with the Season 1 episode “What If… Zombies?!” and, much like the comic book, it only scratched the surface of the storytelling potential. That one-off episode paved the way for last year’s four-episode animated series Marvel Zombies, and at today’s Marvel Television & Animation panel at New York Comic Con, it was revealed that three new Marvel Zombies specials are on the way.

Coming in 2027 is Marvel Zombies: The Winter Soldier, which will likely focus on Bucky Barnes and his battles with the undead. In 2028, we’ll get Marvel Zombies: The Fist of Khonshu, which will put Moon Knight at the forefront of the fight against the ghouls. Then, in 2029, we’ll get Marvel Zombies: The Last Guardian, which we expect to center around the Guardians of the Galaxy. Who will be the “Last Guardian,” though, is yet to be revealed.

While none of these specials have confirmed release dates, Marvel did reveal that they would be timed for Halloween, so they likely will hit the streamer each October.

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One lingering question, however, is whether we could ever get a live-action Marvel Zombies. Back in 2022, Disney+ released the Special Presentation Werewolf by Night, in which the titular character battled with a variety of monsters in gruesomely violent black and white. In 2019, Marvel Studios announced they were developing a new Blade, which would star Mahershala Ali, only for that project to stagnate and be scrapped.

There’s clearly a demand for more horror-oriented stories set in the Marvel Universe, though it also seems like the studio is struggling to find the best ways to deliver those types of outings. Still, we’ll gladly accept new Marvel Zombies specials for as long as the streamer offers them.

Which special are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below!

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Four years later, there’s still no sign of Gael García Bernal reprising his monstrous role in the MCU anytime soon. During a recent Reddit AMA, it sounds as though Bernal is just as disappointed by the lack of updates as audiences are, as he urged fans to demand Marvel make another installment happen.

“I urge you to do whatever you can, whatever is in your power, to push Marvel into some sense of responsibility and also of ambition,” the actor shared. “Because they need to do something with Jack and Ted and Werewolf By Night. It was for me a wonderful project to do, I loved doing it, I had so much fun experiencing that, and for me it was only a taste. I wish I could do more, we had many plans, I hope they materialize one day!”

Since the release of the special, Marvel Studios has experienced diminishing returns with their movie and TV projects, as a variety of releases have earned underwhelming critical and financial responses (outside of the record-shattering Spider-Man: Brand New Day), seemingly causing the studio to scale back various plans they previously had for the franchise. In retrospect, it seems hard to believe horror fans even got the violent, black-and-white special in the first place, where Bernal’s Werewolf by Night gruesomely killed a variety of characters and teamed up with the monstrous Man-Thing.

Bernal isn’t the only one hoping to make a sequel, as director Michael Giacchino shared earlier this year that there were rumblings of potentially doing a follow-up.

“We’re talking about it,” Giacchino explained to Screen Rant over the summer. “Everything takes forever to do. There’s a lot of planning that has to happen. Everything has to fit in a particular place at a particular time.”

He added, “So, nothing moves as fast as we’d like it to. But I hope one day that you will be sitting there watching another Werewolf by Night. That’s my hope.”

Stay tuned for updates on a possible Werewolf by Night sequel.

Would you like to get another installment? Let us know in the comments below!

The post ‘Werewolf by Night 2’: Gael García Bernal Wants Fans to “Push Marvel” to Make Sequel Happen appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The nightmare-driven new publishing line launches with Midnight Spider-Man #1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and ScieTronc, Midnight Fantastic Four #1 by Benjamin Percy and Kev Walker, and Midnight X-Men #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Matteo Della Fonte.

All three debut issues will be released in time for Halloween on October 7, 2026.

Watch the brand new Midnight Universe reveal trailer below for a first taste.

The Midnight Universe draws in longtime fans and newcomers alike to enter a terrifying new world with shocking twists and chilling transformations. The X-Men no longer fight for acceptance, they hunger for blood. The Fantastic Four venture into the unknown not to save the world—but to unleash terror upon it. And Spider-Man discovers that with great power… comes something monstrous.

In Midnight X-Men…

“The shadows of New York City are stalked by vampires and the mutant empyres. The sword of Damocles hangs over the peace between these two species and the factions within them. An outright war is brewing and the unturned will be caught in the crossfire.”

And then in Midnight Fantastic Four…

“An obsessive scientist delves into the secrets of the universe perhaps best left unknown to mankind, leaving himself and three others warped in strange and horrifying ways. What horrible secrets lie in the new dimensions they have discovered? And can humanity survive the discovery?”

And finally in Midnight Spider-Man…

“A young Peter Parker is transformed into a hideous spider hybrid by the ruthless Oscorp Corporation in their pursuit for eternal life. When Oscorp begins to use the secrets unlocked by his mutation to create more human-animal hybrids, Peter embraces his grotesque new form to stop them.”

Editor in Chief C.B. Cebulski previews, “We’ve given some of our most outstanding creators the opportunity to delve into the darkest corners of their imaginations and birth some of the creepiest, most terrifying takes on the Marvel Universe you’ve ever seen.”

Learn more on Marvel’s website now.

You’ll also find cover reveals for this December’s third issues of each comic below.

The post Marvel Comics Previews This October’s Terrifying ‘Midnight Universe’ With an Official Reveal Trailer appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Ghost Rider starring Ryan Gosling will release in theaters July 28, 2028!

Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine) will be directing the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, with Jonathan Tropper (Star Wars: Starfighter) writing.

Johnny Blaze is of course the most iconic and well-known Ghost Rider, selling his soul to Satan and becoming a supernatural badass. Nicolas Cage brought Blaze to life on screen in both 2007’s Ghost Rider and 2011’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, while Gabriel Luna more recently played the Robbie Reyes version of Ghost Rider in the series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

Luna was set to star in his own Ghost Rider spinoff series in the wake of that small screen appearance, but that Hulu project ended up being squashed before it ever had a chance.

Fans have been waiting for Ghost Rider to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe for many years now, with Ryan Gosling making it clear that he’d love to bring the character back to life.

That Hollywood dream is coming true. Stay tuned for more as we learn it.

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It was comics maestro Steve Ditko that turned him into the lovable web-head that we all know and love, though even that first draft of the character wasn’t exactly meant to be a child-friendly mascot. Ditko envisioned an uncanny arachnid-human hybrid whose freakish poses and dark costume would strike terror into the hearts of criminals, with the inclusion of web-shooters possibly having been a suggestion by Ditko’s roommate at the time, renowned fetish artist and bondage enthusiast Eric Stanton.

These more adult-oriented origins may have changed over the years, but one could argue that Spidey never completely lost his darker side. In fact, we’d eventually see several grim storylines that explored the horrific consequences of Spider-Man’s radioactive blood. While having his irradiated body fluids give Mary Jane cancer is likely the most terrifying of these yarns (track down Spider-Man: Reign if you’re up for a depressing read that was at one point set to be adapted to film by Michael Jackson), one of the most memorable horror-adjacent moments in these comics has to be the acceleration of Peter Parker’s mutation and the eventual introduction of Man-Spider – a storyline that appears to have been one of the main inspirations behind the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

I sincerely doubt that Marvel Studios is really going to give their toy-selling juggernaut a Cronenbergian rebrand, but the most recent trailer for Brand New Day suggests that the creative team is pulling from some surprisingly spooky source material in this latest superhero sequel. Specifically, the trailer makes it seem like the film is set to be a loose adaptation of the Neogenic Nightmare arc from Spider-Man: The Animated Series, commonly known as the best exploration of Spidey’s radioactive dark side that also features the most iconic version of Man-Spider.

If you’re wondering what these influences could mean for the upcoming film, I’d like to invite you to join me as we look back on some of the animated series’ most horror-tinged episodes.

A fourteen-episode story arc that made up the show’s second season, Neogenic Nightmare began airing in September of 1995. At this point, the series had already earned a reputation as the definitive version of Spider-Man despite dealing with absurd levels of censorship and executive meddling. It’s widely known at this point that this incarnation of Spidey was prohibited from ever punching his villains, and the studio even insisted that realistic guns should be replaced with futuristic laser weapons in order to avoid enraging concerned parents.

And that’s not even mentioning bizarre demands like setting up Hobgoblin as the original Goblin villain simply because the folks responsible for the toy-line had already prepared the character’s merchandise before scripts were even written.

At the end of the day. the show’s success mostly came down to John Semper’s excellent writing, with the (mostly) faithful recreation of the Spider-Man’s core principals and a handful of iconic storylines (coupled with an excellent cast behind the scenes) elevating a what was intended to be a kid’s show promoting ToyBiz products.

Naturally, the rampant cartoon censorship of the 90s couldn’t keep Semper from wanting to explore darker themes from his own favorite Spider-Man comics, and that’s how his team came up with a season-long re-imagining of iconic arcs like the Six-Arm Saga, The Mutant Agenda and even the first appearance of the Sinister Six. These stories would be enhanced with additional “dark” characters like Blade, The Punisher and even Morbius (though the latter had to exchange his vampiric blood-drinking for bizarre plasma-absorbing powers in order to conform to network guidelines).

If you haven’t yet seen it, the complete Neogenic Nightmare arc follows Spider-Man as he discovers that his mutation is progressing beyond his initial superpowers and threatening to turn him into a more monstrous hybrid. After developing extra arms, Spidey goes so far as to request help from both the X-Men and several other super-heroes as he becomes embroiled in a criminal conspiracy involving a team-up between some of his most iconic villains. The arc eventually introduces us to the show’s version of Man-Spider, which is depicted here as the monstrous final stage of the process which began when Peter was first bitten by that radioactive spider.

Personally, I think this werewolf-like addition to Spidey’s genetic curse is the best incarnation of Man-Spider that we’ve ever seen. This is because the six-armed body horror of it all adds even more weight to Peter’s decision to keep helping others regardless of what his powers may cost him, with the creature’s final rampage even giving the supporting cast a chance to help Spider-Man for a change. While I don’t hate the Morbius movie as much as some other comic fans, it’s a shame that Sony relegated that story to a solo film instead of later incorporating it into the Man-Spider saga like Neogenic Nightmare did.

Season two of the animated series ended up being an even bigger hit than the first, with fans loving the show’s take on an expanded Marvel Universe (which even included the ’90s X-Men cast) as well as the darker take on a more monstrous Spider-Man. That’s why it makes sense that the MCU’s return to street-level comic adventures would harken back to this particular storyline – especially since it appears that the Disney wishes to use the upcoming film as an opportunity to shine a light on other Marvel characters just like Semper did back in the day.

From what we can see in the trailer, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man appears to be going through his own additional transformations, including creepy fully black eyes and organic web-shooter, as well as the cocoon-building behavior previously seen in Marvel’s The Other arc in the comics. As I mentioned before, I doubt that the MCU will allow this particular cash cow to fully transform into a nightmarish spider freak that can scare away children, but there’s always a chance that the studio could surprise us with more horror elements. I’d also love to see the story explore Spidey’s mutation and use that as an excuse to formally introduce X-Men’s mutants into the MCU, especially since Sadie Sink is rumored to be playing Jean Grey in the flick.

However, even if Brand New Day doesn’t adapt as much of the Neogenic Nightmare as the promotional material has suggested, I’d argue that this particular season of Spider-Man: The Animated Series is still worth revisiting simply because it’s a great example of artists being able to work past network limitations in order to tell complex stories that approach full-on body-horror.

The post How ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Could Adapt Spider-Man’s Animated Body Horror Storyline appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This connection can be observed in everything from the cannibalistic serial killers of Frank Miller’s Sin City to the disturbing criminal plots fueling neo-noir thrillers like Stuart Gordon’s underrated King of the Ants. That’s why it came as no surprise when I finally sat down to watch all eight episodes of Prime Video’s recently released Spider-Noir series and was confronted with plenty of classic horror tropes.

What did come as a surprise, however, was how showrunners Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot approached these horror elements when compared to the 2009 comic book that the show is based on. From the heavily altered rogue’s gallery to an equally terrifying yet completely different origin story for Nicolas Cage’s take on the webslinger, there are plenty of changes here that I feel might be of interest to genre fans.

With that in mind, I’d like to invite readers to take a closer look at all the adjustments that Spider-Noir made to the story in order to bring this incarnation of Spider-Man to life in all of its monochromatic glory (unless you watched the True-Hue color version of the show, in which case you’ll be treated to a surprisingly comic-booky palette that you don’t usually see on television).

The Dark Origins of Marvel’s Spider-Man Noir

Our first order of business should be to examine the origins of the Noir comics themselves. Originally published as part of the Marvel Noir alternate universe that reimagined several characters as hard-boiled crime-fighters, Spider-Man Noir became the most successful book in the entire run. This highly politicized story about Peter Parker coming to terms with the capitalist evils of the Great Depression seemed to have struck a nerve with audiences looking for a darker take on the wall-crawler, which is likely why we’d soon see several sequel stories as well as a video game adaptation of the character in 2010’s underrated Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.

Of course, it wasn’t just Spider-Man’s darker disposition that made this version of the character a hit, as 1930s New York City was depicted as being much more hostile than what we generally see in the standard Marvel Universe. From Peter’s powers coming from an Eldritch Spider God that spawns man-eating arachnids to Vulture being an ex-Freak-Show Gimp with a taste for human flesh, you can definitely understand why this Web-Head isn’t pulling his punches.

Unfortunately, this alternate universe was a little too popular for its own good, with each subsequent sequel/adaptation further diluting the political anger and classic horror influences that fueled the original comic-book run in order to appeal to a wider audience. Spider-Man Noir was nearly unrecognizable once we got to the Spider-Verse crossover that turned the character into a household name, though this would at least lead to an interesting adaptation in 2018.

The Classic Horror Influences Hidden Throughout Spider-Noir

When Phil Lord and Chris Miller finally translated Spider-Man Noir to the big screen, with Nicolas Cage bringing the character to life in an unexpected case of pitch-perfect casting, he was still mostly relegated to comic relief as his nazi-punching antics and over-the-top edginess were played for laughs. However, while this version of the character had little to do with the comics that spawned him, Spider-Noir’s newfound popularity eventually resulted in the announcement of a darker live-action spin-off – a spin-off that I was cautiously optimistic about.

While the showrunners ultimately decided to go in a completely different direction than the 2009 comic, the new team of writers appeared to understand Noir as a genre in ways that even the folks at Marvel Noir couldn’t quite grasp. That’s likely why 2026’s Spider-Noir boasts plenty of horror elements, just not in ways we’ve seen them before.

The series is obviously borrowing tropes and aesthetics from period-accurate monster movies, with Universal’s 1930s output being a particularly big influence. From the re-imagining of Sandman and Tombstone as tragic figures to The Spider even being operated on by a mad scientist with hilariously antiquated techniques, this bizarre collection of super-powered freaks could have easily shown up in a classic creature feature.

The scares aren’t all retro, however, as the showrunners also injected plenty of body-horror into the mix during their attempt at unifying the origin stories for all these larger-than-life characters. Hell, the Spider himself is now revealed to have gained his powers after being bitten by a half-mutated Man-Spider during World War I, and the aforementioned mad scientist keeps a disturbing collection of failed experiments in her basement, proving that not all of her patients were lucky enough to simply gain superpowers after being experimented on.

Nicolas Cage Reinvents Spider-Man Noir for Television

I also really appreciate how Cage insists on depicting Ben Reilly as an arachnid trapped inside of a human body, with his uncanny physical performance and classic Hollywood impressions keeping your eyes glued to the screen while also providing some of the show’s funniest moments.

I still think it’s a shame that the character is no longer politically motivated, and I miss the detail about Uncle Ben having been cannibalized by Vulture after his social activism ruffled too many feathers, but at least this time our protagonist actually feels like someone who could have been written by Raymond Chandler if he were a fan of Superheroes.

In fact, the writers nailed the snappy back-and-forth that Noir authors like Dashiel Hammett used to refer to as the “riposte”, and it’s fun to see supervillains being depicted as horrific movie monsters instead of specialized henchmen – with The Spider feeling like just as much of a Freak Show attraction as the rest of them. Purists might be put off by the lack of reverence for the source material, but I think that’s a small price to pay when even the show’s most clichéd moments intentionally harken back to the golden age of Hollywood.

That’s why I’d argue that Amazon’s Spider-Noir isn’t really an adaptation, but rather an equally valid take on the same premise that inspired Marvel back in 2009. And in a world filled with recycled storylines that only serve to advertise future releases, I’d rather have two completely different visions of the same character than a straight-up retelling of the same handful of ideas.

At the end of the day, there’s enough space inside this comic fan’s heart for both man-eating Vultures and a Cronenberg-inspired Man-Spider. And if you’re also a fan of nostalgic creature features with comic book flair, I’d highly recommend this street-level superhero story with a spooky twist.

The post ‘Spider-Noir’ Comic Changes Explained: How the TV Series Reinvents Marvel’s Darkest Spider-Man appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Conway’s contributions to the comic industry reach far and wide. Most notably, he co-created The Punisher in 1963’s The Amazing Spider-Man #129 and established the character’s tragic backstory in Marvel Preview #2.

The prolific writer brought more overt horror elements to Marvel, co-creating Man-Thing for Savage Tales #1, Dracula in Tomb of Dracula #1, and Werewolf by Night in Marvel Spotlight #2.

During his time at Marvel, Conway wrote The Amazing Spider-Man‘s famous “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” story arc, established Carol Danvers in Ms. Marvel #1, co-created supervillain Jackal, and briefly served as editor-in-chief.

Working for DC Comics, Conway co-created Firestorm, Steel, Vixen, Killer Croc, and Jason Todd, among other characters.

Conway was also a screenwriter, penning 1983’s Fire and Ice and receiving a story credit on Conan the Destroyer before working on “G.I. Joe,” “Transformers,” “My Little Pony,” “Batman: The Animated Series,” “Spider-Man: The Animated Series,” “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,” “Law & Order,” and more.

“Gerry Conway was a gifted writer,” said Dan Buckley, President of Marvel Comics and Franchise. “He was thoughtful, deeply attuned to the emotional and moral core of storytelling, and a wonderful and articulate advocate for comics and creators. His writing has inspired all of us at Marvel, and will continue to inspire generations of writers, readers and fans to come.”

“From Spider-Man to the Avengers, Iron Man to Captain Marvel, Gerry Conway has deftly written almost every character in the Marvel Universe,” added Marvel Comics editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski. “He thrilled us with new characters like the Punisher and broke our hearts in emotional tales like ‘The Night Gwen Stacy Died,’ a story that affects Spider-Man to this day. Gerry Conway’s legacy has made an undeniable and indelible impact on the super hero stories we know and love. He will be dearly missed.”

“Gerry Conway brought real stakes to his writing, able to weave together sensational super heroics with the human and relatable, and in doing so created some of the most memorable stories and characters of all time,” shared Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige. “His writing has been hugely impactful across our comics, but it has also inspired so much of what we’ve done on screen, from Werewolf by Night to Daredevil to Spider-Man and Punisher. Gerry was a wonderful collaborator and friend to so many and will be dearly missed.”

Conway’s legacy will live on in both comics and on screen, including the upcoming The Punisher: One Last Kill, streaming May 12 on Disney+.

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Written by Greg Pak (X-Treme X-Men) and drawn by Alan Robinson (New Fantastic Four), the first issue will be published on July 29.

After a rescue mission gone wrong, astronaut Arch becomes embedded in a hostile ape society where humans are subservient. But the hunters soon became the hunted when the apes find themselves being stalked by Predators. A three-way war is about to erupt between humans, apes, and Yautja — who will reign supreme?

“Planet of the Apes and Predator are two of the most iconic sci-fi series of all time — I’d be thrilled to work on either of them. But both of them together? Just incredible,” commented Pak.

“Both series do so much wild worldbuilding, grapple with a deeply organic and compelling kind of sci-fi, and take on massive and eternally relevant themes of violence and war. Both also absolutely go there, taking huge risks and leaps all the time. I can’t wait to show what we’re cooking up with Alan Robinson and the rest of the creative team.”

Predator vs. Planet of the Apes #1 will feature covers by Stonehouse, Ben Oliver, Skottie Young, Chris Campana, Carlos Magno, and Tim Seeley.

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Fans have long speculated that Moon Knight will next appear in an adaptation of Midnight Sons, Marvel’s supernatural team comprised of Blade, Morbius, and Ghost Riders Danny Ketch and Johnny Blaze and more.

Speaking via the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Isaac has confirmed that there was “interesting talk” about potential plans for a Midnight Sons movie, though it’s not currently in active development. 

“Yeah, there was an interesting talk about Midnight Sons,” Isaac revealed. “Tonally, it’s really important because we’re playing with real stuff with that one. It’s expressing something very real, challenging, and difficult. I feel like if you’re gonna go, you gotta take it seriously as well. Even though it’s a crazy comic book, but that’s what it’s trying to do; it’s doing both of those things.“

Of course, Marvel’s long-beleagured Blade still has yet to gain traction and remains stalled, but the Midnight Sons team has also included characters who have already appeared in the MCU, like Man-Thing, Jack Russell (Gael García Bernal), and Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly) from Werewolf by Night.

Isaac’s Moon Knight isn’t one of the original characters in Midnight Sons‘ storyline, either, further opening up possibilities for what a movie and its team could look like.

But the actor would like to see Ghost Rider and Blade make the initial cut. “Make it happen, fellas, it’s a no-brainer,” Isaac answered when asked about casting Ryan Gosling as Ghost Rider and Blade actor Mahersala Ali as part of the trio.

The MCU is gearing up for the Phase Six event entry, Avengers: Doomsday, though, so it might be a while before we hear further updates on this potential project.

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Priced at $65, the oversized hardcover edition collects nearly 300 pages from the first six issues of the classic horror anthology magazine, along with a new introduction.

It includes stories from Stan Lee, Alfredo Alcala, Rich Buckler, Ernie Chan, Chris Claremont, Gerry Conway, Bill Everett, Gardner Fox, Steve Gerber, Carmine Infantino, Tony Isabella, Gil Kane, Don McGregor, Pablo Marcos, Esteban Maroto, Doug Moench, Tom Palmer, John Romita, Jim Steranko, Tom Sutton, Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman, and more.

The collection is helmed by comics historians Chris Ryall and John Lind, alongside designer Chris Shadoian.

Launched by Marvel in 1973, Vampire Tales featured tales of bloodsucking fiends as both heroes and villains, including Morbius the Living Vampire, Blade the Vampire Slayer, Dracula’s daughter Lilith, and the Devil’s daughter Satana.

The Best of Marvel’s Vampire Tales is the first in a series of archival hardcover editions in the works from Dark Horse and Marvel Comics.

The post ‘Vampire Tales’ – Vintage Marvel Horror Comics Will Be Reproduced in Hardcover Collection appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Chatting with The Escape Pod this week, Marvel’s Head of Streaming, Television and Animation Brad Winderbaum spilled the beans that “Marvel Zombies” Season 2 is on the way!

“I don’t think it’s a spoiler, but I saw the first animatic of the first episode of Marvel Zombies Season 2,” Winderbaum teased during his conversation with The Escape Pod.

He adds, “It was crazy. I can’t say anything about it, but it delivers not just on zombies, but also on an MCU thing that has never really happened before that we’re very excited to do.”

In 2021, Disney+ series “What If…?” teased the horror possibilities from Marvel Studios with the introduction of “Marvel Zombies” in a one-off episode that turned our favorite superheroes into the undead. Based on the comic run of the same name that sees an alternate universe where various heroes get infected, that episode spawned the “Marvel Zombies” spinoff series.

In the animated horror series, “After the Avengers are overtaken by a zombie plague, a desperate group of survivors discover the key to bringing an end to the super-powered undead, racing across a dystopian landscape and risking life and limb to save their world.”

“Marvel Zombies” is created by Bryan Andrews and Zeb Wells.

The first season featured the voices of Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Tessa Thompson, Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Hailee Steinfeld, Wyatt Russell, Randall Park, Iman Vellani, and Dominique Thorne.

Daniel Kurland wrote in his Season 1 review for Bloody Disgusting, “Marvel’s foray into TV-MA animated storytelling is a gory, gorgeous success that descends the MCU’s finest into an unpredictable undead apocalypse.” Daniel added, “This is four episodes of gonzo, out of control brain-chomping, limb-ripping, body-blasting carnage that turns Marvel’s standard superpowered theatrics into a disturbing dystopia. It’s an entertaining binge-watch that’s hopefully not the last that audiences see of this creepy corner of the MCU.”

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The first issue in the five-part limited series will be published on February 25.

In the near future, Earth’s fiercest fighters have gathered for an underground martial arts tournament organized by a shadowy organization. But all hell breaks loose when an unexpected combatant enters the ring: an alien Predator!

Now the champions are battling not just for the grand prize, but for their very lives! Can a disparate group of competitors band together in time to survive the extraterrestrial hunter? Choose your fighter, place your bets and brace yourselves for a bloody tournament unlike any other!

Predator: Bloodshed is written by Jordan Morris (Predator: Black, White & Blood) and illustrated by Roland Boschi (Ghost Rider). The first issue features cover art by Ken Lashley.

“As a lifelong fan of the Predator franchise, I know that the Yaujta love testing themselves with new challenges,” Morris explained. “I figured an underground martial arts tournament where Earth’s strongest fighters gather under one roof to wail on each other would be an ideal challenge for the galaxy’s greatest hunter.”

Morris continued, “I grew up on fighting video games and martial arts movies, so I am of the opinion that an underground fighting tournament is the coolest setting there is. I am so excited for folks to see the Yaujta absolutely wreck shop!”

“I’ve been a fan of Predator since the original film,” Boschi added. “The iconic threat in a hostile nature, the hunters becoming the hunted, overwhelmed by gruesome attacks… and the explosions! Now blend it with a rough MMA tournament, I know it’s gonna be a thrill!”

While you wait for Predator: Bloodshed, Predator: Badlands, a prequel comic to the new film created in collaboration with filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg, was published last month.

The post ‘Predator: Bloodshed’ – Yaujta Enters an Underground Fighting Tournament in New Comic appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The story follows a young Yautja warrior given a seemingly simple task by his father: retrieve a piece of technology from a derelict spaceship that crashed years ago. Inside, however, an ancient and deadly threat lies in wait. Now the Predator will become the prey…

The comic is written by Ethan Sacks (Star Wars: Bounty Hunters) with pencils by Elvin Ching (The Woodsman), inks by Oren Junior, and coloring by Juancho Velez.

Predator: Badlands #1 features a main cover by Juan Ferreyra, a movie poster variant cover, and a variant cover by CAFU. All three are pictured below.

“Our story directly ties into Dek’s journey in the film, and I approached it in a similar way to how I approached Old Man Hawkeye, the prequel to Old Man Logan,” Sacks tells IGN. “I wanted the story to feel like a unique and interesting puzzle piece that could slide right in and connect seamlessly with the beloved original.”

Predator: Badlands opened at #1 at the box office this weekend with $40 million in the United States, the highest opening weekend in the franchise’s history.

In the film, set in the future on a remote planet, a young Predator, outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.

Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi star. Patrick Aison (Prey) and Brian Duffield (Love and Monsters, No One Will Save You) penned the script.

Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “Trachtenberg and his talented team craft a stunning adventure epic with winsome characters, action, and creatures, but one that’s so drastically different that it’s polarizing.”

The post ‘Predator: Badlands’ Prequel Comic Publishing This Week from Marvel appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Goth, speaking with Elle while on a press tour for Frankenstein, doesn’t have any updates on the troubled production itself but verifies that she’s still on board. 

Furthermore, the actor feels the delays speak to Marvel’s determination to get it right. “It’s for the best that it’s taken the time that it has. They want to do it right,” Goth tells Elle.

It’s no secret that Marvel has struggled immensely to launch a new Blade movie, which has been bumped all over the release calendar since the initial announcement in 2019. That’s also not helped when it comes to retaining talent behind the camera. The movie is without a director at the moment, with Yann Demange (“Lovecraft Country”) departing the project in the wake of Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) exiting the film back in 2022. 

Goth’s attachment was initially announced three years ago.

Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige recently confirmed that star Mahershala Ali is also still attached as the vampire-slaying Daywalker.

The troubled film, at one point, enlisted costume designer Ruth E. Carter for a scrapped shoot that would’ve put Blade in the same era as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. When that fell through, Carter bought back the costumes for Coogler’s film. The MCU has since moved on from a period setting for its reboot.

“We’ve landed on modern day, “Feige confirmed. “Which is why we could give those costumes back to Ruth, and that’s what we’re focusing on.”

Both Ali and Goth are actors in high demand these days, with Ali fresh off the box office hit Jurassic World: Rebirth and Goth taking on a new massive franchise with Star Wars: Starfighter, so Marvel will need to keep moving forward on Blade.

Stay tuned.

The post Mia Goth Confirms She’s Still Attached to Long-Delayed ‘Blade’ Reboot appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Actor David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil, Dune) returns to the world of Marvel Comics in Venom: Black, White & Blood #3, on sale October 29.

Dastmalchian collaborated with artist Philip Tan to reveal the earliest exploits of Venom as he stalked Spider-Man through New York subways and rooftops, immune to Peter Parker’s Spider-Sense.

“I was speaking with Mark [Basso, editor] about some of the ways I’d like to explore classic Marvel characters and stories through a more contemporary lens that’s impacted by recent cultural and social changes,” Dastmalchian tells Bloody Disgusting.

“All of the time I’ve spent thinking about mental health has filled me with so many questions about nature versus nurture, biochemical tendencies and body history. Both Eddie and Peter are excellent characters to follow while exploring those ideas.”

The story is rooted in Marvel history, taking place before Venom’s debut appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #299, but Dastmalchian also had a major cinematic influence.

“I drew massive inspiration from David Fincher’s film Se7en, and I hope you can feel that pulpy, gritty, horrifying sense of compulsion and obsession throughout the story,” he says.

No stranger to the world of superheroes, Dastmalchian has played powerful characters. Could any of them take down Venom?

“I think that Abner Krill, AKA Polka Dot Man [from The Suicide Squad], could probably incinerate Venom with just a few dots,” Dastmalchian asserts.

He adds, “I also think Gurathin from “Murderbot” could outsmart Venom. If he runs into any trouble, Gurathin could just call on SecUnit to lend a hand. Being a construct, SecUnit is probably impervious to Venom.”

Venom: Black, White & Blood #3 marks Dastmalchian’s second time writing for Marvel, following a story he wrote earlier this year in Web of Venomverse: Fresh Brains.

The issue also includes stories from Carl Potts & Damian Couceiro, showing what would happen if a Peter Parker prone to violent solutions for his enemies became Venom, and Takashi Okazaki, who imagines a never-before-seen Venom going up against Carnage in ancient Japan.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman designed the main cover, while Okazaki created a samurai-inspired variant.

Take an exclusive look two of Tan’s pages from Dastmalchian’s story below.

The post David Dastmalchian Previews His ‘Venom: Black, White & Blood’ Comic [Exclusive] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Zombies aren’t just one of horror’s most popular and plentiful subgenres, but its territory that’s become so versatile that “zombie” is now an easy filter to apply to other ideas for even more ridiculous storytelling. There’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Call of Duty’s endless zombie modes, Afterlife with Archie, and even Dead Set — which combines the reality competition series, Big Brother, with a zombie outbreak. There’s an inherent degree of spectacle that’s present whenever two heightened ideas are thrown together, whether it’s sharks and tornadoes, a bear and cocaine, or zombies and superheroes. It’s easy to see why Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips’ Marvel Zombies, which subjects classic comic superheroes to a raging zombie outbreak, initially made waves back in December 2005. 

Marvel Comics has done plenty with zombies in the two decades since, much of which has turned this gory B-horror extravaganza into a deeper deconstruction on power, restraint, hope and corruption. The MCU’s new Marvel Zombies captures all this and more. To be clear, Marvel Zombies is far from high art or the definitive horror superhero project, but it delivers on exactly what it promises. In a sprawling cinematic franchise that’s conditioned audiences to expect diminishing returns, Marvel Zombies punches above its weight and — ironically enough — has more of a pulse than many of the other lifeless Phase 4, and 6 MCU offerings. 

The MCU’s original Marvel Zombies experiment from What If…?’s first season felt surprisingly stilted and lacking all the nuance and psychological horror that made the original comic run by Kirkman and Phillips such a success in the first place. Marvel Zombies picks up five years after that middling What If…? episode, yet it actually rises to the occasion in a way that the original failed to do. The series effectively builds upon the What If…? episode’s foundation in every regard and benefits from the heavy expository lifting already being handled. Marvel Zombies uses this time-jump to tell an end of the world Armageddon story that’s just as much a post-apocalyptic dystopian narrative as it is a zombie yarn. There are rampant shades of Mad Max throughout, yet in the best way possible that speaks to a uniquely deadly and unpredictable wasteland. 

Kamala “Ms. Marvel” Khan helps lead a group of survivors that includes Yelena Belova, Shang-Chi, Kate Bishop, and Ironheart, who fight for survival in a zombie dystopian wasteland where undead versions of Captain America, Captain Marvel, the Hulk, and even Thanos reign supreme. Marvel Zombies actually becomes one of the better opportunities for the MCU to fill in some of its blank spots and feature characters who haven’t appeared in ages, such as Ikaris, Namor and Khonshu. Over 15 MCU actors reprise their live-action roles here, all of whom seem to be having a blast as they record their lines for these extreme scenarios. It’s a nice detail that adds a little something extra to this impressive package. 

Marvel Zombies may be free of the “What If…?” branding, but it’s a miniseries that seems predicated on repeatedly asking the question: What if Spider-Man used his webslinging abilities on the spines of a whole zombie horde? What if Blade became the next Moon Knight and the ultimate zombie slayer? How do Ant-Man’s powers work in an undead context? Or how would a minotaur fare during a zombie apocalypse? Additionally, Marvel Zombies is careful to zombify some of its most interesting characters rather than playing it safe and worrying about how to rationalize some of this madness. The whole point of an exercise in excess like this that doesn’t need to later worry about the consequences is to turn overpowered characters like Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, and Ikaris into zombies. Marvel Zombies unleashes reality-altering madness and throws particularly volatile characters together as if it wants to provoke as extreme of a reaction as possible.

Audiences can absolutely enjoy Marvel Zombies without having seen the original What If…? episode. To that point, audiences can enjoy it even if they haven’t seen an MCU project in years — or ever. That backstory and knowledge of preexisting relationships certainly amplifies certain dynamics, but it’s hardly essential. In many ways, this is the perfect gateway project for any horror fans who were afflicted by superhero fatigue years ago. Marvel Zombies is less interested in how it fits into an intricate connected universe and its ability to set up other projects, but rather it just wants to combine Marvel superpowers with undead body physics and zombie rules in order to deliver maximum chaos. It’s just as much a macabre body horror experiment than it is a nihilistic superhero saga.

It certainly helps that Marvel Zombies also receives a creative overhaul for the better. Matthew Chauncey of the original “What If…Zombies?!” is gone, with Zeb Wells (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Robot Chicken, Deadpool & Wolverine) taking over the head writing duties. Wells has the perfect experience with heightened parody and passionate pop culture homages that are essential for a project like this to come together. All of Wells’ work on Star Wars and DC specials, not to mention his celebrated runs on Marvel Comics’ Amazing Spider-Man and New Mutants runs were the perfect training ground for him to cultivate the ideal tone for something like this and knock it out of the park. Wells is joined by Bryan Andrews (Samurai Jack, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and a storyboard artist on a wealth of Marvel movies), who serves as co-creator and showrunner. It’s a reminder of what a difference the right creative team makes and why that’s always going to be more important than how many MCU actors are back to reprise their live-action roles. 

These four episodes highlight that Wells is not just an unabashed comics fan, but also a hardcore horror aficionado. His work beautifully comes to life in this ultra-violent wasteland. Between Wells’ work on Deadpool & Wolverine and Marvel Zombies, he’s become the MCU’s authoritative voice on R- and TV-MA-rated projects. It will be curious to see if this trend continues and if Wells is brought on to co-write the upcoming Blade film, especially after his glowing work with the character here. He’s clearly someone who understands this character and the best contexts to put him in. 

To this point, Deadpool & Wolverine didn’t “waste” its R-rating, but Marvel Zombies feels like the superior mature MCU project at this point. There’s such gratuitous bloodshed and evisceration throughout these four episodes that continually raise the stakes, only to culminate in a bonkers finale. It’s exactly the type of polarizing conclusion that’s meant to divide comic fans and trigger debate among audiences. 

Whether the Marvel Cinematic Universe decides to pay off on this ending in a future project or not, four episodes is the perfect length for this sort of story. It continually escalates its carnage with each passing episode without needing to stumble over padding and filler, which can completely ruin the pacing in any post-apocalyptic zombie story. This miniseries isn’t even afraid to leave the comfort of the Earth’s atmosphere in order to keep its audience on their toes. While the MCU’s Eyes of Wakanda began life as a movie that was later split into a four-episode mini-series, Marvel Zombies actually feels like an episodic saga where each episode has a proper beginning, middle, and end, while still contributing to the series’ greater hellscape.

On a visual level, Marvel Studios Animation doesn’t have the best reputation and there’s a tendency to choose cheap animation that’s easy to replicate. The visuals in What If…? are accordingly hit or miss, but Marvel Zombies is a much prettier endeavor that’s closer in quality to Eyes of Wakanda. There are still going to be plenty of people who prefer traditional 2D animation over the more stylized 3D visuals. Nevertheless, Marvel Studios Animation has worked out many of its issues and each episode features some immaculate setpieces. There are so many action sequences where the screen is just filled with chaos and endless zombies. The series captures the necessary scope and grandeur that’s necessary for a story of this nature. The busier and more meticulous action sequences, like Blade Knight’s swordplay, are elegantly choreographed. The weapons-based combat and magical spectacles both deliver and take advantage of the destructible nature of these Marvel characters. 

Marvel Zombies makes sure that its bite isn’t just skin-deep and that there’s some form of commentary and substance under all the gory goodness. It gets to the bottom of why an uncontrollable hunger and a zombie epidemic is the best way to tell this specific story with these exact characters. There’s plenty of brains here, both in the figurative and literal sense. Marvel Zombies isn’t the program that’s going to save the Marvel Cinematic Universe or turn non-believers into staunch superhero fans, but it’s also not trying to be. This is four episodes of gonzo, out of control brain-chomping, limb-ripping, body-blasting carnage that turns Marvel’s standard superpowered theatrics into a disturbing dystopia that celebrates horror’s desire to disrupt. It’s an entertaining binge-watch that’s ideal viewing for any Halloween party and hopefully not the last that audiences see of this creepy corner of the MCU.

The post ‘Marvel Zombies’ Massacres the MCU With an Entertaining Horror Homage [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It’s no secret that Marvel has struggled immensely to launch a new Blade movie, which has been bumped all over the release calendar the last few years. That’s also not helped when it comes to retaining talent behind the camera. The movie is without a director at the moment, with Yann Demange (“Lovecraft Country”) departing the project in the wake of Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) exiting the film back in 2022. 

One constant that remains is star Mahershala Ali, who’s still committed to playing Blade. “Call Marvel,” Ali told Variety during the promotional tour of Jurassic World Rebirth. “I’m ready. Let them know I’m ready.”

Feige re-confirmed that the actor is still attached and reflected on the reboot’s troubled launch, citing to Variety the trap of emphasizing quantity of the ever-expanding MCU above story. When they began to re-evaluate their approach, Blade was stalled. “We didn’t want to simply just put a leather outfit on him and have him start killing vampires. It had to be unique,” Feige explained to Variety. “It fell into the time when we started pulling back and saying, ‘Only accept insanely great.’ And it wasn’t ‘insanely great‘ at the time.”

He added, “We didn’t feel like, as we often do, you can have a good script and make it a great script through production. We didn’t feel confident that we could do that on ‘Blade,‘ and we didn’t want to do that to Mahershala and didn’t want to do that to us.”

There is currently no director attached to Blade, but Feige provided one detail that does signal some forward momentum, if slight.

The troubled film, at one point, enlisted costume designer Ruth E. Carter for a scrapped shoot that would’ve put Blade in the same era as Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. When that fell through, Carter bought back the costumes for Coogler’s film. The MCU has since moved on from a period setting for its reboot.

“We’ve landed on modern day,“ Feige confirmed. “Which is why we could give those costumes back to Ruth, and that’s what we’re focusing on.”

It seems as though both Feige and Ali aren’t letting this project go, despite its many setbacks. Stay tuned.

The post Kevin Feige Says Long-Delayed ‘Blade’ Reboot Still in Development and Set in Modern Day appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

• Prey – Feral Predator, Naru with Sarii (glow in the dark)
• M3GAN – Dancing M3GAN, Metallic M3GAN, M3GAN 2.0
• Marvel Strange Tales – Dormammu, Mephisto, Morbius, Ghost Rider, Hallows’ Eve
• Squid Game – Player 001, Young-Hee, Chul-Su, No-Eul, Player 120, Player 149
• The Nightmare Before Christmas – Couture Jack Skellington, Couture Sally, Countdown Calendar
• Corpse Bride – Emily with Butterflies
• Frankenweenie – Victor with Sparky
• Mickey and Friends – Devil Donald (with blacklight case)
• Ghost – Papa Emeritus IV

Standard Pop! figures start at $14.99.

The post New Funko Pop!s Include ‘Prey,’ ‘M3GAN,’ ‘Squid Game,’ More appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

That’s why it makes sense that every single Punisher movie is entertaining in its own unique way, as the character remains compelling whether the adaptation embraces comic-book excess or focuses on the hard-boiled vigilante elements of this gun-toting anti-hero. However, while the Thomas Jane incarnation of Frank Castle will always be my nostalgic favorite, the most balanced depiction of the character also happens to be the most underrated, and that’s what we’ll be discussing today. If you haven’t already guessed, I’m referring to Lexi Alexander’s hyper-violent 2008 thriller Punisher: War Zone, a mid-budget gore-fest that I think horror fans might appreciate more than mainstream audiences.

Originally developed as a follow-up to the 2004 Punisher film, the project went through quite a few iterations as several writers (most notably Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter) struggled to find a balance between comic-book stylization and gritty crime story. Unfortunately, numerous underwhelming drafts and a series of unexpected delays led to Thomas Jane becoming disillusioned and exiting production. This required yet another complete overhaul, as the film would have to move forward with a reduced budget now that it no longer had a recognizable star to promote it.

And yet, there was one brave director who was still willing to tackle this troubled project despite all these challenges, and that was German-Palestinian filmmaker and martial artist Lexi Alexander. A badass herself who was convinced to emigrate to Hollywood by none other than Chuck Norris after the two met at a kickboxing event, Alexander was hired after pitching a heavily stylized orgy of blood and bullets that could be shot like an effects-heavy horror flick rather than an expensive blockbuster. And with Ray Stevenson being chosen as the new and more vicious version of the lead character, Punisher: War Zone finally began shooting in late 2007.

In the finished film, which was released in December of 2008, we follow the traumatized vigilante Frank Castle (Stevenson) as his ongoing war on crime accidentally results in both the death of an undercover agent and the creation of a crazed new crime boss in the form of the horrifically disfigured Jigsaw (Dominic West). What follows is a city-wide bloodbath as Castle is forced to confront the unforeseen consequences of his brutal quest for revenge.

SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?

It’s always a tragedy when a good movie doesn’t get the reception it deserves, but Punisher: War Zone was fighting an uphill battle from the very start. While the ’04 film didn’t set the world on fire, fans and critics immediately grew attached to Jane as the titular character, and a reduced budget meant that War Zone couldn’t even rely on bigger set-pieces to one-up its predecessor (and that’s not even mentioning the botched marketing campaign that treated the new film like an indie production). Thankfully, Alexander’s film has developed a cult following over the years, with many fans looking back fondly on its idiosyncratic dialogue and schlocky “nu-metal” aesthetics.

Of course, it’s not just the film’s gritty atmosphere that’s worth revisiting. War Zone also touches on the ethical quandaries of vigilante justice by having a large portion of the story hinge on Castle’s accidental killing of an undercover agent and his subsequent feelings of remorse. Towards the end of the flick, Punisher even knocks out one of his new colleagues in order to prevent him from helping out during the final confrontation because he doesn’t want someone else going down the same dark road even if it gets results.

These dark elements are made even more impactful by Ray Stevenson’s jaded and decidedly less sympathetic portrayal of the iconic anti-hero. This version of Castle is a broken shell of a man that commits homicide on auto-pilot, and even Stevenson’s ad-libbed one-liners feel more hateful than fun. It’s really this mean streak that makes the film stand out amongst other comic-book adaptations, with War Zone having more in common with classic Charles Bronson flicks than anything you might see in the MCU.

That’s not to say that this is a completely humorless experience, however, as the characters surrounding Castle are charming enough to make up for his grim demeanor. While I miss the quirky neighbors from the ’04 movie (which were cleverly adapted from Garth Ennis’ Welcome Back, Frank miniseries), War Zone provides us with comic-book accurate renditions of fan-favorites like Microchip (Wayne Knight) and the lovable Detective Soap (Dash Mihok). I’m also a fan of Dominic West’s surprisingly nuanced take on Jigsaw, with this larger-than-life villain joyfully chewing up scenery as if he’s the real main character here – especially when he’s playing off of his psychotic brother, Loony Bin Jim (hilariously played by Doug Hutchison).

AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?

Here on Horror Adjacent, we’ve previously discussed how genre is often just a matter of perspective. For instance, films like In a Violent Nature and John Wick are basically depicting the same events (an over-powered main character committing mass murder after a tragedy) but in a different context. Of course, it’s rare for action filmmakers to acknowledge these similarities in order to avoid making their protagonists too unlikable, but that’s exactly why I think War Zone is such a fun time. The film chooses to depict the Punisher as a gun-toting Jason Voorhees scaring the crap out of criminals from his very first appearance during that kick-ass dinner sequence, with the audience being left to decide for themselves if they think the character’s fury is justified.

In fact, from punches that go straight through criminals’ skulls to some of the most gleefully messy shotgun blasts in film history, there’s so much visceral violence on display here that you can’t help but question the protagonist’s methods. Hell, Jigsaw even comments on the similarity of recruiting armed goons to how the military industrial complex recruits vulnerable youths with the promise of financial gain, with details like these adding much-needed nuance to the story.

And speaking of Jigsaw, I really appreciate how the film goes all-out with West’s disgusting prosthetics, with the end result looking like a Leatherface prototype mask from before he really developed his crafting skills. The face-shredding sequence where Billy gets mangled by broken glass is also a prime example of body horror, with uncredited writer Kurt Sutter claiming that it’s the only one of his original scenes that made it into the film. Despite this, it’s Jigsaw’s deranged demeanor as an unstable crime-boss that makes him so memorable, with West’s excellent use of exaggerated voice-work and “crazy-eyes” giving the character some much-needed gravitas despite all the latex covering his performance. Of course, I’d still argue that Frank Castle himself is the real Bogeyman of this story.

Punisher: War Zone is obviously a case of style over substance, but it’s hard to complain about a film that nails the spirit of its source material so completely. Sure, it was still a couple of drafts (and a few million dollars) away from becoming a real comic-book masterpiece along the lines of Dredd or even Sin City, but this is still one of the best Marvel adaptations out there and definitely worth revisiting if you’re a fan of vigilante stories that feel like slasher movies.

The post ‘Punisher: War Zone’ – Frank Castle Is Jason Voorhees in This Ultraviolent Marvel Gorefest appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It was during this time that we saw one of the most peculiar Marvel projects of the 2000s, Nihilistic Software’s Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. A third-person brawler that pitted fan favorite characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man and Daredevil against a horror-inspired roster of original fighters. This oddball crossover may have been divisive upon release, but it’s now remembered as something of an over-hated cult classic. And with the game celebrating its 20^th anniversary this year, I think it might be fun to look back on this horror-adjacent gem from a time when superhero games were allowed to be a little janky.

Rise of the Imperfects was originally announced all the way back in 2004 as Marvel vs EA, with this proposed crossover meant to be a more grounded alternative to other multiplayer brawlers like Powerstone and War of the Monsters. California-based developer Nihilistic Software was chosen to helm the game due to the company’s previous experience in coordinating with IP owners on licensed projects.

At the time, Marvel was still in the middle of their shift towards edgier and more realistic stories, with then-recent publications like the Ultimate universe doing their best to ground larger-than-life heroes in more adult situations. This wasn’t just meant to attract older readers, but it was also an attempt at more closely matching the tone of the live-action super-hero adaptations taking over Hollywood. That’s why it’s only natural that both EA and Marvel pressured Nihilistic Software into forgoing elements that they thought were too “comic-booky” (like Wolverine’s classic costume) and encouraging the studio to give these iconic characters a dark twist.

It wasn’t long before Marvel vs EA was reworked into a new project, as the company soon realized that they didn’t actually have enough memorable characters to fill up a decent roster like their rivals over at Capcom. This is what led to the creation of the Imperfects and the eventual renaming of the title, with Raul Inglis, Mark Millar, and Jae Lee joining forces to develop both the game’s story and its spin-off comic-book tie-in (which hilariously contradicts much of the game).

The Imperfects themselves made up half of the game’s roster, with these original fighters having been designed as twisted equivalents to specific Marvel heroes (and villains). This is where the team decided to pivot the project into a decidedly spooky direction, with nearly all of the Imperfects borrowing from or at least paying homage to classic horror tropes in both their designs and backstories. From a PTSD-ridden monster stitched together from 100 dead soldiers (Brigade) to a body-horror-inspired living virus who inhabits a containment suit and begs for players to put him out of his misery (Hazmat), there’s enough creativity here to fuel several thrilling creature features. In fact, it feels like Nihilistic put just as much love into creating these new fighters as they did into adapting the existing favorites. And if the aforementioned spooky elements aren’t enough to convince you that the game was made with genre fans in mind, the entire story happens to be wrapped around an apocalyptic alien invasion harkening back to War of the Worlds.

In the finished game (which was released in September of 2005), we follow a selection of popular Marvel heroes as they face an extraterrestrial attack that has already claimed the lives of characters like Captain America, the Punisher and even the Hulk. This invasion coincides with the appearance of super-powered beings known as “The Imperfects” – genetically-enhanced soldiers developed by mad scientist Niles Van Roekel in an attempt to create the perfect warrior. Conflict ensues as the Marvel heroes face off against these monstrous fighters and try to ward off the technologically advanced invaders.

In gameplay terms, this means completing character-specific missions as you unravel the mystery of the Imperfects while fighting your way through a war-torn New York City in a fully-3D brawler. Along the way, you’ll also encounter corrupted versions of beloved heroes, with the game eventually forcing you to sacrifice certain characters in order to advance the plot on the Imperfects’ side of the conflict. The single-player campaign also unlocks fighters and arenas for use in multiplayer, with the chaotic versus mode being one of the many reasons why it’s so fondly remembered by older gamers.

Unfortunately, Rise of the Imperfects was rushed into its September release date by an anxious EA, with the company wanting to capitalize on the comic-book buzz generated films like Fantastic Four, Elektra and the then-upcoming X-Men: The Last Stand. The reduced development time resulted in an unpolished final product, with reviewers almost unanimously complaining about the title’s unbalanced combat and repetitive campaign – though plenty of fans still appreciated the game’s dark atmosphere and memorable characters.

Despite its mixed reception, I believe time has been kind to Marvel Nemesis. Once you remove the AAA price point and expectations (and consider that we haven’t seen a worthwhile 3D brawler in a long time), the game starts to look a lot more fun now than it did back in ’05. Yes, it’s still completely unbalanced, but Rise of the Imperfects was never meant to be the next Super Smash Bros. It makes sense that flying characters with ranged super-powers have an advantage over street-level heroes, and using the environment against your enemy felt like a clever way of leveling the playing field. And while I concede that the campaign suffered from repetitive padding, I’m glad that it wasn’t simply an arcade mode pitting you against the same fighters over and over again.

Of course, it’s the presentation that makes Marvel Nemesis such a memorable experience. Aside from the novelty of seeing Spider-Man engage in minor swearing and beating the crap out of a Frankenstein’s Monster, the game’s overall atmosphere and edgy art style remain unmatched even in the current console generation. Not only did Jae Lee’s art provide us with a somber yet compelling re-imagining of fan-favorite characters, but the gameplay itself also allowed violent brawlers like Wolverine and Electra to let loose with brutal finishing moves (with my personal favorite being Magneto’s X2-inspired fatality). And that’s not even mentioning Trevor Jones’ excellent soundtrack that makes every battle sound like an apocalyptic confrontation.

I also especially appreciate how the Imperfects’ character introductions feel like EC Comics specials, with the cut-scenes combining exaggerated artwork with live-action elements in disturbing genre stories that would likely bring a modern Disney Executive to tears. From children suffering Acid attacks because of their parents’ gambling debts to weaponized spontaneous combustion, Marvel Nemesis really pushed that T rating to its limit.

EA fully expected the Imperfects to be the next big thing, with the company expanding this humble fighting game into a multimedia crossover event featuring prequel comics and even a planned sequel. This might have been the case if EA had let Nihilistic work on the title for just a little bit longer, but Marvel Nemesis’ middling reception put a damper on any future projects featuring its original characters, and the Imperfects’ shared ownership meant that neither Marvel nor EA would ever use them again after their partnership disintegrated back in ’07.

While we can be fairly certain that the game will never see a proper follow-up at this point, we can at least treasure the memory of seeing our favorite superheroes engage with our favorite horror tropes in an experience that didn’t just feel like an ad for more Marvel products. The game had its fair share of flaws (and I never understood why they didn’t include Nightcrawler as a palette-swapped equivalent to Wink like they did with Solara/The Human Torch), but Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects is still worth experiencing today if you’re willing to dust off your old PS2 and enjoy an unironic and painfully unbalanced example of mid-2000s excess.

Just be careful not to cut yourself on all that edge!

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It’s no secret that the brand new Blade movie has been bumped all over the release calendar the last several years, and it’s currently without a date at all after getting pulled from its most recent theatrical release date of November 7, 2025. Not helping is that the movie is without a director at the moment, with Yann Demange (“Lovecraft Country”) departing the project in the wake of Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) exiting the film back in 2022.

Mahershala Ali was attached to play the title character, with Delroy Lindo (Sinners) also on board. But Lindo revealed to Entertainment Weekly earlier this month that the project “went off the rails,” with the actor at this time no longer attached to star alongside Ali.

Another talent that had been attached to Marvel’s Blade? Musician and filmmaker Flying Lotus (Ash), who revealed on Twitter earlier today that he had been set to do the film’s music.

Flying Lotus, whose own feature debut Ash was just released on Digital at home, tweets, “I guess we are so far from it even being a possibility now but. Yeah I was signed on to write music for the new BLADE movie before it fell thru. Maybe it’ll come around again but I doubt it.”

“Would have been fun tho,” the Grammy winner added in his tweet.

You can rent or purchase Ash on all major Digital outlets now, and we encourage you to also seek out the film’s original soundtrack, which was also composed by Flying Lotus himself.

Listen to a track from the Ash soundtrack above, titled “Oxygene.”

Eiza González (Baby Driver) and Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad”) star in the sci-fi horror film alongside Iko Uwais (The Raid), Beulah Koale (Shadow in the Cloud), Kate Elliott (“Xena: Warrior Princess”), and Flying Lotus. Jonni Remmler wrote the film.

On the mysterious planet of Ash, Riya (González) awakens to find her crew slaughtered. When a man named Brion (Paul) arrives to rescue her, an ordeal of psychological and physical terror ensues while Riya and Brion must decide if they can trust one another to survive.

I guess we are so far from it even being a possibility now but. Yeah I was signed on to write music for the new BLADE movie before it fell thru.

Maybe it’ll come around again but I doubt it. Would have been fun tho

— FLYLO (@flyinglotus) April 24, 2025

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The first season of “Daredevil: Born Again” saved its bloodiest episode for last, and that’s saying a lot. The season opened with the death of a major character and featured no shortage of violence, including the terrifying reign of terror by Muse (Hunter Doohan), a serial killer who uses his victim’s blood as paint.

The finale features an epic Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Punisher (Jon Bernthal) team-up that results in insane levels of arterial spray, and yet the bloodletting pales in comparison to the episode’s most shocking moment: the brutal demise of Commissioner Gallo (Michael Gaston).

All season long, Gallo proved to be a thorn in the side of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), culminating in a final confrontation that saw Gallo unwittingly summoned to his doom. It’s a pivotal moment, not just for Fisk but New York City as a whole. Fisk takes out an enemy in a vulgar display of power to galvanize his growing army of enforcers, with nothing more than his bare hands and brutal strength.

“He always didn’t trust Wilson Fisk,” Gaston tells Bloody Disgusting of Gallo’s mindset heading into that fateful confrontation. “That was always there, especially from their interactions earlier in the season. I think he didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but the way that scene plays out, by the time he gets there, he knows. He doesn’t put up much of a fight, as you notice. He knows which way the wind is blowing, and he knows who he’s dealing with. I think there was a resignation; Gallo knows what’s coming his way, and he’s made his piece in the car with the young man who’s there to replace his driver. He knows at that point, when he sees the kid’s tattoo, that this is it.

“There’s no fight. There’s no point in fighting again. He has no idea just how insanely grisly and how violent it’s going to be. But he knows it’s going to end.”

For Fisk, the gruesome murder of Gallo is his unmasking in a season where he’s tried to tamp down his violent urges as the city’s new mayor. D’Onofrio explains, “[Fisk] has other people doing his bad stuff for a while. The public doesn’t know about Adam; nobody else knows about Adam, but eventually Vanessa, right? This is the first time he, in front of the police force, exercises what he is telling them to do: get everybody that’s in our way out of the way. But he took it very personally that Commissioner Gallo just tried to sidetrack him. He felt there was this gray area with Sheila [Zabryna Guevara] in his office, and Gallo threatened him many times with the fact that he knew that he was a criminal. He wouldn’t shut up, so he had to go.”

Gallo resigns to his fate as Fisk crushes his head between his palms, a grim and ruthless demise handled practically with stunning photorealism and unconventional design. This isn’t just your average head crushing effect. The chilling scene and its centerpiece effect becomes even more impressive with the context that this key death came late in the creative process. The finale’s directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, the filmmaking duo behind films like Spring and The Endless, learned about the story beat while deep into prep.

“When we came on board in the second round of filming, the beat did not exist yet, and there was no hint at it,” Moorhead reveals. “There were just some rather broad aims for where to go, but not even story aims exactly, more just like how it would feel. Then as we started working on it with Dario Scardapane, our showrunner, the story started to come into focus with working in order from episodes one and then working through the reshoots or the additional photography of the rest, and then eight and nine. I think it was pretty deep into prep on episode one or even while shooting episode one, and then it was just right when we read episode nine or read the outline when they’re like, ‘And we’re going to crush his head.’

It’s a simple yet vague description wide open for interpretation, but one thing was certain, according to Moorhead: “From the very first time the sentence, ‘He crushes his head,‘ was written, it was going to be practical. It’s because we were directing it. We would very much insist on that. But I actually think most filmmakers would want to because it just makes more sense, and actually, it’s funny to say this, but the VFX department prefers it, too. They prefer that you do as much as you possibly can in camera, and then they just push it any further distance you need. It’s not an effort thing. It’s that they also believed that if you actually shoot it, it looks better.”

Benson and Moorhead were clued in on the fate of Gallo’s character much sooner than the actor playing him. “Oh, I didn’t know it,“ Gaston confirms. “But there are ways when you’ve been doing this for as long as I have when you know how many episodes you’re being promised, it’s not indefinite, and they’re not trying to lock you up for a period of years. Well, and I get killed a lot. I actually added them up recently for something that I’m writing, but I’ve died 21 times on camera over the years. This was the 20th of 21. There’s been a death since then, not quite as grisly, but similarly grisly, and involved a lot of the same techniques.“ But how does this death rank for Gaston? “Oh, it is, I would say, the most colorful. It is the most dynamic. Let’s just say it’s pretty shocking, what happens to me.“

If Gaston took the death in stride, D’Onofrio quickly latched onto what a monumental turning point Gallo’s murder was for Fisk. So much so that the actor became the driving force behind this gruesome on-screen death. Benson tells BD, “I remember every time we’d be at the studio, walking through the hallways and running into Vincent. We became close with Vincent really quickly, one of our best friends now today, but every time we walked through the studio and ran into him, he’d be like, ‘Guys, I think we should talk. Let’s talk about this head crush scene.‘ Vincent was obsessed with this head crush, and I only say that half joking. He was really the team leader on this thing.“

“We thought we were pretty excited about doing it,“ Moorhead says. “We were pretty excited, but he was all in.”

“I worked with everybody very closely; the special effects people, the the directors, Aaron and Justin, the producer, Sana [Amanat],” D’Onofrio says of spearheading this scene. “They were kind enough to let me take the lead. I had a particular idea. It was written as a skull crush, but I didn’t want to participate in what we usually see in movies when people get their skulls crushed. It’s always thumbs in the eyes and stuff like that. I just thought that it was important to match the blatant, raw brutality of the decapitation in the original series. That he’s willing to get his hands dirty and in the most disgusting way. Aaron, to block it, I positioned him in front of me, and I just walked everybody through the move of the actual crushing.“

“I became his head crush model,“ Moorhead corroborates. “And I will tell you, Vincent actually is six foot four. He does have large hands, and it is rather frightening, as an actor really gets into it, and he’s holding your head. He was very gentle, but you still can’t help but get in your head about it.“

D’Onofrio expands on the crushing effect and his vision, “It was more just not having any empathy at all, and just finding the right position with his body to crush the head. It sounds so gross when I talk about it, but I wanted it to be brutal and that the head collapses and tears, which is the surprise gore. It looks so good. It looks just like Gallo. We were all just so freaked out when we first saw the waist-up sculpture of him. But when we saw the finished product, everybody was just amazed with our effects people. The way that I wanted to do it, we were actually able to do it when we were shooting. There’s this casual pop in the neck that I gave him first to make him go down on his knees, and then that’s it. And then I just get behind him. It was a particular way that I wanted to execute it.“

Benson and Moorhead have plenty of experience working in horror with practical effects, but the vision for Commissioner Gallo’s death presented a unique task for the effects teams, especially with TV’s time constraints. Instead of the usual lifecasting process, the special makeup effects team took an innovative approach to a skull crush achieved entirely on camera without the need for extensive VFX cleanup. “I remember talking to the special effects and makeup effects departments about how we were going to do it,“ Benson recalls. “Aaron and I have done, obviously, a lot of work with casting molds and we’ve had that done to ourselves. We didn’t have a lot of experience with the method they used here, which was 3D scanning. We hadn’t had a whole lot of experience with that, and I think that was one of the reasons why we were shocked at how photo-real it was just in camera.“

Moorhead stresses this impressive effect, “But it did just work on camera. Everybody who was watching it recoiled because it just felt like a snuff film. I have a photo from behind the scenes on my phone. If anyone ever catches me, I’ll show it to you of Vincent gleefully covered in blood, holding this head. And I love this image, but the problem is, it’s in my favorites on my phone; if I’m scrolling through, it’s just like, ‘Dog, dog, dog,‘ and then, ‘Gore.‘ I keep forgetting, like, ‘This isn’t real, and other people that are seeing it; they’re just shocked.‘”

Two critical members of the special makeup effects team who were responsible for bringing this effect to life are Lisa Forst (Birth/Rebirth, “Evil) and Brandon Grether (Werewolves Within). The artists didn’t have scripts to go on when creating the effect, which they learned from makeup department head Kimberly Amacker and D’Onofrio. “Vincent did come up to us on set and tell us that this was a turning point for his character, and it was a very important scene, and he told us a bit about it,“ Forst says.

“But just that he wanted to be very impactful and very violent, and we just sort of went from there,“ Grether adds.

Forst reiterates that their design process was as much informed by D’Onofrio’s direction and the desire to deviate from your standard skull crush. It led to the design decision to tear Gallo’s head apart instead of imploding inward. “We wanted to do our own thing instead of just doing a plain implosion because we didn’t want it to look cheesy. We know Vincent didn’t want it to look cheesy, so we kind of asked, ‘Can we do our own thing with it?‘“ Forst and Grether started with the unhinging and tearing at the jaw. “Then we added the top of the head, so we made the jaw go one direction, and then the top of the head crushed into the opposite direction, so there would be a lot of movement with it.“

“We definitely talked about Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky a lot and not wanting it to be just that big explosion of blood and no real anatomy. We really wanted to focus on anatomically how it would happen to add a bit of realism, but also still give everyone the gore that they would be excited by,“ Grether cites as an example that guided their design. “Instead of a lifecast, we’ve recently transferred over to doing scans. So we have a portable scanner that’s very high definition. It’s not like a lot of the scans that are done with photogrammetry. Ours is able to pick up all the skin texture, but it’s a little harder to work with; as far as if an actor is moving, it comes out a little patchy and has to be cleaned up. We did a scan of [Gaston] posing in that kind of screaming face. which is something you can’t really do with a lifecast. It was really unique to be like, ‘All right, Michael, just sit here and act like your head is being crushed.’ It was early in the morning, so he’s like, ‘Excuse me?‘ ‘Yeah, scream like your head’s being crushed in.‘”

The artists even scanned the actor’s teeth, further capturing the photorealism. Grether affirms, “Everything’s very accurate to him. We were able to scan him in the full pose. Because it’s a hard pose to hold, there was some digital cleanup we had to do just with his scan. Then we 3D printed his head in multiple pieces, put all the pieces back together, remolded it, and then we were able to work out of that mold for the final castings.“

“It took us three different castings to get the final pattern of how it would break apart that we scored and tested out before we got to the final one,“ Forst adds of the three full silicone heads they crafted from the scans to test for realism and function. “Then, once we got the pattern right on those castings, we added hair by hair punching, which is when you take a needle and add each hair individually into the head; that was done for the mustache, the eyebrows, the eyelashes the sides of his head. We added a wig to the top. We painted it, we 3D printed a jaw to go on the bottom, and that’s what also helped reset it. The jaw locked back into place for each reset, and we added his upper teeth, which were his real teeth.”

Grether further explains, “It’s like a head and bust. It comes down to his shoulders. Then they ended up mounting it on one of those like boxing dummies.”

The duo didn’t just create the head for the death scene, they also worked with the special effects department and did some blood rigging. Considering the nature of the death itself, the scene involved a lot of blood. “We ran the tubes, and then they hooked up to them. So we had one in the jaw, and we had one in the top of the head. We had two blood lines ran to it,“ Forst says.

“I think the phrase we used for how much blood we would use was as much blood as physically possible while still being realistic. That’s also our thesis for the entire season and season two,“ Moorhead stated.

“We also made a couple of 3D-printed nozzles for the bloodlines. It’s always important to make the blood look organic and not just like a hose. That’s always something tricky to do. We printed maybe 20 different patterns of nozzles to get the blood to kind of spatter out how we wanted to,“ Grether shares. 

Because practical effects with extensive blood tubing typically require a lengthy reset to clean up between takes, Forst and Grether warned the crew on set to expect things to get messy. Grether remembers that the caution meant the first take at capturing the effect on camera was too restrained with the blood splatter, and in the process, reveals that the team nailed the scene on the second take. “Everyone was very concerned about getting covered. On the first take, we dialed everything down, and it was not enough. The second take, we ramped it back up. We went back to our original tests for blood pressure. We added a lot of brain matter. We filled the top of the head completely so that when he crushed it in, all that would blow out inside. Then, when that second take happened, once we could turn and look at the rest of the room, we could see the look on everyone’s faces and knew it was what they wanted.“

As for what this means going forward? Well, it’s safe to say things are looking rather ominous for the citizens of NY. D’Onofrio agrees, “What happens right after that is quite something for a New Yorker. It’s quite something for Fisk to claim martial law in New York City. That’s crazy, you know. That means bridges, tunnels, everything’s locked off. That’s really rough.”

Moorhead teases what’s ahead, “You’ll find out extremely quickly in season two how bad it got with the ‘Resignation of the Commissioner.‘ Also, of course, Fisk put the city under martial law. There’s going to be something really interesting and not exactly what you’d expect to start off with.”

All episodes of “Daredevil: Born Again” are currently streaming on Disney+.

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The five-issue event series is written by Gerry Duggan (Deadpool) and drawn by Javier Garrón (Miles Morales: Spider-Man).

With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, it’s all hands on deck as Godzilla is pitted against the combined might of the entire Marvel Universe. With a cast of iconic Marvel heroes and villains, the series features shocking moments like a faceoff between the kaiju and an ancient Celestial, a horrifying symbiote bonding to the King of the Monsters, and a ground-shaking battle between the Hulk and Godzilla.

A previously dormant Godzilla has been angrily awoken and begun carving a path of annihilation as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes band together to try and stop its cataclysmic rampage! But when their combined efforts fail to slow the Bringer of Destruction, Earth’s heroes are forced to go to extraordinary lengths to try and bring Godzilla down — including joining forces with Earths most devious villains!

But will this be enough to stop Godzilla as it tears straight through the Marvel Universe into the Dark Dimension and other realms? Plus, how is the King of the Monsters connected to the mysterious metal, Vibranium, and what does this mean for Wakanda? In the face of an unstoppable force of nature, the Marvel Universe must come together like never before in this earth-shattering fight for Earth’s survival.

“Godzilla was as important to me as Marvel Comics growing up,” Duggan shared. “My father enjoyed watching baseball on TV, and I would root for rain outs so the NYC stations would run a Godzilla movie. When I discovered that Godzilla had appeared in the Marvel Universe, I obsessively collected every issue. I can’t believe how lucky I am to be contributing to the tradition of Godzilla rampaging in the Marvel Universe.

He continues, “This is the very biggest event of the summer, and everyone is getting in on the action. Javier Garrón is doing the very best work of his career, and this will be an immortal comic book. Get ready to run for your life this July!”

“It is—excuse the pun—a monstrous opportunity to team up again with Gerry, not only one of the best writers in comics but the only person who could do justice to this story with his bold, wild, extremely funny and epic scripting,” Garrón said.

“Letting none other than the King of the Monsters loose in the Marvel Universe means a lot to me and it’s all a creator could ask for in a comic. The sheer scale! The cast—everybody! The destruction—everything! It’s a no-holds-barred conflict, and I’m having the time of my life wreaking havoc with Gerry and the rest of the team.”

Mark Brooks (Amazing Spider-Man) illustrated the main wraparound cover for Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe #1, pictured below.

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Written by David F. Walker (Planet of the Apes) with art by Georges Jeanty (Star Wars: Mace Windu), the crossover will be published on June 18 via Marvel.

Godzilla vs. Avengers #1 follows the one-shots Godzilla vs. Fantastic Four (out March 26), Godzilla vs. Hulk (out April 16), Godzilla vs. Spider-Man (out April 30), and Godzilla vs. X-Men (out May 14) for a confrontation with not only Jet Jaguar and the 2000s-era Avengers, but Marvel’s own mighty monster, Fin Fang Foom.

The original New Avengers return to face an unstoppable enemy – Godzilla! In the aftermath of a massive battle between Godzilla, Fin Fang Foom, the Avengers and Jet Jaguar, S.H.I.E.L.D. tries to make sense of what went down – but everyone’s telling a different story! What really happened during that fateful clash?

“As a child, I was raised on Godzilla movies, and as an adult, the New Avengers was a beautiful reminder of why I love comics,” shared Walker. “The lineup of iconic characters in the New Avengers was a beautiful mix of quirky personalities and big adventures that kept me coming back every month. Bringing Godzilla and the New Avengers together for an epic showdown has allowed me to work with characters I have loved for a long time, in a way that I hope is as entertaining for fans to read as it was for me to write.”

“There are few things in life that feel better than when you get to recreate your childhood passions as a ‘serious’ adult,” Jeanty added. “Drawing this one-shot allowed me to package two things I loved in my youth, Godzilla and the Avengers, and put it in a comic book! It has been a joy drawing these pages. I hope everyone who picks up this book will see all the love that went into it.”

Check out the Godzilla vs. Avengers #1 main cover by Leinil Francis Yu, Monster Homage Variant Cover by Nick Bradshaw, Godzilla King of the Monsters Homage Variant Cover by Michael Allred, Virgin Variant cover by Mitsuhiro Arita, and Vs. Variant Cover by Lee Garbett below.

The post ‘Godzilla vs. Avengers’ Comic – The King of the Monsters Battles Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in June appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The latest entry in Sony’s Spider-Man universe serves as a standalone origin story for the Marvel supervillain, which was created in 1964 by comic legends Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as Kraven with Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, and Russell Crowe as Kraven’s ruthless father.

J.C. Chandor (Triple Frontier) directs from a script by Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (Iron Man) and Richard Wenk (The Equalizer).

Special Features:

• Becoming Kraven
• Beast Mode: The Stunts of the Hunt
• Kraven’s First Hunt: The Direction
• Allies & Antagonists: The Killer Cast
• Deleted & Extended Scenes
• Outtakes & Bloopers

In the film, “Kraven’s complex relationship with his ruthless father starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.”

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It’s no secret that the brand new Blade movie has been bumped all over the release calendar the last few years, and it’s currently without a date at all after getting pulled from its theatrical release date of November 7, 2025. Not helping is that the movie is without a director at the moment, with Yann Demange (“Lovecraft Country”) departing the project in the wake of Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) exiting the film back in 2022.

Studio President Kevin Feige reassured fans this weekend at the D23 Brazil 2024 event that Marvel is still planning to reboot Blade with star Mahershala Ali and bring the character into the MCU.

Speaking to Brazilian entertainment website Omelete, Feige said, “We’re committed to Blade. We love the character, we love Mahershala’s version of him. And rest assured: whenever we change direction with a project, or are still trying to figure out how it fits into our schedule, we let the public know. You’re up to date on what’s going on. But I can tell you that the character will be coming to the MCU.”

The silver lining? Much like Deadpool & Wolverine, which brings a new level of violence to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it sounds like Blade will definitely be rated “R.” They just have to pinpoint the story and lockdown talent first.

“For the last few years, as we’ve been trying to crack that movie, the most important thing for us is not rushing it. And making sure we are making the right Blade movie,” Feige previously shared.

He continues, “There were some great Blade movies years ago… they were all rated R. So I think that’s inherent – like Deadpool – inherent with the character of Blade.”

At this time, Mahershala Ali attached to star as the title character, and Mia Goth (X, Pearl, MaXXXine) is also on board to star in the film.

The vampire-slaying character was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan, introduced in July 1973’s The Tomb of Dracula #10. Wesley Snipes played Blade across three films from 1998 through 2004, and he was played by Sticky Fingaz in a short-lived TV series.

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“Marvel Zombies” is currently set to debut on Disney+ in October 2025.

The series is based on the comic run of the same name that sees an alternate universe where various heroes get infected and turn while the uninfected ones try to save themselves and the world. The Marvel Zombies series was officially announced by Marvel Studios in November 2021, where the show was described as a continuation of the universe introduced in the “What If…?“ episode.

The episode, helmed by Bryan Andrews and written by Matthew Chauncey, ended on a bit of a cliffhanger that saw the small group of survivors heading to Wakanda to regroup, unaware that a zombified Thanos with an Infinity Gauntlet had already decimated the area.

Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation, Brad Winderbaum, teased that the series would take a darker tone. He previously told IGN, “In terms of more mature animation, yeah, we’re making a Marvel Zombies show right now that is pretty intense that’s for sure a TV-MA show.” 

Expect to hear a lot more about this series in the coming months, especially leading into next year’s Halloween season. In the meantime, Marvel has unveiled the new series logo for “Marvel Zombies.”

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For example, there’s the fan-favorite Venom. Think of how many people were involved in the process of turning an alternate costume for Spider-Man (the result of a contest meant to make the character appeal to a broader audience) into a monstrous supervillain, only to then re-imagine the character as a reformed hero once the marketing folks realized that he was nearly as popular as Spidey himself. No single person planned for it to turn out this way, but each artist tried to nudge the idea in a fun direction, and now kids are out there wearing Venom masks for Halloween.

This same messy form of collaborative art can also be observed in Blockbuster filmmaking – and that’s exactly why I’ve managed to enjoy all three Venom films in spite of the franchise’s conceptual flaws. Even at their worst, these flicks have always had the same spirit as the goofy ’90s comics that they’re trying to emulate, and you can always tell that most of the people working on them are trying to gently nudge things in the right direction.

I’m still not entirely sure if any of these are traditionally “good” movies, but I like ‘em just the same. And with Venom: The Last Dance finally hitting theaters and presenting us with a thrilling conclusion to this deeply odd run of monstrous super-hero flicks, I think it’s about time to rank and compare all three of them.

Naturally, this ranking will be based on personal opinion, but don’t forget to comment below with your own take on this controversial franchise. And while we’ll only be ranking the solo trilogy of Venom movies (that means no Spider-Man 3 or even that memorable Truth in Journalism fan-film directed by Joe Lynch), readers are still welcome to discuss other adaptations.

Now, onto the ranking…

3. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

I don’t think even Sony was expecting their Spidey-less Spider-Man movie to be as big of a success as it was, but you have to commend Ruben Fleischer for thinking about the future when he cast Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady for that post-credits zinger in the original Venom. After all, the lack of a compelling villain was one of the biggest complaints directed towards the first flick, so it stands to reason that a sequel featuring the character’s psychotic rival would be a guaranteed blast, right?

Well, sort of.

Instead of learning from their mistakes, Sony doubled down on censorship and executive meddling when the time came to make what should have been a superior sequel. Let There be Carnage is still an enjoyable movie, but it’s also a confused mishandling of Andy Serkis’ directorial talents that simultaneously feels undercooked and overstuffed.

While I appreciate the manic energy that Harrelson brings to the table (with the film benefiting greatly from a villain that is almost as entertaining to watch as our lead), the character’s adaptational downgrade coupled with the script’s rehashing of the best parts of the first one make this the most disappointing entry despite a few flashes of brilliance.

However, as someone who actually owns a copy of the comic-book where Carnage first surfs the web using the symbiote – I was honestly quite happy to see a comic-book movie that isn’t ashamed to be as silly as its over-the-top source material.

2. Venom: The Last Dance (2024)

Written and directed by the lady who helped glue this messy franchise into a coherent trilogy in the first place (with frequent Tom Hardy collaborator Kelly Marcel having previously worked as a screenwriter on both Venom and Let There be Carnage), The Last Dance mostly makes up for its bizarre lack of comic-book action and accuracy with some genuine heart and a surprisingly consistent tone.

In fact, the heartfelt interactions between Eddie and the Symbiote feel so earnest here that you often forget that the film doesn’t actually contain any of the flashy fight scenes or winks to the source material that folks have come to associate with the genre – though it still features plenty of fun monster chases and Area 51 shenanigans.

While I agree with the filmmakers’ insistence that Knull is too powerful of a villain for Venom to face on his own, the decision to have his envoys be faceless alien creatures (which suffer from the same design pitfalls that have plagued most monster movies released since Cloverfield) are what keep this threequel from being a legitimately thrilling picture, especially when you remember that Sony will almost certainly bring Venom back for a crossover if their dealings with Disney allow it.

Additionally, the film suffers from a conspicuous lack of Michelle Williams, as the ghost of Brock’s failed marriage (and the fact that his ex really was better off without him) was a huge part of what made the other films so endearing.

Even so, the bizarre symbiosis of an extraterrestrial creature feature with an introspective road trip is what really makes The Last Dance a better time than Let There be Carnage. You can tell that Marcel’s personal vision made it onto the screen even if it wasn’t exactly the vision that fans were hoping for. That’s why I appreciate this as the only Venom film that doesn’t feel like it required corporate-mandated reshoots and late nights in the editing-room in order to meet its release window.

We even get to see Mrs. Chen and Venom dance along to Abba – how can anyone hate this movie?

1. Venom (2018)

An ill-advised production that seemed doomed to fail, the original Venom was the one entry with the most problems stacked against it. And yet, this film somehow ended up being the most chaotically entertaining feature of the bunch.

The film actually went through numerous rewrites and iterations before unfortunately being greenlit after Sony reached their complicated deal with Disney that allowed Spider-Man to finally show up in the MCU while also preventing him from taking part in spin-offs.

Despite an army of lawyers advising what could and couldn’t be included in the film, what we ended up with was much more entertaining than it had any right to be. Yes, the movie was clearly re-edited to hell (mostly due to some unfortunate censorship meant to reduce the flick’s R rating to a more profitable PG-13) while also suffering from a shaky final act with a forgettable villain, but that just makes the passion behind the good parts of the experience that much more impressive.

Even with a script that feels like it was locked in a drawer for 15 years, Venom still miraculously captures the essence of its title character without even being allowed to depict his iconic spider logo. Eddie and the symbiote’s dialogue is lifted almost verbatim from the Lethal Protector comics (even if their arc is less impactful due to the lack of Supervillain baggage), and there’s a certain glossy style here that the other films weren’t able to replicate.

Of course, the main attraction here is watching Tom Hardy perform his dual role as if he were in a live-action Looney Tunes adaptation, with the actor’s under-appreciated comedic talents being responsible for most of the flick’s entertainment factor. The sequels might also benefit from this, but you can tell that Hardy really went all-in for this first movie.

It may not be high art, but I honestly enjoy this oddball flick more than most of the formulaic super-hero flicks that tend to garner good reviews.

Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters nationwide.

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It’s no secret that the brand new Blade movie has been bumped all over the release calendar the last couple years, currently set for theatrical release on November 7, 2025. But the movie is without a director at the moment, with Yann Demange (“Lovecraft Country”) departing the project in the wake of Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) exiting the film back in 2022.

In a new chat with BlackTree TV this week, fittingly ahead of San Diego Comic-Con 2024, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige gives us a minor update on the Blade project.

The good news? Much like Deadpool & Wolverine, which brings a new level of violence to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it sounds like Blade will DEFINITELY be rated “R.”

“For the last few years, as we’ve been trying to crack that movie, the most important thing for us is not rushing it. And making sure we are making the right Blade movie,” Feige explains.

He continues, “There were some great Blade movies years ago… they were all rated R. So I think that’s inherent – like Deadpool – inherent with the character of Blade.”

At this time, Mia Goth (X, Pearl, MaXXXine) is also on board to star in the film.

The vampire-slaying character was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan, introduced in July 1973’s The Tomb of Dracula #10. Wesley Snipes played Blade across three films from 1998 through 2004, and he was played by Sticky Fingaz in a short-lived TV series.

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“Agatha All Along” premieres with the first TWO episodes on September 18.

The series focuses on Kathryn Hahn’s character, Agatha Harkness, as she sets off on a dangerous, mysterious adventure filled with trials and tribulations. Showrunner Jac Schaeffer, who was the creative force behind “WandaVision,” directs the pilot episode.

In “Agatha All Along,” the infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth Teen helps break her free from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious Teen pull together a desperate coven, and set off down, down, down The Road…

In addition to Kathryn Hahn, “Agatha All Along” stars Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Maria Dizzia, Paul Adelstein, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Okwui Okpokwasili, with Debra Jo Rupp, with Patti LuPone, and Aubrey Plaza. The executive producers are Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum,  Mary Livanos and Jac Schaeffer. The directors for the series include Jac Schaeffer, Rachel Goldberg and Gandja Montiero.

Marvel Television’s “Agatha All Along” premieres September 18 at 6:00 p.m. PT/9:00 p.m. ET, with the first two episodes, exclusively on Disney+. Watch the official teaser trailer below.

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And look, the guy’s divisive! For the average person, the 2016 movie Deadpool may have been their introduction to the character, with Ryan Reynolds giving the titular character an abrasive, dirty sense of humor that some might place in the edgelord category.

But the character was spawned from a comic book series that’s changed hands a number of times and continues to this day. Naturally, that means there are several different interpretations of the antihero formerly known as Wade Wilson, including some that dial down the chimichanga jokes (a common fandom shorthand for the Deadpool of the comics’ baser comedy instincts).

This week on Guide to the Unknown, Kristen and Will discuss the good, the bad, and the unfortunate of Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool. They also learn about some of the comic storylines that highlight a little bit more of the pain Deadpool goes through, which makes the overabundance of A Lot-ness feel more palatable to people who may not be into that sort of thing.

Breaking the Fourth Wall a la the man himself: This is Kristen, cohost and writer of these GTTU posts. This week was not great for Will or me and included hospital stays and beloved dog goodbyes. We blew off some steam with a punchdrunk episode in which I complained about Deadpool’s dearth of euphemisms for male genitalia. If that sounds like your thing, dig in! If not, proceed with caution. Ooh, we’re so edgy.

Subscribe to Guide to the Unknown on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to get a new episode every Friday.

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One such experiment was the Marvel Knights imprint, a collection of stand-alone stories that initially focused on less-marketable heroes and gave artists free-reign to tell unique and more adult-oriented stories unshackled by decades of garbled continuity issues. While these stories didn’t always succeed in revitalizing characters for a new generation (and often contained the worst kind of late-90s/early 2000s edge), they were almost always incredibly stylish and memorable.

That’s why I think it’s very appropriate that Neveldine & Taylor’s film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance opens on a Marvel Knights logo instead of the traditional red intro that we’ve seen since the ’90s – almost as if the film itself is trying to let viewers know that this is meant to be a different take on a familiar property. And while the completed project wasn’t anything groundbreaking, I do think that the filmmakers having the guts to try something different makes this 2011 sequel worth revisiting.

Despite the first Ghost Rider’s middling critical reception, Nicolas Cage’s memorable performance and the character’s popular appeal basically guaranteed a sequel to the 2007 adaptation. However, Spirit of Vengeance was originally meant to be an R-rated thriller that would address complaints about the first movie’s goofy tone and put our favorite flaming skull in a high-octane story. That’s why the studio looked towards Crank directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor to helm the sequel and take it in a darker direction.

However, like many Sony projects about horror-adjacent comic-book characters, producers inevitably got cold feet after having already commissioned the script (which was penned and reworked by Scott M. Gimple, Seth Hoffman and David S. Goyer) and ended up scrapping many of the flick’s edgier elements while also slashing the budget to about half that of the original. Thankfully, they didn’t completely get rid of the edge, with the finished film still following a haunted Johnny Blaze (Cage) in Eastern Europe as he reluctantly partners with alcoholic French priest Moreau (Idris Elba) in order to protect a child from the latest incarnation of the devil, “Roarke” (with Ciarán Hinds replacing Peter Fonda).

AND WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?

With such a rocky road towards the big screen, it’s easy to assume that Spirit of Vengeance became yet another Marvel-based misstep in Sony’s catalogue (and you wouldn’t be completely wrong, judging by the flick’s 19% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes), but while I admit that a large part of the sequel’s negative reception is likely due to a half-baked script filled with embarrassing dialogue, I also think that 2011 simply wasn’t a great time to be a unorthodox comic-book movie. With the Dark Knight films redefining what audiences wanted from adaptations and The Avengers looming on the horizon with promises of comic-accurate fun, a horror-inspired standalone B-movie was never going to be a critical darling.

This is a huge shame, as there’s a lot to love about this incarnation of Ghost Rider even if it’s not a revolutionary thriller or a faithful love-letter to the comics. For starters, the flick is absolutely bursting with style, making frequent use of odd angles, humorous cutaways, exaggerated split-screen effects and even bizarre Mortal-Kombat-Fatality-inspired shots where we focus on certain action-heavy moments against a black background. It doesn’t always work or even feel coherent (especially when it comes to the humor), but it is consistently interesting to look at.

Obviously, the cool visuals also extend to the film’s action scenes. While there’s a recurring issue where both the main hero and main villain are so ridiculously overpowered that some of the so-called “fights” become awkward (which was also a recurring problem in the comics), the imagery almost always kicks ass and I appreciate the use of practical effects-work during vehicle chases – especially that last one.

And while Spirit of Vengeance benefits greatly from its cast, with Elba, Johnny Whitworth and an unexpected Christopher Lambert standing out as exaggerated yet fun caricatures, we all know that the real star of the show here is Nicolas Cage. The filmmakers really decided to let the man loose here as he portrays Blaze as a traumatized maniac desperately trying to contain an eldritch force that’s burning him alive from the inside. From his over-the-top line delivery to his cartoon-like mannerisms once the flaming skull takes over (you can easily tell that it’s still Cage during the motion-capture sequences), I can’t imagine not being entertained by this wild performance.

AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance may have been billed as a superhero flick, but you only need to watch a few minutes of it to realize that this is really a monster movie disguised as an action-heavy thriller. I mean, the first half of the film presents the Rider as an unstoppable killing machine striking fear into the hearts of criminals, with Whitworth’s Carrigan even going so far as to quote Bruce Campbell before shooting at the demon with a shotgun.

And though it’s a shame that Sony ended up neutering the film’s gore and more overt horror elements, there’ still plenty of genuinely horrific imagery to be found here – and almost all of it revolves around the titular character and his grisly transformations. In fact, Cage actually seems to be channeling The Wolfman throughout the flick, with Blaze knowing that an uncontrollable dark force lurks inside of him and could escape at any moment to hurt those he cares about the most.

Blackout’s decay powers are genuinely terrifying even if the film decides to mostly play them for laughs, and the idea that Blaze is actually protecting the possible antichrist is a fun horror-adjacent premise. Plus, I’m a big fan of the reveal that the “demon” inside the Ghost Rider is actually an angel that was driven mad after being exposed to hell.

Ultimately, Spirit of Vengeance is a midnight B-movie in every sense of the word. The script may be about as deep as a kiddie pool and only Cage really gets the chance to shine, but the stylish presentation and a handful of poignant moments like Blaze confessing his sins to Moreau or bonding with Danny make this a much better experience than you might initially expect.

And while I’m still waiting on a proper Robbie Reyes Ghost Rider movie where Cage returns as an older Blaze to pass the proverbial torch onto the younger hero, I’m glad that there’s at least one fun Ghost Rider adaptation out there. I can’t exactly call Spirit of Vengeance a great movie, but if you ask me if it’s worth experiencing at least once, my answer is yes. Hell, yes.

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The first seasons of all four shows will be housed in SteelBook packaging, and they’re coming along in the wake of “WandaVision,” “Loki” and “The Mandalorian” getting physical releases.

Head over to Variety to learn more about each of these upcoming releases.

Special features for Marvel’s “Moon Knight” include…

• Gag Reel
• Featurette: “Egyptology”
• Documentary: “Assembled: The Making of Moon Knight”
• 2 Deleted Scenes: “Don’t Go There” and “Breaking the Cycle”

Check out the “Moon Knight” SteelBook art below.

Oscar Isaac stars alongside Ethan Hawke.

Mohamed Diab (Clash) was the director and showrunner, with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Resolution, Spring, V/H/S: Viral, The Endless, Synchronic) directing as well.

“Moon Knight” was developed by Jeremy Slater (“The Exorcist”).

Moon Knight was created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin, introduced in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975). THR describes the Marvel character as “an ex-Marine turned mercenary whose multiple alter egos allow him to better fight crime.”

Oscar Isaac’s Steven Grant is a meek museum gift shop employee who discovers another personality’s presence once blackout time jumps put him in dangerous situations. As if struggling to navigate dissociative identity disorder, or discern dream from reality, wasn’t jarring enough, he realizes his alternate persona, Marc Spector, is a merc with enemies.

Both get thrust into a complex mystery involving ancient Egyptian gods, and they’ll need to rely on moon god Khonshu to survive it. Read our “Moon Knight” Season 1 review here.

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“X-Men: The Animated Series” debuted on Halloween 1992 on the Fox Kids Network, continuing for five seasons before coming to an end in September 1997. All these years later, the story continues in Disney+ series “X-Men ’97,” premiering on March 20, 2024!

And yes, the reboot series will indeed pick up where the original series left off!

Entertainment Weekly details, “X-Men ‘97 picks up after the events of X-Men: The Animated Series’ finale, which saw a gravely injured Charles Xavier leave his team of mutants behind to recover in outer space in the care of Lilandra among the Shi’ar Empire.”

Returning cast members include: Cal Dodd, Lenore Zann, George Buza, Adrian Hough, Christopher Britton, Catherine Disher, Chris Potter, Alison Sealy-Smith, and Alyson Court. New voices include Jennifer Hale, Anniwaa Buachie, Ray Chase, Matthew Waterson, JP Karliak, Holly Chou, Jeff Bennett, and AJ LoCascio.

Beau DeMayo has been set as the head writer and executive producer.

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No bad deed goes unpunished. All episodes of Marvel Studios’ “Echo,” a new Original series, stream January 10 on Disney+ and Hulu. Watch the bloody official trailer below.

The origin story of Echo revisits Maya Lopez, whose ruthless behavior in New York City catches up with her in her hometown. She must face her past, reconnect with her Native American roots and embrace the meaning of family and community if she ever hopes to move forward.

Sydney Freeland and Catriona McKenzie directed “Echo.”

Alaqua Cox, Chaske Spencer, Tantoo Cardinal, Devery Jacobs, Cody Lightning, Graham Greene and Zahn McClarnon star in the upcoming series from Hulu and Disney+.

“Echo” is a spinoff from the “Hawkeye” series, and it’s set in the world of “Daredevil.” The cast also includes Vincent D’Onofrio, reprising his role as Daredevil villain Kingpin.

The series will pave the way for the upcoming “Daredevil: Born Again.”

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Marvel Entertainment celebrates Halloween this morning with a “Marvel Studios Halloween” highlight reel, a clip compilation that embraces the darker corners of the MCU.

The video features clips from films and shows including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Ant-Man, Moon Knight, and Werewolf by Night, all of them streaming on Disney+.

And speaking of Werewolf by Night, last year’s black & white Halloween special is back this year with a brand new version of the special in full color, also now streaming on Disney+.

Celebrate a Marvel Halloween with the highlight reel video below.

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So what the hell is Midnight Suns, you ask?

Well, it’s a tactical RPG starring the titular team from Marvel Comics made by the same developers that gave us the fantastic modern X-COM games. Think of them like the team that the Avengers would call when things get too supernatural for them to handle. They deal with demons, the occult, and all sorts of spooky stuff. In the game you’ll recruit various Marvel heroes to the team and send them on missions against the forces of HYDRA, Mephisto (Marvel’s take on Satan), Lilith the Mother of All Demons (and main villain of the base game), and even Dracula himself.

The heroes are made up from various teams and solo acts from all parts of the Marvel universe, including characters from the Midnight Suns, The Avengers, and the X-Men. Once you have heroes at your home base, you pick three and send them on missions where battles and objectives play out in a turn-based fashion with each character’s abilities tied to a card system. It almost plays like a weird hybrid of Magic: The Gathering and Chess. In between missions you build up relationships with these dark heroes using your player character: The Hunter, Child of Lilith, resurrected from death. Eventually you’ll build bonds with more iconic characters like Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, and Magik and you’ll learn more about them and their personalities along the way. Sure this side of the game might be cheesy, but there’s something undeniably enjoyable about stargazing with Blade and Wolverine in between fighting off hordes of vampires and demons.

Where Midnight Suns really excels is in exploring the side of the Marvel Universe we don’t get to see much of. I’m of course talking about the horror side. Sure, there have been select projects recently like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the excellent Werewolf by Night, but never has there been a modern Marvel release that feels so tapped into the spooky stuff. Levels are adorned with pentagrams, demons, and summoners that feel more at a home in a Diablo game rather than a Marvel one. Your home base in the game is even a giant gothic church in Salem, Massachusetts, with wiccan effigies strung about as you talk to Agatha Harkness where she recounts the Salem Witch Trials. If that isn’t enough there are literal battles fought in Limbo that characters refer to as “Hell,” which is where you encounter Mephisto himself. It all feels so familiar yet refreshingly new for a superhero game.

The gameplay loop is an aspect I find absolutely addicting. I love prepping heroes for a mission in our free time and then launching a ruthless assault on our enemies, while looking forward to talking with them after. Despite knowing these characters for years from various comic books and movies, I feel as though I’m getting to know them on a deeper level. It’s also great seeing characters team up that normally wouldn’t; there’s something fascinatingly appealing about Captain America teaming up with Blade or Venom pairing up with Magik for a combo attack. It’s a feeling that only games like Ultimate Alliance deliver but I feel more tied to it here because I’m fostering these relationships in real time and watching them bloom. This combined with the fantastic tactical combat, refined by experiments made in X-COM: Chimera Squad, make Midnight Suns my current gaming addiction. I cannot stress enough how much I’m enjoying the hell out of this game, despite it seemingly not being on the radars of many at this time. 

It’s a damn shame the game isn’t selling well, either. I’m not sure if it was the lackluster marketing, being released in a crowded holiday season or if people are starting to get superhero fatigue, but Marvel’s Midnight Suns is one hell of a game that you should be playing. A modern update of an obscure ’90s team up that taps into the darker side of Marvel, wrapped up in a tactical RPG with relationship sim elements, it’s admittedly a bizarre combination on paper but I can’t help but be engrossed by the sum of its parts. I wish we had more weird experiments like this using the Marvel IP, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen after this and that’s an absolute shame.

With numerous free play weekends and sales for Marvel’s Midnight Suns becoming a regular thing, I urge you to try it out even if you only have a passing interest. Who knows, you may find your next gaming addiction in Marvel’s horror-based experience. I sure did.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns is now available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Coming soon to Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

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As we recently learned, Disney+ is developing an Agatha Harkness spinoff solo series, with Hahn set to reprise the role that made her such a beloved new member of the MCU.

The series is being described as a “dark comedy,” and today out of the ongoing San Diego Comic-Con we’ve learned that the new official title for the series is “Agatha: Coven of Chaos” and that shooting begins this year for a Winter 2023 release. The former title was “Agatha: House of Harkness“.

Jac Schaeffer (“WandaVision”) is on board the series as writer/exec producer.

Plot details for the spinoff project are under wraps at the moment, so it’s unclear if the series will pick up following the events of “WandaVision.” In the finale’s big final battle, Wanda of course defeated Agatha Harkness, trapping her in the town of Westview.

One of Earth’s most powerful witches, we knew she’d eventually be back…

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Marvel’s Predator comic book series promises to “deliver all the explosive action and relentless horror that fans have come to expect from this pop culture icon.”

Additionally, several Marvel Comics are getting tie-in variant covers to help promote the upcoming Predator series, with the horror movie monster battling various Marvel icons!

Comics including Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers Forever, Daredevil, Captain America, Miles Morales, and Hulk are getting awesome “vs Predator” variant covers, seen below.

Head over to Geek Tyrant to learn more, including dates for each issue.

And don’t forget, new Predator movie Prey is also coming this summer!

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The series from Ed Brisson and Kev Walker is set in the continuity of the film franchise, and it had been delayed due to a legal battle between Disney and the writers of the original film. AIPT Comics lets us know this week that Marvel’s Predator #1 will now launch on July 6!

“The story kicks off when a young girl sees her family slaughtered by a Predator. Years later, though her ship is barely holding together and food is running short, Theta won’t stop stalking the spaceways until the Yautja monster who killed her family is dead…or she is.”

Marvel’s Predator comic book series promises to “deliver all the explosive action and relentless horror that fans have come to expect from this pop culture icon.”

“I’ve been obsessed with Predator since first seeing the film at the drive-in theater as a kid. I can still remember sitting there in horrified fascination and then acting out the movie for my classmates the following week at school. I bought the VHS and wore the hell out of the tape. Getting to write the characters launch for Marvel is a dream come true. When they offered me the gig, I already had a million ideas ready to go,” Brisson said in a statement. “Not only am I excited to write a Predator book, but I’m doubly excited to be working with Kev Walker on the series. The pages he’s turned in so far and mind-blowing. He’s delivered awe-inspiring alien planets; huge, blood-pumping action scenes: and devastatingly emotional beats all in the space of the first issue. I really think we’re making something quite special here.”

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Marvel reveals, “Dazzler, Jubilee, Wolverine, and Boom-Boom star in an explosive new X-Men limited series by Leah Williams and Carlos Gómez this July!”

X-Terminators is being described as a “chaotic ride through a dark corner of Marvel’s underworld.” Marvel adds this morning, “Influenced by grindhouse films, fans can expect plenty of blood, sweat and sweet REVENGE in this refreshing new take on Marvel’s merry mutants!”

“In typical X-Men fashion, what starts as a wild night out gets even crazier when Jubilee, Boom-Boom, and Dazzler are kidnapped and put into elaborate death traps by a mysterious new army of enemies. What are three fierce mutants with the power to blow things up to do? Expect a hardcore, neon-fueled, down and dirty type of adventure unlike any seen before in X-Men history with all the light blasts, fireworks, time bombs, and brawling you can possibly hope for!”

“I’m excited about how gleefully transgressive this book is—it’s sexy, stupid, and chaotic,” Williams said. “One of my favorite moments in the making-of this book was Jordan [D. White] asking, ‘What do you think… Parental Advisory for this book? Or just T+?… I am leaning PA.’”

“I’m eager to be working on X-TERMINATORS with Leah!” Gómez added. “She’s an incredible writer and always delivers fun and engaging stories and this title is no exception! Did I mention it’s action-packed? Also, X-Men has been one of my favorite series, and it’s always cool to be back in the X-Family!”

X-Terminators #1 of 5 will be available on July 6, 2022. The limited series aims to put the “X” in exploitation, and you can check out Issue #1’s main cover artwork down below!

We’ll be keeping our eyes on this one…

The post ‘X-Terminators’ – New Marvel Limited Series Inspired by Grindhouse Movies! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This character has certainly earned his time in the spotlight, but has never really gotten it, not even on the page. Moon Knight (AKA Marc Spector AKA Steven Grant AKA Jake Lockley AKA Mr. Knight…) is one of Marvel’s most fascinating characters, and also one of its most wildly inconsistent, both in terms of continuity and in terms of maintaining an ongoing title. For a long time, he was simply known as being Marvel’s Batman, a hard-edged hero with an array of cool gadgets. Over time, his Dissociative Identity Disorder became the character’s most well-known trait. But in the early runs, Moon Knight’s DID is barely even hinted at, or flat out nonexistent. In some comic book runs, he could be simply using the names Jake Lockley and Steven Grant as aliases. In others, they’re totally individual personalities. The central concept behind Moon Knight as a hero is that he is the chosen avatar of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. But in some comics, Khonshu is hinted as being simply another manifestation of Marc’s mental illness, whereas in others, he’s an explicitly real entity.

These inconsistencies are honestly a part of what make Moon Knight such a great comic, character, and concept. The world is malleable, the character is open to all kinds of interpretations, and with so many varied takes, it’s exciting to read through that history and see the things that do remain consistent throughout each version. There are also some general things about Moon Knight that make him stand out from the sea of other Marvel heroes. One, as the son of a rabbi, he’s one of Marvel’s most prominent Jewish characters. Also, despite his costume and cape, he falls pretty firmly into the supernatural side of Marvel. Moon Knight made his first appearance in the pages of Werewolf by Night and the two characters have made regular appearances in each other’s books ever since. These are also the things that make the character so ripe for adaptation. There are so many fresh directions to take him in and, based solely on the pilot, Jeremy Slater and the rest of the team behind the new series seem to understand and take full advantage of that.

But while I’ve said that I never expected Moon Knight to ever make it to the screen, that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been attempts over the years. There have, and they date back surprisingly far. In 1978, Japan’s Toei Company released their now infamous live-action Spider-Man series, which has now achieved cult status for the astonishing liberties it took as an adaptation. In that show, Spider-Man was a motocross racer with his powers gifted to him by an alien, and would call upon his trusty giant mecha-robot to save the world from monsters. Spider-Man was not the only hero Toei licensed from Marvel, though. They also had plans for the Silver Surfer, 3D-Man and, as you’ve probably guessed since you’re reading this article, Moon Knight. There had previously been a Western-influenced Japanese hero named Moonlight Mask, and apparently the folks at Toei thought the Marvel hero would be a clever way to reference their own past. And, in a way, this did wind up happening. Even though Toei’s Moon Knight was tragically never realized on screen, they did produce a manga series published in Televi-Kun magazine from 1979 to 1980.

The second attempt at bringing Moon Knight to television came through the now largely forgotten Blade: The Series. This series was the first live-action Marvel property to name-drop Marc Spector, right in the pilot, in a bit where Blade describes him as a “werewolf expert.” This is a clever nod to the character’s history, as Moon Knight made his debut appearance in an issue of Werewolf by Night. That reference was not totally off-hand, though. There were plans to introduce Moon Knight in Blade’s second season, had the show continued. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Blade was actually a success for Spike TV at the time, the network made the decision to move away from scripted content. In a 2006 Comic Con panel, showrunner David Goyer mentioned that they had a “really interesting take” on Moon Knight, with one major conceit, as he also noted that he wasn’t sure the character could wear his costume on screen. That makes the “what could have been” aspect of Moon Knight’s appearance on Blade a lot less exciting, though it’s not remotely surprising for the time.

Later that same year, in 2006, Marvel Studios partnered with No Equal Entertainment, a Vancouver-based company, to develop a Moon Knight TV series. Given the separate production company and team and the fact that it was announced after Blade had ended, it almost certainly would have had nothing to do with Blade’s take on the character. Hopefully that means it also would have included the character’s costume. There’s a better chance, as the studio at the time at least made it sound like the show would have embraced genre conventions. Marvel Entertainment’s David Maisel noted that No Equal Entertainment had “a real passion for the project and an amazing vision of how to bring the character and storyline to life that will appeal to action and sci-fi enthusiasts.”

No Equal’s J.B. Sugar would have served as executive producer, and also noted at the time that, “We are delighted to be in business with Marvel Entertainment and believe that Moon Knight will make a compelling and long-lasting television series.” As a director and producer Sugar worked on everything from the TV series The Collector to Painkiller Jane, R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour, Bitten and Dark Matter.

In 2008, after nearly two years of silence following the initial announcement, an update was made that Jon Cooksey—known for everything from Rugrats to Primeval—was hired to develop the series, had written the series bible, and that six scripts had been developed for the first season. That almost sounds like a done deal, but of course it was not the case. Unfortunately, no details have ever really gotten out there about what this series would have entailed. As mentioned, there are so many wildly varied ways to do Moon Knight that one can’t help but wonder how similar or incredibly different it could have been to what we’re now getting. Even though I’m thrilled that this hero has finally made it to the screen, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t deeply curious to read those six scripts, or even know what happened in them, if they were ever actually written.

Since then, there have been one or two other close calls, with just as few details given. At one point, James Gunn admitted that he had pitched a Moon Knight movie to Marvel Studios, and that it had gone nowhere. Throughout the entire run of the Netflix shows, there were constant rumors popping up as to the possibility of a Moon Knight appearance, though it’s unknown and probably unlikely that anything was ever actually planned. Moon Knight also made a few animated TV appearances over the past few years in Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble and the 2017 Spider-Man series.

Now, after years of less and less likely attempts, Moon Knight is here. It’s happening. He’s made it. As a fan, I loved the pilot and don’t mind the deviations from the source material, because there’s no real concrete canon to latch onto. I love that Steven Grant, a secondary personality of Marc Spector’s in the comics (and apparently in the series as well) is the protagonist. I love that Arthur Harrow, a character who has appeared in a small handful of comics at best, is the villain. I have no idea what to expect from this show from one moment to the next, and I get the feeling that neither does its main character and that, to me, is the essence of Moon Knight. And as someone who foolishly got my hopes up reading about the TV show’s announcement in 2006, I am so, so happy that it finally exists.

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The marketing behind the latest Marvel series arriving on Disney+ has promised an atypical, genre-bending introduction to a new superhero entering the MCU. It certainly helps that, outside of the comic realm, Moon Knight remains a lesser-known character, therefore a mystery. The talent behind the camera further supports the genre boast, with “The Exorcist” TV Series’ Jeremy Slater as “Moon Knight” creator and indie horror wunderkinds Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead helming part of this six-episode limited series. While “Moon Knight” doesn’t deviate too far from the MCU mold, so far, it does live up to its genre-bending promise with a heady dive into Egyptian mythology and action-adventure storytelling.

Director Mohamed Diab jumpstarts the limited series with a rousing premiere episode that hits the ground running for poor Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac). He’s a meek museum gift shop employee who discovers another personality’s presence once blackout time jumps put him in dangerous situations. As if struggling to navigate dissociative identity disorder, or discern dream from reality, wasn’t jarring enough, he realizes his alternate persona, Marc Spector, is a merc with enemies. Both get thrust into a complex mystery involving ancient Egyptian gods, and they’ll need to rely on moon god Khonshu to survive it.

The first episode uses Steven Grant’s perspective to plunge viewers into the deep end. Action sequences, a jarring loss of self-control, and the introduction of the central antagonist, a charismatic but forebodingly powerful cult leader, Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), make for a zippy entry point. The subsequent two episodes slow things down dramatically to unfurl dense mythology and put Steven/Marc properly on an adventure quest loosely reminiscent of The Mummy in terms of tone, scale, and, occasionally, horror.

“Moon Knight” is at its most compelling when focused solely on the inner battle for control between personalities. Steven and Marc couldn’t be further apart in morals or demeanors, with contradicting motivations that make dealing with swarming enemies or Khonshu’s directives difficult. The friction between them is engaging and even funny, particularly in how they channel the moon god’s gifts. The way the narrative toggles between them leads to atypical scenarios and situations. The mythology also adds visual and narrative interest to a lesser extent, explicitly pertaining to Khonshu.

Beyond that, “Moon Knight” falls into more familiar patterns of an emerging hero or antihero. Hawke makes unique choices that add gravitas to Arthur Harrow, but his motivations feel right out of the MCU villain-writing playbook. That lessens the impact. The front half of “Moon Knight” indicates that it may be destined to take the same narrative path as many MCU heroes before, one of an unwitting character thrust into a role they didn’t ask for while trying to navigate the newly gifted supernatural powers.

Much like the intersection of Steven and Marc, “Moon Knight” could go either way. There are enough genre-bending elements to give it unconventional style and tension, centered around a deeply, morally conflicted character that immediately hooks you. There’s still so much of Khonshu’s realm yet to be discovered, which also presents exciting genre potential. How Steven/Marc’s story comes together will ultimately reveal the answer to whether this is another familiar MCU hero’s journey or the start of a fascinating, more personal exploration of genres and cultures within the superhero framework. For now, it’s refreshingly free from all MCU context and existing storylines, making for an easy watch without needing to brush up on homework first. At least one thing is clear so far; the volatile Moon Knight character makes for a welcome change of pace.

“Moon Knight” premieres on Disney+ on March 20, with new episodes airing weekly.

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After a brief scene of a woman giving birth after enduring a vampire attack, Blade opens to a couple racing to an underground rave tucked away in a meat-packing plant. The woman, Racquel (Traci Lords), guides her awestruck date (Kenny Johnson) through the heavy crowds to the middle of the dance floor. Racquel quickly ditches him for a more assertive dance partner, who shoves him aside. The unwitting meal has just enough time to realize his error in judgement when he notices a drop of blood that’d fallen into his palm. The overhead sprinklers kick on, spraying the dance floor and its eager inhabitants in a thick coating of blood.

Through viscous blood-soaked eyes, the poor date slowly realizes that ravenous fanged ravers surround him. He’s battered and thrown around in attempts to flee until he crawls straight into the boots of Blade. The hunters become the hunted as the leather-clad daywalker pulls out a shotgun and starts plowing his way through the horde.

Written by David S. Goyer and directed by Stephen Norrington, Blade‘s iconic blood rave introduction creates a stylish tone that makes it clear this won’t be your average Gothic vampire flick. Cinematographer Theo van de Sande employed a special anamorphic-lens camera that allowed hand-held shots to capture the action. A strobe light was also attached to the camera, enhancing the scene’s tension and giving a starker contrast with the blood. Considering the sheer volume of blood spray, the technical precision that went into this blood rave sequence is, pardon the pun, a marvel.

Narratively, this frenetic opening is a quick plunge into the deep end of an already established world. It doesn’t take long for the viewer to realize that Racquel’s date is in over his head, and his date ramps up from bad to worse in a dizzying way. That doomed feeling reaches a fever pitch when the date confusingly tries to determine the red substance on his fingers while the crowd eagerly reaches up for the rain of blood behind him. Blade’s arrival just as the man’s about to succumb to a feeding frenzy halts the intense scene in its tracks.

This memorable introduction conveys everything you need to know about the character. Snipes imbues Blade with a no-nonsense stoicism with one key exception: he lives for and revels in slaying vampires. He takes on a horde of blood-covered vampires with ease and stops to give himself a proud fist pump for nailing vampire enforcer Quinn (Donal Logue) to the wall with a stake. It’s a rare glimpse of humor for an otherwise straightforward character embittered by his half-vampire status. When the cops arrive, Blade vanishes, sending the clear message that the daywalker doesn’t care much for the human world either.

The technical prowess on display dramatically heightens the stylish, blood-drenched introduction to a Marvel antihero. It visually spells out all we need to know about the character at the story’s outset. It’s an iconic grand entrance, one that instantly comes to mind when mentioning the original Blade trilogy. Even though superhero fare has become far more mainstream and commonplace since Blade‘s 1998 release, the blood rave scene remains an unmatched standout.

Scene Screams is a recurring column that spotlights the scenes in horror that make us scream, whether through fear, laughter, or tears. It examines the most memorable, and often scariest, scenes in horror and what it is about them that makes them get under our skin. 

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Blade was, of course, only Marvel’s second big screen venture after 1986’s Howard the Duck—and far more successful, at that. While the credit usually goes to X-Men and Spider-Man for the massive comic book movie boom that has now sustained for two decades, Blade did so much to open the door to allow both of those films to happen in the first place. It was a film about an obscure character, a massive gamble, and it paid off. Because the movie was so risky, it’s actually a little surprising that director Stephen Norrington and writer David Goyer thought to set up a sequel in the first place, even if that tease was eventually cut.

To refresh anyone’s memory if they need it, Blade as we know it ends with the vampire hunter and the human Karen emerging onto a rooftop after their battle with Deacon Frost. Karen, who has cured herself of the infection, offers to help cure Blade as well, but having had his bloodlust reignited, he only suggests she make him a stronger serum instead, as he still needs his abilities in order to do his job. The movie then cuts to Moscow, where we see Blade set to take out some Russian vampires.

Initially, in the deleted ending, that rooftop scene went on a little longer. Blade still tells Karen to keep her cure because, as he says, “I still have a job to do.” This time, Karen then tells him “You’re on the clock,” revealing a figure watching the conversation from atop a nearby building. That figure is none other than Morbius. All in all, this blatant sequel tease of an ending might be a little too on-the-nose, but it’s also deliciously cheesy.

This ending was filmed and has been available to watch online in pretty low quality for years. Unfortunately, a higher-res version has never surfaced, though I would love to see any kind of behind-the-scenes footage or photos for what went into shooting that, if they even exist.

Imagine that, though: Morbius making his debut at the end of Blade, directly to tease a sequel in which he would be a central figure, before we even had Spider-Man on the big screen. More than that, this is the kind of direct, blatant sequel set-up that the MCU is known for and it was shot a full decade before the release of Iron Man. Heck, Marvel wouldn’t even attempt another credits sting until X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006. So what happened? Why was this amazing set-up scrapped in the first place?

The question is mostly answered by writer David Goyer on the DVD commentary. The ending was meant to set up a sequel in which Morbius would be the main antagonist. That was Goyer and director Stephen Norrington’s idea and would have formed the backbone of his sequel; but when Norrington left, that idea went with him. Guillermo del Toro came on board to direct Blade II instead and, naturally, wanted to do his own thing. That resulted in what most fans consider to the best movie of the Blade franchise.

It’s interesting to think of Morbius as the villain in the Blade sequel and what that may have looked like. Yes, the character made his debut as a Spider-Man villain, and he has a long history of rivalry with Blade, but he has never been anything but sympathetic. It would be surprising to see him portrayed as an outright antagonist, though it’s also possible that this hypothetical long-dead Blade II could have seen the two anti-heroes taking on some larger threat. With Morbius being not quite a vampire—or at least someone who came to vampirism through extremely non-conventional means—and often struggling to keep his bloodlust under control, he has a great deal in common with Blade. I’ve often assumed that their longstanding hatred for one another stems from just how much of themselves they see in the other, as there are so many similarities between the two of them. After all, vampires tend to get testy about looking into a mirror.

Everything about what that version of Blade II may have entailed is pure speculation, unfortunately, as it never seemed to even make it to a script stage, despite Morbius’ introduction being filmed. Sequel ideas were also tossed around introducing comic characters Frank Drake and Hannibal King, the latter of which would eventually appear in Blade Trinity played by Ryan Reynolds. Stephen Norrington turned down the offer to direct the sequel and del Toro came in with his own vampire mythology, to obviously great results. Norrington, however, had a much bigger role in Morbius’ introduction at the end of the original Blade than most fans would probably ever think to guess. I had always assumed the role of Morbius in that scrapped cameo was played by an unnamed stuntman, but the truth is way more interesting as the person wearing Morbius’ billowy coat in that cut finale is none other than director Stephen Norrington himself.

That’s both amazing and entirely unsurprising as it meant not having to hire someone for an incredibly brief role, plus the fact that you can’t actually make out any details about Morbius save for his signature long, black hair.

After his departure from Blade, Norrington wound up becoming attached to countless other projects, including a few other Marvel movies. In 2001, he was attached to direct Ghost Rider, before the project shifted hands from Dimension to Columbia. That same year, he signed a deal to direct The Hands of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu, which was in development for years, though never actively, and Norrington was replaced as director on that by Yuen Woo-ping in 2005. In 2007, he was set to direct the remake of Clash of the Titans which he left on the grounds that he had never grown up with the original, handing the reigns to Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier instead. In 2008, Norrington announced that he would direct a remake of The Crow and remained attached for several years before departing in 2013. Several other filmmakers have come and gone from that project since. Norrington was also said by Robert Englund to have been attached to Freddy vs. Jason in 2001. Just before Norrington was attached—and just after Rob Bottin disappeared from both the development of that film and the industry as a whole—Englund noted another filmmaker had boarded the project when speaking to Horror Online at the time: “I believe they were going to go with Guillermo del Toro, who I love. I loved Cronos and Mimic. But he’s busy with Blade II now.”

By that timeline, Norrington would have turned down Blade II, leaving del Toro to come in and replace him, with del Toro leaving Freddy vs. Jason in the process, leaving Norrington to replace him on that. Which, if true, is an amazing perfect circle of development hell. Unfortunately, other than the quotes from Englund, neither director’s involvement has ever seemed to be substantiated, so it’s possible that neither one of them was ever as seriously involved with the project as rumors have led fans to believe.

Norrington’s last film as director was 2003’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. As a big fan of that first Blade, though, I would love to see him finally direct something else that actually gets made. While Blade would certainly have been a no-brainer to bring Morbius to the big screen, it’s crazy to actually see the character debut in his own solo film two decades later. It’s a natural instinct to think it’s insane that comic book culture has ballooned to such a massive size that characters like Morbius can get their own movie, but the truth is, thanks to being tied to Spider-Man and featuring prominently in the ‘90s animated series, Morbius was probably a more well known character than Blade at the time that movie came out. Although Blade made a few appearances on that cartoon as well, they were smaller guest appearances, like many other Marvel heroes.

Between then and now there was another outlet that was rumored to see Morbius make his live-action debut: the short-lived Blade: The Series. That show, which ran for only thirteen episodes on Spike, was cancelled after an extreme cliffhanger. David Goyer and everyone involved seemed to think a second season was almost guaranteed and there were concrete plans for what the second season would have entailed. While rumors of Morbius’ inclusion circulated for a long time, they were never confirmed and there’s almost no way they could be true, as by that time the Spider-Man franchise was in full swing and the character was firmly tied up at Sony. However: Blade: The Series was set to mark the live-action debut of yet another Marvel character long before they finally hit the screen, as the supernatural vigilante Moon Knight was set to appear in the second season, had it been made. Moon Knight now has a series headed to Disney+.

For a character (and film) that almost never gets mentioned alongside other foundational Marvel heroes, Blade did a ton to make this hero-heavy climate possible, in some unconventional, crucial, and unfortunately largely forgotten ways.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on January 16, 2020.

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“Moon Knight” takes flight on Disney+ March 30, and this new look at the series covers the duality of the character and the show’s approach to the topic of mental health.

“Ultimately, [we wanted to] take the mental health aspect incredibly serious,” Isaac notes of the show’s intentions. You can watch the brand new “Moon Knight” featurette below.

Mohamed Diab (Clash) is on board as director and showrunner, with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Resolution, Spring, V/H/S: Viral, The Endless, Synchronic) directing as well.

“Moon Knight” was developed by Jeremy Slater (“The Exorcist”).

Ethan Hawke will be playing the series’ lead villain.

Moon Knight was created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin, introduced in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975). THR describes the Marvel character as “an ex-Marine turned mercenary whose multiple alter egos allow him to better fight crime.”

Moon Knight has to date never appeared in the world of live-action, and the Disney+ series is reportedly set to pave the way for the character to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Moon Knight has recently been voiced on TV by Diedrich Bader (Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister Six), Gideon Emery (“Avengers Assemble”) and Peter Giles (“Spider-Man”).

The post “Moon Knight” Featurette Explores the Unpredictability of Marvel’s Latest Series appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Deadline reports tonight that Aaron Pierre (“Krypton,” “The Underground Railroad,” M. Night Shyamalan’s Old) has signed on to star alongside Mahershala Ali.

The Blade reboot’s cast will also include Delroy Lindo.

No word yet on character details for either actor. Stay tuned.

We don’t yet have a release date for the MCU debut of the beloved character, but Blade did make his presence known with a brief vocal cameo appearance in Chloé Zhao’s recent Marvel movie, Eternals. Stacy Osei-Kuffour (“Watchmen”) was recently brought on board to write the script, and Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) will be directing Marvel’s Blade reboot.

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“Moon Knight” takes flight on Disney+ March 30. Watch the spot below.

Ethan Hawke will be playing the series’ lead villain.

Mohamed Diab (Clash) is on board as director and showrunner, with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Resolution, Spring, V/H/S: Viral, The Endless, Synchronic) directing as well.

Moon Knight was created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin, introduced in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975). THR describes the Marvel character as “an ex-Marine turned mercenary whose multiple alter egos allow him to better fight crime.”

Moon Knight has to date never appeared in the world of live-action, and the Disney+ series is reportedly set to pave the way for the character to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Moon Knight has recently been voiced on TV by Diedrich Bader (Ultimate Spider-Man vs. The Sinister Six), Gideon Emery (“Avengers Assemble”) and Peter Giles (“Spider-Man”).

The post “Moon Knight” Super Bowl Spot Features Fresh Footage from Marvel’s Dark New Series appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Daniel Espinosa‘s (Life) Morbius takes a bite out of theaters on April 1, 2022.

Check out the brand new Morbius poster below!

Sony’s latest Spider-Man spinoff centers on Michael Morbius, a scientist who, in trying to find a cure for a rare blood disease, accidentally transforms himself into a living vampire. Though disgusted by his own bloodlust, he chooses to prey upon criminals he deems unworthy of life.

Here’s the full official synopsis from Sony…

“One of Marvel’s most compelling and conflicted characters comes to the big screen as Oscar® winner Jared Leto transforms into the enigmatic antihero Michael Morbius.

“Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder and determined to save others suffering his same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts a desperate gamble. While at first it seems to be a radical success, a darkness inside him is unleashed. Will good override evil – or will Morbius succumb to his mysterious new urges?”

Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless wrote the script.

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