Marvel Team-Up: Watch the First Two 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Trailers!

Spider-Man finally came home to Marvel Studios earlier this year, and he made quite the debut in Captain America: Civil War, where he was Tony Stark’s trump card against Captain America’s rebel Avengers. The team-up of Spider-Man and Iron Man was a total crowd-pleaser, so it makes sense that Marvel would want to play up their relationship in the first two previews for Spider-Man: Homecoming, but there’s so much Tony Stark in these trailers that it almost looks more like an old-fashioned “Mighty Marvel Team-Up” than a solo Spidey movie.

Of course, Marvel Studios didn’t reacquire the rights to Spider-Man just to make another, completely solo superhero movie. Sony has been producing those for the better part of a decade. And certainly everybody loves seeing Robert Downey Jr. play Tony Stark again and again, so I’m not complaining about that either. But I do hope that Iron Man doesn’t completely steal the movie away from Spider-Man. Peter Parker is a great superhero in his own right, and he deserves an opportunity to really shine again, and this is his first real opportunity in quite a few years after the disappointing (and failed) Amazing Spider-Man reboot.

Everything else about these previews â€" one domestic, one international, both fairly similar â€" looks just dandy. The focus is one the heroes instead of the villain, The Vulture, played by Michael Keaton (hot off his Oscar-nominated turn as the superhero Birdman, funnily enough). The Vulture looks like a high-tech bank robber, which is par for the course with Spidey. Hopefully the future previews will make it clearer why the Vulture is a serious threat, because after taking on half the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War (including Falcon, a flying guy), another flying guy doesn’t seem like much of a threat to him right now.

There’s a lot of unanswered questions here, and a lot of the movie we are obviously not seeing. These first previews are Marvel’s attempt to grab our attention, and take advantage of the marketing potential for teaming Spider-Man up with Iron Man one more time. It may be that those scenes are only a small percentage of the movie, and this is just an advertising ploy. It’s too early to say for certain. All we can say for sure is that these previews look pretty good so far, and that we’re looking forward to seeing the film for ourselves when Spider-Man: Homecoming hits theaters on July 7, 2017.

Domestic Trailer:

[embedded content]

International Trailer:

Llegó la hora. Ve el trailer de Spider-Man De Regreso a Casa y prepárate para su estreno en 2017. #SpidermanLaPelícula #SpiderManHomecoming pic.twitter.com/PuJj8jv012

â€" SonyPicturesMX (@SonyPicturesMX) December 9, 2016

From the Press Release:

A young Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland), who made his sensational debut in Captain America: Civil War, begins to navigate his newfound identity as the web-slinging super hero in Spider-Man: Homecoming.  Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine â€" distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man â€" but when the Vulture (Michael Keaton) emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened. 

Directed by Jon Watts. Produced by Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal. Screenplay by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley and Jon Watts & Christopher Ford and Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers, Based on the Marvel Comic Book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.

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Fox Sets Release Dates for Two Secret Marvel Movies; Pushes ‘Kingsman 2’ to October 2017

In addition to moving up the release date of Ridley Scott’s highly anticipated Prometheus follow-up >Alien: Covenant from August 2017 to May 2017, 20th Century Fox also shuffled another film and set release dates for a pair of unspecified Fox/Marvel movies. First the known: the sequel >Kingsman: The Golden Circle has been pushed out of the Summer 2017 corridor from its previous release date of June 16, 2017, and will now open in theaters on October 6, 2017. That’s quite a different landscape as the film will now be squaring off directly with the sequel >Blade Runner: 2049, but one imagines Fox will be playing up the action-comedy angle of the Kingsman follow-up in contrast to Denis Villeneuve’s sure-to-be serious tone for the Blade Runner sequel. Still, that’s one heck of a choice you’re asking the audience to make, and one wonders if Blade Runner might shift a bit in the wake of this news.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is no half-assed follow-up either, as Matthew Vaughn returns to direct with an all-star cast that includes returning members Taron Egerton and Colin Firth alongside newcomers Julianne Moore, Channing Tatum, and Elton John. The first movie opened in February 2015 and grossed $414.3 million worldwide, which is incredibly solid for an R-rated action romp. I’ll be interested to see if the sequel can find similar success in the fall season.

>

Image via 20th Century Fox

The October 6, 2017 release was actually previously occupied by an untitled Fox/Marvel film, which many believed was pegged for >Gambit. Filming on that X-Men spinoff starring Channing Tatum was supposed to begin in Fall 2015, but the project subsequently lost two directors and is undergoing script rewrites, so the delays plus the fact that it still has no director makes that October 2017 date impossible.

But not to fearâ€"Fox is still bullish on churning out features based on the Marvel properties it owns the rights to, as the studio has now dated Untitled Fox/Marvel films for release on November 2, 2018 and February 14, 2019. One of these dates could be for >Deadpool 2, which just landed John Wick co-director David Leitch to take the helm after Tim Miller dropped out over creative differences with star Ryan Reynolds. This sequel is a priority for Fox given that the first filmâ€"a modestly budgeted R-rated superhero movieâ€"grossed an insane $782.6 million worldwide. Production is expected to begin sometime next year as casting was well underway when Miller left, so really Deadpool 2 could be ready for release either in November 2018 or February 2019. It depends on how long Fox wants to wait and what kind of launch they want to give the follow-up. Deadpool surpassed all expectations with some solid counter-programming over the Valentine’s Day weekend of this year, so they could simply follow the same formula and release on Valentine’s Day 2019. Or the film could get a splashy holiday season superhero debut in November.

>

Image via 20th Century Fox

Or, what’s more likely, Deadpool 2 could take the previously announced March 2, 2018 “Untitled Fox/Marvel Film” release date and February 14, 2019 is being eyed for the >Deadpool 3/X-Force movie that’s already in the works. Fox is reportedly already trying to nail down a director for >Deadpool 3, so the timeline would work out so that Deadpool 2 shoots in 2017 for a 2018 release and Deadpool 3/X-Force shoots in 2018 for a 2019 release.

That November 2, 2018 date is currently home to Disney’s live-action Mulan as well as an untitled Paramount Event Film, which is likely a Transformers movie. February 14, 2019, meanwhile, is currently empty.

So if one of these movies is Deadpool 3, what’s the other one? The most likely candidate is >New Mutants, which has Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) writing and directing and is planned as a YA-skewing X-Men spinoff. Or it could be Gambit, if that movie finally gets off the ground. The main X-Men franchise is at a bit of an impasse as writer/producer Simon Kinberg is expected to try and jump-start things after the lackluster reception of X-Men: Apocalypse, but director Bryan Singer is not returning and the contracts for Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, and James McAvoy have all been fulfilled. The plan now, reportedly, is for Kinberg to take a stab at writing a new X-Men film that assumes Lawrence, Fassbender, and McAvoy re-up their contracts, but with so many unknowns it’s unlikely that film would be ready for a November 2018 release.

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| Sets | Release | Dates | Secret | Marvel | Movies; | Pushes | ‘Kingsman | 2’ | October | 2017 | addition | moving | release | date | Ridley | Scott’s | highly | anticipated | Prometheus | follow-up | Kingsman: | Golden | Circle | been | pushed | Summer | corridor | from | previous | June | 2017, | will | open | theaters | 2017. | That’s | quite | different | landscape | film | squaring | directly | with | sequel | Image | 20th | Century | Fox The | actually | previously | occupied | untitled | Fox/Marvel | film, | which | many | believed | pegged | Deadpool | just | landed | John | Wick | co-director | David | Leitch | take | helm | after | Miller | dropped | over | creative | differences | star | Ryan | Reynolds. | This | priority | given | that | first | filmâ€"a | modestly | budgeted | R-rated | superhero | movieâ€"grossed | insane | $782.6 | million | worldwide. | Production | expected | begin | sometime | next | year | casting | well | underway | when | left, | really | could | ready | either | November | 2018 | February | 2019. | depends | long | wants | wait | what | kind | launch | they | want | give | follow-up. | surpassed | expectations | some | solid | counter-programming | Valentine’s | weekend | this | year, | simply | follow | same | formula | splashy | holiday | season | debut | November. Deadpool | 3/X-Force | movie | that’s | already | works. | reportedly | trying | nail | down | director | timeline | would | work | shoots | 2019 | release. That | currently | home | Disney’s | live-action | Mulan | Paramount | Event | Film, | likely | Transformers | movie. | 2019, | meanwhile, | empty. So | these | movies | what’s | other | one? | most | candidate |

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X-MEN: PRIME Ushers in a New Era for Marvel’s Mutants

We’ve got a ton of Marvel Comics news in this, your weekend edition of Comics Relief! Aside from all the Marvel news, we also have the scoop on a major indie publisher getting in on the superhero shared universe, plus more comics announcements. Read on for all the details!

With the titles and creative teams announced now for the >X-Men RessurXion run (see our item down below for the final one), Marvel has announced thatâ€"in order to get the entire Mutant Renaissance goingâ€"they are releasing a one-shot special called X-Men: Prime. The name itself calls back to the team’s heyday, as X-Men: Prime was also the special that relaunched the team after >Age of Apocalypse in 1995.

X-Editor Daniel Ketchum said, “ResurrXion is all about embracing the [X-Men’s] original dream of coexisting with humans and fighting together to make a better world. All the books in some way, shape, or form, embrace that idea. We’re going to get back to flights, and tights, and capes, and all the classic X-Men tropes. We very much want to harken back to that era where it’s the most classic iteration of the X-Men.”

One tidbit Ketchum dropped in the X-Men: Prime announcement was that the >X-Men: Blue teamâ€"which features the original five membersâ€"would add another female to the team. Considering that former X-23 and current Wolverine Laura Kinney is on the cover, I’d say she is a good bet to join the gang. For more from Ketchum on X-Men: Prime, plus sketches of the team’s new/old costumes, click on the following link: [Entertainment Weekly]

The last X-Men: ResurrXion title to get their creative team announced was the new >Cable series, but this week Marvel finally gave us the details. The new book will be coming from writer James Robinson, who wrote Cable for a stint in the ’90s, along with artist Carlos Pacheco. The new ongoing series will focus on Cable as a time jumping warrior. You can see preview artwork for the new series above.

According to Robinson, “Time travel is part of his make-up in almost every aspect of his history â€" no pun intended. This series will be Cable on a race against time to fix time. The reason Cable must take on this quest will reveal itself as the story and mystery unfolds, but he’s doing it for the sake of the Marvel Universe, which will fall apart if he doesn’t take action.” For more on the new Cable book, click on the following link: [Marvel]

For decades, publisher Fantagraphics was the ultimate anti-mainstream comics publisher. Home of such notable works as >Love and Rockets and >Eightball, you couldn’t find a cape and tights anywhere near a Fantagraphics logo. That changes in 2017 though, as the indie publisher has announced plans to launch a line of superhero books under the banner All Time Comics.

The new line was started by alternative cartoonist and writer Josh Bayer, created with his brother Samuel Bayer (director behind music videos like Nirvana classic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and the not-so-classic remake of >A Nightmare on Elm. St).

The All Time line will have six individual but interconnected superhero stories featuring both veteran mainstream artists and some lesser known, indie cartoonists. The series launches this spring with Crime Destroyer #1, (for which you can see a teaser image for above), featuring the last art of longtime >Incredible Hulk artist Herb Trimpe who passed away last year. All Time Comics begins in March from Fantagraphics. For more info on the new line, be sure to click here: [CBR]

In anticipation of Danny Rand’s upcoming Netflix debut, Marvel has announced plans for a new >Iron Fist ongoing series, from writer Ed Brisson and artist Mike Perkins. The new series will debut in March and pick up where the Kaare Andrews 2015 Iron Fist: The Living Weapon series left off.

Brisson said in a statement, “Danny’s in a weird place. He’s questioning who he is and he’s pushing himself. He’s a person filled with self-doubt, but he’s always going to have his sense of humor about him â€" even if he’s using it to cover his own pain. He’s an outsider who’s always trying to fit in, trying to find a place where he belongs.”

Iron Fist will continue to star in the >Power Man and Iron Fist series, and will also take center stage in another title, Iron Fists, by Kaare Andrews and Afu Chan. The new Iron First hits in March, and you can see a teaser for issue #1 above. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Maybe as a way of cosmically balancing out the dark and sexy version of Archie, Jughead, and friends heading to the CW next year in >Riverdale, publisher Archie Comics is now teasing an even more wholesome version of their flagship characters. Archie Comics has posted a teaser image to their Facebook page featuring the outline of what looks like a tiny Archie Andrews and the words “Baltazar. Franco. LITTLE.”

Looks like the creators of Tiny Titans and Itty Bitty Hellboy Art Baltazar and Franco are coming out with a cute kid version of Archie and friends. The image features the heading “March, 2017”, so it looks like we won’t have to wait long for this one. You can see the new teaser image above. [CBR]

If you guessed that >Goosebumps creator R.L. Stine‘s upcoming work for Marvel was going to be centered around a monster type character, then you get a cookie and a gold star, as the publisher has announced R.L. Stine as the new writer behind their upcoming >Man-Thing series, a five-issue miniseries featuring the fearsome swamp beast.

Artist German Peralta will partner on the miniseries, and Stine will write the backup stories, which will have a new artist for each issue. The main story of the series will revolve around Ted’s attempt to escape his fate as the Man-Thing for good. For the full scoop on this new series, check out our full story right here: [Nerdist]

And finally, this week saw the release of >Wonder Woman ’77 Meets the Bionic Woman from Dynamite Entertainment and DC Comics. (You can read our review of issue #1 right here). The series had no shortage of artists who wanted to contribute art for the historic meeting of these feminist icons, and several produced covers for various retailer exclusives, including ’90s >Catwoman artist Jim Balent, Ben Caldwell, Mike McKone, Dan Parent, Andrew Pepoy, and J Bone. You can see each of the covers down below in our gallery. [Bleeding Cool]

Images: Marvel Comics / DC Comics / Dynamite Entertainment / Archie Comics / Fantagraphics

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Marvel teases an extended look at 'Spider-Man: Homecoming'

Photo by Marvel

Marvel's Spider-Man cinematic reboot will get the full trailer treatment later this week when new footage debuts during the Jimmy Kimmel Live late-night talk show on ABC.

But Marvel's Twitter account just posted a teaser of that trailer, making this one of the first opportunities to see any footage from the latest MCU film.

In the 17-second clip, we see Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland, receive a metal case with an "upgraded" suit from inventor Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. The package is delivered by Jon Favreau, who besides playing Stark's assistant in a series of cameos across different Marvel films, also directed the first two Iron Man installments, starting in 2008.

Photo by Marvel

The most notable thing about the short clip, at least to this retro comics fan, is the webbing under Spidey's arms, which is reminiscent of the original Steve Ditko 1960s design.

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“Rectify” Is a Quiet Marvel

> Daniel was convicted of a brutal but ambiguous crime. Now that he’s out of prison, everyone wants clarity. Credit Illustration by Tomer Hanuka In the first episode of “Rectify,” Daniel Holden (Aden Young) is released from death row, and he gives a speech to journalists and protesters gathered outside the prison. Rather than assert his innocence or talk about justice, he offers a zigzagging meditation on the nature of fatalism. “I had convinced myself that kind of optimism served no useful purpose in the world where I existed,” he explains, in an underwater monotone, as the protesters look on, baffled. “Obviously, this radical belief system was flawed and was, ironically, a kind of fantasy itself.” Humbly, as if ending a philosophy seminar, he concludes, “I will seriously need to reconsider my world view.” For three years, “Rectify” has been a small marvel, an eccentric independent drama, filmed in Griffin, Georgia, and airing off the beaten track as well, on Sundance. With its skewed insights into carceral cruelty, “Rectify” took the slot that “The Wire” used to occupy: it’s the smart crime drama whose fans have trouble persuading others to watch, because it sounds too grimâ€"or maybe too good for you. It’s a frustrating dynamic that has haunted other dramas without cowboys or zombiesâ€"“The Leftovers” and “The Americans” come to mindâ€"but “Rectify” ’s reputation for difficulty is misleading. The show’s dreamy pace makes it a satisfying high, like a bourbon-soaked bob down a river on a humid day. It’s a show about the way that time gets distorted; it’s one that distorts time, too. As with many structurally daring series, it’s joyful, because its insides match its outsides. It’s also, more straightforwardly, a gothic mystery about small-town secrets. When Daniel was in his late teens, he was convicted of the rape and murder of his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Hanna. He served nineteen years, most of them in solitary confinement. The crime itself was a foggy, ambiguous incident that involved psychedelic drugs; two boys testified against him, and, under pressure, Daniel confessed. DNA cleared him of the rape but not of the murder, so plenty of localsâ€"and, at times, Daniel himselfâ€"suspect that he did it, because he was found cradling Hanna’s naked corpse, which he’d decorated with flowers. But Daniel’s younger sister, Amantha (Abigail Spencer), never lost faith in his innocence, and she’s been sleeping with the liberal Jewish lawyer she lobbied to work on his behalfâ€"the big-city Reuben to her Norma Rae. Everyone involved wants clarity, now that Amantha’s faith has paid off. No one gets it. The murder case is reopened and leads down alarming paths. Few people want to face the uglier facts, including the knowledge that Daniel was raped in prison, multiple times. While he was on death row, his father died and his mother remarried, so he has two new stepbrothers, Ted, Jr., and Jared, who is still in his teens. In some ways, Daniel is himself an adolescent, prone to self-indulgent, self-destructive whims. In isolated Paulie, Georgia, he’s a distinctly odd figure, a socially awkward autodidact who meditated and read obsessively in his cell. He speaks in an off-kilter, whispery style, making even sympathetic neighbors uncomfortable. His mannered intellectualism marks him as an outsider, queer in several senses, as much as any suspicions of criminal guilt do. The one person who truly gets him is Ted, Jr.,’s wife, Tawney, a sweet born-again Christian who is desperate to save Daniel, and with whom he develops a dangerous chemistry. Their flirtation takes place, however, largely through elevated conversation about Thomas Aquinas and Buddha, forgiveness and humility. And, in fact, a lot of the pleasure of the show is in the dialogue, which favors the stuff that Daniel jokes is not “gallows humor” but “lethal-injection humorâ€"it’s more humane but less funny.” “It felt good to use the telephone that wasn’t smarter than me,” Daniel tells his sister, about a pay phone. His companion on a road trip tells him, “Everything that happens between men and women is written in mud. And butter. And barbecue sauce. Paula Deen said that to me in a dream I had one time.” Ted, Jr.,’s boozy koan: “First you hate it. Then you like it. It’s called beer.” While the talk takes its time, the plot moves fast. The first season covers six days in six episodes, and climaxes in two crimes, one committed by Daniel, one against him; by the fourth and final season, currently airing, only a few months have passed. Several of the best episodes are one-offs, featuring characters we never meet again. In one, Daniel drifts into the orbit of an antique dealer named Lezlie, a Pan-like anarchist, who invites anyone who is not a gentrifying yuppieâ€"the class he regards as ruining Paulieâ€"to party at his ramshackle house. In another, Daniel gets a ride from a stranger and steals some goats. There’s a strong sense in “Rectify” that, when your memory has been rendered spongy and your safety shattered, each event might last forever or be gone in a flash. Perhaps the standout episode is “Donald the Normal,” from Season 2. In it, Daniel finally leaves town. He takes a bus to Atlanta, then puts on nice clothes and goes to a museum to see a beautiful painting that he knows only from a book. Throughout “Rectify,” the claustrophobically close-knit Paulieâ€"where the local waitress sleeps with both Daniel and the politician who framed him, and where Hanna’s brother glares at Daniel’s family in the supermarketâ€"is portrayed as near-enchanted in its isolation. Any mention of a larger Southern city (even from the former Atlantan Amantha, who has a liberal hipster’s condescension for her home town) makes it sound as distant as Mars. At the museum, Daniel is approached by an attractive older woman, played by Frances Fisher. “What do you think?” she asks. “I think I’ve looked at this painting in a book for so long that somehow my brain has trivialized it,” he says. “And as I stand here in front of the real thing I feel, if anything . . . disappointed.” She’s charmed by the alien quality that others find so creepyâ€"his formal speech, his lack of boundaries. She invites him to lunch with her book-club friends. These are sleek, rich city women. He tells them that his name is Donald and that he owns a bookstore in Alabama. This experiment in reinvention falls apart fast. Daniel has cuts on his forehead and cheeks, the remnants of a beating that put him in a coma. And, bright as he is, he can’t improvise a life he never had. He finds himself faking a conversation about a book he hasn’t read, something with a “pitiful” protagonist. “This bread, um, is excellent,” he says, trying to change the subject. “The panini bread?” one of the women asks. “Yes, um, the pallini bread,” he responds. “It’s . . . unusually fresh.” It’s a heartbreaking slip, a class error that locks him out of a whole world. The book-club women get into a conversation about a story that Daniel >has read, Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain,” and which he’s memorized. His lunch companion can’t believe it: “It would be torture to memorize.” No, he explains: it was a calming task, back during “a period in my life when I was having some difficulty dealing with the passing of time in a traditional sense.” Because Wolff’s story deals “with the bending of time,” memorizing it helped him bend time as well. References like this get at the show’s fearlessness in taking art seriously, not merely as a distraction but as a bridge between strangers, a way of reframing the world. Still, it would be an exercise in solipsism without the larger, more grounded ensemble, particularly Daniel’s opposite number, Ted, Jr., who becomes both his bully and his victim. As played by Clayne Crawford, Ted is a strutting, insecure shit-kicker, a high-school tough kid gone to seed. A salesman at the family car dealership, he’s the yuppie type Lezlie disdains, or, at least, he aspires to be: he and Tawney share a McMansion decorated in pastels. When the bank won’t give him a loan for a sketchy scheme involving leasing auto rims to black customers, he mortgages the house, despite Tawney’s resistance. When things fall apart, he gets scary. In another story, Ted might be a cartoon villain: the abusive husband who, at one point, confesses to something so close to date rape that it’s a distinction without a difference. (Crimes on “Rectify” are like that: violence so ordinary that no one reports itâ€"and, when someone does, the justice system makes it worse.) But the show sees Ted’s side, too. Like Daniel, he is a man humiliated by loss of control, with few coping skills when he’s been abandoned. In “Rectify,” anyone who feels something for others, however painful, must be redeemable. In the final season, Tawney and Ted, Jr., go to therapy, heading toward divorce. Daniel, who has been legally “banished” to Nashville, lives at a halfway house and gets an artist girlfriend. The crime is on the verge of being solved. If “Rectify” has a flaw, it’s one that so many humane shows develop in their final stretchâ€"a Tawney-like desire to save everyone, simply because these are characters we’ve loved for years. In one scene, Amantha, recognizing that an old enemy is helping solve the mystery of Hanna’s murder, asks, “Is there anyone left to hate?” Daniel wryly refers to himself as Humpty-Dumpty, but he’s often more like Kimmy Schmidt: he’s strange not because his capacity for wonder has been shut down but because it’s almost too open. As the finale approaches, it’s not the show’s problem that I’ve found myself wanting some ugly to stay ugly. Perhaps I will seriously need to reconsider my world view. >♦ "

| “Rectify” | Quiet | Marvel |

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