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YOUR TLDR ROUND-UP:
Marvel have announced some telly stuff
Captain America gets big birthday book in March
OUR PICKS FROM THE MARVEL TV ANNOUNCEMENTS
After what feels like months of reporting all kinds of negative and unfortunate things about DC, it's nice to have some positive news about one of the big two. Not DC - Christmas is a time for miracles but you have to be realistic - but Marvel's TV arm, snuggled as it is beneath the cosy warmth if Disney's wing, made a bunch of announcements last week that have me more than a little excited.
Indeed, there are too many Marvel Studios announcements for us to explore in one waffle, so we're just going to run over the highlights, starting with the casting of Dominique Thorne as Riri "Ironheart" Williams. Regular readers may recall that I'm a huge fan of Riri, so I've been waiting for this announcement with some trepidation.
If you're unfamiliar with the character, she's a teen super-genius engineer created by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato 2015. Riri designed and built her own Iron-Man armour and used it to apprehend two escaped prison inmates. That attracted the attention of Tony Stark, who took her under his wing. After Stark "died" at the end of Civil War II she carried the Iron-Man name for a while (well, twelve issues...) before taking on the Ironheart name (there's a brilliant sequence where the digitised consciousness of Tony Stark runs through possible name ideas with her) and bursting into her own book by Eve L. Ewing and Kevin Libranda.
The character has appeared on-screen in animated form already in the shows Marvel Rising and Amazing Friends, as well as several video games. Now Dominique Thorne, perhaps best known for her role in the 2018 movie If Beale Street could Talk, has been cast to bring Riri to life in live-action.
Thorne is in her mid-twenties (she's managed to keep her exact age out of the public record, which is a pretty impressive feat when you think about it) so she's perhaps a little old for the role. Then again, there's a long tradition of much much older actors playing teens (Saved by the Bell and Happy Days, I'm looking at you) and someone in their twenties ages less visibly less quickly than a teenager (take a look at how fast the kids from Stranger Things have changed since season one) so there's some solid logic behind it.
The big question then, is will Thorne be any good in the role? She doesn't have a very long filmography, but she was excellent in If Beale Street could Talk, so I'm cautiously optimistic that with Robert Downey Jnr gone she'll carry the mantle of the armoured hero pretty well.
She won't have to carry it alone, of course. It has also been announced that Don Cheadle will reprise the role of James "War Machine" Rhodes in a TV show based around the classic Armour Wars storyline. There's no confirmation yet, but it seems likely that Thorne will make at least a cameo appearance in that show too.
If you missed the orignal arc by David Michelinie and Bob Layton with art by Mark D. Bright and Barry Windsor-Smith in Iron Man #225-#231back in 1987 and 1988, it focused on Stark’s habit of constantly one-upping his own armour, and the dangers that go with it. Tony Stark discovers that several super-criminals are using armour based on his past designs, and so the "Armour Wars" (or "Armor Wars", given that it's an American book...) begin. Given the events at the end of Avengers: Endgame we're presuming that Rhodey will be essentially cleaning up Stark's rather messy legacy - there is, after all, Stark tech all over the MCU.
Also coming out of the round of Marvel Studios announcements was the release of a trailer for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, featuring Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan as the titular heroes. Both ex military, both former sidekicks of Captain America, it looks as though they're going for a "mis-matched buddy action comedy" vibe. Somehow I found myself thinking about the movie Midnight Run...
Other casting looks pretty solid. Daniel Brühl is back to reprise his Avengers: Civil War role, as Baron Helmut Zemo and Emily Van Camp is also back as former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter. We're also getting a "government" approved replacement for Captain America in the form of Wyatt Russell, as John Walker although whether he'll be taking Cap's name, or going under US Agent (or both) is currently unclear.
We can see from the trailer that Sam "The Falcon" Wilson is keeping the shield that Cap gave him at the end of Avengers: Endgame, and has adopted the red, white and blue colour scheme - as he did in the comics. We can also see from the title of the show that he's not adopted the "Captain America" title, so I guess we'll see when the show debuts on 21st March next year.
Speaking of TV shows, we also got a bit of a look at Tom Hiddleston's Loki. Which looks great:
We also got a "first look" at Iman Vellani as Kamala "Ms Marvel" Khan. Again, Kamala is one of my favourite Marvel characters so I was nervous about the live-action version. But just as with Riri, I think I'm cautiously optimistic. Take a look:
See what I mean? She looks good, and she seems to capture that endearing quality of the character that has made her so popular - which is good, because she's not only getting her own show, but we're also going to see her in Captain Marvel 2.
Finally, although it wasn't part of the recent announcements, and I haven't been able to find any real corroboration for it I'm going to repeat the rumour that Charlie Cox might be reprising his role as Matt "Daredevil" Murdoch in the forthcoming Moon Knight series. If confirmed, it's huge, because it would bring the Netflix shows - which have always recognised MCU cannon - officially into the MCU. Although if they do that, I want them to shoot a scene with Matt Murdoch, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Danny Rand standing dramatically in Cage's barber shop waiting for their portal to open, then cutting to Doctor Strange standing in the aftermath of Endgame muttering to himself about having forgotten someone. We the cut back to New York twenty minutes later as Jessica Jones rolls her eyes and storms off taking a swig from her hop flask...
80th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION COMIC FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA COMING IN MARCH
2021 marks the eightieth anniversary of the creation of Captain America, who first appeared on U.S. news stands in March 1941 in a story by his co-creators writer Joe Simon and Jack "King" Kirby. Marvel is marking the occasion with a giant sized anthology Captain America Anniversary Tribute #1 which will drop onto the rack in March next year.
The issue will contain a modernised re-working of the original Simon and Kirby story, and also the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby story from Avengers #4 which established Cap as part of the Marvel Universe. More details will be available when January 2021's Previews becomes available, but for now here's a list of contributors we've stolen from Comics Beat - whose own write up of the issue can be found HERE.
CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE #1
Written by JOE SIMON, STAN LEE AND JACK KIRBY
Art by JOHN CASSADAY, MARGUERITE SAUVAGE, DAVID LAPHAM, PEACH MOMOKO, DECLAN SHALVEY, PERE PÉREZ, SALVADOR LARROCA, JUANN CABAL, CARMEN CARNERO, LEINIL FRANCIS YU, VALERIO SCHITI, CARLOS PACHECO, INHYUK LEE, R.B. SILVA, KEI ZAMA, SARA PICHELLI, JESÚS SAIZ, KIM JACINTO, ADAM KUBERT, FEDERICO VICENTINI, JOSHUA CASSARA, MAHMUD ASRAR, JIM CHEUNG, TERRY DODSON, JOE BENNETT, ALEX ROSS, STEVE EPTING, ADAM HUGHES, STEPHANIE HANS, JAVIER GARRÓN, ALITHA E. MARTINEZ, ELENA CASAGRANDE, PACO MEDINA, DANIEL ACUÑA, CHRIS SAMNEE, BUTCH GUICE, RACHAEL STOTT, PEPE LARRAZ, GREG SMALLWOOD, GREG LAND, IBAN COELLO, RAY-ANTHONY HEIGHT, NATACHA BUSTOS, MARK BAGLEY, & PATRICK GLEASON
Cover by STEVE MCNIVEN
Now that's a list of big names!