Venom and Ultron and Batman, Oh My! News From Comic-Con 2013

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 has been a blast, and I’m not even there! I found myself reading news on all of the recent movie plot reveals and interviews and repeatedly yelling “YEAH BABY!”

Let’s get started with some Venom news shall we?

Crave Online managed to briefly interview Matt Tolmach, producer of the Amazing Spider-Man at the Amazing Spider-Man 2 presentation today and questioned him on the future of the proposed Venom solo film.

Here’s what Tolmach had to say:

“There’s nothing formal or official, but it’s always been a dream to make that movie. We’re just not there yet. Right now we’re sort of fixated on [the Amazing Spider-Man franchise]. But is there a sense that down the road things are going to happen? Sure.”

Though not exactly the answer us Venom fans hoped for, Tolmach’s response does at least assure us that the proposed Venom flick isn’t doomed and may in fact become a reality, but apparently not for a while. [To read Matt Tolmach’s 2012 interview on his plans for a Venom movie, check out the page titles “Venom Movie Spin-Off in Talks”]

I personally believe that the studio will wait to green light a Venom movie until after the success of either Amazing Spider-Man 2 or 3, as it would be thought that it will be based in the same universe and would probably need an introduction of the Symbiote in one of the Spidey sequels.

Now for some other Comic-Con Marvel news:

During a presentation of the Avengers 2. The studio revealed that the villain in the sequel won’t be Thanos as was widely believed, considering he appears in the post credits scene of the Avengers, but will be the super-powerful robot known as Ultron and that the movie will be called “Age of Ultron”.

When asked if the movie will follow the comic book saga also called Age of Ultron, Joss Whedon, the director of Avengers, replied with a strong N-O stating that Ant-Man won’t even be the creator as he is in the original story, leading many to speculate that Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark will be the man to create the robot before it loses its mind and goes on a violent power trip.

Either way, Ultron has always been considered the arch-enemy of the Avengers and should give our heroes a good run for their money in their upcoming flick which will be released in 2015.

Also, a brief discussion on Thor; The Dark World was interrupted when the lights suddenly went out and Loki began speaking over the intercom. When the lights came back on it was revealed that Tom Hiddleston had reprised his role as Loki for the audience, appearing in full costume and calling one of the big shot Marvel Productions producers a “Mewling quim”.

By the end of his epic charade, the entire crowd was chanting “Loki! Loki! Loki!” It sounded like an awesome time.

The X-Men: Days of Future Past presentation sounded fun too, in which a smorgasbord of actors appeared to endorse the film. The highlight of the showing seemed to be an upbeat Ian Mckellan [the best actor on the face of the planet if you ask me!] who demonstrated his happiness over the fall of Proposition 8 and even flirted with Michael Fassbender, who plays his younger self in the film, saying:
“I just want to say it’s great to be back in California. I feel safe here now that you’ve gotten rid of Proposition 8. I’m looking for a husband.” He then cast a glance at Fassbender and said “It’s great to meet you, Michael.”

But by far, the biggest, most groundbreaking news that sent fanboys across the globe in a frenzy of excitement and no doubt caused several grown men in the presentation hall to cry many tears of joy came in fact from the DC Universe.

While discussing plans for the upcoming Man of Steel sequel, Man of Steel director Zack Snyder walked onstage and nonchalantly announced “It’s official: We’re making another Superman movie.” He insisted that he couldn’t say much more but said there was a single element of the film he could share.

At that point, actor Harry Lennix walked on stage and read a quote from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns [which if you haven’t read yet, you need to go to your local comic shop right now and buy it]. Anyway the quote reads:

“I want you to remember, Clark. In all the years to come. In all your most private moments. I want you to remember my hand at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you.”

If you haven’t read the books I’ll tell you it isn’t Lex Luthor who says that. But in fact, it is just a little character in the comics you might know as BATMAN!!!!

The crew then projected this picture of the Man of Steel 2 logo on the big screen:

And yes, that’s the Batman symbol with the Superman logo in the middle. And of course, everyone went completely insane.

I have to be honest, while I did enjoy Man of Steel for the most part, Man of Steel 2 and the future of the franchise hasn’t been in my mind at all… Until now. In the Dark Knight Returns comic however, Superman and Batman don’t get along, as you probably guessed from the quote, which leads me to believe that Batman might be a sort of antagonist in the beginning/middle of the film. Whichever way it ends up going though, we should be ready for an awesomely epically fun time!

And of course as we all pretty much knew before, this will be a new take on Batman, so Christian Bale isn’t going to be reprising his role and it won’t follow the Dark Knight trilogy. I’m curious to see who they’ll cast next –

I personally believe Benjamin Walker would do great in the cape.

Stay Crazy,
VenomCrazy