Folks tuning in to The Super Bowl to watch the Giants beat The Patriots got an added bonus: the one minute commercial for the upcoming Marvel Studios film, The Avengers! And the studio decided to add a few more seconds for the fans that looked it up on Facebook!
It looked fantastic, and The Avengers is probably the most anticipated movie of the year for comic fans! Take that, Chris Nolan!
Stan Lee Tribute Weekend honors the comics creator’s seven decades of bringing entertainment to the world
One lucky winner will win exclusive VIP Passes for Stan Lee Tribute Weekend May 6-8, 2010
On Thursday, May 6, the N9NE Group with Brenden Theatres and the Palms Casino Resort will present Iron Man 2 Launch Party at the MOON Nightclub. MOON opens to the public at 10:30 p.m. and will feature an “Iron Man” themed night with appearances by Stan Lee and other celebrity guests. General admission applies.
Stan Lee’s Brenden Celebrity Star presentation will take place on Friday, May 7, 2010, the opening day of the new Paramount Pictures “Iron Man 2” film starring Robert Downey, Jr. which Lee served as an executive producer. The ceremony to be hosted by Celebrity Journalist Robin Leach will take place in the Brenden Theaters at the Palms lobby at 7:30 p.m. The Brenden Celebrity Star presentation is co-sponsored by Derrick Taylor’s Comic Oasis.
The weekend wraps with an invited guest tribute reception and dinner May 8, 2010 hosted by the Walt Disney Company and featuring Stan Lee’s Time Jumper. Red carpet arrivals begin at 6:00 p.m. with celebrity appearances. Guests will also preview clips from Stan Lee’s documentary “With Great Power – The Stan Lee Story.” Celebrities from all of Lee’s films and creations have been invited to attend this special event.
With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, must forge new alliances — and confront powerful enemies: Whiplash and Justin Hammer!
Looks like the movie execs are getting a little antsy bout their upcoming Incredible Hulk film. After all, their first Hulk film a few years ago was decidedly underwhelming. A very forgettable film. Well, the sequel/reboot has a new cast and new creative people behind it.
And this Summer’s big movie hero, Iron Man himself Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.)
I got the impression that they were keeping the cameo appearance of Tony Stark in The Incredible Hulk a bit on the QT. And why not – a neat crossover appearance by Marvel’s other Summer 2008 hero was just the thing to get the oldschool fans excited, and get everyone ready for The Avengers movie in 2011.
So they decided to let Tony Stark’s cameo appearance slip in the TV ads. So I’m not giving anything away! Still, I wonder if there will be anything after The Incredible Hulk’s end credits. Hmmmm…
SUNDAY AM: Here are the official blockbuster numbers — Paramount Pictures release of Marvel Entertainment’s Iron Man, in 4,105 theaters, made an estimated $35,125,000 on Friday 5/2, an estimated $37,500,000 on Saturday 5/3, for an estimated 3-day weekend box office of $100,750,000.
Advance screenings in select locations, about 2,500 venues, from 8:00 PM to midnight on Thursday 5/1 contributed an additional $3,500,000. With this addition, the total estimated box office is $104,250,000.
The estimated international box office for the weekend is $96,750,000 from 57 territories.
The total combined estimated global box office for Marvel Entertainment’s IRON MAN is $201,000,000.
Back in the early 1960s, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others were blazing new trails in comic history as they were ushering in what would be known as The Marvel Age of Comics. Their creativity and output was at a peak, and numerous classic characters broke onto the scene, changing comic books forever!
At the time, Marvel published several weird tales/fantasy/science fiction comics. Among those titles was Tales of Suspense, an anthology series comprised of short stories usually dealing with a monster or other supernatural theme. Well, with great characters like The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man forming the cornerstone of the Marvel Universe, the wizards at Marvel decided to create a new hero for Tales of Suspense – The Invincible Iron Man!
So since Iron Man will enjoy a major movie release in just a few weeks on May 2nd, I decided to feature Tales of Suspense #39 in the Greatest Comic Covers series. That’s the origin and 1st appearance of Iron Man!
I can’t say I was ever much of an Iron Man fan growing up. Definitely a second-tier character in the rough & rugged Marvel Universe. In fact, I didn’t know anyone who read Iron Man comics regularly, though now and then I would pick one up just to see what was going on.
Well, after the wild success of the X-Men and Spider-Man films, Marvel has fast tracked many of their properties. Iron Man, of course, is getting the big screen, big budget treatment. Well, a teaser trailer is finally out, and I gotta say, this one is looking good.
Looks like our friends at the USPS have decided to follow up on last year’s DC Comics stamp series with a Marvel Comics stamp series!
Looks like a nice set! Some great comic images – in fact, they remind me of the early 70s ‘clip & save’ coupons in Marvel Comics – many comics of that era were mutilated because of that stunt! Haha!
The standouts here include Spider-Man, Captain America & The Silver Surfer. I question the inclusion of Spider-Woman and Electra, but I suppose they wanted to include a couple of Marvel Women, and lets face it True Believer, the field is fairly thin! An Invisible Woman stamp could have been inspired – just a stamp with no image on it!
Also, Wolverine is a fan-favorite but they chose the cover of X-Men #1, which came out about a decade before Wolverine first appeared! Strange…
Still, I’ll be picking up a sheet of these great stamps!
