Logos Revealed For Spy Sequels

Early posters were revealed at last week's big Licensing International Expo for two of the biggest spy sequels on the horizon: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (aka Mission: Impossible IV) and The Bourne Legacy, both (oddly enough) starring Jeremy Renner.  The Daily Blam was there and snapped pictures of the posters hanging at the expo promoting both films.  Posters at the Licensing Expo are often slapped together well before the film in question has a real marketing plan, just to give it a presence on the floor, so these should not be taken for the official one-sheets.  When those finally appear, they'll presumably look much cooler.  But these banners do give us our first look at the title treatments the studios are currently using for these movies.  Interestingly, there is no colon, dash, or anything delineating the latest Mission: Impossible picture's awkward subtitle, "Ghost Protocol." It's just there, underneath the usual M:I logo. (On this blog, I will continue using the dash, because another colon would be one colon too many, and following the studio's lead and using nothing doesn't really work if you don't have different font styles on different lines like they do!) There's not much more to the posters than the logos you see here, but you can behold them in all their shabby glory at The Daily Blam. Meanwhile, the same expo also afforded fans a more revealing first look at the suddenly ubiquitous Renner's other big spy franchise movie, The Avengers (based on the Marvel comic, not the awesome TV show). That poster (viewable at AICN) shows his costume, and also gives us another look at Scarlett Johansson's sexy superspy Black Widow, a role she reprises from Iron Man 2.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is set to open on December 16, 2011... though Box Office Mojo has an interesting editorial advocating that the film switch dates to avoid directly competing with the Robert Downey Jr. sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.  It does seem odd that two big action tentpoles after the same audience would go up against each other on the same day like that, and I have to concede that BOM is probably correct in their supposition that the Sherlock Holmes franchise has more momentum at the moment, with the sequel coming just two years after a hit predecessor as opposed to five years after the weakest performer in the Mission: Impossible series (though the best movie to date). Of the dates they propose, personally I'd like to see it move up a week to December 9, because I'm dying to see this film and don't want to see it put off until next year! But the editorial does make a good case for April 2012. Read it and see what you think. Tony Gilroy's spin-off from the popular Matt Damon series, The Bourne Legacy, meanwhile, has been set by Universal for an August 3, 2012 debut, as you can see on the poster at The Daily Blam. As previously reported, the film follows an original story conceived by Gilroy (co-writer of the first three movies), and is not based on a Robert Ludlum novel nor the Eric Van Lustbader continuation novel whose title it shares.

Another Look at the Spies of X-Men: First Class

In my review of the latest X-Men movie, I looked at it (quite naturally) from a spy point of view.  Here's another interesting review that approaches the film from that perspective as well at the blog Overthinking It.  The well-written article by John Perich offers a fascinating argument for Matthew Vaughn's film as an examination of the dichotemy of the Sixties spy hero combining the worlds of Ian Fleming, Len Deighton and John Le Carré. Personally, I think I'd equate Xavier more with Smiley than Harry Palmer, but overall I agree with all of his points!

Movie Review: X-Men: First Class (2011)
The Superhero Tentpole As Sixties Spy Movie

While I love the richly textured period detail in the recent OSS 117 movies, those parodies also made me wish that someone would make a straight spy movie set in the Sixties, with Sixties fashions and attitudes, but contemporary fight choreography and special effects. Well, now Matthew Vaughn has done it, and it’s excellent! Some might not see it as a straight spy movie since it’s also got superheroes, but regular readers of this blog are no doubt aware of the long association between the spy and superhero genres, which actually thrived in the Sixties. Despite the title, X-Men: First Class is a spy movie with superheroes, not the other way around. And as it’s a prequel to the previous entries in the X-Men series, it is not required that a viewer have any prior knowledge of the characters to see this one… so even if you generally avoid superhero fare, but you like Sixties Bond movies, by all means do yourself a favor and see X-Men: First Class, post-haste!

Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake) takes his stylistic guidance primarily from Sean Connery Bond movies, Sixties heist flicks (including the original Ocean’s 11) and British television adventure series of the era, like The Avengers, The Champions and Department S. There are so many nods to Sixties spy sources that espionage fans will be in constant ecstasy savoring it all. First and foremost, X-Men: First Class has all the Jet Age globetrotting of the original Bond films. In the first half-hour alone (more or less), the plot jumps smoothly (more or less) from Germany to New York to London to Switzerland to Las Vegas to Langley to Argentina to Miami, and later makes additional stops in Moscow and Cuba. Vaughn savors all the locations in the same way that Terence Young did, providing lingering establishing shots of each new locale to stimulate the audience’s escapist travel fantasies too often ignored by modern Bond movies. (Or cut too quickly to take in, as was the case with the deplorable Quantum of Solace.)

The CIA has a millionaire villain named Sebastian Shaw under surveillance. They suspect him of collaborating with the Soviets, but they don’t know the half of it. Kevin Bacon plays Shaw, and in keeping with the character’s comic book origins which were torn wholesale (by writer Chris Claremont) from the classic Avengers episode “A Touch of Brimstone,” he ably channels all the louche decadence of Peter Wyngarde (who guest-starred on that episode). In the comics, Shaw had a confederate who wore that influence on his sleeve with a name that conjured both the actor and his most immortal character, Jason King (hero of the ITC show Department S and its spinoff Jason King): Jason Wyngarde. Sadly Jason Wyngarde isn’t in this movie, but Bacon’s svelte Shaw seems to owe as much to Wyngarde (both the character and the actor) as he does to the Shaw of the comics, who was based on the more solidly built Bond villain Robert Shaw. While he doesn’t sport Jason King’s (and Wyngarde’s) distinctive facial hair (which would have been rather anachronistic to this film’s 1962 setting), he does share his affinity for cravats and flamboyant velour suits (which is in itself a tad anachronistic, but more forgivably so). The character also shares Jason King’s taste for luxury. His private submarine/mobile lair (whose first appearance is one of the film’s biggest spy fan delights) is decked out in all the luxury trappings of a Sixties bachelor pad. Its velvet cushions, paisley wallpaper, shag carpets and stocked minibar (natch) all recall not only that crate (average on the outside) that Jason King used to smuggle himself into East Berlin, but also James Bond’s iceberg mini-sub in A View To A Kill.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. When we meet Shaw, he’s entertaining a selection of America’s richest and most powerful men at his Hellfire Club, which has been relocated from The Avengers’ London to Las Vegas. (The establishing shot of Vegas deliberately evokes Diamonds Are Forever, even if it’s a decade early.) The CIA is keeping tabs on the event from a car across the street, but agent Moira McTaggart (Rose Byrne) realizes the need to get closer and sees her opportunity, which comes right out of “A Touch of Brimstone.” Shaw’s right-hand woman, Emma Frost (again, Claremont deliberately appropriated Emma Peel’s first name for his Hellfire Club’s White Queen; Diana Rigg’s Peel was the Black Queen in “A Touch of Brimstone”), played by Mad Men’s January Jones (remaining safely in her comfortable Sixties milieu; more on her in a moment), is shepherding a bevy of lingerie-clad beauties into the Playboy Club-like event. Moira quickly strips down to her underwear, which, of course, is black lingerie sexy enough in itself that it might have been selected deliberately for the occasion, but as it happens, it’s a moment of inspiration. “What are you doing?” asks her male partner, aghast. “Using some equipment not issued by the CIA,” she replies (or something to that effect). That gives Vaughn the opportunity to keep his female spy in lingerie while she does her spying (yes, actual spying—something you don’t see too much in any spy movies anymore!), which seems very appropriately Sixties. Also appropriately Sixties is the spot-on art direction by Chris Seagers (Johnny English), which recalls not only Ken Adam’s Bond sets, but also his famous war room from Dr. Strangelove, which is lovingly recreated. In the club, there’s also a nod to Live and Let Die with a revolving booth. The only aspect that could stand to be more Sixties is Henry Jackman's score.  There's nothing wrong with it, and sometimes (as during the Maurice Binder-inspired end titles), it evokes the era plenty.  But I would have preferred a brassier, more John Barry-ish accompaniment throughout, akin to Michael Giacchino's Incredibles music.  Oh well.

When Moira’s intelligence gathering reveals the presence of mutants in our midst to the CIA for the first time (well, at least to her; her superiors require convincing), she sets out to recruit an expert on the phenomenon. That leads her to Oxford, where she meets newly-minted Professor Charles Xavier, played here by James McAvoy (and in the previous movies, at a more advanced age, by Patrick Stewart). Charles has penned a thesis on mutant genes, but keeps secret his own mutant power of telepathy, preferring to use it for parlor tricks to pick up girls in pubs. (He also manages to use the word “groovy” in his pick-ups—and, surprisingly, sells it!) With Charles she also gets his adoptive sister, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), whose mutant power allows her to assume the form of any person she wants. (She’ll later become Mystique, played by Rebecca Romijn in the other X-Men movies.) Raven’s demonstration convinces the CIA that they need a mutant division, and it’s quickly established under the direction of an underused Oliver Platt.

Xavier’s first mission for the CIA (to locate Sebastian Shaw and the nefarious mutants already observed by Moira) takes him into contact with the movie’s real star, the future Magneto (played in the other films by Ian McKellen), Erik Lehnsherr. Erik is played by Inglourious Basterds’ Michael Fassbender in a truly star-making turn that also unspools as an extended audition for James Bond. People have been touting Fassbender as a successor to Daniel Craig since Hunger, but this is the first performance in which he’s truly sold me on the notion. (And then some!)

Fassbender’s part is by far the most complex and well-developed in the movie—and also the coolest. As a child, Erik’s mutant gift for manipulating metal (I know, it sounds like a really lame power but actually turns out to be the coolest one in the film!) first manifested itself when he was separated from his parents while interned in a concentration camp. The Nazis, led by Bacon’s character in a previous identity, conducted horrifying experiments on him and he watched his mother murdered before his eyes. When we catch up with him again in 1962, he’s using his powers as a revenge-driven Nazi hunter. He’s also dressing like James Bond (a suit he wears in Geneva could have come right off Connery’s back in From Russia With Love—complete with hat) and behaving like him as well. (And when he’s not in suits, he wears more black turtlenecks than Sterling Archer—and pulls off the look with great elan.) These moments of Erik exuding cool and exacting vengeance in Europe and South America are among the film’s most Bondian, and they’re utterly thrilling as filmed by Vaughn. The future Magneto’s quest to find his mother’s killer takes him from Argentina to Miami, where he engages in some Goldfinger-style scuba skulduggery and finally crosses paths with Charles Xavier in the film’s best spy setpiece.

Despite having vastly different outlooks on their mutant status, Charles and Erik share a common objective in tracking down Sebastian Shaw. Therefore, they team up and forge a moving friendship. Fassbender and McAvoy have excellent chemistry together, and I wish that events of this movie would have allowed for further adventures together, because they make a great team. Of course their ultimate destinies (explored in Bryan Singer’s compelling X-Men and X2 and Brett Ratner’s risible X3) lie light years apart, but this period of friendship is fertile enough that it easily could have (and probably should have) fuelled a trilogy rather than a single film. Vaughn accomplishes in this single movie what the entire Star Wars prequel trilogy failed to; he succeeds in making the character we all know turns out to be a villain into a thoroughly likable hero, and we’re rooting for him not to take the path we know he does. However, that ultimate choice feels a bit rushed crammed into the movie’s final fifteen minutes or so, and I wish it had played out over more films. Oh well. The friendship and ultimate schism between these two men provides the heart and backbone of X-Men: First Class, but the entire ensemble is for the most part successful.

Together, Charles and Erik recruit a small cadre of young mutants to the CIA team in a recruiting sequence reminiscent of great Sixties capers like Grand Slam, Topkapi and Ocean’s 11. They also find another mutant already working for the CIA in a Q capacity in the form of Hank McCoy (the future Beast, played by Nicholas Hoult). While the (slightly) older characters are the more interesting ones, the scenes of the young mutants exploring and developing their powers are expertly handled, leading to an action climax that incorporates each of their specific skills like a super-powered Mission: Impossible against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Shaw also has his own team of mutant hench-people, foremost among them the aforementioned Emma Frost. January Jones aims for ice queen but comes off more as wooden, though she makes a most attractive clothes horse for costume designer Sammy Sheldon’s fabulous Emma Peel-inspired attire. (Still, her performance here is a definite improvement over the one in the Liam Neeson neo-Eurospy caper Unknown earlier this year.) For a fairly major character from the comics, Emma Frost has remarkably little to do in the movie—and disappears for most of the second half. But when she is on screen, it’s always in an amazing take on Diana Rigg’s wardrobe, which is a welcome sight—if a tad anachronistic for 1962. Her catsuit probably should have been closer to Cathy Gale’s looser motorcycle leathers than Emma Peel’s body-hugging get-up… but that’s just not as much fun! And this movie is fun.

In X-Men: First Class, Matthew Vaughn has crafted not just a fantastic homage to Sixties spydom, but a fantastic movie in its own right—and the best in the X-Men series to date. Watching it makes me even sadder that his take on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. never came to fruition. Vaughn clearly loves the era and the genre. Thanks to him, I finally have that Sixties-set modern action movie I always wanted—and enhanced with well-executed superheroics. This is the spy movie to beat so far this year, and all fans of the genre should check it out.

For more on the connections between these X-Men characters and The Avengers (including wardrobe similarities), click here.

Sideshow Announces Nick Fury Figure (UPDATED)

Premium toymaker Sideshow Collectibles has released the first image of a new "comiquette" of Marvel superspy Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.  I'm not quite sure what a "comiquette" is, but I'd imagine it's a grandiose way of saying statuette.  (Sideshow makes a lot of replicas of maquettes from movies, but obviously these comic-based ones are original creations.)  I'm not sure what the scale of this thing is, but I'd imagine it's too big for most spy fans to be able to display.  Still, it's awfully cool, so I wish I had room for it!  This awesome likeness of Fury is clearly based on Jim Steranko's iconic cover to Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #4, also seen as the cover to this collection. Sideshow's Nick Fury comiquette will be fully revealed on their production blog (UPDATE: now live!) on Tuesday, May 17, and be available for preorder through their newsletter on May 19. These editions usually sell out, so if you're interested you may want to consider preordering. That same day, a comiquette of one of Nick Fury's deadliest (and sexiest) enemies, Madame Hydra, will also be available—also based on a classic Steranko design. The Madame Hydra figurine (UPDATE: more pictures here) is particularly notable because, to the best of my knowledge, this release marks the first toy of this character in any scale.  Sadly there was never a Madame Hydra Marvel Legends action figure, and I don't think there's yet been one in the Marvel Universe line.  Retail for both figures is a whopping $279.99.

Marvel Plots Spy Spin-Offs

If Marvel topper Kevin Feige is to be believed, it seems as if his company (apparently not content to remain safely in the superhero stratus they've so successfully dominated to date) is intent on giving EON Productions a run for its money as a producer of spy films.  Feige told The Playlist (via Dark Horizons) that Marvel is exploring spin-off films featuring Avengers characters (and agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) Black Widow and Hawkeye, as well as a film focusing on S.H.I.E.L.D. itself and presumably its director Nick Fury (played in the films by Samuel L. Jackson).

“There’s no definitive plans," he hedged, "but we have started talking and talking with Scarlett [Johansson, who debuted as Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and will reprise in The Avengers] about what a Widow movie could be. Internally, we’ve also started thinking what a Hawkeye movie could be, how we could continue to explore the organization S.H.I.E.L.D, which has a pretty big part in Thor, smaller parts in the two Iron Man films and has a giant part in The Avengers. What would a stand-alone S.H.I.E.L.D. [movie] be like? It all goes back to the comics. Sometimes the answer is—when looking at a certain run of issues— ‘no way’ and sometimes the answer is ‘maybe, let’s continue to explore it’ and certainly with Hawkeye and Black Widow those are two that we’re exploring.”

The interesting thing about those people and organizations he mentions is that they could very easily be combined into one movie rather than three separate productions.  Comics fans will no doubt be aware that not only have Black Widow and Hawkeye both done tours of duty with the high-tech spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D., but also shared a romantic history together.  So you could easily do a movie about S.H.I.E.L.D. focusing on those characters.  I do find it interesting that (going back to the first rumblings about this potential movie that we heard a few years ago) Feige is always careful to discuss a "S.H.I.E.L.D." movie and not a Nick Fury movie, which would seem more apt since the comic book title is Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.  I'd hazard that his deliberate wording reflects the apparently unforeseen drawbacks in casting a sixty-something year-old actor to play that part.  Unlike the Fury of the comics, Sam Jackson doesn't have access to an age-defying Infinity Formula, and thus seems an unlikely choice to topline an action film these days.  So unless they were to recast the role (which regular readers are probably aware I wouldn't be opposed to), I'd say it looks like the one-eyed S.H.I.E.L.D. ramrod will have to take a backseat to younger agents in his own movie.  Too bad.

Garth Ennis To Pen New Nick Fury Comic

Newsarama reports that Garth Ennis announced at Chicago's C2E2 convention last week (or the week before; this post has been gestating a long time now) that he'd be returning to Nick Fury with another miniseries in Marvel's mature readers MAX line. (Weirdly, he made this announcement on the Dynamite panel.)  The last time Ennis wrote a MAX series about Marvel's top superspy, the result was FURY, a comic that explored some very interesting ideas, but was ultimately undone by way over-the-top Ennis humor that, to me, felt incongruous with the character. Shortly after Rolling Stone Magazine named that series to its annual "Cool List," then Marvel CEO Avi Arad stopped by my local comic shop to shoot the breeze with fans, which I thought was pretty cool.  He asked what we thought of FURY, and since Nick Fury was largely absent from mainstream Marvel comics in those days and I was just glad to have him back in any form, I said I loved it.  That was a bit of a fib.  Turned out it was a loaded question from Arad, who clearly didn't love it.

"I always preferred the classic Steranko version," he said.  Which, of course, I do too.  Turns out Arad was trying to get a film version off the ground about then, with George Clooney attached to star.  The timing of Ennis' series and Rolling Stone's extra exposure was bad for his plans.  "But what do I know?" Arad asked.  "If Rolling Stone says it's cool..." Shortly after that chance encounter with Arad, Clooney bolted the project, and word was it was because the actor didn't like Ennis' take.  That always sounded a bit fishy to me, but putting two and two together with what Arad said in the comic shop, I'd guess the project collapsed due to opposing visions over which version of the character it should follow.  Despite the enthusiasm I professed for Ennis' FURY in front of Arad, my loyalty will always lie with the Steranko classic. However, it seems fated that that version was never destined to make it to the big screen.  When Nick Fury finally did turn up in cinemas at the end of Iron Man, it was in the guise of Samuel L. Jackson, playing another alternate comic book version of the eye-patched secret agent based on the Ultimate line of books.  Ennis' MAX version of Fury was just as far from the classic incarnation as Ultimate Nick Fury.  However, a few years later the Irish author reigned in his caricature a bit, presenting a pretty good version of his Fury in a Punisher MAX storyline, Mother Russia.  I'm hoping the version in this new series is closer to that take than Ennis' original one.  His vision for the book certainly piques my interest.  

The MTV Geek blog caught up with Ennis shortly after this new announcement and got some more details out of him on what to expect from the new MAX Fury series. Ennis revealed that he would be taking the character back to his Cold War roots (sounds good to me), and essentially using him to explore the last half-century of famous CIA operations.  What Ennis describes, in fact, sounds sort of like a Marvel MAX version of The Good Shepherd, which sounds pretty neat to me.  "The new series," he reveals, "will look quite closely at the Cold War. It’s a period of history that fascinates me and we will sort of move through its greatest hits. French Indochina, Cuba because you have do the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam in the early seventies when it’s really gotten going, and then on to Nicaragua and El Salvador in the 80s."

Ennis told the interviewer that he sees his Nick Fury as "the kind of black ops, master spy, adrenaline junkie who’s never going to give this up. I count that first Nick Fury series among my favorite things that I’ve ever done. I felt that it was 6 issues of high-octane madness and it was exactly what I wanted it to be! However, it’s not surprising at all that Marvel would not build on that. You can’t an ongoing franchise out of a guy who is ultimately a very negative character. He’s a war junkie, a guy who would almost start a war just so he can indulge his favorite passion. What really interests me about the character is the notion that the guy has been at war for effectively 60 or 70 years and still has the energy for it."

Goran Parlov will be handling the art chores on Ennis' new series. Besides the convention sketch pictured here, he's previously drawn the character in collaboration with Bill Sienkiewicz in two volumes of truly excellent Black Widow comics by Richard K. Morgan, Homecoming and The Things They Say About Her.  (Both are fantastic spy stories.)

X-Men: First Class Trailer

Fox released the teaser trailer this week for X-Men: First Class.  If you're wondering why that bears mention on a spy blog, read up on Matthew Vaughn's Avengers and James Bond-inspired, Sixties-set superhero movie here and here so I don't have to recap it all again!  This teaser doesn't wallow in Sixties period detail and style quite as much as I would have liked, but it does give a good sense of the tone of the film... and I like it.  Can't wait to see more! (There is one brief shot of January Jones' Emma Frost in her sexy White Queen costume inspired by Diana Rigg's famous Queen of Sin outfit from the Avengers episode "A Touch of Brimstone," but be sure not to blink or you'll miss it! Pause the video right before she uses her mutant powers to turn into diamond.)

Tradecraft: Robin Sparkle, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Marvel is expanding the roster of cinematic S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Deadline reports that How I Met Your Mother's Cobie Smulders is close to landing the role of Agent Maria Hill in The Avengers. (Usual caveat when talking about this movie: it's based on the Marvel comic book that stole that name, and has nothing to do with the TV show everyone reading this blog knows to be the real Avengers... but it still sounds cool!) According to an interview Samuel L. Jackson (who plays Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D.) gave to Jimmy Fallon last week, the 29-year-old actress will play his "sidekick" in the film.  However, comic readers will be aware that Hill eventually goes on to replace Fury as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. herself... but presumably that moment is a long way off in the film universe.

Personally, I was rooting for Firefly's Morena Baccarin to re-team with that show's creator and director of The Avengers, Joss Whedon, for the role (she's already got the Maria Hill haircut for her part in V!), but Smulders is good too.  According to the trade blog, she was Whedon's choice to play Wonder Woman back when he was developing a Wonder Woman movie that never came to be. Smulders will join an expanding line-up of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that already includes Jackson along with Scarlet Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, the only one of these characters created specifically for the movie universe and not taken from the comics. (I wish he was playing Jasper Sitwell instead, but oh well.)

Spies Are Everywhere: Marvel's Venom Goes 007

In a sure sign that the spy genre has reached its greatest heights since the 1960s, spies are once again invading all corners of popular culture. In comics, obviously espionage is nothing new to the Marvel Universe. This is, after all, the publisher that turned its popular war hero Sgt. Fury into superspy Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the heyday of the Sixties spy boom. Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. have remained integral to the Marvel Universe ever since, and become more so than ever in the last decade. But now the most popular Spider-man villain is being reinvented as a secret agent. 

Personally, I've never seen the appeal of Venom. I prefer the classic Spidey antagonists created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko back in the Sixties. (I've always been partial to The Vulture and The Lizard.) But I'm in the vast minority among my generation. Most comic readers who came of age in the Eighties and Nineties seem to love Todd McFarlane's big toothy monster design. However, I have to admit I am slightly intrigued by Marvel's latest direction for the character. According to Comic Shop News and Newsarama, the new take devised by writers Dan Slott and Rick Remender and Walking Dead artist Tony Moore envisions Venom as a Bond- or Bourne-like secret agent. Of course, this being a comic book (a medium that fetishizes paramilitary gear even more than movies, as evidenced by the famous jumpsuit Steranko gave Nick Fury), he's really more of a Black Ops soldier-boy than a spy-guy (in design, anyway), but Remender still promises lots of espionage and intrigue.

A person becomes the monstrous Venom when he dons a black alien symbiote suite that imbues him with strength and powers--but also tugs at his psyche, making him crazy after prolonged exposure. Rememder is mum on who exactly will be wearing the suit, but he's doing it now for the U.S. government. (Not S.H.I.E.L.D., Marvel's former go-to spy agency.) "In terms of a character who could 007 it up," he told Newsarama, "Venom could one day be infiltrating Utopia to steal some secrets from an evil mutant who lives there. And the next day, he could be gallivanting as a tuxedo-adorned rico suave, hitting up a Casino Royale-type situation in Latveria. He’s going to hop all over the place, and do 007 business wearing the Venom symbiote, and the whole time in a struggle with the symbiote to make sure it doesn’t take control of him, and turn him into the 'real' Venom." 

He elaborated further to CSN: "It's James Bond-style worldwide adventuring with the high stakes espionage, intrigue, fast action and an opening mission that holds the stability of the world in the balance." Okay, that all sounds good to me. But then he adds, "The tone merges the same brand of ferocious hardcore violence fans of Venom would expect with the international high-adventure of The Bourne Identity, globetrotting from bleak Eastern European war zones into exotic Marvel Universe locations like the Savage Land." Eh, maybe it's not for me. I've got nothing against "hardcover voilence" in plenty of situations, but it's never a selling point for me, either. And that phrasing kind of sums up why Venom has never appealed to me before.

Still, I do like that Black Ops Spidey suit Moore has designed, and this is an intriguing angle and part of an equally intriguing trend. Over the past decade and particularly in the last few years, Marvel has been retooling almost all of their characters to be a little more spy than classic superhero. Ed Brubaker started it with his brilliant techno-thriller take on Captain America, and lately we've seen Spider Woman and even The Avengers (as The Secret Avengers–no relation whatsoever to the real Avengers of classic spy TV) reimagined as secret agent comics. On top of all that, characters who have always been spies to begin with like Fury and Black Widow have gotten their own series again recently. Even in the Sixties, spy-mania was never this all-encompassing!

The new Venom debuts this March in Amazing Spider-Man #654.1 by Slott, then spins off into his own series by Remender and Moore.

Nick Fury Net Cartoon

I'm not really up to date on stuff like this, but apparently Marvel has been posting some online "micro-episodes" (why not calle them "microsodes?") of a cartoon called The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes that picks and chooses from Marvel's regular Avengers comics (again, this is Marvel Comics' all-star superhero squad, not the real Avengers you're usually more likely to read about here) and their Ultimate comics.  The latest micro-episode (the ninth) stars Marvel's eyepatched superspy Nick Fury, and he's quite literaly an amalgamation of the the classic Nick Fury of Steranko's comics and the Ultimate version of the character, based on Samuel L. Jackson and actually embodied by the actor in Marvel's live-action movies (most recently Iron Man 2).  The Fury in this cartoon does not look like Jackson, isn't bald, and doesn't wear a long black leather coat.  He basically looks like Steranko's Fury, complete with classic blue jumpsuit and (by the end of the episode) grey streaks in his hair.  But like the Ultimate Nick Fury, he is black, and apparently voiced by a black actor.  It's kind of weird, but personally I like it a lot better than the version of the character based on Jackson.  This version of Ultimate Nick Fury may be of a different ethnicity than the character's original incarnation, but skin color aside he's pretty much the character Steranko fans know and love. (Unlike the Ultimate version and the movie version, wherin Jackson's larger-than-life persona eclipses any familiar Fury traits.) And that's why this little cartoon is kind of cool, and worth mentioning here.  It's a rare chance to see Steranko conceits in motion, including Nick's flying sports car and stretch underarm wing glider thing.  Give it a look on YouTube, then pick up Steranko's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. trade paperback to see Marvel's version of James Bond from the height of the Sixties spy craze.
(Thanks to Josh for sending me this link.)

Upcoming Spy DVDs: The Six Million Dollar Man And The Bionic Woman

Reader Delmo pointed out in a recent comment that The Six Million Dollar Man (1974-1978) was as much a spy show as a sci-fi one, as bionically-enhanced Colonel Steve Austin (Lee Majors) worked for the top-secret organization OSI (Office of Scientific Investigation).  Another friend of mine had just made the same point recently, saying that the pilot movie (I'm not sure which one he was talking about; apparently there were three) was a much more serious, even gritty, spy story than the TV show ever was.  I'll take their words for it, because I don't think I've ever seen an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man.  Instead, my awareness of the series is reflected through popular culture and parody.  (I know, for example, that Oscar Goldman was Austin's boss from The 40 Year Old Virgin!)  Now I guess I'll have the chance to rectify that gap in my pop culture knowledge because TV Shows On DVD reports that the complete series is coming out on DVD for the first time in Region 1, from Time-Life. Time-Life previously created the feature-laden (but expensive) Complete Series sets for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Get Smart, and The Six Million Dollar Man Gets the same lavish treatment - and the same exhorbitant price, at $239.99.  But the extensive features (and possibly the deluxe packaging with 3D lenticular images and a sound chip) just might make it worth that much... and it's still better than paying $6 million, right?  Here are some of the features, from the press release at TV Shows On DVD:

Enhancing the series long-awaited release are countless hours of bonus features, including intimate interviews with the cast and crew, including Lindsay Wagner (Jaime Sommers), executive producer Harve Bennett, and writer Kenneth Johnson. Also featured are a staggering seventeen original featurettes, on everything from "Real Bionics: How Science Fiction Is Becoming Science Fact" and "The Bionic Sound Effects", to "The Search for Bigfoot" and "The Six Million Dollar Man's Best Villains, Best Fights"; the two-part featurette "TV Goes Bionic: The Untold Story of The Six Million Dollar Man" (which goes behind the scenes to explore the series like never before), and several featurettes celebrating the series V.I.P. guest stars such as Lee's then-wife, Farrah Fawcett-Majors (who made four guest appearances), Andre the Giant, Kim Basinger, Sonny Bono, Lou Gossett, Erik Estrada, Stefanie Powers, John Saxon, Cathy Rigby, William Shatner, Suzanne Somers and many more. Additionally, there's audio commentary on six episodes by writer Kenneth Johnson and director Cliff Bole, and an interactive bonus entitled "Bionic Breakdown" that will allow fans the ability to click on Steve Austin's eye, arm or legs to learn more about each one of his bionic enhancements; from night-vision to cauterizing veins to running speeds that exceed 65 miles per hour, "Colonel Austin's" skills and abilities are catalogued here with episode clips as a visual reference.

For now, The Six Million Dollar Man: The Complete Series (a whopping 40-disc set, containing all five seasons, all three pilot movies and all three reunion movies) is only available directly from Time-Life at 6MDM.com.  That's annoying, because it means consumers are hostages to their pricing.  (Although the company does offer occasional coupons, if you search for them.)  In a year or two, after the window of exclusivity is over, I'm sure the complete series and possibly even individual seasons will become available in stores and from the usual online retailers at much more competitive prices.  That's what happened with The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Get Smart.  In the meantime, be sure to check out the full press release at TV Shows On DVD to read about all the special features.  (There are way more than those mentioned above!)

Steve Austin isn't the only bonic person coming to DVD this fall, though.  TV Shows On DVD also recently reported that the 1976 spinoff show The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner, will debut on October 19 with The Bionic Woman: Season One.  The 4-disc set from Universal includes all 13 episodes from the first season as well as five crossover episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man, episode commentaries, a gag reel, a photo gallery and the featurette "Bionic Beginnings," featuring an all-new interview with Wagner.  Retail is a much more reasonable $39.98 (though it's available for pre-order right now for just $27.99), but you'll have to shell out again for two more seasons down the road.  Still, much cheaper than Time-Life's Six Million Dollar Man set!

Emma Frost Channels Emma Peel For Real!

A few weeks ago we learned that Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class, a prequel focusing on the younger days of the characters played in the other movies by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, would be set in the 1960s, thus justifying the casting of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender in those roles (and necessitating Fassbender's subsequent departure from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy). We also learned recently that Mad Men's January Jones would play Emma Frost, a character whose costume (a white version of Jean Grey's Black Queen costume... it's complicated) was based on Emma Peel's costume as The Queen of Sin in the Avengers episode "A Touch of Brimstone." (See a revealing costume comparison here.) Producer Brian Singer said that Vaughn was going for a "James Bond vibe."  Clearly, he's taking this Sixties setting to heart, and he's also, appropriately, going for an Avengers vibe!  AICN ran this set picture yesterday (depicting Jones and her stunt double in costume) along with a link to lots more great pictures at The Daily Mail.  (Check out that awesome Cold War era helicopter!) It looks like Emma Frost is Emma Peel!  Look at that dress! Is that an Emma Peel frock or what? And those boots! This is awesome.  I'm so excited for this movie now.  I hope that all of Jones' costumes are white variations on Diana Rigg's famous wardrobe. Will she wear a white Emmapeeler catsuit?  I have little doubt that eventually we'll see that skimpy leather Queen of Sin outfit... Personally, I love what Vaghn is doing.  The AICN Talkbacks are kind of disturbing, though, with a million variations on, "Is he making X-Men or Austin Powers?"  Yes, even nearly a decade on, Austin Powers is still tainting any references to Sixties spywear.  It's too bad.  Austin Powers is like the atom bomb; what was unleashed (while it seemed like a very good idea at the time) can't be put back in the tube.  It's out in the world now, and we've just got to deal with it.  Hopefully Vaughn makes an amazing Sixties superhero movie that finally makes people say "Austin who?"

New X-Men Movie To Evoke James Bond, Avengers?

Harry Knowles has posted some major updates about the new X-Men movie on Aintitcool.  I know, I know: who cares about the X-Men on a spy blog?  I, for one, haven't really cared about an X-Men movie since Bryan Singer's X2 (which was awesome).  But some of the things that Singer (who's producing this new movie) told Knowles have my interest decidedly piqued.  X-Men: First Class, directed by Matthew Vaughn (who was at one time attached to direct a Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie), will be a prequel set in the 1960s rather than a modern-day reboot of the superhero franchise.  More than once, Singer refers to the "James Bond vibe" of that era that he and Vaughn hope to capture in the film, and he mentions that Vaughn is inspired by Bondian technology.  A superhero movie set in the Sixties with Bond gadgets and style? Okay, now I'm intrigued!  Let's hope for Incredibles-like Ken Adamish sets as well!  But that's not all.  Singer also reveals that the storyline includes The Hellfire Club, a group of baddies introduced into the X-Men comics by Chris Claremont in the early 80s inspired by the infamous Queen of Sin episode of The Avengers, "A Touch of Brimstone." X-Men's Hellfire Club storyline included a Black Queen (whose costume was based on Diana Rigg's Queen of Sin), a White Queen named Emma (after Peel) Frost, and a character based on guest star Peter Wyngarde's role (and likeness!) named "Jason Wyngarde" (in homage not only to the actor but also to his famous bouffanted character Jason King).  Provided that the set and costume designs are as Avengers-inspired as the artwork in the comics, this could be pretty great.  (Or not.  We'll see.)

Rare Steranko Nick Fury Comic Pages

The excellent art blog Golden Age Comic Book Stories has some Nick Fury artwork by the great Jim Steranko that I'd never seen before!  In a post about art from convention programs of the Sixties and Seventies, there are two short comic strip stories from 1968 featuring Marvel's eyepatched superspy written by Phil Seuling and drawn by Steranko.  Having appeared in convention programs and not in Marvel books, these are not included in any of Marvel's collections of Steranko Nick Fury stories.  (There may be other reasons why they're not included, too.)  The first one (below) features a frank conversation about the social mores that governed comic book content at the time–and a rather simian Nick Fury ogling a mini-skirted woman amidst Times Square topless joints.  The second, a two-pager, features another conversation between Nick and his trench-coated friend, a particularly dynamic Steranko action pose and a whole bunch of characters owned by other companies that pretty much ensure this art will never appear in any Marvel collection.  Go to Golden Age Comic Book Stories now to view it!  (Just scroll down.)