This weekend ABC announced that Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D, the upcoming television series spinning out of Marvel Entertainment’s highly successful movie universe, is getting a new name. The Joss Whedon helmed vehicle will now be titled Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a title that perhaps better reflects what is expected to be a focus on the characters in the series, including Agent Coulson, who seemingly died during last summer’s The Avengers film.
Bif Bang Pow!’s ‘The Venture Bros.’ 3.75” Action Figures Arrive
Joining the line of 8” Mego style dolls and assorted bobble heads, Bif Bang Pow!’s long-awaited 3.75” The Venture Bros. action figures have finally started venturing (HAW!) into retailers. Entertainment Earth and other online shops have posted new product images for the line’s first wave, including 3.75” versions of Dr. Mrs. The Monarch with a flowing scarf, Hank Venture with a machete, Dean Venture with a shotgun and Brock Samson with a knife. Dr. Venture, Phantom Limb and The Monarch are expected to follow in June and pack the same roughly same 10 points of articulation and the same roughly $12 price tag. You can scope out all of the Venture Bros. 3.75” figures after the jump, including prototypes of the second wave figures from BBP!’s Toy Fair 2013 display.
Patton Oswalt’s Epic ‘Star Wars’ Rant On ‘Parks and Recreation’
Parks and Recreation, a show about politics in a small U.S. town, often finds clever ways to parody various topical issues taking place in Washington D.C. Tomorrow’s episode is no different, as this time they’re taking a shot at much debated filibuster reform, and they’ve enlisted the help of Patton Oswalt to do so. Oswalt, playing the role of one of Pawnee’s many insane passionate citizens, goes on a completely improvised nerd rant in which he recites what he believes should be the plot of the upcoming Star Wars Episode VII, including an aging Luke, Han and Leia crossing over into the Marvel film universe as they team up with the Avengers, Spider-Man, the X-Men and more to take on Thanos. Not all of the Avengers make it into Oswalt’s cut, as he’s replaced “second tier” characters Hawkeye and Black Widow with noted Marvel A-lister Moon Knight. Naturally.
You can see the full video above, and while this is obviously meant to be a joke, let us all pray to our respective deity’s that no executive at Disney ever hears this proposal.
Classic 1966 ‘Batman’ Halloween Costumes Are Coming This Year
By Chris Sims
After years of being unable to capitalize on the classic Batman TV show, it looks like Warner Bros. and DC are wasting absolutely no time on making up for that. Since merchandising rights were sorted out, they’ve announced a new line of action figures, a digital comic series, and now, we’re getting full-on Batman ‘66 costumes for Halloween.
The costumes include Batman, Robin, Batgirl, the Riddler, Catwoman and the Joker, and for store-bought costumes, they actually look pretty good — even if the Joker doesn’t include a moustache.
Check out bigger pictures on ComicsAlliance!
‘Dream Thief’ Artist Greg Smallwood Illustrates Crime Movies And The Cast Of ‘The Wire’
By Lauren Davis
Greg Smallwood is drawing Dark Horse’s upcoming Jai Nitz-authored title Dream Thief, about a man who steals an Aboriginal mask only to discover that murderous spirits are taking possession of his body while he sleeps. It’s appropriate, then, that Smallwood has such a fascination with crime stories. In between posting sample panels from Dream Thief, he’s been sketching up moments from crime movies old and new, as well as a handful of characters from The Wire.
Free Willy: The Animated Series, I owe everything to you. #freewillytheanimatedseries
The Sheer Radness Of ‘Surf’s Up, Joker’s Under’ (1967)
By Chris Sims
If you asked a bunch of comic fans what the greatest Joker story of all time was, I imagine you’d get a variety of answers. Some would probably point to Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s The Killing Joke, which raised the bar for the Joker’s criminal madness. Others might say Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’s The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge, which defined the direction the character would take for the next thirty years. Still others might even point to The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger’s incredible, harrowing performance.
Those people are all wrong. As you and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, the single greatest Joker story of all time is “Surf’s Up, Joker’s Under,” an episode of the Batman ‘66 TV series in which the Joker attempts to take over Gotham City by defeating Batman in a surfing contest.
Fully Funded ‘Spider Stories’ Kickstarter Reflects Viewers’ Desire for African Stories in Animation
By Andy Khouri
In 2009 the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a TED Talk on the dangers of what she called “The Single Story.” Put simply, the Single Story is the conventional understanding of a people, culture or situation that’s informed by stereotypes in literature and the media — stereotypes that aren’t necessarily untrue, but that are necessarily incomplete. For example, it was the Single Story of her middle class family’s young servant that his family was incredibly poor — not “incredibly poor and incredibly hard working.” It was the Single Story of Africa as a “catastrophe” that prompted Adichie’s American roommate in college to remark upon how well Adichie spoke, how impressed she was that Adichie could use appliances like stoves, and how surprising it was that Adichie listened to Mariah Carey instead of “tribal music.”
Adichie’s remarks struck a chord with indie comics creators John and Charles Agbaje, who observed that one chapter largely missing from the story of Africa in the west was that of the hero — more specifically, the heroine. To that end, the brothers took to Kickstarter to fund the production of Spider Stories, an 11-minute animated pilot inspired by Nigerian folk tales and modern hero epics like Avatar: The Last Airbender, with a view to selling the project as a proper animated series. With three days remaining to pledge, the Agbaje brothers have already raised the $25,000 needed to produce the short, which I think demonstrates that a western audience is keen to see something new in animation and improve its understanding of the African story.
![Link Ink:
Movies: The Robot Chicken DC Comics Special is set for release on Blu-ray and DVD on July 9. [AdultSwim]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/87fe3c64bf8372efbb2aee61a3f58c77/tumblr_mka3etIGjw1qcw9rdo1_500.jpg)
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