It’s that time of year again! Austin Comic Con was a blast again this year, and it was way bigger than last year.

This movie (and by extension this summer) can’t get here soon enough.

The first major comic convention in Austin in a loooooooong time, and my first con since getting into comics a few years ago! I dressed up as Deadpool, and surprisingly was the only Deadpool at the show, so I ended up getting mobbed every few feet by people asking for pictures. I managed to snag a few myself though:

It’s Avengers-o-rama this week

First off! Captain America’s movie costume revealed!!

Also full shots of Thor’s costume!

And a side-by-side comparison of the main movie Avengers

Looks pretty sweet to me, though I feel like Cap’s costume is a little too sleek/modern for World War II, though they seemed to have mostly adapted Bryan Hitch’s Ultimate Captain America design. Also, I was kinda hoping that Thor would have A. mail pants like the Coipel design and B. have a tunic that extended a little down past the waistline. Just the same though, it’s great to see the full designs, I can’t wait to see them in action.

Also, according to Jon Favreau, Iron Man will not be appearing in the Captain America or Thor movies like at the end of the Hulk, where Stark meets with General Ross to discuss “a new team.” Now, this may just be semantics, in that we won’t see Iron Man, but may see Tony Stark. Thor is going to take place in the modern era, and we know Agent Coulson from the Iron Man movies will be in it, and the Captain America film will be bookended by modern segments, so we may see Tony Stark, just not with the armor.

Last bit of Avengers news is that Jeremy Renner is just about locked to play Hawkeye in the 2012 Avengers movie. I still haven’t seen the Hurt Locker, but I’ve heard that his character has the same sort of deadpan smartassery that Hawkeye is known for. As far as the look, just dye his hair blonde and he’s got it.

Next up is this fun piece I found on Kotaku:

I found this website a couple days ago and thought it was thoroughly fantastic:

As their tagline says, “wherein jokes and statements are made using typography.” So far it’s been goofiness like the girl kicking the flowers and seriousness like comments on the BP disaster.

So I’ve been falling behind on my “bit of awesome” posts, I need to start doing them sooner than on the day of. Anyways, I was directed to the latest “I’m a Marvel and I’m a DC”, which makes a great (and hilarious) point about Marvel totally killing DC in terms of movies:

Strap yourselves in, because I’ve got some fun for you.

First off is the first real footage from the upcoming Finnish Nazis-in-space film, “Iron Sky”:

They released a teaser trailer a while back, which just blew my mind in terms of sheer ridiculousness/awesomeness:

I really really love the art design and feel of the project so far, though apparently it’s supposed to be a sci-fi comedy. Not exactly sure how it’ll be a comedy, but I’m still interested to see how it turns out.

Speaking of sci-fi comedy, Valve is marking the release of their Steam digital download platform to Mac by releasing Portal for FREE. FOR FREE. Portal is one of the best games of the last few years, between the clever puzzle design and pitch black humor, it’s definitely worth picking up. And again, it’s FREE. $0. Nothing at all! So if you for whatever reason don’t have it, go here and get it NOW!

Also, I know it aired last week, but last week’s episode of Community, “Modern Warfare,” was one of the most insane and brilliant pieces of TV I’ve ever seen. Tons upon tons of movie references combined with some incredibly sharp writing led to one of the best 22 minutes I’ve watched in a long time. Check it out here.

Lastly, the final issues of Siege, New Avengers, and Dark Avengers came out this week, and I have to say that it was a wonderfully satisfying conclusion to the epic story that had first started in Avengers Disassembled in 2005. The finale to Siege played out rather quickly, but seeing the heroes finally and definitively beating the bad guys was a great experience. Same thing goes for the New Avengers finale, which read like the original Avengers finale at the end of Disassembled, except that the Avengers actually had something positive to celebrate instead of just mourning for the fallen. So congrats to Brian Bendis and the rest involved in the epic Avengers meta-story, it’s been a great ride, and the Heroic Age starting next week looks to be the beginning of a new, great chapter in Marvel comics history.

First and foremost:

Chris Hemsworth as Thor! I’m really glad they went with the modern Olivier Coipel-designed costume, it looks really great.

Speaking of Marvel movies, I got into a screening of Iron Man 2 at the Alamo Drafthouse (Gotta love Austin) this past Tuesday. After watching well over an hour of bizarre cartoons and videos from the 30s and 40s, the lights came down and they ran through the usual Alamo pre-movie reel of coming events. Then the lights came back up and AICN boss Harry Knowles and Alamo head Tim League came out to introduce the movie. Then this happened:

Where yes indeed, both Robert Downey, jr. and Jon Favreau came out to introduce and talk about the film. As for the movie, it was an absurd amount of fun. More action, more spectacle, more character developments than the first. It still suffered from some slow pacing in a few parts, but the snappy dialogue made up for it. And at just under 2 hours, they crammed a LOT into it. Also, there were tons of references for the comics fans, including direct references to the upcoming Captain America and Thor movies (namely the post-credits sequence, which I had to go to Youtube to see, as it wasn’t included) as well as things like the Silver Centurion armor (combined with the iconic Silver Age suitcase armor, no less). Overall it was really good, and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it again when it officially opens.

I also found these great pieces of Star Wars propaganda art by Joe Corroney (from /Film):

Also these pieces by “21st Century Art Deco” artist Mike Kungl

He has some great non-Star Wars work as well, I’m definitely a fan of the angular, elegant art deco style.

I got picked to go to the Iron Man 2 fan screening at the Alamo Drafthouse at South Lamar tomorrow night! A full week and a half before it opens nationwide!!!

EEEE SO EXCITED!!!

First off, Capcom and Marvel announce Marvel vs. Capcom 3!! I’ve only had a passing interest in fighting games (Street Fighter 2 as a kid, Tekken 3 and beyond as a teen/adult), but Marvel vs. Capcom 2 has been one of my enduring favorites because it features a bunch of my favorite superheroes rendered in a distinctive, fluid style. This time around it’s being done in a similar style as last year’s Street Fighter IV, so it’s 3D with a drawn, cartoony style.

Official teaser:

People are already speculating as to who’s going to be in it, based on teaser images (seen here), a lot of the characters from MvC2 will return, along with some new faces like Deadpool (yes!) and the Super Skrull. Here’s hoping they’ll include Thor.

Up next, these Lost-themed tarot cards have recently surfaced. Obviously each image has a special significance to that particular character, but the images and designs themselves are striking enough for the cards to stand well on their own:

Lastly, one of my favorite movies from 2009 was the incredibly brilliant blaxploitation parody Black Dynamite, and they just posted this scene on Facebook:

I’m about 95% done with the animation on my Black Coffee Jones vs. Pimpasaurus video, here are a couple of characters from it:

Only two weeks until Iron Man 2! As good as the first one was, I’m sure this one will be just as great if not better.

I know it’s not Friday but I couldn’t not post this:

Marvel revealed this combined poster (apparently made up of several covers from various upcoming Avengers and Avengers-related series) at C2E2 this weekend, and holy crap it’s awesome. Djurdjevic is definitely one of the best things to happen to Marvel in recent years, he’s akin to Alex Ross without all of the Silver Age wankery.