First Trailer: Marvel's BLACK WIDOW Movie!

Black Widow will be the first of Marvel's superspies to get her own movie (preceding Shang Chi by a year), and today Marvel released the first trailer. And it looks pretty cool! I'm honestly surprised about how many images come directly from the various Black Widow comics over the years. Clearly, the character's first standalone film will contain some flashbacks to Natasha Romanoff's early days as a child raised to be a KGB assassin in Moscow's infamous Red Room. Scarlett Johansson has played the role in seven Marvel movies (most recently the all-time box office champ Avengers: Endgame), but this will be her first solo feature.

If you want to play catch-up on the comics and see where some of those images in the trailer come from, there are some collections out there that make that possible. (And even more are due next year in the lead up to the movie!) Three beautifully prodcued Marvel Premiere hardcovers collect this secret agent's most essential adventures in matching volumes. Black Widow: The Sting of the Widow presents the character's first appearance (in a silly costume in an issue of Iron Man) and earliest solo adventures from the early Seventies, after she'd gotten an Emma Peel makeover, ending up in the black catsuit with which she's still most closely associated. These early Black Widow comics will surely be of interest to collectors and hardcore fans, but casual fans looking for a great introduction to the character are better off picking up the second volume in the series, Black Widow: Web of Intrigue first.

Black Widow: Web of Intrigue offers an excellent primer on the character containing some of her classic appearances from the early Eighties, including an excellent comic drawn by my second-favorite spy artist (after Steranko), Paul Gulacy.  (Look for a cameo appearance by Michael Caine!) Black Widow: Web of Intrigue contains this and several other seminal tales of the red-haired Russian superspy. A third volume, Black Widow: The Itsy Bitsy Spider collects a pair of Marvel Knights stories from the late Nineties (including one by Queen & Country scribe Greg Rucka).

My two favorite modern-day Widow storylines have yet to receive the hardcover treatment, sadly, but are available in a pair of out-of-print trade paperbacks. (They'll also, happily, be collected in a new single volume next year!) Richard K. Morgan's Black Widow: Homecoming and Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her put the focus on espionage above superheroics and are among the very best Marvel spy stories of this century. Other recent Widow stories include Black Widow: Deadly Origin, Black Widow and the Marvel Girls, Black Widow: The Name of the Rose and Black Widow: Kiss or Kill. Most of the character's adventures with Daredevil from the 1970s are included in Essential Daredevil: Volume 3. as well as the color Daredevil Epic Collection: A Woman Called Widow.

Tradecraft: Marvel Announces Shang-Chi Casting, Title

As much as I love Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (and I love it dearly!) and Black Widow, my favorite Marvel spy comic has to be the original 1970s run of The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu... particularly the issues showcasing the brilliant collaboration of writer Doug Moench and artist Paul Gulacy (a team who would go on to produce the best James Bond comic book to date, "Serpent's Tooth"). Last December, it was first reported that a Shang-Chi movie would feature among Marvel Studios' next slate of films. All has been quiet since then... until this past weekend. On a massive panel at Comic-Con Saturday night, Deadline reports, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige announced the first official details about the studio's upcoming Master of Kung Fu movie, including its title and who will play the titular master, Shang-Chi.

Feige told the assembled hordes of fans in SDCC's Hall H that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will open on February 12, 2021. Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu will play Shang-Chi. Best known for a Canadian sitcom called Kim's Convenience, Liu has earned spy cred with roles on Nikita and the Taken TV show. As studied Marvel fanatics will glean from the title, Iron Man comics villain the Mandarin (basically a Marvel rip-off of Sax Rohmer's 1920s-created "yellow peril" character Fu Manchu) will replace the actual Fu Manchu (a character Marvel licensed in the Seventies, but no longer has the rights to) as Shang-Chi's criminal mastermind father... and the great Tony Leung (Lust, Caution, The Silent War) will play him. Actress and rapper Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians, Ocean's 8) will also appear in the film, though her role was not announced. I can't really imagine her as Shang-Chi's love interest Leiko Wu, but she might make a good foil as his duplicitous half-sister Fah Lo Suee. (Or she could be playing an original comedic role, of course.) As previously announced, Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12) will direct, and Dave Callaham (Jean-Claude Van Johnson) handles scripting duties, making up an all Asian-American creative team driving the picture.

The comic book The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu was created in the early Seventies to (obviously) cash in on the kung fu craze of the time. Comics legends Steve Englehart (Batman: Strange Apparitions) and Jim Starlin (Avengers: Infinity War) originated the character, but it was the dynamic writer/artist team of Moench and Gulacy who became most associated with Shang-Chi... and who gave the comic a new direction as an espionage series.

Shang-Chi's real world origins at Marvel are a bit complicated, as the publisher had acquired the rights to Rohmer's villainous Fu Manchu character (still well-known at the time thanks to a series of Christopher Lee movies in the Sixties), but Englehart was more interested in the popular TV series of the time, Kung Fu. So he incorporated Rohmer's characters Fu Manchu and his nemesis, British adventurer Sir Denis Nayland-Smith, but invented a new character to star in the series more inspired by Kung Fu... Fu Manchu's hitherto unknown son, Shang-Chi. Though the father had seen to it that the son was trained from birth to be a Master of Kung Fu, when Shang-Chi discovered that the father he believed to be munificent was actually a diabolical criminal mastermind, he turned on him, and found employment with Nayland-Smith and the British Secret Service. In the hands of Moench and Gulacy, secret agent Shang-Chi encountered all manner of spy hijinks, from moles inside MI6 to supervillains with private islands, gadgets galore, and robotic armies. He also developed a roster of memorable sidekicks, including Nayland-Smith's assistant and bodyguard Black Jack Tarr (drawn by Gulacy to resemble Sean Connery in The Man Who Would Be King), and fellow MI6 agent Clive Reston (drawn by Gulacy at first to resemble Connery in Goldfinger, but later looking more and more like Roger Moore), who is strongly hinted to be the son of James Bond and the grand-nephew of Sherlock Holmes. Should the character of Black Jack Tarr make the movie roster (and it's hard to imagine Master of Kung Fu without him), I'd love to see Jason Statham brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in that role! Sure, he's too short... but I think he'd nail the attitude--and make a formidable physical foil for Liu.

While Marvel's most famous spy agency, S.H.I.E.L.D., never showed up in the pages of Master of Kung Fu (though Shang-Chi did eventually team up with Nick Fury and Black Widow in a multi-issue arc of Marvel Team-Up), Gulacy's stunning artwork owed a clear debt to Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. artist Jim Steranko. Like Steranko, Gulacy reveled in quasi-sci-fi technology and weaponry and innovative, experimental page layouts. (One particular standout turned the page into a maze, following Shang-Chi's progress against a variety of opponents as he navigated the labyrinth.) He also brought his own obsessions to the table, like Bond-inspired, movie poster-style splash pages, relentlessly sexy women in proto-Gaultier leather fashions, and the liberal use of famous actors' likenesses to "cast" the book with everyone from Bruce Lee (upon whom Gulacy's Shang-Chi was clearly based) to Marlon Brando, Christopher Lee (as Fu Manchu, of course), David Niven, and even Groucho Marx. The result was a truly unique book that far transcended (and consequently outlasted) the kung fu movie trend from which it was born, and drew influence from all sorts of popular culture. I think it may well be my very favorite Marvel comic. Long unavailable outside of back issue bins, the entire 125-issue series has at long last been reprinted over the past few years in four massive, hardcover omnibus volumes, which I cannot recommend highly enough. Marvel has also recently begun a line of cheaper paperback "Epic Collections."

Spider-Man Turns SPYder-Man in New Trailer Featuring Nick Fury

Sony has released the first trailer for their latest Spider-Man movie, the second one set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and a direct sequel to 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming. Thanks to the agreement between Sony and Disney-owned Marvel Studios that also allows Spider-man to appear in Disney's Avengers films, the Sony-released, Marvel-produced Spider-man movies can use other characters from the MCU. Spider-Man: Far From Home (opening this summer) takes full advantage of this scenario by finally bringing erstwhile S.H.I.E.L.D. ramrod Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) into poor Peter Parker's life. In fact, it looks like the pitch for this movie might have been something along the lines of, "let's do If Looks Could Kill with Spider-Man." Which, as an unapologetic fan of the 1991 Richard Grieco  teen spy movie, fills me with delight... even if I still have trouble believing Marvel went for it!

Far From Home finds teenage Peter Parker and all his classmates from Homecoming going on a school trip to Europe, where Nick Fury hijacks Peter's European vacation to recruit him as some sort of spy, complete with a fancy new stealth Spider suit. Jackson's Fury is accompanied once again by his regular MCU sidekick, Cobie Smulders' former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill. (Never mind that the last time we saw the two of them, in Avengers: Infinity War, both were disintegrating into dust. Perhaps the events of Avengers: Endgame, which will open between now and Far From Home, will somehow undo that fate, or perhaps Far From Home takes place prior to Infinity War.Jackson will next be seen as a pre-eye patch Fury in the 1990s-set Captain Marvel.) This trailer marks the first time we've ever seen Jackson's Fury wield a gun that resembles the one Jim Steranko drew for him on his seminal 1960s run on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (even if this one's a dart gun). Personally, I'm 100% sold on the spy stuff... but iffy on the giant elemental creatures angle. Check it out for yourselves:


Read my Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. primer here.

Tradecraft: Marvel Plots SHANG-CHI, MASTER OF KUNG FU Movie

Deadline reports that among the next wave of Marvel Cinematic Universe titles to follow in the wake of the fourth Avengers movie will be Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. For spy fans, this is staggering news! The comic book The Hands of Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu was created in the early Seventies to (obviously) cash in on the kung fu craze of the time. Comics legends Steve Englehart (Batman: Strange Apparitions) and Jim Starlin (Avengers: Infinity War) originated the character, but it was the dynamic writer/artist team of Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy (who would later re-team on one of the best James Bond comics ever, Dark Horse's Serpent's Tooth) who became most associated with Shang-Chi... and who gave the comic a new direction as an espionage series.

Shang-Chi's real world origins at Marvel are a bit complicated, as the publisher had acquired the rights to Sax Rohmer's villainous Fu Manchu character, but Englehart was more interested in the popular TV series of the time, Kung Fu. So he incorporated Rohmer's characters Fu Manchu and his nemesis, British adventurer Sir Denis Nayland-Smith, but invented a new character to star in the series more inspired by Kung Fu... Fu Manchu's hitherto unknown son, Shang-Chi. Though the father had seen to it that the son was trained from birth to be a Master of Kung Fu, when Shang-Chi discovered that the father he believed to be be munificent was actually a diabolical criminal mastermind, he turned on him, and found employment with Nayland-Smith and the British Secret Service. In the hands of Moench and Gulacy, secret agent Shang-Chi encountered all manner of spy hijinks, from moles inside MI6 to supervillains with private islands, gadgets galore, and robotic armies. He also developed a roster of memorable sidekicks, including Nayland-Smith's assistant and bodyguard Black Jack Tarr (drawn by Gulacy to resemble Sean Connery in The Man Who Would Be King), and fellow MI6 agent Clive Reston (drawn by Gulacy at first to resemble Connery in Goldfinger, but later looking more and more like Roger Moore), who is strongly hinted to be the son of James Bond and the grand-nephew of Sherlock Holmes.

While Marvel's most famous spy agency, S.H.I.E.L.D., never showed up in the pages of Master of Kung Fu (though Shang-Chi did eventually team up with Nick Fury and Black Widow in a multi-issue arc of Marvel Team-Up), Gulacy's stunning artwork owed a clear debt to Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. artist Jim Steranko. Like Steranko, Gulacy reveled in quasi-sci-fi technology and weaponry and innovative, experimental page layouts. (One particular standout turned the page into a maze, following Shang-Chi's progress against a variety of opponents as he navigated the labyrinth.) He also brought his own obsessions to the table, like Bond-inspired, movie poster-style splash pages, relentlessly sexy women in proto-Gaultier fashions, and the liberal use of famous actors' likenesses to "cast" the book with everyone from Bruce Lee (upon whom Gulacy's Shang-Chi was clearly based) to Marlon Brando, Christopher Lee (as Fu Manchu, of course), and even Groucho Marx. The result was a truly unique book that far transcended (and consequently outlasted) the kung fu movie trend from which it was born, and drew influence from all sorts of popular culture. I think it may be my very favorite Marvel comic. Long unavailable outside of back issue bins, the entire 125-issue series has at long last been reprinted over the past few years in four massive, hardcover omnibus volumes, which I cannot recommend highly enough. Marvel has also recently begun a line of cheaper paperback "Epic Collections."

As for the movie, it's hard to say how closely it will resemble the comic book. But I certainly hope Chinese-American screenwriter Dave Callaham (Jean-Claude Van Johnson) retains the heightened espionage vibe, and the supporting character of Clive Reston. Marvel is, of course, hoping that a superhero film with an Asian lead and Asian and Asian-American talent behind the camera (they are looking to hire a director of Asian descent) will find similar box office success to their excellent black superhero pic Black Panther and this past summer's megahit and milestone for cinematic representation, Crazy Rich Asians. Not since the kung fu craze of the early Seventies has the moment been so right for a Shang-Chi movie! I can't wait to see who they cast as Shang-Chi, and who gets chosen to direct. This movie has the potential to finally deliver a spy film heightened to futuristic Marvel proportions on a truly epic scale!

First Glimpse of Two-Eyed Nick Fury in CAPTAIN MARVEL

Hollywood Pipeline (via Dark Horizons) has snapped some pictures and even video of Samuel L. Jackson on the set of Marvel Studios' upcoming Captain Marvel. As previously reported, Captain Marvel (starring the studio's first female film title character) will take place in the 1990s, decades prior to other Marvel movies we've seen. (Though perhaps around the same time as the opening of Ant-Man, which featured aged versions of Agent Carter characters Peggy Carter and Howard Stark running S.H.I.E.L.D.) That means we'll get to see a younger version of Marvel's resident ramrod superspy, Nick Fury. (Read my Fury/S.H.I.E.L.D. primer here.) But he's still played by Jackson, who is expected to be digitally de-aged. (Clark Gregg's fan-favorite S.H.I.E.L.D. agent of big and small screen, Phil Coulson, will presumably get the same treatment.) The younger Fury will still have both eyes, thus won't sport his famous eyepatch look. Though, as we can see, Fury is in civilian clothes, indicating he's already traded his stripes for spy suits. We saw the original Nick Fury maintain this state (as a two-eyed spy) throughout an entire issue only once, in Fantastic Four #21 (which is collected in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Omnibus). Other than that, you could easily tell his soldier comics (Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos) apart from his spy comics (Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.) by counting his eyes. No doubt Jackson's Fury will lose an eye during his adventures in Captain Marvel. (In the comics, his missing eye has been explained several different times featuring several different circumstances.)

I have to admit, though, that I'm a little bit disappointed. I was hoping Marvel Studios would be cheeky enough to have Jackson replicate his most famous Nineties look, and sport Jules' Jheri curl from Pulp Fiction as the younger Fury!

🎥 NICK FURY!!!! Samuel L. Jackson spotted filming with Brie Larson on set of ‘Captain Marvel’ in Hollywood the same day Infinity War is released

Link to FULL SET below & YouTube page has VIDEO of this. 🤩🤩https://t.co/cMZ82ncKTB#CaptainMarvel #AvengersInfinityWar #NickFury pic.twitter.com/XQswWz7Lav

— Hollywood Pipeline (@HlywdPipeline) April 28, 2018

Tradecraft: Marvel Seeks Female Directors for BLACK WIDOW Movie (UPDATED)

Apparently the standalone Black Widow movie we heard chatter about in January is indeed quietly moving forward with women in key creative positions, even though Marvel Studios has resolved not to officially announce any future movies until after their fourth Avengers film premieres next year. (Just to clarify, I mean Marvel's Avengers, obviously, not the real Avengers, and I mean the next Marvel Avengers movie, not Avengers: Infinity War, which opens tonight and is expected to break just about every box office record.) But we still heard in January that Jac Schaeffer, a female screenwriter, had been hired to pen the script, and now, buried at the end of an article about Paramount hiring a female director for the next Star Trek movie, The Hollywood Reporter lets slip that Marvel are keen to hire a female director for female superspy Black Widow's solo debut. The trade reports that the studio has met with such filmmakers as Deniz Gamze Erguven (the acclaimed Turkish movie Mustang), Chloe Zhao (The Rider) and Amma Asante (A United Kingdom), among several others, but there is no clear frontrunner and the search remains ongoing. Asante's name may stand out for spy fans, as she's just signed on to direct a film of the popular book about legendary Cold War spy Adolf Tolkachev, The Billion Dollar Spy.

Presumably Scarlett Johansson would reprise her role from various Marvel Studios movies as Russian superspy Natasha Romanoff in any Black Widow movie. Despite Johansson being the only Avengers cast member to gross $450+ million in her own original movie outside of that franchise, it has taken Marvel much too long (and probably the success of Wonder Woman and Atomic Blonde) to realize the potential for a female-driven film. (Their first will be Captain Marvel, due next year.) Now that they are finally taking notice of the massive audience for such a movie, it's nice to see them lining up women behind the camera as well as in front.

Read more about the Black Widow comics the film will likely draw from and the character's screen history here.

UPDATE: According to a report on The Playlist, Marvel has actually met with upwards of sixty directors about the potential Black Widow gig! At least we know three of them....

Tradecraft: Black Widow to Finally Fly Solo?

Variety reports that Marvel Studios may finally be moving forward with a standalone movie about superspy Natasha Romanoff--the Black Widow. This is something spy fans have wanted to see ever since it was first announced that the character would appear in Iron Man 2, played by Scarlett Johansson. Since then Johansson has reprised the role in five more films (including Marvel's The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Captain America: Civil War), with two more in the can (including The Avengers: Infinity War, due this spring), but never starred in her own solo movie. (This despite Johansson being the only Avengers cast member to gross $450+ million in her own original movie outside that franchise.) It looks like that may finally be rectified.

According to the trade, Marvel President Kevin Feige has tapped screenwriter Jac Schaeffer to pen the script. Despite a track record that can't be argued with, Marvel have been surprisingly slow out the gate to launch a female-driven superhero franchise. They're finally doing that with Captain Marvel (starring Brie Larson and featuring Samuel L. Jackson's return as Nick Fury), due in 2019, but hiring a female writer to crack a Black Widow feature demonstrates a realization of the cultural moment we're in, and, hopefully, a commitment to further female-fronted superheroics. Schaeffer first attracted attention with a comedic spec script about an alien invasion interrupting a baby shower. That script, The Shower, was recognized on the prestigious Black List (favorite scripts of the year as voted on by Hollywood assistants), and now has Anne Hathaway attached to star. Since then Schaeffer has also written Nasty Women for Hathaway, a female-centric remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Bedtime Story.

The trade stresses that, "sources say [the Black Widow movie] is still very early development, as the film has no greenlight, but naming a writer is the closest the studio has come to moving forward on a standalone pic." Marvel hasn't yet announced any titles of their "Phase 4," which will follow the two upcoming Avengers movies, but the earliest we could possibly see a Black Widow would be 2020. I really hope it happens!

Schaeffer certainly won't be lacking for source material. The sexy former Russian spy Natasha Romanoff, aka The Black Widow, is one of Marvel's foremost espionage-oriented characters, second only to Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. She has a rich history in comics dating back to the Sixties. Three beautifully produced Marvel Premiere hardcovers collect this secret agent's most essential adventures in matching volumes. Black Widow: The Sting of the Widow presents the character's first appearance (in a silly costume in an issue of Iron Man) and earliest solo adventures from the early Seventies, after she'd gotten an Emma Peel makeover, ending up in the black catsuit with which she's still most closely associated. These early Black Widow comics will surely be of interest to collectors and hardcore fans, but casual fans looking for a great introduction to the character are better off picking up the second volume in the series, Black Widow: Web of Intrigue first.

Black Widow: Web of Intrigue offers an excellent primer on the character containing some of her classic appearances from the early Eighties, including an excellent comic drawn by my second-favorite spy artist (after Steranko), Paul Gulacy.  (Look for a cameo appearance by Michael Caine!) Black Widow: Web of Intrigue contains this and several other seminal tales of the red-haired Russian superspy. A third volume, Black Widow: The Itsy Bitsy Spider collects a pair of Marvel Knights stories from the late Nineties (including one by Queen & Country scribe Greg Rucka).

My two favorite modern-day Widow storylines have yet to receive the hardcover treatment, sadly, but are available in a pair of out-of-print trade paperbacks. Richard K. Morgan's Black Widow: Homecoming and Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her put the focus on espionage above superheroics and are among the very best Marvel spy stories. I hope they end up in their own Premiere volume one day. More recent Widow stories include Black Widow: Deadly Origin, Black Widow and the Marvel Girls, Black Widow: The Name of the Rose, Black Widow: Kiss or Kill, three volumes of beautiful material by Nathan Edmondson and Phil Noto (including the one pictured at the top of this story), and two (comprising her most recent series) by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee. Most of the character's  adventures with Daredevil from the 1970s are included in Essential Daredevil: Volume 3. Last year, Black Widow was also the subject of a large-format character retrospective/art book, Marvel's The Black Widow: Creating the Avenging Super-Spy: The Complete Comics History.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents Return to Marvel Movies

Ever since S.H.I.E.L.D. was taken apart in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (one of the best spy movies of the decade), we've seen very little of its agents in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Apparently that's about to change. Two announcements earlier this month indicate that two of Marvel Comics' most famous agents will be making their way into upcoming MCU movies.

Deadline reports that Samuel L. Jackson will return as Nick Fury in 2019's Captain Marvel, where he will reunite with his Kong: Skull Island and Unicorn Store co-star Brie Larson (Free Fire). Jackson last appeared as Fury in a brief cameo in The Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2014. He is expected to reprise the role in The Avengers: Infinity War and its sequel. At first I assumed this news probably indicated that Fury will survive those films, which are expected to take a high toll on the MCU heroes. But yesterday Deadline updated their story, reporting that Captain Marvel will for some reason take place in the early 1990s, making it a prequel to all the other MCU films except for the first Captain America (which took place in WWII) and the Eighties-set opening scene of Ant-Man. Moreover, Marvel chief Kevin Feige revealed at Comic-Con that Fury will have two eyes in Captain Marvel. Does that mean he'll still be in the Army? (Presumably the MCU Nick also started out as Sgt. Fury, even if he came along long after the Howling Commandos.) Will Jackson sport his Pulp Fiction wig? (That I'd like to see!) We probably won't find out until closer to March 2019 when the movie opens. And in the meantime, Nick Fury is as precariously poised as anyone else when it comes to surviving the Infinity War.

Even more exciting, perhaps, is the news that first appeared on The Tracking Board (via Dark Horizons) and since been confirmed by multiple outlets that Randall Park (The Interview) will portray Agent Jimmy Woo in Ant-Man and the Wasp! Woo debuted in the late 1950s as an FBI agent in Marvel precursor Atlas Comics' The Yellow Claw before Jim Steranko brought him into his Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. stories in Strange Tales and ultimately made him a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent himself. Woo has sine been a fixture of the Marvel Universe, appearing in various comics over the years including Godzilla and Agents of ATLAS. Park is an excellent actor, but primarily a comedic one. (He stars on the sitcom Fresh Off the Boat recently made a scene-stealing cameo in Snatched.) I can imagine him fitting in very well with Paul Rudd and Michael Pena in a comic relief role, but I hope that's not the case. Jimmy Woo was the first Asian-American comic book hero, and was treated as a serious member of the team in the Sixties. I would hate to see him reduced to a joke. That said, the part could of course be both comedic and completely competent, which is what I'm hoping for. Either way, it will be cool to see Woo make his MCU debut.

Paul Gulacy Paints Flint Tribute with Nick Fury, Black Widow and Shang-Chi

Paul Gulacy, a comic book artist instantly synonymous with spies thanks to his stellar work on titles like James Bond 007: Serpents Tooth and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, has revealed a new piece on his website that will be of particular interest to fans of the genre. The commission recreates Bob Peak's famous poster art for In Like Flint with Marvel spy heroes like Nick Fury, Black Widow (a la Maud Adams), Shang-Chi, Clive Reston and Leiko Wu. I particularly love seeing Fury in the Flint pose, as James Coburn would have certainly made an excellent Nick Fury at one time! (His role in Hudson Hawk, though not patched, actually feels of a piece to some degree with the Fake Nick Furies that populated filmdom prior to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like Charlton Heston in True Lies, Angelina Jolie in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and a pre-Fury Sam Jackson in xXx.) Interestingly, Gulacy drew a spot-on Coburn as the hero of a horror comic that ran in Eerie Magazine in 1979. His epic espionage saga Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu (written by frequent collaborator Doug Moench) is currently (finally!) being reprinted by Marvel in massive hardcover Omnibus editions, which are worth every penny of their somewhat steep price tag. Here's the iconic original poster that inspired this awesome painting:

Delroy Lindo Joins S.H.I.E.L.D. Spinoff as Dominic Fortune

The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff Marvel's Most Wanted (is that whole thing the actual title, or can we leave off the "Marvel's" like we do with AOS and just call this thing Most Wanted?) has added another cast member... a Marvel character fairly beloved by a loyal cult of comics fans. Joining S.H.I.E.L.D. stars Adrianne Palicki (as agent Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird) and Nick Blood (as agent Lance Hunter), Deadline reports that Delroy Lindo (Broken Arrow, Get Shorty) will play Dominic Fortune, a character created by Howard Chaykin in the Seventies (based on his previous Atlas Comics character the Scorpion). Chaykin's Fortune was a Jewish freelance costumed adventurer (or "brigand for hire"), seeking thrills and, er, fortune, in the 1930s. His adventures appeared (often as backups) in various Marvel comics in the late Seventies and early Eighties. An elderly version of the character also popped up in various contemporary Marvel titles, interacting with the likes of Spider-man and Iron Man. In 2006 he was re-introduced to the Marvel Universe miraculously de-aged in modern times in Sable and Fortune, the first three issues of which were drawn but legendary Modesty Blaise and James Bond artist John M. Burns. (Sadly that book suffered the fate of all Burns books, meaning the issues trickled out late, the artist was changed, and the series was ultimately truncated.) It was the de-aged Fortune (now sporting a mustache) who encountered Mockingbird in the comics, appearing in the series Hawkeye and Mockingbird (which seems to serve as some sort of template for Marvel's Most Wanted, albeit with Lance Hunter as Bobbi's paramour instead of Clint Barton, who's tied up in Avengers movies in the person of Jeremy Renner, who seems quite unlikely to turn up in a TV series).

More recently, however, the Fortune of the comics has aged again overnight (it all has to do with serums and formulas, as you would expect from Marvel), and the elderly Fortune showed up in an especially fun recent issue of S.H.I.E.L.D. drawn by Chaykin (issue 11), teamed up with TV's Phil Coulson. At 63, Lindo is neither old enough to play this version of the character, nor young enough to play the adventurer of the original 1930s-set comics, so presumably they're doing something different with the TV Fortune. (Will he be a Nick Fury surrogate?) Chaykin seems to approve of the casting with one caveat, which he posted in the comments on Deadline's story: "Just as long as he’s still Jewish." Personally, I was really hoping to see the young, vital Dominic Fortune appear on Agent Carter, where his incessant womanizing would have surely rubbed Peggy the wrong way. But perhaps he's too similar to the Howard Stark character played by Dominic Cooper.

Tradecraft: ABC Officially Orders S.H.I.E.L.D. Spinoff Pilot

The saga of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff series focusing on romantically entangled secret agents Bobbi "Mockingbird" Morse (Adrianne Palicki) and Lance Hunter (Nick Blood), has been going on for long enough to warrant a Stan Lee level of hyperbole. It was first rumored in April of last year, but by May we'd learned that it wasn't going forward. At that time, anyway. Perhaps ABC was concerned at the time (as I was) that they would neuter the flagship series by removing the two most interesting new characters, who had almost singlehandedly elevated Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in its second year. But the network must have liked the pilot script by Agents executive producers Jeffrey Bell and Paul Zbyszewski, because according to Deadline, ABC President Paul Lee told reporters at the TCA conference yesterday that the network has given a pilot order to the spinoff, now titled (somewhat lamely) Marvel’s Most Wanted, The trade reports the pilot had been quietly greenlit in August, but only officially acknowledged by the network now. As originally conceived, the project was said to be Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the Marvel Universe (which sounds like a great premise to me), but it has since been retooled. Lee told reporters,“We are making [the pilot] in the next few months. It’s a really good script.” Spinning off Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. standouts Palicki and Blood no longer seems like such a bad idea to me. The flagship series has gotten further and further away from spying this season, focusing too much on the sci-fi antics of the deathly dull Skye (sorry, Daisy) and her Inhuman pals. So a more espionage-centric spinoff focusing on Lance and Bobbi would probably appeal to me more than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in its current incarnation.

Tradecraft: Agent Carter Season Premiere Delayed by Two Weeks

ABC had to revise their winter schedule when it was announced that the 2016 State of the Union address would be delivered a few weeks earlier than usual. President Obama will speak on January 12 instead of the traditional end of the month time. ABC had planned to debut the new season of Marvel's 1940s spy series on January 5 with two back-to-back episodes. Not wanting its flow interrupted so quickly, Deadline reports that the network will now wait until after the State of the Union and air the season premiere on January 19. Unfortunately, that presumably means a few more weeks of back to back episodes, since they have to be done in time for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s return to that timeslot on March 8. The S.H.I.E.L.D. dates are probably not very flexible, since the series usually syncs up with the big Marvel theatrical releases, and Captain America: Civil War opens on May 6. Watch a trailer for the new season here.

Another Agent Carter Promo

ABC has released another promo for the new 10-episode season of Marvel's Agent Carter, which premieres Tuesday, January 5, at 9/8c. And, based on these 30 seconds of footage, it looks like it will be every bit as great as the first season!

Agent Carter Season 2 Premiere Date Set (UPDATED)

Agent Carter returns Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at 9/8c with a 2-hour season premiere, it was announced yesterday. (UPDATE: The premiere has now been pushed back to the 19th because of the State of the Union address.) This is the exciting time of year when ABC's still lackluster contemporary Marvel spy series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (I can't be the only one who thinks getting Inhuman super powers just made Skye more annoying!) yields way to the infinitely better period Marvel spy series Agent Carter, starring the irrepressibly charming Hayley Atwell. This season Peggy Carter relocates to Los Angeles and finds 1949 Tinseltown teeming with noirish plots and conspiracies in the early days of the Cold War. Atwell is joined once again by James D’Arcy as Edwin Jarvis, Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, Bridget Regan as the proto-Black Widow "Dottie," Chad Michael Murray as Agent Jack Thompson and Enver Gjokaj as former agent Daniel Sousa, now serving as chief of S.H.I.E.L.D. precursor SSR. There are also plenty of new cast members this season, including Lotte Verbeek as Ana Jarvis, Ken Marino as mob boss Joseph Manfredi, and Kurtwood Smith as Vernon Masters. Agent Carter will run through March 1, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will return on March 8. Agent Carter: Season 1 is available on Blu-ray and DVD exclusively through Amazon.

Agent Carter Expands in Second Season

Agent Carter star Hayley Atwell appeared at a comic convention in Houston this weekend, and MCU Exchange (via Dark Horizons) has the whole Q&A on video. The big news she revealed is that the second season of Agent Carter will run for ten episodes instead of eight, like Season 1. Asked if Lyndsy Fonseca (Nikita) would be returning for this season as Peggy Carter's actress roommate Angie, Atwell said that she was not yet confirmed, but Fonseca was a pleasure to work with and she hoped she'd be back. She also confirmed what we already knew, that the second season would be switching coasts, relocating from New York to Los Angeles. Once again Agent Carter is expected to bridge the two halves of the season of ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. More Agent Carter is a great thing! The first season was a wonderful period spy show.

New Details on Agent Carter's Upcoming Second Season

Only days ago we learned, happily, that Marvel's excellent period spy series Agent Carter had been renewed for a second season on ABC. EW has more details on that second season. Once more, it will be an 8-episode arc, bridging the fall and spring halves of the contemporary-set Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. But Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell, Restless) will be relocating in her second season from New York to L.A. What this means for the supporting cast from S.H.I.E.L.D. predecessor SSR's Big Apple office remains to be seen. Personally, I would hope to see at least some of Peggy's surviving colleagues return. There were some good characters in the group (particularly Enver Gjokaj and Chad Michael Murray). It might make sense for Peggy's roommate Angie (Nikita's Lynsy Fonseca) to move to the City of Angels with her, pursuing her acting career. I'm sure Howard Stark has West Coast residences, so it's possible his loyal butler Jarvis (James D'Arcy) could continue aiding Peggy, though it's probably unlikely that Stark himself will show up this year as Dominic Cooper (Fleming) has been cast as the lead on the AMC series Preacher. One familiar face I'm fully expecting to see return is Bridget Regan (Legend of the Seeker) as Peggy's Soviet counterpart and presumable forerunner of Black Widow from the USSR's assassin factory the Red Room. But I suspect that with the change of locale will come a pretty big shake-up in the supporting cast. While we might not know the cast, here's what we do know about next season from EW:

Dedicated to the fight against new atomic age threats in the wake of World War II, Peggy must now journey from New York City to Los Angeles for her most dangerous assignment yet. But even as she discovers new friends, a new home — and perhaps even a new love — she’s about to find out that the bright lights of the post-war Hollywood mask a more sinister threat to everyone she is sworn to protect.

Tradecraft: Agent 13 Returns in Captain America: Civil War

One of the Marvel superspies we haven't seen too much of so far on screen is Sharon Carter, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Agent 13. She had a small supporting role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but apparently we'll be seeing more of her in the next movie, Captain America: Civil War. And Revenge actress Emily VanCamp will reprise the role, Deadline reports. In a separate story, the trade also confirmed that Paul Rudd (reprising his role from this summer's Ant-Man) and Martin Freeman (Sherlock) had joined the cast. That cast also includes just about every superhero in the current Marvel Cinematic Universe, plus some new ones like Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). I'm just hoping there's some room for Captain America in this "Captain America" movie! It sounds more like another entry in Marvel's Avengers franchise. I liked Captain America: The Winter Soldier so much that I would really, really like to see a real sequel to it, but instead it sounds like we're getting a big prequel to Marvel's The Avengers: Infinity War Part 1. I hope I'm wrong about that. I do have faith in directors Joe Russo and Anthony Russo after their stellar work on Winter Soldier. Weirdly, one name I haven't heard mentioned in connection with Captain America: Civil War is Samuel L. Jackson. That's pretty surprising, since Nick Fury really should be in a Captain America movie! (And enjoyed his largest role to date in Winter Soldier.) Marvel's other famous superspy, Black Widow, is confirmed to be a part of Civil War, once more in the guise of Scarlett Johansson.

In the comics, Sharon Carter is the niece of Cap's wartime squeeze Peggy Carter. If that relationship (or one suitably adjusted for the extra generation that now exists between the two women) exists in the movies, it hasn't yet been made clear. Hayley Atwell plays Peggy on the fantastic early Cold War era-set TV series Agent Carter (one of the best of the current crop of spy shows), which has just been renewed for a second season. Now that Revenge is over, I would love to see VanCamp turn up as a new regular on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. That show could really use some Agent 13!

Tradecraft: Agent Carter Renewed for Second Season; S.H.I.E.L.D. Spinoff Not Going Forward

Good news all around for fans of ABC's Marvel Universe spy series! Most importantly, according to Deadline, the network has renewed the terrific Agent Carter, starring Hayley Atwell, for a second season. They've also renewed Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. for Season 3. Who knows? If it continues to improve exponentially the way it did from its first to second season, it might earn itself a positive adjective one day as well. And one sign of improvement is the fact that the network has, the trade reports in a separate article, decided not to proceed with the mooted spinoff we heard about a few weeks ago. The proposed series would have neutered the mothership series by spinning off its two best new characters onto a show of their own... and leaving Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. with only its far less interesting original cast members. Since there won't be a new spinoff series, Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood will remain on the original show, now as regulars. Perhaps in another season or two it might make sense to spin them off into a second series, but to do so now would have been premature. It's possible that the ideas for the spinoff concocted by Agents executive producers Jeffrey Bell and Paul Zbyszewski could end up incorporated into storylines on the flagship series next year.

Agent Carter, which ran as a limited, 8-episode series to bridge the fall and spring halves of the season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., is set in the same universe nearly seven decades earlier. The period spy show follows Captain America's wartime girlfriend, Agent Peggy Carter (Atwell), in the early days of the Cold War. In its first season it delivered everything fans could hope for from a period spy series with over-the-top, comic book elements. The blend of history and mild science fiction was perfect, and Atwell made a more compelling lead than any of the contemporary TV Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. While the first season ended in a conclusive enough manner that it could have wrapped things up altogether, I am thrilled that we'll be getting more Carter next winter! (Once again, it's expected to serve as a bridge while Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. goes on its winter hiatus.) Before that happens, Atwell will next be seen in the role of Peggy Carter in this summer's Ant-Man.

Jim Steranko's Nick Fury Birthday Card

©Steranko

Comic Art Fans has a Steranko Nick Fury illustration for sale that I've never seen before that's truly incredible. This piece was created as a birthday gift to Marvel editor and Fury co-creator Stan Lee in the early 1970s. I'm surprised this piece isn't better known. Though rough, I think it ranks up there with the iconic cover for Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #4 in terms of definitive Fury images. Rarely have I seen the essence of superspydom boiled down so succinctly in a single image. I love it! A well-heeled spy fan can own the original for just $7,000.

Tradecraft: ABC Eyes Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Spinoff

When it was rumored a few weeks ago that ABC is considering a spin-off series from Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., I naturally assumed that the spinoff would be about Skye and her new Inhuman pals, as that plot has been building all season. Which would be awesome, because then I could continue to watch Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. without having to watch Skye and her new Inhuman pals! But now According to The Hollywood Reporter, the potential spinoff will focus on S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Mockingbird (Adrianne Palicki) and Lance Hunter (Nick Blood). I guess this makes sense, since Palicki and Blood have been largely responsible for the vast improvement in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. this season. (It's still never lived up to the promise of that final shot in the pilot, but it has improved.) But it's also a pretty terrible idea, because then the mothership show will lose its best assets, and viewers will be left with the original Season 1 crew of lackluster "agents." But I guess I shouldn't be complaining. It would mean we'll have one more spy show on television, and that's always a good thing. In the Marvel comics, Barbara "Bobbi" Morse, codename Mockingbird, is a superspy, a former Avenger (Marvel Avenger, that is, not the Avengers-Avenger) and ex-wife of Hawkeye (played by Jeremy Renner in Marvel's Avengers movies). On the TV show, she's a superspy, but there's been no mention of an Avengers connection. Her ex isn't Hawkeye, but S.H.I.E.L.D. contractor Lance Hunter. In the comics Lance Hunter is a John Steed sort of British agent (the English answer to Nick Fury, and head of  UK S.H.I.E.L.D. equivalent S.T.R.I.K.E.) who likes suits and bowler hats; on the show he's a rough and tumble mercenary. According to Deadline's story on the subject, the potential show would have a "Mr. and Mrs. Smith vibe." I have to admit, a show about formerly married on-and-off lovers who are spies could be good.

According to the trade, the pilot for the potential spinoff will be written by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. executive producer Jeffrey Bell (Alias, Angel) and series writer Paul Zbyszewski (Hawaii Five-0, After the Sunset). Deadline reports that Zbyszewski would be the showrunner should the spinoff go to series. ABC is also considering a secret Marvel superhero project from John Ridley (American Crime, Undercover Brother). Chances are they will only go with one of the new Marvel series if any. While Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. looks good for renewal, Marvel's far superior period espionage show, Agent Carter, is on the bubble as to whether it will come back or not. We should know which Marvel spy shows make the cut come ABC's upfront presentation in May.