Author: Maurice Mitchell

Chadwick Boseman at 91st Annual Academy Awards (©Jordan Strauss / Invision/Associated Press) Last month we wrote an extensively researched article predicting the Oscar wins for Marvel Studios. So how did we do? Of the 8 nominations, Marvel won three for Black Panther and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. This is a huge achievement and marks a milestone in the studio’s history. They’ve been making movies for over a decade and never won a golden trophy. Let’s run the wins and losses starting from the most to the least surprising. 1. BEST SOUND EDITING, BLACK PANTHER – LostOf all the awards I thought this was…

Captain America: Civil War concept art by Ryan Meinerding Find out why Black Panther is stronger than Captain America. Black Panther, played by Chadwick Boseman, is super-strong. Captain America, played by Chris Evans is also super-strong. But which one is stronger? Actually, it’s Black Panther and that’s been confirmed by several movies. Steve Rogers first appears in Captain America: The First Avenger and, after being treated by the super-soldier serum, is shown to be super-human. T’Challa first appears in Captain America: Civil War and is shown to be incredibly strong and fast chasing a car and throwing people through the air. While…

Read this review to find out if Miles Morales: Spider-Man #3 is worth buying. Synopsis If you want to avoid spoilers for this comic then skip to the overall section at the end. Warning: Spoilers for Miles Morales: Spider-Man #3 Miles Morales: Spider-Man #3 follows Aleksei Mikhailovich Sytsevich, (AKA Rhino) and Miles Morales (AKA Spider-Man) as they search to find a group of missing children. In the previous issue, they discover that someone has been giving them superpowers and sending them out to fight for them. Rhino is looking for his missing niece and Miles is looking for a friend’s child. Just…

Batman #65 cover by Chris Burnham Batman #65 is another Batman and Flash team up crossover story and it’s an amazing exploration of what it means to be a hero. Summary (Spoiler Warning) The story so far is that Claire and Henry Clover try to become superheroes – Gotham and Gotham Girl – by taking a serum that gives them superpowers. But the serum that gives them superpowers also causes their bodies to break down. Gotham died and his sister brings him back to life. The story picks up after Flash #64 where some unknown people have been zombified by the serum and…

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is coming to digital home video next week and Blu-Ray next month with a ton of bonus features. The animated Spider-Verse film is nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe, Critics Choice, and Annie Award. It’s playing in theaters right now and I highly recommend going to see it. But Sony announced that the digital release of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is coming February 26, 2019. In addition, it’s coming to 4K Ultra HD™ Combo Pack, Blu-ray™ Combo Pack and DVD on March 19. The disks are going to include over 90 minutes of special…

 Find out the greatest black characters in the history of the Star Wars movies. John Boyega just announced the end of filming Episode IX and it marks another milestone in the movies. The Star Wars movies are amazing and revolutionary. A cultural force that crosses generations and nationalities. They’re beloved by millions, and rightfully so.But one of the things you notice about the original Star Wars movies is that they show a universe populated by white people. Mostly British white people. When the Star Wars sequels were planned by Disney, there was a stated goal to diversify the actors. To…

Find out which is the best commercial from Super Bowl LIII. Last night the NFL aired their Super Bowl game. Many watched to see if the Patriots would be the Rams (Spoiler: they did). Many more watched the game for the commercials. They didn’t disappoint. Watch them all below and then read on to find out find out which genre trailers ranged from good to great. You can watch the whole thing or use the embedded clips below to jump to your favorite. 7. Alita: Battle Angel (February 14, 2019) A new TV spot for Robert Rodriguez’ adaptation of the classic mange…

Black Panther (2018) – Chadwick Boseman Why is Marvel’s Black Panther Oscar nomination historic? On May 16, 1929, there was a private dinner. It was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California. At that small dinner, 270 people each paid $5 (which would be about $74 today) to watch a short fifteen-minute award presentation. No radio show. No television show. It was a private dinner beginning the biggest award presentation in movie history. At that small dinner the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1927 and 1928. At the time…

Black Panther Vs. Deadpool #4 cover by Rain Beredo, Ryan Benjamin Find out the top 10 comics featuring ethnic characters or talent this week. The next DC event “Leviathan” begins. Black Panther and Deadpool together at last(?)! plus, Ms. Marvel is a super-babysitter. Check out this week’s pull list. 1. Action Comics #1007 Publisher: DC Comics Writer: Brian Michael Bendis Artist: Steve Epting Cover Artist: Steve Epting Summary: The Kobra Cult conspiracy ensnares Daily Planet photographer Jimmy Olsen, drawing the attention of the Man of Steel. But be careful, Superman—there’s more lurking in the shadows of Metropolis than just a…

Star Trek: Voyager – Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) Here are some surprising facts about Captain Kathryn Janeway’s hair and uniform you might not know. She was the captain of the Starfleet starship USS Voyager and was the lead character on the television series Star Trek: Voyager. Although there had been a few female captains shown in the series she was the first one to star in her own series. It was a ground-breaking decision at the time and is still a landmark television event. But oddly, being a woman meant there were some bizarre, strange and unusual decisions made…

This week the nominees for the 91st Academy Awards were announced and Marvel Studios picked up a large number of potential awards. In the 10-year and 22-movie history of Marvel Studios, they’ve never won gold. Rival studio Warner Bros has picked up two Academy Awards. A posthumous Best Supporting Actor trophy for Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight, and Suicide Squad’s Best Makeup and Hairstyling award. Of all of the movies released by Marvel and Disney this year one movie that they desperately want to win is Black Panther. The studio’s “For Your Consideration” list pushed Black Panther in for…

Naomi #1 cover by Jamal Campbell Find out the top 10 comics featuring ethnic characters or talent this week. 1. Avengers #13 Publisher: Marvel Comics Writer: Jason Aaron Artist: Andrea Sorrentino Cover Artist: Steve Epting Summary: FEATURING THE IRON FIST OF 1,000,000 BC! ANDREA SORRENTINO JOINS SERIES WRITER JASON AARON another flashback tale of the Prehistoric Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Meet the primordial woman who was the first to harness… On Sale: Jan 23rd, 2019 Price: $3.99 Buy Avengers 13& on Comixology 2. Justice League #16 Publisher: DC Comics Writer: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV Artist: Stephen Segovia, Mark Morales, Jim…

Leimert Park screening of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse with Peter Ramsey and John Singleton Last weekend, Oscar-nominated actor John Singleton and newly nominated Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse director Peter Ramsey had a special screening of the movie for some awesome youth from the Leimert Park community! Peter Ramsey was recently announced as an Oscar nominee for Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse along with co-directors Bob Persichetti and Rodney Rothman. Singleton is both the first African American nominated for “Best Director” and the youngest person to have ever been nominated for the award thanks to his influential film Boyz in the Hood. Ramsey and Singleton…

The second issue of Ironheart proves why it’s such an important comic. Ironheart is basically a spin-off of Iron Man. It follows Riri Williams, a young black woman and genius engineer who builds her own suit of armor after spending the last year looking for Tony Stark. You could easily write her off as a female knock-off of Tony Stark. The great thing is Eve L. Ewing knows what you might be thinking and plays it off perfectly. Warning: Possible spoilers for Ironheart #2 Ironheart #2 cover by Amy Reeder The story picks up a flashback of her first day in…

In the first trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home we see many things and several characters are teased. One “easter egg” that has been promoted by major sites is that Hydro-Man and Sandman are in the movie. This is garbage. Here’s why we know. WARNING Possible Spoilers Who Is Hydro-Man? First a primer. Morris Bench aka Hydro-Man first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #212 (1981) and is created by Dennis O’Neil and John Romita Jr. After an accident involving radiation and water transformed he developed the ability to turn his body from solid to liquid and control water. He’s about…

Check out the first trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home! Lots of speculation and a tease by Tom Holland led to the first trailer for the Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel. Along with it, Marvel dropped a new poster and plot synopsis. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) official plot synopsis: “Peter Parker returns in Spider-Man™: Far From Home, the next chapter of the Spider-Man™: Homecoming series! Our friendly neighborhood Super Hero decides to join his best friends Ned, MJ, and the rest of the gang on a European vacation. However, Peter’s plan to leave super heroics behind for a few weeks are quickly…

Black Panther’s Ruth Carter with the award for best costume design for “Black Panther” at the 24th annual Critics’ Choice Awards on Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019 (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Here are all the winners and losers at the 2019 “The Critics’ Choice Awards”. Black Panther was nominated for an incredible 11 awards including “Best Picture” but snagged three: “Best Costume Design,” “Best Production Design,” and “Best Visual Effects.” It lost several key awards like “Best Picture”. Is this cause for concern? No, but it does bring up some concerns. The Critics’ Choice Awards are known as a pretty good indicator of the…

Actors spend years honing their craft. Some actors spend their entire career hoping for an award recognition or just a memorable role. For example, Christopher Plummer who started acting in the 1950s is the oldest living Academy Award winner at 82. meanwhile Tatum O’Neal was 10-years old when she won her Academy Award. So, you never know. 29-year old Brie Larson has accomplished both in her relatively short lifespan. She won an Oscar for her role in the 2015 movie Room. She’s also already a household name thanks to her role in the upcoming superhero movie Captain Marvel. But, while many are discovering her for the…

Black Panther (2018) – T’Challa / Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), N’Jadaka / Erik “Killmonger” Stevens (Michael B. Jordan) The following is a guest post by Eliza C. of TuskPhoto. Last year Black Panther hit theatres. It was the first feature-film by Marvel to depict a black superhero lead-protagonist, grossing more than $1.3bn worldwide. The unique setting of the movie, based on the comic book series, is of Wakanda – a futuristic super-metropolis with an isolationist policy, cloaked to remain hidden from the outside world. And although Black Panther is fiction, the universe it exists in is very real in the…

Captain Marvel (2019) – Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) Watch a new clip from Marvel’s upcoming female superhero movie Captain Marvel! The 2019 College Football Playoff National Championships aired last night. The Clemson Tigers won but, more importantly, a new Captain Marvel movie clip and trailer was released by Marvel Studios! It shows some great banter between a young Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Carol Danvers AKA Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). Fury has always been the heart of the MCU and it’s great to see the natural chemistry between them. The new trailer also has Agent Coulson and Nick Fury talking about…

Justice League (2017) – Arthur Curry / Aquaman (Jason Momoa) Aquaman currently has the biggest box office of any movie in the DC shared universe and is close to a billion dollars worldwide. How does it’s box office compare with the other DCEU (DC Extended Universe) movies? Since 2013 Warner Bros and DC Comics have been pushing hard on a shared movie universe to rival Marvel Studios. Critically the movies haven’t fared well but financially the movies have been marginally successful. From blockbusters to bombs and everything in between. It’s easy to look at the total gross as an indicator of success but…

Spider-Man has been around a long time. He was first created in the 1960s by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko and has been the flagship character of Marvel Comics. Ol’ Webhead is still incredibly popular and has spawned multiple television series both animated and live-action. Movies have made billions of dollars. But something has been lost over the years. While there have been many versions of Spider-man from a clone to Doctor Octopus the idea of changing Spider-Man from a white guy to a black guy in the movies was met with harsh backlash. The popular idea is that Spider-Man…

Avatar (2009) – Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) Read on to find out a bunch of things you never knew about Avatar (2009). The movie Avatar came out on December 18, 2009, and turned eight years old last month. The movie has ground-breaking special effects and broke box office records that are still there today! Cameron’s said the movie is going to spawn a total of five movies with the last opening on December 19, 2025. Here are some facts you may not know about the first Avatar. 1. Jake’s Legs Aren’t CGI While a lot of the movie is…

Black Panther (2018) – Wakanda Read on to find out more about the real-life Wakandan villages being built by the African Union. Marvel’s Black Panther introduced the world to a unique vision of a technologically-rich fictional African country with sweeping social infrastructure. Now Africa is working to bring that world to life across the continent with a project to build, run and operate across the continent paid for by the African diaspora. The term “African Diaspora” is commonly used to describe the mass dispersion of peoples from Africa in the 1500s to the 1800s during the Transatlantic Slave Trades. These millions…

Read on to find out how to win an awesome Marvel prize. Avengers: Endgame is still four months away but one fansite is already celebrating with an awesome prize! If you’re a fan of the MCU you’ll want to enter. Here are all the sweepstakes details below. How Do You Enter? To participate, simply head over to Marvel Fanverse and fill out the form. And then, on January 31st, they’ll declare 6 random winners with their choice from the following prizes. What’s the Prize? Six random winners will win one of these prizes 6″ (18cm) Thanos Action Figure 2.5″ (6.5cm) Ant-Man Figurine 9″ (7.3…

Saturday Night Live (1992) – Aquaman (David Spade), Jimmy Olsen (Rob Schneider) Find out who’s the best live-action Aquaman! Aquaman, the James Wan-directed superhero film starring Jason Momoa opens tomorrow. It’s the first solo big screen movie about the aquatic superhero. but he’s not the first person to put on the yellow and green suit to fight crime. Aquaman was created for DC Comics by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger. The character first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 (1941). Even though he’s been around for decades he only came to prominence thanks to the 1960s cartoon show Super Friends.…

Men in Black: International (2019) – Agent M (Tessa Thompson), Agent H (Chris Hemsworth), Liam Neeson Sony has released the first trailer for the MIB sequel/reboot Men in Black: International (2019). The trailer follows Agent M (Tessa Thompson) as she gets suited up in the last suit she’ll ever wear. She meets Agent O (Emma Thompson) and heads off to MIB UK. There she meets the napping Agent H played by Thor Ragnarok co-star Chris Hemsworth. From there we see a bunch of familiar items from the MIB franchise like the sunglasses, noisy cricket and the memory-wiping neutralizer. The car, now a snazzy…

Read on to find out who owns the live-action rights to the superhero Daredevil. Recently Netflix canceled the series Marvel’s Daredevil. This surprised everyone since it’s the flagship of the Netflix Marvel Universe and just finished the third season. Everyone naturally wondered if this was because Marvel wanted it canceled to create their own series? Well, it turns out the rights to the “Man Without Fear” aren’t as simple as we thought, and Marvel can’t do that for two years. To find out why let’s look back at the history of the character and the decades-long attempts to bring him…

Find out what critics think of Aquaman (2018). The first live-action Aquaman movie opens in theaters December 21st but the reviews are in. Here’s a run-down of the critic’s reviews. First, the ubiquitous Rotten Tomato score is currently at 76% out of 63 reviews. Right now it’s the second highest score of the DC movie universe. The highest is Wonder Woman (93%). The lowest is a tie for best of the worst at 27% between Suicide Squad (2016) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). That’s not bad, but we’ll see how it stacks up after more reviews come in. Here’s a break down of…

Avengers: Endgame (2019) – Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) See the dramatic new trailer for Avengers: Endgame! There was rampant speculation that Marvel would release a new trailer and it’s been confirmed. Marvel released a statement on their website “Part of the journey is the end. The fourth Marvel Studios’ ‘Avengers’ film is set to hit theaters April 2019. We began our Marvel Cinematic Universe journey together back in 2008. The epic conclusion to Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is upon us, and some of your answers can be answered in the first official look at the 21st Marvel Studios…