Kyle Roberts and Matt Price review Dark X-Men 1, X-Force 21 and the Batman/Doc Savage one-shot on the NewsOK Comics podcast.

Empire Online reports that Bryan Singer has met with Fox about possibly returning to the X-Men franchise.

“I’m still looking to possibly returning to the X-Men franchise. I’ve been talking to Fox about it,” said Singer. “I love Hugh Jackman. I love the cast.”

That indicates that Singer may be more likely to return to an “X-Men 4″ with the original film X-Men versus taking the helm of a reboot or an “X-Men First Class” set in the early days of Xavier’s school.

Click past the cut to vote on whether you think Singer should return to the X-Men.

Things get spooky this October week in comics, as Haunt #1 comes out from Image and DC brings forth Batman Unseen #1. Meanwhile, the X-Men face off with the Agents of Atlas in the first part of a two-issue miniseries. Kyle Roberts and Matt Price discuss these comics in this week’s NewsOK Comics podcast.

According to Slashfilm, the New Mutants of Marvel Comics could make their way to movie theaters in coming years.   Lauren Shuler Donner, who’s been involved with the “X-Men” films at Fox from the beginning, said “New Mutants” and “X4″ with the original cast are possible in the future.  “X4″ had yet to be officially pitched to the studio, she said, according to the report.

“New Mutants” was a title showcasing teen mutants in training at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.   The characters were created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, first appearing in Marvel Graphic Novel #4.   They continued from there to a series, by Claremont and McLeod.   Later artists included Sal Buscema, Bill Sienkiewicz, Bret Blevins and Rob Liefeld.  The issues drawn by Sienkiewicz, including “The Demon Bear Saga,” were highly regarded and well-remembered.  Louise Simonson took over the writing from Claremont in 1987.

- Matt Price

The Muppets recreate the Robin Hood legend, Marvel’s Dark Reign continues, and Superboy discovers more about himself in this week’s comics.

Kyle Roberts and Matt Price discuss how you can’t always judge a comic book by its cover, as they review Supergirl 44, X-Men Legacy 227, Wolverine Weapon X 4 and Archie 600.

Wolverine’s not going to be out of the limelight anytime soon.

Hugh Jackman announced at the recent Teen Choice Awards that work has begun on a second “Wolverine” film, to be set in Japan.

Meanwhile, Wolverine is also very busy in animation. The second DVD of the animated series “Wolverine and the X-Men” arrived in stores last month, and selected episodes are available to watch online at Marvel.com or to download from iTunes. The series airs on Nicktoons.

An anime version of Wolverine is in development to air in Japan and the U.S. Also on the way is “Super Hero Squad,” which will co-star Wolverine, scheduled to air on the Cartoon Network.

“The great thing about Wolverine is that he can be in ‘Super Hero Squad’ and be for young kids, and he can be in ‘Wolverine and the X-Men’ and be like in the middle range, and then he can be in (the direct-to-DVD PG-13 animated film) ‘Hulk Vs. Wolverine,’” said Chris Yost, a writer for “Wolverine and the X-Men.”

“You immediately think, ‘This guy’s got knives on his hands; he’s really inappropriate for children.’ But you know, children respond to it. Children love Wolverine, and there’s a good reason for that. He’s a hero. There’s more to him than just violence.”

In “Wolverine and the X-Men,” Wolverine must take charge of the X-Men after an attack on the X-Mansion scatters the team. “With ‘Wolverine and the X-Men,’ we had an opportunity to show you the X-Men’s world as we know it,” Yost said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego. “We know the mansion, we know the Danger Room. … And then immediately the show’s turned on its head by the events of the first episode.”

The attack on the mansion in the first episode is what resets the world from the X-Men we know into a world that shares similarities with the “Days of Future Past” story line from the comic books.

“Everything blows up, and everything is different,” Yost said. “Wolverine’s now in charge, and Scott’s all brooding, and Jean (Grey) and Xavier are gone. It was a very conscious decision to show normal, and then get into what the show is going to be.”

“Wolverine and the X-Men” follows a long, epic journey in Wolverine’s attempts to reunite the team as they deal with mutant prejudice and the threat of Magneto.

“I believe there are things you can do in animation, like with ‘Wolverine and the X-Men,’ the scope and the epic scale of that story, you’re never going to see that in a movie, ever,” he said.

Yost also co-wrote the “Hulk Vs. Wolverine” script with Craig Kyle, and writes the character in the monthly “X-Force” comic book, also with Kyle. Yost said he considers himself lucky to have been able to chronicle Wolverine’s adventures in various media.

“With the DVDs, with the comics, it’s being able to show different sides of this character,” Yost said. “At the end of the day, he’s always a hero.”

- by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

Marvel has announced that Chris Claremont’s return to 1990s-style X-Men, “X-Men Forever,” has sold out from the distributor.   A second printing, featuring a cover with Jean Grey and Wolverine, is set to release July 15.

Claremont joins artist Tom Grummett for “X-Men Forever,” a series that picks up after Claremont originally left the “X-Men” books in 1991.  In “Forever,” Nick Fury’s team is hunting the renegade Fabian Cortez;  a romance percolates between Gambit and Rogue, and Jean Grey and Wolverine may have their own secrets to hide.

See what Kyle and Matt had to say about “X-Men Forever” 1 in the following video review:

THE NEXT LEVEL

Former Oklahoman Paul Benjamin is putting words in Hugh Jackman’s mouth.

Putnam City North graduate Benjamin wrote the “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” game for the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2. Benjamin, who now lives in Austin, Texas, talked to The Oklahoman about his X-perience recrafting Wolverine’s origin for game players.

Paul Benjamin

“The Wii/Playstation 2 version of X-Men Origins: Wolverine blends story elements from the Wolverine movie and the Xbox360/Playstation 3/PC version of the game with a dash of story elements unique to the Wii/PS2 version,” Benjamin said. “I don’t want to give away too much, but essentially, you play Wolverine’s origin as he loses his girl, goes after Sabretooth/Victor Creed for revenge, and gets his bones laced with the indestructible metal ‘adamantium.’”

Characters in the game include Wolverine, Sabretooth, Silver Fox, Deadpool, Blob, Wraith, Gambit and General Stryker. Because the Wii edition was aimed at more casual gamers, the amount of bloodshed in the game is less than what will be found in the “Uncaged” edition for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and personal computer, Benjamin said.

“Though both versions shared cinematics and followed similar storylines, many other elements of the game were taken in different directions,” Benjamin said. “Where the Uncaged Edition on the other consoles embraces the extreme violence of the Wolverine character, the Wii/PS2 version adopts a feel that is more in line with Wolverine from the three X-Men movies. There’s still plenty of fighting, but there’s almost no actual bloodshed portrayed in the combat.”

The Wii combat also took the specific advantages of the Wii controller into consideration.

“You use the Wii controller in a very kinetic fashion to throw doors open, for example, and to lunge across the room at an opponent in a way that is unique to the Wii,” Benjamin said. “Because this version was developed separately with these considerations in mind, many of the story details end up being different as well.”

Writing for a video game involves writing a lot of different dialogue for a lot of events that could transpire, depending on how the game is played out. While it’s complex, Benjamin, who also writes for Marvel Comics, says it’s very rewarding.

“You have to try to cover all bases,” Benjamin said. “Ultimately, the fun of writing for games is seeing how the gameplay designers apply your words to the game. The coolest part of writing for this game was hearing Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber delivering my dialogue as Wolverine versus Sabretooth.”

By Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

X-Men Origins: Wolverine for the Nintendo Wii

Writer Paul Benjamin, a Putnam City North graduate who now lives in Austin, Texas, is a writer of comic books and video games.  He was able to merge knowledge from both worlds recently, as the writer of the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii version of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”  Benjamin recently talked to The Oklahoman about the experience.  Look for more from Benjamin in Friday’s Weekend LOOK section of The Oklahoman.

Matt Price: What kind of research did you have to do to write the game?

Paul Benjamin: Yeah, this is the worst part of my job. I had to read A LOT of comics. When people hear that I write comics and video games, they generally assume that I just sit around reading comics and playing video games all day. Mostly that’s not true, but when starting a new project I do have to do some initial research. I am, of course, very familiar with Wolverine, but before I got started on the game I had to make sure I really had his voice down. I read some of Marc Guggenheim’s Wolverine comics because all of the Wii/PS2 in-game movies (aka Cinematics) came from the version of the game that Marc had written. I also spent time with classic Wolverine comics, like the first Wolverine mini-series, his early X-Men appearances and Origin, the tale of Wolverine as a boy that is the basis of the beginning of the film. I also got to read a synopsis of the movie, though there wasn’t enough time for me to fly out to Los Angeles to read the actual script. It’s not unusual for film scripts to be held so tightly under wraps that you have to go to the studio to read it to prevent leaks.

MP: What types of changes have to be made when creating the Wii/PS2 version of a game?

PB: This can vary greatly depending on the project. In this case, the Wii/PS2 version was being developed by a different studio from the Xbox 360/PS3/PC version. Though both versions shared cinematics and followed similar storylines, many other elements of the game were taken in different directions. For example, because the Wii tends to be owned by more casual gamers and has a large family following, the Wii version is much more family-friendly. Where the Uncaged Edition on the other consoles embraces the extreme violence of the Wolverine character, the Wii/PS2 version adopts a feel that is more in line with Wolverine from the three X-Men movies. There’s still plenty of fighting, but there’s almost no actual bloodshed portrayed in the combat.

Also, the Wii team took the unique motion sensitive Wii controls into account when making the game. You use the Wii controller in a very kinetic fashion to throw doors open, for example, and to lunge across the room at an opponent in a way that is unique to the Wii. Because this version was developed separately with these considerations in mind, many of the story details end up being different as well. The game has to be fun first and foremost, so the story was tweaked and revised to fit the gameplay involved. Overall things are the same, but one console’s version may have more levels set in one location than on another console, creating differences in where the story goes and how much we see of one character or another.

MP: What’s a typical day of writing for a video game project entail?

PB: Writing video games is a very different exercise from writing for other mediums. For example, when I write a comic book or graphic novel, I’m creating a narrative that goes from beginning to end. When writing a video game based on a movie (and on another video game), much of the story is predetermined. In addition, the gameplay drives the story to a great extent. Some days I spent all my time writing contextual action sequences. Those are situations where a series of events happens and you press certain buttons to change the course of the action. For example, Sabretooth might be trying to throw Wolverine off a truck and a series of button presses will either allow Wolverine to toss Sabretooth overboard or result in Logan going under the wheels. It’s my job to write dialogue for both scenarios. Ideally, voice over is recorded for several different versions of the scenario in case the designers end up using the same set up more than once.

On other days, I spent all my time just writing lines of dialogue for various characters. For example, I might write ten different lines that a specific group of bad guys will say when they engage Wolverine, ten more for when Wolverine hits them, etc. This is a real challenge because you’re writing these lines in a vacuum. You never know how they will be applied. Those enemies could end up cut from the game entirely or they could end up being used far more than originally expected because they are fun to fight. You have to try to cover all bases. Ultimately, the fun of writing for games is seeing how the gameplay designers apply your words to the game. The coolest part of writing for this game was hearing Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber delivering my dialogue as Wolverine versus Sabretooth. That’s something you can’t get from writing comics!

The New Mutants team up again, and Spider-Man works around the clock in this week’s comics. Kyle Roberts and Matt Price discuss those highlights, plus two comics about running: Final Crisis Aftermath Run and Flash Rebirth 2.

The X-Men have returned to television screens with “Wolverine and the X-Men,” the first three episodes of which are presented on DVD with the “Heroes Return Trilogy.”

In “Wolverine and the X-Men,” a catastrophe has struck the X-Men, destroying Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. The X-Men have disbanded, and mutants face persecution and imprisonment.

Wolverine (voiced by Steve Blum) begins to track down his former teammates, including Beast, Cyclops, and Rogue.

While Wolverine hasn’t taken a leadership role often in “X-Men,” circumstances dictate that he’s the only choice to lead this team. Supervising producer Craig Kyle points out in the commentary that the show’s creators intentionally switched the typical roles of Cyclops and Wolverine, that of leader and loner.

Some fans have complained that, at only 68 minutes, the DVD doesn’t provide enough value for its $14.98 retail price. While a full-season release would be preferable, there are multiple commentaries on each episode, and it allowed Lionsgate to have a “Wolverine” property available as the “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” theatrical film is released.

- Matthew Price

THE NEXT LEVEL

Voice actor Steve Blum heard Wolverine’s voice in his head from a young age, when he sat in his grandfather’s book store sorting comic book collections purchased by his uncle.

Today, he voices the character in “Wolverine and the X-Men,” the first three episodes of which have just been released on DVD. Blum first voiced the character of Wolverine in 2004 in the “X-Men Legends” video game. He’s since returned to Wolverine in additional video games, and in the “Hulk Vs. Wolverine” DVD film from earlier this year.

“Initially my take on Wolverine was based on what I had been hearing in my head since I was a comic-book kid,” Blum said in a recent phone interview with The Oklahoman. “I didn’t really base it on anything but that. I really tried to divorce myself from all of the other animated incarnations. And though I love Hugh Jackman’s on-camera version of Wolverine, I have a different voice in my head for sort of a comic book/animated representation of him.”

In “Wolverine and the X-Men,” the X-Men have been disbanded after an attack on Professor Xavier. Wolverine, known as a loner, must regroup the team under his leadership. The character of Wolverine is as high-profile as ever, with appearances in comics, the animated series, and a big-budget movie, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” starring Jackman. Wolverine wasn’t necessarily the most likely multimedia star, first appearing as an antagonist to the Hulk in “Incredible Hulk” No. 181. Blum’s path to voice acting was also somewhat circumspect.

Blum broke in as a voice actor almost by accident, while working as a driver for a low-budget sci-fi film company.

“In the mailroom, we had a lot of time to just banter around and tell awful jokes,” Blum said. “I just happened to mess around with voices.”

A friend who was casting an anime production for a new company heard Blum’s voices, and asked if he’d be interested to come in and create some monster voices.

“He’d pay me $7 a line for doing it and feed me breakfast and lunch, and I thought that was the best deal I ever heard of,” Blum said.

Blum said the timing of voice-over for anime came to him very naturally.

“I was able to fall in step with the sounds that they needed for their creatures, and eventually that evolved into actual acting and creating voices for human-like characters,” he said. “I kind of learned on the job, I really had no acting training. Just doing it for 15 years in anime was really my schooling.”

Blum said working on “Wolverine and the X-Men” is an incredible ride, as more and more characters from the X-Men’s world are brought to life.

“It’s really the realization of a fanboy’s dream, it’s amazing for me,” Blum said. “In the studio, when we were recording the series, for me to sit and listen to the other characters come to life around me was just as exciting as doing the voice itself.”

By Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman

Matt Price and Kyle Roberts review X-Men Origins: Wolverine and talk about a few of the best comics that came out this week, including the one-shot with the same title, X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Batman Battle for the Cowl: The Underground, and Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #4.

Kyle Roberts heads down to Warren Theatre in Moore for the midnight showing of Wolverine to see how much trivia X-fans know.

The beginnings of Wolverine are explored in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” a tight, just-under-two-hours action thriller.

It takes pieces from the graphic novels “Wolverine Origin” and “Weapon X,” but the heart of the film is the Wolverine-Sabretooth relationship.

Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine, who starts the film as a sickly young boy named James Howlett.   A family dispute leaves him fatherless and homeless, and his only companion is another youngster, the violent and dangerous Victor Creed.  James’ life through the ages as a hard-bitten fighter and warrior, with Victor Creed (Liev Schreiber), aka Sabretooth at his side, is shown as the film opens.  Eventually, Victor’s sadistic and violent proclivities get the pair in trouble. However, their unusual talents are of special interest to Col. William Stryker (Danny Huston), who recruits them for a special mutant task force.

This black ops task force doesn’t always have the best interests of the innocent in mind, and James eventually tires of the killing, leaving Victor alone for perhaps the first time ever. James retires to Canada, where he’s known as Logan and works as a lumberjack. He’s seemingly at peace for the first time. But his past can’t leave him alone. It haunts his dreams — and eventually it returns in his waking life, as well.

When it appears someone is hunting down his old task force comrades, Logan agrees to have a possibly fatal procedure performed, melding the unbreakable metal adamantium to his bones and claws.  But, he discovers, not all is as it seems, and his enemies may not be who he thought they were.

The final quarter of the film, where Wolverine seeks to put and end to an mutant experimentation project, drags a little and doesn’t entirely make sense.  But until then, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is a sleek superhero action film.  The cool Cajun mutant Gambit (Taylor Kitsch) seems a likely spinoff star, as does Ryan Reynolds’ Wade Wilson, a member of the black ops squad.

- Matt Price

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” has sold out close to 300 performances, according to MovieTickets.com.
That sounds pretty good, but “Wolverine” is trailing “Transformers” by 2-to-1 at the same point in the sales cycle. “Transformers” is MovieTickets.com’s No. 25 pre-seller of all-time.

“Wolverine” accounts for 73 percent of tickets sold at the site Thursday as of 12 p.m. ET.

- Matt Price

- Matt Price

MovieTickets.com is reporting more than 150 sold out performances for “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” which kicks off the summer blockbuster season Friday. “Wolverine,” which stars Hugh Jackman and is based on the Marvel comic, accounts for 35 percent of all tickets sold this week at MovieTickets.com.

- Matt Price

Information from Movietickets.com seems to indicate a lot of pre-release interest in the upcoming films “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Star Trek.”

As of Wednesday, MovieTickets.com is reporting that “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” is currently outpacing ticket sales for “Iron Man” 3-to-1 at the same point in the sales cycle (nine days prior to the film’s release).

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” releases Friday, May 1, 2009. “Iron Man” released in 2008 on Friday, May 2.

“Star Trek” is moving at even a faster pace. Despite releasing a week later, “Star Trek”  has already sold 25% more advance tickets at MovieTickets.com than “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

- Matt Price

Wolverine’s girlfriend Mariko is coerced into marrying a boor of a businessman by her father, seeking more power for his clan.  Her husband beats her; Wolverine wants to retaliate, but doesn’t at Mariko’s request.  He does, however, find himself ambushed by Shingen, Mariko’s father, and very nearly killed.  The warrior Yukio nurses Wolverine back to health, but also harbors a dark secret.
Wolverine’s battle between his animal nature and his honor drive this tale, which is probably both the best-written and best-drawn Wolverine story.  It’s available now as a premiere hardcover from Marvel.

- Matt Price

- Matt Price

Looking for more “Wolverine” reading? For this week’s “Wolverine Wednesday” I’ll go off the beaten path a bit and recommend an out-of-print (but findable) “X-Men” novel from 1998: X-Men: Law of the Jungle, by Dave Smeds.
Ka-Zar calls the X-Men to the Savage Land when Sauron and a gang of mutates are kidnapping Savage Land natives.  Sauron’s goal, however, was to lure in the X-Men, to feed on their mutant energies.  This Sauron seems more devious than ever before — Psylocke, of the X-Men, thinks she knows why.  The X-Team featured in this book are Wolverine, Cannonball, Beast, Iceman, Psylocke, Archangel and Storm.  If you enjoy Ka-Zar and his supporting cast — Shanna the She-Devil and Zabu the sabretooth — you’re even more in luck.  I’ve been slowly making my way through all the X-Men novels in the past few years, and I’d say this is one of the better ones.
Admittedly, this might have been more appropriate for a Ka-Zar day than a Wolverine Wednesday — this is the most prominently I’ve ever seen Ka-Zar featured in a Marvel novel.  But Wolverine does have a starring role, and, just check him out taking on Sauron on that cover!

– Matt Price

Activision has released the first gameplay trailer for the “Wolverine: Origins” game, tying into the motion picture starring Hugh Jackman.

- Matt Price

Quite a bit more from X-Men characters Cyclops and Gambit in the latest trailer from “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

The third “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” spot from earlier this week, this one focuses on Wolverine’s teammates and supporting cast.

- Matt Price

The second TV spot from earlier this week promoting “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” This spot focuses on the relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth.

- Matt Price