your CoMPLETE 164-PagE guidE To MoviEs, Tv and CoMiCs

MarvEL’s agEnTs of shiELdThe lowdown on The new Tv sensaTion CasT and Crew spill new season seCreTs

arroWhulk, spidey and The Cap’s Crazy days

1970s CLassiCs!

PLus! Thor: ThE dark WorLd • suPErMan ivThE fanTasTiC four • hoWard ThE duCk • MorE!

ThE aMazing sPidEr-Man 2! CaPTain aMEriCa 2! x-MEn: days of fuTurE PasT! guardians of ThE gaLaxy!

2014 fiLM PrEviEWs

ThE bEsT Tv suPErhEro shoWs Too!

sTan“the man”

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questions!

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as voted forby you!

suPErhEro MoviEs

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6 SFX presents The Ultimate Guide To Superheroes Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscriptions

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8 Thor: The Dark WorldStars and director give us the lowdown on the next blockbuster Marvel movie.

14 The Top 50 Superhero Movies Of All TimeYou voted in your thousands and the results are in.

20 Captain America: The Winter SoldierPreviewing Cap’s next solo outing.

24 Captain America (1990)We look back at the infamous mini-budget outing of the star-spangled Avenger.

28 The Amazing Spider-Man 2All you need to know about the forthcoming Spidey movie.

34 Villains Made Movie SuitableThey’ve souped Electro up – so here are our suggestions for how they could soup up a few more Spidey baddies.

36 Spider-Man TV Animation CompendiumAn in-depth look at the eight Spider-Man animated TV series that have come to television since the late ’60s.

44 X-Men: Days Of Future PastThe big names discuss next year’s mutant “inbetweenquel” – and it sounds ace.

50 Stan Lee Fannish InquisitionThe great man answers your searching questions.

56 The Lego MoviePreviewing the movie that brings together Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman!

CONTENTSFROM THE MAKERS OF MAGAZINE

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7 SFX presents The Ultimate Guide To Superheroes www.sfx.co.uk

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58 Foreign Superhero FilmsUnusual and eccentric costumed types from all around the globe.

60 Future ShockersThe future of fi lms according to us, plus the comic book superheroes we’d love to see on the silver screen.

62 Guardians Of The GalaxyWill next year’s Marvel mega-movie be able to emulate the success of Avengers Assemble?

68 Mego ToysPrepare for a nostalgic journey back to the days of your childhood.

72 ArrowLooking forward to the second season of TV’s Green Arrow adaptation.

76 SFX’s Best Superhero CoversSFX art editor Jon Coates chooses his favourite front pages.

78 The Avengers We test the great British public on their knowledge of the superhero team.

80 Superman IV: The Quest For PeaceLooking back at the movie that sent Superman crashing to Earth.

84 The Insane World Of Superman ComicsA gallery of the craziest Man of Steel comic book covers.

88 Double TakeThe movie scenes that have recreated comic strip panels to the letter.

90 Picture PerfectWhy comic artists are up there with the greats of the art world.

94 If Superheroes ExistedHow exactly would superheroes cope in real-world situations?

98 Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELDWe check out the most exciting new TV series in years.

102 The Fantastic Four (1994)The amazing story of the Marvel movie that was never intended to be released.

106 Non-buff SuperheroesNot all super-powered types have been down the gym…

108 Third World SuperheroesA fascinating insight into the likes of the Hindi Superman and the Turkish Batman.

112 Seventies TVRemembering The Incredible Hulk, The Amazing Spider-Man, Dr Strange and Captain America on the small screen.

118 Bizarre Bad GuysComic books’ oddest and craziest creations from over the years.

120 The What If…? ComicA close look at the Marvel mag that presented alternate – and fairly bloody – histories for major characters.

124 Supervillains On The CouchSo what would a psychologist’s analysis be after checking out these bad guys?

126 Howard The DuckHow did George Lucas and Marvel get it so wrong back in the ’80s?

130 Edgar Wright & Ant-ManThe director – plus Simon Pegg and Nick Frost – chat about 2015’s tiny blockbuster.

132 Comic ConventionsSpeaking to the folk who create weekends of extreme fun.

136 When McCartney Met KirbyThe strange tale of the ex-Beatle and the Marvel maestro.

138 Super GraphicExclusive extracts from a fabulous new graphics book.

146 Adult Superhero SpoofsHow Vivid is putting Batman, Superman and Spider-Man into somewhat spicier situations.

148 The Team’s Favourite MoviesThe people who made this magazine name their top fl icks.

150 Review ZoneReprinting ten classic SFX reviews – and seeing whether the original reviewers stand by their original comments.

162 Ratings QuizHow well do you know your BBFC advice? Take our quiz to fi nd out.

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21 SFX presents The Ultimate Guide To Superheroes

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

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WORDS BY TARA BENNETT

The forthcoming sequel to Captain America promises action, new sidekicks and plenty of moral dilemmas

When we last saw Captain America on fi lm, he was chowing down on shawarma, basking in the glow of not only a global victory, but fi nding

his footing on a personal level as well. Thawed out and revived at the end of Captain America, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) spent a good chunk of Avengers Assemble trying to navigate the modern world; a walking anachronism from a bygone age.

But Cap’s crisis of purpose is gone when he returns in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The new adventure places Rogers in Washington, DC, where he and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) get entangled in a conspiracy that threatens his very existence. Directed by brothers Anthony and Joe

Russo, The Winter Soldier is just as much of a departure as the period era of the fi rst

fi lm was. Joe Russo classifi es this instalment as more of a ’70s

thriller. “The movie is very different in tone,” Joe

explains. “The fi rst fi lm is a wonderful love

letter to the origin of Cap and the

time period.

But Cap is now in the modern world so it’s a political thriller – it’s as modern, edgy and aggressive as it could be. You can’t have thrills in a thriller unless the characters have real stakes and jeopardy, so Cap gets put through a lot. It’s action-heavy and very intense.”

Now based at the hub of all things military and political, Rogers fi nds his personal struggle emanating

from the complexity of threats in today’s world. The black and white, good and bad model of villainy is gone; his lack of trust for Nick Fury and SHIELD means Rogers has to fi nd his own moral high ground in a very grey world.

For Chris Evans, that struggle has been his favourite aspect of Steve’s new journey. “To be candid, that’s

Concept art showing how Steve and Bucky

might slug it out.

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Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscriptions

WORDS BY RICHARD EDWARDS

2014 is shaping up to be a year of amazing superhero movies, and they don’t come more X-citing than a new X-Men fi lm…

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45 SFX presents The Ultimate Guide To Superheroes

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST

www.sfx.co.ukwww.sfx.co.uk

T he bookazine you’re reading probably wouldn’t exist without the original X-Men movie. Living on the Earth (616, presumably) of 2013 that

might seem an odd thing to say, but back when Twentieth Century Fox took a punt on adapting Marvel’s long-running mutant saga, it all seemed a bit of a gamble.

At the turn of the millennium, superhero movies were far from the licence to print money they are now, with the Caped Crusader franchise disgraced by the über-camp,

pun-ravaged neon-overload of Batman & Robin, and Superman still in recovery

after his misjudged Quest For Peace. Okay, Wesley Snipes’s Blade had made

a decent stab at adapting a Marvel property a couple of years earlier

(bizarrely, only the second House of Ideas character to

get a theatrical outing – the

fi rst was, er, Howard the Duck), but the Night Walker was a lesser comic book character aiming for a more niche, R-rated audience.

X-Men was a rather bigger kettle of mutant fi sh – even if its budget was fairly modest for a summer blockbuster – and heaped a load of pressure on Bryan Singer, at that point best known for directing the masterpiece that is The Usual Suspects. Singer was up to the task, however, and turned the movie into a hit by mixing unashamed respect for the source material, with a determination to ground the story in the real world. X-Men may have existed in a near-future populated by people who could control weather or bend metal with their minds, but you were never in any doubt that the movie believed in its reality 100%.

Singer also had the wisdom to hire some of the fi nest actors on the planet, putting Shakespearean legends (now both knights of the realm) Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in two of the lead roles, as sparring former

allies Professor X and Magneto. These days, every leading actor of advancing years – from Robert Redford to Anthony Hopkins, from Michael Caine to Martin Sheen – is queuing up to get their own piece of superhero action.

By the time the superior X-Men 2 came out in 2003, Spider-Man had also conquered the box offi ce and all the studios were looking for their own piece of superhero pie. The X-franchise continued to fl ourish fi nancially after Singer’s departure to direct Superman Returns, with X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). While there was nothing wrong with the box offi ce numbers, however, the post-Singer mutants had met a creative dead end. Then, along came prequel movie First Class (2011), which went back to the days when Professor X and Magneto were simply Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, with a new, younger cast and a cool, Bondish ’60s vibe provided by Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn (who had

“DAYS OF FUTURE PAST SHOULD BE THE CINEMATIC GLUE THAT BONDS THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY WITH ITS YOUNG UPSTART OF A SEQUEL”

Could this be the last time we see Jackman

as the Wolverine?

CAST AND DIRECTOR

INTERVIEWS!

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76 SFX presents The Ultimate Guide To Superheroes

A s you will see from this spread, SFX has done

a fair few superhero covers over the years. And Art Editor Jonathan Coates has been responsible for a lot of them (all from issue 125 onwards to be precise). So we’ve got Jon to pick his top six covers from SFX’s history, so him and Production Editor Russell Lewin can discuss the merits of each of them. Don your mask, adjust your cape, we’re going in…

Let’s celebrate 18 years of fantastic superhero coveragefantastic superhero coverage

RUSS

JON

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SFX COVERS

77 SFX presents The Ultimate Guide To Superheroes

1 SFX #119 Spider-Man 2Jon: I like the sense of

movement in it, particularly the depth that’s created with the Chrysler Building background. Also I like the big powerful headline: “Spider-Man 2 Spectacular!” The webs are very effective, the way he’s swinging in.Russ: The webs sort of dissect the cover diagonally, don’t they? And you’ve also got that line forming the triangle in the top left in parallel with it – I wonder whether that was deliberate?Jon: Mind, it’s got a lot of crotch action. Maybe slightly more than I would have liked.

2 SFX #133 Fantastic FourJon: It’s got the

foreshortening effect of the giant, out-of-proportion fi st – anything with a big fi st gets my vote. There’s also the interaction with the logo, with particles fl ying around the place.Russ: That’s great isn’t it, it reminds me of Marvel comics I used to read, when sometimes they’d smash the logo or do something to it.Jon: Note the shadow in the middle of the word “clobberin’” to add more depth to it. Hopefully it stood out on the newsstand. Russ: The cover’s better than the fi lm.

3 SFX #172 The Dark Knight

Russ: Before I worked on SFX I remember seeing this on the newsstands – I thought it was a really striking cover.Jon: Maybe you thought it was an error!Russ: Yeah, someone’s written all over it! No, I think it’s effective and daring. Which is why you like it?Jon: Yeah. It was created in an unusual way – we did it as a real collage and then scanned the collage in. Russ: Was it controversial at the time? Did the editor worry?Jon: Not so much with Dave, more Warner Bros. I remember the two of us being sat in a little room waiting for Warners to phone to give us either the thumbs up or thumbs down.Russ: So they had approval on this cover?Jon: They did and in the end the only thing they asked us to change was not having the Joker’s face over Batman’s.Russ: It’s a very textured cover. You can look at it for a long time.Jon: And I’m not sure we’d get away with this now.

4 SFX #179 X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Jon: Doesn’t he look young? And his hair is quite coiffed, he’s a well groomed Wolverine. I do like the image, the claws are nice to work with because you can have them run over the text and they don’t obliterate too much of it. Russ: You had fun with the logo.Jon: Yes, a chopped metal effect at the top. Russ: And there’s the “SEX” thing, if you wished to perceive it that way… How aware are you about the whole obscuring the bottom of the F of SFX generally?Jon: All I would say is I probably do it as much as I can, as I know it appeals to certain people and it’s been picked up in the past. It’s kind of fun and I don’t think it’s damaged the mag in any way. Personally I don’t see it as “SEX” as I’m so used to seeing SFX as a logo – but lots of people do, so from that point of view it amuses me to do it.

5 SFX #211 Captain America:

The First AvengerRuss: Just the one image here, which we don’t do much nowadays.Jon: Yes, it’s quite minimal in a way. I like the image – it’s a bit atypical in that he’s not looking directly at the viewer. I think that’s why we decided to give it the feel of a sort of WW2 recruitment poster – it’s like a classic hero shot. It’s shot from quite low down, the way he’s looking up, the addition of the clouds and the fl ag effect…Russ: Did you put the planes on?Jon: Yeah, I put all of that on. I think originally it was just a standard studio shot. And I think it works with that “Do your duty!” copy. Russ: And there’s the “enlist now” line, keeping in with the war poster vibe.

6 SFX #68 X-MenRuss: So we have three

foxy ladies here…Jon: Yes, and they work well as a group. I imagine they were provided as three separate shots but they work well together and the lighting’s quite interesting. I like the smoky effect, it’s quite mysterious. Russ: A couple of things look odd to me: look at that “Hippies With Nukes” line – why’s it on there in that position? And the Kevin Bacon line – “goes nude in Hollow Man” and “unfortunately he’s invisible” – it’s trying to appeal to women in a way, contrasting with the appeal of the X-ladies. You wonder whether they did that because they wanted to “rebalance” the cover’s appeal.

“I like the smoky effect, it’s quite mysterious”

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118 SFX presents The Ultimate Guide To Superheroes Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscriptions

FIRST APPEARANCE Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man #24

POWERS Able to hypnotise people with his guitar playing. Must be like listening to Coldplay…

WHY BIZARRE? As lead singer of the Mercy Killers, Hypno-Hustler (aka Antoine Desloin) was the genius behind the plan of hypnotising his audiences and robbing them. The only hitch is that if his headphones are removed his own music can hypnotise him!

FIRST APPEARANCE Batman #226

POWERS He can see through optic nerves in his fi ngertips.

WHY BIZARRE? Special Forces soldier Philip Reardon’s sight was damaged by a grenade blast in Vietnam. Never fear, his optic nerves were reattached to his fi ngers giving him full 360-degree sight. A villain with no drawbacks, except it hurts when he catches things thrown at him by Batman.

FIRST APPEARANCE Batman #133

POWERS He has kites. Lots of kites.

WHY BIZARRE? A master of the aircraft most commonly associated with Mary Poppins or Charlie Brown, Kite-Man – real name Charles Brown! – fl ies using a kite, uses small kites to attack his enemies and is defeated by Batman. Using a kite.

FIRST APPEARANCE Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man #97

POWERS He can move himself, or bits of himself, by creating spots leading to another dimension. Think Portal.

WHY BIZARRE? It’s a fantastic concept for a villain but he does look like a Dalmatian, and is defeated by a Spider-Man who barely breaks a sweat.

Forget Magneto, Joker and Loki – here’s a collection of the most vacuous villains ever penned

WORDS BY JONNY WILKES

AND

TO KNOW

THE TEN-EYED MANHYPNO-HUSTLER

KITE-MAN THE SPOT

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119 SFX presents The Ultimate Guide To Superheroes

BIZARRE BAD GUYS

www.sfx.co.uk

FIRST APPEARANCE The Doom Patrol #89

POWERS He can change any part of his body into pretty much anything.

WHY BIZARRE? After falling into a vat of acid (classic), Dr Sven Larsen realises he can turn his leg into a tree and his entire left side into a dinosaur. But look at him. He’s hardly Mystique, is he?

FIRST APPEARANCE Star Spangled Comics #70

POWERS None. But he has got an excellent skill for time management.

WHY BIZARRE? He had a makeover to make him a bit less pathetic and actually give him powers, but the original William Tockman is a ticking time bomb of a bad villain.

FIRST APPEARANCE New Guardians #2

POWERS After taking cocaine he has super strength and is covered in white fi re. So remember, just say no, kids.

WHY BIZARRE? This man has a serious drug problem and what do the New Guardians do? Beat him up. He needs their help, not violence.

FIRST APPEARANCE Marvel Super-Heroes #8

POWERS Squirrel teeth, claws and a tail allowing her to climb trees. She can also communicate with squirrels.

WHY BIZARRE? Doreen Green’s powers are a little too effective to be plausible. She’s saved Iron Man from Doctor Doom and has also taken down Deadpool and Wolverine. Always accompanied by either Monkey Joe or Tippy-Toe, Squirrel Girl is way too successful at beating bad guys.

FIRST APPEARANCE The Doom Patrol #70

POWERS He has a robotic suit with a special weapon where his other special weapon is.

WHY BIZARRE? He’s called Codpiece. He has a transferable weapon attached to his groin. It can be a cannon, boxing glove, drill, ultrasound emitter and even scissors, making him a Swiss Army Groin.

FIRST APPEARANCE Adventure Comics #303

POWERS Able to eat all matter quickly.

WHY BIZARRE? One shudders at the thought of what his trips to the men’s room are like. He’s an alien from the planet of Bismoll – their oceans are presumably bright pink and called Pepto-Bismoll.

FIRST APPEARANCE All-Flash #32

POWERS He takes on the Fastest Man Alive with his mind-controlling violin. He should team up with Hypno-Hustler and form the worst band ever. Or is that the best band ever?

WHY BIZARRE? You did not read it incorrectly. We’re not talking about the Riddler here. This is the Fiddler. The Violin Villain. Oh, and he has a Fiddle-Mobile.

FIRST APPEARANCE NFL Superpro #10

POWERS Has the ability to shoot pennies from his wrists.

WHY BIZARRE? Almighty Dollar, also called J Pennington Pennypacker, must surely be every homeless person’s favourite supertype.

SNOW FLAME

SQUIRREL GIRL

ANIMAL-VEGETABLE-MINERAL MAN

CODPIECE

MATTER-EATER LAD

THE FIDDLER

ALMIGHTY DOLLAR

THE CLOCK KING

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162 SFX presents The Ultimate Guide To Superheroes Subscribe at www.sfx.co.uk/subscriptions

QUIZ

Blastermind SPECIAL

WORDS BY JONNY WILKES

How well do you know your graphic superhero content? That well, eh? Go on then, match the BBFC’s remarks to the fi lm

ANSWERS A The Amazing Spider-Man. B Dredd. C Green Lantern. D Hellboy II: The Golden Army. E Iron Man 3. F Avengers Assemble. G Kick-Ass. H X-Men: First Class.

I The Dark Knight. J The Dark Knight Rises

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

The Dark Knight (2008)

Kick-Ass (2010)

X-Men: First Class (2011)

Avengers Assemble (2012)

Dredd (2012)

Green Lantern (2011)

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Iron Man 3 (2013)

A A laboratory animal is seen chewing what appears to be the bloody remains of another creature.

B In one scene a man pulls a woman’s head towards his crutch, after which we see blood around her mouth, implying she has bitten off his penis.

C In one scene, a scientist is stabbed in the face with a hypodermic needle by an unseen force.

D The major action sequences feature small CGI-generated creatures which variously menace the heroes.

E Characters are seen to explode but without gory detail.

F The film contains some mild bad language, such as “hell”, “damn”, “ass”, “son of a bitch”, “pissed off”, “bastards” and “quim”.

G Most of the violent scenes show bloody spray from gunshot wounds as well as the occasional severing of limbs, cutting of throats or stabbing of hands.

H A coin on its edge is seen to fly at and enter a villain’s forehead, then exit the back of his skull, killing him.

I Contains some special make-up effects that whilst clearly not real, have the potential to be moderately frightening.

J One sequence sees the sustained beating of one character by another but the scene serves to emphasise the powerful and ruthless nature of the attacker rather than presenting sadism for its own sake.

MOVIES BBFC DESCRIPTIONS

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9000