One of the notes that got kind of lost in the shuffle during the Hub Media Event webcast a short while ago is that HubWorld.com is supposedly undergoing a major content overhaul and “relaunch” on September 27th, which just happens to be Monday.
What this means for G.I. Joe: Renegades is presently unknown, but considering Renegades is one of the Hub’s flagship shows, I would think it would mean a potential for some added content coming early next week. Hopefully some better, more finished art, or some more media.
Coinciding with this upcoming event, TFW2005 reports that Transformers.com has an advertisement up for an upcoming Flash-based game called “Tower Defense”, so it would appear things are gearing up for a little media blitz just prior to The Hub’s official launch on October 10th.
Fingers crossed…
While no actual new art has been shared recently for the upcoming G.I. Joe: Renegades series, thanks to DeviantArt, we do know a few more of the artists who are working on the series. Check out the links to the profiles below to see who some of these artists are and what they’ve worked on in the past. One of the cooler names on the list is Dusty Abell, who should be very familiar to Joe fans as the guy who had some input into the vehicle designs for G.I. Joe: Resolute!
The first artist on the list, “jones-z-kitty” has some interesting words about the Renegades production:
“i’m DEFINITELY having fun on GIJOE:RENEGADES right now, and i’m having a blast working with and , who both take me to school everyday, its very inspiring! plus…we are using a little bit of freelance…(we had some really big episodes and we needed a bit of help)…so were really lucky we’ve been able to get some help from , , and ! everyone is doing an awesome job!…….but i do sometimes miss the fun and whimsy of drawing BRAVE AND THE BOLD!
that being said…i’m learning TONS working on GIJOE:RENEGADES and i really HOPE that HASBRO is cool with us posting some stuff at the end of the year once the show premieres!”
Love the sounds of the “really big episodes”! And as with many of the folks we’ve seen involved with Renegades, there are some great pedigrees on some of these names. Check out the profiles below to see what we’ve got to work with.
With thanks to SNAKE EYES from HissTank.com, we know that Diamond Publications has a listing for G.I. Joe: The Pursuit of Cobra Wave 3, and Diamond has a release date for Wave 3 listed for December 29th.
It’s been widely believed that Wave 3 (which is technically “Wave 1” for 2011) would hit retail prior to the end of the year, though this seems a bit close to 2011. It should be noted, though, that many times these things hit brick and mortar retail before Diamond’s listed release date.
To see the full rundown of Wave 3, check out my Pursuit of Cobra SuperPage.
So, is anyone getting tired of me posting information about Avengers? I hope not, because I’m going to keep doing it. Feel free to skip by if you’re not interested. I’m extremely fired up to see this cartoon, so I fully intend on posting about the videos as they’re uploaded.
The latest five-minute short focuses on The Hulk… DisneyXD.com is the first place to post it (which doesn’t allow embedding for some weird reason). It’s on the same video page that the Iron Man one was posted yesterday.
Along with that, Marvel.com has also begun posting their own content, including very short snippets of the origins of the Avengers. First two are Thor and Captain America. Thor
Along with those, Marvel.com also has hosted the Iron Man Micro-Episode, so it’s embeddable now! Iron Man Micro-Episode
This cartoon really looks great. It has a very “realistic” feel to it. Sure, the animated style is the typical distorted look, but the dialog is very mature and natural, the action is very well choreographed…it really rocks. October 20th…I’ve marked my calendar!
Over on HissTank.com, Gyre-Viper has released another swatch of pre-production artwork from Hasbro sculpting legend Bill Merklein. Responsible for many of our favorite G.I. Joe toys from the 80’s, Mr. Merklein has been generous enough to share these details and images with us, and Gyre-Viper has been a huge help getting it out to the public.
Some really, really awesome stuff here. I can’t get enough of it. I’ve mirrored a bunch of the images below.
no images were found
Also, if you love this, don’t forget about Gyre’s many other threads posted with more fantastic work from Mr. Merklein.
For a while now I’ve been talking up the apparent wonders of the upcoming Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes animated series. Although I’ve never been a huge Avengers comic fan, I love Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, and a lot of the Avenger individuals. This cartoon promises a large cast of favorite characters and looks like an awesome ramped up action series in the vein of Justice League.
While the series itself debuts October 20th on DisneyXD, starting TODAY, DisneyXD.com and Marvel.com are debuting some five minute “shorts” with a focus on the individuals. First up to bat is Iron Man!
LOVE this. Really love the looks of this. With G.I. Joe: Renegades and Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, it looks like this could be a great fall for action animation!
The issue hits comic stores tomorrow, and serves as an homage to the original “Silent Issue” from back in the day. There have been countless homages to that legendary comic, but it seems like Larry Hama is really diving into this one to make it something special. What will be the end result? Guess we’ll find out when I post the review tomorrow.
Check out the preview below! G.I. Joe: Origins #19
Larry Hama (w) • Joe Benitez (a) • Tom Feister (c) Larry Hama returns along with super-star Joe Benitez (Superman/Batman) and it’s a SILENT ISSUE with SNAKE EYES! Not to steal from Stan but, “ ‘Nuff said.”
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Many Joefans, myself included, are a bit perplexed about the upcoming G.I. Joe: Future Noir limited series. Perhaps because the G.I. Joe universe is somewhat grounded in reality, Joefans have a hard time grasping multiple continuities, and I can certainly understand that. I’m not entirely certain the G.I. Joe fanbase is quite strong enough to leverage all of these different G.I. Joe titles, but in my opinion, with the main book being probably the slowest paced of the bunch, I’m glad IDW is taking those chances.
Then along comes Future Noir. Boasting an anime style and a different take on the G.I. Joe universe, it certainly seems like a neat enough aesthetic…but where is it going, and what does it serve to accomplish? At the root, reading comics are about journeying to a different world, so this will certainly accomplish that, I just hope it’s worth branching out even further from the more familiar G.I. Joe style. I’ll certainly give it a try.
Over on Comic Book Resources, IDW Editor Andy Schmidt talks a bit about the mindset behind Future Noir, and what we can expect:
“Future Noir’ is geared more towards fun, over-the-top adventure. The regular G.I. Joe books are more serious and grounded. ‘Future Noir’ starts off in a world that’s clearly not the one we live in and just balloons out from there,” Schmidt said of the series’ style. “So, from a tone stand point, it’s quite different. Also, it’s a more action-paced story, it starts off in action and hardly ever stops to catch its breath.””
I will admit from what Mr. Schmidt is saying, this does at least sound like a fun ride. I do think sometimes the adult Joefans forget that these toys are playthings and should retain an element of fun. If nothing else, perhaps this series will maintain that atmosphere. Schmidt also adds the following details:
“The series takes place in what Schmidt described as a “not-too-distant future.” “It’s a world with cybernetics, flying mobile bases, underground cults experimenting on genetic structures and creating monsters and so on,” Schmidt said. “It’s still got the military aspects, but this is definitely a different world and a different kind of Cobra.” The Cobra of “Future Noir” features an all-new terrorist leader, Schmidt told CBR. “There’s a new character front and center called King Cobra, and his design is really great. We’ve got some classic characters like Dr. Mindbender and a few others, but the organization itself is really different than what we’ve seen before. Their goals are a little over-the-top.” On the Joe side, the series will star Duke and Scarlett, along with Snake Eyes, Sci-Fi, Roadblock and Agent Helix. “They’re both a recognizable cast and a couple hand-picked for this adventure specifically,” Schmidt said. “Sci-Fi wound up being my favorite to write because he had an emotional character arc during the series more than the others. I really enjoyed writing him a lot. And Duke was fun, too.”
I’ll check it out, for sure…I don’t hold much faith that many Joefans will do the same, however. Check out the full interview right here.
