Two superhero movie trailers debuted this week
We’ll deal with the slightly more niche one first.
Clayface is a well known bat villain, or at least well known to comic fans. The DCU is taking an interesting route by putting the lesser known DC Universe characters on screen.
In the comics there have been 4 Clayfaces, even teaming up as the “Mud Pack”. The movie focusses on Matt Hagen, who in the comics is an adventurer who immerses himself in a pool of chemicals and develops the ability to change shape and embarks on a life of crime.
For the October releasing movie version the producers have kind of mixed 3 of the origins and characteristic of those Clayfaces together for the movie taken inspiration. Like anything in the DC Universe, there are lots of revisions to these origins, and of course the comic versions are just an inspiration for the big screen adaptation. Judging by the trailer, it looks like the creative team are taking more of a horror slant to the comic – but then all the best Bat villains have something horrific or grotesque about them.
Likely to be a little bit bigger than Clayface is the new Avengers movie. Doomsday
The trailer has been everywhere and everyone has an opinion on it
Any surprises for anyone?
The MCU has gone off the boil a bit over the last few years, but this should rekindle interest, with genuine excitement of all the disparate elements of the universes coming together (now legal wrangling / rights issues have been resolved).
It’s also notable for the return of Robert Downey Jr to the MCU, but this time as Doctor Doom and the return of Steve Rogers and I wonder if it is riffing off the most recent Johnathan Hickman / Esad Ribic “Secret Wars” series from 2015(11 years ago !?!?!) which is definitely worth a read if you haven’t read it. The plot to that crossover was that the Marvel multiverse was collapsing, merging the 616 (the “regular” Marvel universe ) and the Ultimate universe (the streamlined universe created in the early 2000s and ran parallel), Doom was a big figure in that story, so perhaps, like most of MCU movies, this film is taking inspiration from a notable comic run.
Either way – RDJ is playing one of the best villains in comics. This should be great and should be a smash hit over Christmas.
Basically, all being well, it should be a great film to watch before Christmas. Doctor Doom is one of the best Marvel villains, and it’s about time he had some screentime, Even better, the new Black Widow, Yelena Belova, seems to feature heavily (or as much as one character in a team movie can).
Either way, this does look like a VERY good movie, and it has the Russo’s directing it, who directed some of the best MCU films including Captain America : The Winter Soldier Infinity War and Endgame, so they can certainly bring the epic sturm and drang but with great characterisation. No pressure guys.
Of Course, what this does mean (you knew there would be a sell in here somewhere) is that there will be lots of merch’ and collectables coming out shortly.
TGC Collectables have already got lots of figures and merch’ related to the characters that will appear in what is likely to be one of the biggest films of 26/27. Apart from the action figure lines, we have card games, board games and our sister company the Game Collection has a lot of choice as far as digital superheroing goes.
It's also worth reminding everyone that it San Diego Comic Con week, expect lots more announcements.
Header image from Marvel & IGN
