Sometimes a trailer ruins a movie. All the best action scenes, the big CGI set pieces, and the funniest lines are packed into a 150 second package. Other times the studio’s marketing department will make a movie look completely different through a trailer. The movie looks like a fantasy action-adventure movie, but after four hours you are left with The Fellowship of the Rings. You feel betrayed. The commercials and trailer for True Grit show gunfights, old fashioned stand offs, and big time talk. What is missing from the trailer is the humor.

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Marvel held a live broadcast from Midtown Comics today at noon to announce next Summer’s Fear Itself event beginning in April. Joe Quesada was on hand to set the scene describing a world in an economic downturn, pundits telling you who to be afraid of, and people dealing in fear. It seems this is true in our world and in the Marvel Universe, making fear a great motivator with many taking advantage of it.

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All week Marvel has been releasing teaser images focusing on the concept of fear that feature some of their flagship characters. No one seems to know what these are actually teasing, but it seems the publisher may be gearing up for another crossover event.

Earlier in the month, Marvel announced a list of creators that they’ve referred to as “The Architects” (see below). All of the names were listed with the titles they’re currently working on along with a “secret project.” We should be getting another teaser image tomorrow, maybe we’ll learn what they’re all about as well.

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A Marvel press release on Friday provided an advance preview of Marvel’s X-Men #7 from the new series by Victor Gischler. I’m not sure why the preview was released now since #6 hasn’t shipped yet, but I have a pretty good guess as Spider-Man joins the X-Men for this story arc. Many fans have been critical of the current X-Men vs. Vampires story currently featured in the title (and let’s face it they’ve been critical of Amazing Spider-Man lately as well), but this might be a way to showcase the change in focus that’s to come.

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Thank you, Ikea. Your selection of which stuffed animals to place in the giant bins near the exit brought back this fuzzy memory:

Contrary to popular belief, the most dangerous animal is not the lion or tiger or even the elephant.

The most dangerous animal is a shark riding on an elephant, just trampling and eating everything they see.

Deep Thoughts
by Jack Handey