Captain America

Steve Rogers won’t be back on the big screen until next year, when Marvel releases “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” but a tiny, blocky Cap is set to feature prominently in one of the year’s most anticipated video games. The patriotic hero will be among the 100 playable characters featured in “Lego Marvel Super Heroes” — an impressive all-star ensemble that includes Wolverine, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Silver Surfer, with the mercenary Deadpool dropping in and out to offer commentary on the action. In the game, due on all major platforms in October, the Marvel team is called upon to save the world from new threats from Loki and the hunger of Galactus, and to find the powerful pieces of a shattered Silver Surfer surfboard. Cosmic cubes, Asgard and the Daily Bugle all make appearances, as does a […]

Iron Man is back in the multiplex in a big way this weekend with “Iron Man 3,” but the character also features prominently in “Marvel’s Avengers Assemble,” a new animated series set to premiere July 7 on the Marvel Universe block on Disney XD, with a special one-hour sneak preview on May 26. Hero Complex is bringing you a new look at the team. The heroic lineup, which also includes Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye and Black Widow, is the same as the Avengers who assembled for Joss Whedon’s 2012 blockbuster, with the notable inclusion of one of Captain America’s oldest friends and partners, the Falcon. A previous series, “The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes,” offered glimpses of numerous Marvel characters, but “Avengers Assemble” marks the first time this lineup has appeared on a television show. The series stars Adrian Pasdar […]

Cap is embarking on another solo adventure. Marvel Studios announced Monday that production is set to begin on “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.” Chris Evans will reprise his title role from “Captain America: The First Avenger” in the sequel, which will be directed by Joe and Anthony Russo from a screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, who also wrote the first film. The film, set to shoot in Los Angeles, Cleveland and Washington, D.C., will also feature Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. In addition, Robert Redford has joined the cast as Agent Alexander Pierce, a senior leader within the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. “I’m doing this film because it’s different. It’s a new thing for me,” Redford explained during a Q&A as part of the L.A. Times Indie Focus Screening Series. The Academy Award-winner was appearing […]

OK, movie fans. Disney would like you to update your moviegoing calendar for 2014 and beyond. In a bit of release date housekeeping, the studio announced today updated release information for some of the biggest movies on its long-range schedule, including the next installment in the rum-soaked adventures of one eyeliner-favoring pirate. The fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie will open July 10, 2015, with screenwriter Jeff Nathanson handling scripting duties for the movie, which, like its predecessors, will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and will star Johnny Depp as Capt. Jack Sparrow. (The previous entry in the franchise, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” directed by Rob Marshall, earned upward of $1 billion at the worldwide box office.) Two Marvel films, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” due April 4, 2014 , and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” due Aug. […]

Hasbro is bringing the big guns to Comic-Con International (July 12-15) with a special edition of a Marvel mainstay that just might block out the San Diego sun — it’s the Super Helicarrier, a tricked out version of the hovering military fortress that gives Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. a mobile headquarters. The Super Helicarrier will be sold at the Hasbro’s booth ( No. 3329) while supplies last, which won’t be long even with the hefty price tag ($129.99) and the intimidating prospect of actually lugging this thing through the human traffic jam of the Con’s trading floor. At just over 4 feet long, the Super Helicarrier is the size of standard ironing board so, you know, good luck with that. Hasbro brought the standard version of their Helicarrier to the New York Toy Fair just before Valentine’s Day but this limited edition is […]

The news is grim — a team member has gone down, the worst is feared — and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans) exchange pensive looks while, all around them, the agents of a super-spy agency called S.H.I.E.L.D. tend to their duties as an off-planet enemy force threatens the entire planet. The scene, being filmed on an elevated set, was watched from a safe — and ironic — distance by Joss Whedon. “You know, you shouldn’t worry too much,” the director and co-writer of “The Avengers” reassured a visitor to the New Mexico set. “This kind of stuff happens here almost every day in the Marvel universe.” It does feel sometimes like Hollywood has become a digital factory dedicated to cosmic dangers, costumed heroes and CG magic but “The Avengers” is a special case even in this summer […]

This week, the Marvel Universe reaches a new plateau with the Hollywood red-carpet premiere of “The Avengers,” which unites the title characters from four film franchises — Thor, Captain America, Iron Man and the Hulk –  to save Earth from a cosmic threat. The only person who had a hand in creating all of those characters was the late Jack Kirby, a titan figure in comics, but his heirs weren’t invited to the premiere;  their presence would be awkward considering their legal quest to reclaim the rights to hundreds of his Marvel creations. That leaves Neal Kirby, Jack’s only son, on the outside looking in but in this guest essay he writes about the days when the Marvel Universe was as close as his family basement.   In 1961, I was the luckiest damn kid on my block — or maybe any block. My father worked at home. […]

In last year’s ”Captain America: The First Avenger,” the title hero not only proved himself on the battlefields of World War II he also showed enough at the box office to earn a sequel, which will reach theaters April 4, 2014, and will feature a modern-day setting, according to Marvel and Walt Disney Studios. Chris Evans is expected to return as the star-spangled avenger in that sequel, but first he’s doing a tour of duty in “The Avengers,”  the May 4 release that represents an all-star squad of Marvel Studios heroes. That movie, directed by Joss Whedon, will put the patriotic character together with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and spy-master Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). “Captain America: The First Avenger” made $369 million in worldwide box office, a solid total considering some observers […]

A new trailer for “The Avengers” is out, revealing more explosions, high-flying villains and a call-to-arms for Marvel’s wonder-team of superheroes. “The Avengers,” directed by “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator Joss Whedon, assembles Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the Hulk (each of whom found some measure of success with his own summer blockbuster in recent years) and adds a few more comics pages stars — Black Widow, Hawkeye and Nick Fury — who have made appearances in Marvel films but have yet to enjoy headlining their own big-screen adaptations. The new trailer begins with an “Inception”-like bass drone and views of a devastated city being fire-bombed as Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) delivers a dramatic voice-over: “War has started. And we are hopelessly outgunned.” Then, one by one, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) […]

Joe Simon, a pioneer figure in American comic books who had a defining career moment in March 1941 when he gave the world a star-spangled superhero named Captain America, has died. He was 98. Simon died Wednesday in New York City after a brief illness, according to a statement from his family, and his death adds a solemn final note to the 70th anniversary of his greatest creation, Captain America, who leaped across the big screen this summer with the Marvel Studios film “Captain America: The First Avenger.” That  film grossed $368 million in worldwide box office and earned strong reviews despite the early skepticism about the 21st century prospects of a Roosevelt-era character who looks like a walking American flag. Simon created Captain America with Jack Kirby, a titan figure in American comics, and the two would work together for various publishers over several decades. Their shared credit eventually took on an esteemed […]