Comic Strip: New ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Posters, ‘Avengers 2′ Details and One Stupid ‘Fantastic Four’ Controversy

ScreenCrush’s Comic Strip is a weekly roundup of the hottest superhero movie/TV news items. From Marvel to DC and points in between, if it pertains to costumed comic book heroes, we’re covering it here, bringing you our expert analysis. This week, the new 'Fantastic Four' ignites a stupid controversy, 'The Avengers 2' reveals its first official images, and 'Guardians of the Galaxy' goes ballistic with trailers and posters.

The Great Fantastic Four Kerfuffle

First, there was the interview with 'Fantastic Four' star Kate Mara, who made the mistake of dropping this little quote:

I've never been a fan of comics, I've never actually read one. I was going to for this movie but the director said it wasn't necessary. Well, actually he told us that we shouldn't do it because the plot won't be based on any history of anything already published. So I chose to follow his instructions.

And then the internet kind of exploded with (minor) outrage. How dare her! How dare director Josh Trank! How dare they throw away the comic when making a movie based on one of the most important comic books ever created!

Of course, what Mara actually meant was that the movie is not based on any single individual storyline and instead draws its inspiration from the past half century of 'Fantastic Four' comics in general. We comic book fans are passionate folks, but we really need to learn to get over ourselves sometimes.

Meanwhile, Michael B. Jordan, the new Human Torch, spoke with MTV about the project and from the sound of it, we'll be getting a superhero movie that's truly unlike anything we've seen before:

Josh’s vision is very clear and he knows exactly what he wants, and he gives us room to adapt and to play. That’s what I kind of think sets us apart, is that this is going to be grounded and unconventional. It’s not your typical superhero film, you know, we aren’t looking at this as like, being superheroes. We’re more or less a bunch of kids that had an accident and we have disabilities now that we have to cope with, and try to find a life afterwards – try to be as normal as we can.

And that's fine. The FF were never typical superheroes -- they're scientists and adventurers. The last thing we need from this movie is a "typical superhero movie." Josh Trank earned a lot of goodwill with 'Chronicle.' Let's give him the benefit of the doubt.

Because You Need More 'Guardians of the Galaxy' Stuff

'Guardians of the Galaxy' is officially less than two weeks away from opening all over the world and the marketing machine hasn't slowed down for an instant. Since everyone reading this article is going to be seeing the movie anyway, can we agree to stop watching any new trailers and avoiding any new posters to maintain some kind of surprise?

Ha. Hahaha. Okay. Here are two new TV spots.

Even better than those two TV spots are these two new clips, which emphasize the movie's weirdo humor above anything else. The biggest takeaway from all of this new footage is that Dave Bautista's Drax the Destroyer looks like he may quietly steal the movie from that CGI raccoon.

And since Marvel suspects that you and your kids are going to want to have everything and anything 'Guardians' related after seeing the movie, they've released a teaser for a new mobile game, which tasks you with building your own team of quirky alien badasses and battling the bad guys.

And since this is a Marvel Studios production, it looks like just about every named character in the movie has their own character poster now. Who bunch of new one-sheets arrived staggered over the past week and they remind us that, despite all of these trailers and clips, we still have no idea how everyone fits into the larger plot of the movie. Interesting...

And finally, a post over at Stitch Kingdom claims to know a series of cameos that will appear in the film, so head on over there to see who Stan Lee (of course), Nathan Fillion (woo-hoo!), Rob Zombie (!) and director James Gunn's dog will be playing. Most importantly, the finished film may even feature a blink-and-you'll-miss-him appearance from the one and only Howard the Duck, easily the most underrated and most misunderstood character in the Marvel canon. This is going to be a crazy movie.

'The Avengers 2' Wants Your Attention Now

Not content to simply let 'Guardians of the Galaxy' rule the internet, Marvel Studios went ahead and announced release dates for movies through 2019. The only thing missing for most of them are titles, but we'll see what happens. Captain Marvel? Black Panther? Sure, why not!

But this was a big week for Marvel for another reason: this was the big "let's finally reveal a whole bunch of stuff about 'The Avengers 2' week. Let's run this all down, step-by-step:

Number one: the titular bad guy and his army of henchmen were revealed on the latest cover of Entertainment Weekly and -- drumroll, please -- he looks like Ultron from the comic books. Phew. Okay. Crisis averted, nerds!

Then EW continued to whole "beating everyone to the punch" thing by revealing a whole bunch of new images from the film. We've included a couple below, but head on over here to check out the whole lot of 'em. The most important things about these images: Hawkeye's new costume, the return of science buddies and the entire team hanging out in snazzy, non-uniform outfits.

And then EW was like "we're done here yet!" and they teased the character of Ultron himself in a shockingly detailed description of a vital scene from the movie. You can read it here, but you should proceed with a certain amount of caution if you're sensitive to spoilers.

Meanwhile, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige hit up the usual spots to chat about the film. IGN landed one of the better interviews, where Feige talked all about the snazzy new Avengers tower:

S.H.I.E.L.D. is gone – for people who are following along. S.H.I.E.L.D. was disbanded and brought down at the end of The Winter Soldier because it turned out to not be the best organisation ever. So Tony's bank-rolling The Avengers now. And he's bank-rolling their headquarters. So it's now Avengers Tower.

Tony designed it so in addition to a hanger for a brand-new Quinjet, laboratories, places where he can build and store his Iron Man suits, there are I believe two bars. Beautiful multiple space living rooms which are perfect for parties and social gatherings. But it’s a primary location in the film this time around.

And finally, we learned how the Vision, who will be played by Paul Bettany, will figure into the film. Since it's a little spoilery and the last thing we want is you to chase us down with pitchforks, we'll just leave this link here and walk away. You make the choice to click that, boys and girls.

Here's Animation in Lieu of 'Batman vs. Superman' News

This was the first week in a long time where no significant news about 'Batman vs. Superman' broke in any capacity. With Comic Con just around the corner, it's easy to imagine Warner Bros. locking down and playing everything as close to the vest as possible, waiting to make any big revelations there. But if you need some taste of the DC comics universe, the world of direct-to-DVD animation has got you covered!

First, here's a clip of the first scene from 'Batman: Assault on Arkham,' which takes place in the same world as the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game series:

And then there's our first look at 'Justice League: Throne of Atlantis,' which will cast a spotlight on the team's most overlooked, underutilized and often unfairly maligned member.

You go, Aquaman. We love you!

The Latest and Greatest in TV News

First of all, here's the most important superhero TV news of the week: the complete box set of the original 'Batman' TV series will arrive on November 11, 2014. Act accordingly.

But if you're interested in new stuff, don't worry. The internet has got you covered. First, there's this new featurette about The CW's 'The Flash,' which gives us an extended look at the character your probably last expected to get his own featurette:

And while we're on the subject of 'The Flash,' 'Prison Break' star and 'Stoker' screenwriter Wentworth Miller has signed up to play Captain Cold on the series. As you may or may not know, Captain Cold is one of the Flash's oldest enemies, so the news that this character is showing up is a big "no duh" announcement. But Miller's casting? That's interesting.

Let's jump over the aisle for a quick look at this joint poster for the second season of 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' and the first season of 'Agent Carter.' If you want one of these things, you're going to have to be in San Diego for Comic Con a little later this week.

Finally, FOX has kept the 'Gotham' promos rolling, so if you want not one, not two, but three additional previews for the show, just scroll on down.

Someone Let Frank Grillo Play the Punisher

Sure, Frank Grillo may have already played Crossbones in 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier,' but everyone knows that he was born to play Frank Castle, AKA, the Punisher. Him playing a Punisher-esque vigilante in 'The Purge: Anarchy' just confirms it. And do you know who agrees with all of this? Mr. Grillo himself:

I’ve been bombarded with people asking me about the Punisher. It’s amazing. The interesting thing is … look, my friend Chris Evans started out as the Human Torch, and then he became Captain America. So I’m going to have to follow up on this.

Dearest Marvel: we will kindly forget that Crossbones looks just like Frank Castle if you cast Grillo twice. We won't blame you. We'll look the other way. That's how much we love this idea. Okay. Thanks.

All of the Cool Toys You Can't Possibly Afford

How do we still not know much about Disney's upcoming 'Big Hero 6'?! We have no idea why Disney is marketing this one under the radar, especially when the new toys show off a cast of weird, colorful and cool characters. Check out a complete gallery here.

But as you know, Marvel has definitely not been hiding 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' so the reveal of these new Groot and Rocket Raccoon statues doesn't show us anything we haven't seen before ... but man, look at the detail.

And finally, USA Today brought us out first look at a LEGO set that everyone fanboy and his mother is going to want. Yes, 'The Dark Knight' is finally getting the LEGO treatment and it's only going to cost to $199.