Comic Strip: ‘Hellboy 3,’ Beast First Look and Which Actor Is Studying Black Panther Comics?

ScreenCrush’s Comic Strip is a weekly roundup of the hottest superhero movie 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.

Marvel

This past week was loaded with first-look images at a number of major Marvel movie projects. The most recent belongs to ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier,’ which announced the start of its production with a from-behind shot of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) sporting his signature S.H.I.E.L.D. ... er, shield.

But earlier in the week, the release of Marvel’s 10-disc Phase 1 DVD set afforded fans the chance to drink in concept art for ‘Winter Soldier’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ as well as Alan Taylor’s ‘Thor: The Dark World,’ which will arrive in theaters on Nov. 8.

Two of our favorites include this amazing sketch of Rocket Raccoon:

And a hot shot of Natalie Portman’s human character, Jane, standing amongst the gods of Asgard from ‘The Dark World.’ How is that supposed to happen, when the bridge connecting the worlds had been shattered? Odin only knows.

- Did we find out in what year ‘Guardians’ is supposed to take place? This story might have broken the news.

- Why is Morris Chestnut getting “familiar” with Marvel’s Black Panther character?

- With ‘Iron Man 3’ about to roar into theaters, Comic Book Movie picked up the 64-page illustrated tie-in children’s storybook, which – of course – is overflowing with spoilers. Because kids ruin everything. Click here if you want to learn some MAJOR, MAJOR secrets before Shane Black’s movie reaches theaters on May 3. You have been warned.

Last bit of ‘Iron Man’ news: AMC and Regal both have announced plans for an ‘Iron Man’ movie marathon that will include screenings of the first two movies as well as ‘The Avengers,’ all leading into ‘Iron Man 3.’ It starts on May 2. Check local listings for screen times.

'X-Men'

The first-look fun extended over to Bryan Singer’s ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past,’ where the director teased the return of an original X-Man who Singer never actually got to play around with in his films: Beast.

A member of the first X-Men team, Dr, Henry “Hank” McCoy is characterized by his off-the-charts IQ… and his furry blue pelt. He first was played, against all possible odds, by Dr. Frasier Crane himself, Kelsey Grammer, in Brett Ratner’s ‘X-Men: The Last Stand.’ When the X-Men reunited for the prequel ‘First Class,’ Beast was handed to Nicholas Hoult.

Is this Hoult in the up-close facial shot Singer posted to his Twitter feed? I’d argue it looks totally different from Hoult in character from ‘First Class.’ Either way, Beast appears to be joining the ever-growing fray for ‘Future Past,’ which to date has virtually every mutant character we’ve ever seen in an ‘X-Men’ movie, ever.

Here’s the shot:

- In addition to the return of Beast, Singer’s ‘X-Men’ composer John Ottman says he is coming back to score ‘Days of Future Past.’

DC

Two behind-the-scenes collaborators opened up about the creative process of working in Zack Snyder’s ‘Man of Steel,’ giving Superman fans a little bit more perspective on what they can expect from this origin story reboot.

First up, legendary composer Hans Zimmer – whose credits include Christopher Nolan’s 'Dark Knight' trilogy – talked to CNN about the daunting task of following in John Williams’ massive musical footsteps when it comes to scoring a Superman story.

"Look, that was daunting," Zimmer admitted. "Seriously. He's the greatest film composer out there, without a doubt, and it happens to be one of his iconic pieces of music, so I spent three months just procrastinating and not even getting a start on the thing, because I was so intimidated: 'Oh my God, I'm following in John Williams' footsteps.'"

That’s awesome. Who wouldn’t feel that way?

Zimmer continued to talk about their approach, which gives us great insight into what I believe will be Snyder’s tone:

“What was important for Superman was the simple fact that none of us pay much attention to the Midwest," Zimmer said. "I know America mainly by the big cities, but if you go into the Midwest, there is a people there and there is a country there. And I thought it was important that the decent folk, simple folk be the heart of the story, and a character who is guileless, who isn't complicated in the sort of flawed way our Dark Knight is, and isn't political in any way. He's just striving to become a better part of humanity."

Good stuff.

Secondly, WETA effects artist Joe Letteri spoke to Bleeding Cool about his work on Snyder’s movie, and while he danced around spoilers, he did say:

“I haven’t seen the whole thing yet, but overall it’s the story that’s most exciting. It’s a nice re-envisioning of the story of Superman leaving his homeworld and coming to this new one.

If you look at what Zack [Snyder] has done you’ll see that they’ve abandoned a lot of the pretense that was in the comics and asked, ‘Can we still make this work?’

They’re sticking to realism as much as possible. Fantastic elements are still there but a lot of it that been trimmed back to make it feel as though this actually happened.”

‘Man of Steel’ comes to theaters in June 14. Will there be a sequel? Possibly, but Laurence FIshburne, who plays Perry White in the new movie, says he isn’t under contract yet, so stay tuned.

- All sounds good on the Superman front. 'Justice League,' on the other hand? Not so much.

El Mayimbe of Latino Review appeared on the Schmores Know Movies podcast earlier this week to update the ‘JLA’ movie. Basically, the project is in trouble. Listen for yourself:

'Hellboy'

Finally, ‘Hellboy’ creator Mike Mignola has put another nail in the coffin of a third movie, telling Comic Book Resources that there are no plans to continue the franchise on screen.

Given the fact that Guillermo Del Toro is wrapped up in ‘Pacific Rim,’ the chances of him doing ‘Hellboy 3’ are slim. And since we probably wouldn’t be too enthused about Hellboy WITHOUT Del Toro, this is probably good news for everyone.