My First X-Men: Apocalypse movie poster

With the official announcement of X-Men: Apocalypse being the next X-Men film slated to hit theaters on May 27, 2016, my mind began racing with movie poster ideas.

As in the Bible, Apocalypse in Marvel comics has his own team of underlings called the Horsemen of Apocalypse: Death, War, Pestilence & Famine. You got a small glimpse of En Sabah Nur's horsemen in the end-credits scene of X-Men: Days of Future Past. (>) Several characters across the Marvel universe have been genetically altered & brainwashed by Apocalypse to serve him during various times, either willingly or by force. Over time, characters like Gambit, Archangel (Angel), Psylocke, Banshee, Polaris, Hulk, Mister Sinister, Wolverine & his son Daken have all done En Sabah Nur's bidding as his horsemen.

So I began thinking who the writers might make as Apocalypse's fearsome foursome for the X-Men movie-verse. I settled on four characters who I thought would be the best bet story-wise & visually as the horsemen.

Presenting my first movie poster concept for X-Men: Apocalypse- Lupita Nyong'o as Storm, seen here as one of Apocalypse's horsemen, Famine. I figured Storm would be great as a horseman as we can then actually witness the true power of this strong mutant who was considered a goddess in Kenya because of her immense power to control weather. Weather control also automatically in my mind made her a perfect fit to fill the role of Famine. Hope you guys like the poster as much as I enjoyed creating it! :)

But why Lupita Nyong'o though you ask? I say why the hell not? X-Men: Apocalypse will be set in the year 1983. This will mean we'll get to see younger versions of characters seen in the original X-Men trilogy. The writers & producers have already hinted they'd love to see Storm, Jean Grey & Cyclops in the film as their younger selves. Lupita is Kenyan AND an Academy Award wining actress. An African accent will come easily to her, something Halle has struggled with from the start, & she'll be able to portray the power & emotion of Ororo perfectly onscreen. It's also nice to see that many other fans want #LupitaForStorm as well. Hopefully after seeing her performance in Star Wars Episode VII next year, Fox will sit up & finally take notice.

For the look of Storm I decided to go for her mohawk avatar. The hairdo would suit Lupita right on, in fact she's sported a mohawk of her own too & the younger Storm would dig the punk look in my opinion. For her costume I just modified the outfit she wore when she first sported the mohawk (she wears the same hairstyle currently in the comics ever since Marvel NOW! began). I wanted her to have a more imposing look so changed her sleeveless leather jacket to a leather trench coat & also switched her shirt for a stylish corset.

I'm gonna start working on my next poster soon, but I won't yet reveal who my other horsemen candidates are. Let me know about your guesses in the comments. What do you'll think of the poster & of Lupita as Storm? Sound off below.

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EXCLUSIVE! Jennifer Lawrence Plans Third & (Hopefully) Final Fall for Oscars 2015

[Disclaimer from The Editor: This is a fiction piece.]

It seems two falls aren't enough for Oscar Award-winning actress, Jennifer Lawrence. Jared Leto has gone on record saying (jokingly?) that she's completely faking it. But now from our sources it appears this is actually true.

 ^(L) Jennifer wows in her orange gown that she fell in at the Academy Awards 2014. (R) She followed that up with this stunning shattered glass dress for the after-party, deciding to go commando.

Apparently the 23-year-old has already got designers from Dior busy. Yes, you read right- Dior. A concept design for the gown has leaked & our reporter jumped right on the scene. From our sources: "Jennifer came to us with this particular concept she had in mind. It was very intriguing & strange at the same time & we, of course, took it up as a challenge. She said, & these are her words exactly, 'I want a stunning dress that's made of a thousand tears & it has to be tight, as tight as it can get- I mean Victorian-tight! I must fall."

We contacted Jennifer's current boyfriend Nicholas Hoult who she met while filming X-Men First Class. He was reluctant to share at first but we managed to coax some tidbits out of him: "I don't know what's up with Jen. I mean, we all know what a goofball she is & stuff, & she can be so crazy at times [laughs]. We've joked so much about her two-time Oscar-falling performances. I often tell her that I thought the only time she'd ever fall was when she fell in love with me. Apparently that's not enough & she just has to end up making a spectacle of herself at the Oscars. I don't know why really...It's definitely not for the attention 'cos she gets like super-embarrassed about it after. Maybe we're over-thinking this & it could just be the tight gowns & 10 inch heels [laughs]!"

Our source at Dior said that the concept below has been shown to Lawrence. She loved the design but only added: "Tighter. I must fall dammit! And it has to be at the Oscars next year or I'll have to start all over again right from Fall #1! I want to end this at three falls." Our source says that they found all this so incredulous but they have chugged on with the concept & made the changes.

The dress has been dubbed as "Tears of Eve". Apparently someone in the design team is Eva & they thought the name just clicked. Previously, the design crew referred to the gown as "Jennifer's tight-as-hell gown" so this was definitely an improvement. Jennifer was insistent that the gown had to be Kingfisher Blue in color. She decided to also get her jewelry pieces custom-made & added the teardrop design to the earrings & necklace as well. Her shoes will also have the tears on them.

But after digging up this entire scoop on the blue-eyed beauty, this reporter had only one question in his mind: Why? Do celebrities these days go through such great lengths to be noticed & written about? Are they really so full of themselves? However these doubts get somewhat cleared when you think about the answer that Jen gave at this year's Oscars when asked about the fall: "I seriously have no friggin idea why people are making such a big deal about this! I mean, Jared was out there laughing right at my face. [laughs] Seriously guys, it's not like I had a wardrobe malfunction or something."

Whatever be the reason Lawrence is going through these shenanigans, one thing is certain: She must fall. And it has to be at the Oscars next year.

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Time for some X-Women "NOW!"

The Marvel NOW! event continues to progress in the comics & we've seen redesigns for various characters. I love that Marvel has taken risks with their redesigns & have actually used costumes for their female characters that aren't just practical but also tres sexy. It just goes to prove you don't need to put a female comic character in a thong to make her look sexy (yes, DC Comics. I'm looking at you).

My fave redesign EVER for any X-Men character in Marvel NOW! would definitely have to be Storm. Great, practical design AND she is once again rocking the mohawk that she sported in the 80's comics for a while! Below is the blog banner in higher resolution. It's taken from the cover of the X-Men #1 issue (left), created by Oliver Coipel.

^From top clockwise: Jubilee, Shadowcat, Rachel Summers, Rogue, Storm & Psylocke.

My top 3 FAVE costume redesigns as seen in Marvel NOW! would have to be (in order- Storm, Scarlet Witch & Cyclops):

The background I used is the Storm wallpaper from the Marvel Ultimate Alliance video game. Not posting a separate wallpaper for it as it's basically the same image with just the overall color changed...But that's the look Storm sported when she rocked the 'hawk in the 80's.

Hope you guys dig the change...Till next time, peace out, X-nerds!

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15 Things You Can Learn by Watching X-Men: First Class

Soo I'm gonna be getting all philosophical on y'all now, so be warned! lol. I just re-watched X-Men: First Class last night & just had a few thoughts while watching it...So decided to note em all down as I watched. Hope you'll enjoy this post. Lemme know if you'll would like to see more like these... :)

1) God & Satan are both within us. Satan isn't some physical being that dangles an evil carrot in front of us from a stick. It is we ourselves that make the mistakes we make. We have no one but ourselves to blame, not God or "the devil".

2) "If you're using half your concentration to look normal, then you're only half paying attention to whatever else you do. Just pointing out something that could save your life."

3) "You want society to accept you, but you can't even accept yourself." Learn to accept & forgive yourself when needed.

4) Take risks & chances. Sometimes that's the only way you grow as a person.

5) Never underestimate yourself.

6) Never try to fit in just to be part of a group. Celebrate whatever makes you different, whatever makes you, you.

7) Don't jump to conclusions about people. Give others a chance.

8) Never consider yourself "THE BEST." No matter what we have achieved, there's always room for improvement, always things we can learn from others.

9) Revenge is never the answer. It will only take you down to their level. Or lower. "As you sow, so shall you reap"- That person will get what they deserve in due time.

10) Don't try to control whatever you are. It may just backfire on you & turn worse. Learn to accept yourself as you are.

11) Don't be afraid to use your talents. Don't think about what others will think or say about you. People will always talk no matter what you do.

12) Welcome hardships & pain, though it may be very hard to do. That saying is true- "What doesn't kill you make you stronger."

13) Don't be naive & trust people too easily.

14) Don't blame others for your mistakes. Learn to take responsibility.

15) Don't just keep obsessing about your negative qualities. Realize that you also have good in you & work towards making your negatives into positives.

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My Scarlet Witch character poster for the Avengers 2 movie!

I guess most of you know by now that there's a pretty good chance we could be seeing Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver in Avengers 2! :D Joss Whedon has given definite hints towards this. Then again, the script is in the initial stages so this could all change. But GAWD I'd sure be mighty pleased if they are in Avengers 2!

So that begs the question- Who'd be the most suitable actors to play the Maximoff twins onscreen? Rumors already abound online that Saoirse Ronan is on Marvel's hotlist to play the part of Wanda. But I SO hope that's just a rumor! Imo you'd need someone a bit older, more mature looking. I was thinking more on the lines of Rachel McAdams. But then my pal Christopher Masson, from Comic Book Nerds Are Hot Facebook group, brought Meghan Ory to my notice & I was shocked I didn't think about it before!

I watch Once Upon A Time, & any of you OUAT fans will know Meghan from there who plays Red/Ruby. She's absolutely gorgeous & would do a great job with the part imo! So what did I do? Make a movie poster, of course! Here's my Scarlet Witch character poster for the Avengers 2 featuring Meghan Ory as Wanda.

You'll notice I didn't go with "Avengers 2" in my poster but instead used the sub-title of "Against All Evils." This is because Kevin Feige himself has stated that the Avengers 2 movie name will be sub-titled. And "All Evils" refers to the Masters of Evil which most fans speculate will appear in the movie ever since Joss Whedon has stated that he's saving Thanos for the "big finale" of Avengers 3.


Now, Scarlet Witch (aka Wanda Maximoff) & Quicksilver (aka Pietro Maximoff), though never becoming X-Men themselves, are definitely part of the X-Universe (what with being Magneto's offspring et al) but they have also been Avengers. In fact, Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver were both recruited by the Avengers along with Hawkeye. So all the more reason why it would make sense to include the twins in Avengers 2.

This brings us to the small detail that Wanda & Pietro's movie rights thus belong to both, Marvel Studios, as well as Fox Studios (since Fox has the movie rights to the X-Men franchise). However, it's basically been stated in the contract that both studios can use them, just that the respective stories will have to be excluded. So if Fox were to use them, there could be no mention of them having been or becoming members of the Avengers & if Marvel Studios uses them then they won't be considered mutants or even the children of Magneto.

That being said, I'd love to see Marvel use them because they are their characters after all & we've seen some of the character murders that Fox has already committed onscreen with some of our beloved X-characters...

Below are all the images I used to create my Scarlet Witch poster.

1- The Scarlet Witch Marvel Now costume (which is most likely the template that will be used for her movie costume) I used for inspiration.
2-4 - I used the Dark Phoenix costume from X-Men The Last Stand as the base for Wanda's costume.
5-6 - The gorgeous Meghan Ory
7- I Am Legend movie poster that I used for the background.
8- The Avengers: Battle for Earth video game title that I used to create the movie title.


Hope you'll dig the poster...I haven't thought of who'd make the perfect Quicksilver, but if you guys have anyone in mind, let me know via the comments below.

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Deadpool does a...Marilyn Monroe?

Most of you may know by now that  I'm part of a group on Facebook, Comic Book Nerds Are Hot, that has a weekly task (called Artists Assemble), where group members draw a pic based on a weekly theme chosen by resident artist extraordinaire Adam Bayes. This week the topic is "Deadpool Variant". Knowing what a big goofball Deadpool is, my mind began racing with ideas when...

I thought, how about have Wade Wilson parody Marilyn Monroe? I mean he has donned Phoenix's costume  before, so slipping into Marilyn's iconic white dress shouldn't be a problem for him right? WRONG! He's pissed! Check out the art I created below.

I used the following images as inspiration & reference.

 

So what do y'all think? Post your (constructive) comments & criticisms below...

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Time for an "All-New" Look!

It's been a while since I've changed up the look of the blog & with the Avengers vs X-Men event long over in the comics, I thought it's about time I change it.

In October last year, Marvel launched its new event following AvX, called Marvel NOW! What's Marvel NOW! you ask? It's basically a sorta revamp of the Marvel Universe in the comics- new creative teams for the various titles as well as changes to the comics universe through character redesigns, new storylines, etc.

All-New X-Men is part of this movement. It kickstarted in November 2012 & mainly revolves around the X-Men First Class (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Iceman & Beast) who travel forward in time, to land in the present & come face-to-face with their future selves.

The blog banner is composed of the beautiful art by Stuart Immonen, which is basically a triptych of the three variant covers he created for All-New X-Men #1. Below is the original gorgeous artwork along with the blog banner:

The font I used for the banner is called Pop Pop. Big thanks to Chris Grisby from the Comic Book Nerds Are Hot Facebook group for letting me know about the font used for the title on the original cover.

I felt it would be a suitable time to use Cyclops for the blog background- he's never featured on my background before & he's pretty much in the forefront of the All New X-Men story- yesteryear Cyke leading the First Class & present-day Scott Summers leading the X-clan. Download the wallpaper (1280 x 1024) below for the artwork.

Hope you guys dig the new look- do let me know in the comments. Here's to some All-New X-citing months ahead right here on the blog!

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X-Babies: Mystique!

Some of you may know that I'm part of this group on Facebook called Comic Book Nerds Are Hot & they have this weekly "Artists Assemble" where artist extraordinaire Adam Bayes decides the topic for the week & members who wish to participate submit their entries by Monday. No winners are decided, it's just for fun, but I cannot express just how much I've learned while doing these tasks.

This week's assignment is: Babies- A tribute to Skottie Young. In case you didn't know, Skottie Young is a comic book artist & writer who has worked on many Marvel comics including Cable & Deadpool, New X-Men & Deadpool. Last year he brought us A-Babies v/s X-Babies on which he was writer as well as cover artist. He also released a lot of Baby-variant covers for various Avengers v/s X-Men (AvX) books.

It's been a while since I've taken part in CBNAH's AA tasks but seeing the entries that were coming in, I got inspired...So here's my creation, which you can download as a wallpaper (1280 x 960) if you like. Of course it features my fave, Mystique, left, right & center. Literally.

^(From l - r) The various Mystique versions are original X-Men movie trilogy, classic comics, X-Men Evolution & X-Men First Class respectively. 

I hope you guys can catch the small references here & there. X-Men Evolution Mystique hides the "Principal" sign she stole. In the show, Mystique went under the disguise of the Bayville High School Principal to do Magneto's bidding. X-Men First Class' Raven holds a broken mirror in her hand, alluding to how she loathed the way she looked in her true form.

Also classic comics Mystique HAS torn the sides of her dress- she couldn't be bothered being contained in a "whole" dress! But she ain't no nudist, no siree! And since she's just a kid, but she did have an idea of what she would ultimately like to wear, in art class she took some balls, drew some "skull expressions" on 'em, strung 'em up & wore 'em! :P

I used the following images as inspiration & references for drawing style, expressions, etc. The first 2 are variant covers for AvX & Uncanny X-Men respectively. The third is the cover Skottie did for 2009's X-Babies #1.

As always, comments & critiques are always welcome...You can check out more of my X-art out here. Alternatively, you could also head over to my DeviantArt page & see all my art, including the non-X-Men stuff.

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Apologies for the hiatus...But I'm back!

Hey there fellow X-fanatics! Hope the year 2013 is going great for you'll so far! Sorry for the unannounced hiatus from the blog- it was totally unplanned & just happened- "real life" stuff you know. :P But I'm back, serving you'll up with all the interesting little tidbits I can find regarding our beloved X-Universe!

As always you'll continue to find awesome cosplays, reviews of all the highly anticipated comic book movies of 2013, concept art from the various X-Men movies, some of my own art & much more!

This year will DEFINITELY be more interesting for us X-movie fans compared to the quiet 2012! The Wolverine releases in July & the much-awaited sequel to 2011's X-Men First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, will FINALLY begin filming this year as well! Watch out for news & discussions regarding both movies right here.

^Loads of new stuff awaits you right here this year! Go on, you know you wanna check it out...

Now I just want to say that this year I'll be consciously changing the tone of the blog a bit. Ever since I began I've always seen to the nitty-gritty details as well, such as linking to the original sites (in case of news), arranging cosplay posts in order of characters, etc. I might do away with this & just go for something more casual & conversational. And I don't know if you'll used to find it amusing or annoying, but I now also won't be starting all my post titles with the letter X! :P

One thing I intend to continue doing is updating the existing older posts with new info, so you get all the news related to one particular topic on one page. And whenever I update, I'll list the updated posts just below the blog banner.

Well, enough blah-blah for now- hope you guys continue to enjoy reading this little blog of mine as much as you'll enjoy the world of the X-Men! Anything you don't want me to change (I know, for instance, some of you'll like the character-wise cosplay posting)? Something more or different you'd like to see here? Just sound off your opinions in the comments below...

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XD About time things got "AvX" in here!

More than half of the year 2012 has passed & my blog has been donning the same look ever since January! So I decided to do something about it...

If the previous theme of my blog's look was the then-ongoing Marvel event "Schism", this new theme revolves around the event that follows it: Avengers vs X-Men. Consider AvX Marvel's way of pandering to the movie-going crowd- fresh after watching (& enjoying) The Avengers movie, they'd be curious to learn more about these beloved comic book heroes & hit their local comic book stores (or the Internet) to get their hands on some comics that will help them do just that!

The Avengers vs X-Men event (or AvX, for short), kicked off its 12-issue biweekly run in April this year. Spurred by the return of the Phoenix Force, the Avengers wage an all-out war on the X-Men as they do not want to see the Phoenix cause any more destruction in its wake. The event was teased by several gorgeous comic book covers that enticed us with battles that we've been dying to see between the Avengers & X-Men characters!

Act 1 (issues #1-5) of AvX saw both the Avengers & the X-Men in a frenzied rush to get hold of Hope Summers while the Force headed for Earth. When the Avengers manage to prevent the Force from bonding with Hope, they inadvertently cause it to split into five & link itself with five other members of the X-Men: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik & Namor, thus forming the Phoenix Five. And it's this very same fiery team that is now featured in my blog banner!

This art is from the Avengers vs X-Men #8 Adam Kubert variant cover. Personally I absolutely LOVE Emma Frost's new outfit! It's sexy in keeping with her trademark tantalizing dress-sense & nicely melds in the Phoenix theme. Magik's is pretty cool too. What I don't like are the male costumes- Cyclops' costume is a complete Nightwing rip-off! Colossus' costumes have always been messed up really bad, so this isn't much of a surprise. And Namor? OMG! That's just gay! That being said, this cover still looks pretty badass!
^The #8 AvX cover & some more art featuring the Phoenix Five in their fiery glory!

Of course, with all this focus on the Phoenix Force, I just had to have the beloved Jean Grey as part of my blog background! The Dark Phoenix artwork comes from the Phoenix Endsong #1 issue. This cover (< left), created by Greg Land, is by far my favorite image of Jean Grey till date! You can download the wallpaper (1280 x 1024) of this background below.

CREDITS:Thanks to my Comic Book Nerds Are Hot Facebook group peeps, Chris Grisby, Tim Barklay & Mohammed Aarrach, for helping me search for the "Things" font on the banner. Big thanks to Chris for managing to snag the Linotype Rory Oblique font that is so close to the original!
The other (red) font used is Avengeance.

So how do y'all like the hot new look of the blog? While creating the new banner I was just thinking to myself that it's such a happy coincidence that my blog's name begins with an "A" & ends with an "X"! :D What would y'all like to see as the theme next time around? Any fave character you'd like to see gracing the background of my blog? Sound off in the comments below!

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Xhibit: Mystique Joins X-Force! :D

Here's another artwork submitted by me for the Artists Assemble segment of the Comic Book Nerds Are Hot Facebook group. For this one, we could draw any character from any media (movies, tv, comics, games, books) but as a member of Wolverine's X-Force. So that basically involves the trademark black-&-grey costumes, masks (if needed) with red eyes, weapons & blood. Lotsa blood. :P

If you been reading my blog from the time I started, you'd know that I'm a HUGE Mystique fan, so I knew I just HAD to draw her donning the X-Force duds! It's just a happy coincidence that she can also be a murdering bitch which makes her a perfect fit for the X-Force team! You can download the artwork I created as a wallpaper (1280x1024). Below are two versions: clean & bloody.

INSPIRATIONS:
When thinking of ideas about what her costume & weapons would look like, I was gonna go for her leather pant suit look that she sported in her solo series Mystique Vol. 1 #1-24 (see below) but then realized that it wouldn't be challenging enough so I decided to go with changing up her classic white costume (you know, the one with the skulls). Also I decided she didn't need a mask cos, duh- she's a shapeshifter! And since imo her yellow eyes look gorgeous on her blue skin, I didn't give her red eyes either.
^Mystique's solo series issues #1, 4, 6 & 12. I used the title
Below you can check out all the images I used either for inspiration when sketching her out or for the background...

Costume:
^Mystique in her classic white costume, the Uncanny X-Force costumes, X-23 in her X-Force costume without the mask & the boots!

Weapons:
^These are the actual props used in X-Men The Last Stand as the cure guns.

Background:
For the background I used one of the stills released for Resident Evil 5 (aka Resident Evil: Retribution)

Do lemme know in the comments if you liked the wallpapers. Critiques are most welcome as always...

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