This loose sequel is being directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor and is rumored to have a cameo appearance by Danny Ketch who also puts some time in as Ghost Rider. With the flaming skull back into theaters on February 17, 2012, the film also stars, Fergus Riordan, Ciaran Hinds, Violante Placido, Idris Elba and Johnny Whitworth.

LaTwan Holland was a writer for a local under ground newspaper, The Spinner Rack that covered comics, video games, anime and related movies and is currently the Producer of the DIRECT EDITION. To find out the latest that’s happening with LaTwan and the Direct Edition check them out at the DIRECT EDITION podcast, blog and you tube site.

Now, there’s been plenty of talk about a Luke Cage film for years, and the character has certainly risen to prominence within the greater Marvel Universe, but I honestly feel like Marvel Studios needs to mix things up. I think there’s more potential in teaming him up with his old buddy, Iron Fist. It would harken back to the film that proved Marvel adaptations could be viable in theaters in the first place, Blade. Blade was essentially a blaxploitation film with a new jack edge, mixing street action with martial arts, sci-fi and horror. It felt fresh and familiar in just the right way to reach as many movie and comic fans as it did. Cage and Danny Rand would balance each other and provide the opportunity for such an adaptation to go in more directions than if either character had a solo film.

CASTING

Michael Jai White as Luke Cage - One of many fan choices, along with just about every other in-shape, deep-voiced black actor. To be fair though, White’s one of the more frighteningly diesel of most of those other actors, and has well-over 25 years of martial arts training. And while Iron Fist would be taking on that particular portion of the film, White’s experience and use of martial arts in film makes him that much more adept to fight choreography and action in general. And besides, how far off is Black Dynamite from Luke Cage’s earliest incarnation in the comics?!

Scott Adkins as Iron Fist - Most fans have pegged Ray Park as the obvious choice over the years. Recently, Jason Statham’s name has been knocking in a few of their heads. But if there was a horse worth backing, I’d say Adkins would be it. Already a Marvel movie alum, albeit as a bastardized version of Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he’s also starred opposite White in Undisputed II (Check out his fight scenes from the film here). Yeah, he’d need a dye-job, but beyond that, I could definitely see him owning that character.

DIRECTOR

Justin Lin – Laugh if you want, but Lin is slowly becoming one of the most sought-after action directors in Hollywood at the moment. He’s learning with every film, and ultimately getting better. He gets action, and he doesn’t neglect character development. He understands the importance in making every character engaging beyond their gimmicks, and that’s just what you need for a Powerman and Iron Fist film.

MUSIC

The Roots + RJD2 – I’ve long-since believed RJD2 has been way overdue on providing original music for films, but I could see a combination of him and the Roots being the icing on the cake. This would be a total “street movie”, and needs music from the streets to accentuate it. Not just a collection of songs, but an honest to God soundtrack to the film, mirroring the story from beginning to end.

Click for full pages and, as always, check Norimaro’s Tuesday Teases for more new release previews.

Let’s be as real as we can when discussing superheroes and zombies, because I’m about to drop some serious geek science on your face: There are plenty of supers in the Marvel multiverse who have some form of invulnerability that should have helped them avoid infection during the zombie virus outbreak. The fact that the Sentry–who I hate, but who also has the power of 10,000 suns coursing though his schizo-superman body–is patient zero in the overall MZ plot is the biggest example of this ill logic. But at the very least, the various creators who have taken a go at telling their portion of the Marvel Zombies tale should have given a bigger role to the man whose main power is that he has unbreakable skin–Luke Cage.

Unbreakable, impenatrable skin = no bitey bitey. Cage should have been one of the last uninfected survivors, if not THE sole human holdout in the original MZ outbreak. He could have even been paired with a zombified Danny Rand who, through the power of his super chi mojo and because his bulky, unbitable buddy is helping him through the pain, holds on to some semblance of his humanity to help fight off the infected. You know you’d love to read that comic!

But instead, poor Power Man got no respect. He was among the first of the infected in the very first Marvel Zombies story by Mark Millar and Greg Land back in Ultimate Fantastic Four.

I know this is just armchair editing at this point (and maybe a little wishful thinking), but if they do another MZ mini, Cage deserves his chance to shine as the one true hero to hire in Marvel zombieland.

The following review is excerpted from Comic Book Revolution (click here to read CBR’s full review)

Art: 5/10
Story: 4/10
Overall: 4.5/10

The Good

Let’s see. What was enjoyable about this issue? Well, this is the last Secret Invasion tie-in issue that we will have to suffer through on New Avengers. That is most definitely a positive thing.

Also, New Avengers #47 does catch Luke at a seminal moment in his life where the fact of him becoming a father and having to take care of his own child makes him examine his relationship with his own father. This is actually an incredibly realistic and common reaction to becoming a parent. Bendis does succeed in properly conveying the heady mixture of excitement and fear of being a new parent . And naturally, new parents begin to gain a better understanding of their own parents.

This issue offers offer a candid look into Luke’s relationship (or lack thereof) with his father. And the flashback scene showed me a more appealing Luke Cage that had a bit more depth than the stereotype that Bendis usually gives us when writing Cage. As far as a Luke Cage story goes, this was a pretty solid little tale. However, I would still criticize it for being way too slow and dull.

The Bad

However, the fact is, and I confirmed it once again by looking at the cover, that this is New Avengers #47 and not Luke Cage Special #1. And since this is an issue of the New Avengers I do actually expect an Avengers related story that actually stars the Avengers. I know that may make me sound like a raving lunatic and a madman, but I stand by that statement.

And that is the biggest flaw with New Avengers #47 and it has been a reoccurring defect on this title. I cannot be the only person who honestly purchases an issue of the New Avengers with the expectation of reading an Avengers story starring all of the Avengers. Or at least a good portion of them.

Instead, Bendis gives the reader yet another in an extremely long line of spot-light issues where he focuses solely on one or two characters. And the real reason for that is because Bendis cannot write a team title. And deep down inside Bendis knows that. Bendis’ strengths lie in solo titles like Ultimate Spider-Man and Daredevil. That is where his writing style flourishes and produces wonderful reads.

However, on team titles, Bendis crumbles under the weight of having to deal with more than two characters. Bendis is simply not capable of juggling a large roster of characters. And Bendis is not able to properly plot short-term, mid-range and long-term plotlines that involve all the members of the team like writers like DnA are able to do over on Guardians of the Galaxy.

New Avengers #47 is rather boring and dull for long stretches at a time. There is absolutely no action at all. And that is fine as long as the story offers a dense plot with strong character work and dialogue. However, that is most certainly not the case with New Avengers #47. For the most part this is an extremely talky issue where most of the dialogue borders on mere rambling.

I continue to be summarily unimpressed with how Bendis writes Luke Cage. With the exception of a few moments in the flashback scene when Luke tries to see his father, I find Bendis’ Luke Cage unappealing. Ever since the events of Civil War, Bendis has written Cage as being dumb and a bit of a crud.

We have seen Luke kicking women in the vagina. We have seen Luke place his wife and baby daughter in danger over and over due to his pride of not wanting to be registered. We have seen Luke being verbally abusive and physically threatening toward his wife. And we have seen Luke cursing in front of his baby daughter. Bendis has succeeded in making Luke look like a classless guy.

And Bendis seemed to go a bit overboard with making Luke the stereotypical dumb and clueless new dad. Luke refers to his daughter as “it.” I have never heard a new dad do something that dumb. It gets tiring that men are almost always portrayed as the idiot new parents while the mother is somehow genetically predisposed to know everything about being a parent. The scene would have been funnier if it had been Luke, the big bad tough guy, correcting Jessica about how to hold the baby, soothe the baby, etc.

New Avengers #47 was an extremely boring and dull issue to look at. And much of that blame is placed on Bendis since he did nothing at all in this story with the artists in mind. It is incumbent upon the writer to try and think of some scenes that can showcase the artist’s talent or that would be fun for the artist to draw. That is not the case in this issue as it seems the majority of the pages are the standard 9 panels per page layout. For the most part, this issue was nothing but static talking heads.

Overall

New Avengers #47 was nothing more than pure filler. It was blatantly obvious that Bendis was just stalling and wasting panel space until Secret Invasion concluded so that the Dark Reign plotlines could be kicked off in full force. Unless you are a huge Luke Cage fan, there is absolutely no reason at all to waste your money on this issue.

For more reviews, scans, story recaps and news visit Comic Book Revolution!