20th Century Fox has released the first trailer and poster for Kingsman: The Secret Service, the first film directed by Matthew Vaughn since 2011’s X-Men: First Class.

Kingsman was adapted by Vaughn and frequent collaborator Jane Goldman from the 2012 Icon Comics (a creator-owned imprint of Marvel) series created by Mark Millar (Kick-Ass) and Dave Gibbons (Watchmen) and is a contemporary take on the British spy movie genre. Newcomer Taron Egerton plays a cool-headed street youth recruited into a extra-secret government agency by Colin Firth and put through an intensive training program designed to mold him into part of the next generation of globe-trotting super spy.

You can check out both the trailer and poster here below.

Starlight #1
Written by Mark Millar
Art by Goran Parlov
Colors by Ive Svorcina
Letters by Marko Šunjić
Cover by John Cassaday & Ive Svorcina, and Goran Parlov
Image Comics
Release Date: March 5, 2014
Cover Price: $2.99

Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might that Mark Millar would make more comics like this and spend less time dicking around with Fox’s seemingly endless ability to fuck up every Marvel property they lay their hands on. Yes folks, it’s your ol’ pal Mr. Murphy here to review the MillarWorld’s latest creation: Starlight.

What if you were whisked away to another world where you saved its inhabitants from a tyrannical dictator, rescued the princess, thwarted evil doers, flew around in a classic 1950’s rocket ship and, in general, lived the fantasy that every boy has? Awesome, huh? Now what if you came home to Earth, retold the tales of your heroism, and no one believed you? You then lived your whole life in disgrace, dealing with taunts, jokes, and the constant knowledge that what you did there ultimately didn’t matter. Welcome to the world of Starlight and one Captain Duke McQueen.

When it comes to building cohesive “shared” comic book universes on the big screen, there can be only one. Very likely, it will always be Marvel Studios. They got there first, taking a gaggle of second-tier superhero characters whose movie rights they battled and bribed to reattain and turning them into a veritable mint that breathes, eats, and craps out lackluster imitators. Phase One had its share of troubling moments: Iron Man 2 had vast amounts of potential, but Marvel’s shaky long-term strategy and its sudden rush to get the sequel in front of the cameras — even if it meant starting without a completed script — resulted in what could have been a superior franchise installment devolving into an uninspired bit of wheel spinning.

The first Thor felt too earthbound and the side business with S.H.I.E.L.D. was obviously shoehorned into a narrative that would have worked much better without it. The studio took a major gamble with their first four movies and when The Avengers premiered in May of last year it paid off handsomely in ways few could have ever thought possible. The success of that film paved the way in grand fashion for Phase Two to take Marvel’s blockbuster bullpen of celluloid superheroes into bold and creatively rewarding territory and allow for characters like Ant-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy to get their own big-budget movie adventures coming our way sooner than we think.

Disney owns Marvel and has control over most of their heroes, leaving Sony and Fox to hold on to their respective Marvel properties with a firm grasp. Joss Whedon helps oversee the direction over at Disney, and Mark Millar does the same over at Fox. Now, Fox has hired X-Men: Days Of Future Past and Star Wars: Episode VII writer Simon Kinberg to a three-year deal, where he will be tasked to expand the X-Men and Fantastic Four Universes.

Kinberg was already a writer and producer of both X-Men: Days Of Future Past and the Fantastic Four reboot, so the news of the hiring shows how much faith Fox has in his work. In addition to his new workload, Kinberg is also writing the aforementioned Star Wars: Episode VII, the Star Wars spinoff films, and is executive producer on Star Wars TV series Rebels; he is also a producer on Disney’s Cinderella, and Neill Blomkamp‘s Chappie.

Rat Queens #3 (Image Comics – $3.50) returns this month, with two different covers by Roc Upchurch. And each cover, upon inspection, perfectly reflects the tone of the series.

Cover A depicts the titular quartet of hell-raising women doing what they do best: wreaking havoc. Creatures are stabbed, blood flies, and Hannah, the Elven mage, conjures a little magic to top it off. Cover B is more of a pin-up, but Violet – the hipster Dwarf – isn’t your stereotypical comic book pin-up model. She’s filthy, bloodstained, and beaten from her most recent brawl, with a nasty gash marking her left cheek. The look on her face says it all; it feels like a derisive message to the status quo, breaking through the fourth wall. “No, I’m not a sex kitten in a spandex outfit…I kick asses for a living. Deal with it.”