SUPERBOOBTUBE NEWS!

Posted on August 19th, 2010 by ekko

TV news–Rapid fire style!

- In 2011, G4 will be running a new Iron Man “anime” animated series, produced by anime studio MadHouse.  It will take place in Japan.

- Other upcoming Marvel anime projects discussed by Jeph Loeb at Comicon International included Wolverine, X-Men, and Blade.

- D.C./Warner Bros. Animation announced a November 9 DVD release of animated “shorts” (10-20 minute stories) featuring Superman, Captain Marvel, The Spectre, Green Arrow and Jonah Hex.

- Also from D.C. on November 9 will be the Secret Origin: The Story of D.C. Comics DVD release.  It’s a doc narrated by Ryan “Green Lantern” Reynolds about the history of the publishing company.  But it’s also produced by the publisher, so don’t expect unbiased poop.  Sounds more like promotional material in advance of the GL movie.

- And Smallville is definitely ending this season.  And it’s about time.

- The AMC official bloggers are working overtime on news about The Walking Dead.  Now, the artist of the comic, Charlie Adlard, is confirmed as a zombie extra.  I hope he plays one that dances like Michael Jackson.

- Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the new Spider-Man will be a complete reboot based on Brian Michael Bendis’ incredible Ultimate Spider-Man series for Disney XD.  Now, they’re talking Ultimate Cartoon as well, with the involvement of Eisner/Emmy winner Paul “Batman TAS” Dini (and Bendis, of course).  They’ve said there will be lots of team-ups (a la Batman: Brave and the Bold).  I don’t think there’s even the remotest possibility that this could be bad.

- One last thing: I happened to come upon the pilot episode for The Amazing Screw-On Head (a 22-minute cartoon based on the Mike Mignola/Dark Horse comic from 2002).  It’s brilliant.  Really.  It’s available on DVD and all of you should see it.  Animation for grown ups.
-I lied–one more last thing: The Avengers!

Tags: Avengers, Comic books, Iron Man, Superheroes, Television

NEWS ABOUT SUPERFLICKS!

Posted on August 18th, 2010 by ekko

This week, I’m busting out the latest capes and cowl news by category, with this post on movies to be followed by posts on TV and print.  Digg in and enjoy!

- The Green Lantern film is wrapped, and two sequels are already in development for a one-a-year release (2011-13).  Check out the still shot of my favorite GLC member: Kilowog!

- James Cameron is making a deal to simultaneously shoot two Avatar sequels.

- So, uh, why can’t they do this with Spider-Man, or do a two-part Avengers movie?

- Speaking of Marvel Studios, they’ve floated ideas for some post-Avengers movies, including Nick Fury, Iron Fist, Black Panther, Dr. Strange, and a film based on the Grant Morrison/JMS books about The Guardians of the Galaxy.  (Speaking of Black Panther, anyone know why the motion comic was pulled off of iTunes before I could buy it?)  The rumors are that that Iron Fist flick would be based on the Brubaker/Fraction/Aja series (thumbs up!).

- There’s been some more buzz about Robert Rodriguez directing “Deadpool” starring Ryan Reynolds.  Sounds like they’re talking $$ now, which is a good sign.

- Tony “Enemy of the State” Scott will be directing a movie based on Mark Millar’s fair-to-middling “Nemesis” comic (which has only two issues published so far).

- Runaways has begun casting and will begin shooting in January.  It’s being called a “Disney” film, so I guess we’ll see for the first time how the Marvel/Disney merger will affect Marvel film content.

- Director Adam (“lots of crappy Will Ferrell movies”) McKay says the script for the film version of Garth Ennis/Darrick Robertson’s “The Boys” is almost complete and is true to the comic, and says the film will have a hard R rating.  That’s all well and good, but McKay has never done anything worth seeing, so I am skeptical.  Plus: It might be in 3-D.  Which I hate.

Tags: Comic books, Garth Frickin' Ennis, Movies, Superheroes

THE BOYS-Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson

Posted on July 13th, 2010 by ekko

I’ve been wanting to write about The Boys for a while now, and with the recent rumors that a film version is in the works with either Adam “Anchorman” McKay or Samuel “Nightmare on Elm Street” Bayer as director, this seems like as good a time as any.

The Boys is a typically violent, anti-super-hero Garth Ennis tale that takes his predilections for cursing, crudeness, and violence to the extreme—sometimes to pornographic levels. The art, handled by the incredible Darick Robertson, is equally fearless, and it shows up particularly well in the giant-sized hardcover collections of the first 30 issues. What it’s about, basically, is a group of guys (“The Boys”) who have been hired as a black op team to control and monitor the United States’ superhuman population. It’s like Ennis’ classic Hitman title, without the mainstream DC editorial policy as a filter. Without giving too much away, superheroes in this universe are without exception obnoxious abusers of their own power, who use humans like chattel. The difference between these heroes and the hero-turned-villain of Mark Waid’s brilliant “Irredeemable” book is that these heroes operate with the blessing of the government, and rely heavily on public opinion and support. The heroes make their money, ironically, through comic books written and published by a small, foul-mouthed Stan Lee lookalike who hates them.

The book isn’t perfect. For one thing, the dialogue is heavy with Scottish slang and is actually phonetically written with a Scottish accent, so it can be difficult sometimes to understand. For another, some of the conspiracy-heavy story arcs involving The Boys’ versions of September 11 and Haliburton are not just far-fetched, but far-flung and hard to follow. Ennis goes a long way to establish an X-Files agenda, and it can feel strained. And the over-the-top vulgarity can be exhausting, too, if you take it too seriously. But at these moments, I usually just accept it all and ride along. Because the payoff is terrific. The book is funny, intense, and dense. I’ll say that again: Dense. You won’t be reading a full story arc in one sitting. (And speaking of arcs, it’s very ironic that a book like this, which is clearly attacking all of the conventions of superhero comics, is told in conventional, 5-issue arcs.)

But I want to focus again on the unflinching art. It can’t be easy to be asked to draw some of the depraved and disgusting events in the series, including gang rapes, gruesome deaths, and a so-gross-it’s-funny sexual moment involving redwings (look it up if you don’t know what they are). Robertson recently said he was leaving the series to do a spin-off that will focus on Butcher (The Boys’ answer to Nick Fury). His work is nothing short of brilliant. I’d follow him anywhere.

In short, the hardbound volumes may be a little pricey, but they’re a fine addition to any collection.

Tags: Comic books, Garth Ennis is God, Superheroes

NEWS FOR THE COMIC BOOK READER . . .

Posted on July 6th, 2010 by ekko

1.  COMICS LEARN FROM TUPAC. It’s good to be dead!  The Top 10 bestselling single comics of the month of 2010, according to Diamond distributors, all had to do with characters who are recently dead, “dead,” or back from the dead:

1. Avengers #1 (Steve Rogers—and Iron Man, if you count being a vegetable as dead)
2.  Siege #4 (Steve and Sentry and a bunch of disposable Asgardians)
3.  and 6. Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1 and 2 (Bruce)
4.  Secret Avengers #1 (Steve—and Moon Knight, but he died back in the late 1970s)
5. and 7.  Brightest Day #1 and 2 (Deadman!  And others.)
8.  Green Lantern #54 (Hal Jordan)
9.  Batman and Robin #12 (this book wouldn’t exist if Bruce weren’t dead)
10.  Uncanny X-Men #524 (Nightcrawler)

Sad to say that The Walking Dead wasn’t one of these . . . D.C. had 60% of the top 10, and they also kicked Marvel’s butt on the trades top sellers, too, owning 40% of that market (due largely to Vertigo), with the latest Ex Machina the bestseller and entries from Sweet Tooth, Scalped, and then the Wednesday Comics hardcover.  Marvel had just three entries: Invincible Iron Man, Kick-Ass (hardcover) and Deadpool Vol. 3.  The rest belonged to these worthy indie books, all of which you should buy right now: Invincible Vol. 12; The Walking Dead Book Five; and Hellsing Vol. 10 (actually, I don’t know anything about Hellsing).

2.  VAMPIRELLA. Dynamite got the rights to reprint the old Vampirella books and mags, which probably doesn’t excite any of you until you remember all the folks who have roots in the title: Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Frank Frazetta (pictured at right), Amanda Conner, Mark Millar, Neal Adams, Richard Corben, Jimmy Palmiotti and Barry Windsor-Smith.  See?  Now you’re interested.

3.  DEADPOOL. A week has gone by, so it’s ime for yet another DP series: “Deadpool Pulp”, by Mike Benson, Adam Glass, and artist Laurence Campbell.  This will be like the Noir series—it takes place in the 1950s, outside of “regular” Marvel lore.

4.  SUPERMAN. J. Michael Straczynski is taking over the title by putting Superman on the ground.  Kal-el will begin walking across America with issue #701.  I’m getting the impression that JMS will be treating Superman like a God during his run on the book.  DC is marketing this with an essay contest for fans to win the chance to have Superman visit their own home town, in the comic.  Is a gimmick needed when you’ve got a writer like JMS attached to your book?  Well, anyway, after his run on Thor, I trust the guy.  I’ll buy the book.  At least, in trade form.  He’s also re-doing Wonder Woman’s origin, which should be very interezzzzzzzz.

5.  OLDER MAN LOGAN. Hailed by many as the greatest Wolverine story ever, Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Old Man Logan may get a sequel, with the same comic team.

6. BATMAN REFERENCE MANUAL! Check out this Batman Reference Manual. Comprehensive, funny . . . What more can you ask for?

7. Little Orphan Annie has been cancelled!

AND IN MOVIE NEWS . . .

1.  X-MEN: FIRST CLASS. This flick already has a summer 2011 release date and isn’t written or cast yet.  If they can throw this movie together in a year, why do we have to wait so long for all the other movies?  It’s not a Marvel Studios pic, and maybe that’s why.

2.  MARVEL SHORT FILMS. Marvel Studios and Disney floated the idea of small films—10 minute “shorts”—that would appear before their full length flicks, which would feature b-listers like Luke Cage or Black Panther.  They also just hired a guy to write a Dr. Strange movie, but it’s not clear if that will be a feature or a short.  Really?  Out of all the lesser-knowns, they’re gonna go with the Doc?  Seems like a bad choice to me.  I’d go with another Blade movie, or with Luke Cage or Iron Fist . . . Even Power Pack before Strange.

3.  MORE WALKING DEAD UPDATES. Frank Darabont (producer) now says that the show plans to reach the prison story arc at the end of the second sentence, which means one and two will be about Rick Grimes travelling and forming the group.  I’m sad, because I want to see it all, but I’m happy that they aren’t rushing it.  No need to run out of stories here and start creating your own when you’ve got a long-running serialized book that is sheer genius as the source material.

4.  MORE D.C. ANIMATED UPDATES.  The next DVD cartoon flick will be another Superman/Batman, following on the heels of the well-executed, well-received “Public Enemies” DVD.  This one will be “Superman/Batman: Apocalypse,” and will feature the duo against (you guessed it), Darkseid.  Darky is the only real “big bad” in the DCU who is at all interesting or who has gained any real traction over the decades.  Whenever there’s a crisis, Darkseid is there.  It will be based on one of Jeph Loeb’s good works (his stuff is either very good, or horrible), which was the “Superman/Batman: Supergirl” arc.  Ironically, Loeb was just promoted to the head of Marvel Entertainment’s T.V. department.

See you next week, same blog-time, same blog-url!

Tags: Comic books, Deadpool, Filthy Muties, Grant Morrison Sucks, Superheroes, Superman, The Caped Crusader, Vampires, Zombies

SUPERNEWS ABOUT SUPERDUDES: MOSTLY MOVIES AND T.V. EDITION

Posted on June 22nd, 2010 by ekko

1.  THE STARS OF DCTV. Details about DC television projects have come to light during the past week or so.  First, Aqualad, an original Teen Titan who was so lame that he was left out of Wolfman/Perez’s New Teen Titans for the first three years of the team reboot, is a member of the upcoming DC animated series “Young Justice” (a non-Teen Titans cartoon about Teen Titans like Superboy, Kid Flash, and Robin).  And he’ll be in comics, too, starring in Aquaman: Reborn #10.  Sorry, I meant Brightest Day.  Why do all the Brightest Day covers have Aquaman front and center?  Second, it looks like Darkseid might be the big bad for the final season of Smallville.  And finally, DC is working on a live-action Blue Beetle show with a Latino star as the Jaime Reyes incarnation of the (kinda lame) hero.

2.  MEN IN BLACK BACK IN 3D. So, with two minority-featuring DC live-action projects underway, it’s time for an indie project to jump in as well, right?  Too bad it’s this warmed over Will Smith flick.

3.  MARVEL MOVIES. Some updates on the Marvel big screen front.  First, Deadpool.  Rumors abound that Robert Rodriguez has been offered the director’s seat.  I dunno how they’re gonna film it, though, what with Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern flick already getting the (ahem) green light for a sequel.  (Wouldn’t it be cool if Deadpool’s self-awareness that he is in a comic book translated on the screen as self-awareness that he is also Green Lantern?)  The screenplay is being drafted by the dudes who wrote Zombieland, one of the most fun violent movies I’ve seen in years.  Second, the next Ghost Rider flick will be directed by the team who did “Crank” and “Crank 2” (not terrible movies, but not great ones, either), and will likely continue to star Nic Cage.  Based on the title (“Spirits of Vengeance”), it sounds like it will be based on the Jason Aaron story arc involving Danny Ketch.  Not Aaron’s best work, but a solid story.  Finally, Captain America: First Avenger may include The Invaders—or at least some of them.  Wicked!

4.  BLACK PANTHER ON iTUNES! It’s just the title sequence, but the Marvel Studios/BET manga project is now up on iTunes.  I truly hope this is in advance of the series being released in the USA.  So far, only Australia has seen it.  Reggie Hudlin, who wrote the comic for several years and is now a BET executive, talks about the show here.  It’s supposed to come out tomorrow, June 23, on iTunes–which is annoying as hell–and some gamer networks (Xbox, Zune, Playstation).  But Shout! Factory has the DVD rights.  Their website is silent about it, but I’m hoping it will be released on a “normal” platform so I don’t have to huddle round the computer screen with my kids.

5.  THE WALKING DEAD. AMC released more stills.  Every shot looks true to the comic, from the zombies to Rick Grimes (left).  High, high hopes here.  The show blog has some other photos, here.

6.  Finally, a free ad spot for the free webcomic Wayward Sons, written By Benny Powell with art by Weilin Yang.  I thought it looked pretty good.

Tags: Blackest Night, Comic books, Superheroes

MORE REASONS YOUR WEBSITE IS BETTER THAN MINE

Posted on June 20th, 2010 by ekko

1.  Largehearted Boy has lots of live sets from Bonnaroo 2010.

2.  Ugliest. T-Shirt.  Ever.  Look to the right.

3.  Why we need more minority heroes in comics.  Go here.

4.  Music for Kids Who Can’t Read So Good reviews the two newly released Arcade Fire tracks–with downloads.  Or go here for a recent Arcade Fire bootleg.

5.  If you’ve not heard Yelawolf, one of the freshest relatively new voices in Southern rap, go to the always terrific Passion of the Weiss site, where they’ve got not one but two Yelawolf bootlegs for download.  Run, don’t walk.

6.  I like this song a lot.  Dear Head on the Wall-Alejandro Escovedo

7.  X-Ray soft-porn!  (A calendar of pin-ups via x-ray.)  Get it here.

Tags: Bootleg, Comic books, Go away, Hip Hop, Indie rock, Superheroes

YOUR WEEKLY SUPERNERD NEWS!

Posted on June 7th, 2010 by ekko

1.  THE WALKING DEAD. I’m leading with this story because (a) I love zombies; (b) I love comics; and (c) I’m starting to love AMC’s original productions.  Oh, and (d) because “The Mist” is one of the best horror films of the past 10 years.  And this story combines all of this, and more!  AMC released still shots of what the zombies will look like in their Frank (Shawshank Redemption and The Mist) Darabont helmed adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s brilliant, ongoing epic, The Walking Dead.  The bad news: Season one will be just 6 eps.  No release date yet, either.  The picture, above, does a very nice job at mirroring Adlard’s brilliant art from the comic.  If they can do an equal job at paralleling Kirkman’s scripts, we’re in business!

Go here to see all the pictures.

2. GREEN LANTERN’S BIG AND SMALL, AND OTHER D.C. MOVING PICTURE NEWS. Here a Hal, there a Hal, everywhere a Hal Hal! Not only were plot points about the movie recently leaked to the internet, but Cartoon Network has announced a cartoon coming in 2012.  The leaked details weren’t huge (or unexpected), but they confirm that the film will feature the entire Green Lantern Corps, the threat will be Parallax, and characters will include Sinestro, Abin Sur, and Amanda Waller.  DC is also saying that their next live-action flick will be Batman in 2012, and then The Flash after that, but Wonder Woman and Aquaman are also in development.  Vincent Chase is up for the lead in the latter film.  Seriously, though, my question is, is Justice League dead in the water?  I wonder whether the abysmal failure that will be called “Jonah Hex” will have any effect?  And another thing: Why does it take so damn long to release all this stuff?  At least DC isn’t making the 1-a-year mistake Marvel keeps making: Both Batman and Superman will come out in 2012, with Bats getting Independence Day and Supes taking Christmas.  Still, it seems nobody has learned from Peter Jackson that it is easier and more economical to film three movies at once and then stagger the post-production and release dates.

3.  SPEAKING OF GREEN . . . I was a big advocate of the Rulk series when it started: Big, muscular McGuiness artwork and Jeph Loeb at his Bruckheimer best, but the series floundered under its own weight.  It started taking itself too seriously, created a whole conspiracy thing, and stretched out the central question: Who is Red Hulk?  Turns out, it is General Thunderbolt Ross.  Which we all pretty much knew anyway.  This series had a promising, fun start but ended up being some of the worst work these two extremely talented individuals ever put out.  Sad.

4.  X-MEN FIRST CLASS. And speaking of movies, the “X-Men: First Class” movie appears to have begun casting, so it may actually be a “go.”  James McAvoy has signed on to be the young(er) Professor X.  They’ve also got a director (Matthew Vaughn) and a release date of June 2011.

5.  TEEN TITANS . . . Hasn’t been good since Geoff Johns left it several years ago.  In fact, it’s been awful.  To try to save this once venerated franchise, D.C. is bringing in JT Krul.  Krul wrote the Blackest Night Titans spin-off, which wasn’t horrible but was pretty much dispensable.  He says he’s going to try to make the team stable and relevant again.  That would be nice.  During both the Marv Wolfman and Johns runs, it was one of my favorite reads.

6.  THE RETURN OF THE LIZARD. If you don’t know that Amazing Spider-Man has been revamping and reintroducing Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, one crook at a time, then you haven’t been reading this blog enough.  Spidey’s enemies are by far the most engaging group of baddies in comic history.  Yeah, Batman has a bunch of foes, but they’re not nearly as distinctive as the ones created by Stan Lee so many years ago, which included a zoo crew (Lizard, Vulture, Rhino, Scorpion); hunters, thieves and killers (Kraven, Chameleon, Shocker, Mysterio); mob leaders (Hammerhead, Kingpin, Silvermane); forces of nature (Molten Man, Electro, Sandman, Hydro Man); and of course the evil geniuses (Green Goblin, Tinkerer, Doc Ock).  The latest three-issue arc featured The Lizard, reimagined now as a Jeckyl/Hyde type who can control little lizards like Aquaman speaks to fish.  The plot itself was fairly simple, and not nearly as interesting as the Rhino and Sandman arcs, but it was well-written.  For example, the internal dialogue is on a par with Daniel Way’s work on Deadpool.  The star here, though, is artist Chris Bachalo.  Amazing work on a title that is surprisingly solid and consistent considering it publishes thrice monthly.

7.  THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE. Between this title and Batman and Robin, I’m actually turning into something I never thought I’d be: A fan of Grant Morrison.  His narratives are still a little too random and insidery for me, a casual Batman reader, but they’ve gotten much better than they used to be.  And the stories are constantly intriguing.  I know where this miniseries has to end, but I have no idea how it is going to get there.

8.  THE DEATH OF DRACULA/X-MEN #1. By now most of you probably know that Victor (Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth) Gischler and Paco (Deadpool) Medina has written the next big X-Event, “Curse of the Mutants,” which is about mutants and vampires.  Basically, Lord Drac dies and the rest of the bloodsuckers scramble for a new leader.  Wow!  That sounds . . . Stupid.  No, not stupid: Blatant and pathetic.  We know all the teens are digging Twilight, and True Blood is the only popular show left on HBO, but come one.  The one-off Claremont did, years ago, where Storm hooked up with Dracula in the Uncanny X-Men title was good.  But no more ever needed to be said on the topic.  I’d say I’ll keep an open mind, but that would be a lie.  I won’t.  X-Men books have been too convoluted, intermingled, intermixed and complicated for decades now, and just starting at an issue #1 simply is too little, too late.  How did Claremont’s brilliant vision get so off track?

9.  AVENGERS MOVIE. Last but not least, one of my favorite new actors, Jeremy Renner, may play Hawkeye in The Avengers.  Combine that with Joss Whedon in line as director and you’ve got The Best Superhero Movie Ever Made.

Tags: Avengers, Comic books, Filthy Muties, Green Lantern, Hulk, Spider-Man, Superheroes, The Caped Crusader, Zombies

SUPERNEWS: MOVIES AND T.V. EDITION

Posted on May 31st, 2010 by ekko

I decided to bust out my weekly musings on superdoings into print and moving media this week, because there’s just so darn much I wanna talk about!

Please, give me comments if you like these features—I enjoy writing them, but I know that most of my regular readers come here for music . . .

1.  MORGAN SPURLOCK MOVIES. The top story this week has to be that one of the most brilliant documentarians of all time, Morgan Spurlock, is going to turn his lens on the San Diego Comic-Con.  Stan Lee, Joss Whedon and Harry Knowles will executive produce.  They’re also looking for folks to interview and put in the movie.  Here’s the details:

We are looking to cast original, eccentric, funny, touching, and mildly obsessive people that will capture the excitement, enthusiasm, joy, and passion of comic book, anime, sci-fi, and fantasy lovers everywhere.  If this Convention will be the highlight of your year and you have a story to share about your passion, let us know. Join the fellowship, take part in this epic documentary, and write us at ComicConDoc@gmail.com. Include your name, phone number, a picture, and tell us your story.

2.  MARVEL MOVIES. I guess the hype machines are going again.  Rumor has it now that the 2012 film will feature the Skrulls and a hypnotized Hulk.  True Merry Marvel Marchers know that Loki got Hulk to do nasty stuff way, way, WAY back in The Avengers #1, so we’re not totally rewriting history here.  Just mostly.  Rumor also has it that the film will be (ugh) in 3D.  Non-rumor has it that Dominic Cooper is confirmed to play Howard Stark (Tony’s poppa) in the Captain America movie.  I expect he’ll be designing the shield that made a cameo in Iron Man 2.

3.  D.C. MOVIES. Is anyone who saw the preview even close to being interested in seeing Jonah Hex when it comes out in a few weeks?  Looks terrible.  On the other hand, Green Lantern moviepeople are already talking sequel.  If the flick is good, I’ll consider forgiving them for stealing away our chances of getting a Deadpool movie any time soon.

4.  IRON MAN, COWBOYS & ALIENS, AND HOWARD STERN. On Sirius Radio’s “Geek Time” show, Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau said that “Senator Stern” was named after Howard Stern, and offered the radio host a role in Cowboys & Aliens.  (Stern said he wasn’t interested.)  But of all the so-called superhero geeks associated with The Howard Stern Show and with Geek Time, had nobody heard of Roger Stern, the most important and influential Iron Man writer in history?  Seems to me Favreau was clearly kissing Howard’s behind.

5.  SMALLVILLE. Will be cancelled after next season.  It’s about time.  The show is getting old.  Very old.  And they’re still not saying whether he’ll put on the suit.  Or if Lex Luthor will return.  These are the two biggest faults with the series, so if these aren’t fixed, I doubt I’ll stick with it.  I fast-forward through almost every episode these days, anyway.

6.  METRIC—YES, THE BAND. And for my regular music readers, this last item: I’m not a fan of the Scott Pilgrim comic (it’s not bad, it’s just not my thing), but the movie looks great.  As does the soundtrack, which will feature Metric, among other bands.  Remember when Metric used to be one of the hugest things on the blogosphere, along with Rilo Kiley?

Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright (Bob Dylan) (acoustic)-Metric (direct link)

Such Great Heights (Postal Service cover)-Rilo Kiley (direct link)

Tags: Avengers, Covers, Deadpool, Green Lantern, Hulk, Indie rock, Movies, Superheroes

MORE SUPERNEWS!

Posted on May 17th, 2010 by ekko

1.  FIRST THINGS FIRST. Well, I’m as surprised as you that it wasn’t the best of the year so far.  It takes almost an hour to really get going, which is a definite problem.  But it’s still top tier.

2.  SALES FIGURES. Diamond released its April 2010 sales figures, which led me to ask: “Why?”  The top three are Brightest Day tie-ins: BD#0, Flash #1, and Green Lantern.  Now these are okay books, but are they really the best April had to offer?  Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin was in the fourth slot, deservedly, but then we see New Avengers, Uncanny X-Men, Thor (Siege tie-in), Green Lantern Corps . . . These are all as mediocre as the top three.  Meanwhile, some books that are really breaking new ground are pretty low in the list: Jonathan Hickman’s S.H.I.E.L.D. is #38, American Vampire is at #72, Walking Dead is at #81 (even with an AMC T.V. series in development), and The Boys is way down at #88.  Other books worth better than their ranking are Daredevil (#42), Wolverine Weapon X (#59), and Brave and the Bold (#89).  It’s a sad comment on what we all buy.  And yet, I’m part of the guilty group because I’m waiting for the trades on most of the titles I’m lamenting about.

3.  POWER PACK. I also want to toss in another plug for the kids-oriented Thor and the Warrior’s Four.  It’s far and away the best Power Pack series ever—the second issue even starts with an extended dialogue based on the song “I Will Survive”!  And #2 has the funniest cover of the year, hands down . . .

4.  MARVEL DOWNSIZING? The rumor is that because sales figures are so bad, Marvel is going to shrink their books down to the “mini-size” that they used on Free Comic Book Day.  Has anyone else heard this?  If they do, I’m out most definitely.  If they do it to the trades, too, I’ll be so pissed I’ll stop reading a ton of the books I currently buy.

5.  X-MEN. If you still care about the Uncanny muties, Fraction killed Nightcrawler and you can read about it in Uncanny X-Men #524.  But don’t say I told you to.  Instead, I’m suggesting that X-Men Forever has (finally!) gotten a sense of direction, with the introduction of Iron Man as the primary villain.  Chris Claremont is definitely one of the best “idea men” in the biz, but his writing is usually too verbose (show, don’t tell Chris!) and clunky (“I’ll teleport behind him and disarm him!”).  Those flaws, combined with unimaginative but perfectly serviceable art and design have kept this book from being all it should be, but it does seem to be picking up speed more.  The ideas of a blind Sabertooth joining the X-Men, an evil Storm and a good baby Storm from the future, dead Wolverine (so he doesn’t dominate every storyline), Kitty with claws, the X-Men as an arm of Nick Fury, and the afore-mentioned bad-Stark, are all good ones,
and could develop into something great.  Claremont needs more editorial guidance.  Either that, or he needs to accept more editorial guidance.  Hard to tell if Marvel is ignoring him here or if he’s ignoring them.  Anyway, the title is ending soon and will relaunch in a mach 2 form.  Seems like a good place to jump in.

6.  MARVEL 3-D MOVIES. In the ugh department: Thor may be converted to 3D in post-production, and Cap and Avengers may be filmed in 3D.  Kill me now, because they just made me not want to see three movies I’ve been waiting years to see . . .

7.  BRIGHTEST DAY #1. Since Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi (the Blackest Night team) have brought us two issues (#0 and #1) of their next D.C. eventipic, you’re probably wondering: Should I be buying these issues, or waiting for the trade.  I’m here to say, you should wait for the trade.  From Blackest Night, we learned that the first half of this story will probably be exposition, which is best read in big chunks.  It’s like the first half of a superhero origin movie: You just want it to get done so you can get to the good parts.  That said, Brightest Day #1 did clear up a bunch of things from Blackest Night that either I was too dumb to understand or that Geoff didn’t tell us clearly the first time.  I am wondering why, now that Aquaman is back, he’s bulletproof.  Did I miss something, or could he always do that?

Tags: Comic books, Filthy Muties, Iron Man, Movies, Superheroes, The Caped Crusader, Thor

LIGHT NEWS THIS WEEK. . .

Posted on May 5th, 2010 by ekko

1.  MOVIES.  I love to report, but there’s not a lot this week.  I can tell you that the Nightmare remake is like eating fine lobster, only the claw meat has been replaced with rice cakes.  Not a scary moment in it. But there a few great movies out now–which will be easy to get into after May 7 (a.k.a. Iron Man Day).  Go see “A Prophet” and “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.”  Good stuff.  Check out my movie page for my ongoing rankings.

2.  GET JASON!  Why is Jason Aaron the only Wolverine writer you need to know about?  Because of the 2008 “Get Mystique” story (in trade); the amazing and incredible run he had on Wolverine: Weapon X; and, soon, his Wolverine-goes-to-hell story arc that will kick off a new Wolverine title (to replace the existing one, which is really about Dark Wolverine).  Nobody has ever (and I mean EVER) made the character as interesting or complex as Mr. Aaron.  And lots of folks have tried.

3.  CAN D.C. RETURN TO GREAT-TOON-NESS?  I’ve often said that D.C.’s animation efforts are far superior to Marvel’s, on the whole, while Marvel’s live-action adaptations tend to leave D.C. in the dust.  Compare, for example, Batman: Brave and the Bold, Justice League (and it’s “Unlimited” version), Batman: The Animated Series and Superman: TAS, and Teen Titans Go! to Wolverine and the X-Men, Spectacular Spider-Man, or every awful Fantastic Four cartoon.  Just about the only toons Marvel got right, other than their DVD releases, in the past 20 years were the first X-Men and X-Men Evolutions.  Well, Marvel’s animation studios are kicking into high gear, as I
reported last week, so, not to be outdone, D.C. has announced that this year they’ll be reviving the 1998 “Young Justice” series.  Yeah, it sucked back then, but maybe they can do it right now?  It’s kind of like a version of Teen Titans, only a little tweaked.  This version of the junior Justice League will have Superboy, Robin, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Artemis and Aqualad.  Now, if they could just bring back that great Superboy and the Legion series from a few years ago . . .

4.  AND SPEAKING OF D.C. MOVING PICTURES . . . Smallville recently introduced T.V. viewers to the DCU version of SHIELD (sort of), called Checkmate, and it’s African American director Amanda Waller.  (She’s also black in the comic—unlike Nick Fury.)  Rumors say that the organization will move from small to big screen, appearing in the Green Lantern movie, which is currently filming.  In other D.C. movie news, there’s more talk about the Ronin adaptation.  The comic was quite stylized, and it’s hard to imagine how they’ll even begin to stay true to Frank Miller’s original mystic, cryptic miniseries.

5.  MARVEL STUDIOS UPDATES.  And speaking of moving pictures, we’re a year away from the release date, but the leaks, rumors and buzz keep coming on next year’s Marvel tentpole.  They’re saying now that Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos will appear.  That’s kind of a no-brainer if they’re showing pre-frozen Cap.  A much more interesting turn of events is the rumor that Joss Whedon will be getting involved as a writer or director of The Avengers.  And did you hear that if they don’t start filming Ghost Rider 2 by November, the rights to the film revert to Marvel Studios?  See, now that would be a good thing.  Marvel Studios has done a good job by most of its characters.  (But where’s the good Punisher movie?  That’s where they’ve fallen down. Big time.)

6.  SIEGE.  My readers know I’m a huge fan of Marvel in general and Brian Michael Bendis specifically, but Siege has been pretty disappointing to me.  I know it’s hard to make an “event” live up to the hype, and even harder to stretch a battle for 3 issues and keep it interesting, but I still expected more.  This is the return of Steve Rogers, but there doesn’t seem to be nearly enough fanfare.  This is Iron Man and Thor teaming up, in costume, against Earth’s evilest, but there isn’t really a feeling of rally.  This is Ronin reclaiming his Hawkeye costume—something he’s been grumbling about for a year—yet there hasn’t been a powerful “punch” moment.  I’m not saying Siege is bad, I’m just saying it’s not good enough.  But having said that, the one-shots have been pretty darn good.  We learned more about Loki and Cap than we have from the Thor and Captain America titles, let alone the main Siege series.  It’s the rare case where the tie-ins tell you more than the main series.  Even Siege: Spider-Man, which didn’t really advance any storylines, was a solid, fun, and funny read.   I’m not saying don’t buy it, I’m just saying, again, that I’m disappointed.

Tags: Cartoons, Comic books, Filthy Muties, Horror, Movies, Superheroes