Category: News

Two years ago, DC Comics announced that a new Terra series would be coming out, one starring a brand new character using the familiar name. This character debuted in Supergirl #12 and has shown up a couple of times since then, but otherwise has remained largely unexplored.

The series will finally be launching in November. It will be written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti and illustrated by Amanda Connor. According to DC, the two-year delay has allowed more time to plan out the series and tighten up the stories. And the art has been given the change to be of a higher quality now.

As Justin Gray explained to ComicBookResources.com, "Time always helps and we try our best to have every project working well in advance. This kind of approach allows us to go back into scripts and tighten up and tie together all of the story elements. With Terra, it was a case of trying to have as much fun with the character and allow that to show through in every panel. Having Amanda with us allows for that to happen … the extra time gave Amanda and [colorist] Paul Mounts the most time to go in and add some extra juice to the book."

Of course, this new hero is the third person to call herself Terra. The first girl with that alias, Tara Markov, became famous when she betrayed the Teen Titans in the now-famous story "The Judas Contract." How will this past connect to our current character, who is noticeably more light-hearted and optimistic than either of her predecessors?

Gray explained, "The challenge has always been to find a way to connect this Terra to the previous and with a few twist I think we’ve done that. You can’t stick too heavily to existing mythology when creating someone new because that lessens them as a character. [The new Terra] needs to stand out as her own girl and she does that … We wanted her to stand in opposition of the existing anti-hero mold and especially from Tara Markov in terms of personality and drive."

Jimmy Palmiotti added, "It’s easy to do dark characters all the time … we wanted to go back to the seemingly old-fashioned values of classic super-heroes and update them at the same time. There is heavy stuff in the series but it is balanced out by the lighter stuff as well. The scenes between Power Girl and Terra, for instance, are light and yet very revealing between them."

Power Girl isn’t the only one who will guest-star in Terra. The new hero has a high level of knowledge of the world of super-heroes and will be running across folks like Doctor Mid-Nite and Geo-Force AKA Brion Markov, brother of the original Terra.

Gray elaborated, "The reason [Terra] knows so much ties directly into who she is and why she exists. The previous incarnation  of Terra went a little crazy because she didn’t know everything about herself."

Palmiotti, Gray and Connor will also be working together on the all-new Power Girl ongoing series and have promised that the opening story-arc will serve as an introduction for readers who have not been following the character’s recent adventures or don’t know her whole history. The co-writers explained, "We are setting up her life as a civilian, as a super-hero, and the people and world around her that impacts her daily life."

So be on the look-out for the new Power Girl and Terra books coming soon.

And if you’re curious about the previous incarnations of Terra, keep on reading and we’ll give you the rundown.

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Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, in America promoting the release of his acclaimed Let the Right One in, seems to have softened his stance against an English-language remake. As we reported last week, he was critical of the need to reinterpret his efforts.  Now, he told Sci Fi Wire that it’s okay for Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) to try his hand at adapting the novel his movie was also based on.

"Who knows? Maybe he sees something different in the source material," Alfredson said. "Maybe he will come up with something different. I don’t know. I am not involved with that, and I wish them well."

The “them” includes producer J.J. Abrams who actually purchased the rights to John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel although it will be made under the Hammer Films banner.

The novel concentrates on the relationship between an adolescent boy and a vampire.  The director reflected on the world’s fascination with the genre. "It is a 360-page book, and there are a lot of subplots and characters that we had to take out," Alfredson said. "I decided to follow the love story. I fell in love with that part of the story.

"It seems like they come and go every 20 years, but, honestly, I cannot remember seeing a vampire movie," he said. "I think I did as a kid, see something with Bela Lugosi, but I never read Dracula. … I think that it has to do with the animals inside of us. They are very much an archetype. We have suppressed the animal part of ourselves, and maybe it’s a reaction to that, I don’t know." 
 

Neal Hefti, composer of the memorable Batman television theme music, passed away on October 11. He was 85 and had been in poor health for some time his son Paul reported.

In a career spanning many decades, the big band trumpeter was finally known for the theme in addition to other memorable film and television scores including The Odd Couple.

Hefti’s catchy “Batman Theme” was released as a single and went as high as #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. A version by the Marketts did better, cracking the Top 20 at #17.  The theme song has been covered throughout the years by the Who, the Kinks, and virtually every surf-band on Earth.

A 1966 episode of the television series Hullabaloo, hosted by George Hamilton, featured two dozen girls dressed in faux-Batman costumes dancing to the LP version of the theme song.

His career began with writing musical charts for Nat Towles before moving on to compose and arrange for Woody Herman.  Through the 1940s he had his own band from time to time but largely worked for other performers.

As live music waned in favor of recordings, Hefti changed gears and began writing scores for both television and movies.  His credits include Sex and the Single Girl, How to Murder Your Wife, Synanon, Boeing Boeing, Harlow, Lord Love a Duck, Duel at Diablo, and Barefoot in the Park.

He received Grammy Award nominations and prizes for "Jazz Pops" (Li’l Darlin’, Cute, Coral Reef) as artist, two awards for "Basie" (Li’l Darlin’, Splanky, Teddy the Toad) as composer, three nominations (one award) for the Batman TV score, two nominations for the Harlow movie score (Girl Talk), and two nominations for The Odd Couple TV score.
 

We adore Hard Case Crime and their line of hardboiled crime and mystery tales from new and famous authors.  Founder Charles Ardai just announced that he will publish, for the first time ever, a Lester Dent novel, Honey in his Mouth. The creator of Doc Savage had written the story intended for the Gold Medal line of books that are a direct ancestor to Hard Case.

Similarly, a previously unpublished Roger Zelazny mystery, Dead Man’s Brother, will finally see the light of day in February, the first new Zelazny novel in 15 years. Found more than 30 years after it was written, it’s the only new book by the author since his death a decade ago. The breathless back cover copy tells us: “Once an art smuggler, now a respectable art dealer, Ovid Wiley awoke to find his former partner stabbed to death on his gallery floor. That was strange enough—but when a CIA agent showed up to spring him from NYPD custody, things got a lot stranger.

“Now the CIA is offering to clear up the murder charge, but only in return for a favor: They want Ovid to fly to Vatican City and trace the trail of a renegade priest who has gone missing with millions in church funds. What’s the connection? The priest’s lover, a woman Ovid knew in his smuggling days… “Those who’ve read early copies have been effusive with their praise.

Now out, is The First Quarry, featuring Max Allan Collins’ early crime character. He wrote his first Quarry book in 1976 and has periodically revisited the character ever since, most recently in last year’s Hard Case release, The Last Quarry.  This book, the eighth, goes all the way back to the hitman’s beginning.
 

David Fincher, while promoting his next feature, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, told reporters that the film adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama was likely dead. Despite the most recent draft of a script being delivered in April, financing proved difficult for the classic novel.

"It looks like it’s not going to happen,” the director was quoted as saying over at First Showing. “There’s no script and as you know, [Morgan Freeman’s] not in the best of health right now. We’ve been trying to do it but it’s probably not going to happen."

The actor was the person to begin developing the property for much of this decade with Fincher coming on soon after. Freeman, though, was badly injured in a car accident back in August.

Freeman told the website last year, that "it’s a very intellectual science fiction film, a very difficult book to translate cinematically." A 30-mile long cylinder is found in the solar system and a crew of astronauts is sent from Earth to explore the extraterrestrial object. Published in 1972, it went on to win the Nebula, Hugo and Jupiter Awards.

Revelations Entertainment, Freeman’s production outfit, holds the screen rights and they contracted with Fincher in 2001.  The most recent screenplay was written by Stel Pavlou, a writer perhaps best known for his prose stories in the Doctor Who Short Trips anthologies.
 

Shack News is reporting that Blizzard and Legendary Pictures’ adaptation of Warcraft won’t be ready for next year, as had been previously announced.

"I don’t know about the 2009 date," says Blizzard president Mike Morhaime about the film’s progress, "but it is still something we are very excited about."

"We do have a draft of a script, [but] it isn’t final," he continues. "I think we still need to do a lot of work."

At BlizzCon 2007, Blizzard’s VP of Creative Development Chris Metzen and Thomas Tull, head of Legendary Pictures, provided insight into the progress of a Warcraft movie. They released the following tidbits of information:

– The film is set for 2009
– They have a $100 million budget
– It will be a mix of live action and computer animation
– No directors or actors are attached
– The story focuses on major events from a year before World of Warcraft and will principally focus on the Alliance’s perspective
– Run time will be about two to two and a half hours
– More of a Gladiator war epic than a Lord of the Rings journey of discovery
– Characters to be featured include Bolvar Fordragon, Thrall and Cairne Bloodhoof.

Two years later, there are only two items on that list we can speak to: the film will not be released in 2009, and there are still no actors or directors attached. Look how much can happen in two years!

It’s nice to see Blizzard being thoughtful with their property, but there is a difference between taking one’s time and being too reserved to jump into battle. A Warcraft film can wait for a while, but once the craze of World of Warcraft subsides a bit, those potential gold pouches are gonna disappear off the battlefield.

Ah, who are we kidding? World of Warcraft will always be awesome. Speaking of which, we got some orcs to hunt. Leeroooooooooy Jenkins!!

It was the little comic They Couldn’t Kill – until now. Amazing Spider-Girl ends at issue #30, but there is still life left for May Parker, plus:

Stephen King’s Talisman comes to comics
A cool Aliens/Predator package on DVD this week
Something for everyone (really) in the comic shops tomorrow

And what three titles do we feel are this week’s Best Bets? They are NOT from DC or Marvel, but you can find out who publishes them when you Press the Button!
 

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