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Robin, Nightwing, Birds of Prey Cancelled

  • News
  • November 5, 2008

Batman #681 won’t be out until November 19, but its effects are already being felt as DC Comics has confirmed that three of the satellite titles, Robin, Nightwing, and Birds of Prey will be cancelled in February. Another related title, Catwoman, was cancelled earlier this year.

All three titles were launched in the 1990s as the Batman line rapidly expanded under editor Denny O’Neil and the supporting cast grew by leaps and bounds. Given their middling monthly sales and decreased trade collection volume, the cancellations were not a surprise.

The timing was also carefully planned; something confirmed by Robin writer Fabian Nicieza who told ComicMix, "I knew the plans for Robin since I was first offered the assignment. Part of my enthusiasm all along was knowing the responsibility I had to get the character to a very interesting new phase of his life. It’s only the start of very exciting things for Tim Drake."

The next phase of Bat-continuity kicks off with the two-issue Battle for the Cowl to be written by Judd Winick. What follows remains a closely guarded secret. By then, the Bat-family of titles will be reduced to Batman, Detective Comics, Batman and the Outsiders, Superman/Batman and a cycle of The Brave and the Bold.  The latter series will be featuring Bruce Wayne in the cowl so as not to distract readers drawn to the issues which will introduce Archie’s Red Circle super-heroes to the DC Universe.

Robin finally gained his own solo ongoing series in 1994 after three well-received miniseries from Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle.  Dixon returned last year to handle the character in the wake of One Year Later but was summarily removed and Nicieza replaced him.

Nightwing was awarded his own ongoing in 1996 after just one tryout miniseries by O’Neil and newcomer Greg Land.  Again, Dixon wrote the project for its first seven years before ceding to Devin Grayson.  Currently being produced by Peter Tomasi and Don Kramer, the character is also seen in Titans and across the DCU as a popular guest star.

Birds of Prey was originally a one-shot featuring Oracle and Black Canary from Dixon but it spawned one-shots and a miniseries before gaining its own monthly in 1999 with Dixon and Land at the outset.  Its popularity and creative success led to the one-season WB television series.  Gail Simone succeeded Dixon and at Dixonverse, she noted that since her departure followed by Black Canary being switched from BOP to JLA, “It’s just that the emotional core was removed and that’s always a bad idea. It wasn’t my idea, but it was a bit of a trade-off because her popularity in bop meant she could do things like lead the JLA and have a book with her name on the cover. And since I loved the character that seemed a fair trade to make, to help move her up the ladder of importance.” Currently written by Tony Bedard, it’s been much more of a team series far removed from Gotham.

The final issues will be Robin #183, Nightwing #153 and Birds of Prey #127.

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Review: ‘Conan: The Hand of Nergal’ by Truman and Giorello

  • Uncategorized
  • November 5, 2008

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There have now been eight generations of teenage boys to thrill to the exploits of [[[Conan]]], one for each decade since he first appeared in [[[Weird Tales]]] in 1932. The oldest cohort is likely mostly dead; the youngest one will mostly wander away once they get drivers’ licenses or beer-purveying fake IDs. But Conan endures – some of those fans do stick around, and there are always new ones. And, even though Robert E. Howard – remember him? The guy who created Conan and wrote the stories about him that were actually good? – has been dead for more than seventy years, Conan stories keep appearing.

Why, I have one right here:

Conan, Vol. 6: The Hand of Nergal
By Timothy Truman and Tomas Giorello
Dark Horse, October 2008, $24.95

Dark Horse, when they got the Conan comics license some years ago, rebooted the series, to follow Howard’s hero starting with his earliest adventures and to adapt or include Howard’s original stories along the way. (The intentions of the long-running previous series, from Marvel, had been intermittently the same, but twenty-three years leaves room for a whole lot of “more or less,” and they’d gotten pretty far in Conan’s life. I’m not sure why there’s no love for the older Conan, King of Aquilonia – especially since Howard’s very first Conan story was about that part of his life – but, in comics, the preference has always been for the young, half-naked barbarian.) [[[The Hand of Nergal]]] reprints issues 47 through 50 of the Dark Horse series – along with one of those most bizarre manifestations of the modern comics scene, the “#0” issue published much later than #1 – and sees Conan still quite young.

Hand of Nergal is based on a two-page, two-part untitled fragment – the title is from Lin Carter, when he “adapted” it into one of his own third-rate Conan stories – that’s currently available in [[[The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian]]]. I’ve just glanced at it myself – it’s two bits of atmosphere, with no plot: Conan finds an unconscious hot babe on a battlefield, and gloms her with his sweaty paws, while, meanwhile, a city named Yaralet is vaguely uneasy about nothing that gets described.

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Review: ‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’

Since his debut in [[[Batman: The Animated Series]]], Warner Animation has seen to it Batman gets freshened every now and then.  Animators swoop in, streamline the look and adjust the stories as time and tastes change.  The most recent Batman series was perhaps the worst as it veered further and further away from its comic book source material so we suddenly had a Rastafarian Joker who knew martial arts. That incarnation has been mercifully retired and in its place we have [[[Batman: The Brave and the Bold]]].

As the title suggests, this is a Batman team-up show and owes much to the title where Batman co-starred with other characters for over 125 issues. The designs puff up the Caped Crusader so he looks as if Carmine Infantino or Mike Sekowsky was doing the model sheets.

Fortunately, the resemblance to the 1960s more or less ends there as the storytelling is quick and adventurous.  This is a well-adjusted Batman who recognizes his place in the super-hero firmament.  For example, in the debut episode, which airs on the Cartoon Network this coming Friday night, he specifically asks Blue Beetle along on a mission to check him out.

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Joss Whedon Talks Some More About ‘Dollhouse’

  • News
  • November 5, 2008

In an interview with Viceland, Joss Whedon talked about women (of course) and some more thoughts on what went into creating Dollhouse, which will debut this January on Fox.

On the issue of reality versus fiction, Whedon said, “That’s the whole point of the setting, is [Eliza Dushku’s] sense of self and her assertion of herself and getting past what people—even me—expect of her… People have already accepted that she can be something else, so she’s already gotten past Faith a little bit. She has been sort of pigeonholed, though.

“I don’t think we’re trapped in the Matrix, or trapped in the way that the Matrix actually means, where this isn’t really happening. But I do think that our idea of what life really means and what we are is different than what we’ve become. And how much of us is made up of what’s expected of us, how much of us is made up of our actual free will, is a lot to pin on people, especially in this country.”

Whedon went on to riff about the mind, admitting “it’s what interests me. I get less and less subtle. It’s the thing I want to talk about: What are we? Why? And why aren’t we better? In what ways are we being held accountable for things we’re actually OK about, and in what ways are we being let off for things we really should be dealing with? Because we deal with repurposing sex and what people want from each other we see right upfront the scariest parts of us, and some of the nicer parts as well. What those are are not necessarily what you’d expect. And of course, you know, other people might disagree but we have a saying here on the show: There’s no judging in the Dollhouse.”

Of course, no interview with the writer would be complete without returning to his immortal slayer, Buffy Summers. In response to a question about the character between the final episode of the television series and the Dark Horse comic book continuation, nicknamed season eight, he admitted, “Well, the first thing you do at the beginning of any season is make everything bad so that you can have something to fight against. You take whatever resolution you had and say, Well, what were the consequences of that? Besides that, I was dealing with the fact that I had created a future where none of the things she had apparently accomplished had actually happened—I wrote them before I wrote her doing them, and that was a mistake. So trying to reconcile the two led to the tone of season eight. It is a little intense but it hopefully has a goofy side to it.”

ABC May Become ‘King of the Hill’

  • News
  • November 5, 2008

ABC could become King of the Hill, if they decide to pick up the show which Fox just said would be canceled after the current season. While they already have The Goode Family coming as an animated midseason replacement, also created by Mike Judge, they may choose to add the series according to The Hollywood Reporter.

A Fox TV spokesman would only confirm "another network is interested" in the show. ABC declined to comment but adding a second show to round out the hour makes programming sense given the success Fox has had with such pairings.

The biggest issue is that there’s a nine month gestation period for new King episodes which means new shows couldn’t hit any channel until fall 2009. The gamble for ABC would be to pick up King and hope Goode finds an audience. The Alphabet Network may hedge their bets and just orders scripts then wait and see how Goode performs.

 

Behind the Scenes Look at ‘Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa’

  • News
  • November 5, 2008

The buzz is growing for the sequel to Madagascar with early reviews saying it may well be better than the first film.  Our friends at Parramount provided the following Behind the Scenes clip to give you a taste of the action.

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‘Three Stooges’ Moves from Warners to MGM

  • News
  • November 5, 2008

The Three Stooges has gained new life with MGM becoming the new parent to the Peter and Bobby Farrelly project. The brothers had spent five years trying to develop the film at Warner Bros. but now they have a new lease on life and will give their script a polish then turn it over to Michael Cerrone to direct.

Peter Farrelly credited Mary Parent, MGM’s Worldwide Motion Picture Group chairman with having the enthusiasm to go out and grab the moribund film from Warners plus secure rights to the Stooges from C3. She sees the $45 million production as targeted as a PG or PG-13 project complete with the trademark slapstick the trio is known for. The movie will actually be three 20-25 minute segments loosely tied together to recreate the feel of the shorts the act made from the 1930s through the 1950s.

"It’s not a biopic. It takes place in present day, and they look, dress and sound exactly like the Stooges," Peter told Variety. "When the economy started turning, we felt like the world could use a Stooges slapfest. Bobby and I haven’t done a real physical comedy in a while, and it’s the most exciting thing we could think of now, to have people go to the movie, see some great slapstick fun family humor."

A nationwide talent hunt, compared with the search for American Idol, will begin as the producers and director seek three comedians who can work well together and do the physical humor required to earn the Stooges name. A similar hunt will be conducted to find humorous short films to run with their feature.

"We know this is extremely difficult to pull off; we realize some Stooges fans will be upset no matter what we do," Farrelly said. "We love the Stooges and honor their memory, and we don’t want them to disappear. We hope that next Thanksgiving, dads will introduce their kids to the Stooges and create a new generation of knuckleheads."

MGM has already picked out November 20, 2009 to release the film. The studio may rethink that since Variety notes the competition that day is already thick with Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey, Jr. and the animated Planet 51.

4 Countries Unite for ‘Defying Gravity’

  • Uncategorized
  • November 5, 2008

ron-livingston-3072908Defying Gravity will be a new 13-episode series being coproduced by Fox TV Studios, Canada’s CTV, Germany’s ProSieben and the BBC, which will star Ron Livingston (The Time Traveler’s Wife). Created by James Parriott (Grey’s Anatomy) and Michael Edelstein (Desperate Housewives), The Hollywood Reporter says the series is “set in the near future and revolves around eight astronauts from five countries who take on a mysterious six-year mission through the solar system.”

The cast currently includes Livingston and German actress Florentine Lahme with the first episode, to be directed by David Straiton, scheduled to shoot in Vancouver beginning January 19.

Edelstein the idea for the series came to him when he watched the BBC docu-drama Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets on Discovery Channel in late 2006. "I was blown away by it," Edelstein told the trade. He acquired the rights to it from British producer Impossible Pictures (Primeval) and reteamed with Parriott, having previously worked together on ABC’s Threat Matrix.

Parriott is a self-described sci-fi geek whose credits include the original Bionic Woman and The Incredible Hulk.  He said of the new series, "Throw in a little bit of Grey’s and Lost and you have a pretty good international TV show."

New Site Promises Fresh Look at Graphic Novels

  • News
  • November 5, 2008

GraphicNovelReporter.com is coming later this month and intends to be “a fresh, in-depth look at these books and their creators. It’s a website designed for those who love the many genres within the format — and those who are curious as to what the excitement of these titles is all about.”

John Hogan, former editor of Pages magazine, will head up this new initiative, a part of The Book Report Network. His efforts will be cross-platformed as appropriate material is scheduled to be posted simultaneously on Teenreads.com and Kidsreads.com.

According to a press release, “The website will include reviews and interviews as well as news, opinions, blogs, bestseller and ‘Best Of’ lists, and Books Into Movies and Books Into Movies on DVD features, all written with the voice and tone that have become the signature of The Book Report Network and its flagship website, Bookreporter.com.”

"We have been following the phenomenal growth in this market for the past year and are excited and energized by the opportunity to showcase these titles and creators to our readers," Carol Fitzgerald, President of The Book Report Network said in the release. "We have been impressed by the market’s double digit growth — and the commitment from librarians and educators who are embracing graphic novels in record numbers, as well as interest from booksellers. The site will deliver content that attracts and engages those already devoted to the format as well as those who are new to this exciting medium." 

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