You’ll instantly recognize Krista Allen from so many great roles, ranging from X-FILES to LIAR LIAR to her latest, the buzz worthy comedy SIGNIFICANT MOTHER on The CW. She talks about her journey and her appreciation of smart TV writing. Plus we begin our look at the new television season with NBC’s THE PLAYER. Wesley Snipes and Phillip Winchester talk about the high concept thriller, created by former DC Comics writer, John Rogers.
When Geoff Johns, DC Entertainment’s Chief Creative Officer, disclosed on his Twitter page that DC and Warner Bros were “hoping to develop a live-action show” starring the Blue Beetle, the news spread aggressively quick. To alleviate fans’ growing excitement and curiosity, Johns posted photos and more news about the proposal on DC’s official blog, The
Source. The site has indeed been the source of Blue Beetle related hubbub, as screenshots of Blue Beetle’s transformation sequence have spread widely across the net. Johns and his team created a clip showing Jamie Reyes’ scarab activating his suit, a clip that Johns will showcase at the San Diego Comic-Con.
With Smallville ending after its next season, WB could replace it with another DC Universe television series. However, would a Blue Beetle live-action show be received as well as Smallville was? Superman is an iconic character, while Blue Beetle is comparatively lesser known. There is also the issue of the Blue Beetle comic book cancellations. Some speculate that if Blue Beetle comics ultimately get canned due to poor sales, then how well would a television series fare? On the other hand, Blue Beetle gained a loyal fan following after Infinite Crisis back in 2006. Reyes also made several appearances in Cartoon Network’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Johns tweeted, “Blue Beetle’s going to appear in most of the Brave and the
Bold’s this year,” which is promising news for the superhero. The new publicity may give Blue Beetle a chance to make it to the small screen.
Perhaps we shouldn’t get too ahead of ourselves. Johns stated in his post on The Source, “This isn’t final. This isn’t greenlit. It’s only a test that was done.
We still have a long way to go to see if we can get this off the
ground and a lot of people to jump on board.” While it’s exciting to witness superheroes come to life, maybe we shouldn’t get our hopes up just yet with this teaser alone?
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.
So last week my column was criticized for not being primarily about comics, the same day that my fellow columnist John Ostrander got over a dozen comments writing about politics, not one of which queried the appropriateness of his subject matter. Obviously people who have written and drawn comics for a living (Denny, Michael, etc.) can get a little more slack than someone who’s only ever written four comic book stories and had them all published. Not that I’m bitter! Oh no, indeedy; I’m actually grateful those critiques have given me fodder for this week’s column!
As I mentioned in my reply to this criticism, I understand some readers’ frustration with me not writing about comics more often. Even my mom asks me why I don’t focus on comics more often, and she doesn’t even read the stuff! But after all, ComicMix is a pop-culture site dominated by people heavily invested in the artform. Heck, that’s what CM 2.0 is all about, giving our readers original comics content. And we haven’t yet introduced a separate tab for our columns to distinguish them from our regular pop-culture news, so it’s probably reasonable to expect that we columnists will focus on comics as much as our news reporters do. And I love reading comics, but… but…
But nowadays, when I talk about my favorite reading material and hobby and community, I can usually only discuss what’s happened recently, not what’s going to happen in the near future or even Right This Very Week. As many of you know, this wasn’t always the case. About 10-15 years ago I did weekly comic book reviews on Usenet and CompuServe under the header "Pen-Elayne For Your Thoughts." I’d get the books on a Wednesday and most of the reviews would be up by Friday. My job at the time allowed me to do this, I was being somewhat under-used (technology and outsourcing would eliminate that position in ’97) and I had plenty of energy when I got home. Then I got a new job which proceeded to harness a lot of that energy, so the reviews had to go, I just couldn’t keep them up any more.
When I married Robin, I stopped buying most DC books the week they hit the stores, because as a regular freelancer for DC he receives a comp box each month of all the "pamphlets" they put out. For a time the comps were usually current to within a couple weeks of what was in the stores, so I could still keep up as plot discussions moved from Usenet to message boards. But by the time blogs became big, the synching had fallen a bit behind. (The new comp box arrived at our house on Monday, and I now have all the Countdown issues up until "04," when of course the current big discussion is about the final issue.
I also now have the first issue of Tangent: Superman’s Reign
After The Batman went off the air, we all knew it wouldn’t be too long before the caped crusader returned to animation in a different form. Cartoon Network has finally revealed the form in which Batman will be return. This time, he won’t be alone.
The Brave and the Bold will team Batman up with different DC superheroes each episode. Some of the heroes confirmed for the series include Green Arrow, Blue Beetle (the Jaime Reyes version), Green Lantern and Aquaman. The series is described as equal parts comedy and high stakes action.
The show will run on Friday nights as part of an action themed block of cartoons that also includes Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Ben 10: Alien Force and The Secret Saturdays. A premiere date has not yet been announced.
A new week and a new ComicMix Broadcast where we lay out miles of four color fun waiting for you at the comic stores this week, plus some DVD treats that range from Blue Beetle to Uncle Scrooge to our pal, Dr. Johnny Fever. From there, it’s a sharp left to Hannibal Lechter’s song debut (you won’t believe it!), plastic Barbie girls get electric, and a lot of truly major Stargate stuff. And now you, too, can sing along to the Marquis de Sade!
Press the button. It’s good for you!
We bring you this from Kung-Fu Monkey John Rogers: "In researching [Blue Beetle] #14, I discovered that the Guardians of the Universe, the dudes who run the Green Lanterns — their appearance is based on Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. That means, in the DCU, the Jews just don’t control the media, they control the UNIVERSE."
Oh, I can hear the keyboards clattering away as people start rewriting their own versions of the GL Theory of Geopolitics, claiming that the Israeli flag is blue just like the Guardians’ skin, and Israel stands only because of its willpower and… hmm.
This makes the Zamarons some shiksa goddesses, nu?
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