Tagged: Superman

‘Wonder Woman’ Movie Rumors

  • News
  • November 11, 2008

wonder-woman-perez-1-6938899Some Wonder Woman news popped up over the weekend.  First, there was Beyonce Knowles telling Geoff Boucher at the Los Angeles Times that she’d love to portray the Amazon Princess.

"I want to do a superhero movie and what would be better than Wonder Woman? It would be great. And it would be a very bold choice. A black Wonder Woman would be a powerful thing. It’s time for that, right?" she said.

She has appeared in Austin Powers in Goldmember, Dreamgirls, and Cadillac Records in addition to her pop music career.  Knowles indicated she has personally expressed her interest to both the studio and representatives at DC Comics.

The shapely and fit performer was ready for the revealing and tight tradition outfit as first designed by artist Harry G. Peters.  "I would definitely have to keep it right for that costume. The way that Lynda Carter wore it, she was sooo fine. She was amazing. I saw her costume at the Met. Her waist was unbelievable. It was pretty crazy, actually, her proportions. But I love Wonder Woman and it’d be a dream come true to be that character. It sure would be handy to have that lasso. To make everybody tell the truth? I need that. It would come in very handy."

The 27 year old also noted, "When you think about the psychology of the heroes in the films these days, they are still a lot of work, of course, and emotional. But there’s also an action element that I would enjoy."

IESB is reporting rumors that Warner Bros. may be circling back to McG to direct the long-stalled movie.  The man is currently in post-production on Terminator Salvation and was scheduled to direct the Superman reboot before walking off the project prior to Bryan Singer’s involvement. He was also interested in The Losers which went to Tim Story before the studio reassigned it to Sylvain White.

“Let me be very clear about this, I don’t know if he has been signed on or if his is just one of the names being circulated by the studio or if in fact it’s McG himself lobbying for the gig. Could be any of the three,” the site wrote.

“I double checked with a few other industry insiders and after a few phone calls they confirmed of hearing his name circling Wonder Woman as well.”
 

‘Watchmen’ Tops 3Q Sales Charts

  • News
  • November 11, 2008

watchmen-trade-paperback-6870880

ICv2

reports that graphic novels tied to feature film release saw a massive increase in third quarter sales.

“Sales of the Watchmen graphic novel exploded after the trailer hit theaters and it will clearly be the number one graphic novel of 2008, but a number of Batman-related graphic novels including The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns also showed huge increases in sales, while Mark Millar’s Wanted graphic novel published by Top Cow clearly benefited from having a hit movie adaptation,” the site noted.

As the summer features arrive on DVD for the holidays, additional trade sales are anticipated.  Marvel cannily released additional Iron Man product when the related DVD came out September 29.

Manga did not suffer according to the site’s analysis, saying “Viz Media’s shojo series Vampire Knight, the top Manga series to debut in 2007 gained strength in 2008 and Viz Media also has one of the best new series of 2008, Rosario & Vampire, but with the maturing of the Manga market, the number of new releases slated for 2009 is declining, though the quality of those new series appears to be going up.”

Top Superhero Properties–Q3 08

1 Watchmen, DC
2 Batman, DC
3 Spider-Man, Marvel
4 Wanted, Top Cow
5 League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, DC/Wildstorm
6 Iron Man, Marvel
7 Marvel Zombies, Marvel
8 Hulk, Marvel9 Superman, DC
10 Green Lantern DC

Top Genre Properties–Q3 08

1 Star Wars, Dark Horse

2 Y: The Last Man, DC/Vertigo
3 Indiana Jones, Dark Horse
4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dark Horse
5 Dark Tower, Marvel
6 Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Marvel
7 The Walking Dead, Image
8 Fables, DC/Vertigo
9 Sandman, DC/Vertigo
10 Angel, IDW

CW Drops Plans for ‘Graysons’

  • News
  • November 7, 2008

flying-graysons-3630334Fans can breathe easier now.

The CW has dropped its plans for The Graysons, which would have dramatically altered the character of Dick Grayson in stories set before he became Robin the Boy Wonder.  According to Variety, Warner Bros. Pictures president Jeff Robinov rethought the premise and decided it didn’t fit in the company’s overall plans for its DC Comics super-heroes.

With Smallville likely in its eighth and final season, the CW network was seeking a replacement series and settled on Dick Grayson.  The reimagined premise, announced on October 1, saw him growing to his mid-teens and still performing with his parents, the renowned trapeze act, the Flying Graysons. Rather than call him Dick, he was also renamed “DJ”, all of which set off alarms throughout comic book fandom.

"Warner Bros. TV never had 100% clearance," one executive told the trade.

Robinov had told The Wall Street Journal back in August that the studio wanted to create a more cohesive plan for the DCU, largely after it faltered to keep up with Marvel which this year introduced connected elements between its Iron Man and Incredible Hulk films. Among those decisions was halting the Justice League film and possibly rebooting Superman, going with a darker approach.

Christopher Nolan, talking about directions he might go with a third film in his Batman franchise, dismissed adding Robin at any time but word had it that he never gave his blessing to the CW series. The idea that having Batman in theaters and Robin on television was considered by some executives to be a mistake.  They also thought Smallville might have had something to do with Superman Returns’ poor box office.  Clearly, none of them saw the film.

The Graysons, as a result, did not fit with the plan at all.

"The studio has opted not to go forward with the development of The Graysons at this time as the concept doesn’t fit the current strategy for the Batman franchise," the studio said in a statement. "Warner Bros. Television is currently working on several replacement options for the CW."
 

Two ‘Heroes’ Go Down

  • News
  • November 3, 2008

jeph-loeb-2007-1346170If you thought Uatu’s jaw dislocation was surprising, wait until you’ve heard this one… Jeph Loeb is no longer involved with Heroes.

The producer of NBC’s television epic and the frequent comic book writer has been axed from the daily ongoings of Heroes, according to Variety. Jesse Alexander of Alias fame is also off the series, says the trade. Both Loeb and Alexander were day-to-day managers of the show under the direction of creator/executive producer Tim Kring since season one.

No reasons are listed as to why the two producers have been kicked off the show, though it’s no secret that Heroes has been disparaged since the debut of its second season. The show, now in its third year, promised a departure from the formulaic nature of its sophomore season, and with consistent critical hammering, a hardcore decision was bound to be made to save the series’ financial future. The departures of Loeb and Alexander are likely seen as moves to fit that bill.

Jeph Loeb has made a career in the super-hero industry. His graphic novels Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory, in particular, have gained him critical acclaim, as has his work on Superman: For All Seasons. He’s also known for his work on the "color-centric" comic books over at Marvel Comics, specifically Hulk: Gray, Spider-Man: Blue, Daredevil: Yellow and the forthcoming Captain America: White. Loeb, whose best known super-hero work may be his collaboration with artist Jim Lee on Batman: Hush, had been involved with Heroes from the show’s beginning.

Loeb’s frequent collaborator Tim Sale, who illustrated both much of Loeb’s comic output starting with Challengers of the Unknown, is the artist behind the show’s frequent "future-telling" paintings such as those by Isaac Mendes or the newly introduced African painter. Whether or not Loeb’s departure will influence Sale’s continued work remains to be seen.

Whether or not Heroes, which suffered poor ratings during its strike shortened second season, will be negatively effected by the apparent removal of Loeb and Alexander remains to be seen. However, given that the show should be "King of the Jungle" but has merely kept its head above water in the midst of poor ratings, a true reckoning for Heroes remains to be seen.

You’ll Believe a Routh Can Fly

  • News
  • November 1, 2008

brandon-routh2-7562218If there’s one thing that’s certain about Superman, it’s that you can never count him out of a fight. Same goes for Brandon Routh, who played the Man of Steel in Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns a few years back. Despite doing mediocre business (which, when it comes to Supes, is terrible business), the WB is still planning on resuming the franchise, albeit with a totally new direction and creative team. But Routh, as it turns out, might not be part of the cleaning house equation. The actor tells Web site IESB.net that he’s still involved, as far as he knows.

Says Routh: "[The] most recent conversation I had was with Paul [Levitz, President of DC Comics] when I was in New York and we talked about what … Warner Bros. were thinking and what the situation was and obviously, thankfully, he is still wanting me to be a part of it and I certainly want to be a part of it."

The story is corroborated by Latino Review‘s report earlier this month stating Levitz’s continued interest in Routh as Superman.

The most recent Kent, other than TV’s Tom Welling, says that he’s unaware of any story details other than what he reads in the media. Given that, he’s not exactly thrilled with the idea of a "dark Superman."

"I don’t think the character necessarily has to be darker," says Routh. "I think he is kind of dark in a sense, emotional dark, in Superman Returns, and the movie as a whole was slightly dark, they could have had more prowess in it I suppose, and I think that’s one thing that can be done in the sequel, so I don’t know how much darker you want to make it necessarily. You make the stakes higher, you make the villain darker, I think that’s a way to do it. But I don’t think Superman himself needs to be darker. He definitely has to struggle, how does Superman be a part of the world? And does he have to make sacrifices to be a part of that world? To fit in and what purpose does he really play in the world? Those are all kind of dark places to explore. But, I don’t think Superman should ever be dark and brooding, that’s not [his] nature. And that’s [not] what people [want] to see."

As for a villain for the next chapter, Routh has an idea: Brainiac.

"I think it would certainly be interesting, I think there are a lot of things you could do with Brainiac," Routh muses. "He’s been given a lot of power and a lot of different abilities over the years in the comics, as far as I understand. I know that DC is working on a Brainiac storyline that they are excited about and I think combining the two and have that flow between the comics and the movie would be a nice thing. I honestly think there are a lot of interesting things you can do with Brainiac. Controlling people, controlling technology, a lot of cool things."

It’s a widely shared sentiment that a Brainiac driven Superman film has a lot of potential. Combine Routh’s desire to see the green-skinned villain in the sequel and his indication that DC’s also on board, plus with original director Richard Donner’s plea to give Geoff Johns a shot at the screenplay, and you can bet that Mark Millar’s locked himself away in a dungeon taking the pen and eraser to his planned eight-hour Superman epic.

Routh also talks a bit about another upcoming comic book film he’s working on. He’ll be playing Dylan Dog in Dead of Night, an adaptation of Tiziano Sclavi’s Dylan Dog. According to Routh, filming should start soon.

"Well, I think we are actually going to make it now (laughing)," says Routh. "I’ve never said that before, but I will now, all the paperwork is being finalized finally and  we are looking really strong for a January, mid-January start I believe, in New Orleans. And, [director] Kevin [Munroe] and I are looking at the script again and he’s got his draft and I am excited about it."

Crisis on Infinite Mortal Kombat

  • News
  • October 30, 2008

We’ve seen a lot of cool gameplay footage showing the combat, villainous fatalities, and heroic brutalities for Midway’s upcoming Mortal Kombat Versus DC Universe. But we’ve only heard scattered reports about the story, which was massaged by comic writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. Well an official trailer has been released.

It bears a striking similarity to DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis. Mysterious force is causing two universes to merge. Champions and villains team-up to protect their reality but try to figure out what is going on. But really, is there any other way to do an inter-company crossover without the corny ‘pretending they’ve lived in the same universe all along’ route? “I’ve heard of you. Surprised we haven’t crossed paths before.”

Superman addresses the power difference problem some fans questioned. After getting kicked by Scorpion he mutters distastefully, “Magic.”

Also a nice sequence showing Superman laying the smack down on Chinese thunder god Raiden. Best watch your mouth Thor, unless you want some of that.

Review: ‘Captain Action’ #1

I know way too much about comics. Far more than is healthy. But there are, understandably, a few characters here and there that I either know very little about, either because I never really came across them or I did but found them terribly uninteresting and so dismissed them, soon forgetting what I had learned.

[[[Captain Action]]] happens to be such a character. I remembered he first appeared in the 1960s, wore a costume that resembled a futuristic police officer’s with a chest symbol that reminded me to recycle, and was based on an action figure. And that was it. I remembered nothing else. So when I was asked to review the first issue of the new Captain Action series, on sale today, I thought “Perfect. I can truly look at this as a first-time fan and objectively judge if this would be interesting to someone who has no previous knowledge of the character.”

I read it and found it to be a strange mix of too much information at once and not enough.

We begin with a [[[Superman]]]-like character called Savior. His narration explains who he is and reveals that he secretly blew up a place called A.C.T.I.O.N. Directorate. On page two, we find out that half of what we just read is a lie. This is not Savior, but a person disguised as Savior. This is our hero, Captain Action, who crashes into a statue of his father and proceeds to unleash a massive information dump on the readers in a very awkward monologue.

Apparently, there was once a hero called Captain Action (the original guy from the 1960s). The shape-shifter we’ve just met is his son, the new Captain Action, who has the ability to look like other people and copy their abilities, but only for a short time. Exactly how long he can disguise himself and how long afterward he has to wait before he mimics someone again is not made clear.

The new Captain Action wanted nothing to do with the life of a super-hero, despite his powers, but now feels forced to act since his father was killed by a group of super-heroes that an organization called A.C.T.I.O.N. had “created” to defend the Earth. What “created” means is not fully explained. The new Captain Action informs us that these heroes, Savior included, were somehow turned into sleeper agents, thus why they went rogue later. Exactly how they became sleeper agents is not explained, though a group called Red Crawl is blamed. Apparently, Red Crawl was defeated long ago and everyone believed they were dead, except for the original Captain Action. Now they’re back and causing trouble.

(more…)

Growing Out Of Comics, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • October 27, 2008

It was the very end of summer, I had just turned 11, and – heaven help me – I was just beginning to tire of comic books.

Not that I was considering getting that four-color monkey off of my back. My enthusiasm was waning. The Superman books were beginning to get silly, the Batman titles had already become silly, and Julie Schwartz’s books like The Flash and Green Lantern were beginning to feel repetitious. I had exceeded the five-year point in my comic book reading life, that moment when the publishers felt you were on your way out, trading comics for sports, girls, and/or life. Being a precocious reader, I was at that portal at an age somewhat younger than the norm, but there was no doubt about it, comics weren’t quite as exciting to me as they had been.

At that time, DC had the market on super-hero titles lock, stock and barrel. Few new titles were launched; indeed, DC’s two debut books – Showcase and The Brave and the Bold – often recycled previous unsuccessful attempts like Cave Carson: Inside Earth and the original Suicide Squad to give them another shot at the marketplace. Each run generally consisted of three issues, so at best there would be four debuts each year, and most of those (like Cave Carson and Suicide Squad) were not of the super-hero genre. Today, of course, we get four such debuts a week.

So when it came time to drive my sister to college, my father did something unique. He stopped at a drug store – one of those places that actually had a massive wooden rack plus two comics spinner racks exclusively dedicated to comic books – and told me to pick out a few for the ride, in the hope that I would not be a bother. He then dashed across the street to pick up a dozen bagels at Kaufman’s, the original one on Montrose and Kedzie in Chicago. They boasted the best bagels in the country, and they were right.

When he returned to the drug store, I had nothing. Absolutely nothing. I had read each and every superhero title in the vast expanse of rack space. Even Lois Lane.  Even the war comics, about which I was ambivalent at best, although I was not ambivalent about Joe Kubert’s art. (more…)

Interview: Todd McFarlane on the State of Comics

  • News
  • October 21, 2008

Yesterday, the first part of my interview with Spawn creator Todd McFarlane focused on issue 185 of the long-running comic and the changes in store for readers as he returns to active creative duty with Whilce Portacio and Brian Holguin.

Since part one ran, it has been announced that the shipping date has slipped a week and the issue, complete with previously unannounced variant covers, will now be in stores on October 29.

In the second part of our discussion, we chatted about approaching the big 200 mark, the comics landscape overall today and what it might look like in the future, as well as a few Spawn-related surprises.

ComicMix: With issue 200 on the horizon and the “end of Spawn” being teased, will Spawn continue past issue 200?

Todd McFarlane: Yeah, [Issue] 200 we’re already planning for. We’ve thrown enough ripples out already and that people will sort of go ‘whoa’ and have to pay attention to keep pace with it. And 200 will allow us to get to one of the big notes and it’s all sort of a Pandora’s Box; you close one door and another one opens. We’ll have a nice compelling story for 200.

CMix: The comic landscape has changed and continues to change in a lot of ways with all kinds of different formats on the shelves and walking into bookstores now with full sections devoted to trades and original graphic novels, as well as the rise of webcomics and digital formats on the Internet. What are your thoughts in general on these trends and new directions in comics as a medium?

TM: The medium of comic books, which is a combination of words and pictures, I don’t think that medium is ever going to go away. I believe what will evolve over our lifetimes and it’s been a slow evolution, is the delivery mechanism. Is it possible that some day everybody who reads a comic book will turn on a computer? I guess, but it’ll still be words and pictures, it just happens to be in digital form. The basic form of what a comic is will never die. The delivery mechanism, to me, is less important. If people want them in trade paperback, in book form, on their computers, on the back of cereal boxes, I mean, whatever, but it’d still be a comic book. So I’ll let the consumer tell us where they want to get their fix on this medium and then we’ll hopefully not be too far behind the curve and we can give it to them.

CMix: Do you see the monthly pamphlet format headed for extinction at some point as some people have suggested?

TM: It’s possible as long as someone can offset it with another business model that gets it to the consumer. Again, as long as you give people an option as to where they can get it. Change for change’s sake doesn’t make much sense. At some point, there might be an economic tipping point where you look at sales and see you’re selling 51% or more doing something a new way rather than the old way so you start putting all of your resources behind the new way like the transition from VHS to DVD at Blockbuster where [DVD] was 5% and then 10% and then it took over. If we’re going to go in that direction, I sort of see it being the same as other business models where it’ll simply be a slow transition. (more…)

‘Star Trek: Countdown’ Begins in January

  • News
  • October 21, 2008

IDW has released details about the prequel comic book miniseries leading into next May’s Star Trek reboot. Entitled Star Trek: Countdown, it will focus on Nero, the villainous Romulan played by Eric Bana and said to be seen at the film’s beginning set in Trek’s present before the time travel elements kick in and we see the familiar crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise unite for the first time.

The miniseries will be written by Mike Johnson (Superman/Batman) and Tim Jones from a story crafted by Trek director J.J. Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.  Art will come from Italian draftsman David Messina who has previously drawn for IDW’s Trek line.

Countdown launches in January and will run for four monthly issues with the trade collection already announced for April 29, just a week prior to the May 2 release of the feature film.

“[Star Trek: Countdown] is about how you connect the Next Generation era to our continuity, inspired by when we last saw Mr. Spock in ‘Unification’,” Orci told TrekMovie.com.

“I can assure you that we all (IDW and Bad Robot) are at work in order to be faithful to the spirit of Star Trek!” Messina enthusiastically posted at the site. “…and believe me, you can’t imagine how huge and picky is our ‘pre-production’ work for this book! Mike and Tim are great Star Trek fans, while even if I’m not a Trek’s guy, I’m a really great lover of Sci-Fi… I really hope that you’ll like our book, we are at work on it with great passion.”

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