Wonder Woman - 1940s

I saw these old black and white pictures of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman in the 70s TV series and started thinking....
What if Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter had been a 1940s serial like Batman, Superman or Adventures of Captain Marvel?
Could we have gotten a Justice Society of America serial?
Would superhero films have been an accepted genre in movies like westerns, comedies, science fiction and dramas?

Smallville and The Flash

You know with the rumors of getting Tom Welling to play Superman on Supergirl...this shot from Smallville kept popping into my head.
Wouldn't it be cool if the Flash team was paying a little homage there?
And wouldn't it be even cooler if it turned out to be foreshadowing?

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Pictures

Here are the new Entertainment Weekly photos from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.....

Supergirl Barbie

The Man of Steel’s cousin, Supergirl.
Kara Zor-El was created in 1959, and although she never achieved the fame of Superman, the Maid of Might has her own rabid following, and her own Barbie.
As much as I love the Barbie Wonder Woman figure, I like this one just as much.
Doesn’t she look just a little cocky?
But just why shouldn’t she be?
All the powers of Superman, plus….she's hot!

Supergirl - DC Comics

The Maid of Might, the Girl of Steel, Supergirl. Kara Zor-El was the cousin of Superman and was sent to Earth by her father and mother Zor-El and Alura to be raised by her cousin. But her capsule malfunctioned and where Kal-El made it here as an infant, Kara aged to her teenage years. Supergirl was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, debuted in 1959 and immediately made a HUGE splash. The fans loved her.

Of course the The New 52 has changed Kara quite a bit and she is no longer the happy go lucky teen she was. Thanks DC. You have a wonderful way of taking all the fun out of characters. You do realize when EVERYONE is as grim and dark as Batman, he won't be special anymore right?

Anyway, Kara as a Kryptonian has the full powers of Superman. But Kara may be even more powerful than her cousin. Superman has spent a lifetime holding back and trying not to hurt people or damage things with his powers. Kara has not had that benefit/holding back. When she cuts loose...she really cuts loose.

If you forget the 1984 film, Supergirl has fared pretty well in the media outside comics. She was good in Superman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited, both times voiced by Nicholle Tom. She also did quite well in Smallville, with Laura Vandervoort playing a live action version of Supergirl. And if you wanna see a really fun Supergirl, check out the Super Best Friends Forever shorts DC made which should have been turned into a series.

Supergirl also appeared in the animated DC films, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse and Superman: Unbound and now she is getting her own CBS TV show.

Justice League: War - DC Universe Animated Original Movies

Yes I finally got around to watching "Justice League: War".
And yes I know it took me long enough.
I liked it.

It wasn't "Under The Red Hood" or "Justice League: Flashpoint Paradox" by any means.
But I hope the Justice League live action movie is at least similar to this.

Read More Here:
Justice League: War Review
http://www.bubblews.com/news/2872049-justice-league-war-review

New Man of Steel Photos

Still really not crazy about the dark suit.
Are bright colors copyrighted by Marvel now?

More pictures here:
http://geekleagueofamerica.com/2013/04/11/zod-and-faora-revealed-in-new-man-of-steel-photos/

Justice League: Doom

Have you seen the trailer for Justice League: Doom?
If you haven't, here it is....

What make this so amazing is that for this film, they got the band back together!

You have Kevin Conroy as Batman, Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, Michael Rosenbaum as the The Flash, Carl Lumbly as Martian Manhunter and Superman: The Animated Series' Tim Daly as Superman and instead George Newbern which I'm kinda on the fence about.

Also they wont be having John Stewart's GL, but they will have Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan.

And one thing that makes me VERY happy is that Phil Bourassa (Young Justice) is doing the character designs.

Henry Cavill, The Man of Steel

Since I have been doing so much with the upcoming Marvel movies, here is Henry Cavill, the British actor that will be the Man of Steel in Superman: Man of Steel.
Zack Snyder is directing and the film will be released in theaters in December 2012.

Smallville Season 10

For all it's up and downs, I have hung in there with Smallville and it finally looks like that it's paying off.
Hey, it only took ten years.
I loved last season (season 9), and this final season could be even better.
I say "could" because I have seen Smallville really fumble the ball more than once.

Yeah I know that Smallville goes way off Superman canon, but a long time ago I accepted this as an alternate reality Superman story, so I really dont have a problem with the show.

But this season looks promising with a ton of guest stars including...

Michael Shanks as Hawkman
Sahar Biniaz as Hawkgirl
Bradley Stryke as Deadshot
The return of Aquaman (Alan Ritchson)
The return of Kara/Supergirl (Laura Vandervoort)
Erica Cerra (as Isis?)
Darkseid (?)
Lex Luthor (?)
A great "stunt cast" with Terri Hatcher as Lois Lane's mother

...and many more.

And I'm guessing we will finally get to see Clark put on the red and blue suit, probably in the last few seconds of the series finale.

Smallville Season 10, posted to http://comic-kingdom.blogspot.com/ on September 23rd, 2010

Superman in Smallville

Well I was going to start this out by presenting the opening clip for the Smallville season 9 finale last week.
But when I went to YouTube to get it, I was given the customary :

"This video contains content from Warner Bros. Entertainment, who has blocked it on copyright grounds."

Way to promote the show guys!
Seeing what was possibly one of the best Smallville openings ever wouldn't bring in any fans would it?
I mean, they were stealing the whole show right?
Not just giving a teaser that would maybe get more people to watch, or catch up on what they have missed to get to this point.

Now that I'm done with my tirade, I have to admit, the opening of the season finale was as "squee-worthy" as Absolute Justice.
If you recorded it and can do a high quality stop, frame by frame, you actually get to see The Man of Steel himself save a plane.

Over at the IMDb Smallville message board, SaintSpidey67-El posted a stop frame image captured from the plane save (click on the picture for the full size version)...



So thanks to SaintSpidey67-El for making like Superman and saving the day!

NYPD Arrests Superman While Batman Bears Witness - Asylum.com

NYPD Arrests Superman While Batman Bears Witness - Asylum.com:

"About a month and a half ago, New York City closed a section of Times Square to traffic -- partly to create a more kid-friendly environment. Little did they know that this new outdoor space would provide the backdrop for a disturbingly violent encounter between New York City's finest and DC comics' World's Finest.

Maskim Katsnelson and Frank Frisoli are street entertainers who perform as Superman and Batman, respectively. They were doing an interpretive dance to the theme from the Superman movies last week, when cops confronted the two about not having a permit to play amplified music."

Superman is Real?

If you follow my blogs you know how much I like weird.
Well ladies and gentlemen, this is probably the pinnacle...

The Myth of Superman
By Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers

About a decade ago, Alvin Schwartz, who wrote Superman comic strips in the 1940s and ‘50s, published one of the great Odd Books of our time. In An Unlikely Prophet, reissued in paperback this spring, Schwartz writes that Superman is real. He is a tulpa, a Tibetan word for a being brought to life through thought and willpower. Schwartz also says a Hawaiian kahuna told him that Superman once traveled 2,000 years back in time to keep the island chain from being destroyed by volcanic activity. Maybe it happened, maybe it didn’t, but it does sound like a job for Superman – all in a day’s work for a guy who can squeeze coal into diamonds. Schwartz then tells of his own encounter with Superman in a New York taxi, when he learned firsthand that Superman’s cape is, in fact, more than mere fabric.

Full story here:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/myth.html


You know I mentioned before about people dressing up as superheroes.
Well what if they don't have to?
Remember this?
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\09\21\story_21-9-2007_pg9_9

One Extreme Or The Other.....

It doesn't have to go this far...

As I kinda feared, Watchmen opened well, but the box office dropped suddenly.
Is this the death knell of comic book movies?
Hardly.
You cannot compare Watchmen to say Batman or Iron Man or Spiderman.
I don't think you will see product tie-ins like with the "colorful" superheroes.
Can you imagine a Rorschach Happy Meal?
Or a Comedian dress up set?
Nope, kids aren't supposed to emulate the Watchmen.
It's an adult story.
But Batman, The Hulk, Wolverine, now there are your commercial tie ins.
I think the movie industry had better think twice before "darkening" the more popular heroes.
The Dark Knight was just about as far as Hollywood needs to go and stay profitable.

Actually I keep wondering if we may be looking at a backlash soon.
I watch "Batman: The Brave and The Bold" and I love it.
It's not the dark brooding Batman. It's the 50s and 60s detective with gadgets.
But he's still bad.
They show a lighter Batman, but I don't get it confused with the Dark Knight.
BTW, I absolutely loved Batman: The Animated Series and I think both cartoons work, just on different levels.

Maybe we are making our heroes too dark.
Some of course, it suits.
But a darker, edgier Fantastic Four?
Heck, lets just get Frank Miller to do the Power Puff Girls.
Lets make it all so dark and bloody and gory that you really can't tell the heroes from the bad guys without a scorecard.

We need the dark avengers like Bats and the Punisher.
But we also need the "boy scouts".
I know I seem to keep harping on this, but I feel pretty strongly about it.

Maybe I'm schizophrenic since I liked Watchmen and The Rocketeer.
I like Batman AND Superman.

But there has to be a middle ground.
And no it's not Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin.

Superhero Top Ten. Who's More Popular? Superman...Batman?

Back in the old days, all we had to determine comic book superhero popularity was sales.
Now we have the Interweb!
And I tell you, doing some research on who is the most popular comic book character is a little strange.

1. Batman
Of course with the awesome movie and dying (what..twice recently?) I figured this would happen.
2. Robin
Robin? The Boy Hostage? He hasn't even been in a good movie. Unless you count the amazing "Grayson" fan film.
3. Spiderman
Even Obama couldnt help Spidey get up over Bats.
4. Superman
Superman Returns....meh
5. Iron Man
The movie rocked, no question.
6. X-Men
Through ups and downs, bad and good, I've always considered The X-Men to be Marvel's flagship.
7. The Incredible Hulk
Second movie was decent. And the Hulk stirs that "Forget logic, I just wanna pound something" feeling we all get from time to time.
8. Wolverine
He goes anywhere from maniac with razor sharp blades to Byronic hero. And he has a movie coming out.
9. Watchmen
I really expected them to be higher.
10. Wonder Woman
One of DC comics Trinity. And if they EVER finally make a movie.......

Notice that with the exception of Robin, and maybe Wonder Woman, all of these have movie tie ins?

Obama, Spiderman and Batman

With the sales of the Obama/Spiderman book doing so well and "The Dark Knight" raking in awards, 2009 looks like it's off to a good start for the comic book industry.

Amazing Spider-Man #583 with President Obama and Spiderman sold out, so another run is scheduled to hit comic book stores on Wednesday.
The Jan. 21 issue will have a variant cover.

The Dark Knight has already garnered tons of awards and nominations. Now everyone is looking at the Oscars and waiting.
On January 23rd, The Dark Knight will be re-released to stir up even more Oscar buzz.
Could the late Heath Ledger get an Oscar nomination? He's already won a posthumous Golden Globe award for his portrayal of the Joker.
A comic book movie getting an Oscar?
Even if that doesn't pan out, there's Iron Man in the special effects catagory.
Comic book movies (plural this time) getting Oscars?
And let's not forget Wolverine is hosting the show.

I checked out Grant Morrison's website (I like Grant. He is one person I would really LOVE to sit down and talk to) and Grant not only raved about The Dark Knight, but he said he thinks the movie screen is the future of Super Heroes.

I have to agree with him, but I'm biased because I can't actually say there has been a comic book based movie I have hated.
Okay, not counting the Superman movies after 2, and the dread Joel Schumacher Batman Forever.
And the Dolph Lundgren Punisher.
Okay. I've liked MOST of the Comic Book Movies.
What scares me is that if The Dark Knight does well in the Oscars, the movie studios will just start tossing out Super Hero movies left and right.

But here is my question.
Who is going to create the first all original superhero, make a movie and turn that character into an icon?
A non comic book based superhero that captures the imagination and reaches the Spiderman, Batman, Superman level?

Laurel Gand / Andromeda - DC Comics

Laurel Gand, sometimes known as Andromeda, is a character in the future of the DC Comics universe, and a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
She was created as a replacement for Supergirl in post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Legion continuity, because they killed Supergirl.
Andromeda was also inspired by elements of Superman's supposed descendant Laurel Kent, who was revealed to be a Manhunter android in the post-Crisis, pre-Zero Hour continuity.
She was in Superman: The Animated Series, in the episode "New Kids In Town".

I like the costume and all, but all these future time lines and alternate reality superheroes are kinda confusing to me.
Oh for the Silver Age days, when all we had to contend with was Earth 2.
I keep thinking that if Marvel and DC keep going, the entire Earth will be populated with super beings and they'll be no one else left to rescue.

DC Comics

DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company. A subsidiary of Warner Bros. Entertainment (part of Time Warner) since 1969, DC is one of the world's largest English language publisher of comic books. DC Comics produces material featuring a large number of well-known characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and their teammates in the Justice League, who are among the medium's most popular and influential.

DC Comics was founded as National Allied Publications in 1934 by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. The initials "DC" were originally an abbreviation for the company's popular title Detective Comics, and later became the official name. DC has been successively headquartered at different areas of New York City, including: 432 Fourth Avenue; 480 and later 575 Lexington Avenue; 909 Third Avenue; 75 Rockefeller Plaza; 666 Fifth Avenue; and 1325 Avenue of the Americas. DC moved to 1700 Broadway in the mid-1990s, relocating there with Warner Bros. Entertainment's Mad, which had moved from 485 Madison Avenue.

The corporation is an amalgamation of several companies. National Allied Publications was founded by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in 1934 to publish New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine #1 (Feb. 1935), later known as More Fun. This groundbreaking comic book was the first such periodical consisting solely of original material rather than reprints of newspaper comic strips. Retitled New Fun after the first issue, it was a tabloid-sized, 10-inch by 15-inch, 36-page magazine with a paper, non-glossy cover. Issue #6 (Oct. 1935) brought the comic book debut of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the future creators of Superman, who began their careers with the musketeer swashbuckler "Henri Duval" and, under the pseudonyms "Leger and Reuths", the supernatural crimefighting adventures of "Doctor Occult".( Doctor Occult is the earliest character created by DC Comics still currently in use in its shared universe fiction.) Wheeler-Nicholson added a second magazine, New Comics, which premiered with a Dec. 1935 cover date and at a size close to what would become comic books' standard size during the period fans and historians call the Golden Age, with slightly larger dimensions than today's. That title evolved into Adventure Comics, which continued through issue #503 in 1983, becoming one of the longest-running comic book series.

His third and final title was Detective Comics, advertised with a cover illustration dated Dec. 1936, but eventually premiering three months late, with a March 1937 cover date. The themed anthology series would become a sensation with the introduction of Batman in issue #27 (May 1939). By then, however, Wheeler-Nicholson was gone. In 1937, in debt to printing-plant owner and magazine distributor Harry Donenfeld — who was as well a pulp-magazine publisher and a principal in the magazine distributorship Independent News — Wheeler-Nicholson was compelled to take Donenfeld on as a partner in order to publish Detective #1. Detective Comics, Inc. was formed, with Wheeler-Nicholson and Jack S. Liebowitz, Donenfeld's accountant, listed as owners. Major Wheeler-Nicholson remained for a year, but cash-flow problems continued, and he was forced out. Shortly afterward, Detective Comics Inc. purchased the remains of National Allied, also known as Nicholson Publishing, at a bankruptcy auction.

Detective Comics Inc. shortly launched a fourth title, Action Comics, the premiere of which introduced Superman (a character with which Wheeler-Nicholson was not directly involved; editor Vin Sullivan chose to run the feature after Sheldon Mayer rescued it from the slush pile). Action Comics #1 (June 1938), the first comic book to feature the new character archetype soon to be called superheroes, proved a major sales hit and ushered in the period fans and historians call Golden Age of comic books. The company quickly introduced such other popular characters as Sandman and Batman.



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IGN: Superman on Trial

IGN: Superman on Trial:

"October 1, 2007 - An ongoing lawsuit over the rights to the characters of Superman and Superboy could have a far-reaching impact on Warner Bros.' small and big-screen incarnations of the DC Comics characters."

The Superhero as Society’s Mirror, From World War II to Iraq

The Superhero as Society’s Mirror, From World War II to Iraq
By GEORGE GENE GUSTINES
Published: July 14, 2007

MONTCLAIR, N.J., July 11 — Michael E. Uslan is a lifelong comic-book fan, but “crusader” might be more accurate. For years, Mr. Uslan, a film producer (“Batman Begins,” among others), has collected comics and original art, written books about the industry and produced movies about his muscled and macabre childhood heroes.

full story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/14/arts/design/14comi.html?ref=design


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