The above-the-cut news has to be that THE D.C. CRISES ON infinite earth FINALS never HAPPENED! Kinda.
DC Comics publisher Dan Didio Facebooked on Tweeter or Tweeted on Facebook or something that “there have been no crisis events in the new DCU.” Some fanboys are all pissed off because, like, those were such big events, and, hey, they’re still on my shelf so they must have happened! Me, I say: The Crises pretty much all sucked, so good riddance. My only question: Batman is supposed to have his whole grant Morrison history intact, and he died during a Crisis, so…Riddle me that, Danny boy. then he clarified later that there “have been ‘crisis’ in our characters lives, but they aren’t exactly the crisis you read before.” Which basically means we can expect DC’s next summer event to be a new Crisis. Sigh. So much for the new 52. meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Hit the cut.
MARK MILLAR movies will fill THE SUMMER! starting with wanted 2. The movie wasn’t anything like (or anywhere near as cool as) the comic (by mark Millar and J.G. Jones), but the movie was pretty damn fun—at least I thought so. and now there’s going to be a confirmed sequel. and while he’s at it, Millar has hinted at several other movie projects based on his comic book properties. Millar isn’t as good a writer as he used to be, but he’s responsible for some of the most influential comics of the past 10 years—so I’m happy to see him succeeding. In other Millar news, he’s finally publishing issue #5 of superior (a Shazam-like story of a boy with multiple sclerosis who becomes Superman), just in time for Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, X-Men: first Class) to buy the rights. Yes, this is the same Matthew Vaughn who proclaimed the superhero movie “dead” just before this last summer. and just because Millar can do no wrong, he’s also sold the rights to Nemesis (one of his weaker comics, in my view—great premise, terrible execution) to Tony Scott, and his not-yet-released-superhero-heist comic, Supercrooks, will be directed by Nacho Vigalondo.
FEAR ITSELF #6. …..Aaaaaaaand the series finally gets its groove on. great issue. This “Captain America using guns” issue is an example of how the movies can make marvel better—Cap’s a soldier. Why on earth wouldn’t he use guns?! He’s not Batman, for goodness sake. If the enemy is worth killing, it’s worth killing right. So I had no problem with that. I could have done without the cursing (Cap says “bitch” and Thor says “ass”), but what the Hell, right?
JUSTICE LEAGUE: DOOM. I’ve been pretty happy with DC’s animated DVDs. The green lantern one was much better than the movie, and the All star Superman DVD was fantastic. the latest announced project will be a JLA feature with several of the voice actors from DC’s wonderful “Justice league Unlimited” series. It will be based on mark Waid’s “Tower of Babel” story arc, which features the villainy of Ra’s Al Ghul—he gets his hands on Batman’s secret plans to destroy each individual JLA member (should they ever turn bad), and sets about implementing said plans. Hilarity ensues. We’re looking at a 2012 release date.
WOLVERINE’S X-MEN TEAM. It’ll be Nightcrawler (or some kind of thing (or things) that look like Kurt), Beast, Kitty Pryde, kid Omega, Iceman and Oya, with Lockheed and some guys I don’t recognize. The art will be by Chris Bachalo, whose Spider-Man work I loved but who, in my opinion, isn’t really right for X-Men. too whimsical. Anyway, the first arc, by Jason Aaron, will feature the new Hellfire Club. and Logan will be the headmaster of another new school: The Jean GreySchool for higher Learning.” None of this sounds remotely interesting.
THOR 2. marvel Studios is courting Patty Jenkins (director of the ugly-Charlize-Theron vehicle, “Monster”) for the sequel.
SUPER HERO SQUAD. Marvel’s “kids” cartoon that’s actually much cooler for grown ups will return at 7am(!) on cartoon Network, on October 3. like prior seasons, there’ll be some fringe-like characters—they released stills of the man thing and Werewolf by Night. very cool.
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES…AND SO DOES SCARECROW. Cillian Murphy has been seen on set for Christopher Nolan’s final Batman movie.
NOW THAT’S A rock ‘EM SOCK ‘EM ROBOT MOVIE. I’ll sit out on real Steel and wait for Pacific Rim, currently filming under the direction of Guillermo del Toro. It’s a futuristic movie about remote controlled robots fighting sea monsters starring Idris “Thor” Elba, Charlie “It’s always Sunny in Philadelphia” Day, Diego “Homeland” KlattenhoffI, Willem “Spider-Man” Defoe, and many others. Yeah, it sounds cool. but I’d still rather see Hellboy 3.
BATMAN INCORPORATED: LEVIATHAN STRIKES. The last grant Morrison Batman series (coming in 2012), is half-way completed, and Morrison has revealed the plot: Batman is locked into a “mind control facility” that was used during the cold War. I can’t wainull