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Comic Rack: Marvel Now!, ‘Chew’ Writer Getting His Dark Knight On, And A Vertigo Event?

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Welcome to Comic Rack! My pick of the top five comic news stories in no particular order.

Marvel NOW! is still totally not the NEW 52…

Marvel, not content to see DC’s renewed success with their New 52 lineup, is approaching their status quo in the universe with a focus on relaunched titles, renewed book numbering, and reshaping the entire current landscape of the Marvel Universe. The idea, as far as I can tell, is that the new books are meant to jump start things in a new direction, without actually rebooting anything a la DC. All the insistence of the whole thing not being a reboot seems a bit pedantic to me, but I understand that they’re trying really hard to differentiate from DC in their objective. While it sounds fishy at first, the main distinction is that old continuity will NOT be forgotten, effectively making the whole re-launch just a company wide creative shake up. A few notable creative teams being moved around were listed on CBR:

“Uncanny Avengers” by Rick Remender and John Cassaday starring a team composed of Captain America, Wolverine and others from the company’s two powerhouse franchises battling the mutant-hating Red Skull.

“All New X-Men” by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen realigning the mutant team in the wake of “AvX” as the original five X-Men are mysteriously brought to the present day. This title will launch in November.

“Avengers” by Jonathan Hickman and Jerome Opena, which is light on specific details aside from a roster of 18 heroes in a bi-weekly comic that seems to be Hickman-esque rethinking of the Avengers core mission in the vein of the writer’s “Fantastic Four” run.

Along with that, is also a number of titles coming to a conclusion, to make way for other newer titles, or similarly titled relaunches of the same books. A list of the series ending this October, comes from Newsarama:

Captain America, The Mighty Thor, Incredible Hulk, Invincible Iron Man, Fantastic Four, FF,Uncanny X-Men, New Mutants and X-Men Legacy are all ending in October…

It kinda goes without saying though, that the lot of those will get picked back up by other creative teams and go on. Most comic fans I’ve talked to don’t seem too excited about the relaunch, or what is going on in Marvel NOW.  The main sentiment is that they’ve done this re-numbering thing a bunch of times, and don’t see how this is any different. While there ARE certain differences, what with creative focuses being changed, the cosmic characters coming into a larger limelight, and Uncanny X-Men flat out ending, I’m finding it hard to exactly say WHY this relaunch was warranted, other than “DC did a reboot, lets copy it but not really”. Marvel has never really had the weird, long, confusing continuity problems DC had, and while sure, it had it’s share of inconsistencies and retcons, it was nowhere near as broken as DC.

I suppose the good thing is that all the new Marvel fans from the movies will be happy that they’re soon get a solid jumping on point. I remember a friend of mine who loved the Iron Man movie but never read a Iron Man comic before, and when he entered a comic shop, was utterly confused and overwhelmed by the 5 different Iron Man titles going on at that time. And who could blame him? Getting into comics is hard for a newbie, but Marvel better stick to its guns, because you can’t just re-number everything every two years and pretend like you’re making it “easier” for new readers to jump on. Marvel Now! is a good idea, just like the New 52 was a good idea, but they gotta commit.

For more Marvel Now! news, head over to CBR.

‘Chew’ Writer John Layman Brought On For ‘Detective Comics’!

I once had the pleasure of meeting John Layman at my LCS before Chew really blew up as the success it now is, and can say he is absolutely a completely nice guy, and a bit of a nut bar. While he’s known for his sense of humor, what with the very funny Chew and Mars Attacks, I believe a guy like him can definitely hold his own in a dramatic workspace. I’ve long advocated that Comedy and Drama are two sides of the same coin, and that the talent needed to be good at one is the same needed to be good at the other. While some may balk at the idea of a silly, less serious Batman at the hands of Layman, his recent interview with CBR points otherwise:

CBR: Batman, traditionally, is a pretty straight shooter. I mean, he’s the Dark Knight for a reason. “Chew” and “Mars Attack” are both really funny. Are you bringing the bwa-ha-ha to “Detective”?

Layman: It’s not going to be a comedy and I am not going to treat the character with disrespect, but I don’t think it’s going to be as heavy as some of the other series. Scott Snyder does fantastic Batman stories, but he’s got more of a horror writer background and it shows. This is a delicate question. I don’t want it to sound like I am making Batman into a wuss, but I would like to concentrate on more of the detective part of the character. I want to make very smart, surprising stories and make them a little bit more adventure-y rather than horror.

CBR: And if you go back to early Bob Kane Bruce Wayne/Batman, that’s what he was. “The World’s Greatest Detective.”

Layman: But that’s not to say that I’m going to make it goofy. I just don’t think the body count will be as high. I don’t know. I am just going to have some fun and be true to Batman.

Now I love my Scott Snyder horror style Batman, but I’ve LONG loved to see Batman portrayed as the Super Sleuth he used to be. It’s even one of my few criticisms of Nolan’s Batman from the films. Batman’s super power is his mind, he’s there with a plan for everything, and is always 10 Bat-Steps ahead of everyone else at every moment. Too many people focus on his darkness and brooding and forget what range his character can really have, and seeing Layman specifically mention he wants to make surprising, lighter adventure stories, is a breath of fresh air. Plus, if we’re lucky, we’ll get to see Joker be funny again. Darkly humorous Joker is the best Joker, by far. Go Layman!

DC Execs Hint at Vertigo Event!!!

DC right now has a pretty big ball rolling. They’ve got the Third Army/Green Lantern Event, The Swamp Thing/Animal Man crossover, and Before Watchmen all going at once in the concurrent months ahead. Not content to be settled with just that though, they’ve gone and subtly hinted that yet another event is planned, this time to be revealed at the SDCC Vertigo Panel (we’ll have more on this later), which I now really wish I was attending.

Nrama: Are there any plans for an event related to the Vertigo line? It seems like that line is being left out of the excitement with all this New 52 stuff.

Wayne: You should definitely check out our Vertigo panel in San Diego next week. My colleague, Mr. Cunningham, is going to moderate, but I’ll be in the back.

Nrama: So for those of our readers who aren’t going to San Diego, are you saying there’s an announcement about an event coming during the Vertigo panel? And I did say “event,” which you didn’t correct, so you’re going along with that word?

Wayne: We’re not going to tell you any more than that. [Newsarama]

What could that mean? What exactly would a Vertigo event entail? Are we gonna get John Constantine fighting that I, Zombie girl? Or holy hell, is The Unwritten going to crossover into main DC continuity, and create the biggest double reverse mega-meta-mind f*** of all time? I’ve no clue what they could be meaning by a potential Vertigo event, but hot damn am I curious. My mind is reeling with possibilities, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Black Lightning & Blue Devil Make Their New 52 Appearance!

Supascoot here, treading on other people’s articles again. While there are a lot of characters who have yet to show up in the New 52, news has recently been released that brings two longtime heroes into the New 52. But there’s a twist. it looks like the two heroes are actually going to be a new duo premiering in the pages of DC Universe Presents written by Marc Andreyko with art by Robson Rocha. CBR sat down with Andreyko for the full scoop:

CBR News: I understand you’re using both Black Lightning and Blue Devil. My first question then is the most basic one: what is your story about and why use these two characters?

Marc Andreyko: Well, the story originated after WonderCon; I was at Disneyland with [DC Comics Co-Publisher] Dan DiDio, and we were talking and he mentioned the concept of Black and Blue — Black Lightning and Blue Devil. This was just in passing as we were waiting in line for rides, and then I kept bugging him about it and the ideas just started flying. It’s a grand tradition in entertainment, literature and films of two people who are complete opposites becoming friends in spite of themselves, whether it’s Maddie and David on “Moonlighting” or Felix and Oscar on “The Odd Couple,” or even Bert and Ernie on “Sesame Street!” So the idea of taking these two characters, one who was explicitly magic-based and one who was explicitly not, added metaphorically to the differences they had. The book is taking place in Los Angeles, and we’re not starting with an origin story. We’re starting with these guys having already been established. It’ll leave unanswered questions to how they got where they are, which I always find interesting. Most of us don’t pick up comic books with the very first issue, at least originally. You start in the middle of the storyline and then you fill in the details retroactively as you go. I think that adds to the intricacy and interest of a character.

Now you said that the two are essentially an odd-couple pairing — how do they work as foils for each other?

In the story, personality-wise, Jefferson Pierce is an Olympic-level athlete, so for him the training and discipline begets power, whether that’s athletic power or honing his lightning skills. Magic to him is kind of foreign because magic tends not to be from A to B to C — magic is sometimes A to C and then all around. So Blue Devil’s very powers are contrary to the way Jefferson thinks and the way Jefferson lives his life. Jefferson is a very focused guy. You have to be to be an Olympic athlete. You have to have discipline and training. Dan comes from a Hollywood family and has always been this kind of guy who glides through life, taking jobs when he needs them and then, when the money runs out, taking another one. Magic sort of extrapolates on his persona. The conflict there is both personality-wise and super-powers.

The original Blue Devil was a Hollywood stuntman who was magically fused to his suit. In your take on him, are you losing the lighter, comedy aspect to his character?

Oh no, not at all! These guys are definitely Riggs and Murtaugh from “Lethal Weapon.” No, Dan is definitely the lighter one, the jokey-er one. Once again, going back to another pop culture reference, he’s Bruce Willis to Black Lightning’s Cybill Shepherd — without the romance!

Then what is the tone of the story overall? Is this going to be a light-hearted buddy comedy? A more serious superhero story?

The answer to that is actually yes to both. I don’t think one excludes the other. For me, the best dramas always have moments of comedy in them because they allow you to diffuse some of the intensity and dire things that happen. If something is too grim all the way through, it becomes white noise, and if it’s too comedy, it feels superficial. The comedy in these stories comes organically from the characters and the situations they’re in; there aren’t going to be pratfalls and cream pies or that sort of thing. It’s not putting jokes in and reverse engineering a story out of them — it’s the jokes and comedy coming out of story itself. There will definitely be stakes and high drama and there will definitely be tragedy involved, but once again I think having lighter moments only add to the intensity of more serious moments.

Definitely an interesting take on the characters, and it leads us to believe that with the de-aging of Black Lightning his two grown up hero daughters (Thunder & Lightning) will have no place in the New 52. I was never a huge fan of Blue Devil, but Black Lightning has certainly always been at the forefront of the DC Universe, and I am looking forward to reading more on the new versions.

A ‘Death Of The Family’ For Batman?

One thing that even the most avid anti-DC fan has to admit, is that they’ve been pulling off entertaining Batman stories. You could argue about which are the best, but generally I think everyone agrees that as of now, Scott Snyder has been knocking Batman out of the park. His run on Batman has been gripping, creative, and really creepy with each issue, and it only looks like it’s gonna ramp up considerably with his planned Joker centric story arc, “Death Of The Family.” Back in Detective Comics #1, we saw Joker willingly lose his face to the Dollmaker, and in subsequent issues be kept as a bizarre relic, pinging with ominous foreshadowing every time It was shown again. Now we’re going to finally get some payoff from that incredible moment, and Scott Snyder’s excellent blend of creepy sauce and creativity is gonna give us a Joker that we’re all dying to see. Snyder talks about his take on Joker, over at CBR:

CBR News: The last we saw of Joker in the New 52, he had literally gotten his face peeled off by Dollmaker, and the promo image for your storyline showcases his skinned face. Is the peeling off of the Joker’s face going to be touched on and explained in your story?

Scott Snyder: That’s an element you’ll definitely see addressed and explained and built on in this story. When Tony [Daniel] was working on that, he brought it up to me and I knew there was a story that I wanted to tell with Joker that would trail out of that. So that’s something that will play a big part in terms of Joker’s look, but also his whole psychology.

CBR: Let’s talk about that psychology, because Joker’s been everything from an evil mastermind to someone who is absolutely, clinically insane. What’s your take on the Clown Prince of Crime?

Snyder: For this story, we really wanted this to be Joker at his most unleashed and vengeful; this Joker has an axe to grind and a point to prove. He’s gone away for a year for a very deliberate reason. During that year, he sort of set all of his traps and sharpened his knives and he’s ready to come back to Gotham and make his point to Batman and the Batman family. He has a very strong mission in mind and he’s very passionate about what he wants to prove to Batman this time around, and it’s really twisted and dark and unpleasant.

While that’s one of the more interesting parts from the interview, the whole thing is totally worth reading. The story arc’s title is also certainly ominous as well, as the ‘Death Of The Family’ probably isn’t a literal title, but more figurative. Will the Joker drive a wedge between the established pantheon of Batman and Co? I imagine if so, it’ll cross over into Batman Inc as well. The whole thing has me asking questions and eagerly anticipating the book to come out already, so I can get my grubby mitts on it and read it. All in all guys, it’s looking like a great year ahead for Batman fans.

And that’s it for this edition of Comic Rack! You can read more here!
Check back soon for the CCI 2012 edition of Comic Rack!
Movie News & Opinions

‘Amazing Spider-Man’ Does Well, Also the Sky Is Blue

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In the least surprising story from over 4th of July weekend, The Amazing Spider-Man decided to destroy everyone in its path on its way to a $140 million dollar tally in North America, and a total worldwide tally of $341 million dollars according to EW and various other sources. Obviously the chatter is high on this movie about the future because  possible sequels, and that ending. In fact, no one will shut up about theories on the ending. We will obviously leave that last because it will be spoilerish if you have not seen the movie yet so let us tackle the movie future of Spidey.

Trilogies are the thing these days and you know that the new Spider-Man will follow in the same footsteps as Tobey and Sam Raimi. According to GammaSquad and FilmDrunk, looks like we are heading that way. It was already thrown on the official Facebook page that the movie would be the first in the trilogy, and obviously I believe everything on Facebook (seriously, that bitch should dump that asshole for posting that status about her), but even the producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach are definitely in the mood to raise the bar. 

Sinister Six? I mean if The Avengers can do the hero version, why can’t Sony just throw the villain version their one Marvel property that does not star Will Smith (MiB for those that forgot about the Malibu/Marvel buyout)? But a trilogy that leads to six villains who will not (and should not because of the title of the movie) get the same setup that Avengers did with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America might be a bit ambitious. Don’t get me wrong, if you can throw Doc Ock, Vulture, Mysterio, Kraven, Sandman, Rhino, Electro, Hydro, or whoever they want to fill their lineup, that will make for some damn good action sequences. But Spider-man against the six seems almost overkill. I am still smarting from seeing Franco, Spidey, Venom, and Sandman battling out on the silver screen, and having a bored and unimpressed taste in my mouth. Then again, Avengers pulled it off so that’s the reasoning in Hollywood. If they did it, we can too! Hence 80% of the productions in Hollywood being sequels or reboots.

Regardless, check those links out above for the full interviews but Avi Arad reeks of movie producer and looks sleazy so I am more entertained by that image of him being part of the Sinister Six. The part of him being the one that exploits Spider-man and bleeds him of any financial profits and culture importance until they are forced to reboot six years later because ‘Venom played by Eric Forman’ was a shitty idea. Speaking of, Venom is happening and shockingly, it will be tied into the Spider-man universe. Again, obviously nothing to do with the success of The Avengers and the producers swimming in a vault of gold coins. Please do not mess Venom up. A great character, but if Garfield struts down the street as the evil Fonzie then I will scream for a reboot. Again. For the 3rd time.

Okay, now that is out of the way, let us jump into the ending. First off, stop if you have not seen the movie. If you go further, you suck as a human being because you are depriving yourself of a good movie. Actually, no you are not. The spoiler ending is pretty much telling you exactly nothing and let us be honest, who here thought Spider-man would lose to the dude from Notting Hill posing for paparazzi in his skivvies? Anyways, when Dr. Connors is locked in his cell, we see a shadowy figure appear out of nowhere with Dr. Connors trying to make sure Peter Parker remains out of the grand scheme of plans that Oscorp may be up to. But who is it has been burning up the intraweb lately. We can ask Dr. Connors himself thanks to GammaSquad via AICN, although whether he’s a credible source remains to be seen.

Capone: Okay, what do you think about that ending?

Rhys Ifans: Well, Connors is basically locked up in a very high-security mental institution.

Capone: We were debating whether it was a prison or a mental institute.

RI: It’s not a zoo. [laughs] I kept seeing it as maybe a mixture of both. Then a representative from OsCorp appears miraculously in the room. How he gets in there and how he leaves, we don’t know. Maybe we will find out. But it’s not Norman Osborn.

Capone: It’s not? You can say that?

RI: Yeah. But it is someone who is in the employ of Norman Osborn without question.

Capone: Someone we’re familiar with, who we don’t know is employed by Osborn?

RI: Yeah.

So supposedly, it is not Norman Osborn. Of course not, that would imply he got better from whatever debilitating illness he had been suffering. So it is someone of his own employ. We can all speculate and I did myself before seeing that part of the interview. I was thinking Vulture because he was an older man and it would seem to fit that path. Although if it is not Malkovich doing the Vulture, I am not interested at all. Regardless, we shall see. We will see a Green Goblin appearance later down the line whoever that may be in the same prison cell because…well…Gwen Stacy is involved. And we all know what happens there. Or at least the cool people do…

Movie News & Opinions

Movement on Edgar Wright’s ‘Ant-Man’ Movie?

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So the Ant-Man movie, I’m hearing mixed reviews all over the shop about this flick. People are excited about the prospect of another Edgar Wright movie, but don’t seem pleased that it’s a film about a guy who talks to ants and shrinks down really small. ‘Ant-Man’ was a founding member of ‘the Avengers’ in the Marvel Universe, and has been through many revamps (the most recent been him taking on the costume and name of his deceased ex-wife and having a strange relationship with a robot that has his dead wife’s memories!).

Continue reading Movement on Edgar Wright’s ‘Ant-Man’ Movie? →

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Comic Rack: Marvel’s Relaunch, The Joker Returns, & The Flash’s New Origin Connects to Flashpoint?

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Welcome to Comic Rack! My pick of the top five comic news stories in no particular order.

Marvel Pulling A New 52?

A post-AvX Marvel world is beginning to be planned out, and with any major plans the Big 2 make, they inevitably will find ways to copy each others successes, sometimes subtly, sometimes not so much. Marvel has been shaking things up in it’s Universe with a now confirmed “relaunch”, rather than a hardcore reboot, ala DC. Over at CBR, they detail some of the title’s changes as such:

Uncanny Avengers: (Oct 2012) written by [Rick ]Remender. It is going to be the new flagship marvel title and will have among others Cap, Thor, Wolvy, Rogue and Havok in it and both sides will still have some AVX tension.

Avengers (Dec 2012): Bi weekly with more then 18 avengers on the team. Written by [Jonathan] Hickman with one shot stories and longer galaxy spanning multi-issue arcs

X-Men: (Nov 2012) hold on to your hats…… Bendis!!! about the original five x-men time-travel two the present in a Pleasantville style story and who are not going to like what they see once they are in the present and will find it unacceptable. Bendis says the time travel aspect of the story is not as important as the character based drama.

This teaser pic was recently leaked from Entertainment Weekly‘s Comic-Con issue, which supposedly features a mixture of characters from the new line-up. Newsarama reports:

Further details from Entertainment Weekly’s promised article on the post-Avengers vs. X-MenMarvel Universe may have leaked online late Monday night, including a reputed scan of the full version of the Joe Quesada piece featuring Jean Grey in her original costume.

The image, which appears to have originated on Tumblr, surfaced Monday on message boards including CBR’s Marvel Comics forum, and shows what appears to be new costumes for characters including Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Iron Man and Cyclops, along with a prominent place for Guardians of the Galaxy team member Rocket Raccoon and what appears to be a floating helmet.

It’s still early to get any information on his this will affect other flagship Marvel titles like Spider-Man,Thor, Captain America or Iron Man, but I’m imagining their intent is to have the relaunch be more similar to their past habit of re-numbering certain titles and releasing them as their own run. This time it will be on a much bigger scale, and we’ll have to wait and see if it’ll be a numbers only change, or a reconfiguration of the Marvel Universe status quo. Personally, I haven’t read Marvel comics in years, but I’m sure many a Marvel fan is eager to see what will happen to their beloved characters in the future months.

GL Corps Event Showcases the Rise Of The Third Army

Being a Green Lantern fan has always been tough. With the myriad of colors and powers,  plus the effects, meaning and differentiations between them all has been difficult to explain to non-comic book readers as to why all of it is so cool and interesting, and not nearly as dumb as it sounds on first impression. Add to that it’s complicated story line that has been brought through in a kinda-sorta way to the New 52, and it can get daunting. But despite all that, to Green Lantern fans, it’s still a great book that spans a wide selection of titles that can be hard on the wallet. Soon it will only get harder, with another event on the horizon.

Over at The Source, Geoff Johns himself speaks about the “Third Army” and what that will mean for our favorite ring slingers. You can read an excerpt here and check the link for more from the other GL series writers:

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely–and the Guardians time is finally here. The Lantern titles spent the first year of DC COMICS-THE NEW 52 re-establishing themselves, but it all comes back together with year 2 starting with GREEN LANTERN #0 and leading into October’s #13’s – which share an amazing cover by Ivan Reis. In October, the Guardians’ Third Army rises to replace the Green Lantern Corps – but how is horrifying and why will change the Guardians and their ancient mission forever. As we discover what the Third Army actually means, our strongest Lanterns are targeted for absolute destruction. From Atrocitus to Guy Gardner to our newest Green Lantern from Earth – who may have been wrongly chosen – all their darkest secrets and failures will come to light. What is Sinestro’s ultimate fate? Who is this new Green Lantern and why was he chosen? What is the Third Army? What with Atrocitus sacrifice to take on the Guardians? What will Larfleeze give up to find the one thing he wants? What happens to Guy Gardner when he’s targeted after Hal Jordan? And, most importantly, who is the First Lantern?”

I think the entire concept of Green Lantern is one that works best in its medium, and the concepts of Will and Fear being actual sources of power, are hard to grasp for general audiences. In my opinion, this makes it the perfect litmus test for how much a comic nerd you are, because if you can get into and follow Green Lantern, you’ve broken the threshold and can officially call yourself a comic book fan. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE me some Green Lantern, but I do recognize it is pretty intimidating for new readers to jump into. For the rest of us though, this event sounds like another slam dunk in the Green Lantern oeuvre.

The Joker Returns

Back when the New 52 started, one of the most immediately arresting images in the entire lineup was the final page of Detective Comics #1. It featured the Joker’s face, freshly flayed and pinned to a wall. Even more disturbing was that he seemingly let this happen willingly. The new Batman titles certainly started strong, and really only gained steam as they continued, especially with Scott Snyder’s “Batman” title carrying some really great stories, utilizing Batman in creative, fairly new ways. But the question remained, what happened to the Joker?

Well it seems the questions from Detective Comics will be picked up by Snyder starting with BATMAN #13.

“Joker is my favorite villain of all time,” Snyder told The Source. “Not just in comics. In everything – film, books, TV. He’s the greatest, hands down. So this story is something extremely important and personal to me – something I’ve been building in my head ever since I started working in Gotham. Basically, this is my big exploration of the Joker, my ARKHAM ASYLUM or THE KILLING JOKE, only bigger in scope. Bottom line: it’s the biggest, baddest, most shocking Joker story I could tell. This is Joker completely unleashed. He has been away for a full year planning this revenge, watching, plotting, setting things up. And now he’s back. He has his traps set, his knives sharpened… And wait ’til you see him. Greg’s sketches literally gave me chills. Point blank: This is Joker like you’ve never seen him before. He has a mission. He has a secret. And he has a serious axe to grind with Batman. It isn’t going to be pretty, but it’s going to be a wild ride. Thanks for taking it with us.”

Holy crap does that sound awesome! I had to stop reading the Batman books from DC because my wallet was threatening suicide on a daily basis, but this may have to make me add Batman back to my pull list. Check out the promo art below, how great is that? I can’t wait to read this thing.

Morning Glories Shows Us Their “Truants”

Morning Glories is hands down the best book Image is putting out right now. I know, even better than Walking Dead. There is no other book that each week I cannot wait to immediately grab, sit down and read, curse loudly when I get to its last page, and then read again. I can get why people may not like it, because it’s dense, ambiguous, very weird and chock full of symbolism and mysticism. It’s also juxtaposed pretty brilliantly with an average HIgh School Drama, and that can be jarring for some. For me, the mixture of the fantastical and the mundane is something I always rabidly enjoy, and seeing any new information about the series and its many mysteries is always welcome.

CBR had an interview with the book’s writer, Nick Spencer, where he had this to say about the new additions to the comic’s cast, currently referred to as “The Truants”:

 “These characters that you see on this page are key parts of the fourth arc. We’re a long way from having seen all of the cast of the book, but these are some big, important additions. Beyond that, it’s exciting because some of these are characters I’ve had in mind since the series started. So to get to finally bring them into the open is a big deal for me. We’ve laid some groundwork for them in past issues that I think will make it even more exciting.”

Morning Glories is a comic you’ll probably either love or hate. I love it, since it fills the wanton lust for mystery and bizarre WTF-ness I became addicted to from Lost, that I now  crave like a struggling heroin addict. Who are the Truants? Man I cannot wait to find out.

New Flash Origin, Speculation on Flashpoint and an Upcoming War Event?

As most DC fans know, The Flash is one of the more pivotal characters in the spectrum of the New 52’s creation, and his connection from the Old Continuity’s Flashpoint Event, to The New 52’s current lineup, is one that has yet to be explicitly touched on again. However, the current writer/artist team of Manapul/Buccellato had a lot of very interesting hints to give in this interview with Newsarama. In the interview, they touch on developing a new origin for The Flash, but more interestingly, they hint towards a connection with Old DC Continuity:

Nrama:  In issue #8, Barry actually said out loud that you can’t go back in time and mess things up, and you told Newsarama that you were giving a nod toward Flashpoint in that line. Now that you’re reinforcing this “forward-moving” idea in his origin story in issue #0, is that also a nod toward Flashpoint?

Buccellato: Somewhat, at least for those readers who might understand it on a deeper level.

Manapul: But it’s more from a meta-standpoint.

Nrama: By “meta,” you mean that this is from you as writers, instead of the character himself referring to learning a lesson from Flashpoint?

Manapul: Right. Brian and I had specific emotional goals for Barry that we needed him to go through in order to explain who he is and the things that he does, including the fact that he’s forward-moving”

Perhaps in the future, we’ll get further hints as to the direct nature of The Flash’s connection to the “timeline” of the DC continuity, and while I may be reaching, maybe even the relationship he could have with the mysterious “Pandora” character we all saw in the background of every Issue #1 so long ago. Towards the end of the interview, they also mention a new Flash related event that ties in the Rogues gallery, and will introduce a “War” that is coming to Central City. Which sounds great if you ask me, but mostly, I just wanna know who the hell Pandora is!

Well, that wraps up this edition of Comic Rack!

Read more here!

THE INTERWEBS

Avengers Assemble – Episodes 204, 205 & Ask an Avenger

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Welcome back to our look at Avengers Assemble: The Series. We have had some hilarious moments in our time together. Whether its laughing at an out of time Captain America who just can’t seem to shed the political correctness of a different time, or a Hawkeye that has dipped his quiver in the majority of the female team and possibly Wonder Man. Muh huh. Muh huh. Muh huh.

Continue reading Avengers Assemble – Episodes 204, 205 & Ask an Avenger →

Movie News & Opinions

Avengers: An Unstoppable Record Smashing Machine

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The Avengers has been destroying records left right and center and I will be listing all of them below so bathe in the glory that is the Avengers.

The most impressive record they surpassed was the one for the biggest opening weekend of all time, that’s a big one. Disney estimates the film raked in $200.3 million at North American theaters over the weekend, compared to the previous largest opening of $169.2 million ($172M after inflation) for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (loser). It would have probably done even better if IMAX theater had enough seats to meet demand, apparently this was a problem in many places and raises the question would it have made even more money on its opening weekend? But I can live with it beating nearly every record.

Courtesy of Gamma Squad

They made an estimated $80.5 million on its first Friday, the second-largest one-day total of all time after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 ($91.1M). CinemaScore reported on the first Friday that moviegoers were giving the film an average grade of A+, which suggested there were great sales through the weekend from word of mouth. Sure enough, The Avengers did even better than the opening day numbers suggested it would do, and now analysts estimate it will take over Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 for 3rd highest grossing film of all time. The film hasn’t even opened yet in some profitable markets (like for example Japan on August 17th).

The movie also made an additional $151.5M overseas that weekend. The film’s worldwide gross now stands at $1.29 billion. It passed $600 million in sales in only 12 days. It only needs $34M more to be 3rd highest grossing films and will take that spot from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. I doubt it will make it near avatar or titanic though you never know.Walt Disney Pictures announced this weekend that the global blockbuster has crossed the $500 million mark domestically in a record 23 days (the previous record of 32 days was held by Avatar).

It passed the global box office totals for Iron Man ($585M), Iron Man 2 ($624M), Thor ($449M), and Captain America ($364M) within its first 12 days. It also has the highest per-theater average for a nationwide release, $46,063 per theater which is a lot. Highest domestic Saturday gross of all time ($69.7M). And this lot fastest to $100M, fastest to $150M, and fastest to $200M. When will it end Avengers? When?

It accounted for 82.7% of grosses for the top 12 movies, which is the second-largest market share ever. It was the biggest superhero midnight show opening (8th highest-grossing midnight movie). Highest grossing IMAX opening weekend ever (one of them was me!). The biggest opening weekend of all time in North America, Central America, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the Philippines (wow).

I think they are imagining money raining over them:

Funny facts from GIZMODO about how it would actually cost the city of New York for the damage that happened in The Avengers final battle if it were to happen in real life. The damage to NYC in would cost $160 Billion to repair! Ouch! (Don’t think that it’s going to make that much at the cinema).

It was calculated that the physical damage alone would cost $60-70 billion, with economic and clean-up ramifications adding $90 billion. To put that in context Hurricane Katrina cost $90 billion, and the tsunami in Japan last year cost $122 billion.

This is an open thank you letter from Joss Whedon sent out for the people who went to see The Avengers and it’s a great read if you have really liked some of his previous work (Buffy the Vampire Slayer., Angel, Firefly) because he really deserved this win and I hope he only does better in his future projects.

Dear Friends,

Well, it’s been quite a weekend. Someday, long from now, I will even have an emotional reaction to it, like a person would. I can’t wait! But before I become blinded by this “emotion” experience, there’s a few things I’d like to say. Well, type.

People have told me that this matters, that my life is about to change. I am sure that is true. And change is good — change is exciting. I think — not to jinx it — that I may finally be recognized at Comiccon. Imagine! Also, with my percentage of “the Avengers” gross, I can afford to buy… [gets call from agent. Weeps manfully. Resumes typing.] …a fine meal. But REALLY fine, with truffles and s#!+. And I can get a studio to finance my dream project, the reboot of “Air Bud” that we all feel is so long overdue. (He could play Jai Alai! Think of the emotional ramifications of JAI ALAI!!!!)

What doesn’t change is anything that matters. What doesn’t change is that I’ve had the smartest, most loyal, most passionate, most articulate group of — I’m not even gonna say fans. I’m going with “peeps” — that any cult oddity such as my bad self could have dreamt of. When almost no one was watching, when people probably should have STOPPED watching, I’ve had three constants: my family and friends, my collaborators (often the same), and y’all. A lot of stories have come out about my “dark years”, and how I’m “unrecognized”… I love these stories, because they make me seem super-important, but I have never felt the darkness (and I’m ALL about my darkness) that they described. Because I have so much. I have people, in my life, on this site, in places I’ve yet to discover, that always made me feel the truth of success: an artist and an audience communicating. Communicating to the point of collaborating. I’ve thought, “maybe I’m over; maybe I’ve said my piece”. But never with fear. Never with rancor. Because of y’all. Because you knew me when. If you think topping a box office record compares with someone telling you your work helped them through a rough time, you’re probably new here. (For the record, and despite my inhuman distance from the joy-joy of it: topping a box office record is super-dope. I’m an alien, not a robot.)

So this is me, saying thank you. All of you. You’ve taken as much guff for loving my work as I have for over-writing it, and you deserve, in this our time of streaming into the main, to crow. To glow. To crow and go “I told you so”, to those Joe Blows not in the know. (LAST time I hire Dr. Seuss to punch my posts up. Yeesh!)

Mr. Joss Whedon participated in a Reddit AMA recently, touching on everything from a Dr. Horrible sequel to season two of Firefly, to Scarlett Johansson’s prevalence as a “sex object” in much of the marketing for The Avengers.

First off is his answer to a Dr. Horrible Sequel (yay there might be sequel):

“We’re not shooting right now; we’re still in the early stages of writing. But we hope to make a great deal of progress this summer. And you can expect the death of someone you love… Yes, the original cast will be back for Dr H 2, but Penny will be… um… I don’t want to say ‘decomposing…”

Secondly his answer to Scarlett Johansson’s prevalence as a “sex object” in much of the marketing for The Avengers which I thought was actually a good idea because it was a shock when she wasn’t just some hot girl but actually a good character.

“All I can say is that Scarlett gets to do a lot more than be hot in Avengers. It’s definitely dispiriting to have a woman play a heroic role and then be reduced to body parts by fan commentary, but that can only change slowly. And is.”

The one most people want to know about is will there be a second season of Firefly? You have to kind of agree with what he says as sad as it makes me. The first step is a Kickstarter project.

“Step 2: Cancel Castle. Step 3: Cancel Homeland. Step 4: Generally destroy everybody’s careers. Step 5: Avoid Step 2.”

Next, we have this low budget video which was actually really funny and well thought out… Nah it’s just some good YouTube fun which I would have loved to have seen at the cinema straight after The Avengers finished. The best parts from this video would definitely be the fat Captain America with a small shield and Nick Fury dropping the f-bombs everyone wanted Samuel. L Jackson to do in the film (might just be me).