You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘DC Comics’ tag.
Comic Con 2010
Well, another Comic Con has come and gone, but your old friend Darby is here once again to give you all the news you need to know, and 100% Nerd Flu free.
“Tron: Legacy”
Tron: Legacy was back at the Con this year, and this time Flynn’s Arcade was also able to transport you into the game itself! After you had your fun playing free video games, you are escorted to Flynn’s workshop, where you get zapped into the game and find yourself at the “End of Line Club” a haven for rogue programs. This re-creation of a set from Tron: Legacy was one of the most impressive things at Comic Con this year. I almost didn’t want to leave the room.
“Burn Notice”
It was announced at this year’s Burn Notice panel, that there will be a straight-to-DVD Burn Notice prequel, starring Bruce Campbell as Sam Axe, and will tell the story of Sam’s last mission before Miami.
“Predators”
Sadly, Robert Rodriguez announced Thursday, that 20th Century Fox will be releasing a sequel to this month’s new Predators incarnation. I know, not everyone disliked the new movie, but let’s be honest; it was crap, and I’m sure Predators: Electric Boogaloo isn’t going to be much better.
“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”
At the end of the panel for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, director/co-writer Edgar Wright announced that a surprise secret screening was about to take place. He then took a select few of the audience members from Hall H, and lead them Pied Piper style through the streets of San Diego to a theater not far from the convention center. Let me just say, that this is hands down the best movie of the summer! A review will be up here closer to the release of the movie, but take my word for it and buy your tickets now!
“The Walking Dead”
AMC‘s new series The Walking Dead, based on the Image comic, definitely had the biggest presence at the Con this year. You couldn’t go any where without seeing a horde of zombies, or footage from the upcoming show, stopping people in their tracks… Literally. At the panel on Friday we got to see some bloody amazing footage, and I mean bloody in both senses of the word. The cinematography on this show is going to blow you way. The sparkly vampires and teenage werewolves have had their time in the sun, well maybe not the vampires, but I do believe it’s about high time for the zombies. Long live the zombies! Can you say that about the undead?
“Saw 3D”
I was able to attend the press event/panel for the new Saw 3D, or Saw VII whichever one you prefer, and got to see the first eight minutes of the movie. They also unveiled the new eye popping poster, and also announced that this will be the final chapter in the Saw series.
“Green Lantern”
After thousands of people, along with Ralph and myself (Ralph was out there much longer than I), camped out all night just for the chance of getting in to Hall H for the Green Lantern panel, it was finally 11:45AM and thanks to Ralph and Lenny we made it in! On hand for the Q&A was Mr. Hal Jordan himself Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong, Peter Sarsgaard, and directory Martin Campbell. The panel wasn’t overly flashy, but we did get to see a few minutes of footage in the form of a somewhat trailer. It’s less than a year away, but I think I might just have to get in line now!
At the Warner Bros. booth, there was also a floor display of Abin Sur’s body.
“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”
At the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides panel, the audience received a special message from Captain Jack Sparrow himself! Does this mean we can stop calling it a trilogy?
“The Stabbing”
Okay, so here’s where Saturday gets a little pear shaped. Two men started arguing over space, or lack there of in Hall H, just after the Resident Evil: Afterlife panel, and just before the Paul panel. It was at this point, that of the one guys ends up stabbing the other guy near the eye with a pen. When news of the event quickly made its way around the Con, the only thing that shocked me was that it doesn’t happen more often. You’ve got thousands of antisocial people all huddled together with other antisocial people, add to that most haven’t eaten or slept in days, and at some point the nerd-rage is going to fly. The best part of all this was the costumes that followed on Sunday.
“Cowboys & Aliens”
Thanks to the amazing Jon Favreau, for the first time in Comic Con history, Harrison Ford graced the Con with his presence, and in handcuffs no less. The handcuffs could have had two meanings; 1) that’s what it took to get him to his first Comic Con, or 2) it was trying to make light of the stabbing that took place earlier. Either way, the crowd erupted when they saw Han Solo being lead to the stage by security.
“The Avengers”
For the first time ever, the cast of the up-coming Avengers movie were assembled in one place, and that place was Comic Con! The video says it all!
Avengers Assemble!!!
But it’s not just all about the movies at Comic Con. One of the best reasons to go to Comic Con is to get your hands on the exclusive toys and action figures only available at the Con… Well that is until they’re put on eBay for five times the original price. This is just a few of them; there really are way too many to list.
Plastic Man
This one was a “Must Have” for me this year!
Attack of the Show
These Gentle Giant Comic Con exclusives, are mini-busts of the Attack of the Show hosts Kevin Pereira & Olivia Munn.
Doctor Who
This years Doctor Who figure is a two-pack of the Eleventh Doctor and one of those lame Dalek redesigns.
Venture Brothers
These old school action figure dolls of Henchmen 21 and 24, were almost impossible to get.
Mo-Larr vs. Skeletor
By far the funniest exclusive at the Con this year, based on the Robot Chicken skit, this two-pack features for the first time ever Mo-Larr and a gapped toothed Skeletor.
One last thing before I go. Every year the studios at Comic Con make these giant bags for people to carry their stuff around in while at the Con. Well the best bags this year, without a doubt, go to the SyFy Channel.
One side of the bag reads “Mega Tote,” and the other “Giant Backpack.” But the thing that makes it so great is that in the fold of the bag it reads “vs.” You’ve got to love that!
Well, that does it for another Comic Con, but Comic Con 2011 will be on July 21st to the 24th next year, so start making your plans now.
Advertisements
“Jonah Hex”
a review by Darby O’Gill
Well, the race for this year’s Death Coach Award might just be over, because Jonah Hex is one horrible movie. Okay, I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but it needed to be said. It’s no secret that I’m a huge DC Comics fan, and 
I’m always looking forward to anything related to the DC Universe. So, when I heard Jonah Hex was making his way to the big screen, I was extremely excited! Add to that, the announcement that Josh Brolin would be playing Hex, and there was no way this movie could fail. Boy was I wrong! This thing is so bad; I’m really hoping I’m going to be able to put it in words.
For those of you who’ve never heard of Jonah Hex, and I’m sure that’s most of you, he’s not really a superhero, but more like a legend of the old west. The comics are very much a spaghetti-western, in which Hex is neither good nor bad, but just a bounty hunter that can buy you a drink one moment, than shoot you the next. I guess it all depends on his mood that day. He doesn’t have any superpowers, just a scarred face, and bad attitude. Simple… right? You would think. I guess DC Comics just found their Punisher. Don’t worry, I’ll de-nerd that statement for you. For years, Marvel Comics has been trying to get their character The Punisher to work on the big screen, which shouldn’t be too hard because it’s just a guy in a t-shirt with a bunch of guns. Never the less, three failed movies later, The Punisher still has yet to be properly portrayed in a movie. It’s a guy with guns, and a shirt with a big white skull on it. How hard can it be to make that movie right? 
Apparently, very. You would think the same of Jonah Hex. It’s a western. What could be so hard about making that work? The only thing that could be tricky is Hex’s disfigured face, which they amazingly got right; so I’m really at a lost here. What is it you ask that doesn’t work? How about a horse equipped with duel gatling guns? Dynamite stick firing crossbows? Having supernatural powers to talk to the dead? A glowing orb of… I don’t know, some kind of gas that doesn’t even exist, and can somehow level a city? 
Or maybe it’s a weapon that comes with a handy outline of the White House on the aiming scope? Good thing that’s what their aiming at. Megan Fox? Actually, she’s not as big of a problem as you might think. She’s not good, but she’s also nowhere near the biggest problem with this movie. No, the biggest problem here is… well the whole damn thing. You have to realize you’ve got a bad movie on your hands, when Wild Wild West looks like it could be an Oscar contender. Oh man, I haven’t even talked about John Malkovich’s phoned-in performance. And, why is Will Arnett in this movie? I can’t. I’m sorry, but I can’t talk about this movie anymore. Okay, the bottom-line here, is that this is the worst movie of the year. Wow, I could have just said that from the beginning. Oh, wait… I did. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to read a few hundred issues of Jonah Hex, and hope that I can someday repress these horrible images from my head.
Rating:
“Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs”
a review by Darby O’Gill
For some reason this is the true sequel to the classic Joel Schumacher film, The Lost Boys. But, why make it a movie when you can just release it as a four issue comic book series instead? I would have to guess that the answer to that question has something to do with the two Coreys. Seeing how Corey Haim was such a mess during the filming of Lost Boys: The Tribe, they couldn’t use any of his footage in the film at all. So, Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs is the prequel to Lost Boys: The Tribe, but I think it’s the one that should have been filmed.
The story in Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs mostly takes place in 1990, but this is mainly due to being told through flashbacks of what became of the Frog brothers after the first movie. Edgar Frog tells a young protégé his tale at his surfboard shaping shop. Yes, even in this story we have to deal with the bullshit surfer storyline, but it’s easy to block out. Shortly after the events from the The Lost Boys, the Frog brothers become the go to vampire hunters, as more covens popup around the country. They’re even hired by the White House to deal with blood sucking politicians in Washington D.C., but upon their return home are faced with the return of David, the vampire played by Kiefer Sutherland in the first film, who is still looking for Michael and Star. The Frog’s quickly realize that if David is alive they must not have killed the head vampire after all. With this realization the boys team back up with Sam Emerson to kill Santa Carla’s head vampire once and for all. With a nice little twist,
that will put the Frog brothers against one another in a future storyline. This story maybe hokey, but is so much better than that of the Lost Boys: The Tribe story, and who knows maybe this is the story we would have gotten had the Haim disaster not happened. We’ll never know.
The artwork in these books, by Joel Gomez, is really quite well done. My only problem with it is that the books where put out by DC Comic’s Wildstorm division, and authorized by Warner Bros., who owns of the original film rights; but Gomez’s drawings didn’t truly resemble the characters from the film. I would have just liked the characters to have been a little bit more familiar. Over all it was a fun read and was definitely a nice palate cleanser to the shitty film I had just sat through. If you did heed my review of Lost Boys: The Tribe, this should help ease the pain.
Rating:
That’s right true believers, the Walt Disney Co. bought Marvel Comics today, for a mere $4 billion dollars! Wait, What!? Disney? Marvel? What?! Well, I guess it’s a good day to be DC Comics.
I was flipping through the channels this weekend, and came across a channel called “Disney XD.” I have no idea what that means, but I thought it was weird that they were playing nothing but Marvel cartoons. Now it’s not so weird. Well, no it’s still pretty weird. I’ve never been a big Marvel fan, but I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Disney has been nothing but bad new for the Muppets… Not once but twice! It looks like we’ll be getting that “Spider-Man: The Musical” sooner than we thought. That’s right, Zack Efron will be playing Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Miley Cyrus will be Mary Jane Watson, in Spider-Man 4 next summer. Can’t wait for that! I really hope that Warner Bros. and DC Comics take full advantage of this mistake, and green light some really edgy kick ass comic book movies. Boy, and I thought X-Men Origins: Wolverine was bad before, I can’t even imagine it now with a “G” rating. I hope it was worth it Marvel, because it’s too late now. Have fun in the kiddie pool.
Comic Con 2009
Well, Comic Con has come and gone, but if you didn’t make it down to San Diego your old friend Darby is here to lay it all out for you. The one thing that seems to always be true about Comic Con, year after year, is the fact that it has less and less to do with comics each year. This year it was the teenie girls and their “Twilight: New Moon” that over ran the Con. The one thing I always hated about Comic Con is the standing in line for two hours to get a ticket so you can stand in line for three hours the next day; the whole time not being able to spend any time on the floor. The panels are the same story. Wait in line for hours for a panel and miss a bunch of events while sitting on the floor. The Con is amazing. It’s so much fun and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. But every year, I make a list of the things I want to do, and every year I get like two done if I’m lucky. So, here’s a run down of some of the events that went down at Comic Con this year. Some I got to see and others that I only got to hear about.
“Iron Man 2”
The buzz for the first “Iron Man” movie started at Comic Con. So even with production having only wrapped a week ago, nothing was going to stop Jon Favreau from sharing what he could with the fans at Comic Con this year. Appearing with Favreau on the panel was Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, and Sam Rockwell. After the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to Favreau’s son Max, they rolled the exclusive clip that introduced all the film’s new characters. “Iron Man 2” will hit theaters in May of 2010.
“Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead” & “Torchwood: Children of Earth”
At the Saturday night screening of “Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead” and the 5th and final episode of “Torchwood: Children of Earth,” fans got a little bit more than they were expecting.
“The Green Hornet”
Seth Rogen stopped by the Con to unveil the new Black Beauty, a modified 1965 Chrysler Crown Imperial that he’ll be cursing around in for the upcoming film.
“Alice in Wonderland”
Tim Burton premiered the first trailer for “Alice in Wonderland” on Thursday at the Con, with a huge surprise visit from the Mad Hatter himself Johnny Depp.
“Avatar”
James Cameron makes up for his lame E3 appearance with over 20 minutes of footage from his already over hyped film “Avatar.” He also announced that fans worldwide would be able to see 15 minutes of the film for free, online on “Avatar Day,” which is August 21st. The film is set to open this year on December 18th.
“New Moon”
“Twilight” fangirls came by the thousands to Comic Con this year. Some would say it was the downfall of Comic Con this year.
These two guys were walking the floor on late Sunday with signs to show their displease of the upcoming film’s presences this year. Some of the fangirls stayed two nights outside the convention center waiting in line to attend the “Twilight” panel on Thursday. This was truly the craziness of this year’s Con. There’s always one thing at the Con that you can’t get away from, and you at times just wish would go away. This year it was most definitely “Twilight.” It’s hard to explain. It’s like a high school click. Comic Con is geek’s paradise, and this year the popular cheerleaders stormed the gates and stole the show. “Twilight” seems like the kind of thing that would fit in at the Con, but it really just seemed to overpower everything around it. For the last six years Hollywood has been taking over Comic Con, but this is like the Jonas Brothers performing on the center of the convention floor.
“Dollhouse”
The almost canceled series had a screening of the unaired thirteenth episode, which can also be found on the “Dollhouse” Season One DVD set. Look for my “Dollhouse” DVD review here soon.
“LOST”
This was probably one of the best panels of the Con. Wayne has already done a write up on this so I’ll just redirect you there. Click Here!
“The Hobbit”
Peter Jackson talked a little bit about the upcoming project.
“Jonah Hex”
The next DC Comic film, starring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox, was premiered by the new teaser trailer. The new teaser poster was unveiled as well. I cannot wait to see this movie!
“Tron: Legacy”
Last but not least… The long awaited “Tron” sequel “Tron: Legacy.” A scavenger hunt sent convention goes around downtown San Diego, and finally brought them to their final destination, a marvelously reconstructed 1980’s arcade, called Flynn’s Arcade! They actually had Flynn’s Arcade tokens! I know! They also unveiled the first teaser trailer. I for one cannot wait!
But it’s not just all about the movies at Comic Con. One of the best reasons to go to Comic Con is to get your hands on the exclusive toys and action figures only available at the Con… Well that is until they’re put on eBay for five times the original price. This is just a few of them; there really are way too many to list.
The Wonder Twins and Gleek
This is the one I really wanted, but sadly it sold out by the time I stood in line for a ticket to stand in line for a figure. These DC Universe figures are so cool. I love that they make figures for the secondary characters. I can’t wait for the upcoming Question figure.
The LOST Benjamin Linus Bobble Head
This beaten up Michael Emerson bobble head is so cool. The likeness is uncanny.
Doctor Who Comic Con Exclusives
Okay, I’m a huge “Doctor Who” fan, and I love the figures, but there just always seems to be just too many of them to buy at the Con. This year there were five, all between twenty and forty dollars, mostly forty. I’m sorry, six figures if you count the Captain Jack Harkness Torchwood figure. I wish they would just make one exclusive figure each year. I would buy that figure every year, but I’m not going to spend over two hundred dollars at one booth.
The Blackest Night 5 Figure Green Lantern Set
One last thing, before heading back to L.A. I stopped in Eureka to have dinner at Café Diem.
Well, that does it for this year. Comic Con will be July 22nd to the 25th next year, so start making plans now.
Warner Bros. Drops the Ring!
It was announced last week that Ryan Reynolds has been cast as Green Lantern in the upcoming Warner Bros. feature film. Man, did they screw-up! Look, a lot of people are upset because Reynolds played Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and will be reprising that role in the upcoming Deadpool movie.
I could care less about that. Marvel can have him as Deadpool. The reason this casting choice pisses me off, is because Reynolds should be cast as The Flash (Wally West) not Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) in the DC Universe. The best choice for Green Lantern is Nathan Fillion. Hal Jordan is a test pilot and a man without fear. I think Nathan would be more convincing in that role than Reynolds. Wally West is the funny, fast talking, nephew of Barry Allen, a role almost tailored for Reynolds. Not to mention, did you not see that fan made trailer with Fillion as Green Lantern? I’m guessing Warner Bros. didn’t. I really want to see that movie. But, of course with Warner Bros. casting Reynolds as Green Lantern, we’ll never get to, but also he’ll never be able to play The Flash now.
It’s no secret that Warner Bros. is dying to make a Justice League movie, and I don’t think they’re going to let Reynolds play two parts in the same movie. Although, this is Hollywood we’re talking about. After releasing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, anything is possible. Look it’s not too late. Let’s get Warner Bros. to realize their mistake. I say, cast Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern and green light a Flash movie with Ryan Reynolds. Then you’ll have two kick ass summer blockbuster movies on your hands, and you’re also two more characters closer to a JLA movie. Let’s start writing those letters and emails, and get Warner Bros. to do the right thing. I know they won’t. But hey, maybe Ryan Reynolds would rather play The Flash. Has anyone asked him? They should.
