Comics

The release of The Dark Knight is just over a month away, but more and more stuff keeps trickling out. Today, as part of the massive viral marketing campaign associated with the movie, Warner Bros launched a website for Gotham City Pizzeria. Clicking on the “HA” in Gotham on the site takes you to this clip, showing a brief glimpse of Two-Face:

Really it’s not much. You can’t even really see anything. Unlike the picture of Two-Face that came out a while ago. What’s more interesting is trying to figure out how this fits into the movie. Any thoughts?

Tell me if you’ve heard this before: There’s a movie coming out that’s an comic book adaptation, shot and directed in a highly-stylized way that makes it look like a comic book. It’s a hard-boiled detective story that takes place in a crumbling city. And it’s brought to us by Frank Miller. Sound familiar? No, it’s not Sin City. This time it’s The Spirit.

The film is an adaptation of the comic dating all the way back to the 40s. Originally created by Will Eisner, it’s Frank Miller’s vision that will appear on the screen. The movie will follow The Spirit, a former detective who rose from the dead to fight crime, as he battles his arch-enemy, The Octopus (played by Samuel L. Jackson, who we all know is a BMF).

The movie doesn’t hit theaters until January 19th, 2009, but the teaser trailer is out now:

A few new pics from Iron Man are out, and they finally give us a glimpse of the showdown between Iron Man and his nemesis, Iron Monger.  Iron Monger looks a lot like the original Iron Man suit that Tony Stark builds.  Since I’m not a big fan of the Iron Man comics, I have no idea if that’s what it’s supposed to look like or not.  However I do think it’s pretty cool to have the new Iron Man fight the old Iron Man, so I’m going to go with it.

As always click for full-sized goodness.

A new trailer for Iron Man is out. When the movie was first announced I had very little interest, expecting something like The Fantastic Four. But I have to say, the more of this I see the better it looks. Robert Downey Jr looks like a great choice to play Tony Stark, and the effects look great, without being over the top. I’m starting to really look forward to May 2nd.

Details have leaked about another character in The Dark Knight. British actress Sarah Jayne Dunn is on board to play Harley Quinn, a psychotic clown who just happens to be The Joker’s girlfriend.

IMDB lists Dunn in the cast for the movie, but doesn’t give a character name. Her online resume is a different story however. It clearly lists her as Harley Quinn. There’s no word on whether Harley will get a substantial role or serve only as a henchwoman for The Joker.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Harley Quinn, here’s a brief introduction:

BTW, Kevin Smith likes Harley Quinn so much he named his daughter after her. So that makes her cool in my book.

The Dark Knight is due to hit theaters July 18th.

via FilmSchoolRejects

In case you haven’t heard, Hugh Jackman is reprising his role from the earlier X-Men movies in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the first of what are planned to be several X-Men spinoffs. The movie, which is set to hit theaters next year, is just starting production. Details are starting to come out about who else will be in the movie, and the latest is very interesting.

Ain’t it Cool News is reporting that Ryan Reynolds, the guy who played Van Wilder to perfection, is going to play mercenary and anti-hero Deadpool. This won’t be Reynolds’ first chance to deal with comic fanboys, as he starred in 2004’s Blade: Trinity. Despite that role, I really see him as more of a comic actor than an action star, but it seems that early fanboy reactions are positive.

In addition to Deadpool, Film School Rejects reports that morbidly obese villain The Blob will make an appearance.

I couldn’t care less about The Blob, and I stopped reading comics around the time Deadpool was introduced, so anyone want to tell me why this is good (or bad) news? Anyone? Any of my readers happen to know anything about Deadpool?

Many people only know Howard the Duck from the cheesy 80’s movie. That’s a shame because Howard has his origins in in the comics, where he was a wise-assed, cigar-smoking, pantsless satire of Donald Duck, trained in the deadly art of Quak Fu. This is the incarnation that Steve Gerber had in mind when he created Howard in 1973.

Gerber died Sunday in a Las Vegas hospital after a long battle with lung disease. Gerber created Howard while working at Marvel Comics, and despite several rocky stretches with the company, worked on Howard for more than a decade. He wasn’t a big fan of the movie though, though that’s hardly a surprise, since I’m not sure anyone over the age of 12 actually liked the movie. I was the object of scorn and ridicule for suggesting it for a movie night in college.

Gerber’s friend Mark Evanier wrote an excellent eulogy.

Via BoingBoing

Click the thumbnail for the full-size photo, in all its hi-res glory. I’m not a big Iron Man fan, but I have to admit the suit looks pretty bad ass. Look for Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man on May 2, 2008.

via First Showing

Adam Brody, former star of The OC and the infinitely superior Gilmore Girls, will play the role of Wally West, aka The Flash, the upcoming Justice League of America movie. You may remember The Flash as the comic book character that could run fast. That’s it. Just run fast. Kind of like Deion Sanders in red and yellow tights. Not quite as lame as Aquaman, but pretty close.

Previously, Ryan Reynolds (aka Van Wilder) had said it was his dream to play The Flash. Sorry Ryan. No soup for you. At least not in Justice League, but there’s still a shot of The Flash getting his own movie after that’s over.

Any comic fans out there who can tell me why The Flash isn’t lame? Because I’m just not seeing it. I mean running fast is cool and all, but it’s not that exciting. I seem to remember him running so fast around the world that he reversed the rotation of the earth and made time go backward, but I could be confusing that with Superman (or just making it up…).

Via /Film

Another picture of Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight has surfaced, this time via a viral marketing campaign for the movie. The pic shows The Joker in the backseat of a car, in the backseat of a car. I can’t really tell a lot about the movie from it, but the makeup looks great. It’s another hint that Ledger’s take on The Clown Prince of Crime is going to be very, very dark.

For details on the marketing campaign that revealed the photo, and some hardcore fanboy discussion, check Ain’t it Cool News.

It’s release is still almost a year away, but pictures continue to leak from the set of The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger definitely looks creepy as The Joker. And I can’t wait to find out what’s up with the multiple Batmans (Batmen?).

The latest Marvel superhero to grace the silver screen is the mighty god of thunder and war, Thor (hmmm….Thunder + War = Thor…boy do I love phonics jokes…). The hammer-wielding Norseman will be brought to the screen by director Matthew Vaughn, whose most recent effort Stardust opened this past weekend. No word yet on who will play Thor, but whoever it is will probably be derided by the internet fanboys.

Yahoo News has the full story

Pretty amazing really. Your friendly neighborhood Spiderman takes on his arch-enemies - in stick figure world. Incredibly well done.

So you all can debate amongst yourselves who the best Batman is: Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, or Christian Bale. But for me the answer is crystal clear. It’s the unknown dude playing the Dark Knight in this epic fan film, Batman: Defenders of the Night.

This film features some of the finest writing, acting, directing, cinematography, and especially sound editing ever recorded. It’s simply stunning. For a more in-depth (and hilarious) review check out Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog.

And for even more excitement, check out the sequel, Batman and Robin: Dark Betrayals:

Here’s the final trailer for the latest installment of the wacky wall crawler. The movie hits theaters May 4th.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

via Superdickery

Yes, Captain America is dead. But take heart True Believers, the Captain’s legacy lives on. Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada bequeathed the Captain’s iconic indestructible shield to the only living American worthy of it: Stephen Colbert.

Congratulations Stephen. But don’t take this lightly. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Excelsior!

Stumbled across this list of the Top 20 Comic Weapons today. It’s hard to argue with the list (though if I had actually read a few comics in the last 15 years I suppose I might be able to…). Any of the comic nerdz out there care to weigh in on the subject?

Just because I know how folks on the internet can be, I’m going to say SPOILER ALERT right now before I earn the fanboys’ ire.

Captain America may not be the most popular comic book character ever. He’s nowhere near the level of Batman, Superman, or Spider-Man, but he’s still extremely well known. I’m sure most everyone has at least heard of him, and if you haven’t, then get your ass to Wikipedia and learn something. Anway, today in issue #25 of Captain America’s own comic, he was assassinated. That’s right. Captain America is dead. Why? Let me enlighten you.

Marvel Comics, the publisher of Captain America, Spider-Man, and the X-men, has had a line wide crossover event called Civil War going on for the past year. In this event, the Superhuman Registration Act was passed in the U.S. and all superhumans (villains and heroes alike) were to either register with the government and work for SHIELD (global peace keepers) or become fugitives to be hunted down and held in a state of the art prison in another dimension. Iron Man thought the best way to handle the situation was to work with the government to make sure the transition was as peaceful as possible. He honestly believed in the Registration Act and felt that it was the future of being a superhero. Captain America felt it was a gross violation of civil liberties and the right to privacy. The Marvel Universe was divided and “war” broke out amongst the heroes. In the end, Captain America surrendered and was arrested. On the steps of the courthouse where his trial was to take place, a sniper shot Captain America in the shoulder. In the ensuing panic, Captain America’s girlfriend (more or less), while brainwashed, got close and shot Cap repeatedly in the chest. Because of the panic, no one noticed, and Cap was rushed to the hospital where he died.

Steve Rogers has been Captain America since 1941 (more or less, occasionally someone else filled in for him) and now he’s dead. Or at least as dead as a comic book character can get. Remember, Superman has died before. He got better. Just like the death of Superman, this story has been picked up by major news outlets online. This has been even bigger than the public unmasking of Spider-Man last year.

Folks who are even vaguely aware of the goings on in comics know that characters die all the time. What makes this one different? Well, Captain America was an icon. He was the quintessential American soldier (or supersoldier if you will). He fought communists and nazis. Hell, he even punched Hitler in the face! Now he’s dead. And I mean dead dead. Not “mostly dead.” Dead like “his cold dead body was lying on an autopsy table” dead. Killing off characters like Ant-Man(a real comic character, I kid you not) or Black Goliath (also real) don’t mean jack, but killing an American icon has impact. At least it’ll have impact until the inevitable resurrection.

There is hope though for all the sobbing fanboys. Steve Rogers may be dead, but someone will become the new Captain America shortly. Who will it be? Falcon? The Punisher? Bucky? Aunt May? My vote goes to the Weekend At Bernie’s approach and just take Captain America’s corpse around fighting crime.

Tracked this down today. It’s Pop Culture Addict’s list of the 10 lamest super heroes ever. And boy howdy are these guys lame. My personal favorite is Dogwelder:

He’s this madman in a silver welder’s outfit that basically just goes around welding stray dogs to villains’ faces. That’s it. That’s how he fought crime. Welding dogs to people. Mind you it would be a bitch of a thing to have happen to you. You try to rob a bank and you end up with a Lhasa Apso welded to your face, yapping for eternity. *shudder*

So I admit, everything I know about welding comes from American Chopper and Monster Garage, but I’m pretty sure it involves melting metal. So I’m not quite sure how you can weld one animal (a dog) to another animal (a bad guy). I know, I know. I shouldn’t over-analyze comic books. I mean this is the medium where a silver dude on a surfboard can be a serious badass. But welding dogs to people’s faces? That’s over-the-top even for comics.

Check out the rest of the top 10 here.

Here’s a mashup of Superman and Batman talking in the Batmobile, mixed with the “know how I know you’re gay” conversation from 40 Year-Old Virgin. Hysterical. All it needs is Robin…