Superhero Shows: 7/18/10

24 July 2010

Sinestro and a Logo

Pics from Comic Con: Sinestro and the GL movie logo.

The next next (next) DC animated feature has been announced and it is All Star Superman arriving in Spring of 2011. I haven't read the series, but I have heard good things. Its nice that Superman is finally getting another solo movie, and I am relieved its not about the bottle city of Kandor. That rumored title sounded lame.

23 July 2010

More Young Justice Stills

More screen caps from the Comic Con Young Justice preview. Enjoy:

Artemis

Aqualad

Miss Martian

Robin

Superboy

Meanwhile at the Hall of Justice

Young Justice in Action

Comic Con has scored us a first look at the Young Justice Animated series with some awesome footage and interviews. I also managed to capture this image of the "senior" Justice League as they will appear on the show. This show looks very promising.

22 July 2010

Marvelous Animation Tour - Spider-Man (1967)

Perhaps best remembered for its theme song, Spider-Man ran for 52 episodes from 1967 - 1970.

The series' first season focused on Peter Parker's position as photographer for the Daily Bugle, ignoring many other aspects of the characters private life. Spider-man encountered many of his classic villains such as the Vulture and Lizard.

Spider-man also had a run in with Dr. Magneto, not quite the same dude as the arch-villain to the X-Men.

Although the second season told the origin of Spider-Man, it also took on some drastic cost saving measures by recycling footage from another series "Rocket Robin Hood." Thus, Spider-Man had frequent encounters with unknown aliens and monsters.

Overall, there is a lot of nostalgia for this first Spider-Man series, but among the 6 and counting Spider-Man series that followed this one may have a hard time claiming the title of best.

* The Marvel Super Heroes (1966) * Spider-Man (1967)

More on Korra: The Nextest Lastest Not Airbender Avatar

The Wall Street Journal has more on the Avatar: The Last Airbender spinoff series The Legend of Korra. Sounds primising, though I am eager to hear what thread will keep the series rolling. I mean, I suppose the episodes could be more stand alone in nature, but I would love another sweeping epic. Read on:

The creators of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” say that the new spinoff series “The Legend of Korra” will be more mature than the original show, but will still have the same sense of fun and adventure.

Nickelodeon, the network behind the original show, today announced that it will air the “Avatar” spinoff series “The Legend of Korra” (a working title) starting next year.

The first series took place in a world in which supernatural “benders” have the ability to manipulate the elements of air, earth, fire and water, and focused on Aang, a young airbender who turned out to be the Avatar, a person capable of controlling all the elements. The new series takes place 70 years later in the same world and follows the new Avatar, a teen girl named Korra who has learned to bend earth, water and fire and seeks to master air under the tutelage of Aang’s son, Tenzin.

Earlier this summer, director M. Night Shyamalan released a live-action theatrical version of the first series called “The Last Airbender” that was poorly received by critics, although it posted respectable numbers in early box office returns.

Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the creators of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “The Legend of Korra” took the time to talk to Speakeasy today about the new series.

The Wall Street Journal: How did you come up with the idea for the spinoff?

Bryan Konietzko: When Mike and I first created “Avatar: The Last Airbender” we always knew it would have an ending to it, that particular story. But as the show really took off, and found an audience all over the world, we knew that despite our intentions of ending that story there would probably be a time when Nickelodeon would come calling and want some more episodes….When that time came we had this idea for jumping ahead and telling a story about the next Avatar, this girl Korra.

If there’s a new Avatar, that means Aang has passed on. If he died around age 70, isn’t that pretty young for an Avatar?

Konietzko: You gotta keep in mind that he was frozen in a state of suspended animation for 100 years, so he kind of burned up some of his extra Avatar time.

The new “Avatar” is a woman. What inspired you to change the sex of the protagonist of the series?

Michael DiMartino: It’s not so much about changing because we had Avatar Kyoshi before Aang. We’d established that the Avatar can be male or female and we just thought let’s explore one of those more in depth, because Kyoshi was a popular character with a lot of fans and it seemed like a great opportunity to not retread what we’d done with Aang, who was a great hero, we all loved him, but we really wanted to try something different. And we have so many great female fans out there, who really responded to Katara in the first series, we thought we have the fan base who are really going to enjoy seeing the Avatar be a female.

Konietzko: Mike and I, we love those characters too, and we’ve encountered countless fans who are male who really like those characters too. We just don’t subscribe to the conventional wisdom that you can’t have an action series led by a female character. It’s kinda nonsense to us.

The one image that you released is Korra looking out on Republic City, where a lot of the new show take place. Tell me about that city.

Konietzko: That’s kind of a piece of concept art so when the show premieres next year it won’t look exactly like that but that’s the direction we’re headed. The first series was sort of a road show where every episode they were going to some new location. That was another new thing we wanted to do is root it in one big complex location but mainly one place. We were drawing inspiration from Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s and Hong Kong and even Western cities like Manhattan and even location-wise cities like Vancouver, a city that juts out on a peninsula or an island and has these big mountains around it.

Will we see characters from the previous series pop up?

DiMartino: I don’t want to give anything away, but rest assured there’s a definite link between the old series and this one.

Republic City is a city plagued by crime. There’s an anti-bender revolt. Does this new series deal with more mature themes?

Konietzko: Mike and I like a balance of tones. We never set out to make an overtly silly show or an overly serious dramatic show. We like dealing with all those things. It’s fair to say we’re dealing with some sophisticated things and the show is growing up a bit. But that said, we’re not in a calculated way trying to target another demographic. Even in the first series, it was about a world war and some pretty serious issues.

If Tenzin is Aang’s son, who is his mother?

DiMartino: [To Konietzko] We can say that, right? [To Speakeasy] It’s Katara. It’s not a huge surprise.

What did you guys think of the live-action version of “The Last Airbender”?

Konietzko: We’re just really focused on this new show right now, and kind of taking this off in its own direction and not concerning ourselves with that right now.

So you didn’t follow the casting controversy about the movie version of “The Last Airbender”?

Konietzko: We didn’t head up that film. We’re just happy to be back generating the original content in this mythology, which is what we do.

Would you like to bring a cartoon version of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” to the big screen?

Konietzko: We would love to. I think Mike and I would absolutely love to do feature animation. Either another story, or it if worked out, one in the “Avatar” world. We would be really excited.

Here Lies Abin Sur

The corpse of Green Lantern Corpsman Abin Sur has been spotted at Comic Con via comicbookmovie.com. That is one dead pink dude.

21 July 2010

First Look at Animated Green Arrow Short

The last couple seconds of the Superman Batman: Apocalypse trailer at imdb reveal a few seconds of Oliver Queen in action from the Green Arrow short that will be included with the movie. Bon Appetite.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Sequel Announced

Announced by Nickelodeon via SuperHeroHype, is The Legend of Korra, an animated sequel series following up on the events of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series. At this point this is probably better news than would be an announcement of a live action sequel to the critically maligned Last Airbender movie. I for one think this is a much better way to go than a 4th season of Airbender since that story had wrapped up... though I would hope to see Aang and co in flashback form at some point. Here is the series description:

The Legend of Korra takes place 70 years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender and follows the adventures of the Avatar after Aang – a passionate, rebellious, and fearless teenaged girl from the Southern Water Tribe named Korra. With three of the four elements under her belt (Earth, Water, and Fire), Korra seeks to master the final element, Air. Her quest leads her to the epicenter of the modern "Avatar" world, Republic City – a metropolis that is fueled by steampunk technology. It is a virtual melting pot where benders and non-benders from all nations live and thrive. However, Korra discovers that Republic City is plagued by crime as well as a growing anti-bending revolution that threatens to rip it apart. Under the tutelage of Aang's son, Tenzin, Korra begins her airbending training while dealing with the dangers at large.

Thor's Turd Pile and More

Here is a picture of Thor will the very heavy Mjolnir sitting in a pile that looks a bit like turd. A couple of other really cool posters were also released envisioning scenes from Thor and Captain America.

According to the LATimes, this version of Cap, "wants to serve his country, but he's not this sort of jingoistic American flag-waver... He's just a good person. We make a point of that in the script: Don't change who you are once you go from Steve Rogers to this super-soldier, you have to stay who you are inside, that's really what's important more than your strength and everything. It'll be interesting and fun to put a different spin on the character and one that the fans are really going to appreciate."

Shhh... Batman Red Hood is Here

Watch, but only if you promise to buy it (or at least rent it) when it comes out.

More Green Bits of Lantern Tid

Via unreliable internet repostings are some rumored tidbits about the Green Lantern movie (with my commentary in italics).

1) The film will be based mainly on "Secret Origins".

I assume this is in reference to the recent flashback story from Green Lantern #29-35 recounting the death of Abin Sur and first mission of Hal Jordan under Lantern Sinestro.

2) The CGI of the suit seen on the Entertainment Weekly cover is not finished.
Nor is it in motion, so it may look better onscreen.. but why isn't it finished? Seems odd to do a partial reveal.

3) The mask was photoshopped in. The real mask will look more physical and not spray-painted on his face.
Yeah, I kinda assumed.

4) 25 alien Green Lanterns, each with a different energy signature, were designed for major and minor roles in the movie.
Kilowog, Tomar-Re, Ch'p? The possibilities are endless.

5) A key-scene in the third act will feature all the 3.600 Green Lanterns.
Cool.

6) Parallax's origin is different from the comics.
Hmm, that worries me a bit, but could be fine if done well.

7) Sinestro's mustache is definitely in. His look was based mainly on Ivan Reis' drawings (currently pencilling [sic] Green Lantern vol. 4)
Yeah, Sinestro has to have a mustache.

8) Writers have already outlined ideas for the second and the third movie, which include Sinestro's downfall; The Sinestro Corps War; the destruction of Coast City; Hal Jordan becoming Parallax and etc.
Would they really let Hal Jordan become Parallax. That would take cajones, but I would love to see it. Would they turn the franchise over to Kyle Rayner, or would the whole saga resolve in a single film? The Sinestro Corps War would be a big hit. We can only hope. But lets focus on getting one good movie to start. Better one solid film that three (or one) steaming turd.

9) One of the main alien Green Lanterns is a completelly [sic] original character and his design was created by Ivan Reis.
Why. Are they really strapped for Lanterns? Is his name Poochie?

20 July 2010

Riddle Me This, Batman 3 Villain Revealed?

According to FirstShowing.net, a casting sheet reveals that El Riddler will in fact be dropping into Gotham in Batman 3. I expect this wont be a repeat of the Jim Carey pink haired take. This could be a good opportunity to showcase Batman's detectiving skills. If this turns out to be legit, it wont be too surprising. I think Riddler is pretty much the biggest name villain left for Nolan to use that lacks any superpowers. Now, add in the Black Mask or Catwoman and I'm sold (well, actually even with Crazy Quilt I would still be lining up for Batman 3).

19 July 2010

Green Lantern's Brightest Days #3

#3 DC Heroes: Green Lantern: Evil is as Evil Does

This episode has the distinction of being the first onscreen appearance of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern. Sure, along with the rest of the Filmation library, this is a bit dated but it did contain many core elements of the character.