Monthly Archives: February 2012

The Amazing Spider-Man Viral Hunt Comes to an End

What began as a viral marketing campaign has ended with cities covered in (authorized) graffiti. It’s lead to websites and Twitter accounts, all wrapped in more riddles and clues. So what was the payoff? Some cool Spider-Man swag and an opportunity to get all meta with the Spider-Man storyline.

You can read about the initial hunt here.

The viral hunt that lead to websites and Twitter accounts, contained more cryptic clues and locations. Then it lead to some pretty cool gifts that fans could take home. Some of the cool stuff included Spider-Man hoodies and cellphones that sent them instructions via calls and texts on what to do next.

I think this is how official supporters got selected to put up the marks of the Spider-Man around the city.

“We’re supporting Spider-Man,” Abigail Flynn told MTV News of the campaign in New York. “We’re putting up the mark of the Spider-Man around the city to spread awareness and spread his message.”

That’s right. Even MTV covered the news in New York about the appearance of supporters for the masked vigilante known as Spider-Man. You know how they’ve always been a reliable news source. Heh. It’s all very meta though and very well done. The idea is that these Spider-Man supporters are needed to remind whoever the Spider-Man is that he’s made a difference. Especially in light of the Daily Bugle constantly thrashing him. I really wouldn’t be surprised if some of this footage appears in the movie; or maybe a reenactment of the graffiti vandalism.

In addition to New York, these events also took place in Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Seattle. To ensure that no one screwed it up or that separate professionally trained graffiti artists weren’t needed for each location, stencils were handed out. Tape up – Spray red – Tear Down – Pose for pictures. Easy enough right? I’m still having problems coloring within the lines.

Just to be sure everyone is on the same page though, the Mark of the Spider-Man official marketing website had this to communicate:

“These activities were conducted by trained and supervised persons acting with all necessary permissions and authorizations. Columbia Pictures does not condone or support the propagation of unauthorized graffiti and must insist that no one attempt to recreate, re-enact or perform such activity without all required permissions and authorizations.”

Which hopefully frees them for legal issues if by chance a street gang adopts the signature as their own. Like the black spiders in “The New Guy.” Actually, I think that was a comic book storyline entitled, “Spider-Island” where everyone in New York gained the power set of Spider man and a bunch of thugs dressed as Spider-Man. They ended up using their great power for great larceny, so other Marvel superheroes crossed over and laid the smack down on everyone; including Peter Parker.

If the Spider-Man supporters ever got out of hand, I’m sure the riot police wouldn’t have problems gassing them all. Just like the superheroes would do! It’s better to be safe than sorry.

Columbia Picture’s The Amazing Spider-Man hits theaters this July 3rd.

If you go to the official viral marketing site and click on the red image of Mark of the Spider, it’ll take you to a trailer.  Check out the trailer below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tnxzJ0SSOw

Warlord of Mars Sued. John Carter Movie is Still a Go!

More clothed than other images in question.

Dynamite Entertainment and Dynamic Forces, have been sued by ERB.

So who are they and why is this so important? Well Dynamite Entertainment is responsible for the Warlord of Mars graphic novel series and Lord of the Jungle, while Dynamic forces produces collectibles based on the same works. What’s this to the ERB? Well it stands for Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. You see, he’s the one who originally created Tarzan and the Mars adventurer known as John Carter back in the day which both comic series and products seem to base their work off of. So the family-owned company which holds the existing rights to the works filed a lawsuit last week Thursday in federal court. This was first reported by The Wall Street Journal

ERB accuses the publisher and merch producer of trademark infringement and unfair competition with the release of the two aforementioned comic series. ERB further claim that the comics were published without authorization.

Apparently ERB already told Dynamite Entertainment President, Nick Barrucci back in 2007 that Dark Horse held the licenses for the John Carter of Mars and Tarzan novels. Dynamite Entertainment had approached ERB originally about the possibility of publishing comics based on John Carter and Tarzan.

This was the same year that ERB licensed Disney to make the film John Carter, and also a toy company to come out with 12-inch John Carter action figures.

So the complaint is that the comics released by Dynamite Entertainment, compounded by the fact that there are other titles officially licensed out there, is likely to “Deceive, mislead and confuse the public” about who exactly is legitimately supported by ERB as these comics are “confusingly similar”.

Which titles are in question exactly?

  • Lord of the Jungle
  • Warlord of Mars
  • Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris
  • Warlord of Mars: Fall of Barsoom

If that was the intent, then yes, it would be confusing. That would be like if Disney ripped off the Harry Potter series and made a show about magical humans going to school. It is said the confusion may cause, “irreparable injury” to ERB Inc.

The comic has been in publication since 2010, so why all the commotion now? Is it a coincidence that this happened two weeks before the official release of the Disney movie in two weeks time? As convenient as this is; marketing wise; the case raises questions about public domain and the boundaries between copyright and trademark law.

The copyright term has since run its course in the states as it begins at the time of publication to a fixed number of years. Burroughs, an American author, wrote the first John Carter story back in 1912, in America. Even with the fixed number of years which I believe maxes out at 70, we’re well cleared 1982; who said those math classes were useless. This means that the works is part of public domain. This however might all be side stepped if this goes to copyright law outside of the states. In most parts of the world, the copyright length lasts the life of the author plus 50 to 70 years. So Burroughs died in 1950 which means the copyright could potentially last up to the year 2021 outside of the United States. This is exactly the angle that ERB is approaching as they attempt to get a New York federal judge to enforce UK copyright law. Did I already mention the author is American?

To top it all off, ERB also claims trademarks over John Carter and Tarzan. If successful, it would mean that ERB could possibly get perpetual copyright. Before you know it, they’ll be sandblasting images of comic book version John Carter off of elementary school murals. Hmmm… I see a pattern here.

Wait a tic. Didn’t I write about this public domain for John Carter nonsense back on February 1st?

An excerpt about the John Carter movie from one of my earliest articles:

“When I first saw the trailer for John Carter in theaters, my mind immediately went to the graphic novel, “Warlord of Mars” from Dynamite comics, which I saw similarities in costume; for the men because they actually wore clothes unlike the women. I thought this was a theatrical adaptation of the comic book and wondered why they would go to the trouble of changing the name.

As it turns out, after nearly a hundred years in print, the copyright for this story has since expired and is considered public domain. So both the movie and the comic book can be treated as separate entities, which is a good thing since the comic book version is rather risqué; strippers tend to wear more then the females depicted in the graphic novel.”

I did write about this. So it’s also not a surprise that ERB is also harping about the comic’s costume design like I did; to me at least.  I’m always mostly right.

The official complaint states that the content for Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris “border on (and in some cases are) pornographic”

“In each issue, [the female character] Dejah Thoris appears with greatly exaggerated feminine features”

“On some covers – covers which defendants refer to as ‘Risque Nude’ exclusive covers – Dejah Thoris appears topless.”

I’d like to be the first to welcome ERB to the wonderful world of comic books. Aimed at boys with a lowered chance at copulation, the comic book industry has been ‘cheesecake’ for a number of decades.  Empires have been built on this collective hormonal drive.

The lawsuit doesn’t specify any damages, but it does seek to recall all the comics distributed in the United Kingdom. Oh, and also the complete and utter surrendering of profits made by these works forthwith.

I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if ERB went after DC comics for Martian Manhunter, which is very similar to the martians in the John Carter series.  Heh.  “No man escapes the Manhunters.”  I know. I know.  Wrong manhunter.

Almost a hundred years in the making, the theatrical adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs classic sci-fi novel is due to hit theaters March 9.

Bleach Manga To Become Live Action Film? Please No!

Haven’t we had enough terrible live action versions of animated movies in our time? I mean c’mon Avatar the Last Airbender as a live action film, who thought that would be a good idea? And even worse, please, world, stop turning amazing animes into live action films! Just stop!

Apparantly, my appeals go unheard as Warner Bros. recently announced plans to adapt Tite Kubo’s manga series Bleach into a live-action feature. It is already an anime and a manga which usually go hand in hand so I am ok with that, but a live action movie? I have definite reservations.

If you haven’t read the manga or seen the anime here is the plot:

Bleach follows the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki who is a teenager gifted with the ability to see spirits. His life is drastically changed by the sudden appearance of a Soul Reaper—one who governs the flow of souls between the human world and the afterlife—named Rukia Kuchiki, who arrives in search of aHollow, a dangerous lost soul. Ichigo obtains the powers of the Soul Reaper (死神 Shinigami, literally, “Death God”). With her powers diminished, Rukia is left stranded in the human world until she can recover her strength. In the meantime, Ichigo must take over Rukia’s role as a Soul Reaper, battling Hollows and guiding souls to the afterlife realm known as the Soul Society. – it is bascially pretty awesome.

With it already being super popular in terms of anime fans, I can see why they would want to make it a movie that everyone would enjoy but it would lose so much  of the reason it is awesome.

Firstly, if they want it to be a huge commercial success they would have to move it from Japan to America. They made the decision to do this to the live action adaptation of Akira and look what happened to that? It got put on hold! (and it upset many fans who felt that a story set in Japan should stay in Japan and I agree).  I can imagine this would similarly piss off many of the fans of the original because a change in setting changes much of the feel of the show and manga. Also, if you a hardcore fan of the series you probably watch it in its original Japanese language subtitled in English. Which certainly will not be the case if it is a feature length live action film. (This would also mean that most likely it would feature american actors rather than Japanese which would just be… weird!)

You can not turn these characters into live people!

Secondly, can you imagine a main character with bright orange hair? You probably think, yeah just get an actor with naturally red hair, a ginger! But no, if they do the same as they did on Dragon ball Z you know that they will probably try to style the hair just like the anime which will look ridiculous on a live human person.

Yeah, Kind of like this. It is just ridiculous.

So, I really think if they try to live action it, the characters that I love will end up being just ridiculous looking. Anime features are exaggerated for a reason and can’t be on a real person! (Although I am looking forward to seeing what they do with Kon….live action killer stuffed animal? hmmmm….)

Also, if this is to be commercially successful much of the humor will have to be changed or it definitely won’t be appropriate. I mean if they kept in every reference to Orihime’s boobs then you can bet that many people will not be amused. It would also mean that much of violence would have to be cut down because some of those hollows are pretty intense.

Basically what I am saying is this: PLEASE DONT MAKE THIS LIVE ACTION! I think a CG version could be cool but in reality it will probably look like the Hulk movie from 2003. The only saving grace is that it has a decent director attached. Peter Segal, who most recently directed Get Smart, will produce and potentially direct while Dan Mazeau (Wrath of the Titans) is attached to draft the screenplay.

But if they put the live action film, Akira on hold, I wander if this will even go any further? But as a fan of the manga series, Bleach, I can only hope they do this film adaptation correctly, and not have another Dragon Ball Z situation unleashed on world giving anime fans a bad name.

The Secret World of Arrietty Makes Waves in Japan With $8.1 Million U.S. Opening

The Secret World of Arrietty did the unexpected and gained $8.1 million on it’s opening weekend in the States. This is the biggest take for the animators Studio Ghibli to date for a stateside release, making headlines in Japan.

This is impressive because when compared to Spirited Away; another animation by Studio Ghibli; the film only took home half a million stateside on its opening three day bow. While the film itself had earned a record breaking $230 million in Japan, it only ended up with $10 million in America.

Studio Ghibli attributes their success in the united states to Disney, who released the dubbed version. This was openly communicated on the official website for Studio Ghibli in Japan.

The Secret World of Arrietty, which is known as Karigurashi no Arrietty in Japan, opened on over 1500 screens and finished the weekend in eighth spot. The film was first released in Japan, July 2010 and took $115 million home, the highest grossing domestic film that year. Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the inspiration for the film was drawn from The Borrowers, written by English author Mary Norton; the creator of Disney classic Bedknobs & Broomsticks!

The Borrowers which was first published in 1952, is the first in a series of children fantasy novels. The stories are about tiny people who infest the homes of normal people, often scavenging for supplies. According to the books, they “borrow” things to survive while ensuring that the world stays ignorant of their existence. We have that too in the real world, the little people are often just the homeless that are cracked out on drugs they bought pawning “borrowed” goods.

The story goes on to tell a story about Arrietty Clock, the spirited teenager of the tiny people variety. From what I can see in the movie adaptation, she becomes friends with a human who’s discovered her existence. Instead of being sentenced to death for violating the masquerade, they carry on their friendship despite the cultural hurdles they face; size does matter.  I believe they made a live action movie in 1997 starring John Goodman also called “The Borrowers.”

Now that I think of it, I remember an animation on television which also became a movie. It was called The Littles. It too was adapted from a series of children’s novels written by John Peterson, this time an American author in 1967. Hmmmm… Curiouser and curiouser. The Littles were also a family of tiny people; with mouse like features such as tails, teeth and ears; that infested the home of the Bigg family; har har. They built wacky contraptions from household items to aid in their survival. Having been discovered by one of the Bigg children, they form a trusting relationship which allows them to mooch off the humans more efficiently. Wow. Someone’s been doing some borrowing themselves writing this.

What is it with these remakes of British entertainment? Do people somehow believe that things seen in the UK will be seen as fresh and new ideas in the states? They take great ideas and make these bastardizations that make me cringe. How do people get away with this? It’s not like I can go and pitch an idea about angst filled teens on probation with superpowers and not get caught!

Gah! It’s like my mind refuses to accept this.  Watch the trailer for The Secret World of Arrietty below:

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Viral Marketing

So the marketing department has fired off a few viral things of their own for the upcoming film, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. I’m sure the 16th president wasn’t much of a social gamer on Facebook, or much into online ciphers with GPS caching scavenger hunts. What was more within his reach however were parcels delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.

Bound in rope and wrapped in really good stock paper, various websites like Coming Soon and Crave Online received packages containing what seems to be a preserved journal from what we can presume at this point is the late former president of the United States. At least that’s what we hope, and that Lincoln doesn’t stalk the night, living in the hollowed out statue of himself. Included with the monogrammed leather bound journal was a photo of Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Todd Lincoln, and a silver bullet USB drive; possibly made with steampunk technology, everything is powered by steam! When I first saw these images, my immediate reaction was to go, “Who’s Al?” and be annoying about it. It’s got to be a good life when marketing peeps send you free swag like that.

On this stylish USB drive; manufactured in the past but popularized in the coming future where everyone will want one; contains a featurette for the upcoming movie. So it’s a trailer with interspersed commentary from the production crew.

The one thing that really caught my attention was when director Timur Bekmambetov explains that Lincoln was the Batman of his time. I didn’t think of that until now. It all makes sense. Lincoln has a parent he loved dearly, die before his eyes. Check. Lincoln knows that this is a direct result of underworldly elements that believe themselves to be above the law; and humanity. Check. Goes over the edge with control issues by training himself physically and mentally to be the best. Check. Finds specialists to teach him how to be better at it. Check! Vows to rid the world of anymore suffering due to the element that killed his parent. Check! Iconic costume and trappings that everyone can immediately identify. Stovepipe hat on. Axe sharpened. Double check! The white house even has a secret underground bunker, just like the Bat Cave!

The portion then that annoys me is how Tim Burton, producer of this film can say, “It’s an amazing story. I just felt like it’s something I haven’t seen before.” When in fact he has, having directed The Dark Knight himself.

It all ends with the cute joke, “Are you a Patriot or a Vampire?” encouraging viewers to go to the movie’s official Facebook page.  Which reminds me a lot of “You’re either with us, or against us.” No, not said by a unreasonable bully with psychological problems or control issues, but by a former President of the United States of America.

The featurette actually looked better than the official movie trailer itself. I was actually amped watching this and can’t wait to finish reading the book; half-way through right now.

The film is set for release by Twentieth Century Fox on June 22nd, based on the novel of the same name by Seth Grahame-Smith.

You can go to Coming Soon and look at images of their official Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter propaganda here.

Check out the new featurette below.

The Walking Dead Continues to Kill in the Ratings

After the huge success of the mid-season premiere for “The Walking Dead”, the show continues to garner high ratings. The mid-season premiere was the most watched show in the history of cable television with 11 million viewers combined; from both time slots. The next episode, number 9 of season 2, didn’t yield as many viewers, but still nothing to laugh at with 8.5 million viewers combined. Again, this doesn’t even begin to count the ones that found online alternatives to watching the show.

Already “The Walking Dead” has been signed for a third season. With things moving as slowly as they are, I’m sure the cast will be almost off the farm by then. Gah!

The episode begins with a little flashback of Lori learning her lesson for being an idiot. Ignoring the conventional wisdom of the buddy system, she left last episode to find Rick who’s in town finding Hershel; who in turn is finding solace at the bottom of a bottle. Lori decides that the best way to navigate her way to town is to drive fast while looking down at a road map. Was she that confident in a world where there are no other drivers around? She’s surprised by a slow walking zombie in the middle of the road. Instead of driving through it, she brakes and swerves, totalling the car.

To outline how stupid she really was and to send a message to the rest of the world, I was hoping that they’d show her driving again, but this time looking down to text message.

So the scene begins with what appears to be night time and a zombie scratching at the car windshield, trying to get at an unconscious Lori. Coming too, Lori gives a little scream realizing how much danger she’s in. The scream resonated in me and made me go, “Good. I hope you die.”

The television adaptation has so far been a source of irritation for me. It depicts the cast from comics which I complete enjoy, but have churned out something that I can’t stand but won’t look away either. Is it good writing or am I just that faithful to the source material? The characters portrayed on television want to do so much to live, yet they’re not willing to think anything through.

Robert Kirkman, creator and writer of The Walking Dead comic, and executive producer for the AMC show went on to comment on the episode. This was in an interview with Entertainment Weekly who lead off with, “No one could say that this episode was not action-packed.”

Kirkman replied saying, “That’s true. I mean, look, there’s all that tension in the bar with those people outside and we barely even see them. It was a really cool move on [the part of showrunner] Glen Mazzera working with David Leslie Johnson on this script. They’re this strange outside threat and I think it makes them more scary because everything is played inside and it’s all done off the looks of Scott Wilson and Steven Yeun and Andrew Lincoln. I think the performances in that scene are tremendous.”

The performance of the scene may have been tremendous, but that’s only thanks to the actors doing their best to go along with the faulty writing.

We then go back to Rick, Glenn and Hershel. Having killed two interlopers who had clearly escalated their threat potential. Rick in a sweeping badass movie kill both of them where they stood. That was smart thinking that was completely on instinct. Somewhere a writer must have said, “We can’t have that! Quick! Make him an idiot again!”

With the new threats around them, Hershel somehow mans up and maybe realizes the people he’s taken in are complete idiots. Why are they idiots?

When more outsiders who come looking for their recently shot friends walk towards the bar, Glenn’s first reaction is to push his back against the door as it opens. He had all the time in the world to get in front of it. Was he trying to simulate a locked door? Doesn’t matter because they now know that someone is in there. I think Rick gives Glenn the face of, “You just got in my way. They were going to walk in and I would have had the element of surprise and clearly killed them.” Yes, this is what I’ve interpreted and read into. Bite me.

They all had guns, element of surprise and could have avoided any of them getting in any real danger.

“Yo, someone in there? If someone’s in there, we want no trouble. We’re just looking for our friends.”

Rick who’s just shot Glenn the, “You screwed this up for us look.” Lapses back into his moral and narrative ways; the annoying way he speaks into the radio; first beginning with, “They drew on us.” Then goes on to explain how he’s killed their friends and that they should be reasonable; unlike their dead friends; and go their separate ways. I’m sure Rick would have understood if it was the other way around, right? “You killed Shane? Awwww. Bye.”

The episode, entitled ‘Triggerfinger’ then turns into a gun fight. Let’s speed this up. Outsiders die or abandon their friend who’s impaled himself on a fence. Rick and the gang save him and bring him back to the farm. The show then slows down and turns into something else entirely. I believe it can be boiled down to Office Politics. Why didn’t they shoot this portion of the show like a fake documentary the way they do with The Office.

Shane doesn’t like Rick making all these decisions that he believes are wrong. If he was in charge, he’d do things differently and better. Less taxes and all that rot. Andrea and some others back Shane. Meanwhile Shane secretly confesses his stalker like love for Lori and how she belongs to him.

The show now is setting up into camps. Team Rick and Team Shane. Screw that noise. If they’re so interested in fighting for the zombie matrix of leadership, then I’m voting Team Zombie. Where the Hades is the horde?

Watch The Two Official Television Spots for The Hunger Games

Lionsgate has officially started airing two new TV spots for The Hunger Games. This big screen adaptation of the novel by Suzanne Collins is being directed by Gary Ross.

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the governing body, the Capitol, of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Katniss Everdeen volunteers as a tribute to save her sister from going in to the ghastly arena. She is joined by Peeta Mellark, a boy she knew who once saved her life.

You can see the official cast below:

  • Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen
  • Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark
  • Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy
  • Willow Shields as Primrose “Prim” Everdeen
  • Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne
  • Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket
  • Lenny Kravitz as Cinna
  • Paula Malcomson as Mrs. Everdeen
  • Amandla Stenberg as Rue
  • Alexander Ludwig as Cato
  • Dayo Okeniyi as Thresh
  • Isabelle Fuhrman as Clove
  • Jacqueline Emerson as Foxface
  • Leven Rambin as Glimmer
  • Jack Quaid as Marvel
  • Donald Sutherland as President Snow
  • Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman
  • Wes Bentley as Seneca Crane
  • Latarsha Rose as Portia

The Hunger Games novel is followed by Catching Fire and Mockingjay. The film will hit theaters on March 23 and you can see the two television spots below:


Justice League: Doom, Where Are Your Heroes Now?

As fans of the superhero genre have learned, Marvel might crank out a good live action movie, but it’s Detective Comics that makes a great animation. With the upcoming release of the 13th animation in the Justice League series, we wait in eager anticipation for Justice League: Doom. Until then, let’s do what comic book nerds do best and nitpick.

Justice League: Doom at first doesn’t sound like a proper title. It sounds like a file name that writer Dwayne McDuffie came up with when he started with this piece and never got around to correcting before he passed away last year. For a while I even assumed it was the code name that Batman kept all his Justice Leaguer information under. I do know that for the longest time I couldn’t even see the colon in the title and thought it was just a merger of Justice League of America and Legion of Doom.

Justice League: Doom is based on the comic book series JLA: Tower of Babel, an epic storyline heralded as one of Mark Waid’s best works. Dwayne McDuffie was hired to adapt the storyline for animation, which required many changes and may have lost some of the impact felt in the original.

The first change I saw was the cast. The roster for the Justice League constantly changes but there are some comic book archetypes that need to be seen. So there’s the big three: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Their story hardly ever changes. Then there’s a Green Lantern and The Flash. These two can be interchanged with other incarnations that wear their mantle.

Green Lantern can be switched out with any member of the Green Lantern Corp, but the Justice League tends to use the human ones. This leaves John Stewart, Guy Gardener, Kyle Rayner and Hal Jordan; Alan Scott doesn’t count. The Flash is also narrowed down to Barry Allen, Wally West or Bart Allen.

In the original comic, it was Kyle Rayner who wore the ultimate weapon in the universe, while he was still the inexperienced Last-of-the-Green-Lanterns. The speed force was wielded by Wally West, the former Kid Flash who was forever trying to outrun the shadow of his mentor.

For Justice League: Doom, the storyline follows the rest of the Justice League series and uses Hal Jordan and Barry Allen to play the Faster Friends; yeah, they used to have a comic title together with that tag line.

This leaves Martian Manhunter who this time has gone through a slight reboot. The Manhunter now wears more complete clothing that doesn’t match the chest baring Barsoom novel series. This doesn’t change the fact that his real physical appearance and inspiration is a direct lift from that book series. If you see the live action movie called John Carter, then you’ll have a very good idea of what I’m referring to.

So what about the seventh member? The Justice League is usually comprised of several key members. In tower of babel however we saw Aquaman, the worlds most useless superhero, and Plasticman, the shape changing unitard wearing sight gag; didn’t he get the memo to wear the underwear on the outside? Both were replaced with Cyborg, the affirmative action, token superhero.

The Justice League cartoon series had John Stewart who was lord of the green lantern ring, which worked out fine as there was perfect continuity for it. This matched later on with the JLA comics switching out Rayner for Stewart as well. Again, proper as Rayner had to go out and play intergalactic cop in the Green Lantern title. So why Cyborg? Let’s forget that he’s a visible minority with disabilities and the best HMO in the world. I also want to forget that he was originally a thirty something adult that spent a lot of time with adolescent Teen Titans. This brings us to The New 52.

The New 52 is a revamp and relaunch by DC Comics of its entire line of ongoing superhero books. All of its existing titles were canceled, and in it’s place 52 new series debuted starting at issue #1. Nothing more than a large publishing event that came after the Flashpoint crossover storyline. Apparently the Flash’s time traveling screwed up continuity so badly it affected the real world. So while titles restarted at issue #1, rebooting all the characters to allow them to be reintroduced in a contemporary manner; for a new generation of readership; the only title that somewhat survived was Green Lantern. They poured a lot of time into the storyline over the last five years, having been the focal point for two big crossovers; Blackest Night, and War of Light. They’d be stupid to abandon that goldmine now, reboot be damned.

While the New 52 is not being received well by older fans, it’s understandable why DC would want to cut ties with a complex continuity that has been in place since the 1930s. Without the reboot, the next logical step would have been to add footnotes to each comic rather than flashbacks and editor notes.

The entire Justice League series of animation that have gone direct-to-DVD seems to support the New 52 as well, as it also neatly ignores a lot of back story. Almost like a game of red rover, Cyborg from the New 52 Justice League was called over.

The best way to describe the current state of things in the DC comic universe right now is to compare it to a lie. Almost as if older nerds were hazing a lesser nerd, trying to convince them that all they held dear would be destroyed. A lot of fast talking would have to be done, based on an inch of truth called back story. So just like such a hypothetical joke, a lot of work had to be done to fill in the gaps of this lie called the New 52.

Hence, why Cyborg is a member of the Justice League now. Aside from the more sinister reasons of his membership, Cyborg is also the bridge between children raised on the Teen Titan cartoons, which is why I wasn’t surprised at the anime influence for The Justice League: Doom.

So there you have it, the current roster for the Justice League. Everyone is annoyed and feels betrayed because Batman essentially could back stab them at any point when he wanted. You can read more on what happened in Final Countdown to Justice League Doom, here. This wasn’t a back stab, it’s what I will now refer to as a Bat stab. Unlike villains, middle-management and high school bullies, Batman never needs to lord this over anyone. As far as anyone else was concerned, they didn’t need to know how screwed they were until he dropped the bat hammer on them. In addition, back stabbing sounds like a last ditch ploy to win, while every plan that Batman has come up with were winning moves, not moves of desperation.

So was this all a good movie by DC? Yes, I wanted to see more of their animation. No, because I felt cheated out of a better storyline. Will I ever watch DC Animations again? It can’t be helped, I’m an addicted comic book nerd. Think of it as solidarity. I’ll be with them no matter what.

So where are the villains and what exactly did Batman do?  Stay tuned next time.  Same Bat Time.  Same Bat Channel.

Watch the Visual Effects Featurette For The Walking Dead

AMC hit show, “The Walking Dead” is often praised for its visual effects. Many critics have commented on the visual appeal of the show as well as the content. AMC recently released a featurette showcasing the visual effects of the series.

“The Walking Dead” is based on the comic book series, The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. It is currently in the middle of its second season. AMC announced in October 2011 that the show would be renewed for a third season due to the fact the premiere of season 2 broke cable records in their demographic. On January 14, 2012, AMC announced that the third season will contain an extended episode order of 16 episodes.

The Walking Dead tells the story of a small group of survivors living in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. Most of the story takes place in the Atlanta metropolitan area, as the survivors search for a haven away from the shuffling hordes of predatory “walkers” who devour and infect any living thing they catch. The plot is focused primarily on the dilemmas the group face as they struggle to balance their humanity with their survival.

The group is led by Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln (You can see an interview with Lincoln here), who was a sheriff’s deputy in a small Georgian town before the zombie outbreak. At every turn they are faced with the horror of the dead walking again, the changing dynamic of their group, and hostility from the scattered remains of a struggling human populace who are focused on their own survival now that the structures of society have collapsed.

You can watch the exclusive featurette below: