This just in from the Twitterverse:

BrianReed: Just got off the phone with @yost who gave me permission to announce I’m writing an episode of the recently announced AVENGERS cartoon.

Now… discuss.

Nikki Finke got two Iron Man 2 scoops today, reporting that two on again off again rumors have come true. Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johannson will both be playing Russians in the sequel to last year’s Robert Downey Jr saving flick.

After at first being low-balled by the studio to the tune of $250K, Rourke has signed on for the role of the Russian villain in the sequel after his agent David Unger got the quote up to a “significant” level…

Now I’m told that Emily Blunt won’t be in the sequel and Black Widow will now be played by Scarlett Johannson. (Interesting because Scarlett actually screen-tested for the role and didn’t get it.)

The exact “Russian villain” wasn’t specified, but was earlier rumored as Crimson Dynamo or Whiplash. Finke reports he is starting research on all things Russian during his convenient trip to the country promoting The Wrestler.

Rourke’s casting has since been confirmed by Variety, who stated he’ll be playing Whiplash, but with “elements” of Crimson Dynamo, implying some sort of combination of the characters. They also noted his presence and interaction with Downey Jr. during awards season may have been a factor.

So, now that it’s as official as it can be without a press release, what do you think? Did Marvel Studios make the right choices here? Can Johannson pull off being the Russian superspy?

Mattel today sent out images and a little bit of information about Wave 9 of their DCUClassics line, and this one is a doozy. Black Canary and Green Arrow are present, along with villains Deadshot and Black Adam. Mantis is here, with a Robot variant. The coolest looking Wildcat figure I’ve ever seen will also have a variant, though what that’ll be was not ready for announcement yet. Classic Guardian rounds out the line, and each figure will come with a piece of a translucent Chemo build-a-figure. Click Read More for images of the rest of the line, and start saving your money up. (more…)

Out today from Ape Entertainment is the first issue of Ken Marcus and and Justin Bleep’s new superhero comedy, Super Human Resources. Following the antics of Tim, who is starting a temp job in the human resources department of Super Crises International. The book is hilarious, and comparisons drawn by early reviews to some of the best comedies on TV were pretty fair. Marcus sat down with Blog@Newsarama to discuss the first issue of the series.

Blog@Newsarama: So this is one of those books that’s getting COMPARED to a lot of stuff. The initial write-up I read was “The Office with superheroes,” and since then I’ve talked to people who have compared it to Soon I Will Be Invincible or JLI or Hancock. Let’s put all those to rest: Where did the idea for the book actually come from? 

Ken Marcus: I guess I thought of the name first. The name is the high concept. Super Human Resources: the HR department of a super hero team. I love The Office (especially the BBC version), but I’m probably more inspired by Dilbert, to be honest. The comedy there is less character-based and more situational. All the crushing banality of office life. I kinda contrast this corporate absurdity with the absurdity of all the things we’ve seen in comic books a million times. Alternate timelines, evil twins, sidekicks, androids in love…all that stuff.  A lot of gold in them thar mines.

Blog@: It’s interesting because new properties, not owned by the Big Two and not featuring an established property, are pretty hard to sell, and even harder to get most publishers to promote…but this week sees the release of Super Human Resources #1 from Ape as well as The Life and Times of Savior 28 from IDW, both of which have had pretty decent marketing. What’s the secret of convincing your publisher to put in the extra effort?

KM: Nothing against the Ape guys, because they did a lot behind the scenes. A lot of advice and guidance. But as far as all the heavy lifting that went into marketing, I did most of it. Advertising is my background, so I’m a lot more comfortable marketing our comic, than I was creating it. All of the coverage has been pretty much generated by me. I’m a big believer that it’s solely up to the creators to promote their books. Any extra help by the publisher is gravy. That should be your working assumption as a creator.

Blog@: Is this book drawn with paper and pencil, or on the computer?

KM: Justin is awesome. He does pencil sketches first. Than does the final inking in photoshop, I believe. Makes the lines really clean. He used to ink by hand, but he moved to more digital work specifically for Super Human Resources.

Blog@: I ask because it has a look that’s very much like an animated series; did you design it with that in mind?

KM: Yeah, I guess. I didn’t want Super Human Resources to look like a straight super hero story. I wanted an Adult-Swim feel to it. Something, while still recognizable as “super heroey,” that’s off-kilter a bit. I think the expressiveness of Justin’s art is far more important than anatomy or perspective when it come to comedy. His style really jumps off the page.  I hope it does the same off comic store shelves.

Blog@: Zombor is a great character; he reminds me a little bit of Morbo from Futurama!

KM: Other people have said that. I’ve seen a handful of Futuramas and I vaguely remember the character. Can’t really remember. I’m more of a Simpsons guy.  I gotta watch more Futuramas. Zombor was probably more influenced by Solomon Grundy.  Don’t tell the DC legal department.

Blog@: So…will Tim ever get the antidote?

KM: Luckily, I don’t have to worry myself with small things like plot and logic when it comes to Super Human Resources. I just have to make it funny.  I hope he lives. Otherwise, I’m not sure who’s in all the other issues. Nothing like the obligatory cliff-hanger.

Blog@: So are there any artifacts we should recognize in the background, besides the Infinity Gauntlet that’s hidden in the room with The Bog?…Is that Wonder Woman’s lasso in there, too?

KM: Yeah, I liked the idea of all of these super hero props and artifacts just lying around. We have white-out. Super Heroes have power dampeners and mask glue and infinity gauntlets in their office supply rooms. These artifacts play a pretty big role in issue #4

Blog@: So how soon are we going to find out who that is on the last page, betraying SCI and being insulted?

KM: Yep. It ain’t hard to figure out. We get around to it in issue #2. In volume two, I’d like to explore who’s on the other end of the phone. Who are all the a-holes doing all the insulting. 

Could Alan Moore have seen this coming? Maybe so. A middle America talk show chatting about the Watchmen movie with the stars from the movie. In fairness to Rachel Ray, she was relatively cool in her remarks. She seemed to understand what was going on and fully supportive of the movie, especially a nude Dr. Manhattan but, hey, what can you say?

Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Patrick Wilson proved what good sports they can be by suffering through some talk show blather and antics which included a production manager for the show posing all in blue. To Rachel’s only question to the guys, or “hunks,” “What would be your favorite superhero?” no one bothered to give an answer. Basically, a lot of smiling and nodding. Patrick Wilson did mention the deconstructing of comics. As goofy as the whole thing was, it seemed like a good thing.

Do you like Snood? Do you like Iron Man? Are you excited about the upcoming Iron Man animated series? Do you like free web based games? Do you think I could write this entire post using nothing but questions? If you answered yes to all of those questions, you were wrong. If you answered yes to all but the final one, Marvel has a fun little treat in store for you, by the name of Iron Man Armored Popper.

The game, surprisingly, has nothing to do with popping corn for Rhodey and Pepper. Instead, it’s a matching game, where you fire one of the icons at the ones above you, the goal being to match 3 or more and remove all of them from the screen. If it sound familiar, well, that’s because there’ve been about 30,000 of this type of game out there. This is the first one thats linked with ‘ole (er… young…) Shellhead, though, and it’s free, so the price is right; it does also increase Marvel’s already massive web presence. Sure it’s on the Marvel Kids site, but fun is allowed to be had by all ages, so give it a click, and brag about your high score here.

For all you guys out there in the Rainy City, we’ve got a treat for you!

Dame Darcy, cartoonist and mastermind of the Victorian horror romance Meat Cake, will be hitting the Fantagraphics Boomstore & Gallery from 6-9pm on Saturday, March 14th.

Darcy will perform vocals and banjo with her acoustic trio, and then sign copies of Meat Cake as well as her new graphic novel, Gasoline. In addition, there will be an exhibition of art from Harvey Kurtzman’s Humbug.

Fantagraphics has announced that it will be releasing a series of hardcovers featuring the work of French cartoonist Jacques Tardi.

In August, the publisher will release West Coast Blues, a hard-boiled crime thriller, and the surreal and satiric You Are Here.

“Tardi has always been one of my top favorite European cartoonists,” said series editor Kim Thompson, who will also be translating the books. “I’ve wanted to do this for many years — pretty much as long as we’ve been publishing — and I think the time is ripe. In today’s graphic-novel world, the audience is finally ready for Tardi.”

In Spring 2010, Fantagraphic will release It Was the War of the Trenches, a graphic novel set in World War I.

Tardi, who is best known in the U.S. for his Dark Horse-published heroine Adèle Blanc-Sec, has won every French cartooning award including the Grand Prize of Angoulême, and has created over 30 graphic novels in a wide variety of genres.

Henry posted the latest Saturn Award nominations earlier today, and I have to say, it strikes that special part of me usually reserved for bogus “parent groups” and pretentious lists (hehe). See, I was under the impression that the Saturn Awards were for SciFi/Fantasy/Horror, with an emphasis on the first two. I was also under the impression that Awards in general were reserved for, well, good things.

Apparently these are wild misconceptions, and instead, the Saturn Awards are in place to reward just about anyone who makes moving pictures, no matter the subject or the quality, and it’s a damn shame.

There are already plenty of awards out there for the general movie/tv industry: Golden Globes, SGA, WGA, DGA, Oscars, BAFTA, etc. The idea of a dedicated Genre award is a great one, but clearly the Saturns have lost their way. Examples, you say? Let’s take a look here. (more…)

You know, maybe the newspaper industry would be in better shape if they still had headlines with this kind of zazz: Dateline: Silver Age collects headlines from papers like The Gotham News and The Ivytown Record. This Daily Planet headline is my favorite so far, as it devotes the entire front page to a single headline about…a marble championship? Say, now I wonder how what the Daily Planet looked like when Pearl Harbor was attacked or a man landed on the moon …

Yeah, suck it video games: This dude’s totally right—movies that are based on comics are sometimes good, while movies that are based on comics’ traditional archenemy The Video Game are all so bad they generally fall somewhere between “crimes against aesthetics” and “crimes against humanity.” I’m thinking as hard as I can right now, and I’m unable to think of a based-on-a-videogame movie that didn’t make me want to slap almost everyone involved as soon as the credits rolled.

Am I missing one? Can any of you think of an actually good video game movie?

Weird Mark Trail storyline just getting weirder: Bill White on the bizarre seeming resolution to the current dude-who-hit-his-wife-due-in-part-to-her-letting-a-deer-in-the-house story. Surely bringing a child into their marriage will solve everything. (?!) Joshua Fruhlinger has of course been following every weird step of the weird story.

Reader participation Part 1: If you were a producer on Dancing With The Stars and were empowered to invite any comics professional to be one of the participating stars, who would you ask? I was thinking about this the other night, and came up with a short list of comics folks I think would be entertaining in that context at my home blog. Just curious.

Reader Particiption Part 2: Would Watchmen have been a better film if it chose a single character and followed him throughout the narrative instead of trying to religiously follow the plot of the graphic novel (except when it did the opposite) and thus end up kinda sorta missing the point and failing to make any new one? I don’t mean would it have been a better adaptation, or would it have done more right by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons of course, but would it have been an all around better film if it were extremely different? Like, say it was a movie about Rorshach, instead of a movie about Dan, Laurie, Rorschack and John, gues-starring Eddie and Adrian. Again, just wondering. Tim O’Neil, one of my favorite comics bloggers, has a pretty intersting post up about vigilantes, serial killers and Rorshach, which reminded me that Rorshach seems to be the character who survived the transition to film the best (no wonder, really), and was one of the better performances involved. And while I’m linking to a Watchmen piece (again), I might as well link to Joe McCulloch, another of my favorite comics bloggers, who reviewed Watchmen for his Watchman column. I like how his piece sums up conventional wisdom and immediately moves on to tackle the differences inherent in the media more directly, thoroughly and amusingly than a lot of others have.

The Sixth Sense: Not the Bruce Willis movie, but some crazy technology that Warren Ellis has video of over at his blog. Is crazy, and very cool. Go check it out.

Watchmen: The Hathor Legacy reviews Watchmen, though I’d like to have seen them deconstruct Laurie’s character more. Oh well, maybe I’ll do it myself one of these days.

PIXU: Via Becky Cloonan, apparently there’s a 17-page PIXU preview at Publishers Weekly. You’re welcome.

More Previews: Jason Aaron has preview pages from this week’s Ghost Rider and Scalped. If you’ve any sense you’re already buying Scalped regardless of preview pages, but if you haven’t the sense maybe this will convince you. Also, flaming skull head guy.

Racialicious on The Big Bang Theory, Nerds of Color, and Stereotypes. An interesting look at the assumed whiteness of “nerds” and of geek culture in general, and how the different stereotypes play out on TV.

Eliza Dushku not only stars in Dollhouse (to which I am now completely addicted), she’s also a producer.

Jezebel takes on the Japanese rape simulation video game. And here I was really hoping this was a bad joke.

Finally, a good friend of mine took me up on my suggestion that he read Northlanders. He was thrilled with the results. (Like the comic, the review contains some adult language.)

Usually when a game ties in to a movie, the aim is to release it alongside the film, or at the latest alongside the DVD. However, some developers and publishers have actually recognized that movie tie-in games tend to, well, suck, and have elected to do what they can to buck the trend and produce some quality games that happen to tie-in to movies. The upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine game was actually being developed before they got a license for the movie, and includes a whole bunch of new content written by Marc Guggenheim. The most popular movie last year, The Dark Knight, skipped the movie tie-in altogether; instead, Warner is releasing an original game that has more to do with the comics than the movies this summer with Arkham Asylum.

Now the Wanted tie-in is coming, set after the events of the movie, and based on the demo that’s available now on Xbox Live and PSN, this game is going to be a ton of fun. The demo features a few tutorials to give you the basics of the cover system and a few of the advanced techniques, then throws you into the airplane level that’s been in every trailer for the game since it was announced.

The tutorial gives a quick look at just how easy developers Grin implemented things like Bullet Curving and their version of “bullet time:” “Assassin Time.” You charge your special meter the easiest way possible, by killing some bad guys. There’s a fantastic sticky cover system here, complete with flashy animations for dashing from one point of cover to another. Baseball slides, tuck and rolls, roadie-runs, they’ve got them all, and it looks great. There are basically two levels to Assassin Time, too. One is achieved simply by blind firing from cover. This puts you just a hair faster than your enemies, but does allow you to sneak up behind them and use your knife (or hands, or knees) for a swift kill, if there’s enough cover to navigate. The other is an actual special ability that almost pauses the screen, allowing you to quickly take aim and fire on as many enemies as you can see.

The bullet curving is an easy to use, one button (plus thumbstick) function. Hold the button, find the right angle, and release- it’s that easy. This isn’t typically going to kill an enemy, but it will hit one in cover without you having to break cover yourself, and usually causes them to stumble out into the open, ready for an easy kill.

Great cover system, easy-to-use advanced moves, solid controls, voices of the actors from the movie, a sensibility that combines the movie and comic a bit more; this is all adding up to be a great game that just happens to tie-in to a movie, just the way gamers have hoped. The game comes out March 24th in the US (European gamers have to wait a little longer- 26 June for them), and we’ll have the full review for you here. Until then, I’ll be mastering the airplane level. If it’s any indication (and I’ve now played the demo 10+ times), this game will be wanted all over.

The Library is a great place for readers to discover comics, and it’s a great place for comics readers to check out things that they want to try without spending their hard-earned cash.  I’m looking at comics that I find in the New York Public Library system.

I have a few other NYPL articles in queue at the moment, but with this Watchmen film out (I haven’t seen it yet, so don’t ask what I thought) and the library having finally delivered a copy of this collection odds and ends from his Wildstorm stint in the late 90s, I thought I’m bump up this selection of less renowned Alan Moore comics.

One can only hope that fans of the Watchmen movie don’t find a copy of this book lying around their local library or bookstore. It’s simply not a good comic. Not good by any standard, but it’s particularly bad when you consider the name splashed across the top of the cover is the “greatest comics writer of all time.”

I like Alan Moore’s work a lot, and he’s typically worth the praise he receives, but the Spawn/WildC.A.T.S. crossover miniseries included in this book is practically a document of all the shortcomings of its era. The irony is that it’s everything Moore seems to hate about post-Watchmen superhero comics. Terrible, clichéd dialogue, abysmal art by Scott Clark, and a story with no worthwhile point at all. The entire plot seems to hinge on the thin, and short-of-brilliant, concept that by traveling into the token Sucky Future, the WildC.A.T.S. and Spawn are at a disadvantage facing the future (and evil) Spawn because – y’know, he remembers the battle from the perspective of his younger (not evil) self. It’s dreadfully thin stuff, and the ending comes from out of nowhere. Maybe regular Spawn readers found it compelling, but with nary a Spawn issue in my entire comics reading collection, I found it lacked set-up, emotional context or believability.  I can’t imagine any neophyte reader will feel any differently; there’s not a redeeming moment in the entire storyline.

There’s a Voodoo miniseries here, as well, that just lies there on the page, lifeless, pointless, utterly boring.  Moore seems to hint (very, very slightly) at certain mystical themes that he’d later explore in greater detail and to great effect in Promethea, but the Voodoo serial seems to exist largely for the sake of showing its protagonist’s pole dancing skills, literally.

Travis Charest does a superb job drawing a WildC.A.T.S. short story, one I suppose might’ve made some sense if I’d read Alan’s WildC.A.T.S. run. But I haven’t, so it didn’t. The Deathblow three-parter seems to function only as a loose framework on which Jim Baikie can draw pulp sci-fi imagery (the fun Baikie had is at least a minor virtue). The one-off Mr. Majestic story isn’t too bad, casting the hero as a wanderer and scientist at the end of time, traveling with the pitiful band of survivors still left to face the End of Everything. It’s sad, quiet and reflective, and has a bang of an ending, but it’s nothing essential and it’s certainly not worth paging through the rest of his drek to read.

So, Watchmen film fans, if you’re looking to explore the world of comics and you come across Wild Worlds at your local library, please find another place to start your searching.

In the world of the Saturn Awards, Tom Cruise is worthy of being nominated for Best Actor in Valkyrie. Be that as it may, here is a wonderful opportunity to pay more respect to The Dark Knight than was possible for The Oscars. The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror has announced its nominations for its 35th annual Saturn Awards bestowing The Dark Knight with the lead in the movie categories of 11 nominations. The awards show takes place on June 25. Click through for the list. (more…)

Of course three books I love hit on the week that I’m taking exams and shouldn’t even stop long enough to go to the comic shop, let alone read Scalped, Northlanders and DMZ. But I’m a junkie, and I gotta have my fix, even if I don’t get to read them until the end of the week.

So I really don’t have time for new things in any case, yet I have to ask. Is there anything that just can’t be missed this week? Don’t say the Sarah Palin comic, I might have you killed.

(Also, if you don’t already own Transmetropolitan, may I suggest to you that Vertigo’s re-release would be an excellent time to pick it up? One of my top three favorite comics ever.)

Checking in with what creators thought on the new Watchmen film:

Brian Michael Bendis:

its not the disaster the trades are making it out to be, but it is a fascinating failure.

it has some truly great parts to it. all the rorshach and niteowl stuff, moloch… it’s all great.

but when it slavishly holds to the book it falls flat on it’s ass. humorless, flat, passionateless. when it decides to be a movie, it sings.

Mark Waid:

On the whole, I’m very pleased with WATCHMEN the movie. It reminded me a lot of BRAZIL–not because of the 1985 connection or because it was just as long, but because WATCHMEN was a wholly immersive experience.

Alex Robinson:

I was really amazed how faithfully they stuck to the book, at least in terms of art direction and cinematography–many of the images are pretty much the comic shot in live action. I think this might’ve hurt the movie in the big picture, though, since there’s so much info to pack in that surely would’ve been cut had they not been adapting a well-respected book (the Comedian being Laurie’s father, for instance, seems really shoe-horned in and they sort of ruin Manhattan’s speech about Life Being Miraculous and Commonplace).

More to come as it arrives…

Why, a simple note on the fridge door like this and we could have been spared this whole spring Bat-event. Oh well. Anyway, yes, this week DC launches the three-part Batman: Battle for the Cowl miniseries, with a $3.99, 40-page issue both drawn and written by Grant Morrison’s Batman collaborator, Tony Daniel. Expect a lot of guest-stars, and a lot of pains being taken not to draw feet.

What else will be waiting for us at the comics shop this week? Join me after the jump and we can find out…together.

(more…)

Here’s a significant item from the House of Mouse.  It’s D23, the first official Disney fan community.  This fee-based community comes loaded with a number of features, including a Disney Fan Expo to be held in Anaheim.

From the announcement:

The fun all begins when you sign up for membership. Members will receive a personalized membership card and a suitable-for-framing membership certificate featuring many of your favorite classic Disney characters from the hand of Disney Master Artist Dave Pacheco — the perfect one-of-a-kind collectible to adorn the walls of any fan’s room. Members will also receive a special gift from the Walt Disney Archives Collection, a new line of merchandise created especially for D23.

Membership includes a one-year subscription to Disney twenty-three, an all-new quarterly publication that no Disney fan can to do without! “Our writers sit down with filmmakers like Jerry Bruckheimer, Tim Burton and John Lasseter; step behind he construction walls of our theme parks, peek into the planning rooms at Walt Disney Imagineering and, in short, take readers to places they’ve never been before,” Steven Clark, Head of D23 and Executive Editor of Disney twenty-three, says.

As for that Expo?

Not only will D23 offer an exctiting yearlong schedule of magical, one-of-a-kind events — everything from advance screenings of Disney films to exclusive gatherings in Disney parks — but today’s announcement of the first-ever D23 Expo is sure to thrill Disney fans the world over. This year’s first-ever D23 Expo, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center across the street from Disneyland September 10–13, promises to be the “ultimate Disney fan experience,” Steven says. It will feature an all-star lineup of Disney Legends and contemporary visionaries representing every area of the Company who will lead fans down memory lane and draw back the curtain for an exclusive look at what’s coming next. “Look for celebrity appearances, interactive exhibitions, sneak peeks, film screenings, one-of-a-kind merchandise, a collectors’ forum and many other surprises still in the works,” Steven adds.

Member-exclusive merchandise will be carried at the newly-minted Boutique 23 as well.

That’s not 100% accurate, but I do have a point.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that the new Robin Hood film has gotten its merry men.

And who is one of the people on that list? Kevin Durand, who will be playing the Blob in the upcoming Wolverine: Origins film in May, will be playing Little John.

Ridley Scott, the mastermind of the Alien franchise (not to mention Gladiator), will be directing the Russell Crowe-starring film, which was written by Brian Helgeland of Mystic River and the Postman fame. (He did both? Wow.)

And one more bit of geekery — American Dad’s Scott Grimes will be playing Robin’s nephew, Will Scarlet.