Looks like it, folks. DC announced today that Keith Giffen and Judd Winick will be resurrecting the Justice League International in a biweekly maxiseries called Justice League: Generation Lost. The cover by Tony Harris that was used by DC to promote the series, though, seems to feature more than they’re saying. With Booster Gold, Ice, Fire and Captain Atom on the cover, you’ll have lots of fans asking: “Where’s Blue Beetle?” Well…he’s there.

If you look closely at the shadowy figure behind Captain Atom, it has big, goggle-like eyes and the little spikey-eyebrow things that are characteristic of Ted Kord’s old Blue Beetle mask.

With Keith Giffen also announcing that he and J.M. DeMatteis are taking over Booster Gold when Dan Jurgens exits the title, it does increase the likelihood of his being able to take over the story Jurgens has been building in Booster Gold without stepping on any toes. Whether or not this is the actual return of Ted Kord, or whether it’s just a tease (or a reminder that the spectre of Ted will always be wherever this team is), seeing him on the cover–and specifically seeing him obscured on the cover, one of the things DC has done a lot lately to protect their secrets–is a pretty interesting thing…!

Interviews with J.M. DeMatteis and Dan Jurgens to discuss their roles in the changing of the guard, by the way, will be a part of this week’s “Gold Exchange” Q&A tomorrow here and at Comic Related.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Robert Downey Jr. has opted out of “Cowboys & Aliens” in order to make the sequel to the currently-running hit, “Sherlock Holmes”. You may recall that “Cowboys & Aliens” is based on the 2006 graphic novel from Platinum Studios. Platinum has had a string of movie related announcements in recent months, but this seems like a significant bump in the road. Also of note is the fact that the director attached to “Cowboys” was Downey’s “Iron Man” director, Jon Favreau.

The EW piece noted that while the Holmes sequel isn’t officially greenlit, a script is in progress and a June start is being sought. That’s the crunch with “Cowboys”, as it also looks to begin shooting in June.

(Click the image above for a larger version of the strip.)

WORLD OF HURT – The Thrill-Seekers – Episode 21: “Tell The Truth, Shame The Devil – Part 1”

Welcome back, everyone.

This is the beginning of an extended flashback which reveals the events that led to the death of Alicia Patterson.  I wanted to set up a valid reason for Duke’s actions and his involvement with Charles, Ned, and Tuck, and I was proud of how the dialogue from previous strips logically fed in to this sequence.  Additionally, some of the things that emerged from this story actually surprised me as I was working through it.  Not to give anything away, but in the middle of the “Tell The Truth, Shame The Devil” mini-arc, I suddenly realized that the entire story behind Alicia’s death was an interesting metaphor for the slave trade, particularly the involvement of Africans in the heinous practice.  My commentary in Tuesday’s update aside, I try not to be overtly political in WORLD OF HURT, because at the end of the day it’s a crime/adventure story, but I’m proud of this particular bit of subtext that evolved in the story.

New strips of WORLD OF HURT – The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic are posted every Wednesday at www.worldofhurtonline.com.

- JEP

According to Deadline, Comicbook Movie, and now mentioned on our front page, Spider-Man 4 is officially deader than Uncle Ben.

Here is a sample of the official Sony press release:

Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.

The new chapter in the Spider-Man franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.

So Raimi, Toby and Co. are out, new cast members and director are in. It’s a shame, really. Raimi has brought so much to the table and this had the fresh start everybody had in mind. At least you can put the imagery of the supposed Vulturess to rest, but you have to feel bad for John Malkovich right about now.

Thanks for the memories, Sam.

So without further ado, let the casting dreams, and rumors begin.

Trailers for graphic novels may be quite the rage, but Lefler’s got quite the pedigree for it. Check out the PR below and learn about Seven Extraordinary Things.

Los Angeles, California, January 11th, 2010. Filmmaker Doug Lefler has created a website to offer his original graphic novel SEVEN EXTRAORDINARY THINGS for free. To celebrate the launch a newly completed trailer has been posted, edited by Todd Busch, with music by Mark McKenzie and narration by Seth Harrington.

How much would you sacrifice for art? This is the question that haunts Greg Drucker McTeer, the eighteen year old protagonist of SEVEN EXTRAORDINARY THINGS. At art school, Greg will do anything to escape mediocrity, including becoming the secret benefactor to Nina, a gifted dancer who is his inspiration. When Greg learns Nina is willing to die for her art, his own conviction is tested to the limit. This 136 page story about Greg’s struggles to live up to a list of life goals he wrote as a child has been repurposed for easy reading on the computer screen. New panels of the story are added to the site daily.

Doug Lefler is a director whose feature film, THE LAST LEGION, starring Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley and Aishwaria Rai, was released 2007. He attended California Institute of the Arts in the late seventies, during the first two years the Disney Character Animation program was in existence. Among his classmates were Tim Burton, John Lassiter, Brad Bird and many other talented individuals. Although not autobiographical, SEVEN EXTRAORDINARY THINGS was inspired by his own experiences and those of his fellow students.

More info please visit http://www.sevenextraordinarythings.com

Before watching Robin Hood Season 3 on DVD this week, my thinking was that one of the appeals of a Robin Hood TV series is the same as it might be for Zorro, Batman or even Sherlock Holmes. Having a central character who’s instantly recognizable, whose challenges, enemies, friends and philosophy are pretty well established in your head, gives you a perfect jumping-on point if you want to watch, say, season 3, episode 7 first. Try doing that with The Office or Lost, and it could be a disaster. It’s part of why characters like Superman and Batman, in spite of having long and elaborate histories in the comics, are always welcome in the movie theaters, where audiences disdain complexity. No matter how complex a story gets, if it revolves around an iconic character like these, you can walk in and feel like you “get it.”

So it was, of course, with some degree of surprise that I flicked on the television and saw Robin Hood’s first episode feel quite a bit like an old-fashioned Spider-Man story. After what you quickly realized was the murder of his wife Marion at the end of last season, Robin is out for blood, and doesn’t want his band of Merry Men “holding him back” anymore. He doesn’t want to be Robin Hood, either; he just wants to kill his wife’s killer and get on with his life.

It’s not long, of course, before a mysterious stranger who turns out to be Tuck appears, nurses an injured Robin back to health and convinces him that he needs to remain and be a symbol; like Spider-Man, Superman and so many other superheroes have realized over the years…even when something awful happens to you, and it doesn’t seem worth it to stay in the tights, the inspiration that you are to others is what has to keep you going, because it’s not just the handful of people who you can actually physically touch, whose lives you’re saving. Robin realizes this by the end of the first episode and it’s a theme that permeates an admittedly dark and complicated Sherwood Forest throughout the rest of the third and final season of this BBC hit.

It’s a series that should appeal very easily to comics fans, and which was far better than I had honestly expected. When you’re hefting the box of DVDs in your hand, thinking “Robin Hood: The Series,” a cynical mind can easily drift to the dozens of mediocre Robin Hood or Sherlock Holmes films, short films and the like that have been made over the years. The performances here are impressive, though, and there are real consequences: we see people die, and suffer, and mourn. While Robin and his gang play a lot of complex tricks on the Sheriff and his men, and they joke around a lot, it’s more like the enrivonment of the mid-90s Justice League America—no-nonsense guys who joke around because they’ve been in this together for a long time and if they didn’t, it would probably drive them mad.

New viewers will have no problem easing into the universe of this show, either; there’s only one character whose name or role I didn’t immediately recognize from previous incarnations of Robin Hood, and he’s so self-evidently evil that there really wasn’t a question as to what to think.

It’s a shame to see this show wrap up; in Britain, of course, television shows don’t go on and on forever, the way they do here (see the aforementioned program The Office, which had a brief and brilliant run on BBC before being translated to American and going on for six years and counting), but the heart, cleverness and just plain good filmmaking that went into this show really does make you wonder why star Jonas Armstrong was so eager to leave; certainly after sitting down with this box set, it makes Sherwood Forest a place I’d like to stay and visit, and see a little more.

[Images: Entertainment Earth]

The dead shall rise…and look amazing. You might have already caught glimpses of the figures appearing in DC Direct’s Blackest Night Series 5 in DC house ads throughout the past month. During the most recent round of solicitations, the full line-up was revealed. Here’s a closer look at some of the big (dead) guns.

In the newest set, which may be the best yet, we see one of the first casualities of war, Hawkman. Additionally, there’s Nekron, BL Deadman, and BL Batman. This is the first set that’s all Black Lanterns, and they look spectacular. They will come with various accessories (like Nekron’s scythe-lantern combo), and of course have the great DC Direct quality I’ve come to know from these figures.

I hope there’s at least one more set where we can see the newest additions to each Corps from Blackest Night #6, especially Red Lantern Mera. Series 5 arrives this August (yeah, that’s a long wait).

I know the picture is small, but what do you readers think of these fine sculpts?

Being John Malkovich must be nice, since he’s being talked up in not one, but THREE different comic book films.

In addition to doing extra shoots for Jonah Hex, the big rumor going around is that Malkovich might take flight — as a bad guy in Spider-Man 4.

According to ComingSoon.net, he apparently confirmed to the Italian sports show “Quelli Che il Calcio” that he has been approached to play the part of the Vulture, and is currently waiting for the final script. That said, until I see footage of all this, I still call it a rumor.

But if you’re looking for something more substantial, don’t worry, I got it — the Hollywood Reporter has also announced that Malkovich will be joining the film Red, starring alongside Bruce Willis. He’s playing a retired and eccentric CIA agent, stepping in for John C. Reilly, who left the film in December.

With a legendary gunslinger like Jonah Hex, is it any surprise he’d have extra shoots?

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, John Malkovich, and Michael Fassbender are returning to Los Angeles for 10 days of extra shooting.

According to the Reporter, they wanted to touch up the story and action on the film, adding in an additional 12 pages of script.

It’s interesting, considering Brolin said at the beginning he wasn’t such a fan of the script. Either which way, the film is set to come out on June 18.

“[I]n issue #11, the team fought evil E.L.V.I.S. drones, which were basically a new take on the villain M.O.D.O.K. that looked like Elvis”: Alan Kistler observed Elvis’ birthday last Friday by listing some of the King’s appearances in and influence on popular comic, including that scene in Nextwave and his inspiration of elements of Captain Marvel Jr. and Ghost Rider.

“In this version, however, Chance forgoes the disguises…”: Margy Rochlin profiled and interviewed actor Mark Valley for the New York Times, a piece prompted by the debut of his new Human Target television series, based on the old DC (turned less old Vertigo) series about a master of disguise-for-hire. Along the way, it answered my question about the adaptation—how on earth they would adapt it to television without having different actors play Chance in each episode. Apparently, they’re just going to ignore the fact that the character is a master of disguise at all.

“I’m trying to do a monthly comic that feels different from other monthly comics”: Writing for The Walrus, Sean Rogers interviews Essex County Trilogy and Sweet Tooth cartoonist Jeff Lemire about his work and his career… including such pressing Canadian concerns as how easy or difficult it is to depict a hockey game in the comics medium.

George Sprott is terrifying: Seriously. So…terrifying…

“A Gossip Girl Becomes a Comic Book Heroine”: Well, “heroine” is probably pushing it a bit, New York Times headline writer.

Okay, they got me: On The Source blog, Alex Segura ended Friday by teasing a big announcement of some kind for this morning, and re-teased it again just recently. Okay, good job guys, my curiosity is piqued. It better be something good though! I’m hoping it’s about a second Wednesday Comics series, or maybe another DC weekly of some kind or that Aquaman and Wonder Woman are getting married.

What? I think they make a cute couple…!

(UPDATE: Oh hey, Russ was writing and posting about that exact thing at the same time I was. Someone owes someone a Coke. Make sure you read his post too, as it has some more advanced tea leaf reading. Okay, another UPDATE: Here’s the actual news. If bi-weekly means the art will be twice as good as that in  some of the weeklies so far, then sure, that still sounds exciting enough to me.)

Alex Segura, DC Entertainment’s DC Universe publicity rep (read: he promotes the mainstream, superhero aspect of DC’s comics publishing empire), had a cryptic message on the company’s blog, The Source, Friday night. He told readers: “[DC Executive Editor] Dan DiDio just swung by my office and said ‘keep your phone on Monday morning,’ and darted off. What does it mean? You got me, gang. But if I were you, I’d keep my eyes peeled to this very space once the weekend’s over.”

Today, Segura followed up with a second entry, titled “When Dan DiDio Calls Your Phone at 6am, You Answer.”  Segura claims to have been called into the office early and suggests that there will be some early news. This is a departure from a lot of DC’s stories on “The Source”, which tend to be published after 10am. (more…)

Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

The Warriors Three know how to roll with the punches — even as Stuart Townsend has apparently left the film over “creative differences.”

The Associated Press has said that the Queen of the Damned star and would-be Fandral the Dashing, just as shooting for the film is set to begin tomorrow.

That said, Kenneth Branagh seemed to have a back-up plan already in the mix, as relative newcomer Joshua Dallas (that’s him in the above image) has apparently been tapped to play the Asgardian version of Errol Flynn.

Consider this two for two on Townsend’s part, as there was another genre movie he was slated to take part in a few years back. You might have heard of it — it was the Lord of the Rings trilogy, of which he was replaced by none other than Viggo Mortensen. Either which way, production seems unfazed, as all accounts point to the film coming out at its accelerated due date of May 6, 2011.

The latest releases from AdHouse books I’ve read are both beautiful examples of books-as-art-objects. They look nice on a bookshelf, a night stand or a coffee table. You’ll look cooler and more attractive while reading them on the train or in a restaurant. Both suggest narratives beyond themselves, as if the books themselves are chronicling or representing something else bigger and more important, but outside the confines of their contents.

One of them is a lot of easily accessible fun, the other one is nigh impenetrable fun…which I suppose isn’t everyone’s idea of fun. In either case, they make for great conversation pieces. So let’s talk about ‘em, huh?

Let’s start with the character whose pretty, pretty face is to the right there.

Like the Quiet Bird-Man in Jamie Tanner’s The Aviary and the title character of Mike Dawson’s Ace-Face: The Mod with the Metal Arms, Afrodisiac’s first AdHouse-published adventure in 2005’s superheroes-by-artists-not-primarily-known-as-superhero-artists showcase, Project: Superior.

That adventure, in which the hero who possesses both an afro and aphrodisiac superpowers over all women to escape and electricity-themed villain’s master plan of employing lesbian hechwomen, is reprinted in AdHouse’s recent book Afrodisiac, along with a great deal of original material.

Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca’s book is rather curious in that it more or less functions as a greatest hits collection culled from a long-running superhero comic book that never actually existed. There are a whole bunch of short stories in a variety of styles, but they’re greatly outnumbered by the suggestions of stories—covers, posters, letters pages, concept art, advertisements and so on.

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Dustin Nguyen can do no wrong.

As a Zatanna aficionado,  I had to pick my jaw off the floor when I saw this today on his DeviantArt account (yes, I’m one of those people that just browses DA). Dustin Nguyen just amazes me with his fluid style and amazing talent. I have plenty of Zatanna art pieces in my collection, but nothing to the scale of this (so far).

The idea of doing something so simple like this has just escaped my mind for some reason, but love what he’s done here: You start with her original costume by Murphy Anderson, then get to her sorceress get-up by George Perez, then you have her in her 90′s outfit where they got rid of the fishnets for a while, and back to modern-era.

I’m thankful he left out her more…forgettable outfit.

Whoever you are out there that got this in your sketchbook, I am insanely jealous.

“When I read those lines, I may have actually pulled a muscle from cringing so hard”: Jeff Lester recently caught up with some comics that were waiting for him at his shop, including the last few issues of Blackest Night, and he zeroed in on one of the strange things about Geoff Johns’ latest big crossover for DC—it’s kind of fantastic and kind of terrible simultaneously (Actually, his words were “really, really smart” and “really, really stupid”). Lester found himself cringing at the “awful dialogue,” like the line in the panel above, which yeah, is a really stupid thing to say. I’ve made peace with Johns’ Green Lantern writing long ago—I just realized while reading the recent forty-ninth issue that it is now the super-comic I’ve been reading the longest without dropping at any point—by embracing its awesomeness and its stupidity as two sides of the same crazy coin. For example, that stupid line above? Yes, that is a dumb thing to say, and Hal Jordan is dumb for saying it. But that’s okay with me because, at the end of the day, Hal Jordan is an idiot, right? Maybe Johns is simply giving him stupid things to say because, as a stupid character, Jordan is always saying stupid things. Well, probably not, but I’ll read Green Lantern my own way, thanks. And imagining Sinestro sighing deeply at the end of every panel in which Jordan gets a line is my way.

Speaking of Geoff Johns…: Yesterday DC posted a five-page preview of the writer’s sixth and final issue of Adventure Comics (which is also on the main page), which features both Krypto and a dinosaur on the cover, making it a must-buy. (In the future, Johns will write the first six issues of every new DC comic book). Also, the New York Times named the popular writer one of their “Nifty 50.” Johns seemed to have had a pretty good year last year, and I get the feeling that he’s going to have a pretty good 2010 too.

“Your Favorite Comic Book Characters’ New Year’s Resolutions”: Writing for Comics Alliance, Chris Sims rounds up your favorite superheroes, supervillians and Daily Bugle editorial staff members’ resolutions for 2010.

And speaking of Sims…: His Invincible Super-Blog just turned five recently, which is like 25 in blog years. Congratulations, Sims! Here’s his most recent “Week In Ink” feature, in which he throws a car battery made of words at Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #2 and cracks a hard-to-beat series of seven consecutive jokes about the seventh planet from the sun while reviewing Marvel Boy: The Uranian #1.

“IF the periodical dies, it will have been our own fault for not only supporting but actually rewarding publishers for their behavior”: Retailer, writer and Savage Critic ringleader Brian Hibbs recently said some things at ICv2.com that I hope everyone heard regarding retailers’ role in their abusive relationship with some publishers. For example:

Take variant covers, for example—the only reason they get produced in the absurd numbers they do is because YOU are ordering them.  If you stopped, so would they.

Yeah! Right on! Variant covers are everyone’s problem. Publishers should stop publishing them, but they keep publishing them because retailers keep ordering them. Retailers should stop ordering them, but they keep ordering them because their consumers keep buying them. I suppose. I don’t know nor can I imagine anyone paying more than cover price just to get a stupid variant cover that will never, ever be worth any money. Who are these people? Are they all 12-year-olds? Is that it? If so, then maybe we can all just peer pressure them into not buying variants anymore. Preteens are super susceptible to peer pressure, right?

It’s only a matter of time before George Lucas makes a stop-motion animated film like this: Comics writer and comics blogger extraordinaire Kevin Church recently linked to a photo blog entitled Star Wars Figures, Doing What They Do Best, which consists of extremely dramatic photo compositions of the original Star Wars action figures. They’re all oddly beautiful, although even the best photographer in the world can’t keep Obi Wan and Lando’s capes from looking a little like plastic hot dog buns.

“What works brilliantly in morbidly hilarious cartoons, however, is a tougher trick to translate to live theater”: Writing for the New York Times, Patrick Healy delves into the critical reaction to The Addams Family Broadway musical. Among those interviewed are the uniquely qualified to comment Jules Feiffer, himself a pretty ingenious cartoonist as well as a playwright.

“Long, long ago, in the dark days before The New York Times started keeping a best-seller list for comics… there was Eddie Campbell”: Glen Weldon covers Campbell’s Alec: The Years Have Pants collection from Top Shelf for NPR, and the piece includes a preview.

Gotta love alliteration.

Blake Lively (most known for TV’s Gossip Girl) has landed the role of Carol Ferris, according to Cinema Blend. Most comic fans know Carrol Ferris as Hal Jordan’s boss, love interest, and sometimes rival as Star Sapphire. I had heard Lively was on the top five, but I wasn’t sure she’d get the role because of her young age (note, she is only 22), but she must have done something to impress director Martin Campbell.

Sure, she’s a pretty blond, but I really don’t see this. Then again, I’m not a renowned movie director.

All is left, supposedly, is the casting of Hector Hammond and arch-nemesis Sinestro. ‘Rama readers, what do you think of this casting call?

Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

If you haven’t read Superman: Red Son, skip this post. Seriously. Spoilers ahead. The book’s a couple year’s old, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Ready? I can wait a little bit.

Okay. Those who are interested, more after the cut.

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A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do… and that means listen to some commentary!

iTunes now has an album called Commentary! The Musical, based on Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, with interviews including Neil Patrick Harris, Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Nathan Fillion-Whedon (that last hyphenate was a joke).

Here’s what Whedon had to say about the DVD version of the commentary, which apparently came out last month:

“Commentary! The Musical” is the most painstaking and exhausting piece of whimsy I have ever mistaken for a good idea. It has nearly twice as much music as Dr. Horrible itself — since you can’t really talk that much during a commentary musical or it sounds like a regular commentary. (Which we also have, with the stars and writers, plus making-of’s, ELE applications, and a few items left lying around by a notorious Bunny…) I can say without hesitation that I hesitate to say it’s great. And by great I mean ridiculous. It’s sophomoric, solopsistic, silly and the most fun I’ve had being exhausted since the fabled Mushortio itself. And everyone sings beautifully. Which enrages me. I a little bit hate my friends now.

If you haven’t watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a tongue-in-cheek look at a struggling supervillain in love, do yourself a favor and find yourself a copy of the DVD (the online sensation is apparently no longer available on Hulu). The entire album on iTunes costs $9.99 — individual tracks can be purchased for 99 cents each.