TV Guide has the details of who’s starring in the upcoming DC Animated direct-to-DVD feature Justice League Doom, and it’s veritable cornucopia of familiar voices: Kevin Conroy is returning to his iconic Batman: The Animated Series role, joined by frequent Superman Tim Daly and the Green Lantern: Emerald Knights Hal Jordan, Nathan Fillion. Along with Conroy, it’s a bit of a Justice League reunion, with Michael Rosenbaum as The Flash, Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman and Carl Lumbly as Martian Manhunter. Cyborg — continuing his Flashpoint/The New 52 rise in status — will be voiced by Bumper Robinson, Batman: The Brave and the Bold‘s Black Lightning.

Featuring a script by late writer Dwayne McDuffie, Justice League Doom is loosely based on 2000′s Mark Waid-written “Towel of Babel” story arc, which ran in JLA #43-46. The Blu-ray/DVD/digital download/etc. is scheduled for early 2012, with a trailer debuting next month at New York Comic Con.

A last minute casting change has happened on Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. Actress Julia Ormond will no longer be playing Superman’s birth mother, Lara. The role will now be played by Ayelet Zurer.

You’re probably saying, “Who?” but you may have seen her before. She played opposite Eric Bana in Munich and Tom Hanks in Angels & Demons. ”I was unable to find out why director Zack Snyder made the last-minute change, but I’ve confirmed that Zurer will start filming this week,” wrote Deadline in their report. Ormond was never officially cast but she was the only person named to be in talks for the role before now.

Production is already underway on Man of Steel and Zurer will be starring alongside Russel Crow as Suprman’s biological father, Jor-El

With one week of the New 52 launch remaining, I find myself already looking ahead and wondering what’s next. Even with (because of?) all the controversy surrounding some of its titles, there’s no denying that the relaunch of the DCU has been staggeringly successful – As I write this, sellouts for all of the week 5 books haven’t been announced, but it’s almost definite that it will be – and it seems as if there’s a genuine buzz and excitement around the DC line as a whole in a way that there hasn’t been for quite some time.

But how do you follow that up? It’s unlikely that all books will sell out again in the second month – If nothing else, I’d hope that retailers would have had the chance to bump up orders to a level closer to the demand, even if that perceived demand may be skewed by the run on the first month – and so, does DC face the idea that it’s lost some of its heat as a result?

I wonder whether that would necessarily be the end of the world. DC has dominated both the comics news cycle and fandom as a whole for months now, and with the end of first month of release of the new books, this really might be a great time to let that die down a little, before people get tired of all DC all the time (if they’ve not already reached that point). I’m as much of a DC fan as the next person, but the idea of letting the books speak for themselves for awhile…? That sounds really rather appealing to me, right now. Is this just me?

Yesterday was Aquaman’s 70th birthday, a huge achievement for a character that has often lacked definition, and at some times been a laughing stock.

To celebrate the character’s birthday, fansite Aquaman Shrine threw a big old birthday party for Arthur, bringing along some big names and notable friends.

They have writers like Dan Abnett and Tony Bedard. They have the voice of Aquaman from Superfriends. Dan DiDio, Patrick Gleason, and many more contributed to say Happy Birthday to the King of Seas, and show why the character should be celebrated.

Of course, that’s not all for Aquaman this week, as he also gets a brand new #1 issue of an ongoing series, from writer Geoff Johns and artist Ivan Reis!

So pop on over to our friends at Aquaman Shrine and add your best wishes!

We’ve had plenty of photos showing The Dark Knight Rises actress Anne Hathaway in costume, just not in costume. We’ve only really seen one shot of the actress in her Catwoman garb and most of us assumed it wasn’t the finished product. Well now we know it wasn’t. Here’s Hathaway with what everyone was waiting for…cat ears.

So…I don’t know what the hell is going on anymore. The previous costumed shot we saw of Hathaway had her wearing technologically advanced goggles closer to her recent look in the comics rather than the 1960s Batman television series and this look screams Lee Meriwether to me. Not that I don’t love Meriwether and the other 60s Catwoman looks but this feels too cartoony to me, especially for the Nolan-verse.

The shots were taken over the weekend in Los Angeles where the actress was filming a scene with both Christian Bale and Gary Oldman. It’s extremely hard to tell in these shots but the ears are definitely attached to the mask and look, to me at least, like they could potentially pull down to form that goggle look we saw previously. Most people assumed that would be the case.

Now that we’ve seen more shots of the Catwoman costume I think one of my biggest complaints are the boots. For a director who likes to keep things realistic, over-the-knee stilettos (with silver heels no less) are not the best way to burgle/fight crime.

My other issue with the look is Hathaway’s hair flowing free. I don’t know if I’d necessarily push for an entire head covering but it’s seems a little secret identity counter-productive not to mention the whole issue of it getting grabbed/stuck in something while working.

So ladies and gents, now that we’ve seen what is most likely the final Catwoman look for The Dark Knight Rises, what do you think? Too much? Too little? Perfect or go back to the drawing board bad?

Via GeekTyrant and JustJared

I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that in the newly-relaunched Catwoman #1, Ms. Kyle and Batman have a “shared moment”.  It has readers and creators alike creating quite the buzz online. Here at Newsarama, we’ve had our share of debate on the situation, even including Judd Winick’s defense.

But I haven’t seen anybody’s commentary like this. Over at Eric Canete’s blog, he has drawn a page depicting his take on the Morning After, which is shown above, in addition to some insightful thoughts.

It could be argued that if I don’t like it, then I don’t necessarily need to read it. That’s very valid.

Ah. Fanfic porn. I love you.

Of course there’s a level of tongue and cheek here, but I think he gets this point across.

Axel Alonso addresses – or, maybe, avoids – the issue of why so many of Marvel’s $3.99 titles have dropped to 20 pages in recent months. From CBR’s Axel-in-Charge column:

There are occasions when a writer requests additional pages for an issue, and if it doesn’t imperil the ship date, we try to accommodate — though we’re more frugal in soft economic times like these. Conversely, there are occasions when a writer, knowing that his book’s behind schedule and looking to fend off the possibility of a fill-in artist on the arc, shaves down a script a little to help the artist hit their deadline and move on to the next issue. If they do this, they usually balance it out later, with an extra page in a subsequent issue.

On the plus side, if this is true, we can expect some really, really long issues on titles like Ultimate Spider-Man and Moon Knight soon (Alonso also suggests that 20 pages may also be used to help low-selling titles like Deadpool Max).

Last weekend, comics lost a great up-and-coming artist when Minck Oosterveer, who’d co-created The Unknown with Mark Waid, and also worked with Waid on Ruse at Marvel, died in a motorcycle accident. Over at the Boom! Studios blog, editor Matt Gagnon remembers Oosterveer:

Minck was incredibly kind and thoughtful, funny and smart, passionate and genuine. As an artist, you literally couldn’t ask for anybody more professional and talented. His art was–is–transcendent. He would turn in beautiful comic book pages, every day, that were damn near perfect. Every morning I would look forward to opening my e-mail and seeing a new page from Minck. His work ethic and consistent level of quality was uncanny. There was a never a deadline he couldn’t meet. The man was truly a rare talent.

As a celebration of his work, Boom! have released both series of The Unknown for free on ComiXology, iVerse, Graphic.ly and MyDigitalComics. Hopefully, people go and check out the series; Oosterveer’s work on both was great, and fans of Waid will enjoy some of his sharpest writing in recent years.

With the release of this week’s New 52 titles from DC, we’ve seen an explosion of contempt from readers in response to two titles – Judd Winick and Guillem March’s Catwoman #1 and Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort’s Red Hood and the Outlaws #1. If for some reason you’ve managed to avoid the controversy thus far, Blog@’s Graeme McMillan covered it here, Comic Alliance’s Laura Hudson very eloquently here and we also posted a response from Judd Winick here. That being said, while these two titles caused a great deal of anger, there were others that proved you can still make superheroines sexy without sexually degrading them.

This image shows our introduction to two members of the new Birds of Prey, Starling and Black Canary. Starling has cleavage showing but her breasts are an appropriate size and her top fits her correctly. Saiz gave both characters very feminine curves and form-fitting costumes yet neither are depicted as overt sex objects. On the other hand…

…this is the first impression we get of Catwoman and Starfire, the ones getting the most negative attention. And with good reason. Catwoman’s breasts are the center of attention in her introduction while Starfire’s entire body is on display. Neither woman is really getting the support they’d need for breasts that size either. Regardless, their bodies are the point of focus, not the characters themselves.

While some may still question why Wonder Woman needs to sleep naked, Cliff Chiang’s art in her first issue gives us a titilating image but not one that puts the character in an overt sexual situation. This panel is actually the second frame of Wonder Woman, the first is showing her back in bed, but neither has the sheets forming to her body in such a way that you can see her body parts. Wonder Woman may be needlessly sexualized here but in my opinion, this image is not being used to degrade the character.

Another image that stands out positively to me in Birds of Prey is this one of Black Canary fighting a villain. Another artist could have easily changed her position to be straddling the bad guy (something we’ve seen quite often) but instead, Saiz merely shows her apprehending him.

I’m far from a prude and I love the Batman/Catwoman relationship a great deal but this final image of the characters from Catwoman #1 is, as many have suggested, closer to fan fiction than mainstream comics.

Is art subjective? Absolutely. Some are arguing Batman and Catwoman are literally having sex in this last image but I’d argue they aren’t because both of their costume bottoms are still on (and I have yet to see a crotch zipper in any art [dear god help us they may not be far off]). But is it graphic and implied? Yes, without a doubt. I don’t have a problem with these characters having sex, in fact, I don’t have as big a problem with the last page of Catwoman as I have with the first or the entirety of Red Hood, but knowing that the same point can be made in a less overt way just makes the exploitive art scream exploitive.

Men already buy your books, DC. You don’t have to put giant breasts in their face to get them to pick them up but you will get more women to buy your comics if you don’t. So what is it you’re actually trying to tell us?

Jim Shooter reveals the secret origin of Spider-Man’s marriage:

Toward the end, someone in the back asked Stan [Lee] if he was ever going to have Spider-Man get married. A lot of people in the crowd voiced support.

Stan said that it was up to “Marvel’s entire editor,” and right then, right there in front of all those people, Stan asked me if I would allow Spider-Man to get married.

Well, I may have been the “entire editor” but anything to do with the comics that Stan wanted I would have cheerfully done.

From Tom Brevoort’s Formspring page:

Now, this is clearly a joke to avoid saying “These are the Marvel books that will charge $3.99 for less than 22 pages of story for the foreseeable future” – because, really, who wants to be the person giving that news? – but I’ve been fascinated by people online seeming to think that this is some kind of (a) serious advice, or (b) stealth announcement that Marvel plans to make all $3.99 books contain less than 22 pages of story. I can’t work out if this is evidence that sarcasm should be avoided in most cases when answering questions on the internet, or that people can see whatever they want to see in any given case.

Of course, if all Marvel $3.99 books drop to 20 pages of story next month, I’ll have to accept that I was wrong and pay even closer attention to Brevoort’s social media postings.

Catwoman #1 has been out for just one day, but it’s already caught quite a bit of attention for the, ahem, climactic scene between the title character and Batman. Newsarama reached out to Catwoman writer Judd Winick for comment on the book’s vocal reception, which follows below — and while you’re at it, why not check out our Catwoman #1-inspired countdown of 10 shocking superhero hookups? (Vaneta Rogers contributed to this report.)

This is a Catwoman for 2011, and my approach to her character and actions reflect someone who lives in our times. And wears a cat suit. And steals. It’s a tale that is part crime story, part mystery and part romance.  In that, you will find action, suspense and passion. Each of those qualities, at times, play to their extremes.  Catwoman is a character with a rich comic book history, and my hope is that readers will continue to join us as the adventure continues.

Two immediate thoughts on seeing Daniel Acuna’s pages from Avengers #18:

1. He is an amazing artist. With him on board, Avengers has pretty much just jumped to being somewhere up there on the list of the best looking monthly books on the stands for me.
2. If that scene isn’t in part a flashback to Civil War, then is that another Goliath has ended up dead as the result of a big crossover event? I mean, the appearance of Sin’s robot Nazi things earlier suggests this is taking place post-Fear Itself, but another giant Goliath corpse lying there just seems… weird. Maybe Goliath is going to become the South Park Kenny of Marvel events now? Actually, considering that a giant Wasp ended up dying as a result of Secret Invasion, maybe it’d be safer for all Marvel heroes to give up on this size-changing gig now, just in case. I’m looking at you, Stature.

The first candidate to emerge as a potential director of the 2013 Thor sequel is a bit of a surprise — Patty Jenkins, who wrote and directed the award-winning 2003 film Monster.

Deadline reports that Marvel Studios is “getting close” to naming a director (with Jenkins as the apparent front-runner), and notes the rarity of a female helming a superhero film. By our count, the most prominent one we can think of is 2008′s Punisher: War Zone, directed by Lexi Alexander — and this would be a much more high-profile production. Kenneth Branagh, who directed the first Thor, won’t be returning for the sequel as a result of a “mutual and amicable” split, but is said to likely be involved in a producing capacity.

This would be only the second feature for Jenkins after Monster, which starred Charlize Theron and was based on the life of executed serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Jenkins has also directed episodes of Arrested Development and Entourage, plus the acclaimed pilot of AMC’s remake of Danish crime series The Killing.

The Thor sequel is slated for July 26, 2013, with Chris Hemsworth returning in the title role and Don Payne, who worked on the first one, writing the script. Before that, Hemsworth’s Thor will be seen in next May’s much-anticipated Avengers film.

This story couldn’t be anymore ridiculous, thus I had to share. A seller on Ebay was offering a photo which he claims proves Nicolas Cage is a vampire. The listing has since disappeared.

The Hollywood Reporter caught it and says a Seattle-based man was asking $1 million for what he says was a photo taken in 1870 of a Tennessee man. A man he believes resembles Cage far too much to be a coincidence. “Personally, I believe it’s him,” wrote the seller, “and that he is some sort of walking undead / vampire, et cetera, who quickens / reinvents himself once every 75 years or so. 150 years from now, he might be a politician, the leader of a cult, or a talk show host.”

Nothing has ever made more sense in this crazy world we live in.

The seller insisted it was for real and that the photo was taken around the time of the Civil war. There were 76 offers on the photo before the listing was removed, all were declined by the seller. He did however have several inquiries which he answered:

“Do I get a discount if I AM Nicolas Cage?” (yes, 25 percent)  and “Nick Cage has aged terribly in the past 10 years, he’s obviously not been drinking his daily amount of blood to stay young.” The answer to the second question is “My theory is that he allows himself to age to a certain point, maybe 70, 80 or so, then the actor ‘Nicolas Cage’ will ‘die’… but in reality, the undead vampire ‘Nicolas Cage’ will have rejuvenated himself and appeared in some other part of the world, young again, and ready to start all over. From time to time somebody might mention to him that he bears a slight resemblance to the young version that dead American actor, whose name they can’t recall, but eventually, those occurrences will stop altogether.”

THR writes, “As of Sept. 22, eBay had a message that read, ‘This listing (260821098271) has been removed, or this item is not available’ and advised those seeking the photo to ‘Please check that you’ve entered the correct item number’ and ‘Listings that have ended 90 or more days ago will not be available for viewing.’”

I think we can safely assume Cage TOTALLY bought the photo to keep his secret. I always knew there was something strange about him…

Evangeline Lilly, best known for her role as Kate on ABC’s Lost, hasn’t done a whole lot since the hit series went off the air. Her followup is set to hit theaters next month but she’s already stepping out onto shaky ground with her next job – the newly created elf Tauriel in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit. The actress herself is quite concerned how she’ll be perceived by fans of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic.

“I am very concerned to this day that people will watch the film and I’ll be the black mark on the film. I know how adamant the purists are and I’m one of them,” the actress told SFX. Lily will play a character named Tauriel in the films, an elf that Tolkien did not create.

“When the original came out in theatres, I swore up and down that I would not see them because I thought it was sacrilege that anyone would adapt Tolkien’s work. I didn’t think anyone would justify films by making them as good as they should be. Then my entire family when I was visiting went to see the movie and so I relented and went. We were all fans of the books and we were all blown away! It was a little piece of magic what Peter Jackson accomplished because it was truly a homage to the books rather than an offense,” she said.

Lilly told the magazine she’s been a fan of the literary tale since she was thirteen. “That said, upon reading The Hobbit again, as an adult, I can see why additional characters were needed to round out the story as an adaptation – especially female characters,” she said, “The Hobbit didn’t include female characters at all and was a very linear story, a book for children, really. What Peter, Fran (Walsh) and Philippa (Boyens) have done is all in perfect keeping with Tolkien’s world, while adding a third dimension to an otherwise very two-dimensional story.”

The actress is currently in New Zealand filming and will be for at least a year. “For a lot of actors, being that tied down would be problematic for their careers because they wouldn’t have the freedom to take any other part in the meantime. For me it’s perfect because I want to have time to spend with my family and relax and focus on my writing. This role gives me a framework within which to do that because I’m not working all the time but I’m working enough.”

With most roles there is a certain amount of training that goes on and for Lily, The Hobbit quite unlike her past experiences. “With every film, you have to educate yourself on the material and it’s often things you don’t know a lot about. Right now I’m studying Elvish and having conversations with people about learning how to be an archer, a swordsperson and how to fight like an elf instead of a gritty convict.”

The actress can next be seen starring opposite Hugh Jackman in Real Steel. The first half of Jackson’s Hobbit films, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, hits theaters in 2012.

So, wait. I think I’ve got it. Someone at DC was nervous that, by shipping both Wonder Woman and Birds of Prey in the same week, they were risking alienating the all-important “objectifying women as sex objects” misogynist demographic, and so decided to “fix” things by pushing Catwoman and Red Hood and the Outlaws at the same time. I mean, that’s the only reasonable explanation, right? Right? Spoilers ahead. (more…)

I think we’ve got a different speed. We go hyper fast. There’s going to be – and people have noticed this, and it’s not going to change – regular catch-up captions at the top of each issue. There’s going to be people as unobtrusively as possible – but still pretty obtrusive because we’re not writing for the trade anymore but for single issues – saying “I am so-and-so, and this is what I do.” We’re making once again a comic that people can join at any issue. We expect people to join in on issue #3, and this is what it takes to find the mainstream audience again. You can buy issue #5 of “Stormwatch,” and it should be easy enough to just go from there, or you can buy the back issues if you like.

It’s an interesting brew all-in-all. It’s a very interesting time to be a comics writer. We’re changing everything very, very fast, and there’s a lot of people out there who haven’t read a comic in decades or at all who are reacting to this. Some of them don’t know how to read comics, or they aren’t used to the speed of the stories or just what’s going on. We’re here to make sure we catch those people as well, and that we come to suit them.

That’s Paul Cornell, talking about Stormwatch at CBR, commenting on a couple of things that have been floating around the comics internet concerning the writing of DC’s New 52 books: Namely, the “not writing for the trade” mentality, as well as how understandable these books are for all-new readers. While I applaud the move, it makes me wonder how existing readers, more used to the Marvel model, are going to appreciate the new style in the long term…

There’s a great thread over at Millarworld about the debt that the comic industry owes the original Image Comics founders:

Looking back on the founding members of the Image 7 it is easy to dismiss what a monumental moment it was in the medium. As a direct result of their actions creators are in a much better position financially and creatively. Despite this fact I have yet to see any of their peers or notable predecessors thank them for their boldness and courage.

What is most striking is that the most creative of the seven is the most hated. That being Rob Liefeld. Despite the jokes and the scorn his legacy is clearly established in Previews every single week.

So, just what exactly is the debt that current creators owe to the Image founders?

The thread that follows runs the gamut from “They created a viable alternative to the Big Two” to “No-one owes them any debt, they’ve all sold out,” but it’s an interesting point: The founding of Image Comics nineteen years ago – God, I’m old – was a major shift for the mainstream industry, and one for the better, but it’s one that doesn’t seem to really get the attention or respect that it deserves. Is that because we’re still too close to it, or that it gets lumped in with the rest of the 1990s craziness? Or maybe it’s just that fandom as a whole really can’t get over the fact that, of the Image Seven, only Todd McFarlane and Jim Valentino didn’t eventually go back at Marvel in one way or another.

From yesterday’s front page chat with Tom Brevoort and Matt Fraction:

Fraction: Does that make Fear Itself the first event that shipped entirely on time?

Brevoort: If #7 comes out when it’s supposed to. We’re right on target, everything’s there; all the epilogue stuff is done. There’s still act of god, but it’d be the first one at least in my tenure to have all come out on time.

Didn’t Flashpoint ship entirely on time?

I’m not being snarky, I’m genuinely curious; I thought it did, but maybe I’m forgetting a week’s slippage somewhere or something… I know it definitely ended on time – double-shipping in its final month, too – and all of the tie-ins shipped on time. But did DC’s summer event steal the dubious crown from right under Fear Itself‘s nose?