Unfortunately, the video is not embeddable, so I’ll have to just toss you the link and leave it at that. It’s the final trailer for Absolute Justice, the 2-hour Justice Society of America episode of Smallville written by Geoff Johns. It features your live-action JSA in motion and talking, and it is absolutely freaking awesome.

Head over to Michael Ausiello’s page at Entertainment Weekly right this second, and get your JSA on.

This isn’t the first source I’d normally go to for Hollywood casting news, but the Toronto Star is reporting that the cast of Futurama has reached a deal with the producers to come back to the show when it returns to TV!

The Star has learned exclusively that the voice cast of Futurama has just signed a new contract…The compromise agreement, with the studio paying more and the actors accepting less, comes after the announcement of a 26-episode pick-up here by Comedy Central.

My Guess? The cast sent in Hypnotoad, and he got things done.

Update: It’s been confirmed, by individual actors, Hollywood Reporter, and Variety. WIN!

I took a little twitter poll today (you’re following us, right? If not, click on that link and follow us. Go on, we’ll wait), asking what people wanted to see more. Well, to prove that we’ll actually listen when we ask for these kinds of suggestions, here’s our first article born directly via comments on Twitter.

Let’s Be Friends Again is a webcomic about, well, I’ve read through their entire archive, and to give you an accurate list, the rest of this post would just be topics. Let’s just say if you’re reading this, chances are you’ve had a conversation not unlike Curt and Chris’s that they so generously share with the world here. It’s also a safe bet that if you read any one, 10, or 90 of their comics, you’ll be laughing out loud repeatedly.

Be warned, much of this is NSFW (EDIT: As readers have pointed out, your milage may vary on the label “NSFW.” Just know, it includes lots of swearing and the occasional bloody mess) content. Like this MKvsDCU sendup from last December, for example. The mixture of slice-of-life conversations, one-off topic strips, and some really solid comedic writing and art make this a great example of what webcomics can and should be. This is a continuation of the kind of storytelling comic strips in newspapers used to have, aged for readers who used to read them and are now adults. It’s webcomics for, frankly, people who are most likely to actually read webcomics. It doesn’t try to be too high brow, but is still intelligent, it doesn’t try to hard to be funny, but it makes you laugh.

This was one of the best suggestions I’ve ever received of a new webcomic to read. It now has a permanent place in my bookmarks, and I highly recommend you all go check it out as well.

DC and Warners may have won the latest bout in the ongoing Superman trials, but that doesn’t mean they plan to jump into action on a new Superman movie just yet. In a Variety report on Warners’ upcoming “tentpole” flicks for the next two years, the Man of Steel is notably missing. Alan Horn, head of the studio, even publicly stated that there won’t be another Superman until 2012 at the earliest.

The recently cast Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds, is the only confirmed big budget DC title, due to hit theaters in sector 2814 on June 17, 2011. Warners “hopes” the willful hero will be joined in theaters that year by Director Chris Nolan’s third Batman film, the follow up to last year’s record setting Dark Knight, but Nolan has yet to even publicly decide the general direction, story, or villains for the surefire hit, whenever it does come.

As for what will be hopefully filling seats until the Kryptonian hero flies onto the big screen again, there are no shortage of potential box office smashers from the venerable hit maker, though they are at a slightly slower pace than previous years, due to the recent Writer’s Guild strike and the slowing economy. Three Harry Potter films, starting with this Wednesday’s Half-Blood Prince, are on their way, joined by two Hobbit movies, Sherlock Holmes, and Clash of the Titans.

Still on track for a May 6, 2011 release, Spider-man 4 has another big name writer taking a swing at the script, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Gary Ross, who has previously worked with the film’s star Tobey Maguire on Pleasantville and Seabiscuit, will write the third major draft of the screenplay, to which Maguire and director Sam Raimi are already attached.

Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, who won a Pulitzer in 2007 and most recently wrote music and lyrics for the currently-on-Broadway “Shrek” musical (look out, more Spidey dance numbers!) previously tried his hand at the web-slinger’s next on screen adventure, as did James Vanderbilt, writer of thriller Zodiac.

Some may see three high profile writers as a bad portent, but it should be noted that the grand majority of Hollywood movies take several writers and several drafts to get hammered out. Being the fourth film, Raimi will likely have significant changes he’ll make as Director as well. The current ongoing comic, Amazing Spider-man, of course also has a team of writers telling Peter Parker’s stories, rather than a single writer doing a long-form multiyear arc.

If you ever have the pleasure of hanging out with me for more than about an hour at a time, chances are I’ll play you some of my favorite “nerdcore” rappers (though that may be a misnomer for some of them). I usually start off easy with MC Lars, a guy who skates between nerdcore, parody, and sometimes just plain old fun songs, whom I’m happy to call my friend. After that I might drop some of the original nerdcore rapper on you with some MC Frontalot, then try to branch you out a bit into other realms of underground hiphop (that sometimes happens to have nerdy lyrics) like Schaffer the Darklord, K. Flay, Optimus Rhyme, and many others.

The aforementioned MC Lars put up a blog post tonight saying nerdcore as it was originally conceived is dead or dying, and it’s up to new musicians (and those currently making songs out of life) to come up with the next big thing.

As with any genre, if you want to last, you have write songs that affect people in an emotional way and have an interesting live show and be very savvy with your business. What came up were hundreds of Myspace sites with kids rapping over Nintendo samples about Star Wars and how they couldn’t get laid. Nerdcore has been declining in popularity and notoriety because, to be quiet honest, its appeal as a genre outside of a select few people is ultimately finite. The Ramones and the Sex Pistols had an aesthetic that changed music forever, Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash perfected the art of the breakbeat and changed the party vibe by creating a context for funky beats to be played for hours with no gaps. It wasn’t until punk evolved into the post-punk of bands like Joy Division and Public Image Limited that it became interesting again and it wasn’t until the of the breakbeat and production were reinvented by guys like Dre that hip-hop began to evolve musically. Not to oversimplify things, but music evolves when people realize that it’s time for something new, and that time for nerdcore hip-hop is now.

It’s a really cool essay on music and musicians and a lot of what he says can be applied to the evolution of creative works in general. He also lets you know who else you should be listening to that’s pushing music forward right now, and who you should go to for a little hip-hop education.

Since initially being introduced to the genre and its close siblings wow, 5 or 6 years ago now, I’ve seen it change quite a bit. Lars isn’t wrong, there are a lot of pretenders and copiers, but there are also people taking the Do-It-Yourself ethics and nerdy storytelling that nerdcore was built on and doing it in fresh new ways; some are even taking it back outside the realm of hiphop, from Jonathan Coulton to Kirby Krackle, there are people out there putting out great, new music in great, new ways, that happens to appeal largely to us of the nerdy persuasion.

So go give MC Lars’ post a read, then give a listen to some of these guys, then if you’re so inclined, go out and make some tunes yourself (and feel free to post them here).

MTV’s Splash Page picked up on a bomb dropped during a recent Damon Lindelof Q&A. Brian K. Vaughan, comic book writer extraordinaire and the man responsible for much of the pop culture, comic, and light-hearted moments (one can assume anyhow) on the last 2.5 seasons of LOST, is leaving.

“Unfortunately he has left for greener pastures,” the series’ executive producer Damon Lindelof told fans during a Q&A Session at Curzon Cinema.

There hasn’t been any indication yet what those greener pastures might be, but to get Vaughan, who was a full producer last season as well as one of the writers, to leave a hit show in its final season, those pastures must be very green indeed.

Since the breakout hit of Y: The Last Man and his run on Runaways ended, Vaughan has been content to write WildStorm’s Ex Machina as his only current comic book. He’s had a near radio-silence since shutting down his own website, BKV.TV in February, 2008. In addition to comics and TV, the writer has penned drafts of movie scripts adapting his own comics. We’ll have more as soon as we hear it.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Live Feed reports that Battlestar Galactica creator Ronald Moore’s newest piece of scifi television, Virtuality, isn’t likely to move further than the 2 hour pilot episode. The show, presented as a TV Movie by Fox, was tied for the lowest rated network program Friday night, with a .5 adult demographic rating. Granted, it went up against a Farrah Fawcett special and a Michael Jackson special, both of whom were firmly in the public’s minds Friday night, but with ratings that low, there’s little to no chance of the show getting picked up in the fall.

Considering I had heard little to nothing about the show ahead of its airing, I can’t say this is super surprising. Too bad, as it showed some promise. If you haven’t seen it and are in the US, you can hit the break to watch the pilot in its entirety, courtesy of Hulu.com.

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Our own Rev OJ Flow has shown off his awesome superhero tattoos here a few times. He’s opted for several characters with relatively small representations. Well, one fan had a slightly different idea:

Yup, that’s an actual chest with an actual tattoo of the tattered Spidey costume, complete with battle damage, as posted at GeekStir. According to the recipient of said tattoo, it took over 9000 minutes, or 150 hours to complete. That is one dedicated Spider-fan.

TV Guide.com is reporting that Brian Austin Green, last seen on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, has joined the cast of Smallville for at least two episodes of Season 9. He’ll be playing John Corben and his villianous cyborg with a heart of Kryptonite alter ego, Metallo.

Fans of Green or his Green-hearted character don’t have to wait too long to see him; he’ll be showing up in the first two episodes of the Season, starting September 25 (that’s a Friday, don’t forget). So, does he fit the role of Metallo to you, dear readers? Does this make you any more (or less) excited for the new Season?

There’ve been some downright baffling displays of sexism in the geek world lately. First, there was IGN’s boys-only contest, blowing the minds of both males and females across the globe. Then the LA Times posted a “Girls’ Guide to Comic Con” with such gems as this:

‘Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’

Women will be rushing the stage, offering to do star Jake Gyllenhaal’s laundry on those washboard abs that he acquired for the film, since he spends much of it fighting, shirtless or both. Jake, we don’t want to know how to quit you.

Well, not surprisingly, the internet started to light up about that one, and several of my geeky girl friends on Twitter immediately got more than a bit upset at these ridiculous stereotypes. Then one in particular, the popular Geek Girl Diva, decided to let the LA Times know what was what on her Blog, attached to popular toy site Entertainment Earth with “An Open Letter to the L.A. Times from a Geek Girl:”

Girls have been going to SDCC for YEARS. They go because they like *gasp* comics? They go because they want to hear about the latest news from Joss Whedon, or for the BSG panel, or to watch Kevin Smith talk about…heck, anything. They are Browncoats, Cosplay fans, Gamers, Geeks, Nerds, Dorks, Comic fans, movie fanatics, book lovers and for loads of other reasons.

Read on at the link above for the full well-expressed rant, and follow her on Twitter by clicking her name, cause she’s full of gems (and toy pimping) from a genuine geek girl.

Activision today posted a new 3D screenshot, showing Deadpool and Iron Fist battling soldiers in one of the new-to-this-game daylight outdoor locales. Peep that one here, then click through to check out an older shot of Thor and Human Torch. For the latest in Ultimate Alliance action, check out our developer walkthrough from E3 and the E3 trailer at the mothership!

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by Seth Robison

Even though it looks more like its rural comic book counterpart, the small village of Metropolis, Illinois shares one major feature with the fictional city that shares its name, they are both the home of DC Comics’ Man of Steel: Superman.  In this realities’ Metropolis they break out the pony rides and tilt-a-whirls not for a local food item or flower like other small towns, but for their annual Superman Celebration, held for the 31st time this past weekend.

This hybrid comic book convention and local fair has its roots in the early 1970s when locals successfully petitioned both the state government and DC Comics for their Metropolis (one of several in the United States) to be declared the “official” home of Superman, and held the first Superman Celebration in the wake of the first Superman movie in 1979.  The event features not just the classic small town Main Street full of fried food and local crafts for sale, but costume contests (for kids, adults and even dogs), a weightlifting competition and a designated Superman to pose for photos and sign autographs.  Then in 1993 over $100,000 was raised to build a fifteen-foot bronze stature of the hero that stands, in living color, in the center of Superman Square, in front of the Massac County courthouse.

The event attracts more then local comic fans and fairgoers, this year Smallville stars Justin Hartley and Phil Morris spoke to fans and signed autographs, and a local favorite, the 88 year old Noel Neil, who portrayed Lois Lane in the George Reeves version of The Adventures of Superman, was on hand to break ground on a life size statue in her honor.  However, aside from television stars, the organizers of the event paid tribute to the medium that brought them Superman by inviting writers and artists to their convention hall, an empty storefront church at the end of four blocks of attractions and vendors.

For one of them, Josh Elder (Mail Order Ninja, StarCraft: Frontline) the Superman Celebration is a homecoming.  Growing up in nearby Carmil, IL (near that is by county standards, a scant 100 miles away), Josh was a frequent attendee of the celebration and in 1999 swore an oath to himself in front of the Superman statue that he would some day write for the hero.  A feat he accomplished before the prior year’s event with an appearance by the Man of Steel in the pages of The Batman Strikes!  He remarked at how the event has grown over the years by serving a comics and genre media fan base that was otherwise not serviced in the region.

This sentiment was reiterated by fellow attending writers Gail Simone (Secret Six) and John Ostrander (Star Wars: Legacy) who praised the intimacy of the small scale event, allowing them to connect with fans in a personal way that the bustle of the larger conventions can’t provide.  The trio also hosted Q and As and writing workshops in the same cozy storefront room that held their signing tables, one that didn’t seat more than one hundred, but still produced a full session’s worth of questions.

The event runs from Thursday to Sunday the second weekend in June every year, but to the citizens of Metropolis, whose enthusiasm for the Man of Steel goes far beyond just creating a tourist destination, Superman is a part of their lives everyday.

Ahhh, the 90s. A time of screaming mouths, big hair left over from the 80s, more feral mutants than you could shake a stick at, and of course, big guns and bigger shoulder pads.

Skottie Young brought up the 90s over the weekend on his Twitter account, focusing on how people look down at the era and disparage everything about it. I couldn’t help but not only agree, but also look back on the era of comics I grew up with.

I love Cable, I love X-Cutioner’s Song, which was going on when I got into comics, I flipped out when the X-books were “canceled” bringing about the Age of Apocalypse. There were Spider-men, who seemed to double more than Multiple Man. An AIDS analogue struck mutants across the globe. Batman was broken, Superman died, and of course, Hal Jordan went insane with evil power.

Man, I loved 90s comics, especially early 90s. That’s when I first really got into the books that have now become a major part of my life. For me, it started with a crossover issue featuring both Spider-man and the X-Men, which my mom bought at a grocery store, knowing I loved the brand new X-Men: The Animated Series. I was amazed by the range of stories that could be told in these little magazines. Plus, it was easier to enjoy over and over again.

I didn’t become a real “collector.” I kept my comics, but I wasn’t obsessed with bags and boards or any of that. I wanted them easy to access and easy to read. My ultimate favorite storyline was definitely Age of Apocalypse. I was already a fan of the idea of alternate worlds in all forms of media, and here was one with my favorite characters of the time. The re-inventions of these characters were so cool, from new costumes to new alliances, and even some that were almost completely different, like Nate Grey, Cable’s double from this reality. I read the story in its entirety about 6 times as a kid. I’ve since gone back and re-read it at least 4 or 5 more. A lot of it was over-the-top, and even downright silly, but even now (I last read the story last year) it still strikes me as one of the most fun experiences I’ve had reading comics.

Are these the best-written or best-drawn stories ever? No, and some of them are downright goofy. But there’s no need to look back on them with anything less than fond remembrance. It was a time of decadence in ways different than the decadence of today, but not necessarily in worse or better ways. There’s no need to say “90s superhero comics suck,” even if they weren’t exploring the same range of emotion or realism as some books today do. But hey, I’m just a non-jaded comics fan.

Apparently in the latest Wizard magazine, Shia LeBouf says he doesn’t want to play Yorick in the upcoming Y: The Last Man movie:

“You take Sam and you put a monkey on his shoulder,” said LaBeouf of Yorick’s sidekick Ampersand. “I don’t know if it’s that big a differential. It seems like he’s the ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation again.”

That’s Shia LeBouf, saying that Sam from the Transformers movie is the same character as Yorick. Please, please, please let this be the end of any talk of him playing Yorick. It all stemmed from director D.J. Caruso, who had a firm movie relationship with LeBouf, making the suggestion years ago. This quote right here should say all anyone needs to about why he’s wrong for the role. To think that any of the nuance, emotion, and growth that ‘Rick displays throughout the story of Y could be portrayed by someone who thinks he’s the same character as “human 1″ in a robot action movie is quite simply nonsense.

So, that’s that. Shia LeBouf is not going to be Yorick (hooray!). So, who SHOULD be Yorick? I’d like to officially throw my hat in the ring, despite not having acted in about 9 years (call me!). Anyone else you’d like to see be the last man on earth?

[via Coming Soon]

This one is making the internet rounds, and is just plain full of win. Liquid Generation put this together, and it’s a ridiculous 100 “best lines” from movies in a bit over 3 minutes. Enjoy the nonsense, and see if your favorite line is in there.

That’s a terrible attempt at keeping a sad situation light. We missed this last week, but apparently another high profile member of the Wizard Magazine crew has been fired. This time around, it’s Arlene So, a designer that did the flashy layouts the magazine’s features always showed off.

Add this to the troubles we reported on a couple weeks ago with their Amazon Store, the massive layoffs over the last few months, the closing of their upstate New York office, the ending of Anime Insider, the ridiculous turnover of the convention staff, including organizers that were much beloved, the “postponement” of Wizard World LA… the list is getting rather long, and if anything seems to be picking up steam.

With fond memories, as a child, of reading Wizard magazine for the latest in comic news, and fond memories, as an adult, of attending Wizard World cons, this is far from a happy occasion for me. Luckily, with a group like Reed Exhibitions stepping up to bat, and only having to focus on cons, not on the ridiculous overhead of print, that aspect seems to be filled. You’ve heard that video killed the radio star, well it seems internet is killing the novelty mag, and this is the latest hole in its chest.

[via TCR]

UPDATE: Even as we were running with this story, we’re hearing of more layoffs. Bleeding Cool reported on the dismissals of Scott Klein and Darren Sanchez. Klein was company controller, and Sanchez was VP of production and circulation. Bleeding Cool also reiterates what we reported recently: the troubles with Wizard’s online sales. We’ll have more as this develops.

Probably the coolest thing you’ll see on the web today right here. Sorry to apoil the internet for you the rest of the day, but this is just too cool:

In honor of Gundam’s 30th Anniversary, they’ve built a life size model. Unfortunately, this means a war between Earth and the Space Colonies is bound to happen soon, so any teenagers out there in Tokyo should get ready to stumble upon this behemoth and have some natural intuition on how to use it. Everyone else, just drool at the awesome, and click through the link above for more pictures of this bad boy.

[via Twitter]

If you visit Wizard’s Storefront Feedback at Amazon.com, it appears something bad has happened of late. The 90 day feedback shows 23% negative, but the 30 day feedback shows 53%. Exploring the full feedback, 35 out of the 50 most recent are 1 star out of 5. These have some interesting comments attached to them:

“I ordered a $200+ robot dog and they sent me plastic superman figurine!??!!?? I sent the seller 2 e-mails and received NO response and it’s been over 2 weeks! What a bunch of crooks! AVOID AT ALL COST!! Amazon should really consider banning this merchant from the marketplace!”

“they send the wrong toy plus it was a cheaper version,and charge me original price they never answer my emails ,i had to contact amazon directly,but amazon saved the day, till this day i havent heard from wizard entertainment”

“The seller falsely advertised the LEGO Star Wars Clone Scout Walker. When contacted a couple days later a crushed box with a piece of junk metal arrived. I contacted the seller several times & got no response. Even after filing a claim with Amazon the seller still refused to acknowledge the defect/cheating they performed.”

Most other comments are very similar. There are several reports of people receiving a Superman action figure in lieu of their items, several reports of multiple attempts to contact Wizard via email and phone being ignored, or being sent damaged or overpriced product, complete with the lower pricetag on the box. I contacted Wizard to ask about what seems to be a major case of mail fraud, and received this official response from April Wiggins:

“This is an issue that we are aware of and are addressing. During a recent
inventory move we incurred some damage to parts of our inventory. Since many
of our customers are collectors, these items are not suitable. When this
occurs, we send people a free gift (with shipping at our own expense) to
compensate them for their inconvenience. They also receive a full refund on
their order.

Although we send a note attached, it is confusing to some. We apologize for
any confusion and we continue to clear up any misunderstandings. To date,
anyone who was inconvenienced received a full refund and a free action
figure.”

Now, there are zero out of those 35 cases where the same poster has posted again to say anything like, “I got my refund” or “I re-read the paper that came with the Superman figure and realized they sent it as an apology,” so it still seems like something else might be going on. According to an anonymous source within Wizard, the customer service phone number no longer “goes to anything” and the non-replies to the email address are on purpose.

In addition, looking at Wizard’s Forums, the customer service problems appear to have been harrowing them for a lot longer than the last 30 days. A post dated August 8, 2006 is the first to note the non-answering of email and the phone number that’s very difficult to find. The frequency of these style of posts kicked up in March of 2009, with six and a half pages of comments similar to the Amazon feedback. Most of these include statements like, “I’ve been waiting 3 weeks,” “My order shipped with several missing items,” and “I’ve emailed several times with no reply.” These customers are seeing charges come up on their credit cards days or weeks before anything is shipped. They contradict Wiggins’s official statement, saying that after several months they had to dispute the charges with their credit cards in order to get their money back.

A moderator, “Jerry Whitworth,” has gone on this thread repeatedly telling people, “Don’t order from a company you have problems with,” as did moderator “jaydee74.”

One poster, Chris Underwood, even pasted in his entire customer service email experience. He received order confirmation April 30, 2009. He then sent emails that weren’t responded to on May 1, May 6, May 8, and May 9, all with no response.

With all this evidence, it seems something more than a note that is “confusing to some” is the problem. Wizard’s official statement says they’ve been prompt with refunds, but the customers tell a different story. While one has recently noted a refund, it was a full month after order placement (and credit card charge), and still with no communication.

This may be indicative of the larger problem Wizard has been facing over the last year or so. With magazine closings, location closings, and layoffs, things don’t look to be getting better. While Gareb Shamus purchased the Big Apple Con and revived the Chicago Comic-Con name, it is interesting to note that both DC Comics and Marvel Comics are conspicuously absent from the list of exhibitors for this year’s Chicago show, which is only about two months away. Image, Dark Horse, and IDW are likewise missing.

It’s time to be super self-referential here; my instant reaction after reading Ex Machina #42 has to be re-said here:

The problem with Ex Machina from @WildStorm is when it’s on my pile, it ruins every other book in its wake of awesomeness. So. Damn. Good.about 8 hours ago from TwitterFon

TheGeek616

Lucas Siegel

I think that’s the best 140 character sum up of the experience of reading this book I could come up with. The true measure of greatness that Vaughan, Harris, Clark, and Mettler have achieved is that this story is perfect as a comic book. It could be told through another medium, but it wouldn’t be told as well.

The art in #42 has to be mentioned first. I’ve always been a fan of Harris’s art, but the way he has grown in his storytelling over the course of 42 issues has been incredible. In this issue, there are 8 pages of conversation with no real action. The story, thanks to both the great flow of the actual words and primarily the story telling in the art. The first half takes place in a dark underground room, and most of the conversation features the two characters’ hands and their shadows. It’s such a brilliant device and it made the whole thing that much more exciting. There is some action in this story, however, and while it is a little more static that some artists’ work, that is actually the preferred style here. The snapshot style of his art serves the building tension beautifully. The last three pages were especially gloriously creepy, and while the reveal at the end was expected, it was still exciting to see. Clark and Mettler know exactly how to bring out the best in Harris, and these three should work together for the rest of time.

Brian K. Vaughan continues to top my favorite writer on a regular basis: himself. While Y: The Last Man has been my favorite comic for quite some time, the final year of Ex Machina may change my mind. This issue is remarkable in that it tells a solid story on its own, it fits into the current story arc nicely, revealing just enough about the past and present to keep it going, and fits in the overall 42 issue so far story, building on what has come before and setting up the future. This is comic book writing at its absolute finest. It proves that characterization is just as important as high action, and the balance between the two that should be reached in any story. Vaughan definitely rewards longtime readers, showing that he’s had an overall story in mind for Mitchell Hundred since the very beginning.

I can’t wait for more Ex Machina, and oddly, thought it is one of my favorite reads, I can’t wait for it to end. All that means is I’ll get to enjoy it all over again, and more easily share the whole story with others.

So if you’re not reading this, I’d like to know why. The book has something for political fans, superhero fans, fans of deep characterization, fans of conversation, fans of writing taking the forefront, fans of art driving the story. This. Is. Comics.