CW Announces Black Lightning Show

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Edited by Robert Beach 
You have to wonder how many superheroes there are to adapt. I mean, I love the genre, and I flatter myself by saying I have a vast and encyclopedic knowledge of both Marvel and DC heroes. At some point, there just aren’t going to be the characters to keep these movie and TV universes going. More than that, the more times the folks behind these adaptations try and repeat their success, the less likely they are to manage it. I mean, WB has been trying to recapture the success of Dark Knight for 8 years, and they haven’t managed it once. Now, over at CW (aka the only good DC production outlet currently working), they’ve recently announced they're launching their 5^th superhero show, starring DC’s first solo black hero Black Lightning. 

Panel Vision - Green Hornet (2011)

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Edited by Robert Beach

One of the more bizarre powerhouse talents in Hollywood today is Seth Rogen. Rogen’s a relatively recent star, but he’s been around for a while, making his way through smaller roles before joining forces with Judd Apatow for Knocked Up and parlaying that success into a more substantive career. 

He didn’t really break big as a face of comedy till 2014 with Neighbors, though he took a big step forward with the 2013 comedy This is the End. Still, 2014 was the year Rogen became a name film journalists and bloggers starting talking about, first with the narrative of his R-rated comedy Neighbors beating the PG-13 tentpole of Amazing Spider-Man 2 and then with the “controversy” surrounding he and James Franco’s comedy The Interview. 

In the wake of all that attention, Rogen has only grown bigger and recently used that clout to launch an adaptation of the Vertigo Comic Preacher on AMC. Apparently, Rogen is a big comic book geek, which is why he did Preacher. Now that Preacher is a hit; he will probably produce that The Boys show he’s been teasing (Editor’s Note: Superheroes who fight meteors with their genitals). In honor of Rogen’s rise, I thought I’d look back on his own entry in the superhero genre. The other failed 2011Green superhero film: Green Hornet.  

Panel Vision - Top 25 Super-Jerk Covers

Edited by Robert Beach

Earlier this week, Frank Miller released one of his first illustrations in a long time. Miller’s suffered a great loss of physical mobility in recent years, so the fact that he’s recovered enough to draw again should be a pretty major event. Unfortunately, his newest piece of art was 1. Linked to the upcoming Dark Knight: Master Race and 2. Kind of terrible. It’s a picture of the Atom getting punched into Space by the ugliest Superman you’ve ever seen complete with comically massive fists and a visibly outlined dick. 

At this point, “Frank Miller does kind of awful thing” is hardly news, but in the midst of the Internet all having a good laugh about #SuperJunk, Kurt Busiek raised the interesting point that Superman’s ugliness on the cover was intentional. It was an interesting argument, and even though I don’t fully agree or think the intentionality of the image makes up for the hilariously poor artwork, it did get people talking and thinking. Specifically, it go me thinking about all the great covers of Superman being an asshole…so that’s what we’re doing today.

Week of Review - Batman: The Brave and The Bold

In the history of Batman the character has had three major flashpoints wherein he achieved mainstream prevalence and wide scale importance.  The first was in 1966 with the Adam West TV show, the second was in 1989 with Tim Burton’s Batman, and the third was in 2008 with the release of Dark Knight.  I’ve often referred to the 4 year period from 2007-2010 as the definitive years of the 2010s and the explosion of popularity Batman enjoyed over that period is integral to understanding the superhero dominated landscape that we now live in.  Obviously enough Batman had been present outside the comics in the previous years of the 2000s be it through the Justice League show or his The Batman cartoon but 2008 brought Batman to a mass audience like never before.  Dark Knight represented a moment of transcendence for Batman in a way he never really achieved in the mainstream before; it was the moment people realized Batman didn’t have to be meaningless. 

Batman ’89 and Dark Knight Returns had established Batman wasn’t just for kids but Dark Knight showed the entire world that you could tell a Batman story that was driven by a defining ethos and ideology with a point behind it.  Couple that with the success of Iron Man’s winning combination of fidelity, continuity, and character introspection and the ensuing cocktail of geek cinema in 2008 basically set the stage for everything that would come after.  So, when DC chose to capitalize on this success with a new Batman cartoon it only makes sense they’d go lighter and more kid friendly than ever before.  

Week of Review - The Batman

Edited by Robert Beach

By the mid-2000s, the superhero multimedia landscape had decidedly reversed fortunes. DC was still dominating the television landscape with monster hits like Smallville and the twin animated powerhouses of Justice League and Teen Titans; however, in the world of film, Marvel had more or less supplanted DC’s previously held stranglehold on the superhero genre. After Batman & Robin’s major failure, DC had spent nearly 7 years rebuilding its brand image while Marvel had cranked out adaptation after adaptation. By the year 2004, we had Blade 1 through 3, X-Men 1 and 2, Spider-Man 1 and 2, The Punisher, Hulk,and then Daredevil, Elektra, and Fantastic Four waiting in the wings. 

By this point, it was obvious the superhero genre was not only back from the dead, but it was enjoying an unprecedented boom in adaptation and success. Quite surreptitiously, DC began plans to reintroduce their most successful hero back to the big screen. Plans that culminated in 2005’s Batman Begins. Before that, DC first worked to get Batman back on TV in his own solo show, and thus we got The Batman. 

Static Thoughts - Gotham Season 2 Villains

Edited by Robert Beach

As we ramp up for the fall premieres, some details have been filtering through about Fox’s first big step towards superheroes on the TV Gotham. We’ve learned ‘90s Batman supporting character Azrael will be on the second season along with classic Batman love interest Silver Saint Claire. Additionally, we know there are a few mystery roles and the promise of more Joker this season. For those who don’t know, Gotham is a Batman prequel show set immediately after the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne revolving around Jim Gordon. While season one stayed mostly in prequel territory, albeit leaning very hard on the idea that a lot of Gotham’s crazy people will have children who follow explicitly in their footsteps, the season finale hinted at greater changes to come. As such, I came up with a fairly large list of heroes, villains, and crime bosses/organizations I think should or could show up on Gotham in the coming seasons. Let’s start with the villains:  

Batman v. Superman Empire Cover

As we continue the rising tide of build up for the new starting point to DC Comics cinematic universe Empire has devoted their latest cover to Superman and Batman.  This is in conjunction with Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice, one of the dopiest and most misspelled titles this side of Star Trek Into Darkness.  This cover marks the first time any official media has put the two stars side by side in addition to a much better static look at Batman then we’ve seen in any of the promotional stills.  There’s been the occasional trailer moment of clarity but this is different.  This cover is DC and their WB handlers putting their best forward with this film and introducing us to the designs and visuals of the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel.  And they look…kind of dopey and ridiculous, much like this entire production.