6 Promos Release for American Horror Story Season 6

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Edited by Robert Beach

It’s that time of year again: the time where we all get to speculate on what this year’s American Horror Story theme is going to be.  If you’re new to this blog, my relationship with American Horror Story is…complicated at best.  I might best be described as an anti-fan of the show, not necessarily a hater but someone who actively dislikes the individual episodes while still being thoroughly fascinated by the drip of trailers and posters as well as the sprawling internal mythology the series has slowly cultivated. 

I'm more fascinated by American Horror Story’s style and sizzle than I am the actual plot or characters of any given season.  If you’re a diehard fan of every episode good for you, but I I’m mainly here for the weird exploration of the horror pantheon and the history of American atrocities in particular and boy are we in for a twist with season 6. 

1st Pics of Tyler Hoechlin as Superman on the Set of Supergirl

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Edited by Robert Beach

With the summer almost done, the time has come for the major networks and studios to start ramping up for their big fall premieres.  For me as a geek blogger, that means we’ll be seeing a lot of news and reveals about superhero TV, which itself just means revelations are coming from the CW and a handful of flailing competitors who aren’t nearly as good. However, even though CW has managed to expand its dominance in superhero TV to dizzying levels they do still face a major challenge this coming fall, and her name is Supergirl.

After a respectable but not mind blowing season 1 on CBS, Supergirl has migrated to the CW where the demands for high ratings are reduced but so is the budget.  Supergirl already crossed over with CW’s The Flash in season 1 and the same folks who invented the CWniverse produce her show, but her high profile nature and difficulty with ratings make her a serious challenge for the powers that be at CW.  

The show has decided to show Superman, presumably cutting through the abyss of copyright regulation about who can show Superman on TV.  Tyler Hoechlin is stepping into the role of the man of steel and this weekend we got our first good look at him.

 

Panel Vision - Batman Incorporated's Nightmares in Numberland

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Edited by Robert Beach

At the time of writing, Barbara Gordon is back in the news thanks to the complete bungling of The Killing Joke’s animated feature, and we’re all joking about the new film Nerve, a cyber-thriller about Internet dares; the time is right to revisit Batman Inc.  Batman Inc. was a 23-issue comic run from superstar author Grant Morrison that closed off his run on Batman.

It’s one of my all-time favorite Batman comics and probably the best Batman book of the decade. I’m not going to be reviewing the comic in full, mainly because the first eight issues are neatly broken up into individual short stories. I only need to focus on one to fulfill my pathological desire to be topical, a Batman and Oracle team-up comic entitled ‘Nightmares in Numberland.’

Cover Story - Top 15 Harley Quinn Covers

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We’re currently a week out from Suicide Squad, DC’s latest attempt to salvage the flaming wreckage of their cinematic universe.  I could go on and on about how bizarre it is that the people with the biggest stable of superheroes imaginable keep consistatly getting one-upped by the likes of Ant-Man and Thor (seriously, 9 years ago who outside the comics fandom even knew those guys existed?) but that’s not the point of this particular column.  No, we gather together today because there’s nothing topical happening this week related to comics but I have a compulsive need to make this show link to something.  

As such, we’re getting a head start on Suicide Squad by looking at the career of its most prominent member in the advertisements: Harley Quinn.  Originating in the Batman animated series of 1992 before immigrating to the comics and taking up residence there for 20 years as her character evolved from tragedy to comedy to something close to DC’s Deadpool.  So, let us celebrate this glorious harlequin of comics and dive into the shallow end to get the cover story on the top 15 Harley Quinn comic covers.

Disney Announces Rocketeer Reboot

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Edited by Robert Beach

Now that we’ve crossed the midpoint of the 2010s, one thing has become very clear: superheroes aren’t going away.  The genre never really went away after it emerged through Batman in 1989, but for a time, people were expecting there to be a peak or finale to things. However, after eight years of Marvel blockbusters coming out like clockwork along with FOX reviving the X-Men in 2011 and DC/WB getting their act together, the superhero has simply become a constant part of our cultural diet. While this is an exciting prospect, it does raise the question of what happens to those companies without access to the superhero IP of DC or Marvel. 

The answer, clearly, is that they’ll dive into lesser-known heroes, either from the public domain, smaller publishers, or creator owned. We’ve already seen this with the 2000s’ Hellboy, yet it seems the key people jumping on this bandwagon now are, shockingly, Disney. Yes, even though the house of mouse already owns Marvel, they’re hungry for more. Their first aim is a reboot of their 1990s underrated superhero classic The Rocketeer with the new Rocketeer allegedly being conceived as a black woman. 

Ash vs Evil Dead S2 Trailer

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Horror movies getting made into TV shows is a bit of a thing now.  It’s hard to say when exactly this trend started though I’d probably point mostly to 2013, that was when Bates Motel and Hannibal both premiered to shocking levels of success.  Prior to that you’d had some literary-to-TV examples like NBC’s Dracula, AMC’s Walking Dead, or the horror hodgepodge Penny Dreadful but since 2013 we’ve also enjoyed an Omen show, a Scream show, an Exorcist show in the work, and today’s subject: Ash vs. the Evil Dead.

I am a huge fan of the Evil Dead mythos; I love the original trilogy, the comics are a blast, and I’ve even enjoyed some of the video games they’ve made so when I heard “Evil Dead TV show” I was there.  And season 1 turned out to be pretty good, maybe not excellent and with a little too much padding but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Now the time has come for season 2 and along with some interesting news we’ve got a trailer and it promises to double down on all the stuff that worked about season 1 and then some. 

Spider-Man: Homecoming Casting Breakdown

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Edited by Robert Beach

For the past month and a half, we’ve been inundated with Spider-Man: Homecoming casting announcements. The film has turned into a massive who’s who of rising talent, and the amount of women and actors of color featured in the casting has been a major smart step for Marvel working to address growing concerns about their lack of diversity. The only off-putting thing about all these announcements is that they’ve been listing actors without characters. 

Now, we’ve got our first information about what heroes, villains, and supporting characters will be featured in Spider-Man: Homecoming. While not everyone is known (like Donald Glover or Hannibal Buress), we do have enough announcements to start forming a fairly accurate picture of the film to come. 

The Flash Season 3 Trailer Breakdown

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Edited by Robert Beach

In about two months, The Flash will premiere its third season on CW. After a shaky season 1 in 2014, The Flash busted out of nowhere to be the premiere series of the CW-verse. It continues to push the boundaries for how much a superhero TV show has ever adapted from its comic origins and bringing in hit new shows like Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl.  

Even though Arrow kicked off CW’s superhero shows, it was The Flash that made them a force to be reckoned with. Its winning combination of weird sci-fi, cool CG action, big, operatic emotional storytelling, and the great collection of lead actors propels the material.  

Now, the show faces its biggest challenge yet, adapting the rolling dumpster fire that was 2011’s Flashpoint event comic into a good season of television. We won’t know till the show comes out if they’ve succeeded, but based on this first trailer, yeah, I’d say they managed it.

Brie Larson Cast as Captain Marvel

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Edited by Robert Beach

As we enter our 8^th year of Marvel-dominated blockbusters and news cycles, the tide is slowly turning into the house of the Avengers built. This particular ball got rolling a few years ago after Avengers became a bonafide hit and definitively closed out phase 1. It turned out phase 2 was just going to be more of the same with some space characters thrown in.  

The big trend of the moment has become a majorly increased demand to see greater representation and diversity from Marvel studios seemingly unstoppable hit-making machine. This particular campaign has only gotten more intense over the past three years. Stuff like Jessica Jones proved a major hit while Marvel’s Dr. Strange and Iron Fist incurred ire over their whitewashing and cultural appropriation.  

This year, Marvel seems poised to turn things around with Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther emerging as the breakout character of Captain America: Civil War, and Luke Cage poised to be the next big Netflix hit.  Now, in the wake of San Diego Comic Con, Marvel takes their next big leap forward with the announcement that their first lead woman superhero, Captain Marvel, will be played by Brie Larson.

 

Star Trek: Discovery Trailer & Logo Revealed, Setting Speculation

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Edited by Robert Beach 

Over 11 years ago, Star Trek: Enterprise went off the air and ended the era of Trek on TV. Even though the franchise would be rescued from oblivion four years later with the J.J. Abrams reboot series, Star Trek as a sci-fi series of genuine renown, import, and intelligence wouldn’t reassert itself till this year.  

Thanks to a double barrel strategy, Star Trek has marked its 50^th anniversary with a major return to prominence thanks to a quality movie and an upcoming new TV show helmed by Hannibal show runner Bryan Fuller.  

Now, we’ve finally got a title and imagery. The first short teaser for the new series debuts the lead ship and gives some cryptic clues about the setting. So let’s dive into our first major look at Star Trek: Discovery. 

Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Defenders Trailer Breakdowns

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Edited by Robert Beach

As the saga of Marvel Studios continues, the story of their Netflix offshoot has slowly become a production unto itself. Launching in 2015 with the blockbuster Daredevil series, then following it up with the even better Jessica Jones show in the fall, Marvel’s Netflix shows have become their own little universe. 

The inter-continuity of New York street-level super crime has forged the shows into their own phase 1. Heck, there's multiple dangling plot threads supporting super people who could be their own stars like Punisher, Elektra, and Nuke. 

Now, Marvel Netflix is looking to premiere another three shows over the next year and a half starting with Luke Cage this September, followed by Iron Fist in spring of 2017, and culminating in the massive team-up show Defenders in fall of next year. With all that in the cards, Netflix has now released a triple threat of teasers for each of its new shows. Let’s take a look. 

Ghost Rider Cast in Agents of SHIELD S3

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So, it’s official; Ghost Rider is coming to Agents of SHIELD and will be played by Gabriel Luna.  In retrospect this was pretty much inevitable.  Agents of SHIELD remains Marvel’s most prominent failure, especially with how much the show has struggled to keep up with a cinematic universe that’s consistently leaving it in the dust, so this kind of shake up was badly needed to try and win back an audience and make the show relevant once more. 

Let me be clear on this, even if you like Agents of SHIELD the show is definitely not what Marvel wanted it to be in terms of ratings or importance, especially compared to the blossoming CW stable of shows or Marvel’s own vaunted Netflix series.  However, the Ghost Rider they’ve conscripted isn’t quite the one everybody knows which means we’ve got to dive into the history of the character to get the full view of what’s going on here. 

Black Panther Casting Break Down

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Edited by Robert Beach 

2016 has been a peculiar year for Marvel Studios.  Captain America: Civil War was a massive hit that dominated the other big superhero team-up films of the year. Not only that, it reaffirmed people’s interest in the Marvel Universe after the lackluster response to Avengers: Age of Ultron.  

However, Civil War looks a bit like the sole Marvel mega-hit of the year after Daredevil season 2 met with mixed interest and little staying power compared to contemporaries like The Flash or Netflix’s Stranger Things. Meanwhile, the slow march towards Doctor Strange has left many fans apathetic towards the Master of the Mystic Arts. 

All of that uncertainty about the rest of Marvel’s 2016 nearly calcified with San Diego Comic Con. Aside from some interesting shake-ups with their TV work, Marvel’s biggest emphasis of the con was on 2017 and 2018 projects. While there were several announcements, the centerpiece of the con has emerged to be some major casting announcements concerning 2018’s Black Panther. 

It makes sense given Black Panther was the most popular character to emerge from Civil War’s success.  Given that, it makes sense Marvel would want to start teeing up the excitement this far in advance. So let’s dive in the announcements and see the who’s who of the Black Panther movie. 

Film Land - How Do You Solve a Problem Like Thor?

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Edited by Robert Beach

I have a lot of tangents that develop as I do these articles, and one of the most prominent ones has become “how do you solve a problem like Thor?” It’s a question that’s hung around Marvel’s neck like a dead weight ever since 2013 when Thor: The Dark World’s derailment came to a crushing finale. Thor's mighty sequel hammer lost to Hunger Games: Catching Fire at the box office. 

Overall, it’s easy to see how Thor ended up on the fringes of Marvel’s slate. The first Thor was a refreshing and fun fantasy comedy. It served as the world’s introduction to Marvel’s cosmic mythology and acted as the most child-friendly Marvel superhero production. 

Since then, Guardians of the Galaxy has come in as the new face of Marvel cosmic, and the Studio has reclaimed (Editor's Note: joint custody) the rights to Spider-Man to make it their kid-friendly franchise. Even Thor’s possible role as a mystics and magic franchise is teetering now that Dr. Strange and Iron Fist are on the way.  

It also doesn’t help that Chris Hemsworth has proved himself the least versatile of the main Marvel actors. With all that looming overhead, I still ask "how do you solve a problem like Thor?" And the answer from Thor: Ragnarok seems to be this: just make it a Hulk movie. 

1st Justice League Trailer Analyzed

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Edited by Robert Beach 

Well, I can safely say I didn’t see this one coming.  Basically from its announcement WB/DC’s proposed Justice League movie has been the butt of everyone’s joke. It came off as a transparent Avengers rip-off not helped by the lackluster reception to Man of Steel, the distaste for Ben Affleck’s casting as Batman, and the unmitigated disaster that was Batman v. Superman. 

Even fans of this stuff weren’t onboard with Justice League, especially given the only member of the cast that seemed like a real slam dunk was Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. Then SDCC 2016 happened, and we got our first look at 2017’s Justice League. Out of nowhere, the tables have completely turned.  Suddenly, even the most dedicated cynics have at least moderately relented. Everyone’s starting to wonder if this movie is going to be good? 

Film Land - Has Marvel Lost Faith in Dr. Strange?

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Edited by Robert Beach

At the time of writing, we are about three months out of from Marvel’s next film entry and possible first major failure Dr. Strange. I don’t make that failure claim lightly either. Despite being three months from release, this film has gotten shockingly little fanfare or production push, especially in comparison to other Marvel releases. This might be a response to the relative dead zone Marvel is releasing the movie in. 

Their previous November release was Thor: The Dark World, which was released against Hunger Games: Catching Fire and got completely crushed by it. With Dr. Strange, Marvel has set it up with no competition in a time of the year notoriously free of blockbusters, to the point where even bad movies like Spectre can make a killing. Even still, there’s a "specter" of doubt that hangs over Dr. Strange. I’m starting to wonder whether or not Marvel expects the film to be bad. 

Kurt Russell to play Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy 2

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Edited by Robert Beach 

And so another San Diego Comic Con comes to a close.  At this point, the SDCC exists as a trade expo, showcasing the various upcoming film and television projects the nerds of the Internet can obsess over for the next year.  

SDCC has made Marvel Studios king of the castle for the last several years, but, if we’re honest, this year and last year Marvel has been pretty underwhelming in their SDCC presentation. This year, Marvel’s heightened security and strike prohibition of filming makes it hard to get on board with a lot of their announcements. 

At the same time, pretty much all of their announcements were casting news, mainly revolving around Spider-Man: Homecoming and Black Panther. While I’m looking forward to those films, the roles announced have all been small.  

It’s a neat fact that Michael B. Jordan is playing Killmonger or that Tom Rivolo is Flash Thompson. Those aren’t barn burner announcements.  Thankfully, there were two pretty big casting announcements made: the first being Kurt Russell will be playing Ego, the living planet, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.

1st Wonder Woman Trailer Analyzed

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Edited by Robert Beach 

It’s been a strange year for DC Entertainment. After the unmitigated disaster of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, as you can see through its underperforming at the box office its status as a cultural punching bag, DC has been in a weird swing of damage control. They’ve been doing everything they can to convince people Suicide Squad is a fun and quirky flick instead of another grim and oppressive failure, and there was a major change in the executive forces that control DC Entertainment. 

Nearly 4 months after Dawn of Justice, DC came into San Diego Comic Con’s Hall H prepared with a major new launch platform and the promise that they could do better. The center piece of their launch at proving their own worth the viability of the DC promise (letting individual creative directors flex their muscles on projects) was the first trailer for 2017’s Wonder Woman. It’s amazing. 

Legends of Tomorrow S2 adds Legion of Doom

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One of the biggest stories of superhero TV in 2015 was the rise of Legends of Tomorrow, the first team superhero TV show to be produced in live action and not cut together from repackage Japanese TV like Power Rangers.  The first season was a pretty big hit, working through some ups and downs to deliver a fun and action packed family adventure show in the vein of Doctor Who or Power Rangers but starring a dynamic and unique team of lovable and engaging heroes. 

Now it’s season 2 time which raises a slew of questions, most especially because season 1 was so tied to defeating the immortal tyrant Vandal Savage and, spoilers, that’s what the team did at the end of that season.  This has raised the question of what season 2 will be about but the first details are now filtering through and, aside from a pretty interesting synopsis, the big news is that Legends of Tomorrow season 2 will feature the Legion of Doom as their new antagonists. 

Kong: Skull Island First Trailer

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Edited by Robert Beach

One of the more bizarre stories of the 21^st century is the bizarre disconnect between the companies that make movies and the companies that simply finance and distribute them. This has become an even more central part of the story of film production in the age of franchises and sagas where every studio is looking for their multi-film, years-long movie series. 

The most recent example of this would have to be the case of Legendary Entertainment, who recently broke with former partners Warner Brothers and had spent the last three years trying to prove themselves a viable investment through their growing slate of prospective giant monster movies. 

This started in 2013 with their push for Pacific Rim and then broke into the big time in 2014 with Godzilla. Godzilla’s the film that proved them a solvent business, so in 2015, they announced plans for a whole slate of Kaiju flicks based around Godzilla 2, Kong: Skull Island, and finally a remake of King Kong vs. Godzilla. This year, we’ve got our first look at that ambitious plan with the debut trailer for Kong: Skull Island.