Chantal Thuy Cast as Grace Choi

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As we continue the slow crawl toward Black Lightning, we’ve started to get a trickle of information about the additional superheroes that will pepper the show.  That’s basically just par for the course of CW superhero shows at this point- single hero shows are out the window and everything now will have a rotating cast of supporting heroes.  Now I'm in favor of this practice, it helps keep things interesting and at an appreciably grand level now that single hero stories have become the bread and butter of the Hollywood hit machine.  

In an age of The Avenger and Justice League selling a whole superhero show on 1 masked crime fighter has become kind of passe.   In the case of Black Lightning, the show already had 2 additional superheroes at the starting track in the form of Black Lightning’s daughters Thunder and Lightning.  Now, the show has reached out to add its first additional hero outside of that immediate family unit with Grace Choi, who will be played by Chantal Thuy. 

Zach Levi Cast As Shazam

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I have to say: I don’t think there’s been a bigger curveball production in the superhero game lately than Shazam!  For years I, like most people, figured this was one of those DC movie projects that were on the schedule but probably not going to actually happen, more of an announcement to get something on the board than anything else.  Then, out of nowhere, WB announced David F. Sandberg to direct, which seemed odd given he was known largely for the 2016 horror film Lights Out, the latest in WB’s newfound cash cow of low-budget/high-return horror offerings for the summer season. 

Some thought that perhaps Sandberg’s presence meant Shazam! would have a horror aesthetic, sort of in the vein of James Wan’s Aquaman, but as the interviews rolled in and we crept towards the start of production it seemed like it was going to be light-hearted and funny.  Now, finally, we have a star to attach to the vehicle: Zachary Levi will be playing the titular Shazam in the 2019 film. 

Gareth Evans to Direct Deathstroke

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So, let’s talk about Deathstroke.  Back when it was first reported Deathstroke might have a role in Justice League and would be the villain of The Batman I had a lot of thoughts to share about everyone’s favorite Teen Titans bad guy.  Since then, however, Deathstroke’s role in the DCEU has become a lot more fluid (much like the DCEU itself,) and I think he’s a sore subject worth revisiting.  If you haven’t been keeping up with the news or maybe don’t even know who he is- Deathstroke is a DC Comics villain and mercenary most commonly associated with the Teen Titans and Batman. 

He was a mercenary who adopted a costume and some super soldier powers to try and stay competitive in the superhero world and is most notable for the time he seduced an under-aged sociopath to get her to defeat the Teen Titans for him.  He’s a very popular bad guy who was set to appear first in Justice League before starring as the villain of The Batman as played by Joe Manganiello.  However, after extensive reshoots and re-edits, Deathstroke is gone from Justice League and The Batman has all but completely stalled out in production.  However, there is good news for Deathstroke enthusiasts- Gareth Evans, director of The Raid and The Raid 2, has stepped in to helm a Deathstroke movie. 

New Mutants Trailer Breakdown

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One of the curious things about film success in the 2020s is that “quiet victories” have become more and more prevalent.  That’s more the result of Geek Media spending a lot of time talking up the loud victories than anything else.  For instance, the X-Men franchise is a great example of something quietly successful.  Outwardly the franchise is considered mostly past its prime and running on goodwill and fumes.  

However, a lot of that is simply because the main film series doesn’t draw a lot of interest in the online circles, meanwhile, the spin-off material like Deadpool, Logan, and Legion have been making big waves and spawning imitators left and right.  A lot of that is that Fox seems more willing to experiment on the job with the X-Men peripherals, probably because they assume they aren’t going to be successful anyway so might as well get weird with it.  That certainly seems like the attitude at play with the latest X-Men spin-off flick The New Mutants whose trailer has revealed it to be…a teen horror flick? 

Cover Story - Top 13 Jason Voorhees Covers

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Happy Friday the 13^th everyone, this weird day we’ve all decided is cursed for reasons we can no longer remember.  Seriously, I have no idea why the fearful and unlucky reputation of the number 13 has persisted so long or even where it started but it has stuck around so we might as well indulge it.  This Friday the 13^th I’m celebrating with a dive into the single best argument for why this random day of the year has persisted as a national holiday: Jason Voorhees, star of the Friday the 13^th film series.  

Released in 1980, Friday the 13^th may not have started the ‘80s slasher craze but it did cement it, helping to full launch the horror blockbuster and launching the franchise that would turn “Jason” into psycho-killer shorthand.  Nearly 40 years later Jason has managed to invade every medium- film, television, video games, novels, music, and, naturally, comic books.  There has been a cavalcade of Friday the 13^th comic books over the years both tied to the films and independent of them and today we honor those comics by looking at their best cover artwork, let’s dive in. 

Panel Vision - No Man's Land

As you probably know Puerto Rico recently suffered devastation at the hands of Hurricane Maria.  It’s a natural disaster of incalculable scale made infinitely worse by the federal government's point-blank refusal to help Puerto Rico in the manner that would befit our so-called leaders.  If you’re at all able to give please consider donating to organizations like United for Puerto Rico, Americares, Convoy of Hope, Direct Relief, Catholic Relief Services, International Medical Corps, or Unicef.  The people of Puerto Rico are in desperate need of help and it’s painfully clear that it’s going to have to come from us because those in power are too cruel or incompetent to take action. 

This idea of being abandoned by our own government has been a running theme in 2017, especially with the way the natural world seems to be coming apart at the seams.  More and more, the organizations we once trusted with our basic safety and day-to-day concerns have turned on us with, at worst, a predatory maliciousness and at best a blind idiocy.  

In that power vacuum citizens have had to rely on one another to fight the battles we can’t as individuals, be that in the form of mass demonstrations and call-in over healthcare or the civilian fleet that went to Houston after Hurricane Harvey.  This blend of federal abandonment with the greater need for joint community action seemed fairly familiar to me because it’s also the core of my favorite Batman comic of all time- No Man’s Land. 

Panel Vision - The Hacker Files

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It seems these days that cyber-warfare and computer hacking have become newly popular plotlines.  A lot of that is just a reflection of the real world- as the amount of data we generate in the virtual space grows in concordance with our reliance on outdated security systems we’re going to keep seeing things like the Equifax data breach, the Russian cyber attacks on the US election, and major state secret leaks like those made by Chelsea Manning.  It’s only natural that parallels to these events have formed in the narratives of shows like Homeland, Berlin Station, and most pertinently Mr. Robot. 

However, this is hardly the first time hacking has come to grip the public imagination- that was in the ‘90s.  Stuff like The Net and Hackers were capitalizing on the public’s fascination with cyber shenanigans at the very dawn of the information super-highway.  A lot of these ‘90s offerings are pretty cheesy and dated in hindsight, much like the ‘90s flirtation with early VR, there is, however, one exception- 1992’s The Hacker Files.

Filmland - A Musical History of Star Wars

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So, Star Wars is in the news again as we barrel towards The Last Jedi- the middle film of the new trilogy.  Given that Star Wars is suddenly a trending topic worth capitalizing on I thought I’d take on one of the strangest corners of the Star Wars universe: the musical history of Star Wars.  I’m not talking about the film soundtracks, though there is a soundtrack on this list but we’ll get there.  

I’m instead talking about the way Star Wars has come up in geeky and popular music throughout the past 40 years since its inception.  The truth of the matter is that Star Wars is THE multi-media nerd juggernaut and always has been, eclipsing all others in its field and that includes spreading into the world of hit songs, nerd rap, parody music, and viral musical phenomena.   I’m sure we’ll see more of this as the new trilogy continues on but for now let’s dig into the bizarre musical history of Star Wars.

The Last Jedi gets 2nd Trailer

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One of the curious things about liking Star Wars at this moment is that sometimes I think my distance from the franchise helps me enjoy it more.  I’ve never hidden the fact that I’m not really a huge Star Wars fan- I don’t dislike the franchise and enjoy some of it very much but I just don’t have the same relationship with it that I do with Star Trek or superheroes.  That being said, I think the fact Star Wars was always just another collection of films to me has made me less inclined to feel anything has been lost in the Disney handover. 

More and more I feel like I’m seeing folks angry at the loss of some mercurial inner spark to the Star Wars films that they feel only the original trilogy maintained.  Which seems a damn shame to me because The Last Jedi is quickly gearing up to be the best looking Star Wars film yet, with an ambitious new trailer striking an incredible balance of tone and content that continues to redefine expectations for this film.

Justice League Trailer & News Update

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There’s no more beleaguered a film coming out this year than WB’s long-suffering Justice League film.  The production on this movie has been such a complete mess it’s like something out of a soap opera.  There’s been talk of a bloated production, constant re-edits after test screenings, executive panic and that’s not even touching on stuff we know like Joss Whedon coming in to relieve Zack Snyder after the tragic loss of his daughter.  

Hell, even that particular revelation couldn’t go by without its OWN revelation as Whedon entered a very public scandal of his own in the latter half of the year.  Mark my words, there will be large volumes written about how Justice League came to be.  I say all this now because of the fact that this latest trailer feels like something different yet also quite familiar feels intrinsically tied to the recent avalanche of lurid coverage.  In short, I think Justice League is finally finding itself in the editing and post-production and I actually think it looks…pretty good.

Pacific Rim: Uprising Trailer Breakdown

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Four years ago the geek world was changed forever with the release of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim.  The film helped kick off the Kaiju craze that’s continued with a new entry every year like clockwork, as well as introducing the term Kaiju into the common parlance.  More than that, the film redefined what it meant to be a success in the modern era.  Despite failing to make back its budget in America and losing the #1 box office spot to Grown Ups 2 the film made big bucks overseas- 3X its American gross.  That overseas success combined with a massive cultural impact that’s continued to fuel fan hype and purchasing power has finally translated into a new movie, coming next year.  Directed by Steven DeKnight and starring John Boyega, Pacific Rim: Uprising finally has its first trailer- let’s take a look. 

Week of Review - Wolverine & the X-Men

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The late 2000s were an unkind time for the X-men franchise.  Specifically, I’m talking about the film side of the X-Men offerings as the comics were actually fairing really well back then.  The movies had completed their trilogy with the spectacular failure that was X-Men: The Last Stand and moment was quickly slipping away from the series as the decade dwindled.  Meanwhile, in the comics, the X-Men had undergone a radical reinvention since the events of the 2005-2006 stories House of M and Decimation. 

Mutants were suddenly an endangered species with barely 100 left alive, Cyclops had become a militant mutant leader and founded his own rogue nation in the San Francisco Bay called Utopia.  Even the Ultimate Comics line was in a fit of bizarre storytelling under the banner of Ultimatum, a mega-event where Magneto killed most of the Ultimate superheroes including Xavier, Cyclops, Captain America, Wolverine and more.  It was a strange time and Wolverine and the X-Men really reflect that particular strangeness.  

Week of Review - Mutant X

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A key evolution of the modern age of superhero blockbusters is that more and more the story of a film has become the story of the film’s behind the scenes drama.  Whether it’s the corporate mismanagement of the Amazing Spider-Man films, Josh Trank’s prima donna antics on Fant4stic, or the family tragedy & directorial scarpering of Justice League the behind the scenes stories are now the stories of those films.  

The oldest and largest looming example of this is the Fox/Marvel feud, a war between companies that’s raged for well over a decade.  The two absolutely loathe each other, to the point Marvel has canceled publishing Fantastic Four comics because Fox owns the movie rights and Fox, in turn, was willing to waste everyone’s time and money with Fant4stic.  But where did all this animosity come from, what’s the origin of their feud?  Well, it all goes back to a little show from 2001 called Mutant X- let’s dive in. 

Week of Review - X-Men: Evolution's X-23

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It’s day 3 of X-Men week here on the Lido Shuffle and time to address the BEST X-Men show ever made: X-Men: Evolution.  Premiering 4 months after the smash hit that was 2000’s X-Men, X-Men: Evolution was meant to continue the adventures of everyone’s favorite mutants though with a bit of a twist.  The series borrows elements of its aesthetic from the films such as the look of Xavier’s Institute and the more uniform costumes but for the most part feels like a throwback to the ‘70s X-Men stuff rebranded for the modern era, or at least a modern late ‘90s. 

The show focused on the X-Men and Brotherhood as teenagers in high school struggling to balance their lives even as the threats they face grow greater and greater.  It’s one of the most character-driven superheroes shows there is and embodies adolescence shockingly well, comparable to Daria levels of well.  Seriously, I’d be here forever praising it so instead I’ve decided to focus specifically on the show’s most enduring creation: X-23. 

Panel Vision - Mnemovore

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Let’s talk about Vertigo Comics.  Established in 1993, Vertigo was intended to be a mature readers imprint for DC Comics as a way to capitalize on the growing adult comic reading marketing.  It’s had ups and downs in its history but, by in large, it has been an enormous success spawning numerous best-sellers and massively popular works that have been adapted into several mediums such as Hellblazer, Fables, Preacher, Lucifer, V for Vendetta, and iZombie.  One of the imprint’s major focuses has turned out to be horror, mainly because that was the easiest genre to turn into R-rated comics back during the ‘90s. 

Since then they’ve consistently put out of some of the most frightening and well-considered horror comics in the medium.  One such miniseries has stuck with me since I read it and now that Channel Zero: No-End House has started hitting on a lot of similar plot points it’s the perfect time to dust off this old chestnut: let’s talk about Mnemovore. 

Week of Review - Generation X

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In 1991 ­X-Men volume 2 #1 came out and became the highest selling single issue of all time.  It was a huge milestone for Marvel comics as well as the entire decade, cementing the ‘90s as a time for comic book opulence and speculator driven sales.  More pertinently, it was the comic that launched the X-Men from a popular franchise into a moneymaking juggernaut that would dominate the next half of the decade.  Within a year Marvel had partnered with Fox to produce X-Men the animated series and its toy line, one of the most successful brand exercises in the entire superhero genre. 

Of course, this kind of success can’t last forever and by 1996 the X-Men were a lot less stable a franchise.  They were still producing hits, like that year’s Age of Apocalypse story, but the writing was very much on the wall for them and for Marvel, with bankruptcy right around the corner.  Still, they managed to produce one last hurrah for the X-Men franchise in 1996 with a live-action pilot film for a proposed X-Men TV show: Generation X. 

Week of Review - X-Men: Monster Armor

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It is X-Men Week here on the Lido Shuffle, specifically because this is the week Fox’s new series The Gifted premieres.  Even though The Gifted is a Monday premiere I’ll be spending the whole week looking at the history of the X-Men on TV starting with the show that started it all: X-Men, the animated series.  Premiering in 1992, X-Men paved the way for a massively profitable decade of Marvel TV adaptations and set the precedent for the initial run of films that are beloved by people to this day.  

It’s also one of the most popular animated series ever made and more or less a direct transliteration of the comics so I don’t have a lot to say about the show proper, which is why this is an Extended Toy Box entry.  The X-Men animated series tie-in toy line lasted a staggering 7 years passing through a ton of variations and unique threads and today I’m spotlighting one of the coolest ones: Monster Armor.