On today’s episode, Michael breaks down how Disney/Marvel should approach Robert Downey Jr. walking away from Iron Man due to wanting more money without destroying their universe. Plus, from the words of Batman writer Grant Morrison himself, the life of Batman in 3 minutes. Be sure to click the Like / Tweet buttons to help promote The Michael Show!
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On today’s episode, Michael breaks down the most useless of the holidays and has an idea of two on how to revamp and jazz up President’s Day. Plus, Michael has a tv show pitch involving spotting the gay man, pet food stamps and spoilers from Batman, Inc. #8 involving the death of … (don’t listen to this podcast unless you want this ruined for you). Be sure to click the Like / Tweet buttons to help promote The Michael Show!
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When Kevin Smith favorites one of your tweets…yea, that’s pretty awesome. What is this tweet he favorited? ”Kevin Smith’s Fat Man on Batman makes we wanna do a similar podcast… minus Kevin, add me; minus Batman, add Power Rangers.”
It looks like the wave of Dark Knight-massacre imitators may not have quite reached its end.
A 37-year-old Cleveland-area man was arrested Saturday night after attempting to catch an evening showing of the movie—while carrying a bag that just so happened to contain a loaded gun, ammunition clips, and four knives. An off-duty officer who was working as a security guard that evening noticed a manager talking to Scott Smith. The manager didn’t search the bag, however, so the officer decided to follow Smith into the theater.
“He entered the theater a half-hour early and was the only one in there,” Lt. Ray Arcuri tells the Plain Dealer. The officer “talked to the man and asked if he could see inside his bag. It was a consensual encounter.” When asked about the weapons, Smith told the officer, “No problem. I’ll put them in my car.”
Instead, he was taken to jail, where he is being held without bail and has reportedly refused to speak with police. Arcuri says Smith is married, has a young child, and does not have a concealed carry permit. Police searched his house last night and uncovered eight more guns, gas masks, and bulletproof vests.
Most of the descriptions of Dark Knight suspect James Holmes revolve around the “quiet, smart, loner” variety, but TMZ says police are investigating a bit of a seedier angle.
Someone named James Holmes from Aurora posted a profile on the sex site AdultFriendFinder on July 5. The accompanying photo shows a young man with dyed red hair, matching the description of the arrested Holmes.
At the top of the profile is the question, “Will you visit me in prison?”
In his intro, Holmes says he’s “looking for a fling or casual sex gal. Am a nice guy. Well, as nice enough of a guy who does these sort of shenanigans.” Meanwhile, it appears that Holmes began his methodical planning months ago, about the time he withdrew from a neuroscience graduate program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, reports the Denver Post.
A terrifying tragedy unfolded at a midnight screening of the new Batman film in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado on Friday morning. A masked gunman entered a crowded theater where “The Dark Knight Rises” was playing and opened fire on the patrons, killing 12 and wounding dozens of others.
The attack began at 12:30 a.m., according to an Associated Press report. Take a look through the Storify collection of tweets (below), collected by Poynter’s Julie Moos, to see how news of the shooting unfolded on Twitter in the early hours of July 20.
The suspect in the Denver movie theater shooting, who killed a reported 12 people and injured at least 38 at a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises,” has been identified as James Holmes.
Holmes is reportedly a 24-year-old white American male, the Associated Press reported. The young man opened fire around 12:30 a.m. MDT Friday morning at the Century Aurora 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colo.
Law enforcement officers told ABC News that Holmes was dressed in all black and wearing a bulletproof vest and gas mask.
Moviegoers told the AP that Holmes released some sort of smoke and, at first, they believed the attack was part of the show. He reportedly entered through an exit door at the front of the theater, threw tear gas and then began shooting.
Holmes was not on any watch list that could have alerted authorities that he was dangerous, NBC reported. He also has no military history. Police found four guns at the theater including two pistols, a rifle and a shotgun.
Holmes was apprehended by police in the movie theater parking lot and did not resist arrest.
A San Diego woman who identified herself as James Holmes’ mother told ABC News that she was unaware of the shooting when she first awoke Friday morning and had not yet been contacted by authorities. She did, however, express concern that her son was involved in the shooting.
“You have the right person,” she told ABC News, speaking on what ABC deemed gut instinct. “I need to call the police… I need to fly out to Colorado.”
Holmes had not had any previous run-ins with the law, other than a “minor” traffic ticket in 2011, police spokesman Frank Fania told “Today.”
CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reported that police found Holmes’ residence “booby-trapped” and discovered “buckets of extra ammunition” and some kind of chemical in his home. Police had the apartment building evacuated.
Thus far, Holmes appears to have been the lone gunman.
Comic-Con 2012 is now history and it’s easy for things to get lost in the shuffle because a lot of stuff happens at that show. Below is compiled the biggest announcements of the convention. The news stretches from comics, to movies, to TV, to video games; from Marvel, DC, Image and more.
It started with posters for other Activision games, like the recent Amazing Spider-Man, scratched out with Deadpool graffiti. Wolverine found himself a victim of this advertising defacement as well. Then, at the Marvel Games panel, Deadpool himself crashed, demanding his new trailer be seen immediately.
With Deadpool’s signature multiple-voiced interior monologue, his truly insane way of processing situations, and of course the way he broke the fourth wall to speak directly to his fans, it’s clear that the folks at High Moon Studios aren’t just making a video game starring Deadpool, they’re making a Deadpool Game.
It happens at the end of pretty much every major Marvel story — Avengers vs. X-Men is no exception, and Marvel made that clear at Comic-Con.
Though we already know that the end of AvX brings the dawn of the “Marvel NOW!” era, Marvel announced two series at Comic-Con that tie even closer to the end of the 12-part event: the Kieron Gillen-written five-part AvX: Consequences, with an ominous cover (seen above) that sure seems to point to the death of a major character who may or may not be Cyclops; and A Plus X, a team-up series that’s essentially the reverse of “fight book” AvX: VS.
That’s not all Marvel’s comic side offered this Comic-Con, with announcements including the Jeff Parker-written Hulk becoming Red She-Hulk, and a new Ultimate Comics Iron Manminiseries from Nathan Edmondson and artist Matteo Buffagini.(Albert Ching.)
Scott Lobdell first said at the Young Justice panel at SDCC 2012 that Tim Drake was never a “Robin” and had simply adopted the guise of “Red Robin” upon first becoming Batman’s sidekick, that objectivity was bound to be tested in a big way. Add in that he “was one of the few people to get really close to tracking down who Bruce is” and it seems we’re dealing with an almost entirely new character.
This is some major revisionist history whether you’re for or against it, and appears to hurt what made Tim Drake fundamentally different from the other Robins: he and he alone recognized that Batman needed a Robin, he alone figured out that Batman was Bruce Wayne and he gave up everything by being Robin: his parents, his best friends, and his girlfriend all died along the way.
Taking away Tim Drake’s time as no-adjective Robin, or reducing his initial, natural detective skills, quite simply makes the character a different one from the sidekick, and from the hero that readers grew with for the last nearly 25 years. This may all lead to great stories — everything has potential — but it will need to do it fast to avoid giving long-time DC fans one more thing to be upset about.
The Guardians of the Galaxy movie was the worst kept secret from Marvel Studios this year, but it’s still safe to say it surprised even those who pretty much knew it was coming. After successfully building an Avengers franchise, the studio is showing some real guts by taking the Marvel Universe into the far reaches of space, and headlining a movie with a talking raccoon and a walking tree who can only say “I AM GROOT!”
Read more about the Guardians of the Galaxy and other Marvel Films HERE.
…and looked pretty hot (also for the first time ever).
Rocksteady Studios is developing a new Batman video game for 2014, Variety reports, one that would take place before Arkham City and Arkham Asylum and also feature members of the Justice League.
This is just one of the series of projects that Warner Bros. is developing reportedly in a coordinated branding effort to maximize the Justice League intellectual property and whet audience appetites for an eventual Justice League film.
Varity ties the game it to one of several recent projects — citing efforts including last year’s New 52 relaunch; CW’s fall-debuting Arrow TV series and the Lego: The Piece of Resistance movie, featuring animated Batman and Superman. The Hollywood trade also cites the projects as efforts to prepare the market for what’s next in a world with no more Christopher Nolan Batman movies. Variety calls it Time Warner’s “mandate to monetize its stable of iconic superheroes.”
In addition to a Justice League movie, which Warner hopes will be ready for 2015 (a script by Will Beall is in the “polish” stage), Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green are writingThe Flash, and Michael Goldenberg has been hired to write Wonder Woman. All three worked on 2011′s Green Lantern film.
Though WB execs declined to comment on the article, Variety reports that the studio plans to reveal their upcoming film plans for DC’s characters within the next several months.
Americans may be divided on President Obama’s handling of the economy, but if aliens invade, he’s their guy.
A whopping 65% think Obama would be better at handling an alien invasion than Mitt Romney, according to a new National Geographic poll spotted by the AFP. And for more than a few of them this is a real concern. Some 36% said they were certain UFOs exist; 11% believed they personally had seen one and 20% said they knew someone who had seen one.
The poll was conducted to promote the network’s “Chasing UFOs” series. Other, er, vital findings include that 71% think aliens are more likely to exist than superheroes, vampires, or zombies, and that the Hulk would be the superhero the public most trusts to take on the invaders. The Hulk’s 21% trounced Batman’s 12% and Spider-Man’s 8%.
Sneak peek at Cartoon Network’s Beware the Batman animation series. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and featuring cutting edge CGI visuals.
When DC’s “New 52″ launched last year, the Joker may have lost his face, but that doesn’t mean he’s done tormenting Bruce Wayne.
In October’s Batman #13, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo will kick off a Joker storyline titled “Death of the Family,” utilizing the villain in what DC has announced is a “dark, horrifying, unnerving” way.
The Joker storyline is expected to spill over into other Bat-family titles, as DC revealed that “the grave consequences of his reemergence will be felt by not only the Bat-family, but by all of Gotham City.”
“Death of the Family” will bring back Joker after the character appeared briefly inDetective Comics #1 in September 2011. However, in that issue, the character had his face literally removed at the end of the issue, and has not been seen again in the New 52 universe.
Now that he’s returned, he presumably has a very different face.
“Wait ’til you see him,” Snyder said. “Greg’s sketches literally gave me chills. Point blank: This is Joker like you’ve never seen him before. He has a mission. He has a secret. And he has a serious axe to grind with Batman. It isn’t going to be pretty, but it’s going to be a wild ride.”
The “Death of the Family” storyline will be the first major Joker story within DC’s relaunched universe. The publisher has already confirmed that storylines like The Killing Joke are still in continuity in the New 52, and that Joker did injure Barbara Gordon and kill Jason Todd. But represents the first time he has served as a major villain within a new story for the younger, New 52 version of Bruce Wayne.
“Basically, this is my big exploration of the Joker, my Arkham Asylum or The Killing Joke, only bigger in scope. Bottom line: it’s the biggest, baddest, most shocking Joker story I could tell. This is Joker completely unleashed. He has been away for a full year planning this revenge, watching, plotting, setting things up. And now he’s back. He has his traps set, his knives sharpened.”
Although DC has not confirmed when the rest of the Batman comics may tie into “Death of the Family,” of particular interest to readers would be the New 52 versions of meetings between Barbara Gordon and Jason Todd with the Joker, in the titles Batgirl and Red Hood and the Outlaws.
After a one month hiatus, The Michael Show is back! Not everyone is happy, though, as Michael’s boss, Mr. Cockingstein calls Michael into his office to discuss the future of The Michael Show. Plus, Grant Morrison calls Batman gay, Butt Hole Girl and The Michael Show shout outs from the Oddcast and Langdon Nation. Be sure to click the Like / Tweet buttons to help promote The Michael Show!
Help support the show by doing what you already do: shopping online. Check out The Michael Show’s sponsors HERE,including Adam and Eve and iTunes.
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Catwoman and Bane were not necessarily Warner Brothers’ first choice of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy finale. Instead, the studio had envisioned Leonardo DiCaprio in the role of the Riddler.
“Rises” screenwriter David Goyer recently revealed to Empire magazine that the studio essentially thrust the idea of DiCaprio as the Riddler upon he and Nolan after the release of 2008′s “The Dark Knight” around the same time Nolan was pitching “Inception” to them, in which DiCaprio starred.
WB’s top execs said, according to Goyer: “Obviously it’s gonna be The Riddler, and we want it to be Leonardo DiCaprio.”
In an interesting twist, the DiCaprio proposal — while ultimately unsuccessful for unknown reasons — may have spawned other casting choices. You see, much of the “Inception” cast carries over into “Rises”: Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt — who wasoriginally thought to be cast as the Riddler.
Goyer also revealed in his Empire interview that the ending of “Rises” was conceived at the outset of his partnership with Nolan in the film franchise (via Screen Rant):
“The final scene of ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is exactly [the] scene we talked about [when Christopher Nolan and I started the trilogy with 'Batman Begins']. It remained completely unchanged. We both knew in our hearts that we were onto something special. I have to tell you, having finally seen everything strung together a little while ago and seeing that scene, I got a complete lump in my throat.”
The proverbial lump in the throat — along with other widespread speculation – has had film geeks pondering for months whether Batman lives or dies in “Rises.” No one, so far, has a definitive answer.
While Disney and Marvel were busy shooting “The Avengers” last year, Warner Brothers quietly began getting its own all-star superhero pic back on track, tapping “Gangster Squad” scribe Will Beall to write “Justice League,” based on the WB-controlled stable of DC Comics superheroes.
Warners originally tried to mount a “Justice League” movie several years ago, with George Miller directing from a script by Kieran and Michele Mulroney. That iteration was set to star Adam Brody as the Flash, Megan Gale as Wonder Woman and then-newcomer Armie Hammer as Batman. Back in January 2008, the studio cited a lack of tax breaks as the main reason it pulled the plug on the project, which also needed a rewrite that wasn’t possible because of the writers’ strike.
DC Comics is a vital component of Warner Bros.’ intellectual property, as “Green Lantern” scribes Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green were tapped to write “The Flash” for director Greg Berlanti, while another “Green Lantern” scribe, Michael Goldenberg, was hired to write “Wonder Woman.”
It’s now been one year since DC Comics announced The New 52 — the relaunch and realigning of their DC Universe continuity — and since that time fans have had a lot of questions about the nuts and bolts of the reality.
A new timeline was established that so far maintains the heroic age truly began about five years ago. The World War II heroes of the Justice Society have been removed from the mainstream reality again and inhabit Earth 2. Superman is no longer married to Lois Lane — in fact, he hasn’t even dated her yet. Barry Allen has never dated Iris West, and Batman had four (or five) apprentices in a span of five years.
While several story arcs seem to be progressing quite nicely, there are still new and lingering questions amongst fans. Some are curiosities about what is being set up to be told in the future. Some are genuine concerns and confusion about where continuity stands for some characters and events. Most of the universe was rebooted, but contradictions have been rising and it hasn’t helped that the Batman and Green Lantern histories are apparently largely unaffected by this universal restart.
We were told time and time again that the Bat-books are relatively untouched by the changing continuity of The New 52 DC Universe. The idea seemed to be that most of Batman’s adventures with the Justice League never happened and Tim Drake’s career as a member of Young Justice is non-existent, but they still had their own adventures in Gotham.
Batman Incorporated began before The New 52 relaunch, and theLeviathan Strikes one-shot is said to take place months before all the new issue #1′s, explaining why Dick Grayson has not yet returned to his Nightwing identity and why Barbara Gordon still requires a wheelchair. In fact, Barbara’s physical state means that parts of Batman Incorporated need to take place at least 6 months before Batgirl #1.
That’s all well and good, but readers are getting a bit confused when DC refuses to address the continuity/chronology of the many Robins in the new DCU and creators remark at San Diego Comic-Con that Stephanie was not a Robin, yet Batman, Incorporated clearly says that this part of her history remains true. And while we’re told in the pages of Justice League that the team has not had any new members in the five years since it formed, Leviathan Strikes includes remarks of Metamorpho’s “Justice League days.” Was he a member but only for a short time now? Was he just an associate or consultant on a few cases?
Seriously. What is it? For months now, this shady organization has been present in every issue of Superboy and Teen Titans. It’s a big deal in the new title Ravagers. And yet, nine months into The New 52, we don’t even know what the acronym stands for. On top of that, we don’t know what the group really wants.
N.O.W.H.E.R.E. has an interest in metahuman teenagers and has been forcing them into “survival of the fittest” scenarios. Why? To create some ultimate metahuman army to take over the world? If so, it seems like a waste to just kill the less powerful/formidable teens, surely they would be useful as cannon fodder if nothing else. How long has N.O.W.H.E.R.E. been around and what else is it up to? Is this a private organization or a government project that went rogue?
At SDCC last year, writer Scott Lobdell stated that Superboy was still the creation of Cadmus and that his pre-Young Justice adventures were still in continuity. Yet the new comics have shown this is clearly not the case and N.O.W.H.E.R.E. seems to be responsible for his birth. I say “seems” because in the first issue of Superboy, the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. doctors themselves seem unaware of Superboy’s exact origins and question it. Who’s running this group when they aren’t even sure what they’re working on?
And why would you give Superboy a costume with Superman’s symbol and then act surprised when he realized he must be connected to the famous alien superhero?
You know the phrase “women in refrigerators”? Well, Alex DeWitt was the woman who was literally found in the fridge. A love interest to the Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, she was a very strong, opinionated woman who was essential to helping the young man mature into a stronger hero. And then Major Force showed up and, seemingly for the pleasure of it, killed her and stuffed her in the fridge just to show Kyle that he meant business and was a dangerous person.
Alex’s death has been a major part of Kyle’s character ever since. Her ghost has haunted him (sometimes literally) and it’s not an event he’s ever gotten over. It also made Major Force his first archenemy.
But here’s the thing: Major Force was given powers because someone attempted to recreate the project that created Captain Atom. Essentially, he was the evil Captain Atom, with the same abilities. But in The New 52, Captain Atom has only been around for a few months. and there is no Major Force yet. So… who killed Alex years ago?
The Justice League formed roughly five years ago and Superman made his debut just under six years ago (Action Comics #1 took place six months before Justice League #1, and said he’d been operating for a few months already). We’ve been told that Batman (and Hal Jordan) had been operating as heroes before Superman’s debut and that the world at large was simply unaware.
But just when did Batman begin? If we presume that Dick Grayson became the original Robin after Superman’s debut but before the formation of the Justice League, then Batman was probably operating for at least three or four years earlier (taking into account his solo adventures and the previous timeline). So let’s say Batman has been around for nine years. Well, his son Damian Wayne is 10. When exactly did Batman meet Ra’s al Ghul and Damian’s mother Talia in the new reality? Before he was ever Batman?
Another problem arises when you consider that Batman’s origin is still said to be Batman: Year One. But if that story features the birth of James Gordon Jr., then it must take place almost 20 years ago since James seems to currently be in his late teens, if not older. So has Batman been operating for 20 years now, meaning he was running around for at least 14 years before Superman and the first Robin showed up?
Previously, Barbara “Babs” Gordon was Jim Gordon’s niece (named after his wife, Barbara), whom he adopted when she was a young teenager, after her parents died. A later story implied that Jim Gordon may have even been her biological father. Later on, Mrs. Gordon left and took James Jr. with her. After a divorce, James reunited with his old partner Sarah Essen, who served in the GCPD and was even commissioner for a while. Jim and Sarah were married, but her life later came to a tragic end at the hands of the Joker.
In the new reality, however, Babs reveals to readers that Jim Gordon’s wife Barbara left on her own, leaving both kids behind. What’s more, Babs and Mrs. Gordon seem to be directly related, rather than an adopted parent. And Babs mentions that Jim Gordon “never” remarried. So what happened to Sarah Essen? Did she never reunite with Jim in the new reality? Did they reunite but never marry? And if Babs/Batgirl is the biological daughter of Jim Gordon and Barbara Gordon, then that brings us back to wondering about the timeline and continuity of Batman: Year One and who that baby is that is being born, and is said to be Jim’s first child.
Sometimes, editors and writers appear to just miss something, or perhaps don’t double check with other books. It can lead to a few continuity gaffes. In The New 52, there are conflicting accounts on whether there was or was not a previous group of Teen Titans that existed before the current team. Exactly how much Batman is trusted by the government and law enforcement changes depending on whether you’re reading the Bat-titles, Justice League or Justice League International.
In Flash right now, title hero Barry Allen is meeting the villain Gorilla Grodd for the very first time. This is Grodd’s first encounter with a true human enemy and we can see in the story that Barry is startled to learn that there are gorillas that can talk. He makes it very clear he’s never encountered such a thing before.
Yet “five years ago,” in the pages of Justice League, Barry Allen and Hal Jordan speak very glibly and matter-of-factly about how they joined forces to stop a talking gorilla a while back. Did Barry forget this seemingly memorable case? Was that not Grodd but some other speaking gorilla such as Mallah, or Detective Chimp, or the Ultra-Humanite? All of that’s possible, but then why is Barry so shocked when he meets Grodd and finds Gorilla City? A simple remark could’ve explained this away, such as Barry saying, “Wow, I met one talking gorilla before, but a whole city? Weird.”
It’s been nearly a year and fans still aren’t clear on certain things. The Death of Superman seems like it couldn’t have happened now, but if it didn’t, then how did the cyborg Hank Henshaw come to destroy Coast City? Blackest Night is said to have still happened, but what about all those scenes with characters who no longer exist in the new reality and are now said to be inhabitants of the parallel world Earth 2?
Batman’s “death” and time-exile evidently still happened, and we assume Darkseid was still responsible. But that happened in the pages of Final Crisis. If that’s still true, the events of that story must have been very different since Billy Batson and the other Shazam-characters don’t have powers yet, and since a major part of that story revolved around Barry Allen coming back from the dead — which in the new reality definitely didn’t happen since recent issues of Flash make it clear that Barry has never traveled in time, or to other universes before.
Except that for time when he did in in Flashpoint. Wait, if Barry is aware that he somehow traveled to another timeline at the end of that story, why is he so surprised by time travel and the nature of the Speed Force in the pages of his own comic? Huh.
In September, DC Comics publishes zero issues of the New 52, to celebrate the year anniversary of the revamp. Some books however, it seems, may not make it that far. Justice League International #12 will be the last issue of the series.
An interesting decision as it outsells the like of Suicide Squad, Superboy, Birds Of Power, Green Arrow and more.
The Justice League solicitations point to a rather large revamp however. Justice League finishes an arc saying “A shocking last page that will have the world talking about this special, extra-sized issue!”, Justice League International solicitations tells us “It’s the funeral for ROCKET RED. • Several members resign from the team – who will be left?”
Well no one, if it’s the last issue. The Justice League International Annual #1 features Geoff Johns and Dan DiDio writing, with Jason Fabok on art, picking up plot points from the cancelled OMAC, and tying in with this “shocking” Justice League #12 ending, as well as Blue Beetle #12 somehow.
Action Comics writer Grant Morrison, who is best known for revamping DC Comics’ family of Batman titles, spoke at length about comic superheroes in an interview with Playboy magazine, confirming maybe those Batman and Robin rumors aren’t so far-fetched after all, because the title character is “very, very gay.”
“He’s very plutonian in the sense that he’s wealthy and also in the sense that he’s sexually deviant,” Morrison told the magazine. “Gayness is built into Batman. I’m not using gay in the pejorative sense, but Batman is very, very gay. There’s just no denying it. Obviously as a fictional character he’s intended to be heterosexual, but the basis of the whole concept is utterly gay.”
In fact, Morrison adds, Batman’s “gayness” is actually part of the character’s near-universal appeal: “I think that’s why people like it. All these women fancy him and they all wear fetish clothes and jump around rooftops to get to him. He doesn’t care — he’s more interested in hanging out with the old guy and the kid.”
James Robinson is finally getting to talk about Earth 2, and while he’s not giving much away.
The comic, which Robinson is launching in May with artist Nicola Scott, will tell the story of heroes first emerging on the alternate Earth. It will focus on heroes like Batman, Wonder Woman, and Flash — but the people wearing those costumes may not be the same as the more familiar heroes on the main DCU Earth.
Robinson revealed that:
There’s still not a lot known about DC’s new Earth 2 series set to debut this May, other than the creative team of writer James Robinson and artist Nicola Scott, and that it’s set to star the Justice Society.
Exactly what form this Justice Society will take isn’t yet clear, and on Friday DC revealed a variant cover by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado that features alternate versions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, rather than familiar Justice Society characters like Alan Scott, Jay Garrick and Wildcat.
In January, Robinson gave this Earth 2 tease: “Earth 2 is a world that’s very like our own, but at the same time vastly different. It has known great conflict and danger…a dark menace defeated but at a great cost both to the Earth and to its superheroes of that time. Now, in the present as new menaces emerge to attack the Earth, so new heroes must emerge too, learning to work as a team (or perhaps Society is a better word) while facing these new threats head-on. Who are these heroes? Will their powers include speed, bestial fury, and maybe even green light? Wait and see.”
Here’s how DC described Earth 2 in its original announcement: “The greatest heroes on a parallel Earth, the Justice Society combats threats that will set them on a collision course with other worlds.”
He’s done gangbusters for DC Comics, taking C-list character Animal Man, whose return to the DC Universe from DC Vertigo had been lacklustre at best, and turned him into a surprise critical and commercial hit as part of the DC New 52.
So it’s only natural that DC might tap him for any other bright ideas.
From a well placed source the current tittle tattle around the Batbooks is that Jeff Lemire will write a new series entitled The Robins, starring Damien, Jason, Tim and Dick.
Batman And Robin has recently specialised in featuring as many Robins as it can – but The Robins will do all that but with a lot less Batman.
No mention of Stephanie Brown as of yet. Neither Jeff Lemire nor DC Comics returned emails sent from Bleeding Cool.
“Lego Batman” is really popular; as in, sold over 11 million copies since releasing back in 2008, popular.
While other Lego videogames have performed well – the “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” adaptations – the Dark Knight’s turn with virtual plastic blocks has outpaced them all.
So, it should come as no surprise that Warner Bros. and Traveller’s Tales have decided to create a follow-up game. The fact that the sequel adds more superheroes into the mix – DC heroes, natch – actually sounds pretty great.
Announced by Warner Bros. this morning, “Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes” isn’t only a mouthful of words, it’s also apparently filled with more familiar faces than its predecessor. While the original game allowed you to play as either Batman or Robin, “Lego Batman 2″ will also feature Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. It’s like a mini Justice League – except for some reason this Justice League is eerily mute and made of plastic.
Sometimes things just weren’t meant to be, and you have to move on. Such is the case with director George Miller and his attempt at a “Justice League” film back in 2008. After hiring most of the cast, including Armie Hammer as Batman and Common as Green Lantern, Miller never received the green light to go ahead with production and ultimately shut the project down.
In a recent interview with Superhero Hype, Miller looked back on the film that never was and how that experience led to his love affair with Common.
“You know, John Lennon said, ‘Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.’ Films keep on coming out of my head and I never know what film I’m going to make next,” Miller said. “Common and I were going to work on a ‘Justice League’ movie together. He was cast as Green Lantern and it was almost greenlit when it fell away.”
Miller did not want the end of the “Justice League” film to mean the end of his working relationship with Common, so he offered him a role in the sequel to his animated film “Happy Feet.” “I fell in love with the guy and I called him up and said, ‘You can’t play the Green Lantern, but how about playing a penguin?’” Miller said.
The director attributes the collapse of the “Justice League” film to the Writer’s Guild of America strike in 2007 and 2008, among other reasons. “That was a whole bunch of complex events,” he said. “It was the middle of a writers strike. There was Australian rebate legislation that was required to get the film going. It was just a whole complex series of events. It was no one particular’s fault that it didn’t happen.”
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
In BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #13, Batman’s life is hanging on by a thread. In order to help save him, The Phantom Stranger summons all of the people who have worn the Robin mask in the past, present and in the future. Together, these Robins must restore their mentor back to full health before it is too late.
I love this idea. More than that, I love these pictures and miss Stephanie Brown Robin so much. Excuse me while I squeel like the fanboy dork that I am.
Robins past, current and future from left to right: Stephanie Brown, Dick Grayson (Nightwing), Damian Wayne, Carrie Kelley, Tim Drake, Jason Todd.
