Thanks to all those males ages 18-34 who watched the Super Bowl, several exciting-looking action movie trailers have been released recently. Behold:
The Amazing Spiderman
It doesn't look bad, per se, but was this movie really... necessary? I mean, the last Tobey Maguire version just came out five years ago.
The Avengers
Okay, Scarlett Johansson looks fully ridiculous. Couldn't they have at least given her a non-child-sized weapon? Or posed her next to someone other than Thor?
I'm never going to be a Stieg Larsson fan, but I was pleased to see that DC's Vertigo imprint will be handling the upcoming Girl With The Dragon Tattoo comic book adaptation, if for no other reason than I'm pretty sure most other big-name comics publishers would feel compelled to re-design Lisbeth Salander until she looked like a goth beer maiden.
GalleyCat informs me that Charlaine Harris has inked a deal with Ace Books to produce a three-volume graphic novel series called Cemetery Girl. The books will be co-written with Christopher Golden and illustrated by Don Kramer, and they're expected to hit shelves in 2013, the same year that will see the final volume of her Southern Vampire series.
I thought Thor was, bar none, the worst movie I have seen all year, so I'm wondering if my affection for the first Ironman movie will be enough to make The Avengers bearable.
We'll see when the reviews come out, but I have serious doubts.
The Times has posted an article about Scott Snyder, the writer chosen to reboot two key titles in the DC Comics franchise—Swamp Thing and Batman. There are more details on the Batman front than Swamp Thing (although we are promised some Biblical-style plagues), but readers can pick up some big hints on what they can expect from both series: gore, angst... and then more gore and angst.
If you're a Marvel Comics fan with a steady hand and an affinity for baking, it might be worth spending $36 for this Marvel Cakelet Pan from Williams Sonoma. My cake-decorating skills, sadly, are limited to pouring melted chocolate over everything and hoping for the best, but I know there are other comic book readers out there with more creativity.
As we have frequently mentioned, we here at Wordcandy do not enjoy stories that feature suffering animals. That includes allegorical animals, which is why we've never been big fans of Art Spiegelman's Maus. Other people, however, do like Maus, which explains this:
We especially object to animals-in-pain stories that cost $35.
I will never, ever, ever stop finding motion-capture stuff creepy, but I'll probably see this anyhow:
It helps that it's based on a cartoon, so the characters aren't supposed to look super-realistic. I can't believe how comforting I find all those ridiculous noses...
Last week, The Beat posted the cover image for Yen Press's upcoming Twilight: The Graphic Novel #2, and it is, frankly, hilarious. Behold:
It's possible that Yen will shell out for a print job that allows Edward's skin to sparkle, but I'm hoping they leave him just like this: a pasty, gray-skinned, sweaty-looking zombie.
Someone has done a really, really good job mashing together last spring's Watchmen movie adaptation with the new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon.
Did David Kelley's oft-altered Wonder Woman reboot fail to make the cut at NBC? Variety thinks so. Too bad, because I hear the writers had toned down all the Ally McBeal-style fluttering and upped the butt-kicking/name-taking/Truth-lassoing side of Diana Prince's personality, which I was kind of looking forward to watching.
According to The Comics Beat, you can check out Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca’s Eisner Award-nominated comic book Afrodisiac for free. The book is currently between printings, so its publisher has posted it online. (Clearly, they know "free" is the easiest way to court my vote.)
Kevin Keller, the first openly gay character in the Archie 'verse, is getting his own miniseries. According to the New York Post, the four-issue series will
"[Explain] how Keller arrived in Riverdale, where he's become close pals with Archie and the gang. But it will also deal with heavier fare than the typical Archie comic-including how the character struggled with coming out to his parents, and bullying."
Pretty cool, huh? Full props to Archie Comics for keeping up with the times.
According to The Beat, Jeff Smith's trippy sci-fi/noir series RASL is being developed into a feature film. Several things about this idea concern me:
A) The film adaptation of Smith's infinitely more popular series Bone has languished in development limbo for the past several years, which doesn't speak well for his marketability.
B) Smith has only managed to release nine issues of RASL in three years.
C) Plus, none of those nine issues have made much sense, so I have serious doubts about whether or not they could be transformed into a coherent movie.
D) The title... is problematic.
Don't get me wrong: I like RASL, and it's certainly atmospheric and emotionally compelling, but it would require an enormous amount of patience, money, and love to make this sucker into a decent film. Why would Hollywood want to waste that kind of effort when they could be churning out Transformers #17?
If you really, really, really love Jeff Smith's Bone, you might want to start saving your money now. Three new, full-color, one-volume editions of Bone will be released later this year. There will be a slip-cased version available for $150, a $350 "Collectors' Box Set" that will include pewter Bone figurines and a signed, numbered print, and a super-limited (50 copies only) edition that will feature original art by Smith. It will set you back a cool $1000, but, uh, wow. I totally want one.
I'm about three months behind the times, but I finally got around to watching the Cowboys and Aliens trailer, and I have to say, I'm pretty stoked about it:
It was originally reported that Robert Downey, Jr. would be playing the Daniel Craig role, but I'm happier with this casting. I think Downey is currently too closely identified with the tongue-in-cheek glibness of his Ironman and Sherlock Holmes characters to do justice to the taciturn sincerity of a Western role—even if it's a Western with aliens in it.
According to Publishers Weekly's The Beat, Joanne Siegel, widow of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and and the woman who inspired the Lois Lane character, passed away yesterday. Siegel was 93, and spent the past several years involved in a long-running legal battle over the rights to Superman. Joanne and her husband (who died in 1992) are survived by their daughter, Laura Siegel Larson.
I don't know why, but I'm totally excited about this, even though I actually found the beefed-up version of Chris Evans a little off-putting. (Hey, those mega-shoulders make his head look tiny.) Behold:
Here's hoping this description of David E. Kelley's script for his upcoming Wonder Woman TV show is grossly exaggerating things. Or a joke. Or something. Because that just sounds embarrassing.
