In brightest day, in blackest night.
No evil shall escape my sight.
The opening words of the Green Lantern oath, but unfortunately for the filmmakers of the movie that hits theaters nationwide today, they lost sight of how to do a decent job of turning a comic book into something worthy of a big screen (and the accompanying big ticket price).
Green Lantern (starring Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Saarsgard, and Mark Strong) hits on a few key elements that have made its comic book counterpart one of the biggest and most popular titles in the DC Universe, but director Martin Campbell along with writers Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, and Mark Guggenheim missed the target overall with their film.
Last week the comic world was rocked as DC announced they were rebooting their entire universe. DC has since released more details, as well as first edition covers. The Batman universe is getting a lot of coverage, with Batman getting three titles: Batman, Batman: The Dark Knight, and Batman and Robin as well as appearing in the first issue of Detective Comics. Other Bat related titles include: Batgirl, Nightwing, Catwoman, Batwing, a long awaited Batwoman, and one of my personal favorites, Birds of Prey. Meanwhile Superman is starring in Action Comics first issue (wearing some farm boy getup) as well as getting his own reboot with Superman #1, both Superboy and Supergirl are getting renumbered in September as well. All of your favorite super teams including Justice League and Teen Titans are being released then as well. All the heroes are getting fashion updates, including Wonder Woman who finally gets a makeover and a pair of pants. [..]
There are so many cool things to read online other than my dribble, so please check out all the neat links of stuff I found interesting this week. Next week, I’ll write about beer. That’ll be fun. You like beer, don’t you? Good. Me too.
This feature in the NY Times Magazine is one of the most captivating stories I’ve read in a long time. The commentary of poverty, globalism, religion, politics, families, and strangers combines into a stunning narrative about the consequences of actions, both big and small. I know, you’re going to scroll down to the end of the first page and think, “Holy fuck, ten more pages, I’m not reading this shit.” But trust me, read it. Print out the pages and carry them with you for reading while on public transit, or late at night while ignoring the awful bile that’s on television, or in the morning while eating breakfast, or in the bathroom while taking a shit – I don’t care, just read the damn thing.
Welcome to your extra long conference edition of Ur W33K 1N G33K!
X-Men: First Class is being widely hailed as the best super hero movie since The Dark Knight, and it ruled the box-office this weekend grossing $56 million. The prequel to the X-Men series may have beat out other current films on its opening weekend, but it doesn’t measure up to any of its predecessors, or in this case protégés. First Class had the smallest opening weekend audience of any of the X-Men movies. Despite all the critics praise, the film appears to have suffered from the sins of its…future, as the past two X-Men movies (X-Men: The Last Stand, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine) nearly destroyed all the credibility the series had built. Still, they’ve managed to win back many of their estranged fans and currently hold an audience rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.
There’s been a collective pants shitting in the comic book industry this week as DC Comics announced that they would relaunch nearly every series this September as a #1 issue, making the content available for download on the same day as print versions hit stores.
Shop owners are crying the death of the industry, and other publishers are trying to play catch-up. Meanwhile, DC Comics is taking a huge gamble on its latest venture. It’s no secret that the company has been playing second-fiddle to Marvel Comics, now backed by the giant Disney corporation, and cleaned house to make room for new executives from a more traditional background that owners Warner Bros. found necessary.
As harsh as it may sound, DC Comics can’t be supported by serialized issues that are sold to only a few hundred thousand costumers, at best, every month. The real money made by Batman, Superman, and all the other beloved characters, is in stupid shit, like T-shirts, movies, action figures, cartoons, and anything else you can slap a logo on to make it appeal to children and nerds.
If you haven’t heard of the comic book series Morning Glories from Image, then you might want to rush to your local comic store and start snatching up issues. A whirlwind success, it’s sold out multiple printings of several issues, and the first trade paperback sold out at comic stores across the country. Moving beyond paper, the series has drawn comparisons to other comic juggernauts like The Walking Dead and Y: The Last Man. Co-creators Nick Spencer (who writes) and Joe Eisma (who draws) only just released Issue 9, but since its release, Morning Glories has been called the next great comic that will make its way to television.
I recently sat down with Joe Eisma to discuss the future of the comic, which is one of the most popular books in recent history.
The release of X-Men: First Class is just days away, marking the second of four major super hero movie releases to come this summer. In a recent YouTube viral video, A Toast To Green Lantern, all the super heroes with their own movies harassed Hawkman as he tries to get his own film. As it turns out, the joke was on the makers of the video as Warner Bros. has a Hawkman movie in the works. The current logline listed on It’sOnTheGrid is:
