Ur W33K 1N G33K (March 14 – 20)0

by A.J. Focht

Welcome to the first extra-long con edition of Ur W33K 1N G33K in 2012. Wonder Con kicked off this year’s convention season this past weekend in Anaheim. News from all corners of nerdom was announced at the event, or in press releases leading up to it. Major players from across the geek world showed off what they have in store. Several first previews of upcoming movies, shows, and comics were revealed, and the creators were very talkative during the panels. For anything not covered here, you can check out ComicBooked’s excellent Wonder Con 2012 wrap up.

The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb talked about his choices for the upcoming Spider-Man movie at Wonder Con. During The Amazing Spider-Man panel, Emma Stone, who plays Peter Parker’s love interest Gwen Stacy, may have said a too much. Stone started into the tragic comic book death of Gwen Stacy. As the topic started to drift from Gwen’s story in the comic to the movie, Marc Webb interrupted and changed the topic. His abrupt interruption has given rebirth the rumor that Gwen Stacy will die in the film similar to how she died in the comics. Sony has also released a viral marketing video for The Amazing Spider-Man that includes Captain Stacy giving us the run down on what a dangerous menace the Spider-Man can be.

Speaking of superhero rumors, a controversial image has hit the web that claims to be the first poster for the upcoming Wolverine movie. The image’s origins are unconfirmed, but the original posting was taken down at the request of Twentieth Century Fox.

The first teaser image from Arrow, the upcoming Green Arrow show on the CW, has been released. Three time Oscar winning costume designer Colleen Atwood designed the Green Arrow’s suit. The pilot’s director, David Nutter, also talked about his goals in making Arrow darker and edgier than the Smallville pilot, which he also helmed.

Brian K. Vaughn’s new comic Saga premiered last week, and now his comic series Y: The Last Man, is making headway on becoming a movie. Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia have been hired to write the new script. There has been talk of this series becoming a movie for a few years now so let’s hope that this script is good enough to stick.

Everybody’s favorite super villain is coming back for an encore. Despite Joss Whedon’s crazy schedule recently, he has announced plans to work on Dr. Horrible 2 this summer. No more is known about the project at this time.

The newest trailer for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter premiered at Wonder Con. While promoting the undead slaying President, screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith talked about his work on the upcoming Beetlejuice 2 script. The good news is there will be none of this reboot nonsense. It will be a direct sequel with Michael Keaton reprising the title role.

“The thing that Tim and Michael and I all agree on, and is most important for me is, I don’t wanna be the guy that destroys the legacy and the memory of the first film; I would rather die. I would rather just not make it, I’d rather just throw the whole thing away than make something that pays no respect and doesn’t live up even close to the legacy of the first film,” said Grahame-Smith.

While Grahame-Smith is all about treating classic works with respect, the same can’t be said for everyone in Hollywood. Michael Bay has decided to lay his taint on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I don’t normally complain about Bay, unlike so many others. However, Bay has now decided to take it upon himself to change the history of the beloved human size reptiles. He’s dropping the mutant and making them aliens. No one knows what other changes he has in store. Not mutants? Not turtles? But we shouldn’t worry because he assures us that they will be ‘edgy, funny, and completely loveable.’

On a brighter note, the long awaited sequel to the Avatar: The Last Airbender series has received an air date, and it’s just around the corner. The Legend of Korra will start on Saturday April 14th at 11 AM on Nickelodeon.

The Legend of Korra wasn’t the only thing to get a solid release date last week. After a decade long wait, Diablo 3 will be released on May 15. While Diablo is the first in line, Blizzard also plans on launching expansions for the Starcraft and World of Warcraft series this year. They have also recently changed the WoW Scroll of Resurrection service to offer past players a free upgrade to the Cataclysm expansion, a free level 80 character, a free realm transfer, and other perks for coming back to the game.

Finally, female geek icon Felicia Day is set to guest star on an upcoming episode of Supernatural. Besides showing up on every geek show in the verse, Felicia Day has also launched a new YouTube channel with other nerd idols like Wil Wheaton called Geek and Sundry. The channel will feature nerd programming like: The Guild, Flog (Felicia Day’s video blog), Table Top (table top / board gaming with Wil Wheaton), Dark Horse Motion Comics, and so much more. Geek and Sundry launches April 2nd.