Ur W33K 1N G33K (Aug. 31-Sept. 6)0

by A.J. Focht

Wednesday August 31st marked the beginning of the DC universe relaunch. The first edition of Justice League was released with mixed reviews. Regardless of what the critics thought about DC’s decision to reboot, thanks to healthy pre-orders, Justice League #1 is was the best selling comic of the year before it even went on sale. The first issue managed to sell out in a few days; the second order only lasted another couple of days. DC has now called for the third printing of the comics.

The DC reboot isn’t the only place that Superman’s costume got an overhaul. Close ups of Henry Cavill’s suit from Man of Steel reveal it looks a little like a scaly diving-suit; honestly, if you removed the crest and painted it orange and blue, it would make an excellent outfit for Aquaman. The images are missing the traditional cape, meaning director Zack Snyder is either going sans cape, or it’s going to be done in CG.

While Snyder is making his creative changes, Christopher Nolan is doing his best to root The Dark Knight Rises in the Batman mythos. The most recent addition has been word that Julian “Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle” Temple’s daughter Juno Temple is not just playing a ‘street smart Gotham gal’, but actually Catwoman Selina Kyle’s sidekick Holly Robinson. A corresponding change was recently made to The Dark Knight Rises IMDb, as well.

Over on the Marvel side of things, it looks like there is more trouble for The Wolverine. Mark Bomback (Total Recall 2012) has been called in for rewrites. With the recent director shuffle as well, maybe it’s time they scrap the project (or that could be me projecting my frustration from X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

The recent rumors that Agent Coulson, the recurring S.H.I.E.L.D. agent from the last few Marvel movies, would be meeting his demise in The Avengers have been debunked. With Joss Whedon heading the project, everyone is waiting to hear who gets the ax, but it seem our long time S.H.I.E.L.D. friend is sticking around.

AMC circulated a press release announcing some changes to The Walking Dead. First the good news, the season 2 premiere will be a whopping 90 minute episode. The bad news, the series is going to be introducing the mainstream-style mid season break. The first half will include six episodes, and then the second half, airing February 12th, will have another six episodes. There was also a panel for the cast of The Walking Dead at Dragon*Con 2011 that you can view thanks to ComicBookMovie.com.

For once Star Trek isn’t exploring a new frontier; instead they are boldly going where so many others have gone before, freemium. Star Trek Online is going to be moving to a freemium business model by year’s end confirmed Cryptic Studios. Simply put, the game will become free-to-play with an income stream being generated by microtransactions, similar to what was done by Team Fortress or Lord of the Rings Online.

One last tidbit, Kevin Smith is continuing to push the limits and come up with new ways to experience his movies. Red State is set for release in select theaters nationwide. But this is no ordinary release; the movie will be showing at the same time across the nation on September 25th. This will allow viewers across the country to interact with Smith in real time, and everyone else, via Twitter while the movie is playing. And just like he did during his national tour, the show comes with a Q&A after, streamed online live from Taratino’s New Beverly into all of the participating theaters. Now I’ve already seen Red State once, but you can sure as hell bet I’ll be going just to see such a game changing theatrical moment happen.