Haven’t heard from SomeRandomGuy in a while. Fortunately, he’s released another Marvel v. DC video featuring the fall-out from this summer’s movie battle.

While 20th Century Fox wanted to screw Warner Bros on the release date of the Watchmen movie, hoping for a mid-2009 court date, U.S. District Judge Gary Allen Feess set January 6, 2009 as the day for opening comments.  This still give Warner Bros. time to meet the March release date.

Feess indicated Tuesday that the case was not suitable for preliminary injunction and that the issues were too complex to be resolved on an interim basis. The judge had already indicated that he wants the case to move quickly, asking the two parties previously for expedited discovery.

With a January court date, this could be a move that favors Warner Bros.

via Variety

It appears that the Tiny Titans series is a success (10,636 for July), so why not take it to the next level and bring the big guns into the game too?  Enter DCU: Elementary.  The good guys and the bad guys hanging out in the hallways of elementary school.  No release date announced yet, but the pictures sure look purdy.

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There are very few event tie-ins that would be able to exist on their own. Not surprisingly, many are so heavily dependent upon the main event that you are left with only two options; read on in ignorance, or buy more and more tie-ins. However, you occasionally get a tie-in that is well written, apart from the main event, and carrying all the gravitas and import due.

Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins Rogues’ Revenge is one of those comics.

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I’m sure many of you have been wating with baited breath on word of the Warner Bros./Fox Watchmen lawsuit in which Fox is trying to stop the release of the film, claiming it still owns the rights to movie.  It’s kind of funny when big companies start brawling with one another.  When Cox got a slap on the wrist from the FCC for downgrading Internet service for those “exceeding the limit”, Cox responded with, “we’re only doing what everyone else is doing, so why should we get in trouble?”

In order to clear their name, Warner Bros, is claiming Fox sat back while producer Lawrence Gordon shopped the project around from studio to studio with Fox knowing what was going on every step of the way.  This is my whole problem with Fox’s claims, too.  The company has known for at least a year the film was in production and did nothing at the time, it’s only when the film has the hype machine behind it, and looks to be as successful as The Dark Knight in box office returns did Fox reps try anything.  In order to help its case, expect Warner to drag other studios into the fight.

Friday’s filing makes it clear that not only Mr. Gordon, but also Paramount, Legendary and even Universal Pictures can expect to be drawn into the fray. Universal had tried to make a version of the film in 2001, before Paramount took over. And though Paramount dropped its plans for the movie, it became involved as a partner when Warner teamed up with the director Mr. Snyder in the wake of the box office success of “300.”

I’ll say it again, someone’s looking for a payday in all of this, and it is the company who’s Simpson’s Movie didn’t do too well.

via New York Times

Or - “Hmmmmmm…”

I don’t think I’ve been in any way coy about my feelings for this series so far.  There have been some well-done issues of JLA since the relaunch (most of them under Dwayne McDuffie) but overall, I’ve been sorely disappointed in the quality of the book overall.  I’m not a fan of the pencillers they’ve been giving us, and a lot of good plots have really gone nowhere.  One of the longest back-burner arcs to date has been the story of Vixen’s powerset change, but it’s about to come to a rapid boil, and <insert hot joke here!>

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Or - “Not Nearly As Innocent As She Looks…”

The post-Five-Year-Gap stories of the Volume Four Legion get, I think, short shrift in LSH history, for a lot of reasons.  It was really the first proto-reboot of the title, pushing the team forward in time, forcing us to learn, issue by issue, what had happened in the missing years.  It gave up on the colorful costumes and superhero codenames, and delved much deeper into the corruption that some would say always exists at the heart of a bright and shiny society.  This period of Legion history is one known for a looser team ethic, a more catch-as-catch-can philosophy, and in some cases, a complete disregard for the legal niceties of the United Planets.  That’s where this week’s entrant comes in…  Born of a planet of notorious thieves, she joined the Legion almost by accident, but once there, became one of the definitive characters of her Legion’s era.  Smart, funny, perverse, mean-spirited, and cute as the dickens, she perfected the art of needling her opponents by first torturing her friends and teammates.  This, then, is your Major Spoilers Hero History of Brita An’nan of Sklar…  Kono!

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Or - “Time, See What’s Become Of Me…”

Geez, where in the hell have *I* been?  Turns out, much like your missing keys, I was between the couch cushions the whole time.  In any case, it’s review time (or, as the French might say, “rev-WAH”) and we’re ready (though somewhat later than the rest of the world) to touch on the series that has made me look forward to Final Crisis, in complete disregard for my usual feelings on company-wide crossovers.  If you’ve ever been to the site before, you’re probably aware that I occasionally peruse a Legion of Super-Heroes title.  Now, the original Legion, the one that started it all back in ‘58, is back in the spotlight, but the question might be, where have they been and what in the 3 worlds have they been up to?

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Long loved cover artist for Bill Willingham’s Fables series, James Jean, has decided to end his run on the series.

“This is a difficult email for me to write. Don’t worry . . . as far as I know, I don’t have any tumors or crippling neuroses, and my taxes are in order. But I feel like I’m breaking up with the prom queen on prom night, after having dated through grades 6 - 12. Feeble analogies aside, it has been an amazing opportunity to work on Fables these past 7 years (8 this October). But I feel that it’s time to devote myself full-time to painting and personal work. Shelly and I talked yesterday, and my last cover will be 81, at the end of the story arc. It has been a true privilege to work on a team that has produced such great chemistry on paper, and to have been a part of such an important book that has entertained and drawn together so many people”

Jean says he will now move on to personal projects as his full-time job.  Even though his art was never on the interior of the series, those wonderful, wonderful covers caught my eye month after month, making it easy to separate Fables from the rest of the issues on the stands.

via James Jean

Smallville: The Complete Seventh Season arrives September 9, 2008 from Warner Home Video, and in addition to all the episodes (Laura Vandervoort and Kristin Kreuk in HD WOOT!), the DVD collection includes several special features including Supergirl: The Last Daughter of Krypton, and Jimmy on Jimmy.

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Lots of violence in this clip, so beware.

According to an interview at the Wall Street Journal, the Superman franchise is going to get a complete reboot ala Ang Lee’s Hulk movie.  But this time Warner Bros. is actually taking something away from the big summit it had with DC and some of its creators and the recent success Marvel has had with its properties.
According to the interview with Jeff Robinov, Warner Bros. plans on releasing at least two tent-pole films a year based on DC characters.

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Or - “What’s REALLY In A Name?”

If you were to go to the dentist, open the door, and find a nameplate that reads “Dr. Hiram Rippedflesh, DDS,” you might consider postponing that appointment, right?  And, say,  if the first officers to respond to your call for help were Sergeant Lunatic and Detective Disemboweler, again, you’d probably have second thoughts about your situation, yes?  I imagine that general feeling is roughly how the Legionnaires must have felt when confronted by a girl choosing a nom de guerre that originally hung on one of the worst threats the team had ever faced, a murderous inhuman creature that nearly cost Brainiac 5 his mind, that came close to killing the second Invisible Kid, that DID KILL one of Triplicate Girl’s selves.  What possible reasoning could there be behind such a name, you ask?  How about “It just sounds cool!“  The 1990’s were a brave new world for the kids of the LSH, and few moments are as emblematic of that move away from history and into the bright and shiny future’s brighter and shinier future-er than the induction of today’s Hero History subject…  Once just a cute kid sister and plot device, she grew into a leader among the team, and a respected Legionnaire in her own right.  This, then, is your Major Spoilers Hero History of Danielle Foccart of Earth…  Computo!

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Batgirl is joining the forces of good in the upcoming LEGO Batman game from Lego and Warner Bros.  The Gotham Heroine arrives in the game in September.   Does this mean we’ll get a Batgirl mini-fig in future LEGO sets?

More pics after the jump.

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Or - “I Can Has Flight Ring?”

There are many subtle differences between the comic publishing industry in 1958, when the Legion debuted, and 1991-ish, when the ‘Legionnaires’ comic was published.  Aside from the obvious post-modern, technological blah dee blah, the major factor that separated the 90’s from the 50’s in comics terms was the existence of the X-Men.  The 600 pound gorilla of the comics world, our boys and girls in blue and gold caused rampant changes to nearly every comic book title extant, in the hopes of catching some of that proverbial ‘phat cash.’  Today’s H.H. subject is one of the characters who really shows that influence, for good or for ill, as the 30th century’s take on Wolverine, himself influenced by Legionnaire Timber Wolf. (Of course, Logan then influenced Wolfsbane and other feral hero types, who in turn influenced this character.  Can anybody say “Ouroboros?”  No?  Me, neither…)  Regardless of her roots, though, she’s more than just a T-Wolf stand-in, acting as a change of pace in character terms, much as her teammate Dragonmage did in terms of powers.  Driven by her instincts, motivated by her whims, she represents something unusual for the Legion: the animal perspective.  This, then, is your Major Spoilers Hero History of April Dumaka of Earth…  Catspaw!

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