NOTE: The individual opinions of each Roundtable contributor are their own, and is not representative of anybody but that contributor.
Chris Columbus to direct Sub-Mariner movie. (Credit: Variety)
Benjamin Nagy: (Nexus reviewer) I really can’t get too excited about the Sub-Mariner movie because, honestly, the best Sub-Mariner stories involve the Fantastic Four and/or Doom. I hate to think what moviegoers unfamiliar with the character are going to think after the first trailer: “Wow, he’s like, Mr. Spock, but he swims!”
Iain Burnside: (your Roundtable host) Yeah, I just can’t understand why they are bothering to make a movie about him when he would be far better suited to Fantastic Four 2 (should such a project ever arise). Then they could get The Rock to play him and all would have been right with the world. I mean, really, if they wanted to make a movie about a supporting character, couldn’t they at least have picked an interesting one, like Hawkeye or Mystique?
Batman Begins teaser poster released. (Credit: Ain’t it Cool News)
Iain Burnside: It’s not really news, I just think it looks frickin’ sweet.
Benjamin Nagy: He looks really, really depressed, as if he lost his puppy somewhere in the Bat-Cave.
Iain Burnside: Naw, he lost Krypto and he’s moping ‘cos he knows he’ll never get back to the top of the Diamond Sales Chart with Supes’ all pissed at him. Either that or he’s just seen his new animated series…
Tim Stevens: (Nexus reviewer and writer of DC News & Views) Can’t it be both?
On a more serious note, I think it looks good. So… suck on that.
Chris Delloiacono: (Editor, Nexus reviewer) Immediately after seeing this poster it became my desktop background. So far, all of the pre-release marketing has been perfect for this movie. Let’s hope the movie holds up its end of the bargain.
“Darker” international Batman Begins promo poster… (Credit: Ain’t it Cool News)
Paul Sebert: (Nexus reviewer) Just an observation I’ve noticed going over DVD Bonus material galleries… but it seems that for some reason Europe and Japan always gets much cooler movie posters than we do.
Chris Delloiacono: The foreign posters almost always are cooler than the American stuff. My favorite film posters are the British quads. I absolutely love the style.
As for the Batman Begins poster, well, when I saw this one, I changed the background on my computer again.
Nick Piers: (ex-Nexuser and general Dude) Gentlemen, start your drooling!
Iain Burnside: *Drools*
Seriously, Bale is going to own this role like Reeve owned Superman, Jackman owns Wolverine and Maguire owns Spidey. Can’t wait!
Mark Millar confirms Dick Giordano will be the Silver Age artist working on Wanted #6. (Credit: All the Rage)
Matt Morrison: (Nexus reviewer and writer of Looking to the Stars) Say it ain’t so, Dick. Say it ain’t so!
Millar also states he will be on the new creative team for one of three revamped Marvel titles – Hulk, Thor, or Fantastic Four. (Credit: All the Rage)
Matt Morrison: Millar also confirms that he is going to be writing all the Superman books for DC Comics and that he is indeed the Lord and Messiah Jesus Christ returned to Earth. Why are we reporting this? Because Mark Millar told us, so it must be true!
Paul Sebert: Hmmm, well I seriously doubt it’s Fantastic Four seeing as how we all know what happened the last time the suits at Marvel wanted to tinker with that book, unless Waid’s decided he wants to move on to another project. That leaves Hulk and Thor. And well… while I imagine a Thor run’s the most likely possibility, I imagine who gets a shot next at Hulk depends largely on fan reaction to Peter David’s arc.
Jamie Hatton: (Nexus reviewer and writer of Diner Talk. Also a Supposed Drunk.) Actually, Waid is off after the latest arc, supposedly, so it could happen.
Iain Burnside: Fantastic Four definitely is getting a new creative team. Waid is leaving after the Galactus arc, apparently. It was announced the same time Bendis said he was only doing one more year on Daredevil. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they just cancelled MK4 and moved those guys over to the main book after all. As far as the others go, I’m quietly confident that PAD will stick around for more than just one arc on Hulk (especially since Marvel are launching what will be a massive trade collection of his first run in 2005), which leaves the oft-rumoured Thor reboot in the sweaty palms of Mark Millar. Here’s an, er, interesting idea – Millar writes, Liefeld draws.
Hey, you know they’re gonna do something together at Marvel!
Chris Delloiacono: I pray that it won’t be Hulk. I will not be a happy man if PAD’s return to Hulk lasts only six issues.
Milla’s take on FF could be interesting.
Terry Dodson receives script for Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #4 from Kevin Smith. (Credit: All the Rage)
Matt Morrison: Now this is suspicious. It’s on record that Smith has had the scripts done for a little over a month or so now. Dodson is just now getting them from Marvel editorial and says that he’ll get around to doing them as soon as MK Knights is finished. And yet, I know I’m going to get another three months of bitching about Kevin Smith always running late when, with the exception of Green Arrow, his artists have been just as responsible for late books. That reminds me: when is Daredevil: Father #2 coming out, Joey?
Jamie Hatton: I thought Nightwing was going to finish the Spid… dammit, I guess we have to stop with the Identity Crisis jokes…
Paul Sebert: What? That’s nonsense… absolute nonsense. Next thing you’ll be telling me that Youngblood: Bloodsport #2 is going to be coming out, or that Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano are finishing up that 30-year-delayed Dracula mini-series… or that CLAMP finally around to finishing X.
Oh and the bit from this week’s All the Rage column that excited me the most… The first season of Gargoyles is out on DVD. Damn, now that this ’80s nostalgia has finally died down, maybe Devil’s Due or Dreamwave could get the rights to that show and make a kick-ass comic.
Iain Burnside: I skipped all that. What is Gargoyles and why should I care?
Paul Sebert: For lack of a better comparison, Gargoyles was essentially Disney’s answer to Batman the Animated Series both in it’s surprisingly mature subject material and it’s cinematic production style. It also had much better production values than most television animation from the time. The basic premise revolved around a group of monstrous looking, but kind hearted Gargoyles who suddenly awaken in modern day New York City, and find themselves at odds with a Lex Luthor-esc businessman named David Xanatos.
While a lesser TV series would have probably played this premise for TMNT-esc silliness, Disney played the series with absolute seriousness and numerous historical and Shakespearian references made the show one of the most literate series aimed at young American audiences. A show that would definitely be on my list of the 10 best animated series of the ’90s.
Dark Horse to release a Serenity mini-series, written by Brett Matthews with an assist from Joss Whedon. (Credit: All the Rage)
Matt Morrison: This just in; Mark Millar said he had the idea first, but decided to abandon writing Serenity in favour of personally supervising the raising of a pyramid in his honour.
Iain Burnside: Millar’s behaviour is beginning to remind me of Invader ZIM.
ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM!!!
Teen Titans, Doom Patrol and Metamorpho co-creator, Bob Haney, passed away on Thanksgiving Day, aged 78. (Credit: Newsarama)
Paul Sebert: Sad news indeed particularly with his greatest creation, Teen Titans being at what might be an all-time height of popularity with the general populous between the animated series and DC’s current title.
J. Michael Straczynski “disapproves” of the cover to Spectacular Spider-Man #25. (Credit: Lying in the Gutters)
Jamie Hatton: Excellent. Maybe when the creators start bagging the ‘pin-up of the week’ covers, they’ll start to listen… doubtful, but at least it’s someone they trust more than the fans.
Paul Sebert: I have a searing hunch that this controversy is a stunt not unlike the “Phoenix” cover image for Astonishing X-Men that suddenly appeared and disappeared from Marvel’s site months before Colossus made his return. I’m sensing Marvel’s trying to get people drawn into Paul Jenkins’ final arc on the book, and it’ll turn out that what we see on the cover is actually Spidey kissing Gwen Stacy in flashback.
Matt Morrison: That would be a great theory except that Gwen never knew Peter was Spider-Man, had a deep hatred/fear of Spider-Man and she died thinking that Spider-Man had killed her father…
Paul Sebert: Dunno… maybe they exchanged the kiss before the death of Captain Stacy, and even then so Peter was too afraid to reveal his identity to her.
Gail Simone extends her DC-exclusive contract for 2 years. (Credit: The Pulse)
Matt Morrison: Bad news for Marvel, Gus Beezer and Alex Hayden. Good news for us Birds of Prey fans.
Paul Sebert: Mmm, I’m kind of torn here.
On one hand I’m glad she’s happy and enjoying her run of Birds of Prey. On the other hand the fact this means it’s unlikely we’ll ever see any more Gus Beezer Specials or the possibility of her having another Deadpool run makes me sad.
Jamie Hatton: I am both shocked and surprised that you guys are referencing Gus Beezer, which I thought was such great, true to form, all ages writing that it was sad it got more than it’s little shot in the pan one-shots. Either way seems that Simone is getting treated well over at DC and Birds of Prey is a pretty good book, from what I’ve been told, so more power to her.
Paul Sebert: To be fair there’s a magazine-sized collection of all four Gus Beezer one-shots available in Target stores. I’m guessing the reason they haven’t received a trade release is that the dual story format used in the book isn’t ideal for smaller digest-sized trades.
DC’s next big event will kick off with an 80-page one-shot, DC Countdown, in March. (Credit: Newsarama)
Paul Sebert: 80 Pages for one dollar?… With a Jim Lee/Alex Ross cover… *drools*
Still, I doubt it will hold a candle to the greatest DC Event Crossover of all time – Young Justice: Sins of Youth.
Nick Piers: Well, I’ll see what happens when it happens. Right now, I’m guessing either Nightwing or Blue Beetle [die], with leanings towards Beetle. If so, I’ll be pissed because I happen to like Beetle. Still, you have three major writers and a lot of good, big name artists on board. According to an interview with a bunch of the writers in Wizard, they have big plans for the DCU for the next three years.
Iain Burnside: Why do these big events seemingly always have to involve killing people? Maybe Beetle was just having a nap and Batman thought he looked kinda cute. I’m going to stop that train of thought right now.
Will Cooling: (Nexus reviewer, writer of Across the Pond and the Comeback Kid of the Week) Yeah, wouldn’t want to provoke Jesse into one of his berserker rages (rolls eyes)
Btw, when did Nick become an ex-Nexuser?
Man you disappear for two months and everything changes (well except said Jesse berserker rages and Daron’s malevolent omnipotence)
P.S. Is it me but should we all beg, steal and pray to find some way, some small way to get Pixar to do the next Superman movie? I mean can you imagine how cool it would be to see Superman handled in the same manner as the kick-ass The Incredibles? Huh?
Chris Delloiacono: Will, I couldn’t agree with you more about a Superman movie made by Pixar. No movie has ever captured the comic-vibe better than The Incredibles. Studios should take note and rely more heavily on computer animation as an avenue to realize films based on comic characters.
First Justice League Unlimited DVD will be released on Feb 15th, entitled Saving the World. (Credit: Comics Continuum)
Paul Sebert: I’m still waiting for a box set collecting the entire first season of the show. Still that’s good to know, and it appears that there’s going to be another collection of Teen Titans coming down the pipeline.
Nick Piers: Why does all the good stuff on DVD have to come out now!?
Iain Burnside: *Waves brand new copy of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King – Extended Edition in Nick’s face*
Why? Because you touch yourself at night!
