DC’s Saturday Morning Cartoons Inspire My Inner Child. She Is 12.

This morning, over on Cartoon Network, publisher DC is launching its DC Nation cartoon programming block, starting at 10:00 A.M. EST. According to USA Today, this programming will consist of

…superhero shows Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice, behind-the-scenes looks at its DC comics and Warner Bros. screen projects, and a series of shorts starring Plastic Man, Doom Patrol, Teen Titans and Aardman Animation’s take on various heroes and villains.

 
We’ve talked about this launch back in November, with the full trailer here. As a die hard fan of The Wrong Trousers, I was the most excited about the Aardman Animation stuff. An extended look at the Aardman Animation take on the DCU has been released:

 
Having watched the Green Lantern cartoon debut last year, this programming block is definitely a reason to get excited about Saturday morning cartoons again. It also makes me wish I could get my hands to stop shaking long enough to draw something that doesn’t resemble a stick figure in the throes of molecular disintegration. If only there was a way to become a cartoon illustrator, without any actual talent beyond the ability to craft a really stellar dick joke…
 
Can technology provide me with the solution to my illustration woes? Find out after the jump!

Avengers Apparently Assemble Earlier In UK Than US

The most recent trailer for The Avengers is out of the United Kingdom, where the movie will be opening on April 26, 2012. Check it out:

I don’t know about you, but I’ve learned that, other than the drinking, I share a lot of other traits in common with Tony Stark. For example, I’m a multi-billionaire that can shoot repulsor blasts from my palms. As far as you know.

The Avengers hits theaters in the US on May 4, 2012. Meanwhile, according to IMDB most of the rest of the developed world will get to see it sometime between April 25-27, 2012.

It’s official, the United States is no longer number one.

Stone Cold Killer – Review Of The Flash #6

The Flash is another one of those books that finds its way into the house that I rarely get around to reading. It’s really Rob‘s thing, more than my own. Not that I particularly dislike the character; hell, I got a kick out of watching him run around the globe in order to pick just the right amount of steam to punch Lex Luthor in the face in Justice League Unlimited. However, my DC superhero tastes tend to run to characters with the word “bat” somewhere in their names and there is no “Batflash”…and if there was it sounds more like a euphemism for an evening of rooftop sex between Bruce and Selina that ends in disappointment.

With Flash issue 6, “Best Served Cold”, I find myself again picking up a book that is smack in the middle of a story arc. And, I do mean “smack” and “in the middle” – as the book opens, The Flash is engaged in an all out brawl with Captain Cold on a frozen lake (? – I always assumed Central City was somewhere out in fly over country), with a boat themed restaurant teetering from a giant stalagmite made from ice that is protruding from the lake’s surface. Will The Flash save the trapped restaurant patrons in time? And why does Captain Cold’s beef with The Flash seem so much more personal this time?

Ahead, prepare yourself for the cold fist of spoilers. Or don’t. Whatever.

He Has But One Life To Give…And It’s Fun Sized – Review Of Secret Avengers #23

Rob got into a text exchange today with Crisis On Infinite Midlives contributor Pixiestyx about the size of our weekly pull list. Rob said “addicts…don’t count”. It’s true. We have a filthy comic book habit in this house, between the two of us, that sometimes results in multiple trips to the comic book store. In fact, just yesterday, Rob and I found ourselves early for a get together with some folks at a bar and you know what we did to kill time? Go to that neighborhood’s local comic book store where, despite having dropped about $120 dollars on Wednesday for the week’s take, we dropped another $80 on books. That’s $80 dollars we could have spent at the bar getting shit faced while waiting for people to show up at the get together. We might need an intervention.

With that many books coming into the house, I’ll fully admit that I don’t always get around to reading everything we buy each week. Sometimes I have to, I don’t know, go to work. So I can pay for more comic books and lights to read them by. Secret Avengers, which Rob has reviewed a lot in the past, no seriously, is one of those books. I read a couple issues of the Warren Ellis run and pretty much agreed with Rob that, dialogue-wise, it felt like a Next Wave retread. Now, Rick Remender has taken over writing duties and, with all of the other books to choose from in the pile this week, I decided to pick up the book on a Part Two of an arc already in progress.

Was this a wise use of my time? Short answer: yes.

Alert – Hawkeye is a dick, and other spoilers, ahead!

Been There, Done That – Review Of Ferals #2

My comics pull list from last week turned out to be heavy on the supernatural. Lots of vampires, even in the cape and cowl books (X-Men #25, I’m looking at you.), magic, and even werewolves. On the upside, nothing sparkled or seemed designed as an excuse to have some former Power Ranger walk around shirtless, and for that I am grateful. On the downside, it feels as though someone in editorial at many of the publishing houses has decided to milk this trend in popular culture until the resultant stories look like Kristen Stewart after she has been even more rode hard and put up wet.

For example, let’s take a look at what turned out to be the best of the lot in this week’s take, David Lapham’s Ferals #2.

Blood, guts, gore and spoilers after the jump.

Bendis On Powers TV Series – “Still Has Some Life In It”

Bleeding Cool is passing along Deadline‘s news that Lucy Punch has dropped out of the much delayed Powers television. Punch was cast as Deena Pilgrim, partner to secretly super powered cop, Christian Walker (Jason Patric). However, according to Facebook, Brian Michael Bendis says:

lucy punch has moved on, powers tv is not dead. if it was i would tell you honest & true. new scripts have been ordered for more episodes & there will be news in may about how we are going forward. the network is behind us all the way. its quite nice. its going to be a long haul but its all about quality. i desperately want the best show we can make.

Fans are apparently pushing for Katee Sackhoff to pick up the role, which I think would be brilliant casting, personally. How do we get a petition going to make this happen?

Anyway, I still have hope we’ll see this series. It will probably hit the airwaves about the next time Brian Michael Bendis sees fit to actually send another issue of Powers out for sale.

Click Your Heels – Review Of No Place Like Home #1

UK creator, Angelo Tirotto, says in the back material of his new book that this story was conceived in March 2009, after watching a television program and being angry “that they had squandered a brilliant idea”. Now, I don’t know about the state of British television in the Spring of 2009, but Stateside that season, for every good program that might have tried to eke out an existence in the choking, murky depths of network television’s prime time schedule (say, Reaper) we were hit with several other series that might have had a shot with better writers, but ended up dying on the sea floor because of poor execution (Crusoe, Harper’s Island, Howie Do It…nah, actually, nothing was saving that one. It just sucked.). But, kudos to Tirotto. Where most of us just take our flaming rants to the water cooler or Television Without Pity, he chose to use his anger for the power of good. He wrote a better story. No Place Like Home is the fruit of those labors.

Grab your ruby slippers. Spoilers and the inspiration for the cover after the jump.

The State Of The Superheroine Addressed

Yesterday on Comic Book Resources, Robot 6 announced that Wonder Women! The Untold Story Of American Superheroines would receive its world premiere in Austin, Texas at the South By Southwest Film Festival on March 10, 2012 at 7pm. According to its official Web site this is a Kickstarter funded documentary, which:
 

…traces the fascinating evolution and legacy of Wonder Woman. From the birth of the comic book superheroine in the 1940s to the blockbusters of today, WONDER WOMEN! looks at how popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation.

WONDER WOMEN! goes behind the scenes with Lynda Carter, Lindsay Wagner, comic writers and artists, and real life superheroines such as Gloria Steinem, Shelby Knox and others who offer an enlightening and entertaining counterpoint to the male dominated superhero genre.

Check out the official trailer after the jump and read on for some separate, but related material, also posted to Comic Book Resources, by Kelly Thompson that questions just how equally men and women are portrayed in the comic book medium.

Never Ending Story – Review Of The Fearless #9

Like some kind of demonic Energizer Bunny, Fear Itself continues to chug along, now in the guise of The Fearless. Sure, The Serpent is gone, Thor is dead and Odin has fucked off for points elsewhere, but Sin, the daughter of the Red Skull, still has daddy issues and she wants them addressed right friggin’ NOW! Damn it, people! Some jerk took her special magically evil hammer that daddy surrogate, The Serpent, gave her and she wants it back. That is her toy and she sure as hell isn’t going to let Valkyrie or anybody else play with it. Nope, not when she can throw a tantrum and have a bevvy of bad guys go do her bidding to go get the hammer back for her.

Hair pulling, slap fights and spoilers, after the jump.

But Will We See Deanna Troi And Amy Pond Mud Wrestle? – Rumor Of Doctor Who-Star Trek Crossover

Bleeding Cool is reporting that IDW will be attending the Gallifrey One convention next week (February 17-19) with the purpose of announcing a Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover comic book series.

Did IDW just get tired of watching Amy Pond and Deanna Troi get it on while Riker watched in other people’s fan fic?

Details Speculation after the jump!