News (page 20)

New ‘Voices of Krypton’ magazine with exclusing Crisis on Two Earths interviews

Voices of Krypton is a new magazine “devoted to superheroes on film and TV.” The premier issue features a special look at the animated Justice League including a look at all 52-episodes with producers Bruce Timm, James Tucker, and Dwayne McDuffie.

Their website has an exclusive chat with the writer (Dwayne McDuffie) and the cast of the upcoming Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths DVD feature film. They talk to  William Baldwin (Batman), Mark Harmon (Superman), James Woods (Owlman), Gina Torres (Super Woman), and Christopher North (Lex Luthor).

McDuffie commented on the nature of the second Earth.

“There are so many different continuities for all of the characters in the comics over the many years, that we’re sort of used to seeing Batman and Superman in different contexts, which is fun,” says writer Dwayne McDuffie, “but a lot of it, in this particular case, is seeing what the world would be like if they weren’t good people. They have enormous power and there are almost no checks on their power. We dealt with this on the Justice League TV series, where they went to a parallel world where the Justice League met parallel versions of themselves [the Justice Lords] who had decided that the way to get rid of crime was to control everything and had maybe gone too far in that direction. In this case, they’re meeting not direct parallels of themselves, but people who sort of take those same positions. You’ve got Owlman instead of Batman, Ultraman instead of Superman, and Super Woman instead of Wonder Woman. They’re completely different people who have chosen to use their power for personal gain.”

Voices of Krypton is available now and costs $12 with US shipping and $20 with international shipping.

It must be the week for rumours, now its the JLA movie

Mike Scott, writing for the Time-Picayune, describes how a New Orleans studio is in negotiations to be the shooting location for the new Green Lantern film. The exchange rate of the US dollar has hit the financial advantage of filming in Australia which is where Green Lantern was going to film and was where Superman Returns was filmed.

Towards the end of Scott’s article he states that,

Green Lantern is expected to be the first in a trilogy of films focusing on D.C.’s Justice League heroes  –  the others being The Flash and Wonder Woman –  before uniting all three with fellow League members Batman,  Superman and Aquaman for a Justice League movie.

We’ve known that the three character films have been in the works for a while with various writers and directors being shuffled on and off staff and we obviously know about the abandoned Justice League film. The interesting information here is the strategy of spinning the individual films towards an eventual JLA film, similar to Marvel’s approach with the Iron Man, Hulk, and Avengers films.

This may just be the Scott over stating the current situation (he doesn’t name or mention a source for that particular rumour), however, there is a different rumour about casting for Green Lantern. It might feature a Superman cameo, albeit a rather low key one.

The Flash movie is said to be still progressing. Director Charles Rovin has pushed for a Flash film at WB, but he recently told IGN that,

“I was involved at one point with The Flash,” Roven informed us. “And Warner Bros. came to me and said, ‘The work that you’ve been doing hasn’t yet resulted in something that any of us, including the filmmaking team, feel could be greenlit as a movie. We’re trying to accomplish something that takes into account the entire, rich DC character world, and we’d like to pull it back. That doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to be a part of it. We just want to take a different kind of approach. Do you mind if we try that?’”

The emphasis is mine. If Superman does cameo in Green Lantern and if Roven is correct about the “rich DC character world” it could signal that Warner Bros. are seriously thinking about producing films in an integrated universe and that would certainly make a Justice League film more probable. And this all feeds into DC Entertainment which was created around DC Comics just so that it could leverage this type of movie deals. Nevertheless, I suspect that we’ll have to wait to see how successful Green Lantern will be before DCE’s strategy for future films is revealed.

[Via MTV's Splashpage]

Jim Lee on a JLA book?

Take everything that follows with a liberal dose of “I’ll believe it when I see it.” For sometime there have been rumours that Geoff Johns and Jim Lee are going to collaborate on a Justice League story or title. As usual these rumours come from Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool. The latest incarnation involves a question asked to Lee at a convention. From Bleeding Cool…

Jim Lee was asked by a fan during his panel at the Wizard World Big Apple Comic Con if he would be working on Justice League in the next few months. Lee replied “wouldn’t that be awesome” before saying with a glint that it would be “foolish, foolish” to suggest that a late artist such as himself be given a book with many characters in it, before mentioning that it was very cool now that Hal Jordan and Barry Allen were back… before drifting off and repeating “wouldn’t that be awesome?”

Least we also forget that Lee is now free on his executive obligations at Wildstorm so has time, in a relative sense, to spend on drawing comic books. Unless, that is, he gets hired back as DC’s Publisher (another rumour).

This puts me in mind of another question that was put to Geoff Johns at CBR about his post-Blackest Night work.

[CBR: ] Schluffy wants to know if you’ll be returning to “Action Comics” or any of the other Superman titles after “Secret Origin” is complete?

[Geoff Johns: ]I will not. My stint on Superman ends with “Superman Secret Origin.” The guys have a lot of big plans ahead, but I am going to be focused on the Flash and Green Lantern. Gary Frank and I are moving on to a different project.

So Johns is rumoured to be writing a JLA project with Lee and he’s admitted to another undisclosed future project with Gary Frank. I’d love it if those two things were actually the same project – a JLA companion title in the same vein as Johns’ Action Comics run (a single writer paired with a succession of distinctive, high-profile artists) with Frank and Lee illustrating the first two arcs. Purely fanish pie-in-the-sky, but we can at least dream.

Updated several hours later to add:

CBR have more in depth coverage of the Jim Lee Big Apple Con panel and reproduce Jim’s quote in full:

Lee was asked about rumors that he’d work on a “Justice League of America” comic book within the next year or two. “That’d be awesome,” he answered. “But it’s taken me this long to finish ‘All-Star Batman and Robin,’ so for me to even suggest that I’d work on something else with more than one character on a page would be suicide. It’d be foolish if I said that–but it’d be awesome if that happened! I would love to do it, but I want to get ‘All-Star Batman and Robin’ done first.”

That sounds far less definite than the BC story, but the self-deprecation aside I still think he could do it if his schedule was clear enough.

JLA Solicitations for January 2010

The JLA covers for 2010 have already been released and now Newsarama has a preview of the Solicitation blurbs. The final paragraph of the JLA #41 solicitation (below) is interesting – it means that the group pin-up we’ve been shown several times isn’t the actual cover. I suppose that its not too surprising given that DC used multiple covers for the launch of Brad Meltzer and Dwayne McDuffie’s runs. It’s also interesting that Cry For Justice will run for a further issue alongside the main title.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE #6
Written by James Robinson
Art and cover by Mauro Cascioli
After a shocking loss, Prometheus reveals an even greater threat to the team than they thought possible! How will this new crisis change the face of the DC Universe? Find out in the penultimate chapter of this groundbreaking miniseries event!
On sale January 27 • 6 of 7 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #41
Written by James Robinson
Art and covers by Mark Bagley & Rob Hunter
Be here for the start of a new Justice League era! The JLA have been getting a pounding in the last couple of months, but NO MORE! The team regroups with a new roster that will transcend time and space! Make way for the World’s Greatest Heroes – Batman, Green Lantern, the Atom, Green Arrow, Donna Troy, the Guardian, Cyborg, Mon-El, Starfire, Dr. Light and, yes, Congorilla!
This issue features two covers by Mark Bagley which are seperately orderable. Cover A features Green Lantern and Green Arrow; Cover B features Batman and Mon-El. The cover images will be revealed online before the issue’s Final Order Cutoff date.
On sale January 20 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US

New JLA 80-Page Giant ships today

This Wednesday, or today if you’re reading this on Wednesday 30th September, sees the release of a new Justice League eighty-page giant. The all new JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 80-PAGE GIANT #1 is written by Chuck Kim. Comic Book Resources have an interview with Chuck Kim about the new story,

CBR News: How did you get involved in this project? Was this a story you pitched, or did DC come to you?

Chuck Kim: DC came to me. [Editor] Eddie Berganza pitched me on writing part of the issue. Without revealing too much, it’s a very classic Silver age-y story concept, which are among my favorite sort of comics to read. I love stories with scads of characters, and this one definitely has that. So I jumped at the chance. Eddie’s been very good to me over the years, and we’ve remained great friends since we were both working together in DCU editorial. Plus, he always puts out great stuff and really allows his creative teams a lot of freedom. So when the stars align and we have the chance to work together, I’m always very eager to do so.

The DC Solicitation for the story describes it as:

Written by Chuck Kim, Josh Williamson, Rich Fogel and others; Art by Mahmud Asrar, Adrian Syaf and others; Cover by Jay Anacleto

With a tale this massive, we could only fit it in an 80-page giant! When a battle between Epoch and the Time Commander spills over into our era, the Justice League finds itself scattered throughout time. That leaves Superman and Dr. Light fighting alongside a tornado-powered Samurai, Green Lantern and Red Arrow locked in a showdown with Cinnamon in the Old West, Green Arrow and Firestorm facing the Bride of Frankenstein in WWII, John Stewart and Vixen drawing swords alongside the Shining Knight, and Black Canary and Zatanna evading gangsters with the original Crimson Avenger!

Reintroducing the classic, extra-sized issues for a whole new generation, this special issue features the writing of TV’s Chuck Kim (Heroes) and Rich Fogel (Batman Beyond, Justice League) along with writer Joshua Williamson (Dear Dracula) and artists such as Mahmud Asrar (Dynamo 5) and Adrian Syaf (BLACKEST NIGHT: BATMAN)!

There is a PDF preview on the DC website.

I must admit that this one slipped under the radar for me – what with all the fuss about Cry for Justice and the changing creative team – but it does look a lot of fun.

The original 80-Page Giants were special anthology like issues that contained reprints of old stories – this was back before there was a trade paperback market. DC revived the format about  a decade ago for one off anthology specials containing new material, but there haven’t been any for a while now.

JLA #38 previews and Robinson interview at CBR

JLA #37 is on the stands (I’ll post a review in the next few days) and DC has begun the PR onslaught for JLA #38, the start of James Robinson and Mark Bagley’s tenure. The DC website has released preview pages for JLA #38, but there are (minor) spoilers contained therein. There will also be a variant cover by Andy Kubert.

jlav2-cv38-variant-bw-copyJLAv2_38_6p_prev.qxp

All the preview pages can be found on the DC Source Blog. With respect to the relative timeline of this, JLA #38 occurs before Blackest Night, but after Cry For Justice. That particular League (Vixen, Dr Light, Red Tornado, and Plastic Man) are the group Len Wein used for JLA #35-37, his bridging story between Dwayne McDuffie’s run and James Robinson’s run.

To coincide with the release of the preview Comic Book Resources have a new interview with James Robinson where he discusses the new League roster (revealed in an advert last week).

[CBR] So, James, will the formation of your JLA roster start to take shape in your current ongoing miniseries, “Justice League: Cry for Justice”?

[Robinson] Elements of “Cry for Justice,” plot points, fall right into “Justice League of America.” As you’ll see in the first issue, “Justice League of America” #38, I basically inherit the old team. That’s already in the aftermath of “Cry for Justice.” And then, we have the “Blackest Night” issues in #39 and #40. And then it’s only after that’s done, in issue #41 in January, where there’s a six-part arc where you’ll see the team come together and form from the various places – the team from “Cry for Justice,” the team that’s in the book at the moment and then obviously some of the new characters, like Donna, Batman and Mon-El. That all leads into a crossover with “R.E.B.E.L.S.” at the end of those six issues, in #45 and #46.

Nice to see R.E.B.E.L.S. getting some exposure. They’ve been facing down a version of the old JLA foe Starro. Robinson’s other comments suggest that there are definite plans for each of the new Leaguers, both in the JLA title, but in the wider DC Universe as well. He also answered the question as to whether there will be a post-Flash: Rebirth speedster in the group.

There will be. Yes. I’m talking to Geoff [Johns] about which one it will be. I just have to make sure that everyone at DC is happy with the choice. But there’s a definitely one I have in mind, and I think you’ll all find it an interesting choice.