Conventions

Legends of the Superheroes coming to DVD

The most unexpected news released to coincide with the New York Comic Con — even more unexpected that the price drop on 22-page $3.99 books — is the announcement that Legends of the Superheroes is being released on DVD.

Legends is the Star Wars Christmas Special of superhero shows – a show of such unimaginable cheesiness that it was thought buried in Warner Brother’s doomsday vault never again to see the light of day. Well under DC Entertainment’s new directive (“For godsake make some money!”) Warner Archive are releasing Legends for the public the judge for themselves.

The official synopsis reads:

Heroes and villains of DC Comics square off in the two-part, live-action, made-for-TV (with a laugh track!) smackdowns of Legends of the Super Heroes. The Challenge: Batman and Robin (Adam West and Burt Ward of the live-action Batman TV series) lead The Flash, Green Lantern and more JLA members against The Riddler (Frank Gorshin reprising his TV role), Mordru, Weather Wizard and other Doom-dealers. The Legion’s ultimate gambit: trick the heroes into downing a diabolical depowering drink! The Roast: Poking fun beats swapping punches when celebrity host Ed McMahon emcees a rowdy rave-up. Who knew DC Super Heroes and villains packed as much verbal wit as physical grit when not locked in mortal combat? These Legends will leave you laughing.

Warner Archive is usually the label Warner Brothers uses for releases of obscure material where the financial burden of preparing DVD extras may not be justified. However, for Legends we’re in for a treat – or trick – as the DVD will include 8.5 minutes of previously unseen SFX shots, bloopers, and the like. They joked on their twitter stream:

We almost literally dug the original 2″ video masters out of the salt cave in Kansas, mislabeled and forgotten. + we found cans of outtakes with unseen footage. whether the footage deserves to be seen is another matter, but then I’ve seen it like 8 times already.

What is even stranger is that this is one of the few instances where you’ll be able to own a DVD with Adam West playing Batman live. The theatrical release that went with his 1960s shows is available on DVD, but the rights for the original Batman TV series are still locked up in an arcane splits between Warners, ABC/Fox, and the producers.

Updated 19/10/2010: Warner Archive have released the box design for the Legends release.

The release date will 20th of October and it will be available exclusively from WBShop.com. [update via: TV Shows On DVD.com]

JLA comics news from NYCC

New York Comic Con is well under way and there are details of future JLA storylines floating out from the various DC panels.

From the DC Universe panel ( CBR / Comics Alliance ):

  • CBR quoting James Robinson: “Out of all that [JLA #50 featuring the Crime Syndicate] we get a new villain, but one of the ramifications for that is that Supergirl in the Justice League will be Dark Supergirl.”
  • The plotline after the Crime Syndicate story will be the Shadow War which is a sequel to “The Dark Things” and picks up the White Lantern prophecy/command for Jade/Obsidian.
  • CBR quoting James Robinson on the “Shadow War”: “You’ll see Obsidian become a really cool hero in a way he’s never done before.” Robinson added that “One of the first things [Eclipso] does i murder the Spectre.”
  • There will be a Congorilla one-shot.

The usual “slips” were evident. Dan Didio let slip that Cyborg will be re/joining the JLA (Comics Alliance) and James Robinson inadvertently let slip that he’s doing a Hawkman series when Ian Sattler actually meant for him to announce his Congorilla oneshot (CBR).

Mattel Starro set unboxing video

This video from the official Matty Collector site shows an unboxing of Mattel’s Starro vs. the Justice League boxed set.

I’m not normally interested in merchandise and action figures – ergo their usual absence from this blog – but that Starro set is really rather cool. Not only does the contents look fabulous, but there is also a special narration button that triggers short descriptions of the characters recorded by Batman: the Animated Series‘s Kevin Conroy.

C2E2 Stable roster and artist rumours

The Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) was held this weekend with the usual round of DC Panels and guests. News continues to surface about future books. JLA writer James Robinson was in attendance at the DC Nation, Brightest Day, and DC Universe Panels.

Future Storylines

There were questions at the DC Universe Panel (CBR) about the make up of the Justice League.  Following the report of the full roster as WC10, Robinson reiterated that

The team you seen in Justice League [#43] will be in place for quite some time. And the stories you see are going to be so big that you’ll forget they’re not the Big 7.

and that the team was composed of

some characters that I had an affinity for, some of the cast of Cry for Justice, and the graduates of the Titans. But for various reasons, some of those characters were taken away from me.

Animal Man will appear in JLA #49.  In addition,

“Vixen will be coming back in a very specific arc” of “Justice League,” Robinson said. Cyborg has a supporting role, but this will lead into a bigger arc. He will get a backup story in “Justice League” #48-50. A farewell scene with Plastic Man was cut from issue #41, but “I have a fondness for the character.”

More Cry For Justice questioning

At the DC Nation Panel (Newsarama) a fan challenged the panel about Cry For Justice. Dan Didio responded that:

No one said we were going all the way away from grim and gritty. I don’t think we’re even really doing grim and gritty. We’re doing drama, we’re doing adventure. Our job is to make people feel things. The fact that you got a strong reaction says that we’re doing our job.

[Personally, I'm getting quite tired of this line from the DC Management. Making people feel something isn't a measure of success unless it's the right feeling. Feelings of loss for the death of a character or anger at a character's actions are deliberately targeted responses. The same can't be said for the anger at poor product and bad characterisation.]

James Robinson continued,

It absolutely is one of the darkest Justice League stories ever done. We did this to facilitate making Star City one of the most distinct cities in the universe. There are reasons for Roy Harper being brought down to where he is and as far as killing Lian, it’s not like I was sitting in my home cackling while doing it. The other thing you’ll find, when J.T. Krul deals with the material, he’s a family man, the way it’s depicted is very heart-felt.

[..]

As my atonement for Cry for Justice, I promise to make Justice League to be big, exciting, epic adventures.

As I noted in my post about the Emerald City Con I think this issue is going to run for the entire convention season.

Artist Rumours

Bleeding Cool reported a rumour that Mark Bagley’s exclusive contract with  DC Comics had come to an end and that he’s been quoted at C2E2 as saying that he’ll be “back at Marvel in six months.” Mark started with JLA #38 and will have done every issue up to JLA #48 including two JSA issues – a 12-issue run which is standard for most artists nowadays.

Whether the artist rumours are true or not I don’t know, but C2E2 was apparently the first time that James Robinson and Mark Bagley met each other.

ECCC 2010: Robinson in “Speedy” save

Seeing the phrase “Star Wars Burlesque” in your twitter stream is a fairly good sign that the 2010 comics convention circuit has begun in style. The biggest news out of Seattle’s Emerald City Comic Con has so far been that Detective Comics has won a GLAAD award for Rucka and Williams’ Batwoman feature and that Boom! have launched a Darkwing Duck comic book (“Let’s get Dangerous!).

Comics Alliance and Pop Culture Zoo have notes on the DC Nation Panel where the opening questioner (Pop Culture Zoo:  “a distraught fan”) challenged the DC panel (include James Robinson) over the dead (“fridging”) of Lian Harper in Cry For Justice.

From Comics Alliance:

James Robinson: “That decision [was] a controversial and one that I know has been greeted with some displeasure by some people… I’m sorry if it upset people. In all honesty, they wanted to kill Speedy too, and I said no, so give me some credit for that.”

Ian Sattler: “I’m happy it upset people because it means that the story had some weight and emotion.”

I wish I was surprised that DC had wanted to kill Speedy off. People aren’t upset because the story had “weight and emotion.”  They’re upset because the story was badly told!

Pop Culture Zoo also noted a comment made later in the panel:

The next big reveal was from Robinson, who said he will be revisiting Opal City with a new Shade series down the road. Asked about an appearance from Jack Knight, he gave no answer. Staying with Robinson, he emphasized that while readers may be upset with Green Arrow’s current direction, the outcome will make everyone happy in the end. Star City will be one of the greatest cities in the DCU.

Nice to hear that the Shade is coming back and that there are plans for Star City. However, I think the issue of Harper’s death and the current direction of Green Arrow is going to be an issue that runs for most of the convention season.

Bristol Comics Expo

Last weekend I attended the Bristol Comics Expo which, so I’m told, is the largest pure comics event in the UK. The first thousand through the door got a special Forbidden Planet goody bag which was nice. Mostly flyers for obscure British comics, but there was also the first and third part of a three-part sequel to Road to Perdition, a City of Heroes trial CD, some nice DC bookmarks and a really cool Hellboy minature figure (one of those that comes in pieces and you have to shove his tail-piece in an amusing place). There were also a few of the left overs from Free Comic Book Day and a fabulous hardbound reprint of Ian Edginton and Steve Yeowell’s The Red Seas.

The dealer room was a fair size with the usual raft of traders I’ve come to expect from the UK comics circuit. Especially welcome was the 40 comics for 10 quid stall. Always the first one to hit whilst building up the skeleton of any run. Unfortunately I tend to pick up most stuff new nowadays so there isn’t that much recent stuff that I need to get as back issues. I also picked up a few back issues of Alter Ego. It’s a nice magazine, but a little too hit and miss for stuff that I’m interested to get regularly, but they’ve recently announced that they’ll be starting cheap electronic subscriptions so I may sign up for that.

I forgot to check the charge on my camera so no photographs, but the Forbidden Planet’s blog has a nice run down with their photos. And yes it does look like we’re waiting to go into a D&D dungeon, but it actually an old railway station building. There were a lot of cosplayers around and there was a noticible increase in the presence of Manga – which isn’t too bad as it displaces the damn collectible card people. And even con has to have Stormtroopers!

There were as many small press stalls and less well known creator takes as there were back issue sellers. The biggest name I saw there signing was Barry Kitson. The DC Panel was hosted by Bob Wayne with guests Kurt Busiek and Allan Heinberg as well as Doug Braithwaite, Brain K Vaughan, Ian Churchill, John McCraig, Lee Garbett, Angy Diggle, and Jock. More on that later.