Various Rumblings

“What we’re doing coming out of ‘Final Crisis’, and I’ll say this here, and I’ll say this everywhere is that we’re locking our characters down. We’re going with a good interpretation, and we’re staying with it. That’s why you don’t see Aquaman right now, because we want it to be clear what it is, who he is and what he’s all about.”

-Dan Didio, DC Nation Panel at Toronto Fan Expo

The entire article is pretty interesting, with some topics coming up that the fans needed addressed on at least some small level. And it got addressed on a level a bit bigger than small and after not hearing from Didio for a few weeks now, to hear him come out of Fan Expo with some strong statements regarding how characters are being handled is really nice.

Here's another bit, when a fan asked why DC was constantly second to Marvel in sales:

Didio took the question as an opportunity to address what he thought was one of his company’s problems over the past few years, which in his words was “My problem with us is that we reboot the characters too much."

“What happens is that if a character doesn’t work, we go, ‘We got a brand new direction to put him in! We’re moving him into something new! We’re going to try something brand new and different! We’re going to throw everything out and start over again!’ We make that mistake, but what that does is, it alienates fans.

“Our biggest mistake is that we don’t continue and build on…what we should be doing is let it sit for a while and then come back with a good strong story with what’s going on. That’s what Geoff [Johns] does. That’s Geoff’s secret weapon. He doesn’t throw it all out and start all over. He builds on what’s existed and makes it better…We get too worried about the minutia…all we should be doing is telling great stories with our characters.

And he's exactly right when he says 'all we should be doing is telling great stories with our characters'. It's precisely right and it is why I like Geoff Johns so much.

So, here's big hopes that we're going to be seeing some follow through in the next year on all the great big story lines coming out of DC--and not just Final Crisis. Seeing DC recognize the great characters they already have and attempt to cut out the shenanigans in favor of stronger writing is exactly what the franchise needs, if you ask me. (Not that, of course, anyone officially did.)

And this, kids, is how you properly quote an article. When things get a nice, thorough read, we can see exactly what Dan was talking about!! It's amazing what a little intelligence can get you.

As for Aquaman . . .

All the ladies love him. He took this as proof for Hal.

Moving on, to another panel coverage article, this time from the Fan Expo DC: A Guide To Your Universe.

Didio confirmed there is not one but two weekly series in the works to follow “Trinity,” that James Robinson is working on a “Justice Society of America” project and that Matt Sturges will be penning a villain centric series that will be announced soon.

What what? What? A villain-centric series? Oh? Yes? Will that give us two villain series for me to read?

Yes, yes it will.

Awesome.

While Trinity has definitely been picking up, the idea of two weekly series terrifies me. But I'm going to be a sucker and go for it, I know I will. There is no hope for me here.

The panel also delved deeply into the Flashes, into how there could be room for all of them and more words regarding Bart's status. Personally, if they handle Bart like he should've been handled from the beginning and fix him, I'll be so very happy. I like all the Flashes, why does there need to be just one(twothree)?

And onto the movies . . .

This concept of banking on fewer, bigger movies from Warner is a great, great idea. Finally, they're saying what smart fans have been saying for years. Darker DC movies is a concept I'm happy to see emerge. I have approximately a little over half a blackened soul, so I quite enjoy Really Dark Things. They don't tend to lose me (brain cells, woot) and I find it a bit more stimulating than the average popcorn flick.

Perhaps I can get an eventual villain-centric movie out of this deal! . . . hm, does Watchmen count?

Regarding the presently nebulous state of the Superman film franchise, Robinov said, "['Superman Returns]’ didn't quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to. It didn't position the character the way he needed to be positioned. Had 'Superman' worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009. But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all."

-CBR, via Wall Street Journal

Okay, I liked the damn film. Shut up. But this makes perfect sense to me--it didn't set up Superman as anything more than an interesting personal drama with one bad-ass villain. Yes, shut up, I liked Lex too. But really, hopefully this relaunch goes right into the meat without giving us the bones. We've seen the bones, we want meat! And real meat, please to not turn Superman into an emo kid. Take it from Nolan, there is a brilliant way to utilize dark moods. There is also a very, very terrible way to do it--in other words, don't emulate Smallville.

Pointless picture. I know, but it's funny. Cows eating chickens!

Maybe Kal-El conflicts?

I really wish we could get a Superman/Batman film now, but that's going to have to wait at least four or more years now. Which is the suckage, but at least Warner is attempting to take control of their movies. They want darker and grim, to combat Marvel's set of movies that, while owning serious notes, are definitely not deep thinker films.

It's a smart move--there's merit to both film aspects, as sales for both Iron Man and The Dark Knight evidence. And Warner shouldn't attempt to go head-to-head with Marvel, I'm glad that they see there's no point in pitting their stories. There's no point to it, it's the same thing with the comic book companies.

They each have a niche, and of course the popcorn is going to be more popular, but there's a place for both. (Note to self: think of a metaphor that compliments 'Marvel Popcorn'). Going from Marvel's lead in developing strong character movies and then blending them together in a team movie is smart, and dancing to the left to darken it all up is even smarter. They are sure to release their movies in the same summers, and by tweaking their tone, Warner's making sure that fans will want to see both without feeling like they've been inundated with the same concepts.

Reading the CBR article proves I sometimes have the sense of humor of a twelve year-old boy thanks to me snickering at the phrase 'tent-poles releases'. Unfortunate phrasing meets an immature brain.

As for the Ollie prison flick? Yum. I am looking forward eye-molesting to some sexy, muscled arms in the theater. Oh, uh, on a not-shallow level, the discussion in this article is heartening and both worrying, but writers/producers/et cetera tend to summarize things differently for a non-comic-geek crowd, so consider my fingers crossed for that being the case of a few comments throughout.

"But Batman is about his equipment and is about his theatricality and about his detective skills. And Green Arrow is a guy who’s really just the sort of MacGyver type,” Marks said. “In his hand, anything can be a weapon.”

This is completely true, and my twelve year-old chops surface again, this time with my imagination running with Batman's theatricality. Batman, you old drama queen you.



Another note, in these movie lines: Wonder Woman has some information up on IMDB, as we all know. The current writer is Matthew Jennison, whose only other movie credit is Beerfest. I'm really hoping this is just old bullshit and not . . . true. Um, pssssst, Warner? This is probably not the way to go.
Anyone have any solid information on this one for me?


Wired has an awesome article up on comic book tattoos, with some great pictures for you all to enjoy.

And courtesy Technogreek, AppleGeeks has this to say on the subject of Moody Character Films:

-AppleGeeks Lite #346

GameTrailer has some more game clips of the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, including Joker's fatality. Neeeeeat.



I'll say it again. Neeeeeeeat.

And to end this post on the best note possible, here's a follow up on the Convention Harassment Issue, Girl Wonder has done an awesome thing and organized the Convention Anti-Harassment Project. Take part. Let them know that gathering their forces together so quickly and getting this off the ground is an awesome, inspiring thing.

Good job, ladies!