When my friend asked me if I’d be home after midnight tonight I immediately knew something was up. This is a humble guy who doesn’t do “surprises” and doesn’t fit in with the normal mold of folk who celebrate holidays of any kind (to more of a degree than even I). His name is Rui DaSilva, him and I are currently co-creating/writing The Aquatic League of Heroes webcomic and aquatic hero support site.

There’s another under-dog character I defend almost as much as Darkhawk. The character is Booster Gold. One of the first issues I had a few years before I jumped on to comics strong with the Archie Ninja Turtles stuff, and eventually got won over by Darkhawk, was Booster Gold #7.

I’d always remember that issue number because Superman guest stars and whops Booster’s ass. I always respected the lesson I knew would be learned from that experience even if I never got another comic of Booster Gold (until now, 20 years later). Something about the concept of the character intrigued me because it broke the mold of “the norm”. I finally just bought the Essentials collection that collects the first run of the series in the mid-80s. I just read the issue Booster Gold saves President Nixon and Vice-President Bush from an alien shapeshifter assassination/take over. (Go Booster Go! Talk about a guy who now fights to fix time blips huh?)

Anyways… here is the result of Rui hearing me rant one time too many times about my second favorite under-dog comic hero of all time:

Gravel

Warren Ellis’ Gravel comic series may hit the big screen. The film rights have been picked up by Legendary Pictures. Where it goes from there is anyone’s guess.

Spider-Man 4

Sam Raimi has confirmed that the next Spider-Man movie will start filming in March 2010. The script is currently going through a re-write, and additional casting hasn’t been done yet, but preparations with the sets and visual-effects. Rami’s thoughts on the direction required with the new villain:

What we’re trying to do right now is really understand the journey Peter is going to go on this time and have the villain maybe be a counter to that growth, something that he has to overcome. Or maybe he has to grow in a way to overcome the villain, because there always seem to be stories of coming of age, of a young man growing up and learning things about life, so once we are identifying the exact movement that Peter has to grow to, I think the villain—and we’re trying this right now; we’re trying to choose a villain based on who would be the proper counter to that growth, so we really have dramatic conflict.

Transformers 3

Looks like Michael Bay is tired of dealing with Megan Fox and her free-flowing mouth. Bay discovered Fox, who has been the lead female role in the Transformers franchise–now it’s time for a possible deal scene in the first few minutes of the next Transformers movie, and time to move on to the next in line.

X-Men Franchise

It seems Bryan Singer is interested, and in discussions with Fox, about possibly returning to the X-Men franchise. Singer’s comments about science fiction and fantasy films is that he likes to “trick audiences into thinking they’re seeing fireworks, but they’re learning about themselves and listening to what I have to say,” and that “The excitement about working in science fiction and fantasy is – the stories, if they are good, are about the human condition.”

Preacher

Garth Ennis’s Preacher series may be coming to television. Rose McGowan is claimed to be producing the mini-series for HBO.

I came across a piece of art that I thought was ammusing enough to share. I’m not a Doctor Doom fan–but who can hate the Not-So-Good Doctor when he’s playingthe part of an Icecream Man?

This art is done by artist Aaron Jasinski for Subtext’s Meanwhile at the Hall of Justice art show. From Aaron’s DeviantArt landing page:

The theme was super-heroes caught doing things that were not so super. I flipped the concept and decided to do a villain doing something not so villainous. Dr. Doom’s gentle side.

Here’s a music video by Giles Timms, a freelance motion graphics artist. Giles is pursuing an MFA at UCLA’s Department of Theater, Film and Television. This animation is done in a cutout style with illustrations mimicking woodcut art of the days of old. This video takes you on a journey of a young boy wrapped up in a world of gothic horrory goodness. From Gile’s YouTube site: “Enchanted by a pixie, a child called Yorick enters a magical kingdom, but when Yorick returns he finds his world ravaged by time.” The music is performed by Ceri Frost.

I’d be a criminal not to post about this so that as many people can know about it as possible. This Saturday morning parody cartoon intro for a series called “Watchmen” in a What If scenario kicks so much ass I won’t be crapping for a week!

This will either give Alan Moore a heart attack or make him get up and cheer the virtual smack in the face to the entertainment industry!

Ghost Rider 2

David S. Goyer will be producing Ghost Rider 2, starring Nicolas Cage again. They will be using Goyers 9-year-old script and are going to “polish” it accordingly. It will be said to be more scary than the first. Here’s to hoping that it will be better as well! Here’s what Goyer had to say:

[My Ghost Rider script was] definitely written as a hard R. It was a Blade-type film. Now they want it to be PG-13. But… ‘The Dark Knight’ has come out and I like to say that it was skirting the bleeding edge of PG-13, so people’s concepts of what a PG-13 movie could be [may have changed].

Transformers 3

Michael Bay and crew aren’t wasting no time! The new Transformers flick will be hitting theaters on July 1, 2011! That’s the cue for all you noisy geeks out there to flame the internet with all your poisonous words about how the first two movies were a disaster (ignoring the titanic financial gross it made each time) and then get the HELL outta your computer chairs and hit theaters RIGHT WHEN IT COMES OUT! You NEED to do this so that you have something to rant about online. If you do it well enough, you might even get a Transformers 4 out of Michael Bay. Think about it.

Oh also, from Michael Bay, himself… A note for Megan Fox:

Megan Fox, welcome back. I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture. Please consult your Physician when working under my direction because some side effects can occur, such as mild dizziness, intense nausea, suicidal tendencies, depression, minor chest hair growth, random internal hemorrhaging and inability to sleep. As some directors may be hazardous to your health, please consult your Doctor to determine if this is right for you.

Superman

Director James McTeigue was asked what he would do if he was able to take hold of the direction of the next Superman movie. None of this is official but it’s worth stating that McTeigue is touching on some points that make sense and SHOULD be considered in the next Superman film. Superman just isn’t in the same world he was created in and that needs to reflect in the core of the character. This is what McTeigue had to say:

I think I would be interested in doing it if they let me do it the way I wanted to do it. I would say that, if you take the Richard Donner Supermans and the last Superman [from Bryan Singer], I think that Superman is probably ripe for a bit of a change up. I think society has changed around the core idea of what Superman was.

And I’m not saying you do the ubiquitous dark Superman, I’m not saying that… I’m just saying that I think there are some things that you could excise from the Superman mythology that people would get into it, if you took the world that he was in and changed that a bit, and maybe even project that into the future a bit. I think you don’t really have to play into the origin story anymore. I think there’s a whole bunch of things you could do to make that film more alive and exciting again.

Green Lantern

Due to Australia’s booming dollar Warner Bros was forced to move the production of this film to a new location. First there was talk of bringing the production to Louisiana. Now there is talk of shifting it south into Mexico. Nothing is confirmed as of yet, but leaving Australia would save the studio $20 million so, hey, can’t blame them for the wishy-washyness. Everyone wants to save a buck right?

With all the news that hit about Disney buying Marvel Comics, it’s no wonder Seth McFarlane and crew put together a comedy piece as soon as they could. That’s the strength of Family Guy. It’s randomness allows for it to tap into news and internet memes rapidly in order to ride the momentum of its viral video tendencies. Superb work here though regardless!