Archive Page 2176

August 2023

Blue Beetle movie changes Jaime Reyes's hometown of El Paso to fictional Palmera City

Story at Superherohype

Apparently the filmmaker's didn't want a border town setting, but an "international city" transcending Mexican and American culture.

Related: "Bane Creator Graham Nolan Reacts To ‘Blue Beetle’ Director Claiming The Character Represents American Interventionism In Latin America" – Bounding into Comics

Heidi MacDonald's Comics Beat wants David Ayers to stop wanting his Ayer's Cut of Suicide Squad released and why James Gunn would have white hair if he didn't already have white hair – Comicsbeat

MacDonald seems to forget that Suicide Squad actually did pretty good money in 2016 and though critics slammed the film it filled up theater seats anyway.

But the excitement never stops

My Little Pony Omnibus Vol. 8 – Graphic Policy – It's all promo blurbs but it's sort of funny. If only they would write up the New Punisher promo like this.

Picking up where the animated series left off, Twilight’s first act as ruler of Equestria is to recruit her friends to explore mysterious-and potentially dangerous-areas of the land. But the excitement never stops, and Twilight is throwing the inaugural Festival of the Two Sisters since Celestia and Luna left-and she calls in the best party planner she knows to help: Pinkie Pie!"

An oral history of the 90's comic book crash

Story at IGN

It might seem like we've reached peak saturation when it comes to comic books and pop culture, but in the late '80s and early '90s comics were nothing less than a cultural phenomenon, and not just because of the massive success of Batman '89 and its unprecedented merchandising and marketing campaign. This was largely due to the fact that it was incredibly easy to find and buy them in most of North America. Their accessibility paired with an affordable price tag of around $1 meant that the superhero-focused titles were consistently selling.

It would be instructive, if it were possible, to compare the sales numbers of various superhero titles during the "crash" period to what sales numbers are right now on the same or similar titles.

Disney to shut down DVD and Blu Ray sales? – Yahoo News

While disc revenues are declining dramatically, streaming revenues are soaring. According to the Digital Entertainment Group, while DVD and Blu-ray dropped by 20% streaming subscription revenues grew 17.3%. That's a total of $30.3 billion, compared to $1.58 billion for discs.

Closing down physical media sales would certainly boost subscriptions to the Disney streaming service. But long term, the end of owning a Disney movie from the usual retail establishments and Amazon would lead to the side benefit of creating an amazing boom for eBay sales of used disks.

Perhaps the main effect initially would be cutting off the vast rural areas of the planet from new Disney product because internet streaming is still an unrealized service in so many places.

If you would like to own a Scooby Doo Mystery Machine van, here's your chance – UK Daily Mail MSN

Captain America relaunch with #1 coming

Story at Superhero Hype MSN [Greek]

Variant covers coming from the Stormbreakers artists featuring Captain America:

September 6

Black Panther #24 variant by Lucas Werneck

Moon Knight #27 variant by Elena Casagrande

Venom #25 variant by Federico Vicentini

September 13

Ghost Rider #18 variant by Nic Klein

Incredible Hulk #4 variant by C.F. Villa

Immortal Thor #2 variant by Jan Bazaldua

Invincible Iron Man #10 variant by Chris Allen

September 27

Blade #3 variant by Martin Coccolo

Disney telling Lucasfilm to end "the High Republic" publishing program? – Bounding into Comics

And the new Lex Luthor is: Adam Driver

Story at Koimoi

There's a new Batman' 66 robot toy figure from McFarlane – GeekTyrant

Everybody's embarrassed

Chuck Dixon "Marvel is embarrassed by The Punisher"

Story at Fox News MSN – And the article also says Marvel is embarassed of the kinds of fans they have, or groups of their fans. And obviously there are groups of fans embarassed by Marvel, so its quite an arrangement where somehow everybody is embarrassed.

Related New Punisher at Marvel ain't Frank Castle - Gizmodo

Evil will always need to be punished," reads Marvel’s logline for the book. "With all-new threats rising to claim innocent victims, criminals will need to beware of a dangerous vigilante hunting them from the shadows. Who is the new Punisher? What put him on his path of vengeance? And when the smoke clears, will he even make it out alive?"

Maybe "Event Comics" aren't foolproof cinema fodder – comicbook

Lessons from the adaptations of Flashpoint Paradox and Secret Invasions

American box office continues to reward winners (and ignore losers)

New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can't beat out Barbie for #1 slot which is chugging toward a $1 billion dollar international haul very soon without any effort, but TMNT does look like it is hitting its opening week projected earnings, which means another week of good overall box office for American theatres turning out well, in fact Deadline says this years film season is 22% ahead of what was happening last year at this same time. More at Variety

Meanwhile Disney's Haunted Mansion is cratering, apparently, and the question is starting to become is the brand tainted? But Disney has had some good success this year so a clear picture of what's going on is, well, unclear. Oppenheimer continues to steadily bring in money and may be able to linger for a long time in theaters, like Barbie, both films able to draw their respective types of audience at a steady clip from good word of mouth.

One thing is becoming apparent: theaters better enjoy this moment, because the strike in Hollywood means the amount of "new product" is going to eventually run out and then there will be a delay of some time (depending upon how this strike comes to an end) before theaters will be able to pick up again where they're at right now. The pandemic created a similar situation and that was a tough stretch for movie theaters and a number closed because of it, permanently.

Superman NFT movie bundles are coming – Inferse

As physical disc sales have waned, Warner Bros. is trying to establish a new home-entertainment business model based on nonfungible tokens (NFTs), which verify ownership and authenticity of digital content. Customers can buy, sell and trade the NFTs in Warner Bros.’s online marketplace, powered by content blockchain technology provider Eluvio.

Simon and Schuster in new agreement with Image Comics for distribution – Comicbook

Two Face coming for the Pattinson Batman sequel?

Story at Bounding into Comics

I thought they already had a villain – Poison Ivy played by Lady Gaga? I hope "they" are not going down into the same trap as so many previous superhero films: jamming in too many supervillains. It can be done but its harder and when done wrong the carnival aspect of a superhero film takes over and screws up the "adventure" side of things.

Related: James Gunn favorite Batman comics! – Yahoo News - any news story with the word "reveal" used in the headline is under suspicion for being pure propaganda, that said, Gunn claims The Long Halloween and One Bad Day are on his favorites list.

I'm waiting for some Hollywood comic book film maker of Batman to say their favorite Batman is the original Bob Kane/Bill Finger/Jerry Robinson 1939-1940 Batman, which is, frankly, the most unique and assessable (however crudely the concept seems to the 21st century) of the Batman versions, and is the core identity of all the variations that have been made ever since. I'm not saying Hollywood needs to make a Batman film that is 1939-easque, rather that the Hollywood types who are elevated to being Batman experts all of a sudden because they're the driving force for a hundreds of millions of dollars production can have, or should have, an appreciation for the character that goes deeper than (the admittedly important and also very good) Jeph Loeb Batman stories.

Antonio Banderas to be Galactus for Fantastic Four? – We Got This Covered MSN

And, nope, Jack Quaid is not The Human Torch for the coming film, says MSN AV Club

Original page August 9, 2023