Nerdy Nuggets of News: January 2006 Archives

Comicdom Online has a pretty neat interview with Frank Miller, where he makes no bones about how he views Elektra's status in the Marvel Universe. The interview covers all of Miller's work, except for All Star Batman and Robin...

...which is OK, because writer Christopher Priest rips into ASB&R over on Dwayne McDuffie's message board:

"It is shockingly bad. Self-indulgent and completely hostile to new readers, Batman & Robin seems to be written by someone who hates comics, who hates Batman & Robin and, oddly, who hates DC. I've never read a comic book imbued with so much contempt for itself and for its audience."

Pretty much my own take (see review), although it was the number 1 selling comic for 2005, so what the hell do I know? Nuff said.

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This video is about two months old, but it's worth reposting here, because it just states the obvious reason why the Internet was created. A great job by some World of Warcraft fans, I think they have a future on Broadway.

Believe it not, my niece (she's twenty years old) was the one who showed me this. LOL.

Oh my god, this is the greatest video game song ever made. If you remember the movie "Arthur" and the hit Christopher Cross song "Arthur's Theme", well, this fellow Archie has improved on it. Instead of the lyric "If you get caught between the moon and New York City" you get "If you get caught between me and my Xbox 360". The song really summarizes the first two months of the insane 360 launch. Another great line is: "I killed Peter Moore and took his new Xbox 360." Download it now, droogies, it just topped Pac Man Fever. I feel like getting drunk and playing Geometry Wars. Nuff said.

Archie's Theme: The 360 Song.
XBox 360 Crooner (from XBox360Fanboy.com).

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Newsarama reports that Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco will do twelve issues of Superman, after the post-IC story by Busiek and Geoff Johns is finished. There's a quote from Didio about trying to get A-list creators on the top tier books:

""There was an A+ creator that I wanted to work with, and in a meeting with him, told him that I'd love for him to write Superman or Batman, and he told me he just couldn't do it. I asked why not, and he said that he didn't have three years worth of stories in him. I told him I was just looking for six issues, and he was back on board, because he had a great six issue story. I told him that was t he story that I wanted from him. That's what this all is about, I wanted writers and artists to give me their best stories. If we still have juice after the six or twelve issues, then we'll see if we want to do more, but for starters, let's go with a finite number of issues, and your best story."

This shows you how far the industry has come. In the old days, Marvel and DC wanted creative teams to stick around for years. Now as long as they get six issues out of a team, it's sufficient, because a run like that will make a nice trade or hardcover book. Deadlines also matter very little now. Who cares if Ultimates, Defenders, Superman-Batman, etc., are months late? What matters the most to these companies financially is the collected editions.

Paul Dini let us know (through his blog at LiveJournal) that he will "be writing a ton of new Batman comics this year, along with a very special graphic novel starring two DCU darlings near and dear to my heart." Hmmm...could he be referring to Harley and Ivy? Zatanna and Black Canary? If you look at Dini's blog, I am thunderstruck by how much his wife Misty May resembles Zatanna. According to Newsarama, Dini will work on Detective Comics with Rags Morales for 12 issues. They might even put the detective back in Detective.

Looks like Rich Johnston's predictions are falling apart all over the place! He claimed Grant Morrison and Adam Kubert would be the Detective team, and that Mark Waid would write the Flash. Nuff said.

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Dan Didio spilled the beans (here on Newsarama) about who will take over the writing reins on The Flash when it reboots with a new #1 issue. In case you weren't keeping score, there was plenty of speculation as to who this might be; Mark Waid and Grant Morrison were two of the names mentioned. Who is it really? Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo. Wha-huh? I knew the names right away--they were the producers/creators of the Flash TV series which I reviewed just the other week. Talk about serendipity, getting an 16 year old TV series (which they probably never thought to see another dime from) collected on DVD and then getting to write the comic book series a few weeks later! Ken Lashley will be doing the artwork (click to expand his developmental art work on the right), although it might be cool if Bilson and De Meo were paired with Howard Chaykin (their co-producer on the Flash) as the artist. Lashley is just fine, but Bilson and De Meo had better be freaking outstanding. Interesting comments from Didio on the Flash's role in generational change within the DC Universe. I totally agree. Nuff said.

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Newsarama has a new article by Steve Fritz, where he talks to Bruce Timm about the last Justice League Unlimited season. If the last episodes you saw featured the return of Hawkman and Luthor joining the Legion of Doom, you haven't missed anything. The rumor is that Cartoon Network is holding back on the remainder of the episodes until spring or summer. The sad thing is that Bruce Timm may no longer stay with Warner's animation division. Superman may join Batman on the WB networks. (I've only seen one episode of that new Batman series and I hate it.) Other rumors for a future CN series include Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes, as well as the Doom Patrol. The Supergirl\Legion combo is bolstered by the fact that there is a JLU episode featuring both, and the Legion's comic book series gets Supergirl as a permanent guest-star. The Doom Patrol as an animated series just seems wild and crazy, but I think it could be good. Nuff said.

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The New York Times has this article on a phenomenon affecting Japanese culture. Hikikomori kids are withdrawn from school, society, and their families. The article talks about a kid who stopped going to school at age 15 and just stayed in his room for 4 years. The worst case was a guy who stayed at home for 13 years; he surfed the Internet, watched TV, and built model cars. Psychologists think the causes are due to the high pressure of the Japanese school system, a culture that doesn't value diversity, and their parents ability to support them at home in their 20s. It's a pretty interesting article. Nuff said.

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I picked this up from Heidi Macdonald at the Beat. Rolling Stone has an article on Larry Wachowski's involvement with an S&M dominatrix called Ilsa. I had heard some of these rumors before. I was surprised to read that he has a house in San Francisco's Castro district. There are also some tidbits about the V For Vendetta movie. Nuff said.

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I've gotten to the point where I hate year-end top ten lists. It's all so arbitrary. How can you quantify just ten good things? Some stories or games that I like are a mixed bag, with some great parts and some so-so parts. Most good games usually have weak endings--Halo 2 is a great example. I thought that 1UP.com had a great idea with a Top 10 WTF Moments of 2005. Number One is something that we can all agree on: the $299 version of XBox 360 just makes no damn sense at all. If they had gotten rid of this, we could assume all 360s came with hard drives.

There's a good interview with Bill Gates over at Engadget. Bill talks about his family playing XBox 360 over the Christmas vacation. Can you imagine the pressure of being Bill Gates' kids? They are expected to do exceptionally well in school. Anything less than a 4.0 GPA would be a shock. What if the kid becomes a slacker due to the XBox 360? They spend all their time playing Project Gotham Racing 3 and Perfect Dark Zero and never do their homework. Man, I feel better now. I have a right to be a slacker. Nuff said.

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Buzzscope has a great interview with Warren Ellis, conducted by Michael Avon Oeming. This goes beyond the usual PR bullshit and gives you some insight to Ellis' background and writing process. Interesting comments on how Ellis approaches work-for-hire material versus creator owned work. He treated the Ultimate FF series as if it was an SF young adult story. He talks a bit about editorial decisions and how they can at times make the work better: "The most recent was not getting to use Nick Fury on NEXTWAVE, and having to create Dirk Anger in his place, which just let me loose. Dirk Anger is Nick Fury having a massive nervous breakdown, and the gags I get out of that are some of the best pages in the book." I wonder if Ellis will ever regret creating Anger in this work-for-hire project? He seems like a great character that would be a smash in a creator owned series. Can't wait to read the first issue. Check out the full interview here. Nuff said.

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Word Balloons has another excellent podcast featuring Dwayne McDuffie, the writer from Milestone, Static, and Justice League Unlimited. It's a great interview because they go back to McDuffie's work on the Deathlok mini-series, Damage Control, and tons of behind the scenes tidbits on JLU. You'll hear about that great Season 3 closing episode with Batman Beyond.

Here's one thing that was confirmed: the episode "Wake the Dead" was a tribute to Marvel's series, the Defenders. I've written in an earlier post about how much I love the original Defenders. I liked this particular episode quite a bit but never made the connection until I read about it on a message board. Dr. Fate is DC's Dr. Strange, Aquaman is DC's Sub-Mariner, and Solomon Grundy is DC's version of the Hulk! Cowabunga! Nuff said.

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Newsarama has a preview of Warren Ellis' new Marvel series, Nextwave. This is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. It's got some of that great humor that you see in Red Dwarf, but applied to the Marvel Universe. Ellis has a bunch of C-listers (Machine Man, Elsa Bloodstone, the former Captain Marvel\Photon) joining H.A.T.E. (Highest Anti Terrorism Effort). H.A.T.E. seems a lot like S.H.I.E.L.D. because they having a flying headquarters and are lead by General Anger. Anger isn't missing an eye, but he has some kind of device covering one. I laughed at this bit, where Anger talks about why he is still alive, which is clearly based on Nick Fury's use of the Infinity Formula to keep himself ticking in the 21st Century:

Anger: "You know how I look so pretty? I take drugs. Special H.A.T.E. drugs. Life-extending drugs. H.A.T.E. has the best drugs. Because H.A.T.E. loves me. And I love H.A.T.E. Every day of my horrible drug extended terrorist fighting life. Everyday I smoke two hundred cigarettes and one hundred cigars and drink a bottle of whisky and three bottles of wine with dinner. And dinner is meat...raw meat. The cook serves me an entire animal and I fight it bare-handed and tear off what I want and eat it and have the rest buried. In New Jersey! For H.A.T.E.!"

Damn, that is just so funny. General Anger is going to become my favorite Marvel character if he keeps that up. Nuff said.

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