Worlds of Wonder

Here's the first pic of Wonder Woman from the upcoming TV series. The costume is a mixture of classic elements and the designs by Jim Lee for the present JMS run on the title. My daughter loves it but my wife hates it. Actually my wife dislikes the actress, Adrianne Palicki, as well, not just the costume designs! :)

In other news, Marvel just announced the creative teams for the new monthly Daredevil, Punisher and Ghost Rider series. Mark Waid will mark his return to monthly writing for Marvel with Daredevil and Greg Rucka, who's been missing since the end of his run on "Batwoman" will be writing the monthly Punisher. Rob Williams will also be writing the new Ghost Rider monthly series. I'm very happy with the choices and am really looking forward to both monthlies later this year. It's about time that these three street-level Marvel icons get the creative teams that they deserve.

Finally, I just finished watching "Beast Stalker" - the film that made Dante Lam a household name and allowed Nick Cheung and Liu Kai Chi to nab the "Best Actor" and "Best Supporting Actor" awards respectively in the 28th HK Film Awards. The film was banned here in Malaysia so I didn't get to see it when it was first released. I became a huge Dante Lam fan after "Fire of Conscience" and "Stool Pigeon" so it's great to finally see where it all began. In fact, the three films should be watched back-to-back as a kind of Dante Lam trilogy. Beast Stalker contains all the elements that we love Dante Lam for: crazy gunfights and car chases, gritty gangsters, ultra shocking violence, cops seeking redemption, Liu Kai Chi, the darkness in the heart of man, and an extra bonus in the form of Zhang Jingchu (who spoke really bad Cantonese but who cares?). I told my wife that the DVD was for my research in my Evidence studies. It's really just a very cool HK movies featuring cops, kidnappers, gangsters, and Liu Kai Chi. Anyway, did I mention that Liu Kai Chi is in it? For my money, nobody plays the lowlife cop/gangster/informer better than Liu Kai Chi. The ending feels like the recent "Cable" series featuring Nathan Summers protecting the girl Hope from Bishop - except we get Nic Tse protecting a small girl from Nick Cheung.

Ghost Rider - Ghost Riders In The Sky ( Spiderbait )

I saw this film again recently on the Director's Cut DVD. Loved it even more than the first time around in the theatres. In fact, I loved it soooooo much that I'm tempted to pick up Jason Aaron's "Ghost Rider Omnibus"... :)

The Dream Team Is Finally Here!!!

Marvel released a couple of teaser ads earlier this month showcasing Elektra, Punisher, etc. with the tagline, "______ For Hire". Finally, we know what those ads were all about - the new HEROES FOR HIRE book debuting in December 2010 written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (DnA, to their fans) and drawn by Brad Walker (in short, the creative team from "Nova" and "Guardians of the Galaxy").

I predict that this will be the sleeper hit of 2011. After all, DnA could get you excited about a book featuring a talking tree, a gun-tottin' raccoon, an insane woman who may by the Celestial Madonna, Bug and... err... Star-Lord (?!?). Imagine what they could do with Ghost Rider, Punisher, Elektra, Iron Fist and Moon Knight! This is the dream team in comics working on the dream team of characters. I'm definitely reserving my ticket! :)

Updated (22-Sep-2010): Interview with DnA at CBR!

In the meantime, read this interview at Newsarama with the new creators of "Black Panther: Man Without Fear" - David Liss and Francesco Francavilla. I don't really know why people are complaining about "Shadowland" and this book. Marvel is trying some great new stuff and thankfully moving away from event-driven books for a while.

Solicitations For June 2010

DC solicitations for June 2010 are up. The only collection that interest me is the hardcover collecting Geoff Johns' and Gary Frank's "Superman: Secret Origin". This look to be the definitive origin of the Man of Steel for years to come so it's a milestone in DC history. My daughter would definitely be interested in Bryan Q. Miller's "Batgirl Rising" TPB (collecting the first 7 issues of the ongoing). As for the single issues, it looks like anniversary month over at DC. Grant Morrison returns to "Batman" with issue #700, while JMS takes over both "Superman" (with issue #700) and "Wonder Woman" (with issue #600). Do they plan these things, or are the numberings merely a happy coincidence? All three issues are 56-pages thick - a far cry from Marvel's recent gigantic-sized anniversary issues for Hulk, Cap, DD, Thor and Spidey. Finally, the "Superman vs. Muhammad Ali" piece of crap with great art by Neal Adams is now given both the fascimile edition and hardcover treatment. I'm a huge fan of Neal Adams but even I'm not going to pick this up. It was silly when it first came out and it's still silly today. Times have certainly changed. When the Superman movie was released in the late 1970s, can you believe that this piece of crap was the only comic that was promoted as a tie-in merchandise?

The latest Marvel solicitations (June 2010) are up and there are so many great stuff to choose from that I don't even know where to begin. First up are all the new "Heroic Age" titles such as the ongoing "Hawkeye & Mockingbird" series and other Avenger-y stuff. Even Bob Layton is back to give us another dose of his "Hercules: Prince of Power" stuff in a miniseries entitled "Hercules: Twilight of a God". Also, Roy Thomas' and Dick Giordano's "Dracula" is finally being released in a coloured edition and the old "Tomb of Dracula" is getting the TPB treatment (for folks who passed up on the B&W Essentials reprints or the pricey Omnibus editions). On the cosmic side, Thanos is finally back in the miniseries entitled "The Thanos Imperative" by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. My wife and kids will also be delighted to know that Tom DeFalco is back to help celebrate "Spider-Ham's 25th Anniversary" - and a special digest sized collection of old "Spider-Ham" stuff will be released as well!

What really caught my eye, on the other hand, is the humongous "Ghost Rider Omnibus" collecting the entire Jason Aaron run (including the miniseries "Heaven's On Fire"). I've heard great things about Aaron's run but have yet to pick up any of the issues of TPBs. Being a sucker for huge hardcovers - I'll most likely grab this one to read (after my Law Exams in May). The other Jason Aaron work reprinted in hardcover is the first arc from "PunisherMax" featuring a never-before-seen origin of the Kingpin.

Other interesting collections include "X-Necrosha", one of the better X-stories in recent years. Also, Kurt Busiek's sequel to "Marvels" with Jay Anacleto ("Eye of the Camera") is finally in a hardcover. I'm surprised by how little people are talking about this series. Busiek's original miniseries with a young Alex Ross set the industry on fire in the 1990s. Also, Jay Anacleto was probably the most exciting artist in the late 1990s when he worked on "Aria" over at Image. Other reprints of recent stuff include the 4th volume of "Guardians of the Galaxy" and the final volume of Duane Swierczynski's "Cable" (leading into "Second Coming").

Another golden collection is the better-late-than-never hardcover "Avengers: Under Siege" from Roger Stern and the late "Big" John Buscema. I got the original issues and the TPB. This, to me, was the quintessential Avengers run - ranking all the way up there with Roy Thomas' and Steve Englehart's stories. In fact, if Marvel had some sense, they should start reprinting the entire Roger Stern run on the Avengers in "Visionaries" TPBs like they did with John Byrne's "Fantastic Four" or Peter David's "Hulk". Speaking of Steve Englehart, I'm glad to see that his original "Vision and the Scarlet Witch" maxiseries is finally reprinted in a TPB as well. That was the quirky classic love story between a hot-but-insane witch and a household appliance - resulting in two "imaginary" kids who have since grown up to be Young Avengers! :)