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Alien: Covenant Will Get A Sequel Novel In September

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Ridley Scott's upcoming installment in the Alien franchise will get a follow-up in book form.

NewsNick Harley
Jan 12, 2017

The face-huggers haven’t even hatched yet, but we’re already getting a sequel to Ridley Scott’s upcoming Prometheus sequel/Alien prequel, Alien: Covenant.  Well, sort of…

Titan Books today announced that they’ll be publishing a novelization of the film, which hits theaters May 19, titled Alien: Covenant Official Movie Novelization. That novelization will arrive four days after the film on May 23, but following that up, on September 26 Titan Books will release Alien: Covenant 2, a 304-page novel billed as “The Official Sequel to the Blockbuster Film.” A little presumptuous, but exciting nonetheless.

The books are being written by novelization machine and prolific science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster, famous for contributing expanded universe stories in the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, among his own celebrated work.Unfortunately we don’t currently have plot synopses or cover art available, but you can pre-order the books on Amazon.

So after you scare your wits with back bursters and Neomorphs at the movie theater, keep the horrifying space adventure going with the sequel novel. Thankfully, since you’re reading, you are obligated to keep the lights on. 


Star Wars: 25 Best Droids in the Galaxy from the Movies and TV Shows

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These are the greatest droids in the galaxy far, far away!

The ListsMarc Buxton
Jan 13, 2017

There's no doubt that the stand out character of Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyis the droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk). The very capable K-2SO - a reprogrammed Imperial enforcer droid that fights on the side of the Rebellion during the events of the film - is both hilarious and tough. There's an edge to K2, and it's perhaps what sets him apart from other droids - he is treated like an actual member of the Rogue One team and not just a machine that accepts orders blindly.

But K-2SO is just one of many droids that have made the galaxy far, far away such a fun place to visit over and over again. So here’s to the astromechs, the protocol droids, the medical droids, and the assassin droids that have been whirring and clanking their way into fans’ hearts since that first opening scrawl so many years ago. Join us as we take a look back and thank the Maker for the 25 greatest droids of the main Star Wars saga - that is, those that appear in the movies and TV shows:

25. U-3PO

Yeah, U-3PO barely appeared in Star Wars, but this silver protocol droid needs to make this list because it is one of the first characters introduced in the entire Star Wars saga. After the Star Destroyer catches Princess Leia’s blockade runner, the film cuts to C-3PO, R2-D2, and good ‘ol U-3PO making a run for it. Now, R2 and C-3PO go on to forge their own legacy, but U-3PO walks off camera.

Imagine if U-3PO stuck around with its droid comrades. There would have been three droids going on the greatest adventure of all time. But U-3PO had business elsewhere and wandered off, leaving the other two droids to become the most beloved mechanized beings in the galaxy.

The Legends Expanded Universe later revealed that U-3PO was an Imperial agent that reported the blockade runner’s whereabouts to Darth Vader’s men, but most EU canon has been wiped away since Star Wars was sold to Disney. So it’s a brand new day for U-3PO, one of the three droids that fans first laid eyes on. U we hardly knew U.

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24. CZ-3

Look at this freaky looking thing. It’s like a psychotic version of C-3PO. This droid obviously has so many issues. You can clearly spot CZ-3 on the streets of Mos Eisely, aimlessly shambling about. You can also see a similar droid aboard the Sandcrawler, mindlessly rocking back and forth. A CZ droid is also clearly seen in Jabba’s Palace, plodding around as if looking for a small, helpless creature to dismember. But other than its evil clown look, why did we include such an obscure droid on our list?

The main reason is because CZ-3 is played by none other than Anthony Daniels, as the famed actor who brought C-3PO to life pulled double droid duty on the set of the original Star Wars. That’s just all sorts of cool.

The pre-Disney backstory of this droid is pretty rich. Legend has it that CZ-3 worked for Jabba the Hutt. When CZ-3 got loose, Jabba sent bounty hunters to find the strange looking automaton. When viewers see CZ-3 in Star Wars, it is on the run from Jabba’s hunters. Pretty neat right?

The story gets even deeper, revealing that the CZ aboard the Sandcrawler was CZ-3’s “twin brother.” When the CZs crashed on Tatooine, they were separated, and CZ-1 was dismantled and taken by the Jawas. Maybe that’s why CZ-3 looks so odd and disturbed, maybe his mind snapped after being separated from his “twin.” Maybe there’s a Tomax and Xamot thing going on here - when CZ-1 is being tortured by Jawas, CZ-3 feels the pain.

How the heck did this take such a dark turn, I just really wanted to tell you that Anthony Daniels played CZ-3 and now I’m pondering familial droid bonds and the nature of droid pain. I need to lie down.

23. FX-7

Raise your hands if you had the old school Kenner FX-7 action figure. That thing must have cost Kenner a small fortune to sculpt and tool, what with the countless articulated arms and incredible detailing. That seems like an awful lot of effort for a droid that appeared in The Empire Strikes Back for like 2.7 seconds. But those brief ticks of the second hand were pivotal because it was FX-7 that helped nurse Luke Skywalker back to health after the savior of the galaxy was ripped to noodles by the Wampa.

FX-7 would pop up again later, helping to build Luke's robotic hand, and if you have your pause button handy, you can spy FX-7 during the Rebel briefing in Return of the Jedi. It seems FX-7 helped patch Rebels back together throughout most of the Original Trilogy. So thanks FX-7, you and your ridiculously playable action figure are remembered fondly.

22. 8D8

We include 8D8 on this list because the skeletal torture droid showed us one thing in his brief appearance in Return of the Jedi - that droids feel actual pain and that's all sorts of messed up. 8D8 is a droid that specializes in torturing other droids and can be seen in the background when R2 and 3PO are led into Jabba’s droid dungeon. 8D8 is busy torturing a flailing Power Droid with a branding iron. As the Power Droid’s feet are burnt, the poor boxy robot lets out a wail of agony. You know what this means? This means that some sentient being programmed droids to think they have nerve endings! How messed up is that? Building beings that are forced to endure the illusion of bodily pain. And the ghoulish 8D8 specializes in that pain, and for that screwed up reason this obscure droid makes our list.

21. Torture Droid

So somewhere there was a droid inventor or technician or whatever and he or she said, “Hey, I’m going to create a floaty ball designed to torture sentient beings!” and the torture droid was born. This roly-poly ball of pain was first seen in the original Star Wars, as it slowly approached Princess Leia with a hypodermic needle filled with drugs that would no doubt cause the bun-headed Rebel no end of agony. This little droid is probably the vilest automaton in the entire saga because its entire function is to find ways to cause as much agony as possible. And think about this, considering there are countless races running around the Star Wars Universe, this little torture droid must be programmed with billions of forms of bodily torture. How does one torture an Ewok? The torture droid knows.

20. 3B6-RA-7

Another obscure droid made into an action figure by Kenner. The toy in question was named "Death Star Droid" even though the robot never appeared on the Death Star in the original Star Wars! 3B6-RA-7 actually appeared on the Jawa Sandcrawler. He was like the cranky old man of droiddom, as he sat there and muttered derisively to himself about the other droids that were captured by the Jawas. You have to assume 3B6-RA-7 was kind of a dick because the Jawas don’t even attempt to sell him to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. They just leave him in the Sancrawler the same way you leave your crazy uncle in the car because you don’t want him causing a scene in Target.

Anyway, a black RA unit can be seen aboard the Death Star, so there’s your "Death Star Droid," but this silver clad cranky pants made his home on the Sandcrawler no matter what Kenner tells you. Fans of a certain age had this droid as an action figure, and his after school battles with C-3PO are the stuff of legend.

19. Droideka

These spider-like murder machines were like Jedi kryptonite. Think about it, during all three prequels, no matter what threat popped up, the Jedi were ready. Giant space monsters? No problem! Vast armies of Battle Droids? A walk in the park. Swarms of droid starfighters? Pish-posh! Sith? A mere distraction. But when the destroyer droids rolled into battle, you’d have Jedi peeing themselves left and right.

The destroyer droids, or Droidekas as they were known for some inexplicable reason, were ray shielded and had rapid fire canons that, for some reason, completely befuddled all Jedi. Like, why can’t the Jedi just levitate them or force push them off a cliff or something? Because the destroyers delivered insta-death to anything wearing a bathrobe, they make our list.

18. Probe Droid

First seen in The Empire Strikes Back. Probe droids are used by the Empire to search remote regions of the galaxy for any signs of Rebel activity. These octopus-like spies are distinctive because of their unique and creepy language. Who can forget the ominous message sent from Hoth that alerted Darth Vader to the presence of the hidden Rebel base? Think about it, if not for the probe droid, the events of Empire never would have occurred. The Probe also looks badass but really isn’t because it self-destructs the second it is engaged in combat. So here’s to the probe droid - awesome-looking, integral to the Original Trilogy, and kind of a weeny.

17. Midwife droid

Ooba indeed. Why wouldn’t there be an OBGYN droid? A midwife droid first appeared in Revenge of the Sith and participated in the single-most important moment in Star Wars history - the birth of Luke Skywalker and Leia. I guess there should be a droid for every single function in the galaxy.

The midwife droid certainly looks equipped to deliver some babies. I mean, it has a baby scooper and everything... As disturbing as the design of this droid might be, it did deliver two humans that saved the galaxy, so welcome to the list, you medical nightmare.

16. Power Droid

Who doesn’t love a Gonk? Also known as GNK power droids, Gonks are the walking batteries of the Star Wars galaxy. Power droids have a wonderfully simplistic design - they are basically just boxes with feet. It’s also kind of mind-blowing that for its original Star Wars action figure line, Kenner never made a Moff Tarkin or a Wedge Antilles, but it sure made a power droid. Millions of kids all over America usinedtheir adorable little clicky power droids to power up X-wings and Millennium Falcons. Ah, those were the days.

Of course, the most famous Gonk was the one aboard the Jawa Sandcrawler. These little boxes of electric juice could be seen in every Rebel base, aboard both Death Stars, and on the streets of Mos Eisley. The design and function of these little squares must have been perfect because power droids were all over the Prequels, and they were even unchanged in the future world of The Force Awakens. A power droid can also be seen in Rogue One, and I was probably way happier about that than I should have been. But it just goes to show how lovable the Gonks really are.

15. GA-97

And we come to our first modern era droid! GA-97 was an unassuming servant droid that took care of the customers of Maz Kanata’s castle. But GA-97 was also part of a network of spies that worked for the Resistance. If not for GA-97, the First Order would have found and captured Rey, Finn, Han, Chewie, and BB-8. It was GA-97’s message that alerted the Resistance and allowed Poe Dameron and his crew to make the save. I can only hope that we see GA-97 again as the new trilogy barrels forward because the idea of a hidden ring of droid spies is just too cool for school.

14. WED Treadwell Droid

Poor Treadwell, he was destined for greater things. In a scene cut from the original Star Wars, Luke Skywalker was repairing a water vaporator side by side with his trusty Treadwell droid, and during the repair Luke uses his binoculars to spy a battle between a Star Destroyer and a blockade runner. What’s important about this scene is that it was supposed to be the first time audiences met Luke - and Treadwell was there! But alas, Treadwell’s moment of glory was left on the cutting room floor.

There are still Treadwells all over the Original Trilogy, though. The same Treadwell that was cut can be seen on the Lars homestead while another Treadwell is in the Jawas’ droid lineup. Han Solo famously reprimands a cute little Treadwell in The Empire Strikes Back, and more of these multi-armed repair droids can be seen all over Echo base.

Treadwells are the Swiss army knives of the Star Wars Universe, multi-purpose mechanics that can fix anything. Sadly, the Treadwells can’t fix their own legacy because what was meant to be their moment of glory was discarded by George Lucas himself. The Maker giveth and the Maker taketh away.

13. R4-P17

Introduced in Attack of the Clones, R4-P17 was the trusted astromech that served with Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Clone Wars. R4 accompanied Obi-Wan to Geonosis and helped his Jedi Master in battle against Jango Fett and Slave I. R4 also sent the message to Coruscant that informed the Jedi that Obi-Wan had been captured by Count Dooku and the Separatists. 

Sadly, during the final battle of the Clone Wars, R4-P17 was destroyed by Buzz Droids. What a sad exit for a droid that played such a pivotal role in the fate of the galaxy during the days of the Republic. Which is why it’s all sorts of screwed up that in the original Star Wars, Obi-Wan claims that he doesn’t remember owning a droid. Dude, R4-P17 sent the message that saved your ass when a bunch of bugs were going to sacrifice you in a gladiator arena. How can Obi-Wan not remember his wingman in battle against Jango Fett? That’s some insensitive selective memory there, Kenobi.

12. EV-9D9

“Ah good, new acquisitions.” EV-9D9 was a rather goofy looking droid, what with the flappy mouth and spindly limbs, but somehow the presence of Jabba’s head torture droid was still pretty darn fearsome. EV-9D9 gave C-3PO and R2-D2 their marching orders after the iconic robot pals were captured by Jabba the Hutt.

As all Star Wars fans know, EV-9D9 placed 3PO in Jabba’s court as an interpreter and R2 on Jabba’s sail barge as a waiter - and thus sealed Jabba's fate. Think about it, if skinny EV-9D9 had given R2 a job in the boiler room or cleaning up Rancor turds, R2 would never have been able to shoot Luke’s lightsaber over to his master. Jabba was killed and his criminal empire destroyed because of EV-9D9’s bad job placement. That’s some really destructive HR work right there.

11. Mouse Droid

The mouse droid was a puny little rolly bot that had the droid poop scared out of it by Chewbacca. It seems like the Empire relied on mouse droids for many mundane tasks. These little droids can be seen all over both Death Stars and aboard many Star Destroyers leading squadrons of stormtroopers to their assigned positions. It’s kind of cool that George Lucas thought of little details like mouse droids. It just made the Star Wars galaxy seem more functional and lived in. Plus, mouse droids are really cute. How many mouse droids do you think blew up along with the two Death Stars? Tens of thousands probably. Poor things! And how come the Rebels didn’t use them? Do you think the Rebels had cat droids to counter the Imperial mouse droids? Like some intergalactic Tom and Jerry action? What were we talking about again?

10. 4-LOM

At last, a bounty hunter - we DO need their scum. 4-LOM was part of Darth Vader’s famous lineup that was charged with hunting down the Millennium Flacon. For real, is there a more intimidating designed droid in the Star Wars saga? You have a 3PO unit body combined with a bug-eyed alien head and a big honking blaster rifle that looks like it could fillet a Dewback in a single shot.

In the Expanded Universe, 4-LOM has often been paired up with his fellow bug-eyed bounty hunter Zuckuss, and the duo have become quite an infamous pair of scoundrels across novels, video games, and comics. Sadly, we never got to see 4-LOM in action on the big screen, but now that every inch of the Star Warssaga is going to be explored by Disney, we may yet see this most fearsome droid killing machines collect some bounties in the most violent ways possible.

9. 2-1B

2-1B seems to live to repair Luke Skywalker. With the help of fellow medical droid FX-7, 2-1B nursed Luke back to health after the Rebel hero got Wampa'd, and also helped the savior of the galaxy after Luke got his hand chopped off by Darth Vader. So within the two-hour and change run time of The Empire Strikes Back, 2-1B put Luke back together twice. You know what, with the rate that hands get severed in Star Wars, 2-1B must be sewing on bionic hands day and night. It’s really a cottage industry in the galaxy far, far away. 2-1B can also be seen in Return of the Jedi, no doubt prepping to replace lost limbs after the Battle of Endor. Let’s raise a glass of blue milk to 2-1B because without this medical droid there would be fewer high fives across the galaxy.

8. Battle Droids

Yeah, we know that these dopey clankers make your typical stormtrooper look like Jason Bourne, but the battle droids of the Trade Federation were pretty vital to Star Wars history. The battle droids made up the bulk of the Separatist army that fought the Republic in the Clone Wars. They were the constant cannon fodder used by Darth Sidious in his secret bid to take over the Republic.

They may not have been able to hit the broad side of a Super Destroyer, but without them, Palpatine would never have had the pawns he needed to build his Empire. And even though they kind of sucked, battle droids have a really cool design and they used some pretty boss war tech. From the flying STAPs, to those sick tanks, to the rolling fortresses and personal carriers, the battle droids were certainly well-equipped losers. Roger, roger.

7. R5-D4

Just imagine if Uncle Own and Luke Skywalker had purchased R5-D4 instead of R2-D2. The stormtroopers would have found R2 after slaughtering the Jawas and the Death Star would have taken out the Rebel Base on Yavin easy-peasy. But thankfully, R5-D4 had a bad motivator and broke down just as Uncle Owen was ready to lay down his hard-earned space dollars on the little red and white astromech. R5-D4 may have been faulty (or lazy), but his little droid nervous breakdown saved the galaxy.

6. IG-88

Piss on Ultron, IG-88 is an assassin droid to truly fear. Only seen for a few seconds in the aforementioned bounty hunter line up, IG-88 continues to inspire Expanded Universe stories because he’s just that fearsome. All sharp edges and stabby bits, IG-88 is made for killing. It’s too bad that we never got to see IG-88 in action in Empire, but we have certainly experienced the full armed and operational badassery of the assassin droid in plenty of novels and comics.

One memorable short story in the Tales of the Bounty Huntersanthology saw multiple copies of IG-88 try to bring about a droid rebellion. One of the IGs even downloaded himself into the second Death Star right before it was destroyed by the Rebellion. That could have gone very badly for organics. But alas, that's all part of Legends canon now.

5. Chopper

Listen, I’m an Original Trilogy guy with a heaping helping of love for The Force Awakens, so a droid from the TV shows would have to be pretty special to make it. Chopper is just that darn special. This little astromech is like the pissed off old man of the Star Wars universe. Chopper gets the job done every single time but grumbles the entire way there.

This droid is one of the highlights of Star Wars Rebelsand has helped his rag tag band of freedom fighters out of countless jams. Plus, Chopper is more than a bit homicidal, so he has that going for him. It's my hope that SW fans will get to see a live-action Chopper one day. Until then, we’ll just have to settle for this little bundle of violence committing acts of atrocity on a Disney cartoon.

4. K-2SO

When I began writing this list, I hadn’t seen Rogue One yet. Now, I'm making a last-minute addition for K-2SO, the droid that steals the show in Rogue One. At first, K-2SO seems to be Rogue One comic relief, but by act two of the first Star Wars Story, K-2SO proves to be the most proactive droid in the Star Wars saga. K-2SO doesn’t wait around for stuff to happen to him, oh no, K-2SO happens to stuff - which usually involves lots of explosions.

K-2SO used to be an Imperial enforcer droid, but he was reprogrammed by the Rebellion and now is one of the most loyal Rebels in the galaxy. And believe me, this tall drink of destruction sees plenty of action in Rogue One, as no Imperial is safe when K-2SO has blasters a blazing. There’s a reason K-2SO jumped so far on our list just days after the droid’s Star Warsdebut, and that reason is this droid's nobility and agency - and ability to rain down utter destruction on any Imperial unlucky enough to get in his way.

3. BB-8

People feared that BB-8 would become the Jar Jar Binks of the new Star Wars era. But that is far from the case. Hey, he’s aggressively cute, but BB-8 is a capable little guy that serves the Resistance loyally. BB-8 played an integral role in finding Luke Skywalker and helped make sure that Finn, Rey, and Poe survived each and every encounter with the First Order.

BB-8 is a unique astromech, a spherical droid that speaks to the wonder of physics. Think about it: BB-8 isn’t animated, Lucasfilm actually built this awesome little robot. BB-8 brings any scene he is in to life because the little prop has charisma and character. BB-8 won Rey’s heart and the hearts of SW fans that originally dismissed the soccer ball robot for being too cute. BB-8 is way more than just adorableness with a circumference, he is now a major part of the story of a galaxy far, far away.

2. C-3PO

You didn’t think our top two would be anyone but the droid hearts and souls of the Star Warsuniverse, did you? Think of our next two entries as 1 and 1A because you can’t begin talking about Star Wars without talking about C-3PO and R2-D2.

C-3PO was at the center of just about every major Star Warsevent. He escaped with the plans to the original Death Star and accompanied his Rebel friends to the fully armed and operational battle station where the hapless droid witnessed the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was there on Yavin when Luke Skywalker blew up the Death Star, and he was there when Han Solo was frozen. He was on Endor when the Empire fell and, before his memory was wiped, he bravely served the Republic in the Clone Wars and was present when Anakin Skywalker began his dark transition to Darth Vader.

C-3PO is the sad clown of Star Wars - he is a polite, unassuming innocent that forever finds himself swept up into adventures beyond his comprehension. C-3PO just wants to serve in matters of protocol and linguistics, but he is constantly being swept away on epic missions to free the galaxy.

1. R2-D2

The all-purpose mechanic, adventurer, super computer, and rolling arsenal of Star Wars, and proof that judging something by its size you should not. R2-D2 defines the Star Wars universe. He is a piece of technology with a personality and a spirit of pure bravery.

R2 is loyal to a fault to all his companions. Whether it be in the era of the Old Republic, the Empire era, or thirty years after the Battle of Endor, R2 will do anything to assure victory for the humans he serves. R2 is so much more than a cold and emotionless machine. Just think, R2 shut down because he lost his master Luke Skywalker. Because of Luke’s disappearance, R2 had a profound existential crisis and went into a spiritual coma, until the next generation of heroes needed his guidance once again.

Thanks to R2, Luke was found because R2 always gets the job done. Whether it’s repairing the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive or using a fire extinguisher to help his friends escape an occupied Cloud City, R2 always has a plan. R2 is a top notch co-pilot, an awesome little spy, and a spirited warrior. His friendship with his robotic life mate C-3PO is the stuff of galactic legend. It's safe to say that without R2-D2 there would be no Star Wars.

The Weird History of Friday the 13th Comics

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Friday the 13th boasts some of the strangest movie tie-in comics ever made. We hit the bloody highs and lows. Mostly lows.

FeatureGavin Jasper
Jan 13, 2017

Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees has been part of pop-culture for decades. It shouldn’t be surprising that he’s had his share of comic book adventures, what with him essentially being a supervillain in a story with no superheroes. Granted, he’s a one-dimensional supervillain with an incredibly vague origin story, but he’s been memorable enough to land him a dozen movie appearances. Many have told his tale in comic form and since the early '90s, he’s been represented by three different publishers.

The surprising thing to me is that the earliest Jason comic is only in the early 90s. For comparison, the RoboCop comics all stretched across the franchise’s entire existence. They were around for all four movies as well as the stretch where he was just about nostalgia. Jason Voorhees didn’t get the same treatment. For the most part, they missed the boat.

Topps Comics first picked up the license and Jason’s comic book debut came in July of 1993. Two comics came out this month with Jason in them, so it’s hard to say what was his very first appearance. One of the two comics was Satan’s Six #4by Tony Isabella and John Cleary. We’re already bonkers out the gate here. Satan’s Six was part of the Secret City Saga, where Topps created a big story using a bunch of leftover Jack Kirby ideas that he never did anything with in the form of several miniseries that intertwined (think Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers). It didn’t last long enough to finish and with Satan’s Six, it’s no wonder.

The comic is a comedy about the demonic Odious Kamodious, who has his own team of agents out to create chaos in his name, only they always screw up. In the very beginning of this issue, Kamodious gets in an argument with one of his demons Frightful and threatens to replace him. He summons Jason Voorhees, who proceeds to talk like Rorschach and try to kill anything nearby.

Anyone else find randomly and casually tossing Jason into a superhero universe’s continuity really weird?

Frightful and teammate Bluedragon go after Jason, but he responds by throwing them a couple times and saying, “HRMM,” a lot. Despite only appearing for a couple of pages, Jason says that six times. Kamodious summons him back where he found him and starts making a blatant reference about Jason going to Hell. The angelic Pristine interrupts and calls out how this was a pointless cameo to justify advertising Jason on the cover, which came at the cost of continuing their very story. And at that point, readers stopped caring.

As Kamodious referenced, Jason was at the time starring in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, otherwise known as Friday the 13th Part IX. Based on the screenplay, the comic is written by Andy Mangels and drawn by Cynthia Martin.

That’s how far down the pipeline we are. By this point, the movie franchise was in dire straits. By the time any comic company thinks of doing anything with Friday the 13th, we’re already at the ninth movie, which was the last Jason movie for eight years. The really bizarre one.

If you haven’t seen it or don’t remember, Jason Goes to Hell is the movie where the FBI finally decides to do something about Jason and blows him to kingdom come in the first few minutes, onlit turns out that he can’t be killed unless stabbed in the heart by another Voorhees (though the comic keeps spelling it “Vorhees”). So Jason’s heart hypnotizes the coroner into eating it and he goes around vomiting the heart into people’s throats to change hosts until he can find and kill the rest of his bloodline.

It’s an example of knowing that you have to do something new and fresh, yet still driving way off the road. Also, if you’re all about drawings of bare asses, this is the comic for you!

But really, all anyone remembers Jason Goes to Hell for is that cameo at the end when Freddy Krueger pulls down Jason’s mask and cackles. That was the original “Nick Fury asks Tony Stark to join the Avengers” moment. It just, you know, took ten years, is all.

Topps didn’t want to wait to give us a big slasher icon crossover and while they didn’t get the rights to Freddy, they got the next best thing. Okay, they didn’t get Michael Meyers, but the next best thing after that. No, they didn’t get Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof, but—Listen, they got Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, okay? More specifically, we got Jason vs. Leatherface, a three-part series by Nancy Collins, David Imhoff, and Jeff Butler.

Despite being released in 1995, the chronology is very choosy, ignoring the history of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre stuff to make sure Leatherface and his brothers Cook and Hitchhiker are both alive. As for Jason, this takes place after Part VI, where he’s chained to the bottom of Camp Crystal Lake. Some corporate types have the lake drained of all the toxic grossness and Jason goes with it. He kind of wanders around, kills a bunch of people on train, and eventually comes across Sawyerville, where Leatherface and Hitchhiker are stalking some poor soul. Jason ends up getting in a scrap with them, where he disarms Leatherface (not literally for once), kills their victim, and then – in a surprising act – hands Leatherface his chainsaw.

There’s this feeling of acceptance between the two parties, leading to Jason being practically adopted into their family. This leads to a really awesome moment where Cook asks him his name. Since these guys need to start calling him Jason and he doesn’t actually speak, Collins goes about it in a clever way.

Through this partnership, we see the differences. While Jason is a ruthless murderer, he isn’t so much a sadist, at least not as much as the Sawyer family. He’ll kill the victims, but Hitchhiker will get on his case for doing it too quickly and not torturing anyone. Mainly, Jason gets along with them due to the way he sees his younger self in Leatherface. For once, he feels sympathy and it drives him to hate Hitchhiker for constantly being such a dick. From there, it becomes Jason vs. the three brothers, where Leatherface will protect his family, even if he does show appreciation for Jason standing up for him.

There wouldn’t be any more Jason comics for a decade until Avatar Press picked up the license in 2005. I had a lot of bad stuff to say about Avatar in the RoboCop article, but here, the ugly, mean-spirited, blood-and-chunks-covered style is a perfect home for Friday the 13th. If anything, it’s a fitting response to how most of the Friday the 13th movies were edited to oblivion by the MPAA to hide all the gore. Now we can see Jason punch a guy in the head so hard that it comes out his ass!

Avatar mostly released a bunch of one-shots, starting with Friday the 13th Special by Brian Pulido and Mike Wolfer. The Avatar Friday the 13th comics have some actual strong ideas mixed in there, but they also rely on doing the same thing over and over again...much like the movies, but in a different way. While every single comic of theirs has at least one softcore sex scene, there’s also a constant theme of the 1% screwing things up for everyone. Like in Friday the 13th Special, it’s about the children of the man who previously owned Camp Crystal Lake. The daughter, a shrewd businesswoman, insists on not letting that land go to waste despite the piles and piles of dead bodies showing why that’s a bad idea.

To be fair, she goes about it the right way. If Jason’s hanging around the woods, just hire a ton of military guys to take him out. That basically took care of Jason in the very beginning of the ninth movie, didn’t it? Too bad being in a comic book has caused him to go through a major power creep, and he’s now able to power through having a huge chunk of him blown off by a grenade launcher, as it just heals up in seconds. Jason’s way too overpowered and that continues on for the next year of comics.

Pulido and Wolfer would get back together to do a three-parter called Bloodbathand it’s easily the best thing to come out of the Avatar run. It has some serious dialogue issues, but the basic idea could have been the basis for a Friday the 13th movie and I would be totally okay with it. It actually comes across as a prototype for Cabin in the Woods.

It has to do with Camp Crystal Lake being opened yet again, this time with ten teen counselors brought in early to get acquainted a day or so before the campers are said to show up. Their boss is Kevin Carny, a kindly southern guy who appears to be really laid back about everything. He wants everyone to be responsible during the daytime, but at night, they’re welcome to enjoy the hot tub, an excess of beer, and each other’s naked company. The counselors all hit it off and immediately pair up with no problem. In fact, they pair up a little too easily, like they were handpicked. Discovered through some really unnatural dialogue, they all come to realize that all ten of them are orphans and have no families. Strange. It’s almost like if something were to happen to them all, nobody would really care enough to look into it.

Naturally, there’s more to Carny than meets the eye. Much like in Jason X, the military and corporations are very into the idea of bringing Jason in for the sake of studying his healing factor and weaponizing him. The camp is nothing more than bait. It helps that the protagonists, Violet and Rich, are actually fairly likeable and relatable compared to every other human character in Avatar’s comics. You end up getting a story of the would-be victims vs. the military vs. the unstoppable killer. It actually has a really good ending too, which will be ruined months later.

Around this time, Avatar released the Jason X Special by Pulido and Sebastian Fiumara. Yes, a Jason Xcomic. The movie is already a few years old at this point and I don’t think anyone cared about it enough to clamor for more Jason X in any form, but here we are. As it turns out, when Uber Jason was blasted to a lake on Earth Two at the end of the movie, he was really back on the original Earth. A woman named Kristen, one of the few remaining humans on the planet, tricked the ship into turning back to Earth for the sake of getting her hands on Uber Jason.

Kristen’s boyfriend Neil is dying and she needs some Voorhees DNA to potentially cure him. Even though she is able to capture Uber Jason with some nanites, you can imagine that this is a bad idea. It becomes a big, confusing mess, where Pamela Voorhees goes from being a voice in Jason’s head to being a machine ghost able to control all the nanites, leading to lots of human-like androids being slaughtered. Uber Jason is shot into space, where he stumbles across a party-based space ship.

That leads us right into the two-parter Jason vs. Jason X by Mike Wolfer. Really? Is that even a contest? That’s like having the regular version of the Hulk fight a super-pissed off Hulk. The story of this one is more contrived than even the beginning of Jason Takes Manhattan. So there’s a piece of Jason’s skull and hockey mask from the Jason X movie that wasn’t part of the regeneration process that created Uber Jason. When that ship was blown up, the chunk of skull floated around in space until – TOTAL COINCIDENCE – it now drifts into the very party ship where Uber Jason is currently slaughtering everyone. The ship’s cloning machine builds a new body out of dead victims and Jason is reborn! Fully clothed too, which I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining about. I live my entire life without seeing his hockey stick.

It takes the whole first issue for the two Jasons to meet up and the entire second issue is them fighting while anyone who crosses paths with the brawl gets chopped up. The fight brings them to Earth Two, where, big surprise, Uber Jason wins. He tears Jason’s brain out, shoves it into his own brain, and reminisces about his mother. He’s also chilling out in the woods near a lake, so even though the Jason X Special changed up the movie’s ending, this comic puts it back the way the writers found it. You know, just in case they were to ever make another Jason X movie.

The last book from Avatar is Friday the 13th: Fearbookby Mike Wolfer and Sebastian Fiumara. It’s a direct follow-up to Bloodbathand is especially pointless. It’s basically about killing off anyone who survived Bloodbathwithout any real drama. Sure, it makes sense to have the government people behind the events of that story taken out, but there’s no actual plot. Jason just effortlessly kills everyone for two dozen pages.

Also, the art is really bad in the sequential sense. It seems to go from point A to C from panel to panel with no sensical movement. For instance, in Bloodbath, they were able to stop Jason by freezing him. The only reason he was able to escape was Violet’s doing. Makes 100% perfect sense that they’d just try that again, right?

And now Jason is able to shrug it off completely to the point that there’s no sign of him being frozen one panel later. What’s up with that?

The ending suffers from the same problem. Violet is backed up to a window and Jason is coming. She decides to take her chances and makes a leap of faith, hoping the trees will break her fall. She jumps and the perspective makes it look like she’s at least ten feet away from the window. Suddenly, Jason has her by the neck and drags her back in.

Anyway, Jason would then move on to the next publisher, Wildstorm, in 2007. Wildstorm mainly gave us a bunch of two-parters, but started it with a six-issue miniseries simply called Friday the 13th by Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, Adam Archer, and Peter Guzman.

For the most part, it’s a basic, by-the-numbers Friday the 13th story in comic form, just handled competently. They’re reopening Camp Crystal Lake again. A handful of teens are brought in to clean up the cabins. Sex and drugs and beer are had. Jason shows up and starts killing people. Same old shit.

At least the cast of victims isn’t so bad. They aren’t great, but they at least have more personality and dimension than the characters in the Avatar Press comics, easy as that is to do. The drawback is that for the sake of conflict, they’re almost all over-the-top in terms of being assholes. Like there’s a nerdy hippy guy who looks to be potentially psychotic and everyone shits on him for zero reason. For one of the characters it makes sense, since it’s established that she’s had to put up with his company for years and she’s a terrible person, but everyone else snaps at him like he’s Donnie from Big Lebowski.

The comic plays up the supernatural aspects of Friday the 13th more than just Jason surviving taking a machete to the neck. Not only do they establish that the lake is haunted by the ghosts of a hundred murdered children, but the final issue even explains that the area is literally cursed due to some settlers murdering a Native American shaman.

Otherwise, it’s nothing special.

Marc Andreyko and Shawn Moll give us Pamela’s Tale, a two-parter where Pamela Voorhees explains her life story to a camp counselor while giving her a ride to Camp Crystal Lake. Naturally, she also murders her, but still keeps telling the story, mainly about raising Jason and how she’s been out to kill anyone she feels is responsible for his death.

We also see Jason’s father depicted as a drunken wife-beater and massive dude (he had to inherit it from somewhere) who is killed because Pamela’s afraid that if she tells him she’s pregnant, he’ll beat her so badly that she’ll have a miscarriage. Oh, and she’s also whispering conversations with “Jason” much like she does at the end of the first movie.

Jason’s birth defects are explained both between his father’s treatment of his mother and the fact that Pamela is constantly in places filled with cigarette smoke. It hits comedic levels once we see the doctor smoking a cigarette while delivering the baby. That’s dark as hell but I had to laugh.

Jason Aaron and Adam Archer team up for How I Spent My Summer Vacation, another two-parter. I’m not sure if this is the best Friday the 13th comic, but it’s definitely the most fun. It’s about a little boy named Davie Falkner who is at summer camp. At Camp Crystal Lake. They opened the goddamn thing AGAIN! CRIPES! Anyway, Davie has a bone disorder that gives him a malformed head and will likely kill him in five years. While he has normal intelligence, he looks an awful lot like Jason’s young self, albeit with hair. He’s constantly teased for his looks, but that’s a picnic compared to having Jason Voorhees show up to kill everyone.

After lots of campers, councilors, and cops are killed, Jason picks up Davie and drags him away, kicking and screaming. The only other survivor is the sheriff, who was so hopped up on meth that he accidentally shot up two councilors, and then hacked them up with a machete to cover his tracks and blame it on Jason. Finding out that Davie’s still alive makes him want to make sure he can kill the last witness.

Meanwhile, we get what is essentially a Batman and Robin origin story with Jason and Davie. It’s awesome and I wish it was longer. Jason never speaks or makes any gestures, but he keeps Davie safe out of feeling like a kindred spirit. Jason would go kill people having a picnic, wrap their food in a blanket, return to Davie, and throw it to him. Davie goes from being dragged around against his will to following his new hero.

Davie idolizes Jason for being like him, only able to not take shit from anyone who would bully him. That Jason is an even bigger bully than anyone else is lost on Davie, but it’s nice to see Jason make a connection for once in his after-life. Plus with the comedic psycho sheriff, Jason gets to actually play the role of anti-hero here. Granted, he still kills so many undeserving people, but the book is still sort of cute.

Yet another two-parter comes in the form of Bad Land, which is by Ron Marz and Mike Huddleston. It’s about two different stories from different times that run parallel. One is a present-day story about a trio of hikers who come across a cabin in the middle of a huge storm and become victims of Jason. The other takes place a couple centuries earlier, where three fur trappers enter a teepee to escape a similar storm and come across a Native American woman and her baby. Horrible things happen to the woman and her child, shortly before her husband arrives. They blow his face off with a rifle shot and he runs off, only to plot his revenge.

Yep. We have the Proto-Jason. It isn’t outright said whether he’s just super pissed enough to fight through the wound or if he’s a full-on murder zombie, but considering he lacks the wound when we see his rampage, it looks like the latter.

Huh. Wonder whatever happened to that guy.

The last normal type of Jason comic released by Wildstorm is The Abuser & the Abused by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Andy B. Andy B’s art makes this easily the best-looking Friday the 13th comic by a landslide. Lot of great expressions and action in there.

The issue is kind of an alternate take on How I Spent My Summer Vacation. It deals with a girl who is constantly abused. Her boyfriend beats her, her classmates make fun of her, her father and stepmother bully her, and no authority figure will help her in any way. She takes it upon herself to strike back against anyone who’s wronged her and part of her plan involves luring her boyfriend to Camp Crystal Lake (which is not open for once. Thank God). Then when Jason appears to do what Jason does best, the girl gets mad because this is her kill and the two murderers throw down. Totally worth checking out for the fantastic fight scene.

Now we get to the grand finale in the form of two six-issue miniseries. Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash started in early 2008, based on a script treatment for a sequel to the Freddy vs. Jason movie that would never come to be. The Jeff Katz screenplay is adapted by James Kuhoric with art by Jason Craig. It’s generally okay. It’s nothing especially great or especially awful. It comes up with a satisfying enough story that brings together the three horror icons, has them play off each other, and gives us a big enough body count.

Freddy is able to convince Jason to do his bidding by banging his mother. At least, that’s what Jason sees in his nightmare, where Freddy acts like his new step-father and has “Pamela” tell Jason to listen to his authority. Freddy wants him to fetch the Necronomicon and wouldn’t you know it, Ash Williams is working at a nearby hardware store for the holidays.

What’s great about it is that we actually have a real protagonist to cheer for, who we know has enough plot armor to stay alive. The Freddy vs. Jason movie didn’t have anyone nearly as likeable as Ash. The main drawback is that Jason is the third wheel, mostly overshadowed by the other two co-stars. This becomes a bigger problem in the sequel, which I’ll get to in just a bit.

Sorry, I was wrong. The main drawback is that despite Jason Craig’s art starting incredibly strong, it becomes rushed to hell by the time he hits the final issue. That’s too bad, since the final battle between the two is excellent outside of that. Freddy is pumped up with power from the Necronomicon and Jason is maskless and replaced his dismembered hand with a machete. Ash is bemused, noting the lack of originality.

By the end, Freddy and Jason are both defeated for the time being, but the Necronomicon opens to a page that’s very reminiscent of the movie poster for Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors, only this time, Ash is leading the siege.

That leads us to Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: Nightmare Warriors by the same creative team, though with Cruddie Torian doing a bit of fill-in work. Sadly, Jason Craig’s art takes a huge dive, even worse than before. Really, the whole comic is a gigantic mess, making it a perfect Friday the 13thcomic bookend to whatever the hell was going on with that Satan’s Six issue.

It’s a real shame too, because I absolutely love the setup. It’s such a brilliant concept for a climactic finale to Freddy and Jason’s respective series. See, Ash is invited to join a support group of sorts made up of those who have survived encounters with Freddy and/or Jason. So you have a group made up of Maggie Burroughs (Freddy’s Dead), Dr. Neil Gordon (Nightmare on Elm Street 3), Steven Freeman (Jason Goes to Hell), Stephanie Kimble (Steven’s baby daughter from that movie all grown up), Alice Johnson (Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and 5), Jacob Johnson (Alice’s son, also grown up), Tina Shepard (Friday the 13th Part VII), and Rennie Wickham (Friday the 13th Part VIII). Then waiting in the shadows is maverick survivor and quasi-hero of the Friday the 13th franchise, Tommy Jarvis, who wants to take out Jason on his own terms.

Also awesome is Jason’s redesign. For the first half, at least.

After all the bullshit he’s been through fighting Freddy and Ash in the last book, Jason is barely holding together. He’s got so much battle damage that even if he’s freakishly strong, he looks like’s seconds away from falling apart. Between his jaw being completely fleshless and the bottom part of his hockey mask before destroyed, he’s got this badass skull goalie thing going on.

Then Freddy ruins it by making Jason his general and using the Necronomicon to amp up Jason's appearance, cleaning him up and fixing his disfigurements. He also gives him long, black hair, making him look like a generic 90s vigilante. This also allows him to speak for once when he has his final battle with Tommy Jarvis.

Certainly better than, “HRMM!” at least.

As I said, the book goes completely full-on nuts, especially when it comes to Maggie Burroughs. She is actually Freddy’s daughter and killed him in the sixth Elm Street movie (the last canon one before Freddy vs. Jason). Here, she’s secretly evil and is working for her father. I guess they can get away with it because she’s the hero of the most hated Nightmare on Elm Street, but it’s never explained why she’s suddenly evil. Then not only does she start dressing like a sexy X-Men supervillain, but she starts making out with her father. And he puts his hand down her pants while grabbing her boob with the other. What. The. Fuck?

Anyway, she’s crushed by a tank a couple of issues later while fighting Jason in the Oval Office. Strange, strange comic. The book has a lot of big ideas, but it’s completely incomprehensible.

What I find interesting is the ending. Freddy’s attempt to cause Hell on Earth via the Necronomicon goes sour and they give him the most final death possible. He’s stripped of his powers, leaving a naked human form, begging for his life. Ash shoots him with his boomstick, killing him. Then some really ill-explained and badly-set-up time-travel happens where the warrant for his arrest from decades ago is now correctly signed, meaning he’ll never become the dream demon and so many deaths are negated. Not only is Freddy done, but he never really started in the first place!

Jason, on the other hand, is stabbed through the chest by Stephanie (which is supposed to be the one thing that can totally kill him for good) and Tommy chops his head off, but his body is missing anyway because one day he’s going to go to space and God forbid we mess around with continuity!

Gotta protect the sanctity of Jason X, man.

That was the last we’ve seen of Jason Voorhees in comic form and there’s no sign of him coming back any time soon. Despite being such a cinematic icon, there’s only so much you can do with the character. He’s a walking plot device who isn’t allowed to be anything more, nor should he ever be. He’s just an excuse for shock value and mainstream comics have already gotten to that level of mean-spirited violence, making him nothing but obsolete.

Poor guy. Finally DC Comics is about constantly tearing people’s arms off and Jason doesn’t get to play.

Gavin Jasper thinks it’s fitting that Jason is a goalie, considering he's constantly out to stop people from scoring. Follow him on Twitter!

X-Men: Supernova Might be Next X-Men Movie

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Is X-Men 7 now called X-Men: Supernova? And is it shooting in 2017? Well...it looks that way.

NewsMike Cecchini
Jan 13, 2017

It's tough to keep track of just what's happening with the X-Men movies these days. After a November report that the franchise was looking for something of a reset after X-Men: Apocalypse got a lukewarm reception (and perhaps because the franchise's continuity is all but incomprehensible these days), it started to look increasingly likely that 20th Century Fox would focus on spinoffs like Deadpool 2 and New Mutants (the latter of which is going into production shortly in Montreal).

Production Weekly has a note listingX-Men: Supernova, a title we haven't heard before, as going into production in 2017. It's listed alongside New Mutants, so there's little chance these are the same movie. This almost lines up with an older report, too. In November of 2015 Le Journal de Montreal reported that Fox was planning an X-Men 7 shoot for 2017. Now, at the time, they reported that Bryan Singer will be back to direct yet another installment of the franchise, and that no longer appears to be the case.

Now, that title, "Supernova" could be just a working title or codename. But if it isn't, it does bring the cosmic side of the X-Men universe back to mind, and that's something that the franchise hasn't really touched yet. And with superhero movies becoming increasingly commonplace, it might be time for the X-Men movies to take things in a different direction, namely, to outer space. There's lots of opportunities there, but the biggest one was already teased in the most recent film.

It's no secret that fans weren't happy with how the Dark Phoenix story played out in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand. And there were hints from the trailers on out in X-Men: Apocalypse that Sophie Turner's Jean Grey was already feeling the early effects of the cosmic Phoenix force. In the comic book version of the Dark Phoenix Saga, you know that Jean has passed the point of redemption when she uses a star to recharge her powers...a star that has inhabited planets in its solar system. You can imagine what the resulting "supernova" does.

We've argued at length that the best thing the franchise could do right now is do this story properly, ideally as more than one movie. You can read that article here.

But just to bring things back to this report about X-Men: Supernova...we still don't know if this is on the money or if there's some garbled information in there. The lack of a director is particularly concerning, unless Bryan Singer is keeping secrets from everybody. And with Hugh Jackman seeming to waffle from interview to interview about whether Loganis indeed his last outing as Wolverine, well, anything seems possible right now.

Meanwhile, Fox has a number of dates reserved for X-Men movies on its release calendar that haven't been claimed, including June 29 and November 2 2018 (unlikely for this), and February 14, 2019. 

Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77: Details on the DC Comics Series

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DC comic book series Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77 portrays a surreal team-up against a long-awaited villain.

NewsJoseph Baxter
Jan 13, 2017

The classic television versions of DC Comics signature superheroes Batman and Wonder Woman have been revived in alternate forms of media, notably with the Batman ’66 and Wonder Woman ’77 comic series'. However, the illustrated renditions of the former small screen A-listers, played respectively by Adam West and Lynda Carter, have never crossed paths… at least until now.

With the imminent launch of DC’s six-issue crossover series Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77 comes intriguing details about the plot and inspiration behind the purposefully campy comic book series that sounds surprisingly compelling. First and foremost, the crossover will have the Caped Crusader and the Amazon Princess tangling with a villain who’s a surreal thematic mismatch for the campy television icons in the ruthless Ra’s al Ghul. The series also represents a team-up of each title’s writers in Jeff Parker (Batman ’66) and Mark Andreyko (Wonder Woman ’77), who are attempting ambitious creative endeavors. As Parker tells THR:

"Marc originally had the whole structure: 'Why don't we do six issues, and make it span three eras?' I loved that. And then it just seemed natural, who do we have that could be a good villain for every era? Oh, it's Ra's Al Ghul. This is a great time to have an immortal that Batman would normally fight and it makes sense for Wonder Woman to fight. He makes sense as a foil for both of those heroes, for me. His League of Shadows has its own kind of mythology, which sort of works for Wonder Woman."

Arising during an era of DC’s comic book depiction of Batman that was a reaction to the corny, irreverent Adam West television show of the 1960’s, villain Ra’s al Ghul was created in 1971 by editor Julius Schwartz during the title's legendary dark tonal turn steered by writer Dennis O’Neil and artists Neal Adams. Of course, Ra’s, the long-lived, uber-intelligent, rampantly-ruthless leader of the League of Assassins (or Shadows) not only became an A-list Batman villain in myriad media renditions, notably Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy played by Liam Neeson, but was also retconned into serving a vital role in Batman’s origin story. Thus, the intrinsically anachronistic meeting of West-Batman and Ra’s is worth the cover charge.

Interestingly, at least in this series’ universe, Wonder Woman will receive a measure of credit in Batman’s origin. The crossover will depict a visit to Wonder Woman’s home of Paradise Island full of appropriately-campy 1960’s-inspired designs as they would have appeared on the old Batman TV series. However, it seems that the dynamic in this team-up will also, in some sense, portray Wonder Woman – an ancient demigoddess – as a crucial inspiration for Batman’s labeled-gadget-wielding crimefighting endeavors from an early age. In this case, a caper in which Ra’s hires Catwoman to steal a mysterious book evokes a flashback to Batman's childhood in an encounter with Wonder Woman during World War II involving Nazis. As Andreyko explains:

"Having Wonder Woman be an inspiration for Batman does make sense, because Lynda Carter always played Wonder Woman as a character who wanted people to be the best that they could be. It's the opposite of grim and gritty."

For writers Parker and Andreyko, the Batman ’66 and Wonder Woman ‘77 crossover event was a labor of love, with the latter affirming that, should the sales for this series justify it, that gladly field further crossovers together, “no questions asked.” This surreal fan-fiction-fodder meeting of two small screen icons on the panels and pages in Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77 will arrive in comic book store shelves with Issue #1 of the six-issue series on January 18. Check out the standard cover below by Mike Allred and an alternate cover painting by Alex Ross.

X-Men: Phoenix Is the Franchise’s Salvation

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After X-Men: Apocalypse, the series could go a number of ways, but Sophie Turner's fiery Phoenix can raise it above any mixed ashes.

FeatureDavid Crow
Jan 13, 2017

This article contains X-Men: Apocalypse spoilers, as well as some from the Dark Phoenix Saga of the comics.

X-Men: Apocalypsehas come and gone, and opinions were, in the end, decidedly mixed. Whereas other 2016 superhero movies received near universal praise (Captain America, Deadpool) or condemnation (Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad), Bryan Singer’s fourth mutant opus fell somewhere strangely in the middle. Personally, I found X-Men: Apocalypse to be pleasant enough reunion at Xavier’s school, but it is more than fair to see we had seen almost all of it before. And better too.

Yet, just as rumors of an "X-Men: Supernova" perculoate on the internet, one thing that can be unanimously agreed upon is the glory of a sequence towards the end of the movie where Sophie Turner as Jean Grey is asked to unleash her full godlike mutant ability against Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse, an ancient being who up until this point has made a big show about being perceived as an actual deity. To be sure, Isaac’s Apocalypse proved he is at least a master of taking massive amounts of punishment, withstanding Magneto’s heightened magnetic fields, Storm’s electrical charges, and whatever that stuff is coming out of Cyclops’ eyes. And he’s doing all this while dishing up the beating of a lifetime to Charles Xavier in his own arena of the mind.

What, you thought a Napoleonic fiend who purports to be the Old Testament God would be above attacking those with disabilities? Welcome to a post-Trump world.

However, it is only when Xavier calls upon his favorite student that the tide really turns against the Big A. McAvoy, always pitch perfect, evokes bottomless sympathy and concern as he pleads with Jean to let her Phoenix flag fly, and Turner happily takes this star moment to literally shine in a spotlight made of cosmic flames. With her transformation into Phoenix complete, Apocalypse melts away like a snowball that finally found its way to Hell, and Bryan Singer is at last allowed to marvel in the Phoenix iconography he first toyed with 2003—only to then see it squandered in complete failure by Brett Ratner with 2006’s historically dreadful X-Men: The Last Stand.

It is obviously meant to be the highest point of interest in a climax so comic booky that one might’ve half expected ink to run off the frame and into the multiplex seats. It also allowed for a generally acceptable bow to be put on the “First Class Trilogy” with the newly empowered Jean Grey rebuilding Xavier’s mansion alongside a saved Magneto (at this point if he inevitably betrays the X-Men again in another movie, he better do it while hovering on metallic water skis above the jaws of a saltwater leviathan).

Now, Jean is an omega level mutant, Magneto and Xavier are at peace for the first time since the third act of X-Men: First Class, and Mystique is leading the young mutants into a signoff of Danger Room fan-service.

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In a number of respects, this could theoretically be the end of the story begun by Bryan Singer’s X-Men all the way back in 2000. The mistakes of The Last Stand were righted in 2014’s Days of Future Past, and closure on the Xavier and Magneto relationship has been granted along with every single thing that comic book fanboys have been griping about wanting to see for almost two decades: Jim Lee’s colorful costume designs from the early 1990s; Sentinels in the Danger Room; and of course, the Phoenix.

But this is so obviously not the end. Even if X-Men: Apocalypse did not match Days of Future Past at the box office, this franchise has already survived much more troubled waters, and the in-roads built already from the last two popular X-Men movies, plus Deadpool and the coming of Logan and New Mutants just around the corner means that Fox’s X-brand is strong. So another “X-Men Proper” film is inevitable. The question is how to react to the current market.

Undoubtedly, if the box office steps down from Days of Future Past, there will be some consideration of scaling back and returning to what the franchise has always been known for: good mutants go to stop a bad mutant (who or may not be manipulated by another recast William Stryker), and perhaps they tussle with a morally ambiguous Magneto along the way.

Such a follow-up with this cast seems plausible since producer and writer Simon Kinberg has previously revealed that the seventh X-Men movie will probably be set in the 1990s (continuing the decade time jumps found between the three “First Class” films), and the post-credit stinger in X-Men: Apocalypse would confirm such a story is very possible. For in that final, final scene, the Essex Corporation is clearly namedropped, and that can mean only one thing—Mister Sinister, a villain whose name is far cooler when printed than said aloud.

Making this the next direction for the franchise is sensible. After all, X-Men: Days of Future Past also had a post-credits scene that teased the coming of Apocalypse with the far more eye-catching visual of a gray-skinned mutant building the pyramids. However, those similarities are exactly why now is the time for the franchise to pivot toward something even bigger and hopefully far more fulfilling… and it comes back to the most eye-catching scene of the Apocalypse climax.

Rather than take Apocalypse as a sign the franchise must go back to its roots, the divisive response should be understood as a harbinger of the dangers all superhero franchises will eventually face if they should live so long. After 16 years, the risk of repeating oneself will become greater with every installment, and no amount of 1990s grunge aesthetics will change that.

Thus going down the Mister Sinister rabbit hole could prove as creatively redundant as Apocalypse ultimately appeared. Apocalypse’s Future Past tease certainly had fans abuzz, and there is no denying that the character remains one of the most popular villains in X-Men mythos. However, at the end of the day, Apocalypse offered a very familiar conflict to those who have seen half of the previous X-Men films (including X-Men, The Last Stand, and First Class). Once again, we had a mutant who was a threat to the entire world, albeit for more biblical reasons, and once again he gathered a group of mostly mute henchmen to battle the X-Men, even if the special effects were far bigger (though not necessarily better) this time around.

In fact, one could point out that the six previous X-Men films have played into two specific types of conflict. Either the film revolves around a big bad mutant and company fighting the heroes, or all of the mutants fighting an even more insidious human threat who has propagated his menace via bigotry, as seen in X-Men 2 and Days of Future Past. The latter films are largely lauded as high points in the superhero genre, particularly when drenched in the mind-bending concept of time travel, the visual novelty of the Sentinels, and the shrewd advantage of an early 1970s/post-Vietnam funk found in a “Me Generation” setting. Nevertheless, the set-ups have become familiar, and Mister Sinister would promise a retread of the formula that was just exhausted in Apocalypse.

However, the movie moment of the newest film suggests something else altogether; the prospect of something new both in the X-Men film series and in the genre as a whole.

Of course, the Phoenix Saga was “adapted,” in the loosest sense possible, in X-Men: The Last Stand. Unfortunately, Jean Grey and her cosmic alter-ego were hardly even recognizable since she was presented as the Benedict Arnold of X-Men because of “reasons,” and her fiery side-persona was haphazardly introduced as something akin to a split personality disorder that was glossed over in favor of making her yet one more muted henchman of Magneto’s plan. She was neither goddess nor had so much as a say in her destruction, which was instead depicted as the male Wolverine providing a mercy killing for his damsel in distress. Both visually and narratively, the filmmakers ignored all the fire a real adaptation of the Phoenix saga could offer.

But Apocalypse righted these awful mistakes in more ways than by just having a bird of flame manifest around Sophie Turner (or by allowing Jean to be the one to meta-shade The Last Stand during the mall scene). Instead, it planted the seeds for doing this storyline properly with a line of dialogue drowned out in so much audio bombast that it is easy to miss. Apocalypse’s last words, before he turns into a marshmallow that’s been left above the fire too long, are, “At last, all has been revealed.” And that very well could be referring to the future of the X-Men franchise.

While Singer has stayed true to the franchise’s internal logic up to this point—including by having Xavier aware of Jean Grey’s potential for end times destruction since he already foresaw it (as well as the risk of “caging the beast” inside Jean’s head) due to glimpsing the future in the last film—this scene nonetheless hints at a much larger X-Men universe with potential for far crazier stories than a mutant god. Apocalypse’s body-transferring technology teases the celestials (Marvel's grooviest aliens) in the very first scene, and the implication of what that truly means comes from the villain’s moment of revelation.

It would appear that Apocalypse, who may have some rudimentary knowledge of the cosmic beings beyond this world, recognized the power of Jean’s Phoenix force, suggesting not only did he bear witness to an entity of greater divinity, but that it is of a foreign, alien origin and outside of Jean Grey’s control.

And if we use the comics as a guide, for once the idea of a franchise “going to space” sounds not only logical, but potentially amazing.

Indeed, for those who have not read the trenchant tomes of countless mutant lore from Marvel Comics, and particularly of the Chris Claremont variety, the Phoenix is more than Jean Grey on her worst day; it is the most powerful cosmic force in the universe that has latched itself onto a member of the X-Men family. Hence why the story should never just be about Jean struggling to control her powers; she is also forced into a position to choose between being a human or, for all intents and purposes, a god. She is fighting for her soul in the presence of cosmic omnipotence.

If 20th Century Fox wants to elevate the X-Men franchise beyond the critique of “been there, done that,” then the answer lies not in their past successes, but rather doing with the brand what Days of Future Past did by introducing time travel: taking relatively jarring science fiction elements ignored by other superhero films and galloping into some crazy, gnarly places with it.

In the comics, the Phoenix is a gateway to some pretty wild and madcap comic book ideas, even if admittedly not all of them are golden. For example, the Shi’Ar Empire is an appealingly byzantine concept that is equal parts Star Wars rip-off and medieval iconography transposed for the space age. There is a once and future alien empress named Lilandra, gladiatorial death matches on the Earth’s moon, and the silliest of all silly MacGuffins to be found in the M’Kraan Crystal. That last bit veers closer to the Marvel Studios formula (again not all comic book ideas are gems), but much of this could be a breath of fresh air for the franchise on the big screen.

Whereas Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is a five-way buddy comedy in space, the more ponderously dense X-Men movies could take these concepts of intergalactic feudalism in the direction of something akin to Game of Thrones. Which is more than apt since the center of this would be Sophie Turner, whose Jean, along with Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler, has the potential to carry the franchise forward in the way that McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Jennifer Lawrence so successfully did in 2011.

And most beneficial of all is that the threat would not be from an external mutant or human; it’d be internal.

By taking the X-Men into the cosmic realm, already the franchise can differentiate itself from the competition. Granted, it would appear that both Justice League and Avengers: Infinity War will look to the heavens with films about Darkseid and Thanos, respectively. However, both conceits would appear to tread similar ground to X-Men: Apocalypse (and honestly the first Avengers film): a big blue bastard tries to take over Earth, and the superheroes must join forces to stop the destruction porn that follows.

We already are seeing the law of diminishing returns from that familiar comic book formula, but several films in the X-universe now set in space involving morally ambiguous, warring dynasties, multiple races of aliens, and the superheroes battling on the moon would be the striking contrast Apocalypse lacked. And it would build not toward a big bad guy coming from a Jack Kirby hellscape to destroy Earth, but rather it'd lead to a war within the X-Men’s own ranks.

The ending film of such a saga—because every storyline must now be two or three movies—would thus be about the X-Men facing the fact that Jean Grey has been corrupted by an alien entity that would consume her soul in fire, as well as possibly the whole galaxy. By internalizing the struggle for our ostensible good guys, it would be more The Exorcist than Independence Day, intrinsically lending the material a higher caliber of storytelling, just as the James Cameron-inspired Future Past trumps the Roland Emmerich-looking Apocalypse.

This advantageous changing of priorities would allow the franchise to shed names who may not want to return while spotlighting the younger cast that worked so well. In a way, X-Men: Apocalypse was one last ride in the franchise’s current form. If Fox wants to seriously continue it, the answer will not be a glimpse into the past, but to evolve with an eye toward the future… and the stars.

***A version of this article was originally published on May 30, 2016.

The Exorcist Writer William Peter Blatty Dies at 89

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The writer/filmmaker who scared the devil out of America started out telling jokes.

NewsTony Sokol
Jan 13, 2017

William Peter Blatty, who wrote the book and screenplay for The Exorcist, died Thursday, Jan. 12, at a hospital near his home in Bethesda, Maryland. Blatty was 89.

The new was announced by William Friedkin, who directed the influential  1973 horror movie.

"William Peter Blatty, dear friend and brother who created The Exorcistpassed away yesterday," Friedkin tweeted Friday morning,

According to his wife Julie Witbrodt, Blatty died of death was multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer.

"RIP William Peter Blatty, who wrote the great horror novel of our time. So long, Old Bill," Stephen King tweeted.

Blatty’s 1970 novel The Exorcistlived on the New York Times bestseller list for 57 weeks, selling more than 10 million copies.

The 1973 feature adaptation, starring Linda Blair as the 12-year-old girl possessed by the devil, played in theaters for months, with lines overflowing around city blocks. The film topped $400 million at the worldwide box office. The Exorcist was the first horror movie ever nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Blatty won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film was designated for preservation by the Library of Congress, who enshrined it in the National Film Registry in 2010. Fox adapted it into a TV series in September 2016.

Blatty was born in New York in 1928. His parents were Lebanese immigrant parents. Blatty was a former Jesuit school valedictorian. He had a number of odd jobs. He sold vacuum-cleaners, a beer truck driver and as a ticket agent for United Airlines. After he enlisted in the Air Force, he specialized in psychological warfare, edited the U.S. Information Agency’s magazine and did PR for universities.

While his work on The Exorcist projects label him a fright specialist, he began in comedy. He won $10,000 for telling a joke to Groucho Marx on the fifties gameshow You Bet Your Life and tossed off the prescient punch line that he was off to “work on a novel.” He wrote the comic 1960 autobiography, Which Way to Mecca, Jack? and the comic novels, I, Billy Shakespeare (1965), and Twinkle, Twinkle, “Killer” Kane (1966) which was republished under the name The Ninth Configuration.

Blatty excelled in his early film comedies. He wrote The Man From the Diner's Club (1963), which starred Danny Kaye; Promise Her Anything (1965), which starred the Warren Beatty-Leslie Caron; the political comedy John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965), which starred Shirley MacLaine and Peter Ustinov and The Great Bank Robbery (1969) which starred the irrepressible Zero Mostel. He worked on Blake Edwards’ Pink Panther sequel  Shot in the Dark (1964) What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966), Gunn (1967) and the musical-comedy Darling Lili (1970).

Blatty wasn’t part of the 1977 sequel Exorcist II: The Heretic, directed by John Boorman.  Legion, Blatty’s sequel to The Exorcist, was published in 1983. He adapted the screenplay and produced and directed it for the screen as The Exorcist III. He wasn’t involved in the 2004 prequel Exorcist: The Beginning or its source material Paul Schrader’s Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, which Blatty preferred.

Blatty published the autobiography I’ll Tell Them I Remember You in 1973, His memoir If There Were Demons Then Perhaps There Were Angels: William Peter Blatty’s Own Story of the Exorcist was published in 1978. His novel Elsewhere was published in 2009 and the books Dimiter and Crazy were published in 2010. 

Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye #4 Exclusive First Look

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We have preview pages for the next issue of the Young Animal hit!

NewsJim Dandy
Jan 13, 2017

DC sent along an exclusive advance preview of next week's Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye #4, the Young Animal comic written by Jon Rivera, with art from Michael Avon Oeming and Nick Filardi.

Here's the official synopsis courtesy of DC Comics:

Cave and his team find the underground city of Muldroog, and it’s not what he expected. Plus, Cave has visions of his deceased wife, but are they hallucinations, or is there more to this than meets the cybernetic eye? Also features a Super Powers backup feature by Thomas Scioli (G.I. Joe vs. Transformers)!

We're obviously excited to have preview pages for Cave, as all new comics work from Oeming is always welcome (seriously, Thor Disassembled is one of the best comics I've ever read) and this has been arguably the best Young Animal comic to date. What we're NOT excited about is that none of these pages are Tom Scioli's backups, which have been incredible. Seriously: last issue, he retold Green Arrow's origin story in one page. It had everything you could want from a Green Arrow story: adultery, elder gods, trick arrows, getting blazed from Starro the Conqueror. Regardless, Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye is excellent comics.

Check it out.

CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #4 

Written by JON RIVERA 

Art and cover by MICHAEL AVON OEMING 

Backup story and art by THOMAS SCIOLI 

Variant cover by ANDREW MACLEAN 

Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details. 


It Movie Release Date, Cast, Photos, & Everything Else We Know

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What you need to know about the Stephen King It remake, including latest news, release date, cast, photos, and more!

NewsDen Of Geek Staff
Jan 14, 2017

It Movie Release Date

It will arrive on on September 8th, 2017.

It Movie Cast

Bill Skarsgard (Hemlock Grove) will take over killer clown duties on the new IT movie from Will Poulter (We're the Millers), who departed the project shortly after director Cary Fukunaga. THR reports that Skarsgard is in final negotiations to play the evil entity that terrorizes a group of kids (and later, adults) known as the Losers Club in a small town in Maine. 

Pennywise the Clown is one of the most terrifying and evil characters King has ever created. Taking the shape of a clown named Pennywise, it eats little children and manipulates them into doing his bidding. It's been around for centuries, returning every three decades to terrorize the town of Derry, Maine—one of King's favorite places to have everyone murdered. Let's hope Mr. Skarsgard can live up to Curry, King's original novel, and fan expectation. 

Skarsgard joins Jaeden Lieberher (Bill Denbrough), Jack Dylan Grazer (Eddie Kaspbrak), Wyatt Oleff (Stanley Uris), Chosen Jacobs (Mike Hanlon), Jeremy Ray Taylor (Ben Hanscom), Nicholas Hamilton (Henry Bowers), Owen Teague (Patrick Hockstetter), Sophia Lillis (Beverly Marsh), Steven Williams (Leroy Hanlon), Stephen Bogaert (Al Marsh), Jackson Robert Scott (Georgie), Pip Dwyer (Sharon Denbrough), Logan Thompson (Victor Criss), and Jake Sim (Belch Huggins).

Richard "Richie" Tozier will be played by Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard. The funny member of Losers' Club with the scotch-taped glasses apparently got lost on July 4th. Young Tozier was played by Seth Green on the 1990 TV adaptation of It. Harry Anderson played him as an adult.  

Owen Teague has been added to the cast of Andrés Muschietti’s (Mama) two-part remake of Stephen King’s It, which is being produced by New Line Cinema. Teague, who plays the son of Ben Mendelsohn on Bloodline at Netflix, will play Patrick Hocksetter, one of the bullies who torment the Losers Club. Hocketter is a psycho who falls under the sway of the evil clown without even looking at the deadlights. His fridge is filled with animals he’s killed.

It Movie Filming

Andres Muschietti (Mama) is directing. He took over the struggling pre-production from True Detective season one's Cary Fukunaga. Gary Dauberman (Annabelle) has written the current screenplay adaptation of Stephen King's novel. We'll see if this actually happens this time. The September 8th release date actually refers to the first of two Itmovies, as the massive book is being split into two films. 

It Movie Photos

Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise the Clown is preparing to terrorize the children of Derry in 2017. His version of Stephen King's infamous monster looks a bit less party-friendly than Tim Curry's version, in fact. Check out Pennywise hanging out in the sewers in this new photo from EW:

The first part of the It remake has officially finished filming. A new picture to commemorate the end of filming appeard on producer Barbara Muschietti's Instagram. Check it out below:

EW has revealed the first full look at Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise the Clown for the upcoming It remake. As you might expect, the costume is quite terrifying, guarranteed to terrify a whole new generation of children. Check it out if you dare:

The costume was created by award-winning costume designer Janie Bryant (Mad Men). Says Bryant of the costume, "The costume definitely incorporates all these otherworldly past lives, if you will. He is definitely a clown from a different time," revealing that the costume takes inspiration from the Medieval, Renaissance, Elizabethan, and Victorian eras.

"There is almost a doll-like quality to the costume," Bryant says. "The pants being short, the high waistline of the jacket, and the fit of the costume is a very important element. It gives the character a child-like quality."

Child-like is not the word I would use...

Here's the first picture of the actors who will make up the Losers Club:

Here's the very first picture of Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise the Clown:

New Superman Costume Revealed

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Superman has another new costume, but you might actually like this one.

NewsMike Cecchini
Jan 14, 2017

For a costume that remained virtually unchanged for over 70 years, Superman getting his third redesign since 2011. There was a "softening" of the look back in early 2015, which John Romita Jr. had a hand in, followed by the initial "Rebirth" redesign by Jim Lee and Tom Derenick in 2016, whose most notable feature was the blue (as opposed to red) boots, and which first got rid of the awkward high collar of the initial New 52 costume.

The conclusion of the "Superman Reborn" storyline in the pages of Superman and Action Comics will lead to the debut of a brand new costume in April. And by "brand new" we mean one that should make classic fans pretty happy. The biggest, most obvious change is that the blue boots that have been an identifying feature of the DC Rebirth Superman for the last few months are replaced with the classic red versions, which make the whole outfit hang together much better, and a bit less like footy pajamas.

Other than that, we're getting a less awkward belt (with its pentagonal buckle that mirrors the chest shield reminiscent of the Superman Returns costume). I still don't understand what the resistance to making the whole belt gold is, as it breaks up the red/blue better, but this is a reasonable compromise.

If anything, I'm a little disappointed that it loses the "gauntlets" which mirrored the look of the movie costume of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice fame. I always felt this helped drive home the concept that this is some kind of Kryptonian ceremonial garb and gives things a retro, almost Flash Gordon vibe. The idea that the suit (and S) were Kryptonian in nature was first introduced in 1978's Superman: The Movie, and I like seeing that emphasized in the comics these days. 

They're still sticking with the "classic" S shield, rather than the slightly more stylized New 52 version. I rather liked the new S, myself, and I'm surprised that if they were going to make a change that they didn't go with the version seen in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, which may just be my favorite version of the logo ever. That version manages to look like a throwback to the Earth-2 Superman logo and the alien "symbol of hope" it's supposed to be in the movies.

And no, the red underpants are never coming back. Both DC and Warner Bros. had been trying to figure out a way to get rid of those for at least a decade before the New 52, so this is as close as we're going to get to the familiar look. But the overall effect here is something that will probably (finally) stand the test of time. I think everyone, even the purists, will be happy with this one.

Check it out, courtesy of Comicbook.com.

You'll get the new Superman costume in the pages of Superman #20 by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, and Mick Cray. It goes on sale on April 5th.

Complete DC Comics Superhero Movie Release Calendar

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From the Wonder Woman movie to Justice League and the Batman solo movie, here's the full DC superhero movie schedule!

FeatureMike Cecchini
Jan 14, 2017

Updated with new information on the Harley Quinn movie, Gotham City Sirens, Suicide Squad 2, Green Lantern Corps, and more!

Now that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad have both come and gone, the DC Extended Universe is in full swing. The Wonder Woman movie is next up in June, and it's all leading up to the Justice League movie in November of 2017. 

So, it's time to take a look at all of the DC superhero movies that will be released over the next few years. And trust us, there are a ton of them on the way, and we expect more details will be announced as we go forward. 

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We have all the release dates for every one of 'em right here, as well as official details, the most interesting rumors, and suggestions for further reading where appropriate. 

Click the blue links to go to articles containing everything you need to know about the movies!

June 2nd, 2017 - Wonder Woman

The fact that we have yet to see a Wonder Woman solo movie is almost beyond belief. We don't have time to get into the rampant short-sightedness that is keeping women from taking marquee roles in superhero movies at the moment (and that's bound to change one of these days, especially given how their fortunes have changed on TV), but just know that Gal Gadot does some serious Amazonian ass-kicking in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and then we get her solo movie on June 2nd, 2017. The movie was moved up a couple of weeks from its original release date on June 23, 2017.

Amazon has all your Wonder Woman needs.

Warner Bros. were clearly impressed with Ms. Gadot, as she'll be doing Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the Wonder Woman solo movie, JusticeLeague, and Justice League 2in a fairly short amount of time. We'll know more about her soon enough!

Patty Jenkins (Monster) is directing, from a screenplay by Allan Heinberg and Geoff Johns. Chris Pine will appear as Wonder Woman's love interest, Steve Trevor.

November 17th, 2017 - Justice League

Zack Snyder will direct Justice League, and BvS co-writer Chris Terrio is back. The villain of this one is Steppenwolf, one of Darkseid's relatives, and it focuses on Batman building a team to confront him.

Here's the official synopsis:

Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat.  But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

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This one will also introduce Aquaman's Queen Mera (played by Amber Heard), which would make sense considering that the Aquamanmovie will follow the next fall.

March 16, 2018 - The Flash

There is very little out there in the way of actual details about The Flash movie coming to the DC Extended Universe, but we're trying to piece together whatever we can at the moment. Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who you probably love from the Jump Street movies, The LEGO Movie, and Last Man on Earth, wrote a treatment for the film. Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) wrote a screenplay, which Rick Famuyiwa (Dope) worked on when he was attached as director. He has since departed the project, and his departure might mean a release date change is on the way.

Watch The Flash on Amazon

Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Madame Bovary) is playing Barry Allen, but probably a very different Barry Allen than the one we currently love on TV. Billy Crudup will play Dr. Henry Allen, with Kiersey Clemons as Iris West. Ray Fisher (Cyborg in Batman v Superman and Justice League) will also appear.

Now, about that release date change...there's now an empty space in July that Warner had previously reserved for a different DC superhero movie...


July 27th, 2018 - Unknown

This was formerly the date occupied by the Aquaman movie, but that was bumped to October. Could this end up being the debut of Ben Affleck's Batmansolo movie? Maybe The Flash, which is likely about to hit some production delays will just get a few months of breathing room? Or will Warner Bros. just use this for something else entirely that has nothing to do with superheroes? We'll probably find out very soon.

October 5th, 2018 - Aquaman

Jason Momoa is playing Aquaman. There's no doubt that they've been taking Aquaman very seriously. Amber Heard will also appear as Queen Mera. There are reports that Black Manta is the film's villain.

James Wan (Furious 7) will direct from a script by Kurt Johnstad (300: Rise of an Empire).

April 5th, 2019 - Shazam

Shazamhas both a writer (Darren Lemke, of Turbofame) and a star (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as the villainous Black Adam) announced. If we end up getting to see Henry Cavill's Superman fight Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam, it's tough to imagine anyone would complain.

[related article: Why the Shazam Movie is Important]

June 14th, 2019 - Unknown

This was long ago announced as the Justice League 2 release date, but this is apparently about to change. Director Zack Snyder would like to take on another project, and there are recent indications that Warner Bros is prioritizing the Batmansolo movie over this, and that this could end up being that film's date instead.

It's also possible that this could end up being David Ayer's Gotham City Sirens movie, and we have more on that down below.

November 1st, 2019 - Untitled DC Film

No information has yet been given as to the story or what characters will be featured in the film. Man of Steel 2is back in active development at the studio. Could this be it? It's yet another potential landing date for Ben Affleck's Batman solo movie, too.

There's one interesting possibility: could this be that Lobomovie that was recently announced? This space-faring bounty hunter would certainly arrive sooner than expected, but isn't that what bounty hunters do?

November is a safer month for high profile releases than October, and this could be where the now-rescheduled Justice League 2 ends up, although we suspect it will be a bit longer than that.

The truth is that we just don't know what DC has planned for Nov. 2019, so we'll just have to wait and see. 

April 3rd, 2020 - Cyborg

And this one is the biggest surprise of them all. Ray Fisher made his first (very brief) appearance as Vic Stone/Cyborg in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and will clearly have a crucial role to play in both Justice League films if they're grooming him for a solo film. He's going to feature in The Flash solo movie, too.

No other details are presently available, and there are also rumors that this one might be reworked into a movie that would introduce the Teen Titans to the big screen. 

July 24th, 2020 - Green Lantern Corps

Fairly or unfairly, Green Lantern has the most working against him. The 2011 film failed to kickstart the DC Universe as planned, and received a lukewarm (at best) critical and box-office reception. There are, of course, ways around this.

One way is to simply not make Hal Jordan the central Green Lantern of the movie. It was revealed at SDCC 2015 that the Green Lantern movie is now called Green Lantern Corps, and this one may focus on as many as three Green Lanterns, likely with John Stewart as the main Green Lantern of Sector 2814. David Goyer and Justin Rhodes are writing the script, but there's no director in place yet. 

We've heard bits and pieces indicating that Green Lantern won't even show up until the end of Justice League, or possibly even Justice League 2. By the time 2020 rolls around, a decade will have passed, and by then the character won't be considered so radioactive by studio execs. 

And then there are the missing pieces that are either unconfirmed or simply don't have release dates yet...


Justice League 2

Don't be fooled by the fact that this lost its 2019 release date, Warner Bros. is still planning a second installment, since the first one is bound to make all kinds of bank.

Gotham City Sirens

Harley Quinn isn't just for the Suicide Squad. Warner Bros. has tapped David Ayer to direct Gotham City Sirens, which will team Harley Quinn up with other female DC villain, most likely including Poison Ivy and Catwoman. It's not totally clear if this is replacing a Harley Quinn solo movie, which we have a few details on here.

This one is on the fast-track, so it could take over that June 14th, 2019 release date vacated by Justice League 2.

Booster Gold (and maybe Blue Beetle)

Flash and Arrow executive producer Greg Berlanti is going to executive produce and possibly direct a Booster Gold movie. Zack Stentz (Thor, X-Men: First Class, a recent episode of CW's The Flash TV series) will write the script.

Early reports described this as a "superhero buddy cop movie" that would involve Blue Beetle. We'll get you more updates on this as they become available.

Deadshot

Warner Bros. knows they have one of the biggest stars in the world already in costume, so they're reportedly considering a Deadshotsolo movie, as well.

Suicide Squad 2

While the critical response to the first film wasn't so hot, the box office was blazing, so Warner Bros. isn't taking Suicide Squad 2 off the table. David Ayer is likely going to be too busy with Gotham City Sirens until further notice, though, so no word on when we'll see this.


Lobo

Back on the schedule after years of being dormant, the Lobo movie may attempt to be the DCEU equivalent of Deadpool. Jason Fuchs must have impressed Warner Bros. with his work on Wonder Woman, because he's on board to write the script for this one.

We'll update this with more information as we get it, but it should be a fun ride.

Sandman

Sandmanisn't a superhero movie, so the fact that he wasn't involved in an announcement that primarily focused on high-profile franchises (along with the superhero slate, Warner Bros. focused on Lego movies and Harry Potter spinoffs). It isn't a DC Universe movie that will have any bearing on future Justice League films. But it is one of the most successful, enduring comics of all time. 

The latest news on this isn't encouraging, though. It appears to be a dead project.

[related article: Sandman - The Essential Horror Comic of the '90s]

Dark Universe

Dark Universe might be more familiar to comic book fans under its comic name, Justice League Dark. This one will feature the supernatural characters from the DC Universe. Characters like Swamp Thing, Demon, Deadman, Zatanna, and possibly even John Constantine.

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Guillermo del Toro was attached to this one for quite some time, but had to leave the project. Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow) will now direct.

Legion of Super-Heroes

This one came as a big surprise when the rumor surfaced via Latino Review. The word is that Warner Bros., perhaps inspired by the runaway success of Guardians of the Galaxy, is looking to put together their own superheroic space opera.

Nobody has been hired. Warner Bros. have simply placed this one on the table as a DC property potentially worth developing, and are inviting writers to make pitches. To be fair, it's likely that nearly every major DC property is open for something like this, but this is the first rumbling we've ever heard about a Legion of Super-Heroes movie. It's worth paying attention to, but it's tough to imagine, even under the best of circumstances, that we'll see this before 2018...assuming it's true at all.

That being said, if it were true, it's hard to imagine a cooler way to cement the WB/DC Cinematic Universe than with a 31st Century space-opera. While Marvel-esque crossovers probably aren't going to be the order of the day with these movies, the concept of showing how the Justice League (and specifically, Superman) influenced society 1,000 years in the future is plenty unique, and adds immediate gravitas to the other superhero movies on the calendar.

Let's just say, we really hope this one is true.

Metal Men

Perhaps the longest of the long-shots, the Metal Men movie is something that's been in discussion as far back as 2007. It's the most bizarre concept of the bunch, involving a mad scientist and his group of sentient elemental robots, but like Suicide Squadand Legion of Super-Heroes, perhaps that uniqueness is what makes this one so appealing. Warner Bros. can't be seen to copy the Marvel model too closely, so veering away from solo outings for traditional heroes and into this kind of territory might be the very best thing they can do for the brand.

The Metal Men have also just received a New 52 facelift at the hands of writer Geoff Johns, executive producer of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justiceand The Flash TV series. If they're a favorite of DC Entertainment's Chief Creative Officer, it would be wrong to count the Metal Men out, even if there's been no public movement on this project in recent memory.

It's worth noting that the same Wall Street Journal article where WB officially announced the Justice League movie also mentioned Shazam(at a time when everyone thought the project was dead and buried) and...Metal Men. Don't sleep on this one.

Shazam Movie Will Be Full of "Hope, Optimism, and Fun"

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Fans of the original Captain Marvel should be happy about what's being said about the Shazam movie with Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam.

NewsMike Cecchini
Jan 15, 2017

Almost lost in the noise of the upcoming DC superhero movie schedule is the Shazammovie. The story about a young boy gifted with the powers of six mythological gods and heroes when he says a magic word seems a little out of step with the usual superhero movies of the day, but that might just be why it's so important. Shazamis still some time off from production, but it has had Dwayne Johnson attached as the film's antagonist, Black Adam, for almost three years with Darren Lemke (Turbo) working on a draft of the script.

While things have been quiet on the Shazam movie front recently, but don't be fooled. Despite his increasingly busy schedule, Dwayne Johnson remains enthusiastic about playing Black Adam. And perhaps more importantly, he understands what needs to be at the core of a movie about a kid who gains super powers by saying one magic word.

If nothing else, this is encouraging because it shows that DC Films isn't looking for a "one size fits all" approach to their superhero movie universe. What works for Batman certainly won't work for Shazam. And when even the "villain" of the movie is keen on making sure this is the tone they adhere to, it's a good sign. This lines up nicely with some of the things producer Hiram Garcia said to ComicBook.com last May. Mr. Garcia promised that the movie "can be grounded and have real stakes but can still be fun. That's the place we always want it to come from...There's no reason that there should ever be a version of this story told that's devoid of that."

I've been keeping a close eye on the Shazam movie, myself, and while I haven't read any of the most recent work by Darren Lemke, I can say that earlier drafts of the project from different points in its development also made a real effort to keep the sense of innocence around Billy Batson and his superheroic alter ego. 

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Shazam is currently scheduled for release on April 5th, 2019.

Agents of SHIELD Season 4 Episode 9 Review: Broken Promises

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The robots take over as Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD begins a tech heavy new story arc.

This Agents of SHIELD review contains spoilers.

Agents of SHIELD: Season 4, Episode 9

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD is back after a mid-winter break with a new subtitle and a new focus. This time out, Marvel has dubbed this half of the season “LMD” and has established a new robotocalypse tech focus for the back part of the season. The results are pretty enjoyable, yet Agents of SHIELD remains the old comfy slipper of the current slate of superhero shows. I mean, Agents of SHIELD doesn’t have the buzz or love surrounding most of DC’s CW shows and certainly doesn’t have the genre breaking appeal of Marvel’s Netflix shows.  Instead, Agents of SHIELD remains consistently fun and steady without ever sparking tons of interest or buzz. Agents of SHIELD is just kind of pleasantly...there.

And that trend continues this week with SHIELD’s return. For those of you hoping for a little catharsis on the Ghost Rider arc, well, no, that doesn’t happen. There is nary a mention of Robbie Reyes or Ghost Rider at all. In fact, it seems like the series is trying to distance itself from the first half of the season by just not mentioning the character at all. I mean, you’d think someone would have mentioned a dude with a flaming head and a hell car, but nope, Ghost Rider is now a thing of the past, and to be honest, making Robbie Reyes demona non grata makes the first half of this season same rather -- I guess disposable is the right word? I mean, all the Ghost Rider hype, the super-fun almost-romance with Daisy, it’s all just gone? That leaves me feeling a bit empty to be honest.

The one part of the Ghost Rider arc that continues into this part of the season was the Darkhold. You see AIDA still needs the Darkhold and she sends an LMD version of May to retrieve the book from SHIELD HQ. So we are treated to yet another infiltration of SHIELD as AIDA busts in to get her demon book back. I really love the idea of a dark magic fueled aggressive AI. If not for the supernatural element of this season, the AIDA story could be really derivative of Westworld and Humans, two shows that have done the robot thing to perfection.

As a big bad, AIDA is pretty effective. She is a paradox of a villain. She appears to be soft and harmless, yet there is this powerful tinge of otherness to her vacant stare. And when she unleashes her robot might, there is a fury and coiled potential for atrocity that makes it believable. The AIDA arc takes a surprising turn this week as the dark magic fueled LMD is decapitated by Mack in her bid to win the Darkhold.

Speaking of Mack, his and Yo Yo’s anti-robot 1980s-films-fueled fear of AI is one of the highlights of the episode. He takes down AIDA and it looks like we are down one big bad, until it is revealed that AIDA was really controlled by Doctor Radcliffe. Yup, the doctor and Fitz’s new BFF seem to be the season’s new threat. The groundwork has been laid to make this heel turn pretty darn personal to Fitz, so this could be fun to watch. And oh yeah, Radcliffe still has a second model of AIDA and is still in control of LMD May, so we have tons of moving parts for this new and surprising story direction.

While the AIDA story breaks some new ground, it also feels like we took a step backwards this week as the Inhumans storyline is shunted front and center once again. Before the winter break, Simmons was brought in to oversee the opening of a terrigen cocoon. This week, it is revealed that the Inhuman that emerged from that cocoon is the brother of none other than Ellen Nadeer, the anti-Inhuman US senator that has made life difficult for Daisy and our agents.  What follows is your typical X-Men stand-in stock plot as Ellen betrays and murders her Inhuman brother. It does establish Ellen as a villain and a natural foe for both Daisy and Jeff Mace, but after the freshness of the Ghost Rider half of the season, this just feels like a step back.

So the AIDA and LMD stuff is pretty shocking and original while the tired Inhumans stuff pulls us back a season or two as Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD returns with a mixed bag.

Marvel Moments

A few episodes back, a commenter asked us to provide a history of LMDs, and we here at Den of Geek live to serve. The first LMD appeared in Strange Tales #135 (1965) and were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This also happens to be the first Strange Tales SHIELD strip to appear in that classic anthology. So essentially, LMDs have been around just about as long as the concept of SHIELD has. The first LMDs to appear were clones of Nick Fury and served as the SHIELD head honcho’s bodyguards. Over the years, LMDs have gained sentience, turned evil, were sacrificed for the greater good, and have basically been part of the SHIELD narrative during every era of the organization. All the major SHIELD agents from Fury, to Dum Dum Dugan, to even Tony Stark have had LMDs.

In the comics, there was never an AIDA, and as far as I know, no LMD ever became proficient in sorcery so props to the brain trust of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELDfor that cool little wrinkle. For the sake of completion here’s a list of some major characters that have or had LMD doubles: Black Widow, Bucky, Deadpool, Glenn Talbot, Maria Hill, Nightshade, Sharon Carter, Steve Rogers, Thor, Thunderbolt Ross, and Valentina Rychenko. LMD Thor? That’s all sorts of badassery! It’s really cool to see an element of the classic Lee and Kirby SHIELD strips make it onto to TV after so many years of stuff like Inhumans and Ghost Rider. Where’s my dang Scorpio Key saga?

You’d think that with all the AI stuff going on, someone would mention Vision or Ultron.

We found out this week that Ellen Nadeer’s mother was killed during the Chitauri invasion of New York. Man, Marvel TV gets tons of story miles out of that event, doesn’t it? 

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2.5/5
ReviewMarc Buxton
Jan 11, 2017

Guardians: Final Trailer for Russian Superhero Movie Brings Comedic Chaos

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The final trailer for Guardians showcases Russia’s answer to Marvel movie epics with wanton Russian destruction.

TrailersJoseph Baxter
Jan 11, 2017

This past summer, the Russian film industry’s attempt to hack the Marvel Cinematic Universe formula for mega-movie events manifested with an off-the-wall trailer for a film natively known as Zashchitniki, sporting the safely-generic English title, Guardians. Indeed, the clip – an insanely ostentatious exhibition in CGI action and zany characters – provided some fun Internet moments for Western movie fans. Now, a clip that’s being billed as the final trailer is here.

In the way of plot, the latest, apparently final Guardians trailer isn’t particularly revelatory. Unlike the previous trailer, it is subtitled, rather than dubbed. If anything, it serves to highlight some new moments of levity (ex: an obligatory awkward elevator scene). Yet, we already know that film centers on a team of Soviet-era super-powered agents who, in a Winter Soldier-type manner, are reactivated upon the arrival of a devastating threat that has overwhelmed the Russian military. While their powers are conventional to the comic book movie genre, it is noteworthy that they are joined by a bear armed with a minigun. – So, they got that going for them.

Guardians, despite its notoriety as a genre-copying spectacle, could become a notable platform for its director Sarik Andreasyan. A young man by director standards at 32, he already fielded the 2014 U.S. film release American Heist, starring Hayden Christensen, Adrien Brody, Jordana Brewster and rapper Akon. Also noteworthy is that the new Guardians clip gives us a glimpse of its content rating, falling within the Russian standard of “12+.” Contextually, Marvel’s movies – including The Avengers films that this movie emulates – tend to fall in the PG-13 category.

Guardians hits theaters in Russia on February 23, with no U.S. release date as of yet. Check out the chaos-concocting final trailer below!

Our original article below as it appeared on August 24, 2016:

In the United States, the term, “Russian Movie” is probably best juxtaposed with bizarre dashcam videos posted on the Internet. However, the massive continental convergence formerly covered by the Iron Curtain does contain its share of fans clamoring for the same comic book superhero cash-making movies as American audiences. Thus, it was only a matter of time until Mother Russia gave birth to her own set of raucous, world-wrecking romps to fight some unidentifiable threat. Now, Guardians (natively titled Zashchitniki,) looks to fill that void.

Upon an immediate glance, the trailer for Guardians (sporting a translated title that’s Marvel-evocative in its own right,) showcases extremely familiar elements seemingly lifted directly out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ensemble filmmaking playbook of Joss Whedon (and not so much the Russo Brothers,) that made 2012’s $1.5 billion global hit The Avengers and 2015’s $1.4 billion global hit sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron an auspicious franchise formula.

Glaringly dubbed in English, the Guardians trailer does – for what it’s worth – manage to successfully replicate the Whedon-esque "amusement park attraction with a plot" paradigm with some exciting comic-book-y onscreen action. Sure, to American audiences, it looks like someone made a movie out of dollar store knockoff Marvel movie toys, but the carnage and wackiness does, in the very least, look solid.

The film centers on a secret Soviet-era super-team who have been abruptly reactivated when the arrival of a destructive threat to Russia from a group of mysterious, heavily-armed militants with missile-firing spider-robots proves too much for the Russian army to handle. The heroic superhero ensemble appears to be a formidable collection of comic-style killers with characters (whose names I am opting to fabricate,) The Winter Whiplash, Mask-less Bane Guy, Soviet Sue Storm, Beardy Giant Fist Man and, the most prominent of them all… Bear in Cargo Pants!

In the director’s chair for Guardians is Russian filmmaker Sarik Andreasyan. Interestingly enough, Andreasyan actually has an American film on his resume in the 2014 indie effort American Heist, starring former Star Wars actor Hayden Christensen, Oscar winner Adrien Brody and Jordana Brewster. With that notch on his belt, it is quite clear that Russian expectations for his slickly-produced Guardians are relatively high. This is especially true as the most recently-released Russian weekend box-office numbers (August 11-14) have Suicide Squad on top for the second consecutive week with $4.08 million having grossed $19.88 million total in the country.

Guardians will be doing its best to kick off Russia’s home-grown efforts in the monolithic, money-printing comic book superhero film genre when it hits Russian theaters on February 23, 2017. There’s no word yet on when the film might find its way to the West. Check out the trailer below!

Complete Upcoming X-Men Movies Schedule Updated

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When will we see Logan, Deadpool 2, the Gambit movie, X-Men 7, or New Mutants? We have your upcoming X-Men movies schedule right here.

FeatureMike Cecchini
Jan 15, 2017

Newly updated to reflect a project known as X-Men: Supernova scheduled to go into production in 2017.

20th Century Fox has a Marvel superhero movie schedule that’s quite nearly as busy as Marvel Studios’ for the next few years. Even with the failure of the FantasticFour, they've got enough X-Men characters to keep everyone neck deep in mutants until further notice. The studio has just added 2 new "Untitled Marvel Movie" dates to their calendar, and removed the one that had previously been scheduled for October 6th, 2017, which everyone previously assumed was Gambit, but that remains a troubled production. 

The runaway success of Deadpoolmeans that they'll be willing to take even more chances on this corner of the Marvel Universe, as well, and the first trailer for Wolverine 3, which is now known as Logan, is a good indicator of that.

Of course, after Loganand the promise of Deadpool 2, what any of these movies might be is a little tough to keep track of. We've done our best to sort everything out for you...

Watch X-Men movies on Amazon

Here's what has been confirmed...

March 3, 2017

Logan (Wolverine 3)

This will be Hugh Jackman's last outing as Logan. Unless, of course, he changes his mind. This one loosely follows the "Old Man Logan" story from the comics, and like Deadpool, will boast an R-rating. Unlike Deadpool, Logan looks like a more serious affair. Patrick Stewart will appear as Professor X. Boyd Holbrook is playing one of the villains. Richard E. Grant and Stephen Merchant will also appear.

James Mangold, who directed The Wolverine, returns as director. We broke down that trailer as far as what to expect right here.

So now we run into trouble, because there are more dates out there that Fox has promised are for X-Men movies...but they have no actual movies attached to them. The studio also has more projects in the works than officially announced dates. To make matters even more confusing, Fox is apparently considering a "reset" of sorts on the X-Men franchise after Logan. So while we're still going to get Deadpool 2 (and 3!) and New Mutants, it's not clear what the fate of the long-troubled Gambit might be, or what form X-Men 7 will take.

So let's have a look...

March 2, 2018

Most likely suspect: Deadpool 2

We have to mention Deadpool 2 here because it has been confirmed that this one is happening with the same creative team that made the first one such a good time...minus the director. Whoops. The thing is, they haven't confirmed a release date, and by all indications, the script isn't even finished yet. It will probably be early 2017 before production on Deadpool 2 kicks off, and this January release date could yield similar box office results for another R-rated superhero outing.

Watch Deadpool on Amazon

Now, here's where we get into even more uncharted territory. There are currently THREE unclaimed slots on Fox's calendar, which they've reserved for Marvel movies. The dates in question are...

June 29, 2018

November 2, 2018

February 14, 2019

While it's possible that one of those 2018 dates could end up being the Deadpool 2release, it's more likely reserved for one of these other upcoming X-Men projects.

The New Mutants

Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) will direct a New Mutants movie. Boone will also co-write the film with Knate Gawley, Scott Neustadter, and Michael H. Weber   

The New Mutants were the first of Marvel's X-Men spinoffs in the comics, dealing with a younger crop of gifted youngsters as the core X-Men cast expanded and aged. Danielle Moonstar, Wolfsbane, Sunspot, Cannonball, Magik, and Warlock will all be part of the team, making for a more racially diverse cast than we've seen in most X-Men movies so far.

Learn more about the New Mutants right here!


X-Men: Supernova

Nothing is known about this at the moment, but it popped up recently as something due to begin production in Montreal later this year. This would be the proper X-Men 7that New Mutants most certainly is not. But as for little details like a director or writer...there's nothing.

The obvious speculation here is that we'll finally get a version of the Dark Phoenix Saga done properly this time around. We've written extensively about why that's a good idea right here.

gambit movie

Gambit

With Logan marking the last time Hugh Jackman will play Logan, the X-Men films are bound to find themselves in dire need of a new heroic "face of the franchise" some time in the next five years, and Channing Tatum as Gambit might just be the answer.

A proven box-office draw like Tatum playing a sly, shady X-Man might be the way to go. Gambit's complex backstory should provide ample fodder for a solo movie, which will apparently focus less on traditional superheroics and more on his background as a thief. Everyone loves Deadpool, but clearly he (the character, not Ryan Reynolds) doesn't have the leading man looks of a Channing Tatum. Lea Seydoux will likely play opposite Tatum as Bella Donna.

Of course, the big problem here is that Gambit recently lost director Doug Liman, and there is continual chatter that they haven't even gotten the script right yet. Not to mention the fact that they keep moving this troubled project off various release dates. We're sure it will happen eventually, but whether it still involves Liman, Tatum, or Seydoux when it does is another story.

X-Force

Jeff Wadlow’s early X-Force draft was met with vocal approval from X-Force co-creator, Rob Liefeld. The above concept comes from that era of the film's development. The problem is, it doesn't look like Mr. Wadlow is still involved in this one. The X-Force movie would also feature another potential Wolverine “replacement” with Cable, another charismatic good guy who operates close to the edge.

We're going to first meet Cable in Deadpool 2, so you have to figure that we won't see X-Force until after that movie comes out. It's possible that X-Force could essentially focus as Deadpool 3 if they decide to bring the same creative team back.

X-Men 7 (or an X-Men "reset")

Despite an early report indicating that X-Men 7would shoot in Canada in early 2017, that recent chatter about resetting the franchise makes this seem awfully unlikely.

What do you think? What else do you think can make it onto the X-Men movie calendar? Let us know!


Transmetropolitan: Relevant, or Rose-Colored Glasses?

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Holy mother of God, Transmet is almost 20 years old. But is it still sharp commentary, or a relic of its time?

NewsJim Dandy
Jan 15, 2017

It’s become somewhat fashionable, now that we’re actually living in a cyberpunk dystopia, to compare current events to Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson’s Transmetropolitan. And to be honest, it’s been a while since I took a look at the book, a comic that changed how I felt about so many things (journalism, cursing) the first time I read it.

It felt like a good time to for a reread. I felt I could take some time and a fresh eye and look at the story for those similarities, to see if the regular, periodic comparisons were accurate or if they were just nerd hyperbole. I was impressed at how quick a read it was: the story wasn’t lacking depth, but it was visually concise and told everything the reader needed to know through snappy dialogue, rather than narrative infodumps. With that in mind, I think that some of the comparisons are reasonable (bone-chilling and terrifying and reasonable at the same time), for the most part, it’s not a direct transposition to current events.

The real world is so much worse.

For those of you who haven’t read it, Transmetropolitanwas a series written by Ellis, pencilled by Robertson and inked by Rodney Ramos. It was published by Vertigo from 1997-2002. It followed Spider Jerusalem, a Hunter S. Thompson-if-he-was-British analogue, as he returns to a fictitious cyberpunk City from self-imposed exile, and brings down two Presidential administrations by preaching truth and creative filth to his enthralled audience.

It’s very much a product of its time. It starts out being very much a “pox on both your houses” condemnation of the U.S. political system as a whole, back when that still made sense to do. And it quickly shifted to concerns about civil liberties at a time when the United States (and NATO allies) were waging war without Congressional approval (during the two month bombing campaign of Kosovo); laying the philosophical foundation for an invasion of Iraq in attacking Saddam Hussein’s (in hindsight fictional) nuclear ambitions; the contested mess that the 2000 election turned out to be; and 9/11 and the march to global, ongoing, perpetual war on terror (and rollbacks in civil liberties) that followed.

It’s a fantastic comic that holds up well as a story for a number of reasons. It’s cyberpunk without the genre’s trademark dinge: Robertson, Ramos, and colorist Nathan Eyring deserve a lot of credit for making a future packed with information overload, but not obscured by smog or gloom or perpetual rain. It’s also genuinely funny. Angry Warren Ellis is gifted at turning the combination rage, foul language and body parts into something beautiful. It’s also appropriately cynical, and I think this is where a lot of the comparisons to the present day come from.

No regular character save Jerusalem himself is particularly idealized, though there are generally bright lines between “good guys” and “bad guys.” And even still, Jerusalem takes a beating. He’s monomaniacal, driving people out of his life because of his dedication to his work, and he’s understood to have been an oblivious, insensitive dipshit who has ruined more than a few bystanders lives prior to where the comic picks up. No institution (save one - we'll get there) is sacred, either: government officials, the police, TV, and democracy itself all catch hell throughout the series. Jerusalem’s unflinching, skeptical eye amplifying the stories of the voiceless at the expense of a self-serving political establishment that will do anything, including regularly murder, to retain power.

That’s where the problems show up.

The only place where Spider (and through him, Ellis) pulls his punches is on the media. There is an acknowledgement that the corporate media is a problem, that the concept of profits before absolute truth inevitably slants coverage. But it’s cursory, and the media is redeemed (or as redeemed as one can get in this comic) by the end when they’re disobeying censorship orders from the Smiler in order to broadcast footage of riots he caused in The City and getting the ball rolling on his inevitable downfall. The media comes through as admirable, pushing through their compromised status because they still cling to the ideals of Truth.

And that’s really the biggest problem with comparing Transmetropolitanwith today’s current situation. Ellis and company operated in a world where Truth was still a thing one could capitalize, some ideal that society collectively agreed on because of piddly shit like visual evidence or scientific consensus. They had no reckoning with a world where the Oxford Dictionary would name “post-truth” their word of the year. They still believed that associating with white supremacists, as Callahan did to win the nomination in the comic, would be something that, once properly exposed, could damage one’s political status, rather than cause for an army of professional dissemblers and bullshit artists to head to the 24-hour news networks to haggle over the definition of “white,” “supremacist” and whether or not the accused white supremacist really meant his white supremacy, or was just being outrageous for clicks.

If Transmetropolitanreally were a close analogue to today’s situation, instead of Callahan being brought low by a maniac journalist with the work ethic of fourteen New England Protestants and the drug habits of fourteen Keiths Richards, the Smiler would have killed someone himself, on camera, only to have video of the killing disputed by reprehensible hacks paid by both the 24 hour news network they were on and by the Smiler’s campaign. The same video would be deprioritized by the algorithms of social media networks that value “engagement” over “accuracy” in favor of ten neat tricks to make your feet less unsightly. Then an army of conspiracy theorists and Macedonian shitposters would have created a horde of bots to peddle stories about the Beast ACTUALLY committing treason. A lunatic with a semi-popular web site who thinks fluoride makes your teeth visible to police night vision and that school shootings are false flag hoaxes would have dedicated an entire day to wondering if the Beast was the one who actually killed this individual, and at the end of the day, the Smiler himself would get on his feed account and parrot the same bullshit idiocy.

And when all was said and done, the Smiler would still be sitting in the White House jacking off into a flag and selectively editing the Constitution.

After this election, the idea of a journalist printing something so true, so raw that it changes the course of a political campaign, or a policy rollout, or hell even the day to day life of someone in power, seems downright pollyannaish.

New Series from James Cameron to Explore Sci-Fi History

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James Cameron and AMC are going to tell the story of science fiction.

James Cameron directing Avatar
NewsDon Kaye
Jan 16, 2017

AMC revealed on Saturday (January 14) at the Television Critics Association (TCA) winter presentation in Los Angeles that James Cameron will produce a six-hour documentary series on the history and impact of science fiction. Titled James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction, the show’s six one-hour episodes will explore the evolution of the genre from its published origins to today’s modern screen franchises.

Cameron said, “When I was a kid, I basically read any book with a spaceship on the cover and I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey many, many times. The movie inspired me to become a filmmaker. I liked the special effects, but I really loved the ideas and the questions behind them: How will the world end? Will technology destroy us? What does it mean to be human? These are subjects sci-fi has never been afraid to tackle.”

Each episode will start with a “Big Question” that humanity has confronted and then detail how sci-fi has handled that question, while also outlining the genre’s history through films, books, TV shows and more. The series will also feature discussions between Cameron and his contemporaries about their own favorite films and novels, and the impact those works have had on their own output.

“With this series, we are going back to the origins of sci-fi, following the DNA of these ideas back to the source,” added Cameron, whose own sci-fi classics include The Terminator, Aliens and Avatar. “Without Jules Verne and H.G. Wells there wouldn’t have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein, and without them, there wouldn’t be Lucas, Spielberg, Ridley Scott or me. As a filmmaker who specializes in science fiction, I’m interested in exploring the struggles and the triumphs that brought these incredible stories to life and seeing how art imitates life, as well as how science fiction imitates and sometimes informs science.”

Sounds promising. There’s no premiere date set, but we expect to see the show sometime in 2017.

Source: The Wrap

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Channing Tatum Still Attached to Gambit, Says Producer

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Gambit still has its star for now, but a new director has yet to be chosen.

NewsDon Kaye
Jan 16, 2017

One of the more troubled projects in the Fox Marvel Universe has been Gambit, which currently has neither a director nor a release date. But it does still have a star: speaking with reporters at the Television Critics Association (TCA) presentations over the weekend, X-Men producer Lauren Shuler-Donner -- who is involved with all the Fox Marvel properties -- confirmed that Channing Tatum is still attached to play the Ragin’ Cajun.

At least for now he is. Shuler-Donner gave no further details on the film, and one would imagine that Tatum can only spin his wheels for so long if something doesn’t move soon. The project has already blown through two directors, Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) and Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow), and has yet to secure a replacement.

There have been rumors of Tatum jumping ship given the uncertainty of the whole thing, but for now he’s still on board. If Gambit is to move forward, it will have to find its place on an already crowded Fox Marvel schedule that will see New Mutants, Deadpool 2and the next X-Men movie all beginning production sometime in the next year.

Source: Collider

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Marvel's The Defenders: Sigourney Weaver's Villain Revealed

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Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Iron Fist, and others will team up as The Defenders in 2017! Here's everything we know.

NewsMike Cecchini
Jan 12, 2017

Marvel's plan to team Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist (and possibly some members of their supporting casts) in The Defenders Netflix series are well underway, and we'll see it later this year. The Defenders showrunners are Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez (Daredevil Season 2), with Drew Goddard (Daredevil Season 1, The MartianLost) returning as executive producer. The Defenders is currently filming in New York City.

The Defenders Villain

Sigourney Weaver was announced as the antagonist to deafening applause on the NYCC Main Stage back in October. Since then details have been scarce...until now.

Entertainment Weekly has our first look at Sigourney Weaver as the mystery antagonist of Marvel's The Defenders Netflix series, although this still doesn't tell us a whole lot. We know her name is "Alexandra" and that's all they're telling us. At least for the moment.

Here's a photo of her in character, which marks the first official set photo we have from the series at all!

“We knew it would take something massive to pull these four characters from their individual worlds to work together,” Defendersshowrunner Marco Ramirez told EW, “but also small enough that it felt like it existed in our world.” Start your speculation engines, comic fans!

 Last month, Ms. Weaver spoke to Movies.com a little about what to expect.

"It has a wonderful cast, and we're doing it right here in New York, which means a lot to me...Basically the four heroes come up against this really nice woman, who I'm playing...It's been a blast and I really love my character. I love the shows, too, which I wasn't familiar with before doing this. A real love letter to New York. To me they're not superheroes; they're people with a gift. It's just a different scale, and I'm really enjoying the scale of it. The apocalyptic thing is a little harder for me to understand."

EW also unveiled the first proper look at the team together:

The Defenders Story

It's not much, but it's all we've got right now...

Marvel’s The Defenders follows Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. A quartet of singular heroes with one common goal - to save New York City. This is the story of four solitary figures, burdened with their own personal challenges, who realize they just might be stronger when teamed together.

“Every one of them is following their own trail of bread crumbs, trying to unpack a mystery in New York,” showrunner Marco Ramirez told Entertainment Weekly. “We wanted them all caught off guard. Once they’re in that room together, it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, s—, who are you?'”

The Defenders Trailer

Check out the first teaser, which makes it pretty clear what's up in terms of the team, plus a bonus voiceover from everyone's favorite asshole sensei, Stick:

Huge bonus points for appropriate use of a Nirvana song.

The Defenders Release Date

All we know is that it's coming in 2017 (the trailer told us so!), which is a lot sooner than we anticipated!

The Defenders Cast

Charlie Cox will return as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, as will Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, Finn Jones as Iron Fist, and Mike Colter as Luke Cage. Don't be surprised if some other characters we meet along the way join the party, like Jon Bernthal's Punisher. Expect supporting cast from each of their shows to at least make appearances, and that will likely include Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson.

“We're incredibly excited to be able to bring our four street level heroes together in an epic tale woven by Doug and Marco whose work on Marvel’s Daredevil speaks for itself,” said Executive Producer/Head of Marvel Television, Jeph Loeb in a statement when the showrunners were announced in April 2016. "They write and produce not only great action and adventure, but also the heart and touch of humor that's makes us Marvel. With the inclusion of Drew Goddard, we've got a team that's as formidable as the Defenders themselves."

“This is the big one. Four amazing casts, four amazing series, now all in one amazing story,” added showrunners and Executive Producers Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez. “We are thrilled at the opportunity to deliver the show that both we and the fans have been waiting for.”

The first hero who isn't yet a headliner to be confirmed for the series is none other than Simone Missick's Misty Knight. “I believe I’m safe to say that I will be on The Defenders,” Simone Missick told The Wrap.

Misty is a huge highlight of Marvel's Luke Cage Netflix series, so having her in The Defenders should be treat.

The Defenders official Twitter account just keeps dropping casting bombs on us. The latest is that Elodie Yung will appear as Elektra. This show gets better by the day.

They also confirmed that Jessica Henwick, who will first appear in Iron Fist, will reprise her role as Colleen Wing in the upcoming Defenders team-up series. Here's a brief snippet of Henwick kicking butt:

The official Twitter account also confirmed what we already knew, that supporting characters from other Netflix shows like Luke CageJessica Jones, and Daredevil like Elden Hensen's Foggy Nelson, Deborah Ann Woll's Karen Page, Scott Glenn's Stick, Simone Missick's Misty Knight, and other will be part of the series.

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And it doesn't look like we'll get Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk in this one, unfortunately.

Marvel's The Defenders Netflix series will consist of eight episodes (the usual count for their assorted solo series if 13), and Marvel has announced the director of the first two episodes. S.J. Clarkson, whose credits include episodes of Jessica Jones, Vinyl, and Orange is The New Black will occupy the big chair for those crucial first two installments.

“S.J.'s take on the material is outstanding. We loved her work on “Marvel’s Jessica Jones” and couldn’t think of a more talented and accomplished person to helm the first two episodes of Marvel’s The Defenders,” said Marvel’s Head of Television and Executive Producer, Jeph Loeb in a statement.

We'll update this with more information about The Defenders Netflix series as it becomes available.

A version of this article originally ran on April 11th. It has been updated with new information.

HBO Exec Talks Game of Thrones Spin-off Series

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It's hard to imagine HBO willingly leaving Westeros...

NewsKayti Burt
Jan 16, 2017

The closer Game of Thrones gets to its inevitable end, the more discussion of a TV prequel and/or spinoff series to the hit HBO show will probably ramp up. In fact, it's already begun.

At Saturday's TCA presentation, HBO president of original programming Casey Bloys had this to say about a potential Game of Thrones spinoff (via Variety):

All I can say is that we’re exploring it. We don't have any scripts, we're not even close to saying 'Oh let’s do this.' But it’s a big enough property that we would be foolish not to explore it. It's a really rich world. We’d be foolish not to look at it.

At last year's Emmy awards — where Game of Thrones took home a tidy 12 trophies — series creator David Benioff addressed the topic of a potential Game of Thrones prequel, saying (via Entertainment Weekly):

You might want to ask George [R.R. Martin] about that. It's a great world that George created. I think it's a very rich world, and I'm sure there will be other series set in Westeros, but for us, this is it. That's really a question for George.

Anyone can change their mind, of course, but it sounds like Benioff and co-creator D.B. Weiss are ready to move on following season 8 of the fantasy drama.

Reporters backstage did just what Benioff suggested, asking A Song of Ice and Fire scribe (and Game of Thrones executive producer) Martin about the possibility of a prequel series. Martin said: "I do have thousands of pages of fake history of everything that led up to Game of Thrones, so there's a lot of material there and I’m writing more."

He further elaborated, however: "At the moment we still have this show to finish and I still have two books to finish so that’s all speculation." Yeah, Martin already has a lot on his plate. Though, with the massive success of Game of Thrones for HBO, it seems unlikely that the premium cable channel won't atleast try to extend their best-performing series in some way. When and how that might happen (we have some suggestions), however, is anyone's guess...

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