Walt Disney Company to acquire Marvel Entertainment

I woke up this morning, hearing on the news, that Disney will be acquiring Marvel Entertainment. I thought I was hearing things, until I reconfirmed through the blogosphere that the news was indeed true. This new acquisition will allow Disney the rights to over five-thousand of Marvel's most popular characters. This includes flagship characters such as Iron Man, Spider Man, The Fantastic Four and many others. Sure enough, life long fans of these iconic characters are running amuck with confusion and skepticism on how their beloved characters will be treated moving forward in comics, television and the big screen. Can you imagine... a potential Mickey Mouse and Iron Man crossover issue?

Guys... don't be too quick to judge. This could be a good thing for Marvel Entertainment. It will keep creative control [especially in movies] under one roof. Taking Spider Man away from Sony Pictures and other Marvel characters back under one umbrella company, making for better stories within consistent continuity. Much like how DC and Warner Brothers Entertainment is. And fellas, if you're worried about Disney turning Marvel into a non-violent-child-friendly-playground... I don't think Disney will undermine Marvel's core fan base. Plus... look at Vannesa Hutchens [not quite the Diseny role model... not that I'm complaining]! Last but not least, this could make way for possible Pixar projects on Marvel characters.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that this will turn out for the best. Read the full story here.

The Breakfast Club

For the man that defined a generation through film, John Hughes captured the spirit of the American teenager, that almost everyone can relate to. His cinematic work includes Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club and many more. Here is a cool image I found on yesbutnobutyes.com. Character-wise, they all seem to match their counter parts. I particularly got a kick out of how Robin is related to Ally Sheedy in this portrait.

Inception - The movie Chris Nolan is working on that has nothing to do with Batman

I love how Christopher Nolan keeps fans in suspense, keeping a tight lid on his movies until the day of release. Even on such high profile movies like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Inception, his newest film, is no exception. Check out the trailer:

Guess who the new Batgirl is?

If you don't want to be spoiled by my brief review of Batgirl #1 that came out 8/19... please discontinue reading from here.



Batgirl has made a round table of transfers from Barbara, Helena, Cassandra... and now... Stephanie Brown.

Previously parading as the Spoiler [then dying at one point... still not sure how she's back], she was handed the keys to the Batgirl mantle by Cassandra herself. No rhyme or reason behind it, as if Cassandra was simply tired of fighting crime as Batgirl. Fighting side-by-side with Stephanie, Cassandra decided to take off the cape and cowl, leaving it with Stephanie. From there, Stephanie literally jumped into the Batgirl role, to be observed by Batman and Robin from afar. There was no monumental transition, no one died and no one cried. It was as if passing a hot potato from one person to another without a second thought. I can't say that I'm terribly disappointed because I like Cassandra, but I think Cassandra doesn't have much else to contribute as a main character. I could be wrong, I didn't keep up with her new title consistently, but she always struck me as a better supportive character. I mean, how much could you really develop a minimally speaking character as a lead character. Let's see how the sophomore issue goes.

Batman Arkham Asylum is HERE!

My first videogame midnight release was really uneventful. It was what it was! I arrived at Gamestop at 11:50PM and was back home by 12:15AM. I stayed awake long enough to take these pictures of the collector edition.

The box this thing comes in is big, almost like an elongated shoe box. The box art is pretty sleek. The batshaped container is pretty cool, with a matte finish, and a polished bat logo on both sides [hard to see from my pics]. Yes, the 14" batarang is plastic, but it's not cheap plastic like people here are leading you to believe. It's a solid piece of plastic that is worthy of displaying, possibly throwing if that's what you really want to do. However, the Batarang is permanently attached to the base [from what I can see]. The leather dust jacket is detailed with an Arkham Asylum logo, containing a glossy finished, staple bound AA journal.

If you're a Batman fan [like me] and have an extra hundred bucks to burn, it's totaly worth it. Enjoy the pics!

Calling all Batman Arkham Asylum Pre-Orders

Yesterday afternoon I got a phone call from a peppy-heavily caffinated lady who's phone number originated from Grapevine, TX, notifying me about the midnight release for Batman Arkham Asylum. [Should I do it?] I've never waited in line for a midnight videogame release, so I have no clue what I'm in for. There are also a ton of Gamestops in the area where I live, so should I even expect a crowd? I've done tons of theater/movie midnight showings, and not too long ago, I did my first midnight release for The Dark Knight DVD/BluRay which was a lot of fun. I walked away with a lot of cool Bat-swag. We'll see what happens tonight. Wish me luck!

Bruce Lee: Martial arts is like... ping pong!

Found this cool ad for Nokia. Before you ask, I have no clue why Bruce Lee is being associated with a cell phone, let alone playing ping pong with nunchucks... or however Napolean Dynamite spells num-chucks. None the less, it's a pretty cool video.

Metallo on Smallville

Here it is, Brian Austin Green as Metallo on the next season of Smallville. If it weren't for the green glow of kryptonite in his chest, he'd look more like a mutated version of Iron-Man, more so than Metallo. Then again, this is Smallville, capturing heroes and villains in their early stages in life which can go in many different directions. I'm not one to judge a book by its cover, so I'm still giving Smallville the benefit of the doubt. They haven't let me down yet!



Read the full article here.

You too can be a proud owner of your very own Tumbler!

Forgot that $400+ Hot Toys replica, why not get one of these! This guy made his own Batmobile Tumbler, go-kart style! Pretty impressive for being home made. I particularly like how his kids wanted to take a ride, "but daddy had to put it away."

PS3 just go skinny!

The Sony PS3 will be getting a makeover coming early September 2009. It will be available with a 120 gig drive, 33% slimmer and 36% lighter. Apparently, it will have all the same functionality as the older fatter version. It sounds like people are very excited about this make over, especially the price tag as it will debut at a whopping $299. A steel compared to what I paid for my 80 gig version. This is like a new version of the iPhone being released without any fancy software or function updates. Being a PS3 owner, I'm actually excited for this. Not to purchase it, but to see more PS3 units to ultimately have more games made. I wonder if a PS3 network upgrade is hiding under their sleeves?

Batman disconnects hip bones!

The release of Batman: Arkham Asylum is about a week away, and I saw this great commercial during the Friday episode of Attack of the Show. It showcases the bonus "Unlocked Scarecrow Level!" I pre-ordered the deluxe edition in April. I can't help but get excited for all the new exclusives that are becoming available with my pre-purchase from Gamestop.

Jazz Age Justice League

I stumbled upon this interesting take on the Justice League, portrayed in the ragtime-gangster-jazz era, illustrated by Alex Mitchell. I found it peculiar that Bruce "The Bat" Wayne is holding a gun. Awesome piece of art!


You can find the original image on this site: Digital Collage.

Superman's real weakness is not Kryptonite... it's legal issues!

When it comes to legendary and iconic, no superhero outshines Superman. His image is recognized globally, which is a level of status no other superhero has achieved. Superman's story can be told by anyone, of any age, from anywhere. Unfortunately, Superman is riddled with legal issues for rights and royalties.

According to Variety.com, the Siegal family has "successfully recaptured rights to additional works." In other words, certain elements of Superman are owned by either Warner Brothers & DC Comics and the Siegel family. Here are the additional works that the Sigel family recaptured:

1) Origins from the planet Krypton
2) Kal-El's parents Jor-El and Lora
3) Superman as the infant Kal-El
4) Launching of the infant Superman into space by his parents as Krypton explodes
5) Kal-El's landing on Earth in a fiery crash.

Not too long ago in 2008, by the same court, ruled in favor of the Siegel family the following rights:

1) Copyright in Action Comics No. 1
2) Giving them rights to the Superman character
3) Kal-El's costume
4) Alter-ego Clark Kent
5) Lois Lane
6) Employment at the Daily Planet
7) The love triangle between Clark,Superman and Lois

Superman means so many things to different people. In this case, for the Siegel family, Superman means money! Read the full article here.

Missing In Action

Hey blogosphere, my apologies for being MIA! My day job requires me to be online, reviewing websites, and I'm worried I may have picked-up a virus or some sort of malware inthe process. Since I usually blog in my downtime at work, I've been avoiding sites where I have to enter my personal information... namely my blog username and password. Call me paranoid, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I'll be blogging actively soon, stay tuned!

Batman: The Brave and the Bold... goes West!

According to Collider.com, Adam West will be back in the Batsuit... sort of. In next seasons Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Adam West will be voicing Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne's father. The story is an homage to the classic storyline titled "The Untold Legened of Batman" where Thomas wears a bat outfit to a Halloween party, foreshadowing many familiar traits Bruce Wayne embodies. To add icing on the cake, Julie Newmar will be  voicing the part of Martha Wayne, Thomas Wayne's wife. I'm a huge fan of this show, this episode in particular will be one not to miss!

Read the full article here.

San Diego Comic Con 2009 - Sunday

This was the first Sunday where I decided to take a later flight. I was always under the assumption that Sunday’s at Comic Con were a bit more relaxing, less hustle and bustle and more importantly less crowded. Boy was I wrong. My fiancé and I were the last one’s standing as my friends that joined us left early in the morning. The only thing we were going to attend was the Smallville panel. We decided to take our time in the morning, assuming things would be easy going…. bad idea. Sure, we got to take our time and have a nice breakfast, but the convention floor was as crowded as ever. It might as well have been preview night. When we got to the Smallville panel in Ballroom 6, we made it in the knick of time. They cut the line shortly after we entered.

The Smallville panel included the following guests: Jeph Loeb, Tom Welling, Allison Mack, Erica Durance, Cassidy Freeman, Justin Hartley and Callum Blue. This was a great panel as this was Tom Welling’s first appearance at Comic Con. Obviously, the girls in the audience swooned over Tom Welling. The first Q&A question was classic. A dude dressed in a Batman costume (ala Tim Burton) asked, “When am I going to be on the show?” This set the stage for the rest of the panel which was very entertaining. Geoff Johns popped in to ask Callum Blue to receipt the phrase “Kneel before Zod,” as his character will appear in the next season. For some reason, asking for a signed copy of their table name tags seemed overly popular.

After the Smallville panel, we caught a glimpse of where the celebrities were entering and exiting from. We waited around to see who would come through. Not waiting too long we saw Jennifer Love Hewit and Jamie Kennedy walk through the doors. From there, we decided to spend the rest of our time wandering the main exhibit hall.

This marks the end of my San Diego Comic Con 2009 week.

San Diego Comic Con 2009 - Saturday

Saturday, my friends and I decided to camp out in front of Hall H. It was a great idea [at the moment] because we were already wide awake at 2:00 AM, and we’d have awesome spots in line. It wasn’t so cool when it actually came down to it. Luckily we were in a spot where we could lay down on soft turf style grass. My friend held our spot as we went to the hotel and back for blankets and towels for makeshift pillows. The idea was to sleep, then take turns showering in the morning. I probably got the worst sleep ever, sleeping under the open sky of San Diego. Luckily, it was warm enough to warrant a light jacket. Sleeping without cushion made it difficult to sleep properly. I think I managed to get a good 3 hours of real sleep.

Before I knew it, daylight had come, and the line was long as expected. It was costumes galore as everyone in line seemingly was there for the first panel of the day, ABC’s Lost. Costumes differed from Thursday as there were more Lost characters than Team Edward/Jacob costumes. Considering this will be their last season, Lost fans came out in droves and pulled out all the stops. Hours passed by like minutes, and it was finally time to move in to Hall H. We ended up getting really good seats, much closer than Thursday.

Lost- Great panel to start the day off. Hosted by co-creator/executive producer Damon Lindelof and executive producer Carlton Cuse, this was an extra special panel as next Lost will be ending next season. Michael Emerson (Ben) and Jorge Garcia (Hurley) joined the panel, integrated into the audience Q&A which was pretty funny. Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie) and Nestor Carbonell (Richard) also surprised the crowd by joining the panel. For the Q&A crowd, anyone that said the “magic word” would win a prize. It turned out the word was “Claire,” and the winner won an official prop from the show. The prop ended up being the original note that Claire tied to a bird, letting it fly off.

Soloman Kane - Director Michael J. Bassett and James Purefoy made an appearance for this panel, showing a handful of clips from the film. The movie looked good, but wasn’t really my cup of tea.

Miramax: Extract - Mike Judge, Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis was on stage for this film (ala Office Space).

2012 —Director Roland Emmerich. Sounding like Arnold Schwartenegger’s distant cousin, I actually spent most of this time trying to recharge my iPhone. Damn batter life!

Iron Man 2 — This is why my friends and I really squatted in Hall H, pretty much what everyone was waiting for. Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell. With a few words from Jon Favreau, they immediately jumped into the trailer. The crowd roared with excitement as this was the most anticipated and action packed trailer of the convention. War Machine was definitely a superb touch.

Kevin Smith — It’s not Hall H without Kevin Smith, hilarious as ever! Unfortunately, he didn’t bring a trailer for his latest project, “Couple of Dicks,” as he admitted he didn’t want to “jinx” the film.

Saturday night was the Masquerade Ball, fun as ever!