The Watchmen Prequel Game

Yeah. You read that right. Thank Achtung Baby for the find/horrors of corporate synergy made real.

Kid Chris and I actually discussed this very (real, apparently) fear in Episode 8, back when both of us were gainfully employed and therefore able to abuse our access to sweet, sweet gear.

We thought...we thought we were being sarcastic. We were wrong. Very, very wrong.

Those who are close to me are already well aware of my growing suspicion of the general habits and political motivations of our friends in Japan. I'm not saying who they are or how they live is wrong, I just whole heartedly believe that a person should not have the to the legal right to marry a fictional being. Call me a bigot, but I just don't cotton to that notion.

But apparently there are those in land of the rising sun that want that particular right. A Japanese man has started an online petition so that he can legally marry an manga character. Now I know that the Japanese love their anime characters and that Japan's flag may as well be changed from that at Red Circle number that any five year old can create with Microsoft Paint to a big eyed, gun toting, half naked, blonde teenager:







But is this a little too far? Now I know there are some saying that the petition is all in good fun, and that nobody really expects that this most-likely socially awkward and undatable Japanese man is really intent of marrying an image from a piece of paper. But who knows, we are talking a country of people that appointed a giant, blue, interdimensional, robotic cat as a foreign ambassador. So I really wouldn't put anything past them, least of which when it comes to them and their precious anime characters.

But the big question is what does this open the door for? Let's say that this online petition passes and it becomes law in Japan that anybody can marry a fictional character... Like reading Fruit's Basket? Why not marry Tohru Honda, the lovable orphaned high school student who also knows kung-fu? Enjoy watching Sailor Moon? Hell, just betroth the whole damn regiment of Sailor Scouts. Most importantly will all those cram schools I hear so much about have to start teaching kids that not only is Naruto super awesome, but also that one day you can marry him?



If there was such a thing as an anti online petition I would truly consider putting some serious thought into possibly one day starting it.

Also, to clear up one more thing: I would not think twice about marrying Power Girl, but I know in my heart of hearts it just can't be.

If you see two bispectacled looking fools wandering around lost on the Wizardworld Los Angeles convention floor, well, give us a holler. We'll probably blink balefully at you from behind our fogged, greasy lenses, and then skitter off back into the darkness that we have become accustomed. It's just how we roll.

Well...they're out. The Comedian, Rorsarch, Nite-Owl (looking mighty buff), Ozymandias sporting some bat-nipplage, and of course a delightfully underfed Silk Spectre.



I'm pretty sure you can guess what next podcast will be about. God, we are sheep.

Thanks to Kid-Chris's Trade Pick of the Week (back when we still read anything over 22 pages) I had finally discovered why Doctor Strange is so damn cool. (if you haven't read B.K. Vaughan's fantastic Doctor Strange: The Oath, get right on that, if only for Martin's excellent illustration work)

And now, Greg, a friend of mine, has linked me to this excellent little piece of pseudo-news over at Empire Online:

"I talked with Neil Gaiman [about writing it]," he tells us. "I said, that’s an interesting character because you can definitely make him more in the pulpy occult detective/magician mould and formula than was done in the Weird Tales, for example...the idea of a character that really dabbles in the occult in a way that’s not X-Filey, where the supernatural is taken for granted. That’s interesting...But I wouldn't use the suit!"

Now, I'm not going to lie, that sounds really fucking awesome (as Greg put it: "from the way he puts it, he's thinking of it in more of a Constantine sort of vibe (the comic version) rather than the campy marvel version, though") but outside of comic circles (and Kid Chris' bedroom) Doctor Strange isn't that much of a household name. That and, fuck, I just wish they had made a good and proper ConstantineHellblazer from the very fucking beginning (yes, I know, different company and all that, but I am still bitter and am incapable of letting things go) so if Doctor Strange turns out to be what Hellblazer should have been, it'll just dig the knife deeper into my DC fangirl heart.

Standard Comic Bitching aside: lets dreamcast this fucker! Doctor Strange, I'm a fan of skinny, too-intelligent-for-their-own good nutcases, and I think Callum Blue could fit that bill pretty damn well. He's got, uh, charm in spades. As for Night Nurse, I'd keep it in the Marvel family and go with Anna Paquin since I doubt they'd keep it in the Marvel Universe as it is.

EDIT: Greg made a good point, it'd blow that they'd lose the cool outfit, but I'm pretty sure they can easily go for a real-worldish type adaptation: skinny pinstripe suit with brightly colored flourishes (a long overcoat with red lining and a high collar, perhaps?) Outside of the costume, the hair and 'stache could remain intact -and if they go with the Ultimate version, with Strange being a New Age guru who fights crime on the side, these flourishes could easily be part of his "image". That and thin pin-striped suits are just hot.

I don't care how crappy this movie is going to be.


Is that bluetooth I see? The photoshop is kind of janky and I don't put too much stock on the authenticity of this but sometimes I'm inescapably shallow, ok? I blame the funny books.

EDIT: Yup. Fake. Still pretty though, and I needed to post SOMETHING until we got the next episode up.

First image of the new 'Enterprise' in the upcoming Star Trek reboot.


(larger @ source)

Also, check out the Trek folk that showed up at the Cloverfield premiere over at Just Jared. Despite being cast in what will no doubt be an abortion of a film, they sure are a sharply dressed bunch.

You there, with the plunging neckline, you can stay.

Look, I suspect these are fan films rather than WB discovering new, fun ways of viral marketing, but I don't care. If these are fan films, then they are awesomely produced and a hell of a lot of fun; if they are viral promos, then grats to WB for trying something a little different:

JLA: New Frontier Dinos


JLA: New Frontier - How to Stop Communism

(larger and more @ source)
You can always count on DC: New Frontier to draw me out of self-imposed exile (we'll be back soon, we swear). Thank Luna over at the always excellent Achtung Baby! (whose equally excellent taste in comics is only equaled by his awesome taste in music) for emailing me this delicious tid-bit. If he's not on your blog roll yet, there's probably something wrong with you.

I'm not going to lie, there's something extremely gratifying in seeing Wonder Woman forefront and center, without her bust or ass being accentuated to draw in nerd dollars. Sure, this joy is mitigated slightly by the fact that the back cover has her prone and bleeding in Superman's arms, but when it comes to New Frontier it's very, very easy for me to say "whatever", as I'm more than well aware that that specific situation is an exception for female characters in Cooke's universe, rather than the rule. And besides, shortly after that point in the story, Supes gets his own ass handed to him and ends up sitting out the big fight himself (while Wondy rejoins the fight, bandages and all.)

**

Check out the blurb for the up-coming Animatrix-style Batman: Dark Knight DVD, with six shorts by six different creators. IMDB lists Brian Azzarello, Alan Burnett, Jordan Goldberg, David S. Goyer, Josh Olson and Greg Rucka as being involved. The excessive use of the "bold" html tag might tip you off as to whom I'm most excited by. I'm extra subtle that way.


If you click the image, you'll see the full scan from Wizard (not bought by me, thank god) explaining in more detail. Apparently while each cartoon will stand alone, they will all take place in the Batman Begins movieverse, rather than the comics, cartoons or pre-Bale movies. While I think it's a little foolhardy to limit yourself to a canon that is as barely developed as it is, maybe being unable to play around with some of the more colorful denizens of Gotham will force the creators to return Bats to his more "mundane" detective origins.

Over at comics2film, there's a lo-res image of the novelization:



Looks like a combo of the movie armor and the comic armor, though I'm getting a decidedly steam-punkish feel by that cape. Gotham by Gaslight anyone?

Don't click, Dave.

Vanity Fair is doing a spread on the new Indiana Jones movie, and holy cripes does it look fantastic:


(source)


Click on the source for more images of Cate Blanchett (swoon), Karen Allen back as Marion Ravenwood, and of course, the classic LucasArts trio of Spielberg, Lucas and Han Solo.

And if you still haven't seen it, the classic (for me anyway) Star Wars Tales theory on the whole Han Solo/Indiana Jones similarity issue: Into the Great Unknown

(which, I'm not afraid to admit, made me a little weepy. shut up.)

Lucas' neck monster seems smaller in the picture, so signs of this movie being worthwhile are looking good. Woo!