Another pic of the new Wonder Woman

This via Yahoo! TV Blog, and I have to say that  Tara Ariano sounds a bit jealous.

See the First Photo of Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman

By Tara Ariano, The Set | Friday, March 18, 2011, 1:28 PM

Last month, NBC's "Wonder Woman" reboot cast its titular superheroine, with "Friday Night Lights" star Adrianne Palicki stepping into Lynda Carter's invisible plane. Today, the production has released its first image of Palicki in costume as Wonder Woman...and here she is!

As James Hibberd notes on EW.com, "NBC promises the project, if picked up to series, will offer a serious, non-campy take on the DC Comics character."

I'm not entirely sure how that pledge jibes with this image. I understand that this take on Wonder Woman's look is congruent with her costume in the comic books, but the only thing less practical for crime-fighting than vinyl leggings is a bustier (and don't even get me started on the high-heeled boots). A "serious, non-campy" vigilante has to be dressed for speed and flexibility — and, one would hope, utility.

So if this pilot — and, with it, this get-up — makes it to series, I guess we should just wish good luck to Palicki's stunt double, and to the NBC censor who's definitely going to have to spend a lot of time pixelating her costume malfunctions.

Close to lights out for Spider-Man Musical Turn off the Dark

This from Associated Press:

'Spider-Man' postponed; Taymor out as directorAP – People line up to enter the Foxwoods Theatre for a matinee showing of 'Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,' …

By JOCELYN NOVECK and MARK KENNEDY, Associated Press Jocelyn Noveck And Mark Kennedy, Associated Press – 52 mins ago

NEW YORK – Julie Taymor, the Tony Award winning director of "The Lion King," will no longer direct Broadway's troubled "Spider-Man" musical as producers announced a new creative team and postponed the show's official opening to summer.
Taymor, who also co-wrote the book for "Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark," will remain a part of the new team, lead producers Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris said Wednesday, in announcing an unprecedented sixth delay for the musical.
"Julie Taymor is not leaving the creative team. Her vision has been at the heart of this production since its inception and will continue to be so," the producers said in a statement. "Julie's previous commitments mean that past March 15, she cannot work the 24/7 necessary to make the changes in the production in order to be ready for our opening."
On Wednesday, a friend and longtime associate said the lack of time to hone the show had been one of Taymor's great frustrations.
"She's been distraught that there's so little time to rehearse," said Jeffrey Horowitz, artistic director of the Theatre for a New Audience.
Also distressing to Taymor has been the tenor of much of the news coverage and online chatter. "It's hard — I try not to look," she told The Associated Press in a brief conversation in December. She more recently referred to her troubles during a talk at TED, an annual tech conference held this year in Long Beach, Calif.
"I'm in `The Crucible' right now," she said, referring to the Arthur Miller play about the Salem witch trials. "It's trial by fire."
"She's distraught at how she's been labeled," Horowitz said. "They've said she's an artist only concerned with spectacle. I can tell you that all her visual ideas come from a deeply human idea of the story she is working on. And they say she's a `perfectionist' — well, what's wrong with being a perfectionist?"
"You don't hire people like Julie Taymor unless you want people who push boundaries," he added. "This show is a piece of art, and it has been described as a spectacle gone out of control. That is dangerous — for her, and for other artists who take risks."
The show's representative, Rick Miramontez, said no performances will be canceled during the overhaul.
Philip William McKinley and Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa have joined the $65 million production to assist with new staging and rewrites for the show, which was to have opened on March 15. Musical consultants Paul Bogaev and sound designer Peter Hylenski are also on the new team.
Bogaev, who won a Tony nomination in 2004 for his work on "Bombay Dreams," has a history of working with rock musicians who craft musicals, including "Tarzan" with Phil Collins and "Aida" with Elton John. Hylenski worked on "Elf," "Shrek" and "Scottsboro Boys," among other shows.
Taymor's directing duties will be handled by McKinley, who directed "The Boy From Oz" (2003) and "The Night of the Hunter" (2006). Aguirre-Sacasa worked on HBO's "Big Love" and has written for Marvel comics, and wrote the play "The Picture of Dorian Gray," based on the Oscar Wilde novel.
"The team will be implementing a new plan to make significant and exciting revisions to the production," producers Cohl and Harris said. "This amended schedule will allow the time necessary to execute the plan, which will include revisions to the script."
The delay has taken the show out of the running for Tony Award consideration this year, but it will be eligible for the 2012 season.
The stunt-heavy and highly visual musical was co-written by Taymor and Glen Berger, and has music by U2's Bono and The Edge.
"This is an epic ride, and the standing ovations we have seen from the preview audiences have confirmed our absolute faith in the project," Bono and The Edge said in a statement. "We are listening and learning and, as a result, we have a couple of new songs we are very very excited about putting into the mix."
The unusual move to again delay the show came as "Spider-Man" continues to defy the reviews and post impressive numbers at the box office. It was the second highest-grossing show on Broadway this week, after "Wicked," pulling in close to $1.3 million — though it was slightly down from the week before.
Indeed, the scene at the Foxwoods Theatre Wednesday was in marked contrast to the turmoil in the headlines. The line to get into the matinee snaked well down a huge city block, and was filled with tourists, an entire class of schoolchildren and others clearly excited to see the much talked-about flying scenes — including an aerial battle between Spider-Man and his nemesis, the Green Goblin. (At the evening performance, Green Goblin's steering mechanism froze and the stunt was canceled.)
"We came all the way from Utah to see this — got in on the redeye this morning," said Scott Clayson, a father of four from Brigham City. His wife and two daughters, ages 18 and 20, were with him. "A big part of the appeal is all the tricks they do," Clayson said. "We're really looking forward to it."
After the show, daughter McKell, 20, was ebullient. "I loved it!" she reported. "It was so different from anything I have ever seen. Really impressive."
As of Wednesday night's performance, "Spider-Man" has had 101 previews. For comparison, among musicals currently on Broadway, "Wicked" had 25 previews, "American Idiot" had 26 and "The Lion King" had 33. Most critics got fed up last month and reviewed it, largely panning it.
There is no official penalty for keeping a show in previews except embarrassment, something with which this show is familiar: It easily beat the 71-show mark for a musical having the most previews, which was held by Arthur Laurents' "Nick & Nora" in 1991. That may not bode well for the comic book hero — "Nick and Nora" collapsed a week after its official opening.
"Spider-Man" is unusual in that it has been built specifically for the 1,928-seat Foxwoods, meaning a traditional tryout outside New York to fix glitches and smooth out problems wasn't possible.
Unlike "Wicked," tickets to "Spider-Man" are now available at the discount TKTS booth — a possible reason that total grosses slipped last week.
Also last week, the show's production company was issued three violations of workplace safety standards by federal regulators for four separate incidents late last year that resulted in injuries to the cast.
___
Associated Press writer Matt Moore in Philadelphia, and Associated Press writer Deepti Hajela, AP Television writer Frazier Moore, and news researcher Julie Reed in New York contributed to this report.

This just in from Yahoo:

Spider-Man's debut comic sells for $1.1 million

Source: AP Wed Mar 09, 2011, 5:26 pm EST

PHILADELPHIA – A comic collector has been caught in Spider-Man's web, paying $1.1 million for a near-mint copy of "Amazing Fantasy" No. 15 that features the wall-crawler's debut.

The issue, first published in 1962, was sold Monday by a private seller to a private buyer, ComicConnect.com chief executive Stephen Fishler told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

It's not the highest price ever paid for a comic book, an honor that goes to "Action Comics" No. 1 with Superman on the cover, which went for $1.5 million.

But Fishler says the price paid is the most for a book from the Silver Age, the mid-1950s to about 1970.

"The fact that a 1962 comic has sold for $1.1 million is a bit of a record-shattering event," he said. "That something that recent can sell for that much and be that valuable is awe-inspiring."

Usually, it has been comics from the Golden Age — typically from the late 1930s to the early 1950s — that draw seven-figure sums.

In March 2010, a copy of the 1938 edition of "Action Comics" No. 1 sold for $1.5 million on ComicConnect's website. That issue features the debut of Superman and originally sold for 10 cents.

In February 2010, Heritage Auctions in Dallas sold a rare copy of "Detective Comics" No. 27, which featured the debut of Batman, for $1,075,500. Fishler said the same issue had initially sold for just $2,500 in 1985 and for $140,000 in 2000.
"Over the last decade it has become a rather legendary copy because it was in the hands of a collector and no one thought he would sell," Fishler said. "The owner came up with a figure that he didn't think anyone would pay, and it was paid."

"Amazing Fantasy" No. 15 has long been prized by collectors because of Spider-Man's debut. It has been reprinted and made available as a hard-cover, too.

The cover, drawn by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, shows Spider-Man clutching a villain in one arm and swinging from his web with the other. It originally sold for 12 cents.

Writer Stan Lee and Ditko co-created the web-slinger and his alter ego, the awkward but educationally gifted Peter Parker, who was bitten by a radioactive spider.

"Spider-Man is one of Marvel's flagship characters so, yeah, I'd say 'Amazing Fantasy' is very important," said Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Axel Alonso. "Funny thing is, the series — which was formerly titled 'Amazing Adult Fantasy' — was scheduled for cancellation before issue 'Amazing Fantasy' No. 15 hit stands. It ended up being one of Marvel's highest sellers at the time, and paving the road for the 'Amazing Spider-Man' series that's run monthly ever since."

It also helped pave the way for Spider-Man adventures on the radio, television and the movie screen.

Lee worked for Marvel for decades, eventually becoming its editor-in-chief, and then starting other businesses, including most recently POW! Entertainment.

He said, given the price paid for the issue, "I wish had saved my old Spider-Man books."

Back in the early 1960s, there was never any thought of saving extra issues or the original artwork that made up comics because there was no space to store the artwork or books sent back by the printer.

"So if someone came to deliver our lunch or sandwiches or something, before he'd left we'd say 'Hey, fella! You want to take these books with you or this artwork with you?'" Lee said. "We were giving all that stuff away. Nobody thought to save these books."

Lee said there is more to the price tag than just money.

"I think it's just wonderful that these old books are now considered, in some way, ancient treasures and are thought of so highly that people would give so much money for them," he said. "I would never have believed it, but I am very impressed."

___

Online:

http://www.comicconnect.com/

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights

Click the link below to see the trailer for the new animated feature Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. 

Green Lantern Movie Trailer2 min - Nov 16, 2010 Uploaded by FilmonicTrailers

This from Buzzfocus.com: 

[The movie] weaves six interlocking stories of the Green Lantern Corps’ rich mythology around preparations for an attack by an ancient enemy. As the battle approaches, Hal Jordan (voiced by Nathan Fillion, Castle) mentors new recruit Arisia (Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men) in the history of the Green Lantern Corps, telling tales of Avra (the first Green Lantern) and several of Hal’s comrades – including Abin Sur, Kilowog, Laira and Mogo. In the end, Arisia must rise to the occasion to help Hal, Sinestro and the entire Green Lantern Corps save the universe from the destructive forces of Krona. Penned by comic book luminaries Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons, Peter J. Tomasi, Eddie Berganza, Alan Burnett, Todd Casey and Michael Green & Marc Guggenheim, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights will be distributed June 7 by Warner Home Video as part of the build up to the release of the highly anticipated live action film, Green Lantern, in theatres June 17.

My thoughts:

Of course, we are only dealing with competing trailers here, but, despite the fact that  the animated feature is  a “kids” movie, the theme, swell music and intensity all feel far more epic than the pop corn-gobbling trailer for the live-action, big-budget Lantern release, scheduled for this summer.   Reynolds simply lacks the gravitas for the role; and the camera’s obsession with his abs detract from the nobility of his actions.

Continuing to freshen up Superman

As mentioned in an earlier installment of Caped Crusaders 101, DC is hell-bent on revamping Superman as a Twilight-esque rebel.  Now comes word of further tweaking.  Meet Superman's new mom-- this by way of Yahoo:

Diane Lane Is Superman's Mom

by: Will Leitch

Ma Kent? Sure. Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.com Diane Lane is an actress who has seemed perpetually 37 for about 20 years. There's a weary, sexy worldly wisdom to her that has allowed her to appeal to both men and women, either in erotic "thrillers" like "Unfaithful" or big crowd-pleasers like "Secretariat." Thirty-seven is a good age for an actress to seem; old enough to be respected, but young enough to still be attractive to all age groups.

The one age she doesn't seem like: elderly.

Yet the 46-year-old, onetime Oscar-nominee Lane will play Martha Kent, Superman's "mom," in the upcoming Superman reboot. She has played moms before, of course, but not mothers that have typically been portrayed as matronly rocking-chair dwellers. To be fair, with Annette O'Toole on "Smallville," Superman's adoptive parents have gotten younger in recent years; it's still rumored that Kevin Costner will play Pa Kent, after all. (Actually, that's totally not fair: Costner is 56, almost a decade older than Lane.) 
Lane is considerably younger than those who have played cinematic Supermoms in the past. Phyllis Thaxter played Ma Kent in Christopher Reeve's 1978 version at the age of 57, which was nothing compared to Eva Marie Saint, who was over 80 in Bryan Singer's recent "Superman Returns" reboot. 

Lane is only 19 years older than Henry Cavill, who plays Kal-El, but that shouldn't make any difference: She's not his actual mother, and in celestial time, he's probably a lot older than her anyway. Heck, the trip from Krypton itself must have taken 20 years.

Diane Lane will play Martha Kent in new 'Superman' [Entertainment Weekly]

Batman's new Muslim sidekick: Nightrunner

Meet Batman's new Muslim sidekick: Nightrunner.

This according to Comicvine.com:

Bilal Asselah: Nightrunner

Bilal Asselah  is a citizen of France, a Sunni Muslim, and 22 years old living in the Clichy-sous-Bois of Paris who is phenomenally well trained in parkour (free running). He's recruited by Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson into Batman Incorporated in the upcoming Detective Comics Annual #12 and Batman Annual #28 written by David Hine (with an origin story by Kyle Higgins).

Le Batman Of France

 

After the events of Bruce Wayne's Batman Incorporated trip to Paris, he recruits Bilal as the Batman of Paris, "Le Batman Of France." He leaves Bilal with a state of the art training facility and living quarters, along with Dick Grayson to train him. After his training is complete, Nightrunner makes his debut as a member of Batman Incorporated, but his appearance causes riots as the Algerian population believes he is working with the police, and the people he is trying to protect ultimately shun him. Bilal asks Bruce if he's really the right person for the job, which Bruce confirms. He continues to tell Bilal that the people hate who they think he is, but as a symbol, he's something much greater to them, and it will take time for them to learn. As Bruce leaves, Bilal notices two young boys fighting over what looks to be a piece of cloth, but he soon realizes it is a home made Nightrunner mask. With a new sense of confidence, Bilal fully accepts his new job as the protector of Paris.

Here is a very satirical take on Nightrunner, compliments of the Daily Show:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-march-1-2011/batman-s-muslim-sidekick?xrs=synd_facebook

Latveria/ Libya...eh...Potato/Potahto

Quotes from both our doppelgangers. Doom? Or Gaddafi? I leave this game of "match the quote" to the reader as an exercise.   


"Attack the cockroaches! Those greasy cats and rats!"


"You dared lay a hand upon the sacrosanct person of your lord and master??!"

"I have been informed that my devoted subjects actually dance in the streets at the merest mention of my name!"

"You insufferable -- unspeakable blot on the escutcheon of humanity--
Prepare to me the fate you sorely deserve!"

"Never again will you be able to strike your master!"

"I am possessed of power which defies description--and yet you dare lecture to me?!"

"Your fortuitous arrival is most welcome! Now, I am spared the bother of hunting you down!"
"There can be no greater punishment for you than the knowledge that you are totally helpless!"

"You unselfish concern touches me deeply, you unearthly clod!"

"I am too powerful--too totally supreme -- to give vent to common anger!"

"On your knees, you sentienceless savage!"

"I can rule the world! The Universe! DISNEYLAND!"