Supergirl: A Second Chance [Guest Post]

By GW Thomas

(Warning: This piece contains big spoilers.) I have a few confessions to make first. I slammed the pilot of Supergirl pretty hard back in June of last year. I avoided the series like the plague while I had Daredevil to watch on TV and several superhero movies to look forward to like Deadpool, Batman v Superman and Captain America: Civil War. But eventually I ran out of excuses and had to sit down and watch the finished first season. I had heard it was cancelled and then not cancelled. I wasn't sure if I cared or not?

Let me recall what my gripes were with the pilot:

1. The pilot lacked pace. They threw everything at you so fast.
2. Because of this we didn't get to know the characters or care about them.
3. The villains were all cardboard.
4. Each week they'd throw another villain at Supergirl.

The first complaint I am happy to say is no longer a problem. With twenty episodes to fill, the pace has improved greatly. Kara Danvers can now take time to worry about dating, or be jealous of Lucy Lane, while other characters got story-lines and scenes that fleshed them out. Callista Flockhart as Cat Grant, who I found repulsive in the pilot, becomes this hard-edged, but worthy mentor. Hank Henshaw, who seemed superfluous and annoying, becomes an intriguing character as Martian Manhunter. All the peripheral characters such as Winn Schott Jr. and James Olson (along with future villains like Siobhan McDougal/Silver Banshee) all get time and purpose. This in turn gets rid of problem #2.

Problem #3 still persists. Non (played by Chris Vance), the husband of Kara's Aunt Astra, has about as much depth as Snidley Whiplash. His wife is killed by a kryptonite sword and he grinds his teeth and gets angry (but he always talks like that), but never really comes across as a grieving husband. Instead he hooks up with the Mystique-wannabe, Indigo (played by Laura Vandervoort) and leaves when he fails. He should have been a linchpin character who cast any ever-present pall of dread over Supergirl's life, but he comes off as tacky and boring. Let's hope next year they come up with a better big bad.

The last problem, the weekly villain or monster, is systemic and not only part of Supergirl's set-up, but any other superhero show, such as The Flash. (The "World's Finest" crossover episode featuring Grant Guston as Barry Allen was fun and a nice break from the main story line.) Even Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer had this problem, as do all episodic hero shows. Supergirl makes fun of this in episode 19 ("Myriad") when Max Lord says, “We’re way past ‘Villains of the Week’ and kittens stuck in trees.” This shows that writers are well-aware of the nature of the beast. So what do you do about it? Better writing. And we've seen that with Season One. "Red-Faced" (episode 6), where Kara has to deal with an invisible, intelligent robot and her anger issues, had some real pathos, though not quite enough logic for me. (Why would the Army spend billions on a prototype, then decide to destroy it on a whim? And who doesn't put a safety protocol into a billion dollar project?) The episode with the red kryptonite (episode 16) invented by Max Lord, Supergirl's Lex Luthor, that made Kara turn evil, also has Kara's sister Alex reveal that she killed her aunt. Some very good acting by Chyler Leigh and better writing showed that the series has soul.

Other problems I never mentioned before include "teamism." All the superhero shows have teams. Arrow has Felicity Smoak and John Diggle, while the Flash has Cisco and Harrison Wells and Kaitlyn Snow. Supergirl has two teams! Her buddy team and the Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO). I understand that TV shows are filled with people talking to each other, and the teams allow this dialogue. But one of the things I loved about Netflix's Daredevil was that he didn't have a team. And if it gets to the point where DD is talking to Foggy Nelson on an ear piece while Karen Page works the monitor, then I give up, and will start watching reality TV (shudder). Again, I loved the movie, Unbreakable, because Bruce Willis' character was alone. It's limiting, but I love it.

So is the show cancelled? It appears not, just moving to the CW, where I think it will be quite at home. How do I feel about this? I'm glad and I will watch Supergirl next year. Partly because the show has embraced the old spirit of the Supergirl comics, which featured weekly complications ad nauseum from writers like Otto Binder and Mike Sekowsky. This is one side of her comics. Not all stories have to be galaxy-wide punch-fests (though some of these are good too). I want Supergirl to be something different from The Flash (which I still watch). I understand network superhero shows can't be as gritty as Jessica Jones, my second favorite after Daredevil, but perhaps on the CW Supergirl can survive long enough to find its way, and we can enjoy that Kryptonian universe Siegel and Shuster created 78 years ago.

GW Thomas has appeared in over 400 different books, magazines and ezines including The Writer, Writer's Digest, Black October Magazine and Contact. His website is gwthomas.org. He is editor of Dark Worlds magazine.

Lena Thorul, Jungle Princess [Guest Post]

By GW Thomas

The 1960s get a lot of press for being a time of civil unrest, counter culture, and music. Another thing it was, was a time of experimentation with alternative ideas, such as yoga, meditation, the Bermuda Triangle, and the Beatles meeting the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and adopting Asian beliefs (or in some cases, just the clothes). It was a time of astral projection and pyramid power. It was also the age of ESP.

Let's forget that science fiction had driven that bandwagon over a decade earlier. It took ten years for everyone else to catch up. And the comic books were no different. Jack Kirby at Marvel created Professor X for X-Men #1 (September 1963). Psychics came two years earlier to the Superman franchise, specifically Supergirl, with the telepathic character of Lena Thorul, who was secretly Lex Luthor's sister. Beginning February 1961 in "The Curse of Lena Thorul," she was brought to life by Superman's original creator, Jerry Siegel.

Lena helped Supergirl with her powers until the cat got out of the bag in Action Comics #313 (June 1964), written by Leo Dorfman and drawn by Jim Mooney. What could possibly happen to the lovely Lena if she found out? Amnesia, of course. Followed by life in the jungle and some zebra underwear. If it worked for Lois Lane in 1959, why not Lena Luthor five years later?

What chance did Lena have, being telepathic and having to interview Lex as part of her FBI application? The truth slips from Lex's mind and snap. Off Lena runs to anywhere - Africa - where she acquires a movie starlet's costume for a film that is being made. Without memory, she adopts the clothing and with her amazing abilities she tames the jungle animals around her. She becomes a legend of the jungle, the Jungle Princess! When a stray bullet creases Lena's head, giving her back her memory, she goes back to Metropolis to perform with her lions and elephants. There she also cuts into Supergirl's business, rescuing some people from a collapsing balcony with the help of her savage friends.

During Lena's premiere she is once again tortured by the idea of being ridiculed as Lex Luthor's sister. She can't perform, so Supergirl takes her place. Since she can't control the animals with her mind, it is Supergirl's strength that saves her from the lion's mouth and the elephant's foot. As Superman saved Lois Lane from harm in "Lois Lane, Jungle Princess," Supergirl does the same for her friend this time.

Meanwhile back in prison, Lex Luthor has become the "Plant of Metropolois Prison." With Supergirl's innocent help, he gets quantities of "Vitagron" and "Energite" (nothing suspicious there!) and grows a vine down the walls of the prison. He comes to the theater, expecting Lena, but is captured by Supergirl. The green flowers he has brought for his sibling are special, having the power to erase Lena's bad memories, which they do. (Lex wisely guards himself from the fumes with a handkerchief, pretending to have a cold.) Heading back to prison, Lex is happy he has been able to help his sister forget his terrible legacy.

This second trip to the jungle doesn't have as much "jungle-ness" to it, but it still gets in some minor Tarzania. Lena, when she speaks to her animal friends (more for effect than need, as she can control them silently) she speaks the "jungle language," which the animals can understand, including "Urtah! Itay! Kabray! Despite sounding like Pig Latin, it is descended from Tarzan's "Bundalo" and "Kreegah!" that is familiar to fans of both the comics and original stories. Typical to most jungle queen stories, Lena uses her amazing powers to stop poachers who are stealing from the Elephant's Graveyard. She also directs one of her apes to rescue a man from quicksand.

Once again DC Comics showed a lasting interest in the heritage of the jungle. Or were they simply catching the rising tide? Ballantine Books was selling millions of copies with their new Tarzan editions in 1963-64. This new wave of Tarzan fever would see Ron Ely play the ape man on TV in 1966. DC would have loved some of that jungle action, but Western Comics would keep the Burroughs' properties until the early 1970s. Still, a good, generic jungle princess now and then couldn't hurt.

GW Thomas has appeared in over 400 different books, magazines and ezines including The Writer, Writer's Digest, Black October Magazine and Contact. His website is gwthomas.org. He is editor of Dark Worlds magazine.

What's your favorite comics character makeover?

Which comics characters do you like one of their later looks better than their initial look?

A bunch of comics readers (including me) answered that question on the Comics Reporter site a while back. Curious to know what you think.

Supergirl: A Shotgun to the Face [Guest Post]

By GW Thomas

Superhero TV is all the rage. Which is a good thing. The latest entry is DC's Supergirl starring Melissa Benoist. Watching the first episode made me realize what separates Joss Whedon's Avengers from the dog's breakfast that is Supergirl. It's one simple factor. Just one. A team of superheroes must stop an invasion of extra-dimensional baddies from taking over the Earth, or a single hero must face a gang of cons escaped from Krypton's worst prison. Looking at these two scenarios I can't see anything that jumps out and says one will be a massive hit and the other a quickly dwindling mistake. They are both improbable and "comic book." So what is the difference?

First off, is it fair to compare a movie series with a TV series? In this case, yes, because the problem isn't budget, special effects, or star power. Daredevil (which I talked about a few posts ago) had none of these, and it was probably the best superhero show of the year. Money is not the issue. It's something else.

In this pilot you meet eight important characters: Kara, her sister Alex, her sister's boss Hank Henshaw, Kara's boss Cat Grant, Kara's work buddy and confidante Winn, Jimmy Olsen, and two major villains. And you don't have time to get to know any of them. Which is a huge mistake. Take Calista Flockhart as Kara's bitch-boss, the rich and eccentric Cat Grant. We don't get any hint of a redeeming quality or something of interest in her. None. You just want to punch her in the face and you hope she dies. Which is more than you can say for almost all the other characters. They don't even get that much frisson. The entire cast (with the exception of Jimmy Olsen, perhaps) could be wiped off the face of the Earth and you'd not care. You might even cheer. And the villains: cardboard, replaceable, non-entities. The main antagonist this first episode was Vartox (Owain Yeoman), an ax-swinging bad-ass from the Krypton prison. I enjoyed seeing Yeoman out of nostalgia for his Rigsby character on The Mentalist, but not much else.

So what's this singular problem? It's pace. This first episode goes off like a shotgun in your face, with too many characters, too much back story, too little genuine feeling. If the show had taken four or five episodes to reveal this much information you might have something. Don't give away you are a superhero to your work buddy half way through the first episode! Don't reveal your sister's secret life before the first commercial. Give us time to get to know and like (and dislike) the characters. Kara could have told her boss to go #$%& herself at any point and it wouldn't matter. Make it matter (making the temp assistant feel she is responsible for saving the jobs of the entire bullpen was a nice try, but logically doesn't fly). Daredevil made you interested in Kingpin's life even if you didn't cheer for him. Gotham spent an entire season getting to know all the villains. Arrow and The Flash both assembled teams to support the hero, but not in one episode. Supergirl tries to set it all up in forty minutes, leaving them with nothing to do for the rest of the season except throw new villains at her each week or descend into soap opera. I felt bored with it after one episode.

Pace. This has been Joss Whedon's magic. He makes these characters into people you want to follow. He gives them problems and struggles and wins and losses. And he knows pace. He knows it takes time to do all this. A great example was Agent Phil Coulson in The Avengers. What should have been an anonymous government stooge proved to be one of the great death scenes in fantasy film. (We'll ignore the fact that people other than Whedon decided to milk that success, revive him and give him a TV show.) Why? Because Whedon took the time to make you care about him, and then dared to actually do something interesting with him.

Pace. That's all they needed to change. The cast is good. Benoist has the right blend of innocence and strength. Jimmy Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) was good as the guy saving Kara from being fired, but slipped as he revealed his secret mission. Again, good stuff for later in the season. The special effects were great, with Kara having to divert a jet plane through a bridge. The fight scenes were pretty standard, reminding me of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies. All the material was there. All of it. Kaboom!

I suppose the one redeeming feature I have to praise: no Oliver Queen-style, drive you crazy, go get a soda flashbacks. Ah, there was that. The short glimpse of Kara's life with adopted parents, the Danvers, was a fun cameo for Dean Cain (who played Superman on Lois and Clark) and Helen Slater (who played Kara in the 1984 Supergirl film that followed the Reeve movies). I suppose the producers didn't want to do more than suggest this part of Kara's life because they didn't want to go down the Smallville road. (Or as Sheldon Cooper puts it, ten seasons to see a man who can fly, fly.) Personally, I would have welcomed more from these two and perhaps that is the plan, to bring them in as recurring roles?

GW Thomas has appeared in over 400 different books, magazines and ezines including The Writer, Writer's Digest, Black October Magazine and Contact. His website is gwthomas.org. He is editor of Dark Worlds magazine.

Happy Valentine's Day from DC heroes who don't really like you "that" way

Art Show: Ape and Human United Against Mutated (and Tentacled) Monsters

Captain May



By Grant Gould.



By Jessica Hickman. At some point I asked Grant and Jess to draw me as a pirate. I can't believe I've never shared these before.

Too Heavy to Fly



By Jeremy Vanhoozer.

After the break: giant fish, Planet of the Squid, merpirates, and DC's undersea heroines

Art Show: Death's Stagecoach

Pirates



By Todd Lockwood [Illustrateurs]

Amphibian



By Mathieu Reynès.

Sheena and Snowbird



By Katie Cook. [Tons of other Marvel heroes in that link]

Jurassic Park



Artist Unknown [Illustrateurs]

Dinosaurigami



By Petr Stuchlý. [Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs]

Knighthood, a ghost-cowboy, a warrior-goddesses, and the greatest team-up of all time after the break

Art Show: The Dark Swamps of Barsoom

Cursed Pirate Girl



By Katie Cook.

Carrie



By Ryan Cody. [Hey, Oscar Wilde! It's Clobberin Time!!!]

Richard Sala, John Carter, Flash Gordon, giant robots, more Katie Cook, and 3D Giant Hippos after the break.

Art Show: World's Most Awesome Team-Ups

Time to start working on my backlog of cool art from the last month or so. Gonna ease into it though with only a couple today.

Black Widow and Supergirl



By Craig Rousseau.

Conan and Ka-Zar



By Neal Adams. [Giant-Size Marvel]

Art Show: Walking Dynamite!

Adventure



By Franklin Booth [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

Mermaid



By Abrams [Never Sea Land]

Tales of Three Planets



By Rog G Krenkel [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]

The Human Bomb



By Dan and Sy Barry. There's a whole story that goes with it at Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine.

The Spectacular Super-Girls



Artist unknown. Peter Parker's classmates from the Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon dressed as DC heroes though? Love it. [Brother Calvin]

Zatanna



By Danielle Corsetto. [Comic Art Fans]

Black Canary and Huntress



By Steve Bryant again.

Iron Man and Friends



By Mike Maihack.

Alternate Jabba



By Richard Whitters.

Awesome List Catch-Up: Part Three

Okay. More catching up with Awesome news from Blogarama.

Another Blue Beetle interview

I followed up my interview with the writer of Blue Beetle's all-Spanish issue by breaking the news about the series' new, regular writer: Jack of Fables' Matt Sturges. Hopefully you can't tell it from the interviews, but I've never read an issue of Blue Beetle before now. These conversations have made me want to change that though, so I'll be picking up the Spanish issue this week as well as checking out Matt's run. And I just bought the collection of the first six issues in the series.

There's a new poster for the Incredible Hulk movie



And again, it's got a great Bill Bixby vibe that's making me hungry to see it.

Atlantis Rising

I don't read Platinum Comics because the vibe I get is that they're all movie pitches first and comics second. I'd rather read comics by people who just really want to make comics.

That's not to say that there aren't some nifty movie ideas in their concepts though, so I'm actually curious to see more about the Atlantis Rising movie. I loves me some Atlantis stories.

Black Panther: The Animated Series

I got tired of the Black Panther comic once it got caught up in Civil War and became a second Fantastic Four title, but if the cartoon is anything like the early issues, I'll be all over it.

Three Days in Europe movie

Back when I was actively trying to expand my tastes with some genres I don't typically read, I thought I'd give Three Days in Europe a try thinking it was a Romance comic. It was, but it was also a crime/spy/adventure comic and it was really good. So I'm happy that it's getting made into a movie starring Hugh Jackman and Jennifer Garner.

New Crystal Skull pics

Can be found here. None of them really grabbed me, but there they are.

Another Spirit poster



I like this one. It looks more like a Will Eisner splash page and less like Sin City 2. I'd prefer it not be in black-and-white though.

New X-Files comics

I never used to read X-Files comics when the show was still on even though one of my favorite writers, John Rozum, was writing them. Comics based on currently-being-produced TV shows are always creatively tied by the need to not contradict the show they're based on. That might not be as big a problem now that X-Files is an infrequent movie series though, so I'm likely to give this a shot.

Women of DC poster by Adam Hughes



This was a giveaway at the New York Comic Con. Man, I love Adam Hughes.

From left to right: Catwoman, Oracle, Zatanna, Black Canary, Power Girl, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batwoman, Vixen, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn.

Supergirl for kids

Fans have been clamoring for a more kid-friendly (or, more specifically, young-girl-friendly) Supergirl comic for a while now. Looks like they're finally getting it.

Marvel Apes



Coming soon to a superhero universe near you. I sort of wish they were all gorillas, but how can you not make the webslinger a spider monkey? Well done, Marvel.

Artist of the Day: Grant Gould (again)

Yeah, I know I keep using some of the same artists over and over again. That's because I loooove them; I want to maaaarry them. (Via.)

Warrior Women Wednes-- um, Thursday

Can you tell that Labor Day threw me off a day?

Wonder Woman

First things first: the illustration that accompanies this post is by the fabtabulous Katie Cook. If you didn't know Katie's stuff before now, you're welcome.

This cool Wonder Woman jumper has been making the Internet rounds, but I first saw it thanks to Ragnell.

Scipio has some interesting thoughts on Wonder Woman, particularly about how important her sense of humor is. I hadn't thought of that aspect in particular when I went on and on about her, but I agree that it's an important quality. If her self-confidence is Wonder Woman's defining quality, that should naturally manifest itself in an ability to joke. Overly serious people are compensating for something and I don't think Wonder Woman has anything to compensate for. Not that she should be Spider-Man; chronic jokesters are compensating too. But there should be a balance and Wonder Woman certainly ought not to be dour.

In the same link, Scipio also criticizes Amazons Attack for getting completely wrong the message that the Amazons are supposed to be conveying to the rest of the world. And I agree with him.

"In the Golden Age, the Amazons (and their emissary to Man's World) brought Americans promise of peace and the hope of a better way of doing things. In the Modern Age, they bring Americans Amazons Attack and good guys fighting good
guys, like in a Marvel comic. They are no longer positive examples, but negative ones. They are dupes, who allow themselves to be misled by an addled and irrational leader under the sway of evil influences into a war on foreign soil, for no apparent gain and with little apparent provocation. Amazons, go home; Americans can provide that example themselves, thank you very much."

He also rightly decides to regard Amazons Attack as a fatally flawed concept, but to lend it no more power than that. Instead he looks forward to DC's hopefully correcting all this with Gail Simone's upcoming run on Wonder Woman. I wish more people could do that instead of ranting about the "damage" it's done to Wonder Woman as if this was the last story that was ever going to be told.

DC is apparently aware of the problem, so I'm just looking forward to what's coming next.

Black Canary

Thanks to reprints and archive collections, I've got pretty much every Black Canary appearance up to the point where she joined the JLA. While I wait for the Justice League Archives to catch up to me, M.O.B.L.O.G. is doing a fine job of summarizing what happened in those issues (starting here).

Supergirl

Smallville's Supergirl has her costume all picked out. And contrary to some opinions, it doesn't make her look "exactly like one of Michael Turner's characters."

Warrior Women Wednesday

I've been keeping half-an-eye on the development of the JLA movie, but I just realized yesterday that this is the closest we're going to get to a Wonder Woman movie for a while, so maybe I'd better pay more attention. Kevin Melrose has the latest skinny, linking to the same Christian Bale interview I did about how Bale and Routh aren't likely to be in the thing, and also linking to IESB.net who debunks the rumor that the whole thing will be CGI motion-capture.

According to IESB, "it will not be an all out 'motion capture production.' Heavy motion capture will be used for the OMACs, the underwater sequences and such. So, all in all, this will be a traditionally made film with some motion capture characters, pretty much like every big fantasy movie these days." (IESB also claims that Tom Welling has been approached to play Superman, but Superman Homepage contradicts that with a statement from Smallville producer Alfred Gough who says, "Hasn't happened, won't happen, [Welling] is under contract to Smallville through season 8.")

Speaking of Super-folks, the Fortress of Fortitude has a great essay about the history of Supergirl and includes some excellent suggestions on how DC might help young girls reclaim the superheroine from creepy, old guys.

"DC can keep Kara in the Teen Titans or Legion of Super-Heroes, but they should cancel the solo title and reintroduce it as part of the revitalized Johnny DC line. Bring back Streaky, Comet and teen-age romance. Give Supergirl back to the little girls, and once again make her a character that represents everything a young one can aspire to. Not every character has to be complex, brooding and kewl."

Edited to add: Even though I like the Fortress Keeper's thoughts about what kind of Supergirl stories DC should be telling, I really don't see why they couldn't do those while still continuing to publish the current version as well. Just because Marvel Adventures: Avengers exists doesn't mean that New Avengers shouldn't. If there's a market for both, why not publish both?

The new Supergirl, John McClane beats Optimus Prime, and Dalek cupcakes.

Westerns

Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character is getting his own comic book series. I've been itching for a good Western comic, so I'll be giving it a look.

Horror

The absolutely least interesting part of the Dracula story for me is his origin, so a Dracula Year Zero movie sounds like a really awful idea to me. Until you tell me that Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) is directing it.

I'm not really confident about sticking this under "Horror," but since the very funny Doug Jones plays Abe Sapien in the Hellboy movies, I'll tell you here about his blog.

Fantasy

Kerwin Mathews, the guy who played Sinbad in The 7th Voyage of, died July 5th. He was 81.

Movie studios are looking for the next Harry Potter success. So of course they're snatching up the rights to any book series that remotely features wizards and spells. I guess as long as you're looking to rip off the Potter movies, you might as well go to the Potter rip-off books, but I'm thinking that this is going to get old real fast.

I'm a nerd for historical movies and I've wanted to see one for a while that covers the period between cave men and the first civilizations. Prayer answered. And it looks good too.

Science Fiction

Make your own Dalek cupcakes. (Thanks for the link, Kelly Sue!)

10 Reasons Why John McClane is More Badass than Optimus Prime.

Superheroes

Smallville watchers, meet your Supergirl.

Writing is Apparently Not That Hard

At least, Joe Mathlete makes it look easy with this excerpt from a fictional book (as in, it doesn't actually exist) that I would totally buy. I want to give you a best line, but the whole damn thing's awesome, so I'll just feed you the first in order to entice you to reading the whole thing: "Jameson P. Greeley sipped his glass of milk through a straw, savoring each drop like a kitten would vodka, if the kitten were an alcoholic and/or Russian."

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

I thought Meredith's half-sister Lizzie was completely charming in her Grey's Anatomy appearances. Apparently I was in the minority because focus groups didn't like her. Fortunately, the show's producers told the focus groups what to do with themselves and made her a regular character. Just one of the many reasons I love the creators of that show.

Links: Incredibles sequel, pirate treasure, and mighty goofiness

Pirates

While searching for a location to hide some fake treasure for a promotional contest, divers found the real thing.

Superheroes

Brad Bird's thinking about an Incredibles sequel.

More thoughts on how to do a Lois Lane comic.

Writing is Hard

What Type of Writer Should You Be?
You Should Be a Film Writer: You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

I am mighty.

Links: Smallville sucks, Thunderbolt Hurt, and Peek-a-Boo Cap

Science Fiction

• SciFi costume exhibit at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle.
• Kaylee from Firefly is joining the cast of Stargate: Atlantis.

Superheroes

• Even though I enjoyed most of this season of Smallville, I was never what you'd call "excited" to watch it. I think I've lost interest and am watching it out of a) habit, and b) curiosity to see if they're even going to try to make it flow into a reasonable representation of the familiar Superman mythos. In other words: I just want it to be over. Adding Supergirl to the cast next season does nothing to change that.
• Crap. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but I held out hope that somehow Sam Elliott would be invited back to reprise the role of General Thunderbolt Ross in the new Hulk movie. No such luck. Instead, we get... William Hurt? This is the first change from the Ang Lee film that I'm disappointed about. I mean, not just losing Elliott, but William Hurt? He's going to have to really stretch himself from the sleepy performances I usually see him give.
• Okay, this is hilarious. Kyle Baker's posted a couple of pages from the last issue of his maniacally fun Plastic Man series for DC. The humor is an obvious parody of the dark, "mature" comics that DC and Marvel have become so fond of, but apparently not everyone got the joke. Just goes to show how uptight some comics fans have become. Still... funny!
• I don't know anything about the I Know Joe Kimpel blog. Is it written by Joe Kimpel? Or just someone who knows him? I've no idea! I don't even know who Joe Kimpel is. All I know is that someone paints nice pictures of Mary Marvel and Supergirl. I wish he (she?) kept the Black Canary one going though instead of turning her into Batgirl.
• Marvel is developing a Captain America movie that'll be half modern tale and half period piece.
• They're also still trying to work out an Avengers film.
• And speaking of Captain America, Bully's post about about Cap's playing a very frightening game of Peek-a-Boo has to win like "Post of the Year" or something.

Writing is Hard

• Stephen King's dusted off an old, previously unpublished novel from his Richard Bachman days. It's called Blaze. What's interesting to me is his "Full Disclosure" forward (scroll to the bottom of the Amazon link to read it) that gives insight into what he calls "trunk novels," which is early work that you were never able to find a publisher for. I hear that most first novels are unpublishable except, as in this instance, when you've made a name for yourself and have a following of fans who want to read everything you've ever written. That's not negative commentary about King, whom I love, I just think it's cool that even he had a trunk full of unpublishable novels. It's also interesting to hear about how his opinion of that material changed a couple of times.

Links: Elric movie, Tiempos Finales 2, and Lois Lane: Girl Reporter

This still won't catch me up on the backlog, but I'll keep picking away at it.

Pirates

• In the comments for my At World's End review, someone mentioned that SPOILER! "because Elizabeth faithfully waited for Will, the curse was eventually broken after 10 years." To which I replied that I'd heard the same thing somewhere. Here's where. I really hope there's an extended version DVD in the works.

Horror

• Sam Hiti has announced that as soon as he finishes his current graphic novel Death Day (which from what I've seen is going to be unbelievably awesome by the way), next on his plate will be Tiempos Finales Volume 2. His plan for the future is to work on two projects a year, one of which will be a Tiempos Finales volume.

Fantasy

• There's an Elric movie in the works from the guys who are doing The Golden Compass. I loved Elric stories as a kid (except for the ones where he was teaming up with those other Eternal Champion guys -- that was one crossover I could've done without).
• Looks like that Harry Potter theme park is finally coming to fruition.

Science Fiction

• LucasFilm's released a trailer for the CGI Clone Wars series.
• Here's a great list of Disney films with a steampunk feel. Time to update my Netflix queue.

Superheroes

• There's a Teen Titans movie in the works. No news on what characters will be in it (though Nightwing is rumored), but Mark Verheiden (Smallville, Battlestar Galactica) is writing and the tone is supposed to be similar to Batman Begins and Superman Returns.
• I haven't been reading Supergirl, but I've mentioned the general fan dissatisfaction around it a couple of times. Looks like DC is serious about remedying that and revamping the character into a believable teenaged heroine. Looks like I will be reading Supergirl before too long.
• Speaking of superheroines, and in light of my recent examination of Wonder Woman, Lillian S. Robinson's Wonder Women is definitely going on my Wish List.
• I totally agree with Kalinara: there ought to be a Lois Lane comic focusing on her investigative reporting. It could be a great adventure/mystery comic.

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Everybody Cares About Including Me

• Movie theater owners are figuring out how you can rat out obnoxious movie watchers to managers without leaving the movie. It's about time. (Thanks to Brad Meltzer for the link.)