In association with DNA Films (Sunshine, 28 Weeks Later), the UK publisher 2000AD has announced that Judge Dredd has been greenlit for production in 2009. They hope this movie will drown everyone’s memory of the 1995 film featuring Sylvester Stallone in one of his finest roles as an actor. All joking aside, they seem to understand the initial theatrical attempt was a bit of a farce and hope to correct that with this next outing. Time will tell…

Marvel.com has premiered a new trailer for the upcoming animated DVD release of Hulk Vs, a compilation of two major showdowns; Hulk vs Wolverine and Hulk vs Thor. The trailer shows us a much deeper story than expected from the previous action only trailer. We even get to see a couple Weapon X characters including Sabretooth, Deadpool and Omega Red.

Thanks to BumbleBeeZ3 for the news.

Gift Guide is a series of articles highlighting some of our top picks for gift suggestions. Each article covers a specific genre with explanations of why we think these items make worthy gifts.

Today’s Gift Guide topic is graphic novels. When you think about the term graphic novel today, often it is associated with comic books and superheroes. This is not always the case, however. Today’s list is comprised of half superhero stories and half non-superhero stories that are equally, if not moreso, compelling.

American Born Chinese
Gene Yang weaves together three separate stories. The first is a folk tale of a Monkey King who must come to terms with his true nature after declaring himself a god. The second storyline follows a young chinese boy that moves to America. After living there for a while, he meets another boy who recently moved from China and is quickly frustrated at his culture shock. The third plotline follows the sitcom of a boy in high school who’s Chinese cousin, Chin-Kee, comes to visit and immediately and deliberately follows one stereotype after another, completely embarassing the high schooler.

Why we like it: In addition to winning the Michael Printz Award, what could be considered the young adult literature equivalent of the Newbery Medal, the book takes a hilarious and light hearted look at racial stereotypes, coming to terms with, and appreciating this heritage.

Check out the rest of our list after the jump!
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In the Batman RIP storyline, confirming rumors we heard earlier, Bruce Wayne as Batman has been killed.

Author Grant Morrison will put Bruce Wayne in the line of fire from Simon Hurt, a gangster who claims to really be Dr Thomas Wayne, Bruce’s father.

The Sun reports Dick Grayson or Tim Drake may become Batman shortly. My vote is for Dick Grayson. Its time.

What say you, loyal fans? Is this a cheap stunt? An overdue end? Time for the manatee to become the mento?

 

MattyCollector.com has announced the lineup for wave 8 of this increasingly popular line with pictures. In addition, the Collect N’ Connect figure (Build-a-Figure, for Marvel Legends fans) will be Giganta! All figures in the wave as with all figures in the line have been sculpted by the Four Horsemen.

The line up will feature:
Commander Steel
Dr. Fate
Dr. Fate (Classic – Chase)
Gentleman Ghost
Hawkgirl
Mr. Terrific
Vigilante
Red Parademon
Yellow Parademon
CnC – Giganta

Pictures are located after the jump
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I’ll admit to being quite the geek contrarian. I never read the original Watchmen book, and quite frankly was disappointed in 300, which had a similar level of geek excitement. The last trailer, with the use of a frankly horrible Smashing Pumpkins song originally from the movie Batman & Robin (not the most wise association for a comic movie) had me convinced Watchmen was nothing to get worked up about.

This trailer hasn’t quite sold me on the film yet, but if you’re already excited, then you’ll go nuts. It is a much better trailer and actually contains hints at the story, which is nothing I got from the old ones.

High Definition options at Yahoo

Marvel Entertainment has just announced the Robert Downey Jr. has officially signed on for The Avengers. Jon Favreau has also been announced to executive produce the feature. The recent news of Don Cheadle taking up the mantle of James Rhodes from Terrance Howard is also made official in this press release stating that he will be on hand for Iron Man 2, The Avengers and subsequent Iron Man films.

Choice quote:

In a movie event, THE AVENGERS will bring together the super hero team of Marvel Comics characters for the first time ever, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk and more, as they are forced to band together to battle the biggest foe they’ve ever faced.

The highly anticipated sequel to IRON MAN will be released in theatres on May 7, 2010 and THE AVENGERS will be released July 15, 2011. Both films will be distributed by Paramount Pictures.

Via SlashFilm

Press Release after the jump
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Variety is reporting that when CW finally swings the axe on Smallville (oh, please let it be this season), they’re going to fill its place with an equally uninteresting pre-super hero show called “The Graysons.” This will follow the travelling circus lives of Dick Grayson and his parents before they fell to an untimely end and Dick was recruited into the world of the goddamn Batman.
Well, I guess I shouldn’t say its a totally bad idea. The execution might be excellent, and if it fit into the Dark Knight or even the Smallville mythos it would instantly gain a huge numbers of fans. Still, the last time WB tried to dip Batman’s sidekicks into a show, we got Birds Of Prey. Given the way WB and DC want Batman handled, its highly unlikely he’ll even appear in the show (much in the same way Smallville has no cape for Superboy, even if its beyond reason that he doesn’t by now). And though young Clark or even young Bruce had compelling backstories before being expanded (in Smallville and in Batman Begins), I have my doubts that Dick Grayson can be a character worth watching without changing him.
McG will produce the show and Dick will be called “DJ Grayson” and I think I can pretty much stop this story right here. I’ll leave you with a quote from Iron Man director Jon Favreau on Why Superhero Movies Sometimes Fail and let you draw your own conclusions.