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.

(But maybe we can go back in time and fix it.)

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the comic writing book: you’ve run out of fresh ideas, so you take all of the known elements and turn them on their head. Suddenly good guys are bad guys, up is down, black is the new orange, and formerly cool characters start acting like mopey dinks. Is it any wonder that viewership is down 25% from last year?

One of the things that previously set Heroes apart from other shows — and indeed the comic books that inspire it — is that it didn’t need to resort to these kinds of tricks. This show put superheroes in the “real” world, taking a different perspective on what it means to emerge with fantastic powers and how to apply them to the problems of today.

Unfortunately, instead of standing apart from its TV and comic book brethren to blaze a new trail filled with awesome, the Season 3 premiere quickly descended into a mishmash of unrelated superhero story derivatives that many long-time fans of the industry could spot a mile away.

If you’re sitting there wondering whether to tune in again tomorrow night, or expunge Heroes from your Tivo subscriptions forever, take heart: out of the aforementioned mishmash, a few plot threads emerged which have potential to redeem the premiere — and perhaps the entire premise of the season.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

In a move sure to aggravate fans of the two highly anticipated waves of Hasbro’s Marvel Legends, The Red Hulk wave will be a Target exclusive wave and the Nemesis wave will be a Wal-mart exclusive wave. Just the thought has already given me twitchy flashbacks to the scarce availability of Toy-Biz’s Wal-mart exclusive Giant-man wave.

The Target wave is due to hit retail in September of 2008 at US$9.99 per figure.
The wave is set to include:
Adam Warlock
Back In Black Spider-man
Silver Savage
Spiral
Union Jack
X-Force Wolverine
VARIANT: Wolverine

The Wal-Mart wave is due to hit retail in December of 2008 at US$9.99 per figure.
This wave is set to include:
Astonishing Beast
BlackBolt
Nova
Punisher
Tigra
Yellow Daredevil
VARIANT: Camo Punisher w/ painted face
VARIANT: Red Daredevil
VARIANT: Blue Tint BlackBolt

News and Images from: MarvelousNews.com

George Carlin, one of the greatest and most prolific comedic minds of all time has died. He stayed on stage until the end, releasing his final HBO special March 1. He was 71.
I hope he rests in peace, but given the content of his comedy, you know he’s not in heaven or hell.

Following the break, his most famous routine: The Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television. Obviously, don’t watch these videos at work. Join us in the forums and share your favorite George Carlin routine. [Read the rest of this entry…]

WYOU Community TV in Madison, WI is in the middle of a 4 week series of airing local Rock Band gamers playing short sets and pitting them against each other for prizes. I stopped by the studio last week and filed this report for The Daily Page: Stars are born with Virtual Rock Band on WYOU

Read more by Zac Shipley at The Daily Page.

Its the question thats asked by all. The question that guides the survivors of 815, and confounds them at every turn.

Hopefully an answer will be found when the show returns on April 24.

Mezco has announced that there will be two Toys R Us exclusive figures from their upcoming Heroes line of action figures. Based on the hit tv series, the line already has three waves scheduled for 2008 starting in June. The two exclusives will be ‘Fire Rescue Claire’ and ‘Times Square Teleportation Hiro’.

Here’s a snippit from the release:

Fire-Rescue Claire features the Texas teenager in her iconic cheerleader outfit from the scene where she rescues a fireman and risks revealing her powers. The figure boasts over 9 points of articulation and comes complete with a miniature reproduction painting by award- winning artist Tim Sale depicting the dramatic rescue scene.

Times Square Teleportation Hiro features the Japanese office drone in the iconic scene where he teleports to New York’s legendary Times Square in front of the famous Toys “R” Us flagship store. Hiro comes complete with an alternate head, his ever present messenger bag, a Times Square backdrop, and his highly detailed sword of Takezo Kensei

It might just be me, but the expression on Hiro’s face seems more appropriate in a bathroom than in Times Square.

  

I don’t watch the Tyra Banks Show, simply because it’s Tyra Banks and I have no interest in anything she says, as it tends to come out sounding like the adults in Peanuts cartoons to me. However I happened to watch a little clip from the show that had a segment on “Decoding Your Man”, where a poor hapless gamer geek is verbally castrated by his girlfriend and Tyra both. Then to add insult to injury, “Gaming Goddess” Morgan Webb is brought in as the expert opinion.

Here’s the clip:

Basically, Webb disses and degrades the very genre that gave her the popularity and stardom she [unfortunately for us] now enjoys. Rather than helping the girlfriend understand why her guy plays video games like he does and come to a mutual agreement, Webb re-enforces the girlfriend’s desire to all-out change her man altogether as she sees fit. Morgan spouts a whole lot of nonsense about gaming genres and tries sounding like some kind of psychologist on the subject, and fails miserably. I had little regard for Webb to begin with, since I see her as being a poser when it comes to trying to act like some kind of gaming expert. This just knocks any respect I had for her down to 0% as she proves she’s just another bimbo who thinks she knows her stuff, but instead is just flailing her ego around.

Guys, not all women are like this. Honestly. This is a poor representation of women understanding guys, and more importantly understanding gaming. This video is just an estrogen-filled globe of stereotyping on all gamers as being “obsessed” with their games. Obviously this is not true, as the majority are casual in their gaming exploits. If more women took the time to try and get inside their guys heads and understand their man, rather than control him and mold him into their own personal plaything, then there would be alot more happy gamers out there with happy girlfriends.