Aquaman TV Pilot

Well, it's not really new news, but the Aquaman (or Mercy Reef, as I heard it was going to be called) Pilot hit iTunes last week. It's worth the $1.99 download, even if it's just to see what we're missing since the series wasn't picked up. It was a spin-off of sorts from Smallville, where the title character ("AC") appeared in an episode sabotaging an underwater weapon being designed by Lex Luthor.

Some of the dialogue in Aquaman may have been clichéd, and some of the situations over the top, but as a whole, I think it showed a lot of promise. And Ving Rhames is always a plus in my book.

Take a look at it if you haven't, yet. And if you want some more background information, AquamanTV (via KryptonSite) has all the info you need.

Thanks to Comics2Film.

Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD (1998) mini-review

based on a comic book

[5/10]

David Hasslehoff as Nick Fury? Not as hard to take as Lisa Rinna (Days of Our Lives, Melrose Place) as Val de la Fontaine (Fury's apparent one-time love interest in the comics).

I was recently able to catch Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Encore Action. The movie follows the attempted resurrection of Fury nemesis Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker by his daughter (Viper), and Nick and Val's attempts to stop the spread of a horrible virus across Manhatten.

It pretty much watches like the (Fox) TV movie that it is, and has the obligatory campiness you'd expect in a 90's Marvel TV comic book adaptation. It has many of the regular superhero movie issues – it's too campy, the main character overacts, the villains are way over the top. Hasslehoff is just gruff enough to come across as silly. And what's with Lisa Rinna's hair? It would change styles back and forth a few times in the same scene (from windblown to slicked back, to windblown, and back again).

See it if you're a huge Nick Fury fan or a comic book movie completist like me.

Don't see it if you'd rather spend your movie-watching time with some of Marvel's more recent better-made films.

Site Updates: TMNT and Ghost Rider

Just a note: the TMNT and Ghost Rider sites have been updated. Click these links or the ones to the right.

Thanks to Comics2Film.

Lightspeed

This Sci Fi original picture is being billed as Stan Lee's Lightspeed. What exactly does that mean? Who knows? Lee's not even listed in the cast and crew on IMDB. Maybe he had the idea (but then, I would think he'd be listed as a Writer or Executive Producer, at least). I guess sometimes slapping somebody's name on a movie will garner a little more attention (Wes Craven Presents: They; Quentin Tarantino Presents: Iron Monkey).

The movie has an interesting twist - Daniel Leight is exposed to radiation and develops super powers. But does that really matter? I'll be setting the DVR for next Wednesday night.

Premiers Wednesday, July 26, 9/8 Central on Sci Fi.

Thanks to Comics2Film and Comics Continuum.

Good News From the Sci Fi Channel

I'm trying to decide whether or not to keep watching Blade. It's decent, but not what I had hoped. Sticky Fingaz is about to typecast himself - it seems like he only has one mode: Pissed Off. Plus, it seems like the whole point of the show is to push the limits of what Spike can do on cable TV. It doesn't seem to matter if the plot warrants sex and violence or not - they're going to throw it in regardless.

Anyway, I just read that Painkiller Jane just got picked up as a series from Sci Fi, and that there's been some "positive buzz" around The Amazing Screw On Head. Excellent...I figure if I'm going to watch TV, it should be something I really enjoy.

Via Comics2Film and Comics Continuum.

Is it based on a comic?

I don't need this after Ultraviolet messed with my head...

Is Zoom based on a comic, or a kid's book? Apparently both.

In 2001, Jason Lethcoe and Astonish Comics began to publish the black and white comic Zoom's Academy for the Super Gifted, intending it as a monthly series. According to Comic Book Resources, Lethcoe (who wrote and drew the comics) published the third book on his own, in color. After that, he went in a different direction.

In January 2003, The Moon Factor published Lethcoe's children's book, Amazing Adventures from Zoom's Academy (Ballentine reprinted it in 2005). Lethcoe also illustrated the books (a sequel is already out: Amazing Adventures from Zoom's Academy: The Capture of the Crimson Cape).

In June 2003, Variety reported that the graphic novel Zoom's Academy for the Super Gifted had been optioned by Revolution Studios. Since then, it seems every news piece on the movie states that it's based on the graphic novel.

I find that very interesting, since (and this is what confused me), on his website, Lethcoe states that the movie is based on the book, and doesn't even mention the comics.

The Amazing Screw-On Head Pilot

Take a look at the pilot of The Amazing Screw-On Head. Paul Giamatti and David Hyde Pierce are excellent as lead characters on the show. The setting provides an interesting twist. Screw-On Head is an agent of President Lincoln, keeping demi-gods from taking over the world. I'm not a reader of the comics, but the show was hilarious. It seems to have a lot of the Hellboy sensibility that Mignola is known for. Definitely worth a watch.

And fill out the survey so they keep the show running on Sci Fi.

It's a turnip. And it looks like it has a small parallel universe inside.
-Geraldine (or maybe Aggie)

Amazing Screw-On Head

Comics2Film reports that The Sci Fi Channel reports that the latter will be debuting an animated version of Mike Mignola's Amazing Screw-On Head. While the show doesn't begin until July 27 (right after Who Wants to Be a Superhero?), the pilot of the show will preview on Sci Fi Pulse (on-line), on July 13, allowing viewers to vote on whether or not the pilot should become a series.

If you like Mignola's stuff, Hellboy Animated is also in the works.

Who Wants to Be a Superhero?

Well, it looks pretty corny (strike 1), and it's got Stan Lee (strike 2); but I'll probably tune in anyway, just to see what the reality show Who Wants to Be a Superhero? is like.

It premiers on the Sci Fi Channel on July 27 (8/9C).

Blade: The Series

If you missed the pilot to Blade (like I did), you can see it again on Spike at:

Sunday, July 2, 9 pm Eastern
Tuesday, July 4, 10 pm Eastern

Or, you can download it on iTunes for free through July 11.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Have you seen the trailer for My Super Ex-Girlfriend? I didn't even know it existed before I saw the trailer released with X-Men 3. The movie looks hilarious - besides starring Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson, it has the wonderful Wanda Sykes.

It's scheduled to be in theaters July 21.

Why?

Why does there need to be another site about Superheroes, Comic Books, and Movies?

I mean, we've already got Comics2Film, Superhero Hype, E. Favata's Comic Book Movies, Superheroes Lives, just to name a few of the most popular. What's the point of another site?

I guess it depends what you're looking for. I was looking for something simple - trimmed down a bit. I was looking for something specific. A place for comic book movies - with some non-comic superheroes thrown in for good measure, without being inundated with 150 articles about every new Superman Returns toy that comes out. Of course, that meets a need; I just wanted something smaller.

I recently saw a trailer attached to X-Men 3, called My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Noticing that it wasn't listed at the site above that I frequent the most, I wrote them to have it added. My suggested add was rejected. Reason? Not based on a comic book. Well, that site also reports on the upcoming Transformers (which was a comic book at one point, but based on a line of toys), MirrorMask (an excellent film, not based by on a comic, but written by famed Sandman creator, Neil Gaiman), and upcoming Conan movie rumors, which, last I checked, has a long comic book history, but whose origins lie long before that. My point? Only that it made sense to me that if you're going to report on movies tangentially related to comics, superhero movies fit the bill. But maybe that's just me, maybe that doesn't make sense, and maybe I'm the only one who will ever look at this site.

A couple of other things I wanted to provide here was a little more access to the obscure. You can read all about the more obscure comic book and superhero films at the above sites, but sometimes (my opinion) they get lost in all the info about the upcoming blockbusters - of course, there's a reason for that...the blockbusters are more popular, and more people want to read about them. But I'm looking for something a little different.

I also want to provide information about past movies - particularly the lesser known. Want to know a little bit about 1983's amazing comedy, The Return of Captain Invincible? Or did you know that Disney's The Rocketeer was based on a graphic novel? Take a look at the database of comic book movie mini-reviews.

My intention here isn't to make something better than any than any of the sites above, or even compete with them (indeed, I frequent them all regularly). I only wanted something that was a bit smaller in scale, without so much information; something more specific to what I'm looking for. Of course, again, maybe I'll be the only one reading news here.

Anyway, if you like it here, stick around, if not, there's a lot of other sites that might fit what you are looking for. Thanks for visiting.

Jim

Retro-Blogging?

What the heck is retro-blogging? Well, in early 2005, I started a blog. I'd always wanted to keep a journal, and here was my chance. At the time I was keeping a website of comic book movie reviews, attempting to get more comprehensive as time went by. Over the months that followed, I wrestled with converting that over to a blog. Finally, nearly a year-and-a-half later, on July 2, 2006, I made the move, and created my second blog - Comic Books, Movies, and Superheroes. But during that 17 months or so, I blogged several times in my original blog about comic book and superhero films. Those blogs truly belong here, so I've taken the time to pull them over. Everything on this blog prior to the July 2nd date is from my original blog, but has finally found its proper place on this. That is what I'm calling the retro-blog.