Worth Your Consideration #029

• I’d like to begin today’s WYC column with a little bit of rubbing it in for my least-favorite football team in the world, the Indianapolis Colts. Here’s Peyton Manning’s Super Bowl-Clinching Interception Recreated On Tecmo Bowl (courtesy of Best Week Ever).
• And, speaking of must-watch videos, have you seen the third trailer for Toy Story 3? It doesn’t wow me as much as the first two did—I’m past the wow stage anyway, though, and onto the “When is it coming out?” stage—but it is pretty darned nifty, and it sets up even more of the story. I love that we get to meet Ken, and that Barbie compliments him on his ascot. [Via Ain’t It Cool News]
• Now, when it comes to must-see video that ain’t even out yet, there’s one story today that tops the rest (at least for me): Web video producer John Herman and Cinema Suicide head honcho Bryan White are teaming up to produce How To Survive The Strange, which Bryan describes as Bob Vila, Vampire Hunter. It debuts in May, and there’s an open casting call on March 15. Learn more here.
• In far less appetizing news, I present the Taco Bell Cheesy Double Beef Burrito Stuffed Sausage Log. Um, what is the opposite of “Yum”? Anyone know?
• Palate-Cleanser, Part One: Christopher Nolan will help reboot Superman, hopefully with the same (or similar) results as his Batman reboot.
• Palate-Cleanser, Part Two: There appears to be some recording going on at Nine Inch Nails HQ.
• Palate-Cleanser, Part Three: Disney Princesses Letting It All Hang Out.
• And, last but not least, let’s talk about our old pal Kevin Smith. The Internet is in an uproar over the mistreatment of the Clerks director by Southwest Airlines. Many are mad at Southwest, some are mad at Kevin, and a few are even mad at Heather Armstrong, who had “the nerve” to compare her washing machine experience with this latest debacle. Me, I don’t care. Companies in the service industries do wrong by their customers all the time, and there ain’t a one of them that is totally innocent, least of all a company as big as Southwest. Me, I’m much less excited to hear Kevin Smith tell Southwest to go fuck themselves on SModcast than I am to hear more about his bold ideas on how to create fan-financed films.

Geek Force FiveCast 281: Watchmen

In which ECC geeks out about finally seeing Watchmen (specifically The Ultimate Cut version).

Geek Force FiveCast 207: Bad Art in Comics

In which ECC freaks out about the piss-poor art in Harbinger, Shi, and The Death of Superman.

Top 10 Comic Book Cities

According to The Architect’s Journal, the self-dubbed “home of British architecture,” the list of the top 10 comic book cities should not include Kurt Busiek’s Astro City or Frank Miller’s Sin City. It should also not place Gotham or Metropolis in the top spot, nor Marvel’s New York. No, the top comic book city of all time, according to them, is apparently Judge Dredd’s Mega City One.

What say you, my fellow comic book geeks? What city in comics are you most fond of? And do you think that this list is good, on the whole, or bad? Let me know in the comments.

Green Lantern Movie Casting

A few eons ago in online writing terms, I wrote a quick article on Green Lantern, detailing the excellent storylines being pumped out by its scribe Geoff Johns.  I’ve extolled Green Lantern and Captain America alternately on GeekForceFive, holding them as virtuous examples of how mainstream comics can be critically and commercially successful.  Since my innocent meanderings, the murmurs of a Green Lantern movie have risen to a veritable geek crescendo as the casting news shifted this movie from a probably to a definite.  What I’ll be doing within this article is looking at the unlikely quartet who allegedly made it to the final four for the portrayal of this hero, as well as the character himself, Hal Jordan.

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Donald Soffritti Draws Retirement Home Superheroes

Too Much Free Time has posted a series of drawings by the Italian artist Donald Soffritti that depict the heroes and villains of the Marvel and DC universes as they might appear when they reach retirement age. Among his subjects are characters both popular and obscure, including both Wolverine and the Vulture. Check it out and let me know what your favorite is.

War of Light: A Primer for the Uninitiated

Amongst the glut of Free Comic Book Day goodies, I came away with Blackest Night #0.  Unable to attend the event, it became a nice consolation prize for me.  I can see how it could be daunting for a new fan to the series, but please read this quick explanation of previous events and important characters to get a glimpse of why you need to be a reader.  Hopefully, you’ll find yourself inspired to pick up an issue or two.

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How to Become Batman

Newsarama has an article about the findings in E. Paul Zehr’s Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero, and it’s fascinating. You can buy the book here, or read Newsarama’s piece here.

Here’s an excerpt:

Matching Batman’s strength might very well be the easiest of your endeavors, according to Zehr, but this will take some time. Power training with weights every day, and knowing what you’re doing, you would need three to five years to reach your maximum physical strength capacity… But Batman is more than muscle-bound. He’s a master of judo, tae kwon do, ninjutsu and perhaps a few more martial arts. To master these, Zehr said, Batman would need an additional six to twelve years of training.

So, it’s going to be a long road. But if anyone can do it, dear reader, it’s you. Right? Right! Now, get to work.

Bagley on Batman

I’ve been following Mark Bagley’s career since his days on New Warriors, and I think he might still be my favorite comic artist of all time, even all these years later. So, the news that he’ll be doing a 3-4 issue run on the flagship Batman book is excellent, as far as I’m concerned. And the fact that he’ll be paired with writer Judd Winick (who I, admittedly, know about only because of The Real World, and not because of his comics writing) makes the project sound even more enticing.

Bagley spoke with Newsarama about how his version of Batman will be different from those of the artists who have preceded him.

Batman is so frickin’ iconic, that even at my best I don’t feel comfortable with him. This Batman gives me a bit of wiggle room visually, and I’m a little more relaxed because of it. ...[I]t is a different person under the cowl, so naturally I’ll approach the drawing of the character in a way that reflects that.

Very interesting. Will you be checking it out, Fivers?

Secret Origins Of The Watchmen!

Watchmen ushered in the era of grim ‘n’ gritty comics, what with its depictions of rape, murder, and impending nuclear doom. But before all that, the Comedian, Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan and all the rest were denizens of a more innocent comic book era—well, at least, their predecessors were. The origins of the cast of Watchmen can be found in the line of superhero comics published by Charlton Comics in the late 1960s. 

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