Worth Your Consideration 016 - A GF5 Linkdump

• I’ve had the first episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles sitting unplayed on my Apple TV since about a week after its premiere (it was a free download on iTunes way back when), but this Newsarama piece on the show’s second season has piqued my interest, and I may have to finally sit down and devote an hour to the show now.
• Earlier this year, when Marvel Comics retconned Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson’s marriage with their back-to-back “One More Day” and “Brand New Day” events, they introduced a new red-headed super-heroine by the name of Jackpot. She looks like Mary Jane, talks like Mary Jane, and has named herself after one of MJ’s most famous catchphrases, but her secret identity has yet to be revealed. Newsarama reports that the mystery will end in an upcoming Amazing Spider-Man annual, but me, I already know who it is: the resurrected Gwen Stacy. Yep, you heard it here first. And the masked villain Menace? That’s the long-dead Uncle Ben, come back to life. If the fanboys hated Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada before, I guarantee death threats this time around.
• Jason Kottke describes the anatomical drawings on this site as “part medical and part American Apparel advertisement” and he’s pretty much dead-on.
• And, lastly, Apple is giving me one more reason to enjoy trips up north to see my in-laws: an Apple Store in the Maine Mall. Stephanie may even be able to convince me to move up there now… Nah, probably not.

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“All over this like Go-Go boots on Gwen Stacy” - Spider-Man and X-Men Team Up

It may have something to do with the fact that one of the major ways in which I was introduced to the Marvel Comics pantheon was through Saturday morning cartoons where these guys seemed to team up a bunch, but I am super excited to read that Spider-Man and the X-Men are teaming up for a four-issue mini-series. Newsarama has the scoop, and according to the piece the series will “[take] place in a different era in Marvel history, [with] the final one occurring in the present day.”

The image I’ve embedded above is from the second issue and features both black-suit Spider-Man and the 1970s-era X-Men (Dazzler among them). This is just awesome, awesome, awesome in my opinion. I hope that they ratchet up the nostalgia factor to level ten and really do this team-up justice. There’s such a strong connection between the X-Men and Spidey in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, and I think it’s about time that we saw these guys teaming up more in the mainstream Earth 616 universe too (I’m sure Marvel’s sales guys agree with me, given the popularity of both franchises).

What say you, dear readers?

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Worth Your Consideration 015 - A GF5 Linkdump

• Kevin Rose has the scoop on a linewide iPod refresh in September. Apparently, we’ll be seeing widescreen iPod Nanos, a cosmetic refresh to the iPod Touch, and a price drop across the line to differentiate between iPod and iPhone (which is now priced at $199 with a new two-year contract). Thanks to Mac Rumors for linking up Kevin’s post.
• Marvel Comics is ramping up for something big in 2009 featuring one of my favorite X-Men characters of all time, the won’t-stay-dead redhead herself: Ms. Jean Grey (a.k.a. Phoenix). Check out Newsarama’s article on the “teaser trifecta” that Marvel has released for a glimpse at some absolutely killer noirish images.
• Lastly, some Lost news. According to a scooper at DarkUFO’s spoilers blog, the Powers That Be are shooting a scene with Hurley and Sayid that takes place just after Sayid rescues Hurley from the mental institution at the end of season four. It sounds like next season is starting off as fast and furious as last season did. Awesome, says I.

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Open Source Comics at SXSW 2009

My friend and New Hampshire Media Makers cohort Bryan White (Cinema-Suicide.com) has been working together with another NHMM regular, Nick Plante (zerosum dirt(nap)), on an idea involving “open source comics,” and he wants to do a panel on that topic at next year’s South By Southwest Interactive Conference. Bryan explains:

My idea for a panel is actuallly about comics.  Open source comics, to be exact.  Myself and Nick Plante of Zerosum have been talking this out over the last week or so.  A social network aimed at artists and writers to create a line of their own comics in a single mythology, similar to the Marvel Universe or the DC Universe.  It is to be completely non-commercial with a very rigid and limited set of editorial constraints.  Everyone is free to be a part of it. The foundation of the panel is to suggest one alternative direction for social networks so that the web doesn’t become a series of tribes of Myspace of Facebook folks but to actually give social networks some purpose.

I think this is an amazing idea. As someone who’s had a comic book idea kicking around in the back of his brain for the past ten years or so, I can’t wait to see how this develops. And I definitely think it’s a great idea for a panel at SXSW. If you think so too, vote for Bryan’s idea here.

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Greatest American Hero on the Silver Screen?!?

Newsarama is reporting that a film version of The Greatest American Hero may be forthcoming. The short-lived 80s television program, about a guy who finds a super-suit and then promptly loses the instruction manual, is a big favorite amongst my extended family, and while I can barely remember any of it, except for the theme song ("Believe It or Not” by Joey Scarbury, which is a five-star song in my iTunes library), I am incredibly psyched to hear this news. I think the property could gain a whole new following if a movie came out. And I think it deserves a much larger following than it has now.

Stephen J. Cannell, the creator of the series, speaks about how a film version might work:

“It’s Ralph Hinckley and Pam Davidson and Bill Maxwell,” Cannell said, indicating that the original three characters from the TV show would still be the focus of the movie. “We rehung it slightly in the screenplay. And with most action movies, you’d try to get an MPAA rating on it of PG-13. But this movie script we’ve got is a PG. I want it to be something that kids can go and see. So it has a lot of humor in it; it’s got a lot of effects. But basically, it’s still Ralph with the suit destroying his life, and Maxwell’s the Fed he can’t control, and all those elements that were in the last story were rehung slightly. You don’t want to do just a cookie-cutter reproduction of the pilot. You want to bring it to life for a new audience and a new generation.”

I like that the creator is involved, that he still has a certain reverence for the source material, and that he wants to keep it (relatively) kid-friendly. Good for him.

In the meantime, while we wait for this piece of cinematic awesomeness to arrive, we can check out comic books and an animated series based on the misadventures of our favorite superhero named Ralph. More on that in the Newsarama piece.

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