Superheroes tagged posts

‘Superman and Lois’ Arrowverse Series

Back in my day (shakes fist at clouds) there was only one live-action DC Comics TV series, and that was Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. The show lasted four years on ABC through the mid-’90s, and mostly stayed away from the comic book-y elements of the concept. Even the title tells you the series was more about Superman’s human alter ego and life than his superhero adventures.

These days, there are so many hardcore nerdy DC hero shows it’s hard to keep up with them all. The Arrowverse has Arrow (which is admittedly ending soon), The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman. Plus there’s Black Lightning, and all the stuff on the DC Universe streaming service, like Titans a...

Homages to Movies and Comics

The following post contains SPOILERS and Easter Eggs for Joker. We’re not being funny about this.

The new Joker movie tells a completely original interpretation of the Batman villain’s origin. This Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) is named Arthur Fleck, and he’s a struggling clown and aspiring standup comic who begins to lose his mind when Gotham City cuts off his access to his medication just as he’s beset by a series of personal tragedies. But if you think Joker doesn’t include references to DC Comics, the joke’s on you. In fact, it does contain several very pointed callbacks to classic Batman comics — along with a ton of homages to previous movies, particularly the works of Martin Scorsese (who was supposed to be an executive producer of Joker, once...

Scene from Iron Man

Marvel’s Kevin Feige has been teasing the fact that Marvel is assembling a gigantic box set they’re calling “The Infinity Saga,” that will feature every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to date. There’s no release date announced yet, but Feige has said that the set will include footage that’s never been seen before by fans, including alternate takes and deleted scenes.

At the Saturn Awards this weekend, Feige revealed one such goodie: A never-before-seen alternate post-credits scene from the very first Iron Man. The scene has totally different dialogue than the version in the original 2008 film. In this version, Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury alludes to the Hulk (who was coming in the next MCU movie at the time, The Incredible Hulk), Spider-Man (who would...

DC Closes Vertigo Comics

Today marks the end of an era in comics, as DC announced that it was shuddering Vertigo, the home of its comics for adults since 1993. Instead, DC will stick its own name on all of its books, with different labels to indicate their intended audience. “DC Kids” will be for children between the ages of 8 and 12. The main DC Comics series will be intended for children and adults age 13 and older. And “DC Black Label” will be the new home for mature content intended for readers over the age of 17.

Here is DC Co-Publisher Dan DiDio’s statement on the news:

We’re returning to a singular presentation of the DC brand that was present throughout most of our history until 1993 when we launched Vertigo to provide an outlet for edgier material...

‘Dark Phoenix’ Had the Worst

Dark Phoenix had the worst opening ever at the box office for an X-Men movie. Now it’s breaking records for the entire superhero movie genre. And definitely not the good kind.

Box Office Mojo notes that Dark Phoenix “cratered” (their word) in the film’s second weekend of release, grossing an estimated $9 million in U.S. theaters. That makes for a drop of some 72.6 percent form its opening weekend which means it…

…is the second largest second weekend drop for a film playing in over 3,500 theaters in its second weekend behind only 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey (-73.9 percent). Additionally, Dark Phoenix earned an estimated $24.2 million in its second weekend of release internationally, raising the overall overseas cume to $152...

Watched ‘Avengers: Endgame’ 116 Times

The Guinness Book world record for most viewings of a movie in the theater is 103 times, set last year by Anthony “Nem” Mitchell when he attended Avengers: Infinity War that many times. That record, though, is about to be toppled, as another die-hard Marvel fan has now seen its sequel, Avengers: Endgame 116 times and counting.

The Miami Herald reveals the story of one Agustin Alanis, a 30-year-old man from Riverview, Florida, who is approaching 120 theatrical viewings of Endgame to date. This tweet is from 17 hours ago as of this writing:

Alanis has “submitted his paperwork to Guinness” to claim the record, but he hasn’t gotten his official thumbs up yet.

For those curious: 116 viewings is about 348 hours of Endgame viewing — roughl...

‘Dark Phoenix’ Is the Worst

This turned out to be a really dark phoenix.

The news for the X-Men franchise is not good. Dark Phoenix grossed an estimated $14 million on Friday night, meaning it’s going to earn about $35 million in its opening weekend, which would be the lowest-grossing debut in the entire 20-year history of the X-Men series. (The second lowest, The Wolverine, made $53.1 million in its opening weekend.)

Dark Phoenix is also the worst-reviewed movie in the series (with a 22 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, below even X-Men Origins: Wolverine’s 37 percent). Here are all the movie’s RT scores to date

1. 1. Logan: 93 percent

1. 1. X-Men: Days of Future Past: 90 percent

1. 1. X-Men: First Class: 86 percent

1. 1. X2: 85 percent

1. 1. Deadpool: 84 percent

1. 1. Deadpo...

a Young Wolverine Movie

The X-Men are no strangers to alternate universes. At the end of Days of Future Past, they basically rewrote their franchise’s history so that they could tell new stories with familiar characters. (Hence the upcoming Dark Phoenix, doing a new version of the same concept as X-Men: The Last Stand.)

Interestingly, a very similar scenario played out in Hollywood as Fox was developing the younger X-Men franchise. Matthew Vaughn directed X-Men: First Class, with James McAvoy as the young Professor X and Michael Fassbender as the young Magneto, then Bryan Singer returned to direct X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse. But if Vaughn had his way, things would have turned out very differently for Marvel’s mutants.

He expl...

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3′

James Gunn just gave one of his first in-depth interviews about his firing and rehiring from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 by Disney last year. Speaking to Deadline he talked about whether Disney was in their right to fire him (he said they were), whether he was sorry about the controversial old tweets that got him fired (he was), and also the thing he was most looking forward to about making the movie (after Suicide Squad 2, which is still happening).

You might expect to Gunn to say he was looking forward to joking around with Chris Pratt, or exploring Gamora’s character in the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, but for Gunn, it’s all about Rocket, a character he feels so close to he says he “is me.”

Here was Gunn’s quote:

When you asked me...

Toy Lines Based on Movies

At any given point, the toy aisle in every major American retailer is lined with figures based on movies like The Avengers, Star Wars, and Spider-Man. It’s been that way for decades. And with the right movie and the right figures, a toy line can generated millions of dollars for a Hollywood studio. With the wrong movie, though, the results can be disastrous — or at least hilarious in retrospect.

Below, you’ll find 15 of the most ill-advised toy lines based on movies in history. These are not The Avengers. They’re barely the 1998 Avengers starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman. But they all got toys. Lots of toys! Someone thought kids would want these. It didn’t always work out that way. In chronological order, they are…

Planet of the Apes (197...