TVSquad

The Marvel Comics character Black Panther is getting his own animated show on the BET network. This was announced during the BET upfront presentation in New York for the 2008-2009 season.

The character was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (who co-created most of the classic Marvel Comics line up) and first appeared in Fantastic Four #52 in 1966. The character's real name is T'Challa and he is the ruler of a fictional African country called Wakanda. His name predates the existence of the Black Panther Party.

There have been a few attempts to bring the character to the movie screen, one in particular in the early 1990's starring Wesley Snipes. In 2007, Marvel announced that a film based on the character was on its movie development slate.

He's a minor character as far as the Marvel universe goes, but he is the most visible black superhero they have. He has appeared in several other animated Marvel television shows before, but not in a main role.

The fine folks over at the Sci Fi channel sent over a copy of the WWTBAS? premiere and, for better or worse, it's much of the same. One thing I've noticed, among my friends anyway, is that this show is kind of polarizing. People either love its campy humor and look forward to the new episodes, or they despise it and wonder what it is doing on the Sci Fi channel. It's topped only by the ECW in that regard.

While there is a whole new crop of potential superheroes, the basics of the show remain the same. So, if you didn't like it before, I don't think season two is going to do anything to change your mind. On the other hand, fans should look forward to another fun season. I'm not convinced that they managed to get the best group of potential heroes they could have, as some of those that we see in the very brief casting segment looked rather interesting. However, it is a pretty solid group overall.

(S01E01) The latest in the ever increasing line of game shows is upon us. With Penn Jillette hosting, NBC unveiled Identity last night. After one episode, the show has a lot going for it. To start, Jillette was a great choice for the host. He's good with the guests, manages to keep the show moving along, and a pretty funny guy. The line of the night came when he said of the shark attack victim, "If she didn't have that top on our ratings would be a lot better."

The game itself is rather simple. The contestant is presented with 12 strangers and a list of twelve identities. For each correct guess they move up the money ladder. Correctly identifying all twelve strangers is a $500,000 payoff. They have one mistaken identity in their pocket, so the first miss is a freebie. But a second miss sends them home with no cash.

To aid them in their quest there are two helper options. With "tridentity" they can pick one of the identities and the field will be narrowed down to three potential correct answers. There is also a panel of experts that includes a body language expert, a psychologist, and an fbi agent.

Remember that crossover between Marvel Comics and the CBS soap Guiding Light that I told you about recently? The episode airs next Wednesday, November 1, and CBS.com has a sneak peek video.

Of course, I can't get the video to work at all. Can anyone else get it to work? I've tried both IE and Firefox and it doesn't load for some reason.

Anyway, the superhero is actually regular GL character Harley Cooper, who is zapped by lightning (oh, original) and gets superpowers. But will she will good or evil? Not sure, but it looks like her superhero-ness is comprised of colored contact lenses and the kind of hat that newsboys used to wear in the 1940s.

Marvel will have a special comic book featuring the superhero inserted into several other comic books in the coming weeks (a full list is at the site above).

Rest easy, true believers. You can sleep safe in your beds knowing that Feedback is on the job. Software engineer Matthew Atherton beat out the last remaining contestant, Fat Momma, to win the inaugural edition of Sci-Fi's Who Wants To Be A Superhero. His alter-ego, Feedback, will now be featured in a Stan Lee comic, disrupting electronics while fighting for justice and fair play. If you would like to see how it all went down, the final episode is available to watch on the Sci-Fi Pulse.

[via tvfilter]

(S01E01) Uhm, yea.

Look, I admire Stan Lee. Back in the early 1960's he took Marvel Comics, which was in its death throes at the time, and turned it completely around by introducing a whole new group of superheroes, including such mainstays as Spider-man, The Hulk, The X-Men, and The Fantastic Four. These people didn't just have abilities beyond those of mortal men: they had feelings and hearts and realized that their powers came with a price. As Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker 'With great power comes great responsibility'. So, Mr. Lee had every right to become the icon that he is today.

But Stan . . . Stan, Stan, Stan. What the heck were you thinking when you created Who Wants to be a Superhero? Don't get me wrong, the concept is good: enlist normal people to dress up as original comic book heroes (with self-made costumes) and compete in an elimination tournament where the winner would get their own comic book and an original movie on the Sci-Fi Channel. However, the outcome that premiered was, well, not very good at all.

We've been reporting on-and-off for several months now about Spider-Man creator Stan Lee's new series called Who Wants to be a Superhero, which will be appearing on the Sci-Fi Channel. Well, the premiere of the series is a mere two weeks away and the 11 superheroes that will be competing for a chance to appear in their own comic book and a Sci-Fi Channel movie have been chosen.

You can see the chosen heroes at Sci-Fi Channel's website. Some of the contestants take their hero personas seriously. For example, Matthew Atherton's alter ego, Feedback, absorbs powers and abilities from video games that he plays. That's a pretty decent concept. On the other hand, Chelsea Weld's Cell Phone Girl doesn't seem to be taking to whole thing seriously (well, seriously enough for a contest involving real life superheroes).

Maybe it's the name Cell Phone Girl that causes problems. I mean, would you really pick up an issue of Cell Phone Girl number one hundred, or watch a movie entitled The Further Adventures of Cell Phone Girl? Maybe the producers of Superhero will ask her to change her name to something like Free Minutes, or Roaming.

No, we're not talking about a return of the old Beatles cartoons; that would be the Fab Four. We're talking about the long-running Marvel Comics series created by Stan "The Man" Lee that became a popular movie last year. Starting in the fall, Cartoon Network will air 26 new half-hour episodes of the Fantastic Four animated series.

Produced in cooperation between Marvel Studios and Moonscoop, the animated series will incorporate both 2D and 3D animation styles. According to Marvel Chief Operating Officer Michael Helfant, the animated series will be part of an aggressive strategy to promote their comic book characters through a number of different media outlets.