Are you a fan of Mad Men? Are you a fan of X-Men? Have you been hoping that Matt Weiner and Stan Lee would somehow meet up at an exclusive Hollywood party and eventually create a series that combines your two favorite television franchises?
If so, please get out of your house more.
And that hasn't exactly happened but the funny folks at Madatoms have done that for you with their new line of Mad Men/X-Men mash-ups. The shows are actually eerily similar when you think about it. Both of them feature ruthless characters who will stop at nothing for ultimate power. Both deal with the changing intolerance of their respective ages. The only thing missing are the tight fitting spandex outfits, but hey, a man can dream, right?
Being a big fan of Cartoon Network's goofy Batman: The Brave and the Bold, I'm really looking forward to the debut of Marvel's Super Hero Squad. The show premieres Sept. 19 on Cartoon Network, and Marvel has already launched a teaser site featuring a fun video preview that could turn out to be the show's opening montage.
Super Hero Squad is based on the toy line and video game of the same name. It features cute and cuddly versions of Marvel heroes, like Wolverine, Iron Man, and the Hulk, protecting Super Hero City from a pint-sized Dr. Doom and other baby baddies. Judging by the preview video, the show will even make room for kid-sized versions of more obscure characters like Fing Fang Foom and MODOK.
Jimmy Fallon is a geek. I don't mean this as an insult at all, even he would admit it. So I knew he'd be going to Comic-Con. In this funny clip, he tries to convince a bunch of famous people at the convention (including Jon Favreau, Stan Lee, and the cast of Lost) that his new comic book idea is a winner. (Video also here.)
If you've been reading Marvel Comics, you've probably seen the little gag strips they've put in the back of a lot of them. Super Hero Squad takes all the Marvel heroes and villains and makes them basically parodies of themselves.
Now they're taking that same style to the masses. Hero Up! The Super Hero Squad Show is the new cartoon headed to Saturday mornings. The premise is simple. The heroes hang out in Hero City. The mayor is voiced by Stan "The Man" Lee, who created most of the Marvel Universe ("Excelsior!"). That's right up there with Mayor West on Family Guy in sheer coolness.
Meanwhile, over in Villainville, Dr. Doom and the Lethal Legion are plotting to take over the world. To give you an idea of what kinds of villainy we're dealing with, they did a special cast reading at the convention. It's plot: Dr. Doom's quest to acquire an exclusive My Little Pony collectible. The series kicks off with a four-episode marathon on Cartoon Network September 19, and I'm strangely very excited about it.
From gangsters and serial killers, it looks like cable television is preparing to tackle another adult subject: superheroes (or rather, homosexuality in the guise of superheroes). Showtime, along with Stan Lee's Pow! Entertainment, will be producing a series about a gay superhero. The series is based on the book "Hero" by Perry Moore.
Superhero secret identities have been used as analogies for closeted homosexuals before (the most obvious example I can think of is from the second X-Men movie in which Iceman's mom asks "have you considered not being a mutant?"). As a result, I think the concept holds some promise.
My biggest issue with this announcement is the involvement of Stan Lee. While I appreciate everything he's done for the comic industry and media entertainment, his ideas are kind of old-fashioned at this stage of the game. Still, if the show has the depth of other Showtime series such as Californication or Dexter, I'll be impressed.
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.
Marvel comics icon Stan "The Man" Lee will make a cameo appearance on the Monday, February 19th episode of Heroes. Entitled "Unexpected," Lee will play a bus driver who has an encounter with Hiro Nakamura.
Is it because we have proof positive that Masi Oka was once a nerd supreme - works part-time for George Lucas, on the cover of Time circa 1987 as an Asian-American Whiz Kid - that he gets to have all the geek-out encounters on Heroes? His dad is George Takei. He rides the bus with Stan Lee. Anyone want to start making guesses as to what uber-geek chic run-in Hiro will have next? Frank Miller? Alan Moore? The cast of Firefly? Xeni Jardin? He's got an in with Lucas.
If you've ever wanted to be immortalized in comic book form or just enjoy the feel of spandex, than you're in luck. Nationwide auditions are currently being held for the second edition of Who Wants to be a Superhero? The surprise SciFi Channel hit pits eccentric, homemade superheroes against one another to see who catches comic industry legend Stan Lee's eye.
The application form for the show is intense. They need to know your backstory, your weaknesses, your powers, the "noble code" by which you live, your catchphrase, your weaponry, your motivation, your secret identity, etc. If you don't show up in costume, they want you to draw it. ("Feel free to label any props or weapons.") This "superhero" thing is serious business. I can't even decide if I'd rather have the gift of flight or invisibility.
You can check out the audition schedule after the jump. The show's website also gives you a way to audition if you can't make the casting caravan's ten-city tour. Good luck, heroes. We need you now more than ever.
(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).
The Sci Fi Channel has renewed Stan Lee's quirky reality series Who Wants to Be a Superhero? for a second season, ordering ten new hour-long episodes set to air next summer. Lee says the new season will be even more insane than the last, and I'll have to take his word for it because I didn't watch the first season. I must say, however, that just the idea of a reality series about people pretending to be someone they're not exposes the fundamental flaw in all reality programming, which is that once the cameras are on, reality ceases to exist. At any rate, if you're a fan of the show, consider this good news.
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.
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.
Are you a fan of Mad Men? Are you a fan of X-Men? Have you been hoping that Matt Weiner and Stan Lee would somehow meet up at an exclusive Hollywood party and eventually create a series that combines your two favorite television franchises? 
Being a big fan of Cartoon Network's goofy 
If you've been reading Marvel Comics, you've probably seen the little gag strips they've put in the back of a lot of them. Super Hero Squad takes all the Marvel heroes and villains and makes them basically parodies of themselves.
From gangsters and serial killers, it looks like cable television is preparing to tackle another adult subject: superheroes (or rather, homosexuality in the guise of superheroes). Showtime, along with Stan Lee's Pow! Entertainment, 
The Marvel Comics character Black Panther 
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. 
Marvel comics icon 
If you've ever wanted to be immortalized in comic book form or just enjoy the feel of spandex, than you're in luck. 
(S01E01) The latest in the ever increasing line of game shows is upon us. With Penn Jillette hosting, NBC unveiled 
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 
The Sci Fi Channel has renewed Stan Lee's quirky reality series Who Wants to Be a Superhero? for a second season, ordering ten new hour-long episodes set to air next summer. Lee says the new season will be even more insane than the last, and I'll have to take his word for it because I didn't watch the first season. I must say, however, that just the idea of a reality series about people pretending to be someone they're not exposes the fundamental flaw in all reality programming, which is that once the cameras are on, reality ceases to exist. At any rate, if you're a fan of the show, consider this good news. 
Rest easy, true believers. You can sleep safe in your beds knowing that 
(S01E01) Uhm, yea.
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.
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