DC

Will a Wonder Woman TV series ever get off the ground? The CW isn’t giving up yet. The network had been developing a pilot called “Amazon” about teenaged Diana (think “Smallville’s” pre-Superman Clark Kent), but the series was passed over for the CW’s fall lineup. When asked Thursday if the warrior princess could still come to the CW, network President Mark Pedowitz said, “Oh God, yes! “It is being redeveloped,” he said. “We’re waiting for the script to come in. We have not seen it yet. We are preparing to pilot it off-cycle should the script be what we want it to be.” Pedowitz said that although “the basics” were all there, the execution was lacking. “We do not want to do something that doesn’t work for that particular character,” he said. “It’s the trickiest of all the DC characters […]

Video gamers will soon have the opportunity to create their own superheroes for the DC Comics universe. Or turn Batman into a zombie. Or suggest Superman wear a pink cape and ride a unicorn. But don’t try to give Batman a gun. Some things will never change. This fall 5th Cell and Warner Bros. Interactive will release “Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure” for the Wii U, 3DS and PC. The latest in the Scribblenauts franchise looks to be an expansive, puzzle-based adventure that makes use of the heroes, villains and locations made famous by the worlds featured in the 75-plus years of DC Comics. And some of the not so famous, too. “For the first time in any game we have all the DC Comics characters,” said Caleb Arseneaux, a 5th Cell producer. “The entire roster — characters who appeared in […]

The new game “Injustice: Gods Among Us” begins with Superman killing the Joker after one of the madman’s plots results in the death of Lois Lane, who was pregnant with the Kryptonian’s child. And things grow more intense from there. Released last month, the game stages grand battles between an impressive number of familiar faces from the DC universe — a number that’s growing with the release of new downloadable characters. First was the interstellar bounty hunter Lobo. Next up, Commissioner Jim Gordon’s daughter Barbara, otherwise known as Batgirl, will join the fray. Batgirl will be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 400 Microsoft Points and PlayStation®Network for $4.99. Wii U players will have to wait until summer. NetherRealm Studios and DC spent two years developing “Injustice: Gods Among Us,” which was accompanied by a comic book prequel written by […]

“American Vampire” continues to show signs of life – or, well, undead-ness – during its hiatus. Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque’s Eisner Award-winning Vertigo series about a new breed of bloodsucker has been on a planned break since January, but Hero Complex has the exclusive announcement that “American Vampire Anthology” No. 1, an 80-page special, will be released Aug. 7, and offers readers a first look at the cover by Albuquerque, right, showing a more-dapper-than-usual Skinner Sweet. “Anthology” comprises eight “lost tales” of familiar favorites and new characters by a star-studded roster of writers and artists including multiple Eisner winner Greg Rucka (“Whiteout,” “Stumptown”), Jeff Lemire (“Animal Man,” “Sweet Tooth”), Gail Simone (“Batgirl,” “Secret Six”), Ray Fawkes (“Constantine”), Becky Cloonan (“American Virgin”), Francesco Francavilla (“The Black Beetle”) and the Brazilian brothers behind the Eisner-winning limited series “Daytripper,” Fabio Moon and Gabriel […]

“Fringe” star John Noble left his eccentric character Walter Bishop behind at the show’s finale, but he’s returning to the mad-scientist realm for DC’s latest animated feature film, “Superman: Unbound.” Noble lends his voice to Brainiac, a brilliant alien-machine hybrid with sinister intentions and one of the Man of Steel’s most powerful arch-villains. The film, which is being released for home video Tuesday, is based on the “Superman: Brainiac” story in the 2008 comic by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. In addition to Noble, the film features the voice talents of “White Collar” star Matt Bomer as Superman and “Castle” actresses Stana Katic and Molly Quinn as Lois Lane and Supergirl, respectively. Watch an exclusive clip from the movie in the video below. Though he’s most recently known for his role on J.J. Abrams’ long-running sci-fi series “Fringe,” the Australian-born Noble […]

Long before director Zack Snyder began making “Man of Steel,” he’d heard a little piece of comic-book trivia that stuck with him: Superman’s red-and-yellow S-shield is the second-most-recognized symbol in the world, surpassed only by the Christian cross. “Whether that’s completely true or not, I don’t know, but you want it to be true. You feel like it could be true,” Snyder said. “And it’s intimidating to say, ‘We’re going to take on the “S” and we’re going to make it live again.’” Reviving the world’s first comic-book superhero on the big screen — he turns 75 this year — is no small task, despite the ubiquity of that logo. The trick, says the director, was to treat the character seriously — and to have a script penned by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer, major forces behind the massively […]

“Smallville” concluded its television run on the CW with a series finale in May 2011 that saw Tom Welling’s Superman finally take to the skies, but the emotional moment didn’t exactly signal the end of the show. Almost a full year later, the show’s 11th season kicked off via a digital comic penned by former “Smallville” writer Bryan Q. Miller, and last week the first four issues were released as a single print graphic novel with cover art by Cat Staggs and interiors by Pere Perez. Set six months after the events of the finale, “Smallville Vol. 1: Guardian” sees Lex Luthor launch his “Guardian Defense Platforms” to ward off alien invaders after the scare of Apokolips — but he obviously has other, more nefarious plans in mind. Hero Complex caught up with Miller to ask about the creative impetus […]

Batman and Talia al Ghul deal with the death of their son Damian in “Batman, Incorporated” No. 10, due out Wednesday. The series, written by Grant Morrison with art  by Chris Burnham, has focused on Damian’s evolution from bratty child to a leader in Batman’s crime-fighting corporation. Damian became the latest in a long line of Robins before dying at the hands of a cloned version of himself. “In many ways this has been Damian’s story as much as it has been the story of Bruce Wayne, and it’s a story that had its end planned a long time ago,” Morrison wrote in a post on DC Comics’ blog, “for what son could ever hope to replace a father like Batman, who never dies?” In issue No. 10, Talia al Ghul and the supervillain group Leviathan retain their ruthless grip on Gotham, Batman […]

With “The Dark Knight Rises,” “The Avengers” and this summer’s “Man of Steel” dominating the big screen, isn’t it time Wonder Woman got her own feature film? That’s one of many questions asked by “Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines,” a documentary exploring the Amazon goddess’ history in comics and status as an empowering symbol for girls and women. The documentary, which premieres April 15 on the PBS “Independent Lens” series, will be screened Thursday evening at KPCC’s Crawford Family Forum in Pasadena, followed by a panel discussion co-hosted by Community Cinema. Panelists at the event include Madeline Di Nonno, executive director at the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media; Mike Madrid, author of “The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines“; Zoe Chevat, comic artist and contributing writer to the Mary Sue; and […]

COMMENTARY Give Marvel and DC credit: The two biggest, most established American comic-book publishers weren’t caught napping when the tablet revolution began. Paying heed to the mistakes of the movie and music industries — both of which left money on the table and left themselves open to piracy during the early days of the downloading era — the mainstream comics publishers prepared well for the arrival of iPad, Kindle Fire and the like, building apps for fans eager to read comics on these new, comics-sized devices. Both companies have continued to tinker with the still-growing tablet market too: running 99-cent sales on older titles; selling collected editions through Amazon and iTunes; releasing comics digitally the same day they arrive in stores; making their comics available through third-party apps like ComiXology; and so on. But one of the biggest new developments […]