Leaked Wonder Woman Pilot

WW Pilot

If you want, you can go here watch the pilot for Wonder Woman. It is very obvious why this didn't get picked up. It is a shame that someone who knew Wonder Woman didn't have more input into this.

Deadman TV Series or Where have all the good superhero TV series gone?

So they are working on a Deadman TV series to kind of replace the Smallville market on The CW. The writer and executive producer will be Supernatural creator Eric Kripke. I have never seen the show, but it lasted 7 seasons and had a large following.  At first, I am excited to see this come to television.  There are not enough good superhero TV shows around.  I watched Smallville early on, but didn't really get into it, but in the later seasons they started bringing in other heroes and now I want to see those. Especially the episodes with big name comic book writers like Geoff Johns.

Deadman first appeared in Strange Adventures #205 (October 1967), and was created by Arnold Drake and Carmine Infantino.  His real name is Boston Brand, and when he was murdered his spirit stayed around so he could find his killer. He is basically a ghost that can jump into people's bodies and then control them.  As I joked with someone before, almost like a Quantum Leap style, except he can come and go from a body as often as he likes. 

Part of the problem is that the WB already tried to cash in on the Smallville hype back in the early season with a TV showed called Birds of Prey based on the comic of the same name. Except like most TV series, things get changed too much, and the only thing they kept was that Barbra Gordon used to be Batgirl until she was crippled and then became the tech/hacker hero known as Oracle.  On the other hand you have The Huntress as Helena Kyle, the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, but had superhuman powers which Batman and Catwoman should not have.

My concern comes with the number of bad or at least poor superhero TV shows that have been around lately.  If this continues too much more, no one will give a superhero a chance.  As I see it now, I don't know how this show will make it. The recent Wonder Woman, at first, looked like it had a chance, but
once people started seeing the pilot, those hopes and dreams went out the window.  The character was drastically changed and seemed to just have poor writing.

This past year we had two superhero shows actually make it on air.  NBC's The Cape which was cancelled within about 10 episodes airing, and ABC's No Ordinary Family which has also been cancelled, but made it a whole 20 episode season. Even Summer Glau being on The Cape couldn't save it, but of course her just being on a show doesn't seem to bode well for said show. No Ordinary Family  was OK, and definitely the better out of the two shows, but even it struggled a bit too much to tell a story.  I watched probably about 4 episodes a piece of these two series.

If we jump back a few more years, we had Heroes which had a create first season, and people were excited about watching superheroes again.  Then in the second season is when the writer's strike happened and only had 11 episodes.  Most people weren't even aware this lasted 2 more seasons.  The 4th season wasn't even fully allowed to finish and was rushed to an ending with 19 episodes.

In the beginning of the 90s, we had two big shows, The Flash and Lois and Clark. The Flash only lasted one season, and watching it again, it feels very 80s.  Lois and Clark at least lasted 4 seasons, and actually tied into the comic world when they got married both on the show and in the comics.

The 60s and 70s had a lot of bad shows, but it also brought us some of the most well known superhero shows as well.  Adam West's Batman. Linda Carter's Wonder Woman. Lou Ferrigno/Bill Bixby's Hulk/Bruce Banner. And my personal favorite, even if it only lasted one season, Green Hornet with Bruce Lee as Kato.

The good shows have been very few and far between.  A big problem, even more lately it seems, is that Hollywood has been trying to change too much from what the comis were based on.  Birds of Prey and the new Wonder Woman are prime examples of this.  Very little is recognizable between the comic and the show, and this will alienate your built in audience that will come because of the comic.

On a tangent note, I will like to mention the Locke & Key pilot.  This is another show that is based on a comic and was up this past summer to get picked up for the upcoming TV season, but like Wonder Woman was not picked up, but unlike Wonder Woman was actually good.  This is not a superhero comic, but a horror comic written by Joe Hill, who is also the son of Steven King and hence the connection to horror writing. It is a pretty good series that I recommend, but here is the trailer for the show.






Are there any other good or bad superhero TV shows anyone remembers well?

Who knew Spider-Man liked to surf?

The interviewer/weather person takes this a bit to seriously. More Spider-Man related questions should have been asked. At least Spider-Man is aware he "isn't being very smart today."

Why Marvel Annoys me?

First, for the past year or so, whenever there has been a big event in a comic, like who will die in the Fantastic Four, or more recently being who the new Ultimate Spider-Man is going to be, they have been sending out information on Tuesday to news organizations so they can spoil it for all of the comic readers before they get to the store on Wednesday.

It is almost has bad if the night before a Harry Potter book came out, Rowling came out and told you what happens.  Except for some reason, in the comic industry, this seems to have been making sales stronger for these issues.   More people going to the comic shop to buy a book that they already know what is going to happen. Ultimately I think it is a ploy to cash in on the "Death of Superman" days, where everyone was rushing to comic shops to have a special collector's item to sell years down the line, but the comic industry is past that time.

Secondly is stuff like has happened in Fear Itself. As with most people, I'm tired of Marvel events. They seem to be happening every six months. This time however they put out a lot of promotional pictures, like ones I posted  before, and end up having nothing to do with the book at all.  The question is why. Why put this out? Why create the image at all? Why get people's hope up that Cyclops will become the new Magneto.

Neither of these two images had anything to do with Fear Itself, and these were the only ones which would have got me to read the book. Glad I stopped with issue one of Blackest Night Marvel Edition. More Fear Itself misinformation from Newsarama

Granted, these are just the two more recent issues, and there are actually a number more, but that is for another day.

The DC New 52

So starting next month in September, actually August 31st, DC will cancel all of their books, and start everything over with new 52 at a new #1. Many new books will be around, but many favorites have been dropped.

In some form or another, I will attempt to read each of the #1, and hopefully give a review of each one.

Here are the ones I'm looking forward too.

 Action Comics.  Supes is back to being a bit younger, talking about his early days in Metropolis as Superman.  Written By Grant Morrison

                                                                  Barbara Gordon has now had some miraculous recovery and is no longer confined to a wheelchair as the hacker based hero, Oracle. Written by Gail Simone

Flash
by Francis Manapul
(was in town for NOLA Comic Con and seemed cool)
                                                          
                   




                                                  




Wonder Woman
by Brain Azzarello

Aquaman
          by Geoff Johns









Demon Knights

                                 Justice League  and Justice League Dark

                            Resurrection Man and Suicide Squad

Hopefully starting next Thursday, I can start reading some of these. Justice League starts Aug 31st.

Mr. Freeze in upcoming Arkham City

I can't help but feel this game will be awesome. At least it better be at this point.

Mr. Freeze voiced by the talented Maurice LaMarche. If you don't know who he is, please check out his wiki. There is a very good chance you have heard him before, like The Brain from Pinky and the Brain, Morbo/Calculon/Kif from Futurama, Jermey Hawke from The Critic, and various GI Joe characters from the 80s. This guy has done EVERYTHING I watched as a kid and plenty of things even today.