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?

The Costumes of Wonder Woman

For the most part, Wonder Woman has had very little costume changes over the years, but sometime last year she had her first major change, and then this week was announced another look for the upcoming TV series.


This was her first look from when she first appeared in the '40s.

The next costume was pretty close to the original, and the Lynda Carter costume is just a slight meld between the two, even though they are pretty close to begin with. This is the costume that most people recognize, and the one that was used in the animated series.



Now comes the costumes from a change in the series last year.  It is vastly different, and it has been a major controversy for awhile, with what seems like the majority just flat out hating it.  I don't hate it that much, it could be a little better, but nothing anger worthy.

Finally we have the one from the new TV Series that has been announce through at "first look" at an action figure.  It again seems to be a mix of the one that last decades and the newest one.




So far the news on the TV Series has been every where.  People love it, people hate it, as with any change.  What are your feelings on it?


Since the costume change of last year, new organizations have been saying that it was only to get away from the patriotic American look to a more generic one.  Not saying they aren't wrong, they have the same issue with the upcoming Captain America movie.  The title here and most places is Captain America: The First Avenger and in other places it will just be called The First Avenger.

Na na na na na na .......The Cape

I will just start this out saying that I actually liked The Cape.  Was it a great show? No, but it was fun for an early episode. It is seems a little Batman reminiscent, but The Cape is no Batman.  The Cape has gotten pretty beat up in just a two episodes.  Watching it reminded me of the TV show The Flash from 1990 which I have been slowly watching with my friend Walker aka anaraug.  I enjoyed The Flash tv series, but also know it is horribly bad.

Whereas The Flash has some 90s cheesy effects such as speeding up the camera, The Cape has the new cheesy effect called CGI.  The whole cape is pretty much made of CGI when it is in use. It stretches to crazy lengths, it becomes slightly rigid at time, and it wraps around people and items to pull them toward the user.  No the cape is magically, or all supposed to be illusionist tricks and a specially designed cape for a carnival act, but it is supposedly made up of some material called Spider Web which is apparently as strong as Kevlar.  The main villian goes by the name Chess, and while chess he wears a near full head mask while also wearing rook shaped contact lens.  That way you know he is creepy and crazy.

So Vince Faraday is a cop for Palm City, a city that is full of corruption and a falling apart police department.  Then there is Chess who goes around terrorizing the city.  Chess captures Vince, straps the Chess mask on his head and convinces the police and news that Vince is Chess.  The basics are there.  You got a man who is believed dead once a tank explodes near him; he can't go see his family so people don't know he is alive; and he has been taken in my come carnies.  It is with the carnies that Keith David makes his appearance, and it is a good one. So far, probably the best part of the show has been Keith, as Max Malini the head of the carnies, teaching Vince how to do illusions and using the game to his advantage.  Finally, they introduce Summer Glau as "Orwell" as in 1984 Big Brother, the Oracle (of DC Comics fame) like character who assists from an ear piece and helps with the technology.  So far she has had a very minor role that will hopefully be expanded upon soon.  The also introduced a group of assassins they call "The Tarot" which seems like they will have at least enough villians for The Cape to fight as there are Tarot cards. They only introduced "The Tower" card so far who liked to poison things.

The first two episodes were nothing great, but I have seem worse stuff say on the air for a long time, and also see better stuff cut before a full season.  It embrasses the cheesyness of the genre, probably a little too much, but it kind of works so far. You never know what is going to happen with these shows, but I think it may fit a niche spot for people right now.