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A version of this article ran in Friday’s The Oklahoman:

By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor

WORD BALLOONS

A popular author aims to save the birthplace of Superman.  Brad Meltzer, whose new novel, “Book of Lies,” focuses in part on the death of Jerry Siegel’s father, is spearheading an effort to save the house where Superman was created.
In 1934, Siegel, 19, lived in Cleveland, Ohio, when he dreamed up the idea of a man from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Siegel, with his friend Joe Shuster, created Superman, now one of the most regognizable fictional characters of all time.
Meltzer’s charity, Ordinary People Change the World, is running auctions to raise $50,000 to repair the house.
Among the items up for auction — a T-shirt signed by Jerry Siegel, a walk-on role on the TV show “Heroes,” and original art from dozens of top comic-book creators.
Tulsa-born writer Sterling Gates, now the writer of “Supergirl,” shared his thoughts on preserving part of Superman’s history.
“That house is an important keystone in our modern mythology, and it should be kept and preserved as an historical site, ” Gates told The Oklahoman. “I mean, if the house where Elvis was born is kept up with, then the house where Kal-El was born should be kept up with, too.”
T-shirts, messenger bags and more designed by artist Chip Kidd are being sold to benefit the Cleveland-based Siegel and Shuster Society.
The house has been occupied since 1983 by Hattie and Jefferson Gray, who have agreed to give the Siegel and Shuster Society first rights to buy the house when they decide to sell,
according to the Associated Press.
Meltzer visited the house when researching his novel.
He decided that the historic location should be preserved, which led to the creation of the Siegel and Shuster Society.
To see a video of the house, bid on auction items, buy an item or make a donation, visit http://www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com/.

A version of this article ran in Friday’s The Oklahoman: 

The second season of Tim Kring’s “Heroes” faces a bit of a sophomore slump.
Whereas the first season focused on ordinary people with extraordinary abilities, the second season takes advantage of the roots of these powers and delves into the sins of the main characters’ parents.

As the season begins, time-traveling Hiro (Masi Oka) has transported to feudal Japan, where he decides to stay to help his childhood hero Takezo Kensei become the
legendary samurai he’s supposed to become.

The Bennets have relocated to California, where Claire (Hayden Panettiere) is supposed to lay low. Her adoptive father, Noah (Jack Coleman) is working with Mohinder (Sendhil Ramamurthy) to take down the Company, the mysterious organization experimenting
on individuals with super-powers.
Peter, who was responsible for saving New York City from an atomic explosion at the end of the first season, awakens in Ireland with amnesia.
New characters Maya and her brother Alejandro unknowingly find themselves helping a “Heroes” foe back to prominence as they make a pilgrimage from South America to find
Mohinder to learn more about their powers.
While the disparate threads of the season eventually come together, it’s obvious that the show was hindered by the writers’ strike, causing the Shanti virus storyline to come to a
quick resolution. The season wrapped with only 11 episodes.
The core ideas, cast and writers behind “Heroes” are still sound, so a stronger Season 3 seems very likely.
To find out what might have been, check out the special features on
the DVD set.
The show’s writers elaborate on their plans for the second half of the season, most of which were never filmed.

– Matt Price

A version of this review ran in Friday’s The Oklahoman: 

The children of superheroes are the world’s last hope in “Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow,” the latest direct-to-DVD animated feature from Marvel.  ”Next Avengers” features a possible Marvel future in which the children of the Avengers must
defeat the foe their parents could not.
The Avengers — including Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and others — were defeated in their final battle with Ultron, the indestructible robot bent on world domination.
Tony Stark, Iron Man, escaped with four of the Avengers’ children, and raised them in hiding.
James, the son of Captain America and the Black Widow, is a slovenly teen that nevertheless keeps a cool head in a crisis.
Torunn, the daughter of Thor, has an enchanted sword and an Asgardian’s power.
Azari, the son of the Black Panther, has agility from his father and lightning-based powers from an unnamed-in-the-film mother who’s most likely the X-Men’s Storm.
Pym, the son of Giant Man and the Wasp, is a tech-savvy wisacre with both of his parents’ abilities.
A fifth young Avenger was raised outside the safety of Iron Man’s domed campus.
Hawkeye, named after his father, has also inherited has father’s archery skills.  He lives in the city, under the shadow of Ultron, and leads a squad of resistance fighters.
When Ultron discovers the young Avengers, he wants to eliminate the last threat to his world dominance; these five teens must work together to face down a threat even their parents couldn’t stop.
“Next Avengers” is the most young adult-focused of all of the Marvel animated films so far, but it still brings in lots of the Marvel legacy for longtime fans.

– Matt Price

Marvel has officially announced the midnight release of the new comic book based on Stephen King’s “The Stand.”  The full announcement is here.

Two Oklahoma stores are taking part in the midnight release:

ALL STAR COMICS
6900 N MAY AVE, STE 10
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 73116
405-842-7800

SPEEDING BULLET BOOKS & COMICS
614 N PORTER
NORMAN, OK 73071
405-360-6866

(My usual full disclosure note: I am one of the owners of Speeding Bullet.)

I’ve found these Stephen King midnight releases to be a lot of fun in the past, and I’m looking forward to see how “The Stand” translates into comics.  The creative team is writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Mike Perkins (”Captain America”).

Also being released at the midnight event is the newest “Dark Tower” series from Marvel.

– Matt Price

The Xbox 360 Elite 

If you don’t have an Xbox 360 yet, today’s not a bad day for it.

According to GameDaily, the price of the Xbox 360 is dropping across all models.

The Xbox 360 Arcade model will drop to $199, which is cheaper even than the Wii. The standard (”Pro”) 60GB model goes down to $299.  The Elite, with 120GB, will drop to $399.

– Matt Price

Vaneta Rogers at Newsarama talked to several retailers about “Amazing Spider-Man” sales post-”Brand New Day.”

There’s a few names there you should recognize (including mine).  Seems like the general consensus is that “Amazing” three times sells better than “Amazing” and two spinoff titles, but not as well as previous “Amazing” numbers for some.

– Matt Price

Fighting off an illness, so, sorry for the lack of commentary today.

I am looking forward to reading one of Steve Gerber’s final stories in the “Dr. Fate” collection shipping this week.  Full list after the break.

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Comic shops in the US will get comic books a day late because of the Labor Day holiday, so, keep that in mind this week.  I’ll most likely post a shipping list late tonight or tomorrow.

- Matt Price

Labor Day weekend marks the 2/3 point of 2008, as crazy as that sounds.  The year’s already two-thirds over.

What comics have made an impression on you in that time? Several of my favorites, off the top of my head, are the same as last year — “Criminal” and “Captain America” from Ed Brubaker are two.  I really loved the first “Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds” from Geoff Johns and George Perez, so that has a chance to be a top one for 2008.

Alex Robinson’s “Too Cool to be Forgotten” from Top Shelf is probably one of the year’s top original graphic novels.  A man who wants to quit smoking gets hypnotized — and winds up back in high school.

I’ve heard good things about “Bottomless Belly Button,” which is on my to-read pile.  Also on the to-read list is “Abandoned Cars.”

A couple I have actually read that are awfully good: Tatsumi’s “Good-Bye” and Jeffrey Brown’s “Little Things.”

What are you guys reading and enjoying?

– Matt Price

Mark Millar talking about “Wanted” at Newsarama: “What I will be doing is providing them with a very small amount of stuff for a story, and that will be used as a basic story that they can build from. It will be a small outline that can possibly be picked apart and not used – but it will be something exclusively for the second film, and no one will ever really see it.”

It will be based in the storyline of the movie, which varied rather substantially from the comic, but bringing in some elements from the original series that didn’t factor into the original movie, Millar said.

Unfortunately, it will most likely be missing something that nearly everybody loved from the first film… find out what after the cut.

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