Sabers bring slashing action to the Wii
THE NEXT LEVEL
If you’re enjoying “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” for the Wii, but find you just haven’t been able to slash enough, a new product is coming to your rescue: Dual Glow Sabers from dreamGEAR. For about $25, you can get a set of two. Your Wii remote goes into the cradle of the saber.
Gamers can choose from Sith red or Jedi blue, and play with these Wii accessories. And not only on “The Force Unleashed,” but on any Wii game that requires a slashing motion. The Dual Glow Sabers are compatible with all Wii sword-fighting games.
The LED lights in the sabers are handy, and the sabers themselves seem pretty durable. (I don’t know that I would recommend repeatedly knocking them against each other, not that anybody would do that.) And they don’t seem to have a negative effect on gameplay.
If you’re not sure that you need your Wii controller to look like a lightsaber, you might think again — LucasArts’ “Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Lightsaber Duels” is shipping in early December.
Producer Ken Fox told IGN.com that “Clone Wars” for the Wii would be “all about lightsber dueling.”
“It’s about swinging your Wii remote like a lightsaber and recreating what we know will be classic lightsaber battles from the movie and the show,” he said.
By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
100,000 Kryptonians can’t be wrong (or can they?)
WORD BALLOONS
Superman’s world has been shaken the past few months, with the Earth under invasion by Brainiac, and the death of Superman’s father, Jonathan Kent. Now, after mourning the death of his father, Superman finds 100,000 more Kryptonians plan to make Earth their home.
These Kryptonians were formerly trapped in the bottle city of Kandor by Brainiac, an alien who searches to steal the knowledge of a civilization before he destroys it.
Long the Last Son of Krypton, Superman was joined in recent years by Supergirl, his cousin from Krypton. Her world has likewise been turned upside down by the revelation that her parents are still alive, living among the Kandor Kryptonians.
Tulsa writer Sterling Gates co-wrote the “New Krypton Special” with James Robinson, who writes “Superman” and Geoff Johns, who writes “Action Comics.” Gates writes “Supergirl.” The “New Krypton” storyline will continue in all three titles.
“I’m working very closely with James Robinson and Geoff Johns to make sure that the three books really mesh together, so that if you read all three, you really get a sense that it’s one, cohesive ‘Super-Universe,’ as we like to call it,” Gates said. “So it’s a lot of conference calls and lunch meetings and e-mails. Luckily, we’re all based in Los Angeles, so we try to get together once a week and eat and just talk about Metropolis, or Superman, or Jimmy Olsen’s news blog, or why Brainiac droids have that cool probe in their hands, or just what is the Curse of the Insect Queen. That kinda thing.”
“New Krypton Special” is on sale now. The “New Krypton” storyline continues in “Superman” No. 681, set for release on Wednesday.
By Matthew Price
Assistant Features Editor
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Retro Thursday: Marshall Rogers and Steve Englehart
Trying out a new thing here, where I will post an article from the Matt Price archive from before I had a blog here at NewsOK. Today’s article is from April 8, 2005, in which writer Steve Englehart and artist Marshall Rogers discussed their take on Batman at the Planet Comicon in Overland Park, Kan. At the time of the article, the team was working on “Dark Detective,” a sequel to their classic 1970s “Detective Comics” run.
Marshall Rogers died March 25, 2007, one of the greatest Batman artists of his era. Englehart can be found online here.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — The creative team behind the upcoming “Batman” miniseries “Dark Detective” talked about its work on the project, as well as its groundbreaking work on “Batman” more than two decades ago. The Dark Knight will face off against his Rogues Gallery while meeting up again with his former love, Silver St. Cloud.
Writer Steve Englehart, penciller Marshall Rogers and inker Terry Austin will again team to bring life to the Batman. They spoke at last weekend’s Planet Comicon about their first run on the Dark Knight.
Englehart had just left Marvel Comics “on bad terms” and gone to DC Comics. He planned to work one year there before leaving comics entirely. DC asked him to revamp the Justice League; Englehart asked specifically for Batman. His “Detective Comics” run, issue Nos. 469 to 476, started with artists Walt Simonson and Al Milgrom. After two issues, they were replaced with relative newcomers Rogers and Austin.
The Englehart-Rogers run contained the now-classic Joker tales “The Laughing Fish” and “The Sign of the Joker.” Englehart was inspired by the early Batman tales in his “Detective Comics” run.
“I wanted to make Batman much more ‘pulp’ than he had been,” Englehart said. “It had become very ’70s realistic. It didn’t have that ‘pulp’ feel.”
Englehart also wanted Batman’s alter ego to play a larger role.
“I wanted to develop Bruce Wayne,” Englehart said. “To me, he’s essential. His relationship with Silver St. Cloud was something we wanted to pick up on.”
Rogers’ art was different from that of other artists working on the Dark Knight at the time.
“I don’t do a ‘DC model sheet’ Batman,” Rogers said. “What you saw in my rendition of the character was what I had always wanted to see as a kid.”
The new series takes place “some time” after the team’s first run. Silver St. Cloud is engaged to a gubernatorial candidate and sees Bruce Wayne across a crowded room at a political function.
In the first issue, the Joker also decides to run for governor, with the slogan “Vote for me, or I’ll kill you!”
During the run of “Dark Detective,” Batman will also battle Scarecrow and Two Face.
Englehart, Rogers and Austin were adamant that letterer John Workman rejoin the team for the new series, although on most books DC has gone to computer lettering.
“As long as we’re doing this, there’s no reason not to get the people who did it the first time,” Rogers said. “Everything is important to a successful book. It makes for the totality of the package.”
While the story isn’t married to current DC events, it doesn’t contradict them, either.
“I didn’t want this to be a completely parallel universe. It exists in the modern continuity,” Englehart said. “If this works well, we could do more down the line, and our Batman will eventually kind of become its own universe. I hope it’s a seamless integration of all the various elements that have to be there.”
Rogers said he doesn’t ignore anything that’s come before but doesn’t want to be a slave to continuity. His priority is a compelling story.
“(Batman’s) world is going to be creepy, eerie, fun and exciting,” Rogers said.
17 Again – I have mixed feelings
Browsing on Videogum brought my attention to this trailer, in which it appears Matthew Perry magically turns into Zac Efron, and then starts going to school with his daughter.
Remember the late 80s, when we got some kind of age-switching, young-again movie like every year or two? And yet, part of me thinks this could actually be funny. Probably not in a pay-full-price-for-a-ticket way, but in a maybe-rent-it-on-iTunes way.
Thoughts? Am I way off? Because I can also see it being really bad, but, for the moment I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt. The film is set to come out in April 2009.
FYI, teenage girls reading this blog (all three of you), yes, I have met Zac Efron, and yes, he seems nice in person, too.
– Matt Price
Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch #1 review
The only “Ghost Rider” issues that I was ever into were the 1990s issues featuring Danny Ketch. Since then, I’ve gone back and read some of the Johnny Blaze stuff, and it has its moments, but for me, the best Ghost Rider was reluctant hero Danny Ketch.
At first, his origin was simple – mystic motorcycle makes him the Ghost Rider. Then, it got infinitely more complicated. Somewhere along the line I stopped reading. The book got canceled. Johnny Blaze came back. Then, recently, in “Ghost Rider,” writer Jason Aaron brought back Danny Ketch. He seemed to have become a bad guy in the time since we saw him last, which didn’t thrill me.
Now, writer Simon Spurrier and artists Javier Saltares and Tom Palmer explain what happened to Danny Ketch to get him to that point in “Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch.” In the miniseries, Ketch is down on his luck. He finally managed to free himself of the Ghost Rider curse, but now finds himself empty. He craves adventure, and maybe something else. He calls the technomancer who freed him from the curse, and begs her to give it back. But it’s beyond her power.
As the issue concludes, Danny gets a taste of power from a mysterious benefactor, but not enough to quell his craving, or to keep him safe from harm.
It seems like Spurrier and crew will set up some reasonable motivation for Ketch in this series, and allow readers to empathize with him despite some of his questionable actions in the main “Ghost Rider” series.
The art by Saltares is reminiscent of his 1990s run on Ketch’s series, and is a welcome addition to the miniseries. Saltares’ presence makes this feel like the official successor to the 1990s “Ghost Rider” run. But you don’t have to have read that run to fit in here; Spurrier recaps what’s necessary, and moves into the modern-day story.
While it’s too early to decide whether I’ll be sold on the new Ketch status quo, it’s nice to see the character revived and not left on the dustbin of history. As it is, it’s a promising start. (On a selfish note, if the series does well, it’d be more likely to spur reprints of the Howard Mackie-Saltares-Mark Texiera issues, which I’d like to see.)
– Matt Price
Meet Famke Janssen at OU
Famke Janssen, star of “X-Men” and “Goldeneye,” is coming to the OU campus on Friday. She’ll headline the United Nations Day at the University of Oklahoma. The actress volunteers as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador.
“Famke Janssen’s work raising awareness about a critical global problem makes her a role model,” said Robert Cox, a professor and the director of the OU School of International and Area Studies, in a release. “It is wonderful that Famke Janssen uses her notoriety and fluency in four languages to educate people around the world about the seriousness of trafficking in human beings.” Janssen and Thomas Huston Orr, director of OU’s School of Drama, will hold a discussion about acting at 3 p.m. Friday in the Beaird Lounge of Oklahoma Memorial Union, 900 Asp Ave. Admission is free.The United Nations Association of Oklahoma City also will host a luncheon discussion with Janssen and other guests on Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Faculty House in Oklahoma City. For more information about the luncheon and/or to order tickets, call (405) 478-0358.
“Watchmen” footage at Scream Awards
Some new footage from last night’s Scream Awards on SPIKE.
Marvel Hotline – Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch.
Simon Spurrier talks about his take on Danny Ketch.
Washington Post reveals new Black Panther
According to the Washington Post (yep, they’re covering comic book news now, too), the Black Panther will be a new character come 2009 – and it will be a woman. Marvel will relaunch the character in February.
Writer Reginald Hudlin says: “Over the course of 40 issues [over three years], we … really defined the character in a way that hadn’t been done before. … Having done that, you go: “How do we up the stakes?” Marvel is great about doing really shocking changes to their character — they don’t believe in just keeping everything as status quo.”
– Matt Price
Comics shipping, 10-22-08
One of the largest weeks in recent memory, my friends. ”Final Crisis” finds its way to shelves! “Secret Invasion” is released! So, Marvel and DC’s biggest books go head to head. The new Captain America faces an old foe in issue #43. And that’s not all! IDW’s hit “Angel: The Fall” releases its 13th issue, G.I. Joe gets a new beginning, and Cyblade gets a new first issue. Check out the full list and commentary after the break.
