Superman team to launch Codename: Patriot
Superman Secret Files 2009 #1
The next Super-crossover rocks the “Superman” titles in August, as a shooting threatens to ratchet up the tension between Earth and New Krypton. Greg Rucka, James Robinson and Sterling Gates bring “World of New Krypton,” “Action Comics,” “Superman” and “Supergirl” into the four-part story “Codename: Patriot.” The “Superman Secret Files” will serve as a primer to “Codename: Patriot.”
“It kicks off the next phase in our overarching Super-story,” Gates said. “It’s the next phase of General Lane’s plan. It’s going to have some long-standing repercussions not only for Superman, but for Lois Lane, Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen, and General Zod,” Gates said.
“Codename: Patriot” has personal repercussions for Superman as well, who follows the suspected shooter to Earth.
“It also marks the first time Superman has returned to Earth since he left six months ago, and there are some people out there who will not be happy to see the Man of Steel come back,” said Gates, who is a University of Oklahoma graduate.
The storyline also offers some reunions for Supergirl.
“While Superman’s being reunited with his friends and family, Supergirl is reunited with her childhood friend, Thara Ak-Var,” Gates said. Thara Ak-Var has been living on Earth and operating as the Kryptonian hero Flamebird.
But that reunion may not play out how readers expect, Gates said.
The crossover begins in “Superman: World of New Krypton” No. 6, on sale August 5, and continues in “Action Comics” #880, “Supergirl” #44, and concludes in “Superman” #691.
– Matt Price
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- Action Comics #880
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- Supergirl #44
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- Superman #691
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- Superman Secret Files 2009 #1
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- Superman: World of New Krypton #6
“Smallville” bad girl has Tulsa roots
She may play a bad girl on “Smallville,” but actress Cassidy Freeman won me over when, in mid-interview, she shouted out, “Boomer Sooner!” As a child, the Chicago-raised actress spent Thanksgivings in Tulsa, where she remembered running up and down her grandparents’ upstairs hallways with her five cousins, until they were quieted so the adults could watch University of Oklahoma football.
“You cannot interrupt Sooner games,” Freeman said.
As Tess Mercer on “Smallville,” the new head of Lex Luthor’s business, Freeman started this season as a thorn in the side of Clark Kent (Tom Welling).
“I had to come in this season with guns blaring. People were missing Lex Luthor; people needed someone to fill that role,” she said. “But I think also what’s very interesting is that he as a character is destined to be a villain. Whereas, no one really knows what I’m destined to be. And my future doesn’t necessarily rely on what’s been written, or mythos necessarily. I have that freedom to become something different, which is cool.”
Freeman joined a long-running series, but she said the cast was extremely welcoming. Star Welling is easy to work with, Freeman says, and she expects he’s an actor who will have no trouble with a Superman “curse.”
“He’s very, very smart,” she said. “He’s obviously beautiful, so he has every opportunity that lies in that fact, and he’s a really nice guy, which in Hollywood is going to get you a lot farther than one might think.” He’s also a talented director, Freeman said. Welling helmed last night’s “Smallville” episode titled “Injustice.”
After “Smallville” wraps, Freeman will go to work on a thriller starring her and her brother. (Her brother’s name, coincidentally enough, is Clark.) The film, “Yellow Brick Road,” is about a New Hampshire town that, in 1940, basically disappeared. The town’s population followed a trail into a forest and never returned. In 2009, a group of eight people investigates the disappearance.
“The tagline is ‘They went to find the evil in the forest, and instead, the forest found the evil in them,’” she said.
Freeman can’t reveal whether she’ll return for “Smallville’s” ninth season; two characters are said to perish in Thursday’s season finale. Regardless of whether she’s back for another year, or whether “Doomsday” is her last episode, Freeman said working on “Smallville” was a great experience.
“It’s really been such an incredible year of work. These are people that I hope to know for a long time.”
- by Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Smallville’s Cassidy Freeman talks Oliver Queen, Lois Lane
Cassidy Freeman plays “bad girl” Tess Mercer on “Smallville.” Here’s some more info from our recent interview that either didn’t make it into — or was too hot for — the print interview in Friday’s The Oklahoman.
MATT PRICE: Do you keep up with what’s said on the Internet about you?
CASSIDY FREEMAN: You know who does? My dad and my brother have Google alerts out on me. Guys, come on, you’ve gotta have something better to do with my day than check out my Google alerts.
MP: Some online fans are interested in the Oliver-Tess relationship.
CF: Tess Mercer and Oliver Queen have a past, and now they share business as well. We’re mixing business with pleasure, and we all know how that ends, but you’ve gotta take the journey first.
MP: Who else might you hook up with on “Smallville”?
CF: I have a feeling I’m going to be hooking up with everyone, at some point. I was hoping for some Lois Lane action, but that’s not going to happen, I don’t think.
Lois and I have a scene where we get kind of physical and we fight it out a little bit, and let’s just say that everyone on set that day was pretty stoked.
MP: She’s a great Lois Lane.
CF: Erica was born to play Lois Lane. She has all those qualities, smart and strong and funny and totally unabashedly herself. That’s Lois Lane.
MP: Tell me about your movie, “Yellow Brick Road.”
CF: It’s a film, a horror-thriller film that I am shooting this June. It was written by two friends of mine from college, and it stars me and my brother and a lot of people that I went to school with as well that I’ve worked with on stage in DC and New York.
It’s an opportunity to do a movie with people that you really admire, and my brother and I are playing brother and sister in the movie which is also a pretty cool opportunity.
MP: And you’re also in a band with your brother Clark?
CF: We play in a band together, called the Real D’Coy. In this band I play keyboard and I sing. I don’t play keyboard normally, I play the guitar and alto saxophone, when I was a kid. But I do know how to read music, and so I learned as best as I could. We just have a lot of fun. It’s rock music. The guy who writes it, his name’s Andy Mitten, he writes most of our music and he also wrote the movie, “Yellow Brick Road.” We’re kind of an incestuous cult of artists, we just really enjoy each other’s company and like to hang out with each other.
Comics vodcast: X-Men Origins: Wolverine the movie and the comic book; Battle for the Cowl the Underground; Legion of Three Worlds 4
Matt Price and Kyle Roberts review X-Men Origins: Wolverine and talk about a few of the best comics that came out this week, including the one-shot with the same title, X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Batman Battle for the Cowl: The Underground, and Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #4.
DVD review: “Max Fleischer’s Superman: 1941-1942”
A high point of early animation comes to DVD with “Max Fleischer’s Superman: 1941-1942.” These 17 war-era cartoons originally released by Paramount get an official release from Warner Bros.
Since the cartoons themselves are in the public domain, cheap reproductions of them have been available for years. These remastered editions, however, are much higher quality. Hardcore Superman fans may already own these remastered editions, as they were split between the special editions of “Superman: The Movie” and “Superman II” in 2006.
The DVD is marked “not for children – for adult collectors,” which likely has to do with the racial stereotypes that were commonplace in 1941 and 1942 but are glaring now.
Extras include “The Man, the Myth,” which talks about superhero archetypes in mythology, and “First Flight,” which examines animation and the rotoscoping technique used in the “Superman” cartoons. Bruce Timm talks about these cartoons’ influence on “Batman: The Animated Series” in “First Flight.” The Fleischer “Superman” cartoons are even more fluid, however. The facial expressions, detailed backgrounds and smooth movements are still among the best in 2-D animation.
- Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Comics vodcast: Wolverine Weapon X 1, Warlord 1, Batman Battle for the Cowl 2, Superman World of New Krypton 2
There is a theme of mystery in last week’s comics. Matt Price and Kyle Roberts discuss Wolverine Weapon X #1, Warlord #1, Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2, and Superman: World of New Krypton #2.
Thoughts on Max Fleischer’s Superman 1941-1942
I’m watching “Max Fleischer’s Superman 1941-1942,” the official release of the war-era “Superman” cartoons that were a giant leap forward in animation. You can get a sense of what the official releases look like in the YouTube embeds above from Warner Bros.
I’ll have a full review in The Oklahoman at some point, but my early thoughts while watching these episodes are, these are really nice editions of the cartoons. I believe they are the same remastered editions from the Superman I and II special editions from 2006, so if you have those, this might be a repeat purchase, save for the extras. But these are really nice, and all together in one place.
It’s also worth noting that the DVD is marked “not for children – for adult collectors,” which I assume has to do with the racial stereotypes that were commonplace in 1941 and 1942 but are glaring now.
Bruce Timm talks about these cartoons’ influence on “Batman: The Animated Series” in a special feature, but even if he didn’t, it would likely be obvious to anyone who watched both cartoons. The Fleischer “Superman” cartoons are even more fluid, however.
While these cartoons have been available in public-domain collections in the past, this is the best edition of them — far superior to the random markdown bin versions, and even somewhat better than the two classier versions — the “Ultimate Collection” and the “Diamond Anniversary Edition.”
- Matt Price
Actor’s voice has heroic quality
He can’t fly or bend steel with his bare hands, but actor Yuri Lowenthal has an affinity for superheroes.
The actor, who voiced the Prince of Persia in video games and will guest-star on “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” tonight, says one of his most satisfying roles was portraying Superman in the animated series “Legion of Superheroes.”
“As an actor, I audition for jobs every day,” Lowenthal said. “When it gets to be one of ‘those’ jobs, because I’m a huge comic book nerd, and have been since I was a kid … that always really gets me going because that’s my stuff.”
“Legion of Superheroes” features a young Superman who goes to the 31st century to aid a group of young superheroes in their battles with the villains the Fatal Five.
After his first audition, Lowenthal was called back to read for two members of the Legion of Superheroes: Lightning Lad and Brainiac 5. He also was called back to read for the Man of Steel himself.
Upon arriving at the callback, he read the “sides,” or script, for Superman and Brainiac 5 before the producers asked him to stop.
“I was too nervous to say, ‘Hey, what about Lightning Lad?’”
Lowenthal thought he’d blown it but decided to try to forget about it and move on. A few weeks later, he got a call from his agent.
“You’re Superman,” she told Lowenthal.
“I started screaming … and jumping around the apartment,” Lowenthal said.
Much later, the director revealed to Lowenthal that he wasn’t asked to continue because he had the Superman role locked up.
“The reason we sent you home after reading just two of the three characters we called you back for,” Lowenthal recalled the director telling him, “is that we realized that, ‘Here’s our Superman,’ and we didn’t need to have you read anything else.”
Lowenthal also voices the superheroes Iceman in “Wolverine and the X-Men” and Ben 10 in “Ben 10: Alien Force.”
“Hero characters suit me, I think,” Lowenthal said. “I always wanted to be a superhero when I was a kid, and I really haven’t stopped.”
Three DVDs featuring the “Legion of Superheroes” are available, and episodes are available for download online at iTunes and Amazon.com.
– Matthew Price
From Friday’s The Oklahoman
Action and Detective: No Superman or Batman? No problem
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — DC executives attending the annual ComicsPRO meeting were asked about upcoming issues of “Action Comics” and “Detective Comics” that wouldn’t star traditional heroes Superman and Batman. Will the lack of those heroes cause sales to drop?
Detective Comics will feature Batwoman as the lead character, written by Greg Rucka and drawn by J.H. Williams. Rucka is the writer on Action Comics, starring characters Flamebird and Nightwing. Issue #875, drawn by Eddy Barrows, is on sale now. Didio said the art for Detective Comics is phenomenal, and will draw new readers to the series.
“I can’t wait to see this stuff because it’s just so cool-looking,” Didio said. “(Williams’) Batwoman stuff is just dynamite.”
Didio also reiterated the strong ties between Action Comics and the rest of the Superman world.
“Those characters (Flamebird and Nightwing) originated in Action Comics,” Didio said. “(And) Superman’s not gone — he’s just not the star of the book right now. If somebody is a Superman fan, they should feel engaged by this storyline and excited by it.”
DC’s vice president of sales Bob Wayne indicated that numbers on “Action Comics” ordered so far under Greg Rucka’s run are nearly the same as previous numbers under Geoff Johns.
– Matt Price
Yuri Lowenthal on Superman inspirations
Actor Yuri Lowenthal voiced the Man of Steel on the “Legion of Superheroes” animated series. He told The Oklahoman about his inspirations in a recent phone interview.
YURI LOWENTHAL: I couldn’t help but be inspired by all the people who had gone before me. I’m a geek that way. I know the Tim Daly Superman, I know the George Newbern Superman, I know pretty much all of the incarnations of Superman, whether they have been animated or otherwise, just because I watch that stuff. And so I’m sure that I must have been influenced by all those guys.
And yet, when you’re dealing with iconic characters like that, … you can’t get obsessed over, ‘Am I copying this guy too much, am I not enough like this guy?’ You kind of have to trust the director of the show and the producer of the show, in that they chose you for a specific reason that what you were doing to a certain degree was in the ballpark, or right, and if they didn’t like it they would correct it.
