Recently there has been a whole slew of photographs from the set of Seth Rogen’s Green Hornet film, and I have to say they look great.

Before Seth Rogen, and even before Bruce Lee, the Green Hornet was a long running radio serial.  Starting out as a cousin to the Lone Ranger, the character was created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker in the 1930s.

I was originally introduced to the character during an episode of Adam West’s Batman when I was a kid.  Van Williams and Bruce Lee’s version of the character was on the show and I don’t really remember what ended up happening but Batman and Robin did fight Bruce Lee and Van Williams, and I think its pretty clear that Bruce Lee kicked Burt Ward’s ass.  I don’t really remember, but yeah.

YouTube has it:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Regardless, the Flickcast has more photos from the set. Featuring Rogen and Jay Chou as his sidekick Kato, and directed by visionary director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).

The question has been asked hundreds and hundreds of times but recently on io9.com’s Morning Spoilers edition they picked up on someone on some Doctor Who message board saying Gaiman would write Episode 10 of the 2010 season.

Which resulted in a Gaiman denial on everyone’s favorite shouting box, Twitter.  Which resulted in a post speculating that he’s really denying writing Episode 10, but not specifically denying writing for Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who at all.  The whole post is exhausting to read, that last sentence was exhausting for me to write, so it must have been exhausting for you to read. I just like the idea of Gaiman writing a Doctor Who episode, as far I’m concerned that would rock.

Moving on…

Recently NPR blogger Glen Weldon revealed who is behind the hilarious Twitter presence, and people are upset.  HOBODARKSEID the most among them, or really the guy. [Click at your own will].  Here is Darkseid’s reaction to being revealed on NPR. And absolutely hilarious:

Besides Deadpool, I think my other comic obsession would have to be all things Harvey Pekar.  The fact that Smith Magazine has been doing a serialized Harvey Pekar web comic project for the past couple of weeks has been a wonderful thing to look forward to, but the Cleveland native came here to New York City.

Speaking at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Studies in February, Mr. Pekar was interviewed by Josh McCutchen (see above).

So, AMC has finally announced the premiere of their reboot of the classic Science Fiction series. This update has Number 6 (Jim Caviezel) retired to The Village where Ian McKellan’s Number 2 controls everything with a smile on his face and a giant bubble.  The miniseries will be a three parter starting November 15th, and will last three nights.

Above is an extended look of the series, and AMC hosts the entire original series on their website. Which I highly encourage you to check out.

When I was a kid, my Dad frequently contributed to my movie fixation at a very young age. I watched extremely violent films that were spectacularly unsuitable for a kid between the ages of 6-8. This movie was one of them.  Predator was another one, which I still think is the best movie the Governator ever did. For me, this remake–though Jackie Earl Haley is an outstanding casting choice–has little chance to work for me.  It just isn’t Nightmare on Elm Street without Johnny Depp being crushed by a bed.  But thanks for trying.

Another thing I noticed: The Flash from Smallville (Kyle Gallner) keeps on  subjecting himself to these horror-porn films.  Like creepy stuff coming out of his mouth in a horror movie taking place in Connecticut, (hey, Connecticut is creepy enough. Why make a horror movie about it?). Gallner has upped his game in the horror movie genre by moving on to getting mauled by Megan Fox and now being killed by Rorschach. I tell you, Kyle, you’re becoming quite the rising star.

A month after the Big Apple Con,  spotlighting Wizard Entertainment we’re going to have another comics related convention, this time celebrating the comic creators of Brooklyn! Sweet. 

Via press release, King Con will feature such creators as Brian Wood, Dean Haspiel, Molly Crabapple, and Al Jaffe. There is a ton more.

The convention is being held Nov. 7-8 at the Brooklyn Lyceum, which, I’ve never heard of because I live in Manhattan.  (I’ve been saying for years how I want to move to Brooklyn–just haven’t yet). Regardless, apparently the Brooklyn Lyceum is a one-hundred year old bath house.

“The lack of a Brooklyn based comic convention always surprised me,” says writer, artist, and convention co-organizer Mike Zagari. “Now with KING CON, Brooklyn’s flourishing and emerging writers and artists finally have an event to call their own!” With its close proximity to the subway, and its stunning, raw space, the building intends to do just that. Located in a century-old NYC Public Bath house turned event and performance space along a formerly rough and tumble industrial stretch of Fourth Avenue, the Lyceum has been, since 2000, a venue for emerging and well-established talent. Past showcases have included Jose Gonzalez, The Polyphonic Spree, The Dresden Dolls, Yo La Tengo, Fiona Apple and French folk singer Krystle Warren.

Seems like its going to be a great time, and a pretty cool venue, which I always appreciate, because I can’t stand bland venues (see the Javitz Center).

Friday evening saw the premiere of season 9 of Smallville, and the ratings were not that great to be honest.  Like Dollhouse, only 2.8 million people tuned in to watch the show. I DVR’d it. So warning, Spoilers below.

We open on Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) trying to track down Lois Lane (Erica Durance) who in last season’s finale was transported to the future by accidently finding Clark’s Legion ring.  All we get from this is that Green Arrow, The Flash and Cyborg have dropped off the grid and Chloe attempts to wield a 7mm semi-consciously at Emil Hamilton (played by the dude who played Gaita on Battlestar Galactica).

We’re rewarded with Lois’s return via purple lighting bolt aboard a monorail to which she’s attacked by a “ninja assassin”.  The fight causes the train to derail and Clark saves it.  This is the big reveal featuring Tom Welling in his Neo suit.  It looks terrible, and tacky, and I can’t wait until they get rid of it.  He spends much of the episode in flight simulators whining about not being able to fly.

And now we get our big moment with “Major” Zod, played by Callum Blue. Apparently when Tess Mercer let him out of the Phantom Zone, she also let out most of his army. They estimated there must be at least 100+ of them on the planet. Zod has been searching for them, and in a discussion with two of his soldiers (unnamed) question him, to which Blue delivers a pretty great “Kneel Before Zod!” I must say it was better than expected.  To which immediately after, he gets knocked out by his subordinates. Apparently, they haven’t reached any power levels yet.  Which is quite different, because the ninja assassin woman seemingly has heat vision.

Lois while investigating the train wreck meets Brian Austin Green, playing the pre-Metallo version of John Corben.   She finds Green Arrow (Justin Hartley) in some kind of fight cut wholecloth from Snatch. The Assassin lady shows up to blow everything sky-high, Neo Clark shows up and they fight. She dies because of Blue Kryptonite and a flying tractor engine. But not before she reveals that she’s come from the future to kill Clark because he causes the end of “her world” and she wears Jonathan Kent’s watch, set to a year from last Friday.

The rest is forgettable, but at the end you get the idea of what is going to happen under Zod and why the ninja woman came back to kill Clark.

Regardless, in the end, I’ve always appreciated Smallville’s success in breaking the barrier of the Superman mythos and doing its own thing. Yeah, does it suffer from things? Many, many, contrived things, but for this Superman fanboy, the show still intrigues me. I like seeing what they do next.

Coming up we see Brian Austin Green become Metallo. Smallville airs Friday nights at 8pm.

• The New York Anime Festival showed record attendance.  Up 16% from last year, which is great to hear.
• The Ignatz Awards were announced.  Congratulations to Jordan Crane, Nate Powell, and for the Kramers Argot, which is sitting on my To-Read list.  Brian Heater at the Daily Cross Hatch has video of the ceremonies.
• David Finch, Sim, Niko Henrichon and Cameron Stewart all won at the Shuster Awards.  And if you haven’t been reading Stewart’s spectacular webcomic, Sin Titulo, you should begin doing so: now.
• The video from the set of Iron Man 2 from the EW perspective looks massively annoying in the usual EW fashion.  I don’t know why they care about U2′s Chris Martin’s kids with Gwyneth Paltrow but that’s annoying.

Pick of the week: Fantastic Four # 571 by Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham.  I’ve never been a Fantastic Four man, but this issue captured my imagination. From what I understand, Fantastic Four has always been about family and the impossible.  I don’t think it can get more imaginative or impossible that Reed Richards creates this machine that sends him to an extra dimensional  plane where the Reed Richards of parallel universes meet and help change everything.  In this issue our Reed helps kill Galactus, with an army of other Reeds armed with Ultimate Nullifiers.  He helps create a planet full of feed that will feed starving planets, and performs surgery on the universe.  Its a wild, beautiful look into Reed Richards and what he does to save everyone, including his relationship with Sue. To be honest, I wasn’t a Fantastic Four guy before, but I’m locked in from now on. Rating: 9.0

Superman Secret Origin #1: This is like Geoff Johns doing his take on Smallville. I feel like every once in a while DC allows a writer to present their take on the origin of Superman.  Mark Waid did his take with the awesome Leinil Yu with Birthright, John Byrne did his seminal retake and now a couple years later, Johns gets his. Which is cool for people to come in and see Johns do this. Its just not that interesting, and doesn’t need to exist.  Though it does give a great explanation for the glasses, and that is kind of adorable. What can I say? I’m a softie. I don’t want to spoiler but that was pretty creative with the glasses handling the heat vision. Rating: 7.0.

Captain America Reborn # 3: Brubaker is a slow burn kind of guy.  He starts out very slow, but usually by the end, you see that its worth it. His entire run on Captain America and Daredevil has been just like that, and those are easily the best superhero comics out there today. So there is no reason to lose faith on that when coming into this title.  However three issues in and we’re still on the same thing.  Steve Rogers is Quantum Leaping through his life and Norman Osborn is after Bucky, Falcon, Reed Richards and the rest. That’s been beaten like a dead drum for three issues and the only thing that has moved the story forward is it being revealed to the media that Sharon Carter was the second shooter. We don’t get any repercussions of that and its just the third straight issue of, you guessed it, Steve Rogers is Quantum Leaping and the Thunderbolts are out to kill Bucky and Black Widow.  Sorry, you gotta advance the story a little bit more than that for me. Butch Guice is nice to look at though. Rating: 5.0

Planetary #27 preview. This was in the back pages of Ex Machina #45.  It has the main characters talking about building a Time Machine, and in typical Planetary fashion, building the time machine that is already laced in popular culture. The one from H.G. Wells book, and also my favorite sci fi novel ever.  Time travel, and especially interpretations on Wells’s book, has always tickled my stomach.  Both amaze me even to this day.  So the fact that one of the best books ever written and drawn tackling something in regards to Wells’ Time Machine is something I can’t wait for. Planetary #27, the final issue hits stands Oct. 2.

With Ex Machina ending and the final issue of Planetary coming out, I can’t help but say those are the last two books from Wildstorm that I still read.  So…I’ll be interested to see what Wildstorm does when these two books end.