Tuesday, April 22, 2008

News You Can Lose!



Okay, today's post was going to deal with the Tiny Titans, until I saw the Aquaman Shrine was covering similar territory, so I've pushed the back to Friday. In its stead, news for the New York Comic Con and elsewhere...

A fan asked Morrison to eulogize the Martian Manhunter: "He was a good man. He was a kind man. He was a green man."


There is a tragic event that takes place in the very first issue. Because of that, there is a special called Final Crisis: Requiem by Peter Tomasi and Doug Mankhe, and it explores the life and times of that character, who DiDio said was a staple of the DCU.

Death toll in Final Crisis? "I don't like killing characters, but I like to mess with them. It's a fate worse than death. If you do something unusual or unexpected with them, so they're still around to come back in some form. Death is easy, what happens in Final Crisis can be much worse and much stranger."


DiDio then discussed the Final Crisis tie-in titles, hinting that “a tragic event that occurs in the very first issue” will lead into Final Crisis: Requiem (a truncated title - presumably the full one would spoil that tragic event) by Peter Tomasi and Doug Mahnke.

“It involves one of the cornerstones of the DC Universe, and how his life has changed as a result of Final Crisis #1,” said DiDio

“If you don’t kill the Martian Manhunter, could you write an ongoing with him,” a fan asked. “Oops,” Morrison replied, perhaps in jest, or perhaps ominously


I'm in Long Beach at the Speed Racer junket and I briefly cornered producer Joel Silver to ask him how the Justice League movie would affect Wonder Woman. The answer: it won't. According to Silver, who would be in the know, Justice League has been 'tabled.'

That means a lot of you can breathe a sigh of relief; while 'tabled' doesn't mean the film is officially canceled, it's likely that it won't be happening any time soon, and likely without that cast.

As for Wonder Woman, Silver said it takes time to get these films made - he had Speed Racer in development for twenty years. He's still trying to get DC's Amazon on the screen but doesn't have much else to report right now.


ITEM! As LITG'd a while back, yes J'onn J'onnz dies in the first issue of “Final Crisis.” But in the last issue, Barry Allen comes back. So everybody's happy. But remember how we LITG'd as of early March that #2 of "Final Crisis" was mid way being drawn? I further understand that as of the weekend #3 is still to be completed.

ITEM! Coming up from the NYCC floor... look for Paul Dini writing a new "Zatanna" comic. With the announced Vixen, Power Girl, Terra (and unannounced Batwoman), that's quite a few new DCU solo female books… worth pointing out. Anyone got as many?


SPECIAL NOTICE: Two articles on the internet of note to Idol-Heads:
Comic Book Resources has a headline interview with Peter Tomasi today titled "Martian Manhunter R.I.P." covering his love of the character, his writing on the upcoming special “Final Crisis: Requiem for Martian Manhunter,” and his previous history writing and editing J'Onn J'Onzz stories.

Also, Detroit-Era Justice League fans should check out Luke's synopsis of
Steel, The Indestructible Man #2 over at El Jacone's Comic Book Bunker .

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wasn't it established shortly after the first Crisis, and miraculously kept in canon from that day to this, that J'Onn's "beetle-browed" look is not his actual appearance, just something he came up with to make himself less frightening to humans (seven feet tall, green, brow you could play handball against; yeah, that's not scary)? That his real head looks more like a cross between Ripley's Aliens and Zippy the Pinhead?

So why would his skull look like that?

I smell a hoax....

Diabolu Frank said...

That image was from an issue of the late 90's Ostrander/Mandrake Manhunter series. That series established the following...

"In my world, we all had our functions. As with our forms, outward functions as well as inward. Innermost, I was a philosopher- Seeking wisdom, seeking to understand, seeking to explain. Outwardly, I was what on Earth we would call a manhunter. Seeking those, within society and without, who would bring it's downfall."

...So basically, the creators decided that both forms were "true," with one public and the other private. Kind of weak sauce, but it also allows more Bronze and Silver Age tales to return to continuity, if anyone ever bothered to acknowledge that the Martian Manhunter has a personal history.

Finally, J'onn J'onzz really did "die" in that story, and did so via immolation while in his "public" face, which I assume extends to a bone structure. Of course, he managed to survive, not unlike he will a few years after "Final Crisis" when 70's nostalgia gives way to 80's...