DC Comics

Warner Brothers is facing the very real concept that after 2013, Superman, arguably the most globally recognizable character in their library, will not be theirs to exploit any longer. Courts awarded the estate of Jerry Siegel, the writer who quietly kicked off the entire superhero genre in 1938, the rights to key elements of Superman and his origin. The battle is still ongoing, as Warners recently replaced their lawyers as they move forward to determine if there's any retro-active money owed to the Siegel or Shuster (Joe Shuster, Superman's original artist) estates.

Which side of the argument do you fall on? Clearly, Superman would never have existed without Siegel and Shuster, and the character has produced massive revenue in comics, toys, television, books, apparel, and film, with that money going directly into corporate pockets -- not the pockets of the creators (or their heirs). The argument is that Siegel and Shuster were clearly work-for-hire and that they knew the deal going in -- anything they created for DC Comics belonged to DC Comics. They've been given some monetary compensation over the years, as a "thank you" from the company, but technically DC (and their parent company Warner Brothers) owes them nothing.

Or do they? Do you think DC has been fair to the estates of Siegel and Shuster or should the rights to a creation always belong to the creator? The fall-out from this case could very well change comics forever. At the very least, Warners will have to pay out licensing fees to continue to use Superman as usual, but it could also create a situation where every comic artist and writer starts banging on the doors of their employers, looking for their deserved piece of the pie.

Vote in our poll after the jump.

The cover reads 10-cents, but a copy of 1939's Detective Comics #27, containing the first-ever appearance of the caped crusader himself, Batman, just sold for a whopping $1 million dollars at an auction in Dallas, TX. It's an interesting record-breaking bookend to a week that began with the news of a private auction in which Action Comics #1, the 1938 debut of Superman (and the kick-off of the entire superhero genre), sold for $1 million as well.

It's the first time either comic (or any comic for that matter) has hit the million-dollar mark, obliterating current perceived market values. It has to be making hardcore collectors think twice about the estimated pricing of many key Golden Age issues. If this is a sign of things to come, it might be a sound investment to snag Marvel's earliest debut issues of their core heroes. Many of those books are more widely circulated (since they're about thirty years younger than the DC titles that went for auction), and can still be picked up with relative ease if you have a few thousand dollars to spend.

Not a bad way to plan for the future, as long as you can keep your mom from throwing out your "investments".

(source: Chron)

There's little in the way of story details just yet, but Latino Review does cite Brainiac and Lex Luthor as the villains. Hooray for Brainiac, but can we please skip Luthor for at least one installment of the series? No film has quite gotten the character right, and I'd rather see Supes face off with someone he can actually have physical action scenes with -- Parasite, Mongul, Bizarro, anyone but Lex Luthor.

A new Superman movie sounds like a really tough sell, and this is coming from a guy who actually liked Bryan Singer's homage to Richard Donner. I acknowledge that it wasn't the Superman movie than most fans wanted to see, but it still strikes me as odd that Superman would ever be in a position where he'd actually be hard to market. Once bitten, twice shy, I guess. I'm hopeful that Nolan and company can turn this image problem around. There's still a lot to love about the Man of Steel.

Last week's leaked Green Lantern concept art literally blew my socks off, which was especially remarkable seeing as how I was wearing shoes at the time. Ouch. Now, io9 has two new images they're presenting as legit leaked art from the 2011 Martin Campbell science-fiction superhero film.

Represented in these images are designs for the Guardians and Green Lantern's mentor-turned-nemesis Sinestro (an unfortunate name if his parents ever wanted him to grow up to be anything but evil). The Guardians are the otherworldly beings responsible for the Green Lantern Corps - the intergalactic police force which recruits Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) in the film. They're represented as arrogant and judgmental in the comics, but they're also responsible for who gets a power ring (the outlet for Green Lantern's power) and who doesn't. Sinestro is their star Lantern, until he gets power hungry and turns on the Corps. Mark Strong is said to be taking on the role of Sinestro in the film.

Thanks to Devin at Chud for bringing this new art to my attention. You can see the Sinestro mock-up after the jump.

I'm not one to get really hyped up for films before their release, preferring to keep a level-head lest I build up my expectations to the point where I am let down more often than I am satisfied. With that said, when it comes to these leaked Green Lantern design pics, there's only one thing I can say: OOOMMMMGGGGOMG!!!1111!!!!!!!!!111OMGGGGGG!

Ahem.

Yes, I will be a total drooling idiot by the time Summer 2011 gets here, in anticipation of Martin Campbell's live-action adaptation of one of the coolest superheroes ever created, DC's Green Lantern. What we have in these leaked alien character designs are the potential movie versions of Abin Sur, the dying ring-bearer who bestows his power ring to Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds in the film), as well as Green Lantern Corps members Tomar Re and, below the jump, trainer Kilowog.

There's been a lot of noise from DC Comics and their parent company Warner Brothers ever since Marvel became their own studio and hit a box office home run with Iron Man. Let's separate rumor from reality and break down what's actually happening at the studio...

Definitely Happening

Green Lantern - Starts shooting in 2010 from director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) with Ryan Reynolds as the cosmic ring-bearer Hal Jordan.

Jonah Hex - Josh Brolin stars as the title character in this horror/western from director Jimmy Heyward, set for wide release June 2010.

Lobo - This is slated to be Guy Ritchie's next film, hot off of Sherlock Holmes. The movie will be a PG-13 action-comedy, which has some of the more bloodthirsty Lobo purists in a tizzy.

Batman - While no formal announcement has been made about a new Batman sequel (allowing internet rumor mongering and fan speculation to run wild), this movie will happen, just as sure as there's a setting sun.

"If you were to create the Superman story today, for the first time, but keep intact all that works, what would it look like?" That's the question that writer J. Michael Straczynski hopes to answer in his new DC Comics book, Superman: Earth One.

Taking the lead from Marvel's line of "Ultimate" comics, the "Earth One" books are designed to effectively relaunch DC characters in a fresh, new universe, free of the confines of decades worth of monthly continuity. It's a bold experiment, one that DC has approached before with their "All-Star" line -- offering high-profile artists the chance to create stand-alone works featuring DC heroes.

Most interesting of all, and the thing that will really set them apart from Marvel's "Ultimate" monthly series, are the way in which the books are being released. Superman: Earth One (by Straczynski and Shane Davis) and Batman: Earth One (by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank) will be released on a twice-a-year schedule in a graphic novel format.

"Batman: Earth One is more in line with the European idea of releasing chapters of an ongoing series in graphic novel form," Johns told
AintItCoolNews. "We're planning on doing two novels a year and set in this new universe, we're getting unlimited creative freedom that we couldn't have in current continuity."

That sparse schedule should help them avoid problems that the "Ultimate" universe ran into. Created to allow new fans an entry point without having to rely on complicated backstories, through the years the "Ultimate" universe started creating its own convoluted continuity. Despite the shared "Earth One" universe, with only two books a year it will take "Earth One" quite a while to get to the point where they're mired in backstory.

The first books in the line are slated for release sometime in 2010.

Name: Kal-El aka Clark Kent aka Superman aka Supes aka The Man of Steel aka The Man of Tomorrow aka Big Blue aka The Last Son of Krypton.

Appears In: DC Comics' monthly titles Superman, Action Comics, Superman/Batman, and Trinity. Live-action television shows, animated cartoons from Max Fleischer, Filmation, Ruby-Spears, Hanna-Barbera, and Warner Bros, and multiple feature films.

Homeworld: Krypton. His father, Jor-El, predicted the planet's destruction and saved his son's life by rocketing his infant son to Earth.

Demeanor: Altruistic, brave, selfless, determined, moral.

Special Abilities: Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound...Kal-El has a variety of powers dependent on Earth's yellow sun including bullet-proof skin, x-ray vision, super-strength, flight, super-speed, and heat-vision. These powers can be negated with Kryptonite, a rare element from Kal-El's home planet. Kryptonite not only affects his abilities, but his overall health as well.

Turn-Ons: American patriotism. Girls with the initials "L.L." Primary colors. Journalistic integrity. Farm livin'.

Turn-Offs: Being mistaken for a bird or plane. LexCorp. Super-Villainy. Kneeling before Zod.

Career Highlights: Was the first superhero ever, thus kickstarting an entire genre. Inspired Crash Test Dummies' most beautiful song. Honored by the good people of Turkey in one of their copyright law-ignoring movies. Defeated the Ku Klux Klan. Survived death, a mullet, and being split into two electric-powered Supermen. Narrowly avoided this.

Career Lowlights: Shilled his own brand of peanut butter. Inspired a Superman musical. Routinely appeared in some of the worst video games of all time. Superboy, the TV show. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. Was the subject of an insipid hit song from Soulja Boy. Was outed as being a complete dick.

(Strange Invaders is SciFiSquad's weekly look at the fictional lifeforms that inhabit our galaxy. Check back every Friday for a new entry in this series.)

Screenwriter John August declared the Shazam feature film completely dead in January 2009, unable to come up with a screenplay that seemed to satisfy Warner Bros. "By "dead," I mean that it won't be happening. I don't think it's on the studio's radar at all, " August stated in a blog post.

I'm happy to report that John August was wrong. Shazam is most definitely on Warner Bros radar, and they've tasked DC Comics scribe Geoff Johns and rookie screenwriter Bill Birch with a new version of the script. Birch spoke to CineFOOLS about the project, "The way the story is shaking out, Geoff and I see this not as 'dark' as Dark Knight but definitely as cool...Tonally, I think it's important to successfully find the balance of comedy and danger in the story. That's a major aspect I'm focusing on. Frankly, hitting the right tone is what's going to either get this made or keep it in development hell."

Shazam is the story of Billy Batson, an orphaned boy who can transform into the adult body of the god-like Captain Marvel with the magic word "Shazam". Peter Segal, who has been circling this project since 2006, once compared Shazam to the Tom Hanks comedy Big, but with a high-adventure superhero twist (in an interview with MTV). That's a good pitch, and I hope they don't lose sight of how downright fun the world of Captain Marvel can be.

Birch jokes about Peter Segal bringing Adam Sandler onboard to play Captain Marvel, but I'm not joking when I say John Hamm should be on Warner Bros.' short list to bring this character to life on the big screen. The DC Comics character was the first superhero to ever get a live-action adaptation, starring in his own serial in 1941, and was brought to life again in a popular 1970's Saturday morning television series from Filmation.

In a move that is sure to infuriate fans, Warner Brothers announced that the long-gestating World War II action film Sgt. Rock is finally seeing production, but as a science-fiction film. The tough-as-nails DC Comics character, created by Robert Kanigher and Jor Kubert, is most known for his adventures in the European Theatre during WWII, leading his platoon, Easy Company, into situations with impossible odds. Previous screenwriters have kept the period setting, but the script from Chad St. John, which sees Rock charging into battle in a futuristic war, is the one that Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman are producing.

The studio has tapped director Francis Lawrence for Sgt. Rock, no stranger to DC Comics himself, having already adapted Constantine to the big screen. The Hollywood Reporter speculates that the change to sci-fi is because WWII films have fallen out of fashion, but I'd point to the recent box office success of Inglourious Basterds as proof that a pulpy, two-fisted period war movie is still as viable an approach as any.