The Week In Geek: Stephen King’s The Stand, World War Z, & Lots of DC Reboot Rumors
Welcome to the 52nd Edition of The Week In Geek. Yup, that means I’ve been writing this column for a full year now. No need to send presents or cash donations, although if you are a really hot guy I’m all for accepting donations of a different nature. Just puttin’ it out there. Allrighty then, on to the news and gossip!
While the last attempt at an ambitious Stephen King adaptation, The Dark Tower, recently hit a brick wall, it looks like another one of his classic novels is getting the big screen treatment instead. David Yates, fresh off directing the last four Harry Potter movies, is re-teaming with his Potter scripter Steve Kloves to tackle King’s classic end of the world opus The Stand as a possible two part film for Warner Brothers.
The Stand is one of King’s most beloved novels, and Warner Brothers needs another big film series (or at least something they can milk into a series) now that Potter is all wrapped up. The real question is, how many movies can you milk from this one novel? Even as long as that book is, Wouldn’t it be two movies, tops? Not that two movies is something to sneeze at. There was a very successful television mini series back in 1994, but even at four hours, fans complained at all the changes and omissions, so maybe a trilogy is actually a possibility here. In any event, with Warner Brothers on much more solid financial footing than Universal lately, look for this movie to happen sooner than The Dark Tower will at this point.
World War Z To Hit Theaters Just In Time For The Real Apocalypse
Since we’re talking about the end of the world anyway, let’s now move on to World War Z. In a move of marketing serendipity, Paramount has set their Zombie Apocalypse flick to open on December 21st, 2012. This, of course, is the day the Mayans predicted the end of the world. You really can’t pay for that kind of free marketing, now can you? Paramount also released their official synopsis for the movie, which seems to differ from the novel, which is told after the zombie apocalypse has occurred, as a series of multiple first person accounts, not as the zombie-pocalypse begins. But with Brad Pitt as your star, I guess you want to spend as much time with a lead that pricey as humanly possible, so instead the movie will focus on Pitt’s character. Here is the official description:
“The story revolves around United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Pitt) who traverses the world in a race against time to stop the Zombie pandemic that is toppling armies and governments and threatening to decimate humanity itself.”
DC New Universe Rumor Round-Up
Quite a lot of rumors have been swirling around in various channels about just what DC comics has cooked up as their second big batch of releases in the new post-Flashpoint universe. First off…there isn’t going to be another big group of releases until a few of these new 52 titles debuting in September inevitably fail *cough*Omac*cough* Some of these books may not see the light of day till a full year from now. Because so much of this new 52 initiative is meant to attract new readers, they want to keep their new universe as simple as possible, at least at first. Since some of these second wave of books will include alternate versions of Superman, Flash, Batman and others, DC has decided to wait a bit to avoid confusion.
A disclaimer: a lot of these rumors may turn out to be bullshit, but I found them interesting enough to run anyway, even if they have maybe a 50/50 chance of being accurate. Here is a list of POSSIBLE titles we might see in 2012 from the new DCU; take this moment to take your heavy grain of salt right now.
Young Justice/JLAcademy
It looks like in addition to Teen Titans, at some point next year DC might be releasing another teen related book. Right now, they are weighing the name options for the book…it is either going to be called Justice League Academy or Young Justice. The lineup is said to be the newly introduced Aqualad, Miss Martian, former Batgirls Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain, and Blue Beetle. Considering that the Young Justice animated series has been a big hit for Cartoon Network, I imagine corporate synergy would dictate that the new comic book would be called Young Justice and not Justice League Academy, especially with Marvel already having an Avengers Academy comic.
The real kicker to this rumor is that the team’s instructors are said to be Cyborg, Nightwing…as well as Flash Wally West and Donna Troy. Seemingly this was not the original plan, but the outcry over Wally and Donna being MIA at Comic Con as well as online has caused DC to change their minds. The inclusion of Wally is going to delay the book somewhat, as DC wants there to only be one Flash at the offset of this new universe.
Grant Morrison’s Multiversity Will Spin Off Books Set On Various Earths
Next summer, Grant Morrison plans to fully explore the new DC Multiverse, introduced at the end of 52, in his mini series Multiversity. We’ve got glimpses here and there of the various new Earths since 52 ended, but DC publisher Dan DiDio has been largely leaving the various DC Earths alone for Morrison to play with. And after he does in Multiversity, expect a wave of new ongoing titles from DC set in the various alternate Earths, and many of these worlds will feature characters and concepts notably missing from the initial launch of 52 titles coming in September. Here is a sample of what I’m hearing we can expect in 2012:
Earth 4, The “Watchmen” World
Back in the 60’s, publisher Charlton Comics published their own small line of super hero comics, featuring characters like Captain Atom, The Question, and Blue Beetle. Eventually the company folded, and The original Charlton Comics heroes were purchased by DC in the mid 80’s. Originally they were meant to be the characters in Alan Moore’s Watchmen, until DC decided to use the characters in their regular universe instead (The Watchmen characters would then end up as thinly veiled versions of the Charlton heroes) Now those characters are set to appear in their own Earth, (Earth-4) inspired by the Watchmen who they inspired in the first place. Yeah, I know it is confusing. Apparently J. Michael Straczynski wants to do a series with these characters in more Watchmenesque versions of themselves, and set on their own Earth. Maybe Captain Atom will be naked and blue this time? Let’s hope.
Justice Society of America / Justice Society Infinity
A big fuss has been made by fans about how The Justice Society seemingly does not exist in the rebooted new DC Earth, however they still do on Earth-2. Not only will the Justice Society have a World War II centric book called Justice Society of America, but it will feature Golden Age versions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman fighting Nazis back in the day. For those of you who miss Power Girl and characters like Stargirl and other modern era JSAers, they will feature in a modern day title Justice Society Infinity. The concept of JSI was introduced a few years ago in a Justice Society Annual, but it seems that the events of Flashpoint will merge the current Earth’s JSA with their Earth-2 counterparts.
Shazam! Becomes Thunderworld
Grant Morrison apparently really got into Captain Marvel (as well as Wonder Woman) while writing his book Super Gods, and is set to do a Captain Marvel series called Thunderworld. Apparently the Marvel Family will no longer exist on the main DCU Earth, but will reign supreme on their own Earth (Earth-5) like they did back in the pre-Crisis days. The rumored artist for this is Cameron Stewart, who did a run on Batman and Robin with Grant.
Also on their own Earth will be the New Gods. There were rumors of a Grant Morrison/Alex Ross New Gods collaboration, but that has since been debunked. But that doesn’t mean something isn’t cooking for those characters at some point.
Cyclops and Storm, Sittin’ In A Tree…
It ain’t all about DC this week. In my post Comic Con report in the column, I talked about how after the current X-Men event Schism, that Marvel would be splitting the X-Men into two groups-one featured in a rebooted Uncanny X-Men and another in a new series Wolverine and the X-Men. The Uncanny team would be lead by Emma Frost, which lead many to believe she would be carrying on in her boyfriend Cyclops’ name (which again, inferred he would die in Schism) But that is apparently not so…as Marvel just released this teaser for Astonishing X-Men in November, with an 80’s mowhawked Storm making out with Cyclops. Scandal!
I gotta say, I am all for this. Storm has been married to The Black Panther now for five years, and as we all know, marriage pretty much makes super heroes boring as Hell, with few exceptions. I always found it mildly insulting that Storm and Black Panther got married, it seems like a mildly racist move; “oh, they’re both African super heroes, so they must be perfect for each other.” And yes, I am aware that this move was pushed by African American writers. That doesn’t make it not suck. It also kind of reduces Storm to “Mrs. Black Panther” despite the fact that she is frankly way more famous than he is.I was hoping the Black Panther that Storm married was really a Skrull in disguise back when the Secret Invasion series was running, but sadly, he wasn’t.
I know for a fact that their marriage was meant to bring in African American readers, and they got a lot of press for five minutes from places like BET and Ebony magazine. But I don’t think African American readers are more attracted to married super heroes any more than white readers are, which is to say, not at all.
But if Ororo leaves T’challa for a white man? Oh, you just know there is gonna be some press about that, way more than her wedding ever got. And Marvel never shies away from some free press. Of course, the actual in-story possibilities are great; after all, Emma Frost loathes Storm, and calls her a “tiresome cow” or something akin to that any chance she gets. Not to mention, Storm was Jean Grey’s best friend. What a perfect time for Jean Grey to come back! (she’s been dead like seven years now. This is like some kinda record for her) Do it Marvel, bring on the dramez!
And speaking of Marvel….
Marvel and Disney set Summer 2014 Dates
It seems odd writing about movies that are not coming out for three whole years, but the studios need to think that far ahead these days. In a press release this week, the Walt Disney Company staked claims on three dates in the summer blockbuster season…all the way in 2014. Two of them are for Marvel Studios productions, the other is for a Pixar movie. They are not releasing the names of the movies (they might not even be sure yet what movies they’ll be) just the dates: May 16th, June 27th, and the Pixar movie for the end of May.
But I’m gonna take a guess anyway. I’m betting the May Marvel release is Dr. Strange, as reported last week. The June release date is technically the 4th of July Weekend release, and that just makes sense for it to be Captain America 2. (Both Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 are set for summer 2013) As for the Pixar movie, remember last week I mentioned The Incredibles 2? I’d say that is a safe bet. If there was ever a movie that needed sequlizing from the Pixar library, I’d say The Incredibles nailed it.
