Crushable » DC

Shark Week Wrap-Up: 10 Awesome Fictional Sharks to Hold You Over Til Next Year

Lucia Peters — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:12:58 +0000

Ah, Shark Week– that magical time of year devoted entirely to things that will eat you if you get too close. Alas, Shark Week is always over far too soon; but never fear! Here are 10 more sharks of the fictional variety to hold you over until next year’s sharkstravaganza. Just be careful around large bodies of water– you never know what might be lurking there.

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‘The Unwritten’ Comic Book Series Is Meta Proof of How Universal ‘Harry Potter’ Became

Natalie Zutter — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:57:15 +0000

When it comes to comic books based on cultural phenomena, there are tiers. Twilight and Glee get cheap, unauthorized biographies from Bluewater Productions. Harry Potter got the British Fantasy Society Award-nominated The Unwritten. J.K. Rowling‘s series provided the perfect shorthand for author Mike Carey — it’s about a boy wizard? Immediately we know it’ll cover (or at least touch upon) being thrust into a new reality, the perils of fame, and the myth of the chosen one.

Begun in 2009 under DC’s Vertigo imprint (responsible for Y: The Last Man and Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman), The Unwritten finds an unlikely hero in the apathetic Tom Taylor, whose father Wilson wrote an award-winning series about a boy wizard named Tommy Taylor. Though he’s the model for the protagonist, Tom himself is aimless and cynical, and makes most of his money doing appearances at comic conventions — his father had disappeared year earlier at the height of the series’ popularity.

After being kidnapped by Count Ambrosio, the villain of the Tommy Taylor books, and then saved by Tommy’s friend Lizzy Hexam, Tom goes into hiding to unravel this mystery. His fans, hungrily searching for his whereabouts, think that he might be Tommy Taylor come to life, who will act as some sort of messiah.

So like I said, Carey fills in many of the holes that we expected him to but in ways that never copy Rowling’s books. Tom even has daddy issues, just like Harry, who lost James and Lily when he was a baby. Last month, Carey and primary artist Peter Gross posted a Father’s Day story set in the Unwritten universe to DC’s Vertigo blog — it’ll give you a taste of the dynamic between Tom and Wilson.

For the record, Carey says that the primary influence on The Unwritten was actually the story of Christopher Milne, the young boy whose father immortalized him as Christopher Robin in the Winnie the Pooh books. Still, you can’t deny that Harry Potter provided a convenient, easily recognizable skin within which Carey could wrap his story.

I’ve actually never read The Unwritten; I shied away from the full summary on Wikipedia because I want to remain mostly unspoiled for the series. Now that Harry Potter is ending — I’m seeing Deathly Hallows, Part 2 on Sunday — I’m going to need to get my wizarding fix somehow.

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11 Comic Books That Shouldn’t Exist, But Do Anyway

Lucia Peters — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:17:47 +0000

Did you know that Stephenie Meyer has a comic book? Because she does. And it’s not a Twilight comic book; it’s a comic book that actually features Meyer as its main character. Why? I HAVE NO IDEA. As a matter of fact, I have no idea why ANY of these 11 comic books exist, but no matter how hard I try to believe that they don’t, they persist in being real, actual comic books that you can actually purchase and and actually read. Do they wig you guys out as much as they do me? Read on and let us know!

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13 Zombified Individuals Who Will Eat Your Brains

Lucia Peters — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 14:11:06 +0000

And by “zombified,” I mean that these characters weren’t originally zombies; however, due to some extremely creative fans and/or franchise writers and artists, they have become so, resulting in much hilarity. Just how much hilarity, you ask? Read on to find out! Just make sure to stand well back; they do have an unfortunate taste for gray matter.

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Poll: Batman Has a Musical, Too!

Lucia Peters — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:37:57 +0000

In case you didn’t hear, there’s another superhero musical in town: Batman Live. The Caped Crusader is getting his very own stage show, complete with spectacular stunts and a good chunk of the Rogue’s Gallery. At least, I’m pretty sure there are going to be spectacular stunts; the teaser trailer that was just released for it mostly features a whole bunch of characters frozen in place being stared at by an equally frozen audience. But the Rogue’s Gallery is certainly there– it looks like Batman and Robin will be facing off with the Joker, Poison Ivy, the Penguin, Catwoman, and I think Harley Quinn once they all start moving again. Check it out here:

Okay, so I’m not entirely sure whether Batman Live is actually a musical, but it’s kind of hard not to draw the Spider-Man parallel. Actually, the fact that this thing is actually called an “arena show” makes me think it’s probably going to be more like that dinosaur show, Walking With Dinosaurs: Sure, it’s some sort of theatrical entertainment, but it’s more like going to a monster truck rally than going to the theatre. Or maybe more like going to the circus. Either way, it’s going to be a big gigantic spectacle, so there’s probably only so much we can hope for from a storytelling perspective, but hey, that’s okay.

They’re also calling it a world tour; the places it’s planning on going, however, are all in the UK and Ireland, leading me to believe that the entire world is only as big as a couple of soggy little islands. Not that I have anything against those soggy little islands– on the contrary, I’m quite fond of them– but it seems a bit presumptuous to call this a “world tour” when it’s clearly not covering the world. Then again, I suppose “soggy little island tour” doesn’t have quite the same ring as “world tour,” so I can kind of understand why the marketing folk would want to go for the latter. Maybe if it does well enough in the UK, they’ll eventually be able to bring it to the rest of the world, at which point they’ll probably start calling it a “universe tour.”

What do you guys think? Would you go see Batman Live?

[Via Topless Robot]

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Video: Green Lantern and Thor Duke It Out

Lucia Peters — Fri, 06 May 2011 18:45:05 +0000

Hey, guys, guess what? It’s almost summer. And you know what that means: Superhero movies! Naturally, Marvel and DC are competing for the same audience, and this time round, Marvel attempted to get a head start by releasing Thor in May. It ns therefore somewhat unfortunate that Thor has thus far been getting panned; but Green Lantern, set for June, may not come out much better. But that aside, what’s the best way to decide which is the better comic? A fight to the death, of course! With action figures!

[Via The Mary Sue]

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Comics News: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Batwoman

Lucia Peters — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:53:00 +0000

Poor Batwoman. DC has been stringing her along for ages: giving her a green light and publishing the first issue this past November, then letting her languish in developmental hell, then giving her hope again for February and then April releases, then pulling her from shelves without so much as a by-your-leave. But, no more! There is hope! At the DC Icons panel at WonderCon last weekend, artist Amy Reeder stated that the official release date for Batwoman is now September. True, we’ve got a while to wait until then; but hey, at least we HAVE a date now, and allegedly DC is planning on doing a major promotional push for it when it happens. The Mary Sue does note, however, that this is sort of a weird thing to say about a series that has already been in production for a year, complete with marketing campaign, so we may have to hope that this doesn’t end up like the comic book equivalent of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.

In any case, though, Batwoman may be lesser-known to many than her male counterpart, so here’s the lowdown:

1) She’s been around for a while.
Batwoman’s first appearance was in 1956, and she was originally created as a love interest for Batman. More interesting, though, is WHY Batman needed a love interest: In the wake of the 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, DC needed to combat allegations that Batman and Robin were homosexual partners. Declining sales eventually led to her retirement, though, and she vanished from the scene by 1979.

2) Batwoman swings both ways.
So yes, we’ve established that her first incarnation, Kathy Kane, was intended to be Batman’s girlfriend; then the 1985 story Crisis on Infinite Earth retroactively erased her from history, so that was the end of that. Her second incarnation, however– Kate Kane, introduced in 2006– is a lesbian. Guess DC got over their fear of gay characters. (Editor’s note: Well, gay female characters.)

3) Her MO is pretty similar to Batman’s.
As with many characters in the Batman universe, Batwoman doesn’t have any unearthly powers, per se; she does, however, have some mean martial arts abilities and a lot of fun toys. Both Kathy and Kate Kane are also heirs to wealthy families, so they’ve also got the most important of Batman’s superpowers: money. Hey, being a superhero is an expensive business!

4) She’s an army baby.
Kate also has another source for her gadgets: the military. Her father is a colonel in the U.S. Army, so much of her equipment is adapted from military equipment. It pays to have connections.

5) She was once part of an all-female team of heroes similar to the Justice League.
Wonder Woman was the mastermind behind this one, asking Batwoman and several other female heroes to band together in order to repel a faux-alien attack on Washington DC (it turned out that mad scientist Professor Ivo was responsible). Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “girl power.”

[Image via The Mary Sue]

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Angelina Jolie runs barefoot and bloody through the streets of D.C.

Sherry — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:07:01 +0000

There are plenty of high action sequences in Salt as there are now more photos of Angelina Jolie on the run as Evelyn A. Salt. This time she’s wearing a suit, has lost her shoes, and has a bleeding knee. I assume that it’s fake blood for the role, although you never know, maybe she really did fall and they decided to use it in the movie – it has happened before!

I really think this is going to be a super exciting movie, very much in the same vein as the Bourne movies – lots of action, lots of danger, and lots of sitting on the edge of your seat while holding your breath!

Keep reading below the cut for more photos of Angelina Jolie running barefoot through the streets of D.C.!

Also, I know in the comments a couple of posts back, several of you were talking about Angelina’s stunt double. As far as I’ve read, Angelina does still do the majority of her stunts but she has a double for some of the ones she can’t/isn’t allowed to do and she’s also there to do a run-through to help Angie be clear about what she’s doing in the scenes.

I think it rocks that she does so many of her own stunts, I was blown away years ago when I watched a behind-the-scenes special for Tomb Raider and saw how much she did herself. I really don’t think I could do that many stunts if it was me, some of them are wild!

Top two images used with permission: Splash News Online

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Brad Pitt takes Zahara and Shiloh shopping

Sherry — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:18:49 +0000

Thanks everyone, for your patience while I was gone and for keeping each other updated in the comments whenever there was anything new to see. This is why PittWatch readers are the best.

Even though everyone has probably seen them already, I’m going to post some of the pictures of Brad Pitt shopping with Zahara and Shiloh in Washington, DC. After all, you can never get too much when it comes to seeing Brad hanging out being a cool dad.

The trio went toy shopping to pass some time while Angelina Jolie was busy filming Salt. Divide and conquer, sometimes that’s the best way to keep everyone happy and entertained.

The pictures of Shiloh and Zahara in those sunglasses are killing me, they’re so cute!

Top photo used with permission: Newscom

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Brad Pitt visits Capitol Hill

Sherry — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 22:03:56 +0000

While Angelina Jolie was busy running around Washington, D.C., our man Brad Pitt put on his good suit and headed to Capitol Hill.

Brad was attending a meeting with Nancy Pelosi to discuss the ongoing situation regarding lost housing in New Orleans and the current status of his Make It Right project.

My goodness, Brad looks delicious.

More photos of Brad Pitt visiting Capitol Hill, as well as a video clip, below the cut.

Video clip of Brad Pitt and Nancy Pelosi, where she describes him as a real hero to the people of New Orleans:

Top three images used with permission: Newscom

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