ShareThisBy ANDREW A. SMITH
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Welcome to another edition of Comics Headline Ticker, which chronicles the continuing conquest of current culture by comics characters.
_ ITEM! Marvel's Heroes Licked?
The U.S. Postal Service has released information on its 2007 commemorative stamp program, and it includes a pane of 20 based on Marvel Comics characters.
The sheet depicts individual shots of Captain America, Elektra, Hulk, Iron Man, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Sub-Mariner, Thing (of the Fantastic Four) and Wolverine, plus 10 famous covers related to those characters. Information about the art is included on the back of the stamp pane, which goes on sale in July.
There will also be commemorative stamps on other topics _ like Jimmy Stewart, lighthouses and vintage mahogany speedboats _ but that's for other columnists to discuss. We groove on Spandex here in the Comics Cave.
_ ITEM! Super-Cinema!
"Spider-Man 3" is heating up for its May '07 debut, as evidenced by the recently released third trailer (www.sonypictures.com/movies/spiderman3/site), clearly depicting super-villains Venom, The Sandman (who is now Uncle Ben's killer, apparently) and what producer Grant Curtis calls "The New Goblin" (Harry Osborn, using his dad's toys).
And speaking of Curtis, he's doing a production weblog on the official website (see URL above), and MTV.com is doing "web-isodes" (cough, cough) depicting behind-the-scenes action.
In other Super-movie news:
_ The two-disk 20th anniversary edition of "Transformers: The Movie" was released Nov. 7, and the high quality, Easter eggs and tons of extras have fans of the old show absolutely raving. I'm not one of those fans _ I was too old when the Autobots hit TV _ but even I'm curious about the live-action movie, due for release in July '07.
_ As all Super-fans know, the first director of 1983's "Superman II" was fired before the movie's completion, and it was finished by Richard Lester. Now after years of speculation about the road not taken (and the occasional bootleg), "Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut" will go on sale Nov. 28 for $24.98. It will also be found in the 14-disc "Superman: The Ultimate Collector's Set" ($99.99) that includes the deluxe versions of all four Christopher Reeve movies and "Superman Returns," and will be released the same day.
_ "Invincible Iron Man" ($19.98), the third straight-to-DVD animated movie from Marvel Films and Lions Gate, arrives Jan. 23, 2007. It may disappoint die-hard comics fans with a new, Mandarin-centric origin for the Golden Avenger, but then, we really can't keep tying Tony Stark to the Vietnam War any more, can we?
_ "Iron Man" follows "Ultimate Avengers" and "Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise of the Black Panther," which also featured Shellhead, and sold 1.5 million units together. If that's not your cup of titanium, there's always the live-action "Iron Man," due in 2008 and starring Robert Downey Jr.
_ ITEM! Is Jon Stewart Right?
On Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," Stewart once said of the Internet, "The verdict's in: We like the porn." He may be on to something, given that "Lost Girls," the unapologetically pornographic graphic novel by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie (Top Shelf Productions, $75, three hardback volumes, 112 pages each), has cleared hurdles for sale in two countries.
The Canada Border Services Agency (customs) has formally cleared "Lost Girls" for importation into Canada, saying the "depictions and descriptions are integral to the development of an intricate, imaginative and artfully rendered storyline," and "the portrayal of sex is necessary to a wider artistic and literary purpose. ... "
And in England, where the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children owns the copyright through 2007 of J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" (whose mythology is used in "Lost Girls"), the hospital and Top Shelf reached an agreement whereby "Lost Girls" can be released in the UK beginning in January, 2008.
_ ITEM! TV: A League Of Their Own
On The CW's "Smallville," we've witnessed the arrival of a variety of DC super-heroes other than the Superman-to-be, including a super-speedster (The Flash in everything but name), a marine marvel (let's call him Aquaman), a teen-aged athlete whose body is half robot (Cyborg, a Teen Titan in comics and cartoons) and a Robin Hood-like crime fighter who actually calls himself Green Arrow. On the Nov. 16 episode ("Static"), we're treated to a cameo of one of the Captain's favorites, a certain alien detective addicted to Oreos (Martian Manhunter).
With all these familiar heroes running around, isn't the famous Justice League a possibility? It certainly is, and we'll see just how possible in the episode "Justice," airing in early 2007.
Not all the aforementioned characters will be part of this version of the League, though. And don't look for Batman or Wonder Woman, either _ those rights are tied up elsewhere.
(Contact Andrew Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics(at)aol.com or visit www.captaincomics.us)
