We tried on for size almost every new book that was released from comic book publishers like Dynamite Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, Archaia/BOOM!, and Image.  We tried to sample the best of all that Marvel and DC Comics had to offer, too, and although we didn’t have enough time to review everything we did try to put out there for your consideration those titles we thought our readers might like to check out, especially those with a sci-fi, fantasy, or retro bent.  Our pull list included issues from Afterlife with Archie to Django Unchained, from Liberator to Larfleeze, and from Velvet to The X-Files.  This past month we have reviewed the year-long run of the best of these titles, as we narrowed our selections to 21 of the very best entries in genre entertainment outside of TV and movies, which we revealed here yesterday.  So here are the rest of our picks for the Best of 2013.

Best Borg Appearance – Kane Starkiller, The Star Wars.  Borgs showed up everywhere this year, from the lead characters on Almost Human, to Doctor Who, to countless comic book series including Justice League and RoboCop.  Our favorite appearance came from the young mind of George Lucas as he created the original script that would later be edited into the original Star Wars trilogy.  And through Dark Horse Comics’ The Star Wars monthly comic book event we learned one of his best ideas was merged into other roles and one of his best characters entirely cut.   That character was Jedi Kane Starkiller, who would reveal his cyborg chest implants that kept him alive, later to heroically give up this life-saving technology to save his friends.

Best Comic Book Series – Miss Fury, Dynamite Comics.  A uniquely crafted tale, a compelling and seductive superhero, great action panel after panel, sourced in a long-shelved classic character of the Golden Age of comics.  Rob Williams and Jack Herbert’s Miss Fury is a carefully rendered update that rings true to the edgy spirit of the world’s first female superhero.  Beautiful panels set up an ever-changing time and place and pull readers along for the ride.  And stuck-out-of-time Marla Drake and her alter ego Miss Fury could not have looked better, whether carving out her place in the 1940s or as she was teleported into the future.  It’s a series no one should miss.

Best Comic Book Writing – Matt Fraction, Hawkeye.  Last year revealed one of the best comic book series we ever read, focusing on that “other” superhero archer, the second tier Marvel Comics superhero Hawkeye.  Matt Fraction gave us the most interesting set-up and look into the daily life of a superhero who isn’t Captain America or Iron Man.  This year he kept up the momentum in his Hawkeye monthly series, providing stories that challenged readers, each issue taking a different peek into Clint Barton, another costumed superhero called Hawkeye, and their trusty dog.

Best Comic Book Art – Mike Mayhew, Rain Beredo – The Star Wars.  We still don’t know how an artist can create so much world building in a single year.  And how do you re-imagine something as iconic as the original Star Wars design and give us something  to rave about?  Mayhew’s pencils in the limited series The Star Wars are pretty much second to none (and Beredo’s color choice is superb as well) and we can’t wait to see how they wind up their adaptation of George Lucas’s original script for the beloved Star Wars universe.

Breakout Comic Book Writer of the Year — Aaron Gillespie, Bionic Man.  Gillespie quietly rebuilt the Bionic Man franchise this year as he took over the reboot of Steve Austin, The Six Million Dollar Man, launched by Kevin Smith and Phil Hester.  In doing so he offered up an interesting update to the 1970s original borg hero, and brought along plenty of humor and retro fun.  We think Gillespie is the writer to watch in the coming years.

Breakout Artist of the Year - Greg Smallwood, Dream Thief.  It blew us away that a new comic book artist could bring along so much original style in his first major published comic book series.  Smallwood’s layouts on the Dark Horse Comics limited series Dream Thief and his cool and gritty anti-hero left us eagerly awaiting what he has up his sleeves next.

Best Single Comic Book Issue — Hawkeye, Issue #11, Marvel Comics. Although Afterlife with Archie, Issue #1 also blew us away with its creepy twist on the classic characters, the best single issue of any comic book series we reviewed was Hawkeye, Issue #11 written by Matt Fraction with art by David Aja.  Check out our review here of this great issue told entirely from the perspective of Clint Barton’s sleuthing dog Lucky.  Pure awesomeness.

Best Comic Book Marketing Event — Lenticular Villain One-shot Month, DC Comics.  We can’t get enough of all things retro and what is better than lenticular images?  How about taking 52 monthly titles and devoting them to a litany of villainy and giving each a 3D lenticular cover?  A genius of an idea, DC Comics’ villains vandalized the regular monthly series for one month this year and the result was loads of fun.  And we can’t stop listening to the return of that high-pitched sound from our youths as those books scrape against each other.

Best Comic Book Cover Artist — Alex Ross.  Last year we were able to pull out the best covers for 2012.  This year we found ourselves arguing over the best Alex Ross cover of the year.  As just a sample, Ross created noteworthy cover art for Star Wars #1-4, Battlestar Galactica #1-3, Grimm #1, Dream Thief #1, Miss Fury #1, Django Unchained #6, Fantastic Four #1, Masks #1-8, The Owl #3, The Shadow #4 and 13, The Shadow: Year One #1-6, and Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist #10.  Plus Astro City, Doc Savage, Pacific Rim, Peter Cannon, and Lords of Mars covers!  The man must never sleep!  He produced so much, each of which could be a year’s best, that we’ll have to run down his best of 2013 on a later day.

Best Comics Collected Edition: Mouse Guard: The Black Axe, Archaia.  Putting aside Archaia’s unique book format for the world of Mouse Guard, David Petersen’s unique one-two-punch of storytelling and artistry in his world of mighty mice continues to entertain readers with the gripping and personal trials of these heroes on their latest epic quest.  Petersen may have offered up his best work yet this year in Mouse Guard: The Black Axe, a harrowing and bittersweet account of the last of a breed.

Best Use of Comic Book Medium — Liberator, Black Mask Studios.  Matt Miner’s Liberator mini-series took a hard-nosed look at animal rights this year through its vigilante heroes, expanding the knowledge of readers lucky enough to get their hands on the series.

Best Comeback – Mike Grell, Howard Chaykin.  It’s not like these guys really went anywhere but we just wanted to say how fun it is after all these years to walk into a comic book shop and to be able to buy new books drawn by Grell and Chaykin.  With Grell on the Arrow series and Chaykin with projects like Satellite Sam, fans of classic styles can get their fix and new readers can get introduced to work from the old pros.

Best Non-Fiction Genre Work — The Hobbit Chronicles, Weta Workshop.  Reviewed here at borg.com earlier this year here, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Chronicles: Art and Design provides an unprecedented look at last year’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, through lavish photos of art design, sets, costumes, and props, by the folks at Weta.  With coffee table books released and re-released in 2013 including Star Wars Frames, Firefly: A Celebration, Princess Bride: A Celebration, and Bazooka Joe, it was a great year for books about movies, TV, and other genre properties.

Best Reviewed Book - Johnny Alucard, Kim Newman.  Although Stephen King’s new book Joyland was also a great read, Kim Newman’s new Anno Dracula series novel Johnny Alucard, in his parallel universe of vampires living amongst us, was deep in world building and complex relationships with fictional and non-fictional characters throughout, as Newman’s anti-hero Johnny rises to power.

Best Retro Reviewed Book – Nothing Lasts Forever, Roderick Thorp.  Just like we enjoyed Martin Caidin’s original novel Cyborg that inspired The Six Million Dollar Man TV series, Thorp’s original work, Nothing Lasts Forever, which was turned into the movie Die Hard, was a great window the hard-working cop who saves the day.  Fans of the Die Hard series left wanting after the new movie this year need only check out this book for some great fun.

Best Auction and Catalog of the Year — The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Auction, Julien’s.  This December the first and maybe last auction of screen-used props and costumes from a private collection hit the auction block.  The Trilogy/Middle Earth catalog itself was a feast for the eyes of fantasy fans–a sourcebook in its own right for close-up photos of these rare pieces.  The auction results included the sale of one of Gimli’s axes for $180,000.

Best Album – Smash Mouth, Magic.  Plenty of good music hit the airways this year, including Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, the Skyfall soundtrack, and the extended Night Visions album from Imagine Dragons.  But our favorite was the long-awaited release of the next Smash Mouth album, Magic.  Including remixes of several of the songs, it added another great party album to the band’s catalog of great tunes.  Check out our review here.

Best Song/Best Video – Space Oddity, Cmdr. Chris Hadfield.  Sure, there were great songs on the airwaves this year, including Adele’s Skyfall, and Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, but was anything cooler than astronaut Chris Hadfield recording and filming his own cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity in outer space?  We don’t think so.  Twenty million viewers on YouTube would agree.

Best New Tech –  3D Printing.  It was the year everything could get printed, from human organs to bones to edible pizzas.  It’s the next big thing.  3D printing took off and tricorders are on their way in 2014.  The future is now.

Best Toy Line — Honey Trap Army, Gentle Giant.  At several hundred dollars per figure, these toys were not for everyone, but if they’d only produce a mass market version we think everyone would get a set.  A direct-to-toy series that was not based on any existing property, the sculpts for Gentle Giant’s incredible femme fatale fighting team, the Honey Trap Army, were simply beautiful.  Check them out here to see what we mean.

Best Action Figure — 12-inch Retro Rocket Firing Boba Fett.  Gentle Giant’s line of 12-inch action figures based on the Kenner line of 3.75 inch figures from the 1970s and 1980s was nothing short of brilliant.  No toy series was more nostalgic to fans who grew up with the original trilogy, so when they issued a rocket-firing Boba Fett based on the unreleased prototypes, the result was toy gold.  Check it out here.

So that’s our list.  Don’t forget to check out the first part of our Best of the Best list for 2013 here.

And have a happy new year!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

The CW Network released this first look at the new Flash costume and announced that filming of the pilot episode will begin this week.  This time around, the supersuit developed by Academy Award-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood seems to have kept with the modern design continuity of her costume for Stephen Amell’s Arrow while possibly pulling in some inspiration from Chris Evans’ Captain America costume from Captain America: The First Avenger, with that 1940s leather football helmet look, complete with chin guard.

Captain America–inspiration for the new Flash supersuit helmet?

The primary red-colored suit from the decades of comic book artist renderings has been cast aside for an edgier, dark look, also perhaps taking the lead from the darker mood of the Arrow series’ new DC universe that the new Barry Allen/Flash springs from.  The color also resembles the classic Flash series that this new series will be undoubtedly compared to, possibly the best incarnation of a costumed hero to appear on TV or film, worn in 1990-1991 by actor John Wesley Shipp, shown here:

The original Flash–a supersuit that can’t be beat.

And speaking of Shipp, consistent with the tried and true gimmick of many a remake, CW Network has signed the original Flash actor to appear in the new series pilot as a mysterious, possibly recurring character.  It would make sense to cast Shipp opposite the young Grant Gustin’s Flash as a villain, something like John Barrowman’s archer in Arrow, or maybe they’ll take the route of making Shipp some kind of mentor, or even Barry Allen’s father.  The hope will be for Shipp’s endorsement to bring some credibility to the new series.

The new series won’t actually move forward unless the pilot is successful and the series gets a green light.  Many roles have been cast, including Tom Cavanaugh (Royal Pains) as Harrison Wells, S.T.A.R. Labs wealthy backer and physicist, Law and Order’s Jesse L. Martin as Detective West, Heroes’ Candice Patton as West’s daughter and likely Barry’s love interest Iris West, Grimm and Sky High’s Danielle Panabaker as bioengineer Caitlin Snow (the alter ego of Killer Frost in the New 52), Rick Cosnett (The Vampire Diaries) as Detective Eddie Thawne, and Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon, a S.T.A.R. Labs engineer (and the alter ego of Vibe in the comic books).

Killer Frost

Vibe

Also, genre regulars Michelle Harrison (Continuum, Eureka, Fringe, Supernatural, Paycheck, House, M.D.), and Al Sapienza (House of Cards, The Firm, Supernatural, White Collar, Burn Notice) will play Nora Allen and Detective Fred Chyre, respectively, and Cult’s Chad Rook will play Clyde Mardon.  We know Nora Allen to be Barry’s mother from the comic books, and in Arrow, Barry revealed she was killed, so we’ll likely see her only in flashbacks.

The Arrow creative and production team will be designing the series, with comic book Geoff Johns co-writing.

Will the inclusion of characters like Killer Frost and Vibe mean the CW Network and DC Entertainment will finally start showing superheroes with superpowers in a TV series?  We’ll find out later this year.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

With so many on-going monthly series in the DC Comics New 52 universe, it’s sometimes difficult to find an entry point into the DC Comics titles because of continuing story arcs.  If you’ve dumped one or more titles and want to get back in, where do you start?

One entry point for you may be Detective Comics, Issue #30, the beginning of a new story arc titled “Icarus.”  In this first chapter we don’t learn what Icarus is, but we do meet up with an interesting Batman, moving on past the death of son Damian.  We also meet Elena Aguila and her daughter Annie, a motorbike daredevil who looks like she’s cut out to be the next Robin.  Similar to one of the main story threads in the Arrow TV series, Elena and Bruce Wayne are forging an alliance to restore the welfare of the citizens in the community of Gotham’s East End Waterfront District.

Replacing Wayne’s plans to commercially develop that area of town, and the likely deals with businessmen in Gotham City that he is going to need to cancel to do it, will no doubt create some enemies for Wayne in the process.

The creative team from The Flash are working together again on the new Detective Comics story.  Francis Manapul serves as both co-writer and penciller, inker, and watercolorist, while Brian Buccellato is co-writer and colorist for the series.  The result from this unique concept is a solid Batman story.  From Manapul’s excellent cover to the interior art and good beginning narrative, the “Icarus” story is set up to be a good read.  I am also a fan of Manapul’s Batman renderings—a very classic look that has some elements of style from both Jim Lee and Mauro Cascioli.

Detective Comics, Issue #30, is available at comic book stores now.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

The 75th anniversary of the creation of Batman is approaching.  Continuing the theme of superhero television series revolving around crusaders defending their city, DC Comics and Fox released the first trailer for their new series Gotham.  Shifting from Arrow’s Starling City to the more famous Gotham City, DC Comics also is continuing its focus on a cast of supervillains, this time as a prequel starring Ben McKenzie (Southland, The OC), who previously was the voice of Batman and Bruce Wayne in the animated adaptation of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One.

But if the new series is able to latch onto some of the success seen by CW Network’s Arrow, it may be because of supporting cast, like the always great Donal Logue (Vikings, Life, The X-Files, Ghost Rider, Sneakers).  Gotham is also taking a cue from AMC’s Bates Motel, revealing the creepy pasts of Catwoman (Camren Bicondova), Poison Ivy (Clare Foley), the Riddler (Cory Michael Smith), and the Penguin (Robin Taylor) in their early days in Gotham City.  On the downside, DC Comics is now taking a cue from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. by leaving the key superhero–Batman– out of the story, other than the Bruce Wayne origin story from Miller’s Batman: Year One.

Check out this first preview for Gotham:

At a panel at this year’s WonderCon in Anaheim, in a Q&A an attendee asked a representative of DC Comics why original Batman writer Bill Finger–who wrote the origin story and created characters like Commissioner Gordon–never has been given credit alongside the often-seen “Batman created by Bob Kane” legend.  No one had an answer, although the DC representative stated that all was good with Finger’s family and DC Comics.  Move along, all is well here, etc.

Turns out Finger’s descendants aren’t happy and this morning Finger’s granddaughter announced her plan to set the record straight, just in time for the Caped Crusader’s 75th–definitely a long time coming, especially since Finger wrote a quarter century of Batman stories for DC Comics.

Will Gotham finally credit Finger along with Kane?  We’ll find out later this year.  Gotham begins this Fall on Fox.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

If you watched last night’s season finale of Arrow on the CW Network, you already know how well superhero stories can be translated to television.  Arrow will likely go down as the best adaptation of a comic book property to hit the small screen.  Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to find the same spark but unfortunately couldn’t make it happen.  After all, superhero series need superheroes at least once in a while.

The ABC Network released 12 previews for new Fall shows this week, including many that seem likely not to make it very far, including Selfie, starring Karen Gillan and John Cho.  With these two mega-genre stars, someone should make a series that is more than a fluffy comedy.  Cho has already shown through a variety of TV appearances, such as in Sleepy Hollow last year, that he has plenty of range beyond his movie roles.  Gillan needs to move beyond the role of model, and we think Guardians of the Galaxy will give fans more of what they are after.

Here’s the Selfie preview, but you’ve been warned: ABC did not yet release a preview yet for the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. spinoff Agent Carter featuring Hayley Atwell’s character from Captain America: The First Avenger as she builds S.H.I.E.L.D. in the aftermath of World War II.

But the NBC Network did release this preview of another DC Comics series, Constantine, to replace the unfortunately cancelled Dracula (which featured Arrow’s Huntress actress Jessica De Gouw and Jonathan Rhys Meyers) for the Friday night line-up with Grimm:

We hope Constantine can bring in some of the New 52 elements and characters, particularly from Justice League Dark, maybe Zatanna, Madame Xanadu, Shade the Changing Man, and Deadman. Last night during the action-packed Arrow second season finale the CW Network presented this quick teaser for The Flash:

What the preview really shows more than anything is how cool Stephen Amell is as bowhunter Oliver Queen.  Although The Flash features the young Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, this Flash seems one hundred percent Wally West (or maybe Kid Flash?).  There’s just something not quite right about that new Flash supersuit.  Colleen Atwood, who created the Arrow supersuit, designed this new high-speed tracksuit.  Maybe it’s the lack of a form-fitting design that is the problem.  Or that leather or pleather appearance when The Flash is moving about.  It’s also a bit of a letdown on the heels of the release of Ben Affleck’s new Batman supersuit, which we discussed here at borg.com yesterday.

Two more series that were previewed also look interesting.  ABC’s series Forever stars Ioan Gruffudd from Horatio Hornblower and Fantastic Four fame, Alana de la Garza from the superb last seasons of the original Law and Order, and Taxi’s Judd Hirsch.  It’s actually a genre series with some nice stuck-in-time quandaries.  Check it out: And finally, those who are missing the Psych TV series already will be happy to see Timothy Omundson back so quickly in a similarly quirky role in ABC’s Galavant.  It’s a medieval musical series, seeming to be like Heath Ledger’s A Knight’s Tale.  Check out this preview:

Selfie, The Flash, Constantine, Forever, and Galavant will be airing this Fall.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

We’ve delved into some great cover artists at borg.com in the past three years, from Alex Ross to Mauro Cascioli to Frank Cho and Mike Mayhew.  With his cover run on the DC Comics New 52 series Futures End, Ryan Sook is the artist you just can’t miss these days.  His cover for Issue #14 (above right) of Futures End is being solicited for August 2014 already, and it showcases several styles.  If you take a look back over the past few years you can see one of the best artists around developing his style and craft, putting his mark on the covers of some great comic book series.

You can see Sook as the cover artist of choice to start up several new series with the number one issue out of the gates, for series including Robotika (2005), Giant-Size Hulk (2006), Friday the 13th (2007), Batman and the Outsiders (2007), Death of the New Gods (2007), Countdown Specials, Countdown Presents and DC Universe Specials (2008 and 2011), Broken Trinity: Aftermath (2009), Blackest Night: Wonder Woman (2010), JSA All Stars (2010), The Magdalena (2010), B.P.R.D. Hell On Earth series (2011-2013), Victorian Undead II (2011), DC Universe Online: Legends (2011), Kirby: Genesis (2011), Justice League Dark (2011), Lord of the Jungle (2011), Rose & Thorn (2012), Sword of Sorcery (2012), and The New 52 Futures End (2014).

Sook is able to render men and women superheroes equally well, yet his women really stand out.  Here’s his Wonder Woman, showcased in the Blackest Night series:

Less stylized than Cliff Chiang’s current angular Wonder Woman look, Sook may have created a modern twist on the definitive look of the classic character for other artists to emulate.

Sook’s work is sometimes confused with that of Adam Hughes, because of his similar ability to convey beauty and power, as well as humor and vulnerability.  One of Sook’s cover runs from 2010, on the Top Cow series The Magdalena, seems inspired by the same classic art of centuries past that inspires another major cover artist: Frank Cho, known for his neoclassical covers for Marvel and independent series.

Sook has created a memorable Zatanna, both the classic version and the updated version from the New 52 universe:

He’s shown he can set the standard for the looks of new characters, as seen in the Dark Horse Comics cover art for the Ghost and Dream Thief series:

His fantasy characters convey a sense of awe and power, as seen in Sword of Sorcery Issue #1 and Kirby: Genesis Issue #4:

Sometimes the combination of ideas, innovative layouts, and all-out surprises can set an artist apart.  With his cover to Mystery in Space #1, which we chose as one of the best covers of 2012, Sook showed the ultimate crossover of science fiction, fantasy, and steampunk with his steampunk angel.  With his cover to Rose & Thorn, he reveals an otherworldly Laverne & Shirley, a Yin and Yang of identity, that makes you want to be able to peek further into that closet door:

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Check out Ryan Sook’s website for a full view of his catalog of works, including both cover art and interior art.  Sook is an artist to watch for the remainder of 2014 and beyond.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Whether or not major genre properties are hosting panels or booths at Comic-Con 2014, studios released some great images on Wednesday preview night and the first full day of the show yesterday.  The biggest is probably the above photo of Ben Affleck as Batman from the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, not coming to theaters until 2016.  The image was nicely timed to the DC Comics celebration week for the 75th anniversary of Batman’s first appearance.

Warner Bros. also released the first poster for the latest movie in the Mad Max series, to star Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.  It’s called Max Max: Fury Road, and won’t hit theaters until next year, but that didn’t stop releasing some advance images from the film, including this image of Theron:

and this image of some post-apocalyptic recycling of cars:

The Amblin Entertainment/Legendary Pictures/Universal sequel to Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park trilogy, Jurassic World, netted us a teaser poster for the June 2015 release:

Jurassic World will star Chris Pratt, star of Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy, which also had a new poster reveal for its IMAX 3D version:

Marvel Studios gave us the first look at Paul Rudd’s costume for the July 2015 release, Ant-Man, with a concept art photo giving us an idea of what we’ll see for his costume:

Big news for action figure collectors was confirmation at the show that Firefly, Pulp Fiction, Goonies, and The Nightmare Before Christmas figures actually have been produced and likely will be shipping soon from Entertainment Earth.

Funko also revealed the first look at the first playset for its ReAction retro-figure line, for the Alien franchise, the Egg Chamber Playset:

Hasbro’s black packaging line of Star Wars action figures provided a first look at the new Jabba the Hutt:

It looks similar to past versions but the paint quality seems vastly improved.

Not to be outdone, Marvel Studios released some concept art images from The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America:

Black Widow:

Iron Man:

and the latest addition to The Avengers superheroines, Scarlet Witch:

For a bit of the feel of Comic-Con, check out this time-lapse video of the creation of the giant Weta booth this week, featuring The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, due in theaters this December:

LEGO provided a first look of a new toy based on that movie, the “Lonely Mountain” playset:

The big news of the day was Benedict Cumberbatch responding to a fan’s question about whether he’ll play Doctor Strange for Marvel Studios, asked during a Penguins of Madagascar panel Thursday:

(watch it while you can, as these panel replays usually get removed from YouTube quickly).

Marvel Studios is posting interviews and other content throughout the weekend at this link, and DC Entertainment is posting its content at this link.

More to come this weekend!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Still an entire month to wait until Arrow returns to the CW Network, and we’re got another great trailer released this weekend.  The best part of this latest trailer?  We hear the days of flashbacks to the island are going away, to be swapped out with Oliver Queen’s secret past honing his skills in Asia, and we see some of that here.

And the trick of showing Oliver finally hooking up with Felicity Smoak last season may have set fans up for a real relationship this season.  Black Canary will return and sister Laurel Lance looks to be finally getting her life back.  And what’s more fun than seeing former Superman Brandon Routh taking on a new recurring role in the DC Universe as Ray Palmer?

Check out this new trailer for Season Three of one of our favorite series, and maybe the best superhero series ever, Arrow:

Arrow returns Wednesday, October 8, 2014 to the CW.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Gotham is now two episodes past its pilot, with the premiere for Season Three of Arrow this week along with the pilot for The Flash.  There’s one more DCU series–Constantine–coming later this month.  We’ve seen the first entries of the DC Comics universe on TV for the Fall 2014 season, so how did the first of the season openers fare?

We had low expectations for Gotham.  A series in Gotham with all the Bat-villains and Jim Gordon, but no Batman?  Whose idea was that?  Yet, tight writing and a story that proceeds at a fast pace coupled with a superb supporting cast of characters and actors behind the roles really make this a series we’re looking forward to each week.  That “boy scout” lead role for cop Jim Gordon, played by Ben McKenzie, must be a thankless job, and far less fun to play than all those villains, including the best reason to watch Gotham in Gordon’s partner Harvey Bullock played by Donal Logue.  We reviewed the pilot earlier here at borg.com and we’re still happy with the direction of the series.

If the season opener is any indication of the course of Season Three of CW’s Arrow, then consistency is the theme for this series.  We know these characters well now, and the actors all solidly fit in the shoes of our heroes, from Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen to David Ramsey as John Diggle, to Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak and Paul Blackthorne as Captain Lance, Arrow is a proven commodity.

Mix up Diggle’s role in Oliver’s team?  Taunt us with a relationship between Oliver and Felicity?  Kill off a major series hero?  The writers are sure going to keep us on our toes this year.

The highlight of all the DCU series so far is the introduction of Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer–the man who would be The Atom.  It’s not lost on anyone watching that we are seeing the former big screen Superman face off with the Green Arrow right before our eyes.  As we saw with the NBC series Chuck, Routh is one of the best actors to pop in for guest starring roles.  Let’s just not take too much time before we see him transform into The Atom.  Please?

Which leaves the more youth oriented series The Flash as more of the “new kid” on the block.  We had really high expectations for this one.  After all, the original series The Flash set the standard for all post-The Incredible Hulk era TV superhero series.  The pilot didn’t altogether disappoint, but it also didn’t dazzle us as we expected.  It may be one of those series you need to ease into.

The pluses of The Flash are many.  It’s fresh and fun, and a bit like The Adventures of Lois and Clark in its lighthearted spin on the superhero world versus the dark gritty bent all the other superhero shows have taken.  Grant Gustin is clearly having fun and his character Barry Allen is conveying the unabashed glee of having superhero powers that any real person would likely feel.  And look at the supporting cast.  Original Barry Allen, actor John Wesley Shipp, is right there playing the new Allen’s father.  And it’s like Law and Order never left us, with Detective Ed Green back in action, now named Detective Joe West, played by the awesome Jesse L. Martin.

We also can’t get enough of the crossovers between Arrow and The Flash.  If we can’t have a Justice League movie, this is the next best thing.  If only someone would have the guts to introduce Hawkman to this world.  We’d even be happy with the New 52 version.

So that leaves us waiting to see what Constantine will have to offer.  For that, we must wait until October 24.  For Gotham, Arrow, and The Flash?  So far, so good.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

He is a key character in DC Comics Justice League Dark for a reason.  Stress on the word “dark”.  He’s Constantine–John Constantine–possibly the least likely character to emerge from the pages of the DCU and make it to the small screen.  Yet NBC has pulled out all the stops lately with promotions to get new viewers to check out this new series following Grimm on Friday nights beginning tomorrow.

We’ve collected all the promotional videos here for Constantine so you can judge for yourself whether this new series is one for you.  He’s been summed up as “A man struggling with his faith is haunted by the sins of his past but is suddenly thrust into the role of defending humanity from the gathering forces of darkness.”  And there’s plenty of horror and gore, as revealed in the recent previews released.  Will the suspense grab and retain viewers in this onslaught of DC Comics-based TV shows?

Unlike CW’s successful DCU spin-off TV series Arrow and the new series Flash and Gotham, don’t expect to see lots of familiar genre actors in this series, but plenty of new faces.  Star Matt Ryan has shown up before in Criminal Minds-Suspect Behavior as well as stints on Vikings, Torchwood, The Tudors, and one of our faves, the Brit film Layer Cake.  And you might recognize Angelica Celaya from her role on the (recently prematurely cancelled!) Dallas.  Lost fans will recognize Harold Perrineau here who played Michael on that series.

After the break, check out all the promotional trailers and previews for Constantine:

Look for Constantine following Grimm, Friday nights this fall on NBC.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” and so revisiting history via its primary sources should be no less important in studying the history of comics and animation.  And with the benefit of our own personal wayback machines (spelled WABAC for you Mr. Peabody fans) sometimes our looks to the past are full of imagery and stories that make us squirm as our sensibilities have improved over time.

We visited this concept here at borg.com with our review of the even-too-sexist-for-a-Bond-novel The Spy Who Loved Me and racism-heavy Live and Let Die.  Can you still enjoy these works knowing how skewed the world view was?  I think the answer can be yes, as long as you maintain your critical eye and acknowledge the improvements we have made.  Ignoring or dismissing these works outright would be worse.

Thanks to the folks at Warner Bros. we previewed a copy of Looney Tunes–Platinum Collection, Volume 3, on Blu-ray, and courtesy of IDW Publishing we have a preview for you of Superman: The Golden Age Sundays (1946-1949), after the break.

Who doesn’t remember and cherish the great Looney Tunes cartoons of the mid-20th century, recycled decades after their creation for a 1970s and 1980s cable viewing audience thanks to Saturday morning cartoons?  But, like many comic books and superhero movies today, you might use discretion before sharing with young audiences.  Even the originals were intended for adult movie audiences and it’s amazing networks thought these were once appropriate for kids each Saturday.  And where you may think you watched these cartoons and turned out fine and bigot-free, what about that guy across the street?

Don’t remember anything wrong with these cartoons?  Again, it’s the racism, especially references to Asians and blacks.  Adult audiences will see past this today and can still have fun with Daffy and Bugs and Sylvester and Elmer and the rest of the gang.  But discussing the Blu-ray without acknowledging the cultural quirks would be wrong.

That said, Looney Tunes, Volume 3, said to be last of the series since audiences aren’t buying the series as expected, is full of 50 funny cartoons from the minds of creative geniuses like Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, Carl Staling and Milt Franklin.  And not all will make you wince.  The volume includes one of everyone’s all-time favorites, Bugs Bunny and the giant orange furry Gossamer in “Hair-Raising Rabbit.”

Looney Tunes, Volume 3, is now available on both DVD (here) and Blu-ray (here), at Amazon.com.

The Looney Tunes cartoons were created in the 1940s and 1950s.  From the same era, today IDW Publishing is releasing a new volume of Superman Sunday comic strips.  Superman: The Golden Age Sundays (1946-1949) presents the iconic Man of Steel as the patriot and superhero we all know.

Comic book writer Mark Waid provides one of the best introductions we’ve seen to a volume like this, concisely pointing out the shortcomings of the world view contained throughout the comic strip run, a bit of some not-so-super chauvinism and some sporadic racial subtext.

Yet Waid also acknowledges the humor and fun intended.  And indeed the Superman serials are very readable, with a nicely rendered Superman.  Older fans of Superman should check out this new compilation.  Courtesy of IDW Publishing, click here for a high quality preview of the volume.

Superman: The Golden Age Sundays (1946-1949) is available at comic book stores everywhere today and here at Amazon.com.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

If you’re not watching The Flash on the CW Network there’s no time like tonight to join in and get caught up.  All the DC Comics fans who grew tired of the dark and gloomy nature of the DC Comics universe as realized in television (like Constantine) and the movies (like Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy) have the alternative they have been looking for from this spin-off of CW’s Arrow.

Grant Gustin plays Barry Allen against all prior types.  He’s more like Peter Parker than the Barry Allen of the Silver Age or more recent New 52 incarnations, and little like the older, more serious scientist in The Flash television series from the 1980s starring John Wesley Shipp.  He’s cheery, funny, friendly, and generally a happy guy despite his obsession with his mother’s death years ago, having to deal with his father in prison for her murder, and the fact that his life has been turned upside down by a bolt of electric current from a particle accelerator.

And if the series isn’t enough for you, check out the tie-in comic book series The Flash Season Zero.  Season Zero provides a supplemental story to the TV show but also is a jumping-on point for those who may have missed the first few episodes.  Now only two issues in, you can get these back issues easily from any comic book retailer.  The best reason to check out Season Zero?  The return of artist Phil Hester to the part of the DCU he drew for many years as penciller on the monthly Green Arrow series.  With multiple crossover episodes this season between The Flash and Arrow, hopefully we’ll get a chance to see Hester’s take on drawing Stephen Amell’s much younger version of Oliver Queen.

As with the Arrow TV series, the producers—familiar folks like Greg Berlanti, Andy Kreisberg, and Geoff Johns—cram each episode full of references to the classic DC Universe.  Also like Arrow, their placement of these references isn’t exactly like we’ve seen them in the past.  We know that Allen’s S.T.A.R. Labs pal Cisco Ramon one day becomes superhero Vibe in the DCU, and his other lab pal Caitlin Snow is the DCU name for one of the supervillains who goes by the name of Killer Frost.  Will his friends change into these characters during this series?  We’ll also meet old bad guys like Simon Stagg and Clock King.  The writers really have an endless supply of resources to pull ideas from.

The Flash appears Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Central on the CW Network and The Flash Season Zero is available monthly at comic book stores everywhere.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Syfy Channel is jumping on the superhero series bandwagon and teaming up with DC Entertainment to launch a new series in 2015 about the family of one of DC Comics’ most popular characters.  Krypton will key in on Superman’s grandparents on his father’s side, with Jor-El’s father–Superman’s granddad–as the lead character.  One can quickly see a young Jor-El, twin brother Nim-El, and other brother Zor-El (Supergirl’s dad), and perhaps an Eddie Haskell-inspired neighbor kid Zod, as likely key characters in this new prequel story to the classic Superman tale.

Depending on the series you’re following, the grandfather of Superman (known at birth as Kal-El) was Jor-El the First or Seyg-El, son of Var-El and husband of Nimda An-Dor.  Will they select one of these names or start from scratch for the series?  It’s all being developed now.

The good part?  Other than Constantine, recent TV series featuring superheroes Arrow, Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Flash, and Gotham have proven to be critical successes.  The not-so-good?  Krypton is being developed by the scriptwriter (David S. Goyer) for the disappointing big-screen reboot Man of Steel (reviewed previously here at borg.com).

The 1978 Superman movie featured Marlon Brando and Julie Christie on an interesting, technologically advanced planet Krypton.

Here’s the studio description for the project:

Years before the Superman legend we know, the House of El was shamed and ostracized. This series follows The Man of Steel’s grandfather as he brings hope and equality to Krypton, turning a planet in disarray into one worthy of giving birth to the greatest Super Hero ever known.

Arguably the most creative part of Man of Steel was the sequence on Krypton, full of fantasy creatures more like something you’d find in classic Flash Gordon than anything we’ve seen in a Superman story before.  For continuity, we’re betting we’ll see the world from Man of Steel, which featured Russell Crowe as Jor-El.  Marlon Brando previously played Jor-El in the 1978 Superman and David Warner in the CW series Smallville.

But what we’d love to see is Michael Turner’s more vibrant world of Krypton, from his run on Action Comics:

Right now, all that exists is an idea and a logo for the series.  In addition to Krypton, David S. Goyer is one of the writers for 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, and NBC’s Constantine.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

It’s a line by Alexander Pope in his 1709 poem, and Oliver Queen played out the saying fully in Arrow’s mid-season finale.  Unwisely confronting the League of Assassin’s far more powerful Ra’s Al Ghul and covering for sister Thea by posing as the killer of Sara Lance, Oliver met his end.  “Where Angels Fear to Tread” is also the title of the story arc that took the original run of DC Comics’s Green Arrow one hundred issues to get to–the original fall of the Emerald Archer.  In the mid-season TV finale it was literally a fall–off a cliff after a pretty undeniable death via Ra’s Al Ghul’s sword.

But we all know that the death of a superhero is short-lived 99 percent of the time.  In Issue #101 of DC Comics’ long-running Green Arrow monthly series Ollie met an untimely death in an exploding airplane, and yet the series continued for 36 more issues–without Oliver Queen.  Series star Stephen Amell may have given a clue to a similar direction for the return of the series in January via a Facebook post after the show:

“Despite the title, our show is bigger than any one character.  We’re going to prove that to you.”

The original, explosive death of Oliver Queen.

So we may see a period during the last half of Season 3 without Ollie.  But a note to the show writers: just don’t take it too far.

It feels like the series has barely begun and the writers have taken the big leap.  Where can we go from here?  Taking a superhero book forward without the title superhero in the 1990s comic book series was a risk, and split those fans who were loyal to the classic Green Arrow and those willing to accept a second Green Arrow–Connor Hawke, Oliver Queen’s son, as a new Green Arrow.  Three years was a surprisingly long run without Ollie, but ultimately the series was cancelled.  Oliver was to be resurrected years later by Kevin Smith, Phil Hester, and Ande Parks in a second successful Green Arrow series.

CW’s Arrow has plenty of options to play with, without Ollie.  We have no Connor Hawke in this iteration of the story, but we do have Roy Harper aka Speedy aka Red Arrow aka Arsenal.  Trained by Oliver, he could run the team “to save our city.”  News of Oliver’s death (and some creepy encouragement from her mom in last week’s episode) could be just what’s needed to get Laurel Lance to don the fishnets (or not) and take on the Black Canary mantle left behind by her sister.  And as a back-up plan there’s Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer aka The Atom to enter the superhero sphere, too.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer incorporated the concept of series without the title character, but that occurred off-camera over a hiatus, and without any actual episode minus Buffy, when Buffy left Sunnydale at the end of Season 2.  What she returned to in Season 3 was her friends fighting the good fight in her stead.  A similar “Scooby Gang” with the Arrow B-team characters moving the plot forward with Ollie in Ray Palmer’s newly named Star City could be a lot of fun–if done right, and for not too long without the series lead.

Arrow returns to the CW Network Wednesday, January 21, 2015.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

The last day of the year is finally here, and with that the last of our reviews of the best content of 2014.

We’ve previewed comic books each month thanks to publishers like Dynamite Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, BOOM! Studios, and Image.  We sample the best of all that Marvel and DC Comics has to offer, too, and although we don’t have enough time to review everything we review those titles we think our readers might like to check out, especially those with a sci-fi, fantasy, or retro angle.  And we read plenty of books–sci-fi and fantasy, pulp and spy novels, movie and TV tie-ins, even Westerns and steampunk, as well as non-fiction books about movies, TV, and other genre topics.  This past month we have looked again at these titles, as we narrowed our selections to what we think are the very best.  So here are our picks for Best in Print for 2014.

Best Comic Book Series — Black Widow, Marvel Comics.  We were wondering early on what would take the place of Fraction and Hollingsworth’s Hawkeye series for the most satisfying superhero fix.  It didn’t take long to see this other Marvel series looking at another superhero in a similarly personal–but very different–way.  It was a standout in a great year of comics.  Phil Noto’s art and colors were incredible and Nathan Edmondson’s story didn’t let up once.  Full of action, espionage, and intrigue.  A great series to catch-up on in a trade edition.  See our reviews of the series here and here.

Best Comic Book Mini-Series — Afterlife with Archie, Archie Comics.  Who would have guessed someone could make Archie and friends so accessible to any demographic in the 2010s?  And whose brilliant idea was doing it via a horror genre story of zombies taking over Riverdale?  Smart writing by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and spooky atmospheric illustrations by Francesco Francavilla made for a sumptuous series like no other.  Not technically a mini-series, it feels like one because of its staggered release.  See our earlier raves about the series here.

Best Comic Book Writing – Dan Abnett, Wild’s End, BOOM! Studios.  Abnett’s Wild’s End really caught us by surprise.  An incredible fantasy read that is truly unique from BOOM! Studios.  Anthropomorphic characters with incredible archaic dialogue that’s witty and smart.  A crazy mash-up of War of the Worlds, Christopher Robin’s neighborhood, and the dark edge and high stakes of Revival.  We can’t wait to see what’s in store for the rest of this series.  Check out our earlier review here.

Best Comic Book Art – J.K. Woodward, Star Trek: Harlan Ellison’s The City on the Edge of Forever, IDW Publishing.  J.K. Woodward seems to be able to do anything with a paint brush.  Movie tech has not yet perfected a way to create new films interspersing actors from the past digitally, but Woodward is able to take a cast from a 40-year-old TV series and make them come alive.  We thought his Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover series was awesome, and he’s not letting up with each new project.  Check out our review here.

Best Single Comic Book Issue — Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #1, Marvel Comics.  It’s not easy to find a single issue that stands by itself in a year of good reads.  Then in December Brian Michael Bendis and Frank Cho’s Guardians of the Galaxy Annual #1 one-shot arrived and we had our winner.  Fun, unexpected, quirky and nice visuals.  What more could you ask for?  Here’s our review from a few weeks ago.

Best Borg in Comics — The Six Thousand Dollar Man, Legenderry, Dynamite Comics.  Bill Willingham’s seven-issue Legenderry series was a welcome surprise with a brand new pantheon of great steampunk characters.  Pulling from Dynamite Comics’ handy pile of licenses, Willingham came up with the most fun we had with steampunk in comics.  And his Six Thousand Dollar Man was just a brilliant idea, a Bionic Man of a different era, as rendered in a very cool way by artist Sergio Fernandez Davila and character costume designer Johnny Desjardins.  Check out our review of Legenderry here.

Best Comic Book Event — Ant Lucia Bombshell covers, DC Comics. We can’t get enough of all things retro and this year DC Comics smartly latched onto An Lucia’s 1940s pin-up-inspired characters.  They gave him an entire month where he took over the covers to the monthly DC Comics titles–a great way to obtain his poster art, in miniature form, and try out a new series.  Check out how he took over DC Comics in June here.

Best Comic Book Cover Artist — Adam Hughes.  Adam Hughes’ run on one of the last Star Wars series for Dark Horse Comics tipped the scales for us this year.  His beautiful cover art of Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca and Star Wars-themed backgrounds were the stuff of great wall posters.  And his Life with Archie cover to issue #36 was a good send-off for the death of the character.  Hughes created noteworthy cover art for Axis #9 variant, Big Trouble in Little China #1 variant, Life with Archie #36, Star Wars Rebel Heist #1-4, and Sirens #1 NYCC variant covers.

Best Comic Book Cover — Avengers & X-Men: Axis #1 Variant – Mike Mayhew.  If we had to pick one cover that was the most fun for the year it was Mike Mayhew’s Avengers & X-Men: Axis #1 variant cover for Midtown Comics.  It featured the best design–the queens of good and evil with a flip cover–Polaris on one side and Scarlet Witch on the other.  There’s a 52-card deck out there begging to be made.

Best Sci-Fi Fix — Copperhead, Image Comics.  Fans of sci-fi Westerns like Firefly should take note.  There’s a great sci-fi series released by Image Comics–Copperhead.  It features one of the best new women characters of 2014, the tough new Sheriff Bronson, large and in-charge in an off-world, sparsely populated town.  Writer Jae Faerber and artist Scott Godlewski created an instant hit complete with plenty of alien crime.  Check out our review of the series here.

Best TV/Movie Tie-In — The X-Files: Year Zero, IDW Publishing.  Of all the books, fiction, comic books series, etc. we read this year, including great reads in the worlds of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Planet of the Apes to Firefly and Alien, we found the voice that was the truest to the original series was The X-Files: Year Zero by IDW Publishing.  Not only did it include Mulder and Scully working together better than we last saw them in the movies complete with perfect dialogue, the series was expanded with two new characters from the past history of the actual X-Files, giving an entirely new potential area for expansion of the franchise’s stories.  Writer Karl Kesel and artists Greg Scott and Vic Malhotra nailed it with this series.  We raved about it earlier here.

Best Graphic Novel — Toshiro, Dark Horse Comics.  A steampunk robot samurai.  And Civil War era zombies.  Jai Nitz and Janusz Pawlak wove a story that was a mash-up of so many things we lost track.  Pawlak’s rich Quentin Tarentino-esque artwork and Nitz’s spaghetti Western plot about a Japanese robot in England made for a truly unique work like no other graphic novel we read in 2014.  Check out our review here.

Best Marketing — Vandroid, website and faked vintage extras, Dark Horse Comics.  Vandroid should be made into a movie to air on the El Rey network.  A “grindhouse flick that never was” was the hook for this fun retro fix from Tommy Lee Edwards, Noah Smith, and Dan McDaid.  Outside of the comic book mini-series were mock-ups of ads and ephemera to help reel readers in to the mystique of the story and play along.  Vandroid was a great ride.  Check out what we had to say about it earlier here.

Best Comics Collected Edition: The Star Wars, Dark Horse Comics.  An easy pick for best hardcover and trade edition is the variety of compilations of last year’s The Star Wars from Dark Horse Comics.  Released as a trade paperback and in two high quality hardcover editions, this bestselling work is a must for Star Wars fans.  J.W. Rinzler’s adaptation of George Lucas’s original treatment for his vision of the galaxy far away and Mike Mayhew’s great artwork make this a book you’ll want to share with friends.  A superb deluxe hardcover edition includes nice extras.  Check out more about the series here.

Best Genre Non-Fiction — The Hobbit Chronicles: the Desolation of Smaug Cloaks & Daggers, Weta Workshop.  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Chronicles: Cloaks and Daggers provides an unprecedented look at Peter Jackson’s Hobbit series even better than the stellar prior volumes in the Chronicles series.  No better book of high-quality photographs of props and costumes from a film or series is in print.  If you want to learn the details of what goes on behind the scenes of a huge production, this is the book for you.  Check out our review here.

Best Genre Fiction (New Release) — Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm, Greg Keyes.  We read and reviewed more fiction here in 2014 than ever before.  Greg Keyes’ memorable bridge novel between the latest Planet of the Apes movies provided a character study of the apes like we hadn’t seen before, especially in its rich development of Koba the chimpanzee.  Great insight and interesting characters put this at the top of the year’s tie-ins and a great read.  Check out our review here.

Best Genre Fiction (Re-Release) — All You Need is Kill, Hiroshi Sakurazaka.  The re-release of Sakurazaka’s hit alien invasion story was timed to the release of its big screen adaptation, Edge of Tomorrow–our pick for best film of the year.  Sakurazaka’s heroine Rita Vrataski is exactly the kind of female lead readers can’t wait to find.  Even more exciting than the movie, this sci-fi and war novel is the stuff of sci-fi classics you’d read from the likes of Clarke, Heinlein, or Asimov.  See our review here.

Best Reviewed Genre Retro Read — From Russia With Love, Ian Fleming.  In our ongoing review of all of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novels, there have been plenty of hits and misses.  So coming across the best of Fleming’s spy novels was a welcome treat.  From Russia With Love gave us a great Bond girl with Tatiana Romanova and an unusual but great Bond villain with the vile Colonel Klebb.  Full of intrigue and spymastery, it’s no wonder this was one of JFK’s favorite novels.  See our review here.

So that’s our list.  Don’t forget to check out the first part of our “Best of the Best” list for 2014 here and here.

And have a happy new year!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

The biggest news so far released by Warner Bros. about the next DC Comics universe TV experiment was that former Superman Dean Cain (Lois and Clark) and former Supergirl Helen Slater (Supergirl) would have guest roles on the series Supergirl, a Smallville-esque series likely to arrive in 2016.  Laura Benanti (Royal Pains, Life on Mars (U.S.) was revealed to play Kara’s Kryptonian mother, Alura Zor-El, leading Supergirl from afar as Jor-El did for Kal-El in the various Superman incarnations.  And Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl, the series lead, will be played by Melissa Benoist (Whiplash, Glee).

Other roles cast include Calista Flockhart as Kara’s boss, media mogul Cat Grant.  Kara’s love interest will be Jimmy Olsen, played by Mehcad Brooks (Necessary Roughness, Dollhouse), Chyler Leigh (Grey’s Anatomy) has been cast as Kara’s foster sister Alex, and David Harewood (Robin Hood, Doctor Who, Homeland) will play Department of Extra-Normal Operations chief Hank Henshaw.

We now have our first views of the new Supergirl supersuit Benoist will don as the latest superheroine in the DC Universe.  The designer is Academy Award winning costumer Colleen Atwell, who also created the CW designs for Arrow and The Flash.  The suit is similar to many past comic book versions:

The slate of the women’s side of the DC pantheon is finally making some headway.  We’ve had a look at Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman from Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice and Katie Cassidy’s Black Canary from Arrow:

Plus Caity Lotz’s Black Canary and Jessica De Gouw’s Huntress, also from Arrow:

And thanks to Gotham, the latest Catwoman, Camren Bicondova.

So how about a Zatanna?  She and Hawkgirl would fill out the rest of the classic Justice League of America.

CBS has reportedly begun producing the pilot for Supergirl, but no release date has been announced.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Much like was done for the successful Supernatural TV series from the CW Network (like the book we reviewed previously here at borg.com), Titan Books has released a new full-color photographic archive book for fans of the Arrow TV series.  Arrow:  Heroes and Villains is the first of three books coming our way this year featuring Oliver Queen and his cohorts.

More like a fan magazine or souvenir book in trade paperback form, with photos of the actors and details about their characters, Arrow: Heroes and Villains is the kind of book I would have been after for my favorite shows as a kid.  Most of the photos are marketing shots for the characters, but it also includes snapshots from the series.  Enough text is provided to get anyone who missed the first two seasons of the series caught up with each character and the major storylines up to the beginning of season three.  It’s mainly an in-world book about the world of Oliver Queen, but also has interviews with show creators, and offers a behind the scenes look at the character development of key roles.

Grab a copy and get it signed by series star Stephen Amell next Sunday at Planet Comicon in Kansas City.

Split into two parts, plus a look at the Suicide Squad, Arrow: Heroes and Villains provides an essay on each of Oliver Queen, his parents, Thea, Walter Steele, Laurel and Sara Lance and their parents, John and Carly Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Tommy Merlyn, Roy Harper, Barry Allen, Frank Pike, and McKenna Hall.

The villains include Slade Wilson, Yao Fei, Shado, The Butcher, Malcolm Merlyn, Sebastian Blood, Cyrus Gold, The Huntress, Count Vertigo, the Royal Flush Gang, The Dodger, Nyssa Al Ghul and China White, among others.  It also looks at some expired characters unlucky enough to make Oliver Queen’s “list”.

At 176 pages Arrow: Heroes and Villains is a lot bigger than most fan guides to TV shows and the photo quality and images selected were nicely done.  You can pick up a copy here at Amazon.com, and pre-order the first Arrow tie-in novel, Arrow: Vengeance, here, and another fan book, Arrow: Oliver Queen’s Dossier, here.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

In light of actor John Wesley Shipp taking on the role of Barry Allen’s dad in CW’s The Flash reboot series, we figured the show’s writers couldn’t avoid doing what we all want to see anyway.  And that would be?  Revealing that the new series isn’t really a reboot, but a sequel–that Shipp, who originally played Barry Allen, is somehow the same Barry Allen, and Grant Gustin is either his son or some part of him, some kind of Kid Flash.

This idea was bolstered when the 1990s The Flash series co-star Amanda Pays returned as Dr. Tina McGee for the December 9, 2015 episode, “The Man in the Yellow Suit.”  They didn’t even hide her as some different character.  For those of us who still view the 1990s The Flash series as the best superhero TV series ever, we couldn’t ask for more.  Well we could, and that would include Mark Hamill returning as The Trickster.  For years fans of Hamill wondered what he was up to, and then he surprised us by showing up out of nowhere as a villain on TV.

Ask and ye shall receive.

The CW Network has released a new preview for its next three episodes, airing Tuesday nights March 17, March 24, and March 31.  And it looks like Mark Hamill is back 25 years later in a story that flows from his original story line.

Check out the preview, after the break:

The Flash returns to the CW March 17, 2015, with The episode with The Trickster airing March 31, 2015.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

The three-day Planet Comicon comic book and pop culture convention wrapped yesterday in Kansas City.  The highlight of the day for thousands of attendees was the one-day visit to the show by Stephen Amell, star of the CW Network’s Arrow TV series.  If you’ve been reading borg.com for very long, you’ll know I’ve been tracking the show as the world’s biggest Green Arrow fan, including spending the night with 7,000 other fans in San Diego for the show premiere with Amell and his co-stars back in 2012.

After hanging with his cousin (and CW star of The Flash) Robbie Amell last night at the Elite Comics after party at the Alamo Drafthouse, we got to meet Stephen today.  As you’d expect, fans were happy to meet him, and he kept a cheery disposition throughout a whirlwind day of signing autographs and being featured on a panel at the convention.

Because he was only at the show for one day, that meant plenty of lines to get to see him–lines that barely even looked like lines.

But as typical with attendees at comic book conventions, everyone handled it all with great attitudes.

One of the first in line to meet Amell was our friend Mike Steinmetz, who also donned the best Arrow cosplay at the convention this weekend.  Mike is the best at fabricating everything from Halo to superheroes.  And of course it was great for me to meet the first actor to ever play Oliver Queen on film.

Planet Comicon also made it possible to meet Rachel Skarsten, who just wrapped her role as the Valkyrie Tamsin on the great Syfy Channel series Lost Girl we’ve raved about before here at borg.com.  Skarsten previously played Oliver Queen’s long-time partner Dinah Lance aka Black Canary on the TV series Birds of Prey.

Skarsten was the most engaging of all the celebrities at the show this weekend, chatting with Elizabeth C. Bunce and me, talking about Valkyries, her coming appearance as Queen Elizabeth I on CW’s series Reign (she’s excited to be working with Anne of Green Gables’ Megan Follows on the series).

She also shared our enthusiasm for our commissioned Black Canary sketch by Philadelphia-based artist Phil Noto.  As with past conventions, we sought out artists for either Green Arrow or Black Canary commissions.  Noto’s superb work on the current Black Widow series for Marvel Comics, his retro style such as his work on Trigger Girl 6, and interior work on Birds of Prey several years ago made it a no-brainer to track him down.

Noto was happy to create this for us, and his work as usual is simply stunning.  Noto was also interesting and eager to chat, and we hope he comes back to future shows in Kansas City.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com