Blogathon 12: Oh to be at Comic-Con now that summer is here

Well, Comic-Con is upon us once again and while there is a shitload of news coming out of it, how much of it interesting?

Not much.

I don't think anything from the first day really interested me and the only thing that had me going "Really? Cool!" from yesterday was the news that Warren Ellis will be writing Astonishing X-Men: Second Stage and even that didn't really wow me. Although, the interview with Ellis is pretty entertaining. Simone Bianchi on art is an added bonus. Although, as they mention, this is the first major franchise Ellis has worked on in a direct way--aka not a mini or an offshoot title that doesn't count or a fill-in--and part of me thinks that this is one of the two major franchises I could see him doing well on for an extended period of time. The other is Batman. Any of the others, he could probably do an arc, but beyond that, it would fall apart. Although, after his JLA Classified story, I would love to see him take on Superma just for the Clark/Lois stuff.

I found the whole Dark Knight viral campaign stuff interesting in that I don't actually see the point. Does anyone really think that this movie is NOT going to do insanely well at the box-office? We're talking about a sequel to one of the best-received superhero movies. Hell, I liked Batman Begins, which is saying a lot. It seems like a lot of time and energy spent on something that doesn't need it. But, hey, not my time or energy, so what do I care?

I am a little disappointed to learn that Jude Law won't be Ozymandis in Watchmen. I'm not the biggest Law fan, but he would have knocked that out of the park. The fact that the woman playing the Silk Spectre's only notable role is of the woman in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle who's married to the ugly redneck and offers to fuck the guys also has me shaking my head. But, hey, I could be wrong.

Grant Morrison and JG Jones are handling Final Crisis, which actually makes it sound almost interesting. I'm getting Marvel Boy chills over those two reuniting. It's a shame that all interest may be killed by the time the Countdown finishes. I wonder if getting Morrison to write it was a response to the general hatred of everything Countdown. Since Paul Dini is masterminding Countdown, wouldn't you think he'd handle Final Crisis?

Mark Waid is editor-in-chief of Boom! Studios. Ever since CrossGen, it was pretty obvious that Waid wanted to be in a position where he could do what he wants and not have to answer to anyone. Good for him.

Darwyn Cooke leaving The Spirit a year earlier than planned is interesting from an observor/intellectual stand-point for me. It would probably mean more if I liked the guy's work (I do like his art, but his writing leaves me cold). But, always fun to see a creator leave a book because of editorial bullshit.

I gather that today we'll get some good news. There's already been mention of Jeph Loeb's Ultimate universe crossover, "Ultimatum," but I'm hoping for some Amazing Spider-Man news. Or will that be saved for Chicago, do you think?

(Everybody, do "The Crunge!" Zeppelin at its funkiest! I think this would be one of the funnest Zeppelin songs to sing karaoke to. "The Immigrant Song" would be fun for the little scream you get to do. The Spoke, an eatery/pub at UWO, where I did my undergrad, has karaoke and looking at the list, they have four Zeppelin songs: "D'yer Mak'er," "Heartbreaker/Livin Lovin Maid," "Kashmir" and "When the Levee Breaks." Wow, those last two are just horrible karaoke songs, aren't they? They're looooooong and involve lots of non-singing time "D'yer Mak'er" could be good, though.)