Sci-fi Newsflash: Capes & Crimefighters Edition

May 08, 05:28 AM

There's a lot of interesting stuff going on but, in honor of Iron Man rocking my world, I thought I'd keep the news focused on the hero types. First, feast your eyes on the pretty trailers:

The full trailer for The Incredible Hulk is now online. And it makes me hopeful.

We've also got a new one for Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. I'm really looking forward to this one.

The Anime-styled anthology Batman: Gotham Knight comes out about a week before The Dark Knight. And Kevin Conroy is voicing Bats, as it should be.

Speaking of animated heroes, Marvel.com has hi-res trailers for two new projects - the series Wolverine & The X-Men and the direct-to-DVD Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow. Though it's oddly centered around Wolvie, the show has appearances from a crazy amount of characters (from Polaris to Mojo to The Hulk to Dust). Next Avengers...well, I like the premise enough (the children of the original team must fight Ultron years after their parents' defeat sends the kidlets into hiding) but wasn't a big fan of Ultimate Avengers. I'm hoping the shift in concept will help.
So, Michael Rosenbaum is finally exiting Smallville - he won't he a regular but he'll probably pop up now and again next season. But really, the thing that's killing me is that they're bringing in Doomsday as the big bad. Really? Seriously? Doomsday? The thing that killed Supes in the comic, Doomsday? ARGH! Then there's this mysterious bad chick that "will be familiar to many fans." I've been racking my brain about this one and there's only one major chick villain in Superman's rogue gallery - Silver Banshee. But there's no underlying romantic chemistry there so it's probably going to end up being a take on this minor quasi-villain named Encantadora. She's like Catwoman in that her crimes are for her own benefit plus her powers are based in magic. Part of me is really curious about next season but I can barely watch the show now without my chest hurting.
Now that Iron Man is officially kicking box office hindquarters, Marvel has announced planned release dates for its sequel as well as Thor, Captain America and The Avengers. Marvel's been cranking out their films pretty steadily the last few years so I'm wondering, what's the hold up at DC (or really Warner Bros.)? Sure, they've had a lot of success with their Dark Horse properties but there are plenty of main universe characters they can adapt...in a way that doesn't suck.
Speaking of sucking, Joel Silver says that he's changed his mind and is doing an origin story for the Wonder Woman film he's exec producing. Duh. Not that I don't usually enjoy Silver's projects but I'm still mad at him for scrapping the Joss Whedon script. Did I read it or have any sliver of a notion as to what it was about? No. But it's Whedon. He gets that whole "women with powers" thing.
Speaking of people who "get it," Brandon Routh, aka Superman, did an interview with ComingSoon.Net and talked about what he'd like to do in the sequel Superman: Man of Steel (like actually beating someone up), his upcoming projects, and taking on another comic character - Dylan Dog.
Heroes has gained two more cast members, according to TV Guide - Brea Grant (Friday Night Lights) as "The Speedster" and Bruce Boxleitner (John Sheridan, Babylon 5) as an as-yet-unidentified character. It's assured that we won't be subjected to a plethora of newbies in Volume III but what I really want is for Peter Petrelli to grow a pair already.
Can't wait to see The Spirit? Well, your wait just got a skosh shorter as Scifi.com reports its release date has been moved up from Jan. 19, 2009 to Dec. 25, 2008. I know some people have expressed concern about how it looks like Sin City but my advice is to stop worrying until we see a full trailer.
ABC Family is rapidly endearing itself to me. Not only do they have Kyle XY (which returns in January), but they have two other projects this year that I'm really looking forward to - the series The Middleman and mini-series Samurai Girl. Middleman is based on a comic about a young woman who's recruited into a crime-fighting agency (it's far less Alias than it sounds) and will premiere June 16th. Samurai Girl, based on the books by Carrie Asai, will air the weekend of Sept. 5th.
And finally...more G.I. Joe pictures! Various sites have scored exclusive photos of General Hawk (Dennis Quaid), Duke (Channing Tatum), Ripcord (Marlon Wayans), Breaker (Said Taghmaoui), Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Destro sans mask (Christopher Eccleston), Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee), and, most impressively, The Baroness (Sienna Miller). I mean, holy crap, The Baroness. I'd also like to note that the IMDB page has two rumored cast members listed - Brendan Fraser as Gung Ho and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Shipwreck. If that happens, I'll officially love this move without having to see it.