Via Bleeding Cool:

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If you remember, in David Goyer’s most recent issue of DC comics’ Action Comics, Superman got all sanctimonious and Leftist about being an American citizen and huffed his intention to renounce his citizenship: “‘Truth, justice and the American way’ — It’s not enough anymore.”

Whatever.

According to Bleeding Cool, though, Superman is something of a schizophrenic and maybe even a super-secret neocon because in today’s edition of DC Comics’ Superman he’s all about The America again.

Above is the first frame of the comic’s closing page, below the fold you can read the rest…  (more…)

At the urging of a friend, I recently plowed through all twelve episodes of the first season of the Fox action/adventure series Human Target (2010) on DVD. He thought I’d like it, and he was right. Loosely based off of a DC comic book character, it’s a story about a trio of badasses (a reformed assassin, a former cop, and a torture-happy, jack-of-many-trades mercenary) now running a company set on protecting innocent clients against the evildoers looking to harm them. The plots were peppered with hefty amounts of first-rate stuntwork, exciting gunplay, MacGyver-like ingenuity, and some memorably feminine (in all the best ways) supporting players.

The music by Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, The Walking Dead) evoked a cinematic air in the James Bond/Indiana Jones mold, but with an underlying somberness that lent a pleasing heft to the proceedings:

YouTube -- click here to watch in full-screen

Actors Mark Valley, Chi McBride, and Jackie Earle Haley all shine in their roles for various reasons — especially Haley, whose delicious politically incorrect performance as Guerrero is the most consistently entertaining tough guy I’ve seen on TV since Michael K. Williams’ Robin Hood-of-the-ghetto Omar in HBO’s The Wire (a show that ended up ruined by its nihilistic writers, but that’s a topic for another post).

But later, settling in to begin watching Season 2 of Human Target on my computer, I wondered if Fox could bring a fledgling action/adventure series into its sophomore year without their usual pattern of first screwing it up and then unceremoniously canceling it. The sad spectacle of Big Hollywood regular Adam Baldwin’s Firefly getting canned before it even had a chance to get started was the most lamentable flameout of many at that often hapless network. Sure, they gave us The X-Files, but that was a looooong time ago. They also gave us 24, but I go against the usual conservative meme by thinking the show terrible. Human Target, on the other hand, held a lot of promise — but would they be able to capitalize on it? (more…)

The venerable Marvel comic book character Captain America has been, well, “Captain America” since 1941. But as of the 2011 release of the new movie “Captain America: The First Avenger,” he won’t be Captain American anymore. At least as far as the film’s  title goes for its overseas release, anyway.

Apparently, Hollywood thinks a character called “Captain America” is too gauche for foreigners to handle. And so he’s to go nameless in such places as Russia, Ukraine, and South Korea. Once again, Hollywood shows that it’s ashamed of America, its traditions, and culture.

This film already raised eyebrows for patriots when the director said that his Captain America wouldn’t be that into America.  Last July, director Joe Johnston claimed that the Captain America in his film would not be a “jingoistic American flag-waver.” Johnston’s anti-American sentiment foreshadows the dropping of the character’s name from the title for overseas distribution. (more…)

Reality isn’t always very fun. Because of that many people turn to comic books for a little escapism. But there’s escapism and PC indoctrination. Sadly, it appears that DC Comics’ Batman is angling for the latter and not the former. You see, Batman has decided to hire a Muslim to “save France.”

First the reality. The country of France is having serious domestic problems between its immigrant Muslim community and those natural-born, European Frenchmen. Immigrants have been rampaging across the country for several years now. Clashes between police and large groups of rioting Muslim youth have wreaked havoc on the Gallic nation. Violence is all too common — it is woefully common for hundreds of cars to be lit afire in these riots and dozens of arrests to be made. It has the country split and frightened.

It has gotten so bad in France that in some parts of its cities, those parts controlled by marauding gangs of Muslim youths, whites never enter for fear of their lives. Not only that but not even police dare enter these areas. This dangerous situation does not seem anywhere near being solved. In fact, it’s just getting worse.

Now for the fantasy: enter The Batman.

DC Comics recently launched a series called “Batman Incorporated.” Essentially, Bruce Wayne (well-known as Batman’s alter ego to comics fans) is cruising the world setting up a “Batman” for major cities across the globe. These Batman figures, though, will not be vigilantes. They will be sanctioned by whatever local police force is in charge of the area in which the new Batman is operating. In the case of Detective Comics number 12 (Part one) and Batman Annual number 28 (Part two), Bruce Wayne has come to Paris, France to find a “French savior.” (more…)

A good argument can be made that the period 2000-2009 was the single worst decade for movies in Hollywood history. Unfortunately, judging by what we’ve seen so far in 2010, the next decade could conceivably dip even lower into mediocrity. Over just the next three months, theaters are set to debut yet more anti-conservative rewritings of history, yet more anti Prop-8 propaganda masquerading as entertainment for the masses, yet more heaping piles of torture and snuff porn, and much else that looks eminently skip-worthy.

So what’s left for those of us looking for things like stirring heroism, rousing action, and solid family-friendly entertainment? If you had to pick five films appearing between now and the end of the year that look decent enough to take a chance on, what would they be? Here’s my shortlist, sorted by release date:

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YouTube -- click here to watch in full-screen

Red (October 15)

A blissfully silly, cartoonishly hyper-violent trailer. A formidable array of talent seeming to have the time of their lives as they chew up the scenery, with normally stately and self-serious Oscar-winners like Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman hamming it up next to Bruce Willis and John Malkovich. A premise that sounds something like Spy Kids for adults. Sounds good to me. (more…)

if you like comics and super-hero movies you can’t go wrong with DC’s latest animated film, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. It’s a terrific translation of classic comics stories to film with a contemporary flavor.

Set during the early days of the League when they’re constructing their space station (pre-Justice League Unlimited). For the sake of this discussion, they live on Earth One. Meanwhile, on a parallel earth (known as Earth Three in the comics) there is another Justice League that’s the opposite of the one on JLA’s World. In this world, the villains are the heroes and visa-versa. Superman is a criminal thug named Ultraman. He runs a mob called the Crime Syndicate which is made up of evil versions of the Justice League. But the Justice League of that world is run by Lex Luthor and is composed of good versions of the villains in Earth One.

The good Lex Luthor has just stolen something from the Crime Syndicate. He escapes to Earth One using a device that allows him to travel between quantum realities. He needs the Justice League’s help in defeating the Crime Syndicate which has killed all the remaining heroes on his world. The Justice League questions why they should try to save a world other than Earth when they have so many problems to deal with here. But they know they can’t refuse.

Lots of fun ensues. (more…)

Marvel recently announced that their heroes would start acting like heroes again. So what were they doing, running crack houses?

After seven years of grim and grimmer story lines, including a superhero “civil war” that pitted Iron Man against Spider-Man and the death of Captain America, Marvel Comics will usher in a more optimistic “Heroic Age” approach in May.

“Heroes will be heroes again,” says Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada. “They’ve gone through hell and they’re back to being good guys — a throwback to the early days of the Marvel Universe, with more of a swashbuckling feel.”

What does “swashbuckling,” which refers to pirates, have to do with heroism? Quesada went on to explain that Captain America, Iron Man and Thor would be working together again instead of acting like foes. Suddenly, WTF? appears over the scene like the Batsignal. How does working together make them heroes exactly? In the “Dark Reign” series of stories at Marvel last year, a bunch of Super-villains led by Norman (Green Goblin) Osborn had taken over the Avengers and were “working together,” trying to kill off the real heroes. Under the guise of helping people. How progressive. But that’s not very heroic. (more…)