Geoff Johns makes an appearance on the CBR Boat Show and talks about his upcoming stint writing an episode of Smallville, and not just any episode. The Legion of Super-Heroes are coming. I’m betting on Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad (maybe called Livewire) will be the envoy from the 31st century, any more Legionaries would be ultra-cool geektastic gravy.

Here is a short pilot/teaser for the abandoned Buffy the Vampire Slayer animated series. Development never got further than this short video because networks didn’t want to commit to a show that was too adult/violent for kids but not right for primetime either.

What about the Cartoon Network? Seems like a perfect fit.

via Leave Your Spandex at the Door

This Heroes Season 2 - Villains trailer has been making the rounds. I saw it last night at the movies before my second viewing of Wanted (Popapathy hadn’t seen it) during the pre-trailer commercials…

The Legion of Super Heroes is coming to Smallville! I for one cannot believe it took this long to get the only superheroes who ACTUALLY did visit Smallville (in comics continuity) on the show! For those who didn’t know the only “superheroes” that visited Smallville, Kansas while Clark was Superboy in DC Comics continuity were Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy, the founders of the Legion of Super Heroes from the 31st century. Geoff Johns (author of the eagerly anticipated Legion of 3 Worlds miniseries with art by George Perez) will be writing the episode!

Read the spoilerific Newsarama article if you like. I only read up to the spoilers, but thought I should share anyway… So don’t tell me about it - I’m counting the days until it airs.

if this episode is a good indication of what we can expect, then it looks like the show has regained its footing and returned to the epic storytelling that made it a phenomena in its first year.

the entire cast of Heroes — Masi Oka (Hiro), Hayden Panettiere (Claire), Adrian Pasdar (Nathan), Milo Ventimiglia (Peter), Greg Grunberg (Matt), Ali Larter (Niki), Sendhil Ramamurthy (Suresh), Zachary Quinto (Sylar), James Kyson Lee (Ando), Jack Coleman (HRG), Dania Ramirez (Maya), and creator Tim Kring (along with artist Tim Sale) were a bit late due to traffic from LA, but held a Q&A session after the viewing of the Season 3 opener.

via Newsarama

Stan Lee and Perry Moore have announced an official partnership. The exact nature of what the partnership is to produce (Feature Film, TV show, Comic Book, Graphic novel) has yet to be revealed, but Stan Lee waltzed into the Comic-Con International: San Diego panel “LGBT Portrayals in Comics and embraced Perry Moore. Moore’s novel, “Hero, published by Hyperion in August 2007, won the Lambda Literary Award in 2008 for best LGBT Children’s/Young Adult novel. Moore is also executive producer of Disney’s Narnia film series.”

Be sure to read Moore’s EXCELLENT article “WHO CARES ABOUT THE DEATH OF A GAY SUPERHERO ANYWAY?: A HISTORY OF GAYS IN COMIC BOOKS” which lists the many strong LGBT characters in comics needlessly maimed, depowered or killed for no reason.

via Newsarama and PerryMooreStories

OK, just woke up from a nice 10 hour nap. I needed that. Did a quick check for items of interest… found the trailer for the new Iron Man cartoon. Jury is still out on the art style. I like my 3D to look 3D and my hand drawn animation to look hand drawn. But 3D with toonshder puts me off if its too obviously 3D.

via Newsarama

I can’t wait until Season 3!

via CBR

The Middleman was developed for television by Javier Grillo-Marxuach for ABC Family, is based on the Viper Comics series, The Middle Man, created by Javier and artist Les McClaine.

Catch some episodes here - but watch fast - they aren’t leaving them up long enough!

Here are some promo faux PSA spots highlighting the series.

I’m sure ABC Family will be thrilled to get an endorsement from a site rife with gay porn (or maybe they will? they DID make Kyle XY and how gay is that boy?), but what the hell. I just watched the pilot for The Middleman from ABC Family. I’d read about it on a few sites and made a mental note to look for it. I REALLY enjoyed it. Watch the episodes online HERE.

The Middleman (played by the ever-handsome Matt Keeslar) is a fast talking boyscout of a hero (no cape - styled a bit like captain Jack Harkness), and his new sidekick and Middleman in training, Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales) is a video game playing artist/temp with a fearless streak to make Hal Jordan jealous.

I found the show to be campy, quick-witted and thoroughly fun is while managing to surprise a jaded TV watcher and comics fan like myself. I’ve only seen the first episode in which Wendy is introduced to the extraordinary world of the Middleman and discovers “comic-book evil” is real, but I’ll be watching the rest that are online tomorrow.

Some of you might recognize pretty boy Matt Keeslar for his Law and Order work or his role opposite Jonathan Schaech and some chick from 90210 (Kathleen Robertson) in the not-quite-gay Gregg Araki movie, Splendor.

here is a trailer for the summer 2005 release of volume one of the viper comic series “The Middleman” that the show is based on - written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, illustrated by Les Mcclaine.

The pilot will be premiered at the 2008 San Diego Comicon, so get your tickets now!

via Marvel

Perry Moore, author of Hero has been in talks to bring his gay superhero coming of age origin to the small screen. Moore claims to be 2 for 2 after pitching two networks and receiving two offers from which to choose. “We’ll announce any day, hopefully, who we’re going to do it with.”

Hero, is the story of high school basketball star Thom Creed, who happens to be the only child of a now infamous disgraced crime fighter. Not only does Thom have to deal with a missing mother and strange new powers he doesn’t understand, he also has to come to terms his attraction to the strange and mysterious Dark Hero. Will Thom save the world and find a boyfriend in the process? You bet!

Its kind of like Harry Potter if Harry was a gay superhero instead of a straight wizard. It’s a young adults book and although as a lifelong comic reader I found some parts a mite predictable, I still thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the read (well the basketball game opening scene didn’t do much for me, but it picked right up after that).

Kudos to Moore on the interest his project has garnered… He has Stan Lee in his corner, as Producer working to get Hero off the page and into our living rooms.

via Queerty and NY Mag

Marvel seems to know how to cash in on having a big hit, while all eyes are on them, they’ve released the new trailer to Wolverine and the X-Men. I don’t see why Wolvie get top billing. He’s cool and all that but there is no I in team.

This looks fantastic! I love the artistic style. We have all the classic elements for a goos X-tale… anit-mutant sentiment, bigoted politicians, a brotherhood of evil mutants, Sentinals, Cerebro, time travel, and a cast of many mutants…

They appear to have fully embraced the entire X-universe. Spoted by Newsarama:Polaris, Gambit, Maverick, Dust, Cannonball, Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, Storm, Cyclops, Spiral, Mojo, the Beast, Angel, Iceman, the Brotherhood, Mystique, Rogue, Senator Kelly and…the Hulk(?).

The article didn’t mention seeing Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Domino, Wolfsbane, Vertigo, or Rusty. Some readers spotted most of them, but noone mentioned the mob of Madroxes! I’m officially psyched! And not as sad to lose Legion, this looks waaaaay better.

I do think it’s weird that Wolverine has been handed the lead role by Xavier. Scott is gonna have one helluva sulk over that.

Michael Rosenbaum from one of Alex Ross’ TV Guide Covers Dec. 2-9 2001

In Smallville news, Kryptonsite has announced that everyone’s favorite teenage bald archvillain in training, Lex Luthor will NOT be deviling Clark in season 8. Michael Rosenbaum will be leaving after season 7. Can’t blame the guy, he just wants to grow a head of hair. This revelation comes barely a month after we learned that show creators and chief creative force, Al Gough and Miles Millar are leaving after seven seasons, and will not be part of season 8.

It is reported that although Kristen Kreuk (who has played a significant role in the series as Clark’s high school sweetheart, Lana Lang) has also been rumored to be out for season 8, but outgoing exec Gough says she will be back for an “undetermined but small number of episodes.”

To make sure that Clark has something to do for a final season, new villains are being cast as you read this…

Doomsday: In season eight, Clark will face his ultimate challenge with the appearance of the legendary, unstoppable destroyer Doomsday, who appears on “Smallville” for the first time. As comic book fans know, Doomsday is notorious for being the only character in the DC Comics universe to have killed Superman.

The level of CG we’ve seen thus far on the series makes me believe it won’t be Doomsday as we remember him from Death of Superman, but a very different reimagining.

Female villain: Doomsday won’t be Clark’s only nemesis in the upcoming season. The executive producers are tight-lipped about a new female villain they will be introducing, but they can say she will be familiar to many fans and will set her sights on Clark in ways Lex never could. Intelligent, brilliantly manipulative, and dangerously sinister, our gorgeous new villain has one more weapon in her arsenal: Her mutual attraction with Clark may prove to be as deadly as kryptonite for him.

Speculation on who she may be includes: Blaze? Maxima? Ursa? Silver Banshee? Thorn? Matrix? Livewire? Superwoman? Any other suggestions?

Kryptonsite has a letter from Rosenbaum to his fans

I happened upon this online copy of the unaired pilot for the cancelled Aquaman series starring Smallville’s Oliver Queen Justin Hartley. I like Hartley, but liked the way Alan Ritchson fills Arthur Curry’s speedos. You may have seen the pilot when they put it out on iTunes, but I missed it and only saw the trailer, so here it is.

Full pilot video wouldn’t embed but a link is below this trailer…

link to full unaired pilot