Bruce, Meet Thomas.

Well here's an interesting twist of events for DC comic book fans!


DC has been ramping up interest in their upcoming Flash/Batman crossover event called "The Button."  Here's their official synopsis:


Two greatest detectives in the DC Universe unite to unravel the mystery behind a certain blood stained smiley face button stuck in the Batcave wall. However, what begins as a simple investigation soon turns deadly when the secrets of the button prove irresistible to an unwelcome third party — and it’s not who anyone suspects! This is a mystery woven throughout time, and the countdown starts here!


In DC Universe: Rebirth #1, Bruce Wayne discovers the Watchmen Button on the wall inside his Batcave, and after doing some tests, it reveals multiverse radiation on the button similar to the letter that was sent back at the end of “Flashpoint.”  This may be the catalyst that sets “The Button’s” mystery in motion, and leads them back to the “Flashpoint” universe.
 
As you may or may not know, in "Flashpoint" Barry Allen goes back in time, saves his mother, and when he returned to his present, things hard turned all wonky.  There was still a Batman, but it wasn't Bruce Wayne.  He had been killed in the alley instead of Thomas.  Batman was Thomas Wayne, Bruce's father, and he was a more hardened and extreme Batman than Bruce ever was.  Martha Wayne took a more evil turn, cutting herself and her face into a smile, killing the man that shot Bruce with a hammer, and basically became that timeline's Joker  Barry was able to go back in time and correct everything, setting his present back to normal, but before he left, Thomas gave him a letter to give to Bruce when he returned to his alternate timeline.  That's the really short of the story, there was a lot to take in, so I'd recommend going back and reading it for yourself.



Now it looks like even the alternate universe has changed, judging by the cover art that was revealed for Batman #22.  Check it out below:

Now it seems that Martha also died in the alley.  You can see Thomas Wayne as Batman on the left, and then see both Batmans on the right, Thomas and Bruce.  It seems to reason that Bruce is finally going to be able to reunite with his Dad, but will it be a happy one?  Is Thomas the "unwelcome third party" that they're talking about in the synopsis?  Everything starts to unfold May 2, 2017, so mark your calendar.

Possible Hawkeye Appearance In Ant-Man And The Wasp Movie

It's starting to sound like Disney and Marvel are going to continue having multiple characters from the Avengers team appear in their future projects.  The most recent revelation comes from Showbiz411, which is reporting that Hawkeye will be appearing in the sequel for Ant-Man, Ant-Man and The Wasp, and while Jeremy Renner's plate seems to be pretty full at the moment, it's still quite possible.  Keep in mind that as of right now, these are just rumors or possible speculation, since Marvel hasn't made any official announcement on this matter yet.

I say that it's possible because right now Renner is at Pinewood Studios in Atlanta, Georgia filming his scenes for the back to back Avengers movies, Avengers: Infinity War and the yet to be named Avengers 4.  Since Ant-Man and The Wasp will also be filming there, it would be pretty easy to move him from one set to the other, allowing him to work both projects.  On the down side of this, because his schedule is as packed as it is with Hawkeye appearances, it doesn't look like he'll be able to reprise his role as William Brandt in Mission Impossible 6. 

If this rumor turns out to be true, it will just be the next in a long line of Marvel movies that will feature two or more Avengers movies.  It makes sense, too.  You have the characters, so you might as well use them.  While Renner hasn't been confirmed as appearing in Ant-Man and The Wasp, other actors from the first movie have been.  They include Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, and Michael Pena.  Ant-Man and The Wasp will be released July 6, 2018.

Is Sony Going To Pull Spider-Man From The MCU?

One of the breakout stars from last year's Captain America: Civil War was Tom Holland's portrayal of Spider-Man/Peter Parker.  In a rare (and never done move) Sony and Disney and Marvel came together to put together an agreement that allowed Sony to share Spider-Man with a competitor, Marvel, and vice versa.  This year's upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming will not only feature the web-slinger, but appearances by Tony Stark/Iron Man, and even (what looks to be an Easter Egg of) Captain America.  The latter is involved with a high school fitness video, probably made pre Winter Soldier.  But is this partnership doomed to end?  According to former Sony head Amy Pascal, the answer is yes.


“One of the things that I think is so amazing about this experience is that you don’t have studios deciding to work together to make a film very often. In fact, it may never happen again – after we do the sequel. Because Sony and Disney and Marvel all decided that the right thing to do was to allow Peter Parker and Spider-Man to be in the MCU, and to work with the Marvel guys and have them produce this film, and I think that was a very rare thing for three companies to do and a very brilliant thing for them to decide to do because there are only so many stories that you know you can tell again and again and again about Spidey, and this is something that we would never been able to do in any other way. So, it was a very selfless thing that was very smart on the part of all the companies.”


As surprising as it is too hear someone who used to be in the know actually voice this out loud in public, it kind of makes sense.  Sony is currently developing a Black Cat and Silver Sable movie, and it seems that they are also working on a rated-R Venom movie.  There was, however, a report in Forbes that many see as a rebuke to Pascal's claims.


“So, with Avengers: Infinity War in May 2018, Holland will have fulfilled one of his solo Spidey film commitments (Spider-Man: Homecoming) plus two of his other appearances (Captain America: Civil War and Infinity War). That would mean he has two more Spider-Man films on his contract, plus one more appearance as Spider-Man in another film. We know one of those two solo movies will still be within the MCU, making four of his appearances linked to the larger Marvel shared world.”


Funny thing is, it doesn't really go against anything that she said.  She said after the sequel to Spider-Man he could exit.  You look at the run down for all of his appearances it seems that after a certain amount of movies and cameos, Sony will be allowed out of the MCU, per contract.  The Forbes report even said "We know one of those two solo movies will still be within the MCU..." and Pascal said that Spider-Man could leave the MCU "...after we do the sequel."  So while we got to see Spidey with all of the Avengers kicking some butt, and will see him again in a few more films with them, his run in the MCU may be a very short one.

New "Gorilla Walkers" To Appear In Episode VIII

Sorry I missed yesterday, had to take the day off, but it gave me time to do some reading and hitting different sites to see what's been going on.  One of the more interesting articles I read was a revelation that was revealed by Making Star Wars that we will be treated to a brand new Imperial Walker.  We've had AT-AT's, AT-ST's, and AT-PT's, but in the newest installment of the Star Wars franchise, The Last Jedi, we'll be given "Super Walkers," or as the crew behind the magic were calling them, "Gorilla Walkers."  These are the First Order's walkers, and are roughly twice the size of an AT-AT (the walkers from The Empire Strikes Back) and their footing is a lot bulkier, probably to keep the Rebels from using tow-cables again to bring them down.  They also move quite a bit faster.  They were nicknamed "Gorilla Walkers" because of the way they resembled an actual gorilla while standing upright.  They even have a crossbar that lets the legs "scoop forward and then scoop back."  Their armor is being reported to be a lot thicker, so it should be interesting to see how the Rebels are able to bring these things down.


No images of these new Gorilla Walkers have been released, but it's said that the First Order will be using them in a 'large sequence" during the film.  I wouldn't expect that we'll be given any images of these new Walkers until the movie is released.  I know that in a few weeks, the official first trailer for The Last Jedi will be released during Star Wars Celebration, but first trailers are used to tease our interests, introduce new characters and establish old ones, and basically just get us excited for more trailers and the movie.


Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits theaters December 15, 2017.

I'm Not Sure If This Possible Choice For Cable Is A Good One Or Bad One...

I have to admit, I found this bit of news to be more funny than exciting.  Not because it's really a bad idea, I just can't picture this guy as Cable.  Can you tell who it is from this fan made art?

You know that I mentioned the other day that there would probably be an announcement on who will be playing Cable in the upcoming Deadpool 2 movie, since production is set to begin this spring.  A couple of sites have reported that the front runner right now is Michael Shannon, but in order for this to happen, he'll have to drop out of another movie that is also set to begin filming this spring.  The other recent revelation that came out from Collider is that Brad Pitt was in contention for the role.  They even said that he was interested in taking on the role in the beginning, but as time went by, he didn't seem as interested in taking on the role as he had before.  One of the reasons for this might be that whoever they get for the role will be playing it in other movies, like X-Force and Deadpool 3.  That's not necessarily something out of the realm of possibility for Pitt, though.  He did star in three Ocean's movies, so maybe he just became interested in other projects as they were offered to him.

Until we get an actual announcement, it is pretty cool to see this fan made art, and their interpretation of Pitt in the Cable role.  Do you think Pitt would make a good Cable character, or would you like to see someone else get the job?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments section down below.



Ego From Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 "Biggest Visual Effect Of All Time"

Sorry I missed yesterday, but things were pretty crazy here in the real world.  I'm back today, though, and figured I'd talk about one of the most highly anticipated films of the year...Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.  One of the reasons why people are looking forward to the film (besides the obvious one of getting to join the crew for another adventure) is the teasing of getting to see Ego, The Living Planet.  Kurt Russell is set to play Ego, and while we've seen small bits of Russell in his "human" form, we haven't seen anything of the planet Ego itself.  That's because the writer and director of the film, James Gunn, is keeping the reveal close to the chest.  Don't expect to see any of it until the movie's release.


Gunn recently sat down with Empire Magazine to talk about the film, and everything that went into making the film and Ego come to life.  While talking about the latter, he said that Ego is actually the biggest visual effect "in the history of film."  He went on to say:


“We have over a trillion polygons on Ego’s planet. It’s the biggest visual effect of all time. There’s nothing even close to it. Which is cool.”


After being teased in the first film that Peter Quill's father was an ancient being, people began to wonder who it was that they were referring to.  Since Ego isn't Star-Lord's father in the comic books, it was a huge surprise when it was revealed that he was going to be his father in the movie.  The film is set to begin a few months after the end of the first film, and Gunn has said that it will be a more intimate film, focusing on the characters more than the actual adventure, but that's not to say that there won't be an adventure.  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 looks to be an even bigger movie than the first.  It's also been announced that there definitely will be a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but whether Gunn is behind the camera for that one is still up in the air.  He said he's going to take some time off after finishing Vol. 2 to rest and figure out what he wants to do next...a new and different film, or Vol. 3.


Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters May 5, 2017.  This is going to be a fun summer for movies!

This is worse than a reboot...

I'm sorry that this is a late post, but I have a job that pays, and this one doesn't.  I do it out of love of the genre, and the fans that follow fanboy news.  So today's post is going to be a rant.  i know that they are not very popular, but this is something that I feel pretty strongly about.  Let's get started!

We all know that "Reboots" are pretty much the lowest form of quality when it comes to movies.  The production companies think that if they churn out a new version of something old that we all love, we'll come flocking! (How would you feel if they "reboot" Star Wars?) So now, instead of "rebooting" films, they're taking animated movies and turning them into live-action films.  I think this is a disgrace.  It's THE SAME MOVIE!!! It just has living actors!  Unfortunately, this weekend's Beauty And The Beast has shown me that there are a lot of people out there that do NOT hold my contempt.  Even though the film pretty much made the same movie as the animated one from years ago, it pulled in over $170 million over it's opening weekend!  I truly do not understand this!  Oh wait, they created two new songs for the film!  Never mind, it all makes sense to me now!  What the...no....this is a family blog.  This makes about as much sense to me as Titanic.  Why did that movie ever make so much money?  You knew how it was going to end!  The ship sinks, and somebody dies!  It's a romance movie!  Even though Nicholas Sparks didn't write it, you should have known that one of the main characters were going to die!  It's the same thing with Beauty And The Beast.  We all saw the animated film, so why is this movie getting such high marks and box office totals?!?  And this isn't the only one that Disney is regurgitating to us!  They're also making a live-action The Little Mermaid!  It's only going to get worse!  Don't believe me?  Look at your movie listings...they made a movie from the CHIPS TV show from the 80's!  It's getting cold, and I think it's because Hollywood has frozen over.

Sorry about this post, I just needed to rant.  I'll try and find something substantial to write about tomorrow.  Thanks for listening!

The X-Men Cinematic Universe Is Getting Bigger...

20th Century Fox is realy starting to ramp up their X-Men Cinematic Universe.  Logan is cleaning up at the box office right now (in fact, it just became the highest grossing Wolverine movie from the trilogy this past weekend), a stand-alone Gambit movie is in the works, as well as a New Mutants movie, an X-Force movie, a new X-Men movie was recently announced, and of course, Deadpool 2.  The latter has been stirring up all sorts of talk online about who will be cast in the role of Cable.  With production set to start next month, we'll probably find out here shortly who will be taking on that part.  One of the reasons it's been taking them so long to find someone is because they want to get it right.  Not just for the Deadpool 2 movie, but for the X-Force movie, as well.


It's starting to sound like Cable and the Merc with a Mouth will also be featured in the X-Force movie that they are working on.  Why do I think this?  Because one of the producers over at 20th Century Fox said so.  Kinberg was talking about all of the future X-Men projects to Deadline, and after listing off all of the movies that I discussed up above, went on to say this:


 “Then X Force which is a combination of Deadpool, and Cable –they’re like the Black ops of the X-Men. They’re much darker and have an R-rated decibel. There are other X-Men characters coming into X-Force at different times in the comic, but it’s separate from X-Men.”


If they're going to be featuring Cable in multiple X-Men properties, I can see why they are taking their time in choosing an actor.  They'll want to get it right.  Not only do they need someone that can go toe-to-toe with Deadpool, but also someone who can lead the X-Force team.  That's a tall order when filling a role.


Like I said, we should be finding out who the actor will be in the coming weeks, and as soon as I find out, I'll let you all know.  I'll be back tomorrow!

Yeah, That Last Post Wasn't One Of My Best...

With the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story coming out soon on Blu-Ray and DVD, I figured that I'd give you the correct way to watch the Star Wars movie series.  So here it is...You start with the latest film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, then watch A New Hope, then The Empire Strikes Back, then jump to the prequels, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and then Revenge of the Sith.  You do this because when you're watching the series in the correct order, after finding out in Empire that Vader is Luke's father, you need to see the back story before watching Return.  You don't want to find out that Vader is Luke's father until you know what's happened in the past.  Then you watch Return, and then The Force Awakens.  So when Rogue One comes out in a couple of weeks, and you want to watch the series in order, now you know how to watch them all.  You're welcome!

Did Samuel L. Jackson Let Slip A Red Skull Return?

We haven't seen Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in a MCU movie for quite a while now, and even he doesn't know why.  While talking with HOT 97 to promote his new movie Kong: Skull Island, Jackson was asked about his absence from MCU films.  After saying that he still doesn't understand why he wasn't asked to be in the Black Panther film, he went on to say:

"You didn't see me in Civil War.  I'm still out there trying to figure out what The Skull is going to..."

He paused there.  It might have been one of those "Oh Crap" moments where he's trying to figure out if he just let something slip.  If that's what it was, does that mean that Fury has been running around the MCU trying to find the Red Skull?  That would explain why he hasn't been around for a while.  In fact, Fury's not supposed to appear in another MCU movie until Avengers: Infinity War.  This would be an incredible reason for Fury's absence.  If this is the case, why don't they make a Nick Fury movie covering his search for the Red Skull?  Marvel is wasting one of their best characters and actors by not featuring Fury in more films.  And why shouldn't he be in more films?  He's the guy that brought them together in the first place, and seems to be the glue that keeps them together.  When he's not around, Civil War happens.

While Marvel continues to dominate at the box office, one of the things that fans complain about the most is that there are no exciting villains (save for Loki) that the Avengers have had to go up against.  Red Skull was awesome in Captain America: The First Avenger, but he disappeared into the Tesseract at the end of the final battle.  That means, out of 14 movies, only two villains were ever memorable.  That's pretty sad, Marvel.  With all of the source material you have to go off of, and you can only give us two exciting bad guys?  Here's hoping that changes soon.  I think the most promising up and coming bad guy was teased to us at the end of Doctor Strange.  Here's hoping.

I'll Be Back Tomorrow!

I've been gone for a long while...I know...and I'm sorry.  I needed some time away to do some personal stuff and get my head back into the fanboy mode.  Everybody needs some down time, right?  Anyway, I'll be back starting tomorrow, and it'll be a Monday through Friday thing again.  Thanks for sticking with me while I was gone!