Live Action Avatar: The Last Airbender Teaser Trailer

Here it is, the first teaser for the live action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Looks like they nailed the scope, sound and look of the show. Get a chance to find out on February 22 if nailed all of it. If have not watched the original cartoon series, highly recommend it. Also its sequel series The Legend of Korra. Believe both are on Netflix.

R.I.P. Keith Giffen, Comics Book Legend, 1952-2023

The comic book industry lost a giant as comic book writer and artist Keith Giffen died at the age of 70 due to a stroke. The news was announced on his Facebook page per his instructions "I told them I was sick…Anything not to go to New York Comic Con, Thankx, Bwah ha ha ha ha.” If your a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy movies, you have him to partially thank for that as co-creator of Rocket Raccoon with Bill Mantlo in 1976, his first year in the comics industry. His other influenctual co-creations in the years that followed included Lobo, Ambush Bug, Jaime Reyes' Blue Beetle, Maxwell Lord and the humorous Justice League International. 

He worked basically for all the comic companies including DC (Legion of Super-Heroes, Doctor Fate, 52, Countdown to Final Crisis), Marvel (Annihilation, Drax The Destroyer, The Defenders), Dark Horse (Division 13, Agents of Law, and Valient Comics (X-O Manowar, Magnus, Solar). He even took a break from comics to storyboard for TV which including working on The Real Ghostbusters, Static Shock, Batman Beyond, and Spider-Man Unlimited). 

What I listed is just a fraction of his writing and artistic output. His influence on the comic world is basically everywhere as many current artists and writers drew inspiration from his work, Marvel movies, DC movies, and more. A true legend has died. Condolences to his family on their loss. 

 Keith was one of the most brilliantly creative humans I’ve ever known. A curmudgeon with a heart of gold. A generous collaborator. An old, dear friend. And, as my wife observed, “He was like a character out of a Keith Giffen story.” Safe travels, Keith. You will be missed. - J.M. DeMatteis

I adored Keith Giffen. Spending half an hour with him meant hearing so many original ideas it made you dizzy. Everyone told me he could be crabby, instead, he was lovely and generous to me every time we talked. I will always be a fan and carry awe for that man. - Gail Simone

Gutted to hear the passing of the legendary comic book creator Keith Giffen. He personified creativity to me in everything he did. Whether it was writing, plotting, drawing, kibitzing or creating—Keith did it like no other in the modern age. - Jim Lee

When it comes to sheer creative talent and the ability to come up with great ideas, one after another, no one did it better than Keith Giffen. Working with him was one of those fun, creative roller coaster types of experiences that made any project more fun. R.I.P, my friend. - Dan Jurgens

R.I.P Kevin Conroy 1955 - 2022 - The Definitive Voice of Batman

The voice of Batman for a generation or two, Kevin Conroy, has died at the age 66 after a fight with cancer. The actor worked in theatre and television but he is most know for becoming the iconic voice of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League cartoon, animated movies, Batman: Arkham, Injustice video games and more. According to The Hollywood Reporter he voice the character for "60 different productions, spanning 15 films and 400 episodes of television." He was even given a chance to play Bruce Wayne in the CW crossover "Crisis on Infinite Earths", a choice made specifically because of his iconic work with the character with the live action version based on the "Kingdom Come" version of Batman.

The news of his death first came from Diane Pershing (voice of Poison Ivy) who wrote "Very sad news: our beloved voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, died yesterday. He's been ill for a while but he really put in a lot of time at the cons, to the joy of all of his fans. He will be sorely missed not just by the cast of the series but by his legion of fans all over the world" where she included recent pictures of the actor with her at a convention. 

Another icon in the animation realm, casting and voice director Andrea Romano wrote "Kevin was far more than an actor whom I had the pleasure of casting and directing — he was a dear friend for 30-plus years whose kindness and generous spirit knew no boundaries. Kevin’s warm heart, delightfully deep laugh and pure love of life will be with me forever."

Mark Hamill known to some as Luke Skywalker, is also a definitive voice, this time for The Joker. He said "Kevin was perfection. He was one of my favorite people on the planet, and I loved him like a brother. He truly cared for the people around him – his decency shone through everything he did. Every time I saw him or spoke with him, my spirits were elevated. Kevin was a brilliant actor. For several generations, he has been the definitive Batman. It was one of those perfect scenarios where they got the exact right guy for the exact right part, and the world was better for it. His rhythms and subtleties, tones, and delivery – that all also helped inform my performance. He was the ideal partner – it was such a complementary, creative experience. I couldn't have done it without him."

If interested in a recent long interview with the actor, watch the Inside of You podcast. Below are a few tribute videos fans created when they learned of his death. It appears the last time he voiced the role is for the video game MultiVersus. Condolences to friends and family on their loss.

R.I.P. Queen Elizabeth II 1926 - 2022

The most famous monarch in the world, Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022. The second longest reigning monarch in human history is succeeded by her son King Charles III. Her legendary reign began on February 6, 1952 and has been a world constant ever since. Generations not just in the United Kingdom, but all over the world, have just always known she was there. Many are confused by a monarch, questions it viability or use, but regardless there was comfort in knowing that the Queen was always there. Sadly that is no more and the world is different for that. The world is lesser without her being in it. Canada's Justin Trudeau said it succulently, "In a complicated world, her steady grace and resolve brought comfort to us all." Condolences to the people of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, her family, and really to the world.  

A touching look back at her life can be found here. The leaders of the world offer their condolences while major areas of the world offered their own.

NBC Olympics Opening Intro and Closing Ceremony Montages (Tokyo 2021 Edition)

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics have come to a close. Despite COVID taking away the crowds, it was still an amazing Summer Olympics. Tokyo shined brightly and the athletes even brighter. So my little tradition continues. Or at least try to as yet to find the NBC closing credits. There is also a USA/NBCSN version too. Neither is currently available online.  Having seen other countries' network montages, NBC remains the gold standard.  Any case enjoy the past ones below. If you find this year's montages or replacements for ones below that no longer work, please email me link (top right) or post it in the comments.

In the United States, the Olympics Games television rights are owned by NBC (starting in 1988 for Summer Games, 2002 for Winter Games), CBS (1990s Winter Games) and ABC (1980s Winter Games). For NBC, their many hours of coverage always begins with a poetic introduction that shows off the host country and ends with their Olympics Ceremony credit montage that summarizes the games in spectacular fashion and while it has the expected focus on the US, it doesn't remain entirely there.

I tried to identify the music where possible besides NBC's traditional use of John Williams's "Olympic Fanfare and Theme", Leo Arnaud's "Bugler’s Dream" and Randy Edelman's "Theme from The Adventures of Brisco County Jr". Some of the videos are crap quality since NBC and the Olympic Committee isn't willing to post their versions online. If you find better copies, missing copies, or identify music gaps, please post in the comments.

As always thank you to the Olympians for bringing two weeks of joy, peace and the competitive spirit. Looking forward to the next Olympics.

Olympic Closing Credit Montages

R.I.P. Sean Connery 1930 - 2020

Legendary actor Sean Connery died at age 90 after a long illness. The retired actor left behind an amazing filmography whose career took off when he was cast as 007 James Bond for Dr No. and reprising the role for additional 6 movies. He later played a critical role in Highlander, moved on to the russian submarine commander in The Hunt for Red October, and play Henry Jones Sr. in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade with a then surprise appearance as King Richard in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. His one Oscar came from playing Jimmy Malone in The Untouchables. The actor retired in 2003 with his final role in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman. His resume is worth giving a look followed by a movie binge as he always elevated every film he was in. Condolances to his family and friends on their loss.

DC FanDome Movie News for The Batman, Suicide Squad and More

Its been awhile since posted here. Mostly because have not felt like it. Figured the latest news from this weekend's DC FanDome was worth passing on. The weekend event includes "live" panels. Fake live as all the content was pre-recorded but streaming only in live format which strikes me limiting in this day and age of on demand. At least WB PR is smart enough to make sure their trailers are available for all to see.

On the movie front we got a look at new trailers for upcoming projects including the first trailer for The Batman (56 images), a new trailer for Wonder Woman 1984, first trailer for Justice League: The Snyder Cut (39 images), and a very early look at Black Adam. Aquaman 2 is also in the works with director James Wan saying it will be "a little more serious." Shazam 2 also scored a title of "Shazam: Fury of the Gods" and thats about it on that. On the video game front DC revealed 2 new games - The Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League and Gotham Knights. Trailers for everything below.

Release dates on everything is either unknown and not specific as Coronavirus has disrupted the shooting and release schedules of nearly all entertainment projects. Wonder Woman 1984 is currently scheduled for possible October release but everything else is a circa 2021 to 2023 window so basically meaningless right now.

The Batman
Movie is set early in the career of The Batman, before his famed Rogues Gallery had formed, before he had all those beautiful toys and become The World's Greatest Detective.

Wonder Woman 1984

Fast forward to the 1980s as Wonder Woman’s next big screen adventure finds her facing two all-new foes: Max Lord and The Cheetah.

Justice League: The Snyder Cut
Set to premiere on HBO Max streaming service sometime in 2021, the famed Snyder Cut will be based on the director's orginial and quite extended version of the film with the director considering releasing it as a 4 part miniseries of an hour each. He had always intended to have the Justice League sequel include a battle with Darkseid, plans that are now forever aborted thanks to financial failure of the film. This may be his way of combining both movie plans into one.

The Suicide Squad - Roll Call and Behind the Scenes
Starring: Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn), Idris Elba, Joel Kinnaman (Rick Flag), John Cena (Peacemaker), Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), Jai Courtney (Captain Boomerang), Michael Rooker (Savant), Flula Borg (Javelin), David Dastmalchian (Polka-Dot Man), Daniela Melchior (Ratcatcher), Steve Agee (King Shark), Mayling Ng (Mongal), Peter Capaldi (The Thinker), Alice Braga (Sul Soria), Pete Davidson (Blackguard), Nathan Fillion (T.K.D.), Sean Gunn (Weasel), Storm Reid, Taika Waititi, Joaquín Cosío, and Juan Diego Botto

Black Adam Teaser

Dwayne Johnson is set to star as the DC Comics anti-hero in this film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. The DC FanDome panel presented concept art of what fans can expect from the Shazam spin-off, including Black Adam's costume. Black Adam is scheduled to open December 22, 2021.

Gotham Knights

Batman is dead. It is now up to the Batman Family - Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin - to protect Gotham City, bring hope to its citizens, discipline to its cops, and fear to its criminals. You must evolve into the new Dark Knight and save Gotham from chaos.

Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League

The creators of the Batman: Arkham series are back with a brand new action-adventure shooter. The most dangerous villains in the DC Universe have been forced to team up and take on a new mission: Kill the Justice League. Create Chaos in Metropolis. You are the Suicide Squad

Top Gun: Maverick Trailer

Been a long time since posted. What can I say, do not have much to say. This post is more or less a pulse check post. Enjoy the trailer.

Avengers: Endgame TV Spots

I should probably just put a knife in this blog but eh it doesn't take up much time. Any case here are two TV spots for Avengers: Endgame. Maybe 5 seconds of new footage is used. Its mostly more of the look at past movies to represent the end of this particular saga.

Avengers: Endgame Official Trailer

Out of the blue this morning, Marvel released the trailer for Avengers 4. The official title is Avengers: Endgame which takes post Thanos' snap in Infinity War as the remaining heroes try to pick up the pieces and work out a way to reverse the decimation of life. I would have called it Avengers: Assemble but guess that is too on the nose.

A Legend Passes - R.I.P. Stan Lee 1922-2018

Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Hulk, Iron Man, Black Panther, Inhumans, Daredevil, Thor, Sandman, Sinister Six, She-Hulk, Wasp, Ant-Man, the list just goes on and on. All co-created by on man - Stan Lee. In effect, Marvel Comics existed because of the prolific imagination of this amazing person. Today, we lost a true legend. Stan Lee passed away today at the age of 95 leaving behind a legacy unlike any other. A legacy of great imagination married with conveying great responsibility while reflecting the imperfect world we lived in so can marvel at it all. His creativity, his approach to story telling has inspired and will continue to inspire generations.

Stanley Lieber was born on December 8, 1922 in New York City. As a teenager growing up during the depression he worked various jobs to help his family until eventually working for his cousin-in-law at Timely Comics. There he met his fellow legends Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (creators of Captain America). A sign of his creativity was his very first work called "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge", two pages of text story that existed due to postal regulatations. In the story Captain America threw his mighty shield for the first time, a now iconic signature move of the character. It was in this story that his nom de plume "Stan Lee" first appeared before it eventually became his legal name.

Amazingly Timely Comics let go Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Their replacement editing the books at the ripe old age of 18 was Stan Lee. The attack on Pearl Harbor led to Lee enlisting to fight World War II as a member of the signal corps and then joining the Training Films Division as "playwright". Once he returned he married his wife of 70 years, Joan Clayton Boocock and returned to Timely Comics now called Atlas Comics. They had two children, Joan Celia born in 1950, and Jan who died after only three days. Throughout the 1950s Stan Lee worked on whatever needed to be done to get comics to shelves be it stories for then popular genres of westerns, horror and crime stories.

By the end of the 1950s Stan Lee was simply tired of writing these kinds of stories. However an opportunity arose as DC Comics successfully spurred a new age, the Silver Age of comics with an updated version of the Flash and the creation of the Justice League of America. In 1961, Lee was assigned to task of coming up with a superhero team for Atlas to ride the Justice League wave of popularity. An assignment he didn't really want to do. By now the barely surviving Atlas Comics had changed names once again, to Marvel Comics. However, his wife told him to go for broke, tell the story his way with his characters because what did he have to lose? Late that year debuted The Fantastic Four. This was shortly followed by the debut of Spider-Man. The popularity of the titles led to the immediate production of new superhero titles. Just between 1961 to 1963 he co-created Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, X-Men, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, formed The Avengers, revived the Sub-Mariner, Captain America, a slew of villains and supporting characters and so much more rising to Editor-in-Chief. In short Marvel Comics and the entire cinematic universe exists because a wife pushed her husband to his imagination free leading to an explosion of creative output.

Another "creation" of Stan Lee is the engagement with comic fans that he strongly encouraged. He built a sense of community with fans and creators by introducing the credit panel naming the writer, penciller, inker and letterer of each story. Before then it was rare and almost unheard of. He created the Bullpen Bulletins page to keep fans up to date on new hires and upcoming story-lines and "Stan's Soapbox" to reach his readers directly. He actively and regularly participated in the letter columns, providing responses to fan letters often ending his letters and opinion pieces with "Excelsior!". Lee would give out the "No-Prize" to fans for finding continuity errors in the comics, called that Lee put it "there will be no prizes, and therefore, no losers" and the only real prize was having their letter published and an acknowledgment from Stan Lee. For most fans, that was the prize.

In 1972 Stan Lee was promoted to Publisher at Marvel shifting from writing stories to becoming the public face of Marvel at comic book conventions and on college campuses. The 1980 and on was Lee in Los Angeles pushing for the TV and movie version of Marvel properties, continuing to be the public face of Marvel, while also creating various companies, none of which were particularly successful. Regardless of where he was in his life, he never strayed far from Marvel constantly showing up at conventions and of course doing cameos in Marvel movies (see below). In short he loved what he did, he loved Marvel, and more than that he loved sharing his love of superheroes with the fans.

A legend died today. The world is a little less. What he left behind is simply marvelous. Thank you Stan "The Man" Lee for your creative genius, generosity of spirit, and being the best ambassador for comics it could ever have. Be at peace with your wife. You will be missed.

Comics and Hollywood Reactions: Bleeding Cool I | Deadline | io9 | Feige | Bleeding Cool II

Avengers: Infinity War Trailer #2

Looking forward to this movie that hits theaters on April 27.

Toys R Us Shutting Down

A true end of an era as 70 year old Toys R Us is shutting down world wide, selling off its assets over the next coming months. Some form of it may survive as negotiations are ongoing for some stores but the business multiple generations of kids grew up with will cease to exist, likely by the beginning of the summer. The cause is varied but primarily it can be placed at the feet of Bain Capital that makes profits by destroying companies after saddlings them with far more debt then they can handle or ever dig themselves out from. TRU went from $50 of million in debt in early 2005, sold to be Bain which drove that number to around $5.5 billion in that same year. The economics fails me but the net result is the company had not means of expanding, updating its stores, exploring new business models or anything else. Finally after 12 years, saddled with even more debt despite over 15 years of over of solid multi-billion years of sales, the company simply couldn't survive under the load. Its a sad day. The only year takeaway is if you know your company is owned by Bain Capital, look for an exist strategy as that company is exists to destroy.

Firefox: "Do This Automatically for Files Like This" Is Greyed Out

Recently Firefox changed how the browser works at a fundamental level in what they called Firefox Quantum or Firefox v57 and up. Despite the update one of the long term problems (to me anyway) is the issue of the open dialog box where "Do this automatically for files like this from now on." is greyed out. As a result you do not get to tell Firefox how to handles these file types (or extension and what Mozilla calls a MimeType) from now on so do not have to keep verifying if it should download automatically or open a certain program. There is a technical reason for why its greyed out but it really doesn't matter because its a server side setting that you as the user has no control over and so you can't force that option to not be greyed out. The problem is the powers that be at Mozilla have long decided that the user should not be able to manually add extensions types via the gui interface.

Fortunately there is a fix that I found by combined multiple poor answers from various forums. Why people skip all the steps when explaining how to fix something always confuses me since they are trying to be helpful but provide answers that assumes their audience mostly knows the answer and just needs a nudge in a particular direction. In the pre-quantum days, the fix involved editing the mimeTypes.rdf file. Now it involves editing a different file called handlers.json. Now these instructions are going to assume you know the basics of your computer as some parts will change based on which version of Windows you have. If not sure how to do something like open Windows Explorer or Run, google it for your operating system.

NBC Olympics Opening Intro and Closing Ceremony Montages (Pyeongchang Edition)

The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games have come to a close and as is now a tradition, I like to try to post the previous and current montages and opening intros to the games when I am able to find them while also attempting to identity the music. The joy of victory and the pride to compete was on full display.

In the United States, the Olympics Games television rights are owned by NBC (starting in 1988 for Summer Games, 2002 for Winter Games), CBS (1990s Winter Games) and ABC (1980s Winter Games). For NBC, their many hours of coverage always begins with a poetic introduction that shows off the host country and ends with their Olympics Ceremony credit montage that summarizes the games in spectacular fashion and while it has the expected focus on the US, it doesn't remain entirely there.

I tried to identify the music where possible besides NBC's traditional use of John Williams's "Olympic Fanfare and Theme", Leo Arnaud's "Bugler’s Dream" and Randy Edelman's "Theme from The Adventures of Brisco County Jr". Some of the videos are crap quality since NBC and the Olympic Committee isn't willing to post their versions online. If you find better copies, missing copies, or identify music gaps, please post in the comments.

As always thank you to the Olympians for bringing two weeks of joy, peace and the competitive spirit. Looking forward to the next Olympics.

Olympic Closing Credit Montages

Avengers: Infinity War Trailer

Does this really need an introduction? Its Avengers 3 and its looks epic.

Apple Introduces iPhone X (Ten)

In an effort to mark the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, yesterday Apple introduced the iPhone X (ten) and currently skipping over an iPhone 9. They finally dropped most of the storage sizes which hopefully will become the standard for all devices across the board as 16GB and 32GB anything is rather stupid and overly cheap of companies. The phones come in just two storage sizes - 64GB and 256GB. Most people will not need more then 64GB. They also showed off the Apple Watch 3 which might actually be worth buying now along with Apple TV 4k. Below are the highlights. You can watch the 2 hour event in 13 minutes here. Also iOS 11 will be released on September 19 for new devices and old.

iPhone X
- Price: $1000 (64GB)
- Release Date: November 3 (pre-orders start on October 27)
- Screen: 5.8" Super Retina OLED display that goes edge to edge of the device, removing the home button (replaced with swipe up motion)
- FaceID - replaces Touch ID by using facial recognition that uses multiple sensors and data including infra-red, to detect a face.
- Other: A11 processor, 12-megapixel camera with image stabilization, and Qi wireless charging
- Summary: its an iPhone Plus for those that really deeply care about screen quality and don't mind paying for it.

Happy 25th Anniversary Batman the Animated Series

Batman: The Animated series turned 25 today. September 5, 1992 is considered the official debut date of Batman: The Animated Series on Fox Kids. The cartoon series is considered by many (including me) to be the greatest cartoon series of all times. Happy Birthday. Shame it can't come back as still don't have a good super hero series of the same caliber. Batman: The Animated Series remains the gold standard on how to improve and update characters, especially villians.

I still use it as a source of comparison when continue to see mostly poor attempts by writers to add their own often silly little spin to Batman’s Rogues Gallery. The TV show Gotham suffers from this regularly. I get their doing their own thing, which is fine...but when you have a template on how to do it right you have no excuse for failing cause if your take is crap, just copy theirs (which they have but its like a copy of a copy of a copy like their take on Mr. Freeze and his origin). With BAS, when they tweaked an origin or added to them, it always tied directly into the personality and behavior of the character. It wasn’t done as a gimmick, might look or sound cool, it was a choice of true characterization that is often missing today’s comics and media adaptations.

At the end of the day I wish more writers and directors would follow a simple rule - if I cut this scene, sequences, plot point does it impact the story or the characters? If the answer is no, then its got to go and be replaced with something that follows that rule. BAS seemed to always have that in the back of their head for many episodes with is an amazing accomplishment for a cartoon series at kids and one that almost no television show in the last few decade or so can match.

Read more: How BAS Change Superhero Adaptations | Behind the Scenes Interview with Voices of Show

Game of Thrones Season 7 Trailer

Sheesh been a while since posted but just have not felt like it. Until now with a new trailer for Game of Thrones Season 7. People who have read the books might recongnize stuff but it was all greek to me except the part that matters - Winter is Here on July 16.

Nintendo Switch Details, Release Date: March 3, 2017

In an hour on long presentation (video below) Nintendo finally revealed some details on their next generation console called the Nintendo Switch. How you interact with it has not changed but now we know the release date is Friday, March 3 for $300. The specs include a 6.2" 720p touch screen display that outputs in 1080p when docked. The memory is a pathetic 32GB (tech companies really need to dumb the 32GB space standards, it was old four years ago). The hope is the game cartridges called GameCards that are similar in size and shape to Nintendo 3DS games) will do most of the heavy lifting on space but it doesn't really address how those that prefer to buy digitally will manage the space limitations. In portable mode the Switch's battery life will be between 2.5 to 6 hours depending on the graphics horsepower the game needs. Additionally Nintendo is finally doing away with proprietary connections by using a USB-C for charging on the go.