Sorry Robert, Batman IS a Hero

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Tonight. Stargirl heads to the CW. Spider Woman returns to comics. And a very long game of Monopoly. All that more on this comics filled edition of Multiverse. Tonight! Comic books. And uh episode number 52, the sci-fi edition, is just uh one episode back. So if you haven't if you want to listen to the sci-fi news, go back there. Do you do you really believe we're in December already? This year is just kind of booked along. Uh now, here here's a question I gotta ask you. Do you have a favorite comic book this year? A favorite comic book, movie, any kind of movie. Uh what do you think was the biggest geek story of the year? You know? I I'd I'd like to pick your brain on this. Uh if uh you would be so willing, uh go ahead and drop me a message on Twitter uh at multiverse tom at uh Facebook or Instagram, multiverse tonight. Uh you can also email uh that's multiverse tonight, all one word, at multiverse tonight.com and uh or go to our contact page. There's a little sign you know fill in sheet there, and uh just answer me answer me those questions. And if I really like them, if I use them on the air, uh I might just send you something something nice. I have lots of stuff sitting in another room in the house that is just you know, there are shirts, there are toys, there are all sorts of things that I've gotten from from loot crates and geek boxes, you know, over the past year or so that I would just love to get rid of. And you know, if if your answer really speaks to me, maybe I'll give you something. Anyway, let's uh get on with the comic book news. Let's start with DC. Now, a billion dollars makes some people just go crazy, do crazy things, like make sequels. According to the Hollywood reporter, Warner Brothers is going forward with a sequel to Joker, bringing back Todd Phillips to direct and co-write alongside Scott Silver. Now, a deal with the Joaquin Phoenix hasn't been made yet, but most likely he'll be back as well. Now, to top this off, Todd Phillips has met with Warner Brothers chairman, Toby Emmerich, and gotten permission to develop solo m movies for one or two other DC villains. Now, I guess the question then becomes you know, he's done a joke he's done Joker, what other DC villains could he do a Joker type movie about? You know, any thoughts crazy quilt. Let's do a crazy quilt. Or uh something something weird. Let's do a weird villain. Let's do Killer Croc. I don't know a Killer Croc movie, let's do Killer Croc. Anyway, uh Jeff John's Stargirl series is headed to the CW. Now, according to comicbook.com, the series will first debut on the DC Universe app before getting a broadcast TV premiere just one day later. Stargirl follows the adventures of high school student Courtney Whitmore, played by Breck Basinger, as she inspires an unlikely group of heroes to stop the villains of the past. The series will debut sometime in 2020. The Rock Dwayne Johnson, speaking with comicbook.com, has confirmed that the Justice Society of America will be introduced in the Black Adam movie. The Justice Society was DC's original superhero team that debuted back in the 1940s. Now, there's no word on which lineup will be for this team, but most likely won't be the original original lineup, which was uh Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, you know, heroes like that. It'll probably be, you know, something more along the lines of uh the uh you know the older heroes. You know, Minuteman, places like that. Anyway, uh news has also come come out that the that uh producer Hiram Garcia is working out how to cross over Black Adam with Shazam. You know, maybe they meet in Shazam too. You know, that could be a big plot right there. Now uh some of the more interesting news that's been out recently is about Bat the Batman. So uh first we have a little bit of uh casting news. And man, is this movie just getting stuffed with actors? Director Matt Reeves has confirmed that John Totaro will be playing crime boss Crime Falcone, the leader of the Falcone crime family in Gotham. Now he joins Andy Circus, Colin Farrell, Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, and the star Robert Pattinson in the film, which was due out in June 25th of 2021. Now, should we all be expecting casting calls as well? Because I would love to have a part, uh, Mr. Reeves, maybe uh podcaster. I already know that part. While uh now while we're on the subject of the Batman, now this this story just has me kind of puzzled, so so help me figure this one out. Robert Pattinson, in a new interview with today, had an interesting response to why he wanted to play a superhero. Pattinson repo responded, quote, Batman's not a superhero. It doesn't count. You need to have like magical powers to be a superhero, unquote. Now, he apparently said something similar in an interview with the New York Times, saying, quote, Batman's not a hero, though. He's a complicated character. I don't think I could ever play a real hero. There's always got to be something a little bit wrong. I think it's because one of my eyes is smaller than the other one, unquote. Okay, Robert. Uh Captain Sparkle Sparkle vampire. Batman is a hero. He's just a kind of dark superhero. His superpowers are his brain. Yeah. He is literally like the world's you know with all apologies to Sh Shazam, he is literally the world's mightiest mortal. He can outthink villains that have powers that would crush any other man. He has elevated his body to you know, a level above any other normal man. So uh you might want to get you know, reread the source material before you defame such a iconic character, okay? Bob. Uh I'll get off my sop my uh soapbox now. Now uh we also have some comic book news with Batman. You know, Batman is like nine-tenths of DC, you know. Uh writer James Tinian uh the fourth has revealed plans for the Batman series when he takes it over in January. First up, Batman is going to fix Gotham City. James wrote in his newsletter, The Empire of the Tiny Onion, quote, he has just faced tremendous failure in the last year of year of story. Now that was referring to the city of Bainark. He continued, he has lost his city and lost his way. But now that he's back, he almost has an almost manic intensity. He's going to fix things. He's going to make it so that nobody like Bane can ever do this to the city again. Now and we'll stop the quote right there. Now he also uh kept the romance is going to keep the romance going between Bruce and Cowwoman, saying, quote, with Selena on his arm, the Playboy Bruce is dead. Every waking minute is dedicated to the rebuild of Gotham City, both as Bruce Wayne as b and as Batman. He is in control of every room he enters, and people are a little frightened of him. He is one of the richest people in the world. He has experienced so much loss, but it's clear he's trying to make the city better. People admire him, because most people in his shoes would have left Gotham a long time ago. However, uh Tinian does uh say that the comic going forward will be more of an action hero superhero comic where the villains and Batman will be frightening. He went on to say, quote, the villains of Gotham fear him, and he is going to take that fear and wield it like a weapon to get his city back under control. Batman doesn't just show up in broad daylight to scare his villains, he uses tricks and shadows and voice modulation to make it seem like he can be anywhere and everywhere at once. He basically compared Batman to Michael Myers. Yeah. Michael Myers shows up where you least expect him, but so does Batman.

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Batman.

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Now, his run will have three big stories, and they will also affect the other Bat titles and have a rotating art team. Uh Tony S. Daniel, Gilliam March, and uh another unnamed artist. Now his run on uh Batman will begin with the uh issue coming out on January 8th, number 86. DC has also announced a new Birds of Prey giant comic will be released on January 22nd, 2020. This special will come out just sixteen days prior to Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn, which comes out in theaters. Wow. Already time time for that. Uh time just flies, I guess. Now uh let's get on with some Marvel news. A near mint copy of Marvel Comics number one from 1939 has uh sold at auction for uh 1.26 million dollars at a public auction of vintage comics and comic book art held by Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas on November 21st. Now, this copy was rated by the Comics Guarantee Corporation at a 9.4 out of 10. So this is the most pristine edition of this comic in existence. Now, this comic set a world record as the most expensive Marvel comic book ever sold at auction, and it's also the most expensive comic book ever sold by Heritage Auctions. Yeah. So uh look in your addicts, folks. Maybe there's one up there. And if you find one, share it with us. Now, Spider Woman is getting a new comic book series starting this March. The comic will be written by Carla Pancio with art by Per Perez. Jessica Drew, aka Spider Woman, recently came back to prominence after becoming a member of Marvel's new Strike Force team. Carla Pancio is excited to tackle the character, saying in a release, quote, I love Spider Woman, and I'm incredibly excited to share this series with both new and old Jessica Drew fans alike. This is big, can't miss, over-the-top action, some surprising venom blasts from the past, and also a ton of helicopter explosions. It's a super fun adventure with lots of twists and turns, and seriously, so many helicopter explosions. We're taking Jess bigger and badder than she's ever been before, and I can't wait for readers to see what we've cooked up. Unquote. New Ultraman comics are coming. Marvel and Sabre Productions are teaming up for a series of new comics and graphic novels based on the Japanese anime series. The partnership was announced at the Tokyo Comic-Con and was teased with art by uh on Ultraman by artist Alex Ross. Marvel editor in chief C.B. Sableski said in a press release, quote, as one of the world's most popular franchises, Ultraman has brought together some of the most passionate fandoms in pop culture today, and we can't wait to bring his story to even more fans around the globe. Like Marvel, Ultraman captivated generations by telling spectacular stories grounded in the real world, and it continues to be a beloved classic through its television shows, movies, toys, games, comics, and more. We are so thrilled to introduce new chapters to the Ultraman Multiverse next year. Now, details about new releases weren't forthcoming, so we'll just have to wait for a later date to learn more. In an interview with GQ, Tim Blake Nelson revealed that the Incredible Hulk movie would have been a setup for the leader to appear in as many as three MCU films. He said, Quote, I got called down to the lobby of the Mercer Hotel to meet Lewis Later and Glit and Gail Ann Heard, who's producer. He recalled to GQ. They said, We want you to play this science character, and I'd read read the script. He was a wildly eccentric guy, mainly in the second half of the movie. I thought that was interesting because I haven't been in one of these movies before. And they said, Well, you're going to become the villain in the next movie. So you'll basically be signing up for three movies, and you're going to be this character called the leader. And I thought, oh my god, this is fantastic. Unquote. Now, unfortunately, the film didn't do well enough to get that sequel. So ever since then, the Hulk has been a team-up character in other superheroes movies. Tim Miller is now talking about his split from Deadpool over creative differences with uh star and producer Ryan Reynolds. He told KRCW's The Business Podcast, quote, it became clear that Ryan wanted to be in control of the franchise. You could work that way as a director quite successfully, but I can't. I don't mind having a debate, but if I can't win, I don't want to play. And I don't think you can negotiate every creative decision. There's too many to make. So Ryan's the face of the franchise, and he was the most important component of that by far. So if he decides he wants to control it, then he's going to control it. I've always been pretty good at the moving on thing. I care deeply, and then you get to this point where you've got to make a decision, and I'm pretty good about putting it in my rear view mirror. We had a meeting at Fox, and the writing was on the wall, so I said, I get it, I'll quit. And you guys can do what you need to do. Miller wanted more of a stylized sequel, while Ryan Reynolds wanted to focus more on the comedy. Now, Deadpool 2 did quite well without Tim Miller, making 785 million at the box office. Now, uh we've also we've received word that Venom 2 has started filming under director Andy Circus. Uh Venom 2, which will also which will also see Michelle Williams return, and Woody Harrelson, star as Cletus Cassidy, aka Carnage, uh will the uh will be out October 2nd of 2020. So they better get a move on here. Now, let's go on with some geek news. The Max will be made into a live-action project, courtesy of Channing Tatum's Free Association and Roy Lee's Vertigo Entertainment. The Max is a character created by writer and artist Sam Keith and follows the adventures of a masked hero who protects the Jungle Queen in an otherworldly realm called The Outback. However, in our world, he just resembles a homeless man with a mask. And uh whose mutterings and ramblings are just dismissed as mental illness. The Max was first published by Image Comics back in 1993, and was brought to MTV in 1995 as part of the Oddities animation block. Now, have you ever felt like a game of Monopoly can just go on forever and ever and ever and ever? Well, now Hasbro has the game for you. Uh Monopoly, the longest game ever edition, will be a test of your endurance. The game features 66 properties, three for each location, and the game doesn't end until someone owns all of them. Also, there's only one die, so no doubles. And bankruptcy won't be the end of the game, as the rules allow players to rip the bills in half along the dud line. So if you want to torture yourself and your friends, you can find it right now on Amazon for the low-loo price of $19.99. Come on. You know you want you want to play it. Christina Miller, president of Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies, and Boomerang, will be leaving Warner Media at the end of the year. Miller, in a statement, said quote, This is not a decision I came to lately. It's one of the hardest I've had to make in my career. Ultimately, it feels like the right time for me to leave and take a little time to think about what comes next, but I do so feeling immensely proud of the work we've done together and so grateful for the experience. Now Miller has led this division for the past five years, and is the latest Warner Media exec to hit the door since ATT bought Time Warner. Hmm. Okay, what does that say about ATT? Think about it. David N. Weiss, who uh has written Shrek 2 among also and uh the Smurfs Smurfs and the Rugrats movie and the TV franchises as well, has been chosen to receive the Writers Guild of America West 2019 Animation Writers Caucus Animation Writing Award. Now his film credits also include Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, the two Rugrats movies, and those two Smurfs movies. Now his TV credits include Rugrats, Sybil, Mission Hill, and the Downtowners. Now those last three he wrote alongside his writing partner, J. David Stem. Stem and Weiss are currently writing a remake of the movie Harvey for Netflix, and this he's also writing Disenchanted, the sequel to An Enchanted at Disney. You know, I really like that movie. I hope I hope, you know, this is a will a good sequel. WGAW president David A. Goodman said about David, quote, David N. Weiss is not only a great writer, he has been a great leader of this guild, a passionate organizer, he has helped lead the Union through some of its greatest struggles, including the continuing fight to get WGA coverage for members' animated work. Unquote. Good job. Now uh little sad news. Batman Batman actress Joan St Statley has passed away at the age of 79. A little sad news here. Batman actress Joan Staley has passed away at the age of 79. Joan is known for her roles on the Dick Van Dyke show, 77 Sunset Strip, The Munsters, and the movie The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with Don Knotts. She would be best known to Batman fans for the role of Oakie Annie on the Batman TV TV series episodes Comeback Shame and It's How You Play the Game. Joan Staley passed away from heart failure on November 24th. Now she is survived by her. Husband, Dale Sheets, her seven children, ten grandchildren, and twenty-six great-grandchildren. A good life lived. So uh let's take a quick look at the uh past weekend's box office. Now uh I'm gonna go ahead, I'm gonna give you the four-day weekend totals. Because you know, we had a holiday weekend here in the United States, you know, Thanksgiving. So uh there was probably a lot more people out watching movies. Uh we'll start at number 10, uh Joker, uh, which pretty much stayed number 10 number 10 on on the normal box office charts, too. Uh raked an additional 2.3 million. Last Christmas came at number nine, Midway came at number eight, playing with Fire came at number seven, twenty-one Bridges came at number six, Queen and Slim came at number five. The uh Tom the uh Tom Hanks featuring uh movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood came at number four. Ford vs. Ferrari came at number three, knives out came in at respectable number two with 32.9 million, and in number one for I think the second week in a row now was Frozen 2. Uh it came came in with an additional uh $100 million. So uh it did very well. Now uh it'll be interesting to see what the what the big winner at the end of the end of the year is. It'll probably be Avengers, but uh yeah, we'll have to see. And uh let's just say that makes it the end of the comic book news for today. Now uh if you'd like to check us out on our social media, we're at Twitter at multiverse tom. We're also on Facebook and Instagram as well. And if you'd like to uh contribute some money, please visit mtpodcast.com to go to our uh coffee or patreon links as well. And be sure to visit multiverstonight.com and check out the affiliate marketplace links. I've just added one for uh things from another world.com. Uh they have uh comic books and comic and uh geek related things, as well as uh other other places, and uh we also have links to the Tea Public Store, which uh they have deals going on between now and the end of the year. So uh go out there and you know buy a t-shirt. You know, spread your spread your your uh like or love of this podcast with others. And you know, there's so much more on the website too. I I need to do a new article for for the uh site. If you're a subscriber, please share it with friends, you know. Hell, share us with moral enemies if you want to. And if you're brand new to the show, you know, hit that subscribe button. And uh you'll get the uh next the uh next episode in your feed. And leave us with some and leave us with some feedback. Let us know how we're doing, you know? Special thanks to Shane Ivers for intro music and Lobo Loco for the outro theme music, and thanks for watching the uh or listening, I rather, the comic book edition of Multiverse Tonight. Now we'll be back in just a couple of weeks with a brand new sci-fi edition, followed by a brand new comic book edition. Now, please exit the universe in an orderly fashion. Good night, and have a good holiday. Multiverse tonight is a production of Half Baked Genre Productions. Copyright twenty nineteen, all rights reserved.