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Currently, Netflix schedule of Marvel programs lists Iron Fist and The Defenders for 2017, but a new report suggests The Punisher may also be on the schedule.

Comic Book Movie reports the Netflix mobile app now list the show, executive produced by Steven Lightfoot, as coming to the streaming service in 2017.

CBM also notes that The Defenders is scheduled to run eight episodes. It is possible The Punisher will also be a shorter run. Some would argue that a Punisher series might work better in a six-episode format.

Of course, the usual disclaimers apply as it is still early days for The Punisher. The code or image could be manipulated or the series could experience a delay. But if true, it will be interesting to see Marvel experiment with short-run seasons as their Netflix universe continues to evolve.

Netflix To Debut The Punisher in 2017?

Guilt-stricken from her inability to divert a nuclear missile out to sea, Felicity Smoak will be starting the fifth season of Arrow in a dark place, according to TVLine.

“She’s really grappling with what happened in Havenrock,” executive producer Wendy Mericle told the site. “She’s broken up with Oliver. She’s lost her company. And the one thing she has in this life [is] in the bunker. So she’s doubled down on doing that. Until she gets past what happened in Havenrock, she’s going to stay in that state of limbo.” Of course, emotional states are known to switch quickly on Arrow, so maybe coordinating the new team will aid her recovery.

Mericle also told the site that Stephen Amell‘s recent comments about filming the most brutal fight in television history is part of the show’s attempt to step up to the bar set by series like Game of Thrones. “It’s bloody. You’re in it. We’re doing a lot more ‘first person’ – not necessarily point of view – action. Stephen has been a huge proponent of doing that, and it’s going to feel real and in your face.”

Arrow returns on October 5th.

Felicity Caught In Limbo As Arrow Season Five Begins

Final Fantasy 15 is promising to be a massive game, with Square Enix admittedly look at the new instalment as ‘make or break.’This game has to be a hit for the franchise, and you’d hope so after such a ludicrously massive production.

The game is currently due out next month too, but a new rumour going around suggests that the title might be a little bit away actually. This comes from Gamenesia and Gematsu, who are saying a GameStop source has told them new promo material for the title has been shipped to the shop, now with a November 29th date. These materials aren’t meant to be put up until Sunday, so we will know very soon if this is legit or not.

This feels right, and I fully expect this to be accurate. As I said, Square Enix have to nail this, so pushing it right to the end of the year might be smart in order to make the game sing. I’m all for it.

It Looks Like Final Fantasy 15 Could Be Delayed Until Late November

Melissa Rosenberg realizes what might be the toughest thing about a second season of Jessica Jones… that would be trying to live up to the season one villain of Zebediah Killgrave. David Tennant did such an amazing job as the Purple Man that they’ve decided to not even try to duplicate it.

Entertainment Weekly asked the show runner how they would be approaching the season two antagonist:

Or antagonists, plural. No one is ever going to beat David Tennant as Kilgrave, so you don’t do that. The biggest mistake would be to try to repeat that. You just go, “OK, we’re not doing that, so we have this open to us.”

She didn’t say who the villains are… of course. But since the series takes place after the Defenders we could see a character introduced there or there is always bringing back Bill Simpson as Nuke for a few episodes.

Netflix has not given the second season of Marvel’s Jessica Jones a release date, but it is likely to be 2018… unless they go to three series a year.

Jessica Jones Season 2 Will Have Multiple Villains

While Arrow will abandon the flashbacks to Lian Yu (or Hong Kong or Russia) after the upcoming season, the series will still flash elsewhere … including forward in its timeline.

Executive producers Marc Guggenheim and Wendy Mericle told IGN that the plan for season six will include more flashbacks to other characters’ perspectives and possibly flash forward, like the season four’s graveyard reveal. But Guggenheim added that unlike the tale of Ollie’s missing years, the season six cutaways “won’t be telling a serialized story.”

And really, after the thud of the Hong Kong story in season three and last year’s Lian Yu snoozefest, that’s probably for the best.

Meanwhile, Legends of Tomorrow executive producer Phil Klemmer told Zap2it that “it would be a crime” is the series never had a chance to meet up with John Constantine. In the Earth-1 of The CW, the character is currently in Hell. Many interpreted that to mean the character was unavailable to the television universe as Warner Bros. Pictures develops a Justice League Dark feature with the character as an anchor. Even when he appeared in the form of Constantine star Matt Ryan on Arrow last year, the producers warned it would be a one time thing.

But Constantine has a knack for escaping from “one time things.”

Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow return in October.

Arrow Flash Forwards And The Likehood Of Seeing John Constantine Again

The Flash and Supergirl will enjoy a crossover of there own. And it will be a musical.

Executive producer Greg Berlanti revealed the news at the TCA Summer Press Tour earlier today. The episodes will run during the later half of the season. Berlanti added that the musical will use existing songs with, perhaps, one original compostion. He also  encouraged fans to tweet at him with song requests.

Also announced were the additions of Dolph Lundgren to Arrow as a “Russian character” probably involved in Ollie’s flashback story and Sharon Leal to Supergirl as Miss Martian. Additionally, on The Flash, Barry will face Dr. Alchemy and speedster foe Savitar throughout the year.

Belanti and fellow executive producer Andrew Kreisberg also teased that a character on one of the four shows will be exploring the sexuality, but declined to reveal which character or which show.

Sticking with their original plan, the upcoming season of Arrow will be the last year of the flashback structure. With, of course, one last trip to Lian Yu.

Christopher Wood joins Supergirl as Mon-El, the Daxamite travel with a habit of locking himself in pods and getting trapped in Phantom Zones.

Developing …

The Flash And Supergirl To Join Forces In A Musical Crossover And Other News From TCA Presentation

So in the end, for any reason you’d like to ascribe to it, Sony‘s do-over of Ghostbusters is reportedly facing a $70 million loss and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, its sequel prospects are probably shot.

But does it really matter?

As much as everyone except Bill Murray wants Ghostbusters to be the golden goose, it’s been fairly resistant to soldiering on for its corporate master. Consider that it took five years for the original film to get a sequel; a follow-up that has its fans (I think the first half is great), but seems to have lost a lot of its luster over the years. A third film following the original group never materialized. And while the animated series The Real Ghostbusters ran for a number of seasons, attempts to revive it were short-lived.

Granted, those who found Extreme Ghostbusters found something worthwhile in it.

Instead of a hit machine, Ghostbusters happens as weird islands of content sporadically appearing out of the ocean. Like the 2009 video game, they appeal to very specific audiences. Maybe Ghostbusters just isn’t the brand a studio like Sony needs.

Detractors of the new film can blame it for running the franchise — personally, I thought it was enjoyable romp with the same handful of story problems that seem to plague every major tentpole release this year — but was there really a movie franchise here to begin with? Having more in common with James Bond than Star Wars, there’s no ongoing story to tell. But unlike Bond, the personalities of the four original Ghostbusters are so integral to making the films work that to lose any of them made continuing a bleak prospect.

Murray resisted returning for a third installment for decades. Sure, you’d hear he was close to signing on from time to time, but maybe he was just giving his old pals a soft no. During those times, people would speculate on a new generation of Ghostbusters — Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Rock, Chris Farely (before his untimely demise) — but would that have been any better the ultimate third Ghostbusters film? Considering the sorts of films Sony was making when the Ghostbusters 2016 was developed, it could have easily become part of Sandler’s machine and more directly resembled Pixels than some think it already does.

And like those Extreme Ghostbusters fans, there are people who found things to love about the new film. In fact, every piece of Ghostbusters content adds fans to the pool, but it’s never really enough to create a constant revenue stream for the studio.

Then again, is that something fans should even care about? As fans of whichever Ghostbusters project we love, is it our responsibility to help Sony make money? Do we need more officially sanctioned stories of Peter Venkman or Jillian Holtzmann or Roland Jackson?

I know I’d like to see the new team again, but like a third Tron film, I don’t really need it.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of ways to continue to enjoy Ghostbusters. The movies (and cartoons) continue to exists as data files and physical objects. Clubs exist all over the world where people come together and find joy in their mutual appreciation of the whole concept.

Oddly enough, these groups often call themselves “franchises.”

Ghostbusters Sequel In Jeopardy … But Does It Really Matter?

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To some, Transformers: The Movie — which was released thirty years ago today — was seismic. It features what was, for many, their first confrontation with death as a concept. For others, it provided an array of new characters to champion and toys to obtain. And for at least a few of us, it introduced Orson Welles into our consciousnesses.

In hindsight, the film is born of a fairly cynical prompt: clear the deck of the original Transformers characters to make way for the 1986 line of toys. But in turning that edict into something presentable, writer Ron Friedman, story editor Flint Dille and director Nelson Shin created a film which resonated with the property’s young fans. Well, once they got over the death of Optimus Prime.

And the deaths of Ironhide, Brawn, Prowl, Cliffjumper, Wheeljack, Starscream, Kickback, Thundercracker …

It was pretty courageous of the team to make a film so top-heavy with death and despair. Its opening moments establish the tone with a beautifully animated sequence in which a planet-sized Transformer, Welles’ Unicron, literally eats a smaller planet. The film pretty much keeps that going by shooting down character after character until one is reassembled by a group of robots who talk TV lingo.

But in clearing the deck of characters from the first two seasons of the television show, the film also introduced a number of characters who are as indelible as anyone in the initial lineup. Personally, I immediately empathized with Hot Rod, the sarcastic “kid” who ends up the new Autobot leader. But I also remember immediately enjoying the new core team; which featured new additions Ultra Magnus, Kup, Blur, Arcee and Springer. The fact I remember these names long after I sold the toys to a neighbor kid says something about the strength of their personalities. Combined with established Autobots like Perceptor, Grimlock and Blaster, the new group found a place in my heart almost immediately.

While it’s telling how much I identified with the Autobots at the time, the villains are certainly a key feature of the film. Megatron settles both of his long-standing feuds with Optimus Prime and Starscream; though the latter is really settled by his new Galvatron persona. Leonard Nimoy gave the reformatted character a colder edge, even while under the yolk of Unicron.

Though ailing, Welles is nonetheless powerful as the film’s true antagonist, a force of destruction beyond anything the Transformers had faced before. According to Shin, Welles’s voice performance was weak and wheezy. He put the recordings through a processor which gave the performance an added haunting quality. Though perhaps not his finest work, Unicron inspired a life-long fascination with Welles for me.

The film also introduced the Quintessons, an intriguing alien race even their brief appearance in the film. With a twisted sense of justice that made sense even to an eight-year-old and their Sharkticon goons, they presented a new and different kind of adversary for the Autobots. Sadly, they never emerged in toy form, so I and my friends fashioned some out of plastic Easter eggs and cardboard.

Dille once called the project a “Frankenstein of different drafts and ideas and people.” An early draft unearthed in 2010 revealed key elements like Unicron and the Autobot Matrix of Leadership did not coalesce until after production on some scenes had begun. But to watch it now, everything feels natural and deliberate as the film hurtles into a literal transformation from the show’s established status quo.

And perhaps that’s why this is the one Transformers project I’ve kept coming back to over the years. I’ve tried to watch the original cartoon and some of the subsequent series, but none of them evoke the same connection as Transformers: The Movie. The film features a real progression in the story, ending the Autobots fight to regain their homeworld and establishing a new generation of heroes. In its way, Transformers: The Movie is about the inevitably of change and how one survives it.

Which, as it turns out, involves kicking a robot Orson Welles in the ass while a Stan Bush song plays in the distance.

The film will be released in a new Blu-ray edition September 13th from Shout! Factory.

One Shall Stand, One Shall Fall — Remembering Transformers: The Movie Thirty Years Later

The word is going to be out soon, what with the four DC CW casts for Arrow, Supergirl, DC Legends Of Tomorrow and Flash all filming together right now….

It has been established that Arrow, DC Legends Of Tomorrow and Flash all take place in the same fictional universe, but Supergirl is from another dimension who has to cross over.

As of the upcoming Flashpoint crossover storyline, Supergirl will now be a part of the main DC TV universe. Only Barry Allen will know that they were once separate… any remaining continuity issues will be handwaved as “a time traveller did it”.

Also in Supergirl, We know Metallo is the bad guy but they are introducing a new Metallo 2 character. Both Superman and J’onn J’onnz will fight him, while Supergirl deals with the original Metallo on her own, elsewhere.

Look out for Krypton Park in Metropolis…

Supergirl Merges With CW Earth One In Flashpoint? And Other DC TV Rumours

“if your keyboard starts smoking, you’re being hacked. what color is the smoke?”

When Supergirl made plans to movie networks and its production home from Los Angeles to Vancouver, many wondered if Calista Flockhart, who lives in Los Angeles, would continue with the series. And despite references to her character, Cat Grant, during Comic-Con, it was unclear if she would really return.

But according to The Wrap, Flockhart will return to the series in a recurring guest star capacity. In a statement, producer Andrew Kreisberg said the show would not be same without the actress and “We are so excited Calista has agreed to continue on the show when she can. We and the audience love to see her on screen.”

In lieu of working for Grant, Melissa Benoist‘s Kara will face a new office foil in the form of Snappy Carr, re-imagined for the series as a tough, news-minded editor-in-chief at CatCo Magazine.

Supergirl returns for its second season on October 20th.

Calista Flockhart Takes Recurring Status For Season Two Of Supergirl

We mentioned this in our 150 Thoughts article but it seems to have been picked up and clarified in a number of places.

Consistent anecdotal evidence suggests that the number of people on the San Diego Comic-Con show floor this year was down. The same number of tickets had been sold, and sold out in minutes, but it seemed as if there were fewer people flocking to the aisles. This meant a reduction in the mad crushes, the ability to get from place to place improved, the show floor lines were down and publishers and comic creators were far easier to approach. People could even get into Hall H. In fact, it was a more pleasant San Diego Comic-Con for everyone – except maybe some of the sellers who seem to think overall sales were down on last year.

Some of this may have been down to the increased off-site events, both run by the show and by media companies, spelling out across San Diego like never before, drawing the paying punters away.

But word on the street is that it was actually down to the new RFID badge system where people had to tap in and tap out electronically. It ran smoothly and, in an instant, destroyed any chance of people with counterfeit badges getting in. Or for one person to get in and pass their badges back, via a friend, to get all their others friends in, one by one. The convention equivalent of sharing your HBO Go password. The new system cut that practice off at the knees.

And that is why there were fewer people through that door.

Of course, to a vendor, there’s no difference between the money paid to buy something by a ticket holder and someone who got in for free. In fact the latter may have more disposable cash to spend.

So there is some disquiet about the numbers this year. But what this has done is give San Diego Comic-Con the chance to study the crowds and patterns… and next year sell more tickets without falling foul of health and safety regulations. Because now they can more accurately predict the number of folk through those doors.

Then add that D-23 is happening in Anaheim the previous weekend, July 14th-16th, drawing away some of the Disney, Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios crowd…

And it means that while it will still be impossibly oversubscribed, there may be a better chance of getting into San Diego Comic-Con 2017 from July 19th to 23rd.

Or you could become a Bleeding Cool reporter and be guaranteed access. But that’s a whole other level of work…

You Will Have A Better Chance Of Getting Into San Diego Comic-Con Next Year

Besides San Diego Comic-Con, this week was the 30th Anniversary of Aliens and a massive reunion of the legendary creators and actors inside the convention’s Hall H on Saturday. While there might not have been any special announcements, the hour-long panel about the film was never boring.

As the panel began, director James Cameron was the first to come on stage, followed by producer Gale Anne Hurd and stars Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Bill Paxton, Paul Reiser, Lance Henriksen, and Carrie Henn. From there, they jumped right into talking about one of the greatest science fiction films ever made. Here are some highlights:

• — James Cameron reminisced about the Alien Queen, recalling how it took over half a dozen people to get her moving properly.
• — Sigourney Weaver, when asked about Ripley being a badass, said she personally  doesn’t think of herself as a badass like Ripley, and that the character was based off an environmentalist friend who had the personality of going forward and getting things done.
• — A clip from the film featured Ripley and the rest talking about nuking the Aliens from orbit. Afterwards, there group discussed how the scene demonstrated the team dynamic. Even with zero Aliens running around, the dialogue alone was equally engaging.
• — Bill Paxton let out a loud, “Game over, man!” to thunderous applause.
• — When the famous knife scene was brought up, Lance Henriksen said that they were actually moving that fast and the camera was not sped up. The scene was also impromptu and not originally in the script.
• — Michael Biehn spoke about how he got the role as Hicks after the original actor cast was let go and fondly remembered how the cast made him feel welcome right from the beginning.
• — Apparently, there were hardly any improvised lines, with everyone following closely to the script Cameron and Hurd had written.

As a longtime fan of one of the ultimate creature-feature films, sitting in attendance of the creators who made it possible was nothing short of awe-inspiring. There’s a reason why Aliens is remembered even to this day. To quote Gale Anne Hurd, “the movie legitimized sci-fi horror.” It was a total game-changer. Here’s to another thirty years!

Cast And Crew Of Aliens Reminisce On Thirty Years

By Hilton Collins

Star Trek Beyond, the latest entry in the long-running Star Trek film franchise from Paramount studios, came to theaters this past weekend, thundering into multiplexes with gritty, action-oriented pomp and circumstance. And sitting currently at the top of the American box office with mostly favorable reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, the high-octane tone for this Justin Lin-directed project seems to be a fine direction for the film series to go in.

But with all these big explosions and epic, laser filled space dogfights, is the cinematic version of the Star Trek franchise missing the point?

During the Star Trek 50^th Anniversary panel at Comic-Con Saturday afternoon, Bryan Fuller, the showrunner for the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery series mentioned how important Star Trek’s legacy is in the world today. As the panel moderator, he said that it was crucial in the new series, which will debut on CBS All Access, to “remind the audience about the message of Star Trek.”

As a kid growing up who caught the occasional episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and reruns of the original Star Trek show in TV, that message always seemed to be one about a well-meaning crew who explored the depths of space while exemplifying the more diplomatic ideals of Earth. Star Trek was more about cerebral storytelling and cultural, philosophical issues than it was about getting into fights and making Die Hard-style one-liners while bad guys got shot up. However, that seems to be the direction the film franchise has been going in ever since 2009’s Star Trek reboot by famed director J. J. Abrams. That film set the course for the current generation of Star Trek films that’s less about mental stimulation and more about staying competitive with the crisp, visceral blockbusters of today.

Yet it’s possible that the new television show will be the one that’s truer to Star Trek’s heart, no matter how many millions the movies make on the big screen.

At the Saturday panel in Hall H, Fuller was joined in stage by Star Trek TV titans William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk; Brent Spiner, who played Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation; Jeri Ryan, the iconic Seven of Nine fromVoyager; Michael Dorn, Worf from the Next Generation; and Scott Bakula, who played Captain Archer in Enterprise. The panelists discussed the history of Star Trek and what it meant for a TV show with its high-minded message to exist in a dark world.

Discovery will debut on CBS All Access in January 2017 as a streaming show, and Fuller told the Hall H audience that it won’t be episodic like traditional TV, but more like a novel instead. It was unclear what he meant by that, but the more novelistic tone seems like it may facilitate even more high brow storytelling themes than you’d expect. Prose novels are famous for containing sophisticated themes and high-brow storytelling styles.

The panel didn’t bring any substantive footage for Discovery, so it’s too soon to gauge what the show will be like in any meaningful fashion, but if it’s indeed more mentally stimulating than the current crop of films, that may be a welcome change for Star Trek fandom. Although Star Trek Beyond is the number one film this weekend with a nearly $60 million opening weekend, that’s less than Star Trek Into Darkness’s $70 million opening weekend from a few years back, and it’s nowhere near the $80 to $100+ opening weekends that modern mega blockbusters often get.

The Star Trek films aren’t in any danger of going away because they’re still successful enough to warrant sequels, but they’re not bringing people into theaters the way Marvel films do, or even DC ones. They don’t need to, mind you, but the comparison is a strong reminder that there are stronger movie brands out there when it comes to action and science fiction adventure.

So it makes one wonder: was Star Trek supposed to be a blockbuster film franchise, or is its true home on television, where it has room to breathe and stretch its legs as a thinking person’s adventure story, free of the pressures of Hollywood movie studios and their action movie demands?

Should Star Trek Fans Be More Excited For the New TV Shows Than The Movies?

There is a fair amount of excitement surrounding Star Trek coming back to TV. It was announced a while now, but has remained mostly elusive.

Well, we got two key details in a new teaser for the show. First of all, the show’s full title is Star Trek: Discovery. Secondly, if you watch the video, you will get a look at the new ship. It certainly isn’t like anything else in featured as the show’s previous main ship, but I quite like its angular look. It is, efficently, called the USS Discovery NCC-1031

Take a look here.

Interesting tid-bit, this is quite similar to an early Ralph McQuarrie drawing for the ill fated Star Wars: Phase 2. I assume that isn’t an accident.

Star Trek Show Reveals Full Title And (Possibly Phase 2 Inspired) New Ship In Teaser

Again, still not The Killing Joke. I repeat, this did not happen in The Killing Joke.

But it did happen in Batman Beyond.

This article had suddenly found a lot more interest on-line. We reprint it below with a couple of additions. If you want to read more about The Killing Joke, then go here, here and especially here. or for Cougar And Cub, go here.

The comic book Batman Beyond 2.0 is set two years after the end of the cartoon series Batman Beyond. The future Batman, Terry McGinnis, has partnered with the grown up Dick Grayson, joining the series as his mentor, rather than the elderly Bruce Wayne from the animation.

The current arc explains why Dick Grayson was never seen in the TV show. And also what the rift between Dick and Bruce was. And how it involved Barbara Gordon, Batgirl.

The cartoon stated in one episode that Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon had a relationship, as boyfriend and girlfriend.

However last week’s comic went a bit further.

Not only did we learn about Barbara and Dick’s blossoming relationship back in the day… but that the timing was rather awkward.

Basically, Batman got Batgirl pregnant while she was still involved with Dick Grayson. And rather that let Barbara tell Dick, Bruce got in there first. Telling Dick about him and Barbara…

But also about Barbara’s current condition.

At which point Barbara Gordon took to the streets, engaged in a battle…

It didn’t go well.
And it is implied she suffered a miscarriage.

So you can see why things in the future Batcave may have gotten a little… tense?

Anyway, from that point on, Batman always added these to his utility belt.

Do You Remember When Batman Had Sex With Batgirl – And Got Her Pregnant?

The Killing Joke was already a controversial comic book. Being adapted into an animated movie by DC Comics there was the suggestion that changes might be made. Barbara Gordon would be seen as Batgirl. She would have more agency. It would change the tone.

Barbara Gordon would be seen as Batgirl. She would have more agency. It would change the tone.

But as well as Batgirl being inserted into The Killing Joke, it seems Batman has inserted himself into Batgirl.

We… don't know how to feel pic.twitter.com/QHradWrwTR

— NPOC (@nerdypoc) July 22, 2016

You know, people didn’t like this when it was Catwoman…

“It was just sex for god’s sake, it doesn’t have to mean anything. Not like we have to care, I don’t care, you don’t care, let’s just go back how it was. That’s all. Please…”

So, yes. Batman shags Batgirl. Then dumps her. And hangs up on her when she calls.

Cue the outrage.

FYI, shagging Batman on a roof is "fantastic like fireworks" according to this Killing Joke cartoon. Fuck off.

— Aidan John Moffat (@AidanJohnMoffat) July 22, 2016

I'd rather die than watch /that/ scene in the killing joke.

— •genesis• |-/ (@cLoudless_harry) July 22, 2016

I did a bad thing and watched the clips of their "relationship" in the killing joke. Just ewwwww. pic.twitter.com/aedb67OHPn

— NN ナジハ (@HitTheClouds) July 22, 2016

The Killing Joke is problematic enough and it didn't need this just to make it edgy.

— Sentient Xylophone (@Phrancq) July 22, 2016

If you thought Batman v Superman was bad, you should see the new Killing Joke cartoon. Fuck me, it's DIRE. Batgirl and Batman SHAGGING. WTF

— Aidan John Moffat (@AidanJohnMoffat) July 22, 2016

Me: I'm excited for #KillingJoke! Me: *sees Batgirl having sex with Batman* Me: Nevermind. I honestly don't know why I expected better.

— Nikhil (@the_hierarch) July 22, 2016

Not a good day for DC
Dunno what looks worse, Wonder Woman on Injustice 2 or Barbara banging Bruce in Killing Joke pic.twitter.com/iq7xpOvndT

— Walt (@_watsu) July 22, 2016

CRUCIALLY, Batgirl had ZERO romantic interest in the Dark Knight at all, robbing him of any emotional control he might have had over her.

— Laura Sneddon (@thalestral) July 22, 2016

America before that Batman/Batgirl gif is an America I already miss

— Jess Camacho (@CamachoJess) July 22, 2016

Why would batman have s*x with batgirl, isn't that like…grooming or something

— darrylayo (@darrylayo) July 22, 2016

But aat least the TKJ film added extra batgirl, so her role isn't ENTIRELY about…sexualized violence…to upset Bats & Gordon…
Oh. Wait.

— Femmes in the Fridge (@FemmesinFridges) July 22, 2016

The addition of the Batgirl-Batman love story from the Batman Beyond comics was completely unnecessary. The Killing Joke = Cancelled for me.

— AnthonY GonzaleZ (@ANTG0N) July 22, 2016

@wondersyd it's how it is batgirl doesn't act like that, she would most likely "eww" at the thought of having sex with bruce, just saying.

— Eobard Thawne (@MajorJaxBriggs) July 22, 2016

2. He is twice her age.
3. Batgirl's outfit came off way too easily.
4. I get and accept that Barbara has had a thing for Bruce, but NO!

— Insider2000 (@Insider2000) July 22, 2016

"Killing Joke is very short, how shall we pad -"
Timm: "Batman/Batgirl sex scene."
"What if we try some -"
Timm: "BATMAN BATGIRL SEX SCENE"

— Rob Drunken (@aboynamedposh) July 22, 2016

1. It's bad enough Bruce has the audacity to hire Jim's daughter as Batgirl without telling him, but he also fucks her?

— Insider2000 (@Insider2000) July 22, 2016

This Killing Joke thing with Batgirl and Batman is just such fucking bullshit. Way to fuck up this thing even more.

— year of the tiny kat (@thewelshqueen) July 22, 2016

I'm not usually like this but I'm still thinking about how seriously messed up this Batgirl thing is.

— Jess Camacho (@CamachoJess) July 22, 2016

Apparently Batman and Batgirl fuck in the Killing Joke animated movie which basically brings me to being 1000% done with @DCComics

— Juan Barquin (@woahitsjuanito) July 22, 2016

And for some there is professional blowback..

I accepted a Batgirl commission earlier this week and now I kind of regret not getting it done yesterday.

— Steve Lieber (@steve_lieber) July 22, 2016

Of course, some have been wanting this to happen for a very long time…

The Killing Joke Change That Is Making Batgirl Fans Livid (SPOILERS)

Anthony Desiato writes…

Warner Bros. kicked off Comic-Con International: San Diego on Friday in Ballroom 20 with its Inside The Big Bang Theory Writers’ Room panel, where Executive Producer Steven Molaro announced the casting of Katey Sagal (Sons of Anarchy) and Jack McBrayer (30 Rock) as Penny’s heretofore unseen mother and brother, respectively. The casting reunites Kaley Cuoco with her 8 Simple Rules mother, with whom she starred on the late ABC sitcom.

According to Molaro, Sagal said she was “always ready to be Kaley’s mom” when approached for the role. McBrayer was backstage and joined the panel after the announcement. Asked if he’s ever been to prison a la Penny’s drug-dealing brother, McBrayer retorted, “Only recreationally.”

Both Sagal and McBrayer will appear at the beginning of the forthcoming tenth season, which picks up with Penny and Leonard’s vow renewal ceremony. The session was otherwise light on details, but showcased the writers’ quick wit and offered insight into the show’s creative process as the panel reflected on key moments from last season.

Following a pop culture-themed sizzle reel of Season Nine, the panelists took the stage. They included Molaro, fellow EP Bill Prady, science consultant David Saltzberg, and the rest of the writing team (Steve Holland, Jim Reynolds, Eric Kaplan, Tara Hernandez, Anthony Del Broccolo, David Goetsch, Jeremy Howe, and Saladin Patterson). They were joined by surprise moderator Melissa Rauch (Bernadette), much to the delight of the audience.

Rauch, who comically pointed out how she had to stand on a stool to see over the podium, expressed her excitement over her character’s pregnancy storyline. She told an anecdote about how her parents’ friends “are treating the show like a docuseries” by congratulating her parents and even gifting them with free bagels (AKA “the highest honor in New Jersey”).

Of the momentous “coitus episode,” Molaro confessed, “Not since the loss of my own virginity have I been so invested and stressed out over a physical act.”

Examples of the writers’ personal lives inspiring storylines include Penny forgetting Leonard’s birthday, Bernadette tracking Howard using Fitbit and the stress of buying Force Awakens tickets.

Other odds and ends from the panel:

• — Speaking of what they geek out about, it turns out grinding and roasting their own coffee beans is an obsession in the writers’ room.
• — This reporter would be surprised if Pokemon Go does not figure into the new season at some point.
• — Prady and Molaro recently dined with a real-life neuroscientist studying the sex habits of mice, who apparently pass out after climaxing. Something tells me Amy may be embarking on a new study this season.
• — An audience member who is a geologist asked why Sheldon demonstrates such disdain for that particular science. Prady noted the peculiarity of Sheldon’s particular form of bigotry. Kaplan offered that it may stem from Sheldon being uncomfortable with the earth and physical forms in general.
• — Of Penny’s mysterious last name, the writers said that it simply never came up at the beginning, and after a while they became superstitious about it.
• Molaro repeated the familiar refrain regarding the show’s future. There is “nothing concrete” about a potential endgame, and it is still “a little early” to think about the end.
• — There is a very strong possibility that Sheldon and Amy, co-hosts of Fun with Flags, will attend a flag convention this season.

Big Bang Theory returns on CBS this fall.

Anthony Desiato can be reached at @DesiWestside on Twitter.

Big Bang Theory Writers Tease Penny’s Family And Consider Virginity At Comic-Con

Just on the heels of Star Wars Celebration last week, Star Wars Episode 8, which is still nameless, has finished shooting. On SDCC weekend no less.

It was confirmed with this video by Rian Johnson‘s on the Star Wars Facebook that the incredibly anticipated sequel to The Force Awakens is now moving into post-production. You can see the last shot getting called in the clip, for what must be a pretty emotional moment for the director.

Take a look:

Onwards to glory production team!

Star Wars Episode 8 Has Wrapped Shooting

By Octavio Karbank

Syfy’s Van Helsing panel was today, and boy was it different from what we were expecting. Promising a brutal, gory, and incredibly entertaining story, the TV show is set in the not-to distant future. Van Helsing, or at least the first thirteen episodes that will make up the first season, tells the story of Vanessa Van Helsing who wakes up in this dystopian future. She finds herself fighting for not only her survival, and possibly humanity’s, but hunting for her missing daughter.

The panel started off with an intense trailer that set the tone for the rest of the session. A couple producers, along with actors Kelly Overton, Jonathan Scafe, and Christopher Heyerdahl all made an appearance, taking time to discuss the upcoming show. Over the course of the panel, the whole “is this just another vampire show” discussion got brought up. And while this might be a show featuring vampires, there’s a couple twists that intrigued me, and might intrigue viewers and fan of vampire-centric stories and television. Chiefly, we have Vanessa’s character biting the vampires, which turns them human again, while their bites are entirely ineffective against her. Another interesting plot point was that these vampires aren’t immortal like the lore and other stories tell us they are, rather they age just like you and me, with different kinds of vampires running around, i.e. you have feral vampires, elite vampires; the list goes on.

The producers made a point to say that the show was grounded more in science than you’d expect, with careful attention dedicated to the scientific process in how vampirism would work.

The biggest news to pop out of the panel was the Van Helsing pilot would be featured on July 31st, following the debut of Sharknado 4. After that, the show airs on September 23rd. All in all, it was a super fun panel to a show that hasn’t broken out yet.

Van Helsing TV Show Looks Like Bloody Fun

HBO has finally answered some key questions about the seventh season of Game of Thrones: the number of episodes and when to expect them.

According to a press release from the cable outlet, the season will consist of seven episodes — directed by the likes of Mark Mylod, Jeremy Podeswa, Matt Shakman and Alan Taylor — with airdates currently slotted for the summer of 2017.

“Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” said HBO programming president Casey Bloys in a statement. “Instead of the show’s traditional spring debut, we’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.”

This also suggests the eighth — and currently final — season of the series will likely be six episodes long. Earlier this year, Benioff and Weiss revealed they envisioned thirteen episodes remaining in the series all together with a plan to split them between two seasons.

Game of Thrones returns in the summer of 2017.

Winter Made Summer For Game of Thrones Season Seven

Travis Beaven writes,

There’s a disconnect that you come across within the comic industry, particularly if you read sites like this one. The opinions of the readers often appear at odds with the sales figures, leaving people to wonder if we have a good grasp on our understanding the industry, or if the “silent majority” is simply misunderstood and underestimated. There are plenty of “tribal knowledge” facts that we discuss every day, but increasingly those are divorced from the reality of sales… leaving us wondering why on earth the publishers are making the decisions they are.

While it’s fun to imagine that the heads of Marvel and DC are incompetent lunatics, high on paint fumes and using a combination of dart board and blood rituals to make their decisions, you have to assume there is at least some method behind the seeming madness. Their decisions spring from somewhere, and given large corporations built and designed to be profitable… those reasons are typically financial. This doesn’t mean those decisions are always good ones, but they are rooted in some basic thought process that isn’t always clear to the rest of us.

So, over the next several weeks I’m going to make an attempt to deconstruct the data on hand to better frame up what is happening in the comic book industry. As much as possible, I’m going to attempt to avoid commentary but instead present the data as cleanly as possible. I’ll present conclusions, but always with the caveats necessary when presenting a full and accurate picture of what is happening. This means it’s up to you to draw the conclusions you want… but at least you’re working from some facts and figures you might not have had before.

Finally, a bit about the information used; I’m taking data from Comichron.com, which is an excellent and easy to parse source of data around comic orders and sales. However, it’s also limited to North America and Diamond Comic Distributors. This means it’s a cut of all the available data and it will give neither the global perspective or the digital sales figures, both of which are far less easy to obtain. So on one hand you should take all of this analysis for what it’s worth… which is to say it’s a North American viewpoint of the stats. However, it’s also fair to say that purchasing trends and overall figures are reasonably universal, and some of the conclusions we can draw around the NA market are at least interesting litmus tests for the industry as a whole.

Ok, enough. Let’s talk Event Comics today; specifically, Marvel’s.

On one hand you have a very vocal group of people complaining about event fatigue, how they have “quit” the big publishers because of it, and predict the imminent collapse of the comic industry as a result of going to the event well so frequently. On the other hand, despite many of the owners and employees of LCBS sharing a negative opinion of events in general… there is no denying that they pay the bills.

The common narrative we hear is that Marvel’s Event Comics have been losing steam steadily over the years. But the real picture paints a very different, and more complex, story.

Since 2005 Marvel has published 14 events. I should say at this point that one could argue the real number is 12, but for this analysis we are using the events that Marvel engaged their PR machine on and cite as “event comics” in their listings. This means “Death of Wolverine (2014)” is counted as an event while “Chaos War (2010)” is not. I’m not going to pretend to understand the distinction, but for consistency we will go with the definition Marvel uses.

So over the last decade, here are the events in question, and how they rank up.

#1: Civil War (2006), average sales of 267,931 per issue

#2: Secret Wars (2015), average sales of 230,004 per issue

#3: Secret Invasion (2008), average sales of 177,628 per issue

#4: AvX (2012), average sales of 177,492 per issue

#5: Death of Wolverine (2014), average sales of 174,781 per issue

#6: World War Hulk (2007), average sales of 158,410 per issue

#7: House of M (2005), average sales of 156,196 per issue

#8: Siege (2010), average sales of 110,935 per issue

#9: Age of Ultron (2013), average sales of 107,902 per issue

#10: Fear Itself (2011), average sales of 99,073 per issue

#11: Original Sin (2014), average sales of 98,008 per issue

#12: Ultimatum (2008), average sales of 90,649 per issue

#13: Axis (2014), average sales of 83,180 per issue

#14: War of Kings (2009) average sales of 46,266 per issue

To create this basic picture I’m using Unit Sales, not Dollar Share. This matters because the first two events came in at $2.99 on average, while the others all went higher at $3.99 (or more). Thus, even though Civil War was stronger that Secret Wars, the later made more money for Marvel by a pretty decent margin.

Someone might be quick to point out that I’m using numbers from the distributor, as opposed to what is actually sold in the comic shop. This has at times led to the argument that none of these numbers are relevant because comic shops may be left with piles and piles of unsold comics in their stores. While true, (these numbers are coming from the distributor and not the end store) if thousands of comics were going unsold you would see retailers adjusting their orders over time. Even with incentives pushing the sales higher, comic book stores don’t run on such an inflated margin that they can afford to have piles of inventory rotting for a variant cover or two. Thus, the overall figures hold up as a general litmus test for how well events are performing.

So, all that said a couple of items immediately jump out:

* Right from the start, you can see that there is no trend that suggests that readers are getting tired of, or more excited by, events. The popularity and sales are evenly mixed across the decade, and it feels a lot more tied to the quality of story and writer than exhaustion from the readers. It’s also true that there are more events than there were… 6 of them in the last 4 years.

* 2014 was an aggressive year at Marvel for events. If you felt like you had event fatigue you were right… three events in one year with an absolute feeling of diminishing returns, particularly if you gauge Axis against AvX. However, you can also make the case that Marvel made crazy money that year… with those three events selling more than Secret Wars when combined (2,231,802 for 2014’s three series, versus 2,070,036 for 2015’s Secret Wars).

* There is no evidence to suggest that Marvel should space out events more. To the contrary, financially they would be better of living in perpetual events… assuming of course that in doing so it wouldn’t completely crater the industry. This presents an interesting problem… if you’re Marvel you want to find the balance between maximizing event attention and not burning out the readership. Which, if I’m speculating, is exactly what they are trying to accomplish with the endless “Marvel Now”, “All New Marvel”, “All Different Marvel” and “All New and All Different Marvel Now” initiatives.

* Not to be too pedantic about it, but all those people who post about how they are “done” with events and Marvel has taken the last of their money? The simple facts are that these people are still buying the event comics, or Marvel is somehow magically getting as many readers as they are losing… but the smart money is on a lot of bluster and the same spending habits as always.

One key factor the high level numbers don’t show though is how well the events held their sales. Meaning, from first issue to second issue how well did the events hold their readers? In most cases there is a very predictable and constantly repeating curve… but the exceptions to the rule are fascinating.

To level set us, we’re going back to 2005 and House of M, largely seen as the event that kicked off Marvel’s more aggressive marketing and publishing approach to events:

House of M (2005)

8 Issue Event Series

Average Cost: $2.99

#1 (first issue): 233,721 copies sold

#8 (final issue): 135,460 copies sold

Bendis spun out storylines from Avengers/New Avengers and (sorta) Astonishing X-Men for House of M, which in a very strange way closely resembles the most common path events have taken over the last decade by both major publishers. It started out with a very strong first issue in terms of sales, but suffered a 28% drop in sales with the second issue, and a 42% drop in sales by the time it wrapped. It moved a very large 1,249,564 in total issues, but averaged out at around 156,196 units an issue. Nothing to sneeze at, particularly in today’s market. Of the 14 events Marvel has done in the last 11 years, House of M sits squarely in the middle at #7.

But a year later, Marvel struck gold in Civil War.

Civil War (2006)

7 Issue Event Series

Average Cost: $2.99

#1 (first issue): 260,706 copies sold

#7 (final issue): 265,886 copies sold

Over the last decade only one other event did what Civil War pulled off… it not only held its popularity throughout, but actually grew its sales (slightly) over the course of the series. The series never dropped more than 10,000 units from where it started, and grew 30,000 units for the third issue. Civil War was an impressive accomplishment for Marvel, and it makes all the sense in the world for them to want to relive that glory. The only other series that compared was Siege, which never wavered by more than 5,000 issues during its run and ended stronger than it began. Of course, Siege started much lower with an average issue run of 110,935 copies sold.

With those two exceptions Marvel ran a pretty typical 30% to 40% drop from first issue to last, and given most of these events were 6-8 issues it aligns completely with what we see in the comic market for regular titles. If you look at any of the recent Marvel relaunches in the last five years you come to a very predictable drop in units over a span of six issues. It also doesn’t really matter much if it’s a big title or a small one… the sales curve looks almost identical.

Which makes the clear case that while readers complain about event fatigue, they read and consume event titles in the same way they read nearly every other title Marvel produces.

It’s worth finishing on the most recent series Marvel produced… which from a pure dollar perspective was Marvel’s most successful endeavor to date.

Secret Wars (2015)

9 Issue Event Series

Average Cost: $3.99 (with a $4.99 first and last issue)

#1 (first issue): 527,678 copies sold

#9 (final issue): 149,028 copies sold

Secret Wars was a curious series to map. It stands apart from all of the other events in a couple of unique ways. First, the #1 sales were completely off the charts by a factor of 2. Much of this is owed to bundled offers like Loot Crate, but the second issue held a very solid 210,807 copies sold… in the grand scheme of events only Civil War topped it. For a few issues Secret Wars seemed like it was going to follow the Civil War and Siege trend… until #7, when it suddenly began hemorrhaging sales. The ending of Civil War came in 68% lower than where it began, but even discounting the abnormally high orders for the first issue, it still took a strange turn over the course of the series. It’s tough to draw clear conclusions from what happened here… perhaps the sheer volume of tie-ins took their toll, perhaps the critical failures of Convergence and DC You impacted Marvel negatively, or perhaps there’s another, more worrisome factor at play for Marvel.

In the time period between #6 and #7, (and it’s worth noting that the storyline itself had significantly slowed down and significant delays were hitting the series) Marvel introduced the Marvel Now lineup coming out of Secret Wars. The sales figures for many of the new titles post Secret Wars showed the same relative strengths and weaknesses Marvel has been seeing for years… mostly. Factoring out the Star Wars titles you do start to see a slight negative overall impact from previous marketing launches, like the one that came out of AvX. Most of the Marvel #1 issues topped the 100,000 unit sale mark, and then declined with the typical 30%-40% rate. But coming out of Secret Wars we can see a greater number topping out around the 90,000 unit mark… and disguised a bit by a meltdown from DC and the overall strength of Star Wars titles. Is this a factor? The raw numbers would suggest that something is going on here, and it’s a reasonable conclusion to draw. If you take the long view, this may signal some trouble for Marvel as change tends to happen slowly… and the numbers for Civil War 2 (and Marvel’s forthcoming new marketing push) will be extremely interesting to look at.

I’ll caution again that like all statistics it’s dangerous to draw too many conclusions in the short term and without the benefit of a bigger picture.

It’s worth diving further into this though, because the initial numbers can be misleading. For the next go around I’ll dig into DC’s events and the similarities and differences to Marvel, then start to dig into the numbers seen for relaunches and reboots. Other commentary and overall conclusions? Knock yourselves out.

Final addition: In the writing of this article the numbers for June of 2016 came out, but the exact figures are still in process of being sorted. What the initial look tells us though follows everything you’ve read above, including the potential danger signs for Marvel. In the Top 10 comics, Civil War 2 #1 ($5.99) took the top spot, while Civil War #2 ($4.99) took the #5 spot. The only other Marvel title in the top ten was Han Solo at #4. We can draw two quick conclusions… first that Civil War 2 isn’t the bomb some on the internet have claimed it is, and that the falloff from the first to the second issue isn’t terribly steep. If I’m guessing I believe we will see a 15% to 20% drop, unless there was some kind of crazy Loot Crate style promotion I wasn’t aware of. If there was, it would mean that Civil War 2 #1 will have very high numbers and at $5.99 an issue that’s good news for Marvel. The bad news is that if it wasn’t an event comic or Star Wars it didn’t hit the top ten. It will be interesting to track what all this means over the summer.

Deconstructing Comics: A Unit Share Analysis of Marvel’s Events

As Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman work on the fourth season of the extremely popular Sherlock series, creator Steven Moffat worries that it might be the last. At least that’s what he told the Telegraph.

I don’t know how long we can keep it going. I’m personally willing but I’m hardly the main draw. I would be moderately surprised if this was the last time we ever made this show. But it absolutely could be.

The problem is that both leads have become in-demand movie stars. Cumberbatch takes on the role of Doctor Strange for Marvel this November and Freeman just lead the Hobbit trilogy and showed up in Captain America: Civil War.

We do have two film stars in the programme. They haven’t needed to do these jobs for a very long time. They’re coming back because they want to. I’m amazed that we’ve got this far. I thought that once they had become extremely successful, we would only get to do one more series. There’s never going to come a time when we do a longer run, because this is what the series has become. It’s an occasional treat where you get three movies. It’s how it works

But don’t assume that the show is done after next years three episodes. Moffat believes that as long as everyone is willing, they could keep doing the series for as long as they want. Maybe just not on a regular schedule.

That’s why I think it’s unlikely that we’ve completely finished it. There would be nothing strange in stopping for a while. It could go on forever, coming back now and again.

The picture of Cumberbatch and the bloodhound is from the fourth series. No information of why he appears to be giving orders to the dog, but there is a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story that references bloodhounds. The Adventure of the Creeping Man…

Will Sherlock Series 4 Be The Last?

Ian Ziering returns once again to the Sharknado franchise as the story moves five years into the future and out to Las Vegas, Nevada… because a sharknado in the desert makes about as much sense as a sharknado in the first place. I mean if you’re suspending disbelief already…

Syfy has released the following two videos showing behind the scenes of filming and some of the cast. Sharknado: The 4th Awakens also stars Carrie Keagan, Tara Reid, Stacey Dash, Alexandra Paul, David Hasselhoff, Gena Lee Nolan, Steve Guttenberg, Gary Busey, Gilbert Gottfried, Vince Neil and Wayne Newton.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sharknado: The 4th Awakens Heads To Las Vegas