Comic-Con 09: TV & Movie news

Because tv show news at a comic convention makes perfect sense.

Well, ok, some of it makes perfect sense. After all, some of the TV shows and movies mentioned docome from comic books. However, some of them do not, but at least it isn’t as bad as it is at the more well followed San Diego Comic Con, where Hollywood seems to have taken over the event. Still, despite evidenceto the contrary, this isn’t just a comics blog.

In addition to Newsarama and Comic Book Resources, I’ve also grabbed Toon Zone, a site devoted to animation news. Most comic-spawned media head for the animation studios, and in many cases I perfer it. It is easier to make super powered stories that way. So here’s what I found interesting.

• Speaking of Toon Zone, they have some great coverage of the panels for Batman: The Brave and the Bold and the upcoming direct-to-video Wonder Womanmovie, complete with amusing audio clips. Especially check out the WW panel. It does sound like a fun movie, and I love BTBATB.
• Over at the Marvel panel, Iron Man: Armored Adventures (the unfortunately shortened “IM:AA”, and Iron Fans know why) has been given the release date of April 24th. I was one of those guys who bought the cheaper Wal-Mart 2-pack of the movie that came with the Iron Man episode rather than 500,000 hours of behind the scene footage that I probably wouldn’t watch again anyway, and I am pretty interested in seeing how this works out. Or how long it takes someone to tell the hyperactive Pepper to put a sock in it. 🙂
• Also announced were an animated series based on the Marvel Super Hero Squad figurines and the comic strip at Marvel Kids.com. (I recently reviewed the comic that collected the strips.) If this means finding out what the “Infinity Fractals” are, I’m all for it, especially if it’s fun.
• In other Marvel toon news, no release date for the Thor movie, the people behind Spectacular Spider-Man, which will have a second season on Disney XD (formerly Toon Disney), promise that there are no plans for Gwen to die, and Wolverine and the X-Men are already doing well enough that a second season has been greenlit. Deadpool and Nick Fury will be visting some of these shows, and animated series of both Thor and the Avengers are currently in production.
• At the Viz panel, they announced a number of new series, but will definately be working to give Naruto fans as much of our..I mean their favorite track suit-wearing ninja boy as w..they can handle.
• Ok, I really like Naruto, ok?
• The more I see of Pixar’s new Up movie, the more I want to see it.
• However, the upcoming Black Panther cartoon, which for some reason has a panel separate from the Marvel panel, isn’t doing much for me. It doesn’t help that a clip I saw of it was rather violent for my taste. I do appreciate the visual style, though.
• I’m not sure what to think about Joss Weldon’s new series, Dollhouse. I assume he’s gotten enough clout with the Buffy/Angel and Firefly/Serenity productions, since they tend to be successes, despite network interference. On the other hand, the concept is a bit odd.
• Doctor Who‘s more adult spinoff, Torchwood, had a presence at Comic Con this year. Odd, since the only DW news I picked up upon was at the IDW panel. I’m not a fan of the softcore series, and wish there had been more Doctor Who and Sarah Jane Adventures stuff.
• There was also news about the new Terminator movie, but I’m not sure if I care. I didn’t watch the third movie (and from what I hear I didn’t miss much), and The Sarah Connor Chronicles (not to be confused with the Sarah Jane Adventures, although Cybermen vs Terminators would be an interesting battle–someone get IDW and Dark Horse on this!) didn’t hold my attention past the first three episodes.

Then of course is the Watchmen buzz, but like I said, will anything change your mind at this stage as to whether or not you are going to see this one? Tomorrow we step into the digital world with video games and digital comics.