HA HA HA WHAT!?

I love the rumor mill. Apparently, Captain Jack Harkness' real name is Steve Rogers

How badly would certain folk explode if freakin' Captain America were played by a rather notoriously gay man? Personally, between him and Robert Downey Jr., I think The Avengers movie would stand to have maybe 1/10th the slash between the Cap'n and Iron Man as exists in the comics already. Seriously, John Barrowman isn't even enough to make The Avengers the movie gayer than comics, and that's saying something.

Two links via ecmyers

Batman's secret identity FOR REALZ: George W. Bush

Forget that the author appears to have entirely missed the authorial intent of Christopher Nolan et al. who wrote the thing. Forget that even Frank Miller, who writes a pretty authoritarian, near-fascist Batman, still makes the point that Batman is as much part of the problem as anything. Forget your sanity.

....WHAT

...!?!?!?!

( omgwtfbbq? )

And then there's this: Max Payne teaser poster I have the same half repulsed/half intrigued reaction to this as I did the trailer. Parts of it seem very right by the source material--the over the top angst, for instance. But wtf is up with the Angel in the background? It also doesn't even seem like a very good use of that melodramatic shadowing effect. The grittiness of the game's comic panels isn't there. It's too...too clean, and it looks weird and fakish as a result.

It's almost like I am actually at Comic Con (except I'm not ::CRIES::)

Well, I guess that answers that:

When asked whether Marvel Studios might ever get some of the other characters back in order to make their own movies, [Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios' President of Production] said that there were very specific contractual obligations and he didn't think Sony or Fox would let go of Spider-Man or The X-Men anytime soon.

Yeah, that's about what I thought. If Fox was smart, as soon as they got wind of Marvel starting up its own studio, they'd have renewed their rights to films based on the X-Men forever. Seems like they have. That's a blow to Marvel because it's not just the X-Men, it's like any character associated therewith if they had even one second of screen time and no matter how bastardized the character was. Fox has the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom and the Silver Surfer because of that ridiculous sequel. They've got Wolverine in the can forever--or for as long as Hugh Jackman can keep on doing it. (Wolverine spin-off news: it doesn't sound like a load of crap! Then again, I'm just excited by the idea of Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth. FUCK YEAH. But since when was Gambit in Weapon X!?)

But the good news is that Marvel is free to make as many movies with their second-tier heroes as they like! Here comes the Ant-Man movie! SWEET. And don't count out the Hulk or the Punisher. Although The Incredible Hulk did decent-if-not-great box office, they're still sweet on him. And there's a new Punisher movie in December (check out the trailer at the bottom of this link). Punisher: War Zone looks ultraviolent, which is great because that's all that character is anyway. Frank Castle is like the Joker without the gimicks and the makeup as far as I'm concerned--if they could share a cell in Arkham, they'd either fall in love or kill each other. (Probably both.) Ray Stevenson is disturbingly hot as the Punisher, so that means my love of Julie Benz with brown hair is going to be challenged. At least they can both act so I can pretend that's why I'm in love with them, right!?