Tag: DC

Is Watchmen Cursed?

Just when it looked like we were actually going to finally get to see a Watchmen movie, along comes a lawsuit by 20th Century Fox claiming that it — not Warner Bros. — has the film rights to Watchmen.

That in itself wouldn’t be all that surprising. Rights to properties like this can pass through multiple entities, sometimes under very odd circumstances, and sorting things out can be tough. Typically, though, this would be a way for 20th Century Fox to shake some money out of Warner Bros. Except if we are to take 20th Century Fox at face value, they’re not interested in any compensation for its rights according to Variety,

“We will be asking the court to enforce Fox’s copyrights interests in ‘The Watchmen’ and enjoin the release of the Warner Bros. film and any related ‘Watchmen’ media that violate our copyright interests in that property.

Surprisingly, Fox said it would rather see the film killed instead of collecting a percentage of the box office.

“When you have copyright infringement, there are some damages you never recover,” said a source close to the litigation.

I suspect that’s more of a threat to increase their negotiating position, but when Fox originally filed the lawsuit back in February 2008, they did seek to enjoin the movie from going into production, so perhaps they’re serious.

Presumably this lawsuit also places in jeopardy all of the Watchmen action figures and prop replicas that DC Direct had announced, since those relied on the characters in the movie rather than the comic book. DC Direct had once planned to proceed with Watchmen-based action figures, but abandoned it after Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons said they wanted no part of it. DC may have been playing nice in withdrawing the figures, but more likely it was afraid of a lawsuit that would have threatened its hold over the Watchmen rights.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave (wait — that’s a character froma different company. Sorry about that).

Wonder Woman Animated Movie Coming February 2009

Next up in Warner Brothers series of straight-to-DVD animated DC films is Wonder Woman, scheduled for release in February 2009. One of the things I thought the New Frontier movie did very well was its interesting take on Wonder Woman (which I assume it got from the comic, but I haven’t read it so can’t confirm).

I assume this won’t be that dark, but at least it’s something until DC gets its act together and gets going on the live action film again (hint – do whatever it takes to get Joss Whedon back helming the project).

Black Canary Barbie

Ah yes, the Black Canary Barbie scheduled to hit stores this Fall, along with a Catwoman, Supergirl, Poison Ivy, Batgirl and Wonder Woman Barbie. I’ve actually got quite a few of the previous releases of DC-related Barbies. The problem is my kids tease me to no end about these — the reliable “they’re not dolls, they’re action figures” defense goes out the window when “Barbie” is stamped prominently on the packaging.

What I really want to know is why there’s no Green Arrow Ken to go along with this.

The Essential Batman Encyclopedia

A couple times on this blog I’ve mentioned my childhood fascination with the Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes, three volumes that were extensively detailed guides to Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Published in the 1970s, the volumes are very dated now and even then the level of detail meant that typically only a handful of series were treated for each character. For example, none of the Justice League, etc., comic books were considered in the creation of either of the books despite the prominent role all three of DCs heavyweights play in those books.

Anyway, the good news is that DC is in the process of doing a new series of encylopedia-like volumes about its big guns, and the first entry, The Essential Batman Encyclopedia, is already out.

This book is huge at 8.5″ x 11″ and 388 pages, including a liberal number of color reproductions and artwork. This book doesn’t attempt to be as detailed as the original Batman Encyclopedia which is a good thing. First, it allows author Robert Greenberger to expand the entires to cover pretty much all the relevant Batman-related books. Second, it doesn’t waste space with relatively trivial matters (the original Encyclopedia, for example, included pretty much every villain who ever appeared, including many who made single appearances in early Batman books and really had little to no influence on the series/character as whole).

Greenberger also does a good job — well as good as can be expected — in handling DC’s confusing multi-dimensional continuity. For example, the entry on “Robin” starts off by noting how Robin came to be on Earth 2, then on Earth 1, etc., and then how these different continuities sometimes bump into each other and crossover. It would be better if DC had a sensible continuity, but barring that this approach is the next best thing.

Honestly with this book listed at $19.95 on Amazon.Com, I can’t thing of a single bad thing to say about this. It’s everything I’d hoped an updated version of the original Batman encyclopedia would be. Now bring on the Superman and Wonder Woman entries, and hopefully whereas the original books got cut off there, hopefully we’ll see this series progress so there will be a Green Lantern, etc. encyclopedia.

Please.

DC Unlimited’s World of Warcraft Action Figures

DC’s created a new brand for some of its action figure line — DC Unlimited — and landed the World of Warcraft license. According to Action-Figure.Com,

The initial set of figures will include a Blood Elf Rogue, Orc Shaman, Undead Warlock and Dwarf Warrior. The deluxe figures will include a Draenei Paladin and Illidan Stormrage. The first wave of figures is slated to hit comic book, pop culture, mass market, specialty and toy retailers in Fall 2007.

Damn. This will be the third release of WoW action figures, and still no love for my Gnome Rogues. WTF? Who do I have to corpse camp to get a Gnome Rogue figure?