The one that's out on DVD now.

Which I enjoyed thoroughly, BTW. But I've discovered I'm in the minority a bit on that one. Still, I maintain that Thor is AWESOME.

Thanks Rai I'll make sure to Tivo it.

All the reviews I've read of it (haven't seen it myself) say that Thor is pretty much the best thing about the movie, if not the only good thing.

Well, here's how I felt about the Ultimate Avengers movie -- especially in comparison to all the fine Timmverse cartoons we've seen:

Pretty much, I think it's starting off where JL started off -- full of good potential, mostly average in the execution and a few missteps that I think can be corrected in future episodes. It takes from both regular Avengers and Ultimate Avengers continuity and comes up with its own, like the Timmverse has, and none of those changes bother me.

Pros: Everyone was pretty clearly defined character-wise, without dragging it all down with too much exposition. Captain America especially has a clear character arc. Thor is so totally awesome it hurts. And the big fight is fantastic. Never have I seen Marvel's characters unleashed like that. It's amazing.

Cons: The voiceover work could use some improvement, especially Black Widow's accent. Captain America also sounds a little young, which might bother some. We have been spoiled rotten with the quality of voiceacting on JL, and it can be only hoped they'll learn from their first attempts. The animation also seems inferior to JL/U. And like I said, the story was fairly average but solid. There's a lot of great potential evident, and the good moments were really good.

All in all, way better than the '90s Marvel 'toons, but not quite up to JL caliber yet. Still, I'll be back for the next adventure -- which has Black Panther in it apparently, and since he's one of my favorites, I am way stoked.

Except for one problem: It was boring as hell.

Went to the Big Apple Con this weekend...nothing as depressing as vendors hawking bootleg DVDs of JLU episodes not seen in the States. Even now and then, I'd pop in, see an unaired episode, and quickly walk away, lest I be spoiled. Feels like I'm being punished for living south of the border.

This just in: Warner screws up the Season Two DVD release. It's going to be widescreen, but not enhanced for widescreen TVs.

Random question: The "Secret Society" ep from way back in Season 2 popped into my head recently and I was wondering about something: There's that scene in which the Society is doing their whole "trust falls" thing in the cave and Parasite warns Sinestro about what will happen to him if Sinestro were not to catch him. Well, what would happen? I mean, I know that Parasite can drain any living thing so of course he could hurt Sinestro that way. But would he gain his powers? His powers come from that ring. Could Parasite gain that power? Does the ring count as a "living thing"? Or can anyone who wears Sinestro's ring wield its power? Just curious.

The Parasite can also kill you if he drains enough energy from you. It's not just about power absorption.

That said, he might gain the self-control it would take to wield the ring, but since he would not automatically have possession of the ring, it wouldn't do him any good.

Of course, if he absorbs Sinestro into unconsciousness, all he has to do then is take it from him.

Comicscontinuum reports that the last two episodes of JLU will air on Saturday May 6th and Saturday May 13th.

So Cartoon Network is making us wait another month. They must really hate JLU ... and the viewers who love it !

JLU is on next Saturday's schedule at 10:30, but I didn't check if it was a new episode.

JLU is on next Saturday's schedule at 10:30, but I didn't check if it was a new episode.

According to Comcast, it's "Far from Home" NEW

Can we get a spoiler on "Far From Home"?

Supergirl, Green Lantern and Green Arrow go to the 30th century to help the Legion of Super-Heroes against the Fatal Five. Supergirl gets all hot for Brainiac 5 and ultimately decides to stay.

How's that?

Awesomely bad, that is. I'm sorry, but I LOATHED his Batman with the fury of a thousand supernovas. Batman Begins was probably the worst movie I've ever had the unfortunate experience of sitting thru, and I say this as someone who didn't like the previous Batman movies at all. And Bale was one of the reasons why I couldn't stomach the movie.

As for Wonder Woman, AOL Moviefone ran down a list of names WB's considering for the part. Aside from Lindsay Lohan, here's the list Moviefone rounded up:

Britney Spears
Mischa Barton
Katie Holmes
Jessica Alba
Morena Baccarin
Kate Beckinsale
Jessica Biel
Charisma Carpenter
Erica Durance
Shannon Elizabeth
Jennifer Garner
Katherine Heigl
Scarlett Johansson
Angelina Jolie
Michelle Monaghan

No, I don't know how or why Spears even made it n this list.

You've been very fortunate in your life, then, if it's the worst movie you've ever seen.

That spoiler for "Far From Home" would be more interesting if we didn't know this was the end of the line for the Timmverse.

You didn't like it? I thought it was great.



Britney: No
Mischa: No
Katie: No
Jessica: Maybe
Morena: Not sure who she is
Kate: Possibly
Jessica: Possibly
Charisma: I could see it
Erica: She does okay as Lois, just can't see her as Wonder Woman
Jennifer: No
Katherine: Haven't seen her in many roles
Scarlett: Maybe
Angelina: I think she has almost the right look
Michelle: Who?

Morena is Inara from Firefly / Serenity. Other than height, she definitely has the looks -- with the right hairdo and outfit, she really looks like a greek statue come to life.

Thanks roosterboy Looking forward to seeing it.

WW is Catherine Bell or Lauren Graham. Why look any more?

Because she's actually Claudia Black!

See, this is why they should probably go with an unknown.

As for Bale's Batman....I actually have to say he's not my favorite. Michael Keaton sold the live-action Batman voice for me, and ever since then, it seems like everyone's been trying to copy his dark clipped deadpan, only it comes off as vaguely Shatner-esque when it's not Keaton doing it. I agree Bale was probably the best Bruce Wayne ever, but the only time he sold his Batman for me is when he'd go a more emotional route. Hopefully, he'll develop his own Batman for the next movie.

Back on topic -- new JLU this Saturday? About time!

I also like Batman Begins. I think Bale does need to work on his characterization of Batman. The growl thing he did was distracting at best. But again, his Wayne was spot-on. Both as Bruce Wayne, society man, and as Bruce Wayne is Batman. I'd like to see him push his portrayl in the suit closer to his work out of suit while being "himself". I've always been partial to the "Bruce Wayne is the mask" concept of Batman so I'd like to see him bridge that a little better.

Concerning the Wonder Woman speculation...

Britney Spears: I can't imagine she's seriously being considered.
Mischa Barton: Very "flavor of the monthy", but I could see this.
Katie Holmes : WAY too much of liability
Jessica Alba: Eh. I don't see why she'd be interested with two comic book franchise already under her belt.
Morena Baccarin: Best bet among the Whedon alums. A solid "no-name" choice. And (to keep this on topic) her work on JLU has been very impressive.
Kate Beckinsale: Very reasonable suggestion if the want an established name.
Jessica Biel: They'd have to overpay to get her, but she could work.
Charisma Carpenter: She wishes. 5 years ago and she's a shoe-in with Whedon at the helm, but now she's just too old to lead in a movie franchise. Could get it if she screen tests through the roof, though.
Erica Durance: Honestly, what fanboy got her on the list? No chance.
Shannon Elizabeth: If she was going to break-out, it'd have happened already.
Jennifer Garner: Both too famous and not famous enough.
Katherine Heigl: A little too unproven for someone in the biz as long as her. Has to be a dark horse at best.
Scarlett Johansson: They wish. I don't see Johansson signing up, personally, but she could be a very interesting choice.
Angelina Jolie: WAY to famous for the movie. She wouldn't be worth the investment.
Michelle Monaghan: Very unknown, but seems to have what it would take to be a break-out star with a string of supporting roles in high profile movies.

My choice for WW (after taking the now too old but once perfect Catherine Zeta-Jones out of the running) has been and always shall be...

Jill Hennessy

She's got the look, the acting chops, the experience and the lack of major exposure. The only thing I don't like about her as a choice is she's a bit too thin, I think. Then again, so are most of the other actors on that list above. But buff Hennessy up a bit and there's your Wonder Woman right there.

Can we get Jenifer Connely if she promises to get her curves back?

Diana is a freakin' Amazon Princess. Nobody under 5'10" should even be considered.

You do realize that Jill Hennessy is older than Catherine Zeta-Jones, right? In any case, they are both on the wrong side of 35, so they'll probably choose someone younger.

In any case, WW is hard to do. If you look back at JL/JLU, I thought that WW was a character that had a hard time standing on her own. She was interesting only when she was playing off someone else (Batman or J'onn in most cases) and never really got a chance to shine in her spotlight episodes. I don't think a WW movie will be as good as the best Batman and Superman movies were.

I did not know that, actually. I always think CZJ is older than she really is. Maybe because of her husband, I don't know. Plus, I think she just looks older than Jill Hennessy.

Ah well, it's not like either of them has a chance, as you point out.

I hope CN really DOES air the scheduled episodes of JLU. My DVR doesn't like being lied to, and neither do I. As for who should play Wonder Woman: Out of that list, maybe Kate Beckinsale, Charisma Carpenter or even Jennifer Garner. But I stil feel that if Joanie "Chyna" Laurer can get her ass back to the gym and maybe take some quickie acting classes, that role is hers for the taking.

Also? If I see one more freakin' animae in JLU's place, I will scream.

YTV's been better about showing JLU recently, but in my mind I'm not really relying on them to do it. It's great if I can watch the episodes on TV, but if not, I'll wait for the DVD. I hope whoever ends up broadcasting the new Legion cartoon is more reliable about it.

Her sex tape would change your mind. *full body shiver*

Chyna? Sorry, but she's just too ... unattractive, even after all of the plastic surgery. Also, a failed wrestler/failed reality star as Wonder Woman would also meet the same fan response that the rumors of Jack Black as Green Lantern did, which is to say near outrage. She's also a lousy actress and on the "wrong side" of 35.

Besides people, this is Whedon. He's going to go with an waifish girl who still looks like she's a teenager, he'll have her run around adding the -y suffix to every word she says while whining about how hard her "destiny" as Wonder Woman is, then she'll fall in love with Ares, because he might be a bloodthirsty monster, but he's got a heart of gold underneath it all, and he has a soooouuuuuul.

The only good thing about this movie will be watching the reactions from the fandoms.

I know this will never happen, but in my perfect WW movie (admittedly, a slightly altered version), Wonder Woman would be played by Firefly's Gina Torres. Her character Zoe kicked ass in a thousand different ways, and I maintain that she'd make a fantastic Wonder Woman.

kirinan I totally agree with you about Gina Torres and Wonderwoman!!

Xero, I've been looking for a way to best express my reservations, and your paragraph is it.

I'd also go with Claudia Black. She kicks the most ass of anyone.

Yeah, also, I think she looks the part so well.

I mean, the whole fear of a "waifish" teen playing the part is really a large part of how I'm going to react to the movie. I hear Wonder WOMAN, I imagine...well...an Amazon. Someone who's tall and powerful-looking and carries herself with a lot of presence. And someone who's in her mid-30s, to be honest. Claudia Black is a little short, but otherwise, her performance as Aeryn Sun just defined the nebulous qualities of WW quite well.

Someone upthread mentioned how on her own in JLU episodes, she didn't have much of a personality. Sadly, this has been true most of her career in the comics. There are about three writers who I think really "got" her in over 60 years of existance, and that's a little sad really, when you think about how many incarnations Batman has had and how there are fans for every one of them. And while I liked that in early episodes of JL, they did try to make episodes revolve around her, one of them was so terrible I can't bring myself to watch it ever ever again ("Fury") and the other is just sort of average. It's telling when I found her most interesting interaction in Season One to be when she met Steve Trevor, and that's just because I'm a nerd like that.

The thing that worries me about the new Wonder Woman movie is the same thing that worries me about Superman Returns: I'm guessing that the primary inspiration will be that of the old television show (and in the case of Superman, the Christopher Reeve movies) instead of the source material itself. Batman Begins was so refreshing because the love for the comic books was apparent. At long last it was a live-action DC Comics movie written by somebody who had a deep love for DC Comics and directed by somebody who knew how to make a hell of a film. The Burton Batman movies, for instance, only had the latter going for them.

I like Joss Whedon enough, but I don't think of him when I think "Wonder Woman."

Whedon is a big-enough comic fan to have been directly involved with several, so I'm hopeful on that.

Although -- and this is why this is on topic :) -- virtually all of my information about "modern" WW comes from JL/JLU, and comments people have made comparing it to the comics.

I just threw up a little in my mouth remembering that--that was nasty.

Man. Lucy Lawless is a better fanboy suggestion than Chyna. Aside from a severe inability to act, all she is is a body builder. I'm always amazed at people who keep insisting the actress be gigantically tall and/or genuinely heaving with muscles. While I agree this is a character that needs to project strength, she also flies for goodness sake. Are you going to demand an actress who flies? Its that kind of rational that would have earned us Dolph Lundgren: Superman back in the day. They'll screen test whoever gets the part and make sure she projects the character well. Maybe she'll do it at 5'8" and with a Linda Hamilton T2 toned rather than heaving physique. And it will all be fine.

I share the concern about Superman Returns, as in it is not a new interpretation of the classic character but a continuation of the Reeves movies. I hope I'm being overanxious, though. Singer did an awesome job with the X-Men movies and clearly loves the character. While I think he's a little too beholden to the movies and am unsure that I'll like his interpretation of the Lex Luthor character, I'm reserving judgment. I don't think a motion picture should be too beholden to every little detail of the comic books, but I do think they can learn from some of the subtle characterization seen there. Also, they can learn a lot from the Timmverse, shows, as they've really demonstrated how you can distill a character developed for 60 years or so into an accessabile narrative. There is a balance that needs to be met and the DC Animated Universe has done it to perfection. Any producer dealing with DC characters would be wise to study their characterizations and nuances. Indeed, some have. The Superman: TAS decision to make Brainiac a product of Krypton was inspired and was properly co-opted by Smallville when they introduced a Brainiac character.

Technically yes and technically no. He has said he is using the first two films as a sort of historical backdrop for his film, but not precisely. And 3 and 4 never happened. From the way he's described it, I get the feeling that the structure provided for referring to the first two films is that same vague sense of "Yes, it happened, but not the way it was originally told" that you get when Comic Book Superman has to refer to an adventure he was on "last year" that was actually written in 1992 - obviously, if it had happened last year, it would have happened differently than in 1992, because the world was a different place in 2005, so we just refer to the broadstrokes and leave the details out.

Yeah, it's sort of like the mentality for the Bond films. Well, the Bond films until Casino Royale, which looks to be chucking everything from Connery to Brosnan. It still doesn't mean I'm crazy about it. I'm just ready for a different version of Superman, as I didn't think the Christopher Reeves films were that great (Christopher Reeves was a perfect Superman, but everything else? Not so much).

But I usually hate the complaints that different mediums like television and movies don't follow the comic books exactly, so it's difficult to explain what I'm on about. The Timmverse got this right. Comic continuity is so convulated with Crisis this and Zero Hour that that I love the simplified JLU world. It clearly loved the source material while setting out to improve it. Compare that to, say, Joel Schumacher. His idea of Batman was the Adam West series, so he made a big budget version of that.

I'm still worried about Superman Returns. Honestly, I wish we could get a live-action version of the Superman from the Timmverse. That seemed to be the perfect combination of Pre-Crisis and Byrne-era, taking the best elements from both while adding its own touches. The concept of Superman has evolved since the time of the films Superman and Superman II, and that's where my reservations stem from.

Back on topic, does anyone know if there are plans to make any Justice League direct-to-video movies? The show was doing great, but it just wasn't pulling in the demographics Cartoon Network wanted. It seems like a no-brainer to continue it to some extent outside of cable televsion.

That's why I have few reservations about Jessica Biel, aside from her being Jessica Biel; she really hit the weights for her role in Blade Trinity and I was surpised at the transformation. If Morena could do something similar, size issues notwithstanding, I could roll with it.

Nevertheless, I'm hoping for a virtual unknown. With that in mind, is there any young, 'up-and-comer' on a daytime soap we should be paying attention to?

Oh, and I'm soooo looking forward to this weekend. VCR don't let me down.



Sounds like a winner to me. Of course, folks will be wary, after what TW just did. But I'll put up with their silliness, if it means more JLU. Plus, it could be PG-13 JLU. Fun times.

Every time I hear about the whole "Mischa Barton as Wonder Woman" rumor, I get a little indignant on behalf of her co-star, Rachel Bilson, since the latter actually dressed up like WW in an episode of The OC. Also, Mischa looks like you could break her in half over your knee like a twig.

Being the geek girl that I am, comic-based movies are my favorite genre of movies. (I even dressed up as WW this pass Halloween...) I'm really hoping they don't mess her up; she's in a tie with Storm as my favorite heroine.


Uh...topic? Er...I'll be eagerly waiting to see if Justice League comes on tonight, like I do every Saturday night. And maybe saving up to buy the DVDs so I can finally get seasons 1 and 2 off of my damn computer.

Question for JLU experts! Was it just me, or was the animation in this episode different than prior ones?

Feh. I know this isn't supposed to be a prequel to the Legion series, but this fell flat. All we see of the Legion are Brianiac 5 and freakin' Bouncing Boy, with the rest of the gang serving as cannon fodder.

And I guess 21 was the age of consent on Argo. Go getchu some sweet level-twelve lovin', Kara.Too bad that was telegraphed throughout the episode. Nice Crisis of Infinite Earths cover homage with GL, though.

ETA: Great...not only is there no new episode next week, but we get Ultimate Avengers. Nice that I don't have to rent the DVD now, but JLA-to-animation is always better than anything with the Avengers.

ETA2 for RandomWatcher: Let's see...there was Wildfire, Phantom Girl, Colossial Boy, Lightning Lad, Chameleon Boy, Blok...and that's all I can remember. Did I miss anybody?

Glad to see I wasn't the only one to see that. Heh, and funny thing is I barely even read DC aside from Teen Titans

Btw, who were the Legionaires shown besides Brainiac 5 and Bouncing Boy?

This was the first JLU I'd seen in a while and it seemed like, once again, there was a great story here waiting to be told but the half-hour format gutted a lot of it.

Supergirl's new costume? Bleh. I liked the old one. It showed she had her own personality and wasn't just Superman Jr. in a skirt.

Its great that the writers are remembering stuff they introduced in series gone by. I remember the Legionnaires from an episode of Superman: TAS, where three of them went back in time to save the young Superman. Speaking of Superman, he seemed kind of a dick this episode. I can see him wanting to keep some professional distance from her on the job, as it were, to avoid the appearance of favoritism. Still, he could have been more supportive of her. Glad he realized that; too bad it was after it was too late.

Brainiac V huh? I like the concept but it would have been nice to have a bit more backstory on this guy. Another thing sacrificed for time, as was how he instantly fell in love with Kara. And somehow, he just didn't seem all that smart either, for a supposed genius. Running, grabbing disks off people, doing a kamikaze run on a ship with your ship, and fiddling with computers. Hell, I could do that!

I like Bouncing Boy. Just the thought of his power makes me giggle. That and he wasn't entirely passive.

Green Arrow. Subtle as a brick to the head, but it worked.

I'm glad Supergirl chose to make her own choice and her own destiny in the future. Although, since she did turn 21, wouldn't she be Superwoman now? Just something that occured to me.

All in all good, but it would have been much better with the old two-episode system they had in JL.

Shadow Lass, Timber Wolf, Ultra Boy, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy show up too.

Once upon a time, I would have known the names of everybody they showed. It's been quite a while. We really got shortchanged on Legionnares here. Bouncing Boy is introduced and promptly kidnapped, the others are already zombies, so Braniac 5 is the only one we really see. And falling in love in 2 seconds? Ugh. Made me miss the classis LSH. I liked that they were mostly not 'superheroes' as such; they were mostly representatives of alien races with non-human attributes that looked like superpowers off-planet. I do still think Matter-Eater Lad has one of the most unfortunate superheroes names ever, though.

The strafing through the canyon was a direct ripoff of Star Wars.