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Possible trouble for “Legion”?
From Sci-Fi:
A federal judge in Los Angeles has found that Smallville may be infringing on the copyrights held by the widow and daughter of Jerome Siegel, who created the Superboy character for DC Comics, Variety reported. The March 23 summary judgment also found that Joanne Siegel and Laura Siegel Larson had successfully recaptured the Superboy rights as of Nov. 17, 2004.
If there is trouble for Smallville, there could be potential problems for the Legion of Superheroes show being developed.
The JLU is Back (for now)
From The Continuum:
Cartoon Network’s schedule for April 3-30 includes two new episodes of Justice League Unlimited and the network premiere of the Ultimate Avengers.
The “Far From Home” episode of Justice League Unlimited, featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes, will air on Saturday, April 15 at 10:30 p.m. “Ancient History,” with a teleplay by Geoff Johns and featuring Hawkman, will air on Saturday, April 29 at 10:30 p.m.
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Origin of the Spider-Friends
Tivo recently upgraded the Tivo service to include better suggestions. I am now being treated to a variety of new surprises on my TiVo every day. One of the most recent ones includes the “Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends” episode “Origin of the Spider-Friends.” Here’s a synopsis from Spider-Friends.com:
While attending an inventors convention, where Tony Stark is demonstrating his new computer devised for crime detection, Peter Parker is mesmerized by the beauty of Angelica Jones. All of a sudden the Beetle bursts in through the ceiling to steal Stark’s invention. Peter changes to Spider-Man only to find Iceman and Firestar already on the scene. The Beetle escapes without the invention. Later, as Peter is talking to Angelica and her friend Bobby Drake in the Cafeteria, a fire breaks out in the science lab. Peter changes in a storage room. He begins to put out the fire as Spidey, and coincidentally Iceman and Firestar show up. That night, Peter finds that his camera took pictures when it was left in the storage room. What develops are pictures of Angelica turning into Firestar. This makes him realize that Bobby must be Iceman. The three decide to join forces while the Beetle kidnaps Tony Stark, giving The Beetle access to his newest invention, the Power Booster.
It’s amazing how your tastes change as you age. As a child, I thought this was one of the greatest shows on TV. I thought it was almost as good as the Superfriends! But watching this in 2006, the show just doesn’t hold up as well. I can deal with the corney dialog and silly come-backs, the headquarters that Aunt May never finds, and even the super-computer that shorts out when she is vacuuming, but what they did to Tony Stark (Iron Man) was just wrong. His voice sounded like a poor imitation of James Earl Jones. As I watched him, all I kept picturing was Brack’s dad on “The Brak Show.” How could anyone watch Tony Stark in this episode with a straight face? And why didn’t Iron Man ever show up after The Beetle takes Stark’s invention?
Yeah, I know. Sometimes you just have to shrug your shoulders and say “It’s just a cartoon.”
Batman Beyond: Complete First Season
Release Date: March 21, 2006. Get Yours Today!
New Fantastic Four Series to Air on Cartoon Network
From Reuters
Cartoon Network has ordered 26 episodes of a new animated rendition of “Fantastic Four” from Marvel Entertainment for a fall premiere.
The show will be produced by the French studio, MoonScoop. “Code Lyoco” is the only show I’ve heard of that they produce–and I haven’t see it yet. I hope this version is better than some of the previous incarnations of the past. The first season of the “Marvel Action Hour” (with “Iron Man”) was horrible, but by the time they fixed things for the second season, it was too late for many viewers to give it another chance.
If it is as good as the “Ultimate Avengers” movie, it’ll have a spot on my TiVo every week.
Petition to Save JLU? Don’t Bother…
It’s no surprise that many of the fans of Justice League Unlimited are upset that the show will not return next season. JLU was a rare find in American animation. It is one of the few shows that most adults will openly admit to watching due to its excellent writing and animation. As you would expect, a show of the caliber of JLU is not easy to produce. Therefore, some of the people behind the show are actually relieved that the show is ending:
“that said, i’ve got no beef with cn whatsoever….honestly, i’m almost relieved JLU is over (for the moment anyway), it was frankly an EXHAUSTING show to do, hard to write, extremely labor-intensive to produce, this season and the last especially…. with such an action-oriented show, after awhile it becomes really REALLY hard to keep trying to top yourself, to keep pushing the envelope for hyper-intense action sequences, upping the epic scale, etc….”
A Tribute to the Justice League
I’m sure you’ve all heard that this is the last season for the Justice League. Here’s a great video tribute. May contain spoilers for unaired episodes.
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Ultimate Avengers
I finally had a chance to watch Ultimate Avengers this weekend, and I must say that I was impressed! This movie has excellent animation, good voice acting and plenty of action. If you have been turned off by past Marvel Animation projects, you should give this a shot. It does not suffer from the bad dialog and “kiddie” storylines of past Marvel shows.
The DVD also has plenty of great extras, including a trivia mode that let’s you watch the movie “Pop-up Video” style.
My only complaint was that is was a little short (71 minutes). It doesn’t leave a lot of time for character development, but hopefully, we’ll get more of that in Ultimate Avengers 2.