So the trailer is finally here. Comic fans got pretty excited seventeen years ago when Sly Stallone starred in Judge Dredd (1995) but that excitement sadly turned to bitter disappointment in slightly less time than it took to actually watch the film. Over the years the disappointment has gradually changed to outright depression at the lost opportunity of a film that completely missed the point of John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra’s darkly satirical creation. He even took to his helmet off. It still hurts today. No, really. It does.

So the news that Dredd was returning in a movie that promised to embrace the spirit of one of comic’s great anti-heroes has led to a fair bit of anticipation that has bordered on nervosa. Never has the news that a man will been keeping his helmet firmly on been greeted with such relief.

So what can we tell from the Dredd (2012) trailer? Well the Big Meg isn’t quite the futuristic metropolis of the comic. The term “near future” would seem more appropriate with a look not a million miles from Manchester on a dirty night. But it is at least gritty so no real problems there. The Judges, too, are less comic book than we might have expected with surprisingly sensible uniforms. The role of Dredd himself is not one that is ever going to require an actor’s full range (although that’s not to say you’d let Keanu Reeves anywhere near it) but Karl Urban seems to be doing a pretty good job at being stony-faced and scary even if the Oscars are unlikely to be beckoning for a role like this. Not sure about Anderson though; simply not enough in the trailer to tell if Olivia Thirlby has got the handle on what is actually quite a complex character. Anderson’s blend of humanity in an inhumane job is not going to be that easy to pull off. It looks like there will be a fair bit of violence but it wouldn’t be Dredd without that and it wouldn’t be a twenty-first century action movie without the inevitable slowmo gunplay.

What is worrying is that it just doesn’t look terribly exciting; where is the “trailer moment”? Bearing in mind that compressing an entire movie into two minutes means that we only get to see the best 0.5% or so, any movie can look exciting in the trailer. Failure to do so can be an indicator of a turkey of Godzilla-like proportions. But this isn’t going to be getting anybody’s blood pressure up to dangerous levels. All those stories “creative differences” with writer Alex Garland taking over the editing role from director Pete Travis might just be looking a little more ominous again.

There is also something missing. Where is the humour? Black humour has always been essential ingredient to Judge Dredd and even the 1995 debacle grasped this simple requirement to a point. The plot involves some kind of drug and pretty normal looking villain as the drug baron. Is this really a story set in a city where sugar is illegal and the Uncle Ump’s Umpty Candy provided the most memorable tale of addiction? And Dredd villains are supposed to be outlandish grotesques, not moody looking women in high-rise blocks. It must also be said that the block we see does no justice to the hellish grandeur of the Big Meg’s City Blocks that are an essential part of so many of Dredd’s outings on the printed page. But there is one attempt at humour (possibly): Dredd says “negotiations over” at one point. Alright, perhaps it isn’t supposed to be funny but one can’t help but compare it to Bruce Willis saying “Anybody else want to negotiate?” so memorably in The Fifth Element (1997) trailer all those years ago. Now that was a trailer moment. Let’s hope Dredd is saving all its best moments for the film itself. But it must be said that things do not currently bode well on that front.

In this week’s edition of ‘Noteworthy New Comics,’ we crash a wedding, cackle with the Comedian, take a stroll through the afterlife and find out why one should never mess with an alien warrior princess. Here are our top five picks from this week’s new releases!

Red Hood and the Outlaws #10 – Scott Lobdell’s take on Red Hood and his merry band of misfits has received its share of criticism, primarily concerning the rebooted version of former Titan, Starfire. The first issue featured a Kori with a different personality from the one fans had come to know and love and included a plot point where the character slept with both Jason Todd and Roy Harper. Lobdell and artist Kenneth Rocafort have both come under fire for their treatment, both visual and textual, of the alien princess but this issue promises to show us why Starfire is one of the most fearsome warriors in the galaxy, no matter what she gets up to in the privacy of her own bedroom.

Grim Leaper #2 – Last month, Image Comics’ Grim Leaper grabbed our attention with its gallows humor and dark love story. Writer Kurtis J. Wiebe and artist Aluisio Santos continue the seemingly doomed romance between Lou and Ella, two individuals who share a curiously gruesome curse: they are both doomed to a cycle of violent deaths and resurrections. In the last issue, it was love at first sight when Lou met Ella, but her untimely death interrupted their budding romance. Now, Lou races against the clock to find Ella in her new body before he meets his own demise.

Before Watchmen: Comedian #1 – DC continues the weekly Before Watchmen parade with the first issue of the Comedian’s mini-series. Wonder Woman scribe Brian Azzarello is joined by artist J.G. Jones as they kick off the Comedian’s pre-Watchmen story. The Comedian has always been the most provocative member of the Watchmen team and with the death of the world’s most tragically famous starlet, Marilyn Monroe being pinned on him, the book promises to deliver exactly the kind of edgy irreverence fans have come to associate with the character.

Dark Horse Presents #13 – In this installment of Dark Horse Presents, Writer Kelly Sue DeConnick and artist Phil Noto team up to resurrect Ghost. The story will follow Elisa Cameron, as she investigates the circumstances surrounding her death, but this #0 issue will be presented from the perspective of Vaughn, one of Ghost’s supporting characters. The mini-series will be published starting in September, but fans eager to read DeConnick’s take on the 90’s era character can get an early look at her rebooted vision today.

Astonishing X-Men #51 – You know a story arc is major when the mainstream media grabs hold of it and ever since writer Marjorie Liu’s announcement last month that Northstar and his boyfriend Kyle would marry in the pages of Astonishing X-Men #51, they haven’t let go. Today, we finally get to see the pair exchange vows and the story has inspired X-Men fans across the US to join in the celebration. Participating comic book shops, like Midtown Comics in New York City and Maximum Comics in Las Vegas, will be hosting same-sex marriage and commitment ceremonies (the latter for states where same-sex marriage is unfortunately still prohibited by law) as fans join Northstar and Kyle in saying, “I do.”

Physical media is dead. Blu-ray’s are lovely and all but the next battle for your wallet will be fought online. The issue now seems to be about how you access the media rather than the quality and the extra features. With the rise of digital media through MP3’s and on demand services like iTunes and the Playstation Store, two champions have emerged providing the public with streaming movies and TV shows for basically what amounts to pocket change each month.

Over the last two years the UK streaming market has been dominated by LOVEFiLM, with subscribers able to stream films through the internet or through handy applications on their PlayStation 3, Xbox or even an ultra-modern television set. Then Netflix made its UK debut in January and the whole playing field changed. Netflix has been going for a while in the US and offers thousands of films and shows available often mere months after their DVD release or the end of their TV run. The UK Netflix isn’t quite on a par with our US cousins. It has a limited amount of films but does beat LOVEFiLM in the TV show stakes and in their presentation. LOVEFiLM seeing this competition has really stepped things up – they signed up deals with companies like Optimum and healed their previous rift with Universal and now offer exclusive titles and even a HD option on some titles. LOVEFiLM still has issues with bandwidth and an awkward to navigate menu system which Netflix does not, but at the moment they have them beat when it comes to the content. Netflix seem to only update with one new title a week and that just doesn’t cut it. I feel that whoever signs a deal with 20th Century Fox will win this battle and it’s only a matter of time before a deal is announced. For the time being its Netflix for presentation and television and LOVEFiLM for the sheer number of films on offer.

Anyway, the aim of this piece is to highlight what is brought to the various services each week and pick out some gems that you should look out for and maybe even some things that you should avoid. If you want to leave me feedback below it would be appreciated, or hit us up on Twitter. So let’s get into it…

Conan the Barbarian (2011) – Netflix

Last year’s attempt to reboot the Conan franchise unfortunately was not the success that Lionsgate hoped it would be, essentially ending the franchise right there. Which is a shame because although this film gets a lot wrong when it comes to Robert E.Howard’s anti-heroic warrior, it’s also quite good fun and Jason Momoa does well in the Conan role. Director Marcus Nispel can craft a good action scene and has a great visual eye but no skill with nuance and performance. Although it’s nowhere near on a par with John Milius’ seminal 1981 classic, it’s definitely worth a watch and if you have Netflix then it’s one of the occasional releases they get that is fairly recent and exclusive so it’s a win.

LOST (2004-2010) – Netflix

This may be a controversial choice to some and to others they will be all over this like a rash if only to watch the whole thing again to catch what they may have missed first time around. Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams’ seminal mystery television show has been available on LOVEFiLM for a while but now the whole saga is available on Netflix (sadly not quite HD though). Whatever your opinion about the ending, you can’t deny that this show was always about the journey. For six years Lost was the best written show on TV, the mystery was always in the background for me and the show was never going to answer all of the threads and questions that hung over the central mystery. Lost is brilliant TV and is probably the most influential show since The X-Files. Many imitators have come and gone and nary has a new season gone by without a massive cast promotional photo that echoes the early days of this show. If you haven’t seen this before, now you have a chance to watch the whole thing for almost nothing. Be prepared to lose your social life, and possibly your job!

Kill List (2011) – LOVEFiLM

Ok I must admit I find Ben Wheatley’s breakthrough horror film from last year pretty overrated. I went in expecting a classic and was left feeling a little underwhelmed come the ending. I have since spoken to many people about what it all means and the themes in the film and have found its one of those films I can’t stop thinking about. The setup is very simple; two ex-soldier hitmen receive a list of targets from a mysterious businessman and go off to dispose of them very very violently. During this time, one of them starts to unravel as each target is revealed to be the epitome of evil. It all builds towards an ending and a sudden shift in tone that will either thrill you or leave you cold. LOVEFiLM have also made this available in HD so the time is right to catch up with this film which will haunt you for days.

Interview with the Vampire (1994) – LOVEFiLM

It’s funny how times change isn’t it? If they were to adapt Anne Rice’s novel now then it would be either a trilogy of films or one three hour epic, but back in the early ’90s everything was one and done. As a result Interview with the Vampire feels like the cliff notes to a story much more expansive and epic. It’s very much a film of two halves with the first being dominated by Tom Cruise’s hammy performance as Lestat and the second focussing on Brad Pitt’s Louis and Antonio Banderas’ Armand and dialling up the homo eroticism to groundbreaking levels for the time. The film still looks great and although it’s deeply flawed it is very good. What stays with you though is Kirsten Dunst’s breakthrough performance as an old soul trapped in a young body. Now that is a child acting.

The Faculty (1998) – LOVEFiLM

Aka the Robert Rodriguez film nobody remembers. Back in the late ’90s Rodriguez teamed up with the then hot screenwriter Kevin Williamson to make this Invasion of the Body Snatchers riff which crossed that premise with The Breakfast Club and resulted in a derivative but very cool and fun film which I inexplicably watched many many times when I was twenty years old. The dialogue is great, there is an unbelievable amount of swearing and Rodriguez is so far the only director who knows what to do with Josh Hartnett. The film still has a real anarchic spirit that I love and is therefore highly recommended.

Little Shop of Horrors (1985) – LOVEFiLM

With the news this week that we are finally going to see the alternate ending where Audrey grows huge, now is a good time to revisit Frank Oz’s 80s B-Movie inspired musical. The songs are great, the B movie tone is perfect and it’s notable for being a film that will make you miss the old days when Rick Moranis, Steve Martin and even Bill Murray were on top form. Also for anyone who complains about remakes, this is further evidence that they have always been with us as this is based on a ’60s Roger Corman film.

The Others (2001) – LOVEFiLM

Alejandro Amenabar made three cracking genre movies early on in his career. He started with Tesis in 1996, followed that up with Open Your Eyes in ’97 (the inspiration for Vanilla Sky) and then The Others in 2001. He has since abandoned us for worthy drama’s and this is a crying shame as The Others is one hell of a classy ghost story which is similar to the recent The Woman in Black but also manages to be better than that and The Sixth Sense. Nicole Kidman has never been better than she was here and it was all downhill for her after this. In the early part of the century when PG-13/12A horror was all we got, this was the stand out.

Highlander – The Series (1992 – 1998) – Netflix

To some people, this is the true continuation of the Highlander franchise after the original 1986 movie and to others this is six years of tedium. Whether or not you were one of the hardcore or whether like me you have always been curious, the entirety of the Highlander television show starring Adrian Paul is now available on Netflix for your streaming pleasure. The show must have done something right as it lead to female centric spin off The Raven and an animated series I believe.

Roswell (1999-2002) – Netflix

Another late ’90s show that’s derivative as hell gets added to Netflix. Roswell (aka Roswell High) was the series that combined The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dawson’s Creek to create a moody, angsty show with a great soundtrack all about human-alien hybrids living and growing up in the infamous American town. The teens have gifts and a destiny which they mope about instead of doing what most teenagers were doing at the time, whacking off to Gillian Anderson and listening to No Doubt. This also launched the careers of Katherine Heigl and Colin Hanks. Okay so I have never seen this but I have friends who loved it so I will be checking it out shortly.

It’s been a big week for comics, with DC announcing their September New 52 #0 solicits, a round of cancelations (Fare thee well, JLI and friends), and record-breaking comic book sales in May. The momentum won’t be letting up on Wednesday, when a wave of highly anticipated comics finally arrives at local comic book stores.

Spider-Men #1 – Marvel brings us one of the most eagerly awaited events of the year, with the creative team of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Sara Pichelli bringing together the Ultimate and mainstream Marvel continuities in Spider-Men #1. This clash of universes will see Ultimate Spider-Man Mile Morales coming face to face with his namesake, the one and only Peter Parker. The plot has been kept tightly under wraps but with Mysterio as the main villain and appearances by the Ultimate version of Gwen Stacy, Aunt May, and Nick Fury, it’ll most certainly be a wild ride.

Batman #10 – The expansive Night of the Owls storyline inches closer to its conclusion with Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman #10, the crossover event’s penultimate issue. Several burning questions will be answered in this issue, like the person (or persons?) behind the Court of the Owls, but ultimate satisfaction will have to wait as the issue promises to deliver a real nail-biter of a cliffhanger.

Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #1 – DC continues its weekly Before Watchmen series with the release of Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #1. Last week’s Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 was a triumphant critical success and has left some pretty big shoes to fill but with a story by Amanda Conner and Darwyn Cooke (who also wrote Minutemen #1) coupled with Conner’s masterful artwork, this first chapter in Silk Spectre’s story will definitely be a must-read.

Avengers Assemble #4 – Before The Avengers became a worldwide box office phenomenon, the name Thanos probably meant very little to anyone outside the comics community. But Thanos’ after-the-credits appearance has skyrocketed his popularity and Marvel is definitely capitalizing on the hype. After a brief appearance at the tail end of last month’s issue, Thanos is set to play a much more significant role this month, with writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Bagley at the helm.

The Massive #1 – Dark Horse takes us on a trip to the post-apocalyptic world of The Massive, a new series by writer Brian Wood and artist Kristian Donaldson. After the global collapse of pretty much everything, Callum Israel, Captain of the Kapital, sets out on a quest to find the missing ship the Massive. Wood’s taste for heavy environmental themes continues with this dystopian tale of what it means to be human after the world has ended.

Ray Bradbury, most famous for his novels Something Wicked This Way Comes and Fahrenheit 451 (which was made into a film in 1966 by acclaimed director Francois Truffaut), was one of the most important and prolific horror/science fiction novelists of all time. In a career spanning over 70 years he wrote hundreds of play, novels, short stories and film & television scripts.

He has had an influence over a generation of horror and science fiction writers, from Stephen King to Fritz Leiber.

Ray Bradbury was born in Illinois, but as a teenager moved with his family first to Tucson, Arizona and then to Los Angeles where he spent the rest of his life. As an avid film-goer, Bradbury marveled at silent horror films as a child, with Lon Chaney as a particular favorite. An equally avid reader, the young Ray devoured Edgar Allan Poe, H.G Wells, Jules Verne and his favourite, Edgar Rice Burroughs.

After failing to gain entry to the army on the grounds of poor eyesight, Ray started his writing career in fanzines before selling his first piece to Superspace Stories in 1941. A chance meeting with the playwright, Christopher Isherwood led to the publication of Bradbury’s first major work, The Martian Chronicles eight years later. A collection of stories about earthlings colonizing Mars in order to exploit its minerals, The Martian Chronicles established Bradbury’s reputation as one of the foremost science fiction writers of the 1950s.

His most celebrated novel, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953, depicts a future society in which books are banned. It was included on the English syllabus in schools across America and in Great Britain. Interestingly, Bradbury long opposed its publication as an e-book, only relenting in 2011.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s he also wrote scripts for many TV series, including Suspense, Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone. He also contributed to the scripts of sci-fi movie classics It Came from Outer Space and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.

Dozens of film, radio and television adaptations have been made of his work. Some of the most significant include: Fahrenheit 451 (1966), The Illustrated Man (1969) and Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983). He has also had comic book adaptations made of his stories by Al Feldstein for EC Comics.

Outside of the science fiction genre, Bradbury wrote the screenplay for John Huston’s film Moby Dick in 1956.

New Comic Book Day is upon us again, though for those of us in the UK, books might not be on shelves until Thursday due to shipping delays caused by the Queen’s Jubilee. While UK comic book fans cry into their pints and toast to the Queen, the rest of the world can look forward this week’s stellar line-up of new releases.

1) Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1 – Darwyn Cooke kicks off one of the year’s most highly anticipated events with Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1. DC’s controversial decision to launch a series of Watchmen prequels against the wishes of the title’s creator, Alan Moore, has ignited a passionate discussion about rights, contracts, and ethics in the comic book world. Regardless of where your opinion lies on the spectrum, it’ll be hard to ignore Cooke’s take on Hollis Mason’s Under the Hood, the autobiography of the first Nite Owl featured in the original Watchmen. Cooke travels back in time to the 1930’s to chronicle the careers of the original Minutemen, including the enigmatic Silhouette.

2) Creator Owned Heroes #1 – Image Comics is introducing a new kind of monthly comic with Creator Owned Heroes, a 40 page mix of comics and magazine style features. This month, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and Phil Noto bring us the adventures of the eponymous, genetically-modified, white-haired assassin, Trigger Girl 6, whose life takes a turn for the complex when she gets too close to her target.  In “American Muscle,” Steve Niles and Kevin Mellon tell the story of a group of survivors searching for Paradise in a post-apocalyptic American wasteland. The issue will also feature an interview with award-winning author, Neil Gaiman.

3) Harbinger #1 – Valiant Entertainment unites comic books and mobile technology with the first issue of the rebooted Harbinger. The QR Voice Variant cover will serve as the reader’s first introduction to Toyo Harada, head of the Harbinger Foundation and mentor to series protagonist and unlikely hero Peter Stanchek. When Peter discovers his psionic powers, he’s thrown into a world rife with danger and conspiracy, where nothing is what it seems. New York Times bestselling writer Joshua Dysart will be joined by the Harvey Award nominated artist, Khari Evans.

4) Earth 2 #2 – Earlier this week, DC finally revealed the identity of its mystery gay character: Golden Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott. And it isn’t just his sexual orientation that’s receiving a reboot. The much younger Alan Scott will be joining Mr. Terrific and The Flash (Jay Garrick) as they face down a threat even more terrifying than the wrath of Apokolips. Writer James Robinson and artist Nicola Scott continue to deliver the goods in DC’s latest foray into the multiverse.

5) Avengers VS. X-Men #5 – Marvel’s latest crossover event comes to a head with Avengers VS. X-Men #5, which will serve as the conclusion of Act One. Artist John Romita Jr. will be joined by new writer Matt Fraction of Uncanny X-Men and The Invincible Iron Man and together, they’ll lead readers on an adventure with farreaching implications for the Marvel universe as the Phoenix finally takes its host. Maybe. Be sure to pick up the issue this Wednesday to find out!

When DC announced back in February that they were releasing prequels to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ 1986 comic book – the magnum opus generally regarded as the greatest comic book series of all time – the news was met with hearty derision from fans and outright fury from Alan Moore. The writer declared the prequels “completely shameless”, spoke of the “draconian contracts” DC made him sign at the time and said “I don’t want money. I want this not to happen.”

Artist Dave Gibbons, however, took a more live and let live attitude. “I appreciate DC’s reasons for this initiative and the wish of the artists and writers involved to pay tribute to our work,” he announced. “May these new additions have the success they desire.” Although his line about “DC’s reasons” could well be a guarded reference to the cash-in all detractors are accusing them of – something DC furiously denied, before awkwardly releasing a tie-in toaster.

 

Five months after the announcement generated thousands of furious tweets, and on the eve of the series’ release, Dan DiDio, DC Comics Co-Publisher, laughed “I don’t know if I want to go through this hell again!” Speaking at the Kapow! Comic Convention, DiDio spoke candidly about DC’s trepidation at tackling the granddaddy of modern comic books, and about their excitement about the Before Watchmen final products.

“Watchmen is a crown jewel, don’t kid yourselves,” says DiDio. “But we also knew that if we were going to do it we wanted to do it right because we were going to get a lot of questions about why we were doing it. There’s been a lot of hesitation over the years, but after the feature film we feel that it’s been adapted in other forms so there’s a hunger for it. We’ve sold one million trades of Watchmen. It’s not just the same people buying 10,000 copies each. Even if we change the covers.”

Whatever people may say about Before Watchmen, they can’t deny that some serious talent is involved, including Darwyn Cooke, Brian Azzarello, J Michael Straczynski, Adam Hughes and Amanda Conner. “The creators involved in this have been doing some of the best work in their careers,” DiDio says. “They know the importance of this project, they know the level of scrutiny it’s going to get.”

In particular, even the most grumbling fans acknowledge that they are genuinely excited to see Cooke’s work on Minutemen, a perfect marriage of artist/writer and subject matter. Seeing as the Minutemen – with the exception of the Comedian and Silk Spectre I – are the least well-known Watchmen characters, fans seem more open to exploring their history. They are less fiercely protective of them than they are the likes of Rorschach and Nite Owl, who will be sharing page time in the Nite Owl series by Straczynski and father/son artist duo Andy and Joe Kubert.

 

With original Nite Owl Hollis Mason also figuring heavily in the book, DiDio describes it as having a “father-son feel to it”. Bob Wayne, DC’s SVP of Sales, went on to promise that “Rorschach is in Nite Owl as a very key participant, not just as a walk-on part.”

Meanwhile, Rorschach’s solo title by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo is described by DiDio as “probably the most violent of the whole series. Brian has said it’s grindhouse, and Lee’s art brings that home over and over again.” The other potentially über-violent comic in the series is The Comedian, also by Azzarello. “This one is the political intrigue one, which I think fits the character so nicely,” DiDio explains. “And it plays throughout time, throughout US history, and I think that J.G Jones really captures that moment in time.”

In many ways, you may be forgiven for thinking that Rorschach, Comedian and Nite Owl are the characters least in need of prequels, as we already know all about them. The same could be said of Dr Manhattan, but his time-bending powers certainly warrant a second look, and the idea of renowned cover artist Adam Hughes tackling interior art is surely worth a peek. “This is Adam’s first interior work in over ten years and there were always a lot of people saying “can Adam do interiors?”” DiDio says, before assuring us: “Yes. I’ve seen the entire first issue and it’s really beautiful, it really captures the spirit of what Dr Manhattan’s all about which is really a sense of scope because of his time-shifting power, how all these bits and pieces are inter-related through various stages of his life.”

 

Another character with lots of room left for exploration is Ozymandias, who in Before Watchmen is being tackled by Len Wein and Jae Lee. Moore and Gibbons were unable to show much of him in Watchmen for fear of showing their hand, given that he was the villain at the heart of the piece. Seeing how he got to a place where wiping out half of New York seemed like a reasonable plan could well be interesting, if handled well. “When we put this together we wanted to find the widest variety of artists because of the great work that Dave Gibbons did on the property and his style is the only style that we’ve seen attached to the project for so long we didn’t want people to just repeat what Dave had done, really to bring their own style and flare to it, and Jae of all people really created a look that’s separate from anything we’ve seen with these characters.”

The book DiDio was raving about the most was Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner’s Silk Spectre. “One of my personal favourites is Amanda Conner’s Silk Spectre,” says DiDio. You’ve got Darwyn Cooke writing – or rather Darwyn is co-writing with Amanda. When Darwyn signed up with Amanda we really wanted to capture the spirit of Silk Spectre and a period of time, and he did the basic plot and Amanda ran with it from there… this is probably the quietest of the stories, but I think one of the most heartfelt stories. This is a coming of age story with Silk Spectre as she starts to discover herself and separates herself from what she was expected to be by her mother… There are scenes in Amanda’s work where she slips into fantasy. She’s going into Silk Spectre’s head as she’s growing up and she’s creating a fantasy for herself, so her art style changes a little bit in that.”

 

The books start coming out in June. DiDio explains “Similarly to Seven Soldiers of Victory, we have seven interconnected series but each one’s able to stand on its own. Each one comes out once a week, so we have one Watchmen book per week.”

Undoubtedly, Before Watchmen is a ploy to boost sales figures. But it’s a ploy that can be redeemed by the quality of the work. “To say we’re excited about it would be an understatement. To say we’re nervous about it would also be an understatement,” DiDio admits. “But I think the product will speak for itself really soon.”

New Comic Book Day (known to civilians as Wednesday) is upon us and no matter how badly we might want to, it isn’t always possible to buy every comic in the shop. To help streamline the selection process, I’ve compiled a list of this week’s most promising new releases.

1)   Batman: Death by Design (DC) – For those of you currently experiencing an avian overdose, writer Chip Kidd and artist Dave Taylor offer a break from DC’s Night of the Owls event with this original graphic novel. Gotham is in the midst of an architectural renaissance when all hell breaks loose (this is why you can’t have nice things, Gotham). As design-related malfunctions bring the city to its knees, Batman must race against the clock to uncover the architect behind the sabotage before it’s too late.

2)   Grim Leaper #1 (Image) – Image Comics describes Kurtis J. Wiebe’s new mini-series as “a gory romantic comedy” and if that isn’t reason enough to check it out, I don’t know what is. For reasons unknown, Lou Collins is cursed to experience multiple gruesome deaths and resurrections in new bodies. When Lou meets the similarly ill-fated Ella, this “love story to die for” gets a whole lot more complicated.

3)    Amazing Spider-Man Annual #39 (Marvel) – Writer Brian Reed takes us through the looking glass to a world where Peter Parker never existed. As if a land deprived of arachnid puns wasn’t bad enough, reality is collapsing and the only person who can save it is Spider-Man himself (with a little help from the Avengers).

4)   Ravagers #1 (DC) – The second wave of DC’s New 52 continues with the first issue of Harold Mackie’s The Ravagers, a spin-off of the multi-series event, “The Culling.” Rose Wilson and Warblade are hunting down a motley crew of unlikely allies. After escaping N.O.W.H.E.R.E.’s “Colony,” Fairchild, Beast Boy, Terra, Ridge, and the sibling duo Thunder and Lightning find themselves on the run as they fight for their survival in the face of overwhelming odds.

5)   Angel and Faith #10 (Dark Horse) – The death of Giles continues to haunt our eponymous heroes when two enigmatic women from the Watcher’s past arrive seeking help. Thor artist Chris Samnee joins writer Christos Gage as Angel and Faith delve deeper into the secrets of Giles’ past as they search for a way to bring everyone’s favorite Watcher back to life.

The sequel to Ridley Scott’s seminal 1979 horror/science fiction movie Alien was directed by James Cameron, who at that point only had two films under his belt. The resulting film, Aliens, was a critical and commercial smash hit, taking $81 million at the US box office, and it remains to this day arguably the best entry in the franchise. Surprisingly Cameron was pretty much left to do what he wanted on this movie and he made his $18 million budget stretch a heck of a long way. Considering that the film still holds up now, in the time of the bloated $250 million blockbuster, this is no mean feat.

Given Aliens‘ success, it is no surprise that 20th Century Fox demanded a third entry in their adult oriented cash cow franchise. What followed is a cautionary tale for the ages and an example of what Douglas Adams meant when he described the Hollywood development process as being like “trying to cook a steak by a series of people going into a room and breathing on it”. Careers were made, careers ruined and the films we nearly got remain infinitely more fascinating than the final product.

After the release of Aliens, producer David Giler read William Gibson’s seminal 1984 cyberpunk classic, Neuromancer. What he found in Gibson was a writer who somehow melded the new technology of the home computer experience with the sort of streetwise noir lingo that inspired hackers the world over. Gibson’s worlds had a lot in common with that which was presented in Alien. Gone were the pristine white surfaces of your dad’s science fiction, replaced by a dirtier, grungier aesthetic. Giler convinced his fellow producers that Gibson was the man for the job and the Canadian writer was commissioned to produce a draft of Alien 3. A twelve page outline of the story concept was given to Gibson by producers Giler and Walter Hill. Their vision concerned a Cold War style conflict between the Weyland-Yutani Corporation and a rival organisation. However, the budget limitations imposed on Gibson prevented him from writing a sequel which inhabited the rich cyberpunk worlds that would have been his natural impulse. Instead he wrote something that was set in a shopping mall space station run by one of the rival corporations from the producer’s concept.

Gibson’s script picks up where Aliens left off and finds the ship from that film drifting through space carrying Ripley, Hicks, Newt and the ruined Bishop. The ship is intercepted by the rival to Weyland-Yutani, the ‘Union of Progressive Peoples’. Its personnel are attacked by a face hugger that is hiding in Bishop’s synthetic guts. The UPP blast the creature into space and set the ship back on its original course for the space shopping mall. In this version of the sequel Hicks becomes the main character, uncovering rival plots by Weyland-Yutani and the UPP to breed an army of aliens, while Ripley remains in a coma for most of the film.

Another interesting aspect to the script, considering what is about to hit cinemas in Prometheus, is its conclusion. The films ends with Weyland-Yutani and UPP teaming up to track the alien menace to its homeworld and wipe it out once and for all. Gibson’s screenplay has been available to read online for quite some time and is fascinating, if a bit flat. Gibson seems to have something of a tin ear for dialogue, as evidenced by his screenplay for his own short story, Johnny Mnemonic. Hill and Giler were less than impressed with the finished results and let Gibson move on.

Around this time Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) was hired as the director of the third movie and he suggested that Eric Red (Near Dark) should be taken on to write another draft. Hill and Giler agreed, but around the same time Sigourney Weaver started to get cold feet about returning to the franchise. She had concerns about both her fee and her involvement in a film series which fetishized guns and weaponry. As a result Red was told to draft a version without Ripley in it. Red replaced Ripley with an atypical ’80s gruff commando who had a grudge against the creatures due to them wiping out his entire platoon. This version still involves a space station, but it is populated by farmers who unwittingly bring on board the creature as it gestates inside a cow. A new type of alien is spawned and runs amok on the station. Giler and Hill thought that Red’s screenplay was awful, as did Renny Harlin who subsequently left the project.

A third screenwriter was hired. This time it was David Twohy (Pitch Black, Critters 2). Twohy’s version of the film went back to the political landscape of Gibson’s earlier draft, but moved the action to a Russian space station and then a prison planet. Ripley also did not appear in this draft, but ironically it was this version of the tale that piqued Sigourney Weaver’s interest. The then chairman at Fox, Joe Roth, subsequently decided that they couldn’t do an Alien film without Ripley and instructed the producers to work her into Twohy’s story. A new director was brought on board. This time it was the stylish New Zealander Vincent Ward (The Navigator).

Ward was not interested in any of the previous scripts and asked to draft a new one from his own ideas. This was the first version of the film to introduce the idea of religion into the Alien universe. It had Ripley landing on a planet filled with monks and not being accepted amongst them. Weaver had just signed on again for a $5.5 million salary and she loved the ideas that Ward was putting forward. Ward was paired with screenwriter John Fasano to bash out the screenplay even though Twohy was still working on redrafting his version. Fasano and Ward were under the impression that their script would become Alien 4 if Twohy managed to get his Alien 3 screenplay together, but Twohy was none too happy about additional writers being hired and left the project altogether.

This is where things take a turn for the surreal. Ward and Fasano’s screenplay for Alien 3 takes place on board a five mile wide, wooden planet. On the planet are several political prisoners whose technological advancement is on a par with medieval times. Ripley’s arrival brings an escaped alien into their midst and she is treated as some kind of devil woman by the head bishop. This time the alien gestates inside a sheep which gives birth to a creature that runs on four legs. The script was heavy with religious subtext and imagery.

Around this time Ward was in the UK overseeing the construction of sets. That’s how close we got to a film involving a wooden planet! Ward had even talked to HR Giger about contributing to aspects of the film beyond the creature design. Soon enough the producers cottoned on to the fact that a wooden planet was bizarre and asked Ward and Fasano to craft a more sensible version. Ward and Fasano had a spat over this and a writer named Greg Press was brought on board for yet another draft. Press’ version was the first to kill off Ripley, an idea which appealed to Weaver but not to the studio. The producers then went back to Fasano to re-write the film and bring the escalating budget down.

Ward left the project feeling disappointed with the erosion of the producer’s initial enthusiasm for his vision. As sets were already under construction at Pinewood Studios, the producers had to get a new director fast. This is where David Fincher came in. Fincher was a twenty-eight year old acclaimed director of music videos who had received recognition as a result of the success of MTV and the new style of visual artistry that was going on over there. He met with Weaver and suggested the radical hair cut that she sports in the film, which appealed to her immensely. Fincher brought HR Giger back into the fold to produce new designs for an alien, an aquatic face hugger and the infant four legged alien. Fincher was also teamed with Larry Ferguson (Highlander) to modify Fasano’s script into something all parties could work with. Weaver, however, was not happy with Ferguson’s depiction of the Ripley character. Eventually, and without a hint of irony, Walter Hill and David Giler took the screenplay back into their own hands and produced a draft close to the finished film. By this point it was December 1990.

Things didn’t end there, however, as Fox secretly brought writer Rex Pickett in to re-draft the final act. Giler quit, but was then brought back due to a contract clause in Sigourney Weaver’s paperwork. Giler worked on another draft of the film and produced a further nine revisions between January and April 1991. The film had now already missed its production date, but a teaser trailer was put into cinemas suggesting the film would be released Christmas 1991 and would take place on Earth!

Eventually the film was completed, but at about the point when it was supposed to be released, the studio saw a rough cut and were so disappointed that they demanded re-shoots and additional scenes. The crew was called back and further sequences were added. There was an extensive post-production period, but even then the ending was felt to be too similar to that of Terminator 2, which had just been a huge hit over the summer.

Alien 3 was finally released in May 1992 to almost universal critical indifference and struggled to bring in just $50 million at the US box office. Fincher later complained that it was the worst experience of his life thanks to Fox’s endless micro-managing of all aspects of the production. The cut which was released in cinemas certainly feels compromised. It is a mish-mash of elements from the twenty or so previous scripts. Fincher’s preferred cut, released on DVD in 2003, is superior but still has major problems.

David Fincher went on to have a celebrated career with the likes of Seven, Fight Club and the recent The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It’s arguable though that the Alien franchise never recovered. Five years later we got Alien: Resurrection, directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet. This film didn’t have anywhere near the level of behind the scenes drama of the third movie, though Joss Whedon claims his screenplay was butchered. The xenomorphs would become a kind of joke in the Alien vs. Predator movies and now finally Ridley Scott has returned to the franchise that made him. Prometheus is out in June and looks to be the singular vision of one very talented man. Clearly lessons have been learnt.

This weekend the second Kapow! Comic Convention took place in London. Starburst was there to grab all the gossip – both official and on the down-low – that the weekend had to offer. Here’s a selection of the best titbits we picked up:

* According to Joe Quesada, Marvel “have a big meeting coming up in a couple of weeks to discuss the movie slate. We have several movies in the works right now that I think you’ll be really pleasantly surprised to hear about.” Could one of them be a big screen outing for Ms (soon-to-be Captain) Marvel? He called her one of his favourite characters and told us quietly that a script is ready to roll for her film, the only problem they’re facing is finding an actress for the part… Either way, it seems Mark Millar’s hopes for “a sexy Namor movie” probably won’t be coming to fruition any time soon.

* DC have revealed that a character not seen yet in the New 52 will be returning – with a new sexuality. The previously straight character will become one of their “most prominent” gay characters, but they refused to reveal who that character might be. Since Tim Drake returned with his heterosexuality still mystifyingly intact, the identity of the newly-gay character is a complete mystery. Beast Boy, perhaps?

* The Amazing Spider-Man looks well worth a trip to the cinema. But Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter looks more likely to be a wait-for-it-to-come-on-Sky deal, despite a nice 3D bullet-through-the-screen shot, with a very Bekmambetov subliminal flash of red, making you feel like you’ve just been shot between the eyes.

* DC are gearing up for some big changes to their Vertigo imprint, according to Dan DiDio: “The new 52 took back a lot of what was Vertigo with Swamp Thing and Animal Man, and they’re doing beautiful jobs with it as part of that world but Vertigo was always a cutting-edge imprint line and in the world of the New 52 so to speak we need to help redefine what Vertigo is and that’s something we’re working really hard on, we’re ready to grab that by the throat, because that’s the only way Vertigo should approach its books. We’re rebuilding things and hopefully by 2013 you’re going to be seeing new projects that really stand for Vertigo and are just as important as everything that’s out there.”

* The Girl Who Waited writer Tom McRae confirmed that the Daleks will be back in the next series of Doctor Who and that expectations should be high for the next two series. Whether he was referring to the split series as two separate series or hinting at the continuing adventures of the Doctor wasn’t clear.

* DC are as wary about Before Watchmen as we are: “To say we’re excited is an understatement. To say we’re nervous is an understatement” DiDio joked. But snippets of gorgeous interior art and a discussion about the mini-series’ reassured a lot of the fans in the gallery room. We learnt that Nite Owl will have “a father-son feel to it” and that Rorschach will be in the series as “a very key participant”. His solo series, meanwhile, has a violent “grindhouse” feel, Ozymandias is the most visually removed from the original series, Dr Manhattan showcases Adam Hughes’ first interior work in over ten years, The Comedian is “the political intrigue one”, while neither Dan DiDio nor Senior VP of Sales Bob Wayne could stop raving about Amanda Conner’s work on Silk Spectre.

* Peter Serafinowicz announced his upcoming comic, with Batman artist Jock. It’s currently without a publisher but will be hitting shelves by the end of the year. However, it’s already hit a small hurdle, as it seems their chosen title, Nelson, is already in use by another comic. “We were looking at other titles anyway,” Serafinowicz told Starburst with remarkable good humour.

* DC came out of the Stan Lee Awards with the biggest haul, picking up Best Publisher, Best Game for Batman: Arkham City and Best Comic Hero for Batman, while Best Writer and Best Series went to Scott Snyder and his Detective Comics run. Marvel didn’t leave empty-handed though – Sara Pichelli won Best Artist and Best Newcomer for her work on Ultimate Spider-Man, Best Limited Series or Story Arc went to Uncanny X-Force’s Dark Angel Saga, and X-Men: First Class picked up Best Film, at the expense of other Marvel films Captain America and Thor.

* Scott Snyder is the new Nicest Man in Comics, as well as winning the Man or Woman of the Year award at the Stan Lee Awards. If his attentive signing manner didn’t win fans over, then his brilliant (multiple) awards acceptance speeches – including a lovely one about his five year old son’s current pirate obsession – certainly did.

* And finally, Starburst learnt that cute kids trump awesome costumes every time, as hugely impressive The Thing and Mr Fantastic (complete with six foot long arms) costumes lost out in the cosplay competition to a couple of moppets in Batman and Iron Man costumes. But hey – would you want to be the judge who makes two kids cry?