FDI Cast 106: We Live in a Society…
Despite our best interests, we caved and watched the Snyder Cut of the Justice League movie. All four damn hours of it. Here’s our review.
Tag: Cyborg
‘Justice League’ Side-By-Side
Today is the day. Zack Snyder’s Justice League has finally been released to HBO Max and people can now see the director’s four-hour magnum opus as he bids adieu to the DC Universe. And while a lot has been made about the restored scenes and characters that were left on the cutting room floor of the theatrical edition, I was most struck by the differences between shots that appear in both versions. Below you will find side-by-side comparisons of several of these scenes.
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NOC Review: The Snyder Cut is Good, Actually
Long time readers of this site will know that I have a a complicated history with Zack Snyder’s take on DC’s most iconic characters. While my opinion on his first foray, Man of Steel1, has waxed and waned over the years, I’ve never been able to see Batman v Superman as anything more than a convoluted mess of bombast and pretension feigning to be more profound than it actually was (Batman’s fight in the warehouse was cool, I guess). Moreover, the ferocity of the online debate about these films — both the religiosity of Snyder’s fans and the unnecessary cruelty of his detractors — turned me off to the whole enterprise. Talking about these movies on the internet was not worth the hassle or the harassment (says the guy who actively engaged in online arguments defending Last Jedi for at least three years).
In other words, I didn’t come into my screening of Zack Snyder’s Justice League (the official title of the Snyder Cut which will finally be streaming on HBO Max on March 18) with a lot of high expectations. Well dear reader, I am as surprised as anyone to say that not only did I like what I saw, I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing how a proper sequel to this version might play out. Oh my god, am I actually hopping on the #RestoreThe Snyderverse bandwagon?!
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Teen Titans Soul: De La Go!
One of the the greatest cultural tragedies of the digital era is that De La Soul’s early music isn’t streaming. An early victim of the sample-clearance wars (over 70 on their masterful debut, 3 Feet High and Rising), De La’s cultural impact — and promise — has never been allowed to be fully realized. Not only has the streaming era proved to stifle De La’s early output, their contracts only covered physical media releases as no one anticipated that streaming would become the primary way we’d all experience media.
With new modes of delivery, new contracts have to be made for those previous albums. And De La has tried to do this in good faith, but Tommy Boy Records, the label De La was originally signed to, has refused to give them a mutually equitable deal. Tommy Boy would take the lion’s share of the profits, even though all of De La’s albums have recouped (made back initial production/investment costs).
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Hard NOC Life 201: GameStop the Presses
DC FanDome: Zack Snyder Brings the Hype with Surprise Guests and #SnyderCut Teaser
I am a Marvel fanboy. I always have been. DC has been kind to my youth, don’t get me wrong, but as the last several years have attested, it’s been difficult holding our collective breath for a superhero movie from DC that didn’t get immense flack. I won’t lie to you — I’ve goaded friends, some more than others, for rallying behind something like #TheSnyderCut back in 2017.
Fast forward a handful of years and a whole lot of headlines to Saturday’s Snyder Cut panel at DC FanDome and… I’m sold.
Boo-Ya! An Interview with ‘Doom Patrol’ Star Joivan Wade
I’ve written at length about how wonderfully weird HBO Max’s Doom Patrol is. It’s truly a one-of-a-kind superhero show, slyly breathing fresh life into the superhero genre without folks ever noticing it. And while, for many, the characters Robotman, Elasti-Woman, Crazy Jane, or Negative Man may not necessarily be household names yet, the show successfully added a very popular hero to its lineup in its debut — Teen Titan and Justice League member Cyborg!
We’ve seen various iterations of the character before, but in my opinion, Joivan Wade represents the definitive live-action interpretation of the character. And now, recently, The Nerds of Color was very fortunate enough to sit down with Joivan to talk about the show, current events, and Cyborg’s impact as a Black mainstream superhero on fans of color today. Here’s what he had to say:
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NOC Review: ‘Doom Patrol’ Season 2 – Eclectic Boogaloo
The Doom Patrol is back! Now I think we can all agree, the first season was a hell of a trip. Mr. Nobody breaking the fourth wall every episode, the excessive F-bombs, dimensions coming out of donkey butts, giant eyes in the sky, sentient streets, and beard-eating metahumans — all a weird, insane delight to see. For my money, no show in the history of superhero shows has ever gotten away with the go-for-broke, bizarre, random delights Doom Patrol Season One has brought us, whilst still staying as close to the mind-expanding ideas of Grant Morrison and his run on the book. So upon the premiere of its second season, fans are eagerly wondering whether or not the group of insane writers will continue the train of volatile craziness introduced in Season One. To ease the minds of those sitting on pins and needles to find out, the answer is a resounding yes!
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HBO Max to #ReleaseTheSnyderCut of ‘Justice League’
What will DC stans tweet at Warner Bros., now that Zack Snyder’s Justice League has officially been announced as part of the HBO Max lineup in 2021?
In other news, HBO Max will be available to more cable subscribers — including Cox and Verizon — which means if you already have HBO, then you’ll also have it to the Max.
See the official Snyder Cut press release after the jump.
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One-on-One with ‘Teen Titans GO! To The Movies’ Star Khary Payton
Opening in theaters everywhere today, Teen Titans GO! To The Movies is the superhero film we need right now. Blending the animated series’ mix of satire, pop culture references, and all-around wackiness, TTGTTM deserves to be DC’s highest rated movie since last year’s Wonder Woman. I got a chance to have a chat with one of the stars of the film, and one of the most iconic voice actors in the business, Khary Payton, about being Cyborg.
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‘Teen Titans GO! To the Movies’ is Fun for Kids and Their Grown-ups
As a geek parent, I, for the most part, have been unsuccessful in passing on my enthusiasms to my teen and tween daughters. Sure, my eldest is now a confirmed Potterhead, but only years after her mother and I bequeathed her our books, which she refused to read because they were ours. She discovered and fell in love with Stranger Things on her own, too, which I guess is what works with her — if we’d told her to watch it, maybe she wouldn’t have listened. Her younger sister is a bit more open to my suggestions, and loves anything with magic and the fantastic, and she happily displays my gifts of Pop! figures of strong female characters on her shelf. However, she scares very, very easily, so attempts to watch Star Wars movies, for example, are interrupted by frequents runs out of the room or outright refusals, no matter how much likes likes the characters.
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‘Justice League’ and the Future of the DC Extended Universe
Two weeks ago, Justice League — WB/DC’s attempt at uniting all of its iconic heroes in a single movie — fizzled at the box office, calling in to question the future of the DC Universe on film. To talk about the movie, and what it portends for the rest of the DCEU, Mashable movie reporter Angie Han joins the podcast to discuss where Justice League failed to deliver as a follow-up to Batman v Superman.
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The Cause of Black Panther & The Crew’s Cancellation
This weekend news broke that after two issues, Marvel’s Black Panther & the Crew has been canceled.
The series revolved around Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Misty Knight, and Manifold who band together to take on a dangerous wave of street-level threats in this new ongoing series by co-writers Ta-Nehisi Coates (New York Times best-selling author of Between the World and Me and Marvel’s Black Panther) and Yona Harvey (Black Panther: World of Wakanda) and legendary artist Butch Guice!
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Five Reasons You Should Pick Up Cyborg #1
[Full Disclosure: David Walker is a good friend of mine and I told him that I would only write something, if I liked the book.]
I’m a Teen Titans fan from since Raven first got the team together. Cyborg (Vic Stone) was never my favorite character, or a character I particularly liked. I mean, how many damn times were you going to use X amount of decibels from your white noise generator? Not to mention that Cyborg is the most dehumanized superhero of color in all of comicdom. Folks are mad that Vic is beginning to look “more human.” I have a question: Why were you okay with him being a walking and talking negroid PS3?
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Get Cyborg #1 by David Walker in Stores Today
We’ve been waiting for this day for a long time, and it’s finally here. Make sure you head to your local comic shop as soon as it opens so you can cop the historic first issue of DC Comics’ Cyborg by our very own David Walker!
Then, as soon as you have a copy in hand, take a selfie with it at the shop and tweet it using the hashtag #CyborgWednesday.
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Remember Comic Books?
Remember comic books? Those flimsy sheets of paper emblazoned with colorful superheroes battling diabolical supervillains in space, in an underground lair, in a bunker, under the sea, or in parallel dimensions? Those passports to wonder that are the progenitors of the DC and Marvel Cinematic Universes and their respective television properties? Yeah, they’ve been completely overshadowed by their on-screen interpretations. Most people enjoying super heroics on the big and small screens aren’t comic fans. This isn’t a bad thing. I know tons of people who loved the Harry Potter films, but have yet to read word one of J.K. Rowling’s epic texts. There are still some of us who are huge comic book fans, and have been feeling a little cheated by the Big Two.
No 52: The New Era of DC Comics Looks Promising
Can it be? Am I actually excited about DC Comics? Again? I’ve made no bones about my aversion to the company-wide reboot of 2011, but it seems that starting this summer, DC is dropping the The New 52 branding and starting fresh with all-new books, and a diverse and wide-ranging roster of talent, including — full disclosure — several friends and alums from the SIUniverse! So maybe I’m a little biased.
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Why Black Panther is Really Getting a Movie
In this episode, I give my thoughts on the recent major movie announcements from Marvel Studios, specifically what I believe to be the true motivation for why Marvel finally decided to give Black Panther his own movie. Continue reading Why Black Panther is Really Getting a Movie
Warner Finally Unveils its DC Superhero Movie Slate
Looks like Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment have responded to the gauntlet thrown down by the folks at Disney and Marvel Studios. After the nerd community was rocked by the news that Robert Downey Jr. was joining the Captain America threequel, DC hit back with its entire slate of DC-based superhero films for the next five years.
In a special presentation to shareholders, Warner Brothers head Kevin Tsujihara revealed which DC heroes would be getting movies through 2020. Remember, there have been rumblings all year that this ambitious slate of superhero films would be coming out eventually. Now that we know which films will be coming out and when, all I can say is… meh.
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The Many Faces of Cyborg
Last night, the internet lit up with the news of yet another JLAer being added to the so-called Man of Steel sequel. Broadway star Ray Fisher has officially been cast to play Victor Stone (aka Cyborg) in the upcoming superhero epic, leading most fans to think “why doesn’t Warner Brothers just call this movie Justice League already?”
Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
Vitals: Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is an 81-minute feature-length animated movie based on the major DCU crossover event called Flashpoint, which happened two years ago and was helmed by writer Geoff Johns that resulted in a universe-wide reboot called “The New 52.” It can serve as either a stand-alone movie, or a primer for those who want a quick recap of how “The New 52” came to be without having to read all of Flashpoint in collected trades.
Remembering Lee Thompson Young
This afternoon, actor Lee Thompson Young was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Los Angeles home after he failed to report to the set of the TNT show Rizzoli & Isles. For most millennials and post-millenials, Young will forever be known as “The Famous Jett Jackson,” the titular star of the late-90s/early-Aughts Disney Channel phenomenon of the same name. For me, though, Young will always represent the first and only live action incarnation of DC Comics’ iconic Teen Titan, Victor Stone, a.k.a. Cyborg, the character he portrayed in several recurring episodes of the long-running Superman series for the WB and the CW, Smallville.