
Hard NOC Life 298: DCU Pods and Monsters
Britney and Dominic return to Hard NOC Life! They join Keith and guest co-host Mike Manalo to discuss James Gunn and the announcement of DC Studios’ slate of films and television series!
Britney and Dominic return to Hard NOC Life! They join Keith and guest co-host Mike Manalo to discuss James Gunn and the announcement of DC Studios’ slate of films and television series!
June 2013. That’s when the DCEU kicked off, with the debut of Zack Snyder’s modest hit, Man of Steel. It’s almost 10 years to the date, and a crowd of press has been summoned to the DC offices on a quiet January afternoon. Why? Because, as promised by new co-head of DC Studios, James Gunn, the new fate of the DCU was about to be unveiled!
Continue reading “The First DC Studios Plans Revealed in Press Event with James Gunn and Peter Safran”Keith is still out, so Britney and Dominic are once again joined by Vanessa Shark and Brother Nate Milton to pick up the pieces of the fallout from Warner Bros. Discovery’s cancellation of Batgirl and the future of DC and HBO Max.
Ms. Marvel is finally coming to the MCU! And we finally have a trailer! In it, we get to see Kamala Khan as a regular Pakistani American Muslim teen girl fantasize about Captain Marvel and the Avengers, drawing fanart, and dealing with the ins and outs of American high school as a brown girl.
Continue reading “The First ‘Ms. Marvel’ Trailer is Here”It’s the second year of Warner Bros. and DC’s stellar virtual convention, revealing all the upcoming DC comics, movies, and TV in 2021 and beyond! How well did they do with their reveals and announcements this year?
Continue reading “DC FanDome: Reflections on the 2021 Event”It was a huge day for the Bat and the Cat today! In addition to the new trailer for The Batman dropping, featuring Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight opposite Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman, DC Animated Movies announced their next big offering, coming February 8, 2022, Catwoman: Hunted!
Continue reading “‘Catwoman: Hunted’ Leads DC Animation’s 2022 Movie Slate”For the last two Halloweens I was Mile Morales, and it was both immensely charming to see kids excitedly rush toward our house for a picture and painfully sweltering because of the horrid Miami weather plaguing my cosplay. Those days seem even further away when thinking about the current state of things and how the pandemic has transformed the ways we get to celebrate our favorite pop culture figures.
Continue reading “Phil LaMarr to Play Green Lantern in ‘Superhero Diaries’ Webseries”Heyyy! It’s Kuya P back again with another NOC EXCLUSIVE! I recently sat down for a conversation with Screenwriter/Producer/Novelist/Actor, Geoffrey Thorne to discuss his latest comics work on DC Comics’ Green Lantern!
“In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape Geoffrey’s sight.
Continue reading “NOC Exclusive Interview: Writer, Geoffrey Thorne on DC Comics’ Green Lantern!”A few months back, I took some time to reflect on Mattel’s final wave of Batman-related action figures. After nearly two decades in the DC Comics licensing game, Mattel finally gave way to a new licensee. McFarlane Toys (and Spin Masters) were going to be the new holders of the DC legacy though little was known about what either toy company would offer. All we knew was that the figures would debut some time in 2020. Well, it’s a new year, and all that has changed!
Continue reading “McFarlane Toys Officially Picks up the DC Multiverse Baton”
2019 has been full of terrible happenings and counter-happenings, but here we are now at the 50th San Diego Comic-Con! (Or #SDCC19, if you’re into the brevity thing.) Perhaps owing to the superlatively non-racist good vibes induced by Into The … Continue reading Into The San Diego Comic-Con Cosplay-Verse, Part I (2019 Edition)
UPDATED OCTOBER 13, 2019 for Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s birthday. See #12-14 below!
For those visiting our blog for the first time, ‘round these parts “N.O.C.” stands for Nerds Of Color (or Non-Official-Cover if you’ve just rewatched the first Mission: Impossible film).
It’s a term of inclusivity that we wear with pride. And because part of our nerdy duties include ingesting a lot of TV, movies, and Twitter, we feel obligated to note that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is, by her choice of pop-culture references on Twitter and other forums, also a Nerd Of Color. (We’ll update this listicle periodically as Rep. AOC continues to use Twitter to do spectacularly nerdy things.)
Continue reading “AOC is NOC AF! (Updated)”This week on Hard NOC Life, Peabody-winning journalist, poet, and podcaster extraordinaire Al Letson joins the pod!
If you follow this site, you know there aren’t many things we obsess over more than The CW’s DC Universe and Hamilton. And since most of the original cast of the Broadway phenomenon has moved on — or is about to move on [sadface] — I figured why not mash up our favorite things and imagine which DC characters the Hamilton cast could play in the Berlanti-verse? We all know how much they love casting Broadway talent on these shows in the first place. Besides, Lin himself has said we should expect these guys on our favorite shows anyway:
Continue reading “Green Arrows and Ham: Five ‘Hamilton’ Stars who Should be in the DC Universe”
We’re back with another round of casting, this time, we’re casting twelve guys in the respective roles of various superheroes for the now CW sophomore show Supergirl. Last time, we mentioned that while Supergirl did well to promote (white) feminism, it needed to share that with women of color. Feminism does mean equality, and not just for women but for men as well.
Although arguably, little by little, we’re starting to see more men of color as heroes, but honestly? The barrier-breaking could use a little help, and Supergirl is in the right position to super-punch right on through them. Though the show just announced it’s bringing on Superman next season, DC Comics has a range of wonderful heroes of color and it’s about time that we got to see them shine too.
by Jules
Comic books, throughout their long history, have often existed as a playground for subversive and counter-cultural concepts. Famously, “Judgement Day” — the last story published by EC Comics — featured a socially stratified world of blue and orange robots set in the far future vying for entry into the “Great Galactic Republic.” Their inspector, an astronaut from Earth, tells them that their planet isn’t ready but that one day it might be. In the last panel he’s revealed to be a black man, something scandalous enough that the Comics Code Authority demanded he be changed to white or the comic couldn’t go to print. This was 1953.
Since then comics, specifically superhero comics, have continued to make attempts to grapple with social issues.
Continue reading “All of Our Tomorrow: Ending “Racial Apologia””
As more DC Comics projects are announced, it often leads to the question of who deserves his or her vehicle in the form of a movie, TV series, direct-to-dvd animated film, etc.
Contrary to popular belief, DC does in fact have a rich diverse variety of engaging characters. The (most frustrating) problem is that they refuse to properly utilize them. More than a few of said rich diverse superheroes have amassed mainstream crossover appeal. Yet, DC does not capitalize on these opportunities.
But that’s okay. Help has arrived. Help in the form of yours truly. The following is a list of 10 characters (among countless others) who need their own mainstream project like yesterday.
Continue reading “10 DC Comics Superheroes Who Deserve a Vehicle”
We are a couple months out from DC Comics’ soft reboot of their entire line up. One of the changes that will be coming this summer is that long time DC artist — and friend of the NOC — Bernard Chang will be shifting from Green Lantern Corps to art duties on Batman Beyond!
To celebrate the Green Lantern Corps fans and reward them for their loyalty for the last two years, Bernard will be giving away original interior art from his run on the book on Instagram!
Continue reading “Bernard Chang is Giving Away Original Green Lantern Corps Art”
by William Evans | Originally posted at Black Nerd Problems
I don’t usually, and don’t plan to be the guy that writes reactions to other columns. It’s kind of circular and masturbatory and rarely does the work of informing an audience, as opposed to finger pointing across the table at someone else doing the same thing you do. The issue of the diversity in comics seems to be taking on a larger life beyond simple media commentary, however. And we are always 72 hours away from the next event that brings this conversation into focus. For days (and continuing now) it was the topic of what Marvel and Sony should do with their respective versions of Spider-Man. Debates involving Peter Parker’s race, the likability of Miles Morales (or some saying he’s a C-level character), and just how white the MCU films still are currently, have hit the internet at breakneck speed. I contributed to that malaise as well.
The latest such “where we are in 2015 with race and pop culture” test came with the Michelle Rodriguez story over the weekend. Responding to TMZ about the rumors of her being cast for Green Lantern, she responded with the now infamous “stop stealing white people’s superheroes.” Well, as you can imagine, that led to someone Michelle Rodriguez pays, probably telling her how her message was going viral in the way you don’t want things to go viral, which led to her issuing an apology via her Facebook page. It was your garden variety “I’m sorry you’re offended, not sorry for saying something offensive” type of apology that gets passed out in Hollywood as frequently as gift bags at award shows.
Continue reading “How the Diversity Argument in the Nerd Community Chases its Own Tail”
Ever since he was introduced in the first season of Arrow, David Ramsey’s John Diggle has been a fan-favorite and a valuable member of the team. It’s also been pointed out several times that Diggle is the only member of Team Arrow that hasn’t donned a mask or embraced a superhero/vigilante persona. While this may dovetail with the character’s sensibilities, as the show increasingly embraces its comic roots, Diggle’s everyman schtick also kinda marginalizes the character — intentionally or not. Interestingly, all of that might soon change.
Continue reading “Dig This: Is Green Lantern Coming to Arrow?”
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.
Continue reading “Warner Finally Unveils its DC Superhero Movie Slate”
In this outtake from last week’s Hard N.O.C. Life with William Evans from Black Nerd Problems, Keith and N’Jaila get him on a rant about the 2011 Green Lantern film and how it ruined the nascent DC Cinematic Universe it was … Continue reading N.O.C. One-Shot: Green Lantern Ruined the DC Cinematic Universe
If you haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet, you will. Director James Gunn and his cast — starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, and Bradley Cooper — have found that cross section of great action and effects, genuine mirth, and likability, that makes for a movie that kids will fondly remember into adulthood. What was once widely thought of as a long shot in Phase Two of Marvel Studios’ cinematic universe, Guardians could very well be the new Star Wars to this generation’s adolescent filmgoers. Halloween is going to see a lot of trees and raccoons running through the front yard for years to come. Toys will be flying off the shelves. And Marvel has $94 million reasons to celebrate its box office dominance.
Which is not to say that Guardians is the new sci-fi G.O.A.T., but rarely does a film so effectively appeal to both youth and adults. And, unlike Marvel’s previous films, young fans of Guardians get an all-new set of characters to love that don’t belong to their parents. Like Harry Potter before it, Guardians will belong uniquely to this generation of toy-buying, cosplaying kids.
Continue reading “NOC Reviews Guardians of the Galaxy: Hooked on a Feeling”