Tag: Wonder Woman

Animation, DC Comics2 Comments

I Cape For Black Women

Dennis R. Upkins

What makes a hero? Is it the super powers? The skill sets? The gadgets? Our intentions? Our actions?

I’m a comic book guy through and through so these are the questions that haunt me. There are moments in our lives that define us. That we allow to define us through our choices, our mistakes and how we respond to them. Sometimes those moments are big, sometimes they are minute. But in those moments we definitely learn the content of our character.

Here’s an example.

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DC Comics, Movies2 Comments

Forget the DCEU: Warner Brothers Should Embrace the Multiverse

Keith Chow

It has not been a great couple of weeks (years?) on the DC Films front.

After Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad failed to live up to most people’s expectations last summer, Warner Brothers looked like it was starting to right the DCEU ship. Triumphant teasers for Wonder Woman and Justice League made DC the talk of San Diego, and fans were stoked for directors like James Wan, Rick Famuyiwa, and Ben Affleck to lend their visions to DC supeheroes. Well, less than a year later, 60% of those directors have been dropped and now, Ben (maybe?) doesn’t even want to be Batman anymore. And in the most WTF move yet, Warner has approached an actual misogynst, anti-semitic racist to helm a movie with the initials S.S.!

But, taking a page from Vulture’s always awesome Abraham Riesman, maybe Warner Bros. can use the chaos surrounding the DCEU as an opportunity… to blow up the whole damn thing.

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Animation, Movies, Television3 Comments

Profound Media Lessons Learned By An Impressionable Mind

Dennis R. Upkins

When it comes to the media, the Original X-Man, First Class, Brother Malcolm said it best:

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DC Comics, Podcasts

DC TV Classics 03 – Great Hera! Susan Eisenberg is Wonder Woman

Hard NOC Media

On the third episode of DC TV Classics, your hosts Keith Chow and Britney Monae are joined by Wonder Woman herself, Susan Eisenberg of Justice League and Justice League Unlimited to talk about her time in the golden tiara. With 2016 being the 75th anniversary of the creation of Wonder Woman, Susan looks back at the character’s significance to her career and to the culture at large. They also discuss favorite episodes of JL/JLU, reminisce about Diana’s flirty relationship with Batman, and emphasize the importance of voice over actors and why they deserve respect in the industry.

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DC Comics, Podcasts

DC TV Classics 02 – Up, Up, and Away! The Adventures of Superman

Hard NOC Media

On the second episode of DC TV Classics, your hosts Keith Chow and Britney Monae are joined by pop culture historian Alan Kistler to reflect on the television program that started it all: The Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves! Since its launch in 1952, The Adventures of Superman proves that DC Comics superheroes have been an indelible part of television since the inception of the medium. In addition to reminiscing about George Reeves’ Superman, this episode also touches on the mysterious details surrounding Reeves’ death – which were dramatized in the 2006 film Hollywoodland starring Ben Affleck – and debate whether the “curse of Superman” actually exists. Also: news from New York Comic-Con, including the sequel to Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders starring William Shatner as Two-Face and the debut of Batman ’66 Meets Wonder Woman ’77 by Jeff Parker and Mark Andreyko!

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DC Comics, Podcasts

DC TV Classics 01 – Meet The Hosts

Hard NOC Media

On the first episode of DC TV Classics, your hosts Keith Chow, Britney Monae and Ken Knudtsen, get together to introduce themselves to the listening audience as they debut the newest podcast in the DC TV Podcasts Network. Get to know the three nerds and what DC TV Classics is all about as they take you on a journey on exploring the history of DC Comics on television in both live-action and animation.

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Podcasts, Television2 Comments

Introducing the DCTV Classics Podcast

Keith Chow

This weekend, I’m proud to announce that I have teamed up with the DCTV Podcast network to launch their newest bi-weekly show: DCTV Classics, where we will be reminiscing about iconic and classic TV shows such as The Adventures of Superman, Batman ’66, Wonder Woman, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Smallville, Batman: The Animated Series, and more.

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DC Comics, Podcasts

DC TV Podcasts Launches ‘DC TV Classics’

Hard NOC Media

DC TV Podcasts, a podcast network for multiple high-quality DC Comics TV dedicated podcasts, is expanding with an eighth podcast that is all about taking a trip down memory lane in the DC TV world: DC TV Classics!

DC TV Classics is a fan podcast devoted to iconic and classic TV shows based on characters of DC Comics that happened long before today’s modern DC adaptations on television. Shows such as The Adventures of Superman, Batman ’66, Wonder Woman, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Smallville, Batman: The Animated Series, and more favorites will be covered on this podcast.

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Conventions, Hard N.O.C. Life, Interview

Hard NOC Live from SDCC 2016: Lisa Yee

The Nerds of Color

On the heels of the home video release of the first DC Super Hero Girls original movie, Hero of the Year, here is our conversation with the writer of the DCSHG middle grade novels, Lisa Yee, from the lobby of the Grand Hyatt hotel during San Diego Comic-Con 2016!

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Conventions, Hard N.O.C. Life1 Comment

The Most Diverse San Diego Comic-Con in History

The Nerds of Color

For the second year in a row, The Nerds of Color found our way to San Diego Comic-Con. This time out, we were joined by multiple crews repping in sunny Southern California! To look back on all that went down last weekend, we’re joined by returning champ Constance (@ConStar24) who was covering the Con as Black Girl Nerds’ TV editor, as well as Robyn (@robyn_ravenclaw) from Black Girls Nerd Out and Laura (@lsirikul) whose writing can be found on Nerd Reactor, Legion of Leia, and other sites.

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DC Comics, Marvel, Movies15 Comments

DC vs. Marvel: Which Movie Franchise Represents Its Audience More?

Monique

Originally posted at Just Add Color

With the culmination of the San Diego Comic-Con, we’ve been getting a lot of DC Comics movie franchise news. Some of which includes the new footage of the Justice League movie, featuring Batman (Ben Affleck), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), the Flash (Ezra Miller), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Superman (Henry Cavill).

With the introduction of DC’s superhero team, I started wondering — which movie franchise represents its diverse audience more?

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DC Comics, Television, Theatre5 Comments

Green Arrows and Ham: Five ‘Hamilton’ Stars who Should be in the DC Universe

Keith Chow

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:

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Comics, Marvel6 Comments

Captain America is HYDRA and Everything Wrong with Big Two Comics

Desiree Rodriguez

Captain America has been revealed to be a HYDRA agent all along and doesn’t this emphasize everything wrong with superhero comics today?

When The Outhousers released the spoilers for Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 the night before its release last week, fans clamored to discredit the website citing it as “unreliable,” “the comic version of The Onion,” and “satire” in an effort to brush aside the original spoiler panel of Steve in full Captain American uniform saying, “Hail HYDRA.” Understandable, this is a huge retcon of Steve Roger’s overall character and the name of Captain America. A legacy of a name built up over 75 years — in fact, Captain America just celebrated his 75th anniversary recently — and fans feel rightly protective.

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Cosplay, DC Comics11 Comments

Battle On, Amazons

Dennis R. Upkins

Prior to Gal Gadot being tapped to portray Wonder Woman for the DC Extended Universe, there was an online campaign where fans wanted to see actress Gina Torres play the iconic superheroine.

Understandable. Much like Gadot — and for that matter, Lynda Carter — Torres is the perfect blend of grace, beauty, power, and wisdom.

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DC Comics, Movies12 Comments

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Confirmation Bias

Brandon Easton

I’m examining Batman v Superman from the perspective of the ridiculous and (not) unprecedented fan “outrage” and critical overreaction.

First thing, let’s take a look at the phrase “confirmation bias.” Here’s the definition:

Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias, is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities.

Simply put, if people desperately wish to cling onto or believe in a certain conclusion, there’s nothing in the universe that can change their mind. They will not entertain — nor have the ability to entertain — anything that falls outside of their way of thinking.

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DC Comics, Movies2 Comments

Things Other Movies Did Better Than Batman v Superman

Keith Chow

I didn’t hate Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I walked into the theater last night fully expecting to hate it. Two and a half hours later, I ended up merely not liking it. That’s progress, I guess?

That said, there were a couple things I actually liked (most having to do with Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman) and I can’t deny that Ben Affleck looks like Batman (even though he sure doesn’t act like him). But the thing that distracted me throughout the movie was the fact that it contained a lot of elements that were executed better in other live action adaptations.

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DC Comics, Movies15 Comments

The Epic Failure of Batman v Superman

Edward Hong

Before I begin this review, I want you all to watch this clip from Man of Steel.

I remembered watching that scene from that film and actually yelling out loud how incredibly stupid and unnecessarily melodramatic that was.

That’s exactly how I felt after watching Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

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DC Comics, Hard N.O.C. Life, Movies

BLK x NOC Preview Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

The Nerds of Color

UPDATE: Part 2 of our BvS podcast crossover with BLKBOARD is available here!

We’re now only a few days away from the worldwide launch of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Before the movie comes out, this special edition of Hard NOC Life — also available on iTunes and Soundcloud — invites the founders of the new website and podcast BLKBOARD, Jermaine Dickerson and Michael Tré, to discuss the launch of the DC Cinematic Universe.

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DC Comics, Movies14 Comments

Guess We Don’t Need to See Batman v Superman Now

Keith Chow

Since when did Jimmy Kimmel Live become the go-to place for movie studios to drop their most anticipated trailers? It made sense before to have all-Marvel or all-Star Wars editions — Disney owns ABC, after all — but using Kimmel to reveal Warner/DC’s formal entry into the cinematic superhero wars was a surprise. Like, why not use The CW’s two-part Flarrow crossover1 to show off their big guns? Corporate synergy, remember? Still, like a proper nerd, I tuned in to Kimmel to see the latest tease for what will be the biggest movie of March 2016.

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Comics, DC Comics, Guest Post16 Comments

Beyond the Cape: Batgirl and the State of Women in Comics

Guest N.O.C.

by CG | Originally posted at Black Girl in Media

[Trigger warning in these posts for mention & discussion of: sexual violence, molestation, rape, and violence against women]

Fiction always reflects the cultural temperature of the times. This could be a good thing, and sometimes be a great thing. But most of the time, it leads to us uncovering not so pleasant parts of our society. Comics have always been an accessible part of that cultural narrative, as their mix of visual and written storytelling have led to them being embraced by fans for decades. Comics and superhero culture are very much at the center of dictating societal norms.

So when we have instances of dictating women’s dress, allowing for female oppression and violence against women for book sales, the issue goes beyond just the individual books or characters in question. It’s about questioning the system that we’ve allowed for this behavior and thinking to flourish enough to reach the success that it has with the comics industry.

This is the state of women in comics.

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Comics, DC Comics2 Comments

The Pristine Balance: The Role of Wonder Woman in the DC Trinity

Dennis R. Upkins

In honor of Women’s History Month…

Musician Janelle Monae has an empowering motto that she shares with other women: “Come in peace, but mean business.”

There couldn’t possibly be a better motto that sums up Wonder Woman, more specifically her role in the DC Trinity. Too often Wonder Woman is conflated for Super Woman, i.e., a female version of Superman and that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Themysciran Princess has her own agency and a most vital purpose. She’s the pristine balance.

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Comics, Guest Post2 Comments

Raina Telgemeier and Wonder Woman

Guest N.O.C.

by Gene Yang | Originally posted at Humble Comics

A few weeks ago, my oldest daughter (a second grader) bought Raina Telgemeier’s Sisters from her school’s book fair. She instantly became a Raina devotee. I’d already read Smile with her, but something about Sisters flipped a switch — maybe because my daughter has to deal with sibling drama of her own at home.

Raina’s a friend of mine. I knew from Facebook that she was doing a signing near us, so I told my daughter we’d go see her. On the morning of the signing, my daughter woke up chanting Raina’s name.

The signing was freaking amazing. I’ve never been to a comics signing like it, not even with the Image Comics founders when they were at the height of their fame in the 90s. Raina did a joint event with the inimitable Kazu Kibuishi, and the entire store was packed with parents and kids holding stacks of Smile and Drama and Sisters and Amulet.

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DC Comics, Movies12 Comments

Warner Finally Unveils its DC Superhero Movie Slate

Keith Chow

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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