Whatastory: Whataburger and Wonder Woman’s “Friendly Trademark Discussion”

There’s been reports that DC Comics and American burger chain Whataburger have been embroiled in a bitter dispute over logos. The chain has a stacked W logo, which it launched in 1972, 13 years before Wonder Woman‘s  original logo was trademarked. The new version of the logo, relaunched to tie in with Gal Gadot‘s incarnation of the superheroine, appears to stepped on Whattaburger’s toes.

However, according to Chron, the press folks at Whataburger seem to be taken aback at claims that there is a nasty dispute between them and the home of the Amazon princess. They describe the ‘row’ as a ‘friendly trademark discussion’. In fact, their statements are unbelievably cute, as if written by characters from the 1970s series.

“Contrary to some suggestions, Whataburger is not at war with Wonder Woman over her newly redesigned logo. In fact, Whataburger supports superheroes like Wonder Woman and her friends in the Justice League.” Whataburger actually have a superhero mascot -Whataguy – and they would apparently love to see a crossover with these two. Maybe DC should introduce him as a character for the Wonder Woman solo film? He could be a love rival against Bruce Wayne…

“Wonder Woman’s stacked W logo has both made it appear more similar to Whataburger’s long-standing Flying W trademark and has been accompanied by nine new trademark applications, covering a much more substantial list of goods and services than just comic books, including a variety of food and beverage products.”

And therein lies the problem – the original logo was only related to comic book merch; now it maybe linked to similar products as Whataburger.

“Whataburger anticipates a positive discussion with DC Comics and a resolution of that discussion that will be acceptable to both parties.”

In a quaint closing of the statement, Whataburger said they wanted Wonder Woman to be able to focus on keeping “planet Earth safe from villains” while they focused on making burgers.

Whataclassact.

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New Luke Cage Promo Features Cottonmouth

Marvel is at it again with clever marketing to draw us all in. This time it’s for the latest instalment of the Netflix hosted TV series, Luke Cage (not Nick Cage as I am frequently paranoid I will call it…) The series, which is due to go live on the streaming service on 30^th September will focus on Hell’s Kitchen’s own man of steel (are DC going to come after me for that one?). The eponymous hero was introduced as Jessica Jones’ on-again-off-again love interest, and a man so strong, with super strength and unbreakable skin, he could flick attacking bruisers off him like gnats. The show promises to be gritty and edgy like its predecessors Daredevil and Jessica Jones, but also   showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker has promised fans that the drama will be infused with ’90s hip-hop.

The new promo shows villain Cottonmouth, played by Mahershala Ali (House of Cards), appearing to break the fourth wall and talk directly to the audience. He has a large portrait of rapper Biggie Smalls in the background, and explains how the late hip-hop star is the real King of New York. There is quite a cool shot that looks like Ali is wearing the crown in the portrait – some nice camera work there! He is not, in fact, addressing us, but rather his unfortunate victim who gets a beating as he’s told “Everybody wants to wear the crown”.

Watch the promo:

The whole series of Luke Cage will launch on Netflix 30^th September

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Vincent D’Onofrio Teases a Return for Kingpin

Best things about Daredevil (in no particular order):
1. Charlie Cox is super handsome and a pleasure to look at
2. Foggy has classic lines all the time – “why are you fancy?” is still said in our house all the time
3. Karen giving Matt a balloon was hilarious
4. The 2 epic corridor fight scenes
5. The villains – both Kingpin and Punisher were incredible

Vincent D’Onofrio‘s star turn as Wilson Fisk was one of the highlights of season 1 for me. No cat stroking, one-dimensional bad guy here; Fisk was portrayed as sensitive, deep, and all together reasonable in his villainy. D’Onofrio was terrifying with his calm, quiet, anger culminating in violent, deadly rage. At times, he cut quite an empathetic figure, and creating that in the big bad is a real talent.

Fans were delighted earlier this year when Fisk had a cameo appearance in Daredevil season 2 (resulting in an incredible prison fight sequence), and D’Onofrio has not ruled out a reprisal of the Kingpin in future Marvel series. Last week he spoke to LRM Online, and said that although he hadn’t signed on to do any further work with Marvel, he would go back to the character if the right chance came up.

He told the website, “Marvel, the company, and especially Jeff Loeb, who runs Marvel Television, he’s a clever dude. All those people over there are pretty clever and they love talent. There’s no giant commitment for me at Daredevil. Like I didn’t have to sign my life away at all. When Jeff tells me there’s something coming up and if I’m available, I’ll be there. And because it’s written so well, I’m going to show up. I’m going to do everything I can because the writing is so good. And then there’s a company like Netflix and they’re not pressuring you either. They just want good material, good content. They give you money to make good content, so they’re not pressuring actors to sign their life away either…. I think that there’s this common ground where they say, ‘Look, if the material is good are you going to show up?’ and I said,  ‘Definitely’.”

When asked directly if he would be appearing again in a Marvel/Netflix series, D’Onofrio was coy. “That I can’t answer. I do know, but I can’t answer… so take that how you will. Jeff and Charlie (Cox) and Netflix love Kingpin, and so, Kingpin is good for Marvel’s television stuff and I think they agree.”

So, although our favourite Kingpin might not be back on Netflix for Luke Cage on 30th September, we might not be waiting too long to see him again.

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James Gunn Shares Yondu Concept Art on Instagram

As we know, James Gunn is a very fan-centric director. He is a comic book fan himself, so treats his films with the respect you’d expect from someone with a great love of the stimulus material. He also spends a lot of time on social media, and makes an effort to share little Easter eggs with the fans, engaging with them in the comments section. This is awesome, because it draws the audience in and gives them an investment in the movie well before it’s released. It also gives me a lot of James Gunn stuff to write about, which is no bad thing.

This week, Gunn treated his Instagram fans to early concept art for Yondu:

View this post on Instagram

Sweet early concept art for #Yondu in #GotG by Andrew Kim featuring a fantastic vision of @michael_rooker's abs.

A post shared by James Gunn (@jamesgunn) on Sep 13, 2016 at 10:43am PDT

In the artwork, Michael Rooker‘s space outlaw has a different image – something more Egyptian than intergalactic. He also has a red Mohawk (more in keeping with comic book Yondu than the one we came to love in the movie); face gills; and a fancy eye patch. The artist (Andrew Kim) also showed the character wearing a lot of heavy and ornate armour/jewellery (I think it looks like costume jewellery but my other half insists it’s armour!)

One fan asked Gunn why he doesn’t stick to the concept art, but the director advised that he does – just different concept art. He explained that while the picture is beautiful, the costuming was impractical and not the concept he had for movie Yondu.

Knowing how GotG turned out, I think the Egyptian (almost Apocalypse-esque) god figure in the artwork would have jarred massively with the cool crew of the Alyssa Milano. Thanks for sharing James, and I think you made the right choice!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is due for release in the United Kingdom on April 28 and in USA on May 5

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Weekly Bookette #12 Indie Books again :D

It is time yet again for one of my favorite Weekly Bookette articles. Yep, it is time for our monthly independent book line up, hope you enjoy this month’s selection as much as I do!

Alice in Wonderland Tag!

I collaborated with Rachel Wagner & Emily Boone for this awesome Alice in Wonderland Tag! I had so much fun doing this so I’m very excited to share with you all!

Lets go down the rabbit hole & check this tag out!

Happy Reading,

Aly

New Batman Tactical Suit Revealed

Zack Snyder has now reveled the new Tactical Batsuit that Batman will where in the Justice League movie via way of his twitter account with the caption “Homestretch. Last day filming Batman in the new Tactical Batsuit,” it shows Batman next a rather beaten up looking Batmobile. The suit looks a lot more sleek than the mech suit that was used in Batman Vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice and looks to be improved to help him step up his game against his super-powered enemies.

You can see from the image that not much has really changed from the sleek designed suit that was in Dawn Of Justice apart from the addition of a set of goggles which can be assumed to help him pilot one of his new toys either the Nightcrawler (Batmobiles big brother) or the Flying Fox as we know these vehicles have been confirmed as being in the Justice League film.

There has been some comparisons by fans that the new suit looks like it has been designed as a nod to the Watchmen’s Nite Owl costume although this has been refused and the goggles were added as a homage to the Dark Knights classic design.

“We loved the way, in the comic books, that Batman’s always drawn with these white flashes for eyes,” he told reports on set. “So we played around with ways of doing that, and realized that they would sort of catch the light, to call to mind that classic age from the comic books.”

The Justice League hits cinemas on November 17th 2017 as always for all your Dark Knight needs stick with @Deadpool_1984 only at skatronixxx.com

 

 

Mr Sinister To Appear In Wolverine 3

So we have been waiting to see when Mister Sinister would appear in a X-Men related film and thanks to Bryan Singer and CinemaBlend we finally have our answer. Mister Sinister will appear in Hugh Jackman’s last appearance as Wolverine in Wolverine 3 so we finally have some details around a film that has been cloaked in mystery.

It’s fair to guess that the role will be played by Richard E. Grant his character has been listed as being a ‘Mad Scientist’.

Singer also went on to mention an original plan for a Deadpool related post credits scene as the director wanted to include a tease toward Deadpool 2.

“We did a tag that we really couldn’t do — which I can stick on the DVD. It would have been for Deadpool, and unfortunately it wouldn’t have had the right costume for the character they’re going to add to Deadpool [2]. I don’t want to give that away.”

Wolverine 3 hits cinemas on March 3rd 2017

As always for all your Wolverine related needs stick with @Deadpool_1984 only at skatronixxx.com

Comic Books Currently Being Adapted To TV​

With the box office juggernaut that Marvel has become in recent years, Hollywood is taking notice of comic book properties and are quickly trying to buy the movie and television rights to them. You can say Marvel opened Hollywood’s eyes, but another fair point is that the best content for film and TV adaptation is comic book stories, as Hollywood has failed to produce little original quality movies the past decade.

With an industry that seems only to produce sequels, reboots and remakes many of which nobody asked for, comics might be the only thing that can save the film industry and non-comic book based indie films.

Comic fans can find this recent interest in their favourite comic books being adapted to another medium both exciting and scary. Not every property that gets adapted is going to be accepted by fans and the general public. It does, however, have the potential to bring in new comic readers and to challenge the film and television industry to new ways of storytelling.

The Following is just a handful of comic book properties in no particular order that is currently being adapted. They are comics I’m excited or interested in seeing get a Hollywood adaptation.

Essex County by Jeff Lemire

First Generation Films will be producing a television series interpretation for the CBC (Canadian Broadcast Company).While I have not read Essex’s County yet, I’m a fan of Jeff Lemire‘s writing and always want to support a fellow Canadain.

Sinatoro by Grant Morrison &  Vanesa R. Del Rey

 Chris and Paul Weitz and Universal Television are working with Grant Morrison on the TV series adaptation of his Black Mask Studios comic that has yet to be released. Adam Armus and Kay Foster, co-creators of the NBC drama American Odyssey, are writing the script with Grant. The show has not yet been picked up by a network or streaming service. Anything involving Grant Morrison is worth checking out. His writing is always entertaining and takes you on a crazy ride a lot of the times; I expect the show to do the same.

 

The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson 

 

The same creative team behind Garth Ennis‘s Preacher adaptation for AMC of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Neal Moritz are also doing The Boys TV series. The series is set to air on Cinemax. Once again another title I have yet to read. As a comic fan and reviewer, I have a never ending list of comics to read, and it grows weekly. If you have ever read, Preacher or Garth’s Punisher run you know you’re in for some excellent action-packed storytelling.

Deadly Class by Rick Remender and Wes Craig

The Deadly Class TV series announced this past summer at SDCC here is my original article on it and a preview of Rick Remender’s new comic out on September 21st, 2016 Seven to Eternity (no reported adaptation for this property)  Deadly Class TV Series

Ronin by Frank Miller

Syfy picked up the rights to Ronin back in 2014. Production and news have been slow and minimal. Hopefully, we will see it in 2017. It’s Frank Miller I don’t think I need to say anything else.

Those are just a few of the dozens of comic properties in the works for TV translation. It’s an exciting time for comic adaptions lets hope they all turn out as great as their source material.

The Punisher: Casts Ben Barnes

The next Marvel series to get a spin off will be The Punisher and they have just cast English actor Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) as a season regular on the show. The character information is a bit sketchy at the moment but the best rumor I can find is that he will play Bobby Saint the son of crime lord Howard Saint.

Bobby Saint was originally played by James Carpinello back in the first ever Punisher movie (2004) which starred Thomas Jane as The Punisher, in this adaption of The Punisher it was Bobby Saint who took of the whole of Frank Castles family in a massacre at a family BBQ before Frank finally gained vengeance against the Saint family.

There is still no release date for The Punisher series but what we have learnt so far is that the series will also include the character Micro as mentioned in a previous article.

As always for all your Punisher needs stick with @Deadpool_1984 only at Skatronixxx.com