The Bum’s Rush #63

WARNING! None of the news or rumors you see here in The Bum’s Rush should be considered FACT until it actually happens. It might never happen. How do you know I’m not just making all this crap up? I could, you know. You’ve been warned!


Superman Soars

As if you didn’t know, last week marked the debut of Superman Returns and the first time the character has appeared on the big screen in nineteen years. The film garnered around $85 million in its first five days, which is pretty impressive for a franchise that had previously been run into the ground.

While it might not have done as well as some recent superhero flicks like Spiderman 2 or X-Men 3 it did manage to outperform last year’s Batman Begins and sold about as many tickets as the first X-Men. Honestly I think it’s probably more fair to compare this movie’s box office results to those latter films rather than match it against movies like Spiderman 2 or X3, considering that the success of those films is largely built on them being part of an already established and successful franchise.

Do I wish the movie had made more money? Obviously. I would have loved to have seen it clobber the record-breaking debut of Spiderman, which made $114 million in just three days back in 2001. But when it comes down to it there’s only been a handful of movies in the years since that have made that kind of money in that amount of time. And the film will most likely make around $110 million by Tuesday, which is a pretty decent 7-day gross. It’s more than enough to guarantee that there will be a sequel to the film, which is already listed on imdb.com for a 2009 release.

While nothing can topple Superman: The Movie as one of my all-time favorite films Superman Returns certainly comes close. It’s right up there with Spiderman 2 in terms of being one of the best superhero movies ever made. I’d liken my first experience watching it with seeing the original Star Wars for the first time. That’s the level of awe and excitement it generated within me. I was literally in a daze as I left the movie theatre.

I could go on and on about how wonderful this movie was but I think instead I will leave you with the latest PVP strip by Scott Kurtz, which sums up my feelings about the movie more perfectly than 12 pages of text ever could:




It’s A Fine Tradition

Ever since he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel in May the big question has been – what will Ed McGuiness be drawing for the company? It was revealed early on that the artist would be teaming up with Jeph Loeb on a top-secret project. There was heavy speculation that the pair would be working on a book starring the Incredible Hulk. Turns out that the rumors were true… sort of. While the duo will apparently be working on a Hulk project at some point their first work together for Marvel will be… Ultimates 4!

Yeah, I’m right there with ya… Ultimates 2 hasn’t even wrapped up yet. How can they possibly be scheduling Ultimates 4? Well it’s be known for some time that the art for Ultimates 3 (also written by Loeb) is being handled by Joe Madureira. While no release date for that series has yet been announced, I’ve heard the series could debut before the end of the year. While Madureira is hard at work (snicker) on Ultimates 3, McGuiness will be working Ultimates 4 at the same time in order to ensure that, when the books are finally scheduled, they will follow each other very closely.

Truthfully, I can’t wait to read these books, as I’m sure they’ll be some of the prettiest and most action packed comics on the stands. It’ll probably be a nice treat to finally get that last issue of Ultimates 4 in my hands and read it… to my grandkids! Come on, who’s gonna be drawing Ultimates 5? Travis Charest?


Saw It Coming

HeroesCon ‘06 took place this past weekend and while there wasn’t much in the way of new announcements there was one tidbit that from DC that piqued my curiosity. Much like the upcoming Mystery In Space mini-series (revamping an old DC title) by Jim Starlin and Shane Davis there will be a Tales of the Unexpected mini-series starring The Spectre in the lead story with backup’s featuring a number of DC’s long lost horror characters. While there hasn’t been any announcement as to which creator(s) will be handling the lead story, it was said that Brian Azzarello would be writing the backup stories including tales about I, Vampire and Haunted Tank, among others.


It’s Criminal Is What It Is

Ed Brubaker has confirmed that he will be working on a new creator-owned series, Criminal, with artist Sean Phillips. The series will be released through Marvel’s Icon imprint which currently publishes other high profile creator-owned books like Powers and Kabuki. The series will be the first straight crime book for Brubaker since the early days of his career. Brubaker and Phillips previously worked together on the critically acclaimed series Sleeper for Wildstorm.

Go check out this interview at Newsarama.com to read more about the series. You’ll also get to see the awesome cover and a five-page teaser for the series, which is definitely one of the best teasers I’ve ever seen for a comic book.


The Only Comics That Matter

Last Week –
DCU: Brave New World by lots of people

Young Avengers #12 by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung

This Week –
Battler Britton #1 by Garth Ennis and Colin Wilson

Detective Comics #821 by Paul Dini and J.H. Williams III

Next Week –
Superman #654 by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco

Soon –
Emily Edison by David Hopkins and Brock Rizy
 

If you know of any interesting news, rumors, lies, etc. about comics and think I should know about it too just email me at thesuperleezard@yahoo.com.

Read more dumb crap written by me at www.livejournal.com/users/superleezard.

My semi-daily webcomic, Der Wundervolle Bean, will be coming to an end soon. But you can still check it out here www.livejournal.com/users/der_magic_bean.



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