What, huh? A remark is being made of the old-timey horror movie “The Wolfman?” Yup, ‘fraid so, and this new version stars non-other than Oscar winning actor Benicio Del Toro.

Whoa! So do we really need this remark? As talented an actor as Del Toro is, and as awesome as this shot looks of him all scary and wolfed-out, I am rather surprised that this is even being made in the first place. Couldn’t we just get some fresh, ultra new, totally hip werewolf movie,? Maybe a spin on the typical werewolf flick? I guess not. This is just what we movie-watchers need I suppose, another retread of an old classic. When will Hollywood ever learn?

Disclaimer: Jason Moser is a friend of the Shotgun and a friend of The Troy. We do him the solid of posting this up top because he’s a great, talented guy. Check out ELLIUM now. Thanks.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-
ELLIUM: BLOOD RED SNOW serialized online!

A brutal murder brings the world’s deadliest living weapon, a human cyborg named Samantha Snow, face to face with her past and the madman who destroyed her life.

ELLIUM S1: BLOOD RED SNOW, written by Matt Krizan with art by Jason Moser, is presented FREE online at Asylumink. net every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday starting March 10 and continuing throughout the year with LITTLE DEATHS, DIAMOND MINE, and SWORDPLAY.

In addition to presenting ES1 weekly, the entire season of Ellium can be downloaded from wowio.com for immediate viewing as PDFs, with convenient links directly from Asylum Ink to each issue.

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DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

“Pants, then spaceship. In that order.” Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle III) escaping from an alien mothership, Blue Beetle V7 #24.

Still playing catch-up, here are the dissections for the comics released on the week of 02/27, which at least lets us finish with the month of February. That quote up there is one of the reasons I just love the current Blue Beetle book. But more on that later; on another topic, the DT! from last column was not found by any of my readers, so I will reveal it myself. The problem was that the General is not drawn as tall as he should, he should be several feet taller than Bronze Tiger, yet he’s just a couple of heads taller.
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Recently, Occasional Superheroine’s Valerie D’Orazio got mad as hell and decided she wasn’t going to take it anymore. A recent blog entry talking about stereotypes in comics got a bit heated, especially when one poster asked D’Orazio (whose comments had become increasingly condescending as the thread grew larger), “Are you capable of responding to an argument without a personal insult?”

Cue fireworks in 3… 2… 1:

D’Orazio: You don’t like what I write? Don’t come on here and whine about it like a 13-year-old. Go read another f**king blog. See if they tolerate your negativity. I owe you NO respect when you disrespect this blog. It isn’t a democracy, where you can come in here and bitch and insult me and my intelligence and I’m going to bend over backwards to make sure your rights as a debater are preserved. Got that? And if you don’t like it, please please please take you and your self-righteous whiny comments elsewhere.

Well, since you insist.

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 Whoa! Now this is a lady who brings the goods when she sings!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT18LZItBLA&eurl=http://perezhilton.com/page/3/

I love the English translation too! “Ken Leeeeee!” Rock it sister!

According to USA Today, check out the link below, both Iron Man and Wolverine (with a few X-Peeps) are set to blow up the network early next year!  In my humble fan boy opinion this is way cool for many exciting reasons, and I shall list them briefly here:

1) Now that Kids WB is no longer (yup it’s true) where else are we gonna get our Superhero cartoons from? It’s nice to know there is another network out there willing to step up to the plate (come back to us Cartoon Network!).

2) Having Superheroes on Nicktoons is a rather big change from the Sponge Bobs and Doras normally on the network! If these shows do well we just might be seeing a whole new set of comic inspired awesomeness on some other toony networks (come back Cartoon Network! We need you! Look alive Fox Kids, time to bring in the heroes!)

3) Although I am rather nervous about a teen Iron Man (yes, you read me right, it’s a teenage Iron Man, ugh), and the continuous over-saturation of Wolverine (can’t we just call the show the X-Men?) this can only bode well for the future of the comic book medium. Superhero cartoon shows = more kids growing into comic fans.

4) I just can’t wait to see the White Queen on the Wolverine and the X-Men show, hubba hubba! Let’s see how they get her past the little ones and their impressionable minds.

Check out the full story here: http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2008-03-17-marvel-nicktoons_N.htm

I can’t say that I am the most connected individual when it comes to the world of entertainment and pop culture, so a small decision like choosing a rental from Family Video involves a good twenty minutes of browsing up and down the new releases aisle. Different FVs have their own quirks, and in this particular location, I stumbled upon an arty-looking release, likely a comedy-drama, starring Maggie Smith. There was only one copy of the movie, “Keeping Mum,” on the shelf, so I had my doubts; but it’s Maggie Smith, so I picked it up anyway.

I was pleasantly surprised. It was a dark comedic drama, exploring the family of a minister that had begun to unravel and disconnect. Maggie Smith, their new housekeeper, comes in to save the day. She has, however, one small flaw: she’s a cold-blooded murderer.

It sounds ridiculous, and it is, but it’s played very well. The cast, which also includes Mr. Bean and Patrick Swayze, brings a high level of realism to the characters, which takes the film to near perfection. It isn’t a poorly realized horror flick, but instead a darkly funny–and all too authentic–tale of a broken family and the lengths that their new housekeeper will go to draw them back together. It’s funny, heartwarming, and disturbing. It makes for a nice contrast.

Upon investigation, I learned that this film was actually released in 2005, so it’s not exactly new news; but I hadn’t heard of it, so I thought I’d pass it along. It’s worth a rent, if you can find it.

Check out our latest Best Shots Extra here.

Mariah Carey knows that elements of her image make her seem “ditzy”.

That’s probably not the first word that I would have picked.

Betty Boop, Bimbo, and Cab Calloway star in “Minnie the Moocher”

What were the animators smoking when they came up with this, and where can I get some?

Last week a good friend of mine, who occasionally moonlights as a writer, smugly told me to “get it together, sister” and learn to better edit the things I write. She basically implied, more or less, that if I were ever going to become a successful writer I would need to be free of spelling, typo, and grammatical errors. She then taunted me even more by stating that since I had my BA in English that I should, therefore, be a perfect self-editor and that any good writer – one who’s taken seriously and who makes an actual living as a writer - would be able to catch all their mistakes. So in essence she told me my frequently typo-ridden writing, regardless of form or content, was lacking and, basically, just so much crap under her superior shoe (or at least that’s how I took it in a moment of extreme sensitivity).

My first initial insane-o reaction was to pull all her hair out, tell her to F**K Off, and then leap out of the moving car and find comfort in a pint of ice cream. Instead I maturely (and boringly) told her that just because I majored in English it didn’t mean I knew everything there was to know about the degree and that editing my own mistakes has always been my biggest weakness (we have since smoothed things over and I can now appreciate her effort, if not her execution, in trying to help me be a better writer). Go figure! I accept it (despite the fact that I struggle each and every time I write something to make sure it is mistake free, but re-reading and re-re-reading and re-re-re-reading rarely leaves my writing error-free) and I have learned to embrace my shortcoming – even though I curse myself after something has been posted or printed with a glaring typo in it.

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It seems noted temperamental “star” Edward Norton (when was he last seen in a popular movie or, I dunno, just a movie in general?) is not-so-quietly battling with Marvel over the upcoming final cut of The Incredible Hulk movie. I say “not-so-quietly” only because someone must have leaked this beef between Norton and Marvel, unless of course it’s just some marketing ploy to get the movie on the pop culture radar, which really wouldn’t surprise me in today’s controversy loving media. I tend to believe in the veracity of this rumor over marketing ploy, or mere smear-campaign, simply because I live on the web and eat up all and every aspect of pop culture goodness and I find when a story like this makes it onto more than one news/gossip site, well, there’s some truth in “them thar’ hills.”

Apparently Norton wanting a bigger say in the final cut of the film and Marvel is not exactly agreeing with Norton’s input, (or vice a versa depending on your source) and both sides are “working” to come to an understanding. With the June 13^th premier date looming over the horizon Marvel really needs to nail down a final cut, with or without Norton’s stamp of approval. If Marvel does go forth with their vision for the film, which kinda makes sense seeing as how this is their property, their character, and when the chips are down and everything is totaled up, if the movie does badly it will be Marvel that will suffer for it. It’s Marvel that stands to be the most effected if the movie tanks: they stand to loose in theatrical revenue, toy line sales, future sequels profits and further Hulk opportunities (cartoon anyone), whereas Norton will most likely remain unscathed by the movie crashing and burning and will just happily move along to his next project (like Eric Bana did in the first Hulk movie!).

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We held off on an individual spotlight for a bit so we could bring you a HUGE spotlight: it’s the Shots in the Dark team! In the shot above, pictured clockwise from left, are Vince, Janelle, Imoticon, Lucas and Michael Madsen. Yes, the REAL Michael Madsen. The Shots in the Dark crew doesn’t mess around. Read on to meet Lucas, Janelle, Vince, The Viceroy, Imoticon, and John after the jump, or watch the latest episode right now!

Name: Lucas Siegel

Shots in the Dark team position: Co-Producer, Booking

Specialty: Comics, tech, anime, random knowledge

Things I do: Newsarama.com, ShotgunReviews.com, Truman College Newspaper Arts and Entertainment Editor, Generally kick-ass, Get linked to by Rolling Stone

Interests: Comics, video games, writing (creative and journalism), all the geeky stuff we talk about on the show, Da Bears, making fun of Vince, trolling/giving negative karma to JB on our forums (found at shotgunreviews.com/shots/forum)

Name: Janelle Siegel

Shots in the Dark team position: co-host/token girl

Specialty: smart assery, comics, saying “your mom” at inconvenient moments, video games (The Sims 2 in particular), manga, and using my boobs to get my way.

Things I do: copy-edit Newsarama (can I say that? I think you know the link but might want to clear with Matt), Shotgun Vlog (http://www.youtube.com/user/SitDShow), write for Shotgun, and co-host SitD. To pay the bills: office administrator for fashion designer Andria Lieu - website still in development.

Interests: Your mom. Ha. Seriously: comics (love Fables, X-Men, Birds of Prey, and Suburban Glamour), manga (Fruits Basket, Ouran High School Host Club, Nana, Vampire Knight), video games (The Sims 2, Final Fantasy 2/4-8, SSX, Burnout, Smash Bros.), books (favorite authors include Stephen King, L.M. Montgomery, and John Irving), my husband, animals (especially our cats Monkey and Chicken!), TV (favorite show ever = Veronica Mars, favorite show currently on TV = Lost), movies (Empire Records, Gone With The Wind, and Lost in Translation), music (I <3 U2), and editing (I hates the bad grammars).

Name: Vince Scalabrino

Shots in the Dark position: Co-Producer, Marketing

Specialty: Retro video games, Non super-hero comics and pop culture obscura: Dr. Who, 80’s animation, vintage computer tech and games, robots, etc.

Things I do: Digital marketing (www.icrossing.com), voiceover acting (www.voiceofvince.com - Coming soon!), audio and video production (www.shotgunreviews.com/shots), writing (Right here on www.shotgunreviews.com).

Interests: See specialties. Vince is also a casual harmonica player, snowboarder and unabashed Karaoke lover. He blogs on very rare occasions @ vscalabri.livejournal.com. There are rumors he is also in the early stages of development of his very first novel.

Little Known Fact: Vince once got up in front of 500-some Motorola employees and their former CEO, Ed Zander, and sang 12 bars of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”, in the style of Ol’ Blue Eyes. In case you were wondering, he no longer works at Motorola.

Name: The Viceroy

Shots in the Dark team position: Co-Founder, on-air talent, and random odds & ends support

Specialty: Video Games, Tabletop & Board Games, Collectible Card Games, random facts of nostalgia (Like Vince only more extensive & random!), as well as general geek-ese and geek-isms. Oh, and making everyone wonder who is the man behind the mask…

Things I do: Senior System Designer at an unnamed “super secret” video game company, part-time entertainer at Chicago Bulls basketball games, and Voice Overs if he ever has the time (demo tape is just about done!), typically speaks of himself in the third person

Interests: See Specialties & Professional sections above. In addition to those, The Viceroy also has an analyst streak in him and follows most of the Chicago pro teams (Bears, Bulls, Cubs). The Viceroy also dabbles with building with LEGO and has a fond appreciation Cartoons & Animation. The Viceroy would like to write again at some point as well…

Little Known Fact: The Viceroy could have been one of the ‘contestants’ on the TV Show “The Pickup Artists”, but decided against it.

Name: Imoticon AKA Steve Scalabrino

Shots in the Dark team position: On-Air Talent

Specialties: Movies, TV, Games (FPS,Action,Fantasy)

Things I do: Acting (stage, print and TV), retail gigs to cover the gaps (Starbucks and the like).

Interests: Airsoft, Movies/TV, All things of 80’s, good sushi restaurants, know any?

Name: Halcylon AKA John Stvan

Shots in the Dark Team position: Graphic Designer / Cinematography Lead, On-Air Talent

Specialties: Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Call of Duty Series (Any First Person Shooter, really), Star Wars (Movie and Book form), Graphic Art, Digital Art

Things I do: Graphic design (www.gravityforcegraphics.com), Video producing/ editing (www.shotgunreviews.com/shots), Bungie.net user/abuser (Halcylon’s Profile).

Interests: See Specialties. Anything involving the color blue (It’s the only color I can truly see well). I have read almost every book available regarding String Theory, partake in skiing in Colorado and have acted in plays and movies since high school (almost a decade of work in all). I have a fuzzy kitty named Sierra who is a dog in disguise (she barks and plays fetch). In case you didn’t already guess, I enjoy long drawn out conversations regarding anything to do with myself. =)

Spider-Man: the animated series, this ain’t. First off, I have to say, when I saw the trailers via the Internet, I became curious. It reminded me of how Batman is represented nowadays with a more anime-influenced style. However, I bit the bait and really dug it. It takes Peter Parker back to his science origins and back in high school. The stories show something the movies barely touched on since they focused on comic book villians. The show actually had Spider-Man taking on petty thugs and bank robbers. I’ve always believed if nobody stops the small guys, that just gives them a chance to become bigger threats.

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