Hello, everyone! It’s One Of Us’ weekly article series, “The Weekly Wrap-Up.” Covering everything from film announcements to comic books, “The Weekly Wrap-Up” ensures that the biggest stories of the week are analyzed and discussed by our team of writers. This week we cover The Killing Joke animated movie, the first trailer for Fear the Walking Dead and The Legend of Korra graphic novel series.
Green Lantern Corps Film Announced
Though the focus of DC’s film panels were put squarely on the highly anticipated Batman v Super: Dawn of Justice and the David Ayer directed Suicide Squad, the DC Universe slate of films did indeed flash across the screen, reconfirming several known films coming out in the next few years and revealing how DC intends to reintroduce audiences to Green Lantern. It seems that the Green Lantern reboot will not focus on a single emerald warrior, but several instead. Now titled Green Lantern Corps, the movie has sparked further speculation that multiple actors will be cast to play different Green Lanterns. Rumors around the project suggest that Chris Pine (Star Trek) may be the film’s Hal Jordan and that Tyrese Gibson (Furious 7) has been cast as Jon Stewart.
Green Lantern has been one of DC’s most popular characters for close to a decade, due in no small part to Geoff Johns’ incredible run that made Hal Jordan an A-List hero. As disappointing as the 2011 Green Lantern film was, there’s still hope among fans that Corps can make up for its mistakes and show audiences why Jordan, Stewart and the rest of the Green Lanterns are some of the best characters in the DC Universe.
The Killing Joke Animated Film Announced
This year’s SDCC was filled with big Batman news, especially in the realm of the Caped Crusader fighting his eternal best bud Superman in an upcoming cinematic kick off to the DC Universe. However, it wasn’t the only panel to feature big updates about DC adaptations. At the panel for his return to DC animation with Justice Leagues: Gods and Monsters, Batman: The Animated Series creator Bruce Timm announced that a long awaited adaptation of The Killing Joke would finally be coming out in 2016. The 1988 comic story was written by comics icon Alan Moore, featuring art by Brian Bolland and was an extremely memorable exploration of The Joker’s fragmented origin story while threatening the safety of The Gordon family to the point where Batman questions breaking his own rule for the Clown Prince of Crime.
The Killing Joke is one of the more universally beloved Batman and Joker stories of all time, elegantly weaving the thread between Joker’s tragic past and his current vile acts in a fashion that mirrored something as intricate a character study as The Godfather Part II. It’ll be interesting to see an animated adaptation, especially in terms of how the art style will potentially emulate Bolland’s expressively tragic artwork that has become iconic to The Joker character. Now, the big question is who will play Batman and Joker in this adaptation. The DC animated films have done a great job of picking unlikely and compelling choices for both, but this is one of those occasions where fans would all REALLY love to see Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill return to their roles from Timm’s animated series one last time. Hamill has stated many times that he’d left the part of Joker after the second Batman: Arkham series video game Arkham City (though fans know he’s gone back on that promise a few times), but this could truly be the ultimate swan song for Hamill in the part, especially considering the iconic final monologue Joker gives that Hamill could put all his gorgeous vocal power into. Let’s just hope he doesn’t have another Star Wars movie to get in the way of heading to the recording booth one last time.
The Legend of Korra Graphic Novel Series Announced
Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel series, The Legend of Korra, have confirmed that they will continue Avatar Korra’s story with graphic novels. Announced via their panel at Comic-Con, a huge focus of the new series will be Korra and Asami’s romantic relationship. Additionally, the Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novel series will continue with Smoke and Shadow Part 1, which will be released September 23, 2015.
Konietzko and DiMartino also talked about the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the Korra/Asami relationship at the end of Season 4.
“It’s been so great to see how much it connected with everyone. We knew people would hopefully enjoy it, but you never know. It’s touched people on an emotional level that we didn’t expect.”
The Legend of Korra was an entertaining, though flawed animated series. Starting off brilliantly in Season 1 by introducing several new characters that have gone on to be extremely popular, the first season’s greatest success was not only the introduction of Korra, Asami and Tenzin, but the introduction of Amon and the Eqaulist Movement. The show appeared to be asking serious questions about classism, though this storyline was quickly abandoned in the disappointing second season of the series. Season 3 managed to make a successful return to what made Korra great, introducing an interesting villain and laying the groundwork for what would later become the Korra/Asami romance in Season 4. However, though to a much lesser extent, the fourth season stumbled, due to the introduction of another disappointing villain and the budgetary restrictions placed on Konietzko and DiMartino by Nickelodeon. Still, most adore the series and certainly appreciate the continuation of the world of Avatar, and the further exploration of the romantic relationship between Korra and Asami.
Fear The Walking Dead Trailer
AMC sure does love spin offs. After the huge success of Breaking Bad prequel series Better Call Saul, their mega hit horror series The Walking Dead will receive an origin series of its own entitled Fear The Walking Dead. Set at the very start of the zombie apocalypse in Los Angeles, the series follows a family unit consisting of a divorced high school English teacher (Cliff Curtis), his fiancee guidance counselor (Kim Dickens), her college flunk out son (Frank Dillane) and her over achieving daughter (Elizabeth Rodriguez) trying to survive as the world begins to crumble around them. The will be spearheaded by original comic creator Robert Kirkman premiere on August 23rd on AMC. The trailer follows below;
When I first heard about a Walking Dead spin off, I was quite cynical about the whole idea. I’ve stated my personal issues with The Walking Dead previously on this site, though Season 5 managed to surprise me in how consistently strong it was, becoming I’d argue the strongest season since the third. Plus, after Better Call Saul I was quite sure this would only lead to a total cash grab in an effort from AMC to extend the series’ life for far longer than it needed to go. Yet, the trailer seems surprisingly engaging, really giving it a significantly different look that separates it from the main show while still feeling firmly grounded in that universe. It’s especially intriguing to see crowds reacting to the oncoming zombies in crowd situations, such as a moment where a zombie is shot by a cop. There’s a lot of potential there… let’s just hope it isn’t squandered like intellectual brain matter on a zombie’s head on a horrible show runner like the second season of the progenitor show was.
