If even one of these is any good, I'll be happy

A Spirit movie written and directed by Frank Miller

A Green Lantern movie that does not appear to star Jack Black

A Flash movie

And by "good," of course, I mean:
*Spandex (where appropriate; this lets the Spirit off the hook, though I'll be wanting the tight-fitting suit and frequent bare chests in his case)
*beefcake actors, not movie stars
*deathtraps, deathtraps, deathtraps (any sort of sublimated BDSM will do)

Fly by night

Here's an interesting bit from NPR's Marketplace on the economics of those Spirit Halloween stores that seem to pop up all over the place this time of year, only to disappear come November 1. (Hot tip: 50% off on closing day!)

By coincidence, I stopped at one of these stores this afternoon, in hopes of finding a new Batman mask, since every single one of the maybe half dozen in my collection has some sort of major tear or other problem. Saw almost no bat-stuff, aside from one of those cheesy "muscle suit" costumes that no self-respecting crimefighter would ever wear. Availability seems tied to the movies--which means next year should be much greener pastures than this year.

It's just as well I didn't find one. I mean, could there be anything less sexy than this:

Incredible? Indeed!

Thanks, Bat-Blog, for passing along this groovy mashup:



Two great tastes that taste GREAT together.

Yeah, I'd do 'im.

Compare & contrast

I seem to be on a Green Hornet jag lately, so check this out: 2 casts, 1 script, 1 Kato.

First, Michael Lipton, sounding a little prissy:



And now we have Jay Murray, closer but still no cigar:



Makes Van Williams look even better than ever. (He's got the best mask, too.)

Fruit-Bat to the rescue!

It's smart, it's funny, and it's sexy as hell: illustrator J. Bone has posted his Bat-parody in its entirety on his Man's Adventure blog. I've already got it in comic book form, but I'm more than happy to have a digital version, too.

Ah, if only the comics were this good...

Catch of the day

1.



Here's the full story, in case you've missed it elsewhere on the web, including Boing Boing.

2.



I gotta get this book.

It's not easy being Green, part 2

Seems my man Green Lantern suffers a lot of head trauma.



Sometimes it's the bad guys:



Sometimes it's police brutality:



Sometimes it's just plain weird:



Now, at long last, the hilariously named Hal Jordan Head Injury Project compiles a whole bunch of this stuff. (First learned about it from this Scans Daily post.) I'm not particularly into the head-injury aspect per se, but I do enjoy a good image of Hal knocked cold or otherwise waylaid. There are over a hundred to choose from on the Flickr page, so let's wrap this up with one of my all-time faves, featuring a very wet and freshly unmasked Hal and his equally damp and undisguised pal Ollie:

It's not easy being Green, part 1

OK, I admit I'm kind of nervous about the concept of Seth Rogan as The Green Hornet. I have a funny feeling this "news" is a little premature anyway, as this brief video interview suggests. (Hope that link still works--took me to the right place the first time, then never again.) The problems are obvious, and have been lamented by many a nerd before me, so I'll spare you.

But I started thinking: who would I want to see play Britt Reid (now that Van Williams is unlikely)? I"m picturing some kind of ruggedly handsome, hypermasculine-but-not-oafish rising star. I'm picturing, in fact, this guy:



That would be Jon Hamm, a.k.a. Don Draper on the new AMC series Mad Men, who by an amazing coincidence happens to be my current Imaginary Boyfriend.

Speaking of the Hornet, if you haven't seen this French fan film (in English), you might want to check it out--and the star, for that matter.



Fun fact: in this version, the bad guys seem to know the name of the man under the mask. Just for kicks, here's a production still of Messr. Manu Lanzi relaxing sans his signature hat:



Quite the pompadour, non?

Dance, Batman, dance!

Very, very hot commercial (well, the batbriefs are kinda weird, but the cape and tights more than make up for 'em):




Found at Bat-Blog.

Further evidence that I am not a citizen of the blogosphere

It took last week's Entertainment Weekly to inform me that a Justice League movie is in the works.

I can't find the actual story online, but here is an EW blog post inspiring dozens of commenters to cast the film. (Ryan Reynolds as the Flash? I'm there.)

While I'm at it, allow me to add my voice to those requesting (okay, most are demanding) a Hal Jordan Green Lantern over a John Stewart GL. Unless they mean the host of The Daily Show, in which case I am SO there.

Since I brought up Hal, let's enjoy a few panels of his bare flesh, courtesy of that new fave of mine, Shirtless Superheroes:

Holy secret identity!

This episode of This American Life about a man who completely reinvented his life at least nine times would be interesting enough even if one of those lives did not include providing the voice of Batman in a series of record albums in the early 70s (which I swear I've heard). It's a wild story, and I guarantee you'll never hear that booming voice again without thinking of the Caped Crusader as a pot-smoking, child-terrorizing, gray-flannel-suit-wearing, failed-movie-star Christian fundamentalist.

PS. Special bonus discovered while trying in vain to find an image of the album art: this and several other lengthy essays on 60s-era Batman from the site Captain Comics.

The thrills just keep on comin'

Beaucoup Kevin tipped me off to this great collection of dozens of stills from the 1966 Batman movie. They're all so delightful in terms of their color, resolution, composition--all the stuff that makes the sixties Batman work on so many levels at once.

Speaking of which, here's a fun fact about your humble narrator: many, many people over the years have praised the terrific visual joke in this scene...



... but I have to say, I don't just find it hilarious, I find it really hot. It's a fetish thing, of course: rubber gloves on top of the usual ones. I just wish the site contained a still of a shot just a minute or two later, in which the batphone rings and our hero takes both pair of gloves off one hand in order to answer it. This is historic, because it's the only time in the series (believe me, I've looked) in which we see Batman's ungloved hand.

And that makes me very, very ... happy.