Spoilers After The Break: The Final Days Of Superman

Unlike some of our readers who may not have been born yet, I was a regular in the comic book stores in 1992 when DC pulled the ultimate publicity stunt and killed off the Man of Steel.  His death in Superman #75 sold 3 million copies.  It was a perfect storm.  You had regular comic readers interested.  Former comic readers interested.  Non-comic readers.  The young and old.  Fans of the Superman movies or various TV shows.  Everyone was talking about it.  It was during a time when the death of a character seemed to actually mean something and didn’t happen every other day.  Especially to such an iconic character.   Sales were also boosted by occuring during the comic market boom as people were buying multiple copies as investments, hoping to cash in down the line.  Especially the variant black polybagged version which featured the logo above.  “Fans” were buying two copies.  One to open and read and one to lock away in a pressure sealed vault for safe keeping.

As we know, the market boom crashed not long after and this issue has often been attributed as having a major role in that.  But that’s a different column.  We’re here today to talk about the potential latest death of Superman.  More (including spoilers) after the break on the ongoing Final Days of Superman storyline in Superman #51, Batman/Superman #31 and Action Comics #51.

Because You Asked For It, An Honest Trailer For Superman Returns

Luckily we got Superman Returns instead of this. Or was it?

The folks over at Honest Trailers ran their own Batman v Superman contest and the winner (barely) was the Man of Steel.  As a reward, Screen Junkies had to agree to make on Honest Trailer for 2006’s failed Superman reboot, Superman Returns.  Yeah.  Watch it after the break.

Spider-Man Complete Chronology Update 10 (Spider-Man v Superman Edition)

In an era where Marvel and DC are spending most of their time and resources duking it out for supremacy at the box office, it may be hard to believe that it wasn’t that long ago the Big Two had quite a run of crossovers between their respective super hero universes.

The 90’s gave rise to crossovers such as Batman/Daredevil, Batman/Punisher, Batman/Captain America, Batman/Spider-Man…hmm…I guess they should more accurately be called Marvel and Batman crossovers.

Prior to that 90’s boom however, the crossing over of characters between the two companies was few and far between.  After the break we’ll look at two of those starring the two companies biggest hitters (apologies to Batman): Superman and Spider-Man.

As usual, spoilers follow from here on out if you’ve missed out on the last 50 years of Spider-Man and are just getting started.

Honest Trailers For Batman And Superman…Yes, “And”, Not “v”

A bit late to the hype party here but after the break check out Honest Trailers for the 1989 Batman and the 1978 Superman.  The films that showed these heroes could be done justice.  (See what I did there?)

DC’s Rebirth: In Your Best Arnold Voice, “It’s Not A Reboot!”

DC gets a lot of flack from some for their various reboots of continuity.  Some of which is justified, like the mess that the New 52 left DC continuity in.  Marvel claims to have never rebooted their continuity.  Not on a grand scale like DC’s Crisis anyway.  But what do you call something like One More Day Marvel?  Besides a slap in the face to fans.  (IMO).

While Marvel seems to get a free pass on the whole “reboot” thing, they are constantly relaunching their line and doing soft reboots along the way.  How many of your favorite Marvel books have had new #1’s in the past couple of years?  I think Spider-Gwen which debuted in 2014 has already had 9 #1 issues!  (That’s possibly an exaggeration.)  The point is, Marvel is just as guilty in their own way.

And DC is hoping that by following the “Marvel model” with #1’s, a soft reboot and not a Crisis/Flashpoint/New 52 style reboot, fans will cut them some slack as well.

More on DC Rebirth’s “it’s not a reboot” after the cut.

Super Bowl 50 – Batman V Superman

Since the Batsoup trailers have been around forever and the dawn of the Justice League is right around the corner, DC decided to go a different route with their Super Bowl advertising.  After the break see two new ads for real life Turkish Airlines and their new flights to not so real life Gotham and Metropolis.

Another Day Another Batsoup Trailer

How the mighty have fallen. “You know, I used to have my own invisible jet.” “Sure lady, and I had my own invisible cruise ship where Aquaman and I would make sweet, sweet love. Now sit down and fasten your seatbelt.”

We’re less than two months now from the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, so the ad campaign is really kicking into high gear.  After the cut, a new trailer (that doesn’t really show much new besides Diana on a plane).  The trailer had me mostly until Lex showed up with his horrible “The red capes are coming” line.  Seriously, WTF is going on with Luthor in this movie?

Also after the break, an image from a recent issue of Empire magazine that could be a huge (though not unexpected) spoiler.

“The Bat Is Dead. Bury It.” Ugh, Batsoup Looks Worse And Worse

Over the weekend Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice released a new poster and a couple of new TV spots.  You can check out the TV spots after the break.  One of which contains the line I used in the title of this post.  It’s only 30 seconds, but is cringe worthy.  I know I may be the last of the converted, but I’m starting to have real concerns about this movie the more I see of it.  (In fairness, the Bat-centered ad is not too bad.)

As for the poster, I think it points out another failure on the part of Warner Bros/DC.  #whowillwin?  Really?  No one cares, and since this last trailer, I’d argue you could even change the title of the movie and remove the “v”.  Hey, I know that two heroes meeting for the first time and fighting and eventually joining forces against some evil is one of the biggest tropes in comic books.  And of course that’s what we all expected with this movie.  But with the last trailer revealing said team-up (and adding Wonder Woman) to fight Doomsday, why even bother with the pretense anymore.  The trailer even gives us the “conclusion” of their fight.  Let it go WB/DC.  #whowillwin?  Not moviegoers by the looks of things.  (I hope I’m wrong.)

In “some light at the end of the tunnel” news, Walking Dead alum Lauren Cohan has confirmed that she will play Martha Wayne in the film.  I’m gonna guess it is a small, bullet hole filled flashback, but at least that is something to look forward to.

See The New Suicide Squad Trailer Tonight On The CW

Tune into The CW this evening as Kevin Smith and DC head guru Geoff Johns will introduce the new DC Cinematic Universe in the special DC Films Presents The Dawn Of The Justice League.  The show will also debut the first trailer for Suicide Squad.

After the cut, check out a commercial for the special as well as more of the awesome Suicide Squad posters seen above.

Your Day Would Not Be Complete Without A Batsoup Trailer Recreated In GTAV

There’s not much more that needs to be said.  Watch the video after the break.