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The first major event of the DC Comics Rebirth Era begins today with Justice League vs. Suicide Squad #1.  This is the first of a 6 issue weekly mini-series. The series is written by Josh Williamson with art by Jason Fabok. On today's podcast, we give our non-spoiler thoughts followed by a spoiler review and summary of the first issue of this crossover.

*Spoilers for Justice League vs. Suicide Squad #1 on this review and recap

Written by Josh Willamson, Art by Jason Fabok

$3.99 cover price

PSA - 2016 best of DC Comixology sale

The “first major event storyline of DC’s Rebirth era”

“I want to tell a big-budget disaster movie in the DC Universe, It was interesting — there was this moment of pressure. You’re going to be doing this really big thing, it’s one of the biggest things we’ve done in a while, it’s the first big event of Rebirth. There was a lot of responsibility there… Once we started talking about the tone, we knew we wanted to something fun. Once that started circling around in my head, it became a lot of fun to write. There are a lot of characters, a lot of things happen, and it’s really big and really does encompass a lot of the DC Universe, and I think there will be some surprises in there.” - writer Josh Williamson

6 issue weekly mini-series

Non-spoiler thoughts

Artwork

Characters

Story

Is it beginner friendly?

Suicide Squad - movie team plus Killer Frost

Justice League - movie team plus Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz Green Lanterns

Spoiler Basic Plot Summary:

Mysterious figure breaks out some people

Amanda Waller sends Suicide Squad to stop Apex triggering an earthquake on an island (the island has a secret US government project on it)

Justice League notices and decides that the Suicide Squad is being used, they’re going to help them

Waller tells the Squad to not be captured by the Justice League, to take them on.

Ending is the new Villain team revealed.

Potential Villain team revealed? Maxwell Lord, Emerald Empress, Doctor Polaris, Johnny Sorrow, Rustam, and Lobo.

What did you think of the first issue of this event? Want to see more comic book reviews like this? Let us know on Twitter or Facebook.

Warner Bros. has released a new image from the 2017 Justice League film featuring Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash. We also have news on Ben Affleck, Wonder Woman, and the reportedly in development Suicide Squad game.

New Justice League image - Entertainment Weekly

Features Flash, Batman, and Wonder Woman

“I’m super happy with the chemistry of my league of justice doers” - director Zack Snyder

Ezra Miller - “Flash is Ringo Starr. He annoys everybody, but he doesn’t have any specific beef with anyone. Uncle Fish Curry [Aquaman] is very grumpy. Dad [Batman] gets grumpy too. (He’s had a long life of fighting crime.) ­Wonder Woman is very considerate, so even though she’s annoyed with the Flash, she’s still very compassionate.”

Ben Affleck named an Entertainer of the Year for 2016 - Entertainment Weekly

‘I'm definitely going to make sure I have something that is special-there's not enough money in the world to make a mediocre version of Batman worth it.’ - Affleck

Wonder Woman Breaks Through - Time

2 new photos of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman

Responds to loss of UN ambasssadorship

Unannounced Suicide Squad video game might have been cancelled - Kotaku

Reportedly in development at Warner Bros. Montreal

Expected to focus a Batman game starring Damien Wayne

Thanks for listening to today's show and be sure to subscribe on iTunes to never miss a new episode.

Justice League Action premiered Friday, December 16 in the United States with the 4-part "Shazam Slam". The new Cartoon Network animated TV series features a host of characters from the DC Comics universe.

On today's show, we give a review of the extended pilot and talk about what we are looking forward to from the show.

4 11-minute episodes (actual titles):

* "Classic Rock"

* "Power Outage"

* "Night of the Bat"

* "Abate and Switch"

*Spoilers for Justice League Action in this review

What do we think of the animation style?

What about the stories?

Is the story and continuity important to the show?

Recap

Each episode centers around the Djinn

"Shazam Slam" ends with the Hall of Justice being destroyed, so they build Watchtower

Many characters and locations

Lots of Humor:

Jimmy Olsen “What am I doing, risking my life for this fleeting internet fame? Yeah, totally worth it.”

Constantine speaking non-sense with his accent

Martian Manhunter: “That is my attempt at humor”

Booster Gold fighting Batman

What did you think of Justice League Action? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

*Spoilers for Season 2 of Vixen animated series on today's summary and review

Related: Vixen Season 1 Summary

* Watch for free on the CW Seed

* 29.5 minute run time

Opens similarly, action and then “two weeks earlier”

Professor Macalester gives presentation - There are 5 totems, one for each of the elements Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Spirit (Cool animation during this), they have found one of the totems, going to put it in Detroit museum

Cisco calls, weather wizard is attacking monument point, Flash and Firestorm are there

Vixen gets hit by lightning, wakes up later and the totem had been stolen from the museum

The totem is the fire totem, some big scary guy has it now

We’re back where we started “You look just like your mother”

They go to Africa to talk to Kuasa

Big scary guy is the one who led the raid on their village - General Eshu

Kuasa knows where the water totem is

It’s in Star City, Felicity helps them

Kuasa steals the water totem

Maybe Felicity should have called Oliver?

Atom and Black Canary shows up and catches Kuasa

Kuasa agrees to fight with them

Professor Macalester calls and says if you crush the totem, it will lose it’s power

Kuasa dies

Vixen takes the totem off Eshu in water and then leaves him to die

Vixen smashes the totem by using all the animal spirits at the same time

Cisco texts her, Arrow is there

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Titano the Super-Ape is one of the wackiest Superman villains from the 1950s. A sort of cross behind King Kong and Bizarro, he causes some trouble for Superman and Lois Lane. We review his first appearance in Superman #127 and talk about his more modern appearnances.

First appearance Superman #127 (February 1959)

Collected in Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Archives, Vol. 2 hardcover

Basically a King Kong rip-off

An absolutely crazy story with some powers you probably didn’t know Superman had.

The whole story is basically on the cover

“Titano!” More fantastic than King Kong!

Shows Lois Lane - “Nice Titano...Put on glasses like Lois Lane! If he imitates me, that Super-Ape will put on the those giant lead glasses. Only lead can stop his Kryptonite vision from killing Superman!

Lois Lane is hosting a charity TV event, Superman squeezes coal into a diamond

Toto the “Famous Intelligent Chimp” is an act at the charity event, gets hit by a pie, Lois cleans him and is a “friend for life” for being kind to him

They’re going to shoot Toto into space to make him famous, the rocket doesn’t ignite, so Superman shows up and throws his satellite into space

Uranium and Kryptonite meteors run into each other next to Toto. It makes Toto huge and he grabs Lois, her dying act is to rename him to Titano?

Superman shows up to save the day, but Titano has Kryptonite vision.

Titano takes Lois to the Coal yard, tries to make diamonds like Superman, but can’t.  He puts Lois down, she’s sure he’s still nice.

Titano goes around breaking stuff.

Superman makes a giant lead shield and wraps chains around Titano

“Omigosh! He burst the chains like so much string! Nothing will hold Titano captive! He must be executed like a dangerous beast! And that’s a job for the army!”

They use Lois as bait to lure Titano to a trap.

They put Titano in a cage, they’re going to electrocute him.

Superman knows a way to get rid of Titano without killing him, but can’t do it because he has Kryptonite vision.

Lois makes Titano imitate her, and gets him to put on lead glasses.

Superman grabs Titano and “Hurls him into the past at Super-Speed! A certain spin will send him across the time barrier into the prehistoric past!”

Then Superman “projects his telescopic vision across the time barrier” and sees Titano is fine running around with dinosaurs.

New 52 - redone by Geoff Johns and John Romita, Jr.

Giant chimpanzee robot, glowing green inside parts

Do you have a character you would like to see done for a character 101? Let us know by connecting on Twitter.

Justice League Action debuts tonight on the Cartoon Network in the United States. Today, we are going to preview the animated series. We talk about the format, cast, and everything else you need to know before the series debuts.

Cartoon Network

Debuts Friday at 6 p.m. with 4-part “Shazam Slam”

Already debuted in the UK

11 minute episodes

52 episodes per season

Next episode - Saturday December 24 at 7:30 a.m.

2016 Comic-Con Highlight Reel - YouTube

Galaxy Jest clip featuring Mark Hamill’s Joker - YouTube

Under a Red Sun clip featuring Superman v Steppenwolf - YouTube

By Comic-Con 2016 had already included 152 characters (60+ heroes and 40+villains) - SlashFilm

Voice talent

Kevin Conroy as Batman

Mark Hamill as Joker, Swamp Thing, and more

Diedrich Bader (Batman: The Brave and The Bold) as Booster Gold

John DiMaggio (Joker in Batman: Under the Red Hood) as Lobo and Mongul

Unlimited character pairings potential

Thanks for listening and be sure to subscribe to the podcast to never miss a new episode.

The massive news week for DCEU films continues. Today, we have updates on The Batman, Gotham City Sirens, and Aquaman. We also talk about Toby Emmerich, the new creative executive at Warner Bros.

The Batman and Gotham City Sirens movies eye 2018 releases - Mark Hughes of Forbes

The Batman production to start in March/April

The Flash movie may be delayed until 2019

Possible 2018 release date for Gotham City Sirens and 2019 for Suicide Squad 2

From Hughes - “I'm going on record now with my prediction that Suicide Squad 2 will be a head-to-head battle in which Deadshot leads a new squad to capture/kill Harley and her band of female villains from Gotham City Sirens”

The Batman likely to be released summer 2018

Early/Mid 2017 production start for Gotham City Sirens? Potential July 18 release for The Batman and August 18 for Gotham City Sirens

Early box office projections - “Gotham City Sirens a presumed $700-800 million player”

Greg Silverman exit interview with Deadline - Mentioned Batman among 2018 releases?

Toby Emmerich to replace Greg Silverman as Warner Bros. top creative executive - Hollywood Reporter

Silverman was head of WB Pictures since 2013

Emmerich will oversee both WB and New Line Cinema

Emmerich worked on, among others, (since 2008) The Hobbit trilogy, Central Intelligence, The Conjuring 2

Will have greenlight power with WB CEO Kevin Tsujihara

Aquaman officially shooting at Village Roadshow studios in Australia - Hollywood Reporter

Will shoot in first half of 2017

Filming at “Surfer’s Paradise”

VRS has largest purpose-built water tank in Australia

Thor: Ragnarok and Pacific Rim 2 shot or will shoot at same location

“Australian arts minister Mitch Fifield said Aquaman will create over 1,000 jobs and spend a total of AUS$150 million ($111 million)”

Not actual budget

“The Courier-Mail revealed today that Aquaman, entertainment giant DC Comics’ first Australian film, would be shot on the Coast in a $160 million injection for the local economy.”  - The Courier Mail (Australian Dollars)

$22 million Federal Government rebate

We also briefly discuss the rumor of Megan Fox as Poison Ivy in Gotham City Sirens. Thanks for listening to the DC Daily Drop podcast and be sure to subscribe on iTunes to never miss a new episode.

A Gotham City Sirens movie is on the way, directed by David Ayer. Margot Robbie's Harley quinn will headline the team, which could include Catwoman and Poison Ivy. In other news, Variety reports that Ben Affleck's The Batman film is set to shoot in the spring of 2017.

David Ayer, Margot Robbie Reteam for All-Female DC Villians Movie Gotham City Sirens - Hollywood Reporter

Ayer will direct and produce, and Margot Robbie will also be executive producing

Geneva Robertson-Dworet will be writing (Tomb Raider re-make, and Sherlock Holmes 3)

Geoff Johns and Jon Berg also producing.

“The studio is still developing a Suicide Squad sequel as well as looking into a spinoff featuring Deadshot”

David Ayer Tweets picture of expected members - Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Harley Quinn

According to Umberto Gonzalez, this is separate from Birds of Prey film (Christina Hodson?)

What type of release date could they be shooting for?

Who could be the villain of the film?

Ben Affleck confirms The Batman shooting in spring - Variety

From Variety  - Affleck indicated that he expected the film will begin shooting in the spring. “We’re on the right track with that and everything is coming together,” he said. “We’re still finishing up a script. I’m very excited.”

Thanks for listening to today's podcast and be sure to leave us an honest review on iTunes.

Patrick Wilson has been cast as Orm in James Wan's 2018 Aquaman film. He will likely eventually be the villainous Ocean Master. In other news, Ben Affleck talked about The Batman movie while promoting Live by Night, and the Suicide Squad extended cut releases on blu-ray and DVD today.

Patrick Wilson To Play Aquaman’s Half-Brother Orm - Deadline

Also known as Ocean Master

Wilson played Nite Owl in Watchmen, U.S. President in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

In the New 52, Orm is the King of Atlantis and Arthur Curry is looking for it , and must overthrow Orm and become the rightful king.

Throne of Atlantis comic book arc and animated film

Ben Affleck talks Batman - YouTube (starts around 31:55 mark)

He wanted to do a movie like this and get it right, because he hated Daredevil

His 4 year old told him “If you can be Batman, you have to be Batman. He still thinks I am Batman”

“I’m a real believer in not reverse engineering projects to meet a window or a date, but rather when you get the right story, the right idea, the right thing, then you make the movie. That’s what we’re doing, and I’m hoping to get that done. I’m spending a lot of time working on that, but also working on other stuff. If I could, there’s nothing I’d love more than to direct a stand-alone iconic, great Batman movie. But it’s been done. Chris Nolan did three really great movies. I’m really mindful of that. I’m not in any hurry to jam the mediocre movie down the pipe. I really want to make sure, if we do it, we get the great version and one that’s worthy of tradition of guys like Tim Burton, Chris Nolan, and Christian Bale.”

Wonder Woman will no longer be U.N. Ambassador - trust.org

Previously name “Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls”

Suicide Squad releases today on blu-ray and DVD

Our review of the extended cut is here

Zack Snyder plans to direct The Last Photograph after completing Justice League. What does this mean for his involvement in future DCEU films? In other news, it appears we might not get a Justice League trailer in 2017, Margot Robbie has won an award for her role as Harley Quinn, and Powerless has a new synopsis.

Zack Snyder plans to direct The Last Photograph after Justice League- Hollywood Reporter

Justice League 2 pushed back “to make room” for The Batman movie

Looking to shoot “late 2017”

Twitter question from @batboy1989: Do you still see 3 DC(EU) films happening in 2018?

thanks and rock on

There is no Justice League trailer attached to Rogue One - TrailerTrack Twitter

“Not expecting till early next year now”

When do you think it will be released?

Margot Robbie wins Critic’s Choice Best Actress in an Action Movie - Critic’s Choice

For role as Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad

Other nominees - Gal Gadot (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), Scarlett Johansson (Captain America: Civil War), and Tilda Swinton (Doctor Strange)

Powerless TV series has a new synopsis - NBC

"Emily Locke lands her dream job as Director of Research and Development for Wayne Security in Charm City, home to super heroes and villains and citizens fed up with the collateral damage of their constant fighting."

Did they reshoot pilot?

Michael Patrick Jann is listed as Executive Producer (Reno 911!)

Thanks for listening to today's podcast and be sure to subscribe to never miss a new episode.