It’s been revealed today that The 4th season of Torchwood (The Doctor Who spin off) is going to begin airing on Starz on Friday July 8th. For those that don’t know Torchwood has been going through weird changes and one of the biggest was Starz picking them up and putting in a good chunk of money into making a 4th season. It will likely air at the same time in the UK as well. TVLine has an interview up with Russell T. Davies the creator of the show which reveals the cool things that will happen this season.

What would happen if the entire human race became immortal? “Not a single person on Earth dies. The old stay old. It’s great news for some people, but globally it’s an instant population boom. Earth relies on people dying. Suddenly you’re affecting everyone on the planet. That’s where the Torchwood team comes in.”

The cast includes the main stays of Captain Jack and Gwen but also adds to that Mekhi Phifer (ER, Lie To Me) and Bill Pullman. Below is a bigger shot of the official posted behind the season. This is big news for Torchwood fans and it makes me incredibly excited.

Picking Kristin Schaal was genius for one, and these probably would have been up sooner if I could stop laughing. The advertisements themselves are a great blend of funny, and informative. Taking the black and white world of the corporate professional and doing what most of us stuck in that world try to do. Blend the boring corporate grind with some form of violent video games. The advertisements are below for your viewing pleasure. My favorite by far is the play backwards trailer, which one do you folks dig?

This is my favorite hands down

The rest of these are pretty good too

I don’t know about anyone reading this, but I’ve had a good amount of fun doing these funny-animal origins. I’ve hit a bit of a roadblock though, and that is finding proper origins for some of them! I really wanted to do Rocket Raccoon and especially Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny, but in the former case, the origin issue seems non-existent, and in the latter, the origin issue is so far out of my price range that I’ll never see it. Some of the characters I wanted to feature only have implied origins, like Squeak the Supremouse. What’s an unpaid blogger who’s committed to a theme to do? Then I recalled a character which many of you have probably never heard of. He never had his own title, he never really had a story that lasted more than a couple of panels, yet he is fondly remembered by many. Who is this strange turtle with powers and abilities far beyond those of other terrapins? Well, interestingly enough, he didn’t have an official origin until his career in comics was considered over! Tuck your cape inside your shell as I give you… The Secret Origin of Super-Turtle!

You may think they're fast friends, but Super-people are a bad influence.

Now, like I said, Super-Turtle’s origin doesn’t come into play for quite a while, so we have to do some guesswork. Being a turtle, he is long-lived, during his career, he has met Clark Kent at least twice, once as Superboy and once as Superman. It seems early on, that the two heroes have a bunch in common, similar powers, similar costumes, even the same disguise in their civilian identities. What really separates the two is how they go about their super-business.  Let me illustrate:

They underestimate him because he's cute. He probably bites like a mother, though.

As you can see here, Super-Turtle must have been operating for some years if the thugs know of Superman. This leads me to believe that for the first part of his career in crimefighting, S-T preferred to work from the sidelines, or in the shadows. I mean, he’d have to do a lot of explaining, being a talking turtle and all. But now that he has taken his act public, he is overshadowed by other super-people and feels he has to overcompensate. It’s a sad, sad tale (not really). His troubles would continue when he’d encounter local law enforcement, taking his fantastic abilities for granted…

That officer is lucky, I can see the vengeance in S-T's eyes.

As depressing as that scene is, you could imagine Super Turtle brushing it off. Why shouldn’t he help out his fellow defenders of justice? Sadly, it wasn’t just the police officers taking him for granted, though. As the legend of Super-Turtle grew, so did his reputation for being a doormat. Good old S-T took it in stride though. Slow and steady wins the race, after all. On the other hand, the poor treatment just wouldn’t stop. Why, before you knew it, even overpaid laborers were taking advantage of the Titanic Tortoise.

Straw, meet the camel's back.

Still after this shoddy treatment, Super-Turtle was undaunted. He knew he has to use his gift to aid the world, and no unkind acts were going to stop him. That’s when they started, The jibes, the snickers. S-T was becoming the laughing-stock of the hero trade. It was starting to get to him. Not even his armored shell could protect a broken heart. He was about to hang up his cape forever, when his super-hearing picked up a distress call. Of course he couldn’t ignore it, noble hero that he is. What happened next though, well, it flipped the way S-T would live his life right around…

Superman in a nutshell, not giving a rat's ass about anyone but himself.

This second meeting of the two heroes made something snap in our hero, Super-Turtle. After witnessing Superman rushing headlong into battle, without a care to his surroundings made S-T delve more into Superman’s history and found something startling! Superman was the kind of man who took no guff from anyone, did things his way, and darn the consequences! To you and me, these were examples of what has become known as “super-dickery”. However, to Super-Turtle, it was an inspiration. He was through being a doormat! He came to understand that his power made him a figure to be revered, not laughed at! Like Superman, he could save the world, but do it to his advantage.  It started simply, with a bit of vanity. Seen here is Super-Turtle’s first selfish act, but it’d be far from the last.

She's lucky he didn't heat-vision her on the spot for questioning him.

After that incident, it just got worse and worse. Super-Turtle started doing more and more uncouth things. He started playing pranks on his paramour, convincing people that he killed his own alter ego, he even took a page from Superman’s book, he started wearing a Pope hat and declaring himself king. He ego was getting too big for his shell.  It all came crashing down for Super-Turtle when he shirked his responsibilities for fame…

His hubris will be his undoing.

Super-Turtle’s picture was indeed in tomorrow’s paper, with the headline — “Super-Turtle: Murderer!” It’s a sad tale. You see, in the time it took S-T to return to the scene of the fire, the elderly woman had inhaled a lot of smoke. Super-Turtle did save her, but the amount of toxic fumes the woman was breathing took their toll shortly afterward. The animal kingdom was in shambles! Their hero, their most noble protector had failed them. As for Super-Turtle himself? It hit him the hardest. All he wanted to do was help people, but he let it all go to his head. In disgrace, he hung up his cape, ate a bunch of rotten fruit and got drunk. He spiraled in despair for many years. In time, people forgot about the one-heroic turtle. S-T never forgot though, after 20 years of wallowing in self-pity, a funny thing happened. The Crisis on Infinite Earths. While he wasn’t involved in that conflict, he was lucky enough to survive on the merged Earth that came out of it. The caveat? No one had ever even heard of Super-Turtle on this new Earth! He could make a go of it again, have a fresh start! This time, he would do things right. With this revised Earth came new enemies and responsibilities as well, thankfully this gave our hero focus, and before you know it, he was back to his old self!

That is Brainy-Yak, in case you were wondering.

So all’s well that ends well, right? Sure, Super-Turtle had a rocky road, but he eventually came out on top. This wouldn’t be a Secret Origins column without, you know, an origin though. So here I am happy to present to you, the actual, not made up and totally serious Origin of Super Turtle!

Wait a minute, that's Superman's origin! What a Gyp!

These stories originally appeared in a range of comics from the mid-to-late 1960’s There are too many to list! The actual origin comes from Silver Age 80-Page Giant July, 2000. The story weaving the pages together was my own idiocy, however.

After the story yesterday, we got an email from Mr. LaMarche further expanding on the news of Futurama’s Seventh season.

From Mr. LaMarche:

13 new episodes have been ordered, with an additional 13 optional. This is apart from the 13 episodes that will air beginning in June, 2011, on Comedy Central. So, yes, they will air in 13 episode blocks (Comedy Central loves those, for some reason), so that means there will be new Futurama in summer of 2012, and most probably in summer of 2013 as well, all off of this one order. Pretty good news, actually, don’tcha think? Because we kind of spread it out, so there are always new episodes to look forward to. That’s how I look at it, anyway.

Mr. LaMarche is a stand up guy and we can’t wait to see his further contributions to what might be the best animated comedy show of all time.

Just for old times sake, don’t hesitate to listen to the interview I did with David X. Cohen and Billy West prior to the Season 5 premiere.

While wishing William Shatner a happy birthday (his 80th is today) voice actor Maurice LaMarche announced (while in his bathrobe) that he has finished negotiating his contract and Futurama will be back for a seventh season!

We can only hope that it’s a full season and not a half season like the last three. I’ve been slowly catching up on season five which just hit DVD and Blu-ray recently and it’s just as good or even better than I remember the show being in the first place. And since it’s airing on Comedy Central as opposed to Cartoon Network or Fox it has a little bit of a sharper edge to it, also.

Maurice LaMarche provides voices for characters like Morbo, Kiff Kroker, Calculon, and everyone’s favorite Hyper Chicken. He might be best known as the voice of Brain from Animaniacs (and Pinky and the Brain).

The point of his video, though, was to highlight International Talk Like William Shatner day, which takes place on Shatner’s birthday. It seems like as fitting a holiday as any.

By Jerk-Bot and Kill-Tacular-Tron

If you think it’s been rough to be Peter Parker in recent years, it’s been just as rough to be a fan of the beloved Marvel Comics character and his superhero alter ego, Spider-Man.

A third movie in Sam Raimi’s cinematic trilogy, 2007’s bloated, bizarro “Spider-Man 3,” made money. But audiences were left scratching their heads as to what they’d seen … the movie nearly undid all the good it’s two, infinitely better predecessors did.

And in the hands of writer J. Michael Straczynski and co-plotter/artist (and Marvel Comics chief) Joe Quesada, a disastrous story line titled “One More Day” not only broke up Spidey and his seemingly perpetual lady love Mary Jane Watson, it turned many longtime fans off. (Even once the exact nature of the plot machinations was revealed, the story turned out to be a failure.)

That’s “Ultimate” version, which celebrated 100-plus, very successful issues under the direction of writer Brian Michael Bendis. That was before Bendis had to reboot the title and dig out his characters from “Ultimatum,” a similarly disastrous, “Ultimate” universe crossover directed by another writer (the hit-and-miss … mostly miss … Jeph Loeb).

Luckily, this is the ideal time to come back to the Spidey fold. There’s a new movie in the works from ironically named “(500) Days of Summer” director Marc Webb and a trio of screenwriters … titled “The Amazing Spider-Man” … that promises to bring the characters and the story back to the basics. (British actor Andrew Garfield is replacing Tobey Maguire in the webbed suit.)

The comics have taken their own interesting directions as well. BRS!’s own Jerk-Bot makes his case for readers to check out the “616” (traditional) version of the character … in the long-running “Amazing Spider-Man” title … while Kill-Tacular-Tron takes on the “Ultimate” version.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (published twice a month, $3.99)

WHO’S IN CHARGE THESE DAYS? Dan Slott (writer); Humberto Ramos, Stefano Caselli and Marcos Martin (artists).

WHAT’S CHANGED? With the end of the three-times-monthly “Brand New Day” directive has come the infinitely better, twice-monthly “Big Time” directive. Gone is the loser-at-love-and-mostly-everything-else version of Peter Parker. He’s now working at a job he loves, as a scientist and researched for a “thinktank” of like minds, run by eccentric billionaire Max Modell. And while he’s no longer with Mary Jane Watson, Peter has a steady girlfriend, forensic scientist Carlie Cooper. He’s even “related” to his nemesis J. Jonah Jameson, since Peter’s Aunt May married Jonah’s father.

WHAT’S GOOD? Slott gets fun and funny. (His “She-Hulk” series is well-worth finding. Trust me.) He certainly gets the character and knows what’s funny (and what is not about the character). For the first time in a long time, “Amazing” actually lives up to its billing.

This is also, arguably, the best art team in many a moon. And there are a variety of styles being employed. Ramos has an exaggerated, either cartoonish or manga-ish, style, Caselli’s art is more grounded and realistic, and Martin has been called by many the Second Coming of Spidey co-creator Steve Ditko. (If you don’t believe the hype, buy issue #655, a trippy, sometimes dialogue-free tale that has many calling Martin a sure award winner.)

WHAT’S BAD? As with everything coming from the Big Two publishers, ASM occasionally “crosses over.” Upcoming issues will tie into the “new” “FF” monthly title, as well as the “Avengers” books … Spidey is now a member of both teams … and the big “Fear Itself” event book will have repercussions as well.

Also, a “point-one” issue existed solely to launch a new “Venom” monthly series. (Believe it or not, it’s Peter’s former nemesis and now pal Flash Thompson who’s wearing the alien symbiote.)

IN CONCLUSION: The first story line in “Big Time” (issues 648-651, which are now in trade paperback form) was so good that sales are actually up again, and the good word of mouth spreading. You should try it now. If you love Spidey as much as we do, at least …

ULTIMATE COMICS: SPIDER-MAN (published once a month, $3.99)

WHO’S IN CHARGE THESE DAYS? Brian Michael Bendis (writer); David Lafuente, Sara Pichelli, Takeshi Miyazawa and Chris Samnee (artists).

WHAT’S CHANGED? In August 2009 the Ultimate Spider-Man series was relaunched as Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man, picking up after the events of the previously mentioned Ultimatum event. Unlike Peter’s 616 counterpart, more and more people know about his alter ego. Keeping a secret identity isn’t nearly as easy as you would think. Currently Aunt May’s home is more of a halfway house for super hero teenagers. Bobby Drake, Johnny Storm, Gwen Stacy and Kitty Pride know about Parker’s night life, as well as live with him and his aunt. And the latest entry in people that know who Parker is the most shocking yet. J. Jonah Jameson.

WHAT’S GOOD? Everything? Is it okay to say everything? Seriously, every time someone nags that creator-owned books are the only way to go, and super hero books are “boring and repetitive” I bring up this book. Always fresh and full of new twists and turns. One of my recent favorites? Peter Parker being subject to “Super Hero School”.

Carol Danvers has a meeting with the Ultimates (Captain America, Thor and Iron Man) to discuss what to do with Spider-Man. Namely the amount of collateral damage he’s doing. Parker will stop a diamond thief with $11,000 in stolen jewelry, but cause $2.7 million dollars in property damage. The Ultimates all share stories about Spider-Man and what they think of him. Afterward it is put to a vote whether or not he will be forced to retire until he’s of age. This leads me to the possibly bad side of this story.

WHAT’S BAD? Well, the big thing right now in the Ultimate universe is the “Death of Spider-Man” crossover. I highly doubt they will kill off Parker. In my opinion, Spider-Man is the flag ship character for the Ultimate Comics. I’m pretty sure it’s just going to be a play on words. I think fellow ‘bot Kiley’s theory is the most likely. Ironman’s got a brain tumor, and he’s been getting really buddy buddy with Parker, even giving him new web shooters as a birthday present. It seems as though Marvel is setting it up for Tony to step down, and Peter to take the helm as Iron Man. Maybe.

Similar to what Jerk-Bot had brought up, it can be really irritating (and obvious) when Marvel tries to shove some big event down our throats to get sales up. It generally feels forced and hardly ever helps the title.

IN CONCLUSION: I’ve always really enjoyed Ultimate Spider-Man, but in the last thirty or so issues I have fallen in love with it. When I worked at the comic shop and people would ask me the best way to get into X-Men or Spider-Man, I’d point them to the Ultimate trade paper backs. Marvel keeps them in print, and they are hard to put down. Plus, Bendis tends to write for the trade, so reading them this way is highly beneficial.

Jerk-Bot is the robotic nom de plume or Utah-based writer/reviewer Jeff Michael Vice. He would like you to listen to him rant about movies and other geeky stuff on both the Geek Show Podcast and the Mediocre Show , as well as watch him review movies on the Big Movie Mouth-Off .

Kill-Tacular-Tron spends his days running Ackley Design LLC. giving small businesses a face. His nights are spent screaming at people he doesn’t know on Xbox LIVE.

There have been some concerns of AKIRA fans that a live-action adaptation may never make it to the big screen, but it looks like the project is still moving forward and looking to start production this August!

According to Deadline, director Albert Hughes (The Book of Eli) has received a freshly rewritten script from Steve Kloves (Harry Potter films) and this script has been sent out to a short-list of actors the studio wants in the lead roles.

The story takes place in the rebuilt New Manhattan where a leader of a biker gang saves his friend from a medical experiment. There are two major roles, and I’m told that for Tetsuo, Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield and James McAvoy have been given the new script. For the role of Kaneda, the script has been given to Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix. The two leads are expected to come from that group of actors.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I am not a huge fan of anime/manga/whatever it’s technically called, but I do recognize the fan base this particular title has and the importance it seems to have in the genre. I have only seen AKIRA once, and that was about ten years ago – I didn’t much care for it. Perhaps a re-watching is in order as I just watched the Cowboy Bebop movie last night and quite enjoyed it. I suppose my point is, I don’t really have strong feelings one way or another about this list of actors. To me, it seems to be a pretty talented group, but I’m not close enough to the source material to make a strong statement one way or the other.

So, all of you Big Shiny Robot readers who are fans of AKIRA, I’m leaving it up to you! Sound off in the comments below and share your thoughts on what you think of this list of actors the studio is looking to tap for Tetsuo and Kaneda!

Many of you know I am addicted to Minecraft. The picture attached is a sculpture I actually did on my server. Well a video was uploaded on Friday which shows a new neutral creature: Wolves. These wolves are said to be able to be the first companion in the game. You can tame the wolves and then they run around with you. This is some of the coolest news I’ve heard in a while and the video is all sorts of cute. Watching the dog get water off itself is awesome. Notch has said they will be fairly rare but they won’t despawn after you’ve tamed them.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Lp9p5yjuo

On the heels of yesterdays story by Variety stating that Joseph Gordon-Levitt will in fact be in The Dark Knight Rises and that he will be playing Alberto Falcone, EW has stated that while it is true that JGL will be in the film, he will not be playing Alberto Falcone.

Sigh.

Both articles are citing “insiders” and a “source close to the situation”, so only time will tell which one’s “source” proves to be the correct one. In any case, speculation continues on who exactly JGL has been tapped to play.

Come with me, just for one moment, down the fanboy road.

We here at BSR have had many discussions and light-hearted arguments as to whether or not Dick Grayson, Robin, has a place in Nolan’s Batman universe. While I and a few other bots think that Nolan could make him work, the general concensus is that the Boy Wonder just wouldn’t fit in Nolan’s dark and gritty world he’s created for this particular Batman series. However, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for Dick Grayson to play a role, sans the red, yellow, and green costume – kind of being Robin without being Robin. All over Twitter you can find wishful fanboy hoping that perhaps Gordon-Levitt will be portraying Dick Grayson, with perhaps a hint of him becoming Robin (or maybe skipping straight to Night Wing would be a better fit for this universe?) towards the end.

Is this scenario unlikely? Personally, I think so. Would it be cool to see though? Hell yes it would.

I’m sure we will see even more speculation and reports from “inside sources” up until it is confirmed by either the studio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or Nolan as to which role he will be taking on in the film.

The Dark Knight Rises is due to hit theaters on July 20, 2012.

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Stephen King (a sometimes columnist of theirs and superstar novelist) is in negotiations to write an episode of the incredibly popular and excellent TV show “The Walking Dead” for AMC.

This comes as little surprise. Frank Darabont is in charge of the show and he has made a career out of adapting King’s work (like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, for instance.) And King has been branching further and further into the realm of comics, not just with his own Dark Tower series, but writing backups for Scott Snyder’s incredible American Vampire series.

From Entertainment Weekly:

King tells EW exclusively that Darabont “has expressed enthusiastic interest for season 2 or possibly 3.” Although the author is still early in negotiations, the current plan would be for King to co-write an episode with his son, Joe Hill, the author of horror novels Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.

With word that Season 2 is going into production in June, these negotiations will have to wrap up fast if it’s going to be a Season 2 episode.

Whether or not King ends up writing for the show, based on the comic book by Robert Kirkman, I know we’re all anxiously awaiting the beginning of the new season.