MTV has just debuted the first, red-band, trailer for Kick-Ass 2!

Picking up shortly after the events of the first film, the Red Mist is back with a new name, and a new team of super villains to avenge the death of his father. Luckily for Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl though, they aren’t the only “superheroes” running around fighting crime now.

For me, the first film was pretty awesome. I probably didn’t enjoy it quite as much as some of the other bots around here, but I definitely liked it enough to look forward to this sequel.

Kick-Ass 2 hits theaters on August 16, 2013 and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Jim Carrey.

After yesterday’s news about The Clone Wars, James Arnold Taylor and Catherine Taber, the voices of Obi-wan Kenobi and Padme Amidala, respectively, came onto the Full of Sith podcast to discuss their feelings about the end of the show.

They’ve spent almost a decade working on The Clone Wars and had quite a lot to say about their feelings about the show and the cancellation. For his part, James wrote a letter about his feelings as the show coming to an end and it’s really something that ought to be read. But afterwards, there were still things he had to say.

James and Cat talked about what the plan for The Clone Wars was (8 seasons!), what they would have liked to see happen with the final seasons (ABCs next to Once Upon a Time!) and what their experience with the show over the course of their career has been like.

Yesterday was an emotional day for Star Wars fans and this conversation was exactly what I needed to feel better about things. It’s really something that just needs to be heard. Here are the official show notes for the episode:

With yesterday’s news of the cancellation of Star Wars: The Clone Wars it’s as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. In this special episode, James Arnold Taylor (the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi) and Catherine Taber (the voice of Padme) join Mike, Bryan, and Consetta in their first post-Clone Wars interview to share their stories of the show and their hopes for the future of Star Wars.

If you like the show, please leave us an iTunes review and share us with your friends and family! We’d greatly appreciate it.

To listen to the episode, head over to the Full of Sith website. Or click here for a direct link to the mp3 of this special episode.

To keep up with the latest, be sure to follow the Full of Sith twitter and Facebook pages, too.

Billy Dee Williams is out on the convention circuit and naturally the subject of Episode VII came up. Williams told a reader of Film Buff Online that he had indeed been asked but had not yet decided if he was going to take the part.

I actually interviewed his son, Corey Dee Williams, over the weekend about his part in Return of the Jedi for a print publication and this very question came up. He seemed to think that his father would jump at the chance to play Lando again if asked, but had no inside information about it beyond knowing his father. The love for the role shared by father and son was apparent, though.

At 76, Billy Dee Williams would be the oldest returning cast member of the classic trilogy. It’s possible he’s wary of what someone of his age might have to do in the film. But if JJ Abrams wants him and it makes sense, I really can’t see him turning it down. If Abrams does want him, it’s for a reason and we’re all going to eat it up.

Episode VII is still on track for a 2015 release. No word on when filming begins. It’s being written by Michael Arndt and directed by JJ Abrams.

For the latest in Star Wars analysis, be sure to listen to the Full of Sith podcast.

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Gaming and nerds are about a few things, one of many is crushing your opponent or friends in fighting games. We here at BigShinyRobot support those values. In honor of destroying your friends we are hosting a Super Street Fighter 4 A.E. 2012 tournament at SLC Nerd. We will have a few controllers on hand, but bringing your own pad or stick is recommended.

When: Saturday April 20th start time will be emailed once you’ve registered.

Where: SLC Nerd at the Complex. 536 West 100 South
Salt Lake City, UT

Price: The tournament is free, entry to SLC nerd is required for $10

Grand Prize: Astro a50 gaming headset

TO PLAY REGISTER HERE

Lucasfilm, via the official Star Wars website, announced a new direction for Lucasfilm Animation. There are many answered questions, but many more left unanswered.

First, and perhaps most important, is that The Clone Wars television series is ceasing production. They’ll finish work on episodes and arcs in the pipeline, but there is no indication where or how we’ll see them. “Season Six” is not mentioned anywhere at all in the release or the accompanying video (featuring a very classy and stoic Dave Filoni), and we’re told that we’ll be seeing some of the outstanding arcs as “bonus content.” That seems to say that we shouldn’t expect a traditional release. Will it just come out on a double-sized Season 5 Blu-ray set with as much “bonus content” as real content? There are no answers. Filoni did tease a clip from the Order 66 arc that Matt Lanter and Dee Bradley Baker talked about on Full of Sith, Episode IX, and it looks incredible.

There is no timeline for any of these.

The next bit of news is that Star Wars: Detours is on hold indefinitely. They may or may not release it in the future. Their official sentence about it: “Detours was conceived and produced before we decided to move forward with the new Star Wars trilogy, and in the wake of that decision, Lucasfilm has reconsidered whether launching an animated comedy prior to the launch of Episode VII makes sense. As a result, we’ve decided to postpone the release of Detours until a later date.”

And finally, the best bit of news in the announcement, was that there will be a new series, in an untouched area of the Star Wars universe. A good speculative guess would be that it’s in the sequel trilogy era, further wiping out Expanded Universe continuity.

Head over to StarWars.Com for the video.

I’ll be honest. The news wasn’t as bad as I was bracing for. Sure, The Clone Wars is done and certainly before its time, but we’re getting what’s left.

And a new series. I hope Filoni is in charge of that new series as well, and much of the same talent is involved.

Well, the time has come for a change. After a couple of years of telling Secret Origins off and on. I’ve decided to expand the scope of the column, hence the name change. If you’re familiar with comics at all, using The Brave and the Bold as a title usually equates to team-up stories. This is true, but potentially any retro-comic can be reviewed here, even if the initial focus is going to be team-ups. For the inaugural column, I decided to use the World’s Finest team of Superman and Batman… and Robin. So travel back in time with us to 1956, and then even further back to the 17th century with The Three Super-Musketeers!

The story begins innocently enough, at the Gotham City Historians’ Convention. There, Dr. Carter Nichols announces his intent to solve the riddle regarding the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask! For some reason, Clark Kent of the Daily Planet is there to cover the convention. Knowing of Nichols reputation and previous work with Batman and Robin, he decides to pay the Dynamic Duo a visit. After a quick exchange of pleasantries  we find that Nichols actually plans to send Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson back in time using a combination of his miraculous time-ray. You laugh, but it’s better than his original method using hypnosis…

Travelling unprotected in the time vortex. Not even The Doctor does that!

Before you can say “Holy convenient plot device, Batman!” The trio find themselves in 17th century France near the prison of Pignerol. I kind of admire this story in two conflicting ways. It gets a lot of facts right, but it also isn’t afraid to eschew them in favor of a fun story. Speaking of, barely after they get their bearings, the World’s Finest team comes across D’artagnan and the other Three Musketeers (but not before they switch to their costumes. It may be 16-something or other, but you’ve got to protect your secret identity). This meeting turns out to be most fortuitous, seeing as the musketeers are severely injured from their latest scuffle with the villainous Bourdet. Batman, ever the tactical mind, has a cunning plan. He has the musketeers disrobe and suddenly the titanic trio are stand-ins for Athos, Porthos, and Aramis! Just in time too, as they are beset by Bourdet’s men. Thankfully, these aren’t ordinary musketeers being faced!

Because OF COURSE Batman is an expert fencer!

Not to be outdone, Superman welds the two disarmed swords with his own using heat vision to route the rest of the brigands. In the aftermath, our heroes find out that the musketeers were actually trying to rescue the Man in the Iron Mask when they were injured. Not leaving anything to chance, Batman asks straight out who the Man is. According to D’artagnan, it’s none other than Count Ferney! Batman, throwing causality to the wind offers to help D’artagnan prove his claim, after the real musketeers are given refuge.

In the meantime, we meet Bourdet, who does not believe the Super-Musketeers could possibly have done what his men say. He is about to find out though, as our band of buck-swashlers arrive at the castle. Superman takes point, and it’s a good thing, because…

Too bad Kryptonite didn’t exist in the 17th century!

Naturally, Superman tears through the iron as if it were paper. That doesn’t stop Bourdet’s men though, bless ’em! Having no idea what they’re up against, they charge the (literal) Man of Tomorrow with pikes. As expected, this doesn’t work either, but at least we get a great exchange from Batman and Robin…

Batman’s outright shut-down of Robin makes me laugh out loud every time.

Bourdet is a wise man, however. Seeing that his forces are ridiculously outmatched, he does the only thing he can, bring out the Man in the Iron Mask as a hostage! Before surrendering, Superman decides to take a peek under the mask, but wouldn’t you know it, the thing is lined with lead. Anyway, being the noble heroes that they are, the super-musketeers surrender and allow themselves to be chained while the castle is set to ground with explosives. Bourdet and his entourage get away with their prisoner and make their way to greener pastures…

“In an Emergency”? Silver Age Superman always finds an excuse to tunnel.

After the danger has passed, the Super-Musketeers use their recollection of history and logically assume that the Man in the Iron Mask is about to be moved to the Bastille… where he’s destined to die. Superman won’t accept that they are destined to fail saving this man, while Batman can’t believe history can be changed. Even though this is a 50’s story, and they aren’t quite the same characters today, it’s nice that the World’s Finest heroes still have differences. Moving on, Superman indeed spies the prisoner in the Bastille. Rather than just rescue him, Batman suggest that Superman stay with the prisoner while he and Robin try to convince the king of Bourdet’s guilt. A solid plan by Batman, even though Superman could get to Versailles to grab the king and be back in like, 3 seconds.

Regardless, it’s the Dynamic Duo on their way to have an audience with the king. Being mere mortals, they are of course chased by Bourdet’s men. I would love to explain how they throw their pursuers, but I don’t think words could explain how insanely absurd it as well as the visual…

I love that you can explain any crazy shenanigans like this with two words: “He’s Batman!”

With the bad guys bamboozled, the Caped Crusaders make it to the royal palace easily, and to gain egress to the King’s chambers is easy as pie, what with a royal banner hanging outside his window. A quick wall-climb later and our heroes are face to face with the king. Unfortunately, he mistakes them for assassins (What would you think if two masked men entered your bedroom through the window?) and tries to run them through. The King is a better leader than a fighter though, as he knocks himself out on his chamber door. Batman has a plan though, and it combines both his considerable skills as well as his penchant for exchanging clothes with people.

Does anyone else think Robin has done this before?

Not wasting any time, Batman (as the King) sets the royal carriage off to the Bastille, full speed ahead. Bourdet has spies everywhere it seems, as one of his lackeys sends a carrier pigeon to take care of the Man in the Iron Mask before his innocence can be proven!. Quick cut to the Bastille, and that’s exactly what’s going on (carrier pigeons were apparently cheetah-quick). The bad guys proceed to flood the prisoner’s cell…

Those red boots tell me you’re probably incorrect, Monsieur Bad Guy.

So yeah, it’s obviously Superman in the Iron Mask, but that doesn’t deter Bourdet’s men from trying to kill him. You have to admire that kind of loyalty in a henchman. After multiple attempted murders, such as suffocation, impalement, and good old-fashioned roughhousing, Superman sees his companions arriving and takes care of business. By this time, the King, still in Batman’s costume has come to, and the sordid tale is spelled out for him. Count Ferney is safe, but what of history’s account of the Man in the Iron Mask dying in the Bastille? Well, it looks like the king is into ironic punishment.

Time Travel: It always wraps up nicely, except for when it doesn’t.

With the adventure over and the real musketeers recovered from their injuries, it’s time for our heroes to be drawn back to the “present” of 1956. They are still in costume however, so as they are fading back into the timestream, Batman orders everyone to change clothes (told you he was into it). Meeting back with Dr. Nichols, the trio fills him in on the “true” story of the Man in the Iron Mask (albeit with super-heroics omitted).

“Hey Dick, speak up, I don’t think they heard you in Versailles!”

And so there you have it. A pretty fun tale, if not entirely accurate. I’m not going to go into who the Man in the Iron Mask really was (“Eustache Dauger“), but I will give the story props. There may or may not have really been a Count Ferney, even though if he did exist, he didn’t have much to do with this tale. What is kind of interesting (to me) is that in today’s France there is a part of Geneva called Ferney-Voltaire, where the author Voltaire lived, and he was the one who first established the prisoner had an iron mask. Anyway, join me next time when I’ll regale you with a tale just as fun, but maybe without as much history behind it!

This story originally appeared in World’s Finest Comics #82, May-June 1956. It has been reprinted various places, notably the Greatest Team-Up Stories Ever Told, World’s Finest Archives Vol. 1 and Showcase: World’s Finest Vol.1.

“Then our worst fears have been realized…” –Mace Windu

It seems a sad fact that The Clone Wars is likely not returning to any television screens in the next year. I’ve heard rumblings to this effect from people in the know for a while now, but never on the record, and with them always encouraging us to show support for the show. Over the weekend, though, it seems as though The Clone Wars has met its demise.

Jedi News UK is reporting from “several sources” that The Clone Wars is done. There has been no official announcement, though I’ve heard one will be forthcoming, perhaps as early as tomorrow. There’s no good reason for this, but I said back in January that the plug could be pulled for the same shortsighted reasons as the 3D re-releases of the other films.

None of my sources has any reason to lie to me, but I was holding out talking about this until an official announcement was made, in hopes that it was all an elaborate bluff. Perhaps it will all turn out to be an elaborate bluff anyway and the announcement will be good news. We’ll see Season Six and all of the rest of the material in production finished and released to us to tide us over until the Sequel Trilogy.

But it doesn’t seem likely.

I’ll be angry and saddened by the “official” loss of The Clone Wars. I’ll be doubly angry if the completed episodes don’t air or appear on Netflix or iTunes, especially with the cliffhangers of the last two arcs of Season 5. But, as Master Yoda said, we must rejoice for those around us who transform into the force. The Clone Wars has given us five seasons of Star Wars that have blown us away. In the initial press releases, we were only getting 100 episodes over four seasons. With more than 100 over five seasons, perhaps we were living on borrowed time anyway.

You can still send messages of support for The Clone Wars to Disney and Lucasfilm. If nothing else, at least they’ll know how much the show means to all of us and that we’d love to see it continue.

• Bob Iger – Disney Studios, 500 S Buena Vista St, Burbank, CA 91521
• Kathleen Kennedy – Lucasfilm, P.O. Box 29901, San Francisco, CA 94129-0901

Over the last week Marvel has released a bunch of teases that have had people speculating some out there theories. Talk of rebooting the Marvel Universe a la Flashpoint style seemed to be the most popular. Well on Sunday Marvel had their panel at SXSW and explained what those teases actually are. They have to do with a lot of things Marvel will be doing digitally. The first tease that came out last week was this:

And with that we get the announcement that Marvel is, for a limited time, offering 700 #1 issues and one shots for free on their digital site and app. This promotion will run until 11pm eastern time on Tuesday March 12th. This even includes the first issues of the recent Marvel Now titles. So if you’ve been wanting to check out some of the new series, but weren’t too sure, the first issues are all available. You may be waiting a bit though because comixology’s website crashed shortly after this announcement was made. I hope they have it fixed soon since this promotion is only running for 2 more days.

Let’s move on to the next tease:

The running joke on the internet was that this was going to be “The Now 52.” What could the 52 hashmarks be? Well there are 52 weeks in a year, and with that we’ll be getting 52 weekly digital infinite comics. We will see four seperate series with each one being 13 parts. The first is “Wolverine: Japan’s Most Wanted” written by Jason Aaron and Jason Latour and drawn by Paco Diaz. “What we’re doing with Infinite Comics is developing a new language for telling comic book stories” said Axel Alonso, Marvel’s Editor in Chief. The first issue comes out July 9th and is available for pre order right now on Marvel’s digital store.

&list=PLK5HARgNfgj8pKgwNqc7R-J8h4KlSZcs0

If you want a free taste of how the Infinte Comics work, Marvel released a free issue earlier this week spotlighting Drax the Destroyer from Guardians of the Galaxy written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Michael Avon Oeming. For more preview pages check the gallery at the end of the article.

The last tease Marvel had posted was about somthing called Project Gamma:

Project Gamma actually sounds pretty cool to me, but won’t be launching until later this year. Project Gamma is an initiative to add music and sound effects to your digital comics. This is being worked on by the same companies that composed and produced music for the Looper, Drive, The King’s Speech, and the Harry Potter films.

Marvel also announced that they are launching another weekly web series hosted by Blair Butler called “Marvel’s Earths Mightiest Show.” It will bring you news from Marvel, in addition to interviews and behind the scenes looks at their films.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CIMKWefySg&list=PLK5HARgNfgj8pKgwNqc7R-J8h4KlSZcs0

Marvel also pimped their AR app, which offers dvd like extras to comics.

We had the distinct pleasure of doing an interview with Ashley Eckstein this week. For those who don’t know, she’s the voice of Anakin Skywalker’s padawan learner, Ahsoka Tano, who was given an incredible arc of episodes to cap of the fifth season of The Clone Wars.

Ashley isn’t just a voice on The Clone Wars, though. She is the creator of Her Universe, which is a line of clothes and accessories for female fans of science fiction. I’ve bought plenty of her merchandise and T-shirts for the girls in my life and the stuff she designs is simply the best.

But Ashley isn’t just a purveyor of fine geeky goods, either. She is using Her Universe as a community gathering spot for fan girls everywhere, which is why she launched the “Fan Girl of the Day” on the Her Universe website. I urge you to nominate the fan girls in your life for the honor, and help Ashley build a community of female fans that are role models.

Myself and the rest of the Full of Sith crew were able to interview her this week about all of these things, as well as her connection to Star Wars and fandom in general. It’s a conversation you’re going to just have to listen to.

After you listen to the interview, you’ll need to be sure to visit the official Star Wars blog and read the email correspondence between Ashley and Dave Filoni, as we discussed on the show.

Here’s the official show notes for this episode of Full of Sith:

Ashley Eckstein joins Mike, Consetta, and Bryan to discuss the fate of Ahsoka Tano on the Clone Wars season finale and Ashley’s future on the show. But, before they delve into that conversation, they talk about the importance of female role-models in Star Wars, the success of Her Universe, and excitement of the new “Fan Girl of the Day” feature on the Her Universe website.

If you like the show, please leave us an iTunes review and share us with your friends and family! We’d greatly appreciate it.

To listen to the episode, head over to the Full of Sith website. Or click here for a direct link to the mp3 of this special episode.

To keep up with the latest, be sure to follow the Full of Sith twitter and Facebook pages, too.

I think at this point we’re all presuming that the original three big cast members from the classic Star Wars trilogy will be back in the sequel trilogy produced by Disney. El Mayimbe at Latino Review broke the story that said Harrison Ford would be coming back in the role. Carrie Fisher jokingly confirmed her involvement yesterday. Mark Hamill has been claiming that he’d be involved in this new trilogy since the late 70s/early 80s.

But nothing is official.

Nothing is confirmed.

Neither Lucasfilm nor Disney have said anything, save that JJ Abrams is, indeed, directing Episode VII from a story by George Lucas and a script by Michael Arndt, and that there are standalone films in the works.

That’s it.

But that kind of changed today. George Lucas all but announced that they’re at the very least in talks with the original cast, telling Bloomberg Business Week:

Asked whether members of the original Star Wars cast will appear in Episode VII and if he called them before the deal closed to keep them informed, Lucas says, “We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison—or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on.’ ” He pauses. “Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them.” Then he adds: “I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.”

It must be odd for him not being the man in charge able to say what he wants, but that’s the case now that he’s sold his company to Disney.

But if there’s a definitive word for Star Wars, it’s George Lucas.

Disney better get on top of some announcments fast if they want to surprise anyone about anything at all.

I also hope that we’ll have surprises left for the movie when it comes out in 2015.