The first episode of Star Trek aired on NBC on September 8th, 1966 – and who could have guessed at the time that the show would spawn a franchise that would in turn go on to be one of the world’s most popular science fiction universes!

I can still remember watching episodes of Star Trek and The Next Generation with my family when I was growing up. There were many nights when I was younger that we’d sit and watch an episode together after dinner. Honestly, there are so many things I love about Star Trek – the portrayal of what could be our own future society (I wish), the characters, the exploration, the endless possibilities that space travel could bring about – I could go on and on about my views of Star Trek from an anthropological perspective, too! Of all the Star Trek creations out there, First Contact and The Wrath of Khan are two of my all time favorite films (and the newest movie is right up there, too! It’s brilliant!).

https://youtu.be/Z8rOUVc2sCc

I honestly wish I had gotten to experience The Wrath of Khan in theaters like I did with First Contact!

https://youtu.be/MJZbCNexctc

In celebration of this occasion, the Science Channel is working with Gene Roddenberry’s only son, Rod Roddenberry, to produce the documentary, Trek Nation, set to air on Wednesday, November 30:

“The film shadows Gene Roddenberry’s son, Rod, as he explores his family legacy and the crusade his father’s passion and curiosity for exploration. Through interviews with his most devoted fans, including George Lucas and J.J. Abrams, Trek Nation follows a son searching for the wisdom of his father.  Trek Nation demonstrates that Roddenberry’s work has not only inspired legions of fans across the globe, but also generated a movement which has influenced entertainment, politics, space travel, social morality and much more. Trek Nation profiles how the Star Trek franchise helped foster a timeless understanding of the human condition and captured man’s constant search for a better world.”

For more information about the documentary, you can visit the Science Channel’s Facebook page or Twitter: @ScienceChannel and @Iamtreknation

What’s your favorite part of the Star Trek universe?

From the very beginning of Star Wars, changes have been a way of life. Even before The Empire Strikes Back came out, things were added and changed in the original theatrical version of A New Hope. In fact, it wasn’t until then that the words “Episode IV” even appeared in the opening crawl. Audio was altered and things were changed slightly to make the filmmakers happier and to standardize the film with its coming sequel.

George Lucas jumped into hyperspace with the changes with the 1997 release of the Special Editions, adding scenes, altering special effects and sounds, and changing some fan favorite scenes that caused some modest outcry.

Sure, no one likes it that Greedo fires first and the Jedi Rocks sequence in Return of the Jedi is a little silly, but at the end of the day we all either embraced or ignored it and took to heart the mythology of Star Wars in whatever way it meant most to us. Other changes were arguably better in my opinion. I prefer the new ending of Return of the Jedi, Hayden Christensen’s ghost included. And the scene with Biggs added to A New Hope makes the Death Star trench run twice as heart wrenching and thrilling.

When more changes to the films were announced for the upcoming Blu-ray release, I was largely ambivalent. One change, however, saddened and disappointed me to no end. I wrote about it at length here, but long story short, unnecessary dialogue to one of the most emotionally impacting moments in the entire Star Wars saga. As Darth Vader watches his son pleading for his help, he now shouts “Noooooo!” as he tosses the Emperor into the reactor shaft. Maybe it seems minor, but the moment was flawless as it was and didn’t need the help.

I understand that it’s meant to tie back into the much-maligned (though liked by me) “Nooooo!” in Revenge of the Sith. I get it. There’s a reason behind it, though I still think it’s the wrong choice.

But it doesn’t matter.

I was at Dragon*Con over the weekend and attended a panel with Gary Kurtz (the original producer on Star Wars) and Timothy Zahn (perhaps the most well-known and beloved of the Star Wars expanded universe novelists) where they talked about the mythology of Star Wars. As they spoke about the myths and themes about Star Wars, a realization sunk into my brain.

It doesn’t matter whether or not Darth Vader shouts “Noooooo!” or if Greedo shoots first or if there’s a disco number in the middle of Jabba’s palace.

Do any of those things change the fact that Luke Skywalker is an orphaned farm boy who heeds his call to adventure? Does it change any of the classic themes of the film and its mythological undertones?

No. It doesn’t change any of that.

Does Han Solo still have a change of heart and become a reluctant hero? Is Ben Kenobi (and later Yoda) still the wizened master who imparts his knowledge on the hero of the story? Do good and evil still clash, bringing the hero to his lowest point before he’s able to beat the demons within himself, save his friends, and win the day?

The answer to all of those questions is yes.

Sure, about 7.5% of the changes made to the films I don’t like. The rest tie all six films into one neat and complete saga.

Do any of the changes alter the message of the film? No. Not at all.

Do the changes alter how much I loved Star Wars from the beginning? Does it alter how I felt about them as a kid and the lessons I learned watching them as I grew up? Does it diminish the value of the lessons that you can talk to your kids about by watching the films with them? No. Not at all. That might be the most important thing of all. And that’s important to keep in mind.

I still want the original releases on Blu-ray, sure, but that’s not going to stop me from getting this set or any other release of the films. Last time I asked for the original theatrical releases on the latest format, I got them. They came out on DVD in 2006. But you know what? I still watch the Special Editions every time.

More than anything, I’m getting this new release for the special features, deleted scenes and documentaries. Here’s a taste of one that Lucasfilm was kind enough to let us premiere here:

There are three Blu-ray discs chock full of this kind of stuff. And whatever you feel about the changes doesn’t change the fact that you still get giddy as a school boy learning about how they made the Star Wars movies in the first place.

As a bonus, it includes a documentary about the making of Empire that I’ve literally been searching high and low for for twenty years.

That alone is worth the price of admission for me.

What about you?

Swank got a chance to talk to Judd Winick about the new Batwing book that came out today.  If you’re on the fence about picking it up, this might change your mind.

We had this chat to launch some preview pages on Huffington Post that appear here.  This is our unabridged conversation.

Judd Winick: In general it’s a superhero book. He is a man, who is an anointed batman. Last year Grant Morrison came up with Batman Incorporated, where Bruce Wayne steps forward and admits to the world that he’s been funding Batman. And Batman then went around the world and began anointing somewhat established, somewhat unknown super-heroes that he brought into Batman Incorporated. And basically slaps on the bat-signal, the bat-insignia and they become soldiers in Batman’s army. And in kicking around the idea coming up with a series based on one of these characters we wanted to expand the bat universe a little more, we kind of centered on Batwing. We just thought it would be incredibly interesting for all reasons.

Africa as a landscape is somewhat untouched in the DC universe in a significant way and we thought Batwing just the kind of character to deliver these fresh stories. Both as a straight up super-hero story, this is a guy flying around in armor with a big bat insignia on his chest fighting other guys in other crazy outfits, but it’s set in Africa which is this highly politicized landscape where we don’t really have to come up with super villains. We have men in Africa that call themselves warlords who kidnap children and put guns in their hands and hop them up on meth and have them go kill people. These are the real guys. So we thought that combining the really over the top super-hero elements along with the very established politicized environment of Africa could make for great story telling. And with that I should say this isn’t “Lion King,” we’re not gonna have Batwing running around the Jungles with animals or things like that. There are jungles and rural areas, but it’s not going to be that kind of story. On what could be considered the more political vent is that Batwing is AIDS orphan. He lost both his parents to AIDS. Which some folks might call that politics. From where we sit we’re just trying to be true to life in Africa right now. In most of the regions one fifth of the population is HIV positive or living with AIDS. And there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 million AIDS orphans out there. It rang kind of true to us especially in the Bat universe. Batman himself and most of the other members of the Bat family come from tragic beginnings. That’s sort of the motif. That’s sort of the opera of it all. It’s not like Batwing was out there doing pre-law for a while, starting his own practice, and then decided “Hey, I’ll put on a costume and start beating up bad guys.” We usually don’t come from that place. It’s usually that they have rather sort of tragic beginnings. The fact that he lost his parents to AIDS and never knew them is one piece of that puzzle.
Big Shiny Robot!: So it sounds like the Bat-Family they’re sort of born from sorts of tragedy that befall their society. And it sounds like he’s very much in that mold, but in a different culture completely.

JW: Exactly! Whereas Bruce Wayne lost his parents to crime, David lost his mother and father to this plague that is ravaging the continent. And two-fold beginning in some later issues, around issue 3 or 4, we’ll find out that David was a boy soldier. He and his brother were scooped up and brought into a warlord’s army. And guns were thrust in their hands and they were forced to kill for this madman. So he comes from a very, very dark place. And what we learn is he and his brother were very good at what they had to do. They actually possess very unique skills. As the story progresses David turns his back on the whole thing. He’s basically brought to the point that these horrors that he’s forced to perpetrate and witness become too much for him. And he flees. That is the amazingly truncated story, but It’ll be laid out further in the book. He begins as a boy soldier and flees swearing never to take a life again. And also using every cliché he can muster, tries to make the world a better place. He’s never going to take a life again and wants to make the world better. Particularly his own world in the land of Africa.
BSR!: The book sounds like it is interested in telling a very good story that is unique to the time and place in where it is set and the characters that inhabit it, but when Batwing was first talked about the conservative media was like “Oh great, we have this black African Batman.” They had the same explosion when Laurence Fishburne was cast as Perry White, or Miles Morales was announced as the new Spider-Man.

JW: Yeah it was kind of a rough month for racist comic book fans I guess. Between Spider-Man, Perry White and Batwing it was kind of a rough four weeks there.

The idea that making people of color into super-heroes is in some way a part of some liberal agenda speaks to a greater question, how is that liberal or conservative that people of color should be super-heroes too? Super-heroes are an old concept, incredibly old. 70-80 years ago some young men started creating these guys that put on costumes and have super powers. And for the most part, almost across the line, the characters they created were all just white men. And it’s just a matter of form comics have only evolved slightly. We’re still writing about Batman and Superman some 70 years later. But our readership has changed, and our world has changed in great many ways. There were small battles in the sixties and seventies trying to introduce just a few black characters into comics because of the whole rights movement. And that was met with a lot of consternation and a lot of vitriol. Here we are, it’s 2011 here and we’re just simply tring to create characters that speak to our readership. To extrapolate on an old chestnut, we’ve been writing about aliens and people from different dimentions and people in capes and tights and colors from different worlds. Like there’s a big damn deal to have a couple of black people in comics here and there. I don’t think so, I don’t think any of us really think so.

BSR!: It seems like there’s this big disconnect between the people who read comics on a month to month basis and the people who blog on to a big news story about something going on in them. I talked to Scott Snyder a week ago and looked up that the best selling Batman comic in June sold something around 57,000 issues. While Batman has 1.8 million fans on Facebook that say this is what we like or don’t like about the character.

JW: I think there are a couple of disconnects. There’s a media which has barely been speaking to comic readers and might be jumping up and down about everything from Batwing to Spider-Man to Perry White. And that’s one camp. Then there is a very loud micro minority on the web, of comic fans, who don’t want comics to change at all and never do. And they’re the ones who are always the loudest. They’re the ones who complain about the big things and the little things, the minutia. A lot of comic fans don’t even like seeing comics covered in the mainstream press or hate when we talk about diversity because they feel like these are lessons being forced down their throat, as opposed to us just telling contemporary stories. Which I guess the biggest point about any of these things is that we’re just trying to tell contemporary stories. We’re just trying to tell comics that feel like they exist in the world today. And in the world today we have people of all shapes and sizes and races and colors. Comics should reflect that.

BSR!: What sort of stuff have you done to prepare yourself to jump into the world of Africa? I talked to Josh Dysart about “Unknown Soldier” and he’d actually gone over there some. Have you gone over there? Have you talked to people about it?

JW: I’ve actually been lobbying DC to send me over there, but they seem to keep pointing to my computer and my telephone saying research. Research is good. I’ve been talking to a number of professors and heads of African studies from universities. I’ve been talking to people who live in Africa past and present. That said, Africa is an enormously big continent with a variety of cultures. The United States is a country and Africa is a continent. We begin looking at it like “This is the Batman of North America” and what that would possibly mean.

BSR!: You can have stories that happen there that range from Casablanca to the Unknown Soldier.

JW: Exactly. To make this in a way that one could wrap their arms and head around the story I chose to sort of localize it in a way. It’s taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is an actual country. The fictional capital city of Tinosha, which is one of our tropes at DC, we create fictional cities. It’s a westernized city, which allows it to have a certain look and feel to it. Meaning that you can have universities and businesses. Not skyscrapers, but what is considered modern architecture. Outside the city there will be what is considered rural areas and villages. It’s true to what life in Africa is in the Democratic Republic of Congo. And we’re doing everything we possibly can to get it right. No I haven’t gone to Africa, but I’m doing everything I possibly can with the exception of going to Africa. Reading, talking to people, talking to more people, writing, asking them what they think about the writing, going back and forth. Ben Oliver has been going back and forth researching and pulling more reference than you could possibly imagine. It’s hard work, but we want it to feel real. At the same time it is a guy flying around in Bat armor fighting bad guys. There are a lot of leaps into fantasy. At the end of the day it is a comic book story, but we do want it to have that feel. We just don’t feel like it should do something that’s just transplanted, like it could be happening in Austin, Texas and it wouldn’t be a problem.

BSR: The level of violence and sort of the timber of the culture is different than Batman where the worst thing he has to deal with is the Joker or criminals killing a whole bunch of people, but, on a sliding scale, that isn’t as bad as warlords abducting children and putting guns in their hands. Do you see this book as being darker than the Batman books which are already renowned as being the darkest in comics.

JW: Yeah, if you consider that we’re coming from a starting place that this is a batman who lost his parents to AIDS and was a boy soldier. That’s square one for us. In the first couple of pages Batwing is talking about the fact that one of the things Batman has to do is instill fear. And Batwing points out that he’s not really sure that a man dressed up as a bat is really going to scare the average criminal in Africa. Batman just tells him that “you’re just going to have to sell it.” And that’s the point, it’s a different world. I’m treating it like even the fact that he can drop out of the sky and is wearing all this armor, a criminal in Africa who isn’t some guy who is gonna rob a liquor store or a bank, has seen and done terrible things. He’s not gonna cower back and scream “Ahhhh it’s a bat,” it’s just not gonna happen. Things have to be more frighening. So it’s less about him instilling fear into criminals than it is just trying to fight the fight. It’s a little bit of a war. That’s what Africa is, it still has many many wars going on right now.

BSR!: As a writer what is the difference between writing this compared to Catwoman, which you are relaunching?

JW: It’s apples and Volkswagons. It’s an entirely different book. Catwoman lends itself to a lot more humor than this book does. I’ve got my ears boxed over the years for making some of my super-hero books too funny or too snarky here and there. That isn’t the case with Batwing. Does it have leavity? Yeah, a little here and there, but it’s fairly serious subject matter. Or rather a fairly straight ahead super-hero story in that way. I like quips. I like joking around in that respect. And Catwoman is a criminal. She steals things. There is more of an Ocean’s 11 stance on that book. So it’s a little bit of dark fun whereas Batwing right from the first issue the stakes are enormously high. And I feel that sort of speaks true to the climate of Africa. It is considered high adventure, it’s out there and a lot is happening. It’s walloping fun in the sense of the high end nature that we’re detailing.

BSR!: As far as even just moving around the continent, like I said earlier you have the different extremes of Africa with the Casablanca sorts of stories and Unknown Soldier sorts of stories. And it sounds like in the beginning you’re more toward the Unknown Soldier side of the spectrum. Do you see yourself doing more in the Casablanca end of the spectrum? I don’t know if you like Casablanca at all, but it’s just a point of reference of a great movie that just happens to be set in Africa.

JW: No, I love it. To put it quite simply you will see times where Batwing is zipping around the most rural parts of Africa. And on the flip side you definitely see him in moments of wearing a suit and tie going where he needs to be going. Because of the nature of Africa and because of the many different cultural aspects of this entire continent. From it being a very western sort of place and very rural in other parts. Very high end and in some aspects regal. We kind of want to tap into all those things. We have the ability to do so, so we shall.

BSR!: Although it’s still a super-hero book do you think there is going to be a take away for readers that will make them feel as though they’ve learned something about this place?

JW: I hope so. Is it our goal? No, this book is not about it being a learning experience. The best stories do that just by immersing yourself in a culture that is not your own. I think some of our readership are unaware that Africa is actually considered a continent not a country. Or as it was mentioned early on when someone questioned why the pyramids of Egypt were on a cover because its in the Middle-East, we had to point out that it was in Africa. There are small lessons to be learned just about geography, but beyond that I would hope that it serves a true sense of what it is to be in Africa in 2011. Again, this isn’t “The Lion King.” It’s not about him out there swinging from vines and what not. We’ve moved very very far beyond that. Especially with our readership. Even are youngest readers are infinitely more sophisticated than they might have been in the past. The world is a much smaller place than it was in the 50’s and 60’s when you might have had a black character from Africa who did just that. Who had a lion as a best friend and sort of communicated through African mysticism and things among those lines. I don’t think young people or even our older readers would look to that and wouldn’t find it just more than a little childish. So I think that by portraying it in a real sense there’ll be an education there.

You can view an entire preview of the book on the Huffington Post.

Delays aside the LG 4G finally made it to AT&T Sunday. Life being as it is, even with having the device four days prior I still couldn’t find a way to organize my thoughts on the Thrill until now. I’ve had it in my possession for a week now and it has mostly integrated itself into my life. Transitioning from the HTC Inspire 4g I found my only real challenge was putting my phone back together the way I liked. 5 months carrying the Inspire gave me the slow time to adjust the menu every day just a little bit. Putting that together in a weekend was no easy task, and with 0 help from Go Launcher’s “Save to SD” feature, I accomplished little in the real world.

Upon initial boot up the phone is snappy, responsive, and feels good in your hand. The dual core processor and dual channel ram give it an extra speed boost which is greatly enjoyed while downloading content, but rarely noticed during normal phone operation. I’m assuming this is due to Android’s lack of dual core support in the OS itself, being as I’m not a tech wizard you’ll have to take that observation with a grain of salt. Aside from that and Androids usual battery abuse I have thoroughly enjoyed the phone over the past 7 days.

The phone has a few things stock that I truly love, and a couple items that I find frustrating. Out of the box the LG overlay has many features similar to that of custom launchers. You can resize the LG widgets without resetting them by simply pressing for an extended period of time and dragging the arrows to adjust it’s size. I also fell instantly in love with the WP7 style lock screen notifications. The biggest thing I missed when I left WP7 behind was the quick-glance calendar and messages on the lock screen, LG has brought that to Android in this device. My love aside I discovered some updating issues with the lock screen notifications for those of us using a custom SMS app. The first thing I do with every Android phone is install Handcent SMS (my favorite SMS app). Normally i simply turn off notifications for the stock messaging app and let Handcent handle all of my business, with the LG this works flawlessly with one small quirk. LG’s notification system doesn’t take it’s cue from Handcent, it takes it directly from the stock messaging app, so even though they are being marked as read by Handcent and show up read inside the stock app, the lock screen still shows I have a grundle of text messages waiting until I open the messaging app itself. It’s a small gripe, but not knowing how many texts I have waiting gives me a small attack of OCD.
The only frustration I have found with the phone itself is the intermittent delay on unlocking. I would say that 85% of the time there is absolutely no delay, but the other 15% of the time there is a noticeable 1-2 second delay on lighting the screen when I press the unlock key. The hardware inside the LG Thrill should eliminate any delay in matters such as unlocking… so it’s definitely been a pain point for me this last week.

The big selling portion of the Thrill is a big 3D screen! My thoughts on stereoscopic 3D on this phone are very similar to my thoughts on the 3DS, it’s an amazingly cool feature for those that can handle it for an extended period of time without getting sick, and a novelty for folk like me who can only work with it for a few minutes at a time. The ability to turn standard images into 3D makes for a fun afternoon of goofing off, and the 3D space itself is a work of genius. Not forcing the consumer into 3D is a smart move on LG’s part, and I’m sure a direct result of market testing. The 3D games on the phone run flawlessly and add an element of fun to the device that other phones simply won’t provide. For the first tim in 2 years I had to ask my wife for my phone back after her 2 hour affair with “Let’s Golf 3D.” That aside, I feel it’s more of an after thought on the phone. An extra thing to set it aside from your other smart phones, but nothing to run straight to the store screaming for.

The phone itself is a killer addition to the ATT portfolio, and for those of us that aren’t in love with Samsung, (I love their hardware, but I find their interface and icon styles to be tacky). It’s a great choice, for a scant $99.99 with contract you can while away your hours in 3D seeing the world that you never knew existed. You can check this gadget out at any ATT store nationwide

I spent most of my time at Dragon*con trying to get drunk and taking pictures. I was successful at the pictures part so here are a few of my faves and a link to the Sets on my Flickr account.

I happened to stumble across the trailer for Bunraku today and watched it three times before I felt like I could start picking it apart because there is SO MUCH going on. Admittedly, the trailer has me really excited to see the film. I’m hoping it’s as good as I want it to be! The film is coming to theaters nation-wide on September 30th. (It was first shown at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.)

In Japan, the term Bunraku is the name of a very traditional puppet theater art in which three kinds of performers weave the story together for audiences.  The Ningyōtsukai or Ningyōzukai (puppeteers), the Tayū (chanters), and the shamisen (traditional Japanese instrument) players. It’s a fascinating art form that shares many themes with another (more famous) traditional form of Japanese theater – Kabuki. (The story of the Forty-Seven Ronin is told frequently in both Bunraku and Kabuki forms.) Unlike Bunraku, however, Kabuki features a lot of deviations from theme and “script.” Prior to a performance in Bunraku, the performer will promise to follow the story perfectly (word by word).

In this instance, the film Bunraku is a re-imagined version of a 400 year old Bunraku play. The main character is “The Drifter,” who happens to be based upon the “Man with No Name” archetype. This ensemble cast is made up of Josh Hartnett, Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, Ron Perlman, Kevin McKidd and Japanese Visual Kei sensation Gackt Camui. The cast is pretty amazing…but most people are probably thinking, “Who the hell is Gackt?” I know Gackt from his music career, and that he has starred in a couple Japanese films; but I had no idea that director Guy Moshe apparently went to Japan to personally ask Gackt to join the project (after seeing him in an NHK production). Here’s a bit of Gackt’s music if you’re curious.

My first impression of Bunraku, based on the trailer alone, is that this movie could be really fun. Director Guy Moshe is noted to be a huge fan of westerns and martial arts films – so I’m sure there was no shortage of inspiration to pull from for this project. Bunraku is said to have mixed CGI and traditional sets to illustrate the highly stylized art form that is Bunraku storytelling – a concept I find fascinating and I hope really immerses viewers.

What do you think? Will you be seeing Bunraku in theaters?

This week: Trigun: Badlands Rumble clips, some fun news about Dragon Quest in Japan, and Spice and Wolf comes to DVD/Blu-ray.

First up: Trigun: Badlands Rumble is coming to the U.S. on Blu-ray Tuesday, September 27th (after a very limited theater release during the summer), and Funimation is gearing up by sharing some clips from their youtube page.

The most wanted man in the galaxy returns in glorious HD for the first and only Trigun full length feature film. Gasback plays dirty, but he puts his faith in one high holy roller.

Clip # 1:

Yep. Just in case you weren’t aware – Vash loves donuts. He also tries to avoid violence at all costs. Both are important to keep in mind when watching Trigun.

Clip # 2:

Alright… “Your leg’s got a bad habit of kicking.”…really? Oh English dubbing… Good thing there are some awesome English voice actors to make up for lines of poorly translated / regionalized dialogue like that! Usually I just opt for watching with the original Japanese audio, but this film’s English track features the amazing Johnny Yong Bosch, Luci Christian, Colleen Clinkenbeard, and a few other voice actors that I really like. I think my biggest problem is with lines like the one just mentioned which aren’t translated all that effectively. (Admittedly, it’s often no fault of the translator – there are just some Japanese jokes that don’t turn out all that well in English).

Clip 3:

Clip 4:

Overall the film seems like a fun ride for any fans of the Trigun series. I didn’t catch this one in theaters in Japan but I heard good things from friends that saw it on the big screen. It had an extremely limited screening of only a day or two in select cities around the U.S. so chances are you’ll have to pick up the Blu-ray on the 27th to give it a watch.

For more about the film, visit Funimation’s website.

Next up: Anime News Network shared a neat announcement that Family Mart (a convenience store chain) in Japan will be selling pork buns (nikuman) that look like the Slimes from the Dragon Quest series. As the post mentions, Slimes are iconic enemies in the games and have been featured in every version since the first one premiered in 1986.

Something about food with eyes isn’t all that appetizing to me…but I bet these things will sell like crazy!

Photo from Anime News Network.

Finally this week: Spice and Wolf just came out on DVD/Blu-ray combo pack. You can pick it up for list price USD $64.98 or $59.99 on Amazon.

The journey through the wild countryside continues for the merchant Lawrence and the untamed harvest goddess, Holo. The companions reap the bounty of an ever-strengthening bond, depending on street smarts and animal instincts to carry them along the last miles of their trip to Holo’s northern home. While the villages along their route offer many opportunities for profit, the road is marked by heretics and shady dealers looking to separate the travelers from their savings — and from each other. With the end of the journey in sight, Lawrence and Holo revel in the riches of the relationship they’ve built — but what truly awaits the simple peddler and the forgotten deity at the end of their winding path?

You can watch the trailer here:

Well, that seems like a choice out of left field.

The AP is reporting that Eddie Murphy will be hosting the Oscars. This will be his most adult-role since A Vampire in Brooklyn. Or getting caught with that hooker.

In any event, it will be fascinating to see Eddie Murphy being potentially funny again. I watch the Oscars every year and I’m sad they haven’t asked Jon Stewart back, he’s been the best host in recent memory. But I guess this is no more unexpected than James Franco and Anne Hathaway.

From the AP report:

Academy Awards producers Brett Ratner and Don Mischer say the actor and comedian will host the 84th annual Oscar ceremony.

Ratner called the 50-year-old entertainer “a comedic genius; one of the greatest and most influential live performers ever.” Mischer called Murphy “a truly groundbreaking performer” whose “quick wit and charisma will serve him very well as Oscar host.”

My next questions is why in the hell is Brett Ratner producing the Oscars? Will they be muted, have a terrible script, and have too many explosions and plot holes?

Who knows.

Are you going to watch?

Flanery (center), Reedus at left

Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia celebrated its 25^th anniversary this past weekend, and what a con it was!  Readers of the site may already know what a fan I am of Sean Patrick Flanery, and this year marked his first appearance at Dragon*Con.

In all of my years of attending this convention, Flanery is the one guest I always wanted to meet, and I had the opportunity to speak with him briefly in the Walk of Fame, where the stars sign autographs and interact with their fans.  I found him to be very sweet, and the crush I’ve had on him since the days of Young Indiana Jones remains.

Naturally, I attended most of his panels, including The Boondock Saints panel with his co-star Norman Reedus.  This panel was one of the most interesting and engaging I’ve ever attended at Dragon*Con.  The actors were funny, considerate to their fans, and they were obviously having a wonderful time on stage.  The fans were equally funny:  one gal in the audience screamed out, “Can I have your baby?”  I’m not sure if she asked Reedus or Flanery, but the audience had a good laugh over it.

Flanery also mentioned that due to his appearance at Dragon*Con, he would be skipping the premiere of his newly released movie Insight.  When I read that this film would be released over Labor Day weekend, I feared his schedule would forbid him from attending the con, but no need to worry.

The question and answer part of the panel bounced from the humorous to the poignant.  An emotional fan of the film approached the microphone to talk about a brutal murder in her family and how watching The Boondock Saints encouraged her to fight back and obtain a concealed weapons permit.  She said the movie saved her, and the actors applauded her.

Since it was a The Boondock Saints panel, the question on everyone’s minds was whether or not there would be a third film in the series.  The short answer is YES.  According to Reedus, writer and director Troy Duffy is currently working on the script, and both actors are more than willing to participate.

Another fan asked if Flanery had actually watched the Saw films before participating in Saw 3D:  The Final Chapter, but he joked that since he has made a career of acting in movies that usually don’t get released, the Saw franchise allowed him to be a movie that would appear on thousands of screens.  While he joked about it, it’s true that very few of his films see a theatrical release.  He tends to act in smaller films that debut on TV or get directly released to DVD and Blu-Ray, but I watch them all regardless.

They also said that they would like do another USO tour, having done one already and enjoying it.  I think after seeing Flanery and Reedus at this panel, fans would love to have the opportunity to sit and have a drink with these guys.  (I heard through the Twitter grapevine they were at the Marriott bar just last night, but my efforts to locate them for an interview were in vain).

They’re fun, funny, appreciative of their fans, and everyone had a great time.  At the end of the panel, they fulfilled an earlier request to say the Saints’ courtroom prayer, and the audience recited along:

And shepherds we shall be, for thee my Lord for thee, power hath descended forth from thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out thy command. We shall flow a river forth to thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine Patri, et Fili, Spiritus Sancti.

The last time I featured Batman in Secret Origins, I focused more on how Bruce Wayne was the first Robin. Let’s face it, everyone knows the Origin of Batman, so if you’re gonna tell it, why not have a twist? Today is no exception. Once upon a time, DC Comics toyed with the concept of multiple earths. That’s a Secret Origin column I’ll get to eventually, but for this tale, just take it as a given that there are multiple earths with slight differences. With that in mind let’s get on with the Secret Origin of the Batmen of two worlds!

Our story opens with the all too familiar scene depicted to on the sidebar. Leaving from a movie (this time an unnamed Marlon Brando film), the Waynes are accosted by a mugger. Thomas and Martha are gunned down, while young Bruce screams in agony. The screaming continues as an adult Bruce wakes up from his nightmare. Bruce is unsure why he’s reliving this particular nightmare. After all, in this incarnation, Bruce as Batman has already brought his parent’s killer to justice. Regardless of why, when Bruce has issues, he goes to relieve his stress on local derelicts. When he finds a duo of thuggish brutes trying to mug a defenseless old woman, he swings into action and takes one goon down. The other however flees the scene. Batman gives chase, and the first in a series of weird events plays out for the Caped Crusader.

Crime Alley: Aside from a few murders, the Happiest Place in Gotham!

Crossing town in a couple of steps isn’t the strangest thing to happen to Batman though, as Robin also pops out of nowhere to get the drop on Running Thug #2. In fact, when Batman & Robin exchange pleasantries, they realize that Robin actually left for Europe that morning! Strange happenings indeed. Before the two detective can suss out the situation, it’s solved for them by the sudden appearance of the mysterious Phantom Stranger. The stranger starts out with some cryptic-speak that his sort of mystic type loves to spout. After Robin asks him to translate that into something resembling English, the Stranger explains why he has brought the Dynamic Duo to Crime Alley.

You think they might reboot Batman twenty years after this story? Naaaaah.

The Stranger explains that he’s giving Bruce a chance to redeem the one failure he sees in his life, the inability to save his parents. This raises a few questions, such as does Batman blame himself for the deaths of his parents? and Why didn’t the Stranger offer the Golden Age Batman the same chance? I’ll leave those questions to an accredited Batman-ologist. Regardless of the reason, Batman agrees to this once in a lifetime opportunity. Robin insists on accompanying him, but Batman says it’s something he has to do alone. Robin is all like, “Hey, I got pulled away from a bunch of young European co-eds for this, I’m coming too!” and rushes into the fog after Batman. Before you know it, the duo are at Gotham Harbor, and before they can decide whether or not they’re actually on another Earth, the old chums hear the sounds of crime (in this case, an explosion). Duty takes over, and they find themselves on a ship full of modern-day pirates. Batman can’t believe how easily their opponents fall…

Dude, you're a 6 ft. tall man in a bat costume. You're lucky fainting is all he did!

As Batman & Robin mop up the scum, sirens finally blare and the Dynamic Duo find themselves face to face with Lieutenant James Gordon, looking a good twenty years younger than he should. Gordon orders the heroes to freeze, but rather than stay and explain the convoluted situation, the Caped Crusaders make a hasty retreat, but not before Gordon issues an APB on the duo. After that debacle, Batman & Robin decide to do some detective work in their civilian guises. Realizing that they can’t be sure where the Waynes live on this Earth, they go to the local library to gather intel. While Bruce goes through the social register (after being mistaken for his father), Dick studies the history of this strange new world and makes a series of startling discoveries…

"-- This may end being a nice well-adjusted world! Can't have that!"

Dick explains that if they stop the Wayne’s murder, they may be denying this Earth it’s only hero. Bruce is all like, “That’s nice, but I’m still not letting them die… old chum.” You can’t blame the guy. If someone came up to you and said “Hey man, don’t be mad, but we should let your parents die for the greater good!” You’d be a bit dismissive too. Anyway, the two go to spy on the Waynes at.. Wayne Manor of all places! Jeez, you think they would have tried that first instead of doing the detective work. Seeing his parents again strengthens Batman’s resolve to keep them from dying again. Robin, on the other hand sees how much of a spoiled child this young Bruce Wayne is and wonders if he’ll grow up to me the bored playboy Batman only pretends to be. Regardless, Batman presses on for more info to prevent the tragedy. Knowing the name of the man who murdered his parents, he tries the find the whereabouts of the murderer’s counterpart on this Earth. Batman being Batman, he has an ingenious way of getting said information.

How did he make a perfect Gordon disguise after only seeing him for a minute? He's BATMAN!

Sadly, information on Joe Chill is as obscure as knowing the lineup of the 1906 Boston Red Stockings. Batman follows another lead though. Chill was hired to kill Tom Wayne by a man named Lew Moxon, and he does have a record. Batman and Robin descend on Moxon’s “legitimate business” and cause a major amount of mayhem, including blowing up a truck! After Robin (literally) tackles Moxon, he says he’s never even heard of Joe Chill. Batman puts the fear of well, Batman into Moxon, and warns him not to mess with the Waynes. Moxon plays the scared little lamb, but Batman’s interference actually causes Moxon to move up his “Kill Wayne” timetable.

By Batman’s estimation, he and Robin have five more days to stop the murder. Uh-oh. Batman and Robin spend the next few hours debating on the merits of preventing the murder. Robin is still unsure if they’re condemning young Bruce into being a foppish dandy. Batman is still having none of it, though. Batman leaves to follow (or look for) another lead, leaving Robin to shadow the Waynes as they are getting ready to go see a movie. Again, Uh-oh.

Batman is once again in Police Headquarters and hits pay-dirt! Chill isn’t from Gotham, so he wasn’t in their records, but he does show up on interstate files. He’s about to find the info he sorely needs when he’s confronted at gunpoint by Lt. Gordon! You may think it’ll be a Mexican standoff, but there is something about the way Batman pleads his case that sways the young police lieutenant…

"You've given me no indication that you're NOT an escaped mental patient, but somehow, I trust ya!"

Batman is able to track down Chill to a seedy motel, but Chill is dying. It seems since Batman mentioned him to Moxon, Chill was killed as soon as he made himself known! Chill also spills the beans that another gunsel is on the way to the hit! Batman then has a V8 moment, realizing that in the twenty years that have passed, leap years make today the corresponding day, rather than the date he was counting on. That’s fine deductive reasoning Batman, but if you hadn’t interfered, it wouldn’t have happened so quickly anyway, so there’s that… Cutting back to Robin and the Waynes, the fated family is walking down an alley, because the movie was sold out. Before you know it, they are accosted by a thug with a gun. Robin agonizes over what to do, finally realizing he just can’t let anyone die while he does nothing. It turns out his interference isn’t needed however…

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Batman seriously beats the punk down, but can you really blame him? Then, the Phantom Stranger returns to take the Caped Crusaders home. Robin asks if they’ll ever learn of young Bruce’s fate. The Stranger is back to speaking cryptically though, and all he’ll tell the Teen Wonder is that they have saved two lives and forever altered a third. Batman says “Amen to that.” and they return home.

The story doesn’t end there though! While Batman and Robin will never learn the fate of young Bruce, we get to peek in on the lad. It seems his close encounter with tragedy has had a profound effect on the boy. Gone is the spoiled brat, replaced with a more attentive, studious youngster. Reading such books as Sherlock Holmes and various books about criminology. That’s great and all, but didn’t Robin say earlier there weren’t any inspiring literary figures on this Earth? Anyway, as we leave this earth, we find that encountering Batman casts a long shadow indeed…

"it's like an omen! I shall become Bat Batman Man!"

See? Robin had nothing to worry about! This world gets a Batman, with no messy murders involved! Think about it, a man devoted to justice, the absolute peak of human achievement, and he doesn’t have to have a tortured soul to do it! This my friends, is what I would call the “Ultimate” Batman. It’s a shame we never got to see any of his adventures. It’d be very interesting to see if he’d inspire the same rouge’s gallery as “our” Batman, or if with a brighter outlook on life, he’d make Gotham a veritable utopia. At any rate, so ends the origin of Batmen of Two Worlds. Until next time, keep your origin a secret!

This story originally appeared in Detective Comics #500, and was reprinted in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told: Vol. 1.