Last Gasps From SDCC 2013 – Best Of Cosplay From Comic-Con Video

The Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office received a giant package via UPS yesterday containing all the books, action figures, t-shirts, games, and other assorted loot we acquired at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. It’s a fairly large haul, too large to have wanted to hump it back on our own through the airports. You try explaining what a “reversible baneling/zergling” is to the TSA and see if they don’t decide to put you through an “enhanced pat down”. So, it was nice to open the box and relive the very recent memories of the past week. In particular, I thought this delivery was well timed because I had been spending the morning going through my photos from the con and noticed that…I hadn’t taken very many. My photo ratio from SDCC seems to lean more heavily on the side of fish tacos, beet agua fresca, and blurry Brian Michael Bendis photos (don’t ask), than on one of the backbones of the San Diego Comic-Con experience, the cosplayers. This was disappointing to me, but not entirely surprising. With all the spectacle with which you are constantly bombarded, you reach a certain point where you stop snapping pictures and go, “Oh, cool. It’s Deadpool and Supergirl together. Sure. That makes sense.” And you let it wash over you. You shuffle step forward against the tide of people trying to get into the Hasbro merch booth to get the most recent Boba Fett and Han Solo in carbonite, or Derpy Pony, or whatever it is this year that is making attendees nutty and just keep trying to take it all in until you eventually pop out on the other side of the convention floor. And it’s good. After 7 years of snapping photos and giving yourself whiplash to swivel around and catch the latest in Hello, Kitty! Darth Vader costuming, sometimes it’s nice to just give in and get carried along with the festivities.

But, that doesn’t help you, the Crisis On Infinite Midlives readers, who depend on us to bring you pictures of the Nerd Prom To End All Nerd Proms, to document the spectacle that you could be there to see. Fortunately, that’s where the good people at Sneaky Zebra come in. They’ve created a video that showcases some of the best cosplay from this year’s convention, from steam punk Batman villains to Transformers to, well, maybe you should just see for yourself. Check it out, after the jump!

New Clip From Beware The Batman, DC Nation Wonder Woman Short Preview

Rob is at a screening of Pacific Rim right now. Without me.

Now, I could be all pissed off about that, but I’m not. After all, he may have surrounded himself with giant robots and monsters, but, he left the whiskey here. With me.

So, as the whiskey and I spend the day together, we are finding our own entertainment on the Web. For example, behold the new opening sequence and promo clips from Beware The Batman:

Looks interesting. I’m not entirely convinced it will fill the hole in my heart that was left when DC/Warner Brothers abruptly cancelled Young Justice, but I think the important thing to remember here is that it’s not Teen Titans Go!, thank Christ.

So, what else is out on the Internetz?

#TheFourth – New Tom Baker-centric Doctor Who Promo Clip

Bleeding Cool has posted about a new video from BBC Worldwide. It features camera panning over illustrations of the fourth Doctor’s companions, with audio clips from selected companions and Tom Baker. While it could be that the video is a promo for an upcoming Doctor Who DVD box set Doctor Who: the Doctors Revisited 1-4, which will be released on July 16, it could also be as simple as BBC Worldwide being a bit tongue in cheek – it was released on July 4th. Probably not directed at us Americans for our nation’s birthday, but who knows? The series’ massive popularity of late here in the United States is why Stephen Moffat remains still employed, to the eternal bafflement of many fans of the classic series and the earlier Russell T. Davies reboot episodes.

End Of Broadcast Day – Sweat For It

So, today was the day the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office’s air conditioning shit the bed. No biggie – just the afternoon before July 4th. The likelihood that our HVAC guy (yes, we have an HVAC guy) will get back to us before Monday is somewhere in the range of “Poor” to “Aw, hell no!”. Thusly, we hied ourselves off to the local comic book store, where not only was our weekly take ready, but there was air conditioning. Yes, also, they know us by name and spent much of today asking Rob to stop calling their AC unit Killer Frost…and to stop asking Killer Frost if she would “blow on it…just a little…goddamn it it hurts…at least point at it and laugh…” Eventually, with only the lightest threat of police involvement, we acquired our books and found our way back to the Home Office. Here we have a giant box fan and a 30 pack of poor man’s air conditioning. Rob has availed himself of at least 5 since we got home. This leaves me to marvel over the week’s haul. It’s not too bad for a holiday week: Dexter #1 has finally dropped, there’s a new Garth Ennis Red Team, and something called Superior Foes Of Spider-Man by Nick Spencer, because, why the hell not? Nice to finally see the Dexter book though. I think at least 2 Powers Bureau books have come out since that was originally sollicited, and that’s fucking saying something.

But, you all know how this goes. First we need to read the books before we can pass our collective review-y wisdom unto you, so that means this…

…is the end of our broadcast day. Tune in tomorrow to see if we survive a night full of beer and no air conditioning. And, by “survive” I mean “Rob avoids a drunk and disorderly after walking into the local Tedeschi’s buck nude and looking for Lunchables attention ice.” Wish us luck!

Mad In Gotham – Review Of All-Star Western #21

Writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti have put Jonah Hex through a lot in All-Star Western in the last 20 issues. He’s dealt with everything from early Crime Bible disciples to Vandal Savage to Mr. Hyde (yes, as in “Dr. Jekyll and…”. Really.). At the same time, Gray and Palmiotti have created an intricate backdrop that has unfolded from an early Gotham City and spiraled out across post-Civil War America. They’ve populated it with a menagerie of colorful characters, ranging from the familiar, like Amadeus Arkham, to new ones, like The Barbary Ghost. However, starting with issue #19, the writing team has begun to focus on a character with definite ties to the DCnU present, if not the future, time traveling hero: Booster Gold. Does this signal an end to Gray and Palmiotti’s exploration of historical Gotham and its characters?

A closer look at the events of All-Star Western #21, rife with spoilers, after the jump.

Game Of Thrones + BTVS = Awesome

In this Game Of Thrones fan trailer, posted by YouTube user zuziako, scenes from the show are set to the Buffy The Vampire Slayer theme by Nerf Herder. In the role of Buffy? Jon Snow. Because, as zuziako puts it in the comments, “Well, he battles the undead.”

He does indeed.

Best quote from the comment thread is by user Joe Coffey:

You know nothing, Buffy Summers.

Miss Buffy? Then check out this never before released footage from behind the scenes of the series over at The Mary Sue. It’ll help keep you going until you can dig out your old BTVS DVDs, or until winter comes back around again.

Via The Mary Sue.

Brain Bleach: Clark Gregg, Agent Of Toy

Captain America has the smoothest…shield…

Toy critic, Ninjavitis^*, reviews the new line of action figures from the Marvel Avengers movie by Hot Toys, distributed by Sideshow Collectibles. When he begins his segment on the Agent Coulson doll^**, he is visited by Clark Gregg. While Gregg could take this opportunity to play with himself, he instead begins to play with the other dolls…which is even creepier. Behold:

^* Best internet handle ever, Jason Miyashiro!

^** Life model decoy not included…unless Coulson always was one…

Agent Coulson lives!

Via Topless Robot

Inevitable Porn Parody – Man Of Steel XXX

Yesterday, much of the Crisis On Infinite Midlives staff attended a 10:30 AM matinee for Man Of Steel. Our group’s consensus was generally favorable, some giant plot holes around the inability of the citizens of Krypton to realize that the Phantom Zone could be used to save people from their planet that weren’t genocidal war lords aside. Rob tells me he’s going to have a review up eventually; today he’s mostly been asleep on the couch. Being functional for a 10:30 morning movie takes a lot out of a guy. That, and the Michigan whiskey Trebuchet and Pixiestyx brought back for him from their recent travels to deepest, darkest Flint. Cheers, guys!

In the meantime, enjoy this trailer for the recently released porn parody, Man Of Steel XXX. It looks to be as much a loving fan homage to the Justice League as much as it also appears to be an excuse for Supes to give Wonder Woman his Kryptonian meat. Enjoy!

Via The Mary Sue

Rory Kinnear – The New Doctor Who?

Bleeding Cool is reporting that UK paper The Telegraph is running a story that the BBC has offered the part of the 12th Doctor to Skyfall‘s Rory Kinnear.

According to the Telegraph article’s author, Richard Eden:

“He has been offered the part and we are waiting to hear if he will accept,” says my man in the Tardis. “He is the perfect choice.”

The 35-year-old alumnus of St Paul’s School, George Osborne’s alma mater, is the son of Roy Kinnear, the celebrated actor.

He played the MI6 officer Bill Tanner in Skyfall and Quantum of Solace, the James Bond films, and won acclaim for his stage performances in productions of Othello, Mary Stuart and Hamlet.

However, tweets Dr. Who producer, Ed Starling:

Don’t believe what you read about the new #doctorwho being announced this weekend. I think it must be Starburst getting a bit over-excited!

— Ed Stradling (@edstradling) June 8, 2013

Steven Moffat says this morning “I haven’t a clue who it is, we’ve barely started.” So no #doctorwho announcement this evening I fear!

— Ed Stradling (@edstradling) June 8, 2013

Hmmm. A vote in Kinnear’s favor, at as far as I’m concerned, is that he’s at least a bit older than Matt Smith. As an old school Doctor Who fan, I worry that the rampant fan growth among the 18-25 set under Smith will lead to a series of increasingly younger casting choices possibly resulting in the eventual casting of Justin Bieber or a fetus.

However, Stradling did have some interesting things to say about how Smith was cast in Doctor Who in the first place.

Bad Days – Have You Checked Out Stan Lee’s World Of Heroes?

Things did not proceed smoothly here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives home office this morning. Blasted awake at the Crack of Ungodly by well meaning employees of our condo association in the midst of the annual community-wide fire alarm check, Rob and I have been staggering through the remainder of the day in a haze that copious amounts of caffeine and sugar can’t quite seem to cut. We are moments away from breaking out the Jack Daniels, calling the day a wash, and drinking ourselves back to sleep. However, as bad a day as we think we might be having, it’s not as bad as the one Batman is having in this episode of Bad Days, a show that is featured on the YouTube channel for Stan Lee’s World Of Heroes.

I always knew Robin was more trouble than he was worth.

Sayonara, kids. I’m going to crack open this whiskey, settle in for a few Cocktails With Stan, and go back to bed.

Via Geeks Are Sexy