Back in 2021, it was reported that a new live-action Constantine series was in the work for the then-HBO Max (now simply Max) from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions, but now, that project is no more. According to Variety, the Constantine series has officially been scrapped by Max. According to their report, the series had been pretty far along in development with a lead actor in talks to take on the role and four scripts had been written for the contemporary London-set series.

Abrams' Constantine series had been expected to be part of a larger Justice League Dark universe for Max. However, earlier this year, the long-gestating Justice League Dark series was also scrapped, along with another Abrams project, Overlook, a spinoff of The Shining. As for the specific reason why the Constantine series was cancelled, that remains unclear, though most of DC's content now under the leader sup of DC Studios' co-CEOs Peter Safran and James Gunn as well as Constantine 2 moving forward with Keanu Reeves returning to take on the character, both of those factors may have played a significant role.

Constantine Director Recently Offered An Update On The Sequel

Director Francis Lawrence recently offered an update on the long-awaited Constantine sequel, saying that the writers' strike held things up, but the studio has landed the film rights so progress is being made.

"So Constantine 2 got obviously held up by the writers' strike," Lawrence said in a new chat with GameSpot. "And we had to jump through a bunch of hurdles to get control of the character again, because other people had control of the Vertigo stuff. We have control. Keanu and Akiva Goldsman and I have been in meetings and have been hashing out what we think the story is going to be, and there's more meetings of those that have to happen--the script has to be written--but really hoping that we get to do Constantine 2 and make a real rated R version of it."

"One of the biggest things for me about the first one was we followed, per Warner Bros., the rules to make a PG-13 movie in terms of violence, blood, language, sexuality. But the ratings board gave us a hard R based on the gray zone of intensity," Lawrence told Collider last November. "And my big, big regret was that we have an R-rated movie that's really a PG-13 movie. And if I was going to have to go have an R, I would have really made an R-rated movie. I would have made it much scarier and much more violent and I would have really made an R-rated movie."

What do you think about Abrams' Constantine not moving forward? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

DC's The Batman spinoff series, The Penguin, has officially been delayed. According to Deadline, the original spring 2024 launch is being delayed by the WGA and actors' strikes. Decider's Meghan O'Keefe clarified on social media that that delay pushes the series from the expected spring release to fall 2024 with no specific window offered. The Penguin had never actually been given a specific release date.

Okay, now that I'm at a desk. The HBO/Max 2024 slate looks like: pic.twitter.com/JjAJeDfkGi

-- Meghan O'Keefe (@megsokay) November 2, 2023

The Penguin isn't the only series that is being delayed due to the ongoing strike. On Friday it was announced that the third season of The White Lotus is now coming in 2025, as has Stephen King's IT prequel series, Welcome to Derry. There have also been delays of various films as well due to the strikes. The WGA strike concluded in October after 148 days with the writers' union reaching a new agreement with the studios. SAG-AFTR, the actors' union, is reportedly nearing a deal that would get Hollywood back to work, but nothing has been finalized at the time of this article's writing.

HBO and Max Executive Casey Bloys Says The Penguin Will Help Fight Superhero Fatigue

During a recent 2024 programming showcase in New York, Bloys argued that The Penguin and the studio's various DC-inspired television shows have a clear sense of style, something that might not be the case in the stories of other superhero competitors.

"I don't know that it's necessarily tentpole fatigue as much as it is a sameness of storytelling," Bloys explained. "I think the key, even within DC, is trying to tell different stories in different styles, to not try to do the same show over and over and over again. I would say Peacemaker is a very different show tonally than The Penguin. So, there's not a uniformity to the storytelling and I think that helps. Unfortunately, Marvel, as good as their shows are, there's probably been a lot of them. That's one of the advantages we have at Warner Bros. is it's not just one set of stories. There's a lot of stories you can go to."

What Is The Penguin About?

We don't have a tone of details yet about The Penguin, but we do know that the series is expected to be set in the aftermath of the events of The Batman.

"We are thrilled to bring audiences a new version of this iconic DC character that they have never seen before," Sarah Aubrey, Head of Original Content, HBO Max, said in a statement when the show was announced. "It is incredible to be working with Matt, Dylan and Lauren on continuing this story and to see Colin take his already exceptional performance in 'The Batman' to the next level."

"Colin exploded off the screen as the Penguin in 'The Batman,' and having the chance to thoroughly explore the inner life of that character on HBO Max is an absolute thrill," The Batman director Matt Reeves echoed. "Dylan and I are so excited to work with Lauren in continuing Oz's story as he grabs violently for power in Gotham."

The Batman will star Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin and Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, as well as Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Deirdre O'Connell.

The ComicBook Nation Crew breaks down Marvel's ECHO trailer and asks the hard question: Can the MCU recover from the multiple disasters detailed in a new report? Is Loki Season 2 Episode 5 a hopeful indicator that the series will end strong and make this Multiverse Saga make sense?

PLUS: Amazon Prime Video's Gen V hits its finale just as Invincible Season 2 premieres - and we look back at It Follows ten years later as a sequel, They Follow, is announced!

Invincible Season 2 Part 1 Review

ComicBook Nation Guest-host Logan Moore had the following to say in his Invincible Season 2 review:

The first four episodes of Invincible Season 2 feel like they barely scratch the surface of where this series is heading. In fact, the long wait between Episode 4 and 5 is likely the biggest problem that I have with Season 2 so far, as I would have preferred to see all of these episodes release in one go. Despite this, Invincible continues to be one of the best and most unique superhero shows around and almost certainly won't disappoint those who have been counting down the days until its return.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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Kendall and Kylie Jenner celebrated Halloween this year with a pair of themed costumes that served as a throwback to their very early childhood. The celebrity spawn dressed up as Sugar and Spice, Two-Face and the Riddler's molls in Batman Forever. The characters, originally played by Drew Barrymore and Debi Mazar, were the angel and devil on the villains' shoulders during the film (and presumably a welcome distraction for Tommy Lee Jones, who reportedly grew frustrated with Jim Carrey's zany antics behind the scenes during the film's production). In the script, the pair were known as "Leather and Lace," an aesthetic that remained even after the name change.

The Jenners shared some photos on Instagram (and a short clip featuring the costumes to TikTok). In the photos, you can get a good sense for how much effort and expense went into the costumes.

You can see a side-by-side comparison of the original movie versions, and the Jenner costumes, below.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kylie jenner fan page (@kyliecacts)

The characters are part of a long tradition of Batman adaptations bringing on beautiful women to serve in morally gray roles, not too far off from what you might expect from James Bond. After Forever, Schumacher's Batman & Robin featured Vivica A. Fox as Ms. B. Haven, who hung out with Mister Freeze (Arnold Schwazenegger).

Looking back on the movie, Fox said that while she's sorry it didn't resonate better with audiences, she has continued to sign dozens of photos of her Batman and Robin character over the years as fans approach her with 8x10s at the ready.

"I think that was the most popular aspect of the movie -- they liked my costume, and Uma's," Fox joked during a June interview with ComicBook.com.

As for Sugar and Spice, the novelization of Batman Forever reveals that they fled Gotham after their bosses got caught. Presumably, we would have seen that beat take place in the Joel Schumacher cut of the movie; the novelization comes from an earlier draft of the script, and numerous elements that don't make it into the movie, are in the book. While not part of the comic book canon, the characters of Sugar and Spice have since shown up in an Arkhamverse comic, flanking Two-Face in Batman: Arkham City and proving that, in the wide multiverse of DC, almost no characters are truly one-off.

After The Batman became a smash success for Warner Bros. last year, the studio is not slowing down on that side of the DC Universe. A television spinoff, The Penguin, is currently in the works for Max, promising a unique crime drama around Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin (Colin Farrell). While production on The Penguin has been stalled amid the recent Hollywood strikes, it sounds like HBO and Max executive Casey Bloys has a lot of praise for the show. During a 2024 programming showcase in New York, Bloys argued that The Penguin and the studio's various DC-inspired television shows have a clear sense of style, something that might not be the case in the stories of other superhero competitors.

"I don't know that it's necessarily tentpole fatigue as much as it is a sameness of storytelling," Bloys explained. "I think the key, even within DC, is trying to tell different stories in different styles, to not try to do the same show over and over and over again. I would say Peacemaker is a very different show tonally than The Penguin. So, there's not a uniformity to the storytelling and I think that helps. Unfortunately, Marvel, as good as their shows are, there's probably been a lot of them. That's one of the advantages we have at Warner Bros. is it's not just one set of stories. There's a lot of stories you can go to."

What Is The Penguin About?

While plot details surrounding The Penguin are currently under wraps, it is expected to take place in the aftermath of the events of The Batman.

"We are thrilled to bring audiences a new version of this iconic DC character that they have never seen before," Sarah Aubrey, Head of Original Content, HBO Max, said in a statement when the show was announced. "It is incredible to be working with Matt, Dylan and Lauren on continuing this story and to see Colin take his already exceptional performance in 'The Batman' to the next level."

"Colin exploded off the screen as the Penguin in 'The Batman,' and having the chance to thoroughly explore the inner life of that character on HBO Max is an absolute thrill," The Batman director Matt Reeves echoed. "Dylan and I are so excited to work with Lauren in continuing Oz's story as he grabs violently for power in Gotham."

"I have long been a fan of the world of 'The Batman,' and Matt's film is such a powerful and bold entry into the canon. I am excited and humbled to continue telling stories in the grimy world of Gotham City - and what better excuse to channel my inner villain than to tell the story of Oswald Cobblepot? I am thrilled to work with Colin, Matt, Dylan, 6th & Idaho, Warners, and HBO Max as we work to bring this story to the screen," said showrunner Lauren LeFranc.

Who Is the Cast of The Penguin?

The cast of The Penguin includes Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin and Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, as well as Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Deirdre O'Connell.

"The only thing I had an idea was that I wasn't nearly getting to explore the character as much as I wanted to," Farrell explained in a recent interview with Variety. "Because there was all this extraordinary work done by [makeup artists] Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine and his team, and I just thought it was the tip of the iceberg, pardon the pun, that we were getting to do the six or seven scenes that we did in the film. I was grateful for them, but I wanted more."

Are you excited for The Batman's The Penguin spinoff? What do you think of these new comments? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

The Penguin is set to debut exclusively on Max at a later date.

Superman & Lois is officially preparing for its last flight on The CW. On Thursday, the network confirmed that the show will be concluding with its ten-episode fourth season, which was already greenlit earlier this year. While filming on Season 4 of Superman & Lois has not yet begun due to the ongoing Hollywood strikes, The CW claims that the final episodes will air on their network in 2024. Superman & Lois will be, for the foreseeable future, the final DC TV show to air on The CW, a trend that began with Smallville all the way back in 2001.

"Over the last three seasons, SUPERMAN & LOIS redefined both the superhero genre and family drama as Tyler, Elizabeth and the entire cast effortlessly portrayed these classic characters with new layers of depth and complexity that had never before been explored in the Superman universe," said Brad Schwartz, President of Entertainment, The CW Network. "We are grateful for the years of hard work and graceful storytelling from the show's writers, producers, actors and crew, as well as our terrific partners at Warner Bros. Television and Berlanti Productions. As Superman embarks on his final flight, the team is leaving us with an absolutely epic 10-episode must-watch-every-minute farewell to one of the most legendary CW families ever."

"While we're sad to say goodbye to SUPERMAN & LOIS at the end of Season Four, we're grateful for the time we've had with our amazing cast, crew, vfx teams, editors, musical geniuses, and writers. Since the day this show was first discussed, it was about family. And that's what was created-on and off screen," said executive producers and co-showrunners Todd Helbing and Brent Fletcher. "We'd like to thank our partners at Berlanti Productions, DC, WB and The CW for their endless support and enthusiasm during this journey...and give a very special thank you to all the fans for tuning in. We're thrilled about what we have in store in our final season, and can't wait for everyone to watch as Superman, Lois and all our heroes face off against the biggest threat in the show's history-Lex Luthor."

Who Will Return For Superman & Lois Season 4?

Superman & Lois was just one of four original shows that The CW renewed for the 2023-2024 season, in addition to Walker, All-American, and All-American: Homecoming, amid a slew of programming changes made by its new parent company, Nexstar. Shortly after the Season 4 renewal, it was confirmed that the show would be trimming down its cast of series regulars, with Dylan Walsh (Sam Lane), Emmanuelle Chiriqui (Lana Lang), Erik Valdez (Kyle Cushing), Inde Navarette (Sarah Cushin), Wole Parks (John Henry Irons), Tayler Buck (Natalie Irons), and Sofia Hasmik (Chrissy Beppo) all demoted to recurring or guest star roles.

As a result, Tyler Hoechlin (Clark Kent / Superman), Elizabeth Tulloch (Lois Lane), Michael Bishop (Jonathan Kent), and Alex Garfin (Jordan Kent) in their series regular roles for Season 4. Additionally, Michael Cudlitz has been promoted to a series regular role for his portrayal of Lex Luthor.

What do you think of The CW ending Superman & Lois? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Newly released titles generating significant buzz headline last week's top performers, while numerous familiar characters make noteworthy appearances. Rumors continue to circulate regarding a herald of Galactus, and comic-related speculations fuel the demand for books like Lobo and Dazzler. This diverse mix of comics reflects the community's keen interest, offering a promising outlook for the industry. Without further ado, let's dive into this week's Top Ten!

Want to know what comic books are trending each week and why? COVRPRICE.COM uses live sales analytics to identify and compile the most robust market price guide, highlighting the weekly top trending comics. No opinions. Just data. Each week, they present a newly updated list of the TOP 10 COMICS trending in the aftermarket. These trends are due to rumors, fan-favorite covers, story-driven content, and content-related news.

#10: WOLVERINE #36 - RYAN STEGMAN - REGULAR | MARVEL | 2023 | This book took the community by storm the moment it hit local comic shops' shelves. It has continued to make waves as fans eagerly seek the first appearance of Hellverine. Surprisingly, the character's reception has been overwhelmingly positive, with this book remaining in high demand two months after its release. The hype has also extended to other issues in the "Weapons of Vengeance" storyline (see runners-up). The 2nd print 1:25 retailer incentive has already achieved an impressive raw NM FMV of $79 and continues to rise. We tracked it at a high sale of $120 for a CGC 9.8 copy and a current NM FMV of $23.

#9: THE OMEGA MEN #3 | DC | 1983 | Lobo was once an unlikely candidate for a big-screen adaptation, but recent changes in the DCU, spearheaded by James Gunn, have opened up new possibilities. Speculation has swirled around Jason Mamoa's potential portrayal of Lobo, and ambiguous responses from both Mamoa and Gunn have fueled further speculation. The most recent rumor suggests Mamoa's involvement in the upcoming Superman: Legacy project. While nothing is confirmed, fans continue to snatch up this book week after week. We tracked it at a high sale of $380 for a CGC 9.8 copy and a raw NM FMV of $84.

#8: FANTASTIC FOUR #244 | MARVEL | 1982 | The latest MCU rumors have ignited interest in this book, marking the first appearance of Frankie Raye as Nova, a herald of Galactus. Speculation suggests that the first herald we may encounter in the MCU will be female, making this book a focal point of attention. While it's not the Nova from the Nova Corps, but rather a title Frankie assumes as a herald, fans have eagerly anticipated Galactus's arrival since his appearance in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Despite the lack of official confirmation, fans have eagerly picked up this book. We tracked it at a high sale of $460 for a CGC 9.8 copy and a current raw FN FMV of $22.

#7: BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NOBODY SEES #1 - PATRICK HORVATH - COVER A | IDW | 2023 | IDW isn't typically known for its dark and gruesome titles, but this book has defied expectations. It gained immediate attention upon release, with affordable copies quickly disappearing online. The consensus within the community is that this book demands adaptation. Even without substantial content, the concept of anthropomorphic animals confronting a serial killer has captured the imagination. It's a unique blend of horror and the classic animal storybooks of Richard Scarry, attracting a dedicated following. To quote comic enthusiast Patton Oswalt, "FINALLY, MURDER AND FORENSICS ARE ADORABLE!" We tracked it at a high sale of $34 for a raw copy and a current raw NM FMV of $13.

#6: FANTASTIC FOUR #164 | MARVEL | 1975 | While Frankie Raye has already been mentioned, this is the book where she first appears, alongside Crusader (Marvel Boy) before their involvement with Galactus. When rumors began to circulate that the first female herald of Galactus would make her MCU debut, the community quickly embraced this book. Typically, the first appearance of an alter ego fetches higher prices in the aftermarket, but this book takes a different approach. It features the character behind the alter ego (Nova) and commands nearly double the price for a CGC 9.8 copy. This is likely due to the double first appearance and the expectation that Marvel will likely retain the name Frankie Raye but introduce an alternate alter ego name. This book is also less common than #244, reflecting in its pricing. We tracked it at a high sale of $1,000 for a CGC 9.8 copy and a current raw FN FMV of $15.

#5: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES SECRET WARS #8 | MARVEL | 1984 | We'll refrain from spoilers for the recently released Spider-Man 2, but it's safe to say that Venom plays a pivotal role. All the marketing materials feature Venom prominently, along with Spider-Man wearing the iconic black suit in the game. Naturally, fans have revisited one of the most iconic appearances of the Black Suit. While it's not the first appearance of the Black Suit, it is the one most fans associate with it. The suit's iconic status is reflected in aftermarket sales. We tracked it at a high sale of $650 for a CGC 9.8 and a raw VF FMV of $127.

#4: DAZZLER #1 | MARVEL | 1981 | Although there is still no official confirmation, director Shawn Levy's recent comments have reignited speculation about Taylor Swift's possible appearance as Dazzler in Deadpool 3. Levy's response, "That would be a great idea," has energized the excitement surrounding this book. With Taylor Swift's recent rise to billionaire status as a pop star, she is more suitable than ever to portray the character. Fans continue to focus on securing the first issue of her first ongoing solo title rather than her initial appearance, offering a chance to obtain a recalled copy at a more affordable price. We tracked it at a high sale of $277 for a CGC 9.8 and a current raw NM FMV of $21.

#3: SPAWN #1 | IMAGE | 1992 | Spawn consistently ranks as a top performer, frequently appearing on year-end "heaviest mover" lists. While a Spawn movie is in development, Blumhouse Productions CEO Jason Blum recently reaffirmed its release in 2025. The new Spawn film is described as "edgy," creating anticipation among fans. Jason Blum's incentive to push the movie forward may have increased due to the success of Five Nights at Freddy's, which has already grossed over $130 million globally as of this writing. We tracked it at a high sale of $200 for a CGC 9.8 and a current raw NM FMV of $35.

#2: UNIVERSAL MONSTERS: DRACULA #1 - GABRIEL RODRIGUEZ - LUNAR RETAILER THANK YOU (1 PER STORE) | IMAGE | 2023 | The community had this book on its radar for some time. When news spread that James Tynion IV was working on a Dracula project, fans eagerly anticipated its release. Tynion's expertise in horror heightened expectations, and the book coincidentally arrived just before Halloween. A fortunate few secured this 1-per-store "Thank You" variant, one of 11 variants this book received. Those who missed out were determined to acquire a copy on the aftermarket, perfectly timed for the spooky season. We tracked it at a high sale of $50 for a raw copy and a current raw NM FMV of $40.

#1: THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #36 - ARTHUR ADAMS (1:25) | MARVEL | 2023 | This book introduces the Repossessor (Editor's note: In a Marvel Comics solicitation on X, they call him "the repulsive Re-Po"). The Repossessor is a demonic repo man unearthed by Goblin Queen to "reclaim her children." However, that's not the only aspect capturing the community's attention. The 1:25 Arthur Adams variant featuring Black Cat has generated considerable interest. Much like Catwoman and Harley Quinn, Black Cat has a dedicated fanbase that eagerly collects variant covers featuring her. While her appearances may be less frequent, fans are always enthusiastic when she takes center stage. We tracked it at $60 for a raw copy and a current raw NM FMV of $39.

And that's your TOP 10 COMICS OF THE WEEK for 11/1/23! Want to know what your comic books are worth? COVRPRICE.COM offers the ULTIMATE price guide with LIVE ungraded (raw) and graded sales for today's market trends. Manage your collection and track your portfolio's overall value with our robust tracking systems. With a free 10-day trial and several affordable price tiers, discover the value of your comics and sign up today! CHECK OUT THE TOP 10 ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL. PLEASE LIKE & SUBSCRIBE!

Batgirl still has a unique notoriety in the superhero space, after the film was suddenly canceled by Warner Bros. Discovery last year. The DC-inspired project had finished production before the plug was pulled due to cost-cutting initiatives, and fans have mourned the work in the film that won't get to see the light of day. That includes the score composed by Loki and Obi-Wan Kenobi's Natalie Holt, and while speaking to ComicBook.com about her work on Season 2 of Marvel's Loki, she shed some light on what her score would have entailed. Holt also revealed that she reached out to Batman composer Danny Elfman about carrying on the legacy of his Batman theme, which would have been used for Michael Keaton's return.

"I did sort of do a pass on the score," Holt explained in our interview, which you can check out above. "I'd scored it all the way through, and I'd spoken to Danny Elfman, actually. I started working on it and Adil and Bilal said 'We've got Michael Keaton here. We want to use his theme from the eighties.' I was like 'I'd like to just speak to Danny and see if he'd allow me to sort of work with his theme,' because I just thought that would be the best way to do it. My agent got in touch with his agent, and we ended up chatting, and that was the first time I spoke to him. He was just so generous and pleased to be asked. And he said 'It's so nice that you're asking permission and that you want to carry on this character's theme. That feels really good.' So, yeah, he was really excited for me to be playing around with his material. It's very sad that it didn't happen [and that] people didn't get to hear it. But I'm glad I got to meet Danny Elfman."

What Would Batgirl Have Been About?

Batgirl would have followed the origin story of Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Commissioner James Gordon, who becomes a superhero. Barbara has been a beloved part of the DC Comics canon for years, both as Batgirl and as the technology expert Oracle. The film would have starred Leslie Grace as Barbara Gordon, with directing from Ms. Marvel's Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and a script by Birds of Prey and The Flash scribe Christina Hodson. The film would have also shown JK Simmons reprising his role as Commissioner James Gordon, and Michael Keaton reprising his role as Bruce Wayne / Batman. Also joining the cast was Ivory Aquino as Alysia Yeoh, and Jacob Scipio, Rebecca Front, Corey Johnson, and Ethan Kai cast in currently-unknown roles.

Why Was Batgirl Cancelled?

Batgirl was the first of many projects that were canceled or scrapped entirely, with Warner Bros. citing the move as a financial decision, as well as a change in streaming strategy.

"The decision to not release Batgirl reflects our leadership's strategic shift as it relates to the DC universe and HBO Max," a Warner Bros. spokesperson said in a statement when the cancellation was first confirmed. "Leslie Grace is an incredibly talented actor and this decision is not a reflection of her performance. We are incredibly grateful to the filmmakers of Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt and their respective casts and we hope to collaborate with everyone again in the near future."

What do you think of Natalie Holt's new comments about Batgirl's score? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

You'll believe a man can fly... unless you're Nicolas Cage. That's because the actor, who finally brought his 1990s Superman to screen in The Flash, says he didn't film the action sequence where his mulleted Man of Steel fights a giant spider more than 25 years after he was set to star in Tim Burton's Superman Lives. Cage was physically present on set for his cameo in the climax of The Flash, where super speedster Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) sees worlds collide -- literally -- from inside the Chronobowl. Digitally recreated DC superheroes from across the multiverse stand and stare at the collisions, including classic versions of Superman (Christopher Reeve and George Reeves), Supergirl (Helen Slater), Batman (Adam West), and the Jay Garrick Flash.

According to Cage in a new interview for his upcoming A24 film Dream Scenario, "stop and stare" is what his Superman was supposed to do.

"First and foremost, I was on set," Cage told Yahoo Movies. "They did put a lot of time into building the suit ... and I think [Andy Muschietti] is a terrific director, he is a great guy and a great director, and I loved his two It movies. ... What I was supposed to do was literally just be standing in an alternate dimension, if you will, and witnessing the destruction of the universe. Kal-El was bearing witness [to] the end of a universe, and you can imagine with that short amount of time that I had, what that would mean in terms of what I can convey. I had no dialogue [so had to] convey with my eyes the emotion. So that's what I did. I was on set for maybe three hours."

While Cage did suit up for the sequence inspired by writer Kevin Smith's unused Superman Lives script and producer Jon Peters' concept of Cage's Superman battling a "Thanagarian Snare Beast," the actor was surprised to see his digitally de-aged Superman apparently manipulated by CGI.

"When I went to the picture, it was me fighting a giant spider. I did not do that. That was not what I did. I don't think it was [created by] AI. I know Tim [Burton] is upset about AI, as I am. It was CGI, OK, so that they could de-age me, and I'm fighting a spider. I didn't do any of that, so I don't know what happened there," Cage said. He then referenced recent comments by Burton, in which the Batman '89 and Batman Returns director criticized artificial intelligence and studios' ability to "culturally misappropriate" a filmmaker's work.

"I get where Tim's coming from. I know what he means. I would be very unhappy if people were taking my art ... and appropriating them. I get it. I mean, I'm with him in that regard," Cage said. "AI is a nightmare to me. It's inhumane. You can't get more inhumane than artificial intelligence."

Cage continued, "But I don't think it [was] AI [in The Flash]. I just think that they did something with it, and again, it's out of my control. I literally went to shoot a scene for maybe an hour in the suit, looking at the destruction of a universe and trying to convey the feelings of loss and sadness and terror in my eyes. That's all I did."

A well-known comic book fan, Cage previously said he was "satisfied" with his Superman cameo in The Flash and that his take on the Kryptonian Kal-El was inspired by his 1998 supernatural romantic drama City of Angels. Cage told Yahoo he "feel[s] good" that a piece of Superman Lives lived on in The Flash, which "gave that beautiful suit that Colleen Atwood designed a chance to be seen, and I was happy about that because she put a heck of a lot of thought into that series."

The Flash is now streaming on Max.

Sean "Diddy" Combs is not letting legal red tape get in the way of his newest Halloween costume. Early Wednesday morning, Diddy began to share photos and videos of himself in an impressive Batman get-up, complete with a near-perfect recreation of The Dark Knight's trilogy's Batsuit, Tumbler, and Batcave. This comes after Diddy received cease and desist memos of some kind from Warner Bros. Pictures for sporting a Joker Halloween costume in 2022 inspired by Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight. Diddy had taken to social media on Tuesday night to indicate that Warner Bros.' legal situation had "f-ck[ed] up" his Halloween, but now we know that isn't the case.

Diddy released a short film of sorts to unveil his Batman costume, which you can check out below. Captioned "#TheDarkestKnight", it sees Diddy monologuing as Batman (to a pint-sized Lucius Fox), before arriving at a studio executive's office and asking him to end the ongoing SAG-AFTRA actors' strike.

#TheDarkestKnight pic.twitter.com/oNHTkZVurD

-- LOVE (@Diddy) November 1, 2023

"Breaking Halloween news: last year after I did the Black Joker, I got a bunch of emails from the studio telling me to not be the Joker anymore, that I was breaching the trademark. So I don't know what I'm going to be this year," Diddy previously said in the original Instagram video. "To the motherf-cker that took all this time... to tell me not to be the Joker, you win. I'm not going to be the Joker this year because your ass had enough time to f-ck up my motherf-cking Halloween."

Why Did Diddy Dress Up as The Joker?

Prior to that Instagram video, Diddy appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to speak about suiting up as the Joker during Halloween 2022, and trolled Warner Bros. about possibly doing so again. Diddy's costume, which was inspired by Heath Ledger's portrayal of the character from 2008's The Dark Knight, was so spot-on that he actually got into a fight with Power actor Michael J. Ferguson, who was not aware that he was under the costume.

"Last year I was the Joker, and I actually got a letter from the studio that I can no longer be the Joker because they said it broke their trademark that I did it too good, I swear," Diddy said. "I have this letter from Warner Brothers... Tomorrow, Warner Brothers lawyers, can you see me? Put this camera on me right here. Head of legal, tomorrow, watch what I do."

What Is the Next Batman Movie About?

The Brave and the Bold is confirmed to star Bruce Wayne / Batman and Damian Wayne / Robin, with DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran teasing that the film might feature other characters from the larger "Bat-family." Plot details beyond that are currently unknown at this time.

"This is the introduction of the DCU's Batman..." Gunn explained to reporters in January of this year. "This is the story of Damian Wayne, who is Batman's actual son who we didn't know existed for the first eight to 10 years of his life. He was raised as a little murderer and assassin. He's a little son of a bitch. He's my favorite Robin. It's based on the Grant Morrison comic book's run, which is one of my favorite Batman runs, and we are putting that all together right now."

"And this is obviously a feature film, and it's going to feature other members of the extended 'Bat-family', just because we feel like they've been left out of the Batman stories in the theater for far too long," Safran added.

What do you think of Diddy's Batman costume? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Earlier this year, Warner Bros. Discovery started licensing some of its biggest films and TV shows to other streaming services, a move that saw a slew of live-action DC movies end up on Amazon's Prime Video. The Batman, Joker, Wonder Woman, and quite a few others suddenly appeared on Prime Video in September. The four Batman films from the '80s and '90s were among that lineup, but they exited Prime Video after a short time. Now, starting Wednesday, they're back.

The November lineup for Prime Video saw quite a few titles heading to the streaming service, many of which arrived at the start of the month on Wednesday. On November 1st, all four of the original Batman films returned to Prime Video. 1989's Batman movie, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin are all now available on the service, along with the Halle Berry Catwoman film.

Just Added to Prime Video

The DC movies are just a handful of the films that arrived on Prime Video at the start of November. Here's the full list of titles that hit the streaming service on November 1st:

10 Things I Hate About You
12 Dates of Christmas
17 Again
2 Fast 2 Furious
A Christmas in Vermont
A Christmas Wedding Tail
A Family Thing
A Home of Our Own
All The President's Men
Allan Quatermain And The Lost City Of Gold
Along Came a Spider
An American In Paris
Annapolis
Bad Influence
Batman
Batman & Robin
Batman Forever
Batman Returns
Braveheart
Breakheart Pass
Catwoman
Chaplin
Chicago
Christmas Cupid
Christmas with the Kranks
Coffy
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop
Courageous
Crank
Deck The Halls
Desperate Hours
Dom Hemingway
Eight Crazy Nights
Fast & Furious
Fast Five
Fat Albert
Fatal Attraction
Foxy Brown
Ghosting: The Spirit Of Christmas
Heaven Is For Real
Hollow Man
Hope Springs
How to Train Your Dragon
Igor
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park III
Just Go With It
Killing Them Softly
Knight And Day
Little Fockers
Love & Other Drugs
Man of the West
Master And Commander: The Far Side of the World
Meet the Fockers
Meet the Parents
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Mortal Kombat (2021)
No Way Out
Notting Hill
Radio Days
Raging Bull
Richie Rich's Christmas Wish
Same Time, Next Christmas
Scrooged
Shark Tale
She-Devil
Showgirls
Surviving Christmas
That Awkward Moment
The Babysitter
The Bodyguard
The Dogs Of War
The Eiger Sanction
The Fast and the Furious
The Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift
The Fault in Our Stars
The Gospel According to Andr?
The Horse Soldiers
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Package
The Perfect Holiday
The Prince of Egypt
The Running Man
The Terminal
The Uninvited
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
Two Weeks
Uncle Buck
Unforgiven
Untamed Heart
Valkyrie
Veggietales: Christmas Sing-Along Songs!
Veggietales: It's A Meaningful Life
Veggietales: Merry Larry and the True Light of Christmas
Veggietales: Saint Nicholas - A Story of Joyful Giving
Veggietales: The Best Christmas Gift
Veggietales: The Little Drummer Boy
Veggietales: The Star of Christmas
Veggietales: The Toy That Saved Christmas
Vera Cruz
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Wild Hogs
Windtalkers
Witness For The Prosecution
You Again

With November starting and fans scrambling to figure out which streaming service now has their favorite movie or TV show, Netflix is getting a jump on next month already. The streaming giant announced via social media that numerous "DC Extended Universe" movies are coming to Netflix on December 1, including the first DC projects directed by both Zack Snyder (Man of Steel) and James Gunn (The Suicide Squad).

Netflix will bring Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League, Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman 1984, and The Suicide Squad to the platform next month. It's unlikely they will be exclusive to the platform, with several DC movies having already turned up Prime Video and other non-Max streaming services but remaining on Max as well.

The movies represent more than half of the DC movies created during the time when Zack Snyder was a credited producer, but they're missing some key installments. Aquaman, the highest-grossing DCEU movie, isn't there, and neither is The Flash or Zack Snyder's Justice League. Both Shazam! movies are also absent, as is Black Adam.

Blue Beetle, with a lead character who will return in the new DC Universe from producers James Gunn and Peter Safran, is also not there...but that movie just came out on Blu-ray yesterday, so it's hard to imagine Warners wanting to give up their exclusivity window this soon.

As you might expect Snyder's hardcore fans are annoyed that the loathed theatrical cut of Justice League is going out to such a wide audience.

DC Films launched with Man of Steel, and never really caught up to Marvel, which was dominating the film industry at the time. When Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice failed to break the $1 billion mark, Warner Bros. clearly started to panic, began interfering with the movies, and the result was an unmitigated disaster.

Some blame goes to filmmakers and concepts that weren't connecting with audiences, but a lot should go to Warners' failed attempts at management, which reportedly created contentious, insecure sets and resulted in at least two major movies -- Suicide Squad and Justice League -- being taken away from their directors and sliced up by the studio, then released in a form that guaranteed poor reception from fans and critics. After Snyder left Justice League, the writing was on the wall, but it took about another 5 years before Warners would officially put this version of the DC Universe out to multiversal pasture and announce a Superman reboot, due in theaters in 2025.

The Flash star Grant Gustin joins Ryan Reynolds in another hilarious ad spot for MNTN. CW's The Flash may be over with, but its loyal fanbase will always look at Gustin as the Scarlet Speedster in any of his future projects. One of those projects comes in the form of an MNTN ad alongside Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds. MNTN bills itself as "the hardest working software in TV," so it only makes sense to recruit Grant Gustin to let advertisers see the results of their campaigns instantly - or as Gustin's Seymour Roas would say - in a flash.

Ryan Reynolds welcomes Grant Gustin's Seymour Roas, the Chief Performance Officer at MNTN, to audiences in the new video spot. "I'm in charge of performance," Roas says. "We believe TV should be bought targeted and measured like search or social, the other performance channels." Reynolds replies with, "That sounds fast," a nod to Gustin as DC's The Flash. However, Roas doesn't go along with the bit, playing dumb to what Reynolds is alluding to.

"Why are you staring at me?" Roas asks Reynolds. "I thought this would be more fun," Reynolds adds.

What is MNTN's performance technology?

MNTN's Performance TV technology and first-of-its-kind self-serve ad platform allows advertisers to buy, target and measure Connected TV ads as easily as on search and social - making it faster than traditional TV buying. Advertisers average over 7X ROAS for every dollar spent on the MNTN platform -- performing right alongside paid search and social. MNTN also comes with real time reporting, letting advertisers see the results of their campaigns instantly - or as Seymour Roas would say - in a flash.

As part of the 360-campaign introducing Seymour Roas, that includes paid media, MNTN created an installation at Advertising Week to recognize Seymour as MNTN's Employee of the Month, with the promise to endorse those who add him on LinkedIn for the same. Four additional spots with Seymour Roas were released as part of this campaign introducing Seymour Roas to the world and can be viewed at mountain.com/roas.

Chris Pratt and Rob McElhenney celebrate Ryan Reynolds' birthday

Rob McElhenney celebrated Ryan Reynolds' birthday with a new prank featuring Chris Pratt. Reynolds and McElhenney are the co-owners of the Wrexham professional football team in north Wales, and have made quite a habit out of posting hilarious videos on social media where they prank each other. Their newest bit came at the expense of Reynolds, who celebrated his 47th birthday this month. This time, a park is being cleaned up and dedicated to Ryan Reynolds in the heart of Wrexham, aptly titled the Ryan Rodney Reynolds Memorial Park.

The Ryan Reynolds birthday video starts with a very tired-looking Chris Pratt sitting across a table from Rob McElhenney. After Pratt asks why he's there, McElhenney fills the Guardians of the Galaxy star in on how he and Reynolds are always doing elaborate stunts for each other's birthdays. Well this year, McElhenney's idea revolves around a park, and who better to be involved with that than the former star of Parks and Recreation, Chris Pratt? Cue the Parks and Recreation theme music!

Barbie has easily been one of the biggest phenomenons in recent months, with a slew of attention and over $1 billion grossed at the global box office. The Warner Bros. film was unafraid to poke fun at some elements of popular culture -- and it sounds like one almost took on a very different shape. During a recent appearance at the Writers Guild of America West headquarters, Barbie director and co-writer Greta Gerwig revealed that the film's reference to the "Snyder Cut" of Justice League -- with Barbie (Alexandra Shipp) admitting she felt like she was "very invested" in the film while brainwashed by the hyper-masculine Kens -- wasn't in the original script. Instead, there was actually a line referencing 1982's Blade Runner, and the infamous debate over its voiceover element.

"One of the Barbies says to Ken, 'Oh my god, I never would have realized that Deckard was a replicant,'" Gerwig recalled with a laugh. "Then when she gets unbrainwashed, there's a version where she said, 'I liked the voiceover. I needed it to help me understand what was happening. Nobody's following this.'"

According to co-writer Noah Baumbach, there were very brief plans to include Blade Runner director Ridley Scott in Barbie in a cameo appearance, but it did not pan out.

"It wasn't making fun of him. We loved him as we love all of our references," Baumbach said, with Gerwig adding, "Every reference we had was out of love. We love Sly Stallone. Everything was a lighters-up tribute."

Why Did Barbie Reference the Snyder Cut?

As Gerwig explained to ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview, the reference to Zack Snyder's Justice League in Barbie felt like a natural thing to include in the finished film.

"Because I don't have a dog in this fight, I didn't even really know, I knew it was a thing," Gerwig explained. "I don't know the contours of all the ins and outs. But it's the kind of thing that I vaguely know. But I think that was the thing, that it was like if [Writer Barbie] had a vague knowledge of, and then all of a sudden in a certain state, it really meant a lot to her, and then it went away."

Will There Be a Barbie Sequel?

According to a recent report from The Hollywood Reporter, there are currently no options or deals in place for Gerwig and stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling to return for a Barbie sequel. Robbie, in particular, is reportedly not obligated to return to her role of Stereotypical Barbie, but could return as a producer on a Barbie sequel if she wanted to.

As the report outlines, Warner Bros. Pictures "made overtures" about Gerwig possibly returning to direct a Barbie sequel, but her team delayed those talks until the first film's debut. With negotiations around new projects on hold until the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are over, there's a chance that Gerwig, Robbie, and Gosling could return for a new Barbie movie -- but they would probably have to negotiate much more lucrative contracts, in response to the film's box office performance. Gerwig has indicated that she currently does not have any ideas for a sequel film.

"At this moment, it's all I've got," Gerwig revealed. "I feel like that at the end of every movie, like I'll never have another idea and everything I've ever wanted to do, I did. I wouldn't want to squash anybody else's dream but for me, at this moment, I'm at totally zero."

Would you have wanted to see Barbie poke fun at Blade Runner instead of Zack Snyder's Justice League? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Tie-in comics are odd things. When they're tie-ins connected to event series, it's one thing because you're dealing with stories and characterizations that exist in the larger continuity and will arguably continue beyond that issue and story but when it's a movie tie-in, things are different. These are stories that are more or less one-offs. They're stories with lower stakes and less impact and, in the case of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Special #1, may not matter much beyond its specific moment in time anyway. As fans of DC's live-action films already know, the upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is the last in the DCEU continuity with new stories on the horizon with DC Films. This particular take on Arthur Curry is one we're not likely to see again. But for all of that, this tie-in is a surprisingly solid read and one that doesn't rely too much on the first Aquaman film to be interesting, sets a strong stage for the upcoming sequel, and manages to be a pretty good Aquaman story over all.

The comic book is actually comprised of three stories - one focusing on Aquaman, one focusing on Black Manta, and one focusing on Orm. In the first, from writer Tim Seeley and artist Miguel Mendonca, readers catch up with Arthur, now part of the Justice League, in the lead up to his wedding to Mera where he inadvertently creates yet another villain. This time it is an assassin named Charybdis whose partner-in-crime and wife, Scylla, is accidentally killed when Arthur addresses an anti-meta bomb. With Charybdis now possessing powers of his own, he goes mad and right after Aquaman for revenge. It's a silly little plot that is eerily like Black Manta's origin, but it's functional and out of it readers get some well-crafted human moments with the characters - there are some beautifully written moments with Arthur's parents as well as with Vulko and even Mera is well written. Seeley also seems to get Arthur in a way that makes him both fun and poignant so the story features more than cringe to read. It's a little on the long side, but it's nice overall.

The second story in the issue is from writer Joey Esposito and artist Ray-Anthony Height and centers on Black Manta; it is genuinely the best story in the issue. Readers find Black Manta planning his assault on Atlantis and it's intense, it's dark, it's complicated but it delves into Manta's psyche in a way I haven't really seen before. There are some deeply personal reasons that Manta hates Arthur and this story richly explores them without coming across in a way that cheapens Manta as a character. The art is also fantastic.

The third, Orm-centric story comes from Ethan Sacks and artist Scot Eaton and gives readers an insight into what life has been like for Arthur's half-brother while imprisoned under Atlantis. Although the character was the primary villain of the first movie, this story gives him a bit more humanity than one might expect - even as he plans escape. It definitely feels like the story is laying the groundwork for the character to switch sides, as it were, in the sequel. It's a solid enough story and it might be the story in this tie-in that feels the most like it might be "required" reading.

Overall, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Special #1 is a surprisingly solid comic book. All three stories in the issue are good reads, though the Black Manta offering is probably the best of the trio. It leaves the reader with the sense that maybe the story that the Aquaman movies is trying to tell could be better suited for page than screen in the future. While it will certainly be interesting to see where the seeds planted by this unusual tie-in issue may go, it is one worth reading on its own.

Published by DC Comics

On October 31, 2023

Written by Tim Seeley, Joey Esposito, and Ethan Sacks

Art by Miguel Mendonca, Ray-Anthony Height, Scot Eaton, and Norm Rapmund

Colors by Andrew Dalhouse, Eren Angiolini, and Tony Avina

Letters by Wes Abbott, Josh Reed, and Carlos M. Mangual

Cover by Ivan Reis, Danny Mikki, and Brad Anderson

There are a lot of elements of Halloween that people look forward to, from the deluge of candy to the wide array of costumes. As celebrities continue to step out in impressive and surprising duds, it looks like Diddy's plans for the holiday have been slightly dashed. On Tuesday night, Sean "Diddy" Combs took to Instagram to reveal that he received cease and desists of some kind from Warner Bros. Pictures, with regards to his Joker costume that he wore in a 2022. As a result, the rapper and actor seemingly confirmed that he will not be dressing up as the Joker anymore for this year's Halloween, but he is not happy with how the situation has progressed.

"Breaking Halloween news: last year after I did the Black Joker, I got a bunch of emails from the studio telling me to not be the Joker anymore, that I was breaching the trademark. So I don't know what I'm going to be this year," Diddy said. "To the motherf-cker that took all this time... to tell me not to be the Joker, you win. I'm not going to be the Joker this year because your ass had enough time to f-ck up my motherf-cking Halloween."

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Why Did Diddy Dress Up as The Joker?

Prior to that Instagram video, Diddy appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to speak about suiting up as the Joker during Halloween 2022, and trolled Warner Bros. about possibly doing so again. Diddy's costume, which was inspired by Heath Ledger's portrayal of the character from 2008's The Dark Knight, was so spot-on that he actually got into a fight with Power actor Michael J. Ferguson, who was not aware that he was under the costume.

"Last year I was the Joker, and I actually got a letter from the studio that I can no longer be the Joker because they said it broke their trademark that I did it too good, I swear," Diddy said. "I have this letter from Warner Brothers... Tomorrow, Warner Brothers lawyers, can you see me? Put this camera on me right here. Head of legal, tomorrow, watch what I do."

What Is Joker 2 about?

The Joker will next be seen onscreen in Warner Bros.' Joker: Folie a Deux, which will be a musical that follows the twisted romance between Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck / Joker and Gaga's Harley Quinn, with a lot of the film reportedly taking place within Arkham Asylum. The film will also feature appearances from Zazie Beetz, Brendon Gleeson, Catherine Keener, and Jacob Lofland.

"I actually think it makes wonderful sense," Beetz said of the film being a musical in an interview last year. "I wasn't really surprised by that Todd has always had a creative approach to the character. I love musicals, and I think of them as the characters are feeling and experiencing so much that they can only sing and dance about it, whether in sorrow or in joy. And I can actually see that within myself as well, because singing and dancing is quite a cathartic experience for me. I was going through a really, really difficult time at one point in my life, and I just started dancing and crying by myself. And that was an expression that matched where I was at that moment. And so, I can see Arthur, who is feeling and experiencing so much, dancing and singing about it. He's the Joker, so I think it makes sense to me."

Joker 2 is already being teased as "risky" by the film's cinematographer. In a new interview with Definition Magazine, Lawrence Sher shared news that Todd Phillips' big follow-up to Joker is already in post-production (credit to Home of DCU). It feels like Joker: Folie ? Deux could be a big hit next year. With so little VFX work compared to other movies in the genre, being ready to roll just as things seem to be clearing up with the actors' strike is a great sign. Just this month we've had multiple projects bow out of 2024 because of the hinderances brought on by the work stoppage and the studios digging their heels in. Now, Joaquin Phoenix's iconic take of the DC Comics villain sounds not only close to completion, but also more daring than even the first movie. Check out what the cinematographer had to say down below.

"Next year we're releasing the new Joker movie, and we're currently in the final stages of post-production," Sher explained in the interview. "It's a pretty risky movie and it's going to be surprising for people. I'm so excited for everyone to see it."

How Does Lady Gaga Fit Into Joker 2?

Joker: Folie ? Deux's cinematographer has been giving interviews sporadically this year. Sher told The Trenches Talk podcast about Phoenix's new co-star Lady Gaga. Her acting style can be a little unorthodox. Gaga's really named Stefani Germanotta off the stage. But, during production of the DC Comic sequel, she had something else that she wanted people involved to call her.

"I didn't know at all," Sher began. "Strangely, I felt like I never even met her, even during the makeup and hair tests. Maybe it was my philosophy of not trying to get in their space. I remember for a week, being like, 'God, I feel like we are disconnecting. Not even connecting. We are like on opposites.' And I would say to my crew, 'Jesus, I can't, like, crack it. She either hates me or we hate each other. There's something weird going on here.'"

"I barely said anything, except I would say, 'Stefani, this is where your second team was, minor little things,' and then the AD at one point said, 'Oh you know, Stef would like if you just called her Lee on set,'" Sher added. "The next thing I said, was something 'Lee,' and it was like everything changed. From that point on, it was like she was... our whole connection changed. I was like, alright, cool."

How Did Joker 2 Become A Thing?

In short, because Joker absolutely crushed at the box office. When the success became apparent for Warner Bros. it seemed like a no-brainer to go ahead and pursue Joker 2. Todd Phillips was down for the journey as well. The movie got nominated for Academy Awards and managed to bring in one win for Joaquin Phoenix. So, both fans and the studio are more than a little bit amped up for the sequel.

"When a movie does $1 billion and cost $60 million to make, of course it comes up," Phillips explained with a laugh in a 2020 interview about a sequel. "But Joaquin and I haven't really decided on it. We're open. I mean, I'd love to work with him on anything, quite frankly. So who knows? But it would have to have a real thematic resonance the way this one did, ultimately being about childhood trauma and the lack of love, and the loss of empathy. All those things are really what made this movie work for us, so we'd have to have something that had an equal thematic resonance."

Are you excited for Joker 2? Let us know down in the comments!

The ComicBook Nation Crew takes on the epic challenge of ranking all 15 movies in the DCEU - from the worst to the best. Want to know where YOUR favorite DCEU movies ended up on each host's list? Or which host shares the same taste in DC movies that you do? Listen to the episode for the full breakdown - and/or check the image gallery below to see each ComicBook Nation host's picks:

Does it make a difference that we're doing these DCEU rankings before Aquaman 2 is released? Not Really, since the franchise is basically over - as James Gunn and DC Studios reboot the new DC Universe franchise, starting with Superman: Legacy.

Every DCEU Movie

1. Man of Steel (2013)
2. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
3. Suicide Squad (2016)
4. Wonder Woman (2017)
5. Justice League (2017)
6. Aquaman (2018)
7. Shazam! (2019
8. Birds of Prey (2020)
9. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
10. Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
11. The Suicide Squad (2021)
12. Black Adam (2022)
13. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
14. The Flash (2023)
15. Blue Beetle (2023)

Our DCEU Movie Rankings

Connor Casey

Janell Wheeler

Kofi Outlaw

Matthew Aguilar

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Each episode has a deep dive into the current biggest discussion topics and debates within geek culture: movies, tv, comics, and video games are regular features, with genres like sci-fi, anime, and wrestling also featured regularly. The ONLY show covering ALL THINGS Geek Culture!

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While most DC content is available on Max, there are some comic adaptations outside of the world of the Justice League and other iconic heroes over at Netflix. The Sandman, Sweet Tooth, and the upcoming Dead Boy Detectives are all based on DC Comics in addition to the streaming site's new show, Bodies. The series dropped on Netflix last week, and it currently has an 82% critics score and 79% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Bodies is a graphic novel that was written by Si Spencer with art by Phil Winslade, Tula Lotay, Meghan Hetrick, and Dean Ormston.

If you're hoping to read Bodies, the eighth-issue miniseries is currently out of print, but according to Amazon, a reprint is being released on October 31st due to the show's popularity. You can read DC.com's description of the comic below:

"The eight-issue miniseries is collected in one volume! Vertigo brings you a mystery with four detectives, four time periods, and four dead bodies - all set in London. Edmond Hillinghead is an 1890s overachiever who's trying to solve a murder no one cares about while hiding his own secret. Karl Whiteman is our dashing 1940s adventurer with a shocking past. Shahara Hasan is 2014's kickass female Detective Sergeant, who walks the line between religion and power. And Maplewood, an amnesiac from post-apocalyptic 2050, brings a haunting perspective to it all."

Will Bodies Get a Season 2:

Bodies is currently listed as a limited series, which means it is not expected to get a second season. This is not surprising considering the source material was also short. In a new interview with Hello!, Bodies writer Paul Tomalin confirmed there are no current plans to continue the show.

"We went to Netflix like 'this is one series, this is a one and done, we wanna close this off' because I think when you have such an amazing concept up front, you [expletive] your audience off if you don't solve it," Tomalin explained. "As the viewer, I hate it when you get this amazing thing, and at the end it's like, 'duh, duh, duh,' and you're like 'right so I've got to wait a year and a half'. I think it's a duty to an audience with something that's this propulsive as a story concept to end it and solve it. So, we really wanted you to feel that you'd seen the red curtain at the end. That being said, when you see the back end, there's certainly a dot dot dot. But the premise that the show sets comes to an end. And it was a privilege to be like, well, if it doesn't get a second season, then this is the meal, there's the dessert, there's the coffee. It's the whole thing. Closure."

Bodies is now streaming on Netflix.

The release date for DC's Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earth - Part 1 movie may be revealed. Warner Bros. Discovery and DC announced it would adapt the epic DC crossover event into an animated film at this year's San Diego Comic-Con panel during a panel for the R-rated Justice League: Warworld movie (alongside the announcement of an R-rated, animated Watchmen movie). The studio billed both direct-to-home-media films for release in 2024. If the new listing on Amazon France is to be believed, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths with be a film in two (or more?) parts, with the first arriving early in the year. More specifically, Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One is listed as releasing on January 24th.

We still don't know any further details about DC's Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths movies, with the voice cast still to be named. However, with James Gunn, new co-head of DC Studios, hinting at more interconnectivity between DC's live-action and animated projects going forward, some fans wonder if the Crisis on Infinite Earths and Watchmen movies could be the last hurrah for DC's long-running line of animated movies.

What is Crisis on Infinite Earths?

Crisis on Infinite Earths was a comic book crossover event published by DC Comics in 1985. It is considered by many to be the template for all such major crossover events to follow. Marv Wolfman wrote the 12-part series with the late, great George P?rez providing the artwork.

Crisis on Infinite Earths was timed to coincide with the celebration of DC's 50th anniversary and simultaneously streamline the convoluted continuity the company had created over those five decades. Wolfman hoped to do away with DC's multiverse and replace it with a single timeline friendlier to new readers.

Crisis on Infinite Earth's story revolves around the threat of the Anti-Monitor, a villain from the anti-matter universe existing opposite the DC universe. The Anti-Monitor wanted to destroy all realities in DC's multiverse. The Monitor - whom Wolfman and P?rez introduced in their run on New Teen Titans -- is revealed to be the Anti-Monitor's positive-matter universe counterpart. He gathers heroes and villains from across all realities to stand against the Anti-Monitor. Several DC heroes die, including The Flash (Barry Allen) and Supergirl, while others vanish as if they never existed. The Anti-Monitor is partially successful, destroying the multiverse, but a new universe replaces the ones that were lost, taking on some characters from those perished timelines.

DC has published various sequels to Crisis on Infinite Earths in the years since the original, to the point that DC Universe characters now refer to them in-universe as "Crisis Events." Those stories include 2005's Infinite Crisis, 2008's Final Crisis, and 2022's Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths. DC's Arrowverse shows created their version of Crisis on Infinite Earths with the multi-episode, multi-show "Crisis on Infinite Earths" event in 2019 spanning Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and Batwoman episodes.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths releases in 2024. DC's newest animated movie, Justice League: Warworld, premiered at Comic-Con and is available now on Digital, 4K Ultra HD, and Blu-ray.

Come Hell or high water, Francis Lawrence is going to see Constantine 2 through to release. The filmmaker has expressed plenty of interest in filming the long-awaited sequel and now says the studio has once again landed the film rights to John Constantine, clearing the way for the film to be made.

"So Constantine 2 got obviously held up by the writers strike," Lawrence said in a new chat with GameSpot. "And we had to jump through a bunch of hurdles to get control of the character again, because other people had control of the Vertigo stuff. We have control. Keanu and Akiva Goldsman and I have been in meetings and have been hashing out what we think the story is going to be, and there's more meetings of those that have to happen--the script has to be written--but really hoping that we get to do Constantine 2, and make a real rated R version of it."

The director has been increasingly candid in his desires to make the film a legitimate R-rated movie, saying the MPA only gave the first picture the rating because of its religious undertones.

"One of the biggest things for me about the first one was we followed, per Warner Bros., the rules to make a PG-13 movie in terms of violence, blood, language, sexuality. But the ratings board gave us a hard R based on their the gray zone of intensity," Lawrence told Collider last November. "And my big, big regret was that we have an R-rated movie that's really a PG-13 movie. And if I was going to have to go have an R, I would have really made an R-rated movie. I would have made it much scarier and much more violent and I would have really made an R-rated movie."

Should the movie get made, it'd also likely be a part of the new DC Elseworlds offering, existing in a continuity outside of the new DC Universe. Other films that will eventually receive the Elseworlds branding are Matt Reeves' The Batman: Part II and Todd Phillips' Joker: Folie a Deux.

Constantine is now streaming on Max. The sequel has yet to set a release date or release frame at DC Studios.

The ComicBook Nation Crew is Reeling from that massive twist in Loki Season 2 Episode 4, and share their Favorite movies to watch during Halloween! There are also some juicy new Deadpool 3 updates from director Shawn Levy, a recap of Gen V's penultimate episode twists, reactions to Marvel's bold new take on Ultimate Spider-Man, and a review of the new scary(?) movie, Five Nights at Freddy's!

Five Nights at Freddy's Review

In her 2.5 (out of 5) star review of Five Nights at Freddy's, Megan Peters said the following:

Since the release of Five Nights at Freddy's nearly a decade ago, the franchise has become a giant with horror lovers. This means expectations for its movie adaptation were high, and sadly, Five Nights at Freddy's did not meet them. The film's sanitized scares strips the franchise of its legendary tension. When paired with its muddled story, the only thing that kept Five Nights at Freddy's afloat for me was its filmography and Easter eggs. Even with its flaws, the film will likely impress young fans who've yet to develop a tolerance for horror. But, as for older fans, well - they will have no problem surviving their visit to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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Richard Moll, a prolific actor known for his work on Night Court, But I'm a Cheerleader, and Batman: The Animated Series, has passed away at the age of 80. The news was confirmed in a statement from Moll's publicist, revealing that his death occurred peacfully on Thursday, October 26th at his home in Big Bear Lake, California. Moll is perhaps best known for playing the fan-favorite bailiff Aristotle Nostradamus "Bull" Shannon on the original Night Court, which ran from 1984 to 1992. He also had a career in voice acting, portraying Harvey Dent / Two-Face in shows like Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures.

Moll was born Charles Richard Moll in Pasadena, California on January 13, 1943. He was known for his tall stature throughout his life, after he reached 6 ft tall by the age of twelve. Moll made his onscreen debut in the 1977 movie Brigham, in which he portrayed Latter Day Saint founder Joseph Smith. His subsequent appearances would include Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, Hard Country, Caveman, and The Sword and the Sorcerer. Moll was cast on Night Court in the mid-1980s, portraying Bull throughout the show's run, as well as in advertisements for Washington's Lottery.

"He's got a menacing exterior that can scare anybody, but you can tell right away that he's just a big, good-hearted guy," Moll said in a 1986 interview with Courier-Post. "Some weeks, I just have a few lines and I try to deliver them well so they mesh with the storyline of that episode. And then there are the weeks when my character is the major part of the whole story. It varies throughout the year but, first and foremost, the six of us realize that we're an ensamble. We have to work together; we have to be a family."

While starring on Night Court, Moll also appeared in the horror movie House, as well as Pulse Pounders, Santa Barbara, 227, The Munsters Today, and Martin. He also portrayed a fictionalized version of himself in a two-episode stint on The Facts of Life. Shortly after Night Court's conclusion, Moll portrayed Two-Face for the first time, as well as Scorpion in the Spider-Man animated series, Java in the Justice League animated series, Abomination in The Incredible Hulk, and Vorn the Unspeakable in Freakazoid!.

Moll's later work included 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, But I'm a Cheerleader, Scary Movie 2, Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster, and Sorority Party Massacre. He also portrayed Mr. Moore in the Smallvile episode "Nocturne." He also lent his voice to a number of video games, including the original Fallout, Outlaws, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, and Dante's Inferno.

Moll is posthumously attached to Whispers and Shadows and the upcoming documentary Celluloid Wizards in the Video Wasteland: The Saga of Empire Pictures.

Our thoughts are with Moll's family, friends, and fans at this time.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which has been moved around Warner Bros.' schedule so often it has become a social media meme, has been delayed one (presumably) final time. Now, instead of opening on Wednesday, December 20, the movie will debut on December 22 -- giving it a normal, 3-day opening weekend. No big releases are debuting on December 20 or December 22, so it seems the most significant impact of this will be to give Wonka, out December 15 and also a big Warner Bros. movie, a little bit more room to breathe.

The delay comes as the press cycle for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is starting to really ramp up, with a recent cover story on Empire magazine. That feature, which included an interview with director James Wan, was aimed in part at combating the narrative that the production has been troubled.

Recent reports suggested that the movie has struggled with test audiences, that they have had to do numerous rounds of reshoots, and that conflicts between stars Jason Momoa and Amber Heard made for a pretty toxic working environment. Wan rejects all of that, saying that he struggles not to publicly correct bad reporting.

"I've had to learn to be more Zen in dealing with all the noise around me, for sure," James Wan told Empire magazine. "I'm a pretty private person. I don't get on social media and have fights, but it's difficult because this narrative has emerged that is not the reality. The noise is fun to write about, and it gets clicks, but people don't know the truth."

During the course of making Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, DC has been in a state of seemingly-constant chaos. Halfway through, James Gunn and Peter Safran took over the studio, and started charting out a new direction for the brand as a whole. According to Wan, though, none of that really impacted Aquaman in the way some have claimed.

Having failed to defeat Aquaman the first time, Black Manta, still driven by the need to avenge his father's death, will stop at nothing to take Aquaman down once and for all. This time Black Manta is more formidable than ever before, wielding the power of the mythic Black Trident, which unleashes an ancient and malevolent force. To defeat him, Aquaman will turn to his imprisoned brother Orm, the former King of Atlantis, to forge an unlikely alliance. Together, they must set aside their differences in order to protect their kingdom and save Aquaman's family, and the world, from irreversible destruction.

"We probably did seven or eight days [of reshoots," Wan said, "which is nothing for a movie of this size. It was just spread out because it's so hard to get your actors back once you've finished the initial shoot."

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be in theaters on December 22.

McFarlane Toys is set to release a DC Multiverse figure and vehicle set that includes Lobo, his Spacehog ride, and his alien dog buddy. It will include chain and guitar accessories as well as an alternate head. Note that McFarlane Toys previously released a standalone DC Rebirth Lobo figure, but this set comes with the bike, the additional accessories and, most importantly, Dawg.

If you are throwing money at your screen right now, we don't blame you. It will launch today, October 27th as an Amazon exclusive, and it should be available to order right here at some point during the day. It might also turn up via this link on Amazon. Typically, these drops happen between 9am and 12pm ET, but there are no guarantees. Make sure to check in early and often. UPDATE: It's live! A direct link can be found here.

Hopefully the Lobo and Spacehog launch won't go as badly as it did for McFarlane Toys' Batman and Batmobile 2-pack inspired by Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film starring Michael Keaton. This set sold out instantly at launch and has only recently achieved stock levels that meet demand. Details about the set can be found below.

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Batman & Batmobile Gold Label 2pk ($74.99) - Order on Amazon: Set includes 7-inch Michael Keaton Batman figure and a Batmobile with a canopy that slides open for cockpit access (the vehicle can accommodate the Batman figure). An art card is also included.

Will Jason Momoa Play Lobo in the DC Universe?

James Gunn and Peter Safran were asked if Momoa would be playing multiple characters in the new DC Universe -- a rumor that had surfaced in recent months along with rumors that the actor could be playing Lobo in DC Studios' new cinematic world. According to Gunn, however, Momoa will not be playing two characters.

"Jason will not play two characters despite what you guys might think," Gunn said, before adding that she's "really happy" with the actor.

Safran went a little further, suggesting that things are still undecided about several things -- including a third Aquaman film -- but that there are no plans for the actor to play two characters.

"It's too early. Listen, he definitely... Jason always thought Aquaman was a trilogy, in his own mind," Safran said. "But listen, he loves Lobo. He's been very clear about that, too. He's never going to play two characters, but no decisions have been made."

"We'll figure it out after Aquaman 2," Gunn added.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be released exclusively in theaters on December 25th.

The latest issue of Wonder Woman seems to have confirmed that her origin has been restored to its pre-2011 status quo. A seemingly throwaway line in a narration box has social media users convinced that a key part of Diana's origin -- that she was created from clay by her mother -- has been restored. Over the years, Wonder Woman has had a variety of different tweaks to her origin, but none more dramatic, or controversial, than the one introduced in The New 52. During that line-wide DC reboot, writer Brian Azzarello and artist Cliff Chiang revealed that Diana was actually a demigod.

For years, Diana's origin had maintained that Hippolyta built a daughter from clay, and then had her blessed by Olympian gods, bestowing on her the powers of Wonder Woman. The 2011 reboot revealed that this was all a cover story, and that in fact, her powers had come from being the daughter of Zeus, a secret Hippolyta kept even from the other Amazons.

"It undoes a lot of vital threads," longtime DC writer Gail Simone said of the changes in 2017. "It changes Hippolyta, it makes Wonder Woman's origin about fatherhood, not motherhood, on and on."

The changes were unpopular with many fans, although Azzarello and Chiang's run on the comic was generally well-liked. It's likely that the pre-New 52 origin would have reinstated before now, except that a lot of casual fans get their origin from the 2017 movie, which used the Zeus twist as well.

"She was neither a man nor born of woman," Tom King writes in Wonder Woman #2. "She was Amazon. Forged first of clay. Then steel."

In case that leaves any ambiguity for the reader, the narration continues and extrapolates on that the next page.

"We have heard the other story as well," the issue's narrators say. "The queen, the god, and the secret daughter they bore. Like any good fable, there's certainly a hint of truth somewhere in it. And like any good fable, there's most certainly a lie right at the center of it."

The pages, scanned and uploaded to social media, prompted excited tweets from fans who were glad the more conventional version of Diana's origin had been restored, and more than a few people arguing semantics and saying things like "until Zeus himself tells me it isn't true, I won't believe it."

(Paraphrasing, there.)

In any case, it seems at face value that the clay origin has been restored as the primary, accepted lore, while the "daughter of Zeus" story still exists and floats around in the universe as apocryphal. That's more or less a reversal of what happened in 2011, when the clay story was deemed mythology and Zeus's involvement was introduced as fact. It leaves just enough wiggle room for online conversation, and for readers to choose their own backstory, but it certainly gives fans who were disappointed by Azzarello's change something to feel good about.

In a surprising move, Rocksteady Games added a new suit today to Batman: Arkham Knight on the Epic Games Store. The suit in question was based on the one worn by Robert Pattinson in The Batman and was available as a free update. However, as mysteriously as the suit appeared, it has since been removed! It appears the suit's presence in the game might have been some kind of a mistake that was added to the game early. For now, fans of Batman: Arkham Knight will just have to wait patiently to see when the suit gets an official release.

Images of the new Batman suit were shared on Twitter by user @ArkhamRemaster, and can be found in the Tweet embedded below.

THIS IS OFFICIAL
OUT NOW: The Batman (2022) suit for Batman Arkham Knight on Epic Games Store!!!
r/BatmanArkham boutta have a field day over this lmao pic.twitter.com/iiKbCmc7lh

-- Arkham Origins Remaster (@ArkhamRemaster) October 26, 2023

Batman: Arkham Trilogy

In December, Batman: Arkham Trilogy will release on Nintendo Switch, bringing Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Knight to the platform for the very first time. It's worth noting that the collection was supposed to release this month, but was pushed back until later in the year. It's possible the Robert Pattinson suit was meant to be a surprise that launched on all platforms alongside the Switch release, and it was mistakenly released early. Unfortunately, there's no way of knowing for certain, and there has been no official word from Rocksteady or WB Games.

Rocksteady's three Batman Arkham games are widely considered some of the greatest superhero games ever made. For those that have never played them before, the Arkham Trilogy on Switch seems like it could be the perfect opportunity. In addition to the three games, the Arkham Trilogy collection will also include all of the post-launch DLC and extra content that has released over the years.

Batman Arkham Universe

Batman: Arkham Knight was released all the way back in 2015, so the fact that Rocksteady released a new suit for the game is surprising to say the least. At this time, Arkham Knight represents the final chapter in series, which began with Batman: Arkham Asylum. Fans have been hoping to see that universe revisited ever since. While Rocksteady is not currently working on another Batman game (at least not one that's been announced), the studio is currently developing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which is expected to release in 2024.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is particularly notable, as it will take place in the same universe as the Arkham series. The game sees the Justice League being mind-controlled by Starro, with the Suicide Squad sent to defeat them. Not only will the game take place in the same universe as the Arkham series, but Batman will also appear. The game will mark the final appearance of Kevin Conroy, who recorded lines as Batman for the game prior to his death last year.

Are you hoping to see the Robert Pattinson suit added to Arkham Knight? Would it get you to play the game again? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

A couple of pieces of (admittedly distressed) Dark Knight history are headed to auction. That's because Goldin, the leading collectibles marketplace, announces it is featuring George Clooney's Batman costume, used in 1997's Batman & Robin, alongside some of the most illustrious comic books of all time during its Fall Pop Culture Elite Auction. One such title? A poor-quality copy of Batman #1, which features the first appearances of The Joker and Catwoman (then named The Cat). With Bat-nipples and a coverless comic book, some people might be ready to pass on this one...but those are undeniably huge parts of the character's history.

Clooney's screen-worn costume is the fifth Batsuit to appear in modern cinema featuring the signature cowl, a full-length cape with two clips and a muscle tunic with the Batman & Robin version of the Batman emblem on the chest. This Batsuit is constructed from cast foam latex and vinyl, with resin components, leather, and other elements to create a singular suit that was expertly crafted and assembled.

Since there are multiples made for each of these suits, it's hard to say whether this one saw use onscreen, but it is almost certainly not the one Robert Pattinson auditioned in.

In addition to Clooney's suit, Goldin is offering a round-up of some of the most sought-after comic books of all time -- including that Batman #1, but also featuring some pretty impressive books that are in a lot better shape. Copies of comics featuring the first appearances of Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men and more are available for bidding, including:

• 1940 D.C. Comics "Batman" #1 features one of the most iconic covers from the Golden Age of comics, portraying the first appearance of classic Batman villains, the Joker and Catwoman, named "The Cat" in this issue.

• Amazing Fantasy #15, published by Marvel Comics in August 1962, features the debut of Spider-Man. This presented Silver Age comic has the iconic cover image of Spider-Man swinging to action and was illustrated by longtime Stan Lee collaborator Jack Kirby.

• X-Men #1: This Silver Age comic is the origin and the first appearance of the X-Men and is a cornerstone of any serious comic book collection.

• A copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1 published by Mirage Studios with a cover date of 1984. This issue presents the origin and first team appearance of the Turtles (Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael, their leader, Splinter, and their foe, Shredder).

The items are currently available for bidding as part of Goldin's Fall Pop Culture Elite Auction and will be available through November 18.

For the better part of the past century, DC's comics have brought some fascinating heroes and villains to life. The highest highs and lowest lows of these characters have been chronicled across media -- and in the most recent issue of the current Green Arrow series, that journey came to a head in a major way for Oliver Queen / Green Arrow. Spoilers for Green Arrow #5 from Joshua Williamson, Sean Isaake, Phil Hester, Ande Parks, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Troy Peteri below! Only look if you want to know!

Much of the issue sees Oliver partnered up with an older version of himself, who warns of the ArrowFam being the cause of DC's eventual Great Disaster. This Green Arrow is ultimately revealed to be a cyborg whose origins are unclear -- but Oliver is pushed through a time-travel portal before he can further investigate it. He emerges on a rooftop in Star City and crosses paths with an even younger version of himself, who can be identified by the color of the feather on his cap.

These Olivers quickly learn that they're not alone, as they are joined by Green Arrows of various other eras, and the Golden Age incarnation threatens that they fight to the death. The altercation is ultimately short-lived, as present-day Oliver discovers the doppelgangers are not cyborgs, and gets pushed into another portal.

How Many Issues Is the New Green Arrow Series?

The Green Arrow series was recently upgraded to twelve issues, doubling the previous order of six. In it, the Emerald Archer is lost, and it will take Oliver Queen's whole family to find him! But dangerous forces are determined to keep them apart at any cost!

"It's been a blast writing this series," Williamson explained in a recent post on his Substack. "A dream come true. My goal for this series to tell a kind of "Hush" level story with Ollie and his family. We're only 3 issues in and we have a lot of characters to bring in for this Arrow Family reunion."

What Is Dawn of DC?

This new Green Arrow series is part of the Dawn of DC initiative, which has aimed to launch new ongoing comics and miniseries inspired by some of the publisher's most beloved characters.

"After the near-Multiverse-ending events in Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths and DC Universe: Lazarus Planet, the DC Universe will be heading toward the light," DC publisher and chief creative officer Jim Lee said in a statement when the initiative was first announced. "With brand-new series and story arcs from some of the top creative members in comics, Dawn of DC is one of our most ambitious initiatives ever and is a chance for us to tell bigger and bolder stories across our line."

What do you think of DC's new Green Arrow series? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Green Arrow #5 is now available wherever comics are sold.

Exclusives, keys, and live-action news populate our top ten lists this week! NYCC covers are still burning hot, the American Psycho business card and Duke #1 Cobra Commander variants are still selling strong. Wolverine takes two spots on our lists in the form of the Hellverine and a blood-red Tyler Kirkham cover. The origin of the venom symbiote jumps into our top ten, coinciding with the debut of Spider-Man 2 on the PS5. Three official announcements increase demand on three indy books in early production but still building up tons of hype! Speaking of hype, Jason Momoa brings his most popular fan base back to the top. Finally, Taylor Swift has officially dominated another medium besides music, dazzling her way into comics!

Want to know what comic books are trending each week and why? COVRPRICE.COM uses live sales analytics to identify and compile the most robust market price guide, highlighting the weekly top trending comics. No opinions. Just data. Each week, they present a newly updated list of the TOP 10 COMICS trending in the aftermarket. These trends are due to rumors, fan-favorite covers, story-driven content, and content-related news.

#10: WOLVERINE #36 - RYAN STEGMAN - REGULAR | MARVEL | 2023 | There are very few books that live up to the hype that it builds prior to release. This book is an exception. Fans were already hyped for the debut of the Hellverine, so much so that the books flew off the shelves upon release! A few weeks ago, we reported that the 2nd print 1:25 retailer incentive had already reached an NM FMV of $70. It now sits at $128! The Hellverine is in demand, and this book continues to see consistent aftermarket sales. Good luck tracking this one down! We tracked it at a high sale of $100 for a CGC 9.8 copy and a current NM FMV of $24.

#9: GARGOYLES #1 - NEWSSTAND | MARVEL | 1995 | For those 90s kids, Gargoyles was a staple of Saturday morning cartoons. Unlike other Disney shows that populated the line-up, Gargoyles was known for the darker tone and serious subject matters it addressed. Most recently, it was announced that a live-action adaptation was in early development, with legendary horror director James Wan to take on the project. Many fear that Gargoyles will receive the same lackluster live-action treatment that Disney has been producing lately. However, putting a horror director at the helm of the project might already show they intend to keep the darker undertones of the show. Even though this project is still in its infancy, fans of the legendary creatures of the night are hunting down copies of the first issue. Moreso, they are hunting down the harder-to-find newsstand copy. We tracked it at a high sale of $391 for a CGC 9.8 and a raw NM FMV of $70.

#8: BLOODSTRIKE #1 | IMAGE | 1993 | This book is the first comic book to ever use thermal-reactive ink, where readers were encouraged to rub parts of the cover to reveal the red ink (blood) splatters. However, that is not why this book is picking up heat. Last week, Rob Liefeld debuted a concept trailer on what a possible Bloodstrike film could look like. The video received tons of positive feedback as Rob shared that this proof of concept was the first step in developing a possible cinematic experience, with Phil Silvera taking the reins as director. We tracked it at a high sale of $40 for a CGC 9.6 copy and a current raw VF FMV of $3.

#7: MARVEL SUPER-HEROES SECRET WARS #8 | MARVEL | 1984 | This book either ends up on the runner-ups or our top ten every week. It is an essential book for fans of the symbiote and Venom. There likely was a spike in sales that coincided with the release of the new PS5 game, Spider-Man 2, which sees Venom take one of the villain spotlights. The symbiote plays a critical part in the storyline... However, we won't give away spoilers here! We tracked it at a high sale of $650 for a CGC 9.8 and a raw VF FMV of $121.

#6: THE OMEGA MEN #3 | DC | 1983 | Lobo has always been a fan favorite in the DC universe. This book shot up in popularity last year when it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would take over the reins of DC Studios. When there were confirmations that no DCEU actors would return to the new cinematic universe, rumors began circulating that Jason Mamoa could be recast as Lobo. This is enough to keep the book on the hot list! We tracked it at a high sale of $390 for a CGC 9.8 copy and a raw NM FMV of $78.

#5: RANGER STRANGER #1 - TYLER JENSEN - REGULAR | SCOUT COMICS | 2023 | For the most part, most casual comic book collectors have never heard of the indie book RANGER STRANGER. However, a couple of weeks ago, Kevin Hart's production company, HartBeat, signed up to develop the series into an adult animated television show. Queue the race to acquire a copy of this first issue. After this initial bump in popularity, sales have started to slow down. It will likely pick up again after we get more information from Kevin Hart or Scout Comics. We tracked it at a high sale of $12 for a raw copy and a current raw NM FMV of $12.

#4: AMERICAN PSYCHO #1 - RANDALL BRUDER - BUSINESS CARD (1:10) | MASSIVE | 2023 | American Psycho is one of the most recognizable slasher films and deserves fantastic comic book covers'--queue Randall Bruder, who illustrated the infamous "business card" variant. While the foil NYCC exclusive is going for an astronomical price, fans are taking the opportunity to get a cheaper copy through the 1:10 retailer incentive variant. However, this book is not an easy pick-up either. It has been increasing in both desirability and monetary value. For those collecting the business card variants, be on the lookout for issues #2 and #3. It has been reported that these books will also have open-order business card covers. We tracked it at a high sale of $71 for a raw copy and a current raw NM FMV of $49.

#3: DUKE #1 - ASHCAN - COBRA COMMANDER - 2023 NYCC - EBAY - SPOT FOIL (LIMITED 1000) | IMAGE | 2023 | *SPOILERS* | The debut of a shared universe between Transformers and G.I. Joe sent waves across the comic community. IMAGE has since been putting work into the Energon universe and has debuted old/new characters. Duke is one of the most popular characters in the franchise. He will be receiving his own limited series in December. This particular book was a journey to obtain. Those who wanted a copy had to purchase it through eBay and could only pick it up at the convention at the eBay booth. However, additional copies were also provided via the eBay live-streaming service for those unable to attend the convention. After the event ended, these books started hitting the aftermarket, and value began to climb. We tracked it at a high sale of $95 for a raw copy and a current raw NM FMV of $83 (and climbing).

#2: PREDATOR VS WOLVERINE #1 - TYLER KIRKHAM - BLOOD BLAST | MARVEL | 2023 | PREDATOR VS WOLVERINE was a hot release when it debuted last month. It saw another spike during last week's exclusive Kirkham cover, nicknamed Blood Blast! This is not to be confused with his NYCC exclusive cover, which featured a virgin green cover with the same artwork. Instead, this book is a trade cover with a red background. It was limited to a 3000 print run, and copies immediately hit the aftermarket. For fans of Tyler Kirkham, this book is an excellent piece with a decent price tag, unlike its NYCC counterpart, which currently sells for nearly double. We tracked it at a high sale of $25 for a raw copy and a current raw NM FMV of $19.

#1: DAZZLER #1 | MARVEL | 1981 | The Taylor Swift rumor that she would appear in Deadpool 3 as Dazzler continues to burn strong. While there haven't been any additional rumors, Swift's highly successful music tour and media appearances have kept this book hot. Even though X-MEN #130 is the first appearance of the mutant, the price difference has left that book in the runner-ups. Fans have opted to collect the first solo series of the Dazzler, a much more friendly price point for collectors. We tracked it at a high sale of $252 for a CGC 9.8 and a current raw NM FMV of $23.

And that's your TOP 10 COMICS OF THE WEEK for 10/23/23! Want to know what your comic books are worth? COVRPRICE.COM offers the ULTIMATE price guide with LIVE ungraded (raw) and graded sales for today's market trends. Manage your collection and track your portfolio's overall value with our robust tracking systems. With a free 10-day trial and several affordable price tiers, discover the value of your comics and sign up today! CHECK OUT THE TOP 10 ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL. PLEASE LIKE & SUBSCRIBE!

Pamela Lifford, who has been overseeing Warner Bros. Discovery's Discovery's Global Brands, Franchises and Experiences (which, among other things, oversees DC), is leaving the company after more than seven years. Lifford is reportedly leaving to deal with a family member's healthcare needs, and at the same time, Julian Moon -- the head of Consumer Products for Europe, the Middle East and Africa as well as Asia Pacific, is going to retire, meaning that Warners is set to completely reinvent that role more or less worldwide.

Robert Oberschelp, current North American head of Consumer Products, will take over as the new head of Global Consumer Products. For the last 30 years, he has had similar roles at NBCUniversal, The Walt Disney Company, Williams-Sonoma and Quicksilver. Preston Kevin Lewis, currently head of Consumer Products for Latin America and Retail Management for the Americas, will take on responsibility for the North American market for the time being, rather than hiring someone new.

"When I joined the company back in 2016, we set out on a mission to transform the division and how WB thought about fans," Lifford said in a statement. "Today, our team owns franchises, products, in-person experiences, DC, and keeps our global consumers engaged in our IP 24/7. I couldn't be prouder of what we've accomplished together."

She added, "Today, the group is poised to take all of this forward with the new leadership across the studio and company. You will soar and make WBD unrivaled in the industry."

"Pam is an extraordinary leader and unique in the entertainment industry," Warner Bros. Discovery chief revenue and strategy officer Bruce Campbell said. "She's brought tremendous value and thought leadership to the company over the years, and while we wish she were staying on, we understand and appreciate the commitment to family first. She put a tremendous team in place, and I look forward to what we will do together."

Campbell will also recruit a new Global Head of Franchise, effectively splitting up Lifford's responsibilities into two roles. Peter van Roden, head of Global Themed Entertainment, will continue in his current role, and likely take on some of Lifford's experiences-related responsibilities.

The changes announced today are effective November 27, according to TheWrap, who first reported the moves.

Amazons Attack comes from writer Josie Campbell and artist Vasco Georgiev, and it follows the fallout of the events from Wonder Woman #1. After Queen Nubia made the Amazons part of the world once again, a terrorist attack was carried out by someone many believe to be an Amazon, leading the entire world to target them. The Amazons have been banned from the United States and became the subject of worldwide news and hatred. This has led Nubia on a mission to repair relationships with other countries, only to get caught up in a conspiracy and to have even more problems blamed on her people.

While Nubia is the Queen of the Amazons, there are other leaders from other Amazon groups. Faruka and Yara, the leaders of the Bana-Mighdall and the Esquecida Amazons also made their way to the US for their own reasons, doubting the leadership of Nubia, only to get caught up in the same issue. Those three, along with Mary Marvel, now have targets on their backs as they try to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. They're wanted women all over the globe, and they may be the only hope of keeping longterm peace between Man's World and the Amazons.

Amazons Attack ties directly to the events of the ongoing Wonder Woman series, but what makes the comic work is how well it stands on its own. You could get some important information by reading the other series, it's just not necessary if you want to enjoy this one. Having a series about Amazon characters not named Diana Prince is refreshing, especially when you don't need to read multiple books to know what's going on.

Given a chance to truly possess the spotlight, Nubia shines as the miniseries' star. Really, all four of the main characters in Amazons Attack have some great sequences in this first issue. Each one of them has clear and interesting motivations, and they all play off of one another remarkably well. Campbell balances the ensemble perfectly and there's a good chance that a lot of readers leave this series with some new favorite heroes. Mary Marvel's inclusion is especially interesting, since her demeanor and optimism provide such a contrast to the Amazons she's working with.

All four women leading the way in this series are written wonderfully, but they're somehow brought to life even more beautifully with Georgiev's art. The emotional range of their expressions keeps each character engaging and endearing throughout the issue, adding depth where a lesser artist may not have been able to access it. The action sequences, of which there are more than you'd assume, also fly right off of the page. Remove all the text and this would still be a comic book worth reading.

Perhaps the biggest strength of Amazons Attack is its ability to be both timely and timeless. Targeted media attacks and blind hatred feel, unfortunately, more applicable than ever, but Campbell never leans on specifically modern issues to keep the story going. Nubia and the others feel like heroes out of time and out of place, navigating a world that is both brand new and ancient. Hatred might be presented in new ways in our current times, but the concept is something the Amazons have been facing since their nation was founded. You could set this story in just about any time period and it would feel equally as important, which indicates that its strength isn't found in modern headlines.

Amazons Attack #1 is a wonderful start to a new chapter in tale of Wonder Woman's storied people. It has some room to grow moving forward, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if readers look back on this entry as the start of a brilliant new era for Queen Nubia and the Amazons.

Published by DC Comics

On October 24, 2023

Written by Josie Campbell

Art by Vasco Georgiev

Colors by Alex Guimar?es

Letters by Becca Carey

Cover by Clayton Henry and Marcelo Maiolo

Bodies only made its debut on Netflix this past weekend, but it has already become something of a surprise hit. The series, which is based on the DC Vertigo series of the same name, presents viewers with a murder mystery set across decades of time, as patterns begin to emerge for different investigators. The twisty nature of the show's narrative has helped it skyrocket to the top of Netflix's viewership charts, and has led some to wonder if a second season might be in the cards. In a new interview with Hello!, Bodies writer Paul Tomalin indicated that, for now, the show is not planning to return for Season 2. As Tomalin put it, he would rather the show leave audiences with a satisfying ending, as opposed to getting stuck in a limbo while waiting for a new season.

"We went to Netflix like 'this is one series, this is a one and done, we wanna close this off' because I think when you have such an amazing concept up front, you [expletive] your audience off if you don't solve it," Tomalin explained. "As the viewer, I hate it when you get this amazing thing, and at the end it's like, 'duh, duh, duh,' and you're like 'right so I've got to wait a year and a half'. I think it's a duty to an audience with something that's this propulsive as a story concept to end it and solve it. So, we really wanted you to feel that you'd seen the red curtain at the end. That being said, when you see the back end, there's certainly a dot dot dot. But the premise that the show sets comes to an end. And it was a privilege to be like, well, if it doesn't get a second season, then this is the meal, there's the dessert, there's the coffee. It's the whole thing. Closure."

What Is Bodies About?

In Bodies, four detectives, living in four different eras, find the body of the same murder victim in London's Whitechapel. They soon come to realize their investigations have them central to a mysterious conspiracy spanning over a 150 years.

The cast of the Bodies series includes Shira Haas as DC Maplewood, Stephen Graham as Elias Mannix, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd as DS Whiteman, Kyle Soller as DI Hillinghead, and Amaka Okafor as DS Hasan. Paul Tomalin is the series creator and showrunner.

What Is Bodies Based On?

Bodies was originally written by Si Spencer, with artists who include Dean Ormston, Tula Lotay, Meghan Hetrick, and Phil Winslade. Bodies began to be published by DC's Vertigo imprint in 2014.

"The concept of Si's novel is what sold everyone, it's brilliant," Tomalin revealed in a separate interview with Cosmopolitan UK. "I didn't know him well, but he knew it was brilliant, too. There was never any thought to change the characters because they were so well thought out, so we really broke our backs to make sure we kept that. There was some stuff that we couldn't do, but we tried so hard to stick to the themes and even it was truly mad, we did our best to figure out how to work it in. We'd often go back to the graphic novel as our road map when we got lost in filming, too."

Do you want Bodies to get a second season? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

DC's current Green Arrow series is nearly at its midpoint, weaving an unexpected narrative for Oliver Queen / Green Arrow, Dinah Lance / Black Canary, and other members of the Arrowfam. As the series' journey has traversed time and space, its latest issue brought back one component of DC lore -- which first appeared all the way back in the Golden Age of Comics -- and gave it a major upgrade. Spoilers for Green Arrow #5 from Joshua Williamson, Sean Isaake, Phil Hester, Ande Parks, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Troy Peteri below! Only look if you want to know!

The issue essentially opens with Oliver in an alliance of sorts with what appears to be his older doppelganger, as they try to outrun a horde of human-animal hybrids on motorcycles. The older version of Oliver can be seen driving a version of the Arrowcar, the vehicle that Oliver and Roy Harper / Speedy traveled in through much of the Golden Age. When the car drives up to a Thelma and Louise-style cliff jump, the older Oliver drives forward -- and the car changes into a plane. The younger Oliver is impressed by the "Arrow Plane", and admits that he should have thought of that first.

How Many Issues Is the New Green Arrow Series?

The Green Arrow series was recently upgraded to twelve issues, doubling the previous order of six. In it, the Emerald Archer is lost, and it will take Oliver Queen's whole family to find him! But dangerous forces are determined to keep them apart at any cost!

"It's been a blast writing this series," Williamson explained in a recent post on his Substack. "A dream come true. My goal for this series to tell a kind of "Hush" level story with Ollie and his family. We're only 3 issues in and we have a lot of characters to bring in for this Arrow Family reunion."

What Is Dawn of DC?

This new Green Arrow series is part of the Dawn of DC initiative, which has aimed to launch new ongoing comics and miniseries inspired by some of the publisher's most beloved characters.

"After the near-Multiverse-ending events in Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths and DC Universe: Lazarus Planet, the DC Universe will be heading toward the light," DC publisher and chief creative officer Jim Lee said in a statement when the initiative was first announced. "With brand-new series and story arcs from some of the top creative members in comics, Dawn of DC is one of our most ambitious initiatives ever and is a chance for us to tell bigger and bolder stories across our line."

What do you think of DC updating the Arrowcar in the new Green Arrow series? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Green Arrow #5 is now available wherever comics are sold.

The Drummer, a character first introduced in 1998's Planetary Preview, is set to reappear for the first time in years with Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, and Robert Carey's new Outsiders comic. The character, who has had about two dozen appearances and last appeared in 2004, will be reinvented a little bit, with fans speculating that a woman seen on the cover of Outsiders #1 would be a post-Flashpoint version of the character. That, combined with Luke Fox's all-white suit, seems to suggest that the Outsiders are DC's current riff on Planetary -- seemingly reinventing both properties a bit to feel somewhat more like a grounded, DC version of the most popular era of Marvel's Runaways.

DC confirmed some key details about the upcoming series at New York Comic Con earlier this month. The Drummer revelation was saved for the solicitation for the series' third issue, in which she is name-dropped directly.

The Drummer was key to Planetary's information-gathering apparatus, something that makes sense in a series featuring Kate Kane and Luke Fox, both of whom are fairly well-suited to the militaristic style of Planetary. And when you look at the cover of Outsiders #1, seen below, you can see a pretty direct line between the look of the team and some early Planetary covers.

You can see the official solicitation for Outsiders #3 below.

OUTSIDERS #3

Written by JACKSON LANZING and COLLIN KELLY
Art by ROBERT CAREY
Cover by ROGER CRUZ
Variant cover by GUILLEM MARCH
1:25 variant cover by HAYDEN SHERMAN

$4.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)
ON SALE 1/9/24

"Dreaming of Bats."

Only two things are certain about the mysterious door that has appeared in the Outsiders' ship. The first? It was opened by the Drummer, using a set of Multiversal coordinates discovered in a dream. The second? Their computers have identified it only as a "narrative singularity." For most, to step through such a door would be unthinkable, even insane--which makes it a perfect mission for the Outsiders! As Kate Kane and Luke Fox venture into the unknown reaches of the Multiverse, they will fall deeper and deeper into a maze of darkness, guided by unfamiliar versions of familiar faces. What is this strange world they've discovered? How are they connected to it? And who is lurking in the shadows, ready to destroy it all?

Outsiders #3 will be in stores on January 9.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom arrives in theaters in a matter of months, continuing the epic saga of the DC hero. One of the biggest praises of the first Aquaman film was that it didn't take itself too seriously, as it included some of the wackier elements of Arthur Curry's (Jason Momoa) comic lore, including the drum-playing octopus Topo. As a new interview with franchise director James Wan reveals, Topo will be making an appearance in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom -- both as a continued piece of comic relief, and as an unlikely ally to Momoa's Aquaman.

"Topo is a real character in this one! In the comic, he's a big part of Arthur's life--a sidekick, pet, friend. So, we're leaning into that," Wan explained to Empire. "I love the relationship Jason has built with this octopus. It was really fun to watch him 'act' with Topo. Sometimes we would have an actor standing in by 'muppeting' a goofy stick puppet--watching Jason play off that was so funny. I think people are going to enjoy Arthur and [Topo's] relationship."

Will There Be an Aquaman 3?

At the moment, a third Aquaman film has yet to be greenlit by DC, especially amid the DC Studios changes led by James Gunn and Peter Safran. Still, Wan has indicated that The Lost Kingdom functions as a standalone story, regardless of whatever canon it falls into at the end of the day.

"Well, Aquaman - even the first film - has always been a very standalone film," Wan told ComicBook.com earlier this year. "That was always our approach: that it kind of lives in its own world, and that's kind of how we've approached The Lost Kingdom as well. You know, people love Jason Momoa; people love him playing this role; and people love the action visuals of this space and this world. And that's what we're doing: we're taking it to the next level and we are still expanding - and just any fans of Aquaman the character, that love Black Manta, this is the next level and I'm very excited to finally put out there to show them what we've been working on all these years."

What Is Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom About?

In Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which arrives in theaters on December 25th, when an ancient power is unleashed, Aquaman must forge an uneasy alliance with an unlikely ally to protect Atlantis, and the world, from irreversible devastation. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will see the return of Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Patrick Wilson as Orm, Amber Heard as Mera, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, and Randall Park as Stephen Shin. Jani Zhao will play new character Stingray, Indya Moore will play Karshon, and Vincent Regan will play Atlan, who was previously portrayed by Graham McTavish in Aquaman. Pilou Asbaek has also joined the cast in a mystery role.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is directed by James Wan, with a script from David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Producers include Wan and DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran.

Are you excited for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom? What do you think of Topo's return in the sequel? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be released exclusively in theaters on December 25th.

James Wan, director of both Aquaman films, is pushing back against reports that the production on the sequel was a disaster. The filmmaker told Empire magazine (in its upcoming episode, which features Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom on the cover) that he believes news organizations are going for drama and traffic, but that the reports don't reflect his experience on the movie. Among other things, Wan says he had a good deal of creative control, suggesting that there were no serious issues with the film's reshoots, which he said took place over a long period of time, but really only amounted to a couple of work weeks all told.

Recent reports suggested that the movie has struggled with test audiences, that they have had to do numerous rounds of reshoots, and that conflicts between stars Jason Momoa and Amber Heard made for a pretty toxic working environment. Wan rejects all of that, saying that he struggles not to publicly correct bad reporting.

"I've had to learn to be more Zen in dealing with all the noise around me, for sure," James Wan told Empire magazine. "I'm a pretty private person. I don't get on social media and have fights, but it's difficult because this narrative has emerged that is not the reality. The noise is fun to write about, and it gets clicks, but people don't know the truth."

During the course of making Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, DC has been in a state of seemingly-constant chaos. Halfway through, James Gunn and Peter Safran took over the studio, and started charting out a new direction for the brand as a whole. According to Wan, though, none of that really impacted Aquaman in the way some have claimed.

"We probably did seven or eight days [of reshoots," Wan said, "which is nothing for a movie of this size. It was just spread out because it's so hard to get your actors back once you've finished the initial shoot."

Given that the franchise has changed Batmen a couple of times since Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom went into production, it seems likely that at least one of those reshoot days was to accommodate a new status quo. Still, Wan hasn't ruled out the possibility of making a third Aquaman if this one makes money and the new management are interested in it.

"I haven't directed a third movie [in a series] before, so I'd be open to doing another [Aquaman] if I got the same freedom I've had on these first two," Wan said. "I'm not sure what direction [Gunn and Safran] are going in, though, so who knows? I've learned to never say never."

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will be in theaters on December 20.

The last film of the DC Extended Universe era is Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the James Wan picture that will serve as the end cap to nearly a decade of storytelling. Likely featuring Jason Momoa in his last appearance as the eponymous Justice Leaguer, the film also features the return of Aquaman archnemesis Black Manta, played by Watchmen alumnus Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. In the latest edition of Empire Magazine, a new look at Mateen's character was released.

While the suit remains accurate to both the first Aquaman film and the comic book source material, the picture shows an updated design that adds some more body to the character's breath apparatus on his pack. See it for yourself below.

Which Black Manta suit do you prefer? pic.twitter.com/cWZXo6ZFmv

-- The Moonlight Warrior ? (@BlackMajikMan90) October 21, 2023

In the same piece, Wan said his sequel is largely inspired in part by the Harryhausen's mid-century stop-motion monsters.

"There was an element of horror in the first film. [Harryhausen monsters] became the design foundation," the filmmaker tol the magazine. "The Lost Kingdom has a very retro, '60s horror look. We have this huge action set-piece where Arthur and Orm fight [Black Manta's] henchmen, using the 'Octobot' - this mechanical squid thing. That was really fun to shoot."

Those comments slightly contradict earlier ones in which the director said the movie was an "outright buddy comedy."

"From the start, I pitched that the first film would be a Romancing The Stone-type thing - an action-adventure romantic comedy - while the second would be an outright buddy comedy," Wan explained. "I wanted to do Tango & Cash! ...Jason plays Arthur larger-than-life; Patrick plays the straight man. It's not unlike what Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones did in Men In Black - like Tommy, Patrick plays it dry, but very funny."

In Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which arrives in theaters on December 25th, when an ancient power is unleashed, Aquaman must forge an uneasy alliance with an unlikely ally to protect Atlantis, and the world, from irreversible devastation. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will see the return of Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Patrick Wilson as Orm, Amber Heard as Mera, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Black Manta, and Randall Park as Stephen Shin. Jani Zhao will play new character Stingray, Indya Moore will play Karshon, and Vincent Regan will play Atlan, who was previously portrayed by Graham McTavish in Aquaman. Pilou Asbaek has also joined the cast in a mystery role.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is directed by James Wan, with a script from David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Producers include Wan and DC Studios co-CEO Peter Safran.

Blue Beetle is one of the few pre-DCU characters that will be making a come back when the franchise officially kicks off next year. Because the character has been confirmed to return, many are hoping to see another solo film or two from Angel Manuel Soto. As Soto tells us, he has plenty of ideas should Jaimie Reyes (Xolo Mariadue?a) get a Blue Beetle sequel or two.

"We did an impressionistic approach in the title sequence but for us, we want to let Khaji be able to tell us its story and to show us, at the end of the day, The Reach," Soto tells ComicBook.com. "Having that moment of Jaimie helping Khaji Da take over The Reach and liberate all the scarabs from the Imperial yoke from that colonizing race, it's also the Latino story."

When is Blue Beetle returning?

James Gunn confirmed earlier this month that Blue Beetle/Jaimie Reyes is technically the first DCU character, even though the franchise doesn't start until the released of Creature Commandos in 2024 and Superman: Legacy in 2025. Soto has also applauded DC's decision to bring back Maridue?a as the fan-favorite character.

"It was very reassuring to know that it's not just the character of Blue Beetle, it's Xolo being Blue Beetle," Soto previously told us. "Which means that what we have learned up to this point about his background and his family are part of Jaime Reyes' character. And that is a beautiful thing to see because it's a vote of confidence that what we did, the impact that it did and how it was shown, Whatever they end up doing in the bigger scheme of the DCU, you can always go back to Blue Beetle to know what are the foundations of Jaime Reyes."

Starring alongside Maridue?a are Adriana Barraza, Dam?an Alc?zar, Elpidia Carrillo, Bruna Marquezine, Raoul Max Trujillo, with Oscar winner Susan Sarandon, and George Lopez (the "Rio and "Smurf" franchises). The film also stars Belissa Escobedo and Harvey Guill?n. Soto directs from a screenplay by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, based on characters from DC. John Rickard and Zev Foreman are producing, with Walter Hamada, Galen Vaisman and Garrett Grant serving as executive producers.

Blue Beetle is coming to Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K on October 31st and streaming sometime thereafter.