What If: Civil War
Wikipedia entry for Kevin Grevioux
Amazon link to buy Civil War TP

New Warriors writer Kevin Grevioux co-writes this one-shot showing alternate timelines spun out of the events of Civil War.

Spectre: Tales of the Unexpected TP
The second mini-series featuring the new Spectre gets a TP, with art by Eric Battle.

Also this week:
Batman and the Outsiders #3. Cover by Battle.
Justice League of America #16. Written by Dwayne McDuffie.
Special Forces #2 (of 6). Story and art by Kyle Baker.
Avengers Classic #7. Written by McDuffie.
Ultimate X-Men #89. A Storm solo story.

So I saw I Am Legend on Saturday. I’ll talk about that in a second, but first, I gotta talk about the Dark Knight preview before the film. I saw Legend at the IMAX theater here in NYC, so the preview I saw was this: The scene is a bank robbery in Gotham, where the robbers all wear clown masks. Eventually one of the robbers is revealed to be the Joker himself, who encounters some resistance from one of the bank executives, whom he deals with in a way that’s distinctively Joker-like. Then we see flashing images of Bats on his Bat-cycle and in his Batmobile, Joker prowling through the streets, and Gordon smashing the Bat-signal with an ax. Heath Ledger looks like he’s completely thrown himself into the role of the Joker; it’s definitely a departure from Jack Nicholson in ‘89 and has the potential to be genuinely creepier. Some people are already campaigning him for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, which would be wonderful, but let’s wait and see on that. Next summer can’t get here fast enough.

As for Legend: Don’t come into this expecting the wise-cracking, smooth-talking Will Smith action hero of Independence Day and Men In Black; this is a very dramatic role and he sells it completely. He’s come very far as an actor; there are moments of madness and psychological torture in the film that I would not have thought him capable of a decade ago, yet he nails them. His Robert Neville is racked with guilt, yet he’s able to fashion a routine for himself that helps keep him focused on finding a way to reverse the damage done to the world. He constantly says “I can fix this!” throughout the film, more to convince himself, perhaps, than anyone else.

I’ve never read the book, but I know the ending is quite different from the original, so you need to go into the film knowing that. Some people have said the final third unravels the story somewhat, and I admit, there were a few things that I didn’t quite get until thinking it through afterwards (and hearing others talk about it). I thought the film ended the only way it could, given the circumstances.

Go see it for Smith’s performance, if nothing else, because he makes the whole thing compelling. (Plus, there’s quite a bit of DC Comics love – there are movie posters for Teen Titans, Green Lantern, and Superman/Batman – using the amalgammated icon from the comic – scattered throughout the film.) And oh, by the way – this movie made a TON of money.

In other news: Morgan Freeman wants to bring an Arthur C. Clarke novel to the big screen. (Big thanks to Pam for this link!)

Star Trek actor Michael Dorn was recently in a horror movie.

Are hard times on the horizon for Luke Cage and Jessica Jones?