Yesterday in the Nerd Verse… Jan 05, 2015

Fanboys, ready to drool? ScarJo has been cast in the live action version of Ghost in the Shell, based off the popular anime. Get ready for some major boobage and baddassery. Source: Variety.

Fangirls, ready to drool? ChanTat (Is that a thing?) has officially put a ring on it; the newly-minted Gambit announced the release date for X-Men Apocalypse, which Remy Lebeau will make his X-debut (we don’t talk about Origins in this house). Source: Twitter.

Agent Carter debuts today. SET YOUR DVR! Or just huddle around the radio with your family like they did back when the show is set (mid-1940’s).

Hold the phones – Mortal Kombat X is getting a comic book prequel, and the first one comes out January 6th; it is a short, digital-first book by DC Comics. Finally! WB is putting those licensing rights to good use.

As awesome as it sounds, Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul is NOT slated to play Han Solo in a spin-off Star Wars film. Screw fact checking; you have a story like that – you run with it. Source: Twitter.

Facebook has become an amazing tool for tracking people’s lives, so says the NSA. Sometimes though, it can provide people with a great research tool. A recent study shows interesting correlations among comic books and gender the last few years. Source: Graphic Policy.

Game of Thrones is coming back in a couple months, and I couldn’t think of a better way to catch up than to watch the Season 4 finale in IMAX, followed by a new trailer for the 5th season. GoT will be coming to “select” IMAX theaters the last week of January. We’ll keep you posted as we find out more. Source: EW.

Riding on the back of an elephant murdering bad guys with flaming arrows is just the tip of this metaphorical iceberg. Ubisoft is willing to think outside the box, and this survey should clear the air about any qualms people might have a bout a straight-forward sequel to Far Cry 4. Screw playing it safe; I want dinosaurs. Source: Eurogamer.

In the race of who has the most of my money guaranteed in 2015, the winner right now is 20th Century FOX, who has produced a Peanuts movie, set to release in November. Snoopy and the gang is back. Good grief that trailer is great!

Everybody’s favorite swashbuckling kitten is getting his own Netflix series. The Adventures of Puss in Boots becomes available January 16th. Source: Netflix.

It’s all fun and games until an entire generation of people don’t know who Paul McCartney is… We really have nobody to blame but ourselves. That new Kanye song “Only One” is ridiculous.

A slew of soon-to-be comic book news is making the rounds:

• Warren Ellis is going to do some guest writing on Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Captain Marvel. Source: CBR.
• Mark Doyle is coming to DC Comics to stay as the Bat-book editor. Since heading the Bat-books, there have been a lot of pioneering and adjusting, so this is a good move. Source: ComicsAlliance.
• With Brian Buccellato (art) and Mike Miller (writing) taking over creative duties on Injustice: Gods Among Us, expect a must different product when issue #15 drops today. Source: ComiXology.

A cool little twist for Tekken 7 has been revealed; a new camera option will let both players be on the left side of the screen when starting a match. To a lame-o like me, whatever, but to serious competition players, this could be the difference between kicking a 13 year old’s ass and throwing your controller down in rage. Source: Twitter.

X-Men: First Class and Kick-Ass 2 director, Matthew Vaughn started poppin’ off at the mouth today when he said that he thinks “Nolan kick-started a very dark, bleak style of superhero escapism, and I think people have had enough of it.” SCOOOORE-BOARD. SCOOOORE-BOARD. Source: The Hollywood Reporter.

Sony is going to continue kicking Microsoft’s ass with these upcoming Playstation features:

• Playstation Now will launch this year, and offer so much content for either $20/month of $45/quarter. Sourcer: Wikipedia (super reliable).
• Playstation Vue could eventually do away with cable TV, and several major companies are already supporting it. Source: IGN.

“Respect My Craft” – Stephen Amell

In this consumer-based industry, it can be easy to forget the years of hard work that the people in the business put in. Behind every panel, it takes a skilled writer, artist, inker and colorist to make the product complete. Behind each scene goes hours of preparation. Hush Comics’ weekly article “Respect My Craft” will dive into the history of these comic book and pop culture greats that will hopefully give a new perspective on how the men and women behind the pen (or stylus) contribute to the collective awesome-ness of the nerd world, or at least give you a reason to invest in their work.

Name: Stephen Amell

Profession: Actor

Notable Work: Arrow (2012-present), Hung (2011), Private Practice (2012)

“We’re making a kick ass show. We will continue to make a kick ass show. And I will continue to interact and provide interesting content for our fans. Because I love our fans. If every once and a while, some dickweed wants to pull a headline out of thin air to generate page views, then that’s the price we pay.” – Stephen Amell

 

The quote you see above is from an angry Stephen Amell in response to a member of the media “leaking” fabricated rumors that Amell was in talks to be a part of the Justice League movie, announced for 2016. You see, that kick ass show that Amell was referring to is Arrow, one of the hottest television shows out right now – and possibly the best live-action superhero show ever on the small screen. I’m actually sitting here writing this article as I re-watch the Season 3 finale of Arrow. I realize that, even though this is really Stephen Amell’s breakout role – his presence on it has been a contributing factor to why it is so phenomenal.

The Canadian sensation has stayed humble through the transition into stardom. It hasn’t been an instant rise to fame for Amell; it took nearly a decade-long career to get casted as Oliver Queen in Arrow. Like many actors without a pedigree, he got his start with small roles in popular television shows. The first of which was Showtime’s Queen as Folk, where he played a spin instructor. Spin class, for those who don’t know, is a gym class where a group of people vigorously ride stationary bikes to the tempo of music. Vigorously. Ironically enough, Amell was actually a spin instructor in real life prior to breaking into the business – which he had been training for since taking acting classes in high school.

Amell expanded his repertoire when he was cast on the gay super-natural soap opera, Dante’s Cove, home to some pretty risqué dude-on-dude scenes – Amell excluded, sorry ladies and/or fellas, if you’re into that. He proved early on that he is comfortable with his sexuality, playing a gay prostitute in the third season of HBO’s Hung, a role that he apparently didn’t tell even his parents about (probably because he didn’t have this awesome video to break the news with). Aside from playing Arrow, his role of Jason has been his longest-running. His openness to trying roles like this led to a slew of other opportunities, from CSI and NCIS to the award-winning Canadian shows like Heartland, Rent-A-Goalie and ReGenesis. Amell also played Brady the Werewolf in The Vampire Diaries. The CW, the channel that hosts both TVD and Arrow, likes to keep their actors in the family, which led to his audition – and prompt casting – for the part of Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow.

If you’re going to choose a character to get type-casted as, a billionaire crime-fighter isn’t the worst. Green Arrow has been a dark horse favorite among DC Comics characters – which is great, considering he is often in the shell of Batman (oddly enough, Arrow will be competing with FOX’s Gotham drama based on the Dark Knight). Nothing comes easy to Queen, and it shows through the stream of flashbacks to the island Queen was stranded on.  This is such an impressive feat for Amell, who must portray both a character living a current-day double life, and a character in progression – a guy who goes from entitled douche to unlikely hero.

The dreaded Salmon Ladder. Stephen Amell does his own stunts, thank you very much.

Now, Stephen Amell doesn’t just play a hero on television; he’s kind of one in real life. Most people by now have heard of Batkid, but just in case you haven’t, I will give a little background. Miles was a kid who had battled leukemia and was in remission. His one wish was to save the city of Gotham with Batman. The entire city of San Francisco was transformed in Gotham City and Batkid went around foiling the nefarious plots of many of Batman’s greatest foes. In what could be considered the greatest nod to Batkids work, Stephen posted a video on his Facebook as Oliver Queen with Diggle and Felicity. He is talking to his partners about how there is absolutely no criminals to fight thanks to the heroics of Batkid and thanks to him he gets to go out and enjoy dinner for a night.

It goes further than that. He has one of the best Facebook pages known to man, which he frequently uses to interact with fans and post hilarious memes making fun and promoting the show. Amell also found time to voice the Arrow version of the Green Arrow (regular version played by Alan Tudyk) character in the Injustice: Gods Among Us video game. Aside from posting memes, Amell uses social networking as a platform for the various cancer research causes that he believes in, stemming from his mother’s diagnosis with breast cancer. To name a few: he recently auctioned an autographed Arrow statue away (going for over $25K on eBay at time of writing) for a cancer patient, he attends fundraiser balls in the name of awareness (Boobyball and Fuck Cancer, to name a couple).

How he manages to juggle being the hardest working actor in television with his wife, former America’s Next Top Model contestant, Cassandra Jean, and their baby girl, Mavi, is anybody’s guess. Plus, he’s now an expert archer, or at least what he told us at his panel at Emerald City Comic Con, he has the form of an expert archer. The humanitarian aspect he brings to the table, coupled with his work ethic – and workout ethic, sets him apart from the rest of the industry. How lucky we are to have Amell spearhead the superhero television revolution. Oliver Queen should take notes.

None of the media in this article belongs to Hush Comics; it all belongs to their respective properties (DC Comics). Join us tomorrow as we continue our countdown to Denver Comic Con with the voice actor that raised a generation, Jim Cummings.

Weekend Wrap-Up…March 30, 2014

With Adrian and Sherif in the wonderland that is Emerald City Comic-Con, I will be taking over the weekly news updates, and since we weren’t able to publish on Wednesday, this edition is PACKED with nerdcore details.

Think there is such a thing as too much Spiderman?  Marvel, Spidey writer Dan Slott and Hush all disagree!  Get ready for the Spider-verse!!

Speaking of ol’ web-head, I knew it wouldn’t take long before Disney got on their corporate high horse and decided to be a dick to Stan Lee, telling him that he doesn’t own Spider-Man. It’s the equivalent of telling your grandpa that his service in Vietnam didn’t mean shit for your freedom. Shame on you Disney. Respect your elders; I mean, the guy is twenty years younger than Walt Disney himself and has arguably brought just as much joy to the world.

This might be old news to some of you, but this is Batman’s 75th Anniversary (Detective Comics #27 debuted in May 1939). DC has announced their plans for the year to celebrate the Dark Knight.

On a somber note, original Batman TV series creator, Lorenzo Sempler Jr. passed away earlier this week.  Our cowls go off to Sempler who was truly a trailblazing force for one of the most iconic and popular heroes of all time.

EA says that upcoming Star Wars games will try to follow the Batman: Arkham model. Good news is that Arkham games are awesome. Bad news is that the last time EA tried to model something after another publisher, we got NBA Live 14. Why not emulate Mass Effect? We hear that was pretty good.

Looks like we’ll all be able to start liking our friend’s status in a whole new virtual world we wear on our face!!  Facebook purchased Oculus in a move that’s sure to make techies all over the world giddy.  What’s an Oculus you ask?  Think of ski-goggles that put you right in the middle of your favorite video game/virtual world.  Finally – something to take my Farmville experience to another level.

Been practicing your bending skills?  Compare how much progress you’ve made when Book 2 of the Legend of Korra hits DVD and Blu-Ray shelves – officially announced to be released on July 1st.

We all knew whoever was lucky enough to date S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Agent Coulson would have to be  able to hang with the likes of the Avengers.  Amy Acker (Angel, Dollhouse) is no stranger to action and adventure, so we think she’ll fit right in.  It’s also got us wondering – does Acker really know how to play the Cello?

AMC’s Comic Book Men got renewed for another season. They must really be hurting for new shows. I’m still wondering how they will cope with the end of Breaking Bad and Mad Men. Two options: ride The Walking Dead til the wheels fall off or put out a new version of Low Winter Sun every year.

Arnold is back at it again.  Schwarzenegger will play an aged cyborg in Terminator: Genesis, the next installment in the popular sci-fi series.  He did say he’d be back…

This next one left me shell shocked.  I’ve already donned my masked and strapped on my sais.  The first TMNT teaser is out.  Watch it as many times as you can while you wait for that pizza you just ordered.

Also teasing us this week is the first trailer for Hercules: The Thracian Wars.  This one is bound to be better than the other Hercules that dropped earlier this year.  I mean, it stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson pretty much as himself.  Can you smell what the demigod is cooking?

This kid is out of control and Hush is eating it up.

And it case you hadn’t heard – The Walking Dead Season 4 Finale premiers in a few hours!  Catch up on where our wayward survivors by reading our reviews!