Saddo that I am, I enjoy spending time on Youtube looking for nifty fan-made openings to Doctor Who.   I thought I’d share  few of the ones that caught my eye.

I really love this Tom Baker-style opening for the 10th Doctor:

And here’s quite a cool 80s-style Eccleston opening:

I’d forgotten I had this in my drafts…

Green Lantern Corps brings the Ring Quest story line to a close. Admittedly there perhaps wasn’t as much ring questing as I’d have liked (I really enjoyed the idea of them spending a good few issues going after the various Sinestro Corps rings, and the first issue or so used this idea brilliantly), however what we got instead was a cracking Mongul story.

Mongul was always one of those “generic space tyrant” type baddies to me, that I find quite disposable. However Peter Tomasi’s clearly got a love for this character, and it really came across in his writing. Mongul’s dialogue in this last issue really popped off the pages of this issue, and I really enjoyed it. The part where he gets sick of his henchman bickering and tears him into his respective halves, held together by yellow ring energy was a really great villain moment.

The resolution to the Mother Mercy storyline was really interesting, as for the first time we see someone get offered two rings simulataneously (previously the only person to be offered both rings was Batman. Well, I guess we can count Sinestro as well…). Of course, it was no surprise that Mother Mercy chose the GL ring.

We also have Guy Gardner’s first kill since lethal force was enabled (but not his first kill ever of course, only since rejoining the Corps). It really helpped to hammer home how tired they all were from being constantly beaten down. And with even the Honour Guard starting to crack, you wonder how this Corps war is affecting the rest of the Corps. Of course, we as readers know that the Guardian’s new laws are going to go hideously wrong, and Ganthet’ll turn up with a big “I told you so” badge, but its still interesting to watch the slow erosion of the GL Corps, as Sinestro’s ultimate plan comes together.

This has been a great issue. Peter Tomasi has (as is obvious from my posts) rapidly become one of my favourite DC writers. I’m really looking forward to his next arc.

So, the San Diego ComicCon brought a tonne of news over the weekend. The big news from the Knight Rider TV show, aside from the sneak peak posted earlier, was the official reveal of the new attack KITT.

Replacing the attack mode from the 2-hour TV movie, Gary Scott Thompson’s quoted as saying he felt the original looked too similar to the regular-mode KITT (something I can kind of agree with. I know that during the pilot, I had to keep checking for the spoiler to tell the difference in some scenes). He also felt that the attack mode needed to look more aggressive and threatening. Which there’s no doubt this certainly does.

I’m still undecided though.  I really don’t like the big vents on the bonnet (although I appreciate that they’re there for a practical purpose).   Its a bit too fast-and-the-furious for me, whereas the fanboy in me cries out for a KITT that looks sleek.  Certainly, anyone that was still struggling to accept the Mustang is really going to be bothered by this I suspect.

I do get a really good vibe from the 1 minute preview though.  For me, the tone came off well, and it felt suitably action-packed.  Mike adopting the Michael Knight name is a good move as well.  While I liked the iPhone inspired main screen for KITT in the pilot, the new windshield display does look cool.  Unsure about KITTs new vocaliser, but I do like how its more of a tribute to the classic three bars the original KITT had.

Slightly baffled by the repeat of the “are you a homosexual” joke however.  It wasn’t particularly funny the first time, and it seems odd to directly lift some dialogue from the pilot like that.   I wonder if it’ll make the final cut of the episode…

Only last thing I will comment on is the blue neon lighting under the attack mode KITT.  In the States it may be cool, but over here, its generally associated with muppets who’ve got a stereo more expensive than the rest of the car, and drive like complete idiots.

Not to mention, excessive neon lighting on cars gives me Joel Shumaker Batmobile flashbacks.

With thanks to David for pointing this news and interview.

Its not been a huge secret. Since DCU #0 its been pretty heavily hinted at that Barry Allen was coming back. Grant Morrison made it known that his initial pitch for Final Crisis used Barry Allen from one of the other Multiverse worlds and he was then given the go ahead to make it the Barry Allen. But the question still remained. Was he back for good, or was this another time travelling visit (such as at the end of the Blitz storyline)?

And now its official. Barry Allen’s back full time. Of course, The Flash title has been struggling ever since Infinite Crisis. At the time the series was on a high. Coming off of Geoff Johns’ hugely successful run, the Flash was enjoying a new lease of life. And then the decision was taken to kill off Wally, and replace him with Bart (whether this was originally intended as permanent, or what we finally got, I don’t know).

This just seemed to put a bullet through the series. Wally fans took badly to him being removed from the stage at (arguably) the height of his popularity. Bart fans disliked the new direction for Bart, and felt he was just even more removed from what had made him popular back when he was Impulse. After 13 issues, Bart was killed off, and Wally and his family returned over in JLA.

However, by this point, it seemed the damage had been done. Not even the return of Mark Waid, one of the most successful Flash writers (up there with Geoff Johns) managed to reinvigorate the franchise. As they had done for many years, rumours of Barry Allen’s return started circling, and this time they seemed more believable. Sure it would blow possibly the last meaningful death in DC comics out of the water, but since everything else from Crisis on Infinite Earths was also being slowly undone (after 20 years, in fairness), perhaps the time was right to shake up the Flash franchise by bringing back Barry.

Following on from their phenomenal re-invention of the Green Lantern franchise, DC’s gone with the very safe move of getting in Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Skiver to produce Flash: Rebirth. Its a bit of a no-brainer for DC, and pretty much guarantees that this is going to sell bucket-loads.

I’m really intrigued to see what route they take with the franchise. I came on board during Mark Waid’s run on the title, and I loved the family atmosphere. Unlike the GL’s who’re space cops all working together, this is a group of people who are truly a family. This is something I really hope they capitalise on.

Like Green Lantern, this is one franchise that’s thrived by having multiple heroes with the same name. Unlike Superman or Batman, the Flash is one of DC’s primary legacy books, and with Wally and Jay both sharing the Flash name for many years, there’s absolutely no reason why we can’t just up the number of active Flashes to three (although admittedly Wally and Barry sharing the same costume will get confusing).

Granted, it seem obvious that Barry will become the “primary” Flash. He’ll get his seat on the JLA back, while Wally can hang out with the Titans, and Jay remains in JSA. I’m looking forward to this. If it takes a similar approach to GL: Rebirth, which I thought did a pretty good job of pleasing everyone (or at least, trying to), then this could be a very good thing for The Flash.

Of course, what happens after this mini will be interesting. With Geoff Johns writing so many of DC’s monthlies, will he return to the Flash franchise full-time?

Is it just me, or are the main Avengers titles tie ins to Secret Invasion becoming more missable? Or am I just starting to hit crossover burnout?

After the missable Hank Pym issue of Might Avengers, I decided to just skip the Elektra-focussed issue of Mighty this month, as I’m more interested in the ongoing storyline of Secret Invasion. While the die hard Marvel fans will no doubt appreciate that level of extra background, as someone who’s just come onboard for this event, its not of much interest to me.

Whereas this month I was looking forward to the continuation of the Spider-Woman storyline and seeing how the Skrulls influenced House of M, having really enjoyed the first part of the Spider-Woman story, instead this month’s New Avengers was entirely focused on the Skrull Captain America in the Savage Land. To me, this was even more missable than the Hank Pym issue. At least Hank’s switch was a big part of the story. This was a one-off character. I’m not even sure I followed the logic of the Skrull plot in this instance either. So all these Skrulls are completely brain-washed to believe they are the genuine article? Why are they not similar to the other substitute Skrulls we’ve already seen? The simple fact all these duplicates have turned up together has casted suspicion on them. Captain America’s already dead in the Marvel Universe, and didn’t turn into a Skrull, so they know he was the genuine article. I’m just not sure how this Cap was supposed to successfully infiltrate as some deep cover agent. The invasion was already underway, the heroes were going to be on the lookout for Skrulls, so this Skrull Cap never really had a chance of infiltrating in the same way as Skrull-Jarvis.

I’d have much rather had the second part of the Spider-Woman storyline.

Meanwhile The Initiative continues to rock. This , Captain Britain and Fantastic Four have been the best tie ins so far for me.

In this issue we see the events of Secret Invasion #4 from the point of view of the Initiative, as they’re all rushed to the battle in New York. Poor old 3D-Man doesn’t do well in this issue, but I’m not convinced that his story is quite over yet. Instead this issue focused on Crusader, and his struggle choosing between his adopted homeworld (we see him being sent to Earth, and slowly “going native”), and his people, as he’s forced into the middle of the conflict.

Its a cracking issue, and a nice character piece. And it adds some nice depth to the New York fight we’d seen previously.

NBC have posted a new one minute sneak peak of Knight Rider season 1.

Looks like its going to have a lot more action than the pilot, and KITT’s going to have a lot more gadgets.

Interesting how much KITT’s been redesigned though. New dash (pity, as I liked the one in the pilot) and the transformation effects are completely reworked.

I loved season 1 of Sarah Jane Adventures, so I’m really looking forward to this.   And after how good the Sontaran Stratagem was, I’m really pleased to see them back already

Well, some of the others that caught my eye anyway

First off, Rann-Thanagar Holy War #6.  Its back!!!! Going from the cover, Adam Strange has his Planet Heist kit back.  Yay

JSA #20 features the New Earth JSA and the Earth-2 JSA with Power Girl torn between the two.   I’m really looking forward to this storyline, as is probably most of DC fandom.  But I’m still really intrigued to see how this Earth-2 JSA is going to be approached.    As I’ve mentioned before, the Earth-2 JSA shouldn’t be the Golden Age JSA, so I’m wondering how they’re going to reconcile this.   Earth-2 in 52 was shown to have some kind of link to events on new Earth (both Kryptonians missing), but it also showed differences to the classic Earth-2 we see here.  Of course, there was obviously something going on with Earth-2 during Infinite Crisis (it was the only unpopulated world, E-2 Lois and E-2 Wonder Woman seemed to hint at being drawn somewhere - in the trade at least), so I wonder if this story arc will start to address that.

Booster Gold has a new writer in October in the form of Rick Remender. I’ve not read any of his other stuff (off the top of my head), but I love the sound of this arc, with Daniel unwittingly being possessed by Starro. It sounds like the kind of light-hearted adventure that suits this series down to the ground.

The Tangent Comics crossover is another mini I’m really loving (although it has been pointed out that the JLA really didn’t come out of the last issue looking that great. Powergirl versus Powergirl should be an entertaining matchup and I’m really intrigued to see where this series takes the Tangent Universe. I’ve been really enjoying the trades they’ve been releasing and re-casting Superman as the villain makes a lot of sense for the character.

Finally, the Superman titles explore the fallout of the Brainiac story, with 100,000 Kryptonians living on Earth.    Sounds like a really interesting story setup.  I guess I’ll be picking up the titles for a little while after the Brainiac arc ends.  It certainly gives them a lot of scope to really dig into where Clark sits in between both cultures.  Supergirl’s part in the story should be incredibly interesting, as I imagine she’s going to be really pleased to be around Kryptonians again (especially since this iteration of the character has really struggled to find her feet on Earth).

Yup. October’s going to be an expensive month for this DC fan.

The solicits for Final Crisis in October really sound promising. We’ve got a whole bunch of one-shots that month, as well as issue 5 out of the 7 issue miniseries. For anyone worrying about the pace of the story, there can’t be much doubt now that its building up to something huge. With the Earth still basically screwed with only 2 issues to go, it really is sounding like an epic storyline.

I’m unsure about most of the one-shots though. The fact that its only a one-off probably raises the chances I’ll buy Submit and Resist. Revelations I’ll probably try and see what I think. I loved Gotham Central, so the Question and Spectre storylines intrigue me, but Batwoman is a character that I just can’t bring myself to care about. She does provide a good cover for issue 3 though.

It’ll be interesting to see how much these tie-ins actually play into the main narrative. Submit and Resist certainly sound like they’ll fill in some details, but a lot of the others sound like they’re more out on the periphery. Of course, the danger of integrating them closely to the main series means you could end up with another Infinite Crisis. I re-read that series again recently, and without reading the tie-ins along side it, a lot of it really doesn’t hang together. Stuff just seems to happen in panels with no real explanation, and that’s the balancing act with these events. I think its partly why Sinestro Corps worked so well. By not crossing over with everything going, this wasn’t really an issue and kept the story tighter.

Still, meandering thoughts about tie ins aside it really does sound like its all hit the fan in issue 5, and I can’t wait.   Granted we’re only two issues in (currently), but I’m already loving this storyline.

The latest Knight Rider trailer is teasing the thing fandom most felt was lacking from the 2hour pilot.  Yup.  Turbo Boost.

A key part of the fun in the original series was KITT jumping over stuff.  However Gary Scott Thompson’s suggested that the new turbo boost might not be so straight forward.   Granted, its pricey to do, but I can’t help but feel that simpler could be better in this instance.  Just have the Mustang (be it a model, CGI or old junker stunt car) jump over something.

I also note that it doesn’t sound like Val Kilmer in the ads, and the voice seems more treated.   I hope its a sign that Kilmer’s voice will have a more electronic sound to it in the series, just to give it that slight feel of something synthesized, rather than sounding like someone reading out some lines.

Also, I could be wrong, but I think the theme is sounding tweaked as well.