DC Comics is teasing another pivotal point in Batman's life in the forthcoming Dark Days: The Forge comic series, but all eyes right now should be on Warren Ellis' The Wild Storm, a new take on Jim Lee's imprint and characters. The first four issues of Ellis' two-year run are available now, and can be enjoyed without having any prior knowledge of this universe. Fans who have read Lee's work and DC's continuations of it will be reacquainted with the likes of Voodoo, Grifter, and the Engineer, but their reality is much different, and the dangers that lurk within it are even stranger.
The Wild Storm begins with a shattering of glass, and a man being thrown from an upper floor of a skyscraper. A sickly looking woman on the streets named Angela Spica reveals her secret: she has transhuman implants in her body that armor her and grant her the mobility of flight. She saves the man, an act of bravery that ends up haunting her. She is now hunted by numerous factions across the world, including the man she saved. The race to find her is on.
This action-packed introduction settles into a nice pace, and Ellis is clearly having a great time bringing these characters to life in new ways. The series reminds me more of Garth Ennis' Preacher than any of Ellis' books at this point. A number of characters are in the spotlight, and many of them are difficult to read at this point. Ellis and DC clearly have a vision in mind for how this story flows and ends. The decision to limit it to 24 issues is something I would like to see happen to more books, including DC's superhero titles.
James Cameron may be knee-deep in the development of a billion Avatar sequels, but he still has time to plot the future of Terminator. In an interview with Screen Daily at Cannes Film Festival, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger hinted the series won't be away for long. "It is back. It is moving forward," he said. "[Cameron] has some good ideas of how to continue with the franchise. I will be in the movie.” This likely means Schwarzenegger will likely be a T-800 machine again, but we don't know how much screen time he'll get, although he somehow can still pull off a youthful look in these films.
Lucasfilm's freight train of Star Wars: The Last Jedi reveals will likely start rolling on Wednesday, with the release of Vanity Fair's cover story that chronicles the making of the film from a set visit. Vanity Fair's cover of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was fantastic, and it looks like this story is composed in a similar way, including another photo gallery from Annie Leibovitz. The four covers for the film give us our first good looks at the newly scarred Kylo Ren, Captain Phasma without a helmet (implying she won't have it at some point in the film), General Leia's new attire, and another shot of Rose Tico, the newest hero in the Star Wars universe. We also see Luke Skywalker wearing every blanket he owns.
Filming for the yet-to-be-named Han Solo standalone film is underway, and people have been snapping as many set photos as they can. For the sake of spoilers, I won't post them here, but if you dig around, you can find the first shots of Alden Ehrenreich's take on Han Solo. It's strange to see someone other than Harrison Ford in the role, much like Chris Pine taking over as Captain Kirk. I eventually warmed to Pine's version, but it's going to take a Herculean performance from Ehrenreich to mesmerize in the same way Ford did. We know the film spans six years, showing what happened to Solo from age 18-24, and we assume he'll get the Millennium Falcon from Lando during this period, but we don't know much outside of this. The set photos hint at many of the ideas found in the now-defunct expanded universe, including Solo making a name for himself on the racing circuit. We likely won't learn much about the film outside of leaks until next year. Speculate away, and let me know what you think of the leaks thus far.
You've likely seen the first-look trailer for Star Trek: Discovery, which airs on CBS this fall, but you may have missed the news attached to its release. CBS has extended the length of the first season from 13 to 15 episodes. CBS will also air an after show called Talking Trek at the conclusion of each episode. The tagline for the first season is "At the edge of the universe, discovery begins. I can't wait to see what comes of this show. Having Doug Jones on the cast is reason alone to tune in.