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Sure, we've seen a Japanese version of Spider-Man, but Wonder Woman artist Cliff Chiang has now created a Justice League straight out of 1970s anime and kaiju. More »
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Maybe you've been searching high and low for the perfect pair of boxer briefs to demonstrate your intimate love for Batman, the Flash, or the Green Lantern. But Diesel's line of DC Comics-themed underwear are to be worn strictly under the pants. More »
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A four-minute vignette of the Batman Live arena show has hit the web. Check out Batman looking extremely confused as a Joker head (with inmates for teeth) bears down on him. Also, Schumacheresque Day-Glo bo fighting! More »
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Widely recognized as one of the best superhero movies of the past decade, Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is also much more than an action movie. It's a brooding allegory about power, personal responsibility, and the politics of urban life. More »
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Toy Fair is filled with many delightful and edifying doodads. It's also jam-packed with bric-a-brac that's unsuitable for all ages. Here are some of Toy Fair's most bizarre baubles. More »
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Here are set models from Batman Live, an arena show that will tour throughout Britain and Ireland from July-October 2011. These Jim Lee-influenced dioramas depict a 100-foot-wide, 60-foot-deep stage that will showcase pyrotechnics, a Batmobile, and a Joker dance number. More »
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If you read the "Superman/Batman" comic this week, you may have noticed a special little treat from Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo. It's a "Calvin & Hobbes" strip redone, with DC villains Lex Luthor and the Joker. Check it out. More »
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Somewhere in a universe not unlike our own, David Carradine starred in Blade Runner, Sidney Poitier played Morpheus to Bruce Lee's Neo, Tim Curry got his own Joker movie, and Robo Cop was a 1970s porno. More »
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Yesterday a Dublin court heard arguments in the case of Christopher Clancy, who dressed up as the Joker and set fire to his school for its "hypocrisy" and for treating students "as sub-human." He did €1m worth of damage. More »
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Why isn't one of the smartest, grittiest comics in the DC library — one that's a police procedural set in Batman's hometown — already on the air? More »
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A university lecturer in philosophy suggests that Gotham's hero and its worst villain share an unwilling awareness of society's fragility — and a profound isolation from others as a result. We're pretty sure we knew this, but validation is nice. More »
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What would happen if the Joker studied macroeconomics to decide whether to team up with Two-Face or go it alone? An economist known only as ShadowBanker has posted an analysis of the merits and drawbacks of supervillain team-ups, with charts. More »
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Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... Actually, what the hell is that? DC's Blammoids are on their way, and blocky toy superheroes may never be the same again. More »
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One sadly misguided soul, who was reportedly obsessed with the Dark Knight's Joker, donned full Heath Ledger clown make-up and pointed a loaded shotgun at a group of policemen. Bad move. More »
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The best way to tell what people are really excited about: check out the cosplayers. At NYCC, G.I. Joe gave Dark Knight's Nurse Jokers some tough competition. Check out what else was hot, below. More »
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It's hard to focus on this week's new comic books when you know in the back of your mind that the real world is just days away from being filled with people in costumes. Sure, they won't have superpowers or come from faraway worlds (as far as we know), but who wouldn't rather meet real people dressed like Dazzler than look at Dazzler on the printed page? Still, let's move ahead anyway, shall we? More »
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If you’re not familiar with Brian Azzarello, the scribe behind DC’s new Joker comic, you can get all the information you need just from the name of his most notable work, 100 Bullets. Yes, the Azz is known for his liberal deployment of violence, and it’s a quality that befits this new graphic novel—one that conspicuously jumps off Heath Ledger’s chilling depiction of the supervillain-as-psycopath in this summer’s Dark Knight. More »
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We've already told you about DC's Joker graphic novel by 100 Bullets writer Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo, a book that Azzarello calls "brutal... the most violent thing I've ever written." With two weeks to go until its release, the first four pages have been released online to give fans of The Dark Knight a chance to see what happened after the Joker got released from Arkham Asylum - and that's just the start of a series of comics set to capitalize on the success of Christopher Nolan's blockbuster to be released over the next few weeks. More »
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When the world is a smoking husk, and all of your heroes are shredded hero-jerky, only a few titanic villains will remain, battling over the spoils of victory. Which villain will be left standing at the end of everything? Two DC Universe mega-villains face off with two of the universe's greatest scourges — and only two can make it to tomorrow's final combat! More »
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A new book, The Art Of The Dark Knight, features early concept art for the Joker that's way freakier and edgier than the version that ended up on screen. We already showed you Bill Sienkiewicz's early Joker art, and now Slashfilm has some of the other Joker concept art. Some of these heavily scarred and punk-rock versions would have been hard to look at for two and a half hours. Click through to see another bizarre Joker pic. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5034825&view=rss&microfeed=true The only part of The Dark Knight's viral marketing that doesn't make me want to jump out a window is the series of hilarious Gotham Cable News segments. It's like watching a behind-the-scenes of Gotham via E! or Fox News. It gets especially good when people start yelling at desk reporter Anthony Michael Hall. But today the Joker has defaced the site, adding his own little spin on things. Watch the clip and check out the breaking news about a band of clown-faced robbers breaking into the Gotham safe (which sets you up for TDK perfectly). [Gotham Cable News] More »
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So that shocking Harvey Dent image we ran in this morning's spoiler round up? The one I was pretty sure was a fake? It's looking more like it might be real. Spoiler TV's movie blog posted a bunch of screencaps from The Dark Knight, including a better version of that image. And it does look as though Nurse Joker is going to the hospital to visit a very special patient. Click through for spoilery images. More »
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Click to viewWith The Dark Knight less than two weeks away from opening, now is the time to start pretending that you know all there is to know about Batman in order to impress family and friends alike. To help you do that, we've come up with a list of 10 Essential Batman Books You Must Read, and it's not just the ones that you'd expect. Your Beginner's Guide to Gotham City's Favorite Son awaits you under the jump. More »
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Check out all the new Bat-toys in this new Dark Knight TV spot that came out last night. Not to mention new scenes of destruction and mayhem. But I still don't know how they'll be able to top the tumbler from Batman Begins. It's also good to see that Nolan's second Batman is chock full of witty banter. Also, check out a gallery of Joker stills — including the most startling image yet — under the fold. More »
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As many sites have already reported, Heath Ledger was found dead this morning. The actor was to play the punked-out Joker in this summer's The Dark Knight movie. We are sad to hear the news. It also makes us wonder if The Dark Knight will now achieve the same cult status as The Crow, another production which lost its gothy anti-hero (Brandon Lee) before the movie opened. [Heath Ledger, Actor 1979-2008 via Defamer] More »
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We couldn't be more excited about Batman: The Dark Knight... or more sick of Warner Bros.' marketing campaign for the movie. When it was just sky-writing planes over Comic-Con and "Jokerized" dollar bills, we were sort of amused. But when Warner started baking Joker-cakes, we got indigestion. A gallery of weird schwag and a rundown of crazed marketing, after the jump. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=344602&view=rss&microfeed=true The trailer for Batman: The Dark Knight has finally hit the Internet, after showing in theaters over the weekend. It's our first chance to see Heath Ledger's take on the Joker, which is less campy and more nerdcore than previous versions. When he calls himself a freak, he sounds like he used to get beat up after Math Club. You can also see a blurry camera-phone copy of the first six minutes. More »
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The first six minutes of Christopher Nolan's new Batman: The Dark Knight were screened at an IMAX theater in New York last night, and already lengthy writeups are hitting the web. People sure are getting giddy about this one. More »
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[Cinematical] More »
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Heath Ledger's Joker will be more like Sid Vicious than Jack Nicholson, he told MTV. His Joker was so psycho and manic, he had to take weeks-long vacations between scenes: More »
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Must-read graphic novels are futuristic classics that shouldn't be missed. Of course, not every must-see is perfect. That's why we've rated them 1-5 on the patented "crunchy goodness" scale. More »
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