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science fiction politics
Wondercon Confronts The Rise Of The Police State
The biggest cheers at Wondercon weren't for killer robots, but for allegories about government conspiracies, endless wars and terrorism. Much of the weekend felt like a poli-sci seminar, except with nuclear holocausts and mutated alien bugs instead of textbooks. If you needed proof that the shadow of 9/11 keeps falling over our formerly escapist narratives, then you only needed to sit in on any one of the con's jam-packed panels. More »
anime
Sneak Peek at Cyborg War Romance 'Appleseed: Ex Machina'
We've already mentioned the John Woo-produced anime sequel Appleseed: Ex Machina and spoken with director Shinji Aramaki, but Warner Video was on hand at WonderCon, handing out a billion postcards to remind people that it comes out DVD on March 11th. They even had a screening of it on Saturday night during WonderCon, although it faced stiff competition from parties featuring costumed fans and tipsy publicity reps. If you missed that, then peek at the clip below and find out what the world of Appleseed is all about. More »
io9 master control program
io9 Party at WonderCon Was Full of Craziness
io9 and Last Gasp Press co-sponsored a benefit for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund on Saturday night at WonderCon, and it was smashing. A ton of comic book artists came and drew at a table while we got drunk, and then CBLDF auctioned the art off to raise money for the fight for free speech in the comic book world. Here's a "before" picture of your intrepid editors (l-r that's Charlie Jane, Annalee, Graeme, and Kevin). Some after photos below. More »
the new frontier
Justice League Movie Takes Us Back to the Origins of Green Lantern and the Martian Manhunter
Justice League: The New Frontier comes out on DVD tomorrow, a straight-to-DVD release based on writer/artist Darwyn Cooke's series DC: The New Frontier. This is part of a trend of Warner and DC releasing original animated films on disc that might never have seen the light of day otherwise, beginning with last year's Superman: Doomsday. We got a sneak peek at The New Frontier at WonderCon, and we loved the setting in space. But the flick gets mired in the origin stories of Green Lantern and The Martian Manhunter. We've got a full report, with clips, below. More »
buzz
At WonderCon over the weekend, everybody was talking about a handful of spring/summer scifi flicks that all had one thing in common: the kind of moral ambiguity that would never fly in Superman. We saw an action-packed clip from Wanted, whose superheroes are assassins with a mission to control the world's destiny that sounds creepily like the tenets of Scientology. No fighters for truth and justice these — they're just using their powers to become godlike. Get ready for a giant moral gray area in other flicks coming your way, like Iron Man, the new X-Files flick, and Starship Troopers III. Get a quick look at all three below.
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Big SciFi Flicks This Year Will Make Good Look Evil
buzz
Comics Wrapup from WonderCon: DC Abandons Lesbians; Vertigo's Superheroes Are Reluctant
Now that the dust is settling on WonderCon Weekend it's time to look back and wonder, as we so often do, what just happened? Anywhere that you can see Elvis with a hustle of Leias has to be one of the most wonderful places in the world, despite the hype and inevitable disappointments. The headlines, the low points, and bits that we didn't tell you about at the time all await you after the jump. More »
douglas wolk
Hulk Smash Military Industrial Complex!
Over the weekend at WonderCon, author Douglas Wolk (Reading Comics) gave a talk about the not-so-secret allegorical tales that lurk beneath the BAM! POW! of your typical superhero comic book. I caught Wolk on the con floor and asked him to explain the political subtext of Greg Pak's recent World War Hulk series. In this video, he explains how it's all about blowback from 9/11, and why Iron Man represents the military industrial complex. More »
sarah connor chronicles
"Terminator" Producer Wanted To Bring Back Kyle Reese From The Dead
Thomas Dekker, who plays the future rebel leader John Connor on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, has been working out so he can kick some more ass in the show's second season (if any.) John has been somewhat kittenish up till now, because the producers want to give him an arc on his way to future hero-dom, and because it's hard to write a show with "three alphas," including John's mom and Summer Glau's Terminator, said Executive Producer Josh Friedman. More Sarah Connor secrets after the jump. More »
jericho
Jericho Predicted The Blackwater Scandals
This week's episode of post-apocalyptic drama Jericho pits our hero Jake Green against Ravenwood, the government security contractor he used to work for. When the producers were originally coming up with ideas for a TV show about the collapse of governing institutions after nuclear attacks, they did a lot of research into contractors like Halliburton and Blackwater operating in the chaos of post-invasion Iraq, producer Carol Barbee revealed at Wondercon. Jericho's portrayal of unaccountable contractors presaged the Blackwater scandals, which hadn't yet come out. More about the politics of Jericho, after the jump. More »
wildstorm
Wildstorm Relives Past Glories, Other People's Characters
DC's once proud Wildstorm imprint showed signs of hurting at their Sunday panel at WonderCon. First sign was the sparse attendance for the panel, with less than 50 people in a hall meant to hold roughly eight times that number, with the second being that everyone involved, from pros to fans, would rather talk about crossovers with the mainstream DC Universe or old books that never got finished. More »
x-files
Gillian Anderson Reveals Kinky Plot of X-Files 3 Movie
Here's a gem we grabbed at the X-Files movie panel at WonderCon yesterday, thanks to intrepid videographer Roger Chang. A fan asks the panel if there are any stories they wish they'd had a chance to explore in X-Files. After David Duchovny hems and haws about how the new movie is sort of exploring Picture of Dorian Gray, Gillian Anderson lets this one drop: "I always thought Mulder should have explored autoerotic asphyxiation. That'll be XF3." Watch as Duchovny and show creator Chris Carter try to bring the conversation back on track.
jon favreau
Jon Favreau: Iron Man's Look Borrowed from Top Gun and Battlestar Galactica
Yesterday we spoke to Jon Favreau, director of the upcoming Iron Man movie. In the panel before our chat, he showed an extended version of the jet boots scene from the Superbowl commercial for Iron Man, basically to prove that the whole movie isn't cut in that hyperfast MTV style that the trailers show. We see Tony working intimately on the jetboots, soldering wires, getting assistance from a voice-activated lab robot, and then running a test flight... which sends him spiraling into the wall. See what Favreau told us about the highly-anticipated superhero flick, below. More »
wondercon
Vertigo Re-Enters The House of Mystery
What do you do when you're kidnapped and imprisoned in a mystical building that has itself been kidnapped by forces unknown? Well, if you're the cast of upcoming DC/Vertigo series House of Mystery, you open a bar. Talking about the book at Wondercon's Vertigo panel, co-writer Bill Willingham (the other writer is Matt Sturges, his co-writer on Jack of Fables) gave us the lowdown. More »
wondercon
When Will Swamp Thing Come Back?
Just who owns Swamp Thing? After being asked about the chances of a revival of everyone's favorite muck monster at today's Vertigo panel, DC's VP of Sales told the following story:Every now and again, there's a battle between [DC Universe] and Vertigo about who gets to publish the character. DCU guys go up to the Vertigo offices with the issue of Batman where Swamp Thing appears and say "Clearly this is a Batman character!" and suddenly there are pitchforks and they're forced back to the elevators.Trying to offer a more serious answer, editor Bob Schreck said that it was one of his favorite comics, but after about three failed attempts to bring back the character, he's realized that "maybe you shouldn't go home again."
battlestar galactica
Battlestar Galactica's Richard Hatch Talks About Zarek's Political Career
Yesterday we dropped in on the Battlestar Galactica panel with Richard Hatch, who starred in the original show, and plays shady insurrectionary and politico Zarek on the new show. io9's Kevin Kelly asked Hatch what he thought Zarek would be doing if he were involved in politics on Earth during this election season. Would he be more of a behind-the-scenes Karl Rove type or would he be in the race? This is Hatch's strange, rambling answer.
starship troopers 3








