Entertainment

One of the major -- if not THE major -- reasons that Disney purchased Marvel two years ago for $4 billion was that the House of Ideas supplied a ready-made audience of material aimed at boys under 18 -- the one quadrant Disney has always had the toughest time reaching. Disney does princesses and Pooh great, but they had to create a whole cable network that could be specifically branded for boys -- Disney XD, which already airs various Marvel cartoons. So this look at just how Disney has used the Marvel universe by Mike Gold is quite interesting as he points out that Marvel TV shows in development at Disney include the Hulk, AKA Jessica Jones (ALIAS), Cloak and Dagger, and a possible Miley Cyrus vehicle based on Mockingbird:

The Avengers plus Loki and Nick Fury. These look pretty nice. Even with the typography elements taking center stage in the design, ScarJo continues to exhibits awesome mastery of the butt-and-face first pose, while Mark Ruffalo as the Halk does not look like Zoolander, which is a big improvement. Sad that none of the guys are turned so we can see their butt. Especially Thor and Captain America.

A recent interview with TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN PART 1 and Dexter scripter Melissa Rosenberg got an update on her development of the Marvel comic Alias as as TV show called AKA Jessica Jones -- and yes Luke Cage will be included:

After months of peaceful performances, this was a rocky week for the Spider-Man musical. On Tuesday original director Julie Taymor sued over royalties and on Wednesday there was yet another injury to the cast. Back-up Spidey Matthew James Thomas, who plays the title role at matinees Wednesday and Saturday, was injured backstage while racing from one scene to another. The injury required a 10-minute pause in the musical, a trip to the hospital, and stitches for Thomas.

Over on their blog, DC has announced the rollout for the New 52 collections. Instead of dumping 52 trades in one month, they will be staggered from May-November, with 7 or 8 books released a month. Justice League, Batman, Green Lantern, Detective, Batman & Robin, Batgirl, Batwoman, Batman: The Dark Knight, Aquaman, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Action, Superman and Flash are all getting hardcovers; the rest get TPBs. Missing from the list: Wonder Woman.

Oh yeah, it's on. After being ousted from the directing chair of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the troubled Broadway show about the webslinger, director Julie Taymor kept a tight smile at the opening of the show. However, now the gloves are off and she's suing the producers over her creative rights and unpaid royalties.

Will LA ever get a good comics show? It seems as elusive as a football team. This weekend saw first time show Comikaze unfold at the LA Convention Center, scene of much heartache over the years. Held just one week after the Long Beach Comic Con, Comikaze still was a sell-out, according to IGN, but first hand reports were very mixed.

Imagine a cartoonist-centric comic convention, held in a city that is equal parts Kiki’s Delivery Service and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and you get a small taste of what it’s like to attend Quai des Bulles. You would have to consume many delicious butter-filled pastries to get the full taste!

Universal Studios head Ron Meyer is the longest serving studio head around; he's 67 and he's seen it all. So when he was hanging loose at the Savannah Film Festival, he was really hanging loose, admitting that the reason a lot of Uni's films failed at the box office was because...they stank.

We meant to post this yesterday but somehow it got lost in the shuffle. This fall Robot Chicken — the toy-motion animation satire that uses lookalikes of your favorite childhood toys to enact grisly jokes — is doing an entire 15-minute episode devoted to DC comics. Recently, Geoff Johns, a past contributor to the show, linked to the trailer — which is NSFW, we might add. Robot Chicken is animated in the super bad style, and it's ugly all the way, but with its laser-cutting, bloody wrist stumps and cock ring humor, this is one of the most disturbing things we've ever seen. And to think that DC used to burn books just because it was suggested that Superman might drink a beer.

Robert Kirkman proved just how strong his will and courage are yesterday when he survived an appearance on The View -- not just any appearance, but one where the hostesses were all in their Halloween costumes, including Sherri Shepherd dressed as Frankenstein's Flava and Elisabeth Hasselbeck as...a pregnant wicker basket full of maple candy? What was that. Proving that he has the poise for the big time, Kirkman not only did not burst into screams -- or laughter -- but patiently answered all the biddies' nosy questions about where zombies come from, how they live, what they eat (rugula, maybe?), and whether the zombies are seeing anyone right now and if not how are they going to settle down?

Diamond has signed with Rovio, maker of the game sensation Angry Birds, to distribute their growing line of books -- presumably by launching them from a slingshot through the windows of comics shops, bookstores and mass market retailers around the world. A worldwide sensation, the Angry Birds game has been downloaded over 400 million times. Angry Birds costumes were the top pick for this Halloween, and their merch is showing up everywhere. The book line thus far includes doodle books, and a cookbook for -- what else? -- eggs. There's been a lot of talk over when Angry Birds would enter the comics market -- one of the creators of the game is a former webcartoonist -- so far they have a webcomic based on the recent Harvest Moon game online.