MTV has a preview of my next movie project, a Direct To Video featuring Billy Baldwin, James Woods, Mark Harmon, Chris Noth, Gina Torres and more. Wait through the 30 second MTV News segment, and there we are…

With a new trade paperback edition of ICON: A HERO’S WELCOME, and a new hardcover collection of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, coming out this Wednesday, I did a podcast interview with the distressingly silky-voiced Andrew McDonald. We cover Ben 10, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, some of my comics work, and segue into the future of Comics distribution, as if I had anything helpful to say.

Click here for my nasal, high-pitched ruminations…

A new printing of ICON: A HERO’S WELCOME lands in the stores on Sept. 30th, so I thought this would be a great time to share one of my favorite reviews of the original edition, scrounged from Amazon.com:

Black, Proud, Pertinent: Icon, The Rocket, and Milestone Media.

copyright (c)¬Ý1996, 2005 Michael F. Hopkins, All Rights Reserved.

Be advised that this is not an underground comic, a la Robert Crumb, exploiting the underbelly of the inner city through racist, sexist caricatures insanely promoted as progressive vision. Nor is this empowered by any of the sadly prevalent images that overground comics have foisted upon Black people for generations, from the happy darky to the murderous savage, from the grinning, kissing slickster of old to the anal-retentive, caramel-colored, honorary Caucasian types of more recent decades. ICON: A HERO’S WELCOME a very special book, a groundbreaking work of sequential fiction about Black people by Black people, to be read and shared and widely spread. The rich, authentic ethnicity of its tale is matched only in the ingenuity by which its authors unveil the immense array of lives, personalities, and temperament which comprise the African-American community presented here.

For those who love well-written, finely illustrated comics, this graphic novel represents the best in the field. For those who have yearned for a more equitable cultural representation in the arena of superheroics, this title and its ever-evolving storyline has been a major breakthrough since its debut in 1993. Bold and engaging, the tale comes on strong with satirical bite, and penetrating insights rarely, if ever, seen on a comic page. Highly unique and very familiar, the adventures of Icon, a proverbial brother from another planet, and The Rocket, a sharp sister from the poor side of town, have captured the imagination of the reading public, winning the plaudits of the most creative talents in the business.

ICON: A HERO’S WELCOME collects the first eight issues of the Milestone Media series into the graphic novel it was conceived to be. On the edge and full of juice, the scenario cuts no slack in presenting its tale of haves and have-nots, along with the gaps that must be faced, and bridged. Writer (and Milestone Editor-In-Chief) Dwayne McDuffie works wonders, presenting the dialogues and situations of people across the boards caught in the daily throes of desperate struggle. Illustrator M. D. Bright imbues the tale with an engraver’s depth, giving vibrant flesh and blood and bone to a necessary testimony which runs it mighty like the Blues, funky with Soul, as intriguing and taut as Jazz on the One. No romanticism cum Catfish Row, and no overplayed despair a la Death Row here. Just folks, from high to low and in the middle, portrayed in a presentation worthy of Langston Hughes, Thulani N. Davis, and Octavia E. Butler in its blend of the poignant and the playful.

Through distant stars and slave fields, tenement dreams and indifferent wealth, police brutality, teen pregnancy, legalized conspiracy and wanton gang violence, the topics and perspectives addressed in ICON: A HERO’S WELCOME are met head on, with great style and considerable taste. Best of all, we have a bona fide team in the ageless alien and the youthful homegrown. One is soft-spoken, firm with machismo, and full of power. The other is spike-tongued, fiery with conviction, and full of spirit. No head honcho and sidekick set-up here, these two have much to learn of themselves, and from one another.

In a memorable sequence that bridges the first two chapters, the duo’s first meeting with the Law is both hysterical and shocking, a madhouse of mishap, mayhem, and outrageous mirth all in one. All too familiar a scene in our urban areas, the result of confrontation here sets the tone and the call of this tale beyond any shadow of a doubt.

One of the most monumental efforts in the history of the Sequential Arts, the African American-based, multi-culturally conceptual Milestone Media presented some of the broadest, most profound comics ever conceived. Ranging from the brutally honest to the whimsically outspoken, the Milestone line (distributed by DC Comics) injected a whole new intensity and substance into a field which, throughout the times, has needed just such a shot in the arm. Only the timidities of regional dealers, distributors, and placid readers who fear fresh approaches in comics -especially if it’s not chiefly about White folks-, have placed obstacles in Milestone’s path where sales and product availability are concerned.
No point denying it. Look at the problems these types have presented to Don McGregor’s groundbreaking BLACK PANTHER chronicles at Marvel over the decades. (How many people even know about McGregor’s superb PANTHER’S PREY mini-series of the early 1990s, beautifully painted by Dwayne Turner?!!) Jump ahead to the mid-1990s, and look at the undeserved demise of DC’s superlative BLACK LIGHTNING series by Tony Isabella and Eddie Newell, due to the same myopic contingency. Yet many of these very types are the ones who cry the loudest for “something new and different.” No doubt about it: Much hypocrisy is afoot here.¬ÝThankfully, these obstacles have not stopped Milestone from winning Parents’ Choice honors twice. Nor have they prevented the line’s continued excellence in presenting gripping series like Hardware and Static (the animated STATIC SHOCK keeping the Milestone banner flying through the years since the company’s Sequential shutdown by the mid-late 1990s) or cutting edge, drastically underrated mini-series, such as¬ÝTHE LONG, HOT SUMMER or WISE SON: THE WHITE WOLF.

Certainly, whimsical societal tastes have neither stymied nor slowed author McDuffie, whose major domo helmsmanship has made Warner animation’s JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED a potboiling, multicultural chronicle representing heroic drama at its most imaginative, and very best.¬ÝFor many, the Icon series still represents Milestone at its finest, and most creatively provocative.¬ÝIt’s about time that A HERO’S WELCOME was placed back in¬Ýprint; hopefully, a sign of things to come. This first¬ÝMilestone graphic novel is a great addition to any library, whether the interest is in African-American culture, superb superhero drama with a heady dosage of real Science Fiction,¬Ýor a cunningly conceived measure of the times.

Don’t wait for fanboys to tell you it’s cool, or for slewfooted Keepers of the Afrocentric Way to inform you if it’s “Black enuf.” ICON: A HERO’S WELCOME is stone down with it, introducing us to a pair of the most compelling characters in contemporary fiction. Through the harrowing exploits of Augustus Freeman and Raquel Ervin, two highly talented brothers weave a narrative which compels all readers to dispense with their preconceptions of race, gender, and heroic creed. Pick up on this. Then, head for a comix store, check out the series, and see what happened next. The end is yet to be written.

This tale is no game, and these bloods don’t play.

I did a Ben 10 interview for Newsarama that has somehow morphed into a JLA and Ben 10 interview, despite the fact that we talked about Ben 10 for about 30 minutes and JLA for 5, ostensibly in preparation for a future JLA interview. There are a few incorrect implications and inferences in the piece, I’m going to take a swing at correcting some of them:

"It's fair to say that Doc Paradox is returning and David McCallum is still in the role," quips McDuffie. "

The character’s name is “Professor Paradox,” usually referred to as “Paradox.” He’s never referred to as Doc Paradox.

As it turns out, the movie is based on a script that McDuffie submitted to a never-completed season of "Justice League," entitled "Worlds Collide."

Nope, It’s based on my script for an unproduced Justice League Direct-To-Video movie originally called “Fearful Symmetry,” then later renamed “Worlds Collide.” This movie would have bridged the end of the Justice League with the beginning of Justice League Unlimited. It proved to be too much work to make a movie while designing the new JLU show, so the project was shelved.

"The story is ’ÄòMirror Mirror' from ’ÄòStar Trek,'" says McDuffie. "So we both did our take on that."

I don’t have a tape, but my full quote was something like, “The story is ‘Mirror Mirror’ from Star Trek. Actually, they did it in JLA before then, what was it, JLA #29? James loaned me a copy (back when I wrote the movie originally). So we both did a take on that.” If I didn’t say precisely that, that was my intention.

The interview is here…

It’s an original Direct-To-Video from Warner Home Video in spring 2010. Ain’t It Cool News has the details.

An original story from award-winning animation/comics writer Dwayne
McDuffie (Justice League) rooted in DC Comics' popular canon of
"Crisis" stories.

Bruce Timm (Superman Doomsday, Green Lantern) is executive producer.
Lauren Montgomery (Wonder Woman, Green Lantern) and Sam Liu
(Superman/Batman: Public Enemies) are co-directors.

In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, a "good" Lex Luthor arrives
from an alternate universe to recruit the Justice League to help save
his Earth from the Crime Syndicate, a gang of villainous characters
with virtually identical super powers to the Justice League. What
ensues is the ultimate battle of good versus evil in a war that
threatens both planets and, through a diabolical plan launched by
Owlman, puts the balance of all existence in peril.

All-star voice cast led by Mark Harmon (NCIS) as Superman, James Woods
(Ghosts of Mississippi) as Owlman, Chris Noth (Sex and the City, Law &
Order) as Lex Luthor, William Baldwin (Dirty Sexy Money) as Batman,
Gina Torres (Serenity, Firefly) as Super Woman and Bruce Davison
(X-Men) as the President.

Friday at 8:30 on Cartoon Network.

Larry Gelbart, writer of Your Show of Shows, Tootsie, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and TV’s M*A*S*H, among many other wonderful things, died yesterday.

Ben 10 is back, but so is Vilgax!¬ÝGet ready for the hour-long Season 3 premiere of Ben 10 Alien Force TOMORROW at 8:30pm (E/P) on Cartoon Network. Will you be watching?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCNs7Zpqo98