Linkdump, July '06

Well with a couple of days with no new announcements, here are some things to keep you busy reading in the meantime. One more week til San Diego!

• Blockade Boy has the scoop on the Duplicate Boy movie, starring Charlie Brown (from Peanuts) as the title character.
  

  A reputed Hollywood insider calling himself "Blockade Boy" opines that the casting of Charlie Brown in the role is "pure genius." Said Blockade Boy, "Duplicate Boy's Who's Who entry from September 1985 says, and I quote, 'He has no training in use of his powers, personal combat, or much of anything else.' You know you're pathetic when even the slimmest biographical profile is at a loss to name things you're good at. Listen, honey, I met the guy and I can tell you right now all the stories about him are true. He's just a good-looking lunkhead who skates by on a natural talent he never bothered to develop. He's like that guy who was a football hero in high school and ten years later he's a janitor. Not that Charlie Brown ever struck anybody as good-looking or heroic, but hey, he's still a lame-ass. Just like Duplicate Boy."

  
  
• Blog@Newsarama pointed me to a discussion between Chris Maka, who thinks that "Darkseid is a largely overrated and not particularly exciting villain", and Marc "Not the Beastmaster" Singer, who says that "Darkseid is one of the great archetypal characters, and one of the last to arrive in comics". Displayed is the awesome, awesome cover to LSH v2 294 with the Legion bowing down to Darkseid. Both writers, however, agree that the Great Darkness Saga is one of the best Darkseid stories ever.
  
  
• Michelle Pessoa notes the potential for the creation of the 21st century Legion of Super-Villains.
  
  
• I can't believe I forgot to post this one. From the Invincible Super-Blog:
  

  It's one of those things where you read it, read it again, and then have to go tell someone else about it before your head explodes, which is the sort of thing you're going to have to expect when you're reading a series predicated on a bunch of teenagers going back in time for the sole purpose of screwing with Superboy because they like him so much. And I feel it's only fair to warn you: it may very well blow your mind.

  
  
• The Matchstick recalls for us the battle royale between the Legion of Substitute Heroes and the Legion of Super-Pets. As he says, it truly is the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny.
  
  
• The seebelow LJ site has a casting call for a proposed Legion movie - if it were made in 1986, and directed by John Hughes.
  
  
• From a mention in a recent Legion issue about how Metropolis runs through most of the Atlantic seaboard comes this interesting discussion about the urban sprawl of the 31st century - a Californiopolis on the west coast, a Texopolis on the Gulf Coast, a Centralopolis in the Midwest, etc.
  
  
• You probably read this already, but when Superman Returns came out there was an interview with Joyce Kaffel, the daughter of Mort Weisinger, about her growing up with Superman. The Legion gets a brief mention but it's a fun article regardless.
  
  
• This guy wants us to sign a petition to "bring back the TRUE Legion of Super-Heroes". Ironically, his "real version" is the reboot version (1994-2005). He's got 84 signatures as of this writing.
  
  
• I forgot about this one. This guy lost his cell phone, which had been customized with a Legion sticker on it (his own personal Omnicom, I guess). After buying a new one, "my biggest concern sadly was what new sticker to apply to the back of it. For some reason I have to indicate some kind of nerd affiliation on my cell phone." Here's what he came up with.
  
  
• Speaking of phones, here's what can happen if you have all your Legion action figures standing up next to a window in a thunderstorm. I mean, besides turning into the Composite Superman.
  

Oh, and with all the upheavals in ComicsBlogistan lately - THE BEAT moving to Publishers Weekly, Great Curve moving to Newsarama, Comics Should Be Good moving to CBR, WizardUniverse and TCJ starting news and/or blogs - if anyone wants to pay me an obscene (or maybe just mildy disgusting) amount of money to move, they can buy me out too. I'm just sayin', that's all.