No, Aquaman Will Not Fight a Shark Tornado

John Rood introduced the moderator – Bob Wayne – who then introduced the panelists. Geoff Johns took the stage and showed off the Trinity War video we premiered last week, which you can see below. Jeff Lemire came out next, and added, “The fun thing is seeing that team interact with the greater Justice League universe. If you see Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman as the holy trinity of the DCU, I see Constantine, Zatanna, and Deadman as the unholy trinity.”

They showed off a page from Forever Evil and brought up Aquaman, where Johns answered the question we’ve all been asking. “People keep asking me if Arthur is going to fight Sharknado. He’s not, but he would win.”

Brian Buccellato came up next, wearing an appropriately fashioned Flash mask, and even showed off his fresh Flash tattoo. He couldn’t say much about Forever Evil: Rogues Rebellion, but did say,“They don’t have world domination or any crazy ideas of what they do. They’re about stealing; they’re about the job. They want to drink beer at the end of the day and know that they stole something really expensive.”

Johns added that the series was focused on how the Rogues deal with the villains taking over, and how they’re not necessarily okay with that. “If you guys have seen the movie The Warriors, it’s like that.”

Lemire called the Count Vertigo special for Villains Month the creepiest thing he’s ever written, so much so that he freaked himself out with it. As for Animal Man, Lemire said he was trying to focus on Buddy’s celebrity status to explore our current culture. He said he was excited to be working with new artist Rafael Albuquerque, and that they’d be sending Animal Man on a space adventure soon. They should some pages from Trillium, and Lemire said that they’d be doing some things special to the floppy editions, storytelling-wise, and that he enjoyed playing with format.

Mark Buckingham came out next and showed off the cover for Fables #134, which features Bigby Wolf and Boy Blue. He also debuted some new pages from the upcoming story arc “Camelot,” a tale primarily featuring Rose Red. They also touched on The Unwritten/Fables story, which Buckingham called a “very much a collaborative adventure between all of us.”

Gail Simone was the next creator to come out, who joked about Batman getting punched by Gordon in the last issue. She also said that the new art team was the best art team she’s every worked with. “Fernando [Pasarin] is so good at characterization that we can build so much tension and characterization on the page without having to add a whole lot of captions or anything.” She said that all of her characters are at their edges as Gordon hunts Batgirl for killing his son (she didn’t, really).

Simone spoke highly of her collaborator on The Movement, Freddie Williams II, saying that she was proud that the book didn’t really look like any other superhero comics being published today.

Adam Hughes joined the panel to talk a little bit about his work on Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan, joking “I aged President years working on that project.” The panel also showed off Hughes’ cover to The Fables Encyclopedia, which is a wrap around.

Sadly, I had to cut out of the panel at this point to head to another commitment! Comic-Con madness!

Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. He often wonders whatever happened to Billy's RadBug.

“It’s Clear That The [Paranormal Activity] Franchise Has Jumped The Shark”

Friday, Oct 19, 2012 3:30PM

Written by Cyrus Langhorne

Paranormal Activity 4Kathryn Newton, Matt ShivelyOctober 18, 2012Read More

With Halloween less than two weeks away, eager horror moviegoers aching to get in a few early scares need look no further than Paranormal Activity 4 arriving in theaters today.

Fans of the popular horror flick franchise will be greeted with both familiar storytelling and connections to the fourth edition's predecessors.

The newest film in the found footage horror series, "Paranormal Activity 4" continues that tradition, picking up in story terms where the second film left off (the third movie was set in the 1980s and hinted at the origins of the demon bedeviling an unfortunate family). A brief recap of that film's finale -- in which the possessed Katie (Katie Featherston) disappeared with her infant nephew, Hunter -- opens the proceedings before moving forward five years to introduce a family living in a Nevada suburb: disconnected dad (Stephen Dunham), harried mom (Alexondra Lee), young son Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp), gamin teenage daughter Alex (Kathryn Newton) and her boyfriend (Matt Shively). After a creepy neighbor boy named Robbie (Brady Allen) comes to stay with them for a few days, weird things begin to happen around the house. When Katie suddenly appears it implies that Robbie is, in fact, Hunter, though it seems she has some dark designs on young Wyatt. (Chicago Tribune)

Once again, filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman helm the latest installment.

Mockumentary filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Catfish) know a thing or two about misdirecting an audience, as they proved again with 2011's Paranormal Activity 3. Together with returning screenwriter Christopher Landon, this time around they seem short on new ideas, however, relying more on the series' reputation for low-budget thrills to attract audiences. Regardless, by now Paramount's franchise is a brand unto itself, and it's unlikely that anything will stop the first few waves of fans boosting Paranormal Activity 4 up the chart until at least through Halloween. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Most of the footage is caught with modern-day technology including laptops and Skype.

Eschewing a continuation of the open ending of the previous 1988-set prequel, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 recaps the conclusion of 2, in which the possessed Katie (Katie Featherston) was last seen spiriting away her infant nephew Hunter circa 2006. Five years later, an odd little boy is seen watching in the background as teenager Alex (Kathryn Newton) videotapes her little brother Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp) at his soccer game. To effect these movies' signature found-footage style, Alex, like all PARANORMAL protagonists, has a penchant for running her camcorder at all hours of the day, and her Skype chats with boyfriend Ben (Matt Shively) are accidentally--he says--recorded on his own laptop. When weird stuff starts happening around Alex's house, Ben is able to set up the computers in every room to send nonstop video feeds back to his machine, where the images can be recorded and perused later. (Fangoria)

Despite some scary adventure, various movie critics found numerous faults with the flick.

Eschewing a continuation of the open ending of the previous 1988-set prequel, PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 recaps the conclusion of 2, in which the possessed Katie (Katie Featherston) was last seen spiriting away her infant nephew Hunter circa 2006. Five years later, an odd little boy is seen watching in the background as teenager Alex (Kathryn Newton) videotapes her little brother Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp) at his soccer game. To effect these movies' signature found-footage style, Alex, like all PARANORMAL protagonists, has a penchant for running her camcorder at all hours of the day, and her Skype chats with boyfriend Ben (Matt Shively) are accidentally--he says--recorded on his own laptop. When weird stuff starts happening around Alex's house, Ben is able to set up the computers in every room to send nonstop video feeds back to his machine, where the images can be recorded and perused later. (Hollywood)

As a fan of the Paranormal Activity films, I've ignored the creeping suspicion in the back of my mind that the series has been in a slow creative decline since the first movie, but as solid an example of the found footage style as the latest entry is, it's clear that the franchise has jumped the shark. By the fourth time around, the scares are just not as potent as they once were, in part because the element of surprise has vanished. Audiences have become hip to the series' game, scanning the room in every scene in anticipation of an object moving or a figure materializing, and when it does, it's hardly shocking. (About)

‘Shark Tank’ Winner to WWE Star Alberto Del Rio — You Made My Son Cry … Now Apologize

'Shark Tank' Winner
WWE Star Made My Son Cry
DEMANDS APOLOGY
A mother will do anything to protect her kid -- just ask former "Shark Tank" winner Shelly Ehler ... who's picking a fight with a 6'5", 239-pound WWE star after he made her 8-year-old cry.

Ehler -- who scored a $75k investment on "Tank" for her ShoNo towels -- has a serious beef with Alberto Del Rio ... who snatched her son's handmade sign during a WWE event in Anaheim, CA this weekend ... and RIPPED IT UP (or at least tried to).

In the video (above) Del Rio isn't quite strong enough to rip the sign in half (it is cardboard) ... so he takes off small, pathetic, chunks instead.

FYI -- it's standard practice for the wrestlers to interact with audience members "in character." In this case, the sign was pro-Sheamus ... the wrestling arch-nemesis of Del Rio.

But TMZ spoke to Shelly, who says her 8-year-old was terrified by the wrestler's actions and instantly burst into tears. She adds,  "Del Rio is a bully. I looked at him and said 'he's crying' ... and he mocked him."

 

Shelly -- who says her 8-year-old cried all the all way home -- vented her frustrations to the wrestler on Twitter and then fired off a an angry letter to the WWE.

In the letter she says, "Take signs from adults NOT KIDS!  My son was bullied by your superstars and it is not okay."

Despite her demands, Shelly claims she's heard crickets from Del Rio -- but his manager tweeted her back and said, "lol blah blah blah."

FYI -- as soon as Shelly contacted Sheamus about the incident ... he immediately offered to send her son a signed photo and meet with him next time he's in town.