Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones (for the upcoming 4th film)

Amazing how one photo can create a feeling of excitement or anxiousness. As the talk (and years) of a fourth Indiana Jones film continued, I kept thinking to myself “Harrison Ford will be too old” and “What’s the point.” After seeing that one image, I take it all back. That doesn’t mean the 4th Indiana Jones film won’t suck, but seeing that photo makes me want to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark again and makes me hope that Indy 4 will be great.

Ron Weasley and his siblings stand with wands posed in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The next image shows perfectly one of the reasons I love the Harry Potter series of films. There’s a continuity to the films that has never been achieved before (on the movie screen). It’s similar to watching 2-hour, big budget episodes of a television series like LOST or Heroes. It’s been cool to watch the kids in the Potter films grow up and I hope they all continue in the last two films of the series.

A promotional image gives us our first glance at what Spider-Man will look like in the Fall 2007 CW Network Spectacular Spider-Man animated series. A silhouette of the Vulture and Doc Ock’s arms can be seen in the image as well. Similar in style to “The Batman” and “Legion of Super Heroes,” this Spidey show should appeal to young and old fans alike.

Very cool looking. Can’t wait to see this one in the fall.

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Justice League of America - Issue #13 Cover - Look at all those villains.

Over Father’s Day weekend, there were two big comic conventions, Heroes-Con in Charlotte and Wizard World Philly. There were tons of announcements over the weekend, but the best one has to be Dwayne McDuffie taking over writing chores on Justice League of America.

McDuffie was the guiding force on the Static Shock animated series from a few years ago and also a major contributor to the Justice League Unlimited animated (and comic) series. Both of those shows were excellent and should hopefully entice fans of those former series to check out Justice League.

Recently McDuffie penned the final three issues of the Firestorm series and is currently writing the Fantastic four at Marvel. The few issues of that series have been better than any in recent memory and really captured the “family” feel the Fantastic Four should have.

With McDuffie writing flagship books at Marvel and DC, I predict a bidding war for exclusive rights to start any day now. I’ll go ahead and say that I hope DC wins, because I do like the Justice League better than the Fantastic Four and I’d expect McDuffie to add Firestorm to the team, now that his solo series has been canceled. Plus, the fact that Dan DiDio (DC Executive Editor) stated that “Dwayne is the writer of Justice League now until he doesn’t want to write it anymore,” is exciting.

Too many comic series these days have writers that stay for only a certain amount of issues. Big name writers sign up for short arcs on popular books. Brad Meltzer is finishing up a 13 issue stint on JLA just before McDuffie. Joss Whedon is finishing up a 24 issue arc on Astonishing X-Men. While I think both arcs have been great, these short runs make for uneven reading. Let’s see someone take on 110+ issues of X-Men or JLA like Brian Michael Bendis has done on Ultimate Spider-Man or the 70+ issues that Geoff Johns has done on Justice Society of America.

Uncanny X-Men #172Comics are exciting and unique because they are a monthly, continuing work of fiction. It’s nice to see a new writer come in with fresh ideas, but even more exciting is watching a dedicated writer with a love of the character(s) continually develop those characters over years and various story arcs. I think that’s what made me love comics so much when I received my first issue (#172) of the Uncanny X-Men by subscription almost 25 years ago.