Hal Jordan / Green Lantern continues to be a part of the pop culture conversation, especially after confirmation that Kyle Chandler is set to portray the character in the DC Universe's forthcoming Lanterns television show. As fans prepare for Hal's newest foray into live-action, a new comic is paying tribute to one of his most beloved partnerships.

As part of DC's December 2024 solicitations, DC announced Green Lantern/Green Arrow: World's Finest Special #1, a new one-shot that will be released wherever comics are sold on Wednesday, December 18th. Written by Jeremy Adams with art by Lucas Meyer and Travis Mercer, the one-shot will reunite Hal and Oliver Queen / Green Arrow in a new adventure, continuing the legacy of Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams' beloved "Hard Travelin' Heroes" run of the 1970s.

What Is Green Lantern/Green Arrow: World's Finest Special #1 About?

Written by JEREMY ADAMS

Art by LUCAS MEYER and TRAVIS MERCER

Cover by DAN MORA

Variant covers by HOWARD PORTER and V. KEN MARION 1:25 variant cover by CRYSTAL KUNG

$5.99 US | 48 pages | Variant $6.99 US (card stock)

ON SALE 12/18/24

Everyone's favorite hard-travelin' heroes are back and brought to you through the iconic lens of World's Finest! In the not-too-distant past, Oliver Queen and Hal Jordan find themselves at a crossroads...and only teaming up together once more will save them from the scope of the mysterious bounty hunter known in whispered tones throughout the underworld as Deathstroke the Terminator. Plus, writer Jeremy Adams returns to the world of the Flash to weave a twisted tale of Barry Allen on the road to cri-sis--it's a World's Finest adventure you cannot miss in this special, oversize one-shot spectacular!

What Is Lanterns About?

Lanterns follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland. The roles of John has yet to be cast at this time.

"We are elated to be reuniting with both Chris Mundy and Damon Lindelof as they partner with Tom for this fresh take on DC's 'Green Lantern,'" Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and Max Content, said in a statement. "As part of James and Peter's vision for the DC Universe, this first new live action series will mark an exciting new era."

As mentioned above, Green Lantern/Green Arrow: World's Finest Special #1 will be released wherever comics are sold on Wednesday, December 18th

• Free Batman 1992 Polybag with LEGO DC Batman purchases of $40 or more. See eligible sets at LEGO
• Double and Triple LEGO Insiders Points on select LEGO DC Batman sets. See eligible sets at LEGO
• LEGO BrickHeadz Limited Edition Batman 85th Anniversary set is available for 3000 LEGO Insiders Points - See at LEGO
• You can sign up for a free LEGO Insiders account right here.

Note that the 76252 Batcave Shadow Box is one of the DC Batman sets that's eligible for 3x LEGO Insiders Points. It clocks in with a hefty 3981 pieces, and recreates the entire Batcave from the 1992 film Batman Returns in high detail. Naturally, the Batmobile is also included and buildable in the set. The 76252 Batcave Shadow Box is priced at $399.99 and can be ordered right here at LEGO.com now.

When the Batman LEGO shadow box is closed, you'll see elements of the interior through the Batman emblem. When opened, you'll get the full Batcave complete with gadgets, moveable elements, and minifigures that include Max Shreck, The Penguin, Catwoman, 2 versions of Batman, Alfred Pennyworth and Bruce Wayne. Basically, it offers you two awesome options for display.

Special features of the set include the ability to change the computer screen and open and close the tool store and illuminated (light brick) Batsuit vault. The Batmobile also has a roof that opens to accommodate a Batman minifigure and a cog that can be turned to unveil two blasters.

Another LEGO Batman set to consider is the Batman: The Animated Series Gotham City (76271) set that allows fans to build a 3D recreation of the Gotham City skyline complete with loads of Easter eggs in 4120 pieces. The set will also include minifigures of Batman, Catwoman, The Joker, and Harley Quinn. It's available here at the LEGO shop priced at $299.99 and will score you 2x LEGO Insiders Points during the Batman Day promotion.

Additional features of the Batman: The Animated Series Gotham City (76271) LEGO set include brick-built locations and from the series such as Gotham City Court, Arkham Asylum, Wayne Manor, the Batcave and more. You'll also be able to view what's happening inside these locations thanks to 15 removable panels. Naturally, Batmobile and Batwing vehicles are included in the display along with a Bat Signal. Note that the LEGO Gotham City set can be mounted on a wall or stood on a surface using a flip-out stand when complete.

You can take advantage of LEGO Insiders offers by signing up for a free account right here. Keep tabs on LEGO's offers page for updates on promotions. You can find all of the upcoming releases here in the "Coming Soon" section. After the launch, they will shift here in the "Available Now" section. Some of the new releases will be available here on Amazon, but in most cases you'll want to stick with LEGO to take advantage of their promotions.

Kyle Chandler is going from Friday Night Lights to Green Lantern's light. The Friday Night Lights actor, who won an Emmy for his role as high school football coach Eric Taylor on the sports drama, has been chosen to wear the ring as the Green Lantern Hal Jordan in DC and HBO's Lanterns. According to The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the news, the live-action series is currently casting and in the middle of hiring directors ahead of a planned January 2025 shooting start in Atlanta.

News of Chandler's casting comes after Avengers and Dune star Josh Brolin reportedly passed on the role as the test pilot turned space cop in the True Detective-type mystery series produced by James Gunn (Superman) and Peter Safran (Aquaman) for DC Studios.

The live-action Green Lantern series received the green light in June and is from showrunner Chris Mundy (Netflix's Ozark), who serves as executive producer and co-writer with Damon Lindelof (HBO's Watchmen and The Leftovers) and Eisner Award-winning comic book writer Tom King (Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow).

Lanterns is "a terrestrial-based mystery that leads into the overall story that we're telling throughout the different movies and television shows," DC Studios co-chairman and CEO Gunn said when announcing the series early last year. "We find this ancient horror on Earth, and these guys are basically supercops on 'Precinct Earth.'" As the Green Lanterns of Sector 2814, Jordan and his prot?g?, fellow power ring-wielding human John Stewart, are tasked by the Green Lantern Corps with investigating a mysterious threat that could cross over with the Gunn-directed Superman and the upcoming feature films Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow and Swamp Thing.

A revamped version of the since-scrapped Green Lanterns TV series from prolific Arrowverse producer Greg Berlanti that was in the works at Max, Lanterns is inspired in part by the "Sinestro's Law" arc started in the 2016 Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps: Rebirth one-shot and Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps issues #1-7, which saw the tyrannical Sinestro and his Yellow Lanterns impose their rule over the universe.

"John Stewart and Hal Jordan are two of DC's most compelling characters, and Lanterns brings them to life in an original detective story that is a foundational part of the unified DCU we're launching next summer with Superman," Gunn and Safran said at the time of the series announcement. The new DC Universe kicks off in December with the Max original animated series Creature Commandos, created and written by Gunn, before officially launching with Gunn's Superman movie in July 2025.

Along with his five-season role as Coach Taylor on Friday Night Lights, Chandler's television credits include the ABC period drama Homefront, Early Edition, and Bloodline, and episodes of Grey's Anatomy, Catch-22, and the Showtime anthology Super Pumped. Chandler portrayed astronaut Deke Slayton in the 2018 film First Man, and has appeared in such films as Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Godzilla vs. Kong, and the Oscar-winning dramas Argo and Zero Dark Thirty.

Note that the Batman '89 5 Points figures are only sold as a set, and you can pre-order it here at Entertainment Earth for $59.99. The Batmobile sold separately here at Entertainment Earth for $49.99. Both are set to launch in April and you won't be charged until that time. Note that U.S. shipping is free at Entertainment Earth on orders over $99 (flat $7.95 shipping fee on everything else), so you'll be good to go if you get the figures and the vehicle. A full breakdown of the accessories in the figure set can be found below.

Accessories for Batman, Joker, and Joker Good 5 Points figures:

• One (1) Batman head portrait
• Four (4) Batman arms: One (1) pair of regular arms (L&R), One (1) pair of arms with weapon holding hands (L&R)
• One (1) batarang
• One (1) speargun
• Two (2) Joker head portraits
• Four (4) Joker arms: One (1) pair of regular arms (L&R), One (1) arm with cane holding hand (L), One (1) arm with megaphone holding hand (R)
• One (1) cane
• One (1) megaphone
• Two (2) Goon head portraits
• Four (4) Goon arms: One (1) pair of regular arms (L&R), One (1) pair of arms with weapon holding hands (L&R)
• Two (2) swords
• One (1) knife
• One (1) camera

In other Batman Day news, McFarlane Toys launched another wave of DC Multiverse figures that includes a Batman Beyond from the 2023 limited series Batman Beyond: Neo Gothic, Batman from the 2011 Batman: No?l graphic novel that was inspired by Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, a Silver Age Batman with Ace the Bat-Hound, and a Gold Label exclusive Batman with Bat-Glider that's based on on The Thirteenth Hour issue of The Court of Owls series from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Pre-orders for these releases are available in the list below.

• DC Multiverse Batman - Batman Beyond Neo Gothic Figure ($22.99) - See at Entertainment Earth / Amazon
• DC Multiverse Batman - Batman: Noel Figure ($22.99) - See at Entertainment Earth / Amazon
• DC Multiverse Batman - Batman and Ace the Bat-Hound Silver Age Figure Set ($22.99) - See at Entertainment Earth / Amazon
• DC Multiverse Batman - Batman with Bat-Glider Gold Label Figure - Amazon Exclusive
• Hot Toys also launched a Batman Returns 1/6th scale figure. You can order it here in standard and deluxe versions.
• You can check out more recent McFarlane Toys releases right here.

According to a new report, UK team Rocksteady Studios is working on a new a Batman game that could end up being an exclusive for PS5 or PS6, depending on when it releases. We know via job listings that Rocksteady Studios began work on a new game this summer after flopping hard earlier in the year with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Many assumed the Batman: Arkham studio would get back to its bread and butter -- aka Batman -- with its next game. This has not been confirmed, but this is what a new rumor has suggested.

The rumor comes the way of Nick Baker of Xbox Era over on social media platform X. In the past, Baker has proven reliable with numerous leaks and accurate rumors, however, he has also been off the mark on occasion. Whether this will be an example of the former or the latter, remains to be seen. In the meantime, there aren't many details.

All that Baker notes is that he has heard Rocksteady Studios is back to making Batman and that he thinks "Sony are trying to moneyhat it." For those unfamiliar with the term, moneyhatting refers to the act of using financial incentives or bribes to gain the upper hand typically on the competition.

Baker makes no note of exclusivity, but it is unclear what else Sony would be throwing money around for other than some type of timed exclusivity, or even permanent exclusivity, involving the PS5 or PS6 or both depending on when this game ends up releasing. It could be for something more boring like marketing rights or some deal involving PS Plus, but it wouldn't be the first time Sony threw large amounts of money at a developer for timed/permanent exclusivity on a game.

All of that said, remember to take everything here with a grain of salt like any rumor. Further, even if this rumor is accurate, it is subject to change that could render it inaccurate over time. Assuming this rumor is accurate though, don't expect to see this game for at least several years. Last time Rocksteady Studios made a game -- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League -- nine years passed before said game was released. Unless something goes wrong again, its next project should not take this long, but it will at least be three to five years even if everything goes smoothly.

At the moment of publishing, none of the implicated parties -- Rocksteady Studios, WB Games, nor PlayStation -- have commented on this rumor in any capacity. We don't expect this to change for a variety of reasons, but if it does, we will be sure to update the story accordingly.

Jay Oliva, the storyboard artist who described Ben Affleck's unmade solo Batman movie that built on 80 years of Bat-mythos as "f--ing awesome," has shared a board visualizing a hand-to-hand fight sequence between the Dark Knight and Joe Manganiello's assassin Deathstroke. Oliva -- whose credits include the Zack Snyder-directed Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zack Snyder's Justice League, and the adult animated series Twilight of the Gods -- revealed the frame (below) in celebration of Batman Day 2024.

"I've worked on a lot of Batman things and what was really cool about it was, it was tying together a lot of really cool Batman storylines that had never been really explored," Oliva said in an interview last year, adding that the standalone movie co-written by Affleck and then-DC CCO Geoff Johns "was gonna cover something that had never really been covered in comics, but was building off of storylines in the Batman mythos over the last 80 years and approaching it from a new kind of perspective."

Happy BATMAN DAY Everyone! ???#BATMAN pic.twitter.com/eCE2G2s66c

-- Jay Oliva (@jayoliva1) September 22, 2024

Along with concept art of Affleck's new Batsuit design that would have seen Batman suit up in a grey-black suit made from ballistic materials and kevlar-like armor, concept artist Keith Christensen shared his design for a tactical costume to be worn by the masked mercenary who first appeared opposite Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor in the post-credits scene of 2017's Justice League.

While a followup to that scene never materialized, Manganiello told the Comic Book Nation podcast that Slade Wilson blamed Batman for the death of his son. After learning Batman's secret identity from Luthor, Deathstroke would then target Bruce Wayne and his allies, including Barbara Gordon's Batgirl.

"The Batman film was going to be kind of similar to... imagine if David Fincher's The Game was real," Manganiello said. "[Deathstroke] systematically dismantles Bruce's life and starts murdering all the people in it. Destroys his finances and just, basically, paints him into a corner. But it was a real psychological thriller, and Deathstroke was kind of like a horror movie villain, like a shark, kind of like [in] Jaws."

Affleck was attached to write and direct a solo Batman movie under Walter Hamada's DC Films regime -- tentatively titled The Batman -- as part of the DC Extended Universe. Once planned for an early 2017 shooting start, the Argo and The Town filmmaker dropped out and was replaced by War for the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves. Affleck eventually announced he hung up the cape and cowl, and Reeves rebooted Batman with Robert Pattinson as a younger caped crusader.

"I found that I had lost my enthusiasm or passion for it," Affleck explained to GQ in 2020 of his axed Batman movie. "This should really be made by somebody for whom it's their wildest dream come true and, for me, it had become something different and it was clear to me that it was time to move on. But I do have some really fond memories, particularly of Batman v Superman, and how exciting that was. And how energizing it was and how much fun we had."

Spoilers for The Penguin episode 1 follow! Within minutes The Penguin makes two things clear: the TV series is starting just days after the events of The Batman, and it's also fully entrenched in the grimy, noir, crime-driven tone that was integral to the Matt Reeves movie. We see this in the opening scene as Colin Farrell's Oz Cobb digs up blackmail material from a hidden safe in Carmine Falcone's office, and immediately afterward when he shoots the heir apparent to the empire, Alberto Falcone, five times in the chest. Not long after that, though, The Penguin makes another thing clear: it's really funny.

It's easy to forget that Matt Reeves's The Batman, with its David Fincher and John Carpenter influences, was also quite humorous, but given the incredibly dour tone of the film, some levity was required (especially since it clocked in at 3 hours). The Penguin knows that it can't immediately eschew all of the humor from this world and embraces the fact that it has to at least be a little playful and, in fact, tell some jokes. Immediately after Oz kills Alberto he laughs, feeling the power of his actions and thinking that his moves are really going to take him places, but that's when it hits him. What he just did was incredibly short-sighted and brings us to the first real joke of the series. Oz has a sudden realization and laments, "Aww, fu--" as the opening titles begin.

The instances of The Penguin ranging from comical to outright hilarious ramp up as the title appears on screen. Oz dresses himself in a garbage bag to get rid of the body, but decides after a few steps that instead of carrying it, who cares? So he tosses the deceased down the stairs and the body tumbles into a heap. Even after firing his gun at would-be thieves trying to steal his car's rims, the humor continues when Oz recruits Victor to help him get rid of the body. He makes small talk about the air freshener he keeps in his car, or about mixing Slush Puppies together in a "suicide" so you get all the flavors. Oz even smashes Alberto Falcone's cell phone in comical fashion, like a toddler destroying a toy.

A major strength of The Penguin series is that the humor in the series isn't just a means of providing some relief for the larger dramatic tension; it's also character building. After Oz threatens Victor into working for him in the first episode, it becomes clear that he doesn't even have any idea what he's even doing. Though he has ambitions of being a major crime boss and having the seat at the head of the table, Oz is clueless. He knows that he needs to sell a violent promise to keep Victor on his side, dropping the half-hearted threat of "You're gonna do whatever I say or else I'm, uh... gonna murder you and anyone you care about..." ("Murder" said with that thick Atlantic accent so that it comes out "moi-duh".) The threat works, but his unenthusiastic delivery is like a slam dunk as both a joke and a building block of this version of the Penguin becoming a crime kingpin.

Even after they manage to secure an alibi for the evening and get things in place for the body to be disposed of, The Penguin hits us with the funniest line of dialogue of the series. While eating, Oz laments: "I asked for extra pickles, and they give me two? So what, a normal amount of pickles is one? It makes no go**amn sense." When Victor offers him some of the pickles from his sandwich to make up for it, Oz roasts him. "Do I want one of your pickles? That your dirty little mouth touched?" If a life of crime doesn't work out, this version of the Penguin could take to the comedy clubs.

The Penguin's humor isn't limited to just his scenes with Victor (though we do get the hilarious moment of Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" blasting from the radio). For example, in the midst of one scene, Oz tries to escape Sofia's men during a rain-soaked chase. Though it may seem like there is no comedy present in the moment, the series finds a way. As it appears Oz has abandoned his car and gotten away, The Penguin reveals that he hid in the trunk of his own car to trick his pursuers, and it works briefly. Then while struggling against one of the goons, Oz pushes him away. As the man stumbles, he's run over by a bus full of schoolchildren, and Oz waves at the kids as the body crumples in the undercarriage.

Even though The Penguin radiates its crime-drama roots at every turn, the series is making the case for its existence by channeling the fact that these characters live on a spectrum. It's not just that they can thrive in a world where guns and grit are the status quo of powerful people, but also that sometimes there are laughs to be found. If the remaining seven episodes are just as funny at the first, The Penguin will set a surprising standard for what a comic book show is capable of doing, as it not only expands on the film it spun out of but displays an array of tones that work together seamlessly.

The ComicBook Nation crew review Transformers One, and it's Peak Geek TV time again with Agatha All Along, The Penguin and Zack Snyder's anime Twilight of the Gods all premiering this week!

PLUS: The Clue movie reboot may have a director; the Transformers & G.I. Joe movie gets an update; Zack Snyder's 300 TV series is happening - and Netflix's One Piece Season 2 drops some major casting surprises!

Transformers One Review

Here's what ComicBook Nation's Anime Initiative host Evan Valentine had to say about his 4-star review of Transformers One:

I would be remiss by not calling this the best Transformers film since the 1980s animated film. If this is the future of the Transformers franchise, then Autobot and Decepticons fans have a bright future to look forward to indeed.

The Penguin Review

ComicBook's Jenna Anderson had the following to say in her 4.5 out of 5 star review of The Penguin:

Across its eight episodes, The Penguin redefines what verisimilitude can mean in the world of comic book adaptations. The grittiness, violence, and double-crossing that fans would expect from the title are abundantly present, but balanced with a truly heartfelt take on loss, rebirth, and personal agency. The series is not only one of the better crime dramas in recent memory, it is one of the best examples of how to branch out decades of beloved lore.The Penguin is simply a show about people trying to thrive in a world much bigger and weirder than they can even comprehend - a subject that would be universal nonetheless, but transforms into something special with its engrossing performances.

Subscribe to ComicBook Nation!

ComicBook Nation is now a whole Nation of Podcasts! Make sure you get the latest from:

• COMICBOOK NATION LIVE SHOW
• BONUS! Rings of Power Season 2 Recap Show
• ANIME - Anime Initiative
• GAMING - Quick Save
• COMICS - The Pull List

There are several additional ways you can subscribe and/or listen to ComicBook Nation, which are listed below. BE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE as we drop all sorts of BONUS MATERIAL on YouTube and/or audio platforms, in addition to our main shows!

1. SUBSCRIBE to our Official YouTube Page
2. Listen via the media player embedded below.
3. Check us out on Spotify or Stitcher
4. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio

After every show we'll keep the discussion on Twitter:

@ComicBookNation
@MattAguilarCB
@KofiOutlaw
@JanellWheeler

Have thoughts to share? Want us to cover something on the show? Let us know in the comments!

While James Gunn works on building out the new DCU, the version of Gotham City that Matt Reeves created in The Batman will continue to live separate from the bigger DC franchise as its own little Elseworlds entity. That gives the team behind HBO's The Penguin room to get creative with the popular characters that dwell in Gotham. Known rogues like Sofia and Alberto Falcone are a part of the series, but there are likely more beloved Batman baddies waiting in the wings, though none of them have yet to be revealed. The premiere of The Penguin, which dropped Thursday on Max, seems to be teeing up the arrival of one such villain: Victor Zsasz.

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the first episode of The Penguin! Continue reading at your own risk...

In the first episode of The Penguin, which takes place in Gotham City about three weeks after the events of The Batman, Oz (Colin Farrell) finds himself in a part of town called Crown Heights. When he catches a group of young men trying to steal the rims from his car, he scares shoots at them and causes them to run away, though he's able to catch one.

Played by Rhenzy Feliz, the name of this young guy is Victor Aguilar. The last names might not match up, but the rest of the premiere episode plants some seeds that hint at Victor and Oz having a similar relationship to the Oz and Penguin in the comics (as well as on Gotham).

The entire origin story of Victor Zsasz involves him gambling away everything he owns and losing it all to Penguin. This creates a massive debt and eventually drives Zsasz a bit insane, as he realizes there is no meaning to life and chooses instead to become a serial killer.

Now, it only takes one episode of The Penguin to realize that the Victor on the show is nothing like the Zsasz that we know. However, the relationship to Oz is key to theorizing where he might go next. After being caught by Oz, Victor surrenders and agrees to help Penguin get rid of a body that he was hiding. Oz contemplates killing Victor, but he instead chooses to take the young man under his wing, utilizing him as a driver and showing him the ropes of his budding criminal empire.

Victor is much more pure of heart than Oz, and he seems like a genuinely good kid. But he's also desperate and alone, and it seems like Oz will use that to create a loyal soldier over time. By slowly stripping away the good elements of Victor, forcing him to think more like a career Gotham criminal, Penguin could be creating a brand new monster in his own image.

There is still a lot of The Penguin left over the next several weeks, and anything could happen, but we know some big Batman villains are bound to show up. Consider Victor Zsasz officially on the radar as the series unfolds.

The Penguin debuted on Max and HBO this week, bringing the next chapter of the story begun in 2020's The Batman to life, but while the spinoff series is set to lead directly into The Batman Part II, it isn't the only spinoff series that was planned. At one point, there was talk of a Gotham Police Department series and a series centered around Arkham Asylum, though neither of them moved forward. However, according to The Batman filmmaker Matt Reeves, more stories aren't out of the question; things have just evolved. Speaking with EW, Reeves said that what they're talking about now are "evolved versions" of those original ideas.

"The things that we're talking about [now] are evolved versions of those things," Reeves said. "It's not like that just didn't work. It was like, we need to evolve this. I would describe it less as something that didn't work and more as something that is still along a path toward arriving at its destination."

As for The Penguin's destination, it will connect directly to The Batman Part II. Reeves has previously said that the eight-episode limited series sets up the next film as the entry point to The Batman sequel that is "absolutely connected to where we leave things in the series.

"There are details that actually connect right into the way the next movie begins, and the way that Oz enters the world as we hand the baton back to Batman, and Batman is on another case," Reeves said.

However, even with The Penguin leading to The Batman Part II, don't expect to see Robert Pattinson appear in the series. Reeves has previously confirmed that the actor will not appear in the series.

"Rob is not going to be in the show. I'd rather take the band aid off now. We did talk about all that, but we felt the best way to do this was to go on a grand exploration of a guy grabbing for power in this moment," Reeves said.

The Penguin stars Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, and Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni.

The Penguin debuted September 19th on HBO and Max. It will air Sundays on HBO starting September 29th. The Batman Part II is set to open in theaters in 2026.

When Tom Welling not only returned to The CW but to the role of Clark Kent, albeit briefly, for an appearance in the 2019 Arrowverse crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths, Smallville fans were thrilled. After all, by that point it had been eight years since fans had seen him as the DC hero as he hadn't made any other appearances as the character since the Smallville finale. Now, in the most recent episode of the TalkVille Smallville rewatch podcast (via ScreenRant), welling explains why it took so long and why it was ultimately the Arrowverse event that saw he and Erica Durance return.

According to Welling, he had been asked to appear in the other shows as Clark, but Welling said that he didn't feel like the tone of those shows was quite right when compared to what Smallville and, by extension, his Clark had been. For him, it was the appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths that ultimately fit, though he's not sure it was Smallville's Clark.

"I was asked to be in a lot of the other shows after Smallville ended, I was asked to sort of appear in them as Clark and it never felt like their tone was the same as Clark was or what Smallville was," he said. "I still believe that in the crossover what you see Clark doing and giving up his powers and being with Lois for their family, that might not be the Clark from Smallville because it's a multiverse."

For those who might not recall, Welling's Clark appears on Earth-167 where during a search for one of the Paragons -- which was supposed to be a Clark Kent from an alternate universe -- draws Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) who is going Earth to Earth killing every Superman. When confronted by a Kryptonite-wielding Lex, Clark reveals that he gave up his powers to have a normal life with his family and that Kryptonite no longer impacts him. He fights a bit with Lex, but Lex ultimately leaves. Durance shows up as Lois and when Clark explains to her what's happened, she notes that "Smallville" made a joke.

Interestingly, Welling has said that he doesn't know if the version of Clark he played in Crisis on Infinite Earths was the Smallville Clark. Earlier this year at Terrificon, he suggested that not only did he not know, but that no one ever explained to him how Clark lost his powers.

"I don't know if that's actually Clark from Smallville, because it's a multiverse, so you never know," he said. "And I don't know how he lost his powers. No one ever told me."

One thing that we do know, however, is that Welling wouldn't have returned at all had he been required to suit up as Superman.

"If they had started the conversation with 'So, Clark is in the suit,' I'd have been like [click]'" Welling said in 2020.

The series premiere of The Penguin makes its debut on HBO and Max this weekend, showcasing a whole new corner of The Batman's universe -- and drawing a unique tie to Catwoman. Spoilers for the first episode of The Penguin below! Only look if you want to know! The opening scene of The Penguin shows Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) in a tense meeting with Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen), who has already assumed the leadership role of the Falcone crime family following his father Carmine Falcone's (John Turturro) passing. Oz tells Alberto a story that reframed his personal outlook on the reputation crime can have on a city, revealing the legend of a local mobster who was in his childhood neighborhood, Rex Calabrese. Although we do not see Rex in the episode, the reference to him is interesting in the context of the larger DC mythos, as some comic canon confirms him to be the father of Selina Kyle / Catwoman.

Who Is DC's Rex Calabrese?

Created by James Tynion IV, Scott Snyder, Ray Fawkes, John Layman, Tim Seeley, and Jason Fabok in 2014's Batman Eternal #14, Rex Calabrese was a well-known mobster known as Leo Leone / "The Lion", who was exiled from the Falcone gang and ended up in prison. He eventually becomes a cellmate of Jim Gordon's, and is frequently shown as an adversary of Oz's in the criminal underworld.

More importantly, it is also established that Rex abandoned his daughter Selina when she was nine years old, leading her to grow up as an orphan through the foster care system. Amid Rex's power grab, he reconnects with Selina and tries to motivate her to become a criminal queenpin of her own. While we know that this exact lore will not fold into The Penguin, as The Batman already extensively confirmed that Zoe Kravitz's Selina is Carmine's illegitimate daughter, it is still an intriguing connection between the franchise's two characters.

What Is The Penguin About?

The Penguin is the next chapter in The Batman saga from Matt Reeves.The series stars Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Michael Kelly as Johnny Viti, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni, Deirdre O'Connell as Francis Cobb, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, James Madio as Milos Grapa, Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo, and Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush.

The Penguin premiered on Max on Thursday, September 19th, followed by an HBO premiere on Sunday, September 22nd, with new episodes debuting on both HBO and Max beginning on September 29th.

The Penguin introduces its key players throughout the first episode, and one of the early scene stealers is Cristin Milioti's Sofia Falcone. Sofia instantly shakes up both Oz and the family when she returns after some time away in Arkham, and soon fans learn about a key tether between this version of the character and the comics, particularly an all-time classic in Batman: The Long Halloween. To help catch you up, we're breaking down Sofia's comic origins, how she got her infamous "Hangman" nickname, and how it all ties back into the series.

Point of Origin

While the Falcone crime family has been around for quite some time, with Carmine Falcone making his first appearance back in Batman #405 in 1987, Sofia wasn't introduced until 1997 in Batman: The Long Halloween #6. Sofia is the daughter of Carmine and Louisa and is the sibling of Mario and Alberto. We first meet her after Carmine gets her freed from prison, as Carmine is looking to shore up the family after a string of killings.

Those killings have all targeted Gotham's crime families, and they are being made by a mysterious killer only known as Holiday. Holiday would kill a number of Carmine's organization, including Alberto, though we find out later that was a ruse, as Alberto is revealed to be the actual Holiday killer. After Holiday's capture, Two-Face leads a group of villains to Carmine's home and kills him, setting the stage for Sofia's next transformation.

The Hangman

Sofia witnessed Carmine's death and tried to attack Two-Face, but ended up getting in a fight with Catwoman instead. Sofia would fall from a window and suffer multiple injuries, and though she would still manage to survive, she was believed to have been paralyzed. That's what everyone thinks mind you, as secretly Sofia had learned to walk again, and it will throw everyone off her trail later.

Things take a turn when Carmine's body is stolen and she is sent his ring finger, which leads her to become The Hangman and kill anyone affiliated with Harvey Dent and frame him for their deaths. She hangs her victims and then leaves case files as messages, and since everything still thinks she is paralyzed from the injury, no one suspects her to be the killer.

She is immensely successful at taking out her targets and even manages to protect her brother Alberto, delivering a vicious beatdown to Calendar Man after he tries to shoot Alberto. After saving him though she ends up killing Alberto herself and then heads out to finally kill Two-Face. This leads to a final showdown with Batman, but in the fray, Two-Face shoots and kills her.

Comics to TV

In the show, Sofia has just left Arkham Asylum and is returning to her family's operations and things in the city. There is also mention of why she was in Arkham, as she was known as The Hangman and killed people, so there are several direct ties from the comics to the show right there. One thing that won't be carrying over though is Alberto's role in her story, as he was killed by Oz in the season's very first episode.

There's complicated history between Sofia and Oz, made more complicated due to how much she loved her brother Alberto. As for her father, she has already made peace with his death in the show, but as in the comics, she has made it her mission to get vengeance for her family, just for Alberto instead of Carmine. As for her killing again under her old persona, perhaps that is still on the table, especially now that the Maroni's are being involved by Oz. That said, she shows in episode one that she isn't afraid to get vicious with her methods, as Oz learns before the episode's end.

What have you thought of The Penguin so far, and what do you want to see next for Sofia? You can talk all things Penguin and DC with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

The Harley Quinn animated series has become a beloved aspect of DC's movies and television shows, thanks to its distinct and adult-oriented approach to superheroes and supervillains. The show's popularity has even led to a spinoff series, Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, which made its debut on Max earlier this summer. As fans wait to see if Kite Man gets renewed for a sophomore season, it sounds like the overall franchise isn't stopping anytime soon. While speaking to ComicBook about his work on both shows, executive producer Dean Lorey teased that there are more Harley spinoffs in the works, but he is unable to provide any details about what they might entail.

"We love where we're at right now with what we've been calling the 'Harleyverse,'" Lorey explained. "It's very exciting to have multiple projects coming out that we've been working on. I mean, Kite Man was a major step for us, to be able to bring that out. I know that a lot of people were kind of wondering why we would pick Kite Man as the first character to come out with, because there are a lot of characters. And we talked about many things, but we thought he was sort of a fun, easy person to start with. Plus, he has a giant potential redemption arc for himself. And so we thought we would do that. We have a lot of other ones that we're really hoping to bring out, things that are pretty deep in development. We really want to build the universe out, and we've gotten a lot of support from James Gunn and Peter Safran, and Warner Brothers Animation is really behind it. So we're really looking forward to building out this world."

"I wish I could [say more]," Lorey added. "In fact, I'm desperate to. But I can't. I'm hoping to have some news relatively soon on at least one of them. Believe me, nobody wants to talk about it more than me."

What Is Kite Man: Hell Yeah! About?

In Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, Kite Man and Golden Glider take their relationship to the next level by opening a bar in the shadow of Lex Luthor's Legion of Doom. Nobody said serving cold ones to the most dangerous rogues outside of Arkham Asylum would be easy, but sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and how to hide a body.

The cast of Kite Man: Hell Yeah! includes Matt Oberg as Kite Man, Stephanie Hsu as Golden Glider, James Adomian as Bane, Natasia Demetriou as Malice, Janelle James as Queen of Fables, Jonathan Banks as Noonan, Keith David as Darkseid, Michael Imperioli as Joe/Moe Dubelz, Rory Scovel as Gus the Goon, Lance Reddick as Lex Luthor, and Judith Light as Helen Villigan.

Harley Quinn and Kite Man: Hell Yeah! are both streaming exclusively on Max.

James Gunn and Peter Safran's new DC Universe is about to become a reality, beginning with the animated series Creature Commandos. Written by Gunn, the series' take on the DC team of the same name boasts an impressive ensemble cast and crew, including veteran DC executive producer Dean Lorey. While speaking to ComicBook about his work on Harley Quinn and Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, Lorey offered high praise for Creature Commandos, teasing that fans will be blown away by the eclectic cast of characters when the series makes its debut in December.

"It was great, and it was really different in the sense that James Gunn had written all of the scripts before we started shooting," Lorey explained. "Usually, I'm one of the writers on a show, even if I'm running it. But James had fully written the scripts. They were great scripts. Everybody was really, really excited about them. So the process went into production quicker than normal, because there were scripts that were ready to go. And we were really lucky to get voice cast that [we have]. I think the Harley voice cast is great, and Kite Man, and I think the Creature Commandos voice cast is easily the equal of those. It just was a pure pleasure to be working with James, who had such a very clear vision of what he wanted the show to be. He really knows that world. He knows it backwards and forwards. So just in terms of making the show, it's been a pleasure, and everybody has been great to work with. I think it's going to be a significant release. I don't know if people really know what they're in for yet, but it's fantastic. We're so proud of it."

"God, I love them all," Lorey said when asked about his favorite character. "I really do love them all. But in a way, my heart is with G.I. Robot. I just love him. He's played by Sean Gunn, and I was really curious when Sean came in to record, because I didn't really have a take on what that would sound like, how robot-y would it be, and all of that. He brought such a beautiful humanity to it. He also played Weasel, another great character. Every one of those characters is heavily featured in different episodes, so you really get to fully know all those characters... It's definitely an adult show. There's a real sweetness to it, though, to many of the characters, as you get into their stories."

What Is Creature Commandos About?

Creature Commandos tracks a secret team of incarcerated monsters recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans. When all else fails... they're your last, worst option.

The cast of Creature Commandos includes Steve Agee as Economos, Maria Bakalova as Princess Ilana, Anya Chalotra as Circe, Zoe Chao as Nina Mazursky, Frank Grillo as Rick Flag Sr., Sean Gunn as GI Robot & Weasel, David Harbour as Frankenstein, Alan Tudyk as Dr. Phosphorus, Indira Varma as The Bride, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. The series is written and executive produced by James Gunn. Based on DC characters and produced by DC Studios and Warner Bros. Animation; additional executive producers include Peter Safran, Dean Lorey, and Sam Register; Rick Morales serves as a supervising producer.

Creature Commandos will premiere exclusively on Max on Thursday, December 5th.

The Penguin wasted no time in shaking up the status quo, and that one event goes on to define a huge part of the season for both Oz and the rest of the criminal underworld. The first episode is titled After Hours, and though it begins with the immediate fallout and devastation from Riddler's grand plan in The Batman, the show then shifts to Oz, and pretty soon after a major DC villain is taken completely off the board. Spoilers are incoming for The Penguin's first episode, so if you haven't watched it yet you've been warned. Alright, with that said, let's dive in.

An Unexpected Twist

After the Riddler's actions are given some spotlight, Oz is back in the driver's seat and heads to Carmine Falcone's house to break into a vault behind the wall. He takes a folder of blackmail documents but then is confronted by Carmine's son Alberto Falcone, who just pretty much caught Oz red-handed trying to steal from his dead father.

Oz attempts to weasel his way out of it and successfully brings Alberto around enough to talk him off the ledge and get him to a point where they start drinking and talking. The conversation is going fine until Oz shares a story about a gangster in his neighborhood when he was young, a gangster that he and the rest of the people in the neighborhood looked up to. He even reveals that they threw him a parade in honor of him after his death.

Alberto is at first angry at the insinuation that he should aim to be like this person, but then he sees that this isn't what Oz is trying to get him to do, but more what Oz would want for himself. Alberto starts to laugh at Oz and insult him, but he pushes things too far, as Oz then pulls out his gun and shoots him multiple times right there. Alberto falls dead and at first Oz chuckles at shutting him up, though he then realizes exactly what he's done, charting the course for the rest of the series.

Why It Matters

There are two big reasons that this development matters, both in terms of the show itself and how it changes a few theories fans had thanks to the comics. Regarding the show, the impact is pretty obvious and incredibly substantial. With Carmine dead, Alberto was the new head of the Falcone crime family, and now Oz has just shot and killed the new head of organized crime in Gotham City. That's pretty big, and if the wrong people find out Oz killed him, Oz will soon follow him to his grave.

The Long Halloween and Dark Victory

As for the comics, Alberto is tied to an all-time Batman classic, which is Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's The Long Halloween and its sequel Dark Victory. In that story, Carmine is very much alive, and it's actually Alberto who does most of the killing, as he continues to assassinate members of the Falcone and Maroni crime families as the mysterious killer known as Holiday.

Alberto's string of murders creates tension between the two families, which then leads Falcone to hire villains like Poison Ivy to help defend his organization. Eventually, Alberto kills Salvatore Maroni and is captured by Batman, ending his killing spree, but Alberto is back on the streets in Dark Victory after some time in Arkham.

Alberto is still dangerous in Dark Victory, but he's actually at the center of other people's grand plans, particularly Calendar Man and Scarecrow. Alberto is made to see and hear the ghost of his dead father, who was shot by Two-Face in the previous story. That continues to drive him further into insanity, but he is able to see through it eventually. That said, it doesn't actually help in the long run, as he is eventually smothered by his Sofia after suffering wounds in a previous fight with Calendar Man. So, any theories of Alberto having a part to play that would tie into his role in Long Halloween or Dark Victory have pretty much been dashed.

What have you thought of The Penguin so far? You can talk all things The Penguin and DC with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

For several years now, DC's Harley Quinn animated series has been providing viewers with a one-of-a-kind take on the franchise's mythos. Created by Patrick Schumacker, Justin Halpern, and Dean Lorey, the series has navigated multiple streaming services to become a bonafide fan-favorite. The franchise's first spinoff series, Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, even premiered its debut season earlier this summer.

Lorey recently sat down with ComicBook to discuss the wackiest parts of showrunning Kite Man's first season, the future of the "Harleyverse", his involvement with James Gunn's forthcoming Creature Commandos animated series, and more.

***

ComicBook: As a DC fan, I've really loved seeing the continued success of the Harley universe. How does it feel, from a creative perspective, to now be at the point where the show has tie-in comics, a spinoff, and all of this love from fans?

Dean Lorey: We love where we're at right now with what we've been calling the "Harleyverse." It's very exciting to have multiple projects coming out that we've been working on. I mean, Kite Man was a major step for us, to be able to bring that out. I know that a lot of people were kind of wondering why we would pick Kite Man as the first character to come out with, because there are a lot of characters. And we talked about many things, but we thought he was sort of a fun, easy person to start with. Plus, he has a giant potential redemption arc for himself. And so we thought we would do that. We have a lot of other ones that we're really hoping to bring out, things that are pretty deep in development. We really want to build the universe out, and we've gotten a lot of support from James Gunn and Peter Safran, and Warner Brothers Animation is really behind it. So we're really looking forward to building out this world.

Can you tease anything at all about the things that are in development?

I wish I could. In fact, I'm desperate to. But I can't. I'm hoping to have some news relatively soon on at least one of them. Believe me, nobody wants to talk about it more than me.

I've spoken to Justin and Patrick about Harley versus Kite Man, and how they really gave you the creative reins this time around. What was it like to take that step in the creative partnership that you guys have had across all the shows you've worked on?

Well, we created Harley together many years ago, and the three of us ran it in seasons one and two. Then I went off and did a show called Big Shot, and they were off doing their thing, so we weren't really in charge for three and four. And so I came on on five to run that season. And it was fun to do, because it was kind of odd. I've been part of the creation of the thing, and then I came back and sort of inherited a world that other people had been working on and all that, which was kind of interesting to do, actually. I really did enjoy that. We wanted to get back to basics a little bit on Harley season five, so we have a new environment for it, and a new villain that was more than a little teased at the end of Kite Man. So that was enormous fun, to be able to come back on.

And there's a lot of people that I've been working with, and people that I've wanted to bring up as showrunners. On Harley, I worked quite a bit with Katie Rich. I expect that she'll be running a show hopefully soon. And then with Kite Man, there's a guy named Chris Mars that worked with me. He was like my number two on the show, and if there's further seasons of Kite Man -- and I wish there are -- he'll likely run those. So it's been really fun to do that. It was kind of a lot to juggle for a little bit because, ultimately, I was doing Kite Man, Harley season five, and Creature Commandos at the same time. So it was kind of a lot, and that's why I really had to rely on good people around.

Cheers has been a huge touchstone for Kite Man, ever since it was announced as Noonan's. What do you think it is about anchoring it around a bar that is so inherently has so much potential in terms of storytelling?

Well, first of all, I'm a giant fan of the Hitman comic by Garth Ennis. In fact, some years back, I wrote a pilot for the Sci-Fi Network, hoping to get a Hitman show. I always had a real soft spot in my heart for Noonan's, just as a concept. We were looking for ways to distinguish Kite Man from Harley, and we decided that maybe what we'd do is just a spin on the multi-cam -- even though we go way outside of what a multi-cam normally would do -- but do a more character-driven group of dregs and villains and people that normally wouldn't be taken seriously by anybody. Whereas Harley and gang, a lot of them were sort of known, they're bigger villains and all of that. But in Kite Man, they tend to be the smaller ones, so that was one of the ways we distinguished. And we just really liked the idea of, like in Cheers, that it's a place for people to gather that don't have anywhere else to go. That was, fundamentally, what we wanted to do there.

When we talked before the series premiere, you couldn't really talk the spoilers of the Beast Mode arc. Now that we can, how important was it to tackle toxic masculinity in such a ridiculous way?

It was very important to us because, when we were designing Beast Mode, we knew that we wanted Kite Man's goal [and] overall arc for the season was to get a power, because that was the one thing he didn't have, and it made him feel lesser than everybody else. We wanted to give him a power, at least for a period of time, and we didn't know what it should be. We batted around a lot of ideas and finally we decided, 'Well, he's the nicest guy around. Everybody likes to be with him. He really is thoughtful and caring about other people. He's barely a villain, in a way. We should just make him the opposite of that.' And the opposite of that seemed to be a very toxic, male energy kind of dude. It took us a little while because, initially, he turned into that in the earlier scripts of it, and he was just a douche. But then we hit on the idea of: Kite Man doesn't want to be that. He got into this thing that he doesn't know how to get out of, and he's desperate for somebody to help him.

We love the idea about his humanity poking through Beast Mode, and that all he really wants to do is go back to being the person that he used to be. Beast Mode seemed like a great expression of the opposite of Kite Man. And it was fun for us to see that side of Kite Man, and also to make fun of all the bullies and people who used to give us all kind of grief in high school. So we spent a lot of time just pitching out 'What are his powers?' His powers were just, basically, anything that makes him an asshole. And so, we had a lot of fun doing that.

Another spoilery arc I have to ask about, of course, is the time-traveling toilet. How did that pitch kind of come about? Was there any sort of pushback or back and forth in bringing that to life?

There wasn't really any pushback. We decided that it would be really fun to place Bane in the 80s. I don't know why. We just sort of thought like that might be a nice decade to see Bane in. I grew up in the 80s and it seemed like everything that was dangerous and sort of naughty that Bane would really get into, like candy cigarettes were one. That's when they put asbestos into homes, and stuff like that. And then we were trying to figure out, 'Okay, if we're going to do a time travel thing, how do we get them there?' And I don't remember who came up with it, but we sort of thought, 'Let's not like have it be another villain with a power or a cosmic device or anything like that. Like, let's just be in a normal object.'

And then, we spent a lot of time coming up with the rules of how the portal potty works. What do you have to do to go back in time? That turned out to be a number two and a flush. I'm not even sure we ever specified this, but then returning back to the present involved, I think, peeing and then a flush. There's a lot more to it that we haven't really explored yet, but we built out a lot of the rules of the portal potty.

Now that the entire season of Kite Man is out into the world, what would you say you're the most proudest of?

First of all, I think the romance between Golden Glider and Kite Man, I think we did a really good job of making it distinct from the Poison Ivy relationship that he had in Harley. We always sort of felt like that relationship was built on the idea that Ivy is just way out of Kite Man's league. There's no real reason in the world for her to date him. Originally, it was in episode two, the Bar Mitzvah episode of Harley season one, that we introduced him. We just needed like the worst D-list villain to be hitting on Ivy to show 'This is what she has to put up with, guys like this.' And then, we kind of fell in love with the character. So for Kite Man, we were looking for a relationship where you'd feel like 'We like these two together. We'd like to see them happy, and we'd like to see it move forward.' I think we did a pretty good job of building that relationship, giving them problems and all of that, but making you care about them in a way that was different from Kite Man and Ivy.

The other thing that I was really happy with it was the resolve of Kite Man's dilemma. We had started with a problem we didn't have an answer to. We always knew we wanted to have Kite Man, for some reason, face off with Darkseid over the Anti-Life Equation. But then the question was, how could Kite Man defeat Darkseid? We've already established he can't really do anything. What would that look like, and what would be satisfying? And then, somewhere in there, we started thinking about, 'Maybe it's just his basic decency.' What allows him to win is that he's the only one who can control the Anti-Life Equation, at least for a small amount of time, before letting it consume him, because he doesn't have much ego to have his will bent. The way that that resolved, I was very happy with. I like that it came from a good place for him, and I was particularly happy with Exorcist rules. So I love it.

I have seen a lot of love for Powerless on social media lately. People are really arguing that the show was before its time, and really highlighting parts of it. I know it didn't really get its due while it was on air, but how do you feel about the legacy of it, all of these years after the fact?

I mean, I really enjoyed making it with those guys. It was a little tough at the beginning, because we had this show that was, fundamentally, a superhero show. The one mandate that we had was that we had to go really, really light on the superhero stuff, and we were kind of like, 'Well then, why did you ask us to do this?' And then there got to be a point, a few episodes in, where it became clear the network was no longer really interested in it. They sort of backed off and let us do more what we wanted to do from the start, and I think that those episodes became more, more fun. And we were able to bring people onto that show that we later used heavily in Harley Quinn. Ron Funches was a lead on the show. Alan Tudyk, he played several roles for us. Natalie Morales was on it, we had her on the show. Matt Oberg was in it for an episode, and we always knew we wanted to use him. So it was fun in that way. I miss the show. I like working with all those people. It's fun to work in live action. Most of my career has been live action, the animated stuff is relatively new, but Justin, Pat, and I really have loved working there.

I have to ask about Creature Commandos. What has that creative process been like, versus your work on the Harleyverse?

It was great, and it was really different in the sense that James Gunn had written all of the scripts before we started shooting. Usually, I'm one of the writers on a show, even if I'm running it. But James had fully written [it]. They were great scripts. Everybody was really, really excited about them. So the process went into production quicker than normal, because there were scripts that were ready to go. And we were really lucky to get voice cast that [we have]. I think the Harley voice cast is great, and Kite Man, and I think the Creature Commandos voice cast is easily the equal of those. It just was a pure pleasure to be working with James, who had such a very clear vision of what he wanted the show to be. He really knows that world backwards and forwards. So just in terms of like making the show, it's been a pleasure, and everybody has been great to work with. I think it's going to be a significant release. I don't know if people really know what they're in for yet, but it's fantastic. We're so proud of it.

For you, personally, which character on Creature Commandos are you most excited for people to meet?

God, I love them all. I really do love them all. But in a way, my heart is with G.I. Robot. I just love him. He's played by Sean Gunn, and I was really curious when Sean came in to record, because I didn't really have a take on what that would sound like, how robot-y would it be, and all of that. He brought such a beautiful humanity to it. He also played Weasel, another great character. Every one of those characters is heavily featured in different episodes, so you really get to fully know all those characters.

It's definitely an adult show. There's a real sweetness to it, though, to many of the characters, as you get into their stories.

At this point, you've probably done years of interviews about the Harleyverse and about working in DC. What's one thing that you've always wanted people to ask you that you haven't been asked yet?

Oh, wow. If the question was 'What's the best thing that ever happened to you in making the show?' Probably the best thing that ever happened to us was that nobody was really paying close attention to it while we were making it. It was just this animated thing that I'm not sure anybody had any real expectations for. It was going to be going on DC Universe, which wasn't even a thing at the time, and wasn't a thing too long after it started. There were some people that were passionate about it at Warner Brothers Animation, but nobody was really paying attention, and because of that we really got to make the show that we wanted to make.

It wasn't until much later that, because it tested really highly, people started paying attention. And then they were like, 'What is this? What are you doing?' And I think there was a moment of panic because they had no idea that we were making a show as R rated as it is, but they left us [alone]. Had we gone through the usual development process, I don't know that we would have been able to end up with a show that was so purely what we wanted to do. And then, that's just informed the universe of it. You look at Kite Man, and you can feel it's very much in the same universe. And, hopefully there will be other ones to announce that people will be excited about.

Harley Quinn and Kite Man: Hell Yeah! are both streaming exclusively on Max.

DC's The Batman universe has expanded with HBO's much anticpated Penguin series, and the series wasted no time hitting the ground running with a major turning point happening in the show's first 15 minutes. In fact, many of the elements seen in the show's introductory episode set the tone for the rest of the series, highlighting several aspects of Oz Cobb that will be at the core of even more decisions to come. ComicBook had the chance to speak to Executive Producer and director of episodes 1 through 3 Craig Zobel all about Oz's big decision and how it's emblematic of Oz's best and worst traits throughout the series.

Working His Way To The Top

The Penguin stole the show throughout his limited time in The Batman, but in the series, Zobel and the rest of the team had the chance to make the iconic villain the main feature, expanding on several elements of the character only teased in the film. "What was so fun was that you get a sense of him in the movie, but you kind of don't know very much about his backstory or anything like that. And what was fun about this was exploring and seeing what Lauren LeFranc did with the writing in terms of telling the story of this guy who isn't the Penguin that we've seen before at all," Zobel said. "In the movie, he wears kind of flashy clothes and has a purple car, but that's because he's, like, peacocking almost.

"He's sort of strutting, trying to show that he's a person who has money and power and stuff because he's actually a person that came from a very working-class background and is trying to pull himself up," Zobel said. "And he's a mid-level guy in the crime family, not the top, and it was fun to kind of start him there and send him hopefully to the top by the end. It was sort of what the goal or the hope of the show is."

Back Against The Wall

The show's very first episode puts two of Oz's key traits on display. The first is his unpredictable nature and the violent edge that accompanies it. As we see in the show, that leads to some difficult and challenging situations for Oz, and quite a few of them are self-inflicted. That said, that leads to the other core element, which is the fact that Oz tends to be at his lethal best when his back is against a wall, and that just happens to be around 80% of the time.

"This new thing that isn't as much explored in the movie is like, Oz is a character who probably does his best work getting out of a problematic situation, right? And so there's actually some part of his personality that... he can't resist shoving himself into problematic situations, pushing himself into a corner so that he has to get himself out of that corner," Zobel said. "He has like an impulse that just happens, that doesn't come from a conscious place. Some element of his personality has him do brash things, and those brash things kind of put him into a place where then he has to problem-solve his way out of it. It was fun. It's a thing you see in the first episode, and then you recognize kind of repeatedly throughout the course of the series."

Expanding The World

While you will get even more out of the series if you've also watched The Batman, Zobel and the team wanted to create a show that could capture your interest whether you've seen the film or not. For those who have watched the film, they will see just how Riddler's actions in the film affected Gotham in the days immediately after and beyond.

"I think that the goal was to make something that you didn't have to know, really, the story of the film in order to still enjoy. Hopefully, this could be a mob show that you could just watch, but if you did know the Matt Reeves world that he had created, this would be a big primer and kind of constantly have little winks and nods toward where we're going in the bigger picture," Zobel said. "It was also fun because when you watch superhero movies, the climax of the movie has something big and destructive happen and it was fun to be like, well, what was two days after that, what was happening? It was a cool place to set a story."

The Penguin's first episode is now streaming on Max, and will air on HBO this Sunday.

What did you think of The Penguin's premiere episode? You can talk all things Penguin and DC with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

The Penguin premiered on HBO and Max, and after Episode 1 was over, DC and HBO released a new trailer previewing what will happen in the weeks ahead of the show - which you can watch below! Like the previous trailer for The Penguin, this "Weeks Ahead" trailer begins with an actual clip of a scene between Oswald Cobb/Penguin (Colin Farrell) and his mother Francis Cobb (Deirdre O'Connell), in which Oz is being coerced into swearing some kind of vow to his mother. After that, we get another great mix of voiceover narration, sound bites, and a sizzle reel of footage all hinting at a twisted mix of mental/verbal chess games and an all-out, gun-busting war that will be fought for control of Gotham City's underworld.

Some of the highlights from the new sizzle reel of footage include shots of what looks to be a young Oswald (hinting at some kind of flashback portion of a future episode); street kid Vic (Rhenzy Feliz) walking the razor's edge both internally and externally as he tries to play "Robin" to Oz's "Batman" (source of traumas yet unknown); Oz and Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) continuing their excellent mind/word games, while Oz seems to pull a blade and attack underboss Johnny Viit. Other scenes hint at Sofia getting her own larger arc looking back at Arkham; Francis Cobb slowly but surely revealing her dragon-lady true face - oh, and the bullets, bombs, and blood that will be exchanged as the different gangland factions inevitably come to some violent collisions.

So far, reactions to The Penguin premiere have been overwhelmingly positive, with most viewers putting the show on the tier of HBO's The Sopranos with its crime drama/family drama intrigue and examination of truly savage psychopathic characters. There's even Emmys talk already been thrown around for the likes of Farrell, Milioti, and O'Connell - and this new trailer is only making it seem like that early talk is going to be fully warranted by the time this show ends.

In ComicBook's review of The Penguin, critic Jenna Anderson writes: "The Penguin redefines what verisimilitude can mean in the world of comic book adaptations... The series is not only one of the better crime dramas in recent memory, it is one of the best examples of how to branch out decades of beloved lore."

The Penguin: New Episode Release Schedule

Here's the release schedule for the rest of The Penguin season 1. New episodes will air on HBO and be released to stream on Max at the same time.

• Sunday, Sept. 29th: Episode 2 - "Inside Man"
• Sunday, Oct. 6th: Episode 3 - "Bliss"
• Sunday, Oct. 13th: Episode 4 - "Cent'Anni"
• Sunday, Oct. 20th: Episode 5 - "Homecoming"
• Sunday, Oct. 27th: Episode 6 - "Gold Summit"
• Sunday, Nov. 3rd: Episode 7 - "Top Hat"
• Sunday, Nov. 10th: Episode 8 (Finale) - "Great or Little Thing"

The Penguin Cast Explained

The Penguin stars Colin Farrell as Oswald "Oz" Cobb/Penguin, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Michael Kelly as Johnny Viti, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni, Deirdre O'Connell as Francis Cobb, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, James Madio as Milos Grapa, Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo and Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush.

The premiere episode was written by Craig Zobel (The Hunt, American Gods) and director by Lauren LeFranc, who also serves as creator and showrunner of the series.

The Penguin TV series picks up right where The Batman movie leaves off - with Gotham City crippled from a terroristic attack by The Riddler. It shouldn't be surprising then that as Oswald "Oz" Cobb (Colin Farrell) begins his campaign to seize power in the underworld, Gotham is still caught up in the Riddler's maze. The Penguin premiere has a moment that a lot of fans may have missed, where it's conveyed to fans just how much impact The Riddler is still having on Gotham's social order.

Early on in The Penguin Episode 1, "After Hours," Oz and his assistant/hostage Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) take a train out of Gotham City to the suburbs, to visit Oz's mom Francis (Deirdre O'Connell). While riding the train, Oz is approached by a young kid handing out flyers, which read "Gotham's True Face." There is a QR code on the flyer, and if you access the code you'll get taken back to "rataalada.com," the viral marketing site used to promote The Batman, which also functioned as Riddler's platform for revealing his master plan to the public and committing his horrific executions of Gotham's corrupt mayor, district attorney, and police commissioner. Even Edward Nashton is now locked away in Arkham, The Penguin reveals that his followers are still very much active and determined to continue the villain's "revolution":

Cl0ckbreak3r: What's been put in motion can't be stopped.

xxREIGNITINxx: Arkham's releasing patients and Blackgate is a mess... no one's really a prisoner in there. Not even our old pal Sal Maroni.

HOLDTHELINE81: People say they want the truth but they shield their eyes when we shine the light.

DETERMINATOR: Let's make sure they're not blinded again to the corruption, the killings, the Falcone power grab...

HOLDTHELINE81: We start in the streets. Tonight at 9pm. Meet at the metro outside Crown Point.

Cl0ckbreak3r: Done and done. The revolution is just getting started.

This message reflects a very interesting fracture in Gotham City's social order, right now. Both the followers of The Riddler and city officials like Mayoral Elect Bella Re?l are committing to ending Gotham's longstanding era of corruption and mob control. The two factions just have very different approaches and standards about how to do it. The new government officials want to affect positive social change through benevolent policy; the Riddler's followers want to use chaos and coercion to drag the mobsters into the light.

Neither approach is good for Oz Cobb and the Falcone Crime Syndicate, as The Batman made it clear that the mob's place in Gotham is shrinking by the day.

The Penguin is now airing on HBO and streaming on Max.

Batman Ninja wasn't the first time that the Dark Knight was portrayed in an anime and it certainly won't be the last. In recent years, Warner Bros has been investing more into the anime medium than it had previously, with a prime example being their recent Wit Studio partnership. The two studios joined forces to create The Suicide Squad Isekai, and while Bruce Wayne wasn't present, several big Gotham denizens were given an anime makeover. Batman Ninja Vs. Yakuza League is the next chapter for the Caped Crusader's anime adventures and the upcoming animated film has dropped a new trailer highlighting the heroes helping out Batman.

The first Batman Ninja movie was released in 2018, seeing Warner Bros teaming up with production houses including Kamikaze Douga, YamatoWorks, and Barnum Studio in depicting this new take on the Dark Knight. In the film, Batman and several of his villains are transported to feudal Japan, receiving new looks and powers as a result. Ultimately, Batman is able to get help from the likes of Robin, Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, and Catwoman in taking down the likes of Joker, Harley Quinn, Gorilla Grodd, Two Face, and more. For the next movie of the series, which has yet to reveal a release date, the Dark Knight is taking on new foes that hit a bit too close to home.

Batman Ninja Vs. The Yakuza League's New Trailer

Batman is once again joined by some of his most trusty sidekicks in the upcoming animated film as Damian Wayne, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, and Jason Todd all get their moments to shine in the latest trailer. While the movie has remained mysterious as to how the Yakuza League came to be, these dark iterations of Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Green Lantern might prove quite difficult to defeat, even for Bruce Wayne and company. From the promotional material we've seen so far, a certain Man of Steel has yet to appear which could prove to be good news for Batman.

Batman Ninja's Sequel Cast & Crew

While Batman Ninja Vs Yakuza League has confirmed its Japanese voice cast, the same can't be said for a potential English Dub. Considering the original anime film and Suicide Squad Isekai received their own English Dubs, it seems like a safe bet that this animated sequel will get the same. For now, here is a breakdown of the Japanese cast bringing the Caped Crusader and his allies to life:

• Batman: Koichi Yamadera
• Robin: Yuki Kaji
• Red Robin: Kengo Kawanishi
• Nightwing: Daisuke Ono
• Red Hood: Akira Ishida
• Alfred Pennyworth: Hochu Otsuka
• James Gordon: Masaki Terasoma

The crew that will be bringing this anime movie to life currently includes:

• Director: Jumpei Mizusaki/Shinji Takagi
• Screenplay: Kazuki Nakashima
• Character Design: Takashi Okazaki
• Music: Yugo Kanno Animation
• Production: Kamikaze Douga

Warner Bros' Skin in The Anime Game

The likes of Suicide Squad Isekai and the Batman Ninja sequel might only be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to anime focusing on Warner Bros' DC characters. In an interview with Variety earlier this year, the President of Warner Bros' Asia-Pacific division, James Gibbons, stated the following, "We have a Japanese anime studio, which has been producing five or ten anime series per year, over the last few years. We've approved expansion to take that to more than ten series per year. We've sold them to third parties. That has been one of the metrics. And they are doing very well and, so, because we see the appeal of the category, we are expanding it. Anime is one of the best ways to reach the 18 to 30-year-old audience, which is incredibly elusive. Globally, albeit not in every market, but certainly in the U.S., parts of Europe and Latin America, we've got strong anime audiences."

Want to stay up to date on this new anime take on the Dark Knight? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for all the latest on Batman Ninja.

McFarlane Toys has another wave of DC Multiverse figures set to drop on September 20th, and once again it's all about Batman. That's understandable this time around as Batman Day 2024 takes place on September 21st. That said, we expect this collection to be popular if not a little polarizing. It includes a Batman Beyond from the 2023 limited series Batman Beyond: Neo Gothic with a strange face sculpt, Batman from the 2011 Batman: No?l graphic novel that was inspired by Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, a Silver Age Batman with Ace the Bat-Hound, and a Gold Label exclusive Batman with Bat-Glider that's based on on The Thirteenth Hour issue of The Court of Owls series from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo.

Pre-orders for all of these figures are expect to drop on September 20th on or around 9am PT / 12pm ET. You'll find them via the pre-order links below. Note that direct links to the individual figures will be added after the launch, and Entertainment Earth has a flat $7.95 shipping fee that becomes free after $99 (includes mint condition guarantee). The Gold Label Bat-Glider figure will be an Amazon exclusive. UPDATE: Direct links added.

• DC Multiverse Batman - Batman Beyond Neo Gothic Figure ($22.99) - See at Entertainment Earth / Amazon
• DC Multiverse Batman - Batman: Noel Figure ($22.99) - See at Entertainment Earth / Amazon
• DC Multiverse Batman - Batman and Ace the Bat-Hound Silver Age Figure Set ($22.99) - See at Entertainment Earth / Amazon
• DC Multiverse Batman - Batman with Bat-Glider Gold Label Figure - Amazon Exclusive
• Hot Toys also launched a Batman Returns 1/6th scale figure today. You can order it here in standard and deluxe versions.
• You can check out more recent McFarlane Toys releases right here.

As noted, Batman Day 2024 takes place on September 21st, and the event will be extra special this year as it coincides with the 85th anniversary of the character's first appearance in Detective Comics #27 (1939). Naturally, Batman Day will include loads of promotions and events for fans, and one of those promotions is happening right now at LEGO. Below you'll find a list of LEGO Batman promotions that will run through September 23rd.

• Free Batman 1992 Polybag with LEGO DC Batman purchases of $40 or more. See eligible sets at LEGO
• Double and Triple LEGO Insiders Points on select LEGO DC Batman sets. See eligible sets at LEGO
• LEGO BrickHeadz Limited Edition Batman 85th Anniversary set is available for 3000 LEGO Insiders Points - See at LEGO
• You can sign up for a free LEGO Insiders account right here.

Action star Frank Grillo had a great run in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing the villainous Brock Rumlow (Crossbones) in three of the franchise's films. He became a massive favorite amongst fans after Captain America: The Winter Soldier and continues to be high on the lists of former MCU actors people hope to see make a return. That said, Grillo's tenure with Marvel Studios could've been a little shorter, as the studio apparently came close to firing him for accidentally sharing too much information.

ComicBook recently sat down with Grillo to chat about his new movie, Long Gone Heroes, and we asked about his upcoming work in the budding DC Universe. Grillo will lend his voice to the character of Rick Flag Sr. in the animated series Creature Commandos, before appearing as the live-action version of the character in Peacemaker Season 2 and Superman. He was hesitant to say anything about his role, worried about potentially saying too much, and explained that oversharing almost cost him his job at Marvel -- on more than one occasion.

"You know, unfortunately, there's nothing I can really say that wouldn't get me in trouble. So I kind of have to step back and go, 'I take the fifth,'" Grillo told us. "I am so bad at this. Like, Marvel almost fired me 36 f---ing times because I don't know. I never want to lie. And so, I do that a little too much. But I've been warned."

We're not going to hear any DC secrets from Frank Grillo, but he does appear set for a substantial role in James Gunn and Peter Safran's new franchise. That's not to say he wouldn't take another shot at playing Crossbones, though. When asked if he'd want to return to the MCU at some point, Grillo had nothing but positive things to say about both his Marvel and DC experiences.

"I don't know, at this point in my life, all the things that I thought were real and true, I've learned as a man who's now matured, that if they ask me to do that, I would love to go back and do it. And I'm loving what I'm doing with DC. I love James Gunn and Peter Safran and they've given me an amazing opportunity. But at this point, I'm happy about everything I've done and I'm certainly willing to...if they meet me, if there's something great to go do, I would certainly be ready to go do that."

You can catch Frank Grillo in Long Gone Heroes, playing in theaters this weekend.

HBO's The Penguin may bring back a lot of familiar faces from The Batman, but it's digging deep into the coffers of DC lore for other characters. Two of the new additions include Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone and Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, but there's another elusive crime figure from DC Comics that appears in The Penguin, mob boss Salvatore Maroni. Longtime readers will no doubt now the name well, but newcomers should know that Salvatore Maroni isn't just a throwaway character brought into the show, he's a name that carries major weight in Batman lore.

DC's Salvatore Maroni Comics History

Unlike Alberto Falcone and Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, who made their DC Comics debut the classic 1996 series Batman: The Long Halloween, Salvatore Maroni's debut predates them by decades. In fact, Salvatore Maroni was created by none other than Batman's own co-creators, Bill Finger and Bob Kane, with his first appearance happening in Detective Comics #66 way back in 1942, pre-dating the likes of The Riddler, Mister Freeze, and Poison Ivy. Despite this, his appearances are few and far between in the pages of DC's comics, appearing in just over 50 total issues across his eighty years of existence.

Though largely just a mafioso figure in DC Comics, Salvatore Maroni is most notable for being the figure responsible for disfiguring Harvey Dent and turning him into Two-Face with this act initially occurring in Maroni's first issue (back when the man he attacked was named Harvey Kent). This major element of Maroni's place in Batman lore has been recycled a few times as well, and is even shown happening again in the pages of Batman: The Long Halloween, a series where his death is also depicted. In recent years, with DC's big New 52 reboot, Maroni has only had sparse appearances in DC comics and has largely become an antagonist for Nightwing rather than Batman. As such his operations are mostly in Bludhaven rather than Gotham City.

DC's Salvatore Maroni in Live-Action

Unlike notable Batman villains like The Joker, who appear about as often as The Caped Crusader himself on the big screen, Salvatore Maroni's appearances in films and television are limited, but have grown in recent years. The character made his big screen debut in 1995's Batman Forever where he was played by actor Dennis Paladino (uncredited) for a scene where he was referred to as just "Boss Maroni" (a name attached to the character in his early comic book days). More notably, Eric Roberts played the part of Sal Maroni in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, appearing on screen in a few scenes, including a notable one with Heath Ledger's Joker. On television, Dexter star David Zayas played the part of Salvatore Maroni for eleven episodes on FOX's series Gotham.

Salvatore Maroni in The Batman Universe

As fans may recall, the world of The Batman arrived with a pre-established universe and cast. Even though Salvatore Maroni doesn't appear in the 2021 movie, his presence is felt throughout the movie (technically an uncredited extra plays him in a newspaper photograph). Not only is it revealed that The Batman's version of Maroni tried to use his vast criminal wealth tobribe Thomas Wayne during his mayoral run, but when Wayne refused his advances Maroni dug up dirt on Martha Wayne to derail his campaign. This lead to Thomas Wayne panicking and hiring Carmine Falcone to "handle" that situation. Falcone even speculates in a scene with Bruce Wayne that Salvatore Maroni had his parents killed.

In short, almost everything that happens in The Batman ties back to Salvatore Maroni in some way, which makes the fact that he's just an unnamed extra on a newspaper all the more bizarre. That said, The Penguin has fixed this side of The Batman lore by giving Salvatore Maroni a voice and a face. In The Penguin, Salvatore Maroni is played by fan-favorite character actor Clancy Brown. Based on what we already know about the character from the trailers and The Batman itself, Salvatore Maroni remains behind bars, but it's clear that he's at least on speaking terms with Colin Farrell's Oz Cobb.

As revealed in the first episode of The Penguin, Oz pays a visit to Sal at Blackgate Penitentiary, revealing that he's done with the Falcone's and wants to work with the Maroni family. He lays out a full plan for him to swoop in and take over a major piece of the Falcone drug business, he calls it "the opportunity of a lifetime" for Maroni and offers to be his double agent inside to "tear down their empire." What becomes clear throughout the episode though is that Oz's ambitions are even bigger than this, but Sal Maroni knows this too, so he doesn't even believe Oz when he gives him this offer.

Zack Snyder's latest project Twilight of the Gods just made its grand debut on Netflix, delivering an action-packed journey through Norse Mythology. While this latest project isn't in the comic toyboxes of past films, those projects will always be close to his heart. In a new interview with ComicBook, Snyder was asked which of those comic book movies he's the most proud of, and the comic book movie that has that prestigious title is none other than Watchmen.

The Most Satisfying Adaptation

"Well, weirdly, I kind of look at it in two ways. Like one I think, of course, Man of Steel, BvS, Justice League, is its own thing.... I don't know necessarily, whether it's a comic book movie in the classic sense, for me. But I can understand how people would say that because those are comic book characters and whatever, but, that's just based on ideas that I had about comic book characters," Snyder said.

"I would have to say Watchmen, probably for me, just like the process of adaptation from comic book to movie design, all the things as we went from comic books to movie," Snyder said. "I think Watchmen is like the cleanest, and kind of most satisfying, transition to adapted material."

Nolan Seal of Approval

Snyder's Watchmen was released in 2009 and was Snyder's second time adapting one of DC's properties to the big screen. His first was 300, which became a massive hit, and though Watchmen wasn't the financial success that 300 was, it introduced a new generation of fans to the iconic story and world of the Alan Moore classic.

In an interview with THR, Dark Knight and Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan revealed that he feels Watchmen was ahead of its time, and thinks things may have been different if it had been released after films like Avengers. "I've always believed Watchmen was ahead of its time," Nolan said. "The idea of a superhero team, which it so brilliantly subverts, wasn't yet a thing in movies. It would have been fascinating to see it released post-Avengers."

Snyder jumps to the world of Norse Mythology with Twilight of the Gods, and you can jump in with the series now, which is streaming on Netflix.

What do you think of Snyder's Watchmen? You can talk all things movies, comics, and DC with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

It is almost time to return to the land of The Dreaming. On Thursday night, as part of Netflix's Geeked Week festivities, the streamer released a new behind-the-scenes featurette for The Sandman's second season. In addition to featuring insight from the series' cast and crew, the video also features a brief glance at Loki (Freddie Fox) as well as some of the new members of The Endless, Esm? Creed-Miles as Delirium, Adrian Lester as Destiny and Barry Sloane as The Prodigal (aka Destruction). Season 2 of The Sandman is expected to adapt the story arcs "Seasons of the Mist" and "Brief Lives." This new look comes as The Sandman's most recent spinoff series, Dead Boy Detectives, was cancelled after just one season just a few weeks ago. It is unclear at this point if characters from that series will factor into The Sandman Season 2.

"Each of these characters is as powerful as Dream -- nearly as clever -- and far more ruthless," showrunner Allan Heinberg said in a statement when those castings were first announced. "Together, they will ensnare Dream in a web of palace intrigue, glamour, demon battles, and spider-sex. None of which Dream is prepared for; all of which transform him into a far more dangerous Dream of the Endless."

What Is The Sandman About?

The Sandman is based on the iconic DC comic series from Neil Gaiman and artists Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Jill Thompson, Shawn McManus, Marc Hempel, Bryan Talbot, and Michael Zulli. A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic - and human - mistakes he's made during his vast existence.

Season 1 of the series starred Tom Sturridge as Dream, Kirby as Death, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, Charles Dance as Roderick Burgess, Asim Chaudhry as Abel, Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain, Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, Joely Richardson as Ethel Cripps, David Thewlis as John Dee, Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian, Stephen Fry as Gilbert, Patton Oswalt as the voice of Dream's raven Matthew, and Mason Alexander Park as Desire.

Season 2 of The Sandman is expected to debut exclusively on Netflix at some point in 2025.

Cristin Milioti wants to see her character on The Penguin cross paths with another character from Batman's rogues gallery. Tonight is the premiere of The Penguin on HBO and Max, with the series starring Academy Award nominated actor Colin Farrell reprising his role as Oz Cobb from The Batman. Joining the cast is Cristin Milioti, who plays Sofia Falcone, the daughter of renowned (and deceased) gangster Carmine Falcone. With Carmine gone, it leaves a vaccuum in the Gotham underworld that characters like Sofia and Penguin hope to capitalize on. While Milioti's Sofia Falcone gets to share a good amount of screentime with Farrell's Penguin, there's another Batman villain she'd like to interact with as well.

ComicBook spoke to Cristin Milioti ahead of The Penguin premiere, and we talked to her about Sofia Falcone's time as an inmate in Arkham Asylum. Sofia is a freshly released from Arkham when we meet her in The Penguin, but spending time in the infamous penitentiary means Sofia may have met other villains who have a bone to pick with Batman. Does Milioti think Sofia interacted with these infamous inmates? Let's find out.

Cristin Milioti wants her Penguin character to interact with Joker

We asked Cristin Milioti her thoughts about filling Sofia Falcone's backstory at Arkham Asylum, and if she envisions Sofia interacting with some of the more high profile inmates. Her answer is short and succinct, but it opens the floodgates to a mountain of future possibilities.

"I mean, I'd love to meet the Joker," she said.

As far as we know, the Joker doesn't make an appearance on The Penguin, but the Clown Prince of Crime does exist in Matt Reeves' The Batman Universe. Dark Knight fans that checked out the deleted scenes from The Batman saw Barry Keoghan as Joker, though it was only a short scene. This leaves the door open for Keoghan's Joker to return in The Batman - Part II, and depending on how things shake out for Milioti's Sofia Falcone on The Penguin, she could also be part of the cast for The Batman sequel.

Taking things even further, Colin Farrell's Penguin has already been confirmed for The Batman - Part II. Now you're talking about some major players all jockeying for position and screentime in one Batman film. There are several events from the comics that The Batman sequel could look to adapt, but it certainly looks like the film won't be lacking for villains and threats.

What is The Penguin about?

Starring Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb (aka "The Penguin"), the DC Studios series continues filmmaker Matt Reeves' The Batman epic crime saga that began with Warner Bros. Pictures' global blockbuster The Batman. Developed by showrunner Lauren LeFranc, the series centers on the character played by Farrell in the film.

The series stars Colin Farrell (Oz Cobb), Cristin Milioti (Sofia Falcone), Rhenzy Feliz (Victor Aguilar), Michael Kelly (Johnny Viti), Shohreh Aghdashloo (Nadia Maroni), Deirdre O'Connell (Francis Cobb), Clancy Brown (Salvatore Maroni), James Madio (Milos Grapa), Scott Cohen (Luca Falcone), Michael Zegen (Alberto Falcone), Carmen Ejogo (Eve Karlo), and Theo Rossi (Dr. Julian Rush).

The Penguin premieres Thursday, September 19th at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with subsequent new episodes of the eight-episode series on HBO and Max airing on Sundays.

HBO squawked at the thought of Matt Reeves' Batman Epic Crime Saga unfolding exclusively on the big screen. Even before The Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson as the Dark Knight premiered in theaters in 2022, WarnerMedia's HBO Max streaming service greenlit two television spinoffs: The Penguin, about Oz Cobb's (Colin Farrell) rise to power after the movie, and a series focused on a corrupt cop within the Gotham City Police Department, set one year before the movie. Gotham P.D. was eventually retooled into the since-scrapped Arkham Asylum series, but elements of that crime drama made their way into Penguin (premiering Sept. 19th on HBO and Max).

"The streaming-cable space was was a no-brainer for some of the bigger characters. Casey [Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and Max Content] was the first person that said, 'I need a marquee character,'" The Batman and The Penguin producer Dylan Clark tells ComicBook. "And Matt said, 'You know, I have this really good idea for Colin for the second movie.' And Casey said, 'I want that. You can't just have these characters be in the movie space.'"

Reeves has since confirmed that Farrell will reprise his role in The Batman Part II, and that The Penguin bridges the gap between the first movie and its 2026 sequel.

"It was a natural transition that way, and I think we have some great ideas to explore more characters from our movie space to do this same thing with Casey and Sarah [Aubrey, Max original programming chief]," Clark adds.

The eight-episode HBO Original limited series focuses on the escalating gang war and power vacuum that emerges on the streets of Gotham after the death of crime lord Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) in The Batman. Oz's power grab puts him up against Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) and Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen), heirs to the Falcone Crime Family empire, syndicate underboss Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly), and rival mobster Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown).

The Penguin -- the next chapter in The Batman's Epic Crime Saga spanning film, television, and tie-in comic books -- stars Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti alongside Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O'Connell, Clancy Brown, James Madio, Scott Cohen, Michael Zegen, Carmen Ejogo, and Theo Rossi. The series premieres Thursday, Sept. 19th, on HBO and Max before moving to Sunday nights on HBO starting with episode 2 on Sept. 29th.

Earlier this week, Arrow star Stephen Amell sat in on a wrestling podcast to promote Heels, his Starz drama which just hit Netflix. Both Amell and showrunner Mike O'Malley have both been pretty open about their hopes that Netflix will help Heels find a new, larger audience, and that it could lead to additional episodes being greenlit, so expect to see a lot of the star out there on the internet this week and next. Along the way, Amell vented a little bit about the way Peacemaker fired shots at Green Arrow. While the show was taking aim at the character - something it also did with DC Extended Universe characters like Aquaman and Wonder Woman - Amell also felt like Arrow itself was being disrespected.

"Between the movies and Peacemaker a little bit, our show was kind of treated like s--t," Amell told Chris Van Vliet on YouTube. "I get it, we're on The CW, I get it, it's TV. But I also get the fact that when people think about the most recent iteration of DC, they don't think about the Snyder Cut - they think about the Arrowverse. We got crapped on for years, and years, and years, and this just seemed excessive.

Here's the thing: Amell is right. The Arrowverse gets a lot of grief for being low-budget and for dipping into the tropes common to network TV shows, and it doesn't get nearly enough credit for the way it brought the DC Universe to life in live-action.

The Arrowverse was the fans' colloquial name for a shared DC Universe of live-action TV series. Arrow was the first, followed by The Flash, Supergirl, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, and Batwoman. Superman & Lois spun out of the events of 2020's Crisis on Infinite Earths event series, becoming the final show set in the multiverse established on Arrow.

Some readers are seeing Amell's comments as sour grapes, and it's easy to understand why - he's complaining about the unfair treatment that his show got...but it ran for eight seasons and ended on his terms. Still, that's a pretty uncharitable characterization. It isn't as though he only comments on this kind of thing when it affects him personally, after all.

One famous example was the way he stepped up to defend Grant Gustin and the cast and crew of The Flash in 2014. The series debuted on October 7th and managed the biggest premiere audience The CW had enjoyed in years. The Flash was an immediate smash hit, and there was a lot of reason to be excited. On October 15th, Warner Bros. announced a new film slate, which included a The Flash movie starring Ezra Miller. That meant not only was the Arrowverse not going to be tied to the then-upcoming DC Extended Universe, but the cast of The Flash would be asked in every interview about the movie plans.

Amell criticized the announcement's timing, saying that it felt like it undercut The Flash and star Gustin almost immediately after the show's debut, and robbed the cast and crew of a celebratory moment.

"I thought that it was shitty that all of this stuff got announced the morning of the spectacular ratings of the second episodes of The Flash came in," Amell said at the time. "I thought that the way that Warner Bros. announced the slate of DC movies could have been handled better, and I think that someone like Grant Gustin, who has just launched an iconic character like the Flash, to record breaking numbers...I think that he should have been given a wider berth than two episodes before another actor was announced to play his character. That's because I'm protective of Grant. And that's because I think that producing 23 episodes of superhero television is more difficult than producing a feature film. And it's 23 episodes again, and again, and again."

That's something that came up when Amell was defending the honor of the Arrowverse: the kind of turnaround and endurance it takes to make these things work.

"I'm working just as hard as anyone else," Amell said in the Heels interview. "Do you know how hard it is to play a superhero with no superpowers for 23 episodes a year? It's really, really, really hard, and I'm not looking for a prize, but, like, maybe don't s--t on our show."

The Arrowverse is the biggest shared superhero universe ever to make its way to live action -- both in terms of the numbers of characters and stories adapted, and also the number of actual storytelling hours -- and told a sprawling, interconnected story for more than a decade, watched by tens of millions of fans.

To date - not counting the upcoming, final season of Superman & Lois - the entirety of the Arrowverse spans 34,047 minutes (more than 567 hours). For comparison, the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (including its TV series) takes place over less than 8,000 minutes. When it comes to live-action interpretations of mainstream American superheroes, the Arrowverse is the longest and most elaborate shared universe by a wide margin.

That means that for millions of fans, the Arrowverse is a definitive version of the DC multiverse. There are legitimate criticisms to be made about elements of the execution, but the reality is, the audience for The CW's superhero shows were passionate, vocal, engaged on social media. The Arrowverse exposed casual viewers to deep-cut characters who would have otherwise had virtually no legitimate chance of being adapted to live-action -- and it did so while spending a fraction of the cost of even a single feature film.

That also means that hundreds of people at all levels of production put in tens of thousands of hours' work to bringing the shows to life -- often while working under punishing conditions. Long shoots, night shoots, and filming in Vancouver for tax reasons all combine to create a scenario where many of these actors were standing outside in frigid temperatures for hours at a time to make the series. Tight budgets and a weekly network TV deadline means stunt teams and visual effects teams were both trying to work miracles with relatively little support.

Amell's comment that audiences don't think of Zack Snyder's Justice League when they think of DC, but rather the Arrowverse, doesn't seem so crazy in that context. Several of the Arrowverse shows continue to thrive on streaming now, even after the franchise wrapped up for good.

Whether it's fair for Amell to take the Peacemaker jab personally or not -- after all, that show basically made fun of all of DC's big guns -- he's right to be frustrated about the way the Arrowverse was criticized during its run and has been talked about frequently since. When Mr. Terrific, a regular on Arrow, ended up in the new Superman movie, the issue of "CW costumes" came up. That ignored the fact that many of the Arrowverse's costumes were designed by Academy Award winner Colleen Atwood, whose resume also includes Chicago, Top Gun: Maverick, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Arrowverse maestro Greg Berlanti, meanwhile, is one of the most celebrated producers of the last 20 years. At one point, he had more shows on TV than any other producer in history, and he recently won the Emmys' Governor's Award. That wasn't just for the Arrowverse -- Berlanti also worked on projects ranging from Dawon's Creek and Everwood to Red, White, and Royal Blue -- but it's hard to argue the decade-plus he spent working on DC superheroes won't be one of the main things Berlanti is remembered for.

At the end of the day, the various shows of the Arrowverse may not be as polished as a $200 million feature film -- but they made characters like The Flash and Supergirl household names while also introducing casual fans to Green Arrow, Black Lightning, The Atom, and other heroes who might not ever have found themselves represented in live action otherwise. Amell is right that, given their success and longevity, these shows deserve to be more than the butt (heh) of the joke.

This year's Batman Day will be extra special as it coincides with the 85th anniversary of the character that first appeared in 1939's Detective Comics #27. Naturally, new product releases will be part of the festivities, and the two hottest releases will undoubtedly be the Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy Barbie dolls and these Batmobile clogs from Crocs that are inspired by Michael Keaton's ride in Tim Burton's 1989 Batman film. The clogs officially went live at the Crocs website on September 16th and sold out of most sizes quickly. However, you can still score a pair if you know where to look.

Below you'll find a list of retailers that have Crocs Batmobile Classic Clog in stock at the time of writing priced at the standard $69.99. This is a limited edition release, so we expect these retailers to sell out of their own stock sooner rather than later. Note that Crocs Batman Batmobile Classic Clogs are made for adults and come with 2 Jibbitz chamrs of the '89 Batmobile and the bat symbol.

• Crocs Batmobile Classic Clog - See on Amazon
  
• Crocs Batmobile Classic Clog - See at Journeys
• Crocs Batmobile Classic Clog - See at Shoe Carnival
• Crocs Batmoble Classic Clog - See at Rack Room Shoes
• Crocs Batmobile Classic Clog - See at Dicks Sporting Goods

Batman To Get Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

Following Batman Day 2024 on Sept. 21st, Warner Bros. Discovery will continue the festivities with a fan activation coinciding with the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Sept. 26th. In collaboration with Funko, the all-day fan event at the Funko Hollywood store (6201 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028) will host a one-hour meet and greet and signing with Jim Lee from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Along with his role as the CCO of DC, Lee is known for penciling such titles as Batman, including the Batman: Hush storyline, All Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder, and the Geoff Johns-scripted New York Times bestseller, Justice League

Batman is just the 20th fictional character (and the first superhero) to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As part of the Hollywood Walk of Fame Class of 2024, Batman joins a list of honorees that includes Tim Burton (director, 1989's Batman and 1992's Batman Returns), Maggie Gyllenhaal (star of 2008's The Dark Knight), and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman and Justice League).

Gotham's pawns are slowly falling into place. 2022's The Batman introduced audiences to a new live-action world centered around the Caped Crusader, picking up with Robert Pattinson's titular vigilante in his second year under the cowl. Just as Batman is learning finding his footing in Gotham City, simultaneously so is his rogue's gallery. Director Matt Reeves left off with The Riddler (Paul Dano) forming an unholy alliance with The Joker (Barry Keoghan) inside Arkham Asylum, Jim Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) still a couple of ranks below police commissioner, and The Penguin (Colin Farrell) seeking ascension within Gotham's criminal underground after the death of Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), the latter of which is set to be explored in HBO's The Penguin miniseries.

The Penguin: Colin Farrell's Oz "Not Thinking" About Batman

Gotham's Gentleman of Crime is not bothered by Gotham City's new protector.

Speaking to ComicBook at The Penguin world premiere in New York City, star Colin Farrell noted that The Batman's overarching presence within Gotham did not impact his performance as Oz Cobb in the standalone series.

"He's not thinking about The Bat at all," Farrell said. "I'm sure maybe there's a scene we did, a night where he's wondering is that guy gonna turn up, but there's so much s--t happening to him already that the immediate present is something that he's struggling with greatly."

Farrell's Oz and Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight shared the screen three times in The Batman (2022). The two future adversaries first meet in the Iceberg Lounge, a nightclub for Gotham's dirtiest, and then come to blows during a car chase. Batman and Jeffrey Wright's Jim Gordon interrogate Oz after running him off the road, ultimately ending with Oz helping the two solve the "el rata alada" riddle.

"As much as I had some version of a tet-a-tet with him in the film, he's not what he is becoming evermore, and will possibly, I assume, become more of in the second film," Farrell continued. "Oz has other things on his mind, [that being] the immediate present as experienced by how he's tainted by his past. He's very, very focused on the now. He has to be because he's someone who's got so many plates juggling, so many plates in the air. They're all spinning out of control and he's trying to keep his s--t together. He's trying to create this ideal of filling the power vacuum that Carmine Falcone's death has created."

The Penguin premieres on Max on Thursday, September 19th.

DC's new All In initiative is headed across time and space. On Thursday, DC announced Challengers of the Unknown, a new five-issue limited series written by Christopher Cantwell (Iron Man, Plastic Man No More), with art by Sean Izaakse (Green Arrow, Thunderbolts). The first issue of Challengers of the Unknown will feature a main cover by Mike Deodato Jr., with variant covers by series artist Izaakse and Romulo Fajardo Jr., Taurin Clarke, and Danny Earls, plus a foil variant cover by Gleb Melnikov and a character-design variant cover by Dan Mora.

In Challengers of the Unknown, Ace Morgan, June Robbins, Prof Haley, Red Ryan, and Rocky Davis, adventurers "living on borrowed time," run day-to-day operations for the Justice League's Watchtower base in orbit above Earth, collaborating with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the League to seal the rifts that threaten the galaxy. But a mysterious foe from the Challengers' past lurks in the shadows, and its connection to the Darkseid wave will put not only the Challengers, but all of the DC Universe on borrowed time.

Who Are DC's Challengers of the Unknown?

Created by Jack Kirby (as well as possibly Dave Wood or Joe Simon) in 1957's Showcase #6, The team of adventurers consisted of Kyle "Ace" Morgan, Matthew "Red" Ryan, Leslie "Rocky" Davis, Walter Mark "Prof" Haley, and later June Robbins, all of whom are inspired to go on larger-than-life adventures after a near-death plane crash makes them realize they are living on "borrowed time." The group faced many unconventional threats over the years, all while dealing with the allure of celebrity.

The Challengers of the Unknown were subsequently revived over the years, both in their own title and in DC anthology books, with the most recent incarnation of the team being relaunched as New Challengers in May of 2018. The team also became the subject of a joke in 2018's Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, even appearing in the film's post-credits scene.

What Is DC All In?

As announced earlier this summer, the new initiative will offer both an exciting, reimagined "Absolute" universe of DC's characters, as well as an ongoing line of core titles, featuring bold new directions and jumping-on points for many characters and teams. The Absolute titles will initially encompass Absolute Batman from Snyder and Nick Dragotta, Absolute Superman from Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval, and Absolute Wonder Woman from Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman.

"The creation of the Absolute Universe is how I always imagined coming back to DC, and DC All In will be a great jumping-on point for new readers as well as lapsed fans to discover new stories to love and the chance to explore the new directions in store for DC's core series lineup," Snyder said in a statement when the line was first announced.

Challengers of the Unknown #1 will be available wherever comics are sold on Wednesday, December 18th.

First launched in 2021, the LEGO 76240 Batman Batmobile Tumbler from the 2008 Christopher Nolan film The Dark Knight is an Ultimate Collector Series-style build with 2049 pieces. If you don't already own it, now would be a good time to change that thanks to an Amazon Lightning Deal.

At the time of writing, the 76240 Batman Batmobile Tumbler is available to order here on Amazon for $207.99, which is 23% off the list price. As noted, it's an Amazon lightning deal which means that it will disappear when fully claimed. You can also keep tabs on this Amazon link to see if they price match. Note that LEGO is also in the midst of a Batman Day 2024 promotion that includes the offers listed below. Currently, getting the Tumbler directly from LEGO is worth 3x LEGO Insiders points.

• Free Batman 1992 Polybag with LEGO DC Batman purchases of $40 or more. See eligible sets at LEGO
• Double and Triple LEGO Insiders Points on select LEGO DC Batman sets. See eligible sets at LEGO
• LEGO BrickHeadz Limited Edition Batman 85th Anniversary set is available for 3000 LEGO Insiders Points - See at LEGO
• You can sign up for a free LEGO Insiders account right here.

The 76240 Batman Batmobile Tumbler features an opening roof, a control panel, a stand, and Christian Bale Batman and Heath Ledger Joker minifigures. it measures over 6 in. (16 cm) high, 17 in. (45 cm) long and 9 in. (25 cm) wide when complete and combines with other LEGO DC Batman sets. From LEGO:

"The impressive build-and-display Tumbler from the Dark Knight trilogy of Batman movies features an opening roof, which provides access to the driver and passenger seats and control panel. Batman and The Joker minifigures are included with a stand. With a sturdy base to display the finished model at its best, your recreation of the Tumbler will provide pleasure long after the hands-on work has been completed."

What's up, Dark Knight? MultiVersus -- the free-to-play platform fighting game featuring playable characters from the Warner Bros. multiverse, including Looney Tunes, Game of Thrones, Steven Universe, Rick and Morty, Beetlejuice, and the DC Universe -- has hit the pages of DC Comics. Out Sept. 18th, MultiVersus: Collision Detected #1 is the first in a new six-issue limited series from writer Bryan Q. Miller (Batgirl) and artist Jon Sommariva (Star Wars Adventures) that reveals the original story behind the game by developer Player First Games and publisher Warner Bros. Games.

"Level One: The Rabbit, The Witch, and The Star Child" begins with the DC trinity -- Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman -- trapped inside what appears to be a giant Mother Box, extra-dimensional technology belonging to the New Gods of New Genesis. This is revealed to be a dream as Superman snaps awake and burns a glyph into the wall with his heat vision: a boy with a star on his stomach.

The rune-like symbol doesn't match anything on record at Superman's Fortress of Solitude, but it turns out that his super friends shared the same dream and experienced similar visions. Wonder Woman sleep-painted these "omens": symbols for "the Rabbit," "the Witch," and "the Star Child."

After suffering a psychic vision, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are transported through time and space to just outside Jersey City, New Jersey. There they meet Avia, the daughter of New Gods Mister Miracle and Big Barda, whose home is infused with Apokolips technology. The world's greatest detective determines it's no coincidence that the trio -- who have had constant exposure to Fourth World tech over the course of their careers -- woke up at Avia's after a psychic assault by arcane cosmic symbols.

Avia mentions that her parents are away at the Source Wall, a cosmic boundary that surrounds the multiverse. The girl doesn't mention the Flatbush-accented, carrot-chomping friend she's hiding in the closet: Bugs Bunny, who brought with him a multiversal video game console crackling with cosmic energies.

The Rabbit (Batman), the Witch (Wonder Woman), and the Star Child (Superman) are Bugs Bunny, the rascally rabbit of Looney Tunes fame; The Wizard of Oz's green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West; and the titular half-Gem, half-human hybrid star of Cartoon Network's Steven Universe.

Th-th-th-that's not all, folks. MultiVersus: Collision Detected continues with issue #2 on Oct. 2nd. Upcoming issues, which are previewed below, will feature the trinity's team-up with Bugs Bunny, mystery-solving with the Scooby-Doo gang, cosmic crossovers with the characters of Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and Tom and Jerry, and battles with the Wicked Witch, the Joker and Harley Quinn, and a new villain: Devoid.

MultiVersus: Collision Detected #2 (October 2nd)

The Invasion Begins! Relocated from their home dimensions by a mysterious, sinister force, champions from across the multiverse have appeared on the Justice League's Earth. Now, it's up to Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman to figure out which champions are friends and which are foes--before chaos erupts across the entire globe!

MultiVersus: Collision Detected #3 (Oct. 16th)

Mayhem In The City Of Tomorrow! Metropolis's newest city-wide battle has everything: Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, a child with a gem on his shiny round tum-tum, a sprite-sized Dark Knight, and...the Head. (It's that thing where Brainiac's code gets overwritten by an inebriated scientist who couldn't be bothered to hang around for the entire issue!)

MultiVersus: Collision Detected #4 (Oct. 30th)

Start your engines! "The Clown Princess of Crime." "The Maiden of Mischief." "PhD." Call Harley Quinn anything you want, but don't you dare try to take away her cuddly-wuddly new best friend from another universe! Clear the crosswalks and fasten your seatbelts as Harls leads the Justice League and a skyful of multiversal champions through the streets of Gotham City on a physics-bending, law-breaking, rubber-burning race to the finish...that will leave one champion's life hanging in the balance!

MultiVersus: Collision Detected #5 (Nov. 13th)

With a countdown clock ticking down toward zero and skies filled with the villainous Devoid's digitizing drones, Steven Universe's Multiversus Force prepares for the worst beneath Wayne Manor. But with the Joker, the Wicked Witch, Harley Quinn, and Brainiac all under the same roof, it's only a matter of time before an already explosive situation outright self-destructs!

MultiVersus: Collision Detected #6 (Nov. 27th)

Devoid finally arrives on Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman's world to collect fighters for his Imaginarium--whether the DCU likes it or not. With the existence of each Multiversal champion's home Earth on the line, Multiversus: Collision Detection reaches its kill screen...now!

The Caped Crusader's rogues gallery expands. 2022's The Batman pitted Robert Pattinson's titular vigilante against Paul Dano's The Riddler while simultaneously bringing ascending adversaries Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz) and The Penguin (Colin Farrell) into the fold. Just before the credits rolled, director Matt Reeves snuck Batman's most famed foe into the picture, as Barry Keoghan subtly showed face as The Joker, offering his hand in friendship to Riddler. It remains to be seen as to how active The Batman Epic Crime Saga's Joker has been up until his imprisonment in Arkham Asylum, but the man behind the makeup is already familiar with his new franchise's larger ensemble.

Colin Farrell and Barry Keoghan's Batman Saga Parallels

While fans await a Penguin and Joker scene on screen, the Irishmen behind the roles have already chatted about their shared franchise.

Speaking to ComicBook at The Penguin world premiere in New York City, star Colin Farrell noted that he and Barry Keoghan "had a giggle" about where they fall in The Batman Epic Crime Saga.

"The two of us had a giggle about it," Farrell said. "He's The Joker and I'm The Penguin, and we're both from the north side of Dublin. It's bizarre and lovely and it's the kind of thing that makes you a bit giddy. You just have a laugh about it, you realize your good fortune."

While 17 years apart, Farrell and Keoghan's acting careers have run somewhat parallel to one another in recent memory. The two Dublin natives first shared the screen together in The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) and then again in The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), the latter of which they both received Academy Award nominations for.

Farrell and Keoghan suiting up as Batman adversaries continue a pattern of Irishmen standing opposite Bruce Wayne on the big screen. Within Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy, Cork's Cillian Murphy portrayed Jonathan Crane (Scarecrow) in all the movies while Northern Ireland's Liam Neeson showed face as Ra's Al Ghul in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight Rises.

There's no word on when Keoghan's Joker will make his presence properly felt within The Batman Epic Crime Saga. Director Matt Reeves shared a deleted scene of the character being interrogated by Batman on social media shortly after The Batman hit theaters, leaving a small hint that the Clown Prince of Crime secured a means to escape his Arkham imprisonment.

"I can't say much. We'll see where that goes. It was an incredible experience," Keoghan said in a recent interview when asked about his Joker's future. "Yeah, I can't say."

The Penguin premieres on Max on Thursday, September 19th.

jThe final trailer for Joker: Folie a Deux shows off some of the early praise the DC film is getting from critics. We're under a month away from the premiere date of the Joker sequel, and the early buzz has the follow-up on the same award-winning tragectory as its predecessor. Todd Phillips returns to direct Joker: Folie a Deux, with Joaquin Phoenix reprising his role as Arthur Fleck, aka the Clown Prince of Crime. This time Phoenix is joined by the multi-talented Lady Gaga, who plays Harleen "Lee" Quinzel, aka Harley Quinn. Both actors' performing chops are on display in Joker 2's final trailer.

The Joker: Folie a Deux final trailer begins with the focus on Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn, who tells Joker that she's been told that he is a bad influence on her. Some scenes include Harley walking up the steps of the courthouse with an angry mob shouting from the streets, Joker and Harley sharing a kiss while Arkham Asylum burns in the background, and a look at their headlinging show, "Joker & Harley."

One scene that hasn't been shown before features Joker interrogating someone on the witness stand, who tries to plead with the Arthur Fleck side of Joker. The man tries telling Arthur that this isn't his true self, but it falls on deaf ears. We round out the trailer with some of the praise Joker: Folie a Deux has garnered from critics and other outlets.

Joker: Folie ? Deux
Only in theaters October 4. ? pic.twitter.com/kJDCFNPla1

-- Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) September 18, 2024

Joker: Folie a Deux director teases Harvey Dent's transformation into Two-Face

Joker: Folie a Deux director Todd Phillips and screenwriter Scott Silver spoke to the press before Joker 2's premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The duo were asked why they included Harvey Dent, played by Harry Lawtey, in Joker: Folie a Deux.

"We respect the comics. We get the comics. In Harley's case, we watched the animated series. Of course, Margot Robbie is Harley Quinn. But when we run things through this film -- Harvey Dent is a perfect example," Todd Phillips told IGN. "It's actually a simpler way of talking about what we did with Harley, which was really just put the real-world lens on it, and not that other movies didn't, but just run it through our Gotham. And so really, the Harvey Dent you meet in here [played by Harry Lawtey] is not a huge part, but if you're going to have a trial, why wouldn't you have the Assistant DA prosecuting Arthur Fleck be Harvey Dent? But it's not about his - we don't really reveal his dark side. We see a young Harvey Dent."

What is Joker: Folie a Deux about?

Joker: Folie ? Deux will be a musical that follows the twisted romance between Arthur Fleck and Harley Quinn, with a lot of the film believed to be taking place within Arkham Asylum. Directed by Todd Phillips, Joker: Folie ? Deux will also feature appearances from Zazie Beetz, Brendon Gleeson, Catherine Keener, and Jacob Lofland.

Joker: Folie ? Deux arrives in theaters on October 4th.

No character in mainstream comics has had a journey quite like Catwoman. Originally introduced amid the Golden Age's sea of duplicitous dames, she has evolved into her own formidable part of the DC Universe, headlining movies and comics as both a hero, an antihero, and a villain. Even then, it still feels undeniably remarkable that the latest Catwoman solo title is nearing seventy issues, as multiple creative teams have helped tell an uninterrupted tale of Selina Kyle's life. The series is showing no signs of slowing down, keeping its numbering as a new creative team steps in for the DC All-In initiative, but this week's Catwoman #68 does represent the end of an era. After more than two years, the Tini Howard-penned run of Catwoman culminates in an issue that tries to stick a balance between grandiosity and intimate characterization.

Catwoman #68 continues the all-out war between Selina Kyle and her allies, against the machinations of the White Glove and other DC villains. As Selina's life hangs in the balance, everything from her relationship with Gotham to her relationship with those closest to her is put to the test.

The "Nine Lives" story arc, which has stretched across Catwoman for nearly the past year, has become the best distillation of what the overall title has had to offer. As Selina has grappled with her newfound regenerative properties, embarking on the toughest scores that the planet and cosmos have to offer, individual chapters have made space for some profound and fascinating explorations of her character. A bit of this discovery is still on full display in Catwoman #68, as Selina is given the opportunity to mend her previous relationships and further realize her individual value. Depending on how a reader feels about Selina's relationship with Bruce Wayne / Batman, their mileage on some of that epiphany might vary, but it still proves to be a defining moment for Selina as a person.

In a way, Catwoman #68 also continues one of the more frustrating aspects of the "Nine Lives" arc (and much of Howard's run on the character), as far as the other characters in Selina's orbit are concerned. Despite Eiko Hasigawa / Catwoman and newly-created character Dario Tomasso / Tomcat getting a good chunk of the real estate across the past few years of issues, their arcs fall to the wayside across this finale, with no certainty that they will be explored in the future. The same can be said for the other miscellaneous DC characters who have called the series a temporary home, including fan-favorites Onyx and Scandal Savage. While this is often the nature of superheroic storytelling, it does provide a bit of an anticlimatic end to one of Selina's stronger supporting casts in recent memory.

Carmine di Giandomenico has fit into the fold of this Catwoman ongoing with ease, rendering countless impossible scenarios and flamboyant vigilante costumes with a scene of kineticism. The reading experience of Catwoman #68 is not completely flawless, as there are a few panels amid the big fight that are awkwardly blocked and paced, but di Giandomenico's aesthetic approach remains visually and sartorially compelling. Veronica Gandini's vibrant color work keeps even the most thematically-dark moments bathed in golds and blues, and Tom Napolitano's lettering traverses realities and personalities with an angled ease.

These past two years of Catwoman have been filled with some undeniable bright spots, as Selina's personality as both a superhero and an ever-evolving woman has been charmingly fleshed out. While the grand finale of Catwoman #68 might not tie everything up in a perfect bow, it still carries that same sense of scrappiness and reverence for its titular protagonist. Regardless of whatever the future holds for Selina Kyle, this run has proven to be an entertaining chapter in her journey.

Published by DC

On September 18, 2024

Written by Tini Howard

Art by Carmine di Giandomenico

Colors by Veronica Gandini

Letters by Tom Napolitano

Cover by David Nakayama

DC is headed to New York Comic Con in a pretty major way. On Wednesday, the publisher announced its official plans for New York Comic Con 2024, which will be held in mid-October in New York City. DC's panels will include the usual Jim Lee & Friends celebration, as well as a spotlight on the Gotham City side of publishing, and a new look at the Absolute/All In universes.

These publishing panels will be just one extension of DC's presence at NYCC 2024, with confirmation that the DC Studios animated series Creature Commandos will be getting its own panel. Series creator and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn will be in attendance at the panel, alongside executive producer Dean Lorey and stars Frank Grillo, David Harbour, Zoe Chao, Sean Gunn, and Steve Agee.

DC's Plans for New York Comic-Con 2024

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17

• Title: DC's Gotham City
• Date: Thursday, October 17, 2024
• Time: 5:15pm-6:00pm
• Description: Walk the dark and gritty streets of the DC Universe with Alex Segura (The Question: All Along the Watchtower), Christian Ward (Batman: City of Madness), Dan Watters (Nightwing), Hayden Sherman (Absolute Wonder Woman), Tate Brombal (Batgirl), and more, for news and surprises involving Batman and the other protectors of Gotham City.
• Location: Room 406.3
• Moderated by: DC Group Editor Rob Levin.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18

• Title: DC's Absolute/All In Universes
• Date: Friday, October 18, 2024
• Time: 4:00pm-5:15pm
• Description: Join Al Ewing (Absolute Green Lantern), Clayton Henry (Action Comics), Dan Mora (Superman, Justice League Unlimited), Daniel Sampere (Wonder Woman), Hayden Sherman (Absolute Wonder Woman), Jason Aaron (Absolute Superman), Jeff Lemire (JSA, Absolute Flash), Jeremy Adams (Green Lantern), Joshua Williamson (Superman), Nick Dragotta (Absolute Batman), Nick Robles (Absolute Flash), Ram V. (The New Gods), Scott Snyder (Absolute Batman), Tom King (Wonder Woman), and more, in an oversized can't-miss NYCC panel that dives deep into DC Comics' new 2024 "All In" comics initiative and looks toward what's coming up in 2025!
• Location: Room 406.2
• Moderated by: DC Executive Editor Chris Conroy, DC Group Editor Paul Kaminski

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19

• Title: Jim Lee & Friends
• Date: Saturday, October 19, 2024
• Time: 1:45-2:30
• Description: At this year's New York Comic Con, DC President, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee will treat fans to a powerful lineup of surprise announcements, reveals and special guests, along with great conversations with top comic creators, during DC's annual NYCC "Jim Lee & Friends" panel.
• Location: Room 409
• Moderated by: DC President, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee

What Is DC All In?

As announced earlier this summer, the new initiative will offer both an exciting, reimagined "Absolute" universe of DC's characters, as well as an ongoing line of core titles, featuring bold new directions and jumping-on points for many characters and teams. The Absolute titles will initially encompass Absolute Batman from Snyder and Nick Dragotta, Absolute Superman from Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval, and Absolute Wonder Woman from Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman.

"The creation of the Absolute Universe is how I always imagined coming back to DC, and DC All In will be a great jumping-on point for new readers as well as lapsed fans to discover new stories to love and the chance to explore the new directions in store for DC's core series lineup," Snyder said in a statement when the line was first announced.

For generations, the word "verisimilitude" has hung over the world of comic book adaptations. Richard Donner famously used the concept as a guiding principle for 1978's Superman movie, arguing that the high-flying and brightly colored protagonist needed to be rooted in a version of reality to effectively translate onscreen. It's hard to deny that Donner succeeded in that venture, as his film essentially defined the genre, but the concept has become a sort of buzzword in the decades since. Verisimilitude is thrown around in countless arguments about superhero projects that are too dark and gritty, not dark and gritty enough, or stuck in a limbo between the two. This debate crossed my mind frequently while watching HBO's The Penguin, the newest television extension of the DC mythos. Across its eight-episode season, The Penguin reframes that age-old argument in a beautiful new evolution, delivering one of the most unflinchingly human and entertaining interpolations of a comic in recent memory.

Set shortly after the events of the 2022 film The Batman, The Penguin follows the continued adventures of Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) as he scrambles for power amid the criminal underworld of the now-shattered Gotham City. As Oz navigates his new reputation, his new criminal schemes, and his home life, he also begins to form an unlikely bond with teenager Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz). Intersecting with Oz's quest is Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), a notorious serial killer who grew up as the once-pampered daughter of Oz's former boss, and who is trying to forge her own path forward after being released from a mental institution.

That description not only scratches the surface of what The Penguin has to offer, but it doesn't even dwell on the DC lore that surrounds the series. Yes, there are countless comic stories delving into the Falcone family's chokehold over Gotham City, as well as Oz's own rise to power within that structure. Yes, Sofia's institutionalization occurred in the infamous Arkham Asylum. Yes, Oz's romantic partner, sex worker Eve Karlo (Carmen Ejogo), shares a surname with the Batman villain Clayface. But those comic connections are far from the most compelling or surprising things that The Penguin has to offer, even as fans sniff around for clues about The Batman's cinematic sequel, 2026's The Batman Part II. Any reference to DC canon, from the inclusion of a comic character to a random offhanded reference, flavors the experience of The Penguin instead of being a whole meal. Even the specific flavors that fans have already turned their noses at -- namely, shortening Oz's name from his comic-accurate moniker of Oswald Cobblepot -- prove to be inconsequential in context.

That shouldn't necessarily be a miracle when we're decades into the world of modern comic book television shows, but it feels like one, especially as The Penguin offers a fundamentally entertaining experience at every single turn. The show subscribes to virtually every single trope fans could expect from a crime drama, delivering brutal violence, countless backroom deals, and a larger sense of grounded stakes. But under the guidance of showrunner Lauren LeFranc, it never gives itself an opportunity to be defined by those tropes, allowing space for a true sense of sincerity. This is abundantly apparent with Oz, whose unique earnestness is on display in his closest relationship, and whose dark aspirations are juxtaposed with awkward quirks and legitimately funny one-liners. It is also astronomically clear with Sofia, whose biting wit and impossibly tragic backstory create a perfect foil to Oz. (Without getting into spoilers, the chapter of The Penguin that dives into that backstory might just be one of the best television episodes of the year, if not in recent memory.) The heartfelt nature of The Penguin not only keeps the series' story moving, but it proves to be a perfect complement to the larger-than-life vigilantism viewers saw in The Batman. Granted, some fans might grow disappointed by how scattered the moments of high-octane action are, but The Penguin's weekly release model should allow space for countless sequences (both big and small) to get the weight that they deserve.

Farrell's unrecognizable performance as Oz remains as transformative and quirky as it was in The Batman, while evolving into so much more than the countless internet memes and confused social media posts might have suggested the first time around. The series is a character study for Oz in every single sense of the word, building him into a multifaceted, sympathetic protagonist that audiences want to root for, even at his absolute worst. On its own, Farrell's performance would be enough to singlehandedly carry a show of this venture, which makes it all the more outstanding that The Penguin boasts an equally revelatory performance from Milioti. The actress steals every single scene she is in, as we watch Sofia fall in and out of Oz's circle and spiral towards her own path of being a criminal mastermind. It's not only a portrayal fully worthy of Sofia's bizarre and dark DC history, but easily a career-defining performance from Milioti, whose decades of work on the screen and the stage has been criminally overlooked. Outside of the two leads, The Penguin is still filled with compelling performances, with Feliz's sweet and overwhelmed take on Victor and Clancy Brown's excellent take on mob boss Salvatore Maroni being definite highlights.

On an aesthetic level, The Penguin carries the torch of The Batman without ever overdoing certain elements. The team behind Farrell's prosthetic makeup deserves every award imaginable, delivering a practical alchemy that helps cement Oz as his own unique, scarred entity. The series' New York sets seamlessly emulate the franchise's Gotham amalgam of London and Chicago, with subtle expansions in new neighborhoods and set pieces. Cinematographer Darran Tiernan also carries over the gritty dimension of The Batman, while weaving in the occasional vibrant colors that would have seemed out of place in the series' predecessor. Composer Mick Giacchino, the son of The Batman composer Michael Giacchino, creates a sonic identity that stands on its own without ever feeling too out of place, when juxtaposed with the previous score or with the series' slew of needle drops (including the best use of Dolly Parton in recent pop culture memory).

Across its eight episodes, The Penguin redefines what verisimilitude can mean in the world of comic book adaptations. The grittiness, violence, and double-crossing that fans would expect from the title are abundantly present, but balanced with a truly heartfelt take on loss, rebirth, and personal agency. The series is not only one of the better crime dramas in recent memory, it is one of the best examples of how to branch out decades of beloved lore.The Penguin is simply a show about people trying to thrive in a world much bigger and weirder than they can even comprehend -- a subject that would be universal nonetheless, but transforms into something special with its engrossing performances.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The Penguin will premiere on Max on Thursday, September 19th, followed by an HBO premiere on Sunday, September 22nd, with new episodes debuting on both HBO and Max beginning on September 29th.

The Batman Universe continues this week with the release of The Penguin, and there are multiple ways that fans can watch it! Starring Colin Farrell as Oswald "Oz" Cobb (reprising his role from The Batman movie), The Penguin takes place weeks after the ending of the film: Gotham City has been rocked by The Riddler's terrorist attack, with much of the city underwater. Gotham's underworld is similarly drowning in the aftermath of Riddler's campaign: mob kingpin Carmine Falcone is dead, and Oz is already seeing the streets looking to him, "The Penguin," to fill the void.

Of course, Carmine's children Sofia (Cristin Milioti) and Alberto (Michael Zegen) Falcone are next in line to inherit the throne - as well as the rival Maroni crime family and a dozen other gangsters, all weighing their chances.

When Does The Penguin TV Series Premiere?

Warners Bros. and DC are giving The Penguin a two-part premiere event. The Penguin Episode 1 will first premiere on Max streaming on Thursday, September 19th at 9pm ET on HBO, and will make it available to stream on Max as well.

After that initial premiere, The Penguin will be re-aired on Sunday, September 22nd in the traditional HBO Sunday primetime slot of 9pm ET. HBO has also said the premiere will air "multiple times" over the weekend between Thursday and Sunday, so check your schedules.

How to Watch The Penguin

There are only two ways to watch The Penguin: One is through premium cable television, the other is via streaming. Here are your options:

1. Have a subscription to HBO through your TV provider.
2. Have a Max subscription (or Max add-on to your Hulu subscription).

The Penguin: New Episodes Release Schedule & How to Watch

If you like the premiere episode of The Penguin, here's the release schedule for the rest of the season. New episodes will air on HBO and be released to stream on Max at the same time.

• Sunday, Sept. 29th: Episode 2
• Sunday, Oct. 6th: Episode 3
• Sunday, Oct. 13th: Episode 4
• Sunday, Oct. 20th: Episode 5
• Sunday, Oct. 27th: Episode 6
• Sunday, Nov. 3rd: Episode 7
• Sunday, Nov. 10th: Episode 8 (Finale)

The Penguin Cast & Characters Explained

The Penguin stars Colin Farrell as Oswald "Oz" Cobb/Penguin, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, Michael Kelly as Johnny Viti, Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni, Deirdre O'Connell as Francis Cobb, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, James Madio as Milos Grapa, Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone, Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone, Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo and Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush.

The premiere episode was written by Craig Zobel (The Hunt, American Gods) and director by Lauren LeFranc, who also serves as creator and showrunner of the series.

It's been four years since Arrow ended after eight seasons on The CW, and while series star Stephen Amell has since gone on to other projects, including the wrestling drama Heels and the upcoming Suits L.A., his role as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow remains a big part of what fans associate him with. It also means that Amell gets asked about Arrow pretty regularly including during a recent appearance on Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast (via CBR) where he spoke about being open to revisiting a 'hard R' version of Arrow but also revealed something else. According to Amell, there at one point was discussion about an Arrow movie, but that Warner Bros. killed the idea.

"I mean, I joked about it," Amell said about the idea of an Arrow revival. "Because I think that it would be wonderful one of these days to go back and do something that was in a medium where I could break bones and drop an F-bomb and just sort of go the 'hard r' [rating] version of Arrow."

He went on to say that that sort of version would be fun and that they tried to do it, before elaborating that there was a movie idea that just didn't make it past the studio.

"To my understanding, it just got killed at the studio level from people that, I think, were making decisions... that were fear-based," Amell said.

It's not exactly clear at what point in Arrow's run the idea of a movie came up or if it was something that was suggested as the series was nearing or at its end, but there is no denying that Arrow was a major moment when it comes to live action DC entertainment, particularly in terms of television. The series was popular with critics and audiences right out of the gate and went on to make way for what would become known as the Arrowverse -- The CW's franchise of interconnected series based on DC Comics. That universe ultimately included The Flash, Supergirl, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, and Batwoman and, while not technically part of the Arrowverse, Superman & Lois, which will end its run with its upcoming fourth season marking the last remaining DC series on The CW to conclude.

However, while Arrow did have a major impact on DC's television entertainment, that doesn't mean that Amell doesn't have some issues with other pockets of the larger DC universe. During the first season of Peacemaker, there was a joke made at Green Arrow's expense in which Peacemaker says that Green Arrow "goes to Brony conventions dressed as the back half of Twilight Sparkle." Amell recently said that he "didn't f-cking appreciate" the jab and that he feels it was directed at Arrow. The series and larger Arrowverse at various times experienced issues with Warner Bros., particularly when it came to the use of different characters which might also be earmarked for use in feature film.

"That was a little unnecessary," Amell told Chris Van Vliet on YouTube. "I didn't f---ing appreciate that at all.... Okay. I am just going to come right out and say this. There was just such...between the movies and Peacemaker a little bit, our show was kind of treated like s--t. I get it, we're on The CW, I get it, it's TV. But I also get the fact that when people think about the most recent iteration of DC, they don't think about the Snyder Cut - they think about the Arrowverse. We got crapped on for years, and years, and years, and this just seemed excessive. I'm not actually mad, but I just remember hearing that and just being like, 'F--k those guys,' like seriously. I'm up here. I'm working just as hard as anyone else. Do you know how hard it is to play a superhero with no superpowers for 23 episodes a year? It's really, really, really hard, and I'm not looking for a prize, but, like, maybe don't s--t on our show."

All 8 seasons of Arrow are streaming on Netflix.