SUICIDE SQUAD Casts Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn

You've waited a long time for this, comics fans, but Harley Quinn is finally making it to the big screen.

Collider reports that the upcoming DC Comics shared universe film Suicide Squad has cast Margot Robbie in the role of Squad member Harley Quinn. 

The news follows after several casting rumors, including that Jesse Eisenberg will reprise his role of Lex Luthor, Jared Leto circling the role of The Joker, and that Will Smith, Tom Hardy, Jon Bernthal and Cara Delevingne are in talks for unrevealed roles.  The film will be directed by David Ayer.

The 24-year-old Australian actress is best known as Naomi Lapaglia in the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street and as Laura Cameron on the short-lived ABC television series Pan Am.  She's also appeared in the British soap opera Neighbours and is slated to appear in the 2016 film adaptation of Tarzan as Jane Porter.

Created in 1992 by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, Harley Quinn first appeared in the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Joker's Favor," voiced by Arleen Sorkin.  Initially intended as a female sidekick for The Joker, Harley quickly became popular with fans and the character was developed further.  In the 1994 DC Comics graphic novel The Batman Adventures: Mad Love, Quinn received her origin story, revealing her as Dr. Harleen Quinzel, a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum who fell in love with the Joker and turned to a life of crime in order to be with him.

The character's first comic book appearance was in 1993's The Batman Adventures #12, but Harley's growing popularity encouraged DC Comics to bring her into official Batman canon starting with Batman (vol.1) #570 in 1999.  She soon received her first ongoing series in 2001 that ran for 38 issues and was made a member of the Suicide Squad starting with 2011's Suicide Squad (vol.3) #1.  Harley received her second ongoing series in 2013, which still continues to be a Top Ten book in terms of sales.

Robbie will be the second actress to portray the character significantly in live action, after Mia Sara in the short-lived WB television series Birds of Prey (Sara replaced Twin Peaks' Sherilyn Fenn in the unaired pilot for the series).  Harley appeared in a very brief cameo on the CW series Arrow during the Season 2 episode "Suicide Squad," credited as "Deranged Squad Female" and portrayed physically by Cassidy Alexa and voiced by Tara Strong, who also previous voiced the character for several Batman videogames.

Suicide Squad is scheduled to arrive in theaters on August 5, 2016.

DAMN Good Comics -- GRAYSON #4

After all this time fighting the worst supervillains imaginable as the first Robin and as Nightwing, Dick Grayson faces his greatest challenge yet -- horny college girls.

Three issues and a Futures End special into Grayson's new role as an agent of the espionage organization Spyral, we finally get a reminder of what used to be so great about the pre-New 52 Nightwing -- his sense of fun.  Writers Tim Seeley and Tom King, along with artist Mikel Janin, take a brief departure from the series' more serious tone, without making things feel so wacky and silly that you wonder if you're reading an issue of Harley Quinn or Deadpool instead.

In "The Raid," Seeley and King starts things off with an interesting mission involving Checkmate, another DC Universe espionage organization, only to go through the entire thing in only three pages.  We abruptly shift focus to Helena Bertinelli's young proteges at St. Hadrian's Finishing School, who have obtained pictures of a certain shirtless ex-Boy Wonder, reinforcing the commonly held belief among straight female and gay male fans that adult Dick Grayson is one of the hottest comics characters ever.  So what do these aroused young women do after drooling over these photos?  They decide to go on a "man-ty raid," of course.

And just before you wonder if the series is completely breaking format, the ongoing mysterious mystery of Spyral head Mr. Minos continues as Grayson uses a sucker, of all things, to obtain skin samples of Minos off the ground for Batman to analyze.  We learn how creepy, paranoid and meticulous Minos is with the revelation that he uses microscopic nanite machines to eat his skin flakes and any pieces of hair that shed in order to protect his identity.  Meanwhile, Minos has Helena investigate transmissions sent to someone else by Agent 8 in the previous issue, but she ends up finding Grayson's communications tech to Batman in his alarm clock.

As for the art, Mikel Janin provides outstanding work as always, showcasing Grayson's physique along with his impressive acrobatic skills as part of the girls' chase across St. Hadrian's campus.  And best of all, we finally get a proper overhead shot of St. Hadrian's, complete with some building descriptions so that the setting feels like an actual place in this current DC Universe.  Janin is particularly adept at facial expressions, including the girls' hot-and-bothered reactions to the photos and Grayson's reaction to his new cover identity as "a French former Olympic gymnast.  And whose face is so indistinct as to be unmemorable.  And who is gay."

If you're one of those people who wasn't up for Dick Grayson having a completely new status quo and miss the days when the character was fun and charming as Nightwing, do yourselves a favor a give this issue a try.  Grayson has been a stellar series so far, quickly becoming one of DC's best books at the moment, and deserves as much attention from fans as it can get.

NEXT STOP EVERYWHERE Episode 011: "Dark Water" is Up!

"Do you think that I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?"

My good friend Jesse Jackson and I are back with another episode of Next Stop Everywhere: The Doctor Who Podcast!

This time out, we give our thoughts on "Dark Water," the first installment of the two-part season finale for Doctor Who Series Eight, including things oddly quiet fatal auto accidents, using a time-traveler to cheat death, Missy's official welcome to the Doctor, Samsung competing with Apple for tablets in the afterlife, The Matrix from Doctor Who vs. The Matrix, nods to classic Patrick Troughton era Cybermen stories, anti-cremation propaganda, our Reverse the Polarity segment, teasing our plans for what we're doing after Series Eight ends, my adventures at Ohio Comic Con 2014, and more!

And for those who still aren't aware of this yet, we're available on iTunes RIGHT HERE as well as Stitcher RIGHT HERE, so please subscribe and tell your friends about us. If you're looking for direct MP3 downloads, you can find them RIGHT HERE as well. Oh, and don't forget we have an officially official Next Stop Everywhere Facebook page and Twitter account, so be sure to Like and/or Follow us, okay?

Have fun watching the Series Eight finale "Death in Heaven" on BBC America this Saturday, then keep checking iTunes, Stitcher and the Southgate Media Group website for our next Doctor Who review!

DANGEROUS HABITS Episode 002: "The Darkness Beneath" is Up!

"I was thinking up a spell in my head."

My friend/co-host Karen Lindsay and I are back once again with the next episode of Dangerous Habits: The Constantine Podcast!

We give our thoughts on "The Darkness Beneath," the second episode from Constantine Season One, including things like the spiffy new opening credits, how John Constantine obtains an income, why showers are spooky, the introduction of Angelica Celaya as Zed Martin, Constantine's Batman moves, Constantine as Peter Falk's Columbo, Matt Ryan without a shirt, Klingon magic rituals, Hellblazer cover artist references, and more!

You can check out the episode HERE and for those of you who use iTunes, we're already available HERE, so please subscribe and rate us!  In addition, we have our Dangerous Habits show page on Facebook, which you can check out HERE. And we're also on Twitter using the account @DangerousHabit5 because some bloody arse already claimed @DangerousHabits.

Be sure to share these with all of your friends, enemies, demons, angels, sorcerers, ghosts, whomever, and help build our new podcast into something special. Oh, and send us your thoughts about the show or the podcast via Twitter and Facebook. As soon as we get some, we'll be reading them on the podcast.

Have fun watching "The Devil's Vinyl" on NBC this Friday, then keep checking iTunes, Libsyn and the Southgate Media Group website for our next Constantine review!

Ohio Comic Con 2014: Day Three Photos

The last day of Wizard World Ohio Comic Con 2014.  Of course, the Columbus weather was a bit better with clear, sunny skies to offset the forty-degree temperatures.  As usual, Sunday was much quieter than the day before, as always, but still buzzing with plenty of activity and last-minute bargain shopping.

And yes, there was still cosplay everywhere you looked. Here's the final batch of photos from Day Three...

King Joffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones is probably thinking of kicking a puppy down a staircase or something.

The Arrow versions of Deathstroke and Black Canary

Manu Bennett from Arrow and Spartacus is showing his fans how manly he looks with a scarf over a t-shirt one size too small.

The Sixth Master and the Tenth Doctor take time out from their battles across time and space to share their mutual love for cute stuffed animals.

Iron Man in Hulkbuster Armor from Avengers: Age of Ultron is praying that he doesn't need to use the bathroom.

If you'd like to see more pics from Ohio Comic Con, I've updated my photo album on my Facebook page HERE.  See you again in 2015!

 



Ohio Comic Con 2014: Day Two Photos

Wizard World Ohio Comic Con 2014 had its biggest day today at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, with Norman Reedus, Steven Yuen, Sean Astin, Nicholas Brendon, Emma Caulfield, and others signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans.

With the heavy Saturday attendance, I wasn't able to do as much shopping, but I picked up a few bargain comics, attended the Team Con-Doc Doctor Who panel, and of course, got a lot of great cosplay photos.

Here's some of my photos from Day Two...

Nicholas Brendon from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Criminal Minds is probably telling someone all about his recent mug shot

Henchmen 21 and 24 from The Venture Bros.

Bombshell Harley Quinn, complete with the design on the back of her bomber jacket

Out of fifty Deadpools during Saturday, this was the only one who had any game whatsoever

My favorite costume from Day Two -- Ambush Bug!

If you'd like to see more pics from Ohio Comic Con, I've updated my photo album on my Facebook page HERE.  On to Day Three!

Ohio Comic Con 2014: Day One Photos

A very chilly but very productive first day at the Wizard World Ohio Comic Con 2014 inside the Greater Columbus Convention Center.  There were plenty of great bargains to be found in comics bins and a decent sized crowd for what was essentially half a convention day.  On a personal level, I scored a great Silver Age Flash issue featuring Captain Cold, a nice War Doctor from Doctor Who shirt, and a bunch of Bronze Age comics to fill some gaps in my collection.

And yes, I managed to get some photos from inside the convention...Enjoy!

Wolverine, Buddy Christ and a Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Yeah, like you saw this coming...

Jor-El, Lara and Kal-El In Utero hit the ATM before Krypton explodes

John Diggle as The Arrow

Gamora and Groot take Rocket Raccoon for a stroll

Love and Capes creator Thom Zahler, who designed the wonderful logo for Next Stop Everywhere: The Doctor Who Podcast!

If you'd like to see more pics from Ohio Comic Con, I've set up an album on my Facebook page HERE.  On to Day Two!