[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Directed by: Cecilia Aranovich & Jennifer Coyle

Written by: Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker & Dean Lorey

Starring: Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Alan Tudyk, James Adomian, and others

Reviewed by: Ryan Rodrigues

Summary

To celebrate their first ever Valentine’s Day, Harley Quinn strives to plan the greatest, most romantic night ever for herself and Poison Ivy.  Heroes and villains of Gotham City and beyond also take part in the celebration of love, the aims to achieve the most gushiest, mushiest and most romantic day of the year, in the new Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special.

Positives

If you’re a fan of the hit TV Series, which has now completed its third season, then you’ll enjoy this “Special”, which has a sense of logical flow from the events of the latest season. It is quite possibly one of the most vulgar and outrageous story-lines to ever come from DC animations. As per the title, it follows mainly Harley Quinn (Kaley Cuoco) and Poison Ivy (Lake Bell) on their Valentine’s date, where utter chaos and extreme humour follow suite. If you’re not familiar with the TV series, Harley and her band of friends often make many fourth wall breaks, and this is no different. I’ve tried best to avoid any major plot spoilers.

Though, if I did want to break it up, the 44-minute episode features three main groups, Harley & Ivy, Clayface, and Bane. Clayface’s (Alan Tudyk) story follows him preparing for a date with a new match from a dating app (even against Ivy’s remarks that it might be a catfish), and Bane (James Adomian) who randomly happens to stumble across a date whilst being in the city alone.

The craziness of the adventure begins when Harley purchases a spell from Etrigan the Demon to impress Ivy in the bedroom. The unfortunate side effects of the spell are realized when Ivy releases her pheromones into the Gotham skyline. This causes the people and animals of the city to not hold back their inhibitions (to put terms politely). Meanwhile, Clayface is on a journey of self-discovery and self-love. Bane is faced with a self conscious issue and visits Etrigan to get some help with a certain something being disproportionate with the size of his body. Unfortunately for Bane, this has hilarious side effects when mixed with Ivy’s pheromones.

Valentine’s Day Highlights

A personal highlight throughout the episode was the various super couples giving testimonials about their romances: Superman and Lois Lane, Hawkman and Hawkgirl, Killer Croc and Enchantress, Aquaman and Mera, Darkseid and Kimberly Guilfoyle (random, but also funny).

If you’re a big Brett Goldstein fan, he has quite the important part to play in the overall plot.

Negatives

No real negatives for this animated special, other than it being pretty much the length of a double episode, so it is much shorter than many other DC animated films. The themes and tone of the special, in particular, are very mature, and definitely wouldn’t be recommended to younger audiences.

Verdict

The story is a great and I enjoyed the small jokes within the Valentine’s Day themes of love and romance. Bane’s predicament is utterly hilarious and tied in nicely with the larger story about Harley trying to impress Ivy. The plot holds nothing back and features strong adult themes and references. However, this stays true to the genre and the audience that the series has focused on within the first three seasons. It’s lots of fun and worth the watch for any fans of the series.

Score: 4/5

The post Review: Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special (2023) appeared first on DC Comics News.

Batman emerges from exile as a new threat looms over Gotham. Born in darkness and self-appointed as a “liberator of pain,” Bane is a dangerous adversary who will challenge Batman — both physically and mentally.

Inspired by The Dark Knight Trilogy, the Bane 1/6 Scale Collectible Figure has a new hand-painted head sculpt, featuring an expertly crafted likeness of Tom Hardy as Bane with a fully sculpted mask. The figure also utilizes Hot Toys’ innovative rolling eyeball technology, giving collectors the ability to adjust the figure’s gaze when posing it for display. His costume is faithfully recreated and includes a tailored coat and jacket over a combat vest.

The beautifully tailored jacket provides the option to recreate his look from the original movie poster, while over 20 points of articulation and seamless elbows allow for a variety of poses. The Bane 1/6 Scale Collectible Figure also comes with Batman’s shattered cowl and an underground sewer diorama base to recreate iconic scenes.

Take control of Gotham with the Bane 1/6 Scale Collectible Figure by Hot Toys. Available to pre-order from Sideshow.

The post Bane Breaks The Bat In New Hot Toys Figure appeared first on DC Comics News.

The performer, whose credits include The Manchurian Candidate and Ocean’s Eleven amongst 140 roles, died of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital on September 14, 2022.

Henry’s Journey Through Stage and Screen

The New York native, born on September 23, 1926, dropped out of school to begin drama classes at the age of 13. In 1950, he appeared on TV shows Lights Out and Armstrong Circle Theatre. Then, in 1953, he made his Broadway debut in Tennessee Williams’s Camino Real.

He was a television and movie presence throughout the 50s. Notable credits include Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Mafia, The Naked Kiss, The Hills Run Red, as well as television shows Mission: Impossible, I Spy, and The Danny Thomas Hour. He was also known for playing the title character in Johnny Cool.

Henry then opened the 60s with a role in the original Ocean’s Eleven alongside Frank Sinatra and The Rat Pack. The three decades that followed saw his career populated with projects such as The Italian Connection, The Outer Limits, Tough Cop, Buck Rogers in The 25th Century, Contract on Cherry Street, Cannonball Run II, Above The Law, and Dick Tracy. His final onscreen appearance was a cameo in the 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven starring George Clooney as Sinatra’s successor to the role of Danny Ocean.

Playing a villain in the Warren Beatty adaptation of Dick Tracy is not the only notable antagonist in his repertoire, however. He was also a welcome member to the DCAU family. He provided the voice of Bane in the season opener of The Adventures of Batman And Robin, the continuation of Batman: The Animated Series which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

He would reprise the role twice in 1996’s The New Batman Adventures in the shocking episode “Over The Edge,” and his third final time in the role was in the second season of Superman: The Animated Series in the episode “Knight Time.” He would later be succeeded by Hector Elizondo in 2003’s DTV feature, Batman: Mystery Of The Batwoman.

Silva is survived by his partner Wendy Christenfield, and his two sons Michael and Scott Silva.

Official Source – Henry Silva, Johnny Cool and Batman: The Animated Series Actor, Dies at 95 (comicbook.com)

The post Henry Silva, “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Batman TAS” Actor Dead at 95 appeared first on DC Comics News.

The latest trailer that dropped for the third season of the HBO hit animated series starring Kaley Cuoco revealed to fans what to expect. Picking up from where the second season left off, Harley and Ivy are officially a couple after a shaky start. And shaky is putting it mildly in the world of the former Dr. Harleen Quinzell. From she and Ivy sleeping together twice when Ivy was engaged to Kite-Man, to Commissioner Gordon ambushing the wedding of Ivy to Kite-Man to take back a villain-controlled Gotham, the road to Ivy and Quinn getting on the same page had been as topsy-turvy as the inmates in Arkham Asylum. Now, three weeks after they officially got together, these ladies are bringing the band back together for Ivy’s ecoterrorist plot. The trailer also reveals the debut of Nightwing to the show, as well as a possible antihero turn for Harley that contradicts her girlfriend’s agenda. There is even a callback to “A Death in The Family” when the Joker’s thrown in the trailer.

Click below to view the latest trailer.

http://https://youtu.be/LFZhq7y_hfg

Besides Cuoco in the title role, returning are Lake Bell as Poison Ivy, Alan Tudyk as The Joker/Clayface/Calender Man/Condiment King/Doctor Trap, Jason Alexander as Sy Borgman, Tony Hale as Doctor Psycho/Felix Faust, Ron Fuches as King Shark, J.B. Smoove as Frank The Plant, James Adomian as Bane, Diedrich Bader as Batman, Christopher Meloni as Commissioner Gordon, and Briana Cuoco as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl. New to the cast this year is Harvey Guillen offering his voicework to Dick Grayson/Nightwing.

Catch the third season of Harley Quinn when it debuts July 28th on HBO.

Official Source – Harley Quinn season 3 trailer shows Harley and Ivy have a plan (batman-news.com)

The post Harley And Ivy Have Big Plans For Gotham in Season 3 Trailer! appeared first on DC Comics News.

The wrestler-turned actor has vehemently approached Warners Media to portray one of The Dark Knight’s most formidable foes: Bane. No stranger to heel turns from his years with the WWE, Bautista is popularly known as the Marvel superhero Drax The Destroyer in The Guardians of The Galaxy  films for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Guardians director James Gunn is already involved with the DCEU directing The Suicide Squad.

Dave Bautista – Why Is He After Bane, and Who Else Has Played Him Onscreen?

A longtime fan of the character, Dave strongly believes that he’s the only actor who can portray Bane in a way that is faithful to the source material. “I’ve made no secret about this. [I] want to play Bane so bad I went to Warner Bros. [, walked in] the door and said ‘I want to play Bane.’ I’m not kidding. They were a little like ‘Whoa, we’re not even casting Bane.’ I was like ‘I don’t care. I’m playing him.”

Created in the 90s by the late Denny O’Neill and Chuck Dixon, Bane rose to prominence in the Knightfall storyline. To an opponent like Batman, Bane was a dark reflection.  Bane was a self-educated man who was born and raised in a South American prison, serving his father’s sentence. He then gained the physical edge through an experimental, addictive steroid called Venom. A criminal mastermind and powerhouse, Bane escaped with fellow inmates into mercenary life. With his forces, he set his sights on Gotham City to specifically destroy Batman. Bane not only deduced Batman’s secret identity, but exhausted him through a mass-breakout at Arkham Asylum he had orchestrated. Bane broke into Wayne Manor and broke Batman’s spine on the floors of the Batcave. Bruce Wayne would recover, but Bane had left his mark on both the Batman legacy and the fans. As Alfred had said, Bane was the first opponent Bruce had faced and squarely lost.

If Bautista gets the role, he will be the fourth actor to portray the villain. Although he has had countless appearances across multiple platforms, Bane has had only two live-action performances on the big screen. Former wrestler Jeep Swenson portrayed Bane in the much-panned Batman and Robin in 1996.  Although he had the physical attributes, that version of Bane was near-mindless and just the muscle for Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy, both transformed by Venom differently. Swenson would later die of a heart attack due to the steroids he used to get in shape for the role. A more grounded approach to the character was played by Tom Hardy in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises in 2011. Like in “Knightfall”, Bane and his terrorist forces descended upon Gotham and crippled Batman, but the plot deviated heavily from the source material to conform to Nolan’s vision for this version of Batman. The character’s backstory excluded Venom as the reason for his strength and resilience. Rather, his high-tech mask dulled excruciating pain from a previous attack years prior. He had been also trained by Bruce Wayne’s mentor, Ra’s Al Ghul, and had been excommunicated from the League of Shadows. However, again, Bane was revealed to not be the true mastermind of Gotham’s destruction, but a lieutenant for Talia al Ghul. Hardy trained rigorously to gain a circus strongman’s physique as opposed to a full bodybuilder. Shane West then appeared as Bane for the Fox Batman prequel TV series, Gotham. Again the character was revamped to fit that reality as James Gordon’s former fellow soldier gone rogue Eduardo Dorrance. Through the course of his brief arc, Eduardo is mortally wounded and given both the mask and Venom to survive and be reborn as Bane. As a nod to Bruce’s inevitable fate, Bane would go on to cripple Alfred instead. For this role, however, West was fitted with a special oversized suit and not required to physically train for the role.

Before Warners Media even considers a project both involving Dave and the character of Bane, Bautista has a lot on his plate. Not only is he returning as Drax in Thor: Love and Thunder, but he’s also in the upcoming Zack Snyder film Army of The Dead debuting May 21 on Netflix.

More as it develops.

Original Source: Dave Bautista Pitched Warner Bros. to Let Him Play Bane (screencrush.com)

The post Dave Bautista Jumps Marvel For DC Wanting To Play Bane! appeared first on DC Comics News.

As DC fans, we all know the costume designer-turned-director as the man who directed two horrible 90s Batman films: Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Yes, he was the man responsible for the Bat-nipples but tried to amp-up the visuals of the film for a more comic-feel. Years later he admitted he made a mistake in his directorial choices after listening to WB execs who wanted the last two films to be geared more toward children.

“I want to apologize to every fan that was disappointed because I think I owe them that,” he said in a 2017 interview with Vice.

“A lot of it was my choice. No one is responsible for my mistakes but me. I think one curveball we got was at the eleventh hour; Val Kilmer quit due to a role he got in The Island of Dr. Moreau. There had been talks about it, but none of us were involved, not with Warner Bros. and certainly not with me. I talked to Val, and all he kept saying was, ‘But man, it’s Marlon Brando.’ It’s not like he was on a hook and chain here, so Val went. So it was [then-Warners co-CEO] Bob Daly’s idea to acquire George Clooney. He was an obvious choice because he was a rising star on ER. I had a talk with him and he was like, ‘All right, if you do it, I’ll do it.’

“Then we had a desire to bring in Batgirl [played by Alicia Silverstone] to maybe get younger girls into the franchise. I mean, I had a long history of fighting for unknowns, for fighting for a little extra budget when we needed it, so nobody never, ever forced me to make a decision I didn’t approve of.”

Schumacher was born in Queens, New York on August 29th, 1939. His parents both passed away when he was young.

“By the time I was 7, I was really out on the streets,” he said in a 1999 interview with Venice magazine. “I’ve really done everything wrong that a human being can possibly do, except murder someone, thank God. Fast lane, drugs, you know. I’m a survivor of the ’60s who stayed way too long at the party.”

He has been sober since 1992. His first costume design gig was for the Tuesday Weld film Play It as It Lays in 1972. He made his directorial debut on an NBC telefilm titled Virginia Hill starring Dyan Cannon. Following the Bat-disaster, He went on to make 8MM and Flawless. His last known directing experience was in 2013 for two episodes of House of Cards.

We will miss you Mr. Schmacher. May you rest in peace with the Bat-family in the sky.

The post Batman Director Joel Schumacher Dies at 80 appeared first on DC Comics News.

Hathway recently told BBC Radio 1 that she assumed she was auditioning not for Catwoman, but for the Clown Princess of crime Harley Quinn. Does this mean we were going to get an entirely different film? Was she even in contention? After Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar-winning performance in The Dark Knight as The Joker, there were rumors abound that somehow the character was going to make his return in the third film. Even after Ledger’s death, there was still talk of a Joker cameo. It would make sense that Harley appears to avenge the death of her Mistah J, but we all know an entirely different film came to fruition.

“I came in and I had this lovely Vivienne Westwood kind of beautiful-but-mad tailoring top with stripes going everywhere. And I wore these flat Joker-ey looking shoes. And I was trying to give Chris [Nolan] these crazy little smiles,” Hathaway explained. “About an hour into the meeting he said ‘Well, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you this, but it’s Catwoman.’ And I was shifting into a different gear. ‘Now ok, we’re slinky. We’re slinky. And I hate my shirt. I love my shirt, but I hate it right now. We’re slinky.'”

Hathaway’s reign as the jewel thief was short-lived with only one film since it marked the end of Nolan’s run. Currently, Zoe Kravitz is gearing up to portray Selina Kyle in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. It seems Hathaway was four years too early to play the iconic girlfriend of The Joker.

What do you think? Was it obvious the role was for Catwoman? Was there any indication the audition could have been for Harley? Let us know in the comment below and on social media!

The post Anne Hathaway Thought She Was Auditioning for a Different Role in “Dark Knight Rises” appeared first on DC Comics News.

The programming for the series is as follows:

• May 3rd: Episodes 1-4
• May 10th: Episodes 5-7
• May 17th: Episodes 8-10
• May 24th: Episodes 11-13 at 12 a.m

The series was quickly renewed for a second season after its premiere and season three may be in the works. WarnerMedia’s expansion with HBO Max has made the future for a number of shows hang in the balance.

“We’re in a position now where DC Universe is trying to figure out what it wants to do with the show,” writer Justin Halpern previously shared with ComicBook.com. “There’s been rumblings about expanding now that WarnerMedia has several arms. We’re exploring opportunities for other outlets but nothing’s confirmed.But as part of the, ‘Hey, look at us. We’re this little show that’s doing pretty well,'” the writer adds. “We have sent a one-page … not even a synopsis, but more of a setup for what could be Season Three. And so, we have thought about it but that’s not to say that it could change entirely once we get a writer’s room going, if we are lucky enough to get a third season pickup. It’s all to be determined.”

HBO Max is set to debut a live-action Green Lantern series and Harley may end up on that platform as well.

What do you think of the change? Let us know in the comments below!

Breaking up is hard to do – just ask Harley! The DC fan-favorite has finally left her ex-boyfriend, the Joker, and is trying her damndest to join the Legion of Doom with the help – or hindrance – of a whole cast of not-so super villains from all corners of Gotham City.

The post Harley Quinn Series Heads Off Of DC Streaming Service appeared first on DC Comics News.

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Director: Vinton Heuck

Writer: Adam Stein

Starring: Kaley Cuoco, Lake Bell, Alan Tudyk, Ron Funches, Tony Hale, Jason Alexander

Reviewed By: Danny Saab

Summary

In the aftermath of Gotham’s destruction at the finale of season 1, Harley and her gang find themselves enjoying the chaos and destruction that is New Gotham.

Positives

It was absolutely incredible that the WB was able to crank out season 2 of Harley Quinn so soon after the first season ended. Given the global situation right now, or perhaps the creators took a page from “Batmans: No Man’s Land” story arc, New Gotham certainly was a natural transition from season one.

This episode was definitely all about the villains. No Batman, no GCPD, and villains like Two-Face and the Penguin are vying to take over. Of course, that doesn’t sit well with Harley. In classic Harley form, she comes up with the idea that if these super villains don’t have goons to back them up, then New Gotham will remain the apocalyptic wasteland that she enjoys. Seeing the goons turn on their leaders and double-crossing them was incredibly fun to watch.

James Gordon was his typical “desperate for confirmation” acholic self in New Gotham. He did his best in keeping positive, trying to rally the GCPD to stop the violence. At the end though, even his wife couldn’t be with him anymore. You really have to feel for his character, but watching him try and not let the misery get to him was a staple of season 1, and am so glad it continued into season 2. The addition of Robin as a miniature form of Batman was also great. Hopefully will get to see more of the Bat family in this season.

The introduction of the Injustice League was fantastic. In New Gotham where the super villains played an important role, it was fun to see the banter between all of them. The writing staff should be commended on taking a monster like Bane and making him so entertaining to watch. He could easily have his own series.

After what the writers did to Poison Ivy at the end of last season, it was clear that they had no issues killing off main characters. That was pretty evident with the surprising ending of New Gotham. Shocking for sure, but definitely makes the show much more unpredictable.

Negatives

Maybe it’s just me, but I really missed Kite-Man in this episode. His interaction with the A list villains would have been great. I’ve really enjoyed his character in this series, and would have been great to see what happened with him in New Gotham.

Verdict

New Gotham was an entertaining and a fun start to season 2. It was a strong direction to where this season is going, and looks to be even crazier then the first season.

The post Review: Harley Quinn 2×01 – “New Gotham” appeared first on DC Comics News.

The post Rare Dark Knight Screen Test Video Released appeared first on DC Comics News.