#mike helbing

[victusinveritas]

Replica dog tags of every soldier who never made it back from Vietnam.

Above and Beyond, a hanging art installation by Ned Broderick, Rick Steinbock, Joe Fornelli, and Mike Helbing, made from 58,000 dog tags. Located in Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago, IL

[dream2bu]

Above and Beyond comprises 58,307 dog tags. Each dog tag represents a person in the Vietnam War and is arranged in date order of death. And, each dog tag shows their name, casualty date, and military branch.

Above and Beyond was commissioned by the National Veterans Art Museum and created by artist Rick Steinbock, and veteran artists Ned Broderick, Joe Fornelli and Mike Helbing. It was originally installed at 1801 S. Indiana Ave. on May 26, 2001 to coincide with Chicago’s Memorial Day parade. Above and Beyond was created over a 2-year period as each dog tag was stamped by hand using a former military Graphotype machine.

Above and Beyond is the only memorial other than The Wall in Washington, D.C. to list all those killed in action during the Vietnam War. Additionally, it includes one black dog tag. This serves to remind us of those who died from conditions related to service during the Vietnam War.

Above and Beyond is part of the National Veterans Art Museum Collection, and is on extended exhibition at the Harold Washington Library Center--400 S. State St., Chicago, IL

[i8i8t]

[davidmann95]

What Are Your Dream Supermythos Projects?

* Put Fraction on that Webtoon thing for a Superman strip. He was talking about conversations with DC for post-Jimmy Olsen projects, this would need real talent behind it to not immediately die on the vine, and his formalist kick means he'd probably have the best chance of anybody in DC's rolodex at adapting to scripting for the vertical scrolling format.

* Have Yang and Reis continue their momentum with a The Life & Times Of The Son Of Superman miniseries. Someday somebody's gonna do 'here's Jon's whole journey in one book', they have the pedigree, and Yang's the best DC has in terms of who could nail the obvious central concept of Jon as a second-gen immigrant learning about his background, the forces he'll face in the world, and growing up to make different decisions from his dad about how to be a part of that world and how to help it.

* A proper Lois Lane ongoing, or at least her fronting a Daily Planet book.

* An anthology mini for Jon; I'm sure you could get plenty of creators interested in doing a few pages with their spin on Lois and Clark's kid across the assorted stages of his life.

* Okay so I just now started reading On A Sunbeam and yeah let Tillie Walden do literally whatever she wants with Superman if that would happen to be something she would care to do.

* An ongoing anthology for the Superman family ala Batman: Urban Legends.

* A Lois and Clark romance book from McKenna Jean Harris.

* Superman and Superboy meet All-Might and Midoriya.

* If Morrison is in fact consulting on the Superman books beyond doing the bare minimum to line up Authority, given PKJ is using the House of El already a big Superman Squad story based on the abandoned All-Star spinoff, since the ideas for the other two became Morrison's Action Comics and The Just.

* Once the current runs are done, give Action to Brandon Thomas and Son of Kal-El to Dan Watters.

* Sarah Leuver did some DC work so hey, give her a book to play with.

* Publish Superman & Lois: Ignition.

* I wouldn't have thought of Dan Schkade when thinking naturals for Superman, but after David Lynch's Superboy give him something stat.

* Someone somewhere do something interesting for once ever with Conner Kent.

* Give Maggin a Black Label book to do whatever he wants with.

* We're talking pure dream books, let Marguerite Bennett do a full Superman of Remnant spinoff mini or oneshot from RWBY/Justice League.

* An all-ages ongoing, good lord how long has it been

* Absolute Action Comics, with the assorted artists coming back to redraw the armor as the real suit.

* T-shirt Superman is out there wandering the multiverse, do a mini or oneshot or something with that guy.

* Mandatory 'whatever Doc Shaner, Al Ewing, Dan Mora, Jamal Campbell, Bilquis Evely, Christian Ward, Garth Ennis, Mike Huddleston, Tula Lotay, Chris Samnee, Jonathan Hickman, Fiona Staples, or Juan Ferrara would want to do with him'.

* In terms of pals nowhere near the big two I'd love to see get their shot anyway, Deniz Camp and Charlotte Finn.

* The heck with the AAA studios, do The Lego Superman Game.

* We're about to have Hoechlin, Jordan, Calle, Routh, Cavill, and whoever'll be in the Coates movie operating at around the same time, do a Superman Beyond movie.

* A big animated movie to go with Spider-Verse and Lego Batman. Maybe an anthology thing.

* Superman & Lois but moved to HBO Max and with Todd Helbing removed as showrunner. Really any prestigey ongoing Superman show, but I'd trade the prestige for keeping Hoechlin and Tulloch.

* An Adult Swim Jon Kent series aimed at older teens.

* Do the Tartakovsky short.

* More Superman novels! It's Superman! shouldn't have been a one-off in swinging for the fences there.

* Someone dig up/restore The Multipath Adventures of Superman.

[aion-rsa]

Superman & Lois Season 2: What to Expect When the Show Returns

https://ift.tt/3xZHqMm

This article contains Superman & Lois spoilers.

The first season of Superman & Lois has come to a close, and what an absolute joyride it was from start to finish. Are you left craving more? Do you need to spend more time in Smallville ASAP? Well, we’ve got good news for you, because Superman & Lois Season 2 has already been confirmed by The CW, and the first episode has already been written!

We spoke with showrunner Todd Helbing to try and get some details about what to expect from Superman & Lois Season 2.

Superman & Lois Season 2 Villains

Superman & Lois has already given us multiple Kryptonians for Superman to have super-powered brawls and trade heat vision blasts with. There’s always an instinct to just give Supes someone he can hit, but the first season managed to do that while also telling a pretty nuanced, even tragic, story for its central villain. But that just means it’s going to be a little trickier to follow up Tal-Rho with someone equally compelling.

“From the earliest days that Greg Berlanti and I talked about this show, the question was always, ‘okay, if we’re going to do this, how are we going to make it different?’” Helbing says. “And if you go through any of the movies, I think the natural tendency is, you have to have somebody as strong and powerful as Superman, or he would never lose. The story engine that we have though, and what’s really important is the family of it. So once you become a father, once Superman became a father, he has weaknesses that he never had before, his thoughts about Lois, about the boys. That family aspect makes him a weaker in a lot of ways, because he loves more. But it also makes him a better hero, because he has something to fight for.”

It doesn’t seem like Helbing thinks power levels are as important to building a Superman threat as others do.

“It doesn’t have to be somebody that can punch as hard as Superman,” Helbing says. “I think of the end of episode 14, when he came back and he had to tell his wife that he can’t find Jordan. There’s a look on Tyler’s face, like he doesn’t know what to do. Those are the situations we want to put Superman in. Because I think to all of us, writers, actors, producers, that’s the most important and what really works on our show.”

Lex Luthor?

And everybody knows that if there’s one villain who definitely can’t “punch as hard as Superman,” it’s Lex Luthor, who has been brought brilliantly to life on Supergirl over the last few seasons by Jon Cryer. But with Superman & Lois determined to forge its own path, it may be awhile before we get to see Lex show up in Smallville.

Read more

TV

Superman & Lois: Inside the Season’s Big Twists and that Finale Ending

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

Lex Luthor: Jerk Of All Trades

By Mike Cecchini

“Look, I think Jon was awesome as Lex, so I’m certainly open to anything,” Helbing says. “I think we’d have to find the right story where it would work. Lex Luthor is such an iconic character, so it might be a bit, you know what I mean? There are some other characters that we want to explore. If we’re going to make our own stamp here and try to carve out our own story in Superman history, let’s tell some fresh new versions of this.”

Will There Be More Flashback Episodes?

One of the highlights of the season was the flashback episode, which told us big pieces of Lois and Clark’s history together before the boys were born, and showed us Clark’s first adventures in Metropolis as Superman (in that cool Fleischer-inspired costume).

“We’re not going to make the show into Lost,” Helbing jokes. “We’ll certainly have flashbacks if it’s going to help tell the story and help the audience understand where a character is and where they came from so it really lands emotionally, then yeah, we’ll do it.”

Still, that doesn’t mean that a flashback episode is automatically baked into the plans for Superman & Lois Season 2 just yet.

“We don’t necessarily have a format that we’re trying to follow per episode,” Helbing says. “Not having the typical sort of heroic television formula is really, I think, allowed us to approach stories from a different point of view and aspect, and not maybe worry about stuff that I would have worried about on The Flash.”

Will There Be Crossovers With Other DC TV Arrowverse Shows?

The pandemic put the kibosh on all DC TV crossovers this year, although in fairness, those were always expected to be smaller in scale after the massive Crisis on Infinite Earths in 2019. As for what characters or shows Superman & Lois Season 2 could potentially crossover with, Helbing isn’t talking yet.

“I think our sort of north star is just, it’s not any particular character, it’s just whatever benefits the story the best,” he says. “Honestly, it could be anybody right now. I think we’re under the assumption right now that things are going to kind of get back to how they were pre-pandemic, but I’m still a little hesitant to do that. And not just me. I think everybody is a little cautious, and we just want to be safe first and make sure everybody’s protected. We’ll see how it all plays out. I’m optimistic. I would love to do what we can.” 

Helbing also teases more information about where Superman & Lois sits in relation to the other Arrowverse shows airing.

“There’s been a lot of talk and questions about how all the shows interact now and are related post-Crisis,” he says. “I think in season two, the audience will get a lot more answers about that.”

Natalie Irons and Steel

Helbing is keeping quiet on all the implications about Natalie Irons arriving from her corner of the multiverse to surprise her father, John Henry Irons, and the Kent family.

“We knew Nat was going to show up, and we knew we wanted her in the show, because we want to explore a new family dynamic,” he says. “I’ll just say, in season two, there’s a lot that everybody is dealing with, having to get used to new members of a family, I’ll just put it that way.”

Yes, we have to imagine she won’t be thrilled to see that her mother on this world is married to the man who murdered her on their world, for starters.

Will Reign of the Supermen Happen?

Look, you can’t blame us for speculating on this. Superman & Lois introduced John Henry Irons, and even gave him his Steel armor and hammer. They introduced the Eradicator, both as a piece of Kryptonian tech and also as the living embodiment of that tech with a mission to make Earth more like Krypton.

And in a sense, it also gave us Superboy. No, not the half-clone of Superman who eventually adopts the moniker of Kon-El (and then Conner Kent) but the actual biological son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, Jordan Kent. For Superman fans, this is 3/4ths of a set of “replacement Supermen,” the heroes who rose after Superman’s “death” at the spiky hands of Doomsday in the famed Death and Return of Superman comic book story.

Helbing admits that they’ve talked about things, but certainly won’t commit to the possibility, either.

“We talk,” he says. “We kick all that stuff around, and it’s … I won’t say no, but I won’t say yes either, because we already wrote the first episode of season two. There’s some really cool stuff coming.” 

And since Supergirl already did a version of Hank Henshaw, the infamous Cyborg Superman, and with all the other love for Superman comic book lore already on display in Superman & Lois, is any of this ever being discussed by the writers?

“I think one of the things that we want to do is we want to stay away from any of the villains that Supergirl did for the most part, unless we’re going to completely reinvent them like Morgan Edge. So we’re trying to find some deep dives and bring those stories out in our show. And I think so far, I’m really excited about season two.”

Superman & Lois Season 2 Release Date

At the moment, all we know is that Superman & Lois Season 2 will arrive in early 2022. The first season arrived in February, so that might be a good spot to pencil in for now.

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What do you want to see from Superman & Lois Season 2? Let us know in the comments!

The post Superman & Lois Season 2: What to Expect When the Show Returns appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3zaX2ON

[molly-miah]

Conflict Lectures

Paintings

John Heartfield “Adolph the Superman Swallows Gold and Spouts Tin”

Mai Dantsig - Partisan Ballade

Peter Kennard - Photo Op

Joe Giddens - Photograph of Saffiyah Khan at an EDL protest

Chloe Dewe Mathews - Shot at Dawn

Ned Broderick, Rick Steinbock, Joe Fornelli, and Mike Helbing - Above and Beyond

Topics Raised

Is war art an exploitation of a horrific situation or a necessary evil?

Interesting Videos Shown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFh08JEKDYk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp93aTPunaE

Analysis

Interesting topic which explores the morality of turning horrible realities into art. I believe that it’s completely necessary to express the severity of human conflict. I believe that censorship from this kind of material removes the reality of the effect on human lives war creates

[nipashe411]

I’m in the race, Sonko says on getting EACC and DCI clearance

I’m in the race, Sonko says on getting EACC and DCI clearance

NAIROBI, Kenya Jan 6 – Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko has vowed to fight to the end in defending his seat following ouster in December. On Wednesday, Sonko said he had obtained clearance from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) which had said it will not clear leaders with a tainted…

[dccomicsnews]

The CW releases 6 photos from season 3 episode 17 of The Flash!

You can read the official synopsis for this episode of The Flash below. Episode 317, “Duet” is directed by Dermott Downs with story by Greg Berlanti & Andrew Kreisberg and teleplay by Aaron Helbing & Todd Helbing. The episode is set to air on Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 8/7c, only on the CW network.

DARREN CRISS (“GLEE”) GUEST STARS AS THE MUSIC MEISTER IN THE FLASH AND SUPERGIRL MUSICAL CROSSOVER – Barry (Grant Gustin) and team are surprised when Mon-El (guest star Chris Wood) and Hank Henshaw (guest star David Harewood) arrive on their Earth carrying a comatose Supergirl (guest star Melissa Benoist) who was whammied by the Music Meister (guest star Darren Criss). Unable to wake her up, they turn to Team Flash to save her. However, the Music Meister surprises The Flash and puts him in a similar coma, one that Team Flash can’t cure. Kara and Barry wake up without their powers in an alternate reality where life is like a musical and the only way to escape is by following the script, complete with singing and dancing, to the end.

Check out the photos below! All photos: Katie Yu, Jack Rowand/The CW–© 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

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The Flash — “Duet” — FLA317a_0147b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Chris Wood as Mike, Melissa Benoist as Kara/Supergirl and David Harewood as Hank Henshaw — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW — © 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Flash — “Duet” — FLA317b_0912b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Melissa Benoist as Kara, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen and Darren Criss as Music Meister — Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW — © 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved

The Flash — “Duet” — FLA317b_1109b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Grant Gustin as Barry Allen and Melissa Benoist as Kara — Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW — © 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Flash — “Duet” — FLA317b_BTS_1414b.jpg — Pictured: Jeremy Jordan as Winn Schott — Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW — © 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Flash — “Duet” — FLA317c_0544b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Candice Patton as Iris West, Victor Garber as Professor Martin Stein and Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West — Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW — © 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

The Flash — “Duet” — FLA317a_0178b.jpg — Pictured (L-R): Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, Candice Patton as Iris West, Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells, Chris Wood as Mike, Melissa Benoist as Kara/Supergirl, Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow, and David Harewood as Hank Henshaw — Photo: Katie Yu/The CW — © 2017 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved.

You can catch a preview of “Duet” below!

The Flash Inside: Duet

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Source: CW

The Flash: 6 Photo Preview Of Episode 317, “Duet” The CW releases 6 photos from season 3 episode 17 of The Flash! You can read the official synopsis for this episode of The Flash below.

[jazzworldquest-blog]

CANADA: Bicoastal Collective-Chapter 5 (2017)

Chapter 5 by Bicoastal Collective

Leaders - Paul Tynan and Aaron Lington Saxophones Alto 1 – Bobby Selvaggio Alto 2 – Steve Jones Tenor 1 - Dave Lown Tenor 2 – Marcus Wolfe Baritone – Aaron Lington Trumpets Tpt 1 – Jason Levi Tpt 2 – Ken Edwards Tpt 3 – Daniel Mathews Tpt 4 – Paul Tynan Tpt 5 - Mica Bell Trombones Tbn 1 – Paul Compton Tbn 2 – Carl Lundgren Tbn 3 – Alex Dubrov Tbn 4 – Josh Brown Rhythm Guitar – Noel Johnston Piano – Josh Hanlon Bass – Mike Luzecky Drums – Stockton Helbing Conductor – Craig Marshall via Blogger http://ift.tt/2xP8zXs

[dream2bu]

Above and Beyond comprises 58,307 dog tags. Each dog tag represents a person in the Vietnam War and is arranged in date order of death. And, each dog tag shows their name, casualty date, and military branch.

Above and Beyond was commissioned by the National Veterans Art Museum and created by artist Rick Steinbock, and veteran artists Ned Broderick, Joe Fornelli and Mike Helbing. It was originally installed at 1801 S. Indiana Ave. on May 26, 2001 to coincide with Chicago’s Memorial Day parade. Above and Beyond was created over a 2-year period as each dog tag was stamped by hand using a former military Graphotype machine.

Above and Beyond is the only memorial other than The Wall in Washington, D.C. to list all those killed in action during the Vietnam War. Additionally, it includes one black dog tag. This serves to remind us of those who died from conditions related to service during the Vietnam War.

Above and Beyond is part of the National Veterans Art Museum Collection, and is on extended exhibition at the Harold Washington Library Center--400 S. State St. Please check library hours for viewing.

The single black dog tag for those who died from conditions related to service during the Vietnam War.

[chelseajamesblog-blog]

Above and beyond

The next artists I came across really caught my eye and my heart. Rick Steinbock, Ned Broderick, Joe Fornelli and Mike Helbing created a truly outstanding piece of work named Above and Beyond. This installation piece was commissioned by the National Veterans Art Museum in order to remember the soldiers killed in the Vietnam wars. Over all 58,307 dog tags were stamped by hand while using a military graphotype machine, documenting their name, date of death and military regiment, each was then placed on a piece of string. Each dog tag was then painstakingly placed in order of the death date and hung from numerous beams taking up 13 feet x 34 feet. Amongst the sea of tags there are some black dog tags placed somewhere in the jumble of names, this is to remind us of the people that were lost due to the conditions related to service during the Vietnam war such as suicide, wounds or agent orange (A herbicidal warfare agent dropped on Vietnam).

Over all this masterpiece becomes a sea of dog tags and with the reflective surfaces, creating an illusion of water above the audience’s head. A truly mesmerizing piece created as a memorial which would leave people in sheer awe at the handcrafted installation. It’s a truly heart capturing piece as you stare up into an ocean of forgotten names and urge yourself to remember them. Steinbock, Broderick, Fornelli and Helbing really managed to make their audience face the facts in a truly mesmerizing way. Only one other memorial in the world truly reflects the devastation of the Vietnam war. It’s called the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and can be located in Washington DC where two acre’s of land have a wall erected, split into three parts, with all the names of those who lost their lives.

The most outstanding fact for me is that all pieces of work within The National Veterans Art Museum have been created by Veterans from numerous wars, mainly concentrating on the Vietnam war. Originally the museum was created to remember the Vietnam war and the veterans from that time but has recently broadened themselves so they could include artworks from other veterans from other wars. Today the museum holds more than 255 veteran artists and contains more than 2,500 pieces of work ranging from photography, poetry, sculptures, music and paintings. Above and Beyond can be found in the Harold Washington Library Centre and can be viewed from any floor of the building allowing for its pure brilliance to shine.

All pieces of work created for the museum create a beautiful yet horrifying insight to what the veterans might have gone through during those dark times. This links in beautifully with my work as I try to create a mesmerising memorial piece that reflects the devastation that we can occur on one another.

References

(1)    National Veterans Art Museum [Online]. Available at: http://nvam.org/Module/Event/EventDetail/Above_and_Beyond_Exhibition_Opening?id=4 [Accessed: 27 November 2016]

(2)    Chicago Tonight [Online]. Available at: http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2016/03/03/restored-art-installation-invites-reflection-consequences-war [Accessed: 27 November 2016]

[aion-rsa]

Superman & Lois: Inside the Season’s Big Twists and that Finale Ending

https://ift.tt/3ANytYo

This article contains major Superman & Lois spoilers. Don’t read until you’ve seen all of season one!

Superman & Lois Episode 15

The Superman & Lois season finale, “Last Sons of Krypton,” has finally arrived and it’s as big as you might expect. For a series that started off teasing lots of family drama and that eschewed the traditional Metropolis setting for the (theoretically) friendlier confines of Smallville, it was full of blockbuster-scale action in the second half of its 15 episode run.

“Last Sons of Krypton” effectively wraps up the season’s blockbuster elements in its first two acts or so, before offering a series of codas that tie up nearly everyone’s arcs with a sense of finality usually reserved for a series finale, not just a season one. Well, with one major exception, of course.

And when you think about the journey this season took viewers on, that’s a lot to wrap up. From the Captain Luthor is actually John Henry Irons twist to the Morgan Edge is really Superman’s Kryptonian half-brother concept and everything else in between, the first season of Superman & Lois was unlike any Man of Steel tale we had seen before. It’s something that showrunner Todd Helbing says came out of an early desire to tell a “different” Superman story.

“There was nothing that was off limits,” Helbing says. “It was kind of like, we’re going to do this. Let’s just swing for the fences, and hopefully we connect on a couple of these.”

Let’s take a look at some of those big characters and concepts the show tackled in its first season, and talk about that multiverse-shattering ending.

JOHN HENRY IRONS

Those “big swings” Helbing alludes to came early on. The initial “Captain Luthor” reveal wasn’t supposed to be a fake out at all, and the idea that he was really John Henry Irons from an alternate Earth came along organically during the writing process.

“When we watched the first cut of the second episode, we knew that there was something missing that you could feel in the pilot,” Helbing says. “So we wrote a few new scenes and then a couple more for episodes three and four. From there on it kind of snowballed, and we brought up a lot of stuff that we were going to do later, and we paced up the show. I think when the John Henry Iron’s idea came, it sort of gave us this confidence, because we knew that it if we could keep it a secret, that it was really going to work.”

The secret was kept, and virtually all online speculation about the nature of Captain Luthor was proven wrong. And in the process Wolé Parks became the definitive live action version of beloved DC Comics hero Steel.

MORGAN EDGE, TAL-RHO, AND SUPERMAN’S BROTHER

Unlike the Captain Luthor/Steel thing, however, Helbing and company knew going in that Morgan Edge was going to turn out to be the malevolent Kryptonian Tal-Rho, and specifically that Tal-Rho would be Superman’s biological half-brother. 

“That was part of the pitch,” Helbing says, before clarifying that not all of these elements were set in sunstone from the outset. “There were some things, some twists and turns…a lot of it was the writers and talking to Greg. The staff that I get to work with every day, they’re really talented people who love Superman, and we all just really clicked, so it was great.”

Read more

Movies

Superman Movies Ranked: The Best and Worst of the Man of Steel

By Mike Cecchini

With Tal-Rho there are surprises within surprises, as DC TV shows aren’t known for creating original villains for a season’s big bad.

“We knew we wanted to tell a mythology that hadn’t been told in live action with Tal-Rho being the half-brother,” he says. “It was really just, how do we pace this reveal out?”

But Edge/Tal-Rho, despite being both unpleasant and immensely powerful (a perfect recipe for villainy) is an almost tragic figure, especially when compared to other supervillains.

“It would have been pretty easy for him to just become a mustache-twirling villain,” Helbing says. “But on our show, we want everybody to have a point of view, whether the audience agrees with them or not, and this includes our villains…The villain part of it is great, but it doesn’t mean anything unless you understand where they’re coming from, you can get into the emotion of it. And I think him being related to Kal-El and just all of his pains and struggle, that’s really where it worked.”

THE ERADICATOR

Despite the fact that Tal-Rho himself is an original character created for TV, the character eventually evolved into another important figure in Superman lore: The Eradicator, perhaps best known to fans as one of the “replacement Supermen” who appeared in the wake of the Man of Steel’s death at the hands of Doomsday.

But it turns out that the Eradicator wasn’t part of the plan, initially. Edge, of course, was taking humans and infusing them with Kryptonian souls and powers, turning them into “subjekts,” and there was one in particular who was going to tower over the others.

“Originally we started laying out these ‘subjekts’,” Helbing says. “We were going to build up the Subjekt-17, but it became very apparent that we weren’t just going to do 16 subjekts in a season.”

(NOTE: Subjekt-17 was a villain who only made a handful of appearances in the comics, an alien baby discovered by the Soviets and held in stasis for decades, before eventually wreaking havoc on Superman and friends. It’s part of an unfairly overlooked Superman storyline by Kurt Busiek, Carlos Pacheco, and Jesus Merino, and you should check it out. But I digress…)

Once the Subjekt-17 concept became unworkable, the Eradicator’s name arose.

“The Eradicator was brought up pretty early on, but that was one of the elements where like, okay, we’re going to see how this plays out and how we’re going to be able to make this land the best way,” he says. 

Of course, bringing the distinctive comics look of the Eradicator to the small screen brings its own challenges.

“When you look at some of the art of the Eradicator, you’re like, how do we translate this? Do we give him Ray-Bans or something?” Then we just kicked that idea around and came up with the way he is in the show. I think it’s pretty cool.”

LOIS LANE AND JORDAN KENT

But amidst all the Kryptonian fighting and love for Superman lore, the finale’s highlight is the moment where Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane pulls Jordan Elsass’ Jonathan Kent back from the brink, after his personality has been “eradicated” by the soul of Tal-Rho’s evil father. Lois does what we’ve seen her do several times this season, which is (with the help of some Kryptonian tech this time) help Jordan “push through his darkness” in an emotional scene that’s as triumphant as any bit of high-flying action we’ve seen throughout the season.

For Helbing and the Superman & Lois writers, it was a moment that happened naturally when working on the final two episodes of the season.

“That stuff was all kind of by the seat of our pants,” Helbing says. “We knew emotionally what needed to happen. We knew the sort of format and structure that we wanted to do in episode 14, two acts of family setup, town drama, get all that stuff up and running and then it was four acts of action. But episode 15 starts with four acts of action, and then ends with two acts of the emotional landing. But that one particularly, there was just a lot of [writers] Kristi [Korzec], Mike [Narducci], Brent [Fletcher], me, and Greg [Berlanti]. Where are the places that we have to land emotionally? Let’s build the story around that, which we did.”

NATALIE IRONS RETURNS

The episode doesn’t quite wrap up everyone’s emotional arcs. We’ve known for some time that Irons is still dealing with his feelings for Lois, even as he has accepted that this isn’t the same Lois he was married to on his world. Just as he seems to have made peace with the notion of moving on, and that he can’t stay with the Kents any longer, the multiverse throws everyone quite a curveball…as a mysterious craft falls out of the sky and reveals John’s daughter Natalie Irons (Tayler Buck) has somehow survived and made her way to this world.

Helbing won’t give many details yet on what to expect for Natalie Irons in Superman & Lois Season 2, but he  does reveal that they’ve already written the season premiere. 

“We knew Nat was going to show up, and we knew we wanted her in the show, because we want to explore a new family dynamic,” he says. “I’ll just say, in season two, there’s a lot that everybody is dealing with, having to get used to new members of a family, I’ll just put it that way.”

We’ll have more from Todd Helbing about Superman & Lois Season 2 soon!

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What did you think of the Superman & Lois season finale? Let us know in the comments!

The post Superman & Lois: Inside the Season’s Big Twists and that Finale Ending appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Superman & Lois Episode 2 DC Comics and Movie Easter Eggs and References

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This article contains Superman & Lois spoilers.

There’s no question that Superman & Lois really knows its stuff. The first episode was a genuine love letter to Superman history, and proved once and for all that you can do a faithful, reverent take on the Man of Steel legend without just retreading stuff people have seen a thousand times.

Superman & Lois episode 2 digs a little bit deeper for its lore, but once again pulls tons of terrific deep cuts from both DC Comics and the character’s history in movies and on TV.

Here’s everything we found…

Captain Luthor

Captain Luthor is from a world that was ravaged by an evil Superman (one wearing the black suit that we saw him wear on Elseworlds). Could this mean that this Luthor is from a world similar to Earth-3 in DC Comics, where the people we know as heroes are in fact evil and vice versa? If so, Captain Luthor could be Alexander Luthor, the power-suited and heroic champion of Earth-3 who fought against an evil Justice League known as the Crime Syndicate.

We have much more about Captain Luthor right here.

Human Defense Corps

One of the soldiers working with General Sam Lane is referred to as “Rosetti.” Could this be Colonel Reno Rosetti of DC’s Human Defense Corps? I think so, especially since it leads into…

7734

The mysterious 7734 is more than just “HELL” in numeric and backwards form. Its existence dates back to the Superman: New Krypton special, which kicked of a massive saga in the comics that eventually culminated in War of the Supermen.

There, 7734 was indeed the brainchild of Sam Lane, and it was meant to keep the planet safe from Superman-style extraterrestrial enemies. It blended military expertise with Lex Luthor-esque super science, so you can see how/why Captain Luthor might have been involved on his world.

Morgan Edge

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It’s not often that we get an Arrowverse character created solely by the legendary Jack Kirby, but that’s Morgan Edge! Edge first appeared in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133 in 1970. This isn’t Edge’s first turn in the Arrowverse, having been played by Adrian Pasdar on Supergirl already. This appears to be a different Morgan Edge than the one Pasdar played (who ended his Supergirl run as a known criminal rather than the shady vulture capitalist we see here), which is certainly a result of changes made to reality in the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths (like the recasting of Sam Lane and his warmer relationship with Clark and the very existence of Jordan Kent and the aging up of the boys to teenagers).

Chrissy Beppo

The character of Chrissy Beppo is a new creation for the show, but her name harkens back both to the classic Superman comics and to the trailblazing CW superhero series Smallville, albeit by way of the comics. The Smallville Legends web series expanded the universe of the show and featured a Smallville Ledger columnist named Christopher James Beppo.

The Beppo name comes from Superman comics of the 1960s, where it turned out that Jor-El had used a Kryptonian monkey as a test subject for the rocket that sent Kal-El to Earth. Beppo the Super-Monkey (look, the Silver Age of Comics was a weird time, ok?) eventually made his way to Earth, gained powers, and served alongside the Legion of Super-Heroes in the Legion of Super Pets. No, I am not making this up. This wasn’t even the 12th weirdest thing in Superman comics between roughly 1950 and 1969, so don’t @ me (or do!)

There’s another big Smallville connection, too…

Mayor George Dean

The sharp-eyed folks at the ever-reliable Kryptonsite pointed out that Mayor George Dean is played by Eric Keenleyside. And while Mayor “Dean” could possibly reference former TV Superman Dean Cain of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman fame, he has a more direct connection to the Superman mythos, however minor.

Keenleyside played Chloe Sullivan’s father in a deleted scene from the Smallville pilot. He later turned up as “Mike the Bartender” in a single episode of Smallville season 2, “Suspect.”

Man of Steel

The music all through this show evokes the mood of Hans Zimmer’s excellent Man of Steel score, but it’s particularly noticeable in the Fortress of Solitude scenes. Additionally, the idea that it was a depletion of natural resources that started Krypton’s eventual spiral into destruction is something from the comics, but that was really spotlighted well in Man of Steel.

But speaking of that Fortress…

The Fortress of Solitude

The Fortress of Solitude looks slightly more claustrophobic than the way we’ve seen it portrayed on Supergirl in the past (where it featured the statues of Jor-El and Lara, a whole bunch of visible Kryptonian tech, and even a Legion flight ring) but hopefully we get to see more of it in the future. That being said, the color is consistent with the way we’ve seen it elsewhere in the Arrowverse and it’s still appropriately cold and icy looking.

The notion of using a sunstone crystal to operate a control panel that produces a hologram of Jor-El (more on him in a minute) who functions as the AI of the Fortress of Solitude as well as Kryptonian history teacher originated with 1978’s Superman: The Movie, which is not only incredibly influential on this show, but has seen elements of it increasingly adopted by the comics as well.

That holographic map of Kryptonopolis looks pretty cool, too. I can’t attest to whether or not this is the first mention of Kryptonopolis in the Arrowverse (we’ve had plenty of talk of Kandor and Argo City, of course).

Also, in the Son of Superman story by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason which helped introduce Jon Kent in the comics, Clark does indeed take his son to the Fortress for evaluation after he first starts to display his powers. Only there it’s a much younger Jonathan (since Jordan has yet to be introduced in the pages of DC Comics).

Jor-El

That’s Angus McFayden (Braveheart) as Jor-El and he looks pretty cool in the role. It’s only recent portrayals of the character that have given him facial hair, which has also become the standard in the comics, too (in the past, Jor-El often looked pretty much indistinguishable from his son). Even though Clark said in the previous episode that his mom made him the costume (at least that cool early version we saw), it’s important to note that the “S” is still very much intended as the family crest of the House of El, just as it has been established on Supergirl.

There’s one other neat touch on Jor-El’s costume that feels like another nod to Superman: The Movie, though. The black and white color scheme is very similar to how Marlon Brando’s Jor-El dressed in that film, and in particular, the white sections of the costume reflect light in a way that’s very reminiscent of those costumes. It’s really cool.

New Carthage

Lois makes reference to some failed investments that Morgan Edge made in New Carthage. New Carthage is a fictional town in the DC Universe, roughly located around upstate New York like Poughkeepsie or New Paltz or somewhere. And like that latter college town, it’s the home of Hudson University, where Dick Grayson went to college. Folks, if this show is gonna keep dropping Batman deep cuts, I’m just gonna have to keep pointing ’em out!

Batman? Is that you?

On that note…Moldova is a real country, albeit one that was parodied/fictionalized as “Moldavia” in the very first episode of the 1966 Batman TV series, “Hi Diddle Riddle.” If you want to include the “Rory’s First Kiss” joke on the movie marquee from episode 1, this is the second Batman Easter egg on the show. No? Too much?

Friday Night Lights

The Smallville High football team is coached by “Coach Gaines.” Gary Gaines was the Permian Panthers football coach who was played by Billy Bob Thornton in Friday Night Lights. Helbing has also pointed out the Friday Night Lights vibes they want to evoke on this show with its football sequences, and how Lois and Clark handle small town parenting.

Conduit

The Sequoia movie theater has some graffiti that seems to be the initials BK or KB. Could this be Kenny Braverman, the supervillain known as Conduit who knew Clark had powers back in Smallville? OK, fine, I’m probably reaching here.

Miscellaneous Stuff…

The moving company that the Kents use to move from Metropolis to Smallville is called “Change of Pace” with the slogan “Go anywhere, anytime.” This may or may not be an echo of a sentiment Superman & Lois showrunner Todd Helbing expressed to me in a recent interview about the decision to move Superman’s base of operations. “The way we approached it was, if Flash is the guardian of Central City and Supergirl is the guardian of National City, Superman is the guardian of the world,” Helbing says. “So it really doesn’t matter where Superman’s based. He can fly anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds. Once you understand that, it really doesn’t matter where his home turf is… it could be anywhere.”

The post Superman & Lois Episode 2 DC Comics and Movie Easter Eggs and References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Above and Beyond is comprised of 58,307 dog tags. Each dog tag represents the death of military personnel in the Vietnam War and is arranged in date order of death. And, each dog tag shows their name, date of death and military branch. Above and Beyond was commissioned by the National Veterans Art Museum and created by veteran artists: Rick Steinbock, Ned Broderick, Joe Fornelli and Mike Helbing. It was originally installed at 1801 S. Indiana Ave. on May 26, 2001 to coincide with Chicago’s Memorial Day parade. Above and Beyond was created over a 2-year period as each dog tag was stamped by hand using a former military Graphotype machine. Above and Beyond is the only memorial other than The Wall in Washington, D.C. to list all those killed in action during the Vietnam War. Additionally, it includes one black dog tag. This serves to remind us of the soldiers who died from conditions related to service during the Vietnam War. Above and Beyond is part of the National Veteran’s Art Museum Collection, and is on extended exhibition at the Harold Washington Library Center through April 15, 2020.