{"id":5523,"date":"2012-06-13T00:15:38","date_gmt":"2012-06-13T04:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/?p=5523"},"modified":"2012-06-13T00:16:46","modified_gmt":"2012-06-13T04:16:46","slug":"vids-superman-vs-the-elite-available-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/?p=5523","title":{"rendered":"Vids: Superman vs. The Elite…Available Now!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Award-winning comics writer Joe Kelly adapts heralded \u201cWhat\u2019s So Funny\"\"<\/a>
\nAbout Trust, Justice & the American Way\u201d into engaging, surprising
\nSUPERMAN VS. THE ELITE.<\/p>\n

Award-winning comics writer Joe Kelly has crafted an engaging,
\nthought-provoking, action-packed thriller in adapting his 2001 Action
\nComics #775 classic tale (\u201cWhat\u2019s So Funny About Truth, Justice & the
\nAmerican Way\u201d) into SUPERMAN VS. THE ELITE, the latest DC Comics
\nPremiere Movie.<\/p>\n

Produced by Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros.
\nAnimation, the all-new, PG-13 rated SUPERMAN VS. THE ELITE arrived
\nthis week\u00a0from Warner Home Video as a Blu-ray\u2122 Combo
\nPack and DVD, On Demand and for Download. Both the Blu-ray\u2122 Combo Pack
\nand DVD will include an UltraViolet\u2122 Digital Copy.<\/p>\n

In SUPERMAN VS. THE ELITE, Superman’s effectiveness as a super hero
\ncomes into question when a new group of super powerful crusaders,
\nknown as “The Elite,” appear on the scene. As super heroes, the Elite
\nknow no bounds, and are more than willing to kill, even on a massive
\nscale, to stop villainy — putting them on a collision course with the
\never-ethical and decidedly non-lethal Man of Steel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way\u201d was lauded
\nby Wizard Magazine as the \u201cGreatest Superman Story of All Time,\u201d and
\nthe magazine ranked the epic tale at No. 21 on its list of the \u201cTop
\n100 Comics of the last 30 years.\u201d It is arguably Kelly\u2019s masterwork
\nfrom a career of notable comics, including such titles as Deadpool,
\nUncanny X-Men, Action Comics and JLA.<\/p>\n

Today, Kelly is one-fourth of the comics-oriented quartet known as Man
\nof Action Studios. The group are superstars in the comic and TV
\n\"\"<\/a>animation\/action world already as the creators\/producers and writers
\nof the megahit, Ben 10. Their Ben 10 empire has generated over three
\nbillion dollars in sales based on their four television series and
\nmerchandising and now Joel Silver is producing a feature film
\nadaptation of their creation. Ben 10, arguably the most successful
\nyouth brand and superhero franchise of the last decade, has also
\nlaunched two live-action TV movies and is seen in more than 168
\ncountries and 312 million households. Man of Action Studios also
\ncreated Generator Rex, write\/produce Ultimate Spider-Man on Disney XD,
\nand they create\/write\/produce video games, TV shows, films, comic
\nbooks, graphic novels, stage productions, etc.<\/p>\n

Joining Kelly at Man of Action Studios, which began in 2000, are renowned writers Duncan
\nRouleau, Joe Casey and Steven T. Seagle. The quartet are now in
\ndevelopment\/production on numerous TV and film projects including The
\nGreat Unknown, Kafka, Disco Destroyer and, of course, Superman vs. The
\nElite. They proudly have their own Man of Action imprint at Image
\nComics, where they continue to flourish in the creator-owned comics
\nworld.<\/p>\n

Kelly spoke about the creation of the film, the transition from page
\nto screen, and his favorite scenes in a chat late last week. Here\u2019s
\nwhat the wordsmith had to say \u2026<\/p>\n

QUESTION:
\nFor the uninitiated, what was the genesis for the original story of this comic?<\/p>\n

JOE KELLY:
\nThe germ for the story really came from a very visceral reaction I had
\nto a comic I was reading at the time \u2013 The Authority. It was a dark
\nanti-hero comic. I really like the Authority and its characters, but
\nthere was an issue in particular that felt like it had pushed the
\nboundaries of what makes a hero and what makes anti-hero. I found
\nmyself getting \u2018fanboy mad,\u2019 which I don\u2019t normally get. We had an
\nanniversary issue, and I asked Eddie (Berganza) if we could directly
\naddress those characters. I wanted Superman to take those characters
\non. And that became the germ for Action Comics 775.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:
\nAs Action Comics #775 was a single issue, how much did you need to add
\nto the story to make it a full-length film?<\/p>\n

JOE KELLY:
\nWe wrote a lot of new content for the film, and it was funny looking
\nback at the comic because I forgot how much is discussed rather than
\nshown. There\u2019s so much going on between the panels. So it was very\"\"<\/a>
\nexciting to get to see the action sequences that were just hinted at.
\nI\u2019d always seen them in my head, now I get to see them played out in
\nanimation.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:
\nWhat was the purpose of adding the Atomic Skull to the story?<\/p>\n

JOE KELLY:
\nWe knew we needed a villain or a character that would externalize
\nManchester Black\u2019s argument against the revolving door jail policy. We
\nwanted that parallel to be personal and easily identifiable.
\nOriginally it was the Parasite, but he\u2019d been used in a recent
\nprevious film, so it became the Atomic Skull. And I really thought the
\nAtomic Skull came out very cool. He worked well visually and for the
\nstory. Not having Parasite meant we lost a smidgen of the thematic
\napproach \u2013 the Parasite really fit well in terms of his name and what
\nhe does to the people around him. But that\u2019s just being picky.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:
\nDo you have a favorite scene in SUPERMAN VS. THE ELITE?<\/p>\n

JOE KELLY:
\nI\u2019m especially proud of the quiet scenes. It\u2019s very difficult to get
\nquiet emotion in animation and to let the silence actually play on
\nscreen. But when you look at the quiet scenes in this film — Pa Kent
\nand Clark on the porch, or Lois and Clark on the couch \u2013 those scenes
\nreally give us the chance to see Superman questioning himself with the
\npeople he trusts the most. And those scenes play beautifully in the
\nfilm.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like in one of my favorite scenes \u2013 just before the Elite takes
\nover the airwaves and makes their grand announcement. I think it\u2019s in
\nthe original, but it really came to life for me in the film. Lois and
\nClark are having a little debate, and he asks if she believes that
\ncriminals deserve the Elite\u2019s sense of justice and punishment. And she
\nsays \u201cSome days I think they do.\u201d That\u2019s just like a punch in the gut.
\nIt\u2019s really an awesome scene, especially because it\u2019s one of those
\nmoments in animation that you don\u2019t expect. The big battle with the
\nAtomic Skull is pretty great, too. And the finale is awesome. But I
\nlove the quiet moments.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:
\nWhose sense of justice do you side with: the Elite or Superman?<\/p>\n

JOE KELLY:
\nI\u2019m definitely more in the Superman camp. There are plenty of people I
\nget angry about, and the eye-for-an-eye mentality does flash though my
\nhead. I think it does for anybody. But at the end of the day, I do
\nbelieve we need to aspire to higher ideals. Maybe I\u2019m being na\u00efve, and
\nI may not be able to achieve those ideals myself, but we must make the
\n\"\"<\/a>attempt. You\u2019ve got to try. My dad was a cop and he had very strong
\nopinions about this stuff, but he would straddle the line. He had his
\ndays when he\u2019d think \u201ckill them all and let God sort them out,\u201d but
\nthere were far more days where he believed that the law is the law,
\neven if its broken, and we live in the best country on Earth because
\nof those laws. So that definitely informed my weird sense of justice.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:
\nDid the voices of the actors portraying these characters match the
\nvoices in your head while writing the film?<\/p>\n

JOE KELLY:
\nThe voice acting is so good in this film. Robin (Atkin Downes) is such
\na good Manchester. He\u2019s got all the snark and all the personality, and
\nhis line deliveries are so spot on for that guy. It\u2019s funny because
\neverybody says the same thing: you can\u2019t do an actual Manchester
\naccent and expect to be understood, but Robin\u2019s modified Mancunian
\naccent is awesome. And understandable. The rest of the Elite\u2019s voices
\nare perfect: Menagerie is scary and sexy; Coldcast wears his \u201cangry
\nman\u201d on his sleeve; and everyone giggles when The Hat comes on. I
\ncan\u2019t say enough about George (Newbern) \u2013 I had heard his acting
\nbefore, and he does such a great Superman. It\u2019s terrific to see George
\nportray the range of emotion he gets to do in this story. And Pauley
\n(Perrette) so knocked it out of the park \u2013 I was immediately in love
\nwith Lois. Pauley gets all the smarts of the character. The two of
\nthem as a partnership really comes across, which is critical to the
\nstory. Lois keeps Clark grounded, and she\u2019s literally the only one
\nthat can tug on Superman\u2019s cape. Lois can bust his chops, and that
\ncomes through in Pauley\u2019s voice. She\u2019s terrific in the quiet moments,
\nas well. Pauley sells it all so, so well.<\/p>\n

QUESTION:
\nAre there other stories you\u2019ve written as comics that you could see
\nadapting to animation?<\/p>\n

JOE KELLY:
\nIn the DC realm, I\u2019m very proud of \u201cJustice League Elite\u201d because the
\ncharacters that pick up from this story are darker and very layered.
\nIt\u2019s all about how messy you can get before you become a monster. I
\nlove that theme. If we could ever pull off \u201cJustice League Obsidian,\u201d
\nthat would be amazing \u2013 it\u2019s just an insane, gigantic epic, and to see
\nthose characters animated would be incredible.<\/p>\n

For more information, clips and images, take a look at<\/p>\n

www.supermanvstheelite.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Award-winning comics writer Joe Kelly adapts heralded \u201cWhat\u2019s So Funny About Trust, Justice & the American Way\u201d into engaging, surprising SUPERMAN VS. THE ELITE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[303,783,192,1545,941,215,216,784],"class_list":["post-5523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vids","tag-animation","tag-dc","tag-dc-comics","tag-joe-kelly","tag-super-hero","tag-superman","tag-warner-brothers","tag-warner-home-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5523"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5535,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5523\/revisions\/5535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geekstronomy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}