Just when you thought DC would calm down after the backlash of their drastic logo change earlier this month, they’re here to alter more of your childhood favorites by bringing us a series of prequels to Alan Moore’s epic Watchmen series from decades ago with their Before Watchmen line of books.

Catchy name, right? That’s about the caliber of originality you can expect to see with these books, with the major saving grace being the talent that DC has gathered for the event. Here’s what they had to say.

Stepping up to the challenge is a group of the comic book industry’s most iconoclastic writers and artists – including Brian Azzarello (100 BULLETS), Lee Bermejo (JOKER), Amanda Conner (POWER GIRL), Darwyn Cooke (JUSTICE LEAGUE: NEW FRONTIER), John Higgins (WATCHMEN), Adam Hughes (CATWOMAN), J.G. Jones (FINAL CRISIS), Andy Kubert (FLASHPOINT), Joe Kubert (SGT. ROCK), Jae Lee (BATMAN: JEKYLL AND HYDE), J. Michael Straczynski (SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE) and Len Wein (SWAMP THING).

BEFORE WATCHMEN includes:

• RORSCHACH (4 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: Lee Bermejo
• MINUTEMEN (6 issues) – Writer/Artist: Darwyn Cooke
• COMEDIAN (6 issues) – Writer: Brian Azzarello. Artist: J.G. Jones
• DR. MANHATTAN (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artist: Adam Hughes
• NITE OWL (4 issues) – Writer: J. Michael Straczynski. Artists: Andy and Joe Kubert
• OZYMANDIAS (6 issues) – Writer: Len Wein. Artist: Jae Lee
• SILK SPECTRE (4 issues) – Writer: Darwyn Cooke. Artist: Amanda Conner

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Sony Online’s DC Universe Online has had a pretty rough year. Between the server blackouts, the massive PSN hack, and dealing with a paid service to a broke community, they’ve fallen on some hard times.

But that isn’t stopping them from releasing tons of new content for their now free DC Universe Online. Just a few months ago, we were opened up to the world of Green Lantern with their Fight for the Light DLC. Now their continuing in the trend with a whole Flash universe-based DLC in Lightning Strikes.

Set to hit your console and PC next week on December 6th, the new features include a brand new Eletricity Power set, as well as an all new map, new challenges, and tons of Flash-based characters for you to interact with.

We’ve got a brand new trailer highlighting these features for you to check out after the jump, as well as the full rundown on what the DLC includes. Take a look at that after the jump, and don’t forget to grab DC Universe Online for FREE on PC and PS3 now.

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Superheroes are huge now, incase you weren’t up to speed. With films like Dark Knight and Spider-Man making over a billion dollars in the worldwide box office, that means you’re going to see movie and TV studios make bolder decisions that lean towards comic book properties that could bring eyeballs (and dollar signs) to their company.

That’s just what Syfy is looking to do, as they have ordered a script from Greg Berlanti, who wrote Green Lantern, as well as helped shape the story of ABC’s Modern Family, which will focus on DC’s anti-hero from the future, Booster Gold. THR has the report.

The story will center on Booster Gold, a washed-up athlete from the future who travels back to the present in hopes of becoming the greatest super hero of all time. Instead of chasing criminals, however, his main priority is chasing fame and money. But Booster Gold discovers that being a hero takes more than just a megawatt smile, and that the future doesn’t happen without first protecting the present.

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In typical fashion for DC Entertainment and Warner Home Video, just as we get a brand new release, which in this case was Batman: Year One, we are already getting excited for the next animated project, Justice League: Doom.

The story comes from the Justice League story titled Tower of Babel in which one of Batman’s many “contingency plans” ends up putting the League, and the world, in imminent danger. If the story isn’t enough to excite you, the cast will surely put you over the edge.

Primetime television stars Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Tim Daly (Private Practice), the reigning voices of Green Lantern and Superman, respectively, join a group of eight actors reprising their famed cartoon roles, including Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series) as Batman, Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville, Breaking In) as Flash, Susan Eisenberg (Superman/Batman: Apocalypse) as Wonder Woman and Carl Lumbly (Alias) as J’onn J’onzz/Martian Manhunter.

With the team of Timm, Romano, and Montgomery behind the scenes, using the final script from the late Dwayne McDuffie, this JL story is sure to be one of the best that WB Home Video has put out. Take a look at the trailer after the jump and grab the DVD and Blu-Ray early next year.

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While New York Comic Con had tons of scoops and news hit over the weekend, one bit of news that both fans of comics AND animation were eager to hear about was more on Cartoon Network’s upcoming Green Lantern: The Animated Series.

Unlike the rest of the DC animated series to cross paths with Cartoon Network, this one is a bit different, as it’s animated using CG, rather than cell animation. Here’s info from the official release.

As Earth’s Green Lantern, Hal Jordan is used to being in dangerous situations — but he’s never faced anything like this! Set at the farthest reaches of deep space, Green Lantern: The Animated Series finds Hal on the Guardian Frontier, where he must face down an invasion by the Red Lantern Corps.

Powered by pure rage, the evil Red Lanterns have sworn to destroy the Green Lantern Corps and everything they stand for. Dispatched on the experimental spacecraft The Interceptor, Hal is soon joined by an all-new group of heroes on a mission to protect Guardian Space — and the Green Lantern Corps itself!

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Since we first started getting casting news about Zack Snyder’s upcoming reboot/sequel to the Superman franchise titled Man of Steel, questions have been flying in from every direction about what the possible story could be.

With names like Kevin Costner, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Keaton, and Russell Crowe tying up the cast, we could only imagine how these A-listers would make their way into the film. The official synopsis has made its way onto the web, so maybe this will clear things up:

In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time. Clark Kent/Kal-El (Henry Cavill) is a young twentysomething journalist who feels alienated by powers beyond anyone’s imagination. Transported to Earth years ago from Krypton, an advanced alien planet, Clark struggles with the ultimate question – Why am I here?

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When DC Universe Online launched earlier this year, it was possible to recreate almost any character, classic or modern, that fans of comics have loved for decades. There was one group of heroes and villains though that was noticeably left out in terms of power sets though. The Lanterns. Green, Red, Yellow, Blue and all the others had no presence in DC Universe Online from the player community. Sure they could fight alongside Hal Jordan but without a power ring of their own where is the fun in that?

Coming at the end of summer, the Fight for the Light expansion comes to DC Universe Online allowing ring based power sets to create a new array of combat options. Boxing gloves, freight trains, fighter jets, machine guns and more all produced by little green rings will up the ante in DCUO.

At Comic-Con, Mark Anderson from Sony Online Entertainment spoke with The Flickcast about what we would see in this expansion. In addition to seeing sights like Coast City or the Science Cells on Oa, the expansion will also help wrap up the story with Brainiac and the anomalies of the power rings. Players will be given the role as Corps Reserve members to help explain why so many lanterns are running around in a single sector.

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While DC is currently scratching their collective heads to figure out how to beat out Marvel Studios and their plan for world domination, they’ve had a few busts of recent history. Films like Green Lantern and Jonah Hex were pretty big flops, but nowhere near as much as the critically panned reboot/sequel hybrid Superman Returns from X-Men director Bryan Singer.

The film was panned by most fans, made some money, and did absolutely nothing for the franchise (unless you consider calling for yet another reboot a few years later “progress”). After a few years, it turns out there are still a few secrets that have yet to be uncovered about the film.

As it turns out, there was a $10 million opening sequence for the film that was shot and rendered in which Routh’s Kal-El returns to a dead Krypton to see if there is any semblance of life from his once lively home planet. Short answer: there isn’t.

No dialogue, lots of slow shots of deep space, and Routh looking all sweaty. Overall, it’s probably a good thing this scene wasn’t in the film, but the fact that Singer and his team once thought this was a good idea should remind us that this film was probably no good from the get-go.

Take a look at the 5-minute long opening after the jump, and let’s hope this trend doesn’t continue with Zack Snyder’s upcoming Man of Steel reboot.

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Here we are, less than a month into one of the biggest summer blockbuster seasons we’ve had in years, and not a single big-studio film has failed to live up to the expectations set forward by those studios.

It seems that the mid $50 million range is just where every film hits in the first weekend, as Warner Bros’ Green Lantern pulled in an estimated $52 million against its $200 million production budget. Not a complete letdown, as Warner’s are still looking to move forward with this toyetic film franchise.

In second place this weekend, Super 8 had less than a 50% dropoff from last week, pulling in an estimated $21 million this weekend, and topping the film off at $72 since its debut.

Another first weekender, Mr. Popper’s Penguins rose to the occasion in third place this weekend with an estimated $18 million, which isn’t bad considering the film was one of the only non-franchise family films hitting theaters this summer.

Finally, Fox’s X-Men: First Class is still holding strong in its third week, with an $11 million pull for the weekend and over $280 million worldwide since the release. With a turnout like that, you can expect to see Fox prepping Matthew Vaughn and his cast for a second film in the very near future.

All things considered, next week looks to be quite tame. Pixar’s Cars 2 will likely take the weekend, with upwards of 4,000 theaters showing the film. On the other end of the spectrum, adults get Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel in Bad Teacher from Sony.

Green Lantern is a comic-book movie that’s ripped straight from the comic book. To some people, that will be a plus, to others a minus; more specifically, those who enjoyed the cartoonyness of The Fantastic Four movies can appreciate it; those who didn’t and want a half-hearted “message” to justify their camp will not.

The premise is ridiculous: The Green Lanterns are a gang of buff aliens sworn to protect the 3,600 sectors of the universe. One day a nasty alien called a “Parallax” shows up and starts bumping off the Lanterns, including one Abin Sur, apparently the protector of earth’s sector, who escapes to our planet, mortally wounded.

Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a test pilot and “man without fear” (fearlessness being a big plus to the Lanterns) who’s chosen by Abin Sur to take up his mantle, or ring, or lantern, or whatever. Soon after Hal’s traveling through the galaxy to the planet Oa, where fish men and talking brick shit-houses explain the origins of the Lanterns.

There’s the obligatory scenes of Hal’s cross-training, which introduces us to the power of the Lanterns—basically anything goes so long as it’s green and comes from the ring all Lanterns wear; they can fly, construct objects of any size and shape, and, presumably, whip up some dynamite green eggs and ham.

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Lately, everything seems to be coming up Batman. This year alone, we’ve got the sequel to the successful video game Batman:Arkham Asylum, a possible new first-person shooter follow-up, the start of the viral marketing campaign for The Dark Knight Rises, and now a LIVE Batman stage show happening overseas.

How do we know that this film will be different/better than the 3-year mess of a show Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark has been? DC guru Geoff Johns will be penning the script, there is no music, and most importantly: no rubber nipples.

Here’s what Johns had to say about the show’s premise:

We want to bring out a whole other level to Batman by looking at Robin’s journey from a circus performer to an orphan after his parents are killed, to a superhero. Batman lost his parents, but he can cope with his pain and owns it. Then he sees this boy and it reopens all those wounds. Robin’s journey very much brings up Bruce Wayne’s journey. [...] I think very much that Robin brings out a whole new level to Batman. I actually think it is more about Bruce Wayne and Batman than almost any story.

We’ve got a glimpse at the costumes and characters from the show for you after the jump, so check it out!

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Just as news for the upcoming Avengers tie-ins is coming in today, Warner Bros. is making sure that they aren’t left in the wind. Rumors are now coming in from Latino Review that famously scary Daredevil star Michael Clarke Duncan will be lending his voice as the grumpy Corps drill instructor Kilowog in this year’s Green Lantern film.

This doesn’t come as much of a surprise to most fans of the character, as Duncan seems to be a pretty spot-on choice. He’ll be joining the ranks of Michael Madsen and Henry Rollins, who have both lent  their voice for the character in the past.

What we know about the film’s plot is still pretty stagnant. We’ll get Hal Jordan’s origin story, we know that both Dr. Hammond and Parallax will be this film’s main villain, with seeds being sewn for Mark Strong’s Sinestro to be the villain later in the franchise.

The one peculiar part of this story is that the normally infallible IMDb has 24‘s former President Palmer Dennis Haysbert listed as voicing the character. We’re hoping to get down to the truth of this one, seeing as how we only have 2 months until the film’s June 17th release date.