The Secret Origins of the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special

Robot Chicken kicks off its sixth season this Sunday with the half hour Robot Chicken DC Comics Special. Taking aim at Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and many more beloved (and a few not so beloved) DC characters, the special comes from the Robot Chicken crew, led by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, working in conjunction with DC’s Geoff Johns – who’s written for Robot Chicken in the past.

Writer Kevin Shinick also does voice work on the special, including providing the pivotal narration that evokes (as much of the special does) the old Super Friends cartoons. When I asked Shinick how he came to be the narrator, he told me, “It's funny, because those classic words, ‘Meanwhile at the Hall of Justice,’ spoken by the great Ted Knight, had always been a go-to joke for me. I would use it frequently at random moments in high school like yelling from the restroom, ‘Meanwhile in stall #2,’ and it always got a laugh because it's such a recognizable saying. Yet when we finished writing the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special, I was asked who I wanted to voice and I completely forgot ask for it. Opting instead for Captain Cold and some other characters. Then a day or two later Seth says to me, ‘I think you'd be perfect as the narrator.’ I was like, ‘Of course I would!’ And so thanks to a famous red haired man I get to play a famous white haired man.”

A lot of time is spent with Aquaman in the special, who is the butt of many, many jokes. Said Shinick, “Aquaman always gets a bum rap if you ask me. But he's like the kid in school who gets a crappy nickname on the first day and it just sticks. He's probably a perfectly good kid but now he's got this stigma and it's just so easy to jump on board. That's why in our special, I like that he finally snaps and takes matters into his own fins. I mean hands. See, it's just so easy.”

I recently had the chance to visit the Robot Chicken offices and sat down with Green, Senreich and Johns, to find out how this DC Comics-inspired lunacy came to be. We discussed the depiction of Aquaman, the impressive voice cast, what got cut out (and what will be on the DVD) and much more.

But let's start out with a brand new clip from the special, as Superman realizes a trick he pulled in Superman II can be very useful...

IGN TV: There have been plenty of superhero bits on Robot Chicken, but how did the idea come about to do a specific DC special?

Matt Senreich: Geoff worked on our fourth season as a writer, but Geoff and I have been working together since 2002.

Seth Green: I never liked him. All the time we’ve known him socially, I’ve just abhorred his presence.

Senreich: We sold our first pilot together in 2002, so we were looking for ways to play. He was at DC and called up one day.

Geoff Johns: I was at DC, and we were just talking, like, “Wouldn’t it be cool to do a Robot Chicken DC Special?”

Green: Because the Star Wars one had worked.

Johns: Yeah, the Star Wars one was so good.

Senreich: So, yeah. It was really easy. It was just, like, “Hey, we should do this.” “Okay, let’s do this.”

IGN: Was it a pretty natural progression at that point to use Super Friends?

Green: I led that charge. That’s just a great in to the DC Universe. You have everybody in a familiar and collected setting. The whole thing was organized so you could have all the good guys and all the bad guys. We thought if we could at least start in that format, then we could spiral off into all aspects of the galaxy. But I really just wanted that shot of the Legion of Doom, with all of them sitting at the desk in the big hall with the archways behind it.

IGN: We’ve got to talk about Aquaman. Poor Aquaman.

Senreich: It’s funny because, when we started, my first question [to Geoff] was, “You’re making him cool in the books, and you realize all we’re going to do is destroy him right now?”

Johns: All I can say is, it’s all about Aquaman getting his groove back, which is why it’s okay to kind of start somewhere… but he goes somewhere. He’s actually the main character, by far.

Green: Yeah, we give him a real arc.

Johns: As much as you can.

Green: But you do, you feel his journey, for sure. You feel the struggle. I focused really hard -- all of the writing was so strong, and I focused on making those moments translate.

IGN: At the same time, is it just unbearably fun, in the early parts, where he’s the butt of the joke in so many ways?

Johns: The cool thing is, everyone knows who Aquaman is, and seeing him take center stage for this, it really is the year of Aquaman in a strange way. He’s a fun character. He’s really great.

Robot Chicken's Aquaman gets a special DC Comics cover

IGN: Batman, in the meantime, has a funny arc through this with Bane. Obviously, you knew that The Dark Knight Rises was coming...

Senreich: We didn’t know much about what Bane was going to be like [in the movie] when we were writing. We just knew him from the comics.

Green: We could kind of guess.

Johns: Right, we didn’t know The Dark Knight Rises was going to be huge... but we could probably guess.

Senreich: Each of the characters we kind of summed up in previous seasons of Robot Chicken to some degree. Superman is the most powerful man on the planet, so he’s allowed to be cocky and arrogant in that fun way. Wonder Woman…

Green: She’s got to stick up for herself. Nobody bests Wonder Woman, but at the same time, she’s the only female on the team, so she has to stick up for herself.

Johns: Then Green Lantern is just kind of out to have fun. He’s like a normal guy that really doesn’t deserve to be Green Lantern.

Green: He just lucked into that position. [Laughs]

Continue to Page 2 as the discussion turns to Captain Carrot, the oddity of Superman's movie powers and casting folks like Alfred Molina, Megan Fox, Nathan Fillion, Paul Reubens and Neil Patrick Harris.

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The Avengers Cross $1.5 Billion Mark

Anything Batman can do, The Avengers can do better it would seem. For no sooner has The Dark Knight Rises crossed the $1 billion mark at the global box office than the Marvel team-up movie has made $1.5 billion.

Following The Avengers’ American re-released over the Labor Day weekend, the film added a further 2.2m to its total gross, hitting the $620m mark domestically.

And as of Monday, it had made $1.502 billion worldwide.

Ignoring inflation and the higher price of a modern-day or 3D ticket, The Avengers is now the third most successful film in history, with only the James Cameron one-two punch of Avatar and Titanic ahead.

Chris Tilly is the Entertainment Editor for IGN and saw The Avengers a grand total of twice. His idle chit-chat can be found on both Twitter and MyIGN.

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Kick-Ass 2 Director Hints at a Confirmed Role for Jim Carrey

Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall director Jeff Wadlow sent out a tweet recently that may confirm what we've suspected for a while; that The Mask and Batman Forever actor Jim Carrey is joining the cast of the comic book sequel as 'The Colonel.'

The tweet reads: "6 days till we start shooting... and we officially have our Colonel. Alrighty f'n then!"

While he does not explicitly name Carrey, Wadlow uses the catch-phrase the comic actor made popular in the Ace Ventura: Pet Detective movies.

As we previously reported, The Colonel will be a key supporting role in the sequel. "He helps galvanize the team of misfit super heroes assembled to fight evil," quoted Wadlow to Deadline. The site stated that Carrey was being wooed for the project back in August.

With reference to the Kick-Ass comics, "The Colonel" could be Colonel Stars, whose alter-ego is Sal Bertolinni, a former mob soldier-turned-born again Christian superhero.

Original cast members Aaron Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and Nicolas Cage are all set to return for the sequel, with shooting starting in a few days. Stay tuned for any further updates.

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Detective Comics Annual #1 Review

Prior to the New 52, much of Tony Daniel's Batman work was centered around establishing a new version of Black Mask, a villain who turned out to be none other than Dr. Jeremiah Arkham. Recently, Daniel has returned to Black Mask in his Detective Comics run, though now Roman Sionis is back under the mask and Arkham is on the right side of the law again. Detective Comics Annual #1 offers Daniel a chance to explore the current status quo of these characters outside the confines of the main series. Though it definitely has its rough patches, this annual isn't a bad way for Daniel to end his writing stint on the series.

This is one of those issues where Batman is basically a glorified guest star. But the benefit to having such a large, diverse, and downright awesome rogues gallery is that it's okay to relegate Batman to the background now and then. The majority of Daniel's attention is focused on Sionis. In many ways the villain is reverting to a more old-school version of himself, between the hypnotic powers and the return of the False Face Society. I miss the more sadistic take on the character seen in the days of Judd Winick's Batman run and the War Games crossover, but this version has its merits as well.

Black Mask may be the star, but he's hardly the only familiar Bat villain to make an appearance. Whether explicitly mandated or not, it's seemed that most of the New 52 books have focused on introducing new villains in their first year rather than relying on old favorites. It's a nice change to see characters like Clayface and Tweedledum and Tweedledee about and there's another mystery villain who Daniel puts to great use as a foil to Black Mask. In general, the issue makes effectvie use of the annual format, building on past plot points but not relying so much on continuity that newcomers cant enjoy the story.

There are some fairly significant problems with the script, unfortunately. The book becomes unintentionally silly at times despite the fairly grim tone. Part of this is because Daniel's dialogue doesn't always function as intended. Characters who are meant to come across as tough and scary instead trip over awkward lines. This is a problem that has plagued Daniel's Batman work to one degree or another from the beginning. The final showdown is also unnecessarily silly. I was reminded of Cartman's psychic showdown from the South Park episode "The Real Psychic Detectives."

Romano Molenaar and Pere Perez divide up the art duties on this issue. Molenaar's work resembles a more loose, frenetic version of Daniel's, and fits the general aesthetic of the series pretty well. It does become a bit too loose and lacking in detail at times. Perez's work is a little more straightforward and plain but also more detail oriented. It's not a visually spectacular issue by any means, but both artist contribute some memorable action scenes.

Detective Comics Annual #1 does little to push any of the characters involved forward or make changes to the Bat universe, but it does at least solidify Black Mask and a handful of other villains' places in the New 52. Hopefully Detective Comics can find a stronger sense of identity and purpose as the creative team shifts in the coming months.

Jesse is a writer for IGN Comics and IGN Movies. He can't wait until he's old enough to feel ways about stuff. Follow Jesse on Twitter, or find him on IGN.

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Rebooted Batman to Debut in Justice League Movie?

Rumor has it that the live-action Justice League of America movie will also ostensibly serve as the reboot of Batman on the big screen.

Batman-on-Film reports that a "solid as they come" source tells them the Batman "reboot will come after the JL film, not before. Therefore, the new cinematic Batman will be introduced in the JL film as opposed to a solo film. This would ... assure the new Batman film series will be part of a 'DC Cinematic Universe.'"

The site cautions, however, that while their source is legit, they still advise readers to take the rumor "with a grain of salt" for now.

Next summer's Man of Steel is expected to be the final DC Comics movie until at least 2015, when scuttlebutt suggests the JLA film will be released.

JLA is being scripted by Will Beall. No director is currently involved, although recent reports claims the Wachowskis are high up on Warner Bros.' wish list to helm it.

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Freeman, Banks Give Voice to Lego Movie

Oscar winner Morgan Freeman, who played Lucius Fox in Nolan's Batman trilogy, will once again cross paths with the Caped Crusader onscreen ... this time in LEGO form.

Deadline reports that both Freeman and The Hunger Games' Elizabeth Banks have been added to the voice cast of Warners' animated LEGO Movie. They join Chris Pratt and Will Arnett, who play the movie's protagonist and a LEGO version of Batman, respectively.

No word on Banks' role, but Freeman's character is said to be named "Vitruvius," which also just so happens to be the name of an ancient Roman author of a multi-volume work on architecture (a fitting subject for LEGO).

The movie will be directed by 21 Jump Street's Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Lord recently described the film as the story of "a young man who doesn't have a creative bone in his body and [he] has to always build things from the instructions. ... He's an 'instructions worker.' In the LEGO city, they build buildings, and it turns out in this universe it's illegal to build apart from the instructions. So what he finds out is that he's actually [a] descendant from these like super creative Jedi-type people who are called 'Master Builders' and he has been charged with saving the universe from being frozen together by an evil bad guy, so over the course of the movie he has to unlearn all of that lame-o, uncreative stuff and learn how to build without all of the instructions in order to save the universe."

The LEGO Movie opens February 28, 2014.

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