Sometimes, you get to write a post, and, even though there’s no official art for the concept, you already  know you can count on the internet to have generated it for you. So, thanks to DeviantArt user SakuraKaijuu, I have the perfect title image with which to tell you that Lauren Faust, the creator of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic may have been tapped to make a series of animated shorts about the joint adventures of Batgirl, Supergirl, and Wonder Girl.

It seems as though Sam Register, executive VP of creative affairs at Warner Bros. Animation, was mostly at the MIP Junior conference to talk about DC Nation’s next ongoing cartoon series Beware the Batman, a CGI-animated series featuring “a classic-looking Batman teaming up with a gun-toting Alfred Pennyworth and a female ninja sidekick.” Her name is Katana (this Katana or this Katana, I wonder?), but she “won’t be a replacement for Robin.” So, huh. It’s executive-produced by Glen Murakami, a veteran of every show that ever made up a part of the DCAU and the animated Teen Titans, so it will still most likely be worth a try when it airs to coincide with the release of The Dark Knight Rises. (If you’re wondering where Bruce Timm is, he’s busy working on feature length DC animation.)

However, Register also outlined the kinds of things that will be appearing on Cartoon Network’s new programming block called DC Nation, announced earlier this year to premiere in 2012. And so, in addition to mentioning “Aardman Animation creating new claymation Batman shorts” (awesome!) and “Plastic Man animated shorts,” (maybe from the SpongeBob guys?), he let it slip that Warner Bros. animation is letting Lauren Faust take a crack at their most female sidekick characters.

It’s no secret that we love Lauren Faust here, because she says things like this and this, and by proxy, we love My Little Pony as well. Please, DC and Warner Bros. Animation. Don’t forget about this one. These days there’s a significant portion of the comics reading public who got into comics because of film adaptations (mostly animated) introduced them to their favorite characters, myself included. If you really are committed to expanding your audience, letting Lauren Faust do a show with your characters for young girls and then backing that up with comics they can read when they get older, or that older fans of the show will enjoy reading just as much is an excellent way to get there.

(World’s Finest via The Squeaky Wheel. Top pic from SakuraKaijuu.)

As captured by Marvel’s Agent M.

• According to Rush Limbaugh completely misinterpreting some science, women choose careers because they’re too ugly to get married. The Frisky explains why, uh, no. Not even according to the source you were citing.
• Hey, just in case you were wondering, this joke site that assumes all Diablo III gamers are straight men? Yeah, it’s not owned or operated by Blizzard, but rather by somebody in Canada. Blizzard might not be perfect (nobody is) but it’s smarter than that.

Batgirl writer Gail Simone shows off an upcoming bust of the character. (Tumblr)

• io9 examines the lack of hard scientific evidence we have of on the effects of abortion as a medical procedure, and the emotional and financial cost of that procedure not being available on women, and asks why.

Cartoon Network’s Beware the Batman teaser doesn’t exactly thrill me, but maybe I’m just jaded.

• Disney is looking into making their theme park attraction Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride into a feature length film, but nobody’s been able to explain to me how this isn’t just a Wind in the Willows adaptation. (Deadline)

This is Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock. Yes, we’re quite impressed too. (Empire Online)

• The Atlantic talks tropes: the five different kinds of fictional female vice presidents.

We love the comics Faith Erin Hicks has been making for Tor.com, and this time she did one about The Legend of Korra! (Tor)

One portion of the adorableness that is this series of Star Wars villains as little kids by Etsy user OctopusTreehouse. (via Geekosystem) 

• Target debuts their new wedding registry advertisement and it features a gay couple! Check it out at The Frisky!
• Sarah Pinault over at GeekMom breaks down some evidence in “Why Doctor Who Can Cross Time and Space But Never Be a Woman.”
• Congratulations to Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroes – the documentary we previously told you about is the audience award winner of the Indianapolis International Film Festival!

Some seriously cool double helix stockings. (via Fashionably Geek)

• Another young adult novel has been snapped up by Hollywood. This time it’s Jessica Khoury’s Origin. The author is only 22-year old and the book doesn’t hit stores until September. (via The Hollywood Reporter)
• Warner Bros. is heading back to the editing room to alter some realistic weapon imagery in their forthcoming Beware the Batman animated series. (via The Beat)
• Actor Christopher Lee celebrated his 90th birthday by releasing another heavy metal album. That’s right. This is his second. (via I Heart Chaos)

And here with have Gollum giving Bilbo a serious talking to about what is and is not acceptable when you enter a Hobbit’s secret cave. (via Blastr)

Watchers of DC’s New 52 have taken careful notes of the timing of DC’s announcements of cancellations and new titles, and so no one was very surprised this morning to get the news of a few new titles for the New 52, including Justice League of America, Vibe, and Katana. Those last two are pretty cool, as they’re both characters of color who have never had their own titles before. But we’re especially excited about Katana getting her own series because, well, we’re The Mary Sue, and because, as DC Women Kicking Ass points out, this is only the third time in the history of American superhero comics that DC has had a woman of color with her own ongoing series. But that’s just one reason you should care about Tatsu Yamashiro, alias Katana. Here are some more.

Her Origin

Tatsu lived the ordinary life of a Japanese woman and martial arts prodigy, with two brothers for her best buds: Maseo and Takeo. Of course, both brothers were besotted with her, and when she eventually chose one of them over the other, it did not go well. Maseo accepted her hand in marriage, while Takeo took his sorrow and anger to the Yakuza. Takeo’s skill allowed him to rise quickly up the ranks, eventually receiving an ancient and magical katana as a gift from one of his bosses. By that time, Tatsu and Maseo had settled down to raise their twins.

Still, when Takeo returned to take his revenge, Maseo was able to hold him off until their struggle started a fire and the danger to his children distracted him. At this point, Tatsu came on the scene of her husband’s murder, disarmed Takeo, and that her husband was speaking to her through the sword that had just taken her family. One escape and a training montage with a samurai master later, Tatsu was the newly fledged bane-of-the-Yakuza Katana, her sword, imbued with Maseo’s soul, her only companion.

So, to put in another way, she’s a genderswapped, Japanese version of the Punisher, if Frank Castle preferred to wield a samurai sword that spoke to him in the voice of his dead wife.

You Might Already Be Familiar With Her

Katana was among the first to be hand picked by Batman for his “covert ops” Justice League, The Outsiders. The Caped Crusader formed the group as one that could take on the cases that were to nightmarish in public opinion for the Justice League, as the public face of superheroes, to touch. Katana was a constant in the group, from its inception in the mid-eighties right up to the New 52.

You Might Be Seeing More of Her Soon

Cartoon Network hasn’t been doing the best job of promoting its DC series right now, but one of the shows that it’s got waiting in the wings is Beware the Batman, the newest Batman cartoon series since Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Among the show’s changes from what children of the 80s and 90s remember from their Batman cartoons is a gun-toting Alfred and no Robin. Instead, Batman’s new sidekick is, yes, a young Japanese girl who goes by the code name Katana. And while creators have assured us that Alfred’s handguns, which appeared in leaked pitch material, are an inaccurate representation of what’s actually going on, Katana remains.

It does make one wonder if Warner Bros. Animation used its shared parent company to drum up some publicity for their show. Katana is likely to come to stores around February, and Beware is scheduled for spring 2013, so there would at least a few issues of it out. DC has not, with the New 52, shown much inclination to tune their comics in tone or characterization to a popular cartoon adaptation, however, so it could be mere coincidence.

The Talent

Katana is being written by Ann Nocenti, one of the two three female writers DC currently has working on the New 52. Nocenti will be leaving her post on Green Arrow’s title for the job, but keeping her post on Catwoman. I admit I was particularly turned off by Nocenti’s take on Oliver Queen, but I was interested to see where she took Catwoman, a book I’d studiously stayed away from. Unfortunately, my store was sold out of her debut issue last month! I wait with bated breath to see what she does with Katana next year.

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Cartoon Network is busy presenting their upcoming roster of shows for advertisers and we’ve seen some interesting developments. For one, there’s an all-new Powerpuff Girls special making its way to the network but Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, and Young Justice are notably absent. Could this mean what we think it means? It sure can considering two new DC shows are premiering soon. 

While Clone Wars wasn’t mentioned, Cartoon Network did tout a special, The Yoda Chronicles, a LEGO Star Wars adventure set in the prequel timeline. Everyone knew Clone Wars’ time was short once the Disney/LucasFilm merger went through. Hopefully it will find it’s way to Disney XD without missing a beat. But what’s up with the Powerpuff Girls?

This groundbreaking and Emmy®-winning series, created by Craig McCracken, ran on Cartoon Network from 1998-2005 and will soar again as a brand-new, redesigned and re-imagined CG special coming in 2013 where the trio of pint-sized super heroines will be called upon to rescue not just the city of Townsville, but the USA and the world! Featuring an original song “I Wish I Was A Powerpuff Girl” performed by Beatles legend Ringo Starr, who also portrays Townsville’s most famous flamboyant mathematician, “Fibonacci Sequins,” this all-new original special comes from a powerhouse creative team featuring animation talent from around the globe including acclaimed director Dave Smith and award-winning art director Kevin Dart and is produced by Cartoon Network Studios in association with UK’s Passion Pictures. The special also features the original voice cast reprising their iconic roles and will premiere later this year.

Bleeding Cool believes the above image is the new design for the Girls but I haven’t seen it anywhere else and there’s no source listed. McCracken and Lauren Faust seemingly have no involvement in the special.

As far as Cartoon Network’s DC Nation programming block goes, it appears Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice are done for. They aren’t listed in returning series but two new DC animated shows we previously knew about were given a push. Teen Titans Go! will feature Robin, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg and premiere in April 2013 and Beware the Batman will feature “backup from ex-secret agent Alfred and lethal swordstress Katana” plus villains Anarky, Professor Pyg, Mister Toad and Magpie and premiere in the summer. God knows how they’re going to make Grant Morrison’s Professor Pyg kid-friendly. We can only hope parents have enough sense not to buy their children the comics with him in it.

The list of returning series or specials is as follows: Adventure Time, Regular Show, Annoying Orange, MAD, The Amazing World of Gumball, The Looney Tunes Show, Ben 10 Omniverse, Dreamworks Dragons: Riders of Berk, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Inc., Johnny Test, Pokémon Black & White: Adventures in Unova, Beyblade Metal Fury, Almost Naked Animals, and Scaredy Squirrel.

(via Deadline)

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Interesting style happening here. Not sure if I like it but it does have slight hints to Batman: The Animated Series with all the shadow work. However, I’m pretty sure Beware the Batman is going to be quite different as it features Katana as Batman’s Robin-type character and Professor Pyg (*shiver*). The new series premieres on Cartoon Network July 13, will you be watching?

(via io9)

Previously in Batman

• Batman Lip Balm
• 1960s Batman Intro, By Actual Bats
• DC/Marvel Character Mashups

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[See image gallery at www.themarysue.com]

[View All on One Page]

Warner Bros. has revealed the bags that will be available this year at San Diego Comic-Con, and they have some exciting extra features. Each bag can be turned into a backpack and comes with a detachable cape! Check out the bags and capes for Teen Titans Go!, Supernatural, Revolution, and other popular shows, and decide which design you want before you’re confronted with the 130,000 bags made for Comic-Con next week. Though there are no photos yet, Warner Bros. is also releasing Godzilla, LEGO Movie, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, classic television Batman, and 300: Rise of an Empire bags.

(via Fashionably Geek, Warner Bros. Media To Go)

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Love when I can finally tell secrets; I am back as #BATGIRL!! this Sat on #BewareTheBatman @cartoonnetwork 10:00 am #BarbaraGordon

— tara strong (@tarastrong) July 18, 2013

Tara Strong, voice of Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in The New Batman Adventures (a.k.a., Batman: The Animated Series after the art revamp), Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Super Best Friends Forever and a number of video games, announced today that she’ll also be voicing Barbara Gordon in Batman’s newest small screen incarnation, Beware the Batman. I didn’t even realize that Barbara was in it (although it was apparently mentioned at last year’s Comic Con)! Her debut episode airs this weekend.

Previously in Tara Strong and Batgirl

• We Interview Tara Strong
• Batman Beyond’s New Batgirl
• Super Best Friends Forever Gets a Zazzle Store

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With little warning and less explanation, a Cartoon Network show based on DC Comics characters has disappeared from their schedule. And yes, this isn’t a repeat post from last year, this time the unfortunate casualty is Beware the Batman, not the much beloved Young Justice and Green Lantern.

Animated television blog Nick and More was the first to notice the change in lineup:

In what seems like DC Nation déjà vu, new episodes of Beware the Batman have been pulled from Cartoon Network next weekend (repeats too).

In what seems like DC Nation déjà vu, new episodes of Beware the Batman have been pulled from Cartoon Network next weekend (repeats too).

— NICK AND MORE (@nickandmore) October 20, 2013

Which is pretty spooky for fans of the series, and not just because they’re not going to see episodes for a few weeks. It was precisely one year and one week ago today that the DC Nation programming block, then only a couple episodes into new seasons of its half hour shows and about to premiere a new series of shorts, was unceremoniously removed completely from Cartoon Network schedule, leaving fans and even creators without explanation. Cartoon Network eventually tweeted cheerfully that the shows would be back in January after a three month hiatus, leaving out an explanation as to why. That January the network announced that both Young Justice and Green Lantern would not be renewed, leaving many fans quite distraught.

There may be less outrage about Beware the Batman. The series had also made the laudable out of the box move to make their Batman’s sidekick not only female but a woman of color, opting for the character of Katana over any of the Robins, and had just introduced Barbara Gordon. But the show wasn’t exactly garnering blockbuster ratings for CN, with an average of about 1.2 million viewers per episode in its debut month of July. Still, that’s about 1.2 million disappointed folks, and potentially, if things go like they did last year, the third cancelled DC animated series in two years.

(via Comic Book Movie.)

Remember when we told you the latest entry into the Batman animated universe, Beware the Batman, seemingly disappeared from the television schedule? Cartoon Network has decided to release a statement about that and well, see for yourself…

Animated television blog Nick and More noticed the lineup change recently, which included not just new episodes but also repeats of the animated series. Beware the Batman just premiered this past July and featured a slightly younger Batman than usual, Alfred in a starring role, and Katana as a sidekick.

But Comic Book Resources was able to get this statement from the network:

“Currently, ‘Beware the Batman’ is no longer on our air. DC Nation will continue on Saturday mornings at 10/9c with new exclusive shorts and a full hour of encore episodes of ‘Teen Titans Go!'”

So, that doesn’t really tell us anything. It just confirms what we already knew – Beware the Batman is no longer on the air. But is it off the air for good? CBR points out actor Anthony Ruivivar originally tweeted about the show going on hiatus until January but followed that up later saying the network “is currently not airing new episodes. Stay tuned and thanks for your continued support.”

I’m sure that doesn’t give fans much hope considering Cartoon Network’s recent track record of putting Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series on hiatus and then canceling them. I wouldn’t bet money on Beware the Batman returning but it really makes me concerned about networks’ attention spans. It feels as if new shows aren’t given nearly enough time to find their audience before they’re pulled to try something that might go over better. It’s a shame.

(via Comic Book Resources)

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Does it ever feel like Warner Bros. thinks girls are icky? Here’s a story that may lend credence to that theory. 

Writer/producer Paul Dini recently joined Kevin Smith on his Fatman on Batman podcast. They got on the topic of Dini’s work on Warner Bros. animated projects, which is vast, and discussed how the recently cancelled Cartoon Network series Young Justice was a lot like Dini’s work from 10-years ago (like Batman Beyond). It had storylines that went throughout the season and really built on top of each other. Dini went on to explain:

But then, there’s been this weird—there’s been a sudden trend in animation, with super-heroes. Like, ‘It’s too old. It’s too old for our audience, and it has to be younger. It has to be funnier.’ And that’s when I watch the first couple of episodes of Teen Titans Go!, it’s like those are the wacky moments in the Teen Titans cartoon, without any of the more serious moments. ‘And let’s just do them all fighting over pizza, or running around crazy and everything, ’cause our audience—the audience we wanna go after, is not the Young Justice audience any more. We wanna go after little kids, who are into—boys who are into goofy humor, goofy random humor, like on Adventure Time or Regular Show. We wanna do that goofy, that’s where we’re going for.’”

Dini goes on to mention how the Young Justice stories were much more teenager-oriented but the trend is to hit younger audiences with the newer shows. He said, “They’re all for the boys, we do not want the girls! I mean, I’ve heard executives say this, you know, not where I am but at other places, saying like, ‘We do not want girls watching these shows.” When Smith pointed out that was a strange move because, well, women are 51% of the population, Dini said, “They don’t buy toys. The girls buy different toys.”

True, most “girls” don’t buy “boy” toys and there’s a much longer history as to why that happens which I won’t bother delving into here, but as Smith next pointed out – aren’t there other merchandising options to make money from the “girls” market?

Smith: You can sell them T-shirts if they don’t—A: I disagree, I think girls buy toys as well, maybe not as many as fucking boys do, but, B: sell them something else, man! Don’t be lazy and be like, ‘well I can’t sell a girl a toy.’ Sell ‘em a t-shirt, man, sell them fucking umbrella with the fucking character on it, something like that. But if it’s not a toy, there’s something else you could sell ‘em! Like, just because you can’t figure out your job, don’t kill chances of, like, something that’s gonna reach an audi—that’s, it’s just so self-defeating, when people go, like… these are the same fuckers who go, like, ‘Oh, girls don’t read comics, girls aren’t into comics.’ It’s all self-fulfilling prophecies. They just make it that way, by going like, ‘I can’t sell ‘em a toy, what’s the point?’

Dini: That’s the thing, you know I hate being Mr. Sour Grapes here, but I’ll just lay it on the line: that’s the thing that got us cancelled on Tower Prep, honest-to-God was, it’s like, ‘we need boys, but we need girls right there, right one step behind the boys’—this is the network talking—’one step behind the boys, not as smart as the boys, not as interesting as boys, but right there.’ And then we began writing stories that got into the two girls’ back stories, and they were really interesting. And suddenly we had families and girls watching, and girls really became a big part of our audience, in sort of like they picked up that Harry Potter type of serialized way, which is what The Batman in boarding school [?] is really gonna kill. But, the Cartoon Network was saying, ‘Fuck no, we want the boys’ action, it’s boys’ action, this goofy boy humor we’ve gotta get that in there. And we can’t—’ and I’d say, but look at the numbers, we’ve got parents watching, with the families, and then when you break it down—’Yeah, but the—so many—we’ve got too many girls. We need more boys.’

SMITH: That’s heart-breaking.

To say the least.

We reached out for additional comments from Dini but he felt he’d had his say. To be sure, what else is there to say? “Girls don’t buy our toys so we don’t want too many of them watching our TV show” is a terrible outlook to have, not just as a human being but as someone trying to sell things to make a living. I also can’t help think this is an overall notion throughout the company considering the state of their live-action superhero properties. They don’t believe in women as a market even though they are constantly shown proof otherwise.

If you’d like to listen to just this portion of the podcast, HelpSaveOurHeroes.tumblr.com has an edit for you.

(via DC Women Kicking Ass, image via HDWallpaper)

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Bee in your bonnet? (via That’s Nerdalicious) 

• The rest of Cartoon Network’s Beware the Batman Season 1 will air…at 3 a.m. on May 10th. (via Blastr)
• Descendants, the project featuring the children of Disney’s famous villains, gains Evvie, the daughter of the Evil Queen from Snow White in actress Sofia Carson and Cameron Boyce as Carlos, the son of 101 Dalmations’ Cruella De Vil, (via The Wrap and The Wrap)
• Old weekend editor Janelle Asselin has been dealing with some crazy stuff lately for sharing her opinions online. Here’s an interview she did with 13th Dimension on her past and present with comics.

Still no premiere date though. (via The Hollywood Reporter)

• Check out this Kickster for Femme-Con, “a feature length documentary exhibiting female cosplayers, their passion, and dedication for the industry.”
• IDW Entertainment Teams With George Lopez For Animated TV Series Based On Ben Templesmith’s ‘Wormwood’ Comics. (via Deadline)
• Marvel Confirms Avengers: Age of Ultron to Open Internationally April 24, 2015. That’s a week earlier than the US release, FYI. (via SuperheroHype)

Yahoo has this fabulous image of Jamie Foxx at the Amazing Spider-Man 2 premiere with his daughter…cosplaying Electro.

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Amazing news on Arrow Season 3 has just dropped. Devon Aoki will be joining the cast as none other than DC Comics’ Katana.

I thought it would be quite some time before we had any news on the Arrow front but I am happily surprised. TV Line reports actress Aoki has been cast as Katana, “a ‘deadly,’ blade-wielding martial arts expert.” Which, you know, is kinda familiar territory for her having played Miho in the first Sin City film.

Tatsu Yamashiro is the character’s real name from her DC Comics origins. She first appeared in The Brave and the Bold #200 and has since gone on to be a member of The Outsiders and the Birds of Prey, star in her own title, and has appeared in both Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Beware the Batman animated series.

It’s unclear as of yet what her origins on Arrow will be. You may recall the big reveal from the Season 2 finale of Oliver waking up in Hong Kong after the big fight on the island. TV Line gives us these details, “Aoki’s character will be seen in Hong Kong flashbacks and will play a ‘critical’ role in Oliver’s journey to becoming the Arrow. It’s not yet known whether Tastu will also appear in present-day Starling City.”

Aoki hasn’t been in much the last few years, and didn’t reprise her role in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, but it’s safe to say I’m incredibly excited to see what the Arrow team has in store. What about you?

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Sometimes, you get to write a post, and, even though there’s no official art for the concept, you already  know you can count on the internet to have generated it for you. So, thanks to DeviantArt user SakuraKaijuu, I have the perfect title image with which to tell you that Lauren Faust, the creator of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic may have been tapped to make a series of animated shorts about the joint adventures of Batgirl, Supergirl, and Wonder Girl.

It seems as though Sam Register, executive VP of creative affairs at Warner Bros. Animation, was mostly at the MIP Junior conference to talk about DC Nation’s next ongoing cartoon series Beware the Batman, a CGI-animated series featuring “a classic-looking Batman teaming up with a gun-toting Alfred Pennyworth and a female ninja sidekick.” Her name is Katana (this Katana or this Katana, I wonder?), but she “won’t be a replacement for Robin.” So, huh. It’s executive-produced by Glen Murakami, a veteran of every show that ever made up a part of the DCAU and the animated Teen Titans, so it will still most likely be worth a try when it airs to coincide with the release of The Dark Knight Rises. (If you’re wondering where Bruce Timm is, he’s busy working on feature length DC animation.)

However, Register also outlined the kinds of things that will be appearing on Cartoon Network’s new programming block called DC Nation, announced earlier this year to premiere in 2012. And so, in addition to mentioning “Aardman Animation creating new claymation Batman shorts” (awesome!) and “Plastic Man animated shorts,” (maybe from the SpongeBob guys?), he let it slip that Warner Bros. animation is letting Lauren Faust take a crack at their most female sidekick characters.

It’s no secret that we love Lauren Faust here, because she says things like this and this, and by proxy, we love My Little Pony as well. Please, DC and Warner Bros. Animation. Don’t forget about this one. These days there’s a significant portion of the comics reading public who got into comics because of film adaptations (mostly animated) introduced them to their favorite characters, myself included. If you really are committed to expanding your audience, letting Lauren Faust do a show with your characters for young girls and then backing that up with comics they can read when they get older, or that older fans of the show will enjoy reading just as much is an excellent way to get there.

(World’s Finest via The Squeaky Wheel. Top pic from SakuraKaijuu.)

As captured by Marvel’s Agent M.

• According to Rush Limbaugh completely misinterpreting some science, women choose careers because they’re too ugly to get married. The Frisky explains why, uh, no. Not even according to the source you were citing.
• Hey, just in case you were wondering, this joke site that assumes all Diablo III gamers are straight men? Yeah, it’s not owned or operated by Blizzard, but rather by somebody in Canada. Blizzard might not be perfect (nobody is) but it’s smarter than that.

Batgirl writer Gail Simone shows off an upcoming bust of the character. (Tumblr)

• io9 examines the lack of hard scientific evidence we have of on the effects of abortion as a medical procedure, and the emotional and financial cost of that procedure not being available on women, and asks why.

Cartoon Network’s Beware the Batman teaser doesn’t exactly thrill me, but maybe I’m just jaded.

• Disney is looking into making their theme park attraction Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride into a feature length film, but nobody’s been able to explain to me how this isn’t just a Wind in the Willows adaptation. (Deadline)

This is Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock. Yes, we’re quite impressed too. (Empire Online)

• The Atlantic talks tropes: the five different kinds of fictional female vice presidents.

We love the comics Faith Erin Hicks has been making for Tor.com, and this time she did one about The Legend of Korra! (Tor)

One portion of the adorableness that is this series of Star Wars villains as little kids by Etsy user OctopusTreehouse. (via Geekosystem) 

• Target debuts their new wedding registry advertisement and it features a gay couple! Check it out at The Frisky!
• Sarah Pinault over at GeekMom breaks down some evidence in “Why Doctor Who Can Cross Time and Space But Never Be a Woman.”
• Congratulations to Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroes – the documentary we previously told you about is the audience award winner of the Indianapolis International Film Festival!

Some seriously cool double helix stockings. (via Fashionably Geek)

• Another young adult novel has been snapped up by Hollywood. This time it’s Jessica Khoury’s Origin. The author is only 22-year old and the book doesn’t hit stores until September. (via The Hollywood Reporter)
• Warner Bros. is heading back to the editing room to alter some realistic weapon imagery in their forthcoming Beware the Batman animated series. (via The Beat)
• Actor Christopher Lee celebrated his 90th birthday by releasing another heavy metal album. That’s right. This is his second. (via I Heart Chaos)

And here with have Gollum giving Bilbo a serious talking to about what is and is not acceptable when you enter a Hobbit’s secret cave. (via Blastr)

Watchers of DC’s New 52 have taken careful notes of the timing of DC’s announcements of cancellations and new titles, and so no one was very surprised this morning to get the news of a few new titles for the New 52, including Justice League of America, Vibe, and Katana. Those last two are pretty cool, as they’re both characters of color who have never had their own titles before. But we’re especially excited about Katana getting her own series because, well, we’re The Mary Sue, and because, as DC Women Kicking Ass points out, this is only the third time in the history of American superhero comics that DC has had a woman of color with her own ongoing series. But that’s just one reason you should care about Tatsu Yamashiro, alias Katana. Here are some more.

Her Origin

Tatsu lived the ordinary life of a Japanese woman and martial arts prodigy, with two brothers for her best buds: Maseo and Takeo. Of course, both brothers were besotted with her, and when she eventually chose one of them over the other, it did not go well. Maseo accepted her hand in marriage, while Takeo took his sorrow and anger to the Yakuza. Takeo’s skill allowed him to rise quickly up the ranks, eventually receiving an ancient and magical katana as a gift from one of his bosses. By that time, Tatsu and Maseo had settled down to raise their twins.

Still, when Takeo returned to take his revenge, Maseo was able to hold him off until their struggle started a fire and the danger to his children distracted him. At this point, Tatsu came on the scene of her husband’s murder, disarmed Takeo, and that her husband was speaking to her through the sword that had just taken her family. One escape and a training montage with a samurai master later, Tatsu was the newly fledged bane-of-the-Yakuza Katana, her sword, imbued with Maseo’s soul, her only companion.

So, to put in another way, she’s a genderswapped, Japanese version of the Punisher, if Frank Castle preferred to wield a samurai sword that spoke to him in the voice of his dead wife.

You Might Already Be Familiar With Her

Katana was among the first to be hand picked by Batman for his “covert ops” Justice League, The Outsiders. The Caped Crusader formed the group as one that could take on the cases that were to nightmarish in public opinion for the Justice League, as the public face of superheroes, to touch. Katana was a constant in the group, from its inception in the mid-eighties right up to the New 52.

You Might Be Seeing More of Her Soon

Cartoon Network hasn’t been doing the best job of promoting its DC series right now, but one of the shows that it’s got waiting in the wings is Beware the Batman, the newest Batman cartoon series since Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Among the show’s changes from what children of the 80s and 90s remember from their Batman cartoons is a gun-toting Alfred and no Robin. Instead, Batman’s new sidekick is, yes, a young Japanese girl who goes by the code name Katana. And while creators have assured us that Alfred’s handguns, which appeared in leaked pitch material, are an inaccurate representation of what’s actually going on, Katana remains.

It does make one wonder if Warner Bros. Animation used its shared parent company to drum up some publicity for their show. Katana is likely to come to stores around February, and Beware is scheduled for spring 2013, so there would at least a few issues of it out. DC has not, with the New 52, shown much inclination to tune their comics in tone or characterization to a popular cartoon adaptation, however, so it could be mere coincidence.

The Talent

Katana is being written by Ann Nocenti, one of the two three female writers DC currently has working on the New 52. Nocenti will be leaving her post on Green Arrow’s title for the job, but keeping her post on Catwoman. I admit I was particularly turned off by Nocenti’s take on Oliver Queen, but I was interested to see where she took Catwoman, a book I’d studiously stayed away from. Unfortunately, my store was sold out of her debut issue last month! I wait with bated breath to see what she does with Katana next year.

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Cartoon Network is busy presenting their upcoming roster of shows for advertisers and we’ve seen some interesting developments. For one, there’s an all-new Powerpuff Girls special making its way to the network but Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, and Young Justice are notably absent. Could this mean what we think it means? It sure can considering two new DC shows are premiering soon. 

While Clone Wars wasn’t mentioned, Cartoon Network did tout a special, The Yoda Chronicles, a LEGO Star Wars adventure set in the prequel timeline. Everyone knew Clone Wars’ time was short once the Disney/LucasFilm merger went through. Hopefully it will find it’s way to Disney XD without missing a beat. But what’s up with the Powerpuff Girls?

This groundbreaking and Emmy®-winning series, created by Craig McCracken, ran on Cartoon Network from 1998-2005 and will soar again as a brand-new, redesigned and re-imagined CG special coming in 2013 where the trio of pint-sized super heroines will be called upon to rescue not just the city of Townsville, but the USA and the world! Featuring an original song “I Wish I Was A Powerpuff Girl” performed by Beatles legend Ringo Starr, who also portrays Townsville’s most famous flamboyant mathematician, “Fibonacci Sequins,” this all-new original special comes from a powerhouse creative team featuring animation talent from around the globe including acclaimed director Dave Smith and award-winning art director Kevin Dart and is produced by Cartoon Network Studios in association with UK’s Passion Pictures. The special also features the original voice cast reprising their iconic roles and will premiere later this year.

Bleeding Cool believes the above image is the new design for the Girls but I haven’t seen it anywhere else and there’s no source listed. McCracken and Lauren Faust seemingly have no involvement in the special.

As far as Cartoon Network’s DC Nation programming block goes, it appears Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Young Justice are done for. They aren’t listed in returning series but two new DC animated shows we previously knew about were given a push. Teen Titans Go! will feature Robin, Starfire, Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg and premiere in April 2013 and Beware the Batman will feature “backup from ex-secret agent Alfred and lethal swordstress Katana” plus villains Anarky, Professor Pyg, Mister Toad and Magpie and premiere in the summer. God knows how they’re going to make Grant Morrison’s Professor Pyg kid-friendly. We can only hope parents have enough sense not to buy their children the comics with him in it.

The list of returning series or specials is as follows: Adventure Time, Regular Show, Annoying Orange, MAD, The Amazing World of Gumball, The Looney Tunes Show, Ben 10 Omniverse, Dreamworks Dragons: Riders of Berk, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Inc., Johnny Test, Pokémon Black & White: Adventures in Unova, Beyblade Metal Fury, Almost Naked Animals, and Scaredy Squirrel.

(via Deadline)

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Interesting style happening here. Not sure if I like it but it does have slight hints to Batman: The Animated Series with all the shadow work. However, I’m pretty sure Beware the Batman is going to be quite different as it features Katana as Batman’s Robin-type character and Professor Pyg (*shiver*). The new series premieres on Cartoon Network July 13, will you be watching?

(via io9)

Previously in Batman

• Batman Lip Balm
• 1960s Batman Intro, By Actual Bats
• DC/Marvel Character Mashups

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Warner Bros. has revealed the bags that will be available this year at San Diego Comic-Con, and they have some exciting extra features. Each bag can be turned into a backpack and comes with a detachable cape! Check out the bags and capes for Teen Titans Go!, Supernatural, Revolution, and other popular shows, and decide which design you want before you’re confronted with the 130,000 bags made for Comic-Con next week. Though there are no photos yet, Warner Bros. is also releasing Godzilla, LEGO Movie, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, classic television Batman, and 300: Rise of an Empire bags.

(via Fashionably Geek, Warner Bros. Media To Go)

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