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08/07/14 @ 2:04 pm EST
“The Thing Is, Rory IS A Good Guy” – Peter Milligan Talks Terminal Hero Posted on August 5, 2014 by Dan Wickline The second book from Dynamite’s new Creators Unleashed line is Terminal Hero by Peter Milligan and Piotr Kowalski. Vampirella writer Nancy Collins talked with Milligan about the new series, the heroic tendencies of the lead character and the use of psychedelic drugs. NANCY COLLINS: Before we get into the interview, I’d like to take the time to tell you that I am a big fan of your run on Shade, The Changing Man, and I’m really happy to have this chance to speak to you about Terminal Hero, the title you’re writing for Dynamite Comics.PETER MILLIGAN: Thanks. NC: I take it Terminal Hero is a creator-owned property–Could you give us a little information on how it came to land at Dynamite Comics?PM: It is creator owned. Nick Barrrucci at Dynamite and I had been talking about working on something together for a while. The moment was right, and my ideas were coalescing for Terminal Hero, which Nick and editor Joy Rybandt really liked. So here we are. NC: What do you have to say about what artist Piotr Kowalski has done bringing your story to life?PM: I’ve just been looking through some of Piotr’s art on an issue. Piotr really captures an almost unnerving sense of normality, of normal people in normal lives. This is essential for a story like Terminal Hero, which is about the ABNORMAL entering normal lives. He’s also great at the vulnerability of characters. And Rory Fletcher, the hero of Terminal Hero, certainly has his vulnerable moments. NC: Having a terminal cancer patient gain super-powers from experimental therapy is a unique angle—what was the inspiration behind it?PM: People are throwing around the term “super-powers” and it always makes me feel a bit uneasy. I suppose because of the connection with superheroes. Rory most definitely does not turn into a superhero–though his treatment does change him, and allow him to do things he could not do before. A lot of these “powers” are also a curse, and he doesn’t always have much control over them.In terms to the inspiration, the start was a someone I knew (he was my guitar tutor, who’d become a friend) who had a seizure one day and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. We spoke quite a bit about his treatment. As well as that, even more personally, I suffer from epilepsy and take medication for it. That medication has or could have certain side-effects so it’s a subject I particularly close to. NC: Terminal Hero’s protagonist—Dr. Rory Fletcher—seems to have a definite dark side, as seen by his bursts of anger and the outward manifestations of his own guilt, but also a sense of ethics. Could you tell us more about what makes Rory tick?PM: The dark side of this person, who at the beginning considers himself a pretty good guy, is at the core of this book. It’s one of the things I was interested in exploring. The thing is, Rory IS a good guy. He became a doctor because he wanted to help people. But even this good guy has all this filth inside him. Rory must struggle to balance those sides of him. When all’s done, I still like Rory. I like how he enjoys an occasional spliff while listening to Bob Marley. He feels very human. You could say, all too human. NC: You’re well known for exploring the boundaries of ‘reality’ in your work. How trippy will Terminal Hero be? Are we talking brown acid, orange barrels, or window pane?PM: Ha ha! What makes you believe I have any experience of psychedelic drugs? The “trippiness” in Terminal Hero won’t be gratuitous, it’ll be about exploring aspects of Rory’s inner self, his guilt, his demons – and later on, the inner selves etc of some of the other souls who are given Treatment Q. NC: Outside of John Constantine, I can’t think of many comic book heroes who engage in a regimen of meaningless sex and indiscriminate drug use to keep themselves ‘stable’. Are there other superheroes you think could benefit from this therapy?PM: I think most mainstream superheroes could seriously benefit from a brutal regime of meaningless sex (if there is such a thing) and indiscriminate drug use. For more on Terminal Hero, click here. 03/14/26 @ 2:53 pm EST
Multiple sites, including Deadline and Variety, are reporting that one of the stars of the upcoming HBO series Lanterns will be making taking his character to the big screen. Aaron Pierre, who plays new Green Lantern John Stewart, is now set to appear in the upcoming James Gunn film Man of Tomorrow. Though not officially a Superman sequel, MoT stars David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult reprising their roles as Superman and Lex Luthor along with other returning cast members Rachel Brosnahan, Skyler Gisondo and Sara Sampaio. This film will also introduce another popular DC Comic’s villain, Brainiac, played by German actor Lars Eidinger. Pierre joins DC’s cosmic police force along with Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan as they team up to investigate a murder in Nebraska. The tone of the Lanterns series is much darker and grounded, in the style of a True Detective season, but this move drives home that the series is connected to Gunn’s growing DC Universe that also includes Peacemaker and the animated Creature Commandos. The interesting thing to note is that while Pierre’s Stewart will appear, there is no word on whether Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner, the Green Lantern introduced in Superman, will return. Fillion is also set to appear in Lanterns, having told reporters he has sworn more in his appearance in the upcoming series than in all of his previous roles combined. This may not bode well for the ring-wielding hero or his bowl cut. Lanterns is set to debut in August on HBO Max and Man of Tomorrow is scheduled for July 2027.  03/14/26 @ 2:34 pm EST
The anticipated reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will not be moving forward at Hulu. The news was broken to disappointed fans by producer and returning star Sarah Michelle Gellar on her Instagram this morning. The streamer had originally ordered a pilot to be directed by Eternals director Chloé Zhao from a script written Poker Face writers by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman. Gellar wrote in her post, “I want to thank Chloé Zhao because I never thought I would find myself back in Buffy’s stylish yet affordable boots. And thanks to Chloé, I was reminded how much I love her and how much she means, not only to me, but to all of you. This doesn’t change any of that, and I promise if the apocalypse actually comes… you can still beep me.” Sources say that the initial reaction to the pilot were not good and while discussions were had about reworking the pilot, Hulu has decided not to proceed but remains excited about the Buffy IP and will likely regroup and find a new approach to move the franchise forward.  02/21/26 @ 2:38 pm EST
You may have noticed that I’m not the biggest fan of ‘Industry Insiders’ who have paywalls set up to dole out rumors like… well, I couldn’t find a metaphor that wasn’t extremely insulting so we’ll just move on. Those ‘insiders’ need to have a ready supply of rumors to keep their subscribers coming back and since there is no accountability for erroneous rumors, one has to wonder if some of them are just made up out of thin air. James Gunn, co-head of DC Studios, has a times come out and addressed a batch of rumors that fans ask him about on social media. He did this again recently and here are some of the rumors he addressed along with his response. A report that the upcoming Man of Tomorrow has changed its title to Superman: Man of Tomorrow. Gunn has said before that this was more than a Superman movie and confirms the title has NOT changed by simply saying, “Nope.” Another report says that the film with begin filming in a few weeks, and while it will begin shortly, he says “by strict definition of Few, nope.” Reports say that he’s trying to rush through Matt Reeves’ The Batman Epic Crime Saga so he can then get to Brave and the Bold. That’s another ‘Nope’. Scoopers claim that Paradise Lost, the Wonder Woman prequel series was now dead or shelved. I know this will surprise you, but he said, “Nope”. And he did confirm one thing, that Superman does not believe in Santa Claus because, “He’s an adult.” Rumors can be fun to talk about and debate, but if they set unrealistic expectations that ruin the film for someone, then that’s a problem. And paying for rumors… that seems a bit crazy to me.  ... 02/21/26 @ 2:21 pm EST
Many MCU fans wonder why the events of Daredevil: Born Again won’t be even referenced in upcoming films like Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In Born Again, Wilson Fisk ( Vincent D’Onofrio) is the new Mayor of New York and has declared martial law along with creating a taskforce to hunt down vigilantes and you would think someone like Spider-Man ( Tom Holland) would be on his radar. But that’s not going to happen on the big screen, no Fisk in BND and SFX Magazine thought that would be a good thing to ask Born Again showrunner Dario Scardapane about. “I’d be into it, because I dig the comics! But no, that’s been kind of a fun and challenging thing. We know there’s a huge world out there of the MCU. This corner of it has crossovers. We’ve seen Daredevil in other shows, there are other characters that are going to be popping up in movies and stuff, and that all goes into the larger MCU of it all. The joke we make is, ‘Oh, those guys are uptown – we’re downtown!’ We kind of have a pocket that’s in this world of Hell’s Kitchen, in this world of New York. I always think that maybe these characters take a little vacation into the larger world but the story that we’re focusing on is really granular.” Let me translate that, “They can borrow our toys, but we can’t touch there’s.” A shame as we all want a real Daredevil/Spider-Man crossover.  02/14/26 @ 2:33 pm EST
“You have failed this beach!” Okay, there is probably no way Stephen Amell will say that line in the new Baywatch reboot, but I can’t be the only one who thought about it. Fox announced yesterday that the former Arrow, Heels and Suits LA star would be the lead in the networks bid to recapture the popularity of their lifeguard themed drama from the 90s. Amell will be playing the role of Hobie Buchannon, a role first introduced in the OG series. Hobie’s world turns upside down when Charlie, the daughter he didn’t know he had, shows up ready to put on the red bathing suit and follow in the family business. The show got a straight-to-series 12-episode order back in September, so the network is moving quickly. An interesting note is that Amell is the right age if the network wanted to bring back David Hasselhoff to reprise the role of Hobie’s father Mitch for an episode or two.  02/14/26 @ 2:12 pm EST
You may not have known this, but in 2021 a Zatanna movie was in the works. J.J. Abrams had given the project to Emerald Fennell to script as she was coming off 2020 directorial debut, A Promising Young Woman. So, what happened? According to Fennell, who recently joined the Happy Sad Confused podcast, what she had written was “probably too far away from the genre.” She was very honest about the work, saying: “I think it was demented because I was probably going through it at the time. And the thing is, I think what I can’t help but—and then, I’d just finished A Promising Young Woman, and there was this huge thing in this world I’d never operated in. And again, it was a kind of superhero movie, and I was like, ‘How do I make the version of a superhero movie that I would connect to emotionally?’ Which is sort of the woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown, so it’s a script reflective of a woman in the middle of a nervous breakdown. And in terms of what that means, I suppose it just meant that it was probably too far away from the genre.” For those of you who are not familiar with Zatanna, she was created by Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson in the pages of November 1964’s Hawkman and has been a consistent magical character in the DC Universe ever since, regularly teaming up with Batman, John Constantine and was a member of the Justice League. Fennell went on to describe the script, “It was really dark. I haven’t read it for a really long time, because I found it really difficult. Because, also the thing is, I love JJ [Abrams] so much, and he took a chance offering me to do it, and I really wanted to deliver something amazing for them. And I always felt like I hadn’t quite maybe delivered the thing that they wanted. So, I haven’t read it since, and I wonder if I read it now, I’d be more generous toward myself. But I felt like, I wished I’d been able to deliver the thing they wanted. They were really lovely about it, it’s even just remembering. You’re making me remember scenes, I’m like, ‘Nobody would have made that.'” I have to admit I totally want to read that script now.  ... 02/07/26 @ 11:45 am EST
Don’t expect to see Vincent D’Onofrio show up in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. It seems the rights to the character still precludes him from appearing in a film unless Sony wants him to. Which, yes, Brand New Day is a Sony/Marvel production… but while visiting the Bingworthy podcast, the Kingpin actor responded to the question about the current mayor of the MCU NYC showing up by saying, “No. I think I’ll just wait until they have the rights to my character and they put me in one of those movies, and then I’ll figure it all out.” This makes sense that Marvel can’t just have the character show up in any random film, like The Thunderbolts, without Sony saying okay, but he is available for television appearances. Why Sony has chosen to not let the character show up in a Sony film though seems a little odd, unless the actor is using the rights issue as a cover to keep from telling us that Wilson Fisk will not be the mayor after the events of the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again season two, which is scheduled to release in March and complete well before Brand New Day hits theaters.  01/31/26 @ 2:22 pm EST
In 1989 writer/artist John Byrne was working on the West Coast Avengers title for Marvel and decided to have some fun. Since there was both an east and west coast version of the team, he decided to make a third one, in the middle of the country, and keeping with the body of water theme to the names… we got the Great Lakes Avengers. The team was made up of five founding members: Mr. Immortal, Flat Man, Big Bertha, Dinah Soar and Doorman and while the team has probably had more cease-and-desist lawsuits filed against them than real battles, they have been around for years now and have popped up a lot. The interesting thing though is that two of these members have now made appearances in the MCU. And not just blink-and-you-missed-it moments. Both Mr. Immortal and Doorman have had at least half, if not a full episode of a series dedicated to them. In She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, David Pasquesi plays Craig Hollis aka Mr. Immortal who has his immortal ability and uses it to get out a marriages, which he has a lot of. When pressured by his own attorneys, he leapt out of a high-rise window and plummeted to the street below, slamming into the roof of a car, only to pop right back up and walk away. It doesn’t end well for him though as he is forced to pay off all of his exes. Then we get to meet DeMarr Davis aka the Doorman in the new Wonder Man series. Byron Bowers plays the man with the ability to use his body as a door in and out of the dark dimension. While he is a mutant in the comics, in the MCU he gets his abilities by touching toxic waste from Roxxon, similar to how Cloak & Dagger got their powers. DeMarr becomes a cautionary tale about chasing fortune and fame in Hollywood that may have cost the life of beloved actor Josh Gad. It also made the industry enact a law banning superpowered people from working in show business. This is a major plot point in the series. With two of the five characters both located in Southern California, could we end up getting the rest of the team at some point and them relocating for a fresh start? Sounds like the perfect idea for one of those Marvel Spotlight one-hour specials.  ... 01/18/26 @ 2:23 pm EST
Fans are eager to see the upcoming Lanterns series on HBO and besides a still shot and a few seconds of footage, very little about the series is known at this point. We got our first comments about it from series star Kyle Chandler who will be playing one of the most well-known Green Lanterns, Hal Jordan. Chandler was being interviewed on the Today Show for his new film The RIP with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. During the interview he was asked about Lanterns and said, “I’ve never had as much fun shooting something as I did that. The people from the top to the bottom. I can’t say enough about Chris Mundy, and the producers, the DC folks. It was an excellent experience. I expect the show to be as good as the experience I had. Aaron Pierre, who I worked with, he and I had a great time.” The series is slated to be released later this year and comes from Mundy, Damon Lindelof and Tom King. Joining Chandler and Pierre in the cast are Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro, Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner and then Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Jason Ritter, Poorna Jagannathan, and Paul Ben-Victor. There will be eight episodes and it is said to be mostly an Earth-based mystery set in the heartland of America with a True Detective vibe. 01/17/26 @ 12:41 pm EST
Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. has stirred plenty of speculation across Hollywood, but one message from the streamer’s leadership has been unusually clear: the theatrical experience isn’t going anywhere. In fact, if the sale closes, Netflix says it will strengthen Warner Bros.’ traditional theatrical model rather than shrink it. Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co‑CEO, has repeatedly emphasized that Warner Bros. films will continue to enjoy a 45‑day exclusive theatrical window—a stance that directly counters fears that Netflix would rush major releases to streaming. Sarandos described Warner Bros.’ theatrical distribution as a “phenomenal” engine that generates billions in revenue, insisting Netflix has no intention of putting that at risk. This commitment marks a notable shift in tone for Netflix, which historically prioritized streaming-first strategies. But after reviewing Warner Bros.’ financials, Sarandos acknowledged that the economics of theatrical releases are stronger than Netflix had previously modeled. He framed the 45‑day window not as a compromise but as a competitive strategy: Netflix wants to “win opening weekend” and “win box office,” embracing the same metrics that drive traditional studios. Industry observers have taken notice. While some feared the acquisition would accelerate the decline of theatrical exclusivity, Netflix’s public stance suggests a more balanced future—one where streaming power and box office ambition coexist. For now, at least, moviegoers can expect Warner Bros. films to keep lighting up big screens for a full month and a half before landing on Netflix’s platform.  |
