Is this thing still on?

I am not sure how many of you are still paying attention to us. I know it’s only been a bit over a month since we posted anything here, but it feels much longer than that. Maybe that’s because the last time we posted an episode was about three months ago, outside of this appearance on Media Junkyard from a couple of weeks ago.

It always seems that Fall has a habit of just derailing anything Dane and I try to do podcast wise. It happened to us a little bit last year, but it has been bad this year. More on that later.

So. How do you start back into the process of running a website and a podcast after you’ve had the year I’ve had? Short answer? I’m not quite sure. For now, I just have all these random thoughts in my head related to comics, music and other general things (however, I’ll just stick to comics this time around). I haven’t had the time or the venue to really sit down and talk them out. I found myself with some free time this evening and decided it would be best to write it all it, if not for anyone but myself.

Here’s some context on where I’ve been, what I’ve been doing and what’s next.

Warner Bros. has released the first teaser trailer for Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight Rises. We’ve placed the trailer below for your viewing pleasure.

The Dark Knight Rises stars Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Josh Pence, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, and Nestor Carbonell. The film is set to release on July 20, 2012.

The comics world is mourning an incredible loss today as legendary comic writer, Dwayne McDuffie, passed away due to complications from surgery. McDuffie was the creator of Milestone Media, which sought to expand the role of minorities in comic books. He also served as the story editor for the popular Justice League Unlimited television series and wrote a number of DC animated films including the newly released All-Star Superman.

Dan DiDio released the following over on DC Source blog:

Dwayne McDuffie left a lasting legacy on the world of comics that many writers can only aspire to. He will not only be remembered as the extremely gifted writer whose scripts have been realized as comic books, in television shows and on the silver screen, but as the creator or co-creator of so many of the much-loved Milestone characters, including Static Shock. The industry has lost a true talent.

Our sincerest condolences go out to the family and many friends he leaves behind.

He is survived by his wife.

Mark Waid has posted on Twitter that C2E2 will hold a special memorial panel at the upcoming convention. The panel will be held on Saturday, Mar. 5, 2011 at 7 p.m. in Room 4C1-2 and will be open to public.

We at Between the Panels want to offer our most sincere condolences to Mr. McDuffie’s family and friends. The industry has truly lost a legend today.

Sources: CBR, Twitter

As you can tell, we’ve been dark for most of December, but we wanted to wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We’ll be back in 2011 with plenty of new content for your reading pleasure. Until then, enjoy Santron!

On behalf of everyone here at Between the Panels, we wish each and everyone of you a Happy Thanksgiving and here’s Pilgrim Batman to show you thankful we are!

As many of us know, DisneyXD has begun airing Marvel’s newest cartoon, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes on Wednesdays at 8:30pm est. The team includes Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wasp, Thor, and The Incredible Hulk. So far we’ve had cameos from Avenger favorites like Hawkeye, Captain America, Black Panther, Nick Fury, and a slew of villains ranging from The Abomination to Grim Reaper. I’ve been watching it for a while and I was enthused at first, but five episodes in and it doesn’t feel like anything we haven’t seen before. There’s Hulk vs. everyone, which is always fun, Hulk gets drafted, and then Hulk gets tricked into a rematch of Hulk vs. everyone, which is still entertaining, but gets old at this point. The art direction leaves much to be desired as it comes off as childish and tones down the action. Hopefully, as the show continues, we’ll see some the great story elements that we know Marvel is capable of, until then I give this three shields out of five.