This Week in Geek – Million Dollar Comics, Star Wars Mascots and More Avatar Babies

Batman becomes a victim of the recession…

[Pic of the week by moviemoron.com]

This week’s news covers expensive comic books, Star Wars mascots and proves that James Cameron is an imbecile while Michael Bay is a wonderful human bean.

1. I’d love to see the face of the guy who was famous for paying $1 million to buy Action Comics #1 (which marked the first appearance of Superman), only to have his fame snatched away three days later when someone else bought the first Batman comic for $1.08 million. Kind of like the guy who bought the Mark McGuire baseball only to find out it wasn’t a record breaking ball after all. He’ll say it was about his love for the comic, but at night he’ll sit in the corner weeping like a little girl. Collectors are losers. [CBR]

   TOSS-UP: Which would you pay more for: Richie Rich #1 or Marvel’s Civil War #1?

2. The University of Mississippi wants to replace their old school mascot with Star Wars’ Admiral Ackbar. Lucasfilm is laughing about it now, saying “Lucasfilm is flattered that our Star Wars fans” but they’ll descend on them like the Death Star if they try it. “It’s a trap!”[starwarsblog]
3. Michael Bay, the director of the first two Transformers movies, said that the times have been rough and that he wants to help the economy by making Transformers 3. Bay said, “When you say yes to [a] movie like this you automatically give 3000 people jobs. 1000 for the toys. 2000 for the filmmaking.” That’s just the kind of guy Michael is. He makes movies for the warm, fuzzy feeling in our hearts. Next, he’ll be making a sequel  to The Island to help the earthquake victims in Haiti. [io9]

   OVERUNDER: Transformers budget was $150 million, the second was $200 million, the third will be $1 billion.

4. James Cameron’s ego is well-known, but reports are that the Academy Awards committee is so scared he’ll walk out of the Oscars that they’ve put the kibosh on a planned skit by Sacha Baron Cohen and Ben Stiller mocking Avatar.  Here’s the description:
   

   “Our insider informs us that Baron Cohen planned to appear onstage as a blue-skinned, female Na’vi, with Stiller translating ‘her’ interplanetary speech. As the skit went on, though, it would become clear that Stiller wasn’t translating properly, because Cohen would grow ever more upset. At its climax, an infuriated Baron Cohen would pull open ‘her’ evening gown to reveal that s/he was pregnant, knocked up with Cameron’s love child, and would go on to confront her baby daddy as if s/he were on Jerry Springer.”

   He insists that “if they want to poke fun at Avatar Sunday, that’s OK.” [Scifisquad / Scifiwire]

   ODDSMAKERS: What are the odds that they’ll do the Avatar skit? If so, what are the odds Iron Jim walks out?

Happy Anniversary:

• This week, on March 3rd 1933, the movie King Kong opened in Radio City Music Hall. The film was ground-breaking in terms of stop-motion animation and special effects, making the gigantic monkey one of the world’s most famous movie icons. Over 50 years later, the movie is remade using today’s cutting-edge special effects to become one of the biggest blockbusters of all time.

What do you think of this week’s news? Sound off in the comments!