lantern

Green Lantern relaunched as gay -- three moms outraged

Once upon a time, male superheroes only kissed girls. If they kissed anyone at all.

However, now that it can be publicly declared that boys kiss boys and lead vast companies and girls kiss girls and become mayor of Houston, superheroes are coming out of the phone booth too.

Indeed, today it was announced by DC Comics that the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, is re-emerging as a gay man.

As USA Today reports it, he will be in the second issue of DC's Earth 2 series and be the main superhero.

Indeed, he … Read more

Five gifts for the wiseass in your life

There's always at least one person on your holiday shopping list you put off as long as possible because he or she is such a pain to find something for.

You know these kinds of people. The insufferable wiseacre who insists he's easy to shop for when he's constantly looking for weird movies no one has heard of (more accurately, ones no one wants to watch), or talks about how he needs to add to his collection of '70s and '80s TV commercials. They're like gift hipsters. It would be too easy to just get them something readily available.

These are the people for whom gift cards were created.

Ah, but it doesn't have to be that way. With a minimum of fuss, you can get something unusual for that precious snowflake in your life without having to leave the house. Here, in no particular order, are five Crave-worthy ideas that don't involve your online shopping history being inexorably linked to movies with titles like "Blood Freak" or "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies." … Read more

Comic book heroes then and now

It's amazing to think how many comic book characters--some from decades ago--are still relevant to pop and geek culture today.

Lately, it feels like there's no end in sight to the surge in superhero-movie releases. In our gallery below, we look at the original comic depiction of several larger-than-life beings compared with their most recent movie equivalents. The differences are astounding, and truly indicate how far animation and artistic quality has evolved over the years.

While we didn't feature every comic book character who's had a makeover recently, we think you'll still enjoy our selections consisting of mostly Marvel (Stan Lee) and DC comic stars. The gallery includes Captain America, Thor, Superman, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Tin-Tin, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Batman. Think there's someone we missed that should be on the list? Leave a comment with your suggestions and we may revise the gallery down the line.

On a related note, it's worth sharing that DC Comics plans to reboot all of its franchises beginning this September.

The 404 843: Where we got the band back together (podcast)

After a week of trips back and forth from LA, all three of us are back together again, and I'm personally glad to be back because somebody has to step up and defend Los Angeles!

After sticking up for the West Coast, we're also talking about a dating Web site that's for beautiful people that's been getting hacked, KFC's latest monstrosity, and five fake sounds in tech to make stupid people feel better.

Plus we review some of the latest movies in theaters now, including "Green Lantern," "Kung Fu Panda 2," and "Super 8."

The 404 Digest for Episode 843

" Green Lantern": Revenge of the lame superhero movie. KFC supports diabetes research with an 800-calorie, 56-spoonful-of-sugar "Mega Jug." Dating Web site for "beautiful people only" dumps 30k members. Five fake sounds in tech to make stupid people feel better.

Episode 843 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Green Lantern USB drives protect your universe

Green Lantern fans, there's no need to freeze yourself! It's just another 30 days until the movie comes out, and in the meantime I have something that may ease the pain of waiting.

Mimoco, a maker of quirky designer USB thumbdrives, has teamed with DC Entertainment to announce a new line of drives based on Green Lantern Corps characters. Basically, they're little action figures of Hal Jordan, Tomar-Re, Kilowog, and Sinestro that can also work as USB flash drives.

The USB 2.0 drives come in capacities ranging from 2GB to 16GB. Apart from the figures themselves, which will be enough for most of you comics fanboys to adore for a month, there's also character-specific content preloaded on the drives, including wallpapers, avatars, screensavers, and other digital extras.

The Mimoco Green Lantern USB thumbdrives are available now starting at $23 for the 2GB version. The 16GB version costs around $60. Go get a couple and make yourself and your nerdy friends happy.… Read more

The 404 712: Where we don't take on anything (podcast)

Thanks so much to Props Guy Jim for Photoshopping The 404 Podcast into the "disappearing" photo from "Back to the Future"! The movie recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, and check out this picture Jim snapped of the photo in action at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. Thanks again Jim!

Mark Licea joins us for a chat about television programming as it's affected by streaming content providers like Hulu and Netflix.

As those two companies compete to offer the cheapest monthly subscription price, consumers face a decision to either stick with HD cable/FIOS and a DVR box or cut the cord and stick with Internet video.

Regardless of your decision, there's plenty of content available online for your entertainment, and our conversation naturally steers toward late-night programming and Conan's second week of shows on TBS. There's also the AMC zombie series "The Walking Dead" and "Boardwalk Empire" on HBO. On the other hand, sometimes we just want to sit on the couch and channel surf!

After the break, we run through a few voice mails that humiliate and educate our audience, and there's also a question for Jeff about his experience traveling through the TSA's new airport security scanners. We try not to get too serious about it, but everyone seems to have an opinion, so tune in to find out why Wilson will be taking a boat ride to CES next year.

Episode 712 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1353: Facebook thinks I'm a sleazebot (podcast)

Turns out, you get punished for being a cute girl on Facebook ... at least that's our speculation about the bug that was disabling some women's profiles. Also, Google Voice debuts in the iTunes app store, Hulu Plus drops to $7.99, and we watch the Green Lantern trailer live and ... we're not impressed. Plus, Cooks Source Magazine elects to go quietly and passive-aggressively into this dark publishing night. --Molly

The 404 629: Where there must be some magic clue inside these tearful walls (podcast)

If you have time in the morning, be sure to check out CNET's The 404 Podcast every day at 8 a.m. PT on CNET LIVE; that way you won't miss things like yesterday's post-show, where the three of us spent half an hour reminiscing about the glory days of ABC's classic TGIF programming lineup.

All of us connected to legacy sitcoms like "Full House," "Perfect Strangers," and "Boy Meets World," but join us this morning as we belt out a pitch-poor version of the "Family Matters" theme song, … Read more

The 404 202: Where it's hot as hell and Jeff is hungry

Several times throughout today's show, The 404 almost causes the universe to implode. Our Earth-shaking collection of topics today include a story about Viagra missiles, iPhone flaws and young love, divinely drunk intervention, and more Ryan Gosling/Ryan Reynolds confusion...which witch is which?!

One of the more ridiculous stories on today's show is about a man that somehow managed to smuggle a fake, but extremely realistic looking missile into New York with a sticker on the side that proudly read "VIVA VIAGRA." After driving around New York, making stops at Times Square and the Trump Tower, the man ended up in front of the Pfizer corporate building where the company promptly slapped a restraining order and a cease and desist warning on his man-made missile. The craziest part about this story is the fact that one man somehow drove through the Midtown tunnel and several New York police officers with a missile attached to his truck.

Is that all it takes? The man claims that ""New York City cops are smart. They know the difference between a mock-up and the real thing," and that's all well and good, but what about scaring the sh*t out of thousands of New Yorkers? Mass chaos isn't so fun. Do you think The 404 should pull a stunt like this? Clearly it'd be pretty easy to set in motion, and you know we need the publicity! Any suggestions? Leave us a comment and and let us know!

EPISODE 202 Download today's podcast … Read more

The 404 116: Where two Wongs make a right

Since Jeff's still partying in New Orleans, we invite CNET Labs Technician Joseph Kaminski into the studio today to chat about the imminent 3G iPhone release, its arch-nemesis, the Samsung Omnia, and the Green Lantern's epic battle with the color yellow. We also watch a video of a wild office rampage in Russia and warn America about the perils of being "Wilson-ed." EPISODE 116 Download today's podcast