iPhone 5 Sells out in First Hour

Unless you were among the first to pre-order the iPhone 5, you may have to choose between standing in line at a real-life store next Friday or waiting a couple weeks: the huge volume of orders that crashed Apple's store (along with Sprint's and AT&T's) has already exhausted the first round of available units.

Apple sold out its initial supply in less than an hour. That's pretty impressive, especially compared with the 22 hours the iPhone 4S took to sell out.

Pre-orders from AT&T also show up as delayed, by a week or two depending on options. Verizon presently lists all models as delayed by a week. At Sprint, only the 16GB model is currently delayed. [NOTE: These are at-time-of-publication figures, and they might change.]

It might be too late to reserve an iPhone 5 with the options our buyer's guide pointed you to, but don't forget about brick-and-mortar stores: Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Radioshack and of course your local Apple Store and carrier stores should have a supply.

Will you stand in line somewhere or wait for a delayed pre-order? (Or neither because iPhones are dumb?) Let us know in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN. 

Source : ign[dot]com

Hero Worship: Solving Wonder Woman's TV Dilemma

I doubt it comes as a surprise that I’m a huge Wonder Woman fan. She’s my second favorite female superhero character (second only to Catwoman) and has a fluctuating standing in my overall top 5. My apartment displays more pieces of Wonder Woman art than anything else, including furniture. Visually, there’s a certain majesty to her character that no other hero in the DC Universe can match and I adore it.

Yesterday, there was news of former Wonder Woman scribe (and successful TV writer) Allan Heinberg writing a pilot for a potential new CW show called Amazon, centered around a younger Diana, who is described as “a budding superhero.” First and foremost, let me point out that my thoughts are 100% conjecture. Amazon is merely a script at this point, with no promise of making it any further. But I think the fact that it’s called Amazon is a clear indication that this show has intentions of being entirely different from its clear predecessor, Smallville. It implies a fantasy series; one in which I imagine part of the character’s journey would be learning about the unfamiliar world of man and trying to understand it.

Way back when NBC passed on David E. Kelley’s ill-conceived Wonder Woman pilot in early 2011, I wrote a feature (one of my first for IGN, actually) called The Trouble With Wonder Woman, all about the many difficulties involved in bringing the character to live action. In it, one of the problems I point to is Wonder Woman’s homeland of Themyscira (Paradise Island) and how to effectively deal with exploring those concepts on-screen. Wonder Woman and her fellow Amazons certainly hold no shortage of mythology, so what’s the best way to deal with that in a digestible manner?

I say embrace it wholeheartedly. Since I wrote that piece, we’ve had Thor prove that a similar sort of amalgam mythology can be managed well on-screen. If Thor can manage it all in two hours, surely an hour long weekly TV show could do it even better. Let’s not forget that the fantasy genre is doing pretty well for itself on TV at the moment with shows like Game of Thrones or, more appropriate for the CW audience, Once Upon a Time and Grimm. There’s no reason CW couldn’t celebrate Wonder Woman’s fantastical origins and make it the underpinning of the show.

Amazon could incorporate the politics of Themyscira, betrayal amongst Amazons, conflicts with the gods, conflicts with the world of man, and so much more. Diana’s journey of growing up in such an environment, learning who she is, the nature of her birth, and dealing with her desire to see the world beyond Themyscira are all solid, interesting threads to explore. Of course, the show runners could still manage to find a way to incorporate classic Wonder Woman baddies like Cheetah, Giganta, and Doctor Psycho in new and different ways.

There’s a larger issue of the network no doubt necessitating the presence of male characters, which a show set entirely on Themyscira would essentially prohibit. Unless… the pilot ends with Steve Trevor crash landing on the island, as per the classic Wonder Woman origin, with the first season exploring his time amongst these apparent goddesses and learning about their culture. Meanwhile, perhaps, the military is looking into his disappearance and coming ever closer to discovering Paradise Island.

This would also establish a sort of forbidden romance between Diana and Steve (remember, “young Diana” doesn’t necessarily mean “early teen Diana”), which could ultimately be stretched out in further seasons once Steve has to return home and they’re separated. There’s plenty of ways that this material is malleable, which really is part of the beauty of the superhero myths.

An added bonus to taking this approach to Amazon would be added context to the Justice League movie. With that film bringing together the DCU’s premier super team with a limited amount of origin stuff involved, movie goers perhaps unfamiliar with Wonder Woman can turn to Amazon for insight into Wonder Woman’s origin. Even if Amazon and the (eventual) DC movie universe aren’t related, the rather ambiguous time period (“early!”) makes it an acceptable point of reference for the origins of the character.

After the failure of the last version of TV Wonder Woman – which was a downright silly departure for the character – it’s doubtful that Heinberg would aim to change things up all that much, not to mention CW’s apparent full-steam ahead approach to incorporating many DCU elements to the upcoming Arrow. As the superhero genre continues to achieve new and unprecedented success in various mediums, I think we’ll start seeing networks embrace the nature of these characters more fully rather than shy away from the more fantastic elements.

Hopefully, as a result, Diana can finally make her live-action return.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator himself. Follow Joey on Twitter, or find him on IGN. He loves superhero pets so hard.

Source : ign[dot]com

Comic-Con: New Teenage Mutant Ninja Cast and Creator Promise "It’s Made By Fans for Fans"

It’s a daunting task to take on a popular, long-standing franchise like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The fan base is huge, and there’s a certain amount of pressure that goes with bringing something that big back. Executive producer Ciro Nieli and the voice cast – Rob Paulsen (Donatello), Greg Cipes (Michelangelo), Sean Astin (Raphael), and Jason Biggs (Leonardo) – spoke with IGN at Comic-Con to discuss the support they’ve been receiving and what it’s like to be a part of a new TMNT series.

The friendship between everyone, especially the guys voicing the Turtles, was apparent. Paulsen is thrilled to be back and working on this project again. He provided the voice for Raphael in the original series and is playing Donatello this time around. Regarding the gig, he remarked, “It’s really fantastic. The interesting thing about the first go round is that none of us had any idea that it was going to turn out to be this 25 years later. And now, with this batch [of fellow actors], I’ve got guys who are already established. I’ve known Gregory Cipes for years, and we have two bona fide movie stars. It’s been a hell of a run; I’m a very lucky man.”

Astin said the fact that they all really like each other makes creating the series a blast. He said the show has heart behind it from the actors to the crew: “They have heart with it. Decisions get made, someone wants to go in a different direction or they’re not happy with this particular thing – there’s no negativity about adjustments. Everyone is,  the chain of command – it’s just a well run show. It’s organized, disciplined, the writers deliver on time for everybody. It makes it easier, and the temperament just makes its fun.”

The recording sessions sound like an enjoyable place to be, and the overall tone seems to match that. Clips show a lighthearted series. Nieli confirmed that it wouldn’t be all laughs though. “I feel like its split kind of equally. A lot of what’s happening just with publicity is that we’re trying to get the lighter stuff out there but the shows have deep moments throughout, episodically.”

No matter which tone he takes with the series, TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman is part of the stories, directly or otherwise. Nieli said, “You know, I always go back to his comics so he’s at the heart of it whether we talk to him or not. I run stuff by him, and every once in a while he gives me – almost through osmosis – I get inside of the characters and who they are. Like, I was having trouble trying to figure out Casey Jones, and he said something to me that just made so much sense.”

Nieli and others working on the series are big TMNT fans. Paulsen and Biggs both emphasized that it was important for the viewers to understand that about the series. Paulsen said,  “One of the things that’s really important for the audience to know is that the folks who are creating the show and putting it together all grew up watching our show and reading the comics, so they get it. In other words, you could argue that they get it more than the people who made the first cartoon show.”

Biggs added, “It’s made by fans for fans. It’s not like a new venture where you’ve got people coming in who are unfamiliar with the series, and everyone’s kind of learning as they go. This is established, and these guys are such fans of it. They are respecting the original franchise and bringing their own new cool designs and ideas and stories to it.”

Paulsen summed it up best by saying that it’s an “absolute joy” it was to be a part of this series. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will premiere on Nickelodeon on September 29.

Source : ign[dot]com