Mikester
Here is my impression of some of those people who are having a negative reaction to Grant Morrison being given a little creative control over at DC:
“What? New, original, and interesting ideas? Not in my superhero comics, thank you very much!”
Sorry, sorry…I’m just a little tired of the “ew, Morrison’s weird and icky” criticisms that get thrown around. Feh on them, I say. I’m looking forward to Morrison giving us something strange and wonderful, which is what superheroes should always be, I think.
Anyway, just to show you I’m not completely grumpy, I direct you to my sidebar, where I keep all my links and quotes, and where I also just hid an “Easter Egg” for you to find. It’s not much…just a little something fun to look at. Well, fun for me, anyway. (If you do find it — and it’ll take you all of about one or two seconds to find, I’m sure — don’t spoil it in the comments section!)
Who’s the man?
Michael freakin’ Caine, that’s who. Your Batman movie is only as good as your Alfred, and in Batman Begins Caine does a great job giving us an Alfred with wit, compassion, and a bit of steel. Now this is an Alfred I can imagine, for example, donning a spare Bat-suit to serve as a decoy/distraction for the bad guys while the real Batman does his thing. You know, like he sometimes did in the comics, and the 60s TV show. Don’t look at me like that.
(Probably SPOILERS ahead, if you haven’t seen the film.)
I enjoyed Batman Begins quite a bit, which came as a nice surprise since, as I’ve noted before, the trailers just came across as dead boring. However, the decision to build up to Batman’s first appearance, rather than just jumping right into the action, gives us something unique in the various live action versions of the character: suddenly, Bruce Wayne is as interesting a character out of the costume as he is in it. We get to learn about him, and what drives him, without that pesky Bat-stuff getting in the way.
The building of Batman comes across as a natural progression…the constant reminders that Wayne needs to a symbol, more than a man; the finding of the cave; the adaptation of his own fear of bats driving the creation of said symbol — the suspension of disbelief is gradually increased until Batman finally appears, and we all go, “oh, sure, he had to dress as a bat. Makes sense to me.” (Of course, anyone going to see a movie called Batman Begins is probably predisposed to accepting a guy in a bat-outfit anyway.)
Granted, some of the elements of the Bat-legend come together a little too readily (“Mr. Fox, what do you have down here?” “Why, I have a bunch of stuff that’s ready made for use by a costumed crime-fighter!” “Oh, say…could I borrow some of that?”), but I can live with it. And the plot to poison Gotham City is one we’ve seen before, but at least the villain has a motivation for doing so beyond killing just for the sake of killing. Overall, a well-made, mostly well-written film, with its overriding theme of “fear” being a nice contrast to the usual theme of “good guys punching bad guys.”
I’ve heard some complaints about the fight scenes being shot/edited too confusingly, and there is an element of that, but for the most part I didn’t have any problem following the action. And it was nice to have a Jim Gordon (played by Gary Oldman) who actually looks like the Gordon in the comics.
And yes, it is deadly serious, with only the occasional humorous line of dialogue (usually from Alfred, but sometimes from Gordon, and a vagrant or two), but it still manages to be dark without being oppressive, and more fun than moody.
Anyway, good flick. Not perfect, but darn sight better than some of the last few Bat-films. Christian Bale is probably the second best live action Batman we’ve had (this guy is still tops), and let’s hope a sequel, if it happens, manages to keep the same tone.
Unless we can get an adaptation of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns starring Adam West instead. I’d kill to see that.
From the new DC soliciations:
THE SECRET OF THE SWAMP THING
Written by Len Wein
Art and cover by Berni Wrightson
A manga-sized collection featuring the classic origin and first adventures of the Swamp Thing (also collected in the full-size tpb SWAMP THING: DARK GENESIS), including the first 10 issues of the original SWAMP THING title, all by the legendary team of writer Len Wein and artist Berni Wrightson.
On sale Sept 8 o 5″ x 7.375″ o 232 pg, FC, $9.99 US
Now I know it’s gonna seem strange for me, of all people, to say this…but that’s an odd choice of a title to kick off this new reprint format for DC. This run has only been reprinted about a zillion times (okay, three, I think), and…well, I don’t really have any other arguments against it, I guess. I just don’t see there being a whole lot of demand for a reprinting of this particular run right now…and I’m afraid that if the initial books in this format don’t fly, this reprint format may be gone before it really had a chance to start. I’m sure DC’s already considered this, and the Sgt. Rock reprint DC announced at the same time will probably do well. But, really, whose ass do I have to kick to get a Sugar and Spike reprint of some kind? Of any kind?
Also, I hope DC will someday get around to reprinting the rest of the original Swamp Thing series. Sure, it fell apart a bit at the end, but there’s a lot of good Nestor Redondo work there that could use reprinting on some good paper.
Okay, now I realize being a comics/science fiction/fantasy fan (or, indeed, a fan of anything…”fan” being short for “fanatic,” after all) requires a small bit of obsession. “I have to get the comic shop every week,” or “I have to remember to set the TIVO [or VCR…I’m a caveman] for Smallville,” or “I only need two more issues of Secret Defenders to complete my Bill Wylie collection.” You know the mindset. (And just so you don’t think I’m about to start casting stones, keep in mind that I’m the guy who bought a New Titans annual because Swamp Thing appears in one or two panels.)
Doing a weblog is one form of this obsession, and making costumes and writing fan-fiction are a slightly more extreme versions of this sort of behavior. I can even understand going through the effort of making your own fan film.
However, I think some sort of line may have been crossed when you’re doing full “TV” seasons with multiple episodes. That sort of time and energy devoted to creating a derivative product based on a property you don’t own and to which you don’t have any kind of official connection seems a little…well, I don’t want to be too harsh, since the people involved are enjoying themselves and there is obviously value in that. However, all it would take is one cease-and-desist letter from the property’s actual owners to shut down production, and all that energy would have come to nothing.
(inspired by a recent posting on Memepool)
Speaking of fan-fiction…a crossover between Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Sailor Moon is about as unlikely as they come. Rated “R” – currently having some bandwidth issues. (via Portal of Evil)
And speaking of my particular obsession…Four Realities discusses the Swamp Thing comics in his collection.
There’s a comic weblog called “The Comic Blog”? I’m surprised the name wasn’t taken. Anyway, lots of good comic reviews here.
So there’s that scene in the original, unreleased Fantastic Four movie where Alicia Masters, the blind sculptress, runs her hands up and down the Thing’s body, and the Thing is breathing heavily, practically panting, and the scene goes on and on and on and on, and you turn away, and you turn back again fifteen, twenty minutes later thinking the scene must be over by now, but no, it’s still happening.
Well, poking through our preview copy of the comic book adaptation of the new Fantastic Four movie (in stores this Wednesday…the comic, not the movie), there’s another Alicia/Thing scene that at first glance seems just as peculiar. SPOILER, I guess…the scene features Alicia apparently spraying down the Thing’s body with a hose. That in and of itself may not be very strange, but there’s a part of my brain that fears that this scene will also go on forever, with multiple angles of Alicia squirting the Thing with water, squirting herself, everything getting all soapy and sensual and looking like that Paris Hilton Carl’s Jr. commercial.
But maybe that’s just me.
FARK photoshop contest: “What would Superman be like if his spaceship crashed somewhere other than Smallville, Kansas?” Red Son reference in 3…2….
Suddenly I’ve received a brief spike in referrals from a comment I left on this year-old post from The Comic Treadmill. Mag, H, what the heck’s goin’ on over there?
Still haven’t seen Batman Begins, but I’ve been hearing from plenty of people that it’s pretty good. I’m glad to hear it, since the trailers make the film look dead boring…even despite the always-welcome presence of Michael (The Hand, Jaws: The Revenge) Caine.
At the very least, I need to see it before any more of my customers decide to spill the beans on any surprises/plot twists/et cetera that may exist in this flick. “No, I don’t want to hear about ‘just one really cool part’ of the movie….”
I’m in the process of putting together comics for display at the local library (as I mentioned recently), and for the most part I’m trying to stick with titles and characters that may be reasonably familiar to kids. You know, the basics (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman) and other characters they might know from the cartoons (the John Stewart Green Lantern, the Teen Titans) or movies (Fantastic Four, Spider-Man). I’m also trying to sneak in a title or two that might stretch the definition of “superhero” (like Phil Foglio’s Girl Genius).
Also, as part of my plan, I was going to put in a superhero title or two that might downright puzzle kids, and maybe (and I realize this is a longshot, here) inspire them to seek out a local comics shoppe (like, say, ours) and Read More About It. My initial choice was a copy of Walt Simonson’s Orion, but then I came across this issue of Legion of Super-Heroes, which would be even more baffling to the uninitiated. (Though I may relent and use this cover instead.)
I’m still going to use the Orion cover, because gosh darn it, kids who watch the Superman and Justice League cartoons do know who Darkseid is! That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it, Dorian!
Anyway, the superhero theme for the display is mandated by the library…maybe when it’s time to take the display down, I can talk them into a manga display!
Like an explosion in your mouth.
Amazing Heroes #47 (May 1984) – art by Jack Kirby
As I recall, the slight coloring error caused a bit of consternation, and a few giggles, at the time.
When things are slow at the comic shop:
(Mike and pal Dorian are discussing the phrase “mouse heaven” from the instruction manual for the Atari 2600 version of Mouse Trap)
M: “So, would mouse hell be cat heaven?”
D: “Yes, and cat hell would be dog heaven.”
M: “There is a certain economy to that.”
D: “But what would dog hell be?”
(a moment passes)
M: “I think the default hell for any animal at the top of these progressions would be ‘shark heaven.'”
Shameless huckstering; Comic Book Galaxy; free advertising; steal these links.
Hey, that issue of Dolfin I was showing off earlier in the week is in our current batch of auctions on the eBay…you can see it here. So’s that issue of Spaced. And Walt Disney’s Beaver Valley. You know you want Beaver Valley. Starring “Mister Beaver” as himself.
As long as I’m in plugging mode, lemme throw out another pointer to the new Comic Book Galaxy, with extra material added throughout the week. Have I mentioned my monthly column there?
Sometime next week I will be putting up a superhero comics display at a local library, to tie in with their superhero-themed summer reading program. Just thought I’d mention that.
(And before anyone says anything…that’s the theme the library settled on, they asked me to provide a display matching that theme, and I’m doing so. They do know about manga and other non-superhero type comics…I’ve sold enough of those to this library in the past.)
“The letter on each Superhero Cape can be personalized to your child – add his or her initial!”
“Capes tie around child’s neck – therefore, proper adult supervision should be used at all times while child is wearing cape.”
“Discuss the ways that conflicts are solved on superhero shows. When children are accustomed to seeing superheroes using violence as a solution to problems, appropriate responses must be constantly reinforced. Talk about conflict resolution skills and how they could be applied to situations that superheroes and heroines find themselves in.“
“Save your child from summer brain drain”
“‘Let the child choose the book,’ [librarian Karen Lucas] said. ‘Don’t make them feel bad for choosing a comic book over a chapter book or a novel. Let them enjoy that comic book, and then they’re going to read more.'”
New comics day:
In the “Unintended Consequences” department…the release of Giant-Size X-Men #3 has resulted in a flurry of folks asking at the shop, “hey, where are issues #1 and #2?” (“Here you go…#1, only $675.00.”)
Speaking of GSXM #3…did anyone else think Neal Adams’ contribution looked a little on the rough side? Was he just cramped for time, or is that just how his style looks now?
Other new comics day stuff:
We got in restocks of the We3 trade paperback and the fantastic Super F*ckers (ask for it by name)…and they both sold out immediately. That’s what I like to see. We also sold out of the new Essential Fantastic Four, which came as a slight surprise to me.
Following Cerebus #4 is the Will Eisner Tribute issue, and includes the full four-page Spirit Meets Cerebus story from Cerebus Jam. Lots of info and interviews with and about Eisner, and worth investigating. (And is anyone else kinda disturbed by the continuing “Dave Sim’s Favorite Buffy Pic This Month” feature? Dave picks a still of Sarah Michelle Gellar and way overanalyzes it? I’m pretty sure he’s trying to be amusing, but it seems…well, I can’t quite put my finger on it.)
Captain America Bicentennial Battles trade paperback by Jack Kirby – if you never read the Bicentennial Battles treasury-sized comic from the ’70s, and you’re even slightly a Kirby fan…you must read this comic. Bicentennial Battles is Kirby at his most Kirbiest…it’s completely heartfelt, earnest, and downright nutty.
AEIOU by Jeffrey Brown – I don’t get it. Not trying to be contrary, or offensive, or anything like that…what is it about Brown’s work that makes people react to it so positively? Why do you like it?
The Black Diamond Onramp, new this week from AiT/Planetlar, is a teaser for a forthcoming series, revolving around the Black Diamond (an elevated cross-country superhighway where anything goes). It may be only a brief (but interesting) preview of the series, but the comic is packed with plenty of background material, with detailed character and descriptions, plus a Newsarama interview with writer/publisher Larry Young. That’s what I like about some of Ait/Planetlar’s releases…the transparency of the process of creating the books, either as part of the package itself (as in this case, or in Proof of Concept) or as a separate release (Making of Astronauts in Trouble, True Facts).
The rest of Black Diamond Onramp contains a few pages of Smoke and Guns, a tough gal with…well, guns-type comic by Kirsten Baldock and Fabio Moon, as well as Matt Fraction and Steve Sander’s Five Fists of Science with Nikola Tesla. Tesla? I’m sold right there. Altogether, a solid package stuffed with material, and well worth your three bones.
Darn you, Jim Henley!
He’s called me out on some new superhero-related meme/questionnaire thingie, so I’ll go ahead and answer it…but only because he’s a swell guy who’s said a nice thing or two about my goofy little site, here.
So, here we go:
If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why? (Assume you also get baseline superhero enhancements like moderately increased strength, endurance and agility.)
Well, the easy answer would be “flight,” so I’m gonna say being able to shrink to any size, like the Silver Age Atom…it would be kind of neat, I think, at least for a while. And who wouldn’t want to be able to travel over a telephone wire?
Which, if any, ‘existing’ superhero(es) do you fancy, and why?
According to Jim (er, so to speak), “fancy,” as intended here, means “which character with whom would you like to bang the gong slowly,” and, quite frankly, that’s the kind of question that, once answered, you can never come back from. Once you’ve crossed the line and actually admitted that there’s a pen and ink drawing on newsprint with whom you’d like to get it on, you might as resign yourself to going to conventions dressed as, say, Green Lantern, looking for someone dressed as Sinestro to spank you.
That said…Kurt Schaffenberger’s Lois Lane. Totally.
Which, if any, ‘existing’ superhero(es) do you hate?
Jim beat me to my answer of “Gambit,” so…ah, the heck with it. Gambit. Feh.
OK, here’s the tough one. What would your superhero name be? (No prefab porn-name formulas here, you have to make up the name you think you’d be proud to mask under.)
“The Baron of Comics.”
For extra credit: Is there an ‘existing’ superhero with whom you identify/whom you would like to be?
I suppose if I could be any hero, it’s be Superman…he’s got all the cool powers anyone would really want, anyway. Well, except telepathy. That’d come in handy, once in a while. Hmmmm…okay, I change my answer, I’d want to be J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, who has all of Superman’s powers and can read minds and can shape change and can turn invisible. There is that pesky weakness to fire thing (“Pain! My only weakness!”), but that can be dealt with. Plus, that’s a small price to pay to be able to transform yourself into Phoebe Cates, and….um, I didn’t just type that, did I?
Pass it on. Three people please, and why they’re the wind beneath your wings.
I hate passing it on, but I will anyway: Jog and Beaucoup Kevin, because I think their answers would be funny, and pal Dorian, because I’m a jerk.