Didn’t really feel like grabbing a new image since I’m feeling a bit lethargic, so have some Guardians of the Galaxy goodness instead.
So yeah. TONS of comics.
I remember the first couple of times I sort of swung by a comic book store on Free Comic Book Day, and picked up a Keenspot anthology or some other very cheap promotional offering. I didn’t expect the literal wall of titles available yesterday at Cyborg One in Doylestown. But I’ve slogged through most of them, and most of them fall on the less than memorable side of ‘average’.
Apart from the reprint of the first issue of Invincible Iron Man, the stand-outs for me were Atomic Robo (always a beacon of clever writing and a fun action-comedy to boot), Radical’s preview of Driver for the Dead (breathtaking art coupled with chilling mysticism and the most badass hearse I’ve ever soon), the Green Hornet (Kevin Smith writes a great pulp classic), Iron Man and Thor (Matt Fraction & JR JR give us not only a preview of what’s to come in their new Avengers title but also what it might be like to see these two together in a movie) and The Tick (I almost started whistling the theme from the animated TV show). The other Marvel titles were mostly re-caps and anthologies to get new readers up to speed on things like Siege and Spider-Man, War of the Supermen came off as somewhat boring to me, and G.I. Joe, while taking things amusingly from the perspective of Cobra, didn’t really get me back into the headspace I once occupied when I was interested in them whenever I couldn’t get my Transformers fix.
I’m sure some of this stuff has niche appeal. Fearless Dawn comes off a bit like a Tank Girl wannabe and I’m sure there’s an audience for that. Archie‘s formula hasn’t really changed at all in decades and I’m sure there’ll always be readers for that, too. Ron Marz, a great writer of comics in my opinion, seems to be either trying to keep Top Cow going with his Artifacts storyline, or plotting its doom. Doctor Solar felt like he was trying to be Dr. Manhattan, and Magnus Robot Fighter has the throwback feeling of Flash Gordon, with neither one really doing anything original or all that interesting.
It’s not all bad news. Bongo does a Simpsons story that isn’t too bad, Heckraiser has an old-fashioned adventure-comedy feel that reminds me of the heydays of Groo the Wanderer and Mark Waid’s one-two deconstructionist punches of Irredeemable and Incorruptible have a lot of promise if you want to see a super-hero go bad or a super-villain go straight.
All in all, it wasn’t a bad experience, and the price was right – all of this stuff was free.
If your local comic book store still has these titles, go pick some up if you’ve an interest. Comic books are great places to tell stories, but sometimes the desire to appeal to a small audience or the legacy of older comics can get in the way of new & original things. Free Comic Book day shows the best and worst. Go check it out.
Today’s Free Comic Book Day and holy crap are there a lot of free comics to be had. I’ve only managed to get through about ten of the thirty-odd offerings I plucked from the shelves of Cyborg One in Doylestown late this morning. Once I finish them all some time tomorrow I’ll be able to provide you all with an after-action report.
My better half and I are attending a friends’ game night over in Chesterbrook this evening. She was looking for a bit of a pick-me-up and said, “You know what I’d like? Bawls.” The usual jokes involving Bawls in one’s mouth ensued. I double-checked the drink’s website, and apparently Bawls is sold at 7-Eleven and Target.
Except in Horsham.
I went to 7-Eleven. No Bawls there.
I dropped by Acme. No Bawls to be had there, either.
Target didn’t have any Bawls.
Even Genuardi’s showed a complete lack of Bawls.
None of these stores have any Bawls.
…Okay, I’ve probably milked that joke enough. Point is, that’s where I’ve been all day. Still managed to bang out ~2k words on Citizen this morning, though.
So packing, comics and possibly more coming your way tomorrow. Same Blue time, same Blue channel.
Iron Man 2 is right around the corner, promising more lead-ins for the upcoming Avengers titles and the eventual movie that’ll draw them all together. I know MovieBob has already discussed the subject, but here’s my brief and nerdy pair of cents on the subject.
The Incredible Hulk
Say what you like about Ang Lee’s revision of the Hulk, Louis Letterier took it upon himself to bring the concept into the Marvel film universe and did so rather effectively in my opinion. Ed Norton, one of my favorite leading men, inhabited Bruce Banner with a soulful desire to be more than just a monster, a man struggling to bring a terrible and powerful curse under control and bend the creature within to his will. Beyond the stinger at the end of the film, if Bruce were to be tapped for the Avengers he’d likely see it as an opportunity to salvage something heroic from the inherently chaotic and destructive nature of the Hulk. Much like the nuclear bomb was conceived as a way to quickly end conflicts and indirectly save as many lives as it destroyed if not more, SHIELD might look upon the Hulk as a super-powered localized tactical weapon, which could lead to friction between Nick Fury and Bruce should Mr. Jackson’s character view the not-so-jolly green giant as an expendable asset rather than a valuable individual.
Thor
After Iron Man 2, Chris Hemsworth (Kirk’s dad from last year’s Star Trek relaunch (which kicked ass and I don’t care who says otherwise, it was a lot of fun and felt adventurous and new instead of a tired retread in my opinion, so there)) will star as the Viking god of thunder in May of 2011. Kenneth Branagh, aka “The Shakespeare Guy” is directing, and I think he’s really going to convey the bombast and slightly hammy charm of Asgard as well as helping Thor project a bit of humanity. With Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård and Colm Feore involved, I suspect there’s going to be plenty of powerhouse scenes to be had. What’s going to be interesting to me, beyond the ties to the other films leading to the Avengers, is the character of Loki, played by relative newcomer Tom Hiddleston. Will he be a cool, calculating chessmaster using the passions and aims of the Asgardians to his own ends, or will he be a charismatic mischief-maker channeling John DeLancie’s character of Q? We’ll have to wait a year to find out.
Also, Natalie Portman’s going to be in it, so yeah, I’ll be there.
Captain America
The full title of this entry is actually The First Avenger: Captain America and is said to be an origin story of the patriotic everyman dressed in blue and carrying a shield. Chris Evans is taking the lead in this Joe Johnston entry. I like Evans – his Human Torch made me smile more often than not, and I thought he did a more than passable job in Push. I think he’s the right choice for Steve Rogers, a guy who really wants to make a difference in the war-torn world of the 1940s but isn’t quite up to the task until he’s given the Super-Soldier serum. And Joe Johnston also feels right for the project. He directed The Rocketeer and Hidalgo, and seems more than capable of capturing a pulpy sense of adventure while giving the audience heroes that feel three-dimensional and are worth caring about. I’ve high hopes for this one.
In other Cap news, Hugo Weaving is rumored to be the Red Skull. I’ll just leave it at that, with a big smile on my face.
Other Avengers
Iron Man 2 will see the introduction of War Machine (I love Don Cheadle) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson as a red-head in a black bodysuit = WANT), both of whom have been Avengers at one point or another. Black Widow has had an on-again off-again thing with both Tony Stark and Clint Barton at one time or another. Clint Barton, by the way, is the Avenger known as Hawkeye, one of the more underrated members of the team in my opinion. Sure, he can be a bit arrogant from time to time, but no more or less so than Tony, and he believes in both heroism in general and the rightness of the Avengers in particular. Beyond that, no major hints have been dropped and Marvel is being very careful about guarding what’s to come, thus building up fanboy anticipation, to say nothing of wild mass guessing.
Regardless, it’s hard to believe that Iron Man 2 is only 2 weeks away. Seriously, I have no reason to believe that it won’t do anything less than kicking plenty, and I mean plenty of ass.
So I don’t know about you folks out there in the dark depths of the Interwebs, but I’m very excited about Iron Man 2 coming out in May. We’re thankfully living in a time when comic book adaptation films have emerged from the dark miasma of the previous attempts at Captain America and Spawn. But even with the mold-breaking excellence of X-Men and Spider-Man 2, Iron Man stands out. Like most stories for which I unabashedly sing praises, the Iron Man film wisely focuses on the characters and their relationships to one another rather than just wowing the audience with spectacle. Now, there’s plenty of spectacle to be had in Iron Man between the different suits of armor, the shiny supercars, the fighter jets and Gwenyth Paltrow in that fantastic dress. But it never exists for its own sake, and besides being damn cool to look at it has meaning because we care about the people involved. So let’s take a look at these characters and see where and how they worked, other than the fact that their actors improved their way through the entire story, according to this dude.
Speaking of the Dude, here the Oscar-winner is the bad guy. The nefariousness really doesn’t come into play until the second act, and up until that point he comes across as the number two guy in the multi-billion arms manufacturing company that really, really wishes he was number one. He worked with Tony’s dad, after all, and while the kid was working his way through MIT and impressing everybody with his genius, charm and good looks, Obie was doing the hard work of keeping the arms race going. Now that Tony’s come into his own and brought out a bunch of new ideas, Obie’s in danger of losing the position he’s built for himself. Under his various demeanors, this is a scared man. He’s afraid of becoming obsolete and forgotten. His motivations are less about taking over the world and more about the American dream of keeping the world safe from terror and violence by bringing terror and violence to those who perpetuate terror and violence. …wait…
Bridges plays Stane with equal parts flourish and humanity, being just one example of how the actors in Iron Man inhabit their characters. Given the apparent nature of the film’s script, the infamous ranting scene’s silence between his lines takes on a new dimension – did the other actors not see the shouting coming?
Tony Stark’s Girl Friday is a spicy and smart administrative assistant named Virginia “Pepper” Potts. The role of the girl in this sort of story could often have the beautiful actress du jour running around in skimpy outfits getting chased by a malevolent blob of CGI screaming to beat the band. Pepper, much to my delight, isn’t that kind of girl. She’s the kind of girl who’s willing to tell the hero when they’re being selfish or dumb, but does so out of a sense of compassion rather than for the sake of being ‘spunky.’ Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper has depth and nuance, and works not only as a perfect foil for Tony Stark’s various eccentricities but also as a standalone woman that neither becomes a shrinking violet in the light of the hero nor puts on war paint and hefts a big gun.
The crowning moment for her comes about two thirds of the way through the film where she takes it upon herself, albeit at Tony’s behest, to find out what Obediah’s up to. The entire sequence of events from Pepper entering the office to meeting up with the SHIELD agent after a confrontation with Stane is pitch-perfect. By “confrontation”, incidentally, I don’t mean there’s any sort of major over-dramatic standoff. The scene between Bridges and Paltrow is played quietly, diplomatically and with an air of palpable menace that both actors tie into effortlessly. More than just two characters sharing dialog, this is two arguable masters of their craft milking this scene for all of its dramatic worth without ever taking things over the top. It’s one of the many things that make Iron Man shine without a single special effect being involved.
Just like writers write what they know for the best results, sometimes you can cast an actor into a role they’ve already played in real life. Our hero is a flamboyant, decadent playboy who indulges in drinking, gambling and womanizing backed up by a substantial fortune and atypical celebrity status. He discovers that what he has been doing has been detrimental for others and resolves to make things better, even if it means continuing to do what he did before but in a slightly different but no less brilliant way.
I could be talking about Tony Stark, but I also could be talking about Robert Downey Jr..
Not only is RDJ perfect for this role, he plays it with both a deep understanding of the inner workings of a gearhead and the rambunctious abandon of a kid let loose on a playground. Tony Stark is a guy who fixes things. Even if it means tearing down something that’s broken only to rebuild it better than it was before, he’s a problem-solver with both his brain and his hands. More than that, however, he’s just a guy. He’s not bitten by a radioactive spider or an alien from another world, and he’s not even the product of a tragic past who dedicated his life to fighting evil while dressed up in a swishy cape. Downey shows us the humanity of the man inside the armor, and later in the film when he re-dons his tuxedo to attend a party, there’s a sense (at least for me) that he’s wearing it the same way he wears the Iron Man suit – it protects him from people around him getting to who he really is. While Tony learns a lot, and grows as a character from start to finish, there’s a foundation to his character – the narcissism and arrogance, the belief that he and he alone is the solution to the problems that arise – that never goes away and is apparently intact for the upcoming sequel.
So why does Iron Man work? It’s more than the suit, the special effects and the diehard fans. It’s these folks, along with director Jon Favreau, that catapulted this little movie from just another decent comic book flick to a memorable and fantastic film.
My copy’s loaned out to a friend, which is a shame, because after writing this up, I really want to watch it again.
Batman: Arkham Asylum was released for major consoles last week, and the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. Even Yahtzee had quite a few things to say in favor of the game’s merit. I played the demo on my X-Box and enjoyed it thoroughly, and I’m sure the full game would be just as good if not better. However, these are times in which new entertainment must be balanced with things like square meals and reliable transportation, and so rather than telling my wife & cat that it’s going to be Ramen Week, I’ll keep us all happily fed and review a Batman film from Netflix’s Instant selections. It stars the voice talents of Kevin Conroy, Dana Delany, Abe Vigoda and Mark Hamill.
I’m a fan of the recent reboot to the Batman movie franchise. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are equally brilliant and compelling films, especially in the usually hit-or-miss arena that is comic-book superhero adaptations. One of the best things about them is doing away with the camp of the 60’s TV series and the messes Joel Schumacher put on the screen. In some respects, I feel it’s a cue they took from the animated series that first premiered in 1992. It followed on with Tim Burton’s notion of an art-deco film-noir inspired Gotham City with long shadows, square-jawed gents, leggy dames and stories that were not only mature but well written.
Mask of the Phantasm is the first “theatrical” release the series produced and it showcases all of these aspects pretty well. A lot of it plays like an animated Batman Begins and while that’s not a bad thing in terms of content, storytelling or acting, it does have a bit of the “we’ve seen this before” vibe. That aside, the story about a Batman-like figure bumping off mob bosses while the Caped Crusader evades the police and a rather sleazy city councilman is decently paced and delivered with poise by the animators and voice cast. The highlight of it, for me, is when the Joker hits the scene.
Heath Ledger delivered a powerhouse performance as the deliberate, reasoned and completely psychotic Joker in the Dark Knight. He was unforgettable in his espousing of chaos and occasional dark creepiness. The Joker, as played by Mark Hamill (yes, that’s right, Luke Skywalker is the Joker) in Phantasm , doesn’t quite get that edgy but instead conceals his madness with a distinctive, almost constant laugh and a mercurial mood that is echoed beautifully by the animation. He’s no less dangerous than Ledger’s Joker, but he has more propensity for odd contraptions and lethal puns.
Kevin Conroy might be one of the best actors to play Batman to date, if not the best ever. The real Bruce Wayne, the public Bruce Wayne, and Batman himself have three different voices, and they’re not so dissimilar as to be jarring. Christian Bale should be taking notes. Batman’s voice is brooding and gritty without being distorted or ridiculous, Bruce’s public voice is light and carefree, and the real Bruce is somewhere in between. Conroy makes it sound easy, and he keeps us immersed in the experience of the story. He and Mark Hamill also lend their voices to the Arkham Asylum video game, which only increases the interest to a Batophile like myself.
At 76 minutes long and free of commercial interruption, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm gets us right into the action and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It suffers a bit from the comic book story tendency of leaving plot threads hanging at the end, but that happens so often in cinema these days it shouldn’t be a surprise. Since it’s available instantly from Netflix, you can bring it up through your web browser if you find yourself in need of lunch break entertainment and everybody else has gone out. However you watch it, if you’re a Batman fan, it’ll be time well spent.
Josh Loomis can’t always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it’s unclear if this week’s film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain… IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.
