Random bits of Superheroes being Awesome

Just Saying

Quick Hits

-I cannot for the life of me imagine anything more pointless or unneccessary than another dystopic X-men alternate timeline.

-Except for maybe another Wolverine title.

-Or another Deadpool title.

-Although, come to think of it, the current status quo for the X-franchise is a not-bad metaphor for the mentality of the big two comics - a group of people who have chosen to isolate themselves from the larger world and no longer even try to interact with it on equal terms. They dream of glory days that they helped to end with short-sightedness and petty grudges.

- I miss fiendish deathtraps in comics. It's just something that isn't done anymore, and it's kind of a sad loss if you ask me.

-Calling comic writers "Architects" is silly for a whole host of reasons. For the most part, they don't actually design anything as opposed to maintain an existing structure - that's not design, that maintenance. But as I've stated before "Corporate copyright Maintenance men" doesn't have quite that ring to it, you know?

-Another "This is something we don't need to see again" - a replacement Fantastic Four member.

-I feel sorry for the writers who have to fill in for JMS on Superman and Wonder Woman. Imagine spending all those years striving to work on your craft, climbing the rungs of the corporate field, with your dream of getting to work on one of the biggest franchises in history. Then, when you finally get there, you're hired to be a glorified ghostwriter. That's got to sting.

-Does anybody remember when superheroes actually fought each other because they...actually didn't like each other that much? As opposed to fighting each other because of some disagreements about a vague political debate?

-OK, let me get this straight - in the Captain America series right now, Bucky (the current Cap) is being put on trial for a few murders he committed over the course of about six decades, but Wolverine, who probably has a body count that would put him in the Hague for a war crimes tribunial and spends nearly half his time as a member of a group of untrusted mutants is a full-fledged Avenger who goes out in public and no one even bats an eye? How does that work?

Your Moment of Funny

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canucks!

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On Wonder Woman's new Look

It really could have been worse.

Posters of Pure Superhero Awesome

Stop! Gamer time!

Modern Masters Musings

Been reading some of the "Modern Masters" series of late (which is where some of thes B&W images are coming from), and here are a few random thoughts I'd like to share with you:

-A couple of interesting common denominators come out when reading the bios of a lot of artists. For one, many of them seemed to move around a lot as kids (mostly due to being Army brats) and nearly all of them have a great love and affectation for Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard.
-Also, quite a few of them like dinosaurs and space exploration, which is also very cool.
-Man, reading the John Byrne interviews actually managed to make me like the man LESS. How is it possible for a guy to say that Golden and Silver Age creators don't have any creative rights because "That's how the system was back then and they knew it" and in the SAME INTERVIEW state that he feels he has to "protect" the creations of Jack Kirby? Doesn't that seem shockingly hypocritical or am I missing something?
-All of these have great sketches and pin up gallery sections, and that's just awesome.

I really enjoyed reading these and learned a lot, so I can't recommend them enough.

Couple of Downer points

Downer Thought#1:

You know, as much as I am for Spider-Man's marriage to Mary Jane, and as absolutely stupid as I think the retcon and all it has yeilded is, I don't think there's much point anymore. My guess is that whatever Spider-fans left with the marriage are either out of comics entirely (the most likely case) or like myself, have gravitated increasingly towards comics that don't insult their intelligence and sensibilities (i.e. Love and Capes). So, if there were to bring back the marriage now, most likely the other half of the fans would drop away and no one would replace them.

Well, at least in the short term - this was the logic that kept Hal Jordan from coming back for almost a decade, and we know how that turned out.

OK, are there really any good corporate super-comics with strong female protagonists that don't have any creepy subtexts or really cheesecake art out there? I'm thinking there's Spider-Girl, and.....I've heard pretty good things about the new Batgirl series (sorta).

Anything?

Five Reasons to Love Fans

In no particular order:

1) Because sometimes they become creators

2) Stupid/Awesome Fanfiction

3) Silly Slashfic

4) Absolutely cool "in character" cosplayers!

5) Fanart

Notes about me

Tonight is a hodgepodge of stuff that's leading into this week's theme, and it'll help explain a few things:

I don't really have much interaction with fandom; never have and likely never will. This is based on a few things:

-Online fandom - I'm well out of the mainstream in that I don't really post to any of the comic message boards. I don't even visit most of them, and the ones I do visit and/or post to are well off the beaten path. Part of it stems from the fact that I don't have the time or energy, and part of it stems from my opinions being far out of mainstream fandom, so I don't have much in common. The one exception is that I do visit a lot of (what I consider) big name comic blogs (listed in the sidebar, natch).

-Conventions - I like the idea of them - both for meeting some of the smaller-name creators (I have no desire to meet Warren Ellis, despite liking some of his books; Aaron Williams however, I owe a coke to, and would like to get him one some day) and other social aspects. However, they are too far away and too costly for me to justify, so unless happenstance intervenes I don't see it happening.

In fact, when I think about it, most of whatever enjoyment I'm getting from "Big Two" supercomics these days is more from the fans than from anything the companies themselves are producing. Take a look at ItsJustSomeRandomGuy and his awesome YouTube videos, or the way Christopher Bird wrote the best Doctor Strange stuff I've seen in...ever, really. So, with that in mind, I'm turning away from the more familiar big two this week to talk a little about some other comics that are holding my interest, and maybe should be on your reading lists too.

So sit back, and let the games begin!

New Years Eve

Have a good time tonight and drive safe!

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DVD reviews!

OK, so I rented the Wonder Woman and Green Lantern DVD animated features this weekend and was pleasantly surprised by both efforts, with very few caveats.

Of the two, Wonder Woman has vastly superior voice casting - with every character getting a pitch-perfect portrayal. Nathan Fillion owns the Steve Trevor role, and so many of the laughs I had were down to his delivery of the material. Rosario Dawson's Artemis was a pure delight - completely deadpan and snarky and exactly everything you should expect from the take-no-prisoners badass Amazon, and Alfred Molina brings exactly the right combination of menace and charisma to his portrayal of Ares. Honestly, every bit of voice acting in Wonder Woman is beautiful and perfect as is. Green Lantern does a satisfactory portrayal, but only Victor Garber's Sinestro really stands out.

In terms of animation quality, both films are absolutely stellar and bring a degree of life and vitality into their settings and character depictions - no real complaints there. My only surprise was with the level of violence and the high body counts of these features - with GL's body count being shockingly high. I knew that these features aren't being marketed towards little kids, but it was still quite a bit to get past.

In terms of plot, story and characterization, both features succeed in telling a "definitive origin epic" that would be worthy of a multi-million Hollywood blockbuster. Green Lantern takes the approach of a cop thriller (Training Day is an obvious influence) and mixes it with cosmic opera. There's quite a few fun little twists and at least one genuine surprise. Wonder Woman, in contrast, isn't much of a surprise, but was a well-done, solidly constructed epic fantasy adventure. Both of these are worth a look, especially for the fans.