Together, they fight crime

And tonight we'll be reviewing Superman/Batman: Public Enemies Animated DVD. And we'll find out the answers to the following questions:

• Can they do the whole "dual commentary" schtick that was the signature stylistic tick of the original stories?
• Will the creative excellence of Bruce Timm, Stan Burkowitz and co cancel out the Jeph Loeb stupid?
• Will there be as much Bruce/Clark homoerotic subtext as in the original comic?
• Are Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly and Clancy Brown rad? (Answer: HELL YES)
• Can they pull all of this off in 67 minutes?

My commentary as I watched the movie is listed in roughly chronological order below. I put in some time tags where I thought it was appropriate and it wouldn't be too spoilery.


-Alright, the opening sequence looks like a showcase of all the paranoid fears of the last decade (both left and right) in pretty short and effective package.
-Luthor's speech on superhumans has a lot of Civil War echoes in it.
-The titles sequence resembles a montage of Tom Clancy book covers mushed together - not that that is a bad thing at all; actually, it's a nice stylistic choice.
-Well, that's probably the most advanced political discussion I've ever seen in an superhero cartoon, and probably one of the most nuanced I've seen in the superhero medium, no matter what you think of the arguements on Johnson and Nixon.

-Repeat after me: CCH Pounder as Amanda Waller is always a good thing

-There's a lot of little touches - Holographic Lex Statues outside the Capitol building, that reinforce the idea of Lex's brilliance and his vanity. Nifty, well done, and way more nuanced than anything we saw during "President Lex" in the comics.

-(10:08) Ah, the old couple bickering is alive and well with Bruce and Clark.

- The Superman/Metallo fight? Pretty OK, although they use a rather "unique" interpretation of Metallo, and they are playing Kryptonite a little differently than I remember.

-(15:45) Ah, there's some classic Bruce/Clark banter.

-(17:15) Oh god, subtext? What subtext? It's literally breaking through the screen and punching you in the face. The dialogue is word for word from the boook, and that should tell you how unsubtle it is.

-(18:47) Nitpick time: I do not care for the voice acting on Alfred here. Also, while Alfred with a shotgun is always awesome, I would like to hope that billionaire Bruce Wayne has installed some fallback security measures for his home that don't necessarily involve resorting directly to him.

-The Power Girl/Lex sequences have a nice seductive undertone that Clancy Brown just nails.

- Bruce dissing Lois? Yeah, there's no way to hear that without detecting a note of jealousy.

- That's a pretty nice superbrawl there - well animated, it covers a lot of action in a short amount of time without feeling too choppy.

-And that's the most impressive Captain Atom has been in any medium ever.

-Note to Captain Atom; When one of the your subordinates makes an offhand crack like that, you should really consider having a little one-on-one chat with the guy.

-The Batman and Superman/Hawkman and Captain Marvel fight is a little too short for my tastes, with no really impressive sequences for any of the participants.

-That said? Corey Burton should be put on contract for any future Captain Marvel voicework.

-You know, for a guy who doesn't believe in killing his enemies, Batman has a LOT of high explosives on him.

-Crazy Lex is fun.

-Toyman is a lot better here than he was in the original comic version.

-Kevin Conroy, as Batman, saying "wow" - and now I've seen it all.

-"Best friend" - Awwwww (Keep telling yourself that Clark)

-Now that is a good Superman/Lex Luthor fight - people making the next Superman movie, please please please take note.

-The ending here is pretty cheeseball, but effective. It also acknowledges a big missing piece that might have made for more of the movie, but I'm guessing was cut due to time and/or budget.

SPECIAL FEATURES: Virtually none - if you've rented Green Lantern: First Flight, you've seen them all already, sadly.

Overall evaluation: Yeah, it's a pretty fun light action romp - and far less explicit violence than any other DC direct-to-DVD animated feature to date. Pity it's so light on special features though. Check it out and give me your thoughts.

Your moment of funny

What If...we lived in a comicbook universe? Part 45

A Typical Week in The Life Of...The Average Marvel Citizen

MONDAY: It’s a great time to live in where the Avengers and the Fantastic Four and all these other wonderful superbeings live in to save us all from danger and villains and monsters!




TUESDAY: Spider-Man is a Menace! I read it in the Bugle! And somebody’s got to stop the Hulk from wrecking everything in sight! The Avengers should get off their asses and take care of this stuff!

WEDNESDAY: Mutants are ruining America! Why can’t Reed Richards create some kind of ray that makes Muties normal? Because his kids are filthy Muties! I tell you I don’t know how heroic guys like Captain America can stand being in the same room as some of these abominations.

THURSDAY: These superheroes are out of control with their fights and the damage! The government needs to step in. I just don’t understand why Captain America seems so against the idea, but I’m sure his heart is in the right place. He’s just misguided because he’s so close to the issue.

FRIDAY: Captain America was a traitor who deserved what he got for being out of touch with the common man! Thank God for Tony Stark, a real American hero who knows how to look out for our interests and is going to take care of us all!

SATURDAY: Fuck Tony Stark and his weak-ass Initiative! It takes a bastard like Norman Osborn to ride herd on all these Superfreaks! We should just throw all of them into space and be done with it!
SUNDAY: Oh God! The Skrulls are invading and the Sentinels just vaporized the Capitol and Magneto just turned Los Angeles into a three-mile high metal sculpture! Norman Osborn is cackling like a moron while the Leader floods the subways with poison gas! Somebody, anybody save us!

Your moment of funny

Second Draft Required

I said I don't have much to say about the Disney/Marvel thing, and that's true. However, I do want to draw attention to Brian Hibbs letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Now, Brian is a pretty sincere guy and as solid a commentator on the Direct Market as one can expect. His thoughts and opinions should be given serious consideration.

It's just sad that his letter won't get any attention where it counts.

I'll just go through the highlights here, as I don't want to reprint the whole thing.

Hi, you don’t know me, but I’m a comic book specialty retailer – also known
as a Direct Market (DM) retailer.

This is not how you want to introduce yourself. Of course Bob Iger doesn't know who you are - hell, he probably doesn't even know what the Direct Market is. It's your job to inform him and make him care. Something this next passage does not help with:

I also suspect that the publishing arm of Marvel is among the least of your
concerns in this deal, as the potential for movies, TV shows, licensing,
amusement parks rides, whatever, is the true prize here for you.

And now the letter is in the trash. Why? You just argued against your own importance, and undercut whatever brilliant arguements you had. If you want him to pay attention, you have to sell him on the idea that what you do MATTERS. If you can't or won't do that, then don't bother with the letter. There's a lot more in this letter that should be addressed, and maybe if I hear enough feedback, I'll even write it down, but it's all irrelevant until this point is dealt with.

I'm sure Brian knows that in business (because he is a businessman, and I'm not) you want to talk up your product, your service, and what you offer. That has to be embedded deeply into every passage of your letter, so it is reinforced to such a degree that the audience/reader cannot deny it. Being self-depricating is not the way to go if you want anyone to pay attention to you. But it's understandable - even we comics fans tend to talk down our product, because we're afraid of ridicule or for other reasons. And that's fine in a social setting, but not in business. You, as a leading retailer, have to convince the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar media empire that your business matters, and that your opinion matters because you are good at running your very meaningful business. So speak up, speak loud and proud and don't be naysayed by hecklers. Try something a little more like this;

"My name is Brian Hibbs, and I run one of the most successful retail shops for
comics and other fine graphic paraphenilia in this country, of which your recent
purchase of Marvel Entertainment is a key part. As a leader in
this region, it is my opinion that an opportunity presents itself for Disney to
increase its holdings by...."

And that's the other part Brian doesn't give much emphasis to in his letter; What's in it for Disney? Because if he wants them to do anything, he has to prove it's in their best interest. Disney's not in the business of helping out someone unless there's a payoff.

So, in summary: Talk up your business, be proud of who you are and what you do, let them know that there is opportunity for DISNEY to profit, and then make your case by stating the facts and backing them up with the numbers. Anything else is a waste of their time and yours.

What is new, in brief

Just a quick update and I'm getting right back to poster-making.

-Alan David Doane has a great e-Book out with a collection of interviews with some of the movers and shakers of the comic industry. Go. Read. Enjoy. Learn.
-Nope. No real commentary on the Disney/Marvel thing.
-Well, ain't that just grand.

Might as well get this started...

Alright, so I'm thinking of doing an end-of-the-year "Best Comics of the Decade: 2000-2009" post and I'd like to hear your thoughts. I'm going to break it down as follows

What kind of comics? - I'll break it down in terms of series (limited or ongoing), runs by a particular creator/creative team, and of course, Graphic Novels. Any company or entity can apply, except webcomics, which I only exclude because I'm not nearly well versed enough to talk about them. The only other rule is that that they have to be from the 2000-2009 timeframe. No exceptions on this one.

Division of Categories:

The Best - Simply put, those comics that are going to pass the test of time and still be viewed as examples of the very best of a genre, format, or medium as you see it. (I.e. I would put All-Star Superman and Kurt Busiek's Arrowsmith on this list)

The Good - those that are good (if not perfect) examples of what comics can do, but that you aren't sure are the absolute "best of the best" (The Surrogates and Sleeper might fit in here, in my mind, to give two examples).

Of Their Times - Now, this might be a bit of a controversial category, as it will probably end up promoting a lot of bad comics as well as good ones. In the same way you can look at X-Force vol. 1 #1 or Spawn#1 and say "yep, that's the 90s!" - what comics do you think you're going to look back at ten years from now and say "Oh that's so 2000s!" (also, man, it's going to be hard to name this decades - are we really going to call it "the Aughts"?). For my money, my starting list right now includes Identity Crisis, Ultimates Vol. 1 and 2, and Black Summer.

I'm going to leave this post up for at least a week, so I want to hear your comments, thoughts, and suggestions as to what books belong in what categories. Go nuts.

Pick the best caption

Your Moment of Funny

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.

Honest reactions

Claremont, creation and questions

X-Men Forever begs a question (for me at least): Is it still considered fan-fiction if it's written by the author who can nominally be considered the creators of the characters? Some of the qualities of (mediocre at best) fanfiction present: established relationships rewritten to authorial preferences, the laws of science and genre convention convienently ignored for nonsensical dramatic moments, and a general sense that the whole point of the exercise is to demonstrate your own superiority to the works of others.

Now, there are those, particularly Alan David Doane that would argue that all (or nearly all) of modern Big Two comics output would be considered fanfiction, and has even coined the term "The Fanfiction Age". I'm not entirely sure he's wrong; there's certainly enough evidence out there to make a good case for it.

However, there is an important difference here: that Chris Claremont is the definitive X-Men writer. All the characters, even those developed before his tenure, were ciphers until his long and storied run. He developed the personalities, the dynamics, and the stories that Marvel has continued to mine for nearly 20 years since he left the property, including for a lucrative film franchising of the property. And Claremont's reward has been, at best, bittersweet: he's gotten his share of work since then, and has had various "golden parachute" titles that Marvel has put out simply on the strength of his name. On the other hand, I can easily imagine him shortly after his heart troubles, sitting at a TV watching "Wolverine and the X-Men" (or rather as I like to think of it - "X-Men: Days of Future Past - the Animated Series") and wondering to himself if he wouldn't have been far better off bringing his ideas to an idea that he could have fully owned and profited from. But that's life in Big Two comics.

All that said, X-Men Forever is not necessarily all that bad; it's certainly in line with the type of X-men comics were coming out in the early 90s, and in its own way, the freedom Claremont has to shake up the status quo whatever way he damn well pleases gives an interesting insight or three into how he views the characters. And it's certainly as valid as the current bad fanfiction being put out by NuMarvel.

Your thoughts?

This is probably going to get me a lot of hate comments

I really am not sure where I should begin with a critique with this upcoming Ms. Marvel cover.

To start, it doesn't really look all that - finished? Look at Wolverine (Daken, Dark Wolvie, whatever) and Sentry - it looks like the inkers just said "Well, fuck it, no one's actually going to pay attention to the background on this thing, so I'm just going to finish up and get ahead of schedule". The Sentry's head appears to have been severed from his body and is floating about three feet to the left of the center of his chest (not that I'm opposed to decapitating the Sentry, mind you). Carol Danver's spine seems to have been snapped, as that's the only way I can imagine that I'm seeing her butts and her chest in the perspective depicted. Is this what passes for professional cover art these days? Not to sound like an old man or anything, but the rushed quality is so apparent that it's actually jarring.

Now, as far as the subject matter, I'm not going to go to far in giving it scorn, but I do want to make a few simple observations. First is that it appears Marvel learned exactly zip from the whole "Heroes for Hire Hentai tentacle cover" controversy - even the excuse of using "controversial" cover depictions to drum up publicity and sales doesn't fly because"Heroes for Hire" got cancelled something like three months later, and so far as I've seen on the internet, no one is talking about it. Maybe comic fans are just used to it by now? Maybe they've just lost the ability to care? Or maybe it's because even FANS of the Ms. Marvel comic have found the comic to be generally a boring directionless mess of a book with unsympathetic characters? I don't know.

Still, the thought that Marvel is putting out covers that increasingly are beginning to resemble fanart from bondage fansites? Not that encouraging. And for those about to bring up Golden and Silver Ages comics and covers which featured a fair deal of "Wonder Woman in chains", well, that's fine, but that was then and this is now, so I don't think it's a fair comparison. There has been a fair number of comic retailers taken to court over lurid imagery, and the companies should maybe show a little more discretion. And for the the record, my reaction to this would be the same if the character were male or female.

And now for something completely different

Thoughts on Gaming, as expressed by 80s icons:

Your moment of Funny

What If we lived in a comic book universe? Part 44

Just a thought

My reaction to Marvel's announcement of upcoming foil and Holo covers:

Discuss

Random post of comic Randomness

Christ, but "Old Man Logan" is quite possibly one of the worst comics I've ever read

I think "Old Man Logan" is the epitome of everything WRONG about big two super-comics - it literally coasts on using Nostalgia and telling and not showing you.

As an example, this scene would be totally in place in OML:

BLIND OLD HAWKEYE AND LOGAN DRIVING IN DESSERT

HAWKEYE: Where are we?
LOGAN: Outside a place called Forbush, Wyoming
HAWKEYE: Man...here? Wow...you know what happened here?
LOGAN: I heard. He saved the entire state. Fought off the Sinister Six Thousand and Ultron 940. Moved the population to that abandoned base on Mars.
HAWKEYE: He was the greatest of us all

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD SHOWING A DEVASTATED LANDSCAPE, AND A SHRINE BUILT AROUND A SINGLE OVERTURNED POT WITH EYEHOLES IN IT

And the people would EAT THAT SHIT UP. That's why I can't stand "Old Man Logan"

Marvel is really on a 70s kick right now, when you think about it.

To give a dramatic illustration, let's compare Marvel's biggest gun with a pair of hacks. Brian Bendis vs. Abnett and Lanning. Both of them are currently working on 70s properties (Abnett and Lanning on "HOLY SHIT WE'VE GOT NOVA AND FUCKING ROCKET RACOON AND GODDAMN ADAM WARLOCK AND STARLORD WHO NO ONE HAS EVER GIVEN A SHIT ABOUT EVER" (Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova), and Bendis with "SPIDER WOMAN AND LUKE CAGE AND BROTHER VOODOO AND MS MARVEL ARE FUCKING AWESOME AND NO ONE BUT ME HAS EVER REALIZED HOW SPECIAL SPECIAL THEY ARE" (New Avengers). Ostensibly, these are the same thing really - a fetish for 70s characters that have lain dormant and are being revived simply to keep the intellectual property alive. What is different is that while Bendis has technical skill and an ear for dialogue and a large fan following, he assumes that you actually give a shit about Luke Cage or Spider-Woman to begin with. I don't, so I generally don't give a shit about New Avengers aka "Brian Bendis REALLY loves 70s characters". In contrast, Abnett and Lanning are competent craftsman who actually realize that ABSOLUTELY NO ONE knows who Starlord and Rocket Raccoon are, or are even that familiar with Nova, so they take the time and effort to construct passable, if not particularly innovative, narrative structures that do a minimal job of investing you in the character. You may not end up caring anyway, or you may not like the story one way or another, but at least they do the minimum job of trying to build emotional investment.

Of course, what will be interesting is when the next generation of "fans turned pro" enter comics and we get revivals of 80s and 90s stuff. Yeah, that'll be...something...god only knows what though.

On Bendis again - but I guess the point of his work on the Avengers franchise now is to remold the #1 superteam of the Marvel Universe into a noir setting, and man the failings of that approach are obvious, especially in the latest issue where Hawkeye says "we have to kill Norman Osborn" because 1) that is so insanely out of character for Hawkeye that it beggars description, and 2) because that kind of logic only works in mob movies. I don't think many of the writers at Marvel realizes that noir genre logic doesn't...actually, you know, WORK IN REAL LIFE. But again, maybe this is just the result of too many like minds in the Bullpen.

The End League is a well-intentioned misfire: In all the interviews, Rick Remender states that his intention was to show that a world in which "an average human being at random gets superpowers" would not be favorable to "the good guys", but we never see that. Instead we see a bunch of thinly-veiled DC and Marvel Analogues, and how the thinly-veiled analogues for Lex Luthor, the Red Skull, and Joker turn the planet into a toilet. I mean, it's not bad per se, but it doesn't really address Remender's intention to show what "real people" would be like with superpowers because most people wouldn't become anything like Superman or Spider-Man or Batman or the Red Skull or the Joker - most people would be somewhere in between. Irredeemable suffers from a similar conceit, and thus failure.

And now, a tribute

Happy Independence Day to my American neighbours and readers and so forth. And if you want to see my favorite Captain America beatdown of all time, go here.