I really didn't want to click the link on this story at io9 (Sigmund had also sent me the link. Thanks, Sig! And happy belated b-day!).
But I'll tell you why I liked the article.
A) This person seems to have actually read the Superman comics and have a working knowledge of Superman's history, which many writers seem to find surprisingly irrelevant when discussing The Man of Steel.
B) The author recognizes that as a fictional character with a lengthy history, Superman is not completely doomed to actually be whatever the latest incarnation appeared to be in feature films, on TV, etc...
C) He actually calls out these stewards of the property, more or less, on a lack of vision. (I'd go so far as to suggest that to live the life of a movie studio chairman, you're probably also so far from knowing what an honest to goodness decent person looks like anymore, the idea of Superman would seem quaint, alien and freakish.)
D) He points out how Batman worked with the culture at key particular points that may or may not have had much to do with the character himself (I'd argue that we didn't really see anything resembling what/ who I consider to be Batman on film until "Batman Begins", and that Nolan sealed it up with "Dark Knight". Also, Batpods are awesome.).
E) The author understands that there's a difference between a bad idea and bad execution. Superman III and IV (and these days its hip to say Superman returns was awful, but I'll still go to the mat for that movie compared to 75% of Marvel's output) were terrible movies who slipped into camp when the largely straight reading of Superman I was what made it a classic.
I love the character of Batman, so I find it ridonkulous that folks feel like they have to take up sides, like they're picking a sports franchise to back. There's room for all the big guns.
I haven't addressed the legal issues between the Siegels and Warner Bros., because, frankly, I don't understand much of any of it, and I'm sort of cheering for both sides to win. I'd love to see the Siegel and Shuster estates receive their due, but find a way to negotiate with WB, who truly have done an amazing job of keeping a pulp character alive in a completely unequaled way for 70+ years. (How many kids do you see wearing Doc Savage, Buck Rogers or The Shadow t-shirts on college campuses?).
Showing posts with label Superman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Superman. Show all posts
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Superman on a Boat, Wednesday Comics, Elvira at the Alamo, etc...
Working on some e-mail interviews for upcoming projects by Loyal Leaguers. More to come on that. In the interim, here's some other stuff.
Superfans: On a Boat?
Apparently someone is putting together a cruise for Superman Fans. A Cruise. I don't even know what to make of this.
Should The League be on a cruise with with other superfans? What would that be like? I can scarcely begin to guess.
Here's the promotional website.
From the Superman Homepage.
Sadly, a cruise is probably out of the question, anyway. Jamie can't do a cruise, so it's unlikely I would abandon her for several days of fun and super-snorkeling, etc... without her to go hangout with complete strangers. Even if they could land Noel Neill for the cruise.
I also have some questions about whether or not a cruise is the right way to express our Super-fandom. I'd think maybe something a bit more selfless would be a good way to stand up for Truth, Justice and the American Way (although taking a cruise in the name of a fictional hero does seem terribly American).
It's all very strange. Then again, I've never been on a cruise.
Wednesday Comics
This week sees the debut of DC's project "Wednesday Comics". If its been a while since you stepped foot in a comic shop, this would be a great week to do so. For a mere $3.99, you can get a tabloid-sized comic featuring the best and brightest in the genre/ industry.
I think Busiek is on GL. Stuff like that.
This week also sees a new issue of Superman: New Krypton and the fist official issue of the Green Lantern Mega-Event, "Blackest Night".
My nerd radar is going crazy.
USA Today is running the Superman section of Wednesday Comics online. View it here. (Flash is required)
A little forewarning: I'm kind of suspecting that these strips are more about the art than the content in some cases.
Rumble (by Ross)
Art for the upcoming Absolute Edition of the Jim Krueger/ Alex Ross comic "Justice".
I've been waiting something like four years for this Absolute Edition.
click for big screen awesomeness
Post from the DCU blog with info on the book.
Elvira in Austin
So.... DITMTLOD, Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, will be at the Alamo in July.
I need your help. You all know I adore The Mistress of the Dark, but I don't see myself getting to both Elvira screenings.
Should I go to see Elvira on Tuesday (the show with the better location and showing time)? Click here.
Or should I go to see Elvira on Wednesday at the Ritz for a late show, but with the movie I prefer of her two starring vehicles? Click here.
And... Who wants to join me on this adventure? Let me know which flick you want to catch!
I do not see any reason here why I would not wish to attend
Superfans: On a Boat?
Apparently someone is putting together a cruise for Superman Fans. A Cruise. I don't even know what to make of this.
Should The League be on a cruise with with other superfans? What would that be like? I can scarcely begin to guess.
Here's the promotional website.
From the Superman Homepage.
Sadly, a cruise is probably out of the question, anyway. Jamie can't do a cruise, so it's unlikely I would abandon her for several days of fun and super-snorkeling, etc... without her to go hangout with complete strangers. Even if they could land Noel Neill for the cruise.
I also have some questions about whether or not a cruise is the right way to express our Super-fandom. I'd think maybe something a bit more selfless would be a good way to stand up for Truth, Justice and the American Way (although taking a cruise in the name of a fictional hero does seem terribly American).
It's all very strange. Then again, I've never been on a cruise.
Wednesday Comics
This week sees the debut of DC's project "Wednesday Comics". If its been a while since you stepped foot in a comic shop, this would be a great week to do so. For a mere $3.99, you can get a tabloid-sized comic featuring the best and brightest in the genre/ industry.
I think Busiek is on GL. Stuff like that.
This week also sees a new issue of Superman: New Krypton and the fist official issue of the Green Lantern Mega-Event, "Blackest Night".
My nerd radar is going crazy.
USA Today is running the Superman section of Wednesday Comics online. View it here. (Flash is required)
A little forewarning: I'm kind of suspecting that these strips are more about the art than the content in some cases.
Rumble (by Ross)
Art for the upcoming Absolute Edition of the Jim Krueger/ Alex Ross comic "Justice".
I've been waiting something like four years for this Absolute Edition.
click for big screen awesomeness
Post from the DCU blog with info on the book.
Elvira in Austin
So.... DITMTLOD, Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, will be at the Alamo in July.
I need your help. You all know I adore The Mistress of the Dark, but I don't see myself getting to both Elvira screenings.
Should I go to see Elvira on Tuesday (the show with the better location and showing time)? Click here.
Or should I go to see Elvira on Wednesday at the Ritz for a late show, but with the movie I prefer of her two starring vehicles? Click here.
And... Who wants to join me on this adventure? Let me know which flick you want to catch!
I do not see any reason here why I would not wish to attend
Sunday, June 28, 2009
The League Talks Comics - Batwoman, GL and Superman
Editor's Note: Leaguers, I'm going to go back to occasionally talking comics around here. Feel free to ignore these posts, friends and family who don't care!
I'm also going to mostly focus on suggestions for stuff I liked. It'll save us all a lot of time.
Detective Comics #854
Written by Greg Rucka; Art by JH Williams and Cully Hamner; Cover by JH Williams : Variant Cover by JG Jones
We're on issue #854 of Detective Comics, where Batman made his first appearance in 1939ish in issue #29. So, this is the first issue in quite sometime given over to someone other than Batman, or people standing around talking about/ thinking about Batman.
Instead, after 3 years of getting our chain yanked by DC with its sporadic appearances of the "all new" Batwoman (That's Batwoman, not Batgirl), DC finally committed to the character and gave her a chance to make it on her own. Apparently DC is also trying to make amends with novelist/ comic scribe Greg Rucka, with whom it seems things got crosswise during the "52" event of 06' - 07', by giving him "Detective" and then, just to be extra nice, assigning artist JH Williams III (of Batman and Promethea fame) to the storyline.
With karate she'll kick your ass, from here, to right over there...
Longtime readers will know I'm a fan of Rucka's work on Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, OMAC, and I spent a lot of time in Costa Rica reading his "Queen & Country" comics. Rucka does fetishize a certain type of female character, as evidenced by his similar treatment of Renee Montoya from Gotham Central/ The Question, Queen and Country and now Batwoman. Highly competent, jaded, and a personal life in shambles. And maybe he needs to shake that off a bit, which he's forced to do when he's handling characters he didn't manage from scratch (and which he handles quite well).
There's nothing wrong with the narrative here, and, in fact, Rucka does an amazing job of setting the stage for who Kathy Kane is and where we're headed. But Detective Comics just jumped page count and increased its price by 25% with a Question back-up feature by Rucka, that will probably remind readers a bit too much of how similar the two characters actually are.
I'm counting on the back-up feature intersecting with the main feature at some point. We'll see. But both characters have been tied up with Rucka's ongoing "Religion of Crime" storylines at different times.
I'd be remiss in discussing the new Batwoman as character if I didn't point out, like everyone else has, that she is part of DC's efforts at representing the world "as is", in that Kathy Kane has been established as a lesbian. It's not an overarching part of the plot, but its not hard to see that DC was trying to spread its wings a bit with the character intended to be part of its mainstream offerings. Which, I just realized, means that Detective Comics #854 features not one, but two gay heroes.
The art: Is phenomenal. I really don't know what else to say about JH Williams, other than that the man is one of the most wickedly talented people working in the comics business. His style is vastly different from, say, Frank Quitely, but I feel he's in the same category, and it'd be nice if he were a bit better recognized/ had greater influence on the comic art community. I suggest going here and then clicking "view preview" to see his stuff.
Green Lantern #42
Written by Geoff Johns: Art and Cover by Philip Tan and Jonathan Glapion; Variant Cover by Rodolfo Migliari
This is more an endorsement of Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi's work on Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, two books I enjoy immensely. Johns and Tomasi have both been using the serial and ongoing nature of the books to lead to an event in "Blackest Night", which is hitting at the end of the summer. (And if you're reading GL but not GLC, you are crazy. Seriously.)
Johns and Tomasi have managed to greatly expand the conceits of the GL books of decades past, and have introduced a spectrum of colors and their varying allegiances, roles, etc... And its been a fascinating read.
The last few issues of GL have focused upon the Guardians' attempts to negotiate with Larfleeze, a being who seized the Orange Lantern (think Gollum, but with the power of a thousand GL's) millions of years ago.
As a single issue, it would be incredibly difficult to walk into GL #42, so The League recommends picking up with the Sinestro Corps stuff in trade paperback.
Every once in a while when you're reading a comic, it just clicks, and it becomes abundantly clear that the comic you're reading is going to be remembered and become essential reading for decades. It may eventually spawn movies, etc... And, most certainly, that's the case right now with Green Lantern, provided the whole ending for Blackest Night doesn't crater.
Superman #689
Written by James Robinson; Art by Renato Guedes and José Wilson Magalhães; Cover by Andrew Robinson
Like Batman disappearing from the pages of Detective, Superman hasn't actually appeared in "Superman" for the past few months as the "World of Krypton" mega-story has taken over the Superman wing of the DCU. Clark Kent/ Kal-El is off planet at the moment (a move I confess to thinking was nuts when I first heard it), and has left Metropolis in the hands of a fellow alien, Mon-El. Meanwhile, Action Comics is now featuring an all-new Flamebird and Nightwing, a Kandorian super-team hunting down Phantom Zone criminals.
Mon-El has appeared in the Superman-related comics since the early 1960's, first in Superboy, and then in the Legion of Super-Heroes. From the planet Daxam (and actually named Lar Gand, but given a Kryptonian name by a young Superboy) Mon-El has similar abilities to a Kryptonian. However, unlike Kryptonians, Daxamites are affected by the simple element of lead the way Superman might be affected by Kryptonite. In today's continuity, he was found by a young Clark Kent who was forced to place him into the Phantom Zone to save his life.
Freed from the Zone and given a temporary cure, he's taken Superman's place in protecting not just Metropolis, but, as this issue explores, Earth. Its a great story, showing how this very human alien relates to the planet and is trying to make the most of his time.
I'm not as enamored by Robinson's writing as some, and some scenes, such as The Guardian's defense of Mon-El to Morgan Edge feel simply rushed. Like Robinson had an item he felt he wanted to check off his list of narrative moments, but didn't quite know how to frame it, and so a fairly simple speech cleared up an entire storyline. It seemed almost quaint in this era of televised punditry. It also felt oddly like a call back to Superman's defense of Krypto circa issue 680.
But the issue is an overall enjoyable read, and a great beat in this ever-expanding storyline of World of Krypton, as it runs through the Superman titles.
Sure, its odd that DC has decided that Clark Kent himself isn't the star of his self-titled comic at the moment, but I'm enjoying the feeling of a broad, epic vision for the Superman comics at this moment. Superman's displacement doesn't feel artificial as it did in "Superman: Exile", and I feel that Robinson's stewardship on the title is sound.
Plus, I like the artwork.
That's it for the moment. I doubt this will be a weekly thing, but doing some comic-related writing felt like a good idea today.
I'm also going to mostly focus on suggestions for stuff I liked. It'll save us all a lot of time.
Detective Comics #854
Written by Greg Rucka; Art by JH Williams and Cully Hamner; Cover by JH Williams : Variant Cover by JG Jones
We're on issue #854 of Detective Comics, where Batman made his first appearance in 1939ish in issue #29. So, this is the first issue in quite sometime given over to someone other than Batman, or people standing around talking about/ thinking about Batman.
Instead, after 3 years of getting our chain yanked by DC with its sporadic appearances of the "all new" Batwoman (That's Batwoman, not Batgirl), DC finally committed to the character and gave her a chance to make it on her own. Apparently DC is also trying to make amends with novelist/ comic scribe Greg Rucka, with whom it seems things got crosswise during the "52" event of 06' - 07', by giving him "Detective" and then, just to be extra nice, assigning artist JH Williams III (of Batman and Promethea fame) to the storyline.
With karate she'll kick your ass, from here, to right over there...
Longtime readers will know I'm a fan of Rucka's work on Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, OMAC, and I spent a lot of time in Costa Rica reading his "Queen & Country" comics. Rucka does fetishize a certain type of female character, as evidenced by his similar treatment of Renee Montoya from Gotham Central/ The Question, Queen and Country and now Batwoman. Highly competent, jaded, and a personal life in shambles. And maybe he needs to shake that off a bit, which he's forced to do when he's handling characters he didn't manage from scratch (and which he handles quite well).
There's nothing wrong with the narrative here, and, in fact, Rucka does an amazing job of setting the stage for who Kathy Kane is and where we're headed. But Detective Comics just jumped page count and increased its price by 25% with a Question back-up feature by Rucka, that will probably remind readers a bit too much of how similar the two characters actually are.
I'm counting on the back-up feature intersecting with the main feature at some point. We'll see. But both characters have been tied up with Rucka's ongoing "Religion of Crime" storylines at different times.
I'd be remiss in discussing the new Batwoman as character if I didn't point out, like everyone else has, that she is part of DC's efforts at representing the world "as is", in that Kathy Kane has been established as a lesbian. It's not an overarching part of the plot, but its not hard to see that DC was trying to spread its wings a bit with the character intended to be part of its mainstream offerings. Which, I just realized, means that Detective Comics #854 features not one, but two gay heroes.
The art: Is phenomenal. I really don't know what else to say about JH Williams, other than that the man is one of the most wickedly talented people working in the comics business. His style is vastly different from, say, Frank Quitely, but I feel he's in the same category, and it'd be nice if he were a bit better recognized/ had greater influence on the comic art community. I suggest going here and then clicking "view preview" to see his stuff.
Green Lantern #42
Written by Geoff Johns: Art and Cover by Philip Tan and Jonathan Glapion; Variant Cover by Rodolfo Migliari
This is more an endorsement of Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi's work on Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, two books I enjoy immensely. Johns and Tomasi have both been using the serial and ongoing nature of the books to lead to an event in "Blackest Night", which is hitting at the end of the summer. (And if you're reading GL but not GLC, you are crazy. Seriously.)
Johns and Tomasi have managed to greatly expand the conceits of the GL books of decades past, and have introduced a spectrum of colors and their varying allegiances, roles, etc... And its been a fascinating read.
The last few issues of GL have focused upon the Guardians' attempts to negotiate with Larfleeze, a being who seized the Orange Lantern (think Gollum, but with the power of a thousand GL's) millions of years ago.
As a single issue, it would be incredibly difficult to walk into GL #42, so The League recommends picking up with the Sinestro Corps stuff in trade paperback.
Every once in a while when you're reading a comic, it just clicks, and it becomes abundantly clear that the comic you're reading is going to be remembered and become essential reading for decades. It may eventually spawn movies, etc... And, most certainly, that's the case right now with Green Lantern, provided the whole ending for Blackest Night doesn't crater.
Superman #689
Written by James Robinson; Art by Renato Guedes and José Wilson Magalhães; Cover by Andrew Robinson
Like Batman disappearing from the pages of Detective, Superman hasn't actually appeared in "Superman" for the past few months as the "World of Krypton" mega-story has taken over the Superman wing of the DCU. Clark Kent/ Kal-El is off planet at the moment (a move I confess to thinking was nuts when I first heard it), and has left Metropolis in the hands of a fellow alien, Mon-El. Meanwhile, Action Comics is now featuring an all-new Flamebird and Nightwing, a Kandorian super-team hunting down Phantom Zone criminals.
Mon-El has appeared in the Superman-related comics since the early 1960's, first in Superboy, and then in the Legion of Super-Heroes. From the planet Daxam (and actually named Lar Gand, but given a Kryptonian name by a young Superboy) Mon-El has similar abilities to a Kryptonian. However, unlike Kryptonians, Daxamites are affected by the simple element of lead the way Superman might be affected by Kryptonite. In today's continuity, he was found by a young Clark Kent who was forced to place him into the Phantom Zone to save his life.
Freed from the Zone and given a temporary cure, he's taken Superman's place in protecting not just Metropolis, but, as this issue explores, Earth. Its a great story, showing how this very human alien relates to the planet and is trying to make the most of his time.
I'm not as enamored by Robinson's writing as some, and some scenes, such as The Guardian's defense of Mon-El to Morgan Edge feel simply rushed. Like Robinson had an item he felt he wanted to check off his list of narrative moments, but didn't quite know how to frame it, and so a fairly simple speech cleared up an entire storyline. It seemed almost quaint in this era of televised punditry. It also felt oddly like a call back to Superman's defense of Krypto circa issue 680.
But the issue is an overall enjoyable read, and a great beat in this ever-expanding storyline of World of Krypton, as it runs through the Superman titles.
Sure, its odd that DC has decided that Clark Kent himself isn't the star of his self-titled comic at the moment, but I'm enjoying the feeling of a broad, epic vision for the Superman comics at this moment. Superman's displacement doesn't feel artificial as it did in "Superman: Exile", and I feel that Robinson's stewardship on the title is sound.
Plus, I like the artwork.
That's it for the moment. I doubt this will be a weekly thing, but doing some comic-related writing felt like a good idea today.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Donald Duck, Captain America and Superman gets Syndicated
Captain America
There's been a load of speculation about the 600th issue of Captain America that was released today (two days earlier than the normal comics' delivery day each week). Looks like that speculation can come to an end.
A couple of years back, Cap was shot on the steps of a court house in NYC, and keeled over dead. Since that time, former protege Bucky Barnes, his WWII-era sidekick turned lethal assassin, had put on the cowel, picked up the shield and done his best to fill Cap's boots. What should have been some serious comic-book hackery has, instead, been some of the best storytelling in the Marvel U that I'm aware of (in my humble opinion). Its just been great comics.
Marvel has been happy to try to play up any minor event in their comics in the major news outlets, and did so again today to coincide with the release of today's comic.
I can say no more, but there's a major spoiler after the jump.
Superman Back in the Newspaper Biz
Simon reminded me, so its in the post tonight!, that the upcoming Wednesday Comics from DC is not going to just be appearing in comic shops. DC is taking the format, which I've actually criticized as a throwback, and moving forward to the future for comics. The weekly comic is in an old (very, very old) format of the newspaper broadsheet, with something like a page or two of the story being released each week. Sort of like the old Little Nemo comics or a Flash Gordon comic.
And, yeah, its only a 12-week thing, but I think that's just their test period for both print and online. Oh, and here's some preview art for Wednesday Comics.
BUT... DC is going back to the future. They're also syndicating to USA Today online. What this means is that DC is finally, finally getting online.
Sigh.
I think this is a cool opportunity for DC to dip their toe in the internet waters with their major characters. Sure, I think they should be moving their entire library online, but... babysteps. AND, you guys will, I assume, be able to read at least the Superman comics, and maybe a whole lot more!
Anyhoo, here's the story from USA Today. And here's the DCU Blog article.
Here's some Superman art. Pretty nice!
click for a bigger image. See Supes and Bats in all their glory!
Donald Duck
Apparently last week was Donald Duck's 75th birthday.
Like most kids born after 1935 or so, Donald Duck was an ever present force in my formative years. The pantsless sailor duck was a welcome face on our TV screen and during the occasional 16mm film at school.
Happy 75th, Buddy!
I don't want to take anything away from Donald, but I do remember being maybe a little freaked out by his rage attacks as a kid, and was probably 5 or 6 or so before I found them funny and realized they were intended to be wacky and not vaguely threatening. I think I thought of Donald as an adult, and when adults flipped out when I was very little, I sort of flipped out a little on my own.
needs therapy
It was the Chip'n'Dale/ Donald stuff that I think won me over.
And here's a favorite:
Dude! There's a ton of Disney stuff on YouTube!
Anyway, who doesn't love Donald Duck? I sure do. And just to make matters better, the Duck comics from Disney are something I read from time to time as an adult, so Donald is still with me today, in a slightly less animated form.* Like many, having grown up with Disney characters as such a big part of our entertainment, I may not have a sense of ownership of the characters, but Disney's attempts to make me think of Donald, Mickey and much of the rest of Disney characters as pals has completely worked. When we went to Disneyworld in 2000, I got weirdly excited about having my photo taken with characters, and had a repeat in 2002 or 03 when I attended a conference at Disneyland.
Happy Birthday, Donald! Perhaps this 3/4's of a century, someone at Disney will buy you some pants, pal.
*I think Boom! just landed the Disney contract, so expect more Disney comics soon, if true. At a reasonable price, too!
There's been a load of speculation about the 600th issue of Captain America that was released today (two days earlier than the normal comics' delivery day each week). Looks like that speculation can come to an end.
A couple of years back, Cap was shot on the steps of a court house in NYC, and keeled over dead. Since that time, former protege Bucky Barnes, his WWII-era sidekick turned lethal assassin, had put on the cowel, picked up the shield and done his best to fill Cap's boots. What should have been some serious comic-book hackery has, instead, been some of the best storytelling in the Marvel U that I'm aware of (in my humble opinion). Its just been great comics.
Marvel has been happy to try to play up any minor event in their comics in the major news outlets, and did so again today to coincide with the release of today's comic.
I can say no more, but there's a major spoiler after the jump.
Superman Back in the Newspaper Biz
Simon reminded me, so its in the post tonight!, that the upcoming Wednesday Comics from DC is not going to just be appearing in comic shops. DC is taking the format, which I've actually criticized as a throwback, and moving forward to the future for comics. The weekly comic is in an old (very, very old) format of the newspaper broadsheet, with something like a page or two of the story being released each week. Sort of like the old Little Nemo comics or a Flash Gordon comic.
And, yeah, its only a 12-week thing, but I think that's just their test period for both print and online. Oh, and here's some preview art for Wednesday Comics.
BUT... DC is going back to the future. They're also syndicating to USA Today online. What this means is that DC is finally, finally getting online.
Sigh.
I think this is a cool opportunity for DC to dip their toe in the internet waters with their major characters. Sure, I think they should be moving their entire library online, but... babysteps. AND, you guys will, I assume, be able to read at least the Superman comics, and maybe a whole lot more!
Anyhoo, here's the story from USA Today. And here's the DCU Blog article.
Here's some Superman art. Pretty nice!
click for a bigger image. See Supes and Bats in all their glory!
Donald Duck
Apparently last week was Donald Duck's 75th birthday.
Like most kids born after 1935 or so, Donald Duck was an ever present force in my formative years. The pantsless sailor duck was a welcome face on our TV screen and during the occasional 16mm film at school.
Happy 75th, Buddy!
I don't want to take anything away from Donald, but I do remember being maybe a little freaked out by his rage attacks as a kid, and was probably 5 or 6 or so before I found them funny and realized they were intended to be wacky and not vaguely threatening. I think I thought of Donald as an adult, and when adults flipped out when I was very little, I sort of flipped out a little on my own.
needs therapy
It was the Chip'n'Dale/ Donald stuff that I think won me over.
And here's a favorite:
Dude! There's a ton of Disney stuff on YouTube!
Anyway, who doesn't love Donald Duck? I sure do. And just to make matters better, the Duck comics from Disney are something I read from time to time as an adult, so Donald is still with me today, in a slightly less animated form.* Like many, having grown up with Disney characters as such a big part of our entertainment, I may not have a sense of ownership of the characters, but Disney's attempts to make me think of Donald, Mickey and much of the rest of Disney characters as pals has completely worked. When we went to Disneyworld in 2000, I got weirdly excited about having my photo taken with characters, and had a repeat in 2002 or 03 when I attended a conference at Disneyland.
Happy Birthday, Donald! Perhaps this 3/4's of a century, someone at Disney will buy you some pants, pal.
*I think Boom! just landed the Disney contract, so expect more Disney comics soon, if true. At a reasonable price, too!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Superman Weekend Post
Superman Celebration in Starting in Metropolis, Illinois. And being reported by WGBS!
For Leaguers not in the know, in the 1970's and early 1980's comics, the Daily Planet was purchased by a media conglomerate owned by shady character Morgan Edge. Edge moved Clark Kent from the offices of the Daily Planet to the WGBS studios as a news anchor and reporter.
Anyhow, that's your background on Lois and Clark reporting for fictional network WGBS.
It's worth it just to see the mayor struggle with this whole Superman thing. That dude is old skool.
I will go to Metropolis as soon as possible, but am now thinking the first celebration I will attend will most likely be for the 75th anniversary in 2013 or so.
Superman: Secret Origin coming in September!
DC has already released the preview copy and images for Superman comics for September. I have to comment upon how much I've been enjoying the Superman line of comics. Really, since the 2006 re-launch, its been a great ride, but if I may, things are as good as they've been since the original Byrne re-launch.
Next week I'll probably put together a list of suggested readings, but we'll save that for later.
Of particular interest in the September previews is the release of issue #1 of Superman: Secret Origin. Written by Geoff Johns and with art by Gary Frank, its a great comic for just checking out Superman and get a snapshot of the character's history. It shouldn't require any special foreknowledge of the character.
Noel Neill Statue
Economic times are tough, and apparently the fair city of Metropolis is having a hard time scrounging the resources necessary to raise their statue of Lois Lane. The statue will be in the image of Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in both the the original theatrical serials and for five seasons on TV's "The Adventures of Superman".
Metropolis has a very special relationship with Ms. Neill, where she is known as "The First Lady", and attends the Superman Celebration every year as the most honored guest (seriously, its like a whole town throws a party of the lady. Its terribly sweet.)
If you guys want to see the statue become a reality (and, yes, even Superman would feel it was maybe not the most necessary thing in these tough economic times) then you should visit the website and buy a brick.
Jamie has forbidden my purchase of a brick to date, but perhaps if you all tell her to buy a brick, we'll be that much closer to making Ms. Neill's statue a reality. And she seems like such a nice lady. She could really use a statue. (Tell Jamie its a good idea)
a mock-up of the statue
Ms. Neill and Mr. Reeves
For Leaguers not in the know, in the 1970's and early 1980's comics, the Daily Planet was purchased by a media conglomerate owned by shady character Morgan Edge. Edge moved Clark Kent from the offices of the Daily Planet to the WGBS studios as a news anchor and reporter.
Anyhow, that's your background on Lois and Clark reporting for fictional network WGBS.
It's worth it just to see the mayor struggle with this whole Superman thing. That dude is old skool.
I will go to Metropolis as soon as possible, but am now thinking the first celebration I will attend will most likely be for the 75th anniversary in 2013 or so.
Superman: Secret Origin coming in September!
DC has already released the preview copy and images for Superman comics for September. I have to comment upon how much I've been enjoying the Superman line of comics. Really, since the 2006 re-launch, its been a great ride, but if I may, things are as good as they've been since the original Byrne re-launch.
Next week I'll probably put together a list of suggested readings, but we'll save that for later.
Of particular interest in the September previews is the release of issue #1 of Superman: Secret Origin. Written by Geoff Johns and with art by Gary Frank, its a great comic for just checking out Superman and get a snapshot of the character's history. It shouldn't require any special foreknowledge of the character.
Noel Neill Statue
Economic times are tough, and apparently the fair city of Metropolis is having a hard time scrounging the resources necessary to raise their statue of Lois Lane. The statue will be in the image of Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane in both the the original theatrical serials and for five seasons on TV's "The Adventures of Superman".
Metropolis has a very special relationship with Ms. Neill, where she is known as "The First Lady", and attends the Superman Celebration every year as the most honored guest (seriously, its like a whole town throws a party of the lady. Its terribly sweet.)
If you guys want to see the statue become a reality (and, yes, even Superman would feel it was maybe not the most necessary thing in these tough economic times) then you should visit the website and buy a brick.
Jamie has forbidden my purchase of a brick to date, but perhaps if you all tell her to buy a brick, we'll be that much closer to making Ms. Neill's statue a reality. And she seems like such a nice lady. She could really use a statue. (Tell Jamie its a good idea)
a mock-up of the statue
Ms. Neill and Mr. Reeves
Friday, May 29, 2009
Supergirl the Movie
It's been a long while since I tried to watch "Supergirl: The Movie". I've not actually ever made it all the way through the movie, at least in one shot. Except for the last time, when I had the flu, was running a 102 fever and was drifting in and out, and wasn't sure what might have been an hallucination.
The important thing to know about Supergirl is that it was produced by the same Salkinds who produced the first three Superman movies, and largely reflects what would happen if they were left to their own devices. The movie faired poorly enough that it is rumored that its part of why DC more or less retired Kara Zor-El/ Linda Lee from the DC Comics Universe for about two decades. I don't know if I buy that story, but it didn't mean that comic dorks didn't actually TELL Supergirl star Helen Slater that somehow she was responsible for the death of Supergirl in the comics (that's not cool, ya'll).*
The movie has some curious sponsorships, such as Popeye's Chicken, A&W Rootbeer and maybe Schlitz Malt Liquor. It also features several celebrities slumming it for the fun of being in a corny superhero movie, one would assume. Peter O'Toole plays some sort of wizard of a lost Kryptonian city (Argo) that retreated to "Innerspace" when Krypton exploded. Or something. Mia Farrow appears as Allura, Supergirl's mother. And Faye Dunaway headlines as "Selena", the villainness.
Supergirl declares that she is going to find out why the chicken bucket dinner crossed the road.
None of the stars of the original movies are in Supergirl, except for Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen. There's some very Bronze Age-ish reason cooked up as to where Superman is during the duration of the film (he's off planet working out an alien peace treaty). Most likely Lois wasn't going to appear as Kidder wasn't getting along with the Salkinds at the time of the shooting. And... a pre-Max Headroom Matt Frewer appears as one of the first two people Supergirl meets on Earth. Who promptly attempt to rape her (it's a fun movie for kids!).
Like Superman III and IV, the writers, director and producers of the movie envisioned none of the same sense of scale or American myth-building or representation that the first two Superman films attempted to embody. The whole thing feels vaguely under-thought out and not taken very seriously for a major motion picture, but in the wake of the success of the recent era of comic movies, its easy to forget that until Tim Burton produced Batman in the late 80's, most people felt their comic book movie job was to make an episode of the old Batman TV show.
Supergirl ponders a future in which she will star in no sequels.
The people in the movie are all oddly plain looking, in an after-school special sort of way that would never happen in a movie these days.
The big-scale heroic acts of the movie include Supergirl putting out a tire fire and stopping runaway construction equipment. Which all occurs far further into the movie than you'd probably guess.
By the time the movie hit the screen (I wouldn't see it until years later, possibly on VHS... I have no real recollection), Supergirl had moved well past the demure sweet-16 year old that had first appeared in Action Comics 252. She was, by the 1970's, a sort of kick-ass undergrad who frequently got wound up about social issues of the day. The movie plays up a bit more of the "I'm a good girl" take on Supergirl, without quite the same creepy factor that a lot of the earliest Supergirl stories contained.
As the demure and reserved Kara Zor-El, Helen Slater is fine, I guess. She looks exactly right in the suit, she seems to be the only one taking things seriously, and if you were going to have that brand of Supergirl, then you could do a lot worse.**
I'm going to go ahead and say it: This is a really dumb movie. It features whole scenes in which they seemed to neglect to actually put in the big budget movie monster, a comparative scene to the "can you read my mind" sequence in which Supergirl first knocks out her paramour, then carries him around the world in a bumper car. And the central conflict seems to stem from Supergirl and Faye Dunaway both wanting the sexy lawn-guy.
In many, many ways, it makes just no sense, and fits in with the Superman mythology in only the slimmest of ways.
While normally I'd really appreciate how some folks persevere no matter what obstacles are in their path, one sort of feels that once the producers couldn't land Christopher Reeve for the movie, that should have been a sign to call the the whole thing off.
The movie has a weird, kind of goofy fantasy movie ending that makes not a lick of sense and features a detailed puppet of something that may be THE DEVIL. Ya'll, I do not understand what I just watched.
*Supergirl would become one of the internet's most fetishized objects. Her return to DC Comics circa 2005 would be marred by a costume redesign and storytelling that seemed to reflect that fetish far more than celebrating the history of the character. In the past year, writer Sterling Gates managed to rehabilitate the character, but the costume is in deep need of a redesign.
**Slater went on to feature in other movies such as "The Secret of My Success", "The Legend of Billie Jean" and much more. She recently appeared on Smallville as Lara-El, Clark's birth mother. Let us just say that she has aged rather well since she wore the cape. And, these days, I think most comic fans agree that Slater is probably the best thing about the movie and celebrate her as part of the whole weird, mixed-up world of Super-fandom. She appears at signings, etc...
The important thing to know about Supergirl is that it was produced by the same Salkinds who produced the first three Superman movies, and largely reflects what would happen if they were left to their own devices. The movie faired poorly enough that it is rumored that its part of why DC more or less retired Kara Zor-El/ Linda Lee from the DC Comics Universe for about two decades. I don't know if I buy that story, but it didn't mean that comic dorks didn't actually TELL Supergirl star Helen Slater that somehow she was responsible for the death of Supergirl in the comics (that's not cool, ya'll).*
The movie has some curious sponsorships, such as Popeye's Chicken, A&W Rootbeer and maybe Schlitz Malt Liquor. It also features several celebrities slumming it for the fun of being in a corny superhero movie, one would assume. Peter O'Toole plays some sort of wizard of a lost Kryptonian city (Argo) that retreated to "Innerspace" when Krypton exploded. Or something. Mia Farrow appears as Allura, Supergirl's mother. And Faye Dunaway headlines as "Selena", the villainness.
Supergirl declares that she is going to find out why the chicken bucket dinner crossed the road.
None of the stars of the original movies are in Supergirl, except for Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen. There's some very Bronze Age-ish reason cooked up as to where Superman is during the duration of the film (he's off planet working out an alien peace treaty). Most likely Lois wasn't going to appear as Kidder wasn't getting along with the Salkinds at the time of the shooting. And... a pre-Max Headroom Matt Frewer appears as one of the first two people Supergirl meets on Earth. Who promptly attempt to rape her (it's a fun movie for kids!).
Like Superman III and IV, the writers, director and producers of the movie envisioned none of the same sense of scale or American myth-building or representation that the first two Superman films attempted to embody. The whole thing feels vaguely under-thought out and not taken very seriously for a major motion picture, but in the wake of the success of the recent era of comic movies, its easy to forget that until Tim Burton produced Batman in the late 80's, most people felt their comic book movie job was to make an episode of the old Batman TV show.
Supergirl ponders a future in which she will star in no sequels.
The people in the movie are all oddly plain looking, in an after-school special sort of way that would never happen in a movie these days.
The big-scale heroic acts of the movie include Supergirl putting out a tire fire and stopping runaway construction equipment. Which all occurs far further into the movie than you'd probably guess.
By the time the movie hit the screen (I wouldn't see it until years later, possibly on VHS... I have no real recollection), Supergirl had moved well past the demure sweet-16 year old that had first appeared in Action Comics 252. She was, by the 1970's, a sort of kick-ass undergrad who frequently got wound up about social issues of the day. The movie plays up a bit more of the "I'm a good girl" take on Supergirl, without quite the same creepy factor that a lot of the earliest Supergirl stories contained.
As the demure and reserved Kara Zor-El, Helen Slater is fine, I guess. She looks exactly right in the suit, she seems to be the only one taking things seriously, and if you were going to have that brand of Supergirl, then you could do a lot worse.**
I'm going to go ahead and say it: This is a really dumb movie. It features whole scenes in which they seemed to neglect to actually put in the big budget movie monster, a comparative scene to the "can you read my mind" sequence in which Supergirl first knocks out her paramour, then carries him around the world in a bumper car. And the central conflict seems to stem from Supergirl and Faye Dunaway both wanting the sexy lawn-guy.
In many, many ways, it makes just no sense, and fits in with the Superman mythology in only the slimmest of ways.
While normally I'd really appreciate how some folks persevere no matter what obstacles are in their path, one sort of feels that once the producers couldn't land Christopher Reeve for the movie, that should have been a sign to call the the whole thing off.
The movie has a weird, kind of goofy fantasy movie ending that makes not a lick of sense and features a detailed puppet of something that may be THE DEVIL. Ya'll, I do not understand what I just watched.
*Supergirl would become one of the internet's most fetishized objects. Her return to DC Comics circa 2005 would be marred by a costume redesign and storytelling that seemed to reflect that fetish far more than celebrating the history of the character. In the past year, writer Sterling Gates managed to rehabilitate the character, but the costume is in deep need of a redesign.
**Slater went on to feature in other movies such as "The Secret of My Success", "The Legend of Billie Jean" and much more. She recently appeared on Smallville as Lara-El, Clark's birth mother. Let us just say that she has aged rather well since she wore the cape. And, these days, I think most comic fans agree that Slater is probably the best thing about the movie and celebrate her as part of the whole weird, mixed-up world of Super-fandom. She appears at signings, etc...
Saturday, May 23, 2009
The First Lois Lane merges with the infinite
I am sorry to report that Joan Alexander, voice actress who played Lois Lane on the long-running Superman radio program, has passed. She was 94.
Alexander also played Lois Lane in the Fleischer cartoons of the early 1940's.
I think if you go back and listen to the radio program or watch the cartoons, you'll find Alexander was part of the image making of Lois Lane as tough-as-nails, hard-working city-gal. Its a different take from the great Noel Neill, lovely Phyllis Coates or unstoppable Margot Kidder, with a bit more of East Coast flair to it.
At any rate, she'll be missed.
Here from the Washington Post.
'tip o' the hat to the Superman Homepage.
Alexander also played Lois Lane in the Fleischer cartoons of the early 1940's.
I think if you go back and listen to the radio program or watch the cartoons, you'll find Alexander was part of the image making of Lois Lane as tough-as-nails, hard-working city-gal. Its a different take from the great Noel Neill, lovely Phyllis Coates or unstoppable Margot Kidder, with a bit more of East Coast flair to it.
At any rate, she'll be missed.
Here from the Washington Post.
'tip o' the hat to the Superman Homepage.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Superman/ Batman: Public Enemies
A few years back, DC launched a new series: Superman/ Batman.
It was in the spirit of the old comic series, World's Finest, which had been the series launched in the 1940's which put Superman and Batman in the same comic (it had originally been conceived as "World's Fair Comics", to coincide with the 1939 World's Fair in New York).
Comics are awesome. Oh, yes they are.
After 20 years of Dark Knight Returns inspired animosity, the powers that be at DC finally decided that just because Superman and Batman didn't always agree on methods, etc... they were more interesting as a mismatched pair of cops than they were as Batman being a jerk and Superman just standing there letting Batman rattle on (I mean, seriously... at what point would Superman not just start avoiding the guy?).
So was launched Superman/ Batman, with words and story by Jeph Loeb (the writer of Teen Wolf! and Commando!) and art by Ed McGuinness. McGuinness had come to notoriety through his work on Mr. Majestic, one of several Superman-like titles that popped up in the 90's explosion, and which was eventually folded into the DCU multi-verse (along with the entire Wildstorm Univere). He went on to pencil Superman circa 2001, and I actually have one of his original art pages from the "Our Worlds at War" storyline.
Super Pals
The first storyline was entitled Public Enemies, and drew to a close the long-running storyline set up in the Superman comics when Lex Luthor nabbed the 2000 election, becoming President of the United States. So what happens when he puts out a warrant for the arrest of Superman? And a bounty for his capture? Awesomeness. That's what happens.
Anyhow, I don't want to reveal too much, as DCU Animated is now bringing the story to DVD as an animated movie. The art style is probably as close as they could get to translating McGuinness's unique style to an animated form. They'll probably also have to drop a few elements of the comic tied to continuity, but I'm optimistic that this will be a really fun ride.
The comic was a big, ridiculous action flick sort of thing. Looks like the movie will be more of the same.
Check out a semi-legal trailer here.
It was in the spirit of the old comic series, World's Finest, which had been the series launched in the 1940's which put Superman and Batman in the same comic (it had originally been conceived as "World's Fair Comics", to coincide with the 1939 World's Fair in New York).
Comics are awesome. Oh, yes they are.
After 20 years of Dark Knight Returns inspired animosity, the powers that be at DC finally decided that just because Superman and Batman didn't always agree on methods, etc... they were more interesting as a mismatched pair of cops than they were as Batman being a jerk and Superman just standing there letting Batman rattle on (I mean, seriously... at what point would Superman not just start avoiding the guy?).
So was launched Superman/ Batman, with words and story by Jeph Loeb (the writer of Teen Wolf! and Commando!) and art by Ed McGuinness. McGuinness had come to notoriety through his work on Mr. Majestic, one of several Superman-like titles that popped up in the 90's explosion, and which was eventually folded into the DCU multi-verse (along with the entire Wildstorm Univere). He went on to pencil Superman circa 2001, and I actually have one of his original art pages from the "Our Worlds at War" storyline.
Super Pals
The first storyline was entitled Public Enemies, and drew to a close the long-running storyline set up in the Superman comics when Lex Luthor nabbed the 2000 election, becoming President of the United States. So what happens when he puts out a warrant for the arrest of Superman? And a bounty for his capture? Awesomeness. That's what happens.
Anyhow, I don't want to reveal too much, as DCU Animated is now bringing the story to DVD as an animated movie. The art style is probably as close as they could get to translating McGuinness's unique style to an animated form. They'll probably also have to drop a few elements of the comic tied to continuity, but I'm optimistic that this will be a really fun ride.
The comic was a big, ridiculous action flick sort of thing. Looks like the movie will be more of the same.
Check out a semi-legal trailer here.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
I apologize now for talking about "Smallville"
Smallville is a bad, bad show.
On any other network, "Smallville" would have been canceled long ago. It ranks in the lowest rungs of TV watcherdom*, but because it shows on The CW (the bastard love child of failed networks "The WB" and "The Paramount Network"), and has more viewers than "Everybody Hates Chris", its the darling of the CW network.
When I am at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter will be watching my life with me on some super-high-def Pearly Gates TV, and he's going to hit pause and ask me "why? Why did you spend so many hours wasting your life watching this show?"
And I won't know. I won't feel good about it. I don't feel good about it now. I barely admit that I watch the show. And, truthfully, I did stop watching it for a year or more. But then I saw an article on how they were bringing in Smallville's version of the Justice League, and I tuned in, and, well...
The truth is, I don't think I'm just making it up that the first three or four seasons of Smallville were frequently dippy as they tried to mix "Dawson's Creek" style teen-romance with superheroics. But it was a completely different and better show than what we're seeing now.
For those of you who don't know... Smallville was supposed to tell the stories of a teen-aged Clark Kent (the pilot was his first day at high school) coming to terms with his powers and his identity as something other than human. The show cast John "The Dukes of Hazzard" Schneider as Jonathan Kent, and Annette "Superman III" O'Toole as Martha Kent, the two playing his wise and loving parents, guiding him toward his role as Superman.
Anyway, the show was pretty straightforward. Teen-aged kid fights crime, lies to a 20-something Lex Luthor about having an alien origin, and has romantic trouble with the worst character on TV, ever (Lana Lang as portrayed -poorly - by Kristin Kreuk).
For a while there, the show featured name actors, from Rutger Hauer to Christopher Reeve. Terence Stamp was the voice of Jor-El, and a concerted effort seemed to be made to tie the show to the Reeve-starring movie continuity.
The series completed its 8th season this last week. Gone are the days when the show had a budget that could support keeping high dollar actors like John Glover, John Schneider and Annette O'Toole around for every episode. These days, those actors are all gone, the supporting cast of 20-somethings, just happy to be working, mostly appears in half the episodes, and the FX budget appears to be roughly 1/3rd of what it was in the earliest episodes. We're lucky if we see Clark run at superspeed anymore.
More than that, however, is that the scope and scale of the show seems to have diminished, and what writing does occur has been, for several seasons (and through a complete changing of the guard this year in creative leadership) pretty much a trainwreck.
And yet... I keep watching.
In many ways, I really do not understand how supposedly professional writers could be so very, very bad. Just simple, dumb choices have led to an ever escalating parade of dopeyness.
To list or innumerate the failings of the show is probably an exercise in frustration and/ or self-loathing for myself as a viewer. However, as a Superman fan, its fascinating to watch unfold as the show seems unable or unwilling to just go ahead and try to build toward the point at which Clark Kent makes the decision to put on his tights and save the world. It's become less about the young Kal-El's path to iconic status as The Man o Steel and more about the most extended case of "get to the point" in televised history. I say this as someone who watches "Lost".
There were improvements this season. I do not exaggerate when I say that Smallville fell into a weird pattern in seasons 6 and 7 where it wrapped its main plot of the episode and utilized the last 10 minutes of every broadcast to have Clark berated by his "love interest", effectively celebrating something that slid from wicked co-dependency to an emotionally abusive relationship. I wouldn't make too much note of that other than that, based on the Neutrogena and make-up ads, Smallville is geared towards teen-aged girls. Which... is squarely not in the usual superhero demographic. But given how the show insisted that Clark and Lana's deeply dysfunctional relationship was held up as "true love"... it just got creepy by the time Kreuk left the show.
What sort of bizarre superhero show spends 1/4 of its broadcast time each week dedicated to the superhero apologizing and being told he is a bad person? And what kind of weirdo fantasy was that for the audience of teen-aged girls? What do I not know and what am I missing here?
Add in what occurred with a different supporting character this season, and we've moved into coded messages about the nobility of aiding and abetting a known murderer, with a heavy dose of Stockholm Syndrome, sexual predation as romance, infidelity and physical abuse.
Hoooray, Smallville writers!
And still, I watch. Mostly at this point for the same reasons one would watch Melrose Place back in the day. By driving all character decisions from a plot standpoint rather than bothering to try to have anyone behave rationally or explain their actions in anything that makes sense (and doesn't require heaping guilt upon our Superman), everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, on the show seems as dumb as a bunch of cattle. But unlike Melrose place, eventually the writers seem to sober up at the end of the season, realize they've written their supposedly heroic characters like a herd of morons without a minder, and try to backpeddle out of the other 20-odd episodes of mistakes with a lot of speechifying and self-serving rationalization.
But I cannot look away.
There's a fundamental difference, I think, between how writers typically handle superheroic comics and how Joe or Jane TV writer handles a TV show, or even where those writers are coming from. My guess is that the writers of Smallville are work-for-hire writers with little in the way of a comics background. If their reference point for superheroics are within the loop of madness that Smallville has become, then the reference points just aren't going to be there for the writers to know that, hey... Superman isn't going to be much of a Superman if every cross word from a pal is going to send him into a tizzy of inaction or ineffectiveness.
Superman didn't become Superman because he was unwilling to take action or let grouchy "friends" dictate his actions.
At any rate, I now have a few months to consider whether I'll watch the show next year, but even in that, I know I'm caught in a loop. Smallville always starts out with the best of intentions for a season, and the first two or three episodes don't usually hint much at the madness which is to come. Its when they start setting up the plot for the next 20 episodes that things get out of control.
Lost is really onto something with this whole shortened season with an end point business.
*Week May 4-10, 2009, Smallville was the CW's #2 show, pulling in 3,392,000 viewers. "Dancing with the Stars" pulled in over 20 million. The real news is that, for some reason, America's Funniest Home Videos pulled in almost 7 million viewers. That's a lot of people watching other people get hit in the nards, Leaguers.
On any other network, "Smallville" would have been canceled long ago. It ranks in the lowest rungs of TV watcherdom*, but because it shows on The CW (the bastard love child of failed networks "The WB" and "The Paramount Network"), and has more viewers than "Everybody Hates Chris", its the darling of the CW network.
When I am at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter will be watching my life with me on some super-high-def Pearly Gates TV, and he's going to hit pause and ask me "why? Why did you spend so many hours wasting your life watching this show?"
And I won't know. I won't feel good about it. I don't feel good about it now. I barely admit that I watch the show. And, truthfully, I did stop watching it for a year or more. But then I saw an article on how they were bringing in Smallville's version of the Justice League, and I tuned in, and, well...
The truth is, I don't think I'm just making it up that the first three or four seasons of Smallville were frequently dippy as they tried to mix "Dawson's Creek" style teen-romance with superheroics. But it was a completely different and better show than what we're seeing now.
For those of you who don't know... Smallville was supposed to tell the stories of a teen-aged Clark Kent (the pilot was his first day at high school) coming to terms with his powers and his identity as something other than human. The show cast John "The Dukes of Hazzard" Schneider as Jonathan Kent, and Annette "Superman III" O'Toole as Martha Kent, the two playing his wise and loving parents, guiding him toward his role as Superman.
Anyway, the show was pretty straightforward. Teen-aged kid fights crime, lies to a 20-something Lex Luthor about having an alien origin, and has romantic trouble with the worst character on TV, ever (Lana Lang as portrayed -poorly - by Kristin Kreuk).
For a while there, the show featured name actors, from Rutger Hauer to Christopher Reeve. Terence Stamp was the voice of Jor-El, and a concerted effort seemed to be made to tie the show to the Reeve-starring movie continuity.
The series completed its 8th season this last week. Gone are the days when the show had a budget that could support keeping high dollar actors like John Glover, John Schneider and Annette O'Toole around for every episode. These days, those actors are all gone, the supporting cast of 20-somethings, just happy to be working, mostly appears in half the episodes, and the FX budget appears to be roughly 1/3rd of what it was in the earliest episodes. We're lucky if we see Clark run at superspeed anymore.
More than that, however, is that the scope and scale of the show seems to have diminished, and what writing does occur has been, for several seasons (and through a complete changing of the guard this year in creative leadership) pretty much a trainwreck.
And yet... I keep watching.
In many ways, I really do not understand how supposedly professional writers could be so very, very bad. Just simple, dumb choices have led to an ever escalating parade of dopeyness.
To list or innumerate the failings of the show is probably an exercise in frustration and/ or self-loathing for myself as a viewer. However, as a Superman fan, its fascinating to watch unfold as the show seems unable or unwilling to just go ahead and try to build toward the point at which Clark Kent makes the decision to put on his tights and save the world. It's become less about the young Kal-El's path to iconic status as The Man o Steel and more about the most extended case of "get to the point" in televised history. I say this as someone who watches "Lost".
There were improvements this season. I do not exaggerate when I say that Smallville fell into a weird pattern in seasons 6 and 7 where it wrapped its main plot of the episode and utilized the last 10 minutes of every broadcast to have Clark berated by his "love interest", effectively celebrating something that slid from wicked co-dependency to an emotionally abusive relationship. I wouldn't make too much note of that other than that, based on the Neutrogena and make-up ads, Smallville is geared towards teen-aged girls. Which... is squarely not in the usual superhero demographic. But given how the show insisted that Clark and Lana's deeply dysfunctional relationship was held up as "true love"... it just got creepy by the time Kreuk left the show.
What sort of bizarre superhero show spends 1/4 of its broadcast time each week dedicated to the superhero apologizing and being told he is a bad person? And what kind of weirdo fantasy was that for the audience of teen-aged girls? What do I not know and what am I missing here?
Add in what occurred with a different supporting character this season, and we've moved into coded messages about the nobility of aiding and abetting a known murderer, with a heavy dose of Stockholm Syndrome, sexual predation as romance, infidelity and physical abuse.
Hoooray, Smallville writers!
And still, I watch. Mostly at this point for the same reasons one would watch Melrose Place back in the day. By driving all character decisions from a plot standpoint rather than bothering to try to have anyone behave rationally or explain their actions in anything that makes sense (and doesn't require heaping guilt upon our Superman), everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, on the show seems as dumb as a bunch of cattle. But unlike Melrose place, eventually the writers seem to sober up at the end of the season, realize they've written their supposedly heroic characters like a herd of morons without a minder, and try to backpeddle out of the other 20-odd episodes of mistakes with a lot of speechifying and self-serving rationalization.
But I cannot look away.
There's a fundamental difference, I think, between how writers typically handle superheroic comics and how Joe or Jane TV writer handles a TV show, or even where those writers are coming from. My guess is that the writers of Smallville are work-for-hire writers with little in the way of a comics background. If their reference point for superheroics are within the loop of madness that Smallville has become, then the reference points just aren't going to be there for the writers to know that, hey... Superman isn't going to be much of a Superman if every cross word from a pal is going to send him into a tizzy of inaction or ineffectiveness.
Superman didn't become Superman because he was unwilling to take action or let grouchy "friends" dictate his actions.
At any rate, I now have a few months to consider whether I'll watch the show next year, but even in that, I know I'm caught in a loop. Smallville always starts out with the best of intentions for a season, and the first two or three episodes don't usually hint much at the madness which is to come. Its when they start setting up the plot for the next 20 episodes that things get out of control.
Lost is really onto something with this whole shortened season with an end point business.
*Week May 4-10, 2009, Smallville was the CW's #2 show, pulling in 3,392,000 viewers. "Dancing with the Stars" pulled in over 20 million. The real news is that, for some reason, America's Funniest Home Videos pulled in almost 7 million viewers. That's a lot of people watching other people get hit in the nards, Leaguers.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Devo and Superman
So, last Friday I saw that Whitney Matheson of Pop Candy was going to interview Devo and opened the gates to her audience to ask questions of the legendary band. Sure that Matheson was going to be flooded with questions, I shot her off a Very League sort of question via e-mail and then, honestly, forgot about it.
Well, lo and behold, Matheson asked my question. It's actually one of the first questions asked from a fan.
You know, when Devo tells you to reject stupidity - you put on your red, art-deco bucket hat and goggles and you say NO to stupidity. And I hope I'm embracing ideas and information the way Devo would have it, but its hard to tell.
If Matheson's column looks familiar to long-time Leaguers, she also once made mention of my celebration of the Super-lifestyle circa May of 2006.
The funny thing is, this isn't really representative of how Super my lifestyle is in 2009. Is it time for a Super update? Is anyone interested in a photo tour of League HQ's Fortress of Solitude and Hall of Justice?
The problem, then, is revealing that I may have given in to stupidity... Must not let Devo down....
Well, lo and behold, Matheson asked my question. It's actually one of the first questions asked from a fan.
How can I repay you for your consistent level of awesome? -- R. Steans
By rejecting stupidity and embracing ideas and information.
You know, when Devo tells you to reject stupidity - you put on your red, art-deco bucket hat and goggles and you say NO to stupidity. And I hope I'm embracing ideas and information the way Devo would have it, but its hard to tell.
If Matheson's column looks familiar to long-time Leaguers, she also once made mention of my celebration of the Super-lifestyle circa May of 2006.
The funny thing is, this isn't really representative of how Super my lifestyle is in 2009. Is it time for a Super update? Is anyone interested in a photo tour of League HQ's Fortress of Solitude and Hall of Justice?
The problem, then, is revealing that I may have given in to stupidity... Must not let Devo down....
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Some Comic Book Stuff
John Hamm as Luthor!
It helps to have seen Superman I, Superman Returns and Superman IV...
I think I heard Jamie say "I want to go to there..."
So What Comics Should I read after Watchmen?
The answer is: I have no idea. Watchmen is sort of an island unto itself. But DC is here to help.
If you're DC Comics and you have an idea of what you think you could sell people, you launch a site on the topic.
Its a nifty site, and it mentions many of my personal favorites, from We3 to Preacher to All Star Superman.
What strikes me is that Marvel, while a terrific publisher, has not really operated in the same marketplace. "Alias" (no relation to the Jennifer Garner show) was the most DC/ Vertigo-esque of the Marvel titles. They have no Preacher, Swamp Thing or even All Star Superman. And really have no wing to publish something like We3.
Huh.
But they used to. In the 80's, Marvel used a wing called "Epic" to publish mature reader and creator owned work, including the superlative "Elektra: Assassin", and "Alien Legion" (which never, ever should have died). And, I think, maybe, the Shadowline of books, which was just tragically ahead of its time. Doctor Zero was a little bit of brilliance.
Creators now tend to take those books to Oni or Image these days, I'd guess.
Bam! Pow! Watchmen not for Kids!
Moore and Gibbons' Doomsday clock may be ticking down in a way WB wasn't expecting.
After the weekend crush of fanboys had bought up all the tickets, the usual superhero audience has trickled into the theaters, typically unaware of the ratings or reviews on the movie they've paid $10 a head to see.
This Chicago Tribune article decribes one theater where 1/4 of the audience walked out.
Let me run that by you again: One quarter of the audience WALKED OUT.
The truth is, I am not surprised. At some point, translating a massive tome, that plays with narrative structure as much as Watchmen does, with as many characters, scattered all over the timeline from the 1930's to the 1950's, is bound to create some problems for Joe Audience who wants to see that Blue Dude kicking a bad guy in his junk. He does not want to see the Blue Dude waxing rhapsodic about the nature of time while butt-naked on the moon.
Further: no matter what WB was going to do, people were going to show up with their kids, as most people see a cape and a mask and nifty Owlship, and assume a movie is for the kiddos. Perhaps not wrongly.
Yes, you kind of have to wonder how someone missed all the press on the movie and still showed up, or that theater employees aren't being warned not to sell tickets to children... but its also not an NC-17 movie. (which also raises the question: Still haven't seen Watchmen, but what's with all this I hear about gore and exploding bodies? Snyder just couldn't help himself, apparently.)
PREDICTION: The same thing comics went through in the 80's and 90's is about to happen to superhero movies. Studios will learn all kinds of wrong lessons from Watchmen and its adult content. Brace yourselves. It gets pretty stupid before it gets better.
"Lex Luthor Bailout" with Jon Hamm - watch more funny videos
It helps to have seen Superman I, Superman Returns and Superman IV...
I think I heard Jamie say "I want to go to there..."
So What Comics Should I read after Watchmen?
The answer is: I have no idea. Watchmen is sort of an island unto itself. But DC is here to help.
If you're DC Comics and you have an idea of what you think you could sell people, you launch a site on the topic.
Its a nifty site, and it mentions many of my personal favorites, from We3 to Preacher to All Star Superman.
What strikes me is that Marvel, while a terrific publisher, has not really operated in the same marketplace. "Alias" (no relation to the Jennifer Garner show) was the most DC/ Vertigo-esque of the Marvel titles. They have no Preacher, Swamp Thing or even All Star Superman. And really have no wing to publish something like We3.
Huh.
But they used to. In the 80's, Marvel used a wing called "Epic" to publish mature reader and creator owned work, including the superlative "Elektra: Assassin", and "Alien Legion" (which never, ever should have died). And, I think, maybe, the Shadowline of books, which was just tragically ahead of its time. Doctor Zero was a little bit of brilliance.
Creators now tend to take those books to Oni or Image these days, I'd guess.
Bam! Pow! Watchmen not for Kids!
Moore and Gibbons' Doomsday clock may be ticking down in a way WB wasn't expecting.
After the weekend crush of fanboys had bought up all the tickets, the usual superhero audience has trickled into the theaters, typically unaware of the ratings or reviews on the movie they've paid $10 a head to see.
This Chicago Tribune article decribes one theater where 1/4 of the audience walked out.
Let me run that by you again: One quarter of the audience WALKED OUT.
The truth is, I am not surprised. At some point, translating a massive tome, that plays with narrative structure as much as Watchmen does, with as many characters, scattered all over the timeline from the 1930's to the 1950's, is bound to create some problems for Joe Audience who wants to see that Blue Dude kicking a bad guy in his junk. He does not want to see the Blue Dude waxing rhapsodic about the nature of time while butt-naked on the moon.
Further: no matter what WB was going to do, people were going to show up with their kids, as most people see a cape and a mask and nifty Owlship, and assume a movie is for the kiddos. Perhaps not wrongly.
Yes, you kind of have to wonder how someone missed all the press on the movie and still showed up, or that theater employees aren't being warned not to sell tickets to children... but its also not an NC-17 movie. (which also raises the question: Still haven't seen Watchmen, but what's with all this I hear about gore and exploding bodies? Snyder just couldn't help himself, apparently.)
PREDICTION: The same thing comics went through in the 80's and 90's is about to happen to superhero movies. Studios will learn all kinds of wrong lessons from Watchmen and its adult content. Brace yourselves. It gets pretty stupid before it gets better.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
DCU Online Preview with Doomsday
DC is working with Sony Online entertainment to create a massive multi-player game, similar to World of Warcraft.
I'm very excited about the game despite the fact that playing means I will need either a new computer or a PS3. It looks like everything I was hoping City of Heroes would be, but because it didn't employ DC (or Marvel) characters or storylines, I just never got all that into CoH in the 6 months or so I played.
The latest out of the DCU Online dispatches is a trailer for a scenario in the game in which Luthor's team tries to liberate Doomsday from STAR Labs. I'm no gamer, so don't go buying the thing on my say-so, but it's neat to look at.
I'm very excited about the game despite the fact that playing means I will need either a new computer or a PS3. It looks like everything I was hoping City of Heroes would be, but because it didn't employ DC (or Marvel) characters or storylines, I just never got all that into CoH in the 6 months or so I played.
The latest out of the DCU Online dispatches is a trailer for a scenario in the game in which Luthor's team tries to liberate Doomsday from STAR Labs. I'm no gamer, so don't go buying the thing on my say-so, but it's neat to look at.
New Krypton
In case you haven't been following the Superman books, here's the nickel catch-up.
Brainiac came to Earth, Superman beat him and disabled his ship. In the proces, he freed Kandor, the lost city of Krypton.
What Superman didn't know was just about anything about Krypton or Kryptonians, and its been a rocky ride since. Kandor took to the other side of the solar system with a new world (using that nifty crystal technology you remember from Superman: The Movie and Superman Returns). They've dubbed the world New Krypton.
DC has put together a snazzy video trailer for the upcoming story arc. Here.
Brainiac came to Earth, Superman beat him and disabled his ship. In the proces, he freed Kandor, the lost city of Krypton.
What Superman didn't know was just about anything about Krypton or Kryptonians, and its been a rocky ride since. Kandor took to the other side of the solar system with a new world (using that nifty crystal technology you remember from Superman: The Movie and Superman Returns). They've dubbed the world New Krypton.
DC has put together a snazzy video trailer for the upcoming story arc. Here.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Action #1 on the Auction Block
Time to start shopping for my birthday
NTT pointed it out, so I should mention that Action Comics #1 is going on the auction block.
In case you don't know (and I find it hard to believe you've been reading this site for any length of time and somehow missed it, but whatever...) Action Comics #1 is the first appearance of Superman from 1938. Its not the first appearance of a super-hero, in my opinion, but it DID manage to launch 70 years of superheroes as a part of American pop culture, and, I'd argue, culture in general (remember how Spidey is hitting Broadway?)
Here's an article that manages to incorporate a screen-grab of Superman Homepage, which we mention here from time to time. It gets a little into the restored/ unrestored issue in collectible comics.
So, if I had the $400,000, would I buy this comic?
Well, no. I like my Superman comics, but, come on... give me a little credit. If I had a few extra million lying around, probably not even then. It's just a very different thing than, say, my Jimmy Olsens, which I pick up anywhere from $4 - $15 and I doubt are ever going to turn me a huge profit. That's my personal enjoyment from both a story and collector's perspective, not an investment.
And you may not have my Jimmy Olsens anyway.
My co-workers accidentally opened up a whole can of worms yesterday when they asked me a few leading questions about Superman. Anyway, it ended poorly (for them). But, at least they now know better than to ask about that one again.
But, hey, now they know all about the publishing history of Superman, and perhaps that will serve them well in the future.
What is funny is how people have such strong opinions of Superman as a character, even if they really haven't ever touched the character in anything but the most tangential ways. And nobody is ever shy about telling you what's wrong with Superman. I don't know if its years and years of articles, pre-Superman Returns, that seemed intent on instructing why Superman was irrelevant. And with the Watchmen movie hitting the screen and the press trying to explain the relevance of the original Watchmen comic, its easy enough to imagine that Watchmen was a cosmic shift from the hands-on-hips goofiness of the 1950's and that Superman comics hadn't really changed in that whole time, which is both true and not true (Superman was very firmly a kid's book until the mid-80's. I'd still hand a kid a modern Superman comic, but I'd want them to be fourth grade or so.).
Anyhow, as a dime comic it somehow seems fitting as a reminder of the value of inexpensive fantasy can have in troubled times, 70 years on.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Li'l Leaguers: Superman and Batman in Kid's Books!
Hey, I know there are a lot of Leaguers out there who've got young super-heroes of their own.
It seems Stone Arch Books is publishing a line of children's superhero books featuring The Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader. Art is in the style of the JLU/ Bruce Timm animated format.
Check them out here.
If you buy them and need help pronouncing villain names like Mr. Mxyzptlk, just lemme know. I would have freaking LOVED these as a kid.
It seems Stone Arch Books is publishing a line of children's superhero books featuring The Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader. Art is in the style of the JLU/ Bruce Timm animated format.
Check them out here.
If you buy them and need help pronouncing villain names like Mr. Mxyzptlk, just lemme know. I would have freaking LOVED these as a kid.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Music is Hope at the End of the World (or: Superman Sings!)
Dr. K's 100-Page Super Spectacular: Final Crisis Post Mortem Interlude: The Song at the End of the World
This will mean nothing to you if you're not reading DC's event comic, Final Crisis, but...
My attempt to identify the song that's the secret of life?
I never do these memes. Bear with me.
This will mean nothing to you if you're not reading DC's event comic, Final Crisis, but...
My attempt to identify the song that's the secret of life?
I never do these memes. Bear with me.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Superman distracted me
No blog post. I've been watching old George Reeves Superman episodes.
Also, Lucy is sick. Wish her well.
There's this, which, you know... I guess that's the wisdom of Solomon for you.
And Dave Campbell tells of a mysterious incident involving his Subaru Legacy and Party City streamers.
And, as I have no content, I shall post a picture of Lynda Carter.
Lynda Carter is beginning to suspect you are up to no good.
Also, Lucy is sick. Wish her well.
There's this, which, you know... I guess that's the wisdom of Solomon for you.
And Dave Campbell tells of a mysterious incident involving his Subaru Legacy and Party City streamers.
And, as I have no content, I shall post a picture of Lynda Carter.
Lynda Carter is beginning to suspect you are up to no good.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Office Party
Tonight was my office Christmas party. Lovely, catered affair at UT's new hotel/ conference center. Well, by office, I mean the entire library staff and their families showed up. It was a few hundred folks as far as I could tell.
I'm still new, so I stuck close to people I know, met some new people, drank some coffee, ate some food, ate a cookie. It was, all in all, very festive. And, it was interesting to see how so many people related to one another. A lot of them have been there for a career, and some were back after retiring.
I've never worked anywhere before that was somewhere I believed I'd be for more than a few years. Or where people took it for granted that their jobs would be there tomorrow, even when I worked at other university jobs. I'm not sure I believe I'm set for life, but it's an interesting dynamic. And a nice thought.
I don't know. I'm not ready to say I'm settled in quite yet.
Christmas Schedules
I'm actually in Austin straight through, but thanks to the unique schedule of the University, I'm actually off starting tomorrow at 5:00 until after Jan. 1 (but we miss basically every other federal, state or other holiday).
I'm looking forward to some downtime that doesn't include unemployment.
There's a lot of "chore" type stuff I want to knock out, but if you're around and about, give me a shout.
This also means light blogging will probably also continue throughout the break.
Christmas Poetry
I was asked pretty specifically not to repeat my Holiday Poetry experiment this year. So, alas, you poor suckers. No Holiday poem this year.
Not that anyone ever seemed to read the poems...
I Have No Idea What is Happening Here
...because it looks like Santa is an unwilling participant in this image
Tonight was my office Christmas party. Lovely, catered affair at UT's new hotel/ conference center. Well, by office, I mean the entire library staff and their families showed up. It was a few hundred folks as far as I could tell.
I'm still new, so I stuck close to people I know, met some new people, drank some coffee, ate some food, ate a cookie. It was, all in all, very festive. And, it was interesting to see how so many people related to one another. A lot of them have been there for a career, and some were back after retiring.
I've never worked anywhere before that was somewhere I believed I'd be for more than a few years. Or where people took it for granted that their jobs would be there tomorrow, even when I worked at other university jobs. I'm not sure I believe I'm set for life, but it's an interesting dynamic. And a nice thought.
I don't know. I'm not ready to say I'm settled in quite yet.
Christmas Schedules
I'm actually in Austin straight through, but thanks to the unique schedule of the University, I'm actually off starting tomorrow at 5:00 until after Jan. 1 (but we miss basically every other federal, state or other holiday).
I'm looking forward to some downtime that doesn't include unemployment.
There's a lot of "chore" type stuff I want to knock out, but if you're around and about, give me a shout.
This also means light blogging will probably also continue throughout the break.
Christmas Poetry
I was asked pretty specifically not to repeat my Holiday Poetry experiment this year. So, alas, you poor suckers. No Holiday poem this year.
Not that anyone ever seemed to read the poems...
I Have No Idea What is Happening Here
...because it looks like Santa is an unwilling participant in this image
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Re-Telling Superman's Origin
click the image for a full-sized version
This Spring DC comics will release a series retelling the origin of Superman. It is the 3rd effort in the past 23 years, but will establish a post Infinite Crisis baseline of the Man of Steel. I think you'll enjoy it.
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