Tagged: Iron Man

Reboots abound!

Reboots abound!

Robert GreenbergerWith J.J. Abrams now confirmed as not only producing and scripting but also directing 2008’s Star Trek XI, the buzz has begun on the latest reboot of a beloved franchise. As one might imagine, fans of the series have been divided over whether or not this has been necessary, a debate we’ve all heard before.

The entire notion of a reboot is an interesting one because, looking back, reboots were largely throwing ideas against the wall to see what might stick. While there were fans of The Flash, there was certainly no groundswell of support demanding DC Comics bring Jay Garrick back. Instead, management created Showcase as a title to try new things and after three issues of straight-forward adventure, they thought it was time for something different. As legend has it, someone thought the time might be right for a new super-hero and all heads turned to the last editor with any success as characters without S-shields and bats: Julius Schwartz.

Instinctively, Schwartz knew Jay Garrick and his mercury-helmet felt too dated. Things in the 1950s were fresh and new, sleek and shiny. He kept the name and the powers and recreated from the ground up, perhaps pop culture’s first reboot.

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Dennis O’Neil: Heroes and Villains

Dennis O’Neil: Heroes and Villains

Dennis O'NeilWhen writer John Broome, artist Gil Kane, and the real villain, editor Julius Schwartz, reinvented the Green Lantern in 1959, they were corrupting the youth of America, or at least the comics reading segment thereof, by promoting authoritarian attitudes and glorifying barely disguised fascism.

Weren’t they?

I mean, didn’t we agree, in last week’s installment of this feature, that Green Lantern was changed from a guy with magical powers derived from a lantern and a ring, a bit of a loner, not unlike Aladdin, into a guy with superscientific gimmickry who gave unquestioning obedience to his masters, the self-styled Guardians of the Galaxy? A member of a uniformed corps?

Well, maybe not.

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ComicMix catchup

ComicMix catchup

We at ComicMix are dedicated to bringing you as much stuff as we can, but we also know that means sometimes you miss things.  We know you want tagging and site feed and comments and that’s all coming down the pike real soon, but in the meantime here’s your handy-dandy guide to the second round of entries by our regular columnists. 

Look for Mike every Monday (in fact, his latest should be right below), Denny on Tuesday, me on Wednesday, John on Thursday, and Michael on Friday, and guest features on the weekend.  For those of you who, like me, grew up with the Marvel superhero cartoons in the ’60s, that means Mike = Captain America, Denny = the Hulk, me = Iron Man, John = Thor, and Michael = Namor.  (Hey, don’t knock it, that’s how I first discovered that Thursday was named after Thor!)

We also gave you a special "mother and child reunion" pair of featured columns this past weekend:

And our latest podcasts, hosted by Mellifluous Mike Raub, continue:

Happy reading and listening!

 

Dennis O’Neil: What Would Green Lantern Do?

Dennis O’Neil: What Would Green Lantern Do?

So do the Guardians of the Universe equip Green Lanterns with bumper stickers that read: My Space Sector, right or wrong?

This question is prompted by something that recently popped up on my screen, a political blog entry forwarded by Martha Thomases, ComicMix’s commnications director and my friend of more than 30 years. The blog was by Matthew Yglesias and it likened the current U.S. foreign policy honchos to the fictional Guardians and their interstellar group of do-bes, the Green Lantern Corps, each of whom is assigned a chunk of the galaxy. Mr. Yglesias describes the gizmos that give the Lanterns their bag of tricks as “the most powerful weapon(s) in the universe,” trinkets that “let bearer(s) generate streams of green energy… (W)hat the ring can do is limited only by the stipulation that it create green stuff and by the user’s combination of will and imagination.” Mr. Yglesias continues: “(A) lot of people seem to think that American military might is like one of these power rings. They seem to think that… we can accomplish absolutely anything in the world through the application of sufficient… force. The only thing limiting us is a lack of willpower.”

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Hollywood does comics

Hollywood does comics

There was a great deal of hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth when word leaked out of Hollywood that Joss Whedon had left the Wonder Woman film project and David Goyer would no longer write and direct a Flash film. Similarly, people reacted in horror at the notion of Joel Schumacher having anything to do with a Sandman movie.

Here’s the thing: none of this is shocking. Disappointing, yes, but we long time fans have gotten our hopes raised and dashed countless times through the years.

For those less familiar with Hollywood’s inner workings, the studios are always looking for the next great thing, uncertain of what it might be and where they may find it. So, in addition to buying original stories from screenwriters or ideas from producers and stars then assigning the stories to screenwriters, Hollywood goes shopping. They will receive yet-to-be-published books in galley form, they will scour the news for stories to dramatize, and they will see what their kids are listening to, and so on.

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Dennis O’Neil: I’m not the man I used to be

Dennis O’Neil: I’m not the man I used to be

Dennis O'NeilI’m not the man I used to be. But comics aren’t what they once were, either.

Allow me to elaborate, on both myself and comics.

First, me. A looming godlike Presence — you can call him “Mr. Editor” — would like me to introduce myself. Well. I’ve gone past many of my Catholic boyhood shibboleths, but I’m still stuck with the one that insists that no Gentleman speaks favorably of himself — we’re supposed to be like medieval knights, only without all the skewering and clanking. Still, when a Looming godlike Presence commands… Okay, quick and dirty, I’ll tell you what I was.

Starting in 1965, when I took a job as Stan Lee’s assistant, I was in the comic book business. As a writer, I did hundreds of comics scripts, some of which got noticed. Also, I was an editor for 23 years, most recently of the Batman franchise, and, even more recently, a teacher of comic book writing, a job I still happily do. I’ve also written novels, non-fiction books, a few teleplays, a lot of short pieces, including stories, reviews and introductions. And columns — I’ve done those, too. And I’ve shot off my mouth in public quite a bit. That’s what I was. What I am, as these words are typed, is a semi-retired slug.

We cool, Mr. Presence?

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Mike Gold: The Editor Babbles

Mike GoldWelcome to ComicMix — well, phase one of ComicMix.

This is the part where I’m supposed to explain who and what we are. In order to do so, I’m going to have to do something I rarely do and generally avoid: I’m going to speak seriously.

I’d like to say "welcome to the 21st Century," but I’m seven years late and not quite that pretentious. So I’ll get down to the details. Phase one of ComicMix is a community based around news, information, opinion and blogging, covering the entire range of the comic art medium and those elements in the broader media that we all tend to enjoy. We add this because, contrary to old-time fan thinking, we do not live in a vacuum.

We post the news continuously, we post our columns daily, we post our information and background stuff incessantly, we post our all-new podcasts thrice-weekly (starting Tuesday, February 13th; as they used to say in Pogo, "Friday the 13th falls on a Tuesday this month"), and we run our blogs continuously and irrepressibly.

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