Tagged: Joss Whedon

MARC ALAN FISHMAN: Lights. Camera. Avenge.

So, I just watched the trailer for The Avengers. I had to change pants. Because I pooped them. Why the premature defecation, you inquire? One movie with Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Worthless Chick and Bow and Arrow Man… that’s why! In all seriousness (that would be the seriousness of a comic nerd geeking out at maximum dorkatude), it’s because this is the culmination of years of planning on Marvel’s part. And simply put, it looks like they aren’t going to screw it up.

In their own rights, each of the Marvel heroes who have been given a solo movie have done spectacularly well. Iron Man grossed over $318,000,000; Thor nabbed over $181,000,000; and the glorious Captain America took in over $175,000,000. Bob Wayne at DC once said “You vote with your dollars…” and by the looks of it, America (nerd and non-nerd alike) has proven its love for the Marvel movies.

Speaking purely from a fan-boy perspective, I’ve had nothing but mad love and respect for their cinematic endeavors. Iron Man was grounded in reality (for 4/5s of the film), and elevated by a continuously energetic performance by Robert Downey Jr., Thor was able to mix the completely ridiculous with powerful mythology and gave us perhaps one of the hardest to believe Avengers such that we as an audience believed a God could be a superhero. Captain America was able to build a fantastic period piece that gave the world an iconic and fearless leader. And now, Joss Whedon and Marvel Studios is cramming all of them (and a handful of others) into a single picture.

The basic fear most fanboys have had since the idea of an Avengers movie was dropped on our collective consciousness revolved around over-complexity. Rumors of Loki, the Kree/Skrull war, Red Skull, and numerous other villains danced on message boards. And let’s face it. Putting 4 or 5 “A-Types” into a team picture will potentially numb any chance at character building and nuance. If Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Incredible Hulk each required their own picture, how can they share the limelight? And on top of it… Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury looks to be far more than just a cameo to boot. In simpler terms, The Avengers could easily become 10 gallons of Superhero in a 5 gallon hat.

If the trailer is to be any indicator of what the final product will be, I feel like Marvel is headed in the right direction. With the origins of every character now “public knowledge,” things feel natural. Iron Man and Captain America are both formidable leaders in their own right. In the trailer, they knock heads almost instantly. Whedon, who wrote the script, has a real clarity of character. Tony’s response is pitch perfect. Thor, while not uttering a word, carries himself as we expect… Regally, with a dash of arrogance.

Other glimpses of the titular characters are equally impressive. Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner certainly holds himself with a quiet struggle. And the choice to make Loki the villain creates a real urgency for the assembling. A mad god? Yeah, that’s a job for the Avengers. I know this all seems a bit of a hyperbole of analysis, given that all we’ve really seen is 12,000 seconds of footage (with a solid third of that dedicated to ominous shots of New York, explosions, and Iron Man flying)… but I’ve watched the trailer a couple times now, and each time I retain the same silly grin.

Marvel’s missteps – Wolverine, Elektra, Daredevil (which I actually liked), and most likely one (if not more) of the Blade flicks – all shared a plethora of groan worthy moments. In each, the self-seriousness never felt earned by the fans. That, and Wolverine was given Clark Kent’s origin part-way through his movie. I wish I could pinpoint exactly why the Avengers, with its surplus of superheroes, seems to capture my glee, with no bitter aftertaste of “this could be a train wreck.” Could it be I just want it to succeed too much? With Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Thor all leading up to this, it may very be such that I can’t fathom this flopping. I’ve dropped far too much cash at the multiplex to see Marvel bellyflop.

At its core, the Avengers is true fanboy porn. An assembling of Marvel’s best and brightest (and Hawkeye, cause, you know…) to fight the biggest of fights, is the stuff dreams are made of. To see it in live-action glory, with a bevy of computer effects and explosions is everything comic fans have dreamed of. I postulate it’s akin to The Dark Knight, where the general masses will appreciate our medium in a new light. It raises our collective mojo up just a notch. And anytime a comic nerd looks better than a Trekkie or LARPer… well, that’s just gravy. If you haven’t checked it out yet, do go watch the trailer… and come back here to tell me if I should stave my excitement, or just invest in a few more pair of paints prior to its debut.

SUNDAY: John Ostrander

“Avengers” Trailer released

  • News
  • October 11, 2011

And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth’s mightiest heroes were united against a common threat — to fight foes no single hero could withstand.

On that day… The Avengers trailer was released.

Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures “Marvel’s The Avengers”–the Super Hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel Super Heroes Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins. Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson, and directed by Joss Whedon, “Marvel’s The Avengers” is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since. Prepare yourself for an exciting event movie, packed with action and spectacular special effects, when “Marvel’s The Avengers” assemble in summer 2012. In “Marvel’s The Avengers,” superheroes team up to pull the world back from the brink of disaster when an unexpected enemy threatens global security.

MARC ALAN FISHMAN: “Super-heroines,” Get Back In The Kitchen!

So after a few weeks of daydreaming and being all cutesy-wootsie, I figure it’s about time I stir the pot a little. Let me get behind this wire mesh wall, force field, and don some protective gear. There. Safe and secure. Ahem…

Marvel’s female superheroes suck.

Don’t believe me? OK. Name the first few Marvel superheroes that come to mind. I’ll give you a minute. Who did you say…Spider-Man? Thor? Captain America? How about Iron Man? Hmm. No double X chromosomes there. The last big event to revolve around a woman? Oh yeah! House of M. The one where Marvel showed that a chick who ain’t barefoot and preggers goes crazy and resets the universe at will. Now there’s a feather in a feminists’ cap.

When I say “important women of Marvel,” aren’t they are always the yin to the yang of a more powerful man? Pepper Potts. Sorry Matt Fraction, you can put a repulsor in her chest, you can give her a code name, but she’s still just Tony’s secretary. Mary Jane Watson-Parker-Watson-by-way-of-a-retcon? Face it tiger, she’s just there to fall off buildings. Maria Hill? Nick Fury’s assprint hadn’t even cooled off before she was ousted back down to who-cares-ville. And when we open the discussion to those ladies who carry the hero badge? It doesn’t get any better.

Sue Storm, the matriarch of the Future Foundation. The soul of the Fantastic Four. Completely boring and useless without her husband. The best writers of Sue have always pegged her as a strong and independent woman. But take her away from Reed, Ben, or the children and the only bullet point left on her resume is part-time booty call for Namor.

Black Widow: slut with guns. How about Ms. Marvel? I’ll be completely honest. I don’t know a thing about her. Best I could tell? She was brought in because Marvel has no Wonder Woman, so they threw her on the Avengers. Beyond that I assume they keep her around because cute girls can show off their butts by cosplaying as her. What of the X-Men? Well, Jean Grey has died only 17 times, and has changed names to various permutations of “Phoenix,” all to what effect? She’s Cyclop’s gal. She maybe did Wolvie in a closet while Slim was waxing his car. And in the Ultimate Universe, maybe she did Charles too.

Let’s not forget Storm. She was married off to Black Panther so they could make super-black-babies that will invariably land on some future iteration of the X-Avengers. Not because they’ll be well written mind you… but they will add that “affirmative action” flavor John Stewart was used for back in the JLA.

I say this obviously not just to be cranky. I openly yell to the heavens for someone to come in and make the women matter again. Joss Whedon put Kitty Pride and the White Queen front and center in his amazing run on Astonishing X-Men. More than that, he made them more than worthless eye-candy in butt floss. He gave them dimension, and class. They weren’t in peril for perils’ sake.

Given Whedon’s pedigree for good female characterization, it didn’t come as a surprise. Whedon aside, other Marvel writers certainly have the know-how. Matt Fraction, Brian Michael Bendis and Jonathon Hickman are all amazing writers who know the ins and out of nuance. They’ve each made the females in their books (yes that includes Pepper in the aforementioned Iron Man series) very potent. But my gripe remains the same.

It’s not enough to write a woman as powerful, smart, and put-together. It’s the act of writing them as such that they are more than decoration. Throughout Marvel’s recent history, it’s been a literal boys-club. Civil War? Captain America and Iron Man fighting in the sandbox. Secret War? An excuse to make Norman Osbourn king of the playground – until sales dipped, and people stopped caring. And now we have Fear Itself, which as far as I can tell is only an excuse to half-kill Thor, and dress everyone up in Tron-stripes.

I yearn just once to have a female character in any of these situations stand up and set the world straight. Not to say it’s happened in the DC ever… but I actually believe Marvel has the smarts to actually do it. In this day and age where the DCnU turns Starfire and Catwoman into sultry sluts with no character trait beyond their cup size… I look to the House of Ideas to set the industry right.

When DC was making up Kryptonite and the color yellow the ultimate weapons against its heroes, Marvel figured out that debt, responsibility, and a guilty conscience was far better. Let us hope that in the coming times, they take the next step and realize that women are more than tits and tiny costumes. They are the fairer sex, the stronger characters, and perhaps the last untouched resource for superior fiction.

SUNDAY: John Ostrander

Avengers, Assembled: First Looks of Mark Ruffalo as Hulk and Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill

  • News
  • July 25, 2011

Marvel Comics released a wide variety of posters at the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend with Chris Evans as Captain America, Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Scarlett Johannson as the Black Widow, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson, and Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, all in advance of the May 2012 release of the Avengers movie directed by Joss Whedon, and all making a giant poster after it’s all, ahem, assembled.

The images were created by Marvel Studios Co-Visual Development Supervisor Ryan Meinerding and Charlie Wen. Check ’em out.

A Brief Look at Iconic Locales for Thrillers

  • News
  • June 23, 2011

Enchanted forests, haunted hillsides, secluded cabins and the creatures that reside in dark places – have had us biting our nails since the early German Expressionist film era.  Witches, werewolves, monsters and maniacs can be lurking ‘round the corner just about any place you can imagine.  With Nicholas Cage’s Season of The Witch out on DVD and Blu-ray next week, we’re going to take a look at some of the most iconic and eerie locales in thrillers and horror films that make for the best places to splatter, slice and slash.

camp-crystal-lake-300x300-6267771Lakes

Crystal Lake is well-known from the beloved Friday The 13th and even though those films are set in New York, there so happens to be a real Crystal Lake in the San Gabriel’s near Los Angeles that many horror fans like to claim as their own.  Lake Placid is home to a killer crocodile and movies like Eden Lake, Zombie Lake, Rogue, What Lies Beneath, Lake Dead and of course Sleepaway Camp will make you want to go out and purchase a life vest and/or take some self-defense classes.  Deliverance and The Host are set on rivers and Ghost Ship is on the ocean, but we won’t hold it against them.

Cabins & Hotels

Cabin Fever, The Shining, Hostel, and Vacancy are just a few of the great films set in secluded vacation spots. Of more recent fame, Lars Von Teir’s Antichrist took the cabin in “Eden” to a whole new level of crazy.  No one can of course touch the masterpiece Evil Dead, where incantations read in the basement of the cabin wake up some flesh eating demons that no one forgets.

The Woods

The Blair Witch Project, Wrong Turn, Sleepy Hallow, Dreamcatcher, Shrooms all take us on a journey along streams, mossy banks and haunting willows that creep the living daylights out of you.  Taking it to the jungles, The Ruins and The Island of Dr Morteau receive honorable mentions.  Season of The Witch, out on DVD and Blue-ray June 28th crosses over into the supernatural into perilous terrain that makes way for a terrifying and powerful force that determines the fate of the world.

This could be why the canny Joss Whedon wrote the forthcoming thriller The Cabin in the Woods. No fool he.

Your House

Scream, Paranormal Activity, The Amityville Horror, The Grudge, The Others, The Haunting in Connecticut and The Last House on the Left are just a few of the films that really take it to the next level and bring the horror and gore way past your comfort zone.   Funny Games could easily fit into the Cabin category but it still hits way too close to home.  And grandpa’s house most certainly counts for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Hills get a runner up location nod due to films like The Hills Have Eyes and the 1959 B Movie Classic, House on Haunted Hill.  And sure Silent Hill even though we know it doesn’t really count.

The Frick Museum aka Avengers Mansion

The Real Avengers Mansion

The Frick Museum aka Avengers Mansion

Today I learned that Avengers Mansion, home to stalwarts like Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and do you really need me to rattle off the full roster, is based on a real place in New York– the Henry Clay Frick house, a city-block sized mansion at 1 East 70th St., right opposite Central Park. (The theoretical address for Avengers Mansion is 890 5th Avenue, which is in the same location.) Today the building houses the Frick Collection of art and is open to the public– so it’s quite possible Joss Whedon could shoot there.

This was brought to my attention by Gothamist (yes, I know, it should be covering DC, not Marvel) which had a brief piece showing a number of the secret rooms in the Frick that aren’t shown to the general public. Of course, even Gothamist wasn’t allowed to take photos of the Quinjet hangar.

Frick himself, incidentally, was the Lex Luthor of his day, known for strikebreaking and being at least partly responsible for the Johnstown Flood, and was dubbed one of the Worst C.E.O.s in American History by Portfolio magazine.

Related articles
Joss Whedon, James Bond and M on International Women’s Day

Joss Whedon, James Bond and M on International Women’s Day

  • News
  • March 8, 2011

This is the first time we’ve had Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench as James Bond and M in over two years, going on three… and they’re back together for a good cause, supporting International Women’s Day. Watch:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkp4t5NYzVM[/youtube]

In the spirit of the day, you may want to take a look at this piece as well: Joss Whedon’s acceptance speech to Equality Now, introduced by Meryl Streep.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoEZQfTaaEA[/youtube]

Stephen Fry Honored by Harvard for Lifetime Achievement

Stephen Fry Honored by Harvard for Lifetime Achievement

  • News
  • February 21, 2011

Stephen Fry

Author, actor, comedian and game show host, Stephen Fry will receive the Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism, presented at Harvard University each year by the Harvard Secular Society on behalf of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard and the American Humanist Association.  Past recipients of the award include novelist Salman Rushdie, punk rock star Greg Graffin of the band Bad Religion, writer/director Joss Whedon, and Mythbusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage.

ComicMix readers may recognize Fry from such movies as V for Vendetta, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and the voice of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

The event, scheduled for Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 8 PM, is sold out and will include a performance by Stephen Fry.  Satiric Musician Molly Lewis was added to the scheduled ceremony at the last minute and will perform her song, “An Open Letter to Stephen Fry.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n_hkeYGcT0[/youtube]

The Point Radio: Writing With Tim Burton

The Point Radio: Writing With Tim Burton


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Angel Returns to Dark Horse in Time for New Season

Angel Returns to Dark Horse in Time for New Season

  • News
  • August 20, 2010

Angel has been revealed to be the Big Bad in the latter issues of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight so it makes perfect sense for the comic book adventures of the vampire with a soul to shift from IDW back to Dark Horse.

The story leaked inadvertently yesterday and now Dark Horse has sent out a formal announcement:

August 19, 2010, MILWAUKIE, OR—Dark Horse Comics is thrilled to announce that Joss Whedon’s Angel will return to the Dark Horse stable in 2011. Dark Horse’s Angel will bring the beloved characters from Whedon’s longest-running shows under one roof, allowing for new and exciting explorations of the Buffyverse featuring favorites from the casts of both series.

“I’ve always regretted letting Angel go in the first place,” Dark Horse senior managing editor Scott Allie said. “So we’re really excited about getting him back, as well as all his supporting cast. It’s necessary for how Joss wants to handle season nine, details of which will start spilling out in the months to come. Right now, we’ve got to wrap up season eight, and IDW still has a good long run of books before season nine starts.”

IDW Publishing confirmed today that it will launch the company’s final Angel story arc in November. This closing six-issue arc will serve as a bridge to Dark Horse Comics, which will pick up the series in late 2011. Under the direction of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel creator Joss Whedon, all parties are working together for as seamless a transition as possible. The companies have been coordinating story lines in both Dark Horse’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight and IDW’s Angel, creating a greater sense of cohesion and cooperation to ensure that this transition is true to both ongoing story lines and to the faithful fans of both series.

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