Tagged: Marvel

Why Green Lantern Matters

  • News
  • June 19, 2011

In the wake of the release of Green Lantern in theaters everywhere, there have been a few interesting reveals from people. Heidi Macdonald reveals that she doesn’t get the character of Green Lantern, and Adam-Troy Castro shakes his head at what may be the most famous page of Green Lantern ever (reproduced above). Ty Templeton, as he is wont to do, goes full mock, as does Let’s Be Friends Again.

Here’s what they’re missing.

Quoting Heidi:

While I’m willing to shoulder the blame for shunning Green Lantern over the years, as I’ve been learning and growing, I have noticed a few things about the character that do strike me as flaws, dramatically speaking. It’s often noted that DC’s heroes for the most part lack the melodramatic emotional flair of the Marvel heroes, Batman and Superman being the notable exceptions. Marvel’s heroes are flawed and troubled and their powers echo and magnify those flaws and troubles; DC’s leads, generally speaking, are dudes who get some great idea to shrink or go fast and then proceed to shrink or go fast. Green Lantern is a prime example of this.

Hal Jordan is precisely that type of flawed character. He’s a cocky guy with tremendous willpower who gets a ring that runs on willpower and can create anything he can think of (although it’s often had a weakness for yellow) and is turned into an interstellar policeman. So far, so good– he has a science fiction version of Aladdin’s lamp, he can create whatever he wishes if he believes hard enough.

But the fuel of his power is also his greatest flaw– he thinks he can solve everything through sheer force of will.

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Review: ‘The Man from Atlantis’

In the 1970s, NBC was the network you could turn to when seeking high concepts series that never lived up to the expectations of its audience. A perfect example was Man from Atlantis, a short-lived concept about a man who could live under the sea.

One of the interesting conventions of the time was that concepts would be allowed to grow and develop through telefilms before a show went to series. In this case, there were four such films produced for the 1976-1977 season before the strong ratings convinced the Peacock Network to let this go to a weekly series. When it arrived in fall 1977, the demands of producing 22 episodes proved too much and the show was weakened, the ratings fell and the series became a footnote; another wreck during the network’s decline (Supertrain anyone?).

Warner Archive has recently released the pilot film on DVD and it’s interesting to see what could have been. Patrick Duffy, in his pre-Dallas days, played amnesiac Mark Harris who displayed the ability to breathe underwater and withstand the crushing deep sea water pressure. The producers extrapolated that he would need webbed hands and feet and the deep sea environment would mean he would have super-human strength out of the water. Found by the government, Harris is asked to work for the Foundation for Oceanic Research, a front for top secret activity. He is accompanied by a team of humans (co-stars Belinda J. Montgomery and Alan Fudge) aboard the high-tech sub called the Cetacean.

The real delight in the show is Victor Buono, the rotund character actor ComicMix fans recall as King Tut, but was a mainstay on prime time for years. His Mr. Schubert, the series’ antagonist, was a charismatic villain. (About the only episode I ever liked was the one that displayed Schubert flat broke after all his previous schemes failed; I had never seen a villain displayed in this way before.)

The pilot’s pacing is slow and everything has to be spelled out for the audience, a common downfall to debut episodes. The 96 minute running time should have allowed more interesting character development but such was not the expectation of science fiction shows of that decade. Duffy was fine as Harris, a bit dull for a hero, but he swam really well.

Marvel did far more interesting stories in their short-lived comic adaptation and the series remains popular with some fans so if you’re curious, this is a fine way to sample the show for yourself.

‘I Am Captain America’ variant covers

  • News
  • June 14, 2011

Marvel announced these a while back, but it seems more appropriate to show you these on Flag Day: to promote Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel is running “I Am Captain America” variant covers on selected titles through June and July, with all-new artwork from Joe Quesada, Marko Djurdjevic, Alex Maleev, Skottie Young, and Ed McGuiness, among others.

Personally, I’d love to have a few of these as posters.

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“Uncanny X-Men” ending

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Looks like DC isn’t the only one canceling long-running titles of late, as this October Uncanny X-Men #544 concludes the long running series.

For a while, this was the highest selling title Marvel had, and was the benchmark against which all other titles were measured. But hey, let’s get that first issue sales pop, right?

X-MEN – Why Did It Choke?

X-MEN:FIRST CLASS didn’t quite ace the box office exam over the weekend, and we examine just how it falls in the scope of other Marvel films. Meanwhile, Greg Grundberg talks more about LOVE BITES with a comparison to another heroic series he was associated with.
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Do you think the lack of Wolverine hurt X-MEN:FIRST CLASS? Drop us a comment below!

BookExpo America: Where is DC Comics?

DC at BookExpo America

Where is DC Comics?

Rizzoli is here with their licensed art books, as you can see at right– the proofs for The Joker look great (you can see the cover over the gentleman’s shoulder). Andrews McMeel Publishing has [[[The Batman Files]]] ready for an October release. Chronicle Books has a preview copy of Michael E. Uslan’s [[[The Boy Who Loved Batman]]], which will be out in time for San Diego Comic-Con and that I’m very much looking forward to reading.

But DC Comics itself is nowhere to be seen, save for one person passing by the Diamond booth. Random House, their distributor to the trade, isn’t pushing their books at all. Marvel is somewhat better represented at the Disney booth, but not well.

Do they think they’ve saturated the market? Or do they just not care about the bookstore and library markets anymore?

Related articles
A Clockwork Orange

What Literature Should Become Comics?

A Clockwork OrangeBookExpo America, the largest industry convention for publishers, booksellers, librarians, and other folks in the industry, runs at the Javits Center in New York this week. It’s often used as a stalking ground for movie and TV studios to snap up properties for adaptations, so one wonders– what books should be adapted into comics form, and by who?

There have been a number of interesting translations over the years. The biggest success story of the past few years have included Darwyn Cooke’s adaptations of Richard Stark’s [[[The Hunter]]] and [[[The Outfit]]] and Marvel’s adaptations of Stephen King’s [[[The Dark Tower]]] by Peter David and Jae Lee, but there have been many others, from the recent adaptations of Ayn Rand’s [[[Anthem]]], Marvel’s [[[Wizard of Oz]]] and [[[Ender’s Game]]], Dynamite’s adaptations of Robert Jordan’s [[[The Wheel Of Time]]], BOOM!’s [[[Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep]]], longevity champion [[[Conan The Barbarian]]] which has been adapted and extended for over forty years, and reaching all the way back to [[[Classics Illustrated]]], which was your parents’ version of Cliffs Notes and Sesame Street.

More tantalizing are the versions that haven’t been made yet. Phil Foglio and Matt Howarth did their own version of the introduction to Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s [[[Good Omens]]], and Phil had already adapted the first book of [[[Myth Adventures]]] by Robert Asprin. Now we have Kevin Colden ([[[Fishtown]]]) showing his proof-of-concept for his version of Anthony Burgess’s [[[A Clockwork Orange]]]. Click through to see the first few pages.

What adaptations would you like to see? And by who? [[[American Psycho]]] by Bill Sienkiewicz, or maybe Howard Chaykin? [[[Catcher In The Rye]]] by Dean Haspiel or Evan Dorkin? [[[The Great Gatsby]]] by P. Craig Russell? John Ostrander writing [[[The Thin Man]]], or Mike W. Barr writing [[[Ellery Queen]]]? Personally, I’d love to see Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely take a crack at [[[Brave New World]]]…

‘Thor’ Movie Annotations

walt-simonson-louise-simonson-ralph-macchio-thor-268x450-7099929With [[[Thor]]] taking the number one spot in box office receipts for the second week in a row, we must consider one of two options:

  1. There are a lot of people going back to stare at Chris Hemsworth, Kat Dennings, and Jaimie Alexander, or…
  2. People are hunting for all the Easter eggs and hidden bits in the film.

And so verily, we come to you, ComicMixers, with this list of notes, eggs of Easter, and bits of magic you may have missed when you were recently gazing upon the God of Thunder! Have at thee! Here is the Odin-list of annotations from the recent film released by the Studios of Marvel, of the humble Midgard. Did you catch of these visages, mortal? Let us find out! Huzzah!

Warning: spoilers from this point forward. You’ve been warned.

Review: ‘Thor: Tales of Asgard’

Produced in 2009 but held until this week to capitalize on the live-action adaptation of Marvel’s Thor, Lionsgate releases [[[Thor: Tales of Asgard]]], a 77-minute animated feature that harkens back to the Thunder God’s youth. The title harkens back to the beloved back-up feature that ran behind the main story in Journey Into Mystery for several years as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby explored the earlier days of the Asgardians or told stories adapted from the Norse myths. This approach is a clever one for an animated feature and certainly freed the writers and designers from aping whatever the current look of the hero was.

Still, watching this largely entertaining film still feels like it was inspired by some other universe’s Thor comic. Everything is familiar but just off a shade from personality to the look. It’s certainly not an Asgard Jack designed nor does it really take its visual cues from the Norsemen of days gone by. Instead, the architecture and costume design seem taken from your generic high fantasy book. There’s even one sequence that feels lifted whole from The Two Towers film, which takes away from the overall strength of the story.

The story, by animation veteran Greg Johnson, is an original story exploring the prideful Thor’s first steps into manhood. After realizing he has been sheltered far too long by Odin, Thor convinces Loki to join him as they stowaway aboard a vessel the Warriors Three take away from Asgard. They reveal themselves and the group wind up entering Jotunehim, land of the Frost Giants. The group manages to obtain the revered Sword of Surtur, which brings the Giants and Asgardians to the brink of war.

Thor, Sif, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg are entirely familiar in terms of personality and act according to character, albeit far younger versions of themselves. Interestingly, Loki, the lord of mischief, is actually the least recognizable as he is a loving brother who is struggling to master magic (with a nice cameo from the Enchantress). There are some nice hints to the fans that Loki’s Frost Giant origins remain intact but he remains ignorant of it here. (And as usual, Balder the Brave is absent which is a damn shame.)

The Frost Giants look generic and their leader is merely an albino version of the Maestro from Hulk: Future Imperfect. The Giants and their land are unimpressive as is Algrim the Dark Elf who has a sympathetic but inexplicable role in the overall story. (more…)

‘Human Target’ cancelled, ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Locke & Key’ not picked up for TV

This has not been a good week for comics on TV.

On Tuesday, Fox announced that it was canceling [[[Human Target]]] (starring Mark Valley, Chi McBride, and Jackie Earl Haley and based on the DC Comics character created by Len Wein, Carmine Infantino, and Dick Giordano) after two seasons, and also declined to pick up Locke & Key, the pilot from Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (the minds behind Fringe and the Star Trek reboot) based on the IDW comic from Joe Hill.

Now word has come from Deadline Hollywood that NBC will not be picking up [[[Wonder Woman]]], the series that would have been produced by David E. Kelley and starred Adrianne Palacki as the amazing Amazon.

Between these developments, and Smallville ending its decade long run tonight, we are suddenly going from a lot of comics adaptations in broadcast prime time to none at all for the first time since 1996– and that was when Sabrina the Teenage Witch first aired.

Right now, all eyes are on whether Disney’s fabled corporate synergy will mean sister companies Marvel and ABC will go ahead with a new version of Hulk with Guillermo del Toro and David Eick, and/or AKA Jessica Jones with Melissa Rosenberg– or whether they’ll be shunted to ABC Family or some such solution.

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