Funny.
(via)
Archive for the 'Comics' Category
Looks nice, but not OMG WOW.
In light of the very stupid “deaths” of Superman and Captain America (as well as multiple deaths for the Flash), this would be incredibly stupid. It’s just the height of unimaginative thinking. It’s one thing to kill of Robin or Bucky (although that doesn’t quite work since both Bucky and Jason Todd came back to life), but a whole other to kill of a character that everyone knows is the center of a multi-billion dollar licensing machine.
Yeah. That’s. Cool.
I just hope she says “Mister J”, but interesting considering her role in the ongoing Countdown to Final Crisis.
Pretty impressive.
Twentieth Century Fox has officially announced six of Hugh Jackman’s co-stars, including Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and Gambit, as played by “Friday Night Lights” star Taylor Kitsch!
What, you want even more? Well how about Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am as John Wraith, Danny Huston as Col. William Stryker and Lynn Collins as Kayla Silver Fox? Add in Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth and you’ve got a movie that even the big screen will have trouble holding in!
Looks pretty good, but I remain disappointed with Heath Ledger’s “Joker” makeup. It’s a little too realistic for me. I understand that the aesthetic of the Christian Bale Batman is more realistic, but let’s not forget that this is a comic book world. I think I still prefer Jack Nicholson’s look.
She’s been cast in the new JLA movie. I really hope this thing doesn’t turn out to be Justice League: Dawson’s Creek Edition. Because then I’d have to stab out my eyes.
They say he isn’t Steve Rogers. It looks about as awful as electric blue Superman (one of Superman’s post-death costumes).
How come I never find stuff like this?
A near-mint copy of Detective Comics No. 27, a pre-World War II comic featuring Batman’s debut, was recently found in an attic and sold to a local collector.
The comic is considered to be the second-most valuable available and can fetch up to $500,000. The only comic considered more valuable is Action Comics No. 1, in which Superman makes his first appearance.
Collector Todd McDevitt said the Batman issue he bought is worth about $250,000, but he won’t say exactly how much he paid or who sold it to him.
She was here. How come nobody told me?
The Iron Man teaser trailer looks pretty sweet. Marvel’s already on their second tier of characters and DC can’t get a flick based on Green Lantern, Wonder Woman or Flash into production? Sheesh. I hope Leslie Bibb (last seen as Ricky Bobby’s wife in Talladega Nights) is in it more than just for a fleeting second.
Superman is nothing without people believing in the idea of Superman.
That is the idea at the heart of Superman Returns, and why I feel the film succeeds so well. The movie isn’t perfect, specifically the casting of Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane, a role Ms. Bosworth is simply not at a high enough level to portray. Lois is a sassy and brassy dame, and delights in going toe to toe with both Clark Kent and Superman. There’s just not the right tone to her independent streak where she refers to Clark as “Smallville” or slyly asking Superman what color underwear she’s wearing then turning beet-red when he gives her the x-ray answer.
Otherwise, Superman Returns discusses how the Man of Steel relates to the world and how the world relates to him. It is about the balancing act that exists for the most powerful being on earth, who could rule like a king but makes the conscious choice to be at the beck and call of man in his most dire moment.
At the beginning of the film Superman has been gone for five years, off on a quest to find out with his own two eyes whether his home planet of Krypton still lives or not. Upon his return, he realizes that he left the world that is his only true home and exchanged it for the cold solitude of space (at least, there’s no mention of whether he ran into a Green Lantern or two). How will the world receive him? More importantly, how will Lois react to his return?
In a spectacular sequence that on a technical level blows away the previous films, Superman saves a space shuttle and a doomed plane - at the same time. Succesful (of course), the sequence ends in a packed baseball stadium where the game is an afterthought and on the Jumbotron is Superman received by a standing ovation. Soon, the buzz becomes palatable - Superman is back, and the world quickly remembers the upside of having Jor-El’s only child on their team.
Brandon Routh eerily echoes Christopher Reeve’s now legendary balancing act between the confident Superman and the bumbling Clark. When your sole disguise is a pair of glasses, you better make the two men not even remotely similar. Even Lois thinks that Superman and Clark are different heights!
But what about Lois? Again, this is my only disappointment in the film. Ms. Bosworth doesn’t spark with Superman until later in the film, and while I understand that she is pissed for him leaving without saying goodbye, this is just out of character for Lois. Their love for each other has literally overcome space and time in the almost seventy years of Superman’s existence. In the original Superman you’ll remember he interfered with the rotation of the earth in order to spare Lois’ life. The one redeeming element is this film’s version of Lois’ flight with Superman, in which he demonstrates that his version of flying blows away her pilot boyfriend.
It is fitting that Superman’s arch enemy is not another god, but simply a balding criminal - Lex Luthor. Kevin Spacey is perfect. Luthor is a genius. Luthor is a madman. Luthor is a whiner. LL is all that and more. The plan he has hatched after getting out of jail and swindling an old rich woman out of her fortune is somewhat silly, but it demonstrates Luthor’s zeal for the audacious. It’s not every day someone grows a new continent. The best element of Spacey’s Luthor is the hatred he has for Superman. Gene Hackman’s version was annoyed by Superman, wanted him out of the way so he could make a quick buck but Spacey seethes over him. Superman is what he hopes to be, but wastes his power (in Lex’s eyes) by being “good”. I really felt it when Luthor finally gets Superman right where he wants him. It has been building and Luthor will have his pound of flesh.
Often, the argument is made that Superman makes things too easy. Batman is a guy in a suit, Spider-Man is a kid with some extra powers, but Superman is a god. Yes.
The movie treats him this way, and gives him tasks to achieve that would have destroyed Batman or Superman or the X-Men in a second. Superman must literally move mountains and part seas in order to set things right because he is the only one that can.
(A point of digression: why hasn’t anybody ever just shot Batman in the mouth - where he’s unprotected? Ditto for shooting Spider-Man, who’s skin isn’t invulnerable.)
And it is in the course of those actions where Superman Returns truly becomes about the people, the ordinary average everyday people, and how much they believe in Superman. As the final events unfold, his relationship with Lois becomes more complex than even in the comics, while the question of whether he should have returned or not is solidly answered.
He’s back. He’s great. He’s super, man.
Rating: 4/4
Note: There’s been a lot of caterwauling by the right over the patriotic correctness of Superman being for “truth, justice, and the American way”. For a long time its been clear that Superman is not a lackey of America. He’s not beholden to any president or party. He makes his home here, he is a proud American, but Superman works for those who need help wherever they are. Frankly, Superman doesn’t usually have the time to mouth snappy slogans about whether he’s for “truth, justice and the American way”. Stuff needs to get done. People need to get saved.
Note 2: Michelle Malkin says she has no stomach for superheroes that don’t acknowledge 9/11 and terrorism. Again: Lex Luthor is trying to destroy an entire continent, and Superman has to (literally) change the face of the earth to stop him. Sounds like terrorism, a definite villain, and about as clear cut a hero as fact or fiction have ever devised. Malkin also once again shows that when it comes to comic genius Frank Miller she has no idea what the hell she’s talking about.
Superman Returns: 4/4 stars.
Practically perfect.
More later.
UPDATE: Atrios charitably notes that I’m the only critic that matters on Superman Returns, it should be true but it isn’t. Heh. I do intend to write a more detailed review coming up soon, however.
Your results:
You are Superman
| You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.  |
So why is everyone talking about them.
Because watching Max Fleischer cartoons (with some war-era racism to boot) is why the Internet exists.
I’m glad I’m not alone in my feelings about the love piled on comic artist Chris Ware. Then again, I think J. Scott Campbell, Jim Lee, and John Byrne are among the best illustrators of all time.
I don’t think anything else can ever claim the mantle of “worlds collide” after this: GI JOE VS TRANSFORMERS.
GI Joe.
Vs.
Transformers.
All of a sudden its 1986 all over again.
