I’ve been a bit dormant as of late thanks to my recent nuptials. After our wedding ceremony and our great honeymoon I was pleased to come home and learn that our beloved Marvel superhero Captain America had been cast. Of course I was expecting the casting to be something sensible, but I guess I was asking too much from the boys and girls at Marvel Studios.
Before I get started, I want to point a few things out. Chris Evans is not a bad actor by any means. In fact I think this kid has a bit of depth and range that has yet to be explored. Some of this talent became evident to me when I watched Sunshine. (Arguably one of my favorite films) It showed me that the guy can adapt to the role and doesn’t always have to play the comedic, snarky roles that he’s typically been cast in. Chris, my issue is not with you.
Originally, Marvel Studios stated that they wanted an unknown to play Captain America, which I can understand and respect. Unless you have the perfect casting, it’s sometimes difficult for people to get their mind wrapped around a big name star donning the mantle of one of their beloved heroes.
But somewhere down the line Marvel reversed this position and not only started considering name actors like Channing Tatum and John Krasinski, but wound up casting someone who had already starred in a Marvel movie!
How did we get here? Even though the Fantastic Four films were not received well by a large portion of the viewing audience, it wasn’t that long ago that Chris Evans was on fire, saving NYC from the nefarious schemes of Doctor Doom. I actually enjoyed the films for their tongue and cheek humor, but regardless of your opinion I think we can agree that Chris Evans played a pretty damn good Human Torch. But that doesn’t guarantee him success with Captain America. My top 3 reasons are:
He’s Young
That may sound silly, but think about it. Captain America is a leader of men. Not just men, but super powered men. He’s the KING alpha dog. It will take an incredible amount of script writing for me to believe that this young lad can earn the respect of the folks around him. That’s more a task for the writers than for Evans. If the script is there, he’ll deliver the goods.
The Avengers Movie
We’re not just signing on for the Captain America movies. We’re also signing on for an Avengers film. This kind of ties into my first point. The Avengers will be composed of Robert Downey Jr, Edward Norton, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and a few yet to be cast folks. Aside from Hemsworth, all of these actors are considerably older than Evans. Will we be able to buy that this guy is leading such a remarkable band of individuals?
Captain America is Blond
It sounds nit-picky and stupid but here me out. In my mind, Captain America being blond haired and blue eyed is a major piece of the character. Think about the time frame when Captain America was active. It was during World War II and Captain America was a spitting image of what Hitler was trying to achieve, the perfect Aryan. This isn’t mere window dressing for the character, but is really a piece of the characters history. If rumors are true and the Cap film will be done as a period piece, his heritage has even more weight to it. Let’s hope a little hair dye will keep Chris’s charm intact.
No amount of complaining will change the decisions made. It also won’t alter the fact that I’m going to see this movie the day it’s released. I just hope that the script is given a top notch treatment, which will allow Evans to really shine. I’d hate to see another super hero franchise go down in flames (bad pun) with Evans at the helm. If it does tank, I’d be very surprised if Evans is at fault.
If they had gotten the ball rolling a little bit earlier, you’ll see my picks for Captain America below. If Bruce Willis can still do Die Hard films, these guys should have been given a call.
If you haven’t read SIEGE #1 and plan to, I would say you should skip this review right away as it will riddled with spoilers.
With everything that’s been going on in the Marvel universe, specifically with Norman Osborn and his new group H.A.M.M.E.R I was stoked about the release of SIEGE. From the news I read about the series, it would serve as the culmination of Osborn’s stranglehold on power. The series starts with a bang, literally. The destruction of Soldier Field in Chicago kicks off a chain of events which ultimately lead to the invasion of Asgard, home of the Norse Gods. (For those that haven’t followed, Asgard is now on Earth, hovering over a town in Oklahoma to be more precise)
The idea of Norman and his crew invading Asgard is balls to the walls insane. That’s why I love it. It sounds so reckless that you’re waiting to see Norman’s plan unfold into something more grand. During the invasion, a small wrinkle develops in the invasion. Thor shows up. Norman’s a smart guy, so I’m not fully convinced he wasn’t either expecting this or have a contingency plan for it.
The battle against Thor is what really sinks the issue for me. Right up to this point, I’m loving it, but the attack against Thor deserved SO much more panel space. You have Norman’s cronies absolutely HANDLING Thor and it receives nothing more than a few wide angle panels. Where’s the drama? Where’s the tension? Where’s the close ups of a juggernaut like Thor getting a couple of shots in? If this were a regular title, it wouldn’t bother me so much. But this is supposed to be an event book and an EPIC event book at that. So I was a tad disappointed in how the issue ended, especially when compared to how it started.
With all the insane rumors flying about surrounding Apple’s new Unicorn product, the tablet, conversations are buzzing again about what this could mean for a host of industries, including the comic book industry. New technology has been a catalyst for change for as long as I can remember. We’ve watched the rise of MP3 players, cell phones and streaming video enter our lives. But we quickly forget about the casualties caused by such innovation. People with CD players are silently mocked, while AT&T fights for approval to take the land line telephone system off life support. Streaming video is poised to deliver a killing blow to the video industry, already reeling from the wounds inflicted by the switch to DVDs and the emergence of Netflix. So as the body count stacks up in this Digital Revolution, I can’t help but ask myself “Who will be the next to fall?”
The comic book industry, more specifically the comic book retailer, seems like a likely candidate to be carted off the battlefield. The attack isn’t malicious in nature, but boils down to consumer motivations. With the ushering of a new digital medium, the biggest advantage to consumers is that devil known as “convenience”. Convenience is a funny thing, because its value typically outweighs the other positives of a traditional medium. I prefer the layout of a standard newspaper. To me it’s a superior product than my digitally delivered Kindle edition of the newspaper. But the convenience afforded to me with the digital version, has ultimately pushed me to the new medium, despite the pain of the price point and the inferior product. That is what comic book shops will have a hard time competing with when the tablet from Apple, or any other manufacturer who does it right, arrives.
That convenience could mark the demise of the culture of Wednesday comic book day. There is something to be said about the feeling you get when you walk into a comic book shop and talk with the owner. When other fans of the medium have made their purchases and are just hanging around discussing the latest story lines or making bold predictions on the future and fates of our spandex idols. It’s more than a retail location. It’s a meeting place for people of a similar passion to meet and enjoy the company of one another. It’s a place for newcomers with questions to come and ask those questions without fear of a belittling response from an anonymous narcissist. It’s a haven for our community and for our culture.
With such a vested interest in its survival the simple question is “Why not just buy them at the comic book shop then?” It’s the same question asked by record store owners and video store proprietors. Convenience is addictive and gratification is delayed. How often have you lamented the idea of lacing up the boots and braving the elements to go to a party? Comic book shop? The gym? Only to be relieved once you got there, happy that you made the journey. It’s how we deal with delayed gratification, the same reason we might spend an extra $20 dollars at Best Buy when we could have ordered the same product from Amazon and waited two days for its arrival. Those same mechanisms will be at work when we can make a few gestures and have Iron Man #31 in our lap in seconds. As we become more accustomed to our new found life style, the details of our shop visits become blurred. The memories of talking with the gang about their pulls for the week, get replaced with memories of the hassles of the weekly trip, double checking your order and making sure your pull list was properly updated. The ease of purchasing that back issue you missed will replace the memory of the joy you had when you found the issue at Wizard World after looking for 3 months. Searching through long boxes will be something left to an even smaller number of collectors. The life of today’s comic book fan will forever be prefaced with “Remember when….”, the hallmark term for nostalgia.
I won’t make any speculations as to what technology may or may not do for the publishing and consumption of comics. Many others have done that. My post is more a plea of hope that technology can breathe life into an industry without it losing a part of itself. The Digital Revolution has improved our way of life. We embrace the victor, but it doesn’t mean we can’t mourn the cost.
I’ve really been enjoying the Blackest Night series as a whole. It’s probably been one of my favorite series, mainly because so far, all of the tie-ins I’ve been reading make sense in their story-arcs.
So often during a major event, the crossovers are more a result of capitalism than artistic need. I understand the idea is to sell more comics not less, but all too often the tie-ins for event titles seemed forced, unnecessary and plain old boring. I’m not reading all the tie-ins, but the ones I have read (Superman, Batman, Booster Gold) the tie-ins are short and they deal with key portions of the character’s past. It puts characters like Dick Grayson and Tim Drake up against parts of their history that drives and fuels them as characters. Booster Gold gets a visit from his best friend Ted Kord, whose death has haunted Booster for years.
I know that money is tight, we are in a recession and all. But if I could persuade you to expand your reading list just a bit, I would strongly suggest picking up some of the off-shoots of Blackest Night. If you a favorite character that has an off-shoot, pick it up. It could be the comic that pits your hero up with his past or even his greatest fears. You can check out the Blackest Night pull list on Wikipedia
I love Batman. I love Neil Gaiman. So you can imagine my delight when I originally heard about this project, although with the “death” of Batman I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The first issue captivated me and even left me with a huge sense of puzzlement as I looked at Batman’s friends and enemies recount their tales of first acquaintances and ultimately the Dark Knight’s death. Each tale was told from a different perspective, never holding up to the memories of previous speakers.
What moved me most was the second issue though. Bruce meets his mother in his mind as he straddles the line between life and death. The dialogue between him and his mother, coupled with his resolute stance on what it means to be a hero was a good way to wrap the 2-issue arc. I know a lot of people weren’t happy with it and wondered what Gaiman was trying to say, but I think his message was clear. (Save the ambiguous last 3 panels) The message is that the Batman is more than just a man. He can never give up, he can never give in. He’ll continue fighting, even from the brink of death. The sense of heroism that it gave me immediately made me think of Supergirl’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths, albeit on a much smaller scale.
I don’t know that Batman would want a large funeral, if a funeral at all. He’d probably prefer you set him on fire and push him out into a lake in Gotham. (Viking style) I thought this was a faithful way to temporarily say goodbye to my favorite hero. Despite all this book does, Gaiman isn’t really saying anything new. However I do love how he’s saying it. Go read it.
We talk to a few other attendees at the Comic Book Swap event and they share their stories with us about their love for comics and what got them into the medium.
Not too long ago we had a Comic Book Swap meet at Third Coast Comics here in Chicago. The brilliant thing about this event is that it gives you a chance to get rid of your old issues and a chance to sample some other titles you may not normally purchase.
The format is simple. We all get together and bring a bunch of different comic books. The comics are split into two tables, the first table is for comics that you want to give away and people are allowed to take. This was great for a lot of people who couldn’t read all the things they wanted to while they were there, and it gave collectors an opportunity to fill in some of their missing items. (Shawn found a few missing issues for some of the series he collects) The second table is for all those comics you want to share with folks, but you would liker returned by the end of the night. This table typically consisted of trade books that people were bringing in. In our case it was nice because once you actually meet and talk with folks, they’re more than willing to let you borrow books and return them at the next meeting. All in all it was a great event and we had a lot of fun with it. I believe we plan on doing it again very soon!
Below is a video of Third Coast Comics owner Terry Gant telling us what got him into comics and what made him open his shop. Another video will be coming soon!
I’m sitting here at work, eagerly waiting to get out so I can get my hands on some new comics! Sometimes you just get that JONSING feeling. They claim a new Old Man Logan is due out today. I’ll believe it when I see it. I think I also have a trade paperback of Doktor Sleepless waiting for me.
Good effin’ morning!!! I finally made a trip to the comic book store this weekend (thanks Earthworld!) and picked up the past four issues of The Umbrella Academy: Dallas (six issue limited) and the next volume of The Luna Brothers’ The Sword. Since I can’t let good lit sit around too long without a bent page or two, I absorbed them with vigor, and as usual, was left wanting more! Hopefully the next volume of The Killer by Jacamon and Matz will be out soon. Amazon states it was released Oct. 2008 but Deepdiscount.com states Feb 28, 2009. What to believe?
First off, when I picked up the first Umbrella Academy series, Apocalypse Suite, I collected the floppies rather than wait for the trade (something I have been doing with DMZ, Queen and Country, The Exterminators, and 100 Bullets) because I was intrigued by the art as well as the storyline. The story follows a group of seven superheroes adopted by a Col. Hargreeves, an automaton mother, and a talking chimp who is a close friend to one of the time traveling characters named Number Five who also happens to be stuck in the body of a ten year old. Don’t ask, just read. Written by Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance, and wonderfully drawn by Gabriel Ba (who also happens to be the artist of another kick ass series named Casanova) the reader is drawn into an alternative universe where the Eiffel Tower is actually a ship and talking chimps are commonplace. The first story arc is reminiscent of a pop song; first the intro, the verse, the chorus and then the bridge to a final denouement. Yes the last part is usually relegated to film but in this case, a cinematic term does fit quite nicely. Far from the feel-good Power Pack or Fantastic Four, this series follows the members of the disbanded group The Umbrella Academy after the death of their father, Col. Hargreeves. They decide to save the world again in honor of their father even though there is more than meets the eye when it comes to their father’s past. Without ruining the surprise, consider it par for the course with this surprisingly refreshing take on the family dynamic in a superhero realm. Get the trade of the Apocalypse Suite and then go out and get the latest Umbrella Academy: Dallas floppies.
The Sword is another great addition to the fantasy genre by the Luna Brothers. Dara Brighton, a wheelchair bound art student, and her family are attacked by three siblings looking for a sword they believe her father has. After killing her family and realizing they may have made a mistake, they decide to finish off Dara by setting fire to the home and hopefully killing her in the process making it seem like an accident. The house collapses, Dara falls into the basement and finds a sword in the dirt floor. Once she grabs it, her wounds heal and she can walk again. Much ass-kickery is in the future for our young heroine. This series is expected to run for two years according to the Lunas and so far, so good. I haven’t been collecting the floppies as I am limiting myself but the most recent trade (Volume 2: Water, Volume 1 is Fire) definitely has me salivating for the next trade. Currently up to issue 15, there are only 9 issues left and I am being patient. As patient as I can.
On another note, I am seriously considering getting Locke and Key from IDW. It has a basic premise but good ole Blair on Fresh Ink had a lot of good things to say about it for the 2008 year, so I may have to check it out. I don’t like ALL of her reviews but she is definitely on top of her shit. Since I have no desire to talk about Y The Last Man anymore with Caruso and LaBeouf involved, I’m going to go over Casanova by Gabriel Ba and Matt Fraction next time. Keep on reading on! And on another note, just found this out: The Umbrella Academy is being adapted for the big screen for a possible 2012 release. Surprised? Mark my words, the HWood studios are going to want to adapt Astro City, Cerebus, Bone, and The Walking Dead next. *sigh* And there probably won’t be any Watchmen prequel/sequel considering the huge dropoff from last week’s opening. Only 86 million in two weeks. I’m still reserving judgment for the end of year deluxe sit-on-my-arse-for-almost-five-hours edition.
Before I get started, I want to point a few things out. Chris Evans is not a bad actor by any means. In fact I think this kid has a bit of depth and range that has yet to be explored. Some of this talent became evident to me when I watched Sunshine. (Arguably one of my favorite films) It showed me that the guy can adapt to the role and doesn’t always have to play the comedic, snarky roles that he’s typically been cast in. Chris, my issue is not with you.
If you haven’t read SIEGE #1 and plan to, I would say you should skip this review right away as it will riddled with spoilers.
I’ve really been enjoying the Blackest Night series as a whole. It’s probably been one of my favorite series, mainly because so far, all of the tie-ins I’ve been reading make sense in their story-arcs. 
I love Batman. I love Neil Gaiman. So you can imagine my delight when I originally heard about this project, although with the “death” of Batman I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The first issue captivated me and even left me with a huge sense of puzzlement as I looked at Batman’s friends and enemies recount their tales of first acquaintances and ultimately the Dark Knight’s death. Each tale was told from a different perspective, never holding up to the memories of previous speakers.
