…the remaining issues of Action Comics Weekly featuring Black Canary's backup strips. My goal is to start reviewing these every Wednesday. Can't wait!
Got them relatively cheap from MyComicShop.com!
Thursday, October 10, 2013
What's In The Box?
Delivered today…
…the remaining issues of Action Comics Weekly featuring Black Canary's backup strips. My goal is to start reviewing these every Wednesday. Can't wait!
Got them relatively cheap from MyComicShop.com!
…the remaining issues of Action Comics Weekly featuring Black Canary's backup strips. My goal is to start reviewing these every Wednesday. Can't wait!
Got them relatively cheap from MyComicShop.com!
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Black Canary to Debut on Tonight's ARROW
I was under the impression that Black Canary would not appear until the end of Arrow's second season, but I guess I had her confused with The Flash.
According to an article on Bleeding Cool, Black Canary will appear in tonight's season 2 premier episode. The article also discusses the possibility that a version of The Birds of Prey could appear on the show, but a lot of that depends on the availability of the woman who played Huntress in season 1.
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| This is the right show, yeah? |
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
BIRDS OF PREY #12 (New 52)
Poison Ivy betrayed the Birds, infecting Black Canary, Batgirl, Katana, and Starling with a toxin that will release plague viruses if they don't help her environmental crusade. Couldn't you just die?
Like the first eleven issues of this wretched series, Birds of Prey #12: "Heartbreak and Vine" was written by Duane Swierczynski. Cliff Richards comes aboard this issue for art duties, with colors again provided by Gabe Eltaeb, and a cover by Stanley Lau.
Sadly, most of us knew this team/book was finished long before Starling poisoned a murderous corporate fat cat because Poison Ivy made her. I've had misgivings since the first ish.
Despite not having any apparent leverage, the Birds managed to convince Poison Ivy to not kill anyone in her quest to rid the world of polluters. Ivy has the CEO poisoned, just like her "teammates" claiming he'll die horribly if he doesn't change the awful drilling practices of his company.
"We're not friends," Dinah thinks, in what might be the understatement of the first year of the New 52. It's true, friends don't try to kill each other. At the height of the original Birds of Prey, the ladies were really, truly friends. They cared loved each other. They spent time with each other. Dinah, Babs, and Helena didn't just look out for each other during field ops, they took care of each other's personal lives, too. Do the new Birds even have personal lives to protect?
Thank you, Mister Swierczynski, for once more reminding us that this series is nothing more than a handful of mediocre action sequences strung together by the thinnest of cliched plots. And then this happens:
To recap: If the Birds don't do what Poison Ivy says, they'll die in six months, releasing a cataclysmic airborne virus on the planet. If they die before then, the same result will occur. So Black Canary starts to fight Ivy while they're in a Gulfstream jet!
Dinah, Batgirl and Katana all attack Poison Ivy because she violates their "no killing" policy, even though, as Ivy points out, Katana has a sword that she routinely uses to kill people, and Black Canary confessed to murdering her husband. Starling, who is piloting the jet, spins it around upside down a couple times to break up the fighting, and then tells them to get ready for their next target. Said target is an offshore oil drilling platform.
The Birds parachute out of the jet, while Starling ensures that it crashes into the platform.
Okay, I gotta call bullshit on this right away.
- They crashed their plane? How are they planning to escape? They mention that the explosion is meant to scare away the crew so presumably the lifeboats and escape craft will be taken by the time the ladies conclude their mission. So what's their exit strategy?
- Why did they parachute so far from the rig? It might take them an hour to swim towards their target while emergency response vehicles--as well as news helicopters--will fall on the drilling platform like something in an analogy. What if not all of them are strong swimmers? Any of them could drown and release their plague virus?
- Starling crashed the plane into the drilling platform? The platform that drills for oil? First of all, causing a major explosion on a big rig like that would endanger every life on the facility. In fact, it would be miraculous if every crew member wasn't blown to hell, so the Birds' ban on killing is a sham.
Whoever came up with this strategy is a goddamn moron, and I'm not talking about Poison Ivy or one of the other characters. I'm referring to the so-called talent who thought up this sequence. Whoever it was did absolutely zero research into this kind of attack. And the reason I know he/she did absolutely zero research is that any research, any at all--the bare minimum--would have show how impossible this strategy would be.
While sabotaging the drill, they find unexpected survivors trapped onboard, probably because the fiery debris of a jet airplane just dropped onto their break room. Starling refuses to go ahead with their plans while innocent lives are at risk. Poison Ivy knocks her out and blows up the rig.
Somehow, everyone gets out alive. Ivy even carries Starling outside. I guess she wanted her alive instead of releasing the virus that would make the world exactly the way she would like it.
After that, they return to Gotham so Poison Ivy can recuperate in a weird chemical bath being operated by someone who looks vaguely doctor-ish. The "doctor" doesn't give a name, because who cares what his name is and Swierczynski couldn't think of anything.
I don't know if the image of Batgirl tugging on her glove like she's about to perform a rectal exam on someone is the creepiest panel of this series or the best, but it's one or both of those. Then she flashes her gang sign which is the cue that they're not going to take being used by Ivy any longer.
Wait. Batgirl is… going for help? What is she six years old? She's a superhero! She wears the bat symbol. She is the help people seek! I get that she's presumably running to Batman so he can work on a cure for the toxin in their system, but this could have been handled in a less spastic, juvenile manner.
The others fight Poison Ivy again. Starling gets her wrists possibly broken or hurt. Doesn't matter. Katana slices up Poison Ivy's back severely enough to take her out of the fight and maybe even kill her.
Black Canary questions Katana's methods, which once again calls everything about this team and its nature into question.
The Characters
Black Canary acknowledges that she was a fool to ever trust Poison Ivy. Admitting it is the first step, I guess…
It sure seems like this is the last time we'll see Poison Ivy in this series.
Impressions/Questions
This issue begins and ends with Black Canary addressing questions that point out the faults in this series. "This is not why I formed this team," Dinah says at the end. Probably true, but the fact is, we don't know why she formed the team. We still don't know the team's agenda or their purpose.
Maybe those questions will be answered in issue #0 that comes next, but I doubt it.
Grade: F
Next week I'll start pulling double duty on my coverage of Black Canary in the New 52. I'll continue to recap this series every New Fifty-Tuesday, but before that, come by over the weekend when I review Team 7 #0.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
Fan-Casting DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE: Part 20
Click here to review Part 19.
So far:
A joint project by Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp to create robotic construction drones was weaponized and released on Metropolis by the Martian shape changer, Bel Juz. Though Superman and Batman kept the casualties to a minimum, the public blames both companies, including Batman's alter-ego Bruce Wayne for the disaster. Also, Lucius Fox was infected by the alien Starro, but Superman managed to remove the starfish-looking creature from Fox.
Act 1
After the prologue which introduces us to some of our new heroes, we return to familiar faces from the first movie. The media is blasting Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp for their culpability in the death and destruction at Metropolis. Different news outlets cover the fallout of this event and its worldwide effects--plummeting stocks, federal investigations, protests outside corporate offices.
Batman/Bruce Wayne (Richard Armitage)
(I've already covered my reason for casting Richard Armitage as Batman waaay back in the first part of this epic.)
Bruce Wayne rides in the back of his limousine watching the news unfold, flipping through channels, most of which are blasting him. He hovers for a second on the roundtable discussion show, You're All Wrong, hosted by Jack Ryder.
The Creeper/Jack Ryder (Colin Morgan)
I chose Merlin star Colin Morgan because I think he has the wild gangliness of the Creeper, even though he won't ever play that role in this movie. For The Brave and the Bold, Morgan really just needs to play a douche bag TV show host.
Bruce changes the channel to local Gotham City news. Vicki Vale is one of many reporters doing a standup outside the luxury apartment of Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox. We segue from the back of Bruce's limo to the street where Vicki reports that Lucius Fox has been released from the hospital after sustaining a "mysterious injury in Metropolis just prior to the rogue drone attack".
Vicki Vale (Sarah Chalke)
For the purpose of this movie, I went with the on-camera reporter Vicki Vale from the video game, Batman: Arkham City. For this tiny cameo, the role doesn't require much more than a pleasing face, but if expanded to further appearances, Sarah Chalke is an actress I've always liked.
Vale observes Bruce Wayne's limousine arrive. Police usher the car past reporters and down into an underground garage so Bruce doesn't have to face them or take questions.
Cut to: Upstairs, in the penthouse apartment of Lucius Fox.
Lucius recovers in his own bed. His wife, along with Bruce's butler, Alfred Pennyworth take a tray of food and medication out of the room, leaving Lucius alone with Bruce.
Alfred Pennyworth (Ian McElhinney)
Lucius Fox (Ernie Hudson)
Lucius says his wife won't let him watch TV or read the news. He asks Bruce how bad their stock got hit. Bruce tries to deflect, but Lucius knows it's bad. Bruce asks him about the effect of being possessed by the alien.
Lucius: "It felt like my body was hijacked, like I was shoved in the backseat while it drove. It wasn't just my body, though, it got in my mind… every thought, every memory… It knows you're Batman."
Bruce: "I know."
Lucius: "The cave, the company, your whole life is compromised."
Bruce: "That's why I need to find Mercy Graves, or whatever she really is. When she was in your mind, were you able to…look back?"
Lucius: "I saw…"
Rapid fire shots of Mars, different aliens, and a giant humanoid in shadow.
"There's something… bigger than her," Lucius says, "something worse."
Images of countless little starros flying through space, they begin to descend on a world that is dominated by one giant Starro wrapping its tentacles around the planet.
"All those creatures," Lucius continues, gazing out at nothing, "they're one… one massive and horrible mind… Starro!"
Cut to Bruce standing on the veranda outside the penthouse, playing with a smartphone/tablet. It's day but fairly overcast--never sunny in Gotham City.
There's a sudden gust of wind behind Bruce. Without looking up from his phone, he asks, "How do you like Gotham?" Clark Kent, standing behind him on what had just been an otherwise empty veranda, tells him it's nice. Bruce almost rolls his eyes. "I'll bet my salary against yours that you're the first person in a hundred years to describe it that way," he says.
Superman/Clark Kent (Jon Hamm)
(Once again, go back to the first post in this series for my reasons why Jon Hamm should play Superman.)
Bruce shows Clark something on his phone. It's a very high-tech mapping software that shows a line from the sea to an island/coast in Southeast Asia. Udon Khai, he identifies the place, and goes on to describe how one of the escape pods was picked up by a ship, and after Superman retrieved the pod, the ship made an unscheduled detour to Udon Khai, where the crew abandoned the ship and disappeared into the city. The crew was brainwashed by this "starro" thing. Bruce also explains how Udon Khai's government is a joke, completely bought out by cartels that traffic in women and child slavery.
"I'm going to Udon Khai to pick up the trail," Bruce says.
Clark points out the sizable drop in his company's stock. "Without Lucius, who else can run Wayne Enterprises? Clark asks. "You need to be here right now. People depend on you." They argue.
Bruce: "Who am I speaking to at the moment?"
Clark: "What?"
Bruce: "Am I talking to the Man from Krypton or am I talking to the reporter who's under deadline to file a story about me?"
Clark: "A reporter whose newspaper you bought four days ago--hang on…"
Clark looks off at the city. Close up shot on his ear, and we hear, faintly, the ringing of an old-fashioned alarm. "Jewelry store robbery," Clark says. Bruce tells him to go ahead.
Clark jumps off the veranda. Bruce just stands there, unaffected.
In a different part of Gotham, a man runs out of a jewelry store with a bag of loot. As he's running, he is clotheslined by Superman. The Man of Steel walks into the jewelry store where two more robbers are shocked to see him. Superman quips, "Unless you're planning to marry every single lady in Gotham, I'd put the diamonds back, fellas."
Clark Kent pops back onto the veranda, back in his mild mannered reporter look. He's cinching his necktie. "Mercy got what she wanted," he tells Bruce. "Your company is discredited. If you want to beat her, you need to fix your good name."
"I'm going to beat her by beating her," Bruce says. "At first she wanted me under control, but when she couldn't do that, she decided to ruin my reputation. Because she knows I can stop her. So she wants my attention elsewhere. That's not going to happen."
Clark is going to respond, but he hears something else in the distance. He bolts.
On a street corner, two rival gangs are shooting each other with semiautomatic guns. Superman lands in between them. A teenage banger comes out of hiding and unloads on Superman. Superman melts the bullets with heat vision so they boil and liquify even as they're coming out of the barrel. Then the gun overheats and the kid drops it.
Back on the veranda, Clark says, "Listen… no, hang on." Then he's off again.
In a city park, Superman has already taken out several goons dressed like Alice in Wonderland characters. The Mad Hatter curses at him. Superman claps his hands and the shockwave knocks Mad Hatter down, blowing his hat off. Superman picks it up, pulls out the mind control band, and crushes it while Hatter whimpers on the ground like a child.
Mad Hatter/Jervis Tetch (Michael Sheen)
Michael Sheen made the short list for a lot of villains in my DC fan-casting. Perhaps unfortunately for him, most of them were unattractive oddballs, like Scarecrow, Toyman, Mr. Mxyzptlyk, even the Joker. Eventually, I settled on him playing the Mad Hatter in this briefest of cameos.
Back on the roof, Clark looks somewhat disheveled--shirt unbuttoned, tie loose.
Bruce: "Still think it's a nice city?"
Clark: "I'm not used to teenagers shooting at me with machine guns."
Bruce: "They're not afraid of you."
Clark: "I hear screams every minute, gun shots on the hour. How do you fight crime here when it feels like everyone wants to kill everyone else?"
Bruce stares at Clark, wondering if the irony of his question has dawned on him. "I prioritize," he says very measuredly. "I can't move faster than a speeding bullet, so I have to pick my battles very carefully."
Translation: Wayne Enterprises will endure. I'm going to Asia.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Fan-Casting DC's JUSTICE LEAGUE: Part 19
Back in August, I began what should have been a simple post with pictures of DC superheroes next to the actors I would like to see play them in a movie. It turned into twenty-or-so posts and a treatment for the first part in a trilogy chronicling the origin of the Justice League.
Given how much more time went into outlining Justice League: The World's Finest than I expected, and how surprising some of the plot points felt even to me as I wrote them, I wanted to take the time out to really make sure I knew what would happen in the sequel before I continued. After all, the second chapter is where things get really complicated. This is where our lead heroes, Batman and Superman, first encounter the rest of the legends who will form the team.
This story draws heavy inspiration from different comics and cartoons published by DC, particularly The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.
This story draws heavy inspiration from different comics and cartoons published by DC, particularly The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD.
After Batman and Superman united to stop the Martian woman Bel Juz from destroying Metropolis with rogue battle drones, there are still a number of continuing threads and lingering threats from the first movie.
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| You think this looks crowded, try cramming these guys into one two-hour movie! |
- Hundreds of people were injured or killed in Metropolis.
- LexCorp and Wayne Enterprises are crucified in the media for their involvement in the drone attacks.
- Bel Juz escaped capture.
- Bel Juz knows Batman's alter-ego is Bruce Wayne.
- The heroic Martian J'Onn J'Onzz lies in a coma in the Batcave after nearly dying in a fire to save Lois Lane and stop Commander Blanx.
- Hundreds or more tiny starfish creatures known as starros have spread across the globe, attaching to and possessing human hosts.
- A dozen or so people infected by starros have been taken to the hospital for recovery.
Prologue: Secret Origins
The World's Finest introduced us to Batman and Superman. The Brave and the Bold will introduce us to The Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman (and later Aquaman) in a series of prologue sequences. These are quick, meant to suggest the origin of these three heroes, not replace an origin story or movie. Ideally, the first adventures of these heroes would be fleshed out in their own movies. I'm writing this as if Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman have been operating for at least a year.
As with the first movie, this one opens with a shot of the Earth from space. Soon, the burning wreckage of a space station comes into the shot from above. This is the space station that crashed in the first movie. We see the escape pods jettisoned, but this time we follow one of them all the way down as it burns through the atmosphere and lands in the Atlantic Ocean.
Inside the escape pod, a metallic cylindrical cache opens up, revealing a starro much larger than the others we've seen before. Almost instantly, it begins to grow even more. This is the lead starro, the controller, and will be known throughout this story as Starro (capital s) or Starro Prime. It's massive eye/mouth/thing opens and a torch-like laser begins burning through the hull of the pod. Starro slips out of the hole in the bottom of the pod and swims out into the water. He continues to grow larger, and larger. And more, tiny starros separate from his body, fanning out in different directions.
As this is happening, we hear the voice of Bel Juz (Sanaa Lathan) in talking over the scene. She speaks to her unseen/unheard "Master", describing the events from the last movie. She refers to Starro, calling it their servant, and says she can feel his agents on the planet. Soon they will feel everyone…
As she mentions this, and as the starros have spread out from Starro Prime, we cut to multiple quick shots of different people around the world getting taken over by starros.
We also see Bel Juz in an undisclosed location. She appears to be meditating, though she is speaking telepathically to her Master. She concedes that Earth's champions are surprisingly resourceful, and at this we get shots of Batman and Superman. As powerful as they are, however, they are simply too few to halt the coming invasion…
Cut to: Central City.
We see the city skyline during a fierce electrical storm. The sky could be vaguely reddish. Lightning crashes down. We get an establishing shot of Central City Metro Police Station. Inside, we see a door labeled CRIME LAB.
Barry Allen enters the storage room of the crime lab, carrying a box full of beakers, jars, and assorted equipment. The far wall of the storage room is shelves upon shelves of chemicals and solutions and whatnot. There's a large window nearby. Barry looks like a nerdy lab tech; he's wearing a bow tie.
The Flash/Barry Allen (Neil Patrick Harris)
Neil Patrick Harris was the first actor I thought of for the Flash, possibly because he has voiced the character in animated movies before. He's grown up since that awful/wonderful "Doogie Howser" phase, but he still retains a lot of those sensibilities in other roles he plays. He's smart and often either coldly analytical or hyperactive. His productivity on Broadway testifies to his physical athleticism as much as any action movie star, and his collaborations with Joss Whedon attest to his geek credentials and ability to transcend into the superhero genre.
Barry is putting beakers and chemicals back on the shelf, arranging them slowly, carefully. Outside we see a huge lighting bolt rip downward from the clouds. Inside the storage room, the lighting bursts through the window, smashes like like a rampaging animal into the shelf of chemicals, and zig backwards into Barry!
As Barry stands there, electrocuted, the jars and containers of liquids on the shelf shatter, spraying chemicals down on him. As this happens, the current of lightning flows through him, over him, around him.
Time stops. Chemicals spray. Electricity dances over the droplets of liquid and onto Barry. We get a crazy, rotating Matrix-style 360 degree shot around Barry as the electrical current goes around and through him, with a flickering effect showing his insides, his skeleton, like a negative image.
Time starts again, and Barry goes down. The shelves/cabinet starts on fire. So does Barry.
Other lab technicians and police rush into the storage room. They smother the fire on the cabinet/shelf and on Barry. This could be in slow motion, very muted sound effects; people call Barry's name, sounding far away. The voices are deafened by the sound of a heartbeat. It beats faster, faster, impossibly fast, faster until--
Cut To: The California Desert
--we see feet running. We slowly pan up and away, revealing more of the runner and the background. It's night in the desert. The runner wears olive colored coveralls, a mechanic or pilot's jumpsuit. As he runs, we see fiery debris in the background, the wreckage of some kind of explosion… or crash!
The runner gets to the top of sand dune, and as he crests the hill, from over his shoulder we see the still flaming remains of a downed spaceship. The runner, Hal Jordan, stands for just a moment to take in the scene before rushing toward the ship.
Green Lantern/Hal Jordan (James Marsden)
When fan-casting this movie trilogy and the wider DC Universe, I tried to think of people who weren't associated with superhero or fantasy genre films already. Obviously, that wasn't the case with James Marsden, who has appeared in two other comic-based film properties. He was criminally underused in both.
In the X-Men movies, he played Cyclops, whose character amounted to nothing other than being not Wolverine, and in Superman Returns, he played the love interest of Lois Lane who didn't have incredible powers. In both movies, he played the safe, responsible choice of boyfriend/husband, while the women pined for the antisocial, super-powered outsider. Yeah, his track record in this genre is for playing the boring "also ran" male foil, even though his actions in Superman Returns were a lot more noble and heroic than the title character's. The problem is Marsden can play the other type of hero so well. He can play the arrogant, cocksure, lead-with-your-face role, and his comic abilities feel a lot more natural than Ryan Reynolds'.
Hal fearlessly runs through the wreckage, past balls of flame toward the ship, shouting for anyone who can hear him. He stops when he reaches the hull. There's a green light emanating from somewhere inside. Hal seems almost entranced by it. He enters the ship through a hole in the fuselage and makes his way toward the light, which happens to be in the direction of the cockpit.
The cockpit is a mess--partially caved in ceiling, controls in pieces, support beams protruding every which way… The green light flickers from a strange object on the ground; it looks almost like a lantern. Hal reaches down to pick it up… and an alien hand grasps him around the wrist.
Abin Sur (Michael Berryman)
Do I really have to explain this decision?
The alien Green Lantern known as Abin Sur (Michael Berryman) looks at Hal with dying eyes and holds out his fist. Green light emits from his ring and appears to scan Hal. Wheezing, coughing up blood, Abin Sur says, "Hal Jordan of Earth… You have been chosen…"
The ring glides off of Abin's hand, floats through the air and slides onto Hal Jordan's middle finger. Green energy builds from the ring and the lantern on the floor. It glows, growing brighter and brighter until it whites out the screen and--
Cut To: Themyscira
--the while dissolves into foggy clouds. We move forward, piercing the clouds to reveal an island in the Mediterranean Sea.
Hippolyta (Lucy Lawless)
This didn't take a lot of thought, although I did consider Peta Wilson for a couple seconds. Ultimately, there was never anyone to play the Queen of the Amazons other than Xena herself, Lucy Lawless.
Over the next series of shots, we hear the voice of Queen Hippolyta narrating:
"For the first time in thousands of years, a man has landed on the shores of our island." Establishing shot of the island's capital. The buildings all evoke classical Greco-Roman architecture, with statues of ancient goddesses and female warriors all around the common.
"Colonel Steve Trevor, from the nation of America, is on a mission to prevent a war that would cost countless innocent lives." We see Steve Trevor brought to the palace, a grand temple to Hera (or Athena) by Amazon soldiers in ancient Greek-style battle armor.
Steve Trevor (Daniel Sunjata)
Colonel Steve Trevor of U.S. Air Force Intelligence is the first man Wonder Woman ever sees. That's a big deal. He becomes her handler, her tutor, her first love. He's a military man, a spy, who gets stranded on an island of beautiful warrior women, most of whom have never seen a man before. For Steve Trevor, you need an actor who can play alpha male, badass action hero. But you also need an actor who won't steal the show or eclipse your female star, because his role is always subservient to Wonder Woman's.
I've been a fan of Daniel Sunjata since the first episode of Rescue Me. If Denis Leary left the show, I would have watched it for Sunjata's character, Franco. I like his ethnicity, and he nails all the right chords for a Steve Trevor character, but he's also not an A-list Hollywood star. You don't think of him as a leading man, but he could and should play backup to the Amazon Princess. As a bonus, he's already played a military man in a DC movie for, like, three minutes.
Hippolyta's narration continues: "He must be returned to his homeland… one of us must journey to Man's World." As this line is spoken, we see the end of the Contest wherein the queen's daughter, Diana, wins the honor of taking Trevor away from Paradise Island.
Wonder Woman/Diana (Bridget Regan)
Wonder Woman is objectively difficult for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is she is supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world. In my fantasy world, Wonder Woman is so beautiful that it almost hurts to look at her. Only one actress I know has that kind of beauty and that's Monica Bellucci. She was my first choice years ago. But that was years ago. More than a couple years ago.
As beautiful as Monica Bellucci still is, alas, I think she is at least ten years too told for the part of Wonder Woman. But a couple years ago, the wife introduced me to this show Legend of the Seeker. The quality of the show varied: sometimes really good, sometimes, er, not, but the cast was great and fun to watch. The women, in particular, were good.
Bridget Regan played the female lead, and without going into detail, her character was beautiful, powerful, resourceful, compassionate, loving, tragic, unmatched in combat, and a bit mythical in nature. As I watched her on the show, I realized I was watching a prototype for Wonder Woman.
We see Hippolyta equipping Diana with the weapons and armor bequeathed by the gods and goddesses--shots of the lasso, the lariat, and Diana's armor/breastplate. Hippolyta and Diana bid farewell to each other. Hippolyta sends her off with love… and a foreboding prediction: Diana must help Steve bring peace to the world of men. This mission will consumer her. Diana might never be able to return to Themyscira.
Diana in full Wonder Woman costume walks away with Steve Trevor. Hippolyta watches them from her palace, fighting back a tear of pride/love/fear/doubt as she says goodbye to her daughter.
At this we get a hard cut, or a black out, maybe the main title card, but it should be clear at this point that we've transitioned out of these introductory vignettes and are now in our full story.
To Be Continued…
The World's Finest introduced us to Batman and Superman. The Brave and the Bold will introduce us to The Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman (and later Aquaman) in a series of prologue sequences. These are quick, meant to suggest the origin of these three heroes, not replace an origin story or movie. Ideally, the first adventures of these heroes would be fleshed out in their own movies. I'm writing this as if Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman have been operating for at least a year.
As with the first movie, this one opens with a shot of the Earth from space. Soon, the burning wreckage of a space station comes into the shot from above. This is the space station that crashed in the first movie. We see the escape pods jettisoned, but this time we follow one of them all the way down as it burns through the atmosphere and lands in the Atlantic Ocean.
As this is happening, we hear the voice of Bel Juz (Sanaa Lathan) in talking over the scene. She speaks to her unseen/unheard "Master", describing the events from the last movie. She refers to Starro, calling it their servant, and says she can feel his agents on the planet. Soon they will feel everyone…
As she mentions this, and as the starros have spread out from Starro Prime, we cut to multiple quick shots of different people around the world getting taken over by starros.
We also see Bel Juz in an undisclosed location. She appears to be meditating, though she is speaking telepathically to her Master. She concedes that Earth's champions are surprisingly resourceful, and at this we get shots of Batman and Superman. As powerful as they are, however, they are simply too few to halt the coming invasion…
Cut to: Central City.
We see the city skyline during a fierce electrical storm. The sky could be vaguely reddish. Lightning crashes down. We get an establishing shot of Central City Metro Police Station. Inside, we see a door labeled CRIME LAB.
Barry Allen enters the storage room of the crime lab, carrying a box full of beakers, jars, and assorted equipment. The far wall of the storage room is shelves upon shelves of chemicals and solutions and whatnot. There's a large window nearby. Barry looks like a nerdy lab tech; he's wearing a bow tie.
The Flash/Barry Allen (Neil Patrick Harris)
Neil Patrick Harris was the first actor I thought of for the Flash, possibly because he has voiced the character in animated movies before. He's grown up since that awful/wonderful "Doogie Howser" phase, but he still retains a lot of those sensibilities in other roles he plays. He's smart and often either coldly analytical or hyperactive. His productivity on Broadway testifies to his physical athleticism as much as any action movie star, and his collaborations with Joss Whedon attest to his geek credentials and ability to transcend into the superhero genre.
As Barry stands there, electrocuted, the jars and containers of liquids on the shelf shatter, spraying chemicals down on him. As this happens, the current of lightning flows through him, over him, around him.
Time stops. Chemicals spray. Electricity dances over the droplets of liquid and onto Barry. We get a crazy, rotating Matrix-style 360 degree shot around Barry as the electrical current goes around and through him, with a flickering effect showing his insides, his skeleton, like a negative image.
Time starts again, and Barry goes down. The shelves/cabinet starts on fire. So does Barry.
Other lab technicians and police rush into the storage room. They smother the fire on the cabinet/shelf and on Barry. This could be in slow motion, very muted sound effects; people call Barry's name, sounding far away. The voices are deafened by the sound of a heartbeat. It beats faster, faster, impossibly fast, faster until--
Cut To: The California Desert
--we see feet running. We slowly pan up and away, revealing more of the runner and the background. It's night in the desert. The runner wears olive colored coveralls, a mechanic or pilot's jumpsuit. As he runs, we see fiery debris in the background, the wreckage of some kind of explosion… or crash!
The runner gets to the top of sand dune, and as he crests the hill, from over his shoulder we see the still flaming remains of a downed spaceship. The runner, Hal Jordan, stands for just a moment to take in the scene before rushing toward the ship.
Green Lantern/Hal Jordan (James Marsden)
When fan-casting this movie trilogy and the wider DC Universe, I tried to think of people who weren't associated with superhero or fantasy genre films already. Obviously, that wasn't the case with James Marsden, who has appeared in two other comic-based film properties. He was criminally underused in both.
In the X-Men movies, he played Cyclops, whose character amounted to nothing other than being not Wolverine, and in Superman Returns, he played the love interest of Lois Lane who didn't have incredible powers. In both movies, he played the safe, responsible choice of boyfriend/husband, while the women pined for the antisocial, super-powered outsider. Yeah, his track record in this genre is for playing the boring "also ran" male foil, even though his actions in Superman Returns were a lot more noble and heroic than the title character's. The problem is Marsden can play the other type of hero so well. He can play the arrogant, cocksure, lead-with-your-face role, and his comic abilities feel a lot more natural than Ryan Reynolds'.
Hal fearlessly runs through the wreckage, past balls of flame toward the ship, shouting for anyone who can hear him. He stops when he reaches the hull. There's a green light emanating from somewhere inside. Hal seems almost entranced by it. He enters the ship through a hole in the fuselage and makes his way toward the light, which happens to be in the direction of the cockpit.
The cockpit is a mess--partially caved in ceiling, controls in pieces, support beams protruding every which way… The green light flickers from a strange object on the ground; it looks almost like a lantern. Hal reaches down to pick it up… and an alien hand grasps him around the wrist.
Abin Sur (Michael Berryman)
Do I really have to explain this decision?
The alien Green Lantern known as Abin Sur (Michael Berryman) looks at Hal with dying eyes and holds out his fist. Green light emits from his ring and appears to scan Hal. Wheezing, coughing up blood, Abin Sur says, "Hal Jordan of Earth… You have been chosen…"
The ring glides off of Abin's hand, floats through the air and slides onto Hal Jordan's middle finger. Green energy builds from the ring and the lantern on the floor. It glows, growing brighter and brighter until it whites out the screen and--
Cut To: Themyscira
--the while dissolves into foggy clouds. We move forward, piercing the clouds to reveal an island in the Mediterranean Sea.
Hippolyta (Lucy Lawless)
This didn't take a lot of thought, although I did consider Peta Wilson for a couple seconds. Ultimately, there was never anyone to play the Queen of the Amazons other than Xena herself, Lucy Lawless.
Over the next series of shots, we hear the voice of Queen Hippolyta narrating:
"For the first time in thousands of years, a man has landed on the shores of our island." Establishing shot of the island's capital. The buildings all evoke classical Greco-Roman architecture, with statues of ancient goddesses and female warriors all around the common.
"Colonel Steve Trevor, from the nation of America, is on a mission to prevent a war that would cost countless innocent lives." We see Steve Trevor brought to the palace, a grand temple to Hera (or Athena) by Amazon soldiers in ancient Greek-style battle armor.
Steve Trevor (Daniel Sunjata)
Colonel Steve Trevor of U.S. Air Force Intelligence is the first man Wonder Woman ever sees. That's a big deal. He becomes her handler, her tutor, her first love. He's a military man, a spy, who gets stranded on an island of beautiful warrior women, most of whom have never seen a man before. For Steve Trevor, you need an actor who can play alpha male, badass action hero. But you also need an actor who won't steal the show or eclipse your female star, because his role is always subservient to Wonder Woman's.
I've been a fan of Daniel Sunjata since the first episode of Rescue Me. If Denis Leary left the show, I would have watched it for Sunjata's character, Franco. I like his ethnicity, and he nails all the right chords for a Steve Trevor character, but he's also not an A-list Hollywood star. You don't think of him as a leading man, but he could and should play backup to the Amazon Princess. As a bonus, he's already played a military man in a DC movie for, like, three minutes.
Hippolyta's narration continues: "He must be returned to his homeland… one of us must journey to Man's World." As this line is spoken, we see the end of the Contest wherein the queen's daughter, Diana, wins the honor of taking Trevor away from Paradise Island.
Wonder Woman/Diana (Bridget Regan)
Wonder Woman is objectively difficult for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is she is supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world. In my fantasy world, Wonder Woman is so beautiful that it almost hurts to look at her. Only one actress I know has that kind of beauty and that's Monica Bellucci. She was my first choice years ago. But that was years ago. More than a couple years ago.
As beautiful as Monica Bellucci still is, alas, I think she is at least ten years too told for the part of Wonder Woman. But a couple years ago, the wife introduced me to this show Legend of the Seeker. The quality of the show varied: sometimes really good, sometimes, er, not, but the cast was great and fun to watch. The women, in particular, were good.
Bridget Regan played the female lead, and without going into detail, her character was beautiful, powerful, resourceful, compassionate, loving, tragic, unmatched in combat, and a bit mythical in nature. As I watched her on the show, I realized I was watching a prototype for Wonder Woman.
We see Hippolyta equipping Diana with the weapons and armor bequeathed by the gods and goddesses--shots of the lasso, the lariat, and Diana's armor/breastplate. Hippolyta and Diana bid farewell to each other. Hippolyta sends her off with love… and a foreboding prediction: Diana must help Steve bring peace to the world of men. This mission will consumer her. Diana might never be able to return to Themyscira.
Diana in full Wonder Woman costume walks away with Steve Trevor. Hippolyta watches them from her palace, fighting back a tear of pride/love/fear/doubt as she says goodbye to her daughter.
At this we get a hard cut, or a black out, maybe the main title card, but it should be clear at this point that we've transitioned out of these introductory vignettes and are now in our full story.
To Be Continued…
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Super-Team Family: Black Canary and the Beast
It's Thursday and that means I get to lazily graciously repost one of Ross' custom DC/Marvel crossover covers from the Super-Team Family blog. Almost a year ago to the day, Ross depicted Black Canary struggling to free herself from captivity at the hands of my favorite mutant, Hank McCoy, better known as Beast.
The Black Canary image originated as a black and white John Byrne sketch, but I don't know who colored it--Ross?
While researching (re: Google Images) where the image came from, I made the following discovery:
Read the description on that page from Modern Masters 7: John Byrne. Yes, Byrne pitched a Black Canary series post-Crisis on Infinite Earths! I never knew that, and now that I do, I'm not sure how I feel about it.
A Black Canary series helmed by John Byrne would have elevated her status immeasurably, especially at the time when Byrne's star was maybe burning brightest thanks to his rebooting of Superman. I don't think anything could have boosted her popularity more than that.
On the other hand, I hate that costume design. Hate it. I'm also very hot-and-cold, hit-or-miss when it comes to John Byrne. I loved his stuff on Uncanny X-Men, but his Fantastic Four is highly overrated. I liked his work on Superman, but the Man of Steel miniseries that launched right after Crisis was pretty underwhelming. And was Byrne going to write and draw the issue? Because I'm a lot more cold/miss on his scripting than his pencils.
And really, I hate that costume design! But there's no denying he can draw an exciting classic Black Canary.
Check out Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues for many, many more DC/Marvel crossover covers!
 |
| Courtesy of Super-Team Family: The Lost Issue blog. |
While researching (re: Google Images) where the image came from, I made the following discovery:
 |
| Why, hello there, every woman designed between 1983 and 1990! |
Read the description on that page from Modern Masters 7: John Byrne. Yes, Byrne pitched a Black Canary series post-Crisis on Infinite Earths! I never knew that, and now that I do, I'm not sure how I feel about it.
A Black Canary series helmed by John Byrne would have elevated her status immeasurably, especially at the time when Byrne's star was maybe burning brightest thanks to his rebooting of Superman. I don't think anything could have boosted her popularity more than that.
On the other hand, I hate that costume design. Hate it. I'm also very hot-and-cold, hit-or-miss when it comes to John Byrne. I loved his stuff on Uncanny X-Men, but his Fantastic Four is highly overrated. I liked his work on Superman, but the Man of Steel miniseries that launched right after Crisis was pretty underwhelming. And was Byrne going to write and draw the issue? Because I'm a lot more cold/miss on his scripting than his pencils.
And really, I hate that costume design! But there's no denying he can draw an exciting classic Black Canary.
Check out Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues for many, many more DC/Marvel crossover covers!
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
GraniteCon 2013 Wrap-Up
The Boston ComicCon I attended back in July was the first comic book convention I had attended in about fifteen years, so it was, in a lot of ways, a brand new experience, and it shaped how I would view future cons. Like, for example, the one I went to last Saturday in Manchester, New Hampshire.
I knew Granite State ComicCon would be a different experience, a much smaller and potentially more intimate affair. There weren't any panels advertised, there weren't any big publisher booths, none of the A-list writers and artists from DC or Marvel. But the writers and artists who were there were incredibly gracious, cool, and best of all--available! I didn't get a chance to talk to art legends like Neal Adams, Tim Sale, and George Perez at Boston because I didn't want to stand in line for an hour. At GSCC, however, I got to annoy the hell out of Ethan Van Sciver as he was setting up his booth.
The first artist I talked to was Aaron Kuder, soon to be the regular artist on Action Comics. As it happened, I had just read the DC Villians Month spotlight issue Superman #23.4: Parasite #1, written and drawn by Kuder. No one else was at his booth when I arrived, so I approached him to tell him how much I enjoyed reading his Parasite special.
I asked him how the opportunity to not only illustrate the issue but script it, too, came about. He said he was talking to his editor about the project and they were throwing out names of possible writers. Feeling bold, Kuder asked if he could take a stab at writing it himself. Because they were far enough ahead of schedule, editorial gave him the go-ahead to write the issue. I asked how much of the story was his and how much came from editorial. He answered diplomatically, "They gave me guidelines."
After that we talked about his upcoming work on Action Comics starting with November's issue #25. He sounded very excited about the issues to come, and considering Greg Pak is writing the book for him, I have to agree. That book should be very, very good, indeed!
I circled around, meeting some of the smaller creators, bought a few indy books, took a picture of the Ghostbusters next to the portrait of Viggo the Carpathian, because my wife would love that; and then I found Billy Tucci, from whom I commissioned the beautiful Black Canary sketch I posted on Monday.
While waiting for my Tucci sketch, I had the opportunity to flip through some of the back issue bins. I happily found a selection of Action Comics Weekly from the late '80s for only fifty cents! Black Canary had a backup strip running eight chapters from issues #609 to 616, and twelve more appearances from #624 to 635. Twenty appearances in all, of which I was able to pick up nine for less than ten dollars. (Sunday night, I ordered the other issues from MyComicShop.com.)
They didn't have issue #609, the famous Brian Bolland cover depicting Black Canary burning her costume from the Justice League International era, but they did have #624, with this sweet Black Canary cover drawn by the great Alan Davis!
For some inexplicable reason, this image had completely slipped under my radar. I had never seen this picture of Black Canary until I pulled the comic out of the fifty-cent bin… and it was like the magic of my earliest childhood experiences in a comic store revisited. "Black Canary Strikes Back!" There she was, on the cover, kicking ass, just trashing three hoods, looking all at once sexy and classy. Yeah, it was an Alan Davis cover.
Once I have the other issues collecting her backup strips, I'll post reviews here on the blog.
I picked up my Tucci commission not long after. I was ready to leave, completely satisfied, but my friend was disappointed that Ethan Van Sciver hadn't arrived after two hours. Right as we were getting ready to leave, though, EVS appeared--as if from a trapdoor in the floor--and began setting up his booth right behind us.
My friend and I talked to Van Sciver briefly as he set up his table and sketchpad. I told him how much I enjoyed his work on Batman: The Dark Knight, and he said he was beginning work on an "event comic" for DC that he was starting the next day (which would have been this past Sunday). He couldn't announce what the project was, but said it will be DC's Free Comic Book Day issue for May.
(I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be a preview for Bronze Tiger: Rebirth #1.)
Van Sciver had two prints from 2011 on his table for ten dollars each. I bought one for my friend, and one for myself, and got them both signed.
The print I got for my friend features Batman and the Damian Wayne Robin attacking the Penguin.
The one for me was a group shot of just about every big DC hero except Black Canary.
As much as I love Batman, I was happy my friend wanted that print more, because I love this ensemble piece of so many heroes. The central character of the group is Firestorm, the character Ethan Van Sciver redefined visually and more for the New 52. I love how EVS has fiery energy coming off of Firestorm's shirt emblem. Awesome touch!
The upper left corner includes Superman, Supergirl, Plastic-Man, Hawkgirl, Hawkman, and Captain Marvel.
The upper right corner includes the Spectre and Green Lanterns John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardner, Hal Jordan, and Kilowog.
The middle part of the image includes Metamorpho, Catwoman, the Creeper and Wonder Woman.
And the bottom features the Bart Allen Kid Flash and the Flashes Barry Allen and Wally West.
It's an exciting, energetic, and action packed image that I'm happy to have in my admittedly limited connection. But the more I look at it, the more I want Ethan Van Sciver to draw a Metamorpho book. How cool would that be?
All told, I had a great time at GraniteCon. I hope it's just as productive next year!
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
BIRDS OF PREY #11 (New 52)
I don't care enough to write a meaningful intro to this comic. Let's get into it already.
Birds of Prey #11: "Tangled Up Inside" was written by Duane Swierczynski with art by Travel Foreman and Timothy Greene, inks by Jeff Huet and Joseph Silver, and colors by Gabe Eltaeb. The manga-infused cover, complete with tentacles, was provided by Stanley Lau.
The issue opens in a corporate boardroom in Dubai, where the CEO of some unscrupulous wants the company to make money with deep core fracking, environmental concerns be damned!
Can you guess who has a problem with that?
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| I think a ficus would have been easier, but that's me. |
The story cuts back to where we left off in issue #10, which is a week earlier than the scene in Dubai. The Birds and Starling's drug smuggling buddy, Leyden, are on the run in the Amazon rainforest. They're bringing Poison Ivy to a laboratory to save her, while some conspicuous plant monster creatures chase them. An important point that I'm not sure I made last week is that each one of the ladies was pricked by the plant creatures, although there didn't seem to be any immediate effects (foreshadowing!).
Last issue, it seemed the Birds escaped from the monsters thanks to Black Canary's newfound powers of flight and Starling's timely detonation of plastic explosives. Also, there were a lot of heatseeking missiles blowing $#@% up that never got explained. Anyway, once inside the facility, it appears the plant monsters are still a threat.
At this point, Swierczynski realizes that this Leyden character should have been killed off in the helicopter crash last time, and conveniently eliminates him. I know that the plant monsters snap his neck because Starling says, "Oh, God! It's snapped his neck!" That word balloon was useful, because from the panel above it, I thought Katana killed him with her soulsword. Either way, she doesn't sound terribly upset by his passing.
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| What the--when did Etta Candy join the team? |
I don't often criticize artists because it's so subjective. There are very popular and critically acclaimed artists whose styles I don't prefer. What's more, I greatly enjoyed Travel Foreman's work on Animal Man. But the above depiction of Black Canary… I'm not sure if Foreman or Green drew that but they need a redo. Seriously, I get that women in superhero comics are already over-sexualized, but Black Canary is supposed to be sexy! I shouldn't look at Dinah and think of Eric Cartman shouting BEEFCAKE!
The ladies get Poison Ivy down to the lab's greenhouse while she explains that the plant monsters are a genetically created organism called the Perennial. She finally explains her New 52 costume and power change is the result of a specially created bio-suit.
Wait, she accuses Batgirl of not noticing her increased power levels because they encountered each other before Birds of Prey #1. All of their interactions since then have been in this series written by Duane Swierczynski, so if Batgirl was going to comment on Ivy's powers, Swierczynski would have written that exchange. Is he calling out his own failure to develop this relationship, or is this just more bad writing?
Poison Ivy reveals that her new powers are killing her, but the bio suit is sustaining her. For now.
Then we cut back to the present time in Dubai. As Poison Ivy targets the greedy board members, the company's chief of security comes in with a hose full of extra toxic weedkiller. And to prove that these are cutthroat businessmen, the CEO gives the security chief the thumbs up to kill as many board members as it takes to stop Poison Ivy.
Back in the Amazon a week earlier, Poison Ivy surprises no one but Black Canary and Batgirl by revealing her true nature.
Yes, please. Spare us. Kill us now.
Poison Ivy poisoned them so they're all dying, but she'll cure them as long as they help her kill wicked businessmen and keep Batman from capturing her. Poisoning. Blackmail. Murder. Sounds exactly like the Poison Ivy we all know and love. Sounds exactly like the Poison Ivy Batman told Dinah not to trust. Sounds exactly like the Poison Ivy Batgirl told Dinah not to trust.
That's what kills any semblance of suspense in this plot. A physically compromised hero having to work with the villain in order to survive; that's a tried and true plot that can be epically entertaining (see: Batman: Arkham City). It doesn't work, though, if the plot reinforces the notion that our hero is a bumbling idiot.
And then Swierczynski reveals Ivy's Plan B…
If any of the Birds die before Ivy gives them the cure, their bodies will release the toxin into the air causing some kind of environmental cleansing.
Essentially, the women have been turned into walking bombs. That sounds a little familiar…
Oh yeah, that was the premise of the first seven #@$%ing issues of this series!
The issue ends in Dubai again. The security chief is taken out by Batgirl before he can stop Poison Ivy, and then Starling appears to execute the CEO, but it's a little vague. Maybe intentionally vague, or maybe just lazy art. It's also worth noting that neither Batgirl nor Starling speak in this final scene, which may suggest they're not just going along with Ivy's plan but actually being controlled by her. We'll see. I guess.
Characters
Poison Ivy is exactly who everyone knew she was.
Black Canary is exactly what I dreaded she was.
Impressions/Questions
Poison Ivy's betrayal was inevitable. I'm glad we finally got to that point. Her treachery, however, only highlights the stubborn ignorance of the so-called heroes in this story, and her plan to turn Black Canary and the others into biological WMDs is more of the same bad.
Also, what the hell happened to the heatseeking missiles last issue? Somebody was shooting freaking missiles at our characters! Hell, that was the title of issue #10 and we just completely forgot about it!
Grade: F
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