JLA Movie

There are a ton of rumors going around about the upcoming JLA movie that appears to be getting the fast track at Warner Brothers. Blog@Newsarama has a pretty good rundown of all the news, complete with links to relevant articles.

Frankly, I have a pretty strong suspicion that the movie will suck. I got pretty discouraged when I read the words "OMAC" and "Maxwell Lord." I want Solomon Grundy, damn it! Or the Legion of Doom. Who doesn't want to see that awesome, swamp-dwelling Darth Vader head in live action? No one, that's who. And I'm sure we can all agree that movies would be far more fun if they had more talkig Gorillas. Gorilla Grodd needs to make the jump to the big screen. Basically, I want the JLA movie to be fun.

Then there's the casting news that is sure to make my obsessive compulsive, continuity loving head ache. Neither Christian Bale nor Brandon Routh are going to be in the movie. That makes me sad. I am, however, kind of excited by the idea that Tom Welling might be playing Superman in the movie. Smallville sucks, and they haven't done right by the character of Clark Kent in years, but I still think he was perfect casting for the role. Unfortunately, Millar & Gough are being bitchy about it. They own Welling's soul or something.

Then there's the unfortunate rumor going around about Katie Holmes as Wonder Woman? After not wanting her back for The Dark Knight, would Warner Brothers want to give her such a high profile role? God, I hope not.

Ryan Reynolds seems to still be the go to guy for Flash, which, no complaints here.

The best casting rumor so far though is Laurence Fishbourne as Martian Manunter (via CBR). That would be friggin' cool. He's awesome.

I can't even begin to imagine who should play everyone else. Christian Bale is so unbelievably perfect as Batman that I have a hard time even consdering anyone else. I'm still in favor of Joss Whedon's choice for Wonder Woman, Cobey Smulders. Oh, and I don't know if Green Arrow is going to be in the movie, but if they go to the Smallville well for that too, and cast Justin Hartley, I will be pissed. He can play Aquaman though. I thought he was really good in that pilot.

Hells Yeah!

John Romita, Jr. Returns to "Amazing Spider-Man" in 2008!

Finally something to be happy about.

In Praise of Red Sonja's Belly

There was a comment to on my Spider-Man/Red Sonja #1 review asking who the artist was, and I thought I should just do a quick post on it, because I really should have mentioned it in the first place. Pencils were done by Mel Rubi, with color by Brian Buccellato. It was written by Michael Avon Oeming.

This was a big oversight on my part because 1)it's always important to give credit to the creative team, and 2) the art is very good. If I am going to take the time to call out Michael Turner on his general Michael Turner-ness, I should take the time to mention that Rubi did a great job on the interior art. My only defence is that I was distracted by all the awesome.

As my anonymous commenter pointed out, and I quote, "MJ's got belly! She's not stick-thin or inhumanly tuned, she's actually curvy and fleshy and realistic!" I believe that Rubi is the regular artist on Red Sonja, so I would assume that he always makes Red Sonja look like this. It's good to know that she's being drawn to like like someone who could, conceivably, carry a sword.

Anyway, Spider-Man/Red Sonja is not a book you should judge by it's cover. Rubi draws a pretty cool looking Spider-Man too.



Issue #2 isn't coming out until September 19th, and I'm already impatient for it.

And to anyone who came over here from When Fangirls Attack, thanks for reading. It's made me all self conscious though. I am suitably embarrassed of all my typos. Not embarrassed enough to go back and fix them, but embarrassed all the same.

Faith is Batman!

Oh, like you didn't think the same thing. Anway, here's the rest of the preview.

This Movie Is Going To Be So Friggin' Cool

A quote From Entertainment Weekly's preview of Shoot 'Em Up:

''There's a gunfight while everybody's free falling out of an airplane,'' says Davis. ''You can say, That's a little bit too much, Michael. Well, yeah, but do I want to see
a gunfight in midair? Yes!''

I think that pretty much says it all.

I Must Have These

McFarlane Toys is coming out with How the Grinch Stole Christmas figures.

I am a complete sucker for Grinch-related merchandise. I buy the multiple Grinch ornaments that Hallmark releases every year. I even have Grinch and Max stuffed animals. Basically, what I'm saying here is that these figures are the coolest things ever and I need them now, especially this one of the Grinch and Max. Max might be the only thing I love more than the Grinch. He's so adorable.

Seriously?

I found this Livejournal entry via When Fangirls Attack. In it Kate Willaert gives more specifics about the Spider-marriage related discussions that went on at the various Marvel panels (including the X-Men panel - apparently X-fans support MJ too) at Wizard World Chicago, which was only hinted at in the Newsarama and CBR reports. The whole thing is interesting, but this is the meat of it:

I didn't hear any "boo"ing from the crowd at the Mondo Marvel panel, but the MJ marriage once again dominated the Q&A portion of the panel, though you wouldn't guess from the three-sentence summary it gets in Newsarama's report. The CBR report actually mentions a few of the specific questions/answers addressed, but misses what I thought was the money-quote of the hour, which at least Newsarama paraphrases in their aforementioned three-sentence summary. When asked why we need Spidey unmarried in the regular books, when you can read new young-unmarried-Spidey stories in Ultimate Spider-Man, Joe responded that there are all sorts of things you can do with regular Spidey that you can't do with younger, Ultimate Spidey, because younger Spidey can't do things like "have sex, or download porn."

Yes, have sex, and download porn. That is an exact quote...I am not making that up. My roomie crazy_elf_girl turns to me in disbelief and whispers "those are the stories he wants to tell...??"

After he's finished answering the next question (a non-MJ one), I decide to raise my hand, hoping to get him to elaborate on the sex/porn thing. Joe points right at me, but there were two guys in front of me and slightly to the sides, and one of them launches into his question, thinking Joe was point at him...oh well. After that question has finished up, I raise my hand, and Joe calls on me again. My question goes like this:

"One of the things I really like about the way the Spider-man books is set up, is that with Ultimate Spider-man you can read about younger, single Spider-man, and in Amazing Spider-man you can read about the older, mature, married Spider-man, which allows you to be able to tell a greater variety of different stories. So I'm confused, are there really stories you want to do with an older unmarried Spidey, that couldn't be done with Ultimate Spidey-- [Joe tries to start his answer, but I briefly cut him off to finish the rest of my question] --because I don't think "having sex" and "downloading porn" make for real interesting..."

And then I trail off to let Joe start his answer. Which is basically once again asserting that, yes, there are all sorts of stories you can only tell with an older unmarried Spidey, but without being able to cite any more convincing examples.

Y'know, I remember being a young girl, reading reprints from the Lee/Ditko and Lee/Romita eras. More than stuff like Spider-Man's first battle with Doctor Octopus, or anything like that, what I really responded to was when Peter would sneak those porn mags or screw Betty Brant in the Daily Bugle's supply closet. Yeah, those were the good old days.

Kidding aside though, isn't that precisely the kind of question they should be prepared to answer for the fans in all seriousness? Don't they owe the fans that? And I don't mean fans that are upset at how MJ is treated as a character by this editorial regime, or fans that are just opposed to anything that messes with the status quo, though I probably fall into both categories. I mean the fans as potential consumers. Shouldn't they get some assurance that they will be getting a unique product and that it will be worthwhile to buy both comics in the future?

Quesada and company is supposed to be trying to sell us on a concept so that we will want to read their comics, and they are doing a piss poor job of it. Right now, people are so pissed that I'm not sure they will buy whatever Marvel has planned for Spider-Man even if it's the best thing ever, unless, of course, that this is all just an elaborate misdirection. I really don't think that's the case though, and if it is, that's lame. The only thing worse than manufactured controversy for the sake of sales, is false manufactured controversy for the sake of sales.

Anyway, wasn't the whole point of making Spider-Man single again to make him more relateable to nine-year-olds, or some such nonsense? It would be so much easier to be more reasonable about proposed changes to the status quo if the powers that be could actually get there heads out of their asses and provide actual logical and consistent reasoning for wanting the changes to be made. Quesada seems to be getting upset that fans are getting so upset over this issue, but he created the issue in the first place, and if he hasn't been able to speak about it in any rational manner, I don't see why he should expect it from the fans. I feel the same way about when he complains about the personal attacks towards himself and other creators. I personally think that's wrong. It's something I try to avoid, though I am sure I fail on occasion, but I also think that you reap what you sew. When you intentionally bait the fans ire, you are not going to get pleasantries, or even respect, in return. That's just how it goes.

To try to spin this in a positive direction for a second, as a long time fan of Mary Jane, it's gratifying to see so many people vocally supporting the character and the pairing. It's a bit odd, but she may be the most high profile female character in the Marvel Universe right now. It's sad that so much of that attention has come out of negative things, like the statue, all this Spider-marriage controversy, etc., and I'm not really happy that she's probably best known as the character Kristen Dunst portrays in the movies (a character that is so totally not the Mary Jane I know and love), but hey, at least now the word is out there that a lot of people think Mary Jane Watson is awesome.

Whatever happens in "One More Day" and "Brand New Day," at least we have the good times. Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane will still be there, albeit without Sean McKeever, and they can't take away our copies of Spider-Man Fairy Tales #1:

or the Sensational Spider-Man Annual:

And while the marriage might be over, there's always the hope that the new comics will feature significantly more dancing!

Scout Attacks! Spider-Man/Red Sonja #1

So, I wanted to to a post tonight, and it was seriously running the risk of being another whiny "But the Spider-marriage is so wonderful" post. I didn't want to do that. It's coming, I'm sure, because it's all consuming lately. I think I might have to change the name of this blog to Peter & Mary Jane Matter. (I'm just giving Quesada what he wants and I hate myself for it.) I wanted to do something more positive, though. I have an X-Men post that I want to do too, but that's going to require more energy than I generally have, and when I do have that much energy, I have more important things I have to do. Anyway, this is still a Spidey & (sorta) MJ post, but it is one that's made of awesome. This is about the super fun Spider-Man/Red Sonja #1.

Let's start with the cover:

Ah, Michael Turner, your awfulness never fails to entertain. I just want to point out the, uh, pointy-ness of Red Sonja's ears. I almost think that I'm being too hard on his inability to render a realistic human figure when it is so clear that he isn't even trying to draw a human. And in the spirit of being kinder to Michael Turner, why won't somebody write the epic lesbian elf porn that he was so clear born to illustrate? This is actually one of his better covers though, possibly because Sonja's feet are obscured. In the variant cover she is literally standing on the tip of her toes, as if she were a Barbie doll whose feet are permanently molded to high heels. That's a pretty decent Spider-Man he's got going on there though.

The interior's a lot better. First, there's an amusing phone conversation between Spidey and MJ:

First, the nitpicker in me needs to point out that she would never say she is doing MacBeth. She's an actress, and she is in a theater. It's "The Scottish Play." Calling it by it's name is a bigger no-no than wishing someone good luck. Clearly, whatever happens in "One More Day," Mary Jane has brought it on herself by tempting fate like that. But it's Peter's behavior that is more troubling. He likes it when she dresses up like a cat? I'm sure MJ is the fun, adventurous type, but a girls got to draw the line somewhere. If she's dressing up like a cat for him now, next he'll be having her don a blond wig and a miniskirt and directing her to play dead.

Enough about Parker's kinks. Let's get to the wacky, but first, one of the cool things about this issue is that it has more Robbie than possibly JMS's entire run on Amazing Spider-Man. Look:



Two whole panels! And hey, do you think Venom's going to show up at some point?

I've read some complaints this issue was all set up, but I didn't mind, not when that alone is fun to read. If you don't already know, this story is a follow-up to the awesomely cracktastic Marvel Team-Up #79, where a museum exhibit causes a bunch of wacky creatures to pop up in New York and people to get possessed. Naturally, Mary Jane gets possessed by Red Sonja, while some random guard gets possessed by Kulan Gath, the bad guy. Well, all that happens again, except this time the whole city gets transformed, even Spideys cell phone:

Frankly, I think Parker made out pretty good here. Even a small sack of gold has got to be worth more than any cell phone he could afford. Where does Spidey carry his cell phone anyway?

Another cool thing about this issue has got to be the continuity with the earlier story. Kulan Gath is determined not to let Spider-Man and Red Sonja team up and spoil his plans again.

Turning Mary Jane into Red Sonja and pitting her against Spider-Man makes so much more sense than just keeping her away from the sword and thereby leaving Red Sonja out of the equation altogether. Kulan Gath is a genius! You can't argue villain logic though, especially when the final outcome is as awesome as this:

MJ's not even really possessed. She's just pissed. I'm not getting the impression that Peter told her that she's turned into Red Sonja before. Oh, and let's not forget the cat costume thing. As a matter of fact, I think it would be awesome if this was the real lead up to "One More Day." Not that MJ's pissed at Peter about it, but that after turning back into herself, MJ decides that she rather likes carrying around a sword. Imagine how much cooler your average Mary Jane plot point would be with a sword. Sure it was awesome when she beat the crap out of the Chameleon with a baseball bat, but it would have been awesomer if she had chopped off some limbs. And the next time she has a stalker, she could just impale him. Unfortunately, Spider-Man just can't be married to someone who goes around chopping off people's limbs. Mary Jane has to choose, Peter or the sword. Mary Jane chooses the sword, and all Joe Quesada's problems are solved.

Anyway, the series can only get wackier from here. I can't wait.

Did She Just Say Heart of Steel? Because That Would Explain Alot.

I think I'm kind of partial to the mullet though.

Scout Attacks! Random Comments About Various Comics

So I lied. I am going to do little reviews. Well, not really. These are just things that occurred to me while reading. I would hardly call them reviews.

The Amazing Spider-Man #542: Well, that was ridiculously out of character, and there's still another issue left in this arc. I am so bored. More and more I am getting the idea that Spider-Man has been intentionally written into the ground since issue #500 (that hand in the newly released cover is so Future Spidey) in order to justify whatever stunt they are going to pull at the end of "One More Day."

Batman #666: I actually really liked this issue. It raised a lot of questions that I think are going to be important for the rest of Morrison's run. I've been loving this evil Batman storyline though, even though I don't understand it. It's just a shame Barbara will have such an unfortunate haircut in the future.

Batman #667: And Then There Were None recast with The International Club of Heroes. I've always though that Agatha Christie needed more people in silly costumes. Extra points for the abundance of ethnic stereotypes.

Black Canary #3: This story still might not actually be about Black Canary, but damn if no one kicks more ass than her. That was some hurt she put on Ollie.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #5 "The Chain": Wow. Just wow. This might have been the strongest issue yet.

The New Avengers Illuminati #4: I love Namor. Has he always been this cool? Also, Tony Stark is totally a Skrull. Either that or he is now so arrogant that he doesn't even consider himself a member of the human race anymore. Wait. That's actually believable too.

The New Avengers #33: I'd just like to point out that Madame Mask is on the cover of two New Avengers covers (this and Illuminati) in a single month. I think that's funny. Also, Spidey shouldn't be on this team anymore, and Hawkeye appears not to be a Skrull. My threat to personally storm Marvel offices and beat the crap out of anyone there if Luke Cage of Jessica Jones is a Skrull still stands.

Sensational Spider-Man #39: Woah! It's Anna Watson. Man, did she pick a bad time to visit from Florida. Also, Peter, Aunt May is older than Yoda. If she wants to go, just let her go.

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #4: I love you Jeff Parker. I love that Spidey gets a monument erected in his honor, even if he doesn't know about it. and how perfect is it that the book ends on Peter telling a bad joke and the Impossible Man being coughed up by a cat, like a hairball.

Wonder Woman #11: So they bring in Jodi Piccoult, publicize the hell out of her run, then stick her with a stupid crossover which was obviously at odds with the direction she wanted to take the character in and she doesn't even finish the story arc? That makes no sense. Worse than that, the start of this issue reads like the new writer just randomly decided to do a complete 180 on the events of the last issue. DC has so fucked this title up. But hey, at least we get some nostalgia by having Diana straddle a big rocket. That's something, I guess. It would be nice to see Wonder Woman actually win at something though, just for a change.

Scout Attacks! Supergirl #20

So, I've decided to change the way I do things and just review a couple of comics that I really have something to say about. I've just gotten so far behind and have realized that I have no real desire to catch up. I'm going to start this new era of Scout Attacks! with Supergirl #20.

I have never had much interest in Supergirl, so it's a surprise even to me that I picked this up, let a lone was actually excited about its release. Admittedly, that excitement was pretty much based entirely based on my love for Renato Guedes' art and the pact that the character sketches that had been released a while back looked absolutely gorgeous. However, after reading numerous interviews with writer Tony Bedard, I became really interested in reading his take on the character. It's not secret that Kara's been getting a lot of bad press, and frankly, everything I had seen or heard about the title was a really big turn off. Between Bedard and Guedes, I was getting the idea that Supergirl might be on the road to becoming the kind of superheroine I would like to read about. Then Amazons Attack #4 came out and I got really pessimistic again.

This issue directly ties in to the events of Amazons Attack #4, and that's really a huge drawback. It's not a good event. Furthermore, Supergirl's actions in that issue - she and Wonder Girl hijacked Air Force One and tried to forceably take the President to meet with Hippolyta to end the war - seemed irredeemably and criminally stupid. I really did not believe that any writer would be able to pull the character out of that in any believable way. The fact that Bedard not only manages to do that, but is able to present the story in such a way that it is not completely necessary to have read Amazons Attack #4, is a huge credit to him as a writer. Also, he manages to do it while having Kara fight a huge freaking cyclops. That's just cool.

As much as I enjoyed Bedard's take on the character, what really made this issue worthwhile was Renato Guedes' art. I know I've mentioned my dislike for photorealism before, but he uses it to beautiful effect, without ever being distracting. (I don't look at his work and think of it as some famous actor playing the character. His characters look like themselves first and foremost.) Also, unlike the previous versions of Supergirl that I have seen, this version looks powerful and real. She's still beautiful and a little sexy, but there's a bit of awkwardness too. It's her strength that stands out - strength of character as well as physical strength - like in this image:

It would have been nice if the issue had a Guedes cover too, but that cover is a fairly good representation of the content. Kara screwed up and has to make it better. It's really a bit of a redemption story. This isn't a perfect issue, but it's a good superhero story with both action and character development. It's really a shame that this creative team is only doing three issues, and that they had to be event tie-ins (especially considering how uninteresting the events are), but if Kara continues to be a strong and heroic yet vulnerable character, who is a bit confused but is trying to do the right thing, even if it turns out all wrong, I might continue reading even without Guedes' art.

Scout Attacks!: Still Catching Up Part 3

I dropped the week number. It's meaning less at this point. I'm not even sure when these comics came out.

All Flash: This was little more that a super powered revenge story, which was a little off putting. It's not that it wasn't justified, it just was weird. Anyway, I picked this up because I thought it would give me an indication of whether I want to read the new (or return to old, or whatever) series. It didn't really give me an indication of what to expect, except that something weird is going to happen with Batman's costume and Wally's going to have his super powered kids trailing along. I don't really like kids. Some of the art in this issue was really good. Some of it wasn't at all.

Amazons Attack #4: There's so much wrong with this whole event. I don't even know how to review it. It's like a train wreck. Major events of this issue are Supergirl and Wonder Girl doing the stupidest thing ever and Batman and Superman being patronizing and awful. Seriously. When Superman was making his little speech to the Amazons towards the end, even though he was right, all I could think was that they should just beat the crap out of him. What an asshole. I'm beginning to think all these people are skrulls.

Birds of Prey #108: Gail Simone's last issue. Fortunately, it's a good one. It was so awesome seeing Babs, in her Batgirl shirt, beat up Spy Smasher. And then to have Spy Smasher confronted by all the superheroes who came out in support of Babs, rounded up by Black Canary, of course. This was just a total "Fuck Yeah!" issue. We also got Misfit's origin at the end, which was very touching. I love that kid.

Black Canary #2: We get another fun flashback at the start of this issue, this time from Green Arrow's perspective. Also in this issue, Sin starts at the special school for dangerous kids that Dinah's ex found, and Ollie gets a bit needy and insecure about the fact that Dinah's ex has shown up and she still hasn't accepted his proposal. Of course, the school thing is just a set-up so that the League of Assassins can kidnap Sin. I must say that Sin actually is kind of adorable, mostly when she is kicking people in the face, which she does to all the assassins and two cops. Unfortunately, Merlyn shows up disguised as Ollie, who Sin trusts, and she goes with him. That's why, when I was a little girl being hunted by the League of Assassins, I had a code word. I wasn't supposed to go with anyone who didn't know it. Dinah really needs to work on her parenting skills. Anyway, this was another solidly entertaining issue. The only problem is that it's not really about Black Canary.

The Brave and the Bold #5: I read somewhere that Mark Waid has suggested that the reason this book isn't selling as well as it should is because people keep describing it as "fun," and that has come to translate to inconsequential. That's certainly believable, though I don't really understand why people don't want to have fun. "Fun" is why I initially decided to pick this title up. Just in case though, I'm not going to call this book "fun" anymore. This book isn't fun, it's awesome. You will not in any other book see Batman engage in a mid-air fight with Karate Kid. It's way better than that other Batman and Karate Kid fight. There's also a story here, with that book they are trying to track down and the Luck Lords showing up at the end, all of which keeps this series from being inconsequential, if that's the sort of thing you care about. I just don't happen to care about that stuff.

Justice League of America #11: Meltzer produces an adequately tight and tense story here, even if trapped in an enclosed place stories are a bit cliche. The art is amazing and Ha does an incredible job of heightening the mood here. All that makes this a pretty good issue for anyone who is picking up the book for the first time. What made it really frustrating for me was that the set up to get to this story was horribly contrived. It felt a little like Meltzer was just trying to trump up Roy's character, but I guess he was trying to trump up Vixen as well, except Vixen doesn't really do much but whine and reveal that she kept a very important secret from the rest of the team. Roy's narration says a lot of good things about her, but that's just talk, so it's pretty meaningless. Also, everyone in the Justice League and the Justice Society are freaking morons for not realizing that cheetahs can't run as fast as the Flash.

Spike: Shadow Puppets #2: This continues to be a light and entertaining story that relies solely on the premise that anything + puppets = funny. That's not really a flaw. The puppet horse head in the bed kind of proves that. We get to see some returning characters from Spike: Asylum, which is cool, and we get introduced to an entertaining new character. There are also tons of great little moments. However, the real strength here, as it was with Spike: Asylum, was how good a handle Lynch has on Spike and Lorne. He doesn't fall into any of the traps that other writers have, like relying too heavily on British slang. It's just really good.

Captain America #28: This is another one of those comics that's hard to review. The quality is so consistent, that it's hard to say something different about every issue. This title is very good. Everyone should be reading it. I will say a couple of things though. The Serpent Squad's S.H.E.I.L.D. disguises aren't going to do much good if they put them on over their regular costumes. That goes double for the guy with the cobra head. Also, I find it hard to believe that, in a world where psychics are fairly common and there existence is widely known, there would be some kind of law against using them to question suspects. That's got to be some kind of civil rights violation. Now, I'm not saying that it's necessarily wrong to bring down Cap's killer by any means necessary, but as Tony Stark is now a government official instead of a superhero, it's pretty sketchy, almost, I don't know, Fascist.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

From Newsarama's interview with new Amazing Spider-Man writer Zeb Wells:

What I’m most excited about is bringing back the feeling that Spider-Man (and Peter Parker) can make mistakes. When a hero’s been around as long as Spidey there’s a tendency to make him too perfect, too confident. Our Spidey often makes the wrong decision in trying to do the right thing. I think the classic Spidey stories always revolve around these situations, and it’s an important facet to bring back. Oh, yeah... and web shooters!

OK, first of all, Spidey doesn't make mistakes anymore? Uh...I think he's made some pretty friggin' huge mistakes lately. Kingpin didn't call him a chump for nothing. Mostly though, there will be web shooters.

Don't get me wrong, I think organic web shooters make sense. I got over my fannish objections to their inclusion in the movie a long time ago, probably before the first movie even came out, but giving Spider-Man organic web shooters in the comics after so long did not make sense. I mean, using magic to fundamentally change a character - how dumb is that?

I'll give Marvel credit for one thing though. A while back, Quesada and Breveroot made a comment at a con that the Spider-marriage was an example of the carriage pulling the horse. It wasn't done for story related reasons. It was done so that all versions of Spider-Man would be the same. I thought this was pretty hypocritical coming from the guys who oversaw the web shooter change, so going back to mechanical web shooters means they aren't total fucking hypocrites. Well, I guess they sorta still are since Quesada has been bitching about Mary Jane forever. However, they are correcting themselves, so that's got to count for something. Good for you guys!