No new updates from Wizard Universe today, unfortunately...nothing that really interests me much. There's an interview with Ed Brubaker, Mike Carey and Chris Yost about the latest storyline, Messiah Complex, that's going to be the prevalent storyarc in the X-Men titles, but I've been weaned off the X-Universe for quite a long time now that it doesn't really interest me much anymore. The last real storyarc/series I read was Morrison and Quitely's run on New X-Men...and not only was that ages ago, but I didn't even get the single issues and resorted to purchasing the HCs and TPBs to read the entire storyline! Oh yeah, must remind myself to save up for that New X-Men Omnibus...I really love those Marvel Omnibuses which are something like the DC Absolute Editions, though with less extras but more issues collected.
I'd finished reading Preacher Vol.7, so I'm about 70 to 80 per cent through the entire series. Jarrod from Classic Comics rang me yesterday evening to inform me that Preacher Vol.8 is in store now, so once I get it, just another two more TPBs to read and I'd have read the Preacher series for the third time. It gets better everytime I read it...learn so much more! I'd really love for one day to have loads of free time to read the entire series from cover to cover in one go. Would take me a good portion of the day methinks. But hell, it'd be worth it.
Obviously, I needed something else to read in the meantime, since I didn't know when Preacher Vol.8 was going to be available, so I started on Brian K. Vaughan's Y - The Last Man Vol.8. I've got the seven previous volumes back in Singapore and I THOUGHT I'd remember enough of the story to make reading the latest TPB worthwhile...but alas, it felt like just jumping into the series midway with not much of an idea what had happened previously before! That's one of the reasons why I decided to get the ENTIRE Preacher series again here...I wanted to have the whole collection to read in the one go. Y - The Last Man is absolutely brilliant as well and well worth getting the entire series too. Hmmm...priorities.
I started on the Ed Brubaker run of Daredevil as well last night, which is kinda nice because while it was good to have some previous idea of what happened in the past in Brian Michael Bendis' run, it certainly wasn't necessary to know ALL that had transpired. Got through the first three issues in the TPB and it's as good as the critics have said. I really love the whole notion of Daredevil's secret identity being outed in the press, then everyone looking at him as if he's this street urban vigilante who fights crime at night but fights evil in the court of law in the day. Which is exactly what he does...but now with the added "twist" that people know and shoot accusatory glares at him!
It's funny seeing how Murdock keeps denying that he's Daredevil, but then proceeds to prove that he's anything BUT a blind man. Take for instance: Murdock is thrown in jail and he keeps telling the prison warden that he's not Daredevil. So the prison warden, who's been bought off, sets a trap for him in which a group of superthugs all jump Murdock, hoping to shiv him. A couple of panels later, the prison guards bust in and they find everyone bruised, bloody and down for the count...all except Murdock, who's ATTEMPTING to hide in the corner, completely unharmed. Murdock's excuse? That the thugs (who ALL work for the same person) just started beating up on each other and in the panic, he was trying to find some corner to escape the violence. Yeah, I'm sure they'd believe that.
There are too many incidents in the prison where the prisoners all start heading to the infirmary, one by one. And is it a massive coincidence that these prisoners all have had run-ins with Murdock BEFORE being sent to the hospital? It doesn't look good for Murdock's secret identity, but I love the way that it's playing out this way. Oh! In the last panel of the third issue, we see a man snapping the neck of a wannabe rapist. A bunch of cops see this happening and they rush up to arrest the man. The man opens up his trenchcoat and then puts his arms up in the air, asking for the cops to arrest him and take him to prison...the same prison that Murdock is in.
All this is well and good, until they focus in on the man's chest and there's this eerie huge fricking skull on his chest. You guessed it...the Punisher wants to go to prison! Does he want to save Daredevil, his one time ally? Or does he want to kill him, since Daredevil has been his long-time nemesis...not nemesis in terms of "I want to kill you because you're my enemy", but nemesis because both of them don't agree on the way to deal with villains. Daredevil wants villains to go through due process in a court of law, while the Punisher, well, he wants to punish them by killing them all and letting God sort them out.
I can't wait to read the rest tonight!
Friday, October 5, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
What If? Planet Hulk
Planet Hulk has been one of the most critically-acclaimed stories to come out of Marvel over the last couple of years, reinvigorating the Hulk character and making it one of Marvel's best selling titles again.
But what if things didn't go quite the way as the story unfolded in the series? What if someone threw a spanner in the works? What if the story became part of my favourite "What If?" single issues?
[PREVIEW] WHAT IF? PLANET HULK
Tree stories, one issue and a stunning cover by Planet Hulk artist Carlo Pagulayan!
But what if things didn't go quite the way as the story unfolded in the series? What if someone threw a spanner in the works? What if the story became part of my favourite "What If?" single issues?
[PREVIEW] WHAT IF? PLANET HULK
Tree stories, one issue and a stunning cover by Planet Hulk artist Carlo Pagulayan!
Posted October 3, 2007 10:15 AM
As the summer’s biggest comic book event, World War Hulk, rages on, acclaimed writer behind it now turns his attentions to what could have been in What If? Planet Hulk. From Planet Hulk and World War Hulk author Greg Pak, artists Leonard Kirk, Rafa Sandoval and Fred Hembeck, comes this special extra-sized one-shot showing just how the year’s top selling event could have gone in three different paths! First, what if the Hulk had arrived at the intended destination of the Illuminati? Could this peaceful planet have tamed the savage Hulk? And then, what if Hulk died and his wife instead led the army against Earth? Finally, the one page story you demanded: what if Banner, not the Hulk, landed on Sakaar? That’s tree stories, one issue and a stunning cover by Planet Hulk artist Carlo Pagulayan!
That’s three different outcomes for the Hulk straight from the man writing some of the most exciting stories in the character’s history! Greg Pak and friends bring you three stories that could—perhaps should—have been featuring the Incredible Hulk as you’ve never seen him before! It’s What If? Planet Hulk and once you’ve finished this special extra-sized one shot, your jaw will be on the floor!
WHAT IF? PLANET HULK
Written by GREG PAK
Penciled by LEONARD KIRK, RAFA SANDOVARL & FRED HEMBECK
Cover by CARLO PAGULAYAN
Rated A …$3.99
On-Sale—10/24/07
That’s three different outcomes for the Hulk straight from the man writing some of the most exciting stories in the character’s history! Greg Pak and friends bring you three stories that could—perhaps should—have been featuring the Incredible Hulk as you’ve never seen him before! It’s What If? Planet Hulk and once you’ve finished this special extra-sized one shot, your jaw will be on the floor!
WHAT IF? PLANET HULK
Written by GREG PAK
Penciled by LEONARD KIRK, RAFA SANDOVARL & FRED HEMBECK
Cover by CARLO PAGULAYAN
Rated A …$3.99
On-Sale—10/24/07
 |  |  |  |
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Top 10 Most Controversial Moments in J. Michael Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-man
Another long-writer Marvel writer is about to finish his run on a series. After six years writing Amazing Spider-man, J. Michael Straczynski is about to leave the book he helped recreate and infuse awesome stories into, in the wake of the success of the three Spidey movies. I loved his run, but there were quite a number of controversial moments that other fans did not like one iota.
This story on Wizard Universe:
STICKY SITUATIONS
As J. Michael Straczynski ends his long Spider-Man run with October's 'One More Day,' we look back at his 10 most controversial moments
In 2001, Marvel’s flagship hero Spider-Man faced the danger of being squashed from years of bad stories and dwindling fan interest.
Marvel rolled the dice and tapped an unlikely savior: J. Michael Straczynski. Coming off his first major comic success as writer of Top Cow’s Rising Stars, and sporting an impressive TV résumé that included the sci-fi hit “Babylon 5,” the man known as JMS seemed a quirky but intriguing choice to take over Amazing Spider-Man.
However, along with a penchant for epic storytelling, JMS brought with him a reputation for shocking and often controversial twists, and wasted no time in making waves with the Spider-Man fanbase. But redemption would always arrive with the numbers, as JMS’ Amazing Spider-Man became a perennial performer in the Top 10 of Diamond Distributors’ sales charts.
With JMS’ swansong “One More Day” story alongside Marvel Editor-in-Chief/artist Joe Quesada promising to completely rock the Webhead’s status quo and be the most talked-about Spider-event in years, relive the 10 most unbelievable and controversial Straczynski shockers of the past six years!
10. Spider-Man joins the New Avengers
(Amazing Spider-Man #519)
Following the “Skin Deep” storyline (AMS #515-#518), Spidey, Mary Jane and Aunt May found themselves homeless after an old schoolmate of Peter’s with a grudge torched the Parkers’ Forest Hills home. In swept generous benefactor Tony Stark—aka Iron Man—who offered them free crash space in Avengers Tower. Spider-Man had always been a lone wolf, declining the Avengers once before because they cramped his style, then subsequently getting rejected by the government as a security risk. Living the high life with a whole team to back him up proved new and not entirely unwelcome. He did, of course, wonder when it would all end, as life with MJ and Aunt May in Avengers Tower seemed too good to be true. And sadly this proved correct, as Stark turned Spidey into a government stooge, coerced him into revealing his secret identity on national television and then turned on him when he questioned the Superhuman Registration Act.
9. Spider-Man turns the tables on the Kingpin
(ASM #542)
JMS once said, “Put your character up in a tree and then throws rocks at him.” He sagely followed his own advice by pushing Peter to question the one edict he’s always firmly held: no killing.
After Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, ordered the assassination of Aunt May, Peter—donning his infamous black costume as a symbol of his inner turmoil—tracked down the sniper who pulled the trigger, brutally torturing him for information, then broke into Riker’s Island to confront Fisk. Mercilessly beating Kingpin to within an inch of his life, Peter left the criminal alive, not out of mercy, but to serve as a warning that anyone who messes with his family would suffer the same fate. Adding insult to injury, Peter promised that if Aunt May died from her wounds—or any further attacks—Kingpin would follow her to the grave.
8. Peter and MJ get back together
(ASM v.2 #50)
Mary Jane Watson-Parker has become a topic of hot debate among fans and creators alike since her marriage to Spider-Man two decades ago. Should she be the unattainable girl beyond Peter’s reach, or his loving and supportive wife? After a protracted “will they, won’t they” period during which the couple attempted and failed at reconciliation following an earlier separation, JMS landed on the side of the marriage with this issue, which finds Peter and MJ bumping into one another at an airport, each en route to tracking the other down. In true hard-luck fashion, a terrorist attack aimed at Doctor Doom subverted their reunion, but only temporarily, as this installment ended with a kiss and a happily-ever-after conclusion (for now).
7. Spider-Man unmasks
(ASM #533)
For decades, Peter Parker religiously guarded his identity as Spider-Man, even at the cost of his own ego and personal standing in both guises—but war makes a man do crazy things.
To prove his allegiance to Tony Stark during Civil War, Peter, against his better judgment, revealed himself to the world as Spider-Man on national TV.
The fallout, of course, shook Peter’s world to its core. Friends, family and co-workers turned against him; employer J. Jonah Jameson fired him and sued him for damages; not only did his worst enemies know his real name, they began targeting Aunt May and Mary Jane. And when Peter flip-flopped his registration stance, benefactor Tony Stark pulled the plug on his resources and turned him into a wanted criminal. Without a doubt, Peter’s unmasking has changed Spider-Man forever—and opened a Pandora’s box of potential storytelling for future writers.
6. The 9/11 issue
(ASM v.2 #36)
Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, artists in every medium struggled with how to address the tragedy.
Credit JMS with actually seeking out the task by using Spider-Man—the quintessential New York City hero—to tackle the difficult subject with integrity. In a powerful, moving issue, JMS used Spider-Man to essentially say that he didn’t know what to say, eloquently portraying the anger, sadness and frustration—and even hope—that the nation as a whole felt in the aftermath. The story also allowed JMS to express his thanks and admiration to some real heroes, the emergency crews of firefighters, police and EMTs, in a touching story that still resonates to this day.
In allowing Aunt May to learn Peter’s alter ego, JMS shattered yet another cornerstone of the Spider-Man mythos and a longtime source of angst for Peter and sometime comic relief for readers.
The revelation established a new dynamic for the series in subsequent issues, one that often resulted in high drama as May wrestled with the knowledge, and sidesplitting moments like a to-do list that included canceling her Daily Bugle subscription. In retrospect, this story arc begged the question: “What took so long?”
“We all tend to conceal things from those we love most because we think the truth might break them,” explains JMS. “I wanted to say that no, the ones we love can bear the burden of our truths, because they do love us. We don’t have to carry these things alone. I’ve always said that Peter got his powers from the spider, but his strength from Aunt May, and this story was the chance to put that out there for others to learn from.”
4. Spider-totem origin
(ASM v.2 #32)
Right out of the gate, JMS’ very first Spider-Man story had some fans scratching their heads and others howling in protest. Everyone knew the familiar origin story of Spider-Man, but in JMS’ tweaked retelling, the writer raised an important question: Why did that radioactive spider bite Peter?
The writer added new layers to the existing tale, giving Peter a spiritual link to ancient mystic totems that worked in cooperation with his science-fiction roots. While the changes rankled some fans, JMS would get serious storytelling mileage out of them and introduce new characters like Spidey’s similarly powered sometime-mentor Ezekiel and vampiric foe Morlun.
At the same time, JMS acknowledged the criticism and laughed at himself a bit, having Peter add his own voice to the chorus of protest and disbelief.
3. Aunt May gets shot
(ASM #538)
Throughout Spider-Man’s four-plus decades, kindly May Parker served as nephew Peter’s rock. Even when she didn’t know about his secret, she served as his mother figure, the person he could turn to for wisdom and strength. The Kingpin shattered that refuge when his hired gunman shot her, propelling Spider-Man into one of his darkest, most intense periods under JMS’ direction.
Already publicly outed as Spider-Man and on the run from his former friends and teammates, Peter faced the possibility of life without May, one of the two people he loved most in the world. May’s situation removed a stabilizing force from Peter’s life and drove the character to question the very values he had defended for years.
“I needed to get Peter to the very, very end of his rope,” notes JMS. “And an attack on May, where he felt he was responsible, would take him right to the very edge of his emotions”—and readers to the edge of their seats.
2. Spider-Man killed/reborn
(ASM #527)
“The Other,” a crossover event that ran through every Spider-Man title, saw Peter pursued by Morlun yet again, beaten badly, half-blinded and taken to the brink of death. Peter’s spider instincts took over, allowing him to defeat Morlun, then a new body emerged from his deceased physical shell and built a cocoon to regenerate.
Reborn stronger than ever before, Peter Parker fully accepted the totemic side that saved his life. “The Other” met with mixed results: strong sales as well as derision from hardcore fans.
The event paved the way for Peter to unmask and join the New Avengers, setting the stage for a continuous series of dramatic shifts in Spider-Man’s world.
1. Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn’s love children
(ASM #512)
Taking the beloved memory of Gwen Stacy and putting it through the wringer, JMS revealed that Peter’s first love had a one-night stand with Norman Osborn—aka Spidey’s mortal enemy the Green Goblin—and gave birth to twins! Not only that, this stunning revelation came from a very unexpected source: Mary Jane, Peter’s wife, who had known all along and kept it a secret.
JMS, no stranger to criticism and controversy, shrugs off the potshots from outraged fans: “I try not to let it affect me one way or the other. If you believe the good comments, then you have to believe the bad ones. I just try to honor that character as best I can while still being free enough to take some chances here and there.”
Love or hate his work, fans can’t deny that JMS has definitely given the Spider-Man universe new life, with new directions and plotlines to be argued over, played off of and dissected for years to come. And with “One More Day,” JMS has one more chance to do just that.
ONE MORE DAY
J. Michael Straczynski, known for his controversial Spider-story arcs, keeps his cards close to the vest when it comes to discussing his swan song, “One More Day” with Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada on art, but he does make the following proclamation:
“There’s one more big change a’coming.”
Entering “One More Day,” Peter Parker finds himself broke, unemployed, on the run from the government, his secret identity public and his Aunt May on her deathbed. But there’s one final straw that could break the spider’s back: the fate of Peter and MJ’s marriage. “One More Day” will show where Peter can go from here, as it’s his despair over his current status quo that drives the plotline.
“I think [his current situation] does to him what it would do to any of us: lead to confusion, despair and self-recrimination,” explains JMS. “The wheel turns, and sometimes we’re on top of it, and sometimes we’re under it. Peter has spent most of his life under it, and he allowed himself the possibility, the hope, that this time, when everything’s going so well, that it wouldn’t turn. But it does. It always does.”
I cringed when I read the "Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacy had kids" storyline. I mean, here are the most reviled and loved characters, respectively, in the Spidey mythos. And to cheapen Gwen to say that she had something going on with Osborn...and bore his children? Ugh ugh ugh!
I haven't read that many of the above stories above, seeing as how a lot of them were recent stories and my single issues of Amazing Spider-man are in a box, waiting for me back in G&B Comics in Singapore, but I did read the very awesome and poignant 9/11 story. It was extremely beautiful since Spidey is pretty much an iconic hero based in New York and the way Straczynski wrote the story really would have brought tears to anyone's eyes. Err...well, anyone except for the people who have gripes against America that is.
And the story in which Aunt May found out Peter's secret was brilliant as well. I'd say Straczynski had more hits than misses in his time on Amazing Spider-man. He shook up the title and brought people back, identifying with and loving Marvel's premiere superhero. You will be missed, JMS. Long live the king.
This story on Wizard Universe:
STICKY SITUATIONS
As J. Michael Straczynski ends his long Spider-Man run with October's 'One More Day,' we look back at his 10 most controversial moments
By Mur Lafferty and the Wizard Staff | Posted October 2, 2007 4:15 PM |
In 2001, Marvel’s flagship hero Spider-Man faced the danger of being squashed from years of bad stories and dwindling fan interest.
Marvel rolled the dice and tapped an unlikely savior: J. Michael Straczynski. Coming off his first major comic success as writer of Top Cow’s Rising Stars, and sporting an impressive TV résumé that included the sci-fi hit “Babylon 5,” the man known as JMS seemed a quirky but intriguing choice to take over Amazing Spider-Man.
However, along with a penchant for epic storytelling, JMS brought with him a reputation for shocking and often controversial twists, and wasted no time in making waves with the Spider-Man fanbase. But redemption would always arrive with the numbers, as JMS’ Amazing Spider-Man became a perennial performer in the Top 10 of Diamond Distributors’ sales charts.
With JMS’ swansong “One More Day” story alongside Marvel Editor-in-Chief/artist Joe Quesada promising to completely rock the Webhead’s status quo and be the most talked-about Spider-event in years, relive the 10 most unbelievable and controversial Straczynski shockers of the past six years!
10. Spider-Man joins the New Avengers
(Amazing Spider-Man #519)
Following the “Skin Deep” storyline (AMS #515-#518), Spidey, Mary Jane and Aunt May found themselves homeless after an old schoolmate of Peter’s with a grudge torched the Parkers’ Forest Hills home. In swept generous benefactor Tony Stark—aka Iron Man—who offered them free crash space in Avengers Tower. Spider-Man had always been a lone wolf, declining the Avengers once before because they cramped his style, then subsequently getting rejected by the government as a security risk. Living the high life with a whole team to back him up proved new and not entirely unwelcome. He did, of course, wonder when it would all end, as life with MJ and Aunt May in Avengers Tower seemed too good to be true. And sadly this proved correct, as Stark turned Spidey into a government stooge, coerced him into revealing his secret identity on national television and then turned on him when he questioned the Superhuman Registration Act.9. Spider-Man turns the tables on the Kingpin
(ASM #542)
JMS once said, “Put your character up in a tree and then throws rocks at him.” He sagely followed his own advice by pushing Peter to question the one edict he’s always firmly held: no killing.After Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, ordered the assassination of Aunt May, Peter—donning his infamous black costume as a symbol of his inner turmoil—tracked down the sniper who pulled the trigger, brutally torturing him for information, then broke into Riker’s Island to confront Fisk. Mercilessly beating Kingpin to within an inch of his life, Peter left the criminal alive, not out of mercy, but to serve as a warning that anyone who messes with his family would suffer the same fate. Adding insult to injury, Peter promised that if Aunt May died from her wounds—or any further attacks—Kingpin would follow her to the grave.
8. Peter and MJ get back together
(ASM v.2 #50)
Mary Jane Watson-Parker has become a topic of hot debate among fans and creators alike since her marriage to Spider-Man two decades ago. Should she be the unattainable girl beyond Peter’s reach, or his loving and supportive wife? After a protracted “will they, won’t they” period during which the couple attempted and failed at reconciliation following an earlier separation, JMS landed on the side of the marriage with this issue, which finds Peter and MJ bumping into one another at an airport, each en route to tracking the other down. In true hard-luck fashion, a terrorist attack aimed at Doctor Doom subverted their reunion, but only temporarily, as this installment ended with a kiss and a happily-ever-after conclusion (for now).7. Spider-Man unmasks
(ASM #533)
For decades, Peter Parker religiously guarded his identity as Spider-Man, even at the cost of his own ego and personal standing in both guises—but war makes a man do crazy things.To prove his allegiance to Tony Stark during Civil War, Peter, against his better judgment, revealed himself to the world as Spider-Man on national TV.
The fallout, of course, shook Peter’s world to its core. Friends, family and co-workers turned against him; employer J. Jonah Jameson fired him and sued him for damages; not only did his worst enemies know his real name, they began targeting Aunt May and Mary Jane. And when Peter flip-flopped his registration stance, benefactor Tony Stark pulled the plug on his resources and turned him into a wanted criminal. Without a doubt, Peter’s unmasking has changed Spider-Man forever—and opened a Pandora’s box of potential storytelling for future writers.
6. The 9/11 issue
(ASM v.2 #36)
Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, artists in every medium struggled with how to address the tragedy.Credit JMS with actually seeking out the task by using Spider-Man—the quintessential New York City hero—to tackle the difficult subject with integrity. In a powerful, moving issue, JMS used Spider-Man to essentially say that he didn’t know what to say, eloquently portraying the anger, sadness and frustration—and even hope—that the nation as a whole felt in the aftermath. The story also allowed JMS to express his thanks and admiration to some real heroes, the emergency crews of firefighters, police and EMTs, in a touching story that still resonates to this day.
| |
| 5. Aunt May learns Peter is Spider-Man (ASM v.2 #35) |
In allowing Aunt May to learn Peter’s alter ego, JMS shattered yet another cornerstone of the Spider-Man mythos and a longtime source of angst for Peter and sometime comic relief for readers.The revelation established a new dynamic for the series in subsequent issues, one that often resulted in high drama as May wrestled with the knowledge, and sidesplitting moments like a to-do list that included canceling her Daily Bugle subscription. In retrospect, this story arc begged the question: “What took so long?”
“We all tend to conceal things from those we love most because we think the truth might break them,” explains JMS. “I wanted to say that no, the ones we love can bear the burden of our truths, because they do love us. We don’t have to carry these things alone. I’ve always said that Peter got his powers from the spider, but his strength from Aunt May, and this story was the chance to put that out there for others to learn from.”
4. Spider-totem origin
(ASM v.2 #32)
Right out of the gate, JMS’ very first Spider-Man story had some fans scratching their heads and others howling in protest. Everyone knew the familiar origin story of Spider-Man, but in JMS’ tweaked retelling, the writer raised an important question: Why did that radioactive spider bite Peter?The writer added new layers to the existing tale, giving Peter a spiritual link to ancient mystic totems that worked in cooperation with his science-fiction roots. While the changes rankled some fans, JMS would get serious storytelling mileage out of them and introduce new characters like Spidey’s similarly powered sometime-mentor Ezekiel and vampiric foe Morlun.
At the same time, JMS acknowledged the criticism and laughed at himself a bit, having Peter add his own voice to the chorus of protest and disbelief.
3. Aunt May gets shot
(ASM #538)
Throughout Spider-Man’s four-plus decades, kindly May Parker served as nephew Peter’s rock. Even when she didn’t know about his secret, she served as his mother figure, the person he could turn to for wisdom and strength. The Kingpin shattered that refuge when his hired gunman shot her, propelling Spider-Man into one of his darkest, most intense periods under JMS’ direction.Already publicly outed as Spider-Man and on the run from his former friends and teammates, Peter faced the possibility of life without May, one of the two people he loved most in the world. May’s situation removed a stabilizing force from Peter’s life and drove the character to question the very values he had defended for years.
“I needed to get Peter to the very, very end of his rope,” notes JMS. “And an attack on May, where he felt he was responsible, would take him right to the very edge of his emotions”—and readers to the edge of their seats.
2. Spider-Man killed/reborn
(ASM #527)
“The Other,” a crossover event that ran through every Spider-Man title, saw Peter pursued by Morlun yet again, beaten badly, half-blinded and taken to the brink of death. Peter’s spider instincts took over, allowing him to defeat Morlun, then a new body emerged from his deceased physical shell and built a cocoon to regenerate.Reborn stronger than ever before, Peter Parker fully accepted the totemic side that saved his life. “The Other” met with mixed results: strong sales as well as derision from hardcore fans.
The event paved the way for Peter to unmask and join the New Avengers, setting the stage for a continuous series of dramatic shifts in Spider-Man’s world.
1. Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn’s love children
(ASM #512)
Taking the beloved memory of Gwen Stacy and putting it through the wringer, JMS revealed that Peter’s first love had a one-night stand with Norman Osborn—aka Spidey’s mortal enemy the Green Goblin—and gave birth to twins! Not only that, this stunning revelation came from a very unexpected source: Mary Jane, Peter’s wife, who had known all along and kept it a secret.JMS, no stranger to criticism and controversy, shrugs off the potshots from outraged fans: “I try not to let it affect me one way or the other. If you believe the good comments, then you have to believe the bad ones. I just try to honor that character as best I can while still being free enough to take some chances here and there.”
Love or hate his work, fans can’t deny that JMS has definitely given the Spider-Man universe new life, with new directions and plotlines to be argued over, played off of and dissected for years to come. And with “One More Day,” JMS has one more chance to do just that.
J. Michael Straczynski, known for his controversial Spider-story arcs, keeps his cards close to the vest when it comes to discussing his swan song, “One More Day” with Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada on art, but he does make the following proclamation:
“There’s one more big change a’coming.”
Entering “One More Day,” Peter Parker finds himself broke, unemployed, on the run from the government, his secret identity public and his Aunt May on her deathbed. But there’s one final straw that could break the spider’s back: the fate of Peter and MJ’s marriage. “One More Day” will show where Peter can go from here, as it’s his despair over his current status quo that drives the plotline.
“I think [his current situation] does to him what it would do to any of us: lead to confusion, despair and self-recrimination,” explains JMS. “The wheel turns, and sometimes we’re on top of it, and sometimes we’re under it. Peter has spent most of his life under it, and he allowed himself the possibility, the hope, that this time, when everything’s going so well, that it wouldn’t turn. But it does. It always does.”
I cringed when I read the "Norman Osborn and Gwen Stacy had kids" storyline. I mean, here are the most reviled and loved characters, respectively, in the Spidey mythos. And to cheapen Gwen to say that she had something going on with Osborn...and bore his children? Ugh ugh ugh!
I haven't read that many of the above stories above, seeing as how a lot of them were recent stories and my single issues of Amazing Spider-man are in a box, waiting for me back in G&B Comics in Singapore, but I did read the very awesome and poignant 9/11 story. It was extremely beautiful since Spidey is pretty much an iconic hero based in New York and the way Straczynski wrote the story really would have brought tears to anyone's eyes. Err...well, anyone except for the people who have gripes against America that is.
And the story in which Aunt May found out Peter's secret was brilliant as well. I'd say Straczynski had more hits than misses in his time on Amazing Spider-man. He shook up the title and brought people back, identifying with and loving Marvel's premiere superhero. You will be missed, JMS. Long live the king.
Marvel Zombies 2: Civil War
The biggest story in 2007 was Marvel Comics' Civil War. Forget about DC's Infinite Crisis, forget about 52, forget about World War Hulk even! Civil War was THE focus point of the comics-verse with the ramifications still being felt in the Marvel-verse. In fact, one might argue that the events leading up to Civil War triggered the World War Hulk storyarc when the Illumnati exiled Hulk into space. If Civil War doesn't become the storyline of the year or the comic book event of the year as voted by the Wizard staffers...well...I dunno what I'll do but it won't be pleasant!
Anyway, what happens when you combine the hottest event of 2007 with the hottest comic book series/property of 2006 (and that's Marvel Zombies for those of you who are thinking of any other comic series!)? Why, you get the sequel to Marvel Zombies of course!
MARVEL ZOMBIES 2: CIVIL WAR
Mark Millar’s ‘bad idea’ not only inspired Kirkman and Phillips’ zombie epic, but also a sequel based on his best-selling miniseries
The success of Marvel Zombies—and its impending sequel—proves that even Mark Millar’s “bad” ideas usually turn out pretty well.
“When I pitched it years ago, everybody absolutely hated the idea,” laughed Millar in reference to his brainstorm for a Marvel Universe filled with zombie versions of its heroes. “Marvel said, ‘That’s the worst idea you’ve ever come up with.’ Then later, when [writer] Warren [Ellis] was leaving Ultimate Fantastic Four and they had nobody lined up, [Marvel Editor-in-Chief] Joe [Quesada] said to me, ‘Why don’t you do your zombies idea?’ and it turned out to be very popular.”
So popular it would spawn Marvel’s biggest surprise success of 2006: the best-selling Marvel Zombies miniseries written by Robert Kirkman, a veteran of the undead genre with his self-created Walking Dead, with art by Sean Phillips (Criminal) and unforgettable covers courtesy of painter Arthur Suydam, who re-created classic Marvel scenes with a zombie twist.
Beginning Oct. 3, Kirkman, Phillips and Suydam reunite for the five-issue Marvel Zombies 2 and throw another Millar concept into the mix with an internal conflict among the zombies that echoes the writer’s monster hit Civil War, a comparison the Zombies team isn’t looking to discourage with Suydam aping Michael Turner’s cover to Civil War #1 for the first issue. The story takes place 40 years after the original series’ conclusion, and features the zombies returning to Earth following an interstellar sojourn.
“The Zombies are noticing changes in themselves and a few want to stop their flesh-eating ways, while others do not,” explained Kirkman.
Spider-Man, still full of guilt over devouring his wife and aunt, leads the Zombies looking to reform while Giant-Man heads up the unrepentant undead. “Spider-Man is the most popular character in the Marvel Universe, so he has to be a figurehead,” chuckled Kirkman. “Giant-Man stepped up in [the first Marvel Zombies] and started bossing people around, so that continues.”
The rest of the cast includes the zombie incarnations of Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Wasp and Luke Cage, plus what Kirkman calls “the triumphant return of zombie Hawkeye,” who got decapitated in the first issue of the original series, as well as the new cosmic additions of Thanos, Firelord, Gladiator and Phoenix. “With a big cast, there are tons of people for me to kill,” noted Kirkman with glee.
Throwing either a wildcard or more potential snacks into the equation, surviving heroes Black Panther and Forge have re-established a burgeoning civilization on Earth and must contend with the return of their former comrades.
While Kirkman joked that Millar “doesn’t speak to me anymore because he’s worried I’ll steal another of his ideas,” how does the father of Marvel Zombies feel about his once-mocked idea continuing to flourish?
“I absolutely love it,” enthused the Scotsman. “Robert is the best zombie writer in the world and did a much better job than I’d have done. It kicks ass.”
Oh wow. I knew the sequel to Marvel Zombies was going to be big...but THIS big? Looks like single issues AND the HC reprint for me again! Just can't get enough of Marvel Zombies and the brilliant covers by Arthur Suydam! Heck, I'm even thinking of getting his Dead Days poster which is a parody of the record-breaking, best-selling X-Men #1 cover by Jim Lee! See the above picture.
Anyway, what happens when you combine the hottest event of 2007 with the hottest comic book series/property of 2006 (and that's Marvel Zombies for those of you who are thinking of any other comic series!)? Why, you get the sequel to Marvel Zombies of course!
MARVEL ZOMBIES 2: CIVIL WAR
Mark Millar’s ‘bad idea’ not only inspired Kirkman and Phillips’ zombie epic, but also a sequel based on his best-selling miniseries
By Ben Morse | Posted October 2, 2007 11:50 AM |
The success of Marvel Zombies—and its impending sequel—proves that even Mark Millar’s “bad” ideas usually turn out pretty well.
“When I pitched it years ago, everybody absolutely hated the idea,” laughed Millar in reference to his brainstorm for a Marvel Universe filled with zombie versions of its heroes. “Marvel said, ‘That’s the worst idea you’ve ever come up with.’ Then later, when [writer] Warren [Ellis] was leaving Ultimate Fantastic Four and they had nobody lined up, [Marvel Editor-in-Chief] Joe [Quesada] said to me, ‘Why don’t you do your zombies idea?’ and it turned out to be very popular.”
So popular it would spawn Marvel’s biggest surprise success of 2006: the best-selling Marvel Zombies miniseries written by Robert Kirkman, a veteran of the undead genre with his self-created Walking Dead, with art by Sean Phillips (Criminal) and unforgettable covers courtesy of painter Arthur Suydam, who re-created classic Marvel scenes with a zombie twist.Beginning Oct. 3, Kirkman, Phillips and Suydam reunite for the five-issue Marvel Zombies 2 and throw another Millar concept into the mix with an internal conflict among the zombies that echoes the writer’s monster hit Civil War, a comparison the Zombies team isn’t looking to discourage with Suydam aping Michael Turner’s cover to Civil War #1 for the first issue. The story takes place 40 years after the original series’ conclusion, and features the zombies returning to Earth following an interstellar sojourn.
“The Zombies are noticing changes in themselves and a few want to stop their flesh-eating ways, while others do not,” explained Kirkman.
Spider-Man, still full of guilt over devouring his wife and aunt, leads the Zombies looking to reform while Giant-Man heads up the unrepentant undead. “Spider-Man is the most popular character in the Marvel Universe, so he has to be a figurehead,” chuckled Kirkman. “Giant-Man stepped up in [the first Marvel Zombies] and started bossing people around, so that continues.”
The rest of the cast includes the zombie incarnations of Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Wasp and Luke Cage, plus what Kirkman calls “the triumphant return of zombie Hawkeye,” who got decapitated in the first issue of the original series, as well as the new cosmic additions of Thanos, Firelord, Gladiator and Phoenix. “With a big cast, there are tons of people for me to kill,” noted Kirkman with glee.Throwing either a wildcard or more potential snacks into the equation, surviving heroes Black Panther and Forge have re-established a burgeoning civilization on Earth and must contend with the return of their former comrades.
While Kirkman joked that Millar “doesn’t speak to me anymore because he’s worried I’ll steal another of his ideas,” how does the father of Marvel Zombies feel about his once-mocked idea continuing to flourish?
“I absolutely love it,” enthused the Scotsman. “Robert is the best zombie writer in the world and did a much better job than I’d have done. It kicks ass.”
Oh wow. I knew the sequel to Marvel Zombies was going to be big...but THIS big? Looks like single issues AND the HC reprint for me again! Just can't get enough of Marvel Zombies and the brilliant covers by Arthur Suydam! Heck, I'm even thinking of getting his Dead Days poster which is a parody of the record-breaking, best-selling X-Men #1 cover by Jim Lee! See the above picture.
‘HEROES’ WORSHIP: OCT. 2, 2007
More Heroes! Dang it! Have to keep reminding myself to watch finish the whole of the first season before the new season airs on Channel 7. Except that we have so much of Bleach to go through. :( The Heroes Season 1 DVD is already on sale in DVD stores too. Grah.
Anyway, more Heroes spoilers from the latest episode in the US:
‘HEROES’ WORSHIP: OCT. 2, 2007
Get caught up on last night’s episode of ‘Heroes’ with our in-depth recap!
What’s the Excitement About?
In case you you just stepped off the space shuttle and missed last year’s television season, “Heroes” is NBC’s newest hit show masterminded by Tim Kring. The series follows ordinary people with extraordinary abilities and their attempts to sort out their lives and save the world.
Last season’s chief protagonist was Peter Petrelli, a male nurse who has the ability to absorb and retain the power of any other superpowered being he comes into contact with. He was relentlessly pursued by Sylar, a murderous villain who can also take powers, but only by killing other people who possess them. Throughout the season, Peter and his allies worked to prevent an apocalyptic vision in which New York was destroyed from coming true.
The amnesiac Peter Petrelli accidentally used his powers last week when he was found inside a shipping container. The smugglers looking for iPods in that crate weren’t very happy to find him, so they dragged him back to their pub and strapped him to a chair, giving him a “Reservoir Dogs”-style beating. They don’t go so far as to cut off his ear, but it wouldn’t do much good even if they did. The Irish thugs are pretty shocked to discover that all of Peter’s wounds heal themselves.
After observing Peter’s powers, the Irish thugs make him an offer he can’t refuse. They claim to have a box that holds the key to his identity. If he helps them with their shady criminal dealings, they’ll give him the valuable information and possibly let him go. Peter has the necessary powers to leave anyways, but the information is quite the temptation.
Back in California, Claire is still whining about having to play things cool. She continues to pursue her relationship with West, who definitely knows about her powers. Ultimately, West leaves her a few published findings by Mohinder to read upon. What a way to win a woman’s heart—give her academic papers.
Meanwhile, Claire’s adoptive father Noah seemed to have an inkling that Kaito was going to be murdered, mainly because he had proof it was going to happen. He shows his wife a painting by Isaac that predicted Kaito’s death. There are seven more paintings, but Noah doesn’t have them and pledges that he will collect them all like Pokémon. As for Mohinder, he visits the Haitian and cures him of the mysterious disease that affects superpowered individuals. Of course, the Haitian can’t leave Mohinder with any memory of success and erases his brain. What a jerk.
Back on the old familiar roof in New York, Parkman investigates Kaito’s death. Parkman feigns ignorance about the mystery villain’s sigil, even though he’s seen it many times in Molly’s drawings. According to Ando, the sigil is kanji and means “great ability.” Incidentally, the kanji is also the crest of the legendary hero Takezo Kensei.
Speaking of Kensei, Hiro is still in 1671 and trying to help him save the day. The white man is much too drunk to fulfill his destiny and become a hero, so Hiro is forced to wear his armor and pretend to be the legendary warrior. In his warrior disguise, Hiro gets the swordsmith’s daughter to warm up to him and believe that he’ll save the day. After a lot of convincing and sobering up, Hiro finally persuades the real Kensei to accept his destiny and become a hero. Unfortunately, this change of character results in Kensei getting shot in the chest with a lot of arrows. Fortunately, Kensei possesses a superpower and heals from his wounds. Who would have predicted such a thing? Probably all the people who watched the preview last week.
"HEROES" HIGHLIGHTS
BEST GROSS-OUT: CLAIRE'S TOE
After learning in biology class that her pinky toe is useless, a bored and curious Claire puts her regenerative powers to the test, cutting off the littlest lil' piggy with a pair of scissors--only to have it grow back good as new. Hey, where'd the old toe go, anyway? Whatcha got there, Mr. Muggles...? —Associate Editor Eric Moya
COOLEST SHOUT-OUT: X-FILES
Whether it was intentional or not, I was reminded of the “black oil” from “The X-Files” when we first see Maya’s power manifest itself. She bleeds black ooze from her eyes and effectively kills all those around her, but her brother acts like a sort of dampener and is able to reverse the effect. —Editorial Director Mel Caylo
MYSTERY OF THE WEEK: WHO ATTACKED MRS. PETRELLI?
Who could sneak into a police station unseen and nearly rip Angela Petrelli’s throat out? Who would want to? Well, wasn’t there a British chap last season that could turn invisible and also had an axe to grind with the Company, with whom Angela was associated? Hmm…—Staff Writer Ben Morse
POWER-PACKED AWARD: PETER
Apparently, the formerly emo-haired hero Peter Petrelli no longer borrows the powers of folks he’s met. Now he just gets to rock all day with a crazy new set of powers whose hero equivalent we’ve yet to meet. Just for the record, here are the powers the amnesiac lead has revealed so far: lighting hands, Kitty Pryde-esque phasing, Wolverine-like healing factor, telekinesis, maybe super strength? (We’re not sure how exactly he threw that thug across the bar.) —Staff Writer Kiel Phegley
CONTINUITY CHECK: DON’T I KNOW YOU FROM SOMEWHERE…?
Hey Ando, remember that time you and Hiro went to the future and that psycho cop Parkman kidnapped your buddy and tried to kill you both? He’s standing right next to you!! Asking you questions!!! Ahhh!!!! —Staff Writer Ben Morse
HAPPY IT DIDN'T GET THE AXE: TIM SALE'S PAINTINGS
It seems late artist Isaac Mendez left more paintings, likely showing the deaths of the remaining conspirators. Did Linderman buy them, or does some other art aficionado have the answer to who might be carrying out the murders? —Associate Editor Eric Moya
CLIFFHANGER RATING: 7
Writer Michael Green spread the famous cliffhanger love in this week’s episode with more than a few twists at the end, but the best last-minute plot turns came moments apart on screen and hundreds of years apart in time. First, we get the revelation that Hiro’s feudal samurai hero Kensei has been granted an ability way back in the way back as he miraculously heals from multiple fatal arrow wounds. If that head-scratcher wasn’t enough to keep us coming back next week, the episode’s true ending hit with gusto as a traditionally gruesome Claire moment (this time the nipping off of her pinky toe to see if it grows back) was broken up by the surprise image of West hanging outside the Bennett home window. Poor little pervert–we’re pretty sure that freaky growth was not what he was hoping to see when he went all Peeping Tom on Claire. —Staff Writer Kiel Phegley
SPOILER WARNING!
NEXT TIME ON ‘HEROES’
Peter, desperate to learn about his identity, helps his criminal captors in a caper in order to learn the contents of the box. Sylar recuperates on a fancy beach and most likely resumes his evil activity, Niki and Micah decide to hit the road and Noah resorts to desperate measures in order to protect Claire from exposing her powers.
Anyway, more Heroes spoilers from the latest episode in the US:
‘HEROES’ WORSHIP: OCT. 2, 2007
Get caught up on last night’s episode of ‘Heroes’ with our in-depth recap!
By Wade Gum | Posted October 2, 2007 |
What’s the Excitement About?
In case you you just stepped off the space shuttle and missed last year’s television season, “Heroes” is NBC’s newest hit show masterminded by Tim Kring. The series follows ordinary people with extraordinary abilities and their attempts to sort out their lives and save the world.
Last season’s chief protagonist was Peter Petrelli, a male nurse who has the ability to absorb and retain the power of any other superpowered being he comes into contact with. He was relentlessly pursued by Sylar, a murderous villain who can also take powers, but only by killing other people who possess them. Throughout the season, Peter and his allies worked to prevent an apocalyptic vision in which New York was destroyed from coming true.
Hero Roll Call
Claire Bennet—The biological daughter of Nathan Petrelli. A cheerleader with the power to rapidly heal from injuries.
Noah Bennet—Adoptive father of Claire. Possesses no superpowers and once worked for the villainous Primatech Paper Co.
D.L. Hawkins—Husband of Niki and father of Micah, with the power to phase through solid objects.
Alejandro and Maya Herrera—A brother and sister from Central America. Maya has a deadly power and a disease that specifically kills superpowered individuals. Alejandro seems to have the ability to counteract his sister’s power.
Hiro Nakamura—Son of Kaito Nakamura. Has the ability to manipulate time.
Matt Parkman—NYPD officer with the ability to hear people’s thoughts.
Nathan Petrelli—Brother of Peter Petrelli. Former politician. Has the power of flight.
Peter Petrelli—Brother of Nathan Petrelli. Has the ability to absorb and retain powers.
Micah Sanders—Son of D.L. and Niki. He has the ability to “talk” to technological devices.
Niki Sanders—Wife of D.L. and mother of Micah, with an alternate personality that possesses super-strength.
Mohinder Suresh—A professor of genetics in search of superpowered individuals.
Sylar—The central villain of the show. His power is the ability to determine how things work. With this ability, he kills superpowered individuals and steals their abilities.
Molly Walker—A young girl with the ability to locate anyone in the world. Adopted by Matt Parkman.
Previously on ‘Heroes’
Last episode jumped ahead four months from the first season finale. The Petrellis are all in rough shape, as Nathan has become an alcoholic and stepped away from politics, Peter has developed amnesia and Angela is the next target of a murderous villain. The estranged member of the Petrelli family, Claire, is slowly adjusting to her new identity and life in California while her adoptive father works with Mohinder to bring down the Company.
Hiro is currently in 1671 and has mucked up history by interacting with legendary hero Takezo Kensei. Now he has to persuade Kensei to become the hero he was meant to be in order to repair time. Since he’s in the past, Hiro was not there to witness the murder of his father, Kaito, at the hands of a mysterious man. Not much is known about the murderer, other than he’s familiar with the old guard of superpowered individuals and haunts Molly Walker’s dreams.
The Recap—‘Lizards’
Claire Bennet—The biological daughter of Nathan Petrelli. A cheerleader with the power to rapidly heal from injuries.
Noah Bennet—Adoptive father of Claire. Possesses no superpowers and once worked for the villainous Primatech Paper Co.
D.L. Hawkins—Husband of Niki and father of Micah, with the power to phase through solid objects.
Alejandro and Maya Herrera—A brother and sister from Central America. Maya has a deadly power and a disease that specifically kills superpowered individuals. Alejandro seems to have the ability to counteract his sister’s power.
Hiro Nakamura—Son of Kaito Nakamura. Has the ability to manipulate time.
Matt Parkman—NYPD officer with the ability to hear people’s thoughts.
Nathan Petrelli—Brother of Peter Petrelli. Former politician. Has the power of flight.
Peter Petrelli—Brother of Nathan Petrelli. Has the ability to absorb and retain powers.
Micah Sanders—Son of D.L. and Niki. He has the ability to “talk” to technological devices.
Niki Sanders—Wife of D.L. and mother of Micah, with an alternate personality that possesses super-strength.
Mohinder Suresh—A professor of genetics in search of superpowered individuals.
Sylar—The central villain of the show. His power is the ability to determine how things work. With this ability, he kills superpowered individuals and steals their abilities.
Molly Walker—A young girl with the ability to locate anyone in the world. Adopted by Matt Parkman.
Previously on ‘Heroes’
Last episode jumped ahead four months from the first season finale. The Petrellis are all in rough shape, as Nathan has become an alcoholic and stepped away from politics, Peter has developed amnesia and Angela is the next target of a murderous villain. The estranged member of the Petrelli family, Claire, is slowly adjusting to her new identity and life in California while her adoptive father works with Mohinder to bring down the Company.
Hiro is currently in 1671 and has mucked up history by interacting with legendary hero Takezo Kensei. Now he has to persuade Kensei to become the hero he was meant to be in order to repair time. Since he’s in the past, Hiro was not there to witness the murder of his father, Kaito, at the hands of a mysterious man. Not much is known about the murderer, other than he’s familiar with the old guard of superpowered individuals and haunts Molly Walker’s dreams.
The Recap—‘Lizards’
The amnesiac Peter Petrelli accidentally used his powers last week when he was found inside a shipping container. The smugglers looking for iPods in that crate weren’t very happy to find him, so they dragged him back to their pub and strapped him to a chair, giving him a “Reservoir Dogs”-style beating. They don’t go so far as to cut off his ear, but it wouldn’t do much good even if they did. The Irish thugs are pretty shocked to discover that all of Peter’s wounds heal themselves.After observing Peter’s powers, the Irish thugs make him an offer he can’t refuse. They claim to have a box that holds the key to his identity. If he helps them with their shady criminal dealings, they’ll give him the valuable information and possibly let him go. Peter has the necessary powers to leave anyways, but the information is quite the temptation.
Back in California, Claire is still whining about having to play things cool. She continues to pursue her relationship with West, who definitely knows about her powers. Ultimately, West leaves her a few published findings by Mohinder to read upon. What a way to win a woman’s heart—give her academic papers.
Meanwhile, Claire’s adoptive father Noah seemed to have an inkling that Kaito was going to be murdered, mainly because he had proof it was going to happen. He shows his wife a painting by Isaac that predicted Kaito’s death. There are seven more paintings, but Noah doesn’t have them and pledges that he will collect them all like Pokémon. As for Mohinder, he visits the Haitian and cures him of the mysterious disease that affects superpowered individuals. Of course, the Haitian can’t leave Mohinder with any memory of success and erases his brain. What a jerk.Back on the old familiar roof in New York, Parkman investigates Kaito’s death. Parkman feigns ignorance about the mystery villain’s sigil, even though he’s seen it many times in Molly’s drawings. According to Ando, the sigil is kanji and means “great ability.” Incidentally, the kanji is also the crest of the legendary hero Takezo Kensei.
Speaking of Kensei, Hiro is still in 1671 and trying to help him save the day. The white man is much too drunk to fulfill his destiny and become a hero, so Hiro is forced to wear his armor and pretend to be the legendary warrior. In his warrior disguise, Hiro gets the swordsmith’s daughter to warm up to him and believe that he’ll save the day. After a lot of convincing and sobering up, Hiro finally persuades the real Kensei to accept his destiny and become a hero. Unfortunately, this change of character results in Kensei getting shot in the chest with a lot of arrows. Fortunately, Kensei possesses a superpower and heals from his wounds. Who would have predicted such a thing? Probably all the people who watched the preview last week.
"HEROES" HIGHLIGHTS
BEST GROSS-OUT: CLAIRE'S TOE
After learning in biology class that her pinky toe is useless, a bored and curious Claire puts her regenerative powers to the test, cutting off the littlest lil' piggy with a pair of scissors--only to have it grow back good as new. Hey, where'd the old toe go, anyway? Whatcha got there, Mr. Muggles...? —Associate Editor Eric Moya
COOLEST SHOUT-OUT: X-FILESWhether it was intentional or not, I was reminded of the “black oil” from “The X-Files” when we first see Maya’s power manifest itself. She bleeds black ooze from her eyes and effectively kills all those around her, but her brother acts like a sort of dampener and is able to reverse the effect. —Editorial Director Mel Caylo
MYSTERY OF THE WEEK: WHO ATTACKED MRS. PETRELLI?
Who could sneak into a police station unseen and nearly rip Angela Petrelli’s throat out? Who would want to? Well, wasn’t there a British chap last season that could turn invisible and also had an axe to grind with the Company, with whom Angela was associated? Hmm…—Staff Writer Ben Morse
POWER-PACKED AWARD: PETER
Apparently, the formerly emo-haired hero Peter Petrelli no longer borrows the powers of folks he’s met. Now he just gets to rock all day with a crazy new set of powers whose hero equivalent we’ve yet to meet. Just for the record, here are the powers the amnesiac lead has revealed so far: lighting hands, Kitty Pryde-esque phasing, Wolverine-like healing factor, telekinesis, maybe super strength? (We’re not sure how exactly he threw that thug across the bar.) —Staff Writer Kiel Phegley
CONTINUITY CHECK: DON’T I KNOW YOU FROM SOMEWHERE…?
Hey Ando, remember that time you and Hiro went to the future and that psycho cop Parkman kidnapped your buddy and tried to kill you both? He’s standing right next to you!! Asking you questions!!! Ahhh!!!! —Staff Writer Ben Morse
HAPPY IT DIDN'T GET THE AXE: TIM SALE'S PAINTINGSIt seems late artist Isaac Mendez left more paintings, likely showing the deaths of the remaining conspirators. Did Linderman buy them, or does some other art aficionado have the answer to who might be carrying out the murders? —Associate Editor Eric Moya
CLIFFHANGER RATING: 7
Writer Michael Green spread the famous cliffhanger love in this week’s episode with more than a few twists at the end, but the best last-minute plot turns came moments apart on screen and hundreds of years apart in time. First, we get the revelation that Hiro’s feudal samurai hero Kensei has been granted an ability way back in the way back as he miraculously heals from multiple fatal arrow wounds. If that head-scratcher wasn’t enough to keep us coming back next week, the episode’s true ending hit with gusto as a traditionally gruesome Claire moment (this time the nipping off of her pinky toe to see if it grows back) was broken up by the surprise image of West hanging outside the Bennett home window. Poor little pervert–we’re pretty sure that freaky growth was not what he was hoping to see when he went all Peeping Tom on Claire. —Staff Writer Kiel Phegley
NEXT TIME ON ‘HEROES’
Peter, desperate to learn about his identity, helps his criminal captors in a caper in order to learn the contents of the box. Sylar recuperates on a fancy beach and most likely resumes his evil activity, Niki and Micah decide to hit the road and Noah resorts to desperate measures in order to protect Claire from exposing her powers.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Shedding light on "The Dark Knight"
Even though I'm not really a DC buff, preferring the Marvel universe by leaps and bounds, I still do enjoy all things comicky, even if it means dipping my feet into the waters of the DC Universe.
Don't get me wrong though, it's not like I completely abhor DC characters and the world they live in. I just PREFER Marvel in general. Heck, some of my favourite stories of all time (and comics I might add) are from DC! Preacher, Watchmen, Alan Moore's ABC line of books...though technically Preacher was a Vertigo title (a mature readers line of DC books), the ABC line was an off-shoot of Wildstorm, which had been bought over by DC, and Watchmen, while published by DC, didn't contain any of the notable characters from the regular DC universe.
But I DO have some favourite stuff published in the mainstream DC universe though. Titles like Alex Ross' Kingdom Come, Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis, all the big books drawn by Alex Ross like Superman: Peace on Earth et al, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman: The Long Halloween, Frank Miller's Batman: Year One...just to name a few. So once again, it's not like I eschew DC Comics altogether...I'm just more of a Marvel guy.
Anyway, the one thing that I'm ALWAYS excited about, regardless of which company or organisation is movies that are based on comic book properties! I just love comic book movies whether they're superb (X-Men 2, Hellboy, Batman Begins), mediocre (Daredevil, Punisher, Superman Returns) or just plain bad (Batman and Robin). And there are a whole bunch of comic book movies coming out in the next year...they did a great job on Batman Begins, so I'm anxiously waiting for The Dark Knight!
SHEDDING LIGHT ON ‘THE DARK KNIGHT’
Get the first word on Heath Ledger as the Joker, the return of Two-Face and the early footage broken down frame-by-frame
“If it was up to me, you wouldn’t see anything until the movie came out,” said “Dark Knight” director Christopher Nolan without any hint of apology. As he introduced a super-secret clip of the film to 1,200 screaming fans at Wizard World Chicago during an exclusive “Dark Knight” panel, Nolan made sure the audience knew just how special the viewing was. Considering Nolan went to great lengths to keep the film protected from prying, spoiler-hungry eyes (the production was once codenamed “Rory’s First Kiss” to lessen attention), it was clear Nolan wasn’t comfortable exhibiting an unfinished product.
“Please be kind,” added the anxious director as security guards crept into the aisles with infrared night-vision gear to catch attendees attempting to record the footage. “This is a rough, rough cut.”
What followed, despite only shooting for nearly four months in Chicago, was about two minutes of pure Bat-fan-gasm, filled with plenty of Heath Ledger’s Joker, tons of action and the world’s first glimpse at the film’s other villain—Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face.
The director has every right to be secretive. The sequel to 2005’s “Batman Begins” doesn’t open until July 18, 2008, after all. Plus, if it weren’t for Nolan’s fresh, practical, cinematic approach to the Bat-mythos, the world’s last memories of a big-screen Bruce Wayne would’ve been lost in a sea of Bat-nipples thanks to a sputtered-out ’90s franchise. He’s earned the right to dictate what people see and when.
But it’s time to lift that leathery cowl and explore the elements of “The Dark Knight” that will make it DC Comics’ biggest blockbuster yet.
JOKER’S WILD
Moments before “Batman Begins” ended, Jim Gordon (played by Gary Oldman) approached Christian Bale’s Batman about a new thug in town, and in every theater across the land, the flashing of the joker playing card sent movie-goers into unbridled fits of hoots and hollers.
“We found a way of looking at the character and saw what role he could play in the film,” explained Nolan. “The joker card at the end of the first film created the right kind of feeling. That was the hook that got us thinking about the next one.”
Nolan’s writing partner (and younger brother) Jonah pointed the director toward the Joker’s first two comic book stories, both of which took place in 1940’s Batman #1. “We’ve come around to something that’s eerily close to those first two appearances,” revealed the director.
In the issue, the Joker appears as a grinning mastermind who predicts his murderous crimes over the radio before meticulously carrying them out. Each cold-blooded, calculated killing ultimately ends with the victim’s face frozen into a solid, monstrous grin. If the film version follows closely, as the writers have said it will, expect plenty of chilling death scenes.
“Once we established ‘Batman Begins,’ it was one take on Batman,” explained screenwriter David S. Goyer. “We had to decide, ‘How does the Joker fit in this world?’”
Part of that problem was solved when actor Heath Ledger (“Brokeback Mountain”) joined the cast in July 2006. One of the premier actors of his generation, Ledger dove into the role with an understanding of what he didn’t want to convey in the film.
“I’m not going for the same thing [Jack Nicholson] went for,” Ledger said in interviews. “That would be stupid. Tim Burton did a more fantastical kind of thing and Chris Nolan is doing nitty-gritty handheld realism. I love what [Nicholson] did, and that is part of why I want to do that role. But it would obviously be murder if I tried to imitate what he did.”
“What Heath is doing,” Oldman triumphantly stated in Chicago, searching for the right words to finish his thought, “…he’s going to knock everyone out of the park.”
Oldman’s words came true moments later during the screened footage. Flashing between scenes of the Joker robbing a bank and taking a Batman-administered body-slam in a police station, the teaser hit its Joker crescendo when a tired, emotionless Joker steadily opened machine gun fire on Gotham. Empty, deranged and angry, this was the Joker the audience was waiting for, and their wall-shaking screams confirmed it.
But it was the unexpected cameo of another villain that brought down the house.
TWO-FACE RETURNS
In “Batman Begins,” mob kingpin Carmine Falcone rules Gotham’s underground. When good guy District Attorney Carl Banks sticks his nose in Falcone’s business, he finds himself on the receiving end of a gangland shooting. Fast-forward shortly afterwards and Harvey Dent arrives on the scene.
“Dark Knight” promotional art features Dent running for DA, and like his comic counterpart, he wins the election. Vowing to clean up the city’s rampant crime rate, Dent takes a no-nonsense, Eliot Ness stance and mows down the street scum at the court level behind Lt. Gordon’s growing arrest record. Of course, that justice crusade comes with a price.
While the exact details leading up to Dent’s disfigurement haven’t been made public, comic fans can tell you Dent suffered acid burns over half his face during a court case. The attack sent Dent into a psychotic fit, resulting in the birth of the unhinged Two-Face. As soon as Eckhart was announced as Dent in February 2007, fans wondered if the actor might pull double duty as Two-Face, too. The footage in Chicago, along with comments made by Eckhart in interviews, put those questions to bed.
In the final moments of the clip, as explosions and sightings of the Joker resonated in the brains of the audience, a half-dollar spins wildly onto a barroom table. Two-Face plops down in a bar stool on screen with his back to the camera.
A bartender timidly pours a shot while staring up at Two-Face, crimson-maroon scar tissue running down the left side of the villain’s neck below slightly discolored hair. “Dent?” the jarred man screams in disbelief. “I thought you were dead!”
Then Two-Face speaks for the first time, saying only one word with a gravel-filled but glib voice: “Half.”
“Batman is a complex character, and Two-Face comes a little bit from the same world,” Eckhart explained in interviews. “I’m looking for the tension between the two, the similarities between the two. I want to find what’s similar to Batman and then find what’s opposite to him.”
BAT-PLOT
The title “The Dark Knight” provides a bigger clue to the movie’s plot than you might think. Just like “Batman Begins” explored the beginnings of Batman, “Dark Knight” looks to explore the Caped Crusader’s full-on immersion into protecting Gotham from its own shadows.
“‘Batman Begins’ was an origin story, and the important thing was to move the story forward,” described Nolan of the first film’s themes. “In [‘Dark Knight’], the detective [elements] will help move the story along.”
Reports indicate “Dark Knight” takes place shortly after the end of “Batman Begins” with Gordon still trying to clean up the Gotham streets after his promotion to lieutenant, Bruce Wayne rebuilding his family home with trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) and Batman refining his crimefighting methods when new baddies hit town.
After Bats took down Falcone in the last film, a criminal power vacuum sucks countless thugs and gangsters into Gotham with plans to control the city. This, of course, summons plenty of the eccentric villains Gotham is known for, and as more and more fill the streets, Batman, Gordon and Dent scramble to keep the peace. The influx of new bad guys also pushes Bats to develop new gadgets, including a streamlined bodysuit complete with projectile glove blades and a “Batpod” motorbike packing grappling hooks, cannons and machine guns.
Meanwhile, according to the teaser trailers, the lower criminals start to side with a single leader in desperation as the mobsters begin picking each other off. In the clip, Bruce Wayne and Alfred discuss the crime wave before Alfred lays the situation out on the line.
“You hammered them, and in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand,” he says, referring to the Joker. “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
The Chicago footage echoed that sentiment as scenes of Gotham cars and buildings literally on fire littered the clip, proving the power struggle mutates into a gang war at one point. As for Joker plot specifics, Ledger points to one comic in particular.
“The Killing Joke was the one that was handed to me,” admitted the actor in interviews. “I guess that book explains a little bit of where [the Joker’s] from, but not too much.”
The Killing Joke, written by Alan Moore with art by Brian Bolland, explores the origins of the man who would become the Joker—a loser comedian caught up in a crime and then accidentally disfigured after his wife and baby die in an unconnected mishap. And even if the details are different, a similar, sympathetic glimpse into the slow, tortured birth of the Joker may be present in “Dark Knight.”
LAW AND LOVE
Aside from the fact that “Dark Knight” marks the first time a Batman film hasn’t featured the hero’s name in the title, it’s also the first film to feature a returning love interest for the character—kinda.
In “Batman Begins,” Katie Holmes played Bruce Wayne’s childhood friend Rachel Dawes, who becomes Gotham’s assistant DA. Later in the film, Dawes and Wayne begin sharing a slim romantic link after she discovers he’s Batman.
In January 2007, reports of Holmes leaving the cast surfaced. Her reps revealed the actress had joined the cast of “Mad Money,” a buddy film with Queen Latifah and Diane Keaton with a conflicting shooting schedule that would keep her from appearing in both films. In March 2007, Maggie Gyllenhaal (“Stranger Than Fiction”) was announced as her replacement.
“I’m not thinking of it as a role that anyone’s played before,” related Gyllenhaal to sources. “I’m not walking into Katie Holmes’ performance. I’m thinking of it as an opportunity to play somebody who’s alive and smart. Chris asked me to do this because he wanted me, not because he wants some generic lady in a dress.
“Doing Batman has shocked me at every turn,” noted the actress. “When I started, I thought, ‘Well, it’s a huge movie, I’ll just do my best to put what I can into it.’ But, in fact, they’ve been really hungry for my ideas.”
In “Dark Knight,” expect Dawes and Dent to spend some quality time together as Dent takes over the DA’s office. A love triangle has even been hinted at involving Wayne, and the Chicago clip teased a freaky scene with the Joker holding a knife to Dawes’ shivering neck as he slowly spins her around a room.
But these aren’t the only new players in Gotham.
BAT-CAMEOS
Everyone knows about the major villains plowing through “Dark Knight,” but what about the surprising stars flying under the radar?
For starters, Eric Roberts, the Oscar-nominated actor who appeared in five episodes of NBC’s “Heroes” last season, plays Salvatore Maroni, a rising mob boss. In the comics, Maroni is responsible for scarring Harvey Dent’s face with acid, creating Dent’s Two-Face persona.
“Spawn” star Michael Jai White beat out hulking rapper David Banner among others for the role of Gamble, a new mobster who bumps heads with Maroni and other mob elements.
But not just ordinary underworld figures are set to appear. Early spy reports from the “Dark Knight” set in downtown Chicago surmised that the Scarecrow would pop up in the film. Amateur video caught a man in a brown hood and suit (the costume worn by actor Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow in the first film) backed by a gang and arguing with another group of people during a scene in a parking garage. The report jells with the plot, as it would make sense for Scarecrow to make a play for the Gotham underworld.
Murphy wouldn’t comment when approached about the report, but did tell sources just after “Batman Begins” bowed that he was signed to do more than one Bat-film. He’s not the only speculated super-cameo, though.
Anthony Michael Hall (“The Dead Zone”) told sources in May 2007 he’d also joined the cast, but couldn’t specify his role.
“I signed a confidentiality agreement, and I can’t say which part I’m playing because it affects the story,” said the actor. “I can’t give away the suspense. It’s a $200 million surprise, and I don’t want to be the guy to ruin it.”
Online gossip pegged Hall’s expensive secret as the Riddler, a Batman foe obsessed with puzzles. Other reports indicate Hall plays a Gotham journalist obsessed with Bruce Wayne. Whatever the secret is, it’s not a stretch to imagine comic book Easter eggs hidden all over the film. After Arkham Asylum, home to many Gotham villains, was partially destroyed in “Batman Begins,” don’t be surprised to see more Bat-rogues lining up for a slice of the crime spree pie in “Dark Knight” or even a possible third movie.
“The script leaves room for a very interesting follow-up,” Bale admitted to sources. “I think we could take it somewhere else.”
As long as the secretive Nolan’s onboard, expect that somewhere else to be the top of the box-office charts.
The thing I'm looking forward to the most about the movie? Seeing Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. He just looks perfect and was born to play the charismatic district attorney who will eventually become one of Batman's greatest nemesis: Two-Face.
Don't get me wrong though, it's not like I completely abhor DC characters and the world they live in. I just PREFER Marvel in general. Heck, some of my favourite stories of all time (and comics I might add) are from DC! Preacher, Watchmen, Alan Moore's ABC line of books...though technically Preacher was a Vertigo title (a mature readers line of DC books), the ABC line was an off-shoot of Wildstorm, which had been bought over by DC, and Watchmen, while published by DC, didn't contain any of the notable characters from the regular DC universe.
But I DO have some favourite stuff published in the mainstream DC universe though. Titles like Alex Ross' Kingdom Come, Brad Meltzer's Identity Crisis, all the big books drawn by Alex Ross like Superman: Peace on Earth et al, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman: The Long Halloween, Frank Miller's Batman: Year One...just to name a few. So once again, it's not like I eschew DC Comics altogether...I'm just more of a Marvel guy.
Anyway, the one thing that I'm ALWAYS excited about, regardless of which company or organisation is movies that are based on comic book properties! I just love comic book movies whether they're superb (X-Men 2, Hellboy, Batman Begins), mediocre (Daredevil, Punisher, Superman Returns) or just plain bad (Batman and Robin). And there are a whole bunch of comic book movies coming out in the next year...they did a great job on Batman Begins, so I'm anxiously waiting for The Dark Knight!
SHEDDING LIGHT ON ‘THE DARK KNIGHT’
Get the first word on Heath Ledger as the Joker, the return of Two-Face and the early footage broken down frame-by-frame
By Rickey Purdin | Posted October 1, 2007 9:50 AM |
“If it was up to me, you wouldn’t see anything until the movie came out,” said “Dark Knight” director Christopher Nolan without any hint of apology. As he introduced a super-secret clip of the film to 1,200 screaming fans at Wizard World Chicago during an exclusive “Dark Knight” panel, Nolan made sure the audience knew just how special the viewing was. Considering Nolan went to great lengths to keep the film protected from prying, spoiler-hungry eyes (the production was once codenamed “Rory’s First Kiss” to lessen attention), it was clear Nolan wasn’t comfortable exhibiting an unfinished product.
“Please be kind,” added the anxious director as security guards crept into the aisles with infrared night-vision gear to catch attendees attempting to record the footage. “This is a rough, rough cut.”What followed, despite only shooting for nearly four months in Chicago, was about two minutes of pure Bat-fan-gasm, filled with plenty of Heath Ledger’s Joker, tons of action and the world’s first glimpse at the film’s other villain—Aaron Eckhart as Two-Face.
The director has every right to be secretive. The sequel to 2005’s “Batman Begins” doesn’t open until July 18, 2008, after all. Plus, if it weren’t for Nolan’s fresh, practical, cinematic approach to the Bat-mythos, the world’s last memories of a big-screen Bruce Wayne would’ve been lost in a sea of Bat-nipples thanks to a sputtered-out ’90s franchise. He’s earned the right to dictate what people see and when.
But it’s time to lift that leathery cowl and explore the elements of “The Dark Knight” that will make it DC Comics’ biggest blockbuster yet.
JOKER’S WILD
Moments before “Batman Begins” ended, Jim Gordon (played by Gary Oldman) approached Christian Bale’s Batman about a new thug in town, and in every theater across the land, the flashing of the joker playing card sent movie-goers into unbridled fits of hoots and hollers.
“We found a way of looking at the character and saw what role he could play in the film,” explained Nolan. “The joker card at the end of the first film created the right kind of feeling. That was the hook that got us thinking about the next one.”Nolan’s writing partner (and younger brother) Jonah pointed the director toward the Joker’s first two comic book stories, both of which took place in 1940’s Batman #1. “We’ve come around to something that’s eerily close to those first two appearances,” revealed the director.
In the issue, the Joker appears as a grinning mastermind who predicts his murderous crimes over the radio before meticulously carrying them out. Each cold-blooded, calculated killing ultimately ends with the victim’s face frozen into a solid, monstrous grin. If the film version follows closely, as the writers have said it will, expect plenty of chilling death scenes.
“Once we established ‘Batman Begins,’ it was one take on Batman,” explained screenwriter David S. Goyer. “We had to decide, ‘How does the Joker fit in this world?’”
Part of that problem was solved when actor Heath Ledger (“Brokeback Mountain”) joined the cast in July 2006. One of the premier actors of his generation, Ledger dove into the role with an understanding of what he didn’t want to convey in the film.
“I’m not going for the same thing [Jack Nicholson] went for,” Ledger said in interviews. “That would be stupid. Tim Burton did a more fantastical kind of thing and Chris Nolan is doing nitty-gritty handheld realism. I love what [Nicholson] did, and that is part of why I want to do that role. But it would obviously be murder if I tried to imitate what he did.”
“What Heath is doing,” Oldman triumphantly stated in Chicago, searching for the right words to finish his thought, “…he’s going to knock everyone out of the park.”
Oldman’s words came true moments later during the screened footage. Flashing between scenes of the Joker robbing a bank and taking a Batman-administered body-slam in a police station, the teaser hit its Joker crescendo when a tired, emotionless Joker steadily opened machine gun fire on Gotham. Empty, deranged and angry, this was the Joker the audience was waiting for, and their wall-shaking screams confirmed it.
But it was the unexpected cameo of another villain that brought down the house.
TWO-FACE RETURNSIn “Batman Begins,” mob kingpin Carmine Falcone rules Gotham’s underground. When good guy District Attorney Carl Banks sticks his nose in Falcone’s business, he finds himself on the receiving end of a gangland shooting. Fast-forward shortly afterwards and Harvey Dent arrives on the scene.
“Dark Knight” promotional art features Dent running for DA, and like his comic counterpart, he wins the election. Vowing to clean up the city’s rampant crime rate, Dent takes a no-nonsense, Eliot Ness stance and mows down the street scum at the court level behind Lt. Gordon’s growing arrest record. Of course, that justice crusade comes with a price.
While the exact details leading up to Dent’s disfigurement haven’t been made public, comic fans can tell you Dent suffered acid burns over half his face during a court case. The attack sent Dent into a psychotic fit, resulting in the birth of the unhinged Two-Face. As soon as Eckhart was announced as Dent in February 2007, fans wondered if the actor might pull double duty as Two-Face, too. The footage in Chicago, along with comments made by Eckhart in interviews, put those questions to bed.
In the final moments of the clip, as explosions and sightings of the Joker resonated in the brains of the audience, a half-dollar spins wildly onto a barroom table. Two-Face plops down in a bar stool on screen with his back to the camera.
A bartender timidly pours a shot while staring up at Two-Face, crimson-maroon scar tissue running down the left side of the villain’s neck below slightly discolored hair. “Dent?” the jarred man screams in disbelief. “I thought you were dead!”
Then Two-Face speaks for the first time, saying only one word with a gravel-filled but glib voice: “Half.”
“Batman is a complex character, and Two-Face comes a little bit from the same world,” Eckhart explained in interviews. “I’m looking for the tension between the two, the similarities between the two. I want to find what’s similar to Batman and then find what’s opposite to him.”
BAT-PLOTThe title “The Dark Knight” provides a bigger clue to the movie’s plot than you might think. Just like “Batman Begins” explored the beginnings of Batman, “Dark Knight” looks to explore the Caped Crusader’s full-on immersion into protecting Gotham from its own shadows.
“‘Batman Begins’ was an origin story, and the important thing was to move the story forward,” described Nolan of the first film’s themes. “In [‘Dark Knight’], the detective [elements] will help move the story along.”
Reports indicate “Dark Knight” takes place shortly after the end of “Batman Begins” with Gordon still trying to clean up the Gotham streets after his promotion to lieutenant, Bruce Wayne rebuilding his family home with trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) and Batman refining his crimefighting methods when new baddies hit town.
After Bats took down Falcone in the last film, a criminal power vacuum sucks countless thugs and gangsters into Gotham with plans to control the city. This, of course, summons plenty of the eccentric villains Gotham is known for, and as more and more fill the streets, Batman, Gordon and Dent scramble to keep the peace. The influx of new bad guys also pushes Bats to develop new gadgets, including a streamlined bodysuit complete with projectile glove blades and a “Batpod” motorbike packing grappling hooks, cannons and machine guns.
Meanwhile, according to the teaser trailers, the lower criminals start to side with a single leader in desperation as the mobsters begin picking each other off. In the clip, Bruce Wayne and Alfred discuss the crime wave before Alfred lays the situation out on the line.
“You hammered them, and in their desperation, they turned to a man they didn’t fully understand,” he says, referring to the Joker. “Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
The Chicago footage echoed that sentiment as scenes of Gotham cars and buildings literally on fire littered the clip, proving the power struggle mutates into a gang war at one point. As for Joker plot specifics, Ledger points to one comic in particular.
“The Killing Joke was the one that was handed to me,” admitted the actor in interviews. “I guess that book explains a little bit of where [the Joker’s] from, but not too much.”
The Killing Joke, written by Alan Moore with art by Brian Bolland, explores the origins of the man who would become the Joker—a loser comedian caught up in a crime and then accidentally disfigured after his wife and baby die in an unconnected mishap. And even if the details are different, a similar, sympathetic glimpse into the slow, tortured birth of the Joker may be present in “Dark Knight.”
LAW AND LOVEAside from the fact that “Dark Knight” marks the first time a Batman film hasn’t featured the hero’s name in the title, it’s also the first film to feature a returning love interest for the character—kinda.
In “Batman Begins,” Katie Holmes played Bruce Wayne’s childhood friend Rachel Dawes, who becomes Gotham’s assistant DA. Later in the film, Dawes and Wayne begin sharing a slim romantic link after she discovers he’s Batman.
In January 2007, reports of Holmes leaving the cast surfaced. Her reps revealed the actress had joined the cast of “Mad Money,” a buddy film with Queen Latifah and Diane Keaton with a conflicting shooting schedule that would keep her from appearing in both films. In March 2007, Maggie Gyllenhaal (“Stranger Than Fiction”) was announced as her replacement.
“I’m not thinking of it as a role that anyone’s played before,” related Gyllenhaal to sources. “I’m not walking into Katie Holmes’ performance. I’m thinking of it as an opportunity to play somebody who’s alive and smart. Chris asked me to do this because he wanted me, not because he wants some generic lady in a dress.
“Doing Batman has shocked me at every turn,” noted the actress. “When I started, I thought, ‘Well, it’s a huge movie, I’ll just do my best to put what I can into it.’ But, in fact, they’ve been really hungry for my ideas.”
In “Dark Knight,” expect Dawes and Dent to spend some quality time together as Dent takes over the DA’s office. A love triangle has even been hinted at involving Wayne, and the Chicago clip teased a freaky scene with the Joker holding a knife to Dawes’ shivering neck as he slowly spins her around a room.
But these aren’t the only new players in Gotham.
BAT-CAMEOSEveryone knows about the major villains plowing through “Dark Knight,” but what about the surprising stars flying under the radar?
For starters, Eric Roberts, the Oscar-nominated actor who appeared in five episodes of NBC’s “Heroes” last season, plays Salvatore Maroni, a rising mob boss. In the comics, Maroni is responsible for scarring Harvey Dent’s face with acid, creating Dent’s Two-Face persona.
“Spawn” star Michael Jai White beat out hulking rapper David Banner among others for the role of Gamble, a new mobster who bumps heads with Maroni and other mob elements.
But not just ordinary underworld figures are set to appear. Early spy reports from the “Dark Knight” set in downtown Chicago surmised that the Scarecrow would pop up in the film. Amateur video caught a man in a brown hood and suit (the costume worn by actor Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow in the first film) backed by a gang and arguing with another group of people during a scene in a parking garage. The report jells with the plot, as it would make sense for Scarecrow to make a play for the Gotham underworld.
Murphy wouldn’t comment when approached about the report, but did tell sources just after “Batman Begins” bowed that he was signed to do more than one Bat-film. He’s not the only speculated super-cameo, though.
Anthony Michael Hall (“The Dead Zone”) told sources in May 2007 he’d also joined the cast, but couldn’t specify his role.
“I signed a confidentiality agreement, and I can’t say which part I’m playing because it affects the story,” said the actor. “I can’t give away the suspense. It’s a $200 million surprise, and I don’t want to be the guy to ruin it.”
Online gossip pegged Hall’s expensive secret as the Riddler, a Batman foe obsessed with puzzles. Other reports indicate Hall plays a Gotham journalist obsessed with Bruce Wayne. Whatever the secret is, it’s not a stretch to imagine comic book Easter eggs hidden all over the film. After Arkham Asylum, home to many Gotham villains, was partially destroyed in “Batman Begins,” don’t be surprised to see more Bat-rogues lining up for a slice of the crime spree pie in “Dark Knight” or even a possible third movie.
“The script leaves room for a very interesting follow-up,” Bale admitted to sources. “I think we could take it somewhere else.”
As long as the secretive Nolan’s onboard, expect that somewhere else to be the top of the box-office charts.
The thing I'm looking forward to the most about the movie? Seeing Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. He just looks perfect and was born to play the charismatic district attorney who will eventually become one of Batman's greatest nemesis: Two-Face.
Monday, October 1, 2007
One of my favourite comics: Preacher
I've been reading Preacher again since I've been trying to assemble my Preacher collection of TPBs in Australia (I've got the set at home, but this series is WAY too good that it'd be worth collecting a second set here in Oz!). Have every TPB with the exception of Vol.8 and that one's already been placed on order for me at Classic Comics.
Preacher is just simply, for the lack of a better word, awesome. It's absolutely hilarious for one...not many people, save Garth Ennis, can make me chuckle out loud on the spot. It's depraved, it's wicked, it's black humour at its finest. It's a cocktail mix of sex, violence, religion, world events, history, commentary on social culture...take all those elements, shake them up and add a touch of pathos...and you have one of the most brilliant series I have ever read.
It's not for the faint of heart though. If you're a deeply religious person who's way too serious about faith and can't step outside what's taught to you in Sunday School every week, then Preacher is definitely not for you. But if you're pretty open to suggestion and can enjoy a laugh at the lighter (and alternative and darker) side of Christianity, then by all means, you'll find Preacher not just really fun to read, but also makes you think that much harder about your religion and even allows you to take a look at it from another side.
Preacher, while sounding very much like some sort of religion-based book, is anything but. Yes, the story has its roots firmly entrenched in Christianity, but it's not a preachy book by any means. It's the story of love and friendship and how one man decides he's not going to take any bullshit from anyone else and seeks to set everything right with the world. That's not quite the exact plot, but to say anything more specific would just give the plot away...and Preacher is high on surprises and cliffhanger endings.
There are several endearing characters in the Preacher mythos though. Would you like to meet a teenager with the face of an arse? What about an Irish hard-drinking, no bullshit-taking, I-can-kick-your-balls-into-the-stratosphere vampire? Or a German ex-special forces operative who's bald head resembles that of a giant penis? Then there are other crazy characters, like the Kingpin-sized Allfather D'aronique, who's the leader of the organisation which controls the world from the shadows. Allfather D'aronique eats and eats and eats and needs a forklift to move him around...but he's BULIMIC! Then there's the Saint of Killers, a nasty sumbitch who's pretty much untouchable, and he wreaks the Lord's vengeance upon those who need to be smited.
Classic characters, a brilliant storyline and so much humour and intensity packed in within the pages. Everyone knows how much I love Alan Moore's stuff, especially his ABC comics work like Top Ten and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...but believe me, I love Preacher even MORE.
Get it today! Or at least buy the first TPB and read it and see what the fuss is all about. You'll be pleasantly surprised that you took up this recommendation!
Preacher is just simply, for the lack of a better word, awesome. It's absolutely hilarious for one...not many people, save Garth Ennis, can make me chuckle out loud on the spot. It's depraved, it's wicked, it's black humour at its finest. It's a cocktail mix of sex, violence, religion, world events, history, commentary on social culture...take all those elements, shake them up and add a touch of pathos...and you have one of the most brilliant series I have ever read.
It's not for the faint of heart though. If you're a deeply religious person who's way too serious about faith and can't step outside what's taught to you in Sunday School every week, then Preacher is definitely not for you. But if you're pretty open to suggestion and can enjoy a laugh at the lighter (and alternative and darker) side of Christianity, then by all means, you'll find Preacher not just really fun to read, but also makes you think that much harder about your religion and even allows you to take a look at it from another side.
Preacher, while sounding very much like some sort of religion-based book, is anything but. Yes, the story has its roots firmly entrenched in Christianity, but it's not a preachy book by any means. It's the story of love and friendship and how one man decides he's not going to take any bullshit from anyone else and seeks to set everything right with the world. That's not quite the exact plot, but to say anything more specific would just give the plot away...and Preacher is high on surprises and cliffhanger endings.
There are several endearing characters in the Preacher mythos though. Would you like to meet a teenager with the face of an arse? What about an Irish hard-drinking, no bullshit-taking, I-can-kick-your-balls-into-the-stratosphere vampire? Or a German ex-special forces operative who's bald head resembles that of a giant penis? Then there are other crazy characters, like the Kingpin-sized Allfather D'aronique, who's the leader of the organisation which controls the world from the shadows. Allfather D'aronique eats and eats and eats and needs a forklift to move him around...but he's BULIMIC! Then there's the Saint of Killers, a nasty sumbitch who's pretty much untouchable, and he wreaks the Lord's vengeance upon those who need to be smited.
Classic characters, a brilliant storyline and so much humour and intensity packed in within the pages. Everyone knows how much I love Alan Moore's stuff, especially his ABC comics work like Top Ten and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...but believe me, I love Preacher even MORE.
Get it today! Or at least buy the first TPB and read it and see what the fuss is all about. You'll be pleasantly surprised that you took up this recommendation!
Alex Ross talks about Captain America and Kingdom Come
The latest Alex Ross interview from Wizard Universe:
CAP IS BACK!
…or is he? Ross dishes on Avengers/Invaders and his return to Kingdom Come in ‘JSA’
WIZARD: When Avengers/Invaders was unveiled the initial reaction was that the real Captain America was coming back, but obviously that’s not the case.
ROSS: It was all just a big tease that was entirely my fault. I had this last-minute idea of a teaser illustration of Cap with a “hinting” of the other silhouetted Invaders figures, but focusing on the idea of Cap and the word “Return” in a dramatic haunting. And everybody bit into it. We loved the idea of teasing people for a short time that this was actually the return of Steve Rogers. Not a dream, not a hoax. But of course it would turn out to be, “Oh, it’s time travel and that’s him from the past!” Does that make it unsatisfying? I don’t know. Hopefully it makes it interesting for people just to see where it goes.
Did you even know back then that Captain America would be dead by this point?
No, I didn’t know that Cap was dead until he was dead. I heard a hint of somebody asking me about it, like, a couple of weeks before. “Did you hear about this whole thing that they’re gonna kill Cap?” And I thought, “No, they’re not gonna do that!” And then...bada bing!
Which characters are definitely coming back when this comes out in February?
The original five Invaders, who, technically, were the only ones who actually existed in the ’40s: Captain America, Bucky, Human Torch, Toro and Sub-Mariner. Characters like Union Jack and Spitfire will appear in the series but they actually didn’t exist until the 1970s.
Will the two Buckys interact with each other?
Well, that’s something I’d like to see.
“... He said, coyly.”
[Laughs] That’s enough of a tease, right? After all, it’s not like I can say “He’s gonna meet him in issue #4 and they’re gonna go out and have scones.”
I love cinnamon scones. What about you?
It’s the breakfast of champions.
I think that’s Wheaties, actually. On a more serious note, can you comment on your affinity for characters from the ’40s?
I was always intrigued with these characters from a bygone age that by comparison with a modern art style seemed more like cave paintings. When you look at the earliest style of art given to characters like Superman and so many others, it’s a bizarre origin that was absolutely entrancing to me as a young boy.
Do you ever play, like, big band music to get yourself into the ’40s mode?
No, not at all.
So what type of music do you listen to then?
Uh, Queen doesn’t sound very ’40s-ish, do they? But I do like them as well as the Beatles, the Monkees and Badfinger.
You’re co-plotting Justice Society of America, but whose idea was it to bring in the Kingdom Come Superman?
That was mine. The thing that I miss about the Justice Society that I loved when I was a kid is the fact that they had an older Superman in the group. That was something that was really cool. Not just the idea that he was the first Superman but that here you have him as truly the patriarchal hero. And I made the recommendation that instead of the Earth-2 Superman who I had no idea was going to be revived in Infinite Crisis—
Geoff Johns didn’t tell you?
He did not tell me, no, because he is a sly bastard. [Laughs] I said we—he—should take the Kingdom Come Superman from that story, and then I immediately concocted a way in which we could do this. He’s taken from the middle of the story before the end of Kingdom Come when he’s still wearing the costume and everything.
How does that happen?
I can say that Starman is pivotally responsible for bringing him into the DC Universe.
How long will this Superman be hanging around?
We’ve yet to put a limit on that. I certainly wouldn’t have a grand objection to him being around a year or more. Then again, I don’t control Geoff. And he is a sly bastard. [Laughs]
CAP IS BACK!
…or is he? Ross dishes on Avengers/Invaders and his return to Kingdom Come in ‘JSA’
By Danny Spiegel | Posted September 30, 2007 10:40 AM |
WIZARD: When Avengers/Invaders was unveiled the initial reaction was that the real Captain America was coming back, but obviously that’s not the case.
ROSS: It was all just a big tease that was entirely my fault. I had this last-minute idea of a teaser illustration of Cap with a “hinting” of the other silhouetted Invaders figures, but focusing on the idea of Cap and the word “Return” in a dramatic haunting. And everybody bit into it. We loved the idea of teasing people for a short time that this was actually the return of Steve Rogers. Not a dream, not a hoax. But of course it would turn out to be, “Oh, it’s time travel and that’s him from the past!” Does that make it unsatisfying? I don’t know. Hopefully it makes it interesting for people just to see where it goes.
Did you even know back then that Captain America would be dead by this point?
No, I didn’t know that Cap was dead until he was dead. I heard a hint of somebody asking me about it, like, a couple of weeks before. “Did you hear about this whole thing that they’re gonna kill Cap?” And I thought, “No, they’re not gonna do that!” And then...bada bing!
Which characters are definitely coming back when this comes out in February?The original five Invaders, who, technically, were the only ones who actually existed in the ’40s: Captain America, Bucky, Human Torch, Toro and Sub-Mariner. Characters like Union Jack and Spitfire will appear in the series but they actually didn’t exist until the 1970s.
Will the two Buckys interact with each other?
Well, that’s something I’d like to see.
“... He said, coyly.”
[Laughs] That’s enough of a tease, right? After all, it’s not like I can say “He’s gonna meet him in issue #4 and they’re gonna go out and have scones.”
I love cinnamon scones. What about you?
It’s the breakfast of champions.
I think that’s Wheaties, actually. On a more serious note, can you comment on your affinity for characters from the ’40s?
I was always intrigued with these characters from a bygone age that by comparison with a modern art style seemed more like cave paintings. When you look at the earliest style of art given to characters like Superman and so many others, it’s a bizarre origin that was absolutely entrancing to me as a young boy.
Do you ever play, like, big band music to get yourself into the ’40s mode?
No, not at all.
So what type of music do you listen to then?
Uh, Queen doesn’t sound very ’40s-ish, do they? But I do like them as well as the Beatles, the Monkees and Badfinger.
You’re co-plotting Justice Society of America, but whose idea was it to bring in the Kingdom Come Superman?That was mine. The thing that I miss about the Justice Society that I loved when I was a kid is the fact that they had an older Superman in the group. That was something that was really cool. Not just the idea that he was the first Superman but that here you have him as truly the patriarchal hero. And I made the recommendation that instead of the Earth-2 Superman who I had no idea was going to be revived in Infinite Crisis—
Geoff Johns didn’t tell you?
He did not tell me, no, because he is a sly bastard. [Laughs] I said we—he—should take the Kingdom Come Superman from that story, and then I immediately concocted a way in which we could do this. He’s taken from the middle of the story before the end of Kingdom Come when he’s still wearing the costume and everything.
How does that happen?
I can say that Starman is pivotally responsible for bringing him into the DC Universe.
How long will this Superman be hanging around?
We’ve yet to put a limit on that. I certainly wouldn’t have a grand objection to him being around a year or more. Then again, I don’t control Geoff. And he is a sly bastard. [Laughs]
Which Thor costume is better?
Today's Great Debate: Which Thor costume is better?
THE GREAT DEBATE
Which Thor Costume Is Better?
CLASSIC
Before I harp on the majestic brilliance of Thor’s classic costume, let me simply say this about the new one: The guy needs chainmail?! He’s the son of Odin, a freakin’ god on Earth who commands storm clouds! Not only does it seems redundant for the Hulk’s most well-matched brawlin’ buddy to wear armor, but the conductivity of the metal alone seems counterproductive while wielding the mythical hammer that is the world’s best lightning rod. And what is the purpose of hiding the Asgardian arms that have beat back the likes of Loki and Hercules? If you’ve got god-given guns, you better flaunt ’em, because there is no better way to intimidate the monsters of Midgard than showing off a pair of perfectly sculpted hammer-hefters! That said, I don’t even need to mention the pure awesomeness of a tunic that turns into a pair of undies below the belt, but oh wait, I just did! -Jim Gibbons
CURRENT
It’s an ugly, dirty world out there full of fire demons, ice giants and government troops looking to draft you into the Superhuman Registration movement—so you can bet your sweet Asgardian ass you need an equipment upgrade now and again! First off, Marvel didn’t muck with the Thunder God’s must-haves: Thor still sports the regal red cape, the basic black chest tunic complete with armor-disc bling and the imposing knee-high sh--kickers. However, the Son of Odin has successfully ditched his tighty-whities on the outside, making way for an under-armor look that an NFL all-pro would kill to have; hey, you think Hulk or Loki don’t hit below the belt? And Thor’s tickets to the gun show are still valid, baby; now they’re just laminated for his protection. Throw in that streamlined helmet—the wings have been reduced and the headpiece lowered to guard Thor’s supermodel looks—and you’ve got a Thunder God generating 1.21 gigawatts of awesome! -Andy Serwin
Personally, I prefer the classic Thor costume. The current one certainly looks more regal, befitting a god, plus it looks more adequate for a warrior who's job is to smite others. But call me a stickler...I like the old costume better!
THE GREAT DEBATE
Which Thor Costume Is Better?
Posted September 29, 2007 9:35 AM |
CLASSICBefore I harp on the majestic brilliance of Thor’s classic costume, let me simply say this about the new one: The guy needs chainmail?! He’s the son of Odin, a freakin’ god on Earth who commands storm clouds! Not only does it seems redundant for the Hulk’s most well-matched brawlin’ buddy to wear armor, but the conductivity of the metal alone seems counterproductive while wielding the mythical hammer that is the world’s best lightning rod. And what is the purpose of hiding the Asgardian arms that have beat back the likes of Loki and Hercules? If you’ve got god-given guns, you better flaunt ’em, because there is no better way to intimidate the monsters of Midgard than showing off a pair of perfectly sculpted hammer-hefters! That said, I don’t even need to mention the pure awesomeness of a tunic that turns into a pair of undies below the belt, but oh wait, I just did! -Jim Gibbons
CURRENTIt’s an ugly, dirty world out there full of fire demons, ice giants and government troops looking to draft you into the Superhuman Registration movement—so you can bet your sweet Asgardian ass you need an equipment upgrade now and again! First off, Marvel didn’t muck with the Thunder God’s must-haves: Thor still sports the regal red cape, the basic black chest tunic complete with armor-disc bling and the imposing knee-high sh--kickers. However, the Son of Odin has successfully ditched his tighty-whities on the outside, making way for an under-armor look that an NFL all-pro would kill to have; hey, you think Hulk or Loki don’t hit below the belt? And Thor’s tickets to the gun show are still valid, baby; now they’re just laminated for his protection. Throw in that streamlined helmet—the wings have been reduced and the headpiece lowered to guard Thor’s supermodel looks—and you’ve got a Thunder God generating 1.21 gigawatts of awesome! -Andy Serwin
Personally, I prefer the classic Thor costume. The current one certainly looks more regal, befitting a god, plus it looks more adequate for a warrior who's job is to smite others. But call me a stickler...I like the old costume better!
Five for Friday: Patriot Week
This week's Five For Friday is about the top five patriots in comic book land!
FIVE FOR FRIDAY: PATRIOT WEEK
In the star-spangled tradition of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters and Captain America, who have books hitting this week, we take a moment to remember our 5 favorite comic book patriots
America gave the world comic books, jazz, baseball and microwaveable popcorn, which countless heroes in red, white and blue have stood up to defend (along with freedom, liberty and other such things on occasion, of course). With Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti launching their new Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters series this week, alongside the release of Captain America: The Chosen #2, we felt a little bit of the American spirit bubbling up and decided to count off our five favorite heroes to stand up for the American Dream.
5. The Star-Spangled Kid
Among the many heroes to pick up some red, white and blue spandex in response to Nazism was Sylvester Pemberton, whose legacy stretches nearly across the entire history of DC Comics. Dreamed up by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and Hal Sherman, the Kid fought injustice alongside Stripesy, aka Pat Dugan, whose stepdaughter Courtney Whitmore eventually picked up his equipment as Stargirl.
4. The Shield
This MLJ and Archie Comics icon is notable because he beat Captain America’s debut by more than a year. The original man behind the mask was Joe Higgins, an FBI agent who completed his deceased father’s quest for a super-strength-giving chemical formula. Scattered others over the past 60 years have picked up his mantle, including Lancelot Strong, who rebooted the hero’s story under Cap creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
3. Liberty Belle
Journalist Libby Lawrence wore a replica of the American emblem that resonated whenever the Philadelphia landmark rang, granting her temporary super-strength. She led the All Star Squadron and eventually married fellow member Johnny Quick. Her daughter Jesse now uses the Liberty Belle name as a member of the Justice Society of America, where her husband Rick Tyler also fights as Hourman.
2. Uncle Sam
One of the most fearsome pairs of fists in all of comics belongs to this legend, who first came to comics from wunderkind creator Will Eisner at Quality Comics when he rose to action as the spirit of a dead patriot. Since then, the character came to DC and in addition to starring in an epic must-read Alex Ross miniseries, now leads a newly formed team of post-Infinite Crisis Freedom Fighters in his second miniseries from Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti.
1. Captain America
Some superheroes become legends, and a few transcend comics altogether to become indispensable pieces of history—Captain America has been there ever since Steve Rogers took the super-soldier serum and punched Hitler in the face in 1941. In another Five for Friday, we could easily fill this list with the likes of USAgent, Ultimate Captain America, Bucky and others who have spun out of his pages, but they all rightfully belong in this No. 1 slot, a fact that’s more than corroborated by the widespread media reaction that erupted when he was shot earlier this year.
A bit surprised Wonder Woman wasn't there. Maybe it's because she doesn't really eschew "truth, justice and the American way" and she's just wearing a costume that resembles the American flag.
Actually, Superman eschews "truth, justice and the American way" and though he's as American as apple pie, I suppose he isn't quite a patriot either...or else he'd be wearing as costume that resembles the American flag. Plus he's an alien. Dirty stinking aliens.
FIVE FOR FRIDAY: PATRIOT WEEK
In the star-spangled tradition of Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters and Captain America, who have books hitting this week, we take a moment to remember our 5 favorite comic book patriots
By Brian Warmoth | Posted September 28, 2007 12:35 PM |
America gave the world comic books, jazz, baseball and microwaveable popcorn, which countless heroes in red, white and blue have stood up to defend (along with freedom, liberty and other such things on occasion, of course). With Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti launching their new Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters series this week, alongside the release of Captain America: The Chosen #2, we felt a little bit of the American spirit bubbling up and decided to count off our five favorite heroes to stand up for the American Dream.
5. The Star-Spangled Kid
Among the many heroes to pick up some red, white and blue spandex in response to Nazism was Sylvester Pemberton, whose legacy stretches nearly across the entire history of DC Comics. Dreamed up by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and Hal Sherman, the Kid fought injustice alongside Stripesy, aka Pat Dugan, whose stepdaughter Courtney Whitmore eventually picked up his equipment as Stargirl.
4. The Shield
This MLJ and Archie Comics icon is notable because he beat Captain America’s debut by more than a year. The original man behind the mask was Joe Higgins, an FBI agent who completed his deceased father’s quest for a super-strength-giving chemical formula. Scattered others over the past 60 years have picked up his mantle, including Lancelot Strong, who rebooted the hero’s story under Cap creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
3. Liberty Belle
Journalist Libby Lawrence wore a replica of the American emblem that resonated whenever the Philadelphia landmark rang, granting her temporary super-strength. She led the All Star Squadron and eventually married fellow member Johnny Quick. Her daughter Jesse now uses the Liberty Belle name as a member of the Justice Society of America, where her husband Rick Tyler also fights as Hourman.
2. Uncle Sam
One of the most fearsome pairs of fists in all of comics belongs to this legend, who first came to comics from wunderkind creator Will Eisner at Quality Comics when he rose to action as the spirit of a dead patriot. Since then, the character came to DC and in addition to starring in an epic must-read Alex Ross miniseries, now leads a newly formed team of post-Infinite Crisis Freedom Fighters in his second miniseries from Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti.
1. Captain America
Some superheroes become legends, and a few transcend comics altogether to become indispensable pieces of history—Captain America has been there ever since Steve Rogers took the super-soldier serum and punched Hitler in the face in 1941. In another Five for Friday, we could easily fill this list with the likes of USAgent, Ultimate Captain America, Bucky and others who have spun out of his pages, but they all rightfully belong in this No. 1 slot, a fact that’s more than corroborated by the widespread media reaction that erupted when he was shot earlier this year.
A bit surprised Wonder Woman wasn't there. Maybe it's because she doesn't really eschew "truth, justice and the American way" and she's just wearing a costume that resembles the American flag.
Actually, Superman eschews "truth, justice and the American way" and though he's as American as apple pie, I suppose he isn't quite a patriot either...or else he'd be wearing as costume that resembles the American flag. Plus he's an alien. Dirty stinking aliens.
GOING, GOING, GOBOTS
Omigod! Gobots! I certainly remember them...and I had some of the toys as well! They weren't quite Transformers...but hey, as a kid, ANY robot toy that transformed into a vehicle (and any vehicle that COULD transform...see M.A.S.K.) was cool.
I remember I had Cykill and Turbo. I think I had the leader of the heroic Gobots too...Aerial-One? Air-One? Leader-One? I can't remember his name. Had quite a number of the others too, but I just can't remember their names anymore.
This article from Wizard Universe:
GOING, GOING, GOBOTS
They may not have survived the 1980s, but these second-rate Transformers had a lot of get-up-and-go
Transforming robots from another world land on Earth! Good guys and bad guys, towering over humans as they battle on our turf! They use their alien powers to turn into fast-moving vehicles! And they’re not Transformers! Meet the GoBots!
Although the Transformers swiftly established dominance in the transforming toy world and have been the only game in town ever since, GoBots could have just as easily become the breakout stars of the 1980s. They had some fairly high-quality toys, but a lack of variety in the line, (as well as an inferior TV show and animated movie) made them second fiddle to their Cybertronian brethren, which meant no collector’s guides, no fan conventions and no Michael Bay-directed movies.
Still, we have some great memories of the Gobots of our youth, so let’s take a deeper look at the defunct line!
MORE (OR LESS) THAN MEETS THE EYE
These ‘other’ robots in disguise were good for more than a laugh
Don’t let 20 years of hyperbole fool you: GoBots weren’t just a lame Transformers ripoff. Sure, Optimus Prime made mincemeat of these lesser-knowns in every category, but the GoBots had an impressive run of their own.
It all started in 1983. When word came down the pipe that Hasbro was bringing Takara’s Diaclone and Microchange toy lines from Japan to the States, Tonka raced to bring Bandai’s newer Machine Robo line to market first. Unfortunately, where the Transformers had help from an edgy comic book and an amazing cartoon, GoBots came up short. Challenge of the GoBots was cute and competent, but lightweight by comparison.
As for the toys, they were…cheaper, both in cost and in construction. Whereas Transformers came in varying sizes and complexities, most of the core line of GoBots stood just a few inches tall and had simple transformations. To move into other scales and play patterns, Tonka had to import figures and playsets that very clearly came from different toy lines. The 5-inch Super GoBots included some scaled-up versions of existing characters (like team leaders Leader-1 and Cy-Kill) but were mostly cars and trucks that never appeared in the cartoon series and were far removed from the established style.
Wacky toy guns that turn into things? Slap some “GoBots” stickers on ’em! Weird, wind-up mechanical monsters? Sure, they can be GoBots, too! In some ways, GoBots was less about one definable brand and more about bringing a broad assortment of Japanese toys to the U.S. market. Their one attempt to come up with something original, the sedentary Rock Lords, led to unique toys, but the 1986 movie that introduced them bombed at the theaters, despite the participation of Roddy McDowell and Telly Savalas.
Hasbro inherited the GoBots trademark when it took over Tonka in 1991, and has since used the name for a line of pre-school Transformers. But some of the original toys have returned in Bandai Japan’s Machine Robo Rescue line, where little kids pilot giant robots to fight crime and help those in danger. It’s nice to know that the GoBots live on in more than memories and saved copies of the 1985 Sears Wishbook.
CHALLENGE OF THE KNOW-BOTS
Some fab facts about the 1984 ‘Challenge of the GoBots’ cartoon
TRANS-TRAITORS?
Peter Cullen and Frank Welker gained much fame for their portrayals of Optimus Prime and Megatron, respectively, in the original Transformers cartoon. But did you know that both were also cast members on Challenge of the GoBots? It’s true: Cullen voiced Pincer, and Welker voiced Scooter. Megatron as Scooter? That ain’t right.
BRAINS BEHIND THE ’BOTS Technically, GoBots aren’t “robots.” They’re cyborgs! They have HUMAN BRAINS! See, GoBots are an offshoot race of formerly-humanoid beings that lost everything after a huge catastrophe on their home planet of GoBotron. The survivors replaced their diseased body parts with machinery and evidently got carried away.
FUN SANS GUNS
You’ll rarely see a GoBot break out a giant rifle. They don’t need to, because they can shoot energy blasts right from their hands! Either the show faced a “no guns” rule under the auspices of Hanna-Barbera, or, more likely, it helped soften the fact that the GoBots action figures were too cheap to come with guns.
LISTEN, DON’T LOOK
GoBots lacked any kind of team insignia or even a uniform look to clue you in on who was a good guy and who was a bad guy. As a general rule of thumb, if a character’s voice had a booming echo, he was a hero, but if a character sounded more computerized, he’d steal your mother’s purse and kick her in the gut.
GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN
Think the sexy Autobot Arcee was such a progressive concept? Think again. GoBots totally beat Transformers to the finish line when it came to female robots. Of course, in some cases, it was hard to tell if certain warriors were actually female or just guys who marched to a different beat.
COMBINER? I HARDLY KNOW HER! Combiners...gestalts...cheerleader pyramids... whatever you call ’em, GoBots had three
PUZZLER
No, he’s not the latest derivative Batman villain, he’s the first-ever GoBot combiner! Composed of six evil robots that turned into cars, the sixth car protruded from Puzzler’s pelvic area, making him the most well-endowed gestalt in toy history.
POWER WARRIORS
In a twist on the standard combiner, the Power Warriors were made of one transforming plane and four Power Suits that individual GoBots could get into. The Guardian and Renegade Power Suits formed Courageous and Grungy, respectively. Way to go with the whole “naming your Power Warrior” thing, Renegades.
MONSTEROUS
This extremely creepy combiner was made up of six Renegade warriors who transformed into, well, monsters, or at least monstrous vehicles. When you put ’em all together, Monsterous was a towering mass of wings and fangs. He wasn’t very poseable, but the fact that he was called “Satan 6” in Japan more than makes up for it.
BIGGEST GOBOT EVER
More proof that all modes of transportation should be able to transform into robots.
Sure, every kids’ cartoon known to man had a “Big Wheel” tricycle based on it, but GoBots had something a little...different. With permission from Tonka, Sail Toys made a kid-sized scooter that could actually be transformed into a GoBot “figure” over two feet tall!
Although it was loosely based on the heroic Scooter, the bike’s robot mode looked more like a vacuum cleaner...save for its perpetually-smiling robot head and the fact that it had “pincer” arms that could clasp on to whatever makeshift weaponry you could come up with (a plunger, a knife). But in scooter mode, kids used the robot’s “ears” as handlebars, wheeling around the backyard in total fear of any of the neighbor kids catching them doing that. After all, this thing looked pretty ridiculous. If you were a day older than three years old, driving this around was akin to a 20-something cruising around town in a lime green Yugo.
SEPARATED AT-AT BIRTH
Star Wars’ AT-AT vs. the look-alike Guardian Command Center
WHAT’S INSIDE?
AT-AT: Hordes of Stormtroopers, armed and ready.
COMMAND CENTER: A cafeteria. For robots. We kid you not.
DEFENSIVE STRATEGY:
AT-AT: Responds to enemy attack with a bevy of colorful, high-powered laser blasts.
COMMAND CENTER: Transforms into a giant, legless robot with a big happy grin on its face.
BRAINS BEHIND THE BRAWN:
AT-AT: Piloted by such esteemed Imperial troops as the legendary General Veers.
COMMAND CENTER: Piloted by Scooter, who usually played paddleball at the same time.
LAST RESORT:
AT-AT: Calls upon smaller AT-ST vehicles to help it take out the trash.
COMMAND CENTER: Potentially lethal waterboarding in the Interrogation Center.
WEAKNESS:
AT-AT: Easily tripped up by extremely long cords which are conveniently available to most Rebel fighters for no apparent reason.
COMMAND CENTER: Wastes critical space best used for missile launchers with dopey things like a cafeteria. (Sorry, we still can’t get over that cafeteria.)
WINNER: AT-AT
Man, check out that Guardian Command Center toy. I think George Lucas gonna sue somebody!
I remember I had Cykill and Turbo. I think I had the leader of the heroic Gobots too...Aerial-One? Air-One? Leader-One? I can't remember his name. Had quite a number of the others too, but I just can't remember their names anymore.
This article from Wizard Universe:
GOING, GOING, GOBOTS
They may not have survived the 1980s, but these second-rate Transformers had a lot of get-up-and-go
By Matt Caracappa | Posted September 28, 2007 9:00 AM |
Transforming robots from another world land on Earth! Good guys and bad guys, towering over humans as they battle on our turf! They use their alien powers to turn into fast-moving vehicles! And they’re not Transformers! Meet the GoBots!Although the Transformers swiftly established dominance in the transforming toy world and have been the only game in town ever since, GoBots could have just as easily become the breakout stars of the 1980s. They had some fairly high-quality toys, but a lack of variety in the line, (as well as an inferior TV show and animated movie) made them second fiddle to their Cybertronian brethren, which meant no collector’s guides, no fan conventions and no Michael Bay-directed movies.
Still, we have some great memories of the Gobots of our youth, so let’s take a deeper look at the defunct line!
MORE (OR LESS) THAN MEETS THE EYE
These ‘other’ robots in disguise were good for more than a laugh
Don’t let 20 years of hyperbole fool you: GoBots weren’t just a lame Transformers ripoff. Sure, Optimus Prime made mincemeat of these lesser-knowns in every category, but the GoBots had an impressive run of their own.It all started in 1983. When word came down the pipe that Hasbro was bringing Takara’s Diaclone and Microchange toy lines from Japan to the States, Tonka raced to bring Bandai’s newer Machine Robo line to market first. Unfortunately, where the Transformers had help from an edgy comic book and an amazing cartoon, GoBots came up short. Challenge of the GoBots was cute and competent, but lightweight by comparison.
As for the toys, they were…cheaper, both in cost and in construction. Whereas Transformers came in varying sizes and complexities, most of the core line of GoBots stood just a few inches tall and had simple transformations. To move into other scales and play patterns, Tonka had to import figures and playsets that very clearly came from different toy lines. The 5-inch Super GoBots included some scaled-up versions of existing characters (like team leaders Leader-1 and Cy-Kill) but were mostly cars and trucks that never appeared in the cartoon series and were far removed from the established style.
Wacky toy guns that turn into things? Slap some “GoBots” stickers on ’em! Weird, wind-up mechanical monsters? Sure, they can be GoBots, too! In some ways, GoBots was less about one definable brand and more about bringing a broad assortment of Japanese toys to the U.S. market. Their one attempt to come up with something original, the sedentary Rock Lords, led to unique toys, but the 1986 movie that introduced them bombed at the theaters, despite the participation of Roddy McDowell and Telly Savalas.Hasbro inherited the GoBots trademark when it took over Tonka in 1991, and has since used the name for a line of pre-school Transformers. But some of the original toys have returned in Bandai Japan’s Machine Robo Rescue line, where little kids pilot giant robots to fight crime and help those in danger. It’s nice to know that the GoBots live on in more than memories and saved copies of the 1985 Sears Wishbook.
CHALLENGE OF THE KNOW-BOTS
Some fab facts about the 1984 ‘Challenge of the GoBots’ cartoon
TRANS-TRAITORS?Peter Cullen and Frank Welker gained much fame for their portrayals of Optimus Prime and Megatron, respectively, in the original Transformers cartoon. But did you know that both were also cast members on Challenge of the GoBots? It’s true: Cullen voiced Pincer, and Welker voiced Scooter. Megatron as Scooter? That ain’t right.
BRAINS BEHIND THE ’BOTS Technically, GoBots aren’t “robots.” They’re cyborgs! They have HUMAN BRAINS! See, GoBots are an offshoot race of formerly-humanoid beings that lost everything after a huge catastrophe on their home planet of GoBotron. The survivors replaced their diseased body parts with machinery and evidently got carried away.
FUN SANS GUNS
You’ll rarely see a GoBot break out a giant rifle. They don’t need to, because they can shoot energy blasts right from their hands! Either the show faced a “no guns” rule under the auspices of Hanna-Barbera, or, more likely, it helped soften the fact that the GoBots action figures were too cheap to come with guns.
LISTEN, DON’T LOOK
GoBots lacked any kind of team insignia or even a uniform look to clue you in on who was a good guy and who was a bad guy. As a general rule of thumb, if a character’s voice had a booming echo, he was a hero, but if a character sounded more computerized, he’d steal your mother’s purse and kick her in the gut.
GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN
Think the sexy Autobot Arcee was such a progressive concept? Think again. GoBots totally beat Transformers to the finish line when it came to female robots. Of course, in some cases, it was hard to tell if certain warriors were actually female or just guys who marched to a different beat.
COMBINER? I HARDLY KNOW HER! Combiners...gestalts...cheerleader pyramids... whatever you call ’em, GoBots had three
PUZZLERNo, he’s not the latest derivative Batman villain, he’s the first-ever GoBot combiner! Composed of six evil robots that turned into cars, the sixth car protruded from Puzzler’s pelvic area, making him the most well-endowed gestalt in toy history.
POWER WARRIORSIn a twist on the standard combiner, the Power Warriors were made of one transforming plane and four Power Suits that individual GoBots could get into. The Guardian and Renegade Power Suits formed Courageous and Grungy, respectively. Way to go with the whole “naming your Power Warrior” thing, Renegades.
MONSTEROUSThis extremely creepy combiner was made up of six Renegade warriors who transformed into, well, monsters, or at least monstrous vehicles. When you put ’em all together, Monsterous was a towering mass of wings and fangs. He wasn’t very poseable, but the fact that he was called “Satan 6” in Japan more than makes up for it.
BIGGEST GOBOT EVER
More proof that all modes of transportation should be able to transform into robots.
Sure, every kids’ cartoon known to man had a “Big Wheel” tricycle based on it, but GoBots had something a little...different. With permission from Tonka, Sail Toys made a kid-sized scooter that could actually be transformed into a GoBot “figure” over two feet tall!
Although it was loosely based on the heroic Scooter, the bike’s robot mode looked more like a vacuum cleaner...save for its perpetually-smiling robot head and the fact that it had “pincer” arms that could clasp on to whatever makeshift weaponry you could come up with (a plunger, a knife). But in scooter mode, kids used the robot’s “ears” as handlebars, wheeling around the backyard in total fear of any of the neighbor kids catching them doing that. After all, this thing looked pretty ridiculous. If you were a day older than three years old, driving this around was akin to a 20-something cruising around town in a lime green Yugo.SEPARATED AT-AT BIRTH
Star Wars’ AT-AT vs. the look-alike Guardian Command Center
WHAT’S INSIDE?
AT-AT: Hordes of Stormtroopers, armed and ready.
COMMAND CENTER: A cafeteria. For robots. We kid you not.
DEFENSIVE STRATEGY:
AT-AT: Responds to enemy attack with a bevy of colorful, high-powered laser blasts.
COMMAND CENTER: Transforms into a giant, legless robot with a big happy grin on its face.
BRAINS BEHIND THE BRAWN:
AT-AT: Piloted by such esteemed Imperial troops as the legendary General Veers.
COMMAND CENTER: Piloted by Scooter, who usually played paddleball at the same time.
LAST RESORT:
AT-AT: Calls upon smaller AT-ST vehicles to help it take out the trash.
COMMAND CENTER: Potentially lethal waterboarding in the Interrogation Center.
WEAKNESS:
AT-AT: Easily tripped up by extremely long cords which are conveniently available to most Rebel fighters for no apparent reason.
COMMAND CENTER: Wastes critical space best used for missile launchers with dopey things like a cafeteria. (Sorry, we still can’t get over that cafeteria.)
WINNER: AT-AT
Man, check out that Guardian Command Center toy. I think George Lucas gonna sue somebody!
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