Hello and welcome to an unscheduled edition of The Comic Shop!
FIRST......"Gotham" made it's highly anticipated television debut last week with the second episode airing this previous Monday. I will preface all my thoughts by saying it is EARLY in the life of the show and these are snap judgements and impressions. As with all things I reserve the right to change my opinion based on the strength of future episodes (the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." amendment in The Comic Shop Constitution).
The Good:
I think that overall the performances are on par with most network tv. I think Ben McKenzie carries himself well as Gordon, and he is well suited to carry the brunt of the load for this series. Nobody really stands out at this point per se; however, I did really like the casting of Robin Lord Taylor as a young Oswald Cobblepot. Taylor fits the off beat look of the future Penguin, and it will be interesting to see what develops with his character in the run of the series.
The Bad/Ugly:
My main gripe is that for a series like this the Wayne's are not needed as an integral part of the plot. In my honest opinion I think it does a disservice to have Bruce, Alfred, or even the murder of Thomas and Martha as a central focus in this adaptation.
The thing that makes Batman's origin so powerful is not that it's a mystery that needs to be solved, but that it's a mystery that CAN'T be solved. In several interpretations of the history of Batman "Joe Chill" is a pseudonym for a faceless man. Bruce dons the cowl and wages everlasting war because every criminal is potentially the one that killed his parents. Now obviously this is tweaked with every adaptation of the source material for instance in "The Dark Knight Trilogy" Joe Chill was a flesh-and-blood man that was caught, and in "Batman" Jack Napier would eventually become the clown prince of crime The Joker.
Batman the stoic loner takes on wards like Dick Grayson so that they may find the justice that he never will, so that they do not become a brooding obsessed vigilante like the Batman. In making the Wayne's murder a mystery that is integral to the series the creators have to this point made it a bland intrigue story rather than the origin of the Dark Knight that we all know and love.
In my mind a better narrative for the show would have been to have a twenty-something Bruce Wayne in his travels around the world making sporadic appearances on the show while the main story featured a young Gordon fresh off the train from Chicago fighting corruption in the GCPD.
Like I said it is early in the life of this show and I'm going to give it some honest time, but these are my first impressions and nothing else. Judge it however you wish, because after all this is an opinion piece
SECOND.....I'm mostly done discussing Fox's next adaptation of the "Fantastic Four", but it has been confirmed that in this version Sue will be an adopted sibling of Johnny Storm. Take it as you will.
My honest feeling is that we are just seeing the beginning of an epic pissing contest between Fox and Marvel. As you may have read Marvel is planning on ceasing publication of Fantastic Four in the near future as to not lend support to this project, and there are rumbles they may do that with the X-men as well. I look at this as Fox saying "okay well then we are going to do whatever the hell we want with this adaptation because we can".
Nothing is confirmed at this point, but I think we are starting to see where everyone stands. With a hot property like "X-men: Days of Future Past" hitting the theater last summer one would have expected to see toys, licensed t-shirts, lunch boxes, and everything else under the sun, but because Marvel owns the rights to the license they put the kibosh on that. This all is allegedly due to Marvel wanting the rights back to the X-men & FF properties. Which as you may or may not know only came about because Marvel came on hard times, and needed some quick cash. This lead to the movie rights to X-men and FF being with Fox, and an actual split ownership of Spider-man with Sony.
LASTLY......Depending on your reading habits it could be a light or heavy day at The Comic Book store tomorrow. Lady Thor will be making her debut in the wake of the events of "Original Sin", and Bucky Barnes will become a space ranger due to the same event. Wolverine will continue his march toward death, and the Justice League will fight something or the other. As for your humble blogger I'm looking forward to "Green Arrow" as we pick up with a new arch from the creative team of the successful show "Arrow", and I will trudge through another issue of "Grayson".
Thanks for reading! See you next time at The Comic Shop!
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Friday, September 19, 2014
All sorts of news...
Hello and welcome to the 09/19/2014 edition of The Comic Shop...
I have decided that with changes in my work life and the continued challenge of raising a baby I will likely be limiting these posts to a monthly entry. In the end I think this new time frame will give me a chance to decide what I want to discuss, and to have strongly formulated opinion on the various items. I love writing this blog, but it can be time consuming and I have other concerns at this time. As always I appreciate your continued support, and I will do my best to bring the best entries that I can to the table.
First........ Off of the strength of the "leaked" test reel footage "Deadpool" will be getting a feature film from 20th Century Fox. Given the reaction and the quality of the footage this is not a huge surprise. One can only hope that with the retcon of the Fox X-Universe we can keep Ryan Reynolds as the titular Merc with a Mouth, but ditch the awful characterization from "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". While Reynolds was not a good fit for DC's "Green Lantern" I think he is the ideal candidate to continue to portray Wade Wilson.
Second.....The producers of "Flash" and "Arrow" have announced that the last daughter of Krypton will be flying onto the screen at CBS. It will be interesting to see if this is a stand alone project or if it ties to either the DC movie verse or the DC Arrow-verse. I don't have a lot more to say about it at this point, but it is intriguing to say the least.
Third.....The Russo Brothers have teased that Frank Castle AKA The Punisher has been introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a blink-and-you-miss-it role as the driver of the Penske truck that struck SPOILER when the Winter Soldier threw him from a vehicle. While it seems unlikely that this is the case, because vehicular homicide is not Castle's SOP it is probable that he might show up in an adjacent Marvel One-Shot on a future home movie release. I would still; however, argue that Frank would be the absolute perfect candidate for a Marvel Netflix show because they could do the character justice.
The Comic Strips (Beware Spoilers for Comics Released on 09/17/14).
I took a small stack out of my local comic shop this week with "Daredevil" and "Batman & Robin" (Futures End tie in) on my pull list.
"Daredevil" - This was the start of a new arch with a terrifying new enemy for hornhead. It turns out that the mind control powered Purple Man decided to start a family, but it comes to a horrifying end for the PM and a new powerful group of mind control experts comes to forefront.
"Batman & Robin" - I have made my reservations known about the Futures End event and tie ins, but I have to make a caveat that the Bat books (this and the titular "Batman") were absolutely fantastic. I have made it known that I am a huge fan of "The Dark Knight Returns" and these books are more to the tune of "The Dark Knight Never Left". It is the same level of madness, but he has never quit being Batman. It is disturbing and interesting at the same time to watch him push his body past normal human limits with the use of dangerous science. I still feel that the event and tie ins are wholly unnecessary, but this is a very cool glimpse into the future of the caped crusader.
That's it for today. Unless something changes I will see you around the same time next month. Thank you for your continued support, thank you for reading, and I will see you next time at The Comic Shop!
I have decided that with changes in my work life and the continued challenge of raising a baby I will likely be limiting these posts to a monthly entry. In the end I think this new time frame will give me a chance to decide what I want to discuss, and to have strongly formulated opinion on the various items. I love writing this blog, but it can be time consuming and I have other concerns at this time. As always I appreciate your continued support, and I will do my best to bring the best entries that I can to the table.
First........ Off of the strength of the "leaked" test reel footage "Deadpool" will be getting a feature film from 20th Century Fox. Given the reaction and the quality of the footage this is not a huge surprise. One can only hope that with the retcon of the Fox X-Universe we can keep Ryan Reynolds as the titular Merc with a Mouth, but ditch the awful characterization from "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". While Reynolds was not a good fit for DC's "Green Lantern" I think he is the ideal candidate to continue to portray Wade Wilson.
Second.....The producers of "Flash" and "Arrow" have announced that the last daughter of Krypton will be flying onto the screen at CBS. It will be interesting to see if this is a stand alone project or if it ties to either the DC movie verse or the DC Arrow-verse. I don't have a lot more to say about it at this point, but it is intriguing to say the least.
Third.....The Russo Brothers have teased that Frank Castle AKA The Punisher has been introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in a blink-and-you-miss-it role as the driver of the Penske truck that struck SPOILER when the Winter Soldier threw him from a vehicle. While it seems unlikely that this is the case, because vehicular homicide is not Castle's SOP it is probable that he might show up in an adjacent Marvel One-Shot on a future home movie release. I would still; however, argue that Frank would be the absolute perfect candidate for a Marvel Netflix show because they could do the character justice.
The Comic Strips (Beware Spoilers for Comics Released on 09/17/14).
I took a small stack out of my local comic shop this week with "Daredevil" and "Batman & Robin" (Futures End tie in) on my pull list.
"Daredevil" - This was the start of a new arch with a terrifying new enemy for hornhead. It turns out that the mind control powered Purple Man decided to start a family, but it comes to a horrifying end for the PM and a new powerful group of mind control experts comes to forefront.
"Batman & Robin" - I have made my reservations known about the Futures End event and tie ins, but I have to make a caveat that the Bat books (this and the titular "Batman") were absolutely fantastic. I have made it known that I am a huge fan of "The Dark Knight Returns" and these books are more to the tune of "The Dark Knight Never Left". It is the same level of madness, but he has never quit being Batman. It is disturbing and interesting at the same time to watch him push his body past normal human limits with the use of dangerous science. I still feel that the event and tie ins are wholly unnecessary, but this is a very cool glimpse into the future of the caped crusader.
That's it for today. Unless something changes I will see you around the same time next month. Thank you for your continued support, thank you for reading, and I will see you next time at The Comic Shop!
Thursday, September 4, 2014
WB/DC WTF?
Hello and welcome to the abbreviated 09/04/14 edition of The Comic Shop!
First........
Yesterday was a pretty amazing yet astoundingly frustrating news day. At long last it was confirmed that WB has picked Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to play Black Adam in an upcoming "Shazam" film. This news was welcomed by your humble blogger; however, the accompanying news not so much. WB followed up stating that they had hired Darren Lemke to script the Earth's mightiest mortal film debut.
That wasn't bad, but then it got worse. Warner Brothers in their infinite wisdom has stated that the Shazam movie will have humor and be fun (as it should), and that IT WILL NOT TIE IN TO THE GREATER DC UNIVERSE INCLUDING "BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE". Pardon my language but WHAT THE FUCK?! They hire a box office heavyweight like Johnson and then immediately snuff the possibility of him showing up as the big bad in a Justice League movie, or joining the justice league to stave off an ultimate evil. This is just the most recent in a long line of head scratching decisions if we consider the huge popularity of "Arrow" and anticipation for "Flash" and that those were also treated like they weren't part of the greater universe. It makes no sense to me why WB wouldn't cash in on well-liked, and successful properties. Time will tell and this is certainly a snap judgement, but it is frustrating to say the least.
I certainly don't expect them to do everything like Marvel does, but it would be better to have a coherent product that doesn't confuse the masses.
Add to that Evil media Emperor Rupert Murdoch tried to recently purchase AOL/Time Warner, and that it's rumored that Disney may also soon make a bid it's not looking likely that we will see true competition between the studios after all.
Second..........
In keeping with the theme here "Futures End" has crossed over to the individual titles of DC comics. Being the idiot that I am I picked up "Green Arrow", and found that the cliffhanger would be resolved in the "Futures End" weekly comic. Sorry, but that is not going to happen. There are too many other things to pay for each week without having to delve out an extra $2.99 each for the weekly release of "Futures End" and "Batman Eternal". It feels like DC is trying to manipulate their sales numbers by having a weekly title.
Third....... (Original Sin Spoilers)
Original Sin came to a climax this week and I have to say overall it was not a very satisfying story arch. It felt more like a side dish to the meat and potatoes that will play out over the next year at Marvel. It showed how Thor became disgraced and depowered, and laid the groundwork for other happenings. I enjoyed some of the earlier issues, but I think overall I regret buying the whole arch. Marvel has been great at the big event with "Civil War", "Secret Invasion", "Avengers v. X-men", "Siege", "Dark Reign", and others they changed the landscape and implemented a new status quo. With "Original Sin" it felt like it was an eight issue ad that said "what's new at Marvel Comics!". I think if given the ball Jason Aaron could do a great job in the future I just think this event set him up to fail.
That's all for today trying to keep it short since tonight we are #Back2Football...Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time at The Comic Shop!
First........
Yesterday was a pretty amazing yet astoundingly frustrating news day. At long last it was confirmed that WB has picked Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to play Black Adam in an upcoming "Shazam" film. This news was welcomed by your humble blogger; however, the accompanying news not so much. WB followed up stating that they had hired Darren Lemke to script the Earth's mightiest mortal film debut.
That wasn't bad, but then it got worse. Warner Brothers in their infinite wisdom has stated that the Shazam movie will have humor and be fun (as it should), and that IT WILL NOT TIE IN TO THE GREATER DC UNIVERSE INCLUDING "BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE". Pardon my language but WHAT THE FUCK?! They hire a box office heavyweight like Johnson and then immediately snuff the possibility of him showing up as the big bad in a Justice League movie, or joining the justice league to stave off an ultimate evil. This is just the most recent in a long line of head scratching decisions if we consider the huge popularity of "Arrow" and anticipation for "Flash" and that those were also treated like they weren't part of the greater universe. It makes no sense to me why WB wouldn't cash in on well-liked, and successful properties. Time will tell and this is certainly a snap judgement, but it is frustrating to say the least.
I certainly don't expect them to do everything like Marvel does, but it would be better to have a coherent product that doesn't confuse the masses.
Add to that Evil media Emperor Rupert Murdoch tried to recently purchase AOL/Time Warner, and that it's rumored that Disney may also soon make a bid it's not looking likely that we will see true competition between the studios after all.
Second..........
In keeping with the theme here "Futures End" has crossed over to the individual titles of DC comics. Being the idiot that I am I picked up "Green Arrow", and found that the cliffhanger would be resolved in the "Futures End" weekly comic. Sorry, but that is not going to happen. There are too many other things to pay for each week without having to delve out an extra $2.99 each for the weekly release of "Futures End" and "Batman Eternal". It feels like DC is trying to manipulate their sales numbers by having a weekly title.
Third....... (Original Sin Spoilers)
Original Sin came to a climax this week and I have to say overall it was not a very satisfying story arch. It felt more like a side dish to the meat and potatoes that will play out over the next year at Marvel. It showed how Thor became disgraced and depowered, and laid the groundwork for other happenings. I enjoyed some of the earlier issues, but I think overall I regret buying the whole arch. Marvel has been great at the big event with "Civil War", "Secret Invasion", "Avengers v. X-men", "Siege", "Dark Reign", and others they changed the landscape and implemented a new status quo. With "Original Sin" it felt like it was an eight issue ad that said "what's new at Marvel Comics!". I think if given the ball Jason Aaron could do a great job in the future I just think this event set him up to fail.
That's all for today trying to keep it short since tonight we are #Back2Football...Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time at The Comic Shop!
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