That, if you can’t tell (and OMG how could you?) is supposed to be Harley Quinn!
My reaction was something like the title of this post but less articulate.
I love Harley Quinn! Love her! This isn’t her!
I don’t object to the idea of character redesigns. In fact I’ve liked quite a few of the ones I’ve seen for the new DC so far. But this is to put it mildly an abomination!

The redesigns were supposed to update the look, but stick to the essence of the character. What about this is Harley?
As a refresher this is what Harley has more or less looked like for about two decades.

Isn’t she cute? She’s spunky, kooky, violent, and yes sexy. She is dressed very much like the clown archetype that inspired her name.

She isn’t a skank! She doesn’t look like she is about to eat your liver. She might, but she wouldn’t telegraph it like that. She isn’t in danger of contracting a venerial disease anytime she sits down.
I wouldn’t have cared if DC introduced this thing as a new character. I probably wouldn’t have bought the book she appears in, but to each their own. If they want to publish this character then fine, just don’t call her Harley Quinn! Call her Lady Wetdream vonTrollop derGonerrhea and be done with it. And leave my Harley alone, you bastards!!!!!!!

On the Day Batman’s Parents Died

A poem by me

On the day Batman’s parents died

It was Christmas

It was New Year’s Eve

It was Halloween

It was Bruce’s birthday

They went to the movies (it was Zorro)

They went to the opera

They went to the ballet

They went to the movies (it was not Zorro)

Little Bruce’s mother scolded him

Little Bruce told his father he hated him

His father hit his mother

His mother told his father she was pregnant again

Bruce pretended to be the Lone Ranger

Bruce’s mother read to him from Alice in Wonderland

Bruce’s father dressed up like a bat

Bruce’s butler stayed home with a cold

A black cat crossed their path

A clown juggled for pennies

A crow died

A criminal got away

There was a full moon

There was no moon

It was everyday

It was the only day

This was inspired by the fact that every Batman comic I’ve read  or movie or tv show I’ve seen, has set every flashback to Bruce Wayne’s childhood on the day his parents were murdered.  Of course each one contradicts the last.  But why not?  It all happened.  It is the only day that matters.

Well blogger/TV critic Jace Lacob, has had a look at the script, and it is worse than I had imagined.  You can see his summary here, but it does not bode well at all.  Some things that stick out for me as not just inconsistent to the character, but really bad writing in general are: that Diana is given three identities.  One is Wonder Woman, crime fighter.  Another is as Diana Themyscira, the CEO of an international corporation, who collects transforming aircraft (the hell?).  And finally  as Diana Prince, a mousy assistant.  I don’t get this conceit at all.  It is traditional for super-hero’s to have a super-hero identity, and a separate civilian identity (in fact in the comics she does sort of have three, wonder woman, Diana Prince, and the Princess of the Amazons.  But the princess/wonder woman identities are publicly acknowledged as the same).  But why have two civilian identities?  with two separate residences?  Especially when at least one of the identities, the CEO, sounds to be very recognizable as a public figure.  What is the point of the third identity?  This just makes the character sound a bit psycho.

Anaother red flag, that this is not a Wonder Woman I want to watch is this that as the CEO, she has  in her employ a gaggle of “nerds” whose function seems to be to make sexual inneundo about her.  For example when she instructs them to bone up on something, one replies the he would, “Bone you up right now, boss.”  That she tolerates this is makes her not just unbelievable as Wonder Woman, but as a successful business woman, as well.

Lacob says it best here, about what sounds likely to be one of the worst scenes to ever be filmed;

In the script’s most painful sequence, Diana is subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee and forced to give testimony about the events in Hollywood. She ends up filibustering about everything under the sun for several pages: the politics of the LAPD (name checking ex-police chiefs Daryl Gates and William Bratton), the economy, stimulus funds, pharmaceutical companies, Roger Clemens, the FDA and the FCC, and how networks will air commercials about erectile dysfunction but not for condoms. It’s clearly meant to be a showcase scene for the actress playing Diana, a calculated bid at awards and social relevance. Congratulations, David E. Kelley, the transformation of Wonder Woman from superhero to personal mouthpiece is now complete. Adding further insult to injury: real-life California Senator Dianne Feinstein is described as giving Diana a thumbs-up.

Pages of rambling about anything that crosses Kelley’s mind, is the big triumphant moment?  In a show about a super-hero?  What?

And apparently the episode ends with her weeping over her romantic woes!  DO NOT WANT!

Yeah it sounds horrible, and I do not get what NBC was thinking.  Are Harry’s Law, and the Cape doing that well?

Anyway here are the original concept sketches for Wonder Woman, way back in the forties.

Yes, she is wearing a bustier, but she was a warrior damnit!

And just because I think it’s awesome, here is Project Runway’s Chris March as Wonder Woman.

These last characters all have in common that they will need to be portrayed by either, puppets, CGI, or an actor in major prosthetics, or a combination of all of the above.  I will pick a voice actor for each.

Morpheus had a series of pet ravens.  They are usually the spirit of a dead man that has been reincarnated as a raven.  He retains his human personality and ability to speak, but in every other way, such as taste and behavior, he is a raven.  The one that he has for most of the series, except flashbacks to earlier eras, is named Matthew.  He is the spirit of Matt Cable, a supporting character from DC’s earlier horror/fantasy epic Swamp Thing.

Matthew is loyal, rough around the edges, and a little sardonic.  Before he died Matt Cable made some mistakes, and hurt people he cared about.  It was interesting to see Matthew the Raven striving to atone for those mistakes, and become a little more sensitive.  He often served as the audience’s surrogate.  One that could openly ask questions like, what is going on? And, why did you do that?  As well as being a sympathetic ear for Dream.

Though if memory serves Matt Cable was an American character, I always heard Matthew speaking with an English accent. Which is probably why I went with a British actor for the his voice.  Clive Owen

Owen has a deep, rich, but slightly gritty voice.  Just what I hear when I read Matthew’s dialogue.  He often plays characters with some darkness in their past, while still be able to deliver a biting one liner.

Next we have Barnabas.  Barnabas is Destruction’s pet/companion.  He appears to be a large grey dog.  He too can speak, and has a human like personality.  Though he does show that he likes dog things like chewing on stuff, and getting scratched behind the ears.  It is unclear if he is simply a talking dog, or a reincarnated spirit like Matthew.  He is very down to earth, and sarcastic.  If he wasn’t a dog, he would constantly be rolling his eyes. I’m going with Michael Palin for his voice.

Palin is of course a member of Monty Python.  He would be able to play the sarcasm, and the intelligence, along side the warm, nurturing side of the character.  And of course he would nail the utter goofiness of him going dog-giddy over a stick.

Last but hardly least, is Mervin Pumpkinhead.  One of the few characters that is there purely for comic relief.  His body is made of twigs, and his head is a jack o’lantern.  He usually wears overalls or coveralls, and has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.  He is the janitor/handyman of the Dreaming.  He is a smart aleck, with a wise crack for everything.  He has a somewhat inflated ego, and likes to hear himself talk.  I am choosing another Python, for him.  Eric Idle

Idle knows how to play a smart-ass.  Since Merv’s face so simplistic his personality is really going to have to come through his voice.  Idle has plenty of voice over experience, and is really versatile.

I also think the character should have a real person in a suit, perform his movement.  As again, he is such a minimal design, he could come across as very artificial if he was purely CGI or animatronic.  For that I suggest Doug Jones.

Jones has made a career of bringing to life extraordinary, fantasy characters. He played one of the Gentleman, a terrifyingly creepy monster, on a particularly memorable episode of Buffy.  More significantly he has worked with Guillermo del Torro, playing Abe Sapien in both Hellboy films, and the Faun and the Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth.  He is impossibly tall and thin, and is incredibly expressive with his body.

Okay, that it is it for this series of posts.  I can’t believe I made it to fifteen posts.  It has been fun.  I may try another fantasy casting project for another comic series, but I haven’t thought of one yet (maybe Fables).  As I said in the very first post, I really don’t want to see Sandman made into a film. I think it exists in its ideal form already.  I do think it probably will get adapted someday, and if even one of my casting choices made it to the screen, I would be super excited.

They served many purposes in the series.  They were used as prophets, that occasionally commented on the action, and less frequently propelled it.  They were also the furies, the means through which justice for a primal crime, was acted out.

Typically they looked different every time they appeared, so to remain true to the comic they should be played by several different actresses.  However for the purposes of keeping this post relatively short, I will only cast one actress each.

Lisa Backwell as the maiden.

She played the lovable, loopy, and naive, Pandora on the third and fourth series of Skins.  She has a round, child like face, that would make for a good contrast with the other two.  The maiden was sometimes drawn as older and more voluptuous than Backwell, but she also sometimes looked like little more than child.

Brenda Blethyn as the mother.

While she is a very versitile actor, she has played quite a few mothers.  In such films as Pride and Prejudice, Lovely and Amazing, and Little Voice.  All very different mums, but maternal nonetheless.

Jackie Burroughs as the crone.

Burroughs has been working steadily since the mid sixties, and is still going strong.  She has looked nearly exactly the same for the past twenty years.

Finally for today’s post is Hippolyta Hall.  She was not created for the Sandman, but was a DC Comics heroine that went by the name of the Fury.  A title she inherited from her mother, (though in a bit of confusing crisis muddled continuity, she was also Earth Two Wonder Woman’s daughter).

Poor Lyta did not have an easy time of things in the series.  She was married to the second DC hero to carry the title of the Sandman.  Both she and her husband Hector, were unknowingly tricked by a pair of renegade dreams, into being trapped inside a child’s dreams.  To make matters worse, her husband Hector was dead, but being stuck in the Dreaming, neither of them knew this.  And on top of that Lyta was heavily pregnant when she was trapped, and remained so for the whole two years, that she was stuck there.  When Morpheus discovered what had been done by the misbehaving dreams, he put end to it, setting the Halls free.  This however effectively killed Hector.  He was already dead, but freed from the dreaming, his spirit was allowed to move on.  Lyta of course had no idea what had happened, she just saw her husband disappear, and her world dissolve.  Morpheus, not being very sensitive to other being’s distress, didn’t bother to explain any of it to her.  Which left her with a mighty grudge against Morpheus.  One that was easily exploited by those who wished him ill.

I would cast her with Amber Benson.

She was excellent as the lovely Tara on Buffy.  She is also a talented writer and director, who has made several independent films, and published quite a few fantasy books.  She would be able to sympathetically play Lyta’s rage at the powerlessness she has over her life, even while becoming more of a pawn.

I think the next post will be the last in this series.

http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/10/wonder-woman-tv-show.html

It does not say how far into development they have gotten, or which network will likely air it.  It does say that they have chosen David E. Kelley to be showrunner.  This seems like a bad fit to me.  Kelley has had success in the past, creating such shows as, Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope, The Practice, and Picket Fences, none of which have much in common with Wonder Woman.  I don’t know what the plans they have in store for the show, but I would think it would have to be an action drama to some extent, and Kelley doesn’t have much experience with action.  I am not much of a Kelley fan, I have not been able to stick with one of his shows for much more than a season or two.  In my experience, he tends run out of character driven stories pretty quickly, and then relies on increasingly  absurd plot twists, and controversial stunts, just for the sake of controversy.  His characters are usually very quirky, and as the series progress they seem to lose any humanity that makes them relatable, devolving into a walking mass of unusual ticks.  This does not bode well for his Wonder Woman, as though she has gone through many different characterizations over the course of her sixty plus years of being published, she has never come across to me as either quirky, or neurotic (another Kelley main stay).  I guess we will have to wait and see what comes of it.

My pick to play her is Virginia Hey.

She played a regal, enigmatic, goddess-like character as Zhaan on Farscape.  As such she has loads of experience acting through large amounts of makeup, that the role would require.

Next up we have one of the ultimate trickster gods, Loki.  He is portrayed just as he is in Norse mythology.  The untrustworthy adopted son of Odin.  He loves a dirty joke.  He can’t pass up any opportunity to mess with anyone, and he doesn’t like being shown up in any way.

My pick is Iggy Pop.

He looks a lot like the character as drawn, and he is a pretty good actor.  He played a sweet, softy of a suburban dad on the Adventures of Pete and Pete, in the nineties.  Think of what he could do with an anarchist god.

Finally we have Puck, of A Midsummer Night’s Dream fame.  In Sandman he is depicted as a malicious imp.  More likely to slip strychnine in your coffee, as give you donkey ears for a night.  In his true form he looks like a tiny hairy devil creature, but he can also look human.

And my pick for him is David Tennant.

Obviously Tennant is very capable of being lovable, which is the antithesis of the role, but I really want to see him play a malignant character.  I am sure he can pull off the right mix of hyper, and viscious.  It would be fun to see him play the human form, and also a motion captured CGI version.

Next up the furies!

She is shown at first as having her hair dyed in several wild colors.  Later she has a more muted red-brown hair, with just a single streak.  Her face is round and youthful, regardless of her eventual age.

My pick for the role is Amber Tamblyn.

She looks the part, and she could handle Rose’s sarcastic shell that protects her more vulnerable nature.

Nada is an African princess from an unspecified time period.  Pre recorded history, most likely.  She became involved with Morpheus, and it led to her down fall.  Despite the tragic turn her story takes, she has an innate strength of character, and dignity.

I’m going with Lauryn Hill to play her.

( I could not find a picture of Nada anywhere.)

She is best known as a musician and singer, but she has acted as well.  She looks a bit like Nada as drawn, but more importantly she projects the integrity inherent in Nada, as well as the charm that would captivate the Dream king.

Finally for today is Thessaly.  She is one of the more mysterious characters in the book.  It is implied that she is many centuries old, and that she is a witch.  She is also rather ruthless, or at the least not very concerned with politeness.  She usually knows more than she says about any given situation, and she doesn’t have much patience for those who know less than her.  She is depicted as being very petite, with brown hair, and a heart shaped face.  She usually wears round glasses that are too big for her face.

My choice for the part is Elisabeth Moss.

She is currently playing Peggy on Mad Men.  She can play shrewd, and intense, like nobody’s business.  It would be really fun to see her play intimidating.

Up next will be sundry gods and goddesses.

I think I’d cast Gary Oldman.

I don’t really have much to say for my reasoning behind the choice.  I just think he’s a good actor who looks good with a beard, and who seems comfortable with Shakespearian dialogue.

Hob Gadling is another character that didn’t appear often, but made quite an impression.  He is first seen in the fouteenth century, claiming that dying is for suckers.  Dream overhears this, and makes a deal with him.  Death won’t come for him until he decides he is tired of life.  Dream checks up on him once a century, and we get to see him go from rich man to beggar, and back again.  We see him happy with a full life and family, to a man that has outlived everyone he loved.  And regardless of his circumstances he always chooses to go on.

His physical appearance remains pretty much the same through out, just his clothes changing to match the times.  He is shown to have reddish brown hair and usually a beard.  My pick is Ewan McGregor.

For no other reason than I like him.  I think he is charming, and so is Hob.

Morpheus had a son named Orpheus.  And a couple of daughters named Blorpheus and Shmorpheus, I kid!  Orpheus is in fact the same Orpheus from the Greek myth Orpheus and Eurydice.  He actually has pretty pivotal role to play in the series, and it’s one I am loathe to spoil, so I won’t go into it too much.  He starts as a relatively carefree youth, but goes through a trauma that changes him a great deal.  His appearance is mainly of a nice looking young man, but with a haunted look in his eyes.

Who better for that than Matt Smith?

He is of course the latest actor to take up the mantle of the Doctor, and he’s done a bang up job of it.  He often comes across in the same scene, as very young boy and an old old man.  Which is just right for Orpheus.

Rounding out today’s post is Daniel Hall.  To say what Daniel’s role in the series is, would be to give away a major plot point.  So I won’t.  I’ll just say that he begins as an adorable human baby, and by the end he is neither a human or a baby.  So for the early scenes he should be cast with a beautiful, blue eyed baby , with curly blond hair.  For the later scenes I would cast Mitch Hewer.

He played the talented and impish Maxxie, on the first two seasons of Skins.  He has a very youthful, and sweet look, and is drop dead gorgeous.  Daniel needs to look innocent, but also wise.  I think Mitch would nail that.  And with that, I am officially out of pretty blond males.  This cast has taken them all!

Next post will probably involve important ladies.

Eve may be the biblical Eve, or she may not be, or both could be true.  She lives in a cave, and seems to have great knowledge and power.  She could have been the first woman.  Or a goddess of prehistory.  Or an old crotchety witch.  Or any of a number of other female archetypes.

Her appearance changed with each time she appeared in the series.  Sometimes she was an ancient crone, sometime a middle aged motherly type, and sometimes a beautiful voluptuous young maiden.

Since she always looked like the same woman, but at different ages, I would cast her with a single actress and put her in the appropriate aging makeup.

My choice is Christina Hendricks.

Eve is drawn as having black hair, but I’d rather keep her as a redhead, and hope the Sandman super-fans will forgive me.  Hendricks first impressed me on Firefly, where over the course of a single episode, she went from a naive farm girl, to a dangerous, seductive con artist.  She was equally convincing as both.  Lately she has been utterly mesmerizing as Joan on Mad Men.  It is one of the most nuanced performances on television.  She has been powerful, and also vulnerable.  Confidant, and also petty.  Charming, and also manipulative.  Sympathetic, and then repellent.  She owns every scene she’s in.

Fiddlers’ Green is unique in that he is actually a location.  An idyllic patch of land, that travelers, sailors in particular, often dream of.  Fiddlers’ Green decided one day to go traveling, himself.  He took a human form and set out to see the Waking World (which is what our world is referred to, in the Dreaming).  He took both the appearance, and general personality, of the prolific late nineteenth, early twentieth century, English author G.K. Chesterton.  He called himself Gilbert (which was Chesterton’s given name), and was genial, lovely man.  I didn’t know that he was based on Chesterton, when I first read Sandman.  In fact, I only learned it this afternoon, when I was reviewing the Sandman character page on Wikipedia.  I am just not as familiar with English fantasy authors as Neil Gaiman is.  Before today I had identified Gilbert as Teddy Roosevelt.

But the fact that he is English rather than American, works even better for for the actor I chose, Jim Broadbent.

Gilbert is an incredibly lovable, somewhat blustery, fellow.  Broadbent is very good at playing endearingly, bombastic men.

Finally there is the Corinthian.  The Corinthian is a nightmare.  Nightmares have just as much a place in the Dreaming, as any other dream.  He too escaped into the Waking World.  In which he became a serial killer that preyed on adolescent boys.  He is one of the most chilling characters I’ve ever come across.  He looks like a handsome, well built, blond man.  He almost always wears sunglasses.  That is because he doesn’t have eyes.  Where his eyes should be, he has two small mouths.  It is really creepy.

My choice for the part is James Marsters.

He has appeared in countless scifi and fantasy series.  Such as: Torchwood, Caprica, Smallville, but he is best known for playing Spike on Buffy, and later its spin off Angel.  He, like Hendricks, is a top rate scene stealer, but he manages to do it while making everyone he is playing against look better.  He has great comic timing, but also excels at imbuing his characters with depth.  He can go from broad physical comedy, to intense emotional soul barring, in the blink of an eye.  He is also capable of scaring the living daylights out of me.  Which is essential for the part.  But his range will also come in handy for some aspects of the Corinthian’s storyline, that I don’t want to give away.

I also want to put in a quick plug for Marsters’ audiobook narration of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series.  They are a blast.

Next time, some notable humans.

In Sandman all religions, and mythologies were welcome.  You could see Odin one eye, rubbing elbows with the Lords of Order and Chaos.  There were several denizens of Fairyland, that would come in and out of the narrative at their will.

The king and queen of Faerie’s appearances were few, but memorable. They came across as haughty, a touch petty, and very powerful.  They appeared of humanoid, but not human.  They are longer, and thinner than us.  Their faces are elfin.  Oberon has green skin and greenish white hair, and rams horns.  Titania has light blue skin, and dark blue hair.

My pick for Oberon would be Jude Law.

He played a character in the Talented Mr. Ripley, that was prettier than everyone else, and damn well knew it.  That is exactly the quality that is needed most for Oberon.

For Titania I’m going with Cate Blanchett.

She played an Elf queen in the Lord of the Rings, so she certainly has the look for it.  It would also be fun to see her playing a devious, self serving, fairy queen, to contrast with Galadrial’s almost angelic nature.

The most prominent fairy to grace the pages of Sandman, was Nuala.  She was sent to the Dreaming as an ambassador of Faerie.  Or so she thought.  She was actually sent as a gift to Morpheus, from the king and queen.  Morpheus had no interest in her, but as it is unwise to refuse a fairy gift, he allowed her to stay.

When she first appears it is as a stunning blond.  It is soon revealed that that is a glamour.  Her true appearance is a very petite, slightly awkward looking brunette.

For the glamoured version I propose January Jones.

I think the reasons are obvious.

For the non glamoured version, I’ll go with Emma Watson.

She has that new adorable pixie cut, and is tiny, and has plenty of experience playing awkward despite being gorgeous.

Nuala’s brother, Cluaracan, also frequently pops up in Sandman.  His personality can best be summed up as amusingly drunken, braggart.  He too, often wears the glamour of a tall, beautiful, blond.  His real appearance is more modest.

For his glamoured self I would go with Alexander Skarsgard.

He is best known as Eric on True Blood. Between the angels, the fey, and a few other characters coming up, I am exhausting my supply of pretty blond boys.

For the non glamoured version, I cast James McAvoy.

He could handle the comedy, as well as the slightly tragic aura that sometimes leaks through.  He isn’t a conventionally pretty boy, but he rocks what I like to call the homely hot factor.

Coming up, a few more dreams.

One of the most complex characters in the series is Lucifer.  So much so, that he was given his own long running spin off series.  His arc is one of the most surprising in the whole series, so I won’t go into it.  I’ll just describe his back story.  He was the light bringer, God’s most beloved Angel.  He decided that he didn’t like being a servant to his creator, so he led a rebellion of Angels.  They lost, and were cast out of Heaven.  They fell and became the residents and staff of Hell.  Lucifer became the Lord of Hell, also known as the Adversary.  He was fond of saying it was better to rule in Hell, than serve in Heaven.

This version of the Devil is erudite, calm, slick, and very dangerous.  He is drawn to look like the angel he once was, but with (for  lack of a better word) a certain edge.  His hair is sometimes shown as blond, sometimes as red.  His eyes are piercing, his cheekbones sharp.  Everything about him is sharp, including his taste in clothes.  He favors tuxedos, with a jaunty scarf, for accent.

Neil Gaiman apparently based him on David Bowie, and it’s hard to argue with that.  Except to say, I would not cast him.  Only for the reason, that I would find the fact that it was David Bowie playing a very David Bowie part, at this point in his career, distracting.

So instead I nominate Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

He already played a Bowie-esque character in the film Velvet Goldmine.  And he did it with great aplomb.  He’s also played sinister characters very well.  Most recently he played a self centered, hot tempered, king on the Tudors.

Lucifer had a demon lover, by the name of Mazikeen.  She was devoted to him, and she rules.  She is a badass!  And I kind of love her.  She has a very distinctive look, one that would have to be replicated with a lot of prosthetics, and probably CGI.  One side of her body looks like a beautiful brunette, the other is a twisted, mangled approximation of a human woman.  She is equally proud and confident with both.  My pick for her is Famke Janssen.

(This picture is taken from the Lucifer series, after Mazi’s “deformity” was corrected.  She was not at all pleased by that.  She continued to wear a mask over the side of her face where it had been.)

Famke is best known for playing Jean Grey in the X-Men films, but it was her turn as a sociopath on the first season of Nip/Tuck, that put her in my mind for Mazikeen.  I haven’t considered anyone else since.  She projected intense strength and intelligence in that part, even as she did super crazy stuff.

There were a couple of non fallen Angels in Sandman.  They were almost always together, so I will cast them as a team.  Remiel, was the mouthpiece of the two.  Only because Duma, the Angel of silence, never spoke.

They look very similar.  Slight, feminine, beautiful men, with curly blonde locks.

I would put Joe Anderson, as Remiel, and Eddie Redmayne, as Duma.

Anderson has played supporting parts in Across the Universe, and Becoming Jane.  He is very nice to look at, and he could properly convey the arrogance that is hiding under Remiel’s humble exterior.  I have only seen Redmayne in an adaptation of Tess of D’Urbervilles, in which he played a character named Angel.  That wasn’t what made me think of him.  There is something unusual about his face.  It isn’t necessarily ethereal, but it is otherworldly.  I think he could bring out the enigmatic quality, of Duma.  He is silent, but he is very present.

Coming next, faeries!

Possibly the most important is Lucien (at least in his role).  He is in charge of the library of the Dreaming.  It contains every book ever dreamed of, which includes books that were written, and books that were only ever written in the author’s head. That spy thriller you wrote two chapters of, lost interest in, then forgot it existed?  It’s there.  Want to read the version of Tale of Two Cities where Darnay gets guillotined, and Carton assumes his identity and gets the girl?  It’s there.

Lucien is Dream’s most trusted subject.  He is fastidious, loyal, and a touch snarky.  He is the Dreaming’s butler, professor, CEO, and nanny, all rolled into one.  He is tall, rail thin, with rust colored hair that sticks up in tufts.  He wears small wire framed glasses, and formal, slightly Victorian style suits.

My choice for the part isn’t actually an actor, and isn’t a perfect match physically, but he reminds me of Lucien in the way he carries himself.  Tim Gunn.

I could probably come up with an actor, that could do the job very well, but I like Tim.  He is my choice.  He feels like Lucien to me.

Next up is Cain, of Cain and Abel.  Aka the first murderer.  That is who he is more than the Cain of the bible, though he is that as well.  He is the first being that came into existence that took another being’s life.  When the story of Cain and Abel came into existence it was about him, and so he became Cain.

He is loud and aggressive, and sarcastic.  He is constantly going through the cycle of seeking out his brother for company, finding some flaw in him to pick at, going into a rage, and killing him.  Over and over again.  It is as much his function, as it is Destiny’s to observe it.  Despite his unpleasantness, I rather enjoy his scenes, when he isn’t killing Abel.  It helps that his victim, always gets up again (yet that also makes it worse, it’s complicated).  And his sardonic commentary on the action is pretty funny.

He is drawn as a tall man with brown hair, that sticks up in two points to give the illusion of horns (this hairdo is also known as the wolverine).  He has a beard, and dresses in shabby brown suits.

I would cast Christopher Eccleston as Cain.

He can play the manic energy, and the wit.  He also can work a homicidal glint in his eyes.  By the by, this cast list by the time it’s done, will include a lot of people from Whedonverse shows, a few more cast members from Skins, and likely Eccleston will not be the only Time Lord.

There needs to be an Abel to go with our Cain.  Abel is the first murder victim, to Cain’s first murderer.  He too is stuck in a cycle.  He can’t get away from his brother.  He desperately wants them to get along, but he knows  the inevitable outcome.  He is timid, and a stutterer, and has a tender heart, which he knows he has to conceal from Cain.  He is not capable of standing up for himself.  He is both adorably sweet, and cringe inducingly pathetic.

He is a short, stout man, with black hair, in a Wolverine cut of less prowess, and a goatee.  He too wears shabby suits, in blue.

I had a two top contenders for the part, both specialize in playing sad little men.  Ricky Gervais, and Paul Giamatti.  Gervais looks more like the character, but I think I’m going with Giamatti.  Gervais’ brand of SLM usually is not aware of how pathetic he is, while Abel knows all too well.  A Gervais character that is self aware loses some of the necessary patheticness.  On top of that Gervais has recently lost a great deal of weight, and looks too good to play Abel anymore.  Giamatti can do a self aware SLM, that is still a sad-sack.

(I had a lot of trouble finding pictures of Abel, and could only come up with this one of him recently murdered.  He does recover I promise.)

Next up, Angels, Demons, and the devil himself.

Likewise, the embodiment of Destruction is a laid-back, Zen-ish drifter.  Although he wasn’t always.  He had to work pretty hard to achieve calm.  Which doesn’t mean he used to be a rageaholic, by all evidence he was pretty gregarious.  I don’t want to go too much into his arc, because it us pretty interesting.  So I’ll just get straight to his physical description.  He is impossibly tall, and broad, with long red hair, and a beard.  According to the Sandman Companion, the early inspiration for his look, was the English actor Brian Blessed.  Who could open his mouth so wide when he laughed, that it looked like it took up his entire face.  He is still working, so he could concievably do the part, but he is in his seventies now, and looking older than Destruction ever did.  And Destruction’s final look never did look that much like Blessed.  My top choice is Adam Baldwin

Even more than casting Summer Glau as Death, casting Adam Baldwin as Destruction, would have the Whedonites rejoicing.  He has played any number of lovable, and not so lovable, sociopaths over the years.  Lately he has become beloved in the geek world for two roles, col. John Casey on Chuck, and Jayne Cobb on Firefly.  He is appropriately physically intimidating, for the part, and his hair could easily made the right color and length.  He is a very good actor, he could play both the exuberant Destruction of the flashbacks, and the more subdued one of the present.

Destiny is probably the least interesting of the Endless (at least to me).  He is also the only one not to have been created by Neil Gaiman.  He is a character that had been knocking around the DC universe since the early seventies.  He really doesn’t have much of a personality.  His job is to observe everything that happens, and make sure it goes down exactly as written in his book.  Which is pretty easy, as everything that happens, has happened, and will happen is written in the book.  Including him reading the book.  He doesn’t have opinions, or preferences, or emotions.  His main physical characteristic is a long brown cloak, with a hood that is always drawn down over his eyes.  Since his eyes are never shown, and he is described as being blind (although he still reads, and moves in a way that proves it is not a hindrance), it is possible that he doesn’t have eyes.  The other main feature, is the enormous book that is always chained to his wrist.

Given that you don’t see his face, and that he doesn’t need to posess much charisma, you could put just about anyone under the hood, and it would work.  So I’m going with Bill Nighy, just because I like him.

It almost seems a shame to hide that much charm under a cloak, but he can do restrained and aloof as well.  Maybe he can even manage to make the character a little less dull.

Up next a few prominent dreams.

I’m not going to link to the previous posts anymore since there are too many now.  They should all be available on the main page, or by clicking the tags.

Desire the concept is not solely about lust.  You can desire just about anything.  Lust is however desire, and the entity Desire seems to concern itself most with lust.  And it seems to derive pleasure from making people desire things that are not good for them.  It is safe to say that, while it is not specifically a woman, Desire is a petty bitch.  Get on its bad side, and it will make it its mission to take you down.  It holds grudges, and goes to great lengths to get revenge.  Usually manipulating things at a great distance, to keep its hands appearing clean.

Desire’s appearance is one of androgyny.  Most often looking like either a handsome woman, or a beautiful man.  Its clothing was often either menswear, when looked the most feminine, or fetish-wear, when it was more masculine.  The artists tended to make it resemble those nineties icons of gender blurring, Annie Lennox, and KD Lang, and occasionally David Bowie.

There is really only one actor in my mind that could pull it off, Tilda Swinton.

Not only does she favor a somewhat androgynous look in her personal style, she has already played a gender bending supernatural role, as the title character of Orlando.  She also demonstrated bone chilling maliciousness, as the White Witch in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Desire has a twin sister, Despair.  They aren’t twins in that they look alike.  Far from it.  They simply came into existence at the same time, and are often intertwined.  Desiring something too much can make you miserable.

While Desire the character, is almost entirely unsympathetic, Despair is not.  She does not wish to make people unhappy, it is simply her function.  Just as Death does not cause people to die, she just takes them when they do.  Despair embraces the miserable to her bosom, and drowns them in it, but it’s not out of viciousness.  In her own way, she is helping them.  She seems to have genuine affection for her twin, and a few of the other Endless.  And she seems to be a little lonely, since most non depressed people, do not wish to be anywhere near her.  And she tries to stay away, since as I said, she does not want to cause misery, it just leaks off her like radiation.  Just like being around Delirium, can make a person crazy.

Despair looks like a female sumo wrestler, if the sumo was the height and scale of a twelve year-old child.  Even if there is a person out there that fits that description, it would be a miracle if they also possess the acting chops to convey the nuance of the part.  So I am proposing hiring a very good actress, and then putting them in extensive makeup, and maybe augmenting it with visual effects.  My candidate is Judi Dench.

That is in no way a comment on her looks.  I think Judi Dench is gorgeous.  If I look half that good at half her age, I will be very happy.  She is such a good actress, that I think she can make the character sympathetic through the makeup, while still being very creepy.  In fact, the idea of lovely, warm Judi Dench, speaking in Despair’s skin crawling voice, and ripping at her flesh with a hook, sends wonderful shivers up my spine.

In the next post I will finish off the Endless, and we will see from there.

Read parts 1, 2, 3, and 4, by following the links.

It also makes her very difficult to cast. Like her fellow Endless, her appearance changes frequently.  Unlike the others, hers changes rapidly, often mid-scene, sometimes mid-sentence.  She has few consistent physical characteristics.  She most often looks like an adolescent girl, though occasionally looks as young as nine, or as old as twenty.  Her clothing is usually in tatters.  Her hair, is often a wild variety of unnatural colors, although sometimes it is partially, or completely shaved.  Her most consistent feature is that she has one blue, and one green eye.  However, the most reliable way to identify her is by her technicolor word balloons, and nonsensical dialogue.

In my last entry, I site the fact that Summer Glau’s breakthrough role on Firefly, had too much in common with Del (as she is affectionately referred to), to make her my choice for Delirium.  It would feel a bit like a repeat performance.

So I hesitated a little with my top choice for the part, Hannah Murray, because she has also portrayed, a spacey, vulnerable, occasionally dangerous, character.  She played the mentally ill, anorexic, Cassie, on the British, out of control teens drama, Skins.  I’m giving her the part though, because fewer people who would be going to see Sandman, would have already seen Skins, than would have seen Firefly.

She demonstrated on Skins, that she possess all the necessary skills to play Delirium.  She made Cassie, a character that could have been played for laughs, or as a freak show, into someone you couldn’t take your eyes off.  She had me constantly yelling at the screen, for someone to please pay attention to her, as she desperately needed help.  Anytime someone hurt her feelings, I felt it, and demanded vengeance.  And when she was happy, it was magic.  She managed to make me entirely invested in her safety, even when she was the one endangering it.  And she scared the bejesus out of me, in her darker moments.

She looks young enough, and with good wigs, and makeup, she can pull off Del’s ever-changing looks.  The effects department will have to work out how to add the frogs, fish, and or butterflies, that tend to manifest out of thin air, around her.

My alternate choice, should the imaginary studio require a bigger name, is another Whedon alum.  Sarah Michelle Geller.

The second image, is a portrait of Delirium, that I found in a book called Vertigo Visions.  The strong likeness of the Del in this picture, to Sarah Michelle, is what put her in my mind for the role.  The books dates it as having been done in 1995, two years before Buffy made her a household name.  It could be a coincidence, or the artist Sherilyn van Valkenburgh, could have spotted the then unknown (and at that point brunette) actress in something, and used her as the model.

Either way, I think she could handle the part.  She displayed a lot of versatility over her seven years as Buffy.  Displaying strength, and spunk, along side vulnerability, and introspection.  She is in her thirties now, but she is on the tiny side, I’m sure with the right costumes and makeup, she could be made to look the appropriate age.

Okay, that’s it for the major parts.  The next entries will be two or more characters each.  Starting I think, with the twins.

Click to read parts 1, 2, and 3.

However, she is one of the more consistent of them.  Her clothing does change according to the era, but for the most part, she is thin, pale, dressed all in black, with black hair, that is only slightly less messy than Dream’s.  She always wears an ankh, somewhere on her person, usually as a necklace.  And she has a black curlicue, under one eye.  She is most often seen wearing a black tank, and black jeans, and occasionally finishes it off with a top hat, and umbrella.

She is the most relatable, down to earth, member of the Endless, and she is probably the series’ most beloved character.  She is also the character that I have had the most trouble casting.  She has to be instantly likable, and yet formidable.  She has to be both glib, and insightful.  I kept coming up with actresses that worked in one aspect, and failed in another.  Natalie Portman, is cute enough, but I’m not sure she’d be able to convey the character’s power.  Angelina Jolie could cover the power, but is too intimidating.  Amy Adams, too cute, no edge at all.  Death had to be all of that and more.  She has to be someone who you’d actually be happy to see at your final moment.  I went back and forth.  I think I’ve finally got it.  Summer Glau

She is probably best known for her roles on two short lived Scifi series.  She played Cameron, a cyborg assassin, on The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  And on Firefly, she played River, a brilliant, psychologically damaged, young girl, made into a sleeper agent by the government.  She was so good at portraying River’s insanity, while also showing her vulnerability, and under lying danger, that I was considering her as the top contender for the part of Delirium.  But I felt that actually might be like casting her in the same part, especially since there is a big overlap in the audiences for Firefly, and Sandman.  Then as I was crossing out another name to play death, I remembered the charm, Glau brought to the role of River.  The fact that she moved with a preternatural grace.  The way she could deliver the strangest non sequitur, in way that made you think it would make perfect sense if you were just inside her head.  Most of all, the looks she gave to her big brother when he was being an idiot, would translate perfectly into the, affectionate yet exasperated, way Death relates to Dream.

Look at her here, imagine it as a top hat, and that’s our girl.

It doesn’t hurt that she bears a slight resemblance to Fairuza Balk.  Who at one point, I’m not sure if it’s still the case, had been set to play the part, in the film adaptation of Death the Time of Your Life.  Which was a spinoff miniseries of Sandman.  Considering the film was set to be directed by Neil Gaiman, it would be fair to say Fairuza is his top choice.

However, as popular as Summer may be with the geek community, it may be necessary to pick a bigger name, to get the movie made.  So under duress I would submit my next choice.  Zooey Deschanel.

She has been the winsome, indie, girl next door with an edge, du jour, for the past couple of years.  For good reason, she’s charming, and beautiful, and talented.  She’d be very good for the part, I just like Summer Glau a little bit more.

Coming up in part three, Delirium!

The most important part to cast is of course the Sandman himself.


Some background on the character, before I get to my casting pick(s). The Sandman of the title* is actually Dream the anthropomorphic embodiment of dreams. He is a member of the group of beings known as the Endless. Each of whom is the living representation of a universal concept, that happens to start with a D, in English. Some of the others are Death, Destruction, etc.

Dream has many names, all of which are either the word for dreams in another language or variations there of, or the name of the god or king of dreams from a specific culture. However he is most often referred to in Sandman, as Morpheus, so that is what I’ll call him from here on.

One of the qualities that all the endless share, is their tendency to shift their appearance depending on whom they are speaking to. For example when Morpheus had an affair, with an African Princess, he looked like an African Prince (albeit an African Prince with several of his more unique features). When he met with a house cat, he looked like a house cat version of himself. In those scenes, the casting would have to be done accordingly.

But, for the most part Morpheus looks like a very pale, thin man, with messy black hair that defies gravity. And eyes, that are depicted as pieces of the night sky, with stars shining out of them. Not an easy look to find in nature.

My top pick for the part, is a little known actor, named Peter Wingfield.  He recently had a small part on Caprica, but he caught my attention, over a decade ago, when he got a prominent part on the television series Highlander. Which was a surprisingly good adaptation of the silly Highlander movies. Peter played an immortal named Methos. He was at least five thousand years old, and often came across as morally ambiguous. He did a great job of projecting the character’s age, despite his youthful appearance. A trait that will be useful for playing Morpheus, who is only slightly less old than existence itself. He also would be able to portray the character’s humanity, along with his other-worldliness. Beside that he just looks the part to me. Morpheus was most often depicted as having a long, angular face. As does Peter.

(And look how good he is with the naughty smirk! Not a skill he would really be able to put to use in the part. Morpheous’ default expressions, are mope, and scowl.)

He can even pull off the ridiculous hair, without looking a complete prat.

(Well not too much, at least.)

The only drawback in my mind is how little well know he is. Which I don’t really consider a drawback, as I think the role benefits from there not being any baggage being brought in by the actor. However my imaginary studio bosses probably would not see it that way.

So when they say, “This simply won’t do! No one has heard of this guy! We need a name for the poster.”

I will stomp my feet, and storm out of the meeting, and hold my breath until I turn blue. And when I have picked myself off the floor, after realizing that they could not care less if I died of asphyxiation, I would submit my alternate choice. Guy Pearce.

He has the bone structure, and the liquid eyes the part calls for. While his resume carries some stinkers, such as The Count of Monte Cristo, and the Time Machine, in both of which he came across as rather wooden. He was impressive in both Memento, and the Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Dessert. Which shows some range. Although neither part had much of the Dream king in them. Still, at least he’s a recognizable name.**

Stayed tuned for part three, where I try to conquer Death! Er, I mean find a suitable actress to fill the part. Sounds more dramatic the first way!

*There are two other Sandmen that appear over the course of the series. They are both DC comics heroes that have used the title in the past.

**Phooey, Methos forever!

To start off with it, it is seemingly impossible to film.  The story is long, taking ten years, and seventy-five issues to tell, not including spin offs, and follow ups.  Trying to compress that into a single, or even several two hour movies, would be very difficult.  Beyond that, it is a story that jumps around in time, and space, and worlds (Faerie, other planets, heaven, hell, and most often dreams).  It often requires a strong background in history, mythology, religion, and DC comics, to fully understand.  And it sports a cast of characters that number in the hundreds, many of whom are important, to the tale as a whole, and absolutely essential to their small part of the story.  In short it is a story that has already been told, in the best way it could be.

Still in the right hands it could be done.  There could be someone out there, talented enough to simplfy that complex narrative into something satisfying, that still holds the charm and beauty of the original.  And we would all still have the comics for when we wanted the real thing.

The bigger issue in my mind, is how integral to the story, the art is.  Not just because, it being a comic, all the action is drawn, but because of how the various artists chose to interpret it.  The artist usually changed every time a new story arc started.  Which meant the characters often looked different each time you saw them.  Which gave the reader a fresh perspective on them.  Many of the characters appearance changed according to whom they were speaking to, or where they were, at any given time.  Which could get very confusing, if it was attempted on film.

The main reason I don’t want it filmed, is because I love it so much.  Anything short of brilliant would be heartbreaking.  And there is so much potential for failure.  I have often said if it was made into a movie, I’d boycott it , just to spare myself the agony of seeing what was done with something I hold so dear.  That is a lie, though.  I would absolutely see it.

Partly because I want to support, Neil Gaiman and all the artists that worked on it, by paying for a ticket, and hoping a little of the money gets back to them, after the theater, the studio, the director, the cast and crew, all get their cut.  Mainly, on the off chance, that somehow it turns out like that other beloved franchise, that people claimed was utterly unfilmable, Lord of the Rings.  Even though those films were not a direct page by page adaptation of the books, most fans agree that Peter Jackson got it right nevertheless.  And it caused many people to buy and read the books, that likely would not have otherwise.  If the Sandman movie did the same for the comics, more the better.

No, I could not resist seeing it.  Although I am totally one of those assholes, who would complain loudly afterward, if it was bad.  Actually, I doubt I could wait until the end, I would likely  jump to my feet, screaming “No! No! No!” the second the credits read, “and Jennifer Lopez* as Death.” And I would keep screaming the whole two hours, or until I was asked to leave.  I’m not proud of it, but it would happen.

I am also the type of person who loves coming up with fantasy casts, for movies that haven’t been made yet.  I seriously once stayed up most of the night, coming up with the ideal cast for a production of Pride and Prejudice, as done by a mix of humans and Muppets.

Which brings me to the point of this long winded post.  I have decided to do a series of posts, in which I pretend that by some twist of fate, I am a bigwig, hotshot casting director, who has been tasked with putting together the cast for the hypothetical Sandmam movie.  I will do individual  posts for each of the major characters, and subsequent posts will have two or three of minor characters lumped together.  We will see how far I get, before running out of steam.  I will try to avoid divulging too many details of the character’s fates, for anyone reading who has not yet read Sandman, but still may.  And if you like comics at all, I suggest giving it a try.

My pick for the person to play Morpheous, will be coming either later today or tomorrow.  I will choose my directer right now.  The only director I think could do the project justice, would actually be the combined forces of Guillermo del Toro, Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, and Alfonso Cuaron.

*I actually don’t universally hate Jennifer Lopez.  She was very good in Out of Sight.  She just should under no circumstances be cast as Death.

Angela and Marty also share their experience seeing a very sneak preview of the movie RED, which is based on a short comic series by the same name written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Cully Hamner.

Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #045 (105 MB, 114 minutes)

The two standouts from my pull this week, both featured redheads on the covers.  In fact the covers were so similarly composed, that I kept mistaking one for the other, when flipping through my stack.  I had a brief moment of shock when I realized Fables has been running for over eight years.  I need to give it some props, because in that time it has rarely dipped in quality.  I think people have basically come to expect that it will be excellent, and therefore have stopped writing about when it is.  I am really enjoying the current arc, it is focusing on the relationship between Rose Red and Snow White, and clarifying how Snow White went from the happy young peasant girl, with a loving mother and sister, to the orphaned only child princess, with an evil stepmother.  It also shows what caused the rift between Rose and Snow, something that has been alluded to since issue one.  I’ve seen some complaints, that these issues have drawn the the focus from, (and have very little to do with) the overarching plot of the dark being that has taken over Fabletown.  That is entirely true, but I don’t mind really.  I am just as interested in the dynamics of these two sisters, that are essentially the heart of the series.  I trust that Willingham will take us back to the main plot, in his own time, and perhaps by the conclusion of the interlude, it won’t turn out to be as disconnected as it may now seem.

Scarlet is the new creator owned series by Brian Michael Bendis, and Alex Maleev, who previously teamed up for Daredevil.  I picked it up partially because I had really liked their run on Daredevil (I know I was harsh the last time I wrote about Daredevil, but that was because I felt it had gotten repetitive), but mainly because I really liked Bendis’ last series starring a female protagonist, Alias.  So far the heroine of Scarlet (who is named Scarlet) seems to have almost as much of a messed up past Jessica Jones, but it has put her on a more proactive path, than Jess.  She gets violent, where Jess just got drunk.  Scarlet’s story is told by Scarlet, and she breaks the fourth wall by talking right to the audience.  In fact it is almost unfair to say the fourth wall gets broken, because it never really seems to exist at all.  She is speaking to us nearly the entire issue.  It is an intriguing first issue, the character is instantly compelling, and the art is gorgeous.  I am looking forward to seeing where the story goes.

The Unwritten

Thursday Next

Fables

The Magicians

Harry Potter

Books of Magic

Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #041 (37 MB, 120 minutes)

watch it on youtube

Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War (Vol. 1, 2, etc.)
Saturday, May 16th 3PM
Florence & Marty’s apartment

It is brilliant! And not that implausible, I recall cartoons being made from innapropriate source material pretty regularly, although none of them spring to mind just this second.

Also It’s Just Some Random Guy has been doing a Watchmen series as well.
Random guy watchmen #1
random guy watchmen #2
random guy watchmen #3

Regardless of how I felt of the movie, the release has wrought these and that is good.

Most of the comics I read come from the library, which really is an incredible resource for trades and even single issues.  I champion the library whenever I get the chance, showing people proudly that the trade paperback I’m reading came from one.  ”Libraries carry comic books?” they say, incredulously.  ”Why, yes!” I reply, telling them that I usually have fifteen or twenty checked out at any given time.  Sometimes, however, that comes back to bite me on the ass, like when I have to plow through three JLA trades in two nights because they’re coming due in the next couple of days, and I’m unable to renew them, because someone else has one of them on reserve.  I grit my teeth, though, and look at the bright side: people are looking for comics at the library, and requesting them.  So while I usually like to read several different series, usually from different companies, sometimes I get quite a long stretch of a single title all at once.

This run of JLA finished out Mark Waid’s time with the team, followed by an issues by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty, and now I’m well into Joe Kelly’s run.  Grant Morrison is definitely a tough act to follow.  Waid is decent, following up on Batman’s betrayal, with a storyline developed from a single line of dialogue, with half the league split from their own alter egos, playing off of what seems to be a throwaway line of dialogue.  And another line of dialogue in this storyline becomes the basis for the next one, the return of the white martians.  Waid’s entire run is very tight, practically interwoven together.  Dixon and Beatty’s issue is part of the Joker’s Last Laugh crossover.  I picked up that trade recently from the library, expecting a standalone Joker story, not realizing that it crossed into practically every title in the DCU.  Interestingly, the asterisks had been left in letting me know where I could find some of the other stories that crossed into Last Laugh.  Something which the JLA trades, and indeed most comic trades don’t seem to do.  I’ve always thought this a little weird, as it would be a great promotional tool to get people to buy other trades.  Is it that they figure people will be frustrated at not having the referenced comics immediately at their disposal?  These are comics!  For years, the asterisk was the starting point of a treasure hunt which had us wading through longboxes at comic shops and conventions, and staring longingly at backissues protected by mylar pinned up on the shop walls.  The lack of notes is particularly annoying during Kelly’s run, which ran during DC’s Our World at War crossover.  Events are mentioned about Wonder Woman not being a princess any more, Aquaman vanishing, and for some reason, the artist draws Superman’s emblem as red on black, rather than red on yellow.  But there are no notes telling you where you could read more about what happened.  Again, I feel a little hypocritical complaining about this, especially when I have all of the internet at my disposal to do research, but would it hurt to have an asterisk or some sort of annotation going on?  If you’ve never read it, the Annotated Crisis on Infinite Earths is a joy.  Such scholarship went into that, noting just about every character in every one of George Perez’s drawings.  Kudos to that effort, as well as the online annotations for just about everything Grant Morrison has ever written.

All of that said, I’m mostly enjoying Kelly’s run.  He brings up some interesting themes, such as Wonder Woman’s dependence on her lasso as a source of truth, and what happens when she vehemently disagrees with that truth.  I’m in the middle of The Obsidian Age arc, featuring the Justice League of 3000 years ago.  Here, he’s turning the moral table on the JLA, it appears, making them face what role they have in a completely foreign morality.  It seems a lot like a prelude to Justice League Elite, which he wrote a few years later, again drawn by Doug Mahnke, the artist on these JLA issues.  I wasn’t a big fan of Mahnke in JLE, and I’m still a little disturbed by his proportions and style here.  He does a good job at making people look unhealthy, and he seems a little obsessed with bugs and veins.  From the notes section of The Obsisdian Age, I discovered that Mahnke is from Minnesota.  I wonder if I’ve seen him at any of the conventions around here.

According to this interesting article, WB and 20th Century fox have finally reached a settlement, and the movie should come out as scheduled (March 6th). We’ll see! (The article also contains a bunch of other interesting comic news, including DC folks getting laid off.)

X-Force 1-6 (new series)
Cable 1-2 (new series)
She-Hulk 26-30
X-Factor 30-32 and The Quick and the Dead
JLA 51-54

I have to start off by saying that I’ve never really liked Cable. Not now and not when he led X-Force. Not drawn by Ariel Olivetti and definitely not drawn by Rob Liefeld. I’m also not a huge fan of X-Force, coincidentally most identified with Rob Liefeld. I can’t say that what I’m currently reading has given me any great joy either. Both of the runs I’m reading now are part of the X-Men: Divided We Stand non-crossover. I’m actually being something of a hypocrite, in that I’m only reading them (in trades from the library) because X-Factor crosses into Secret Invasion and since the X-Factor trade I just finished is also part of Divided We Stand, I’ll read the rest of the related series. I say I’m a hypocrite, because when people say that they don’t want to read this series, or this crossover or comics from this company, because there’s too much background, or too much continuity, or they don’t want to have to know the past 50 years of comics, I gently scoff. And now, before diving headlong into Secret Invasion, I’m reading series I have no interest in, just to keep up with what’s going on. That’s kind of what I’m doing with She-Hulk, as well, although I’m more likely to have an interest in continuing on reading the Jade Giantess, afterwards.

Peter David is writing both She-Hulk and X-Factor (maybe he likes hyphens).The two series have a similar theme, in that they both cross into the crime genre: X-Factor is a detective agency, and She-Hulk along with her partner Jazinda (a skrull who currently doesn’t seem to be involved with the invasion) are bounty hunters. I’m definitely enjoying X-Factor more, though, than the “buddy film” adventures that She-Hulk is having.  It’s almost like David is having a better time writing these characters, than revisiting Gammaville.

Coincidentally, I also finished off a JLA trade: Divided We Fall.  As the X titles are all about what happens when Cyclops decides the X-Men are no more, this chapter of JLA is about what happens when DC’s greatest team has an irrepairable rift.  While the X-Men experience their disillusionment in the destruction of both the school and the near-fatal shooting of Professor X, the JLA’s wounds come from within, from Batman’s secret files on the rest of the heroes, specifically how to take them out.  All of that happened in the previous arc, where a villain gains knowledge of these vulnerabilities.  Now, the JLA has to decide whether they’re going to be able to function any more without their inherent trust.  Going back and reading all of this, after having read Identity Crisis, Infinite Crisis, and everything else that’s come after it, I can see how much has really been building for the past decade in DC.  This is a good example of what I was talking about.  I didn’t have to have read the JLA to enjoy the later stories, and going back now, it show just how much more of a tapestry everything is.  The threads have been there, and my noticing them now, makes it a much richer design.