Maus as directed by Julie Taymor.  Maus is a masterpiece.  It’s the only comic to win the Pulitzer for literature.  And it’s probably unfilmable.  But if it ever is, Taumor is probably the only director who could pull it off.  I know her last comic adaptation, the Spider-man musical, didn’t work out so well, but Maus is far more in her wheelhouse.  Most of her work both on screen and stage has dealt with death and or tragedy.  She often uses masks and puppets to create moving and effective imagery, dealing with some of the darkest aspects of the human experience.  Maus is a holocaust survivor’s story as told by his son.  The Jews are depicted as anthropomorphized mice and the Nazis are cats.  Masks are a running motif throughout the comic.  Maus isn’t really a project I see movie producers clambering to make happen, but I’d be fascinated to see it.

Y the Last Man as directed by JJ Abrams.  In YLM a mysterious plague kills every male person and animal on Earth except for one man and his pet monkey.  The comic follows the last man on earth as he and a few companions travel through the ruins of society (the loss of half the world’s population overnight, caused some serious chaos) trying to figure out what happened.  This is complicated by the fact that he is the most valuable commodity on the planet, and is pursued by numerous governments and organizations.  JJ Abrams is one of the most successful television creators in recent memories.  He has a hand in such diverse projects as Lost, Felicity, Alias, and Fringe.  He’s recently had big screen success with Super 8 and the Star Trek reboot.  He’s got the chops when it comes to action, as well as suspenseful conspiracies (aside from pretty much all of the later seasons of Alias).  What he’s really good at is getting you really invested in characters in the midst of some crazy circumstances, and while the premise of YLM was great, what made it a must read were Yorick, Agent 355 and Dr. Mann.

Death as directed by Neil Gaiman.  Technically I’m cheating here.  At one time Neil was set to direct an adaptation of his comic Death the Time of Your Life.  But it seems to have fallen by the wayside.  I would love to see it revived.  Gaiman’s Death is one of the most original and compelling characters to come out of comics in the last twenty years.  And if anyone can get an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s work right, it’s Neil Gaiman.

Fables as directed by Peter Jackson.  Fables is a big story, it’s been running for over a decade and more than a hundred issues.  There are hundreds of major characters and thousands of secondary characters.  I actually don’t want to see a direct adaptation (although I think Jackson could handle it).  The Fables universe is expansive.  I’d like to see an original story set in the Fables universe, featuring some of the less used characters (like what creator Bill Willingham did in the Fables novel Peter and Max).  Jackson have proven that he can create fully realized fantasy worlds.  And he’s done darker stories.  I think he can balance humor, magical elements of the series, while not shying away from it’s creepy side.  I know he’d give us a fairy tale that didn’t reek of Disney.

Runaways as directed by Joss Whedon.  What?  You didn’t think I’d let Joss get away with directing only one comic book movie, did you?  Runaways is one of my all time favorite super hero comics (though the kids in Runaways aren’t traditional super heroes).  With a bunch of sarcastic, smart, angsty, pop culture reference making teenagers with superpowers at its center, Runaways felt like a spiritual successor to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Whedon was such a fan that he wrote an arc of the series after creator Brian K. Vaughan left.  Joss is the only choice to direct in my opinion.  It must happen.  But I’ll be generous and let Joss finish up promoting the Avengers, film  the next two films in the Big Damn Serenity Trilogy, and the Dr. Horrible sequel, and and Goners, and finally give us the long promised Ripper tv series, before he starts work on Runaways.  I’m nothing if not considerate.

batman

superman

spider-man

You can see details of each one here.

Part of the cast was on hand at the Disney Expo thingy this weekend, where they showed four minutes of footage from the upcoming Avengers movie. I haven’t been able to find a video of it online, but here is a good description of it, as well as an article about the event.

I’m excited for the movie, mainly because it’s being written and directed by Joss Whedon. I don’t think it’s a secret that I love just about everything he’s done and it feels like there hasn’t been much output from other than a few issues of Buffy season eight, since Dollhouse went off the air. That would be because he’s been busy prepping a major tentpole motion picture. I think it has the potential to be fantastic. In his one previous big screen work Serenity, he delivered exciting action sequences that furthered the plot,while not losing sight of the characters, while also giving them strong emotional arcs and some really fun dialog. That is exactly what I want out of the Avengers.

I havent seen any of the movies introducing the individual team members, except the first Iron Man. Which I quite enjoyed. I think it’s a shame that the core of the team has been established and cast already, I would have liked some Whedon regulars in the cast. As it is the closest we’ve got to a Whedon connection is Cobie Smulders, whose How I Met Your Mother castmate Neil Patrick Harris starred in Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. At least as far as we know. Maybe he’ll find places for Nathan Fillion, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Summer Glau, Alyson Hannigan, Adam Baldwin, and Felicia Day. Yeah, that’s a super team I would get behind.

(the poster is most definitely not an official poster, but it the best of the fan made ones I saw.  I could not find an artist to credit it to.  If anyone knows, leave it in the comments and I’ll include it.)

This is apparently a picture of Theodore Roosevelt, taken when he was attending Harvard.   I’ll take the internet’s word for it, but all I can see is Wolverine.

I never went to college, let alone Harvard, so I’ll leave it to someone else to determine if this is evidence that it has changed a lot, or not at all since then.

In the Marvel universe Luke is the hero known as Power Man.  In Alias, while he is still Power Man, he mainly plays the part of Jess’ occasional ally, and hookup.

I’ll let Florence put it in her words, whom she would cast.

Luke Cage= Tyr from Andromeda. My favorite gorgeous deadpan Nietzschian must return to the screen. I’m sure the actor could portray some genuine emotion in his relationship with Jessica, but his default badassitude would be perfect.

I could not agree more.  The The actor in question, is Keith Hamilton Cobb.   He definitely can play a total badass, and he can smolder to boot.   And he has the superhero physique, as well.   This pick is so good, that I am not offering any alternative.  Though I would love to hear anyone else’s suggestion, in the comments

And she would have no problem portraying the Jess’ youthful exuberance, in flashbacks to her more innocent Jewel days. (Just noticed I cast an actress named Jewel to play a character code named Jewel, that is imaginative of me).  I have not seen her in many roles outside the “verse” , so I don’t know what kind of a range she has, but she endeared herself to me so much as Kaylee, that I want to see her carry a series, even if I’m not entirely certain she can pull off Jessica acerbic wit. (Although she did manage to make Simon to feel like a moron, more than once).

My next two choices on the other hand, would have no problem with that aspect of the character.

Caroline Dhavernas, was the lead on another series that was cancelled far too early.  If Firefly’s run was short, then Caroline’s show Wonderfalls’, was microscopic.  Only three episodes ever aired on network television.  Luckily around twelve episodes of this quirky, funny, and often touching but not cloying, show were filmed, and they were released on DVD.  (Coincidentally Jewel Staite guest starred on a few episodes).

As the main character Jaye, Caroline displayed a talent for the biting, yet deadpan delivery, which is just how Jessica sounds in my head.  While Jaye was just naturally antisocial, rather than having become so due to a trauma, I have confidence that Caroline could convey that she was covering up a deep secret.  She is about to debut in the cast of Shonda Rhymes’ new show Off the Map, which is one of the reasons I plan to watch it, but if that show doesnt take off, or even if it does, she would be perfect in the part of Jessica.

Like the my other picks, I am shocked that my final choice has not had a bigger career.  She is incredibly talented.  Alicia Witt has been working steadily since she was fourteen years-old, yet she is not a household name.  She has been in projects as varied as the family drama Friday Night Lights, the sitcom Cybill, and the scifi epic Dune.

She is probably closer to the age that Jessica is meant to be in the comic, than the other two.  (Though who knows if the network, would want a heroine as old as, [gasp!] thirty-five).  And since she  has been in the business for so long, she could probably relate to Jess’ loss of innocence, and idealism, about her chosen profession.  Despite no longer being a twenty-something ingenue, she is absolutely stunning.  Which I’m sure would help grease the wheels of casting.  Plus she too is a master of the dead pan delivery.

Here is quick side by side of each.  Got a favorite among them?  Or your own pick?

So those are my top picks.  Any ideas about who should be the supporting cast?  Anyone out there scream Luke Cage to you?  Or Miss Marvel?

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.

-Matt is doing what it takes to protect the city. But he’s going too far! But what choice does he have!
-The Kingpin is gone. Now he’s back! But he’s powerless. But he’s secretly pulling all the all the strings!
-Matt needs a personal life or he’ll go crazy. But being daredevil is putting them all in danger! But if he dosen’t have a personal life he is not a person! But they’re all going to die!

I read the first issue of Andy Diggle’s run, and it looks like more of the same.

Sorry DD it’s over. Call me if you get a fresh perspective.

Annihilation Books 1, 2, 3
Saturday, July 11th 1PM
Florence & Marty’s apartment

Jason points out that, in all those characters, he could only find one same-sex relationship in the whole map, and two same-sex crushes.

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.

Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #030 (26 MB, 57 minutes)

This month we’ll be reading’s Mike’s selection: Thor #1-600 (it actually covers only 13 issues because of their crazy numbering logic).

Thor #1-600, J. Michael Straczynski
Saturday, March 14th 3PM
Florence & Marty’s apartment

I adore Julie Taymor and her entirely unique twisted dynamic view, so I can’t wait to see this show. They have cast Evan Rachel Wood as Mary Jane. I loved her as a young lesbian on ‘Once and Again’, and I thought she did a decent job in Julie Taymor’s ‘Across the Universe’.  No casting for Peter Parker yet, but they’re supposed to start rehearsing in the fall and debut in January 2010.

I am too lazy to do the research myself, maybe you guys can help me figure out,  whatever happened to…?

1) Serenity: the Shepherd’s Tale.  When Dark Horse announced this three issue mini series  that would finally document Shepherd Book’s past, they said it would be out Fall 2008.  I have yet to see it listed in there upcoming lists.

2)Savant and Creote.  Gail Simone’s run on Bird’s of Prey produced some very cool new characters, such as Black Alice, and Misfit, both of whom are still showing up in the series pages.  However my favorite, the duo of Savant and Creote have completely disappeared.   Savant is a highly intelligent, extremely unstable, misogynist pretty boy.  Creote  is his extremely loyal bodyguard/manservant/sidekick/husband?  Despite the fact that their first appearance involved them holding Black Canary prisoner, Oracle was able to turn them into allies and ably used their skills to help her ever growing team.  Savant eventually fled since Oracle’s reforming of him had seriously disturbed his calm, Creote being completely devoted of course went with him.  I assumed they would be back at some point, but that was the last I saw of them.  I hope some writer revives them.  They might make an interesting addition to Gail’s own Wonder Woman run.

3) The next arc of Sky Doll.  Sky Doll was probably my favorite discovery  of last year.  I even bought the hardback trade when it was released even though I knew there was no material in it other than the contents of the three issues already published.  I want to collect it as books.  I am dying to know what happens next, but there has been no sign of when Marvel will bring out the second series.

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.

So far I haven’t read much of Secret Invasion, although on the way back from Wizard World Chicago I caught up with The Initiative. Today, I started with an online checklist I found, reading Mighty Avengers #13, New Avengers #40, and Avengers: The Initiative #14. I know I’m a bit behind the times with these, but I wasn’t really interested in starting this until stuff started to be available in trade, or I was able to borrow them from a friend en masse. The stuff I’ve heard so far makes it seem that Secret Invasion itself will be much better read in one sitting…or at least not having to wait month by month.

So far, we just have the paranoia setting in, with no one knowing who is a skrull, except for 3-D Man. It’s kind of awesome how this character is getting a prominent role. I admit that I love it when minor characters are brought to the fore, like in Agents of Atlas and Shadowpact. Reading them in bunches like this, the art and writing tend to give me a bit whiplash, with such different styles as Bendis and Slott, Maleev, Gage, and Cheung.

I started the X-Factor: The Only Game in Town trade, reading issues 28 and 29, and finished off the latest collection of Legion of Super-Heroes, featuring the return of Jim Shooter. Quite a contrast in these two series, X-Factor keeping with the hard-boiled style started in the initial Madrox mini-series, and Legion spanning the galaxy with plenty of giant monsters and sci-fi action. Peter David is a bit more enjoyable to read than Jim Shooter right now, although I admit to a bit of bias against Shooter and his anti-gay edict when he was Editor in Chief of Marvel. I notice that Shooter lays it on a bit thick with Invisible Kid’s attraction to Giselle. I wonder if that has anything to do with the gay relationship between Lyle and Chemical King, and then later with Brainiac 5, in various iterations of the title. I am happy that Shooter ended the Lightning Lad being over his head in charge scenario; it was getting pretty tiresome and repetitive, and a little bit trite that he didn’t have any sort of assistant, computerized or otherwise. Come to think of it, both Lightning Lad and Madrox were feeling the burdens of leadership in these issues, but on different scales. Both of their teams are going up in flames, they both feel like things are out of their control, but they’re being blamed for it all. I’m also happy to see the return of Arcade. I feel I should’ve recognized his touch earlier, but I was surprised to see him appear when I turned the page. The cane is a bit Riddler-esque, but I love his Space Invaders socks. Nice touch with the Vote Saxon stickers as well. Everyone really does watch Doctor Who now, don’t they?

In The Punisher presents: Barracuda #2 (written by Garth Ennis, drawn by Goran Parlov), there’s a throwaway line when Barracuda sees a former fellow inmate on a first class flight to a banana republic.  Digby, the former inmate who is shaking in his boots at seeing Barracuda confesses that he now works for Hart Consolidated, who sent him on the trip to look into someone’s financials.  Barracuda says that Hart’s one of the biggest outfits in the country, why would they hire a fraud like Digby?

Anyone know what Hart Consolidated is a reference to?  And the name Digby?

What I found somewhat fascinating about this issue is that out of 24 pages (counting the cover), half of the pages consist of little more than a single large drawing.  Six of the pages are double-spreads of the Avengers battling Doombots.  A few others have small ancillary panels, but again, the primary art is one large drawing.  The drawings are quite detailed.  Lots of action is occuring in them.  But without a doubt, this is the “blockbuster action flick” of comics recently.  It’s like the last hour of Transformers.  Talk about your decompressed storytelling!  Six pages in a row of just enormous battle scenes.  It’s like a pin-up magazine rather than a comic.  I really wonder what people who plopped down three bucks for this thought, especially knowing that they would then have to wait another month to get the next issue.  Having got it from the library, I feel like I got the better end of the deal.

I haven’t looked up any other reviews of the comic yet, or any kind of response from Bendis on the message boards, but just looking at this comic as a single entity, you get the feeling that he may have been a little overworked at the time, and told Bagley to fill up some pages with fighting.

I am enjoying what I’m reading of Mighty Avengers so far, except I keep waiting for someone to say “Bwah ha ha!”  Iron Man’s repartee with Doom in the next issue is hugely reminiscent of the dialogue from the ’80s Justice League series, which is not a bad thing.  Super-hero comics could definitely use a bit more humour these days, in my opinion.

I bought the comic and started reading it. There were all these new characters who were about my age, and they had powers. The girls were having a slumber party, and the boys had been to a ball game. It was set at some boarding school, and there were a bunch of other characters who I also didn’t know. There were references to past events that I had no idea about, like Dani being in a wheelchair.  And then the weird stuff really started happening.  Some really strange looking black and white alien robot shows up and starts acting like a vampire, draining the life from organic things.  The blond girl materializes a sword and armor and pops in and out of holes that appear in the air.  One of the girls turns into lava and another turns into a wolf.  And there was a dragon!  And I loved it.  I couldn’t wait to read the next issue and then go back and find the back issues.  I think I ended up getting a package containing the first 20 issues for Christmas that year.  I had no idea who these people were or what was going on, but that just excited me to find out more.  It was expected that I would catch on by jumping into the deep end of this book, even though I was only 13.

There is no way this comic could make it out the door today. There is no synopsis page telling the “story so far”.  It’s not a “jumping on point.”  I guess my point is this: give people, and specifically kids more credit and don’t worry so much about comics being accessible to new readers.  If the stories are good, if they’re well-written, if they’re compelling, if the characters are intriguing, readers will yearn to learn more.  You don’t have to give it all to them on the first page.  When I bought New Mutants #21, there were no trade paperbacks collecting the issues virtually as fast as they came out.  There was no wikipedia to look things up on.  I suppose you could argue that there were message boards in the form of a BBS, but not the way there is today.  There was virtually no way for me to find out who these characters were aside from learning more about them each month, and seeing if I could find the back issues someplace.  But I didn’t care!  I loved learning about them bit by bit, and filling in the missing puzzle pieces where I could.

At some point, the comics industry lost sight of this, and it seems like they now feel that the only way to sell people on comics is to make sure no one ever gets lost, no one feels like they won’t know what’s going on from the beginning.  I constantly hear people complain about continuity, and how it’s impossible to know what’s going on unless you’ve read 20 years of this or that comic.  I’d say that’s only true if the writer isn’t doing their job, and by that, I don’t mean filling the reader in on 20 years of continuity.  I mean the writer isn’t telling a good story in that issue which makes the reader more interested in finding out more about who all these characters are and their histories.  It’s so easy to find that out today, too.  It’s practically impossible to find a comic character that doesn’t have their own page someplace on the Internet.  A friend recently linked me to a website devoted to international super-heroes (he loves the Phillipino ones).  Everything you need to know to follow along with Final Crisis, or Secret Invasion, or even the latest happenings in Duckburg is all there.  Maybe along the way, we as readers got a bit lazy too, after having everything spoonfed to us.

If anything comes of this mild rant, I hope that people will go and find a random comic on the shelf, doesn’t matter what issue number and give it a chance.  Find one where you like the cover, where something speaks to you, and pick it up and read it.  Even though you’ve never heard of these characters, even though you don’t know everything that’s happened to them.  Read it.  And hopefully you’ll feel what I felt reading New Mutants #21 when I was 13.

Listen to ReadComics.org Podcast Episode #013 (28.4 MB, 62 minutes)

I probably can’t say much that hasn’t already been said about this. A couple of observations I had: I probably liked this more than I would have otherwise due to the relatively “adult” art and themes. Marvel’s cover of issue #3 (the image in this post) “airbrushes” out the nipples on the android lead. (You can see the original without too much trouble by searching over at the comic book db.) The art really is amazing, and more of his sexy art can be found on Alessandro Barbucci’s blog, which is maybe a third or fourth in english. While we’re on the subject of blogs you can’t read, there are other interesting tidbits to be found on Barbara Canepa’s blog, the author of the series. She does post (rarely) in english, but as I said, there are visual tidbits to be found as well.

Sky-Doll really left me wanting more. I can’t help but wonder when the rest of the series will be translated into English, and maybe what I can do to speed along that process.

Young Avengers: Sidekicks by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung.

I wasn’t a reader of the Avengers, but I understand the basic makeup of their team– Iron Man, Thor, Captain America… So when, in Young Avengers, we meet a groups of teens who seemingly model themselves after the Avengers, well, it’s hard not to see it as a combination wish-fulfillment fantasy for a bunch of fanboys and a nod to the Golden Age while forging a new story.

Maybe it’s because I’m reading too many of similar-themed comics at the same time, but Young Avengers isn’t doing it for me. I suspect that’s because, frankly, I have no reason to care about the young superheroes, or the Avengers with whom they interact almost constantly from page 2 onward. Perhaps I wouldn’t feel that way if I were already an Avengers fangirl, but, well, I’m not.

Even with the introduction of smart, sassy, capable superheroines, I still can’t bring myself to think “yeah, these guys resonate!” They’ve laid down a mystery to solve, but even over the course of the trade volume, the mystery doesn’t grab my attention and make me want to follow up.

When put beside Runaways, there’s really no comparison, which is why I can’t imagine that the crossover could be any good. I may pick it up just to see, but it would be like slowing down on a country road to watch a train wreck.