D-9 Image with my caption

One movie hitting soon and was under the radar is Neill Blomkamp, and his new film District-9 or D-9 for short.

It’s a fake Docudrama played out as if this was a real life thing.

The plot appears to be space aliens land on earth to seek refuge. And they are sent to a determent camp and live in slum like conditions in Africa.

But what I think is really going on is this movie is a political piece and a mask instead of talking about a real topic and what they really mean.

That of African-Americans and apartheid.

I must admit while D-9 looks well made, I have absolutely zero interest in seeing this.

If you want to talk a political topic like apartheid, then let’s talk about and discuss it from all sides. Let’s be real, and be honest. There is no need to cover-up the situation with a political mask like this.

I thought in the 40’s era or so with movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still, that movies which really were disguised political statements happened. It appears it’s still going on in Hollywood. This also is a very ham fisted way of making the movie, it’s not subtle at all. The aliens also do not even look cool in terms of how they were designed.

I guess in this day and age, I appreciate movies without political topics in disguise like this. You want to talk about apartheid for example, fine lets talk about it and why not make a real documentary.

You want to make a fake docudrama with aliens used to disguise what you really want to talk about. Go ahead, but I and I think many others won’t be seeing this film.

And I qualify that last statement because looking at the trailers, I saw it and said okay it’s a film. But it stirred no emotion of saying, okay this I got to see in the theater. This is what I’d enjoy watching. It gave me no compelling reason to want to see this movie.

Movie Image with my caption

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time will be a movie next year. And it’s star? None other then Jake Gyllenhaal. I laughed when I saw the first picture from the film, the one shown above. For me, it’s already lost all credibility and is a movie I will not see unless it’s on free TV and I want a laugh.

Plus the film looks to have a time travel element, which of course is always easy to understand and does well with the typical movie going audience right?

Typical Hollywood casting. Jake is clearly a white guy, let’s be honest. He hardly looks Persian at all!

And if you are making a film called: Prince of Persia. Your title alone is specifically pointing out you have a Prince and he is from Persia. And sure I know it’s just a film, and casting is not perfect usually. But couldn’t you at least get an actor with more middle east type features?

Jake totally looks out of place in a film like this. As a movie I already feel this film will just do average and be below expectations.

Iron Man 2 image with my caption

Marvel has wrapped up principal photography of the Iron Man 2 film. What this means basically is the actors have shot all their scenes. Now the film will go into post production where the special effects, editing, and piecing together the film happens.

I wrote a reply on a good website www.superherohype.com when I heard this.

Is Marvel being cheap on the budget? From what I understand movie studios usually shoot for about 3 months or 90 days. A 71 day shoot for what you want as a blockbuster seems rushed and is not the normal way things go.

It looks like Marvel as a studio is still trying to figure out and coordinate how a production should go. And they are probably cutting corners a long the way.

As a studio, they still have not built a solid foundation base as a movie company.

Just because you already have one hit or two in films, does not determine how well a movie studio will do. I think their next few feature films, and how well they are received and financially do will determine where this studio goes.

I really hope this movie is great, with more action then the first one. But as with any movie we will have to wait and see what the final product will be like. But if it is on par with the first film, then Iron Man will have accomplished something that is very rare in superhero movies. And that is two movies that are actually well made and that fans like.

Marvel Man History

Marvelman promo image with my caption

Something rare happened at the SDCC and the news was supposed to be big. You can head over to your favorite comic news sites for all the details.

This post is my view on the situation.

I’m actually not impressed, and this news is not huge to me as a comic fan. It honestly is not. Miracleman, who can now go back to his original name of Marvelman. Ask most comic fans in their teens to I’d say early thirties and you won’t get much recognition I think.

Marvelman is a very niche character that you either like and read about. Or you just never bought his books. In that sense it’s a very closed character. You either read his stories, or you didn’t. Their was very little middle ground their.

This news was supposed to be the fabled “Break the Internet in Half” it was a tired joke when Bendis said it and anyone knowing basic programming skills knows such a phrase is just impossible and can’t relate to the Internet.

But you want to know what news would have got me excited and drove fans to the stores?

How about news like:

Todd McFarlane returning to draw Spider-Man on a monthly series
Jim Lee returning to the X-men on a monthly series

Don’t tell me news like that wouldn’t pique most fans interest and more importantly get them to purchase the book in the stores. I know I’d be on line for those issues.

Sure the above is not happening. I’m just saying if you want big news. I consider topics like that big news.

I think with Marvelman, the news really isn’t clicking because I’m seeing a lot of posts about:

Who is the character?
I don’t know him.
Why should I care?
This is not big news to me or holds my interest.

As I said, Marvelman is very niche a character. And in my view not much of an interesting one. The only reason he got interesting was because Alan Moore and later Neil Gaiman wrote good stories.

Before then Marvelman was little more then a copy of Fawcett’s Captain Marvel. Outside of the Moore and later Gaiman stories, all the previous work with the character is nothing worth mentioning. Much less have any big reader demand to see in print.

The details are still shrouded, but I heard a rumor Marvel might have paid millions to own the character?

Also they might not be able to use the word Miracleman in the stories, meaning the text in stories would have to be altered and say Marvelman instead?

What I find most strange of all is Marvel buying another companies characters. That almost never happens with this company.

I think besides various trade paperbacks, they will try to produce some good mini-series with the character.

Though it’s only a matter of time before this character in one form or other gets streamlined and becomes a part of the regular Marvel Universe. And then it gets watered down and every writer is using him.

Finally a return of the Ultraverse would be more interesting to me. Now how about it Marvel? That’s your new assignment get to work.

Mayhem Image from Comic #1 with my caption

I still had doubts about the actual content that he was promoting, because I’m a cynical bitch after twenty years in comics

Brian Hibbs post

The above is a quote from from a Brian Hibbs article where he discusses a Neil Gaiman signing. As well as Tyrese Gibson’s “Mayhem” comic book, and twitter postings.

And I took the quote from the article above because he said the words himself. I find him to be a cynical bitch about comic books.

He starts off by basically reading into Tyrese Gibson’s mind and assumes him comic book is like the usual celebrity comic book and will have no lasting value. And that Tyrese has no long term commitment to the comic book.

He calls the art, just from preview samples a mediocre book. And that it looks like a 1990’s typical Image superhero book.

Hibbs then assumes he won’t sell any copies, so he ordered only three. He also posted on Tyrese Gibson’s twitter posts.

And one day before the Neil Gaiman signing he gets a phone call from Tyrese Gibson, who learned about him from his twitter posts. With Tyrese even offering to help his store sell issues.

Later on Hibbs complains because he is basically setting up his Neil Gaiman event, now he has to deal with Tyrese Gibson’s Mayhem fans because they are calling and want to buy the issue.

Basically Hibbs starts by complaining that Mayhem won’t sell and then when he gets fans who want the book, he is annoyed they are bothering him because he has to coordinate the Neil Gaiman event. Tyrese can help, but it has to be according to Hibbs schedule.

Hibbs sure comes off as I mentioned, and quoted from him above as that of a cynical bitch.

And I must admit and give respect to Tyrese Gibson who called him, and made twitter posts that got fans to call Hibbs store.

A celebrity making a comic book is one thing, but to promote the book to the point of looking up someone’s phone number and actually calling a retailer to discuss the comic book and whatever problems he is having. I think that is pretty much unheard of! Tyrese went above and beyond there, and is showing real passion for the comic book field and his comic book. It’s great to have a celebrity making a comic book he really cares about.

Despite his celebrity status, Tyrese is still down-to-earth and not ego tripping, like most who get celebrity status. Good going Tyrese!

Tyrese Gibson’s Twitter web page link

Batman Picture with my caption

I had wrote a post before about Bob Kane and how he never gave Bill Finger credit for Batman. Much less the financial share Bill Finger should have got.

Look at my blog category on DC Comics: Batman’s Creators, Kane screwed over Bill Finger to read that article.

Dial B For Blog Post

I recently read a good article in 3 parts by another blogger. The link above is part 3 and the most interesting, and if you need only one part to read, that is the one. Included on his page are some nice graphics and specifics.

While I agree with what he is saying, I think he was too harsh on Bob Kane, and using today’s terms and ideas on a time period that was different.

As I mentioned, I don’t think it was fair what happened to Bill Finger and he should have got co-credit and his financial share.

But with that said, the link and post talks mostly about Bob Kane and how he picture swiped his art and ideas off other artists.

That will be the point of this post and how he is being harsh and not looking at it from another perspective.

For a rebuttal I’d say:

1. Sure Bob Kane swiped a lot of art. But really is that an unforgivable sin? Maybe Kane realized he was not a good artist and just did not have the ability to really draw well. So he did the best he could and yes he swiped art. But I do believe as I once heard him say, that he spent hours at the table drawing. At least early on.

He probably took others art to make up for his lack of ability. So I really can’t fault him a lot if that is the case.

Plus he was not the first to swipe and he won’t be the last. Look at Greg Land today. This guy uses computer programs to swipe his art. Not even to trace but to turn a few clicks of the mouse to make his art.

2. Don’t forget comic creators back then were ashamed to be in comic books. It was an art form looked down upon and creators were not proud of their work.

Why put your best effort forward? A lot of creators then were just doing what they can to pay that months bills. The idea of making great work was not a prominent notion that all creators aspired to.

3. Comics were cheap disposable entertainment back then. Issues were meant to be forgotten and thrown out, not collected.

Why create all-original art every month, if next month a new issue was out and your previous work meant to be forgotten. So why not take artistic shortcuts?

4. No one knew back then they were creating comic book icons or thought I’d last this long.

5. All things considered, the creators paid back then were not paid a lot of money for their work. At least compared to other jobs back then. The more pages and stories you made, the more you got paid.

So why not take a few shortcuts and produce as much work as you can in any given month?

Overall sure Bob Kane swiped his art and ideas. But you know what, in the end does it really matter where the source material came from?

Because the overall final product and published issue was a new creation. Swiped art and all, the final work was a unique story, greater and different from it’s source material.

And Batman outlasted all of it’s swiped source material and became a unique character of his own. Not many remember the swiped source material and those books, but many fans remember these Batman stories collected in the DC Archive format and other Batman story reprints.

Plus swiped art or not, is that really going to take your enjoyment out of the issues? Or do you just want to be entertained and read some enjoyable Batman stories?

Spider-Man picture with my caption

One thing I’ve noticed is that until the 1990’s Spider-Man had a great, almost easy to follow continuity. His history was not really messed up, or had big gaps of reboots, timeline jumps, or continuity problems.

I’ll qualify this by giving bad continuity examples. Over at DC Comics, Superman, Batman and everyone there no longer follows their history from the Golden Age. In the 1980’s the Crisis event was a company wide reboot that redid everyone’s origin. Then in the 1990’s they had things like Zero Hour, which were again reality shaping events.

The Marvel heroes had much less continuity trouble. Though their was trouble with other Marvel characters, such as Iron Man who was clearly dead. Replaced with an alternate timeline teenager. A great example of a continuity and story mess.

But Spider-Man history did not have not much trouble at all. His history from the 60’s could fit and explain a story in the 1980’s.

Then what I consider the first big Spider-Man history changing event happened. And that was the 1990’s Clone Saga. With this event, vast Spider-Man story ideas and history was rewritten and changed. Characters like Ben Reilly being on the road alive. Kaine a killer clone out there. The first Clone Saga Jackal story and what we saw was greatly changed. This result had Peter made to be the actual clone.

And after this history rewrite event, to get out of the mess they had to rewrite the history they just made.

This process and clone saga end brought back Norman Osborn, who got all the blame for the event. And a character who in my opinion meant more to the Spider-Man mythos dead than alive.

The next timeline changing event was the John Byrne Chapter One Spider-Man reboot. With the long standing Spider-Man issue numbers having a reboot back to issue one. This redid Spider-Man history, and it sort of just disappeared with no clear understanding how it was phased out.

This mysterious fade out also happened a few years ago with Spider-Man The Other. With no questions of how is it possible and did Peter really shed his skin? What happened to his wrist spikes? And how convenient after all these years he now gets movie style organic webbing, only to have it eventually disappear.

As well as J. Michael Straczynski’s “Sins Past” story. It was more of a sin to defile innocent Gwen Stacy. His story reduced Gwen into a stereotype, nothing but an easy to influence, weak willed blond and a whore to boot.

But perhaps the most recent and biggest history event was the One More Day mess which redid history. Got rid of the marriage and mind wiped the public of them knowing Peter’s identity. The blame for all this goes to the demon Joe Quasada, oops I meant to say Mephisto. Yes, that is who is at fault.

But this being comic books and all, I think the Spider marriage, what I’ll refer to as the “original timeline” Spider-Man that many grew up with is still around.

What we have now since One More Day is a Spider-Man and history from an alternate timeline. His history and what we are reading now branched off when Mephisto went back to the past and got rid of the marriage.

This does not mean that the “original timeline” Spider-Man does not exist. It merely means we are no longer reading his published adventures. We are reading the adventures of an alternate timeline Spider-Man.

It’s the whole paradox of a time travel. Such as a time traveler going back to the past to undo the event that lead him to make a time machine. How could he go back to the past and correct it? Because without that past event he would not exist as he is today.

The same with the Spider marriage, if it never existed. How could Mephisto go back and change it? It had to have existed in the first place.

And wasn’t it established in Marvel, and in possible real life theory. That if time travel does happen, what the traveler is doing is actually creating or jumping into new alternate timeline realities. He did not effect or change his timeline reality. Rather he created and jumped to a new reality. And that the whole concept of multiple realities is in fact what really happened.

And I think it’s been mentioned in a story that when Kang the Conqueror jumps in time, he’s actually creating or jumping into different realities.

As I mentioned at the start, up until the 1990’s Spider-Man had a clear history, and probably one of the best of any superhero long running series. About 40 years of easy to follow history.

Then the various rewrites, reboots and other such reality shaking events happened in the book. It’s now at a point I think of pick and choose your Spider-Man history. And if the recent few years is an indication, I would not be surprised if another reality shaking event in Spider history happens in a few years.

With Captain America Reborn, I just read Cap #600 and Reborn #1. And to me the details are still fuzzy about what exactly is going on.

It appears that Steve Rodgers mind was sent time traveling to the past. While his body is in a time freeze type stasis. And that the Red Skull basically wanted his body.

I think this whole time travel and scifi aspect is making for a terrible run and story idea. I expected better of Ed Brubaker then a cope out way to return Captain America. Even though it looks like he planned it this way, the idea I still think sucks.

Instead of Captain America just shot and killed and be done with it. End of story in a very realistic tone. The Red Skull wins at last.

Now it’s a case of: The Red Skull played as fool and loses once again. Oh the Red Skull just wanted Cap’s body to use as his own. Which will ultimately mean Cap returns and the Skull failed.

But I don’t think it explains the gunshot wounds clearly killing his body. Or the body deteriorating cause of the super soldier effects on the body.

But don’t fear because within a year it will be back to status quo Captain America, and this event in his life all but forgotten. A footnote in comic history.

I also wonder does the Red Skull have a possible gay fetish for Steve Rodgers, Captain America?

Here he is wanting to take over Steve Rogers body yet again.

In the past, with the cosmic cube the Red Skull switched places with Captain America and took over his body.

Also the Red Skull used and had a cloned body of Steve Rodgers.

What is the obsession with his body? It seems to me like it’s a bizarre fetish but a very real one that the Red Skull has. Captain America may be his enemy, but in a truly bizarre way I think he could be fond of him. And deep down he really does not want to kill Captain America.

It’s one of those weird cases of enemies being rivals for so long, that it actually grows into a relationship. Sure they may say they hate each other. Yet without the other, they would feel incomplete. The Red Skull without the real Captain America, would not feel as challenged by any other hero.

“This was a hobby that I enjoy. … It’s not that I’m making a fortune. I’m making nothing. It’s ridiculous.”

Stacks said DC Comics has repeatedly contacted him about the figurines since he started selling them nearly a decade ago. The New York-based company is suing Stacks for copyright and trademark infringement, false designation of origin and false description and unfair competition, according to the suit, filed Monday.

DC comics sues over figures sale

Click the link above for the full article.

This is an interesting case to read. It appears that DC Comics is suing an individual, John Stacks who is making resin kits of the Batman 60’s TV show characters.

The man in question says he has permission from the actors or their families for the actors likeness.

Yet here is where I think he is wrong. He is making kits of the actors who are wearing costumes of DC owned properties. Had he just made kits of the actors themselves with permission, he would probably be legally okay.

But not when he is making the costumes and likeness of properties he does not own or have permission to use.

Also to be fair, it seems DC legal did ask him numerous times to desist. But he did not stop, and now legal action is taken.

That seems fair to me.

If DC out of the blue just decided to drop a lawsuit on an individual, I would be angry at DC for their actions for wanting to sue an individual without warning.

But if DC clearly did warn an individual, at least a few times, to the point of them knowing that the individual got the picture and DC basically said: We own the properties in question, you are making figures from. So desist and stop it now. Or legal action will be taken.

Which is what they did because he said they contacted his a decade ago when he first started selling these figures. Yet he kept selling them.

Then okay, he had fair warning and good enough on DC’s part not to go after the guy with a lawsuit until he knew what was happening, and he did know.

But if the guy in question then snubs DC legal and still continues to publish his unauthorized figures. Which is exactly what he did.

Then in a case like this I can’t blame DC legal for suing the guy. They gave him a fair warning more then a few times. To the point of him getting the picture to stop.

But he did not heed the warning. Now he is paying the price.

And even if he thought he had the legal right to continue what he was making. If a company like DC is contacting you more then once to stop. It would have been common sense to either stop, just in case they are right. Or to hire your own lawyer, to look into your case just to be sure that you can make and sell what you are doing.

He did neither and now he is paying the price. I wonder though if he loses the case which is what I think will happen, if it’s not settled out of court. How is he going to pay possibly millions of dollars? Does he go to jail if he can’t pay? Or is he bankrupt?

I also wonder what this means for customized action figure makers who sell online, such as ebay, superhero characters who they do not have permission to make? Custom makers have no rights to legally sell what they are making, yet they sell them online. And sure the excuse might be their selling the hours and skill they used to make a custom figure. But the reality is they are selling a character property they don’t own or have permission to sell.

I personally think it’s too small a market to go after. But legally I think if a case were ever filed the custom maker would probably lose. I only mention the above because if DC could go after an obscure resin kit maker, who is to say what their next target will be?

The Above Image is taken from THE RED CIRCLE: THE SHIELD #1 with my text caption.

News I’ve recently read that has not had much of a buzz is that DC Comics will publish once again books starring the Archie/MLJ publications Superheroes in DC books. Characters such as The Shield, The Web and others are returning in a DC mini-series called The Red Circle. The series is named after the company name that published them.

Plus their will be spin-off books of the four main characters used: The Shield, The Web, Inferno, Hangman.

I think the situation is interesting because the MLJ Heroes are not DC owned properties. Instead their is an agreement between the MLJ Heroes owners that DC Comics can publish books with their characters.

I’m not sure exactly the agreement or how it’s been worked out. But about a decade ago I remember the DC Impact mini-series which was the last appearance of the MLJ Heroes.

It looks like a reboot of the characters and all the previous DC history no longer counts.

I think MLJ wants DC to publish the characters because they don’t want to lose their copyright or ownership rights of the characters. DC probably likes the characters and wants them in their universe.

Though the Red Circle Heroes never could quite mesh into heroes with enough personality and character that they could build a long term sustaining book and audience. Their characters had quite a few iconic bits that influenced others.

An interesting fact is that the Shield, is the 1st patriotic hero in comic books, and that Captain America ripped off his gimmick. And to add further indications of how obvious the rip-off was, Captain America’s first triangle shield is almost an exact copy of the the Shield’s chest symbol!

But the funny thing is that Captain America developed into a much better character, and became the iconic patriotic superhero character. Whereas the Shield never really could get the chemistry needed to be a lasting hit.

I guess it just goes to show you that just because something is first, does not mean it necessarily will be good or connect with the audience. And just because something might start off uninspired, or a rip off, does not mean that it can’t be developed and become something unique and stand out in it’s own right.

The Web, from his name alone has a spider themed motif. And while I’m not sure if The Web is the first spider themed motif character in comics, he’s probably not. It’s a cool name, and the spider motif sure does not hurt. I don’t have to tell you who is the iconic spider motif hero.

The Comet is a character with a gimmick that others in particular Marvel’s Nova, and the mutants Cyclops and Cannonball seem to have similar powers. And Cyclops took the Comet’s visor as well as using glasses to control his eye beams idea.

While they were once popular to a degree, in terms of today’s comic book market the MLJ Heroes do still have a certain niche and popularity. But it’s never been one to build a long and sustaining audience, at least in terms of today’s comic book market. And it probably never will be again.

I predict, like the 90’s that the DC versions of the Red Circle heroes will be around for a few years, then fade away again.

Until then, it’ll be fun to read the books in this new revival and see what happens. And enjoy these new stories for what they are.