It was inevitable. Justice League of America-the classic team with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman which has been interpreted on the small screen in various incarnations-the Superfriends, Superman and Batman award winning WB cartoons, the Flash live action, and the just completed Justice League cartoon-will at last come to the big screen as a live action picture.
And...I think this is a bad idea.
Superman, or Batman or the Flash...by themselves might be enough for a movie and to suspend disbelief of a man in a suit dispensing justice but an entire film?
I'm a JLA fan, don't get me wrong, but you're talking about looking good on the screen and not ridiculous. You have Spider-man or Superman or Batman in their own film--their own world. They are surrounded by villains you have to hate and ordinary people who stare and gape in awe. A man in tights doesn't look so silly when set against that backdrop. But men in tights or for that matter-men and women in tights around a table will....if not properly handled...look like a Halloween part, even with icons like Superman or Batman.
I don't know who else will appear but I wished they'd have done a Wonder-Woman picture before they put her in a group one. They could have the actress reprise her role in the JLA movie. It is a given that neither Brandon Roth nor Christian Bale will play the superhero roles in this picture. They'll get unknowns. How will that affect the franchises of both of the separate properties?
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Spider-man, Spider-man...
Anyone who is a reader of the Spider-man comic book knows the history Spider-man has with Wilson Fisk: the Kingpin of Crime, that large, massive crime-boss that has all of NYC under his sway, or at least he did.
He was a Spider-man villain way before the immortal Frank Miller transformed him into a deadly adversary to Daredevil.
Anyway, Spider-Man always held back when he fought Kingpin which is the reason why Kingpin beat him so many time. Spider-man didn't want to kill the man so he pulled his punches. Hell, he didn't want to kill anyone so he pulled his punches.
But in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #542, a part of the Back In Black story line, we see what it is like when Spider-man is unleashed. This man is pulling no punches.
But first some history:
Months back, there was a team called The New Warriors. They were a team of teenage heroes who degenerated into a team of heroes who ran their own reality show. They took down the bad guys and it was captured on TV.
One time, they came across a house with a picket fence and all of such villains and went after them. One of them was a man called Nitro who could explode his atoms and reassemble them safely. They engaged him in battle but it was too close to a school and in the resultant explosion, they and many bystanders (I assume school children and/or their parents or passer-bys) were killed.
This sparked off a public outcry of some sort of regulation on super-heroes and lead to The Superhero Registration Act. Superheroes were required to register their true identities and powers with the Government and work essentially for them. This included training and assignments and a salary and pension.
Well, one of three things happened: some heroes didn't take this lying down and fought it, others gave up their costumed identities, and other fled to Canada. Spider-Man registered his powers and revealed his ID to the world in a move that generated a lot of publicity for Marvel Comics. This all was detailed in the Civil War mini-series and its various tie-ins with other Marvel Comics.
Spider-Man eventually had a change of heart and sided with those opposing the act.
Coming full circle, everyone now knew who Spider-man was and as Clark Kent would tell you, when you're a hero and people hate you, they want to find out who you are. If they can't beat you, they can strike at you through your friends.
Superman has it easy because no one suspects he'd even need a ID.
But at the time of all this, Kingpin is in Rykers Island Prison where he manipulates people on the outside. Wilson Fisk did this during the Civil War, playing both sides. He struck at Spider-Man by hiring a gunman to kill him but Spider-Man...or Peter Parker dodged out of the way by force of habit. His Aunt May, that beloved old woman who raised Peter and seems like has been around far longer than most aunts, took the bullet.
Spider-man tracked down who hired the gunman and met Wilson Fisk in the Rykers Island with an audience of inmates behind him. Wilson was confident as he always is. He's a manipulator and believes he has all of the angles covered. But this man...this Spider-Man was mad. His Aunt was dying and he was going to kill Kingpin for it.
Perhaps the war pushed him mover the edge, perhaps the people now gunning for him made him mad, but this pushed him to the breaking point. Peter was so mad, so angry that he beat the hell out of this fat mastermind. The man who'd spent years manipulating people was beaten physically and totally. Peter could have snapped his neck but reasoned that living in fear of his return should Ant May die was enough. Kingpin lost face in front of his lieutenants who abandoned him to lie on his cell cot.
It's not the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man that people are used to seeing but there was a lot of truth to this story. With his level of power, Spider-Man could have ended a lot of fights if he'd used his true strength. He would have hospitalized more people as well. But this story goes to show you the restraint he had over the years, a restraint he has lost.
Whether this is the Spider-man we'll be seeing from now on is unknown. But I liked this Spider-man. I hope we see more of him in the comic and the movies.
He was a Spider-man villain way before the immortal Frank Miller transformed him into a deadly adversary to Daredevil.
Anyway, Spider-Man always held back when he fought Kingpin which is the reason why Kingpin beat him so many time. Spider-man didn't want to kill the man so he pulled his punches. Hell, he didn't want to kill anyone so he pulled his punches.
But in THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #542, a part of the Back In Black story line, we see what it is like when Spider-man is unleashed. This man is pulling no punches.
But first some history:
Months back, there was a team called The New Warriors. They were a team of teenage heroes who degenerated into a team of heroes who ran their own reality show. They took down the bad guys and it was captured on TV.
One time, they came across a house with a picket fence and all of such villains and went after them. One of them was a man called Nitro who could explode his atoms and reassemble them safely. They engaged him in battle but it was too close to a school and in the resultant explosion, they and many bystanders (I assume school children and/or their parents or passer-bys) were killed.
This sparked off a public outcry of some sort of regulation on super-heroes and lead to The Superhero Registration Act. Superheroes were required to register their true identities and powers with the Government and work essentially for them. This included training and assignments and a salary and pension.
Well, one of three things happened: some heroes didn't take this lying down and fought it, others gave up their costumed identities, and other fled to Canada. Spider-Man registered his powers and revealed his ID to the world in a move that generated a lot of publicity for Marvel Comics. This all was detailed in the Civil War mini-series and its various tie-ins with other Marvel Comics.
Spider-Man eventually had a change of heart and sided with those opposing the act.
Coming full circle, everyone now knew who Spider-man was and as Clark Kent would tell you, when you're a hero and people hate you, they want to find out who you are. If they can't beat you, they can strike at you through your friends.
Superman has it easy because no one suspects he'd even need a ID.
But at the time of all this, Kingpin is in Rykers Island Prison where he manipulates people on the outside. Wilson Fisk did this during the Civil War, playing both sides. He struck at Spider-Man by hiring a gunman to kill him but Spider-Man...or Peter Parker dodged out of the way by force of habit. His Aunt May, that beloved old woman who raised Peter and seems like has been around far longer than most aunts, took the bullet.
Spider-man tracked down who hired the gunman and met Wilson Fisk in the Rykers Island with an audience of inmates behind him. Wilson was confident as he always is. He's a manipulator and believes he has all of the angles covered. But this man...this Spider-Man was mad. His Aunt was dying and he was going to kill Kingpin for it.
Perhaps the war pushed him mover the edge, perhaps the people now gunning for him made him mad, but this pushed him to the breaking point. Peter was so mad, so angry that he beat the hell out of this fat mastermind. The man who'd spent years manipulating people was beaten physically and totally. Peter could have snapped his neck but reasoned that living in fear of his return should Ant May die was enough. Kingpin lost face in front of his lieutenants who abandoned him to lie on his cell cot.
It's not the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man that people are used to seeing but there was a lot of truth to this story. With his level of power, Spider-Man could have ended a lot of fights if he'd used his true strength. He would have hospitalized more people as well. But this story goes to show you the restraint he had over the years, a restraint he has lost.
Whether this is the Spider-man we'll be seeing from now on is unknown. But I liked this Spider-man. I hope we see more of him in the comic and the movies.
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