Anyway, based upon the success of the Batman XXX trailer, Vivid has announced a line of "porn parodies" of popular comic favorites. The list includes Superman and Wonder Woman. This means Wonder Woman is getting a porn off the ground before WB can conceive of a live action movie for anyone to parody.
Sometimes I just want to punch WB right in the face.
Comics: Horus at Against the Modern World looks at how some creators are starting from the superhero springboard and doing something completely different with the idea. I've read the Eightball comic and some Superf***ers in the past. The use and subversion of the tropes of the genre are pretty darn good in both. Its been years, but I remember thinking Eightball was just amazing when I read it.
Anyway, he says smart-people stuff about the comics. I recommend.
Comics: On the other end of the spectrum, Superman V. Flash. V. Duke Boys.
Superman/ Odd: We here at the Signal Watch are the first to admit we waste a shameful amount of time and money on needless things. Many of those things involve Superman. But...
Apparently a herd of fans has joined forces to pay for the production of a "thank you" commercial for actress Allison Mack of Smallville TV fame, and to air it on LA (and possibly New York) TV during the season finale of Smallville.
Mack plays Clark Kent's childhood pal (imagined solely for the TV show) who started out as the most intrepid high school newspaper reporter ever, and was revealed to be Lois Lane's cousin. Since then, the Chloe character has become the super-hacker/ ops center for all the super heroes on Smallville, filling the role taken by "Oracle" in the JLA comics.
Mack is a fine actor, but I find the fan-gushing a bit ridiculous.
Anyway, far be it from me to tell people how to spend their time and money, but... srsly. I totally don't understand fan culture anymore. Somehow the whole thing strikes me as kind of stalkerish, but en masse.
Comics: A fun rundown of the best teen sidekicks in comics. I'm a fan of any list that gives Jimmy Olsen his due:
For me, no other character defines the abject craziness of the Silver Age more than Jimmy. I mean, the Elastic Lad serum aside, he didn't even really have super-powers; he was just a dude who knew Superman, and because of that he got a fan club, trips to the future and the past, a Viking sexbot...
Movies: If you didn't see it yet, there's a pic of the guy playing Thor in the new Thor movie based upon the Marvel comic character. Honestly, I think own something like 14 Thor comic books in my whole collection, so this whole movie (like most Marvel movies) is going to come as a surprise as I have almost no expectations.
Other Sites: Comics Alliance rounds up interviews with disgruntled creators, and its kind of fascinating. The picture painted of the status quo at the DC Comics offices isn't very good, but not too surprising if you've been watching DC over the past few years.
Still waiting to see how things play out under Diane Nelson.
Comics/ Superman/ Late Addition: Jeff Lemire, writer/artist of Essex County and Sweet Tooth fame has taken on an ongoing Superboy series at DC Comics.
8 comments:
I wonder what direction they'll go with that Wonderwoman porn...lots of options...none of them tasteful enough to share.
I'd read a Duke Boys/Superman mash-up!
Is there something about the name Chloe that makes the owner good at hacking? Isn't the nerdy-hacker girl from 24 named Chloe too?
Do they actually use the names of the real characters in these superhero porn movies? How can they get away with that? Did WB actually sell them the rights? Also, I'm going to go ahead right now and predict the fact that bringing Thor to the screen will end up being an endeavor that ends poorly. I just can't imagine a way that it's not going to end up seeming silly.
I think they might get around the copyright/trademark/whatever laws by claiming parody or fair-use. WB might also just not care that much.
I think Thor could be an OK film, I don't know that it's something audiences will really flock to. Outlander, which was a movie that pitted Vikings against aliens, BOMBED. It opened to $59,000. I think the time of Viking movies doing well are behind us. If a movie where Vikings and aliens fight doesn't garner an audience, I don't know that Thor will.
It just seems to me like, even in this new era of CG and so forth, that there are some fantasy ideas that people will be more willing to suspend their disbelief for than others. I could be (and very well may be) completely wrong, but I just find it unlikely that audiences are going to cotton to the idea of a modern day Norse god wandering around and doing battle in a funny suit with a hammer. Iron Man = technology superhero. People get it. Batman = super rich and extremely dedicated people with a vengeance streak can do anything. The audience gets it. Spiderman = radioactive spider bite. People get it (and even if they ordinarilymight not, Spiderman has been at the forefront of public consciousness for a long time, so people get it).
Thor = Norse god that no one outside of the comic world has thought about for a long, long time. He'll wear a weird suit and fight with a hammer. I'm not sure people are going to get it. (and I haven't read too much Thor, but if memory serves, doesn't the character from the comics act a little weird? That's not going to help, either).
I'm no Thor fan, so I have no idea what they will do with the movie. If they stick to the comics, its not a viking movie, but a diety finding himself among mortals, and I do think that's different (but have no idea if that's going to sell).
Until the Ultimates version and then the recent JMS run on Thor, I was never interested. So... we'll see.
As per Chloe: I don't watch 24, but I believe that is Mary Lynn Rajskub's character's name. I'm fond of Rajskub from her days on "Mr. Show" and her role in "Punch Drunk Love". Honestly, I think the show "Veronica Mars" was a rip off of Mack's Chloe character.
I have to assume Vivid's attorneys have thoroughly vetted the parody laws, or the Batman movie wouldn't be happening. Whatever rule the "Scary Movie" and "Epic Movie" sorts of parodies are made under must also apply here. I guess. I would assume if WB intended to stop them they would have done it by now.
I think the Thor movie can work. The stories of Norse gods have been with us for about 1000 years and you'd be amazed to see how many Norse traditions we still honor today.
I was a big fan of Walt Simonsons run on Thor. Here is a man who one made an issue entirely of 22 splash pages and it didn't seem gimicky. I haven't picked up any of JMS run yet.
The only thing I'm disappointed about Jeff Lemire writing Superboy (and the Atom) is that we won't be seeing as much of his artwork.
A Thor film would be perfect if they used this issue as source material.
@Ransom I have that issue as part of my Simonson run. I loved the image of Skurge out of bullets using his M-16 as a club to beat off the armies of Hel. Some people were upset with Vikings using automatic weapons but this is the same guy who turned Thor into a Frog during his run.
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