I'll never really be sure I understand what the Coen Bros. were thinking with this one. That's not to say it doesn't work, but it's an odd bit of noir-detective, what with our detective in this mystery barely participating, a cowboy narrator and all the bowling. At the end of the day, it's really a movie, I guess, about two very different guys who love and understand one another not just despite their differences, but because of them. Maybe.
The movie certainly leans on the trappings of the Chandler or Hammett detective novel, which - 20 years after the fact, would get associated with noir detective movies, mostly thanks to the success of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe adaptations. There's the wealthy, non-ambulatory older gentleman in his castle asking for assistance, a sexy ice-queen of a daughter with schemes of her own, third and fourth parties working at cross-purposes, niggling idiots who cross the path of our detective who just get in the way, and repeated blackouts for our hero.
But, really, all our hero wants to do is go bowling and get a replacement rug for his living room.
I kind of thought something like this was a possibility, but given Didio's prior approach of a deeply editorially controlled and managed DC Universe, my odd's on it were about 10-15%. I do see this as a bit of a "throw @#$% at the wall and see what sticks" approach, but I also think it makes more sense than trying to make 52 ongoing titles cohesive 12 times a year, plus annuals. What it does lack is a name brand for the marketing effort - something that I think stuck around about two years too long at DC Comics with the New 52 (nothing is still new three years in), or a single message behind those books. Which: GOOD.
When I was a kid, the gold standard by which we shall believe everything should be measured, there were a wide array of titles and comics from DC and Marvel. 'Mazing Man sat on the spinner rack next to Swamp Thing next to Batman and The Outsiders.* I didn't pick everything up, but it made comics feel like a medium rather than a bunch of books about adults working out issues by punching things.
In the press release, it sounds like DC has realized the audience has changed and grown in the past few years and they need to serve that audience.
I can't say I'm overly thrilled with any of the announced titles in and of themselves (even I think a Bizarro book, even if great, is going to be gone by 2016), but I am pleased to see DC seems to be bringing back writers instead of just assuming characters will carry a title. There was always a balance to be found between editorial mandate and letting writers go crazy in their corner o the DCU.
I am disappointed that there's really nothing here for me, no Superman Classic or Earth-0 book (and just seeing a book celebrating the too-many-Robins problem makes me weep a little inside), and the ongoing issues at DC in regards to refusing to provide a baseline DCU that these books are all a reaction to is a longterm issue, but that's been the story of comics and me the past few years.
*DC - making Halo a thing again is probably a good idea. Just think of the merchandising!
This Spring, DC Comics is scheduled to move from New York to Los Angeles. It's a pretty remarkable move considering the company's offices have been in Manhattan since the mid 1930's, but given the attachment of DC Entertainment to Warner Bros. and the close ties to the West Coast Warner Bros. machine, and the fact that publishing can really be managed from anywhere these days, I guess it makes logical sense. Even if it's not terribly romantic.
A long while back, DC mentioned they were going on a bit of a hiatus in the comics for two months while the company moved, and not ones to give up money for two months, they cooked up an event. Known as Convergence, the event is a new sort of Crisis for the DCU where - I think - various versions of the DCU will be trapped in time by a now multi-verse spanning Brainiac and, because it's superhero comics, probably have to fight each other.
Because if Dan Didio likes to try something and watch it fail, he likes to do it even better a second time.
I feel like I'm the only person who remembers this
Arena wasn't all that long ago by my comic reading standards, but it was a lifetime ago for people who got into DC with the New 52. And even longer ago, another omnipotent despot also kidnapped heroes and made them do battle...
I've been pretty jazzed about the idea of a Netflix-direct Daredevil show since they announced the idea. For those of you who follow Daredevil as a comic, this looks more or less as depressing and grim as the comics that we like, for some reason. And it's clear they aren't about to make the same mistakes as the ill-fated film version which made me a sad panda.
I really do think it takes a while for Matt Murdock to seep in as a character, so multiple episodes of expanding on the backstory, on what makes Marvel's longest running case of Catholic guilt tick is a welcome bit of TV in my book.
Daredevil owes his continuing relevance to the Frank Miller era of the 1980's (as do comics, in general), and it can't hurt to refer to the take Miller put on the character that transformed him from a chipper blind attorney to a... chronically depressed blind attorney. I assure you, them's is good comics.
This is supposed to be followed by a take on the Brian Michael Bendis series, Alias - which I think they're calling Jessica Jones or something in order not to refer to the Jennifer Garner TV series, as Garner would go on to play Elektra in Daredevil for some reason, and if we called it Alias, I'm pretty sure the universe would collapse in on itself. Then, a Luke Cage TV series, which... man, this one was obvious. Had to be done.
Now, enjoy the time The Hulk met Daredevil.
And, of course Stan Lee makes a cameo around the 1:13 mark.
February 3rd marked the anniversary of the death of Buddy Holly, who, in 1959, died in a plane crash in Iowa alongside Ritchie Valens, JP Richardson (aka: The Big Bopper) and the pilot of the small aircraft. Holly was only 22 years old when he died, but he left behind an amazing catalog of music that remains relevant and powerful nearly 60 years after his death. His legacy is evident in the many generations of rock musicians who followed in his footsteps who picked up on his mix of country and blues riffs, and no less than The Beatles were obviously influenced by Holly and The Crickets work.
I don't want to dismiss the contributions of either Valens or Richardson, but I've been a Buddy Holly man since I was 13 years old, and while I may put Buddy away for a while, every year I put him back on in heavy rotation.
Routh has been appearing on Arrow as Dr. Ray Palmer and now he's taking it up a notch.
I quite like The Atom, especially as a team character, and there's something really great about Routh getting a chance to play the character. He seems like he really fits the bill, personality wise.
And this is a character I can appreciate wearing a weird, overly engineered costume for all the science-fiction-y reasons you could come up with that would tie to a guy who can shrink down small enough to slide between electrons.
Very excited about this as part of the Flash/ Arrow TV universe.
If you're anywhere near my age and you read comics in the 1980's, then you know the work of artist Norm Breyfogle. Norm Breyfogle and Jim Aparo were some of the definitive 1980's Bat-artists - Aparo leaning more to the Neal Adams illustrative mold and Breyfogle's work more impressionistic and visceral.
Breyfogle's lines in Batman evoked energy and action, something he also brought to page layout and panel management. He has a keen sense of design that even the better illustrative artists couldn't always bring to the page. It's something a lot of artists could stand to study a bit.
Mythbusters debuted in 2003 and has run for 13 seasons. It's a program I've followed closely since the pilot, and I've missed, possibly, 3 or 4 episodes of the show, if that. Really, it's amazing, because I haven't ever watched a show as long as I've kept up with Mythbusters, and I certainly haven't stuck with any other non-scripted programming anywhere neat that long that didn't include "the news" or "sportsball".
