Halloween 3. Stupid? Or Advanced?
Oct 21Getting home late last night, I find Halloween 3 is playing on Space (the Canadian answer to the Sci-Fi Channel). Always happy to have something mindless to watch before bed, I watched. It didn’t take long for it to break bad. Here, watch the trailer:
Crap, that’s no help. OK, I’ll summarize – After two go-rounds with Michael Myers, arguably THE movie monster of the second half of the 20th century, the makers of Halloween 3 had a radical idea… make a sequel and NOT have Myers in it. Buh? And then after realizing they greenlit a sequel without the star monster, execs panicked and insisted that the movie have some sort of monster. With the flip of a coin, they agreed on robots. I shit you not.
Batman Vamps
Oct 21(Not some kind of “gawd t’would be KEWL if Batman were a VAMPIRE” post, although, yes, it would be “kewl.”)
DC Comics’ January 2009 solicitations are up…and there’s nary a Gaiman or Kubert to be found on either Batman or Detective Comics:
DETECTIVE COMICS #852
Written by Paul Dini; Art by Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs; Cover by Andrew Robinson
A “Faces of Evil” issue starring Hush! Following the events of “Heart of Hush,” this two-part story starts here and ends in the pages of this month’s BATMAN #685. Catwoman has a score to settle with Hush after their most recent encounter, but Hush isn’t likely to take any attacks quietly. Will anyone be able to temper Selina’s rage, or will she become a face of evil again?BATMAN #685
Written by Paul Dini; Art by Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs ; Cover by Alex Ross
A “Faces of Evil” issue starring Catwoman! Continuing from this month’s DETECTIVE COMICS #852, Selina Kyle’s path of vengeance against Hush knows no bounds! After confronting the man responsible for nearly destroying her life, Selina’s wrath propels her into a downward spiral. With Tommy Elliot almost certain to suffer dire consequences, could Catwoman’s humanity be next to perish?
So we’ve got R.I.P. ending in November, then two quick issues in succession of Batman that are some kind of R.I.P. coda by Morrison. Meanwhile, Dini’s chugging along with his Hush storyline in Detective.
For December, Denny O’Neill takes over Batman and Detective for yet another R.I.P. coda, and then in January, Dini returns for a two-parter that’s a coda to his story that ended two months before.
That’s bat-vamping, right there. I smell a delay for the Gaiman/Kubert story. I hope the vamp gives them time to complete for February. It would suck if Morrison’s storyline had this awesome ending and was followed by six months of fill-ins so that the follow-up can complete.
(The Bat-line is about the only place in comics where I can muster up any level of sincere fanboy excitement these days. Forgive me.)
Clone Wars Shocker: It's Not That Shitty
Oct 20So I watched a few episodes of Clone Wars this weekend. That’s the half-hour cartoon show spun off the least-successful film in Star Wars history.
It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It’s nowhere near great, but it’s fun and harmless. In fact…I kinda liked it.
Manhunter? I Hardly Knew Her!
Oct 17The news is going around; DC Comics has re-canceled Manhunter, Marc Andreyko’s recently-resurrected comic about Kate Spencer, attorney, spectacularly bad parent and vigilante federal evidence thief. Okay, maybe the bad parent part is a bit harsh.
Surprisingly, I am not here to urge you to write letters to Bob Wayne or go to your forum of choice and construct a sentence containing the words “Dan DiDio,” “kittens,” and any conjugation of the word “kill.” I know that’s your first urge. Hell, it’s my first urge, too. But this is where that ‘raising the bar’ nonsense that Matt goes on about leads to – not using the anonymity of the Web to vent hyperbolically about a business decision that makes sense. Comics marketing gaffes aside, the book was not selling at the level it needed to be selling, especially with a notable artist like Bendis-collaborator Michael Gaydos on board.
Your anger is not going to change anything. The book had three chances to become commercially successful, and despite being one of the best books coming out of the Distinguished Competition, it never met its goal. And that’s not the fault of Marc Andreyko – Marc’s one of the best of the new crop of writers at the Big Two to break out in the past couple of years – or of the loyal fans of the book.
Kate Spencer as a character will still be around. She will exist without an ongoing to support her and that will suck for her fans, but it’s a bittersweet kind of suck. No, if we’re going to campaign for something as a fandom, let’s not be myopic and ask for the book to continue. Let’s lobby for DC to keep Marc Andreyko around. Because, let’s face it, he’s one of the better writers they have, and Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns and Gail Simone can only do so much between the three of them.
I’d love to see Andreyko take over Birds of Prey. Or Nightwing – he did write that pretty high-quality Nightwing Annual about Dick and Babs (and Khory). Or Batman and the Outsiders. Thinking outside the box, I’d like to see him try his hand at Green Lantern. Put him somewhere more visible, somewhere established, and let him find a writer-loyal following beyond the Manhunter die-hards. Encourage the success of art through the promotion of the artist.
So if you want to write a letter – and nerds love writing letters, so we encourage you to – ask DC to keep one of your favorite creators around. Tell them what Marc’s writing says that speaks to you – his rounded, intelligent female characters, his witty dialogue, or his faithful portrayal of real families are a few standouts for me – and that you hope they use his talents in their future published work.
DC Comics
1700 Broadway, 7th Fl.
New York, NY 10019-5905
Don't Miss This: Marvel Embraces Digital
Oct 17…okay, so maybe “embrace” isn’t the right word. Marvel “nuzzles suggestively with digital” might fit better, or maybe “Marvel dry humps digital in the back of mom’s station wagon.”
But finally, at long last, a major American comics publisher is moving forward with some kind of original content exclusively for the internet, leveraging their brand and stable of recognizable characters to push the medium into the realm of bits and bytes.
Again, I don’t want to gush too much over this story–it’s eight titles or something, not a dramatic reimagining of their print publishing line, or even pure digital downloads of current floppies.
But it’s Spider-Man. And it’s recognizable names in comics, like Frank Tieri, Tom DeFalco, Bob Gale, and others. And it’s even a little bit adventurous–not TOO adventurous, as this is still stuff well within the wheelhouse of the average Joe Twenty-sided Die (you know, like Joe Sixpack? Am I trying too hard there?). Still, we’ve got monster comics and western comics, alongside the superheroics…hell, even well-deserved critical favorite Jason Aaron gets in on the action! Writing American Eagle, an obscure hero who recently graced the pages of Thunderbolts!
Just let’s recognize, is all I’m saying. A step forward. A baby step, but a real step nonetheless. Well played, Quesada. Well played.
