Omega The Unknown

ENIGMA THE FIRST: the lone survivor of an alien world, a nameless man of somber, impassive visage, garbed utterly inappropriately in garish blue-and-red. ENIGMA THE SECOND: James-Michael Starling, age twelve raised in near-isolation by parents who (he discovered on the day they “died”) were robots. ENIGMA THE THIRD: the link between the man and the boy, penetrating to the depths of the mind and body, causing each to question his very reality of self.

Acclaimed novelist Jonathan Lethem (The Fortress of Solitude) and independent comic book creator Farel Dalrymple (Pop Gun War, Caper) have joined forces in their re-imaging of Steve Gerber’s ‘Omega The Unknown.’

A bizarre and highly imaginative series first published by Marvel Comics in 1976, the series came to an abrupt end with a promise for a follow-up that sadly never happened. When series creator Gerber heard of the revival, he was outraged. Having been similarly mistreated over his creation Howard the Duck, he had good reason to be angry. However, a meeting with Lethem put his temper at ease as he discovered that the young writer had the best of intentions and a very good story to tell.

Interviewed by Newsarama’s Zack Smith, Lethem had the following to say about his relationship with comic books in general and Omega The Unknown specifically.

NRAMA: Do you currently read any comics?

JL: This and that. I haven’t managed to be caught up on this whole recent Captain America controversy or anything. I have to go back and acquire all the relevant issues and figure out what all that’s about. I’m reading more and more (comics) as a result of doing this work. It’s been interesting to get connected again.

NRAMA: Any favorites?

JL: Well, in different ways, there are things that have sparked my interest. I’ve found Y: The Last Man (to be a) very compulsive story, very enjoyable. It’s like a great…it’s like Lost, kind of mental chewing gum.

NRAMA: Well, you know, Brian K. Vaughan’s working on Lost now?

JL: Is he? I’m not surprised. That’s a very good fit. There’s all sorts of (comics) that I like. I just read a really great three-issue sequence of Adiran Tomine’s Optic Nerve. It was excellent.

NRAMA: I’d like to talk a little bit about your history growing up with Omega. The passage in The Fortress of Solitude (page 82 of the hardcover edition), where Dylan (one of the main characters) notices how James-Michael’s experiences reflect his own – I’m presuming that was similar to your own experience reading the book?

JL: Oh no, I was much more fond of Omega than that. Dylan is very tough on the comic, and if you look under the skin of his reaction to it, he’s very threatened by it. There’s something about the plight of the James-Michael character that’s getting under his skin. But that reaction is quite typical of that Dylan, and exemplifies his reaction to a lot of things. Dylan holds disturbing and stimulating material at arms’ length. He and I are very much different in that way. Though he’s an autobiographical character, the emotional armor that he wears isn’t so typical of me. I was much more emotionally wide-open and vulnerable. Omega floored me, but I didn’t resent it. I thought it was fantastic. Those first issues, when Gerber and Skrenes were really allowed to do what they wanted to do and were building this incredible story full of all sorts of weird implications and possibilities…I simply thought it was the best comic book I’d ever read. The problem for me as a reader, in the original experience, was of course that it was wrecked. The thing was totally derailed by circumstance, by sales expectations and corporate meddling. There wasn’t enough of a precedent for what the creators were doing, and no one trusted it, so they never really had a chance to realize the story they’d initiated. But that whisper of it – the first two issues above all, with all the possibilities inherent in what they’d begun, made it hugely meaningful to me. And though I’m not telling their story, not trying to continue or conclude their Omega in the least, part of my impulse was to bring a version of Omega to something like fruition.

(read the whole interview here)

So far the series has been a mind-bending visual feast the likes of which readers have not seen from Marvel Comics since… well… the original Omega The Unknown. Make sure to flip through an issue at the shop and keep an eye out for the collection to be released later this year.

Spectacular Spider-Man: ‘Persona’

A black feline, black space goo and a potential dark shift in a super hero’s attire spotlight several new challenges for “The Spectacular Spider-Man” in an all-new episode entitled “Persona” premiering this
Saturday, May 17 at 10 a.m. ET/PT on Kids’ WB! on The CW.

In the episode, Spider-Man learns the hard way not to judge a book by its cover, when another Spider-Man starts making headlines … as a crook! It’s the Chameleon, master of disguise, looting the city and laying the blame at Spidey’s feet. The Web-Slinger’s forced to team up with another crook, the lovely Black Cat, to stop his foe’s faux-Spidey crime spree and clear his name. The episode is written by Matt Wayne and directed by Dave Fausett. “The Spectacular Spider-Man” is produced by Culver Entertainment, a Sony Pictures Television Company.

Prior to the premiere of “Persona,” Kids’ WB! will air a repeat of “Natural Selection,” the episode which introduced Lizard, at 9:30 a.m. ET/PT.

Making the leap from the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man to the small scree, the Chameleon is one of the stranger Spider-Man villains simply because he is so ‘normal.’ With a rogue’s gallery consisting of lizard men, sand men and goblins, it’s surprising for a master of disguise to give old Spidey a run for his money. Personally, I think the villain was the invention of Steve Ditko who was very interested in the mob mentality and how easily it can be steered.

The new episode premiers this Saturday!

Spectacular Spider-Man- The Uncertainty Principle

For “The Spectacular Spider-Man,” Halloween arrives early this year –in the all-new Saturday, May 10 episode – but it still comes with all the traditional goodies, including a goblin, lots of spiders, a very large tombstone and even a black cat.

“The Uncertainty Principle,” this Saturday’s premiering episode at 10:00 a.m. ET/PT on Kids’ WB!/The CW, presents a number of perplexing situations for Peter Parker and Spider-Man as they both try to find clarity amid the masks, mysteries and menace of Halloween. While Colonel John Jameson struggles to land his damaged space shuttle, Spider-Man continues his ongoing battle with Green Goblin, who also threatens Hammerhead and Tombstone. Still, Peter’s greatest challenge will be facing the awful truth when he finally learns the Goblin’s “true” identity.

This week’s episode was an all out blockbuster that was full of plenty of action as well as twists and turns that show how far this series has come. The revelation of the Green Goblin’s identity was a shocker, but nowhere near as interesting as the fallout. Peter Parker’s life is getting very complicated and with the special hint toward next week’s episode involving a certain outer space black ooze, it’s not going to slow down any time soon.

If you are a Spider-Man fan, you have got to start catching up on this series. Each week a new episode is paired up with a repeat, so it’s a perfect opportunity to see what is becoming one of the best super hero cartoons on TV.

Alan Burnett on Batman: Gotham Knight

AWARD-WINNING WRITER ALAN BURNETT
DISCUSSES “BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHT”

Alan Burnett has spent more consecutive years “in the Batcave” than
anyone in animation history.

Not counting his stint on “Super Friends” in 1983, Burnett has
constantly helped bring the Batman’s legacy to animation since 1991 –
when he began scripting episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series,” the
Emmy(R)-winning production widely considered a pivotal moment in
American animation.

This summer, the latest animated venture into the Dark Knight’s mythos
takes an altogether different approach than anything produced during
Burnett’s 17-year association with the character. Burnett served as
movie story editor and the writer of the anchoring segment of “Batman
Gotham Knight,” the third in the ongoing series of DC Universe
animated original PG-13 movies.

“Batman Gotham Knight” is a fresh and exciting new film weaving six
interlocking stories that reveal Bruce Wayne’s journey to The Dark
Knight, each with stylish art from some of the world’s most revered
Japanese animation visionaries. The film features stories written by
several of the most talented scribes of film, comic books and
animation, including Burnett, Academy Award(R)-nominated screenwriter
Josh Olson (”A History of Violence”), David S. Goyer (”Batman
Begins:), Jordan Goldberg (Associate Producer, “The Dark Knight”), and
award-winning comics writers Greg Rucka and Brian Azzarello.

Burnett, Azzarello and Josh Olson, along with producer Bruce Timm,
have already confirmed their participation on the panel following the
world premiere of “Batman Gotham Knight” at Wizard World Chicago in
late June. “Batman Gotham Knight” will arrive July 8, 2008 on DVD and
Blu-Ray disc, and will also be available that day On Demand via
digital cable and for download through broadband sites. The film is
produced as a collaboration between DC Comics, Warner Premiere, Warner
Home Video and Warner Bros. Animation.

An anime fan, Burnett said he was very intrigued and inspired by the
idea of allowing Japanese directors to have relatively free reign on
the animated look of Batman.

“From a visual point of view, this is the most stylized Batman that’s
come out of Warner Bros. — what they’ve done is really eye-catching,
and it truly expands his world,” Burnett said. “Their visualization of
Gotham City is stunning, and it’s very interesting to see how they’ve
envisioned Batman, his environment and his action and movements.”

Burnett’s stellar talents have merited four Emmy Awards, three Annie
Awards and two Humanitas Prizes. His work within the Batman realm
includes as a series producer on “Batman and Superman” and “Batman
Beyond,” and most recently as supervising producer and story editor
for Warner Bros. Animation’s four-time Emmy Award-winning series “The
Batman.” In the direct-to-DVD arena, Burnett co-produced and co-wrote
the animated feature film “Batman: Mask of the Phantasm,” was
supervising producer and writer for “Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman,”
and served as producer on the feature-length “Batman Beyond: Return of
The Joker.”

For “Batman Gotham Knight,” Burnett served as story editor for the
entire film, and writer of the sixth and final segment, “Deadshot.”
The segment ties together threads from all the film’s chapters as
Batman must thwart an unerring assassin whose love of guns and
disregard for human life lets him cross lines that even a Dark Knight
shies away from.

Burnett said having the opportunity to finally bring the villainous
Deadshot to the screen was instant motivation to pen the script.
First, “Batman Gotham Knight” provided the perfect vehicle for a
villain associated solely with guns – an attitude that flies in direct
opposition to Batman’s anti-gun approach to heroism. The anti-gun
theme is prevalent throughout the film. Moreover, because television
standards do not allow the use of “real” bullets in children’s
programming, Deadshot has been kept out of Batman’s animated legacy.
For Burnett, this was the first opportunity to portray Deadshot as he
is known in comics.

“I’ve always liked Deadshot as a villain, and I really like stories
with assassins,” Burnett explained. “The fact that they’re killers,
and what they do has impact, automatically heightens the energy of the
story.”

In addition to writing the script “Deadshot,” Burnett also
story-edited the film, ensuring all six scripts – from six different,
widely-acclaimed writers – worked fluidly together to interconnect
into one story. The ever-modest Burnett said his job entailed little
more than a few alterations for flow and continuity while he attempted
to maintain each writer’s individualism.

“I thought it was important to keep the integrity of each writer’s
words,” Burnett said. “The writers all pretty much had the same voice
for Batman, so I had to change very little dialogue – just small fixes
to tie up loose ends, and reinforce transitions and connections
between the stories. But I did as little editing as I could because I
respected what the writers wrote, and I thought it was important that
their voice was heard. Just as the artists made their segments their
own, so should the writers.”

Overall, Burnett is pleased with the final product, and excited to see
the fans’ reactions to the film – particularly the use of shorter
segments to tell great Batman stories.

“For my segment, I think the first Deadshot murder is quite good –
there’s a lot of eye candy within the cityscape. The artists added
fireworks and balloons and a lot of interesting elements to what
ultimately is a cold-blooded murder,” Burnett said. “I like the
short-form for Batman, because it feels almost like a 22-page comic
book story. In short form, the stakes are elevated from the beginning,
and it gives you a chance to really heighten the action quickly – so
you can make your points hard and fast and get out.

Batman The Dark Knight Rogue: Two Face

Is this the first glimpse of Aaron Eckhart’s Two Face from this summer’s Batman The Dark Knight film? Many are saying that it’s an early version of what will be the final effect mixing prosthetic make-up and CGI effects. Whatever the case, it’s sure to scare the living crap out of the auduence.

Introduced in 1942 by Bob Kane and Bill Finger as a new super villain to join Batman’s burgeoning rogue’s gallery, Two Face was a riff on the old Jeckyll and Hyde routine. Harvey Dent, a well-meaning district attorney badly scarred by acid thrown at him during a court case (bad luck, huh?), the scars went deeper than just his face. His entire psyche was scarred, leading him to see life in simplistic duality. At the flip of a coin, he would decide his fate. To match his visage, the coin was scarred on one side. If the coin landed scarred side up, Gotham City would be in for some trouble.

The character has enjoyed the status as the number two most loved villain (after the Joker), despite the fact that he seems to be used so sparingly in the comic book series.

Forgotten as a villain, it was Denny O’Neil that brought the villain back the fore during his run on the Batman comic book in 1971. An essential part of the third Robin’s origin, Two Face played a vital role in the story ‘A Lonely Place of Dying.’ It was perhaps Frank Miller’s brief homage to the villain in 1984’s classic Dark Knight Returns that made it apparent just how much power and relevance the character has. Matt Wagner developed the character further in his fantastic tale ‘Faces’ in Legends of the Dark Knight. Heroes TV series developer Jeph Loeb used Two Face as the lynch pin of his epic mini-series ‘The Long Halloween’ in which he retold Two Face’s origin, adding and changing certain details.

Animator Bruce Timm brought Two Face into a new light in his 1991 two-part story featuring the character’s origin. While DC Comics had recently published a story suggesting that Harvey Dent was abused by his father as a child (at the flip of a coin), Timm presented another angle. As a young boy, Dent had kept his rage in check until a school bully pushed him over the edge. Young Dent struck the other boy who ended up in the hospital. The hospitalization had nothing to do with Dent (the boy was coincidentally sick from another ailment), but to Dent this made an impact. He kept his rage deeply buried until it developed into another persona, ‘Big Bad Harv.’ After being facially scarred, Dent accepted that he must make a pact with this negative aspect of his persona and allowed this violent monster to run loose… at the flip of a coin.

Whichever version of the character this summer film decides to bring us, I am sure it will be very impressive and leave a lasting mark on the comic book character.

Unlike… other versions.

Recommended:

Batman: The Long Halloween
Batman: FacesBatman in the Seventies
Batman vs. Two-Face
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Brian Azzarello on Batman: Gotham Knight

Batman: Gotham Knight Trailer
( DVD release date July 8, 2008 )

EISNER AWARD-WINNING WRITER BRIAN AZZARELLO DISCUSSES WRITING FOR THE
UPCOMING DC UNIVERSE ORIGINAL ANIMATED FILM, “BATMAN GOTHAM KNIGHT”

One of the most sought-after writers in comics today, Brian Azzarello is one of the six acclaimed scribes to pen a segment within “Batman Gotham Knight,” the third in the ongoing series of DC Universe
animated original PG-13 movies.

Unlike many of his past works, Azzarello’s segment – entitled “Working Though Pain” – takes a decidedly non-violent direction. The segment, which falls chronologically as the fifth of the six segments, explores
an early chapter of Bruce Wayne’s training as a mysterious and exotic Indian woman named Cassandra introduces Batman to techniques that would help him to conquer the physical and spiritual consequences of what he does.

Azzarello achieved widespread notoriety – and garnered multiple Eisner Awards – for “100 Bullets,” a collaboration with artist Eduardo Risso which was published by Vertigo for DC Comics. He has continually
broken new ground with offerings like Vertigo’s “Jonny Double,” “Hellblazer” and “Loveless” series. Azzarello is no stranger to Batman, having written for the character in “Broken City,” “Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire,” within the “Batman Gotham Knights” series and in “Lex Luthor: Man of Steel.”

A Chicago resident, Azzarello will travel across town to join fellow “Batman Gotham Knight” writers Alan Burnett and Josh Olson, along with producer Bruce Timm, for the film’s world premiere at Wizard World
Chicago in late June. “Batman Gotham Knight” will arrive July 8, 2008 on DVD and Blu-Ray disc, and will also be available that day On Demand via digital cable and for download through broadband sites. The film
is produced as a collaboration between DC Comics, Warner Premiere, Warner Home Video and Warner Bros. Animation.

Azzarello took time away from his Mac Power Book to discuss “Batman Gotham Knight,” the character of Batman, the motivations of a writer, and a little cooking, too.

Question: For starters, what was your overall impression of “Batman Gotham Knight,” and were you pleased with your segment?

Brian Azzarello says: I liked the film – it’s a very interesting take on the Batman character. It holds together cohesively, yet each episode is strikingly different. And I loved (my segment) – it’s great. I really liked the animation. It was fascinating seeing my words moving around. When I write, I see it in print – I don’t see it moving. So it was fun and it was a good experience.

Question: How did you find the translation from your written page to the vision of the Japanese director and artists?

Brian Azzarello says: I was surprised how seamless the translation was. I definitely got what I wrote. The hospital scene is almost exactly the way I thought of it, while the fight scenes – that’s where the animators really put their “wow” into it. But I expected that. Usually that’s where the animators just go crazy.

Question: Were there any particular visuals that struck you within your segment?

Brian Azzarello says: Seeing wounded Batman – now that struck me. I enjoy wounded Batman. It humanizes him. It showed a true physical struggle, and that’s something you can relate to. And the character Cassandra was a bit hotter than I thought she’d be … but that’s okay.

Question: When you’re writing for comics – and now for animation – do you put fairly detailed direction between the dialogue, or is it more of a collaborative process for you and the artist/animator?

Brian Azzarello says: I wrote the script and then I handed it off, and that’s pretty much the same relationship I have in comics. I really trust my collaborators, and I try to leave them plenty of room so they can bring their strengths to the work. I think that happened in this film, and definitely for my segment – the animation is just amazing. Really amazing.

I have more of an affinity for the stage than I do for the screen, so I’m very conscious of the dialogue. And because I’ve always worked with collaborators, I tend to leave the visuals up to them – on purpose. It’s my belief that if I get the dialogue right, and the artist understands what motivates the characters and what they’re saying, then the visuals will come.

Question: You’re fairly particular about the projects you accept. How’d you get involved with this film, and what made you say yes?

Brian Azzarello says: Gregory Noveck of DC Comics talked to my agent, then I had a conference call to discuss the story. They explained the film to me in broad strokes, and asked me to come up with an idea. I chose to focus more on Bruce Wayne, and they liked my pitch. As always happens, they needed the script yesterday, and I was I was on my way to Europe at the time. All I can tell you is that the hotel room in Barcelona was pretty nice, but I can’t tell you much about the city.

Question: You were quoted in a UGO article as saying “Hollywood is nowhere I aspire to be” … and yet, here you are. What happened?

Brian Azzarello says: Well, the production may be in Hollywood, but I’m in Chicago – and I’m going to stay here. Is that semantics? I’m not sure. I enjoy doing the work, and I really liked writing for this project – I’d like to do it again. And I know there are people that would kill to work in Hollywood. I’m just not one of those people. I’ll do it, I have done it, but the project has to be right. I’ve been asked to write a lot of
things that I’ve declined mainly because the projects didn’t interest me. If I were just writing to pull a paycheck, there’s a lot of other things I could be doing.

Question: What’s your motivation for writing?

Brian Azzarello says: If I have a story, if I have something to say, that’s my motivation. For this film, I had something to say about Bruce Wayne as a character, what his motivations are. That there’s something dark and wrong about what drives him. Batman is a super hero and he does good. But I think the Bruce Wayne part of the character’s motivation is slightly twisted. Bruce’s motivations don’t come from a good place.
He’s angry and, in that revenge is really his goal, he’s a dishonest character. That’s why he has to wear a mask. He’s doing good, but he’s not doing all the right things for all the right reasons.

That plays into this story. It should be a story about non-violence, but that’s the lesson that Bruce doesn’t learn. On the surface, Bruce is on a spiritual journey, but his spirit was corrupted when his parents were killed. And it’s not something that I think he’s even interested in fixing.

Question: How much research was involved in scripting a story set in India that focuses on the mind-over-matter theme of conquering your pain from within?

Brian Azzarello says: I spent a lot of time surfing (the Internet) – it’s a wonder how we all have libraries at our fingerprints these days. I needed to do research on India, and I gathered a lot of information on pain
management. What I learned is that a lot of pain management practitioners are con men.

Question: You’ve had some notable experience working on Batman – can you compare the differences in working on this Batman tale vs. “Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire” and “Broken City” or the “Batman:
Gotham Knights” comics?
Brian Azzarello says: Every time I approach Batman, I like to come from a different angle. In Deathblow, I saw him as a James Bond-type but on an urban level. For Broken City, he was the bitter private eye. On this project, I guess he’s lying to himself. He’s not intentionally conning Cassandra, but he does ultimately con her. He wants to learn what she knows, but he doesn’t want to know it for the reasons she teaches it. She finally figures out that he’s doing it for the wrong reason, but it isn’t until the end – and it’s not until then that even he understands that he’s been lying to himself.

Question: What are you reading these days?

Brian Azzarello says: I have a stack of books – The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz; one of Jason Starr’s novels; and then I’ve got Mario Batali’s Italian Grill cookbook. I actually read a lot of cookbooks – I grew up around cooking, and cooking really relaxes me. Nine times out of 10, I’m cooking something Italian, but the weather is turning, so my grill has been fired up a lot lately. I love barbeque – it’s great to cook
something for 8-10 hours. That’s such an American way of cooking, but I try to bring a lot of Mediterranean influences into that.

Question: So if you could hand-pick your next achievement, what would it be – win another Eisner, write the next Batman, or have your own show on Food Network?

Brian Azzarello says: Well, having my own cooking show sounds like no work at all. Winning another Eisner would be nice. But I think I’d have to pick writing the next Batman – that would be the biggest challenge for me. As a freelancer, if you’re not challenging yourself, nobody is. Every day I have to paint myself into a corner and then write my way out of it.

Batman: Gotham Knight is released on DVD July 8, 2008

pre-order it on Amazon!

Batman - Gotham Knight (Two-Disc Collector’s Edition)

Stephen Bissette’s ‘missing’ Swamp Thing

Over on his personal website, classic comic book artist Stephen Bissette is displaying pages from Swamp Thing proposals that never saw print.

Back in 1999, the year I retired from the American comics industry for good, I did post a couple of the proposals on my original comicon.com website. They were at that point over a year old; simply put, once again, proposals sent to DC were met with indifference, and the post was my way of ensuring my ideas were at least ‘tagged’ as my concepts, should they ever surface in another guise (which is nothing I’ve experienced at DC, but did experience at Marvel first-hand, and saw close friends experience at Marvel).

It also put these out there; as I thought then and think now these concepts were as good as, and better than, much of what Vertigo/DC did publish (especially in the various incarnations of Swamp Thing since 1990), it seemed worth doing.

# Rich Handley found those 1999 posts, and incorporated their contents into his expansive, definitive Roots of the Swamp Thing website, which you should immediately check out and explore (here).

# Rich specifically worked my concepts for Swamp Thing Origins: Go With the Flow into the prehistory of the character, though I hasten to add this does not mean my concepts now belong to DC/Vertigo.

In any case, to provide here a context for my ongoing work this year on a project with the working title Swamp Angels (referencing the famous 19th Century bayou painting), I re-present that 1999 post here for your entertainment today.

An essential part of the horror genre, Swamp Thing was one of the first crossover concepts where a monster was also the hero. A giant in the world of sequential artists Bissette is also known for his formation of Taboo (publishers of both The Lost Girls and From Hell), and has also worked with filmmaker Lance Weiller on The Last Broadcast and Head Trauma (both of which I heartily recommend).

This presentation of material on Bissette’s website is a rare opportunity to see inside the process of a ‘lost’ classic. Take advantage!

Upcoming Marvel Comics movies

If (like me) you knew well enough to stay in the cinema after the Iron Man credits finished, you will know that this is just the beginning for Marvel Studios. Now that they have wrested the keys of control from the hands of large corporations and movie studios, they are free to do as they will… and make their own mistakes? Perhaps.

But the promise of an Avengers movie lies nested in the deep planning of other films. As big wig Avi Arad has stated, Marvel Studios had no interest in simply plopping an Avengers film featuring complete strangers at the feet of a confused movie going public. Instead, the plan is to fully introduce the key characters in the super hero super group before plunging them headlong into an ensemble flick.

That said, it looks like this (thanks to Pardis Parker for the time table)

Iron Man 2 (Marvel) Scheduled for April 30, 2010 release
Thor (Marvel) Scheduled for June 4, 2010 release
The First Avenger: Captain America working title (Marvel) Scheduled for May 6, 2011 release
The Avengers (Marvel) Scheduled for July 2011 release
Ant-Man (Marvel) Writer/director engaged

So we have three long years to wait for a pay off for a post end credit sequence? It’s not that I mind, but… is it going to be worth it? If the films listed above (including next month’s dark horse Incredible Hulk) are as good as Favreau’s Iron Man, I’m in.

But any comic book fan can tell you that nothing is set in stone and the fickle winds of change are only months apart sometimes. Three years could mean anything for the Avengers.

All I know is that the day after I saw the Iron Man movie I saw my cousin-in-law’s children Seth and Ilan and they were ravenous for anything Avengers-related… how weird is that!?

Secret Identities

What is the deal with secret identities? Combining the allure of the theater and the danger of a cat burgler, a domino mask has been the calling card of super heroes for generations. Yet does it really accomplish anything? It reveals the subject’s nose, eye color, lips and cheeks. Surely… it hides nothing at all. Yet for anyone who has ever worn one of these masks it cannot be denied that it does something for the wearer. Super hero masks protect the hero’s identity while also presenting a new, stranger face to the world. It would take a much smarter fellow to delve into the true meaning of masks and heroes (like John Campbell) and I’m just too mad, but… wearing a mask does change you.

As a child I had hours of fun running into a bush or behind a door to change into my Batman Halloween costume only to emerge asking ‘where’s Jamie? I’m Batman.’

My brother mostly played along and that could be part of the key here. No one can really believe that Aunt May doesn’t realize Peter Parker is Spider-Man or that Jim Gordon has no idea his good friend Bruce Wayne masquerades as the Batman and how could Lois Lane not notice that Clark Kent is clearly Superman?? Are they all, like my brother, just good sports?

Aside from the absurdity of the idea and the evocative mythical relevance of the concept, secret identities are becoming as dead as the dodo. As evidenced in this summer’s blockbuster film Iron Man where Tony Stark throws caution to the wind and admits publicly that he is in fact Iron Man, the conceot just is not necessary any more.

Back in the day, a secret identity was a tool to extend a story of perhaps create some kind of drama that some nosey girl might find out our hero’s secret (it doesn’t take much to connect the dots to what this could really mean, does it?). Yet readers today are more excited about danger and violence to lose sleep over wondering ‘will Aunt May catch Peter in his uniform?’ The first step in  untangling this old trope was when Captain America publicly announced his identity. A bold move, it was eclipsed by the stunning storyline by Brian Michael Bendis where Daredevil’s identity was exposed, turning the blind lawyer’s like on its head. Likewise Tony Stark saw no reason to hide his identity any longer and after going public as the armored avenger he probably wondered why he didn’t do it sooner!

In an age where nosey girlfriends or immortal aunts are no longer plot devices, is the secret identity even necessary? In a recent issue of Batman, Bruce Wayne seems to be exposed before his finacee, but is there any real drama there or is it just another issue where Batman nearly gets outed (again) for putting on a silly outfit at night to beat up strangers?

What do you think?

A Cool Exec… with a Heart of Steel

I admit it, my hopes were low for the Iron Man movie. I saw a star-studded cast, a non-action flick director and a barely known super hero character and thought to myself, ‘this is probably gonna suck.’

I love being wrong (sometimes).

For those not in the know, Iron Man comes from the mysterious age of rebirth in the comic book industry called the Silver Age. By 1963, the super hero comic book characters had long lost their appeal. A weary Stan Lee decided that the medium was a dead duck and despite the stellar monster comics he was producing with Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers, Jack Kirby and Don Heck, it was probably time to throw in the towel. Before he called it quits, however, he decided to try something new. This experiment gave birth to what is called the Marvel Universe today.

Spider-Man, The Hulk, Doctor Strange, The Uncanny X-Men, The Mighty Thor were all huge hits for the little publisher that could. Feeling that he had the golden touch, Lee created a comic that he was convinced had no chance (just to show that he could sell anything). The comic would follow the adventures of an arms manufacturer/playboy. At a time when the world was waking up to the horrors of war, this should have been an unreadable and unsellable comic book.

Yet it sold like hotcakes.

Today the comic book properties of the 1960’s are franchises of the modern age, something few could have envisioned so long ago. The current film depicting the armored avenger took a noble stand on two distinct fronts. Firstly, it had a message about war and corporate greed. Secondly, rather than simply using computer-generated characters throughout the film, the genius of Stan Winston was used to produce real iron armor suits. This tactile approach to the technology really helps the film come alive and the bizarre gadgets that spring from Iron Man’s suit seem all that more fantastic while retaining a certain level of believability.

After premiering his deadly Jericho weapon device to the military in war-torn Afghanistan, his military escort is attacked, leaving the posh playboy not only trapped behind enemy lines, but also near death thanks to his very own weapons used by terrorists on the convoy. His cell-mate is an equally gifted inventor who, with Tony’s help, creates an entirely new power device grafted to Stark’s chest (and consequently keeping the shrapnel embedded in Tony’s torso from tearing his heart apart). After seeing the horror that his weapons have created, Stark vows to stop the violence being done in his name. Instead of creating weapons for his captors, he turns his missiles into a crude one-man walking tank. When he returns to the US, he is a changed man, driven to perfect his armor design and use his inventive mind to do something better than blow people up. But his business partner and mentor Obediah Stane (played to perfection by Jeff Bridges) is none too keen on the idea. It turns out that the terrorists who captured Stark did not do so by mistake. Eventually, it’s a war of ideals… and armor with Stane and Stark on opposite sides.

Despite its heavy message, the tone of the film is very light yet intelligent. Tony Stark is depicted as a brilliant and gifted ‘uberkind’ who dabbles in everything robotics to weapon design. A man of many talents, he’s also somewhat of an enigma and while he seems equally at home on a posh dinner event as a Denny’s, he’s also completely out of place with the common man. This aspect of his personality is so perfectly played out that the manner of his escape makes perfect sense. It’s this kind of understanding of comic book logic that really impresses me about this flick. At its heart, it’s a summer popcorn movie, but it’s also remarkable clever and respectful of the source material.

Robert Downey Jr. really seems to have found the perfect outlet for his character-acting skills. His energy and wit shine in every scene and yet make him all the more believable as an almost alien genius. Despite his good looks and charm, you just cannot look upon Downey Jr’s Stark as a ‘normal person,’ which is a boon to a super hero film. This version of Stark is just so strange that he uses the same hi-tech skills on rebuilding vintage cars as building a brand new power source (while listening to Suicidal Tendencies, I might add). His chemistry with Gwyneth Paltrow is also a joy on the screen. The two exchange quips almost daring each other to break character and admit a genuine emotion… and when it happens neither knows quite what to do. It’s an interesting slant on the tired will they/won’t they dynamic.

The effects and story itself come together to make what is the most appealing super hero film in a very long time. Not full of angst or ironic self-referential humor, Iron Man is simply a great action flick. I’m still chuckling to myself over the use of the 1966 Iron Man cartoon melody in the film.

See if you can catch it yourself!

This is the first of the Marvel Entertainment Studios films, paving the way for many more to come (if you stay after the credits, you will be treated to a very clear idea of what is coming next from the House of Ideas). A fantastic comic book movie, this is the best effort since Spider-Man 1… and that’s really high praise.