Doug: We're going to take another day off in the midst of our 4-parter on Marvel Team-Up. Karen is working up her report on her trip to Wonder Con in San Francisco this past weekend (as well as recovering, I'm sure), so I'll fly solo with a few tidbits that have caught my eye in the past week or so.
Doug: Big Alex Ross fan, here. Somehow this slipped by me in pre-release publicity, but I'm glad I know it's available now. I'm talking about the new Alex Ross hardcover, Rough Justice: The DC Comics Sketches of Alex Ross. You can see the description of it here. Chip Kidd is the book's editor, so you know it will be top shelf. I just love everything Ross does, and can't believe he has his detractors. I've met him on a number of occasions, and have always found him to be very cordial. I'd love in the future to see a similar volume dedicated to Marvel Comics' heroes and villains!
So how does everyone feel about the casting of Chris Evans as Captain America? While I liked him a lot as Johnny Storm in the two Fantastic Four movies, I find a couple of things curious about his role in the upcoming Captain America and Avengers films. First, while I could get past his brown hair in the role of the Human Torch, I'm having a more difficult time in dealing with that in regard to Cap/Steve Rogers. 
I think, too, that we've all felt that the tone of all future Marvel films will mirror the Ultimate Universe as opposed to the more familiar Marvel 616 Universe. I guess grim and gritty lives on, huh? In that regard, Evans may fare well -- Cap in the modern era of that universe is somewhat of a smart alleck, and that seems to be a strength of Evans. My fear is, though, that the World War II scenes may not play as well. We shall see.Oh, and one last thing (maybe the biggest of all) -- should we assume that there won't be an FF/Avengers crossover coming our way anytime soon?
NEAL ADAMS' BATMAN: ODYSSEY
DC Comics has announced that Neal Adams will be returning to Batman in Batman: Odyssey, a 12-part mini-series that launches in July.
Here's how DC describes the series:
"Odyssey finds Batman facing a series of seemingly unrelated challenges, villains and allies, old and new, that push him to his limits as never before. The battles get more intense and, in turn, more deadly, The Dark Knight Detective discovers that there might be an over-arching force behind his troubles. And if this is so, if there is a dark and mysterious matrix being super-imposed over Batman's life.... what sort of life-changing voyage must he go on to free himself from this powerful and insidious direction?"Worse... where can he go that he has never gone before for his desperately needed Odyssey?"
"I have been collecting bits and pieces of Batman's life and time over the years since I was doing Batman regularly," Adams said. "With even this massive series, I haven't been able to shove them all in. but the juiciest and richest morsels are there. Have comic books always been this much fun?"
The feature also displayed the accompanying artwork. You might notice that Batman is carrying a gun, so this is perhaps from very early in his career. But at any rate, would you agree that Neal Adams still has it at 69 years of age? Wow. Just awesome. I no longer buy new comics, but this is one series that has me pretty excited.
Doug: 
However, another series that I am questioning is Marvel's soon-to-released Avengers: The Origin. If I'm not mistaken, Stan and Jack did a pretty good job with this 47 years ago. 
While I thought Joe Casey did a decent job with his two Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes mini-series, there were certainly places I could find faults. I'm just not a fan of all of the revisionism.
Updating for a modern audience? Perhaps. But I have to scratch my head (over the past two decades of comics, really) and ask: What is canon anymore?
I can't see Chris Evans as Cap. Can he play anything other than goofy? I actually thought the guy they got for the Thor movie, Chris Hemsworth, would've made a good Cap.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteNote - the deleted comment was just a duplicate of Karen's comment above. For whatever reason, there was an error when it went through and was entered twice.
ReplyDeleteSo, there's no mysterious goings-on, just trying to clean things up!
Doug
Help! I'm being repressed!
ReplyDeleteNah: Chris is as Charismatic as we can "get' without the "heavy" handed SUPERFLUOUS: Patriotism: if ANYTHING: He ADDS: more EmotionaL: DEPTH: 2 da "Character" neh?
ReplyDeleteAlso: He's YOUNG: Enough: So that: if they "make" any SEQUELS: he's STILL: Game: neh?
ReplyDeleteanyhow: I'm "Glad" it's HIM: you haven't SEEN: his DIVERSITY: watch his "back" Catalog of FILMS: neh?
THere's a LOT: of Variety to his "choices" and he's GREAT: when GIVEN: Proper Characters and Written DIALOGUE: to WORK: WITH: neh?
Capisch? Just go Back & RE-WATCH: SUNSHINE by Danny BOYLE: neh?
He MakeS: TRULY: CILIAN MURPHY's "character" LOOK: Like the TRUE: WIMP: neh?
I was just going back through some old posts and came across the comments by Mr. Rex, above me here. All I have to say is, was this some sort of code? It seems like a great deal of effort to go through to type in all the extraneous punctuation and capitol letters if it wasn't.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm pretty happy now with Chris Evans as Cap. Not perfect, but he's pretty good.
Of all things, Chris Evans' voice is what's putting it over nicely for me. He does not have a "pretty" or "hero" voice at all-- really has a raspy, beaten edge to it. It actually makes him come off as more mature, I think-- I guy who's been around the block a couple of times in his youth. Of all people, his voice makes me think of Jack Kirby just a little bit. It really runs counter to the conventional voice you'd expect this kind of hero to have-- you figure Cap and Superman could probably be done by the same guy in a pinch. . .
ReplyDelete(an additional 2-cents on this old thread. And yeah-- what the heck was that Rex fellow's deal. . . ??)