A unique new photo of Health Ledger as the Joker in the upcoming release THE DARK NIGHT has surfaced. You can check it out at the Daily Telegraph's website along some cool new facts about the film.

I was debating making this entry because I don't want to risk covering the same topics over and over again but considering the fact that I leave some of my blog entries open ended I thought I would add a few notes.

 

MOON KNIGHT – This monthly series is really growing on me because it is the MAX series that is not a MAX series. That is, it is a mature title but it doesn't wallow in the over the top self parody that many of Marvel MAX comics fall into. (Folks, there does come a point where trying to be shocking and offensive is no longer shocking and offensive. When you reach that point, you become embarrassing and silly) Anyways…Moon Knight is an interesting series because the long time "B character" of the Marvel Universe is running into a number of problems because of his perceived outsider nature. I always felt that the new Moon Knight character is a metaphor for loners that can't fit in to society (a long time staple of Marvel characters) and what makes the character so compelling here is that the heroes of the "Marvel Status Quo" do not exactly appear very likable. Yes, Moon Knight has his 'outsider and anti-hero' flaws but he remains an engaging character and his story lines worth following.

 

COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS – Over at DC I just read a the 4th to last issue of COUNTDOWN and all I have to say is wake me up when its over. This entire series was a horrible retread of last year's brilliant 52 and it really has turned off a number of readers. The gist of the new issue is Mary Marvel is turning evil which is a retread of the classic Black Adam storyline of last year. Really, this series is shaping up to be almost as big of a disaster as the old Spiderman Clone saga of a previous generation.

I was reading the 30 DAYS OF NIGHT story arc RED SNOW and found it to be one of the best 30 DAYS storylines in a long time. I have been a 30 DAYS fan for a long time having enjoyed the original, debut story quite a bit but believe it or not I found the sequel DARK DAYS to be even better. And, yes, I thought BLOODSUCKER TALES was really well written and engaging. But, even the most ardent of 30 DAYS fan would have to admit a decline in the quality of the series. SPREADING THE DISEASE was little more than a mix of THE PARALLAX VIEW meets BLACK SUNDAY meets COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE. And that goofy, goofy, I mean goofy DEAD SPACE storyline with the vampires in Outer Space reminded me of the worst episodes of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. The main problem evidenced by these poor storylines is the fact that there really is only so much you can do with vampires in a "comic universe" after you've over exposed them.

 

When it came to being skeptical of Bigfoot, the late Arthur C. Clarke provided one of the best arguments for not believing in the mysterious monster. The late Clarke's reason why there was no such thing as Bigfoot was as follows: "Too many people claim to have seen them." In one little sentence Clarke completely deflated virtually any argument for the existence of the Sasquatch and he could do this because that little sentence was loaded with a lot of common sense. If so many people could see the giant hairy beast they why was it so many people can not see it? Either it was a rare, elusive creature or it wasn't.

 

It is like in Marvel Comics when a superhero meets a vampire or a werewolf and initially doesn't believe in their existence. What the hell is not to believe? Can't they see all the parallel universes, mutants, aliens from outer space, intelligent robots, altered humans and swamp creatures around them?

 

I couldn't help but think of Clarke's words when reading the future installments of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT. In the first few series we were given the impression that there were very few vampires in the world and they were careful how and were they hunted. In future installments we get the impression they are everywhere. Well, there really is no other "impression" to derive…they are everywhere. They run in gangs and packs and they hunt and "turn" people into vampires. They attack in regions all over the United States if not the world and they do so while remaining elusive. Or, as elusive as one can be randomly attacking people in large groups on a global scale. So how doe the public keep from learning this?

 

Why, through the use of one of the greatest cliché devices in popular culture: the government is covering it up! This is so old and clichéd that it really doesn't does little more than inspire yawns when used. Plus, there is that little matter that the boobs in Washington are hardly known for being able to keep their mouths shut and government agencies aren't exactly known for their confidence. If something a dopey as the recent passport scandal couldn't stay under wraps or something as serious as the Abu Gharib scandal remains below the radar how could the government keep decades of attacks by hundreds of vampires under wraps?

 

Therein lays my problem with the 30 DAYS OF NIGHT series. It has moved from horror to the realm of fantasy. When this happens the stories top being scary and the vampires lose much of their menace.

A QUICK HEAD'S UP!

Now here is one of those cool things you come across by accident: Slate.com's article on the cool looking new book
The Ten Cent Plague.

I am sure that after dedicating three entries to The Hulk people probably thought I would mention The Incredible Hulk movie but we'll save that for later. After seeing the Hulk film Universal released a while back I kind of prefer not thinking about Hulk films for a while. Nope, let's talk about the Iron Man movie because the trailers for it look super cool and this is one superhero film I want to see. It's kind of funny that I would be looking forward to an Iron Man film considering that I was never a big fan of Iron Man comic books when I was a kid. No, it wasn't that Iron Man was not a cool hero as I did not dislike ole' Shellhead. I just didn't pick up many issues of his title. In fact, I think I purchased maybe 5 of them all throughout my childhood. Instead, I would enjoy his appearances in Marvel Team Up and Marvel Two in One as well as other guest appearances in other issues. As a kid, I was not into heroes that flew. I jut more down to earth heroes such as Spiderman, Captain America, The Hulk, Daredevil, et al. Iron Man was ok, but he was too fantastic for my tastes. Iron Man, however, was also never a dull character since the alcoholism storylines made the character interesting if not shocking. There were no Marvel Max titles in th 1970's and 1980's so adult themed storylines were rare so this made Iron Man an intriguing title for a while. But the concept of an Iron Man film did not appeal to me when I first heard about it. Mainly, the leaked script ideas at the time sounded uninspiring. Plus, I had a feeling that the superhero film genre was not going to have legs for much longer. Boy, was I wrong on that as the superhero film (not really a genre…it falls under the genre of Science-Fiction) has become the new western genre as it has mega legs to last many decades. Then again, if could die out in a few years and be the modern equivalent of the kung fu film cycle of the 1970's. That means, means the films might stay popular for five years or more and then die out. Then again, the money earned by the modern superhero film fad far, far, far eclipses the revenues generated by the old kung fu cycle so maybe that is not an accurate comparison either. Anyway, I am getting off topic. The Iron Man motion picture has the potential to be a really fun film and I will keep this blog updated with news and info as I come across it.




 

I have stuck with Countdown to Final Crisis for the past 46 weeks although I must admit I was going to throw the towel in after issue 12 or so. The series just didn't grab me. But, I stuck it out hoping things would get better and to a degree they did but there are a number of inherent flaws with the series.

The series centers on the return of the Multiverse and in doing so it reminds us of why they got rid of the Multiverse in the first place: it is confusing and convoluted as hell.

But, I stuck with the series for a number of reasons one of which is that DC Comics is one of the few publishers that promote traditional superhero storylines. Yes, the plots are more complex that what appeared 40 years ago but the general notion of "good guys" vs. "bad guys" remain. One of the saddest trends I see in many hero books is that they are little more that nihilistic soap operas featuring (to borrow one of the Hulk's favorite phrases) men in funny underwear. It is disturbing to see more and more hero books featuring scenes where the villain is the United States and its institutions, where heroes become cynical and grim, plot lines are loaded with disturbing levels of violence, etc.

With DC, you get a glimpse at the traditional old school hero and although their sales have been lagging lately they also delivered huge hits prior to this year following the same traditional formula. So what went wrong? Countdown to Final Crisis simply proved to be an inferior sequel to 52 and it has had ripple effects through the DC Universe.

One of the problems with Countdown to Final Crisis is that it borrowed heavily from the theme/business strategy that made 52 so successful. When DC decided to completely remove Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman out of a year long major story arc they took a risk. The goal was to elevate "B level" characters so as to make them more important in the overall scheme of the DC Universe. That is, these B Grade characters could end up having their own successful selling monthly titles. To a certain extent, this has worked. Granted, Booster Gold is never going to deliver 100,000+ sales a month the title is doing far better than it ever would have if Gold was a minor player in the 52 story arc.

 

But what made 52 so successful was the fact that it was expertly written and with plot twists and character development galore. With Countdown to Final Crisis we get a convoluted storyline loaded with B characters who have been around as the focal point of a major story arc for too long. Simply put these characters are suffering from overexposure.

 

Remember, there is a reason why B characters are B characters…they lack that special something that make an A level superhero A level. When they a B grade character is overexposed the limitations become glaringly apparent unless they are placed in a compelling storyline to be successful. Remember, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita Sr worked on Spiderman and Daredevil during the 1960's. Is there any comparison between the success of Spiderman and Daredevil? None. The reason was Daredevil was essentially a generic hero with the gimmick being he was blind. The book was generally a marginally humorous Spiderman knock off for two years before becoming a serious toned Spiderman knock off until Frank Miller saved a very boring book from oblivion with quality writing and revolutionary (for its time) storytelling. Even though some of the greatest comic storylines in history have appeared in Daredevil comics the bulk of the character's 44 year history has been average at best. This is because Daredevil – while patterned after Spiderman – was missing a multitude of elements that made Spiderman such an endearing and popular character. Because of this Daredevil remains a long time character with a fan base but still a B character as far as the scheme of things go. (For the record, I am a long time Daredevil fan who thinks the past 8 years of DD have been tremendous)

 

Therein lies the problem with Countdown to Final Crisis (well, one of the problems) You can only build around B grade stars for so long until their weaknesses become obvious.  

No folks, I haven't forgotten about the forthcoming second installment of my Moon Knight analysis. In fact, I am hoping to have it done sometime during this week. Unfortunately, my day job tied me up for the past few days and I haven't been able to finish up the second part of it.

Also forthcoming will be a look at the new Thor series, an analysis of the DC's Countdown to Final Crisis and why it is so disappointing (although it is not really as bad as some people insist), a look at the Sinestro Corps War and the recent Batman storyline with the Ra's Al Ghul.

And, yes, the definitive look at the old Power Records GI Joe book and record series.

Yup, I have a lot of work to do.

The Incredible Hulk Movie Iron Man Movie Review

I had written often about the character Moon Knight in some of my more "slip shod" blogs but I don't think I ever invested any time seriously examining the character other than my brief mention of his appearances in RAMPAGING HULK MAGAZINE in an extensive Hulk article for my On Television Classics blog. (BTW – You can read reprints of those excellent RH stories in ESSENTIAL MOON KNIGHT Vol 1) I first discovered Moon Knight in the late 1970's in an issue of MARVEL TEAM UP. I was a regular reader of the character's third series in the 1990's. I also dug the four issue mini series of the late 1990's and have been reading the return of Moon Knight in his new, excellent monthly series.

Face it. I am a huge Moon Knight fan and sometimes I ask myself "why?" After all, he has long since been a secondary character in the Marvel universe and the character is a shameful rip-off of Batman. So why all the adoration for such a B level character? Because with B level characters writers take chances and those RAMPAGING HULK stories and the later half of the early 1980's solo series were off the charts in terms of the unique, inspired and brilliant writing. But, Moon Knight never rose above B status and despite the quality of the writing all his series were short lived. Upon looking at the decent sales figures for the new series it would seem that this Moon Knight series will be a winner. 

And the writing is excellent. But, rather than discuss the story lines of the past dozen or so issues I thought I would look at the very first too issues which find Marc Spector down on his luck, haunted by distressed memories, addicted to pain killers and seeing his glory day memories of Moon Knight far behind it. There is a certain subtext here that is not necessarily obvious on the surface.

Based on the condition that we find Spector we must conclude: being a B level hero weighs heavily on a man whose glory fades in comparison to the heroes who get all the attention. Yes, it would seem that Spector's mental and physical breakdown is a metaphor for his long running bad newsstand sales.

Look, how would you like it if you took criminals off the streets as well as outright saved the word a few times and were essentially considered unimportant? Yes, that would weigh heavily on the psyche
 

TO BE CONTINUED

Truth be told. I am a major fan of the work of Alan Moore having first discovered his brilliance when I first read the trade paperback of WATCHMEN back in the early 1990's. I went on to collect a number of Alan Moore classics over the years enjoying pretty much all of them and finding his classic work on SWAMP THING being my favorite. (oh, yes, there will be an extensive look at his run on SWAMP THING down the road) But, I have not picked up FROM HELL until today. Yes, I stared at a copy of the book on store shelves for years but never picked it up.  This despite the fact that I had watched the film adaptation and didn't find it as bad as some people said. So, why did I wait so long to pick up a copy of it?

Folks. that want $25 for the book and I am a working man.

But I finanlly did pick it up and it was well work the wait. This is a classic work of comic fiction.

While there are many great and wonderful websites out there that deserve a ton of praise, I have to tip my hat to a website that is one of the all time best of the best. The site is Comics2Film which remains one of the most valuable resources on the net for those folks who have a love for websites that deal with the subject of comic book film adaptations. Yes, the genre of superhero movies will be here to stay for many years to come. Of course, much of the thanks is due to those filmmakers who made engaging and enjoyable films that brought people back time and time again. (Yes, there were a few duds here and there but every genre has their duds) But, overall, most comic book film adaptations are a lot of fun and well worth looking forward to. So, if you are interested in all the news regarding upcoming comic book film adaptations then visiting Comics2film is well worth it.