IGN has several promotional pictures with possible fights to watch for.

I know it hasn’t hit yet, and that its company (Marvel) has made some pretty stupid mistakes in the past with their characters.  And this has potential for both excellence and suckage.  But come on guys, you have to be looking at the big picture here.  Two of the great team leaders in Captain America and Cyclops are going to hit head on.  The fight between Colossus and Thing could have been epic at one time, not so much now that he’s running around with Juggernaut’s powers, but with Ben Grims never quit attitude and all, who knows.  Thor vs Storm might be fun, finally teach that weather witch what a real storm god can do.  I’m not so sure Daredevil vs Archangel is a fair fight, I mean I like Daredevil a lot, he’s one of my top two favorites in the MU, but he’s basically a highly trained acrobat and fighter with amazing senses.  I don’t see that working against a guy who can not only fly and speeds faster than a sports car, but can sling thousands of hyper-sonic blades out of both his wings at DD.  All these did make for great pictures though.

Picture courtesy of CBR

I noticed a few things about the cover art of the upcoming book too.  Wolverine and Beast who are well known X-men are on the Avengers side of the cover fight.  And the worlds first mutant Prince Namor aka the Submariner, appears to be on the X-team’s side of the equation.  A couple of lopsided face-offs shown here look to be, Luke Cage aka Powerman vs Magneto.  Cage is strong sure, but I hope he isn’t wearing any of his classic biker gear.  And for heavens sake Luke the chain around your waste as a belt like you used to do in the 70′s … bad idea on this day.  Emma Frost vs Ironman?  I’m sorry Tony, as brilliant as you are, Emma has that telepathy, has mind controlled, mind switched, and otherwise mentally manipulated many people over the years.  Unless you get the helmet Colossus wears to protect him, and I think it may clash with your regular armor accessories… your toast bud.  Plus if she shifts to diamond form, no one has yet revealed what that potentially does for her strength, but she’s down right invulnerable to most heat, cold, energy, and physical attacks in that form, there is a “flaw” that could shatter her, but no one knows where it is.

Red Hulk vs Juggernaut/Colossus might rock as a fight, but lets hope they take it outside city limits or the collateral damage could wipe out much of New York.  Hawkeye and Iceman could be a fun fight, but we better hope Clint Barton remember his thermal long johns or it may also be a short fight.  His ace shots and trick arrows have served him well and I think the world of him as a character.  Plus since he took up fighting with blades and martial arts, he’s less of a one trick pony now, but lets get real.  Iceman once had to wear a power restriction belt to keep himself from causing a new ice age.  And he has frozen a guy (I forget the title, story and issue) solid.  Remember the human body is roughly 60% water, freeze that and I don’t think Hawkeyes arrows, blades, and fighting will help much anymore.

Overall my opinion is that The Avengers should take this fight in the end, but based more on their leadership than out powering the X-men.  I’d watch Wolverine and Beast real carefully if I were on the Avengers myself, no telling when their allegiances will flip again.  Also the Avengers have a big movie upcoming, so losing a huge fight just before hitting the silver screen probably won’t be happening if Marvel Entertainment is worth their salt.  Thems just my two cents though.

So Marvel really did these right in my opinion.  Not only did they give each of the characters in this team movie their own film to kick them off, they also built the various films with little hidden nods to the fans and their other movies.  Watching Ironman you get to see cap’s shield in both his films.  Plus if you wait till after the credits on the films you get little scenes teasing the next film in the series.

• The end of Ironman shows a tip of the hat to the Avengers movie itself and we are introduced to Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury.
• The Incredible Hulk ends with a clip showing Tony Stark walking into a bar with General Thunderbolt Ross saying, “We’re putting together a team.”.
• Then they released a second Ironman and it ends with Agent Coulson finding Thor’s hammer in the dessert.
• Thor credits are followed with the discovery of the Cosmic Cube and hints at its history and connection to Captain America.
• Captain America’s film ends with a scene in which they bring all the clues together with Nickolas Fury telling Steve Rogers that it’s time to ‘assemble the team.’

Also within the movies there are subtle and not so subtle nods to the various other characters of the Marvel universe.  In the Hulk movie for example, they build Hulks villain the Abomination with a combination of attempted remade super soldier serum and Banner’s gamma irradiated blood, an obvious nod to Captain America, Emil Bronsky even says “Super Soldier” at one point talking about the development of the serum.  They also introduce Leonard Sampson who in the comics is later Doc Sampson.  There is a tag on the “CryosinC” canister where Gen. Ross gets the serum for Emil Blonski’s first enhancement procedure that says, “Developed By: Dr Reinstein” but the other thing you may not notice is the company logo “Stark Industries” on the tag.  There is the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Division logo when they are searching the web looking for clues as to where Banner may be.  Then after Blonski is turned into the Abomination, the blood from banner drips down and onto Dr Samuel Stern’s head wound beginning a transformation that we don’t get to see through to its creation due to the scene changing.  That transformation of course alluding to the Leader, one of Hulks longest running and most antagonistic arch nemesis.

Image from http://www.bleedingcool.com

Little ‘Easter eggs’ such as these are found throughout all the films leading up to next summer’s “The Avengers”.  Some of the side characters within the various films will be making an appearance in The Avengers as well.  Characters such as Black Widow from Ironman 2 and Hawkeye from Thor.  Of course we know Nicholas Fury and agent Coulson will be there too.  They have shown Loki will be in the movie trailers and online pictures, but I have to wonder if that will be the only bad guy in there.

I find that Marvel’s movies were being done perfectly before they were bought out by Disney.  Now if Disney will let them retain the ability to continue making films as they were then things will be fine.  But if they insist on making everything family friendly and putting lots of little kid like characters in the films or changing damn to darn and hell to heck and what not… well things aren’t going to be as popular as they were with the comic fans for sure.

I wish all the contracts Marvel had signed giving rights to their characters over to other studios for movies would run out.  Marvel could then run all their films under one studio and have the ability to let Wolverine show up and fight side by side with Captain America, or Daredevil cameo in the next Spiderman, or even use Punnisher in the next Blade movie.

What other Marvel characters I’d like to see run in movies?  Well Daredevil needs a good one obviously, but there’s supposedly one in the works.  We’ll have to wait and see what happens with it, hopefully it deals with the Hand ninja and Stick guiding DD and his other students the Chaste.  I would like to see, and heard rumor about, a Dr Strange movie.  Hope the story is as good or better than the animated one they made a while back and that it keeps its distance from that made for tv crap they did way back in the late 70′s.  Also it would be fun to see them bring out some of their lesser well known heroes for a film or two.  Something like “Heroes for Hire” and maybe “Master of Kung Fu:Shang Chi “.  They introduced the Silver Surfer in the second Fantastic Four movie, lets see a movie about “Marvel: Cosmic Powers” including Silver Surfer, Morg, Beta Ray Bill, Quasar, FireLord, Warlock, Nova, and maybe Nova, they could cross Hulk’s Warbound group in there.  Of course all these are just off the top of my head.  Given time I’m sure I could come up with lots more.

Regardless, I hope for the best and will see whether it meets expectations or falls on its super powered butt come next May.

The first one was ‘The Punisher’ in 1998 staring Dolph Lundgren and it fell like a balloon filled with the lead shot in all three films.

I’d say the one closest to success, was Thomas Jane playing Castle in ‘The Punisher’ in 2004.  Still they made to many changes and it really didn’t go far.

I liked the direction they took with 2008′s ‘Punisher: War Zone’ staring Ray Stevenson, but apparently I was in the minority.

I see two possible outcomes where this new Punisher could go here;

Looks like based on the changes they are already making to the characters background and story they are already leaning towards the number one option here.  Castle is not a cop, he’s an ex-soldier who’s family is slaughtered by mob crossfire in the park.  He then puts on the black Kevlar and white skull and sets out to finish the war they drug him into.  Any alteration to that is a huge mistake on their part.

This first issue of the new series drops Cap right into the thick of things.  Drudging up some past memories and haunting him with what could be an old friend turned enemy 65+ some odd years ago.  The comic reads like a spy novel with revelations being thrown at the reader through action and flashbacks.  The dialog was short and to the point and it fed us just enough to keep the mind in the story, but not so much as to distract from the fine work of Steve, Mark and Justin.  Of the variant covers offered (yawn) I chose the one by the team that did the book and left the others for the more feral collectors out there.

SPOILER WARNING: I wasn’t too happy with the way the team handled the flashback sequences, I felt the shifts as kind of jarring moments of, ‘Wait, I was just watching Steve get dressed for something, how did I end up with Cap fighting… Oh, this is his mind wandering though past memories, Ok.’  then later, he gives chase through the busy streets of Paris and his quarry, in order to escape, fires a grenade under a car behind Steve which blows up.  Steve leaps out of the way barley avoiding the flames and debris.  He recalls something else from 65+ years ago and rushes his crew all back to the states … Not to put to fine a point on it Steve old buddy, but the flaming car that you dove out of the way of was just in heavy traffic seconds before your quarry shot the grenade under it.  Shouldn’t we be checking for survivors in that wreckage?  I mean you are still a hero right?  Then in the parking lot outside the hospital back in the good ol’ USA, I get that the jacket and shirt Steve was wearing had been blown up and torn off, and I get that he pulled his mask and gloves on as he got to his feet and threw the shield through a car taking out several baddies with one of his fantastic Cap only throws.  But he was still wearing his tattered jeans and grey shoes when  the car tries to run down Sharon, but with no time between catching the shield and moving to save her he leaps over, takes the hit from the car and rolls off with Sharon in tow… he had time to change his boots and pants?!

That’s all nit picky stuff though and the over all feel and flow of the book did not disappoint me.  For any trued Captain America fan, I do recommend you pick this up.  Its obviously the start of a fast paced and twisted ride through Caps background and future.  Can’t wait to see where they take us next.  Any following comic reviews may be delayed somewhat as I have ordered a subscription to this book and am not sure if I will get mine the same day they hit shelves or not.  Regardless, I do hope you all join me in this story.  I’ve always felt the initial reading of the book was a step into their world for the reader, but to get further enjoyment, it would be great to hear from others out there what they may have seen or liked about this destined for greatness series.

Three cheers for Steve Rogers Captain America, back in the star spangled shield slinging red white and blue action!  Hip, hip … Hooray! Hip, hip … Hooray! Hip hip … Hooray!

photo credit: scumdogsteev

Publishers all over do marketing. Advertising with slick little gimmicks that are intended to push sales up. But the comic book companies have for a very long time (at least as long as I’ve been collecting) been doing some pretty underhanded schemes. Looking back on the last twenty some odd year’s worth of books, they have each done one or more of the following tricks trying to separate us from our hard earned dollar;

1. Variant cover art
2. Foil/Holograph/gimmick cover
3. Advertising that some major event will change the comic universe, then pulling the JR Yuing on us.
4. Promising a huge fight with some great character next issue, then ending following issue with a splash page introduction of said character and leaving the actual fight for the next issue.
5. Advertising the “death” of a hero and then pulling the old bait and switch killing someone who looks like him, or some random citizen who saves the day.
6. Miscellaneous other sneaky crap.

Variant covers are when multiple artist draw a cover for the same comic book and they release them as “collectable’s” intending for us consumers to blow all our money trying to get the whole set. Sometimes, like on the first X-Force book, they have the same artist draw all the cover’s with various folks from the team. They also will sometimes do a panoramic drawing where only by collecting all three or four variant covers can you put them together and see the whole picture. The comic book inside the variant covers in all these cases are the exact same other than the cover. Issue #1 of X-Force had I think seven different covers to buy. Why do you need multiple copies of the same exact story? You can only read one anyway. Answer, you don’t. It’s just a publisher gimmick to rip off our money.

Foil or holograph or otherwise gimmicky die cut, glitter, etc etc covers are used when the publisher wants to hike the cost of the book up and give us consumers some bullshit reason to spend more of our money on them.

Ever watch that old Batman show from back in the 60’s? They end every one with a cliff hanger. That’s good stuff there. I enjoyed that, “Will the caped crusader escape the vile clutches of the Riddler’s trap? Will the boy wonder ever find Catwoman’s clue? Can the dynamic duo get the Batmobile out of Commissioner Gordon’s impound lot?! Tune in tomorrow. Same Bat channel, Same Bat time.” But publishers think that every now and again saying they are going to change everything and do something so shocking, so unthinkable that to miss this would ruin your understanding of all their universe … and then ‘Superman walks across the street instead of flies.’ I mean come on guys. Write that trap, write that actual moral dilemma, and then leave me hanging till next issue. But don’t ever ‘over promise and under deliver’. “That’s retail suicide” as my sales manager used to tell me when I worked at a Harley dealership.

Once you’ve given your huge cliff hanger of a reason to come back next issue, don’t skimp out on us and drag it out through another four issues either. If you tell us that, “Next issue will answer all!” well then it damn well better. If you say next issue the mighty Thor will guest appear and fight Spiderman, then it better not be twenty three pages of Spiderman stopping street crime and doing flash back panels of his spat with Mary Jane, followed by a final page appearance of Thor standing regally in a doorway pointing his hammer threateningly at Spidey on the wall. That’s not delivering, again, “That’s retail suicide”.

We, as Stan Lee puts it so well, “True believers”, know the difference between Spiderman, and the random comic realm citizen dressed up for parade, costume party, Halloween ect. ect. If we are told that Spiderman will die next issue… you better kill that tights wearin’ wall crawler and not pull the old bait and switch on us. All jokes aside here guys. Real collectors take the lives of their favorite heroes seriously. When Nightwing fought in, “Battle for the Cowl” I was more than upset when he won and took over as Batman, I was downright pissed off. I have not purchased a DC title since that day. Now thanks to this “re-launch” I get back Nightwing, all be it in a red and black outfit instead of his blue and black, but heck he’s changed outfits more than most guys buy new socks without holes. My point here is if my favorite character is taken out of his life and thrown into another for years at a time … that’s years of lost sales you’re causing for yourself. I have no pity and believe firmly in talking with my wallet as well as my blog. I don’t like it, I won’t pay for it. And I’ll let everyone of my comic book reading and collecting friends know I didn’t like too.

Finally we get to all the other miscellaneous stuff they come up with. Like has anyone read, “The Wisdom of Lobo”? The answer is no, because you can’t read it. It’s part of a box set of books bringing together some of his stories in two graphic novels and one… great cover art on a stack of blank newspaper print. Yeah sure, it’s a funny joke, but it also takes money from my pocket and puts it in theirs for something they could have used to print a real story on. I just today read over on Blaster, that Warren Ellis has released a book called, ‘SVK’ that in order to see the entire story, you have to read it under a UV light. They have printed the thoughts of the character in invisible ink that can only be seen with a UV light. Kind of a cool idea actually, but still a gimmick that hikes the cost of the book up to $16 for a 40 page comic.  There are also something I spoke about earlier in my ‘Readers Under Siege‘ post, cross over stories and universe wide events that run through all the books of a given publisher. They touch our favorite character’s life and give us the beginning of a story that if we want to read the end of, we have to pick up some other characters book. Or not only does the event cross over, it has its own title that is required to understand how things turn out. Guys are you living in the same recession I am? Do you understand that dropping $3 or $4 on even one comic is a luxury? And by not giving every comic story a beginning a middle and an end in the title I am interested in reading you risk losing sales as much as gaining?

If you are one of the ones who like these sorts of things, then I’m sorry. Sorry for your loss of money, sorry for your being, much like my son, very gullible to marketing schemes such as these. (Oooo shiny, me wants it! My precious…) But if you are in some way in the industry and can pass something on for me, I’d really appreciate it. Just tell them to write the great stories with the fantastic cliff hangers, and then follow up on promises. Ask them to give every story in a particular title a beginning, middle, and end. You can cross over characters and advertise that other events in another characters book also relates to the story in my favorite titles, but don’t force me to buy any other book’s to see what my hero does to solve his story. Entice, don’t push. Offer, don’t force the thing down my throat. Dump the gimmicks, tricks and con’s, and let’s get back to enjoying these comics for what they are meant to be … Please … PRETTY PLEASE!!!

And of course there is the MMORPG’s I have spoken about previously like City of Heroes, and Champions Online, or even DC Online.  I have played the first two and watched someone create a character and play part way through the tutorial on the third game, but they didn’t like it as much as I think I would have, so he quit.

There is also several games like the CapCom ones where your favorite Marvel characters fight against various CapCom staple characters.  So as expected, Marvel Universe, and DC Universe fight for dominance in the movie and game arena as well as of course the comic book industry.

Those two universes have very different things to offer us as consumers.  Marvel is a universe, more grounded in reality, using real cities and life situations to keep their stories, characters and universe relatable.  DC on the other hand, creates their universe as they go, building fictional cities and organizing them based on the heroes that patrol them.  Marvels New York coincides best with DC’s Metropolis.  DC has used the location of New York city as well, but for the most part the characters they write about each get their own cities, or share with one of the more popular hero mainstays.

I recently read a post talking about what makes the game experience different than that of books, comics, movies etc etc.  Paraphrasing here, the author says that in games, regardless of who your main character is, its your actions that push him through the story.  You get the satisfaction of accomplishing the goals set out for the character, and you get that moment of, “Did I just do that?!” when some spectacular move or idea you come up with works out.  I have to say, while I never put my finger on that particular point before reading that, I do agree with it.

Expanding on it to relate it to our genre here, in the Captain America:Super Soldier game we get to be Captain America fighting the beginnings of Hydra and Baron Von Strucker.  Instead of watching Chris Evens bring the character to life, or reading the comics currently being written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Steve McNiven, or even reading one of the books written about the character.  When we take out a room full of Hydra agents by slinging the shield and ricocheting off a couple of heads and back into our hands to defend against the onrushing mob of backup agents coming down the hall, its our button pushing frantic little geek dance in the seats that makes it happen.

Personally I prefer the fighting games that are written as a story, where you get to adventure and figure out some criminal masterminds plot that needs foiling as you go along.  I got to play the Wolverine game back when it came out and enjoyed it because of the story.  I must say though that while I like the idea of the adventure, one of the things they fail at is pidgeon holing you into only one way to go.  Follow the path forward and figure out the puzzles, then follow the path forward and fight the badguys, then follow the path forward and find the hidden key, then follow the path forward and fight a boss.  Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, fight the big boss, okay you win.

With MMORPG’s there is a universe that you get to explore and things you can do on the streets.  If you’re in the middle of a quest to save the cheerleader, but decide you have to stop off in some dark ally to stop a mugging, you can.  Not all the console games suffer from this issue.  When I played both the first and second Spiderman games, as long as I was out swinging around the city, I had carte blanche to go where,  and do what, I wanted.

For many years we dealt with knowing the best stories and heroes were in comics and that they deserved movies made about them, but the powers that be said, “That’ll never sell in the box office.” Now we have a new problem, they have found the characters that we old school comic book geeks know and love and have discovered what we knew all along, that they are viable box office cash cows, but they are killing the core of the characters to mold them into some Hollywood pre-decided package. Force them to fit what they believe works, instead of following what the best writers to have ever touched the character’s we grew up loving have done that made them famous to begin with. Greats like Frank Miller, Brian Micheal Bendis, Steve Ditko, Mark Waid, Eric Larson, and too many others to name with here.

Now I’ve heard the comments that the characters costume or the origin story written back when radiation wasn’t common knowlege and everyone got superpowers by getting dumped in a vat of toxic waste won’t fly with todays more intellectual viewer. I understand that bright red and blue spandex looks better in the printed pages of a comic book that it does on the big screen. I understand some minor changes to update and adjust the story to get to the juicy bits within the time constraints of a 2 to 3 hour movie, I really do. My problem is when folks take a story that was reasoned out, added to historical continuity and go make changes for changes sake. As an example, Spiderman has had two great movies come out and one we will try to pretend didn’t happen. But lets look at why the third one didn’t take for audiences. Complaints found on the net ranged from;

1. Too many subplots and supporting characters going in too many different directions at once.
2. Venom didn’t get the look or the time deserved for such a major character.
3. Sandman wasn’t given the same opportunity as Doc Oc in the second one to delve into his feelings about having the powers he got.
4. Peter Parker’s “dark emotions” came across as an over active disco lover hopped up on caffeinated steroids.

photo credit: Michael HeilemannOkay, I made that last one up myself because I didn’t like the performance as played by Toby Maguire.  But I don’t hold that against the actor, I did like both the previous Spider films he did.  Still lets look at what caused these issues when the majority of Spidey’s rogues gallery is so well known and loved by so many.

First the script tried to pile three major villains and a romantic side story into one two hour movie.  It took the comics years to build the reputation of Sandman, and the back story for the alien symbiont that gave Venom his powers spawned from the mini-series Marvel Comics ran called Secret Wars.  Parker wore the new black and white costume for about two years after that, even after getting rid of the symbiont using the church bell, he made his next costume out of basic spandex to look like the black and white symbiot for some time before going back to his red and blue jammie’s.  My point is the story took years to cultivate the hatred between Peter and the symbiot and several issues to explain Eddie Brock’s vengeance filled issues.  Green Goblin Harry Osborn had the two prior films to build on his character, so he fit okay.  But, building one bad guy up enough that people care to see what happens is tough enough in the limited amount of time you are given in movies, trying to work three seperate badguys?!  So you’ve done too much, thats the big one.  But lets not forget the prime reason people watch movies.

Next, character development.  Sure conflict is a must, but while you are throwing problems at your main character and getting your mentally unstable villain into the mess he’s going to try to lie, steal, and kill his way out of… don’t forget the character development.  Not just Spiderman either.  Look at Doctor Octopus in the second film.  He begins as an alturistic science geek tying to pass his knowlege on to Peter, but he changes into a power mad scientist angery at himself for killing his wife, but blaiming Spiderman.  Then he changes again when faced with a reflection of what he’d done, he realized he had become the exact opposite of who he was in the begining, he has become the thing he was trying to keep Peter away from.  So he changes again and sacrifices himself to save the city and gain redemption, not for anyone else, but for his own personal morals.  Mary Jane has been pretty steady throughout all three of these films, her goals kept just out of her reach and her character never really adjusting much other than change from following the popular guy in high school while dealing with family issues, to trying to become a big actress, to chasing Peter.  Interesting how she seems to chase the things she can’t get her hands on.  Maybe now that she’s finally got Peter, they could do a side story where her career takes off and she’s more interested in it than where Spiderman/Peter is and what he’s doing.  See how that changes her character.  See adding a new wrinkle isn’t the same as changing the core story-line and characters.

Finally; equal opportunity for all in the film. Sandman (Perfect casting with Thomas Haden Church by the way.) starts off as a criminal trapped by the law, trying to do right by his child. later, he shows us he’s… trapped by Spiderman (law) and trying to do right by his child.  At the end, he’s… still trapped by the law and trying to do right by his child.  Nothing, no emotional journey, no overcome challenge, and nothing that Spiderman did helped that kid in any way.  There can’t be all these loose strings for any of the main characters that are just left dangling at the end of the movie.  The hero needs to fix more than just his issues, he has to help the antagonist come to some sort of middle ground for his issues too.   There can be something left for the possible sequel, but there has to be at least one main problem get addressed for every major player in your film.  Its one of the reasons big ensemble movies have so much trouble connecting to audiences.  At least team films have a common goal they are all after.

Spiderman is only one example of stories gone wrong due to Hollywoods need to pack more into it and change things.  There has been three Punisher films made, all three sank like stones in the eyes of Frank Castle (aka The Punisher)  fans.  In the first incarnation they took Frank and changed him from a vetran soldier from Vietnam, into a disgruntled police seargent.  The second came closer, but still he’s a cop, and his story is moved to the west coast, presumably because thats where the production company was, and they wanted to stay closer to the project, or rather force it to stay closer to them.  Plus they killed more than Franks wife and kid, they killed his extended family as well.  The dark feel of the character was there, but the changes seemed superfluous, or needless.  So one obvious failure, one semi failure… what should we do?  I know lets make another one with a relative unknown and just jump right into the middle of his life with no background or hint of a reason anyone should care that this guy is running around offing criminals.  Even better, lets have him kill and undercover cop.  That’ll give folks a reason to like him.  We’ll name it after his secondary comic series, War Zone.

Then there was Daredevil… Okay I should prefece this by saying I am a huge Daredevil fan.  They really screwed the pooch on this film.  The perfect script was already written for them in the miniseries ‘Daredevil:Man Without Fear’  by Frank Miller and drawn by John Romita Jr. in 1992-93.  This story was originally inspired by the desire to make a movie based on the character and would have hit big with fans if followed up and done right.  Did they look at it?  Did they even for a second think, ‘Who’s the best known Daredevil writer with a track record of successful comic heroes making it to movies and raking in the box office?’  Nope.

Image borrowed from Wikipedia, copyright 20th century fox.

Step one, keep Collin Ferrel, dump Ben Afleck.  Not that hes a bad actor, the main problem is he just didn’t fit the part.  Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil) is a red haired athletic built sharp lawyer guy.  Ben isn’t any of those (sorry Ben, don’t feel bad, folks have said I look a lot like you).  We’d be better off with Ben’s bud Matt Damon playing Matt Murdock.  Next, get the costume right.  The flipped up 70′s collar and the screwball mask just don’t work. If you are going to do it, do it! Don’t over do it, and don’t come half way and then say, “Thats good enough”… its not.  It never is.  Also, don’t make things fit the character, it comes across as way too convenient, make the character fit the things.  When he jumps off the roof of a thirty story glass building, there shouldn’t be window scaffolds with no people on them or reason for them to be there hanging at various floors, what is it just in case some passing superhero needs a place to slow his free fall?  Let him use the billy club, catch a ledge or a gargoyle and swing up to a flag pole or a balcony on a neighboring building, have him catch a high tension electric wire with the hook and slide across to land on another roof top or like in The Crow, swing across on a laundry bar.  Then when he gets caught in the subway and the sounds of a passing train are deafening, it shouldn’t stop just because the bad guy is down on the tracks. One passing train messed him up, but the next oncoming train gets him in the mood to monolog about beating the rapist and doing justice?   And above all Daredevil does not kill! He doesn’t let people die because they got away with a crime, he catches them in some other way, or beats them till they turn themselves in to the authorities for another crime.  He’s a vigilante only in that he fights outside the law to help it along.  Heroes don’t kill and making him a killer makes him as bad or worse than the folks he chases.  He’s a hard man yes, a fighter at his heart, a boxer and a student of Stick’s ninja martial art, but he doesn’t kill or by his own actions or inaction’s let someone die if he can help, even if he believes they deserve it.  The core of the character doesn’t have to change to make the film work in spite of what Hollywood would have you believe.  Give me the rights to that character and the rights to the miniseries ‘Man Without Fear’ along with the budget of $78 mil and I would deliver you the book on film.  Comic fans would eat it up and those folks who only go to see the movies, not really paying attention to the comics would get a real kick out of it.  Daredevil’s first movie may have doubled its money when you include overseas box office, but ask any true Daredevil fanboy if they liked the movie or if it came even close to what they believe the character is all about… the answer will unequivocally be no.

Characters with strong following and long histories can pull off things that Hollywood doesn’t give them credit for. Why does Superman keep flying around in his blue and reds?  Why did Spiderman or Ironman hit so big?  Why did Batman come back from the fiasco that was 1997′s “Batman & Robin”?  Its because people are willing to suspend disbelief and get into that world of super powered heroes and villains, but only if they are given a good ride for the money.  Only if they are brought a story and characters that fit what they may have remembered from their childhood.  Sure you need the conflict, you have to have the drama, you better come with fast paced heart thumping action and with something in the film that brings the audience to the edge of their seats.  Suspense of disbelief plus a little proper marketing will get your audience butts in the seats, but a good film with strong character development and not too many convenient occurances for the way out of the issues thrown at your lead will bring them back again and again, and they’ll tell their friends how cool it was, and maybe even drag them to see it too…

Okay, soapbox message done.  What do you guys think?  any tips for the Hollywood execs I may have missed here?

So okay now, I’ve dug around in some old boxes and lo’ and behold have found a 1st issue print of ‘Captain Spectacular and the Stupendous Force!’  Wow, it has passed all the checks for its condition, it was kept n a polymer protective comic bag with a back board, and its only been read once very gently.  A near mint copy of this book according to the various guides and auction sites sells on average for about $1,60.00!! Ok, I love Cap Spec and his goofey troop, but I could really use that scratch right about now.  So. Where should I sell it?

The good news for me is there is a lot of places that might be willing to pick up that classic title ‘that I just made up so don’t go looking for it‘.   Or I could sell it myself to someone I know, or even online at one of the auction houses I collected the price info from.  Here are a few of my options in no particular order;

1. I could run to my local CBS (comic book shop) and sell it to them.
2. I could call up my bud Coterie who I know is looking for that title and see what he’d offer me.
3. I could jump online and sell it from one of the many auction websites out there.
4. I could bring it with me to a couple of conventions and swap meets and see what interest I find there.

Selling comics you have taken such time and care to track down and collect, can be a tough decision.  Take it from me I know.  It boils down to a few considerations on your part.  You have to prioritize these things for yourself.

1. Time
2. Money
3. Urgency
4. Willingness to deal with the hassle.

If I am just trying to get away from the thing, I really don’t want to deal with other people, I am not looking to haggle or to come out with some huge profit… I go to my comic book store and they buy it from me for something around 10 to 20 cents on the dollar value of the book.  Or if I’m looking to maximise my profit, bring in the full amount the book is valued at and I’m willing to put up with the inevitable dumb questions, the idiotic offers, and possible spam replies trying to sell me something, I go the auction website route.

Any CBS will probably try to lowball you.  They want to get the book from you for as little as possible and turn it around for as much as they can squeeze out of the next collector who takes a fancy to it.  Hey its nothing against them, they make their living that way.  But when you are holding a rare treasure in your hands like a book of this value, do you really want to settle for $16.00, or do you want all the cheese?!

(Just for fun)

I’m thinking go for the money when its a big profit book like this.  That means you need to get on the auction house website.  Ebay, Amazon, etc etc.  So build your profile and put up a few smaller books first.  Sell them and be good to your clients who buy from you.  Write good truthful full descriptions, take good detailed pictures or scans of the book that show even minor issues.  The more up front you are with them, the better chance of a good rating you’ll get when the sell is over, and the better chance you’ll get repeat business from that customer should you put other books up later that they are interested in.  When shipping the sold item, Keep the comic in its protective bag and board, make sure its extra protected when shipped.  The back of the book has a board, add one to the front, seal the poly-bag, and then extra regular cardboard pieces on both sides to keep mail handlers from bending or otherwise damageing the book in shipping.  Bubble wrap around that, and tape it closed well.  Then put it in the envelope that fits it and mail it.  Don’t forget to contact your buyer and let them know when and how you shipped it, and give them a tracking number.

Once a few smaller sales are done and your reputation on the auction house is built up somewhat, bring out your big gun.  Sell the Cap Spec for all that lovely cheddar.  Be careful about reserves, many people won’t bid at all on a book with a high reserve.  So place your starting bid at the lowest price you are willing to part with that book.  Don’t get overzealous, let the popularity of the book and its condition drive the price up through multiple bids.  Once you have established yourself as trustworthy and smart with your comics, folks will follow your sales and watch for stuff they want.

Finally, remember that auctions don’t always go as we hope or planned them to.  Every now and then you may take a bath on a really good book.  Be a sport about it, let it go and make it up on future sales.  When you bought Cap Spec back in the late 80′s it was only $1.50 cover.  so even though it was worth $160 and only sold on auction for $50 … your profit was enough to make the sale worthy for you and the customer has a classic book added to their collection.  Polite, professional, and honorable business is a rarity in today’s market.  Be the diamond in the rough, be the rarity.

I hope you folks out there enjoy the comics your buy for more than the dollar amount they may be worth.  Collecting isn’t about making money no matter what your friends tell you they are doing.  Truth is comics are like soap opera’s for cool people.  And they aren’t just for kids either.  Not only are there comics out there specifically marked for “Mature Readers” based on colorful dialog or adult situations the characters may be dealing with, there are also “Adult” comics and anime that you would not want children getting their hands on.  Responsible CBS’s keep most of the “Adult” stuff behind the counters and if you are interested in them you have to ask.  I digress, Enjoy the conflict, the action, the drama.  Find a favorite character that you connect with and start your collection by picking up back issues and piecing together the top stories he or she has appeared in.  Those “cross over” titles may introduce you to other characters that you find connection to.  Get them too if you want.  The only limits are your time, money and desires.

The list is extensive and some of the films from popular media that were based off comics or “Graphic Novels” could surprise you. A lot of them are over looked even by avid comic book readers in the know. So I’m going to list a bunch here and then probably later, rate the ones I have seen so we can see where we might agree, and where we might disagree. Also I want to add here, I’m not your typical movie critic kind of guy. I’m going to rate the film from the point of view of how entertained I was as a comic bool geek and what I thought were the top selling points. We might also talk about the mistakes and the problems we saw in the movie later, but for now I want to get you the basics.

So the list as I know it based off some minor research on Wikipedia and my added two cents of films they forgot:

I know this is an incomplete list, there are films I have forgotten here. Still the basics are intact. If you see anything I missed, please leave a comment and I’ll check it and add as needed. I purposely left off films about superheroes who were created for the big screen and aimed at those that were comic books first. Also there are some great graphic novels like “The Road to Perdition” that made it to the big screen but weren’t really about superheroes and thus didn’t make my cut here.

Next time I’ll talk about my thoughts on what makes a good comic to movie story transaction and how Hollywood has made mistakes and made progress.

They may go a little overboard with the comedy, thats the only part scaring me right now. Being both a superhero and television buff from way back in the day, it irks me when folks make drastic unnecessary changes to the story characters and world just to throw a twist on something. Updating it for the new era, cool. Adding a new gimmick or two, great. But if they turn this into another spoof like they did the Charley’s Angels movies… they’ll lose my interest fast.