No, seriously, JMS, Kevin Smith, John Cleese, you guys ought to be in pictures. Leave comics alone. We have enough crap writers. Comics have lost any number of good writers to Hollywood: Alan Brennert, Gerry Conway, Frank Miller. We even have crap writers who have left comics for Hollywood like Jeph Loeb. (Deep breaths, Greg.)
But let us start at the beginning. Movies are actually older than comics are, and much older than comic books. To give a sense of the timescale I am talking about consider the following: The first person to be the number one box office star in America five years in a row was Shirley Temple. She's still alive now. It was during the height of the Great Depression. She didn't begin her career until after Rudolph Valentino was already dead. When she started her streak, Cary Grant hadn�t starred in a movie. William Powell and Myrna Loy had already started their legendary Thin Man films before her third year. In fact, William Powell had starred in the highly successful Philo Vance series of movies before he started in with Thin Man. The Marx Brothers had changed studios and dropped Zeppo from the act during her first year.
Her streak ended in 1938, the same year Action #1 appeared.
Now, what does this suggest to you? To me it suggests that by the time comics came into its own as an industry movies were already there. To me, it suggests that if you wanted to do movies, there was an established career path. To me it suggests that there is a market for comics distinct from the market for movies, because we had movies already so comic books wouldn't have gone anywhere if there did not exist a separate market for them.
So, what makes comics different from movies as a story-telling form? Well, comics and movies are actually pretty similar in many ways. There's even a sort of metacontinuity in movies. Let me give you an example: the two greatest dancers in movie history were Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. Fred was a better, but he could not make every movie, and Gene was a better director and his best friend was Stanley Donen who was an even better director, so Kelly generally appeared in better movies. Anyway, in the 1970's MGM decided to cash in on their musical catalogue and made two movies: "That's Entertainment" and "That's Entertainment, Pt. II" (There a third one too, made in the 1990's. They were all just released in a wonderful box set that I heartily recommend.) Gene Kelly hosted all three movies, but for the second one Fred Astaire joined him, and they end the movie with a magnificent dance number. Now, at this point Fred is looking a little weak, but he's pushing 80, still he's so good that can keep up with Gene Kelly at 64. The two greatest legends of screen dance end the movie in a fabulous number, and then..and then... The movie ends with Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire shaking hands. One of the great images in movie history that nobody has seen, but also a tremendous meta-image, I'll make it a wallpaper some day. But my point is that it means something, There's a back-story to these actors and their relationship to one another in the schema of movie making that compares to the relationship of the characters in comics. So what makes comics special?
To me, the important thing is the shared sandbox. The writer of Superman has to share the sandbox with the other writers. JMS? Television producer. Brilliant writer. Best known for Babylon 5, JMS is not big on the sharing. He created B5. What are his other writing credits? He wrote all the best episodes of "Murder, She Wrote." He wrote several episodes of "The Twilight Zone" revival. He...well, you can look up his credits. But if you'll notice these are shows which changed their cast of characters every week. So, when he gets to comics, what do we have? Dr. Doom crying over the 9/11 attacks? Spider-Man getting totemic powers instead of radioactive powers?
Oh, or how about this: what is the single most traumatic event in the history of superhero comics interior to the story? I nominate the Death of Gwen Stacy at the hands of Green Goblin/Spider-man. It was tragic. It ended the Silver Age according to some. It was the ultimate failure of the hero, and not just any hero, but Marvel's flagship hero. It is particularly bothersome because it might not have been Greenie at all. Gwen neck might have been snapped by Spidey's attempt to save her. But Norman was her murderer. I'm a prosecutor in my day job, and I'm telling you, the charge against Norman is murder. So, 30 or so years later, JMS decides that Gwen had Normie's love children.
This plot turn verges on blood libel.
I mean, when the kids first showed up in Amazing Spider-Man the questions on Usenet revolved around how old the kids were, and when could Gwen have had them, and how old is Spidey. JMS assured us he had answers for all this. I'll be honest. I had not anticipated that this would entail the revelation that Norman Osborne had fathered children with Gwen. I also had not considered that alternate history story about how Charlie Manson was the father of Sharon Tate's kid. Just in bad taste. Of course, if Sharon Tate had actually given birth to Charlie's love children, who then grew up and attacked Roman Polanski, well, that's a story worth telling.
JMS, get out of our galaxy, um, comics industry.
Kevin Smith also has a problem with the sandbox. His problem is that he has so much geek street cred that his fans won't hold him accountable by not buying his stuff. Let's take the Black Cat. Felicia Hardy is actually one of Spider-man's more interesting female supporting cast members. She is only attracted to Spidey as Spidey. She doesn't like Peter Parker. She is a very credible supervillain. She is visually stunning. Kevin Smith chose to make her a bisexual in his still unfinished miniseries. Presumably she'll be played by Jacqueline Lovell in Spider-Man 5. But this has repercussions that a professional comics writer would have to address. Kevin Smith can make the girl in Chasing Amy bisexual because he doesn't have to share that character with anyone. But Black Cat? Well, first of all, this turn of events makes Felicia into yet another queer criminal. Remember the outcry over "Basic Instinct?" Probably not, but trust me, this lesbian criminal thing is controversial. Secondly, well, what about when other writers want to use her? Felicia has always been very flirtatious, so I find it hard to believe that if she spotted a chick she liked, she wouldn't say so.
Besides, Smith's not terribly schedule conscious. We already have creators in comics who can't make a schedule.
John Cleese...
I don't really have a problem with him, but the Superman book wasn't funny. "A Fish Called Wanda" was. He should stick to movies.
Posted by Mike Chary at November 21, 2004 11:39 PM