Five Random Thoughts (Adaptation ideas, Red Tornado, Iron Man)

Quote of the week:

<I don't suppose you've heard of The Joker?>

<N-no, Master. He sounds...amusing.>

<He isn't amusing. He's probably the single most psychotic killer America has produced. And that, my friend, is saying something.>

(from Batman Confidential)

1. Note to the folks of the new DC Entertainment: you want to take better advantage of your comic books in other media? Sell The Northlanders as an HBO series/miniseries. The series provides a variety of different stories, but a series just starring Sven could work.
   
   
2. Note to the folks of the new Disney-held Marvel Entertainment: you want to take better advantage of your comic books in other media? Make Incognito into a feature film. It's way more adaptable to the screen than Wanted ever hoped to be.
   
   
3. The latest issue of The Invincible Iron Man bears the logo proclaiming it the Eisner winner for Best New Series. If I were feeling more destructive, I would take a black marker to that logo. Tony Stark is getting dumber ever so sloooooooooooooowwwwwwly. And so is the reader. I have fewer brain cells thanks to reading this issue. It's a shame, because this was such a promising title with a writer who clearly had a concept of Iron Man he wished to voice. And this Dark Reign hijacking is killing it. (I recognize that it's possible that Matt Fraction wanted to recenter Tony Stark as less intelligence-enhanced, rebooting him, if you will, back to his original state. But I don't think it needs to take half to three quarters of a year to do that.)
   
   
4. I was ecstatic to find out that DC was going to publish a Red Tornado miniseries, and reserved a copy before finding out that the plot was going to be the introduction of a set of Red androids, each dealing with one of the classic elements. It's a hackneyed idea in concept, and its execution doesn't make it any less hackneyed (why does everything always have to relate to the four elements?). And if you're going to have all the androids named after natural disasters, having the water one be named Red Torpedo is a bit off-pattern, though I can see DC wanting to maintain the character name and I guess Red Tidal Wave would have some nasty connotations. On the plus side, however, Kevin VanHook has a fairly good grasp of Reddy and the art by Luis and Mayer is fairly sharp. I don't want to leave my shop with extra copies of the miniseries I ordered so I'll remain on board through the end, but I hope this relatively unknown creative team can raise the book above its silly concept.
   
   
5. It's little errors like the one in the Superwoman origin backup in the Supergirl Annual that drive me nuts, because they're so easily avoidable. According to the story, Lucy Lane skipped college, was a flight attendant, then joined the Army, where she quickly rose to the rank of major. Yeah, no. No college, no commission. Not unless you're a mustang, and she's far, far too young to be one of those. There are some rules that even a general can't break and get away with it.
   
   

Posted by JL Franke at September 9, 2009 11:22 PM