The Awesomest Awesomeness in the Known Universe

I love 40 year old foreign superhero films!

Photoshop

The other day I was inspired to play around with images of the actors in the upcoming Avengers movie. Since I can't draw to save my life, playing with existing images is the only way I can visually express myself. :)

Book Review: "Superman: Sunday Classics 1939-1943"

The other book I read over our camping trip, this is a collection containing all of the Superman Sunday newspaper strips from 1939-1943 done by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster themselves (well, themselves or by their studio of artists). This book does not contain the daily strips, but that doesn't hurt the reading experience since the Sunday strips are completely separate story-wise from the dailies.

Superman was a very different guy back in the day, let me tell you. He was still the most powerful guy around; in all of the strips I don't think he himself is ever actually in physical danger. He is literally faster than a speeding bullet, though it's hard to say how fast he really is (the narration at one point says he is moving faster than the speed of light, but I think that was hyperbole). He's really strong, invulnerable, has his extra-sensory powers, but I have to admit I had to remind myself he can't fly. A lot of his poses look like flight, and only the narration and the fact he often observes people hanging from telephone poles and window sills gives away that he isn't flying. Based on the art I'm not surprised he eventually gained the power to fly, since he looks like he's doing it all the time instead of leaping tall buildings in a single bound.

At first I doubted how good these strips could be; how much dramatic story can you pull off in a single Sunday comic? I have to admit, Siegel and Shuster jam-packed their strips with content with amazing skill. These guys are like the anti-Bendis, getting important information out in as little space as possible. It doesn't feel forced though.

A standard story isn't done in a single Sunday strip though. Rather, we get to follow the story over the course of I'd say between 6-8 strips (I forgot to count). Superman isn't waging galactic battles or fighting to save the planet, he's helping the common man mostly. Outside of a group of men in armour (believed to be robots at first) and one super-powered foe (who was a real push-over, he had some crazy weakness), Supes spends his time taking on gangsters and mysteries. It was really refreshing. Lex Luthor did show up for one story, which was great to see.

I don't think anyone would call this Superman a boy scout. I admit, one of my favourite panels has Superman saving some potential drowning victims. He swims up to one, who is calling for help. Telling him it is for his own good, Superman decks the guy right in the face before saving him. A later panel says it was because he was thrashing about and panicking, and the guy bears Superman no ill-will, but man I laughed when Superman decked him.

I got a few other chuckles out of the book too. For example, while Superman is trying to help a race car driver who is getting targeted for death, the rival race car driver is none other than "Pete Parker". Alas poor Parker didn't survive the story.

While Superman battles valiantly to save civilians, those of the criminal persuasion die regularly. Some of them Superman could have saved if he wanted to, others he actually killed himself. A plane was waging an attack and Superman jumped up and piledrived the thing into the ground, smashing it into an accordion shape. No way the pilot survived that.

I really recommend checking this book out. I don't know if I'd read anything by Siegel and Shuster before, but man, they were good. I give this collection 4 tall buildings out of 5.

New Look for Wonder Woman

I just happened across an article on the CBC about a new costume for Wonder Woman. I have very mixed feelings on this subject.

The classic version of Wonder Woman's costume is pictured to the left. I personally feel that superhero costumes need to be somewhat functional; fighting crime in a one-piece with what must be the ultimate Wonderbra (pun intended) doesn't seem very functional to me.

At the same time though, the whole outfit really works and has become the defining look of the character. When a costume gets redesigned, especially on an iconic character like Wonder Woman, enough elements of the original look to make the character instantly recognizable must remain.


The image to the right is Wonder Woman's new look. This isn't the first time Wonder Woman has been redesigned, but looking at this new outfit, I doubt it will be the last.

I like that the top is no longer strapless; it makes a lot more sense from a functional standpoint. I also like the addition of pants.

That is all that I like about this costume.

While I like the addition of pants, I really don't like the solid black. Wonder Woman is a bright, shining superhero, the inspirational equivalent of Superman. While dark pants with almost no contrasting colours are starting to become a fad in superhero costumes (the redesigned Captain America and the Thor movie costume, for example), it is too bad this trend is hitting Wonder Woman.

Her bracelets and tiara are included in the outfit, but the tiara seems kind of small. The bracelets are just hideous; sometimes simpler is better, and this is a perfect example of why.

The original look draws heavy influence from the American flag, and this look does not, which would be a bonus except Wonder Woman has been wearing the flag for something like 60 years. It has become a part of the character, plain and simple.

Has Wonder Woman had worse outfits than this? Yes, she has. But I really hope that this look does not last for long; if I had just seen this image on its own I would not have known this was the new look for Wonder Woman. I would have thought it was a poorly-designed fan drawing.

Iron Man 2

Just saw the first poster for Iron Man 2; I didn't think a movie poster this simple could get me so pumped, but this one did. For the first Iron Man film Mark and I had an "Iron Man Day", we very well might have to do so again for the sequel!

For those not in the know, the second armored figure in this poster is War Machine, Iron Man's best friend James Rhodes (or "Rhodey", as he is most often called). There was a very brief nod to War Machine in the first film (where Rhodey looked at a suit of prototype armor and said "Next time baby", to the groans of the film audience who were excited to see him in a suit of armour), and it is great to see him in all his gunmetal grey glory here.

Q & A

Let's try something a little different today. I like to consider myself pretty well-versed in the world of comic books, and in the past 10 years or so superheroes have really boomed into the mainstream with movies, television shows, and merchandise.

A lot of non-comic book people tend to watch these movies and shows, but may not always get some of the subtleties or inside jokes. Have you always wondered if there was something of significance in a superhero movie but couldn't figure it out? Want some backstory on a specific character or situation? Just curious on the history of the franchise?

Here's your chance to ask away! While I haven't seen every comic book movie that's come out (I haven't seen the Blade movies, for example, and turned off the Elektra movie partway through because it was just that bad), I've seen the majority.

Back when I lived on Hecla island my housemates and I would sometimes watch the original 60's Spider-Man cartoon, and on commercials I would be asked to give a "history lesson" on the villain of the episode. That was a lot of fun, so I'm hoping to recreate that here.

So go ahead, fire away!

Sunday Comic

Saturday Comic

Superhero Squad

My regular three readers may have noticed that on the week-end I posted up some comic strips featuring cartoon-ized Marvel Comics characters. These comics are part of Marvel's "Superhero Squad", a kid-oriented interpretation of their characters. While the Superhero Squad started as a toy line, it has become a line of comic strips, a video game, on-line flash games, and a cartoon.

I thought I'd share some of the comic strips on the week-ends. I'm trying to pick ones that don't require you to actually have any knowledge of the characters so they can be enjoyed by everyone.

I quite enjoy the Superhero Squad cartoon (I may blog about the show at a later date), as it's a kid-friendly, and more importantly, fun take on the Marvel Universe featuring pretty much every major character they have (except for Spider-Man, for legal reasons).

I hope you enjoy the comics!

Sunday Comic

Saturday Comic

ComicCon Costumes, Conclusion

Now, on its own this is a nice Green Lantern costume (I don't believe she was trying to be a specific Green Lantern, and since they all look a little different anyway it doesn't matter; I just picked a fairly basic female GL costume for comparison), but what really makes these two shine is the Guardian of Oa costume on her kid. The Guardians are often called "smurfs" by some of the Green Lantern Corps because of their size; they would come up to your waist or at best armpit heightwise. Thus the addition of her own little Guardian boosted this costume from good to awesome. I understand why she wouldn't facepaint her kid's face blue though.

At first I wondered how this guy was hunching over to get his head where it is before realized this is a kid in the suit. An absolutely ingenious zombie costume!

Here we have Zatanna, from the Justice League, and Jean Grey, also known as Phoenix of the X-Men.

I'm going to try explain the awesomeness of this photo in as brief a manner as possible, but it's going to be tough. The first cool thing about this picture is I think this was all one family. Represented here we have 5 of the 7 "Corps" that are running around in space in the DC comics universe. Traditionally there have been Green Lanterns (who is the only one the layman might have heard of), and lately a bunch of other color Lanterns have popped up (Black Lanterns, Red Lanterns, etc). To have a family come representing all the different Corps was very cool (and how cute is the Green Lantern kid in the stroller?)

I'll be honest, at first I thought these were kind of lame Stormtrooper costumes. Then I realized they were actually Stormtroopers from Lego Star Wars, and instantly they became awesome (especially because 3 of them were trooping around together). The sharp-eyed amongst you may notice that the guy dressed as a cop they're talking with is actually dressed as a member of the GCPD, aka the Gotham City Police Department, from the Dark Knight film.

Here we have Silk Spectre and Nite Owl from the Watchmen, as well as Link from Zelda. The Nite Owl costume isn't that impressive because it is obviously store bought; if the Silk Spectre costume is store bought at least it was a lot better quality. I didn't bother taking pictures of people in store bought costumes since they never look anywhere near as good as the homemade ones.

And just to finish things off, here is the Ecto-1 (from Ghostbusters) and the original Batmobile. Hope you enjoyed!

ComicCon Costumes, Part 2

This is my friend Justin (who works at Galaxy Comics, my comic shop of choice), who always has great Hallowe'en costumes. This year he went to the Con as Max from Where The Wild Things Are. I saw at least one other Max at the Con as well.

Rolling right along with people I actually know, Mike is a regular at Galaxy Comics, and he was dressed for the Con as Dan, from Street Fighter. You can't see it in the picture, but Mike also has the ponytail going on just like the picture of Dan I've provided.

This guy had a great Dr. Octopus costume (from Spider-Man 2). The arms looked really great, and it was pretty easy to find him in the room!

These Deadpool costumes are awesome on multiple levels not necessarily evident to the non-Comics reader. Disregarding the fact the taller Deadpool is actually a girl, her costume looked absolutely amazing. You might think the pink scarf on her head doesn't make sense, but considering the character of Deadpool is...unique, to say the least, it would actually be perfectly in character for Deadpool to wear something like that on his head. The kid Deadpool is equally impressive in that the jacket he's wearing works so well as a costume, and since Deadpool can often look different, he is just as authentic as the other costume. The other thing that makes this pair awesome is that a "Kid Deadpool" will be appearing in the comics soon!

On the left we have Rogue and Gambit from the X-Men, and on the right we have a female interpretation of Vegeta, from Dragonball Z. Really I didn't think the Gambit costume was that great, it was the Rogue costume I noticed first as being a good job. The Vegeta costume looked good too. And yes, for those of you who noticed Silent Bob behind them, I know he's there, but without a Jay (not me, the character) to compliment him he could just pass as another Con attendee.

And finally for this installment we have Nightcrawler, from the X-Men. Loses points for the shoes, but gains point for how much that all of that body paint and the tail. I think he looked better in person as the blue face paint isn't showing very well in the picture.

I'll have one more post of ComicCon costumes and that will wrap up my ComicCon reporting!

ComicCon Impressions

On Monday I wrote about how my time was spent at ComicCon this past week-end. Today I want to elaborate a bit on some of my impressions on how the Con was run and things I heard or observed while there.

At first I liked how the Con was all within the same huge room and how things were laid out in sections, I realized partway through the first day that it is not necessarily the best set-up. This was apparent while Marv Wolfman was trying to conduct a Q & A session about writing comics. I was one of a handful of people taking the workshop, and we could barely hear anything Marv had to say, and vice versa. We were put in an area directly next to the Main Stage area, where Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca from Star Wars) was holding a Q & A session. While I don't begrudge Chewie getting his panel time, the problem was he had a microphone and Marv didn't. Add in the noise from the Arena area (a Norse fighting demo was going on at the time) and I could tell that Marv was very frustrated that we couldn't hear him.

I don't know that it's own room is necessary (though it would be preferable), but when holding a smaller workshop like that I think it would be better to put it in another area of the room. Marv commented that we could probably hear him better if we were at his table in Artists' Alley; I think he was right.

On the topic of Marv Wolfman, I just want to say what a joy it was to listen to him talking about how important it is to put the characters before the plot. He made it very clear that rather than picking a plot and trying to shoe-horn characters into it, pick the characters first and see what plot develops. He is a man who is all about the story before the commercialism, and it really showed in his descriptions of how to write.

I mentioned in my Monday post that I did not attend the Adam West panel. I had planned on it at the beginning of the week-end, but had no desire to by Sunday afternoon. I think the reason was I didn't like how the comic professionals were not getting the attention they deserved. There was a special "Autograph Alley" for special guests at the Con; the top notch comic guys like Marv Wolfman weren't in that area! Some broken-down old WWF wrestlers, the man inside the Chewbacca suit, a guy from the A-Team...these guys outrank the comic talent at a comic convention? There were constant reminders over the PA to go and get the "celebrity" autographs, but no reminders to go see Marv Wolfman, Bob Layton, or Gordon Purcell?

The World of Comics panel had at best 30 people in the audience, and when it started the creators were worried they were going to outnumber the audience. I guess that means that a lot of the people at the Con aren't there for the comics aspect (which would explain why there were more women at the Con then I expected), which I found disappointing.

Audience numbers aside, I really enjoyed listening to the World of Comics panel discussion. I was a little disappointed that when I asked a question I really wanted Marv Wolfman to answer only Gordon Purcell did, but that's okay, he gave a good answer. I really liked Marv's answer to a question about the future of big "event" comics; his answer was big events are good when you have a great story to tell, they aren't so good when they are created strictly to be an "event" to sell comics. Bob Layton came back on that topic with the business end of it, saying the bean-counters don't care if a comic is an event or not, they're just worried about how many units are sold. It was interesting to see the two kind of disagree on the subject.

Something that I really enjoyed about the Con was how friendly and helpful most people were to each other. I spent a few hours digging through boxes at a booth for back issues (they weren't organized AT ALL, but that's why they were so cheap), and the whole time everyone would help each other out while digging. For example, I overheard a kid and his dad talking about looking for Fantastic Four comics. I think three different people, myself included, started tossing Fantastic Four books to them as we dug through whenever we found them. If someone had just been through a box, they might ask what you're looking for and tell you if they saw any of it or not to save you time. There is a community feel at the Con because of the shared love of the hobby that is really nice.

On the whole I enjoyed my experience, and I would like to go back again. Who the special guests are would help determine if I'd go for the whole week-end again or just for a day. And by special guests I mean the comic pros that are present; the celebrities really didn't interest me this year (I was also turned off of Adam West I think because of his $40 charge for his autograph). If you're looking for something fun to take the family too, I'd say check out the Con; there was trick-or-treating throughout the Con on Saturday as a safe alternative to doing so on the street, which was a nice touch.

ComicCon Costumes, Part 1

One fun thing about ComicCon's is the costumes. A lot of work goes into many of the costumes (some not so much!), so it's great for the creators to have a place to show off their work. They are also amongst the most popular people at the Con, as they constantly get requests for pictures. When asked to pose for a picture, these people never complain, as it is a huge compliment. A lot of people even drop into a pose without being asked, which makes their costume look even better.

Here is a selection of costumes from the ComicCon that I photographed. I didn't get pictures of many of the costumes there (and I regret missing out on some now), but here is a nice sampling. I'll provide information for you on who they are dressed up as and any neat notes about the costume. And just for fun, if I can find an image of who they are dressed up as, I'll post it for comparison. I'll do a few of these throughout the week to showcase the fabulous work these people put into their costumes.

To be honest, I originally thought this girl was Princess Toadstool from Mario Bros. However, I realized when I uploaded the picture that she is in fact Kaylee from the television show Firefly, a show that I cannot recommend highly enough. Firefly only lasted one season but developed a cult following when the show hit DVD; you can pick up the whole series for less than $30, I suggest you do so!

Also from Firely, Captain Mal Reynolds. I tried to find a picture that showed that this guy nailed how Mal wears his gunbelt, but couldn't find one that showed off the coat well enough. Oh well, this guy's costume still rocked.

Here we have Master Chief, from the video game series "Halo". This guy did an amazing job; if he wasn't moving you'd swear he was a statue, not a guy in a suit.

For the life of me I couldn't figure out who this guy is supposed to me, and it's bugging me. I'm sure I'll kick myself when I find out. It's hard to see in the pictures, but his eyes were actually lit up blue as well.

Here is my friend Glenn as the Punisher. A Punisher costume can be really easy (black pants, skull t-shirt, black coat) but Glenn went the extra mile by adding various pouches to the costume that make a big difference. I forgot to ask if he brought the toy guns he'd altered the last time he dressed up as the Punisher.

Ghost Rider is another character that can be easy to do; put on a leather jacket, black pants, and a skull mask and you're done. This guy outdid himself by actually riding around the Con on his chopper-style bike with the flames coming out of his head. Those who have seen the Ghost Rider movie will recognize the classic "You..." pose from the movie.

Hope you enjoyed the costumes, I'll put more up later this week!