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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Tag Archives: Batman

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #184: A Chip in the Ice

20 Wednesday Jul 2022

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart

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Batman, Chip Zdarsky, Clayton Cowles, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #184 by Drew Barth

A Chip in the Ice

I don’t remember the last time I picked up a Batman comic. I’ve grabbed Batman comics in the past—typically some one-offs, a few issues of Batman: Black and White, Batman & Robin, Batman Inc., etc. But never the mainline Batman series. The New52 and Rebirth relaunches didn’t intrigue me. The jumping-on points seemed to come and go. New creative teams came and went. And yet I somehow ended up with Batman #125 by Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles the other week.

A not insignificant portion of Batman ending up in my pull-list is due to the chipper himself, Chip Zdarsky. I’d been familiar with his work from Sex Criminals and Howard the Duck, in the pre-troubles era, but as much of his work recently came from Marvel, I had kept my distance. I’d seen the accolades for Daredevil, but I somehow stayed away. And then this new jumping-on point for Batman was announced with Zdarsky as the writer and Cowles on letters and my interest was piqued. But it was seeing those previews for this new arc and them going hard on the Danny DeVito-era Penguin look that ultimately convinced me to take a glance.

In this new arc, we have Penguin proxy-murdering the wealthy elite of Gotham for shunning him and framing Batman for his murder as a final act before an unnamed illness finally does him in. For a crime and detective story, that’s a good hook. But where this excels is how it uses the medium to its fullest extent. From its first page being a foreshadowing for the final page to the cliffhang nature of the page turns to the staccato panels of Bruce Wayne walking around a party while Robin deals with a deadly gas just below, there’s so much on the pages to keep someone completely engrossed. It’s a longer first issue, but it’s the kind where your eyes almost wash across the page and absorb just enough of it at a time to be surprised at what happens later. It’s the kind of thing a team like Zdarsky, Jimenez, Morey, and Cowles can do that feels like an invisible line guiding you along without ever coming across as pushy. In comics, it’s a delicate act, but every aspect of this issue of Batman accomplishes it flawlessly.

I think I need to keep adding Batman to my pull-list. I don’t know how I’ve avoided it for so long, but DC finally got me to do it. While there’s no concrete formula for success in a jumping-on comic, this is as close to what that success can look like. I’m drawn in a way that I just haven’t been for Batman for the entire time I’ve read comics, and yet I’m gushing about it now. 

Get excited. Get vengeance. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Drew Barth at Miami Book Fair in 2019.

Drew Barth (Episode 331, 485, & 510) resides in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida.

Episode 221: There Will Be Fan Fiction 2 (The Revenge)

27 Saturday Aug 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Blog Post, Comic Books, Disney, Episode, Fan Fiction, Fantasy, Flash Fiction, Science Fiction

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Tags

A.C. Warner, Aura, Batman, Brontë Bettencourt, Fatal Attraction, Flash Gordon, Frozen, J. Bradley, Jason Todd, John King, Litlando, Ming the Merciless, Shauna Basques, The Mighty Ducks, There Will Be Fan Fiction, There Will Be Words

Episode 221 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I share There Will Be Fan Fiction 2, a special edition of Jesse Bradley’s prose reading series, There Will Be Words.

There Will Be Words Jesse
fatal-attraction
Mighty Ducks
There Will Be Words Bronte
Frozen
There Will Be Words Shauna
Batman
Star Trek
There Will Be Words John
Aura Ming


This installment features the fan fiction of Shauna Basques (Jason Todd-era Batman), J. Bradley himself (The Mighty Ducks/Fatal Attraction crossover, obviously), Brontë Bettencourt (Frozen), A. C. Warner (Star Trek: The Next Generation, as read by me), and me (Flash Gordon).

NOTES

Check out the first installment of There Will Be Fan Fiction, which featured Teege Braun writing Small Wonder, Jared Silvia writing King of the Hill, Stephanie Rizzo writing about a post-apocalyptic Lewis and Clarke, Genevieve Anna Tyrrell writing Dexter, and me, that is John King, writing a Benny Hill Show/Ace Frehley crossover that includes David Foster Wallace, Yoda, My Little Pony, and a hint of Cthulu.

Also check out J. Bradley’s latest book, Jesus Christ, Boy Detective, and here us talk about it back on episode 216.

j_bradley-jesus_christ_boy_detective-front_cover

Check out Brontë Bettencourt’s blog, 21st Century Brontë.


Episode 221 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Aesthetic Drift #9: Dramatic Stakes, and Why Dawn of Justice Will Likely Suck

24 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Aesthetic Drift

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Batman, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Frank Miller, High stakes storytelling, Superman, The Dark Knight Returns, The Great Gatsby, The Portrait of a Lady

Aesthetic Drift #9 by John King

Dramatic Stakes, and Why Dawn of Justice Will Likely Suck

Thirty years ago when Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns series appeared, this epic of what would happen to superheroes in the future changed the culture of comic books. Miller introduced an expressionistic art style that could be crude and gothic. Miller worried about the physics of the world Batman inhabited, so that the world was as real as the art was wild. And by making his heroes old, he inadvertently revealed American culture’s doubts about whether these pop culture icons could be meaningful with about fifty years of continuous storytelling occurring with many of the same archetypal characters.

TDKR-Batman-vs-Superman

In The Dark Knight Returns, Batman would have his final confrontation with his nemesis, The Joker. Batman would have his final confrontation with his other nemesis, Superman. All of this seemed so intriguing in large part because of the dramatic stakes this finality implied. We see Batman’s heartbeat. We see our heroes, even Superman, bleed and suffer. We see The Joker die laughing.

If you want people to read your fiction or watch your play or film, the dramatic stakes need to be high. Highly abstract emotions and average slice-of-life narratives might be appealing, but they are most appealing when they turn out to be related to high-stakes storytelling. Gatsby has to die trying to outmaneuver the American class system in the name of love. Isabel Archer must learn that her freedom and pride were high prices to pay at the expense of her truest friendship, the depths of which she should have seen earlier. And Batman must try to slay Superman to prove the truth of his own perhaps unhealthy convictions.

High-stakes define character in indelible ways, and watching such storytelling changes us, when those stories are good.

Batmans V Superman

This is why Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is likely to be terrible.

Batman-Vs-Superman-Dawn-Of-Justice-2015

Besides the actual animated adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns, no other movie seems to be leaning quite so heavily on the Miller comic. In Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, we are going to see Batman in battle armor face off with Superman, but this will not be their final confrontation. Instead, this looks to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, in which they can quip to one another about how cool Wonder Woman is, since a glib Lex Luthor will create a new villain that makes the rivalry, the fatal ideological and psychological conflict, between Batman and Superman irrelevant on their way to kicking a lot of CGI ass.

_______

1flip

John King (Episode, well, all of them) is a podcaster, writer, and ferret wrangler.

Heroes Never Rust #96: Characters Who Cannot Die

03 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Heroes Never Rust

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Batman, Terror Inc.

Heroes Never Rust #96 by Sean Ironman

Terror Inc.: Characters Who Cannot Die

Terror Inc 2

At the end of the first issue of Terror Inc., Terror is tricked and defeated. Issue two opens with the bad guys, a shady government group, placing Terror’s body parts in acid, melting him, and flushing the remnants down the toilet. Due to his curse of not being able to die, Terror soon takes control of a frog, then fights a cat and becomes a cat-frog hybrid. He finally finds a human host in a despicable man who beat his son and is hiding from his ex-wife to avoid paying child support. Before long, Terror is back at it. But, where’s the conflict in following a superhero, or a super-powered being for those who may not find Terror all that heroic, who cannot be killed? Terror can escape, seemingly, any situation. There is bound to be a living creature nearby, and, since he cannot be killed, even if his body is decimated, another creature may eventually come by and he will take control of that creature—even if he has to wait years. This begs the questions of what the conflict is in Terror’s tale and what is at stake for our hero. How do you craft a story without conflict?

Well, for one, anyone who reads a comic, or any story for that matter, about one character should probably expect that character to make it to the climax of the story. So, for Terror Inc., it’s a safe bet that Terror, even if he could be killed, would make it to the final issue. Spider-man is not immortal, but I expect him to live in each story. I would be shocked to see Spider-man die at the end of his next film. Characters do die in comics, but most of them do not stay dead for long. When I see a James Bond film, I do not worry if James Bond will be killed. There seems to be this approach in creative writing, especially in the visual mediums of film and comics, to amp up the conflict and what is at stake in a story—mainly the main character’s life, their lover’s or family member’s life, and the lives of a city or the world as a whole. That makes things exciting, some people say.

I guess. To me, it gets old. But, anyway, that’s another topic for another day.

I, personally, do not care much about high stakes—I need clear stakes. I need to understand what is at stake, even if it’s something small. Of course, I want a reason the protagonist must succeed, but life and death does not have to be brought into it. I like Terror Inc. not because it keeps me on the edge of my seat—it’s entertaining to watch Terror go from obstacle to obstacle. I like seeing the inventive ways he continues on his story. I know he’ll succeed in the end—I don’t care that I know the end.

Terror

Why do we read? And I don’t mean in some high philosophical way that so many academics like to talk about. What are we reading for? There are multiple answers to this question, I am sure, but I think there are very few that involve trying to figure out the ending. Personally, I dislike works, both in print and in film, that work to only surprise the audience with an ending. M. Night Shymalan’s Unbreakable, to me, is superior to The Sixth Sense, which seems to be his most popular film with the mainstream audience, because Unbreakable, while it has a nice added twist at the end, does not rely on the ending to tell the story. The Sixth Sense is crafted for that surprise ending. Reading, or watching, to figure our the ending of a story does not make much sense to me. I like to take my time with stories, which is one reason I dislike binge watching, like with the new Daredevil TV show on Netflix. Finishing a story is not what I am after. I want an overall narrative arc, but as the years go on and I read and watch more stories, I realize that I prefer strong individual scenes. I want them to add up to something as a whole, but it’s more important to me that the in-the-moment scenes are more important. When I read an essay, I’ll follow it wherever it goes as long as each paragraph is interesting. Deadwood is a great TV show, not because of the overall narrative, but because each scene is magnificent. Terror Inc. is an interesting comic book because each issue is fun and filled with adventure and cool visuals and characters.

In a way, introducing the idea that the main character may die is an easy way to get the audience interested in the story. In 1943, Columbia Pictures released a 15-chapter Batman serial. Batman and Robin fought Dr. Daka, a Japanese agent. At the end of one chapter, Batman and Robin are in a plane that has landed, and then the plane blows up. This takes place about halfway through the fifteen chapters. The next chapter shows Batman and Robin escaping through the plane’s door moments before the plane explodes. Placing the main characters in danger was supposed to create tension, but there is no tension because the audience knows Batman and Robin will not be killed halfway through the story. Instead, the audience waits for the next chapter to see how Batman and Robin happen to escape, not if they escape. Today, the scene comes across as silly.

Batman

When I was an undergraduate (and before), most of my stories had the protagonist in mortal danger, with quite a few having the protagonist die at the end. (How many stories from undergraduates end with the protagonist dying?) To get out of the habit, I wrote a comic about a character who is immortal. In that sixty-issue story, I could not rely on cheap thrills and cliffhangers with the protagonist in mortal danger. It helped me craft different stories. One of the reasons writers put a character’s life in danger is that death is the most horrible consequence of characters failing their mission that the writer can think of. Perhaps writers just need to do some hard thinking. There’s worse things that could happen to a person than death. Not everything needs to be about characters fighting for their lives. There’s a lot more to life than death.

_______

Photo by John King

Photo by John King

Sean Ironman (Episode 102) earned his MFA at the University of Central Florida. Currently, he teaches creative nonfiction and digital media at the University of Central Arkansas as a visiting professor. His work can be read in The Writer’s Chronicle, Redivider, and Breakers: A Comics Anthology, among others.

Heroes Never Rust #32: Dark Knight

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Heroes Never Rust

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Batman, Heroes Never Rust, Red Son, sean ironman, Superman

Heroes Never Rust #32 by Sean Ironman

Dark Knight: How much can one person change the world?

This question runs throughout Superman: Red Son #2, which takes place years after the first issue. The second issue opens in media res with Superman stopping Luthor and Braniac. the two villains have shrunk the city of Stalingrad and handed it over to Superman to try to revert the city and its citizens to normal size—a task in which Superman never succeeds. The world has known about Superman for years. Luthor and the CIA ready for attach number 307. The Soviet Union is under President Superman’s control.

Untitled 1

Superman doesn’t kill; even landing in the Soviet Union hasn’t changed that. But in order to get control of its citizens, Superman has created a version of Braniac as a form of lobotomy. The Soviet Union under President Superman’s control has become the world’s greatest superpower, but its citizens live in fear of the demi-god. America is in ruins by focusing its energies on destroying Superman, but the American people are free.

The star of this issue is Russian Batman. Technically, introduced last issue with a flashback of Superman’s Head of Security, Pytor Roslov, who killed Batman’s parents and left the child to live. Here, though, Batman isn’t Bruce Wayne. His parents were dissidents, not Thomas and Martha Wayne from Gotham City. This Batman’s real name is unknown. It’s interesting that Superman and Wonder Woman are the same characters, but Batman’s identity can change. Who knows what happened to Bruce Wayne in this world. Unlike Superman and Wonder Woman, Batman is human. In Superman: Red Son, he represents humanity, not those like Luthor, but the everyday person on the streets. Roslov killed his parents. Superman enslaves the working man. Batman fights back.

Untitled 3

Batman has become a terrorist, which isn’t too far off from his normal DC counterpart. The difference is that now he fights against the government. In an effort to defeat Superman, Batman teams up with Roslov. This is a huge development. The Batman we know would never side with a criminal like Roslov, the criminal who gunned down his parents. But Batman being Batman, he’s too smart to let an opportunity pass by.

On Superman’s birthday celebration, Batman captures Wonder Woman and with Luthor’s help has created an area under heat lamps that recreate the effects of a red sun. Superman’s powers are derived from the yellow sun, so under a red one he’s powerless. For a moment, Batman actually defeats Superman, something many fans have always seen as the outcome if Superman was powerless. It isn’t until Wonder Woman breaks free and rescues Superman that Batman is defeated. Instead of letting himself get lobotomized like other dissidents, Batman sets off a bomb he had attached to his ribs.

Batman dies.

Of course, his last words to Superman are, “Oh, and by the way. It was Pyotr who betrayed you. While Superman doesn’t kill Pytor Roslov, he does lobotomize him. The issue ends with Luthor finding the Green Lantern ring and a plan to use it against Superman, who has now created his Fortress of Solitude, only here it comes off less peaceful and more as a tyrant. But one of the most interesting developments goes back to Batman. Another man has taken up the mask.  A man in a bar gives a suitcase with the bat suit to another man, possibly one we saw earlier, but it’s not made clear. Batman has become an idea, maybe always has been in this world.

Untitled 2

Superman says in the end, “My desire for order and perfection was matched only by their dreams of violence and chaos. I offered them utopia, but they fought for the right to live in hell.” But that’s what Superman doesn’t understand, hasn’t learned in the Soviet Union, would have learned in Smallville, Kansas, had his ship landed there. Freedom is more important than perfection. We want control of our own lives. Wars and rebellions throughout our history have been fought for freedom. We don’t want some outsider coming in and showing us how to live. What good is living in Superman’s utopia if you spend the day afraid of him, afraid of doing what you want?

___________

Sean Ironman

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

Heroes Never Rust #11: Gotham Central

16 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Blog Post, Heroes Never Rust

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Batman, Heroes Never Rust, sean ironman

Heroes Never Rust #11 by Sean Ironman

Gotham Central

At the end of September, Fox announced they were developing a TV series featuring Detective James “Jim” Gordon before he became commissioner, before Batman. I love the idea of concentrating on the police force in Gotham City. A cop show that is able to draw on the mythology of Batman interests me a great deal. Unfortunately, Fox’s version sounds like a mistake. An obvious one at that. Didn’t anyone pay attention to the failure of Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood or Antoine Fugua’s King Arthur? Stop taking cherished properties and taking out everything that people love and remember about those stories. Why set a story in the Gotham police department before Batman, before his villains come around? It’s just another cop show that happens to feature characters that share the name of Batman characters. What’s most frustrating about this news is that DC Comics already had a comic series about the Gotham police department that would have made an excellent TV series. This comic series was set right alongside Batman and his villains.

Gotham

Gotham Central ran from 2003 to 2006, but even with only forty issues, the comic has been well regarded and is still talked about a decade after its debut. It was written by Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker (a couple of the best writers in the comics industry) and drawn by Michael Lark (another great). The series is basically a cross between Batman and Homicide: Life on the Street. It is written in alternating story arcs between the night shift and the day shift. Rucka took the day shift and Brubaker the night, with Lark penciling both. Some of the cast is made up of Marcus Driver, Renee Montoya, Crispus Allen, and Romy Chandler. It also featured more well-known characters, such as Jim Gordon, Batman, Harvey Bullock, and many of Batman’s villains.

I don’t want to spoil any of the comics. Brubaker and Rucka do some amazing character work over the course of forty issues. But, I also feel like I can’t really say anything unless I get too detailed. The comic isn’t about huge world-changing moments. These are the street-level characters, the ones that have to find a way to not only survive but strive in a world out of their control. When I was a kid, I didn’t want to read comics about regular people, but as I’ve gotten older and my reading tastes have matured and I’ve come to find the human characters in the superhero world to be more fascinating than the super-powered characters.

What would it be like to be a cop in a city that has Batman? Cops in the real world don’t get enough respect—think about what it would be like if Batman was coming in and saving the day. How would the city’s view of the police force change if Batman was relied on to solve everything? Would cops like or hate Batman? What’s so great about Gotham Central is that there aren’t any easy answers or clear sides. Some cops like Batman, some don’t. Some fall somewhere in the middle, respecting the Bat but wanting to be of use to the city.

gothamC_01

In the first story arc, Mr. Freeze is the villain. The cops don’t have any special gadgets that help fight off the results of Mr. Freeze’s freeze gun. They just die. But they don’t stand back and let Mr. Freeze run amok and wait for Batman to handle things. They have a job to do. What would it be like to track down a super villain that Batman has trouble dealing with and all you have is a badge and a gun? And not just do it once, but that’s your job. Mr. Freeze. The Joker. Two Face. Catwoman. These cops don’t have high-tech gadgetry. They didn’t spend their youth training in the martial arts. They’re regular Joes.

gotham-central-1-frozenBatman has had some great stories (The Dark Knight Returns, Year One, Arkham Asylum, The Killing Joke), but like any character that’s been around for almost seventy-five years, there’s really only so much you can do by tackling the character directly. By opening the world and seeing how other characters have to say about Batman, Brubaker and Rucka are able to add depth to the Batman mythos without trending worn territory. I don’t usually do this, but follow this link and go get yourself a copy of the first ten issues. You won’t regret it.

P.S. A few weeks ago, Post #7, I wrote about Miracleman. I felt bad about writing about a comic that is so difficult to track down, but it was one the best so I did so anyways. Well, just this past weekend at the New York City Comic Con, Marvel Comics announced that starting in January, they are reprinting Miracleman leading up to Neil Gaiman finishing the story he started twenty years ago. So the wait is nearly over!

___________

Sean Ironman

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

Heroes Never Rust #5: Cultural Respect

04 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Blog Post, Comic Books, Film, Heroes Never Rust

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Batman, Heroes Never Rust, Superheroes, Superman, The Crow

Superhero Comics

In 2000, Bryan Singer’s X-Men hit theaters. It made almost $300 million off a $75 million budget. Two years later, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man earned over $800 million on a budget of $139 million. Once money starts getting made, people pay attention. Comics became cool. Sure, they had their followers in certain circles for many years, but I’m speaking about the mainstream audience.

Around the same time, there seemed to be resurgence in mainstream comics. The 90’s were over, and the concentration on style over substance seemed to end with it. Marvel Comics brought in Bill Jemas and Joe Quesada to bring the bankrupt company back to glory. (And whatever anyone says about Jemas these days, without him who knows if Marvel would be where it is today.) And when one company begins to push into new areas, other companies follow. Image Comics, especially, has had a strong line-up, and by the sounds of what’s coming in the next year, it will be even stronger.

Not only were comics getting more mainstream attention, they were getting better and more diverse.

Super

When I was a kid, comics were looked down on. My mom tried to get me stop reading comics nearly every week. It wasn’t until she read an article about a millionaire in the newspaper that mentioned he was a comics reader that she gave in. (There’s that money thing again.) But in the 2000s, comics were cool again. They started to get carried in stores that weren’t specialty shops. More and more were being optioned for TV and film. Everything was good, right?

Not quite.

While comics as a medium has become more respectable, superhero comics still are looked down on. I’ve found many of the new readers of the past decade fall in love with comics such as Maus, Blankets, Sandman, The Walking Dead, Y: The Last Man. (Although I’m tempted to make an argument that Y: The Last Man is a spin on the superhero concept. Maybe for a future blog.) When I suggest series like New X-Men, Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Invincible, and Daredevil, these new readers not only show no interest, but they seem to scoff at my suggestion and give me a look that says, “Really?”

Quite frankly, I couldn’t care less if someone wants to read superhero comics or not, but it bothers me to think about such great series being overlooked by comic book readers because of the stigma of superhero comics not being intelligent or deep. One reason I love comics, and have stayed interested in comics for twenty years, is the diversity of the medium. Anything can be done in comics. There’s no budget or technology issues like in film or TV, and when something seems too complex for a reader to understand in prose, an artist can draw it. Now that I think about it, comics are my favorite medium. I read comics like Blankets and Strangers in Paradise, as well as X-Men, Spider-Man, and Invincible. And, quite honestly, there have been moments in superhero comics like X-Men and Animal Man that have a greater effect on me than anything in Maus.

On one hand, when someone seems to look down on my offer to read a superhero comic or the idea of superheroes in general, I want to tell them to fuck off and not be bothered with them anymore. And many times I have done that. But the real problem of people looking down on superheroes isn’t that they don’t get to experience those comics. It comes back to money.

Unfortunately, films, TV shows, and comics are not just made for the art. They’re part of a business. While art isn’t about giving people what they want, business is all about it. Instead of superhero stories that are character driven, we are given stories that are filled with a bunch of fights and seem embarrassed to be superhero stories. We’re getting stories involving a superhero that aren’t really superhero stories.

christopher-nolan-the-dark-knight-rises

Take for example, anything put out by Warner Bros. in the last decade, like Christopher Nolan’s Batman films. While admittedly I’m not the biggest fan of them, I think it would be difficult to argue that they aren’t quality films. The acting, direction, cinematography, is superb—well, except for Bale’s voice. From a technical standpoint the films are incredible. I’m not gonna get into Nolan’s version of Batman or Bruce Wayne because there has been so many versions in the comics over the decades that each person has their own idea of the Batman universe. But, I would find it difficult to listen to someone say they are superhero films or really Batman films, except for the characters’ names. They’re crime movies featuring, in place of the usual detective that operates outside of the law, a character that dresses up in a bat suit. It’s been noted by many people that The Dark Knight is basically Michael Mann’s Heat.

The villains of the films, each one great in their own way, weren’t anything like the comic book version, and not just in look or other ways that a change of medium requires. Gone was the Lazarus Pit. Gone was Joker’s fall in acid. Gone was Bane’s Venom serum. If one of these was missing over the course of the trilogy, or if other things were kept from the comic, maybe it wouldn’t seem like it. But a major part of superhero comics lies in the fantastical, and these films did everything they could to deny that element. Even many of the reviews for the film stated things like, “Not just a superhero film.” Whenever something is not just anything, you’re saying whatever after just is inferior. Warner Bros. sold their soul for mainstream attention and money.

Man of Steel, which was a decent movie, was an awful superhero story. There was no hero in it. Even mentioning the character’s name was a joke. DC heroes aren’t the only ones though. Daredevil suffered the same way. Fantastic Four (which has fantastic in the title and yet the film gets rid of nearly everything that’s fantasy in the film). I’d even argue the early X-Men films, until X-Men: First Class and the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Superheroes are fantastical. When Superman was introduced, he became popular because he was a fantasy—throwing evil landlords off buildings. (Though he did lack many of the powers he has currently.) Built into the superhero concept is a bit of fantasy, no matter if they are meant to live in the real world or not. There’s a difference between approaching the work in a serious manner and making it real. While Robin Hood isn’t a comic book character, I do believe he’s a superhero. Ridley Scott’s film on the hero is another great example. It’s as if they had a meeting and said, “Let’s take out every fantasy element, everything that makes the story special, and make it real.” Do people think the real world is so boring and shitty that they have to rip the fun and fantasy from characters?

The-Crow

I was watching The Crow a few weeks ago. I hadn’t seen it in years. I find it very difficult to watch knowing that in the making of this film, a story of a man who comes back from the dead to take revenge on his and his fiancée’s killer, Brandon Lee was killed. But I realized what had happened to superhero films in the last decade or so. Everything needs to be explained these days. In The Crow, Brandon Lee’s Eric Draven returns to life at the beginning of the film as the title character. The audience must accept that this happened and the film moves on. There’s no big explanation for it. It just happens. But anyone who watches this movie can’t say that the superhero film is kitsch or isn’t taken seriously. I’d find it difficult to say The Crow isn’t more serious and dark than Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Yet, it still holds onto the fantasy of it all When people look down on superheroes, that part goes missing. What’s left?

SupermanDrinking

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Sean Ironman

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

Word from the King #1: Some Thoughts on Ben Affleck Being Cast as Batman

28 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Film

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Tags

Batman, Ben Affleck, comic books, Film, Super Heroes

Word from the King #1 by John King

The blogosphere instantaneously shit itself sideways when Ben Affleck was cast as the next Batman. Here are some meditations on the ensuing misplaced hysteria.

1. There are actually real problems in the world.

2. No, really. There are. Instead of bitching about who has been cast as a comic book hero, be a more heroic person by paying more attention to the world you live in. The real world needs you more than Gotham or Metropolis does.

3. While Christian Bale was credibly intense, frankly, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy is over nine hours of abysmal storytelling. As the Joker, Heath Ledger stole the show in The Dark Knight; the principle actors and characters were inconsequential otherwise. We needed Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine to care about Bruce Wayne because the movie gave the audience no reason to. The smart storytelling of Memento and Inception didn’t find its way into the Batmans, which were mostly boring, goofy, awkwardly sanctimonious, and (for too many moments in The Dark Knight) incomprehensible. The only reason the Chris Nolan versions seemed good was the aesthetic deprivations of the Tim Burton Batmans, which only the Joel Schumacher Batmans could make look good.

4. The jury is very much out on Zach Snyder, too. Man of Steel got a passing grade because it was graded on a scale that included Superman Returns. Snyder turned Watchmen into a mediocre film. He doesn’t do real characters well.

5. Ben Affleck may have played the lead in what is almost, ALMOST, the worst film imaginable for Daredevil (all cleft chin, cumbersome, scrunchy leather, and fight scenes that might as well have been choreographed by Sid and Marty Krofft).

Daredevil

And Ben Affleck might seem oddly unlikable and unwatchable much of the time. But he can also be amazing, when he acts with affect, as someone much different than himself. He held his own in Shakespeare in Love, opposite Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes, Judy Dench, and others. And his performance as George Reeves, the original superman, in Hollywoodland is really shockingly nuanced and good.

Hollywoodland

6. Frankly, I am ashamed of myself. Go back to #2. And when you do so, don’t wear tights, and please don’t carry a weapon. The cape is optional.

Heroes Never Rust #2: Why is Batman a Superhero but James Bond isn’t?

15 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Heroes Never Rust, James Bond

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Batman, comic books, Heroes Never Rust, James Bond

Heroes Never Rust #2 by Sean Ironman

Why is Batman a Superhero but James Bond isn’t?

One of the inaccuracies about superheroes I’ve found is that all comic book heroes are superheroes. Since the sixties, superhero comics have been the most popular genre in the comics industry. People forget comic books are not just superheroes, and superheroes are not just comic books. Today, I’m not interested in going down what created this issue or trying to get non-comic readers interested. One of the issues with people equating comic books with superheroes is that the definition of superheroes gets blurred. What is a superhero? It sounds like a question with an easy answer at first, but it’s much more complex than it looks.

batman_robin_batmobile_01

JamesBond

The initial answer many people think of is that a superhero has superpowers. Flight. Telekinesis. Super-strength. Telepathy. Teleportation. Healing factor. Duplication. Even power negation. But a quick look at the superhero canon refutes that idea. One of the most popular superheroes of all time is Batman, who has no superhero powers. Then, we have Iron Man, Hawkeye, Steel, Huntress, etc. These are heroes that are highly trained and have access to some pretty cool toys, but they don’t have powers. So what makes them superheroes? Are they even superheroes?

While I do think some characters that people refer to as superheroes are not superheroes (Just the other day, I overheard someone refer to Nick Fury as a superhero), I do believe Batman and Iron Man are superheroes. Some people might say, well Iron Man has a powerful, high-tech suit, and Batman has the Batcave filled with cool gadgets. But if Batman is a superhero, then why isn’t a character like James Bond?

bondCar
Like Batman, James Bond has cool gadgets, fights crime, and is an orphan. His parents died in a mountain climbing accident in the French Alps instead of being gunned down in an alley in Gotham City, but it would’ve still been traumatic. Actually, I’d say James Bond is saner than Batman, that’s one difference. But most superheroes are sane, so regardless of whether they’re insane or not, a character can still be a superhero.

batmobile
I’ve heard some people argue that characters like Batman and Iron Man are superheroes because they are super smart. I don’t buy it. Being smarter than the average person doesn’t make a person a superhero. Although, now that I think about it, most superheroes seem to be very intelligent. But that’s not why they’re superheroes. Is a Princeton graduate or an MIT graduate a superhero? They’re incredibly smart, and nothing against those schools, but being smart doesn’t make someone a superhero. Plus, why do you think someone like Batman is smart? Could it be that because of his family’s money and connections that he was able to attend great schools and get great tutors? The same with Iron Man. Superheroes are superheroes regardless of whether they’re in the upper class or middle class.

Now, one could argue, and the pessimist in me does, that superheroes aren’t real. Tell that to Superheroes Anonymous, who cleaned Times Square and helped the homeless, or Phoenix Jones. Superheroes are as real as anything else.

Well, how do Batman and James Bond go about fighting crime and saving people? Batman protects Gotham. James Bond protects the British Empire. Both protect the world. But this is where they start to differ. Batman works on his own accord. James Bond works for the British government. Both have their crossovers. Batman helps out the Justice League and the police. James Bond goes off on his own, like in Quantum of Solace. But when Batman helps out another organization, he does so because a villain threatens people. When James Bond went AWOL in Quantum of Solace, he was seeking revenge.

I don’t believe there’s a firm definition of a superhero, not one that encompasses every superhero. (The versatility of the superhero concept is something I’ll be exploring from time to time with this blog.) But something that shows up again and again, is the idea that a superhero, in order to protect those he or she swore to protect, must have no oversight. They can’t work under someone else’s thumb. A superhero does what they feel is right, not just for them, usually it’s worse, but for others. The “super” in Superman doesn’t refer to the external traits of the character—It refers to the internal. A superhero rises above their basic instincts to help society as a whole, not just individuals. A superhero doesn’t just save their family. In a way, they don’t just save lives, but inspire. Back in the Golden Age of comics, Superman took on corrupt landlords. He even killed back then. Superheroes do what’s right regardless of their own feeling and whatever organization they’re associated with.

I wonder if it’s possible for a character to be a superhero and only do work for the government or for another group. Is the Superman that takes on Batman in The Dark Knight Returns a superhero? No, I wouldn’t say. He’s a government stooge in that story. Captain America fought for the U.S. in World War II, but I tend to think of him as a Super Soldier in that time, and a superhero when he joined the Avengers in the ’60s, an Avengers that unlike the movie version didn’t work for an organization. Just a few years ago, Captain America fought against superheroes getting registered and becoming part of the government in Marvel’s Civil War.

Are all superheroes, like the comics scene, punk? I think they exist to do what normal people can’t. They’ll fight against anyone and everyone for what’s right. What do you think? What makes a superhero a superhero?

___________

Sean Ironman

Sean Ironman is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where he also serves as Managing Editor of The Florida Review and as President of the Graduate Writers’ Association. His art has appeared online at River Teeth. His writing can be read in Breakers: An Anthology of Comics and Redivider.

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