The Adventures of Captain Otter

Captain Otter carries an unabashed, beyond fanboy-ish obsession to Batman.  And today we have two crazy ideas from both Marvel and DC about the Caped Crusader.

Let’s look at Marvel’s latest project.  Okay, so this isn’t “Batman”, but it’s as close to plagiarism as I can imagine.  Mark Millar, who I have mixed feelings about, is asking us “what if Batman was the Joker?”  First of all, this is a horrendously stupid question.  The two are polar opposites, the alpha and the omega, the yin and the yang.  All that junk.  Bruce Wayne can’t be the Joker, and if he is then he loses every element that makes him Batman.  The comic will be published by Marvel, but will be driven by Mark Millar and Icon, just like Kick Ass.   The comic imagines Bruce Wayne as an anarchist who enjoys messing with cops, and we see “Nemesis” now toying with this world’s Comissioner Gordon.  It’s a reversal of Batman’s story in every way.

A better way of framing this would be, what if the Joker was a rich billionaire?  No elements of Bruce Wayne seem to be left, and we’ll have to see what the take on his origin is.  Also, it feels weird that Marvel is handling this project.  They’re taking concepts directly from DC and using them for themselves.  I would feel much more comfortable  if DC was publishing this in one of their various multiverses.

 Speaking of which, we have more crazy stories from DC’s multiverses.  Geoff Johns, DC’s newest golden boy and J. Michael Stracynski are working on a new Batman and Superman project.  The stories will take place on Earth-1, and will be new takes on the two characters.  Havn’t we seen this before?  Telling stories about the characters that are not part of continuity?  Isn’t that All-star Batman and Superman?  The writers will be picking and choosing elements of the characters origins to create more modern takes on the characters.  Seems a bit like Marvel;s Ultimate universe.  But while the Ultimate universe felt like an attempt to create something entirely new and original, this feels like a way to escape the tedious backstories and continuity.  Which is strange, because the DC universe continues to be filled with retcons.  It’s my least favorite part of the company, really.  Still, I’m not going to complain at the prospect of two great writes handling two great heroes with an incredible writer on board.  I know I’m going to pick this up, and think it could be something special.

♭Hey la, day la, my Batman’s back! ♭

We have alot of crazy upcoming Batman stories.  I was writing an article on that when I discovered this much more important piece of information.  Bruce Wayne is back.

Wait, that’s not enough for you?  The glorious return of arguably the greatest hero, and you want more?  Shame on you.  Luckily, DC is delivering.  See, Batman was never dead.  Even though I wasn’t thrilled with the story of Batman’s passing, they did establish that he wasn’t dead, just lost in time after being hit by Darkseid’s Omega Sanction.  Pretty much the exact same thing as Captain America.  But instead of reliving the events of his own life like Cap, Bats is going to cause havoc in a bunch of other eras.  So we get to see Batman as a caveman, witchhunter, cowboy, detective, and A PIRATE.  That’s right, pirate Batman.  Pirate Batman made this entire ordeal worthwhile.

So, somehow, Batman is going to figure out how to get back to this point in time.  The other question is what happens to Dick Grayson.  He’s been doing a great job as Batman, and I really like how he’s become so high profile.  Sure, he’s cool as Nightwing, but as Batman the former side-kick takes center stage.  Even though I think that he can never truly be Batman (only Bruce can), he is still a great character.  And he hasn’t even had the job for a full year yet and they’re already giving him the boot.  It feels way too brief, and there are tons of storytelling opportuntities left. 

I’m a tiny bit skeptical about how they’re going to handle Dick Grayson, but this still sounds like a great story.  I’m really looking forward to this, and you should too.  The first issue hits stands in April.  And once that issue comes out, we can start the debate of who makes a better pirate: Deadpool or Batman.

I find this really funny.  We recently found out that Quentin Tarantino was offered Green Lantern, and turned it down.  Today, Ryan Reynolds talked a bit about the upcoming Deadpool movie.  Who does he think should direct it?  Tarantino.  Maybe these two were destined to be together, somehow.  And even though I think Tarantino’s sense of style wouldn’t be suited for the cosmic adventures of Hal Jordan, that insanity might just work for Deadpool.  The whole idea of Tarantino doing Deadpool sounds too crazy and perfect to be true.  The director who brought uber violence and non stop pop culture references to the 90’s?  Who else could be more in touch with the essence of Deadpool.  And all the guns and katanas sound right up this guy’s alley.  And the sense of humor?  I’m trying to think about who else could do this movie now.  That being said, Reynolds was quick to note that this is a long shot, since Tarantino usually likes working with his own stuff.  This was one of the big reasons Tarantino turned down GL after all.  But, hey, who knows?

Reynolds also told us about the search for a writer that’s going on right now.  The movie should be getting one soon (hopefully).  Reynolds is also confident that if they can nail the script and get the right tone, finding a director will be easy.  I gotta love the guy’s enthusiasm for this.  At this point, we’ll have to wait quite some time before we get any more updates.  But hey, at least they’re moving along. 

Here’s a quick post about something I thought was really clever.  See, when movies are being made, some go under working titles.  This way, they can hide themselves from the general public and film in relative peace.  The most famous example is Blue Harvest, which is what George Lucas decided to call Return of the Jedi while it was being filmed.  After all, if you start telling people that you’re filming the next Star Wars movie, you’re going to cause an uproar.

Marvel has been doing the same thing.  Iron Man 2 was under the title “Rasputin”, probably a hint to all the Russian villains.  Thor and Captain America now have thier working titles.  Thor is being called “Manhatten”.  Pretty basic, and doesn’t say too much unless you really want to read into it.  Captain America gets a much cooler title: “Frostbite”.  I really enjoy this one.  Seeing as Captain America gets frozen in ice and all…..

….

 Shut up, I enjoyed it.

We also have some slightly older news.  Apparently, Marvel is the next KGB.  Natalie Portman commented that Marvel uses crazy encrypted pages, and even has these weird five digit phone numbes.  It’s all about security.  I would also like to imagine that if someone did have the audacity to steal from Marvel, they would wind up beaten to a pulp and strung up by webbing.  A warning note would be posted on the guy, courtesy of “your friendly neighborhood Spiderman”.  Of course, now that Disney owns Marvel, I wouldn’t be surprised if they let Wolverine or the Punisher loose next time.

A whiles back, I mentioned how I was trying to go out and read more DC titles.  With a new Batman in town, I thought it might be a good place to jump on.  There are tons of books in the Bat family.  One of the titles I checked out was Batman and Robin, written by DC legends Grant Morrison.  I can assure you, this is the weirdest damn comic I’ve ever read.

First of all, what do you think of when you think of Batman?  Dark, ominous, brooding heroes beating criminals into submission.  Batman and Robin keeps things dark, but throws around lots of vibrant colors as well.  Trust me, this is the most normal part.  The villains so far have been more than a bit off kilter.  Sure, you can expect crazy from Batman villains, but these guys are truly disturbed.  We saw some guy named Profesor Pyg, who created “dolltrons” by grafting doll masks onto living victims and turning them into mindless slaves.  That’s the normal part.  He also tried to turn Robin into one of these things, basically strip teasing while ranting about how he wants to be sick in front of everyone.  It was the strangest three pages I’ve ever read, and I really wonder what was going through Grant Morrison’s head sometimes.

We then have Jason Todd, the second Robin, appearing as the Red Hood.  Jason has gone bonkers since he revival, and takes an unhealthy interest into one of the freed dolltrons, turning her into his side kick.  He also launches an online campaign and becomes some kind of an advertising guru.  All about trying to keep up with the times.  Again, just strange, and quite trippy.  And Jason Todd is by far the most normal character Batman fights.

The last villain of the first six issues is the Pink Flamingo.  The Pink Flamingo.  The mighty Batman almost gets taken down by a villain called the Pink Flamingo.  If you have any sense of dignity, you should be upset right now.  Other than his understandably unusual attire, P Flam also enjoys defiling the bodies of his victims.  In one case, I think he tore off their faces and sprayed the walls with blood, or something.  His family was butchered by the mob, so now the psycho works for them as an assassin.  Which makes perfect sense.  And somehow, he has the combat training to nearly take down Batman, Robin, and the Red Hood.  Because by becoming a hitman for the mob and dressing up in a costume, you automatically gain the ability to go toe to toe with trained professionals.

So, Batman and Robin is one giant acid trip.  I’m all for trying out different comics with unique visions, but this is just weird, almost for the sake of being weird.  Grant Morisson is an incredibly intelligent writer, and certainly knows how to tell a compressed story like no other.  It’s just that the style of this specific title isn’t for me.  I think I’m gonna wind up dropping this title, since my pull list is big enough as it is.

Mr. Worthington’s stock just rose in my book.  The up and coming actor’s first big role was in Terminator Salvation, and will be appearing in James Cameron’s Avatar this month.  These are all big movies, and I think the guy has alot of potential.  Why do I all of the sudden think he’s awesome?  Behold.

That shirt….  wait, is that…?  Yes, that shirt does contain a picture of the mighty Avengers.  He sported this T-shirt in an interview with MTV, and it has recently hit the web.  The first possibility is that the guy wants a part in the movie, or maybe he is even in talks for a role.  The only two I can imagine him playing are Captain America and Hawkeye.  I still think Jeremy Renner should be Hawkeye, and I’m not sure if he’s the best choice for Cap.  The fact that he’s Australian probably won’t go over with audiences incredibly well.  The more likely option is that the guy just really likes the Avengers, and in that case is completely awesome.  Either way, Sam Worthington is proving that even a cool guy can be really nerdy.  The fact that he’s wearing this shirt just increased the chances of me going to see Avatar.  The sad thing is that I’m not even joking about that.

Oh, we have fun news today.  First of all, guess who almost directed Green Lantern?  Quentin Tarantino.  Sure, the guy seems like someone who would love reading comics.  But directing it?  I don’t want to imagine what that would have turned out like.  Is Tarrantino even capable of making a movie that isn’t rated R?  Warners had offfered him the job before the script was done, and he turned them down.  Thank god.  He’s a great director, and movies like Pulp Fiction are classics.  That being said, I just can’t see him making a superhero franchise.  These movie have to be aimed for kids as well as adults.  I don’t think the man could have done that.  Here is a pic of the director in a somewhat Green Lantern-esque attire.

We also have Ryan Reynolds taking about how pumped he is for the movie.  After seeing the finished costume, he realized that this movie is really happening.  After seeing a finished Green Lantern uniform, I would probably demand to try it on right away, but that’s just me.  It is strange though.  They have to start filming soon, and it looks they have alot of the preproduction finished.  And yet we havn’t heard any extra casting info.  They have their star, but they still need the entire supporting cast.  Decisions are going to have to be made soon.  Reynolds also talked about the script, saying that it wasn’t a full origin story.  The movie won’t “begin in the third act”.  In some ways, this sounds great.  Iron Man didn’t see Tony Stark in the Mark 3 until far too late in the movie, and I was wishing for more of those gorgeous action scenes.  If Hal Jordan starts busting up aliens half an hour in, I’m all for it.  I am worried that they don’t properly deal with Hal adjusting to his job.  Origins stories arn’t always great, but they have to be told.  Hal isn’t going to get his ring and then go off to business.  He’s going to be freaked out by the existence of aliens and all these cosmic powers.  And you can’t give him the ring in the first five minutes of the movie.  You do have to show a bit of his life before he gets the ring, or else the transformation he undergoes is pointless.  So, as much as I enjoy the willingness to ignore the get past the origin story, that is a big challenge with a character like Green Lantern.  I’m confident they can do it, but I’m a tiny bit skeptical.

And we also have another Hawkeye update.  Jeremy Renner commented on the direction they’re taking the character, and remarked that they’re not going to with the classic costume.  A good choice.  Like Wolverine, Hawkeye’s costume looks great in comics but would struggle to work on film.  Instead, they’re going to give him some kind of cool vest and sunglasses.  Sounds alot like…..Ultimate Hawkeye?  Yes, yes it does.  I completely called this from day one.  Score one for Captain Otter.  Renner hasn’t been cast yet, since they don’t have a director either, and don’t want to pick the entire cast before they get the guy in charge.  I do think that Renner is a perfect choice, and he does seem interested.  I say Marvel should try and grab him.

A second extra post today.  Why?  I just wanted to make sure all of you guys saw this.  Most of the rumors on Iron Man 2 are slowing down now that filming is done, so all we can do is wait for the trailer and any posters.  AND HERE IT IS.

Does this poster give us any new info?  No.  We knew War Machine was going to be in this movie, and we knew that the two were going to part ways in some way.  So how does the armor look?  The first thing that caught me was the red eyes.  Everything about the pose and posture tells me that the two are going to have an antagonistic relationship.  Maybe something a bit more agressive than we expected.  The armor certainly looks more industrial and heavy than the sleek Iron Man armor, and there isn’t as much black as there is dark grey.  Also the chevrons we can see on the left arm have a much more factory based look.  The armor looks like an instrument of war, rather than the Iron Man amor which is bit more superhero-y.  There’s alot less flair, and it’s much more brutal and direct.  Sounds like something a solider would use, and I think they certainly made it look distinct.  They could have easily gone with a shiny black version of Stark’s armor with a few guns attached.  I can’t wait to see these two on screen, and I felt like in the first movie the armor looked best when it was in action.

So, this is one more piece of good news for Iron Man 2.  I hope this movie shatters some box office records, and anything less than a perfect movie will be a disappointment.  May 7th can’t come quick enough.

To the average movie goer, when you think “comic book movies”, you immediately think “superhero movies”.  This is a fair assessment, don’t get me wrong.  Most comic book movies are about superheroes, and most superhero movies are based on comics.  Hancock is one of the few exceptions to the second rule.  But what most people forget is that there are tons of movies based on comics that have nothing to do with superpowers.  Road to Perdition, for example, was a phenominal movie that just happened to be based on a comic.  Surrogates was based on a graphic novel, and so was 30 Days of Night.  Graphic novels and comics are endless source of stories, and I think we have another winner in the works.  And it’s about a bunch of losers.

Enter the Losers.  The original comic was about a group of WWII soliders, but the Vertigo reimagination takes place in modern times.  They were a CIA special ops team who were betrayed by their superior (or something like that), and then decide to go out and get some revenge.  Sounds good enough to me.  It has potential, and I can see it going either way based on the script.  It could be a cliche filled plot, or it could be something fun and different.  Hard to tell.  But the reason I’m excited about this movie is the cast.  We’ve got Watchmen’s Jeffery Dean Morgan as the team leader, Star Trek’s Zoe Saldana as the loose cannon, the Wire’s Idris Elba as the second in command, and Fantastic Four’s Chris Evans as the hacker.  Considering Elba is going to be in Thor, every actor has appeared in some kind of uber-nerdy movie.  That’s probably one of the reasons why I’m so excited for it.  But in all seriousness, this is one cool cast.  Morgan was a scene stealer in the Watchmen, and I’m thrilled to see him gettting some more work.  He’s just such a man’s man, and is a great actor to boot.  Zoe Saldana is starting to pop up everywhere now after her apperance in Star Trek, and she seems to be a good actress.  We’ll see how she can handle some bigger parts, and I think she has a promising career.  And we have Chris Evans, who is cool as always.  I liked him as the Human Torch, but I loved him in the sci-fi thriller Sunshine.  He showed everyone that he’s a solid actor, and can pull off some serious roles.

Everyone in the cast seems to be a highly talented actor who is also super-cool.  Thats a good combination.  You can be super-cool and a decent actor (see: Bruce Campbell), but to have both is pretty special (see: Brad Pitt, mainly in Fight Club).  I think this could be a fun movie.  I’ll definitely go see it, and hope we see a trailer sometime soon.  The movie hits theaters this April, so it’s a pretty short wait.

Today is the day we’re all supposed to remeber what to be thankful for.  Or something like that.  So what in comics am I thankful for?  Read on my friends, read on.

1. Kenneth Branagh directing Thor.  This news was announced almost a year ago, and I was thrilled when I heard it.  A smart director with an unsurpassed mastery of characterization and plot structure?  Sign me up!  Today, I’m even more thankful for his position.  With a guy like Branagh, you bring credibility to the movie.  That credibility helps you cast guys like Anthony Hopkins or Stellan Skarsgard, even when no one knows who your hero is.  Natalie Portman basically admitted that Branagh’s involvement is why she joined.  This guy is going to put Thor on the map.

2. Blackest Night.  An epic storyline that’s the culmination of the past few years of Green Lantern stories?  What isn’t there to be thankful about?  Super powered zombie Batman people!  Super powered zombie Batman!

3. Ryan Reynolds.  The guy is playing like 20 heroes or something.  If anyone can bring Deadpool to the big screen, it’s him.  And the whole Green Lantern thing could be really cool too.

4. Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.  Nuff said.