The Week of Geek

Will The Avengers Be One Of The Top 10 Comic Book Movies Of All Time?

This seems to be the only real question facing The Avengers right now. There is no question that it will be a mega hit (its already done $178 million overseas before being released in North America on Friday and has already broken all of the pre-sale records in North America in advance of its release). There is no question that they pulled off what people weren’t sure was possible, to have a superhero team movie that worked (the reviews haven’t just been good, they have been positively glowing and full of hyperbole). So the only question left is, how does it compare to the best comic book movies of all time. We’ll find out this weekend, but for comparison purposes here are my top 10 comic book movies of all time:

10. Kick-Ass Clever, dark, funny and not what you think if you haven’t read the comic.

9. The Crow Falls in line with 300 and some others where the only review you can really give is “it’s so cool!”

8. Spider-Man 2 Usually I go with the first film in a series as being the best because I think the degree of difficulty is higher, but that doesn’t really apply to comic book movies because of the source material. This movie does a great job of showing that being Spider-Man is hard on Peter while still keeping the movie fun and fast paced.

7. Superman II There are really only two different types of story lines that work with Superman in a movie. One is to have him question how much he should do (let’s be honest, he could be a God if he wanted to, it is up to him to decide what he should be), that was the crux of the first Superman. The other is to have him deal with actual danger, a threat not just to the world but to him (that is fun with Superman because it almost never happens, it is him trying to save Lois or the world but never really being in any personal danger). That is what Superman II is all about and it makes for a really fun movie.

6. Iron Man Marvel Studios showed the world that they “got it” with the original Iron Man. They looked through their roster, found a character that wasn’t mainstream in the way Spider-Man or The Hulk were, but that you could see would translate perfectly to the movies and made his story. The success of this movie is what begat all of the Marvel stuff to follow (Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers). After some very high profile failures this was definitely a home run.

5. The Dark Knight I know, this is #1 on most of these lists, and there are a lot of reasons why. It is in many ways to superhero comic book movies what The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen were to comics in the 80’s, proof positive that a superhero story can be something deeper, darker and more adult (in the non pornographic sense) than we had previously given them credit for. Still, as much as I love this movie, I miss the merriment and surreal nature of comics that Christopher Nolan stripped away to make something based more firmly in “reality”. Its undeniably brilliant, but where was the fun?

4. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension To me this kind of list wouldn’t be true if it didn’t have some overtly personal favorites – this is mine. I quoted this movie all through college when it first came out and I still watch it at least three times a year. because, remember people, “no matter where you go, there you are.”

3. 300 When I wrote a top 50 comic book movie thing for IMDB I noted that this was the first salvo in the great war, Alan Moore versus Frank Miller (if you don’t know what that means go find your resident family geek and they will explain it to you). Alan Moore ended up having four movies on my top 50 (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Constantine and From Hell) while Miller was a little trickier to tabulate (do you count Tim Burton’s Batman as a Miller adaptation?). In the end the matter could not be resolved by looking merely at their movie adaptations. As for this movie, like I said about The Crow, It’s So Cool!

2. A History of Violence Tense, taut and brilliant. The book was good, the movie is even better

1. Batman Unlike most of today’s comic book adaptations Tim Burton’s first foray into the world of Batman is a true adaptation of (predominantly Frank Miller’s) comic. It takes all the grit and realism that was in The Dark Knight Returns AND keeps surreal quirkiness to let you know this isn’t your world. For all the genius of Nolan and the Marvel adaptations maybe their only flaw is that these things couldn’t happen in our reality, so stop trying so hard to make us feel like it is.

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Comic Book Story Arcs That Should Be Movies Vol. 2

I started this list yesterday (click here to read yesterday’s post), now I am continuing it with a few more. So, with no more preamble, here we go!

Winter Soldier by, Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Michael Lark and Michael Perkins (Captain America #1-6, 8-9, 11-14)

Frankly, I can’t see how this isn’t the next Captain America story line. Bucky survived his fall (in the comics he died in the rocket explosion that sent Cap into his frozen state, in the movie he fell off the train) and was rescued by the Russians, who have trained him to be a ruthless assassin and kept him in cryogenic status in between mission. The story weaves in the Red Skull, the Winter Soldier’s handlers who are trying to steal the Cosmic Cube for their own power and an out of time Cap who is struggling with his own demons. Maybe you will have to tweak a thing here or there (I think Russians would be awesome, make Bucky be like a misplaced warhead now that the Soviet Union is no more) but having Cap face his past by bringing Bucky back would give a talented director a lot of things to play with.

Born Again by, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli (Daredevil #227-233)

Yes, that Frank Miller, he of Sin City, 300, The Dark Knight Returns fame (among others). Frank Miller actually first gained note doing Daredevil (reviving the character who was all but dead at Marvel) in the late 70’s and early 80’s. He left Daredevil and went on to create one of the seminal Graphic Novels of all-time, The Dark Knight Returns, which, along with Watchmen, changed comics forever. That is what made Frank Miller famous to the world at large, but his best work in comics came right on the heels of The Dark Knight Returns, the Born Again story arc for Daredevil. Karen Page, Matt Murdock’s former secretary and love of his life who left Matt to pursue an acting career in California, is now a porn sat and drug addict. Gripped by addiction and desperate for drugs, Karen sells Matt’s secret identity, Daredevil. The information eventually gets to Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime, who proceeds to systematically destroy Matt’s life (assets frozen, disbarred, that kind of thing) and then blows up Matt’s brownstone, killing Daredevil. Or so he believes until he realizes there is no body. And that is just the beginning of the story. Daredevil, unlike some other superheroes, is dark and in many ways inherently pessimistic (very rare for the genre) – a studio would need to know that and accept it going in and make the Daredevil movie as it should be made.

Seasons of Mists by, Neil Gaiman, Kelly Jones, Mike Dringenberg, Malcolm Jones III, Matt Wagner, Dick Giordamo, George Pratt and P. Craig Russell (Sandman #21-28)

Depending on who you are you either are upset that I didn’t do a “yes, that Neil Gaiman” or you are asking “who’s Neil Gaiman?” Neil Gaiman is a writer. He has written novels and screenplays and short stories and he is probably most famous for creating The Sandman comic, which follows the adventures of Dream who rules over the realm of dreams. The first Sandman story arc is great and sets the world up well, but this is when the book real got humming. Dream is shamed into attempting to rescue his former love, who, in a fit of rage, he had banished to Hell thousands of years ago. Dream gears up for battle with Lucifer, who he believes to be mad at him anyway, and heads to Hell. To Dreams surprise Lucifer has closed Hell and ends up giving the keys to Hell to Dream. What follows is classic triply Neil Gaiman, where we see deities and mythologies mix and mash as we explore what a universe without Hell would be like (even better than his exploration of a world without dreams in the earlier stories). I have often thought that Sandman is too big and weird a thing for film and might be better suited to being an HBO series, but man, what an HBO series that would be.

Age of Apocalypse by, Scott Lodbell, Mark Waid, Fabian Nicieza, Andy Kubert, Joe Madureira, Steve Epting, Roger Cruz and a whole bunch of other writers and artists (X-Men: Alpha #1, Amazing X-Men #1-4, Astonishing X-Men #1-4, X-Men: Omega #1 and a lot of other tie ins)

Charles Xavier and his son Legion travel back in time to kill Magneto, believing that is the only way they will ever be able to achieve peace between mutants and humans (kind of the “if you could go back in time and kill Hitler, would you?” idea). The problem is they go back to a time when Eric and Charles are still friends, so, for his friend, a young Charles Xavier gives his life to save Eric (aka Magneto). Legion immediately disappears. Eric, being so moved by his friend’s sacrifice, takes on Charles’ cause for peace between mutants and humans. And Apocalypse, an immortal mutant who has been watching events unfold waiting for his time to strike and take over the world, sees the death of Charles Xavier as that right moment. Despite the X-Men’s resistance (being led by Magneto) Apocalypse succeeds in conquering all of North America and sets mutants up as the ruling class. I would never have thought this could work as a movie, but last year they pulled off a X-Men period movie, so why not an X-Men alternate universe? I doubt you could do it all in one movie, but you could make one heck of a trilogy.

The Authority by, Warren Ellis, Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary (Authority #1-12)

This may be the one I would like the most, even though I am pretty sure it will never happen. The Authority were a black ops team of Stormwatch (a Justice League like superhero group). When Stormwatch disbands The Authority finally feel free to do their superheroing the way they want to do it, by any means necessary. The Authority is action packed, violent, no holds barred superhero stuff, like nothing you have seen before. The comic became weirdly political after the original creators left to do other things, but the first few stories are awesome. This movie will never be made because just to few people have heard of it (although, this would also make a great series, maybe on STARZ where you could pair it with Spartacus), but a man can dream, can’t he?

There were other story arcs that would be great, like Crisis on Infinite Earths (the whole DC Universe), E is for Extinction (X-Men), The Judas Contract (Teen Titans) and maybe the one I will most regret not writing more about – American Gothic (Swamp Thing), but I had to stop somewhere. For the record, I think Sinestro Corps War and Winter Soldier will each probably be made (yes, I am assuming they will make another Green Lantern) and The Surtur Saga or Born Again wouldn’t shock me if they got made. As for the others, well they would shock me, but pleasantly so (as long as they were done right).

But hey, that’s just my opinion, and what do I know, I’m fat.

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Comic Book Story Arcs That Should Be Movies Vol. I

For comic book geeks (said lovingly) the imminent success of The Avengers means more than simply another home run for Marvel. Multiple superheroes coming together, solidifying a “universe” built through multiple movies, concluding a broader story that spanned those movies, opens up the door to the thing comic book fans love the most — the story arc.

For those who aren’t familiar, individual comics, being relatively short, can’t really contain entire stories. They are episodes in a larger story arc. The Death of Superman (to use a famous example) wasn’t an issue of a comic (well, the actual death was obviously, but not the story leading up to it), it was seven different comic books spread over five different comic book series. While some of that may be overtly obnoxious marketing (really, five different series?!), it is unavoidable when you only have between 25 and 30 pages to work with a month.

What has long been a point of frustration for many a comic book fan is that the movies take pieces of some of the most beloved story arcs and combined them with other story arcs (or just don’t do the whole story arc and only steal little bits here and there) to make something not great and ensure that the story arc will never get a chance on film (talk to a Daredevil fan about what the movie did to the Elektra Saga story arc, or Superman fans about what Superman Returns did to Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow story arc, and don’t even get an X-Men fan started on what X-Men Last Stand did to multiple beloved Phoenix story arcs). Movies have done this because the story arcs have seemed impractical. But now The Avengers is about to change that.

So, as part of the Week of Geek, I will be suggesting some of the story arcs from comic books that hollywood really should take a look at. Some of these you could do in one movie, some might take a few, none of them has really been done (or ruined) yet.

note: about a month ago I made my argument for Warner Brothers to make the Death of Superman movie, you can see it here if you would like.

The Surtur Saga by, Walt Simonson (Thor #349-353)

Thor was always my favorite superhero and this is a story that, if done right, would be amazing to see on the big screen. The Surtur is the Lord of Flames who was defeated millennia ago by Odin and his brothers who also stole the Eternal Flame, all to keep Surtur from engulfing all the worlds in fire and destroying every living thing. As you may have guessed, the Surtur returns, this time with an army, to retake the Eternal Flame and it is up to Thor and Odin (and eventually even Loki) to stop him. The battle wages in Asgard and on Earth and is epic (I actually just looked at these comics again to see if they were as good as I remembered, and to my delight they were). This would be the perfect next Thor movie.

note: This would also be a great “story” for a video game if Rockstar Games or one of the other big guys decided they wanted to be in the superhero video game business

All In The Family by, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillion (Preacher #8-12)

I promise, I won’t keep referring to the other thing I wrote about DC Comics, but if you read that you know how much of a missed opportunity Preacher has been for their film division. All In The Family explores the back story of our erstwhile Preacher, Jesse Custer. We see how horrible his life was with a mother and two goons who abused him horribly as he was growing up. Now Jesse has come home for revenge. Of course, this being Garth Ennis and a Preacher book, not everything goes smoothly and by the time Jesse’s girlfriend Tulip has her face blown off you can say things have taken a bad turn. As the brief plot description suggests Preacher isn’t for everyone. But a smaller movie, sold to the Saw crowd and the True Blood crowd (it would kind of play to each of them) could really work and be better than any Saw or True Blood.

Kraven’s Last Hunt by, J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Zeck and Bob McLeod (Amazing Spider-Man #293-294, Spectacular Spider-Man #131-132, Web of Spider-Man #31-32)

Kraven the Hunter is depressed and his depression has led to mania. He is the world’s greatest big game hunter and the only prey who has ever eluded him is Spider-Man. In his state of mania Kraven vows that he will finally get Spider-Man, which he does, and he buries him in a grave. Kraven then dons Spider-Man’s costume and goes about proving he is a better Spidey than Peter Parker ever was. Tell me you can’t picture this movie. The book is a pure thriller (and the movie should be too) that just hums. I’m getting excited just picturing it in my minds eye, a Spider-Man movie where Spider-Man isn’t in most of it.

The Sinestro Corps War by, Geoff Johns, Dave Gibbons, Peter Thomas, Ivan Reiss, Ethan Van Sciver, Patrick Gleason – and a number of other artists who did the penciling and inking (Green Lantern Sinestro Corps Special #1, Green Lantern Vol. 4 #21-25, Green Lantern Corps #14-19)

Of the story arcs I have listed this is probably the biggest and broadest, but it is also in many ways the easiest to shorten and mold for film. Here is the key to Green Lantern stories, the good ones all take place far far away from earth (one of the many mistakes with last year’s movie was that they should never have had him come back to earth and fight battles here, it should have been a fight to save another planet). This is a story of real inter galactic spectacle and journey. Sinestro has been defeated (if you only saw the movie and didn’t stay to the end, Sinestro keeps the yellow ring of fear and becomes evil) and retreats where he cannot be followed. Then he returns, having built an army of yellow ring bearers called the Sinestro Corps, intent on destroying the Green Lanterns and ruling the universe through fear. Lots of battles and intrigue ensue as the Green Lanterns fight not just for the survival of other planets, but for their own lives. Please Warner Brothers, make up for what you did last year, meddling in the Green Lantern movie until it was a disjointed mess with only glimpses of what might have been, and make this movie right (I say that because the end of the last movie clearly hinted that they were moving on with the Sinestro story lines, although they would probably do Rebirth before they would do this one).

This has been fun. I’ve got a few more story arcs that would make really good movies that I will post about tomorrow.

Enjoy the Week of Geek

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What Warner Brother’s SHOULD Do With DC

Don’t be fooled by the imminent blockbuster that is The Dark Knight Rises, as a studio DC Entertainment needs some help. While it’s main rival, Marvel, seems to be able to pop out hit after hit from their staple of superheroes (even the one’s they no longer produce like Spiderman and the X-Men) DC can’t get anything that doesn’t have Batman or The Dark Knight in the title to be viewed as anything other than a dud. Why? A lot of reasons actually. Some because their individual heroes don’t fit as neatly into the “origins” story lines that Marvel keeps tapping into (say what you will about Stan Lee, the man knew how to write an origins story). Some because they have failed to recognize which superheroes will translate and which one’s won’t. And some because they have just made bad movies. The good news is there is hope.

Batman is about to take over the world!

First, superhero and comic based movies are as popular now as they have ever been. Last summer the four “superhero” movies grossed nearly $1.4 billion world wide combined, that is nearly $350 million a movie. That total is made more impressive when you think about who the movies were about. It wasn’t a summer of Spiderman or Batman or Wolverine or Iron Man, it was the summer of Thor and Captain America and Green Lantern and a period piece with the X-Men. This summer, with three of the biggest superheroes on the way, should blow that number away (don’t be surprised in The Dark Knight Rises beats that total on its own). Add to that the success of The Walking Dead on TV and comic book adaptations don’t appear to be loosing momentum anywhere.

Second, while Marvel may have the “deeper” stable of superheroes, no one can compete with the top of DC’s superhero roster. IGN, one of the leading “geek” and gaming websites in the world, recently published their list of the top 100 comic book superheroes of all time and DC had 3 of the top 5 and 5 of the top 8. Superman #1, Batman #2, Wonder Woman #5, Hal Jordan (The Green Lantern) #7 and Wally West (The Flash) #8. You can argue placement all you want, but what is nearly impossible to argue is that Superman is #1 and Batman is #2 and even the most die hard Marvel fan would have to put Wonder Woman somewhere in the top 7 or 8.

Finally, with the launch of The New 52 comics to great success (commercially if not creatively) and their continued success in their animated department, both with what they are doing on TV with Cartoon Network and their direct to video animated features that have long been considered the best in the business (see trailer for Justice League Doom below), DC’s other divisions are healthy and strong. The success of these other areas shows that DC’s army of superheroes is more than viable and still resonates with young and old.

So, what should they do? Here are a few ideas (some of which go together, some don’t).

Forget Origin Stories

The Worst Origin Story Ever?

Three issues here. First, your origins either stink or have been done to death. Wonder Woman’s origin is simply awful. Green Arrow’s is trite. Hal Jordan’s you just butchered by trying to fit it into the “origins model” that Marvel has made popular. Aquaman, Flash, Blue Beatle, you’ve heard them all before even if you aren’t a fan of those characters. The fact is, most of DC’s origins were written 60+ years ago, at a time when “origins” didn’t matter (kind of like today’s sitcoms and their initial premise, look how quickly Cougar Town, Happy Endings completely abandoned their pilot story lines). Comic book writers wanted to create heroes they could start telling stories with, and “where they came from” wasn’t the stories they wanted to tell. So, why bother trying to tell them now?

Second, most people know your heroes already, they don’t need to see where their origin. Does anyone need to see a Aquaman’s origin story? No. Time Burton did this brilliantly with the first Batman, just jump right in and tell the back story in a scene or two over the course of the movie.

Third, why try to make the same movies that Marvel is making? Sure, you can claim you did the first great origins movie in 1980 with Dick Donner’s original Superman (see trailer below), but, with the arguable exception of Batman Begins, you haven’t made a good one since. Meanwhile, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Spiderman have all come out and solidified Marvel as the kings of the superhero origins movie. And that’s fine. Origins are overrated and you have plenty of great movies to make, so stop making movies that feel like bad Marvel movies.

Do What You Said You Would Do With The New 52

The New 52, the relaunching of DC’s comics, was sold as a “starting from scratch” move by DC comics. No longer would the writers have 60, 70 80 years of comic book and character history they had to worry about when writing new stories. Now they could re-imagine and modernize the heroes. Now they would be free to write the heroes the way they wanted to write them. It sounded exciting and a little crazy and in the end it has been a financial success and in a lot of ways they cheated. How did they cheat? Well, what the writers did was they simply took the time to pick and choose what part of the history happened and what parts didn’t (you can’t start Batman at #1 and have Nightwing and have Red Hood and The Outlaws since that is two of Batman’s three previous Robins), so we are left with a newish 52 that with each passing week feels more and more like The New 52 was nothing more than a marketing ploy because all the comics could have happened without resetting everything to #1.

I am not going to pretend to know enough about comics and the comic book industry to judge DC’s marketing of The New 52 or the legitimacy of it, but I will say this, that is exactly what they need to with your movies (and TV shows). Whether you start with origin stories or not, throw out the comics and the old movies and the old TV shows and everything else and start making these things new and fresh. Stop worrying about fanboy outrage because here is the secret, if the movie is good they don’t care how closely you held to the source material (don’t believe me? look at The Dark Knight). So rethink the whole thing and come up with setting for characters that make sense and recognize that some characters need desperately to be rethought before they can find success on the big screen.

For instance, how about we throw out the Wonder Woman wins the right to bring Steve Trevor back to the man’s world because it is a little silly and it always makes her seem a little less strong (she followed him out of love after all). Why not have her bring Steve back because he is unwittingly threatening the Amazons in some way, make her coming to our world an act of sacrifice for her people not a sacrifice for some dude. Wonder Woman never plays as well when she is played innocent or naive, she is great when she is short tempered and impatient with evil and dishonesty. Everything you do with her should make her be stronger, not weaker. Make no mistake, Wonder Woman is the great untapped resource of the DC universe, if you make her strong and beautiful you will have the fanboys out en masse and you will finally have a superhero for the girls to call their own.

Let’s make Aquaman an eco terrorist. Think Whale Wars meets Thor.*

*I heard this idea on The Geek Show Podcast and I loved it, so I had to use it here.

Green Arrow, as written and used, is an entirely redundant character. He is Batman in green. The tragedy of it is he doesn’t have to be. Not only is there a place for, there is a need for an anti-batman. Where Bruce Wayne is born to wealth, have Oliver Queen be born to poverty and make his own wealth (think Steve Jobs). Where Batman is born from personal tragedy, have Green Arrow be born from societal ills alone. Basically, have the Green Arrow be what it has always seemed like he should be, a modern day Robin Hood. Have him steal from the rich and give to the poor. Have his “sherwood forest” be the ghetto, where he partners with gangs and other seeming criminals who are really just doing what they need to do to survive. Have him be funny and outwardly devil-may-care. Have him be black. And have him know Batman and call Batman to the carpet for a lot of what Batman does.

We Can’t Make One Of These Two Gay?

Pick a lesser Justice League member and make him gay.

Do more with the idea that Red Hood and the Outlaws plays with, that Batman and Green Arrow are totally screwing up these young men they turn into sidekicks.

Re-work the entire history of the DC Universe so that it makes sense as a history. All of these heroes can’t have come into being without influence from each other, its an absurd notion. Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor would have known each other forever. Hal Jordan can’t be shocked about alien life forms when the most famous person on the planet is an alien (Superman). And in today’s world it is ridiculous to think they wouldn’t know about each other. Start from scratch, rebuild the whole thing and see what comes out of it.

You Own HBO, Don’t You?

Potentially The Coolest Show On TV

This is the biggest advantage DC has, and they have never once used it. Warner Bros. owns DC comics and HBO, so why haven’t they made an HBO/DC Comics show yet? Are you telling me that you couldn’t make an adult comic book TV show (I’m not talking Spartacus or True Blood “adult”, I’m thinking more Game of Thrones or Dark Knight “adult”) for roughly the same cost as Game of Thrones that wouldn’t draw similar viewers? Its insane. How awesome would a Sandman TV series be? Use Gaiman’s original series as a blue print and you would have the trippiest and coolest TV show in the world. And believe me, as popular as George RR Martin and Christine Harris’ works are, they don’t have more fans than Sandman or any of a number of DC properties. How about your re-working of the DC Universe? You could do the entire thing in series form and flow movies out of it. Remember, comics are series, they aren’t wholly contained stories that make good movies. Take advantage of it.

Don’t Forget About Vertigo

The truth is, what I said at the beginning about DC’s success, or lack there of, as a movie studio wasn’t entirely accurate. Apart from Batman, DC has had some success with titles from their other imprints, Vertigo in particular. V for Vendetta, A History of Violence, The Losers and Constantine all originated from Vertigo. They haven’t even touched three of their biggest Vertigo titles, Sandman (see HBO idea above), 100 Bullets and American Vampire. Wildstorm has some untapped gems as well (Bruce Willis’ RED came from this imprint) — Tom Strong, Stormwatch and The Authority come immediately to mind. The point is, there is a lot of stuff in the DC family, and some of the best of it isn’t from DC Comics. Keep looking for some of these lesser titles that might translate better to movies. And I didn’t even mention Preacher, which might be the coolest thing DC has (under Vertigo).

The Coolest Thing In DC

Do the Obvious

The most popular superhero in the world is Superman, and he has a big problem (one shared by a few others in the DC universe), he’s too powerful. From a movie point of view, where the main character must fight through a conflict that has significant and significantly negative consequences, this has left us with only two (so far) Superman stories that have worked. Superman worked because he had to deal with two conflicts, one, should he use the powers he was given and two where is the line that he must impose himself on the degree of those powers he uses (he turns back time to save Lois for those who have forgotten). And, Superman II worked because he had to face being as powerful as he was so defeat was a real possibility. The other Superman movies tried to replicate the danger of Superman two and/or the conundrum of Superman and none have really worked (mostly because Superman isn’t the key, the key is the villain). So, what is the obvious thing to do? The same thing the comic book division realized in the 1990’s, you have to kill Superman.

Picture this movie, the world is under attack from an alien species and The Justice League has teamed with the armed forces to fight off the invasion (think the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, you just jump right into the middle of a massive war). Justice League members are spread far and wide as the invasion is a synchronized attack against military forces all over the world. As the battle rages everywhere the enemy sends its most powerful weapon to attack the President (maybe President Lex Luthor), who happens to be in Metropolis and Superman alone must face him as the rest of the Justice Leagues battles other forces. I know some people hate Darkseide and Doomsday, but you don’t have to follow that part exactly, make them new, scarier beings (something closer to Darth Vader for Darkseide role and a cool and scary cyborg with kryptonite fists as the ultimate weapon). Lois Lane works for CNN and is on the scene with her camera man (Jimmy Olsen) as Superman has his epic battle which he wins, but in winning dies. Make that movie, with subplots involving Wonder Woman and Batman and the Green Lantern and all the other Justice League heroes and you not only have a blockbuster, you have successfully launched the entirety of the DC universe as a movie franchise.

Epilogue

DC has a lot going for it, not the least of which is that Batman movies will keep you in the black for a long time. All they need to do now is to do exactly what Christopher Nolan did with Batman … make really good movies. A good Superman movie will work. A good Green Lantern movie will work. Good movies will work. Good TV shows will work. It sounds simple, but simple is true in this instance.

One last piece of advice, quit making movies by committee. Anyone who watched Green Lantern could almost see which scenes were brought in by the marketing department (the Hot Wheels saving the helicopter scene), where the suits influenced the plot (did they really need Blake Lively in that movie?) and when the fanboys got their say (the good parts actually, when he was on Oa). The movie should have left earth and been an outer space adventure. It wasn’t because someone with the check book said that wouldn’t play, they were wrong! Find a director, a writer, a creative team and let them make movies, you will have a much higher success rate if you get out of your own way.

That’s my opinion anyway. But hey, what do I know, I’m fat.

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Geeks versus Jocks – Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Marvel versus DC Lego Style

Why am I discussing feuds on a movie website/blog? Because it is The Week of Geek here and I feel like stating my case for the stupidity of this age old feud.

I hate feuds. Arguments I love, the dumber and more heated the better, but feuds are just stupid. A feud (my personal definition) is when there is an absolute refusal to make any concessions to the opposing side and all discussions begin with the premise that at best the opposing side is wrong and in all likelihood they are doing something dishonest. Feuds make otherwise rational people say stupid things and box them into corners that make them dispose of logic. Some of the great feuds plaguing our society now:

• Republicans versus Democrats
• Marvel versus DC Comics
• Yankees versus Red Sox
• Star Wars versus Star Trek
• BCS Schools versus Non BCS Schools

He’s An Old Man Pedro! and I’m a Red Sox fan

Obviously you can be on either side of any of these arguments without devolving into the feudal nature of them (Independent, DC, Red Sox till my dying day, Star Wars, Non BCS Schools are my sides), but we can all see that the feuding sides of these discussions have dominated them, stolen them from the rest of us. Its a shame. What is an even greater shame is when feuds exist not out of inherent opposition but out of perceived opposition. That brings us to the feud that should never have been:

Geeks versus Jocks

If they aren’t geeks who is?

Geeks versus Jocks has been around forever. Fortunately it seems to be dying a little with each generation,  and I know the feud started because some in the geek camp were bullied (and by all means keep hating the SOB’s that bullied), but  still this feud has led to the moronic idea that “geek” stuff is inherently smart and “jock” stuff is stupid. That “jocks” don’t like geeky things (or worse don’t “get” them) and “geeks” are afraid of sports (or don’t like them just because they can’t do them). Come on people! Go to any advanced metric sports site and see what all the MIT athletes are doing as they tear apart each sport from every possible angle and the idea that sports are shallow or stupid goes out the window pretty fast. And who is a bigger geek than Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who also happens to own the Portland Trailblazers and the Seattle Seahawks? No one, he reeks of geek.

So, together, in honor of The Avengers, the world’s mightiest heroes, coming to a cineplex near you on Friday, can we just stop all of this madness. If you don’t like sports, that’s fine, but don’t talk to me like I am an idiot if I do. And if you think comics are for kids, also fine, just keep it to yourself and don’t bug me when I am reading the most recent Batman comic on my iPad. I want the right to like both, I deserve the right to like both. 

I would say my son deserves the right to be both, but he has no interest in sports.