A Few Musings About New DC Stuff
The way the comics industry works is that solicitations for new comics come out about 2 or 3 months in advance, so that shopkeepers can order them. And with the Internet being the way it is, these solicitations are posted online for everybody to read and comment upon. This usually involves the cover and a brief blurb about the story. I enjoy read these every month to look forward to upcoming comics.
Well with this new DC Comics reboot/rejiggering coming up, all their new monthly solicitations are a bit more exciting. What’s the new DC Universe going to be like? Who’s going to be in it? What sorts of adventures are the heroes going to face? Can DC sustain the excitement once we’re past the initial honeymoon phase?
At any rate, the covers for the November Batman books were released today and there were two that drew my attention.
The first is Red Hood and the Outlaws #3.
Specifically the Robin costume in the upper right corner
There’s no blurb to go along with this, only that it looks like the three heroes are trapped in some place that’s making them confront younger versions of themselves from their past. I don’t know if that’s really the case, but I hope it is, because the past Jason Todd/Robin costume looks bleepin’ awesome! It’s a beautiful combination of the original Tim Drake and Jason Todd costumes, updated with modern accessories and style. And the red mask is particularly awesome.
So I don’t know if that’s a realistic look into Jason Todd’s past, or if it’s some fever dream, but it is one awesome Robin costume.
Also interesting Robin news, according to Newsamara, DC has updated their Retailer FAQ to give a little explanation about Robin’s status in the new DCU. Basically, the idea behind the new DCU is that superheroes have only been around for about five years. So how has Batman gone through (at least) four Robins: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake and now Damian Wayne?
Q: If super-heroes have only existed for five years, how has Batman gone through so many Robins?
A: Robin is an intern program -and a very intensive one at that.
That…kind of puts a bad taste in my mouth. It essentially shortens each Robin’s run down to about a year or so apiece. It also ruins the importance of the role of Robin, saying that Batman strips them off so quickly and moves on to the next one. It takes away from the majesty of Dick Grayson’s tenure as the Dark Knight’s first squire, and weakens the reason why Tim Drake became Robin.
I suppose, like everything else, I’ll have to wait and see how this actually plays out in the real comics. But I don’t like the idea on principle. There were always very specific reasons in the old continuity why Batman moved on to a new Robin. Hopefully those sort of remain, and it’s not just a thing Batman does every year.
The second cover of note is Batman: The Dark Knight #3.
Sultry and silly
We’re introduced to the new Batman villain: The White Rabbit. She’s clearly going for that sultry, sexy vibe, because geek fanboys apparently love buying comics with half-naked chicks in them. That’s probably not debatable (though it’s not one of my reasons for buying), so kudos to DC for grasping the basic concept that ‘sex sells’. The reason it’s drawn my attention is because Marvel Comics has an exact same super-villain named The White Rabbit. She dresses in almost the exact same way, with a sexy outfit, her hair flowing freely and big floppy bunny ears. I realize the concept of the ‘white rabbit’ is probably up for grabs, but somebody at some point just said they didn’t care about the similarities and went for it.
One has to wonder if she’ll be teamed up with The Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the Walrus, the Carpenter or any other of the Wonderland-themed villains that Batman faces.
Or maybe she’s just going to be all sexy and solo.
I’d also like to point out that Batman: The Dark Knight is basically the third solo Batman title that DC is producing this fall. All three have Bruce Wayne under the mask, as opposed to the past year, which has seen Dick Grayson. If we also add in Batman and Robin, that will be four general Batman comics coming out of DC. Isn’t that a little much!?
Cute, Nerdy and You Can Slow Dance To It
Here’s a wonderful little song about Dungeons & Dragons sung by a cute nerd girl on the Internet. It’s just the sort of thing the Internet needs more of: cute nerd girls and awesome geek songs.
Stop the Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I Want to Get Off
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the new prequel/reboot to the classic 60s/70s franchise, is the most superfluous movie I’ve seen this summer. There are no surprises, nothing shocking and no reason to care about the movie after the closing credits. But it’s fun while it lasts. The tale of Caesar, the first super-intelligent chimp, is an enjoyable tale as he goes from baby to revolutionary. And the CGI is fantastic. At no point do the entirely computer-generated apes look cartoony or fake.
You really root for the apes as they wage apocalyptic war against all of humanity.
He knows what you did
Quite honestly, this is the apes’ movie. There is a human story, starring James Franco, John Lithgow and hottie Freida Pinto, but that’s just so much filler that it doesn’t matter. Franco’s a scientist who’s developed a cure for Alzheimer’s, and this is the wonder drug that makes chimps smart. Caesar is the son of one of the test chimps, so he’s born with the drug in his genes. Franco raises Caesar in secret alongside his Alzheimer’s-inflicted father, who is cured by the drug.
Eventually Caesar goes through his grumpy teenage years, and one bad incident gets him taken away from Franco and locked up in a primate reserve. The pricks working at the reserve treat Caesar like shit, which prompts him to start rallying the rest of the apes to the cause of freedom. There’s also an orangutan who knows the same chimp sign language, and he and Caesar chat about stuff, like the circus and how apes are actually kind of stupid. So Caesar breaks out, steals some of Franco’s upgraded Cure 2.0 and uses it to make the reserve apes super smart as well. And Caesar becomes even smarter. So smart that he challenges the prick humans to a fight…and that’s just the beginning.
Soon he has a whole army of super smart apes and they tear San Francisco a new one.
Viva la revolution!
The Alzheimer’s cure stuff with James Franco is just a means to an end. He has a girlfriend and a boss, as well as some extraneous co-workers, but they’re only ever half-developed and uninteresting. Only Franco serves any real purpose, and that’s only as an emotional foil for Caesar. Once Caesar becomes leader of the ape resistance movement, the film keeps teasing us with the only emotional moment it has left: Franco confronting his out-of-control ‘son’. That pay-off is fun, but so open-ended as to be anti-climactic. I won’t spoil it, but suffice to say this movie doesn’t end so much as just dramatically stop.
The humans, they do nothing!
But forget all of that. The reason to see this movie is the reason they made this movie: awesome ape-tastic action. Andy Serkis, the guy who did motion-capture for both Gollum and King Kong, is back as Caesar and he does a fantastic job! As I said before, the CGI is brilliant. You can really see the intelligence in Caesar’s eyes. He can’t talk, so all of his plotting and planning is conveyed through the body language of his eyes. It’s at times adorable, and at other times it’s chilling. But you never hate or dislike Caesar. He’s the hero of this movie, and every chilling glance from his calculating eyes is exciting. The pricks at the primate reserve really are bastards, and the clever ways that Caesar plots against them are fun to watch.
When he finally does get his revenge on the pricks, it’s the most exciting moment in the film.
Then it builds to even more excitement as the super smart apes get out and go on a rampage through the streets of San Francisco. They free the other test chimps at Franco’s lab, as well as the chimps at the zoo. They build their army and basically cause a lot of mayhem. The cops and other agencies are too slow to react, so the apes get their victories. It all builds to an impressive battle on the Golden Gate Bridge. One has to ask how the apes would defeat humans that have machine guns and SWAT gear; well the apes do it with style!
But not with this much style
I never saw the original Planet of the Apes movies, so I have no idea if this film ‘fits’ with the franchise ‘continuity’. It definitely ignores Tim Burton’s 2001 reboot (which I did see). But you don’t need to know anything about those films to enjoy this one. I’d like to think that a lot of the basics about the original Planet of the Apes are well known to society, and knowing some of those details let you appreciate the various Easter Eggs thrown into this film. Though when they get around to saying the famous, ‘Get your paws off me, you dirty ape’ line, it’s a little cheesy. But the full scene with all the context is utterly fantastic.
So little bits like that add to the fun of the film.
And that’s the only real reason to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes: to have fun. It’s an enjoyable ride, and thankfully not in3D. Just don’t go in expecting any sort of masterpiece. The only thing you should expect is awesome ape action!
Ellen Page is the World’s Greatest Kid Sidekick
I just finished watching the movie Super starring Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page, and it was so mind-shockingly amazing that I just have to tell the world! As far as I can tell, this movie flew under the world’s radar with a weak April 3 opening on only 11 theaters (according to IMDB.com). It’s one of those independent films clearly riffing off of Kick-Ass, about a normal guy who dresses up as his own superhero to fight crime (among other agendas). But forget Kick-Ass, forget Defendor; Super is the new benchmark in awesomeness!
All thanks to Ellen Page as the ballsiest, most badass kid sidekick ever!
Though Rainn Wilson definitely gets some credit as the hero, Crimson Bolt. But once Boltie arrives on screen, the movie is taken to a whole new level.
She loves her costume; she made it herself
I don’t want to spoil too much of this movie because there are a lot of surprises and shocking moments that need to be seen to be believed. And I hope some of you rush right out and rent or stream this movie immediately after reading my review. You should, it’s that damn good. Like those other movies, Super treats the idea of a normal guy dressing up in a tight costume to fight crime seriously. This may be a dark comedy, if even a comedy, but the idea itself isn’t mocked or laughed at. This isn’t campy, it’s crazy. There are real questions of insanity and people off their nut in this film. Those ideas aren’t explored too deeply by the film itself, but you know that you’re not watching the boy scout Superman here. You’re watching crazy people do crazy things in the name of good.
The story is about Frank D’Arbo, played by Rainn Wilson, of The Office. He’s happily married, but his former-addict wife has started getting back into drugs and hanging out with the wrong people. Frank finds himself unable to stop it until it’s too late, and his wife Sarah, played by Liv Tyler, runs off into the arms of Jacques, played by Kevin Bacon. That guy has enjoyed a summer of playing comic book super-villains, it seems. Anyway, Frank storms after Jacques like a man in love, and we learn that Sarah may be a little too coked out to really know what she’s doing or where she even is. But Jacques has the goons and the power, so Frank can’t get near his wife.
So obviously he becomes a superhero.
The Crimson Bolt!
The idea comes to him through several different sources: visions from God, a religious TV show about a campy, Christian-themed superhero and the comic book knowledge of local comic store employee Libby (Ellen Page). Frank makes his own costume and takes it out for a test run, hiding behind dumpsters until he sees a drug deal going down. He then just straight up tackles the dealer and tries to wrestle with him, but the dealer gets up, fights back with a trash can lid and Frank runs off. He goes to Libby for help and information about superheroes without powers who use weapons. She fills him on on Batman, Green Arrow and more, and so Frank decides to start smacking people in the head with a big monkey wrench.
Wrench!
One hilarious montage later, and Crimson Bolt is all over the news for beating up drug dealers, child molesters, purse snatchers and more. The cops don’t like him, of course, but the public has started to like him. Frank tries to go after Jacques and his goons, but they have guns. They recognize him and chase him off. He needs help, so he turns to Libby, who just so happens to have figured out that the guy who came into her store asking about superheroes and weapons is the guy who is out in the street hitting people with a wrench! Libby has made her own costume and wants to help him. Frank is reluctant at first, but he eventually comes around.
And then the movie is kicked into a dark, hilariously brutal insane-o-fest the likes of which rarely grace the mainstream cinemas. If you thought the ending to Kick-Ass was awesome, then you will absolutely love the ending to Super, as Crimson Bolt and Boltie gear up to take on Jacques and his goons. It’s amazingly gory and completely hardcore, but done in that OK Tarantino sort of way. Like how Inglourious Basterds was gory and hardcore, but not grotesquely so.
Ellen Page is amazing in this film. She was fun in Juno and cool in X-Men 3, but here she takes her adorable, petite personality and turns it up to 11. And it all comes out when she becomes Boltie.
Rainn Wilson has that effect on women
It’s part of that psychological drama I mentioned earlier. At the start of the movie, Libby is a friendly, nerdy sort of girl who really likes working in the comic book store. Once her eyes are opened to the ballsiness of the Crimson Bolt, let alone becomes Boltie, her world and her mind change. It’s like how Peter Parker becomes a jabbering, funny sort of quipster when he becomes Spider-Man. Libby becomes a psycho when she’s Boltie, and it’s brilliantly played by Page. She’s the best part of the movie. Her performance has to be seen to be truly enjoyed.
Rainn Wilson is also pretty darn fantastic. He’s best known, of course, as Dwight Schrute in The Office. And he’s great as Dwight. I’d always been a little worried that actors from The Office would never not be from The Office to me. Like seeing John Krasinski in a movie role. Wouldn’t it just be Jim on screen? Well Rainn Wilson definitely sheds the overpowering persona of Dwight, becoming this new character. It definitely doesn’t feel like it’s just Dwight dressed up as the Crimson Bolt. He’s loserishly charming, and I easily found myself rooting for the Crimson Bolt. Even when it seems like he’s just a crazy guy, he’s still sympathetic enough to be worthy of support.
So the two leads hit this one out of the park. Everyone else is pretty much just window dressing. Kevin Bacon stays supremely grounded as a drug-dealing kingpin, making sure the story stays as real as possible. This isn’t a superhero movie. It’s a crime movie, but one of the characters dresses up like a superhero.
Thankfully the costumes look great. They’re obviously cheaply made spandex, but the filmmakers wisely add enough seams, zippers, pads, bells and whistles to the Crimson Bolt that he doesn’t look like a loser in spandex. And Boltie’s more clean-cut costume just looks great, because spandex works on the ladies. They don’t look any more out of place than they’re supposed to. Hollywood has definitely learned an important lesson about superhero costumes over the years.
Go see Super. Right now! Seriously. The bar has been raised.
