Why Do People Think Face Paint is Better than Superhero Mask?
The CW’s Arrow show is set to premiere on Oct. 10, based on the life and heroics of Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow. For some reason, Arrow is going to paint the mask over his eyes instead of wearing an actual mask. What the hell is that about?
What’s that thing on his face!?
Why does nobody realize how stupid that looks? The hood, fine, that works as a modern, realistic interpretation of a superhero costume. But who has the time to go to the trouble of painting a mask over your eyes? And how does that protect his identity better than an actual mask? Check out Robin from Batman Forever and see how easy it would be to just use a big domino mask.
Though ignore the rest of the costume…
And it’s not like this is the only time someone at The CW has thought that painting a mask on someone’s face worked better than an actual mask. Behold the Black Canary from Smallville. Black Canary doesn’t even wear a mask in the comics, but someone decided to paint one on her face anyway!
You just look ridiculous, lady
It just looks so stupid. And whenever Arrow takes off his hood and is just his normal face, he’s going to look ridiculous. I’m only going to be able to focus on how silly he looks. That’s not exactly the menacing sort of look that a vigilante superhero wants to go for.
But anyway, check out this cool new promo for Arrow!
TV is Finally Looking to Me for Ideas
Being the Internet’s foremost authority on henchmen, I can only assume that NBC was checking out my blog when they got the idea to start production on a TV show called Hench. Deadline may say that it’s based on an old Adam Beechen comic book, but I’d like to think I know otherwise. Seriously, though, NBC is working on a TV show about henchmen!
The greatest resource known to super-villains
I have long since recognized the fictional opportunities presented by henchmen. They’re just such an untapped market. They appear everywhere, but are always treated as just henchmen. There’s a lot of storytelling potential when looking into the minds of what makes these guys tick, and what they get up to in their daily lives.
The show is described thusly:
A regular guy who, in order to support his family, gets jobs temping for super villains.
That sounds kind of neat. So it sounds like we’ll be seeing multiple super-villains, that could be cool. I like that studio execs are thinking outside the box. They tried to make a straight up superhero TV show – The Cape – but that bombed spectacularly. So now they’re looking into the fringes of this popular genre.
It’s not just about matching costumes and attacking one at a time
I will do my best to keep everyone informed of this show’s progress. For example, if we ever hear anything ever again about this show, I’ll let you know.
An Inspirational Robin Moment
I just wanted to share with you guys that delightful picture of all the Robins, drawn by Patrick Gleason in the recent Batman and Robin #12. That’s Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin and then current Robin, Damian Wayne. They all teamed up to help Batman fight the villain Terminus and his goons. Here they standby while Batman launches himself into the sky to stop Terminus’ missile.
The story was only OK though. Writer Peter Tomasi had this great idea where Damian challenged all of the previous Robins to prove he was the best, so he faced off against them in some pretty great scenes…but then Tomasi weighed down the story with this stupid, forgettable Terminus battle. One of the only in-cannon times that all of the Robins are together in one place, and Tomasi wastes it with some boring super-villain.
Still, fun Robin story, and that’s what’s important.
