Tag Archives: comic books

Comic Book Question 10

by Revis Edgewater

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so I’m just going to hop right back into it with this:

If you could make a movie with any character, from any comic book company, that hasn’t already appeared on film, who would it be?

I thought about Aztek, the character from my DC “creative control” post, but I remember seeing something about him appearing in a couple of episodes of the Justice League cartoon. I also thought about picking Chamber, who I used in my Marvel “creative control” post, but I wanted to pick someone I hadn’t picked before. Then, I tried to think about a character that hadn’t been used yet in any movies or TV shows, but there is an overabundance of comic book shows and movies these days. That list is incredibly small. Still, I was able to come up with an answer:

Backlash

Backlash #1

Originally created by WildStorm and published under the Image banner, Backlash bounced around between Team 7 and StormWatch until he landed his own series. I didn’t discover him until he was already on his own, so everything I know about his story before then comes from Wikipedia.

His basic backstory is this: he’s 3000 years old. He was born in Atlantis to a human mother and a father who’s of an alien race called the Kherubim. Because of his long life, he only remembers bits and pieces of his past.

His alien heritage, along with a mutanigenic compound called GenFactor, have given him a number of abilities, including generating psionic whips, turning into mist, virtual immortality, and superhuman agility.

I actually like Backlash better, but there is a reason I chose Aztek instead of him (because DC now owns Backlash, and all the other WildStorm characters) for that post a while back. I’d want to be the one to write the Aztek story. I wouldn’t want to be the one to write the Backlash story. I’d want Brett Booth to write a new Backlash series, or in this case, movie.

One of the biggest reasons I even gave the comic a shot was because of the amazing artwork of Brett Booth. Not only is he credited as the co-creator of the character, but he also helped write or draw (sometimes both) all 32 issues of Backlash’s series, along with its follow-up WildCore. Nobody knows the character better than him. So, if I was given the chance to make a Backlash movie, the first thing I’d do is hire Brett Booth to write the story.

What about you? Is there a character out there who hasn’t been on screen yet that you’d like to make a movie about?

Comic Book Question 9

by Revis Edgewater

IF YOU COULD BE GIVEN COMPLETE CREATIVE CONTROL OF ANY DC CHARACTER, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE?

The first post I did in this series had almost this exact same question. The only difference is this time it’s about DC instead of Marvel. Much like the last one, it would be very easy to answer this with my favorite DC character, in this case Nightwing, but I don’t like to do things the easy way. I also wouldn’t like having to deal with all of the Batman and Titans writers who would be bugging me every time they wanted to use him in a story. So, I’m going a different way.

Aztek: The Ultimate Man

Aztek #1 by DC Comics

I’m guessing most of you out there have never heard of Aztek. It’s understandable. The above series was only 10 issues before it ended, and Aztek got folded over into the JLA. He had sporadic appearances in the JLA books until he was killed saving the world from the threat he was specifically trained to prevent. Then, Aztek was forgotten for a while until Rebirth, when a new female Aztek was introduced, used in one storyline, and was forgotten again.

Now, I haven’t read anything with the new Aztek in it, so I don’t know how good, or bad, she is. I have read the original’s 10 issue run. I’ve got to say that, when it first came out, I really liked it, so when I saw the digital version on sale on Amazon awhile back for only a couple bucks, I bought it immediately. Then I reread it…

…

I guess underwhelmed is the best way to describe how I felt after reading it the second time. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t nearly as good as I remember it being. There were too many teamups with other characters. Half of the 10 issues involved teamups with Justice League members (first Green Lantern, a two issue story with Batman, then Superman, and the final issue with the entire JLA). Granted, those teamups were necessary due to the overall story arc of the series, but I still didn’t like it. I thought he should’ve stood on his own before getting thrown in with others.

Plus (sorry if I’m spoiling this for anyone), except for the villains from his teamup partners, they killed off every bad person he fought. All of the villains that were made up specifically for this story (including the one that I thought would be a good fit to be Aztek’s main archenemy) ended up dead. Before you ask: no, he didn’t cause any of their deaths. The deaths were either the result of an accident or they were killed by other bad people.

Overall, I still like the character concept, I just didn’t like how they handled the story, and if I was ever given the chance, I already have ideas on where I would start to take it.

What about you? Which DC character would you pick?

Comic Book Question 1

by Revis Edgewater

A couple of guys at work are into comic books, like I am, and one of the things we do to pass the time is ask each other questions about them. Sometimes it’s picking two characters and debating who would win in a fight between them. Sometimes it’s picking characters we’d like to form a superteam with. Other times, it’s random off-the-wall stuff. I think I’ll save that last category for next week and start with something a little more normal for this first question.

IF YOU COULD BE GIVEN COMPLETE CREATIVE CONTROL OF ANY MARVEL CHARACTER, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE?

It would be very easy to answer this with my favorite Marvel character, Daredevil, but that’s not who I would choose. There are other characters that I’ve read a lot of over the years that would be easy to answer with: Wolverine (the original), Deadpool, and Gambit, to name a few. I wouldn’t choose them either.

The character I would pick is Chamber.

I know a lot of you out there probably aren’t familiar with him. Jonothan Starsmore is a mutant who first appeared in Generation X, later joined the X-Men, Weapon X, and the New Warriors at various times. He had his own miniseries at one point, as well.

Cover of Chamber #1 by Marvel Comics

When he was first introduced, and at other times throughout his publication history, it was hinted that Chamber would eventually become one of the most powerful mutants on the planet. Over the years, however, that never happened. In fact, he’s been used less and less as time has gone on. The last I saw of him, he did a storyline with the New Mutants around 4 or 5 years ago that lasted probably 6 issues.

If I was ever given the opportunity to do so, I would love to do a story where Chamber finally reaches his potential. A story where he becomes one of the heavy hitters in the X-Men universe.

Although, at this point, I’d just be happy if they started using him more.

A New Favorite

by Revis Edgewater

I was looking around Marvel Unlimited a while back when I found a limited series called Night of the Living Deadpool. Zombies + Deadpool? Absolutely. I was all over it.

The series was pretty good. Not the greatest, but it was an entertaining read. It did well enough to spawn a sequel series called Return of the Living Deadpool. Overall, it was pretty good too. There was, however, one moment of pure brilliance.

From Return of the Living Deadpool.

“Post-chimichanga toilet rodeo”. That is my new favorite Deadpool-ism.

The Last Ronin

by Revis Edgewater

Over the past couple months, my Hoopla app has been flooding my Recommended list with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles story called The Last Ronin. Why? I have no idea. I’ve never read a Ninja Turtles comic before. My knowledge of the TMNT lore is the basic plots of the 3 live action movies from the early 90s and some of the villains from the original 80s cartoon: Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady (although I have no clue which is the rhino and which is the warthog), Baxter Stockman, and the brain who lived in the robot’s stomach whose name I can’t remember.

The first few times the issues of this story showed up on the list, I ignored them. Then, when they continued to stay on the list, I clicked on the first issue to read the synopsis: In a future NYC far different than the one we know today, a lone Turtle goes on a seemingly hopeless mission to obtain justice for his fallen family and friends.

It sounded like a story that had potential, but I still wasn’t sold. Not at first, anyway. Then I saw that Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the two men who originally created the Ninja Turtles, had helped write the story and I thought that if anyone could write a good Turtles story it should be those two. Still, I wasn’t going to assume that it would be good, so I only borrowed the first issue instead of all five.

The first issue does a very good job of keeping you interested, mainly because it makes you wonder which of the four Turtles was the one who survived. Instead of an eye mask that is one of the normal colors you’d expect, this Turtle wore one that was dark gray, bordering on black. Also, the Turtle used each of the four weapons at least once before the identity is finally revealed in the last panel of the issue.

I decided to go ahead and finish the series. For the most part, the rest of the story is pretty formulaic. There were flashback sequences telling how the other three Turtles (and some of their friends) died and those were mixed in with the continuing story of the survivor’s quest for vengeance.

Overall, it wasn’t a bad story. It just wasn’t as good as the first issue made me think it would be. Definitely worth a read if you’ve got some time to kill.

X of Swords

by Revis Edgewater

My Marvel Unlimited reading is still going strong. I’ve noticed, however, that about half of the current titles I read are X-Men comics. The reason I noticed this is because, for at least the time being, I’ve stopped reading them.

The reason I’ve stopped reading them is because they’re doing a big crossover story that involves all of them called X of Swords. To put it mildly, I’m not a fan of this story. I’ve debated on whether or not to go into detail about what I don’t like about it, but I think I’ll just generalize on the off chance that I’ll spoil it for someone.

Basically, the whole story is the Marvel version of Mortal Kombat. The overall premise is that a certain number of mutants needs to defeat a certain number of bad guys in one-on-one sword fights otherwise the bad guys will destroy Earth. Sure, there’s other little side stories, but that is the main element.

Now, I might be able to deal with a plot that lame if it was a clear, concise story. It’s not. There’s too many characters spaced out between too many different titles. Even if you read them in order, it still seems jumbled and jumps around.

I hope this story ends soon. I’d like to go back to reading good X-Men material.

Oh No. They Died Again.

by Revis Edgewater

The first year that I did NanoPoblano, one thing that was a topic of a number of those posts were the comics I was reading with my Marvel Unlimited subscription. I still have my subscription, but this time I also have a complaint. Not about the service. I’ve never had a problem with the that. No, my complaint is about something they do in the stories.

Now, I’m not picking on Marvel here. They’re certainly not the only ones guilty of doing the thing I’m complaining about. I’ve seen it done in every form of storytelling: movies, television, comics, and novels. In fact, I mentioned it in a post that I wrote a few weeks ago. “What is it?” you ask without clicking on the link.

The answer is this: bringing characters back from the dead.

In the past few years of reading things with my Marvel Unlimited subscription, I’ve seen this done a number of times. The more I see it, the more it annoys me. And it seems to annoy me more when done in comics, especially when it’s done with a major character. The death of Superman? Of Wolverine? Was there anyone on Earth who thought either of those would stick when those stories came out?

The newest issue of Uncanny X-Men to upload to Marvel Unlimited had the death of a character in it. Two days later, I saw an article on Marvel’s website about the relaunch of one of their titles. The character who had died in the issue I just read was going to be resurrected and be in this relaunch.

Really?

Granted, six months had passed between the time the issue I read was published and it was uploaded to Marvel Unlimited, but still. It’s getting ridiculous. Even the characters themselves are making light of it. I’ve seen a couple of times when someone says to a resurrected character, “Weren’t you dead?” and they’d reply, “It’s not the first time I’ve died,” or “People don’t stay dead around here.”

A character dying should be a big thing. It’s not. They’ve turned it into a gimmick and it’s irritating the heck out of me. It’s hard for me to stay invested in a story when there’s no consequences. “Oh no! Villain X is about to kill Hero Y with his latest weapon! What will he do?

“Oh, yeah. It doesn’t matter. Even if Villain X kills Hero Y they’re just going to bring him back in a few months anyway…”

Maybe I did it in my pre-blog years, but I don’t remember ever bringing any of my characters back from the dead. I’ve taken a few of my dead characters and made them undead, but I don’t recall ever bringing any back to life. Not in any of my serious stories anyway. I think I did it once or twice in my nonsensical ones. Now, there have been a few times when I’ve been tempted to do it, but I have no plans for it any time soon.

On the off chance that I do decide to bring one back someday, it won’t be for a gimmick. No, the only way I’d do it is if doing so would not only make sense in the story, but would also enhance the story.

So far, none of the Marvel resurrections I’ve read recently have met those two criteria.