Tag Archives: comics

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?

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.

Looking Back: Moon Knight 

by Revis Edgewater

This post gets to be both a Looking Back post and a Marvel Unlimited post. The reason it’s not just a Marvel Unlimited post is that, like my previous Looking Back posts, I now view Moon Knight in a whole new light than I did before I started reading his books on Marvel Unlimited. The other comics I’ve reviewed for Marvel Unlimited are books I still have the same opinion on.

Back then: Moon Knight was cool superhero character.

Now: Why the hell did I ever like this guy?

To be honest, I didn’t ever actually read a Moon Knight comic until a year or so ago. For some reason, before then, I just really liked the character. I don’t know why. I just did. All I really knew about Moon Knight was his origin story.

Marc Spector was a mercenary hired by archaeologists in Egypt to guard their expedition. He was betrayed by his partner Bushman who shot him and left him for dead in one of the dig sites. That particular dig site was actually a temple of the Egyptian moon god, Khonshu. Khonshu resurrected Spector to be his champion on Earth.

Sounds like a cool story so far, right? I certainly thought so. That origin story is all I based my Moon Knight fandom on. A couple of years ago, when I first started at my job, there were other comic book guys there and we would talk about the characters we liked and those we didn’t. They began telling me bits and pieces of what happened after the origin story.

They basically turned him into a Batman wannabe.

Batman’s costume was all black. Moon Knight’s  was all white. Batman had Batarangs shaped like bats. Moon Knight’s were shaped like crescent moons. The Batplane was shaped like a bat. Moon Knight’s Mooncopter was shaped like, you guessed it, a crescent moon. Batman had a European butler, Alfred. Moon Knight had a European pilot, Frenchie.

In order to try to distance him from Batman, Marvel gave him a character trait that was supposed to make them different. They gave Moon Knight Dissociative Identity Disorder, or in other words, multiple personalities. One was Steven Grant, millionaire. He had money saved up from all of his mercenary gigs that allowed him to do this. Another was Jake Lockley, a cab driver, who gathered information on the street.

Hmmm…..

A millionaire persona and someone who gathers information from the streets. Why does that sound familiar? Oh yeah, that’s also something Batman does as Bruce Wayne (millionaire) and Matches Malone (street information).

The only difference is, as far as I know, Bruce never had a problem with thinking these were separate identities. Well, that, plus Khonshu was always a voice in Moon Knight’s head.

Now, about a year ago, I stumbled across the Brian Michael Bendis run on Moon Knight from 2011-2012 at the library. In it, Moon Knight had ditched the above personalities and moved to Hollywood to work on a TV show based on his mercenary adventures. Instead, he had the personalities of Captain America, Spider-Man, and Wolverine in his head. He hires a former S.H.I.E.L.D tech to build him gadgets that will allow him to simulate the fighting styles of the three heroes in his head. By the end of the 12 issue run, he had defeated the main bad guy of the series, Count Nefaria (a powerful Thor villain), with the help of these gadgets.

It wasn’t bad, so when I got Marvel Unlimited, I read some of the newer Moon Knight stuff. I was not a fan. The first few issues weren’t bad. It was a continuous story about Moon Knight falling out of Khonshu’s favor and the moon god choosing a new champion. Not a horrible story, but not great. Also, they were now saying that he didn’t have DID. It was brain damage from Khonshu sharing space in his head.

After that, it all went downhill. It was nothing but a bunch of one-shot comics that were just complete crap. One story had him fighting a guy who abused dogs until they went out and stole valuable merchandise for him (No, I’m not making that up). Another had him fighting a guy that could capture ghosts in a special glove that he wore.

I haven’t read any of the current volume of Moon Knight, but from what I’ve heard, it starts off with him waking up in a psychiatric hospital thinking that his entire life as Moon Knight was just a figment of his imagination. Considering he has been a part of at least a couple big crossover events, I don’t see the whole “your Moon Knight adventures are all in your head” thing sticking.

If it were up to me, I’d get him away from all the mental health problems and get him back to mythology side of things that started the character. I actually have a story worked up that would actually usher this in. Now, I understand that nobody at Marvel will ever read this here blog, but it would be cool if I could at least pitch this idea to them. More than likely, I’d be shot down, but I could at least say I tried.

Someday, I may come back and read this new volume of Moon Knight to see if they made him better, but I don’t see that happening any time soon. I’ve got other things I’d rather read now.