Category: Comics

Avengers

My Favorite Superhero Casting Jobs (so far)

On By Charlie BrooksIn Comics, FilmLeave a comment

Superhero movies vary from extremely faithful adaptations to the realm of, “Why bother calling that giant cloud Galactus in the first place?” Similarly, casting our favorite superheroes has been a grab-bag of terrible choices, ideas that seemed bad originally but turned into pleasant surprises, and actors that so perfectly fit into their roles that it’s hard to imagine anybody else taking their place.

The list below deals with the latter, focusing on my ten favorite casting choices in superhero movies. The actors who made this list not only turned in great performances, but in my opinion helped define the way people think about their iconic characters. That means that I did leave out some great performances, such as Adam West’s Batman or Heath Ledger’s Joker, because those characters have so many different interpretations that it’s hard to embrace just one.

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My Favorite Panels: An Alternate Origin for Wonder Woman

On By Charlie BrooksIn Comics, My Favorite PanelsLeave a comment

Wonder Woman turns 70 this year, and as a comic book icon she has received many retellings of her origin over the years. Despite its many iterations, that origin largely follows certain constants (except, oddly, in her blockbuster movie): Themiscyra holds a contest to choose a champion to visit the outside world, Princess Diana dons a disguise to enter the competition after her mother has forbidden it, she wins and becomes the ambassador of her people. The details change, but the general theme stays the same. But of all the different retellings of this origin, one of my favorites comes from Sensation Comics featuring Wonder Woman #4.

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Red Sonja

My Favorite Panels: Sonja is Everybody’s Type

On By Charlie BrooksIn Comics, My Favorite Panels1 Comment

Red Sonja is one of my favorite sword and sorcery characters. Her adventures have a similar feel to Conan the Barbarian’s, but I feel like she has more wit and wile as a character. Part of that comes from her status as a woman in a genre that has a lot of inherent misogyny. In the Robert E. Howard motif, women can be victims or rewards for dashing heroes, but very rarely get to be heroic themselves.

However, there has traditionally been a major problem with Red Sonja, and it is unfortunately tied to her origin story.

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All Star Superman

My Favorite Panels: Lex’s Realization

On By Charlie BrooksIn Comics, My Favorite PanelsLeave a comment

Comics are a visual medium, and one panel can leave an impression that lasts a lifetime. With that in mind, I thought I would run through some of my favorite comic book panels of all time.

I begin the journey with one of my favorite comics ever, All Star Superman. I think it’s the best Superman story ever written, and it may be one of the best comics ever. Any given page of this 12-issue series is a work of art, but my favorite panel is rather understated.

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Blacksad Rose

My Favorite Comics, sans Superheroes

On By Charlie BrooksIn ComicsLeave a comment

I spend a lot of time ranting about superhero comics, especially the ones from Marvel and DC. Mainstream comics usually hold the most intrigue for me. They not only serve as a rare example of serial fiction that has lasted for decades on end, but also provide a good cultural snapshot of American society. Characters like Captain America and Wonder Woman are as ingrained in our popular consciousness as folklore legends like Paul Bunyan.

When it comes to sheer quality of storytelling in comics, though, superhero comics usually aren’t the way to go. Not that they are inherently inferior or anything, but they are so continuity-laden, riddled with conflicting interpretations, and driven by corporate agendas that the very best storytelling in comics tends to be divorced from that genre. Luckily, comics are a versatile medium with lots to offer beyond flights and tights. Here’s a look at some of my favorite non-superhero comics. I don’t mention them a lot in rants, but that’s largely because they’re so good that I don’t often have anything to say but, “This is awesome.”

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Superman's Secret Identity

Superman’s Secret Identity

On By Charlie BrooksIn ComicsLeave a comment

Clark Kent’s glasses are both the most iconic and most ridiculed superhero disguise in comic book history. The disguise has been parodied in Saturday Night Live, called out as ridiculous in The Adventures of Lois and Clark, and called “the ludicrous glasses disguise” by David Goyer, one of the writers behind Man of Steel. How far can a pair of glasses and a changed hair style really get a person?

Well, actually, pretty far.

When confronted with this question in the Silver Age, Superman writers came up with a goofy explanation involving super-hypnosis and Kryptonian glasses. They didn’t have to try that hard. There are legitimate and believable reasons that people don’t immediately recognize Clark Kent as Superman.

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The MCU’s Incredible Character Arc for the Hulk (That We Never Got to See)

On By Charlie BrooksIn Comics, Film2 Comments

The Marvel Cinematic Universe marks a remarkable cinematic achievement. Despite a few missteps, the movies accomplished some amazingly in-depth storytelling, stringing together almost two dozen films to tell the stories of dozens of different characters. And for the most part, those characters got a reasonably satisfying conclusion by the end of Avengers: Endgame.

Of course, with so many different characters, the films couldn’t present everybody’s story in a satisfying manner. For example, let’s look at the Hulk. He has one of the longest characters arcs of all the Avengers and changes more than anybody…but none of the interesting stuff happens on-screen.

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New 52

Successes from DC’s New 52

On By Charlie BrooksIn ComicsLeave a comment

In 2011, DC Comics kicked off the “New 52,” canceling all of their previous titles and rebooting their superhero universe with 52 titles in a brand new continuity. Despite an initial uptick in sales, it’s safe to call the experiment a failure, as the whole continuity got rebooted again in 2016 with “Rebirth.”

There were a lot of reasons why the New 52 failed, but it primarily boils down to a lack of consistently good writing. DC editorial tried to pick and choose from the old continuity, deciding that some things happened and some things didn’t, but never developed a consistent timeline that its creative teams could follow. Editors also heavily meddled in the direction of the books, often hamstringing talented writers. (Prime example: the excellent Gail Simone getting what should have been her dream project on Batgirl, only for the story to turn joyless and perfunctory as the character got sucked into Batman’s “Death of the Family” crossover.)

Despite its failings, the New 52 did have a few gems. Here are a few titles I found really enjoyable.

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Leap Year Menace

Green Lantern in “The Leap Year Menace!”

On By Charlie BrooksIn ComicsLeave a comment

Hal Jordan has always been one of my favorite comic book superheroes. At first it was simply because he had the coolest costume. Then I read his comics and found out that I like the character as well.

There are a lot of things that set Hal Jordan apart from the rest of the classic Silver Age superheroes, such as the fact that he’s got a female boss or the fact that his early issues dealt with racism against Inuits (yeah). But the biggest thing that sets him aside from others is that he’s an impulsive man-child. This is a guy who tries to do the right thing, but he’s hampered by the fact that he doesn’t think things through and is kind of an idiot. Perhaps because I am also a well-intentioned idiot, this resonates with me.

There seems to be a large amount of dislike for Hal around the Internet, with many people arguing that he’s boring. Like him or not, I can tell you one thing for sure: he’s not boring. Allow me to show you what I mean as we delve into the classic Silver Age Green Lantern story known as…“The Leap Year Menace!”

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