Fantasticar

USA Today has released the first image of the Fantasticar for next year’s Fantastic Four sequel. The picture doesn’t give you a great look at the vehicle, but I like what I see. I’ve always been a huge fan of speculative technology in comic books. Fantastic Four comics are filled with wonderful gadgets and technology. Of all the FF gadgets, though, the Fantasticar is king, and I’m really happy to see that a real effort has been made in coming up with a design that has the “heart” of the comic vehicle while being translated and updated for film.

H.E.R.B.I.E

(Some might argue that H.e.r.b.i.e. is really the king of FF gadgets, not the Fantasticar, but that is a debate for another time.)

The Original Fantasti-car

In the article Avi Arad (the film’s producer) says “There aren’t many vehicles that play a big part in the (comic) books. So you have to get it right. We wanted it to look futuristic, but plausible. For fans, the car can be as important as the characters.”

That’s the right attitude for tech-nerds like me. Technology, and especially vehicles, can almost become another character in the story if done well. I don’t expect that the Fantasticar is going to be as critical a component as the Enterprise D was on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the design gives me a good reason to look forward to the new movie.

However, my favorite piece of comic book speculative technology is Iron Man’s armor. I really, really hope the folks making that movie put a lot of time and effort into designing the armor. I remain cautiously optimistic that we’ll see a really cool armor design and not some cheap CGI enhanced Power Rangers costume.

Ok, I just read Civil War #5.

Civil War #5

If you haven’t read it but plan to then you might want to stop reading. I’m going to try to avoid any spoilers, but I can’t guarantee it. (When I’m done writing this, I’ll probably be too lazy to go back and edit the spoiler alert, but it’s just that kind of unknown that makes these posts so exciting to read.)

First I want to gripe about the ads. It should be common courtesy to the fans that every comic book has more pages of actual, you know, STORY than ads. Marvel appears to have forgotten this little bit of etiquette. Fix this Marvel.

But I didn’t come here to talk about the ads. I came here to talk about the draft. The super hero draft, that is. When Civil War was first announced I really liked the idea. I saw a lot of potential in the story. But like many other readers, I’m not thrilled with the execution so far. The biggest problem is the characterizations. I recognize the names and the costumes, but nobody is acting like their histories suggest that they would. It is hard to accept all of these former best friend good guys turning on each other so quickly. As soon as the super hero registration act is passed into law, the different super heroes start punching each other in the head. So much of it doesn’t feel right. I’ve spent some time trying to figure out the individual motivations, and I tried to justify it by saying people often don’t act rationally in the face of conflict. But these are people who fight cosmic battles to save the Universe every other Tuesday. They can handle the stress.

So my question is should I have faith in Marvel? There are still two issues left to go. Will everything make perfect sense at the end? Will I look back and say that taken as a whole it is a great story? I have my doubts. So much of the story seems to be change and shock for the sake of change and shock and shoehorning a story around it.

I’m going to stick it out until the end, and I hope to write a piece on how great the story turned out to be. But if it doesn’t work out, Marvel will have a real mess to clean up, but I guess that’s the case in any war, secret or otherwise.

I still hold to my claim that world peace can be achieved through the Batusi (the Batman Dance). When I first uncovered that nugget of goodness I had a hard time believing it. After all, that’s a pretty tall order for a go-go dance, even one from the 60’s. But I never suspected that I had merely found the tip of the iceberg.

You see, Batman is the answer to more than world peace. In my myopic view I thought only about us humans (and meta-humans). I am ashamed to say that I didn’t give any thought to our animal friends who share this big blue marble we call Earth. But no longer, for the animals have spoken.

Actually, they sang.

Yes, my friends, it turns out that a dolphin has learned to sing the Batman theme song. (Read about it here.) Not only can Batman unite the people of the Earth, he can unite the mammals of the Earth. I have no doubt that Batman can get us together with the rest of the vertebrates in short order. The invertebrates on the other hand… I’m not sure if even Batman can help us there. Those dadgum invertebrates can be impossible.

But let’s keep the faith.

Who are you?

I mean, who are you as a comic book reader? This column can help you figure that out. Even if you aren’t a comic reader yourself, this column can help you understand those of us who are. Note that I’m not talking about types of collectors (that’s a whole other column).

What I’m presenting here aren’t hard and fast categories either. Rather, I’m presenting axes in a multidimensional hyper-space, and we all exist within this continuum. I’m avoiding distinct separate categories because all of us are different and we need flexibility to define ourselves. So each of us comic readers falls partly into different groups. You probably lie a little more in some categories, and a little less in others. (And perhaps more in some than you might like to admit.) With that, I give you…

The Types:

The Generalist (G): The generalist loves the comic book medium. He/she reads anything he/she enjoys from super-hero to western to romance from any publisher in any format. The generalist loves discovering new titles and new genres.

The Super-Hero Only (SHO): The SHO loves super-hero stories. She/he reads comics to read super-hero stories. The SHO is more interested in the super-hero genre than the comic book medium. She/he tends towards the Big Two (Marvel and DC) but not exclusively.

The Independent Only (IO): The IO is different and proud of it. He/She doesn’t read anything from the Big Two because the stories published by Marvel and DC are too mainstream. The IO only likes books that would be classified as “alternative” by most people. The IO tends to be a bit snobbish.

The Creator Follower (CF): The CF is a fan of a creator (or possibly a creative team). The CF has her/his favorite writer or artist and he/she buys any books touched by that creator. Publisher, genre and format are irrelevant.

The Everything Is Crap But I Still Read It All Anyway (EICBISRIAA): The EICBISRIAA lives to complain. She/he is only happy when complaining about how awful a comic book character, publisher, creator, format or any other thing is. And yet, the EICBISRIAA buys and reads a large number of books every week. The EICBISRIAA respects only her/his own opinion and anyone who disagrees with her/him is a “moron” or a “Ricky Retardo”.

I think I’m 20% G, 50% SHO, 5% IO, 20% CF, and 5% EICBISRIAA.

How about you? Let me know where you fall in the comic reader’s type continuum.

What do you think of when you hear the name “Moon Knight”?

Moon Knight

If you’re a fan of the character you probably have your own personal favorite iconic image of him. But even if you are not familiar with Moon Knight, the name probably still evokes intriguing images in your mind’s eye. That’s because Moon Knight is a great super hero name. A great name makes it easier to create a great character. Moon Knight also has a great costume.

Moon Knight has a complex origin and back story (Marvel has a great bio for Moon Knight here ). A quick synopsis: Marc Spector, former CIA operative turned mercenary with a checkered history, dies at the foot of a statue of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon. Khonshu resurrects Spector, who then takes the name Moon Knight to serve as Khonshu’s agent of vengeance. That’s probably too quick of a bio, but you get the gist.

But even with a great name, a cool costume, and an intriguing origin, Moon Knight is not an A-List hero. I think the current creative team of Charlie Huston, David Finch, Danny Miki, and Frank D’Armata are doing a great job and have Moon Knight well on his way to improving his stature as a comic book hero. But to take him over the line, they and any creative teams that come after them should follow these five simple rules.

1. Do not try to make Moon Knight into Batman. Get rid of his bat-cave knockoff and the mansion that sits on top of it. Get rid of his bat-copter knockoff. Get rid of his European manservant. I don’t mind Frenchie as a character; I just don’t want to think of him as the poor man’s Alfred. Frenchie can be a great supporting character, and as far as I know Batman doesn’t hang out with any legless gay Frenchmen.

2. Don’t draw his hood with that extra long pointy thing hanging down in the middle. Overall, I like the way Finch draws Moon Knight in the new series, but that limp hood-point dangling over his nose has got to get trimmed back.

3. Play up the priest of Khonshu angle. The cool name and the cool costume should help get Moon Knight noticed, but WHO he is as a character is what will push him up into the big leagues. Moon Knight has a great origin and plenty of depth (which is why it is so frustrating to see him being saddled with all the Batman character devices). He is the Priest of Khonshu, carrying out his god’s mission of vengeance. That provides for some very interesting motivation.

4. Give him a purpose. He’s established as the Priest of Khonshu, dealing out vengeance in his god’s name. Do something more than have him punch street thugs in the head. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for stories about street thugs getting punched in the head, but there are plenty of costumed vigilantes running around already taking care of that. Moon Knight deserves something more. He should stick to KICKING street thugs in the head. I kid. He needs a purpose other than fighting crime.

5. He’s crazy… use that. Seriously, he’s a mental case. He has multiple personality disorder and he believes that the Egyptian god of the moon resurrected him so that he could serve as said god’s agent of vengeance. Those kinds of issues provide a fertile ground for character development and exploration. Take advantage of it.

So there you have it.
The recipe for getting Moon Knight the respect he deserves is right here. Tell a friend. Tell two friends. And pick up a copy of Moon Knight today.

P.S. On the outside possibility that you disagree with me… well, that’s what the comments are for.

Books of Doom #1

I’ve been asked to make some more recommendations, and I’m happy to do so. Today’s recommendation is Books of Doom, written by Ed Brubaker, illustrated by Pablo Raimondi with covers by Paolo Rivera and published by Marvel. Books of Doom was originally released as a six issue mini-series, and has also been released in collected hardcover. The trade paperback collection of the story can be pre-ordered now and should be available on store shelves in a couple months.

This is the Doctor Doom story I had been waiting for. Doctor Doom has long been my favorite super villain. But that is based on who he is more than on the stories I’ve read with him in them. Doom is such a larger than life character that it is hard to use him correctly (in my opinion). This is the leader of a sovereign nation after all. Doom has his own ambassador to the United Nations for crying out loud. This is not your average super villain. He should not be out in the streets of New York trading punches with some costumed hero. Doom demands a worthy story.

Books of Doom #6

And that’s what you get with Books of Doom. Books of Doom tells the story of how Doctor Doom became who he is. The story covers the years from the earliest moments of his life to his taking control of the Latverian government. It is one of the greatest origin stories I’ve ever read. Ed Brubaker is one of the best writers in the business. His narrative style is excellent and he makes the character of Doctor Doom accessible. I’ve always liked the scientific genius side of Doctor Doom, but I’ve never been a big fan of the mystical sorcerer side. Brubaker successfully melds both aspects of Doom’s origin, which is no small feat. He also does an exceptional job of growing the character through the series. You have sympathy for the small child born into a harsh life, and watch as the combination of his difficult life and his amazing talents twist him into the villainous dictator that he finally becomes.

Page of Doom

I really wish George Lucas had let Ed Brubaker write the Star Wars prequel scripts. Brubaker clearly knows how to tell the origin of a great villain. (Lucas clearly doesn’t.) I highly recommend pre-ordering a copy of the TPB. If you just can’t wait, you can probably pick up the entire mini-series off of eBay. And if you really want to trust my recommendation (and who wouldn’t?) go out and pick up a copy of the premier hardcover edition.