Showing posts with label Kick-ass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kick-ass. Show all posts
Monday, April 26, 2010
Iron Man in USA Weekly
Weekend Box Office
Unfortunately, The Losers and Kick-ass failed to impress at the box office this weekend. Doesn't help that I haven't seen either of them yet.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Kick-Ass Kicks . . . Well, You Know
Kick-ass and How to Train Your Dragon were neck and neck for the number one spot in this weekend's box office, but Mark Millar's brain child pulled ahead. From Kick-ass to The Losers to Iron Man 2, the next few weeks promise to be very generous to comic book fans. Let's see if the fans will return the favor . . .
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Holy Trivia, Batman!
Nic Cage and Adam West had a Batman trivia face-off on The Tonight Show last night. I won't spoil the victory, but Cage does pull out an impressive piece of knowledge that not even I knew.
Friday, April 09, 2010
Deadpool & Ninja Unite!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Is Kick-Ass Gonna Kick Ass?
Kick-Ass, inspired by the comic book Kick-Ass, is coming soon to a theater near you, but the movie has already attracted international attention, i.e. this article from The Guardian. The interview with writer Mike Millar poses an interesting question regarding the comics-to-film phenomenon: Should comics be written with the intent of cinematic adaptation? Of course, every writer wants to establish a franchise viable for cinema and cash in accordingly, but what does this make the comic medium other than a glorified storyboard? As a comic book fan first, I take issue (no pun intended) with this mentality; consider the following excerpt from Millar's interview:
"The trouble is that the superhero movies so far – and I don't want to be unfair to them because I think generally they have been good – have been made two generations after they've been created, and in Superman's case three generations after they've been created. So if the technology had existed to make a Fantastic Four movie in 1966 it would have been amazing, because you had Kennedy and the space race and all of that. But now, really, what is the Fantastic Four?"
The implication is, cinematic adaptation asserts viability, and without it, the Fantastic Four is . . . well, nothing more than a comic book, right? The elephant in the room is, forty years later, Marvel's founding family is still worthy of at least two feature films -- whether or not they were good is relative to Hollywood's desire to produce them. These characters are still worthy of attention. Will Kick-Ass be as viable 40 years from now? No, perhaps Millar realizes, now is the time to act, lest his creation fall by the wayside of pop culture. After all, comic book movies produced in conjunction with a new, monthly comic book have always paved the road to success in both industries . . .
. . . right, Todd McFarlane? Right, Frank Miller?
"The trouble is that the superhero movies so far – and I don't want to be unfair to them because I think generally they have been good – have been made two generations after they've been created, and in Superman's case three generations after they've been created. So if the technology had existed to make a Fantastic Four movie in 1966 it would have been amazing, because you had Kennedy and the space race and all of that. But now, really, what is the Fantastic Four?"
The implication is, cinematic adaptation asserts viability, and without it, the Fantastic Four is . . . well, nothing more than a comic book, right? The elephant in the room is, forty years later, Marvel's founding family is still worthy of at least two feature films -- whether or not they were good is relative to Hollywood's desire to produce them. These characters are still worthy of attention. Will Kick-Ass be as viable 40 years from now? No, perhaps Millar realizes, now is the time to act, lest his creation fall by the wayside of pop culture. After all, comic book movies produced in conjunction with a new, monthly comic book have always paved the road to success in both industries . . .
. . . right, Todd McFarlane? Right, Frank Miller?
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Kick-ass #1
Kick-ass #1, April 2008, Marvel Comics
writer: Mark Millar
penciller: John Romita, Jr.
inker: Tom Palmer
colorist: Dean White
letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
cover inks: Klaus Janson
editor: John Barber
Blogger's note: Entry for Sunday, March 2, 2008.
Kick-ass #1. Let's talk about it.
Kick-ass #1 is the elephant in the room. Any superhero fanboy (like me) that doesn't admit to daydreaming about becoming a superhero himself is a liar. Maybe he doesn't go so far as to design his own costume and plot his criminal surveillance (like me), but the modern superhero genre was founded on the premise of people becoming more than they really are, from training one's body and mind to its pinnacle to evolving thanks to a radioactive spider bite. (That the genre began with not a man but an alien disguised as a human is the ultimate irony, as if the superhero concept actually began in reverse to its true social significance.) To couple these fantastic narratives with the vivid imagery characteristic of comic books is escapism in its most perfect form, for while comics aren't as perpetual as film, they still drop the audience into the middle of the action, allowing for that space between panels to inspire more adventure and a sense of time and perspective, if the reader so chooses. Who could read a comic book and not want to fly alongside the Human Torch, or explore Earth's underbelly with Hellboy, or leap rooftop to rooftop with Shadowhawk?
So Kick-ass makes it happen. Just as Hamlet adopted the "play within a play" motif, or Seinfeld boasted "a show about nothing in a show about nothing" subplot, so too Kick-ass envisions an escapist fantasy within an escapist fantasy. Dave Lizewski insists that he's a regular high school -- he likes Scrubs and the Goo Goo Dolls, he fantasizes about his moderately attractive but irresistibly dominating biology teacher, and he is an old child raised by a single, hard-working father, since his mother died of an aneurysm. He and his friends like comics, too, and they swear like sailors. So, toss all of these incredibly mundane, relatively commonplace elements into the blender that is the adolescent mind via Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr., and we get a kid that buys a wet suit and walks on rooftops.
So where does the "kick ass" part come in? How 'bout when our young hero finally decides to engage the enemy, who is, in this case, some kids spraypainting the side of a building. For a few panels, I actually thought Lizewski was going to pull it off, that his self-fueled training and high protein diet would result in the skills necessary to take down three seemingly harmless punks. The knife to his gut, and the hit-and-run driver that smacked his already bloody frame across the street, quickly brought me back down to Earth. We already know that Dave will survive these injuries and experience further adventures, since this issue begins with a grim look into his crimefighting future, but these final seven pages do more harm to this series' title character than some superheroes experience in years' worth of stories.
For which I'm a little grateful, in case some kid picked up this book because of its eye-catching name and almost perceived it as a how-to guide for adolescent vigilantism.
So, yes, Millar tells an incredible story, though with a tagline like the one on this issue's cover, he has a little bit more work to do: "The Greatest Superhero Book of All Time is Finally Here!" John Romita, Jr., fresh from his stint on World War Hulk, is in incredible form, and Tom Palmer's inks capture Romita's characteristic cross-hatching, depth, and detail just as capably as longtime collaborator Klaus Janson. (Romita is obviously at his best when he shares a creative investment in the series, i.e. The Gray Area.) Heck, Romita has made his mark on almost all of Marvel's superhero stable, so it makes sense that he finally draws us, the fans, projected into the form of this Dave Lizewski kid. I couldn't help but notice Dean White's colors, too -- his work has a watercolor quality to it, creating a dreamy, almost filtered essence to every page. The hues are realistic and rich, yet also ethereal, as if this is the escapist fantasy we've all been having all along.
Well, except for the part where Kick-ass gets his ass kicked. At the end of my superhero fantasy I make out with the chick from church camp and get home in time for dinner. That wouldn't make much a comic, though, would it? Besides, without Millar's twist of the real world ramifications of superhero vigilantism, Kick-ass #1 would just be a comic we've all seen before anyway. In our own mind's eye.
C'mon . . . you know it's true!
writer: Mark Millar
penciller: John Romita, Jr.
inker: Tom Palmer
colorist: Dean White
letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
cover inks: Klaus Janson
editor: John Barber
Blogger's note: Entry for Sunday, March 2, 2008.
Kick-ass #1. Let's talk about it.
Kick-ass #1 is the elephant in the room. Any superhero fanboy (like me) that doesn't admit to daydreaming about becoming a superhero himself is a liar. Maybe he doesn't go so far as to design his own costume and plot his criminal surveillance (like me), but the modern superhero genre was founded on the premise of people becoming more than they really are, from training one's body and mind to its pinnacle to evolving thanks to a radioactive spider bite. (That the genre began with not a man but an alien disguised as a human is the ultimate irony, as if the superhero concept actually began in reverse to its true social significance.) To couple these fantastic narratives with the vivid imagery characteristic of comic books is escapism in its most perfect form, for while comics aren't as perpetual as film, they still drop the audience into the middle of the action, allowing for that space between panels to inspire more adventure and a sense of time and perspective, if the reader so chooses. Who could read a comic book and not want to fly alongside the Human Torch, or explore Earth's underbelly with Hellboy, or leap rooftop to rooftop with Shadowhawk?
So Kick-ass makes it happen. Just as Hamlet adopted the "play within a play" motif, or Seinfeld boasted "a show about nothing in a show about nothing" subplot, so too Kick-ass envisions an escapist fantasy within an escapist fantasy. Dave Lizewski insists that he's a regular high school -- he likes Scrubs and the Goo Goo Dolls, he fantasizes about his moderately attractive but irresistibly dominating biology teacher, and he is an old child raised by a single, hard-working father, since his mother died of an aneurysm. He and his friends like comics, too, and they swear like sailors. So, toss all of these incredibly mundane, relatively commonplace elements into the blender that is the adolescent mind via Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr., and we get a kid that buys a wet suit and walks on rooftops.
So where does the "kick ass" part come in? How 'bout when our young hero finally decides to engage the enemy, who is, in this case, some kids spraypainting the side of a building. For a few panels, I actually thought Lizewski was going to pull it off, that his self-fueled training and high protein diet would result in the skills necessary to take down three seemingly harmless punks. The knife to his gut, and the hit-and-run driver that smacked his already bloody frame across the street, quickly brought me back down to Earth. We already know that Dave will survive these injuries and experience further adventures, since this issue begins with a grim look into his crimefighting future, but these final seven pages do more harm to this series' title character than some superheroes experience in years' worth of stories.
For which I'm a little grateful, in case some kid picked up this book because of its eye-catching name and almost perceived it as a how-to guide for adolescent vigilantism.
So, yes, Millar tells an incredible story, though with a tagline like the one on this issue's cover, he has a little bit more work to do: "The Greatest Superhero Book of All Time is Finally Here!" John Romita, Jr., fresh from his stint on World War Hulk, is in incredible form, and Tom Palmer's inks capture Romita's characteristic cross-hatching, depth, and detail just as capably as longtime collaborator Klaus Janson. (Romita is obviously at his best when he shares a creative investment in the series, i.e. The Gray Area.) Heck, Romita has made his mark on almost all of Marvel's superhero stable, so it makes sense that he finally draws us, the fans, projected into the form of this Dave Lizewski kid. I couldn't help but notice Dean White's colors, too -- his work has a watercolor quality to it, creating a dreamy, almost filtered essence to every page. The hues are realistic and rich, yet also ethereal, as if this is the escapist fantasy we've all been having all along.
Well, except for the part where Kick-ass gets his ass kicked. At the end of my superhero fantasy I make out with the chick from church camp and get home in time for dinner. That wouldn't make much a comic, though, would it? Besides, without Millar's twist of the real world ramifications of superhero vigilantism, Kick-ass #1 would just be a comic we've all seen before anyway. In our own mind's eye.
C'mon . . . you know it's true!
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