It’s been an interesting week in my personal geekdom. Wonder Woman’s mother and daughter (sorta) are back. That may or may not be a good thing.
Stana Katic of Castle was announced as the voice of DC’s other most popular female character, making it a really good year for Lois Lane in media outside of comics, a favorite (if obscure) character of mine comes back to life via Dark Horse, Fearless Defenders continues to look interesting save for the preview artwork which is a bit too cheesecake, DC comics has yet another marketing fail when it comes to women, and we’re eagerly waiting for our Hunger Games issue of Entertainment Weekly to show up in the mailbox.
But first, the geek news that could be world-shattering, Hollywood-wise. And not necessarily in a good way.
The Justice League movie.
Guillermo Del Toro is reportedly planning a Justice League Dark movie which, for those not reading the current comics, would be a project based on DC’s magical characters. Zatanna is familiar to most geeks and John Constantine already had a (not very good) movie but the other heroes would be mostly new to the big screen. Those might include Deadman, Swamp Thing, Shade the Changing Man (originally a Steve Ditko creation), The Spectre, and characters such as Black Orchid, Mindwarp, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Doctor Mist.
Del Toro seems a good choice for the darker, magical side of the DC Universe. Yet he may be putting his stamp on the traditional League as well, according to an article at The Mary Sue. A possible script popped up at 4Chan this week which seems to indicate the cast could be: Superman (Henry Cavill), Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter. That’s the traditional Big Seven. Entertainment Weekly linked a story to another rumor about the casting that seems to confirm these seven.
I’m not excited. I’m not even hopeful. I’m bummed. Why?
Warner Brothers has yet to made a great recent movie featuring anyone other than Batman. Even the Nolan-verse movies have great flaws. The less said of the recent Green Lantern the better, and rumor has it that Ryan Reynolds will be in the League movie as its Green Lantern. I’m cautiously optimistic about Man of Steel but one good film does not make a good Justice League movie.
Del Toro seems far better suited to the darker project than a movie that should be all about hope, like Justice League. Also, my eldest son said, “But, Ma, that’s the guy who directed Hellboy II! ” (He’s not a fan.)
The supposed cast. It’s the “classic” League. The problem with the classic League is it’s all white men, save for Wonder Woman. One women among six men and zero non-white males.
Before you ask, yes, when The Avengers was announced, I was similarly skeptical until Joss Whedon was announced as director. Even then, I didn’t like only one woman included among the cast. Whedon amped up Maria Hill’s role and made sure Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury had a prominent role. But I’m hoping for a more diverse cast the next time around. That DC and Warner Brothers may go this route is frustrating.
For a long time, I wasn’t a big fan of live action superhero movies. I liked the comics better. The movie that changed my mind was Iron Man, which had a better Tony Stark than in the comics. The other movies featuring the Avengers and The Avengers movie this summer changed my mind. Somewhat. It’s still incredibly hard to make a great superhero movie. The primary need for such a project seems to be a director who understands superheroes, especially their humanity.
My choice for a Justice League movie: Kathryn Bigelow.
I also hope the cast changes from the Big Seven. Martian Manhunter’s alter ego, Police Detective John Jones, could easily be played by a non-white actor. I prefer the John Stewart Green Lantern over Hal Jordan (Hal Jordan is a jerk, say my twins) but I expect Ryan Reynolds is already signed for the role. And then there’s Aquaman. What do we do with him. (Should we page James Cameron?) I have every series starring Aquaman published by DC Comics for the past 30 years. And I’m very skeptical of how well he could be integrated into a movie.
Other characters could replace the Sea King. Black Canary has a sonic scream. That worked nicely for Banshee in X-Men: First Class Shows 8 Ways to Beat the Reboot Jinx" href="https://contextly.com/redirect/?id=P6BlG34kZy&click=inbody">X-Men First Class. There’s also the powerful (if relatively unknown) female Dr. Light, Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes version), Zatanna, and Amanda Waller, who could work well as a Nick Fury-style character, possibly with an even darker edge.
I also mullishly prefer Wally West as the Flash, rather than Barry Allen, but we may be likely to get Allen with aspects of Wally West’s personality from the Justice League cartoon.
The big draw of the movie will be Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. I don’t believe the mainstream movie-going public cares what other characters are involved. So there’s room to be creative.
And to get it right.
Lois Lane is Having a Good Year On Film
She’s going to be played by Oscar-nominated actress Amy Adams in Man of Steel. It was revealed this week that her cartoon counterpart in the animated Superman: Unbound will be voiced by Stana Katic of Castle : I Can’t Quit You" href="https://contextly.com/redirect/?id=94eKvaF85B&click=inbody">Castle. Perhaps Nathan Fillion needs to watch out, lest Katic become his equal in geek cred. (Or Beckett and Castle could dress as Lois and Green Lantern one Halloween.) Matt Boomer of White Collar and Magic Mike will voice Superman.
This is a movie I’m excited to see.
However, while the animated and live-action departments seem to be making good choices about women’s roles in superhero movies, the comic book division…not so much.
The Grosse Point Blank “Psychopaths kill people for no reason, I kill people for money,” Wait, That Come Out Wrong Award:
To DC Comics marketing. College Humor bought ads that were printed on the back cover of many DC books this fall. The ads featured nerd stereotypes and, giving the benefit of the doubt, were basically making fun of people who create these stereotypes.
But something was lost in translation, as the ads mostly appear to be making fun of the stereotype, not those who create it. Worse, on the back of Batwoman #13 was an ad with “Greatest Villains of Nerd Culture” with an image of a girl with arrows named “The Imposter.”
It may be making fun of those who call geek girls “fake,” but that doesn’t come across well, if at all. That it’s on the back of Batwoman, one of the few female-lead comics from DC, is mind-boggling from a marketing standpoint. Yes, geek girls and woman being called “fake,” and women being asked frequently to prove their so-called geek cred is a thing. It happens a lot. Again, The Mary Sue had a great article by Dr. Andrea Letamendi on why it’s so harmful.
I’m sure DC marketing didn’t do this on purpose. But it’s a dumb oversight on their part.
Misty Knight in preview artwork for Fearless Defenders. I guess they want to make sure we know she’s a woman.
Honorable runner-up in marketing fail goes to Marvel, for Fearless Defenders, a comic I’m anticipating with high hopes.
Yay for having Phil Jimenez, a former Wonder Woman creator, revamp Marvel’s version of the Greek mythic character, Hippolyta of the Amazons. You can view his redesign below.
Boo! for the preview artwork that, well, is the kind of artwork that would cause a lot of women unfamiliar to comics to flip through and roll their eyes.
Yes, we know Misty Knight is a woman. We don’t need her twist her body, possibly breaking several vertebrae so we can see her backside and breasts.
Marvel currently features incredible and n0n-cheesecake art by many articles. The first that comes to mind is David Aja on the Hawkeye series written by Matt Fraction. Since Kate Bishop can be drawn as realistically as Clint Barton in that series, Misty Knight and the rest of her team can, in theory, receive the same treatment in their book.
But maybe the difference is that the Marvel powers that be think since Clint (a guy) is the star, that male readers won’t shy away from his comic. But since Fearless Defenders is an all-female team, they have to be sure there’s some T&A for the guys so they’ll buy it.
Maybe that’s not the reasoning. But it’s the way it comes across. My son says he finds that insulting, as if he wouldn’t read about a female superhero unless she’s drawn in this manner. (“Mom, I have the internet for sexy poses.”)
I’ll still buy the series. I managed to enjoy DC’s Birds of Prey despite Ed Benes’ frequent T&A panels. But I would love to enjoy a female-led series partially because of the artwork, not in spite of it.
Aside: Fraction and Aja’s Hawkeye is wonderful. Go read it. And for an entertaining take on the differences between male and female poses in superhero comics, have a look at the Hawkeye Initiative.
Meanwhile, On the Bright Side of the Force…
A great piece of positive comic news: Bloodhound by Dan Jolley is coming back to print via Dark Horse comics.
Bloodhound was a great comic that was little read when it was published by DC in 2004. The main character, Cleve, was an ex-cop and convicted killer who had a knack for tracking serial killers with superpowers. The FBI springs him from prison to find a particularly nasty killer who’s connected to the reason why Cleve is in prison. The mysteries and characters are terrific but I had long since given up the possibility of reading the series again. But it’s back. Since Jolley has the rights to the series, it has finally resurfaced at Dark Horse.
Bloodhound, Vol. 1: Brass Knuckle Psychology will be published in June. Go buy it. If it does well, we may get more stories.
I’m cautious about one other happening this week: the return of Fury in DC’s Earth-2 #8.
Originally, Fury was the daughter of the alternate Earth Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. This new version is apparently brainwashed by one of the villains who tried to destroy the revamped Earth-2, hence her fierce look in the image above. Her father is also not Steve Trevor. I’m hoping for a twist on Wonder Woman’s origin, that she was born of the love of the gods and given form from that love. I’m concerned that instead, she’s going to revealed as the child of Wonder Woman and Darkseid and the implications of rape in that scenario do not make me happy.
Time will tell.
GeekMom Moments of the Week:
The eldest son is reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for English class. He is not pleased with the book. Among his complaints are that the book uses “silly” tricks to emphasize words or sentences, such as giving an entire page to one sentence. “I’m smart enough to get the point without it,” he said. He also pointed out that one of the themes of the book, about surviving a war by wanting to live more than wanting to die, “was covered better and faster in Babylon 5.”
We also had a good discussion about the upcoming Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire. We both agree the plotting of the second book isn’t as tight as the original but think the movie may actually improve on this.
That movie cannot come soon enough. In the meantime, maybe it’s time to re-watch Babylon 5 with him.
Marvel Comics’ Hippolyta, with a re-design by former Wonder Woman writer/artist Phil JImenez. Image copyright Marvel Comics
