Superhero Comics 101

[Erik Setzer]

Ow. That seems a bit much. But eh, it seems a lot of people hate this vision of Joker, and have ever since the initial shots of him came out. It's still possible he won't be bad.

It's hard to tell anything about story from any of it. And they probably just skipped everyone's actual origin story just to go straight to the action (which might be an extreme over-reaction to people being sick of a superhero's origin story being shown every time a new version of them is put on screen). Really, though, the only thing that I disliked - mind you, not saying I think the rest is great, it just hasn't put me off yet - is Will Smith being too blatantly Will Smith. But then, I also saw a trailer for a new movie coming out that seems interesting but stars Tom Hanks and I couldn't see him as anything but Tom Hanks.

The rest, I'll give a chance. Not putting my expectations of it up there with SvB or especially Deadpool, but I'll at least give it a fair shake.

[Aenir]

Darn it EG!!

I Got the 2nd book of Harley Quinn.... I blame you

[Erik Setzer]

I've got £10 says they neatly avoid Harley Quinn being a qualified Psychiatrist, and instead just dumb her down to being Mr J's bint.

Well, in the trailer, you have a young blond woman in a lab coat being strapped to a table that the Joker's leaning over, then the ending looks like it's in the same room, so he's likely talking to the woman. And bets are that's him taking a young Harley and twisting her from a doctor into a psychopath.

[Mr Mystery]

Re watching Man of Steel.

Just got the bit where Supes meets and saved Lois Land.

Yeah.....it's as ropey as I recall. Visually gorgeous, but a plot would have been nice. So far it's just been a series of tenuously linked vignettes.

[Wildeybeast]

The only interesting its of that film were the ones with Kevin Costner in. When was the last time we could say that?

[Mr Mystery]

Gone back to finish the job.

First impression was right. This film sucks.

This is a Zak Snyder film, for Zak Snyder fans.

We'll have no coherent plot here!

[Mr Mystery]

Found it on Facebook, and it made me smile.

[Erik Setzer]

Just got through reading the collected first five issues of Thor from "Marvel Now!" (It's $8 for Kindle, pretty cheap.) It was a good read, but the scene that got passed around the Internet with the Absorbing Man is just... cringeworthy. It feels like a wedged-in political commentary that just doesn't mesh with the rest of the story. Aside from that, it's good. I'm not sure if the further issues are available for Kindle so I did look up spoilers on who this Thor is (they keep teasing the identity thing, but it's not resolved by the end of the first collection).

If they keep "Odinson" in the Marvel universe, I'm fine with the new Thor being this woman (not naming her for people who don't want spoilers). It only bugs me as part of a whole, that being Marvel's move to completely redo their universe to force diversity in by replacing long-running characters rather than just adding new ones, so that we can now have a hispanic Spiderman, black Captain America, Korean Hulk, etc. Of those, Captain America and Thor don't bug me (because they're roles that have been established now can be passed around a bit), but Spiderman not being Peter Parker feels weird, and a Hulk who actually likes being the Hulk seems to be missing a lot of what gives the story punch. And it still just strikes me as cheap to change existing characters rather than add new ones to introduce more diversity.

Going to read Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel #1's later... seems like two versions of the same character (sort of), but hey, that's Marvel for you. I still can't figure out what's going on in Secret Wars (mainly because I've been reading some of the side story arcs, and they feel contradictory at times).

[Morgrim]

Ms Marvel and Captain Marvel are utterly different characters. The current Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers) used to be known as Ms Marvel ages ago (and then apparently got promoted?). The current Ms Marvel (Kamala Khan) is a teen with no connection and different powers who looked up to Captain Marvel as a role model, so when she decided to go into the hero business she asked if she could please take up the name.

Although yes, there have been at least 4 characters with 'Marvel' in their name, and all linked in some fashion. Kind of like the Batfamily in DC, and equally confusing at times.

[Erik Setzer]

Yeah, reading the comic actually cleared up my confusion. The synopsis I read made it sound like Ms. Marvel somehow had Carol Danvers' mind inside her or something. The only time there's ever really any kind of connection (other than the name) is when she kept making herself look like Captain Marvel, until she decided to just be herself (out of necessity at first).

It's a good enough read I grabbed the second and third volume. I like that they're having fun with it, but not making it too "dumbed-down" just because it's a kid. And it's nice to support the idea of them making an actual, new character who's different.

Have to admit, the scene with the Sheikh surprised me as much as it did Kamala. But a good surprise. They didn't do something stereotypical with it.

Not sure she actually asked, though... Seems more like she was being called Ms. Marvel by people, so she just rolled with it and decided she could be Ms. Marvel. Not in an ego kind of way, just like she thought, "Well, I can do what she does, and save people like her, so might as well keep using the name."

I think the Spider universe will be more confusing, though. Aside from swapping Peter Parker for Miles Morales as Spiderman, I've seen a fold-out with ads for #1 issues for Spider-Gwen, Spider-woman, and Silk, three different spider-themed female heroes with outfits similar to Spiderman. How many radioactive spiders are there out there?!?