Movie Review: Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 is finally in theaters and at last, our long wait is finally over. I don't mean the wait for the movie to come out, of course; I mean the wait for me to review it. I'm sure the last week has seemed like an excruciating eternity for most of you, but fear not, for I am finally ready to let you know what your opinion should be.

Iron Man, you may recall, was a totally badass movie two years ago thanks in large part to Robert Downey Jr. being a charismatic and funny and the plot being lean and mean. Which in Hollywood terms means, short. Unlike most comic book movies, Iron Man wasn't bogged down with angst and giant, ponderous fight sequences that lasted for twenty minutes of tedious CGI nonsense. The movie was fast and fun.

So how does Iron Man 2 size up? Well, it's longer. And it has multiple bad guys. And other good guys too, kind of like sidekicks. Plus there are several unconnected plotlines. In other words, everything bad about comic book sequels gets jammed into Iron Man 2 as well. And yet... somehow, it's still kind of fun.

That fun quotient can be explained in four words: Robert Downey Jr. And Avengers. That's the fourth word. Of course, if you're not a big Avengers fan, you may not like the movie quite as much as I did, but on the other hand, if you aren't a big Avengers fan you probably aren't reading my website to begin with, so yeah. Squares who don't like Avengers can get jammed, amirite?

For his part, Downey Jr. is still charismatic and still funny even though the movie does stick him with an angsty sub-plot about his blood being poisoned by his robotic heart (which is so 1969 of them). This poison kind of turns Tony Stark into a giant douchebag (again, maybe just a little too close to the source material this time), yet despite this we still want to see more Tony, because that means more Robert Downey, which in turn means that the movie is being fun and not bloatiferous.

When he's not on the screen, though, the movie's attempt to jam a half dozen unrelated storylines together begins to slow things down. There's Whiplash (or Crimson Dynamo, whichever) and there's Justin Hammer and there's the government trying to get the suit tech from him and there's this poison blood thingy and there's SHIELD and the Avengers Initiative... yeah. It's a lot. I mean, a lot lot lot. And considering how little any of these plots have to do with each other, they do a pretty decent job of tying them together(though the resolution of the poison blood thing is literally laughable).

Still, as much as I love the Avengers, I have to admit that the SHIELD stuff in the movie was probably a bit extraneous. Chances are you're going to go one of two ways, as I said before: if you're an Avengers fan you'll eat it up. If not, you may be left wondering if the movie wouldn't have been a lot better -- tighter, faster paced, more logical, more exciting -- if they had cut all of that stuff out entirely and just focused on the Hammer/Whiplash plot instead. For me, I'm on the fence; I think it would have been a better movie without the Avengers clutter but I personally wouldn't have enjoyed it as much.

Overall, then, this serves as a nice setup for the upcoming Avengers franchise while also reminding everyone why they loved Iron Man to begin with. What it isn't, unfortunately, is a great movie. But compared to the other tedious nonsense that Hollywood so frequently passes off as summer entertainment, I have a feeling this will still end up looking fun by comparison. Just not by comparison with the original Iron Man movie.


My grades: The Avengers parts get an A+++ for being awesome, but only a C for having any relevance to the story. The best I can really do for the movie as a whole is a B-. There were just too many odd decisions shoehorned in (like, if Mickey Rourke's Ivan Vanko is going to end up in a suit of armor at the end of the movie anyway, why turn him into Whiplash for basically one scene? Why not just leave him as Crimson Dynamo to begin with?). The film could have used a firmer editorial hand.

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Tales From the Vault: Iron Man 2

This is a bit of a departure from my usual Tales From the Vault offerings, as I'm going to take a look at the newest comic to be dumped in the Vault, Iron Man 2. Now, we know what you're thinking: isn't that a movie? Well, sure. But it's also the title of a free comic book Marvel and Target are giving out when you go to see that movie. So we thought it only made sense to strike while the iron's hot and review it now. Get it? Strike while the iron's hot? Cause it's Iron Man 2? Okay, never mind, let's just go right to the comic.


Details: This comic is technically known as Target/Iron Man 2 #1 according to the indicia. That's kind of a bulky title when you think about it, though it does give a hint of the classic 1968 one-shot Iron Man and Sub-Mariner. Only without the Sub-Mariner. Anyway, the creative team for this comic is writer/letterer Joe Caramagna (there's a combination you don't see every day) and artist Jacopo Camagni. In other words: who?


Synopsis: Our tale begins with a mysterious stranger with a baseball cap pulled way, way too far down on their head trying to sneak into Tony Stark's seaside villa. Things go okay right up until the moment when they get to the sub-basement where he keeps all the gooies. At this point, the security codes suddenly stop working. Uh-oh!

Meanwhile, Happy Hogan is chauffeuring Stark around in a big limo, so apparently this story does in fact take place in movie continuity rather than in the Marvel Universe, since Happy is stone dead in the regular MU. As usual Tony is sitting in the back talking about some chick he's been shagging, only this time, he thinks she might be THE ONE. Signs point to know, but, okay, Tony. Whatever you say.

Just then, they get an alert from robot-Jarvis that the house is being broken into. Cut to: the house being broken into. Realizing that the repulsor is about to hit the fan, the intruder changes tacks and hoofs it too... a place, not sure where... and there's a big-ass car sitting there. Hmm.

Turns out this is Tony's favorite car, which he has named Betty. Using apparently the powers of ESP, Tony intuits that Betty has been stolen -- they never quite explain how he knows this (more on this later) but somehow, he does. Hey, he's friggin Iron Man, right? He just knows these things apparently. But unfortunately, the limo doesn't have the chops to chase down Betty, since Betty is quite the sweet ride under that fine chassis. Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more.

So what 's he going to do? One guess, and "roller skate boots" doesn't count. Yes, he suits up into his Iron Man rig and zips off down the road. Priority #1: stop his favorite car without damaging it. His awesome plan to pull this off: stand in front of the car and order it to stop.

Well, guess what? This doesn't work! Instead, the car crashes right into him. And much to his shock -- and our complete non-shock -- it turns out the driver is Lena, the woman he was mooning over earlier. Noooo! Not you too, Lena?! Even worse -- or bettr, I guess, depending on your point of view -- the car is so amazingly sturdy that even though it appears to have totally destroyed the front end in a collision that sent Iron Man careening right through a building, it still drives just fine and with no injury at all to Lena. Now that's some serious safety rating. And maybe the engine is in the back or something. And maybe I should get a no-prize for fankwanking this artistic laziness away.

Anyhoo, Iron Man flies his ass back over to the car as it drives away and he rips the roof clean off it. His new plan to stop the car? Engage the emergency brake. Amazingly, this works better than anything he manages to do with his big Iron Man suit, so chalk one up for German engineering apparently. Also: suck it, Iron man suit.

Now Tony gets the sob story from Lena: turns out the Ten Rings (those were some of the bad guys in the first Iron man film for those of you keeping track at home) kidnapped her son and sent her to steal the Iron Man suit. Instead, she swiped the car which, as we have just seen, is apparently more advanced technology anyway. Iron Man basically dumps her, then grits his teeth and flies off to save. that. KID!

THE END!!!!?


Extras: This comic is sponsored by Target, which means that instead of a lettercolumn (like anyone does those any more anyway) or whatever, the back of the book is totally filled with coupons for Iron man 2 toys available at Target. Best deal: a set of Iron Man sheets, blankets and pillow cases that only costs $30. That's sweet. I still have my Pac-Man sheets from when I was a kid. No, I don't use them. But maybe I should.

Also, there's an Iron Man helmet mask for $35 that actually appears in the film itself, which is a nice bit of cross-promotion. And by nice I mean shameless.

But the best toy of all, hands down, is the Iron Man 2 edition of Operation. Unfortunately, the photo of this is too small to see the details, but presumably you are removing circuits and transformers and gears instead of organs. Whatever, it's just awesome regardless.


Comments: One interesting thing for me about reading this comic is that a non-comic reading friend of mine also picked up a copy when we went to the movies, so I was able to get her unbiased opinion about the comic. Essentially, she found it to be confusing, which is interesting because as a long time comic reader I found it easy enough to follow, if kind of boring. But some established comic book storytelling techniques clearly weren't working for her because she wasn't familiar with the visual language of comics. Not to get all Scott McCloud on you. Which is an interesting thing. It might be a cool exercise to give some comics to people who don't read them and study what techniques do and don't work for the average, uninitiated reader.

There was also one section of the story that was legitimately confusing regardless of how many comics you have read and that's Tony's sudden, inexplicable announcement that his car has been stolen. I suspect that this problem originated as an art mistake -- in this panel, we see Happy whipping the limo around in the middle of the highway as they are racing back to the mansion. My guess is that the art was supposed to show the stolen car passing them going the other way, hence Tony's reaction and Happy's action. Yet, the panels in this sequence don't show anything of the sort. Nor does the dialogue fix the mistake, something that should have been very easy to do simply by having Tony state what just happened.

Maybe that's too old school -- actually using dialogue for exposition instead of letting the art tell every detail of the story -- but something it's necessary. And if the writer didn't catch it -- or wasn't in a position to see the mistake, it's hard to say -- then the editor should have fixed it. As it is, though, this sequence doesn't make any sense. I'm looking at you, editor Nathan Cosby, aka "The Cos"! Whoever you are.

Which brings me to my last bit of commentary: what was Marvel thinking with this? Here's a captive audience of literally millions of potential Iron Man fans, most of whom have no exposure to the actual comic books. This is an unprecedented chance to get product in their hands and possibly convert legions of new fans. So why this? Why some random writer with some random artist and some random editor telling some random, half-assed story? Why wouldn't you put your best guys on this book? Why not use the actual Iron Man creative team? Why not have a story that actually ties in with either the current MU Iron Man storyline or with the movie itself (and not just one vague reference to the Ten Rings, who don't even appear in this film)?

I don't understand any of the decisions that went into creating this comic.


My Grades: The art is passable if uninspired and a bit generic in a very modern sense; it gets a C-, with points deducted for not telling the story in an understandable way. The writing is professional enough but I can't say I cared enough to want to read the follow-up (which apparently is available somewhere online). It gets a C. The idea of giving out an Iron Man comic at the biggest film event of the year gets an A+++ but the actual execution of hat idea gets an F-. What a wasted opportunity.

If for some reason you want to read this yourself, the comic is available here for free.

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Movie Trailer Special: Interactive Iron Man 2 Video

Okay, I know today was supposed to be a look at the Top 5 Superhero Weddings, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. That's because Marvel has preempted pretty much all existence with the release of maybe the coolest teaser ever, their new 'Iron Man 2' interactive trailer.

Now, before you watch it, you should know up front that the actual footage itself is the same as the last trailer. So what's so cool about it? Well, as this trailer goes along, new Iron Man-style data folders appear along the top of the screen, detailing characters and concepts form the movie. You can then click on these at any time to access those files and look at still photos, schematics and bios about the characters as though you were tapping into the database of the Iron man suit itself. Then, you can punch the video button and the trailer picks right back up where it left off.

And thanks to the many files, you can end up watching those clips in whatever order you like, effectively creating your own Iron man trailer experience. Seriously, check it out: this takes trailers to a whole new level.




How cool is that?

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Decade in Review: Conquering Hollywood

Welcome to the latest in our occasional series looking back at the themes, events and personalities that shaped the last decade in comics. Last time we discussed the rise of the event book as the primary mover within the mainstream comic book (and specifically superhero) industry. Today we take a look at a development that has far larger cultural and fiscal ramifications for comics: the conquering of Hollywood.

Movies based on comics books are nothing new, of course; starting in the late 70's, the Superman films remained popular for over a decade. And just when that franchise was wrapping up, the Batman films kicked off. During the 90's, as the Batman line devolved into kitsch, films began mining comics for lesser known properties such as Men in Black. But while comic films were a viable part of the Hollywood strategy, they were just one minor aspect of the industry, barely more than a cultural footnote. Something was missing.

That something, as it turned out, was Marvel. Just as they revolutionized the comic industry in the early 1960's, Marvel helped lead an overhaul not just of the comic adaptation ghetto but of the movie industry in general and pop culture as a whole. Beginning with 2000's X-Men and 2002's Spider-Man, Marvel properties pushed the boundaries of what was possible with comic movies (teams, for instance, rather than just solo heroes) while also redefining the box office; the $403 million brought in by Spider-man was at the time the fifth highest gross in movie history.

Where there's that kind of money, of course, imitators will follow. And while not every comic book movie has been a critical or commercial success (see: Catwoman, Elektra, et al), studios have turned more and more to comics for both big budget superhero franchises as well as smaller budget action adaptations (Wanted, for example).

As the appeal of comic films has broadened, so too has the influence of comic fans increased. Nowhere is this better seen than with the ascension of the San Diego Comic Con, which over the past decade has evolved form a mid-sized gathering of comic fans into the premiere movie event of the year, with studios falling over each other to present bigger and splashier previews of their upcoming sci-fi films and TV shows. If osmehting is a hit at Comic Con, it's likely going to make money at the box office; and if it is a flop, then, lookout below. And with the advent of instant feedback social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, the buzz from Comic Con spreads across the globe instantaneously: two of the biggest hits of the decade, 2008's The Dark Knight and Iron Man, rode massive Comic Con buzz to box office history.

Which makes one aspect of the rise of comic movies somewhat difficult to understand: while the characters and films are more popular than ever, the comic books themselves are selling at an unprecedentedly low rate, with sales continuing to hemorrhage even as potential buyers flock to the megaplex for the latest blockbuster. For whatever reason, widespread popularity and cultural influence have not yet translated into a rise in sales, something that publishers will need to figure out sooner rather than later.

For the time, though, it now seems as though the value of comic books to the publishers lies not in the comics themselves, but rather in the potential marketing opportunities those comics create. Because of this, the popularity of comic book movies has had the strange side effect of actually devaluing the comics themselves and potentially handcuffing creators of properties in development (though this is not always the case; Marvel, for example, allowed Iron Man to be portrayed as a fascist wing-nut in the comics at the same time production on the Iron Man feature film was progressing).

But perhaps because of this dichotomy, publishers are being forced to take drastic measures to protect their new primary source of income, and again, it's Marvel leading the way. The creation of Marvel Studios was one of the biggest gambles in recent Hollywood memory, with Marvel borrowing some $500 million to produce their own films in-house, a move necessitated by the fact that under their old deals for the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises, they were receiving only a small flat fee and a tiny percentage of earnings, while the studios raked in the money off of their properties (and yes, this can be seen as ironic considering those characters in turn were created on a work for hire basis for Marvel by creators who weren't seeing a dime from Marvel in return). But with their comics sagging, Marvel had few other options, as they needed the revenue streams their characters were generating to stay in house.

In turn, of course, the popularity of Marvel's films convinced Disney that, again, the characters (and not the actual comic books) were now iconic and popular enough to warrant a buyout. It has been widely speculated that Disney's purchase of Marvel won't affect the publishing arm and why should it: after all, in the grand scheme of things, the comics are now little more than an afterthought, a petri dish for the next actionable ideas to come from. What Disney was getting was access to those ideas -- a huge backlog of characters, concepts and properties that, if the last decade is any indicator, may well provide Hollywood with the next massive pop culture hits and worldwide blockbusters. The next big test is coming up in 2012, when The Avengers is scheduled to hit theaters. And if that experiment -- bringing a comic-style shared universe onto the big screen for the first time in movie history -- turns out to be a success, then comic movies and Marvel may just manage to change the way people think of movies and what kinds of stories can be told in film.

And if that happens, then the amazing successes of the last decade will be little more than a prologue to the real show. We hope you like comic movies, because we have a feeling you'll be getting a lot more for a long time to come.

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Tales From the Vault: IRON MAN #66

Hey, all you Marvel Zombies! What could possibly be cooler than a Thor versus Iron Man throwdown? If you're like me -- and I know you are, only less so -- then that sort of thing is totally the cat's pajamas. But why settle for recent imitators (like JMS's Thor #3) when you can go right to the classics? That's right, it's time for a look at Iron Man #66 in a tale someone could only call... Night of the Thunder God!


Details: This gem comes to us straight out of February, 1973 (meaning it was actually published in late 1972, but who's counting?). The art is by classic Iron Man artist George Tuska, who sadly passed away recently, and the less classic Mike Friedrich, better known as The Lesser Friedrich. Can Friedrich and Tuska deliver on the cover's promise? Well, let's go with maybe on that one.

Synopsis: Oh, look, this story turns out to be continued form the previous issue; I'm going to guess that the last issue had Thor suddenly swoop in out of nowhere on the last page. Just a hunch. It starts with Thor and Iron Man facing off, and as they do so, an onlooker shouts "Iron Man's gone nuts -- attacking everything in sight -- and Thor's vowed to stop him!" Well, buddy, I didn't ask you, but thanks for the exposition. That pretty much fills us in, but Friedrich follows this up with a brief recap of last issue: turns out Iron Man is possessed by the spirit of an evil skrull, who...

Forget it, I'm not reading the rest. More Secret Invasion crap. The pages of this comic smell like Bendis. I give up.

Wait, I see a picture of Dr. Spectrum, so I guess we'll keep going. This skrull spirit, see, was trapped inside Spectrum's power prism. When Spectrum attacked Iron Man -- I guess this was the evil Spectrum from the Squadron Sinister -- the skrull managed to break free from his imprisonment and take over Iron Man's body. Just as he was about to kill Spectrum, though, Thor swooped in and stopped him. Ah, as I thought, the infamous "last page swoop".

So, recap done, the evil skrull Iron Man tries to trick Thor by pretending he's still really Iron Man, but I guess this is the worst skrull ever, because Thor figures it out, oh, instantly. Plus, this skrull is just a giant moron in general, because he says in his recap that he attracted Thor by smashing everything in sight to show off his new form. And he is shocked that Thor has showed up because he didn't expect "to be challenged so soon" and this has disrupted his plans to dominate Earth, because even he knows that Iron Man is no match for Thor.

Man, that sounds really stupid. You didn't expect to be challenged so soon? This throws a wrench in your plans to conquer the Earth? Except, like, Earth is covered with superheroes who specifically hang around waiting to stop challenge would-be conquerors. And you just went on a giant demolition spree right off the bat. What did this guy expect would happen?

Anyway, he decides to just use his power prism to turn invisible and run away -- finally, a halfway smart idea -- except Thor makes it rain so he can see the outline of the guy, then clobbers him. Whap! Just like that, fight over. Man, that was... exactly as fast as it should have been, for once. And that means...

...time for a long flashback. We see that Happy Hogan has just revealed to his wife, Pepper Potts-Happy (er... or something), that Stark is Iron Man, and she's like, "oh, get over yourself, you jealous liar". This, of course, kind of ticks Happy off. Just then, he hears a news flash that Iron Man is fighting Spectrum, so he decides to prove to his wife that she's being a jerkazoid. He does this by opening Stark's briefcase and putting on the Iron Man armor himself. Then he flies off while Pepper shouts at him to stop showing off cause he's just going to do something dumb. Way to stand by your man, lady. Good one.

Okay, flashback over. While Thor is trying to revive Iron Man, the cops bring Spectrum over, and he's like "smooth move, exlax" and mentally seizes control of the prism again, busting himself free and flying off. Just then, another Iron Man flies in from nowhere right asThor begins kicking Spectrum's rear. This second (third?) Iron Man shows up, though, and says that this is his fight and Thor should back off. Man, I dunno about you, but I hate that sort of macho crap. "Back off, Thor. This is between me and Dr. Spectrum. Even if all of the Eastern Seaboard gets destroyed in the process, and I lose a hand, I want to prove to him that I am his superior." Dude, how about letting Thor help? Public safety ever enter your mind. After all, you know, it's THOR. He could end this fight in about nine seconds if you would let him. In fact, he just did a couple pages ago.

But, no. Thor is like "sure thing, Tony, I'll just hang out over here while you two wreck all of Chicago". So, they start fighting. Spectrum tries a couple of Z-grade Green Lantern tricks that don't work, then goes the old diversion route by creating a robot that he sends careening into a park of civilians. Frankly, it would be justice if a bunch of them got hurt, because then Iron Man could be brought up on charges of Unlawful Machismo for his decision to keep Thor on the sidelines. Instead, though, Iron Man wrecks the robot in one hit (a big splash page).

We also get this bit of inspired (or is that insipid?) Friedrich prose:

"His gaze is steel -- and some say his veins are as well... But you can well appreciate the word on the street! 'Don't mess with this man-machine!'"

Wow, really, Mike? That's the best you can give us? Somewhere, Stan Lee is weeping a solitary tear.

Finally, Dr. Spectrum actually comes up with a good idea (better than that invisibility one, even). Since Iron Man is just smashing everything he makes, he creates a big device that is intended to be smashed. When Iron Man breaks it, he's engulfed in flames. Mind you, this does nothing, but it was a good idea anyway.

Realizing he's getting his butt kicked, Spectrum whips up an airplane to fly away in, which is a bit odd since he's already flying without it. Iron Man quickly wrecks this as well -- someone call Damage, Inc. already -- and once Spectrum has safely crashed to the Earth, Iron Man stomps on the prism and destroys it. He then unmasks Spectrum, who turns out to be... an African economist named Dr. Obatu. Hmm. I wasn't expecting that.

Anyway, Iron Man rushes over to the other Iron Man, who is being tended to by Don Blake, meaning that at least one of these Avengers was doing something useful. It looks grim for... some guy named Eddie March. Yep, that Happy Hogan thing was just a red herring. Now we find out that Pepper's speech actually convinced Happy to take the suit off, but unbeknownst to everyone, Eddie March (another friend of Stark's) was running around with an Iron Man suit when he also heard about the fight with Spectrum and decided to jump in himself.

So, apparently just about everyone in America had an Iron Man suit back in 1973. Personally, this whole switcheroo with Iron Man turning out to be Happy turning out to be some random dude seems pretty cheap to me. In a thought balloon we see that Iron Man had fled to repair his armor during the fight with Spectrum and he called Jarvis and had him send Thor over to help. Which is weird, since he didn't, in fact, allow Thor to help any once they were both there.

The issue ends with Blake telling Iron Man that March might live but they need to get him to the hospital right away; we then see a closeup of the smashed power prism and some crap about Spectrum maybe reappearing at some future date.

THE END!!


Comments: This issue has a couple problems. Firstly, the structure is kinda horrible, with the big flashbacks interrupting the action and stuff. Slightly more jarring, however, is the fact that nothing makes a lick of sense in this entire issue. The whole Happy Hogan red herring thing, with the defeated iron Man being revealed as a random third character who hadn't even appeared in the issue yet, is worse than lazy, it's outright cheap.

Plus, the big Thor vs. Iron Man fight shown on the cover never happens, and the stand in Iron Man gets creamed in about one page. So, in other words, this is an even lamer sales ploy than most of these lame sales ploys. Blah.


My Grades: This comic gets a C-, saved only by George Tuska and the presence of Dr. Spectrum, who is really cool even when he's a lame skrull or whatever the heck was going on here. The Iron Man vs. Thor angle gets a giant F-, though, for ripping off everyone who's so much as seen the cover.

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Movie Trailer Special: Iron Man 2

Okay, so it hasn't been that long since our last batch of Movie Trailer Reviews, but we're going to go right back to the well for a special occasion: the release of the Iron Man 2 trailer.

Yes, after months of speculation, hype and nervous anticipation, the trailer for next May's highly anticipated sequel to Iron Man has finally hit the internet. So how does it look? Well, let's take a peek and then we'll dissect the footage on the other side (p.s., don't be surprised if there's a bit of a load time, since everyone on the internet is trying to download this right now):




Okay. Whew. One sec, need to towel off.

Alright. So, this is a pretty sweet trailer for a few reasons, the most important one being that it teases the film without giving away the whole plotline. Now, if you've also seen the footage screen at Comic Con over the summer, you can probably piece together most of the story, but that's part of what makes this trailer so nice: it functions perfectly well without needing to reference or spoil every single twist or dramatic turnabout. It succeeds by reminding fans of the original why it was successful (the tone, set by Robert Downey, Jr.) and revealing the big supervillain (Mickey Rourke's version of Whiplash) and... that's it. It doesn't need to shoot the whole wad right in the trailer.

It does tease a few other elements for comic fans and sharp-eyed viewers, like Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury (last seen in the after-the-credits tease at the end of the first film, and here appearing in the first of his nine contractually stipulated Marvel films) and Scarlett's Johansson's take on Black Widow, the mere existence of which is about enough to make our head explode.

Not shown in the trailer or even hinted at is the Sam Rockwell's portrayal of Stark's number one rival, Justin Hammer. And that's a good thing, because it means that fans hooked by this preview will still get some surprises when the film comes out (though we're guessing Rockwell will eventually be featured in one trailer or another).

It's not perfect, of course; while Rourke was certainly impressive in Sin City, we're still worried that he's going to ham it up a little too much; the scenes shown here, while not too over the top, don't exactly put that fear to bed either. And on a smaller note, we're not really a fan of the recent trailer technique of putting a clip of crazy mayhem after the rest of the trailer has ended. yes, it can be an effective little visceral hook to end on, but as cool as the scene in this trailer is, it still feels like a bit of a cheesy editing ploy. We're guessing nobody share this feeling, though, so you can probably ignore it as just curmudgeonly grumbling.

Grades: Those little minuses are just personal preference; in terms of effectiveness and composition, we have to give this trailer a solid A. Now, if only someone would release a trailer for Jonah Hex already. We're starting to get a little worried about that one.

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Breaking News: George Tuska Dead at 93

Marvel Comics and comic fans in general lost a giant of the industry today with the passing of artist George Tuska. Tuska, who was 93, is best known for his work in the 1970's on Iron Man and for helping to create the Marvel house style of art.

Tuska began working in comics 70 years ago, landing a gig as an assistant on the newspaper strip Scorchy Smith in 1939. He broke into comics as a member of the legendary Eisner & Iger studios and worked on such comics as Captain Marvel Adventures and Jungle Comics before eventually providing art for the Lev Gleason's groundbreaking series Crime Does Not Pay.

Tuska is best known, though, for his work at Marvel Comics in the 1960's and 70's. Though he provided art for such titles as Power Man, Ghost Rider, Sub-Mariner and X-Men, his lasting contribution is as the definitive Iron Man artist; though his stint was occasionally interrupted by fill-ins and guest pencils, he lasted as the book's primary artist for over a hundred issues, from #5 in September of 1968 until #106 in January of 1978.

During that period he became associated with what is ironically probably his most memorable creation: Iron Man's metal beak. As the apocryphal story goes, the perpetually distracted Stan lee happened to glance at an issue of Iron Man one day and exclaimed "Why doesn't Iron Man have a nose?", apparently forgetting that iron Man has never had a nose. Being Stan Lee, however, this innocent question caused an uproar, and the editors at the time rushed to issue a mandate insisting that Iron Man henceforth be drawn with a nose. Some time later, of course, Stan saw a new issue of Iron Man with the nose and exclaimed "Why does Iron Man have a nose? That looks terrible!" And thus they immediately removed the nose.

Whether or not this is true is unknown, but thanks to this relatively brief era, George Tuska has been somewhat unfairly associated with the joke that is Iron Man's nose, just as he is also associated by many with Iron Man's roller skates. The Marvel Style of writing aside, the guy was just drawing what he was told to draw, because if there's one thing Tuska proved over the decades it's that he was a consummate professional. And if the powers that be wanted a dumb looking nose on Iron Man, then so be it.

In his later career, Tuska worked for DC on titles like Superboy, but for most he will be forever remembered for his work at Marvel, on Iron Man and for Iron Man's metal nose. He also leaves an impressive body of work and a lasting legacy as one of the pillars of the Marvel style of art that helped propel the company to greatness. He will be missed by friends and fans alike.

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Breaking News: Disney Buys Marvel

When I woke up this morning I had no idea that a pop culture apocalypse was about to engulf two entire universes. I got up and went about my routine, checking the box scores from the late game and struggling to achieve the perfect level of toastiness on my bagel, content in the sameness of yet another day. And then, as though Superboy were punching the very walls of reality, a deluge of emails, tweets and CNN Money alerts just about split my brain in two: Disney is buying Marvel Comics.

A lot of comic fans seemed ready to do their best Gwen Stacy impersonation and dive off the nearest bridge, fearing interference from Disney in Marvel’s creative process, but as more information has become available throughout the day about the buyout this has faded a bit. While there are some legitimate concerns about how this will affect both Marvel and Disney, there are also some obvious opportunities, not just on the company side but on the creative side of things as well. As a huge fan of both Marvel and Disney, then, here’s a breakdown of the merger as I see it, with commentary and speculation broken up into three major categories: the Impact on Comics, the Impact on Movies and the Impact on Theme Parks.

Impact on Comics

The biggest question most comic readers have is, how will this affect the stories themselves? In the past, Disney was not exactly known as being hand-off in their approach to subsidiary companies, and some level of creative control (or interference, depending on your point of view) over Marvel is not an unreasonable expectation.

However, I think that’s the Disney of the past more than a reflection of their current strategy, as shown by their deal with Pixar four years ago. It’s important to note that the impetus behind the acquisition of Pixar was not to implement Disney control over Pixar but the opposite. Recognizing that Pixar had seized the mantle of creativity and innovation away from Disney, Disney decided to merge in order to bring the talent from Pixar over to re-energize Disney. They weren’t trying so sublimate or even co-opt Pixar so much as they were trying on a creative level to become Pixar. And by all accounts, the result for both companies has been very successful.

With this as an example, then, I think it’s fair to assume that like Pixar, Marvel is going to remain a separate brand with a fair amount of artistic license to do their own thing. That’s not to say, however, that Disney won’t have some influence on what Marvel decides to do. The first concern would have to be the fact that most creators aren’t Marvel employees but rather are freelancers doing contract work for Marvel. In the past, Disney has not always had the best record as an employer, and it’s possible that some creators will shy away from working for Marvel because of this. It’s also possible that creators simply will not want to work for Disney for creative reasons; under Marvel editor-ion-chief Joe Quesada, creators have had a level of freedom that was previously rare in mainstream comics, leading to more mature content. It’s possible that some of these creators will now prefer to work for independent publishers like Dark Horse and Image, or publish under the Vertigo banner at DC, rather than mess around with Disney at all. And issues over creator rights – whether creators should retain rights to characters and ideas they create while doing work-for-hire, an issue that has been contentious in comic circles for decades – may become even more important with Disney now potentially holding the rights to new properties.

Because of these issues, it’s certainly possible that while Disney may not exert any direct influence over the product being created, the mere fact of Disney owning the company could lead to some turnover in the creative teams on the comics themselves. This may not entirely be a negative, either; with Disney and Pixar animators being some of the top cartoonists in the world, it’s possible that some of these artists may begin moving over to Marvel as well, which would be nothing but positive.

Putting creative issues aside for the moment, though, one of the biggest opportunities for Marvel in this deal is the potential for Disney’s unparalleled distribution and promotion systems to introduce Marvel comics to new, worldwide audiences. Not the characters, mind you, but the comics themselves. If Disney’s marketing machine gets behind Marvel, you could see a resurgence of comics on newsstands and comics could begin to be both available and heavily hyped in other venues like Disney stores, theme parks and other retail venues worldwide. This could potentially be a major game changer for the publishing side of Marvel.

However, it does have some pitfalls, as this is where Disney’s creative control really becomes an issue. Because of the more violent and graphic nature of some of Marvel’s biggest comics, Disney may have some problems promoting these books side-by-side with, for instance, their line of Princess picture books. Figuring out how to maintain Marvel as a separate creative entity while still capitalizing on Disney’s marketing power is going to be a tricky thing.

My guess is that the solution will be increased branding. Marvel has had limited success with branding different lines of comics as separate entities; the Ultimate universe has been fairly successful for a decade, and the Marvel Adventures line of books aimed at younger audiences has been fairly well received, but other brands like MAX and Marvel Knights aren’t necessarily seen as separate lines so much as Parental Advisory labels. DC, on the other hand, has had more success, with Vertigo almost considered a separate company at this point. And Disney themselves have been able to keep their more mature Touchstone and Miramax studio imprints separate from their more family friendly Disney and Pixar releases.

So I think Disney and Marvel will want to take a page from the DC playbook and aggressively brand different lines of comics. The Marvel Adventures line of all-ages books could be expanded significantly, though perhaps with a new brand name that would also allow them to incorporate kid-friendly comics based on Disney properties. Meanwhile, the mainstream Marvel Universe should, in my opinion, become the Vertigo of Marvel. Most of the content in the major Marvel books has become mature to the point of nearly needing a MAX label on it (Dark Reign: Hawkeye comes to mind) and having such a brand probably wouldn’t adversely affect current readership, as most people who are turned off by this more mature approach to these iconic characters have already quit reading the titles anyway. In sum, then, what I am proposing is basically an all-ages reboot of the Marvel Universe that Disney can aggressively promote, with the current Marvel Universe in effect becoming the Ultimate Universe.

The other issue that this idea brings up is just what Disney is planning to do with the publishing licenses for its own characters. Currently, Boom! Studios is publishing books based on Pixar characters as well as the Muppets, while Gemstone puts out comics based on the regular Disney characters. Other publishers like Papercutz also have licenses such as the Disney Fairies title that editor-in-chief Jim Salicrup mentioned in my interview with him yesterday. It seems unlikely that Disney will continue to farm out their comics when they have Marvel as an in-house publisher, especially considering Marvel has a significantly larger market share in the comic industry than any of their competitors. I don’t know how this will shake out legally, but it seems likely that Disney will eventually turn over the licenses to Marvel which should mean a much larger line of Disney comics published by Marvel. It’s possible that if this happens, the branding I mentioned above will be unnecessary and Disney will focus on selling these Disney comics through their various marketing arms, but I think that would be leaving a lot of potential growth for Marvel on the table and thus I think it’s unlikely.

Impact on Movies

Like the issue with Disney’s publishing licenses, the impact of this deal on the movie side of things is complicated by the fact that Marvel has signed away the rights to many of their largest properties to other movie companies such as Fox. This means that while film franchises such as Spider-man and X-Men may be mega-hits, they won’t be hits for Disney. In addition, the distribution rights for those films Marvel does still control are tied up with other studios as well, part of the infrastructure Marvel set up when they created their own film company.

However, from what I’ve been reading, neither of these facts are major issues on the Disney side of things. On the contrary, it appears that Disney’s interests here aren’t so much with major franchises such as Fantastic Four but more with lesser known, second tier properties. Iron Man proved that even a character that is almost completely unknown outside of comic circles can still become a massive blockbuster if it is done well by people who understand and respect the source material. Because of this, Disney is hoping to recapture this kind of success by leveraging other lesser known characters into major franchises as well.

This is very good news for comic fans for a couple of reasons. One of the major concerns many fans have with this deal in terms of the film rights is how the similar set-up between Warner Brothers Studios and DC Comics has effectively squelched DC’s ability to get movies made with their characters. Because they can’t shop their properties around (Warner Brothers has control because they are both owned by Time/Warner), DC basically is stuck with whatever decisions Warner makes, and that usually has meant obvious hits like Justice League of America and Wonder Woman get shitcanned instead of produced.

From the sounds of it, though, Disney and Marvel have quite the opposite in mind. Because Marvel has their own studios, they themselves are in control of what they make and now Disney is coming in and basically saying that they want Marvel to make even more movies, not less. And since Marvel is going to benefit from Disney’s enormous financial backing, they now will have the financial wherewithal to not only make more movies, but make them with budgets large enough to ensure they are up to snuff.

In addition, there is a positive parallel that can be drawn from the DC comparison as well. For years, DC has been more likely to keep struggling series going because they can rely on the larger Time/Warner infrastructure to absorb the losses; this allows them to keep publishing critically acclaimed stuff like Jonah Hex, in part to help set up potential film tie-ins (and in part because they recoup more in the trade market as well). If Disney does push Marvel to make more films featuring lesser known characters, it’s likely that those characters would not only get their own series in order to help promotion but also that the series, once started, would be more likely to stick around even if sales on the comic itself aren’t good. The result could be an expansion of Marvel’s line in general with a new emphasis on some of the less popular characters that currently get bumped from the schedule to make room for more proven sellers like another Wolverine or Avengers title.

Beyond feature films, of course, there are some other areas where the merger of Marvel and Disney is going to impact things. One bit that has been widely circulated is that Marvel met with Pixar head honcho John Lasseter to discuss how Pixar’s experience with Disney has gone and this discussion turned to the possibility of making some films. I don’t think it’s likely that Pixar will be making any movies based on Marvel characters (despite the fact that they have already done so in The Incredibles), but there is a strong possibility we will be getting a slew of new direct-to-video animated movies instead.

Of course, this could be bad, but on the other hand Marvel is already occasionally putting out direct-to-video cartoons anyway; this will simply ensure that they are of high quality. And if you like those cartoons, there’s a good chance you’ll be a getting a lot more of them in the future. There are some negatives, of course. The main question is what audience these movies would be produced for. There is a large, built-in audience for Disney videos, and not just people who were fans of the original Lion King and want to read the newest sequel. Some families buy Disney videos across the board regardless of the specific content because of the power of the Disney brand. Bringing Marvel into this might open up a huge new stream of revenue as well as a potentially vast new reader base, but it also would necessitate tailoring the movies to that audience rather than to the current comic book readership.

This is the essence of the fear most comic fans have: that they are going to be phased out in favor of a different (and much larger) new readership. I don’t think that’s going to happen entirely, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were true to a degree and the most likely place for this to occur isn’t in the comics themselves but in the direct-to-video market. If that were to take off enough to start influencing the comics, then there might be an issue, but if so it would be several years down the road.

Impact on Theme Parks

Of course, many people’s immediate reaction upon seeing this news was “what’s going to happen with Universal Studios?” As part of their Islands of Adventure theme park, Universal has a Marvel Island, including Spider-man and Hulk rides among others.

Now, chances are that, like the film and licensing deals, Marvel has some sort of long term contract with Universal that allows them to use these characters. Unlike those relationships, however, I suspect that the marriage between Marvel and Universal is going to come to a swift end when (and if) this acquisition from Marvel goes through. It’s true that Disney will probably want to get the characters over to their park as soon as possible, but I think the main impetus is going to come from the Universal side. After all, why would Universal want to be giving free publicity to its main rival?

Because of this, my guess is that the two sides are going to quickly come to some sort of mutual arrangement in the form of a buyout or something and that Marvel Island will soon be a relic of the past. Now, it’s possible that Universal will hold on to Marvel Island to try and stick it to Disney – I wouldn’t put it past either side in the theme park war – but my gut tells me that one way or another, Marvel’s relationship with Universal will come to an end as soon as this deal is finalized.

So, where are those Marvel characters going to end up? My guess is at the theme park that used to be Disney/MGM Studios. MGM and Disney recently ended their relationship, meaning the park and attractions have been and are being altered to remove the MGM aspect of things. With superhero movies being such major business these days, it makes perfect sense for Marvel Entertainment to step into this gap and provide some of the content for the park. A re-imagined Disney/Marvel Studios would allow them to hype their brand while also bringing in Marvel characters to wander the park and new Marvel themed rides, all within the larger existing structure of the popular Disney Studios theme park.

If this does happen, the ripples will also be felt overseas at the other Disney theme parks. For example, there is a Disney Studios theme park right next to Disneyland Paris, and giving this park a new Marvel twist would make sense as superheroes are now one of the main bits of American culture being sent out to international film audiences. It also opens the doorway for Disney’s merchandising arm to get a foothold in new marketplaces in terms of selling and promoting Marvel characters. Disney theme parks are among the most effective tools Disney has to publicize their characters to foreign audiences who may not be familiar with The Little Mermaid but who are very familiar with Disney World and Disneyland; adding Marvel to the theme park mix will introduce a huge new demographic to the idea of Marvel characters, which in turn means more fans, more viewers, more readers and, of course, more money for everyone.

Conclusion

From my point of view as both a Disney and Marvel fan, I think this deal makes sense for both sides. While there are some legitimate concerns about how the merger will affect the creative side of Marvel and some tricky legal questions about how to regain control of certain properties, overall I think the upside significantly outweighs the downside. Having access to Marvel characters helps renew the Disney brand and, like their deal with Pixar, could invigorate the company as new ideas and new creative talent joins the company. Likewise, having the huge marketing and financial might of Disney behind them could allow Marvel to expand their publishing and film concerns while exposing their product to a nearly infinitely larger audience than is currently reading their books. It may not result in the same Marvel we currently have, but it could result in a bigger and ultimately better Marvel and, who knows, maybe even help revive the failing comic industry as a whole.

And just the possibility of that happening is enough for me to give this deal a big thumbs up.

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Tales From the Vault: POWER MAN #17

Hey everyone, grab your yellow wife-beater because today we're taking a look at Power Man #17 starring the inimitable Luke Cage!

Details: This issue is dated February, 1974, and is written by Len Wein with art from George Tuska and Billy Graham, but presumably not that Billy Graham. Though that would be awesome. This is the first issue under the Power Man title following a change from the original Hero For Hire title. Of course, the title would also later change yet again into Power Man and Iron Fist; I’m a little sad the series didn’t last long enough to try A Moon… A Power Man… ROMANCE. Ah, missed opportunities.

Synopsis: The story starts with Cage reading a newspaper and shouting "Of all the freakin', mother-lovin' CRUD!" Man, don't you wish this were a MAX series or something so the writers could actually drop some F-bombs? Of course, that would also allow writers to have his girlfriend request a “Sweet Christmas”, if you know what I mean, so maybe it’s just as well. Not that anybody would actually do that in a Luke Cage comic, of course.

So why is Cage upset? Well, it's because he solved a big case and didn't get any press for it. He decides that this is because he doesn't have a catchy superhero name like Spider-man and Captain America do. While he's thinking about this, a client comes in who says that he is from Stark Industries and that Tony Stark wants Cage to try to steal a suit of armor so they can test their security measures. In order to make it realistic, though, nobody except the three of them would know about the deal, not even Iron Man. Cage, of course, agrees.

NO, LUKE, NO!!! IT’S A SETUP!!! DON”T… arrgh. Dammit, isn’t Luke Cage supposed to be the “streetwise” hero? Seriously. Unless it’s Sesame Street, this has setup written all over it and even Snuffleupagus would have been like, “Stay frosty, homes.” But, whatever. Cage, it seems, is too distracted by a subplot about some chick who found out he’s an escaped convict. How will she react? I’d like to tell you, but I can’t because this is never mentioned again. Maybe she got snuffed by Mr. Fish before she could confront Luke.

Anyway, Cage heads to Stark's factory, where he sneaks around. He decides he'll just hide in "the shadows. With my complexion, don't think anyone'll notice me there." Sure. They might notice the giant neon yellow shirt and reflective metal headband, though. But no, Cage manages to break in without incident, gets to the suit and then Iron Man shows up. Of course, Tony has no idea what this is about, because it was, in fact, a setup. The two of them start pounding on each other, then realize that... IT'S A SETUP!!!!

No kidding. Good work. Anyway, the client is there and he's stolen the suit while they've been fighting. He jumps in some ridiculous shuttle plane and flies off. Unfortunately, Iron Man's jets were damaged during the fight so he can't pursue. So, Cage grabs the plane and jumps aboard. The two of them go at it, with the guy shouting stuff like "Common black fool!" Yikes. Hey pal, could we go easy on that stuff maybe?

Anyway, they're fighting, and Cage gives the guy a kick -- and the guy sails out the window and apparently plummets to his death. Cage calls down to Iron Man and says "Er -- he sort of dropped out of the picture". In reply, Iron Man calls him an "idiot". Geez, why is everyone being a dick to Luke all of a sudden?

Here's what Iron Man says:

"You mean he jumped from the skate? Idiot, the star suit is equipped with jets for short distance flying. Once he flies out of our tracking range, we'll never find him." Oh, so he didn't fall to his death after all. Or...

Cage: "Oh, you'll find him. Somehow I don't think he flew very far -- without these circuits in the front'a his suit".

So... wait, let me see... he had jet boots, but they wouldn't work because Cage ripped out all the wiring from the suit, so... he actually did fall to his death? I'm telling you, that guy is not doing any flying, he's just dropping like a stone, screaming his lungs out. If stones had lungs, that is.

And then... the issue ends with Cage deciding to call himself Power Man. No mention whatsoever of the fact that Cage apparently just killed a guy and covered it up. Oh, and how did he come up with the name Power Man? During the fight with the client he says this: "Just chalk it up to Black Power, man", then thinks in a thought balloon "Black Power, man? Power Man? Yeah -- that's it!" Oh, god. Even Chazz Palminteri’s office wall could have provided a more meaningful random name than that.

THE END!

Extras: I wanted to mention how completely weird and wrong the cover blurb for this issue is. It states that Luke Cage is the first black superhero. This is strange considering that Marvel had introduced the Falcon in 1969, three years before Hero for Hire #1 came, and had long since promoted him to co-headliner status in Captain America. Not to mention other precursors like Black Panther (1966) for one, who is “black” though he’s African rather than African-American, if that’s what they were trying to get at. And if they were in fact suggesting that Luke Cage is the first black hero because he's the first one that acts "street" and uses black slang, then... yeah. That doesn't sit real well with me to be honest. Anyway, here’s a thoughtful exploration of African-American characters in comics, where you can learn about the forerunners that this odd blurb is completely ignoring.

My Grade: Surprisingly, I'm giving this issue a B. Yeah, the blaxploitation dialogue was over the top, and the plot was pretty simple, but I enjoyed it anyway. Wein knows what he's doing. And I do appreciate the fact that Luke's rationale for the name change is pure marketing; it's a nice meta touch.

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