The Week In Geek 7/1/15

So, this week, we found out that Ava DuVernay walked away from the director's chair for Black Panther. Sucks, but I have to appreciate when black talent has come up in the world to a point where they can turn down million dollar franchises deals at their peak. Allegedly, they "had different ideas about what the story would be." It's not really my job to guess, but I'd say this is another case of the suits at Disney/Marvel stepping on their talent's neck. I mean, we all saw Whedon's frustration with certain mandates in Age of Ultron. At this point in DuVernay's career, I could understand wanting to maintain a certain level of creative autonomy.

Also, Marvel revealed the full roster for their All New All Different Marvel lineup after Secret Wars wraps up. Wolverine's a woman, Star Lord's a woman, Ms. Marvel joins the Avengers and, yep, Captain America is still black. The weirdest backlash is about Spider Woman turning up pregnant. It's gotten to a point where fans are upset just for the sake of being upset. Jubilee spent the better part of Brian Wood's all female X-Men book as Mutant Vampire Juno with an adoptive baby that wasn't hers. Marvel spent ten solid years developing Luke and Jessica Cage's baby from conception to a toddler to a future where she grows up to be Captain America. Fans pick bizarre moments to decide they're upset about a book that, statistically speaking, they weren't reading in the first place. Also, all we've seen so far is a cover. Fans are actually judging books by their cover now. On one hand, it's understandable since comics are a primarily visual medium. On the other hand, we STILL DON'T KNOW the actual context of what the book's about. Even if you want to go off of the cover and claim it's a judgment of art, we all know that the art on the cover doesn't always reflect of artwork of the actual book, so even that's a silly way of making determinations on a book you haven't read. So far, I'm reserving judgment until I lay eyes on some actual pages.

No Black Nerd Problems reviews from me this week. Had to put the finishing touches on my scripts for Issues 2 and 3 of my upcoming comic. The website's under construction at the moment but we'll be up and running within the next few weeks. Happy Independence Day.

The Week In Geek 10/29/14

Okay, so the Geeky Thing That Happened This Week is obviously the big Marvel Event in Los Angeles where Marvel once again curb stomped DC like they held out on milk money. Barely two weeks after Warner Bros. tosses out a sort of lackluster (at least in reception) list of proposed titles and times for their Cinematic Universe. The blogs start making the rounds about how DC is going to be first to have feature films with female leads and/or a lead character of color (which is not true) and then Marvel suddenly hit their rivals with a surprise attack.

"I will see your Cyborg and Wonder Woman movies and raise you Chadwick Boseman as the Black Panther, the female Captain Marvel that everyone loves so much and Benedict Fucking Cumberbatch at Dr. Strange."

I went on about this before but the one reason Marvel smokes DC every time with these little stunts is because they put out a reliable product. You would think putting out some rigid schedule of movies you want to make in the next five years or so would feel stuffy, but it doesn't. Marvel has established several times that not only do they make good product but it has the capacity to get better over time (Captain America 2). When you do good work, people want to know when you're doing that good work again. Of course, when there's delays, questionable casting choices and basically a 24 hour news cycle built around the possibility of your project's failure....well, ask DC.

My reviews for the week are up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing enjoyment. This week, I took a look at:

Batman Eternal: This was pretty epic, I'd say. From the awesome looking scene of Batman diving head first into a crater amidst gunfire from the police, the wholesale destruction of Arkham Asylum and the long awaited appearance of the Spectre which was here and gone way too soon....this is a better resolution than any to one of the book's many conflicts.

All New X-Men: Although the plot itself has begun to move in slow motion, I must say there are some things to enjoy with the current status of the book. Angel trying to teach X-23 just to be a person let alone a girlfriend is pretty entertaining. And watching Beast and Ultimate Doom in a room together has so much potential for mayhem and comedy, I can barely stand it.. Hopefully, the pace picks up next issue, but I'm okay with where it is for now.

Should One Man Have All That Power?

Since I've started working for Black Nerd Problems, the feedback for my articles and even The Blog has definitely evolved. I get my share of trolls just like everyone else, but for the most part, I like you people. Even when you don't agree, you get it. But there's always a bit of an oddball that just has to stand out. Recently, I received an email about an article I did a few moons ago on what the moral to a good Black Panther movie should be. One response I got (which my editor refuses to run and rightfully so because as well written and thought out as it is, the goddamned thing has a higher word count than War and Peace) was a letter to Marvel, griping about the direction in which they've taken the Black Panther in the past ten years or so. And yeah, it's totally valid to say he's been put through the ringer. He's lost his kingdom to his sister (by the way, I've never liked the way fans talk about that with this overtone that sounds a lot like misogynistic "you lost your throne to a girl" bullshit), he got divorced from Storm who moved onto a relationship with the dearly departed Wolverine. He became the keeper of the spirits of all Black Panthers before him and lost that. He's lost Wakanda thrice to Doom, Namor and Thanos. I get it. He's had it hard.

This section of fandom (because the guy who wrote the letter isn't the only one by a long shot) has a problem with this because the Panther, though an awesome, formidable hero, hasn't really been given a chance as a truly marquee character. They seem to think, as far as I can tell, that returning his throne to him and making him this indomitable Batman of sorts again will put him in the spotlight he deserves and...I don't know...maybe they think he'll finally be worthy of joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe in his own film (which, according to some, is on the way sooner than we think).

The author of said letter also seems to believe that the Black Panther falling from grace is some kind of hazing unique to him that other characters (I'm assuming via context that he means white characters) are somehow immune to. Even though it's understandable as far as kneejerk reactions go (after all, we live in a country where it's practically a federal case if Jennifer Lawrence's boobs leak to the web but not Jill Scott's), it's still wrong.

Tony Stark, as karmic penance for being a war profiteer, has a piece of shrapnel from one of his own bombs stuck in his chest. He's also been a booze hound who has lost his company at least twice in recent memory, lost his memory, been an enemy of the state and, recently, engineered superhero death machines that he doesn't remember making.

Captain America, the Marvel Universe's greatest champion, has been on the run from his own country, shot in the chest, and even renounced his name when he didn't like the direction the country was going in.

And these are two of Marvel's biggest franchises we're talking about here. If Marvel were to absolve the Black Panther from being put through a gauntlet in his heroic and personal life (and this is what Reginald Hudlin lost sight of during his run), you're opening your character up to becoming a Goddamned Batman where the problem becomes that you've allowed your character to become too invincible in the eyes of the collective consciousness. And when was the last time that was exciting? 300? I mean, sure it was cool watching the Spartans be tougher than basically every other lifeform on screen, but that was only cool because we all knew they were going to die by the end of the movie.

"Excuse me, but you're in the shot. They can't
get my abs clearly."

(Having said that, it would be awesome to see a scene in the Black Panther movie where T'Challa is one deep against a horde of mercenaries charging towards Wakanda, giving them work like Gerard Butler did in that one scene of 300. But I digress.)

I mean, just think about Cyclops. After the years of fanwhining about how boring and vanilla Scott Summers was. Now, think about him finally losing his shit and, lately becoming the new Magneto. Who would have guessed that the Captain America of mutants would have turned into that wayward older brother who changes his clothes and rages against the machine to piss off his dead father figure? That's a much more interesting character!

It's natural to want the good guys to win. That's why comics are absorbed into pop culture so easily. No matter how cynical or apathetic our society becomes, we want to see someone triumph during those times when we don't think we can. Jerry Siegel's father was shot and killed in a department store robbery. When he created Superman, he was giving birth to the kind of hero he wished could have saved his dad, a hero who would never let us down in those times when our friends, our jobs or our justice system does.

But the connection between the hero and his/her reader can't always be so simple. Otherwise, the audience starts to resent the hero in the same way you hate hearing "I know how you feel" from your friend who gets all the pretty girls in high school. The greater the test put before your hero, the louder we cheer when they see their way past it.

Moral of the Story: It's not about the fall. It's about the climb back.

Anatomy of a Comic: So You Wanna Write A Shitty Crossover Event.... Part 2

Well, Original Sin wrapped up last week and I was sure bringing this event to a close would iron out the overt problems throughout the plot. If anything, it seemed to either a). create new problems or b). worsen the old ones. Mike Deodato is still The Thing This Book Has Going For It, but other than that, it was basically a hot mess.

He's got the last Pumpkin Spice scone! Rush him!

Once again, starting with the cover.....

I cannot stress this enough, but EVERY aspect of the cover should be indicative of what's happening in the comic especially when it's as "OhMyGodThisIsEpic" as Marvel would have you believe it is. Having said that, of the seven notable Marvel characters on this cover, only three of them are actually found in this book. No Captain Marvel, No Daredevil, No Iron Fist, No Mister Fantastic. You can't even say it's an huge exaggeration of something happening in the comic. It's just plain lying. One good example of a well done, symbolic cover (even though I got some shit from a few of you guys for using this example last time) is Identity Crisis.

Here you've got the Justice League which, at this time in the DC universe, was always characterized very much as a family. Everything about this picture conveys a very familial vibe. The broken picture is obviously representing the tragedies and breaches of trust that leave this family broken and divided.

Or if you want to make the comparison against another Marvel event, take Civil War.

Aside from the time honored trope of defeated heroes sprawled across a mount of rubble, it doesn't get much more literal than this. Captain America
and Iron Man, two generals on opposite ends of a major conflict, finally come head to head and beat the unholy hell out of one another. Simple. No hyperbole necessary.

But going back to the Original Sin cover, it says across the bottom "The Final Judgment." What the fuck does that mean? Anyone? Are the Watchers pointing down supposed to be the judges in this case? The Watchers aren't judges. They're Watchers....who just watch stuff. Their whole job description is the antithesis of judging. So, seriously....who's being judged and how? I shouldn't be asking MORE questions going into an event's finale.

And, holy shit, did this book ever leave the audience asking questions. For example....

"Take him apart. So I may drink his blood and consume his knowledge, one bite at a time."

Umm....what? This was the whole problem with Dr. Midas as a villain. Everything was so vague and unexplained. What occurred in this entire series that would lead him to believe that eating a corpse would make him all powerful?

Why have the Watcher's eyes suddenly turned murderous? Does this mean the Watcher's body parts can work independently of one another after he's dead? Is the Watcher a Castlevania villain? What the fucking fuck?

Now, it's a rarity that I would actively shit on the usually immaculate artwork of Mike Deodato, but he screwed the pooch a couple of times here. First of all, this is Black Panther, Dr. Strange and the rest of the heroes who teamed up (for some reason) busting in to fight...umm....someone.

Now, here's Black Panther and Dr. Strange at the end of the book in full outer space gear. Huh?

Also, if you look closely, here's Thor with his hammer firmly in hand. But wait a minute....in issue 7, Nick Fury whispered something to Thor that made him suddenly unworthy to hold the hammer. Now, he's totally holding the hammer.

And now later as the heroes are all leaving, Thor is left back where he was in the last issue trying to pick his hammer up. Shenanigans.

And when exactly did it get decided that Bucky was the new "Man on the Wall"? Did Fury choose him? When did he choose him exactly? The last thing he ever said to Bucky was "Get everyone back." You can't even dismiss that as saying it was unspoken tough guy talk and "he just knew."

Or this. So, Dr. Midas' severed hand turned the snake to gold when he bit it, but not the Exterminatrix (man, villains are really exhausting the shit out of the Big Book of Bad Guy Names) when she stole it? What?

Granted, I'm not saying there shouldn't be room to leave elements as "implied" in a story. But in an event like this where much of your story is extremely contained and doesn't need tie-ins to explain every fringe element (which is something that Marvel has been really good about in recent years)....it's okay to hold your reader's hand just a little bit. And inevitably, the fallacies here will laid at another writer's doorstep to explain how exactly Bucky became The Man on the Wall or who this new Watcher (I'm guessing that's who the glowing old man at the end is supposed to be) is. DC was really bad about this shit last year with Trinity War turning into a promo that basically forced you to buy Justice League and Forever Evil (which, to be fair, was pretty good) just to understand what happened in a 6 or 7 issue miniseries. 

Making someone interested enough in your characters to buy more comics is what a good comic should do. Insisting upon your reader buying comics to properly understand the vague collision of words and images that took place in another comic borderlines on extortion.

A Black Panther Movie Isn't That Hard

So, with Marvel's Movie Machine reaching optimum levels as far as production quality and with Guardians of the Galaxy, a previously unknown franchise to fans, getting rave reviews all across the board, the big question being asked is "Who's next?" And it makes sense. After all, it seemed like Marvel was betting it all on introducing a set number of heroes and building the universe specifically around them (though, in fairness, it's arguable that Iron Man was in the Guardians' position until six years ago). Now, that they've proven that they can make quality product while still taking a degree of risk on characters, it's only reasonable that fanboys would be even more eager their respective favorites to get a turn at bat.

With all that said....Black Panther.

This is that one movie Kevin Feige swears to the Old Gods and the New is in development almost annually at this point. And a lot people got their mouths watering after a proposed release schedule for the next five years of Marvel movies was spread across the internet, but that was proven to be fan-made shenanigans. Allegedly, there is a script and an active casting call in the works, but at this point, fans will probably only believe it when they see it. With that in mind, there are a handful of things that a good Black Panther movie needs to have.

1). Strong Black Women: Wakanda is supposed to be a technologically advanced society apart from the rest of Africa and, ultimately, the world. It should also be culturally advanced. Most incarnations of Black Panther depict the fictional country as thumbing its nose at the worst parts of Western culture on every level. A big one the movie should highlight is its treatment of women. Now, granted....with Fox not letting go of the X-Men rights anytime soon (even though Marvel could totally shoehorn her in on the technicality that Storm was once an Avenger) the chances of us seeing a budding romance between T'Challa and Storm are about as likely as Ron Paul ever being President. But there's still no shortage of tough women at Panther's side. His sister, Shuri almost definitely has to play a big role. I would run include a few fantastic scenes of her acting impulsively, leaping headfirst out of jet (like Captain America, making it another snub at the West), leading an attack against someone like the Rhino. It would be somewhat reminiscent of the rhino scene in 300. This would also be an opportunity to outdo Sony's Paul Giamatti Rhino the way they're outdoing Fox's Quicksilver. I suppose you could go with the Dora Milaje, T'Challa's official bodyguards/wives-in-training, but they have to get rid of the "wives in training" part because that sounds way too much like "concubines."

2). African Actors: Let's face it, guys. Halle Berry as Storm (even though the writers and wigmakers also deserve equal blame) was the best possible example of selecting a high profile Black name for a character of color as opposed to actual casting. And the reactions to the NWA cast list and Zoe Saldana playing Nina Simone should be enough evidence to Hollywood that "close enough" is not a great way to go about casting characters of color. There's basically no downside to getting African actors to play characters that live in Africa. I would say this shouldn't have to be said, but the MENSA candidate that made Prometheus has proven me wrong. This is an opportunity for Marvel to show some real understanding of what representation on the big screen would mean to little black kids. Speaking of which....

3). Djimon Hounsou: Good looking, charismatic, talented actor, physically imposing enough to probably break my 6'4, 250 pound ass in half. So, here's a guy who was basically the perfect person to play the Black Panther. Ten years ago. Although he voiced the titular character in the short lived, kinda-sorta-didn't-get-off-the-ground cartoon series, time was our enemy in getting the Gladiator star in the costume. Still, I could totally see Hounsou playing T'Chaka, Panther's father who was assassinated by Ulysses Klaw, via flashbacks. It would show some respect towards the fact that there have been attempts over the years to establish BP as a marquee character.

4). Wakanda As A Strong Nation: I know this is something else that really shouldn't have to be said, but truthfully, I know Marvel, with how awesome their recent offerings have been, probably has the strong urge to have Wakanda seem awesome....but not as awesome as Captain America. But here's the thing. I know Disney isn't likely to be down for a story where America is portrayed as being slightly sinister, so I'm not suggesting a movie where Wakanda takes an "Us vs. Them" narrative (even though that's exactly how Wakanda is in the comics), but I wouldn't mind seeing Reginald Hudlin's "Captain America Visited Here Once And Was Promptly Thrown Out On His Ass Because Fuck White Saviors" flashback played out on screen. Marvel has already been praised for allowing Kelly Sue DeConnick to play around with the turning the White Savior narrative on its ear, so this is a no-brainer for them, really. In the comics, while the rest of the world was being infiltrated by shape shifting alien zealots, this is a nation that sent them packing to say the least.

5). A Strong Focus On Establishing It's Own Franchise: This is an easy one. It doesn't even need to be an origin story. The first movie, Klaw killed T'Challa's dad (5 minute flashback at the beginning) and, as the King of Wakanda years later, Panther has become even more obsessed than ever with tracking him down and bringing him to justice. But Shuri and his council notice it's putting him off his game as a ruler, causing him to turn a blind eye to his elite police, lead by the White Wolf (T'Challa's adoptive older brother), using aggressive tactics to root out Western spies and other outside threats. As it turns out, the Wolf is working with Klaw to orchestrate an uprising among the people. Allude to the coming of Klaw in a sequel through a couple of faint appearances a la Thanos in Guardians.

In truth, a Black Panther movie really shouldn't be all that hard. If we can get Ant-Man and Rocket Raccoon and Loki reincarnated into a lovable little scamp of a supervilliain, I think Marvel can make this happen. Then again, I could be wrong.