The underordered Dial E one-shot will become a hot item once Slub locks in a WB movie deal. (Art by Emi Lenox.)
For enraptured fans of DC’s New 52, it’s a veritable grand tapestry of drama. In a world where many of our rebooted heroes are presumed dead, all the rebooted villains have united and threaten to ruin everything everywhere for all time.
Or something like that. I think. I don’t really care.
It is written! Hollywood Reporter and other official sources have confirmed the Bat-hunt is over: Academy Award Winner Ben Affleck will be following in the footsteps of Christian Bale as the new Batman in the still-untitled DC film, allegedly a Man of Steel sequel even though Batman has more box-office clout, sells more comics, and inspires funnier memes.
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: our weekend-long GenCon 2013 photo marathon! On a normal weekend, posting at this pace would destroy my nervous system and upset my family, but I’d rather share these with attendees as quickly as possible and then collapse for a day or two.
If you’re joining us at random some months down the road, here’s where we’re at so far:
* Part One: this year’s Costume Contest winners.
* Part Two: other Costume Contest entrants, a talented lot in their own right, trapped in a wide field in which some folks regrettably had to be chosen as not-winners.
* Part Three: the last of the not-winners. If anyone’s desperate for outtakes of themselves that weren’t already posted, we have a select few photos that appear to have been taken under earthquake conditions. If I shrink them down to 50×50, they might be useful as tiny avatars, but not for showing off to your family. (Seriously, if anyone has a desperate tiny-avatar request, I’ll be happy to add it to Part 6.)
Parts four and five will be other costumed entities we spotted roaming the Indiana Convention Center of their own free will. One of my personal favorites of this bunch: an uncanny Mr. Incredible.
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover, we began sharing cosplay pics from Wizard World Chicago 2013, albeit limited to subjects we ran across on Saturday, August 10th, because current family events negated sticking around for any additional days.
One of the more unusual Marvel options: Steampunk Iron Man! And possibly his assistant, Victorian Pepper Potts or Bethany Cabe.
When I was a kid, Adam West and Burt Ward were the first super-heroes I remember following on TV. Less wooden than the Super-Friends, beset by better villains than Marvel’s 1970s live-action TV offerings, and a few years ahead of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, syndicated reruns of the 1966-1968 Batman TV show were a staple of my afternoon viewing.
They’ve worked well together before, but never in live-action. Can two super-heroes share a tentpole film without driving each other crazy?
Despite my previously expressed skepticism, I wouldn’t say the announced Superman sequel with Batman in it — or vice versa — is guaranteed to fail. I’m sure much deliberation and debate will occur behind the scenes as the filmmakers work together for the common goal of creating the best possible superhero moneymaking machine. If it’s bearable to watch more than once, then hey, bonus points.
What could possibly happen? I can imagine several outcomes, not all of them great.
In Part One of this two-part non-epic, I covered what I liked best about Man of Steel, the new Superman treatment from director Zack Snyder, producer Christopher Nolan, and screenwriter David S. Goyer. As I mentioned there, despite the team’s successes on numerous fronts, I thought the film had room for improvement.
Those examples require a courtesy spoiler alert because a few of my complaints happen toward the film’s back end and involve major plot points. If you plan to see it pristine and unspoiled for yourself, abandon the reading trail here, and I look forward to seeing you next time.
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Onward, then, to what I liked least:
After seeing Man of Steel today, that sweeping statement occurred to me and required two minutes’ worth of thought to confirm. It helps that I’ve seen all six of director Zack Snyder’s feature films to date, even the animated ones.
Of the other five: Dawn of the Dead was not bad for what it was — arguably his second-best, but not quite essential. 300 broke visual ground and set new standards for faithfulness in graphic-novel-to-movie adaptations, but makes me snicker in a few extraordinarily hammy spots. I’m glad someone finally adapted Watchmen so we could all say it’s been done and move on with our lives, but its brazen attempt to do for super-hero movies what the original miniseries did for super-hero comics didn’t have nearly the same intellectual impact or coherence. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole admirably demonstrated the visual techniques of 300 for an all-ages audience, but was incomprehensible unless you’d read the entire book series beforehand and could spot the dozens of pages’ worth of vital backstory that was excised for the big screen. (Thankfully my son was a fan and explained the crucial omissions.) And Sucker Punch was a skeevy, disjointed orphanage for outlandish sci-fi skirmishes that had apparently wandered away from the nonexistent movies that spawned them.
In comparison to the rest of the Snyder oeuvre, Man of Steel stands tall as his boldest achievement yet.
Continuing our coverage of C2E2 costumes and other notable sights from April 26-27, 2013. Disclaimers are same as before. Corrections are always welcome.
In this installment: comic-book characters! At last, Marvel fans can thrill to the sight of Juggernaut versus Deadpool, no holds barred. Meanwhile, the tenth Doctor Who looks on and laughs as if he’s above such tomfoolery.
You’ve seen the newest trailer for Man of Steel that was just released Tuesday evening, right? The one labeled as “Trailer #3”, with lots more Jor-El in it? At least once?
No? Really? No one mentioned it in your social circles? Do you believe in watching movie trailers online? Is your Internet connection above 56K? You don’t hate super-hero movies, do you? Not that I wouldn’t respect that, mind you. My oldest relatives aren’t super-hero fans, either. I’ve included it at the end of this entry, just in case. See, I even saved you a few seconds of Googling.
Midlife Crisis Crossover! 