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KC Carlson by Keith Wilson.
by KC Carlson
The Avengers
Apparently, The Avengers rule, as the movie has made over a billion dollars worldwide. “Oh, my stars as well as garters!” one famous former Avenger may say. I occur to believe the film deserves it, at least a bit bit, for being one of the more totally entertaining blockbuster photos in recent memory. (Sorry, I don’t do vampires. Or sparkly, either.)
Part of what made The Avengers so satisfying was that it had a bit something for everybody. Sure, there were virtually wall-to-wall action as well as spectacularly cinematic superheroic battle scenes, however what made the movie for me was all the lighter touches, from the sparkling Whedonesque dialogue to the silly bit truth that the Hulk likes to punch people when they’re not looking. The film had a few of the very best battle one-liners ever, in addition to lots of moments that made life-long comics fans’ hearts swell, seeing their four-color fantasies come to life (even CGI life) on a huge screen.
STAN BRINGS THE FUNNY
An early Human Torch as well as The thing dust up from amazing four #5 by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.
That utilize of humor is in keeping with the excellent marvel tradition. In the comics themselves — at least in the Stan Lee-written Silver Age, in addition to a couple of the eras that complied with — humor was an necessary part of the marvel experience. a few of comics’ most unforgettable moments for a specific generation of visitors included scene after scene of Human Torch vs. thing battles (or perhaps just their aftermath) in the pages of amazing Four. few of us at the time realized that was exactly how these “brothers” expressed their like for every other.
Aunt may marries Doc Ock? From incredible Spider-Man #131
Plus, many’s the time that young Peter Parker had to go into battle as Spider-Man using something embarrassing, since his super-suit had been destroyed or (more often) was in the wash. My preferred was when Spidey really donned long underclothing (and a web mask) to take down the foe du jour. The Spidey books were full of crazy stuff — Spider-Mobiles, J.J.J.’s Spider-Slayers, Aunt may dating Doc Ock, clones. (Okay, perhaps those weren’t that funny at the time — however they are now!) however for sheer marvel craziness, three words: Swingin’ Mike Murdock! (Look it up!)
Stan Lee likewise ran marvel like a madman running the asylum. He had crazy nicknames for everybody who helped him. (Many of which have stuck — most likely into eternity. who da King? Jack Kirby da King!) Stan made so many errors while composing (mostly from forgetfulness) that he ultimately provided out prizes for people who might explain away the mistakes. The joke was on the champion of these No-Prizes — the prize was (really) an empty envelope, with the Hulk on the front telling you that you’ve just won a No-Prize! Is that not goofy!?! as well as yet they have ended up being one of the most withstanding collectibles from that era.
Most of the traditional marvel superhero comics shared this humor with a great deal of flat-out superheroic action, in addition to directly drama (or melodrama). just like any type of great piece of fictional entertainment, great comic book storytelling should contain a number of different story aspects — from humor to drama to action to huge emotional dispute as well as all points in-between. stories that concentrate on one thing (in comic books, often the physical conflict) tend to be less fascinating or unforgettable than those that mix a number of different elements, making for a more diverse reading experience. (Although, I do freely admit that if you are solely into comics for the artwork alone, it’s extremely simple to be drawn in to the super-fights.)
SOMETHING TO BE discovered FROM films THAT SHOULDN’T BE funny — however ARE
Die Hard
It’s the blend of these diverse aspects that makes stories memorable. For example, in film, the die difficult series of movies are quite much non-stop action (and large explosions!). What takes them beyond your typical run-of the-mill action flick is the sardonic quip machine who is John McClane, tossing off one-liners with the speed as well as simplicity of a Robin Williams. You likewise have fascinating characters (that you care about) as well as circumstances that lead to humor — nobody ever at first believes that McClane is chasing killers in mundane circumstances (airports, office buildings, etc.). Finally, you have the bigger-than-life heroic aspect of McClane doing things that obviously no normal human might survive. There have been seemingly numerous action movies trying to be the next die difficult franchise. most of them stop working miserably since instead of balancing the mix, they just concentrate on one thing. (Usually, blowing up stuff!)
Some people don’t like the die difficult movies since that guy just won’t shut up. That’s okay. Some people don’t like it when as well many jokes ruin their “violence for the benefit of violence” movies. If you’re one of them, you won’t like the rest of this article. Me, I occur to like stories that have more than just people punching or blowing up other people.
EARLY BIG-BUDGET SUPERHERO FILMS
Christopher Reeve as Superman
Tonality as well as getting all the aspects in appropriate balance was extremely important in DC’s superhero films. They tend to get it right early on as well as then lose it in subsequent films. For a long time, the very first two Superman movies were the epitome of what a perfect superhero movie should be. They were heartwarming as well as humorous — however they likewise told a excellent action story that was likewise mythic to the lead character. as well as then, somehow, everything fell apart, with the too-Hollywood Superman III as well as the train wreck of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, which was so bad that I no longer even keep in mind any type of of the details.
Batman (Michael Keaton) & the Joker (Jack Nicholson)
The very first two Batman films (the Tim Burton ones) were likewise acclaimed by most comics fans as spectacular. My handle them wasn’t rather so high, as I felt that they often put style over compound (but what style!). I believed they had made a few as well many concessions to modification the characters from the comics to the films. But, in retrospect, the very first two films are masterpieces compared to what was to come. Batman permanently was somewhat interesting, however I would have liked to see a bit bit more of Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face as well as a great deal less of Jim Carrey as The Riddler. The tone as well as balance of the film was all wrong. This was as well silly.
Then I saw Batman & Robin as well as had to redefine “silly”. I saw it at the official DC Comics worker pre-screening with Johanna (not yet my wife). We both wished to walk out about 30-40 minutes into the film, however we believed much better of that when we realized that Paul Levitz was sitting right behind us. As it turned out, we were eventually happy that we didn’t leave, as it was about that time that writer Peter David had had sufficient of the film as well as started yelling insults at it from his seat, just a few rows back from us. We spent the rest of the film being entertained by Peter while we (and most of the rest of the audience) were not doing a extremely great task of trying to stifle chuckling at his witty comments. I’ve not seen the film since, in spite of us having the DVD box set (which Johanna discovered extremely cheap). I decline to watch this film once again without a Peter David commentary track.
The present series of Batman films are much better, although I sometimes apply the tagline of The Dark Knight to them. “Why so serious?” They seem overwhelmingly grim to me, in spite of the occasional one-liners thrown out by the supporting characters, particularly the acidic Alfred. I believe the films have a great deal to offer, however the relentlessness of them commonly gets to me. (When I very first saw The Dark Knight, I really believed it was over when the Joker blew up the hospital as well as just walked away. bit did I understand that there was still most of an hour to go! I assumption I just desired it done at that point.) I don’t watch them extremely often.
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises poster
In contrast, as soon as the Avengers film was over, people were standing as well as applauding as well as commenting on exactly how fun it was. I promptly believed back to the extremely dark as well as grim trailer I saw in advance for The Dark Knight Rises as well as believed “Uh oh.” assumption we’ll discover out what people still believe of that approach in a couple of weeks.
PUTTING THE fun IN legendary (EPFUNIC?)
The Avengers is the latest as well as finest marvel film to date, as well as the culmination of their strategy to take more manage over the movies. After their bankruptcy as well as the resulting rebuilding of the company, they felt they needed to make much better movies, ones that represented their characters more properly on screen. It’s been a long, difficult battle, not always successful, however with each family member failure (Hulk #1, Daredevil) came eventual success somewhere else (The very first Spider-Man as well as two seperate X-Men franchises). as well as now, Marvel’s movie franchises are among the strongest in film. With The Avengers, we see that they’re likewise extremely profitable, with more of the revenues staying close to home.
Look back over Marvel’s film successes to date. Iron Man, Thor, as well as Captain America are all infused by the marvel style of Stan Lee. They all understand when to not take comics as well seriously as well as when to go for the joke as needed.
Give that guy a bouquet of banana peels!
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Actors Felicity Huffman as well as Clark Gregg satisfy to save sports Night. It worked in fiction, however not in reality.
KC CARLSON: I’ll truly miss agent Coulson, although I’m not persuaded he’s truly gone. S.H.I.E.L.D. still has LMD (Life design Decoy) technology, as well as Tony Stark mentions it in The Avengers. however what I truly wanna understand is if agent Coulson (as Calvin Trager) bought the Continental sports channel (and its sports night TV show) before or after he ended up being an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Amazing Spider-Man cover from the Grand Comics Database.