I Thought 'The Vulture' Was Just A Spiderman Villain...

...but turns out there's a lot more of them at Marvel Comics. Whole flocks are gathering...

In a row that began before Lee died, his chief artistic collaborators, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, always claimed they had far more of a hand in the comics than the illustrations they were credited for. Last week, after the release of the documentary, the family of Kirby, who died in 1994, said Lee had “the fortunate circumstance to have access to the corporate megaphone and media” and made himself “the voice of Marvel” – overshadowing the parts other people played.

He founded the company. Of course he was its voice! 

Kirby’s son Neal told the Observer: “If you were to look at a list and timeline of Marvel’s characters from 1960 through 1966, the period in which the vast majority of Marvel’s main characters were created, you will see Lee’s name as a co-creator on every character, with the exception of the Silver Surfer, solely created by my father. Are we to assume Lee had a hand in creating every Marvel character?” Are we to assume that it was never the other co-creator that walked into Lee’s office and said, ‘Stan, I have a great idea for a character!’?”

Do you understand the term 'co-creator'...? It doesn't sound to me as if you've really grasped it, have you? 

The families of both Kirby and Ditko – who died a few months before Lee in 2018 – have been calling for more formal recognition for their part in creating the characters, especially now that Marvel is owned by Disney.

And this is purely motivated by concern for their legacy. And not, heaven forfend, filthy lucre...

One person gets it: 

Mark Millar is a Scottish writer who worked for both Marvel and its rival DC in the 1990s. For the former, he created with artist Bryan Hitch the series The Ultimates, which was heavily borrowed from for the first Avengers movie.

For Millar, his generation of comics creators went in “with their eyes open”. He says: “We knew that if we were working on characters owned by a company, we would never have any claim on them. It’s like if a decorator comes into your house. It’s their work and it looks great, but they don’t own your house!

Nice analogy. Accurate, too. 

“For people who came on board at the same time as me writing for Marvel was satisfying a childhood dream, but it also gave us an audience so we could create our own comics.”

Why did Kirby and Ditko not do that? Perhaps they didn't feel as aggrieved as their relatives do. It's funny how their relatives waited until they died, isn't it? 

Report To The Star Chamber Immediately!

While DeKnight stopped short of calling Cebulski racist, he tweeted it did show a 'deep lack of ethics' for the top editors at Marvel Comics.

The 57-year-old offered up a suggestion to his now-former boss, saying Cebulski should reach out to the Asian community and have a 'truly honest discussion' about the controversy.

'At the very least, I think Cebulski needs to sit down with representatives from the Asian community and have a truly honest discussion about his actions,' he tweeted.

His actions? He used a Japanese pseudonym twenty years ago. 

And I bet a lot of people are saying 'So what?' (OK, maybe not Spanish feminists, but who cares what they say anyway?).

Marvel did provide the outlet a statement from 2017 when the initial controversy first took place.

'I'm truly sorry for the pain, anger, and disappointment I caused over my poor choice of pseudonym,' Cebulski said. 'That was never my intention. Throughout my career in anime, manga, and comics, I’ve made it a point to listen and learn from my mistakes, which is exactly what I’ve been trying to do with this misstep.'

However, DeKnight was dismissive of Cebulski's apology, claiming the issue is far more complex than just him adopting a Japanese pseudonym.

'Personally, I’m not looking to destroy the guy's life. But I also don’t think he's fit to be the editor-in-chief, either,' he added on Twitter.

I wonder if all those trans nutters will use this as another reason to attack their hated enemy Robert Galbraith..?

Film Critique With The 'Guardian'..

But the whole point of Doctor Strange is that the titular protagonist enlightens himself through black magic.

Hmmm, I wonder how they picked someone so unknowledgeable about the subject material for this column?

Dave Schilling is a Guardian US writer-at-large.

Ah. It must have gone something like this:

'Guardian' editor: "Oh, gawd, another one of these bloody American comics has been made into a film. Suppose we'll have to cover it, it's got Benedict in... Who can we get?"

'Guardian' sub-editor: "We've got some Yank writers, remember?"

'Guardian' editor: "Perfect! They live there, they must read these things!"

Stand Aside, Citizen! This Is A Job For Beta Man Male!

Jonathan McIntosh opines:

A staple of the superhero genre is the tendency to concoct these elaborate scenarios where "good guys" end up having to fight each other for some reason. This is often framed as a way to resolve their interpersonal issues before they can go beat up the “bad guys” and save the world. The ultimate macho pissing contest. Who’s the toughest tough guy of them all? How do superheroes make friends? By punching each other. How do you resolve conflicts, big and small? By punching each other. Whose plan will be followed? How is trust built among teammates? Face-punching can accomplish all this and more. We need to raise questions at the model of male bonding and friendship-building by way of violence.

Do we? OK. If you say so.

Back before The Avengers were household names, superheroes were the domain of geekdom, and particularly “geek guys” who, to some degree, felt personally ostracised and disillusioned by the ideals of stereotypical tough-guy manhood in mainstream culture. Despite being made to feel subordinate to concepts of hypermasculinity, many geek guys have nonetheless embraced superheroes that embody hypermasculine traits and values. They tend to idolise those ideals despite being alienated from them as individuals. This self-identification with hypermasculinity is no doubt one of the factors in the rampant misogyny that plagues the comic book industry and community. The particular brand of superhero masculinity represents a popular conception of what it means to be a “real man,” a conception that is not relegated solely to the realms of fantasy. Hypermasculinity manifests everywhere in our culture and can be seen reflected in politics….

ZZZZzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzz….

Eh? What? Sorry, I must have drifted off there for a bit.

I’m awake now! Pray carry on, Jonathan!

One common reaction I encounter whenever I bring up these questions is….

A solid punch on the nose? No?

Pity…

… the concern that there's no way to create exciting dramatic tension or conflict in movies, other than resorting to violence as the ultimate resolution. Of course, that’s not true, as evidenced by one of the most exciting and intense pictures of the year, The Martian. A remarkable thing about that film is that it contains absolutely no violence or killing. All problems are solved through science, cooperation and human creativity. And yet the filmmakers behind The Martian managed to create a widely successful, thrilling, edge-of-your-seat blockbuster. Given the current state of the world, we could certainly do with a hell of a lot more heroes who solve complex problems with innovation and ingenuity rather than by punching each other in the face. Perhaps it's time to move on from these tired masculinised concepts.

*sighs* ‘The Martian’ is as much a fantasy as superheroes dukin’ it out. They are all fantasy. They are entertainment. Nothing more.

If you can’t handle that much excitement, there’s always a ‘My Little Pony’ rerun on the Cartoon Channel, or something.

Errr. I Don't Think So, 'Radio Times'....

As any fule know, they ain't steel...

Now The Righteous Have It In For Sarcasm?

They thwart dastardly supervillains and have saved the world countless times over but macho superheroes now face a determined new foe in the guise of a mild-mannered child psychologist.

Oh, this’ll be a rehash of all the usual Righteous bugbears, I bet…

Professor Sharon Lamb, from the University of Massachusetts in Boston, accuses the new generation of superheroes, exemplified by Robert Downey Junior's playboy millionnaire Iron Man, of being bad role models for young boys.

A millionaire playboy alcoholic who resolves world problems with ultraviolence?

I’m shocked, shocked, that this doesn’t go down well with progressives…

Unlike conventional superheroes such as Superman, who stood for justice, fairness and decency, the modern macho superheroes portray a negative masculinity, characterised by mindless aggression and rampant sexism.

*yawn*

"There is a big difference in the movie superhero of today and the comic book superhero of yesterday," she said.

"Today's superhero is too much like an action hero who participates in non-stop violence; he's aggressive, sarcastic...

Wait, what?

Sarcasm? Sarcasm is verboten now? Since when?

…, and rarely speaks to the virtue of doing good for humanity," she said

Do they need to?

Isn’t it enough that they actually do good? Does it not count unless they yammer on about it night and day, like…err…Progressive Man?

In contrast, Lamb said the boys could look up to the old-style heroes such as Superman, "because outside of their costumes they were real people with real problems and many vulnerabilities".

Well, Superman was an illegal alien with adoption and identity issues, and a chronic allergy that could prove crippling. Despite this, he held down a responsible job as part of the Fourth Estate.

It’s really no wonder the progressives are chuffed to little mint balls with that portrayal…

Not A Sentence I Ever Thought I'd See In The 'Telegraph'...

Elmo, Mr Incredible and Chewbacca have all been arrested for various legal infringements in recent years.

It turns out the Hollywood cops - by which I mean the cops who patrol Hollywood - have had a crackdown on begging by superheroes.

Who knew the recession had bitten so deep?

The costumed characters are a long-established feature of Hollywood Boulevard but have faced growing complaints about their soliciting money from tourists.

They are legally allowed to walk down the street and accept tips if offered but are not supposed to ask for them.

So police swooped on Batman.

Bam! Pow!

Batman's arrest has dismayed his crime-fighting colleagues. "I knew this day was going to come, eventually," Joe McQueen, who dresses as the Hulk, said.

"We live in America, don't we? This is not America."

Perhaps you should try a different costume? Try Captain Amer...

Oh.

”Don’t you know that it’s different for girls?”

We all remember Alan Digby the ‘Beano’ editor, who gave that pompous brush-off to eight year old Jacob Rush, who had the temerity to question Dennis the Menace’s politically correct makeover:

'I would not say Dennis has been watered down, he has evolved as the character has done throughout his lifetime. He still has his catapult and peashooter, but does not use them against people any more.'

Imagine my surprise, then, on opening this morning's 'Metro'. It seems that his fellow Beano character does so quite happily, as long as it’s for charidee:


Hmm. I guess Minnie just hasn’t ‘evolved’ sufficiently, right Alan?

Or perhaps there are people in this world who will do anything - even compromise their stated principles - in order to be seen to be sucking up to the right people, eh?

One Unhappy Customer…

…can make big changes:

A TV ad for New Southern Railway featured Loca Toledo, a Mexican wrestler character in cloak and tights, enthusing about British trains. He danced and ran alongside a moving train leaving the station platform and ran alongside a moving train while looking in through the window at a passenger.

So what? Well, someone thought it needed to be stopped. For, you guessed it, 'the children!'...

One viewer objected that the ad was likely to encourage or condone irresponsible behaviour, because it depicted a man running alongside a moving train, which was a dangerous activity that could be copied by children, particularly in light of reported accidents.

The complaint was rejected, but according to the ‘Metro’, the company pulled that footage from the ad anyway.

On the other hand…

When Dennis the Menace had a politically correct makeover last year, his creators aimed to remove 'any traces of nastiness'.

But according to at least one young reader of The Beano, the new watered-down Dennis is now devoid of all fun, too.

Eight-year-old Jacob Rush was so upset by the changes that he sent an email to the comic's bosses, begging them to bring back the old menacing Dennis.

He wrote: 'I don't like Dennis because he doesn't have his catapult or water pistol any more and he's not menacing enough - I want the old Dennis back.'

And the company immediately leapt into action and...

Actually, no, they didn't.

When no one replied, he called the comic's Dundee HQ and received a letter blaming a newly sanitised BBC cartoon version.

Ah, right. The 'It wasn't us!' defence. Which might work, if the cartoon and the comic hadn't been two seperate things...

Beano editor Alan Digby admitted there had been 'a number of' complaints, adding: 'There are certain compliance rules relating to the way things like bad behaviour can be depicted on children's television, particularly on the BBC.

So, this isn't even a case of one complaint, it's more? And we aren't talking about your deal with the devil BBC, but about the comic. A seperate thing...

However, Alan has drunk deep at the well of bureacratic dissembling...

'I would not say Dennis has been watered down, he has evolved as the character has done throughout his lifetime. He still has his catapult and peashooter, but does not use them against people any more.'

Well done, Alan. Absolutely no-one is looking at you with contempt and barely-disguised pity at the lameness of your excuse, or thinking you a functioning moron for uttering it. Oh, dear me, no...

Sunday Funnies

Because even kids can see through these attempts with ease...

Is It Possible You're Overthinking This..?

Have superhero comics outgrown a pre-adolescent fear of women? Not in the slightest, argues critic Abhay Khosla. In fact, he argues, Marvel Comics' last few linewide storylines have been all about why women are terrifying and need to be destroyed.

Wha..?

Opines Khosla:

"The first major "Event" Civil War began when Captain America was asked to submit to the authority of a woman named Maria Hill.

Captain America then initiates an all-out superhero civil war rather than take orders from a woman. At the conclusion of the comic, Iron Man has won that contest; however, the comic goes bizarrely out of its way to assure the reader that the patriarchal order has been restored: the comic's celebratory final three pages feature Iron Man forcing Maria Hill to get him coffee."

I had to double-check to make sure this wasn't a female critic. It appears to be male.

And if he thinks this is a good way to pick up chicks, well...

Design FAIL!

Because this one was just too good to wait until Sunday...

Sunday Funnies II...

Never pick a fight on the Internet with comic geeks. It'll not go so well. For you.

Comments are a scream...

Film Review: ‘X Men Origins: Wolverine’

The sun’s out, we have a good chance of a glorious Bank Holiday for once, and Gordon’s Cabinet of All The Mediocrities is sinking faster than the Belgrano (Eighties reference for those of you watching the wonderful ‘Ashes to Ashes’).

So to hell with politics and doom & gloom for once. As a change of pace, here’s my thoughts on one of my ‘top tips’ for 2009’s blockbusters.

Spoilers below, so if you haven’t seen it yet, and plan to, look

away

from

the

screen

now!

Well, after the debacle that was ‘Knowing’ (pretty good at first, intriguing plot let down by some ropy CGI, then the insanity of those last 20 or so minutes of ‘what were they thinking!’), and having sneaked a peak on Thursday at some of the advance reviews, I wasn’t too hopeful that this would be the hit I’d hoped back in December.

The critics are flat out wrong, I’m glad to say. Is it a masterpiece? Well, not quite. Or, if it is, it’s a flawed one. But hell, perfection is overrated in my opinion. Yes, it does suffer from some plot holes you could drive a burning Humvee through (Plot holes? In a comic book movie? The hell you say!), and it isn’t quite the subversive, fun ride of last year’s ‘Iron Man’, but it’s an hour and thirty-seven minutes of cracking cinema even so.

The opening sequence sets the story up perfunctorily, but the pre- and post-credits war montage showing the half-brothers together throughout the Civil War, WWI & II and eventually Vietnam is pitch-perfect, and echoes the similar ‘history in snapshot’ credits from ‘Watchmen’ earlier in the year. From there, the pace rarely slackens, and builds to a satisfyingly destructive, yet poignant, finale, with Logan and Victor grudgingly yet seamlessly united once again to take down the ultimate mutant-killer, Weapon XI.

Casting is superb, with some minor glitches. Jackman isn’t my favourite actor, but he pulls off a triumph with this one, carrying the pathos off nicely, as well as the fight sequences. As expected from the trailers, Liev Schriber is simply stunning as feral half-brother Victor Creed, and gets most of the best lines too. Even Taylor Kitsch’s Gambit (a character I’ve never liked) is well played, though clearly thrown in as a sop to the fans – his role in the furtherance of the storyline could as easily have been accomplished by one of the others, perhaps Will.I.Am’s Wraith, with some rewriting.

Dominic Monaghan’s character, however, never seems well suited to the story – he sits as uneasily with the hardened killers of Stryker’s Black Ops outfit as a Pomeranian with a pack of pitbulls, and he has about the same life expectancy.

Some reviewers have complained that it lacks humour, but (with the exception of the ill-judged slapstick boxing sequence with Kevin Durand’s Blob) there’s plenty of humour. As long as you like it black, of course. Standout scenes for me were the elevator sequence, with Stryker’s minions suited and booted for mayhem while ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree’ plays on the muzak channel, the bar fight sequence (Victor’s sardonic aside to the barman as a raging Logan enters bent on revenge: “Do you have insurance?”), the bathroom scene where Wolverine’s unfamiliarity with his newly acquired hardware proves expensive and the scene where Lynn Collins' character averts a bolshie truck driver’s experience of potentially the worst road-rage incident ever.

How well it’ll do after the expected opening week it’s hard to say – films these days make most of their money on merchandising and DVD sales, and next week it has ‘Star Trek’ to contend with, which has the advantage of not having had a leak of the copy, and has had mostly favourable preview reports too. But it’s a well deserved hit as far as I’m concerned, and it would be a shame indeed if the unfavourable reviews and inevitable fanboy badmouthing killed the franchise.

Does it pass the acid test? Would I watch it again? That’s a definite ‘Yes’.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot…

X-Men Origins star Hugh Jackman has called the leaking of his film a month before release a "serious crime".

Umm, no, sorry.

This is a serious crime. Also this. Leaking a film of a bunch of actors poncing around pretending to be superheroes, not so much. No matter how good the trailer looks….

On a brighter note:

A journalist for Fox News was dismissed earlier this week for posting a review of X-Men Origins based on a viewing of the illegal download.

Why didn’t he just wait to make up his review on the day of the release? No-one would ever have known, judging by some of the actual reviews of films that I’ve seen…

Meanwhile:

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, has advised traumatised earthquake survivors to view living in emergency tent accommodation as like being on a "camping weekend".

Oh, for fu…

Actors and politicians – two groups with absolutely no sense of perspective whatsoever.

If It’s Not On TV, It Doesn’t Exist…

Via Protein Wisdom:

SPIDER-MAN creator Stan Lee is to unveil the world’s first gay superhero.

Not accurate – Marvel have had gay superheroes for a while (’Northstar’ being one of the first).

The only thing ‘new’ about this one is it will be a TV series, rather than a comic book, which tells you a lot about what is considered important by publicists.

Former Marvel Comics boss Stan, 86 — who also created the Hulk and the X-Men — will unleash the character in an hour-long TV drama being shot in the US.

If it’s a hit there it will cross to the UK.

Oh, joy! Can’t wait to see what the TV reviewers make of it. If it’s a success, perhaps a crossover with ‘Torchwood’ beckons…?

A TV insider said: “It was only a matter of time before we had our first gay superhero. And if there is one man who can make him a success it is Stan Lee.

“There’s a real buzz among comic book fans.”

There is? If you say so…