Archive for the ‘mary marvel’ Category
Filed Under mary marvel
And another thing about Mary Marvel…
According to what I can piece together from interviews, the whole Darkening-of-Mary-Marvel thing was an idea that Grant Morrison had for Final Crisis. She was always going to be possessed by one of the evil New Gods as they ushered in the Fifth World. If “New Gods” and “Fifth World” make your eyes glaze over, don’t worry. They do mine too. But that’s not important.
Where I’m going with this is that DC – wanting to build excitement for Final Crisis – decided to tell the story of Mary’s possession in their weekly Countdown to Final Crisis series. Only they apparently neglected to talk to Morrison at all about his plans, because in Countdown Mary’s not possessed by an evil being, but is “seduced” to darkness by a combination of Eclipso, Darkseid, and Black Adam’s powers. And the reason she’s got Black Adam’s powers is because hers mysteriously disappeared and she couldn’t bear to be without any.
And where I’m going with that is that this wasn’t the first time Mary had lost her powers. Only before, she handled it a lot better.
That’s right. The real Mary Marvel didn’t go begging for new powers from any supervillain who’d give them to her, she put on a costume and decided to go crime-fighting anyway. The Fortress Keeper has the whole story.
Filed Under frankenstein, mary marvel, wonder woman
Event Fatigue. I has it.
I was bored by Secret Invasion, I’m barely mustering interest in Dark Reign, and Final Crisis seems to be going nowhere. The major drive for my reading Final Crisis was to see the redemption of Mary Marvel and now I don’t even think that’s going to happen in this mini-series. If at all.
The promised fight between Mary and Supergirl finally begins in Final Crisis #5, but our attention is quickly forced elsewhere. Presumably, we’ll see the fight continue two months from now (or whenever Final Crisis #6 is finally released). That’s if Morrison doesn’t go all Millar and Bendis and decide that it happened off-panel. I don’t think he will, but my confidence in these things is pretty much done.
Like Secret Invasion, Final Crisis doesn’t seem particularly eager to move its story forward. Wonder Woman and Mary Marvel, my two reasons for wanting to read this series are still under the control of Darkseid, right where they’ve been for the last few issues. Nothing particularly important happens at all, and in a book where the entire draw is the supposed changes its making on the DC Universe, that’s pretty sad.
One thing keeps the issue from being a complete waste of paper, ink, and time, but it’s a pretty significant thing.
Frankenstein leading the DC heroes into battle on a motorcycle. For that, at least, we can be grateful.
Filed Under mary marvel
Though DC has its hands around the neck of my interest in Mary Marvel and is squeezing hard, there’s still enough life in it left to make me curious about the solicitation for Justice Society of America #24 coming from DC in February.
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #24
Written by Geoff Johns & Jerry Ordway
Art and variant cover by Jerry Ordway
Cover by Alex Ross
“Black Adam and Isis” part 2 and featuring an “Origins and Omens” backup! The Justice Society faces off against a fully powered Black Adam and his wife, Isis, for control of the Rock of Eternity. But when Mary Marvel enters the fray, will she side with the Justice Society or join the Black Marvel family?
On sale February 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Seeing Jerry Ordway’s name in the writing credits give me much hope considering how vocal Ordway was about his displeasure over Mary’s “darkening” in the first place. This could be the redemption story I’ve been waiting for since first hearing the plans for Evil Mary.
Filed Under mary marvel, wonder woman
More on that awesome Wonder Woman costume
Holy Crap! When Comic by Comic talked about that awesome, fan-made Wonder Woman poster from earlier in the month, one of their commenters pointed out a couple of other shots of the same costume. I hope the film-makers are paying attention, because this is now the standard they’re going to have to beat.
Wonder Woman movie update
Speaking of Wonder Woman film-makers, MTV ran an interview not too long ago with producer Willaim Goldberg. While the headline (and just about everyone who linked to the story) focused on Goldberg’s casual mention of the Wachowski Bros. as former candidates for the writing and directing roles, the actually interesting part of the piece is where Goldberg talks about how he’d like to see the movie made.
Dismissing the idea of trying to hire another writer/director (like Joss Whedon), Goldberg says, “When we have a script to present to directors, we’ll sit down with them and see who has a take that blows us away.” He then goes on to talk about what kind of script he’d like to see:
I would like it to be more current. I hope that we don’t finally wind up doing the same story again: Steve Trevor flying, and his plane crashes onto the island. He’s supposed to be executed, and she saves his life. Perhaps we’ll do that in a very abbreviated fashion up front, and then come up with a story that no one has seen yet.
I don’t know. Sure, Wonder Woman’s origin is familiar, but it’s not like it’s been filmed as often as, say, Superman’s. Or even Batman’s. And it would be good to clearly define what she’s trying to achieve in the world. Of course, you can define her without the origin and it would be pretty cool to see them pull that off.
Goldberg also talks about how much he expects to play up Wonder Woman’s sexiness.
…a friend of mine sent me the initial copy of Ms. Magazine. On the cover was Wonder Woman, which got me to thinking about what an iconic figure she was for women. So I don’t see any reason to (sex her up). That separates her from Catwoman.
Anything that separates her from Catwoman is a great idea.
Goldberg also says that he’d like to cast an unknown in the role. “People are not, in my opinion, going to come for the actress, ” he said. “They’re going to come for Wonder Woman.”
Unknown Wonder Woman
Photo taken at DragonCon by this guy.
No DCU Elementary?
Now that my son and I are twelve kinds of excited about the possibility of a comic called DCU Elementary, Rich Johnston (who originally leaked the art) says that it’s not on the schedule and that “there’s no sign of it being so.” Crap.
As long as I’m cranky…
I’ve got a lot of RSS feeds to read every day whenever I find the time. One of the hassles of keeping up with news about sea-related adventure stories is all the posts you have to filter out about Stargate Atlantis and The Little Mermaid. I’m sick of hearing about Pirate Bay’s troubles and the fire at Dubai’s Atlantis casino. And for a while there after the Republican Convention, I was sick of skimming past post after post proclaiming Sarah Palin as Wonder Woman.
Now, this isn’t a political blog and I should also mention that I was even more frustrated by all the Hillary-as-Wonder-Woman posts from earlier in the year. At least Palin bears a passing resemblence to Lynda Carter as Diana Prince (if by “passing resemblence” you mean that they both have dark hair and wear glasses).
I wasn’t going to mention this except that Lynda Carter herself finally came out and said something about the Palin comparisons. I’m glad she did that for a couple of reasons. The more petty of the two is that my Google Reader has pretty much shut up about the topic now that Wonder Woman herself has ended the conversation. But the better reason is that it gave Lisa Fortuner a reason to make an observation that was really helpful to me.
I admit I’m annoyed to hear her compared to Diana, and I understand that’s the limitation of having just one such notable female hero in the culture. Every notable woman gets referred to as a “Wonder Woman” when being praised. It’s not like everyone who gets told they’re Batman or a Superman matches the personality of Clark or Bruce, so I know this is just a figure of speech. My annoyance is just a side effect of being a rabid comic book fan.
I’ve mentioned before that I find it frustrating whenever any successful woman is immediately compared to Wonder Woman. It’s sort of liberating to know that’s mostly my geek getting poked. I’m not at all irritated when a guy is referred to as “Superman,” but that’s because I don’t like Superman all that much. I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard someone called a “Batman.”
Anyway, it helps me to remember that people who call Sarah Palin “Wonder Woman” don’t actually mean that she’s anything remotely like the superhero character.
Unknown Mary Marvel
Okay, I feel less cranky now. Thanks, Flickr.
(No, I don’t know what Mary’s doing here in the Wonder Woman post either. They’re both butt-kicking heroines with powers given to them by the gods though. Does that help?)
Another Wonder Woman outfit
But this one you can actually wear on the street. Very cool.
I want Candy
Paul Arrand Rodgers features Wonder Woman sidekick Etta Candy in his “Awful DC Comics Characters” feature. In spite of the feature’s name, he rightly seems to appreciate the sassy, fat girl. I’ve only read a few of Etta’s adventures, but she’s awesome and I’ll be talking more about her later.
What’s Wrong with Wonder Woman
So a while back I was defending Wonder Woman and talking about how I wish that her critics would be more reasonable in their discussion about her. Along comes Mike Gold who cites Wonder Woman’s numerous “revisions, reboots, reinterpretations, and make-overs” as evidence that she’s been broken. I think that’s totally fair.
When I first started talking about Wonder Woman here, I had to start with a three-part post outlining what I thought her essential qualities were. I never would’ve had to do that with Batman and Superman. Gold says the problem is that “she became an icon and too many of her creators treat her as such. Gingerly.”
He goes on to say that somewhere along the way, Wonder Woman became more goddess than superhero and that interfered with readers’ (and writers’) ability to relate to her. “Whereas Greek mythology is central to her origin,” Gold writes, “it is no more significant than, say, Krypton is to the Man of Steel or the Vietnam War is to Iron Man. It’s the backstory, not the real story.”
He’s dead on and that’s one of the reasons that Gail Simone is getting the character right. It’s obvious that Simone has a ton of respect for Wonder Woman, but she’s also well in touch with the character’s pulp adventure roots.
Filed Under black canary, mary marvel, wonder woman, zatanna
Animated Wonder Woman movie
That’s the cover for the animated Wonder Woman movie coming directly to DVD. The movie stars Keri Russell as Wonder Woman, Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor, Alfred Molina as Ares, Virginia Madsen as Hippolyta, and Rosario Dawson as Artemis.
This is hardcore
This fan knitted her own Wonder Woman costume for San Diego Comic-Con. And then she went and made an Invisible Plane purse to go with it. Rock on.
That filthy Black Canary
So you’ve probably heard about the group of insane people masquerading as Christians who totally over-reacted to the release of a $40, not-at-all-intended-for-children, collectors’ Barbie dressed like Black Canary.
I wasn’t planning on giving them any more attention than they’ve already gotten, but I really needed to call them crazy and stupid in public so I can move on.
Thankfully, they haven’t discovered Tonner’s $150 Black Canary. Nobody tell them, okay?
Now, if you’re going to pick on Black Canary…
Pick on her for something she’s actually done, like making really bad relationship choices. That’s what Dorian did.
Twice.
Caleb too.
Ah, the JLA Satellite years. “Stupid and Ridiculous” or “Best Comics Ever”? I truly can’t decide.
Maybe the JLA Satellite blog will help. Rob is reading them all so I don’t have to.
Judd Winick leaving Green Arrow/Black Canary?
I haven’t seen any confirmation on Rich Johnston’s story that Judd Winick will be leaving Green Arrow/Black Canary after issue #14. Is it true?
Winick drove me away from Green Arrow back when he first took on the series, but I’ve really been enjoying his run since Black Canary joined the cast. And not just because I like her. I liked Green Arrow before Winick got a hold of him too. Except for this last couple of issues and the ’90s X-Titles-inspired version of the League of Assassins, Winick’s GA/BC stuff has been a crazy amount of fun.
Not that it would be heart-breaking to see Winick move on, depending on who replaced him. Just saying that I wouldn’t hate to see him stick around either. Johnston gave that story a “cautious” rating, so there may not even be anything to it.
Countdown could have been good
I’ve been trying to pretend that Countdown didn’t happen and – even more tragically – that I didn’t spend all that money on it. Even though towards the end I was just buying the issues that advanced the Mary Marvel plot, I feel like a complete sucker.
I’ve been trying not to blame Paul Dini because I really love everything else he’s ever done. But Countdown was such a mess and I can’t reconcile it with Dini’s work on Detective Comics and Batman: The Animated Series.
Fortunately, Caleb helps me out by suggesting that “DC editorial forced large portions of the plot of Countdown upon Paul Dini and his fellow writers.” He then goes on to imagine what Countdown might have been like if Dini had been allowed to do his usual thing:
What if Dini was just given a greenlight to do whatever the fuck he wanted, and we got a weekly about his favorite characters, another year-in-the-life-of-the-DCU series like 52, only with Dini’s favorite characters (Harley, Poison Ivy, Zatanna) and perhaps those that his fellow writers knew best (Hawkman, Jonah Hex, the new Freedom Fighters, the Birds of Prey, the Teen Titans)?
Man, I woulda dug a series like that. And I also wouldn’t have been so shy about Trinity, which I dropped after three “okay, but not awesome” issues. If it ends up being awesome later, I can always buy the collections.
Filed Under dreamland chronicles, jack the ripper, king arthur, lord of the rings, mary marvel, neil gaiman, neverwhere, wonder woman
I got caught up with the stuff that made it onto the Newsarama blog while I was gone. Here’s some stuff that didn’t, but is probably too old now for me to post there.
Dreamland Chronicles monthly
I love Scott Sava’s CGI fantasy comic Dreamland Chronicles and apparently, so does IDW. They’re making it into an ongoing series. Each issue will have a CGI cover by Sava as well as a traditionally illustrated cover by another comics artist. The first issue has the Mike Wieringo cover above.
Wonder Woman vs. Mary Marvel
Like seemingly the rest of comics fandom, I was frustrated and disappointed by DC’s Countdown to Final Crisis series. Especially the unconvincing bit about formerly pure and innocent Mary Marvel’s becoming a black-hearted villain. I actually stuck with the series just to see how that storyline was going to play out because I sort of thought of myself as a Mary Marvel fan. I don’t any more. It’ll be good to see her smacked down.
Wonder Woman’s just the one I want to see do it, but it looks like it’ll likely be Supergirl instead. Whatever happens in Final Crisis, it promises to be really interesting. According to Grant Morrison:
Supergirl and Mary Marvel are in it. They have a big climatic battle to decide how femininity should be portrayed in superhero comics!
Wonder Woman already has problems of her own by that point. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman get targeted by the New Gods pretty quickly. Those are the first big targets that the Gods have to bring down but you’ll see Wonder Woman’s confrontation with Mary in #3.
I don’t think I like Wonder Woman’s being left out of the “battle to decide how femininity should be portrayed in superhero comics,” but Morrison’s even attempting such a fight is interesting enough a concept that I have to see how it goes.
End of the Century
I’m not in love with that cover, but Chris Roberson’s novel sounds interesting. It involves three different stories — a medieval fantasy, a Victorian mystery, and a modern-day jewel heist— that alternate throughout the book and then begin to come together as the characters uncover the secrets that connect King Arthur, Jack the Ripper, and a priceless gem.
Hobbit casting no-brainer
More exciting than the news that Guillermo del Toro will be directing The Hobbit is confirmation that Ian McKellen will reprise his role as Gandalf. What I’m really curious about though is who’s playing Bilbo. I’d love to see them do something that’s visually consistent with the flashback scenes from Fellowship of the Ring, but I can’t imagine them doing a whole movie with Ian Holm made up to look younger.
Neverwhere: The Play
Did you know there’s a theatrical version of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere? Here’s pictures to prove it. (Via.)
Filed Under azrael, batman, dinosaurs, giant monsters, gorillas, horror, mary marvel, mystery, steve niles, zatanna
I’m still catching up on the solicitations for upcoming comics. I was just going to stick this in the Awesome List below, but dang if there aren’t a lot of interesting comics coming from DC in May.
In no particular order:
House of Mystery #1
There aren’t many people I’d trust to make an ongoing horror anthology series interesting, but Bill Willingham is one of them. Especially since he and co-writer Matt Sturges aren’t doing a real anthology so much as they are a series of tales with a connected, mystery metastory running through them. Or something like that.
It’s still really risky business, but like I said, I trust Willingham enough to give it a serious look.
Justice League Unlimited #45
I don’t usually read this comic, but it’s got Mary Marvel on the cover with a gorilla who’s holding some kind of superscience device. Time to see if this compares well to Marvel’s Marvel Adventures comics that I love so very truly.
Detective Comics #844
All I need to know is that Zatanna’s on the cover.
Gotham Underground #8
I’m gonna have to flip through this one in the store, but Azrael’s sort of appearance on the cover is getting me to at least pick it up. I fully expect him to appear in flashback or something, which means I’ll be leaving it on the shelf.
Batman: Gotham After Midnight #1
Steve Niles and Kelley Jones on an ongoing about Batman’s “bizarre and frightening case files” featuring grave-robbers and man-made monsters. DC just made me a regular reader of a Batman comic again.
Tor #1
This is another one I’m going to have to flip through. I absolutely love Joe Kubert’s art, but the blurb bothers me a little by focusing a lot on Tor’s struggle with existential questions. Not that I’m at all against having some deeper subject matter, but I want to see him struggle more with giant crocodiles than the meaning of life.
The War That Time Forgot #1
This sounds like a no-brainer. “A lone USAF pilot, about to warn his superiors of the attack on Pearl Harbor, finds his craft suddenly crash-landing on a mysterious island populated with prehistoric creatures and soldiers of wars of the past, present and future – including Tomahawk, Firehair, and Hans Von Hammer, the Enemy Ace! What bizarre force has compelled these military masters of every era to inhabit the same strange territory? Can they survive without killing each other or being devoured by dinosaurs?”
The only problem is that it’s written by Bruce Jones, a guy who’s sometimes taken awesome concepts and turned them into solemn, weighty stories. Again, I’m all for adding strong characterization and profound themes to all the historical soldiers vs. dinosaurs action. Let’s just make sure that it’s only Time and not the writer who forgets the War.
Filed Under black canary, gorillas, island adventure, jungle, mary marvel, scifi, vampires
Okay, seriously. My name is Michael May and I’m a Gonzalesaholic. Thing is, I don’t wanna get better.
I mean really. He draws Black Canary, Mary Marvel, lots of hot tiki island girls, jungle girls, space women; even Josie and the Pussycats. And flying freaking vampire apes.
I am… in awe.
Filed Under black canary, frankenstein, mary marvel, wonder woman
Experience the Wonder
Experience the Wonder, a new website dedicated to displaying Wonder Woman merchandise, went live yesterday. It’s a lot of fun to browse, because they’ve got everything from key chains to candy canes.
Seriously. Wonder Woman candy canes. And there’s more stuff coming.
Mary Marvel vs. Supergirl!
Grant Morrison talks about the upcoming Final Crisis mini-series here. I wasn’t sure I was interested in reading it until I got to this part:
Q: Who are some of the other major players, beyond the New Gods and some of the other characters you’ve mentioned?
A: Superman and Batman, obviously, are going to be a big deal. Wonder Woman is a big deal. The Question. Frankenstein. Mary Marvel… we’re going to take what’s been happening to Mary Marvel beyond all acceptable limits. I think fanboys should enjoy that one. There’s going to be a big definitive battle between Supergirl and Mary Marvel. Some seriously badass super-animals…
Wonder Woman’s costume isn’t as iconic as you might think.
I mean, when people think that this person is dressed as Wonder Woman, they obviously haven’t seen so much as an episode of the TV show, much less eaten a Wonder Woman candy cane.
Because I wasn’t enough of a girl already.
Now I have to buy a Barbie doll. The one on the left, naturally.
Filed Under 30 days of night, cthulhu, dinosaurs, hitchcock, indiana jones, jericho, keira knightley, mary marvel, spiderwick chronicles, steve niles, wonder woman
I know what I’m buying at the grocery store tonight.
Vanity Fair’s Hollywood Issue featuring reshoots of Hitchcock movies with modern stars.
Curious about Spiderwick again
My interest in The Spiderwick Chronicles was slipping, but Neil Gaiman and family give it a thumbs up and that’s a high recommendation even when the review is simply, “I really enjoyed (it).”
30 Days of Night movie contest
Win a buttload of stuff related to the 30 Days of Night movie.
From the “I Wish I’d Thought of That” Dept.
T-Rex vs. Kitty! And don’t bet too quickly on the dinosaur.
Lolthulhu
UR Soul. I Has It.
Obedience
Bookgasm’s on a roll lately with adding stuff to my Wish List. The latest is Will Lavender’s Obedience, a thriller about a college professor who challenges students to unravel clues in order to save a girl who may or may not be hypothetical.
Indy trailer update
Someone commented here that the Indy trailer “will be broadcast Feb. 14 on Good Morning America, sometime between 8-9 am. It will then be available online at the official site.” The press release is also up at IndianaJones.com again (if it ever went away).
Jericho cast appearance update
Got an email with the following update about the cast members who’ll be appearing at the Los Angeles Comicbook and Science Fiction Convention this Sunday:
“Appearing on the CBS-TV Jericho panel at 2:00 P.M. will be stars Esai Morales (joining the series in season two as Major Beck), Kenneth Mitchell (Eric Green), Brad Beyer (Stanley Richmond), Alicia Coppola (Mimi Clark), Jonathan E. Steinberg (Co-Creator of Jericho), Executive Producer Carol Barbee, Co-Executive Producers Karim Zreik and Dan Shotz. At 1:00 P.M. there will be a advance screening of the next week’s episode of Jericho.”
So, no Skeet, but not a bad lineup at all. Especially with Stanley and Mimi. I love those kids.
Reptisaurus
Someone’s making a movie out of an old Charlton comic about a giant monster. It doesn’t sound very good.
Of course I’m going to see it.
Weekly Wonder Woman comic
Not really, but almost. DC’s announced that their next attempt at a weekly comic will be called Trinity and will feature Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman.
This one bodes well for me, I think. I enjoyed 52, but would’ve liked it more if it had featured more heavily characters I already cared about. Countdown should’ve had a leg up on 52 in that regard by co-starring Mary Marvel, but as everyone has pointed out, it’s too tied into 600 other series to be enjoyable on its own. I’ve taken to skimming through issues at the store and only buying them if there seems to be development in the Mary Marvel plot.
Trinity promises to fix both of those things by a) featuring Wonder Woman, and b) not being tied to other events in the DC Universe.
