GHOST WRITES

Tag: dc-comics

  • Amalgam-Tober Day 14: The Great Catch-Up

    Amalgam-Tober Day 14: The Great Catch-Up

    Today is slightly different, since network issues prohibited me from posting two days in the past week, I hereby put the articles for those days here. Including today’s post of course.

    Day 11: Spider-Man 2099

    Some of these have been, with the risk of sounding cocky, very clever. Putting together unlikely pair-ups and coming up with clever names. Some of these are downright obvious though, this being one of those. Putting Spider-Man 2099 and Batman Beyond together is a no-brainer. Quite truthfully it’s a shame they’ve never done it before. The similarities don’t just boil down to being future versions of the biggest character of their respective publisher, it’s also about aesthetics, about that Blade Runner infused world building and about that similar standoffishness that both characters share. Terry and Miguel are both cool guys, hotheaded and maybe don’t start off as morally righteous as their counterparts did, but their stories are about them morphing into something better. 

    The big difference between Miguel and Terry is their training, more specifically a lack of a trainer. Terry has Bruce by his side on every adventure, Terry knows about Batman and his past while Miguel barely acknowledges Peter’s existence. He’s not doing this to step into Peter’s footsteps and live up to his legacy, he doesn’t even really have a legacy to live up to. That’s where my new origin for this version comes in: I want a Batman who has to basically figure out a completely new way of being Batman, no training from an old Bruce, he can only take from the myth of the Batman.

    That’s how we start this out. Terry O’Hara, running from a group of crazed Mayhem crooks (who’ve dedicated their life to causing as much chaos as possible in honor of Mayhem, the leader of their old clown gang), tries to find a hiding spot among the old abandoned remnants of the Gotham Manor. But when he steps on a wrong wooden plank invested by Woodrot his entire body comes crashing down through the floor, tumbling all the way into a secret cave filled with old technology. That’s when he finds the last Batman suit made by his predecessor, waiting for him in a bright blue storage room. In an effort to protect himself from the goons still after him, Terry puts on the suit and becomes the Batman of 2099.

    Terry knows of Batman, but it’s been so long since he’s last donned the suit (I imagine Batman retiring in the early 2000s to stay truthful to that original time gap from the 2099 comics) that there just isn’t that much record of him left. Barely any videos or images left and definitely no living heirs to tell the tale. Terry is forced to base his fighting style and overall demeanor as Batman on that off old tales from stuffy books and on real bats instead. 

    This version of Batman would be meaner and scarier, he’d live in the shadows and combined with his stealth suit and claws, people would think he’s a genuine monster for his first years as The Bat. But that’s what he has to overcome to become the greatest hero the Amalgam Universe has ever seen.

    Day 12: The Bat Without Fear

    A few days ago, when I first showed off my design for the Knight Without Fear, I talked about how much I wanted to amalgamate Daredevil and Batman in some form. The two just fit so well together that making 31 of these and ignoring such a solid idea would just be a waste. I finally found my angle when I did my version of Old Man Matt and Old Man Bruce together as one but that was not my first attempt… this is.

    The Bat Without Fear is a combination of Batwoman and The Woman Without Fear, aka Elektra from Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil run. The latter is one of my favorite recent additions to the Marvel Universe so I’m always contemplating putting her in projects like these and now I finally have a reason to do so. 

    Like Batman and Daredevil, Batwoman and this version of Elektra are two sides of the same coin. They are astoundingly similar in so many ways; from the simple fact that they’re both legacy characters to the fact that they’re both sporting a red and black color scheme with a big bush of hair sticking out of their masks, the more you think about the better these two fit. 

    The design ended up being pretty tough to nail but I feel I managed okay. Elements that I felt had to be incorporated were the Bat-Logo obviously as well as Elektra’s beautiful curls that seem to almost be alive if they’re drawn by Checchetto. The weaponry was also very fun to develop, with the Batsai being one of my favorite things I’ve thought of since starting this challenge. I’ve really been trying to differentiate each drawing and try new ways of getting my final look across and this one shows that off to a tee. Here I ditched the usual look of these posts with something more concept-Art like. Separating costume and head is a good shot for a design like this.

    Day 14: Soldier Of Tomorrow

    Drifting through the cosmos, surrounded by the rubble of a dead planet, Kara Zor-El breathes her last breaths. Her lungs filling with blood, her skin on fire and her ripped apart left arm aching as memories of her time on Krypton try to push away the pain and anguish, keeping her eyes from gazing at the dead floating relatives surrounding her. She closes her eyes knowing the inevitable is finally here… Brainiac.

    Making an Amalgam oftentimes means finding characters that share similar aesthetics or gimmicks or powers or whatever, but a really good Amalgam looks past all that and finds characters that would never fit together but are still intrinsically the same: Supergirl and Winter Soldier are such characters. Most people would assume a character like Red Hood would pair well with Winter Soldier, rightfully so: they are very similar. And Supergirl might fit well with powerhouse characters like Captain Marvel and such. But when you think about it, their origin is so similar. They are old – familiar faces, returning from the past with a heap of emotional baggage. But where Kara’s story usually ends in her escaping from the Kryptonian wreckage and landing on Earth, mine goes into a different direction.

    When Kara wakes up she doesn’t even remember her own name. She’s a husk of what’s been, overcome by Brainiac’s programming and turned into his personal attack dog. Her design is a mix of Winter Soldier’s tactical gear and samples of the super-aesthetic. The torn cape still has the mark of El scorched into the back while the one on her chest is replaced by Brainiac Particles (though still in that familiar Crest-Shape). The particles also help generate the necessary energy to sustain her cybernetically enhanced arm, One that has more blood on it then some small planets have culminated over their entire existence. She sports a domino mask to hide her red laser eyes and a face-guard to conceal her kryptonian heritage, especially now that Brainiac has sent her on her most dangerous mission. Go to Earth and kill the last remaining family she has…

    I really think these two fit well together and I hope I’ve convinced you of the same. Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow.

  • Amalgam-Tober Day 7: Harley “The Clown” Wilson

    Amalgam-Tober Day 7: Harley “The Clown” Wilson

    It took me a weird amount of time to come up with this one, seeing as the idea seems so obvious now that I have. Both crazy, both lethal, a shared love for black and red color schemes with a knack for clownery and a complete dominance over 2016’s pop culture landscape (seriously how many Harley Quinn and Deadpool costumes were sold in 2016? One billion? Two?) – Deadpool and Harley are a perfect amalgamation. Both of them also never really had a fair shot during the original Amalgam Universe, yeah they do have amalgam versions of themselves, but neither had yet to be as immensely popular as they are now. 

    The design for this one was maybe the easiest time I’ve had with one of these while also coming out the cleanest. The two costumes already compliment each other so well it felt hard to mess up. I tried out some more action poses, especially trying to incorporate a big mallet into the final piece but it quickly became clear to me that I wanted this to be precise, clear and clean. 

    For a character biography I don’t have anything super clever. Harley Wilson, a young woman who wants to follow her fathers footsteps and join the army, is forced to become a government psychiatrist, treating soldiers and POWs alike when she doesn’t get accepted into the army for being “too weak”. Jealous and envious of her clients, she becomes enamored with two of the most brutal soldiers who’ve ever lived; Logan Wayne and Creed Quinn. She slowly loses herself in this obsession and, with inside knowledge of the government’s now-disbanded Weapon X program, obtains a vial of both their blood and injects it into herself – giving her great healing abilities. 

    Now, with her obsession of the two men at an all time high and her powers finally giving her the power to do anything she’s ever wanted. She tracks the two men down and tries to befriend them, knowing full well they’re now mortal enemies. This is where I want to mirror some of their main-line-continuity counterparts; Darkclaw is completely irked by her, in the same vein that Logan is irked by Wade – But The Hyena is smitten by the attention and kind of takes her under his wing like Joker does Harley. This also creates a fun dynamic where Hyena has this sidekick with him that – while sharing his obsession for Darkclaw – does not share his bloodlust, and will always avoid killing Darkclaw if Hyena gets too close (I also imagine that sort of ends in a similar way that the mainline Harley and Joker ends with her becoming more of her own character and splitting from Hyena).

    This is one of my favorites I’ve done just because it’s so perfectly simple. The design and the backstory just came out in one go and I really enjoy that. Thanks for reading and hope you come back for tomorrow’s entry.

  • Amalgam-Tober Day 1: Access

    Amalgam-Tober Day 1: Access

    It’s Day One of AmalgamTober, with our first entry this month being ACCESS, the only Marvel and DC Co-Owned character that’s ever existed. Obviously it’s not ideal to start AMALGAM-tober with a character that is not an Amalgamation, but why not start my homage to the Amalgam Universe by honoring this little known anomaly!

    When I started this drawing I expected to go with a more civilian outfit – I had imagined giving him this letterman jacket with a big A on the chest. Cheesy, I know, but felt fitting for his enormous cornball energy. But after finalising my rough sketch I realized there really wasn’t that much interesting going on so I tried something more striking instead. Another idea I started with that did make it to the final piece, although it’s all a little less clear because I decided to color the whole thing in red and blue and nothing else, was the fact that Axel has Heterochromia. One of his eyes is blue while the other one is red – not just because it’s aesthetically pleasing but I also imagined it as a sort of physical representation of him being able to see into both realities. Easily hopping between dimension whenever he’s needed.

    Why did I decide to draw Axel to start this challenge? I don’t know. But I do know how vital he is to my pitch for a potential new DC / Marvel Crossover. This idea has fleshed itself out more and more as I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking, living, and breathing Marvel and DC crossovers – so why not just go ahead and post it. Now I won’t post all of it at once, I need a little more time to write it all out, but I will incrementally over the coming month drop more chapters to flesh the whole thing out.

    Anyway thank you for checking out Day One of this challenge – Hope I get to see you tag along over the coming weeks because I have some really fun pieces coming up that I’m very proud of! See you tomorrow!

  • DC Studios’ Missing Piece – And How To Fix It!

    DC Studios’ Missing Piece – And How To Fix It!

    The DCU has started. With the release of “Superman”, James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new cinematic DC Universe has finally and properly gotten off the ground (quite literally, Superman flies around – get it?). And as the future of the studio becomes clearer with each passing day – as more of these projects get the greenlight – it’s also quite apparent that one side of the DC universe seems to be largely ignored. Where is the magic? For a slate of films titled “Gods and Monsters” there is shockingly little magic to be found in the upcoming roster, even though it’s a force that bonds the gods and monsters together in a major way. 

    Magic has been a long time fixture in DC comics, spawning fan favorite characters, teams and books. DC’s magical side exploded into popularity under the Vertigo publishing line, putting out some of the most creative, critically acclaimed and successful books the company has ever seen and is to this day one of the most fertile grounds for groundbreaking storytelling. Magic bleeds into almost every facet of the DC universe; Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, hell even the Flash, they all deal with magic on a (semi) regular basis. But looking at the slate of projects currently worked on over at WB it seems that a magic focused project isn’t really at the forefront yet. Yes, Magical characters will show up in some of the projects announced to be in production so far, I’m sure of that – Updates on the project have been sparse since its announcement but James Mangold’s Swamp Thing surely deals with magic in some capacity, the Paradise Lost show (which will definitely morph into a Wonder Woman: Historia project by-the-way) has to feature heaps of magic if it wants to be faithful to its source material and Circe already showed magical prowess in Creature Commandos – yet none of those projects put the magicians in the lead. A weird phenomenon given how much excitement there is about these characters. 

    Many magical DC-characters could lend themselves well to a solo big-screen adventure or a big-budget-miniseries on HBO MAX; Constantine is a fan favorite, so is Zatanna, Dr. Fate is already a familiar face for audiences (that is, at least to all twelve people that saw Black Adam), Hell, you could even put them all together in a little team-up and you finally get yourself a nice Justice League Dark project. But while there are many cool and exciting possibilities we could talk about today, there is one DC book that would make for a perfect exploration to this side of DC’s mythos. The highly underrated 1990 miniseries “Books Of Magic”. 

    BOOKS OF MAGIC

    Books of Magic is a 4 issue miniseries created by Neil Gaiman, John Bolton, Charles Vess, Paul Johnson, and Scott Hampton, that introduces Tim Hunter to the DC universe, a young boy destined to become a great and powerful wizard, but whose future is still left uncertain as forces of both good and evil pine for his soul. When evil mystic forces want to corrupt Tim and turn him over to the dark side of magic, a group of mystical detectives, referred to as the Trenchcoat Brigade, come together to guide Tim on a journey that will decide not just his future, but also that of the entire DC universe. The brigade, consisting of Doctor Occult, Mister E, Phantom Stranger and fan favorite John Constantine, take Tim on a journey that has him interact with almost every notable mystic in the DC universe. All of the characters that I mentioned as potential tv-and-movie-leads cross paths with Tim, as well as a bunch of others including The Endless and Madame Xanadu. This, to me, lends itself perfectly to a prestige 5 or 6 episode miniseries for HBO MAX.

    This book is such a good choice for the start of this new universe for one reason; Tim. Tim is a perfect audience surrogate, he is learning all of these crazy new secrets about the world on his journey through the past, present and future, just like the audience is doing. We introduce this world through his eyes and we can organically explain and define what magic is in this universe without it feeling forced or boring. Things never get too big for Tim, so they don’t get too big for audiences either. This is even more fitting when you realize just how well established the DCU already is. There are all these things already going on, so many stories have already happened, and Tim learning about this whole new secret layer to all of that would be an identical position to the audience.

    But the reasons why don’t end there.

    Paired up with Tim is the aforementioned Trenchcoat Brigade, a collection of characters who lend themselves well to the story we want to tell here. One of them, John Constantine, is a fan favorite character that can pull in a large number of viewers, making this a good creative idea as well as a business strategy – and while the other three are admittedly much more niche, that has never been a problem for Gunn’s productions. If anything Gunn thrives using these characters, I’m sure a realized version of this idea would see these three characters slightly tweaked and morphed into perfect versions for this type of story at the hands of Gunn, Safran and whoever else they’d bring in to produce this story (Ideally that person would be me, they should bring in me, I will send you my phone number, James).

    The original book sees Tim pair up with a new member of the brigade every issue, creating four distinct adventures over the course of four issues that explore the past, present and future of the DC universe as well as several adjacent realms. While this four part structure works perfectly for the original comic book, adapting it to a HBO-like-format would require an extra episode or two, Fleshing out the world, characters and mostly Tim with more detail compared to the original mini-series – Luckily for you, I also know just how to do that. Bring in Zatanna.

    Those of you who happen to have read the original 4 issue run know that the second issue takes place in the present day – as Constantine takes Tim through the modern-day DC universe and has him interact with this large cast of familiar faces. Among that cast of characters is Zatanna, who second only to Constantine himself, is probably the most well known magic user DC has in their roster. In the book, right after meeting up with her, Constantine is suddenly called away to go do something else, leaving Tim behind in Zatanna’s home. The two characters then have their own little adventure which, while I think it works very well in the book, needs to be remodeled for an adaptation like this. This is the part of the book where the show needs to kind of diverge from its source material and make Zatanna and Tim’s journey an entire episode in-and-of-itself – compared to the last pages of a different story. This could be ideal for a few reasons: Zatanna is a big deal in the comics, she’s a lot of fun and people are very aware of her already – even if she’s never been featured in a live action film adaptation. Giving her this little moment in the spotlight would make fans very happy, plus it would give us a different angle to approach the whole Tim mentorship with. Zatanna isn’t like any of the other members of the trenchcoat brigade, she would bring a unique maturity and kindness to TIm’s journey that I feel could mean a lot for him and dictate which side of the coin the young boy ends up choosing. She, because of her heritage and who her father was, has also been thrust into the world without really having a say in it, which is a great point to explore between the two. Also, Most of those big players in DC’s magic world, those who we will want to see more of in the DCU going forward (Like Deadman, who’s already been teased by Gunn on Instagram) appear in that second issue, so giving that part of the book a little bit more time to breathe could benefit audiences greatly. This is what we want from an interconnected universe like this, getting to know this wide tapestry of characters bit by bit. Plus, and let’s be honest here, Constantine will be the main draw of the show, no matter how good every other aspect is, audiences will be drawn to him first, by splitting his story up into multiple parts and injecting Zatanna in between those, fans will get to see a lot more of this fan favorite character.

    There is material for an additional sixth episode as well to be found in the last issue of the book. While I would in no way shape or form suggest that the ending to the original miniseries isn’t great, it’s one of the most unique and engaging endings of the Vertigo era, it might lack a little bit of flashiness for a big budget TV show. I don’t want to spoil what happens in the fourth issue (read Books of Magic if you haven’t) so this next bit might sound a little vague, but you could extend the material from the fourth issue into two episodes. Tim and Mister E travel through the future by foot until they arrive at the end of everything, the death of the universe and the death of Destiny. This climactic issue is filled with wild visuals and manages to surprise the reading audience by revealing a major twist right near the finish line. Using this twist to split this last issue in half would give this part of the story – one overflowing with lore, visuals and action –  some much needed breathing room and help audiences stomach the insanity that is present in the final stretch of Tim’s journey.

    If you’re curious about the book and want to delve deeper into it, I highly recommend checking it out. Though I must also address that, while the book is great and a LOT of writers and artists have left their fingerprint on it, it is a Neil Gaiman book – and that could be an issue for some people. I know it was a weird moment to be writing this article (I’d completed work on it several weeks before the Gaiman allegations came out but was waiting on a good moment to share this when that article was released about him), I just hope the book can still get its moment in the sun for those who worked on it that aren’t literal monsters. So fuck Neil Gaiman!

    Do you have any future DCU projects you’d like to see? Put them in the comments because I’d love to hear it. And would you be interested to see more magic in the DCU? Make sure to follow Ghost-Writes for more articles about DC studios, DC comics and a whole lot more geeky topics!

  • Iron Man V Superman: Starting a Cinematic Universe

    Iron Man V Superman: Starting a Cinematic Universe

    LOOK UP! It is finally upon us. The Summer of Superman is reaching new heights as audiences slowly but surely flock into theaters to watch James Gunn’s “Superman” film. A weirdly momentous moment for a whole platitude of reasons. Of course for starters: Hopefully it’ll turn the public’s perception of the blue boy scout around after a few years of middling wide-spread success – but, maybe more importantly, it’ll also kickstart a brand new Cinematic-Superhero-Universe, something DC, under the WB umbrella, has been trying to accomplish for a decade now. After their first attempt slowly fizzled out into increasingly confusing course corrections, leaving the entire brand tarnished in a ditch, James Gunn now holds the reins to the DC universe and his take on the “Man Of Tomorrow” is set to start it all off in a big way. But is “Superman” enough to get audiences back to the big screen for one of comics’ oldest and most iconic universes? Having seen it, I am not so sure…

    Before I get into why, maybe we should look back to the past, back to where it all began. Back to 2008. Back to Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man”. The movie that started it all – the movie that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a monumental achievement in blockbuster film-making that studios have tried – and failed – to replicate ever since. The MCU seems to be this unobtainable gem to these conglomerate studios, time and time again they try to launch their own universes, releasing spin-offs and remakes and big-budget-blockbusters to absolutely no success. Valiant comics tried to start up a universe with Vin Diesel’s “Bloodshot” film – an attempt so laughable I had to take a minute to recoup after finishing typing the previous sentence. Sony Pictures really did try their hardest to make the SPUMM universe work (Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Movies) – releasing a whole slate of critically, and often commercially, panned films for almost a decade – and Universal will always live in infamy over their Dark Universe announcement photo. Yet Marvel somehow managed to avoid that, they managed to create this incredible sprawling universe, surviving even after steadily releasing unimaginable levels of MID for half-a-decade.

    DC does have a lot of good faith going for it at the moment, it seems like audiences are excited to see more of this universe and “Superman” is projected to do good; this is the closest I think we’ve ever gotten to a studio replicating that MCU formula for success. Yet it’s the general audiences that need to be onboard the most, and that’s where I’m afraid “Superman” will lose people. 

    Gunn’s “Superman” is a comic book movie. It is the silver age brought to life, not only in design and feel but also in story structure. The entire thing plays out like a series single issues played in rapid succession, you can almost see where each issue would end and the next would start if this were a 6 issue mini-series instead of a big Hollywood blockbuster; a quality the film both suffers from as it does excel in. Because yes, it’s so refreshing to see a movie actually respect this medium that is often only used to be gutted for parts and “inspiration” – giving us scenes that feel like their ripped straight out of a comic book – silliness and wackiness included, yet it can also feel out of place at times. All the wackiness takes up screen time that I would’ve personally much rather seen used on other more important things like… I don’t know… characterization maybe!

    CHARACTERIZATION

    See, when a comic book consistently throws characters at me like Guy Gardner, Hawkgirl, Mr Terrific or even Jimmy Olsen, I’m totally down to roll with that. I know what I can and need to expect in a big-two/canon comic book – them’s the rules and I love the medium for it – but that is a completely different way of storytelling, the medium makes that work, when you apply that same story-structure to the first movie of your big franchise it becomes convoluted, stuffed to the brim with characters that I cannot imagine general audiences would be into at first glance. I’ve seen many people compare the films narrative to that of a random single issue in a 30+ issue comic book run and I totally get that, there’s so much lore and story that is only being hinted at or referred to but never actually shown that it can become convoluted – even for someone like me, who is aware of all this stuff on a not-so-normal level.

    Here’s where Iron Man comes in. Iron Man is a comic book film, yes; it has most of the things that make Iron Man who he is and is as faithful as I think time allowed it to be. But it is also a movie. It’s a film that uses the language and structure of said medium to adapt the comics – and I don’t think “Superman” does the same. “Superman” is so faithful to the comic book medium that, at times, it ends up feeling like less of a movie because of it. At times it can feel more like a series of Rick and Morty episodes strung together, with all the characters and all the different settings pulling the movie in so many different directions making the entire thing feel messy and detached from one-another. 

    Imagine a version of Iron Man 2008, with the same cast and the same runtime, but it also includes Whiplash and The Crimson Dynamo as henchmen for Obadiah Stane. That’d already be a pretty stacked film right? But then, when Iron Man keeps running into the West Coast Avengers for some reason, things become even more convoluted. Instead of the great moments between Tony and Rhodey, you’d instead get a scene where Tigra rips apart bad guys or instead of getting the cheeseburger scene with Happy and Tony, Hawkeye shows up instead to get made fun of for his bow and arrow skills. Yeah it’s fun on paper but when you think of what you get instead – what these characters are replacing in the runtime – you realize it might not make for a more satisfying final product. “Superman” is that film.

    Take the Daily Planet. A staple of the Superman mythos attached to a plethora of iconic side characters to the Superman expanded cast and vital to understanding the character of Clark Kent. I was so excited to see what Gunn was cooking with the Daily Planet. All the casting was great, I know Gunn can handle a group of big colorful characters like the Daily Planet crew and we’ve been sorely lacking a nice faithful adaptation of this side of the DC world for decades now. Yet, in the final film, they’re kind of… absent. Sure yeah they’re in the film and they have like a funny scene… but that is it. They have a scene. One maybe two scenes dedicated to the entire group. They are not in it nearly enough for how important their subplot is to the main story. Most egregious of all, one member of the Daily Planet, maybe the most vital member, is only in the film for about 2 minutes total (if not less)…  and that is Clark Kent. 

    Yes, Clark Kent is in the film for mere moments. The rest of the film is entirely dedicated to Superman. In a way I can appreciate that the film doesn’t ever make the audience believe Clark and Superman are different characters – Clark is Clark, no matter if he wears the costume or the glasses – yet characters in the film don’t know that obviously. There is an entire investigation in the film led by Lois and Jimmy that then directly ties into the final act of the film and guess what! Clark does not help a single bit. He’s so absent from the Daily Planet no one is even really concerned about him not being there. The entirety of Metropolis is evacuated in the third act, the whole crew evacuate the Daily Planet building together (that’s the only scene in the film that features them all interacting by the way) and no one is like… “Where’s Clark?”. Not a funny remark from Steve calling Clark a wuss for sitting this out or Perry White yelling out for him during the commotion. No, Kent’s presence is barely acknowledged throughout the whole film? WHY? Because instead I’m watching this weird alien creature Lex Luthor created for some reason. There’s a huge disconnect between plotline: Superman and plotline: Daily Planet – which makes the latter feel weirdly inconsequential given how much it ties into the third act. 

    And it’s not like the Justice Gang gets enough shine because of it. The exact same issues I have with the Daily Planet arise with the Justice Gang. I know nothing about these characters, about what makes them tick, what they’re like and what having them here adds to the final story beyond what I already knew about them going in. Yes, Mr. Terrific leaves a lasting impression sure, but I wouldn’t say he’s a really fleshed put character. Again, general audiences don’t have the luxury of having comic-book-brain-worms that make you store useless capeshit information in your head like some of us do. They will just be left wondering who they just saw flying around the film without ever getting an answer (until some of these guys ultimately get their own HBO miniseries or whatever). 

    It’s an even bigger shame because Gunn is clearly gifted at characterization. He made audiences fall in love with Rocket Raccoon of all characters and even in this film it’s obvious just how good he is at it. Jimmy is really fun, he might be the only supporting character that actually works in the entire film. There’s also a really nice moment where Perry White listens to Lois’ story as the entire office melts down in a panic. Character beats like that work so well but the movie just doesn’t have enough of those moments to engage you fully. 

    INTENT V EXPECTATION

    But where I think Iron Man and Superman differ the most, where I think these films’ paths leading to Cinematic Universes diverge most is with Intent and with Expectation. Superman is being released in a completely different cultural landscape compared to Iron man. The movie industry, fandom, culture as a whole has so drastically changed since 2008 (a lot of that stemming from the existence of the MCU) and audiences expectations have shifted alongside that change. “Iron Man”, unlike all the other attempts we’ve touched on so far – including “Superman” – didn’t know what it was capable of doing. Not Feige, Not the studios’, not even the audience knew what this could grow into (I’m sure there were hopes and dreams of course, but no one could’ve expected what happened). That’s the difference. Now everyone knows what Superman is gonna become, they know they can expect more – as do the studios and filmmakers. They’re launching a cinematic-universe knowing full well that, post “Guardians Of The Galaxy”, you can get away with putting a bunch of colorful stuff in your film. But I don’t think you wanna start by going at a 100 percent, “Iron Man” barely started at ten and the MCU didn’t go to one-hundred until like 5 years later.

    You need to set that foundation first. You need to grow your world from the characters, not the behind the scenes chitter-chat and background easter eggs – audiences want fully realized main characters and side characters they can really sink their teeth into, that’s how you get them onboard, that is how you get them to come back. Think of that first wave of MCU films and how those side-characters, still to this moment in the MCU, are relevant and fan favorites. Bucky, Pepper, Happy, Loki, Rhodey – these characters are the backbone of the universe and I just don’t think the DC Studios universe is starting off strong in that regard. 

    I’m not just saying this about the DC universe to be a prick, Marvel is suffering from the exact same thing at the moment (fans had to patiently wait on Karen Page to return in the Born Again finally before they could finally get some engaging characters back, for instance). Fact of the matter is I want all of this to succeed. I want to see more DC projects get the greenlight, I wanna see The Justice League finally form in a meaningful way, I want Batman and Superman to team-up for once, I want more deep-cut characters to get solo projects. But it needs to be engaging first which is why I think this start is a little bit rocky. Luckily rocky isn’t disastrous – I’m not trying to bait people and say “JAMES GUNN FAILED, THE DC UNIVERSE IS DEAD, LONG LIVE DADDY FEIGE!!!” – far from it. Like I said, I think the cinematic future of DC is looking incredibly bright and i’m so excited to see more of it, I’ve just been burned so many times – I’ve seen so many off these films underperform and get destroyed by the general public that I really hope Superman comes out of this blockbuster-summer unscathed. 

    What do you think? Did you like Superman? And what’re you hoping to see from the future of DC movies? Let me know in the comments and follow Ghost-Writes wherever you can for more ramblings about DC, Marvel and the rest of the comic book industry.

  • Marvel Premier Format: Why Change A Winning Formula?

    Marvel Premier Format: Why Change A Winning Formula?

    Last year DC comics decided to launch a new printing initiative focused on reprinting their most iconic stories in smaller formats more akin to that of a regular Manga Volume. The much talked about launch was met with wide appraisal and stunning sales that seemed to prove what many consumers had been saying for years; Cheaper and smaller comics will sell better when you put them in more convenient places to buy. It was truly a breath of fresh air in the comics industry, after years of seemingly unresponsive initiatives from publishers it seemed like audiences were finally being listened to and in return DC made a shitload of money. The Compact Comics Initiative seemed to be a win-win for DC and comics as a whole. 

    Later on, Marvel decided that they too were going to jump on this bandwagon with their own line of smaller sized collections of some of their most iconic stories. The first wave of which is releasing this week, including the seminal Daredevil book “Born Again” and the first few issues of Ta Nehisi Coates’ run on Black Panther. Yet, while DC’s compact Comics Launch was hotly anticipated, it seems Marvel’s version isn’t off to such a hot start. I haven’t heard a single person mention these books coming out and I follow a sickening amount of people from the industry. No writer, nor artist, nor editor or journalist that I follow seems to be all that amped up for these books and quite honestly… I can understand why. 

    DC’s Compact Comics were a clear success. Their biggest and best stories for a good price of around 10 bucks and in a size that anyone can take along with them on trips or on their commute to work. It’s genius. Sure, It’s simple. But it’s genius. Yet a formula this simple seems like too much for Marvel Comics to wrap their head around, as they have seemingly decided to not learn a thing from their competitors’ success and instead just do their own baffling thing. 

    First off, Marvel has increased the price of these editions with 5 bucks, making their version of these Compact Comics a much steeper 15 bucks. This increase might not seem like a lot, but you’ll quickly figure out that every cent counts (especially these days) and that the increase seems to be for no logical reason at all. No, instead the price hike seems to be the result of an even dumber change made in sizing. DC’s format sports a nice 5.5” by 8.5” format similar to that of your standard paper novel, while Marvel’s version sports a much taller and wider size of 6” by 9”. That might not seem like much, but those half inches count for a lot. 

    People want to take this with them on the go. You want any random person, if they’re a comic fan or not, to see a book like this on the shelf and pick it up. Size and price are huge factors in this case, they might just be the most important factors. So I truly cannot imagine why Marvel ever assumed hiking both of these aspects up was such a good idea. Now your local 11 year old isn’t going to buy your Black Panther book anymore, he only got 10 bucks of allowance this month, thankfully there is a cool Batman book he can get for that price on the next shelf over. His Mom isn’t picking up your Daredevil book now either because it just doesn’t fit in her purse like her normal novels do. Luckily for her there’s a nicely sized Wonder Woman title on the shelf next to Marvel’s that does fit in her purse. These changes matter. 

    I’m obviously being a little silly here but my point is still clear. The Compact Comics had two huge selling points and Marvel has decided to just sort of ignore that in favor of something worse. Some might say that the price increase isn’t just because of the bigger format, since the book does also include quite some bonus material inside like Mazzucchelli pencils and Miller’s script for the Born Again book. While I’m really glad those extra pages are in there (The fact that Compact Comics got rid of such bonus material bugged me slightly) I don’t believe it should’ve had any real impact on the price. The Compact Watchmen edition included the entire 12 issue run, more than 400 pages, for the same 10 dollar price point as any other Compact edition while Born Again is 5 bucks more yet only has 300 pages. It just does not make sense, no matter how much bonus material is in there. 

    Yet my issues do not just end with the terrible price and size changes, I also think Marvel dropped the ball on their design choices here, mainly those hideous covers. Compact Comics have a very clear look. It’s color coded, sleek and stands out. The bright impact-like font pops out at you when it’s on the shelves and even the spines are eye-catching enough. Marvel opted for a different route. A very boring one. I do not know what the thought process behind the covers is, I imagine it’s an attempt to look more sophisticated since these books are “Premier”, but the end result looks more like a bland textbook you’d carry around in high school. Nothing screams excitement to me, there’s no action on display, no popping colors or iconic covers. Nothing about it is eye-catching. The stark white design and the badly faded out original covers slapped onto the front of the books are ugly and confusing. The thick red border at the bottom is plain and straight up boring to look at as it only highlights the confusing amount of different fonts thrown into your face. The spines are not nearly as striking as its competitors’ version, coming across as the more timid and scared little cousin of DC’s initiative. The cherry on top of this terrible cake is that horrible new Marvel Comics logo (Feige you will rue the day you started striving for brand synergy). 

    I get that Marvel is trying to hone in on a new sort of audience with these books, but I think they’ve forgotten that they’re still a comic book publisher. You can dress up the exterior as clean as possible, but once you crack open that book you will still see men in tights fighting evil villains and their henchmen. It’s okay to be a comic book, it’s okay to exude that fun energy that’s inside these books, that’s what they’re here for. If you’re trying to trick a different audience into buying your book this entire thing is gonna misfire in your face and you’ll be stuck with a few hundred boxes of “Premier” collections instead of the absolute success of the Compact line.

    A big issue with this idea for Marvel is also the type of books they have. DC just has a better library when it comes to stand alone minis that make for great material for these sorts of Collections. Marvel doesn’t really have their own version of “Batman Year One” or “Watchmen”. They have iconic, long running story arcs that you can’t squeeze into a format like this. The general audience outside of comics have always had this belief that Comics are this impenetrable web of continuity while that really isn’t the case, but showcasing them the first few issues of a 25 issue long run isn’t gonna calm their fears on that front. 

    I get that this isn’t the fault of the format. It’s really nobody’s fault. But it is a shame that Marvel didn’t even try to find more than one stand alone book at launch. Born Again is a great pick for an initiative like this. It’s singular, it’s popular and it’s coming out at a time when the words “Daredevil: Born Again” are plastered on posters across the entire globe. That’s smart marketing, and something DC doesn’t have to benefit from – not yet at least. Marvel truly has the characters to rival DC. Yes, they might have Batman and Superman – characters who’s name will forever be ingrained into our collective consciousness – but ever since the MCU, Marvel has really made some minor characters into household names. An Iron Man Premier edition would sell just as well as one of Batman’s compact editions, trust me on that, you just have to pick the right Iron Man story.

    Do I think this is gonna do well? Not particularly. Do I hope it’s gonna do well? Obviously. I love comics, the entire reason I started this page was to hopefully get some new people riled up about this industry the way I am, so if this initiative sticks I’d be happy to swallow my words. It’s not like everything is terrible about these books, the quality of the paper is really nice. The printing is wonderful and really does justice to Mazzucchelli and Scheele’s original coloring. Again, putting bonus material in there is lovely and a great way to get people familiar with the artists making this stuff behind the scenes, as they can often be overlooked by the general audience. I just hope Marvel manages to course correct over the next few months and have a nicer, more affordable set of books available come Christmas time.  

    What do you think of this new initiative? And are you planning on checking out any of the releases this week? Let us know on the socials and be sure to follow us as we’ll be delving into the future of Marvel’s Premier Collection and trying to find which books deserve to be published in this format as well.