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Showing posts with label MCU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MCU. Show all posts
Parodies Refrained
When a friend demanded a complete version of my “Yoda Clone” lyrics back in 2019,
I replied that I’m a fan of Jorge Luis Borges — the magical-realist, postmodernist master known to reference and review books that didn’t actually exist.
Like many others throughout cyberspace, I enjoy creating images of merch for imaginary movies, etc. Just a snippet of and/or allusion to a work not fully realized can be as satisfying as, if not more satisfying than, making or experiencing the entire work itself. Plus, I simply don’t have enough mental bandwidth and time, so my choice is usually to cobble together either a little bit or nothing.
The problem comes when I get a brainstorm and then let what I’ve sketched out sit
for a while expecting that I’ll bring it to fruition. Lots of Top X lists and mashup ideas languish unfinished in virtual folders, some of whose inspirations have long since left the zeitgeist.
Here are three parody choruses that I doubt will ever go any further. You’ll note that one springboards from much older material than the others, comics I’ve been reading to follow another blog’s reviews — where the mantra in the panel depicted is alternately referred to as a chant and an oath. Moreover, it’s based on a much older song, and its tune has been used here before in my extra look at Lost’s “Nowhere Man” way back in 2010.
Oh, Snap
Up now at my website The Comicologist is an article that I wrote on Thanos for the magazine ACE back in 2015.
Panels from The Infinity Gauntlet #1 © 1991 Marvel Comics. Pencils: George Pérez.
Inks: Josef Rubinstein & Tom Christopher. Colors: Christie Scheele & Ian Laughlin.
I’ve posted a version with images and one without, since the former is rather heavy on the graphics. That’s due in part to the article’s length, which in turn is a consequence of the breadth of the character’s publication history — or vice versa. You might want to wait to read it until after you see Avengers: Endgame if you’re not already familiar with the comics, although my guess is that any spoilers pertain more to last year’s Infinity War.
Get Carter Back
ABC finally canceled Marvel’s Agent Carter last week. The short-run winter series, which spelled the fall and spring halves of Agents of SHIELD these past two years, had been a ratings disappointment. Once star Hayley Atwell was cast by the network in a potential regular-season legal drama, now picked up to series, writing met wall.
You can’t entirely blame ABC, who clearly wants to be in business with Atwell.
SHIELD itself hasn’t exactly been a ratings bonanza — due in part to ongoing identity crises, tensions between Marvel’s film and television enterprises that leave the big-screen blockbusters bereft of nearly any reference to (and, thus, what should be no-brainer promotion of) the show, and the general demands that “peak TV” has put on viewers’ time. I’ve enjoyed both SHIELD and Carter, however, even as what they do well makes my frustration over what they could be doing better all the greater.
Make Like a Tree
Groot might have been the breakout star of this past summer. I suppose to a broader extent he’s one half of it — er, them — as part of a tandem with his pal Rocket. Or perhaps the honor goes to the entire headlining quintet of Guardians of the Galaxy.
Cover of Tales to Astonish #13 [digital] © 1960 and Groot TM Marvel
Comics. Pencils: Jack Kirby. Inks: Steve Ditko. Colors: Stan
Goldberg. Letters: Artie Simek. Script: Stan Lee.
Panel to Frame
My reviews of Fox’s Gotham and The CW’s newly expanding Arrow/Flash
universe would be up by now had I not started tinkering with images to accompany them. Which is how these happened.
Superman
Inset: Detail of cover to Action Comics #1 © 1938 DC Comics.
Photo: Still from Superman Returns © 2006 Warner Bros. Entertainment.
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Huston, We Have Amalgam
Just imagine Humphrey Bogart playing Sam Spade as Sam Wilson — a 1941 version
of Sam Wilson, private eye turned Captain America’s unofficial and unorthodox partner.
That’s what I did in this mockup for the mashup Captain America and the Maltese Falcon. Ever since brainstorming the title a couple of years ago for a hashtag game on Twitter, I’ve found its Reese’s Peanut-Butter Cup potential hard to shake.
Which Doctor?
Photo: Steve Brown / BBC © 2014.
The BBC released a promo shot of Peter Capaldi in the outfit he’ll be wearing as the
12th Doctor on Doctor Who last week, and… he reminds me of Doctor Strange.
Hope of Good Capes
I saw the latest Marvel flick this weekend and got into a new version of an old
debate: Thor vs. Superman.
Superhero films during the first three decades of my life were essentially limited
to Superman and then to Batman. A Thor movie, let alone more than one, was all but unthinkable. In my 30s it was pretty much just the Marvel stable and Batman’s resurgence, as Fox launched its X-Men dynasty, Columbia teed up a Spider-Man franchise, and even lesser Marvel-inspired films put DC, sister company to and/or division of Warner years before Marvel was purchased by Disney, in quite the awkward position regarding the dichotomy between its library of legendary characters and lack of live-action achievement.
They’re Magically Suspicious
Update: The image above with Loki from the Avengers film has been joined by Jack Kirby (& Dick Ayers) and John Buscema (& John Verpoorten) “Pop Art” variants, seen thumbnailed below, on my Tumblr log. My hands were really bad when I got the itch to do these and I’d love to be able to rework them but I’m probably better off devoting that energy to other stuff — unless someone wants to actually hire me to design fake cereal boxes...
The Masks of the Iron Man
I found Iron Man 3 a fine kickoff to what Marvel Studios is calling Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — Phase One having culminated in the assemblage of nearly every superhero thus far introduced to the MCU in 2012’s The Avengers.
Given that it builds deliberately on what’s come before, Iron Man 3 isn’t an optimal entry to the series; a familiarity with the characters and their milieu is recommended.
If you’ve enjoyed the previous films, however, Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark in particular, grab a ticket. For darn sure it’s better than 2010’s Iron Man 2, although certain flaws of that movie are revisited. The way in which 3 gets to jump straight into its world, history established, might even make it more fun than 2008’s original. In that regard (and in some aspects of the plot) it’s not unlike an installment of the Bond franchise, a parallel driven home at the very end and made explicit too in press interviews by co-writer/director Shane Black.
So there’s a quickie assessment. I’ll add spoiler commentary after the next graphic.
Join me below if/when you’ve seen Iron Man 3 or just don’t care...
Lead the Wild Rumpus, Stark!
Or Cap. Whomever. I’d have figured Cap, y’know, but Tony has such an ego and he
is carrying Loki’s staff.
You can view the above collision between the mourning of Maurice Sendak’s
passing and the celebration of The Avengers’ success at a larger size — and download it in greater resolution for use as screen “wallpaper” or printing out — at its home post over at the DeviantArt site of its creator.
Related: El and the Misfit Boys • Maurice Sendak 1928-2012 •
The Amazing Spider-Man Minus Andrew Garfield Plus Garfield
The A Team
So have you heard about this little movie called The Avengers?
I not only saw it — opening day, which is always fun but for the past dozen or so years not something that I’ve been able to count on doing — I’ve written about it as well; that commentary just hasn’t made its way here yet. My actual review of the Joss Whedon jam will hopefully be along shortly after these musings on its revenue and other impressive statistics.
Hero Subs
I praised the inventive “premake” trailers of Ivan Guerrero six months ago, but have neglected to keep up with his work. My friend Stefan Blitz, proprietor of Forces of Geek, luckily keeps up with dad-gum near everything — so when I’m able to peruse that site I find gems like Guerrero’s trailer for The Avengers (1952).