1053 She Cheat.

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I finally saw The Amazing Spider-Man the other day. It was way more like what I expect from Spider-Man than the first versions. I really liked that first Spider-Man movie, and each one after significantly less… I didn’t have a lot of hope for the new one, and it’s harldy perfect, but on balance it’s a better version of the idea, I think. The kicker after the credits really bothered me though. It had the feeling of something preparing to jump sharks. I guess we’ll see soon enough. The whole thing had a much more “post Iron Man” feel to it at least. I’d love to see them at least reference Spidey in the other Marvel movies.

Marvel and DC are kind of mirrored in a way. The point is arguable, but stay with me a minute. It’s like, the Marvel Animated stuff tends to fall a little short. Some of it is almost as good as it could be, but not quite. With the exception of Iron Man Armored Adventures, which is above average IMO. I haven’t seen the new Spider Man cartoon, but all the older stuff kind of misses the mark with me. I haven’t seen their direct to DVD animated stuff because of this, so my data is incomplete at best. I haven’t been able to bring myself to try any of it because I expect it to fail. On the other hand, the Marvel movies, post Iron Man, have been as close to just right as we’re likely to get.

For DC this is all reversed. The animated stuff with a few exceptions has been the best, but the movies are never quite right. I know everyone pisses themselved for the Nolan Batman, but they never clicked with me. They still strike me as superheroes as seen through the eyes of people who hate nerds. Comics filtered through the hands of the cool kids, if you will. I know people will disagree with me on this, that’s just how I see it. Anyway, DC has pretty much owned comic animation for nearly, what, two decades at least? I feel like The Batman was a misstep, but that’s about all I can think of, and even then I’m not sure. I watched very little and it was hardly repellant. I loved Teen Titans and Young Justice has been spectacular. I wasn’t sure about the Green Lantern series at first, but it’s turned out to be pretty rivetting.

Of course both of them have become completely seperated from the print stuff for me. Whenever something happens with the actual comics I’m a little bit surprised because you’d think, based on the movies or animation, that the comics would have gotten over a lot of the stuff that makes people mad, like sexism or what have you. There must be some kind of disconnect going on there though.

Anyway, that’s just what it seems like to me. Maybe I’m way off base here. It doesn’t feel like it though. Marvel animation can keep sucking as long as the movies are still good, and vice verca for DC. As long as the stuff I like for each one keeps being good I’m fine with the status quo. I’d hate for a shake up to ruin something that was just fine as it is.

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God I love Brooksie’s eyes and her look in this bit. Ed and Brooksie make one hell of a pair, though I still want to see more Mike/Brooksie. I feel like there’s a story of growth to tell there, one that could really be cool.

Omg; brooksie gets my heart! And way to go Ed for knowing the refrence!!
And On your marvel and DC bit: I totaly agree with most of it. Marvel is really good with movies.however DC gots cartoons down, The animated batman series even got away with adding to the character roster.A feat marvel would regret.

For me, it’s like there are three different Marvels, because technically there is. There’s Columbia/Sony which holds the rights over Spiderman, 20th Century Fox who possess the X-Men and Fantastic Four properties, and Disney/Marvel who, of course, own just about everything else.

You’re right that most of the Marvel movies are pretty good. I liked both Iron Man movies fairly well (though I’ve got a feeling that the third is going to make me cringe due not only to the Iron Patriot armor on someone other then Norman Osborn, but the fact that they got a person not of Chinese descent to play “The Mandarin”. How can he NOT be Chinese?! Sir Ben Kingsley’s a great actor, he’s just not right for the role. *end mid-paragraph rant*).

Both Hulk movies were okay. Edward Norton was particularly good as Bruce Banner. It’s a shame that he refuses to reprise any role.

The Captain America and Thor movies were both supremely awesome and I look forward to their sequels.

Then of course “The Avengers” was a marvel (if you’ll excuse the pun). A well crafted piece of art. The fight choreography, the humor, and suspense was all awesome. About the only thing I didn’t like about it… Maria Hill had long hair. lol

Here’s where things get muddy. Often I might like a comic movie while I’m watching it, but the more time I’ve got to think about it the more I’ve got to pull it apart.

Like you I liked the first Spiderman movie and then they just kind of fell apart. Dr. Octopus was okay, I liked the animatronic arms they used for the… arms (lol), but the story suffered comparatively. The third movie just blew. Venom referred to himself in the first person for crying out loud! and I just couldn’t buy Toby Maguire’s tough guy act.

The Fantastic Four movies were… okay… they just didn’t live up to the potential that the books provide. Bad scripting would be what I’d target as the main problem. Not to mention Doom’s not made of metal, he’s a guy in a suit of armor. Like Iron Man.

Daredevil was okay. It wasn’t spectacular. This one suffered because of Ben Affleck. Hands down. I like him okay in Kevin Smith’s movies, he’s just pretty lousy in just about anything else. Gigli anyone? If it wasn’t for him the movie would have been pretty decent.

The first Punisher movie (and I’m talking about the Thomas Jane one, not the Dolph Lungren one from 1988. I’m not even gonna count that one.) wasn’t that bad exactly. But it wasn’t good. Rather forgettable really. Jane wasn’t really believable as Frank. I didn’t see him as the type to roll up in an armored van with enough ammo to take over a small country, and that’s what you need in The Punisher, which was what made Punisher: War Zone pretty darn awesome. It doesn’t get a lot of attention, but it was worth seeing and Ray Stevenson played the role well. Very intimidating.

The Blade movies, like the Spiderman movies started out well and then just kind of declined after each installment. Never got as bad as the third Spiderman movie, but just never quite did well enough to be considered truly “good”.

The X-Men movies… well what can I say. I was a fool for these when I was younger. But I was such an X-Men geek I didn’t really care about the small problems with it. I was so severely disappointed by the third one though. They actually called Quill “Kid Omega”! How can you overlook that? Shouldn’t they have someone checking the continuity and shit? Not to mention they had Juggernaut (who looked like a fool with a trashcan on his head) but completely ignored the major storyline that he’s Professor X’s step brother AND that he’s not a mutant. His powers were given to him through mystical means. If you’re not going to do the story right then don’t do it.

Wolverine I just didn’t like. It was nothing more then a money ploy. and they sealed up Deadpool’s mouth. How can you seal up the mouth of the “Merc with a mouth”! Do they realize how stupid that was?

X-Men: First Class… eh. Whatever. Not bad, not great. Certainly better then the third X-men movie or Wolverine, but by no means as good as any of the Avengers flicks.

As for DC, the Nolan Batman films were all good. I liked them very much. They were all very realistic, and therein lies the problem. They were too realistic, and I didn’t like the fact that they omitted the dual personality of Harvey Dent.

Superman Returns. Like X-Men: First Class it was okay, nothing particularly great about it, but don’t really care enough about it to care.

Green Lantern… No. Just… no.

Sorry for the long post. Debate of comic movies does that to me.

“They still strike me as superheroes as seen through the eyes of people who hate nerds.”

I don’t know were you got that phrase man, or how it come to you, but one thing it’s certain.. it’s the awfull truth.. I’m with you on this man. You sir made my day.

Wait, there’s a Green Lantern series? Dammit, I need to start paying attention to things again.

Marvel animation just hasn’t been the same since the ’90s X-Men.

and let’s hope it stays that way. I’ve gone back and watched some of the older cartoons from my childhood and they weren’t all that good. Quite often pandering and immature.

Modern cartoons however including the Ultimate Spiderman and Young Justice however were quite good.

The 90’s spiderman cartoon was pretty good, I thought… (Although, the superman and batman shows of the same time were pretty great too… and had MUCH superior animation…), but the 90s spiderman defined spiderman for me. His villains, his struggles, his costume not having those weird web wing things when I visualize him. But other than that, gotta agree that marvel is kinda bad with cartoons… Meanwhile Superman is kinda incapable of having a good movie, besides maybe a Doomsday movie, because he’s too great at everything to be believably struggling for more than about 40 minutes with any particular problem. That’s what it seems like to me, anyway, hahaha. Not to mention, his glasses removal being an infallible disguise is *kinda* unbelievable in a live action world (It’s weird what the mind accepts and what the mind won’t accept as good storytelling)… DCU was just too kid friendly for too long, and is still too fantastic in general, a movie based on the main DCU that isn’t kid friendly is seen as a weird outlier, like the batman movies, but because they have to keep it kid friendly, they end up with kinda sucky struggles. Sucky struggles means sucky stories, means sucky movies.

All-Star Superman was pretty good, I thought, and Superman Vs the Elite. I don’t really want to say why, in case you decide to watch them.

I’m just going to say that, in the Elite, it shows how it’s much more interesting to write Superman from a psychological perspective instead of an “oops, we made that out of kryptonite. And that. And that too.” kind of perspective.

Don’t limit him, make him limit himself.

Reading all of this makes me depressed about the whole deal. All good points, depressing non the less.

I love the dc animated stuff. The Avengers is a pretty good Marvel one but, otherwise, I’m not crazy about them. I wish they hadn’t screwed with Young Justice. I hear it’s canceled so they can bring back Teen Titans or rape some more childhood properties or something. I didn’t watch much of “the Batman”. It wasn’t really bad but it was really weird to see the episodes with Clark Kent in them. He and Bruce had opposite personalities of what you usually see and it was so strange!
The Brave and the Bold eventually even got me. I mostly ignored it but freaking Aquaman is just … amazing. And … AMBUSH BUG. THEY PUT AMBUSH BUG ON TV!!! WHAT THE HELL!!!! He was voiced by Henry Winkler which strikes me as odd, but, whatever. I loves me some bug.
Looks like the new one will be computer (ugh…). It looks like Professor Pyg will be a main villain. He is one creepy, fucked up freak. I enjoyed his storyline but it’s part of the run that has Dick Grayson being Batman and Damian being Robin and I enjoyed that whole thing. I’m assuming the new one will be Bruce. :/ Why confuse kids, I guess.

…Did nobody watch Avengers:Earth’s Mightiest Heroes? Nobody? That show was fantastic! IT did for Marvel, to me, what Justice League/Unlimited did for the DCU.

Um, as far as DC is concerned, I’m worried now. Young Justice and Green Lantern got cancelled. In their place is Teen Titans Go! which is basically a collection of those Titans shorts that air in between other shows on DC Nation. I wish they hadn’t done that. Warner’s people meddle too much with their content.

The point of the Nolan Batman movies was Batman in the real world, or as close as it could be. That’s why all the villains were just evil people instead of super freaks. Joker wore make-up and Bane didn’t have his venom and no Lazarus pits for Ras Al Ghul. As for cartoons Batman from the 90’s hands down. Three episodes Heart of Ice, Showdown, and Baby Doll. The only Spider-man cartoon is Spectacular Spider-man. That was the only one to get his skill set and comedy right. The 90’s version had him getting nailed by The Spot and Big Wheel and had the angst, but not the humor.

The whole point of Bane though was that he was a drug addicted immensely powerful behemoth. A criminal mastermind in his own right. But Nolan turned him into almost nothing but a simple lackey. The fact that he was just following orders, and the fact that he didn’t have Venom which makes him unique means there’s nothing special at all about him.

and actually the Joker only used make up when he was at the ceremony and tried to kill the Mayor. He had to look normal so he could play the part of one of the honor guard. His skin was actually alabaster white though. But a bigger problem with him was that they made him nothing but a sociopath. Joker is indeed a sociopath, however that’s not all he is. To him the world is a big joke, and his life is the punchline. He was a failed comedian so when his face was horribly scared he turned to a life of crime, but it’s always been important for him that any scheme he did had a punchline. Some kind of twisted shtick. And they took that away from him.

The point of Ras al Ghul was that he was this old immortal who wanted to recreate the world in his image. They got most of this right, but as a villain he’s just not as meaningful as he would be if he’d been around for over 600 years. There’s something intimidating about that. Something that you just can’t kill.

But the Nolan renditions just normalized everything. Although it was well done, it wasn’t really comic book, and what else can you call Batman but a comic book hero?

Well I totally agree with the whole inverse thing between the two comic companies. Marvel movies 3/4 of the time hit it out of the park but then you look at their cartoon series and really nothing much has worked as far as I’m concerned since the first run of 90s Spider-Man animated adventures. You look at the same time DC side and you get all the really good Batman series with their amazing art and then further on circa 2000 they start making all those amazing animated movies. I didn’t get the Nolan Batman, I didn’t like them taking away the supernatural nature of Ra’s Al Ghul and the movies were just way too long and that Superman movie was a damn travesty.

Loving your comic by the way dude really engaging stuff.

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