Apr. 8th, 2008

seriousfic: (Default)
No, really. It's story threads that continue from episode to episode, but with each INDIVIDUAL episode having a self-contained villain and plot. So while fighting the Lizard may only take one episode, the build-up to his appearance takes multiple episodes and the actions Peter takes in that episode have ramifications further down the line. It's basically classic comic book storytelling, set in the Lee/Dikto era, with some touches from the movies and the Ultimate series to modernize it.

The only complaints I have (besides Jolly Jonah's soul patch... shudder) is that Curt Connors has a robotic arm. Given that such a huge part of his story is that he doesn't have an arm, giving him such a futuristic prosthetic... well, you could fan-wank that he can't feel anything with a robot arm, but that's a bit complicated for the kids in the audience, isn't it?

The second, and I feel this is going to be more specific to fandom, is that the characters are too kawai to slash. Not that that's going to stop anyone but me, but it's the same "problem" you see on Tim Drake in the Batman TAS.



Lookit him! He's tiny! How can anyone read about Superman's dick going into that and not think "Oh my God, something's going to get ruptured!"? Unless you're just taking Tiny!Sprite!Tim as an artistic representation of a teenager, who in "reality" is a more bone-worthy young man, but really, that's just missing the point of thinking about cartoons fucking.
seriousfic: (Intellectually Serious Cat)
Despite what Alan Moore may want, just about everyone sees movies as the grand culmination of a work of fiction. Sure, it's great to have a best-selling novel or a TV show that runs for seven seasons, but what if it was on the silver screen with an A-list cast, a budget that ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars, a visionary directory, and a screenwriter we found working at Kinko's? And in live-action, no less. There's a reason fans were so much more impressed by a movie with a weirdly-voiced Batman and confusing action sequences than with a decade's worth of animated glory. And why no one wanted to see Justice League with Beowulf-style CGI rotoscoping (okay, no one wants to see Justice League anyway, but come on! Armey Hammer playing Batman? What the shit is that fuck?).

Comics are no different. Perhaps it's because cinema gives comics a sense of validity. While it would be embarrassing to hand someone a volume of Marvel Masterworks depicting Spider-Man's origin and his battles with the Green Goblin, you can plop them down in front of one of the Spider-Man movies and expose them to the Marvel universe without any shame! Unless it's Spider-Man 3.

Besides, it's always nice to be able to see the Hulk and the Abomination throwing cars at each other instead of just imagining it from some still pictures.

So, with so much energy devoted to movie adaptations, here are some key tropes to keep in mind.

1. Dream-Casting. So who's going to PLAY the superhero? Fans will get their hopes up about which superstar could assail the inner torment and staggering class of Dr. Doom (Gary Oldman? Daniel Day-Lewis? I SAID DANIEL DAY-LEWIS, SIR!), only to be inevitably disappointed when it turns out to be the guy from Nip/Tuck playing the Green Goblin with the powers of Colossus and Electro's ass-baby. The key thing to note here is that fans will usually cast based on looks rather than acting ability (or they'll just type-cast an actor into a certain archetype. Ryan Reynolds can play both Wally West and Deadpool!). When casting the Black Cat, though Elisha Cuthbert may look good in a leather catsuit with long white hair, her proud breasts nearly escaping from the confines of that partially-unzipped bodice, her pert ass encased in skintight vinyl, her long legs... where was I again? Something about how she can't act? I watched 24, you're gonna have to trust me on this, people.

2. Story outline. This can be as simple as a vague summary ("I want Kingpin and his men in the first one, then Bullseye in the second, and add Elektra into the third!") to a full-on fan script. But ask any comics fan worth his salt what they would like to see if TPTB filmed a trilogy about their favorite superhero and he'll probably bring out charts and poster mock-ups from the back of his car. This is where a lot of misconceptions about the movie industry come into play. Namely, that it exists to translate comics to film as if they were the Holy Writ. Hollywood doesn't even treat the Holy Writ like the Holy Writ. Imagine how "guy in red satin tights who beats people up" works.

First off, I've never heard about a trilogy being filmed back-to-back. Lately, there've been trilogy sequels filmed this way, but only when the first movie is a monumental success (The Matrix, Pirates of the Caribbean). Or not (Chronicles of Riddick, Jumper). Lord of the Rings was famously filmed all at once, but then it really doesn't work as one film and then maybe sequels, or two films and then maybe a sequel, or (God forbid) one film. That was quite possibly a once-in-a-lifetime event (just look at what it's taking to get The Hobbit off the ground, if you don't believe me). And that was Tolkien. Most comics aren't Tolkien. Debate amongst yourself whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I saw one guy who wanted to see a Flash trilogy with a new Flash each movie. First Jay Garrick, then Barry Allen, then Wally West. But the very point of the sequel is that the audience already likes the character. Think about what happened when Halloween 3 didn't have Michael Myers. Imagine how you'd feel if you went to see Indiana Jones 4 and it was about John Lee Hancock, played by Chris Rock, a wacky waiter who finds himself embroiled in a crazy hunt for archaelogical artifacts! If the audience sees the first film and likes it, they want more of the same. More Jack Sparrow, more Black Pearl, more adventure... with a careful rationing of new elements to make sure it's fresh. That's why the latter Friday the 13th films still revolve around Jason, but they all add shit like "he's fighting a psychic," or "he's going to New York," or "he's dead!" Well, he was dead to begin with, that's the problem.

Besides, Wally West could wipe the floor with all those other goobers. Why do you think DC killed Bart to get him back?

Truth in Television alert: The production team on Iron Man has made no secret about how they've planned for sequels, including Tony Stark's alcoholism and Rhodey becoming War Machine. How did us fans get so lucky? Well, it has to do with the fate of my firstborn son. Sorry, Junior, but IRON MAN BLOWS UP A TANK. My choice was clear.

3. Actual movie! The ever-popular pastime of getting excited about, nay-saying, and trying to find out about a movie that's actually in production (SQUEE!/THEY'RE GOING TO MESS IT UP!). This is rather self-explanatory.
seriousfic: (Bros Before Hoes)
"...Green Hornet's powers don't work with the color yellow, so Batman had Robin paint a room yellow and then when Green Hornet came in Robin beat him up. Then Batman said 'So yeah, now what, little Robin beat you up.'"

On Robin

Apr. 8th, 2008 02:20 pm
seriousfic: (Intellectually Serious Cat)
It's funny that Batman is usually conceived of as, if not expressly celibate, then emotionally closed-off to love. There's Selina Kyle and Talia, but they're as much defined by the reasons they can't be with him as they are the reasons they "belong" with him. Other love interests, your Vicki Vales and Vesper Fairchilds, tend to fall to the wayside as canon marches on. In any case, there seems to be little interest in developing a relationship in the same way that, say, people would like Peter and Mary-Jane to get together. For plot purposes, Bruce Wayne is seemingly asexual.

It doesn't help that in the prevailing Nolanverse interpretation, his decidedly weak love interest is Katie Holmes, who seems to exist solely to berate Bruce for failing to live up to her arbitrary standards. Makes it a real shame that Halle Berry made Catwoman toxic for the foreseeable futures. *fingers crossed for Batman 3*

In the place of the usual romantic partnering, Batman has Robin. I'm not talking about slash, I'm talking about canon. As the famous phrase does, "Batman needs a Robin." Robin tends to occupy a netherspace between son and partner, like a much healthier H.W. to Daniel relationship in There Will Be Blood. Robin is described as the person who represents hope and light to Batman, as the one who understands him, as the one who highlights positive qualities and downplays negative ones. In short, he could occupy the same "space" as a traditional romantic interest.

Think of it like Nick Angel and Danny Butterman in Hot Fuzz.

So in placing this much importance on the sidekick, does any woman in Bruce's life get shortchanged. Will it never be "Batman & Catwoman" the way it is "Batman & Robin"?

And if you've gone this far without putting on your slash-goggles, thanks. Now... there are some who would read homophobia into someone who dislikes the character of Robin. By definition, Robin is an adolescent character. His age is given as anywhere from sixteen to eight years old. His defining characteristic, across all incarnations, is his youth. Without that, those shorts would look even more silly. Now in recent years (for a broad definition of recent), some of the Robins have matured. Dick Grayson went from Boy Wonder to Teen Wonder to Nightwing, construed as a young man in his early twenties. Jason Todd came back as a young adult too, making it really weird when 1. His guest appearance in Teen Titans had him putting back on his old costume, hot-pants included. and 2. when slashbunny Judd Winick wrote Batman and Red Hood so that their past relationship could be construed as a sexual one... ignoring the fact that their past relationship occurred when Jason Todd was unable to consent!

So, Batman/Robin is chan, unless you go into all sorts of convulsions to find either an above-age Robin or an underage Batman. And yet there's this meme which says if you don't like Robin, and by extension his possible relationship with Batman, you're a homophobe. To put it in fandom terms, people who don't like chan are being told they don't like slash.

The most commonly accepted meaning of slash would be a homosexual relationship, specifically male/male. Alternate definitions, such as *any* ship and any non-canon ship, tend to fall by the wayside for being too damned confusing. Now, male-male pedophilia is no more about homosexuality than male-female rape is about heterosexuality. But by referring to chan as slash, there's an automatic linguistic conflation between homosexuality and pedophilia.

It's the old saw of all homosexuals being pedophiles. We may laugh at this now, when we see old public service announcements about how you shouldn't get into cars with homosexuals, but if you think this isn't damaging, ask yourself why the Boy Scouts won't let gay men be troop leaders.

Given that I think fandom as a whole wants to be sensitive to these issues, wants to be (if not politically correct, then at least) politically savvy, I don't think it's too much to ask that we think about the words we use and the stereotypes we perpetrate... even when we do something as simple as label a fic. Someone who objected to a romantic relationship between Batman/Robin would not be a homophobe, he'd be someone who dislikes pedophilia. Big. Difference.
seriousfic: (Default)
Impulsive Buy - BART/CAROL! (That is to say, the complete neglect of Bart's girlfriend, his mentor, and his personality after the demise of both his own series and Young Justice is just more evidence of DC's tyrannical valuing of plot over character. Thankfully, fanfic is a more leisurely and attentive connoisseur of story, allowing you pieces like this that DC just doesn't provide a market for.)

Aspects of Justice - OH, JIM!

The Perfect Choice - THANKS FOR RETCONNING THIS OUT OF EXISTENCE, QUESADA!

To come: Smut, Barbara Gordon character worship, probably more smut.

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