Writing Marvel Comics, Heroes, and Games

[Epitome]

[size=1]I wasnt sure if I should put this here or in the Lounge but I thought here would be best... Lately I have been getting into alot of the Marvel stuff with all the movies coming out (I.E. The Punisher, Spider Man 2). And after getting a better understanding of all the story lines of the movies already out or coming out, I think I would have enjoyed them more if I knew the main backgrounds and other adventures. So this brings me to the point of the thread: Do you enjoy Marvel Comics, Heroes, Games, etc. and do you think they should come out with another movie based on one of the comics/heroes and why?

Personally, if they were going to come out with a new Marvel movie, I would definatley want it to be one of the two: Captain America and the Falcon and/or the Fantastic Four. Captain America and the Falcon because they represent my and other peoples counrty, the USA. And with all the war and hardships going on right now, I think we could all use a boost sometimes, and when you see Captain America wearing that suit, it makes the US look strong, and makes you feel proud.

I would want to see a Fantastic Four movie as well only because, I mean, c'mon, its the Fantastic Four. I mean to me that is pretty much enough said. And this is really sad that I dont know all the names yet, but, you got the the liquid shapeshifter, a huge rock, a guy that turns on fire, and a girl that basically just kicks ***.

So, which comic would you like to be made into a movie, and which movies have you enjoyed or look forward to seeing? Also, which comics do you like, if you do in fact like them?[/size]

[Manic Webb]

I'm quite the Spider-Man fan, but I think it's a little late to bring that movie up. Although I am looking forward to the sequel this summer. I'm finding it a little difficult to read the comic, what with losing track of the multiple titles. Can someone help me out? Which title is going to give me current-day Spidey? Not another teenager title.

I recently started reading Runaways, which is a good book. I'd love to see the first volume turned into a movie. It's not like other superhero books, and the beginning comes off more as a mystery-type story than action.

[DeathBug]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]Fun fact: Marvel's publishing branch only accounts for five percent of their total revenues. Neat, huh?

Anyway, most of the big name Marvel properties are already being cinimized, including the Fantastic four. As a reader, I can't think of any characters I'd want to see on the screen [i]that could support their own film[/i]. I emphasize that because there are plenty of characters I want to see in film, but they couldn't hold their own movie. Demogoblin, Doppleganger, the Looter, Stegromn the Dinosaur Man, Maggot, Onslaught, Horis, Annihilous, Hybrid, Crazy Eight, Armada, Joystick, Turbo, Genis, Strong Guy, Agent X, Arcade, Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy, Warstar, the crimson Dynamo, Basilik, the Shocker, the fearsome Mr. Funny Face (and Bunky), the list goes on. And on. And on.

I want to opick up the Runaways book when I get some extra cash on me. I've heard nothing but good things about it, and have been wanting to read it ever since I saw the cover of the girl hugging the velociraptor. They had me at 'raptor'.

Raptor. There's another character I'd love to see on screen.

As for Spider-Man, the single greatest comic book character ever, if you want to check up on him, the best title would be [i]Spider-Man[/i], under te Marvel knights imprint. It just started, so you could pick up issues one and two in the same trip. It's good stuff.

Also, if you read Marvel comics at all, find [i]Spectacular Spider-Man[/i] #14. It's a beautiful, fully-painted story. Worth it, completely.[/color][/size][/font]

[Xander Harris]

[QUOTE=DeathBug][color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms]Fun fact: Marvel's publishing branch only accounts for five percent of their total revenues. Neat, huh?
[/color][/size][/font][/QUOTE]

Yep. Which explains why titles without movies or at least movies in the works may soon be phased out...

The best comic Marvel puts out right now is Thor, written by Dan Jurgens. If you read some of the stories earlier in his run, you would think I was crazy. Jurgens tales were full of huge panels of people slugging one another, with very little plot whatsoever. This is the dude that brought us The Death Of Superman storyline, remember. Anyway, a year or two back, Marvel decided to let him 'revamp' the title. And lo and behold, Dan Jurgens is actually a brilliant writer! [spoiler]He killed off Odin and made Thor practically omnipotent. Thor then moved Asgard to Earth and set about solving earth's problems. Some people started to worship him again, and the governments of the world wanted him gone. [/spoiler] Enter 'Spiral', an intellectual and perfectly paced year long tale exploring religion from all different angles, leading up to the big shock ending. [spoiler]Now, the scene has shifted to several decades in the future, where Lord Thor rules the Earth with an iron grip.[/spoiler] Throw Loki, the daughter of the Scarlet Witch, Desak (killer of gods), the Designate, and Thor's son into the mix, and the story keeps getting better and better. If you haven't been reading Thor for the past two years, you need to go get the back issues.

The best Thor tales of all time remain the Walt Simonson years, though. If you like Norse mythology, a dash of humor, and big epic stories, grab the TPB of the Simonson days.

Fantastic Four and Daredevil are tied for second place, IMHO. FF has recently aquired the talents of the legendary Mark Waid (one of the only writers to actually produce a quality product back in the 90's). He has managed to make these characters who for so long have felt stagnent and old interesting, quirky, and developing again. The stories play with big concepts (our heroes met God an issue or two back) and are again plotting new territory, as the title did back in it's glory days. FF hadn't been worth reading since John Byrne left about 20 years ago, but now it is back in it's place as one of Marvel's finest titles.

Daredevil is dark, edgy, exciting urban noir. The current storyline has Matt coping with a nervous breakdown, and a massive gang of skilled Japanese gangsters who use a new drug that gives people temporary mutant powers trying to take over Hell's Kitchen. Good stuff.

I've tried to get back into Spiderman on and off over the past few years, but the title has so much baggage now, ever since the whole clone fiasco. And I just don't think the Spidey comics I've read lately have been all that great. But I'll try to check out that 'Spectacular' issue you're talking about, Deathbug, if I can get to a comic book store.

In answer to your question, Manic, you are looking for 'Amazing Spider Man' and 'Spectacular Spider Man'. Not that Ultimates crap.

[Semjaza]

(I need to get up at 5 AM, but I can't sleep due to feeling incredibly sick...)

Manic, if you want to get into Spider-man NOW, just get Marvel Knights' Spider-man. It's only on issue number two right now and you can easily find both issues at local shops. I'm not even much of a Spider-Man fan, but I bought this on the advice of others (such as Shy) and I don't regret it. Great comic thus far. However, it really throws you right into the

Most of what I actually buy is from Marvel, it seems. New X-Men was [i]amazing[/i] when Grant Morrison was onboard. Hell, I even liked the "Here Comes Tomorrow" arc that pissed off quite a few people by the time it concluded. Of course, all good things come to an end and New X-Men is pretty shoddy right now.

So for my X-Men fix, I've picked up Astonshing X-Men. It just came out today (Wednesday) actually. I thought it was a pretty good start and I'm liking the retro costume designs. It's being written by Joss Whedon, who some may know from Buffy and Angel fame (Manic for example would).

I also buy Runaways. I've missed a couple issues (I think it's on 15 right now), but it's still easy to grasp. It basically deals with a group of teenage friends that happen to witness the ritual sacrifice of a young girl at the hands of their parents. Their parents are part of an organization known as The Pride, which pretty much runs the entire town. Lots of stuff happens heh. It's honestly one of my favorite comics right now.

X-Statix is another amazing comic, which I really can't even explain in a short amount of time. I'd say you'd be more interested in because of the strange characters than anything else. Totally worth the time.

I usually buy Ultimates when they bother to release a new one. It's a good comic, it just gets frustrating when there are literally months between issues.

So as far as I'm concerned, the best [i]current[/i] Marvel comics are Runaways and X-Statix.

[Manic Webb]

Comic shops are a tad scarce around here, so I end up buying all of my comics from Borders Books/Music/Cafe. Which, in turn, means I read nothing but trade paperbacks. You can imagine how long [i]I[/i] waited for The Ultimates to come out with a second volume. What's it been? A year? Reading it was worth the wait, though. I like their interpretation of the Skrull.

I was reading Ultimate Spider-Man, but it seems like it hasn't been going anywhere since the Venom story. Bendis (who seems to be writing at least a dozen comics all at once) somehow crossed-over Ult. Spider-Man and X-Men several times, each doing very little for me.

I liked New X-Men, especially how the first part of it blew everything out of the water... literally. The X-Men universe changed drastically, and all at once. I liked where the whole Phoenix thing was going, but it's like they decided to [spoiler]kill her off for the sake of that damn Scott-Emma affair; which, by the way, I didn't like. I thought the hints at it were funny, but it all went downhill when they actually implied Scott had feelings for Emma and Jean died.[/spoiler] But just don't get me started on the whole Xorn thing...

Joss Whedon writing an X-Men title? Must pick up. I can already imagine his slang-play at work...

I've never been one to read Fantastic Four, but I read [i]Unthinkable[/i] and [i]Authoritative[/i] for the hell of it... then I ended up liking them for the [i]hell[/i] of it. Good stuff. I was wondering when constantly battling Dr. Doom would finally take its toll on the team.

You know, I've always liked Marvel over DC. DC has this habit of rarely changing anything about their characters. Superman hasn't changed [i]permanantly[/i] in over a decade. In fact, the writers seem to be retro-grading him back to his pre-crisis form (bringing back Krypto, Kara, ect.)

[Shy]

[quote name='Manic']Which title is going to give me current-day Spidey? Not another teenager title.[/quote]
[size=1]As far as I know, Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Knights' Spider-Man, and Spectacular Spider-Man (I think) are both set in "present continuity." Of course, I try to treat each comic book as a seperate entity, since they seem to be more enjoyable that way for me. Even the Ultimate universe, which claims to have strong continuity, is already a mess. The whole Ultimate Marvel Team-Up title screwed them over a bit with first appearances of Hulk, Black Widow and the Skrulls that blatantly go against everything presented in Ultimates.

Speaking of which, they are coming out with an Ultimate Elektra title to coincide with the upcoming (Summer 2005) movie. I really see this as overexposure of the character since she has her own Marvel Knights title already, but Wolverine manages to appear in twelve titles every month so two comics with Elektra won't hurt anyone. Lord knows I won't buy any new Ultimate titles after they butchered my beloved Fantastic Four.

A fun comic I'm reading these days is The Pulse which is about Ben Ulrich (from Daredevil) and Jessica Jones (from Marvel Knights' Alias) who have been hired by the Daily Bugle to write stories specifically about Superheroes and villains. This leads them to investigate some unsolved murders, and as a result you get to see all sorts of bits and pieces of the Marvel Universe that are not normally explored. It has a bunch of little references that one might not get unless they have had prior experience in Journalism, I guess, but I find it to be a lot of fun.

Fantatic Four has been a pleasure to read for the past year or so. Mark Waid is my hero; and everything of his that I've come across is brilliant. Kingdom Come and Empire and instant classics. His current Spider-Man arc in FF is fun and light, but it's not his best work. I enjoyed Imaginauts more, but it's still better than most anything else out there.

Gotham Central is still one of my favorites; easily the best Bat-book out there. It's a police drama set in Gotham City, and is always a pleasure to read. Their latest arc showed how compellng the writing is, a super-villain doesn't have to be there in every issue to keep the readers interested...

.. and don't read Superman/Batman.. it's simply awful. Ugh! That's enough of my ramblings for now.

-Shy[/size]

Edit: I just noticed that Xander already answered Manic's questions for me, oops.

[DeathBug]

[color=indigo][size=1][font=comic sans ms][quote name='Xander Harris']Which explains why titles without movies or at least movies in the works may soon be phased out...[/quote]

I doubt that; just two months ago, they released a new wave of titles, mostly featuring b-list characters. (Iron Fist?) While that is a possibility, i don't think it's imminent.

[quote name='Xander Harris']The best comic Marvel puts out right now is Thor, written by Dan Jurgens.[/quote]

Meh; I've never liked the thor character, or much fantasy-themed stuff to begin with. Not my cup of tea.

[quote name='Xander Harris']This is the dude that brought us The Death Of Superman storyline, remember.[/quote]

Ugh, I remember. That's not something to brag about, Danny-boy.

[quote name='Xander Harris']I've tried to get back into Spiderman on and off over the past few years, but the title has so much baggage now, ever since the whole clone fiasco.[/quote]

They don't even mention the Clone saga anymore, to the point where it's ridiculous. (You shouldn't just ignore three years of history just because it was unpopular. That'd make you...DC...)

[quote name='Semjaza Azazel'] I've picked up Astonshing X-Men. It just came out today (Wednesday) actually.[/quote]

Finally; I've been waiting for this one.

[quote name='Shy']A fun comic I'm reading these days is The Pulse [/quote]

The Pulse is great, an eximplifies my problem with Ultimate Spider-Man: Bendis and Bagly should be writing in the normal Marvel Universe; the one that counts.

The two could take the reins on Amazing Spider-Man from JMS, because JMS's run has been terrible, with very few exceptions. His stupid 'spider-totem' stoy has, at this point, dragged on longer than the clone saga did.

Or perhaps Bendis & Bagly could take a title or two from Chuck Austin. I was appaled when I heard Austin might write a [i]Nightcrawler[/i] mini. I like Kurt too much for that.[/color][/size][/font]