Captain America: "Big man with a suit of armor. Take that away, what are you?"
Iron Man: "Genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist..."
cut to: (in trailer 1): Thor laughing knowingly at the humiliated Cap
cut to: (in new TV trailer): shrug from the sexy girl agreeing with Iron Man
implied: the sad trombone
Marvel may not know it, but it seems they're setting up their Cap to become the insta-square that DC accidentally made of Superman back in 1986 and which, 26 years later, they've never recovered from. By setting up our pal Cap as The Bad Guy In the Dorky Outfit picking on The Guy We All Related To a Few Summers Back, its more than possible they're sinking one of their own flagship guys, all before the movie is released.
Sure, the exchange is intended to sell us on the crazy dynamics of the characters that we'll see if we give our local cinema $10, but the whole exchange feels out of character for Cap, including the Cap from last summer's movie (the whole point of which was - he's generally better than that). Yes, we need a "clashing team", but... you're losing me a little here, Marvel/ Studio/ Joss. That exchange is supposed to be the response the drunk on power/ charming Stark gives to the stuffed suit SHIELD Agent, not the guy who just got unthawed after saving the Free World.
Over the past few days I've received a few links from you guys, and I guess its appropriate to comment.
Cap Homecoming
If you haven't seen the video of the little boy receiving a visit from Captain America for his birthday, and then learning that the unmasked Cap is the dad he thought was in Afghanistan where he's serving, then you really need to watch it.
An amazing and poignant moment, and a reminder that the US military is a volunteer military of men and women who are also fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. Here's to all of our Captain Americas coming home.
Yes, I saw the Gawker article and cartoon. Yes, that's The Daily Texan.
I have literally no idea what the cartoonist was thinking, but contextually, just the use of the word "colored", which is only used in Texas in a weird, gallows humor sort of way to suggest backwards thinking, tells me that this cartoonist was trying to make a point which never quite made it into the strip, and instead just made UT's daily student paper look backward and racist.
If the cartoonist was trying to make a point about how the matronly and condescending media is telling the story by framing the story to a child-like audience to scare them, then... okay. I guess I get it even if I don't buy necessarily buy that interpretation. You'd pretty much need to be handed a few sign posts to get you there.
From looking at the rest of the cartoonist's work on the Texan website, all of her strips (if you want to call them that) are terribly inept and seem to fail to actually convey anything other than a general sense of "I watched CNN last night" and a bit of anger at someone running for student government*. Frankly, political cartooning is hard. The skill to create icons and symbolism to convey your opinion or some greater truth with a 2 second glance is hard to come by. Even among comic nerds, political cartooning gets a certain level of respect for the difficult task it represents. This student gets an F in cartooning.
But, pulling Eisner's work would mean The Daily Texan would then need to either fill that space with another cartoon (and lord knows how hard that would be to find), or run an ad for Forbidden Fruit or Tom's Tabooley or something. I just wish the editor or faculty advisor had been able to make a better decision before letting this see print.
Several comics sites talked about the guy, and who can blame them? A dude who owns a completely amazing black Lamborghini dressed himself up as Batman and drove around in the car (with the top down), pretty much doing what every single person in the world has always wanted to do.
Some were saying this guy does this for kids or a charity or something. Really, I don't know why he does it, but he's okay in my book.
And how can you go wrong hiring Andy Devine to play Santa? I will tell you: You cannot.
My Personal Bug-a-Boo of the Day
Mixing historical figures with genre tropes is getting played out. Especially when you can tell that neither the artist nor the person writing the article (a) realizes this, or (b) realizes that this one in particular was done a long time ago and better as "Tales from the Bully Pulpit".
No, I don't care about the Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter movie.
Thanks to everyone for thinking of me and sending me links! Keep them coming.
*dear students: these elections will never matter anywhere, to anyone but to sad people reading grad school applications in basements
I have to go to Waco in the morning, and I didn't have time to finish the post I was working on. I am sure you all understand.
Had a lovely weekend, and am sure this week will be swell.
Here's the cover of Captain America #1, featuring work by Jack Kirby and story by Joe Simon. We (The US, that is) weren't actually yet at war with Germany when this comic hit the stands. But Cap was already in action. He's just that cool.
I really liked this movie. How's that for a review for you?
I kid you not, I realized at about the 1.5 hour mark, I'd been smiling since the first two minutes. That's not hyperbole.
I may not be the world's biggest Captain America fan or Marvel aficionado (I know two readers to this site that way trump my Cap fandom - Jake and CanadianSimon*), and while I've always liked Cap, somehow I never really became the kind of guy who picked up Cap every month. I've been a "get the trade" sort of reader for the past few years, and I've picked up a few backlog items, certainly don't grab all the "let's flood the market" stuff Marvel tends to do with characters whenever their sales show signs of a pulse. Prior to Brubaker coming on Cap, the longest run I think read was the entirety of Waid's Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty when that was in print.
Like Superman in the DCU, I think you can point to Cap as the moral center and heroic inspiration for both other characters in the Marvel U and for what the Marvel readership immediately clicks to when they think about "which character exemplifies unfettered heroism the most?" Deep down, both Steve Rogers and Clark Kent have a lot in common, and its the "we do the right thing because its the right thing to do" aspect of both which really appeals to me. Whether Steve Rogers got his ability from Vita-Rays or whether Superman got his from his alien physiology, these characters were going to make a difference in the world somehow just based upon who they were.**
Me and Pal Kevin headed up north, had a lovely dinner and then ran over to the Gateway theater where Austin Books hosted a screening of Captain America with the Austin Chronicle. In attendance: Mark Waid.
Firstly, I am a big fan of Mark Waid's work on Flash, Captain America, Kingdom Come, Irredeemable and a whole lot of other books and characters. Secondly, of Marvel's roster of characters, Captain America is one of my three favorites (with Spidey and maybe Rocket Raccoon).
Waid (left) puts up with the unruly Austinites
So, this was kind of a big deal for me. Oh, and I also won a hat by answering a trivia question.
I actually had all the books that ABC had brought with them to purchase and get signed (like I said, I'm a Mark Waid fan), so I thought - ah, heck. Why not?
yeah, I made him sign the hat, too
Mark Waid will be at Austin Books on Saturday from 4-7pm, if you have a chance to stop by.
My review of Cap is coming, but (spoilers) - I loved that thing.
