Marvel Comics, is there no stopping you?
Not satisfied with already having a million and one TV shows and movies based on our favourite heroes, this August, Marvel's set to unleash yet another small-screen spectacular on us.
And that's The Defenders.
Naturally, I'm delighted, as I can't wait to see Dr Strange, the Hulk, Valkyrie, Nighthawk and the Red Guardian team up to battle the likes of Nebulon, the football-faced woman and that gorilla with the human head.
Wait? What's that you say? It doesn't have any of those in it? Instead, it's just a bunch of characters who aren't interesting enough to be able to support their own movie franchises? Given this effrontery to my expectations, I must take a look at the trailer immediately.
I have to say that that really doesn't do anything for me. Obviously, it doesn't have the characters in it that I'd want it to have but The Defenders was always supposed to be a hotchpotch of whoever was available at the time, so I can forgive that and it makes sense to call it The Defenders, bearing in mind that one of its characters is a defence lawyer but, still, what's in the trailer feels somewhat uninspired, like someone decided to make a Guardians of the Galaxy TV show without the sense of fun, imagination or budget.
On the plus side, it's nice to see Sigourney Weaver still getting gainful employment after all these years but, to my eyes, the show seems quite run-of-the-mill and made from a template.
But its greatest crime is that its existence suggests we'll never get a movie version of the strip, starring those characters we most strongly associate with it, which seems like a crime against reason.
Still, what do I know? The rest of the internet seems stoked by it and I'm the man who liked the Green Lantern movie, so my judgement should never be listened to.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. If you have any on the matter, you are of course free to express them in the comments section below.
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14 comments:
I'm hoping for an eventual Avengers vs Defenders war at the cinema Steve. Although it may be that the Defenders would end up going under another name.
Surely it can't be an accident that Mantis, Dormammu and Valkyrie have all popped up in films this year, leaving us only short of Swordsman, Submariner and Silver Surfer from the original cast. And the Evil Eye has been seen sitting around Doctor Strange's mansion.
Dangermash, you have successfully revived my hopes. :)
I hear they are going to fight over the cosmic cube. You heard that?
That wasn't a gorilla with a human head, that was a human guy with a gorilla body!
M.P.
I'd not heard that, Charlie. This does make me wonder if we're ever going to get round to them fighting Thanos. I'm starting to worry that I'll be dead of old age before they finally meet him.
MP, I can only apologise. I always get the two mixed up.
Yeah, after the endless, appalling snooze fest that was Iron Fist, I have to admit to not being that interested in the netflix shows anymore. I've watched each of the series and they all have their plus points, but they are all much of a muchness with at least three too many episodes where nothing happens.
Also it feels like they're trying way too hard to be gritty and real world - DD never actually did the origin, it looks like he's not wearing the costume here, and Iron Fist never properly went to K'un L'un and wore nothing even vaguely resembling the outfit.
Plus they could've actually called it The Champions without anybody minding too much...
Steve W - Exactly. I mean, I get tired of hanging out after the movie credits to see Thanos... Time for the battle royal.
Regarding gorillas, may I survey this esteemed group? I've been told in the late 50s early 60s DC in particular started putting gorillas on every cover possible b/c they thought it was a good seller. Have any of you ever bought a comic b/c there was a gorilla on the cover??? I haven't.
Not once, that whole late Silver Age gorilla thing completely bemused me.
I read in one of Mark Evanier's books that Superman editor Mort Wiesinger used to canvas his kids friends as to what they'd like Supes to do, and one of them said he should fight King Kong, which is where Titano The Super Ape ( remember him? ) came from. Maybe it was that one issue that sold well, and convinced them gorilla's were the future?
It was like that whole checked pattern on the covers thing in the late '60's. Absolutely clueless.
The only comics I can remember ever buying that had gorillas on the cover were "Adventure Comics" #438 and "Secret Society of Super-Villains" #1. But I bought the former because it starred Jim Aparo's Spectre, and the latter because it was a first issue. I would have bought both of them even if they hadn't had gorillas on them.
Likewise... I'm wondering if I / we just are outside the main stream and the rest of the world loves gorillas and gorilla covers?
E.g., Planet of the Apes was reasonably successful. And it surely is in part b/c of the monkees, apes, chimps, orangutans (can't recall if baboons are in the mix). I mean it would not have worked as well with talking lions and tigers and bears.
Did Kamandi perhaps suffer from Kirby's inclusion of the whole animal kingdom? Would he have had more success with just talking primates?
Offhand, I don't recall buying a DC comic solely because there was a gorilla or other ape on the cover. I had a Flash 80-page Giant in 1966 or '67 that included a reprint of a Gorilla Grodd story. Also a Superman Giant that reprinted Titano's origin, and Doom Patrol #112, featuring the Brotherhood of Evil (whose members included Monsieur Mallah, a talking gorilla). And Brave & Bold #65, teaming up Flash and the Doom Patrol. I remember that one had a gorilla villain on the cover. I think it was Mallah, although it may have been Grodd. But I probably would have bought those comics anyway.
I did buy Gold Key's Tarzan and Korak comics regularly. I also had Gold Key's King Kong one-shot. And Charlton's Konga's Revenge #1. That last one, I probably bought for the gorilla.
IIUC, Kamandi was created as DC's answer to (Marvel's) Planet of the Apes, and, later, Devil Dinosaur was conceived as Marvel's answer to Kamandi.
Supposedly, DC found that covers with gorillas sold well. At the same time, though, they did not want to wear out the gimmick, so the rule was that only one DC comic each month could have a gorilla cover. That's the legend, anyway. It's mentioned by Julius Schwartz in his autobiography, and by Les Daniels in his history of DC.
I once bought a silver DC comic with a gorilla on the cover (I forget the issue details)
The gorilla is shown returning a late library book - however I bought the comic because it showed a library on the cover, not a gorilla. I'm probably in a demographic of one.
Strange Adventures #75 (1956) had a gorilla stealing books in a library on its cover. It was reprinted in 1973 in From Beyond the Unknown #23. That is the only comic I've seen with an ape in a library.
Those gorillas, always stealing our books. Why does the government never do anything about it?
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