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The Comics-to-Film Review: How ‘Iron Man’ Matches Up

If you read fellow ComicMixologist Matt Raub’s review of Iron Man, you already know the new Marvel Studios movie is a relentless blast of entertainment. Even for those who’ve never picked up an [[[Iron Man]]] comic, it’s a top-rate summer film.

But there are also those of us who have picked up an issue (or a few hundred) of Iron Man over the years, and for us the movie is a different experience, as we can’t help but compare and contrast it to the comics that have come before. So, in that respect, how does the film hold up?

Tony Stark is the place to start, as he’s always been the real draw of any Iron Man tale (though the costume is plenty cool). In the comics, Stark is a calculating man both as a hero and in the business world. He enjoys his wealth at times, but is more taskmaster than playboy.

Robert Downey Jr.’s take on the character is much more like the raconteur persona that Bruce Wayne takes on, only for the movie version of Stark, it’s no act. Much like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, Downey Jr. offers a weird riff on his role that’s entirely new and impossible not to enjoy. Count that as a win for the film.

The film’s plot, meanwhile, is essentially an updating of the classic Iron Man origin story, and the modernization is handled quite well. There’s nothing directly lifted from the comics, and instead the comic references come in an array of winks and nods (S.H.I.E.L.D., War Machine, Nick Fury, Tony’s drinking, etc).

My main problem with the movie is a fault it shares with the comics, in how the plot tries to incorporate real-world issues without really delving into them. Comic books regularly feature stories set in vague, war-torn countries in the Middle East, and the Iron Man film follows suit with its shallow usage of terrorism and Afghanistan.

But those are forgivable defects, and Iron Man easily makes a successful transition from page to screen, thanks to a director and cast that know what elements to take from the books, and which to leave behind.

Manga Friday: Yoshihiro Tatsumi says ‘Good-Bye’

This week, I’m giving over all of Manga Friday to the manga I was most looking forward to this year – a collection of dark, psychological stories from the creator who invented gekiga but who has been almost forgotten at home.

good-bye-1835066Good-Bye
By Yoshihiro Tatsumi; Translated by Yuji Oniki; Edited by Adrian Tomine
Drawn & Quarterly, June 2008, $19.95

This is the third in Drawn & Quarterly’s series of books reprinting Tatsumi’s groundbreaking gekiga stories of forty years ago; this book reprints and translates stories from 1971-72, as The Push Man and Other Stories had stories from 1969 and Abandon the Old in Tokyo drew from 1970. It opens with an introduction by Frederik L. Schodt, author of Manga! Manga!, and ends with a Q&A conversation between Tatsumi and Adrian Tomine, the series editor. You won’t be able to find it in stores for about another two months — though better comics shops will probably let you add it to your pull list, if you ask nicely. (And online booksellers, as usual, are already taking preorders.)

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Happy Birthday: Jerry Scott

Born in Elkhart, Indiana in 1955, Jerry Scott initially went into advertising. He got his start in comics by submitting gag strips to magazines in the mid-1970s—and sold one of his first ones to the Saturday Evening Post.

In 1983, he was asked to take over the Nancy comic strip, which he worked on for the next twelve years. In 1990 Scott and longtime friend Rick Kirkman created a new strip, Baby Blues. In 1997, Scott and Jim Borgman collaborated to produce Zits. Both Baby Blues and Zits are still running, and combined appear in over 2000 newspapers around the world.

Zits won the National Cartoonists Society prize for best newspaper comic strip in 1998 and 1999—Baby Blues won the award in 1997. In 2002 Scott received the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Robert Downey Jr. and the ‘Iron Man’ Review

First off, right out of the bullpen, I want to warn readers that this review of Iron Man, the first self-financed feature film from Marvel Studios, WILL HAVE SPOILERS. Normally, I try to keep any stories involving a new release free of them, but as you will read, this film is just chock full of little “fanboy delights” which enhance the experience and are an important part of the overall product.

With that said, this film should be labeled “FFBF”, meaning “For Fanboys, By Fanboys” because director Jon Favreau seems to know what the comic fans wanted to see. One gets the impression that if he were sitting in the seats, he’d want the same thing from this comics-famous tale of a millionaire, arms-manufacturing playboy Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) who decides to craft a supersuit and fight evil. Over the course of the film, anyone familiar with the character and the greater Marvel Universe will likely enjoy the references (sometimes subtle, but not always) to things ranging from War Machine to the Mandarin… even to S.H.I.E.L.D.

So make sure to pay attention, and most importantly, stay in the theater until after the credits! (more…)

Sound Bites For Dummies, by Michael Davis

"Every time I think I’m out they drag me back in!”

Al Pacino. Godfather 3

I had another article all ready to go. A lighthearted article about how I really loved comic books and how proud I am that I work in this industry on so many levels. I did not want to write another article on race, but thanks to Jeremiah Wright here I go again…

Some time ago I was given a gift certificate to The Burke Williams Spa. For those of you who don’t know, it’s an upscale health resort. Those who know me know that the last thing I’m about is anything “up scale.” I like simple. “Upscale” to me means a bunch of people who think they have a right to look down on other people. I know that’s a wide net to cast, but that’s how I feel. So when I got the gift certificate I was a little hesitant to go but man was I in a bad way and I really needed a massage. The gift certificate was for a massage and a milk bath…A MILK bath.

Look, I’m a MAN from the projects and a milk bath should have made me very uneasy, but truth be told it sounded so good. So I put my reservations on hold and made my way to Burke Williams. When I arrived I notice that the spa was staffed with women.

Beautiful women. Tall, shapely, sexy women.

When I checked in at the front desk I’m asked if I want a man or a women for my massage I say “woman,” thinking about all he foxes that are floating around. The receptionist looked at me strange, so much so I said “What?” I was starting to feel like this was exactly why I did not want to go to an upscale establishment. I’m a pretty simple guy. I like things simple. I hate interaction with people when my goal is to do something else. As an example when I walk into a Starbucks I just want a cup of coffee. I don’t want to buy a CD; I don’t want to hear about the new Booty juice latte, just give me my damn coffee. In fact if I walk in and there are more than two people on line, I walk out. BTW, I like my coffee the way I like my women…with soy sauce. (more…)

New ‘Incredible Hulk’ Trailer

The second trailer for this summer’s The Incredible Hulk is up at Apple’s trailer site. We get to see a lot more of the story, which looks to be lots of Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) running around the world, fleeing the military, then a string of battles.

Most notably, this trailer also shows a lot of Tim Roth as the Abomination, and how he gets to that point. Still a ton of question marks on this one that the trailer doesn’t dispel, most notably whether the CGI is up to par on the big monsters, which is what everyone wants to see out of a Hulk movie anyway.

The trailer’s also up at YouTube, which you can see right here.

CBLDF Interview With Charles Brownstein

With the recent resolution of the Gordon Lee case, in which a comic shop owner was arrested for accidentally giving a copy of a Free Comic Book Day  title that contained male nudity to a child, there’s been quite a bit of attention on the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and their significant financial support for Lee during the trial.

Tom Spurgeon of The Comics Reporter has posted a lengthy, comprehensive interview with Charles Brownstein, the executive director of the CBLDF, that touches upon the Lee case, its impact on the comics industry and the group’s other current and future projects.

As always, Spurgeon conducts a great interview that really gives you all you could ever want to know about the group and why there’s a genuine need for it. In this excerpt, Brownstein discusses the group’s ability to wage future legal battles, given the expenses incurred by the Lee case, and what types of legal issues are most worrisome to CBLDF:

What really makes me lose sleep is the prospect of getting a case under the PROTECT Act’s horrifying provisions equating drawings of teen and juvenile sexuality with actual child pornography. I’ve seen a couple of convictions for anime and manga that was ruled to be child porn. These were dirty people who also had real child porn, and who deserved their convictions for that material, not for repugnant art. There’s a difference between photographic evidence of a crime and drawings.

Those are the cases where we really need the community to stay firm in their support of the First Amendment. I think a lot of the content in the sexually oriented manga is pretty repugnant, but it’s lines on paper. The thing that raises my ire about PROTECT and the current slate of child pornography laws is that in attempting to create stronger resources against sexual predators, they create categories of thought crime. Child pornography is photographic evidence of a crime. To lower that bar to include dirty drawings and uncomfortable, if not repugnant, ideas muddies the waters in a way that disrespects the severity of the crime, and the victims of it.

For the full interview — which I highly recommend reading — head over to The Comics Reporter.

ComicMix Radio: Hot Girl In The Comic Shop!

That got your attention, didn’t it? Then come on in and meet Belkis, co-host of The Comic Book Novice radio show and a fresh fan with an interesting perspective on the industry, plus:

— Marvel collects X-Force and reprints another Hulk

— DC has a spot on the new KidsWB

— Galaxy Quest finally makes it to comics

— The Top 10 hottest sellers for March

Just before you press the button, make plans to join us Saturday for our special coast-to-coast coverage of Free Comic Book day. But even before that, be sure to shop the FCBD Retailer near you!

 

 
And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via badgeitunes61x15dark-8345799 or RSS!

Happy Birthday: Phil Foglio

Born in Mount Vernon, NY in 1956, Phil Foglio moved to Hartsdale, NY, while still a young boy and lived there until he went off to the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago when he was only 17.

While at school, Foglio worked on the science-fiction club’s fanzine, Effen Essef, and was nominated for two Hugo Awards for it in 1976—in 1977 and 1978 he won the Hugos for Best Fan Artist. In 1980 Foglio started a comic strip What’s New with Phil & Dixie for Dragon Magazine. It ran for three years.

He moved back to New York shortly thereafter but soon returned to Chicago. There he illustrated Robert Lynn Asprin’s MythAdventures series and turned the first book into an eight-issue comic book series from WaRP Graphics. From there Foglio got work with DC (Angel and the Ape, Plastic Man, and Stanley and His Monster), Eclipse (Fusion, Dreamery), First Comics (Munden’s Bar and Dynamo Joe), and others. He illustrated many card games, magazines, and books, created the character of Buck Godot for Imagine It and went on to create several Buck Godot graphic novels as well.

In the 1990s, Foglio brought What’s New back, this time for Duelist Magazine. He also created the series Girl Genius with his wife Kaja. In 2005 Girl Genius moved online as a free webcomic.

Iron Mug: 7-Eleven’s ‘Iron Man’ Slurpee Cup

000_2624tm-20394077-Eleven convenience store chains have a long history of releasing character-licensed Slurpee cups based on Marvel and DC properties, so it wasn’t a big surprise when I heard that Iron Man was next in line to help reacquaint thirsty customers with the effects of brain freeze. On the eve of the Iron Man movie release, I ventured into a local shop and had a look around at the Iron Man merch.

While there are regular, movie-based lenticular cups with little figures on the straw, it’s the Iron Man helmet and replica mug that brought a smile to my face. Sure, adults groan about merchandising, but the kids inside of us love it. Yes, comic book fans across America, you now have a new pen holder… or whiskey mug, if that’s your thing.

Here’s the official word on the promotion:

A collectible, refillable mug features the red and gold helmet of Iron Man’s Mark III suit of armor.  The 28-ounce mug retails for $3.29 and includes a Slurpee fill up. Additionally, 7-Eleven will offer three different Iron Man Slurpee spoon-straws with detachable Iron Man and Iron Monger figurines for a price of $1.49 each.

Check out the photos posted after the jump to see how cool this is… (more…)

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