Tagged: Green Arrow

Generic Respect, by Dennis O’Neil

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  • March 11, 2008

reeve-dreams-4-3273602Don’t bother putting on airs, Messrs. Man (Super and Bat); you’re nothing special, not any more. These days, you’re just two more members of a rather large club that includes cowboys, cops, private eyes, combat soldiers and guys who fly space ships to other planets and solar systems and galaxies. Serial killers who slice and dice sexy teenagers are in the club, too. And critters that are normally harmless but mutate into gigantic sociopaths.

While you weren’t looking, you’ve become a genre.
 
Of course, if we want to get sniffy about definitions, you always were, in comic books. Almost from the beginning, here were cowboy comics and detective (or Detective) comics, and monsters and spaceship jockeys were early joiners, too. And you guys, the superheroes. You were the most popular and emblematic, of the comic book good guys, but you had peers.
 
Movies were another matter. Oh, you guys showed up on what was called The Silver Screen pretty early in the form of serials or, if we want to get fancy, chapter plays intended for the Saturday matinees, which were populated by kids who, in my memory, made a hell of a lot of racket. Even there, you were a bit of an aberration, outnumbered by the gumshoes and gunfighters, and not deserving, apparently, of cinematic and dramatic niceties. And, while there were cowboys and sleuths aplenty in the movies made for after-dark showings to the kids’ moms and dads, no superheroes ever made the leap to, ahem, serious entertainments.
 

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I Want To Be Like Mike, by Michael Davis

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  • March 7, 2008
 
What is cool? 
 
I’ve always thought that each person should gage what he or she thinks is cool. I hate those magazines and television shows that tell you what’s cool or what’s hot and proclaim what they think we mere mortals should follow. Not just follow, but follow blindly. How do we know the person entrusted with that list is not some stupid old fart who still thinks that The Beatles were Paul McCartney’s first back-up band?  This is the person who gets to decide what I will think is cool? For my money that’s the problem with the television and fashion industries. Take an original show like Sex in the City* –that show was bold and funny and deserved the label of cool. 
 
* I must admit I only watched that show when I was trying to impress a girl. I am straight, you know.
 
So what do TV executives do? They green light shows which are pretty much carbon copies of Sex in the City. One is called Lipstick Jungle. The names of the other shows, I can’t think of. Let’s call those other shows Middle Age Girls Gone Wild or Booty Call Diaries or I Can’t keep a man so I have to devote my time to my career because I’m just not that attractive anymore but that’s OK I have my work but I’m ugly. 
 
The hope is that these shows will garner ratings and become cool enough to spawn spin offs and licensing. 
 
Not likely on any of those counts.
 
This “we think this is cool” happens a lot in the fashion industry also. Some “experts” say what they think is cool to wear and hope we will act like sheep and follow along.
 
Bah. Bah, my tight firm ass. Yeah, I work out. It’s the PS3, 360 and Wii ass workout. 
 

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Primary Sources, by Dennis O’Neil

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  • March 4, 2008

bill_everett-8634197In days of yore – my yore anyway – I briefly wondered if my particular literary backwater, the writing of comic books, would be properly remembered. It seemed to me that young snots such as myself were getting attention – interviews and the like – and the guys who were around at the beginning, the guys who virtually created the form, were pretty much ignored, although many of them were still alive and frisky.

I needn’t have worried and I didn’t, which is good because, even more than most worry, this variety would have been a waste of time.

I do wish there had been more interviews with…oh, to cite the first name that pops into the shopworn old psyche, Bill Everett. And I don’t remember ever reading a Q and A with Carl Burgos: if none exists, too bad. Even Bill Finger doesn’t seem to have left many historical footprints, and some of what we know about him comes from people like me, whose memories are emphatically not to be trusted.

Having said all that: comics are undoubtedly the most documented medium/art form in history. They came to their early maturity just in time to benefit from the explosion of media and distribution, and the belated realization that every art form was pop culture once, and none are prima facie inferior. And guys like Gerry Jones know how to use the information sources available and have the patience and literary skill to put the pieces together.

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The Super-Hero Car, by Dennis O’Neil

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  • February 26, 2008

When we last looked in on our intrepid, tv-watching old guy – that’d be me – he was waiting to treat himself to the premiere of Knight Rider, a remake of an old series.

 
Okay, I watched it.
 
I can’t really compare it to the original, which aired at a time in my life when television had a very low priority. The episode I do remember seeing annoyed me, just a bit, I think, because he talking car seemed to be as much a – brace for a pun – deus ex machina as…oh, say, the shafts in Green Arrow’s quiver or the items in Batman’s tiny utility belt compartments; whatever the hero needs, that’s what’s there. But, as noted, I was never a real Knight Rider watcher.
 
Having made that confession: the show I saw last Sunday didn’t seem to be awfully innovative. The one blatant updating was that one of the good guys was a gay, black woman, a character who probably would not have appeared on network television during the original Knight Rider’s heyday.
 
And that talking car? Pretty nifty, I have to admit – similar to the original, but a bit improved. For example, it changed colors at the twiddle of a dashboard thingy, which brings us to the aforementioned Batman.
 

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I’m Mad As Hell, by Michael Davis

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  • February 22, 2008
 
I like to laugh. I see humor in most everything. Most people meet me and assume because of my wicked sense of humor I must have lived a charmed life. 
 
Nope. 
 
As I have mentioned before, two members of my immediate family were taken by violence and that does not leave you a lot to laugh about. My family was really poor and I survived more than one brush with death growing up where I did. Not the kind of life story that makes for a giggle fest.
 
The reason for my mostly cheerful outlook on life is my mom. If you think I’m funny (and you certainly won’t after this article), if you have read any of my other stuff and thought I was funny, then you should meet my mother. She is freakin hilarious. My mom had a lot more to deal with than me and she dealt with it with good humor and was confident that she would not just survive but flourish, and she did.
 
As stated above I like to laugh and do find humor in most every thing except violence and cruelty. 
 
I am not a behaviorist, anthropologist or psychiatrist. I do not claim to understand the effects of environment, religion, tribal history, poverty or anything else that that affects human behavior.  I know that there are reasons why people do things. I know that there are sometimes societal reasons why people hurt other people. 
 
You know what? I don’t care anymore.
 
I hear a lot of reasons on the nightly news explaining why some people commit horrible brutal deeds against other people.   

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ComicMix at Toy Fair: DC Showroom Tour

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  • February 20, 2008

Here at ComicMix, we’ve already shown you Mattel’s "Infinite Heroes" and other DC Universe products, but there were even more comics-inspired collectibles on display just a block away at DC’s showroom in New York City’s "Toy District".

From upcoming lines of Minimates, action figures inspired by classic stories and box sets to statues, busts and "trophy room" replicas, there was, well… a lot to absorb. Heck, they even had Superman’s Cape.

After the jump, check out our complete photo tour of DC’s showroom, including several characters receiving their first action-figure treatment in comics history!

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Nighty Knight Rider, by Dennis O’Neil

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  • February 19, 2008

Once again, the other day, I found myself wishing I’d spent less of my youth with, as folks might have said back then, my nose buried in some silly book and more time in the company of hammers, saws, wrenches. You know. Manly stuff. Tools. The reason was, something in the bathtub wasn’t working and we had to call the plumber, who is one of the nicest guys I know and might be the best plumber in Rockland County New York, and we had a chat while the water was running to accomplish something arcane and, well, plumberish. If I hadn’t wasted my youth, maybe I could tell you what.

 
Anyway: because he knows what I did and sometimes still do to earn money, we discussed movies and television. He’s of the opinion that nobody in the media has any new ideas.
 
I didn’t argue, and I won’t. With a few reservations, and looking at the evidence, I agree, kind of.
 
Of course, one could assert that there are no new ideas, an assertion borne out by the fact that treatise after treatise has demonstrated that there are only seven plots, or five, or eleven – some very finite number, in any case. But even given that near = truism, there doesn’t seem to be a lot that’s genuinely fresh around these days.
 
For instance: As I type this, I’m about two hours away from experiencing the latest incarnation of Knight Rider. Twenty-plus years ago, this saga of a young man and his talking car launched the career of David Hasselhoff, who later became world-famous as the tanned and buff father figure to a lot of equally tanned and buff, but younger, lifeguards. This is the latest of a seemingly endless catalogue of old films and TV shows revamped for the Twenty First Century. Some I’ve liked; the remake of the old Glenn Ford western, 3:10 to Yuma, was, by any reasonable criterion, a good movie. Others…well…
 

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Toy Fair ’08: Mattel Unleashes ‘Infinite Heroes’ Toy Line

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  • February 18, 2008

mattel_logosmaller-5241747

According to Action Figure Insider, toy powerhouse Mattel has "done the impossible" and announced a new line of action figures called Infinite Heroes inspired by some of DC comics most well-known characters. The list of upcoming figures, which will reportetly come in both themed 3-pack and single figure versions, includes Batman, Shazam!, Power Girl, Hawkman, Super Girl, and Black Canary.

Other heroes reporting for duty include Black Adam, Hush, Hal Jordan and Green Arrow and both the Jay Garrick and Wally West Flash characters. The set of figures will also include some Gotham policemen and even a Comissioner Gordon figure, just so you can have the most well-rounded lineup possible.

Check back here later for all of the photos from the ComicMix tour of Mattel’s showroom!

‘Justice League of America’ Film Delayed, No Superman or Batman?

  • News
  • February 15, 2008

As we reported earlier, Paramount announced they are pushing back the release of the latest installment of the Star Trek franchise until Summer 2009. Now, from the pushed-back department comes a report via MovieHole.net that the oft-discussed and delayed Justice League of America feature has had its potential start date pushed from sometime this year to mid-2010.

Apparently, according to the report, one of the major reasons for the push was the availability of cast who, as actors often do, have taken as much work as they can and are booked up for the year. Although, as we reported earlier, Common seems to be onboard and ready to rock as Green Lantern.

Casting wasn’t the only factor, though, as it appears the studio also realized the film just wasn’t ready to roll given its current condition — which is probably more the "real" reason.

In related news, a report out of Blockbuster would seem to call into question the presence of Superman or Batman in the eagerly anticipated superteam film.

A casting agency has apparently released the following plot description for Justice League of America:

“Feb 28, Sydney, Australia: The film is about Green Lantern, Green Arrow and others of the Justice League of America, an organisation made up of the world’s greatest superheroes. They must deal with the expulsion of Batman and the death of Superman at the hands of the monstrous Doomsday”.

 

 

 

 

Lost In ‘Lost’, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • February 15, 2008
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Denny’s column normally runs on Tuesdays, which is great because Denny e-mails it to me on Sundays. For some reason – and for the second or third time – his various e-mail accounts don’t seem to like my various e-mail accounts. We think we’ve straightened it out. Go figure. If computers were cars, we’d all be riding horses.

 

And now, Mr. O’Neil… -MG]

 

While I was sort of half-watching the two Lost specials our pals at ABC television were treating us to recently, I recalled the hot new trend of a couple of years ago. Serialized stories. Nothing resolved until late in the season. They came and they went, those shows, though there are a few survivors, of which my favorite, and apparently the favorite of millions of my fellow citizens (including you?) is the aforementioned Lost.
 
The purpose of the specials, which ran on consecutive evenings, was ostensibly to remind the Faithful of what’s been happening to those funsters on the island, and to clue in the non-Faithful, like me, people who just watch the thing for an hour’s easy amusement, as to what the hell the continuity is. (Another reason for the specials might have been the writer’s strike, now settled; clip shows like these eat up airtime at little cost and need no new material. Or am I being cynical?)
 

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