sarahj-art: Slow night in Gotham.
Go here to see the rest of Sarah Johnson’s Ordinary Batman Adventures.For davereed.
Wait, why for me? Because I like kittens more than fighting crime??
SO SUE ME
I saw The Avengers. I recommend it.
Some little thoughts about the film. Not really spoilers, but more interesting for those who have seen it.
- The film is really fun. Spectacular, and each character is well represented.
- I had some apprehension for Mark Ruffalo as Banner (in replacement of Edward Norton), but he is good.
- Loki is well employed and enters the tradition of Whedon’s big villains: soft-spoken and sure that it would be preferable for everybody to obey him. It’s interesting to see how each character reacts differently to him.
- Black Widow is not the more powerful character, but still, she’s a whedonesque strong girl with a troubled past. She is a lot more interesting in this film than in Iron Man 2.
- The special effects are impressive.
- To see Iron Man flying in 3D is very fun.
- Gwyneth Paltrow is pretty.
Avengers was very fun. Better than I could have hoped for, actually. Some thoughts of my own:
- The setup was pretty quick and didn’t drag. They had to introduce Hawkeye, Ruffalo as Banner, and get all the Avengers assembled, and did so with relative quickness. “Iron Man 2” suffered from not-so-great pacing.
- “Avengers” made “Thor” worth having watched, if only to set up Thor and Loki and their troubled past.
- I’ve always liked Ruffalo, and he did great. I want “Avengers 2” just so I can see more of him as Banner.
- Usually while watching action flicks, I spend the whole film thinking “Well that’s stupid! The main character would do better if he would just dosuch and suchinstead!” There weren’t many moments like that in “Avengers”. Every time I’d think, “Well they should just send the Hulk over there to smash that”, he did it right after. The script made intelligent use of each character and their strengths.
- Each hero is well-written. The way they butt heads is believable for each character, rather than conflict for the sake of conflict.
- The bit where Stark, Banner and Rogers start to doubt SHIELD’s motives is interesting.
- It is sad that they killed off who they did in order to create the emotional impetus to get the Avengers to work together, but it is effective, so I can forgive it.
- There were some pretty satisfying moments of the heroes being badass (especially Black Widow and Hulk) while still having strong and believable villains.
- Cobie Smulders is pretty
That is all.
Wherein I talk about Wonder Woman’s underpants.
A friend emailed me and asked what my problem with them switching Wonder Woman back to the star-spangled underpants on that first issue cover was and I spent a little bit thinking about it and wrote this.
The problem was nothing to do with what she was wearing and all to do with it being an obvious step backwards. They put out all this new material to the press with all this hullabaloo about new costumes and new versions of the characters and being more forward thinking and then tried to dial it back. If they’d just started with her wearing the undies instead of the pants I wouldn’t have cared, but it was that they said one thing and then tried to change it and hope no one would notice. Then when grilled about it, instead of just saying, “we changed our minds” they came up with one of the silliest answers ever and said her pants are retractable. I’m sure there’s a large number of comic fans who complained about the pants that hope the “retractable” thing ultimately leads to this. It’s the same creeps that complain that Supergirl isn’t sexy enough and got mad when they started drawing her wearing shorts under her skirt.
They’re trying to reach a whole new readership with this big reboot, and one of the main audiences (I think/hope) they’re aiming for is kids. I just don’t think little girls should think the only way they can be superheroes is to dress like a stripper on Halloween. I mean, when Wonder Woman was created, at least she was wearing a skirt.
I like sexy ladies as much as the next guy, but there’s a point when you realize that maybe superhero comics aren’t the best place for things to be over-sexualized. Kids should be able to go into a comic store and get a copy of a comic called “JUSTICE LEAGUE” and not be beaten over the head with gratuitous T&A and ultra-violence.
That’s what anime is for.
Thank you, Chris! Well said.
“Retractable”?? Sheesh
Found out about this and had to make a thing about it.
One step forward, two steps back.
Come on, DC. I’m trying to root for you here, but seriously.
This is lame. Superheros are much more engaging if they are believable, and I can’t believe that any woman would fight crime in the outfits they are always drawn in.
A woman doesn’t need to show a lot of skin in order to be sexy… If she’s bad-ass enough, she could wear a burka and we’d still love her.
The one-dimensional appeal to my sex drive in order to get me to read your comics is not only an insult to my gender but also to the content of your comic.
Well this is pretty excellent
Great advertising slogans of the 20th Century: ”Marihuana - The Drug That Causes The Smoker To Lose All Moral Restraint”
funny
