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Charles Valderrama
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4831
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| Posted: 06 October 2008 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | 1
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I liked Ordway's Power of Shazam when it first started but i lost
interest pretty quickly. Would've loved to have seen JB's version get done
but i think any series featuring Captain Marvel should be larger than life
and bring out the many aspects of magic and fantasy. (Sort of like Peter
Pan crossed with Greek Mythology.)
-C!
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Erik Larsen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 February 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 344
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| Posted: 07 October 2008 at 1:19pm | IP Logged | 2
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Don Zomberg
wrote:
So what do we do with Captain Marvel, Erik? Have
him as a ten year old standing on the street corner selling newspapers,
yellling "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!"? Why is it Captain Marvel is the
one character who has to remain stuck in the 1940s?
What about the Ross/ Johns proposal strikes you as shitting on the
character? We're talking about the appearance of change versus change
that does real damage.
CM needs a Man Of Steel reboot like no other character in
comics. |
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Billy Batson was a news reporter--not a newsboy. He sold papers during
his first appearance and he was a reporter by the end of that story.
There's really no reason that would have to change. There are kids as
reporters on TV now (on kid channels) so that's not particularly dated.
If Billy is anything but a little kid--Captain Marvel loses everything that
makes him Captain Marvel. Making him "tough" or "hip" misses the point
as well. He's the "everykid"-- a plucky, smart youth who represents all of
the readers-- who represents ALL kids-- much like a young Peter
Parker-- or Archie Andrews. He's Tin Tin, really-- he's a young plucky
reporter. He just happens to be able to turn into an adult superhero.
He doesn't need to be stuck in the '40s--or ANY time period, really. His
stories should be, ideally, timeless-- as should all of them.
And NOBODY has successfully pulled that off--and I'm not even talking
about it being a commercial success.
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Tim Cousar
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 May 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 1666
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| Posted: 07 October 2008 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | 3
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So today, he could be "Billy Batson, Boy Blogger" and a citizen reporter?
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Erik Larsen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 February 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 344
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| Posted: 07 October 2008 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | 4
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Comics are still a visual medium--there's no reason Billy Batson couldn't
still be a TV reporter. There's nothing about it that doesn't work.
If I was told to do Captain Marvel I'd look at the last issue of Captain Marvel
Adventures and take it from there. He's got an established cast--all of the
trappings are in place--it all worked fine. Just take it from there.
GO!
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Andrew W. Farago
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 4079
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| Posted: 07 October 2008 at 2:22pm | IP Logged | 5
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What I'd love to see from DC would be an inexpensive reprint line geared
toward the kids section in bookstores, with full color paperbacks
reprinting classic Captain Marvel, Sugar and Spike and other fun stuff
that's collecting dust in the DC vaults. You can get around any cultural
stuff by having endnotes/footnotes that explain the handful of references
that modern kids might not understand, but there's a lot of family-
friendly material ready to go that's just in need of the right venue.
It didn't bug me as a kid that the early Steve Ditko-era Spider-Man
reprints I read were created in the 1960s. An appealing story with good
artwork 60 years ago is still going to be an appealing story with good
artwork today. European readers still buy Disney comics in massive
numbers, and the Tintin books have been reliable sellers over there for
decades. I'm sure that with half-a-plan, DC could be getting a lot more
money out of their extensive backlog of well-drawn, kid-friendly
supehero (and other stuff) archive.
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Erik Larsen
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 February 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 344
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| Posted: 07 October 2008 at 2:51pm | IP Logged | 6
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The old Captain Marvel stories were, in terms of tone, similar to Tin Tin
and I don't see people suggesting that he needs to be brought back and
updated for a new generation. The assumption that Captain Marvel was
"broken" and "needed to be fixed" was a faulty one. It's not rocket
science, folks. Tell good stories and the audience will be there. The
problem is that "classic" Captain Marvel was never really given a shot. The
old Shazam series, despite the involvement of C.C. Beck, read like a
Spidey Super-Stories version of Captain Marvel.
Imagine the Amazing Spider-Man being canceled and 20 years later it
was revived with Spidey Super-Stories style book--and once that tanked
everybody and their brother offering advice on how to "fix" Spider-Man
with hip clothes, tousled hair and an altered costume and you can get a
taste of my frustration. I've read a few hundred awesome Captain Marvel
stories. I have most of his original run of 150 issues and they're all pretty
damned entertaining.
It's really frustrating to see it botched again and again.
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Steve D Swanson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 May 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 1374
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| Posted: 07 October 2008 at 5:00pm | IP Logged | 7
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Botched is a bit harsh, Erik, at least to me. I got the Jeff Smith miniseries and liked it a lot (though making it a prestige comic was kind of strange since it seemed like it was targeted at kids and that's a hefty chunk of change for kids) and the new series by Mike Kunkel has been a ton of fun (and cheap too) and I could see that working in the long run.
Though I have to agree with those that said they don't like seeing him and Superman together as Superman makes Captain Marvel redundant (but I don't think the reverse is true, Captain Marvel doesn't make Superman redundant). Unless they just give up on him and turn him into a Superman villain, that would work as a story and help Superman a lot (who is always in need of good villains) but would destroy Captain Marvel.
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Anthony Frail
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 09 October 2007
Posts: 960
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| Posted: 07 October 2008 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | 8
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I think the Smith mini is a huge step in the right direction, but that work
should be done in the form of a regular series, not a prestige format mini-
series. I debated buying that series due to its high cover prices; with Manga
and other cheaper material as the competition, a 6 or 7 dollar an issue
series doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
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Michael Retour
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 May 2006
Posts: 932
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| Posted: 07 October 2008 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | 9
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Ordway did some really nice work on Captain Marvel and his covers were great. I only wish he could have kept on drawing the series.
JB's designs I've seen were fantastic.
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Chad Carter
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 June 2005
Posts: 9584
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| Posted: 07 October 2008 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | 10
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Jerry Ordway also used some other cool characters during his run, like Spy Smasher, Bulletman, and Minuteman...all of whom must be public domain.
Unfortunately it seems Minuteman received a good old murdering at some point, can't remember which title. Not that it matters, if he's public domain and somebody can pick him up again.
UPDATE! Minuteman and Spy Smasher are Fawcett characters, therefore owned by DC now...and presumably Jack Burton will still be dead. Awesome. Can't wait to see what DC does to these characters. Just can't imagine what they'll do.
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Bill Catellier
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 September 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 3225
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| Posted: 07 October 2008 at 6:38pm | IP Logged | 11
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Not sure how it played out, but there was a mini a few years back..SUPERMAN/SHAZAM 1st THUNDER or something close to that. I keep meening to pick it up so I'll ask about it here. Was the story any good? Is it worth the buy?
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Andrew W. Farago
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 July 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 4079
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| Posted: 07 October 2008 at 6:39pm | IP Logged | 12
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I think the Smith mini is a huge step in the right direction, but that
work
should be done in the form of a regular series, not a prestige format
mini-
series. I debated buying that series due to its high cover prices; with
Manga
and other cheaper material as the competition, a 6 or 7 dollar an issue
series doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Yeah, but when you put a nice 48-page book with a spine next to, say,
Secret Invasion, which sets you back $4 for a 22-page comic with lots of
advertisements and double-page spreads, I don't think the price point for
Smith's comic was unreasonable (although for a few dollars more, a kid
can get a full-color volume of Bone, which has a much higher page
count). Smith's comic was absolutely worth what I paid for it, and to be
honest, it's not like the kid audience has been at the forefront of DC or
Marvel's publishing plan for quite some time.
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Topic Closed)
