--- Alan Zabaro <azabaro@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> Joseph Riggs wrote:
> [...]
> > The MSNBC story I read mentioned in its very last
> line
> > that Marvel is... "developing a Captain America
> > movie."  I'm not sure how close to an actual film
> that
> > is, but Marvel has its own film division these
> days
> > that is supposed to release films starting in
> 2008.
> 
> IIRC some of the films this division has created
> include the animated 
> Ultimates featurettes as well as the animated Iron
> Man movie (released 
> in the last couple of months). I've only watched the
> Ultimates movies, 
> so maybe Iron Man is different...but so far, I'd say
> they're OK, but not 
> as good as the average episode of the Dini/Timm DC
> comic adaptations 
> (Batman/Superman/Justice League).
> 

My understanding is that the 2008 number is when they
start rolling out live-action films, presumeably
hoping to directly capitalize on their properties
instead of licensing them out to companies like Sony
(Spiderman).  Of course, while there have been some
really good super-hero movies, there have also been
some really bad ones.  And you can't tell until the
movie is released whether you're looking at the next
X-Men, or the next Daredevil.

> Oh, and as for "developing a film" - my
> understanding is that the 5th 
> Superman movie's development took
> 
> 	17 years, three confirmed directors, nine
> screenwriters, and
> 	approximately $50 million in combined resources for
> the seven
> 	different films without any filming ever taking
> place
> 		-
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canceled_Superman_films
> 
> So I wouldn't assume that means any real progress
> toward an actual film.
> 

I guess the real question is how far along Marvel is
in the development process.

> > And you're right in that Captain America doesn't
> > really fit with a lot of what Marvel is writing
> these
> > days.  He's the Star Spangled Boy Scout of
> Marvel's
> > super-hero community, and more and more Marvel
> seems
> > to be obsessed with stories about conspiracies and
> > other under-handed dealings.  Someone like Cap
> doesn't
> > really fit in with that sort of thing (at least
> not on
> > a regular basis).  Thus one of the reasons that
> I'm
> > not as surprised by this as I might have been.
> 
> In a recent discussion of Civil War, somebody
> pointed out that where 
> Punisher used to a dark anti-hero who served as a
> contrast to the normal 
> Marvel characters, these days he fits right in with
> everybody else - 
> he's become the norm.
> 

He's still further out there than most comic book
characters, but it is true that there are a lot more
like him.  The mass killer protagonist has gotten to
be so common that it's even mocked to a certain extent
with the character Deadpool (who's nuts, generally
played for laughs, and is a playable character in two
of the recent Marvel video games - X-Men Legends II
and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance).

> That's...perhaps technically correct, but somewhat
> misleading. Video 
> games might be taking market share that once
> belonged to monthly 
> pamphlet-style comics here in America, but comics as
> a whole are still 
> doing pretty well (manga in particular has pretty
> much shown that Marvel 
> and DC have basically thrown away large portions of
> their mindshare, 
> rather than having it stolen from them by other
> entertainment media).
> 

Hmm...

That reminds me...

Marvel has used Spiderman's background as the setting
of an on-going teen-romance series.  "Spider-man Loves
Mary Jane" is a comic book that's apparently aimed at
girls, and features Mary Jane as the central
character.  It makes me wonder how similar it is to
some of the romance manga, how well the series is
written, and what the sales figures look like.


junior



 
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