DC Universe: The Source

Last time we checked, the wheels were starting to turn for a new Superman film to actually be made. A great script was hatched between the Nolan brothers and David S. Goyer. Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception) was going to “godfather” the film, while Jonah Nolan was given the crack to direct his first ever feature. The studio has not decided who should direct the film. Today, we get news of who are the rumored frontrunners, and that the studio might make big announcements regarding Supes pretty soon.

Collider reports:

The source of this particular item is The Playlist, who remain skeptical about the idea. However, since an intriguing wealth of info originates from a “good source,” it was worth putting into print. The highlights:

-Jonah Nolan is “the frontrunner” to direct Superman, which would be his feature debut. Christopher Nolan is a major supporter of his younger brother at the studio, which certainly can’t hurt. It appears that part of J. Nolan’s appeal is his status as writer/director: Warner Bros. wants a multi-hyphenate filmmaker to keep the payroll low.

-There is a Man of Steel draft that has really wowed the studio, which might help explain Goyer’s presence on the shortlist. According to the source, “It’s either going to be Goyer or Nolan directing from the sounds of it.”

-The gig was offered to the Wachowski brothers, but no dice. (They’re likely engulfed by their Iraqi war film CN9.) Likewise, Zachary Levi of Chuck fame has no involvement with the development of the reboot despite rumors to the contrary.

-Expect an unknown to don the cape, as the studio would like to secure the talent for a three-picture deal. Per the source, “there is a list knocking around, but its nothing major and really worth nothing more than a fan wish-list.”

-Finally, expect “major announcements” on this, the weekend of Comic-Con

As a Superman fan, this is pretty exciting news/rumor. It’s expected for the studio to make a big announcement during this year’s Comic-Con festivities. Maybe we’ll get confirmation to all of the story’s highlights. Or maybe we’ll get just one big confirmation. I’d like for the studio to announce that the film is going to start filming soon, and finally, who’s going to be the director. That’s all I’m asking. As long as Christopher Nolan is involved, I’m at ease.

What do you guys think? Young Nolan or Goyer?

The Movie Blog

Blog

DC Vertigo graphic content, announced that “Shoot” by Warren Ellis and Phil Jimenez will finally see print as part of a “Vertigo risen” in line. Originally scheduled to run in Hellblazer # 141 “Shoot” treated with fire school and was shot after the Columbine massacre in 1999, as it was considered too sensitive to publish, even if it was written long in advance. On his blog, Ellis wrote,

regime

DC Comics at the time decided it could not be rejected in its finished form. I refused to go with the changes they wanted to do. They decided not to publish the book at all. I left.

According

graphic content, other stories in the works include the matter by Brian Azzarello, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis and artist Jim Lee, Phil Jimenez, Bernie Wrightson , and others. Hm. The blog entry does not mention the fact that “Shoot” has been enriched, and in fact, is one of the most euphemistic we’ve ever read, but “Vertigo Risen” line probably include things that former editor Paul Levitz would not be printed, but the current regime is less objectionable. And then the debate begin!

All

guess what else will see the day? The beat

In an environment where the bigger publishers have too much to lose to risk burning any bridges with comic-book retailers, it shouldn’t come as a great surprise that it’s a small independent company like Boom! Studios that comes out with the most sweeping and unapologetic approach yet to digital distribution.

o “The Problem with This Statement Is That Green, Pink, and Blue People Don’t Exist”

David Brothers once again steps in and does the tiresome work of explaining, to folks who still require it, what precisely is so deeply and disturbingly wrong with statements and mindsets like the one articulated by DC Comics editor Ian Sattler, and why a clunky cartoon page from 30 years ago is precisely the kind of response merited by something like that, morally and intellectually.

And here’s a more general follow-up by Brothers.

Frankly, I’m appalled that we even need to talk about why bringing “blue” people into a discussion about race without irony rather misses several marks by several leagues.

o “Carefully Dulled Down for Maximum Demographic Acceptance”

If you have to do Howard the Duck without his creator Steve Gerber, and I remain entirely unconvinced that you do, then Stuart Moore is probably better qualified than most. Moore was Gerber’s editor for a Howard the Duck miniseries released through Marvel’s Max imprint in 2001 and 2002, and from what Gerber wrote about the experience later, it seems he generally had a good time doing it.

In September, now, there’s going to be a new Howard one-shot from Marvel, written by Moore, that will evidently have a meta-take on the character. I’m sure it’s by well-intentioned people, but I still have a hard time seeing the point. Frankly, I feel pretty safe in predicting that nothing ever published by Marvel will ever be as “meta” as it would need to be about Howard the Duck and Steve Gerber to not leave a bad taste in the mouth of anyone who’s even broadly aware of the history.

Also from Marvel in September: something called Deadpool: Pulp, which has art by Laurence Campbell and will look good; the final issue of Web of Spider-Man; more Thor, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and Thor product to feed the Mighty Marvel Merchandise Machine; a weekly five-issue miniseries, called Heroic Age: One Month to Live, that sounds like a less coherent version of Harlan Ellison’s 1972 issue of Avengers; a relaunch of the Wolverine line by familiar faces; Incognito and Kick-Ass coming back for seconds; the return of Solo Avengers, now titled I Am an Avenger; and—wait for it—a 750-page Acts of Vengeance brick, collecting “the premier crossover event of the 1990s,” which is a fancy way of saying that it was probably the first crossover event of the 1990s, chronologically.

o “The Resurrected Have Discovered Their Purpose for Being Back”

Over at DC, “the new Aqualad” is the peak of awesomeness in September. (It’s a character, not a cleaning mop promoted by Chuck Norris.)

In other news, those previously announced war-comics one-shots are coming out, for $ 3.99 per 32-page pamphlet; Batman and Robin and Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne arrive at some kind of conclusion; Marv Wolfman, George Pérez and friends turn in a book-length New Teen Titans story they started working on decades ago; there’s a new ongoing Freedom Fighters title, against all odds; WildStorm has a Wetworks one-shot by people you haven’t heard of, because that’s going to sell well, and a bunch of new game adaptations that might make the Top 300 chart, accompanied by insubstantial rumors that they’re all the rage in game stores; and Vertigo puts out a book-length comic by Sarah Glidden, titled How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less.

o “The Best Thing About Ultimatum“

Brian Michael Bendis talks to Vaneta Rogers about Marvel’s Ultimate line:

The best thing about Ultimatum, to me, was I got to do the most bullshitty writing moment I’ve ever gotten to do. When I was writing it, I was laughing, because I knew there was a tidal wave coming. So I could write these, like, I got to have Aunt May get arrested. Aunt May gets put in a box, and the cops are working her over, then… tidal wave!

In any other place, if you wrote a story where your character was going through this traumatic thing and you just all of the sudden dropped a tidal wave on her, that would have been the worst writing in the history of the world. But it’s not my tidal wave, so I get away with it.

Actually, reading this made me think a lot of North American mainstream comics are written like there’s a tidal wave coming. It doesn’t, in most cases, of course.

o “You Meet a Priest, You Can Bet He’ll Also Be a Boxer”

Sean T. Collins lovingly dissects Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris’s Ex Machina. (I love loving dissections.)

o “This Is About as Close as I Can Get You, Pal”

A bunch of Grant Morrison comics are out in new formats this week.

First up is the first of two hardcover books collecting Seven Soldiers of Victory, the mammoth, hyper-layered, super-complex 30-part crossover that Morrison wrote all by himself in 2005 and 2006. It has everything you’ve ever loved/hated about Morrison’s superhero work, plus art by J.H. Williams III, Simone Bianchi, Ryan Sook, Frazer Irving and Cameron Stewart.

Next, Batman: R.I.P., plus the two-part sequel that actually belongs more to Final Crisis, comes out as a paperback edition. The story, which has dull but mostly serviceable art by Tony Daniel and Lee Garbett, ends on an anti-climax that drove people nuts at the time and may not have been the smartest move from a marketing perspective. Taken on its own terms, though, it’s the culmination of a fascinating take on the character. In plot terms, its true ramifications are only now beginning to play out in the Batman books.

From Marvel, finally, there’s a $ 1.00 reprint of New X-Men #114 from 2001, drawn by Frank Quitely. It’s the beginning of Grant Morrison’s three-year revamp of the franchise and, to date, the most innovative and well-told X-Men comic in existence.

Marc-Oliver Frisch writes about comics at his weblog and at Comicgate. You can also follow him on Twitter.

The Beat

The Beat

The key dilemma North American mainstream comics publishers are facing right now: They can’t afford to alienate comics retailers, and they can’t afford to not alienate them for much longer, either.

There’s something at stake there, certainly. It’s not the existence of printed comic-book serials, though, but the business model that’s based on the notion of comics readers going to comics stores every Wednesday to get their latest haul of saddle-stitched comic books. Will serial 30-page comic books exist ten years from now? Absolutely. Will they be the major factor in North American comics sales they have been? Probably not.

In his conversation with Kiel Phegley, Marvel editor and executive Joe Quesada gives reason to presume that Marvel is aware of all of that, at least.

That the company is walking on eggshells right now and dutifully saddling itself with nonsense like the higher price for the digital same-day release of the forthcoming Invincible Iron Man Annual is hardly surprising. It’s still a necessity to play nice with retailers and pay lip service to the necessity of “driving new customers into their stores.” But ultimately, it’s clear that Marvel’s determined to move in a new direction. That direction doesn’t lead away from print, but it does lead away from a business model that’s based on 100,000 people walking into comics stores every week.

This means that comic-book stores still relying on this business model—and that’s probably many of them—need to start looking for other, new ways to justify their existence and reinvent their businesses, if they haven’t already.

o “The Middle of the Road Is Where the Boring People Dance”

This and many other quotable things were said by Howard Chaykin at his creator-talk panel at Comic-Salon Erlangen panel on Sunday.

o “Except for Those with a Sense of Moral Clarity, It’s Harder to Generate Nostalgia and Sympathy for a Guy Involved with a Bunch of Comics from First and Eclipse You’ve Never Heard of Than Someone Tied Into the Wider Pop-Culture Crackle of a Favorite Superhero”

Tom Spurgeon names “Two More Conversations We Could Be Having”: the prospect of an increasing number of destitute freelancers over the next 20 years, and what digital distribution will mean for comics creators financially.

o “Green, Pink, and Blue”

Evidently, DC Comics editor Ian Sattler managed to pacify the critics objecting to some of the DC storylines of late that have affected the fictional lives of a range of minority characters by ending them. At HeroesCon in Charlotte, N.C., Sattler outlined some thoughtful editorial policies that convinced people to put their concerns to rest, or at least give DC the benefit of the doubt.

Oh, who am I kidding. David Brothers and Sean T. Collins shoot him in his barrel.

o “English Is Always the Shortest”

As a translator, I enjoyed this roundtable on comics translations at The Comics Journal, which deals with all kinds of issues that you don’t need to think about unless you find yourself seated in front of a comic that needs to be translated from language into another.

And, yes, English probably is the shortest of the languages. So, as someone who translates it into German, which, at the very least, tends to be one of the longer ones in most cases, I’m always grateful when I’m working with comics that leave some blank space in their balloons and boxes, because that leaves me with more options. (I’m looking at you, British and American comics creators.)

In terms of a general philosophy, I love the Art Spiegelman quote brought up by Kim Thompson: “What I try to do, is I try not so much to translate as to write it the way I think he would have written it in English to begin with if he had been writing it in English.” That about sums it up; if a translation reads like something that was translated from another language, it’s probably a bad one.

Related: “Translations are like wives: the faithful ones are not beautiful, and the beautiful ones are not faithful.”

o “There Was One Idea I Had About Tony Eating a Used Booger-Filled Kleenex”

Out this week: the paperback collection Chew, Vol. 2: International Flavor and the comic book Chew #11, which starts a new storyline. So I figure this is as good a time as any to recommend this mind-blowing, idiosyncratic, by turns hilarious and tragic little horror/comedy/mystery series by writer John Layman and artist Rob Guillory, about a glum, short-tempered cop who gets psychic impressions from things that he eats, and his off-kilter supporting cast.

Since the very beginning, Layman and Guillory have shown to be impressively—and unusually, by mainstream-comics standards—in control of their craft and their narrative. I wouldn’t have expected one of my favorite comics moments of 2009 to be a double-page splash showing a guy eating a spoonful of soup, for instance, but there you go—it’s right there in Chew #1, and in the context of that story, it’s one of the most exciting and innovative things comics have done for me lately.

Marc-Oliver Frisch writes about comics at his weblog and at Comicgate. You can also follow him on Twitter.

The Beat

Savage Critic and “Reading Comics” author Douglas Wolk runs down the hottest comics and graphic novels coming out this week.

KEY
* Reasonable Doubt
^ The Dynasty: Roc La Familia
% The Blueprint
@ Kingdom Come
& American Gangster

^ … Read more

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