ALAMAT: ORIGINS

[Addendum 4] (3 of 3)

In prepping ALAMAT: ORIGINS, Budjette Tan conducted a trio of Q&A's with me covering AVATAR, HORUS, and DHAMPYR.

Some of the Q&A content made it into the story Intros in ORIGINS.

Most, did not.

So I'll be posting the Q&A's here, uncut, so you can all see what was left on the cutting room floor.

Third up: AVATAR.

1 Same question – what’s your elevator pitch for AVATAR?

 

A beloved hero’s “best friend” (ala Jimmy Olsen)/youthful sidekick, crippled during a brutal supervillain battle, is given a chance to become that hero, oblivious to the sinister machinations going on behind the scenes of his very own “origin” story.

 

2 At this point in time, you’d already written Horus (and maybe Bathala?) – what was your approach to writing another guy with a cape? What was the impetus that got you excited to tell the story of Avatar?

 

One of the many things I’ve learned over the years is to never question the inspiration.

If an idea presents itself, and I’ve kicked all the tires and deemed it sound enough to take out on the road, on a journey that appears worthwhile, headed towards an intriguing and interesting destination, then I just slam those keys home, rev the engine, and head out on that highway…

 

So when AVATAR popped into my head, I didn’t really stop to think, “Well, it has to be different from those other Superman archetype characters I’ve written”; that consideration comes later, in the molding of the material.

Trust the process is another thing I’ve learned, so you drive down that highway the inspiration has presented to you, and you trust that the journey will be different from those you’ve taken before.

 

Plus, AVATAR (one of whose core ideas is: what if someone whose ability to move freely had been taken away from him, was suddenly given a chance to fly*) came around after a significant amount of time in which I wrote nothing, a sustained period where no idea seemed potent enough to pursue. It was a creative wasteland I was tired of inhabiting, and AVATAR was the rescuing hand that took me out of it.

 

So, really, there was no second guessing about me writing “another guy in a cape”. It was actually me leaning in and embracing all of that, an attitude that I’ve adopted time and again since then.

 

* In retrospect, given the creative rut I was in at the time, that metaphor is definitely not lost on me.

 

3 If AVATAR reached up to issue 100, what would he be doing? How would you make that milestone issue super special?

 

I imagine issue 100 would be the culmination of the whole “Terra Armada” subplot, when the fact that Tiercel is really a manipulative SOB who’s positioned all these heroes as pawns and expendable pieces on his chessboard has become common knowledge to Avatar and Horus.

The war they’ve been unwittingly trained for should reach its end at that point, and, well, it really isn’t actually a happy ending, honestly…

Would that make it “super special” enough…?

:P

 

And there you go.

While I also re-lettered AVATAR, it was more for the sake of readability.

Because the original publication was oversized, it was essentially shrunk down to the dimensions/proportions of ALAMAT: ORIGINS.

If I'd left the original lettering as it was, the issue would have possibly been a difficult read. So it was a matter of increasing the font size, rather than a full-on remastering ala HORUS.

Additionally, since the request was for "first issues", that's what appears in ORIGINS; the main story in AVATAR issue 1.

But there's actually a Prologue chapter, which ran in the final issue of PANTHEON, with art by the one and only Carl Vergara, where we see Tiercel make the offer to the crippled Saul that turns him into (the new) Avatar.

Maybe (hopefully?) we'll get to see that one reprinted too, somewhere down the line...

I think that's all I've got for now...

Honestly not sure if I'll be back with more ORIGINS posts, but if you have any specific questions (about AVATAR or HORUS or DHAMPYR) then that would ensure my return...

So, any questions, please feel free to leave them in the Comments section and I'll see what I can do to answer them.

you can't drink just six,

Dave

ALAMAT: ORIGINS

[Addendum 3] (2 of 3)

In prepping ALAMAT: ORIGINS, Budjette Tan conducted a trio of Q&A's with me covering AVATAR, HORUS, and DHAMPYR.

Some of the Q&A content made it into the story Intros in ORIGINS.

Most, did not.

So I'll be posting the Q&A's here, uncut, so you can all see what was left on the cutting room floor.

Second up: HORUS.

1 Same [first] question – what’s your elevator pitch to get people to read HORUS?

 

You’re a gifted college athlete, and you wake up one morning with a tattoo on your arm, a tattoo that allows you to change into a freaking SUPERHERO!

Crazy-awesome insanity ensues!

 

2 What inspired you to have twins as your main characters? And what kind of tension did you have in mind by having only one of them get the powers?

 

I’ve long been fascinated by the Beloved Executioner motif; the idea of betrayal coming from a loved one, like a brother, or more pointedly, a twin. It’s an idea I revisited in BATHALA, where I took it to some dark conclusions.

My end point for the Daly twins in HORUS is certainly not as dark as what we see unfold in BATHALA, but it would have hopefully been a torturous emotional wringer for both brothers to undergo before emerging on the other side.

Some of the bones of contention between the brothers begin to rear their ugly heads in the published HORUS stories, one seed in particular foregrounded in the story reprinted [in ALAMAT: ORIGINS], while the static of growing up unable to escape the shadow of a more popular sibling (a twin! So why aren’t we exactly alike?!) plays constantly through the narrative background.

 

3 Which version of Superman inspired you in your writing of HORUS?

 

Definitely Superman: The Animated Series, from the second half of the ‘90’s. (I’m also really enjoying My Adventures with Superman, BTW.)

The fact that I gave the main character the last name Daly (after STAS Superman voice actor Tim Daly) is a dead giveaway.

 

For those of you who were with Alamat from the early days, you may note that HORUS is really TATTOOED, but filtered through an Egyptian myth/STAS lens.

I loved the foundational idea of TATTOOED so much that I thought it would be interesting to take that core concept and apply it to a more all-ages title, and thus, we have HORUS.

 

4 If HORUS could have a cross-over with any comic book character, who would it be and what would they do?

 

Given the STAS influence, definitely Superman, who has become, over the decades, the comic book/spandex archetype of the Solar Hero (among many other things, of course).

They’d settle into a mentor/mentee set-up (one of the many things I frequently return to in my comic writing) and battle some darkness/shadow-themed villain, probably Set… 

 

And there you go.

Since the opportunity to re-letter HORUS presented itself, I took that shot to effectively remaster the story, polishing up the text (or, in some cases, writing new material), to further underscore plot points or themes.

So even if you'd already read this issue in its original incarnation in PANTHEON #1, the story as presented in ALAMAT: ORIGINS should hopefully be a more fulfilling read.

BTW, on page 339 of ORIGINS, the cover Tony used for HORUS is actually the back cover of AVATAR #3, art by Kai Legaspi. (Since we didn't have an actual HORUS #1 cover.)

Plus, on page 340, the creator credits should read David Hontiveros and Carl Vergara.

And, having mentioned AVATAR (also co-created by Carl!), the Q&A for that should hopefully go live sometime in the coming week.

If you have any questions about HORUS (or DHAMPYR), please feel free to leave them in the Comments section and I'll see what I can do to answer them.

you can't drink just six,

Dave

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2019

Candidate #20

BRIGHTBURN

(May 2019)

“Maybe we need to talk to somebody. He needs, uh, like a, specialist.”

“What?! And say what to ‘em?”

“I don’t know!”

“‘Hello, this is our son. We found him in a f*cking spaceship in the woods. Now what?’

“No! We should have done something a long time ago! This is on us!”

The above quote shouldn’t be a spoiler for anyone who’s seen Brightburn’s trailer. Hell, even the one sheet gives the game away.

Take The Bad Seed, the idea that a child can be a scheming, conniving killer, and graft some spandex superhero origin story onto it, and you get Brightburn.

Or, to use 21^st century Hollywood pitchspeak, it’s Superman as an evil child horror movie.

What if a loving yet childless couple finds an infant under bizarre circumstances?

What if that child (which, after 81 years of conditioning, we’re led to believe will grow up to be a paragon of virtue) turns out not the way we hope or expect?

For longtime comic book readers, this is certainly not a new and novel concept.

But in this day and age of the box office supremacy of superheroes, any story that carries even the whiff of subversion (such as, say, Amazon’s adaptation of The Boys, which doesn’t so much as carry a whiff but reek of it) is certainly welcome, if only to mix things up and offer decidedly different flavours to the cinematic buffet that very quickly tastes all the same, all the time.

And while there is some effective horror and some brief, yet standout gore, what really sells Brightburn are the performances of Elizabeth Banks and David Denman, who play the loving yet childless couple, the Breyers.

Instead of rearing a superhero for the ages though (and through no real fault of their own), they find, to their horror, that their little bundle of joy is anything but.

(Brightburn OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

PIMP MY STUFF
BATHALA: APOKALYPSIS

So, yeah, we'll be at the 2010 Metro ComicCon, on August 21-22, at the SM Megamall Megatrade Hall 2.
Hope to see you there!

PIMP MY STUFF:
BATHALA: APOKALYPSIS

The first issue of Bathala: Apokalypsis has indeed been sighted at davidhontiveros.com.
To wit:

What if there was only one superhuman to protect the whole world?

What if the world was ending as predicted in the Book of Revelation?

What can one superman do to stop the hand of the Almighty?

PIMP MY STUFF:
BATHALA: APOKALYPSIS

Let's see...
A story in 7 chapters, that began with the simple question posed by Gerry Alanguilan: What if Superman had to deal with the Apocalypse?
Art by Ace Enriquez and edited by Budjette Tan.
At this point, "Soon" could be around the 3rd week of August.
Any hard confirmation will be posted here.
Oh, and at the moment, I believe the entire first issue will also be going online at davidhontiveros.com.
Again, confirmation here when there's confirmation to be had...

AFTERTHOUGHTS (99)
EMPIRE’S! 50! GREATEST! COMIC! BOOK! CHARACTERS! [5 of 5]
THE SUPERMAN EDITION

With the Superman Returns sequel, The Man of Steel, still without a confirmed start date (or even a script, for that matter), being honoured with the top spot on Empire’s list will have to serve as Kal-El’s 70th birthday gift.


Though Lex also being on the list could put a damper on things…


32 Lex Luthor (aka: Alexander Joseph Luthor, Mockingbird)
When you’re as strong, fast, invulnerable and flat-out powerful as Superman, it’s hard to find a nemesis of sufficient menace to actually provide you with a workout.
Enter Lex Luthor, the bad guy’s bad guy.
He doesn’t (usually) have superpowers, but then he doesn’t need them, even against the Man of Steel.


No prison can hold him, it seems, no setback is too great to overcome, and there’s pretty much no scheme too outlandish for his considerable brain power to cook up.
Since Superman remains reluctant to just break Luthor’s neck, there’s always tomorrow for this perpetual rebounder. Talk about try, try and try again—Robert the Bruce’s Spider had nothing on Luthor.
FIRST APPEARED IN ACTION COMICS #23 (1940)
CREATED BY JERRY SIEGEL AND JOE SHUSTER


1 Superman (aka: Kal-El, Clark Kent)
Being first counts for a lot, but it’s going the distance that elevates Superman from the run of flying caped superguys who followed him.
How many other characters from disposable 1938 fictions have appeared consistently for eighty years and are still as famous as ever?
Superman’s peers aren’t really Spider-Man or Wolverine, but Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan and James Bond—pop culture mainstays who stay current through consistent reinvention but are classically themselves all the same.


Superman has taken a beating from time to time: his fight for ‘truth, justice and the American Way’ is nobler but less easy to relate to than Batman’s vengeance-driven war on crime (especially when we get antsy about what ‘the American Way’ actually means); his powers are so vast that it’s hard to come up with threats worth his time (so it’s incredible that for decades, his biggest problem was a pudgy bald guy with a laboratory); and his clean-cut, super-square looks and attitude are always being challenged by someone who momentarily seems more contemporary, edgy or pragmatic.
That's perhaps why the comics have often experimented with his essential ingredients, recasting him as a Commie (Red Son) or a Brit (True Brit) or creating twisted, dark reflections of the eternal do-gooder, like Bizarro, in endless permutations that attest to his popularity and instant recognisability.


If it weren’t for Superman, there wouldn’t be an entire genre of superhero stories—every single tights-and-powers character who has come along after him is defined by how similar or how different they are from Kal-El.
FIRST APPEARED IN ACTION COMICS #1 (1938)
CREATED BY JEROME SIEGEL AND JOE SHUSTER


Hear, hear.
Superman is the foundation stone upon which the entire superhero genre is built, and without him, today’s comics (and multiplexes, for that matter) would look entirely different.

The above write-ups are from Empire’s list.
For more on the above characters, just click on their names; the entire list will be accessible from there.

Parting shot: I believe Empire miscounted when they note Superman has been around for eighty years…

(Images courtesy of dccomics.com [Luthor, art by Ed McGuinness, Superman, art by Tony Harris, and Superman, art by Alex Ross]; britfilms.tv [Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor]; and kal-el.org [Brandon Routh as Superman].)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (95)
EMPIRE’S! 50! GREATEST! COMIC! BOOK! CHARACTERS! [1 of 5]
THE OVERVIEW EDITION


As you can probably surmise by the above image, the septuagenarian Man of Steel took the #1 spot on Empire’s list, and we take a closer look at him in the fifth part of this series—Afterthoughts (99), in the Archive.
For now, we look at the list in general, and a few of the notable names on it.

On the plus side, it’s a nicely inclusive list that features more than the average spandex-clad superhero.
On the minus side, no Grant Morrison characters. Not. A. One.
This kills and disappoints me, as I truly love Empire. The Morrison oversight—considering some other comic book names manage to get two or even three of their characters in there—is such a crime…
(If memory serves, Morrison is only mentioned twice in the entire list, in the Emma Frost entry [#30], making reference to his New X-Men reinvention of the character, and in the Joker entry [#8].)

To distract myself from the horrible slight, I’ll take a look at some welcome names on the list…



35 Hellboy (aka: Anung Un Rama)
There are few characters more original or striking (literally—Hellboy punches first, asks questions… well, almost never) than Hellboy, the genius creation of Mike Mignola, who uses the character as the outlet for his obsession with pulp comics, Lovecraftian horror and tales of ancient folklore and the supernatural.
Enhanced greatly by Mignola’s artwork—pitch-black shadows and popping reds—Hellboy is a lumbering but lovable giant of few words (although, “aw, crap” is usually high on the list) who interacts with talking corpses and giant tentacled horrors while trying to deny the destiny he was created for.
For the movies, Guillermo del Toro gave Hellboy more inner turmoil and emotions, but the comics version is a blast as he investigates the paranormal in much the same way Gene Hunt investigates crime—fists first!
FIRST APPEARED IN SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON COMICS #2 (1993)
CREATED BY MIKE MIGNOLA


22 Hunter Rose (aka: Grendel)
The original and best in Matt Wagner’s long-running series of masked anti-heroes, Hunter Rose was a young genius gifted with extraordinary physical and mental prowess and just a little too much time to spare.
Finding that excellence breeds boredom if not channelled correctly, Rose set about becoming a crime kingpin, hired killer and all-round roguish gadabout before dying at the age of 21 by the hands of his lycanthropic nemesis, Argent.
More Grendels have followed in Hunter Rose’s footsteps but few have done the job with such an innate sense of style.
FIRST APPEARED IN COMICO PRIMER COMIC-BOOK ANTHOLOGY (1982)
CREATED BY MATT WAGNER



16 Rorschach (aka: Walter Kovacs)
Choosing just one of the Minutemen—the stars of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic comic, Watchmen—was tough. But from a purely iconic point of view, it had to be Rorschach.
Who was in the first picture released from Zack Snyder’s upcoming Watchmen movie? Rorschach.
Who dominated online casting debates? Rorschach.
Like The Punisher, Rorscach can be easily dismissed as a fascist whose belief in moral absolutes—there are no shades of grey; only black, white, good and evil—drives him to take the law into his own hands.
But in the hands of Moore, the freckled, ginger Walter Kovacs is a taut, tortured, complex creation who, as well as being at the centre of some of Watchmen’s most memorable sequences (the prison riot, for one), ends up being perhaps the most pure out of the graphic novel’s characters, the only one who—SPOILER WARNING—isn’t interested in compromising himself for the greater good.
FIRST APPEARED IN WATCHMEN #1 (1986)
CREATED BY ALAN MOORE AND DAVE GIBBONS

The above write-ups are from Empire’s list.
For more on the above characters, just click on their names; the entire list will be accessible from there.

In Part 2—Afterthoughts (96)—we note some characters from Marvel’s X-Men franchise.

(Images courtesy of dccomics.com [Superman; art by Carlos Pacheco]; empireonline.com [Hellboy, art by Mike Mignola; Rorschach, art by Dave Gibbons]; impawards.com [Hellboy II: The Golden Army OS [design by Crew Creative Advertising]; darkhorse.com [Grendel limited edition print, art by Matt Wagner]; and watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com [Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach].)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (68)
SUPERMAN FOUND!

The Search For Superman Committee has made its choice, and the official Man of Steel for Metropolis, Illinois’ 2008 Superman Celebration is…
Josh Boultinghouse!
Congratulations, Josh! (You can find out more about Josh here.)
Josh officially debuts as the 2008 Metropolis Superman at the ribbon cutting ceremony which opens this year’s Superman Celebration, on June 12. (For other details, go to the Metropolis Tourism website.)

(All images: Josh Boultinghouse)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (66)
DESPERATELY SEEKING SUPERMAN 2008 (2)

And the five final candidates for Metropolis, Illinois’ new Man of Steel are Josh Boultinghouse, Damian Beurer, Jamie Aaron Kelley, Danny Kelley, and John Helfrich. Congratulations to all you fine gentle(Super)men.
From here on out, it’s all in the hands of the Superman Celebration Committee, who will deliberate on the final choice to take on the red cape and boots of the Last Son of Krypton.
Their choice will be announced on May 16, and will be seen in person at this year’s Superman Celebration, to be held on June 12-15. (For other details, go to the Metropolis Tourism website.)

(Images: Josh Boultinghouse; Damian Beurer; Jamie Aaron Kelley; Danny Kelley; John Helfrich)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (65)
DESPERATELY SEEKING SUPERMAN 2008

For the past three decades, Metropolis, Illinois, has celebrated the Man of Steel in its Annual Superman Celebration, four days of celebrities, events, concerts, plays, and rides.
This year, after eight consecutive years of being Metropolis’ official Superman, Scott Cranford is handing over the cape and tights to a worthy successor, and you can narrow down the field.
If you’re a fan of Big Blue, go here, and vote for your favourite Superman. Voting is open till May 10.
The 5 candidates with the most votes will be announced on May 12, and the Superman Celebration Committee will choose Metropolis’ new Superman from the group.
Cranford’s successor will be announced on May 16, and the chosen candidate receives “… $1,000, round-trip travel, a Superman of Metropolis Award, a six-night stay in Metropolis, and a personal assistant during the celebration.”
Among the candidates, 6’2”, 225-pound Josh Boultinghouse, model Travis Kraft, and Damian Beurer, who stands a frakkin’ 6’6”! (Incidentally, Josh’s height and weight pretty much line up with DC’s statistics for the Man of Steel. He also won the Superhero Costume Contest at the 2004 Superman Celebration, where he was dressed as Superman, of course.)

Celebrity guests at this year’s Superman Celebration (being held on June 12-15), include Ned Beatty (Otis from Superman: The Movie), Allison Mack (Chloe from Smallville), and Lois Lane of Superman Past, Noel Neill (who also showed up in Bryan Singer's Superman Returns as Gertrude Vanderworth, the old rich lady Lex had to... umm... pleasure so he could get that ginormous boat).
Among the events already announced, is this year’s Superhero Costume Contest, to be held on Sunday, June 15. (For other details, go to the Metropolis Tourism website.)

Not only is it the 30th anniversary of the Superman Celebration, it’s also the 70th anniversary of Superman’s debut in Action Comics #1, so it’ll be a huge celebration.

(Images: Scott Cranford; Josh Boultinghouse; Travis Kraft; Damian Beurer)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (55)
55.1 THAT’S THE SPIRIT! 2008
Juno took home three awards at Saturday night’s Independent Spirit Awards, winning for Best Feature, Best Female Lead (Ellen Page), and Best First Screenplay (Diablo Cody).
And while that’s certainly good news, the win that really got me jazzed was that Once took Best Foreign Film. Brilliant!
For a complete list of the winners, go here.

55.2 SOUND OFF 2008
Meanwhile, at the 55th Golden Reel Awards (also held last Saturday night), Juan Antonio Bayona‘s El Orfanato (The Orphanage) won Best Sound Editing in Feature Film: Foreign, Lost won Best Sound Editing in Television: Short Form – Sound Effects and Foley, for the episode “Left Behind,” and Superman: Doomsday won Best Sound Editing: Direct to Video (actually a tie with Return to House on Haunted Hill).
Michael Bay was also honoured with the 2008 MPSE Filmmaker’s Award. (Whatever you may think of his films, they do sound good, don’t they?)
For a complete list of the winners, go here.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners at this year’s Independent Spirit and Golden Reel Awards.

Parting shot: Reviews of Juno, Once, and Superman: Doomsday can be found in the Archive, along with episodic recaps/reactions to Lost.

(OS’s and Lost Season 4 ad courtesy of impawards.com; Superman: Doomsday DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.com.)

reVIEW (33)
ELEKTRA

Since my review for Suspect Zero went up here at the Iguana because it was co-written by Zak Penn, I figured this one should go up too, since it was also written by Penn. (Boy, it’s a good thing I enjoyed Incident at Loch Ness, or Penn might think I’ve got it in for him…)

Marvel really does know how to shoot itself in the foot.
For all their initiative in translating their superhero properties onto the big screen in the past few years—leaving DC far behind in the dust—it’s really only been Bryan Singer’s X2, Guillermo del Toro’s Blade II, and Sam Raimi’s Spider-man, that have passed muster. All their other movies have run the gamut from, a) better-than-good-but-not-great (X-Men), to b) disappointing (Ang Lee’s The Hulk), to c) just plain awful (Mark Steven Johnson‘s Daredevil).
Rob Bowman’s Elektra though, has the distinction of being the first of Marvel’s recent screen adaptations that is downright boring. And if it’s one thing a comic book film shouldn’t be, it’s boring. The four-color world of comics is frenetic and stylized, charged with adrenaline, and, in the case of red-clad assassin Elektra, a fair amount of pubescent hormones. Unfortunately, none of that is carried over to Bowman’s film.

Picking up some years after the events in Daredevil, Elektra begins with some voice-over back story by Terence Stamp’s Stick, before segueing into a standard sequence which is supposed to establish how formidable our heroine is. Her existence is now considered an urban legend, since she died, after all, in Daredevil. Now an assassin-for-hire, it isn’t long before she gets embroiled in the affairs of The Hand, an evil order of ninja—we know they are evil because when their minions die, they dissolve into billowing yellow smoke—with sinister designs on “The Treasure,” a warrior pivotal to the battle between light and dark.
What follows is a film that is not so much predictable as it is blandly unsurprising. Revelations are made in the course of the story that do absolutely nothing to raise the tepid sense of detached observation which quickly sets in while watching Jennifer Garner alternate between agonizing over the loss of her mother at an early age, and kicking Hand butt.
Sadly, not even the action sequences do much to alter the tenor of Elektra. Uniformly unimpressive—despite one that has a neat set-up with a multitude of floating white sheets—the fight scenes are even more inept than another recent Marvel entry, Blade: Trinity’s, and those were already nearly dispensable. Even the showdown with the quartet of enemy warriors—who we know are formidable and merciless because their grand entrance is done in slow-motion—are horribly inconsequential, as is Elektra’s face-off with main baddie, Kirigi (Will Yun Lee; Colonel Moon from Die Another Day). More’s the pity, considering Kirigi’s (again) none-too-surprising significance to Elektra’s life.

Zak Penn‘s script, in attempting to give us a human protagonist with a past filled with pain and emotion, ends up delivering a story totally devoid of action and tension, dealing, as it does, with story elements we’ve all seen before: the supposedly stone-cold killer with a good heart; the contract that isn’t what it seems; the targets that cause the killer to be conflicted, etcetera, ad nauseum.
Nowhere in the film’s running time do we actually feel a threat, a sense of danger. At no single point do we feel that life is a precious thing. After all, those of Elektra’s order can raise the dead, as they did with her. With that sort of power in your corner, why bother to worry?

Rob Bowman, meanwhile, elevates Elektra not a whit beyond its tension-free beginnings. An X-Files directorial alumnus, Bowman then went on to helm the X-Files feature film, as well as Reign of Fire. Other than a phantasmagoric kiss in a forest, and one of Elektra’s flashbacks involving an apparent demon, nothing in the film is indicative of any sort of directorial flair. Like the X-Files movie, Elektra is straight-forward and by-the-numbers, leaving no residue at all, no lingering feeling of “What did I just see?”, of the revelatory wonder that cinema is capable of.
Perhaps if the director were more versed in the very specific sort of world Elektra’s story is set in, then things would have turned out differently. This is a world steeped in martial arts and mysticism, the world of the Hong Kong martial arts genre, or, to be truer to Elektra’s comic book roots, the world of Japanese manga and anime.

Now, lest I be accused of racism, let me reiterate: Elektra needed a director versed in the genre. Quentin Tarantino understood it well in the Kill Bill saga, as did Guillermo del Toro in Blade II, and the Wachowskis in The Matrix, and none of them are Asian. Inappropriately, Bowman seems to have approached the material as if it were a normal action film with a touch of the supernatural thrown into the mix. Elektra needed to be soaked in a certain atmosphere, to have a specific sensibility. Instead, it languishes in a flavorless stock of mundane proportion.
Not even the presence of charismatic Terence Stamp—who has done everything in his career from facing down the Man of Steel in Superman II, to prancing around the Australian outback in drag in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert—manages to make a dent in the terribly pedestrian armor Elektra is wrapped in.

In the end, where Elektra is concerned, I think this was the biggest surprise: spinning off from the awful Daredevil, I thought it would either be better, or worse, with the greater possibility of being better, as Daredevil was already pretty bad
I just never expected Elektra to be a big, stupefying bore.

(Elektra OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

(The above is a slightly altered version of a previously published review entitled “Marvelous Bore.”)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (20)

20.1 Following the news of the marathon Justice League casting session (check out Afterthoughts (19) in the Archive), WB is going announcement-happy with two new helmers attached to the film adaptations of The Flash and Green Lantern.

First off, The Flash has had a number of names going through its revolving door, from David S. Goyer, to Shawn Levy. Now Levy, who has walked away from The Flash for “undisclosed reasons,” is replaced by David Dobkin.
While Levy has films like Cheaper By The Dozen and Night At The Museum under his belt, Dobkin counts Shanghai Knights and The Wedding Crashers among his credits.
Based on the movies above, it seems WB is moving towards a more comedic approach to the Flash than its other superhero franchises.
Dobkin has confirmed that The Flash will be a direct spin-off of George Miller’s Justice League, and will feature the Wally West incarnation. (It’s interesting to note though that with this set-up, Dobkin has apparently no say in the casting of the Flash, as that decision is currently in Miller’s court.)

Meanwhile, there’s Green Lantern, which has been handed to Greg Berlanti, who helmed The Broken Hearts Club before writing and executive producing such TV fare as Dawson’s Creek, Everwood, Brothers & Sisters, and Dirty Sexy Money.
Berlanti is slated to write the script with Marc Guggenheim (who is also a writer-producer on Brothers & Sisters, and has written Amazing Spider-Man, Blade, and Wolverine comics) and Michael Green (co-executive producer on Heroes, and past writer of the Superman/Batman comic).
It’s unclear at this point whether this is also a Justice League spin-off, as the Variety story only mentions the Hal Jordan Green Lantern, while Miller’s Justice League will be featuring the John Stewart Lantern.

While I’m not particularly a fan of either, and thus not overly thrilled at having Dobkin and Berlanti handling DC’s upcoming salvoes in the live-action superheroics war with Marvel, I am slightly more excited about Green Lantern, as it’s got Michael Green working on the script.
Here’s hoping both films keep on running smoothly from here on out.

20.2 In other Justice League-related news, casting rumours continue to float, in the absence of official word from WB about Miller’s final choices.
A short-lived rumour concerning Hellboy’s Rupert Evans as Superman was quickly debunked, while more recently, The Grudge 2’s Teresa Palmer has been reported as Miller’s choice for Wonder Woman. (The latter rumour has yet to be confirmed or debunked.)

(Images courtesy of the-trades.com [David Dobkin], abc.com [Greg Berlanti], comicworld.gr [Rupert Evans], and askmen.com [Teresa Palmer].)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (19)

It appears that the film adaptation of Justice League of America is really moving now. With the confluence of the impending strike and the delay of Bryan Singer’s Superman sequel, Warner Brothers moved faster than a speeding bullet on this one.
Since they needed a tentpole for 2009, and it was quickly becoming apparent that Singer—still busy on Valkyrie and with The Mayor of Castro Street waiting for him—wasn’t going to deliver it, the studio turned to the JLA script written by Kieran and Michele Mulroney.
Even with a script though, a film of the size and scale of Justice League of America (comprised of seven of the DC Universe’s biggest names, including Superman and Batman) is a daunting task, under normal circumstances. Having a pre-strike priority status is far from normal, of course, and could very well be a double-edged sword.
Still, director George Miller (who’s given us everything from Mad Max to Babe to Happy Feet) seems to be right on target.

Miller has reportedly recruited Oscar-winning cinematographer Dean Semler—who kicked a$$ on Russell Mulcahey’s big boar in the Outback thriller Razorback, shot Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, and collaborated with both Miller and Gibson on the second and third Mad Max films—and is currently in the US for a “marathon casting session” during which time he will see from 35 to 40 actors audition for the seven key roles.
Miller is looking at young actors so they can “grow into their roles over the course of several movies.” If all goes well, this could be a pivotal film that could turn semi-recognizable actors into household names. (Think The Fellowship of the Ring.)
Among those slated for JLA auditions: Michael Angarano (who played Jack’s son, Elliot, on Will & Grace, and already did the superhero thing in Disney’s Sky High); D.J. Cotrona (from the cancelled Windfall); a Friday Night Lights contingent comprised of Adrianne Palicki, Scott Porter, and Minka Kelly; Teresa Palmer from Wolf Creek and The Grudge 2; and Seth Cohen himself, Adam Brody.
The specific role each particular actor is auditioning for is unclear at this point, though I do see possibilities: Porter could be up for Superman, while Cotrona could be auditioning for Batman. And either Angarano or Brody could make for a good Flash (though Angarano seems more physically suited to play the Scarlet Speedster)*. Kelly, Palmer, and Palicki are of course, all tussling it out for the golden lasso and tiara of Wonder Woman.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Miller is supposed to run down his choices for the studio sometime in the middle of this week.

In addition, Peter Jackson’s Weta Workshop is also reportedly on-board for costume design.
Awesome.
Check out the item at hollywoodreporter.com, for some more names mentioned as part of the audition roll call.

* I’m assuming, of course, that the Flash in question is Wally West (just as he is on the Justice League animated series) and not the more straight-laced Barry Allen.

Parting shot: Semler won the Best Cinematography Oscar for Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves. He also won a couple of Australian film awards for his work on Razorback, and was likewise recognized for Apocalypto (3 wins and 2 nominations).

(Images courtesy of kidactors.com [Michael Angarano]; allocine.fr [D.J. Cotrona]; yahoo.com, austin360.com, and about.com [Adrianne Palicki, Scott Porter, and Minka Kelly]; yahoo.com [Teresa Palmer]; and webwombat.com.au [Adam Brody].)