Animating the Superhero universe

Superhero cartoons have been riding a serious high since Bruce Timm brought Batman to the small screen. Currently there's a nice mix of action, whimsy and intensity in superhero animation.

The Avengers is a slick production, re-telling the earliest days of the Marvel super-hero team but with an eye to backstopping and reinforcing the big screen interpretations in existence or pending. Young Justice (Don't call them the Teen Titans) brings the more realistic and glossy design and animation of recent superhero straight to video movies like Justice League: Earth 2 and Batman Under the Red Hood to television animation. Batman The Brave and the Bold goes a completely different direction emphasising the campy kid friendly approach that is an equally valid take on Batman as the grittier, darker versions are.

The Avengers is a straightforward superhero action cartoon with great hero/villain battle set-pieces. It's essentially the classic 60's line up but with the enjoyable and interesting narrative decision to ask what if The Hulk, the sullen but not completely stupid version he was at the time, hadn't left the Avengers and had actually stayed on the team.  This offers a clue that suggests that Joss Whedon's take on the Hulk in the Avengers movie will be based on a smarter more talkative version as he's been portrayed in the comics lately.

Classic Avengers villains and stories are referenced but with the advantage of being able to take years worth of continuity and incorporate them into a cohesive story arc.

Some great voice acting - Lance Henriksen as the villainous Grim Reaper is a standout - kid friendly designs and kinetic animation make this one of the best of the animated Marvel universe cartoons.

Young Justice adapts the Peter David written comic series with the addition of recent DC Comics interpretations of Aqua Lad and the new character Miss Martian.  It's also Peter David who brought back the intelligent but mean version of the Hulk in a big way although others explored it before him.  More people see the cartoon version of these characters than read the comic book versions, so Peter David is exerting a lot of influence on the public perception of both the DC and Marvel universes right now.

The Superboy is the cloned version introduced in the death of Superman story-line with lots of young teen clone angsty goodness.

By far the darkest and most superhero realist take on the comic book hero genre, Young Justice features dark conspiracies, complex character beats and grand cinematic scale to lesser seen corners of the DC universe.  A high point was the most recent episode with its in depth exploration of the Atlantean society of the DC universe with a beautiful visual interpretation of an underwater city.

Batman The Brave and the Bold goes the exact opposite way with an appropriately boldly cartoony version of Batman and the DC universe.

Some fans of superhero cartoons have been taken aback after the more quasi-realist approach has been so dominant for so long but in fact The Brave and the Bold succeeds and it does so completely precisely because its creators bring the fun.

Most recently, the impish other dimensional fanboy Batmite who perfectly personifies this sunnier Batman cartoon hosted a special episode animating some of the odder interpretations of Batman in comics and cartoons including an early Kurtzman  Mad Magazine Batman parody, Bat Manga and another sequence celebrating the long alliance of mighty heroes between Batman and Scooby Doo.



Writer Grant Morrison has suggested that the DC universe can be viewed as a real universe constantly accreting detail and even sentience.  Universes are vast, they can contain multitudes.

Honorable mention to a cinematic version of the classic superhero/supervillain diad in Megamind, just out on DVD.  This is the hero/villain war paradigm as joyful game and simultaneously unresolved childhood complex.  Fun and well worth picking up.

Guilty Pleasures TV Edition

Sometimes you just want your culture in greasy, bad for you, cheese filled quick gratification form. Here's some carnival food stand slices of TV entertainment the dweller has queasily enjoyed lately.

Todd and the Book of Pure Evil 

As if 1980's Degrassi High and Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a baby and then let the kid smoke pot and listen to Heavy Metal all day.

Starring headbanging underachiever Todd, his one armed best friend Curtis, The indie chick Jenny that Todd crushes on and the science loving Hannah who crushes on Todd.  They battle 'the Book of Pure Evil' a living, flapping malevolent tome that grants wishes to the lost and demented kids in their odd high school, inevitably in gruesomely ironic ways.

But strangely, the real star of the show is Guidence Counseler and closet  Satanist Atticus Murphy JR.  Whether he's sarcastically cringing before the sinister cult looking for the book or screaming impotently at his phone alone in his office he steals every scene he's in.

The first 13 episode season has aired on Canada's Space Channel.  Keep an eye out for a DVD release soon hopefully.  Fun cheese.

Doctor Who The Movie Special Edition

In the dark days between when the last episode of the original series aired in 1989 and it's triumphant rebirth in 2005 the one new piece of TV fans got was a Fox movie of the week that transplanted the Doctor to America (as played by Vancouver of course.)  starring Paul McGann as the Doctor with Eric Roberts camping it up outrageously as the Master.

It was a bizarre and flawed entry in the series but with its own odd charms.  It's canon for one thing, featuring a long intro sequence with seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy before he dies and is resurrected in the most blatant Christ metaphor scene you'll see outside of a Narnia book.

McGann is a perfectly acceptable Doctor and with all the criticism this entry got from fans the consensus was he did a good job and deserved more time as the character.  He has done a series of audio dramas continuing his eighth Doctor's adventures.

This 2 disc set features the movie, and several good behind the scenes features and interviews.  An oddly fascinating look at the dark times for fans of the Doctor and the abortive movie and series projects that kept the fire burning.

Batman in Turnabout Intruder

For some reason Batman The Brave and the Bold decided to adapt the last, and what most people consider the weakest episode of classic Star Trek, Turnabout Intruder except they called it The Criss Cross Conspiracy.



Batman's decidedly effeminate, not to put too fine a point on it flaming demeanor makes Batgirl and Nightwing wonder what's up with that?

What's up is that failed thrill seeking super heroine Batwoman, forced out of the crime fighting business by having her identity exposed by the Riddler, seeks revenge on the world by using black magic to swap bodies with Batman.  There's a lot of twisted sexual politics in the story as she believes that there is a double standard for male and female crime-fighters and only in Batman's body can she have the freedom of power and male authority.  Which brings us to Turnabout Intruder...



Same idea.  One of the many embittered former conquests of Captain Kirk possesses his body in order to get the power and freedom of a male star-ship captain.  Misogyny is implicit in the script and explicit in Shatner's campy, over the top ranting and prancing performance.  All hysteria, all the time.

Ultimately Brave and the Bold makes this story work, sort of,  in a way that Trek doesn't.  Maybe it says something that this story only works as a half hour cartoon rather than a live action drama.

Sleeping Through the End

The Walking Dead hasn't even officially aired yet and already some commentators are sniffing that the opening seems awfully similar to the opening of 28 Days Later.

This is, of course, true.

In 28 Days Later bike courier Jim, in hospital with a head injury from a car meets bike courier accident wakes up out of a coma to find the hospital and seemingly all of London are completely abandoned. Death and destruction are everywhere, and ultimately it turns out that ravening hordes of horribly transformed normal people are slavering for his blood.


In The Walking Dead (Both comic book and TV series) Rick, a police officer in hospital after being critically injured in a shoot out wakes up out of a coma to find the hospital and seemingly all of his home town are completely abandoned. Death and destruction are everywhere, and ultimately it turns out that ravening hordes of horribly transformed normal people are slavering for his blood.

So yeah, kind of similar.

But what the nitpickers don't realize is that 'sleeping through the apocalypse' is actually a recurring trope that has appeared many times.  In fact 28 Days Later was specifically referencing the classic John Wyndham novel turned multiple movie and TV adaptions The Day of the Triffids. 

The hero Bill Mason, is in hospital getting treatment for an eye injury that has temporarily blinded him.  So his eyes are covered with bandages when almost everyone else raptly watches a bizarre meteor shower that lights up the skies all over the world.  The next morning everyone who did is permanently blind while Mason can see as soon as he takes off his bandages.  His awakening in hospital surrounded by the terrified newly blind and stalked by horrific monsters is strongly reflected in the first quarter of 28 Days Later.

Ultimately the sleeping through the apocalypse trope is useful to writers because it allows them to plunge directly into the post apocalyptic action without having to explicate the apocalypse itself.  Plus the audience is introduced to the new reality at the same time as the hero is, encouraging identification with his baffled terror.

Other examples range from the Twilight Zone classic episode 'Time Enough at Last', the short lived Gene Roddenberry series Genesis II, the zombie move Night of the Comet and too many other examples to count.

Worry about the similarities between 28 Days Later and The Walking Dead if you want - or you could just enjoy a great thrilling zombie series on the small screen every week.

I know which option I'm picking.

UPDATE: Heh.  AMC aren't too worried about the comparison.  They ran 28 Days Later right after the repeat performance of the premiere episode on Friday Nov 5.

Planet Vancouver

I love how every fantasy or science fiction show on TV lately is a long game of 'Spot the Vancouver landmark'.

No that isn't the headquarters of alternate dimension Fringe Division, it's the downtown Vancouver Public Library.

It's futuristic, neoclassical coliseum look has naturally, also been glimpsed in Battlestar Galactica and Caprica helping make that Greco-Roman mytho link of the stories part of the visual tone of the shows.  Other examples of the glassy modernistic architecture of Vancouver like the UBC Museum of Anthropology also appear regularly.

Lots of back alleys, stretches of lonely highway and beachfront broodiness in Supernatural are familiar to anyone who's ever spent any time on the lower mainland - and just the constant gray sky light and unrelenting rain in recent episodes of Caprica and whole seasons of the X Files are pure British Columbia. 

It's enough to get all misty for the town I grew up in.

Walking Dead TV

Produced by AMC the network responsible for Breaking Bad, Frank Darabont the Director of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile and with the full involvment of the books creator Robert Kirkman who will be writing some episodes. The reasons for enthusiasm about this impending TV show just get more and more compelling.

The premise of The Walking Dead, for the uninitiated, is that the zombie movie never ends. The survivors just keep running, struggling to survive in an ongoing battle to live through the zombie apocalypse. It's made for the kind of edgy episodic television that cable TV has been producing so regularly in the last few years.

Calgary Comic And Entertainment Expo - Day Two

A better camera and many more pictures this time. Met some friends (Hi Hugh, Hi Theo, Hi Sam, Hi Courtney) bought more stuff, got some signatures.

Here's some photo moments from the day:









This was as close as I got to Leonard Nimoy. $60 for a signature and I was a few bucks short by the time I got there.

















On the other hand Aaron Douglas was $30 and I always liked Chief Tyrol. I'm a big pro-union guy so I liked his Shop Steward sequences on Battlestar Galactica.























"And that sir, is how we deal with big blue alien fuzzies in Her Majesty's Galactic Empire, by cracky!"






















A fateful encounter.





















She's a creature of the night.























The Star Trek mini-skirt makes a comeback in a big way. Practical, yet gratuitously sexy. I want to live in this future. Particularly if it includes cheesy carnival fun-houses too.

















Red Sonja, a hot Steampunk babe and a teenage anime fan whose life is having an awesomeness peak.
























Everybody get's one.






















All your miniatures are belong to Cthulhu.






UPDATE: Thanks for dropping by BEAT readers, feel free to check the rest of the site out. Lots of comics and reviews, music and art.

Calgary Comic And Entertainment Expo - Day One

Oh my God do my feet hurt.

End of Day One, I'm home now watching the new Doctor Who, and staring out the window in awe at the sudden onset polar snow-storm that appeared out of nowhere and is now in the process of burying Calgary under mountains of soggy wet snow.

I met Eric Powell, the creator of The Goon, George Freeman artist of my favorite patriotic hero Captain Canuck and attended a talk by Bruce Timm the creator of the Timm-verse DC animated universe that started with the great 90's animated Batman series.

He was limited about what new direct to DVD animated superhero movies he could announce yet. However in response to a question about animating some of the books from the Vertigo line of DC comics he said the ones that had the kind of public profile to make Warner's agree to take a chance on them like the Sandman series already had their rights tied up. The one possible exception was the Swamp Thing and there was a real possibility of doing something with him. He didn't say if it would lean more to the original Wein and Wrightson version or the Alan Moore reboot.

Lot of people there in a lot of very cool costumes, and like most conventions I spent most of my time in the huckster's hall. Bought lots of toys and comics and probably will again tomorrow.

But tomorrow is signature hunting day, which means many hours in lineups. Oh my feet.

Calgary Convention may be last chance to meet Leonard Nimoy

“We started making Star Trek pilots around 1964, I think,” Nimoy says in an interview from his Los Angeles home. “I’ve been involved with Star Trek for 44, 45 years. It’s been a wonderful ride for me and it’s been great for my family. We got to do some interesting work outside of Star Trek because of Star Trek and I’m very satisfied.”

In fact, Nimoy suspects he is probably done with acting altogether. This year may also be the last that he makes the rounds to various fan conventions. Which means his appearance this weekend at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo could be one of the last times for devotees to get up close and personal.

If you didn't have reason enough to come to it folks.

Getting my nerd on

Next weekend April 24th and 25th the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo is on and the Dweller will be there and blogging it.

Why should you care about a convention in a Canadian city many of you have never heard of? Well let's look at the lineup of guests:

We've got Malcolm McDowell, Tony Todd, Billy Dee Williams, Brent Spiner, Bruce Timm, Tamoh Penikett, Chris Claremont, Matt Wagner, Eric Powell, Len Wein, Lloyd Kaufman and Mr Spock himself Leonard Nimoy. Plus many other notables from the worlds of comics, TV SF and movies. I imagine some people of the teenage female persuasion are only going because a few of the beefcake homonculi from the Twilight movies will be there.

Factor in an enthusiastic crowd (A much larger venue was selected after the huge swarms last year.), row after row of huckster tables selling shiny nerd-bait and workshops, panels and a costume contest and you're talking about my idea of a hell of a good time.

Comment if you are going and let me know what you are looking forward to the most.

The Children of Earth

Torchwood: The Children of Earth is as good as TV Science Fiction and Horror get. I want to talk about it with some mild spoilers.

Fans of the dark, sexually ambiguous adult spin-off from Doctor Who were disappointed to hear this season Torchwood would be one five part special. Along with the hugely popular Doctor Who reduced to a series of specials this year the BBC signals their intention to strangle the geese that lay the golden eggs and subsist on reality TV, talent searches and game shows. A future Doctor Who actually warned of in the episode Bad Wolf.

But the complete five part story is a triumph. A suspenseful, horrific masterpiece throbbing with paranoia, guilt and hideous brooding menace.

This is Russell Davies at the peak of his game. Its a structural master piece as he ratchets up the tension in a steady rising curve for more than four hours concluding without an easy cheat as he occasionally does. The character writing is some of the sharpest I've seen from a writer famous for his dialogue. Captain Jack regains some much needed moral ambiguity and depth. Ianto goes through a splendidly delineated arc in his scenes and Gwen is finally shown as the brilliant badass she always should have been married to Reese who may be stocky and ordinary and out of his depth - but he's no idiot and gets a couple lovely scenes.

And while the villains may overtly seem to be the menacing and mysterious Species 456, the elite figures of government are the ones who will truly make your blood run cold as they coolly plan the ultimate betrayal of the same people they always betray. There are thoughtful reflections here to the modern British culture of totalitarian surrveilance, class based discrimination and demonization of youth.

Doctor Who once did a withering take down of Margaret Thatcher in the classic 80's episode The Happiness Patrol. In Children of Earth Davies does his most unforgiving portrayal of a political class that could be ASBO promoting authoritarian Labourites or war on working class Tory social engineers. That sequence alone, that cabinet room full of panicked elites holding their very own modern day Wannsee Conference is a sly commentary on a political class aggressively disengaged from their populace. People often incorrectly reverse the two, Children of Earth reminds us of the truth through a tale of dark socio-symbolic fantasy.

It's hard to conceive how Torchwood comes back from this. Between the last episode of last season and this five parter they've lost more than half of their core cast and left the show's infrastructure and status quo literally in ruins.

Arguably worth it for five of the best hours of TV SF in my memory.

Echos:
Children of Men, Grant Morrison's The Invisibles and The City of Lost Children