Marvel Cinematic Universes, Other Possibilities.

During almost every year of the last decade there was at least one, and often three, movies based on Marvel Comics characters. As I’ve detailed here, this was because Marvel licensed out their characters to multiple studios, hence multiple projects were developed at once. Then of course Marvel started making their own movies, starting with Iron Man in 2008, but this time it was different, as their other movies like Hulk, Thor, and Captain America were all set in the same world and led up to Avengers. What if, before 2000, other studios had the same idea with Marvel characters? What could they have done? Here are three possibilities, plus one that’s kind of already happening.

1. The Marvel Horror Movie-verse.

Potential Characters;

Blade, Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night, Dr. Strange, Hellstorm, Man-Thing, Moon Knight.

While most point to 2000’s X-men as the beginning of the Marvel Age of movies, Blade came out in 1998, and was actually the first Marvel character to have a successful film. If a studio could have had the rights to Blade, along with other horror based characters like Ghost Rider, Dr. Strange etc., the characters could have teamed up for a Midnight Sons movie ala Avengers. It would have been interesting to see a Marvel film-verse with hard R rated characters. If they went that route, imagine if the same studio also had the rights to other horror characters and threw them in the mix, such as Hellraiser, and slasher films like Friday the 13^th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A truly horrifying universe.

1. Fantastic Four plus cosmic/space based characters.

Potential Characters;

Fantastic Four, Namor, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Inhumans, Guardians of the Galaxy, Adam Warlock, Nova, Silver Surfer.

Imagine an epic Fantastic Four movie with Dr. Doom as the big bad, whose plan involves an artifact from Atlantis and Vibranium from Wakanda. This introduces Namor and the Black Panther, who could spin off into their own movies. This would be the reverse method of Avengers, with the big movie first then spin-offs later. They could team up again for an Atlantis Attacks movie. Namor and Black Panther movies could explore Earth while the Fantastic Four could go off into space to meet the Inhumans, Captain Marvel, maybe even Guardians of the Galaxy. Eventually bring big g Galactus in, and we can finally get a Silver Surfer movie. Even crazier would be if Paramount Pictures was at the helm of this Marvel Cosmic movie-verse, and decided to cross Fantastic Four with Star Trek.

1. Spiderman and street level/New York based heroes.

Potential Characters,

Spiderman, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Punisher, Master of Kung Fu, Silver Sable, Venom, Black Cat.

It would be fun to see Spiderman team with some NY heroes to fight the Kingpin and the Sinister Six. Throw in Silver Sable for some international adventures and you’ve got some fun stuff here.

I mention this one last because it’s sort of happening already and that’s X-men. At the time of this writing, a Wolverine sequel as well as a First Class sequel is coming soon. Who knows what future installments will bring, but I’d often thought what if they planned to branch out from the beginning. The first trilogy could have set up Days of Future Past; the dark alternate future where sentinels rule the earth (Like Terminator, but this was first. Crossover anyone?). Whole films could have spun out of that starring Bishop, etc., while simultaneously starting the First Class prequels, the Wolverine series, etc.

Consequently I always thought setting the X-men films in the near future was a big mistake. It wasn’t necessary, and given that Magneto’s WWII ties were kept intact, that would mean that, depending on how far ahead you mean by the near future, Magneto could be 100 years old in those movies. Anyway, the First Class spinoff was great, and I hope it’s sequel as well as the new Wolverine is too. If this series wanted to it could even go into space with a Starjammers picture.

Interestingly enough, while Fox continues this franchise, it is also rebooting their Fantastic Four series so they don’t lose the rights to Marvel. At the time of this writing I have no idea if this is a standalone film, or if it will indeed be part of the X-men’s film world. I assume it will be its own thing, but the possibility is there. If Fox Studios would combine the two franchises (and they both have outer-space characters), they could indeed have their own Marvel Cinematic Universe to rival the one Marvel is making in house.  

It’s also interesting to consider the possibilities for tie in products; in continuity comics, video games (The Captain America video game is in canon with the MCU), TV shows, etc. Would it have been confusing for fans? I don’t know if it would have, there were several separate movie worlds as it was, most of them just had one or a small set of heroes. What would have made it work is what makes it work now; they’re similar but not exactly the same. One set could have been straight horror, the other hard science fiction, another more street level stories, and the last a mix of several things.

It would have been fun, but oh well. What do you think?

DC Comics/Top Cow crossovers.

 Batman Darkness was the first in a series of crossovers between DC Comics and Top Cow. The Darkness is a comic about Jackie Estacado, a NYC mobster who has supernatural power to summon gremlin like demons. This crossover features him and his adopted father Franki Franchetti attempting expand their territory into Gotham City. Along the way Frankie has many humorous encounters with Two Face, Catwoman, and Killer Croc. Much to Frankie’s annoyance, he gets no respect in Gotham. Meanwhile Jackie’s love interest, Jenny Romano is in Gotham doing a charity event in crime alley, leading to friction between him and Bruce Wayne and Jackie wanting to get the goods on his potential romantic rival. The theme of the story is how both Jackie and Bruce Wayne are orphans, and both embraced Darkness in some way. The difference between the two is that Bruce Wayne still had someone who believed in him, that someone being Alfred. Some Easter Eggs include a nod to the Superman “You’ve got me, who’s got you?” line. The demons at one point say “nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah” referencing the old Batman song, and there’s a mention of FBI agent Carla Denton who is from the Darkness comics.

Darkness Superman works around the conceit that Superman is always off fighting monsters and aliens (the story mentions he just stopped an alien threat) and doesn’t have as much time to catch smaller scale criminals. Hence the mafia is able to operate in Metropolis under Superman’s radar. This leads to a situation where Lois is kidnapped, and The Darkness attempts to make Superman an offer he can’t refuse. There’s a reference to the previous Batman story.

JLA Cyberforce has the two teams fight each other than an unexpected threat. Batman and Cyblade have the hots for each other, and Martian Manhunter comes into a situation where he finds great piece of mind. That was an interesting touch.

JLA Witchblade has Kenneth Irons and Lex Luthor manipulating things from behind the scenes, but in a nice touch never encountering the titular teams. Sarah Pezzini, the current Witchblade holder, is friends with Barbara Gordon/Batgirl (Their dads met at a cop seminar in NYC). Sara is seriously injured and Barbara takes her to JLA headquarters. The Witchblade ends up infecting Oracle and Huntress, while Aquaman discovers via his Atlantean library that the Witchblade goes back to the Age of Arion (Which has to do with the ancient Atlantis of the DC universe). The Witchblade ultimate possesses Wonder Woman who goes beserk and takes on the JLA.

All four crossovers were entertaining and made a point of playing off both the similarities and differences of the characters. The four stories being presumably linked was a good touch that future crossovers could take note of.

 

 

 

 

Wildcats X-men Comic Book Crossover

Wildcats/X-men was a series of crossovers between the Marvel Mutants and the Jim Lee created team from Wildstorm/Image. There were four books, one for the Golden Age of comics, one for Silver Age, Modern Age, and the future.

The Golden Age story is naturally set in World War Two. The colors in the book are black white and red giving it a nice WWII gritty atmosphere.  Wolverine and Zannah from the Wildcats fight a Nazi/Daemonite alliance that attempts to re-awaken and ancient Daemonite. (Daemonites are aliens that have secretly inhabited Earth for a while. They can posses people, and are the main villains for WIldcats.) Wolverine is portrayed as the more heroic of the two and Zannah has no qualms about seeing people as expendable. 

The Silver Age is probably the strongest story of the four. Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits Grifter on a mission to stop an alien invasion that is an alliance between the Daemonites and the alien race from X-men comics called the Brood. S.H.I.E.L.D. provides Grifters iconic red mask, which is presented as a James Bond era gadget. Along the way Grifter has a flirtatious encounter with Jean Grey. She is traveling to Australia for a modeling gig, and is upset that Cyclops did not say goodbye to her. Gets accidentally mixed up in the alien schemes, which involve X-men foe Mr. Sinister who made a Daemonite/Brood hybrid. Along the way there are references to 60s icons like Lennon, Dylan, and Jagger. On the comic book end there’s a reference to Jean Grey’s silver age costume, and Team Seven from the Wildstorm Universe. Also we get some nice banter about the nature of teamwork vs working alone.  

Grifter and Jean meet again in the Modern Age. Here the second X-men team and the Wildcats meet in England. The X-men are investigating the disappearance of a mutant possibly being connected to the Hellfire club. The Wildcats are investigating a connection with the Hellfire club and the Daemonites. Nightcrawler mistakes Warpath for Wolverine, and Warpath thinks Nightcrawler to be a Daemonite. Wolverine meets Zannah again and Jean notes that Grifter has now joined a team. 

The Dark Age is a dark future where the Daemonites merged with Sentinel technology and taken over Earth. Many of the heroes from both Marvel and Image are now dead. Wolverine, Grifter, and some others lead the resistance. Their plot involves time travel elements from the X-men and has some consequences involving both teams that leads to an interesting ending.

Wildcats/X-men showed an interesting way to present a crossover. It would be interesting to see a a Marvel/DC crossover using the same mechanics of covering different eras. Given DC now owns Wildstorm it would be fun to see a Golden Age story focusing primarily on DC characters, followed by a Silver Age story with Marvel characters, culminating in a 90s era story with Wildstorm and possibly Ultraverse which is now owned by Marvel.

Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter.

Popeye Meets the Man who Hated Laughter.

           Popeye meets the Man who Hated Laughter was a 1 hour cartoon special that aired on ABC in 1972 as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Series. It is notable for crossing over various characters that were owned by King Features Syndicate. It’s also notable for being able to cross action adventure characters like The Phantom and Flash Gordon with humor based characters like Beetle Bailey and Blondie.

           What brings them together is the villain, Morbid Grimsbee. Apparently he’s won the meanie award 6 times, and wants to be the first 7 time winner. His assistant is Brutus from Popeye. His plan is to trick everyone to board a ship, the S.S. Hilarious. So the comedic characters board the ship thinking they’re going on a pleasure cruise and get some interaction with each other. Soon the ship self-destructs, and the characters are imprisoned on an island with Morbid Grimsbee. As the ship goes down Olive Oil makes Popeye save her clothes and not his spinach, hence Popeye is not able to save the day.

           Soon the President of the United States realizes that the Sunday morning cartoon characters have been captured. Since this is a national emergency he summons the Phantom, Flash Gordon, Mandrake the Magician, Steve Canyon, and Lothar to the White House. These men form a rescue team and head to the island, but soon they are captured themselves. We get a few action sequences out of this with Flash and the Phantom. At one point the Phantom wrestles some kind of large cat, it might have been a jaguar. ALso Mandrake summons Prince Valiant from the past to assist them.

           However it is the comedic characters who end up saving the day, as they use their talents to make Grimsbee laugh, leading to a change of heart. The danger is not over as a volcano on the island erupts, forcing everyone to flee on Grimsbee’s Yellow Submarine. (King Features co-produced the Beatles cartoon Yellow Submarine). While under the sea they find Popeye’s spinach, allowing him to save the day from one last obstacle.

           In terms of crossovers Popeye Meets the Man who Hated Laughter is notable for bringing straight action adventure characters together with comedic characters. It’s also notable for the first animated appearance of Flash Gordon, Steve Canyon, Tim  Tyler, and the Phantom. In a way foreshadows the Defenders of the Earth cartoon of the 1980s, which had Flash, the Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician team up to fight Flash Gordon’s enemy Ming the Merciless.

Characters from the following strips appear in the show.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Bringing Up Father, Flash Gordon, Henry, Hi and Lois, The Katzenjammer Kids, Little Iodine, The Little King, Mandrake the Magician, The Phantom, Popeye. Prince Valiant, Quincy, Steve Canyon, Tiger, Tim Tyler’s Luck

Source http://popeye.wikia.com/wiki/Popeye_Meets_the_Man_Who_Hated_Laughter

Wreck it Ralph

Wreck it Ralph is a Disney animated film which crosses over several video game characters, and is the first film to my knowledge to do so. At a particular arcade set in the world of this movie, the various characters live in the world of their own arcade game, and also share a world together and can visit each other while the arcade is closed. This shared world has its own rules. If an arcade is unplugged, the characters essentially become homeless, as is the fate of Q*bert. Glitches exist, which are mistakes in the computer programming. Characters that are glitches cannot leave their game. Characters always regenerate immediately if they die in their own game, but not if they die in a different game.

The main story focuses on the titular character, who was designed to be a villain, wanting to get respect. He goes on a quest to get his respect which mostly involves two other fictitious games. The first being a Halo-like first person shooter called Hero’s Duty. The second, where most of the narrative takes place, is a racing game called Sugar Rush. Along the way he finds out the secret history of the world of Sugar Rush, as well as the hidden past of the world within the arcade.

It’s a great concept, thought out and executed well. The kids in the arcade have roles in the story as well. I’d be curious to see where else this goes in future installments, regarding both other games and kids in the real world.

The crossover characters do no per say play a main role in the actual story, but are mostly seen in the background. Some games have their characters present, others are mentioned in passing in the dialogue or other references/sight gags. Those games are as follows;

 Altered Beast

Dance Dance Revolution

Dig Dug

Final Fantasy

Frogger

Metal Gear

Pac-man

Paperboy

Pong

Q*bert

Qix

Sonic the Hedgehog

Street Fighter

Super Mario Brothers

Tapper

Tomb Raider

Rise of the Gaurdians

Rise of the Gaurdians is almost like the Avengers or even the Expendables for elementary kids. It’s the story of Santa Clause, Jack Frost, the Easter Bunny, Mr. Sandman, and the Tooth Fairy teaming up to fight the boogey man.

Jack Frost is the introductory character. He gets recruited by the Man in the Moon to be the new Guardian. The conceit of this movie is that the Guardians protect children and get their strength from the beliefs of children. Apparently the Boogeyman ruled during the Dark Ages until Santa Clause and the other Guardians fought him off. Now (for some reason) he is back and wants revenge.

Santa is a sword wielding Russian tough guy, the Easter Bunny is a cynical Australian, and the Sandman doesn’t speak, but communicates through his sand. Jack Frost plays the reluctant hero. He’s encountered the group before, and doesn’t get along with the Easter Bunny. He’s upset because people don’t believe in him, and he’s spent his existence being invisible to humans. This angst leaves him vulnerable to seduction by the Boogey man, who tries to pass himself off as a sympathetic character. Jack Frost also has a secret past he’s unaware of, but that revelation is slightly underwhelming.
Rise of the Guardians is a good standard adventure for kids. I’d be curious what they would do with a sequel, specifically who they would face besides the boogeyman.

Also I must add that I saw this in 4D. Years ago I saw the third Narnia movie Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 4D, and the 4D was really stupid. The seat would vibrate a little and it was annoying. The 4D in Rise of the Guardians was great (and the 3D was actually good too for a change). The seats would move around as the characters flew through the air and sometimes it was almost like being on a roller coaster. There were other effects with the seats and lighting effects etc. At the end of the movie there is a scene where a bunch of sand is in the air and it’s kind of like fireworks. During that scene, in the actual theater bubbles shot out through the walls and filled the air. That was just magical. All in all a very worthwhile experience.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 2009 (Spoilers)

Century 2009 concludes the century trilogy, where Mina Murray, Alan Quatermain, and Orlando find the Moonchild/Anti-Christ that we’ve heard about in the last two installments. The climax of this story leaves us with interesting questions about the nature of the world of LXG, this world’s potential, and Moore’s own view on contemporary culture as well as creative issues in the comic book community.

Before that I want to mention a few pop culture references. We see a grown Jack Nemo threatening to start WWIII. We also get a 90 year old James Bond (a despicable man we met in the Black Dossier) now suffering from cirrhosis, emphysema, and syphilis. He’s kept alive to suffer as punishment to those he’s wronged before. We also get a glimpse of J3, and J6, basically the Bond’s of Roger Moore and Daniel Craig.

Back to the main story. The gang finds out that the Anti-Christ, for all intents and purposes, is Harry Potter. They go to what is essentially Hogwarts where it’s revealed that Harry Potter’s adventures were all arranged to get him ready for his destiny. Potter is not at the school now, the final battle takes place at his home.

The gang fights off Potter but it’s not going so well when, a character who is basically Jesus Christ shows up to save the day. So we get Harry Potter vs. Jesus Christ.

From a Christian perspective, could this be considered blasphemy? This brings to question the dynamics of the world of LXG. In the closing monologue of Black Dossier I believe it is suggested that some of the characters know they’re in a world of fiction. When Mina and Orlando arrive at Hogwarts the land is in ruins, and the two characters speculate that this area is like London’s dream-time  and that there could be a symbiotic relationship between the worlds of fiction and the real world. Mina says “maybe this magical landscape mirrors the real world.”

Orlando supposes it could also be the opposite. Saying “If our magical landscape, our art and fairy-tales and fictions… if that goes bad, maybe the material world follows suit.”

Back to Jesus, during the battle the Jesus character says “I have many great responsibilities,, foremost amongst these , however, is my concern for children. I am concerned regarding their wellbeing, and the healthy development of their imaginations.” Could it be that Jesus entered the world of fiction to save it from a pop culture Anti-Christ?

Another notion I would like to address, something I saw coming, was the view Alan seems to have of modern culture. Part of this is covered in a previous blog here http://jemurr.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/death-of-the-imagination-not/

Years ago Alan was quoted as saying (the full quote is in the link above) that this LXG story would be about the decay of the imagination. Mina in this story says “It’s not just the poverty, people were desperately poor in 1910. But at least they felt things had a purpose. How did culture fall apart in barely a hundred years.”

Orlando answers, “By becoming irrelevant, same as always.”

The irony is Alan Moore openly admits to knowing very little of contemporary culture. In this article linked below, which I also quoted in the above blog

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20812.

he says.

“I know absolutely nothing about contemporary culture. I am cut off from most inputs. I’m not connected to the internet in any way, I watch very little television.”

It is interesting to consider that Victorian England and England of 1969 in the world of LXG were both so vibrant, rich, and lively, and Moore’s world of 2009 is bleak and depressing. Yet he admits knowing little to nothing of today’s culture. You could make the argument that the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is the height of Baby Boomer arrogance, that it proclaims 1969 as the epitome of Western Popular Culture, and following that everything fell into oblivion.

On a less serious note, the saga of LXG is basically the story of British popular culture. There’s nothing wrong with Moore writing what he knows, and he certainly knows this. However I would have liked to have seen this world incorporate other popular culture as well, such as that of Asia, and naturally America. Planetery did a great job of this. Also, after Watchmen, Moore grew tired of writing super heroes. Caped adventurers did exist in the world of LXG, but they were more of an annoying fad. It would have been fun to see a good superhero adventure set in this world.

Finally, Harry Potter is the Anti-Christ and fights Jesus Christ, but no one should be allowed to touch Watchmen….

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969

Century: 1969 opens with a British Pop Star murdered by members of a mysterious cult. Evidently this is related to an attempt to bring the Moonchild/antichrist into the world which was detailed in the previous edition. Quatermain, Mina, and Orlando are contacted by the Blazing World (this is just mentioned in passing) to try stopping it again. Along the way we briefly meet the daughter of Captain Nemo, who we met in the last chapter. She is now a grandmother.

Oliver Haddo, the Aleister Crowley type character from the last edition has apparently died but his presence is still felt in the narrative. Norton, the time traveling prisoner of London also appears giving more cryptic information, among other things that they’ll meet again in 2009 and by then it will be too late. (The third edition of Century is set in 2009.)

Apparently a recent attempt to make an anti-christ failed. A reference to the novel/film Rosemary’s baby is made, it’s mentioned that the devil child was stillborn. The gang manages to stop another ritual from taking place, but it’s not exactly what they think, and has dire consequences for Mina. Her fate is a chilling consequence of being immortal. The closing scene leaves us in the early 70s/punk era, with the group now in shambles.

The prose story Minions of the Moon continues, and the preceding narrative gives us a hint of where these stories are coming from. We get a wide range of fictional references from the Frankenstein Monster to the fiction of H.G. Wells to the B movie classic Amazon Women on the Moon.

At this point the this story is much more reliant on prior knowledge of the previous edition, as well as the Black Dossier, and the pop culture references in general.

I don’t get as many of the pop cultural references in this edition, but there’s one I’d like to mention. One of the more obscure novels referenced in this story is Vril: The Power of the Coming Race, published in 1871 by Edward Bulwer Lytotton. It is about a underground race of beings that have mastered this energy called Vril. The book has a sort of cult following and some allege that the Nazi party believed Vril to be real. Anyway, there’s one scene in Century 1969 where there’s a live sex show featuring a woman and a creature from this novel. I happened to have read this novel, and know that the Vril were not portrayed as hedonistic. Hence I’m curious why Moore chose to portray these creatures in such a way. I’m sure there are plenty of other fictional creatures to be used for hedonism, like those of the Shaver mysteries for example.

My review of book one below.

http://jemurr.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/league-of-ext-gentlemen-century-1910-a-late-review/

Review of book three coming soon.

The Tick/Madman crossover.

The Tick’s 101 issue will feature a crossover with Mike Allred’s Madman.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=40275

Dark Shadow’s Barnabas Collins crossover with Vampirella in Dynamite Comics.

To my knowledge the first Dark Shadows crossover comes in August from Dynamite Comics. The vampire Barnabas and Vampirella will meet in New York City in search of a killer. More details here.