This week’s eye candy – Covered Blog

I’ve been flipping through this blog for the past few days and keep coming back for more. I hope everyone takes some time to contribute to the art.

Personal favorite so far:

Sep 12, 2009 | pop culture | 1 Comment »

Warner Bros. Reminds You Who Really Owns DC Comics

Hot on the heels of the Disney/Marvel deal comes this little gem helping to muddy the increasingly blurry lines that exist between comics publishers and their corporate overseers: Warner Bros. Reboots DC Comics in bid to rival Marvel on big screen.

Now, let’s look past the posturing. No doubt this little reorg’s been cooking for a while and the Marvel buy forced WB’s hand. The corporations from which you buy everything from your toothpaste to MP3 player to car insurance do this on a nearly monthly basis. It’s nothing new and don’t fret if you see another flip somewhere down in the line in the next few years.

What we need to take note of as creators and comic lovers is where this battle is taking place. The title of the LA Times post pretty much says it all – it ain’t happening with the Wednesday pull, my friends. It’s happening with what’s on the silver screen and how many butts are being put in the seats.

It’s no mystery that comics and their story lines have become THE birthing grounds for the movies that now represent a substantial if not governing chunk of the box office take. Comics have great, notable, recognizable characters that will draw the most critical of fanboys into the theaters while lining the shelves with licensed goodies for all ages. It’s a formula that works…kind of.

Through years of reading and collecting and negotiating excruciating continuity twists, comic lovers can’t deny their beloved characters and the studios know this. As such, the collective eggs go into the cinematic basket and the comics (yeah, it’s a pun) get shelved. The problem here is that studios don’t care about the stories. It’s all the about the Jacksons we’re plunking down each weekend in July. Characters and titles seem to be thought of more as concepts than fully developed stories (and yes, I will use the X-Men Origins: Wolverine argument here if I have to because you know you can’t deny it is a total reinterpretation of the utmost sucktitude), leaving the door open for more of what we’ve been given so far: a couple pearls drowning in a sea of WTF? So, while a film-driven arms race between the Big Two might bring that Justice League movie to bear a lot sooner than later, what does it look like really? And what, if any, original material – the material that kept us reading these stories to begin with – will be preserved.

I do have to concede to those couple of pearls here, though. DC and Marvel have each brought their A games with Batman and Iron Man respectively. Outside of IM2, I’m not certain if Marvel’s coming ventures will transcend the status of a strictly revenue-generating franchise. I can say that, if Warner Bros. does have any truly noteworthy properties on the horizon, this sure as shit ain’t it:

Sep 09, 2009 | pop culture | Leave A Comment »