SHUA

[hans]

Work is progressing on my superheroine mod.  I've decided to convert/revamp mostly Golden Age comicbook art for it.  While looking for likely images, I came across this one, which I will not be using in my mod.   

(click to enlarge)

[Ben J]

"Boners" were a big thing during the Golden Age of comics:

[hans]

In No Country for Old Men (2007), Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) uses coinflips far more effectively than Two-Face ever did in either The Dark Knight (2008) or Batman Forever (1995). 

I think that most comicbook movies have a very hard time creating villains with a real sense of menace.  Perhaps that's why Heath Ledger's portrayal as the Joker caused such a stir.  Finally, here was a comicbook movie villain that seemed like he could truly do some believable evil.  Most of the villains in superhero movies undercut their menace by broad scene-chewing or campy one-liners (while this type of portrayal can sometimes be entertaining, such a villain's first victim is usually their film's suspense).

Besides Ledger's Joker, my votes for best realized movie supervillains are:   
Magneto (both Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender),
Mystique (Rebecca Romijn),
William Stryker (Brian Cox),
Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer),
Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard),
Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina),
The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy),
Ozymandias (Matthew Goode),
Mr. Glass/Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson).

[fly_by_night66]

I would have to add Green Goblin(Daniel DeFoe?) from Spider-man 1.

FBN66

[steve_mcdee]

Willem Dafoe I think. I agree with Dr Glass, I quite liked Unbreakable, actually.

[hans]

If I had extended my list further, Dafoe's name would have soon appeared.  He doesn't make the top ten, IMO, because some of his performance is too over-the-top.  He did an excellent scene with the mirror, splitting elements of his persona, to give a monodialog (not quite as well as Gollum in the Two Towers, but still very effective).  That added some nice depth and interest to the character. 

Also, he put a lot of menace in the scene where he begins to suspect Peter Parker.  That scene had much more suspense than most of his full-on maniac ones. 

Finding a good balance, to give a comicbook supervillain some believable menace seems to be difficult for Hollywood, as they seem to think it is required to go completely overboard. 

Another example would be Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the Joker.  Admittedly, he was fabulously entertaining.  But he was a far more menacing (and interesting) maniac in The Shining.

[Nol Drek]

Finding a good balance, to give a comicbook supervillain some believable menace seems to be difficult for Hollywood, as they seem to think it is required to go completely overboard. 

Believable Menace: Hector Hammond in Green Lantern
Completely Overboard: Parallax (the giant amorphous head) in Green Lantern

[hans]

As I mentioned the great Vic Mizzy in another thread, I figured I'd put a link to his Spider-man 2 song here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jETJVJkdJE&feature=related

[hans]

Another superhero theme song by Vic Mizzy, this one from during his heyday, Captain Nice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF-BwHjJyKU&feature=related

[hans]

Perhaps ancient history, now, but here's a couple of reviews of Marvel's Civil War by blowshimselfupdude:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-lR00FyV3c&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBfRnL8Hhkk 

I read a few issues, here and there, but it was all too dumb and distasteful for me to try to keep up with all that went on.  Did any SHUAites here, like it, or even follow it? 

[Vix]

I read it, and did not like it as a whole. Parts were okay, and I did enjoy the bits about Spider-Man/Peter Parker unmasking and his turmoil over sticking with Stark, who had done so much for he and his family, or doing what he felt was right. The whole Captain America getting shot and killed was wonky, imo.

Overall it was not horrible, but not compelling comics for me. A little too much on the nose for a lot of real world stuff. While i do not mind it in moderate doses in my comics, it was a bit ... much. A lot of parallels were, to me, unmistakably drawn in the story ... Patriot Act mostly, but registering those different, illegal aliens, and such.

[hans]

I admit that I was biased against it right from the start. 

Firstly, I thought the timing was atrocious.  Deciding to put Tony Stark in a fascist or villainous light just as his movie was (hopefully) working to bring new fans to comics...?  This was editorial lunacy! 

I've already expressed my opinion on these boards that Captain America should never be used to divide Americans.  Politically, he should be neither left nor right.  Socially, his values should reflect all the positives of the "greatest generation" to which he originally belonged, but politically he should be neutral -- representing, insofar as is possible, all Americans.  It cheapens his iconic status to side with one side of the aisle against the other, --as distasteful, if not moreso, as a politician wrapping themself in an American flag. 

Beyond that, I doubted Marvel would handle the subject very well -- and after it had been handled so beautifully by DC in Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, and the 1993 mini-series The Golden Age. 

Really, it's seemed to me that for awhile Marvel has been stealing its "big" plot ideas from DC.  (Lex Luthor becomes president, so the Green Goblin becomes president, etc.)  The House of Ideas was having few good ones of its own, and didn't know how to handle the few it did have well.  (I still haven't forgiven them for torpedo-ing The Twelve mini-series...stupid Marvel )

[Ben J]

I think all the "big" universe-spanning storylines by Marvel and DC suffer from an overkill of characters and plot.

[hans]

I think all the "big" universe-spanning storylines by Marvel and DC suffer from an overkill of characters and plot.

 

I wholly agree.  One of my favorite quotes is:  "A point in every direction is the same as no point at all."
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nwBspnCkpI&feature=related) 

These super-crossover events explode in every direction, and by trying to impact everything, they lose their impact.   

My favorite things by Marvel in recent years have been smaller, more controlled storylines, like The Twelve (sadly incomplete) mini-series which dealt with issues like culture shock, loss and disconnection, and The Destroyer (Max) mini-series which examined the family issues of a superhero in his twilight years.  Such stories, with one guiding vision, retain their focus, and hit their target with dramatic success. 

Too many cooks...n'est pas?

[Vix]

Have you read BOOM comics "Incorruptible" and "Irredeemable"?

Nothing ground shaking new but one is about a superman-like hero going nuts, the other about a life-long super villain becoming a hero to stop him.