|
Thinking about movies, this month.
In recent years, DC properties have been hit-or-miss. The relaunch of the Batman franchise has been very successful, but not as satisfying to me, as I'd hoped. In most ways, the movies were very faithful to the comics, but in one area, the area I've staked out for myself in this column, they haven't done as well.
The Batman costume is, above and beyond all else, a Halloween costume. It's meant to frighten the bad guys. My problem is this, the costume has become a suit of armor. Armor is notoriously limiting. It limits your range of movement, it'd adds mass to your body that wears you down all the quicker. The thing is, Batman doesn't need all that armor. When you shoot at him, he just isn't where you aimed. If you get lucky and catch him off guard, well, that's why Frank Miller came up with the idea of the bulletproof vest under the costume. The instant that the armor becomes obvious, a smart man would simply shoot him in the head from a rooftop with a sniper rifle. Even if his cowl can deflect bullets, it doesn't have any room for padding, so it would transfer the energy of the impact directly to his skull and he'd be dead or incapacitated, anyway.
I think that it would look better and keep down the Bat-gadget quotient to trim the suit back to a comic-style costume and play it as Frank Miller did in The Dark Knight Returns.
But, this column ain't about Batman.
Then there was Superman Returns, with the awful speedo trunks. Superman's costume is a classic and it needs no modification. If you can't get the CGI to work with the S-Shield on the cape, that's fine, we don't need it. We also don't need thousands of little S-Shields all over the suit and imprinted in the rubber chest emblem. And a word about that chest emblem...how the hell did Clark Kent hide it under his shirts?
It would look like he was wearing a giant pendant under his shirt or something. Someone would notice. Keep it simple, Singer. If you want to darken the colors a little, that's cool. Look at the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons for inspiration. Also, I refer you to the reason for the trunks on the outside of the tights for the ten-thousandth time, they break up the outline. We don't need to be able to tell in Kryptonians practice circumcision or not. Also, you can put a convenient fly there, for when he needs to visit the little heroes room.
But this column ain't about Superman, neither.
It's about the "coming soons" we've been hearing about the last few years.
When I heard that Joss Whedon was signed on to direct Wonder Woman, I actually had high hopes for the movie. Now...not so much. I worry that the Hollywood types will turn it into a joke. Sure, there's a lot to joke about with Wonder Woman. There are the infamous and plentiful bondage images, right on the covers, complete with phallic imagery. Bondage and domination are major themes in Wonder Woman, since the beginning. But, that's just the funny stuff.
These days, I often refer people to the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoon series, to see how certain characters ought to be portrayed. The reason is, the writers of those shows managed to boil most of the characters down to their essences and were able to incorporate elements of their histories into stories that were some of the best I've ever seen.
Wonder Woman was one of these. They were able to bring together the super-hero and mythology elements of Wonder Woman in a way nobody seems able to do, in the comics. They even fixed it so she met Steve Trevor during World War Two.
I know we're likely to see some rubberized bastardization of Wonder Woman's costume in any movie coming out of Hollywood, but I'm hoping they will work up a design that simulates the armored corset she's supposed to wear. I'd be happy if they muted the colors a bit. The trick is going to be, keeping it close to the comic design but allowing for the range of motion needed in an action movie. That's tough, but I think it can be done. If not, then add a couple of simple straps over the shoulders for support and it will still have a look similar to ancient armor.
For my sketch, I chose elements from Alex Ross's Kingdom Come design. The breechcloth works better than the star-spangled panties, I think. After doing this, I thought maybe the boots ought to be modified, the uppers being covered by greaves mimicking the design of her comic book boots. This would be more in keeping with the warrior princess look, too.
Now, the really tricky part is going to be casting Wonder Woman. I would love to see them find a woman with the curves and the height to really be Wonder Woman. She must be brunette and she needs to look like a Greek statue come to life.
Next we'll talk about a movie I've been anticipating forever, but no one ever seems to get around to making it. As long time readers know, Green Lantern and the Green Lantern Corps are some of my favorite concepts in comics. Green Lantern would make such an awesome movie, I can't believe it's taken this long to get it into production. I want to see this movie so much, I came up with a plot and started writing the script for an origin movie for Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Since movie chronologies never follow the comics, I decided they should both be in the first movie. The plot involves Hal and John both working on a top secret military test in the desert, where they discover the crashed space ship of Abin Sur, who determines they are both worthy of the ring, which they then have to share. It's a buddy film. The villain in my story would be Hector Hammond, whose mental powers are amplified by the McGuffin device Hal and John were working with, leading him to steal the device and bring them into conflict. Big fight, cool special FX, Hal and John express their different personalities in the ring projections they create. In the end, they defeat Hammond and recover the device. Starry, starry night in the desert. A powerful green spot finds Hal and John squinting up into the night sky. Reveal: The Green Lantern Corps. A squad of GLs, probably including Kilowog, Tomar Re, Katma Tui, a few others. Fade to green.
For my sketch, I used the current design for Hal's costume. It's clean and simple, and it incorporates all the best elements of the later Gil Kane design. I would like to see it appear as nearly seamless as possible, like it really is created by the ring.
The ring should be metallic green material and I think it should be different for each GL. It'd be cool to see it morph when Hal hands it to John.
Sorry there's so little art for this column, I got hung up working on other things this month and was left short on time.
www.heroblog.com
www.adastracomic.com
Copyright © 2009 Joe Singleton
|
|
