Welcome back to another (on time) edition of Obsession Perception. This week, the internet has made my job easy and given me tons of new comic related news to talk about. I didn’t have to rack my brain and come up with a central topic to focus on and write an entire thousand some-odd words about. I’ve written in the past about how and why comic books rule the world, and at that point I had explained how everywhere you look whether it’s on the internet, at the movies, on a dozens of peoples t-shirts in public, how you’d be hard pressed to not see something comic book related. That was about 6 months ago. From then to now it seems as if it’s only been amplified tenfold. I can’t go anywhere without seeing something comic related which is mostly a pretty great thing. This past week has been packed to the brim with comic comic happenings, so let’s get into it. It’s News day everyone!
Possibly the biggest little nugget of news is the first photo Zack Snyder released via twitter of Ben Affleck donning the Bat-suit for the upcoming yet to be titled Batman/Superman film. Ever since the news of Affleck’s casting the internet has been on fire with what feels like 90% negativity much of which is based on previous negativity toward Affleck’s first portrayal of a major super hero in 2003’s Daredevil. I’ve said numerous times that Affleck was NOT the reason that film failed, but that’s a topic for a different conversation. Now we have the first piece of concrete evidence that, in my opinion, proves that all the internet hate may not be deserved. The Bat-suit we see in this photo is the most comic-accurate suit thus far in a Batman film, it looks like it draws heavy influence from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, as well as some influence from more recent Jim Lee and Greg Capullo drawn Bat-Suits. The shorter ears and large wider B across Affleck’s chest scream not only “comic book” but a more mature version of the caped crusader. The other major attribute this photo shows is Ben Affleck may very well be the live action Batman who most looks the part when it comes to physicality. We all could tell before that he had the chin for the job but now seeing him in this suit it would appear he has the shoulders and brawn to fill out that suit in a way that Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, or even Christian Bale couldn’t. Knowing it’s too early to judge completely just based on this photograph, I can at the very least say that when it comes to Bat-fleck, I’m on board (though I was never “off-board”). The way I perceive it, if this film has flaws, they aren’t likely to be caused by a Batman that looks this good. We can now say that we have a Superman and a Batman that damn sure look their respective parts and we’ve also seen a glimpse at the Batmobile, which looks like a more practical Tumbler-esque version of a more classically designed Batmobile. Hopefully, the rest of this movie comes together successfully and we have the best possible DC movie with this amount of ambition that we can.
Ironically, the same day a piece of news comes out that lets fanboys everywhere breathe a sigh of relief another piece of news comes along (that from what I’ve read on comment pages at a couple of sites) that has the internet in an uproar again. Fox has announced that Channing Tatum has been cast as Gambit in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse with intention to give him his own solo film afterwards. Nerd rage is starting to reach a fever pitch over this casting. I for one am of the opinion that it could go either way and I’m not going to really worry until I see some images and footage. If only the internet community of fans could learn from the Bat-fleck rage. What kind of concerns me more about a Gambit movie in general is the fact that a Gambit solo film exist at all (or at least the intentions to make one). Don’t get me wrong, I like Gambit, I, like many others, have enjoyed the suave Cajun ever since his break out of popularity in the 1992 X-Men Animated Series. Gambit is a fun character and often blurs the line of hero and selfish jerk, however, he is also a character that has seldom proven to have the amount of depth to carry his own ongoing comic for very long or to be a central focal point for much of anything he’s been written in. Can a Gambit film be done well and entertaining for fans and audiences? Yes. Is it entirely likely that Gambit can be a character to carry a solo film and possible movie franchise? That has yet to be determined. I am of the mindset of being open to a big screen interpretation of any comic character as long as it’s handled with care and given the best effort possible, so time will tell if Gambit will be a success for Fox and more importantly, successful to fans.
In addition to the film news we’ve been given, some trailers and previews for up coming comic related television shows. Full trailers for DC/Warner’s Gotham on Fox as well as Constantine on NBC have been released. Both trailers have me intrigued. It will be interesting to see if these shows measure up to the quality and success of CW’s Arrow or even Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. CW has also announced that a preview of The Flash will be shown after Arrow’s season finale tomorrow night (I’m writing this on Tuesday). It has also been announced that ABC has given a full series order for Marvel’s Agent Carter series starring Hailey Atwell reprising her role from the Captain America films (as fanboys rejoice everywhere). There’s also an image from CW’s iZombie adaptation series and the first image from season 5 of The Walking Dead. There is so much comic book TV that networks that don’t have a comics adapted or related show are starting to feel like the minority. That’s without mentioning the upcoming Preacher, DMZ, Scalped, Hourman, or Powers which are all in various stages of development. My most anticipated comic book series had a little bit of shine this week as well when Joe Quesada mentioned the upcoming Netflix exclusive live action adaptation of Daredevil is going to play like one big 12-13 hour movie! That couldn’t happen soon enough, it seems that Daredevil is finally being given his live action due and Marvel is playing it smart by working toward tying him (and Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe already populated by the Avengers. We seem to be in a bit or a renaissance for television in general, with more quality programming happening at once than ever before and it seems as if comic book adaptations are leading the charge.
It’s been a super busy week for comics fans all over the internet. One wonders how they will find the time to comment and praise or complain about all this news happening all so fast. I for one couldn’t be more excited for whats around the corner. I’d love to hear what you all have to say about it all. Is Snyder’s photo the first look at the best live action Batsuit ever? Will Channing Tatum own the role or fail as Gambit? What television series are you looking most forward to? Let’s hear it in the comments below, and as always come back to www.all-comic.com for more Obsession Perception next week.
comments (0)
You must be logged in to post a comment.