Marvel Flipside

Tigra: The Movie

As I've done before with some High Concepts and movie treatments, we can analyze various Marvel characters and how they might translate to film and screen. With so many summer superhero movies, why not speculate on a few more?

TIGRA: The Claws of the Cat
High Concept: She looks like a tiger, and fights crime! What more do you need?



Her true comic book origin is a bit messy, not to mention her current status quo. But the character makes a great visual and is instantly marketable, not to mention she is one of the few Marvel heroines that aren't derivative of a male counterpart. She's got the potential to make a unique property in her own right, if we can just streamline her story a bit more.

Movie-version Greer Nelson is a lab assistant to Dr. Tumolo and wife to a Chicago cop. When her husband is beaten into a coma at the hand of a mysterious cult, Dr. Tumolo urges Greer to submit to her experiments, turning her into a costume crimefighter - the Cat. Turns out, the cult is really the mysterious Cat People, who are operating in Chicago in some kind of demonic turf war (Chicago ganster-style, but not as overt or public knowledge). It turns out too that Dr. Tumolo is a Cat Person herself! Greer freaks out, of course, believing it all to be a set up so that she would be forced into some kind of "Chosen One" role, but it turns still more out that Dr. Tumolo was actually working against the Cat People, as a renegade. The full expression of her "science" will turn Greer fully into Tigra, so she can take down the Cat People once and for all. The big demonic turf war is headed by some guy calling himself Pandemonium, who awakens/brainwashes Tigra's husband as his own champion. They battle, of course, but power of love or whatever helps take Pandemonium down once and for all, although her husband is lost forever, plus the resulting demonic underground power vacuum will likely keep Tigra busy for several sequel and/or the animated series spin-off!

What do you think? Would you watch it?

(Or, you know, you can push it in the direction of a Twilight-ish story, but this time the girl is the werewolf, instead. But trust me. There would be more explosions and bullets in my version!)

Falcon Redesign

The Falcon, a recurring featured character here on the blog, is set to co-star in a new superhero team as  Heroes for Hire is revamped as a slick new series. Marvel.com talks about it here.

It's not exactly the headlining I would prefer, as I still hold out some love to see Falcon break out on his own, but it's great to see him branch out of Captain America's corner of the world. I look forward to seeing how he can react with other characters that he hasn't normally shared panel-time with, such as Moon Knight (Falcon would be a down to earth realist versus such a "crazy guy," and, yes, that's meant to be ironic for a hero with flight powers) and Misty Knight/Iron Fist (all three represent different approaches to being heroes dedicated to urban crime-fighting.) 

Another foregone conclusion (but one I would really like to see) is to push Falcon into more of a traditionally "heroic" mode, including costume and m.o. I would love to see Falcon standing tall on a darkened building, listening intently into the night, with a dramatic cape fluttering in the night air. He is kind of a Superman at heart with a Batman powerset in a Spider-Man setting. If that ain't intriguing enough, you gotta read more comic books! 

And with such a focus, a different costume might be needed. Here's a quick sketch with a splash of color, but I didn't have enough time to really the cape as I would have liked.

In other words, the cape doubles as wings by overlaying electricity/hard light over them, and his usually-open mask now has bird-of-prey googles in the design.

I figure, if you're going to go superhero, then go big. The days of paramilitary fatigues and padded jackets/jumpsuits are over. Let's go back to sleek, iconic, and sporty, appropriate for an idealistic do-gooder like Falcon!

Kool-Aid Man vs Milk

Why didn't *I* think of this? I'm not sure whether I should like this or be upset that it took a random button click on comicvine.com's Battle page to come up with this combination:

And yes, Milk is a real character, albeit one for a humor magazine.

And yes, I did post about Milk (and Cookies) elsewhere on this site...

Frightful Four

One of my favorite comic book runs was the early issues of the West Coast Avengers, largely due to the writings of Steve Englehart. A certain issue in particular that captured my attention was the appearance of Graviton, who easily defeated Earth's Mightiest Heroes at the time and truly appeared to be a menace first-class. His plans bolstered by the villains he gathered around him, forming a loosely-defined team of "fundamental forces." 

West Coast Avengers #12 (1986) by Steve Englehart and Al Milgrom

It was one of those cases where comics were truly educational, and I went out of my way to learn about the fundamental forces because of their prominence in making up an effective super-villain team. And this is one kid who was NOT academically or scientifically minded. It made me love learning, if only to discover things, deep and sophisticated things, that I wasn't being taught in school.

So for today's super-villain team-up, let's return to that concept. Let's have a slightly mediocre villain choose to bolster his effectiveness by coordinating a team of fundamental forces! 

art by Carlos Pacheco, Keith Pollard, and John Byrne

In this case, the WIZARD represents the leader and the force of gravity, his specialty. DOC SPECTRUM is recruited for his master of the STRONG INTERACTION, which allows him to bind particles to create his energy constructs and powerful blasts. NITRO is a living example of the WEAK INTERACTION, where his body literally explodes with the repulsion of radioactive decay, and, of course, Zzzaax, the only original member, a energy-being who is the living embodiment of the ELECTROMAGNETIC force.   Together, they are a new, Fundamentally FRIGHTFUL FOUR! (Frightfamental Four?)

High Concepts II: They Return

Some heroes exemplify a one-note gimmick as their story idea. Spider-Man? Proportionate strength and abilities of a spider. Thor? Norse thunder god. Rocket Racer? He's a guy on a tricked-out skateboard. Others are more... high concept.

Doctor Druid

He:s not just some guy with "Druid powers." He:s the John the Baptist of the superhero world-- he:s the guy who foretells the next great sorcerer, the next great hero-team up, even the next-great monstrous threat. But what happens when the forerunner grows tired of never being the frontrunner?

Widget

A disembodied robotic head literally made from junk, Widget somehow has the ability to bridge dimensions into alternate worlds. But what if it also had the ability to bring an alternate world into this one? Widget could make replicas of alternate-heroes with his own head and join in the action! After all, he kind of already did this with an alt-world Kitty Pryde (in Excalibur #66) ...

Thunderbolts

They:re your worst nightmare, and your best hope. Super-villains don:t just get locked up in jail anymore. Sometimes, they are forced to work together under the watchful eye of Luke Cage, hoping that maybe, just maybe, they can work to better themselves and the world! On sale now! And go buy back issues!

Art Attack!

Pop Quiz!

What do the following issues have in common?

Alpha Flight #22 (1985), cover by John Byrne
Annihilation Conquest: Starlord #1 (2007), cover by Nic Klein
Amazing Spider-Man #559 (2008), cover by Marcos Martin
Speedball #2 (1988), cover by Steve Ditko
Tales to Astonish #49 (1963), cover by Don Heck
Thunderbolts #53 (2001), cover by Patrick Zircher
Strange Tales #124 (1964), cover by Dick Ayers

The Fantastic Fifth

CBRunway

Once again, the community at Comic Book Resources are going through the Comic Book Runway, an art contest taking their inspiration from Tyra Banks.

The concept for this round was to "create an original, fifth member of the Fantastic Five. Your new character should reflect the original book's Silver Age feel and style as drawn by Kirby and remain true to the title's themes and concepts."

How could I pass up a FF contest? Especially one that basically asks "what if someone else was in the rocket ship that gave the Fantastic Four their powers?"

So here are my initial concepts and sketches:

I was trying to think of what would work visually, first of all. Someone would have to have a unique look that could stand alongside the distinct visuals of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing. My thoughts ranged from including a super-pet, like a dog or a monkey, which would fit the idea of being on a rocket ship with the foursome. This didn:t seem inspiring, so I wondered if a robot would work better. I couldn:t help but thing that this was too derivative-- after all, although they might not have been present in issue #1, there was still Lockjaw the dog and Herbie the robot as already-existing additions to the Four Mythos. Discarding the non-human ideas, I turned to look for a human, but distorted, perhaps someone smaller, like a little person or an alien. This would also lend itself to a different personality type that would be missing in the FF dynamic, perhaps an irascible grandpa or a miserly curmudgeon. Heck, even an effervescent money-maker (someone like Phoney Bone from Jeff Smith:s Bone) could be different-- a Mad Men-ish upstart that trades part of his uniform for a Kirby-brand business suit!

All of which led me to this guy:

Taking influence from Wakanda, from the fact he:s an outsider, from mind-related powers, and I get the Mind Master! He:s the fills the missing dynamic of someone strong and silent, almost prophetic, the mysterious "wise man" that borders on the spiritual and meditative.

I guess you could say that if Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing are considered akin to water, air, fire, and earth, respectively, what:s missing is the human element, the "spirit" or also the "flora/fauna" aspect. Taking my cue from Captain Planet, maybe, the fifth element is *heart.* Which leads me to the final and perhaps what i would have entered for my final answer:

Okay, so I also take my cue here from Johnny Quest. It:s the Plant Maharajah! Okay, maybe too on the nose. How about just Plant Master? He fits all the criteria for a perfect Fantastic Fifth!

Falcon: the Movie treatment

 
You've just left the executive meeting, where several shots of the Falcon were pinned to the brainstorming-board. Ideas were spitballed, stories run up the flagpoles, and concepts were tossed about. Remember all those problems and questions we talked about over the last few posts? Yeah, those. But as you head back to the office, you look at the files that you've been given. Did you get the most impossible assignment of all? You gotta make the final pitch that will let the Falcon finally break out as a flagship character.
 
So let's start, as most hero stories do, with the origin. We have ditch the whole Red Skull-slash-Cosmic Cube makeover (which BTW was a retcon of the original story, right?), or . . . do we?  As much as I'd like to keep Sam Wilson as a selfless and idealistic Peace Corps member helping a small island in revolution, there's not really a lot of inherent conflict there. How about instead we look for that juxtaposition of opposites-- that "Snap" Wilson knew nothing but the law of the streets, which got him on the fast track of organized crime. Thus, when he finds himself crashed on the island, he has to adapt his street smarts into survival smarts. As he adapts to the rigors of survival, he learns the true value of 'freedom,' as exemplified by the birds that he's always envied and identified with. The ultimate expression of freedom? Overcoming the oppression on the island-- the same organized crime that he almost became a part of. The fight is only half-over, of course. The Big Showdown comes as he returns to the City, dons his costume to inspire where once he instilled fear, and triumphs over the Big Bad.  
 
Because obviously that Big Bad had personally ensured Snap's crash, leaving him for dead, making the justice all that more poetic.
 
Interestingly, it harkens back to the story tradition of the 'civilized' man finding redemption in the foreign location, but adds some modern, and urban, twists. Is it still a "mighty whitey" story trope, and what kinds of avenues can explore if our hero is black?  Is there still freedom in a stratified society? If can only find freedom by being truly 'above' society, like a bird aflight, what contradiction does that make with our very humanity? Truly, that's a trope that any superhero must deal with, and suddenly the Falcon can break out into his own story, with his own themes, on his own terms.
 
But after all of this, the executives remain concerned. They hoped to attach Will Smith to the project, but he wants to sign on as . . . Captain America. *Forehead slap.* Hollywood…
 
 

Feelin' Blue

Well, not really. For these guys, though, the expression's a bit more ... literal.

 

 

 

 

 

Can you name them all?

The Handmen

You've heard of the Headmen, right? It made sense to have MODOK as a member, because, you know, his *head.* But it leads to the next question-- could there ever be any kind of super-villain team based around a different body part? How about the... HAND-MEN?!

Garrison Kane as Weapon X...

China Force's Ox...

 

Razorfist...

Mutant Force's Paralyzer...

Salem Seven's Reptilla...

Master Pandemonium...
 

But it's not all fun and games without your hands, isn't it, Master Pandamonium?