Interesting enough, but not really deserving of the big picture outro. This was more of an in depth analysis of comic book minutia than any of the other episodes thus far. I prefer your show when it has some kind of message but I figure episodes like that are hard to come up with, so its reasonable to have a few like this.
The Big Picture: Captains Courageous
- Thread starter MovieBob
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Not that I think you will, but Bob, please don't do that. I love the Comics Are Weird sections but what I love most about the Big Picture is that from week to week, I never know what you will talk about, and that you are not limited to a single subject. Sometimes it's movies, sometimes it's OverThinking about games and sometimes it's about comics. It's great, don't change a thing. And by don't, I mean do, every week.ANImaniac89 said:
I think Noh Varr is still using it unofficially. I mean, with Mar Vell's kids dropping like flies, no one else seems to be competing for it.
Well, if you wanted to do Ms. Marvel, I can think of one really good reason to do it...
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/bellechere/5570032008/]
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/bellechere/5570032008/]
This really just seems like a retread of the ghost busters /real ghost busters episode.
Also, are comics really that weird? Or are most of the just utter shit made for kids/manchildren?
And to repeat myself again, stop with the gimmicks.
Also, are comics really that weird? Or are most of the just utter shit made for kids/manchildren?
And to repeat myself again, stop with the gimmicks.
Ms. Marvel hasn't been through any more than most other super heroes, it's just that as some of it has involved sexuality (she was impregnated forcibly for one) and a lot of it was done in order to have a political spin, or GIVEN a political spin, which ultimatly wound up ruining the character. Ms. Marvel suffers from attempts to try and turn her into a feminist icon, instead of seeing if she wound up appealing to that audience on her own just by being a decent super hero. Good character, but ruined by Marvel's attempts to get politically profound.burymagnets said:Bob so has to give Ms. Marvel/Warbird her own episode, that girl's been through so much
If anyone's uninformed as to the comic book atrocities comitted against female characters check out Gail Simone's site 'Women in Refrigerators' in which the Green Lantern's girlfriend was.... stuffed into a refrigeratorJust to give him a reason to go after some guy called 'Major Force' (?) URL: http://www.unheardtaunts.com/wir/index.html
@DanDeFool- which just goes to show there are other military titled supercharacters who don't use 'captain'.
I would like to see the big picture creating a spin-off in 'Bob's Speech Bubble', just sticking with the comic based weirdness. Not that the other episodes aren't excillent, but these comic book background episodes are really interesting and have made comic books a reasonable talking point with my mates
She's up there with the whole "Starfox" incident I mentioned, and how they ruined what was probably over a decade of gradual building to create an awesome "gray" conflict between super heroes where there would be no actual bad guys ( a real "point of view" type conflict ), to engage in a bit of George Bush bashing... yes I am talking about "Civil War" there which pretty much epitomizes everything that is wrong with Marvel's writing staff, it's a shadow of what it could have been, and sold as well as it did I believe because a ot of people saw the potential and the moments of genius, and hoped it would get back on track... but I don't think it ever really did.
There has been plenty of discussion about "femjep" in comic books, with everything from Zatanna (especially early on) getting gagged, to the omni-present damsels in distress. While I suppose you can point a finger at the golden and silver age of comics before the civil liberties movement won most of it's major battles and actually started defining American society, to be honest the portrayal of women in comics has largely grown up as politics and perceptions have. Yes there ARE cases where you can point to some really immature and over the top things, but this isn't an entirely mature genere, and you can point to just as many ridiculous things about male characters. Women just get more press, because people remember the movement and how it gets attention and decide to harp on it.
A good example of this is how you will have people complain about the perfect bodies that female characters tend to have in comic books. The thing is that despite the presentation that isn't one sided, as the guys are typically presented as physically perfect specimins as well. A lot has been said about the portrayal of musclemen in comics, when it can be argued going after that perfect "Charles Atlas" build isn't healthy for a lot of people. Guys who have biceps that are as big around as their heads being viewed by a lot of people as just as bad as women with breasts as big as their heads. Both complaints are ridiculous, the big differance is you don't hear much about the negative influance on little boys, or comments about maturity, unless your listening to some kind of crusade against steroid abuse which some people will argue is encouraged by things like comic characters, and action heroes. Guys like Stallone and Schwartzneggar ripping off their shirts to show off their massive muscles before fighting the bad guys not having helped the matter either, especially when you consider Arnie *WAS* a steroid abuser, albiet he did it before as much as known about it while what he did is illegal now, it wasn't a big deal then.
The point is that people will complain about women in comic books getting bondaged, having perfect builds, torture, and all manner of physical and psychological torments being inflicted on them. The bottom line is that that in the end there is no differance in their treatment, since the guys go through almost all of the same stuff. They get strapped into torture machines, brain washed, put in death traps, get immobilized by their weaknesses, and everything else just as much. Even the rape thing isn't unprecedented because we've had a few cases where the origin of a villain is that it's the child a super hero never realized they had, and whom inherited all of their powers, because they fathered it under duress and were brain washed or whatever (though for both genders the ratings issues make the collection of genetic samples through hair or skin samples or whatever and cloning more common. The point is that there really isn't much actual differance in the treatment of characters. With female super heroes they rescue their boyfriends too. Felicia Hardy has rescued Flash Thompson in her Black Cat guise more than once I believe).
What, no love for the M.F. Enterprise's Captain Marvel? SPLIT!
Incidentally, Marvel Comics tended to swipe the lapsed trademarks of defunct competitors. Ghost Rider, Doc Strange, and Daredevil being three characters I can think of off the top of my head.
It seems to be one of the differences between Marvel and DC. DC usually acquired the rights to the character and would try to work the character's original history into their take on the character whereas Marvel would just create a new, unrelated character using the same name.
Incidentally, Marvel Comics tended to swipe the lapsed trademarks of defunct competitors. Ghost Rider, Doc Strange, and Daredevil being three characters I can think of off the top of my head.
It seems to be one of the differences between Marvel and DC. DC usually acquired the rights to the character and would try to work the character's original history into their take on the character whereas Marvel would just create a new, unrelated character using the same name.
Great video. For some reason I like him talking about comics way more than I like him talking about movies.
I've always wanted to keep better informed on American comics, but the absurdly convoluted histories and comparatively high price keep me away from most of the really mainstream titles except for the occasional big event, and I gave up on those recently because they've been terrible for the past several years.
I've always wanted to keep better informed on American comics, but the absurdly convoluted histories and comparatively high price keep me away from most of the really mainstream titles except for the occasional big event, and I gave up on those recently because they've been terrible for the past several years.
Every episode I feel you get further and further away from what these videos are supposed to be. I love and enjoy every week but it really doesn't feel like the "Big Picture". Recent weeks feel like the "big picture" getup is all just a massive constraint that you have to work through. Change the name to Inside Bob's Brain or something. The emotion pictures are feeling old and boring and the ending phrase is getting tacky and cliche.
Keep up the good work, just a suggestion to change the name and premise of the series.
Keep up the good work, just a suggestion to change the name and premise of the series.
And this is why my interest in american comics remains a casual one, seriously wtf.
Its like every single potentially interesting/good idea in the comic industry gets drilled in to the ground and covered in shit until their are so many ridiculous plot points, side stories and convoluted madness an outsider looks at a mere single character and has no idea where to start or what to do.
This is why manga are my preferred form of comic, one storyline, one group of characters, no spin off, alternate universe, ret-con bs.
Its like every single potentially interesting/good idea in the comic industry gets drilled in to the ground and covered in shit until their are so many ridiculous plot points, side stories and convoluted madness an outsider looks at a mere single character and has no idea where to start or what to do.
This is why manga are my preferred form of comic, one storyline, one group of characters, no spin off, alternate universe, ret-con bs.
Bob forgot to mention Mar-Vell's biggest claim to fame for many years. He was the one Marvel character who died and stayed dead, but even Mar-Vell couldn't keep that up for long.
Genis-Vell was always my favourite Captain Marvel, if only for the story arc where he went insane, declared himself a god, and killed Eternity, essentially destroying all of creation. This essentially led to the creation of a "new" existence, where Entropy became the new Eternity, and everything was reset Last Thursday-style. This is actually where Phyla-Vell came into existence.
I liked how they took a darker approach to Cosmic Awareness, showing what too much knowledge can do to a person's mind, even a superhero. But maybe that's what made him so hard to connect with for most people.
I liked how they took a darker approach to Cosmic Awareness, showing what too much knowledge can do to a person's mind, even a superhero. But maybe that's what made him so hard to connect with for most people.
I kind of wish that you went somewhere with this rant. All you did was explain the origins of two obscure comic book characters. It would have been more satisfying if you tied this back into the Big Picture. (You could have, too. Copyright law, homage, ownership and ethics, the state of comics & publishing, artistic freedom... lots of possibilities.)MovieBob said:
As it stands, you could have given us two Wikipedia links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Marvel_(DC_Comics)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Marvel_(Marvel_Comics)
What angle do you see here? What's Moviebob's opinion? Why did he want to share this tidbit with us on The Escapist? What do you want us to take away from this?
Shazam! SHAZAM! SHAZAM!!
Seeing as comics just add and drop continuity and details all the time, I never understood why DC didn't just change his name to "Shazam"
It would have been an interesting fact for the Wikipedia entry; but seeing as everyone knows him as Shazam anyway, why fight so hard to keep calling him Captain Marvel? It only creates confusion and probably hurt sales.
Well, because comics are weird. That's the only real reason.
It would have been an interesting fact for the Wikipedia entry; but seeing as everyone knows him as Shazam anyway, why fight so hard to keep calling him Captain Marvel? It only creates confusion and probably hurt sales.
Well, because comics are weird. That's the only real reason.