The Monitor Sphere - Delving into Deadpool

I didn’t think it would happen, I finally saw Deadpool, and only a week after it came out, which was a suprise to me because when I first heard talk about the Regeneratin’ Degenerate getting his own film I thought that I would probably Redbox it, or wait till it was able to be streamed, because I had zero intention of seeing this movie in theaters.

It is nothing against Wade Wilson, what I’ve read of Deadpool’s exploits I have actually enjoyed. Now, I have never really gone out of my way to pick up any of his stuff, but my interest was peaked when in Deadpool Team-Up he had an adventure with Captain Britain, and they had their nationalities switched. I also grabbed a whole bunch of the Brian Posehn issues because I enjoy that man’s comedy and the Declan Shalvey art in issues 15-19 was fantastic. It isn’t the comic’s fault.

It is also nothing against Ryan Reynolds, I like that man as an actor and have a good collection of movies in which he stars. I even told people I thought Green Lantern would be good because I had faith that he would make it work. Green Lantern is usually one of my go to answers when someone says “Oh you like Comic Books, who is your favorite superhero?” So I had high hopes for a movie that stared one of my favorite actors playing one of my favorite characters (although I am more of a Kyle fan but that is an article for another time) against how terrible all the previews looked because I knew, somehow he would find a way to do this character justice. It isn’t Mr. Reynolds’ fault either.

My issue is that if Fox can’t even figure out one of Marvel’s greatest properties in Fantastic Four, why does a character that is solely played up for laughs most of the time, that more people know about because of how “meme-worthy” he is than have ever actually picked up a copy of a book he’s been in to increase the sales of this dying medium, why does this son of 90’s comics deserve his own movie when there are a whole bunch of more deserving films out there yet to be made?

But I’ll be damned if the marketing for Deadpool didn’t win me over, from a billboard making it look like a Valentine’s Day romance film, to getting Betty White to review the film, they left no stone unturned to make sure me, and plenty of other holdouts like me, went and saw this movie and boy did we, as the movie has shattered some box office records.

So after all that fantastic work done by the work of the marketing team, and the buzz that the movie was getting from people that I trust, I was all excited when the opportunity arose grab a sitter for my daughter and drag my long suffering lady to see Deadpool in the theater.

Just like with last week’s Sex Criminals volume 1 review, I am not going to go scene by scene and tell you what I thought about every little thing in this movie, nor is it my intention to spoil anything big in this movie for those of you who haven’t seen in yet, that is not why I am here, I am just here to give you my thoughts on things in realm of comic books, which this falls under the banner of.

There were some things in the movie I really, really liked and thought were done rather well. The opening credits were a masterpiece and was something I was surprised anyone would willingly do in a film. The stuff in the taxi cab was a lot of fun, and I was glad they came back to it later on in the movie. The Stan Lee cameo was probably one of the most special things in all of Marvel film fandom, to get that man to say those things in that location got quite the chuckle out of me and, as they always seem to do, made me sad for the day when those cameos will no longer be possible. The “Bob” moment was a nice moment, as well as, a great little middle finger to the people over a Disney. Finally, the scenes in and around Deadpool’s powers manifesting were heartwarming, funny, and at points rather sad, they really ran the gamut of emotions and did them really well.

My biggest issue with Deadpool, was that I left the theater going “Meh.” From what I had heard from other people I was expecting to have been rolling with laughter but for me a lot of the jokes fell flat, they were sophmoric and really not all that funny, a lot like a current day Adam Sandler film. I was expecting a movie that, based off of articles I’d seen online, was “the best Marvel movie ever made”, and has had “Disney scrambling to find their own R Rated hero”, but Deadpool just left me feeling luke warm. If Disney is truly worried they don’t have to worry about me, because I left that movie wanting to watch Guaridans of the Galaxy again, which for my money is better film, and is legitimately funny.

I guess, in the end, I was right, Deadpool really felt like it was made for the people who know him from memes, and the videos of people that run around conventions doing disruptive stuff dressed like The Merc With A Mouth, as well as the people who actually do said things. Deadpool wasn’t a movie that was really meant for me, and in a way I am somewhat saddened by that because I would’ve enjoyed to have seen it through the eyes of the people I was sitting close to who were laughing at every single vulgarity, and smiling their way through all of the violence.

I feel like there is more that could be said but I am not sure at what point this would turn from a basic review of a film, to a rant against Fox Marvel vs Disney Marvel, and the people who are making a big deal about parents taking their children to this film/how many kids they had at their showing of Deadpool, and I really don’t want this to turn into a crazy man standing on a soapbox.

Deadpool for me is absolutely in the part of my list of comic book films where I group all the movies I could take or leave, it was certainly better than the hot garbage that is Trank’s Fant4stic, Amazing Spider-man 2, and X-men Origins: Wolverine, but beyond that I would probably group it with the comicbook movies I won’t see again unless it is already on and I don’t feel like doing anything else.

I would like to finish this off by saying thank you for reading and that any further discussion or dialogue on the subject of this article is appreciated but please keep it civil. Also, if you wish to write for CCtD please contact the overlord atop his mountain because I am sure he is always looking for more content.

Jay

The Monitor Sphere: Surveying Sex Ciminals Volume 1

© Image Comics 2014

 

Welcome back to The Monitor Sphere the CCtD weekly look through all things involved in the world of sequential storytelling, which just so happens to be nowhere near current, week by week, and as promised in last week’s column I did one of the two possible things I said I would do and that was to take a look at Sex Criminals Volume 1 by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky.

The story is fantastic, for those of you who haven’t read Sex Criminals yet, like I hadn’t, you really should. I am a big fan of hero comics, I have more of those in my collection than anything else, and while I would consider this story comedic there are a lot of other layers to it, including a somewhat heroic one.

It starts off right in the middle of the *ahem* “action” with our protagonists Suzie and Jon involved in the titular act. We are then treated to some backstory for our heroes. I’m not going to go into all of it, but rarely, in all my years of reading comics, have I learned so much about the characters so quickly. Almost immediately we are shown the formative years of our heroes and, in a neat turn of events, how the protagonists discovered their hidden ability to stop time upon reaching climax (something they both share). So they decide to use this power to rob banks as any normal person would do.

It is rare that you discover a comic with as much heart as Sex Criminals, and it even has some to spare. There were quite a few pages that made me stop and consider my own life as the comic dealt with thing ranging from puberty, sex, school, depression, and the working world. All that said though the best moments are probably the amazing and incomparable comedy scenes. The two that jump to the front of my mind involve defecating in an office plant, and an amazing panel reminiscent of Family Circus in which a young Jon runs through a sex shop appropriately named Cumworld.

Normally, I would be slightly critical of artwork like this in a comic, but for some reason it really works in this case. Now don’t get me wrong that isn’t to say that the artwork is bad, Chip Zdarsky is a much better artist than I could ever hope to be, it just wouldn’t work in most comics I like to read, but this is the perfect comic for it. The comedy elements are matched perfectly by the cute, funny, cartoony artwork.

All things considered Sex Criminals volume 1 is a book that I absolutely loved that had me laughing just as often as it had me sitting in quiet contemplation and, to be honest, I will probably pick up volume 2 sooner rather than later. If you haven’t read this series yet, dear reader, you really should.

Now, that was going to be the last part of my article for this week but it turns out that as I was writing news came out about DC’s Rebirth event(?), cash grab(?), reboot(?), hope to fix everything they did wrong in the post-Flashpoint Universe(!). And while I don’t really have any good ideas about what they will do I have hopes about what they could do. While I won’t go into all of that here, unless there is an overwhelming demand for it, but I will tell you one thing, I hope Rebirth brings back some of the color and the feel that made DC Comics my brand of choice for almost my entire life. I hope Rebirth gets rid of so much of the grim, gritty, “realistic”, darkness that has plagued DC in recent years and replaces it with the hope, and love that made DC what it was for years.

CCtD Presents: The Monitor Sphere - By Way of Introduction

High above CCtD Mountain floats a gold (except in that one issue of Teen Titans when it was grey) sphere that sometimes phases in and out of our reality so it can view events in others. Aboard that craft sits a being that is not only out of phase with our reality, but a being that views time differently than you or I, a being simply known as Jix Loatan.

First things first, I would like to tip my cap to the Grand Poobah of Crom Count the Dead for allowing me to park my sphere made of cardboard long boxes and bags and boards above his property, and for giving me the freedom to write about my thoughts on recent (to me) comics of the past, present, and future.

Secondly, I would like to welcome each and every one of you, the readers, to a new (hopefully) weekly column about my ever expanding back catalogue of comic books as well as other things that belong in that realm. I’m in a weird situation myself, when my daughter was born I found myself falling further and further behind in my comic reading, but I continued to buy comics at a similar rate so I’ve wound up with quite a quandary here aboard The Sphere.This first article will just be to give you a background of the situation I find myself in and hopefully the next article will be about something interesting I’ve stumbled across in my Murdonian (a little shout out to CGS) stack.

So here is where I’m at: I am up to date on the Mark Waid Archie, and that is the only thing I find myself “current” on. I have a DC Comics Presents from back in July of 84 that I found for a dollar at an antique mall that is sitting, unread, in a stack next to the recently finished Bizzaro series. In my DC reading I am about to start Convergence. In my Marvel reading I have a bunch of New X-Men to get through, and then I will jump to just before Secret War 2015. I’ve got all of Warren Ellis’ Injection to read and about half of his Trees still to get through. The last comic I read is issue 18 of Morrison and Morales’s Action Comics. My favorite characters are Brainiac 5, Animal Man, and Moon Knight.

I hope to have more for you next time on CCtD Presents: The Monitor Sphere where I will hopefully be talking about Sex Criminals volume 1, but it might be the new film Deadpool if I make it around to seeing it. I hope you’ll join me for the long haul on this wild ride through comic books that find themselves (alongside me) out of phase with time.