The iFanboy Letter Column – 10/03/2008!

Friday means many things to many people. For some, Friday means it’s the last work day before a well deserved weekend. For others, Friday is the day you have to break thumbs because it’s not your problem if they can’t pay up.

At iFanboy, Friday means it’s letter column time.

You write. We answer. Very simple.

As always, if you want to have your e-mail read on the any of our shows or answered here, keep them coming – contact@ifanboy.com

 

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1) First, a continuity issue. Before the first Crisis (Crisis on Infinite Earths) JSA was in Earth-2 and JLA in Earth-2. I watched the “History Crisis” episode and I understood that the Earths kinda merged and there weren’t two versions of the same character. But we still have JSA and JLA, both living on the same Earth, with two versions of Flash, Green Lantern. How do you explain the fact that JSA and those characters still exist in present continuity?

Now, two more kinda silly questions.

2) Would Thor defeat Superman?

3) Would Superman defeat Hulk?

Ed

1) When the Earths merged as a result of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Justice Society of America became a part of the timeline during World War II; they became the heroes of the 1940s. As a way of getting rid of the JSA, DC concocted a convoluted story in which they were merged with Norse Gods (see question #2) and trapped in a never-ending Ragnarock. At the end of Armageddon: Inferno, Waverider transported the JSA out of the Ragnarock loop and into the present day only to have most of their members promptly killed off in Zero Hour because DC editor Mike Carlin thought that geriatric superheroes had no place in the DCU. Nice one, Mike!

(This was especially depressing for me because I always liked the Justice Society and was totally in love with the ahead-of-its-time 1992 Justice Society of America by Len Strazewski and Mike Parobeck.)

Those who survived Zero Hour fight on to this day, particularly Alan Scott (whose magic ring keeps him young-ish), Ted Grant (nine lives bestowed upon him by the sorcerer King Inferno) and Jay Garrick (experimental anti-aging treatments) all of whom should be in their late 80s, but only seem to be in their 50s.

2) That all depends on the answer to this question “Are Norse Gods (or Deities in general) magic?” If the answer is yes, then Thor wins. If the answer is no, then Superman wins.

3) The Hulk gets stronger the madder he gets, right? So Superman could give Hulk a big ol’ slice of Ma’s apple pie and he’d be really happy and then Superman could just toss The Hulk into the sun or snap his neck.

Conor Kilpatrick

 

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Garth Ennis is responsible for not one but two definitive takes on Frank Castle. First, the Marvel Knights “Welcome Back Frank” storyline which featured some of the best and most over the top moments in Punisher history, the crown jewel being when a wounded, unarmed Frank Castle leads some mobsters into a zoo and feeds them to the various animals. A couple years later, he reinvented Punisher again as a MAX book and created something much darker and more serious, but equally successful. Both the Thomas Jane Punisher and Punisher: War Zone borrow heavily from Ennis, but they can’t pull it off. Bottom line: just let Garth Ennis write the damn thing.

Isaac

First of all, I’m starting to turn from my anti-Punisher stance, since I’ve heard so much from so many people about how much they love Garth Ennis’ The Punisher MAX run. I’d read Welcome Back Frank, and enjoyed it enough, but not too long after that, I lost interest, probably because it felt like Ennis had as well. It seems like it picked up after that, and now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve heard from anyone who didn’t like it. So perhaps this Garth Ennis fan has missed the boat. Not that I have time to read 60+ issues, but still, it’s good to know about.

Now, let’s get to the real meat of your email. Why isn’t Garth Ennis writing the Punisher movies? Well, there’s a pretty simple answer to that. No matter how big you might be in comics, and how well known, it means exactly Jack and Shit in Hollywood. Without an actual scriptwriting track record, you’re not going to get very far at most studios. They’d usually rather hire someone they know, who’s done a successful film before to adapt a property like a comic book. At best, they sometimes give the writer first crack at a script, if it’s something they came up with originally. We’ve seen this with Bendis and some of his properties, like Torso, Jinx, and Powers, all of which have been in development for a long time, and none of which will likely be released with scripts by Brian Michael Bendis. Brian K. Vaughan, I believe, got first crack at his Y: The Last Man script, but there’s no guarantee he’ll have the final say. That’s just not how it works, and this is a guy who is now a writer for a major network TV show, in Lost. But even TV credits don’t really get these guys that far. Fanboys often lament that Geoff Johns, he of the magic touch, isn’t writing the film adaptations of DC heroes. Johns has experience in Hollywood, formerly Richard Donner’s assistant, and writer on the failed Blade TV series, and certainly some development projects. But he has neither the clout nor sexiness producers want to throw serious money into a comic book film project. That’s why the guy who did Everwood is working on that movie and Geoff Johns is not. So basically, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Of course, a possible exception to this rule exists, but it’s because he came from TV first, but this month will see the release of J. Michael Straczynski’s feature film Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood. But that guy’s been around for a while, and only now is he breaking into films. Of course, if that film ends up winning an Oscar, as so many of Clint’s movies do, maybe JMS will have to quit comics.

Finally, let us never forget that Jeph Loeb gave us Teen Wolf and Commando.

Josh Flanagan

 

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I just bought all of the Green Lantern: Secret Origins back issues from Heavyink.com, and I have a question about Marvel’s space cop Nova.

How come Nova wasn’t in Stamford shooting the New Warriors reality show when Nitro blew up? And had he been there, would he have survived the explosion?

Hope Ron’s able to afford at least a dozen copies of the new Nova issue featuring Darkhawk on the cover.

Matt

I seriously have to say for a moment, that I don’t understand why/how everyone always connects Nova and Green Lantern. Sure I get the “space cop” joke, but for whatever reason, I don’t see any similarities among these two characters at all. Maybe I’m blinded by my enjoyment of both characters, that’s a possibility. But I just don’t see it.Anyway. Right before the events of Civil War, the New Warriors were traveling the country shooting a reality show based on them as a super group. Nova was still a part of the team during “Season 1.” Sadly I can’t tell you much about this because the series pretty much sucked. But I do remember that the reality show was a disaster and Nova was one of the first to quit the team because of it. Also, if memory serves, I believe he was called back to Nova Corps headquarters for what would eventually become the Annihilation storyline, for which he had to report to duty, would end up fighting and ultimately lead us to where we currently are with Nova as a series.

If Nova was there in Stamford when Nitro blew up, I don’t know if he would survive. It’s possible that the Nova powers would have thrown up a shield and protected him, but if he was caught unawares? He’s only human after all and that helmet can only do so much. It’s possible that he could have perished along with all those children (*sniff*, oh the CHILDREN…), but I have a feeling he would have been okay. Nova has too much of a legacy in the Marvel Universe (B list character aside) to go out like that.

As for the most recent issue of Nova with Darkhawk, I was able to buy my requisite 25 copies and I have them bagged and boarded in a safe place. I even sent one copy to be slabbed by the CGC. No I didn’t, but wouldn’t that be funny? Viva la Darkhawk!

Ron Richards