Jazzlawyer

April 14, 2009 8:30 pm

This sounds excellent.  I'm afraid you've probably just damned yourself to being burried under a sea of scripts, but it was a self-damning.

Now to find a good fairy tale to script.

January 5, 2009 2:31 pm

I'm reading this in trades, but it's been a good run so far.  I am at the point where I feel like they've got too many characters for me to care about, but the addition of KC Superman was a good one.  I'll be sad to see him go.

 As for the idea of long form story telling, it's rare partially because creators rarely know how long they have on a book.  I'd say that only Johns, Bendis and Brubaker (on Cap) are doing it at any of the two main companies.  They also seem to be the only ones who get left alone to tell their stories, as opposed to having their books hijacked for Final Invasions or what have you. 

January 5, 2009 2:07 pm

Interesting reviews, I thought it was going to be more savage honestly.  My thoughts after seeing the show and then listening to the podcast.  This is from someone whose only really read the Darwyn Cooke Spirit stories, so I'm not that protective of Eisner.

a) it's interesting that one of the things that most people have liked about the film is the 40s' aspect of the banter, which was something that people seemed to like about the Iron Man movie too claiming that the Pepper/Tony relationship was very much like the Thin Man films. 

b) I think Miller gets the characters right.  I just think that they're in a bad movie.  By right I don't mean that they're faithful to Eisner, I don't know the characters that well, but I mean that they're interesting enough that I'd watch them in a good movie.

c) How much you're going to like this film depends on how much Miller's worn out his welcome with you.  This is really concentrated Miller, like trying to drink Coke syrup from a soda fountain before the water and carbination has been added, and if you're a big fan of his you're going to have an easier time than I did since my Miller tolerance level is quite low.

d) This movie was always going to fail, at least when Miller was given writing and directing control.  And by fail I mean not make any money, Miller might be a genius, but he needs someone to direct that and it seems like he didn't have anyone above him here who could say, "Well you know Frank let's really consider this Nazi thing."  The producers clearly hoped that like most recent comic book films the picture would reach a non-comic book audiance, but it looks like that clearly did not happen.

e) This movie just completely perplexed me in ways that modern movies don't.  The closest movie watching experiance that comes to mind for me was seeing Buckaroo Banzai the first time, in which I just sat there scratching my head and asking myself, "Really, he's also a rock star?"  That could suggest that The Spirit might have some legs as a Rocky Horror Picture Show type cult film.

December 3, 2008 7:49 pm Fixed the paragraphs with Firefox. 

@Goat77: I agree, I was really excited for this to be the best thing I'd seen from Bendis.  I guess that's kind of like expecting Wes Anderson to direct a Godzilla film, it's just not where his strenghts lay.

December 3, 2008 7:33 pm I hate how Safari can't seem to keep paragraphs in the reviews.  Damn.  I just want everyone to know I'm not insane, I had paragraphs... they just went away.

November 28, 2008 4:42 pm I'll add my voice to the chorus of people, well at least one, saying "Thank God it wasn't Batman".  I need to go back and pick up the first issues of Nova in trades so I can jump on for an arc or two.  It sounds like the sort of book I'd enjoy, especially after a few of my titles have been getting a little too self-important.

November 28, 2008 12:35 pm Good review.  I've been off the book since issue 3 for most of the same reasons.  The whole "Cyclops is a tool" thing that kicked off here and in Young X-Men just annoyed me and the book lacks the charm of Yost and Kyle's New X-Men run.

October 22, 2008 10:35 am

Great list.  The only one I'm not 100% behind is #4, but only because the Authority never did anything for me.  I missed the boat on that one.  I'm sure it was pretty good though.

I would have replaced it with The Ultimates/Ultimate Spider-Man both of which I think were a really cool reimagining of the Marvel Universe and went a long way to offering a new reader friendly portal into comics.  Granted only USM has kept up that high level, but it was a strong start.

May 29, 2008 1:24 pm

I'd say drop Cable, drop The Hulk and move to Checkmate in trades.  The Ultimate X-Men might get better now that Kirkman's off of it, so give it a chance.  It was once very good.  The rest I don't read, so I can't advice you on those.

But OMG I want off the Hulk train.  

May 29, 2008 1:21 pm

I think the trade-off is that if you want your book exempt from criticism, then you're book just won't get the press.  Lots of books, Moore's included, have been highlighted on review shows/blogs like iFanboy and found readers they never would have because of positive reviews.  With positive reviews though will come negative ones.

Without the potential for negative reviews what creators are asking for is free advertising.