COMICS, BOOKS, AND BREAKING READERS’ HEARTS

So while clicking through the throngs of articles today, I happened upon Scott Thill’s article for Wired on July 20th, “After Watchmen, What’s ‘Unfilmable?’ These Legendary Texts.”  He raises an interesting issue that is often hotly debated among both literary enthusiasts and comic book fans, and many times they’re the same group, in my experience)– Alan Moore had always claimed that Watchmen would never be made into a film.  (Whether it was because he never intended to give his blessing, or whether he didn’t think film could –or should– capture the scope of his work is anyone’s guess, really.)  Regardless of the reason, it proved irrelevant.  Watchmen made it to the big screen and was more successful than most people anticipated considering the storyline, rabid pseudo comic book fans whose only experience is in a movie theater, and cost of production.  It was released this week on DVD and still climbing in sales.

He lists 5 books that he rationalizes as “Unfilmable,” and I tend to agree with most of them, but was surprised that two books were missing from his list.  He gives very logical reasoning for most of the list:

Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, Grant Morrison’s The Invisibles, Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, and William Gibson’s Neuromancer.

I would add Kingdom Come to that list, for sure.  And the second would be House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski.  I would love to see both of them on the big screen one day, but I just don’t think they can be done to suit the meticulous nerd in me.  House of Leaves is already so complex and layered that movie-goers would need a companion Appendix playbill just to understand the asides.  And Kingdom Come?  I just really don’t want to see it ruined by gimmicks.

What do you think?  Any books or comic books that you think are “Unfilmable?” Or did Lord of the Rings and Watchmen convince you that anything can be adapted to film and be successful?  Does adherence to the text matter?  Has the revolution of CGI Special Effects made “unfilmable” a thing of the past?  What about the hard core fans you’re bound to upset?

You tell me.  What’s missing from that list.  Why?  What would you remove?

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love comic books.  While growing up, my Dad would bring home big stacks of comic books on weekends for my brothers and I to read–Thor, Dr. Strange, Daredevil, The Flash, and my personal favorite X-Men.  I remember wondering why we weren’t reading comics like Superman or Spiderman or even Batman, and I’m sure I asked at some point, but the answer was either sufficient to my mind’s logic at the time, or it became irrelevant because I had fallen in love with reading any and every kind of comic book I could get my hands on.  Even when I would go to church with my grandmother on the weekends (yeah, I know… that’s a topic for another post all together kids…) we would walk to church, then to get milkshakes at the local penny candy store and I would get to choose a comic.  Well… not exactly choose.  See, I always ended up getting Betty and Veronica comics because any time I picked up a traditional comic book she would recoil in horror and pronounce that “Girls don’t read that kind of thing!”  (This is also the same woman who stated in the same breath that “You don’t need a man to take care of you!” but that “Boys are better than girls…” Nothing like confusing a young girl, right?) And so I ended up being captured by the cut throat manipulations of the dark-haired, insanely jealous vixen Veronica Lodge and the ever-forgiving blonde haired, girl-next-door Betty Cooper as they vied for Archie’s attention. 

Betty and Veronica

Instantly I became Veronica’s biggest fan and insisted that I die my hair the soul-sucking black that she had!  Betty was a push over who rarely did anything that was improper or for revenge.  She got hurt a lot, and got walked all over, and Archie consistently ditched her for Veronica.  What little girl wanted to be the door-mat?  Be like Betty just because she always took the high road and it would eventually  pay off?  I had already taken issue with Disney for their illusions of happiness that women receive only after abuse, cruelty, and attempted murder by this point, and I certainly did not believe that a Prince Charming was the only one who could save me from my situation.  So why wouldn’t I favor Veronica?  I didn’t see any stand out female heroes with their own comic book to be a fan girl of (remember, my reach into the comic world was limited to what my father brought home), and as far as I could tell, only the female mutants in X-Men were strong and independent role models.  In all of the major comic book titles I had been reading, women were the ones who always needed saving.  They were damsels in distress or they were villains… and cheesy villains at that.  I was always craving that strong female presence, and I think that craving drove me to write fiction.

So then, why did I hate Wonder Woman?  I was bored with the Live-Action TV show.  I accepted the campiness of the Batman show, but somehow found the campiness of Wonder Woman unacceptable.  I never read any of the Wonder Woman comics regularly, and I recall being distinctly upset by the deviations from the Greek Mythos that the writers took.  I was obsessed with Greek Mythology, and all I knew was that what little bit I did encounter in the WW comics, was wrong.  I hadn’t yet accepted that fictional worlds could incorporate and toy with history and myth as it saw fit.  I just knew that they were putting some woman with a magic lasso and an invisible jet (…seriously? I still hate that jet…) in the same story as ancient Greek Gods.  Nope.  Not okay!!  So I decided to turn my back on Princess Diana of the Amazons and never look back.** 

…Besides, she was just the token female superhero that DC had to create even though her character and her story arcs were completely unbelievable, right?!  And the villains she faced… I mean, come ON!!  Batman had the Joker, Superman had Lex Luthor… Wonder Woman had….. Sharkeeta?!  (The leader of a humanoid pack of sharks….yeah) and Giganta–you guessed it… a woman who could grow to incredible sizes!  For the record, I still hate Giganta, even though she is one of WW’s classic villains and still makes appearances.  The writers at DC clearly didn’t like girl superheros as much as the folks at Marvel, so why bother?  Superman is annoying anyway…

How did I go most of my comic reading, literary life under this premise??  How is it possible that no one disabused me of my dislike of DC, let alone Wonder Woman?   This March, DC released a new animated movie straight to DVD entitled Wonder Woman.  I saw the preview while watching the trailers for another film and I did a double take and wanted to do some investigation work on the Amazon Princess in the hopes that the movie was reflecting the recent changes in writers and plot direction of the comic book series.  I picked up Amazons Attack!  and Who is Wonder Woman? – both graphic novels that tied in with the rebooted Volume 3 of the comic.  I also picked up about 10 individual comics that followed the Who is Wonder Woman?  relaunch from 2006.  I read all of them (believe me, that’s a lot of comics… even for me!) in the span of two days and I know one thing for certain…

I was wrong.

I Love Wonder Woman and I love that the new writers have embraced her strengths and have updated the complexity of the story lines around her!  I’ve always brushed off the comic because I felt the writers weren’t taking advantage of an opportunity to create an engaging, powerful, complex character.  The current team of writers is doing exactly that, and I love it.  I suppose they didn’t have much of a choice when Wonder Woman killed Maxwell Lord at the end of Infinite Crisis…. (psst… that’s a big deal… super heroes aren’t supposed to kill people!  Wonder Woman went head to head and beat up Superman, then snapped Maxwell Lord’s neck…)  

And the movie? 

If you have never watched an animated film based on a comic book, you’ll want to give this one a try.  It’s stunning, it’s fun, it addresses issues of feminism in ways that modern women still struggle with without being a bludgeoning force, and still manages to be witty and action packed.  See it.  You won’t be disappointed, I promise!

**In retrospect, I realize that none of the story lines I encountered were from the revamp that George Perez did in the 80’s.  Everything I had encountered was somehow connected to the Golden/Silver/or Bronze Age of Wonder Woman comics.  It wasn’t until after the cancellation of the series following DC’s “reboot” of their products with Crisis on Infinite Earths that Wonder Woman became a familiar strong, modern female icon that modern writers like Gail Simone and Jodi Picoult have taken to rich, respectable heights since 2006, all thanks to George Perez’s relaunch of the Amazonian Princess in the mid-late 80’s. 

It took me quite a bit longer to gather my responses for this week than usual, mostly because I’ve been passed out in pain.  But illness can’t stop the Friday Five for long!  This week is about metaphors and connecting them to your everyday life.  Here goes!

1.  When you go to the beach, lake, or pool, are you more likely to lower yourself gradually into cold water or to take a determined plunge and get it over with?

I take my time whether it’s hot water or cold.  I’m not a big fan of shocks to my system.

2.  How is this like (or unlike) your approach to other tasks or ordeals?

It’s exactly like my approach to everything else in life.  I’m careful, calculated, and I make sure I take my time and assess the outcomes (both positive and negative) before I take the final plunge into anything.  Once all of the foreseeable outcomes are in mind, and the possible outcomes leading from those choices are evaluated, I make my decision only after I accept the possible results of my choices.  I’ve “jumped in” without looking only a handful of times, and they never ended well.

3.  When someone gives you flowers, are you more likely to let them turn completely brown and gross before throwing them out, or to discard them the moment they take on that sick-flower look?

I’m more in between in my flower maintenance.  When someone gives me flowers I’m more likely to try and keep them alive for as long as possible–by trimming off dead blooms, giving them more light, removing suffocating foliage, etc.–than to just toss them the minute they look like they’re dying.  If certain blooms are healthier than others then it’s not uncommon for me to remove those blooms and keep them healthy for as long as possible in a separate vase.  If they’re roses, though, I’ll let them dry and either make potpourri or tea from them.  (Because my cats love to eat roses, I don’t get to do this very often anymore)

4.  How is this like (or unlike) your approach to other gifts, purchases, or relationships?

I treat any gift someone gives me with the same care.  In my mind when someone takes the time to give me something it means something to both them and me, and I like to try and keep that as precious as possible.  In terms of relationships, I treat them the same way as well.  They’re delicate and need to be treated with affection and care just like flowers do.  If you throw them (flowers or relationships) away at the first sign of them dying or wilting, then they mustn’t have meant that much to begin with.  On the other hand, you can notice things starting to wilt and ignore them. Just like a relationship, without attention and care, flowers will die.  The longer you leave them unattended, the faster they die (both relationships and flowers).  Both have a point of no return as well.  Once the flowers are brown and curled up, there’s no bringing them back to their former beauty.  They’re dead, and done is done.  Relationships, too, can be so far gone that no amount of emergency attention will help them.  In terms of purchases I make for myself… I don’t think I pay nearly as much attention to those as things other people give me. 

5.  Think of your favorite movie (or a movie you really like, if you can’t think of a favorite). Some people say that the reasons you love your favorite movie are related to what you value in romantic relationships. How is this true or untrue in your case?

Usually I would say The Godfather, but I don’t think it applies here, so I’m going to go with my number 2 favorite film, Casablanca.  I’d say Casablanca features most of what I value in romantic relationships:  passion, deep connections, sacrifice, and even tragedy.  I’m not so much a fan of the tragedy part, but loving someone enough to let them go for the greater good (or their own good), resonates powerfully with me.  Rick was haunted by Ilsa’s memory, and given the chance to be together he opted to send her off with Victor.  She loved two men for two different reasons, but ultimately had to make a choice.  She put the greater good ahead of her own happiness, and so did Rick.  It’s sad, but will forever connect Rick and Ilsa.  I suppose it’s the idea of giving everything to someone else and knowing they’re doing the same that attracts me so much to Casablanca.  It doesn’t always work out that way, but it certainly is something to aspire to.