I'm still convinced that has far more to do with Marvel's increase in popularity in general and less to do with the very well timed Disney purchase. Not that I remotely doubt you that there are still some crazy Brand advocates that only like it now that it's within the Mouse's clutches, but I hope that's still a minority - not 90%...
If Marvel was producing garbage, you'd have the Disney fans still decrying it as a terrible purchase. Their tune has changed rightly because Marvel is doing consistently great stuff.
Wait, the fanbois are pro-Marvel now? Hard to keep up - I thought they hated Marvel and it was "un-Disney" and "Walt would never stand for this??"
I guess it's amazing what a few hit films will do.
I agree, though, Marvel was no where near in this demand in popular culture until the current Iron Man led films. I mean, I remember when they first announced Iron Man - folks were like, "Really? They are starting with...Iron Man?" My how quickly we forget that he was very little known outside of the small comic book world at that point. Up until then, Marvel = Spiderman, X-men, and if he was lucky, Hulk (fond memories of Lou Ferrigno).
It is pretty amazing what Marvel has done since, I'll give them props - they are making well-received movies out of what were smaller-time properties with little exposure outside of the dwindling comic book market (where today a comic that sells 30K is doing well, down from the heyday when if book wasn't selling 300K copies a month it was on the borderline of being cancelled). I mean, I'll admit - I'm much more of a DC guy than a Marvel guy (though I liked both the Spiderman and X-Men films a lot), but I am well-versed enough to at least know all the major players - and I didn't know who the heck Guardians of the Galaxy were until now.
I'm not really sure how the metric was determined, but if one has much higher "buzz" but similar intent-to-view, isn't that not necessarily good? The choice of Affleck as Batman has already gotten a ton of negative criticism, so is it possible that the "buzz" wasn't necessarily good?
That was absolutely hilarious.
A bunch of fanbois had a collective mind fart when the name Affleck was mentioned and immediately twitted into their little phones "OMG BATFLECK WTH????!~!!!!!" and suddenly it was a big "controversy".
Most of those kids were not born yet, but if you want controversy - in the days before anyone outside of government/academics heard the word "internet" and less than 1% of folks even had dumb phones, let alone smart ones - there was a much bigger flack about "Mr. Mom is Batman???!!"
And we know how that one turned out...
I like Affleck - as a New Englander, it's tough not to - but I'm no super fan - but I can say, he has everything it takes to be Batman - way more than even Keaton did, who will always be "my" Batman I grew up with. He has the charisma, he has that chin, he has made himself that body, he has the voice, and he actually has become a decently good actor. Plus, he's not 23...or even 33. Thank God. If we had to sit through another Batman origin story I was going to vomit. WE KNOW! His parents got killed, rich boy bought toys, trained hard...eh, best not to continue down that route, LOL - I'm just grateful we can skip that this time 'round.
I'm ok with Wonder Woman's hotness, but they could have made her costume, idk more authentic? She looks like a poor mans version of Xena Warrior Princess...
I'm totally down with her being "fierce" (for lack of a better word) and look like a warrior. She doesn't have to be wearing a bland Xena knockoff to achieve that as this artwork shows. You can use the classic red/blue/yellow look in a less cartoony fashion and pull off something intimidating.
This is really hard to address without going into essay territory (you know when
I say that, it means it would be long) but this is really the crux of the issue when it comes to bringing Wonder Woman to live action media.
The reason WW wore the traditional outfit to begin with was because she was sent as an emissary to the US. So she wore our colors. It wasn't what she wore on Paradise Island/Themyscira. She was created by a psychologist, who in his own words called her design "psychological propaganda" to bring women into comics and give a female role model. That also extended to the time she was created in - WWII, where she was seen as being sent to "help save America."
That doesn't really work in modern Superhero films, which take place on a global scale - with the exception of Captain America - which, is why his origin story is that he is really a "relic" to begin with. There just was no other way round that one with him. Although we don't know yet, the gist seems to be that some big bad is coming that forces these heroes to come out and work together - and even the modern animated versions have played WW as a "fish out of water" in man's world (one of the best scenes in one of the recent DCAU films has been when she has Ice Cream for the first time) as opposed to simply living on an isolated island where they know all about us but choose not to participate.
When you look at the outfit itself, there is more traditional WW there than you think (and the Xena references are funny, as WW is
the first Warrior Princess in modern pop culture - Xena ripped off from her, big time. The W is there if you look closely. The style of the outfit was really the only thing that would work - a leotard just is not going to cut it in a modern superhero film (unless your name is Madonna, Britney, Beyonce, or Gaga, no one cuts it in a leotard these days), and God help them if they put her in pants (look what happened to the publicity pics of the unaired 2010 WW pilot that made it to mainstream media).
There is a lot more to it - but the initial reaction (to compare to Keaton again) to the '89 Batman armor outfit was much the same - too different from tradition, etc. (remember, up until then Batman basically wore spandex). There really was no way to dress her other than what they did - or we'd be having complaints the other way. That's why they quietly just stuck up the poster at ComicCon - because, honestly, there was just no way to present her other than to just let folks get used to it - because remember, that's not "Wonder Woman" - like Selina Kyle in TDKR, I have a feeling she won't even be called that initially - that is Diana of Themyscira.
Gotham looks like it has everything I'd expect in a series about the Dark Knight's origins ... oh yeah, except for say a man in a giant bat costume.
Oh, my dear
@WDW1974 - this post is already epic (rambling, epic, same deal) - but I think you miss the point on this one - since that only happens about (
faux)1%(
er) of the time, I forgive you - I also didn't know what to make of it at first blush. I don't think you will need to be hand-held, though - you'll get it pretty quickly.
SMALLVILLE --> SUPERMAN != GOTHAM --> BATMAN
This isn't Batman's origin story (thank the Gods, been done to death).
What's the biggest criticism that most filmed Batman media (including animation) has had since the days of Adam West's paunchy interpretation? That the villains end up trumping Batman in his own media.
They have eliminated Batman because this isn't his origin story -
it's theirs. It's a brilliant concept. Batman is a kid, he is there but from what I understand not even in every episode planned. He's a good 10 years from becoming Batman, at least. My grandma couldn't even probably tell you who Lex Luthor was, let alone Spidey or the X-Men's or really any Marvel villains - but she could name of half a dozen Bat-villains.
Now, we don't know if it will be any good or not - but combining a procedural (the most popular genre in the country by far), with Batman's rogues gallery instead of a new blank baddie every week, and the undercurrent of 75 years of mythology to play with...and focusing on what has proven to be the most iconic set of "evil" characters across media in that time - the idea is brilliant - it just remains to be seen what the execution ends up being.
Mk has one pyro effect and that's like 2 fire works at the end, also keep in mind this isn't the best version as they had to cut down on pyro technics that day due to weather,
