Wonder Woman Cast Announced

Reading ComicsBeat.com this weekend I saw this post about the upcoming Wonder Woman movie:

WONDER WOMAN cast announced, new photo released - http://pulse.me/s/52ZMuA

Overall it sounds like a great lineup. One of the things that differinterates the DC movies from the Marvel movies is that they seem to have more star power.

Scooby Doo: Real Monsters Vs Fake Monsters

Among fans of Scooby Doo, one of the biggest controversies is the presence of real monsters in the show and movies. Here's a nice list of the 180+ appearances of real monsters in the Scooby Doo continuity.

Hands down, the best case against Real Monsters in Scooby Doo is presented by Chris Sims who advances the idea that the Scooby Gang should be viewed as avatars of skeptical/progressive thinking in a world of superstitious authority figures.
 
In addition to that, Chris (and many others) argue that having real monsters in the show subverts original premise of the show in a way that makes it unwatchable. I disagree with that for several reasons.

• For kids originally exposed to the show, the monsters were real. Constantly relying on the gimmick of a person under a mask just caused kids to stopped taking the show seriously.
• There is the perception that the introduction of real monsters into the show is a modern conceit, but that's false as the first real monster was introduced in 1970 in the That's Snow Ghost episode. 
• There are also merits to portraying the gang as  heroes who aren't afraid to confront unknown challenges of possibly supernatural proportions. 
• Also, it could be argued that the world we are seeing plays by different rules than ours. 

 On that last point, Alee Martinez presents the best argument for a Scooby Continuity with a supernatural tinge to it.

• He mentions technology being different in the show (working robots, electric monsters from just car batteries, transparent glider skies, ect...)
• Scooby can talk and understand complex human sentences
• When in monster guise, the villains behave irrationally, as if they are not in possession of their own wits. (Like the Werewolf villain who is befuddled by Scooby and Shaggy pretending to be barbers:

Also, in the The New Scooby Doo Movies, the gang teams up with both Batman and Robin, Josie and the Pussycats, The Addams Family and Jeannie (and her apprentice genie Baboo.) While it could be argued that the Batman and Robin of this world are from the 60's television world (where there was no magic), the presence of Josie and the Pussycats, The Addams Family (somewhat) and Jeannie (definitely) suggest magic exists in this world.

 The biggest surge in real monsters came with the advent of the direct to video animated movies with Scooby Doo and The Goblin King being probably the most fantasy tinged entry in the series. However, more recently there has been an effort by the newer movies to present all monstrous threats as guys in a costume. It appears that the last appearance of a real monster in the universe was Annuki in the excellent Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

Yet, in order to remove all real monsters, the movies have had to stretch physics to herculean contortions to explain how the villains are able to do the things they do. (Scooby Doo and  Kiss for example uses dream sequences and super advanced technology to explain its plot.) This avoidance of supernatural elements in the show has gotten so bad that even Blue Falcon has been demoted to just a fictional comic book character.

In a way, it reminds me of the eye rolling lengths that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has gone to keep explain away Asgardian magical items as quantum powered alien technology.

The opponents of real monsters believe that the creatures ruin the show/movies for them because it perverts the original premise. I would argue it no more ruins the show than having magic work in the Batman universe. The Golden Age Batman universe wasn't filled with magic, but the modern one certainly is. Where is the hate for magic using heroes and villains in the DC Universe or  Batman Adventures? There is none.

At the end of the day, a lot of the hate is just people who feel like their version of a show has been corrupted to something that no longer represents their childhood memories. That's too bad, because they are missing out on a fun element of the show.

- Jim

Who Put the THE back in The Batman?

Reading the classic Night of the Hunter from Detective Comics 439, a panel where a criminal referred to Batman as THE Batman caught my attention.

I had always assumed that was sort of a modern addition to the character's name, but in looking it up on the web I discovered that using the article THE was originally how the character was called in the Golden Age.

This got me to wondering, when did THE disappear from Batman's name and when did it reappear?

Discussing this with FBU contributor Trey Causey, he directed me to OverthinkingIt.com which has a good article on the use of the Definitive Article THE in superhero names. As interesting as this article is, it didn't really answer my question. So, I decided to do some random sampling to see when the THE showed back up.

Here's what I determined. The article disappeared sometime during the period when Robin became a regular. While it would show up sometimes early on, as the 40's gave way to the 50's The Batman and Robin just got shortened down to Batman and Robin.

This stuck with Batman all during the Atomic Age stories as Batman was less a creature of the night and more an adventurer dealing with strange aliens.

My first assumption was that the article got added back sometime around the 70's, possibly when DC got rights to publish The Shadow. So, I checked out Batman 259 where the Shadow makes a guest appearance:

Sure enough, Batman is called THE Batman in this issue.

Still, I wondered if the use of the article hadn't been one of the changes that occurred as a result of the New Look Batman era. What I found is that during this era, a lot of stories featured Batman dealing with socially relevant issues:

So, without a real criminal element to the stories, for the most part of this era Batman is just called Batman.

However, around issue 213, E. Nelson Bridwell retells the origin of Robin with a panel where Batman introduces himself as THE Batman.

Shortly thereafter, in Batman 224, current Batman writer Frank Robbins (also well known for his awesome art on Marvel's The Invaders) has a criminal use the phrase The Batman.

Two things may have precipitated this:
1) This is near the time that Frank Robbins was also drawing The Shadow
2) This also happens to coincide with the time that Robin has left the comic as Batman's sidekick.

The combination of no sidekick and the original pulp avenger floating around DC may have caused Robbins to reintroduce the THE into Batman's name. This is also a period when DC Editorial (Julius Schwartz) gives Robbins the freedom to move away from the socially relevant stories and return Batman to darker story lines.

While we may never know the exact catalyst, the result is that from this point on, the THE continues on into modern usage.

And despite some creators attempts to put a new spin on his name:

The Batman is still with us.

- Jim

More Unseen Art

In the comments on Monday's Post, artist Reno Maniquis noted that he's worked on some projects that never came to fruition. I did some digging and found the art he was talking about.

The first up was going to be a Zuda pitch called hell-bent but Zuda folded before this project got going good.

The other was a possible Artifact story with a new character called Jet Pack Jenny

While neither of those projects panned out, I've enjoyed working with Reno on the Lost 100 Pagers he's created. He never fails to impress me with his work on those Bronze Age homages.


Another artist who I've worked with in the past (and most recently completed the So Falls The World Flashback Universe story is Jerry Hinds. Here are some awesome character sketches he developed for a sort of Jim Starlin Adam Warlock type of project. Again, this would have been a good project for Zuda.

The star to the story was a character called Judas Moonstone

His Allies were the enchantress Baba Yaga

And an imp named Toadflax

The villain of the series was a character called Nightshade

I still have more unseen art, but I'll save it for another day.

- Jim

Unseen Art from Other Projects

I've been looking for some files this weekend, and while doing so, I found a bunch of art from projects that I thought I would share.

First up are a few pages from a Kondorr the Killer backstory that never saw light of day. Because I changed email services from when I was working on this project, I no longer have the name or contact information for the artist. The only thing I know is his first name was Roy.

Next up is a page from Flashback Co-Creator Pierre Villeneuve. This was part of a Zuda pitch we submitted for the League of Monsters. In this scene, the team is enjoying a game of Risk.

Here is a Lost 100 Pager that didn't work out because the artist drew the cover with a modern version of Black Orchid, not the Bronze Age one, even though I sent him reference samples. 

This is why you should always ask an artist to send roughs before sending finished work. (Most professionals will volunteer to send you a rough because they know it saves them time in the long run.) :( 

Here's another sketch by the same artist wherein he tries to pass off another artists (Gahan Wilson?) work as his own for the background/houses.

I've learned over the years that rather than just dive in on a project with a new artists, it's better to start with small assignments like character sketches and pinups. This gives you some idea of what you can expect before committing to a big project. 

Later this week, I'll share some art from more projects that didn't work out as well as a few that did.

- Jim