Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, I’m taking a look at some of the stories featuring the characters over the past half-century.
Mark Millar isn’t quite the tough guy he makes himself out to be. Asked a few years ago about whether the birth of his child might tame some of his more sensationalist tendencies, Millar replied that – if anything – he would be even more motivated to push the envelope in order to demonstrate he hadn’t mellowed. And, in fairness, the years since have seen ideas like Kick-Ass or Wanted or Nemesis, all excessively and ridiculously cynical, graphic and violent. However, I maintain that Millar is a stronger writer when he channels his inner softer romantic – for example, demonstrating the respect he showed Superman in Red Son. Taking over Ultimate Fantastic Four for a year (perhaps on a trial run before writing for regular Fantastic Four), you get a sense that Millar has a genuine affection for these characters and their world – too much to try to make them “darker and edgier”, for example. While his run on Ultimate Fantastic Four isn’t the best thing he’s written, it is sharp and entertaining – and delivered with enough energy that it can’t help but warm the reader’s heart.
Never a drag...
Filed under: Comics | Tagged: art, ben grimm, brian michael bendis, comic book, comic books, crossover, doom, fantastic four, film, frightful, frightful four, greg land, kick-ass, mark millar, mark waid, marvel comics, marvel knights, marvel universe, marvel zombies, namor, president thor, reed richards, stan lee, the tomb of namor, tomb of namor, Ultimate Fantastic Four, ultimate marvel, ultimate universe, ultimate x-men, warren ellis, zombies | Leave a Comment »
Non-Review Review: The Night of Living Dead (1968)
Welcome to the m0vie blog’s zombie week! It’s a week of zombie-related movie discussions and reviews as we come up to Halloween, to celebrate the launch of Frank Darbont’s The Walking Dead on AMC on Halloween night. So be sure to check back all week, as we’ll be running posts on the living dead.
It’s interesting to look back on a film and see that it created a whole new genre from scratch. The Night of the Living Dead is a humble, small and effective little black-and-white effort that doesn’t even seem aware of the impact that it would have. As shrewdly as it creates the monster which defined the latter half of the twentieth century (and the first few years of the twenty-first), there’s nothing pretentious about George A. Romero’s production. In fact, it consciously harks back to all manner of influential and paranoid fifties horrors (with a dash of science fiction). Still, there’s a reason the film has endured for so long. Although it never pretends to be anything more than a gloriously trashy B-movie, The Night of the Living Dead is committed to being the best gloriously trashy B-movie it can be. The only thing more fascinating than its pop culture impact is how well (mostly) it still hold up today.
Barbara's in grave danger...
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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: actor, b-movie, Day The Earth Stood Still, Duane Jones, film, george romero, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Living Dead, Movies, night of the living dead, non-review review, review, roger ebert, social commentary, zombies | Leave a Comment »