I’ve heard that Legends of the Superfriends was bad, but I never realised how bad. I just stumbled across some clips of it on Youtube:
That was comedian Brad Saunders as “Ghetto Man.” If its the same Brad Saunders, he’s still in the comedy business with his Babysitter Productions outfit.
As cringeworthy as that was, and yes that was actually Adam West as Batman, remarks like,
A few years ago the NAACP asked you guys to integrate, but I’m sorry, we don’t feel that the Green Lantern qualifies as coloured people. — Ghetto Man
don’t seem too far off the mark nowadays — and this was made thirty years ago!
It’s an interesting trailer. We get to see more of the Crime Syndicate including our first looks at Johnny Quick and Power Ring (below). It’s very brief, but Quick is seen colliding with a white skinned biker who has to be Lobo.
We also see a Red Arrow, presumably the Crime Syndicate’s Green Arrow, fighting the Martian Manhunter. I was surprised by J’onn ferocity. It looks like the Detroit League (Vibe, Vixen, and co) are fighting the Justice League, but there might be a hint of costume reversing going on.
I know we’ve have one super-villain in the White House, but was that really President Slade Wilson (Deathstroke the Terminator)?
The basic comparison between the two is described by the exhibitions curator:
When I first started working on the exhibition about 5 years ago my first impulse was to focus on clothing that quite literally transformed you into a superhero. So, clothing that enabled you to run faster, swim faster, and even fly, but as I developed the exhibition I became more interested in looking at the symbolic and metaphoric association between superheroes and fashion.
On the surface it might seem that fashion and superheroes have very little in common, but they actually share rather surprising similarities, both are reflections of the zeitgeist, so mirrors to our social, political, and even social realities and anxieties. At the core of both are issues of identity and transformation. Fashion and superheroes not only allow you to escape into your fantasies, but also to act out your fantasies, the idea of transforming yourself into anybody or anything.
The introduction from a lecture by Andrew Bolton (curator, The Costume Institute)
It is an interesting and compelling case and suggests that high fashion isn’t much more than what comic book fans would call cosplay. (I’ll leave aside the cynical comparison between the distorted representations of the female body in both superhero comic books and runway fashion.)
Nevertheless, there were some interesting talks and they’re all available on the internet. I’ve linked to a couple below.
Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy – Curatorial Talk
Andrew Bolton delivers a fascinating talk on the parallels between superheroes and fashion and the themes of the exhibition.
Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy – The Gods of Greece, Rome, and Egypt Still Exist
This may be the most interesting talk. Michael Uslan, the executive producer or the The Dark Knight, takes a longer look the superhero and compares him to the Gods of ancient worlds.
Rick Marshell over at MTV’s Splash Page Blog has posted up the above copy of the Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths sneak peak feature from Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD.
There is a new trailer for the Batman: Arkham Asylum videogame which recounts the early history of the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCtNbVHB71Y
Now is it my imagination or does a voice say “Rise” during that final show of Dr Arkham’s grave? Could somebody be sneaking in a Blackest Night reference?
Capsule review for Justice League: The New Frontier = fantastic. I’ll post up my proper review soon, but in the meantime here is a list of New Frontier trailers, websites, interviews, and reviews culled from around the internet.
IGN Review (Eric Moro and Christopher Monfette) — 9/10 — “By the standards of similar comic-book-to-film translations, Justice League boasts a fairly remarkable picture. The color, clarity and vibrancy of the image is seldom in question, splashing across the screen with tremendous appeal.”
DVD Talk (Jamie S. Rich ) — Recommended — “Despite what reads as a long list of stunt casting, all the actors are particularly well chosen, and none of them trade on any prior image or overly recognizable verbal tics.”
Animated Shorts (Steve Fritz) — “or some reason, while organizations such as Marvel and Starz will produce 90-minute direct-to-DVD animated features, Warner Bros. feels compelled to maintain an under 75-minute limit. As one can imagine, and had been confirmed by both series creator Darwyn Cooke and scriptwriter Stan Berkowitz, that means a lot of the original graphic novel has to be cut.”
Animation Magazine (Ryan Ball) — “These characters are more than lantern-jawed, one-dimensional do-gooders who swoop down to save the day with a wink and a smile. They’re complex individuals with powers tempered by insecurities.”
Darwyn Cooke
Darwyn Cooke (Consultant, author original series) — CBR — “I was also involved in the storyboards for the film. I think it works out to about ten percent of the movie. And I was also involved in a lot of the color and consulting art direction; creative consulting, I suppose. Again, I worked really closely with the director. He and I basically kept in contact on a daily basis throughout that part of the production, to go over the story and adding a lot of thing back into the film that the script couldn’t accommodate.”
Darwyn Cooke’s Isotope Party — Newsarama — “The party was tailored specifically to Cooke’s style, with people in suits and dresses form the 50’s and New Frontier themed cocktails. Asked if this is how he imagined how his party would go Cooke replied; ‘Goddamn right, why not? The New Frontier is all about the 50’s, so yeah, let’s back it up and have a good time.’”
Darwyn Cooke Panel at Wondercon — Newsarama — “Cooke said of all of New Frontier, the John Henry story was the most difficult to write, but at the same time, it’s the part he’s proudest of. The difficultly, Cooke explained, was due to something very basic: ‘I’m white – it’s really difficult for me to even begin to think that I understand the situation or what I’m writing about.’”
Cast/Crew Interviews
Stan Berkowitz (writer) and David Bullock (director) — Wizard — “As an adaptor, you get nervous about changing things that the public has already chimed in on, and that they’ve liked. Plus, you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings by cutting out something they loved, or changing something, or adding something that feels alien to them.”
David Boreanaz (Hal Jordan) – Comics2Film — “The voice director, Andrea (Romano), was unbelievably fantastic in the way she guided me through Hal’s course of emotions, and really helped me get to know the character”
Kyle MacLachlan (Superman) – Comics2Film — “There’s a sort of moral imperative that Superman has, and I think the language he uses is a little more proper — he’s just not a guy who uses his words casually. [...] So maybe, unconsciously, that 1950s tone just creeps in there for me.”
Brooke Shields (Carol Ferris) – Comics2Film — “There’s a strength in Carol – she’s not willing to lose her sexuality by being in a man’s world, and she’s determined to be respected for having the same intelligence and ability to stay on course, and be par for the course, with the men that she’s surrounded by.”
videogame which recounts the early history of the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane.