harryhenry.bsky.social
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So baffling seeing The Endless just... there after all that's happened with Gaiman.
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Aw thank you! Also while I do think the multiverse has been... overdone as a concept recently, and at its worst can cheapen the stakes of a story, at its best it's basically an SF spin on how myth and folklore works, with the sheer variety of stories one can tell with these characters.
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Yeah the number 1 complaint for so much of the prequel backlash was that Anakin was "whiny", more akin to Hamlet than anything traditionally seen as "badass" by those complaining.
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The nature of mythology and folklore is just how flexible and ever-changing it is, and I don't see why the same shouldn't also apply here.
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Recently I've realised how much the "superheroes are modern mythology" comparison should be used less as a "take me seriously" card and more of an opportunity to do new, exciting things with these characters.
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But I get your point, DC's villains were usually a lot sillier and when superheroes started aiming more to older audiences, that led to a lot of reinvention and recontextualization from the '70s onwards.
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Would Kingpin count as an exception that proves the rule? elvingsmusings.wordpress.com/2025/03/23/t...
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Saying a superhero has "bad villains" only means "I can't imagine putting the efforts into making a villain cool and interesting".
Which is funny because most of Batman's iconic, celebrated rogues used to be "bad villains" before copious amount of work by talented creators.
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Synergy with media adaptations of characters can have good and constructive effects on the comics version.
That being said the influence of the MCU on the comics has almost universally been negative.
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Killing off T'Challa just for the sake of MCU "synergy" is probably the nadir of that mentality, absolutely baffling choice.
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The band in the second one especially gets me: Does Superman have the pipes? Can Batman shred despite his hatred of Rock and Roll? Will Wally West drum like the best of them? Could Black Canary fill in for (presumably) Wonder Woman on bass?
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Pretty bizarre and sad outcome for a superhero series that had one of the richest and most well-developed civilian casts in the genre.
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That sort of also becomes a problem with superhero solos where their supporting cast consists mostly of other superheroes as then you end up in the situation where you could just read the X-Men or the Avengers and get a proper team experience.
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Especially happy that Kurt vocalized the problem with "solo" titles which are just "the characters is on solo missions but in the same setting and context as their team book". Way too often this is the path modern "solo" books take and it just gives you something you already have but less of it.
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As a kiwi I'd still love to see more done with Tuatara, something so novel and fun about having a DC superhero from my own country.
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The Global Guardians are vastly underrated and deserve so much better than to be jokes and punchlines.
Ditto for any non-US superhero in a US superhero comic, even Alpha Flight.
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Superhero civilian supporting cast is more important to the long-term health of a superhero comic than cameos by other superheroes.
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Also just being annoyed at "protesters going too far who only want the publicity" is something that happens even in media with a liberal leaning to its politics.
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Most science fiction is a little bit fantasy and most fantasy is a little bit science fiction. It's all good and categories are fake.
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Holy *shit*, I can't believe this even exists! Thank god he hoarded enough for archivists to take a look at now
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I wouldn't be that harsh on Kershner, Gary Kurtz was just bad at managing the budget efficiently.
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I should also clarify that, while they did use bluescreen, that was for the more complex shots. The one they used the most was an elaborate front projection system that's better explained in the video I shared.
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Some of the funniest include a model flung out of a catapult, a radio-controlled aircraft built to look like Superman, another models on wires, and "Another Dam(n) Test"
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This behind the scenes shorts from an early 2000s DVD released gives a good overview of what they used on the film, and according to this they did have a lot of tests since basically anything was on the table www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNFA...
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...wow that's wild to realise, and Heaven's Gate was such a notorious flop by comparison.
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Later Salkind-produced films like Santa Claus: The Movie and Christopher Columbus: The Discovery had similarly large budgets, so I think it was a bad mix of an ambitious director and initially overconfident producers.
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It sounds like most of that went into expensive R&D on the flying shots, which were the biggest selling point ("You'll believe a man can fly" and all that)
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I think the budget for that makes more sense when you remember they were initially making two Superman films at the same time, so who knows how much was actually allocated for just the first film vs. the second?
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I do find the budget fascinating in hindsight as it and Jaws' seem so modest for being the films that started the blockbuster era of Hollywood.
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This whole thing reminds me of recent discourse in circles surrounding "lost media" where that term now seems to have been warped into "if it's not online it's Lost Media(tm)" and in this case people seem to think "preservation" is the same thing as "getting a full home video release"
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Like using Vistavision film stock for higher resolution effects plates? That seems like something rooted in the days of optical printing, but even as late as 2007 you had Spider-Man 3 using that technique in its VFX, even though it seems drastically out of step with the digital wizardry of the film.
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Also having effect techniques from multiple decades isn't that shocking? Like yeah a film's gonna be limited in what it can do based on the year it's made in, but it's always building off of what came before and will include techniques developed in various decades.
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Oh that'd be incredible - I was already moved by what currently exists of The Magnificent Ambersons, it'd be really something if a print was found there.
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Can't speak for everyone, but I know the Kingdom of Heaven director's cut has a much better reputation than the theatrical version, especially for Orlando Bloom's character.
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For me I go back and forth between Ben Burtt and John Williams in terms of importance - I genuinely don't think Star Wars would've had had the same cultural impact without Williams' music.