Pretty Boy Ain't So Pretty No Mo': First Look at the Joker

Ahoy hoy!

(Quick aside--the reason why Mr. Burns answers the phone that way in The Simpsons is because that's how Alexander Graham Bell wanted people to say "hello" on the phone - like the French "allo" or the Japanese "moshi moshi." Clearly, this did not catch on - unless we bring it back. Now back to an even nerdier post)

So Ain't It Cool News first brought the following items to my attention through this article. In the past week, some interesting online ad campaigns have sprung up for The Dark Knight, the sequel to Batman Begins. In this movie, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) continues growing into his role as Batman while contending with The Joker (and possibly Two-Face). I personally hated Batman Begins (as seen here), and I understand I'm in the vast minority on that one. And that's okay - i believe history will vindicate me one day. But I still believe in the brothers Nolan, and with Katie Holmes and David Goyer absent from the project - plus the addition of Nestor Carbonell as the Mayor of Gotham - not to mention my own geeky proclivities, I will still see this movie in theaters. Sigh, cuz I'm a big pussy. But on to the cool interweb sensations that Warner Brothers is spreading on the web!

First, was the quiet marketing campaign of revealing Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent (who later becomes Two-Face) by using the clever political ad for Dent's run at District Attorney (seen below).




Then, came this piece of the puzzle - which was a viral site smearing Dent's political poster. The thing is, as you enter your email, the poster image begins to get broken down, pixels removed to reveal the face of....Heath Ledger as The Joker!!! Quint has since posted the image of The Joker sans all remaining pixels. Here it is:





Does it look vaguely reminiscent of Brandon Lee as The Crow? Yes, but it also looks like it good be cool. He just looks like a fucked up dude. Plus any time you can scar up a pretty boy and cake him in make up is a good day for me. Anyways, let me know your thoughts on this new look for The Joker.

My Home

Thomas Wolfe once famously said, “You can’t go home again.” While I tend to shy away from clichés, I happen to think this sad adage about growing up and apart from our childhood selves has special significance in my life. Halfway through high school, I moved to a different town and school. While this is a pretty huge event in the maturation and formation of anyone, for me it didn’t just signify a change in zip code and social circles but instead it changed the way I thought about “home”.

I grew up in Lincoln, MA, but I don’t consider that my hometown. Sure, that’s where my earliest experiences and oldest friends come from, but I never saw it to completion. I never experienced all of the dizzying drama that the last two years of high school bring, never experienced the collective insanity of graduation with those people. I drifted apart from so many of them, since high school is all about immediacy and I lived 2 hours away. I don’t even know where half of my old friends ended up, what college they went to, or who they brought to the prom.

I finished off high school in Sandwich, MA located on sunny Cape Cod. I made a few good friendships there; mostly my social circle was comprised of casual acquaintances with a similar sense of humor. This was where I prepared to go to college, where I had some of my more important teenage experiences, and where my parents continue to live to this day. But Sandwich isn’t my home, it’s not where I grew up; I don’t know any of the old traditions or any of the old friendships. I never really fit in because I wasn’t truly from there.

I obviously can never go back to Vassar College. Besides being a ridiculous idea for a living situation (although perfect for a FOX sitcom), there’s something absolutely depressing and defeatist by simply holing up in the old alma mater. Reliving glory days that never happened and creeping out new incoming freshman every autumn is hardly a life worth living.

After college, I moved to New York City. In my tiny apartment in the East Village, where my room comprised of my bed and a lamp I made in seventh grade woodshop, I never really felt like it was my home. More like a layover until I found the place where I truly belonged. I’m too courteous, polite and meek to survive in a city where I get yelled at for apologizing. Every day was a struggle for the survival of my civility. It was too expensive for a man of my meager wages, and constantly forced this homebody to venture into the outside world. As Jim Croce sings,

Though all the streets are crowded
There’s somethin’ strange about it
I lived there ‘bout a year and I never once felt at home
I thought I’d make the big time
I learned a lot of lessons awful quick
And now I’m tellin’ you
That they were not the nice kind
And it’s been so long since I have felt fine, that’s the reason

That I gotta get out of here
I’m so alone
Don’t you know that I gotta get out of here
cause New York’s not my home

I just moved to Philadelphia. I’m living with my best friend and his girlfriend, in a bigger apartment for much less money. My sister and her husband are nearby, as is my other best friend. And yet, I can’t help but feel like a houseguest who will shortly be overstaying his welcome. The streets don’t make any sense, and the public transit system is practically non-existent. Add into that the fact that it’s not quite that big of a city, especially when compared to New York, and this doesn’t feel like home either.

I don’t really have roots anywhere, although most of my family is located in Massachusetts. But even then, that’s not really any place I want to live or feel personally attached to. And I think that all of these reasons and listings of malcontent produce this real feeling of homelessness (not houselessness) in me. And that’s why I’m such a sad and rabid consumer.

I have thousands of DVDs, videos, books, comics, CDs, mp3s. I collect all of these items (most of which will become technologically obsolete in about 6 months) so that I have some semblance of normality. If I surround myself with all of these items, these familiar bits of escapism that have informed me and my outlook throughout my life, then I can create a crude version of home. The walls are patches of DVDs strewn together, under a roof of comic books. I sleep on a bed of CDs and eat on a table of familiar books I read repeatedly. My makeshift house of media and distraction travels with me in bags and boxes, ready to be constructed—my misdirection for the magical act of appearing normal.

So will I ever have a home? Will I ever sit in a house or apartment and look around and finally feel AT HOME? Not just because all my stuff is there but because it’s the place where my soul rests and where I feel safe and comfortable? I’d like to think so. I’d like to think that I can create a home out of the people I’m with, the people I love, and not rely on the latest issue of Wizard magazine to remind me that I’m way I should be. And maybe when I reach that level, that moment of semi-contentment, maybe that’ll be the moment I finally feel like an adult. I’ll finally feel like I’m living in this world, instead of just wasting time until my fantasy life becomes real.

Maybe.

WOLFMAN'S GOT NARDS AGAIN, BITCHES!!!!

I'm only a few hours away from seeing Peter Bjorn and John in concert, and this is still the best news of the day. This made my little nerd heart grow ten sizes bigger. Thanks to Ain't It Cool News for actually providing cool news for once.

Ladies and gentlemen...

The Monster Squad
is coming to DVD on July 24th!!!!!!!

That is the cover art for the DVD. Now if this helps bring Night of the Creeps to digital versatile disc, I will be the happiest nerd in nerdtown.

FRISKY DINGO THURSDAYS!!!! The Final Chapter (for now)

This is it - so now that you've seen all 13 episodes - tell me what you think. And make sure Adult Swim also knows what you think about the whole durn thing.

Personally, I think it, coupled with The Venture Brothers, represent a great and hilarious direction for the network (and if they had kept Perfect Hair Forever, it would make for a great trifecta of random genre parody).

Anyways, here it is:

Frisky Dingo
Episode Thirteen
"Thrust Issues"


PART I

PART II

But Who Watches the Watchmen? Apparently Tim Kring...douchebag.

VS.

This is an older story (I first read about it over a month ago on CHUD here), and one that is quite famously making its way across the web as nerds all over feel scorned by their mainstream acceptable entertainment. A recent storyline development in Heroes has started resembling a MAJOR plot point in Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons's seminal 1986 comic series, Watchmen. And by resembling, I mean Tim Kring and his team of writers have pretty much ripped off one of the most respectable and well known comic books in the history of the medium.

Before I get into the spoiler laden debate over Heroes's plagiarism, I wish to give a little background on both entities. Watchmen is one of the most influential comic books in terms of both within the industry and outside of it. Inside the industry, Watchmen changed the way a lot of people looked at superheroes, specifically the morality & psychology of people who dress up in tights to save the world and also what the realistic ramifications of having superpowered beings on our planet would be for the rest of the populace. Suddenly there were blemishes on Superman's cape, and Batman appeared like a bit more of a sociopath in long underwear. That's not to say that Moore's book was just a subversive attack on the superhero genre. It was also a love letter to creation, art, archetypes, and the human spirit. It told a story of misguided and fallible heroism, but it was merely holding a mirror up to us all. None of us are perfect and valiant all the time, but most of us aren't just plain evil either. It's a muddled picture where the good guys do horrible things, and horrible people can be good guys. If you haven't read it, I simply can't recommend it enough. Watchmen will be turned into a movie next year by Zack Snyder (of 300 and Dawn of the Dead remake fame), and apparently will still take place in 1985. For more information on Watchmen, check out the Wikipedia page.

That's a tough act to follow. But Heroes has been making a name for itself on TV since its premiere, which drew in 14.3 million viewers. Heroes is a character driven drama in which the main characters are all slowly discovering (or, in some cases, mastering) very special and unique traits, powers if you will, that set them apart from everyone else. Some find their new talents to be a gift and revel in the possibilities, while others see their new abilities as a curse and try their best to hide it. The show has a quick pace that constantly keeps its large cast moving, advancing the plot with every episode, and showing the interconnectivity of everyone involved. Fan favorites Claire (the indestructible cheerleader) and Hiro (the time travelin' transportatin' Japanese businessman/nerd) represent the divide in how people feel about their gifts, and also provide the show with its comedy and heart. There are a lot of mysteries that have been introduced throughout the show's first season, along with a bunch of horrible taglines (covered here). It is a good mainstream show that is occasionally clunky with its dialogue and yet compelling due to the constantly forward moving plot (which at times makes it predictable, but at least is never a cocktease like its serial genre father, Lost).

(SPOILERS FOLLOW MOFO)

In its ever expanding story, recent developments have prompted politician Nathan Petrelli, who can fly, to allign himself with his mysterious mobster benefactor, Linderman. Linderman, who before his appearance on the show came across as a devious, manipulating cold-blooded villain, also has a power himself - the ability to heal. It turns out the Linderman used to be in a super group with other "special" people, who tried to save the world becoming fractured and pursuing their own paths and desires. However, Linderman never stopped wanting to save the world - and now has a scheme which will bring America together. His scheme? He wishes to set off a living bomb in New York City, killing millions (but only .07% of the world population, he is careful to point out), and hopes that the tragedy will unite Americans and get them behind then presidential candidate Petrelli who, in turn, will usher in years of prosperity and peace. It's actually a great idea, and the manipulative use of collateral damage and tragedy in hopes for advancing unity is something that has been used before in old issues of Weird Science and episodes of The Outer Limits.

The real problem? This is exactly the overarching plot of Watchmen. Ozymandias, the former costumed hero with super intelligence, sees that only by using a great horrible cataclysmic event can the world ban together. But to sell the tragedy he creates these horrible alien creatures which he will teleport into Times Square, killing millions in the process and staging what appears to be a failed alien invasion. With this attack from the ultimate outside, the world begins to pool together, and the rest of the heroes allow this new age to begin (although one is killed to ensure that it will happen).

So to recap:
-Ultimate villain a former hero with noble intentions? Check

-A devastating attack on New York City which will kill many, but are mathematically expendable for idealistic pursuit? Check.

-Other heroes who will tacitly comply once they begin to turn to the new reasoning of the Villain? Check.

The main issue I have isn't that Heroes uses THE SAME plot device as Watchmen. My problem is that it never gives credit for the story or acknowledges that it's been done previously. Tarantino rips off/pays homage to hundreds of movies in each of his films--but he gets a pass from nerds. Why? Because he acknowledges that he is using those movies, tells others about the movies he is borrowing from, and clearly is a big fan of those movies. Kring, on the other hand, continues in his "I HAVE NEVER READ COMICS IN MY LIFE EVER" stance, and refuses to publicly tip his hat to Moore & Gibbons. He maintains the position that since he has never read ANY comic books, his conscience is clear. Behold, from the official 9th Wonders website:

DL- I sent you the trade compilation of J. Michael
Stracynzki's "Rising Stars," a now fully complete story about a group of kids
all from the same town who develop supernatural abilities (and are thusly
labeled "Specials")... my question: Why didn't you read it? (and "no time" is
not an acceptable answer, pal!)
TK- I'm intrigued by this question because
obviously something I've done with HEROES proves to you that I didn't read it.
The problem is, since I didn't read it, I don't know what that is. Did I miss
something I should have stolen? Did I steal something and don't know it? I fear
the latter from the tone of your question. But the truth is I didn't read it for
a couple reasons.
First and foremost, because this show deals in the arena
of the super hero and comic book world, I didn't want to be tempted or
discouraged by other ideas out there. Very early on in the process, I went to
see my friend Jeph Loeb for just this reason. I told him I was not well versed
in this world and wanted him to steer me away from anything that was derivative
or just out and out stealing. Unfortunately EVERYTHING I pitched to him had not
only been done once, but many times in many ways. I literally went home that
night convinced that I couldn't touch this subject without reinventing the wheel
at best, and outright plagiarism at worst.
I finally decided, maybe
foolishly so, not to read anything. In this way, at least my conscience is
clear. And I have surrounded myself here with enough comic book folks who can
tell me what to veer away from.

So Jeph Loeb is to blame? I never did like Hush anyway (nerdy comic reference/joke). But the problem here is that he admits that he surrounds himself with people in the industry (not the least is Tim Sale & Jeph Loeb who have been working for a long time for the Big Two - DC & Marvel). Watchmen is considered THE cornerstone of modern comic book storytelling. You can't be considered at all knowledgeable about comics without knowing this book. You can't even DISCUSS comics after 1985 without bringing up this mammoth and legendary contribution to literature. So my problem isn't that he came up with the same idea - although I am INCREDIBLY skeptical of that, too. No, my problem is that a brilliant piece of work is being used without any proper recognition - and it's being used POORLY, i might add. And I worry that if/when Watchmen does make its way to theaters, if people (by which I mean the vast majority who have never heard of the landmark series) won't suddenly decry the movie's third act as ripping off Heroes!

Heroes has subsequently gone on to a botched plagiarism of the epic "Days of Future Past" storyline from Uncanny X-Men #141-142 in their latest trip to a dark future where the powered people are rounded up by the government. They've even included scarred cast mates and former villains turned allies in their vision of dystopia.

C'mon, Heroes! And to Mr. Moore - you would have nothing to do with the pretty good adaptation of V for Vendetta, but you allowed this to pass? Unleash Hell, Mr. Moore. By which I mean your legal staff!