"...with great power..."

Talk of the impending Fantastic Four reboot fills me with a sense of dread that, once again, we're going to get the blimmin' origin story again. You see, this is one of my bugbears about superhero movies; more often than not each one is the blimmin' origin story, either for its hero or its villain, and really, it's getting tiring...

I'd like to see more movies in which we dispense with the origin, and just get down to the business of telling a good story. We don't need to know how they got their powers, how the hero's parents were occupied and all that David Copperfield kind of crap.

For example, I grew weary with the most recent Spider Man film which, once again, told us the origin story we'd already seen only a few years before. Fine, if you're rebooting, then reboot; just recast, and get on with the latest story. We didn't need to see Peter being bitten by the radioactive/genetically modified spider again. We all know it. 

Take James Bond... every time he's recast we don't feel the need to go back to the beginning again. And, heck, in his case we just jumped straight in, and didn't even get anything involving a Bond near the start of his career until the 21st film. Also, the films don't bother giving us a load of guff about how the bad guys turned bad.

Yet, superhero films feel the need to do this all the blimmin' time...

Sometimes you just want the baddie to spring up, with no backstory, and just cause chaos and anarchy. Which is, of course, what happens in The Dark Knight with The Joker. BAM! He's there, chaos reigning, and it's great. We don't need to know where he comes from, and the fact that we never find out is great. 

Of course, you will now cite the whole Two Face thing, but it's a rare occurrence of an "origin" tale actually working (although I'd take issue it's not a pure origin story, and is more of a plot point) given that it absolutely ties in to one of the films themes being "you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain", which is exactly the arc Harvey Dent goes through in the film. It works.

There are other exceptions I could cite; but I just find myself growing weary at the constant retelling of the same stories. 'Cos with the origin stories you either keep them faithful to the original comic stories we know, or you change them beyond recognition. If you change them... what's the point? 

"...I've been thinking..."

Last week I read something very odd... it was an interview that Grant Morrison did last year talking about the ending of Alan Moore's Batman story, The Killing Joke;

"No one gets the end,” the writer says, “because Batman kills The Joker. [...] That’s why it’s called The Killing Joke..."

Hang on a minute...? What? I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to take umbrage here... No-one gets the end...? I remember getting The Killing Joke fairly soon after it was published, and to me it was always quite clear that once the Joker's told the asylum joke, and the pair of them laugh that Batman killed the Joker... 

Yes, it occurs off-panel, and yes it's done in such a way that it could be read another way if you were so inclined. But, really, I'd thought the death interpretation would have been by far and away the prevalent opinion. The sudden cessation of laughter would surely point to that, too?

I mean, the whole thing kicks of with spiel from Batman in which he explicitly states that the only way the relationship between the pair of them will end is if one of them kills the other. I mean, how more obvious could it be that it's ending with the Joker's death? 

It's, really, the only logical explanation for the ending. Batman kills the Joker... 


I mean, whatever next; Gwen Stacey's not dead?

"...volatile, self-obsessed, and I don't play well with others..."

So, over the last couple of days I've been catching up on the couple of superhero movie films I missed at the cinema... first up I saw the Avengers film, which was mostly really rather good. It was very, very, much a comic on the screen, and captured the flavour of said comic very well indeed. Best thing about it was, by some mile, Robert Downey Jr, who dominated any scene he appeared in. (Which reminds me; must get around to watching Iron Man 2 one of these days...) The whole thing worked really well, both when there were the big action set pieces, and when we had the more character based moments. Also, it had one of the very best Stan Lee cameos... talking of cameos, I loved the Harry Dean Stanton one as well. Overall a big, fun, movie...

And then there was The Amazing Spiderman. I would say it was rather like (warning; lazy comedy slag alert!) The Frustratingly Average Spiderman. Thing is, there were all sorts of elements to it that were great; Andrew Garfield was just perfect. We got Gwen Stacey from the start (one of the most notable annoyances about the Raimi trilogy...), and she was perfect. And Denis Leary was great as her dad, and Rhys Ifans made a wonderful Curt Connors.... but trouble is it all too waaaaaaay too long to get anywhere. For one thing... and thing is the biggest annoyance... we had the blimmin Spidey origin story again. I mean, surely by now every bugger out there knows how he gets his powers by now, and the whole story of how he could have saved his Uncle's life if he'd stopped the robber... yeah, it did things a little differently, but all the main story beats were exactly as normal. Although, was exactly was all that guff with Peter's parents? There was a really good movie trying to get out there, but it was bogged down by loads of guff. The frustrating thing is that it could, and should, have been a truly wonderful film; instead it was somewhat average. 

I have higher hopes for the sequel in that at least now all the origin guff is out of the way (must write a blog post about how superhero films should lay off the origin stories; 9/10 of the time they are not needed), it'll give a bit more space to the baddie of the film. Just one thing, though; if this is to be a trilogy, hold off with the Green Goblin until film #3, and bear in mind Amazing Spiderman #121. (If you don't get what that means, don't look it up; if they use elements of that issue it'll have more impact if you've not read it). 

In anycase, The Dark Knight Rises (one of the few films I did manage to see at a cinema) was better than both of them, despite not even being the best in its trilogy (#2).