Mark Millar = ________

Steve: I have to go with Tarantino for this one. As much fun as I find his movies to be, he’s an overly cocky guy who ultimately gets by (for the most part) on shock and flash. Millar’s very much made in the same mold, both in the over-confident public persona department as well as the over the top storytelling tendencies with an intense love for shocking twists, scenes, character behaviors, etc., often at the expense of the actual plot itself.. If it was physically possible for Millar to insert himself into his comics, I guarantee he’d write himself a cameo in every one.

One thing they aren’t altogether similar in is their ability - or in Millar’s case, inability - to write a decent ending. Leaving the mess that was “Death Proof” aside, Tarantino generally wraps things up nicely in his stories, as opposed to Millar’s tendency to seem to remember at the last minute that he’s on the last chapter of whatever arc he’s working on and “Oh shit, I need to wrap this up STAT!” Still, for the most part, I see more similarities than differences.

Andrew: With Millar I don’t see that comparison at all. As far as Tarantino goes, I think Garth Ennis is the (almost too) obvious analogy there since he seems highly inspired by The Q’s style and aesthetic. Not to mention Tarantino dabbles in skillful, dialog-heavy cult film genre mash-ups of noir, blaxploitation, and kung-fu, and Millar’s work is usually an action-oriented, poor man’s version of the epic and confrontational “widescreen” (sorry…) fantasy/sci-fi superheroisms of Morrison and Ellis. True, Millar and Tarantino are both deeply concerned with The Cool, but that’s where the similarity ends.

No, I think Millar more closely resembles another cultishly adored and highly successful director: Michael Bay. Unabashedly big and corny and unafraid to please the crowd with well-worn cliches and elaborate, ridiculous set pieces, both Millar and Bay are brash, and they both think and create huge. Tiny little distractions like plot and character and plausibility and realistic conclusions become secondary to the overall excitement and style of the ride. Not sure if Michael Bay will ever come up with something as nifty as “Red Son,” though…

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Duncan: Favreau is not the most innovative or stylistically interesting director around, but by god, despite its flaws this was a very entertaining and brilliantly cast movie. It doesn’t take itself too seriously (bonus points for the awesomely fake-ass terrorist camp), and everyone involved showed up, made the effort, and apparently had a good time doing so. 87%

Stephen: The smartest thing Favreau did was to make a genuinely fun and engaging action movie that just so happens to be about a super hero. OK - the second smartest thing after casting Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. Unlike practically every super hero movie before this, there’s no sense of embarrassed self-awareness of the source material being a comic book, and it shows. 95%

Pros:
• Paid attention to detail that needed it - wobble in flight, logisitcs of the armor, etc. - while managing to avoid being dragged down in fanboy minutia.
• Above average acting and solid directing - not a single “groaner” of a scene.
• Gwyneth Paltrow channels her inner-hotness.
• Best twist nobody saw coming: [spoiler]“I am Iron Man.”[/spoiler]

Cons:
• We’re not sure if the plot really holds together…but we’re also not sure if that really matters.

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This past Sunday’s TRU circular in the paper had the prerequisite Iron Man/Hulk toys page, featuring the following promotion:

I kind of hoped that this sort of thinking was behind us now, but I have to admit I got a kick out of the “New Warriors” issue being called a “collectible,” insinuating it has some sort of monetary value. Oh, and before you get your hopes up about finding a pristine Silver Age “Iron Man” #1, here’s the disclaimer, all the way at the bottom of the page.

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“BAH! You are brainless as ever! Did you think to find me UNPREPARED??”

-Dr. Doom, from Fantastic Four #16

Excerpted from:

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I assume this story somehow came from this being the summer of comic book movies, but I can’t be sure. Either way, CNN currently has an article that’s asking if Kirby was the greatest comic book artist ever. No matter where you fall on this debate - I tend to lean towards Eisner, myself - it’s kind of neat seeing a mainstream news outlet giving a piece like this the amount of play they are, what with a front page link and all.

The nickname was meant as a joke, a little needle from Marvel Comics mainstay Stan Lee to artist Jack Kirby.

But more than a decade after Kirby’s death, the name still fits: He is “The King.”

Consider some of the heroes Kirby helped create, many of which now pervade pop culture: The Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America.

His distinctive action-packed style became the model for many comic-book artists. When he died in 1994, artist Gary Panter did a two-page spread in The New Yorker as a tribute. Michael Chabon dedicated his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about two comic book creators, “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” to Kirby.

Not bad for a guy whose chosen medium was looked down upon for decades.

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OK, folks - “Iron Man” opens this weekend. How much is it going to pull in by the end of Sunday? I’m guessing between $85-95 million. Leave your predictions in the comments below.

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After a fairly…mediocre teaser trailer kind of got the bad buzz going a month or so back, Marvel’s released a follow up trailer for “The Incredible Hulk” that pushes pretty much all the right buttons. For on thing, the CG looks slightly better, and I keep reminding myself that stuff that looks kinda fake on the small screen tends to look markedly better when projected onto the giant silver screen. Even more intriguing is the way the trailer hearkens back to the TV show - the best bits of the TV show - and the comic. Banner on the run looks like fun, and the quiet scene below manages more emotional impact in the split-second it shows in the trailer than the entirety of Ang Lee’s movie. To cap it all off, the old nerdgenes were pleasantly massaged when the trailer’s the score streamed seamlessly into the TV show’s classic theme song.

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