A Strange Comparison

So i’ve been delving into the world of Marvel’s Doctor Strange (as may be obvious from some of my previous posts). I am currently impatiently awaiting the release of the next issues in the new comic series so in this tiny hiatus i have been browsing a bit. I came across this “Strange” series from 2004. Part of the “Marvel Knights” set of releases.

I admit i went in pretty blindly. I found them fairly cheaply and thought well, why not. Plus, look at that issue 5. Man, that is some gorgeous cover art right there. I’d seen that image floating around a lot it’s cool to see where it’s come from.

Upon reading the comics and a small amount of research i found it was a re-telling of Doctor Strange’s origin story. Because of this i wouldn’t call it super ESSENTIAL reading if you’re delving into the world of Strange (maybe those more knowledgeable than me will tell me otherwise! Please do!) but it was certainly interesting and entertaining!

The art, as you can see by the covers, if absolutely gorgeous. Most of the characters are familiar to us though i’d personally never properly come across Clea before. I looked her up – niece of Dormammu (leader of the Dark Dimention, super evil dude, one of the ultimate Strange nemeses along with Baron Mordo and others) who betrays him and is on the good guy team. She’s all magic too. Even at one point becomes Mrs Strange. Oooo.

In a way, being fairly familiar with Strange’s origin story, i didn’t feel like it had stretched the original that much. The nature of his surgery was slightly different, his accident circumstances changed slightly, and his links with Tibet were established early on. But in the end the dealings with The Ancient One and Mordo and things were fairly similar, except maybe the setting.  I liked the Wong story-line very much (though i admit i’m fairly clueless to his canonical beginnings).

However, this is the first “re-telling” of any kind i’ve ever come across. I’m not sure of the general standard and expectation of these things. I’m still a comic newbie for sure. It was certainly interesting and a good story and visually beautiful. Plus Stephen was as sassy as always. Also Wong is hot. Is that a weird thing to say about a comic character? Just, yeah. They have a good look for him.

Speaking of which, having seen the first teaser trailer for the film release many….MANY…times now…as i was reading i couldn’t help but make some comparisons in the visuals and even some of the speech. It may all be an absolute coincidence but it wouldn’t surprise me to learn the film creators had drawn on this series for some ideas. We haven’t seen Wong yet, i hope they continue the theme with him.

Just for the sake of fun and nerdiness i’m going to post the comparisons i found between this comic series and the posters/official images from the film and the recently released trailer.

***Small sections/minor spoilers from this comic series and screenshots from the film trailer will be shown below. If you wish to avoid them for any reason consider this your warning*** 

(Also apologies if these are things that are in every comic and i’ve just not realised…newbie remember!)

Issue #2 – Stephen’s apartment

His lovely big windows looking across as the sun is going down. Very nice. I know in the trailer is isn’t 100% clear that this is his apartment but i’ve seen it assumed in a couple of trailer analysis videos. Plus seeing as we see him in the next shot at the same windows but in a bit of a sorry state, i imagine it’s not his work or a party or anything.

Issue #3 – Forehead window

Now i know this isn’t completely out of line with the norm. I’ve seen a few comics (i think the newer issues for example?) where Strange has a third eye that appears in his forehead and it basically means he can see other dimensions or whatever crazy stuff goes down with him. In both the comic and the trailer (whether the trailer is cut in a certain way that means his journey in the film is slightly different to what we are lead to believe i don’t know but) this seems to be the case. He is being shown the other dimensions (in the comic less knowingly so).

Issue #5 – Sanctum Santorum window

Now i know that the window in the Sanctum Santorum is often told to be this shape (the seal of Vishanti) but i thought the position of the window and the light glowing through onto the floor was particularly close to how it seems to be portrayed in the film from what we have seen so far. Also, i’m not sure it’s very clear in my picture from the comic but the textures on the floor he is sitting on (which are replicated in the walls surrounding him as well) have a liking to those seen in the last shot of the trailer.

Issue #5 – “teach me”

I love that trailer shot. “WILLLSSSSSONNNNNNNN”

These moment just rang together with me for some reason. I guess it’s the sort of almost begging position and word usage.

(Also it doesn’t have a bullet point of it’s own but the line in the trailer “there are other ways to save lives” range a bell with me whilst reading this as it seems to become quite a strong theme in his recruitment and training).

Issue #5 – flying trip

This one sort of merges with the forehead window from earlier. I know in the comic it is more his astral projection and not his physical self but in some way or another he is sent blasting into flight as part of his training and experiences of the wider world.

Issue #5 – Astral projection glow

Now i know whatever way the film went to interpret this astral projection it was always going to be a sort of out of body ghost-y type thing but i couldn’t help but notice both here have gone for the slightly yellow glow. Though comic Stephen seems to lose his clothes. That’s unfortunate. Have fun fighting astral Mordo like that!

Issue #6 – Shapes of spells

I’ve absolutely adored the idea of this magical circle pattern ever seen i saw these photos released for the film so seeing his magic represented like this in this comic series caught my eye immediately. A really gorgeous visual that i hope we see more of when the film comes out.

Bonus – The Ancient One in yellow

Now i’ll keep this as vague as possible but for anyone who witnessed any photos/grainy video footage of some filming taking place in London a little while ago, you’ll know there was some speculation over an unidentified figure who seemed to be in yellow. I saw the Ancient One mentioned among the possibilities and if they have indeed been drawing any kind of visual comparisons from this series it’s certainly fairly likely. You can see in the picture above too The Ancient One is wearing a yellow suit. Very much his colour scheme throughout this set of comics. Though we’ve not seen that from the trailer footage yet.

Bonus #2

There’s no comparisons being made here it just amused me that they suddenly went a bit Star Wars!

Preparing for the Apocalypse

So ahead of X Men Apocalypse coming soon i have finally watched First Class and Days of Future Past.

First Class to start with! I really enjoyed it. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender are a great fit for the younger McKellen and Stewart!

Erik is such a confusing character. I find it quite difficult to see him as a proper baddie because he’s not really. He’s just not the best ideas of how to deal with things, but does want to protect mutants. I had the same problem with Ian McKellen’s version. I can’t help but like him a bit. Also seeing his back story in this film just reinforced that further. I mean I’m not into murder being a good thing but the way he got back at Shaw in the end – cheering at my TV! Bloody brilliant.

Interesting to see Mystique (sp?) being Charles’ good friend knowing it flips to her siding with Erik in the later set versions. Seems through Days of Future Past she’s still a bit between the two of them. Let’s see how Apocalypse goes.

I wish i remembered more about the cold war and cuban missile crisis from my GCSE history days as i felt a bit muddled up at times but it made for an interesting setting and i like how it shows mutants being part of everyday life and history we know.

One of my favourite moments was meeting Hank. Realising he wasn’t scary furry blue man yet so when he was suggesting an experimental drug i though…well Hank…think we all know how this is going to go buddy.

Also A+ cameo from a never aging Hugh Jackman…but i suppose that ability of his is explained.

Speaking of! Days of Future Past.

Well this was a fun one! Fantastic way to bring both generations of Erik and Charles together! All very dramatic. That speedy kid who sits around playing games is that the same fella from Avengers: Age of Ultron? Friends with Scarlet Witch? Quicksilver is it? He’s been doubled up a bit there.

I spent most of this film thinking “ERIK..WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!” We just never know what is going on inside his head. You think he wants one thing then he changes his mind. Yes, we need to get rid of Raven so she doesn’t kill that guy that leads to the destruction of all mutants. General plan seems to be…don’t let people see mutants as dangerous. No..Erik has a better idea…make them see mutants as so dangerous that they’re a massive threat. HOW IS THAT HELPING ERIK?! The only side he’s on is his own.

Final thing, cleverly done X-Men folk. Zooming back into the past and treading on a few butterflies..what a way to pretty much wipe out the original X-Men trilogy. Or at least any fatalities. Excited to see where it all goes.

You’re making me angry

I saw that Ang Lee’s Hulk with Eric Bana (from 2003) was on TV so i thought i might as well continue my Marvel education.

I’d heard it wasn’t brilliant…so thought I’d see for myself.

I didn’t think it was THAT bad. I thought the whole Hulk thing was pretty cool..as in the whole CGI-ness and things i thought that was really well done. The huge flying-leaping thing was a bit odd but i got into it after a while. In hindsight I’m impressed with how the story all fit together like a puzzle throughout but this did make watching it for the first time a little confusing. I wasn’t sure if i was supposed to understand what had happened or whether we’d find out later (which we did). I remember thinking the same with one or two of the Iron Man films.

It was probably longer than it needed to be. I recorded it on TV and zoomed through the adverts and it was still super long. It probably would have been half the length if there hasn’t been so many elongated shots of characters staring at eachother and random shots of moss. I understand the theme they were going for but all the messed up animals didn’t sit well with me personally. I know it’s not real but man, i don’t want to see animal testing and psycho dogs.

What i did like is that it was the origin story. I’ve seen Edward Norton’s Hulk which seems to kick off almost where Eric Bana’s finishes but…still does a really similar story-line with Betty. The origin was sort of glossed over there which i can understand, especially since this film was only made 5 years previous.

Still a shame Mark Ruffalo didn’t get his own Hulk film as i personally think he’s the best one but i don’t really think it could be justified at this stage. They’ll probably make it before they make a Black Widow film though *grump*.

So i didn’t dislike the film..but it certainly wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever seen. I feel it had a lot of potential but directional choices maybe let it down. It was all so dark! Could hardly see a thing in some important moments and everyone was so intense they were either staring at eachother or were right up in each other’s faces harshly whispering.

Also i love Eric Bana he’s a great actor  (see the 2009 Stat Trek film and Troy..especially Troy..he’s magic in that) but that really didn’t show in this film. It didn’t really show with anybody. I mean I’m no film director but there was a lot of me thinking “really? You couldn’t get any more emotion out of that scene?”

Anyway. I’m back onto X-Men now and I’ve watched First Class, but I’ll wait until I’ve seen Days of Future Past and blog about them together maybe!

“It’s the weird ones who change the world”

Okay, it’s time for: Jess attempts comics.

Comic experts, you are allowed to judge me and laugh at me all you want but let’s face it we’ve all got to start somewhere. I found i do have a comic shop fairly locally to my huge surprise (being in England..they’re not super regular) but i don’t half feel awkward in there. It’s absolutely STUFFED full with the things i was just immediately overwhelmed. It’s quite small so there’s not usually lots of people in there and if there is everyone else seems to know what they’re talking about and i just walk in like a deer in headlights.

I have a “Forbidden Planet” somewhat local-ish, which i’m much less awkward in. (I say that, being the only one in the shop with 3 guys behind the till and trying to buy my first comic and not feel totally scrutinized – not by anything they actually did..just stuff i made up in my head – was a bit awkward…but generally i skip around that shop). But it’s not somewhere i can just go whenever i want…well..not as the agoraphobic i am!

So anyway, i decided after being far too anal to just randomly dive in but also finding it practically impossible to navigate my way through things for where to start..i decided i’m definitely going to have to go by character.

So…this is where my ignorance comes into full flow…there are…a few sort of “reboots” going on at the moment? Anyway through the grape vine i heard among those there was a new Doctor Strange. Knowing i would want to watch that film when it came out is what made me start up watching the Marvel films that had always seemed to pass me by, so i thought…why not start with him! (YES OKAY Benedict Cumberbatch is in it that’s why i know more about it but if you want the argument about watching things just because someone is in it i will give it to you and i will win).

ANYWAY i’m really going a bit ‘here’s my life story’ on this. Basically i bought the first issue of the new Doctor Strange comic.

Now, as i say, i don’t know the first thing about comics really. I’ve been flapping about that ever since i decided i was going to start reading, and being in my local comic shop and hearing the guy say it was very good (before a lengthy discussion on changing facial hair), and also a man behind the till in Forbidden Planet say they “nailed it” i thought, okay it seems to be pleasing comic enthusiasts (i know..based on passing comments of 2 strangers).

So i’m sat around thinking…should i really write about this because what do i know? how do i judge it properly?

But then i realised…there is no “properly”. If i enjoy it i enjoy it. Just because it’s something so big and established that i’m new to, doesn’t mean i can enjoy it any less..maybe on a different level but there’s a first time for everything!

I seem to be spending most of this post trying to justify my enjoyment of things to be fully accepted into this realm of the nerd kingdom even though i know how unnecessary that is but you know when a fandom culture is just so big and beautiful it’s like “i’m sorry for stepping on your toes with my ignorance”. Like, give me Lord of the Rings or something and i’m like “BRING IT THIS IS MY JAM” but something else like….i only saw the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time this year and i’ve just seen them the once and i don’t know everything about it and i feel like the ultimate nerd taboo if i try and talk about it like i know anything of any significance at all.

Finally, over 500 words into the blog post i’m finally talking about the actual comic, i REALLY enjoyed it! It brought across Dr Strange’s personality immediately, really laugh out loud sassy comments. He’s quite Iron Man (see i’m making connections i can do this) in the sort of “woah crazy danger this is my normal tuesday bro oops i’m swallowed by an angry thing *LE SLASH* i win ohh a sexy lady”, really fun.

But! I was also surprised at the range of emotions they got going in such a short space. I can see this theme they’ve been hinting at where they’re going to be very much about the consequences of his magic powers and things. There’s some rather deep moments like all the monsters living inside us etc. Also tension! As is the way to make you buy the next issue of course “ohhh what’s going to happen next!!” i really felt that. Very exciting, really enjoyed reading it and looking forward to the rest.

Sounds like i’ve hardly mentioned anything about it but comics aren’t the longest of…erm…features? Is that the word i want? And i don’t want to spoil the entire thing by mentioning it all but there’s some fabulous moments and i used my favourite quote as the title!

Before i bought this, this week, i got my hands on “Essential Doctor Strange Vol. 1” which i stumbled across super cheap and since it bundles together about 60 comics which all feature Dr Strange (i think there’s 4 volumes in total..not sure how far it goes though). I’ve been reading those too and have got through about 6 or 7 so far.

Now i know these were written in the 50’s or something and so far they’ve certainly got this “we’re just starting out with this guy” element to them but they’re a lot of fun. Plus if the development of the character is heading towards the way he is in the reboot issue then i’m definitely on board!

I’ll stop waffling now. But i’ll be back attempting more comic lingo soon! I hope my newbie-ness was at least somewhat entertaining.

Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?

Ant-Man!

So now i’m up to date with Marvel films i suddenly realised i have to keep going! Such a hardship right? Finally saw Ant-Man. For a while i was like “Ant-Man? okay that sounds a bit different…interesting to see how they’ll make a tiny guy a big hero” but i heard so so many good things about it after people went to see it, that it made me excited to finally get to it.

It certainly did not disappoint! I’d heard it was a fun film and it really was!

I’m starting to think Stan Lee was like…a guy with general life problems who accidentally stumbled upon a super-power and had a mentor with an old student that used to be the best ever but they got too big for their boots and went rogue and now they’re evil and he had to learn everything super quick and be the good guy whilst finding a mysterious and bad-ass girl to get together with….

*grin* i’m not complaining! He seems to like those sort of story-lines but they’re so classic superhero and i love it! And it’s formed other great stories like, you know….Kung Fu Panda. (Seriously i was reading up on Doctor Strange and dude that is so Kung Fu Panda but he’s a doctor in a car crash instead of a bear selling noodles with a duck for a dad).

Anyway! Ant-Man! As i was saying…i was interested to see how they would get this guy into being a superhero but it totally worked! Some really clever new (but not crazy enough to seem completely unrealistic) technology and a fun story-line to go with it. It was nice to have a sort of “regular joe” character back again. I mean i know he was a super thief but the story-line with his daughter and things, it’s like Spiderman – nice to have an ordinary guy become extraordinary.

Exciting to see some hints at the idea of the “multi-dimensional” thing they had going on. I imagine that will be appearing again. So great to see Falcon again, i love that guy. Also loved the comedy side of things, getting it into big moments without taking away from anything and showing that as cool as this tiny super-hero is…if we zoom out and put things in context it can look pretty funny. As is great with Marvel movies they don’t take themselves too seriously. The entire audience in my screening was in stitches at the Thomas the Tank enlarging bit. Brilliant.

Also…Anthony. I mean. I can’t even go there.

Ace cast! As is pretty much always the way with these things. I adore Paul Rudd and i’m so glad he’s in a good film. That sounds awfully high-horse of me, but i first saw him in “Friends” and he’s such a brilliant actor but he seems to mostly be in a lot of films centred around embarrassment or crude humour and they’re not something i enjoy very much personally.

Michael Pena (apologies for not getting the little line over the letter…British keyboards eh!), fun to see him. I was worried he’d get a bit too cheesy but the humour worked pretty well. I find it quite hard to take him seriously because things i have seen him in have been a bit odd like ‘The Calcium Kid’ starring Orlando Bloom. It’s okay if you haven’t seen that…you’re probably better off. He was pretty serious in ‘World Trade Center’ (which i studied at school so i’m already trying to forget it fairly quickly) but an hour and a half of talking to Nicholas Cage under some rubble isn’t really something that wants to stay with me.

Plus Evangeline Lily! She’s always cool. I really love her as a person she’s got a glow of “sassy, smart, nerdy and proud” about her and i adore that. She’ll be a fun addition to the universe!

Marvel Madness

So! Finally i get to write this post! Over the past few weeks i’ve been delving into the Marvel universe for the first time!

Well..that’s sort of a lie. I have seen the Spiderman films with Tobey McGuire which i adore (except the 3rd one…i mean..just why), i have seen the first Amazing Spiderman (i shall hopefully watch the second one soon) and the first 3 X-Men films, which I really need to re-watch. Plus First Class and all that jazz I’ve not seen. Anyway.

So i set about watching them in the order of release date because given a few of the interlocking story-lines at times i figured it would be sensible. Like i did when i watched a bunch of films for the Oscars, i wrote down my thoughts at the time so i can give a few quick fire thoughts now! I’ll list them in their order/the order i watched them.

Iron Man: Loved it! Super fun! Fun introduction to the tone of the films. I was fairly familiar with names and faces and things (happens if you’re on the internet long enough and everyone has seen these films except you) but stories not so much so it was still new to me! Lots of laughs, good story. Love a good origin story. There was lots of moments where i was like “woah that’s cool!”. Thought Pepper was quite a sort of typical comic book girl but it’s all fun! (also i know better now i’ve seen the other films).

The Incredible Hulk: Rather cheesy, but what superhero movie doesn’t have that! I zoned out a bit during all the dark monster smashing but overall i quite enjoyed it! It was interesting that they didn’t address the “becoming of” …well they did in a sort of mini-movie montage at the beginning…but more the “dealing with” which i think was probably a good move for this character. I knew Edward Norton didn’t carry on into The Avengers but i thought he was good! I think my favourite part was when he’d just been hit by gun blast after gun blast and explosions and helicopters had crashed into him and exploded and then 2 minutes later he bumped his head on the side of a cave and was really bothered by it!

Iron Man 2: Fun! Was a bit confused as to what to happening for a while i had to pause and check with somebody that i was understanding what was going on because i was too busy trying to figure things out than watching at some points! But yes i enjoyed it! Will take this opportunity to say looking out for Stan Lee’s cameos in all of these films has been a highlight! The after credits scene made me really excited this time haha! Shows i was getting into it at least!

Thor: Super cheesy but lots of fun! Lots of laughs! Enjoyed understanding the fun references to Hulk and Stark! I really like the whole Thor sort of world with Odin and Loki etc. I do remember saying at one point “HELL YEAH THOR IS THE COOLEST!” And hey! Hawk-Eye nice to meet you! Fun cast too! Love Stellan Skarsgard.

Captain America: Aw i loved it! Some rather gratuitous fighting at times but that’s what superhero films are for right? AWESOME cast! Think they have every actor in the world in this film! I adore Hugo Weaving and he was fab, kinda looked like the spawn of Darth Maul and The Mask. Really love Cap’s story, the whole history aspect to it! Interesting!

The Avengers: My exact quote here is “WOOOO! That was fun!! Hilarious and awesome all in one. Lovin’ it”. It’s possibly my favourite of all the films i watched i’m certainly looking forward to the second one out next month! Now i think about it i should really watch the trailers for that! The writing for this film was fantastic so much fun and such good banter! I really see why everyone adores Coulson too! He’s such a cute Captain America fan! Also i think my favourite moment of his was in..possibly the first Iron Man when he attaches an explosive to a door and turns his back to it with a proper little gangster pose while it detonates.

Iron Man 3: Poor Tony..it was a bit ‘destroy everything he has and send him out into the cold’ this film. Same issue as with Iron Man 2 the plot doesn’t really make sense until about three quarters of the way through so i spent quite a lot of time a bit confused but i still enjoyed it. The twists were fun!

Thor 2: Okay this is up there with The Avengers. I really loved this. I’m not even sure why i loved it so much! I just got so into it, so much fun and lots of twists and turns. I spent quite a lot of time shouting at Loki with a mixture of love and frustration. I’ll say it again, i really love the whole Thor universe. I hope they do a third one soon.

Captain America 2: Had heard good things about this one! Again i really enjoyed it. Had some points where i was a bit confused again but it was a really interesting story and i caught on eventually. Also…so….when is Black Widow getting a film? She’s ace.

Guardians of the Galaxy: I did enjoy this, it was a lot of fun. I sort of likened it to if i had watched The Avengers without watching the other films before it. I’d have enjoyed it and it would have been fun but i wouldn’t have cared about the characters as much. I think for this film there were a lot of characters and stories to take in in a short space of time and by the time you’d decided who you could and couldn’t trust you were half way through. I got more into it towards the end though. Plus i really loved Groot. What an epic cast too!! Lee Pace being awesomely evil and Karen Gillan was pretty freaky too!