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Is it Heresy?

Started by Westy Steve,

30 posts in this topic

Westy Steve

Westy Steve

Posted
Posted

I'm an old time collector. I've been around the block. I know my keys.

 

And yet...

 

Last night I was watching the new Thor movie, and I realized something:

 

I don't like off-world adventures.

 

Yes, it's true.

 

Growing up, I loved reading about Thor's adventures on earth, but found myself kind of bored when he took the rainbow bridge. Maybe that's why I liked him best in the Avengers. I tried to get into the Kree Skrull war, but when they got into out space, it kind of bored me. When Professor X started making love bunnies with Lilandra I was disappointed and found myself skimming the pages until we got back to earth. Freaky looking space ships do nothing for me. I loved Starlin art, but the stories themselves left me flat. For the record, the silver surfer is an exception, but maybe that's because he spends an awful lot of his time zipping around in our atmosphere.

 

Am I the only one that feels this way? I know that Thor is an alien to our world, but why does Marvel keep looking toward the stars for their movie plots? Aren't there enough bad guys here? Yes, I understand the logic... Importing aliens for the Avengers made for an epic, consequence-free battle, but I'd prefer all the battles to be home games whereever possible.

 

Maybe it has to do with the fact that I can identify with our heros, and imagine that I am them. But whenever they are offworld, it takes me out of it. I can't imagine myself as them. I'm not a space traveler (yet).

 

Maybe it's just me. I love my comic books, I really do. Does anyone else feel the same way?

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THE_BEYONDER

THE_BEYONDER

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Yes, I understand the logic... Importing aliens for the Avengers made for an epic, consequence-free battle, but I'd prefer all the battles to be home games whereever possible.

 

I think the consequence-free aspect is key. We don't really care when Dark Phoenix destroys an entire planet of aliens, but we're definitely paying attention when Galactus tries to devour earth.

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ComicConnoisseur

ComicConnoisseur

Posted
Posted
I'm an old time collector. I've been around the block. I know my keys.

 

And yet...

 

Last night I was watching the new Thor movie, and I realized something:

 

I don't like off-world adventures.

 

Yes, it's true.

 

Growing up, I loved reading about Thor's adventures on earth, but found myself kind of bored when he took the rainbow bridge. Maybe that's why I liked him best in the Avengers. I tried to get into the Kree Skrull war, but when they got into out space, it kind of bored me. When Professor X started making love bunnies with Lilandra I was disappointed and found myself skimming the pages until we got back to earth. Freaky looking space ships do nothing for me. I loved Starlin art, but the stories themselves left me flat. For the record, the silver surfer is an exception, but maybe that's because he spends an awful lot of his time zipping around in our atmosphere.

 

Am I the only one that feels this way? I know that Thor is an alien to our world, but why does Marvel keep looking toward the stars for their movie plots? Aren't there enough bad guys here? Yes, I understand the logic... Importing aliens for the Avengers made for an epic, consequence-free battle, but I'd prefer all the battles to be home games whereever possible.

 

Maybe it has to do with the fact that I can identify with our heros, and imagine that I am them. But whenever they are offworld, it takes me out of it. I can't imagine myself as them. I'm not a space traveler (yet).

 

Maybe it's just me. I love my comic books, I really do. Does anyone else feel the same way?

 

Who are the two most popular heroes from each respective companies Marvel and DC?

Spider-Man!

Batman!

Where do their adventures take place?

In modern day big cities that anyone can identify with.

In fact I think their styles are so well defined that this is what the majority now expect a superhero film or comic book to have.

If not they will be very disappointed. :o

Cases in point.

John Carter Warlord of Mars = People couldn`t relate to a character whose adventures took place on Mars. It bombed.

The Lone Ranger = People couldn`t relate to a character whose adventures

took place in the Old West. It bombed.

Yeah I think that your on to something in that if the characters don`t swing around in a big city there could be a chance that most of the superhero audience won`t relate.

I don`t know if this is an overall good or bad thing. hm

I would worry about stagnation of superhero movies.

There is a new Star Wars franchise looming over the horizon that could switch the mainstream audience away from superheroes and back to outer space adventures.

Either way it should be fun.

:cloud9:

 

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Westy Steve

Westy Steve

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Hmmm...I did like Star Wars. Maybe because that movie played out like a pirate movie, and the setting was so unimportant to the story. I mean, it wasn't like the 2001 Space Oddesy where outer space was the main thing...the setting was kind of secondary...like one kingdom vs. another. Also, all of the important people, or people who got killed to evoke an emotional response were human. Leia's family and homeworld...all populated with humans. Bad guys were all British/Nazis or wearing masks.

 

I have to confess that one of my all time favorite movies was Starship Troopers. Maybe because the bad guys were all insects and the whole thing seemed to be filmed in Arizona. :)

 

 

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Davenport

Davenport

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While I'm old-time, been around and all that, I guess I'm the polar-opposite. Superheroes with godlike powers really shine off-world. My favorite tales are those galactic-scale epics that put characters through their paces.

 

It's like the main thing I crave from speculative fiction is to go places and see things I'd never see in the real-world. To be surprised and have my sense of wonder pushed.

 

While I'm mainly a DC fan, I actually had that reaction watching the new Thor movie. Right in the middle thinking 'my god, that Asgard architecture is phenomenal looking. Somebody went the extra-mile putting imagination to work.' . Totally unexpected, how much I enjoyed it.

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ComicConnoisseur

ComicConnoisseur

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While I'm old-time, been around and all that, I guess I'm the polar-opposite. Superheroes with godlike powers really shine off-world. My favorite tales are those galactic-scale epics that put characters through their paces.

 

It's like the main thing I crave from speculative fiction is to go places and see things I'd never see in the real-world. To be surprised and have my sense of wonder pushed.

While I'm mainly a DC fan, I actually had that reaction watching the new Thor movie. Right in the middle thinking 'my god, that Asgard architecture is phenomenal looking. Somebody went the extra-mile putting imagination to work.' . Totally unexpected, how much I enjoyed it.

One thing I liked about The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is that it took place in a whole different kind off universe. (thumbs u

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Davenport

Davenport

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While I'm old-time, been around and all that, I guess I'm the polar-opposite. Superheroes with godlike powers really shine off-world. My favorite tales are those galactic-scale epics that put characters through their paces.

 

It's like the main thing I crave from speculative fiction is to go places and see things I'd never see in the real-world. To be surprised and have my sense of wonder pushed.

While I'm mainly a DC fan, I actually had that reaction watching the new Thor movie. Right in the middle thinking 'my god, that Asgard architecture is phenomenal looking. Somebody went the extra-mile putting imagination to work.' . Totally unexpected, how much I enjoyed it.

One thing I liked about The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is that it took place in a whole different kind off universe. (thumbs u

Oh yeah. (thumbs u

 

It's just weird why we like what we like. Batman for instance. I have a harder time relating to a movie-Batman hang gliding around town in bat-armor than I do an animated-Batman facing off with Darkseid on Apokolipse. Go figure.

 

When it gets down to it (maybe) on 'my world' it harder to suspend dis-belief. Take me off-world I just can let go and fall fully into the story.

 

 

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Dr. Balls

Dr. Balls

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I kinda like off-world stories. I really enjoy the Riddick films especially because they are off-earth and they don't deal with Earthlings at all. I like that, and I'm really hoping GotG is going to be in that fashion.

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Ditch Fahrenheit

Ditch Fahrenheit

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I kinda like off-world stories. I really enjoy the Riddick films especially because they are off-earth and they don't deal with Earthlings at all. I like that, and I'm really hoping GotG is going to be in that fashion.

 

Me too. I enjoyed the last Riddick film much more than the critics. It fell into the same category, at least for me, as movies like 'Robinson Crusoe on Mars,' which is one of my favorites.

 

Off-world comic books and movies usually suffer from a lack of background and character development sufficient to make the story interesting because of the constraints of the medium. Books, on the other hand...

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Dr. Balls

Dr. Balls

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I kinda like off-world stories. I really enjoy the Riddick films especially because they are off-earth and they don't deal with Earthlings at all. I like that, and I'm really hoping GotG is going to be in that fashion.

 

Me too. I enjoyed the last Riddick film much more than the critics. It fell into the same category, at least for me, as movies like 'Robinson Crusoe on Mars,' which is one of my favorites.

 

Off-world comic books and movies usually suffer from a lack of background and character development sufficient to make the story interesting because of the constraints of the medium. Books, on the other hand...

 

One of the things I find in off-world comics that they continually have a challenge with is that they feel they have to go overboard on the exposition about the place they are at or the mechanics of life in a different solar system - and character development suffers.

 

One of the great things about the Riddick films is that it just drops you into the film and they don't get bogged down with endless details about where he's at, etc - they just anticipate your ability to adapt to the story as a scifi fan.

 

I wish more comics took that approach - the past Infinity crossover was a huge, overwrought mess that had a huge amount of detail, backstory, and other needlessly complicated reasonings to it that eventually bogged down the entire story.

 

My wife and I watch Sleepy Hollow and Almost Human. Sleepy Hollow is barely watchable for us now because they feel the need to explain everything. Almost Human is a great scifi show because they don't explain every detail of everything going on - it's more fun to let the characters unfold naturally than to tell the audience what they should think the characters should be like.

 

Anyways, I'm babbling - but the point is that there is definitely a right way and wrong way to do off-world scifi stories for the audience to really be receptive to the characters.

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Davenport

Davenport

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+1

 

A lot of network series have trouble with that ol' 'never talk down to your audience' truism. They just don't trust their audience will 'get it' and feel that need to spoon-feed.

 

Having revelations sprinkled through out the viewing, letting a story naturally unfold, is half the fun.

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Ditch Fahrenheit

Ditch Fahrenheit

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I kinda like off-world stories. I really enjoy the Riddick films especially because they are off-earth and they don't deal with Earthlings at all. I like that, and I'm really hoping GotG is going to be in that fashion.

 

Me too. I enjoyed the last Riddick film much more than the critics. It fell into the same category, at least for me, as movies like 'Robinson Crusoe on Mars,' which is one of my favorites.

 

Off-world comic books and movies usually suffer from a lack of background and character development sufficient to make the story interesting because of the constraints of the medium. Books, on the other hand...

 

One of the things I find in off-world comics that they continually have a challenge with is that they feel they have to go overboard on the exposition about the place they are at or the mechanics of life in a different solar system - and character development suffers.

 

One of the great things about the Riddick films is that it just drops you into the film and they don't get bogged down with endless details about where he's at, etc - they just anticipate your ability to adapt to the story as a scifi fan.

 

I wish more comics took that approach - the past Infinity crossover was a huge, overwrought mess that had a huge amount of detail, backstory, and other needlessly complicated reasonings to it that eventually bogged down the entire story.

 

My wife and I watch Sleepy Hollow and Almost Human. Sleepy Hollow is barely watchable for us now because they feel the need to explain everything. Almost Human is a great scifi show because they don't explain every detail of everything going on - it's more fun to let the characters unfold naturally than to tell the audience what they should think the characters should be like.

 

Anyways, I'm babbling - but the point is that there is definitely a right way and wrong way to do off-world scifi stories for the audience to really be receptive to the characters.

 

I'm a big fan of 'Almost Human.' I didn't like the teasers, but after I started watching I immediately loved it. And yeah, the episodes build on each other and get better and better. The relationship between Kennex and Dorian is one of the high points of the show. I also like that Kennex is a throwback to the old-world definition of a male...more Dirty Harry than Glee. :D

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InvstmntComcSuply

InvstmntComcSuply

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One of the things I find in off-world comics that they continually have a challenge with is that they feel they have to go overboard on the exposition about the place they are at or the mechanics of life in a different solar system - and character development suffers.

 

I recently read Ender's Game and came away disappointed due to this. I had come to expect far more, after the hype.

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