Con-Man: Comikaze aka Stan Lee's Los Angeles Comic Con

Los Angeles' homegrown con Comikaze underwent a name change this year to Stan Lee's Los Angeles Comic Con. It was a bit confusing but also made sense and putting the man's branding in the title didn't hurt either. With an estimated 70,000 attendees last year, SLLACC(?) welcomed guests Lee, Rob Liefeld, Alan Tudyk and Mike Colter along with hundreds of vendors and artists over a rainy weekend. After being split up into two halls last year, Comikaze was back in the main hall with the Hot Topic stage anchoring one side where speakers and contests rolled out. Across the floor you had Funko, Loot Crate and Nerdist along with a noticeable presence from Legion M, a crowd funded entertainment outfit dedicated to creating genre friendly content where you could pitch your ideas.

Toys and comics aplenty, I picked up a few graphic novels featuring Captain America Duke from G.I. Joe along with some tee shirts but sadly saw no one hocking old issues of Cinefantastique. We ran into our usual con-rades at their booth selling action figures and talked how nice it was being back in one hall after having to walk back and forth last year. There was a full size Power Loader from Aliens with cast members signing at tables not far away. After the massive success of Deadpool it was no surprise that Rob Liefeld had a huge line while we spotted Casper Van Dien, Lee and Adam West at their respective tables. Nostalgia hit hard seeing some old G.I. Joe vehicles including the massive Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Flagg in a display case. Nerdist had some nifty converted pinball machines via coffee tables that ran several grand. Artist Alley was packed to the gills and we were too late to grab the metallic Funko of Colossus from Hot Topic or the funny Pokemon themed shirt from the merch booth.

Cosplay wise there was lots of Star Wars and a surprising amount of Ghostbusters. Neegan from Walking Dead was EVERYWHERE, including on children which is kinda weird if you think about it. There was one Jack Frost, multiple folks in onesie/kigurumi's and a badass duo in full Spawn and Violator outfits. Makes me want to watch the movie and see if the unrated version is any less clunky than what I saw in theaters in the 90's. All in a fun day downtown and great to have the show all in one area again. It seems like the family business is doing well with crossover nights at Dodger Stadium, movie theaters and dance clubs becoming more and more frequent so here's to next year's Stan Lee's Los Angeles Comic Con proper.

Con-Man: October Wind Down

There's only two shows on my convention radar this October, the Twin Galaxies Entertainment Festival starting this Friday, 10.2 through Sunday 10.4 and Comikaze Expo 10.30 - 11.1. Twin Galaxies takes place out in Banning, towards Riverside at the Museum of Pinball, a private gaming facility only open to the public a few times a year. Over 800 retro and modern arcade and pinball machines will be set to free play along with live music, guests, exhibitors, food trucks, tournaments and more! We'll be attending on Friday where freeplay goes from 2:00 PM to Midnight then you've got the Intellivision Decathlon, Pac-Man Tournament, An Hour with designer and programmer Warren Davis, musical performances by Digital Lizards of Doom and DJ Ken and a panel with World Record Holders. A stone's throw from the Morongo Casino and Resort along with a couple of outlet malls should make for a fun weekend of gaming, prime rib, buffets, shopping and The Martian!

On Halloween weekend it's off to Downtown for the 5th annual Comikaze Expo, basically LA's biggest comic book flavored show. Guests of Honor include Stan Lee, Grant Morrison, Elvira, Sam J. Jones, William Shatner, Marc Silvestri and Mike Mignola alongside the likes of Casper van Dien, Walter Koenig, a bunch of Power Rangers and comic book staples such as Norm Rapmund, Arthur Adams, Livio Ramondelli and Tim Bradstreet. Attendance had steadily risen from a solid 35,000 attendees in 2011 to an estimated 65,000 in 2014. The exhibition floor and Artist Alley are always quite large here then you've got a couple dozen food trucks outside. You're also only a few steps from LA Live if you need to catch a flick or some Yard House to rest up.

Here's hoping Twin Galaxies has Alien VS Predator or G.I. Joe and I can find some collected Judge Dredd at Comikaze, see you at the shows!

Gotta See! Jack Kirby's Comic Book Apocalypse

It was a hot one on Saturday and we ventured into the red zone, traveling up to Northride and then Santa Clarita where temperatures broke triple digits. California State University Northridge is hosting Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby through October with a Panel Discussion happening on Saturday, September 26th at 1:00 PM. This past Saturday was a Public Reception with light refreshments and many a comic book creator in attendance to pay respects and check out the exhibit. There were a few ties and blazers but I opted for a badass shirt filled with Kirby art that several attendees appreciated. Kirby of course is one of the premiere names in comic books. Known for his exciting, action packed and cinematic visual style, the New York born and World War II serving artist would be hugely responsible for the success of of Captain America, the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Thor, the X-Men and many more. The exhibit was awesome with three rooms of art, sketches and photos from each era of Kirby's career. Giant banners showcased Darkseid and The Silver Surfer while original comic issues showed off cover art. With Stan Lee, Kirby co-created many of their flagship titles before jumping ship to DC Comics then moving on into television and film. I grew up on his macho and explosive work with Cap and other Marvel titles but seeing the exhibit made me realize I need to check out much more of his work, particularly New Gods. Good thing there's two decent sized comic shows coming up this fall. Until then, hail to the king, baby!

 

Straight Netflix'ing: Daredevil

Oh how time flies. It just seems like yesterday that Marvel and Netflix announced their joint venture to bring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist to the small screen. Daredevil shot in New York City between July and December of 2014 then premiered this past weekend with all 13 episodes dropping simultaneously. Early photos and teasers did little to boost confidence in the project as the black clad Charlie Cox seemed like not much of an update from Rex Smith's leotard from 1989's The Trial of the Incredible Hulk. The red suit kept being teased an on the eve of the premiere we got a glimpse of it's tactical and practical motif. Having been a fan of Daredevil in comics, in the Hulk TV movie and Ben Affleck's film version, I was pumped to do some straight Netflix'ing this weekend to see how things turned out. Marvel isn't dumb and Netflix routinely puts out superb original content so I was interested to see if they'd give audiences a slow burn crime drama disguised as a superhero show or a fast paced action hour that took itself a little too seriously.

Seven episodes in and it's great. A nice mix of humor, drama and action. Basically we follow the Daredevil mythos set up by Stan Lee and Bill Everett along with Jack Kirby from 1964. Young Matt Murdock pushes an old man out of the path of a runaway truck carrying toxic waste. The truck crashes, containers open and spill radioactive waste on young Matt who is blinded but gains hyper sensory and "radar" sense. His boxer father "Battling" Jack Murdock pushes his son to use his brains instead of his brawn and after not throwing a fight, Jack is killed, leaving young Matt all alone. Cut to today and Matt is a lawyer along with buddy Foggy Nelson and the duo have opened a law firm to represent those who can't afford expensive legal teams. By night Matt fights thugs and organized crime to save his city, working his way up to Wilson Fisk; a giant of a man looking to save Hell's Kitchen in just a totally opposite fashion than Matt. We see Matt as a bit of an eager pup who has a lot to learn about criminals, being a vigilante and taking on several highly organized crime syndicates more or less all at once.

The interactions between young Matt Murdock (Skylar Gaertner) and Jack (John Patrick Hayden) are particularly effective early on as "bum" Jack does everything in his power to take care of his son. Even at the detriment to his own life. Charlie Cox as the adult Matt is excellent as well; calm, odd and debonair with a lean yet beefy physique that looks capable of running around town fighting badguys but still able to hide under a suit and tie.  Grown up Mighty Duck Elden Henson does a nice job of playing his less handsome and dashing friend and partner Foggy who half wants to go for the money but realizes helping others is important too. Vincent D'Onofrio's take on Wilson Fisk aka the Kingpin is a little sad yet menacing as we meet him in the surprising set up of a romantic relationship before watching him explode into mega violence on some gangsters. Deborah Ann Woll does a fine job as would be victim Karen Page who becomes Matt and Foggy's secretary and love interest while launching her own investigations on the side. It's nice to see Vondie Curtis-Hall (Die Hard 2, Broken Arrow) as tired but determined reporter Ben Urich but the biggest surprise for me was Scott Glenn (Vertical Limit, The Right Stuff, Backdraft) as ninja/teacher/mentor Stick. Showing up in episode 7, Stick is like an amped up version of Rutger Hauer from Blind Fury mixed with Sam Elliott from Roadhouse. He's a blind badass who kicks, flips and sword fights while imploring Matt to cut loose of friends and comforts to fight the war on crime that only a few in society can.

Action is pretty top notch in the show with a welcome use of wide angles and long shots showcasing something out of Oldboy mashing with The Raid. Only you get some flash and pizzazz in the forms of jump and spin kicks to go along with the brutality and cringe worthy injuries. Lots of falling through stuff and landing hard on the ground along with manipulated joints. I'm interested to see when the red suit comes in and his trademark billy clubs. There's 3 more shows lined up to follow DD with a possible 4th that combines them all. With Netflix not in the business of releasing view counts I guess we'll only know the show is a success when season 2 is announced. Now the question is do I push on through to finish the series or let it simmer for a few weeks and come back to? Ah #NetflixWorldProblems...

Gotta See(& Hear)! Laser Guardians @ Pacific Science Center

With Stan Lee's screening of The Avengers sold out, we found another fun Marvel evening event to partake in, a laser light show set to the soundtrack of this past summer's gargantuan hit, Guardians of the Galaxy. Taking place at the Pacific Science Center next to the Space Needle, the Laser Dome is credited as the largest and longest operated laser theater in the world. There was a line around the building but we got seats easy enough as many chose to just lie back on the floor and gaze. Our artists of the evening explained that the effects were done live, how that is, I have no clue.

With a puff of smoke and a dim of the lights, 45 minutes worth of colors, lights, swirls, squares, beams and animated space men, women, aliens and planets accompanied the hit soundtrack, Awesome Mix Tape Vol. 1 from the flick. The rocking, funky and weird rumblings of Blue Swede, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, The Runaways and Marvin Gaye among others made for an interesting listening party. Each song had a different laser motif going from patterns and moving parts to actual minimalist animation with a Powder Puff Girl looking character to a rocketship to the Earth passing the moon. One towards the end with straight lines to make triangles reminded me of Aliens when they cut down the door, scan the interior and find Ripley inside.

Located within walking distance of the Space Needle and Key Arena, the Pacific Science Center also had a Pompeii exhibit going on and the courtyard outside the laser dome was home to some cool dinosaur statues and the fins of killer whales coming at you in the beautiful clear water garden. Apparently they do these laser light shows pretty often so locals should definitely check it out. I could only think that this would go really well with the synth-rock 80's epic-ness of The Transformers: The Movie soundtrack cause you got The Touch if you Dare!

Con-Man: Comikaze 2014

Downtown Los Angeles was bumping this weekend with not only the premiere hometown Comics and Pop Culture convention Comikaze taking place over three days but new addition Hello Kitty Con kicked off Wednesday night.  Throw in Danny Elfman at the Nokia next door along with the plethora of usual goings on in Downtown and the strange renaissance/gentrification/hipstering of America's last remaining Skid Row continues.

Comikaze started at 9:00 AM Saturday morning so I figured a 10:00 AM arrival would equal an easily accessible convention.  I was wrong, a huge line wrapped around the convention center for peeps who had already bought their tickets but just needed to pick up their badges.  Once we actually got in, I was confused and annoyed to see no less than a dozen staff members waving signs for badge pick up as no one was in line.  Are we throttling crowds here or something?  It wasn't that hopping in the lobby yet and the floor wasn't bad either.  Not sure if it's just me but it seemed like there were less exhibitors this year so we more or less covered the floor looking at swag, comics and random cool stuff then making our way over to the main stage for a few of the presentations.  Right away, a dude from Food Network and company presented Stan Lee with a huge, Hulk statue of a cake then throughout the day Rob Liefeld along with cast members from Game of Thrones and True Blood took to the stage to talk shop.  Again, this is a nice idea but standing in a crowd of people for more than 20 minutes gets annoying as the sound isn't great, people don't fill in gaps then wave their arms around not minding their surroundings and being on your feet all day gets tiring.  Moderation wasn't great either as one host talked way too much about her opinion while another had no flow whatsoever and cut to some really awkward, in your face camera phone questions.

Purveyors of the video games you grew up with continue to grow at these shows, lots of them from Texas!  Apparently there's a physical museum in Frisco, a non-profit that preserves and archives video games along with it's inherent art, design, press and whatnot.  It's a trip to see N64's, Super Nintendos, Sega Genesis' and their cartridges for sale, don't we all have those in a box in the basement our mom threw out?  Funko Pop figures are still everywhere with just about every character you can imagine and I picked up a show exclusive of Captain America aka Steve Rogers in costume but without his mask. 

Speaking of Captain America, I still didn't find issue #14 from his current run returning from Dimension Z but I did pick up a stack of great mid-80's adventures by Mark Gruenwald and Paul Neary with some covers by Mike Zeck and John Bryne where Cap teams up with the likes of Hawkeye and D-Man to battle Super Patriot, Whirlwind, MODAK, Blue Streak, The Scourge and may others while riding around America on his motorcycle.  Sure I already have these in a box somewhere in Ohio but at .50 a pop, I just couldn't pass up the chance to revisit these great adventures.  Cap firing off with an Uzi on the cover of #321 is reason enough to grab a 2nd copy.  I don't tend to buy many comics in stores these days since I don't read anything regularly and you can usually find great deals at shows.  Take for instance the Frank Miller and Walter Simonson Robocop VS The Terminator series, I've been kicking the tires online and saw a collected edition at my local shop recently but picked up the single issues for cheap at the show.  Was nice to see Mile High Comics set up as I know their physical sales have gone down while online numbers have skyrocketed.

Around the floor you also had set ups for Stan Lee's Museum, Elvira's Spooky something or other, replicas of the Back to the Future Delorean, K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider, a smaller set up from Stan Winston's Studio than last year, some other costume and prop shops and a full row of Marvel guys like Cap, Thor, Iron Man and The Hulk from the movies.  Cosplay wise I was surprised to only see one female Loki as that's been a popular choice of late.  Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians was represented and strangely, Elliott from E.T. i.e. dudes wearing hoodies with fake bicycle baskets and handle bars attached to their stomach with the alien sticking out.  Points for creativity for sure.  Lots of guys from Call of Duty and one confirmed Jack Burton sighting.  Food wise, the convention center was surrounded by food trucks but all touted long lines.  Inside was worse as hot items like burgers, hot dogs and tacos were being slung out from single lines at all locations making for huge queues and waiting times.

To wrap up the day we checked out our only panel in a panel room, The Death of Superman Lives, What Happened?  I've been following John Schnep's quest to uncover what became of Tim Burton's big budget take on Superman in the mid-90's that was to star Nicolas Cage and had early drafts written by Kevin Smith then polished by J.J. Abrams and Nightcrawler's Dan Gilroy among others.  Thinking it would take about 8 months to craft a documentary, Schnep and crew are entering month eighteen.  It started late as Kevin Smith ran long, shocker, but the now non-bearded, non-sugar eating icon of movies, film and podcasts introduced the panel as the only real information the public had on Supes was from Smith's rant during a Q&A session years ago.  Smith talked about the feeling of failure from the dismal performance of Mallrats and being shit canned from Superman Lives once Tim Burton came on board.  Dogma co-star Chris Rock was to play Jimmy Olson while they couldn't film in certain parts of Pittsburgh due to them being earmarked for Superman shooting that never occurred.

Schnepp took the stage and explained the genesis of the piece, how he'd save every photo or article about the film then after a production video surfaced of a costume test surfaced on YouTube, the director decided to just go for it.  He's now interviewed most every major talent involved from director Tim Burton to the costume designer and special effects crew to concept artists and of course, writer Kevin Smith.  It looks like it's going be very cool and in depth as they screened an extended clip talking about a light up suit that was to be used for a 2 minute, rebirth/regeneration sequence where the beat to death Superman is brought back to life in an incubation chamber of wondrous technological and alien power.  Schnepp plans to release the film in early 2015 at cons like Emerald City, Wonder Con and of course, San Diego.

Overall a fun day at Comikaze but part of me feels like I'm getting too old for this shit between the crowds, lines and blah blah blah.  Maybe I'll just stick with Wonder Con and San Diego as the hassle is more than worth the experience.  Until then, it's Comics Arts Los Angeles then Phoenix Comicon next!

(Pre)Con-Man: Salt Lake Comic Con

Clicking around the ol' interwebs I came across the first guest announcement for Salt Lake Comic Con 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Back to the Future's Christopher Lloyd, Ghostbusters' Ernie Hudson and Brisco County, Jr. himself Bruce Campbell will anchor the show which debuted last year.  Apparently it was a big frigging deal too as it became the most attended first year convention in history with some 72,000 attendees showing up causing the Fire Marshall to only allow one entrant per one departure.  Their next show, the Salt Lake Comic Con FanX event drew 100,000 goers and received some heavy support via Governor Gary Herbert declaring a holiday in honor of the convention.  Their Facebook page has 95,000+ Likes making it the most popular Utah based page on the social network.

Salt Lake Comic Con seems to be a perfect example of the new breed of conventions, shows based around celebrity talent and selling autographs.  From there you can plan spotlights and reunion panels for said celebs along with any well known artists and writers in addition to the exhibition floor hocking comics, art and swag as well as Artist Alley where you can pick up sketches, buttons and all that good stuff.  Tickets are pretty reasonable with $60 bucks scoring you all 3 days of the show plus early entry to the floor and panels AND a free t-shirt!  2013's guest list included the likes of Adrian Paul, Burt Ward, Dean Cain, Henry Winkler?!, Manu Bennett, Scott Campbell and Stan Lee.  Last year's programming was a nice offering with panels on Anime, Fantasy Films, Cosplay, Copyright Law, JRR Tolkien, Harry Potter, Sci-Fi Dating, writing, directing and much more.  After 2013's stellar success, I can only imagine even bigger names showing up this year.  But surging attendance comes with massive growing pains as we witnessed at Seattle's Emerald City Comicon where the show took over the segmented convention center with some areas not easily accessible and a staff of unprepared volunteers who didn't know where to direct traffic.

But shows like Salt Lake are great because they're big enough with plenty of attractions to keep you busy but nothing unmissable so you can come and go as you please then go see the city a bit.  I've only spent enough time in Salt Lake to land, rent a car and drive to Park City so I'll be ready to take in some history and culture like the Olympic Park and Natural History Museum.  Since it's not until September there's still plenty of time to find the best Gotta Eat! and Drank! spots around.

Celebs, cosplay and celebrating:

Summer Cinema: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

While Summer doesn't officially begin until June 21st, the cinematic season started last weekend on Friday, May 2nd with the release of Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  If you'll recall, Sam Raimi had directed 3 chapters in the Spidey-verse with Tobey Maguire playing the brilliant but struggling and lovelorn genius Peter Parker and his radioactive spider bitten heroic alter ego Spider-Man.  After budgets continued to climb and quality lowered, plans for a 4th Raimi directed Spidey adventure were scrapped in favor of a reboot by 500 Days of Summer's Marc Webb that would allegedly put more focus on the awkward teen still reeling from the mysterious disappearance of his parents.  Coming in at a hefty $230 million, The Amazing Spider-Man wasn't a bad time at the movies, it just didn't seem that different from the 2002 version.  Instead of being a nerdy photographer, Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker is just more of a loner.  Not an emo or goth kid, not an outcast, just a kid who wears hoodies and rides a skateboard.  Which today, doesn't seem that odd.  Instead of the vivacious redhead Mary Jane, we get Parker's first love from the comics, Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone. 

Part 2 of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's comic creation adaptation starts out by delving further into the origins of Peter's father, Richard.  If I'm not mistaken, you don't hear much about his real parents in the comics, he's just with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben from the start.  But now, everything has to be connected with some grand threat and inherit legacy involved blah blah so Richard Parker is shown to be a scientist working for Norman Osborn who doesn't want his top secret work on regenerating spiders weaponized so he dumps young Peter with his relatives and goes on the run.  I don't know what it is that we have to explain everything about everyone these days as Man of Steel was arguably more about his two dads than it was about him.  Here, large chunks of the narrative hinge on Peter finding out what dad was up to.  Are our current heroes so bland their stories can't fill the runtime of their own movies?  Maybe the makers should consider trimming these movies down to 2 hours even so you could save a good 20 minutes from having to up the stakes at the cost of our protagonist.

Anywho, Spidey comes across overlooked, overworked and socially awkward Oscorp electrical engineer Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) who after a horrible accident at the office, harnesses the power of electricity and becomes Electro.  Meanwhile, childhood bud Harry Osborn comes back to the city to greet his dying father Norman and becomes obsessed with using Spider-Man's blood to find a cure for a disease he and his father share.  The opening of the film is quite fun with lots of wisecracking from Spider-Man but right away the movie lost me a bit because they have Spidey rescuing this person and that, his saving Max Dillon and showing him kindness is a story jump off point but then he just lets a rampaging semi run right into traffic causing what looks like horrific accidents.  I know they need to blow shit up to keep our attention but couldn't they at least had the truck driver escape the hero instead of just being let loose to cause havoc and innocent bystander deaths?

The flick moves at a nice clip and there's sweet, nearly saccharine scenes between Garfield's Parker and Stone's Stacy as they try to make their relationship work in the midst of going to college, Peter promising her dying father to leave his daughter alone and him being Spider-Man in general.  Everything is set up pretty quickly which is nice, you get a sense of the drama and issues and it's a jump off point for the story and action to come.  Simple beats of Foxx's put upon and lonely Dillon lead up to his wild outburst when he's granted super powers and wishing to be finally noticed while Harry Osborn quickly deals with his father's ailing health, taking over a $200 billion dollar empire, swimming with corporate sharks, having a friend in Peter and a suddenly fast moving flesh eating disease.  There are plenty of nods and straight giveaways to future cinematic Spider adventures with Doctor Octopus' arms, The Vulture's wings and a suit of armor for The Rhino as part of Oscorp's secret, military style division.

If you've read the books, you know that Gwen Stacy doesn't make it and Amazing Spider-Man 2 addresses that head on.  The scene came as a shock as I had forgotten that piece of Spidey's history.  It gives the film a bit of weight and I commend the filmmakers for having the balls to do that to such a major character played by a famous actress instead of just making everything work out fine in the end.  Divergent's Shailene Woodley shot scenes as future love interest Mary Jane but were cut so we'll see if she pops up in part 3.  Facing some stiff competition in the form of Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, Spidey 2 has taken a bit of a tumble at the box office and won't scale the financial heights of it's Sam Raimi helmed predecessors but is cleaning up overseas so more web slinging, city swinging, wise cracking, Spidey-sense tingling (only used once, lame) shenanigans should be on the way.

Paneled Goods: Batroc zee Leaper!

So who was that French speaking dude that Captain America mixes it up with in the opening scene of The Winter Soldier?  Why, that's Batroc zee Leaper!  A savate kickboxing mercenary who has been crossing paths with Cap since his introduction in 1966's Tales of Suspense # 75 from creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.  Back then, Captain America and Iron Man weren't popular enough for their own titles so they shared Suspense with each getting 10-12 pages of paneled adventure.  In their first meeting, Batroc is hired to steal Inferno 42, a high explosive strong enough to melt the entire city.  But when a nameless female Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. makes off with it, Batroc and Cap team up to retrieve it before it goes boom boom.  Batroc's introduction would include many of his character trademarks like his vicious kicking skills, mustache twirling, French accent, purple and yellow bodysuit and penchant for teaming up with Cap when something nefarious comes up.  The price for his services?  A cool $1 million bucks.  Oui!

Also in my collection is a two parter from 1980's # 251 and 252 by the incredible Captain America duo Roger Stern and John Bryne.  The two only teamed up for 9 issues but provided one of Cap's most memorable runs where he faces Machine Smith, Baron Von Strucker, Dragon Man, Batroc, Mr. Hyde, Baron Blood and even find time to update his origin while introducing his New York City apartment neighbors and love interest Bernie Rosenthal.  Here, Batroc is hired to break villain Mr. Hyde out of prison for $5 million smackers.  But Batroc almost chokes on his champagne when he realizes the offer was a bluff as Hyde plans to hold New York City herself hostage with a commandeered oil tanker turned device of mass explosion.  Again, Cap and Batroc team up to take on a bigger threat with Bats seemingly escaping until Cap runs into his escape boat with a submarine.  Non!


Next in my collection was one of Captain America's most fun runs, 1989's #357 - 362 by Mark Gruenwald and Kieron Dwyer.  "The Bloodstone Hunt" starts off with Batroc's crew breaking into a museum to steal the skeleton of a former caveman turned monster hunter via a strange alien stone.  Working with international killers Machete and Zaran, Batroc's team has been hired by Baron Zemo to find the fragments of the Bloodstone in an attempt to bring his dead father back to life.  Here, Batroc is up to his usual antics: jump kicking fools in the face and hitting on the women.  He craves recognition but not a paycheck as this job is only paying $10k for the bones or $100k for each of the 5 stones.  Looks like the economy in the 80's wasn't so hot.  This is basically Cap's version of being Indiana Jones as he jets around the world with female sidekick Diamondback from the jungle to the desert to the far east fighting mummies, Mayans, Japanese cooks and more.  The bromance continues as Cap saves Batroc's crew from human sacrificing Mayans while Batroc returns the favor and warns Cap that a shark is about to take a bite out of his Star-Spangled behind.  Yeah, they fight sharks too, like gentlemen.  When Zaran wonders if Batroc has a soft spot for the Avenger, Bats flying jump kicks his ass and reminds Zaran to never accuse him of being anything but a ladies man.  Ces't la vie!

The Way We Weren't: Jean-Claude Van Damme as Daredevil

On a hot summer day in 1994, Jean-Claude Van Damme hopped on a private jet in Burbank, CA and flew to San Diego for Comic-Con.  There, the self proclaimed fan of comic book heroes Spider-Man and Tintin greeted 2,000 waiting fans in an auditorium, answering questions and taking pictures of the crowd.  Afterwards, Van Damme met the press in a small conference to promote his two upcoming pictures, Timecop (newly announced to be rebooted) and Street Fighter (since rebooted).  Timecop would become one of Van Damme's biggest critical successes as well as his most lucrative.

Post presser, the Muscles From Brussels took to the convention floor where he created a small frenzy as fans recognized the cinematic hero of such 80's and 90's hits Bloodsport, Universal Soldier and Hard Target.  Van Damme was escorted to the Marvel Comics booth to meet the legend himself, Stan Lee, who along with artists like John Romita, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby created Daredevil, Spider-Man, The Hulk and The Fantastic Four among hundreds of others.



After an amiable introduction, Van Damme hoped to catch Stan Lee later to discuss a project he had in mind, a big screen adaptation of The Man Without Fear, Daredevil.  The Fred Astaire of Karate hoped to secure rights to the character with no upfront and points on the back end instead.  A friend doubted Lee would take no upfront but Van Damme confidently replied that someone else could pay, sit on it and not have it made while he could get it into production, turn it into a sensation and Lee would be happy to have the points.

As cinema has shown us, it took nearly a decade to get Daredevil on screen and the results, while entertaining, won't exactly go down in the history books as a success. In the 2003 version, Ben Affleck played the blind lawyer by day, masked and costumed avenger by night.  He's joined by a familiar supporting cast and rogues gallery from the comics; crime boss Kingpin, hyper accurate and insane assassin Bullseye, ninja trained love interest Electra and partner in the courtroom Foggy Nelson.  These roles are gamely filled by the likes of Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Garner and Jon Favreau.  It's a visual translation of the comics; dark, brooding and violent yet lacks any real depth.

What would Van Damme's version entail?  Who knows.  But I've always been intrigued by the notion of a comic book hero being played by an actor with the physical prowess and action credentials of 80's and 90's stars.  Guys like Van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren seemed tailor made to play superheroes because they were basically real life versions of them.  Physical, driven, multi-talented and intelligent types who took care of the job.

A mid-1990's Daredevil would have benefited greatly from the action directors working at the time.  Guys like James Cameron, Paul Verhoeven, Renny Harlin, Walter Hill, Andrew Davis, Roland Emmerich, John McTiernan and Jan De Bont all showed us intense, exciting, character driven action that didn't require wires or unbelievable CGI.

Physically, Wham Bam, Thank You Van Damme playing Daredevil would be no problem.  His acrobatic grace and powerful kicks would have worked beautifully for the martial arts centric Horned Hero.  But what about as secret identity Matt Murdock?  The blind, skirt chasing defense lawyer?  As we saw in Lionheart and Universal Soldier, Van Damme is fully capable of playing vulnerable and sensitive without appearing macho or threatening.  As for the skirt chaser aspect of Murdock, well, JCVD has never lacked charm for the ladies on screen so it wouldn't have been an issue.

Jean-Claude Van Damme playing Daredevil would have been a treat as straight forward superhero movies weren't exactly the norm in the 90's.  It might not have been the blockbuster of Batman or had the virtuoso touch of Dick Tracy but it could have definitely been a charged and entertaining time at the movies.

Here's Joe Carnahan's last minute effort to direct Daredevil for FOX before the rights lapsed: