Triumph Division, National Superheroes, and Cultural Identity

A few years back, in Invincible Iron Man #2, Matt Fraction introduced a superteam called Triumph Division, based out of the Phillipines.  Because they were a plot device masquerading as a team, they were blown up within something like three pages.  This didn't go over so well with folks, given that they were the first and only Filipino team from either major publisher, but their legacy counterparts showed up later and still occasionally appear in a Marvel book here and there.  That "disposable team of heroes" plot device isn't the thing I wanted to talk about today, though. It was the reaction to the characters themselves; namely the complaints that the characters weren't Filipino enough.

Not pictured: Pacman

A Personal Request

Hey, folks.  This isn't going to be a particularly interesting post for most of y'all, so I apologize in advance.  

I need a favor.

If any of you know someone who works at Marvel, or if you know someone who knows someone, I'd really appreciate it if you could help me get in contact with them.  While this is business-related, it's not about me pitching a book to them, or trying to get in as a writer/artist/editor/etc.  It's far more on the dull, dry, business end of things, but I think it could be something that ends up being very profitable for Marvel and ends up helping the industry as a whole.  I can't go into a lot more detail than that, I'm afraid.  Anyways, if y'all can help out, I'd appreciate it.  Thanks.

When Heroes Were Heroes Again... For A While

There was a great post by John Seavey over at Mighty God King on Monday about Marvel's 'Onslaught' event and how it was, in a lot of ways, the beginning of the end for the extreeeme era of comics. In it, Seavey mentions the great Marvel comics that came after Onslaught and Heroes Reborn, and it got me to thinking, once again, about how close we were to having comics that were really about heroes again. It's a shame it didn't take.

How To Make A Black Panther Movie

Black Panther is one of those characters that should be a slam dunk for a movie.  To borrow from MovieBob, BP is most easily described as "You ever seen Coming to America?  Black Panther is that guy, if he was also Batman."  It's a great, easy to understand concept that lends itself to a ton of different stories.  Unfortunately, it's also a concept that's incredibly easy to screw up and piss off one or more large groups of potential viewers.

Lazy Link Monday

I won't make a habit of this, but I was putting something together for today's post, and then I stumbled across Chris Sims' Superman / Batman pitch, and I can't really imagine I'll come up with anything better today.  Go have a good laugh, and I'll have something a little meatier for you on Wednesday.

Story In The New 52 and Marvel NOW!

As part of a project I'm working on, I've been reading through all of the trade paperbacks for Marvel NOW! and DC's New 52 that I can get my hands on.  I haven't made more than a dent in the overall stack, which is enough to fill a single shelf.  However, I am done with all of the number 1 collections for Marvel and most of them for DC, and I've found an interesting difference in the stories that each company has chosen to tell: Marvel is mostly telling different stories with familiar characters, and DC is telling familiar stories with new characters.

How Deep Are The Marvel and DC Movie Benches?

Welcome back to the laziest comics blog on the internet, Comic Book Hoedown!

Unveiled at the San Diego Comic Con, Superman / Batman is supposed to be the next movie from DC, with the idea that they will eventually make Flash, Wonder Woman, and Justice League movies.  They've announced that Superman / Batman will be at least a little bit of a versus movie, which leaves me kind of cold. I'm sure teenaged me would slap adult me for saying that, but, hey, tastes change. However, all of the coverage and speculation about which movies are going to come from the two big comics companies got me to thinking: how many properties do they actually have that can be made into successful movies?