I think the Pixar animators can do a great job but I'm also worried that the rights to John Carter, an out of copyright character, will be locked up by Disney, just like Tarzan was.
Last Sunday, I watched coverage of the Phoenix land on Mars. I’m happy that it landed safely and that the mission has been such a success so far. It was fun to see the crew get so excited by the whole process. The Phoenix also made me think that if we’re going to waste billions of tax dollars, it should be “wasted” on exploring our solar system not on a stupid war like the Iraq debacle.
All this info about the new Mars mission also got me thinking about my favorite Martians from fiction, comics, and film. Too bad Mars is a dead planet.
Marvin the Martian This soft-spoken alien packs a big disintegrating punch. He’s the first Martian I remember and he’s one of the funniest Looney Tunes ever IMO. What’s even more fantabulous is that he’s on the official mission patch for the Mars Rovers. This is Marvin's best appearance in the famous cartoon Duck Doddgers in the 24th and ½ Century:
And just because Marvin is so cool here’s his first appearance in Haredevil Hare from 1948:
War of the Worlds Martians H.G. Wells created something both exciting and shocking with his WotW Martians. Every alien invasion and sci-fi horror story ever written owes so much to these grotesque blobs that pilot tripod death machines. Regardless of whether they’re plausible or not they’re still very scary and have shown up and been reinvented numerous times. You just gotta’ love ‘em.
The High Overlord and Skar In 1973, Marvel Comics published a post-apocalyptic series in the pages Amazing Adventures. In this title, the Martians from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds came rushing back to earth and conquered our planet in the year 2001 and this time they inoculated themselves against the our planet's microbes. Almost two decades later, the earth is much transformed by the invaders into an almost Barsoom-like place and a hero, Killraven, rises to battle these Martian conquers. His most fearsome reoccurring enemies were Skar, a cyborg assassin, and the High Overlord, a Martian that had his alien body modified to fit inside bipedal suit of armor. They’re wild and wacky, but these two sci-fi evildoers are great pulpy villains none-the-less.
Mars Attacks Martians I’m much too young to remember the Trading Cards but the movie was a real hoot. These gross looking Martians almost conquered the world using every trick known to the atomic horror genre. These little nasties are a great antidote to “serious” invasion monsters from films like Independence Day. It was almost a relief when they blew up the federal government. Too bad they couldn’t withstand Slim Whitman.
Dejah Thoris This Red Martian hottie hails from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom and makes the grade because of her wild adventures with John Carter, her regal rule of the city state of Helium, and her lack of clothes. Sword and Planet has never seen anything better.
Martian Manhunter I’d never been particularly interested in J’onn J’onzz until I read The New Frontier and watched Justice League: The New Frontier animated movie. I’m finding his desire to understand humanity and his alien nature fascinating. He’s kinda’ like half Spock and half Klaatu with superpowers. J’onn J’onzz with the Kents at Xmas:
The introspective and telepathic aliens of Ray Bradbury’s Martians Chronicles are eerie and haunting. They turn the invasion scenario on its head by being the victims of Human colonization (in a metaphor of western frontier migration). They are not particularly malevolent like other Martians and are unable to deal with the threat the Human setters represent. Ultimately, they pass away except for a few ghosts and their cities are the ruins that the humans build a new Mars based culture upon.
Here's a scene from the 1979 TV adatption of The Martian Chronicles. (The TV show was OK but it is dated)
“SCI FI is putting a 21st-century spin on one of science fiction's best-known names: Flash Gordon” – scifi.com
…And boy howdy, if by 21st century they mean really boring and lame, SCI FI accomplished it with flying colors. Imagine Stargate with only one world to travel to, X-Files with only one mystery, or Eureka with only one weird experiment and you get an idea of how dull this show is. I could go on and on about how this program is disingenuous to the Flash Gordon tradition established in the original comic strip but it’s entirely disingenuous to science fiction fans in general. Basically, the SciFi channel wanted something with name recognition to use for it's own purposes and unlike, say, Battlestar Galactica, which has been pretty good, they didn’t want to spend any money on it.
Flash Gordon should be about wild, amazing adventures on an alien planet with strange creatures and dastardly menacing threats of cosmic proportions. It’s the first Star Wars or Star Trek. Any adaptation, whether it’s played strait (the serials, the ‘79 cartoon) or for laughs (the 80s movie) understands that you’ve got to have that pulp sentiment, and larger than life action for Flash Gordon to work. This show strips away everything from the Flash Gordon franchise except for a few names. The script is terrible and the acting robotic. The producers want this show to be funny and cool. But it can’t be funny if the pulp elements are removed and it can’t be cool if it’s got a budget of two bucks. A Winnebago and a Bowling Ally are not the stuff of epic space adventures and Vancouver B.C. is not a good stand in for the planet Mongo. We should have had Hawkmen and spaceships from the beginning.
They are really hoping that nobody will notice how awful the show is. Sorry SCI FI we’ve noticed.
If your interested in Flash Gordon do yourself a favor and read the original collected comic strips or watch any number of other adaptations including the Serials, the 80s film or the 1979 Filmation cartoon.
This cartoon opening from 1979 is hundred times more exciting than the whole hour and half of SCI FI show.
How can adventures in a Winnebago and a Bowling Ally compare with that!
Over 500 pages of classic adventures are included in this value-priced volume collecting one of the most unusual series ever from DC Comics! On an unnamed, uncharted Pacific island, dinosaurs continued to thrive while World War II raged across the globe. It's there that members of the U.S. Military found themselves armed only with standard-issue weapons against the deadliest predators ever to roam the Earth!
There’s certainly something weird about WWII and Dinosaurs but it works. The War that Time Forgot series began in 1960 in the pages of Star Spangled War Stories #90 and ran into the 1980s finishing it’s run in the pages of Weird War Tales. This black and white newsprint collection reprints the first stories up through 1966.
The real draw of The War that Time Forgot is the hyperkinetic action that takes place between the US service men and the monstrous creatures on and around Dinosaur Island which is cross between Skull Island and the Lost World. The dinosaurs really are more like “mutant” dinosaurs, similar to Godzilla, because they’re so huge. The stories feature groups of military men on secret missions that get wiped out except for a hardy few. The action gets pretty ridiculous at times and the laws of physics are a little bent out of shape, but the dinos and WWII hardware are always a visual treat. This collection also reprints the first appearance of G.I. Robot, a personal favorite of mine, long before a version of him joined the Creature Commandos.
The War that Time Forgot is just groovy fun, and when I say groovy, I mean Ash from Evil Dead kinda groovy. What red-blooded male wouldn’t want to take a gander at these anachronistic battles? A Sherman Tank vs. a Tyrannosaurus, a sub vs. a giant eel, and a dive-bomber vs. a pterodactyl just to name a few. It’s D-Day of the Dinosaurs man! Not to be missed by Weird War aficionados.
Despite how stupid the Spiderman’s comics have become, see Tom Foss’ blog The Fortress of soliloquy for details, I’m really getting amped for the new Spiderman movie. You see, the whole black costume Spiderman storyline came out when I was in junior high, and I just loved it (yes I still have the comics). Fans were angry that they changed his costume but once they read the actual comic book issues, they enjoyed it and wanted more. The black costume has a pretty convoluted origin (think Secret Wars) that’s been simplified for the film. It looks like they may have barrowed the explanation created by the 1990s Spiderman Cartoon. I was kinda surprised that Sony chose to do this story, as there are tons of other villains and stories that came before but hey I’m not complaining. Maybe in these screwed up times exploring the dark side of our heroes is exactly what we need. You see, what we’ve got with the 3rd movie is the 80’s Spiderman. It’s a little darker and a little more psychosocial but still wild and wahoo.
I’m a little worried about the fact that 3 villains are supposed be in it, because I don’t want Spidey to go the route of the Batman movies. Spiderman 3 will have: Sandman (a personal favorite), Osborn (goblin), and Venom. But, I do have faith that the director Sam Raimi, will put together a good film. In fact some of the stuff I disliked about Venom from the comics will be modified:
Venom didn't have the well-developed conscience and history of such earlier Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Marvel villains as Sandman, Doc Ock and Green Goblin. So the filmmakers reimagined Eddie Brock as a younger, slicker, emotionally torn menace with a taste for white-collar crime.
After seeing the initial trailer I have been staying away from most info about the film. I mean, I learned way more than I wanted to already. I know a lot about Spiderman so one image could give me a lot of details and spoil it for me. It would be nice if there were some surprises right? Like everybody else, I’ll provide a review after it comes out and see if the rumored $250 million spent on Spiderman 3 was worth it.
Also, don’t forget Free Comic Book Day on May 5th, that’s part of the festivities.
As the pic says Happy Easter! This image is from one of my favorite roleplaying games, Gamma World 1st edition (1978). It’s a post-apocalyptic place with all kinds of crazy mutants with bizarre superpowers. This science-fantasy setting was one of those things that hooked me into gamming for life and this fantastic image of gun-toting rabbits is one of the reasons. Because of this rabbit-men picture, I always thought Gamma World would make a great comic book. I wonder what the furry fans think about this?
These creatures are called Hoops. They walk erect, are highly intelligent, seek ancient technology and are omnivores. Hoops have bizarre powers like: telepathy, the ability to merge their minds into one, and the power to transmute metal into rubber. Pretty weird huh? Later editions of Gamma World described them as having a militaristic society but they’ve always been a little nutty regardless. I like to think of them as a cross between Bugs Bunny and Watership Down. Gives a whole new meaning to hunting for eggs doesn’t it?
You see, the whole black costume Spiderman storyline came out when I was in junior high, and I just loved it (yes I still have the comics). 
Fans were angry that they changed his costume but once they read the actual comic book issues, they enjoyed it and wanted more. The black costume has a pretty convoluted origin (think Secret Wars) that’s been simplified for the film. It looks like they may have barrowed the explanation created by the 1990s Spiderman Cartoon. I was kinda surprised that Sony chose to do this story, as there are tons of other villains and stories that came before but hey I’m not complaining. Maybe in these screwed up times exploring the dark side of our heroes is exactly what we need. You see, what we’ve got with the 3rd movie is the 80’s Spiderman. It’s a little darker and a little more psychosocial but still wild and wahoo.
