Off the Cuff – Edition 19
By Eric Barrett
Comics, Cartoons, and all things related

*There are two things that Justice League has changed since it became Justice League Unlimited. And both of these things are fundamental to its current success.

1. More Character Interaction: In the old Justice League the characters were often stiff – nothing more than husks of themselves. In Justice League Unlimited they actually interact with one another, they relate with one another, and they grow with one another.

By doing this, the audience is able to sympathize and relate to the heroes. Despite their immense powers, you come to view them as very human – even when they are not.

2. More Unique Stories: In the old Justice League the stories were as empty and formulaic as the characters. Each story, with the admitted exception of one or two, was just a regurgitated tale you could read or see in any superhero show. However with JLU the writers really explored new ideas and concepts. Perhaps the best example of this was in the episode, “The Greatest Story Never Told.” A publicity seeking Booster Gold saves the world while being assigned to crowd control so the ‘real’ heroes can fight some kind of giant monster. It was one of the best-written and most entertaining stories told by this show.

I’ve really enjoyed (as I’ve said before) the new version of Justice League. Let’s hope they keep up with these new changes for their upcoming season.

*I went and saw Constantine this weekend. I actually enjoyed the movie. It wasn’t fantastic, but it was a good, solid movie. But perhaps the most exciting part of the whole experience was seeing the Batman trailer. What I liked about it was that initially I thought, “hey this looks like a cool movie!” And it was only after I had that thought, that I realized, “Hey! That’s Batman!”

I often wonder if I want to go see one of these comic book movies because it looks good, or because it’s a comic book movie. In this case, I think the answer is I want to see it because it looks good AND it’s a comic book movie.

I can’t wait.

*The Batmobile still looks stupid.

*I few weeks ago I posted some pictures from the Fantastic Four movie and said “I just can’t get excited about the upcoming Fantastic 4 movie. Every time I look at a picture/clip from the movie, it just looks cheesy.”

Well unfortunately I am not feeling any better about the movie now that I’ve seen a shot of Dr. Doom. Doom is one of my favorite characters. He’s one of the few bad guys who’s actually a sympathetic character. In some way’s he’s like Thanos in that regard. Sure they are both villains, but they aren’t quite evil like Joker or Carnage or Lex Luthor.

Instead they are “overly ambitious”, well, I guess that’s a bit of an understatement. But I think you get the idea. They have their own agendas, and become bad guys in order to fulfill that agenda. However, if they need to become good guys for a while, then they’ll do that too. Anyway, this isn’t a rant about “what defines a villain,” instead it’s to point out that Dr. Doom looks cheesy in the Fantastic Four movie.

*Boy, I just quoted myself. Is that cheesy?

*Top 3 books for February (can you believe February is almost over?!):
1. Majestic
2. Space Ghost
3. Batgirl

*Again, Marvel isn’t doing too well in my rankings. I’m going to have to stop saying that because it’s becoming too repetitive!

*I’ve realized that I like major crossovers – until they end that is. What do I mean by such a crazy comment? Well in my opinion a crossover is great until it comes to a conclusion. Most crossovers, and major stories like Identity Crisis, are designed to “re-work” a character, a city, or sometimes even an entire universe. They are, at heart, designed to shake things up. But often I find I like the status quo. I don’t want things to be shaken up.

Take a look at War Games. I didn’t want Batman’s identity to be revealed to the public. I didn’t want him to fail. And I didn’t want Stephanie to die (if she did). So I loved War Games up until the conclusion. When I finally finished Act 3 Part 8 I thought, “you can’t leave thinks like this!”

The same can be said of Identity Crisis. The story was brilliant, but I don’t want to find out my old heroes ere criminals, or at least criminal-like. I don’t like how things have changed.

Sure all of this may lead to new stories, new characters, and new developments, but inevitably it destroys something that I found unique, or interesting about a character. So crossovers are great – until they end.

*I know that the movie industry is Big Business, but am I the only one getting tired of so many cross promotions? For Batman Begins we have the Movie, the Video Game, the Trading Cards…. It reminds me of Spaceballs where Yogurt was putting “Spaceballs The…” on everything and anything.

*Well we take a week off from Off the Cuff the Column to bring you Off the Cuff the Video Game Column. So stick around and while you’re hear check out some of the other fun areas, like Evertime Realms.

The opinions stated in here solely reflect the opinions of the author. If you would like to comment on some of the items in this article, please feel free to post in the forum or send an e-mail. All characters, titles, and etc. are owned and ©; their respective publishers and creators- the author and StillontheShelf.com makes no claim towards them. This column is intended as an opinion piece only. Off the Cuff is ©; Eric Barrett. Please report any broken links!

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