Kirk's Soapbox - A Collection of Random Thoughts, Vol 3

Welcome to another edition of Kirk's Soapbox - A Collection of Random Thoughts.  As the name suggests, this post is simply a collection of random thoughts on comic related news and think pieces from around the web.  Each, on its own, probably isn't worthy of a post in and of itself, but, as a collection, works.  It's also a place where I get to sound off on random topics and ideas with impunity as, well, it's my soapbox. MINE.

This edition of the Soapbox sees me discussing the actor chosen to play Heimdall for the upcoming Thor movie, some weekly comic talk, Power Girl's costume and even some Blackest Night speculation (mild variant cover spoilers for those worried I guess).  Hit the jump for these and more.

Idris Elba to Play Heimdall in Thor - Yeahbuwha-?

How the hell does that even work?  Changing Nick Fury or Kingpin to an African American actor is all fine and dandy since both have no real ethnic or racial background that defines the characters.  However, Heimdall, and all Asgardians, are based on Nordic gods and there were few, if any, dark skinned people living in Scandanavia or the surrounding area at the time and the gods, themselves, have always been depicted as caucasian.  I know this isn't grounded in historical accuracies of the region, but, come on, this doesn't make any sense from a casting standpoint. 

Weekly Comics

I spoke about weekly comics on my Twitter feed earlier in the week and wanted to speak about the topic a little more.  What I asked on Twitter was if the whole weekly comic fad had run its course or if it would be something that continues with the odd project, alla Wednesday Comics.

Most people agreed with the sentiment that the format had run its course and that the weekly comic was just too much of a time and money commitment, especially when the quality can quickly become suspect.

However, while I'm against weekly comics in general, at least under the current pricing and quality level of the product offered, I wouldn't mind seeing it rolled out every now and then for random projects, such as with how Wednesday Comics did.  Wednesday Comics simply wouldn't have worked as a monthly newspaper, so I think it simply had to be weekly to succeed.

Other projects I could see using it are event based tie-in books.  I doubt most companies would favour the idea, but I think a Countdown-like 'spine' book for an event or an anthology-like title, alla a Shounen Jump or other manga collections, would be a perfect addition to an event.

Look at Blackest Night and its numerous 3-issue tie-in miniseries.  Each could have been broken up and paced for a weekly comic that told an overarching story for Blackest Night that would have added to the main Blackest Night book.  It would accomplish the same thing, but add a common narrative and connection to each of the tie-ins as well as "forcing" people to read them in the weekly format.  I doubt they'd ever go with this format, seeing as delays in the weekly or the main event book would be disasterous, but it's one way I could see the weekly format used such that I'd actually consider buying it.


Power Girl Costume & The "Boob Window"

Power Girl's reasoning for wearing the costume she does drew some ire from the folks over at 4th Letter! recently and got me to thinking about the character again.  It amounts to writers putting their own twisted reasoning for the "boob window", as the hole in the chest part of her costume is known, into the character's mouth in a bit of 4th wall breaking, half assed explanation to the readers on why she dresses like that.

This got me thinking about other interpretations of the character, such as the animated DCU version, which was given a much more modest bust size for the JLU cartoon (technically, she's never called Power Girl, but it's obviously based on her in the Fearful Symmetry with the Galatea character).  A simple toning down of her exaggerated proportions would go a long way to removing the more ridiculous aspects of her costume, particularly as it pertains to the boob window.  Alternatively, a simple patch over the hole wouldn't hurt either.

Taking it a step further, I'd go ahead and opt for the Kryptonian size-reduction surgery.  It would definitely help with any future back problems she's bound to have and, maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't feel embarrassed to the point of closing the book up if someone walks by when reading a comic with her on the cover or inside it anymore. 

Siege Deaths

Marvel Executive Editor, Tom Brevoort, was pretty talkative on Twitter this past weekend and let slip that there would be "three big casualties in SIEGE".  I'm not sure how to take this.  Death is so overrated in comics, doubly so as of late with everyone and their mother back from the dead in Necrosha and Blackest Night as well as Captain America and Batman, the last two big casualties, both back from the dead in some form or another.  It makes you wonder just how big a casualty they could be in Siege or how long before they'll be back.  Whatever happened to Joe Quesada's "dead means dead" moratorium back when he first became Editor-in-Chief at Marvel?

However, to play along with the speculation on the three deaths, my picks were:

1. Hawkeye - It would be hilarious to see Bendis kill him again and watching the internet explode.
2. Thor - It would pave the way for the return of Thunderstrike.
3. Spider-Man - With Clone Saga resurgence taking place at Marvel of late, we're primed to have Ben Reilly come back as the one true Spider-Man.  Killing off Peter would make it so no one could complain.  

The Invincible/Atom Eve Pregnancy

The above is an image from Invincible #68 in which we find out Atom Eve is pregnant.  I felt like this should be bigger news and something people should have been talking about more than I am seeing.  I know teen pregnancy isn't exactly the most ground breaking thing to see in a comic or even something new or unheard of, but it's not often you see two teenage heroes in a mainstream/non-obscure indie comic having unprotected sex and the girl getting pregnant.  Hell, the closest we get to comics being topical these days are overbearing political soapboxing by the writer or horrible Barack Obama guest appearances.

Even something simple like divorce, which is a goddamn sin in Marvel's eyes, is so taboo that Marvel had to have Spider-Man make a deal with the devil to get out of his marriage to Mary Jane.  The poor guy can't even have sex with a girl or get drunk without Marvel back peddling in order to explain away how he didn't do anything wrong.

So, you can understand why I'm a bit non-plussed over the complete lack of any real discussion over something like this.  Is it because Invincible is from Image and not nearly as high profile as Marvel or DC, despite fantastic trade sales and higher monthly sales than some Marvel and DC books?  Is this just not "edgy" enough to warrant a discussion these days?  I'm not calling for this book to be recognized as some ground breaking achievement in comics, but it seems like something noteworthy and worth more than a casual shrug that the collective comic masses are giving it. 

Reader Question - Will Batman Appear in Blackest Night #5?

The above is the variant cover for Blackest Night #5 and by no means a spoiler.  I'm just curious what people's thoughts are on the above image?  Black Hand has been carrying Batman's skull around for most of Blackest Night - will Batman finally make an appearance? The next issue of Batman and Robin is also touted as a Blackest Night tie-in, lending credence to the idea.  Let us know what you think.

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