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So, Deadpool, the Marvel comics character who I keep mentioning despite the fact that people who read this blog probably have no interest in comics (ah, but it's daily, there's the rub). Deadpool who now has possibly three ongoing (as in, not limited, running until they stop making money) series, and who is essentially a kind of fourth-wall breaking, wise-cracking mass murderer who brings an occasionally much needed dose of post-modern levity to comics that can often take themselves too seriously. There's gonna be a movie so I guess comics fandom has reached tipping point in that respect, but three series? The Daniel Way series is good, the Merc With A Mouth one is not, and the other one gave me, so far, a story by a writer I like featuring two characters I like which nevertheless... kinda sucked.
But even though the Daniel Way series is good, nothing in this Deadpool renaissance has matched up to Gail Simone's run or Joe Kelly's original run that made Deadpool the lunatic comic relief he is. And interestingly Kelly had been back working for Marvel recently putting far too much energy into writing Amazing Spider-Man. Far too much energy because while he shoots ideas off well enough his scripts have been like trying to follow a madcap, zany comedy where everyone's timings are just a split second off and none of the cast has any chemistry. In fact reading them reminded me a lot of watching the Hitchhiker's Guide movie in that way. I wanted to like him on Spider-Man, but... his issues so far have invariably had some moment that made me want to cover my face, and the "banter" comes off like irritating twonks trying to talk over each other.
That said...
His latest issue is a one off Spider-Man vs. Deadpool and it's absolutely astounding. Kelly, with fantastically loose art from Eric Canete, doesn't hit a duff note for once. The banter, the set-up, the action, the "yo mama"-off... nothing is a let down. It throws in references to DC stuff without being stupidly insulting, which I really like. And throughout it all Kelly's work serves the book too, setting up the upcoming big Spidey storylines excellently. I loved it so much, I wanted to blog about it.
Check out this ridiculous way of laying out the plot:
And this?
It's cheap, but "That's how I defenestrate" is the perfect example of a Joe Kelly line that would have sounded lame in some of his recent work, but here it actually made me laugh out loud it fit so well.Chumples? Not so sure about, but still.
Kind of on a whim we rented this last night:
It's James Franco's directorial debut, adapted from a play that he co wrote and it was pretty ok. I mean really, it wasn't amazing but it was interesting enough, and interesting because of Franco himself. Another reason I wanted to rent it was the Japanese title:
For those of you who can't read Japanese that puts the title of the movie as "James Franco vs. Ape", the original title is included as a subtitle which is pretty common. I love how, in order to sell the movie on his growing "name" status, they've incorporated his name into the title and pitched him in some kind of madcap rivalry with the Ape. What's even cooler is that considering how much involvement Franco has, it actually makes a lot of sense as a title.
The movie has a lot of strengths, in the performances, the dialogue and more; but in the end the deliberately off-beat pacing and scoring saps a lot of momentum, and the ending was frankly the obvious one that I had hoped wouldn't be the actual ending. Also it never really transcends it's theatrical origins. This is always a problem for movies that come from plays, as Franco himself acknowledges in an accompanying interview, but despite his best efforts... it still feels like most of it is on a stage.
James Franco by the way. I was never interested in him in the slightest, he always seemed like a vaguely pretty up-and-comer from what I saw of him in the first two Spider-Man movies and things like that. The turning point came in Spider-Man 3 when he had that incredible scene in the cafe where he's eating cake. He was awesome there, and then I read a very flattering interview with him, saw him in Pineapple Express and now I'm really interested to see what he'll do next.
I'd also like Spider-Man 3 renamed "James Franco vs. Spider-Man" for the Japanese market.
We were in Fugetsu, eating okonomiyaki,and I got up to go to the loo and I was all like "Where is the toilet anyway?" And James was all like "Use your Spidey-sense", which is... I mean it's not strictly accurate, it's Spider-sense for the most part, and it warns him of danger or untoward goings on, it doesn't guide him to the bathroom. But I'm happy to let it slide coz it's a good pop-culture reference: 
But Yuki tells me they have a similar reference in Japanese pop-culture, although it's more about your hairstyle than senseing danger. Kitaro from GeGeGe no Kitaro has a hair that stands up whenever monsters or spirits are around, and people say "Youki tatteru yo" when a bit of your hair is sticking up, like "Oh your monster-sense is standing up"
I guess it's not used in quite the same way, but it's a pleasing piece of symmetry nonetheless.
Here's hoping Spider-Man 4 is a buddy comedy featuring the Punisher:
Again from Punisher War Journal #13 by Matt Fraction and Cory Walker. Who are both geniuses.
For all the comic fans that read this blog. Which, possibly is just me when I'm checking for formatting errors. This was my favourite moment from that brief period when everyone knew that Spider-man was Peter Parker, and he was running around in his black costume:
From Punisher War Journal #13. Matt Fraction and Cory Walker are both awesome.
