Marvel on TV?

 Following up on yesterday's post, I began to think about what Marvel characters, now owned by Disney, of course, I would prefer to see in TV versions as opposed to movie versions--that is, which characters are simply not big enough, popular enough, to need a major motion picture. (Of course, I acknowledge that 20 years ago, no one would have thought Iron Man, Ant-Man, or the Guardians of the Galaxy fit into that mold.)

Anyway, I came up with a few:

The She-Hulk: The major reason I put her in this category is bccause of the way I would want her handled on screen. I firmly believe the only time Jennifer Walters' verdant alter-ego worked as a solo character was during John Byrne's run on the title, when it was treated with a light touch, almost as satire, and with a lot of broken fourth walls. That's an interpretation that I think works best as episodic television.

Luke Cage, Hero for Hire: This should be, essentially, a  private eye show where the detective has super-powers...Shaft with super-strength and invulnerability. I see it as 90-minute episodes, each standing alone, except for underlying plots about Cage's private life.

Werewolf by Night: Sure, it's just a twist on the classic horror theme, but in a movie, there has to be a final resolution to the hero's plight--either he dies or is cured...and then this is just one more version of The Wolf Man. But in an episodic format, especially if we go with the version where Jack Russell can control his wolf form on nights without a full moon.

Chasing WandaVision 4 (Spoilers)

 Meh...and even Bah, humbug!

That's my reaction upon seeing the "finale" of WandaVision. I put finale in quotes, because by my lights, it doesn't fit the definition. A "finale" should resolve all the plotlines, bring the story to a satisfying close and not leave loose ends for the audience to contemplate. Because of the post-credit scene, WandaVision episode 9 does none of those things.

Had they left it where it was as the end-credits began to roll (or even with the mid-credits scene--BTW, that was a Skrull who met Monica Rambeau, right?), everything would have been fine. But the post-credit scene, with an obviously obsessed (possessed?) Wanda peering through the Darkhold tome, it remains unclear who, exactly, was responsible for the events in Westview and--if it was Wanda--is she really aware of the damage she did and care about it?

And was there a hint of something more, someone else, in that scene? I'd swear another visage is superimposed on Wanda's in the final split-second, but despite four or five attempts to freeze-frame on the image, I was unable to determine if what I think I saw was real. And that's bad story-telling, too. The ability of the individual audience member to "get" the intent of the creators should not depend on the technology they use. Either show it or don't.

One of the problems with the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been its complete inter-connectivity...to the point that no one movie--or even line of movies--tells a complete story. It's as if, to give an example from a different genre, Rodgers and Hammerstein had decided that all their musicals are somehow connected and you don't get a full story unless you have seen them all, from Oklahoma! to The Sound of Music, including the minor works such as Allegro, Me and Juliet, and Pipe Dream.

"Endings" like this one only make it worse.

Serial Issues 2

 I realized after posting my first discussion of this topic that I had left out one way of dealing with the characters and world of a continuing series--aging and changing both in real time. One of the best examples of that I can point to is Kathy Reichs's novels about forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (which, BTW, have nothing in common--save the protagonist's name and occupation--with the TV series, Bones, ostensibly based upon them). Tempe Brennan ages from her early 30s to her early 50s in the course of the novels, and the cities she works in--Charlottesville, NC and Montreal--reflect the changes in those locales over the 20 years as well.

With that oversight out of the way, let's turn to the problems of dealing with time in comic books. Traditionally, comic-book heroes remain unchanged from issue to issue, so that a new reader can pick up any issue and understand the hero and his world just from the contents of that one story. That has changed a bit in the past 30 years or so, but still the problem remains--we don't want to deal with a 60-year-old Superman. 

Actually, Superman is one of the characters least affected by all this. His origin is not specifically tied to any one real-world event. It is enough to know that he arrived on Earth as an infant about three decades ago--whether that means pre-World War One, as it did when he first appeared in print, or in about 1990, as it must today. Much of the same is true of Batman--except for one thing: It is well-established that his parents were killed, when he was about ten, on their way home from seeing a movie, most often said today to have been about Zorro. When that was first proposed about 30 years ago, the presumption was that it was a revival-house screening of The Mark of Zorro, starring Tyrone Powell. Today, it would be easy to assume it was 1998's The Mask of Zorro, with Antonio Banderas.

Other characters present more challenging circumstances. When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four in 1961, they probably figured the series would last no more than a decade or so--and in that time, the readership would turn over two or three times. Instead, it has lasted six decades--and many of those initial readers are still with it today.

They tied the quartet's origin to the space race...with Reed, Ben, Sue. and Johnny sneaking onto a military base to take off in the ship of Reed's design to be the first humans to orbit the Earth. Now, with the four having barely aged in those 60 years, it's tough to figure out why there mission was so secret.

Even more troublesome is the backstory given Reed and Ben: They both fought in World War Two! In 1961, with the war only about 15 years in the past, that was believable--it meant they were each about 40 years old. But WW2 vets are now in their 90s! Reed and Ben's military service must have been in the Gulf War. Even worse is that they fought alongside Sgt. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos--whose exploits are definitively set in that war. (The explanation of Fury's longevity and eternal youth is a tale for another time.)

And since virtually every Marvel character can date their origin and age in relation to the Fantastic Four--well, you see the problem.

Basically, Marvel just ignores it all. But I pity anyone trying to build a timeline of the Marvel Universe in the comics.