Did The Dark Knight Really Win the Summer of '08?

Summer is officially over, and what an awesomely geeky summer it's been! Giant green men, slightly-less-giant red men, robots, rich narcissistic superheroes, rich emotionally-traumatized superheroes... something for everyone! But which geek movie came out on top?

I think it's official, right? Dark Knight has definitely won the hard fought, Geek Movie Summer cage match. Not only has it been carelessly barreling through previously untouchable records, it will go down in history as arguably the finest comic book movie yet. Even the MTV movie awards (held early in the summer) anticipated the coming cultural landmark and created a new category with which to award the summer's runner-up, Iron Man: "Best Movie of the Summer... so far". Yet despite the unstoppable juggernaut that has been the Dark Knight, it's Marvel that's going to end up on top. And DC should pay attention and take notes.

While the Dark Knight was busy smashing records (and winning hearts), Marvel was busy laying the groundwork for a future empire. This summer marked the beginning of a bold experiment for Marvel... a fully autonomous "Marvel Studios." Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk were the first films completely produced under Marvel's banner (relying on Paramount and Universal for distribution and marketing only). Marvel is treating the movie business the same way they do their comics; a unified editorial board that oversees all the projects coming and going.

This is an extremely novel approach to making movies-and one that is sure to be criticized. But in the end it's going to win the day for Marvel. The filmmakers are given the same freedoms that Marvel's comic writers and artists are used to, but they have to conform their "vision" to fit within the greater Marvel Movie Universe. And this is what your average comic geek movie viewer craves. We geeks love our continuity. But it'll have benefits the reach far beyond the geek audience.

"Clearly, we got into the business of doing these movies ourselves because we believe in our vision for these movies," says Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, in an interview with Newsarama, "and we believe that the success that we’ve had over the years is based on our instinct and our abilities to translate our characters. Now to be able to do that completely unencumbered.... It’s nice to have full control to bring these characters to life the way we think they should be."

It is nice. But granted, even if none of the movies they ever produce can match the individual success of The Dark Knight, is that such a bad thing? So far, DC's film offerings are completely self contained. And The Dark Knight especially so. There is no room in the TDK universe for Superman, Robin, a Justice League-nothing that makes the DC universe the DC universe. Hell, TDK is so aggressively insular, there's hardly even room for another sequel. Even the Nolan brothers have expressed concern as to how they could follow up a film like TDK.

While DC is building fences around its intellectual properties, Marvel is openly inviting their properties to play in each other's yards. Some cynics thought the Robert Downey Jr. cameo in The Incredible Hulk was a play for more ticket sales-but we geeks knew better. It wasn't a cheap ploy-but instead a brilliant maneuvering to create the sense of a greater universe. One in which Tony Stark could wander into a bar with Bruce Banner, and take a call from Nick Shield about Hank Pym's latest discovery. To make matters more exciting, they're using this character crossover to build up to the eventual Avengers movie... which has geeks every where salivating.

Now I'm a DC guy-always have been. I enjoy a Marvel title here and there (Bendis' Daredevil is some of the best superhero writing I've ever read) But I don't care too much about the Avengers... at least, I didn't before. But after Iron Man's Sam Jackson cameo and then TIH's Robert Downey cameo-you can count me in! And they're going to introduce Ant Man, Thor, and good ol' Captain America in their own movies. All in the same universe. By that point, I'll be chomping at the bit to see the Avengers.

Now DC is planning a Justice League movie. And yes, I'm excited because I love the Justice League. But you know what? Is there any chance it'll be good? The poor writers will have the herculean task of squeezing origin stories for Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and the Martian Manhunter into a story that gets them to team up with a DIFFERENT Batman and Superman... one that doesn't fit into either the Superman Returns universe or the current Batman movie universe. That's the kind of thing that'll' bug not just the stickler comic geek audience, but also confuse the hell out of the general public. Warner Bros already had a hell of a time convincing people that Batman Begins was, in fact, not the same Batman from the Burton or Schumacher films (and thankfully so).

So Marvel has established for themselves, an incredibly easy way to branch out into all of their remaining intellectual properties. Sure, today it'd be a hard sell to get people to see a Hawkeye movie... but imagine after a half dozen semi-successful/successful Marvel movies, including The Avengers-you'd just have to say "he's the next member of the avengers, kids!" On the DC side, is there anything you could tell a kid to get him into a theater for The Green Arrow?

So even though DC may pop out a genre-re-defining masterpiece like TDK... does that make it any easier for them to utilize any of their other countless properties? Whereas, the time and effort Marvel spends now creating an expanding universe, will give them the ability to easily market any of their characters or even recreate any of the existing movie properties that don't currently fit in.

"The summer of 2008 has been a huge, huge victory for us so far, and tells us that people enjoy where our instincts are leading us so far." -Kevin Feige (pres. of Marvel Studios).

I just hope DCs paying attention. I'd really like to enjoy The Justice League.

Tony Stark's Cameo Used to Market Hulk

Don't watch if you want to be surprised, but the oft-discussed cameo of Tony Stark in The Incredible Hulk is now being used as the centerpiece of a TV spot for the film. I was kind of shocked that they would show their hand like this, until I realized that A) Everyone loved Iron Man, B) No one seems to give a crap about Hulk, and C) These people want to make money. Making it seem like Stark is an actual character in the movie might actually save this film from bombing. I'm a little afraid, though, that those mainstream viewers who don't read all the internet crap we do are going to anticipate an Iron Man/Hulk showdown and leave the cineplex a wee bit disappointed. 

NYCC 08 Day 2 Notes: New Details on Incredible Hulk (Tony Stark!), Dark Knight, The Spirit and More

A bulleted list of all the Day 2 goodness:


New Dark Knight Trailer

• It goes down like this: Standard shots of Gotham rooftops, then we come across a perched Batman. He jumps down. The Joker's voice: "Where do we begin?" There's a scene of him organizing a table of Gotham crooks, very reminiscent of The Hood's meetings in New Avengers. Crooks: "What do you propose?" Joker: "Kill the Batman." Oh, we've never thought of that! "Here's my card," he closes, holding up a (wait for it) Joker playing card. There are some shots of Maggie Gyllenhaal 'breaking up' with Bruce Wayne and going with Harvey Dent. She tells Bruce "I can't be your only connection to a normal life." Dent asks Alfred if Wayne is the kind of ex-boyfriend he needs to look out for (I forget the exact wording) and Alfred gives the old superhero movie standby "You have no idea." The Joker then crashes a fancy gala in a scene that reminded me of Nicholson's museum crash from Batman but without the Prince. He singles out Gyllenhaal (probably because she's Dent's girl now). Then there's a bunch of explosions and fighting, and a quick shot of Dent screaming "Don't!" or "No!" or something as he's laying with half his face in (or close to) some menacing liquid. From another scene, he says to Bruce "You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain." Well well.

UPDATE: Thanks to the commenters (Snoo, VRICH10, ultimatefan and others) at Superhero Hype for straightening me out on a couple of points. Memory and a notepad are imperfect beasts!

Lots of details about The Incredible Hulk (including Tony Stark's cameo!), The Spirit and more after the jump!

The Incredible Hulk

• Lots of juicy bits about this movie. The first clip they showed us was Bruce Banner being hunted down by the government. They have him locked in an above-ground glass walkway, but when they gas him he transforms into the Hulk and smashes out. They chase him around with gunner vehicles that always seem to be jumping (blame the floaty Halo warthog), which he demolishes. Finally Emil Blonky (played by Tim Roth) has a one on one man-to-monster showdown with him. Blonksy isn't the Abombination yet, but he has been treated with some of the Super Soldier serum (which is colored Captain America blue!) so he fares pretty well, flipping around and shooting Hulk with a grenade launcher and a handgun. At the end of the scene they are just standing there eying each other, Blonsky says "Is that all you've got?" and after a pause Hulk gives him a giant foot to the chest. Applause erupts.
• When asked about an Avengers movie, producer Kevin Feige said "It depends on how this film and Iron Man do. I'd like to see it happen."
• On his character in the film, Tim Roth said: "Blonksy is a combat man, not a desk man. He loves it. But his body is aging. Then he sees the Hulk and sees another option."
• Someone asked about the Ed Norton trouble and the question was deflected by Gale Anne Hurd: "If he wasn't happy he wouldn't be out there supporting the film." Meanwhile Kevin Feige leans in and whispers to director Louis Leterrier "Is this ok?" to which Leterrier responds "It's ok." Clearly there's more than a little truth to the rumors.
• Leterrier claims that originally Hulk and Abombination didn't talk, but that so many people on the message boards wanted to hear things like "Puny humans" and "Hulk smash" that they changed the CGI and made them talk.
• Lou Ferigno came out and confirmed he has a part in the film. They wouldn't confirm what.
• They showed us the full trailer, which seemed to spell out the whole movie: It begins with Banner in hiding in a foreign country (South American?) trying to find a cure for his condition. General Ross (William Hurt) finds him: "He stole military secrets. Take him." There are a whole bunch of shots of him running around whatever country he's in, then a random one of him in Antarctica or something which I'm wagering is the last shot of him in the movie. Like Frankenstein's monster floating away on an ice floe, Banner goes to the pole to be alone. Back to the trailer, it becomes a lot of Hulk smashing tanks and helicopters and whatnots. Then Blonsky gets Ross to agree to turn him into a beast that can face off with Hulk. And when Blonksy becomes a monster and starts trashing New York City Norton heroically exclaims "There's only one thing that can stop him, and it's inside me!" Cue fight.
• After the trailer they showed us Tony Stark's long-rumored appearance in the film. If I were to place it I would imagine it was at the very end of the film. General Ross is drinking in a bar, looking extremely depressed and defeated. Stark rolls in and says "Ah, the smell of stale beer and defeat. I hear you have an unusual problem." Ross: "You should talk." Stark: "You should listen." UPDATE: Clips from this scene have surfaced in a new TV spot for the movie!

The Spirit

• Frank Miller was actually dressed as The Spirit without the mask. Black suit, bright red tie, black fedora. Seeing him in front of his poster with the same look was almost comical.
• When asked by MTV's Kurt Loeder how he blended his signature aesthetic with that of Will Eisner, Miller joked "I threw out everything he did." But as you've probably seen in the teaser (seen at the end of this article), he wasn't really joking. He claims "I knew Eisner well. And I know that if I raised a rusty monument to his work Will would rise from the grave and strangle me. We used the most advanced technical methods available to translate his vision into a very modern movie. It will be a bit of a shock to purists, but you will see Eisner's touch throughout. Look out for a particular manhole cover."
• Miller spoke about how hard it was to find a good unknown male actor for the part, quipping "Hollywood produces many great actors. But very few men."
• Responding to Kurt Loeder's poorly phrased question about if she felt like she was "just a hot babe" in the movie, Eva Mendes replied "Hell no. I'm a kick ass jewel thief who's been married fourteen times and killed all of her husbands. Does that sound like 'just a hot chick' to you? I'll kill you right now, Kurt!"
• Speaking of Eva Mendes, her and Miller were very touchy-feely kissy-kissy throughout the panel.
• Miller got serious to note that "We were able to do something that was not homogenized because Will insisted on owning his work. The Spirit has adult motivations that separate him from your usual superhero stuff."

And the trailer:

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Assorted notes:

• Wondering how long they're gonna keep up this baby thing in Cable? Duane Swierczynski stated that as the series goes on, the girl will grow--and specifically mentioned stories with her as a four year-old down the road.
• Orson Scott Card on Iron Man, the character he writes for the Ultimate Universe: "My first impression of the character was that Iron Man is the stupidest hero I've ever seen. He has three full time jobs. He's an inventor, the CEO of a huge company, and he still finds time to put on a suit and go save individual people. It seemed very silly to me."
• Orson Scott Card announced he is writing an Ender's Game comic that will come out in Fall 2008.
• LucasArts finally answered one of my burning questions about the new game The Force Unleashed: If you are Vader's secret apprentice, why do all the trailers show you killing stormtroopers and blowing up Imperial ships? The answer is that you are so secret of an apprentice that Vader doesn't even want the Emperor to know about you, and that means no witnesses. I don't buy that Vader would be hiding anything from the Emperor between Episodes III and IV, but AHR has a pretty good argument for it. Ask her about it sometime.

The Incredible Hulk Gets a Trailer

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

What do we think? My first impression is that it looks a little... Boring.

Panel Discussion - The Week in Comic Book Scans

Geekanerd brings you the week's most notable comic book panels. Spoiler Alert for those who haven't read their books yet.

Wackiest Plan - Metal Men #2
That's what I call teamwork! If saving the day demands you pop a giant balloon monster, you might as well do it with style.

Biggest Fake-Out - The Incredible Hulk #110
Oh Noes! The Incredibly Angry Hulk just killed his teenaged pal Amadeus! And an adorable puppy! Look, you can even see the blade of the big Final Fantasy sword poking out the back of the kid's jacket, hewn fibers and all! C'mon everyone, let's start a letter-writing campaign, this level of Hulk-on-Puppy violence is unacceptable...*turns the page*....oh. Never mind.

No Comment Award - Countdown #34
Okay, this time I really have no comment. Except: Poor Piper.

Most Severe Beatdown - King Karateka, Lucha Libre #1
When a book stars five dudes who model themselves after the heroes of Mexican "free wrestling", you know you're going to see some good fights. There are plenty of awesome moves being perpetrated against these werewolves, but the start of the fight is King Karaterka, the guy in white. Look at those holds! That can't be legal! And this certainly must be against regulations...

Best Spin On A Classic - Metal Men #2
Duncan Rouleau is doing wonderful things with the art in the new Metal Men series. The first two issues have featured a retro-futuristic feel, as seen here in his interpretation of a classic "evil lair on a hill". Nothing like making an old favorite feel new again.

Best and Worst Actor Award - Night Thrasher and Tempest, New Warriors #4
Here are two great examples of character's reacting to another character's death - one is effective, the other, not so much.

Artist Paco Medina manages to nail shock and horror using only Night Thrasher's eyes, but Tempest, well...that's more of an "Aww, man!" or "What the F, you guys?!" face than a "NoOOOoOOo" face. To be fair, I'm sure it's hard to draw a good "NooOOoOO" face. You don't see many of them in real life. Unless you have a really intense life.

Read all of our past Panel Discussions!