Monthly Archives: May 2012

Iron Patriot another villain for ‘Iron Man 3?’

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Here’s another one of those “how many months until this movie comes out?” posts.

The Internet was all abuzz in the past couple of days with news and speculation about “Iron Man 3,” the first post-“Avengers” Marvel movie, coming out in May 2013.

First there were reports that Ben Kingsley was indeed playing Iron Man’s best-known villain, the Mandarin, who was referenced in the earlier “Iron Man” movies.

Then today spy photos from the set made their way online and seem to show a familiar, Iron Man-style figure … wearing a very familiar red-white-and-blue color scheme.

First thought, of course, was that Tony Stark had built a suit of armor for his newfound pal Captain America.

But since the actor in the suit was revealed to be James Badge Dale, who had already been announced as a bad guy for “Iron Man 3,” speculation soon centered on the comic book character Iron Patriot.

There’s a big catch, however: In the comics, Iron Patriot was the name assumed by Norman Osborn after he absconded with some of Tony Stark’s tech. And Norman Osborn, of course, is the Green Goblin from the Spider-Man comics.

Beginning in 2009, Osborn wore the Iron Patriot suit occasionally in the comics, especially when he formed his own “Dark Avengers” boy band to battle the real Avengers.

Since Osborn is part of the “Spider-Man” movie universe and not available for use in Marvel-produced movies, we can assume that Norman Osborn is not making an appearance. That must mean that Marvel is using some Spider-Man-adjacent characters and elements — the suit, but not the guy inside it — just as they stretched the boundaries of the strict movie universe division of Marvel properties by making the alien army in “The Avengers” the Chitauri rather than the Skrulls. The Skrulls are part of the “Fantastic Four” movie universe and not open to use by Marvel in its “Avengers” universe. But the Chitauri, the modern-day version of the Skrulls, were okay for use in Joss Whedon’s movie.

Director Shane Black was expected to do some very interesting things with “Iron Man 3” even before we heard this news. That he’s continuing the expansion of the Marvel movie universe makes me look forward to the movie even more.

Just one proviso: With Mandarin and Iron Patriot and who knows who else, please, Marvel, don’t make the same mistake as the 1990s “Batman” movies and give us a ridiculous super-villain team-up with too many bad guys. Please.

‘Mad Men’ puts a price on ‘The Other Woman’

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I want to be clear that I haven’t seen every episode of “Mad Men.” I watched early on, then faded on the show for a while, then came back and have watched religiously — every Sunday! — for the past three seasons.

So bear that proviso in mind when I argue that this season of “Mad Men” might be the best.

Part of that belief might be because so many episodes this season seem tied to a specific event — one in the news from that period or even just in the personal lives of the characters — but I think a lot of that feeling seems to be because this season is about something.

Desperation.

Sure, the series has always been about desperation to some extent. Don’s remaking of himself; Roger’s realization that his career is fading; Pete’s attempts to claw his way up the Madison Avenue ladder.

But this season the show has reached new highs — lows — of desperation, from Don’s love-hate relationship with the women in his life to Roger, Pete and Lane’s self-destructive behavior.

This week’s episode, “The Other Woman,” pushed the characters even closer to the edge. As Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce tries for a second time to land the Jaguar account, a tri-state Jaguar dealer lets Pete know how he wants to seal the deal: A night of sex with bombshell Joan.

Pete is slimy enough to take the idea and run with it and most of the other partners agree. Only Don, who has more conflicted feelings about women than anyone else, seems repulsed by the idea. But he expresses his displeasure only by saying “no” and walking out of the room.

Meanwhile, Don turns to Ginsburg for the perfect pitch for Jaguar, while Peggy fields a pitch of her own: She’s asked to join a rival ad firm at a substantially better rate of pay.

Outside the office, Megan meets resistance from Don when she wants to pursue her acting career in an out-of-town play.

Thoughts while watching the episode:

Is Pete irredeemable by this point?

For several episodes we worried that Roger was headed for a fall. Will that happen in the final two episodes?

Could Don have been more dismissive and offensive than when he threw money at Peggy, and more pathetic than when he sank to his knees before her when she said she was leaving?

Surely we haven’t seen the last of Peggy?

 

The Great Newspaper Comics Challenge Part 14

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Our regular look at newspaper comic strips. Because surely modern-day comics can top “Superman” building a guy a house!

“Classic Peanuts” shows Snoopy rooting for his “bird tenants” to learn to fly. Once again, Snoopy is surrounded by little blue birds. I just have no memory of any birds, besides little yellow Woodstock, in the strip.

In “Baby Blues,” the kids are jumping on the furniture and calling it “parkour.” Until mom puts a stop to it, that is. Boo, mom!

“The Wizard of Id” finds the king talking about debt. Another political commentary? No. After talking about the kind of debt we can never repay, the king places a wreath on a war memorial. Nice.

After Memorial Day tributes to vets in “Doonesbury” and “Mallard Fillmore,” the military-set “Beetle Bailey” is about … golf.

“Crankshaft” is about that other Memorial Day tradition, the cookout. “It looks like Crankshaft is about to light his grill! Quick! Into the cookout shelter!”

And … OMG you guys! “The Family Circus” brings us another “Billy taking a circuitous path someplace that’s shown to readers as a dotted line!” His mom tells him to hurry to put some letters into the mailbox.

So he hurries out of the room …….. goes through the kitchen and stops at the sink …. hops over his sister on the couch ….. circles around the dinner table …. wanders through the family room …… hops into the baby’s playpen and then hops out ….. goes out the front door …… circles through the front yard a few times … before he gets to the mailbox and calls back to mom, “Too late, mommy! We just missed him!”

I have one comment for the mother: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

For what it’s worth.

Better days: Muncie’s Ski-Hi Drive-In

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From the early 1950s — one source says 1952 — until just the past few years, the Ski-Hi Drive-In just north of Muncie, Indiana, entertained a couple of generations of moviegoers.

Beginning in the 1980s, drive-in movie theaters — which had always provided an alternative for moviegoers looking for exploitation movies, the offbeat and the inexpensive — faced a threat that couldn’t have been imagined just a few years earlier: Home video.

Movie fans could watch the odd Roger Corman movie from the comfort of their home. Within a few years, drive-in theaters were being razed, their real estate developed for some other use, or — even worse, in some ways — they were abandoned to fall to pieces.

The Muncie Drive-In was lost a number of years ago. All that remains now is the barely recognizable sign, now advertising another business, on Ind. 32 on the city’s west side.

The Ski-Hi Drive-In, at Ind. 3 and Ind. 28 north of the city, is still recognizable for what it was. The photos on this blog were taken by me this Memorial Day weekend.

Unfortunately, while the Ski-Hi is recognizable, it’s a shell of its former self. The screen tower has gaping holes. The area where cars and speaker poles once dotted the landscape is covered with high weeds. I can’t say what shape the concession stand is in; I didn’t venture into the property.

Various revitalization attempts have been mounted over the years and I’ve heard another is underway. With any luck, this one will succeed.

Cool ‘Dark Knight’ images

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I’m still not sure how much I’m looking forward to Chris Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” I thought the first two films in his trilogy were good if dark but I’m afraid Nolan is creating a claustrophobic world.

Maybe it’s the expansive, hero-filled world that Marvel has created, and that I enjoy so much, that makes Nolan’s self-contained Batman (and apparently Superman) films seem so inwardly focused.

Anyway, Warner Bros. has released some cool images in the past few days. Best of the bunch is the “showdown” banner above. In case you haven’t been paying attention, that’s villain Bane on the right.

Here’s another good one.

They have a pretty dramatic, bleak feel to them, don’t they?

We’ll keep an eye on new images and, of course, we’ll see how everything turns out on July 20.

iPhoneography: The beauty of cemeteries

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There’s something about cemeteries, particularly historic cemeteries, that really suits photography. Cemeteries are places of mourning and remembrance and celebration. They’re also places where art and architecture and personal taste — of the deceased and the loved ones left behind — mix.

Beech Grove Cemetery is the city-owned cemetery for Muncie, Indiana. Established in the mid-1800s, Beech Grove is home to some of the area’s oldest gravesites.

The city’s oldest and most established families have graves and mausoleums there, but it’s also the final resting place for some of the community’s poorest residents, with an entire section of graves of people buried at government expense.

Here are some iPhone photos of Beech Grove sites I saw today.

Above: A grave with a marker but also with a statue of Jesus — holding wind chimes and other items — and personal items important to the deceased or family members.

A grave marked only by a small wooden cross with magic-marker lettering.

Peeling paint on this wooden cross.

A row of mausoleums for some of Muncie’s captains of industry.

The approach to one of the Ball family mausoleums.

The ornate front door of a Petty family mausoleum.

The stained glass window in the rear of the Petty mausoleum.

A towering obelisk marks the grave of a Muncie physician.

Monster World memories: Captain Company

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How many of us monster kids, living in the heyday of the Monster World in the 1960s, saved up our nickels until we could stop thumbing through the pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland and actually order something from those Captain Company ads?

It appears there isn’t a definitive history of Captain Company online, which is too bad. I’d love to know more about the mail-order company, which was purportedly based on the East Coast and was the mail-order sales division of Warren Publishing, which unleashed Famous Monsters, Creepy and other mags on the world.

Looking around the Interwebs, though, I see a few people with some of the same memories of Captain Company.

Especially the Captain Company ads: Like their comic book counterparts for X-Ray Specs and the like, the Captain Company ads were a riot of amateurish drawings, over-eager copy and outright misrepresentations.

I ordered back issues of FM through Captain Company as well as a few other items, the details of which I’ve long forgotten. It’s possible I bought some of those little 8 millimeter films — digest versions of classic Universal horror movies — through Captain Company.

I believe Captain Company has been revived, in some form, as a merchandising arm of the new Famous Monsters. It’s not the same, of course, but neither are we.

Here are some ads, many of them collected by http://www.diversionsofthegroovykind.blogsppot.com

 

Brian Freeman is small-town tough in ‘Spilled Blood’

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If you’re tried Brian Freeman’s books — many of them crime novels focusing on cops and lawbreakers in Minnesota — you know Freeman writes with a little bit of … kink.

There’s an element of the lascivious in his stuff. His female cops are sexy but have secrets. His male protagonists are sexy … but have secrets. Everybody’s a little on edge.

There’s a lot of edge but not as much of the old dirty stuff in “Spilled Blood,” Freeman’s latest mystery. It’s still a very enjoyable read.

The story follows Chris Hawk, a lawyer estranged from his wife and daughter. Chris leaves the big city and heads for small-town Minnesota when his teenage daughter, Olivia, is accused of murdering a teenage rival.

Of course, the towns of St. Croix and Barrons have plenty of secrets. St. Croix is the struggling blue-collar town while Barrons is the more upscale town where a chemical company is located. For the past few months, trouble between the two towns has been threatening to boil over because of a series of cases of cancer in St. Croix. The citizens there, including Olivia and her mom, suspect the chemical company of poisoning their town.

And it just so happens that the murdered girl was the daughter of the chemical company CEO.

Chris has to untangle the mysteries of the two towns, save his daughter and his wife and navigate his way through a cast of antagonists that includes murderous young hoods and an anonymous environmental crusader with his sights set on the chemical company.

Freeman is a clever writer. His characters are likable and his stories really move along at a good pace.

“Spilled Blood” is a good, fun read.

 

Who is Joseph Gordon-Levitt in ‘Dark Knight Rises?’

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He’s Robin!

He’s the Riddler!

He’s the next Batman!

Want my wild-ass guess? He’s the next Batman.

Since last year, online speculation has been steadily rumbling about who Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays in “The Dark Knight Rises.” Surely the explanation — Gotham City police officer John Blake — is only the start of this character’s story.

But surely that can’t be the whole story?

We know that “Dark Knight Rises” touches on some of the themes from the “Knightfall” comic book series. Bad guy Bane (Tom Hardy) is there, of course, and we’ve seen indications that Bane does real physical damage to Batman/Bruce Wayne, just like in the comics. Christian Bale is seen walking with a cane in the movie.

So in the “Knightfall” comics storyline, Bane breaks Batman’s back and puts him out of commission for months. In the interim, Robin, Nightwing and other heroes fill in. A relatively new character introduced, Azrael, even assumes the identity of Batman for a while but goes over the edge before he’s stopped by the returning Bruce Wayne.

So could Gordon-Levitt be playing Azrael, or an Azrael stand-in?

What makes me think that’s likely is that Christopher Nolan has been very intent on grounding his award-winning and ticket-selling Batman movies in the “real world” So much so that Warner Bros. was reluctant to make a “Justice League” movie for fear of irritating the director.

Since “Dark Knight Rises” completes Nolan’s take on the character, Warner Bros. is likely to reboot the character in a couple of years … with someone else besides Bale playing the character.

But which character? After all, who says Batman has to be Bruce Wayne?

Why not John Blake as the avenging angel turned dark knight?

I certainly don’t have any inside info, but a buddy of mine in the business says he’s inclined to believe the same.

If Chris Nolan has outfoxed us with this mystery, my cowl’s off to him.

 

‘Walking Dead’ reveals Michonne

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If we start our “Walking Dead” countdown now, how great a fever pitch of anticipation will we reach by the time the AMC end-of-the-world series returns in October?

And yet …

Entertainment Weekly has a cool pic. Here’s Danai Gurira as Michonne, the fan favorite sword-wielding warrior woman from the “Walking Dead” comics. Michonne, played by an anonymous actor in a hooded robe, showed up in the final moments of the season finale this spring, helping Andrea, who was surrounded by walkers.

After the show aired, the producers announced they had hired Gurira to play Michonne.

I’ve only been a casual reader of the comics, but Gurira looks pretty authentic to me.

The countdown is on!