Confessions of a Superhero

Just finished watching the documentary about costumed folks making a living posing at the Chinese Mann Theatre in LA – “Confessions of a Superhero.” The film focuses on four particular characters – Superman, Batman, The Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman, but the actual meat of the story is delving into the pasts of these folks and what drives them to this particular career choice.

As a comic book nerd, I felt a missing ingredient of the film was in WHY these people gravitated towards their characters. I would have been interested in a little more psycho-analyzing of the personas they put on every day and how they decided to become these people. Especially more details about how and why they chose their costumes. That kinda stuff is interesting – there is an entire cosplay community out there built around the shared experience of putting together a really fantastic costume. None of that was explored or even mentioned here. It’s a shame.

There was probably some wonderful insight to be had by exploring each persons connection to their costumed character, but it seemed squandered by a documentary film-making team more interested in the cheese factor of comic book characters and the desperation of “performance pan-handling” on the streets.

Sure, don’t get me wrong, there were some amusing sequences, and a few even aimed for uplifting. Mostly – I feel humbled by peering in on these insanely different lives. And not really in the mood to laugh at people who are TRYING to make their dreams a reality. Who are getting by the best they can.

There was also an implied message that these folks should feel ashamed about what they do. Maybe not overtly stated, but it seemed a covert message of the piece. As if dressing up like fictional characters on the street for the entertainment of tourists is a humiliating human low. People do worse things for money.

Which is funny, because on good days the performers make more money than the poor costumed suckers at Disneyland…and these independent contractors can swear, take a break or leave for the day when the spirit moves them. Hardly anyone talks about the humiliation of dressing up like Cinderella when it’s condoned by a theme park. No, it’s glamorous and adventurous then. Hmph.

As someone who attends comic cons – half the fun is in scouting out the few souls brave enough to put on a costume. It barely matters if the costume itself is crappy or amazing.

The documentary is worth viewing, if only to come to your own conclusions about it’s intentions. If you don’t believe me, check out the trailer:

Here are a few ladies, the “Sidewalk Superheroes” willing to document their experience on their own terms, which might give a different perspective.

Much Love, Mindy C

The Dollhouse Conflicts: Cancellation Rumors Fly

Poor, troubled Joss Whedon. He’s had off years, and great successes where no one expected (turning a failed movie into a TV series, and a failed TV series into a movie) so expectations were high for Dollhouse, and let’s be honest  – the first four episodes did not deliver.

If I wasn’t a Whedon junky, I would have probably skipped off Dollhouse following episode 3 (as I did with Fringe). But the tenacity of wanting to see this show succeed where Firefly failed kept me watching. Things have picked up. Things have gotten good. Though I’m still not in love with any of the characters, and feel the humor is rocky at best…there is more to this than sheer entertainment value at this point. It’s getting Joss back on track doing what he does best – television. And if it takes a season or two to make that happen…I want to put him there. He’s delivered exciting content on three different TV shows, with my favorite mutants, and in a musical blog. What more could a nerd heart desire?

Also – I promised Tahmoh Penikett I would keep him in a job.

But a Twitter from Felicia Day picked up by Dr. Horrible and spread out to the Whedonverse has unleashed the storm which has no doubt been quietly building there for several weeks.

It doesn’t confirm that the show is canceled – merely a Season Two bridge episode #13 in which Felicia Day and Alan Tudyk were supposed to guest star is *possibly* not going to be aired. Hence – no Season Two, without an airing of the much touted Episode 13.

UPDATE: Tim Minear explains the situation here and soothes some of the savage beasties salivating at the keyboard. It’s incredibly helpful when the writers of a show watch the fan boards and respond. Why are these people so eerily accessible?

Right now – Dollhouse and Fox are the top trending searches on Twitter. I’ve even been prompted to tweet my fourth update in the last month about it, just to add my tiny push to the wave that is no doubt cresting at Fox’s door this very moment. All this started about 1 hour ago, btw. Hah!

So – I’m going to do my part and reserve a copy of the Season One DVD.  I’m going to ignore the conflicting info flying around the net at present:

- Dollhouse FTW!

- Dollhouse EPIC FAIL!

For some reason – as with X-Men Origins: Wolverine…I just can’t shake the feeling that the internets have been duped by bizarre FOX PR stunts as of late. Or maybe it is just the inability of old media to play nicely with new media creating circumstances which feed fan frenzy. Who knows?

Maybe you want to join in the twittering fun – to save Dollhouse?

Much Love, Mindy C

Emerald City ComiCon: A Recap

This image was the front page of the convention program.

Dan and I hit the road around noon yesterday, on our way up to the Seattle Comic Con – otherwise known as Emerald City ComiCon. We had tentatively planned this trip a few months ago, dependent upon funds and time and the aligning of the fates.

Well, at some point last week, on the verge of deciding not to go, I checked their site to see what exciting guests might peak my interest and swing the vote. Turns out – a few, including:

- Jewel Staite (Kaylee from Firefly)

- Tahmoh Penikett (Helo from BSG and Paul Ballard from Dollhouse)

- Ray Park (Darth Maul, Toad)

- Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol from BSG)

- Michael Hogan (Colonel Tigh from BSG)

and Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher from ST: Next Generation)

Pretty kick ass line up. Then I spotted in the artist/writer’s tables Mike Mignola and Greg Rucka, and was sold even further. So – Dan and I debated up until Friday evening about whether or not we would attend. Saturday morning, we decided yes.

We didn’t arrive in Seattle until around 2:30pm, and felt discouraged about attending the Con with only a few short hours on the docket. Also we were fairly sure we’d missed an opportunity to take pics with Tahmoh (my goal for the event). Instead, we secured some wireless internet – located lodging close by (a stunning Motel 6 in SeaTac) and tucked in for the night.

We hit up the awesome Pyramid Brewery, got tipsy – stopped at the store and grabbed some champagne – got even more tipsy and spent the night watching Starship Troopers until we passed out.

After a fitful night of sleep, we checked out of our motel, hit up a Denny’s and arrived at the con a mere 1.5 hours later than we had intended. Oh – not to mention that whole day we missed too. More madness behind the link…

Wolverine: Origins Movie Leak

Can’t say that I’m quite shocked about this. But as a fan of watching action-movies on the big screen, with sound effects and explosions and audience response…I decided to pass on the opportunity to see a crappy screener version of this flick on my lap-top. Especially since it lacks a proper score and visual effects. Really? Are people that desperate?

If folks can’t stand to wait another month, it’s on them. But I don’t support Fox, the FBI and MPAA going balls out to prosecute someone about this. And I’m pretty leery about the response from a geek site like Ain’t it Cool News  although I do agree with quite a bit of what it has to say about the incident and it’s casting a negative-light on comic fans. You don’t see other genre films getting early-leaked and peddled around the net. Right? Am I right?

As a fan, I want to support X-Men films, and the best way to do that is throw my dollars behind them.

I am however, amused that this happened to Fox. After they pulled the crap move and leeched profit from Watchmen, this seems an appropriate kick in the balls to them. But in all other instances, where folks are claiming this was a PR stunt by Fox…I don’t see how or why. They don’t stand to gain much from the fake-release of an incomplete product, unless it’s really that good and they anticipate word of mouth and early reviews will generate buzz.

Frankly, I’m confused by their advertisement stunts for this film. I was seeing pretty long trailers for this movie on Fox about a month ago. Usually you don’t see TV ads until two or three weeks before opening. Are they really so concerned about this product that they would pre-leak it?

But the real question is – why would you watch an unfinished version of a film, anyway? And similarly, why would you read the incomplete, first draft version of Midnight Sun? Granted, I did the latter, but only because Meyer herself had posted it, claiming there would be no more versions.

Frankly – first drafts and rough cuts SUCK. I would rather pay money to see a crappy completed project than download a free version with all the wires and grammatical errors showing. To me, it’s not about piracy, it’s about common damn sense. Which apparently quite a few folks lack.

Much Love, Mindy C

Teen Response to Celebrity Violence

I haven’t been following the Rihanna/Chris Brown beating very closely – but a blog I follow recently posted an article about teen response to the incident. Which is important to me – because teens are the market for Rihanna and Brown, and their reaction to these Pop idols violent interaction tells me something about what’s going on in the world. How our future is shaping.

And folks – it doesn’t look good.

On a personal note – I’ve experienced male violence in my life – from a trusted family member. The escalation was not necessarily provoked by myself, but I understand that something I said resulted in this important male figure choking me.

But I don’t EXCUSE that behavior. Violence is NOT the necessary result of a verbal altercation. Domestic violence is certainly not excusable in my book. I don’t excuse this person’s behavior, and I don’t believe that I brought it on, or that I need to take responsibility for his actions. He’s a grown ass man – just like Chris Brown. He can be forgiven, but he will not easily regain trust. Trust is earned, like respect. And physical violence, for me, shattered those elements of our relationship and it has taken years for us to get back on good ground.

Certainly – I see where teens understand that verbal fights CAN turn violent. But it doesn’t mean they SHOULD. And it doesn’t mean Rihanna deserves to be beaten.

Who does, really?

Ultimately – hitting someone, choking them, slapping them, kicking them…well now, that’s a choice. Many people get through life without ever making the choice to resort to violence with loved ones. If you make a choice to beat someone, to hurt them physically – you have to live with that. You can’t deny your choice. You can’t BLAME someone else for your own actions. No one MAKES you hit them – no matter what they say. It’s your fist, your arm, for body. So – live with that, and deal with it.

But the tendency for those young men and women in the article to deny that Chris Brown made a choice – that disturbs me most of all. As if the details of the beating aren’t horrific enough:

This links to the written affidavit of the incident.

Here’s a video with visual interpretation of the affidavit:

It’s hard to piece together what someone might say which would stimulate the response of another rational human being biting their ears and fingers. That’s pretty fucked, no matter how you look at it. I will be interested to see the April 6th proceedings for Mr. Brown. Unfortunately for him – upholders of the law probably aren’t in his listening demographic.

Much Love, Mindy C

Rogue Tattoo

Here’s a follow-up to the last post. I am strongly considering a Rogue tattoo, but want to do something a little Art Nouveau. I stumbled upon this image when doing the research the other day:

There’s also a black and white version of this same image. I like the concept, but I’d want a straight on shot of Rogue, not this tilted-up angle, which makes her face look a little weird. It’s very…round and squashed. The tattoo would give her more chin and a better pronounced neck.

But it seems a nice way to tie in quite a few of the X-Characters without having to do several different pieces, especially since I’m not wild about getting ALL the X-Men tattooed on my person in the first place. This would be on my back – right shoulder. Or my left arm. I can’t quite decide. The X-Symbol in the background is a nice touch, and I’d probably keep that in as well, but would change the shading so it was black ink instead of white.

Maybe on my whole back? I was kinda saving my lower back (the tramp stamp area) for a lotus-buddha design that I’ve been craving…so Rogue couldn’t take up the entire space. And, although I’m quite addicted to tattoos, I’m not sure I want them covering my entire body.

There was a discussion by the female tattoo artists on LA Ink about this idea of what places on their body they would like to remain bare. Not necessarily for the sake of the public, but to still lay claim to their own personal space. It’s amazing how long it takes for your skin to become yours again after a tattoo is placed there.

After some consideration, I’ve decided that my chest is off-limits. My boobs already attract enough of their own attention without any further adornment needed.

So – this piece is definitely something I will keep in mind, but placement is going to make a big difference – because this is intricate enough…it will need to be big. And I already have one superhero tattoo on my body. I’m not sure if I want anymore. I know – blasphemy, right? But The Phoenix image means something else to me as a symbol of rebirth and a promotion of one of the greatest stories in comic literature. I’m not sure if Rogue would have that same impact. It would be COOL, but not quite meaningful enough.

And if something is gonna be on your body for the rest of your life, it should have personal meaning, on-top of looking fucking cool.

Much Love, Mindy C

X-Men Tattoos

In checking my WordPress stats, I see a common search term coming up over and over again. So, in recognition of people searching for X-Men Tattoos (a really arduous process requiring some patience)…I’m posting this here blog filled with pretty pictures and links to their origins. Hopefully it will be a helpful compilation!

Tattoo 1: X-Symbol

Tattoo 2: Rogue

Tattoo 3: Phoenix/Jean-Grey

Tattoo 4: Gambit and Rogue

Tattoo 5: Wolverine

Costumes in Real Life: Heroes and Villains

It seems odd that twice this morning I should be reminded of the impact costumed heroes and villains have on our lives. Not in a metaphorical way, but in real blood and guts instances. Yes, actual people dressing up as comic book characters. But in these cases, some are heroes and some are villians.

The first example is not so cheery: Soldier dressed as the Joker killed in standoff. Apparently this is not the first instance since The Dark Knight was released in theatres last year in which people have sought to portray this character for their own malicious purposes. One was a young girl attacking a teacher while wearing Joker make-up. Another is a young man dressed as the Joker trying to beat up a former girlfriend’s current boyfriend. These were all located for me at this blog, and I’ve been unable to find anymore examples of comic book villians high-jacked for violent real life intentions in my own brief internet searching. But I would be interested to know if this dressing as a villian and committing real world crime is a recent phenomenon due to the increase in popularity of comic book movies, or if this has been happening since the early days of Superman.

On a much lighter and heart-warming note: A firefighter dressed as Spiderman rescued a child in Bangkok. And in a whole other part of the world, two years ago - a young boy dressed as Spiderman rescued a one year old girl from a burning building. And a pizza delivery man dressed as Luke Piewalker came to the aid of a mugging victim in 2006.

Is this the result of comic books becoming mainstream? Of the increasingly ravenous popularity of superhero movies? Real people dressing as heroes and villians performing feats of rescue and plots of crime, not just in the United States, but across the globe..

If the result of ordinary folks dressing like superheroes and saving the lives of others, is that we have ordinary folks dressing like villians and killing or hurting others…is that a welcome trade off? Do we cease a successful element of pop culture because it encourages imitation in positive and negative ways? And how intriguing is it that we are asking this question – the same question posed by books like Watchmen and Marvels. Do superheroes create supervillians? Or are heroes a response to villians existing in the first place. Hhhmm.

What would Alan Moore think about these examples? What would Stan Lee have to say?

How about you?

Much Love, Mindy C

X-Men: First Class

Why is it that Fox has it’s hands on all my favorite franchises (X-Men, Dollhouse, Spiderman)? And just WHAT the hell is this?

X-Men: First Class.

It’s a comic book. It’s a movie. It’s a comic book movie. Another chance for Fox to get it right. But scarily enough – it could be an episode of The O.C. with super-powers. It will be penned by, Josh Schwartz, the scribe behind OC, Gossip Girl and Chuck. So I’ve never seen at least two of those television shows, and another one looks interesting, but never enough for me to actually tune in on a weekly basis. What I know about the first two? They’re about rich, bitchy teenagers. Yikes – color me NOT at all compelled.

Right – that’s my diminished fan-girl enthusiasm rearing it’s ugly head. But after a jarring final installment in the “adult X-trilogy” – the distrust is ripe and well warranted.

It’s hard to know whether or not Fox will fuck this up – 3rd entries in trilogies have a bad reputation anyway: Godfather 3 and Spiderman 3 being prime examples of that. In a movie trilogy, the second film seems to hit the right stride and the third blows goats. Who knows why?

But the big debate for this first movie is whether it will actually follow the comic book or not. According to the movieweb.com article, characters from previous films will be included, sans Cyclops, Jean Grey and Beast.

But Angel, Iceman, Rogue and Shadowcat are confirmed-ish. On this site. Here’s what an opposing viewpoint suggests. It’s pretty far off in the future (2010) and imdb is mum about any other details, unless you want to pay, of course. The chances of any other juicy details being leaked are slim for at least another few months.

While I wouldn’t mind seeing another X-Men movie in a year or so – I have Wolverine: Origins to sate my fan needs in the mean-time, especially since Gambit is finally making his big screen debut.

What’s troubling is that Magneto: Origins seems a bit stalled in movie production hell, and Ian McKellen ain’t getting any younger or prettier (but he does have the most adorable home page of any actor ever, which he obviously maintains himself). I would be surprised if the Magneto film sees the light of day. And also surprised if X-Men: First Class ever makes it out of talks. We’ll see.

But the idea of reading the X-Men: First Class miniseries is quite appealing.  Especially since I’ve tried in vain to read the real first 50 or so X-Men issues and could NOT stomach the writing of that time period.

Perhaps they will use some of this revamped series content? Actually sticking to the comic lore would be a first for Fox and the merry band of mutants.

Here’s a fan made trailer for the flick, while you wait.

Much Love, Mindy C

More Marvel Movie Mayhem

I’ll have to admit, after the Watchmen inspired frenzy the last few weeks – I’m surveying the rest of 2009’s movie playing field with only a few goals in mind – Wolverine: Origins and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

But fans are already shrilling that HPB is revolting, or at least revolt-worthy, sooo – what is a movie/fan-girl to do with all this idle screen time?

Plot her movie-going goals for the next three years, of course. Such a task is made imminently easier by this precious gem:

Marvel Studios Film Release Schedule. All the way through 2012, because you know our calendars run that long, and we all plan on being alive and financially solvent in time to catch The Avengers. But seriously, someone should tell IMDB to update  to reflect these changes, you know, one of these days.

I can’t say I’m crying about the Avengers release date being pushed up, because it doesn’t feature any heroes I’m especially fanatical about, but it might make some folks cry and get up in arms. I just won’t be one of them. Plus, Marvel has been good to the nerd herd the last few years. They need a breather. It’s taxing to be that good.

And, it might give DC an opening to get their act in gear. And on that note – What’s up with the Green Lantern?

Apparently not much, but it would be nice to see DC offer up more from their catalog. The Dark Knight, while not my favorite, was a promising sign of things to come.

Anybody have interesting movies slated for 2009 so my fan heart can become inspired once again? I’d love to hear ‘em.

Much Love, Mindy C