This morning while watching cricket (West Indies v Australia) and browsing the net, I realized that there were a lot more movies that you would never thought were comic books. 2 of the 6 movies I will be listing should still be showing at the Cinema and both have well known stars in the lead.
1. The Surrogates
Written by newcomer Robert Venditti with art by Brett Weldele,
The year is 2054, and life is reduced to a data feed. The fusing of virtual reality and cybernetics has ushered in the era of the personal surrogate, android substitutes that let users interact with the world without ever leaving their homes. It's a perfect world, and it's up to Detectives Harvey Greer and Pete Ford of the Metro Police Department to keep it that way. But to do so they’ll need to stop a techno-terrorist bent on returning society to a time when people lived their lives instead of merely experiencing them.
The Surrogates is a story about progress and whether there exists a tipping point at which technological advancement will stop enhancing and start hindering our lives. It is also a commentary on identity, the Western obsession with physical appearance, and the growing trend to use science as a means of providing consumers with beauty on demand.
The movie stars Bruce Willis and opened just this week to very good reviews. Robert Venditti broke into comic accidentally and worked with Top Shelf Publishing packing orders before writing his first comic book. A creative writing graduate he delayed moving back to Florida to try his hand at writing in Atlanta and having completed the 5 issue series in 2004 had to wait just 5 more years to see his work adapted for the big screen.
I have read the first issue of Surrogates and am dying to read the other 4.
2. WhiteoutWhiteout is a trade paperback collecting the story of Deputy U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko, sent to Antarctica to solve a murder. It's written by Greg Rucka, drawn by Steve Lieber, and published by Oni Press.
Rucka a well-known crime novelist, has been writing comic books for the 10 years and has written Batman and Wonder Woman. Steve Lieber has had runs on Detective Comics and Hawkman and his and Rucka's sequel Whiteout: Melt has won an Eisner award.
Kate Beckingsale star in the movie adaptation and she must investigate and try to solve a murder within three days before the Antarctic winter begins. She crosses paths with a U.N. operative (Gabriel Macht), also investigating the murder.She must chase down suspects and find more murders. Early in the story, Steko is attacked by the killer and left for dead in a storm. She saves herself but loses two fingers due to severe cold-related injuries.
The movie makes some changes from the comic book but both can be enjoyed and appreciated.
3. Timecop
Perhaps the only movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme that I can watch without gagging, Time Cop tells the story of a future (2004) where time travel is possible. Van Damme plays a Time Enforcement Agent, part of a specialized police organization. He is conflicted, because he knows it is possible to prevent his wife's death, but his job as a Time Enforcement Agent prevents him from acting on such a prevention.
Timecop remains Van Damme's highest grossing film (breaking the $100,000,000 barrier for a worldwide gross). It was also regarded as one of Van Damme's better films by critics who usually derided his acting ability.
There is still some controversy that Timecop was a comic book before it was a movie. The film and comic book were written by Mike Richardson founder and publisher of dark Horse Comics (Mark Verheiden co-wrote the film) and drawn by Ron Randall, but there is doubt over which came first - the film or the movie. I am going own this though as it was written by 2 comic book guys.
4. The MaskThe Mask is a very popular Dark Horse comic book series created by writer John Arcudi and artist Doug Mahnke, and based on a concept by publisher Mike Richardson.
The series follows a magical mask which imbues the wearer with reality-bending power and physical imperviousness, as well as bypassing the wearer's psychological inhibitions. It was adapted into the 1994 film The Mask, starring Jim Carrey, which was followed by an animated television series, and a 2005 sequel Son of the Mask.
In the original comic stories characters who wore the Mask would become dangerous antiheroes with ultra-violent tendencies, even if this was not the original intention of those using its power. When adapted into a film, the violence was toned down to make The Mask only as dangerous as the wearer. The Mask #1-4 follows the adventures of Stanley Ipkiss, but unlike the movie goes off in a totally different direction and is worth reading.
A very young Jim Carrey is hilarious as The Mask and this movie probably leaves its mark in movie history as the film that debuts Cameron Diaz.
5. Wanted
Wanted was written by Mark Millar and drawn by J.G. Jones and was published as a limited series by Top Cow Comics in 2003-2004.
It tells the story of a World Without Superheroes. Back in 1986 (the year is significant as The Dark Knight Returns and The Watchmen were published then) Super-villains the world over organized themselves and using teamwork eliminated all Superheroes, making the world more "dark and grittier". People no longer remembered heroes, only as fiction and the world is ruled by The Fraternity - a cabal of leading Super-villains.
Wanted follows the adventures of wimp Wesley Gibson as he goes from harried office worker of no significance to finding out that he's the son of The Killer - a super assassin. He goes through a period of training, in which he is desensitized to violence and given license to fulfill every desire, including rape (which is referenced but not actually depicted), racially motivated violence and arbitrary murder. As a member of the fraternity, Wesley is promised a consequence-free lifestyle; as such, merely displaying his membership pin to any law enforcement agent gives him a free pass on any crime, whether it is murder or a parking ticket.
The movie Wanted departs from the main plots containing Super Villains and uses Super Assassins instead and introduces nonsense such as "curving bullets" and getting lists of people to be killed from a "Loom of Fate". This does not distract from it being a very good action movie that did extremely well at the box office.
Well worth watching, but more importantly to get the real deal - well worth reading.
6. Men in Black
The Men In Black was a 3 issue limited series created and written by Lowell Cunningham and illustrated by Canadian Sandy Carruthers and published by Aircel Comics in 1990. Aircel was acquired by Malibu Comics who themselves were later bought by Marvel Comics.
The Men In Black are a secret Organization responsible for the monitoring and suppression (most times violent) of paranormal activity on earth (aliens, demons, mutants, etc.) while keeping the populace ignorant of any shenanigans. An agent will use any means necessary, including murder and destruction, to accomplish a mission. All agents sever every tie with their former lives, and as far as the world is concerned, they do not exist. Agents who go rogue are hunted down and eliminated.
The movie starring Will Smith (coming off the hugely successful Independence Day and Fresh Prince of Bel Air) and Tommy Lee Jones makes changes to the Organization as it merely police and monitor extraterrestrial activity using memory erasing devices instead of just eliminating witnesses.
The Men In Black never became a hit as a comic book but the movie generated a movie sequel and an animation series.
There you have it, 6 more movies that were comic books before they were films (well maybe not Timecop)
My roadie should be here by next week, so hopefully I will be posting again about Cycling and trying to get fit.
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