I noticed a while back that it was suddenly in vogue to think that "Batman Returns" was good. I can't for the life of me think of how you would go about doing that. Then again, I was apparently a trailblazer in thinking that "Batman" sucked.
Dave Lartigue | Email | Homepage | 03.28.05 - 1:44 pm | #

Batman Returns was the only one out of all of them that I could stand, actually. I suppose it was because Burton seemed to get his way as far as the look and feel of the film, as opposed to all the compromises he had to make for the first one, which I watched recently and still hate.
Johnny Bacardi | Email | Homepage | 03.28.05 - 1:49 pm | #

That decoder card was probably the best thing for me about Ordway's Shazam! revival (if only there had been a similar card for Doop from X-Statix), and it's probably the reason I haven't gotten rid of the comics, despite their having, as you so charitably put it "rough around the edges" scripts.
Chad Anderson | 03.28.05 - 1:56 pm | #

I think that Morrison and Simonson have been the people that "get" Kirby the best - don't just slavishly do what Jack did, innovate like Jack did. I'm looking forward to Orion's appearance in Seven Soldiers with a keen amount of interest.
BeaucoupKevin | Email | Homepage | 03.28.05 - 2:14 pm | #

I would Sisay monson and Frank Miller get Kirby the best (I love Morrison but he doesn't usually write and draw so I'm hesitant to compare him to Kirby).

They both are the only ones who can come close to creating characters and stories that really feel like Gods clashing and handle those situations the way should be (i.e. it doesn't feel like they're hitting you over the head with the "mythic" elements). Simonson has that oft-repeated "external displays of inner conflict" quote which shows he knows the right way to do superheroes, escpecially the Kirby ones.
Ian Brill | Email | Homepage | 03.28.05 - 3:28 pm | #

There *was* a card for Doop... you didn't send in for it, though, but someone decoded the Doop-speak and posted it somewhere or another.
Tim | Email | Homepage | 03.28.05 - 3:48 pm | #

I dropped POWER OF SHAZAM! three or four times during its run and always came back. That's why my run is not quite complete. It never really clicked for me, even though it was the kind of book I desperately wanted to like.

I never much cared for BATMAN RETURNS either. It has its good points, but I wouldn't rate it higher than mediocre.
C. Elam | Homepage | 03.28.05 - 4:11 pm | #

Two well done, underrated series. Well, POWER OF SHAZAM! could be really, really, really inconsistent (and what was with that nuke going off in the final Krause penciled story?) but there were some great bits, and the Ordway GN that kicked it off was gold.

Wasn't Grant Morrison threatening to do a Captain Marvel Jr. series a while back?
Dan Coyle | Email | 03.28.05 - 4:48 pm | #

As a ridiculous Cap Marvel fan, I really wanted to like Power of Shazam. It just . . .wasn't interesting enough. Which is sad, considering the source material. Even my students, who are TOTALLY OBSESSED with the Marvel Family, can tell it's a bit boring.

Those Morrison-Marvel-Junior rumors had me more excited than my brain could possible comprehend.

Sigh.
Joe Rice | Email | Homepage | 03.28.05 - 5:03 pm | #

Erik Larsen- who's a BIG Captain Marvel fan, said in an interview that DC responded to his request to do a Shazam book that "If Jerry Ordway can't make Shazam work, no one can."

The HELL? Larsen's been ripping off Otto Binder for YEARS in Savage Dragon and they think he can't do Shazam? What's up with THAT?
Dan Coyle | Email | 03.29.05 - 8:28 am | #

Hm. I'm not a huge Larsen fan, but odds are he'd make a series less boring (if less pretty) than Ordway's.

Kind of like that almost as hot girl that's way more fun.
Joe Rice | Email | Homepage | 03.29.05 - 10:10 am | #

"There *was* a card for Doop... you didn't send in for it, though, but someone decoded the Doop-speak and posted it somewhere or another."

Not even remotely as fun, though, I'm sad to say.
Chad Anderson | 03.29.05 - 8:39 pm | #