I’m a big fan of the Marvel Comics super hero, Captain America. He’s my favorite hero out of all the hundreds to choose from. He’s America’s iconic super hero. New York City might have Spider-Man, and the whole planet might claim Superman, but Captain America is all of America’s, and just America’s.

Many news outlets reported a couple months ago that Cap’s dead. Shot to death on a courthouse steps. I had several friends and co-workers mention this news story, and give me their condolences. Thanks for the thoughts, but I’m not concerned. Cap’s been dead before. Hell, he started his whole post WWII career by coming back from dead about 20 years after the war ended. In the 90s, he died again, and came back.

Any comic book super hero, from any comics publisher, who has been around for more than 10 years (and some have been around for 60+ years) has probably died at least once. Just to name some super heroes you non-comics-fans will recognize:

Spider-Man has been buried at least once that I can remember off the top of my head. He dug back out six issues later.

Superman has died. He got better. Supes was dead for about a year.

Batman has had his spine broken and was a paraplegic for a while. I don’t know how he recovered.

Iron Man was shot through the spine, and he died at least once (I think twice). Super technology fixed his spine, and his death.

I haven’t been following (buying or reading) Captain America comics for about a decade now, so I haven’t read the issue where Cap gets killed this time. I know someone will tell me that I’m not a “real fan” because I haven’t been keeping up with the title. Well, I have the issue where he “died” last time, so I’ll keep my fanboy license.

Comic writers have to come up with new stories and scenes and action all the time. It’s not easy coming up with something new and exciting every month, year after year. Sometimes a comic series gets stale. Sometimes sales numbers fall too low. Sometimes a writer has to shake things up and get attention and press. “Killing off” a major character can shake things up and get the press.

So, Captain America gets shot and killed. It’s a big event in the comics universe, it gets press attention, and hopefully that attention will bring new, curious readers to the title. Unfortunately, it’s not the kind of event that will bring me directly back to that book series. But it does turn my head back to the comic book shelf, in general. It makes me think, “Hmm, I wonder what else is happening in the Marvel Universe these days.” This has prompted me to pick up an issue or two of other books. And when I hear that Cap is back from his death, I’ll probably pick up an issue or two of the Captain America title, just to see what it looks and reads like.  So it may bring me back to that book series, indirectly.

Bringing in new or returning readers, directly or indirectly, is pretty much the whole reason for a story like Captain America dying. It’s cheesy, but it works.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Viewed: Theater (20 minutes of trailers)

This movie is decent entertainment as a comic book movie. If you are used to comic books, and like or at least accept, the genre conventions, you can like this movie. Although, if you are a stickler for movies from comic books to exactly match the comic book story, you may hate this movie. The story is definitely not the comic book story of the subject. But really, its a hour and a half movie, not several years worth of monthly books. There has to be some reworking of the tale to get it to fit the time and medium.

As for the acting, the cast does well in their roles. They each convince me they are Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, and well, it’s really not Jessica Alba’s fault she doesn’t seem like Susan Storm to me. Alba’s acting is fine, equal to the other three stars, but she just seems too young and much too beautiful for how I’ve always seen Sue in the comics. I’ve never thought of Invisible Woman as a hot babe; she should have had a more subtle beauty, probably even a few years older. I thought Ioan Gruffudd had Reed Richards’s gray sideburns in the first Fantastic Four movie — they are missing in this movie. I wonder if they were removed to keep Gruffudd from looking too much older than Alba

I went to this movie fearing it would be bad. I mean, how can they introduce an intergalactic plot and characters like the Silver Surfer and Galactus without all the comic book history. In the comics, other planets are known, alien beings are known, and a world-devouring being could fit in the grand Marvel Universe. But with only one movie before this one, the baseline hasn’t been set beyond our real world knowledge. In the trailer, it is said, “Everywhere this thing goes, eight days later, a planet dies.” With the baseline of real world science, how could we know this? The only known planets beyond our Solar System are light years away; our knowledge of those planets are years late.

But, the movie just mentions other planets, and we are to accept this knowledge. I didn’t have a problem accepting the knowledge, because I know of the comic book universe. But movie-goers who don’t have that background probably will be surprised and confused by such mentions.

As a comic book geek, but not one who insists on movies absolutely sticking to the comic story and history, I enjoyed it right up until the final “confrontation” with “Galactus”. I put those two words in quotation marks because it really isn’t much of a confrontation, and it definitely isn’t Galactus. This ending disappointed me because I saw how well they actually managed the Silver Surfer character and plot, and so I came to expect to be pleased with how they might handle Galactus. Too bad they couldn’t add another 5-10 minutes and give us something more satisfying.

It’s not a great movie all by itself, though. It’s good for seeing comic book action in a live action medium, but that’s all I was hoping for. If you aren’t a comic book fan, I doubt you’d like this movie. If you are a comic book fan, but want the exact same story as what you read in the books, you definitely won’t like this movie.

There is a short scene right after the first few lines of credits, but there is nothing to see at the very end of the credits. So don’t bother waiting.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com