Bagged and Bored Cast Episode 10

We are back at the wonderful Martin Rd. Studios to bring the nerd news to all.
Join Chris, Paul, John and Producer Scott this week as they discuss:

The Week in Geek - Lobo going to the Big Screen, New Line goes to Middle Earth and back again to bring "The Hobbit", Marvel's MiracleMan news, Wizard's Convention constriction, the PAX-Pox and DC Comics' new deal.

The List - What books have us heading to the shop the week of September 16? Find out here.

The Main Topic - What bigger news could their be then, Disney buying Marvel? Hear why Chris is excited, Paul is worried and John feels the way he does.

The Movie Fix - Halloween 2, does Rob Zombie's remake slash its way into our hearts, or just leaves Paul with an upset stomach?

If you haven't already, there's no time like now to subscribe to the Bagged And Bored Cast on iTunes. Also, be sure to rate and review us at the iTunes store and follow us at http://twitter.com/BaggedandBored as well!

With Great Power...

So the day after FanExpo the world is all a flutter with the biggest news in comic book history, maybe: Marvel Comics has been bought by the Disney Company.

Now I can see where some people may get nervous about this news. But as the resident Disney Expert here at Bagged and Bored, I say to you in the immortal words of Douglas Adams: DON'T PANIC.

When looking at this news you have to remember that Disney is an entertainment company, and they want to diversify their assests as much as possible, which is something Disney has been working on for a while.

Disney has long been targeting the 8-14 year old male demographic with some struggling success. I'm not going to turn this into an article about gender roles and identity but it boils down to the fact that if you're a little girl you like the Disney Princess lines and if you're a boy you like the Pirates franchise.

Disney has worked on exploiting these franchises as much as possible, hence the popular Pirate and Princess Party that Disney has been running annually.

This after hours event (for the price of a special event ticket) welcomes families into a party that spans Disney's Magic Kingdom Park that features (in addition to pirates and princess all across the park): a special night-time parade, a party exclusive fireworks show, as well as a special stage show in front of the Cinderella Castle.

And if you REALLY want to be prepared for the party (or just to make you special day even more special) you could take your little girl to the Bibbidi Bobbiddi Boutique in Downtown Disney, where for a price between $48 and $280 she can be made up to look like a princess.

After capitalizing on this, Disney began offering a similar experience near the Pirates of the Caribbean in the Magic Kingdom for boys (for the rate of $49-$125).

While buzz is building for Disney's newest action-adventure franchise, Prince of Persia, it's more recent ventures into the pre-teen male market have been lackluster (see: Race to Witch Mountain). And with no Pirates of the Carribean picture in the works right now Disney is in a tight spot. Cue the recent changing of the Toon Disney channel to Disney XD, a more action-adventure based network and you have further proof of Disney trying to capture that younger male market. Which brings us back to the Marvel deal...

Due to Marvel's runaway success at the box office, it's proven that it's franchises are viable in the market that they're looking at.

When looking at the sale of Marvel to Disney, it's relevant to bring up the 2006 deal in which the Mouse-house bought Pixar Studios. Since Disney aquired Pixar (which it bought outright for $7 Billion), Pixar has opperated as a seperate unit, that doesn't have to answer to Disney, but both benefit from the deal that's been set up. As Disney gets to release highly successful cgi films under their banner and Pixar get's a more distribution and marketing than they would on their own.

So fans worried that characters such as the Punisher may be shevled coming out of this have nothing to worry about. Bear in mind that in addition to ABC and ESPN, Disney owns studios such as Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures and Miramax. Some notable movies from those houses?

The Sixth Sense, Reservoir Dogs, Clerks, Pulp Fiction, Trainspotting, Dogma, and Kill Bill.

All far from what most would consider "Disney-fare". Disney won't care about the publishing side of the business and Marvel Comics will be left to flourish on it's own. Let's not forget that Marvel was once bought out by ANOTHER company when it was snatched up by Toy Biz in the 90's, and it did quite well for it's self after that. But Disney knows that Marvel will be a cash cow when it comes to it's feature presentations and licensing, which is where the real money is made.

Unfortunately Disney may have to wait on some of the licensing deals Marvel has in place right now to capitalize on what it wants. Right now Marvel has a deal in place with Universal Studios, letting their characters appear at the Islands of Adventure Park, meaning it might be a while before Spider-Man and crew show up at Disney World. Also all the Pixar, Muppets and the Mickey Mouse family of characters are licensed to comic publisher BOOM! Studios, so it may be a while before we see some comics featuring Disney characters come out under their Marvel imprint.

That was weird to say. But I see this being beneficial to both Disney and Marvel, much like the Pixar deal was. And with someone like John Lasseter, who cares about not only the company but more-so characters and story, working behind the scenes at Disney if he teams up with people at Marvel I think we're going to see a renaissance.

Worth A $1?

This past month saw the begining of DC Comics co-feature initiative. These 8 page add-on stories continue the exploits of what DC's Executive Editor, Dan Didio calls:

“...a number of characters and series ideas that we firmly believe in and that a lot of creators are passionate about, but unfortunately, when it comes to the actual production of an actual series or a miniseries, they always run into some challenge when it comes to sales."

So a character like Blue Beetle, who had their shot at a solo series, and developed a fan base not large enough to support a monthly publication can still see print in the pages of a book like Booster Gold.

So now Booster Gold which used to run 32 pages for $2.99, will now be 40 pages long (with 8 of those pages being a Blue Beetle story) for a $3.99 cover price.

Also recieving the main title/co-features treatment are: Batman: Streets Of Gotham/Manhunter, Detective Comics/The Question, Teen Titans/Ravager, and the upcoming Doom Patrol/Metal Men, Adventure Comics/Legion Of Super-Heroes.

So are these extra add-on tales worth the $1 price hike? Well, thats a tricky question. While The Manhunter feature feels right at home in Batman: Streets Of Gotham, the Ravager feature feels like a Teen Titans B-plot, and not a bonus story. Likewise is the Question story, which feels tacked onto Detective Comics, despite being handled by a writer (Greg Rucka) who is known for both of the characters involved in the features. Although I haven't read it, it's also important to point out that the Booster Gold/Blue Beetle team-up has boasted some pretty positive reviews, and does warrant a looking into.

I'm more than willing to take into account that these are the first batch of stories and mostly just set ups for everything involved, so I'm not writing off anything yet. But at the same time I can see fans who aren't interested in the added material and the extra $1 added on to the price (namely books like Booster Gold and Teen Titans), even though most of these titles are new or in the case of Detective Comics, being relaunched with the new pricing.

Meanwhile when drawing company lines, last week Marvel released a total of 39 titles with 19 of which bearing a $3.99 price point, with little added material to any of the titles.

This is of course AFTER John Turitzin, Marvel's Executive Vice President, when addressing the Cowen & Company Tecnology Media & Telecom Conference stated that:

"...our company is a cash machine".

Like this, but with a Wolverine variant Dark Reign cover

Turitzin then continued on, "We’re always testing our pricing on our comic books to see the extent of which we can, you know, it is inelastic, and we can increase our profit in that business. We sell comics at different price points, we sell more popular comics at higher price points, we sell other ones at lower price points, we differentiate in pricing in that way, some of our comics aimed at kids, Marvel Adventures line is a lower priced line. We’re just looking to maximise our profits for business, without alienating our own fanbase, without making them feel that they’re gouged, which I hope you don’t feel. Our goal is to maximise our revenue, and if we’re not maximising our revenue then our pricing is wrong and we have to take a look at that. So you can hope that we see that attrition and our prices come down.”

So while one head is saying that it's all about pulling in the revenue and made no mention of increased costs in producing the books, over at Comic Book Resources, in his Cup O' Joe column, Marvel's Editor in Chief is holding onto the argument that the increased prices are going towards such costs as printing and distibution as well as maintaining the stable of creators. Maintaining that there is no conspiracy involving the raising prices.

So how much longer can Marvel and DC hold the line before bringing their entire catalogs to the #3.99 price point? We'll see.

Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine

I thought I knew how I'd write this review, but the more I think about it the more my opinion changes.

Wolverine isn't a perfect movie. It's not a great movie either, but I think I'm comfortable with calling it "decent". When Wolverine hits it's marks it does so well, but those actual moment where it scores are far between.

SPOILERS AHEAD

In a movie that bears the word "Origins" in the title, an obvious starting point for the movie would be the Wolverine 2001 miniseries of almost the same name.

While the ideas explored in the series are touched upon, it's done in a haphazard way that really provides no real background for the character.

In the series we're introduced to a young sickly boy named James Howlett and his friends the orphaned red-haired Rose and son of the groundskeeper Dog Logan. Right from the get go we're set up to believe that the gruff and violent Dog is the boy who will grow up to be Logan, but later it's revealed in a way similar to the movie that it's young James who will grow up to be Wolverine when his powers manifest for the first time when he pops his bone claws.

After this moment in the movie James takes off with his friend Victor who has taken over the role of Dog in the movie, and will ultimately become his nemesis Sabretooth.

We're treated to an amazing opening credit sequence that shows Logan and Victor fighting through the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and Vietnam, before being recruited into the Weapon X program.

This was arguabley one of the strongest points of the film and another missed opportunity to expand upon some history as Wolverine's origin encompasses more than just Weapon X, but that's fanboy griping there.

Here's another one of those few and far between strong points that I was talking about before coming up:

The introduction of Wade Wilson.



As long as there's been talk about a rumoured Deadpool movie, Ryan Reynolds name has been mentioned in the same thought. The man was born to play the Merc with a mouth. And the brief moments we see Wade onscreen are fantastic, but that's just what they are: brief moments. Kinda silly since they built a marketing campaign around the guy.

Wade will be the only member of Weapon X I talk about, since it's at this point in the film that everyone else doesn't matter. Yes, even Dominic Monaghan. Sorry Charlie...

Yeh ghonna die. Again.

But it's after this point that the movie becomes one of those meh moments. I remember the film, I know I saw it, but there's really nothing that sticks out. We're treated to some pretty decent fight scenes, there's a story about the Moon and a Wolverine, because Native Americans have stories that relate to anything, my favorite being about the burrito and the river.

This comes up when you Google Image Search "Burrito River". I'm guessing it's a spirit animal or something.

Wolerine gets his adamantium, more fight scenes and then HOLY CRAP! CAMEO AVALANCHE!

Cyclops, as portrayed by a young Hunter S. Thompson


Emma Frost!


Gambit!

Ok, remember where I said I wasn't going to talk about characters anymore because they don't matter? Well I'm making a big Nahlin's exception.

Gambit was always one of my favorite X-Men. Was it the purple shirt and duster combo? The black and red eyes? The will they/won't they sexual tension with Rogue?

ALL OF THE ABOVE. Gambit was the man.

Gambit could do and then get away with everything. He's tied with Raphael as a cartoon character that could bang his way through your family tree and you'd be cool with it.

Not pictured: Raph having his way with your sister.

So what really let me down about Wolverine was the lack of Gambit. Everything you see in the trailers is about it for him, with a little more thrown in at the end. Understandable since the movie is called WOLVERINE, but man, people have been aching for some Remy LeBeau action since the first X-Men movie. Way to tease us Wolverine, your almost as bad as Rogue...

Look, but SERIOUSLY don't touch.

And while I'd like to end this review with two words, I can't. But's they can lead up to it:

ADAMANTIUM BULLETS.

Yes, adamantium bullets. They can shoot through Wolverines skeleton and result in him losing his memory without killing him. Which really doesn't make sense, how would that matter? Wouldn't his brain just heal? Weapon X has billions laying around to fill people with metal and it's told that they have mind wiping technology, so why not just do that?

Nope. Adamantium bullets.

So if you want a decent start to the summer movie season, Wolverine might be for you. Just don't go in with high expectations for the plot, especially don't try to wrap your brain around the twist with Logan's lost love Silver Fox, you'll be wishing for a magic adamatium-forgetting bullet as well.