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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 24, 2016 8:45:36 GMT -5
Picking my final entry was tough. As this event has surely proved, there have been a lot of great comic book-inspired films and TV series since we last broached the subject in ’07. But in the end, there was no better choice for me than the movie that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe. #1. Iron Man I’ve been a fan of the Armored Avenger since way back in his Tales of Suspense days. In the late ‘60s, when Archie Goodwin and George Tuska, occasionally spelled by Johnny Craig, were doing the book, it was the first one I read when I got home from the store. And it achieved that status again during the Michelinie/Layton era. So when they announced the movie, I reeeeally wanted them to get it right. Boy, did they ever! Most of its highlights have already been mentioned: the script, the casting (Robert Downey was born to play Tony Stark), the special effects. They kept all the cool stuff, flushed the stuff that was corny or outdated, and created a film that was not only the proverbial “valentine to the Silver Age” (and several other periods of Shellhead’s long history) but completely accessible to and relatible for the gazillion moviegoers who weren’t superhero junkies. Much as I’ve loved all the great MCU films that’ve followed in its wake, I don’t know that it’ll ever get better for me than that moment when Tony walks out of the cave in his original armor and lays waste to Wong Chu’s, er, I mean the terrorists’ base. More than any other movie or series we’ve discussed, this was the one that had me saying “It was just like I saw it in my head!” Cei-U! I want an arc reactor... but I’d settle for Pepper Potts! And with that, we wrap up another Classic Comics Christmas. Thanks to everybody who participated. I’ll be offline for the next few days, so I want to wish everyone here ar CCF the very happiest of holidays! Catch you on the flip side, friends! |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,864
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Post by shaxper on Dec 24, 2016 8:52:23 GMT -5
I would never have guessed that would make your #1 spot! It was almost my #12.
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 24, 2016 9:00:52 GMT -5
I would never have guessed that would make your #1 spot! It was almost my #12. That's cause you're wrong.  |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,864
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Post by shaxper on Dec 24, 2016 9:03:30 GMT -5
#1. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
The perfect Batman film. Even though it's missing my favorite aspect of the Batman mythos (If you know me at all, or can see my avatar, you know who I mean), this film took everything the Bruce Timm animated series had been doing right and brought it to its apex with stunning production values, an amazing score, a brilliant plot that meaningfully tied into Bruce's past, and the best damn psychological analysis of Batman ever depicted anywhere:
This Batman doesn't need to be over-the-line deranged in order to show us he's in turmoil. He can be a hero and still be complex, flawed, and struggling. It's a mature, adult team of writers making sense of the adolescent rage of Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns:
And Mark Hammill's Joker...holy sh--! Not only does he turn in his best performance yet, but that psychological analysis is equally brilliant, in which it's made clear that the madness is a purposeful cover, a way of hiding something painful and angry deep within.
and thus the madness is taken to the level of a master performance. The ruse matters even more than his survival:
Best comic adaptation ever. Hands down. THIS is my Batman and Joker.
Happy holidays all, and thank you, Kurt, for my favorite holiday tradition!
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 24, 2016 9:10:17 GMT -5
I never got into cartoon series. Maybe I'll take a look.
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 24, 2016 9:10:26 GMT -5
Mask of the Phantasm was my #1 back in '07. Glad to see it getting some love.
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 24, 2016 9:21:59 GMT -5
Well, Shaxper beat me to it, so I will present another:
The Garfield Christmas Special.
After the success of the Garfield Halloween Special, a Christmas special was a no brainer. The crew went to town and created something almost on par with the Charlie Brown Christmas. Jon takes Garfield and Odie to the farm, for Christmas, telling them stories of Christmases past. While at the farm, Garfield develops a bond with Grandma, who speaks of her long gone husband. Garfielf ends up finding the perfect present and discovers what is at the heart of Christmas: love.
I was never more than a passing reader of the strip; but, I enjoyed the tv cartoons. Lorenzo Music's vocal delivery helped elevate the same old gags and there was some sharp writing at the center of it. This quickly became a holiday favorite, joining Dr Seuss & Chuck Jones and Rankin & Bass. It captures the feel of the strip and expands upon it, while also creating genuine sentiment, something rare in these Hollywood productions, especially from the 80s onward.
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Post by DubipR on Dec 24, 2016 9:22:20 GMT -5
#1- BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES & MASK OF THE PHANTASM
Hands down the quintessential Batman ever adapted. The reason I've put these two properties together is simple, it's one universe that shares the vision of the two people who put it all together: Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski. Using Fleischer's Superman and Burton's Batman films as a jumping off point, creating a gorgeous cinematic noir feel that filmmakers try to emulate. The colors were muted to give it a dark and gritty feel, while Kane and Finger's creations came to life. Each character design were perfect in every way. Each episode was a wonderful chapter (including title cards) in the Dark Knight's mythos.
Then in 1993, in the break between seasons 1 and 2, Mask of the Phantasm comes out, which is a stellar Batman, as others mentioned, the finest to date. Showing more of not just Batman, but the struggles of Bruce trying to maintain his composure between the costume of being Bruce and the Batman. A brilliant companion piece to the animated series.
From the animators who shaped the series, to the brilliant writing and Shirley Walker's constant brilliant scores, it a perfect storm of perfect comics come alive. And again, Andrea Romano, who deserves more credit than she's given in casting. Kevin Conroy is THE Batman. I read the comics I hear him. And Mark Hammill as the Joker... creepy and playful and down right bonechilling at times. It's the perfect series and film
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Post by Pól Rua on Dec 24, 2016 11:30:37 GMT -5
For my #1, I'm choosing something right out of left field. Not a lot of people saw it, which is a damned shame, because it deserved a lot better than it got, but hopefully, I can encourage someone to take a look at... 1. The Middleman Dear sweet zombie jesus, I love this show. The creation of Javier Grillo-Marxuach, this began life as a pitch for a TV series. When no one was willing to pick it up, it became a comic series from Viper Comics, with art by the wonderful Les McClane. The comic series was then picked up by ABC as a TV series, running for 12 episodes, with a 13th episode scripted but never filmed, which was later adapted into a comic. Confused yet? The Middleman is an unapologetically nerdy, gloriously funny, and spectacularly fun series. It details the adventures of the title character (played by Matt Keeslar) whose job is to deal with strange threats against the world. In the first episode, he runs into temp Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales) and after seeing how well she handles a weird tentacular glob monster, decides to recruit her as his assistant and train her to take over for him if he should perish in the line of duty. In twelve wonderful episodes, the heroes deals with zombie fish, vampire puppets, a cursed tuba, a cadre of evil masked wrestlers, a journey to the underworld and an intergalactic boy band, among others. Each episode is crammed to the gills with wonderful Easter Eggs for the discerning nerd, but it's not disruptive to the plot, and you can feel the genuine love and affection coming through. The characters are amazing. Matt Keeslar plays The Middleman with utter deadpan sincerity as someone who's used to the weird world he's found himself in, while Natalie Morales' Wendy Watson is perfect as the viewpoint character trying to balance her new duties as defender of the world with her life as an aspiring artist, and the wellbeing of her friends. Both are ridiculously talented comedic performers who invest their roles with enough genuine gravitas and emotional weight to stop the series from spinning off into deliberate irony. But seriously, if this series is anything, it's FUN! Block Capitals with an exclamation point at the end! It's the sort of show you wish would run forever because the whole time you're watching it, you can't wipe the smile off your face. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Dec 24, 2016 11:34:13 GMT -5
For my #1, I'm choosing something right out of left field. Not a lot of people saw it, which is a damned shame, because it deserved a lot better than it got, but hopefully, I can encourage someone to take a look at... 1. The MiddlemanDear sweet zombie jesus, I love this show. The creation of Javier Grillo-Marxuach, this began life as a pitch for a TV series. When no one was willing to pick it up, it became a comic series from Viper Comics, with art by the wonderful Les McClane. The comic series was then picked up by ABC as a TV series, running for 12 episodes, with a 13th episode scripted but never filmed, which was later adapted into a comic. Confused yet? The Middleman is an unapologetically nerdy, gloriously funny, and spectacularly fun series. It details the adventures of the title character (played by Matt Keeslar) whose job is to deal with strange threats against the world. In the first episode, he runs into temp Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales) and after seeing how well she handles a weird tentacular glob monster, decides to recruit her as his assistant and train her to take over for him if he should perish in the line of duty. In twelve wonderful episodes, the heroes deals with zombie fish, vampire puppets, a cursed tuba, a cadre of evil masked wrestlers, a journey to the underworld and an intergalactic boy band, among others. Each episode is crammed to the gills with wonderful Easter Eggs for the discerning nerd, but it's not disruptive to the plot, and you can feel the genuine love and affection coming through. The characters are amazing. Matt Keeslar plays The Middleman with utter deadpan sincerity as someone who's used to the weird world he's found himself in, while Natalie Morales' Wendy Watson is perfect as the viewpoint character trying to balance her new duties as defender of the world with her life as an aspiring artist, and the wellbeing of her friends. Both are ridiculously talented comedic performers who invest their roles with enough genuine gravitas and emotional weight to stop the series from spinning off into deliberate irony. But seriously, if this series is anything, it's FUN! Block Capitals with an exclamation point at the end! It's the sort of show you wish would run forever because the whole time you're watching it, you can't wipe the smile off your face. ... Kind of interesting in a weird way. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2016 12:12:42 GMT -5
Winner...Day 12...  Possibly my most must-see hour of television...ever...so much that I had a 55' tv installed in my kitchen.... ...and that's a wrap. I felt a bit like a pariah in this year's countdown.  |
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Post by coke & comics on Dec 24, 2016 12:33:59 GMT -5
1. Batman: The Animated Series (1992-95)  The whole series is available on Amazon Prime if you're a subscriber. I'm pretty sure I watched this show before ever reading a Batman comic, though it would have been close. This remains the definitive interpretation of Batman for me. It is the lens through which I view all other interpretations. They succeed or fail based on their similarity to this. (Sorry, Adam West.) The first thing that came to mind when thinking about this series was the episode "Joker's Favor". The plot centers around a guy named Charlie. He'd been having a bad day and yells at a driver on the road. The other driver was the Joker, and this incident would haunt him for years to come. Years later, Joker tracks him down to collect on a favor Charlie promised: Joker needs somebody to hold a door open.  The next thing that comes to mind is how tragic every villain's origin was: Mr. Freeze, Riddler. Perhaps Clock King most of all. "I am vengeance! I am the night! I am... Batman!" Thanks, Kurt! This was a great one!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Dec 24, 2016 13:13:25 GMT -5
Batman (1966-68)
Anyone who has been around for a while shouldn't be surprised that this is at number one for me. This is the single most important comic related item in my life and is probably the reason that I'm typing this right now. I was born in '67. So I came to this show in reruns. And those reruns were appointment television for young Slam. And after I'd watched the thrilling adventures on the TV I'd put a towel around my neck and run around the house fighting villains and singing the Batman song! When the Mego Super-heroes came out, Christmas became about Batman and Robin, the Batmobile, the Batcave and all the Bat-Villains. When I started buying my first comics, the common denominator was Batman being on the cover.
And the damn show is just fun. I know a lot of people rag on it, though that seems to have waned over the years (thankfully). But the show did what it set out to do. It thrilled children and made adults chuckle. The guests seemed to be having a lot of fun and it was contagious. And it made me a comic book reader.
Oh...and it had one of the greatest theme songs ever.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Dec 24, 2016 13:20:26 GMT -5
On the twelfth day of Christmas Alain Chabat gave to me #1 Astérix et Obélix: mission Cléopâtre
Astérix et Cleopâtre is one of the classic Goscinny/Uderzo adventures of the feisty little Gaul and his menhir-carrying friend. It was adapted as an animated feature in 1968, and the success of that film was such that it is still shown on TV every Christmas season here in Quebec (the very catchy songs of the film probably helped making it a classic). When it was announced that the film would get a live action treatment in the early 2000s, I was less than impressed... Why remake an already excellent film? The answer, like the proof, is in the pudding. (And I'm not talking about the arsenic pudding). Alain Chabat brilliantly managed to pull it off: his live action manages to tell the same story without redundancy, giving it its own zany style... full of grammatical jokes, pop culture references, parodies of kung fu movies, absurd humour... Just like a similar French film of the early 2000s, OSS 117, it is a film so filled with Easter eggs and little background details that you keep finding new stuff even after watching it ten times (and yes, I did see it ten times and more... it just keeps giving and giving). It's also very, very quotable! The cast seems to have a grand time, and there are many outstanding performances in there... most strikingly with the supporting roles. Jamel Debouze is astonishing in his creation of the accident-prone archiect Numerobis; his assistant Otis, played by Edouard Baer, has an insanely funny improvised monologue about his job; Gérard Darmon, the evilevilevil nemesis Amonbofis, is uproariously funny in his overacting (scaring even his henchmen when he laughs evilly)... The other live action Asterix movies were not directed by Chabat and are decidedly forgettable... But Mission Cléopâtre is a piece of anthology. The only problem is that I can't see how the movie could be translated, depending so much on French puns and cultural references (despite a Snoop Dog song for the end credits)... But no matter, it has to be my first choice this year! |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2016 14:06:43 GMT -5
On the Twelfth Day of Christmas I give you my favorite comic related thing ever...Batman: The Animated Series. If I could conceivably have lumped the entire Timmverse together (Batman: TAS, Superman: TAS, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited) I would have. It is my favorite iteration of the DCU ever, resonating more with me than any of the comic versions. Bruce Timm is a storytelling maestro. Timm storyboard...  The entire series is pitch perfect, from the music to the dialogue to the voice casting... Kevin Conroy is the voice of the Batman for me. When I read comics I hear his voice for Bruce/Bats. I think the Nolan films would be one thousand times better if they re-edited the sound, took out all of Christian Bale's lines as both Bruce and Bats and had Kevn Conroy record the lines and edit them in. I'd pay good money for Batman Begins: The Conroy edit. If DC Comics ever was serious about being good, they'd ditch Didio, Johns, Lee and Nelson and put Timm in charge of it all  -M |
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