CRUMB is riveting (although the extended family becomes a bit tough to keep track of, making me wish for a family tree for reference), alternately enlightening, aggravating, inspiring, and heartbreaking. But I didn’t come out of it with a burning desire to add more of the man’s work to my library. I’m good with what I have already (a few collections, some anthologies of underground work, and oh yeah, every issue of WEIRDO), as well as the arm’s length at which I keep it.
However.
So many of of my friends had asked me if I was going to see this, and for a hot second, I actually considered hitting the multiplex for D&W (despite only having seen the previous two DEADPOOL films on the tee-vee, and the fact that I’ve only seen one new movie in the theater in the past three years, being THE BATMAN, which, meh), but quickly decided I couldn’t deal with being stuck in a chair with this film for over two hours. Still, I was curious enough that when I saw it dropped on PLEX (the Napster of movies) this past week, I dove in.
And I pretty much hated it. D&W fails for me on every level, comedically, as a superhero movie, and emotionally.
Comedically: I actually had a notebook next to me so I could keep track of my actual laughs during the movie, and the final tally was Two: One came 33 minutes in, when we get to see Wolverine at his actual comic book height (he’s very short). The other hit a half hour later, when Dogpool won’t stop licking Deadpool’s face. That’s it. Two laughs. Maybe a few smirks throughout the rest of the film, but the relentless spray of snark and meta jokes and fourth wall breaks and, mostly, about a hundred dick, balls, and ass jokes (seriously, this movie is so obsessed with goodies, bits, and butts that it makes Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies look like conversion therapy videos) just felt like I was being pelted with urine-soaked spitballs for 128 minutes.
Dramatically: I mean, “dramatically” in superhero context. So, after Disney+’s LOKI series spent two seasons working to fix the MCU’s multiverse timelines, bringing its lead character from villain to sacrificial hero, with a dramatic, emotional climax, this movie… is about fixing the MCU’s multiverse timelines, right down to the bit about the heroes wanting to save their loved ones in their own branched realities (where was the meta joke about this plot basically being the same as that show’s?). I’m not sure what’s more aggravating, the ongoing convolution of the Marvel Universe, or the attempts to fix it (didn’t Kevin Feige ever hear of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS? Google it, non-nerds). And, as much as I disliked LOGAN (and I did!), I have to agree with that film’s director and writer that DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE pretty much renders any emotional impact of that movie’s climax moot. And speaking of death meaning nothing in the MCU, what’s the point of endless (ENDLESS!!) CGI fights to the death with characters who can’t die?
Emotionally: I was actually stunned at how much syrup was poured on the climax of the film. I kept thinking that all the gushing buddy film love slung between the titular heroes was going to revert to the antagonistic back and forth that defined the first two acts of the movie, but no! These dudes now love each other, and pretty much tell say so for the last twenty minutes of the film! The movie even ends with a nostalgic, credit-roll montage of the actors’ histories making Marvel movies for 20th Century Fox, set to—I shit you not— Green Day’s never-not-grating, and utterly played out “Good Riddance [Time of Your Life]”…. UNIRONICALLY!!!
Phew. Anyway. So, yeah, the movie’s not for me. But even putting aside my subjective dislike of the source material and this particular kind of superhero movie, I don’t think DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE is a good movie. It’s a LOT of movie, however, and, like the overdrawn, needlessly-detailed, hyper-violent comic books of the 1990s that dazzled young fans with style over substance, I guess that’s enough for a lot of people.
That waning of my geekiness didn't last too long, and over the years, the medium that defined me more than any other has returned to prominence as a source of comfort, diversion, and inspiration. But it's the comics I grew up with, not modern iterations that hit the spot.
Rob Kelly's HEY KIDS, COMICS! (a re-read) is an anthology of essays about the impact of comic books, mostly from the age when they were plucked off of drug store spinner ranks. It's an often bittersweet collection that anyone who's ever dismissed comic books and superheroes should be forced to read. Maybe they'd stop being judgmental pseudo-intellectuals and understand the transformative and cathartic power of a cheap, disposable periodical full of ridiculous stories populated by impossible characters (particularly to people for whom real life had its share of challenges).
To millions of people.... this stuff matters.
Originally posted on social media, Aug. 29, 2021
Me, I fall in the middle. Certainly, Stan’s greatest creation was “Stan Lee,” but I think it’s unfair to diminish his role in the Marvel firmament. Stan & Jack Kirby were the Lennon & McCartney of comics; Their best work was done “together” (however that played out).
But what’s not arguable is that—MCU cameos notwithstanding—the man’s third act was a tragedy of bad decisions, bad actors, and a sad disconnect from the culture he helped shape.
I just finished Abraham Riesman’s TRUE BELIEVER: THE RISE AND FALL OF STAN LEE (Crown Publishing, 2021), a riveting, even-handed, and ultimately devastating biography of Stan. But as meticulously researched as it is, the book still can’t hammer down precisely what happened at the end of Lee’s life, as various self-serving succubi give conflicting reports that make objective reporting nigh-impossible.
Still, this is HIGHLY recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in the history of Marvel and its most famous frontman.
Originally posted on social media, April 12, 2022
Hey, look, it's December and my first Pops post of the year! I mean, nobody looks at blogs anymore, right? I've been spending my social media energy on my Instagram pages, The Daily Superman, Tough Guy Goods, and my most recent, Fortress of Stuff, dedicated to my various non-Supes collections. Last month, in honor of what would've been Charles M. Schulz' 100th birthday, I did ten days of posts of various items from my PEANUTS collection. Here's a sampling of photos from those posts (if you want to see more and read my thoughts on the man and his work, take a look here).
