One fun thing that comics offer is the ability to follow the continuing adventures of characters that only had a finite life in TV or movies. It first started with properties like Star Trek and Star Wars and these days we have comic series presenting new "seasons" of fan favorite shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Smallville. Even cooler, classic series like Batman '66 and Wonder Woman '77 are getting the treatment.
I was a huge fan of the Classic Marvel Star Wars. I don't know why I never read the Dark Horse series, but now I am back reading Star Wars from Marvel. There was a six-issue The Six Million Dollar Man: Season Six; and now there's a five-issue SMDM: Fall of Man follow up. I highly recommend Batman '66!!! Get the trades if you missed the individual issues - read it at Comixology. The Batman-Green Hornet sequel was fantastic; there's UNCLE and now Steed and Mrs. Peel. There's also supposed to be a Wonder Woman '77-Bionic Woman team-up coming soon! I see some people clamoring for the George Reeves Superman as a comic. I'd buy that. I'd buy a comic version of some of the Marvel television series as well, probably mostly for the novelty of it.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm waiting (hoping) for the ultimate 1960s TV mash-up: Batman '66 meets Star Trek The Original Series.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't regard the post-BTVS series finale comic books as official. Not unless Whedon finally gets them telecast or projected on the silver screen. Until then, they're just as much fanfiction as any on-line pastiche! Except, of course, the authors of the latter do it strictly on a non-profit basis.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong; some of the published stuff (especially the paperback spin-offs) are well-written. With plots that would've been worthy of multi-episode story arcs within any of the canonical televised seasons!* But, again, even if each and everyone of them had Whedon's personal previous endorsement, he could all too easily change his mind in a heartbeat. Resulting in a George Lucas-style ret-con.
In short; let's wait and see if BTVS gets revived on the small screen as "Season 12" (or whatever the comics are currently at).
*My favorite was the turf war between Sunnydale's vamps and an invading school of carnivorous gillmen called "merrows."
"Raising The Stakes." Lol! That's your best pun, yet, Ross. You must've been inspired by the one-shot spoof that Dynamite Entertainment published featuring Vampirella and "Wendy the Vampire Slayer."
ReplyDeleteAs to what Carycomic said? He does raise one valid point. If Joss ever did revive one or both of the series, would Buffy and Angel's adventures be based on the the plots of the approved comic books? Taking up right where the two shows had left off. Or would he start with some story arc, ten real-time years after the original series' finales? Forcing us viewers to rely on either character-spoken anecdotes or occasional, entirety-of-episode flashbacks.
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ReplyDeleteSurprisingly, this pairing has happened before:
ReplyDeletehttp://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/6a/bd/ce/6abdce7a7912d85ee9794af481508385.jpg
i enjoyed the continuing adventures of Logan's Run from Marvel back in the 70's. A shame it was only 2 issues of further adventures. John Carter was good too.
ReplyDelete@Joe Money: "That site is unreachable. :-( "
ReplyDelete@Sonofjack Well: Ask and ye shall receive:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wjdCB4VdnQ&list=RD5wjdCB4VdnQ#t=5
I agree that, somehow, even if the Buffy comics are supposed to be canon, somehow they don't seem "real" if they haven't been depicted in live action. Especially since there were probably a lot of fans who watched the TV show, but who don't read comics.
ReplyDeleteI liked both Buffy and Xena at first, but quit watching both shows when they turned into pretentious, depressing soap operas. To be exact, I quit watching Buffy when they killed off Tara, I quit watching Xena when they killed off Ephiny, I quit watching Charmed when they killed off Prue, and, if I had ever watched Beauty & the Beast, I would have quit watching when they killed off Catherine.
The George Reeves TV series was a fairly faithful adaptation of the style in which 1950's Superman comics were done. The 1966 Batman TV show was criticized for being too campy, but that was the fad in the mid-1960's. (The James Bond movies were tongue-in-cheek, and the movie versions of Matt Helm, Modesty Blaise, and Barbarella made Bond look like Shakespearean tragedy.)
Batman '66 and Wonder Woman '77 would seem like a natural team-up, but DC seems to want almost everything that they publish to be in a grimdark style these days.
More's the pity. :-(
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDelete"Batman '66 and Wonder Woman '77 would seem like a natural team-up, but DC seems to want almost everything that they publish to be in a grimdark style these days."
Ah well, there's always 'Scooby-Doo! Team-Up': The latest issue of this has Scooby drafted (without "those meddling kids") for a mission alongside Krytpo, Ace the Bathound, Wonder-Dog (from the 'Super-Friends'), and G'nort, to help the SCPA deal with a ghost in their HQ over in the constellation Sirius... and retcons the existence of a 'Golden Age' team (called 'the Canine Commandos') out there as well...
^_^
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"Think clean thoughts, chum."
^_^
Blast! My formatting, which works elsewhere, clashed with this site's coding.
ReplyDeleteBetween first pair of asterisks in the above post, insert (Looks at the cover picture again).
Between second pair of asterisks in the above, insert (hears Batman's voice in my head).
@Simreeve: DC finally published a Batman'66/Wonder Woman '77 mini-series team-up.
ReplyDeleteIt was fantastic! :-)
@Anon1049: Ross was evidently just recycling the title of STF #1266.
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