Random Comments About Random News

It's one of those days where I haven't a clue what to write about so I'm going with the cheap route and picking some news stories from the Google Reader thing to the right and sharing my views on them.

LATEST HULK MAY NOT SPAWN SEQUEL
That's disappointing to hear. I figured that it would get lost in the waves between Iron Man and The Dark Knight but it was a solid flick and I'll hold out hope that a Director's Cut DVD with all the extra footage will be such an amazing seller that they have no choice but to greenlight a sequel.

FAVREAU NOW ON BOARD IRON MAN 2
Awesome news. I would have been supremely disappointed in Marvel if they had gone with another director after Favreau absolutely tattooed Iron Man out of the park for them and launched what could be an awesome franchise [or two if you count the Avengers lead-in.] Now all they have to do is figure out if they can really get the movie done by Marvel's already announced 2010 release date. The plot thickens.

ROBERT DOWNEY JR. IS SHERLOCK HOLMES
Speaking of Iron Man, it's amazing how many high profile roles become available to an actor that just rocked the cinematic world in a big picture. It's like Entourage come to life. I bet Robert Downey Jr. could even make Matterhorn watchable.

THE ROBIN DEBATE
So, basically - Christian Bale dropped a comment in a recent bit of press for TDK that he never wants to see Robin appear in a Batman movie again. An easy-to-understand statement after the atrocity that was Robin in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. When I first read his comment, I agreed wholeheartedly and wondered why anyone would even consider it. And then...

Amazing Batman comic write Jeph Loeb had this to say in response to MTV News:
"Take the time to tell the story properly. There is a story of Dick Grayson and how he becomes Robin that is extremely moving and very helpful.”

In the events of Loeb’s “The Long Halloween,” which preceded “Dark Victory” and served as a partial inspiration for “The Dark Knight,” the main characters are all left alienated and alone, bereft of even a little hope. It’s Robin’s presence that can change that for Bruce, Loeb argues, creating a father/son dynamic that can mirror Wayne’s relationship with his own dad. In short, Robin can teach Bruce how to be more human, Loeb insisted.

“It’s all about building the relationship between Bruce and Dick. Dick hates Bruce. He doesn’t understand why it is that he needs to do this and Bruce doesn’t understand why he’s doing it either because he’s not a parent. He doesn’t know how to be a parent,” Loeb said. “And together, they make each other better people. So that for me would be the next step.”

But for all the fans already crying out in horror just at the thought of it, Loeb isn’t actually talking so much about Robin as he is about Dick Grayson. In fact, the best Robin story might not actually have “Robin” at all.

“I wouldn’t let him become Robin until the third act, if that. I think that’s the other problem when you tell that story is that there’s this rush to put him in a costume by the end of the first 20 minutes and in that case I think it’s a disaster,” Loeb said. “So if you look at ‘Dark Victory’ Tim and I went nine out of twelve chapters before you even started to talk about putting him in a costume and he doesn’t put the costume on until the last chapter of that book.”

Alright, I think I'm sold. You?