Because some significant superhero media news came out on Monday, and I have thoughts!

♦- David Tenant as Zebediah Kilgrave/Purple Man in AKA Jessica Jones (I’m calling it that, even if it doesn’t end up being called that; it’s a great title for a long-in-development property) series going to Netflix is really good casting. I’m going to assume you probably don’t know who either Kilgrave or Jones are, which is a safe thing to do. Jessica Jones was the lead in Alias, a Marvel comic series a few years back about a broken down former superhero coming back on the scene as a private detective; very noir-ish. Jones went on to become a mainstay of Marvel comics (at least as written by Brian Michael Bendis, who writes lots of ’em), getting her groove back a bit, and marrying Luke Cage. Kilgrave is an early Daredevil villain with pheromonal mind-control powers. More modern interpretations have him as a manipulative, awful, and rapey bastard, who was largely responsible for Jones’ breakdown.

I like it, because Tenant can definitely play the charismatic manipulative bastard pretty well; his Doctor wasn’t far off, as much as the fangirls would hate to admit. I expect him to go to some pretty dark places, which should really work. My interest is further piqued.

♦- The other big bit that I care about is the bit of news leaking about Fantastic Four, which is out in just a couple of months and no one’s seen a damned thing, except for a couple of strange statements about containment suits, Doctor Doom as a blogger, and some against-type casting. It’s not been that long since the FF left the screen (two fun, but flawed and relatively unsuccessful films), and Fox needs to get another one out there in order to not lose the film rights. this one’s directed by Josh Trank, who did Chronicle, which was an interesting low-fi “found footage” superhero flick. It sounds like the same “grim and gritty” aesthetic is being applied to the First Family of Comics, and that has a lot of fans (including me) worried, especially since things are generally so quiet.

A bit of stuff came out recently, including descriptions of the suits (not sure what to think, but they seem dark and sci-fi), and Trank throwing around adjectives like “Cronenbergian”, powers as “disabilities” and citing filmic influences like The Fly and Scanners. Now, I can trace the lineage of this influence; Lee and Kirby were definitely influenced by the 50s and 60s monster and horror comics and movies when they came up with the FF; lots of pre-Marvel comics (go look up the first appearances of Ant-Man and Groot as “the monster from Planet X” sometime) were just that. A 21st century reboot looking back to 80s horror flicks and playing up the body horror creep factor makes a certain sort of sense. It could be interesting, but it won’t be the Fantastic Four without the family dynamic or inherent optimism of discovery, which nobody’s mentioned thus far, and that’s what concerns me.

I’m curious, but I maintain that the best FF adaptation would be a 60s period piece. Interestingly, if the FF ever end up back at Marvel, the 60s is an era they haven’t done much with just yet – an era of super-science exploration might slot into the MCU nicely between Agent Carter’s 40s, the upcoming Hank Pym 70s flashbacks, and the modern era.

UPDATE – with a link to today’s FF trailer I haven’t actually watched yet.

♦- And finally – a hate group has managed to place a bunch of islamophobic ads on buses in San Francisco. Some practitioners of civil disobedience have taken to “improving” these ads by covering them with more positive messages and images of Ms. Marvel, the perky teenage superhero currently headlining one of Marvel’s best ongoing books (who just happens to be muslim). I would never condone vandalism, though if I were to condone vandalism, it would be this kind of vandalism. 😉