Click Here to Order from Amazon.comGreen Lantern (2011) Written by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Goldenberg Directed by Martin Campbell Runtime 114 min. 3.5 out of 5
When dying alien and Green Lantern Abin Sur is discovered by brash and cocky fighter pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds), Hal’s life is suddenly changed when the mysterious alien gives him a green power ring and matching lantern with vague instructions to “speak the oath.”
After finally unlocking the lantern, Hal is taken to the planet Oa where he learns he has become Abin Sur’s successor in the Green Lantern Corps and is also the first human to ever bear the powerful mantle of a Green Lantern.
As part of his training, Hal is taken under the wing of a powerful Lantern named Sinestro (Mark Strong) whose view of right and wrong is sheer black and white, and who has no trouble enforcing the law with lethal force. Turns out Sinestro wasn’t the first to feel this way as long ago one of the creators of the lantern rings—one of the Guardians of Oa—disagreed with the Oan Council and set off on his own, discovering a new power, this one the yellow power of Fear. Now the superpowered being Parallax, this former Guardian wishes to take revenge on those who banished him.
As Hal learns what it means to set aside his own pride and ego and live by the sacred Green Lantern oath—In brightest day, in blackest night . . . —he must come to grips with his newfound power and expel Parallax’s presence from the universe once and for all.
After the crazy success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, Warner Brothers and DC Comics were in big need of another hit after Superman Returns failed to deliver at the box office, and so they went to another DC hero: Green Lantern. Good choice. He’s a kind of Superman/Batman hybrid in that Hal Jordan is human and has the qualities and struggles thereof like Bruce Wayne, and yet by wielding his power ring, his superpowers get up there right alongside the Last Son of Krypton in many ways. Whether this was Warners’ reasoning or not, I don’t know—probably not—but GL was certainly a good character to try and take to the big screen, especially since it had never been done before.
In a nutshell, the movie wasn’t bad. I liked it. It didn’t change my life, but it’s not the piece of garbage many folks make it out to be. It covered Hal Jordan’s transformation into Green Lantern, delivered awesome effects, created a sense of atmosphere both about the Green Lantern Corps and Oa, and came through on telling a simple story that got Hal Jordan from Point A to B in a reasonable amount of time.
People complained there wasn’t enough action or not enough stuff on Oa—but those kinds of things aren’t—and weren’t—supposed to be the focus of this movie. It was about getting the ring into Hal’s hands and teaching him the ol’ Uncle Ben motto of “With great power comes great responsibility.”
I like how it took time to get Hal used to using the ring and it wasn’t a case of him putting it on and suddenly becoming an expert on creating green light constructs. And once he figured it out, I enjoyed how his constructs were simple—the racetrack, machine guns, etc.—as opposed to something crazy or way too technical. Why? Put yourself in his shoes. You’d probably construct something you’re more comfortable with than trying to create some big complicated airship stocked with robot soldiers with a zillion weapons and stuff.
The love story between Hal and Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) seemed forced though it did provide a nice bridge between the realm of Oa and Earth. Clearly this relationship was introduced for sequel purposes because those who know the comics know Carol Ferris becomes the supervillain Star Sapphire down the line.
I think in the end, Green Lantern did its job. Could it have been better? Sure. Could it have been worse? Yup.
Regardless, I like popping this movie into the player from time to time, and if you’re a superhero fan, you should, too.
I’m a huge fan of Max West’s Sunnyville Stories, which are slice-of-life tales of anthropomorphic animals in a small town. He releases the comics issue by issue then, when he has enough, collects them into trade paperbacks. Presently, there are two trade paperbacks: Sunnyville Stories Vol. 1 and Sunnyville Stories Vol. 2. They are available both in print and eBook.
Mech Apocalypse has hit Kindle and in a few days will be popping up on-line in paperback form. The book is almost out and then I can start marketing it. Now, with that project out of the way, I’m free to focus on other things so this week I came up with a graphic novel concept I’m eager to delve into. I wrote up a treatment for it–basically a story overview sans any specific details–and am about to hunker down and outline the thing scene-by-scene. Once that’s done, I’ll go back over it and expand the scenes by adding in dialogue, captions, camera angles and all the rest. It’s going to be a big book, over a hundred comic pages when done. The plan is to draw it once it’s written. I’ve wanted to get back into comics for a while and this seems like a good opportunity to do so. Don’t worry. It doesn’t mean I’m abandoning prose. Just taking a break from it. The sequel to Mech Apocalypse is half-written so it won’t take long to finish that up and bring it to you guys in the New Year. I’ll follow up with the third volume in the trilogy later on in 2015.
Thing is, I want to do an “in-between” project, something to keep me busy while I let the Mech Apocalypse world of mech-bots and exo-suits percolate in the back of my head. Comics seems a good place to do so. I also plan on doing an in-between project between Mech Apocalypse 2 and Mech Apocalypse 3. I have a book that’s already 3/4 written. The problem is it’s horror and since I don’t do horror anymore, it’d be an awful shame to let so much of an already-written book go to waste. So I’m going to retool it into a sci-fi, which, given the story, would be quite easy to do. More details on that project when the time comes.
In the meantime, I’m going to make some comics.
I plan on giving more details about this graphic novel project, along with its title, once I script the thing. At that point, with the script locked down, it becomes official and I can then start talking it up to get you interested.
Besides, I’ve been itching to draw comics again for a good while now.
Note: This post was originally published on Jeffrey Allen Davis’s blog
The Axiom-man Saga at the C4 Comic Con 2013
The Axiom-man Origin and Why I Write Superhero Fiction by A.P. Fuchs
The Axiom-man Saga is an old story. A couple decades, in fact, as it was around then that I started to daydream about a similar hero while walking my paper route each morning. I’d get so lost in this story about a hero caught in a cosmic war between Good and Evil that I’d be done my route before I knew it and would often run house-to-house to double check and make sure I delivered the paper to the right places.
In that fantasy, of course, I played the hero. As the story grew and I got older, I ended up transferring the honor of being that character to someone else, a fictitious someone else who would one day go by the name of Gabriel Garrison.
Axiom-man began to take shape in concept throughout all my years of delivering the paper—and went by a different name, which was featured in my novel, April, written as Peter Fox (for that secret name, you’ll just have to read the book to find out). In 1995, Axiom-man received his new costume, the one he wears today. At the time, Axiom-man—originally called Trinity—and this concept character of mine were two different people. Trinity was more of a supernatural hero ala Spawn and fought demons, whereas my other hero was more down-to-Earth in nature and had very Superman-like powers. Yes, I know: Superman isn’t very down-to-Earth, but he does deal with things on this plane of existence 9 times out of 10. Anyway, as time went on, Trinity became Axiom—who was yet another character at the time—and as even more time went on and after being inspired by the likes of Frank Dirscherl and his Wraith character—who back in 2005 had one novel, a comic and a movie in the works—I decided it was time to put my long-thought-about superhero to paper. I merged my paper route fantasy character with Axiom because I always had an affinity for him, and after doing a quick web search on the Axiom name and finding a company out there with the same name, I went and made it my own by adding “man” to the end of it, hyphenated, of course, because that’s who Axiom-man really is: a self-evident truth embodied in a single person, in his case the self-evident truth of being one to do good rather than evil. From there it was an issue of scaling his powers waaaay back and settling upon three of them: strength, flight and eye beams. And when I say I scaled his powers way back, I mean way, way back. When Axiom-man debuted, he could only lift around 1000 pounds, could fly at about 60 kilometers an hour, and his energy beams only carried so much force. I didn’t want to make him too powerful thus making him always the winner and, because of his great strength, have no choice but to always pit him against ultra powerful foes. My story was to take place in our world under the idea of, “If this happened in our reality tomorrow, how would it most likely play out?” Making him with that kind of power set helped keep him grounded in reality and gave me plenty of options for enemies he could fight to sometimes win and sometimes lose against.
His backstory and mythology were left unaltered and kept the same as the character I thought about growing up, still the product of a nameless messenger having visited him and granting him his abilities without explanation. As the story goes on, Axiom-man finds out why he received his powers and how he is caught in a cosmic war that has raged since time immemorial.
The reason Axiom-man made his debut in books rather than comics was because, at the time I brought him to market, I knew of superhero fiction but didn’t think to do it independently. Frank Dirscherl’s The Wraith and Knight Seeker by Eric Cooper showed me otherwise. Axiom-man was originally a comic book character and I even drew a 21- or 22-page comic with him when he was called Trinity back in high school. I still have it somewhere and might publish it one day as a kind of behind-the-scenes thing. Anyway . . .
By doing superheroes in prose, I was able to work alone, could tell the story exactly how I wanted it, and because I was already self-publishing other fiction at the time, had the system in place to get Axiom-man out there.
You know, even though Axiom-man was my first official superhero release, I look over my fiction and every book I’ve written is a superhero novel in some way. Take A Red Dark Night, for example. It’s about a summer camp under siege by blood creatures. One of the protagonists, Tarek, is superheroic in nature, wears an otherworldly outfit complete with a cape, and shoots blue fire from a gauntlet on his forearm.
My epic fantasy book, some quarter million words long, called The Way of the Fog, is about a group of people who get superpowers in a medieval/fantasy-style setting.
My zombie trilogy, Undead World, deals with the supernatural, time travel, and each character is superheroic in how they act, even archetypical in some cases, with comic book-like good vs evil action.
Zombie Fight Night—aside from an aged Axiom-man making an appearance in there, is full of comic book characters monster-wise, everything from werewolves to vampires; to robots to pirates; to ninjas to samurai; and beyond, all battling the undead.
The Metahumans vs anthology series is, obviously, about Metahumans aka superheroes fighting a themed foe throughout each book.
As mentioned, my love story, April, is about a comic book writer who’s fallen in love, and what does he write? Superhero comics.
I think it’s only fitting that superhero fiction in its truest form—an actual superhero storyline—became a part of my repertoire. It seemed inevitable considering my love for the genre. Ever since I knew what a superhero was—at three years old, I think—I’ve been hooked, and not a day in my life has gone by where I haven’t thought about them, theorized about them, fantasized about them, pretended to be them and more. I even wear Superman and Batman onesies to bed for crying out loud!
Calling me a geek is an understatement, but I don’t care. Geeks make the world go round and fanboys are the ones providing people with entertainment. Superhero fiction just happens to be my main venue for doing so.
And where is Axiom-man going from here? Well, thus far, 7 prose books have been released along with a few comics and short stories. The whole saga is planned to be 50 books long, so I’m coming up on being 20 percent finished. The good part is the story is pretty much all mentally written. I had 9 years or so of delivering papers to get the story right, after all.
What I’m enjoying about the superhero fiction format is I’m able to do things with my characters that comic books don’t allow, at least, current superhero comics don’t allow. I’ve long advocated—and still do—that the comic book is the greatest storytelling medium to ever come down the pike, with books being a close second. Why? Because it’s the one-two punch of pictures combined with narration, whereas prose is a text-only medium. I still believe that, but being that at this stage in my career I’m primarily a writer versus a writer/artist, I’m sticking to books and the book medium is capable of telling superhero stories in a way comics haven’t as yet, namely getting inside a character’s head. Very few comic writers have succeeded in that in the past. Superhero comics are far too picture-heavy these days, with flashy computer coloring jobs, flimsy stories and scant dialogue. I miss the old days where there were almost equal amounts of text and pictures. At least with The Axiom-man Saga as it stands now, I can bring the reader dense characters where every thought and feeling is brought to the fore and, hopefully, pull the reader into the characters’ shoes in a way that superhero comics don’t. That’s my main goal with this: bring the reader in so that they feel they are experiencing my fiction versus just reading it. I’ve yet to read a superhero comic where this has happened. I have, however, read superhero books where this has occurred, Batman: Knightfall by Dennis O’Neil being a major favorite of mine and my first foray into the superhero fiction world.
What also sets The Axiom-man Saga apart from any of the current superhero offerings is that it’s a cross-medium superhero story that encompasses books, comics and short stories, all part of the same continuity. This has never been done before, and putting new spins on old things is one of the things I’ve always striven for in my fiction, especially in this industry where things are pretty copycat and cookie-cutter (we all know of certain authors that seem to turn out the same book over and over again just under a different title, right?).
Whether Axiom-man becomes this wild success or remains under the radar, for me it’s about writing the superhero story I always wanted to read, the one I’ve always thought about, and the one that, when my time on Earth is done, is the one I’ll be remembered by. It’s meant to be a career piece, a giant story with a beginning, middle and end, the story of a superhero, his life, and what that means to the world around us.
I invite you to come along for the ride.
Hope you enjoyed this little insight into the Axiom-man origin.
Comics and graphic novels are super important me, and they molded my storytelling and writing-style very early on in my career. There’s so much you can do with comics that you can’t do in any other medium.
Nowadays, the comic book industry in general is in a state of flux, with eComics and webcomics pushing the standard periodical comic book to the wayside. Graphic novels are a big thing now, with comic companies like DC and Marvel tailoring their story arcs to be collected later. To a point, they’re kind of shooting themselves in the foot in that if the reader knows the periodicals will be collected later for a cheaper price anyway, why buy the more expensive single issues and wait 30 days between each installment? At the same time, graphic novels are a fast-growing market last I checked so if they weren’t profitable, the comic companies wouldn’t do them and only provide one option.
In Europe, it’s mostly graphic novels in terms of publication, and I personally think this is where the overall comics industry is headed.
For me, as much as I enjoy the single issues–especially in the world of minicomics–creating book-length comics adds a level of prestige to the literature that their single-issue version can’t offer even though, technically, each single issue is, nowadays, a chapter in a book-length work. At the same time, these “collected editions of story arcs,” aren’t really graphic novels per se, but collections, and there’s a difference. That’s another discussion altogether so perhaps we’ll do it another time.
I usually have a graphic novel on the go reading-wise and add more to my collection when funds permit. Lately, I’ve been getting more and more into alternative comics as they carry more life, soul and authenticity than the current mainstream comics.
Anyway, here’s my collection. A couple of them are my wife’s, and some are not in these pics because they are by our bedside or elsewhere in the room (remember I said I usually have one on the go? So does the Mrs.).
I thought about taking them all out and arranging them for you, or clearing up the mess around them, but since I’ve always advocated writing should be about honesty, so should what I put on this blog so unlike my showcase pics of my own published books and comics, these are true bookshelf pics as per what Fridays on this blog is for.
Originally, way back when, I had wanted to be a comic book artist. As one thing led to another, I got involved with writing and eventually followed the career path of a novelist. However, over the years I’ve still had the chance to dabble in comics, whether it was just writing them or writing and drawing them.
Below is a picture of the comics I’ve produced through Coscom Entertainment.
They are: Axiom-man: Of Magic and Men, Axiom-man No. 1 and 2, Meet the Maximums, Canister X Comix No. 1, 2 and 3.
The bolded titles are the ones I did both the writing and art on.
If you are interested in purchasing any of the above comics, Axiom-man No. 1 and 2, and Canister X Comix No. 1-3 are $2 each, the others are $3. I’ll even bag and board them for you. Just let me know via email as per the contact page and we can arrange something. Postage is extra. Thanks.
Last week I began reinstating some of my titles, starting what could be considered my fifth era in this business, my Mark 5, so to speak.
Those in the know would tell you the reason for my retiring was a valid one, but upon reflection, prayer and consulting with others, I’ve stepped back into the world of writing and publishing.
However, this time, things will be different. As said, this is my fifth era in terms of how I do things, and it’s going to be a much simpler one. One of the problems with the last method was its complexity. Most of it was complicated by its nature, and the rest was made complicated by me, but since publishing is always about learning, I discovered how I did things before brought on its share of headaches and issues. Not the publishing part, but the administrative side.
The main thing that will underline what I plan on doing going forward is to keep things as simple as possible in as many ways as possible. Going back to basics here, and since 2014 already marked a change in my career in terms of stepping down as publisher, it’ll also be a year in which I fly below the radar in a lot of ways. I plan on just keeping my head down and working, only surfacing from time to time to check in, see what’s what, then step away again.
One of the main points of my retirement notice was my plan to go into full time Christian ministry. That’s still the plan in that I want my writing work to glorify God and not use it to glorify myself. I might miss the mark now and then, but Jesus is the center of my life so while I’ve made mistakes and had my ups and downs, I want my career to reflect my love for Him.
There are still some Mark 4 items that I’m wrapping up, but after the end of April at the [hopefully] latest, it’ll be Mark 5 all the way.
For my titles, I’ve brought a good portion of them back–books and comics–but my monster and horror stuff is gone. Those made up about half my catalog, but I’m okay with letting them go. What does light have to do with darkness, right? As for anything else I might bring back, we’ll see.
I learned a lesson recently in that I was invited to submit a horror story to an anthology in 2013, the story due end of January/early February of this year. I had a very, very hard time writing it. It was around 13,000 words or so on the third draft, if memory serves, but it was a difficult write and I mentioned to my wife as I wrote it that I just wasn’t into that stuff anymore. That story won’t be published and I pulled out of the anthology when I posted my retirement notice. My heart’s changed and horror and monsters are no longer my thing. A pastor I spoke to recently said it best when he said I was a dispenser of fear.
It’s true.
I was.
I don’t want to be that anymore.
I have plans for what books I’ll write this year and I really hope to do some comic stuff, too, as I love them so much.
This blog will be updated now and then, but with what, I’m not sure. I might go back to a schedule, I might not. I really like this idea of simply working.
