Raucous Underground

Back in the 90’s, Disney was making a bunch of cartoons for a programming block they called the “Disney Afternoon”. Among these are classics like Ducktales, Chip N’ Dale’s Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin, but let’s not forget Darkwing Duck. The show revolves around Drake Mallard who masquerades around as the purple-clad combatant, Darkwing Duck, who runs around with his side-kick and Ducktales veteran, Launchpad McQuack. Yes, it was a bit of a super hero show but still focused primarily on comedy. Totaling out at 91 episodes, the show was canned in 1992, but now it’s back… Kinda. Back in June, Boom Studios released the first issue of Darkwing Duck: The Duck Knight Returns. Originally it was set to be a 4 part miniseries, but now it’s an ongoing series.

The first issue opens with a recount of Darkwing’s last known adventure as he fought Megavolt, a reoccurring villain from the show. This is a news broadcast relating how St. Canard used to rely on costumed vigilantes before the mega company, Quackwerks, appeared with their Crimebots and began protecting the city. We then find that Drake Mallard hung up his cape and now works for Quackwerks along with some of the villains he fought (Darkwing shares a cubicle with Megavolt, Elmo to his coworkers). He now finds that he has to keep a steady pay check, especially since he’s enrolled his adopted daughter, Gosalyn, in a fancy private academy.

Apparently, nearly everyone works for Quackwerks, and with the Crimebots around, Drake feels his time as Darkwing has passed, though he misses it to the point of zoning out while working and remembering the good ol’ days. At the end of the day, Megavolt misses the bus, due to a memo from the toy department that kept him busy, and is then grabbed by vine from a speeding van. Later, at the Mallard residence, Honker Muddlefoot, Gosalyn’s best friend, is helping her with her homework as Drake continues to miss his old life. Then, as he tries to call his old side-kick, Launchpad, Crimebots break through his walls to arrest Honker for illegally downloading a song. Drake tries to prevent the captures but when he fails, Gosalyn suggests it might be time for Darkwing Duck to make a comeback. Elsewhere, we find that the captured Megavolt has been reunited with some old friends.

This is just issue 1 and 2 & 3 have both already been released. Thus far, the story is interesting and the dialogue certainly seems to fit with the old show. The art is no different as it looks like stills from an episode. All the characters are on model, the colors are bright and I’d say the future for this series is bright as well. Now, if only Disney would make a movie based on Darkwing Duck…

Ok, so we know the basic story but how does it work on the silver screen?

I think that your mileage of the film may vary based on what sort of a background you’re walking in with, but overall, I’d say it’s great. This film predominantly caters to fans of the graphic novels and gamers in general though the gaming aspect really seemed to take a back seat to things and only appeared as a device for comedy and storytelling. There are a fair number of gaming references and the overall story is built sort of on the model of a video game, but the movie doesn’t have the space for as many references as the source material. It still borrows heavily from gaming stereotypes; it wouldn’t be Scott Pilgrim if it didn’t. As far as the transition from books to big screen, There were a lot of things that were shifted around and scrunched together (and some things cut altogether), but I think a lot of the major plot points are still present (of course, I’m still reading the GN’s so I might comment on this again later).

I think I have 2 really glaring issues with the movie. First of all, I think it covered the first graphic novel pretty well, but it because of it there was a good bit of jumping around. Even then, it wouldn’t have been so bad but some of the transitions could have caused confusion. For example, at one point the scene goes from Scott and Knives hanging out into the first dream he has where he sees Ramona. These scenes are two totally separate bits in the graphic novel but in the film, Scott literally goes from talking to Knives to drifting into the dream. If I hadn’t read the graphic novel, I’d have thought he went into some kind of psychotic episode. Still, some different transitions would have helped this and it only really happens in any sort of notable way early in the film.

My second gripe is that there’s a specific scene early in the film that shows Scott and Knives playing a DDR inspired ninja video game in an arcade (HA you can’t fool me! Arcades have been extinct for hundreds of years!). It’s a very cheesy, could-never-be-real game, meant to take the place of any game from reality since showing them play an actual game would have probably cost money. What’s worse is there’s a whole plot point based around it about how Scott can never pass this one aspect of the game which shows up in reality later in the movie and Scott overcomes it, having grown as a person and further malarkey. It just felt sort of cheesy to me though it did allow for one aspect of the graphic novels to make it into the movie.

Beyond those two issues, the movie is a lot of fun. The action is great and full of energy. All of the fight scenes are really interesting and I would love to see more films use an over the top method to the madness. I liked the use of the visualized sound effects and other comic-esque visual cues; they were all used really well and to great affect. There is the matter that the relationship between Ramona and Scott is never really looked at in the sense that it can be hard to tell why they’re together, but then Mario’s motive for saving Peach have never really been explained either. The story in general could be a bit more solid by explaining why characters did what they did and felt the way they felt, but the humor and action still make for a fun ride.

23 year old Scott Pilgrim is part of the band, Sex Bob-omb, and has started seeing a 17 year old, high school student, Knives Chau. Soon, Scott starts having dreams that keep getting invaded by a mysterious girl on rollerblades and he becomes obsessed with this mystery dream girl when he actually ends up seeing her in real life. Scott is able to find out she’s a delivery girl for Amazon.ca and decides to order something.

Come Monday morning, he has another dream and see’s the girl holding his package. He then wakes up and opens the front door just in time to see her ring the doorbell. After a bit of an awkward meeting, Scott finds out this girl, Ramona Flowers, uses subspace highways to make her deliveries faster and that one such highway goes right through Scott’s head. He convinces Ramona to hang out with him and the event ends with Scott sleeping with her (but not “sleeping with” her, ok?).

Scott soon receives an e-mail and a letter from a Matthew Patel, which he quickly dismisses. At the same time, Scott’s roommate, Wallace Wells, pressures him to break up with Knives, to which Scott promises, but that’s flakes out on the promise because Knives has totally fallen for Scott. That night, Scott’s band is playing at a concert but before they can get through the first song, Matthew Patel, the guy who was trying to contact Scott, comes flying through the wall and engages Scott in battle.

Patel explains he is one of Ramona’s ex boyfriends and that Scott must fight him. After a fairly one-sided fight, Patel is defeated and fades away, dropping a stack of coins in his place. Scott collects the spoils as bus fair and hurriedly leaves with Ramona. She explains that if Scott wants to date her that he might have to defeat her 7 evil exes. Scott agrees and asks specifically about one of her ex’s, Gideon, whom he’d heard of at a party, and upon hearing his name, Ramona’s expression changes and her head starts to glow.

This is an odd little graphic novel. The art is simple. The storytelling is simple. The idea seems fairly simple. It’s a basic idea that excels in its execution. The character interactions are usually funny but still hold a lot of heart. Scott seems awkward in his relationships but it’s endearing to his friends, and the reader, because he never seems to be a bad or selfish person and his friends are important to him. The graphic novel is full of little videogame references and the whole thing is really geeky (AWESOME) but what’s odd is how no one seems overly weirded out by subspace highways, people flying around throwing fire balls or demon hipster chicks. Still, this world of Scott Pilgrim’s is an interesting one and I am eager to read part two… Which I happen to have right here.

If you’ve been anywhere but under a rock recently, you’ve probably heard of a little movie about to hit theaters called Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Again, for those who find the best housing accommodations under large chucks of earth, the film is about a 23 year old Canadian guy, Scott Pilgrim, who thinks he meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers, only to find out that in order to date her properly, he must defeat the League of Ramona’s 7 Evil Ex’s. The trailers have looked flashy and certainly grabbed my attention with what looks to be some great action and an original idea, but it got me asking “Where did this come from?”

It turns out that the movie is based on a series of graphic novels. In fact, the movie covers the whole series of 6 volumes. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is actually the title of the second volume, by the way. I went and picked up the first volume, Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, from my local comic shop. The story thus far seems simple, the art seems simple, and Scott Pilgrim himself is very simple, but it works. Scott is “between jobs” lives with a roommate who seems to provide for the both of them, is part of a band, and is dating a 17 year old high school student named Knives. KNIVES, as in cutting utensils!

It’s a very odd series, from my reading. The first graphic novel seems to start off a bit slowly, as I’ve hear the film does, but does seem to gain a lot of steam and pick up. If you’ve watched the trailers you might have noticed POW’s and BAM’s as well as very action-y looking starburst affects accentuating the fight scenes and those are straight out of the comic. Truth be told, the comic seems to get a bit crazy and over the top, but that’s part of the charm. Also part of the charm is that it’s full of gaming references, and the affects seen during fights are a part of that. It’s all sort of set up as though Scott Pilgrim’s life were a video game. Well, I think it looks like a fun game and we all get to see it on Friday (tomorrow!). Until then, be sure to check out Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim tonight for an animated feature, based on the art style of the comics that tells some of the story that didn’t make it into the film. Also, I’ll leave you with a trailer and a promise that I’ll talk more of Mr. Pilgrim’s adventures later.

I have to confess that 1) I read comic books and 2) I primarily read the Sonic the Hedgehog comic and related books. I read other books, too, but I brought this up for a reason. I’ve been reading Sonic since I was a kid; I’ve always been a huge fan of the old games and the world they and the comic created. That was about 15 years ago. Things could be changing soon though.

Yesterday, Ken Penders, a professional writer who is responsible for much of the world contained in Sonic the Hedgehog, announced he is lobbing a copyright infringement claim towards the Sonic property. Mr. Penders claims that his copyright and his old contract, with Archie and SEGA, were violated when Bioware produced Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. He believes, as do a good number of people siding with him, that Bioware used his ideas from the comic as the basis for the game’s story.

He wants to reclaim the rights to his characters and story concepts that he created for the comic. He seems to believe that when Bioware was allowed to produce a story with striking similarities to his work, SEGA violated the contract that he signed when he was hired to write and draw for Archie. He is looking to have say over when and where his ideas can be used, but SEGA, according to the wall of text in each issue, owns anything and everything written into Sonic.

It’s hard to say who’s right, but emotions are high, and have been for a while now. To anyone familiar with the internet fandom of Sonic (which I’m ashamed to say I’m familiar with), it has been obvious that there two main camps: those who liked what Mr. Penders did on the book or those who think the new head writer, Ian “Potto” Flynn, is the best thing to happen to the book. Either way, it’s no secret that Mr. Penders hasn’t been happy with what Ian has been doing.

It’s an interesting question though: Who owns these characters? Even if they’re used in a serialized work, Mr. Penders fathered all these ideas. Still, he did so with the understanding of what they’re being used for. He also has plans to release new works based on those characters he created, does he have the right to do that?