Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  This week, Bennett looks at the upcoming Daphne and Velma movie, the next volume of Valerian, the second Tintin movie, and the Spice Girls superhero movie.

A couple of months ago when I read they were planning to make a live-action film called Daphne & Velma (see “’Daphne and Velma’”), I must confess I was pretty dubious.  Because I hadn't really cared for either of the previous Scooby-Doo movies, sure, but also because it was supposedly about the two characters’ friendship, and I had never thought of them being friends.  In fact, in both the comics I've read and cartoons I've seen, I don’t remember them once having an actual conversation.

Then I clicked on the Entertainment Weekly piece, “Daphne & Velma: Scooby-Doo Mystery Gang members get their own movie”. There’s a trailer, and after watching it I found the movie makes a fairly convincing case that they are unlikely friends.  The same way Sarah Jeffery and Sarah Gilman make fairly convincing younger versions of Daphne and Velma in spite of the fact that both actresses are in their 20s.  From what I've seen, it should appeal to the predominantly young female audience it’s obviously intended for. When Daphne & Velma becomes available on May 22, a Daphne & Velma comic from DC wouldn’t be the worst idea I’ve ever heard.

I’m on record as having liked the movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (see “Confessions of a Comic Guy--At The Movies”), but for those who still haven’t seen it, it's currently streaming on Amazon Prime.  I can’t promise you’ll enjoy it; if the comments on a recent Facebook post are representative, opinions on the movie remain widely (not to mention wildly) divisive. I've since seen it a couple more times and like it even more.  Especially the way Cara Delevingne (did you know she played June Moone/The Enchantress in Suicide Squad?  I didn’t, and I've somehow ended up seeing that movie several times as well*) captures Laureline’s unflappable, “chill” nature.   But then, I’ve been a fan of Valerian for years, which is why I was well pleased to see this piece on The Bleeding Cool website, “Cinebook to Publish New Valerian and Laureline in English.” According to it, while the movie was a box-office disappointment a lot of places, it was a blockbuster in France, the nation where the comics it was based on come from.  Its local success led to a new series of Valerian and Laureline comics by new creators, and Cinebook will be translating them into English.  The first new volume, Shingouzlooz Inc by Wilfrid Lupano and Mathieu Lauffray, will be available in June.

While on the subject of European comics and the movies made from them, back in 2011 (see “Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Well, I liked It”), I wrote about how much I enjoyed the animated movie The Adventures of Tintin. I was actively looking forward to the sequel, which was supposed to be directed by Peter Jackson. But since then there’s been so much silence about it so I had pretty much assumed the film was dead.  But according to The Bleeding Cool piece, “Steven Spielberg Confirms the Tintin Sequel is Still Happening.” Apparently while promoting his new film Ready Player One, he was asked by Premiere magazine about the movie, and was quoted as saying, “Peter Jackson has to do the second part. Normally, if all goes well, he will soon start working on the script. As it takes two years of animation work on the film, for you, I would not expect to see it for about three years. But Peter will stick to it. Tintin is not dead!”

Finally, according to a piece in Variety; “The Spice Girls’ Next Project: An Animated Superhero Movie (EXCLUSIVE).”  A “source” of the unnamed variety says that all five members of the group (Posh, Scary, Baby, Sporty and Ginger; information you'll most likely only ever need if you play Trivial Pursuit: 90’s Time Capsule Edition) are on board to provide likenesses as well as their characters’ voices and are “fired up about the idea.”  This source added, “The Spice Girls are thinking big in terms of a franchise on a global scale. They’re the most successful girl group on the planet. It’s just what Marvel or Disney needs.”

I suppose it's possible, I guess.  I mean, nostalgia is powerful and pre-awareness is supposedly priceless, and it sometimes seems like Netflix will buy almost anything.  They seem especially fond of reviving pre-existing properties (Full House, Arrested Development, Gilmore Girls, One Day at a Time and of course Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return).  But I think The Spice Girls might want to lower their expectations ever so slightly.

I don’t wish to contradict an Unnamed Source, but I’m fairly certain Disney doesn't especially "need" the group. And while "The Weeknd is getting his own comic book from Marvel,” The Spice Girls were “the most successful girl group on the planet.”  Past tense.  Plus, I can’t forget how back in 2008 Stan Lee announced he was working on a project that turned David and Victoria Beckham, (a.k.a. Scary Spice) into animated superheroes.  Something which of course never happened, the same way Stan’s attempts to turn Ringo Starr, Paris Hilton, Hugh Hefner and Arnold Schwarzenegger (a.k.a. “The Governator”) into animated superheroes never happened.

* For some reason every time my local cable system has one of their free movie channel weekends, they almost invariably show Suicide Squad.  While I didn’t like the theatrical version it always seemed to be on when nothing else was, so I’d watch it.  I’ve now seen it an additional two times this way and every time it seems as if more additional footage had been added. Now, while usually “additional footage” only makes a movie longer, not better, the last time I saw the movie it actually seemed to have a linear narrative that made sense.  It still wasn’t a good movie, you understand, but it certainly was a better one.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.