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 covers summer movies, upcoming TV shows, the pulps, and the secret identity of the new Lara Croft.
 
For the record I finally did see Despicable Me 2, though I have to confess I felt a little sheepish as I sat by myself in a theater full of families.  That is, until yesterday when I read a piece in The Hollywood Reporter titled "NBCUniversal CEO: 'Despicable Me 2' Will Be Most Profitable Film in Universal's History."  In it NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke is quoted as saying the animation feature "is going to end up being the single most profitable film in the 100 year history of Universal Studios."  But more importantly I enjoyed it, well enough.  I won't try to convince anyone it was the greatest movie I'd ever seen but then, the older I get the more I appreciate entertainment that's non-threatening and reassuring, something you won’t get from this summer’s cavalcade of annihilation porn.
 
Last week (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--A Teachable Moment") I wrote that Hollywood had been turning too-good-to-be-true protagonists like Superman and The Lone Ranger into lesser beings which mainstream audiences can accept.  This week I'd like to suggest that instead of going to all that bother they might want to start making movies about villains and/or ordinary people who fight villains, a trope I've dubbed "Dr. Doom vs. Billy."  It's a chestnut which appeared regularly in British boys comics in the 60's and 70's, the best known (in America anyway) example of which being The Spider, a ray gun blasting super thief… who, come to think of it, wasn't all that unlike Gru, My favorite though was a serial called "Von Hoffman's Invasion" where an insane Nazi scientist’s plot to destroy England with gigantic animals was principally opposed by Joe and Barry Drake, a pair of schoolboys.
 
I also saw Pacific Rim and for those still on the fence as to whether they're seeing it or not I am happy to report it is a very good movie.  I should have connected the dots on my own but it wasn't until I saw the article "Top 5: Marvel Comics Kaiju" on the iFan website that I realized the implications it had for comics.  Now that there’s a generation who seems capable of taking giant monsters seriously I’m hoping Marvel will finally get serious about doing something with the Lee/Kirby "kaiju" (Fing Fang Foom, Zzutak, The Thing That Shouldn’t Exist, Goom, etc.).
 
I suppose the announcement of an upcoming Archie cartoon (see "It's Archie for TV") could be considered good news, even if the series is being done by the French animation company Moonscoop.  The studio's output ranges wildly from the endearingly oddball and visually interesting (Funky Cops, Hero 108) to the truly appalling (Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes*) and from the artwork that’s being provided it's clear It's Archie will have a similar "extreme" look.  I was more interested, though, in a quote from Archie Comics president Mike Pellerito from the Comic-Con Kevin Keller panel: "Kevin reinforced in a strong way that Archie is about cool kids and you’re welcome at the cool kids table."  There's no doubt Kevin Keller was a groundbreaking character, but I think I'll believe Pellerito when I see a fat girl and a tall, skinny boy eating lunch with the Riverdale Gang.
 
As you've all undoubtedly noticed there's been something of a pulp renaissance going on, what with Dynamite Entertainment publishing such pulp (and pulp adjacent) titles as The Shadow, The Spider and The Black Bat, The Green Hornet, The Lone Ranger not to mention public domain versions of Tarzan and John Carter.  I say "pulp adjacent" because the term "pulp" already has several meanings; it can refer to either 30's pulp magazines or 50's cheap paperbacks.  But it's only gotten worse; ever since DC's ill-fated First Wave lumped pulp heroes with The Spirit and Rima the Jungle Girl there are those who use the term to mean any non-super hero.  Which is how we get a "pulp" crossover series Masks which featured appearances by comic heroes like The Black Terror and Miss Fury and the upcoming Captain Action miniseries Codename: Action that will guest star both pulp heroes and Golden Age superheroes.  I believe this definition creep needs to stop before pulp starts getting applied to things from the 1960's.  One way to do that  would be to come up with a cool phrase for 60's stuff; I nominate the term "Jet-Age." 
 
So with all of this going on I wondered if I would see any changes when I attended last weekend’s PulpFest in Columbus but the short answer is "no."  While as usual there was a good turnout and I enjoyed the relaxed and friendly atmosphere, there definitely weren't any of the Dynamite pulp comics on display or any obvious sign of out of space comic fans looking to start their pulp magazine collections.  Maybe next year.
 
I'm not what you'd call a big fan of the Tomb Raider franchise but I was taken aback when I saw the painting by Dan Dos Santos from an upcoming Dark Horse comic that was included in this announcement from Comic-Con (see "Gail Simone on 'Tomb Raider'").  It seemed strangely familiar but it took a Facebook post for me to realize the obvious; the woman who modeled for the painting was Liza Biggers.  Today she's a very talented New York based illustrator but I knew her years ago when she dressed up as Sailor Moon for a TV commercial I "produced" for Dark Star III in Beavercreek, Ohio.  But that's another story.
 
* The second Fantastic Four cartoon series, the one with the robot H.E.R.B.I.E. filling in for The Human Torch is considered by most fans to be the worst animated version of the F.F.  And while it certainly isn't any good, Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes is infinitely worse.  It had a Human Torch, one who had anime hair and was pathologically afraid of water.
 
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.