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 two overlooked stories and the weirdest name ever for a superhero.Last week The Hollywood Reporter revealed Warner Bros.bought a treatment for a movie from producer Adrian Askarieh (amongst his given credits is the Jonny Quest movie so apparently that's still going to happen) called Leonardo Da Vinci and the Soldiers of Forever. According to THR, as the entertainment daily has rebranded itself, Askarieh "came up with the original idea" which "re-imagines Da Vinci as a member of a secret society who falls headlong into a supernatural adventure that pits the man against Biblical demons in a story involving secret codes, lost civilizations, hidden fortresses and fallen angels. Think National Treasure and Raiders of the Lost Ark by way of Clash of the Titans."
If the immediate response from the blogosphere is any indication you'll likely either love or hate this wonky high concept premise,* but strangely enough no one else seems to have noticed the project is highly reminiscent of one that's already been announced. I place into evidence this inarguably super cool looking piece of promotional art that was done for Jonathon Hickman's new SHIELD series from Marvel. I'm not suggesting there's been any kind of malfeasance on anyone's part; if anything this leads credence to my long held belief that ideas exist in the collective unconscious and it's only a matter of who gets them down on paper first.
Still, it is kind of interesting.
Being someone who enjoys both Golden Age and French comics I must confess I was intrigued, but unfortunately as presented the property could have been created by someone trying to create an animated series in 1984 using the Mad Libs template. Shieldmaster (who has nothing to do with either the Golden Age Shield or Lancelot Strong The Shield) is the leader of the Shield World which is threatened by Annihilatron. One things leads to another and naturally a teenager from Earth has to assume the mantle of Shieldmaster and lead a "kid gang" (honest, that's how they're referred to) of Shield Heroes, Stealth, Warrior and Navigator Shield. It'll be published first as a 44-page graphic novel in French (if publishing the adventures of a hero wearing red, white and blue in France seems to be incongruous the piece helpfully points out that those colors are also in the French flag) but naturally everyone involved wants there to be an American edition. I have nothing but respect for Joe Simon and wish him much success... but I don't think either Simon has any idea of what the contemporary direct sales comic book market is like.
Included in the piece was a link to www.simoncomics.com; I followed it and was literally amazed at the number of Simon characters Simon & Simon want to market to other media. Don't get me wrong there are some classics here, like Stuntman and Bullseye, and I'd love to see Boys Ranch turned into a movie (Spyman at least sounds like it could be a summer blockbuster). But also listed are some of his most notorious characters like Jigsaw, Man of a Thousand Parts.
Still the character is not without possibilities, certainly not as a standard superhero comic but I'd certainly like to see him in the hands of someone like Charles Burns (Blackhole) or Daniel Clowes (David Boring). So if anyone out there wants to start up a collection to get the rights, put me down for $20.
* I'm all for it but then I do like them weird. Other than there will never be a sequel to the movie Dude, Where's My Car? (I'm of the opinion Seriously, Dude, Where's My Car? is the best movie sequel title ever) my greatest movie related regret is Ben Englund, creator of The Tick, never got to write and direct a remake of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
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.
