CATCHING UP WITH MARV WOLFMAN

[MattBrady]

by Daniel Robert Epstein

In the late 70’s Marv Wolfman was, along with creators like Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart, one of the key writers at Marvel Comics, after Stan Lee lessened his output. That’s why it is perfectly appropriate for Wolfman and Lee to team up again on The Condor, the latest animated film from POW Entertainment.

Voiced by Wilmer Valderrama, The Condor is the story of skateboarding champ Tony Valdez. Tony’s parents own a robotics corporation that is working on experimental nanotechnology. Someone is using that technology to create mindless zombies which cripple Tony and murder his parents. Tony, calling himself The Condor, uses a special set of leg braces and a souped up skateboard to catch his parent’s killers.

Aside from The Condor, currently, Wolfman is working on a number of high profile DC projects; his Homeland: The Illustrated History of the State of Israel has come out recently, and he’s finished a number of drafts of the upcoming animated Teen Titans: The Judas Contract film.

We spoke with him after he returned from a trip to Australia.

Newsarama: How was your Australia trip?

Marv Wolfman: It was really good trip.

NRAMA: Were you at a Con?

MW: Yeah, first time I’ve ever been there so it was a lot of fun.

NRAMA: How was the Con?

MW: It was a good Con. It wasn’t as big as San Diego most certainly, but it’s a good medium sized Con for this country and a large one for them. It’s a country the size of the United States but it only has like 25 million people.

NRAMA: So was it Stan [Lee] that brought you into The Condor?

MW: Yes. We’ve been friends since we met in 1970 or ‘71 and certainly in 1972 when I started to work at Marvel. I’ve worked for most of the companies Stan’s been involved with in one way or the other, whether it’s Stan Lee Media, Excelsior Comics and now with POW Entertainment.

NRAMA: I interviewed Scott Lobdell last month about Mosaic. He said that he and Stan actually worked together on the script. Was it the same with you?

MW: Yes. What happens is that Stan had a rough idea of what he wanted for the movie, gave it to me, I worked out a premise, came up with the characters, developed them and we worked together until the script formed. Then I went off and did the script myself and it went through the regular process that animated movies do.

NRAMA: Was Condor always going to be a Latino character, or did that happen once Wilmer came in?

MW: It was from day one a Latino character.

NRAMA: Did you have to do research for the script?

MW: I had to do research on skateboarding because I’m not a skateboarder. I read a lot of books, saw a lot of instructional videos so I would be able to get some of my terminology correct. You do an awful lot of research that does not get into the final film because of the way stuff is done but it helps. I also spoke with a lot of Latinos of that age so I had a sense of what somebody of that specific age would think about family and other things. So I interviewed and spoke with a number of people.

NRAMA: You’ve worked on a lot of cartoons. Was the process of creating the Condor much different than creating half hour cartoons?

MW: Yeah, because a half an hour cartoon, which is actually 22 minutes, is pretty much a rough story. You’re trying to develop as much as you can, you try to give as much characterization and work it out. But in a long form movie, it takes a lot more plot because it’s like doing a three-parter in terms of a cartoon show. The middle act of anything is the hardest, but in a 22 minute episode, you can move through the middle act pretty quickly. In this, the middle act is half the film because the first act and the third act are always the shortest in a film. A film is much harder than either doing three episodes of a show but it’s the equivalent of that. The pacing is very different. In three half hour shows, you’re essentially doing a beginning, middle and an end and each episode has to work on its own. In a movie, the whole thing has to flow consistently and keep pushing you forward without a stop.

NRAMA: Was it Stan’s idea to not give Condor any real superpowers?

MW: Stan, from day one, always had the fact that he was more mechanically augmented than power augmented.

NRAMA: Were there characters that either you or Stan had worked on in the past that you were using as touchstones for Condor?

MW: No, there was nothing like it. There’re certainly no skateboarding characters like that. I think the idea of the Latino family being a very wealthy family was a good notion because so often in cartoons when you use people who are not whitebread characters, they tend not to be in positions of power. So I think it is really good to show that. I think that every time you create a role model character, even if you’re just trying to tell a good story, it becomes important.

NRAMA: Scott Lobdell told me that there was a scene added to Mosaic after he was done that he had nothing to do with. Was there anything like that in Condor?

MW: Not totally. What happened was that since we were doing this before we had a director in place, the script was something like 110 pages. A cartoon of this size really should be about 80 pages. What happened was that a lot of the ending had to be compacted and redone to fit the time limit of the story. All the movies that followed, that Stan worked on, were done to the correct size so they flowed a little bit better before it got to animation. When you do animated movies, the script only informs the director of the choices and that’s sort of what happened here. So nothing was added that wasn’t in one form or another in the original script. I’d say it’s about 85% what I did originally, which is a phenomenal percentage for an animated movie. Usually in animated movies, a small percentage of what the writer does gets in there. I think they must have liked it but they had to restructure some of the stuff at the end so that it was about 15 minutes shorter than the script originally indicated but didn’t lose anything of value.

NRAMA: The movie can safely be called PG-13, was that what you were going for?

MW: The movie was always a PG-13 movie from the day I got it and the idea was that this wasn’t for kids. The thing that we were trying to do was make stories for almost the age group of the character. I’d say 18 to 25 and older as well. But it was not meant for kids and we definitely wanted that indicated clearly. In Japan, there are cartoons meant for kids, there are cartoons meant for teenagers, there’s cartoons meant for adults. Animation in the US has primarily been for kids and it is nice that they’ve started to do cartoons meant for older viewers.

I think it’s a really nice fun character and I’d like to see more, not only of The Condor but more minority characters in comics. About four or five years ago I wrote Crisis #4 ½ and all the DC characters on that were minority characters. I think we need that for all people because you have no idea how many of my friends told me how much it meant to them as a kid to see a black hero like Blade in the comics. Now I didn’t do it for that reason, I did it because I felt “Why wouldn’t there be one?” I don’t think you think about it until somebody comes up and tells you that. I get an awful lot of emails now that I have a website from people who tell me things like that. The work does have an effect after you send it out. I think Stan and Gil Champion of POW Entertainment are correct to be doing films that use people other than the standard white hero. I just have no idea why nobody has done it before.

NRAMA: Did you think of the female Asian character of Valeria in Condor [voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn] as a dragon lady?

MW: No because if she was white then you could say “Well you’re doing a white versus Hispanic.” I never even thought of that in the slightest. I was just thinking of a villainous female character and I’ve written tons of them from the Black Cat on. I think sometimes we get a little bit too tied in with “Well if you do this, this person’s going to get offended.” I did among the very first black heroes with Blade and later with Cyborg but I also did one of the very first black villains in Nova named the Condor strangely enough. I think if you start saying that one people have to be good or bad because that’s the way it should be, it’s obviously wrong. People are good or bad no matter what type of people they are and until you said it, I never even thought of her in the dragon lady capacity. I just thought of her as the bad guy for the story. Point of fact, the real bad guy for the story is the white businessman so she was sort of the Oddjob character to Goldfinger in many ways. But I didn’t think of her by race, I just thought of her as real sexy.

NRAMA: Are you still working on the Teen Titans: The Judas Contract cartoon?

MW: I just finished it.

NRAMA: How many drafts did you do?

MW: Two drafts and a polish. I’m waiting for notes on the current draft and if there are any, we’ll make some last minute notes. I’m not sure who the director is at the moment but I am sure he will have some notes. Animation is a continuing process until the film is actually out. I’m hoping that with The Judas Contract that it maintains itself that way. I’m very pleased with that and I learned an awful lot on The Condor in terms of pacing.

NRAMA: How close is it to the original comics?

MW: The original comics were a year and a half long storyline ending in the five-part Judas Contract story and The Judas Contract movie is 72 minutes. So we had to make a lot of changes in terms of secondary plot. The main thrust of the story is 100% identical. It’s stronger in some places than we were able to do in 1985 because it’s now 2007 so we were able to take certain characters make them stronger than we had before. We made some small changes to simplify the story like we don’t have Jericho in there.

NRAMA: Why?

MW: Jericho comes in, in the next to last storyline issue in the original comics. In the last seven minutes of a cartoon you just can’t have a brand new character coming in and expect to give him the type of development that we could do in an ongoing comic. We didn’t get much development with Jericho in the original comic because he doesn’t speak. But the fact that he continued gave him that ongoing development. We had to eliminate that part of it, but that meant giving more to the actual Titans themselves. So we have more with Starfire, Wonder Girl and Cyborg than we were able to do in the original because we were able to play with them a little bit more. The story was always about Changeling, Nightwing, and Terra.

NRAMA: Is it connected to the Cartoon Network version of Teen Titans?

MW: No, this has nothing to do with that. This is an adult version. It’s a very strong PG-13 based on the comic, not the cartoon show.

NRAMA: Do you suspect it will be less anime influenced?

MW: I don’t believe art designs have been done but what I’ve always been told was that this was going to be done straight. But I loved the Cartoon Network version of “The Judas Contract”. I thought for a show aimed at eight year olds, they did a story that an adult could watch and not at all be insulted by. We are aiming for a PG-13 audience so hopefully we’re going to be able to do all the emotion that they did and more, but also make it closer to the original comic.

NRAMA: Is George Perez involved in any capacity?

MW: He was originally going to be art designer for it but he is so busy that he’s not going to be able to. But I believe we’re still going to be using his design from the comic as the basis.

NRAMA: I want to see Deathstroke in a solo PG-13 or R-rated cartoon. When we did an interview a few years ago, you’d told me you’d love to see that as well.

MW: Deathstroke is one of my favorite characters that I’ve ever done. I’d love to see that. Certainly this is a PG-13 cartoon and we handled him straight. But his role is different than I would do if it was a Deathstroke story by itself because his role in the original storyline was more of a villain than as a conflicted character. The Judas Contract was a culmination of four and a half years of story with Deathstroke. He’s pretty much like he was in the original plus we’ve given him a couple of shades of gray in the story as well, which he always had in my original version. He was never a villain per say, he was someone who took on a job because his son died in the midst of doing it and he was obliged to pick it up from his son. He’s out to do something but it was not his mission originally and that’s always what the original story was and certainly what this story is. We keep that element in the film.

NRAMA: You and I spoke years ago right before your episodes of Teen Titans aired. At the time you had said about you and Len Wein, “Marvel and DC both don’t seem to be interested in working with any of us.” That’s obviously changed.

MW: Yes there are all new people there who seem to be very open to working with all sorts of people and I’m very grateful because I’ve been having a lot of fun with Nightwing.

NRAMA: Was it just a regime change that caused that?

MW: What happened was that Geoff Johns asked me to do a Titans story and then [Executive Editor of the DC Universe] Dan Didio felt that I should be involved with Infinite Crisis because of my work on the first Crisis so he gave me a story to do. They really liked what they saw.

After 1985 I went into a long writer’s block and I think it took something like the Infinite Crisis story for people to see that I’ve been out of the block for a long time. But I had purposely pulled back on doing comics. I wanted to be refreshed. I had done comics for so long. I never stopped but I didn’t want to do it regularly for a while. I wanted to get away and see what was going on. When you do something without stopping, sometimes you get into rote. When you also go through a writer’s block at the same time, you go to total professionalism rather than inspiration. I think what I needed to do was get away for a few years and see what was happening in comics, really read what was going on in comics and not go on what I had been doing before. The Infinite Crisis and Teen Titans came just at a time when I had just done several issues of a thing for Devil’s Due and really got excited about doing superhero comics again. They got me just at the point that I wanted to come back and see what I could do today with a different style and a different attitude towards the work and they liked what they saw. So everything timed out really wonderfully and based on the Infinite Crisis and the Teen Titans, they asked me to do Nightwing and the Raven miniseries and something else that I can’t talk about.

NRAMA: In terms of your other recent work, let’s talk about Homeland: The Illustrated History of the State of Israel. It’s a fantastic book, how did it come together?

MW: It’s a really great project that if you asked me about it six months ago, I would have said “Argh,” because it was so much work. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I was given an outline of the history of Israel for 4,000 years and I had to do all the research as well as the writing. So it was a very difficult assignment. But once it was printed I could step back and look at it and it’s great.

What happened was right after Crisis on Infinite Earths I did a book called History of the DC Universe with George Perez. It was like a graphic retelling of all of DC’s history. [Nachshon Press Executive Editor] Bill Rubin, who was younger at the time, read it and it stuck with him. Now he’s in his position with the Chicago Jewish Federation and he still loves comics so he thought that would be a great way of doing a real history, not just a fictional history. He contacted Mario Ruiz, the artist, who has done several religious comic books and they contacted me as a writer for it. I thought it would be really a lot of fun. I didn’t know how hard it would be, but as I say, it was one of those projects that while you’re doing it, you need every minute because it’s so hard. But once you’re done and you see this is really an incredibly worthwhile project.

Check out the official website for The Condor http://www.condorthemovie.com , Homeland can be found at Amazon.com, and other bookstores.

[OM]

...First pos[WHAP!] OW! But I digress. In order:

1) For some reason, The Condor sounds more like a reimaging/combination of Batman, Night Thrasher, and any one concept based on Martin Caidin's Cyborg. With my luck, probably Gingy's flashback sequence from Shrek III

2) I wasn't aware Marv was doing the Judas Contract DTV. This should make it far better than even the staunchest animation critics could expect, even if George isn't involved this time around. The success of this particular one will hopefully convince DC to stick to using original creators for the DTV movies as much as possible - read: Levitz and Giffen on The Great Darkness Saga, and Waid kept far away from it as physically, electronically, and even atmospherically possible.

3) The Homeland book looks like an informative read, based on the description Marv gives. However, that cover...well, for some reason, at first glance it looked like a Civil War tie-in

[jvm125]

I am sooooo looking forward to this animated adoption of one of the single best story lines from the last 25 yrs. I grew up with the marv/perez titans and am so happy he's back writing nightwing....thanks for the many years of storys and memories

[EmeraldGuy32]

That Condor movie looks suprisingly good.

[Ace]

Man do I miss a "non-EVIL VILLAIN" version of Deathstroke.

it's amazing that Geoff, who's so good at villains, reduced him so much. But then it was really a platform to get Ravager to where she needed to be, so there we go.

[caats19]

condor kinda looked like nightwing with a helmet in one of those pics

[GrimmGargoyl]

I actually had a chance to watch Condor on Toonami one Saturday night and I was fairly impressed byt the story and pacing. I'm just wondering if Stan has a plan for all of his animated characters to crossover sooner or later. Condor, Mosaic, and who knows what else.

[BornToRun]

"So everything timed out really wonderfully and based on the Infinite Crisis and the Teen Titans, they asked me to do Nightwing and the Raven miniseries and something else that I can’t talk about."

...Is it possible that Wolfman will be responsible for the big thing that happens at the end of Countdown?? If so, I really hope that it spells the end of big crossovers at DC for a couple of years; having the guy who wrote COIE do the "last one" for a while would really be a nice bookend.

[deboss1@sbcg]

It is wonderful to hear that Marv is back and apparently at the top of his game. I'm very much looking forward to the book on Israel, and will recommend it to our church family.

[mrhelm]

Condor was a fun little story, although more of a PG-13 warning would have been nice before I let my daughter watch it. I was actually surprised to see Marv's name on the movie, but they crafted a fun little movie, far better than the previous Mosaic.

And I also am kind of wondering where Stan and POW are going with these characters they're creating.

And the Judas Project has me stoked, especially after the last several months of Marv taking Nightwing back after all this time.

[ORACofSEVEN]

Originally Posted by OM

...First pos[WHAP!] OW! But I digress. In order:

1) For some reason, The Condor sounds more like a reimaging/combination of Batman, Night Thrasher, and any one concept based on Martin Caidin's Cyborg. With my luck, probably Gingy's flashback sequence from Shrek III

2) I wasn't aware Marv was doing the Judas Contract DTV. This should make it far better than even the staunchest animation critics could expect, even if George isn't involved this time around. The success of this particular one will hopefully convince DC to stick to using original creators for the DTV movies as much as possible - read: Levitz and Giffen on The Great Darkness Saga, and Waid kept far away from it as physically, electronically, and even atmospherically possible.

3) The Homeland book looks like an informative read, based on the description Marv gives. However, that cover...well, for some reason, at first glance it looked like a Civil War tie-in

How is it that in an article about Marv Wolfman, you come out of left field and make a totally unrelated comment about Waid and the Legion?

Try to comment on the topic at han d and leave yours personal digs to yourself unless the article is about that which you are commenting upon.

Wow.


ORAC OUT

[ziza9]

"NRAMA: Did you think of the female Asian character of Valeria in Condor [voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn] as a dragon lady?

MW: No because if she was white then you could say “Well you’re doing a white versus Hispanic.” I never even thought of that in the slightest. I was just thinking of a villainous female character and I’ve written tons of them from the Black Cat on. I think sometimes we get a little bit too tied in with “Well if you do this, this person’s going to get offended.” I did among the very first black heroes with Blade and later with Cyborg but I also did one of the very first black villains in Nova named the Condor strangely enough. I think if you start saying that one people have to be good or bad because that’s the way it should be, it’s obviously wrong. People are good or bad no matter what type of people they are and until you said it, I never even thought of her in the dragon lady capacity. I just thought of her as the bad guy for the story. Point of fact, the real bad guy for the story is the white businessman so she was sort of the Oddjob character to Goldfinger in many ways. But I didn’t think of her by race, I just thought of her as real sexy."

You da man Marv. Amen to all of that.

[Andrew.T]

One of the best, most dependable writers in the business and I buy anything with his name on it.

That said, I've really been enjoying his run on Nightwing. It must have been very difficult for him to write the past year of the book because not knowing whether or not his stay would be permanent really limited what he could do with the title and character. Now, knowing his on the book for a while, I'm prepared to be taken on a wild ride on Nightwing with Wolfman!

I'm even MORE psyched for the Judas Contract dvd. It's disappointing that Jericho is not going to be in it but I completely understand. What's the point of introducing him if you can't do anything because of limited time. I believe this dvd is going to rock and sell like hotcakes -- I only PRAY it's not in the animated style.

Still, with DC bringing back multiple earths, I think this opens up the door for entirely new story possibilities. I've never really taken to any Titans version except the Wolfman Perez ones. DC may have published tons of alternate Titans versions since but in my heart, I always believed that the REAL Titans were having adventures on Earth 1 still.

Readers just weren't privy to those adventures.

With rumor being that DC is bringing back the 80's Titans as a companion comic to Teen Titans, I hope this opens the door to telling those missing stories. If they really want to shock and awe, open the new series to be new adventures of the Titans following the original Crisis. That would mean the original Raven, Jericho, Nightwing, Starfire, Wonder Girl, Changeling and Cyborg are as they were before the stories that destroyed them after the Crisis.

Telling THOSE tales back on Earth One also makes the New Teen Titans relevant again and the possibility for at last, publishing the long awaited New Teen Titans Graphic Novel by the masters, Wolfman and Perez because it happened on Earth One, not Current DC Earth -- which is a disaster from the word go.

Someone pls destroy it and lets go back to telling stories on Earth One and Two.

[Andrew.T]

Ace,

I totally agree with you on the Deathstroke thing. I don't know who that is running around the DC Universe in a Deathstroke costume but it's NOT the Deathstroke most people know. Deathstroke is a mercenary, conflicted but not a villain.

Then again, most of the characters running around the DCU today are unrecognizable like Donna Troy, that idiot under the Red Hood (who should have stayed Dead), Legion, Aquaman and others.

I hope when all is said and done with this Final Crisis Didio has planned, that the current DC earth is destroyed and they can go back to telling stories about REAL heroes still functioning on Earth One and Two.

As far as I'm concerned, that's where the REAL Deathstroke, Titans, Wonder Girl, Legion, Aquaman and others exist. DC just isn't currently telling stories about them, preferring instead to focus on that tangled ball of yarn they call the current DCU.

[Andrew.T]

Oh and if they do destroy current DCU, in favor of telling stories back on Earth One and Two, I agree, the final bookend Crisis should be written by Marv.

As well, Marv should be tapped to write the New Titans comic featuring the classic line up -- Nightwing, Starfire, Raven, Wonder Girl, Cyborg, Changeling and Jericho. They could serve as mentors to the current team of Teen Titans.

I don't know why people believe the concept of Earth One and Two is difficult. The only ones who believe that really are DC themselves. I began reading comics when I was 7 and I understood completely. Marvel Comics uses multiple earths and no one complains about their stuff being too confusing. They have regular Marvel Universe, Ultimate Marvel Universe, Kid Marvel Universe and Days of Future Past Marvel Universe.

If Marvel can do it, so can DC.

[Sano]

Wolfman's the man. Love his run on Nightwing and I look forward to reading it every month. That Judas Contract movie is going to so own!

[JLAJRC]

THe Condor movie wasn't bad and just like Mosaic, set up things for future movies (or perhaps a cartoon series?)

[Deadshot77]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

and he’s finished a number of drafts of the upcoming animated Teen Titans: The Judas Contract film.
NRAMA: Are you still working on the Teen Titans: The Judas Contract cartoon?

MW: I just finished it.

NRAMA: How many drafts did you do?

MW: Two drafts and a polish. I’m waiting for notes on the current draft and if there are any, we’ll make some last minute notes. I’m not sure who the director is at the moment but I am sure he will have some notes. Animation is a continuing process until the film is actually out. I’m hoping that with The Judas Contract that it maintains itself that way. I’m very pleased with that and I learned an awful lot on The Condor in terms of pacing.

NRAMA: How close is it to the original comics?

MW: The original comics were a year and a half long storyline ending in the five-part Judas Contract story and The Judas Contract movie is 72 minutes. So we had to make a lot of changes in terms of secondary plot. The main thrust of the story is 100% identical. It’s stronger in some places than we were able to do in 1985 because it’s now 2007 so we were able to take certain characters make them stronger than we had before. We made some small changes to simplify the story like we don’t have Jericho in there.

NRAMA: Why?

MW: Jericho comes in, in the next to last storyline issue in the original comics. In the last seven minutes of a cartoon you just can’t have a brand new character coming in and expect to give him the type of development that we could do in an ongoing comic. We didn’t get much development with Jericho in the original comic because he doesn’t speak. But the fact that he continued gave him that ongoing development. We had to eliminate that part of it, but that meant giving more to the actual Titans themselves. So we have more with Starfire, Wonder Girl and Cyborg than we were able to do in the original because we were able to play with them a little bit more. The story was always about Changeling, Nightwing, and Terra.

NRAMA: Is it connected to the Cartoon Network version of Teen Titans?

MW: No, this has nothing to do with that. This is an adult version. It’s a very strong PG-13 based on the comic, not the cartoon show.

NRAMA: Do you suspect it will be less anime influenced?

MW: I don’t believe art designs have been done but what I’ve always been told was that this was going to be done straight. But I loved the Cartoon Network version of “The Judas Contract”. I thought for a show aimed at eight year olds, they did a story that an adult could watch and not at all be insulted by. We are aiming for a PG-13 audience so hopefully we’re going to be able to do all the emotion that they did and more, but also make it closer to the original comic.

NRAMA: Is George Perez involved in any capacity?

MW: He was originally going to be art designer for it but he is so busy that he’s not going to be able to. But I believe we’re still going to be using his design from the comic as the basis.

NRAMA: I want to see Deathstroke in a solo PG-13 or R-rated cartoon. When we did an interview a few years ago, you’d told me you’d love to see that as well.

MW: Deathstroke is one of my favorite characters that I’ve ever done. I’d love to see that. Certainly this is a PG-13 cartoon and we handled him straight. But his role is different than I would do if it was a Deathstroke story by itself because his role in the original storyline was more of a villain than as a conflicted character. The Judas Contract was a culmination of four and a half years of story with Deathstroke. He’s pretty much like he was in the original plus we’ve given him a couple of shades of gray in the story as well, which he always had in my original version. He was never a villain per say, he was someone who took on a job because his son died in the midst of doing it and he was obliged to pick it up from his son. He’s out to do something but it was not his mission originally and that’s always what the original story was and certainly what this story is. We keep that element in the film.

No one has wrote Deathstroke or can capture Slade's character like Marv. It's hard to do when he created the character & knows him better than anyone.

It's a shame to see Jericho removed from the story, but I do know why now & at least it's Marv who made the edit & no one else. It'll be a helluva movie & I can't wait for it.

I wish DC would launch a new ADULT Titans series written by Marv Wolfman. Hell, if it's possible get George Perez to draw it, too. That would be the greatest gift for any Titans fan to coincide with the JUDAS CONTRACT DTV.

[SageShini]

Originally Posted by ORACofSEVEN

How is it that in an article about Marv Wolfman, you come out of left field and make a totally unrelated comment about Waid and the Legion?

Try to comment on the topic at han d and leave yours personal digs to yourself unless the article is about that which you are commenting upon.

Wow.


ORAC OUT

Not really all that left-field. Its a simple connection. Wolfman's working on a DTV about an actual comics story. He's hoping DC continues making DTV's based on actual comic stories, one of which being the Legion. Not that hard to connect.

Whatever. I'm TRYING to remain bright about these things but they're all too short. 72, 75 minutes? WTF. What "older" crowd are they going for? The ones with ADD? Spider-Man 3 was nearly 3 hours long. I'm not saying these have to be that but it would've been nice to at least give us 100 minutes. Maybe then they could've kept a little more of the original story.

Its really annoying how when these things were first announced I had a fanboygasm but now when they're brought up I just go "meh". It feels like all these DTVs are suffering because of the need to air them on Cartoon Network.

BTW...Condor was weak, but I AM loving Wolfman's run on Nightwing and can't wait to see his Raven miniseries. Also, I'd love it if a revised version of the Justice Alliance world were one of the 52 Earths.

[cyn op]

Originally Posted by BornToRun

.Is it possible that Wolfman will be responsible for the big thing that happens at the end of Countdown?? If so, I really hope that it spells the end of big crossovers at DC for a couple of years; having the guy who wrote COIE do the "last one" for a while would really be a nice bookend.

my thoughts exactly

though gotta say, was really dissapointed with his nightwing run so far-sure, he writes the character great, but the stories- not so much. however, i AM psyched about the next arc set in the "missing year" of dicks life..sounds great.

[Deadshot77]

Originally Posted by cyn op

my thoughts exactly

though gotta say, was really dissapointed with his nightwing run so far-sure, he writes the character great, but the stories- not so much. however, i AM psyched about the next arc set in the "missing year" of dicks life..sounds great.

That sums it up for me, too. I am a huge fan of Marv, but wish Nightwing would be absorbed into ADULT Titans. Then, maybe when Nightwing can get fans clamoring again, relaunch his series. I think it has more to do with Dick needing to be with the Titans again before he should be relaunched. The Outsiders stuff has to go, so hopefully when Batman takes over, Dick will leave.

[Andrew.T]

Years ago, people wanted Nightwing to have his own title beause he was as popular as Wolverine, getting top favorite character wins in polls like Comic Buyers Guide (pre-internet) and others. The reason why Marv didn't do it back then was because it was generally felt that Nightwing worked best in a group setting, bouncing off other characters.
And I for one believe it was most dramatic and exciting with the New Teen Titans, because of who those characters were.

As for more DTV movies, cast my vote too for the Levitz-Giffen Legion of Superheroes Great Darkness Saga.

Crisis on Infinite Earths and Kingdom Come would also make great DTV flicks but they would have to be longer than 76 minutes.

[Brainlock]

Originally Posted by Deadshot77

No one has wrote Deathstroke or can capture Slade's character like Marv. It's hard to do when he created the character & knows him better than anyone.

It's a shame to see Jericho removed from the story, but I do know why now & at least it's Marv who made the edit & no one else. It'll be a helluva movie & I can't wait for it.

I wish DC would launch a new ADULT Titans series written by Marv Wolfman. Hell, if it's possible get George Perez to draw it, too. That would be the greatest gift for any Titans fan to coincide with the JUDAS CONTRACT DTV.

Deathstroke: Agreed. his personal code is what set him apart from being DC's Punisher for me. Now? just another vigilante in a mask.

New NTT book: PLEASE get the old gang back together! Since it looks like Vic will be moving on from the current TT book, get him into this project before the next JLA writer nabs him! Not that Vic isn't worthy of JLA membership, but the Titans are Family. I still wish "The Titans" (or YJ) hadn't been axed. or the whole Degradation Day debacle ever occurred.
(personal line-up: Dick, Donna, Roy, WALLY, Vic, Gar, Kory, and Kyle)
Getting Marv and/or George on the book would be the candy sprinkles on the icing on the cake.


oh, and while I understand pulling Joey from the movie, I am happy to see DONNA gets more screen time! Since they never got around to her on the toon, this is her first time on TV since I was a wee laddie.
(wait, this is DONNA and NOT Drusilla Winger, RIGHT?)



Homeland: are those supposed to be notable Israelis around Moses on the cover? is that the astronaut who died on re-entry over Texas? and Golda Mayer/Meier(sp)? anyone ID the rest?

[Megagents]

Originally Posted by GrimmGargoyl

I actually had a chance to watch Condor on Toonami one Saturday night and I was fairly impressed by the story and pacing.

I really liked it too, it had some elements that wasn't seen on Toonami except by Hellboy.