trvthseeker

Am I the only one over 30??? In 10 more years I want a positive balance in the bank account after every pay period...

Dark movies have their place, but too much gets to be, well, too much. Our society (North American in particular) is in a 'dark mood' right now, we've been that way for almost 5 years. Movies like the Dark Knight speaks to that darkness - to take charge of our destiny and kick 'evildoers' in the can, just like Spiderman in the early part of the last decade spoke for our need to have a hero. Of course Hollywood is a business so they are going to try and copy whatever is successful. Hollywood often times gets the 'mood' wrong, but sometimes they hit it on the head. Which just makes them more greedy. 
 
Right now, I'd like to see superhero movies inspire some hope, because we're starting to perhaps see some light. The recession might be lifting, one war is almost over. Some bad people are being brought to justice. I think something like The Avengers would be well poised right now to save us all from an alien invasion...  
 
Of course some people will always like the darker movie - I still like watching Sin City every so often to remind me how bleak the world is in some people's eyes. Then I go watch a Disney movie... Although I'm not sure what that is going to do to my comic book movies now that Disney and Marvel are the same thing... 

I've been paying attention to JMS ever since he wrote 3 full seasons of Babylon 5. Babylon 5 is still one of the best sci-fi out there, with only Serenity and Battlestar (reimagined) coming close to touching it.  
 
Since B5 JMS has written a lot of comics. Alot of them are very good. Others... well, every writer has some bad stories, its what makes the good stories stand out even more. Any opinions of what has worked, what hasn't? I'm going to get it started, this isn't an inclusive list, just a way to get the story going
Hits :  
Supreme Power - one of favorite comics of all time. It is an amazing reboot of Superman like character that I don't think can matched. Not the way JMS did it, anyways. I didn't like it as much when it moved over to Squadron Supreme, although there was still some strong character development. I think the story JMS had planned in his head (alluded to in the Hyperion mini-series) was going to be awesome, but it got cut short before it could realized. Its too bad, but Supreme Power stands very well on its own. This is an adult comic, and thats what I loved about it... Great, mature story that didn't insult the reader whatsoever 
Thor - I'm currently reading it, and loving it. 
Midnight Nation - Its non-superhero story but very very good story. It was a fantastic arc, with some very interesting themes explored... 
 
Misses: 
Rising Stars: The first 6 issues were ok. But then the continuity got scrambled up and characters didn't start making that much sense. The premise was cool, but I just didn't feel it realized its full potential. Supreme Power was much better.  
 
I'll leave it at that for now, anyone else have any opinions?

I'm really starting to find that it isn't neccessarily the character or the concept that creates a great story - its the creators. I never really got into Thor before, but I've started reading JMS's run on Thor, and its really good. Never cared much about the Avengers or Daredevil, but Bendis has got me hooked. But a team story and a solo story are two different things, and requires different styles. But I do enjoy both if the story is good.

It also appears that most heroes who are on teams don't have to worry about day jobs. Parker is an exception, he still kept his day job even when he joined the Avengers. Look at Wolverine or any of the X men - pooled resources give them a place to stay and jets to fly. I've always wondered how Wolvie found his beer money tho... 
 
I liked the mid-90's New Warriors - because they had to find ways to keep their team afloat. Nova was a pizza delivery boy. But the X men seemed to never have to worry about money, neither did the Avengers. Has it ever been discussed who was the benefactors for the X men, or was it just explained away that Professor X had oodles of money socked away under his wheelchair? Perhaps the Shi'ar dropped a few gold bars in the back yard every so often?

Just about anything that JMS does - Babylon 5, Supreme Power/Squadron Supreme, Mindnight Nation. Also like Whedon's Firefly. I have Marvel Digital online, so quite a number of Marvel verses, in particular The Exiles. I'm starting to enjoy Avengers as well. When I previously collected comics (back in the 90's) I was into Batman and Xmen, but I'm not into those as much anymore.