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This is a question we’ve struggled with before; when quantifying superhero adaptation reboots, what counts and what doesn’t?
The Incredible Hulk, while a great show, could not really be considered to have had what I’m calling “Marvel Cred.” While it’s de rigeur for comic book adaptations today to be stuffed with easter egg nods to the source material, Incredible Hulk producer Kenneth Johnson basically took the premise – scientist gets exposed to gamma radiation and becomes uncontrollable green rage monster – and married it to the format of The Fugitive. Not even the scientist’s name survived intact, due to either a distaste for alliteration, or to avoid some weird ’70s stereotypes.
That changed when the Incredible Hulk returned in The Incredible Hulk Returns, a 1988 TV movie that served as a backdoor pilot for a Thor series. This Thor, though, was a little different; rather than the God Of Thunder, this Thor was a rather doughy Viking trying to earn his way into Valhalla. The one element they kept from the Thor comics was Donald Blake, which is like making a TV show about Clark Kent and never mentioning Superman. And what a mistake that would be.
That’s why The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk was such a pleasant surprise. Despite Daredevil’s palette-swapped costume, the TV movie did a decent job of bringing the protector of Hell’s Kitchen to the screen. John Rhys-Davies was perfectly cast as Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk, even if he had hair – due to Davies’ commitments to a certain other movie he was in that year.
And if nothing else, the movie is significant for featuring the first Stan Lee cameo.
So what’s your take? Does The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk count as a Daredevil movie? Following that logic, do you accept Slab Bulkhead as Steve Rogers? And can you really accept this…
Not everyone is into funky mid-century decor the way Mowrer is, but I think the experience is pretty universal; you get some piece of gear when you’re young and starting out, that somehow lasts even when you’ve gotten to capital-A Adulthood. Doesn’t matter that you got it from that sketchy thrift store two towns over, that it still bears the stains of your youthful excesses, and that smell no one can identify, it still stings to let it go.
Mowrer’s couch has a slightly higher pedigree than that; he picked it up at antique store, back when we still shared a house, when a change in career status first allowed him to indulge his love of mid-century home decor. He still has the Egg Chair he bought around the same time, which is perfect for chilling and grooving to music that sounds like Don Martin sound effects.
So what’s your (metaphorical or literal) funky old couch? Was it a hand-me-down from your parents, or did you find it on a streetcorner, spray it with Lysol, and put it in the studio apartment you shared with three other guys?
For that matter, who knows what regrets those future Richmonds will experience? The Richmond of 2025 might cool on Dan Harmon and Community, the way the Richmond of 2014 has cooled on Babylon 5 and J Michael “Never Met A Superhero Origin He Didn’t Try To Retcon” Straczynski, or the way the Richmond of 1997 had cooled on the girl he met in 1989.
Mowrer seems to live free of regrets. Well, apart from his own equivalent of 1989 girl. But we all have one of those, metaphorically speaking, don’t we?
It’s the last Sub-Basement of 2014! Catch some sketches this Thursday, Like and Follow us, and come back next week when we’re back to a double-dose of Sub-Basement strips every week! And why not catch up on some previous stories:
The title of Chairman of the Christmas Special Board is undoubtedly shared by Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass. Starting with the original Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer in 1964, Rankin/Bass Productions (then called Videocraft) spent the next twenty-one years owning Christmas, and making strong claims on several other holidays.
Given that I start building my Christmas playlist less than a week after Halloween, and start keeping the “Christmas” folder of my downloaded videos permanently open, it should be no surprise that Christmas movies and specials continued to get consumed in the Sub-Basement well into January. We burn through the Holy Trinity – Charlie Brown, The Grinch, Rudolph, – in short order (interspersed with essential movies like A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation) and are left with the deep cuts. We keep telling ourselves, “I’ll just watch The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas and call it a night,” and next thing you know it’s 3 a.m. and we’re singing along to the “Barbecue” song from Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas. I collect adaptations of A Christmas Carol, with Scrooges ranging from Henry Winkler to Mr. Magoo, ranking them on criteria such as “Added Comedic Or Creepy Business” and “Lameness Of Song When Young Scrooge Breaks Up With Belle”
Having spent a good ten weeks gorging on The Year Without A Santa Claus and The Little Drummer Boy Book II, naturally Mowrer and I go into a bit of withdrawal the rest of the year, shivering and trembling until we get our sweet Animagic fix with The Easter Bunny Is Comin’ To Town. We’ll even pop in the supremely disappointing Mad Monster Party? come October, and sometimes we even get more than halfway through it before switching to The Fat Albert Halloween Special.
(And no, I can’t articulate exactly why Mad Monster Party? (note integral question mark) bores me. I keep trying, and wanting to like it, but I just can’t seem to get into it. Is there some subtle undertone that I’m missing?)
As a young comic-book obsessive, I was drawn to the shared universe of the Rankin/Bass specials, where Santa always sounded like Andy Hardy (apart from his first appearance) and Mrs. Claus was named Jessica. The Rankin/Bass continuity has been expertly compared to DC by Chris Sims of Comics Alliance, and he’s right. There’s even a Golden Age version with a slightly different origin, as well as an unsuccessful modern reboot. How long before the Rudolphs team up for Christmas On Infinite Earths?
And nowhere are those comic-book tendencies more pronounced than Rankin/Bass’ magnum opus, Rudolph And Frosty’s Christmas In July. This is the Avengers of the Rankin/Bassverse; if Rudolph is the optimistic, proactive Captain America, Frosty is the tragic Hulk, striving to do good while cursed by his physicality, with Santa, naturally, as the Nick Fury.
Christmas In July has some fun stuff with a circus whose ringmaster is enthusiastically voiced by Ethel Merman, as well as a villainous reindeer named Scratcher, with a wierdly Andy-Dick-kind of vibe. But before it gets to that, the movie dives deep into its own mythology, providing a supernatural origin for Rudolph’s idiosyncrasy – it’s not just the reindeer equivalent of the X-Gene.
I appreciate a movie that rewards obsessive study of its universe’ fictional rules – it’s what allows me to overlook the flaws in Superman Returns – but I recognize that a majority of the potential audience will not be invested enough to appreciate it.
The last Animagic special from Rankin/Bass was 1985’s The Life And Adventures Of Santa Claus.
At that point, the studio were at the top of their craft, investing the special with artistry and craftsmanship that honored its source material, a 1905 novel by L. Frank Baum. But not only does the Santa Claus backstory it presents completely disregard the canonical events of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, it once again becomes a victim of heavy mythology. We are presented a whole new pantheon of mystical beings, including talking lions and something called Awgwas, all presided over by a 7 foot badass wizard called The Great Ak. None of it makes a damn bit of sense, but man, is it pretty to watch.
And that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
Mowrer has an additional message to pass on. The message is, and I quote verbatim: “D’oh!” Well-spoken, Mr. Mowrer.
Let this be a lesson, Sub-Basementeers, when you buy a messenger bag, make sure the water bottle pocket is on the outside. Learn from our terrible, which is to say terribly inconvenient, mistake.
Christmas is a time for reflection, so let’s reflect on what’s happened in The Sub-Basement this year:
Sketchbook time again, Sub-Basementeers! Mowrer here, and this time we’ve got Christian proudly sporting his pumpkin winter cap…which he frequently does in real life as well. Richmond wants pie…and gravy. And hopefully eaten separately.
Richmond here; I never thought to have gravy with my pie, but thanks for a great idea! Time to put the meat in mincemeat.
While I sally forth in gastronomic experimentation, why not check us out on Twitter and Facebook, or read some of our favoritestorylines?
Are you worried about the overcommercialization of Christmas? Well, Twitter and Facebook are free! Or if you decide materialism is your thing after all, why not check out our Galloree and Zazzle stores?
I’m assuming the White House Christmas Pageant was pre-taped in October; I don’t expect 1974 was a very festive Christmas around the White House. But it’s great to see Spiro Agnew furthering his variety show career!
Man, Mowrer, that is a lovingly-rendered Shirley Jones. I always figured you for a Mrs. Brady man.
Richmond here, to remind you to find us on Twitter and Facebook. Now here’s Mowrer to tell you about this week’s sketches.
Mowrer here! I tend to draw Richmond and Mowrer arguing a lot in my sketchbooks. Mostly because drawing conflict is fun, especially the facial expressions. But part of it is probably inspired by traumatic memories from our days on Seattle Public Access making The Movie Geek Show. Back then in our 20s, our passion for creating burned so very bright that we frequently burned each other…an consequently fought a lot about the show. Fast forward 20 years and though we’re working harder than we ever did on MGS with making The Sub-Basement, we haven’t really fought at all (Richmond, back me up here). And that I attribute to us just being too old and grumpy for that kind of nonsense anymore. 😉
And don’t forget, we’re on light duty this month, with fresh material on Tuesdays, with peeks into Mowrer’s twisted imaginationsketchbook on Thursdays.
You remember how I railed against The Asylum, and their movies full of faded stars, lazy effects, and far too many other things that are neither Mega-Sharks NOR Giant Octopi? Well, I merely dabble in the rampaging-monster genre, while Mowrer is the true enthusiast. It was on his recommendation that I finally watched – and was surprisingly impressed by – Sharknado, and while I require more than just a clever title to draw my attention, Mowrer will show up for even the possibility of a rampaging monster.
I get that the vagaries of both budget and narrative necessity do require that there be some parts of a giant-monster movie in which we’re not actively watching the monster-or-monsters commit its-or-their rampage. But out of sight need not mean out of mind. Indeed, one of the reasons I liked Cloverfield was that it mostly adhered to that principle, that interminable opening party aside. Once the monster made the scene, it remained a looming presence throughout the movie, a constant menace that could strike at any moment, whether it’s onscreen or off.
Of course, Cloverfield did go a little off the rails near the end. And why? Because instead of being menaced by the monster, they spend a bunch of time trying to convince us that being impaled by rebar in a collapsed building is the kind of injury you can just walk off. Proving Mowrer’s point.
That doesn’t mean, though, that I’m not gonna egg Mowrer on when he gets in the zone. After too many occasions where I’m the one going off on an esoteric rant, or just stomping on the desk, it’s nice to be on the other side, and see some invective spewing out from beneath that mustache.
