Letters to Holly

Thursday, March 24

Let's Talk Cap

The deputy now has six front teeth moving out of his gums. Suddenly, he's very unhappy.

I into the 20s of my comic pages and hope to be done with them by next weekend.

Moving Picture of the Day
Here's the first official trailer for Captain America, one of at least three Marvel movies coming out this year alongside Thor and X-Men: First Class. This and Thor fill out the individual film series with Hulk and Iron Man that will lead to Avengers, the supergroup film coming out next year.




I'm surprised they spend so much time on his origin here. I'm particular about the way superhero origins are done in films, and mostly I'm against turning a film into one long origin story. They all end with our hero finding a resolve to improve at least the world around him with his new powers. That's a given. The second Hulk movie did it right: Show the origin in the opening credits and get on with an actual story. Captain America should work the same way, and the trailer shows his origin can be communicated in about two minutes.

Now, as a longtime reader, I'm happy to see two things with his origin:
1. It follows the comics, except for one new wrinkle, which is
2. It adds Iron Man's dad.

The fight scenes don't get as much attention, and they, so far, look thin. So do the city street scenes. Marvel is happy to make their hero films on the cheap, and it's mostly worked for them. I worry the veneer will be obvious in this film. Still, a WWII superhero movie -- and a big-screen Captain America film -- may be too good a notion to miss.Even if he seems to be fighting someone other than Nazis.

You may wonder just how a WWII hero can find himself alongside heroes in the modern day. I suspect the film will end with that explanation. I hope they maintain that story from the comics too.

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