SPOILER ALERT: THIS POST REVEALS SEVERAL PLOT POINTS IN THE CAPTAIN AMERICA FILM

It's one thing to take Batman off the comic-book page and make his costume still look good in a live-action feature, but Captain America presents a far bigger challenge — the hero is essentially a walking flag, which might leave many average moviegoers giggling instead of saluting.

But director Joe Johnston and the team at Marvel Studios have a plan for "The First Avenger: Captain America," which is due in Summer 2011: They've added a new wrinkle to the classic mythology to explain why a scientifically enhanced super-soldier would venture out in the WWII battlefields in a costume that leans a bit heavy on the old Betsy Ross imagery.

"The costume is a flag, but the way we're getting around that is we have Steve Rogers forced into the USO circuit. After he's made into this super-soldier, they decide they can't send him into combat and risk him getting killed. He's the only one and they can't make more. So they say, 'You're going to be in this USO show' and they give him a flag suit. He can't wait to get out of it."

That's a whole new concept and it's one that sounds pretty promising. "It was never in the comics," Johnston said, "because they didn't really need it. In comics, he puts on the costume and the reader just justifies because of the nature of the medium."

Johnston told me all this when we sat down for lunch today at the Four Seasons Hotel. For an hour we chatted about his new film, "The Wolfman" (which you can read about next week right here at the Hero Complex) but I had to ask him a bit about the Captain America production.  Filming starts in London at the end of June. "There's a lot of work we have to do on it," the 59-year-old director said.

And who will wear the costume and carry the shield? "Well, we're testing five or six guys," Johnston said. "The youngest is 23, the oldest is 32. Most of the guys in the war are just kids, 18 or 19, but we want to go a little bit older. We have to have somebody locked in before I leave March 1 for London." 

A challenge, he said, is finding an actor that can play scenes as "98-pound-weakling" Steve Rogers and also pull off the brawny hero scenes, although some visual effects wizardry will come into play. Johnson has plenty of experience on that front as the director of "Jumanji,"  "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and "Jurassic Park III" He also had art director credits on major Lucasfilm projects, including "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Empire Strikes Back."

Johnston also directed "The Rocketeer," an underrated 1991 film based on the retro-hero created by the late great Dave Stevens. I asked Johnston if he thought the vintage flair of that film might have caught the eye of the Marvel brain trust as they looked around for a filmmaker to handle a 1940s action movie.

"I think it's probably possible that it was an influence," he said. "I think they were looking for somebody that could handle the visual effects. I think that was a big part of it. And with visual effects, all you really need to know is what is possible. And these days, actually, that's almost anything. Not everything is affordable, but almost everything is approachable."

I wanted to come back to the idea of Steve Rogers as a reluctant performer with United Services Organizations, which famously brought Bob Hope and other entertainers to morale-boosting events for troops overseas.

"So he's up on stage doing songs and dances with chorus girls and he can't wait to get out and really fight. When he does go AWOL, he covers up the suit but then, after a few things happen, he realizes that this uniform allows him to lead. By then, he's become a star in the public mind and a symbol. The guys get behind him because he embodies something special."

There will be more than one costume in the film, too.

In the first USO sequences, the frustrated patriot will be wearing a version that is closer to the classic Jack Kirby-designed costume, but then later as the super-soldier hits the war zone he will be wearing a sturdier, more muted version that he makes himself that is more like battle togs. The stripes across his mid-section, for instance, will be straps, not colored fabric.

"He realizes the value of the uniform symbols but he modifies his suit and adds some armor, it will be closer to the Cpa costume in some of the comics in more recent years . . . this approach, it's the only way we could justify ever seeing him on a screen in tights, with the funny boots and everything. The government essentially puts him up there as a living comic-book character and he rips it off and then reclaims some of its imagery after he recognizes the value of it. We think it's the best way to keep the costume and explain it at the same time."

— Geoff Boucher

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ART: Marvel Comics

This is a longer version of my story that will run Sunday in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section...

You’d be hard-pressed to find a recent comic book that didn’t have the stylish scrawl of the artists somewhere on the cover, but that was not the case when Jack Kirby was making pop culture history back in the 1960s with his wildly kinetic drawings of the X-Men, Hulk and the Fantastic Four. “I think I have a highly unique and unusual style, and that’s the reason I never sign my drawings,” the proud Kirby told an interviewer in 1987, seven years before his death. “Everybody could tell any of my covers a mile away on the newsstand, and that satisfied me.”

The satisfaction was fleeting. The artist may be reverently referred to as “King” Kirby by the pop scholars and younger artists who celebrate his genre-defining work but Kirby is, in some ways, an overlooked figure in the broader view of American culture. He didn’t live to see his creations fly across the movie screen over the last decade and his four children made nothing from those lucrative films, although they are now pursuing legal action to claim some of the future Hollywood wealth. “There is,” daughter Lisa Kirby says, “a bittersweet legacy to my father’s work.”

On a recent afternoon, in Beverly Hills, a different man was autographing a giant lithograph reproducing one of Kirby’s classic Fantastic Four covers. It was Stan Lee, the writer who was Kirby’s most famous collaborator until they became estranged over creative credit, artwork custody and money. An art dealer had brought stacks of limited-edition lithos, some to be priced at $850, to Lee’s Santa Monica Boulevard office along with a check in his pocket to pay the 86-year-old Lee for his autographs.

Lee had written the stories for the classic comics, of course, but considering all the history, it was still odd to see his name etched on the cosmic Kirby tableau from 1966.

“Yes, there was a time when there was some hard feeling on his part ... but he got over that and we were friends,” Lee said. “It really is sad that he didn’t get to see all the big movies. None of us could predict that we would get to this point with the films. I don’t dwell on it too much because I’m always so busy doing what I am doing today. Unfortunately the guys back in the day did not make as much as they do today. Years ago also you had artists doing these comics who, well, there was nothing else they could have done. Their style wasn’t right for advertising or magazines like Saturday Evening Post or Collier’s. And as for us writers, well, we weren’t qualified to write for the New Yorker. Comic book writers were considered hacks, and artists weren’t really thought of as much beyond that.”

Lee studied one of the other art pieces, a dazzling revisiting of a Kirby cover for Captain America. "Wow, look at this one." The pieces are being sold by the Santa Monica gallery called Every Picture Tells a Story as part of a new licensing deal with Marvel to create high-end wall art from illustrations that were, in their day, the most gaudy and disposable entertainment imaginable. “As far as I’m concerned,” Lee said with his endless zeal, “it is fine art."

The story of two “hacks,” as Lee would frame it, will be scrutinized much more considering recent events. Last month, the Walt Disney Co. paid $4 billion to scoop up Marvel Entertainment and its vault of florid characters who over the last decade have become Hollywood box-office heroes. Many of the most valuable properties in that vault were created by the wildly prolific tandem of Lee and Kirby in the 1960s; there are two big-budget movies now in the pipeline for Marvel Studios that are based on Lee-Kirby creations (“The Mighty Thor" and “The Avengers”) and a third (“First Avenger: Captain America”) based on the work of Kirby and writer Joe Simon. The Kirby brood watched the Disney deal happen and within days were conferring with attorneys and accelerating their bid to reclaim copyright.

A day after Lee sat signing that artwork, attorneys representing the four children of Kirby sent out 45 notices of termination to Hollywood studios and players with an interest in assorted Marvel films; it was the opening salvo in a legal battle to gain copyright control of certain characters and the name on the legal letterhead was Toberoff & Associates, the same firm that last year won a intriguing victory by reclaiming a share of the copyright for the first Superman story for heirs of that character's co-creator, Jerry Siegel.

Under copyright law, creators or their heirs can seek to regain copyrights they previously assigned to a company 56 years after first publication, so the Kirby family is starting that process now with hopes of gaining an interest or, perhaps, a settlement. Lee, meanwhile, struck assorted deals through the years with Marvel and has been an executive producer on every Marvel film made to date, movies with worldwide box office now in the billions of dollars, and has had prominent cameos in many of them.

Lee is by far the most famous creator in comics history thanks to his longevity, success and a Barnum-like flair for self-promotion. He became a media figure in the 1960s when journalists jotted down his dizzying hyperbole about Marvel’s brightly hued, counterculture ethos. Kirby, laboring at home with far less credit, looked on and chafed about his status as a freelancer, essentially working for Lee, whose family connections by then had taken him to the top of the small and scruffy publishing venture. By 1970, Kirby had had enough and defected to rival DC Comics. Lee would go on to accumulate considerable wealth and fame, sometimes selling comics, sometimes selling his own persona with a long list of splashy but short-lived ventures. Kirby’s fortunes were not as grand; when he talked about his old creations he had the weary tone of a man who long ago watched the family coin collection scatter on a crowded street.

Lee knows that fans like to set up the partners as rivals. Kirby is portrayed as the irascible purist with staggering imagination and Lee reduced to the tireless huckster -- the pop-culture prophet versus the corporate profiteer. From Lee's present vantage point, though, he prefers to look back on their shared tale as the unexpected odyssey of two kids who grew up in a business of cruel deadlines and lowbrow aspirations and found in each other a go-to guy.

“My favorite thing about Kirby’s artwork was his storytelling,” Lee said. “He was really a film director doing comics.”

In that, Kirby was certainly ahead of his time. Comics are a huge part of Hollywood now, thanks to the modern era of computer-generated special effects that, finally, can match the galactic visions and super-powered mayhem that Kirby put to paper in the 1960s. Kirby’s influence is nothing less than massive on several generations of artists and filmmakers.

“There was power in the work of Jack Kirby that changed the way I looked at things,” said Guillermo del Toro, writer-director of “Pan’s Labyrinth.” "There was no one else like him and there never will be."

Nevertheless, Kirby remains a distant second to Lee in name recognition, which Lisa Kirby said rankles. “A lot more people know the name Stan Lee than the name Jack Kirby,” she said. “I’m not putting down Stan Lee’s talents but it’s difficult for us to see that he does dominate the credit. That doesn’t reflect the work or the reality. To see Jack Kirby in small letters and Stan Lee in big letters, that’s hard for us.”

Mike Richardson grew up under the thrall of Kirby's drawings and was inspired to found his own comic-book company, Dark Horse, which has grown into a Hollywood player after seeing titles such as "The Mask,"  "Hellboy" and "300" jump to the screen. Through the years, he reached out to the Kirby family to help them find some sort of compensation.

"There was a lot of anger in the Kirby family with the way that Jack was treated, more than they will express in public," Richardson said. "There's no way you can say enough about the impact of those Marvel comics in the 1960s. They changed the rules. Lee and Kirby were the Lennon and McCartney of comics and Stan Lee became a well-known figure in popular culture and Jack did not. Neither were as great on their own, it's true, but Jack had decades of work that was really special. To me, there's no doubt that Jack Kirby was the truly brilliant creative genius behind the success of Marvel."   

If there’s a battle to come, it’s one Kirby never took on in life.

“Jack didn’t have the resources or the stomach lining to fight Marvel over copyrights, character ownership or past contractual sleights that he believed he suffered,” says Mark Evanier, who was Kirby’s assistant in the early 1970s and later his biographer. “He fought to get back his pages of original art. That was the fight he believed he could win.”

Evanier, now a comics historian and creator, testified in the Siegel suit and it seems certain that he would be in the deposition seat for any Kirby legal case. A longtime friend to Kirby and respectful acquaintance of Lee, he spoke glowingly of the partnership as lightning in a bottle, the zenith of each man’s career.

Kirby contributed mightily to the plots and character creation; the workload at Marvel was so intense in the 1960s that there were no “scripts” handed to Kirby, he would just draw the story and Lee would go back and craft dialogue that fit the action. Still, Evanier said, while it’s now fashionable to view Lee as the lesser figure, he also had the separate success of Spider-Man (with artist Steve Ditko) and set the singular tone and culture of Marvel.

The pair had met in the Roosevelt years. In late 1940, Jacob Kurtzberg, 23, drawing under the name Kirby, had his first taste of real success in the young comics industry, which soared after the debut of Superman in 1938. Kirby and writer Simon’s Captain America was a hit for Timely Comics, which would later morph into Marvel. There was an eager assistant in the office named Stanley Lieber, just 18, who had gotten the job through a family connection (and would later shorten his name).

“In those days they dipped the pen in ink, I had to make sure the inkwells were filled,” said Lee. “I went down and got them their lunch, I did proofreading, I erased the pencils from the finished pages for them.

Whatever had to be done. I remember Jack would always be sitting at a table puffing on his cigar, kind of talking to himself as he was doing those pages.”

Lee’s first credited work was a 1941 Captain America story where the hero threw his shield for the first time. That would become a trademark for decades, suggesting an instant flair for the medium. Kirby left Timely not long after. Years later, with comics in the doldrums, Lee and Kirby would reunite and create a new sort of comic book, with frenetic energy, mutant outsiders and misunderstood monsters. Superman and DC Comics instantly seemed like boring old Pat Boone; Marvel felt like the Beatles and the British Invasion. It was Kirby’s artwork with its tension and psychedelia that made it perfect for the times — or was it Lee’s bravado and melodrama, which was somehow insecure and brash at the same time?

“Jack was the best partner you could ask for, dependable and imaginative,” Lee said, sitting in an office cluttered with all those old heroes and villains. “And it was never dull. Nothing with us was ever dull.”

-- Geoff Boucher

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Photos: Jack Kirby at work in 1965; Credit: The Jack Kirby Museum. Stan Lee in his office in 2009; Barbara Davidson/Los Angeles Times. Stan Lee in 2006 with Marvel characters; Robin Beck\Getty Images. All artwork: Marvel

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post had the word "narrow" in the description of the Siegel copyright victory but in delving further into that victory I decided to delete the misleading adjective. It also will not appear in the abridged print version of this story.  

I talked to "Fringe" costar Mark Valley for a future piece I'm writing about the upcoming Fox series "Human Target" (which, I have to say, is going to be great, judging by my advance copy of pilot, shown in photo above) and the subject turned to Captain America. As you might recall, Valley was the No. 1 choice to play the star-spangled hero in an Internet poll of fans.

GB: Apparently you are the man that fanboys want to see carrying the famous red, white and blue shield of Captain America.

MV: Yeah, I know! Somebody showed me that. I was kind of blown away. The power of the Internet, you know? And there might be another reason: I’ve just been walking around in Captain America suits every once in a while on weekends. I didn’t really think it would really go anywhere you know. That’s just a personal hobby of mine.

GB: So you're taking a Sean Young approach to landing the role, the way she tried out for the Catwoman job in "Batman Returns."

MV: Oh she did, yeah. She made it herself or something. It didn’t work out. Yeah, I made my Captain America costume at home too. I don’t know if people recognize me as Captain America, though. It’s kind of this weird Uncle Sam thing now, some guy wrapped in the American flag.

 

GB: After watching Robert Downey Jr., Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale take superhero roles to such success, it must be somewhat tempting to think of playing one of the truly iconic characters, especially since he hasn't been seen on the screen in a major Hollywood production ... or is it a sector that holds no interest for you? 

MV: Seriously, yeah, the whole thing  --  that’s pretty flattering that my name comes up at all. That’s kind of amazing with the names that pop up like that. I think sometimes 'Oh my gosh, wow that’d be fun.' But I don’t think it’s really a movie yet. I think it’s just an idea for a movie.

GB: Well, actually, they have a director in place, it's Joe Johnston, who did "Jurassic Park III" and "Jumanji" and "The Rocketeer." I believe it's scheduled for 2011. I mean, you might want to have your agent call if you're serious...

MV: Oh, OK. We’ll see, maybe I’ll be too busy with "Human Target." But you never know how these things go...

-- Geoff Boucher

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Here's one from the vault, one of my favorite comic books as a kid. It's from 1976 (duh) and it's Jack Kirby's trippy tale of Cap jumping through time to connect with the spirit of the nation. He meets Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross (they design the American flag based on the strange visitor's garish costume), bumps into his deceased sidekick Bucky, spars with John L. Sullivan, gives a beat-down to some slavery-era bounty hunters and finds himself as an American solider in a disturbing future war on the moon.

So, you know, it's pretty much your average day for a Marvel Comics hero.

The book is sooooo over the top with its pumped-up patriotism. There's also a pinup gallery in the back with the hero in different historical garbs: "Colonial Cap," "Western Cap" and "Space-Age Cap"). Silly? Oh sure. Do I adore it? Yes and without reservation.

The star-spangled hero gives a speech at the end (did you have any doubt?) while surrounded by kids of every race, creed and color, all of them beaming like the insanely happy dolls at Disney's It's a Small World ride. Here's what he says: "That's America! A place of stubborn confidence -- where both young and old can hope and dream and wade through disappointment, despair and the crunch of events -- with the chance of making life meaningful!"

Well there you have it. Keep wading everybody. And if you're playing with fireworks today, please be careful; as I always tell my kids, you want to be Captain America on the Fourth of July, not the Human Torch . . . .

-- Geoff Boucher

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SEE IT HERE FIRST: FIVE PAGES OF "CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN" 

It's hard to keep a good man down and, well, practically impossible to keep a superhero dead.

Remember when Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, was killed in March 2007 by the shot heard 'round the world, especially if you live on the pop-culture planet inhabited by fanboys? Here's today's newsflash: He's feeling much better. 

On July 1, just in time for Independence Day, Marvel Comics will release the first of a five-issue arc called "Captain America Reborn," which will be written by Ed Brubaker (the star scribe who killed Cap off in the first place and was also behind the compelling "Criminal" series and a memorable run of "Daredevil") and drawn by Bryan Hitch (the British artist who was co-creator of "The Ultimates" and "The Authority").

The cover art, shown here on the right, is by John Cassaday, but there also a variant edition with an Alex Ross cover. (Update: And I hear now that there will also be a Joe Quesada cover, too)

As the title of "Captain America Reborn" suggests, the star-spangled warhorse who first appeared in 1941 is back in action, which is a huge relief to old-school geeks such as myself. And here at Hero Complex, I'm happy to say we've got a nifty scoop this morning: the first five pages of the first issue, which you can't find anywhere else for the next 24 hours. You'll find it below, and though this opening sequence doesn't reveal a whole lot of new story,  it nicely sets the gravity and tone of the series. And, come to think of it, what's more American than ... a preamble?

-- Geoff Boucher

 

It was 70 years ago that Marvel Comics No. 1 was published, and throughout the year the mighty Hero Complex will be honoring that landmark moment in publishing history with special features. Today we have some amazing "house" ads from Timely Comics of the 1940s (the company that published Marvel Comics No. 1 in October of 1939 and would eventually evolve into Marvel Comics).      

The ad above appeared in "Sub-Mariner" No. 6 to promote "The Human Torch" No. 8. It's interesting how some character concepts endure through the years, even if only in name and visage. This Human Torch (created by Carl Burgos) was an android but his moniker and flaming image were so striking that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby recycled them when they created the Fantastic Four in 1961, ushering in the shining 1960s renaissance for the House of Ideas....

The ad below appeared in "Young Allies" No. 1 to promote "Captain America Comics" No. 7. Down near the bottom is a pitch for kids to join the patriotic hero's fan club: "Now you too can join Captain America's Sentinels of Liberty and thereby help Captain America and Bucky in their great war against spies in our country! Let's all get together behind Cap and be on the constant lookout for spies...." I bet a lot of kids groaned when they got to the price tag for membership. Dropping a dime in the mailbox was a major investment for youngsters in the summer of 1941....

Here's another great one below...

It's Tuesday and you're reading the latest editon of Everyday Hero, your roundup of handpicked headlines from across the fanboy universe.

FUNNIES AND FINE ART: What a year for fanboy pursuits earning lofty artistic accolades. Heath Ledger may win an Oscar for playing the Joker and Neil Gaiman just picked up the Newbery Medal. And now the Louvre in Paris is hanging cartoons on its walls. Here's the story by Frank Browning: "The show was put together by Fabrice Douar, the director of the Louvre's publishing division, who commissioned three comic book artists to create wall-length strips set in the museum itself. Douar says he wanted to bring the museum into the 21st century and restore its role as a central part of the contemporary city — in short, to put a little bounce into the museum's sometimes intimidating marble atmosphere. Plus, Douar admits, the new exhibit fits well with his lifelong addiction to comic books, known as bandes dessinees in French. 'I've got this subversive love ... for bandes dessinees for a long time,' says Douar. 'I've got four brothers. ... All my brothers read bandes dessinees, and so I was born with bandes dessinees.' One day in 2002, Douar put his obsession together with his job as chief editor of Louvre books and — voila! — the idea for the exhibition was born. The three strips currently on display are in fact drawings from the first three comic books ever published by the Louvre. One, by artist Nicolas de Crecy, is set thousands of years in the future and features a museum guide who is a cross between a pig and a dog. De Crecy's pig-dog can speak intelligently about all of the museum's art objects — from the naked pre-Hellenic statuary to the Mona Lisa. In the strip, he's charged with leading a group of archaeologists through the museum. But the archaeologists, who believe they have discovered a lost city preserved beneath a glacier, get almost everything wrong when they look at the art." [National Public Radio]

GET YOUR SPOCK ON: Want to attend the Hollywood premiere of "Star Trek," the J.J. Abrams cinema revival of the most famous sci-fi television show ever? Well, all you have to do is make a video that displays your, um, informed passion for the Starfleet  universe. Between now and March 5, just upload a video (between 30-60 seconds long) in the Esurance Biggest Trekkie contest where you can vote on other people's entries and also compete yourself with Trek-lovers such as the frothy Nadina H. ("I think Scotty is sexy!") and the confessional Christopher S. ("I was once an overweight arrogant child...") as well as diminutive actor Michael J. Anderson, whom you may remember from "Twin Peaks," who has entered his Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock impression under a video with the delicate title of "Dwarf Trek." Set phasers on stunning! [Esurance]

CAPTAIN AMERICA, DISGRACED: It was big news last March when Ed Brubaker and Marvel Comics killed off Steve Rogers, the man who so valiantly carried the shield of Captain America beginning in the 1940s. The news that he had been assassinated on the page must have hit Cap pretty hard because a few weeks later, it turns out, the old warhorse was arrested down in Melbourne, Fla., after some alleged pervy behavior (groping women in a bar) and also for pot possession. Oh my stars, what would Bucky think? Oh, wait, it wasn't the real hero it was just a guy in a Captain America costume. Well, the jailhouse video is still oddly hysterical to watch as the suspect (a beefy 54-year-old guy named Raymond Adamcik) is marched into the station house wearing cuffs and his mask. My favorite line from the police report: "Because there were so many cartoon characters in the bar at this time, all Captain Americas were asked to go outside for a possible identification." [The Smoking Gun]

BRETT RATNER ... AGAIN: Wow, director Brett Ratner sure flirts with a lot of different projects. The "X-Men: The Last Stand" director is supposed to be making a Hugh Hefner movie, a feature on Frank Sinatra's longtime valet, a "Beverly Hills Cop" sequel and maybe-possibly a Conan movie. Now comes a story in the trades that adds another one to the list, a film adaptation of "Youngblood" for Reliance Big Entertainment: "The Indian media conglom has acquired Rob Liefeld’s iconic graphic novel “Youngblood” for Brett Ratner to direct. Reliance inked a development deal with Ratner’s shingle Rat Entertainment, as well as Julia Roberts’ Red Om Films, during the Berlin film fest. The company paid mid six figures for the rights to 'Youngblood,' about a superhero team sanctioned and overseen by the U.S. government. Project is the first to emanate from the Indian media conglom’s nine development pacts with Hollywood talent. 'Most of the great graphic novels are gone, and ‘Youngblood’ is one of the few comic books left with tentpole potential,' Ratner told Daily Variety. 'It was a real personal passion project for me, and a lot of people wanted (‘Youngblood’), but the amazing thing about the guys at Reliance is the speed with which they’re able to move.' Reliance has also acquired the rights to French graphic novel 'Fly Wires' for Ratner’s shingle. Project, which will be renamed 'Infinity,' will be produced by Ratner, who has already tapped Sylvain White ('Stomp the Yard') to direct and John Collee ('Master and Commander') to pen the script." [Daily Variety] (P.S.: Am I only the only one who laughed out  loud when this Variety story referred to "Youngblood" as "iconic"?)

THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH THIS ONE: Plenty of you know Charles Ross and his one-man shows intepreting the "Star Wars" films (he did some fun commercials for Cinemax a while back, you can watch one of them below). Kathy Ceceri wrote about Ross and his stage show recently and it sounds better than ever: "Charles Ross makes a living doing something other people do on YouTube for free: he reenacts the entire original 'Star Wars' trilogy. No props, no costumes, and the only effects are done with lighting. Ross is from Canada, and has said he got the idea playing a kind of ''Star Wars' Frisbee,' where each player had to quote a line with each catch. He's been doing One-Man Star Wars since 2002, and has performed live on stages around the world, including Star Wars Celebration III and IV. We saw him last week at Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady, N.Y., and really enjoyed it. (Adding to the party atmosphere were members of the 501st Legion Garrison, who let folks pose for pictures with Darth Vader, Princess Leia or R2-D2 to raise money for charity. ) Anyone who knows the stories by heart (and I assume that includes everyone reading this) should be able to pick up all the characters and in-jokes Ross throws out.  But he does skip some parts and rushes through others, so a non-geek might have trouble following the plots. Ross does a spot-on impressions of Obi-Wan, R2 and Chewbacca. His Luke was even whinier than in the films. He didn't really try to imitate James Earl Jones' deep baritone, but his Jabba the Hutt -- done with flapping arm motions -- was priceless. And through it all he tossed in his own fanboy observations about the series, including banter with the kids in the audience about the merits of Jar Jar Binks." [Wired]

It was 70 years ago that Marvel Comics No. 1 hit the newsstands of America, so all year long we'll be celebrating that publishing landmark with special features. Today it's the second installment of "Fred Hembeck's Hero Complex," where Fred Hembeck, the comics-fandom parodist, lovingly revisits classic Marvel covers...

Fred Hembeck here again! Some of you may remember me as the guy who destroyed the entire Marvel Universe but today I come to praise the House of Ideas, not to bury it!

To help the mighty Hero Complex celebrate the 70th birthday of Marvel I've been digging into my vault of Classic Cover Redos, which (ahem) also happen to be available for purchase.

Last week I went back to the genesis of Marvel's patriotic icon Captain America (you can read Part 1 here) and today we Super-Soldier on with Part 2!

Hmmmm. Cap seems to have tumbled into a strange parallel dimension where everyone has squiggles on their knees...

"Captain America" #100 (April 1968)  Jack Kirby and Syd Shores, original artists

Inheriting the numbering from Tales of Suspense, his erstwhile (and now discontinued) home, Cap had himself an entire book to move around in (not to worry armor lovers -- Iron Man received the full length treatment as well). In this debut issue, we get a quick retelling of the events of The Avengers No. 4, as well as more of his then ongoing adventures alongside another Stan Lee/Jack Kirby stalwart, the Black Panther. Believe me when I tell you I was just totally thrilled that my fave good guy finally got his own ongoing book -- drawn by Kirby, happily!! 

It was 70 years ago that "Marvel Comics" No. 1 hit the newsstands of America, and all year long we'll be marking that key pivot point in publishing history with special features. One of those features will be "Fred Hembeck's Hero Complex," where Fred Hembeck, the parody master of comics fandom, lovingly lampoons classic Marvel covers. Take it away, Fred...

My name is Fred Hembeck. Some of you may know me from when I destroyed the Marvel Universe a while back (turns out it didn't stick ...), others from the countless goofy little cartoons I've done over the years spoofing the entire comics medium.

The fine folks at Hero Complex -- that'd be Geoff Boucher; thanks, buddy! -- have kindly invited me to dig through my files and, every few weeks, share a selection of my Classic Cover Redos, which (ahem) happen to be available for purchase.

Since The House of Ideas is celebrating a noteworthy birthday in 2009 -- the 70th, makes them older than me even -- Geoff thought it might be nice to throw a spotlight on some of my Marvel work, and who better to start with than a two-part series chronicling the exploits of the dude who claims Betsy Ross as his all-time favorite fashion designer ... Captain America!

"Captain America" No. 1 (March 1941) Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, original artists

THIS is where it all began! Months before the U.S. entered the fray, Timely publisher Martin Goodman gave co-creators Simon and Kirby the go-ahead to have their spanking new star-spangled hero land one square on Hitler's jaw!! And I think we all know by now that he sure had it coming! Not a bad way to launch a career, not a bad way at all...

"Twilight" zone: There is apparently some new movie about vampires called "Dawn" or "Twilight" or something like that. If you want to know more you can read this Los Angeles Times review by critic Kenny Turan, who says the movie actually makes him wish he could be a 13-year-old girl. Or you can check out Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood blog for an appraisal of the early box-office totals. Or investigate this CNN report about how some of the rabid fans are giving star Kristen Stewart the creeps because they are so jealous of her on-screen smooches with the hunky vampire guy. Or you can peruse this TV Guide story about said bloodsucker, Robert Pattinson, who is getting a bit creeped out himself ("You get little girls like, 'I want to have your babies!' It's like, seriously. I don't even want to have my babies."). Or you can explore this Fangoria story on director Catherine Hardwicke and the curious importance of blow dryers during the making of a film that appears to be poised for truly staggering success. Or, finally, you can read this you-are-there piece by Yvonne Villarreal of the Los Angeles Times, who braved a midnight showing of "Twilight" to mind-meld with the fans. Or you could just shrug and wait for the DVD so you don't have to put up with the squealing fans at the theaters.

"Hex," jinxed?: The "Jonah Hex" film is looking like it's all hat and no cattle. Variety reported the other day that "Crank" co-directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor had left the project and that the producers were in a scramble for a new director to keep Josh Brolin ("W," "No Country for Old Men") in the saddle for the adaptation of the story of the grim, disfigured bounty hunter from DC Comics. Brolin talked recently to MTV about the project and he sounded a bit, uh, conflicted about the role. Excerpts: "When I first read it, I thought, 'Oh my God, it's awful!' And then I had a moment a week later, and I thought, 'Why is it awful?' Maybe the thing to do is to do the most awful movie I can find.... In the last couple months, I've been going back and forth about it. I went back to my gut: 'Is it a sellout? What is it I like about this movie?' ... It's so tongue-in-cheek. It's so ridiculous. But once I started putting people in my mind and saying, 'What if I put [John] Malkovich in this role. Then what does this movie become? Now let's put this producer and director on it and think about how it plays out.' Then it becomes fun. Now I love that movie. If you have a great filmmaker come in, then suddenly, these gags and characters become interesting." Yeah, Josh, or maybe not. [MTV Movie News]

O Captain! My Captain: There are few things we fanboys love more than imaginary casting contests. Matt Brady knows that full well, so he had some fun surveying his readers about who should be carrying the red-white-and-blue shield in the Marvel Studios "First Avenger: Captain America." Votes came in for Brad Pitt, Matthew McConaughey, Jamie Bamber (Apollo on "Battlestar Galactica") and Howie Long, the Hall of Fame defensive lineman who mauled quarterbacks for the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. The winner? That would be Mark Valley, shown in the photo next to the star-spangled avenger. "Among readers who voted for Valley, many cited the actor's physical similarity to Steve Rogers as well as the fact that he is a veteran, having served in Operation Desert Storm. Valley currently appears as Agent John Scott in Fox's Fringe, but if Newsarama readers are any indication, his acting in Keen Eddie and Boston Legal put him on the radar of many fans as a possible Captain America." [Newsarama]

Calling Dick Tracy; come in, Tracy: Warren Beatty's "Dick Tracy" from 1990 yielded seven Oscar nominations (including a best supporting actor nomination for Al Pacino -- which makes you wonder why everyone seems to think a nomination for Heath Ledger in the same category is such a bold, new concept) and won in the makeup, set and original song categories. Beatty told me once that, in the years after the film, he came to view the movie as an articulation of his inner desire for family. It's hard to let go of family, of course, so maybe that's why Beatty has filed a federal lawsuit to keep control of the character as a Hollywood property. Harriet Ryan has the story: "The film idol bought rights to the character two decades ago from the Tribune Company in order to make his 1990 hit movie version of the square-jawed, tough-talking gumshoe. The sale allowed Tribune, the original publishers of the classic strip, to take back the rights if Beatty didn't film another project. Tribune, which owns the Los Angeles Times, recently sent Beatty a letter saying time is up and it is reasserting control of the character. But the actor claims he should retain the rights because he started filming a Dick Tracy TV special earlier this month. His attorney declined to say where or when the program will air, but insists the 71-year-old is far from done with the detective. 'Warren has always viewed Dick Tracy as a very valuable, interesting iconic character,' said attorney Charles Shephard. 'He has all sorts of creative thoughts about what he might do with this character.' " [Los Angeles Times]

-- Geoff Boucher

Today's handpicked headlines from the fanboy universe...

Wrapped in the flag: The Captain America movie, which will be a World War II tale and lead up to the hero's appearance in the modern-day setting of the "The Avengers," will be directed by Joe Johnston, who has experience with the vintage-style screen adventures with "The Rocketeer." Johnston also directed "Jumanji," "Jurassic Park III" and the upcoming werewolf revival, "The Wolf Man," which stars Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins. Borys Kit interviewed Marvel Studios executive and "Cap" producer Kevin Feige for this morning's announcement story in the trades: "Johnston first met with Marvel two years ago. When the two parties clicked, general talks turned into Captain America-specific meetings, with much of the project's current direction resulting from those early conversations. 'This is a guy who designed the vehicles for 'Star Wars,' who storyboarded the convoy action sequence for 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' Feige said. "From 'Rocketeer' to 'October Sky' to 'The Wolfman,' you can look at pieces of his movies and see how they lead to this one' ... Kicking off with 'Iron Man,' Marvel Studios' slate of movies -- including 'Thor' and the 'Iron Man' sequel -- is building toward an 'Avengers' movie set for release in 2011, in which the characters from the films team for one big adventure. 'Captain America' is scheduled for release May 6, 2011." [Hollywood Reporter]

"Skim" at the top: The New York Times Book Review section on Sunday was devoted to the Children's Books Fall Special issue, which (somewhat jarringly) includes Elizabeth Spires' review of the graphic novel "Skim," which is a tale of 16-year-old girl nicknamed Skim who attends a private girls school where she is treated as an outcast. The story, written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, touches on sexual identity, suicide and a romantic yearning between a student and her teacher, all of which is handled with a painful honesty and nuance that impressed the editors of the special section. Spires writes: "'Skim' — a winner of a 2008 New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award — is a convincing chronicle of a teenage outsider who has enough sense to want to stay outside. In the final section of the story, titled appropriately 'Goodbye (Hello),' Skim defies the shallow, popular clique and walks out of a school dance with Katie. She’s cast off her nickname and is 'Kim' now, a name more true to the person she is slowly becoming. And Katie is slowly beginning to heal, too. All in all, 'Skim' offers a startlingly clear and painful view into adolescence for those of us who possess it only as a distant memory. It’s a story that deepens with successive rereadings. But what will teenagers think? Maybe that they’ve found a bracingly honest story by a writer who seems to remember exactly what it was like to be 16 and in love for the first time." [New York Times]

Buck up, little buddy: Will we see Buck Rogers back in some new film or television revival? There was talk of Frank Miller directing a movie for a 2011 arrival at theater but that is more rumor than real at this point, according to "The Spirit" director himself. Either way,  Lewis Wallace has written a quick appraisal of the hero's history along with a 14-image photo gallery marking his 80th anniversary in pop culture: "Anthony 'Buck' Rogers first burst from writer Philip Nowlan's imagination in 1928, when the intrepid spaceman appeared in "Armageddon — 2419," a story published in Amazing Stories magazine. From his pulp roots, the character developed into an influential American hero on the airwaves and the silver screen. Subsequent space swashbucklers like Brick Bradford and Flash Gordon took a cue from Buck Rogers' sci-fi adventures. Buck took to the radio Nov. 7, 1932, with the first broadcast of 'The World in 2432'. The radio show launched Buck and his female co-pilot, Wilma Deering, into the nation's living rooms, introducing such sci-fi staples as spaceships and death rays." [Wired]

Brett Ratner? By Crom!: After the success of "300" it was really only a matter of time before a revival of Conan the Barbarian picked up serious steam. The name of Brett Ratner ("X-Men: The Last Stand") has been associated with the project quite a bit in recent months and recently Jay Fernandez and Borys Kit had this story in the trades on appraising his interest in the Cimmerian: "Ratner has been considering signing on to direct a 21st century update of 'Conan,' co-produced by Nu Image/Millennium and Lionsgate Films, even as he pushes another high-profile project -- a fourth installment of the 'Beverly Hills Cop' franchise -- toward a greenlight at Paramount, where he recently set up shop. While the 'Conan' development deal puts the brawny brigand on Ratner's docket, 'BHC IV' is still likely to go into production first. Ratner jived to the 'Conan' script by Gersh-repped Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly, who looked to Robert E. Howard's original pulp stories of the 1930s to create their take on the character. The writers are doing a quick polish to incorporate some of Ratner's ideas, with an eye toward releasing the film in 2010. ... Millennium and Lionsgate are eyeing a potential franchise and envision a very R-rated approach in the $85 million budget range. "The story opens on the battlefield where Conan is born and tells the origin story that sets the stage for what will be the first of multiple films,' Lerner said. [Hollywood Reporter]

-- Geoff Boucher

Captain America image drawn by Steve Epting and courtesy of Marvel Comics.

It's Tuesday here at Hero Complex and we find ourselves muttering those sublime words penned by Walt Whitman (or was it Stan Lee?): "O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills..." We're pretty sure Whitman wasn't writing about Reb Brown (in photo, right) the former boxer and USC ballplayer who brought Captain America to life (sorta) on TV back in 1979. Who will will carry the shield next? That seems to be one everyone's mind ...

"The "First Avenger: Captain America" will be released in 2011 and based during the World War II era in which the hero was created... [Production Weekly, subscription required]

...and there's no "Captain America" director or star attached yet (or at least not publicly) but there's plenty of eager discourse on the matter both here and here... [Film School Rejects and Screen Rant]

...and there's already a terrible fake trailer for the movie [You Tube]

Marvel Studios moves into Raleigh Studios in Manhattan Beach with plans to make four films there (including Captain America) [Los Angeles Times]

There's talk about "Lethal Weapon 5" which reminds us that, oh, yeah, there actually was a fourth one wasn't there? [ICN Movies]