Day: August 21, 2005

You know, I’ve been loving the current storyline on HBO’s “Entourage” which features rising movie star Vincent Chase starring in a James Cameron-directed Aquaman film. TV Guide (or maybe it was EW) claimed that the storyline dissed the sea king, but I completely disagree. Vincent’s initial hesitation to portray Aquaman never stemmed from feeling the character was stupid, but rather that he, Vince, didn’t have the right stuff to portray a superhero. The only laugh-out-loud sequence was when the Hollywood braintrust trotted out a ghastly garish Aquaman outfit, and by me that was more a comment on Hollywood’s ability to bûggër a costume rather than on Aquaman himself. Vince’s brother, Johnny Drama–ever on the lookout for his own fading acting career–correctly points out with optimism that, hey, y’know, Aquaman DOES have a brother.

And on tonight’s episode, wonder of wonders, Vincent is actually shown working out with Aquaman’s harpoon hand. No “water hand” here; this version of Aquaman is packing serious spear. They refer to it as a “claw hand,” granted, but it’s metal and it fires a harpoon, so that’s close enough for me.

Now all we need is for Cameron to REALLY make an Aquaman film and we’re good to go.

PAD

I’m probably going to expand upon this in “But I Digress”, but…

I was at a playground yesterday with Caroline. There was a little boy there, seven years old, named Steven. He was talking to other kids about Spider-Man, and what a big Spider-Man fan he was. He was showing off his Spidey sneakers very proudly.

And I said to him, “Do you read Spider-Man comics?”

He looked at me oddly and said, “No.”

“Why not?”

“I watch the movies,” he said. “And I play the video game. I beat Doc Ock,” he added proudly.

“Okay, but…Spider-Man’s a comic book character. Aren’t you at all interested in reading the comic?”

He shook his head. His ten year old brother said, “Why should he?”

I said, “Well, because you keep watching the movies, it’s the same story. What about new adventures, new stories about Spider-Man?”

The big brother shrugged and said, “He watches the cartoon.”

“I watch the cartoon,” Steve echoed. “And the movies. And play the game. I’m a Spider-Man fan!”

Spidey’s biggest fan…except for, y’know, the whole comic book thing. That he really doesn’t care about.

And why should he? How many have you, in the past five years, have seen a James Bond movie or played the video game? Now…how many of you have read a James Bond book? Seen a Sherlock Holmes film or a repeat of the Jeremy Brett TV series? As opposed to reading Conan Doyle or any of the many pastiches?

Comics used to be the only venue for following the adventures of iconic heroes, just as books were once the only means of keeping up with literary heroes. And now the heros’ popularity has outstripped any need for literature…or readers.

And you wonder why comics are hemorrhaging readers.

PAD