Bonus
-
Concepts are good, but story is better
In his critique, Film Crit Hulk Smash provides a terse diagnostic of Amazing Spider-Man 2 (“Hulk’s Burning Questions for the Amazing Spider-Man 2,” birthmoviesdeath.com, May 6, 2014): “WHY DOES THIS CREATIVE TEAM KEEP FLIRTING WITH CONCEPTS AND THEN NOT ACTUALLY DEALING WITH THEM OR EXPLORING THEM? […] WHY DO WRITERS CONTINUALLY NOT UNDERSTAND THAT SCREENTIME ISN’T ABOUT POSITIONING THE LOGISTICS OF WHY PEOPLE DO WHATEVER, BUT ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIPS AND THE MEANING OF THOSE RELATIONSHIPS?” And there’s so much more quotable stuff in there.
Arthur Tebbel is just as harsh: “Stop teasing me on the Sinister Six if you can’t give me one compelling villain in this movie. Stop giving me the mystery of Peter Parker’s parents when you can neither give Aunt May enough space nor have Peter remember the death of his uncle.” (“Box Office Democracy: The Amazing Spider-Man 2, www.comicmix.com, May 5, 2014).
And to really drive it home, SouronsBane1 adds: “What’s even worse is the fact that there are a number of more minor subplots that come up out of nowhere, have valuable screen-time dedicated to setting them up…and then they ultimately end up going nowhere as well.” (“Why It Didn’t Work: The Amazing Spider-Man 2,”www.comicbookmovie.com, May 28, 2014.)
The idea here isn’t to belabour the point on this movie that certainly had its share of bad reviews, but to learn something and improve our own writing abilities. We often get the impression that writers and screenwriters want to stand out for ever-more-complex plots, when it takes a lot of effort to express a simple story. Simplicity doesn’t mean lack of complexity, but it should mean lack of complication. And when we’re polishing grand ideas, we tend to forget the small details that make a real difference. The question we should ask ourselves is: “Does this plot have too many improbabilities, too many gratuitous coincidences, that in the end the reader will more interested in pointing them out than in getting absorbed into the story?” The answer isn’t simple, but a little logic should be deployed in a story.
-
Supporting characters
In an opinion piece on the failure of the Silver Surfer title published in the early 70s, Mike Huddleston (“Why Did the Original Silver Surfer Run Fail? #1-18,” www.comicbookdaily.com, June 12, 2014) points out that it had few secondary characters. Now, that’s an interesting observation. The hero can have adventures, but he or she won’t have anyone to anchor him or her and to breathe life into the story. There will only be one point of view. We feel that “ensemble casts” allow for a wide variety of possible storylines.
-
Characters drive comicbooks
Recently, we found this analysis by Ed Campbell, pointing out that big comicbook editors (Marvel or DC) haven’t been able to create as many characters in recent years as they had in previous decades.
But does creator’s rights make the comic book industry stale? Or does it only affect the “big 2″ comic publishers, while smaller publications thrive?
If you look at Marvel and DC over the past decade, there haven’t been too many new characters come out for the comics. There were some characters who were “re-imagined” when DC launched the New 52. But on the most part there haven’t been any characters to really jump off the page and become household names. Even Marvel has introduced some new characters like Ghost Rider, Nova and Ms. Marvel. But they are just older characters with new characters portraying these long-time Marvel personas. (“Creator’s Rights = Stale Creativity,” www.comicbookdaily.com, June 20, 2014).
To find proof of this stagnation in character development, one need only think of Mark Gruenwald, who invented dozens of characters—some of them quite memorable—during his time on Captain America. There’s no sense of such a rich creative vein being tapped nowadays. New characters allow heroes to face new experiences and new adversaries that multiply fans’ reading pleasure.
-
An example of a great sequence of panels
The accompanying image is just a part of a full page published in September 1969 and drawn by Georges Tuska. Made up of 12 panels, it shows Tony Stark being pursued by the police. The diversity of angles and rhythm created by the number of panels make this one of the most gorgeous pages published in comics in our opinion (of the ones we’ve seen, naturally). Despite its age, it is still relevant.
-
The narrative innovations of Star Wars
While our last entry may have seemed critical of the Star Wars saga, we can’t disregard its many technical innovations and narrative risk-taking. Keith Phipps (“Why Star Wars?,” thedissolve.com, November 14, 2014) gives a good example of these risks:
By opening with C-3PO and R2-D2, Star Wars thrusts viewers into its world and counts on them to be engaged enough to figure out what’s going on. Even if Star Wars’ title hadn’t been amended to add “Episode IV,” it would still feel like a story already in progress, complete with talk of a Galactic Senate, a never-seen Emperor, spice-smuggling (an homage to Frank Herbert’s Dune), and a past filled with Jedi. The action stops for the occasional explanation, but more goes unexplained.
And when you think about it, the characters are introduced gradually, in large expository scenes that allow each one to position him- or herself. It’s fair to wonder whether, in the current screenwriting climate, this approach would even be used if the episode were remade.
