It’s certainly obvious that these comic book stories are appealing to a mass audience and making movie studios a bundle. What you might not know is that comic books and filmmaking have a very special relationship. They are based on a very similar idea on how to communicate called visual story-telling.

Words and pictures have been an effective method of communication since mankind learned to draw on cave walls and the Egyptians developed their pictographs.

In fact, most television and film productions utilize a method called storyboarding before shooting their project. A storyboard is basically a sketched out comic book version of the planned film. The process involves graphically organizing the film with a series of illustrations or images displayed in sequential order for the purpose of pre-visualizing a production. This helps with communication between the director and the DP and crew because everyone already knows how the shots should look. This process allows a higher level of communication between the filmmakers than just the written word.

So my point is that basically every film begins with the production of a storyboard which is really a comic book. Comics and film synergize and really can’t be separated.

I have heard disparaging remarks that Hollywood has no imagination left and that is why they plumb the supposed lower levels of entertainment like comic books and genres like science-fiction and horror but I would tell you that Hollywood makes its decisions for financial reasons, first and foremost, and then, with communication.

Certainly you don’t mess with success take a look at the buzz over AMC’s new comic-book based series “The Walking Dead“. Since some of the bigger block-busters have come from the world of comics, Hollywood is going to continue to seek out concepts and properties from the comic book universe.

But comic books allow readers to visualize the story based on the comic book artist’s illustrations and so communication between potential developers of the comic into a show are all talking about the same imagery. They are not re-imagining what a character looks like because they already know. They do not have to imagine what happens during the story because they’ve already seen it.

Some film producers have had the foresight to remain faithful to the source material and avoid making a cardinal mistake of alienating their built-in fanbase. Examples of these films include 300, The Watchmen, and The Dark Knight. The level of star power portraying these roles has improved as well with Robert Downey, Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow in Iron Man, and the unforgettable Heath Ledger as the Joker. Gone are the campy portrayals of silliness by Adam West, and even, Michael Keaton. Comic book movies are serious business.

As a comic book writer and aficionado, I know that there are great properties out there that would translate well into more Hollywood blockbusters. I don’t understand why comics such as Headlocked by Michael Kingston, Zoom Suit by John Taddeo, Powers by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming, and a plethora of other greats haven’t been picked up by studios looking to make a bundle.

The best news that I can predict is that as comic books continue to dominate the box-office and the television screen, we can look forward to some more great stories coming our way from the incredible comic book universe!

Terry Cronin is the creator and writer of the comic horror-adventure series Students of the Unusual. He is also the program chairman for the Melbourne Independent Filmmakers Festival and the Megacon Indi.

Not the sequel to Acts of Vengeance I was hoping for, then, but an examination of the villains of the Marvel Universe from the perspective of a generation of aspiring rascals and rapscallions. Emulation appears to play a great part in the series, as writer Joe Casey and artist Nick Dragotta’s new character designs reveal; and when it comes to gaudy spandex threads these villains-in-the-making aren’t necessarily paying homage to the bad guys.

So, whereas Dark Reign put the MU’s villains behind the steering wheel, Vengeance will see them revered. Hardly a hook worthy of Civil War, but Casey a good deal to get his teeth into here; especially since we already live in an era in which drug dealers, pimps and gangsters are idolised over the puritan heroes of yesteryear.

God, I suddenly sound like a bitter old man…

Marvel vs Capcom 3

But this hasn’t  stopped one beaver from spreading a 14-strong roster of new characters; a list that, while most assumed would be fake, is simply too tantalising to pass on. Just imagine what Capcom’s art department could do with Dr. Octopus and Jon Talbain…

I’ve had my doubts about this one (as have many), but there’s some really impressive visuals on display here, Mark Strong’s Sinestro looks spot on, and Campbell is clearly not scaling down the mythology in any way -- evidently,  much of the action takes place off-Earth.

A few worries, though: some real dodgy CGI, particularly on Ryan Reynold’s costume. Such effects work fine when characters are hurtling through space, not so convincing when shown close-up and static. Also, every attempt at humour we’ve seen so far has fallen flat. Here’s hoping the film will take itself seriously… in an affectionate, tongue-in-cheek kind of way, of course.

And that’s not all! Following through with this double whammy of green goodness is the equally cinematic trailer for Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, a cinematic showing Jordan, Sinestro and Killawog in action. Sure, the game itself is likely to be virtually unplayable, but it sure is a purdy lil’ trailer.

Like Superman and Captain America before him, Batman was always going to best the Grim Reaper and return to the DCU – even though technically he was never dead. It was more a question of when (re: how long DC could resist restoring the status quo) than if. But with Grant Morrison overseeing the Dark Knight’s past, present and future, the results are, unsurprisingly, anything but conventional.

Following the events of Final Crisis, in which Batman was struck with Darkseid’s Omega Beams, Wayne now finds himself hurtling through time, from the Palaeolithic era through to the Wild West and 30’s Gotham; the latter providing Wayne an opportunity to view the aftermath of the Waynes’ murder from another perspective. Anyone who remembers the ludicrous Legends of the Batman action figure range from the 90s will have a good idea of what Wayne’s time-travelling escapades include, as he assumes the mantle of the Bat according to each period’s fashion.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne

If it sounds silly, that’s because it is, and not even a superfluous subplot which follows Superman, Booster Gold and Tim Drake as they zip about through DC chronology to prevent Wayne from returning to the present – the consequence of which will tear the timeline asunder – is enough to make The Return of Bruce Wayne feel like anything less than a Batman-restoring deus ex machina. Blue Beetle never received this level of dedication from the DCU’s finest.

Still, there are moments of quality here, and the eclectic assortment of artists (Frazier Irving’s witchfinder confrontation in Puritan America is particularly good) hit the project from every angle possible. Morrison is never short of ideas, and while the plot trips over its entangled shoelaces towards the finale, The Return of Bruce Wayne is at least imaginative, and provides a take on the character that stands out from his 70 years in funny books as something unique, for better or worse.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne

One question that the book doesn’t answer, however, is why Bruce Wayne needs to return right now; especially when Morrison’s other Bat-book, the rollicking Batman and Robin, has made such a strong case for the contrary.

6/10

DC Universe Online: Legends sits in the rather unenviable position of being a comic book based on a video game based on a comic book. However, DCUO is no ordinary video game but an MMO; an online realm that will continue to expand with new content and plot developments alongside Tony Bedard and game writer Marv Wolfman’s 52-part series.

While the game’s plot essentially boils down to your homemade avatar battling DC’s most recognisable heroes/villains one at a time, and occasionally taking on Brainiac’s rampant forces, the initial premise behind DCUO is a good one. Lex Luthor travels from the future, informing Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman that after a devastating battle which ended the life of every major superhero, Brainiac’s forces descended upon our tiny planet and wiped out the human race.

DC Universe Online: Legends #1

The cockroach-like Luthor managed to survive, and has not only time-travelled to our present to ensure that Superman lives to take on Brainiac, but dispersed Brainiac’s exobytes – nanobot-sized devices that bond with an individual and lend them superhuman abilities, conveniently providing a explanation for the boom in user-created supers – into Earth’s population.

Legends leaps straight into the action, assuming that its readers will have witnessed the game’s magnificent cinematic intro, in which Luthor’s army of super-villains annihilate Superman, Batman Flash, Green Lantern et al. For those few who’ve yet to see it:

Naturally, one of the pleasures of an alternate timeline such as this is that we get to see DC’s treasured properties kick the bucket, and the comic is no different, serving up the end of mankind in the first issue alone. The ragtag team Luthor has assembled by the end of this issue is an interesting mix of the lesser-known, including Mr Freeze, Solomon Grundy, Blue Beetle, Black Canary and Doctor Fate.

Were it not for its tie-in nature, DC Universe Online: Legends would be generic guff, but this looking to be a fun and, most importantly, accessible series, with some decent art by Howard Porter and others. This issue also added some interesting depth to Luthor’s actions, and I think it’s fair to say that gamers will want to keep up with the comic to fully appreciate the game. That is, if they haven’t already decided to unsubscribe when the 30-day trial ends.

7/10

With Heart of Hush Paul Dini takes Jeph Loeb’s bandaged villain and injects some much needed pathos into his backstory, exploring Thomas Elliot’s warped relationship with his mother and the Elliot family’s criminal ties. The original ‘Hush’ arc was seemingly developed to give co-creator Jim Lee an opportunity to illustrate every Batman cohort and villain under the sun, and left little room for that rarest of plot elements known as character development.

Still recovering from his run-in with the Joker in the pages of Gotham Knights, Elliot has set up base in an abandoned hospital (the sort of thing that could only exist in Gotham City; does nobody have development plans for Gotham’s countless empty properties?) where he targets the only femme fatale to have ever truly captured Bruce Wayne’s heart, Selina Kyle/Catwoman, and decides it fitting to remove hers. Literally.

Batman: Heart of Hush

Dustin Nguyen does a fine job balancing of the plausible and the fantastical in Dini’s script, which juxtaposes grounded flashback scenes with cameos from the likes of Doctor Mid-Nite and Mister Terrific. Hush’s brainwashed hospital workers, courtesy of the Scarecrow’s mind-altering drugs, are particularly sinister. An army of malevolence nurses and surgeons is a concept that may sound as though it harks back to the Adam West era, but is implemented here to chilling effect.

If there’s one criticism I have of Heart of Hush it’s that, ultimately, the storyline doesn’t further the Batman mythos; a criticism which extends to most Batman titles. From page 1 onwards we know that Selina will live to fight another day, that Hush will retreat into the shadows and begin orchestrating an even more diabolical scheme (cue mockingly evil laugh)…

Batman: Heart of Hush

Nevertheless, Dini manages to make us want to see more of a character that was, prior to this arc at least, considered one of the most facile and overhyped Batman antagonists of the past decade. And that in itself is enough to make Heart of Hush glisten amongst the proverbial pile.

8/10

J. Michael Staczynski updates the Last Son of Kryton’s origin for the inaugural release from DC’s new Earth One imprint; the publisher’s latest attempt to attract new readers with monthly titles that are free from all the cumbersome continuity and convoluted history which make the DC Universe so darn interesting in the first place.

“But why oh why,” you may ask, “do we need another Superman reboot when Smallville is already half-heartedly bringing a watered down retelling of the Superman mythos to Joe Public?”

Answer: you don’t. But in all fairness, DC currently lacks a counterpart to Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, an imprint which enduring comic readers may remain opposed to, but one which managed to successfully repackage impenetrable franchises for a mainstream audience. The All-Star Superman series looked to fill a similar niche, but DC made the mistake of handing the reigns to Grant Morrison, and the result was a miniseries that, while brilliantly inventive, probably left casual readers scratching their heads.

Superman: Earth One

Just as his Thor reboot ridiculed the character with some brilliantly grounded humour, Staczynski manages to fit a few nice touches into his contemporisation of the Superman origin. Clark initially uses his abilities to earn a pro football contract, while his interview at the Daily Planet is met with Perry’s blunt admittance that the newspaper is dying a slow death.

But this reboot’s goodwill is diminished with the arrival of Tyrell, an alien hybrid of Apocalypse and Alice Cooper who’s every bit as appalling as he sounds. Tyrell and his poorly defined race were responsible for the destruction of Krypton, and threaten to destroy earth unless Kent hands himself over. Naturally, he doesn’t, and what ensues is essentially fifty pages of airborne warfare and robot skirmishes; which, in the light of the solid first act, is not only uninspired but disheartening.

Superman: Earth One

Shane Davis (JLA: The Lightning Saga, Superman/Batman) is a perfect fit for this series. His art is about as comic book as comic art can be; though given Earth One’s target audience, a conventional approach is entirely justified. Some fine inking and measured colours by Sandra Hope and Barbara Ciardo, respectively, make for an attractive, if insubstantial, coffee table placement.

Superman: Earth One is a slick package that will please its target audience: readers who are familiar with Superman from movies, video games and those oh-so iconic T-shirts, but have yet to be exposed to the source material. They’ll enjoy Straczynski’s unadventurous origin story, marvel at Davis’s grand climax and possibly even identify more with Clark Kent now that he’s taken the emo route and donned a hoodie. But regular Superman readers looking for a new take on the Man of Steel are likely to be disappointed; Earth One lacks the novelty of an Elseworlds title, and its extraterrestrial protagonist is a soulless simulacrum of the icon that they’ve clung so dearly to since childhood.

6/10

Seven volumes into The Boys and we’ve witnessed buggery, paedophilia, infanticide and more full-frontal nudity than you can furiously shake a rolled up Daily Mail at. Volume 7, ‘The Innocents’, is far lighter in tone than previous instalments, and while this trade lacks the clout (or indeed laughs) that the team’s encounter with the G-Men and ‘Herogasm’ provided, Ennis does get round to answering several of the questions that readers have likely been asking for some time.

The volume begins with Butcher spotting Hughie and Starlighter together, which causes him to question Hughie’s allegiance to the team. Thus, our Simon Pegg-alike is sent to spy on Super Duper, a team of useless super-teens that I’m assuming was inspired by family-friendly groups such as Power Pack, while Butcher digs for dirt.

Super Duper isn’t quite like any of the other super teams Hughie has previously encountered. Its members are decent people, for one, and despite their ineffectualness they genuinely uphold the superhero principles of their comic counterparts. Things go horribly wrong for the team, however, when reprimanded scumbag Malchemical is sent to tutor the youngsters; and much like the majority of characters in The Boys, he’s both a psychopath and a serial rapist.

The Boys Volume 7: The Innocents

A secondary plot dishes out the repercussions on Rebecca/Starlighter’s suck-off with The Seven – including A-Train, the speedster responsible for killing Hughie’s former sweetheart. Hughie was bound to find out eventually, and while things currently don’t look especially optimistic for the only two redeemable main characters in this series, Garth Ennis has usually made sure that his purist characters remain so. One of the most touching fundamentals of the series has been the way in which Hughie has provided a moral anchor to the team, one that was previously absent, and Derick Robertson illustrates his betrayal magnificently.

The Homelander’s escalating frustrating leads to a chilling climax that not only accentuates the supers’ contempt for common folk, but looks certain to shift The Boys in a new direction. Throughout this series there’s always been the sense that the gang Hughie has sided with are no better than the costumed malcontents they hunt, but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that as brutal as Butcher’s tactics are, The Boys could very well be humanity’s only hope.

8/10

Garth Ennis dials the gross out meter up to 11 in Volume Five: Herogasm, in which we discover exactly what goes on in those superhero crossovers which have plagued comics for decades. In this case, Earth’s greatest heroes ostensibly depart for a war with the fictitious alien Maith’rai, while in reality the costumed community is gathering for a weeklong fuckfest. Sigh… Surprisingly, The Boys are watching from afar, waiting for an opportune moment to make a strike on Vic the Veep, America’s moronic Vice president and a man so inept that he needs help pulling on a “dicky hat”.

‘Herogasm’ was originally printed as a 6-part spin-off, but it’s by no means a superfluous adventure for The Boys. This is as much a part of the regular series as any other plotline, the repercussions of which will be felt throughout the main series for a long time. The art in this volume is by John McCrea, whose work is good but doesn’t quite depict Ennis’s gallery of grotesques nearly as effectively as Derick Robertson’s. Throughout the series Robertson has disappeared for an issue or two, and much like Steve Dillon’s occasional excursion on Preacher (or, rather, its own miniseries spin-offs), his absence is always felt.

The Boys Volume Five: Herogasm

Volume 6: The Self Preservation Society, however, sees 2000AD legend and regular Ennis cohort regular Carlos Ezquerra share art duties with McCrea for a few issues, and he’s by far the best suited replacement for Robertson. In retaliation for Butcher’s actions at Herogasm, Vaught-American finally send a formidable foe The Boy’s way; Payback, a force second only to The Seven, who manage to mess our favourite yobs up to an extent that we’ve not yet seen. Nazi superman Stormfront not only makes for a great villain but his appearance leads into a cameo from the monstrously hung Love Sausage, whose apparatus I don’t ever want to have to look at again.

Derick Robertson then returns for a series of character origins. Mother’s Milk’s is tragic, The Frenchman’s is characteristically absurd, and The Female’s is utterly horrific. Ennis has such a gift for dialogue and character quirks that, Hughie aside, it’s easy to forget how little we knew about The Boys. Butcher’s back-story is the one I’m anticipating most, while the fact that the team’s mysterious founder Mallory has yet to make an appearance looms over this series like an imminent thunderstorm. Ennis has clearly been planning Mallory’s entrance from the series’ conception, and when he finally returns it’s likely to tear the lovable louts asunder.

The Boys Volume 6: The Self Preservation Society

Click here for The Boys volume 7: The Innocents TPB Review.

Well, that’s that. I leave The Boys with mixed feelings; it’s a series that’s paradoxically overrated and far smarter than anyone seems to give it credit for. It’s also a far more affecting series than the fratboy humour might initially have you believe. While The Boys is not quite on the same level as Preacher it’s a completely different series, though the usual Garth Ennis trademarks are all present and correct; including the sense of comradely that has defined his best work.

No matter how far into the bottom of the barrel Ennis scoops, he’s wise enough to keep Wee Hughie a moral standpoint; Hughie may have been subjected to a world of superheroes, murder and sexual deviants, but he remains the same naïve Scot we met in Issue 1. And I think that’s kind of sweet.

Next up, either Lucifer, The Books of Magic or The Walking Dead. Decisions, decisions…