ASK CHIMPION! - MARCH 2008

[Chimpion]

Welcome back to Ask Chimpion!

It gratifies me to no end that tales of my chimply wisdom has spread far and wide. Soon the whole world will come and seek my knowledge. Until then, there is you..


Mighty Kal ponders:

What do you think of Marvel and DC Sentry and Superboy Prime hype respectively?

Well, hype in of itself isn't bad. You have to hype characters, good or evil, in order to generate interest in a story. Sometimes the story serves as its own hype, and sometimes it is undeserved exaggeration.

Superboy Prime? A decent villain out of a great story. Of course, the "Countdown to Final Crisis" has the taste of manufactured hype, but that has nothing to do with the character himself. He is a solid villain, a once hero who has been driven insane by decades of isolation, seeing his ideal world torn asunder. If used effectively, Superboy Prime is a very effective character that is deserving of the hype.

Sentry? Well, let's just say that Marvel didn't need him. An uber-powerful character, arguably the most powerful character on Earth in the Marvel Universe, that just happens to have an S on his torso? Of course, there are differences between this character and Superman, but the whole insanity/schizophrenia thing can only take a character so far. Marvel didn't need a Superman clone to take the pinnacle position in their universe - they already had a perfectly good character by the name of Thor, and another known as the Incredible Hulk. Beyond that, Marvel has always prided itself in featuring more accessible characters, whereas DC's mainstays are often more "god-like." Sentry is a case of hype gone wrong - pushing an unneeded character at the expense of good stories and established characters.

What do you think of current Spiderman?

I try not to.

Though seriously, the new stories aren't bad, but there were better ways to get where we now are with this character.

In your opinion, Thor still has the Odinforce?

No. Asguard was destroyed, as was Odin. One must assume that when Odin was destroyed, so was his power.

We will ever see Darkseid as he is supposed to be, again?

Someday.

Why Mxy jobbed to Emo-Prime?

Because it helped to cement, errr - Emo-Prime as a real threat to the universe.

What do you think of Dragon Ball GT?

Not much...

And another question, what do you think when people call Chavez an Ape?

I think they don't like him very much. More examples of Homo-sapiens specism if you ask me...

WhereIsTony inquires:

Have you ever found your self in a room with an infinite number of typewriters?

I can't say that I have. Thankfully, I haven't needed one. Contrary to popular myth, I only need one typewriter to produce a masterpiece.

How do chimps pick their president?

It is actually a pretty complex process. The simple answer is that our "Alpha" is the one who can defeat all challengers physically. But true leadership plays a role. An Alpha must defend the females and the weaker tribe members, win the loyalty of the tribe, and any challenger to the position must contend with that as well. When a chimpanzee can effectively win the loyalty of other members of the tribe through negotiation or preferential treatment, they will help defend the Alpha against challengers.

So it is more than just the biggest and strongest - it is the chimp who can best rally the support of the rest of the tribe that will serve as the Alpha male.

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Blake Petit asks:

What's better -- delaying a comic for the artist, or replacing the artist with a competent substitute?

Definitely the latter. Of course, there is an expectation that art be of a certain level of quality in comics, but if artists like Mark Bagley show anything, its that it is possible to put out a high volume of work that is still spectacular.

On a monthly superhero book, a key word there is monthly. Batman is a title that has run for decades - people read Batman not for the creative team, but for the character. There is no artist out there who's work is so good that the schedule on Batman should be pushed back for them. Not a single one. Of course, some artists bring a unique approach to a book, but that still isn't an excuse for lateness. If you can't do the work, you shouldn't make the commitment, no?

Of course, the standard is a little different on Independent and Small Press titles, but on the whole, if an artist can't keep a monthly schedule, they should be replaced with someone who can. Might upset fans of the artist, but in the long-run it is better for the title, better for the publisher, and the nay-sayers will forget about it soon enough. Besides - if Marvel and DC actually stuck to this standard, I guarantee that almost every "late" artist would suddenly find themselves able to meet those deadlines.

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Eric Barret is curious

When you approach a fork in the road, which way do you go?

Only short-sighted humans stick to the road.

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Wolfwood asks:

How long do you think BMB will stay on USM (I hope it's forever)?

Probably forever, or until he is assassinated by some hungry young writer. Being able to write Spider-Man from the beginning, and take him anywhere you want to, for as long as you want? I can't see many writers ever giving that up.

Who should be the villains of Spider Man 4?

Well, there is an error off the bat there - there should only be one villain. Multiple villains were the death of the first Batman franchise, and they have been the death of the Spider-Man film franchise. Early nominees have to be the writers and producers of Spider-Man 3, and Sony, for allowing that piece of junk to hit the screens.

However, if I had one serious pick, it should be Mysterio. That would make for a fun movie.

Do you think a replacement should be made for Heath Ledger as the Joker in the 3rd Batman movie? Or do you think they should omit the Joker from the 3rd movie?

There is no reason to even have the Joker in the third movie. With any comic movie, the villain should be defeated, and a new one introduced in the next film. There are plenty of Batman villains left to choose from.

Who do you think would be the best replacement for Ledger as the Joker?

In the interests of harmony, I will refrain from what might consider a tasteless answer to this question and instead plead ignorance. Since the movie hasn’t been released, we have no idea what kind of Joker Ledger ended up being.

When will the Avengers live action movie be made?

Hopefully never. There is no way a movie with so many heroes would ever pass muster with fans of the individual characters, and there is no 2-3 hour script that could do justice to so many characters without cutting out the plot all together.

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Andrea Speed ponders:

Sporks. Why?

I don't know. I wonder why just plain forks. I have four perfectly good hands - utensils just seem to complicate eating to me.

Is that too existential?

The question? No. The Spork? Yes.

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Chrismozer pries:
Do you know when DC's Sonic Disruptors will ship?

Yes.

What happens to artwork for "next issues" that get cancelled? Does the artwork sit in a secret vault waiting to see print? As an example, I use Ms. Marvel.

Her 1st series ended with issue #23 but Marvel Super-Heroes #10-11 (1990) printed the stories originally intended for Ms. Marvel #24-25. Is Logan's Run #8 sitting around waiting to see the light of day?

That's a pretty accurate summation. When the pages are actually turned in, they end up in a vault somewhere. If there is enough there to make a decent "extra," they will find their way into a collection somewhere.

If any work from Logan's Run #8 was indeed handed in (I have a feeling not, however), it would indeed be waiting around. But since there hasn't been any Logan's Run comics put out since the early 90's that Marvel has had a hand in, it is no surprise that any unpublished pages have been long buried.

If some crackpot producer decides to make an unfortunate remake, they will possibly surface. So all you have to do to see those pages is put up with another uninspired, hip, edgy remake of a great film. A small price to pay to be sure!

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Thanks again for all of your questions. I look forward to answering more next month!

Remember, questions for next month's Ask Chimpion! can be emailed to Chimpion@comixtreme.com or you can send me a Private Message at my comiXtreme account. The Ask Chimpion Thread over in the cX Waiting Room seems to be a popular place to post questions as well, so that will do if you don't like email!

Hope to see you all next month, or sooner if I get so inundated with questions that I need to do something semi-monthly...

[Eric Barrett]

It gratifies me to no end that tales of my chimply wisdom has spread far and wide. Soon the whole world will come and seek my knowledge. Until then, there is you..

For some reason this makes me think of the computer from Portal...

[Ben Lehnsherr]

Very entertaining column, Chimpion!

[virtuadept]

Really good point on the artists being late question. I really feel like part of the reason so many books are late is that so many books are late. The publishers and the public have come to accept it.