Betty Draper Is No Emma Frost, while Superman’s Boots Are For Walking

Its a shame that the casting director on X-Men: First Class is blind.  How on earth could anyone cast January Jones to play everyone’s favorite bad girl X-Man gone good Emma Frost?  In the words of Stephen Strucker better known as Johnny from Airplane, “Where did you get that dress, it’s awful, and those shoes and that coat, jeeeeez!”

Other than being blond, how does she even resemble the character?  Sure January Jones can act, she’s a repressed powder keg of a WASP on Mad Men every week.  She’s no Emma Frost.  Emma is a fabulously wealthy mutant telepath with a penchant for leather and a twisted moral compass.  I understand that the trend has been to go out and cast premiere actors for superhero films, see the recent grab of Academy Award winner Jeremy Renner for Joss Whedon’s Avengers.

Emma Frost is appealing for two reason.  The first and most obvious is that she kicks ass wearing white leather dominatrix gear.  The second is that she’s a bad girl.  Sure she turned over a new leaf and joined the X-Men.  But as the White Queen of the Hellfire Club she has tried to kill the entire roster of the X-Men and New Mutants over the last thirty years.  So there’s always a healthy amount of distrust and tension in the air.  Will any of that make it to screen?  Who knows?

The sad thing is that Jones was not director Matthew Vaughn’s first choice.  Rosamund Pike was in the mix at one point.  Its a shame that negotiations broke down, with Alice Eve.  This is a woman who could do the costume justice…

There are a few women at Comicon that do more justice to the costume than I can ever image Jones doing. Ok, enough ranting about movie casting.  What did I read last month that was worthwhile?

Superman #701-702

This was sold out at my comic book shop last month and I can see why.  I love the idea of Superman literally walking the Earth.  Although I’m not used to Clark being so cerebral.

It makes sense, if you remove the fisticuffs and explosions you’re left with a nearly all powerful alien who has pledged his allegiance to his adopted homeworld.  Clark Kent is a perfect example of nurture winning out over nature. He’s the way he is thanks to his early childhood environment growing up with the Kents.  I’m willing to strap in for a few issues while writer J. Michael Straczynski lets this play out . If you don’t let Superman get contemplative about his place in the world then you end up with Mark Waid’s the Plutonian from his series Irredeemable.

Shield #2-3

I love the art in this series, but I’m having trouble following the story.  I know that ancient historical figures have formed a brotherhood called Shield to protect the Earth from aliens.  In the last issue, we see Howard Stark and Nathaniel Richards who got thrown back in time to the 17th century end up defending the city of Rome from Galactus. Its a really slick retcon, that fits so early in the Marvel Universe’s history it doesn’t disturb much.

X-Men #527

Emma Frost is stepping out on Scott, with Namor of all people.  How is it that Namor is consistently the man of choice for women in relationships.  Anytime Reed and Sue Richards have marital issues, the first stop Sue makes is to Namor.  Sure he’s got loads of cash and an undersea kingdom, but he’s easily the most pompous ass in the Marvel Universe this side of Victor Von Doom.  The nice bit was that as Emma was trying to do her walk of shame, Logan could smell what she had been up to.

Amazing Spider Man #638-640

The One Moment in Time story arc is where Joe Quesada attempts to explain the mess and subsequent fall out from One More Day.  I was trying to remember why I haven’t bothered to read a Spider-Man book in over fifteen years and it hit me.  Its easy enough to get a Peter Parker fix now that he’s been an Avenger for a few years; but more importantly I’m tired of the misuse of the character.  What made Spider-Man interesting for me was that he was a normal guy and was grounded in a somewhat gritty reality.

Peter’s “original sin” if you will was his hubris contributing to the murder of his Uncle Ben.  Spider-Man is fallible and human.  There is a logical line of guilt that runs from Peter to his powers and his decision to be a costumed hero.  Sure Bruce Wayne feels guilt about his parents being murdered.  But its more survivors guilt then actually being responsible for what happened.

Its the humanity that made the nerd in the red and blue suit unique.  I felt that the best Spider-Man stories were the ones set in New York City with him fighting any of the colorful criminals in his rouges gallery.  Even though he can lift press ten tons and stick to walls.  He has problems making ends meet financially, he had problems with his love life, and he couldn’t stand his boss.  This made Spider-Man very relatable.

But writers and editors over the years felt the need to draw Spider-Man into the larger Marvel Universe sticking him with outer space adventures,  journeying into the Microverse, etc.  Spider-Man is part of that group of Marvel characters who need to be street fighters and nothing else.  I’m talking Daredevil, the Punisher, and Iron Fist.  Leave the Skrulls, the Brood, and Shi’ar to the Fantastic Four and X-Men.  Think about it.  Should a guy who can’t make his rent some months really be going off world?