The Four Color Media Monitor

Much as I enjoyed Richard Donner's Superman movie of 1978, something tells me that, with Lethal Weapon to his credits as well, and whose third sequel Geoff Johns was a staff member on, makes Donner's upcoming stint on Action Comics something where expectations should be kept to a minimum:

As Jimmy Durante (ask someone older than 50) used to say, "Everybody wants ta get inta da act."

The act, nowadays, is comic books, and the "everybody" includes New York Times best-selling authors (such as Brad Meltzer and Michael Chabon), TV writers (Joss Whedon and J. Michael Straczynski) and even stand-up comics and comic actors (Patton Oswalt and John Cleese).

And now, we can add award-winning motion-picture directors to the list.

"Action Comics No. 844," DC Comics; $2.99. Yes, Richard Donner, no longer content to be merely known as the director of "The Omen" and the "Lethal Weapon" movies, has set his sights on the comic-book format as a vehicle to tell his stories. Effective with the current issue of "Action Comics" (No. 844, now on sale), he joins co-writer Geoff Johns and artist Adam Kubert in presenting the continuing adventures of the Man of Steel.

Here's the problem: will this end up being overshadowed by the kind of cruelty that's tainted the edge of some of Johns' own work? Before he got into comics, Johns was employed by Donner as an assistant on movies like Lethal Weapon 3, and aside from that is the question of if Johns' increasing problem of writing stories that are more like transparent self-commentaries on violence, will end up tainting this story too, and that maybe even Donner will end up contributing his own share of similar excess.

And when looking at how many of these writers from movies and TV are only being hired on how hot they are in their daytime medium job, that's why I find it hard to appreciate Donner's coming aboard as a writer for the Man of Steel in his own comics.

Labels: dc comics, moonbat writers, Superman