The Four Color Media Monitor

According to the Calgary Herald, which interviewed veteran artist McFarlane about a new movie adaptation of his decidedly overrated comic, which he says is now greenlighted:

Fast-forward six years and McFarlane says the film is back on track. A-list writers Scott Silver, who co-wrote the 2019 hit Joker, and Malcolm Spellman, who created the Disney+ superhero series The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, are currently working on the screenplay. Jamie Foxx has long been attached to play the lead role, a superhero/antihero that McFarlane first created at the age of 16 in his parents’ basement near Crowchild and 24th Avenue N.W.

Wow, there honestly seem to be some pretty questionable folks overseeing the planned 2nd adaptation, at least a quarter century after the last one, which was in 1997. For one thing, why does one of the writers have to be the one in charge of a movie spotlighting the Clown Prince of Crime from Batman, and the other one worked on a woke-influenced take on 2 characters from Captain America? And for another, why do we even need this particular creation to be developed for film at all, based on the darkness it goes by?

The 1992 comic book debut, which came out on McFarlane’s Image Comics, sold more than 1.7 million copies and the Spawn series holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-running, creator-owned, superhero comic book title. There was a 1997 live-action film with Michael Jae White, which grossed more than $100 million, and an Emmy-winning animated series that ran on HBO from 1997 to 1999. The reboot has been in the works in one form or another for years.

But how much has each single issue sold in the 3 decades since? In fact, how do we know this new adaptation won't resort to more wokeness in its own way? With the way Hollywood obsesses over identity politics for over a decade now, that's why it's inevitable when you have to be wary of the possibilities this could turn out to be worse than it sounds. It's honestly appalling how they laud the sales receipts and award victories as though they were truly significant, when by this point in time, they aren't, and besides, if the Oscar awards could be politically motivated, why not the Emmys? Neither of them have been relevant in years, for good reason.

“On the movie front, hopefully – fingers crossed – by the middle of this year we should be making a big announcement that we found our studio, we made our deal and potentially, as part of that deal, they’ve given us our production start date,” says McFarlane. “Really, all fans care about is ‘When can I go see it?’ But at least I’ve got to be able to say ‘This year. We’ve got the money, we’ve got the backing and we’ve even got a start date.'”

We'll see how things turn out by the end of the year, that's for sure. And depending what ingredients turn up in the screenplay, we'll see how many fans care at all, if they're realist enough.

In 2021, Spawn beat out behemoths DC Comics and Marvel to become the No. 1 selling comic book. That same year, his Spawn spinoff titles – Scorched, Gunslinger Spawn and King Spawn – broke sales records. Last year, the crossover Batman Spawn title became a bestseller.

McFarlane Toys’ beat out Fortune 500 companies such as Hasbro and Mattel with the bestselling action-figure line of 2021. The company is currently licensed to create figures for Black Adam, Shazam, The Flash and Batman movies for the DC Multiverse, James Cameron’s Avatar, Dune and even Ted Lasso.

Some of these movies they're manufacturing toys based upon are pretty woke too, or hardly worth the effort of buying tickets for (according to Breitbart's John Nolte, the Shazam sequel's already seen a poor debut on Thursday). And here, they certainly don't cite any sales receipt figures, so what's all the fuss about? Though if Spawn did surpass DC/Marvel in sales, that's due to how fans of the Big 2 have been leaving in droves after they betrayed their fanbases. But even Image has been infected with PC, so why must we hurry to support any of their comics in their current incarnations if they're willing to stoop as low? Besides, Spawn's simply not my cup of tea, based on how grisly it is. That doesn't mean I don't admire McFarlane for his work on Infinity Inc, Hulk and Spider-Man years before. He certainly did bring impressive artwork to those comics. But what he's heralding now is far from my idea of what makes a great emphasis and that's a real shame.

Labels: animation, conventions, dc comics, history, indie publishers, licensed products, marvel comics, msm propaganda