Hey A Lee, I was wondering what your methods are in character creation? Where do you start when you’re in the 1st stages?

Ah, a writing question.  Yes, aside from who would win in fight between Tarzan and anyone (short answer: Tarzan) and why giant fightin’ robots are awesome, this is probably the only subject where I’m comfortable calling myself an authority.  Novelology is my bread and butter.

There are a handful of questions I get over and over again, and this ranks among them.  Everyone has their own technique, and to be clear, my advice here is entirely built on what works for me.  It might not work for you.  And that’s okay.

That said, I’ll say that the hardest part of writing a story for me isn’t the creating characters.  Possibly because I feel most writers work way too hard on it.  At the end of the day, most readers aren’t going to care where your character comes from or what their favorite flavor of ice cream is.  The readers might think they want to know this, but they are wrong.

Just take a look at any prequel or after the fact origin story given to a character.  They are almost always disappointing.  Darth Vader was infinitely more interesting before we found out he was a petulant child.  Wolverine was a badass until we learned that his name was Jimmy and he couldn’t figure out anything better to do over a hundred years than fight in an endless string of wars.  And do we really learn anything special about Indiana Jones by discovering where he got that scar on his chin?

This is only an opinion.  I’m sure you can find plenty who disagree, but I stand by the assertion that most characters work fine as a handful of simple traits with the simplest backstory available.  Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered.  He grows up to be a determined detective crimefighter.  Krypton blows up.  Superman comes to Earth and fights giant robots for justice.  James Bond is a suave superspy.  Wonder Woman is an Amazon warrior.  Scrooge McDuck is a greedy adventurer.  And so on and so on and so on.

Really, if you can’t summarize your characters in three or four words, you’re probably doing it wrong.

There are exceptions.  Characters can certainly be too shallow, but in my experience, most novelologists (aspiring or otherwise) work way too hard rather than taking it easy.  My standard advice for all writers is to only work as hard as you have to.  Writing a story is difficult.  Don’t make it more difficult by putting extra pressure on yourself.

So how do I create characters?

I start with the most basic elements and go from there.  A great character can usually be summarized in three or four words.  Really, everything beyond that is just window dressing.  And too many character traits just end up confusing everything or being contradictory.  I’ve used these examples before but I think they really do illustrate the point.

Batman: Driven, Intelligent, Mysterious

Superman: Noble, Powerful, Friendly

Catwoman: Thief, Rebel, Playful

Joker: Jolly, Sadistic, Mad

These are all comic book superheroes, but this what makes them work so well.  They are characters that are so easy to grasp that they can be shared and passed on with ease.  You could just as easily apply this rule to a thousand and one other classic characters.

What’s NOT important (though many writers seem to forget this) is the backstory.  It’s true that Batman’s actions are defined by the death of his parents, but at the same time, it’s not information we ever really need to know to understand Batman.  If a writer knows Batman is driven to fight crime and determined to save Gotham City, then WHY is a lot less important than people realize.  Most Batman stories don’t talk about his dead parents.  Just as most Superman stories don’t talk about Krypton.  These elements are so immersed in pop culture that most readers are already well aware of them, but even if this wasn’t true, it wouldn’t matter.

We think knowing Bruce Wayne’s tragic backstory makes him more real to us, but it’s his actions in the current story that do that.  I’m not suggesting that backstory is a bad thing, but in ninety-nine percent of all stories, it ends up being irrelevant.

Classic examples abound:

Sam Spade has no backstory.  Long John Silver has no backstory.  Wolverine for the longest time had no backstory.  Most fiction characters don’t have much in the way of background because they just don’t need it.  Time devoted to backstory is time that could be devoted to the present story, which is almost always infinitely more important than anything in the past.

Okay, so this is rambling on and just to be sure I’ve answered the original question clearly:

How do I create a character?

Think of a very simple character and drop them in an interesting situation and see what happens.  And that’s it.  That’s the entire secret of my character creation process.

Inevitably, as the story continues, the character will take on more life and nuance.  But initially, having any character be defined by one or two adjectives is more than enough.  Readers don’t want to know everything about a character in the first ten pages, and neither do I.  As often as not, I’m discovering things about the characters at about the same time the reader is.  Maybe because I tend not to use complicated outlines or do a lot of prep work on my books.  I’d rather just jump right in and see what happens.

I do have to go back and clean things up a bit once the story is finished.  And it’s not unusual for the characters at the end of the story to not fit with the idea of the character at the beginning of the story.  In which case, going back and making a character more consistent is part of the magic of editing.  It’s something as simple as removing a line of dialogue that sounded good when you first wrote it, but three hundred pages later, it just doesn’t sound like something that character would have ever said.  Or perhaps the character is taller than first envisioned or some other triviality.

But ultimately, novelology is a business of adjustments and adaptation.  Never be afraid to NOT know everything about a character, a scene, an idea.  Because if you like it enough to keep writing it, it will eventually make sense.  The pieces will fit together.  The characters will grow into vibrant, living creatures.

That’s how I do it anyway.  I’m not saying that will work for you, but I always like to point out that most novels do not spring spontaneously into existence from a writer’s head.  They are works of time and discovery.  It’s only with practice (and judicious editing) that they seem otherwise.

Hope that helps.

Fighting the good fight, Writing the good write,

Lee

So there’s talk of a Blue Beetle live-action TV series.  I don’t know if it’ll happen, but I’m not sure I’m for it.  I love the new Blue Beetle for so many reasons, and I  just have a hard time imagining they’d do him justice.  Especially since they’re apparently hoping to make him a replacement for Smallville.  One of those things I loved about BB is that the comic sidesteps a lot of the teen angst and dares to treat all of its characters as if they were sensible human beings instead of whiny self-centered dummies.

Add to this that the new BB is Hispanic and that much of his supporting cast is as well and that the comic actually takes place in El Paso, Texas . . . well . . . there’s just no way I can’t see all of that changing.  And while the soul of the character might not be in his ethnicity or his home city, I just don’t know if I can take another ethnic whitewashing in the name of making something more “mainstream”.

It just seems like this can go wrong in about a hundred different ways.

But there is a bright side.  A crappy Blue Beetle TV series, even if it was a failure and quickly canceled, would give Jaime Reyes a little bit more exposure and give him a little life insurance in the cutthroat world of DC Comics where secondary characters are eagerly offered up as blood sacrifices to establish a villains…uh…villainy.  So a series might just give DC the encouragement to keep the character from fading into obscurity.

That’s what’s annoying about modern comics.  A handful of characters dominate the stories while everyone else is disposable.  For DC, it’s Batman and Superman.  (Really, it’s just Batman, although Superman as an icon is commercial enough to justify keeping him around.  Same goes for Wonder Woman.)  For Marvel, it’s Spider-Man and Wolverine.  That’s pretty much it.  If you like those guys, you’re in luck.  If you think they’re overexposed…well, you’re right.  They are.  But there’s really not much to be done about it.

And so we go back to sequels, and why I dislike them.  You really don’t have to look much further than comic books, where an industry in steady decline, desperate to hold onto an audience, has found itself trapped in creative stagnation.  They continue to throw the same characters forward at the expense of developing any others.  While it’s hard to criticize what they’re doing because that’s “what the audience wants”, it’s also hard to stand by and watch so many interesting characters thrown aside because they won’t sell as many comics as well-established heroes.

But how can the comic industry break out of this cycle if it doesn’t take a chance, if it isn’t willing to develop less popular characters into commercially viable possibilities.  That’s something everyone tends to forget.

Wolverine started out as a throwaway Hulk foe.  Nowadays, he’d be dead by his third appearance.

No one thought Spider-Man was going to be a success.  His first appearance was shoved into the back of the last issue of a canceled comic book.

The Fantastic Four were only created because Marvel, adrift for ideas, decided to invent a new kind of superhero team.

I’ll admit that my publishing career has been slower to develop than if I’d just latched onto a series and made it my thing.  But I’ve actually done pretty good with some Hollywood stuff, and I’d like to think that I’m forgoing short term gains for long term gains.  Who knows?  Maybe I’m wrong.  Time will tell.

If you asked me why I do this, I could give you a lot of reasons for it.  But you really don’t care about those, do you?

But if you really want to know why, it’s because of Blue Beetle.  Or Quasar.  Or Tigra.  Or Gravity.  Or the Vision.  Or any of a dozen other characters that I love that languish in obscurity.  Take your pick.  I’ve got dozens of them, really.  And, maybe, so do you.

Fighting the good fight, Writing the good write,

Lee

So The Punisher is now a Frankenstein-style monster in the mainstream Marvel Comics.  It’s pretty weird, but considering it’s one of the few mainstream Marvel Comics I’m enjoying, I can live with it.  It helps that I am a big monster fan, and that anything with Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, and The Living Mummy is A-OK in my universe.  The first story arc was a bit bloodier than I would’ve liked, but that’s a ridiculous complaint when we’re talking about a vigilante who is defined by his merciless talent for killing people.

The only downside is that in a few months, The Punisher will be confronting Wolverine Jr., the guy who sliced him to pieces.  I just don’t like Wolvie Jr.  He’s a dumb idea.  And one of his claws comes directly out of his wrists.  Wouldn’t that be awkward as hell?  Of course, he’s also got tribal tattoos, which make him look way too 90′s.  And wouldn’t Wolverine Jr.’s healing ability make tattoos impossible?

I’m not a fan of spinoff characters that are basically identical to the original.  Never liked War Machine for this reason.  Or Venom.  Or Wolverine Jr.  Or Girl Wolverine.  After a while, it just succeeds in making the original character seem less special.  But Wolverine Jr. is especially dumb because he’s the “dark” version.  Isn’t Original Flavor Wolverine supposed to be the dark version of superheroes to begin with?  Or have we become so jaded now that the brutal berserker with the power to stab people isn’t dark enough?  Don’t answer that.  Either answer would just make me sad.

Oh, right.  This was supposed to be a pithier, more positive post.  Sorry about that.

Beta Ray Bill is a spinoff character I can get behind.  For those not in the know, Beta Ray Bill is an alien horseman with the power of Thor.  He’s pretty much Thor, but in space.  Not only does he get his own cool magic hammer, but he also gets a spaceship.  So, yeah, he’s awesome.

Bought a new book today.  Last Call by Daniel Okrent.  It’s about Prohibition.  Haven’t read much yet, but what I’ve read, I’ve liked.

Okay, well, guess it’s time to get back to work.  Catch you later, gang.

Fighting the good fight, Writing the good write,

Lee

I don’t know if my regular readers have noticed this or not, but I tend to spend an unusual amount of time bemoaning the quality of modern comic books.  A big part of this, I’ll admit, is simply coming from a different era.  Everybody tends to like things they grew up with more than is reasonable.  But it’s also because comics are kind of lame now.

Let’s be fair though.  When I complain about modern comics, I’m actually complaining about modern superhero comics because those are what I like.  Those are what I prefer to read.  There are some great non-superhero comics out there, but, honestly, I’m just not interested most of the time in these.  I hear the accolades for Fables, The Walking Dead, 100 Bullets, etc, and while I don’t dislike them, I find nothing particularly appealing about them.  Nope.  For better or worse, when I think of comics, I think of superheroes.

And when I think of superheroes, I think in broad terms.  Good versus evil.  Surreal.  Melodramatic.  Inventive.  (Things I prefer not to think of but tend to pop up:  zombies, morality plays, rape.  But I digress.)  While there’s no reason for a lack of subtlety, there’s also nothing wrong with remembering that these are stories about people in strange costumes fighting other people in strange costumes, usually employing bizarre powers and signature gimmicks.  And, yes, Batman fans.  This applies just as much to your vaunted “realistic” superhero as anyone.  Unless you happen to know of any clowns in purple tuxedos who have access to a gas that makes you laugh until you die with a permanent smile left on your face.

But enough of my redundant, overstated comic book criticism.  Let’s actually get to the review.

REVIEW BEGINS HERE:

Green Lantern: First Flight is a terrific animated film.  While it is indeed a bit bloodier and grittier than I generally prefer, it never panders and always entertains.  I am not a Green Lantern fan.  I like the idea, like his powers.  But in comics, I just haven’t read a Green Lantern story that thrilled me.  But First Flight makes me realize that he can be awesome.

Superhero stories should be defined by action.  Anyone who says otherwise has no truck with me.  Superheroes and supervillains are not about talking.  They’re about leaping into adventure and kicking butt.  First Flight soars on this level.  The action is fantastic, thrilling, inventive, and just plain cool.  Green Lantern is one of those characters that thrives with clever writing.  And when you watch Hal Jordan pound a giant orb of death with an even more giant glowling green baseball bat, you know you’re watching something incredible.

Of course, writing is important.  It’s not just about punching bad guys in the face.  The writing in First Flight is rock solid.  The story isn’t groundbreaking, but it doesn’t need to be.  Too often, “subtle” writing is just a code word for “overly complicated” and “dull”.  But First Flight manages to keep its story going while investing in its characters and world.  Sinestro is a bizarrely sympathetic, ruthless, and classic villain.  (He’s like Tai Lung from Kung Fu Panda in that way.)  You aren’t going to like Sinestro, but you are going to respect him.  And when he is finally defeated (hope that’s not giving anything away that the bad guy loses), you are glad to see him get his just desserts.

Can I also take a moment here to mention how fantastic the animation is in this movie?  It is unbelievable.  From the body language and character design to the thrilling action sequences and quiet moments.  This is quality from top to bottom.

Also, Kilowog is in this, and Kilowog will always be the best Green Lantern in my universe.  (P.S. If you’re ever looking for someone to write a Kilowog min-series, DC, you know where to find me.)

First Flight is a solid sci fi superhero adventure.  If you’re not familiar with Green Lantern, you don’t need to be.  And if you are a Lantern fan . . . well . . . hard to say there.  I’ve heard some fans complain about the film, and I’m not one myself (as previously noted) so that’s a toss up.

Listen, I think we can all agree that I’m a great writer and therefore, must have great taste.  So check out Green Lantern: First Flight.  Watch space cops with magic rings fight evil alien crime lords for the fate of the universe.  And if that doesn’t sound cool to you . . . I gotta say we live in very different worlds.

Fighting the good fight, Writing the good write,

Lee

Here’s a list of things I’d like to throw out there to the powers-that-be in the comic book publishing world.  It’s a list of challenges.  Does anyone care what this humble novelologist has to say about the comic book world?  Probably not.  But it’s something I had on my mind and just thought I’d throw it out there.  Consider it a comic book fan’s manifesto.  Or should I say former fan?  Either way, let’s get to it.

BRING BACK SOME GOOD GUYS:

Perhaps the most troubling element of modern comic books is the near complete lack of good guys.  Remember the days when Wolverine and the Punisher were the edgy heroes.  Now they’re positively family-friendly.  Marvel, in particular, is guilty of this sin.  They’ve systematically replaced nearly every hero with a “dark” equivalent.  And, yes, dark is even the word they’re using.

This is truth in advertising.  Most of the heroes of the Marvel Universe are real assholes at this point.  Not just reckless or bloodthirsty, but downright vicious and cruel.  Witness the new Dark Ms. Marvel pluck a complete stranger from his bed, talk to him for a few minutes, and than casually toss him away to his death with no regard.  (Worse is how often this sort of thing is played for humor in the new Marvel U.)

Remember when heroes had noble ideals?  Remember when they fought for the common good?  Remember when “flawed” heroes didn’t necessarily mean “psychotic?”

Yeah, me neither.

I’m not suggesting getting rid of these dark characters, but if you could happen to give me someone to root for once in a while…well that’d be a nice change of pace. That’s all I’m saying.

ENOUGH WITH THE DEATH

In general, I think death is a cheap gimmick, a tool in a writer’s kit that should be used sparingly in order to keep it interesting.  Especially in ongoing universes.  Ideally, death should be used when it has the most impact, when it really counts for something.

And that’s a problem in the world of comic books because NOBODY stays dead.  I don’t care how noble the death, how trivial the character, EVERYBODY comes back to life eventually.  It’s just the way it is, and every comic book fan knows it.  Heck, at this stage every comic book character knows it.

So death in comic books means nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl ,was shot in the spine.  She still can’t walk.  But if she’d been shot in the face, rushed to the hospital, and pronounced dead, she’d probably be up and around by now, back to fighting crime.  Yes, in the world of comics getting maimed is more permanent and disabling than dying.  And I can accept that.

Just don’t expect me to get worked up about it anymore.  When Marvel killed Captain America recently, nobody in the comic reading world really gave a crap.  And why should they?  They all knew he would come back, and probably sooner than later.  So as much as they love putting those covers with the blood splattered shield or the new “dark” Cap, nobody out here gives a damn.

The same thing goes for Batman, DC.  We all know Bruce Wayne isn’t dead.  So stop pretending like The Battle for the Cowl will have any long term consequences.

And speaking of consequences…

STOP PRETENDING THE STATUS QUO WILL CHANGE

We know it’s not.  We know that Peter Parker will always be Spider-Man and that Spider-Man will never be loved by the general public.  (Despite the fact that there’s no real reason for him to be a pariah in a world full of superhuman heroes)  We all know that if Superman loses his powers, he will get them back.  And no matter how many times the X-Men save the universe, they will always be “misunderstood”.

The writers should try to remember this too.  Perhaps it might stop them from writing stories that “change everything!”  Spider-Man’s mask comes off.  Whoop-dee-doo.  (Although it’s sadly pathetic to resort to having the Devil magic everything back to normal as the only way to fix the problem.)  So instead of trying to shock us with stories we all know will never stick, how about just thrill us with stories that are worth reading because they’re well written?  Just a suggestion.

Now to a few more specific suggestions:

SUPERMAN:

Listen, DC, we all know that Superman came from another world that blowed up real good.  That’s his backstory.  It’s simple.  It works.  It doesn’t need to be more than that.   Superman may have been born on Krypton, but he looks like a human, he’s lived 95 percent of his life as a human, and his morality is human.  So stop digging into Krypton as a way to “humanize” the man of steel.  Just let Krypton die.

Also, there’s absolutely no need to explore Superman’s early years anymore.  None.  It seems like every few years someone comes along and writes the “definitive” Superman origin.  But how often do we need to hear this?  More importantly, what’s new to be done with it?  Nothing, that’s what.

No more super-knockoffs.  Superman is special because he’s unique.  It’s not that he’s a powerhouse.  The DC universe is full of powerhouses.  What makes Superman fun (what makes ALL superheroes fun) is that they’re each their own distinctive gimmick.  This is why there’s not 10,000 Green Arrows running around, even though you would imagine there are probably lots of guys who can shoot a bow and arrow.  This is why Iron Man doesn’t just make 1,000 armored suits and create his own private army of superheroes.

So Supergirl?  Get rid of her.  Drop her in Kryptonite acid.  Have her eat some bad tuna.  I don’t know.  Figure it out.  She’s not a bad character.  She’s more of a bad idea, and she’s always been a bad idea.  ALWAYS.  Because Supergirl’s mere existence makes Superman seem commonplace.

Yeah, even Krypto the superdog needs to go.  And I hate saying that because I LOVE Krypto.

GREEN LANTERN

Get rid of all the multi-colored rainbow of Lanterns you’ve created.  I know this will never happen, of course.  But I can dream.   Because as cool as some people might think the idea is, I have to say it destroys any interesting aspect of the character for me.

We’ve always known that there was more than one Green Lantern in the universe.  That never bothered me.  But I always imagined the Lanterns as a Texas Rangers in Space! kind of thing.  Always outnumbered, always with their back to the wall, having incredible powers but having to deal with a lot of crap at the same time.

Instead, we’ve discovered the the Lanterns are more of an intergalactic police force with thousands of members.  And suddenly, the Conservation of Ninjitsu kicks in.  There’s only so much badass to go around, and with that many power rings floating around the universe, it gets spread pretty thin.  More often than not, when we meet a new Green Lantern, it’s just to watch them get their ass kicked.  So get rid of most of these guys.  (You don’t have to kill ‘em.  Just stop shoving in our face so much.)

With the addition of the Rainbow Coalition of Lanterns, the effect is even more pronounced.  At times, it seems like everyone is a Lantern.  Maybe they give the rings out in Cracker Jack boxes.  I dunno.  Don’t care.  Just get rid of ‘em.

Remember when Sinestro was the ultimate badass?  It was because there was ONE of him.  And the Green Lanterns knew that he was someone you didn’t want to screw with.  But now that there’s hundreds of Yellow Lanterns, Sinestro is just another face in the crowd, and that’s a real shame.

BATMAN

Don’t get me started.

BOOSTER GOLD

Ditch the “time guardian” angle.  It stinks, and here’s why it stinks.

Booster cannot change anything, and we know it.  His enemies cannot change anything, and we know it.  You can come up with all manner of techno-babble, time-travel nonsense to explain it, but bottom line: you aren’t going to retcon comic book history in a Booster Gold comic.  Ain’t gonna happen.

So everything in a Booster Gold “time guardian” story is a foregone conclusion.  Will Booster be able to save Barbara Gordon from the Joker?  No, of course not.  Will evil time travelers erase Superman from the timestream?  I’m just gonna take a wild guess and say no on this one too.

You’ve neutered both your hero and your villain in one fell swoop.  And that’s why it stinks.

SUPERGIRL

Did I mention you should kill Supergirl?  Because I just wanted to mention it again.

Conversely, you could try making the character more interesting with better stories, but let’s be honest…that isn’t going to happen.  So just kill her and put her and us out of our misery.

And lest you think Marvel escaped my wrath:

GRAVITY

Do something with this guy.  Something good.  Something fun.  He’s a good kid.  He deserves to find an audience.

SLAPSTICK

Nobody cares about Slapstick.  Nobody but me.  So if you could make a Slapstick comic book (even a mini-series) I promise to buy it.  Really, I do.

MARVEL ZOMBIES

Hey, remember that first mini-series?  That one that was surprisingly good even if it should’ve been a terrible idea.  That was great.  Better than it had any right to be.

The rest…not so much.

I know you’re making money off of this, so I don’t expect you to listen to me.  And I don’t even know if I’m right.  All I know is that this is an idea that burned itself out almost immediately, and while it might be fun to do zombie-themed parodies of all your classic covers, you don’t have to bother wrapping it around a bad comic.  Just make the covers and sell those.  People will buy ‘em, I’m sure.

SENTRY

Without a doubt, this is the worst character in the Marvel U.  He needs to go.

WOLVERINE

Remember that stuff I said about Superman and Green Lantern?  All that stuff applies here.  Wolverina started out as a joke in What the…?, the Marvel humor comic.  Now she’s a real character.  “Dark” Wolverine is Wolverine’s “dark” son!  There are simply too many characters running around with claws and healing factors, and the longer this goes on, the less we’re going to care.

NORMAN OSBORNE

He’s not Lex Luthor, no matter how much you try and convince us he is.  So every time he’s sitting in a pow wow with Loki or Dr. Doom, you should just have one of them disintegrate him and be done with it.

STOP BEING THE PUNCHLINE TO YOUR OWN JOKES

Wolverina was a joke.  She was a joke you invented, Marvel.  And then you went and tried to make her serious.

“Dark Reign”?  Really?  This is the title you chose for your big crossover event because “dark” comics aren’t a cliche or anything.  Maybe that crap played better in the 90′s, but now, it just seems silly.  Grrr.  We’re dark!

Okay, I guess that’s it.  I could go on, but if you’ve made it this far, you probably are just hoping I’ll shut up.

So that’s that.  A list of requests that nobody important will read, and will never happen.  But I put it out there.  I did my part.  The rest is subject to the whims of the universe.

Fighting the good fight, Writing the good write,

Lee

One of the things that I feel modern comics are missing is a new character to step up.  We haven’t seen that in a while.  Where is the next Spider-Man or Wolverine, Batman or Superman?

I don’t think a great new character has been introduced in a long, long time.  Plenty of characters have been added to the world of comics, but most of those lack that timeless quality to extend their reign.  Spawn may have been big in the 90′s, but that’s kind of his problem.  He’s too 90′s.  Spawn is to the 90′s as The Hypno-Hustler is to the 70′s.  Yes, I said it.  Who says I shy away from controversy?

Invincible is a somewhat popular hero, but I’m still not certain he’ll have staying power.  Gravity could’ve been great, but Marvel threw him away without a second thought.  Nobody but me wants a Slapstick ongoing series (which just shows how far ahead of the curve I am compared to your average citizen).  Supergirl and X-23 are just lame knock offs that exist only in some half-hearted attempt to make female characters without having to try anything original.  I could name a dozen other characters, all with potential to break out, but I still say that Deadpool IS the next breakout character.  Or he could be if Marvel had the guts to actually make him work.

I know I’m the guy who is always complaining about how dark modern comics are, and I stand by that complaint.  But I also figure, if you’re going to go ahead and go dark, then try to do something different with it.  And Deadpool is perfect for that because he’s dark, but he’s funny.  He’s twisted, psychotic, but not exactly a villain either.  He might have no problem killing you, but in the end of the day, he’s still not entirely a bad guy.

Bottom line:  Deadpool is the best parts of Spider-Man and Wolverine wrapped in one terrific anti-hero package.  If Marvel can’t make this work, then they don’t deserve to be publishing comics today.

Their new projects have toyed with bloodshed and more “mature” material.  The first Ultimate Avengers animated film was solid, and the Hulk Vs. animated film (especially the Wolverine segment) was great fun.  Wolverine actually got to stab some people, and Deadpool lost an arm.  That’s just awesome.  Clearly, Marvel is willing to give these sort of gritty characters a shot.

Even in the new Wolverine live action movie, Wade Wilson steals the show until he’s reduced to a mute puppet because the writers of that particular film didn’t have enough sense to realize how awesome Deadpool is.

I’ve given comics in general (and Marvel specifically) a lot of crap over the years.  I still don’t buy any mainstream Marvel comic simply because I don’t have the time, money, or interest to read internimable stories that go nowhere and end badly.  Even Deadpool’s promising new series lost me as soon as it delved into endless crossover hell.  (Note to Marvel: No matter how much you try and sell it, Norman Osborne will never be Lex Luthor.  Also, Sentry is a really stupid character, and you should have Mephisto retcon him away as soon as possible.  But I digress.)

That’s why I want to see an animated Deadpool in his own movie.  His own PG-13 Merc with a Mouth adventure that could totally rock if they just had the balls to do it.  C’mon, gang.  Let’s get on this.  Write letters or sign petitions or send out good vibrations.  Whatever it takes.

Deadpool deserves his own animated film.

If, on the other hand, this doesn’t happen, then I guess I could settle for a Squirrel Girl film.  But I’m not going to settle for anything else.  Deadpool or Squirrel Girl.  Those are your only two options, Marvel.

Now get it done.

Fighting the good fight, Writing the good write,

Lee