Occupation: Highly respected assistant manager of a very, very popular comic store.
Group Affilliation: I have chosen to grace the SBC with my wisdom.
Base of Operations: Florida
First Appearance: Nearly 40 years ago.
History: For more than seven years I have been an invaluable asset to the comic industry as a knowledgeable and talented assistant manager.
Powers and Weapons: Unlike so many other columnists and "professionals," I know the truth about comics. I will not waste your time with opinions, dear reader, I will give you only the facts.
After nearly a third of a century reading and collecting comics and with seven years of experience as the very well respected assistant manager of an immensely profitable Florida comic book store, I have made many observations regarding the many comic book movies that have been made over the years. With my unquestionable wisdom in the area of comics, you can be safe in the knowledge that I know what I am talking about!
Comic book fans would not know a good comic book movie if it bit them. This is the truth!
A perfect example of the comic industry’s failure to notice a great comic movie is Steven Spielberg’s AI. This fine piece of comic book cinema should really have been called, Vision: the Movie.
The part of Vision is played by the little boy robot called AI. This synthesoid is created by mad scientists, who play the role of Ultron and unleash AI as a machination of evil against a tightly knit family, which represents the Avengers. As anyone familiar with Vision’s origin knows, the Avengers tamed Vision and made him part of their family. So too in Spielberg’s adaptation is AI tamed and made part of the human family.
The film moves along recounting Vision’s adventures and even includes another Avenger, Wonder Man. Simon Williams’ Wonder Man was also created using science and set against the Avengers. Wonder Man, like Vision, was also befriended and became an Avenger. So when Gigolo Joe meets AI, we are really seeing Wonder Man meeting Vision. Human police take Gigolo Joe away to be integrated into humanity, representing the Avengers doing for Wonder Man what they did for Vision.
The best part of Vision: the Movie is when AI starts to learn to love, just as Vision did in the comics. Of course the object of his love is the same as in the comics. A lovely female with a name consisting of a color and a magical entity. In the movie, AI falls in love with the Blue Fairy. In the comics, the object of Vision’s learnt love is the Scarlet Witch.
Just as in the comics, for this movie is a faithful adaptation of Vision’s story in the Avengers; after Vision learns to love the Scarlet Witch, he becomes frozen and pale, like AI when he is trapped under water. This cold, frozen period is Spielberg’s metaphor for John Byrne’s back-to-basics approach with the Vision in West Coast Avengers.
Again the movie adaptation is true to the comics and AI is rescued by the Avengers in a scene which would be more fitting in a Captain America movie, but this is a minor flaw and does not discredit the fantastic comic adaptation this movie is. Once reunited with the Avengers and the object of his love, AI learns to love again, just as Vision is doing in the current Kurt Busiek Avengers. Gigolo Joe looks different by the end of the movie, representing Wonder Man’s new look and also his presence, just like in the comic, allows for some triangular relationship tension.
It is a shame that Marvel would not release the rights to Vision to Spielberg so that he could create his true vision of Vision, rather than having to alter the characters’ names and appearances to keep from being sued. This is especially true after seeing what a faithful presentation of Vision’s origin Spielberg created. I declare this is the greatest comic book movie since 1997’s Batman and Robin.
Unfortunately for Spielberg, I seem to be the only person who understood his movie. I’m not surprised, though. Great minds do think alike.
The opinions expressed above are entirely the author's and do not represent those of Silver Bullet Comics, or any of its staff, or contributors.
