There's the ATL version of the HBO animated series, but film wise, I decided to leave it ambiguous in case someone else did something with it, without me realising.
"To Introduce our Guest Star, that's What I'm Here to Do..." The Hensonverse Fan Contribution Thread
- Thread starter Geekhis Khan
- Start date
Same. I've got a pile of ideas I've shared with @Nathanoraptor and @Plateosaurus that haven't been written up yet.
Remember to save prompts for the Speculation Thread. This one's for completed posts.
Yup - I've got a dozen half-done things, all in varying states of completion, but, remember, good things come to those who wait.
(But, yes, let's move these discussions to the Discussion thread)
Who Watches the Underpants?
So A Class Clown and a British Wizard Board a Plane: The Secret Origins of Captain Underpants and Dav Pilkey’s Career
From the “Kind of a Lot O’ Comics” Netsite by Ian K. Painters, August 25, 2014
(By @TheMolluskLingers, @MNM041, and @Plateosaurus)
Dav Pilkey has, in the last decade or thereabouts, gained himself quite the reputation in the comics industry and DC Comics in particular for very good reason: his stylized, cartoon-influenced drawing style, as well as his witty dialogue and narration that hides satirical wit beneath a veneer of Japanese tokusatsu and silly superheroic action not seen since the Silver Age heyday of Stan Lee or Mort Weisinger, and most “controversially”, a penchant for gross-out humor. Now as his signature comic series Captain Underpants (published under DC imprint America’s Best Comics)[1] releases its final and 144th issue “Whatever Happened to the Waistband Warrior?”, let’s take a look at how a former children’s book author came to be known as the “Clown Prince of Comics'' and how that led to not only his titular Waistband Warrior, but runs on Shazam! and Justice League of America that remain cult classics amongst comic fans, and more recently news that he’ll be taking the reins on Wonder Woman in collaboration with Grant Morrison. By his own admission, his career path has partly been down to some very good luck, through a chance encounter that he had with someone you would not expect: esoteric British comic book writer Alan Moore. It would seem rather incongruous for a crude kid’s writer from Ohio and a deep and serious Midlands-born writer to not only collaborate let alone also be close friends, but Pilkey revealed how it happened in an interview in 2003.
"I remember I was going on vacation to the UK in 1995, and Alan just ended up sitting next to me on the plane. I don't know why I decided to strike up a conversation with him, but I did and he was a lot friendlier than I think his reputation would lead some to believe." At the time, Pilkey was already seeing fairly moderate success as a children’s author, most notably with his Dragon and Dumb Bunnies books. However, he had also been struggling to get a particular passion project of his off the ground: Captain Underpants, a character Dav had created as a second grader in the early 1970s. “Not many publishers were enthused by the concept,” Pilkey recalls. "I ended up showing some of my drawings to Alan while we were on the plane, and I distinctly remember his eyes lighting up with that kinda mad genius’ glint that only a rare few have seen up close. And he says to me, [Pilkey does a self-admittedly terrible impression] ‘Dav mate, that’s a modern Superduperman!’ and I was like ‘Wait, you mean that MAD comic’? For those not aware, this was a particularly famous MAD magazine story from the 50’s taking the p*** out of Superman, treating him as a disgusting jerk rather than a noble morally righteous hero. Of course, I’m an avid reader and eventual writer of MAD, but believe it or not, Moore took a lot of influence from it writing Watchmen of all things as he confirmed right after." From there, Moore and Pilkey began discussing the comics they grew up with as children and found they shared a love of older comics like those DC and Marvel published in the 60s and 70s. The ideas for what would become the first Captain Underpants issue would further spring from those discussions, like the monster-man “The Inedible Hunk”, a dual parody of the Hulk and Moore’s take on Swamp Thing and the villain Dr. Diaper. The cast was further rounded out with characters Pilkey had also come up with in his childhood such as Dog Man and Water Man; even after Pilkey returned to the States, he and Moore would keep correspondence.
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"It was certainly a surreal experience, I mean the guy who made Watchmen was taking interest in a joke story I had started on in the second grade. That was what resulted in me getting my foot in the door at DC." Eventually, Alan Moore would start an imprint under DC for creator-owned properties, America’s Best Comics, with Captain Underpants becoming one of its first titles. The series was not an immediate sales success but quickly gained a reputation through word of mouth; more specifically, the comics’ reliance on gross-out humor made it near-instantaneously controversial amongst more conservative readers and parents, something Pilkey expected based on personal experience but Moore was perplexed by, perhaps because in comparison to some of the content he himself had written in the past, the bathroom humor was a nonissue. “I am by no means a bible thumping moral guardian, quite the opposite in fact,” Moore elaborated when we reached out for comment during research for this article. ‘But I find such people to be absolute hypocrites when it comes to what they object to their children consuming; for f****’s sake, you consider lions shagging on the Discovery Channel to be ‘educational’ or ‘wholesome’ but when little Barbara makes poop and pee jokes with her friends in primary school, she gets bloody suspended!” Both Moore and Pilkey, under the Marvel Bullpen-esque nomenclatures “Affable Al” and “Dangerous Dav”, would take further potshots at such criticisms in Captain Underpants’ letters section. Such banter, and the vaudevillian contrast between the “grumpy old man” Affable Al and the exuberant, hyperactive Dangerous Dav in their responses to readers, would go on to become an iconic part of the comic, so much so that it's become a part of most of their collaborations.
The comic itself centered around two troublemaking young boys, Jamie and Eric, who make life difficult for the already child-hating staff of the elementary school they attend. After the school's principal, Mr. Krupp, threatens to separate the two lifelong friends, the solution to their problem comes in the form of a ring designed to hypnotize people. After hypnotizing Mr. Krupp, the two decide to have some fun and turn him into a superhero they created known as Captain Underpants. Only one problem, it ended up working too well and he ends up jumping out the window to fight crime. Now whenever someone snaps their fingers, Harold Krupp transforms from a disgruntled elementary school principal into the kind-hearted but bumbling do-gooder Captain Underpants and only returns to normal after being splashed with water. The comic follows a fairly standard formula from there of Jamie, Eric, and Captain Underpants getting into new and oftentimes bizarre situations, often with the awareness that they are indeed in a comic book (though the Captain himself only gains this awareness later on in the books story); the humor, despite what some readers claim, isn’t solely centered on bodily functions - a lot of it tends to be centered on playing with comic book cliches and conventions, ranging from Jamie and Eric arguing with the narration boxes to Captain Underpants briefly undergoing a “Dark Age” phase; complete with a bland-name Nerf gun, wearing hot dogs strapped to his body as a stand in for bandoliers and smoking (exploding) cigars. There's even a joke where, once Captain Underpants also gains the ability to break the fourth wall, he ends up stretching out the panels, so he and the bad guy can have a proper fight. This naturally resulted in Captain Underpants being compared to characters who similarly lampoon these tropes such as Ambush Bug and the Tick (both of whom are characters The Captain has met). Over the course of the series, an entire superhero universe starts popping up in the Captain’s wake, ranging from the repurposed public domain heroes of Nedor Comics like Tom “Doc” Strange[2] to the silly like the Captain Marvel spoof Shazbot, named for a common exclamation of Robin Williams’ Mork and The Three Sciency Guys that parody both the Three Stooges and the Fantastic Four. Just as well, as the universe itself expands, so do the main trio’s personalities - Jamie and Eric mature into still fun-loving but responsible kids while Mr. Krupp not only defrosts into a warmer-hearted character (hinting that the Captain persona isn’t just a hypnosis-induced act) but seeks to fix the environment of child abuse at the school, even going to bat for Jamie and Eric on multiple occasions.
There would even be a few spin-offs that Pilkey would have a hand in writing, such as the Dogcop, a cop story with an anthropomorphic dog, and the time travel martial arts story The Adventures of Uuga and Chacha[3]. There was also his Monstermania series that expanded upon two picture books he had written previously where photographed pets terrorized a city of Dav’s mice, albeit with miniature model people replacing them. The latter even got a TV adaptation on Amerikids which actually used the same techniques just applied to filming.
The Captain Underpants character would grow in popularity over the years, even getting a crossover with Superman, where the character looks hilariously out of place due to still being drawn in Dav Pilkey's art style while everyone else is drawn in a realistic style. Additionally, the Captain would make cameos in other America’s Best Comics works like the Alan Moore-written Tom Strange and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The comic’s cult fanbase would pay off when Pilkey got an opportunity to work with characters from DC’s main universe; his first was with Superman, creating a satirical one-shot called Superman: The CIA Award For Excellence In Journalism, wherein Clark Kent is being hunted by CIA agents who are trying to kill him and make it look like an accident, but not because they know he’s Superman, but because he’s too good of a journalist. True to Pilkey’s previous works, Clark is comically oblivious to the attempts on his life. His next project would be relaunching both Krypto the Superdog and giving minor characters Space Canine Patrol their own series, lovingly spoofing Franco-Belgian sci fi comics like Valerian.
Pikley would later do runs on two more of DC’s more mainstream works: Shazam and Justice League of America; he would be paired with Peter Krause for the former and Howard Porter for the latter. Both would arguably be Dav Pilkey’s first forays into relatively more “serious” comics[4], especially JLA; both wouldn’t be devoid of humor, however, as they were still throwbacks to the Golden and Silver Ages albeit more “self-aware” for lack of a better term. One of Pilkey’s first times writing for the A-lister heroes would be DC's Superman Unlimited series, which would serve as a springboard for Pilkey’s non-Captain Underpants trademarks at the company, such as reconstructing the pre-Crisis status quo (bringing back the Kara Zor-El Supergirl, returning Superman to Weisinger era power levels) and exploring the more obscure parts of comics history.
However, Pilkey actually briefly took a hiatus from writing the series from 2007 to 2008, during which he was a full-time caregiver for his ailing father. During this period, Pilkey temporarily handed over the reins to other friends he had made in the industry, including Grant Morrison and Kevin Smith. While readership did decline during this period, with many people saying that Morrison and Smith never fully got a hang on the tone of the book, both of them have said that they would do it again in a heartbeat. The death of his father would haunt Pilkey upon his return to the comic book industry. Nevertheless, Pilkey would soon. He credits dabbling in ceremonial magic and eventually converting to Thelema thanks to Moore’s influence. “Thelema is about, and these are basically Alan’s words on the subject “to strive to ascend to higher states of existence, uniting oneself with higher powers, and understanding and embracing one's True Will, their ultimate purpose, and place in life.” Pilkey would say. “And for me, it was that realization that magic and art are the same thing that helped me understand that True Will.”
DC would not also be his only foray: Pilkey in the 2000’s on both sides of his hiatus would head to Dark Horse, Marvel, and even MAD for other ventures; the second saw work on the Doctor Strange Presents a Series of Peculiar Pictographs[5] The Amazing Spider-Man and a brief revival of obscure 1970s character Rocket Raccoon, the latter being a satire of 1950s “space ranger” serials such as Captain Video (Pilkey was aware of any similarities to Space Canine Patrol and differentiated it via a far campier tone on par with 1980’s Flash Gordon).
For Dark Horse in particular, Pilkey try his hand at writing titles like The Mask to relatively mixed success, but more importantly would create a new series illustrated (and partially written) by up-and-comer Kazu Kibuishi that was easily his most popular work outside of his DC triad: Strangor, which told the story of a suburban family who inadvertently get transported to the fantasy world of 13-year old son Mark after his nasty younger brother gets the amateur comic he was working on wrecked, and have to retrieve the pages scattered across the land to keep it from being destroyed. He described it as a semi-humorous subversion of fantasy stories where outcast kids dismissed by their family get transported to fantasy worlds; “But instead, it's the family that just doesn’t understand him who gets that, while the kid himself remains in our world in a coma”. He even found time for a return to kids’ picture books, such as with a revival of his Dragon series and Always There, which tackled Dav’s own ADHD and Dyslexia.
Strangor's not quite this, but has elements of it (and not just with its illustrator).
Still, after his run at Dark Horse, Pilkey later returned to DC Comics for runs with both Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad. During both runs, Pilkey ended up breathing new life into obscure and forgotten characters including: Brother Power the Geek, Kite Man, Lord Death Man, Ultra The Multi-Alien, General Glory, Doctor Occult, Atomic Knights, Super-Hip, Peacemaker, King Tut, Snowflame, The Eraser, Matter-Eater Lad, Heckler, Moonbow, Funky Flashman, The Black Pirate, General Glory, Pigeon Person, Slam Bradley, and the Zoo Crew[6]. The versions of the characters have continued to appear in comics to this day.
Pilkey’s sudden success in the comics industry would in turn affect his personal life: he and Alan Moore would become close personal friends (even religion as mentioned above) and the two of them would surprisingly bring in two others into their friend group - Jo Rowling and Neil Gaiman, the latter of whom already knew Moore. The former would be introduced to Moore and Pilkey via a small argument the duo had over Moore’s dislike of the Harry Fletcher novels; as Pilkey recalls, it turned out Moore hadn’t even read them - his dislike stemmed from what fans tend to call “hype backlash” having seen them advertised and discussed almost everywhere.
“I said to him, ‘Al, how can you not like these books if you’ve never even read them?” Pilkey would elaborate. “It was basically a Green Eggs and Ham type thing.” Moore gave into Dav’s admitted pestering, and while he didn't think they were good overall, he did find things to like in them. “They’re certainly not groundbreaking,” Moore would later explain. “But I do like them from a magical standpoint and how they explore some very Hermetic themes.” They would inspire the creation of Moore’s 2007 series of novels Heka, aimed at younger readers (for him) and following the Ancient Egypt-set adventures of a young orphan boy who becomes a magician’s apprentice. Illustrated by Rick Veitch with in-universe comic books (or as Moore and Pilkey insist, “picto-papyri”) created by the main protagonist (illustrated by Pilkey in a style best described as how a 10-year-old boy of the time would draw hieroglyphics), the books blended and explored the history of popular art, the Western magical tradition, and mythology. A semi-successor would be Strange Tales, an anthology about the odder myths of various world mythologies and the cultural context behind them. As for Rowling herself, she actually would take some of Moore’s criticism to heart, admitting that she actually had many of them in mind when she later wrote books within the same world as the Harry Fletcher novels.
Rowling's works also inspired Pilkey's own Magical Misfits series, which was written for Dark Horse comics in collaboration with Brennan Lee Mulligan[7]. A John Hughes-inspired parody of the Harry Fletcher novels that features four American exchange students being sent to a school that is very clearly Hogwarts with the serial numbers filed off. Pilkey and Mulligan always acknowledge the inspiration for the story, with Mulligan even mentioning that Pilkey called Rowling to tell her about the idea, apparently wanting to clear it with her first, similar to what Weird Al does with his parody songs.
"I found the idea funny as Dav explained it to me, but I think the moment I was fully sold on it was when he mentioned the character of Evan, whose character is kind of built around the idea that he's supposed to be the prophesized Dark Lord, the He-Who-Must-Not-Be named if you will, and Evan just keeps refusing to go along with it. It's a simple idea but they both handled it brilliantly," Rowling recalled from Pilkey's pitch during a 2012 interview.
Meanwhile, Gaiman and Pilkey clicked much more quickly, despite the very different tones of their works, with the two of them both being lovers of old-school comic books, and both of them having tendencies to bring obscure characters in their works, which led to the two of them collaborating multiple times throughout the years, most prominently with the 2010 graphic novel Bo Gey, about a bogeyman who doesn’t want to join his family in scaring children, and Howl, about coyotes in a post-apocalyptic America. And coming back to Captain Underpants, Gaiman is actually writing an ongoing story within the same universe which sends up old silver age comics, which revolves around the grandparents of Jaime and Eric, who were revealed to be retired heroes.
Looking back on its issues, Pilkey’s Mighty in the Tighty Whiteys has certainly proven to stand the tests of time over the years and has been one of the flagship books for America's Best Comics for the longest time. While Pilkey has confirmed that the ending of the comic will very likely not be the last time we hear from Eric, Jamie, and the good Captain, it does put a close on one chapter in the career of quite possibly one of the most interesting men currently working in the comic industry.
As for future projects like the aforementioned Wonder Woman run, Pilkey has given only a few hints as to where he and Morrison will take the Princess of the Amazons. “It’s going to be my first mature work, with none of my usual humor.” he says. “I already explored some pretty heavy themes with the character of Diana on my JLA run like her coming to terms with her pansexuality and what her nature as a modern Galatea really means. I want my take on her series to be an expansion of that.” In addition Pilkey is also considering a graphic novel adaptation of Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising and a story for Alan Moore’s own Cinema Purgatorio, intended as both a tribute to his favorite movie monster ever, Godzilla, and a dissertation on that character’s roots in the Japanese atomic bombings and Cold War era fears of nuclear devastation; they are also collaborating once again on a biographical comic of Fredric Wertham and the creation of the comics code.
Whatever he comes up with next, Dav Pilkey will certainly leave audiences amazed - and no doubt at the same time chuckle too.
[1] Captain Underpants is not a chapter book series ITTL, rather being a comic book series (something Pilkey experimented with in early drafts for the first book IOTL) published by America’s Best Comics, here an imprint of DC’s from the start that specializes in creator-owned properties separate from the DCU.
[2] As opposed to OTL’s Tom Strong, which did feature this character as an alternate universe counterpart of the titular Tom.
[3] Unlike it's OTL counterpart, this version doesn't contain unintentionally offensive stereotypes of Asian Americans, with the character of Master Wong in particular just looking like Mr. Miyagi.
[4] But not serious works period: in both OTL and TTL in the mid-1990’s, he made some serious paper books The Paperboy and God bless the Gargoyles. Pilkey’s runs on Shazam and JLA will be a make-or-break moment for him in the comics industry in order to prove he can be more than just “the underwear and fart jokes guy”.
[5] Credit to @GrahamB for the idea.
[6] You probably think the writers made at least some of those up, but to quote The Lego Batman Movie, "Nope! All real. Probably worth a Google."
[7] Brennan's mom is actually a comic book writer, and while he still becomes a comedian, here he also decided to follow in her footsteps, using connections he forged through his friendship with Michael Kaluta.
From the “Kind of a Lot O’ Comics” Netsite by Ian K. Painters, August 25, 2014
(By @TheMolluskLingers, @MNM041, and @Plateosaurus)
Dav Pilkey has, in the last decade or thereabouts, gained himself quite the reputation in the comics industry and DC Comics in particular for very good reason: his stylized, cartoon-influenced drawing style, as well as his witty dialogue and narration that hides satirical wit beneath a veneer of Japanese tokusatsu and silly superheroic action not seen since the Silver Age heyday of Stan Lee or Mort Weisinger, and most “controversially”, a penchant for gross-out humor. Now as his signature comic series Captain Underpants (published under DC imprint America’s Best Comics)[1] releases its final and 144th issue “Whatever Happened to the Waistband Warrior?”, let’s take a look at how a former children’s book author came to be known as the “Clown Prince of Comics'' and how that led to not only his titular Waistband Warrior, but runs on Shazam! and Justice League of America that remain cult classics amongst comic fans, and more recently news that he’ll be taking the reins on Wonder Woman in collaboration with Grant Morrison. By his own admission, his career path has partly been down to some very good luck, through a chance encounter that he had with someone you would not expect: esoteric British comic book writer Alan Moore. It would seem rather incongruous for a crude kid’s writer from Ohio and a deep and serious Midlands-born writer to not only collaborate let alone also be close friends, but Pilkey revealed how it happened in an interview in 2003.
"I remember I was going on vacation to the UK in 1995, and Alan just ended up sitting next to me on the plane. I don't know why I decided to strike up a conversation with him, but I did and he was a lot friendlier than I think his reputation would lead some to believe." At the time, Pilkey was already seeing fairly moderate success as a children’s author, most notably with his Dragon and Dumb Bunnies books. However, he had also been struggling to get a particular passion project of his off the ground: Captain Underpants, a character Dav had created as a second grader in the early 1970s. “Not many publishers were enthused by the concept,” Pilkey recalls. "I ended up showing some of my drawings to Alan while we were on the plane, and I distinctly remember his eyes lighting up with that kinda mad genius’ glint that only a rare few have seen up close. And he says to me, [Pilkey does a self-admittedly terrible impression] ‘Dav mate, that’s a modern Superduperman!’ and I was like ‘Wait, you mean that MAD comic’? For those not aware, this was a particularly famous MAD magazine story from the 50’s taking the p*** out of Superman, treating him as a disgusting jerk rather than a noble morally righteous hero. Of course, I’m an avid reader and eventual writer of MAD, but believe it or not, Moore took a lot of influence from it writing Watchmen of all things as he confirmed right after." From there, Moore and Pilkey began discussing the comics they grew up with as children and found they shared a love of older comics like those DC and Marvel published in the 60s and 70s. The ideas for what would become the first Captain Underpants issue would further spring from those discussions, like the monster-man “The Inedible Hunk”, a dual parody of the Hulk and Moore’s take on Swamp Thing and the villain Dr. Diaper. The cast was further rounded out with characters Pilkey had also come up with in his childhood such as Dog Man and Water Man; even after Pilkey returned to the States, he and Moore would keep correspondence.
"It was certainly a surreal experience, I mean the guy who made Watchmen was taking interest in a joke story I had started on in the second grade. That was what resulted in me getting my foot in the door at DC." Eventually, Alan Moore would start an imprint under DC for creator-owned properties, America’s Best Comics, with Captain Underpants becoming one of its first titles. The series was not an immediate sales success but quickly gained a reputation through word of mouth; more specifically, the comics’ reliance on gross-out humor made it near-instantaneously controversial amongst more conservative readers and parents, something Pilkey expected based on personal experience but Moore was perplexed by, perhaps because in comparison to some of the content he himself had written in the past, the bathroom humor was a nonissue. “I am by no means a bible thumping moral guardian, quite the opposite in fact,” Moore elaborated when we reached out for comment during research for this article. ‘But I find such people to be absolute hypocrites when it comes to what they object to their children consuming; for f****’s sake, you consider lions shagging on the Discovery Channel to be ‘educational’ or ‘wholesome’ but when little Barbara makes poop and pee jokes with her friends in primary school, she gets bloody suspended!” Both Moore and Pilkey, under the Marvel Bullpen-esque nomenclatures “Affable Al” and “Dangerous Dav”, would take further potshots at such criticisms in Captain Underpants’ letters section. Such banter, and the vaudevillian contrast between the “grumpy old man” Affable Al and the exuberant, hyperactive Dangerous Dav in their responses to readers, would go on to become an iconic part of the comic, so much so that it's become a part of most of their collaborations.
The comic itself centered around two troublemaking young boys, Jamie and Eric, who make life difficult for the already child-hating staff of the elementary school they attend. After the school's principal, Mr. Krupp, threatens to separate the two lifelong friends, the solution to their problem comes in the form of a ring designed to hypnotize people. After hypnotizing Mr. Krupp, the two decide to have some fun and turn him into a superhero they created known as Captain Underpants. Only one problem, it ended up working too well and he ends up jumping out the window to fight crime. Now whenever someone snaps their fingers, Harold Krupp transforms from a disgruntled elementary school principal into the kind-hearted but bumbling do-gooder Captain Underpants and only returns to normal after being splashed with water. The comic follows a fairly standard formula from there of Jamie, Eric, and Captain Underpants getting into new and oftentimes bizarre situations, often with the awareness that they are indeed in a comic book (though the Captain himself only gains this awareness later on in the books story); the humor, despite what some readers claim, isn’t solely centered on bodily functions - a lot of it tends to be centered on playing with comic book cliches and conventions, ranging from Jamie and Eric arguing with the narration boxes to Captain Underpants briefly undergoing a “Dark Age” phase; complete with a bland-name Nerf gun, wearing hot dogs strapped to his body as a stand in for bandoliers and smoking (exploding) cigars. There's even a joke where, once Captain Underpants also gains the ability to break the fourth wall, he ends up stretching out the panels, so he and the bad guy can have a proper fight. This naturally resulted in Captain Underpants being compared to characters who similarly lampoon these tropes such as Ambush Bug and the Tick (both of whom are characters The Captain has met). Over the course of the series, an entire superhero universe starts popping up in the Captain’s wake, ranging from the repurposed public domain heroes of Nedor Comics like Tom “Doc” Strange[2] to the silly like the Captain Marvel spoof Shazbot, named for a common exclamation of Robin Williams’ Mork and The Three Sciency Guys that parody both the Three Stooges and the Fantastic Four. Just as well, as the universe itself expands, so do the main trio’s personalities - Jamie and Eric mature into still fun-loving but responsible kids while Mr. Krupp not only defrosts into a warmer-hearted character (hinting that the Captain persona isn’t just a hypnosis-induced act) but seeks to fix the environment of child abuse at the school, even going to bat for Jamie and Eric on multiple occasions.
There would even be a few spin-offs that Pilkey would have a hand in writing, such as the Dogcop, a cop story with an anthropomorphic dog, and the time travel martial arts story The Adventures of Uuga and Chacha[3]. There was also his Monstermania series that expanded upon two picture books he had written previously where photographed pets terrorized a city of Dav’s mice, albeit with miniature model people replacing them. The latter even got a TV adaptation on Amerikids which actually used the same techniques just applied to filming.
The Captain Underpants character would grow in popularity over the years, even getting a crossover with Superman, where the character looks hilariously out of place due to still being drawn in Dav Pilkey's art style while everyone else is drawn in a realistic style. Additionally, the Captain would make cameos in other America’s Best Comics works like the Alan Moore-written Tom Strange and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The comic’s cult fanbase would pay off when Pilkey got an opportunity to work with characters from DC’s main universe; his first was with Superman, creating a satirical one-shot called Superman: The CIA Award For Excellence In Journalism, wherein Clark Kent is being hunted by CIA agents who are trying to kill him and make it look like an accident, but not because they know he’s Superman, but because he’s too good of a journalist. True to Pilkey’s previous works, Clark is comically oblivious to the attempts on his life. His next project would be relaunching both Krypto the Superdog and giving minor characters Space Canine Patrol their own series, lovingly spoofing Franco-Belgian sci fi comics like Valerian.
Pikley would later do runs on two more of DC’s more mainstream works: Shazam and Justice League of America; he would be paired with Peter Krause for the former and Howard Porter for the latter. Both would arguably be Dav Pilkey’s first forays into relatively more “serious” comics[4], especially JLA; both wouldn’t be devoid of humor, however, as they were still throwbacks to the Golden and Silver Ages albeit more “self-aware” for lack of a better term. One of Pilkey’s first times writing for the A-lister heroes would be DC's Superman Unlimited series, which would serve as a springboard for Pilkey’s non-Captain Underpants trademarks at the company, such as reconstructing the pre-Crisis status quo (bringing back the Kara Zor-El Supergirl, returning Superman to Weisinger era power levels) and exploring the more obscure parts of comics history.
However, Pilkey actually briefly took a hiatus from writing the series from 2007 to 2008, during which he was a full-time caregiver for his ailing father. During this period, Pilkey temporarily handed over the reins to other friends he had made in the industry, including Grant Morrison and Kevin Smith. While readership did decline during this period, with many people saying that Morrison and Smith never fully got a hang on the tone of the book, both of them have said that they would do it again in a heartbeat. The death of his father would haunt Pilkey upon his return to the comic book industry. Nevertheless, Pilkey would soon. He credits dabbling in ceremonial magic and eventually converting to Thelema thanks to Moore’s influence. “Thelema is about, and these are basically Alan’s words on the subject “to strive to ascend to higher states of existence, uniting oneself with higher powers, and understanding and embracing one's True Will, their ultimate purpose, and place in life.” Pilkey would say. “And for me, it was that realization that magic and art are the same thing that helped me understand that True Will.”
DC would not also be his only foray: Pilkey in the 2000’s on both sides of his hiatus would head to Dark Horse, Marvel, and even MAD for other ventures; the second saw work on the Doctor Strange Presents a Series of Peculiar Pictographs[5] The Amazing Spider-Man and a brief revival of obscure 1970s character Rocket Raccoon, the latter being a satire of 1950s “space ranger” serials such as Captain Video (Pilkey was aware of any similarities to Space Canine Patrol and differentiated it via a far campier tone on par with 1980’s Flash Gordon).
For Dark Horse in particular, Pilkey try his hand at writing titles like The Mask to relatively mixed success, but more importantly would create a new series illustrated (and partially written) by up-and-comer Kazu Kibuishi that was easily his most popular work outside of his DC triad: Strangor, which told the story of a suburban family who inadvertently get transported to the fantasy world of 13-year old son Mark after his nasty younger brother gets the amateur comic he was working on wrecked, and have to retrieve the pages scattered across the land to keep it from being destroyed. He described it as a semi-humorous subversion of fantasy stories where outcast kids dismissed by their family get transported to fantasy worlds; “But instead, it's the family that just doesn’t understand him who gets that, while the kid himself remains in our world in a coma”. He even found time for a return to kids’ picture books, such as with a revival of his Dragon series and Always There, which tackled Dav’s own ADHD and Dyslexia.
Strangor's not quite this, but has elements of it (and not just with its illustrator).
Still, after his run at Dark Horse, Pilkey later returned to DC Comics for runs with both Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad. During both runs, Pilkey ended up breathing new life into obscure and forgotten characters including: Brother Power the Geek, Kite Man, Lord Death Man, Ultra The Multi-Alien, General Glory, Doctor Occult, Atomic Knights, Super-Hip, Peacemaker, King Tut, Snowflame, The Eraser, Matter-Eater Lad, Heckler, Moonbow, Funky Flashman, The Black Pirate, General Glory, Pigeon Person, Slam Bradley, and the Zoo Crew[6]. The versions of the characters have continued to appear in comics to this day.
Pilkey’s sudden success in the comics industry would in turn affect his personal life: he and Alan Moore would become close personal friends (even religion as mentioned above) and the two of them would surprisingly bring in two others into their friend group - Jo Rowling and Neil Gaiman, the latter of whom already knew Moore. The former would be introduced to Moore and Pilkey via a small argument the duo had over Moore’s dislike of the Harry Fletcher novels; as Pilkey recalls, it turned out Moore hadn’t even read them - his dislike stemmed from what fans tend to call “hype backlash” having seen them advertised and discussed almost everywhere.
“I said to him, ‘Al, how can you not like these books if you’ve never even read them?” Pilkey would elaborate. “It was basically a Green Eggs and Ham type thing.” Moore gave into Dav’s admitted pestering, and while he didn't think they were good overall, he did find things to like in them. “They’re certainly not groundbreaking,” Moore would later explain. “But I do like them from a magical standpoint and how they explore some very Hermetic themes.” They would inspire the creation of Moore’s 2007 series of novels Heka, aimed at younger readers (for him) and following the Ancient Egypt-set adventures of a young orphan boy who becomes a magician’s apprentice. Illustrated by Rick Veitch with in-universe comic books (or as Moore and Pilkey insist, “picto-papyri”) created by the main protagonist (illustrated by Pilkey in a style best described as how a 10-year-old boy of the time would draw hieroglyphics), the books blended and explored the history of popular art, the Western magical tradition, and mythology. A semi-successor would be Strange Tales, an anthology about the odder myths of various world mythologies and the cultural context behind them. As for Rowling herself, she actually would take some of Moore’s criticism to heart, admitting that she actually had many of them in mind when she later wrote books within the same world as the Harry Fletcher novels.
Rowling's works also inspired Pilkey's own Magical Misfits series, which was written for Dark Horse comics in collaboration with Brennan Lee Mulligan[7]. A John Hughes-inspired parody of the Harry Fletcher novels that features four American exchange students being sent to a school that is very clearly Hogwarts with the serial numbers filed off. Pilkey and Mulligan always acknowledge the inspiration for the story, with Mulligan even mentioning that Pilkey called Rowling to tell her about the idea, apparently wanting to clear it with her first, similar to what Weird Al does with his parody songs.
"I found the idea funny as Dav explained it to me, but I think the moment I was fully sold on it was when he mentioned the character of Evan, whose character is kind of built around the idea that he's supposed to be the prophesized Dark Lord, the He-Who-Must-Not-Be named if you will, and Evan just keeps refusing to go along with it. It's a simple idea but they both handled it brilliantly," Rowling recalled from Pilkey's pitch during a 2012 interview.
Meanwhile, Gaiman and Pilkey clicked much more quickly, despite the very different tones of their works, with the two of them both being lovers of old-school comic books, and both of them having tendencies to bring obscure characters in their works, which led to the two of them collaborating multiple times throughout the years, most prominently with the 2010 graphic novel Bo Gey, about a bogeyman who doesn’t want to join his family in scaring children, and Howl, about coyotes in a post-apocalyptic America. And coming back to Captain Underpants, Gaiman is actually writing an ongoing story within the same universe which sends up old silver age comics, which revolves around the grandparents of Jaime and Eric, who were revealed to be retired heroes.
Looking back on its issues, Pilkey’s Mighty in the Tighty Whiteys has certainly proven to stand the tests of time over the years and has been one of the flagship books for America's Best Comics for the longest time. While Pilkey has confirmed that the ending of the comic will very likely not be the last time we hear from Eric, Jamie, and the good Captain, it does put a close on one chapter in the career of quite possibly one of the most interesting men currently working in the comic industry.
As for future projects like the aforementioned Wonder Woman run, Pilkey has given only a few hints as to where he and Morrison will take the Princess of the Amazons. “It’s going to be my first mature work, with none of my usual humor.” he says. “I already explored some pretty heavy themes with the character of Diana on my JLA run like her coming to terms with her pansexuality and what her nature as a modern Galatea really means. I want my take on her series to be an expansion of that.” In addition Pilkey is also considering a graphic novel adaptation of Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising and a story for Alan Moore’s own Cinema Purgatorio, intended as both a tribute to his favorite movie monster ever, Godzilla, and a dissertation on that character’s roots in the Japanese atomic bombings and Cold War era fears of nuclear devastation; they are also collaborating once again on a biographical comic of Fredric Wertham and the creation of the comics code.
Whatever he comes up with next, Dav Pilkey will certainly leave audiences amazed - and no doubt at the same time chuckle too.
[1] Captain Underpants is not a chapter book series ITTL, rather being a comic book series (something Pilkey experimented with in early drafts for the first book IOTL) published by America’s Best Comics, here an imprint of DC’s from the start that specializes in creator-owned properties separate from the DCU.
[2] As opposed to OTL’s Tom Strong, which did feature this character as an alternate universe counterpart of the titular Tom.
[3] Unlike it's OTL counterpart, this version doesn't contain unintentionally offensive stereotypes of Asian Americans, with the character of Master Wong in particular just looking like Mr. Miyagi.
[4] But not serious works period: in both OTL and TTL in the mid-1990’s, he made some serious paper books The Paperboy and God bless the Gargoyles. Pilkey’s runs on Shazam and JLA will be a make-or-break moment for him in the comics industry in order to prove he can be more than just “the underwear and fart jokes guy”.
[5] Credit to @GrahamB for the idea.
[6] You probably think the writers made at least some of those up, but to quote The Lego Batman Movie, "Nope! All real. Probably worth a Google."
[7] Brennan's mom is actually a comic book writer, and while he still becomes a comedian, here he also decided to follow in her footsteps, using connections he forged through his friendship with Michael Kaluta.
Cool! I could totally see this get a show on Neptune!So A Class Clown and a British Wizard Board a Plane: The Secret Origins of Captain Underpants and Dav Pilkey’s Career
From the “Kind of a Lot O’ Comics” Netsite by Ian K. Painters, August 25, 2014
(By @TheMolluskLingers, @MNM041, and @Plateosaurus)
Dav Pilkey has, in the last decade or thereabouts, gained himself quite the reputation in the comics industry and DC Comics in particular for very good reason: his stylized, cartoon-influenced drawing style, as well as his witty dialogue and narration that hides satirical wit beneath a veneer of Japanese tokusatsu and silly superheroic action not seen since the Silver Age heyday of Stan Lee or Mort Weisinger, and most “controversially”, a penchant for gross-out humor. Now as his signature comic series Captain Underpants (published under DC imprint America’s Best Comics)[1] releases its final and 144th issue “Whatever Happened to the Waistband Warrior?”, let’s take a look at how a former children’s book author came to be known as the “Clown Prince of Comics'' and how that led to not only his titular Waistband Warrior, but runs on Shazam! and Justice League of America that remain cult classics amongst comic fans, and more recently news that he’ll be taking the reins on Wonder Woman in collaboration with Grant Morrison. By his own admission, his career path has partly been down to some very good luck, through a chance encounter that he had with someone you would not expect: esoteric British comic book writer Alan Moore. It would seem rather incongruous for a crude kid’s writer from Ohio and a deep and serious Midlands-born writer to not only collaborate let alone also be close friends, but Pilkey revealed how it happened in an interview in 2003.
"I remember I was going on vacation to the UK in 1995, and Alan just ended up sitting next to me on the plane. I don't know why I decided to strike up a conversation with him, but I did and he was a lot friendlier than I think his reputation would lead some to believe." At the time, Pilkey was already seeing fairly moderate success as a children’s author, most notably with his Dragon and Dumb Bunnies books. However, he had also been struggling to get a particular passion project of his off the ground: Captain Underpants, a character Dav had created as a second grader in the early 1970s. “Not many publishers were enthused by the concept,” Pilkey recalls. "I ended up showing some of my drawings to Alan while we were on the plane, and I distinctly remember his eyes lighting up with that kinda mad genius’ glint that only a rare few have seen up close. And he says to me, [Pilkey does a self-admittedly terrible impression] ‘Dav mate, that’s a modern Superduperman!’ and I was like ‘Wait, you mean that MAD comic’? For those not aware, this was a particularly famous MAD magazine story from the 50’s taking the p*** out of Superman, treating him as a disgusting jerk rather than a noble morally righteous hero. Of course, I’m an avid reader and eventual writer of MAD, but believe it or not, Moore took a lot of influence from it writing Watchmen of all things as he confirmed right after." From there, Moore and Pilkey began discussing the comics they grew up with as children and found they shared a love of older comics like those DC and Marvel published in the 60s and 70s. The ideas for what would become the first Captain Underpants issue would further spring from those discussions, like the monster-man “The Inedible Hunk”, a dual parody of the Hulk and Moore’s take on Swamp Thing and the villain Dr. Diaper. The cast was further rounded out with characters Pilkey had also come up with in his childhood such as Dog Man and Water Man; even after Pilkey returned to the States, he and Moore would keep correspondence.
"It was certainly a surreal experience, I mean the guy who made Watchmen was taking interest in a joke story I had started on in the second grade. That was what resulted in me getting my foot in the door at DC." Eventually, Alan Moore would start an imprint under DC for creator-owned properties, America’s Best Comics, with Captain Underpants becoming one of its first titles. The series was not an immediate sales success but quickly gained a reputation through word of mouth; more specifically, the comics’ reliance on gross-out humor made it near-instantaneously controversial amongst more conservative readers and parents, something Pilkey expected based on personal experience but Moore was perplexed by, perhaps because in comparison to some of the content he himself had written in the past, the bathroom humor was a nonissue. “I am by no means a bible thumping moral guardian, quite the opposite in fact,” Moore elaborated when we reached out for comment during research for this article. ‘But I find such people to be absolute hypocrites when it comes to what they object to their children consuming; for f****’s sake, you consider lions shagging on the Discovery Channel to be ‘educational’ or ‘wholesome’ but when little Barbara makes poop and pee jokes with her friends in primary school, she gets bloody suspended!” Both Moore and Pilkey, under the Marvel Bullpen-esque nomenclatures “Affable Al” and “Dangerous Dav”, would take further potshots at such criticisms in Captain Underpants’ letters section. Such banter, and the vaudevillian contrast between the “grumpy old man” Affable Al and the exuberant, hyperactive Dangerous Dav in their responses to readers, would go on to become an iconic part of the comic, so much so that it's become a part of most of their collaborations.
The comic itself centered around two troublemaking young boys, Jamie and Eric, who make life difficult for the already child-hating staff of the elementary school they attend. After the school's principal, Mr. Krupp, threatens to separate the two lifelong friends, the solution to their problem comes in the form of a ring designed to hypnotize people. After hypnotizing Mr. Krupp, the two decide to have some fun and turn him into a superhero they created known as Captain Underpants. Only one problem, it ended up working too well and he ends up jumping out the window to fight crime. Now whenever someone snaps their fingers, Harold Krupp transforms from a disgruntled elementary school principal into the kind-hearted but bumbling do-gooder Captain Underpants and only returns to normal after being splashed with water. The comic follows a fairly standard formula from there of Jamie, Eric, and Captain Underpants getting into new and oftentimes bizarre situations, often with the awareness that they are indeed in a comic book (though the Captain himself only gains this awareness later on in the books story); the humor, despite what some readers claim, isn’t solely centered on bodily functions - a lot of it tends to be centered on playing with comic book cliches and conventions, ranging from Jamie and Eric arguing with the narration boxes to Captain Underpants briefly undergoing a “Dark Age” phase; complete with a bland-name Nerf gun, wearing hot dogs strapped to his body as a stand in for bandoliers and smoking (exploding) cigars. There's even a joke where, once Captain Underpants also gains the ability to break the fourth wall, he ends up stretching out the panels, so he and the bad guy can have a proper fight. This naturally resulted in Captain Underpants being compared to characters who similarly lampoon these tropes such as Ambush Bug and the Tick (both of whom are characters The Captain has met). Over the course of the series, an entire superhero universe starts popping up in the Captain’s wake, ranging from the repurposed public domain heroes of Nedor Comics like Tom “Doc” Strange[2] to the silly like the Captain Marvel spoof Shazbot, named for a common exclamation of Robin Williams’ Mork and The Three Sciency Guys that parody both the Three Stooges and the Fantastic Four. Just as well, as the universe itself expands, so do the main trio’s personalities - Jamie and Eric mature into still fun-loving but responsible kids while Mr. Krupp not only defrosts into a warmer-hearted character (hinting that the Captain persona isn’t just a hypnosis-induced act) but seeks to fix the environment of child abuse at the school, even going to bat for Jamie and Eric on multiple occasions.
There would even be a few spin-offs that Pilkey would have a hand in writing, such as the Dogcop, a cop story with an anthropomorphic dog, and the time travel martial arts story The Adventures of Uuga and Chacha[3]. There was also his Monstermania series that expanded upon two picture books he had written previously where photographed pets terrorized a city of Dav’s mice, albeit with miniature model people replacing them. The latter even got a TV adaptation on Amerikids which actually used the same techniques just applied to filming.
The Captain Underpants character would grow in popularity over the years, even getting a crossover with Superman, where the character looks hilariously out of place due to still being drawn in Dav Pilkey's art style while everyone else is drawn in a realistic style. Additionally, the Captain would make cameos in other America’s Best Comics works like the Alan Moore-written Tom Strange and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The comic’s cult fanbase would pay off when Pilkey got an opportunity to work with characters from DC’s main universe; his first was with Superman, creating a satirical one-shot called Superman: The CIA Award For Excellence In Journalism, wherein Clark Kent is being hunted by CIA agents who are trying to kill him and make it look like an accident, but not because they know he’s Superman, but because he’s too good of a journalist. True to Pilkey’s previous works, Clark is comically oblivious to the attempts on his life. His next project would be relaunching both Krypto the Superdog and giving minor characters Space Canine Patrol their own series, lovingly spoofing Franco-Belgian sci fi comics like Valerian.
Pikley would later do runs on two more of DC’s more mainstream works: Shazam and Justice League of America; he would be paired with Peter Krause for the former and Howard Porter for the latter. Both would arguably be Dav Pilkey’s first forays into relatively more “serious” comics[4], especially JLA; both wouldn’t be devoid of humor, however, as they were still throwbacks to the Golden and Silver Ages albeit more “self-aware” for lack of a better term. One of Pilkey’s first times writing for the A-lister heroes would be DC's Superman Unlimited series, which would serve as a springboard for Pilkey’s non-Captain Underpants trademarks at the company, such as reconstructing the pre-Crisis status quo (bringing back the Kara Zor-El Supergirl, returning Superman to Weisinger era power levels) and exploring the more obscure parts of comics history.
However, Pilkey actually briefly took a hiatus from writing the series from 2007 to 2008, during which he was a full-time caregiver for his ailing father. During this period, Pilkey temporarily handed over the reins to other friends he had made in the industry, including Grant Morrison and Kevin Smith. While readership did decline during this period, with many people saying that Morrison and Smith never fully got a hang on the tone of the book, both of them have said that they would do it again in a heartbeat. The death of his father would haunt Pilkey upon his return to the comic book industry. Nevertheless, Pilkey would soon. He credits dabbling in ceremonial magic and eventually converting to Thelema thanks to Moore’s influence. “Thelema is about, and these are basically Alan’s words on the subject “to strive to ascend to higher states of existence, uniting oneself with higher powers, and understanding and embracing one's True Will, their ultimate purpose, and place in life.” Pilkey would say. “And for me, it was that realization that magic and art are the same thing that helped me understand that True Will.”
DC would not also be his only foray: Pilkey in the 2000’s on both sides of his hiatus would head to Dark Horse, Marvel, and even MAD for other ventures; the second saw work on the Doctor Strange Presents a Series of Peculiar Pictographs[5] The Amazing Spider-Man and a brief revival of obscure 1970s character Rocket Raccoon, the latter being a satire of 1950s “space ranger” serials such as Captain Video (Pilkey was aware of any similarities to Space Canine Patrol and differentiated it via a far campier tone on par with 1980’s Flash Gordon).
For Dark Horse in particular, Pilkey try his hand at writing titles like The Mask to relatively mixed success, but more importantly would create a new series illustrated (and partially written) by up-and-comer Kazu Kibuishi that was easily his most popular work outside of his DC triad: Strangor, which told the story of a suburban family who inadvertently get transported to the fantasy world of 13-year old son Mark after his nasty younger brother gets the amateur comic he was working on wrecked, and have to retrieve the pages scattered across the land to keep it from being destroyed. He described it as a semi-humorous subversion of fantasy stories where outcast kids dismissed by their family get transported to fantasy worlds; “But instead, it's the family that just doesn’t understand him who gets that, while the kid himself remains in our world in a coma”. He even found time for a return to kids’ picture books, such as with a revival of his Dragon series and Always There, which tackled Dav’s own ADHD and Dyslexia.
View attachment 874866
Strangor's not quite this, but has elements of it (and not just with its illustrator).
Still, after his run at Dark Horse, Pilkey later returned to DC Comics for runs with both Doom Patrol and Suicide Squad. During both runs, Pilkey ended up breathing new life into obscure and forgotten characters including: Brother Power the Geek, Kite Man, Lord Death Man, Ultra The Multi-Alien, General Glory, Doctor Occult, Atomic Knights, Super-Hip, Peacemaker, King Tut, Snowflame, The Eraser, Matter-Eater Lad, Heckler, Moonbow, Funky Flashman, The Black Pirate, General Glory, Pigeon Person, Slam Bradley, and the Zoo Crew[6]. The versions of the characters have continued to appear in comics to this day.
Pilkey’s sudden success in the comics industry would in turn affect his personal life: he and Alan Moore would become close personal friends (even religion as mentioned above) and the two of them would surprisingly bring in two others into their friend group - Jo Rowling and Neil Gaiman, the latter of whom already knew Moore. The former would be introduced to Moore and Pilkey via a small argument the duo had over Moore’s dislike of the Harry Fletcher novels; as Pilkey recalls, it turned out Moore hadn’t even read them - his dislike stemmed from what fans tend to call “hype backlash” having seen them advertised and discussed almost everywhere.
“I said to him, ‘Al, how can you not like these books if you’ve never even read them?” Pilkey would elaborate. “It was basically a Green Eggs and Ham type thing.” Moore gave into Dav’s admitted pestering, and while he didn't think they were good overall, he did find things to like in them. “They’re certainly not groundbreaking,” Moore would later explain. “But I do like them from a magical standpoint and how they explore some very Hermetic themes.” They would inspire the creation of Moore’s 2007 series of novels Heka, aimed at younger readers (for him) and following the Ancient Egypt-set adventures of a young orphan boy who becomes a magician’s apprentice. Illustrated by Rick Veitch with in-universe comic books (or as Moore and Pilkey insist, “picto-papyri”) created by the main protagonist (illustrated by Pilkey in a style best described as how a 10-year-old boy of the time would draw hieroglyphics), the books blended and explored the history of popular art, the Western magical tradition, and mythology. A semi-successor would be Strange Tales, an anthology about the odder myths of various world mythologies and the cultural context behind them. As for Rowling herself, she actually would take some of Moore’s criticism to heart, admitting that she actually had many of them in mind when she later wrote books within the same world as the Harry Fletcher novels.
Rowling's works also inspired Pilkey's own Magical Misfits series, which was written for Dark Horse comics in collaboration with Brennan Lee Mulligan[7]. A John Hughes-inspired parody of the Harry Fletcher novels that features four American exchange students being sent to a school that is very clearly Hogwarts with the serial numbers filed off. Pilkey and Mulligan always acknowledge the inspiration for the story, with Mulligan even mentioning that Pilkey called Rowling to tell her about the idea, apparently wanting to clear it with her first, similar to what Weird Al does with his parody songs.
"I found the idea funny as Dav explained it to me, but I think the moment I was fully sold on it was when he mentioned the character of Evan, whose character is kind of built around the idea that he's supposed to be the prophesized Dark Lord, the He-Who-Must-Not-Be named if you will, and Evan just keeps refusing to go along with it. It's a simple idea but they both handled it brilliantly," Rowling recalled from Pilkey's pitch during a 2012 interview.
Meanwhile, Gaiman and Pilkey clicked much more quickly, despite the very different tones of their works, with the two of them both being lovers of old-school comic books, and both of them having tendencies to bring obscure characters in their works, which led to the two of them collaborating multiple times throughout the years, most prominently with the 2010 graphic novel Bo Gey, about a bogeyman who doesn’t want to join his family in scaring children, and Howl, about coyotes in a post-apocalyptic America. And coming back to Captain Underpants, Gaiman is actually writing an ongoing story within the same universe which sends up old silver age comics, which revolves around the grandparents of Jaime and Eric, who were revealed to be retired heroes.
Looking back on its issues, Pilkey’s Mighty in the Tighty Whiteys has certainly proven to stand the tests of time over the years and has been one of the flagship books for America's Best Comics for the longest time. While Pilkey has confirmed that the ending of the comic will very likely not be the last time we hear from Eric, Jamie, and the good Captain, it does put a close on one chapter in the career of quite possibly one of the most interesting men currently working in the comic industry.
As for future projects like the aforementioned Wonder Woman run, Pilkey has given only a few hints as to where he and Morrison will take the Princess of the Amazons. “It’s going to be my first mature work, with none of my usual humor.” he says. “I already explored some pretty heavy themes with the character of Diana on my JLA run like her coming to terms with her pansexuality and what her nature as a modern Galatea really means. I want my take on her series to be an expansion of that.” In addition Pilkey is also considering a graphic novel adaptation of Kenneth Anger’s Lucifer Rising and a story for Alan Moore’s own Cinema Purgatorio, intended as both a tribute to his favorite movie monster ever, Godzilla, and a dissertation on that character’s roots in the Japanese atomic bombings and Cold War era fears of nuclear devastation; they are also collaborating once again on a biographical comic of Fredric Wertham and the creation of the comics code.
Whatever he comes up with next, Dav Pilkey will certainly leave audiences amazed - and no doubt at the same time chuckle too.
[1] Captain Underpants is not a chapter book series ITTL, rather being a comic book series (something Pilkey experimented with in early drafts for the first book IOTL) published by America’s Best Comics, here an imprint of DC’s from the start that specializes in creator-owned properties separate from the DCU.
[2] As opposed to OTL’s Tom Strong, which did feature this character as an alternate universe counterpart of the titular Tom.
[3] Unlike it's OTL counterpart, this version doesn't contain unintentionally offensive stereotypes of Asian Americans, with the character of Master Wong in particular just looking like Mr. Miyagi.
[4] But not serious works period: in both OTL and TTL in the mid-1990’s, he made some serious paper books The Paperboy and God bless the Gargoyles. Pilkey’s runs on Shazam and JLA will be a make-or-break moment for him in the comics industry in order to prove he can be more than just “the underwear and fart jokes guy”.
[5] Credit to @GrahamB for the idea.
[6] You probably think the writers made at least some of those up, but to quote The Lego Batman Movie, "Nope! All real. Probably worth a Google."
[7] Brennan's mom is actually a comic book writer, and while he still becomes a comedian, here he also decided to follow in her footsteps, using connections he forged through his friendship with Michael Kaluta.
Nice again. Wondering what Part 2 episodes were cut, also if it was not cut what happened with the show crossed over with in episode 101 of part 2
To anyone interested, I've just made a thread where we can post Hensonverse fan-art: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/the-look-of-the-hensonverse.549514/
Movies 2000-2023
In Brief: Misc. New York Times Movie Reviews 2002-2023
[2] River plays Elijah "Lije" Baley, while Joaquin is R. Daneel Olivaw.
[3] Here, saying the name results in the characters being hunted and slaughtered by a deranged, stereotypical Scotsman (Robbie Coltrane), complete with kilt and bagpipes.
[4] Reeve walks away with the Oscar for Best Actor, as Daniel Day Lewis did in the OTL version.
[5] Campbell plays a mild mannered businessman dealing with the aftermath of a mysterious and traumatic incident, and who starts being followed by a menacing hound, which only he can see. The film will receive some flak for it’s well meaning, but problematic presentation of mental health, and muddled allegories. Despite this, Campbell’s performance will be widely praised, and he will even get some brief Oscar buzz, ultimately winning the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
- Gucci: A House Divided: (2002) Martin Scorsese and an all-star cast bring us this release about the family behind the Italian fashion empire[1];⭐⭐
- The Quatermass Experiment: (2002) David Cronenberg delivers an unnerving and handsomely produced update of the groundbreaking sci-fi classic, with Ian Holm powerfully playing the titular scientist; ⭐⭐⭐
- Caves of Steel: (2003) The Phoenix brothers lead this visually stunning, yet narratively meandering adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s forgotten sci-fi whodunnit[2]; ⭐½
- The Night Stalker: (2004) John Goodman stars in this update of the cult TV series that inspired The X Files; ⭐⭐½
- Macdeath: (2008) A comedic "smart slasher" about the supposed curse surrounding the Scottish Play[3]; ⭐⭐
- Lincoln: (2012) Steven Spielberg delivers a rousing take on an American icon, anchored by a phenomenal performance from Christopher Reeve[4]; ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Black Dog: (2018): Bruce Campbell delivers his finest performance in this chilling, yet heart-wrenching indie horror-drama[5]; ⭐⭐½
- Etrigan: (2021): Andy Serkis portrays a sadistic rhyming demon, and his troubled human alter-ego in this gloriously unhinged adaptation of the DC Comics character; ⭐⭐⭐
- In the Heat of the Night: (2023) Don Cheadle and Jeff Daniels star in this well-acted, but unnecessary remake of the Poitier-Steiger classic; ⭐½
[2] River plays Elijah "Lije" Baley, while Joaquin is R. Daneel Olivaw.
[3] Here, saying the name results in the characters being hunted and slaughtered by a deranged, stereotypical Scotsman (Robbie Coltrane), complete with kilt and bagpipes.
[4] Reeve walks away with the Oscar for Best Actor, as Daniel Day Lewis did in the OTL version.
[5] Campbell plays a mild mannered businessman dealing with the aftermath of a mysterious and traumatic incident, and who starts being followed by a menacing hound, which only he can see. The film will receive some flak for it’s well meaning, but problematic presentation of mental health, and muddled allegories. Despite this, Campbell’s performance will be widely praised, and he will even get some brief Oscar buzz, ultimately winning the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
Calling All Kaiju...
2003: Enter The Dragon!
Excerpt from Kaiju Kingdom! A Brief History of Massive Movie Monsters, by Gogota “Go” Jira
The Production:
With the success of 1997's Godzilla, Universal and Toho were keen to continue collaborating – then-Universal CCO Jeff Katzenberg and Toho’s Shogo Tomiyama, in a joint press conference, announced a Godzilla trilogy – the first sequel of which, Godzilla 2, came out in 2000 to financial and critical success. Renny Harlin would be back as director, whilst John August and Ben Edlund, who’d co-written John Carter and the Princess of Mars, would be hired to write the script.
Armed with the foreknowledge that there would be a third film, Harlin and Godzilla 2 screenwriter John Logan inserted several plot points in Godzilla 2 that would set the third film up – most notably the introduction of Dr. Lorelei “Lori” Andrews and Mechagodzilla’s developing sentience being tied to the use of an organic brain, which would later be revealed to be Ghidorah-derived.
For the third film, Harlin, August and Edlund had a central aim, as Edlund recalls, “We wanted to go deeper into the history of Godzilla – and the Godzillas as a whole. Saperstein, in the first movie, states that Godzilla’s the last of his kind – we wanted to go deeper into that history in Godzilla 3. This Godzilla clearly had a mother and a father and maybe brothers and sisters at some point, but they’re all dead – what happened to them? Why is Godzilla the last of his kind?”
When the time came to divvy up monsters, Universal CCO-in-training Majorie Cohn (following the advice of her semi-mentor Jeff Katzenberg) was quick to earmark Mothra and King Ghidorah – however, plans to feature a revived Mechagodzilla – this time on the KDF’s side - ended up falling by the wayside due to Toho’s use of the character in a duology of films, meaning that the far more obscure Toho mecha MOGUERA (whose most notable prior appearance had been in Godzilla vs. Xenilla[1]) ended up replacing him.
These aside, several original Kaiju would make cameos in the film – the most notable of these was, of course, Zilla[1], star of the Honolulu opening sequence. Designed as a distant evolutionary cousin to Godzilla, adapted for speed instead of power, (described in the script as “the cheetah to Godzilla’s lion”), his name in the script was just “Speedy” before Jack Black came up with the name “Zilla” on set – principally because the actors couldn’t say “Speedy” with a straight face – and the name stuck.
Of all the Kaiju cameoing in the film, Zilla quickly became a breakout character, for his memorable design, putting up a surprisingly good fight against MOGUERA and being part of a compelling opening sequence – he and the Broodmother would eventually join the Toho Kaiju canon.
Desiring to add more fantasy elements to the film, as opposed to the science-fiction of previous instalments, Harlin, August and Edlund hit the idea of a Kaiju-worshipping apocalypse cult being the human antagonists early on, wanting to contrast Wilkins’ corporate militarism and anti-Kaiju agenda. The character of Gregory Pickersgill – originally scripted as a former Catholic priest – was created to act as a contrast to Wilkins, being a twistedly pro-Kaiju religious fanatic.
Originally, like Lori, Pickersgill would also be having visions – only sent from Ghidorah, who would have been manipulating Pickersgill and his cult towards awakening him. In a tragic irony, Pickersgill would have truly believed that the Kaiju were sent by God to restore natural harmony to the world (in accordance with his twisted, syncretic belief system) and that his actions would have aided in that goal… but unbeknownst to him, rather than doing the work of any benevolent high power, he was actually being manipulated to serve the destructive agenda of a malevolent one.
However, Universal executives balked at the potential anti-religious themes, in addition to fears the introduction of more mystical story elements would confuse audiences (Harlin, August and Edlund have been vague whether they got a request from the Universal execs to “cut the New Age crap”), and ordered the removal of any reference to the character having a background as a priest. This had the side-effect of making the character rather more one-dimensional than Harlin, August and Edlund had originally conceived.
But, of course, Pickersgill’s portrayal was merely a single aspect of the multiple revisions Ghidorah and his portrayal went through – in the end, Ghidorah was made the last of a species that had arrived on Earth during the Plio-Pleistocene and warred with the Godzillas. This proved contentious with the fans, as will be mentioned later.
His design was also changed too, becoming a semi-horizontal, bird-like biped with bats, flying squirrels and vultures looked at. As a side effect of this semi-horizontal posture (and shorter, digitigrade legs), Ghidorah is also slightly shorter than Godzilla. Cobras were used as reference for the movements of Ghidorah’s heads - plans to give the heads individual personalities were ultimately trimmed down due to time constraints. A push was made for Ghidorah’s facial features to vaguely resemble Godzilla’s, to create an idea of convergence between the two species.
Mothra’s portrayal was revised too – the mystical aspects of her were ultimately downplayed or left ambiguous and a backstory of her species having a symbiotic relationship with the Godzillas was added (making her “the cleaner wrasse to Godzilla’s shark”, according to creature designer Crash McCreery). The eyespots on Mothra’s wings were designed to resemble Godzilla’s eyes to reflect this symbiosis.
Her design went through significant overhauls compared to the Toho version, due to Harlin, August and Edlund’s desire to not make Mothra look “cute” – she was made more streamlined, with real moths, grasshoppers, dragonflies and hornets looked at for reference, with hooked, praying mantis-like forelimbs and a wasp-like stinger. According to Patrick Tautopoulous, her lead designer, Mothra had to look “elegant and divine and beautiful… but still able to fuck you up.”
A particularly bizarre case of studio meddling came comparatively late on in production when executives mandated that Harlin, August and Edlund had to set a portion of the film in Sicily. Initially confused, Harlin, August and Edlund looked at their mythology books and found that, according to Greek myth, Typhon, progenitor of most of the Greek monsters and archenemy of Zeus, was imprisoned under Mount Etna – so the location of Ghidorah’s prison was changed from the Arctic to Mount Etna.
Despite what you might have heard, this was not because one of the production executives wanted to buy a house there, but out of political reasons. You see, in the wake of the Italian economic crash[2], support for Sicilian nationalism (among other Italian separatist movements) was at a record high, due to a public perception that the central government had ignored the plight of those regions “so a bunch of Roman bankers could cover their own arses”, to quote one particularly fiery denunciation. To encourage economic growth through tourism, the Italian government offered film studios financial incentives to shoot films in the country. It worked, somewhat.
The Story:
The film opens with a prologue set during the end of the last Ice Age, where paleo-Indians in Alaska watch as a Godzilla engages in a pitched, violent battle with a very familiar looking three-headed, golden Kaiju – the Godzilla manages to kill it, but dies of its wounds in the process.
Three years after the Mechagodzilla incident, the Kaiju Defence Force has grown, becoming a full-on global organisation – and with new funding comes new toys… such as MOGUERA. The film opens with the KDF in action in Honolulu, trying to drive off a Kaiju named Zilla – fortunately, they succeed in driving Zilla off with a minimum of collateral damage.
The KDF are also monitoring a Kaiju worshipping cult named “the Talons of God”, led by Gregory Pickersgill (Dermot Morgan) a former Catholic priest who believe that the Kaiju are punishments from God to show His displeasure with our behaviour – in particular, our defiance of the natural order. Ben Wasserman (John Stamos) and Larry Morton (Jack Black) find that Pickersgill has secretly obtained some of Wilkins’ transmitters (which ended up in the black market)… which he could use to either attract or awaken a Kaiju. They also find out that Pickersgill and his cult are headed to Sicily for some reason.
Meanwhile, Dr. Lori Andrews (Jennifer Aniston) notes an irregularity in Zilla’s movement patterns – almost acting like an animal fleeing its territory. Comparing them to all non-Godzilla kaiju known to the KDF (Anguirus and Rodan get explicitly namedropped), she comes to one conclusion – the Kaiju are all fleeing something…. she then gets a vision of the battle seen in the prologue and a warning – “The devil has three heads”. After the vision, she looks at Godzilla’s movement patterns to find… he’s heading for Sicily too. After comparing notes, Ben, Larry and Lori take their respective information to Dr. Henry Saperstein (Steve Buscemi), the head of the KDF – Saperstein, based on the evidence, decides to follow Godzilla.
Arriving in Sicily, the KDF corner Pickersgill at Mount Etna, having set up a series of Wilkins’ transmitters around the volcano. In a rant, Pickersgill gives his true motives - since Godzilla would not give humanity its much-deserved punishment, he has decided to find a Kaiju who would. And ancient sources revealed said Kaiju – an equal and opposite force to Godzilla who was defeated by him a long time ago and sealed under Mount Etna. At the end of his rant, he gives its name; Ghidorah. The Golden Demise.
Pickersgill then reveals he has already set off the transmitters – and Ghidorah awakens. Killing Pickersgill and his cultists, Ghidorah fights Godzilla in the Mediterranean, with Godzilla managing to gain the upper hand and grab one of Ghidorah’s heads…. before Ghidorah detaches the head like a lizard’s tail, regrowing it in a manner of seconds, and mauls Godzilla to near death, before going on a rampage across the globe.
Trying to work out a way to defeat Ghidorah, with Godzilla seemingly dead, Lori notes a similarity between the tissue of Mechagodzilla’s “brain” and the brain of the Ghidorah head[3]. Searching an abandoned lab formerly owned by the deceased Senator Wilkins, they find a severed, semi-vivisected, yet somehow still alive, Ghidorah head, missing a chunk of its brain. Putting the creature out of its misery by switching off its life support systems, Andrews is then beset by another vision – guiding her to a temple in the Central American Jungle.
Saperstein, Andrews, Wasserman and Morton head to the abandoned temple where they find who has (implicitly) been giving Andrews her visions – Mothra, the legendary Queen of the Monsters. At Mothra’s temple, the true story is given – coming to Earth as an invasive species in millennia past, the Ghidorahs fought a long and brutal war with the Godzillas (implicitly causing the Plio-Pleistocene boundary extinction event)… and Godzilla and Ghidorah are the last ones standing.
With Mothra’s help, they locate Godzilla, seriously injured and healing, in a graveyard of his kind and the Ghidorahs – however, Ghidorah has followed them, seemingly aware of what they are trying to do. Using a nuclear warhead, Saperstein sacrifices himself to heal Godzilla whilst MOGUERA keeps Ghidorah occupied. When a revitalised Godzilla emerges, Ghidorah retreats, with Godzilla in pursuit – and the boneyard is destroyed.
All paths converge in Washington DC – Godzilla duels Ghidorah, with the aid of the KDF, Moguera and Mothra. In the battle, MOGUERA is near-destroyed and Mothra is killed, but Godzilla manages to kill Ghidorah by forcing his central mouth open and frying his internal organs with his atomic breath. As Godzilla, a millennia-long interspecies vendetta finally complete, returns to the sea and the heroes watch, a recording from Saperstein ends the film, talking about humanity’s shared history with Kaiju – and how we have to coexist and protect the planet we all share.
The Acting:
The humans of the film are a slight improvement from its predecessor. Most of the cast from the last film are back and do a pretty good job, with John Stamos and Jack Black as Ben Wasserman and Larry Morton having wonderful interplay, even if their presence is slightly unnecessary. Whilst Stamos has been pushed to the background slightly, Black gets rather more (although less than Godzilla 2) – his firm and unwavering faith and admiration of Godzilla and the Kaiju, as opposed to his horror and disgust at Ghidorah for nearly killing Godzilla (proving that even the most pro-Kaiju guy doesn’t like the three-headed bastard), provides good foundation for some of the more emotional moments of the film.
As opposed to her mostly unnecessary role in the second film, Jennifer Aniston gets significantly more to do as Dr. Lorelei "Lori" Andrews. Of all the characters, it is she who gets the most focus – receiving visons from Mothra and ultimately playing a crucial role in the defeat of King Ghidorah. Imbuing her character with a surprising depth, Aniston conveys her character’s role as Mothra’s mouthpiece perfectly.
An against-type Dermot Morgan is chilling as Gregory Pickersgill, the founder of a Kaiju apocalypse cult and the film’s human villain, managing to alternate between fatherly Irish priest and deranged, fanatical nihilist[4] to an almost terrifying degree. Whilst Ghidorah doesn’t appear until roughly a third of the way into the film, Pickersgill certainly isn’t a bad understudy.
However, as usual, it is Steve Buscemi's Dr. Saperstein who steals the show. Once again serving as the pro-Kaiju mouthpiece of the film, Saperstein gets rather more to do this time round than just delivering expository monologues – in particular, his tear-jerking sacrifice to save Godzilla. Buscemi performs every line of his with surprising dignity and conviction, maintaining gravitas even when the content is a tad cheesy. A particular stand-out is his closing speech, played on a recording as Godzilla returns to the sea:
"Y’know, in some legends, the world begins with a war of the gods, with the (or a) world being created as a consequence. In others, the war happens at the end of time - Ragnarok, Armageddon. I believe both – and neither – versions are true. By which I mean, creation and destruction are forces that exist not in opposition, but harmony – they are but two sides of the same coin. The gods war, a new world rises – the new world becomes old… and the cycle repeats again. And in our legends, our forgotten history, there is one ultimate truth – when darkness rises, light will rise to dispel it. Their fates and ours are intertwined and we must live on this world together - as well as protect it from threats both within and without – if we are to survive.”
The Themes
Now, Godzilla 3 serves as an in-spirit remake of 1964's Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster. The two films have an identical premise – Ghidorah rises and proves a much greater threat than any Earth-based Kaiju, with Mothra in a prominent role and humanity eventually being forced to ally with Godzilla to defeat him[5].
There are several important differences, however. The most notable difference is in Ghidorah’s portrayal – rather than a singular entity, Ghidorah is portrayed as the last member of a whole species (like Godzilla himself), who came to Earth in the Plio-Pleistocene boundary and quickly established themselves as an invasive species, fighting a long, brutal interspecies war with the Godzillas… and Godzilla and Ghidorah are the last ones standing.
In addition, Ghidorah is portrayed as far more nuanced than most of his previous or subsequent incarnations – like a real invasive species, the Ghidorahs were only destructive because they were in an environment in which they were not native. There’s a scene where he’s in the Godzilla/Ghidorah graveyard and briefly turns over a jawbone of a dead member of his kind, like an elephant who’s come upon the remains of a dead herd mate.
In addition, there’s a twist to the whole “invaders using Ghidorah as their main weapon” plot device that has been rather common – and tiresome – in Godzilla media. Who, if anyone, seeded the Ghidorahs on Earth in the first place – and whether it was deliberate or accidental – is left intentionally vague… because it does not particularly matter. For all anyone knows they are long, long dead – it is what they left behind that matters.
The Release:
Godzilla 3 debuted at Grauman’s Chinese Theater on June 20th and received a wide release on June 23rd 2003, opening at the # 1 slot, knocking Four off the top spot … before being knocked off itself two weeks later by Reign of the Supermen. It would eventually gross almost $500 million worldwide on an $100 million budget, being the second-highest-grossing film that summer (after Reign of the Supermen).
Despite out-performing its predecessor, its critical reception was rather more mixed, with critics citing it as an improvement over its predecessor, praising the effects, performances (with Aniston earning particular praise), and action sequences, but criticising certain aspects of the storyline and the lack of resolution on certain plot points. Roger Ebert said, “Godzilla 3, whilst not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, overpromises and, ultimately, underdelivers – for the resolution to a trilogy, it’s certainly an anticlimax”. Despite this mixed reception, it was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 2004 Oscars but lost to Dr. Strange.
Whilst fans enjoyed the film overall, some disliked that the film had not fulfilled its promise into a deeper exploration into the backstory of the Godzillas, whilst others viewed the film as too crammed and that the series could have been stretched out into four or five instalments. The changes to Ghidorah – making him part of a species (and his enmity with Godzilla far less personal) and his comparatively reduced power level – proved to be particularly contentious among fans, some thinking that they turned Godzilla’s greatest foe into just another Kaiju whilst others thought them an interesting twist that made the character stand out whilst remaining true to the roots[5].
Pickersgill actor Dermot Morgan, whilst enjoying the film overall, was a little dismayed that the nuance he had intended for his character got erased in rewrites. Reflecting on the film in 2013 for its tenth anniversary he said, “Godzilla 3 was a bittersweet experience for me. Whilst I’ll defend it to this day – it’s a very spectacular-looking film and it was tremendous fun to make – it was a little sad that there were a lot of terrific ideas that ended up by the wayside. But that is the gig, I suppose.”
The Legacy:
Despite Harlin, August and Edlund’s repeatedly stating that the third film was going to be the last, Universal would spend the better part of a decade trying to look into a fourth instalment – amongst the treatments considered was one from Richard Stanley, which would have involved human women giving birth to Ghidorah-hybrid babies (derived from a fertility treatment using Ghidorah’s DNA[7], obtained from the head Godzilla ripped off) in a plot from the Golden Demise to both resurrect himself and replace the human race with his offspring.
Described as “a cross between Boys From Brazil, Rosemary’s Baby and The Dunwich Horror”, the idea was understandably vetoed – partly because the premise was hard to make into a T-rated action film and partly because Toho were vehemently opposed to it, with Shogo Tomiyama allegedly describing it as “disgusting”.
This fourth instalment spent the best part of a decade slaloming through Development Hell – especially after The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms[8] underperformed and Tim Burton publicly stated that it was unlikely that a fourth Jurassic Park movie would be happening any time soon. Despite this, Godzilla remained a profitable IP for Universal – with the theme park collaborations, live show and occasional cartoons – and, even as the studio floundered somewhat, the Toho partnership remained an important feather in their cap.
However, in 2012, Universal CCO Majorie Cohn and Toho president Yoshishige Shimatani, in a joint press conference, announced that the franchise would be rebooted with a new introductory film aimed to be released in summer 2015[8], helmed and co-written by up-and-comer Colin Trevorrow, that will “re-introduce the King of Monsters to a whole new audience”.
Not only that, but the reboot film will also be the start of a new Godzilla-Kong shared continuity – with the Kong side started with a new Skull Island film, directed by Spanish horror director JA Bayona, with the ultimate intention that Godzilla and Kong appear in a film together for the first time since the 1960s. Peter Jackson, second unit director and co-writer of Kong: King of Skull Island and director of the 2002 King Kong, will act as executive producer for these new films, with his Wingnut Films production company acting as production partners.
– – – –
[1] – As you might figure, this is what Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla is called ITTL, at least in English speaking markets, with Toho adopting a common fan nickname for him as his English name.
As to why Toho were so eager to claim Mecha-G…
Big reason Toho restarted the franchise in Japan ITTL was because of the Black Lagoon debacle, which Toho followed closely ITTL. After seeing how Universal (and Katzenberg in particular) screwed it up, Toho start getting suspicious of their American partners and cover their bets, so to speak - reviving the franchise on their own accord as a backup.
So obviously, Toho aren’t going to be too keen on letting Universal hang on to Mechagodzilla (and Cohn is using her semi-mentor’s snap up all the popular monsters) – and Cohn feels that, since they’ve got Mothra and King Ghidorah, they can afford to take a gamble (and perhaps also remembering that Anguirus – who was also comparatively obscure – was G2’s breakout character).
[2] - No, he hasn’t been butterflied (although the circumstances of his origins are far different from OTL)! He becomes an Ensemble Darkhorse pretty much from the start ITTL, for putting up a surprisingly good fight against MOGUERA and being part of a memorable opening sequence…. and the Kaiju who gets wrecked in the Final Wars equivalent is Gabara.
The only other one of the original Kaiju I’ve actually decided on is a chalicothere-type mammalian kaiju (NOT based on OTL!Behemoth, funnily enough – but a Mapinguari-corresponding Kaiju to fit the Kaiju = myth thing… he’s found in Brazil).
[3] - Post on this possibly incoming. And the original plan is for Ghidorah to be frozen in an Arctic iceberg as a climate change metaphor – however, Universal meddling forces Harlin, August and Edlund to move the sequence… which has the side effect of making the prologue (set in Alaska) not really make much sense.
[4] – Right… here's a bit of explanation here on what happened with Mecha-G in G2.
Basically, Wilkins found a frozen Ghidorah head, thawed it out - based on how octopus limbs still live after they've been cut off - vivisected it, removing a chunk of its brain and stimulated its natural healing factor to grow a brain for Mechagodzilla, which he integrated with the AI, with the idea that they both be controlled remotely by a human pilot (not the best term to use, but...)
When Mecha-G's control was severed, the organic brain took control of the AI, programming Mechagodzilla with the basic instincts of a Ghidorah (and that's why it had the strange obsession with killing Godzilla - they were natural enemies).
With this and the Toho Mecha-G duology (which has roughly the Kiryu origin from OTL), it becomes a thing in TTL Godzilla media that Mechagodzilla has some sort of organic component (of various points of origin - usually Godzilla or Ghidorah-derived).
[5] – Basically think Ted Crilly’s freakouts on Father Ted OTL (and ITTL), only much less funny.
[6] – Yeah, the GMK Ghidorah’s been butterflied… but there’s still a Ghidorah in an early-2000’s movie with major changes that are controversial with fans (Mothra also resembles a cross between her GMK/GvTG version and the MonsterVerse versions – the changes with her are less controversial).
[7] - Based on a surprisingly charming MonsterVerse fic called Abraxas, which ended with... exactly that. Unfortunately, I get the vibe Toho would not let this be made in any timeline – and a good thing, too (considering Stanley’s script opens with one of Ghidorah’s unfortunate babymamas dying in childbirth… with A LOT of blood).
[8] – Might have seen this mentioned in the Godzilla 2 post – post on this will ABSOLUTELY be coming soon.
[8] – This is TTL’s equivalent to OTL’s Monsterverse – revived in the 90's nostalgia wave in the 2010s' to duel Disney/MGM’s JP revival (and growing expanded universe). Trevorrow and Bayona were picked for allo-irony - basically, my original plans were to do a complete allo-ironic switch with the Monsterverse and JW directors... however, that has since fallen by the wayside – however, Trevorrow would probably make a really good G-movie.
Excerpt from Kaiju Kingdom! A Brief History of Massive Movie Monsters, by Gogota “Go” Jira
The Production:
With the success of 1997's Godzilla, Universal and Toho were keen to continue collaborating – then-Universal CCO Jeff Katzenberg and Toho’s Shogo Tomiyama, in a joint press conference, announced a Godzilla trilogy – the first sequel of which, Godzilla 2, came out in 2000 to financial and critical success. Renny Harlin would be back as director, whilst John August and Ben Edlund, who’d co-written John Carter and the Princess of Mars, would be hired to write the script.
Armed with the foreknowledge that there would be a third film, Harlin and Godzilla 2 screenwriter John Logan inserted several plot points in Godzilla 2 that would set the third film up – most notably the introduction of Dr. Lorelei “Lori” Andrews and Mechagodzilla’s developing sentience being tied to the use of an organic brain, which would later be revealed to be Ghidorah-derived.
For the third film, Harlin, August and Edlund had a central aim, as Edlund recalls, “We wanted to go deeper into the history of Godzilla – and the Godzillas as a whole. Saperstein, in the first movie, states that Godzilla’s the last of his kind – we wanted to go deeper into that history in Godzilla 3. This Godzilla clearly had a mother and a father and maybe brothers and sisters at some point, but they’re all dead – what happened to them? Why is Godzilla the last of his kind?”
When the time came to divvy up monsters, Universal CCO-in-training Majorie Cohn (following the advice of her semi-mentor Jeff Katzenberg) was quick to earmark Mothra and King Ghidorah – however, plans to feature a revived Mechagodzilla – this time on the KDF’s side - ended up falling by the wayside due to Toho’s use of the character in a duology of films, meaning that the far more obscure Toho mecha MOGUERA (whose most notable prior appearance had been in Godzilla vs. Xenilla[1]) ended up replacing him.
These aside, several original Kaiju would make cameos in the film – the most notable of these was, of course, Zilla[1], star of the Honolulu opening sequence. Designed as a distant evolutionary cousin to Godzilla, adapted for speed instead of power, (described in the script as “the cheetah to Godzilla’s lion”), his name in the script was just “Speedy” before Jack Black came up with the name “Zilla” on set – principally because the actors couldn’t say “Speedy” with a straight face – and the name stuck.
Of all the Kaiju cameoing in the film, Zilla quickly became a breakout character, for his memorable design, putting up a surprisingly good fight against MOGUERA and being part of a compelling opening sequence – he and the Broodmother would eventually join the Toho Kaiju canon.
Desiring to add more fantasy elements to the film, as opposed to the science-fiction of previous instalments, Harlin, August and Edlund hit the idea of a Kaiju-worshipping apocalypse cult being the human antagonists early on, wanting to contrast Wilkins’ corporate militarism and anti-Kaiju agenda. The character of Gregory Pickersgill – originally scripted as a former Catholic priest – was created to act as a contrast to Wilkins, being a twistedly pro-Kaiju religious fanatic.
Originally, like Lori, Pickersgill would also be having visions – only sent from Ghidorah, who would have been manipulating Pickersgill and his cult towards awakening him. In a tragic irony, Pickersgill would have truly believed that the Kaiju were sent by God to restore natural harmony to the world (in accordance with his twisted, syncretic belief system) and that his actions would have aided in that goal… but unbeknownst to him, rather than doing the work of any benevolent high power, he was actually being manipulated to serve the destructive agenda of a malevolent one.
However, Universal executives balked at the potential anti-religious themes, in addition to fears the introduction of more mystical story elements would confuse audiences (Harlin, August and Edlund have been vague whether they got a request from the Universal execs to “cut the New Age crap”), and ordered the removal of any reference to the character having a background as a priest. This had the side-effect of making the character rather more one-dimensional than Harlin, August and Edlund had originally conceived.
But, of course, Pickersgill’s portrayal was merely a single aspect of the multiple revisions Ghidorah and his portrayal went through – in the end, Ghidorah was made the last of a species that had arrived on Earth during the Plio-Pleistocene and warred with the Godzillas. This proved contentious with the fans, as will be mentioned later.
His design was also changed too, becoming a semi-horizontal, bird-like biped with bats, flying squirrels and vultures looked at. As a side effect of this semi-horizontal posture (and shorter, digitigrade legs), Ghidorah is also slightly shorter than Godzilla. Cobras were used as reference for the movements of Ghidorah’s heads - plans to give the heads individual personalities were ultimately trimmed down due to time constraints. A push was made for Ghidorah’s facial features to vaguely resemble Godzilla’s, to create an idea of convergence between the two species.
Mothra’s portrayal was revised too – the mystical aspects of her were ultimately downplayed or left ambiguous and a backstory of her species having a symbiotic relationship with the Godzillas was added (making her “the cleaner wrasse to Godzilla’s shark”, according to creature designer Crash McCreery). The eyespots on Mothra’s wings were designed to resemble Godzilla’s eyes to reflect this symbiosis.
Her design went through significant overhauls compared to the Toho version, due to Harlin, August and Edlund’s desire to not make Mothra look “cute” – she was made more streamlined, with real moths, grasshoppers, dragonflies and hornets looked at for reference, with hooked, praying mantis-like forelimbs and a wasp-like stinger. According to Patrick Tautopoulous, her lead designer, Mothra had to look “elegant and divine and beautiful… but still able to fuck you up.”
A particularly bizarre case of studio meddling came comparatively late on in production when executives mandated that Harlin, August and Edlund had to set a portion of the film in Sicily. Initially confused, Harlin, August and Edlund looked at their mythology books and found that, according to Greek myth, Typhon, progenitor of most of the Greek monsters and archenemy of Zeus, was imprisoned under Mount Etna – so the location of Ghidorah’s prison was changed from the Arctic to Mount Etna.
Despite what you might have heard, this was not because one of the production executives wanted to buy a house there, but out of political reasons. You see, in the wake of the Italian economic crash[2], support for Sicilian nationalism (among other Italian separatist movements) was at a record high, due to a public perception that the central government had ignored the plight of those regions “so a bunch of Roman bankers could cover their own arses”, to quote one particularly fiery denunciation. To encourage economic growth through tourism, the Italian government offered film studios financial incentives to shoot films in the country. It worked, somewhat.
The Story:
The film opens with a prologue set during the end of the last Ice Age, where paleo-Indians in Alaska watch as a Godzilla engages in a pitched, violent battle with a very familiar looking three-headed, golden Kaiju – the Godzilla manages to kill it, but dies of its wounds in the process.
Three years after the Mechagodzilla incident, the Kaiju Defence Force has grown, becoming a full-on global organisation – and with new funding comes new toys… such as MOGUERA. The film opens with the KDF in action in Honolulu, trying to drive off a Kaiju named Zilla – fortunately, they succeed in driving Zilla off with a minimum of collateral damage.
The KDF are also monitoring a Kaiju worshipping cult named “the Talons of God”, led by Gregory Pickersgill (Dermot Morgan) a former Catholic priest who believe that the Kaiju are punishments from God to show His displeasure with our behaviour – in particular, our defiance of the natural order. Ben Wasserman (John Stamos) and Larry Morton (Jack Black) find that Pickersgill has secretly obtained some of Wilkins’ transmitters (which ended up in the black market)… which he could use to either attract or awaken a Kaiju. They also find out that Pickersgill and his cult are headed to Sicily for some reason.
Meanwhile, Dr. Lori Andrews (Jennifer Aniston) notes an irregularity in Zilla’s movement patterns – almost acting like an animal fleeing its territory. Comparing them to all non-Godzilla kaiju known to the KDF (Anguirus and Rodan get explicitly namedropped), she comes to one conclusion – the Kaiju are all fleeing something…. she then gets a vision of the battle seen in the prologue and a warning – “The devil has three heads”. After the vision, she looks at Godzilla’s movement patterns to find… he’s heading for Sicily too. After comparing notes, Ben, Larry and Lori take their respective information to Dr. Henry Saperstein (Steve Buscemi), the head of the KDF – Saperstein, based on the evidence, decides to follow Godzilla.
Arriving in Sicily, the KDF corner Pickersgill at Mount Etna, having set up a series of Wilkins’ transmitters around the volcano. In a rant, Pickersgill gives his true motives - since Godzilla would not give humanity its much-deserved punishment, he has decided to find a Kaiju who would. And ancient sources revealed said Kaiju – an equal and opposite force to Godzilla who was defeated by him a long time ago and sealed under Mount Etna. At the end of his rant, he gives its name; Ghidorah. The Golden Demise.
Pickersgill then reveals he has already set off the transmitters – and Ghidorah awakens. Killing Pickersgill and his cultists, Ghidorah fights Godzilla in the Mediterranean, with Godzilla managing to gain the upper hand and grab one of Ghidorah’s heads…. before Ghidorah detaches the head like a lizard’s tail, regrowing it in a manner of seconds, and mauls Godzilla to near death, before going on a rampage across the globe.
Trying to work out a way to defeat Ghidorah, with Godzilla seemingly dead, Lori notes a similarity between the tissue of Mechagodzilla’s “brain” and the brain of the Ghidorah head[3]. Searching an abandoned lab formerly owned by the deceased Senator Wilkins, they find a severed, semi-vivisected, yet somehow still alive, Ghidorah head, missing a chunk of its brain. Putting the creature out of its misery by switching off its life support systems, Andrews is then beset by another vision – guiding her to a temple in the Central American Jungle.
Saperstein, Andrews, Wasserman and Morton head to the abandoned temple where they find who has (implicitly) been giving Andrews her visions – Mothra, the legendary Queen of the Monsters. At Mothra’s temple, the true story is given – coming to Earth as an invasive species in millennia past, the Ghidorahs fought a long and brutal war with the Godzillas (implicitly causing the Plio-Pleistocene boundary extinction event)… and Godzilla and Ghidorah are the last ones standing.
With Mothra’s help, they locate Godzilla, seriously injured and healing, in a graveyard of his kind and the Ghidorahs – however, Ghidorah has followed them, seemingly aware of what they are trying to do. Using a nuclear warhead, Saperstein sacrifices himself to heal Godzilla whilst MOGUERA keeps Ghidorah occupied. When a revitalised Godzilla emerges, Ghidorah retreats, with Godzilla in pursuit – and the boneyard is destroyed.
All paths converge in Washington DC – Godzilla duels Ghidorah, with the aid of the KDF, Moguera and Mothra. In the battle, MOGUERA is near-destroyed and Mothra is killed, but Godzilla manages to kill Ghidorah by forcing his central mouth open and frying his internal organs with his atomic breath. As Godzilla, a millennia-long interspecies vendetta finally complete, returns to the sea and the heroes watch, a recording from Saperstein ends the film, talking about humanity’s shared history with Kaiju – and how we have to coexist and protect the planet we all share.
The Acting:
The humans of the film are a slight improvement from its predecessor. Most of the cast from the last film are back and do a pretty good job, with John Stamos and Jack Black as Ben Wasserman and Larry Morton having wonderful interplay, even if their presence is slightly unnecessary. Whilst Stamos has been pushed to the background slightly, Black gets rather more (although less than Godzilla 2) – his firm and unwavering faith and admiration of Godzilla and the Kaiju, as opposed to his horror and disgust at Ghidorah for nearly killing Godzilla (proving that even the most pro-Kaiju guy doesn’t like the three-headed bastard), provides good foundation for some of the more emotional moments of the film.
As opposed to her mostly unnecessary role in the second film, Jennifer Aniston gets significantly more to do as Dr. Lorelei "Lori" Andrews. Of all the characters, it is she who gets the most focus – receiving visons from Mothra and ultimately playing a crucial role in the defeat of King Ghidorah. Imbuing her character with a surprising depth, Aniston conveys her character’s role as Mothra’s mouthpiece perfectly.
An against-type Dermot Morgan is chilling as Gregory Pickersgill, the founder of a Kaiju apocalypse cult and the film’s human villain, managing to alternate between fatherly Irish priest and deranged, fanatical nihilist[4] to an almost terrifying degree. Whilst Ghidorah doesn’t appear until roughly a third of the way into the film, Pickersgill certainly isn’t a bad understudy.
However, as usual, it is Steve Buscemi's Dr. Saperstein who steals the show. Once again serving as the pro-Kaiju mouthpiece of the film, Saperstein gets rather more to do this time round than just delivering expository monologues – in particular, his tear-jerking sacrifice to save Godzilla. Buscemi performs every line of his with surprising dignity and conviction, maintaining gravitas even when the content is a tad cheesy. A particular stand-out is his closing speech, played on a recording as Godzilla returns to the sea:
"Y’know, in some legends, the world begins with a war of the gods, with the (or a) world being created as a consequence. In others, the war happens at the end of time - Ragnarok, Armageddon. I believe both – and neither – versions are true. By which I mean, creation and destruction are forces that exist not in opposition, but harmony – they are but two sides of the same coin. The gods war, a new world rises – the new world becomes old… and the cycle repeats again. And in our legends, our forgotten history, there is one ultimate truth – when darkness rises, light will rise to dispel it. Their fates and ours are intertwined and we must live on this world together - as well as protect it from threats both within and without – if we are to survive.”
The Themes
Now, Godzilla 3 serves as an in-spirit remake of 1964's Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster. The two films have an identical premise – Ghidorah rises and proves a much greater threat than any Earth-based Kaiju, with Mothra in a prominent role and humanity eventually being forced to ally with Godzilla to defeat him[5].
There are several important differences, however. The most notable difference is in Ghidorah’s portrayal – rather than a singular entity, Ghidorah is portrayed as the last member of a whole species (like Godzilla himself), who came to Earth in the Plio-Pleistocene boundary and quickly established themselves as an invasive species, fighting a long, brutal interspecies war with the Godzillas… and Godzilla and Ghidorah are the last ones standing.
In addition, Ghidorah is portrayed as far more nuanced than most of his previous or subsequent incarnations – like a real invasive species, the Ghidorahs were only destructive because they were in an environment in which they were not native. There’s a scene where he’s in the Godzilla/Ghidorah graveyard and briefly turns over a jawbone of a dead member of his kind, like an elephant who’s come upon the remains of a dead herd mate.
In addition, there’s a twist to the whole “invaders using Ghidorah as their main weapon” plot device that has been rather common – and tiresome – in Godzilla media. Who, if anyone, seeded the Ghidorahs on Earth in the first place – and whether it was deliberate or accidental – is left intentionally vague… because it does not particularly matter. For all anyone knows they are long, long dead – it is what they left behind that matters.
The Release:
Godzilla 3 debuted at Grauman’s Chinese Theater on June 20th and received a wide release on June 23rd 2003, opening at the # 1 slot, knocking Four off the top spot … before being knocked off itself two weeks later by Reign of the Supermen. It would eventually gross almost $500 million worldwide on an $100 million budget, being the second-highest-grossing film that summer (after Reign of the Supermen).
Despite out-performing its predecessor, its critical reception was rather more mixed, with critics citing it as an improvement over its predecessor, praising the effects, performances (with Aniston earning particular praise), and action sequences, but criticising certain aspects of the storyline and the lack of resolution on certain plot points. Roger Ebert said, “Godzilla 3, whilst not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, overpromises and, ultimately, underdelivers – for the resolution to a trilogy, it’s certainly an anticlimax”. Despite this mixed reception, it was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 2004 Oscars but lost to Dr. Strange.
Whilst fans enjoyed the film overall, some disliked that the film had not fulfilled its promise into a deeper exploration into the backstory of the Godzillas, whilst others viewed the film as too crammed and that the series could have been stretched out into four or five instalments. The changes to Ghidorah – making him part of a species (and his enmity with Godzilla far less personal) and his comparatively reduced power level – proved to be particularly contentious among fans, some thinking that they turned Godzilla’s greatest foe into just another Kaiju whilst others thought them an interesting twist that made the character stand out whilst remaining true to the roots[5].
Pickersgill actor Dermot Morgan, whilst enjoying the film overall, was a little dismayed that the nuance he had intended for his character got erased in rewrites. Reflecting on the film in 2013 for its tenth anniversary he said, “Godzilla 3 was a bittersweet experience for me. Whilst I’ll defend it to this day – it’s a very spectacular-looking film and it was tremendous fun to make – it was a little sad that there were a lot of terrific ideas that ended up by the wayside. But that is the gig, I suppose.”
The Legacy:
Despite Harlin, August and Edlund’s repeatedly stating that the third film was going to be the last, Universal would spend the better part of a decade trying to look into a fourth instalment – amongst the treatments considered was one from Richard Stanley, which would have involved human women giving birth to Ghidorah-hybrid babies (derived from a fertility treatment using Ghidorah’s DNA[7], obtained from the head Godzilla ripped off) in a plot from the Golden Demise to both resurrect himself and replace the human race with his offspring.
Described as “a cross between Boys From Brazil, Rosemary’s Baby and The Dunwich Horror”, the idea was understandably vetoed – partly because the premise was hard to make into a T-rated action film and partly because Toho were vehemently opposed to it, with Shogo Tomiyama allegedly describing it as “disgusting”.
This fourth instalment spent the best part of a decade slaloming through Development Hell – especially after The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms[8] underperformed and Tim Burton publicly stated that it was unlikely that a fourth Jurassic Park movie would be happening any time soon. Despite this, Godzilla remained a profitable IP for Universal – with the theme park collaborations, live show and occasional cartoons – and, even as the studio floundered somewhat, the Toho partnership remained an important feather in their cap.
However, in 2012, Universal CCO Majorie Cohn and Toho president Yoshishige Shimatani, in a joint press conference, announced that the franchise would be rebooted with a new introductory film aimed to be released in summer 2015[8], helmed and co-written by up-and-comer Colin Trevorrow, that will “re-introduce the King of Monsters to a whole new audience”.
Not only that, but the reboot film will also be the start of a new Godzilla-Kong shared continuity – with the Kong side started with a new Skull Island film, directed by Spanish horror director JA Bayona, with the ultimate intention that Godzilla and Kong appear in a film together for the first time since the 1960s. Peter Jackson, second unit director and co-writer of Kong: King of Skull Island and director of the 2002 King Kong, will act as executive producer for these new films, with his Wingnut Films production company acting as production partners.
– – – –
[1] – As you might figure, this is what Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla is called ITTL, at least in English speaking markets, with Toho adopting a common fan nickname for him as his English name.
As to why Toho were so eager to claim Mecha-G…
Big reason Toho restarted the franchise in Japan ITTL was because of the Black Lagoon debacle, which Toho followed closely ITTL. After seeing how Universal (and Katzenberg in particular) screwed it up, Toho start getting suspicious of their American partners and cover their bets, so to speak - reviving the franchise on their own accord as a backup.
So obviously, Toho aren’t going to be too keen on letting Universal hang on to Mechagodzilla (and Cohn is using her semi-mentor’s snap up all the popular monsters) – and Cohn feels that, since they’ve got Mothra and King Ghidorah, they can afford to take a gamble (and perhaps also remembering that Anguirus – who was also comparatively obscure – was G2’s breakout character).
[2] - No, he hasn’t been butterflied (although the circumstances of his origins are far different from OTL)! He becomes an Ensemble Darkhorse pretty much from the start ITTL, for putting up a surprisingly good fight against MOGUERA and being part of a memorable opening sequence…. and the Kaiju who gets wrecked in the Final Wars equivalent is Gabara.
The only other one of the original Kaiju I’ve actually decided on is a chalicothere-type mammalian kaiju (NOT based on OTL!Behemoth, funnily enough – but a Mapinguari-corresponding Kaiju to fit the Kaiju = myth thing… he’s found in Brazil).
[3] - Post on this possibly incoming. And the original plan is for Ghidorah to be frozen in an Arctic iceberg as a climate change metaphor – however, Universal meddling forces Harlin, August and Edlund to move the sequence… which has the side effect of making the prologue (set in Alaska) not really make much sense.
[4] – Right… here's a bit of explanation here on what happened with Mecha-G in G2.
Basically, Wilkins found a frozen Ghidorah head, thawed it out - based on how octopus limbs still live after they've been cut off - vivisected it, removing a chunk of its brain and stimulated its natural healing factor to grow a brain for Mechagodzilla, which he integrated with the AI, with the idea that they both be controlled remotely by a human pilot (not the best term to use, but...)
When Mecha-G's control was severed, the organic brain took control of the AI, programming Mechagodzilla with the basic instincts of a Ghidorah (and that's why it had the strange obsession with killing Godzilla - they were natural enemies).
With this and the Toho Mecha-G duology (which has roughly the Kiryu origin from OTL), it becomes a thing in TTL Godzilla media that Mechagodzilla has some sort of organic component (of various points of origin - usually Godzilla or Ghidorah-derived).
[5] – Basically think Ted Crilly’s freakouts on Father Ted OTL (and ITTL), only much less funny.
[6] – Yeah, the GMK Ghidorah’s been butterflied… but there’s still a Ghidorah in an early-2000’s movie with major changes that are controversial with fans (Mothra also resembles a cross between her GMK/GvTG version and the MonsterVerse versions – the changes with her are less controversial).
[7] - Based on a surprisingly charming MonsterVerse fic called Abraxas, which ended with... exactly that. Unfortunately, I get the vibe Toho would not let this be made in any timeline – and a good thing, too (considering Stanley’s script opens with one of Ghidorah’s unfortunate babymamas dying in childbirth… with A LOT of blood).
[8] – Might have seen this mentioned in the Godzilla 2 post – post on this will ABSOLUTELY be coming soon.
[8] – This is TTL’s equivalent to OTL’s Monsterverse – revived in the 90's nostalgia wave in the 2010s' to duel Disney/MGM’s JP revival (and growing expanded universe). Trevorrow and Bayona were picked for allo-irony - basically, my original plans were to do a complete allo-ironic switch with the Monsterverse and JW directors... however, that has since fallen by the wayside – however, Trevorrow would probably make a really good G-movie.
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Cool! What would Disney/MGM make for their JP revival universe?
National Treasure is a Disney thing. If those have alternate stories, as many things do in the Hensonverse, the comic Homestuck that was inspired by them would be different. And Undertale and Deltarune that were inspired by it in turn.
Movies in Brief
In Brief: New York Times Movie Reviews Biopic Edition
[2] Haysbert wins a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his performance.
- LBJ: (2018) John Candy is a powerhouse as of one of America’s most divisive presidents;⭐⭐½
- In Plain Sight: (2007) An excellent absurdist dramedy based on the shockingly true story of Robert Hanssen (Oliver Platt), an FBI veteran turned longtime Soviet mole, and Debra Evans Smith (Kerry Washington), the rookie agent who exposed him; ⭐⭐⭐
- Art of the Steal: (2018) Johnny Depp steps into the bizarre world of controversial businessman, unlikely TV personality, failed presidential candidate, and convicted fraudster Donald Trump;⭐⭐
- Voodoo Macbeth: (2009) Cinema legend and diplomat Sidney Poitier briefly emerges from his retirement to direct a sterling ensemble cast in a rousing biographical drama about the groundbreaking 1936 Shakespeare production, which featured an all-black cast directed by a young Orson Welles[1]; ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Robeson: (2002) Dennis Haysbert soars as the legendary singer and activist[2]; ⭐⭐⭐
- Alfre Woodard as Rose McClendon (producer and original intended actress for Lady Macbeth)
- Michael Ealy as Jack Carter (Macbeth)
- Taraji P. Henson as Edna Thomas (Lady Macbeth)
- David Oyelowo as Canada Lee (Banquo)
- Jeffrey Wright as Eric Burroughs (Hectae)
- Jesse Plemons as Orson Welles (director)
- Bill Camp as John Houseman (company co-director)
[2] Haysbert wins a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his performance.
So. Replacing Zilla(who is an actually competent Kaiju now) with one Kaiju that feels like one from Episode 1 of an Ultraman season. You know the kind, the ones that manage to cause no end of trouble, despite being SUPER WEAK, and then gives the title Ultra quite a battle, despite said Ultra likely having faced more powerful foes before coming to Earth, although it still ends with the Ultra winning