The biggest hurdle was that they all had to sort of kind of kind of sort of tie in together, even though they were all from vastly different genres.

See, that’s what I loved about Crossgen, and what got me hooked after I was drawn in. I love the shared universe stuff in comics, and Crossgen had it from the beginning. I was bummed when they folded and the connection amongst the titles was never resolved.

I got into it through their “Forge” collections, which were TPBs that collected 1 or 2 issues of 5 or 6 different titles. I thought that was a neat idea, and it resulted in me getting into some comics I definitely wouldn’t have looked at otherwise. I would have really like to see Bedard finish Negation War, but even if we see some reprints or new material, I’d have to think that particular story isn’t going to get finished.

Me too, on all counts.

I loved the Incredibles when I first saw it, and still enjoy it as a fun super hero action movie, but a friend pointed something out to me that kinda deflated my enjoyment of it a bit: the fact that when the family is fighting back against the hired goons, the 8 year old kid basically kills a bunch of them and no one seems to care.

Sure, he was defending himself, but still, an 8 year old kid killing people seems kinda harsh. It was the one time when some GI Joe style “the flying vehicle explodes but there in the background the pilot is parachuting to safety” scenes would have been appreciated. Or at least a throwaway line of dialogue acknowledging it was done in self defense and that gleefully killing henchman isn’t normally okay.

Take Pixar for example. A few years ago, Pixar had a falling-out with Disney and severed all ties with them. All of a sudden, Disney buys Pixar.

The source of contention was actually on Disney’s side – CEO Michael Eisner tried to play hardball with Pixar over how much they paid them – he tried to keep their price at the same as the last contract, despite every Pixar film being bigger than the last.
So Pixar left, and kept having hits.
Losing one of their biggest commodities was such a blow to Disney that it played a big part in them getting a new CEO.
Once they had a new CEO, they then entered negotiations to buy Pixar, at way more than it would have cost them if they hadn’t had the falling out.
(Pixar had shown they didn’t need Disney to have mass hits – it was all them).

Hell, the villain in one of the Toy Story films reminded me a lot of the Baron Karza toy/character.

” and so no joy entered my cold, black heart.”

Aw, come on. Did you see the 60′s style cartoon short “The Adventures of Mr. Incredible”? It’s got the early Marvel cartoon look down perfectly, with the still frames and only the mouths animated.

The movie was well-done on a technical level, but, outside of the action sequences, it contained virtually nothing of what I like about superheroes. (Imagination, complexity, original/innovative themes and ideas.) It was mainly about how society and everyday life beat us down and force us to limit ourselves, and wouldn’t it be awesome if we could just ignore that and do whatever we wanted?

That said, I look forward to a Pixar Miracleman trilogy.

Ooooooh, maybe now we’ll get that Josie and the Pussycats/Swing with Scooter crossover that everyone’s been clamoring for….

I’d buy it.

Taking a few hours to think about this, it really comes as no surprise that “The Mouse” bought “The House” (heh). It’s what Disney does. Disney gets pissed off and just buys out the source of contention.

Ooh – I need to find something to sue Disney over so they can buy me!

The best thing I can see coming from this whole deal is Pixar doing a Marvel movie, followed closely by the outside chance of a series on ABC being based on a Marvel comic. Beyond that, I’m taking a “wait-and-see” approach to the whole thing.

Taking a few hours to think about this, it really comes as no surprise that “The Mouse” bought “The House” (heh). It’s what Disney does. Disney gets pissed off and just buys out the source of contention.

Take Pixar for example. A few years ago, Pixar had a falling-out with Disney and severed all ties with them. All of a sudden, Disney buys Pixar.
Marvel tries to sue Disney over the Spider-Man release and suddenly is bought out by Disney.

Now…on a similar topic…
I’ve been wondering if DC will be buying out Archie.
After all, DC was (or maybe still is) publishing Archie collections and now has the rights to the Red Circle characters (again).

Anyone else wanna take a shot at this?

re: Incredibles…what it showed me that I hadn’t seen before was how truly cool a stretchy hero could be. Elasti-Girl’s assault on the fortress and how she uses her powers was just great. It was nothing like what you’d see Plastic Man or Reed do, though they could.

re: Pixar. I’d doubt Pixar would do a Marvel film. BUT John Lassiter is in charge of Disney Animation in total, so I can easily see Marvel Studio’s Animated films becoming more Pixar like (just as Bolt got revamped after the Pixar buy up).

Unfortunately, they´ll probably suck as much as Smallville or Birds of Prey.

A Runaways movie by Pixar could be phenomenal.