Holy Cow, Batman!

Comic Book: The Movie 2004
Mark Hamill
Kevin Smith
Stan Lee
Bruce Campbell


When I sat down to watch Comic Book: The Movie, I honestly thought I was just watching a documentary. All the actors on the cover, guys involved in the comic book world, were billed over their own names, and it seemed to take place at a convention.

Boy was I wrong. Sort of. This is not a documentary. It's a mockumentary. Mark Hamill is in it, but he doesn't play himself. It's about a huge comic book nerd, Donald Swan, who becomes famous as a comic book nerd via his online fanzine, and ends up being invited to be a technical adviser for a movie being filmed based on an old 1940s comic called "Commander Courage." The studio gives him a camera crew to make a documentary of his adventure to California, including his all expenses paid stay at the San Diego Comic-Con. Unfortunately, for the movie studio, Donald doesn't like the changes the studio has made to the original comic book in making the film, "Codename: Courage," and he sort of fumbles his way around, trying to make the changes he thinks are necessary.

So, since this movie was such a surprise within the first two minutes, I decided that this post will be something I haven't done since the beginning: I'm just going to highlight my mental running commentary that occurred while watching this film.

**I paused the DVD so I could type this: OMG Peter David is in this movie. I nearly hyperventilated seeing him. I cannot believe I have a DVD with Peter David in it. Sadly, I doubt anyone reading this even knows who he is. Peter David is a writer of both fictional novels and comic books. I used to read Star Trek: The Next Generation books when I was a teenager, and he wrote my favorite ones. He has a web site at peterdavid.net, which I highly recommend. He's a funny, funny guy. Oddly enough, I actually met him at the San Diego Comic-Con held a year after this movie was made, and even had my picture taken with him. He's the most normal person I've ever encountered during my rare and brief encounters into the comic book world.

Donald, concerning how he was going to approach watching the movie being filmed: "So I resolved to keep an open mind and try to stop hating it so much." So true.

This is so great. 3 middle aged guys sitting in a comic book store arguing over whether or not Spider Man's web should shoot out of his butt since that is from where spiders actually shoot their webs. I have witnessed very similar arguments.

That's total BS. I know of no comic book fan that loved Pearl Harbor. I know of no nerd whatsoever that loved that movie.

Woah. Hugh Hefner talking about comics.

lol Mark Hamill incorporates Kevin Smith's giant spider story from Evening With Kevin Smith.

Remember, kids, Kevin Smith says to rip your comic books in half when you're done reading them.

Ricky, the camera guy, does a great impression of the voice of each Beatle. His John Lennon was especially good.

As someone who actually went to Comic-Con, I can say the floor of the convention is ten times more packed than what the movie shows. And I cannot imagine it possible that anyone could walk around the floor and just bump into an awesome guy like Ray Harryhausen. Guys like that would be mobbed by fans on the floor. I want to watch Seven Voyages of Sinbad now.

omgomgomg Joe Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5.

There is this bit where an agent sees Ron Perlman at the Comic-Con, who's promoting the Hellboy film, and tries to offer him a role for the Codename:Courage movie, and Perlman points to the creator of Hellboy standing a few feet away from him and says, "That's Mike Mignola." I am embarrassed to admit that I did that very same thing the next year when my husband and I were there. Seth Green is a huge comic book fan and helped a friend to create a new comic book. They introduced the first issue on the floor. My husband and I got in line to get a signed copy. Well, Seth Green was there and I turned into a total fangirl about Robot Chicken, ignoring the guy who actually wrote the comic book sitting right next to him. Watching this scene in the movie made it doubly embarrassing.

Oh wow! If I had never been to the Comic-Con I would never have been able to recognize the dude that played Chewbacca! How appropriate that he would be the only guy in the movie that would make any reference to the fact that Mark Hamill is playing the character, asking, "Is he somebody famous?"

Matt Groening! Oh, how I love The Simpsons.

"Giant. Mechanical. Spider." Man, Kevin Smith's story about how when he was asked to give a try on the Superman script the producer told him he needed a giant spider in it will live on forever in the comic book world. Even funnier, J.J. Abrams is in this, probably because at the time Abrams was trying to write the script for the new Superman movie, before it finally moved on to Bryan Singer.

I can't believe Mark Hamill was able to get Jonathan Winters and Sid Caesar to do this thing. I am going to treasure this DVD forever.

And we get to the end, where Mark Hamill, as Donald, tells the fans to not buy in to the movie, even though it has the comic book name, because the movie studio doesn't give a crap about being true to the comic book or any of the values it upheld; the movie studio only wants our wallets. It's a plea for the studios to stop making bad movies and plastering the name of a comic book on as a title.

It also deals with something that I am not sure I can get behind. One of the things a lot of the middle aged comic book fans keep trying to say is that movies like The Fantastic Four are great because those old comic books were more lighthearted. They say that the movies that are "edgier," a word that is sneered at in this mockumentary, aren't really comic books. For them, true comic books are more wholesome and fun. A lot of these people tend to be Marvel fans rather than DC ones. DC practically built dark and edgy when they started Batman. Perhaps it is just my age, but I like the darker, moodier comic book movies. Of course, I also like the first Spiderman movie. I just think there's room for everything except a bad script.

Overall, if you aren't familiar with the comic book world (cartoons, movies and comic books), guys like Bruce Campbell and Kevin Smith, this thing will probably bore you to tears. I, on the other hand, have a surface familiarity with everything, and I had a heck of a time playing Spot the Cameo. I think anyone who is really into comic books are cartoons would really love this DVD.