MARVEL E-I-C Axel Alonso On The Success Of Comic Book TV Shows
With Marvel producing a second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a Peggy Carter show, and some Netflix shows, and DC producing Arrow, Flash, Gotham, and Constantine, Comic Book TV Shows have been rising in popularity lately, and Marvel Editor in Chief Axel Alonso sounds off on the topic.
By Abary -
May 17, 2014 06:05 AM EST
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Arrow. The Flash. Agent Carter. Constantine. Daredevil. Luke Cage. Iron Fist. AKA Jessica Jones. The Defenders. All of those are the comic book related TV Shows currently in development or being produced right now. Not only are we getting more, but overall quality has improved since the "Smallville" era of Comic Book shows. The Editor-In-Chief over at Marvel, Axel Alonso, talked with Comic Book Resources about the recent rise of Comic Book TV Shows. He was asked if he was surprised that people are taking such an interest in these shows. "No, not really," he says. "Superhero stories are tailor-made for serialized adventures, and that's what TV is built for. I grew up watching the "Spider-Man" cartoon, the "Batman" live-action TV show, "The Incredible Hulk" with Bill Bixby, even the truly awful "Spider-Man" live-action TV show, so to me, seeing comic book characters take life again on the TV screen was inevitable." He talks a bit about what the challenge is for these kind of shows, which we all know is the effects may not be anywhere near good as a movie due to the much smaller budget that they get. "The challenge, of course, is that the TV budget isn't quiet the same as it is for movies, so we've got to find a way to keep that sense of scale and wonder on the small screen, and part of that is picking the right characters." He also talked about how he feels that TV characters can be more relatable than movie characters, because you get to see these TV Characters and connect with them every single week, instead of the two or three years it might take for a movie sequel to be released. "TV shows are more intimate than movies -- they come right into your living room, there's a point where the characters almost become family. And few things make for better water cooler conversations than a good TV show. From "Breaking Bad" to "Game of Thrones," people can't wait to talk about what happened last night -- what the writers' room was willing to do the characters. Of course, that's not too different from comic fans, discussing this week's comics at the store on or on the Internet."
Some fans might know that Alonso actually edited Hellblazer for a while. So he was asked if he has been keeping an eye on what is going on with the new "Constantine" TV Show. "Yeah, a little bit," he said. "I like to reserve judgment until I actually see something. Unless, the announcement is so "What the $#%@!?" that it boggles the mind -- like when they announced that Keanu Reeves would be John Constantine in the 2005 movie. The new guy is better, but he's a bit… pretty. Anyone who's worked on "Hellblazer," as I did, probably has cast their dream actor for the lead role -- so a pre-yoga Sting or Clive Owen immediately come to mind when I think of John Constantine. But my first pick would probably be David Thewlis, who played a pretty good non-mystical John Constantine-type misanthrope in the [1993 Mike Leigh] movie "Naked." To me, Constantine is a mystical "Yojimbo;" he plays all sides against the middle, because it's just in his nature. He's a tragic figure whose lived too hard to stay pretty. And he's going to Hell -- not because of some shenanigans he pulled with the Devil, but because he truly deserves to go to Hell, and he knows it."