KILL BILL (SHAKESPEARE)

[thehefner]

Via bleedingcool.com

KILL SHAKESPEARE is a new comic series from IDW by Anthony Del Col, Conor McCreery and Andy Belanger that’s kind of like a cross between FABLES and LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. And Shakespeare. In which Hamlet, Romeo, Juliet, Othello and Falstaff have to team up to beat Richard III, Iago and Lady Macbeth.

...

Y'know, I'd be wayyyy more behind this if the choices weren't so frickin' obvious. And I love Hamlet, I do, but he'll be terrible on a team. The only character who really intrigues me is Falstaff. I just get the distinct impression this will be written by people with only a casual knowledge of Shakespeare, or that it'll just do like FABLES and make the characters unrecognizable while trying to seem clever (Cinderella's now a lethal spy. Sure, why not?).

If I had my way, I'd have Edgar and Edmund on the respective good/evil sides, Benedick as the dashingly snarky Han Solo type (with Beatrice as his Leia), Sir Toby and Sir Andrew as the drunken "Blue Beetle and Booster Gold" pair always cooking of crazy doomed schemes, Tullus Aulfidius as the badass tactician/warrior, Rosalind and Viola as the spies/masters of disguise, and Aaron the Moor as the resident "Scorpius/Lex Luthor/Benjamin Linus" character.

What about you, Shakespeare fans? If you could choose your own take on this premise, which characters would you include?

Comments

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

I always wanted to do a teenage prequel to Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, set in the school they attended with Hamlet, in which the duo briefly stage a triumphant play within a play. The final lines would be, "With time, their fame faded, but for that short time, everyone knew the names of Rosencrantz and Guioldenstern."

WAY TO MISS THE POINT OF THE ORIGINAL, SELF.

[the-mithril-man.livejournal.com]

I figure they cast on name recognition, most people only have a passing knowledge of Billy and his work. More people know these characters then any of the ones you listed. Personally I'd like to see the series titled "After Bill" in which the survivors of the plays are the main characters. Horatio from Hamlet leading the team, the Friar from R&J who's a hopeless drunk and lost his faith after what happened. You could use Fortinbras and make him a spy no one remembers meeting, mostly cause I didn't even know he was in the play until I saw it the 4th time. He kept getting his part cut. little theater joke there. etc etc. The main villain? I'm stuck. Maybe Laertes who was smarter than we all thought and only faked his death.

[box-in-the-box.livejournal.com]

And between this, Fables, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the fact that every movie from before 1989 is being remade, Steven Grant was right - we really are living in the Golden Age of Fanfic.

[pure-doxyk.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to see Viola beat the crap out of Juliette, and Othello would make a great mid-level ringleader type; but other than that, I like your choices!

[little-dinosaur.livejournal.com]

Everyone in "Measure for Measure". Actually, my take on this premise would be a straight-up comic adaptation of "Measure for Measure". Team Lucio OMG.

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

I'm so with you on Benedick and Beatrice, though I would add Kate and Petruchio somewhere. Puck as the morally-ambiguous guide/oracle thinger.

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

Better than Kirk and Spock teaming up with Abraham Lincoln. That would be stupid.

[heykidzcomix.livejournal.com]

Hamlet, Action Hero: OH HEY GUYS I CAN'T TAKE OUT THESE HENCHMEN THEY MIGHT HAVE PRAYED