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.

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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

[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.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Oh, of course, I get the logic behind it entirely. I'm just so bored with people only referencing the most popular Shakespeare works when there's just so much else. Eh, I should be grateful there's not anything from MIDSUMMER in there.

That said, I would *totally* be behind AFTER BILL. That could have real potential. Of course, it would be harder for the tragedies like OTHELLO, LEAR, and TITUS, what with most of the characters dead.