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thehefnerFew things bug me quite like missed opportunities. Stories that could have been brilliant, but due to a flaw or two, are rendered merely mediocre.
Ever read a story you wish you could rewrite? A story with awesome potential that's undone by fatal flaws? I have a couple. GANGS OF NEW YORK, for example, should have been purely about the struggle between Bill (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Priest (Liam Neeson), who was far more interesting in five minutes than DiCaprio and Diaz were the whole film.
But have you ever read a story that could have been vastly improved if they used a different character?
Here's what I mean. Take Matt Wagner's BATMAN: FACES for example:
In this story, a strangely theatrical and purple-prosed Two-Face kills off plastic surgeons, gets together a gang of circus freaks, and steals a blimp to take them all to a private island where disfigured people can have their own utopia.
Yeah. Doesn't really sound like the sort of thing Harvey would pull, does it? But imagine if Wagner used this guy instead:
Holy hell, not only would that have fit so much better, but it could have given poor Ozzie Cobblepot a much-needed awesome story! Because the Penguin is one of the most iconic Batman villains, and yet nobody seems to know what to do with him! Name me a brilliant Penguin story. It's hard, isn't it? That's not because he's a bad character by any stretch, as many fools mistakenly think.
The problem is, no one seems to write him consistently. Too many make him an ugly thug, a crass, nasty little wannabe Kingpin, when at best, the Penguin should be a master manipulator, a grandly theatrical criminal, capable of incredible cruelty but never losing his impeccable dapperness. But underneath it all is a deeply insecure little man who still burns with rage at the "slings and arrows of outrageous youth," one who would dearly love to strike back at the "beauty merchants" (as Two-Face called the in FACES) and create a place of peace for people like him.
Because Harvey's insecurity and vanity doesn't run nearly so deep as the Penguin's. And what a tragedy it would be for poor Ozzie, to say those climactic last lines to one of the disfigured men: "You cannot have a normal life! You're a freak! A freak!!!"
And how cutting it would be for him to simply hear, "But I am not a monster."
See? Would've been brilliant. But no, instead you have a story that wastes both Two-Face in a misused role and deprives the Penguin from an unusually fine story. Sigh.
Ever read a story you wish you could rewrite? A story with awesome potential that's undone by fatal flaws? I have a couple. GANGS OF NEW YORK, for example, should have been purely about the struggle between Bill (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Priest (Liam Neeson), who was far more interesting in five minutes than DiCaprio and Diaz were the whole film.
But have you ever read a story that could have been vastly improved if they used a different character?
Here's what I mean. Take Matt Wagner's BATMAN: FACES for example:
In this story, a strangely theatrical and purple-prosed Two-Face kills off plastic surgeons, gets together a gang of circus freaks, and steals a blimp to take them all to a private island where disfigured people can have their own utopia.
Yeah. Doesn't really sound like the sort of thing Harvey would pull, does it? But imagine if Wagner used this guy instead:
Holy hell, not only would that have fit so much better, but it could have given poor Ozzie Cobblepot a much-needed awesome story! Because the Penguin is one of the most iconic Batman villains, and yet nobody seems to know what to do with him! Name me a brilliant Penguin story. It's hard, isn't it? That's not because he's a bad character by any stretch, as many fools mistakenly think.
The problem is, no one seems to write him consistently. Too many make him an ugly thug, a crass, nasty little wannabe Kingpin, when at best, the Penguin should be a master manipulator, a grandly theatrical criminal, capable of incredible cruelty but never losing his impeccable dapperness. But underneath it all is a deeply insecure little man who still burns with rage at the "slings and arrows of outrageous youth," one who would dearly love to strike back at the "beauty merchants" (as Two-Face called the in FACES) and create a place of peace for people like him.
Because Harvey's insecurity and vanity doesn't run nearly so deep as the Penguin's. And what a tragedy it would be for poor Ozzie, to say those climactic last lines to one of the disfigured men: "You cannot have a normal life! You're a freak! A freak!!!"
And how cutting it would be for him to simply hear, "But I am not a monster."
See? Would've been brilliant. But no, instead you have a story that wastes both Two-Face in a misused role and deprives the Penguin from an unusually fine story. Sigh.
