Batman and Jackman

Bahala na si Batman… at Wolverine (pic from yahoomovies)

You know, talking with celebrities is pretty cool, but it’s always been a job for me. I don’t really get excited or nervous about doing it, as I’ve mentioned here before. I just need to squeeze out stuff from them and I’ll be on my merry way. Soon after, I think about sentence and paragraph structures that should fit the subject, and how the piece will be readable, coherent and interesting enough. But there are a few people that, I have to admit, I’m intrigued by, and I do feel a little excited and/or nervous prior to doing certain interviews with them sometimes.

It’s actually great to be able to talk to showbiz people I admire, who have, somehow, however briefly or minutely, affected me positively through their performances on-screen. Thanks to Warner Bros., especially Jay and Sionee, for arranging a special pair of surprise interviews in the last few days. I didn’t expect them last week, but I was able to speak recently with Wolverine and Batman in two separate phoners.

Well, make that Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. I interviewed Mr. Jackman last Sunday morning, and Mr. Bale early Tuesday. The exclusive phoners were short (but fun to do!), so I actually had to ask the most important questions, or at least, those that mattered most to me. It felt like I had less than ten minutes each time, but I was able to get generous enough responses from them. Actually, they’re together in a movie called The Prestige, where they play two rival magicians. Saw that awesome Christopher Nolan-directed film last Saturday at MyCinema, thanks again to the Warner people. I think I’ll watch another preview screening again.

So there I was, waiting for the phone calls, dressed in swaddling, hungry artist’s clothes, my head slumped on my scrawly notebook both times. The nice lady from Warner’s Burbank office rang me up a few times to see if I was up and, soon enough, helped connect the calls. They were quick but painless. Taking down quotes has gotten easier, but I sometimes wish that my brain didn’t dump the shorthand writing lessons that we were taught back in second year high school. There was even a point when my hand felt numb and stiff after writing so fast. But doing it is still fun (yeah, there’s that word again). I just talked to two guys who helped bring two of my childhood comics heroes to life. Giddy, giddy.

Pool’s Gold

Just finished the nice Joe Kelly-penned Deadpool run from the late ‘90s that I borrowed. That’s about 37 issues (including special one-shots). When the character first appeared in Rob Liefeld-Fabian Nicieza’s X-Force run, I thought he was one of the most uninteresting, disposable ones that I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen plenty of ‘em). Now that I think about it, he was like a Bizarro Spider-Man to me back then, in that he was very yappy and the red tights looked like a parody of the hero’s costume design. The “merc with a mouth” looked pretty generic, especially back then, when heavy guns, belt pouches, and kickass attitudes were all the rage.

Kelly’s nearly three-year run redefined him, and actually made him a funny anti-hero. This panel is from issue # 11, where Deadpool and his old housekeeper-hostage Blind Al accidentally went to the past, and disguised themselves as Peter Parker and Aunt May, respectively. Check the panel out. Pete Woods redrew some figures in John Romita Sr.’s style, as the issue largely parodied existing material from Amazing Spider-Man # 47. Exceptionally hilarious issue, that.

Kelly has impressively done monthly runs on Action Comics, Superboy, JLA, and Justice League Elite. I’ve read a few issues of Cable and Deadpool (the Civil War tie-ins), and his (Deadpool/ Wade Wilson's) monologues have grown on me, because Nicieza has improved, too. ‘Pool continues to be a rare, funny character, joking around and speaking his thoughts while bashing some heads in.

I think I’ll be looking for a loose old Marvel Legends figure of him now.