I’m not a fan of comic book movies. I think the filmmakers ignore the core qualities of most long-running books in favor of “updating the character” or “broadening the appeal of the franchise” or just chucking too much of the budget and running time into re-hashing the origin of the character and thereby rendering the film nothing more than a commercial for the sequel. And the rest of them are either Daredevil awful or a Jonah Hex failure.
But what if a studio hired an exceptional writer/director tandem to create your perfect vision of a comic book movie? What title would you want to see brought to the silver screen, knowing that it would be both a good film and a good comic book movie?
Power Man and Iron Fist comes immediately to mind. I’d love to see the Heroes for Hire in a glorified B-Movie that combined the best aspects of Blaxploitation and kung-fu flick with a buddy cop picture, since that was essentially what the comic was. Keep everything from the late 70s/early 80s setting: keep the Heroes for Hire offices in Harlem and the original costumes; keep the Defiant Ones attitudes of Luke Cage and Danny Rand, and also maintain the low-stakes nature of the standard PM/IF plot. Luke and Danny don’t fight alien invasions, journey through time to prevent future massacres or save the world on a daily basis.
Instead they hunt mercenaries through New York City, deal with crazed superhuman Vietnam Vets (Warhawk, baby) and battle weirdo mountain climbers from Montenegro while dangling from skyscrapers (Montenegro, of course) — oh, and they also routinely beat the crap out of Sabretooth and Constrictor long before Sabretooth was elevated to supervillainy’s A-List. Power Man and Iron Fist the film could be a cross between Die Hard and Enter the Dragon, with a gritty New York as backdrop and a climactic battle between Constrictor/Sabretooth and Luke/Danny.
Casting is a problem. As stupid as it seems on first glance, I think Owen Wilson would make a pretty good Iron Fist. He could play a suitably loopy and fish-out-of-K’un Lun Danny Rand, and let a stunt double take care of the fight scenes. Power Man is even more difficult, due to the current dearth of black action heroes. Carl Weathers is too old and so’s Ving Rhames, Wesley Snipes is still in prison for tax evasion — who else is there? You need someone physically big enough to provide believable menace, but a good enough actor to provide some comedy. They also need to look good in a yellow silk shirt. We’ll come back to this.
Aisha Taylor is the ideal Misty Knight, Erica Vittina Phillips (the actress who played Jay’s girlfriend in 40 Year Old Virgin) would make a pretty good Harmony (Luke’s girlfriend), and get Alex Rocco to play Jeryn Hogarth, Heroes for Hire’s lawyer and third partner.
Alright, what about Keith Hamilton Cobb, the guy who played Tyr on Andromeda, for Luke Cage? It’s either him or Dwayne Johnson, but Johnson seems to want to do nothing but kids’ movies of late. Cobb looks more the part and would probably rock the shirt better, but Johnson is definitely funnier, as he proved on Saturday Night Live years ago. Cobb is fast approaching 50 according to IMDB, although he sure doesn’t look it. If Dwayne Johnson can’t be enticed into doing a straight-up action movie, Power Man’s going to have to be played by an unknown. Which wouldn’t be so bad — the world would get a much-needed new black action hero out of the film, and I’d get one of my dream comic book movies.
-Paul
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One of my favorite bookstores in St. Louis. Star Clipper offers not only the best selection of comic books and graphic novels in the city, but also a cornucopia of art, design and pop-culture related books and magazines. 
