AdapNation: Guardians of the Force

In which I make the case for film and TV adaptations, sequels, crossovers and remakes.

I think that it's pretty clear by now - in case it wasn't in years past - that Disney likes making money.  It's a really out-there concept, I know, but it's true.  They love it, in fact.  Why else would they have continued with their essentially money-printing princess movies since the 1930's?  Why else would they have bought out Marvel or Lucasfilm?  It's because with great fandoms come great profit margins.

So far, Papa Disney's been perfectly content with continuing their newly acquired franchises without much meddling (although certainly with more than their fair share of prodding).  It's pretty much been business as usual for the MCU, Star Wars and Indiana Jones.  Hammer out roughly half a dozen movies across all of their tributary franchises each year and watch the money roll in.

But while they can pretty much indefinitely maintain this game plan and enjoy the profits that come with it, there's a surprisingly obvious way that they can radically increase their franchises' cash intake with very little in the way of risk.  The answer, of course, is inter-franchise crossovers: applying Marvel's monstrously successful formula to most - if not all - Disney-owned properties.

The beauty of the MCU is that with its rotating roster of franchises, no single hero ever outstays his or her welcome.  You're pretty much guaranteed to see every bankable Avenger going at it in a solo movie once per phase, but never any more than that (Iron Man 2 notwithstanding).

This means that while you only see a Thor or Captain America movie every couple of years, you can still go and see Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man in their down-time.  People who may not really care for The Incredible Hulk will still see his movie in order to be caught up for The Avengers and people who saw Age of Ultron will want to figure out what the Hell happened to S.H.I.E.L.D.  It's a shockingly effective way to keep demand for individual franchises high while cross-promoting the shared universe's other movies.

So why shouldn't this same cross-promotional template apply to other Disney-owned properties as well?  Why not tie Big Hero 6 or The Incredibles or even Indiana Jones to the MCU in a way that would get non-Marvel fans to care about the Avengers or, conversely, to get steadfast Marvel fans to care about these ancillary franchises?  There's an obvious Venn Diagram of crossover interest, but why not broaden their appeal as much as possible?

There's as great a wealth of crossover potential waiting to be tapped into now as there was with The Avengers, and we all know how well that went over with the general public.  More than any other company on the planet, Disney as the means, motive and popular franchises enough to make this plan work.  And the way that I see it, no two franchises have a greater potential to mesh together as Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars.

Think about it.  Between Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel's charged head first into the cosmic side of their stories.  And while Thor is certainly more fantasy-based than anything, Guardians of the Galaxy is pure science fiction.  In fact, in my review of the franchise, I went as far as to say that it's basically Star Wars by way of Indiana Jones.

The technology levels of the two franchises are roughly on par with one another, so there'd be no concerns about needing to nerf or amp up either one of them.  While Guardians may be a bit more comic and Star Wars a bit more epic, they still tonally sync up about as well as could be hoped for (and better than most of the other Marvel properties going into The Avengers).  Both have a wealth of characters and story lines that are left nebulously hanging around between the wholesale abandonment of Star Wars' Expanded Universe and Guardians' radical reimagining from their initial comic run.

Whatever happened to the Lost Tribe of the Sith?  What about the Yuuzhan Vong?  What's going on with Red Harvest or Death Troopers?  What about the Force Witches of Dathomir or the seemingly omnipotent Abeloth?  These are exceptional characters and narratives that have boundless potential in either franchise, but are inherently hampered by how closely tied to the original trilogy's characters they are (given how long a period has elapsed since those first three movies and how old the actors have gotten in the interim).

The thing is, though, that there are pretty solid analogies between the original trilogy's cast of characters and those of Guardians of the Galaxy.  While he might be a touch more immature than Luke, Starlord fills that same youthful, protagonistic role.  Just as Leia was in the first round of movies, Gamora is a tough-as-nails warrior with less incestuously-charged romantic ties to the series' foremost star.  Han and Chewie are represented on the Marvel side of things by foul-mouthed Rocket and the "limitedly vocabulistic" Groot.  Almost everything that you could do with the first set of characters you could similarly do with the second (plus Drax too, I guess).

I've long speculated that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is going to be a big screen adaptation of Planet Hulk, and that would be the perfect place to seed the Star Wars universe into Marvel.  Planet Sakaar features great gladiatorial arenas where prisoners of a thousand species are forced to fight to the death for the amusement of the masses.

Traditionally, this is where Hulk comes in: proving to be the greatest warrior that the planet has ever seen.  In my numerous speculations, this is likewise where the Guardians themselves come into play: Banner's fellow captives that must either fight alongside one another or die as separately.

The thing is, however, that they have to fight against somebody.  This role was originally filled by a combination of generic monsters and Marvel cameos (like Beta Ray Bill), but I don't see either of these being especially awesome to the casual observer.  Generic monster men are, well, generic, and Beta Ray Bill is hopelessly obscure from the outside looking in.  I like to think that I'm pretty up to date with most things Marvel, and even I had to do some digging to find out who the horse-faced Thor was.

Why not throw a Sith Saber into the mix: light saber and all? Why not throw in Boba Fett, who in the Expanded Universe escaped the Sarlacc Pitt on Tatooine and reclaimed his role as a big player in future stories?  You can throw in a troop of Wookies or some Twi'lek warriors as subtler nods to a much larger shared universe.  You could even toss in some Storm Troopers for a much less subtle nod to a greater universe being at play.

Just start throwing things at the wall and see what sticks.  If the references are met enthusiastically, then proceed with it.  If they're less unfavorably received, maybe you back down on those plans just a touch.  It's basically what Marvel did with Guardians of the Galaxy: transforming it into a hub for everything cosmic from Thanos to Nova to Howard the Duck.

The other option would be to run with the concept in a much more balls to the wall fashion.  What if instead of threading in a few ideas and then picking them up much further down the line, it's one of the Solo twins that have been tossed into the arena?  Surely the Sword of the Jedi (Jaina) and the future Darth Caidus (Jacen) would make for some good sport against the Hulk and Starlord.

The theory behind the recent changes to the mainstream Marvel universe has been speculated to have just as much to do with upselling the MCU's franchises (and subsequently downplaying those that they don't own the film rights to) as it does with making the comics a test market for future movies.  It's actually pretty brilliant when you stop to think about it; you can test out story lines and ideas that you want to adapt into upcoming movies, gauge the reader's response to figure out what - if anything - needs to be changed and not have to worry about those pesky characters that you don't own the film rights to getting in the way.

Because Disney understandably loves keeping as much in-house as possible, Marvel's gotten the exclusive rights to publish Star Wars comics.  It also bears keeping in mind that Marvel has traditionally incorporated as many of their comics into their mainstream continuity as they could possibly justify, which explains why the Conan the Barbarian comics are a canonical part of Marvel's ancient history.  Why wouldn't they do the same thing to Star Wars?  And if Star Wars does enter into the Marvel fold, who would be better for them to interact and cross over with than the Guardians of the Galaxy?

Maybe the Nova Corps?

If there's money to be made with the idea, Disney'll be sure to look into it.  They're not ones for leaving money on the table, and both Marvel and Star Wars are sure to be their two biggest cash cows.  What do they really have to lose by throwing everything into the mix together?

Would you want to see Star Wars and Marvel combine into an even larger shared universe?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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Piece of the Puzzle: Family Guy S13 E1 - The Simpsons Guy

In which I review the Family Guy / Simpsons crossover episode.

I'll admit it.  I was sucked into the hype going into the episode.  I grew up on The Simpsons and grew into a Family Guy fan while at college.  The thought of throwing the shows, each with its own wildly different brand of comedy, together for a one-hour cross-over was far too perfect for me to pass up.  I knew going into it that it could never live up to the innumerable possibilities that fans have dreamt of over the decades, but I didn't care.  This episode was happening and I was going to be a part of it.

After Peter's popular new comic strip angers the women of Quahog, the Griffins need to leave town for a while.  After their car is stolen outside of Springfield, the Simpsons offer to take them in.  While Homer and Peter hunt down the car thief, Stewie begins idolizing Bart, Lisa helps Meg find something that she's good at, Chris and Brian lose Santa's Little Helper at Krusty Burger and Lois and Marge - who draw the short straws for crossover subplots - go see a movie.  But the families' new friendship is threatened when Homer discovers that Pawtucket Patriot Ale is nothing but a cheap rip-off of Duff.

If The Avengers taught us anything, it's that character-driven crossovers only work when the characters are the focus.  We don't care why the Griffins are in Springfield so long as we can see Homer and Peter swing a few back at Moe's before having a Giant Chicken-styled fight across Springfield.  And, in this regard, the episode was a rampant success.  Despite an overly-long introduction - which is nearly a quarter of the episode's overall length - and a disappointing conclusion, the families' interactions are pure gold.  Homer and Peter's failed attempts at catching the Griffin's car thief, Bart showing Stewie the ropes of being a modern-day delinquent, Lisa joining in Meg's quest for self-worth, Brian's inability to find acceptance as an intelligent member of the family and even Louis' disdain for Marge's concern that the penguins in Surfs Up 2 might drown are all pitch-perfect representations of characters that we've watched develop for upwards of twenty-six years.

More than anything, The Simpsons Guy highlights the inherent incongruity of the two shows.  I don't mean that the comedy stylings themselves are too different to make work together.  In fact, watching Homer's failed attempt at a Family Guy-style cutaway gag was one of the highlights of the episode.   I mean that while Bart and Stewie might seem like the quintessential bad boys of TV, Family Guy has always employed a harder edge for its characters.  While Bart is essentially a twenty-first century continuation of Dennis the Menace - limiting himself to crank calls and petty vandalism - Stewie is downright psychopathic: guilty of assault, battery, predatory lending and murder.  While Bart suffers through his bullies' abuses, Stewie drugs, abducts and tortures them, resulting in Bart's ultimate rejection of their budding friendship.  While Lisa commemorates her newfound connection with Meg by giving her her most valued possession (her saxophone), Meg does so through carving Lisa's name into her arm.  Lois and Brian both reject their counterparts for their insufferable timidity and stupidity respectively, while Homer and Peter's friendship devolves into an all-out brawl.

The episode ultimately falters, however, by placing a greater emphasis on plot over character.  The last quarter of the episode is devoted to a court case between the Pawtucket and Duff Breweries for intellectual property theft: a microcosm of the pissing contest between each show's pettiest fans.  Pairing up similar characters just to cry foul about it and swapping catchphrases back and forth like sloppy seconds - in short, placing greater importance on the mere existence of a crossover than on the situations that organically develop from it - kept the episode from being equal to, let alone greater than, the sum of its parts.

Either unwilling or incapable of rising above their petty rivalry, The Simpsons Guy is a sadly average-quality episode for both of its component shows.  Funny, but never hilarious - clever, but never insightful - it never truly rose to the occasion.  Although still a must-see for fans of either show, I ultimately give the episode a 7.5/10.

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