Nutz, I was hoping Joss Whedon would direct The Avengers TV show from the 60s, I really didn't care for the first attempt, as it was, well, so freaking lame and completely missing the point of the original by using pseudo coolness, where Patrick Macnee and the beautiful and classy Diana Rigg (and please don't bring up her successors, as that show died when she left with her husband back finally from the war. Oh REALLY? The war. Okayyyy....
Alas, Joss is directing the superhero movie, not the Spy show. I really loved The Avengers TV show. Not as much as Star Trek though, nothing ever rated that high.I can clearly remember the first time I EVER missed an episode of Star Trek in the 60s. My mom took my grandmother and I to the Gov-Mart out in Lakewood, southwest of Tacoma. We loved that place, like a WallMart. Not as cool for me as the B&I Circus store though, that place rocked, had kids rides (INSIDE) and about every dept. you could think of from lace to guns.
Anyway, I also loved watching The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (Illiya Kuriakan (David McCallum) now on N.C.I.S), I Spy, Secret Agent Man (as it was known here in the States, with Patrick MacGoohan' that was a great show and eventually he starred in kind of a sequel called The Prisoner, a favorite around the college campus for years). Also, The Saint (Roger was far better as Simon Templar, than James Bond, to which he took his oh too casual and cavalier Saint attitude to the producers of the 70's era Roger Moore Bond movies; they said they couldn't have done those years without him; people simply wold no longer take Bond seriously, as people were sick of war (Vietnam) and Government (Watergate) and therefore and for good reason, paranoid about anything being done secretively by the government, partially because it was ethically wrong from a more Hippie point of view, but also from an I don't want the government spying on ME, perspective.
Yes, I read the super hero comics like The Avengers (again different than TV Avengers show and what Joss Whedon may soon be in pre production on) comic books as a kid. And also I read the X-Men, Flash, Batman, Spiderman, Superman (or -boy, -girl, -woman), Green Arrow (and Speedy), Green Hornet (and Kato, remember Bruce Lee in the TV version?
So much better than Batman and we all used to be angry it wasn't the Kato show; we actually sent post cards to the studio (OK, honestly, my best friend Bill Auvil sent cards in all our names, the gang, he and Dave Henderson, and I; Dave and Bill lived next door, and Bill introduced me, then Bill moved and it was Dave and I for years, even until he was in the Army, I had just moved out, and Dave stayed with me on leave for a month, almost shooting my bitchy burglarizing old Jewish landlady for walking in on him when he was sleeping in my living room; she didn't know that we had filled the fridge completely from the on base package store with illicit alcoholic beers) asking for Batman to be canceled, and replaced with the Green Arrow; the head of the studio supposedly wrote us each back on a card, signed it anyway, saying, "we appreciate your comments, but we've already put so much money into Batman, but there is a new show coming soon I think you will really like" (Green Hornet, and he was right)), Green Lantern (green must have been hot then), Aquaman (with Aqualad), Thor, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Capt. America; Justice League of America, and S.H.I.E.L.D.
I liked the X-Men, as they were rebels. They always wanted to join with The Avengers but they always saved the day, but came across as the bad guys.
Then some of the military based comics, Sgt. Rock, Green Beret. etc.. I remember seeing cartoons on TV as a kid, mostly on Sunday mornings, and they were actually pretty cool, always had a moral, but at the end, they said, they were only for showing over seas as propaganda (I'm paraphrasing, but the intent was obvious). One was of a little girl in a European type countryside. She helped an old woman on a path and the woman paid her back for her kindness by giving her a cup. Three rotations over it with your finger and saying, "ice cream" and it produced ice cream. Reverse the three circles with your index finger over the top and say something, and it stopped giving ice cream (this is important).
Show she shares with her foster parents (or maybe they were just her real parents and were cruel) so they sent her off to work somewhere, and leave the cup. They took the cup and made ice cream, they made so much and were so happy, as they were gluttons and greedy, until they realized, they couldn't stop it. So it filled the house, flowed out the door, filled the yard, then started on the countryside until the girl saw it and ran home to save the day. And they all learned something. The parents to not be so greedy, and the little girl to never trust her parents (I guess). Or maybe the parents drowned, and the old woman took her in, the townspeople as it takes a village you know.
Yes, I freely mixed my companies, from Classics Illustrated, to DC, to Marvel, and others; then later, Creepy, Eerie, Mad, National Lampoon and others; later still, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy's Cat, Zippy the Pinhead in Yow Comics or Real Pulp Comix (I remember the Zippy for President buttons we all thought were a statement and a laugh, until it finally happened and Zippy wasn't replaced in the white house until the first African American to be president replaced him; we had thought it might happen if Dan Quayle became president but that would only happen if Bush Sr were shot, which we figured was him having Quayle as body armor; Quayle was so stupid, that even America's worst enemies didn't want the man in power, even crazy political back woods lunatics in the US were afraid of his becoming president, so after the scare of Ronald Reagan having been shot, we really weren't too worried about ANYone shooting H.W.); then Zippy got his own comic and of course, there was the every popular Mr. Natural, Zap Comix, Armageddon, and even weirder ones, like Weirdo (go figure, right?), I missed Jesus meets the Armed Services (1970) but sadly didn't seeing at least one or two Jiz Comcis, Mickey Rat, Motor City Comics, Real Pulp Comics, can't forget Slow Death (I just saw a copy of #3 I used to have, online for $5; for some reason I think of Slow Death comics and Savoy Brown's Looking In album, at the same time), Truckin, Tuff Shit Comics, and finally, Wonder Wart-Hog.
I may have forgotten some, but its a good list.
Check these guys out for covers and more titles:
http://www.undergroundcollectibles.com/index.cfm
Also, check out my blog yesterday morning on Creepy / Eerie magazines and others.
In the end, Joss may sign to direct The Avengers, and if Joss does it, I'm sure it will be brilliant, in some way, in his way. And I look forward to seeing anything that guy works on.
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