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Joss Whedon officially announced he is directing “The Avengers”

Finally. At San-Diego ComicCon. And throughout The Internets, there was much rejoicing.

“Dollhouse” s. II DVD to include mini-comic book

Damnit, this is totally worth getting excited about, because

i.) It’ll be awesome. It’s by Maurissa Tancharoen-Whedon and Jed Whedon, the a pair who proved to be the strongest writing entity on the show. And it will revolve around Felicia Day’s Mag’s post-apocalyptic antics; the 2019-world was vivid, but painted with minimalist strokes. I’m eager to see Tancharoen and Whedon continue world-building and elaborating on the setpiece which so brilliantly took the implication of the show’s driving technology to its logical limits.

ii.) We don’t know if or when the next Mutant Enemy production will happen.  After two delays, Cabin in the Woods still doesn’t have a release date, and the open secret of Joss’ helming the Avengers movie has never officially been confirmed–although Edward Norton’s being fired from the hypothetical project totes is. Grr. Arrgh.

Whedon-less “Buffy” reboot “shelved for now”

…after a High School Musical star drops out.

The reboot would have been based on not the seven-year running, critically lauded and iconic television show, but the 1992 movie nobody saw, and featured Pee Wee Hermann as a vampire. So it would have excluded all the supporting characters–Willow, Xander, Giles, Angel, Cordelia, Spike–who made the show work.

Well, Whedon’s flagship work won’t be desecrated in the foreseeable future. That’s the good news. The lame news is his new film, Cabin in the Woods, has been delayed again. Boo.

Internet petitions

They sometimes work, if coupled with financial incentives. Look at Firefly; exhaustive petitioning of Fox coupled with stellar DVD sales made Serenity possible.

(above) Made possible by an Internet petition.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, there is an Equality Federation petition up condemning the percieved discrimination of Fr. Wild’s rescinding Jodi O’Brien’s ARSC deanship. It reads, in full,

Dear Reverend Wild,

Please reconsider your ill-advised decision to rescind an official offer to Dr. Jodi O’Brien. Regardless of whether the decision was based on Dr. O’Brien’s sexual orientation or the subject matter of her previously published works, this action sends the wrong message about Marquette University to communities of faith, members of the LGBT community and all Wisconsin citizens.

Discrimination in all forms is unacceptable.

What does this have to do with Serenity? Well, below the signature box on the petition, there is a question reading

Are you a Marquette University Alum? If so what year did you graduate?

, and then a text box for you to leave a reply in. If you are an alumna/alumnus, say yes, and also write that you will not donate to the university until Condition X is meant. (I won’t tell you what Condition X is. You’re your own person with your own beliefs about how this should be settled. So I won’t tell you what to write. I personally demanded an apology to O’Brien and frank public statement on the reasons for the rescinding.)

That is how we can start to couple the staggering head-count of a petition with the application of financial pressure. After that, a strongly worded letter to Wild’s office would seem the next logical step. 

After that, I cannot say.  But I aim to misbeheve.

In non-Marquette news

I.) Today, the episode of Glee guest-starring Neil Patrick Harris and directed by Joss “My Master” Whedon airs. Which means I have eighteen episodes of Glee to catch up on in nineteen hours.

II.) The British elected a new Prime Minister. Well, not really. Nobody won a majority, so the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will be forming a coalition government, under the permission of the suddenly relevant Queen Elizabeth II. I am sure she is as surprised as anyone.
I’ve always had a fondness for the LibDems, but the realistic part of me wanted the Tories to win. So this is like the best possible result for me, personally.

II.a) The incoming Tory PM, David Cameron, is appointing Lady  Sayeeda Hussain Warsi chairwoman of the Conservative Party, has appointed the first Muslim woman as a Cabinet Minister in UK history.

III.) Laura Bush, who was always roughy 98 percent more likable than her husband, has now come out for full marriage equality.

Why Joss deserves “The Avengers”

Austin Grossman is not to be trusted too far because he was utterly unable to appreciate Firefly, but still. It’s the freakin’ Wall Street Journal endorsing him for Buffy:

The Avengers are one of the hardest teams to build a movie around. Maybe you can shoot a bright, comic, gadget-porn adventure film with Iron Man and get the feel right and make it work. Maybe (and it’s not proven) you can shoot a mythological-epic Thor film and make it work, and a Captain America movie, and an Ant-Man. But what happens when they all step into the same frame? What kind of film are you shooting then? How do you light it? Who’s going to believe in it? Who is going to make sense of that tonal conundrum, and forge those disparate alloys into a single unbreakable metal, Marvel-style?

The proposed answer is writer-director Joss Whedon. And although the history of auteur directors and beloved franchises knows both triumph (James Cameron’s “Aliens”) and debacle (Ang Lee’s “Hulk”) there are very good reasons why he should get the job.

Since, provably, no two people share the same Whedon, I will explain who mine is. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was an ensemble show with vampires, vampire slayers, and ultimately, demons, cyborgs, wizards, ghosts – an inclusive world. It was sprawling and messy and you can hear him working his style out as he goes; it also includes the most wrenching and emotionally bare work he has ever done, proof positive that you can write the human and the supernatural and that they’re the same thing.

…

[T]hereis a central truth about superhero films, that Whedon obviously gets. It’s not about banter or bigger explosions or CGI or moral clarity. Superheroes aren’t better or purer than other people, they are interesting because they’re f—ed up. Maybe it’s your body or your mind or your family situation- it’s probably all three. You get to a certain moment and your body starts doing amazing, terrifying things. To the point where your can fly or turn invisible or are unreasonably good at violent behavior. You’re not exactly normal; but it’s not exactly a normal world is it?

“He’s gonna do a good job”

In an interview, Marvel Comics guru Stan Lee commented on the possibility of Joss Whedon directing the Avengers film adaptation:

Q: What do you think of Joss Whedon coming on as director?
Lee: I think it’s wonderful. The man is so talented. He’s really great. He’s gonna do a good job.

Now, it isn’t Lee’s decision, and I’m not sure how ”in the loop” he really is on the deal. Lee speaks as if Whedon has definitively been chosen for the project, saying “He’s gonna do a good job,” without qualifying it along the lines of “If he gets it, he’s gonna do a good job.” 

Yet Whedon himself has yet to confirm the rumors.

Still. The endorsement of the creator of the franchise can’t possibly be a bad thing.

Personal Note: I’m following this story out of a loyalty to Whedon. If I didn’t think too hardly about it, I enjoyed Iron Man, but hadn’t been waiting anxiously for sequels until I learned one of my favorite people ever might be directing them.

Also, I am a bad geek and have never made a final commitment in the Marvel v. DC debate. Where DC scores an F in science, Marvel earns maybe a D-plus or C-minus. On the whole, Marvel’s writers have traditionally had a better grasp on the Zeitgeist and pressing social issues. 

Moreover, Marvel’s protagonists have always had a dash more of realism, and better fit within a human scope. DC’s heroes are more archetypically heroic; though this diminishes believibility and vividness of characterization, it provides something I believe necessary to the culture, to our narrative imaginaiton.

Also, DC has Batman.

So it’s a draw.

Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

Variety reports that Joss Whedon is “wrapping up the deal” to direct the screen adaptation of Marvel Comic’s Avengers.

Joss directing Robert Downey Jr. and Edward Norton. It would be a hell of a thing.

Who wants to bet he somehow gives Kitty Pryde a cameo? My goodness, that would mean he would work with Ellen Page, too!

That being said…the Avengers mythos doesn’t especially lend itself to Whedonesque themes. It’s a mostly male superhero team. And unlike the X-Men (who exist in the same fictional universe as the Avengers, and for whom Joss has written comics for), its members aren’t mistrusted social outcasts for having powers; they’re actually quite beloved by the mainstream fictional populace. (Their top-billed member wears an American flag as a costume, for god’s sake.)

Correction: He wears an American flag except when he's protesting unrealistic body image-standards as promoted by comic-book art. And yes, the image on the left really was published by Marvel.

If this is true: What will Whedon do with The Avengers?

“Dollhouse” coda episode nominated for Hugo Award

“Epitaph One,” Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse’s Season One finale, which for the first time displayed the full range of Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon as a writing duo, and revolutionized fans’ understanding of the show and its trajectory, has been nominated for science fiction practitioners’ highest honor, the Hugo Award. Specifically, it was nominated for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.  Joss Whedon has previously won in the same category for Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (and also Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form for Serenity.)