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      ‘Les Éternels’: les super-franchises redescendent sur Terre

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      Après “Nomadland”, Oscar du Meilleur Film, la réalisatrice Chloé Zhao s’essaie au blockbuster avec le dernier-né des Marvel, un casting séduisant à l’appui.Tout au long des “Éternels”, le dernier-né — mais certainement pas le dernier! — des Studios Marvel, on devine combien la réalisatrice Chloé Zhao a dû lutter pour réduire à taille humaine ce show d’envergure industrielle. Ses efforts transparaissent dans la sincérité des interprétations et les moments d’authenticité qui ponctuent le film d’émotion. Mais c’est un combat titanesque. Tandis que Zhao s’applique à huiler la machine de larmes et d’émotions, ses efforts semblent refléter la bataille menée par ses attachants super-héros contre une force qui cherche à contrôler leur destin.Créés par Jack Kirby, un visionnaire des comics américains, “Les Éternels” font leur apparition sur papier en 1976 (“Quand les Dieux descendent sur Terre!”) et ont refait surface plusieurs fois depuis. Puisque Marvel a (pour le moment) mis fin au cycle des films Avengers, il était acquis qu’il allait dépoussiérer un autre groupe de potentielles super-franchises. Pour ce faire, le studio a choisi Zhao (“Nomadland”) pour lancer la machine, avec un casting trié sur le volet dans le monde du divertissement. Angelina Jolie est là, avec des cheveux tristounets et un maquillage ultra-glamour, tout comme Gemma Chan, Salma Hayek, Don Lee, Kumail Nanjiani, un indispensable Brian Tyree Henry et deux tombeurs de la série HBO “Game of Thrones”.Figurant parmi les créations moins connues de Kirby, les Éternels sont des divinités humanoïdes principalement empruntées à la mythologie grecque, mais dotés d’une orthographe excentrique : Thena, Ikaris, Sersi, et ainsi de suite. Leur histoire est bien élaborée et ils ont pour mission de protéger l’humanité. (À en juger par le piteux état dans lequel nous et la planète sommes, ils n’ont pas fait du très bon boulot.) Comme l’explique un des personnages, ils interviennent dans les conflits entre les humains en cas de nécessité. Un rôle qui évoque celui des Casques bleus des Nations Unies. Mais comme l’humanité est perpétuellement attaquée par les Déviants, de hargneux ennemis, les Éternels doivent perpétuellement redescendre dans l’arène — une habitude interventionniste qui fait référence de manière assez evidente à celle des États-Unis.Écrit par Zhao avec d’autres scénaristes, “Les Éternels” s’inscrit dans le style de la maison Marvel, tant visuellement que dans sa narration. C’est très chargé, presque trop, et on navigue entre film de guerre, film romantique, comédie et drame familial. Il se classerait plutôt bien dans la catégorie retrouvailles-entre-copains : une bande de vieux amis se retrouve — avec réticence ou enthousiasme — pour reformer leur groupe de musique ou, en l’occurrence, botter des derrières cosmiques. Malheureusement, le film consacre un part démesurée de ses deux heures et demie à revisiter les plus gros tubes du groupe, tandis que les Éternels passent leur temps en explications. Les flashbacks coupent Zhao dans ses élans et les bavardages viennent brouiller un peu davantage une histoire déjà alambiquée.En tant que potentiel premier épisode d’une nouvelle série, le film fait office de longue présentation au public où l’on passe en revue (qui sont-ils, que font-ils ?) les pouvoirs, les susceptibilités, les histoires et les relations entre ces dix Éternels. Ça fait du monde à l’affiche — mais dans cette constellation hollywoodienne, certaines étoiles brillent plus fort que d’autres. La tête d’affiche Sersi (Gemma Chan) est, un peu à contrecœur, une héroïne bienveillante qui vit à Londres et sort avec Jon Snow — alias Dane Whitman, joué par Kit Harington — jusqu’à ce que les Déviants, et les ennuis, surgissent dans cette ville vieillissante et sale. L’incursion ennemie déclenche la réunion et l’entrée en scène amusante du frère de Jon Snow, Robb Stark, alias Richard Madden, qui joue Ikaris. Lui et Sersi ont un passé ; ce n’est pas compliqué.L’immense super-pouvoir du film, ce sont ses acteurs qui lui insufflent de la chaleur, voire un peu de passion, et une pulsion de vie que les nombreuses et bruyantes scènes d’action n’étouffent jamais complètement. Henry, Lee et Barry Keoghan (le terrifiant gamin de “Mise à mort du cerf sacré”) contribuent beaucoup à maintenir notre sympathie en éveil. Phastos, le personnage d’Henry, est le plus vivant des deux, en partie parce que son super-héros a une véracité identifiable, mais surtout parce que l’acteur a un sens naturel de l’empathie et une vraie délicatesse d’expressivité. Lee offre un peu de comique bienvenu et fait office de faire-valoir étonnamment efficace pour Jolie (y aura-t-il un spin-off de M. et Mme Éternel?), tandis que Keoghan ajoute son grain de menace piquante.Les trois précédents long-métrages de Zhao sont des drames d’échelle modeste centrés sur des personnages privés de leurs droits — le genre de film que le courant commercial dominant laisse de côté. La réalisatrice aime faire appel à d’anciennes formules et à de nouvelles idées, et s’intéresse aux questions d’identité et aux valeurs fondatrices américaines comme l’autonomie. Dans “The Rider”, le personnage principal est un Amérindien qui est cowboy; “Nomadland” suit une femme, la soixantaine, qui prend la route après à la Grande Récession. Si l’intimité de son œuvre antérieure, sa portée et son calme relatifs font d’elle un choix apparemment inhabituel pour Marvel, ses films se tiennent à distance de l’ouvertement politique, comme beaucoup de films indépendants américains. Zhao cadre bien avec une entreprise internationale qui cherche à n’offenser absolument personne.Par-dessus tout, la réalisatrice possède l’une des compétences les plus essentielles au job : elle sait gérer les acteurs. Car par-delà tous les effets spéciaux et les combats sans fin, les films de Marvel sont aussi centrés sur leurs personnages que les films de James Bond, et ils ont besoin d’interprètes charismatiques et de personnalités séduisantes pour faire tenir ensemble toutes leurs pièces détachées. (Ce n’est pas un hasard si beaucoup de réalisateurs Marvel sont des anciens du festival du film de Sundance.) “Les Éternels” bénéficie aussi du toucher de Zhao pour les paysages naturels et de son amour des grands espaces. Cela n’arrive pas assez souvent mais parfois, dans certains moments d’accalmie, les Éternels et leurs mondes se rejoignent et les grandes questions existentielles qui sous-tendent l’histoire — qu’est-ce qu’on fait là, qui suis-je ? — arrivent même à transcender la marque. More

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      Who Are The Eternals?: Your Questions Answered

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      Who are they? How long have they been here? Where do they fit in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? We have answers.“Eternals,” the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is a two-and-a-half-hour epic that introduces nearly a dozen new characters, hops back and forth through time over thousands of years, and begins with an opening text crawl that reveals a previously unknown origin of the human species. Even the most ardent MCU fan may be perplexed.For some back story on Marvel’s newest heroes, from their comic origins to their movie powers, here’s a brief guide.The ComicThe Eternals comic debuted in 1976 after its writer, Jack Kirby, returned to Marvel following a five-year stint at DC. The comic is widely considered a thematic continuation of a group of stories he had worked on at DC that mixed science fiction and myth and were known as the “Fourth World.” But since Kirby could no longer use the same characters from his time at DC, he created new ones for Marvel.The Eternals reveals that thousands of years ago, a group of giant extraterrestrials known as the Celestials came to Earth and experimented on apes to create three new species: humans, Eternals and Deviants. The Eternals are an immortal race of beautiful superpowered beings, and the Deviants are ugly, unstable creatures that resent their creators. The series follows the conflicts that arise when the Celestials return to Earth to judge whether their creations are worthy of life. The Eternals was not a particularly successful series at the time, and it was canceled after 19 issues.The FilmChloé Zhao’s movie (which drops the “The”) makes some key adjustments to Eternals lore: The Celestials are responsible for all intelligent life in the universe, and they created the Deviants to protect humans from predators. The Deviants rebelled, so the Eternals were created to fight the Deviants and help guide humanity in its evolution. Set after the events of “Avengers: Endgame,” the film reveals flashbacks to how the Eternals interacted with humans over the course of history while in the present, they try to stop a cataclysmic event from destroying the Earth.An idea featured in the original Eternals comic and in the film is that the Eternals are secretly the inspiration for humanity’s greatest myths. Many of the characters have names resembling mythological figures, and in the film, Ikaris (Richard Madden) even says he’s responsible for creating the Icarus story (though he also gets mistaken for another modern mythic figure: Superman).The character Kingo using his powers of cosmic energy in “Eternals.”Marvel/DisneyThe Characters and Their PowersThe movie features 10 Eternals, including Ikaris, who can fly and shoot laser beams out of his eyes; Sersi (Gemma Chan), who can transmute matter into other forms; Sprite (Lia McHugh), an eternally adolescent girl who can create illusions; and Thena (Angelina Jolie), a skilled warrior who can conjure weapons out of energy. The leader of the Eternals is Ajak (Salma Hayek), the only one who can communicate with the Celestials. All these characters were introduced in Kirby’s initial run on The Eternals, albeit with some notable differences. Ajak, Sprite and their teammate Makkari (Lauren Ridloff), male characters in the comic, were changed to female for the film. The cast is also more diverse than their characters’ original depictions.While the Eternals have had a relatively small cultural footprint compared to other Marvel superheroes, they count at least one infamous villain among their ranks: Thanos, who previously menaced the MCU for the last decade, is a mix of Eternal and Deviant in the comics.Additional CharactersSpoiler alert: The remainder of this article includes revelations about characters that appear in the post-credits scenes of “Eternals.” For those who have seen the film and are curious about who these characters are, read on.“Eternals” briefly introduces two other notable Marvel characters in its post-credits scenes. Eros (Harry Styles) appears aboard the Eternals’ ship at the end of the film, revealing he is Thanos’s brother. Eros is a fellow Eternal who is mostly known for being a womanizing, carefree party boy. In the comics, he teamed up with various heroes to take down his genocidal brother and joined the Avengers for a time, but he tends to be invested in more worldly pleasures.Additionally, Dane Whitman (Kit Harington), who previously appeared to be Sersi’s non-superpowered boyfriend, is seen opening a box containing a sword at the end of the film. In the comics, Whitman is a scientist who discovers that his uncle Nathan is secretly a medieval-themed villain known as the Black Knight. On his death bed, Nathan asks Whitman to take up the mantle of the Black Knight and use his weapons and research for good rather than evil. Whitman has been a member of the Avengers, and he most commonly wields a magic sword known as the Ebony Blade. More

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      Why 'Shang-Chi' Isn't a Hit in China

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      Marvel’s first Asian superhero movie has yet to be released in the mainland amid fierce debate over its back story and star.Marvel released “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” with China in mind. Simu Liu, the film’s Canadian lead actor, was born in China. Much of its dialogue is in Mandarin. The cast includes Tony Leung, one of the biggest Chinese-speaking movie stars in history.The studio’s first Asian superhero movie is a hit, drawing praise and ticket sales in East Asia and other global markets. Perhaps the only place where the movie has not been well received — in fact, it has not been received there at all — is mainland China.Disney, which owns Marvel, has yet to receive clearance from Beijing’s regulators to show the film in the vast but heavily censored movie market. While the reasons aren’t clear, “Shang-Chi” may be a victim of the low point in U.S.-China relations.China is also pushing back against Western influence, with increasingly vocal nationalists denouncing foreign books and movies and the teaching of English. They have even criticized Mr. Liu for his previous comments about China, which he left in the mid-1990s, when he was a small child.Lack of access to the world’s largest movie market could limit how much money the film makes. But in other parts of Asia, the movie has been greeted warmly by audiences for how it depicts a Chinese superhero burdened by a racist back story.“I was really expecting the movie to be racist,” said David Shin, a Marvel fan in Seoul. “I was surprised at how well they touched upon Asian culture.” Simu Liu in a scene from the movie.Jasin Boland/Disney-Marvel Studios, via Associated PressWorldwide, the movie has earned more than $250 million, all but guaranteeing audiences will be seeing more of Shang-Chi, the title character. Big sales in Asia helped: “Shang-Chi” earned more than $23 million in the Asia Pacific region and debuted at the top of the charts in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. It also set an industry record for a September weekend debut in Hong Kong.The movie is a retelling of the story of a little-known Marvel character created in 1973 — 16 years before Mr. Liu was born — and updated for today’s audiences. It centers on Shang-Chi, a young man working as a valet who is reluctantly drawn into his father’s deadly criminal organization, known as the Ten Rings.The group is named after the magical rings that Shang-Chi’s father, Xu Wenwu, wears on his wrists and that give him destructive power that have helped him destroy and conquer empires.Xu Wenwu is played by Mr. Leung, a legend in Hong Kong cinema. His role in the film was pivotal in attracting Hong Kong audiences to the theaters, said Kevin Ma, a film industry observer and writer from Hong Kong.Tony Leung, a legend in Hong Kong cinema, plays Shang-Chi’s father.Marvel Studios/Disney-Marvel Studios, via Associated Press“It’s hard to imagine anyone who watches Hong Kong films to not know who he is,” Mr. Ma said, adding that Mr. Leung was used as the central figure in advertisements for the film in the Chinese city.To reshape the comic-book character to appeal to Asian and Asian American audiences, Marvel put the movie in the hands of Destin Daniel Cretton, a Japanese American director. In addition to Mr. Liu and Mr. Leung, the cast includes Michelle Yeoh, another major star in Asia, and Awkwafina, the Asian American actor and comedian.The strong showing by “Shang-Chi” comes after a wave of financial and critical success for recent films with Asian casts and production crews, like “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Parasite” and “The Farewell.”But for blockbusters, mainland China is the major market to win. So far this year, its theaters have reaped $5.2 billion in ticket sales, according to Maoyan, which tracks Chinese box office results. Disney has submitted the movie for release there.The director Destin Daniel Cretton, left, and Mr. Liu, far right, on the set. Jasin Boland/Marvel StudiosDespite its absence, the film has generated spirited debate on the Chinese internet. Global Times, a nationalist tabloid controlled by the Communist Party, published commentary that cited the racist origin of the character.Readers of Shang-Chi comic books in the 1970s saw Asian faces colored in unnatural oranges and yellows. They saw the main character shirtless and shoeless, spouting “fortune-cookie platitudes in stilted English,” The New York Times noted recently. And then there was Shang-Chi’s father in the comics: He was named Fu Manchu and caricatured as a power-hungry Asian man, an image that harks back to the stereotypes first pressed upon Asian immigrants a century ago.“How can Chinese people be insulted like this,” the Global Times commentary asked, “while at the same time we let you take our money?”Some critics in China have also pointed to Mr. Liu’s previous comments about China. One nationalist account on Weibo, the popular social media platform, posted several screenshots from a previous interview with Mr. Liu in which he talked about how his parents left “Third World” China where people “were dying of starvation.” (The video is no longer online. A spokeswoman for Disney declined to comment on the remarks.)Mr. Liu has been critical of China before. In 2016, when he was starring in the television show “Kim’s Convenience,” he wrote on Twitter, “I think countries that try to censor and cover up dissenting ideas rather than face them and deal with them are out of touch with reality.” When a Twitter user replied, “sounds like America,” Mr. Liu responded: “I was referring to Chinese gov’t censorship. It’s really immature and out of touch.”Others, including some who said they had seen the movie, leapt to its defense.“There is nothing wrong with the film and half of its dialogue is in Mandarin Chinese,” wrote a Weibo user. “Those who said it insulted China before were too irresponsible.”A marquee for the movie in Los Angeles.Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesStill, the movie has found some resonance with Chinese audiences who have managed to see the film. Jin Yang, 33, a Chinese film producer based in Beijing, praised the film after watching it in a theater in Hong Kong, which despite its own rising censorship operates under different rules.“It’s a bit regretful that the film has not been released in mainland China,” Ms. Yang said. “It’d be great if Chinese audiences could see this film that combines Chinese and Western cultures so well.”Debate about “Shang-Chi” predated the movie’s release, as China’s voluble online audience debated Mr. Liu’s looks, an argument that the actor himself noted with amusement. Some claimed to see a passing resemblance to a young Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, leading to Photoshopped images that others predicted might hurt its chances to pass muster with Chinese film regulators.The trouble in China may have unintentionally helped sales in other markets in Asia, where Beijing’s increasing bellicosity with its neighbors has hurt public perceptions of the country.“I thought that the movie might not be well received in South Korea because of the protagonist being Chinese,” Kim Hanseul, 31, a Marvel fan in Seoul, said. But, he said, the movie’s absence in China “has actually led to more Koreans watching the film.”The movie’s fans said they hoped Chinese audiences would be able to see it eventually.“It’s amusing,” said Ms. Yang, the film producer, “that it’s Americans’ turn to read subtitles in a Marvel film.” More

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      James Gunn Nearly Blew Up His Career. Now He’s Back With ‘The Suicide Squad’

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      The “Guardians of the Galaxy” director talks about the Twitter controversy that got him temporarily fired from Marvel, and his crossover to the DC franchise.One day in July 2018, James Gunn discovered that he was trending on Twitter and not for a good reason. Gunn, the filmmaker behind Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” science-fiction series, had tweeted many deliberately crude jokes about the Holocaust, the 9/11 attacks, AIDS, pedophilia and rape. Now they had been resurfaced, steering waves of criticism his way. Gunn was fired from a planned third “Guardians” movie and he believed his career was over. “It seemed like everything was gone,” he said recently.Gunn publicly apologized and his “Guardians” stars, including Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, rallied to his defense in an open letter. In March 2019, Gunn was hired back to the film franchise.Gunn had spent the months after his firing reflecting on himself while also working on an unexpected opportunity: Warner Bros. had tapped him to make a movie in its own superhero universe based on DC Comics characters. His entry, “The Suicide Squad,” which he wrote and directed, chronicles a motley team of criminals, including the marksman Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and the saboteur Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), selected by the ruthless Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to complete a seemingly impossible mission.“The Suicide Squad,” which will be released in theaters and on HBO Max on Aug. 6, follows the 2016 film “Suicide Squad,” written and directed by David Ayer, which was a commercial success but not well received by critics. Gunn’s take preserves the violence while adding further layers of outrageousness and absurd characters like the Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), the fish-human hybrid King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) and a malevolent alien starfish called Starro.As Gunn explained, “There’s a sort of magical realism that we come into this film with. Yes, it’s weird to see a walking shark. But it’s not as weird as it would be in our universe.”Gunn, whose credits include the low-budget genre satires “Slither” and “Super,” spoke in late June in a video interview from Vancouver, British Columbia, where he is working on “Peacemaker,” a TV spinoff of “The Suicide Squad” starring that jingoistic adventurer played by John Cena.The 54-year-old Gunn has let his spiky hair go white and grown a tidy accompanying beard, giving him a look that’s more mad scientist than industry upstart. But he remains chastened by his brief exile from Marvel. Speaking of “The Suicide Squad,” he said, “There’s dark humor in it, but the emotional part is there, too. I feel as if I was communicating my whole being.”Gunn discussed his firing and rehiring by Marvel, the making of “The Suicide Squad” for DC and his perspective on the two superhero franchises. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.Gunn with Idris Elba among the cast and crew of “The Suicide Squad.”Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros.How did you first learn that you had been fired from Marvel?It was conveyed to me by Kevin Feige [the Marvel Studios president]. I called Kevin the morning it was going on, and I said, “Is this a big deal?” And he goes, “I don’t know.” That was a moment. I was like, “You don’t know?” I was surprised. Later he called me — he himself was in shock — and told me what the powers that be had decided. It was unbelievable. And for a day, it seemed like everything was gone. Everything was gone. I was going to have to sell my house. I was never going to be able to work again. That’s what it felt like.Did the experience make you more careful about what you say, whether on social media or in general?Yes and no. I’m more considerate of people’s feelings today. I had talked about this a lot before those tweets were [resurfaced]. They are awful things, that’s what my sense of humor was back then. But before this ever happened, I realized that I had closed myself off to things I thought were schmaltzy because I didn’t want to be vulnerable. This attitude — I can make a joke about anything, look how great I am — that’s just not the fullness of me as a human being. And I learned that long before I got called out for the tweets.The term wasn’t as prevalent at the time, but do you think you were a victim of what people now call “cancel culture”?I understand people’s preoccupation with that term. But it’s such a bigger issue than that. Because cancel culture also is people like Harvey Weinstein, who should be canceled. People who have gotten canceled and then remain canceled — most of those people deserved that. The paparazzi are not just the people on the streets — they’re the people combing Twitter for any past sins. All of that sucks. It’s painful. But some of it is accountability. And that part of it is good. It’s just about finding that balance.When you see someone else now being punished for things they’ve posted online, are you sympathetic?Even when the person has done something terrible, I still feel sympathy for that person. Because I’m a compassionate person and it’s part of my faith. Sometimes things get taken out of context. And sometimes somebody did something when they were in college — it’s 20 years later, they’ve lived a great life, it’s just too much. And then sometimes you read, oh, well, what he did was pretty awful.When did you start to realize that things weren’t quite as dire? Did the public support of your “Guardians” actors make the difference?You do not understand the immensity of it until you’re in the middle of it. For a guy who feels like he’s done most things by himself and hasn’t had a lot of backing from anyone, ever, and has had to claw my way from B movies to where I am today, you don’t expect people to have your back. As somebody who does have a difficult time taking in the affection or the love of others, to have everybody around me — my girlfriend, my parents, my family, my manager, my publicists, all of the actors I’ve worked with — to have them come to my side and be there for me, that was an eye-opener for me. I felt really fulfilled and loved in a way that I had never felt in my entire life. And when Warner Bros. comes to me on the Monday after it happens and says, we want you, James Gunn, you think, wow, that feels good to hear.Asked about the nihilistic feel of “The Suicide Squad,” Gunn pushed back: “For me it’s about our changing world and people who have a very difficult time making connections being able to make some small connections.”Alana Paterson for The New York TimesSo while you’re in the midst of this potential scandal, Warner Bros. comes to you and asks if you might be interested in Superman, their flagship DC character?They proposed that to me. Toby Emmerich [the Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman], he works out with my manager, and every morning he would say, “James Gunn, Superman. James Gunn, Superman.”How did you land on “The Suicide Squad” instead?At that time I said I can’t commit myself to something right now. It was traumatic. I had to deal with myself. I just have to take a step back. So I took the different possibilities of projects I could work on, and for a month, every day I worked on a different project. I really wanted to make sure that whatever I was going to write was going to be a great story, and if it worked out and I felt like directing it, I could. “Suicide Squad” was just the one that came to life immediately.Were you a fan of the comics?I really loved [the writer] John Ostrander’s take, which was taking these Z-grade villains and throwing them into black-ops situations where they were totally disposable and they wouldn’t come out alive. I loved “The Dirty Dozen” as a kid. It’s that same concept, mixed with a DC comic.How much were your choices defined by what you’d seen in the previous “Suicide Squad” film?Not at all. I wanted to create what I thought of as the Suicide Squad. For me to react to David’s movie would make it the shadow of David’s movie. I wanted it to be its own thing completely. When Warner Bros. said they wanted me to do this, I watched the first movie for the first time, and I called them back and said, what do I have to keep from this movie? And they said, nothing. They said, listen, we would love it if Margot’s in the movie but she doesn’t have to be. You could come up with all new characters or you could keep all the same characters.The previous film had a few big stars who aren’t returning. Did you explore bringing back Jared Leto as Joker or Will Smith as Deadshot?Joker, no. I just don’t know why Joker would be in the Suicide Squad. He wouldn’t be helpful in that type of war situation. Will — I really wanted to work with Idris. It is a multi-protagonist film. We go off for a while with Margot, and Daniela [Melchior, who plays Ratcatcher 2] is the heart of the film in a lot of ways. But if there’s one protagonist, it’s Idris. And I wanted somebody who had that gruff, “Unforgiven”-type feeling about him. This guy who had been reduced from being a bigshot supervillain — he took Superman out of the sky — who is now scraping gum off the floor at the beginning of the movie. He absolutely doesn’t want any part of it — he just has accepted this is his life. And I just think that character is Idris Elba.“The Suicide Squad” features a motley team culled from the DC universe, including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, second from right), all led by Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman, center). Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros. This will be the third film, after “Suicide Squad” and “Birds of Prey,” to try to find a place for Harley Quinn in DC’s movie universe. How do you see the character?For me, Harley Quinn belongs on the wall next to Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk. Most of my career has been writing characters who existed in the comics but weren’t well-defined personalities, and having to create their cinematic personalities, whether it’s Star-Lord or Drax or Groot, who were all very different in the comics. Harley was pretty incredibly written by Paul Dini from the beginning, and so to be able to capture the essence of that character — her chaotic, sweet nature — and give her her due as the trickster and allow her to go wherever she wants, was surprising even to me as a writer.Did you take a certain pleasure in bringing back Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and letting her get her hands as dirty as some of the superhero characters?She has no qualms about doing that whatsoever. She’s just the sweetest person in the world and Waller is scary. When she’s on set and that turn happens, I am literally afraid to come in and give her a note because of the look in her eyes. It is incredibly intimidating. She comes up to here [holds hand at height of his neck] on me. But it is. She’s amazing.There’s a built-in dispensability to your concept of “The Suicide Squad” that cuts against a studio’s desire for repeatable franchise films. Was it your goal to make the most nihilistic superhero movie of the modern era?I don’t think it’s nihilistic. For me it’s about our changing world and people who have a very difficult time making connections being able to make some small connections. My mission statement was just to make the most fun film I could and not balk at anything. I knew I had a chance that very few filmmakers have ever had, which is to make a huge-budget film with no holds barred in terms of the plot, the effects, the sets. I felt a responsibility to take chances.What if, after a yearlong pandemic, mass audiences aren’t ready for a movie with so much wanton death and destruction?I actually think the emotion and the humor help to even off the harsher aspects of it. I think it’s a perfect movie for now. It’s just a matter of where are we going to be with Covid and being safe. [“F9”] did great, so I’m hopeful there’s a real appetite for it. I was talking to my 80-year-old mother this morning. She wants to come see it. I’m like, Mom, this movie has a lot of sharks ripping people in half in it. [Gentle voice] “I know, I don’t care, Jimmy.” She’ll love it.Does it seem strange that the DC films can encompass movies like “The Suicide Squad,” which unabashedly earns its R rating, and also movies like “Shazam!,” which are more family-oriented?I think it’s great. That is the one of the ways in which DC can distinguish itself from Marvel. What I do is very different from what [the “Ant-Man” director] Peyton Reed does, it’s very different from what [the “Iron Man” director Jon] Favreau did, it’s different from Taika [Waititi, the director of “Thor: Ragnarok”]. But not as different as “Shazam!” and “Suicide Squad,” however. I think the current batch of folks over at Warner Bros. are really interested in building out a world and creating something that’s unique to the filmmakers. We’re in a strange time, so anything can happen.Gunn with Michael Rooker (as the blue-skinned Yondu) on the set of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.”Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel/DisneyYou’re the first director who’s made films for both Marvel and DC —[Fake cough] Joss Whedon. I’m the first one to receive a directing credit on the Marvel and DC movies. [Laughs.]Do you see major differences with how Marvel and DC approach their film franchises?Yes, but not as many as people probably think. There’s no doubt Kevin Feige is way more involved with editing than people are at Warner Bros. He gives more notes. You don’t have to take them and I don’t always take them. Then again, I had more problems. If you saw the first cut of “Guardians” 1, it had more problems, because that was my first time making something so gigantic and there’s some learning to what works and what doesn’t, carving away the excess stuff. The truth is, as Marvel goes on and Kevin Feige starts to amass ownership of half of all film in general, he’s more spread out.Are you free to make more films for DC going forward or are you exclusive to Marvel?I have no clue what I’m going to do. For me, “Guardians 3” is probably the last one. I don’t know about doing it again. I do find, because of the ability to do different stuff in the DC multiverse, it’s fun. They’re starting to really resemble their comic books. The Marvel Universe has always been a little more cohesive, and DC has always had more great single runs. They had The Dark Knight Returns. They had Watchmen. They had The Killing Joke. They had Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. The fact that they did “Joker,” which is a totally different type of movie, that to me is cool. I’m very excited about Matt’s movie [“The Batman,” from Matt Reeves]. They’re getting some really good filmmakers involved. They’re always going to be hit or miss — I just don’t want them to get boring.You got your start in the world of low-budget cinema. Do you think you might return to something that’s smaller and faster to make?I love toys and the explosions and the cameras, frankly. I love to be able to work on a big playing field. If I had a smaller, more intimate thing that I wanted to do, I would definitely do that. Right now I really just want to nap, but I still have another major motion picture to make before that. I can’t wait to see the Marvel gang again — those people are my family. It’s so much different than people on Twitter. Everybody is significantly nicer. More

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      Elizabeth Olsen on the Unexpected Challenges of ‘WandaVision’

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      Olsen talked about her first Emmy nomination and about why the series exceeded her expectations compared with more typical Marvel fare.In a year with so much strangeness and uncertainty, “WandaVision” at first seemed to offer a nostalgic antidote with its tidy suburban setting and its vintage black-and-white aesthetic. That lasted all of two episodes before the writers blasted a colorful hole through the protective wall of static surrounding the fictional town of Westview, N.J. — and through its viewers’ (and its critics’) early expectations. More

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      Behind Every Hero or Villain, There Is Tech Support

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      Cutting-edge technology is often used in comics by the able assistants who fall under the trope “the guy in the chair.” But they are not always men and are not always helping the hero.This article is part of our new series, Currents, which examines how rapid advances in technology are transforming our lives.Technology has always played a major role in superhero comics. Sometimes the tech makes the hero, like the often upgraded suits of armor worn by Iron Man. Other times it can benefit a team of do-gooders, like the rings used by the Legion of Super-Heroes that give its members, whose adventures are set in the future, the ability to fly.While most technology in comic books is of the fantastical kind, there are some examples that either exist in the real world or are extensions of real-world inventions. The DC hero Mr. Terrific uses dronelike devices he calls T-Spheres that assist him on his adventures with aerial reconnaissance (they can also deploy lasers, holograms and more).Iron Man uses an artificial intelligence system light years ahead of Alexa or Siri. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe he had J.A.R.V.I.S., but he (it?) was replaced by a virtual assistant named F.R.I.D.A.Y., who is also featured in the comics. These days he uses an A.I. named B.O.S.S., which alerts him to threats, monitors his power levels and, in its first comic book appearance, managed his investments while he battled an extraterrestrial threat.But the true heroes-behind-the-hero, one could argue, are those keyboard surfers who type furiously at a terminal and provide critical information to whoever they are assisting in the field. This special kind of tech support falls under the trope known as “the guy in the chair,” but they are not always men nor do they always help the good guys. Below are some examples, both virtuous and villainous.Marvel EntertainmentProfessor XCharles Francis Xavier, or Professor X as he is popularly known, is the founder of the X-Men, Marvel’s mutant heroes who are often feared and distrusted by society. Professor X has often used a wheelchair and has led the X-Men from afar, keeping tabs on the team in the field with his telepathic abilities. He has provided the team with some formidable innovations. The Danger Room, the facility where the heroes train in the use of their powers, started out relatively low-tech: an obstacle course with battering rams and flamethrowers. Later on, thanks to an infusion of alien technology, it was souped-up with holograms that simulated the extreme terrains the X-Men often encountered. Another invention, Cerebro, was like a DNA test combined with Apple’s Find My iPhone app: It can pinpoint the location of mutants and alerts him to the emergence of new ones.Marvel EntertainmentMicrochipDavid Linus Lieberman is the aide-de-camp of the Punisher, Marvel’s antihero. Lieberman, a.k.a. Microchip, provides all manner of illicit services: money laundering, weapons procurement and computer hacking. In his origin story, Lieberman’s initial crime is changing the grades of a fellow college student whose scholarship is in danger. After tangling with a mob-connected bank, he begins a life on the run. From there, he slowly evolves into an underground hacker who also creates computer viruses. He meets an untimely end when he tries to replace the Punisher, who is becoming increasingly violent and unstable.Marvel EntertainmentShuriBlack Panther’s brilliant little sister, Shuri, made a big splash in the 2018 “Black Panther” film with her technological wizardry — Q to her brother’s James Bond. In the comics, Shuri is similarly gifted, but also more ambitious: She has her eye on becoming Black Panther, a ceremonial title of power and leadership in the advanced African nation of Wakanda. Shuri serves as Black Panther when her brother is incapacitated and later sacrifices her life to save him. But worry not: He finds a way to bring her back, and they fight side-by-side today. Shuri is very much a field operative in comics, and she’s responsible for creating an array of gadgets and gear, including a spaceship and nanotech wings (of which she boasts, “My latest success! Emergency flight in a can! I am awesome!”).DCOracleWhen Barbara Gordon becomes paralyzed after being shot by the Joker, her crime-fighting career as Batgirl might come to an end. Instead, Barbara trades in her cape, motorcycle and grappling hooks for a keyboard, multiple monitors and Wi-Fi to become Oracle, a genius-level computer hacker and information broker to the heroes of DC Comics. After undergoing an experimental surgery that implants a microchip into her spine to restore her mobility, she becomes Batgirl again but later decides that she has a wider reach as Oracle. In a recent issue, her father, the former police commissioner Jim Gordon, confirms that he knows about Barbara’s other identities. After a heart-to-heart chat, she outfits him with a special satellite phone in his latest quest to apprehend the Joker. The phone is linked to Batman’s communications system and is set to self-destruct if he does not check in on a daily basis.DCThe CalculatorNoah Kuttler, a DC villain known as the Calculator, was originally a costumed crook with a gimmick: He wore a numerical keypad on his chest and would say things like, “I compute you have less than one minute to live.” Despite his confidence, he never made it to the upper echelon of villains. That changes after Kuttler heard whispers about Oracle. Kuttler ditches his costume and set up a similar operation — this time catering to supervillains at substantial fees: $1,000 per question answered and even more for other services. In addition to supplying information to villains, he also provides a measure of protection: He playfully counters a wiretap setup by the heroes to hear only speeches by Vice President Adlai Stevenson.DCAmanda Waller“The Wall” is an apt nickname for the steel-willed Amanda Waller. She made her mark on the DC Universe as the head of the government program Task Force X, which is also known as the Suicide Squad. Waller enlists supervillains for dangerous missions in exchange for commuted prison sentences — if they survive. One of her favorite pieces of tech is explosive devices, often in metallic collars and sometimes implanted beneath the skin, that encourage the villains to keep within the parameters of the assignment. Waller witnesses a lot of casualties in her line of work but one especially strikes close to home: Flo Crawley, the coordinator of Task Force X’s missions, wants to take part in missions. Waller’s response: “If I let you do that, your mama would shoot me and I’d give her the gun.” But Flo defies orders and takes part in an operation that results in her death.Skybound/Image ComicsCecil StedmanInvincible, the title character in the recent animated Amazon Prime series, is often assisted by Cecil Stedman, the head of the Global Defense Agency, which was vigilant for threats that might require superhero attention. Stedman is a big fan of the gadgetry afforded to him by his government job. Early on, he gets to use a teleportation device, of which he said: “It costs taxpayers $5 million every time we use it, but I just had to try it.” He also outfits Invincible with an earpiece that serves as a direct line to the hero in times of need. Stedman can be a little cocky — he once said, “I’m so high ranked in the U.S. government, I don’t even have a rank” — but his heart is usually in the right place. When Invincible’s family faces a crisis, Stedman leaps into action: His machinations help provide the family with a steady income and he stages a funeral with holograms to help preserve secret identities. More

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      How One Graphic Novel Looks at Anti-Asian Hate

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      In “Cyclopedia Exotica,” the artist and writer Aminder Dhaliwal created a fictitious community facing xenophobia, fetishization and media misrepresentation. It’s resonating with her thousands of Instagram followers.In the new graphic novel “Cyclopedia Exotica,” immigrants with one eye coexist uneasily with their two-eyed neighbors.Members of the cyclops community are targeted by curious online daters and porn addicts, as well as cosmetic surgeons eager to give them that desirable two-eyed look. They contend with xenophobes protesting mixed marriages, hateful comments from subway Karens and, in some cases, physical violence.In 2018, when the artist and author Aminder Dhaliwal began sharing pages with her nearly 250,000 Instagram followers, she was drawing from her experiences as a South Asian woman growing up in England and Canada, but she wondered if the topic was relevant.“I remember saying to a friend, I want to do a book on microaggressions, but that’s, like, so old. Is it even worth doing?” she said in a phone interview from Burbank, Calif., where she now lives.Three years on, Dhaliwal’s book seems particularly of the moment. It’s tough to miss the parallels between its characters, minorities singled out because of their eyes, and the spate of reported attacks on Asian people in the United States over the past months. “I could not imagine that this would be happening this year,” she said.The graphic novel begins with the story of Etna, the world’s first cyclops sex symbol. Her critically acclaimed 2018 debut, “Woman World,” imagined an idyllic, supremely chill future in which guys went extinct years ago. (Spoiler alert: They aren’t really missed.) Published by the Canadian comics house Drawn & Quarterly this month, “Cyclopedia Exotica” is her second book and has already connected with a diverse readership.“A lot of the microaggression stuff was specifically about Asians,” Dhaliwal, 32, said. “But I also get questions like, ‘Is this about queer people?’ Or, ‘I relate to this so much as a trans person.’”Born in Wembley, London, she moved when she was 11 to Brampton, Ontario, a predominantly South Asian suburb of Toronto. She loved to draw from an early age, tracing the covers of her brother’s video game cases and creating Harry Potter fan art. She knew she wanted to do something art-related but wasn’t sure what she could do or whom to even ask. “Being an Asian kid, I feel like my family had access to every doctor,” she said. “But I didn’t know anyone doing art.”Inspired by a presentation at Sheridan College given by a Disney “Beauty and the Beast” animator, Dhaliwal enrolled in the school’s animation department. “He was this larger guy with a big old beard, and he flips a switch and he’s Belle,” she said. “It was just bananas to me. I knew at that moment that I wanted to dedicate my life to this craft, because it just seemed so fun and silly.”After graduation, Dhaliwal found work in Los Angeles as a writer and artist on animated shows like “The Fairly OddParents” and “Sanjay and Craig.” The work was rewarding — in 2020, she earned a spot on Variety’s list of “Ten Animators to Watch” — but the secrecy and nondisclosure agreements involved wore her down. “So much of my day-to-day is hidden behind N.D.A.’s,” she said. “You get exhausted not getting to talk about the cool things you’re working on or getting to process the hard things you’re going through.”Aminder Dhaliwal began sharing pages on Instagram in 2018. “I remember saying to a friend, I want to do a book on microaggressions, but that’s, like, so old,” she said. “Is it even worth doing?”Joyce Kim for The New York TimesAfter working for four years on a pilot for an animated series that never got greenlit, she knew she had to create her own comics, things she could post online for immediate feedback. She started with a Harry Potter spoof, then a tongue-in-cheek comic based on the Japanese manga series “Death Note.”“Woman World” came to Dhaliwal after she participated in the 2017 Women’s March in Los Angeles and saw signs that read “the future is female.” What might that look like, she wondered? As with “Cyclopedia Exotica,” she questioned her idea early on. “I remember starting to write it and thinking like, ehhh, feminism is doing great,” she said. “And then the #MeToo movement happened, and I was like, oh yeah.”The animation industry had its own reckoning in 2018, dubbed the #MeToon movement. Dhaliwal and her fellow animator Megan Nicole Dong (“Pinky Malinky,” “How to Train Your Dragon 2”) joined others in creating an organization that led to changes in human-resources practices at several studios and the one-year suspension of the “Loud House” creator Chris Savino following sexual harassment allegations. “Initially, we were just trying to create a safe space to talk about things that had been happening in animation,” Dong said. “But it evolved into a much bigger movement within our industry.”The success of “Woman World” gave Dhaliwal new confidence. “I had been working as a comedy writer for years and didn’t know if I was funny,” she said. “I remember asking one of my office mates, ‘Am I funny?,’ which now seems like such a sad question. It’s like a teenager asking a friend, ‘Am I pretty?’ I didn’t realize how much I needed someone else to say yes, you’re funny.”Unlike “Woman World,” the inspiration for “Cyclopedia Exotica” didn’t come from a march or movement. “I wish I could tell you there was some really beautiful reason,” Dhaliwal said. “But truly, I just found cyclops so interesting. So often they just look like people, except for their one defining feature. The first thing I remember sketching were pinup drawings of cyclops, and it went from monsters in erotica to looking at how minorities find acceptance through being attractive.”Dhaliwal is among several artists who have showcased and serialized their work on Instagram, including Lucy Knisley (“Kid Gloves”), Shelby Lorman (“Awards for Good Boys”), and Liana Finck (“Passing for Human”). Like Dhaliwal, many use social-media platforms to show their work, describe their creative processes and discuss everything from depression to writer’s block.“Cyclopedia Exotica” begins with the story of Etna, the world’s first cyclops sex symbol. Later, other cyclops deal with being perceived as overly submissive, the lack of cyclops representation in Hollywood movies, and worries about whether mixed children will have one eye or two.“Aminder has always been so observant about everything,” Dong said. “She’s also friends with so many people, and so many different kinds of people, that all of these things in her book feel very authentic, because they’re either based on things she’s experienced or things her family and friends have gone through.”One cyclops goes to a cosmetic surgeon to get two eyes — a nod, Dhaliwal said, to double-eyelid surgeries targeted at Asians. The character’s surgery doesn’t take. “People die for beauty, because they feel they don’t look a certain way,” she said. “But so often people trivialize beauty, and say things like, you need to get over it, or you need to be OK with yourself.”“That’s the message animation shows always try to tell kids,” she continued. “Be true to yourself. But I think that can be really hard to swallow when the world has punished you so often for being who you are.”In many ways, the current climate of anti-Asian hate feels familiar to Dhaliwal. “I remember after 9/11, and for the next 10 or 15 years, it just sucked having brown skin. It seemed like every offhand joke was about being a terrorist. And then you get this odd experience where you’re like, finally, the Eye of Sauron turns to another group, and your first reaction is like, phew, we’re out of it, the eye’s not on us anymore! When instead, we should be thinking: No one should ever feel like this.”Dhaliwal is working on a new comic series that she hopes to begin posting on Instagram this month. She’s also written for the upcoming Netflix animated series “Centaurworld,” created by Dong, and was recently selected to serve as a mentor and consultant on the Creative Council of Cartoon Network’s shorts program, “Cartoon Cartoons,” which will showcase the work of diverse and up-and-coming animators.While Dhaliwal probably won’t be telling her mentees to just be true to themselves, she will be able to share what it means to be a working animator in an industry that’s gotten more inclusive but still has a ways to go. “I’m going to get to give creative feedback to all these people who are trying to make something and do something really creative,” she said. “It’s exciting to be in this position, because I’ve been in their position so often.”Follow New York Times Books on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar. And listen to us on the Book Review podcast. More

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      ‘Transformers’ and a Zombie Comedy: What ‘Invincible’ Is Made Of

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      The writer behind the Amazon Prime superhero show ‘Invincible’ shares the films, comic books and characters he drew on to create the new series.Comics-to-screen adaptations are tricky to pull off — and hard-core comic book fans can be exacting — but Robert Kirkman has now been the writer behind two of them.First, he masterminded the comic book “The Walking Dead,” then helped turn it into one of the most popular TV series of the 21st century. Now Kirkman is executive producer of “Invincible,” an animated Amazon Prime show based on a superhero he created with the illustrator Cory Walker. Loaded with top-shelf voice talent led by Steven Yeun as the title’s teenage superbeing (real name: Mark Grayson) and J.K. Simmons as his father, Omni-Man, the new series is irreverent and dramatic, funny and graphically violent, and never less than gleefully entertaining. The comic book was published from 2003 to 2018 by Skybound, an Image Comics imprint.In a video call from Los Angeles, Kirkman, 42, discussed some of what inspired him in his work on “Invincible.”Marvel ComicsAn interior page from “Amazing Fantasy” #15 (1962), by Stan Lee, writer, and Steve Ditko, artist.MarvelRight, Mark Grayson/Invincible (voiced by Steven Yeun), with his parents, Debbie Grayson (Sandra Oh), and Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons).Amazon Prime VideoNaturally, a superhero story is going to draw from one of the biggest publishers of the genre, but Kirkman zeroed in on a specific side of Marvel Comics. “Their big innovation in the ’60s was to treat the superhero characters as if they were human beings,” he said. “There were stories dealing with trouble at work and having to make rent. So ‘Invincible’ tries to dig deep on the family aspects and portray inhuman characters as deeply human.”“When superpowered characters go on dates they can have lunch in Rome or their favorite bistro in France. They’re not constrained by the same realities of time and distance as we are,” Kirkman said. If Mark is falling short as a boyfriend, he added, “it’s not because he forgot to text before he went out with the boys; it’s because he had to do a quick mission on Mars. We’re able to use the fantasy elements of a superhero world to heighten the everyday relatable drama.”The non-superheroic folks don’t get ignored, either. Invincible’s mother, Debbie (Sandra Oh), for example, has issues of her own. “Her main story line in the first season is a suspicion over her husband doing something that could be potentially very bad,” Kirkman said. “A wife suspicious of her husband is a very real thing that a lot of people deal with — a somewhat grounded conflict in this crazy superhero world.”DC Comics’ Silver AgeFrom “The Girl in Superman’s Past” (An Untold Tale of Superman) written by Bill Finger, penciled by Wayne Boring and inked by Stan Kaye. #129 (May,  1959).DCFrom left, Invincible, voiced by Steven Yeun, with Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen), in “Invincible.” Amazon Prime VideoKirkman is a fan of the lighter aspects of superhero stories, especially as they flourished at DC Comics in the 1950s through 1970s; he singles out Superman’s romance with the mermaid Lori Lemaris, and also mentioned his turning back time by flying around the Earth at super-speed in the Richard Donner film “Superman,” from 1978. “By embracing the sillier aspects of Silver Age comic books, we’re not telling silly stories — I don’t think anyone would ever say that ‘Invincible’ is silly,” Kirkman said. “But holding your breath and speaking telepathically while you fight around the orbit of the planet is goofy, a father and son playing catch by throwing a ball around the curvature of the Earth is ridiculous,” he continued, referring to events in his new show. “Playing those scenes straight shines a spotlight on how unique and how cool the world of superheroes can be.”‘The Transformers: The Movie’ (1986) by Nelson ShinSunbow ProductionsOmni-Man in a scene in Episode 1 in which the Guardians are killed.Amazon Prime VideoVisible behind Kirkman was a poster of this animated feature, which he saw when he was 8. The movie dispatches Optimus Prime, the heroic leader of the Autobots, early on, a storytelling decision that made a big impression on the future writer. “By giving the audience something they would tell you they absolutely don’t want, you can actually give them something that is really fulfilling and better than anything they could have imagined,” he said.“The Walking Dead” is famous for abruptly killing off fan favorites, and the first episode of “Invincible” ends in a startling massacre. “The stories that come after that are richer because of that loss,” Kirkman said.‘Dead Alive’ (1993) by Peter JacksonWingNut FilmsOmni-Man in the gore of the Guardians’ battle, a scene not unlike the shocking gore inspired by the movie “Dead Alive,” above.Amazon Prime VideoWith its crushed skulls and geysers of blood, “Invincible” does not shy from violence. Kirkman, however, claims that he gets queasy easily.“I’m not great at realistic gore, but I do enjoy the shockingness and startling aspect of when unrealistic gore happens,” he explained. Once again, a childhood experience proved formative.He was about 15 when his father came in with a VHS tape, saying, ‘I’m supposed to take this back to the video store, but this movie’s insane, you’ve got to watch it,’” Kirkman said fondly.It was this delirious low-budget zombie-comedy hybrid by the director who would later deliver the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and Kirkman was not disappointed. “The climax is, there’s a house full of zombies and a guy ties a lawn mower around his neck and runs around hacking people up,” he said.Rob Liefeld“New Mutants” #100 by the artist Rob Liefeld.MarvelMonster Girl, far left, in a soap-opera moment.Amazon Prime VideoKirkman picked Liefeld not because he was one of the founders of Image Comics (which published both the “Invincible” and “The Walking Dead” comic books) but for his storytelling chops. “If you look at how fast-paced ‘Invincible’ is, that is something Rob very much established in his work,” Kirkman said.He also enjoys Liefeld’s taste for plotting antics, singling out a big reveal in issue 100 of “The New Mutants,” from 1991, in which the villainous Stryfe takes off his helmet, revealing himself to be the gun-toting warrior Cable — or is he?“Seeing that kind of stuff and how it works in comics has led to some of those bigger cliffhangers and wackier soap-opera moments in ‘Invincible,’” Kirkman continued, mentioning Monster Girl, “who is trapped in a youthful body,” as an example. She turns into a big beast, but each time she transforms, she returns looking even younger, which presents complications — it’s hard to date when you’re a 20-something who looks 12.‘Savage Dragon’ by Erik Larsen“Savage Dragon” #103 cover, art by Erik Larsen.Image Comics“Invincible” #113 interior page, art by Ryan Ottley.Image ComicsKirkman praises this comic book as his favorite of all time, and a big reason is that the title character aged over the years — just like the “Invincible” books introduce a 17-year-old Mark Grayson who eventually grows older, marries, becomes a father. “That’s something that’s definitely pulled from Erik Larsen,” Kirkman said.While the series has just started, he and Yeun already have Mark’s future in mind. “In the very earliest recording sessions, Steven pulled me aside and said, “I’m trying to play him as very young and naïve because I know where the character goes and I want to be able to change my voice over time,’ ” Kirkman said. “I don’t know exactly how many seasons the show will run at this point, but the goal is to tell that complete story.” More