Thursday, April 01, 2010

Comics into movies: "The Losers"

I remember "The Losers" as a WWII comic from DC. That is, it was an early `70's publication set in WWII. I was never a big fan of war comics, but when I heard about "The Losers" movie I wanted to dig a little deeper.

Wikipedia helped set my mental record straight. "The Losers" I remember were each from different branches of the military, assembled as a crack team of commandos to take on the worst jobs of WWII. Each team member had lost personnel under their command, so they dubbed themselves "The Losers". These stories were written by Robert Kanigher and drawn by Russ Heath.

Later, DC transferred the title to their Vertigo line. Vertigo was created in the `90's to showcase edgier stories than normal DC fare, including adult situations and concepts. For Vertigo "The Losers" were modernized by making them each members of a more covert-ops/special forces sort of squad.

"The Losers" movie is based on the Vertigo version of the comics and, after viewing the trailer and reviewing the Wiki about the comics, it seems to borrow fairly heavily from the premise of "The A-Team", in that the main characters have somehow become outcasts from and/or enemies of the organizations to which they'd originally pledged their lives.

I suspect "The A-Team" will probably be the better movie, with the star-power to make their plans come together.

If you're a fan of these, you will probably also enjoy "The Expendables", and have probably already seen "Inglourious Basterds". In all, it looks like a great summer for good old action flicks.

For more action and adventure between these exciting films there are plenty of similar books at Bonnett's Books to help you pass the time. Stop by to check out our huge selection of action/adventure books, military fiction, military history, war stories, and pulp fiction, including "The Destroyer", "The Executioner", "Able Team", "Stony Man", "Doc Savage", miscellaneous war comics, and action movies on DVD.

Learn more about "The Losers" here:
The Losers (comics) on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losers_%28comics%29
The Losers on don Markstein's Toonopedia - http://www.toonopedia.com/losers.htm
The Losers (DC WWII version by Jack Kirby) - http://www.dccomics.com/dcu/graphic_novels/?gn=10915
The Losers (Vertigo/movie inspiration) - http://www.dccomics.com/vertigo/graphic_novels/?gn=13870
The Losers movie listing on IMDb - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480255/
The Losers movie official site (movie trailer) - http://www.the-losers.com/

4 comments:

  1. "The Losers" stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan who played The Comedian in another comic book movie, "WATCHMEN" and will appear later this year in the remake of "Red Dawn". He has also appeared in "Star Trek: Enterprise" as an alien.

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  2. Co-star Chris Evans is probably most famous as Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch from "The Fantastic Four" and "The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer", but talk about comic cred! Chris has also just been signed to play the one and only Captain America in "The First Avenger: Captain America" due out next year. What's more? He voiced Casey Jones in the CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, "TMNT".

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  3. Zoe Saldana is everywhere these days, including in "The Losers". She voiced the female lead Neytiri in "Avatar", she flustered Kirk and made cold-blooded Spock hot under the collar in late year's "Star Trek", and she was even in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl"!

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  4. Idris Elba is slated to be in the "Thor" comic book movie coming out next year.

    Can you believe all the comic book, science fiction, action, and adventure cred wrapped up in this cast?

    Maybe I was wrong about "The A-Team" being the better film... nah.

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