Powers?

[Bubastis]

he has abilities. Frank miller explains, “he’s not a superhero. He can’t fly, he can’t throw cars around. But he can take ridiculous amounts of punishment, and heal faster than anybody.” he also has acrobatic ability and female attraction (“the old eisner comics were loaded with romance, beautiful and dangerous women, and pheromones was a way to explain the sparks flying between the spirit and every woman he meets,” frank miller explained). The spirit's abilities in the movie have their roots in the old spirit comics. The ability to take intense physical punishment and recover, acrobatic ability and the female attraction.

why is this something that needs to be explained/have a reason!?!?!?!

 

[DJ Kornphlake]

James Bond never needed pheromones, I don't know why Denny would.

 

[Bubastis]

I mean, did something happen in Frank Miller's life that convinced him that only a man with pheromone powers could be legitimately loved?

 

[CrimsonMist]

why is this something that needs to be explained/have a reason!?!?!?!

I've been asking God that same question.

He still hasn't answered me.

 

[mego joe]

I understand that the Spirit is meant to be a sort of Comic book brought to life, a cartoon. Like in action films where people punch and fight but don't fall down.
Its something I can overlook and excuse.
Its not really powers, its like cartoon exaggeration.
(just my opinion.) Its like the over the top violence in Sin City. None of those guys were super powered.

What I was curious about was the scenes where the Spirit is getting shot so many times, and it looks like its right in his chest. Unless it turns out that its somehow not Deny Colt, like its a henchmen in disguise or a mannequin, then he has super powers (It would seem to me).
But I guess from what I am hearing, Miller gave him powers.
Does anyone know why? Is it because Miller thought he had to explain why the Spirit gets hurt so much but never dies or something?

Also, I thought that Eisner made up the Spirit to be sort of just a detective hero. Not really a superhero.
You know the story, about how Eisner drew the Spirit and was told by his editor that he had to give him a costume because superheroes were all the rage. So he drew the mask on him.

So I always thought that the Spirit was meant to be sort of a regular detective who faked his death and wears a costume.

(Not saying its something that would ruin the movie or anything, it just seems very different from the original concept of the comic. Am I wrong?
I haven't read any Spirit really. Too expensive.)

Basically Miller changed the character from a regular non-powered guy who actually bleeds, is blinded, breaks limbs and suffers from his altercations to a superpower character who can walk away from multiple machine gun wounds with no ill effects.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Basically Miller changed the character from a regular non-powered guy who actually bleeds, is blinded, breaks limbs and suffers from his altercations to a superpower character who can walk away from multiple machine gun wounds with no ill effects.

He still bleeds and suffers wounds.

 

[CrimsonMist]

He still bleeds and suffers wounds.

yea, for the short time before his Wolverine healing powers kick in.

 

[theMan-Bat]

I don't have a problem with him being able to take intense physical punishment and recover quickly.

 

[CrimsonMist]

I don't have a problem with him being able to take intense physical punishment and recover quickly.

you don't have problems with ANYTHING in the movie.

I have a problem with the fact that in order for him to take that punishment, Miller had to give the Spirit a stupid power.

 

[theMan-Bat]

you don't have problems with ANYTHING in the movie.

Correctamundo!

I have a problem with the fact that in order for him to take that punishment, Miller had to give the Spirit a stupid power.

No ones forcing you to watch. Get over it. Enjoy the Spirit material you do like. I don't like Snyder's Watchmen but I don't go to the Watchmen boards and whine about it. I focus on what I do like, not on what I don't like, because that would just put me in a bad mood and life's too short.

 

[DJ Kornphlake]

Correctamundo!



No ones forcing you to watch. Get over it. Enjoy the Spirit material you do like. I don't like Snyder's Watchmen but I don't go to the Watchmen boards and whine about it. I focus on what I do like, not on what I don't like, because that would just put me in a bad mood and life's too short.

I seem to recall you complaining over on the Batman: Brave and the Bold board.

 

[theMan-Bat]

I seem to recall you complaining over on the Batman: Brave and the Bold board.

I criticized it a little, but the episode with Aquaman, "Evil Under the Sea," won me over.

 

[DJ Kornphlake]

Ah, good to hear that.

 

[Artistsean]

At 5:06/9:53 it talks about Will Eisner not giving the Spirit powers on purpose.
Now, I haven't seen the movie and I plan to. It may be good, or bad, and maybe giving him "powers" of some sort doesn't change Eisner's vision. But I just saw this about the powers so i posted it. I don't want to complain about it, so here it is.

 

[cryptic name]

I understand that the Spirit is meant to be a sort of Comic book brought to life, a cartoon. Like in action films where people punch and fight but don't fall down.
Its something I can overlook and excuse.
Its not really powers, its like cartoon exaggeration.
(just my opinion.) Its like the over the top violence in Sin City. None of those guys were super powered.

What I was curious about was the scenes where the Spirit is getting shot so many times, and it looks like its right in his chest. Unless it turns out that its somehow not Deny Colt, like its a henchmen in disguise or a mannequin, then he has super powers (It would seem to me).
But I guess from what I am hearing, Miller gave him powers.
Does anyone know why? Is it because Miller thought he had to explain why the Spirit gets hurt so much but never dies or something?

Also, I thought that Eisner made up the Spirit to be sort of just a detective hero. Not really a superhero.
You know the story, about how Eisner drew the Spirit and was told by his editor that he had to give him a costume because superheroes were all the rage. So he drew the mask on him.

So I always thought that the Spirit was meant to be sort of a regular detective who faked his death and wears a costume.

(Not saying its something that would ruin the movie or anything, it just seems very different from the original concept of the comic. Am I wrong?
I haven't read any Spirit really. Too expensive.)

well, as everyone has said, he does have sorta vague powers in the movie. but the scene you mentioned where he gets shot alot,

Spoiler

he's actually wearing a high tech flak jacket under his shirt

and as for faking his death, that's pretty much true, but from my understanding, denny colt actually died and a character named doctor cobra injected him with something that brought him back. i could be wrong though.

 

[OctaviusINC]

and as for faking his death, that's pretty much true, but from my understanding, denny colt actually died and a character named doctor cobra injected him with something that brought him back. i could be wrong though.

Colt was going to arrest Doctor Cobra, who created a serum that slows down vital signs to make them appear dead. Denny gets in a scuffle with Cobra and a bullet hits the vat, spilling the liquid. Denny gets roughed up and the chemicals hit him. The serum does it's job and Denny passes out, slowing down his vital signs, making him appear dead. Cops show up, see that he died, proclaim him a hero and bury him. Denny awakes and *TADA!* The Spirit is born.

Miller ACTUALLY had him die. And the Octopus brought him back to life. And now Denny is unkillable, that is unless, according to Floss, you cut him up into pieces and mail him away from each other.

There's no superpowers with Eisner's Spirit. Anyone could be him. He's just a detective that works with the law instead of for it. He fights crime with his fists. And he's tough. Very tough.

 

[theMan-Bat]

Frank Miller talks about it (and everything else) in new interviews:

Q. One of the hallmarks of Eisner’s Spirit is that he’s an ordinary guy without superpowers or Batman-like gadgets. The movie gives him a self-healing superpower, like Wolverine or the Hulk. What was the reasoning behind that?

A. Well, I read a lot of Spirit comics when I was growing up, and he seemed to be able to take a cinderblock to the head better than anybody I ever heard of. And I just thought that he took unusual punishment was a fact of the character that should be explored. And it also made for some wonderful Tex Avery kind of scenes early in the movie. (Animation director Avery was famous for the exaggerated action in his 1940s-50s MGM cartoons in particular.) But it also raised the mystery of who he is and ... why he could take so much punishment.

Q. Eisner was perhaps using comic exaggeration rather than saying the Spirit had a superpower. Do you anticipate taking any flak for this from fans?

A. I assume I will get a lot of flak for a lot of things, and frankly, I don’t give a damn.

Q. What else do you think you’ll get flak for?

A. Because he doesn’t have a blue suit, which would have looked silly. That (supporting character and love interest) Ellen Dolan isn’t just a little simpering daughter to somebody; she’s a surgeon. I don’t know what I’ll get flak for - I just do the stuff I do! ... Comics fans are wonderful, sincere people, but they can be a little arch.

Q. What’s with all the cats in the movie? They even had credits.

A. Yes, all my cats got credits.

Q. They’re your cats?

A. I figured anybody who lived in a mausoleum would have two things: a vermin problem and a lot of cats. I just thought that was a detail that Eisner left out, so I put a lot of cats in his place.

What's the big deal about Converse All Stars?

"Isn't it obvious? I mean, what's the big deal about the Pietà? They're beautiful!" responds Miller. "Also, it's always bothered me that superheroes wear dress shoes to run across rooftops, because if I wear dress shoes I can barely make it down a flight of stairs. But, yeah, we all have our trademarks, and Converse boots are one of mine, because they're fun to draw.
"There are certain things you learn as a cartoonist, and one of them is that nothing is really boring. If you actually look at it and figure out how it works, things are stranger than you think, and one of the most interesting things we wear is shoes.
"There's a reason women are obsessed with them. They're complex in their structure, because the foot is complex. Most people think of the foot as being the end of an 'L', whereas in fact the foot is as complicated as the hand and almost as dexterous. Now the headline's going to be 'Foot Fetishist Frank Miller'!"

Q. What were the specific Spirit stories that you incorporated in the movie?

Frank Miller: The specific stories that made the core of this movie were three. One was Sand Saref, the second one was Bring In Sand Saref, which is basically a two-parter. And the other one was another story called Showdown, which was nothing but a bloody fight between The Spirit and The Octopus where it was demonstrated that both of them could withstand inhuman punishment, which led then to figuring out how to justify that. And that’s where the original part of the screenplay takes shape because the relationship between The Octopus and The Spirit is at the heart of the story.

Q. How do you think Will Eisner would have reacted to the film?

Frank Miller: Here’s how I think Will would react to it [mimics Will’s voice]: “You know, Frank, he never picks up a gun, so that’s good; the chicks were great, and I’m going to sell a tonne of books!”

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/article/67257-fast-chat-with-the-spirit-director-frank-miller/
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...ar-tussle-with-the-film-industry-1219724.html
http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Film-Review/the-spirit-frank-miller-interview

 

[TheVileOne]

Well Frank Miller ruined the mystery. And the "tex avery" sequences were garbage.

 

[mego joe]

I think Miller has misinterpretted the 'unusual punishment' aspect. And in the process telling a story about a guy with superpowers really lost the essence of the character as a normal guy. Unfortuanately, for Eisner's estate I don't think Miller's film will help sell a 'ton of books.'

I just can't imagine Eisner liking Miller's film.

 

[dft-313]

Eisner sells respectably, still. I hope in a few years they do this as a Brad Bird animated series.

 

[Mercurius]

Q. How do you think Will Eisner would have reacted to the film?

Frank Miller: Here’s how I think Will would react to it [mimics Will’s voice]: “You know, Frank, he never picks up a gun, so that’s good; the chicks were great, and I’m going to sell a tonne of books!”

Translating Miller's gimmicks:

Eisner would dread the movie, and be a nice fellow to his anxious apprentice not saying it in colourful words.

 

[TheVileOne]

"The chicks were great."

Thank you Frank Miller.