Tieri on Batroc the Leaper

[Roughneck]

I love Frank Tieri's work for Marvel, I think he has a lot more potential than they use him for....His Weapon X was a well thought out excellently executed series that should not have been cancelled. Underworld was a great mini that gave us a new insight to the street level criminalsof the Marvel Universe.

Hell even his Apocalypse vs Dracula was good. Suck a silly Idea and Title but he made it work and even added details that can be further explored in the rest of the Marvel U (ie Chamber being a decendant of Apocalypse) And now I think he is bing underused on a book like New Excaluibur, only waiting for Claremont to come back to it.

So anyway he has a new goal in comics....see for yourself.

Q: Given your penchant for crime drama and dirty tales, is there a C-List villain that you think is kind of cool and would like to explore in a larger story?

A: I'll give you not a C-List villain, but I'll give you a D-List villain. I was talking with Tom Brevoort on this too. I would love to do a Batroc the Leaper story. It is my goal to make Batroc the Leaper a bad ass. If you think about it there is no real reason why this character sucks as much as he does. Take away that "Pepe Le Pew" way of talking. Take away the Rollie Fingers mustache and you got a guy who's a master of kickboxing. There is no reason why this guy should suck. If I had a goal-it's to make him a bad ass, and I think that I know how to do it!

 

[iloveclones]

My LCBS has little cut-outs of Batroc's head that they put on all of the posters in the shop. So if it's a group shot, it has 10 or 15 Batroc heads. They put them on Manga, statues, toys, comic covers, whatever. It's kind of bizarre, random, and funny.

 

[The Leaguer]

He wants to take away the speech mannerisms and moustache, but also wants to make him badass? That's a self-defeating man, right there.

 

[Savage]

Awesome. He was great in the first Black Panther arc and every time I see him make an appearance, there is always great action.

 

[Anubis]

Whatever he does, he's gotta keep the stash. It just aint Batroc without it.

 

[The Question]

Batroc's already a badass. Just give him a costume change. Spandex on international mercenaries really doesn't work.

 

[Roughneck]

We may think he's badass but he's not....he usually appears as a bit of a joke and gets his ass handed to him quickly.....I think Tieri means he wants to make Batroc a large threat in the Marvel U.

I just want to see Tieri write more.

 

[Dread]

For my money, there are far better villians worthy of an upgrade in status than Batroc. Shocker? Hydro-Man? Graviton? Count Nefaria? Why a guy who at best is a really good kickboxer? Martial artists are a dime a dozen in the MU.

But he's free to try.

 

[Cyclops]

If he can make Batroc a serious villain, I'm all for it.

 

[Muze]

i like the look Romita jr gave him in Black Panther. he actually looked cool even if he got beaten up by an old lady.

http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=page2&issue=11028608854%203

 

[Dread]

i like the look Romita jr gave him in Black Panther. he actually looked cool even if he got beaten up by an old lady.

http://www.milehighcomics.com/cgi-bin/backissue.cgi?action=page2&issue=11028608854%203

Anything is better than his "Wolverine as a ballerina" -esque outfit. And yes I know he predates Wolverine.

 

[Harlekin]

Dude, the awesomeness of Batroc is in the accent, the clothes and the 'stache. Taking all that away would make it anything but Batroc.

 

[Grim Goblin]

I don't think he actually meant to say that he'd remove those aspects. It seemed to me like he was mainly saying: "if you look beyond the accent and the mustache, you're left with a character that should be a real threat instead of a joke."

 

[The Question]

Exactly. You can't ditch the accent, flamboiant manerisms, or the almighty stache. You can ditch the costume of you like, but the personality and god like facial hair should remain intact. He just should also be a major international mercenairy/assassin.

 

[Kitsune]

If DC Can make Catman a serious character. I don't see why Marvel can't do Batroc. Keep the mustache and the accent, but drop the spandex. I'd say that would do it, but make sure he's a mercenary and not a common criminal. No robbing banks or knocking over liquor stores. Have him attack heroes directly, or guard drugs and so on. The concept of a martial artist mercinary who happens to be French isn't that bad. I wouldn't get rid of the humor aspect of the character entirely, just confine it to his French Chavanism.

 

[Harlekin]

Half of the humour is in the costume. I certainly wouldn't want him to be that much of a serious character. Funny, badass and asskicker aren't mutually exclusive.

 

[Grim Goblin]

Half of the humour is in the costume. I certainly wouldn't want him to be that much of a serious character. Funny, badass and asskicker aren't mutually exclusive.

Like Ash !

 

[The Question]

Half of the humour is in the costume. I certainly wouldn't want him to be that much of a serious character. Funny, badass and asskicker aren't mutually exclusive.

Personally, I think simply having his flamboinat personality and terrible comprehension of the English language is funny enough. A good running joke could be made about how Batroc is a highly inteligent university graduate who simply sounds like a moron because he can barely speak English.

 

[Dread]

Interestingly, Zaran from Batroc's "brigade" actually has some minor victories to brag about. He once nearly killed Moon Knight during that "Marvel Knights" series from a few years back, and naturally iced Grasshopper from GLA.

It'd be cool if Marvel wanted to amp up their villians; lord knows they need it if they want to stop turning heroes into villians. I just think there're more worthy examples than Batroc. But, guess ya gotta start somewhere.

Would Tieri acknowledge he has a daughter? She fought Agent X, and lost.

 

[The Overlord]

Batroc's already a badass. Just give him a costume change. Spandex on international mercenaries really doesn't work.

Its hard to him seriously when he talks like a French sterotype.

 

[The Overlord]

Exactly. You can't ditch the accent, flamboiant manerisms, or the almighty stache. You can ditch the costume of you like, but the personality and god like facial hair should remain intact. He just should also be a major international mercenairy/assassin.

But he sounds like a sterotype, people who learn a new language
don't suddenly just laspe into their native tongue for a few words (not to mention using these terms in something other than their proper context). Batroc's dialogue not only stereotypical but hilariously badly translated:

He uses terms like "Zut alors" often in a totally inappropriate context. Some of the French he speaks is just managled:

Nom du chien! Your insolence is insupportable-- insufferable!! For zat you shall pay un mille fois!" (Batroc should say "Nom d'un chien" and he shouldn't use the "un" for "mille fois")

The way he speaks now, he comes off as a French sterotype, not a bad @ss merc. Its hard to take him seriously.

 

[The Question]

But he sounds like a sterotype, people who learn a new language
don't suddenly just laspe into their native tongue for a few words (not to mention using these terms in something other than their proper context).

Actually, if someone has a very bad grasp of a new language, they probably would laps into their native toung quite frequently.

Batroc's dialogue not only stereotypical but hilariously badly translated:

He uses terms like "Zut alors" often in a totally inappropriate context. Some of the French he speaks is just managled:

Nom du chien! Your insolence is insupportable-- insufferable!! For zat you shall pay un mille fois!" (Batroc should say "Nom d'un chien" and he shouldn't use the "un" for "mille fois")

That's the fault of the writer. Just get a better translator next time.

The way he speaks now, he comes off as a French sterotype, not a bad @ss merc. Its hard to take him seriously.

Someone can be a French steriotype and a bad ass merc at the same time.

 

[The Overlord]

Actually, if someone has a very bad grasp of a new language, they probably would laps into their native toung quite frequently.



That's the fault of the writer. Just get a better translator next time.



Someone can be a French steriotype and a bad ass merc at the same time.

I live in Canada, where we have a whole province of French speaking people, I have seen them on TV and worked with them, I have never seen any French Canadian incert random French words into an English conversation, if a French speaker would laspe into his or her native they would do it completely and start speaking French, not incerting random French words in English conversation. Some Canadian politicans have trouble with English, but I have never heard any of them talk like Batroc.

I man if there was Japanese merc and he spoke a sterotypical Japanese accent, confusing Rs and Ls would people take him seriously?

 

[Kitsune]

Someone can be a French steriotype and a bad ass merc at the same time.

Depends on the steriotype we're talking about. "arrogent and chauvanistic frankophile" works, but "cheese eating surrender monkey" wouldn't.

 

[Harlekin]

I still don't see why people have this compulsive need to see Batroc being taken seriously. That's the fun of the character. He isn't to be taken serious. He can still be a badass though.