This is fun. It's a supervillian musical starring Doogie Howser M.D. and Captain Malcolm Reynolds. What could be bad about that? Nothing, that's what. Throw in Felecia Day and a few Whedon's behind the scenes and you have a spectacular nerd-gasm of originality which is fun, sweet and with a little menace thrown in. It turns the normal way of things on it's head with Dr Horrible the villian being the protagonist and Captain Hammer the hero being the antagonist. And, it was all done on a budget of like, 6 bucks or something.
It begins as a vlog. Or VIDEO BLOG, if your too dumb to figure that out. Dr. Horrible is talking about his evil doings as if it's normal and reading some letters he has been sent by people who watch his vlog. Video blog. He updates us on his progress saying whatever-the-fuck went well and he is proud of his evil accomplishments. This goes on for about 3 minutes and then the music starts. To say that these songs are forgettable would be idiotic, as you will be singing them in the shower, such is their catchiness.
Castle plays a great D-bag.
Originally streamed onto the internets in 3 parts for free, they won an arse load of awards and praise for its originality and enjoyment and timing. It was produced during the writers strike of 07-08 as a way to circumvent the issues being disputed at the time. Thank you Wikipedia.
At the Streamy's it picked up 7 awards, an Emmy in some form and also appeared in Time Magazine's top 50 inventions in 2008. Not bad considering it wasn't actually an invention. The Whedon's used what they had to create this including talent, friendship and know how. Nathan Fillion was in Firefly and Buffy, Felicia Day was in Buffy, Neil Patrick Harris was cast through the connection to Alyson Hannigan of Buffy and How I Met Your Mother of which Harris co-stars, I guess. I don't know that one. Joss would also tell Felicia that her web series The Guild was also an inspiration behind Dr. Horrible's format.
All sexy in The Guild.
Felicia plays Penny, the romantic interest for both Billy/Dr. H and Capt. Hammer and if you have any prior knowledge of all things Joss Whedon, you know shits gonna go south for someone. If you haven't seen this by now then sorry about that, I didn't actually tell you what happens so shoosh.
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is original, Whedonesque and shit-awesome. They just now have to make the sequel which is supposed to happen eventually. But if they never do, this cult fav knows it's place in the world. It's also inspired a shit load of unofficial and official stage productions, such is its influence.
Just quickly, if you can find Sarah Michelle Gellar's cameo in this you are a fucking legend.
Now onto the comic....
A couple of short stories have appeared in Dark Horse Presents but I'll talk about the one-shot Dr. Horrible comic for now.
This particular story focuses on Billy's childhood and back story as to why he became who he is. It began with being bullied by some kids and then seeing another superhero, Justice Joe, getting his arse handed to him by Mister Maniacal and Billy witnessing it. In essence I guess he's a fanboy with the gall to actually try to fuck shit up.
Brilliant dialogue.
It's really quite a good read from Zack Whedon, even if we didn't really NEED to know any back-story it's cool to see some more parts of it. It documents Horrible and Hammers first meeting and the beginning of their not-particularly-legendary foe-ism? Ness? Mortal Enemy-ship? Something like that. And shows when Billy first met Penny. It's kind of a cameo for the fans.
So basically anyway it's kind of hard to capture the source material and shove it into a comic book, try as they might, and at times you can see that. It doesn't take away from the story at all and you cant expect it to be perfect. I reckon its pretty hard to write a story retroactively but there's not a plot hole to be found here. The only thing that really seems that different is that the action is a lot different and on film, would cost a fuck load. That was kind of the point of the original, to make things cheaply and that gave it most of its charm I believe. Other than that, if you start reading it, you wont put it down until you're done and that's all you can really ask for in a comic isn't it?
It was also missing songs. Der.
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