[OOC] CLOSED - Ultimate One Universe: Season One

[Supermaxx]

<Snipped quote by Sep>

Well considering my favorite character already has the perfect voice, I don't really need to speak my piece.

@Simple Unicycle

God. What a good show. I don't think I'd be nearly as into superheroes without Justice League. The Question's arc was one of my favorites in Unlimited, too; he's so fuckin' funny.

[Lord Wraith]

<Snipped quote by Lord Wraith>

Oh yeah, he did a great job in Year One.

Similarly, I really enjoyed Peter Weller's older, more grizzled Batman.

Kevin Conroy's amazing, but damn if there isn't a lot of great competition in the Batman department.

@Superboy

I mean Conroy is still untouchable but someone else is going to cover that so I had to pick one of the others.

I hate the current voice actor though. Jason something I think?

[Byrd Man]

As we have some incredibly healthy discussion going, I'm going to regret this when I wake up.... but since the question was tabled. Who would you choose to voice your favourite characters?

@Sep

Give me Holt McCallany as Slam Bradley any day. Hell, he has the right look to play him in a live action role if it ever came to it.

[Supermaxx]

<Snipped quote by Superboy>

I mean Conroy is still untouchable but someone else is going to cover that so I had to pick one of the others.

I hate the current voice actor though. Jason something I think?

@Lord Wraith

I had a sneaking suspicion that not mentioning Conroy would bring an influx of TAS gifs whenever MB came back around. Had to cover my bases.

Jason O'Mara. He's not terrible, I guess. It's gritty enough that I don't despise everything about his voice, but it feeeelss...lifeless? Dull? He plays Batman straighter than you write a sex scene. Read: not nearly gay enough.

[Byrd Man]

<Snipped quote by Lord Wraith>
Read: not nearly gay enough.

@Superboy

I mean, Batman punishes people all the while wearing leather and armor. Oh, fuck, is Batman the original leather daddy?

[Hound55]

<Snipped quote by Superboy>

I m ean, Batman punishes people all the while wearing leather and armor. Oh, fuck, is Batman the original leather daddy?

@Byrd Man

This is why the Adam West Batman has always been the least gay Batman.

[Lord Wraith]

<Snipped quote by Lord Wraith>

I had a sneaking suspicion that not mentioning Conroy would bring an influx of TAS gifs whenever MB came back around. Had to cover my bases.

Jason O'Mara. He's not terrible, I guess. It's gritty enough that I don't despise everything about his voice, but it feeeelss...lifeless? Dull? He plays Batman straighter than you write a sex scene. Read: not nearly gay enough.

@Superboy

I don't foresee any sex scenes in my posts that will be between anyone other than Blake and Barbara so write me off on that one haha

[AndyC]

Of the vast collection of television shows, movies, and other live-action representations of our favourite comic book characters, who is your definitive, and if not definitive, favourite or preferable representation of that character.

For example, my definitive Lex Luthor is Michael Rosenbaum.

So how about you guys? Who is your Batman/Superman etc?

@Lord Wraith

Well, let's get into it...... (EDIT: Looks like I'm behind the conversation, but accidentally sorta caught up anyway since we're talking voice actors now)

I'm gonna skip the obvious ones (since most of the MCU characters have only had one incarnation, they're shoo-ins), and stick with ones where there's some contention.

Superman: In terms of the image of Superman and in terms of getting all ferklempt when you see him and hear his theme music, there is no replacing Christopher Reeve. In terms of the actual character, though, I gotta say I prefer Henry Cavill.
Lois Lane: If we're including voices, Dana Delaney in an easy walk. If it's live-action only, Teri Hatcher.
Lex Luthor: I get genuinely offended when there's a cartoon or videogame with Lex Luthor in it and it's not Clancy Brown. Going with live-action, I guess I'd have to go with Rosenbaum, since I never liked Hackman's Lex, I prefer my Luthor to not be a pedophile so that takes out Spacey, and everyone would get mad at me if I said Eisenberg.
Batman: Err, I dunno, Christian Bale, but with early-BTAS Kevin Conroy's voice in-costume and Affleck's fight choreographer.
Alfred: Really close call between Michael Caine and Jeremy Irons. Really it depends on if it's an emotional scene or if he's being sassy, because nobody in the universe does the not-quite-crying-but-it-makes-you-cry-instead thing better than Caine, but I do love Irons' droll wit, which is integral to any good Alfred.
The Joker: Live-action only, it's Ledger easily. Nicholson just felt like he's doing an impression of himself, and even I can't defend Leto. Including voices, though, nobody holds a candle to Mark Hamill.
Robin: Joseph Gordon Levitt from a parallel universe where The Dark Knight Rises wasn't a disappointing mess. Including voices, teenage Robin will never not sound like Scott Menville to me, though I can't really think of a Nightwing that I've ever really liked (the Young Justice one was okay, I guess).
Catwoman: Anne Hathaway, but in Michelle Pfeiffer's costume.
The Flash: Gustin Grant, easily. I can't say I'm a huge fan of him, but I fucking haaaaated Ezra Miller's Flash.
Supergirl: Melissa Benoist. This is another one who basically wins by default since the live-action movie can't even reach so-bad-it's-good and I was not a fan of the Smallville version at all.

Going over to the Marvel side of things:
Spider-Man: With voices, it's Josh Keaton, since I swear by The Spectacular Spider-Man. Live-action only, I like Tom Holland a whole lot, even if I don't care for his Burger King Kids' Club supporting cast or his role as Tony Stark's surrogate son.
Aunt May: While the Amazing movies are kinda the red-headed stepchildren of Spidey's movies these days, I quite liked Sally Field. Not quite the one-foot-in-the-grave version of Aunt May from the Raimi movies, and also not the uncomfortably-hot MILF May from Homecoming.
Harry Osborn: Right up until he goes crazy and becomes an embarrassing cartoon character, I really rather liked Dane DeHaan.
Pete's Love Interest: Live-action, I guess Laura Harrier as Liz. I'm a huge fan of Emma Stone, but I always thought she should've been cast as Mary Jane instead of Gwen Stacy. Including voices, gonna go with SSM's Gwen performed by Lacey Chabert.
Eddie Brock/Venom: Ryan Kwanten, the guy from Truth in Journalism. Just a friendly reminder that fan-film can be vastly better than the real thing.
Hulk/Bruce Banner: I actually really liked Ed Norton's Hulk, even if the MCU basically retconned it out of existence. IMO Banner is one of those guys who shouldn't be acting like a comedian given the damage he can potentially do.
The Punisher: Thomas Jane. Yeah, his actual movie was kinda pretty awful, but Dirty Laundry was fantastic (big ups to Unicycle for re-creating that in IC).

[Supermaxx]

<Snipped quote by Superboy>

I don't foresee any sex scenes in my posts that will be between anyone other than Blake and Barbara so write me off on that one haha

@Lord Wraith

You can't see it, but this is my disappointed face.

<Snipped quote by Lord Wraith>

Spider-Man: I like Tom Holland a whole lot, even if I don't care for his Burger King Kids' Club supporting cast or his role as Tony Stark's surrogate son.

@AndyC

It might not be the most popular opinion (as far as I've heard, anyway) but I appreciate what the Homecoming writers were going for with the supporting cast. Flash Thompson being a jock that shoved Peter into lockers is a tired and ancient trope that doesn't really reflect how (most) bullies operate, so it's refreshing to see him modernized and acting more like the fuckboys that made school the literal worst for lil' ol' me.

So, y'know, #relatable or whatever.

[Master Bruce]

Okay, with voice actors, it's a bit different. There are voice actors that fit particular eras of characters better than most. For example, yean, duh. Conroy is the be-all end-all voice of Batman. He's who I hear whenever I read the comics, his voice is what I draw on to write Bruce's dialogue, both inner and outer.

However. I don't particularly hear his voice when reading comics of an older era. The 70's and every era before that have their own Batman that isn't Conroy, for me. So with that said...

1939's Batman - Jeremy Sisto
1940's Batman - Gary Owens
1950's Batman - Diedrich Bader
1960's Batman - Adam West (he voiced Batman several times too)
1970's Batman - Bruce Greenwood
1980's Batman, onward - Kevin Conroy
Possible Future Batman - Michael Ironside

Shout-outs to Roger Craig Smith, Will Fredile, Olan Soule, and Peter Weller for being great in their own right. If I had to choose a voice that wasn't Conroy for UOU Batman specifically, I'd actually use either Smith or Fredile. I actually wouldn't mind Fredile playing Batman proper, given his Terry McGinnis is essentially a Year One era Batman mixed with Dick Grayson.

[mickilennial]

I always felt Terry was more Jason Todd, if you know he didn't get orphaned, and lived in the future, and had a stable relationship, and a brother.

[Master Bruce]

Fredile could play literally all of the male Robins up to Damian. And even with Damian, there's the grown-up Batman #666 version.

[Hound55]

<Snipped quote by Lord Wraith>

Well, let's get into it...... (EDIT: Looks like I'm behind the conversation, but accidentally sorta caught up anyway since we're talking voice actors now)

I'm gonna skip the obvious ones (since most of the MCU characters have only had one incarnation, they're shoo-ins), and stick with ones where there's some contention.

Superman: In terms of the image of Superman and in terms of getting all ferklempt when you see him and hear his theme music, there is no replacing Christopher Reeve. In terms of the actual character, though, I gotta say I prefer Henry Cavill.
Lois Lane: If we're including voices, Dana Delaney in an easy walk. If it's live-action only, Teri Hatcher.
Lex Luthor: I get genuinely offended when there's a cartoon or videogame with Lex Luthor in it and it's not Clancy Brown. Going with live-action, I guess I'd have to go with Rosenbaum, since I never liked Hackman's Lex, I prefer my Luthor to not be a pedophile so that takes out Spacey, and everyone would get mad at me if I said Eisenberg.
Batman: Err, I dunno, Christian Bale, but with early-BTAS Kevin Conroy's voice in-costume and Affleck's fight choreographer.
Alfred: Really close call between Michael Caine and Jeremy Irons. Really it depends on if it's an emotional scene or if he's being sassy, because nobody in the universe does the not-quite-crying-but-it-makes-you-cry-instead thing better than Caine, but I do love Irons' droll wit, which is integral to any good Alfred.
The Joker: Live-action only, it's Ledger easily. Nicholson just felt like he's doing an impression of himself, and even I can't defend Leto. Including voices, though, nobody holds a candle to Mark Hamill.
Robin: Joseph Gordon Levitt from a parallel universe where The Dark Knight Rises wasn't a disappointing mess. Including voices, teenage Robin will never not sound like Scott Menville to me, though I can't really think of a Nightwing that I've ever really liked (the Young Justice one was okay, I guess).
Catwoman: Anne Hathaway, but in Michelle Pfeiffer's costume.
The Flash: Gustin Grant, easily. I can't say I'm a huge fan of him, but I fucking haaaaated Ezra Miller's Flash.
Supergirl: Melissa Benoist. This is another one who basically wins by default since the live-action movie can't even reach so-bad-it's-good and I was not a fan of the Smallville version at all.

Going over to the Marvel side of things:
Spider-Man: With voices, it's Josh Keaton, since I swear by The Spectacular Spider-Man. Live-action only, I like Tom Holland a whole lot, even if I don't care for his Burger King Kids' Club supporting cast or his role as Tony Stark's surrogate son.
Aunt May: While the Amazing movies are kinda the red-headed stepchildren of Spidey's movies these days, I quite liked Sally Field. Not quite the one-foot-in-the-grave version of Aunt May from the Raimi movies, and also not the uncomfortably-hot MILF May from Homecoming.
Harry Osborn: Right up until he goes crazy and becomes an embarrassing cartoon character, I really rather liked Dane DeHaan.
Pete's Love Interest: Live-action, I guess Laura Harrier as Liz. I'm a huge fan of Emma Stone, but I always thought she should've been cast as Mary Jane instead of Gwen Stacy. Including voices, gonna go with SSM's Gwen performed by Lacey Chabert.
Eddie Brock/Venom: Ryan Kwanten, the guy from Truth in Journalism. Just a friendly reminder that fan-film can be vastly better than the real thing.
Hulk/Bruce Banner: I actually really liked Ed Norton's Hulk, even if the MCU basically retconned it out of existence. IMO Banner is one of those guys who shouldn't be acting like a comedian given the damage he can potentially do.
The Punisher: Thomas Jane. Yeah, his actual movie was kinda pretty awful, but Dirty Laundry was fantastic (big ups to Unicycle for re-creating that in IC).

@AndyC

No Jimmy?

*Jimmies thoroughly rustled*

[Eddie Brock]

What's that? Discussing the Homecoming supporting cast? How did this can of worms get here? The central problem I have with it is that the supporting cast is written like a bad RPG writer who shoehorns references even when they don't fit, just to sneak an established name in there. (Hey, that kettle over there looks pretty black; maybe I should say something...)

Seriously, though. Ned is just Ganke. But they didn't want to use the name Ganke, so eh, just take a name from elsewhere in the supporting cast gallery. Who cares? (Hint: this guy.) Michelle is a fine character, but there's no reason to call her MJ; even if you try to walk it back and pretend it was just a wink. If Flash Thompson is going to share absolutely nothing in common with his comic counterpart except that they're both dicks to Peter, then why not give him his own identity? Even the little girl on the morning show has to be called Betty Brandt, even that though defies all logic. (Sure, I'm splitting hairs on that one, but it's a symptom of the "disease.")

There's an almost pathological fear in inventing new characters, even though characters created outside the comic pages have sometimes done just fine for themselves. Harley Quinn, to name the obvious one. Phil Coulson, to stick within the MCU.

[AndyC]

<Snipped quote by AndyC>

No Jimmy?

*Jimmies thoroughly rustled*

@Hound55

TBH I haven't really seen an "iconic" Jimmy Olsen outside of the comics. More often than not, he feels more like a tacked-on extra so Clark has someone to interact with who isn't his mom or his girlfriend.

[Simple Unicycle]

<Snipped quote by Hound55>

TBH I haven't really seen an "iconic" Jimmy Olsen outside of the comics. More often than not, he feels more like a tacked-on extra so Clark has someone to interact with who isn't his mom or his girlfriend.

@AndyC

Or he's a CIA agent who gets shot dead ten minutes into the movie.

[Hound55]

is written like a bad RPG writer

@Eddie Brock

Dude... I'm right here...

[Hound55]

<Snipped quote by AndyC>

Or he's a CIA agent who gets shot dead ten minutes into the movie.

@Simple Unicycle

(ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻

[Hound55]

What's that? Discussing the Homecoming supporting cast? How did this can of worms get here? The central problem I have with it is that the supporting cast is written like a bad RPG writer who shoehorns references even when they don't fit, just to sneak an established name in there. (Hey, that kettle over there looks pretty black; maybe I should say something...)

Seriously, though. Ned is just Ganke. But they didn't want to use the name Ganke, so eh, just take a name from elsewhere in the supporting cast gallery. Who cares? (Hint: this guy.) Michelle is a fine character, but there's no reason to call her MJ; even if you try to walk it back and pretend it was just a wink. If Flash Thompson is going to share absolutely nothing in common with his comic counterpart except that they're both dicks to Peter, then why not give him his own identity? Even the little girl on the morning show has to be called Betty Brandt, even that though defies all logic. (Sure, I'm splitting hairs on that one, but it's a symptom of the "disease.")

There's an almost pathological fear in inventing new characters, even though characters created outside the comic pages have sometimes done just fine for themselves. Harley Quinn, to name the obvious one. Phil Coulson, to stick within the MCU.

@Eddie Brock

In all seriousness, one of the biggest pet peeves I have is "fan service" in the decision of naming what could be creating perfectly good new additions to the mythos and ruining them by giving them the names of existing characters that share nothing with that character... it's honestly anti-fan service. Because it pisses genuine fans off.

You dont get off that easy either, Nolan... with your middle name Robin.

I've been going off on Netflix iron Fist for doing that with Zhou Cheng all day today in fact... they did something good and new, and then gave him the name of a completely unrelated big bad character from the mythos.

[Supermaxx]

What's that? Discussing the Homecoming supporting cast? How did this can of worms get here? The central problem I have with it is that the supporting cast is written like a bad RPG writer who shoehorns references even when they don't fit, just to sneak an established name in there. (Hey, that kettle over there looks pretty black; maybe I should say something...)

Seriously, though. Ned is just Ganke. But they didn't want to use the name Ganke, so eh, just take a name from elsewhere in the supporting cast gallery. Who cares? (Hint: this guy.) Michelle is a fine character, but there's no reason to call her MJ; even if you try to walk it back and pretend it was just a wink. If Flash Thompson is going to share absolutely nothing in common with his comic counterpart except that they're both dicks to Peter, then why not give him his own identity? Even the little girl on the morning show has to be called Betty Brandt, even that though defies all logic. (Sure, I'm splitting hairs on that one, but it's a symptom of the "disease.")

There's an almost pathological fear in inventing new characters, even though characters created outside the comic pages have sometimes done just fine for themselves. Harley Quinn, to name the obvious one. Phil Coulson, to stick within the MCU.

@Eddie Brock

What's the point of reboots, reimaginings and remakes if they're going to just rehash everything they've already done? We've seen the usual versions of the Spider-Cast, some of them in two different reboots now. If they had simply made all of these characters into entirely new ones, you'd get the fanbase in an uproar:

'Why is Peter dating this girl and not someone from the comics?'
'Who is this nerd and why is he bullying Peter instead of Flash?'
'Why would you use this boring new sidekick guy when you could've used Ganke from the comics?'

We love the idea of adding new characters to the mythos. Until we don't. Miles Morales originally received a great deal of hate for replacing Spider-Man, despite the fact that he turned out to be an honest-to-goodness interesting character.

Coulson filled a pretty niche role that no major comic book character could've filled- and as far as the movie-going audience knew, the man was dead by the end of Avengers. Replacing Spider-Man's entire core support cast with new faces is a whole lot different than adding an original character in an original role.

Spider-Man: Homecoming was not a perfect movie. Hell, it's not even the best Spider-Man movie _{Amazing Spider-Man 2 takes that spot ///s}. But I don't think it's writers were just trying to sneak in references to the comic books. MJ and Flash fit pretty tightly into the roles they were meant to serve in the comic books; having someone knew in their place would, in my opinion, feel even stranger than what we have going now. If I were to take a shot in the dark at guessing their intent, they meant to modernize rather dated (still great, mind you) concepts for a new, young audience that wouldn't so easily be able to identify with the Spider-Man of the 60s and 70s.

Did they succeed in their goal? Dunno! Probably not! But I appreciate that they tried it, regardless. We've had two previous iterations of the mythos. I'd say it wasn't the wrong call- exactly- to try and shake things up.

You could even say that they were...

Ultimatizing it.

_{I'm glad RPG doesn't have a thumbs down button all of a sudden}