Opinion: Arnold Schwarzenegger gets animated by Stan Lee for ‘The Governator’
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Arnold Schwarzenegger may not be California’s governor anymore, but thanks to the creative mind of Stan Lee soon he’ll be back as the Governator in an animated TV show and corresponding comic book due out next year.
Schwarzenegger, who’s cartoon image graces the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly, told the magazine that he has always embraced the Governator moniker.
‘When I ran for governor back in 2003 and I started hearing people talking about ‘the Governator,’ I thought the word was so cool,’ the cigar-smoking Republican told the weekly. ‘The word Governator combined two worlds: the world of politics and the movie world. And [this cartoon] brings everything together. It combines the governor, the Terminator, the bodybuilding world, the ‘True Lies’ …’
Whereas Schwarzenegger is a legend on the big screen, Lee is a deity in the comic book world, co-creating such iconic superheroes as Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor and the X-Men.
On this latest project, Lee tells EW that the Governator is a semi-fictional superhero that pulls from Schwarzenegger’s much publicized real life.
‘We’re using all the personal elements of Arnold’s life,’ Lee told the magazine. ‘We’re using his wife [Maria Shriver]. We’re using his kids. We’re using the fact that he used to be governor. Only after he leaves the governor’s office, Arnold decides to become a crime fighter and builds a secret, high-tech crime-fighting center under his house in Brentwood.’ While the editors of the magazine seem to love the concept (enough to put it on their cover), the readers of the story at EW appear to want to veto the idea.
‘That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of,’ scoffed The Commentator.
‘If the comic is being done with a humorous twist, then it could be good. But if it’s supposed to be completely serious, well…,’ wrote DL.
A reader named Paul stated, ‘This has to be an april fools joke.’
LOL complained, ‘Arnold gets the cover over Liz Taylor? What a joke. (Yes, I know she is on the ‘back’ cover, but that’s not good enough.)’
What’s your take? Any interest in a Governator comic book and/or TV show?
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Why is Stan Lee signing Jack Kirby’s artwork?
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s exit interview with The Times’ editorial board
Note: Andrew Malcolm is on vacation.
-- Tony Pierce
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