Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Would the real Amanda Waller please stand up?

Oh man I hate it when I'm faced with impossible choices! Who makes the most ideal Amanda Waller? C.C.H Pounder was an accomplished actress even before the SHIELD which was by far the most bad ass cop drama TV show ever! In the SHIELD Pounder played detective Claudette Whims who was so smart she could probably solve cases that might even leave the Dark Knight scratching his cowl. And she wasn't lacking in the take no shit department either. To no surprise Pounder is the voice actor of Amanda Waller in the Justice League animated series.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmcykee2UJ0&feature=related

Ah but here comes Pam Grier. Who doesn't know about Pam's career and how often she's played a no nonsense female character that proved to be as cunning as she was beautiful. As it turns out she plays Amanda Waller on Smallville.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeMfOxjs7-E

Of course I have my own thoughts and opinions on the matter but I'd really like to hear from some folks out there first. As Checkmate's White Queen and Task Force X's operations director, Amanda Waller ( a.k.a "The Wall" ) is one of the most ball busting female authority figures the comic book world has ever come up with. And what makes the character even more impressive is that unlike power house woman like Wonder Woman and Power Girl she doesn't wear a costume or have super powers. Yet she manages in her own way to practically be as imposing of a presence. So the only real question is, in a hypothetical feature length Checkmate/Suicide Squad film which actress would be the better Amanda Waller!?

10 comments:

  1. That, my friend, is an excellent question! Both women could definitely take you down. Both could most certainly outwit you. But I'd have to go with C.C.H. Pounder, because as cool as Pam Grier is, she does doesn't have that "Scare the crap out of you" factor that Pounder has. I don't really BELIEVE that Grier would kill me. But Pounder? Oh yeah. She would.

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  2. we'll i'm going to have to agree with you. if you were looking to re-invent the character some and keep her basically the same but give her a bit of charm and feminize her a little more then Pam Grier can most definitely fit that bill. but to play Waller as true to the comic book character as possible in every way you'd have to go with Pounder.

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  3. Now since this is your inaugural post, maybe we could talk about what to expect on the blog!

    Will you randomly riff on all things Task Force X, or will there be more of a structure? Will you do reviews of each issue? Obituaries for the Squad's deceased? Tracking of the characters to find out how they got into jail and what they did when they left? I'm wondering so I'm asking!

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  4. excellent questions! probably not going to do the issue by issue review, that's not really my style. that sort of thing takes a lot of patience and discipline which you obviously have much more of then i do. i tend to be more spontaneous like with the ROM Spaceknight blog (see blog roll). but since this blog has only been running for about 12 hours as of this Wed. morning anything is possible which largely depends on feed back from people. i just decided to kick off things with some initial stuff that's on my mind about the Suicide Squad.

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  5. Another good contender for the Amanda Waller role would be Alfre Woodard who currently plays a police captain on the TV series Memphis Beat. You may also recognize her from the Star Trek TNG film with the Borg. She was Zephram Cockrane's assistant Lilly.

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  6. I vote for C.C.H. Pounder. She's got that "you really don't want to f$%@ with me right now" look down perfectly.

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  7. thanks for your input on that Cderosby and welcome to this new blog. i hope you'll be visiting again soon i've got some more postings drafted that will be appearing soon i think you'll also enjoy.

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  8. Pounder for the win! :) She just has that "tough and nails" look in her eyes, I say.

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  9. I always figured Amanda Waller was based on Nell Carter, but I don't think Nell could have pulled it off (especially now that she's dead.) Pam Grier is too small to bring the physical presence needed for "The Wall," so Pounder would take it by default, though I'm not fully feeling it. However, everybody was rightly impressed by Mo'Nique in Precious, so she'd be my pick.

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