Is There Justice For Super Heroes?

Is it a Bug Exterminator mascot convention? No, it's the Justice League of America.

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Recent news has been released putting the kibosh on the Justice League of America movie. After seeing a test still I can see why, it looks laughably bad. But the news made me reflect on my childhood, when you could get away with wearing a cape and underoos and not be labeled "insane".

When I was but a wee lad in the 70's comic books cost .15 cents and was one of the main sources of entertainment in my life along with television and Big Wheels. I used to wonder why the Comic Book heroes would only make occasional appearances on TV and Movies and why it would suck so much when they did. It always seemed like they got neutered once they left the comic book page, in my pre-adolescent mind I thought people just couldn't handle how "real" they were. Because one guy punching another guy through two buildings and wrapping a light post around him-that's real! At least when you're eight.

Now I'm all grown up and special effects plus the public's taste for the 'ol Ultraviolence is on par with my eight year old self. So I thought I would look at those heroes of yesteryear and see if and how they stacked up in the media after I outgrew my Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots and SST Racers.

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Justice League of America

With the movie on hold, the JLA has yet to be adapted. It has a great bunch of characters, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Wonder Woman, Batman and John Jonzz to name a few. I liked that they had a space station as their HQ, but with the emphasis on action over characters or story it was often a quick read and didn't hold my attention past a certain point. But as the 3rd X-Men movie proved, this approach can be effective in a movie. While Superman and Batman have had successful moves to tv and film, long running characters like Aquaman have gotten short shrift (except as a running joke, because as time has gone on the idea of a hero whose powers are only effective in the water is...lame). And Red Tornado! That was my favorite of that group, a red robot that can turn into a tornado. Everyone needs one of those.

However, there was as an animated series I grew up on the Super Friends and also found the recent Justice League Unlimited pretty sharp as well.

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X-Men

The X-Men had almost as many members as the previously posted Fleetwood Mac and I did read them into the mid-80s. They were Mutants, outsiders who lived at a private school and had abilities such as laser eyes, turning into ice and controlling the weather. As far as comics go, it was well written with a focus on characterization. The three movies that have been made do some justice to the comic, the first film was a nice start tying in the outcast racism theme with the world saving superpowers. X-Men 2 was the highpoint, the closest the series has gotten to the original comic by upping the ante from the first movie in both areas. X-Men 3 replaced substance with flash but was OK nonetheless.

In terms of living up to my childhood ideas, Wolverine gets a pretty faithful read except he's only killed about one person in three movies. Still, the rough animalistic nature gets some play in the movies. Halle Berry's underused Storm finally got to strut some stuff in the 3rd movie and who would have guessed Kelsey Grammar's Beast would turn out so well? Most of the other characters get a decent translation except for Rogue, who in the comics is a tough Southern gal who absorbed the powers of Ms Marvel giving her strength, flight and some invulnerability. In the movies, she's a depressed mouse who absorbs screen time. The only other real let down is what I consider the definitive lineup of the X-Men-Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Colossus, Shadowcat and Nightcrawler will not make an appearance as a unit on the screen (they've appeared in some configurations but not at the same time). And where the hell's Gambit?

Superman

Superman was never my favorite, his powers seemed to general and broad. It was hard to get excited about a guy who can literally do anything. The man from Krypton has seen multiple renditions, the best of which were the Christopher Reeve era movies. The first two films were great, balancing characters, special effects and modern mythology into a shiny package. Reeve is the definitive Superman for my generation, able to capture both the forthrightness of Superman and the "human" side of Clark Kent. Superman Returns was sort of dull which marred it's good intentions to carry on the tradition of the first two Superman films. But that's not as bad as Supermans 3 and 4-which proved it's bad film making that kills Supes not Kryptonite.

Batman

I grew up on the Batman TV Series (Pow!) and was a huge fan of that show. Adam West ranks high on the list of ham actors from the 60's. I never really got into the comic itself except for Frank Miller's Dark Knight book. An extremely dark take on the Batman character, it eventually influenced the next set of Batman movies resulting in two good movies helmed by director Tim Burton. Michael Keaton was a controversial pick to play Batman but after he did it, no one could imagine anyone else. Burton left and director Joel Schumaker made two more movies undoing everything established before him. Bats has recently relaunched with director Christopher Nolan and is off to a good start returning to the dark roots of the Miller version.

Batman himself has translated well, particularly with the Michael Keaton and Christian Bale versions where his mental anguish is explored. The Joker has yet to have a definitive read, though Jack Nicholson's version had so much screen time people called the movie "Joker". Heath Ledger's take has yet to be seen but should receive a lot of attention following his death. Michelle Pfeiffer gave the best Catwoman to me (definitely not Halle Berry), though all Catwomen originates from Julie Newmar. But you just can't top Burgess Merideth's Penguin from the TV series, that was the best villian performance of the Batman bad guys. Uma Thurman runs a close second as Poison Ivy in the otherwise abysmal Batman & Robin.

Daredevil

I liked Daredevil, he was the poor man's Batman with a do-it-yourself philosophy. If Bruce Wayne was blind and not a billionaire, he would have been DD. In media, Daredevil got the shaft when he was given a cartoonish (read:cheap) adaptation into features and was portrayed by Ben Affleck. Affleck is an actor who on screen always seems a second away from asking where the nearest frat party is, he rarely convinces me he is any character except himself. The Man Who Knows No Fear would have had a reason to be scared if he saw this movie. Though I did like Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin.

Spiderman

The web slinger was another childhood favorite, though his comics themes often seemed to go over my head at the time. A story about a teenager who is bitten by a radioactive spider never gets old. The 70's TV show was pretty dull but I watched it faithfully anyway. Another great was the Spider Man cartoon with the repetitive animation and classic theme song. In the 80's Spiderman and his Amazing Friends was fun with Iceman and Firestar on as well. The recent Sam Raimi led films have been a boon, finally a director who understands the comic he's adapting! The Peter Parker / Spiderman dichotemy is well played as the character sacrifices his personal life to be the hero no one wants him to be. I haven't seen the 3rd movie yet, but the first two were great. Now everyone knows that "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility".

The Fantastic Four

On the comic book page, the Fantastic Four were the harbringers of the technolgical modern age. Born out of science, these cosmic ray saturated heros had a scientist who could stretch (Mr Fantastic), a fire guy (Human Torch), an invisible girl (Invisible Girl) and a huge guy made of rock (The Thing). I used to really like the futuristic elements of the comic, how they would need to team up and build devices to defeat villians. So I was really disappointed when I saw the first FF movie, the characters were dumbed down, the special effects were weak and Doctor Doom was about as scary as Leonardo DiCaprio in The Man In The Iron Mask. Not even looking at Jessica Alba's pretty mug could save the film. I didn't even bother with the second movie. And it looks like they'll never film that ultimate super powered battle, The Thing versus The Hulk where they ripped up half of New York.

The rest of what's been made...

The Punisher was just another action hero by the time he got to the silver screen. Ghost Rider was a fave but I am discouraged by the fact that it's made by the same people who made Daredevil so I haven't seen it. I've seen parts of Elektra on Tv and can't make any sense out of it. The Flash was a pretty good TV series that I liked when it was on. The Hulk just isn't going to work being an all CGI character, Ang Lee's take was mediocre and Edward Norton's is promising to be more of the same. In the 70's a Captain America TV movie was made but nothing's been done for Cap since then. Wonder Woman was a great TV series, but nothing has been made since then making Lynda Carter the ultimate Amazon.

...And what's not been made

Thor was another favorite hero of mine that has yet to be made into a movie. The Man called Nova probably never will be a movie, I just liked the comic but it wasn't particularly good. Alpha Flight also will not be a movie either, it wasn't even that popular as a comic book because no one wants to see Canadian Super Heroes. With JLA biting the dust, it seems unlikely The Avengers will get adapted either. No sign of Heros for Hire: Power Man and Iron Fist either. Some magical weirdness with Dr Strange could be cool too.

With a promising Iron Man on the way, there may be another wave of super hero movies pounding on our doors. I guess I should be glad any of these movies got made, it seemed like an impossiblity when I was a boy reading these stories on my bunk bed. To me, Spider Man 2 is the best of the bunch so far though I was disappointed to see Doc Ock played sympathetically. Well, this has been fun but it's time to put the Comic Book Guy part of me away...Excelsior!