Superheroes on the big & small screens:

Last night I watched, the movie, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman on the Cartoon Network. It was well done—and I recommend the movie to anyone interested in the superhero genre. Yet it was on par with what Time-Warner has been doing with adapting DC comic book heroes to the cartoon format (Warner owns DC). Ever since the original Batman animated series debuted a little over a decade ago, Warner has been producing consistently good adaptations of its DC Comics heroes. (Much of this has been done under the guidance of one Bruce Timm; he deserves much of the credit. Thank you Mr. Timm.) Presently, the Justice League is a currently running series on the Cartoon Network, that features a hole host of DC characters—Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman, Green Lantern, the Martian Manhunter, and others—and again, it's very well done (I look forward to each episode). Warner, however, may have floundered with their new Teen Titans series. This is the first effort put forth by them that I don’t like (I think that they are aiming at a younger audience with that one.)

Marvel has also put forth some good adaptations in the past 10 years; I liked both the Spiderman as well as the X-men series. However, these shows were not as well done as DC’s. It’s interesting that now Marvel seems to be dominating the Big Screen with the superhero genre. Previously DC had that franchise with the Superman & Batman movies. The Batman cartoon series debuted shortly after the first Batman movie—and like the first Batman movie (and unlike the ghastly Adam West TV series)—it accurately captured the essence Batman as a dark and driven crime solving detective. Yet, the Batman movie franchise—with its first sequel, immediately began going downhill (the first Superman sequel was superb; that series started downhill with the third installment). But the Batman cartoon series didn’t likewise diminish in quality. I remember when the late Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert reviewed the third installment of the Batman movies and at the very same time an animated movie entitled Batman: Mask of the Phantasm came out, which they also reviewed (that same episode of their program). They (RIGHTLY) gave the animated movie two thumbs up, and Batman III two thumbs down and made a suggestion on how the third Batman movie SHOULD have been made: simply take the script of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and use THAT as the script for the live movie.

By the time we got to Batman IV, it was as if they had recreated the Adam West Batman for the big screen. Kevin Smith (a brilliant movie maker, and long time comic book fan, and now also part-time comic book writer), accurately described that movie as "gay fantasia." That movie was truly an abortion.

There are two other things that I wonder about regarding the Superhero genre & movies. One, will the recent Marvel movies—which have been consistently good—start to go downhill so quickly as the DC movies did? And two, when will DC jump onto the bandwagon and begin to make movies with their characters again? There is a Catwoman movie coming out soon, (which I am not anticipating). One of the reasons why Marvel took until now to make these movies is that many of these superheroes simply could not be translated to the big-screen in such an effective way without recent innovations in special effects technology (one only need compare the live-action Spiderman TV show of the 70s and its effects with that of the recent movie to understand this). There is a Fantastic Four movie in the works and practically all of these characters from the Human Torch to the Thing, to the (stretch super powered) Mr. Fantastic could NOT have been put onto the big screen without the ultra modern special effects that will enable those characters to appear on-screen practically exactly as they appear in the comic books. I can’t wait to see the CGI version of the Thing (hopefully it will be as good as the Hulk was), or Mr. Fantastic’s body stretching hundreds of feet, and on and on. But could you imagine what computer imaging can do with say, a hero like (DC’s) the Green Lantern & his power ring? C’mon Warner, get into the game!