Heroes, Villains, and Me” is a weekly article on Geeky KOOL about the world of comic books and my reaction to it. “Heroes, Villains, and Me” is not a comic book review article. I will write about current events, speculation and rumors, or my own wacky thoughts about the world of comic books.
We seem to be in a golden age of comic book movies. 2012 has rocked with three really excellent movies based on superhero comic book characters. The Avengers movie was awesome and proved a group hero movie could be done correctly. The Amazing Spider-Man was a really good reboot movie and the Lizard and Gwen were wonderful. The Dark Knight Rises was a fantastic capstone to the Nolan trilogy. There is the pesky Ghost Rider sequel which was out earlier in the year but I will pretend it did not occur. (I have heard some good things but I still haven’t seen it.)
I remember some of the comic movies of the 70s. Superman was decent. Marvel had a few made for television movies like Spiderman and Captain America and they were terrible. Even as a kid, I watched them but was not impressed.
In the 80’s, Superman 2 was phenomenal with Zod. But it was followed by two lackluster sequels. In 1989, Batman hit the streets against Jack Nicholson’s Joker (one of my favorite comic book movies of all times). Marvel made more of their made for television movies in the 80s. These starred the Incredible Hulk from the television series. They weren’t as bad as the Captain America and Spiderman movies of the 70a but still not good. Just watch a clip of the Incredible Hulk’s version of Daredevil or Thor.
The 90s started off with Batman Returns which was enjoyable over all. Michelle Pfeiffer was great and looked awesome as Catman “Meow!” Batman Forever was decent but not great. Batman and Robin killed the series and proved that a bad script (and George Clooney) can kill a fun series. Marvel had a few failed movies that never made the theater like a Captain America and Fantastic Four movies (I hear they were completely unwatchable).
Marvel started off the 2000s right. They hit gold with the X-Men. They followed it with a fantastic Spider-Man movie. Both of these movies had an even better sequel (X2 and Spider-Man 2). Just when Marvel started believing they could not miss, they bombed with The Hulk, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, and Elektra. The third X-Men and Spider-Man movies were terrible movies that put a stain on the first two movies. On the other hand, Iron Man was a great movie for Marvel to close out the 2000’s.
DC didn’t have many movies during the 2000s. Superman Returns had some great effects and Brandon Routh looked like Christopher Reeve but between the kid (who might or might not be Superman’s son) and picking up an island of Kryptonite, this movie did not resonate with fans and movie watchers. On the other hand, Batman did very well in the 2000s. Batman Begin was a really good movie and The Dark Knight was fantastic.
The Teens (2010s) have brought us many great and fun movies. Iron Man 2, Thor, X-Men First Class and Captain America were awesome. DC’s Green Lantern was not bad. As I mentioned earlier, 2012 has been a tremendous year for comic book movies.
Yes, I do believe we are in the Golden Age of Comic Book movies. After looking at our history, comic book movies have never been this good. Dear Marvel and DC, please don’t let this go to your head and start throwing out terrible movies.
