2008 Woodie Awards
Entertainment Review: Super nerdy topic: Comic books turned big screen attractions
Brad Barrett
Issue date: 3/2/05 Section: Life
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Lets chat about today's super-nerdy topic: comic books that have been turned into movies and/or TV shows. This has been going on for decades, mostly with very little success. I will make reference to several painful adaptations and a very few good ones. For those of you who are not familiar with the bad adaptations that I bring up, count yourself lucky, and do not investigate further. Really. You'll pay a heavy psychological price if you do. For those of you who do know what it is I'm talking about, I'm truly sorry for bringing up such bad memories as the "Fantastic Four" movie, or the "Thor" TV show. Those shows were so bad, not only should the powers that be have refused to ever let them be seen by the light of day, they should have taken the creative forces behind them and had them summarily executed in the town square.
For the record, adaptations that you should not, I repeat, not, under any circumstances watch are as follows: "The Incredible Hulk" TV show and movie. Argh, Hulk smash wretched poo. "The Phantom" starring Billy Zane and Treat Williams. "The Shadow" starring Alec Baldwin and, other people. What evil lurks in the hearts of men? Anyone who watched this god-awful movie can tell you. And let's not forget pretty much any part of the horrific "Batman" family. Holy crap. Watching those movies was akin to an attack by flesh eating bacteria. And while we're on this subject, how about those amazingly bad "Superman" movies? I will now avoid any jokes at the expense of Christopher Reeve. That guy has obviously suffered enough.
But enough of this self-inflicted pain. Let's move on to a more savory topic: those adaptations that you will not be too embarrassed to tell your friends that you've seen. "Spiderman" and "Spiderman 2" were pretty good. The second one was better than the first, and that doesn't happen too often. Coincidentally, "X-Men" and "X2" fall into the same category. The first ones were serviceable, and thankfully not embarrassing, but the sequels expanded on the good parts and left me wanting more.