Comic Book Movies Much?

(Pow!)

In 1966 “Batman: The Movie” became the first feature length film to be based upon a comic book character. There was then a 12 year lull before the next comic book film, “Superman: The Movie” (why do they not put “The Movie” after movie titles anymore? People are still just as stupid).

12 years. That’s a long time. The length of time between comic book movies these days? Not so much. On the heels of “Iron Man (:The Movie)” we have “The Incredible Hulk (:The Movie)”, “Wanted (:The Movie”), “Hellboy 2 (:The Movie)”, and “The Dark Knight (:The Movie)”. And that’s just in June and July.

("I am Iron Man". Who would have thought they'd use that line in the movie?)

Most people would say that money, easy marketability, built in toy lines, and existing fan bases are some of the reasons comic books have become Hollywood’s new best thing ever. And they’d be mostly right.

But it’s also what we (and by we, I mean comic fans) have known all along. That the source material is good. Hollywood still screws it up a lot (I am not sure how Halle Berry recovered from Catwoman……oh wait, she didn’t), but they have hit a lot of home runs as well (Iron Man, most recently, was excellent).

(Oops!)

Even if you don’t think you like comic book movies, odds are you like a movie you didn’t even realize was based on a comic book.

I am happy to see them made as long as we get more Iron Man and less Batman and Robin (which I consider the worst movie ever made, comic book based or otherwise).