I have already said a lot about Batman: Year One, so to sum it up, it was pretty good. Great actually, right up there with Batman: Under the Red Hood. I feel it did the source material, one of my favorite graphic novels, justice. Its just a shame that the story goes by so fast... Hopefully The Long Halloween is in the pipeline as it would make an amazing follow-up. As far as the DC releases in 2011, they were overall pretty impressive. Both Year One and All Star Superman were top tier quality releases and along with Emerald Knights, all three 2011 releases were solid - perhaps the best year of the batch so far.
While May ushered in the summer season, things really got out of control in June and July with the release of two more Marvel movies, one from DC, the third Transformers, a direct to video movie tie in and a new live action series.
X-Men: First Class
After X2, the X-Men franchise had been on the downward slide until X-Men: First Class attempted to reinvigorate the franchise. Even though some of the most popular mutants could not fit into the movie while maintaining series continuity, First Class still delivered an excellent story by adding depth to the characters of Magneto and Xavier. Perhaps due to ill will against previous X-Men films or because of the absence of Wolverine, the film failed to crack $150 million in the US. Still, good reviews and home video sales may be enough to ensure X-Men's second class get their deserved screen time in a sequel.
The second quarter of the year really heated up in May when Thor ushered in the Summer blockbuster season.
Thor
While not the gigantic hit that Iron Man was, Thor still performed exceptionally well around the world, especially considering the heavy fantasy element that has not always done well when coupled with superheroes. More importantly, Thor was a good movie that told a good story while respecting the source material. With Thor, Marvel proved they could build their in-continuity franchise. Thor got the summer off to a good start and was one of my favorites for the year. The gem earned a sequel to come in late 2013.
Although 2011 may have started slow, by the end of February things were starting to heat up as one of the most action packed superhero summers was just on the horizon.
The Cape
From January until March the glorious failure of a show, The Cape displayed the adventures of the caped hero and his circus friends as they took on the villainous Chess. I will go on record and say this show was not all bad. Though it was most definitely bad, and ridiculously over the top, there were some moments of entertainment. In particular, the episode Dice with a precognitive master of probabilities was a lot of fun. On the other hand, a villain with a split personality would have been just cliche, except in this show both personalities were evil. That's just odd as was the interaction between the shows hero and his son whom he stalked. In the end, the show aired just 9 episodes on TV with the finale only getting aired on the Internet. In fact, the entire series is available online and as long as you know what you are getting into its worth checking out.
Green Hornet
Green Hornet hoped to reinvent the aging hero for hip young crowds and though there was some decent action, the style over substance film failed to win over the masses falling just short of the $100 million domestic mark. The Hornet's lackluster performance set the stage for other green clad heroes to fall short in their quests to bring home the green.
All Star Superman
Oozing
reverence for the Man of Steel, February's All Star Superman was one of the year's highlights even edging out Batman: Year One as DC's best animated movie of the year. Although some fan favorite scenes from the graphic novel didn't make the cut, but what did
make it into this film was the novel's ability to give Superman
humanity. Its not just what Superman can do, but what he inspires in
others that places him at the top of the pantheon of heroes. And in the
end, even Lex Luthor learned that lesson. All Star Superman is the quintessential
Superman story, and the best Superman show in at least 30 years.
Tank Girl, based on a British comic book of the same name wasn't really a superhero movie. It was however a disaster which coincidentally "tanked." Ha Ha. Banking just $4 million, the April film's failure led to the collapse of Deadline, the comic's original publisher.
Proving once again that quantity cannot make up for lack of quality, 1994 produced a veritable heap of superhero shows; unfortunately most have since been long forgotten. Now is your chance to remember them as we flash back to the 90s.
What started a promising franchise in 1990 quickly went downhill. By the time Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 came, the Turtles were time travelers, and instead of turtles they looked more like frogs with shells. The film was still a hit, but not to the level of the first 2. It would be 14 years before the animated follow-up TMNT.
Meteor Man
I wont say much about the parody Meteor Man, but at least it made more than its copycat Blankman, which is sad since it only earned $8 million. Anyways, if I were writing an SAT question of "Blankman:Batman as Meteor Man: ?" the answer would be Superman. Among other powers, he had:
* Absorbing book content by touch
* Superhuman Strength
* Flight
* Laser Vision
* X-ray Vision
* Freezing Breath
* Healing Factor
* Imbue Fertility
* Telekinesis
* Animal Communication
* Superhuman Speed
That's one tough dude. He didn't get a sequel, but did get a Marvel comic mini series.
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Opening on Christmas 1993 was what many consider the best Batman movie - though since Batman Begins, the proponents have quieted down a bit. Made by the team that brought us the classic Batman: The Animated Series, this movie explored the origins of Batman in a way that had previously been skipped over. This was easily the year's high point as far as superheroes on screen are considered.
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
1993 also saw the premier of the 4 season running Lois and Clark. The show built up a good following by focusing more on the romance between the titular characters, but in season 3, when trying to drag out the tension that made the show popular, they really "nuked the fridge." After 60 years, Superman and Lois finally got married... but it wasn't really Lois, it was a frog eating clone. This twist sent viewers scrambling and the show never recovered. Even a real wedding couldn't save the show which got quite silly before ending on a cliffhanger in 1997.
...and thus ended 1993 in the era of ponchos and Nirvana.
June of 1992 brought the highly anticipated sequel to 1989's blockbuster Batman. In Batman Returns, Bats faced off against not one, but two (arguably three) villains, a trend that would ever plague comic book movies to come. Nowadays its easy to forget how significant Tim Burton's 1989 Batman movie was. Before that movie came out, the masses knew Batman from the 1960's Biff, Bam, Pow, TV show or from Super Friends. In the 80's comic book readers were treated to a Batman closer to his roots and redefined by such classics as The Dark Knight Returns. The 1989 film exposed general audiences to a Batman not rooted in camp, but a Dark Knight.
Unfortunately, in the 1992, Burton attempted to double down with a darker, grittier, more crazy, and less Happy Meal friendly Batman facing off against a grotesque imagining of the Penguin and an innuendo drenched Catwoman. The movie was a hit, earning over $160 million in the US on an $80 million budget, nevertheless, audience reaction caused the pendulum to swing in the Schumacher direction.
Just a few months later in September, Batman: The Animated Series would debut and Batman would be redefined for a generation. I hardly need to go into why this series was such a big deal, I will just say it spawned over 100 episodes of Batventures, and began the decade long presence of the DC animated universe.
Amazingly, a month after the debut of Batman's series, The X-Men got an animated series of their own. It too was a hit lasting five years and 76 episodes and beginning Marvel's own attempt at an established animated universes. Even more so than the Batman series, X-Men ambitiously adapted stories directly from the comics and won over a new crop of fans. So it was that two of the most influential superhero series debuted during the same fall season
Oh, and there was also a Human Target live action TV series in 1992. It lasted just 7 episodes because no one watched it.
Although its never good to be a D-lister, at least in 1991 that status alone wouldn't keep you off the screen if you were a superhero. In particular, swamp monsters were all the rage.
Toxic Crusaders
The animated for kids Toxic Crusaders, centered around the R-rated Toxic Avenger AKA Toxie featured hoped to cash in on the environmental movement ala Captain Planet. It earned just 13 episodes -though only 5 aired. Swamp Thing
Around the same time as Toxic Crusaders, Swamp Thing attempted a lazy cash grab, but once again the series was short lived. And the intro theme was just brutal.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
As if audiences couldn't get enough of green mutants, the Turtle sequel arrived in the summer of '91. The first movie was a great success resulting in a rushed production for the sequel arriving just 51 weeks later.
The tone of the movie was significantly lightened and Vanilla Ice was invited to make a lengthy appearance rapping "Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!" The sequel was not as big a success as the original, but it still pocketed $78 million on a $25 million budget opening the floodgates for the inevitable 3quel.
Rocketeer
The Rocketeer, on the other hand was not a success. This much underrated period film about a Nazi fighting hero was directed by Joe Johnston who would go on to direct the the 2011 live action Captain America film.
Darkwing Duck
Aside from TMNT 1991's only other modest success was Disney's animated DuckTales spin-off Darkwing Duck starring Drake Mallard.
Power Pack
In the 90's Marvel Comics really struggled in the live action department. The slew of low budget trash (Captain America, Fantastic Four, Generation X) that got greenlit is remarkable. Even more remarkable is how the company has turned things around around. A pilot for Power Pack about a team of super powered kids did somehow manage to get made, but it was pretty iffy. Believe it or not, before Marvel Studios struck gold with Iron Man, a Power Pack live action film was one of the films named to launch the new studio. Yikes.
She-Hulk
Although a She-Hulk TV movie, following up on the Death of the Incredible Hulk movie from 1990, never did get that enviable greenlight, a promotional photo shoot gives us a glimpse of what could have been. Once again, not Marvel's finest hours.
In October, RED aka Retired Extremely Dangerous arrived in theaters and outperformed fellow DC owned (Homage comics) actioner The Losers to the tune of $89 million.
The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes
The bigger event in October was the countdown to and debut of Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Disney released one 5 minute micro episode online each day for the 20 days leading up to the series premier. Avengers hasn't held back, airing 16 of its scheduled 52 total episode run in just 2 months giving various main and secondary characters a chance at the spotlight.
Superman / Shazam! The Return of Black Adam
In November, Superman / Shazam! The return of Black Adam headlined a rare misstep release from DC animation. The double short (20 minutes) itself was well done, though once again Captain Marvel and Superman are hardly lesser known heroes who were indicated as the targets for these shorts. The problem was that the DVD only contained this short and "extended" versions of the previous 3 shorts whcih had already been used to encourage purchase of pricier special edition releases throughout the year. In all the full priced purchase got you at most 60 minutes of content and at worst 20 minutes of content. The extended versions of the the shorts were also a joke as someone would have to watch them side by side to discern any difference. Sales were modest, and it looks like the shorts may be on hold, which is a shame becasue it was the marketing, not the quality, that fell short.
Megamind
2010 may have been the year of the super villain. The Summer offered up a huge hit with Despicable Me and Dreamworks hoped for a similar success with Master / Oober / MegaMind in which a super villain had to become a hero to thwart a bigger villain. In the end, the movie was not a big hit, earning nearly $150 million, and less overseas, in a very competitive computer animated market making a sequel unlikely.
Young Justice
The highlight of the Fall for me had to be the debut of the Young Justice animated series. The double length premiere saw Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Superboy (along with Miss Martian) forming a covert team under the supervision of the Justice League. The show has fantastic animation and a serious tone that played perfectly. The creator is fresh off The Spectacular Spider-Man series, the Web-Head's finest to date, and hopefully this lives up to that standard.
Firebreather
Following the debut of Young Justice, Cartoon Network also released the computer animated Firebreather movie based on a comic series about a kid with a dragon dad. I didn't catch this one.
Joker's Funhouse
One last gem that shouldn't be overlooked was the online animated "commercial" for Super Friends toys from Fischer-Price. The animated short titled The Joker's Playhouse is a work of genius and hopefully will find its way to DVD somehow soon.
And that my friends is a wrap. Twas a busy year but next year is going to be even busier. Imagine 2010, but instead of Vertigo and Homage Comics' unpowered "heroes" getting movies we will have Marvel and DC busting out some top tier super powered heroes. It should be fun.
Dwight's Crimson Bolt hit the Toronto Film Festival in September in the dark comedy Super. The movie will get a release in 2011, but time will tell if its the next Kick-Ass or the next The Rocker.
Superman Batman: Apocalypse
DC's third direct to video of the year didn't make quite the splash of the first two, but it was still a fairly decent romp. Between the army of Doomsdays, the Female Furies, and Darkseid himself, the fights compensate for a mediocre story.
Green Arrow
Accompanying the Superman Batman: Apocalypse movie was DC's third short film. Although the short was pretty good, it was a bit disappointing the Green Arrow got the spotlight when he is much closer to a household name than the Spectre or Jonah Hex. He has been on Smallville for years for crying out loud. Hopefully next year will bring more shorts focusing on some of the underdogs of the DC universe.
No Ordinary Family
The fall also brought a fantastical take on a super-powered family of four. Dad's got super strength and can "Hulk-jump," mom is the Flash, kid girl is a telepath, and kid boy is smart. I guess this is the closest thing we will get to a decent take on the Fantastic Four, though it feels an awful lot like an ABC Family show rather than a primetime ABC show.
Fortunately for Iron Man 2010 was surprisingly light for the superhero genre. The next few summers will be jam packed. But with very little in the way of competition Iron Man 2 wrangled $312 million, falling just shy of the original's take. While the movie was okay, it seemed that the movie was more of a place holder for Marvel buying time to introduce the rest of the team leading up to the ensemble Avengers movie. Perhaps, this should have been titled Avengers Part 0 rather than Iron Man 2.
Jonah Hex
DC countered Marvel's Iron Man with Jonah Hex. This lesser known wild west DC bounty hunter had the honor of following in the footsteps of Steel and Supergirl by ensuring the title character would not soon be returning to cinemas. The movie barely earned $10 million and pretty may have been the final straw for Megan Fox's short lived career. Seriously, Hex's appearance on the kid targeted Batman: The Brave and the Bold and his 10 minute animated short that were released this year were both way better than this pile of garbage.
Phantom
In June, SyFy finally aired its Phantom miniseries attempted to reinvigorate one of the classic superheroes. The presentation was okay, but it doesn't look like the miniseries did enough to earn the character a hoped or ongoing series.
The Last Airbender
M. Night Shyamalan's name being attached to The Last Airbender didn't do the film any favors. Honestly, this movie never had a chance of capturing the heart or epic scale of the animated series, but it wasn't nearly as bad as people said. Earning just $131 million, the chances of completing the trilogy are unlikely, but hey at least we will always have the series.
Batman: Under the Red Hood
In my opinion, the best offering of the summer, and possibly the year was the animated Batman: Under the Red Hood direct to video movie. The film adapted the comic arc that reintroduced presumed dead Jason Todd (the second Robin) to comic continuity. This movie was really well done and is currently at the top of my list of DC's animated films.
Jonah Hex
Attached to the Batman DtV was an animated Jonah Hex short. This little gem gave the sense that the character just might be able to carry a movie of his own, just not the version that actually got made.
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
Pulling heavily from video games, the super powered Scott Pilgrim had to defeat seven evil X's to win the day and the girl. I knew going in that this movie was going to be different, but it truly was an original and very worth seeing. Unfortunately, its the kind of movie that is going to make pretentious teens feel like they are cool just because they saw it. It really is a shame it didn't do better in theaters. I haven't read the original graphic novels but the music, animations, and effects of the films were all spectacular and its hard for me to imagine this story in silent, still, black and white. The only thing I would have done is not cast George Michael. He was a real wuss.
