Kitty Pryde first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #129 in 1980 using the mutant name Sprite. Kitty's first onscreen appearance was as Sprite in the 1983 episode of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends titled, "The X-Men Adventure."
In her next appearance, Kitty took top billing in the 1989 pilot (to a series that never was) Pryde of the X-Men. By now, Kitty was known as Shadowcat and was featured with her trademark pet dragon Lockheed.
Now, this is when things get interesting. Most people are aware of Kitty Pryde's live-action appearance in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand in but Shadowcat was one of just a select few mutants featured in all three X-films, albeit she was played by different actresses. In 2000, she was addressed as "Kitty" and shown phasing through a door just after Wolverine met Professor X.
In 2003's X2: X-Men United, she was briefly shown escaping the X-Mansion raid by falling through her bed.
But it was in the 3rd X-Men film that she got any real presence, taking on and outsmarting Juggernaut.
Of course, peppy Kitty was also an integral character in the 2000 series X-Men Evolution.
Shadowcat is also one of the more prominent X-Men in the current Wolverine and the X-Men series where she continues to solidify her position as a fan favorite member of the team.
Hoping to build on the popularity of the animated series, things went horribly wrong in 1979 with the live-action, variety style, laugh-tracked Justice League spin-off.
Legends of the Superheroes
There was some variation to the team roster due to rights issues and also trying to balance out the teams gender ratio. This team featured Batman and the Boy Wonder Robin, Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman, while Captain Marvel, Huntress and Black Canary were added to the mix. Notable absent were Superman, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman as well as the characters invented for the cartoon show (Wonder Twins, Samurai, Apache Chief, Black Vulcan).
The first installment centered around the birthday party for retired hero Crimson Cyclone's birthday (Why not just use Red Tornado? I guess robots don't have birthdays...?). The party was interrupted by the Legion of Doom featuring Riddler, Weather Wizard, Sinestro, Mordru, Dr. Sivana, Giganta and Solomon Grundy. The heroes ended up powerless, but still pulled out a victory.
The second episode was a celebrity roast of the superheroes hosted by Ed McMahon. Thankfully, they stopped at two.
Availability: Check YouTube. Up Next: The World's Greatest Super Friends
Here we are approaching the end of May. I thought it might be time to check in on our summer ponies. My prediction of $175 million for old Logan is starting to look pretty prophetic as the movie slowly inches toward that figure. Thus far, Wolverine is holding strong in the #2 summer movie position (though it will likely be overtaken eventually by Night at the Museum as well as other others that haven't opened yet) and it holds the biggest opening weekend so far (look for Transformers 2 to break it). On the bright side, Wolverine's $175ish total will be likely be good enough to keep above disappointing performances from other prequel-sequels Terminator and Angels & Demons. Not bad for a Canadian :)
1. Star Trek $75 Opening, $191 Total 2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine $85 Opening, $165 Total 3. Angels & Demons $46 Opening, $88 Total 4. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian $54 Opening, $70 Total 5. Terminator Salvation $42 Opening, $65 Total
Bane is one of the more recently created characters to hit the mainstream. He first appeared in 1993, in Batman: Vengeance of Bane #1. Although his comic book counterpart is an intellectual match for Batman, his onscreen personas have been considerably more brutish. He bulks up with a steroid like substance, venom, becoming a physical threat for mere mortals like the Dark Knight. Bane is perhaps best known for breaking Batman's back in the epic 90's Knightfall arc.
Bane first appeared on screen in 1994 on the Batman: The Animated series episode "Bane" as an assassin for hire who nearly broke the Bat's back.
His next appearance would not be so dignified. Many people recall that Batman and Robin featured Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze, fortunately they fail to remember the 3rd (because 2 just weren't enough) major villain of the film was Bane.
At this point it was tough to believe he would ever be used in any medium ever again.
This moronic brute was more of a "Hulk Smash" style nitwit thug than any sort of thinking villain... though he did a decent job filling in as a chauffeur.
In 1998, Bane regained a bit of street cred with appearances in both The New Batman Adventures and Superman: The Animated Series (although Superman really cleaned his clock).
For some reason, this incarnation of Bane took a bit of an S&M turn, complete with studded dog collar. This same interpretation would return in the 2003 direct to video move Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman.
The ultimate fate of Bane was revealed in 1999's Batman Beyond series which portrayed Bane as a washed up junkie still chasing a venom induced fix.
Bane made a couple of appearances in The Batman beginning in 2004. "Traction," attempted to retell Knightfall in 20 minutes, and threw in a Bat-mecha just for fun.
Bane also appeared red as a beet when using his venom... for no real reason other than it looked "cool."
Perhaps fearing that Bane was too violent or that drug use was inappropriate for The Batman's audience, Bane's appearances were few and far between, though Joker managed to beef up on venom in a later episode.
Enter 2009. Bane appeared in an opening sequence of Batman: The Brave and the Bold where he battled Batman and street brawler Wildcat. Again, the artists provided a little S&M for big Bane in the form of a zipper fitted gimp mask.
Later in 2009, Bane will appear in the Superman / Batman: Public Enemies movie. Not sure what role he will fill as he was not in the original comic book story, but hopefully he can will be able to go home at the end of the day proud of how far he has come since his low point 10 years ago.
I suppose there is a slim chance he could return to live action in the
future, but for now Bane seems resigned to an animated lifestyle.
UPDATE: October 2011
A truer to form, intelligent and somewhat refined Bane had a recent
stint on the animated Young Justice series where he opted for face paint
rather than a mask - though have no fear he still pumped himself full
of muscle inducing venom.
In 2012, Bane will join the Legion in their quest to defeat the Justice League in Justice League: Doom.
Bane has also been announced as one of the main villains in the 2012
live action The Dark Knight Rises where it looks like he will slip back
into that comfy mask.
In 1978 the Super Friends were rebranded once again with a major shakeup in the team roster and big name bad guys.
Challenge of the Super Friends
Banded together from remote galaxies are thirteen of the most sinister villains of all-time -- the Legion of Doom. Dedicated to a single objective ... the conquest of the universe. Only one groups dares to challenge this intergalactic threat: the Superfriends!
This diabolical Legion, consisting of Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Solomon Grundy, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, Bizarro, Cheetah, Black Manta, Giganta, Gorilla Grodd, Sinestro, Captain Cold, and the Toyman, were actually mostly from Earth. Nevertheless, this series marked the introduction of real supervillains challenging the friends who had previously been occupied with natrual disasters, monsters, and the occassional alien threat. The heroes finally had an excuse to throw some punches.
Although there were 13 villains, there were but 11 heroes. Zan and Jayna were dropped from the line-up and replaced with previous guest stars. The roster now consisted of Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, Hawkman, Flash, and Green Lantern, as well as the invented for the series Black Vulcan, Samurai, and Apache Chief.
Wonder Twins fans, despair not. In addition to the Challenge series, additional All-New Super Friends Episodes were produced featuring the core team of Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Wonder Twins. In all, 16 episodes apiece were produced for the Challenge and All-New series, but it was Challenge of the Super Friends which has gone on to become the most memorable of all the Super Friends titles.
Captain George Kirk that is. After two years we finally have some bits of tid on the Thor live action movie. I don't really have much to say except that it seems like they didn't want to break the bank on a recognizable star.
The trailer for the upcoming animated Superman / Batman: Public Enemies movie is online, exclusively at imdb.com. I have to say, it looks pretty good and so far, it seems to be sticking true to the source material. The trailer is jam packed with characters including Supes, Bats, Power-Suit Lex, Nippleless Solomon Grundy, Bane, Metallo, Giganta, Black Manta, Silver Banshee and more. This could be a fun ride and an excellent opportunity for a whole action figure toy line as well. No mention of a release date, but methinks, November perhaps.
In her next appearance, Kitty took top billing in the 1989 pilot (to a series that never was) Pryde of the X-Men. By now, Kitty was known as Shadowcat and was featured with her trademark pet dragon Lockheed.
But it was in the 3rd X-Men film that she got any real presence, taking on and outsmarting Juggernaut.
Of course, peppy Kitty was also an integral character in the 2000 series X-Men Evolution.
