Weekly Geeky Question #8: Bad Adaptations

Every week in 2018, the plan is that my friend Rod is going to ask me some geeky question that will answer in a post. This week is Week #8, and the question is a simple one…

What are the ten most atrocious, terrible adaptations to TV or film of either a storyline or character from comic books, novels, or other forms of media?

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Weekly Geeky Question #7: An Epic Comic-Book Movie Adaptation

Every week in 2018, the plan is that my friend Rod is going to ask me some geeky question that will answer in a post. This week is Week #7, and the question has to do with the grand-daddy of all comic book line-wide crossovers:  Crisis on Infinite Earths

What would the plot be of a live action film adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths?

Superman’s Anniversary – 75 Things

According to Brian Cronin, who seems to know so much about comics that I think we should really just trust him, today is the 75th anniversary of the first Superman comic being published!  I just found out about this a couple of weeks before the big day.  How could I have missed being aware of this, I wonder? 

Star Trek / The Legion of Super-Heroes

A story in five reactions.

Doomed Planet. Desperate Scientists. Last Hope. Kindly Couple. Superman.

The other day, for a friend’s birthday, I watched, for the second time, the DC original animated film All-Star Superman. It was the sort of film that a good chunk of the guys who were hanging out and watching would not normally be interested in, for whom in fact the phrase “DC original animated film All-Star Superman” would have no appeal whatsoever.  It was interesting to watch it through their eyes, to imagine how these non-Superman aficionado, non-comic book fan audience would perceive this particular presentation.

Legacies: A Romp Through the Old DCU

I’ve just read the DC miniseries from a year or two ago, entitled DC Universe:  Legacies, written by Len Wein and drawn by all sorts of people, notably Andy Kubert, George Perez, Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway, Jesus Saiz, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and Scott Kolins.  It’s strange to look at in this post-New 52 world, as the book explores the entire superhero history of the DC Universe, and completed its run not long before that whole history was “rewritten” in Flashpoint.  As such, reading it now makes it feel like someone’s attempt to put down a true and accurate record of what took place in the old DC Universe before we said goodbye to it forever.

Invasion!

Recently, I pulled some comic trade paperbacks off my shelf to get rid of – books I just don’t feel are worth the space anymore.  Most were pretty clear cut decisions, but one wasn’t – Invasion!

Legion of Super-Heroes Archives • Volume 1 Part 1

Continuing on from my previous post about the Legion of Super-Heroes, this is a closer look at the first half or so of Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Volume I.

The stories in this volume are a bit of a strange animal. There are 19 tales (plus some extras), the first dozen or so of which come from the various guest appearances the Legion made in stories starring Superboy, Supergirl, and Superman, prior to them getting their own series in Adventure Comics in 1962.  So a big part of this volume are more of a survey of the silver age zaniness of the Superman titles under editor Mort Weisinger than anything else.  In fact, the Legion feel surprisingly ineffective in many of these stories, and it took a while before we actually saw any of them effectively fight crime or save people.  Often, instead they seemed to be playing reckless or goofy pranks.  More and more in the last third of the book, it begins to tell tales of the Legion itself, and we get more of an idea of why the people of the 30th Century really consider these guys to be heroes.  And yet through it all there are lots of key elements of Legion mythology that are introduced.

Stories I Like: The Legion of Super-Heroes

When I was still a young man – 18 or 20 – I remember telling my mother that I assumed I’d someday outgrow comic books.  I recall specifically saying that I figured it was pretty unlikely I’d still be reading them when I was 40.  I guess I didn’t consider myself “grown up” at that point and assumed that someday I would.  Well, here I am at 41, and though I have changed in a lot of ways in terms of maturity and responsibilities, I am still reading comic books.