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A Classic Comics Christmas

My 12 Favorite Classic Comic Book Covers:

12. Superboy #163 (1970)  

Pencils & Inks: Neal Adams  

Superboy #163 immediately comes to mind as a favorite classic cover.  Gorgeous, terrifying, unforgettable.  This is one of my favorite Adams covers of all time (even surpassing his bronze age Batman work), as a figure that’s come to embody wholesome goodness is turned into something so morbid, cold, and strange with the simple use of subtle lighting and shadows.  Incredible.  

11. Magnus Robot Fighter #1 (1963)  

Pencils & Inks: ?  

Like many of the entries on my list, Magnus: Robot Fighter #1 (1963) is included largely because of the genre it represents.  The painted Gold Key covers were a genre onto themselves, and I savor looking through them regularly.  Magnus Robot Fighter #1 is probably my favorite from the bunch  because of its use of subtle hues of light and dark, shiny artificial and muted organic, but it's hard to choose.  If I could have listed all of the painted Gold Key covers all for #11, I probably would have.  It especially pains me not to include a Space Family Robinson cover on this list, but I feel that one representative from this distinct genre is probably enough.   

10. Silver Surfer #1 (1968)

Pencils - John Buscema

Ink - Joe Sinnott  

Silver Surfer #1 just reeks of that earth-shattering, larger than life feeling that was the Marvel style of the mid-1960s.  From the amount of space the surfer is taking up to the overly large logo above him and that daring, dramatic pose as he dares to look and fly right at you, this cover just screams "Everything you know about comics is about to change."  It's too bad the title never lived up to the promise of this first unforgettable cover.  

9. Showcase #22 (1959)

Pencils: Gil Kane

Inks: ?  

Where do I start with this one?  In my mind, Showcase #22 has always been one of those personal highlights in comicdom where I felt history struck with a vengeance.  I've been a die hard Hal Jordan fan almost since birth, and so this cover will always carry a strong bias with it.  Beyond the initial devotion though, there's so much to love about this cover, from that amazing costume (which never looked better than it did here) to the exciting "Green Lantern" logo (exploding with raw green energy), and finally to Gil Kane's utterly unique and dramatic depiction of flying, which looked far more exciting, adventurous, and realistic than on any cover that had come before it.  Hal's hair is even flapping in the wind a bit!   

This cover just has it all...  

8. High Society (TPB 1986)  

Pencils & Ink: Dave Sim  

Call me cynical, but I'm not used to looking for true "art" on the covers of my comics.  I appreciate technique and creativity, but I don't expect to find something that I'll look at again and again, losing myself within it.   

Then there's "High Society," a cover that both depicts and benefits from Dave Sim's artistic transformations of the time.  Cerebus, a formerly simplistic parody series, matured into something deeply complex, borderline philosophical, and exceptionally visually artistic throughout this volume.  All of that comes across clearly on this cover, as the simplistic cartoon figure ascends the foreboding steps to a world both infinitely larger and more complex than himself.   I find myself staring at this cover quite often, fascinated by how the city alternates between looking terrifying and gorgeous.  It's both and neither at the same time.  

7. House of Mystery #181 (1969)  

Pencils & Inks: Neal Adams  

Like so many other entries on my list, #6 was chosen less for the merits of the individual cover and more for the genre it represents.  Those early bronze age horror covers, particularly those of House of Mystery and House of Secrets, are some of my absolute favorites.  The sheer audacity of these covers, legitimized by artistic lines and shadows, always stepped uncomfortably farther than I ever imagined a post-comics code title would ever dare to go.  Unlike those old EC covers, there was no overt attempt to shock and awe.  Instead, we often had children (CHILDREN?!) wandering into a scene in which one could only imagine what would happen next.  The power was in what our minds could concoct for the next frame rather than what was simply put in front of us.   

This is probably my favorite of those covers, particularly for the expression on that poor girl's face.  Somehow that, combined with the eerie lighting and mist truly gives me the jitters to this day.  I'm only sad that my choice to represent this genre wasn't a Wrightson cover.  Still, I feel that his influence is present here.  

6. Teen Titans #41 (1972)  

Pencils & Inks: Nick Cardy  

First off, I’m a sucker for borders on comic book covers.  I’m at a loss to explain why this is; maybe it’s the sense of uniformity it creates across a span of issues, as in Marvel Premiere, Tomb of Dracula, or (in this case), early ‘70s Teen Titans.  This was one of my absolute favorite bordered comic runs because of how the border was used.  It wasn’t just a color.  Instead, the border was used to introduce new browsers to the team within the book.  Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy, all my favorites were there, just waiting for me to turn the page.  If DC had done all of their covers of the time in this style, I would have made it my job to have obtained each and every one of them by now.  

It was inevitable that I had to choose one cover from this run, and #41 proved to be the obvious choice.  With the possible exception of issue #14, this is undisputedly the most striking cover from the entire Teen Titans run, with that horrific angle, lighting, and use of primary, secondary, and tertiary focus.  The cover almost tells a three panel story.  We see the Titans turn to look at something as terror crosses Wonder Girl’s face.  Then we see the mysterious threat rushing towards them with menacing dogs leading the way.  Finally, we notice the shadowy figure the Titans have been attempting to bury.  This is one exciting cover.   

5. Four Color #189 (1948)  

Pencils & Inks: Carl Barks  

It was impossible for me not to include a Barks Ducks cover on this list, and FC #189 (The Old Castle’s Secret), is my absolute favorite.  While I regret that Scrooge is not present on this cover (I believe this was his first outing with the boys), this one still brings sweet nostalgia to mind, and it’s darn exciting, too.  The contrast of the threat that bony hand is posing against the wonder of the castle behind them and the mystery of the castle before them truly excites me to this day.  Add to this one lovably terrified Donald face, and you know you’re in for some great reading.   

4. New Titans #60 (1989)  

Pencils & Inks: George Perez  

 If Dick Grayson had drawn this cover, he might have entitled it “Self Portrait,” as, indeed, it endeavors to encapsulate all that makes up my favorite comic book character of all time.  It’s dominated by blacks and somber blues, with fragments of his lost life at the circus, his time with Batman, two shadowy and obscured pictures of himself (one eclipsed by a bat’s wing), a jarring totem pole of emblems, only one of which seems to be slightly more authentic than the others (The Titans’ T), and finally his team and family slightly off centered in the middle of this mess, prominent in focus, yet eclipsed by all of Dick’s past.  I don’t think Mr. Grayson has ever been depicted more accurately or in a more moving way.   

3. Fantastic Four #48 (1966)  

Pencils: Jack Kirby

Inks: Joe Sinnott  

This is, in my mind, not only the greatest cover that Jack ever penciled, but also the greatest cover that Marvel ever published.  You just can’t beat this sense of doom cast by the striking pose and stunning face of the Watcher, prominent in the camera’s eye, as our heroes are cast off to the side, small, huddled, and impotent.  That great dusk colored sky (colorist is unknown on this one) only adds to the striking, morbid message of this cover that the end is near.  This is most certainly the most stunning and exciting comic book cover that I’ve ever seen.   

2. Tie: Batman #9 (1942) & Batman #47 (1948)  

Pencils & Inks for #9: Jack Burnley

Pencils for #47:  Bob Kane

Inks for #47: Charles Paris

I easily could have filled this entire top twelve list with Batman covers but, in the spirit of comprehensive diversity, I tried my best to narrow it down.  Unfortunately, as much as I hate a tie, I have no idea how to choose one of these two over the other.  They’re both my favorite classic depiction of Batman, one capturing the dynamic duo in all their Golden Age glory, and the other exploring the dark torment at the center of the Batman mythos.  Both iconic images.  Both unforgettable.  Both at the core of everything I love about Batman.   

1. Batman: A Death in the Family (1988)  

Pencils & Inks: Mike Mignola  

How do you choose just one of these?  All four (Batman #426-429) benefit in equal degree from the exact same strengths.  Furthermore, they enhance each other in series.  In essence, I see them as all being part of one great cover.  

I guess I’ll begin with the borders.  That fantastic gothic font, the nearly poetic plot summary, and even the new (at the time) Batman logo truly changed Batman for me.  Most will cite O’Neil, Adams, or Miller for taking Batman to a more serious level for the modern age, but these covers were the ones that told my nine year old brain that Batman wasn’t silly anymore.  These were the ones that brought out the depth of his darkness, even before I opened the issues.   

Then, of course, there’s the art.  Look at these illustrations.  I’ve never seen something so emotionally expressive.  Batman’s doubt and fear on #426, the estrangement in #427, the very life energy leaving Robin’s face in #428, and the Joker at his proudest and most perverse on #429 – I just don’t know what else to say about these.  Though this is one of my favorite storylines of all time, I find myself lining up the covers and watching the story unravel across them more often than I actually open the issues to read the story.   

I can’t imagine any other cover meaning as much to me as these do, plain and simple.

Well, my little ritual is in full gear, and I couldn't be happier.  In fact, my little obsession with horror flicks would have me without a care in the world right now if it weren't for two minor nagging problems.

1. There are so many sequels to so many of these franchises that it's virtually impossible to remember which one was which.

2. A 5 month old baby and a wife who abhores violence in film leave me with precious little time to indulge in my guilty pleasure.

So here's my little attempt to solve both problems.  I'm going to use this time (while Keira works and Ellie sleeps) to start recording my impressions of these films so that (1) I can keep them seperated and distinct in my own mind, and (2) I can think about horror films and feed my obsession even while in the presence of my non-horror film loving family.  So, here are my little thoughts on the franchise films that I've gotten through thus far:

Alien series

Alien - Amazingly suspenseful horror film.  Like a haunted house in space.  Very slow to build, but absolutely worth the wait. *****

Aliens - The perfect sequel.  Honors, builds upon, and completes all the themes established in the first film, all while completely transcending the genre and becoming far more of an action/war movie.  Characterization, acting, directing, and special effects are all superior to the original. *****

Alien III - Novice music video director David Fincher was chosen to direct this film on a whim because Sigourney Weaver agreed with his assertion that the main character would look cool without hair.  Suffice to say, it's exactly that level of artistic vision that guides this utterly terrible film, in which every decision, from setting to even characters and plot points, seem to have been made for the sake of creating moments that look cool.  A monk fist fighting with an alien and yelling "Is that all you got?!"?  Why not?  It would look cool.  Unfortunately, the film is utterly devoid of substance, outright pissing on all of the beautiful thematic elements and character developments that made up the core of the first two films.  Add to this some ludicrously unforgivable continuity and logistic glitches, and this is simply a disaster of a film.  I've yet to see the director's cut, though.  Maybe that will somehow redeem even a small piece of the film. *

Alien: Resurrection - To be fair, this series had already been plummeted, full throttle, into an enormous rut before this ludicrous idea for a sequel came around.  If you can get past the idea that there's a demented scientist cloning aliens, cloning Ripleys, and even cloning half alien/half Ripleys, then you'll probably be able to enjoy the rest of the film.  Sure, it's got Winnona Ryder, and sure the beautiful puppetry of the first three films has been replaced with crude computer generated graphics, but the main characters are relatively endearing, and Ripley's new internal conflict is both fascinating and somehow a logical progression for a character who has already been through virtually every other kind of emotional turmoil.  Their approaching Earth at the end of the film truly got me excited.  I really wanted to see the next sequel, discover what Earth of the future had become, and see an amazing story in which the Aliens were unleashed on our own planet.  Unfortunately, few other people agreed with me, and the series pretty much ended there.  Aliens vs. Predator bears no relationship to the Ellen Ripley storyline told in these first four films.  ****

Aliens vs. Predator - Have not yet seen.

Evil Dead series

Evil Dead - Kind of funny

Evil Dead II - Extremely funny

Army of Darknss - Still funny

Friday the 13th series

Friday the 13th - Not one of the greatest horror films I've seen, but it certainly does its part as a horror/slasher film and is exciting, for the most part.  The surprise revelation at the end seems brilliant until you finally realize that the director gave you absolutely no opportunity to see it coming.  Of course, the final surprise moment at the end made the whole thing worthwhile.  GREAT ending.  ****

Friday the 13th part II - Feels like a tacky sequel at first, but the protagonist proves to be highly sympathetic.  Something about her acting feels genuinely compelling.  She does that "Help!  There's a maniac after me!" look much better than most.  I also really enjoy her cleverness and resilience toward the end of the film, finding a tremendous amount of desperate strength in the face of catastrophe.  There's some good psychological fleshing out for Jason, as well. ****

Friday the 13th part III - Pretty much a copy of the last film except that there's an almost (and I emphasize "almost) sympathetic dorky kid, there's an embarrassing attempt to modernize the film by adding in some ridiculously silly looking 80s biker punks, and the whole thing is filmed in 3-D.  Now, granted, the DVD doesn't show the 3-D, so I may be missing out on some great stuff, but I can't imagine even the most amazing of effects salvaging this utterly silly and generic film.  ***

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter - Not the final chapter, but definitely the greatest of the 13th installments, though certainly not for the characters nor writing.  Did anyone really want to see a 12 year old Corey Feldman take the center stage in this film?  Instead, it's strength is in its amazing directing.  Joseph Zito truly masters that scary feeling in a way that rivals the best works of legends like John Carpenter and Wes Craven.  The camera constantly surprises you, and those great jumping up in your seat moments are always earned -- never cheap.  This film really got my adrenaline running while most of the films in its class (and franchise) do little more than to make you go "Ooh.  That was pretty decent."  I really need to seek out more films from this director. *****

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning - Not a great film in its own right, but I have to give it credit for trying to do something different.  This film genuinely surprised me with good plot twists at least three times and left me with an ending that I found truly satisfying, even while most things up until those final moments were just "blah." ***

Friday the 13th: Jason Lives - The first film in this series that I found utterly useless.  No real redeeming qualities as a grown up version of Corey Feldman's character from part IV tries to convince everyone that Jason is (surprise surprise) back from the dead and (equally surprising) no one believes him.  **

Friday the 13th: The New Blood - Taking its cue from the later (and better) Nightmare on Elm Street films, Friday Part VII revels in the fact that emotionally damaged teens with superpowers fighting slasher bad guys is just darn fun.  There isn't a lot of logic to this film, but it sure adds a new dimension to the Jason stories when the likeable protagonist goes from prey to predator, giving Jason a real run for his money.  Jason's unseen reactions, with that utterely expressionless hockey mask face, are incredibly fun to imagine as he gets his butt kicked all over the place.  ****

Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhatten  - Bad.  Just bad.  I can certainly see why this looked like a decent idea on paper, but it just doesn't work.  The characters are cliche, Jason doesn't actually do anything to Manhatten (or its residents) and, worst of all, there's nothing scary or even psychologically compelling about the killing.  It's just Jason gratuitously killing people without any depth or quality given to their struggles to survive.  Part VII sucks all the fun out of the modern horror film and simply delivers a body count.  Ho hum. *

Jason Goes to Hell - Have not yet seen.

Jason X - Have not yet seen and (based on what I've heard about it) probably never will see. 

Halloween Series

Halloween - Generally considered to be the greatest slasher film of all time.  I'm not entirely sure I agree, but I would definitely put it towards the top of my list.  There's really almost no storyline here.  Surprisingly, it offers even less substance and content than Friday the 13th.  However, some absolutely brilliant directing makes this film a true gem.  I love the fact that Michael never needs to surprise the audience or even break into a run.  The anticipation is always enough, even if you see him coming a mile away.  Add to that the brilliant stylistic choice to shoot from the first person perspective of a character who isn't there, and suddenly the audience is part of the film, voyeuristically witnessing these awful events and wanting to shout out to the victims long before it's too late.  It takes over an hour to get to the second kill, but it's absolutely worth it.  In addition, Laurie Strode is the absolute most amazing victim/protagonist ever to be seen in a horror film.  She isn't only the most likable girl ever to have a homicidal maniac run after her; she's also the smartest, always thinking on her feet between panicked breaths and making you feel good in spite of all the dread as she constantly misdirects and injures Michael as he pursues her.  Unlike the super powered teens who fight back with kung fu and telekinetics in the later Elm Street and 13th sequels, Laurie just thinks quickly, and in an utterly believable way.  Jamie Lee Curtis also proves to be an amazing actress in this film.  Every moment feels genuine.  By the end, you'd just want to give Curtis a hug if you weren't still a little freaked out by the whole hermaphrodite thing.  *****

Halloween II - The script itself is the perfect sequel to the original film.  If it weren't for the shift in central characters (Laurie aside), the whole thing might have worked as one extended film.  Unfortunately, the directing isn't quite as breath-taking as it was in the first film.  Now we depend upon Michael turning up just behind the victim or just outside of the camera's range in order to surprise us.  He's less of a terrifying presence as well.  In the first film, even though Michael was intended to be a blank slate with an expressionless mask, slow, unexpressive movements, and no dialogue, the three actors who portrayed him somehow gave him a presence.  It's hard to explain how.  Perhaps his movements were just so precise and thoughtful that some sense of meticulous perfectionism slipped out from behind the mask.  However, the Michael in this film is nowhere near as expressive, nowhere near as careful in his actions.  He's just a guy walking around in a mask.  Between the actor behind the mask and the camera filming the mask, Michael looses a lot in this installment.  Even Curtis is unable to make the film shine by the end, written into a nearly comatose combination of shock and medication.  All she's able to do is limp around looking worn out and terrified.  Granted, she does a nice job of this.  ***

Halloween III: Season of the Witch - Well, it has nothing to do with the rest of the Halloween films, and there's no witch involved, but if you can overlook those rather large failings, this is an almost adequate film.  The creators of Halloween tried to take the series in a different direction with this film, and it almost sort of kind of doesn't work.  Though the protagonists, an aging "Joe 6-pack" divorcee doctor and his jail bait girlfriend on the side from his girlfriend on the side from his ex wife who is only having crazy sex escapades with him because he's helping her solve the death of her father whom she forgets to morn after roughly five minutes of film, are anything but likable, the film almost holds together for a while.  It's not of the same genre as the previous films, indulging in only one brief slasher scene, but its far out and mysterious premise is actually quite engaging for a time.  The plot, involving a conspiracy of robots and ancient druid wizardry, actually works decently for much of the film, almost like an unnecessarily long but intriguing Twilight Zone episode, only glued together with a healthy suspension of disbelief.  Heck, it even manages to explore the significance of Halloween in a way that nearly earns it a place in the franchise, but the ending falls apart badly.  As soon as we hit the climax, nothing makes sense anymore and, quite soon after, everything just gets plain silly.  Dr. 6-Pack's battle with the annihilated robot's severed limbs would have worked much better with Bruce Campbell playing the role.  So, all in all, it was kind of sort of not really but almost a decent film.  Oh well.  At least the female lead's name was Ellie. **

Halloween 4 - The entire film is a relatively boring and belabored build-up to an ending that's at least a clever idea, even if it fails to stir the adrenaline.  There's nothing exactly wrong with this film -- no apparent failing other than the fact that it lacks excitement.  Michael's only intended target in this film is a 7 year old girl, and you know he's not going to get her, so there doesn't seem to be much at risk in the film at all.  There's no real reason to be afraid.  Fortunately, the ending manages to shake up that sense of safety a bit.  **

Halloween 5 - Have not yet seen

Halloween 6 - Have not yet seen

Halloween H20 - Have not yet seen

Halloween Resurrection - Have not yet seen

Halloween (remake) - Have not yet seen

Night of the Living Dead series

Night of the Living Dead - A genuinely terrifying film in that the real source of fear isn't the monsters.  It's the psychosocial exploration of the survivors' reactions that truly chills the soul.  ****

Dawn of the Dead - Takes all of that rich psychological exploration from the first film and makes it twenty times better.  Add to this a little more action and a heavy handed, but powerful, commentary on cultural materialism, and you have yourself a film so powerful that classifying it as a horror is almost an insult. *****

Day of the Dead - Still the scariest film I've ever seen if only for the intensity and severity of the psychological strain depicted in the surviving humans seen in the film.  They are clearly more devoid of humanity than the monsters that they are running from at this point.  So intense that I had to keep taking breaks during the first viewing and am still hesitant to seek it out for repeat viewings. ****

Nightmare on Elm Street series

A Nightmare on Elm Street - A great concept.  What would leave you feeling more vulnerable than a creepy, deformed, and utterly remorseless maniac with claws who can actually kill you in your dreams?  Add to this a surprisingly willful young female protagonist who manages to hold her own against Freddy with spit and guts alone.  The first Nightmare feels very different from the rest of the series (far more restrained than the later films), but it's absolutely a treat to watch, anyway. ****

A Nightmare on Elm Street part II - A weird and misguided attempt at a sequel that makes little sense, is entirely devoid of a powerful climax (the power of love saves the day), and has a highly uncomfortable homosexual undertone lurking throughout the film.  Just weird. **

A Nightmare on Elm Street part III: Dream Warriors - The true heart of this franchise in my opinion.  Rejecting the mould of the generic, sex crazed teens getting sliced and diced until the one virtuous girl fights back and somehow survives in the end, Part III throws together a rich ensemble of truly good, likeable kids, each struggling with their own human problems.  This film actually allows its audience to feel good in facing off against such an insurmoutable foe as Fred Krueger, empowering the good guys and even going so far as to give them thoroughly believable super powers to use against him.  I absolutely love the feel good quality of this film.  It takes that psychologically rich survival anxiety that makes these horror films worth watching and raises it to a new level of excitement and enjoyability.  Too bad this wasn't the last film, as it offered the most thorough and believable way of killing off Freddy to date.  *****

A Nightmare on Elm Street part IV: The Dream Master - Nearly as good as the previous film and clearly patterning itself after its predecessor, this film continues one year after the events of the last one and features most of the same cast (though they all die quite quickly and unceremoneously).  Fortunately, their replacements are nearly as likeable, especially the central protagonist, Alice -- the shy girl who must find her inner strength and sense of self just in time to kick Freddy's butt by the end.  Solid characterization, decent writing, and excellent production value make this film nearly as good as the previous installment. *****

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part V: The Dream Child - Bad.  Just bad.  Very bad.  Should never have been made.  They RUINED Alice, introduced a demonic fetus that saves the day in the end by announcing "School's out, Freddy!", made the central characters pointless, one dimensional, and utterly helpless in the face of their antagonist, and even managed to throw an uncomfortably heavy handed pro-life message into the mix.  I keep trying to pretend this one never happened. (no stars)

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare - Well no, he's not, and no, it wasn't.  Still, I actually really liked this one as a kid.  The first twenty minutes or so, at least, seemed interesting, but as soon as our red herring protagonist is out of the picture, everything seems to fall apart.  The plot is incomprehensible, the self-indulgent celebrity cameos are sickening, the special effects are cheap, and (worst of all) there isn't a single scary moment in the entire film.  Perhaps this installment's only saving grace is that it offers a little more backstory for Freddy.  Of course, the backstory doesn't entirely make sense and Alice Cooper plays Freddy's dad.  Oh well.  **

Wes Craven's New Nightmare - Have not yet seen.

Freddy vs. Jason - Have not yet seen

Currently Listening The Layla Sessions : 20th Anniversary Edition By Derek & the Dominos Anyday see related

it's Beginning to Look a Lot like Autumn

Looking back, looking forward

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Anyway, I've been getting my geek on over at the CBR Forums, where,  for the  annual  Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas we've been assigned to come up with a list of our top twelve adaptations of comic books into other media.  I thought I'd repost my answers here for the sake of keeping them all together.  

12. Silver Surfer (Cartoon 1998)  

I only had the opportunity to see the first few episodes of this series, but it certainly made an impression.  The main problem I’ve always had with people writing The Surfer is that he’s the product of two different origin stories that contradict each other.  In the first, he’s Galactus’s loyal herald, painfully forced to turn against his loving master when Galactus decides to devour the Earth.  In the second origin story, The Surfer is a martyr who selflessly sacrifices himself to the evil Galactus in order to save his world.  Amazingly, the animated series manages to incorporate both versions of The Surfer, depicting his sacrifice beautifully while showing some level of sympathy and admiration on the part of Galactus.  In the final moment of “The Origin of The Silver Surfer,” we finally see Norrin as the Surfer.  In his first moments of awareness, after Galactus has commanded him to seek out planets to devour, The Surfer innocently turns to see Zenn La and says “Master, what about that one?”  It was such a beautifully tragic moment, clearly showing that Norrin had lost all memory of himself and his sacrifice.  If that hadn’t been enough, Galactus declines to devour the planet, explaining that he once made a promise to a great man.  That poignant moment has stayed with me to this day.  It’s both The Surfer and Galactus at their best.  

11. The Incredible Hulk (TV 1978)  

The Incredible Hulk has always been a fascinating premise, but it never would have won me over without the immense talent of Bill Bixby.  Bill’s David Banner truly came off as the most humane man in existence.  He embodied the goal of any civilized person to always remain calm and kind.  It therefore made his descent into monstrous rage all the more powerful when fate or (more often) bad guys pushed him too far.  Though I’ve always found the individual episodes of this show to be somewhat cookie-cutter formulaic, the acting always made up for it, and who could forget that unforgettable transformation -- that crazy pale blue eye!  David Banner truly was a saint punished by fate.  Every time he finally found some small bit of peace for himself, fate, bad guys, or a nosey reporter would intervene, and David would soon be hitchhiking down that lonely road again.  This show took the Hulk premise and really applied it in such a way that one couldn’t help but relate.    

10.  The Super Powers: Galactic Guardians (Cartoon 1985)  

For the bulk of my boyhood, these were the definitive superheroes for me.  I anxiously watched the show each Saturday, owned all the toys, wore the licensed pajamas, and fantasized about being on the team.  Having recently watched these episodes for the first time since I was six, I was actually amazed by how well this cartoon lived up to its memory.  Unlike the earlier Super Friends cartoons, there’s actually some depth of character in these episodes as Batman is forced to relive his parents’ murder with anguish, Firestorm is left with the guilt of causing Superman’s supposed death, and a number of other small character-building moments occur as well.  Unlike those of previous Super Powers shows, the plots actually make sense too.  Were we choosing the 12 BEST comic adaptations of all time, this probably wouldn’t have made the list, but there’s a lot to love, here.  In the spirit of the old Shredded Wheat commercials, the adult in me loves the depth of character in these episodes, and the kid in me just loves the nostalgia.       

9.  Batman (Movie Serial 1943)  

I guess I love this serial so much because it takes me back to Batman’s roots.  Those silly, formulaic stories, the ‘40s cars, fedoras, suits, and gangster slang, all take me back to the core of Batman with an unfiltered lens.  Unlike the Tim Burton film or Bruce Timm animated series, both of which tried to recreate a sort of 1940s Gotham City, this serial was actually there, filming as the 1940s were happening.  In a way, that makes this feel like a more genuine Batman story to me, like the “real” Batman might actually swing by in the background while the episode is being filmed.  The fact that Bob Kane assisted on these scripts only adds to this feeling of seeing it as it happened.   

On top of that, the casting is brilliant for Batman and Robin.  Lewis Wilson plays the best Bruce Wayne I’ve ever seen.  He’s adorably contemptible as a slacker who complains that he was only able to sleep until noon with a devilish smile.  More importantly, his chemistry with Douglas Croft (playing Robin) is priceless.  The two have that mischievous father/son relationship that always should have been in the classic Batman and Robin stories, but never came across quite right (even with West and Ward).   

Finally, there’s the over-arching plot.  While the anti-Japanese hysteria in these episodes is downright embarrassing and absurdly racist, it captures the post-Pearl Harbor paranoia beautifully.  Batman isn’t just stopping the bad guys in these stories.  He’s making America safe again.  As campy as that sounds, it comes across quite genuinely in these episodes.  Batman feels like more of a hero than in any other context, waging a successful one man war against the one enemy that truly made us feel vulnerable  

8. X2: X-Men United (Film 2003)  

It takes a lot for a film adaptation of a comic to impress me.  I feel that films often try too hard to emphasize special effects, props, and high profile actors.  The writing becomes secondary when attempting to sell a major motion picture.  On the other hand, cartoons and low budget TV shows have none of these bright and shiny things to dangle in front of you.  They survive on good characterization and strong writing.  X2 is one of the few exceptions to this.  Though it has a poorly conceived plot, a waste of a villain, and an utterly pointless extended fight scene at the climax, the film swells with abundant characterization.  Each X-man shines with a distinct and endearing personality (even Halley Berry, somehow).  Magneto’s escape from prison truly proved that the writers and director genuinely loved these characters as much as I did.  Combine this with the fact that careful attention was paid to introduce a wealth of beloved X-Men characters in minor cameo roles, and this film had me leaping out of my seat screaming “Kitty Pryde!” “Syren!” “Was that Danielle Moonstar?” “They mentioned Omega Red!”, etc.  This film left me so ecstatic and hungry to see more and more X-characters appear on screen and receive equally solid treatment.  Unfortunately, the third film didn’t pay off, detracting from some of the hope and excitement that X2 offered.  Still, I wouldn’t trade the experience of that first viewing for anything.  I can still remember those dirty looks I received from other audience members with sweet nostalgia. .

7. Superman: The Motion Picture (Film 1978)  

Chris Reeve is Superman, plain and simple.  He truly captures that kind but noble spirit of integrity that makes us trusting instead of suspicious of a man with super powers and X-ray vision.  Chris showed us that Superman’s greatest super power was his integrity.  Add to this a great origin story (that moment where young Clark finds the crystal in the shed has always been my favorite), and some amazing casting (Jimmy Olson, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor), and you have yourself one hell of a film.  Though I love Superman II as well, I think some of  Kal El’s integrity and heroics got sacrificed for the sake of telling a good story.  The first film captures his spirit best.  

6. Pryde of the X-Men (Cartoon 1989)  

Pryde of the X-Men is not an amazing work by any stretch of the imagination, but it captures the best of my favorite Superhero team.  Though the X-Men have, perhaps, been portrayed more powerfully in other adaptations, this is the only one to feature my favorite X-Men line-up, with Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm, Cyclops, and Wolverine all at the center.  Kitty and Nightcrawler, in particular, truly win me over in this adaptation.  Kitty played the role of innocent child with a lot to learn far better than Jubilee or Rogue did in other adaptations.  And Kurt’s sweet nobleness, thinly veiled with a playful bravado, is sadly lacking in any other adaptation of the team.   

I’m also quite fond of the vocal talents.  While some of the choices seem a bit “off” (Wolverine with an Australian accent, Pyro as an Englishman), all of the voices truly fit the characters they belong to in a way that I can’t explain.  They all felt fully compatible with the word balloons I’d been reading for several years before viewing this.   

Though the story for this test pilot episode falls short, the characters feel like they came right off the pages of my favorite X-Men stories.  This is an amazing adaptation (as well as the only adaptation) of the X-Men lineup I loved most.  

5. Spider-Man (Film 2002)  

 I was never a big fan of Spider-Man, but this film captures the full superhero experience so well that it’s hard not to love, regardless of whether or not you care about the original character.  Peter Parker begins as the loser we can all relate to, except that he gets to live out every comic book geek’s empowerment fantasy of suddenly being able to beat up the school bully and get the girl.  But the film also captures the keystone of Stan Lee’s Spider-Man, the young man who learns that “with great power comes great responsibility.”  Watching this empowerment fantasy turn so serious and sour is what makes it compelling to me.  Even with all of his powers, Spider-Man is still a human beneath the mask and, as such, he must battle the same crises and disappointments that we all face in life.  I find that incredibly powerful, watching the guy who gets everything end up back at square one, fueled only by a heroic spirit that proves even tougher than his super powers.  The fact that McGuire is able to depict all of this so well, jumping from clown to tragic hero so effortlessly, is what makes this idea more compelling to me on screen than on the page.  He feels far more genuine and easy to identify with than the overly serious brainiac of the early Stan Lee scripts.  McGuire’s Peter Parker feels more honest, like someone I actually went to school with.  Willam DeFoe and James Franko are similarly brilliant in capturing these dramatic transformations of character.  I understand them far better than the original Norman and Harry Osbourne.  

4. Ducktales (Cartoon 1987)  

Back in the early 1950s, Carl Barks instilled his duck stories with a sense that “the impossible” was just beyond the horizon.  He did this best with compelling adventures in which Scrooge and the gang would go to far away uncharted places, facing mysteries and natives that the civilized world had yet to learn of.  Maybe there was an abominable snowman living far away in some uncharted territory with a penchant for clocks, and maybe there was a lost Incan tribe guarding all the gold that the Spanish conquistadors had failed to obtain.  These things didn’t seem so impossible in a world where airplane travel was still a new reality.  There was still so much world left to explore, and it was finally becoming possible to do so.  Barks captured that energy and excitement beautifully.    

Though Ducktales was never as entertaining as the comic stories it borrowed from, it managed to keep and update this sense of the impossible being just beyond the horizon.  As an eight year old child when this cartoon came out, I was fascinated by some of the more clever “what if?” adventures, like the one where Scrooge’s prominence in business allowed Huey, Duey, and Lewie to accidentally make an entire day disappear, or the one where the ducks visit a not-to-distant future where everything had gone wrong because of one simple scheme executed by Magika DeSpell.  There were so many others that came to mind, too, including descendants of William Shakespeare’s acting troupe guarding his worst play from being discovered, or a tribe of druids still residing in Scotland that used “ghost dogs” to scare away tress-passers.  Without an excess of uncharted land to explore or a more advanced space program, there were few final frontiers for the writers of Ducktales to explore at the end of the 1980s, but they still managed to find them.  I could go on and on about these episodes that I haven’t seen in twenty years.  They’ve all stayed with me because they were so brilliant, so impossible, yet seemingly possible in the world of the 1980s.   

3. Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (TV 1993)  

While this series suffered from terrible stories and even worse action sequences and special effects, this series really brought the cast of characters in the Superman mythos to life in a more believable an endearing way than I’ve ever seen elsewhere.  Dean Caine was the first actor to truly portray a Superman who was really Clark Kent, as opposed to a Clark Kent who was really Superman.  As a somewhat insecure, somewhat alienated young professional trying to balance his amazing gifts with holding down a real life, Caine made Superman accessible to me.  Chris Reeves may have made me nearly worship Superman, but Dean Caine was the first to make me empathize with him.  

Additionally, Terri Hatcher was the perfect Lois Lane.  She had most of Margo Kitter’s bravado, but also captured her femininity and attractiveness in a way that Kidder failed to accomplish.  Lois is a complex character.  She’s got to be tough and gutsy enough to challenge Clark and keep getting into perilous situations, but feminine enough to be loveable and endearing, all at the same time.  Margo Kitter captured the first half, and Kate Bosworth came close to capturing the second, but Terri Hatcher offered me the whole picture.  She was the only one who stood her own in contrast to Clark/Superman.  They truly functioned as a team, each with equal presence.  

Additionally, Lane Smith as Perry White made the Daily Planet feel more like a family than a workplace – a true home away from home.  The original Jimmy Olson from season one played an excellent, clever and endearing little brother, as well.  The two played off of each other with seemingly effortless precision.  Of course, the replacement Jimmy Olson for season two was nowhere near as talented.  

Finally, John Shea is Lex Luthor.  He captured that ruthless, egomaniacal businessman bent on ruling the world with more conviction and style than any other actor could ever hope to achieve in another Superman adaptation.  Once he was out of the picture, the show lost half of its appeal.  

By the third season, the show had gone from amazing to outright terrible, but that first year was an amazing ride.  Whatever else they did wrong with this show, someone in casting really knew their stuff.  This is the only incarnation of Superman that I return to on a regular basis, as a result.  

2. V for Vendetta (Film 2005)

V for Vendetta is my favorite comic book story of all time.  The fact that this film completed mangled the story, yet still appears at #2 on this list, should mean something.  I love this movie because, even though they changed the story so thoroughly, they translated its spirit with perfect clarity.  The original story was a thinking person’s plot, designed to make one ponder and reflect, ultimately arriving at the inescapable conclusion that tyranny must be resisted.  The film, designed for masses of theater-goers looking for far less thought provocation than a comic book fan reading Alan Moore, delivers this message to the readers outright.  In fact, the film is so gutsy in its blatant derision of the post 9/11 American government that I’m still amazed it was never censored in part or in whole.  When the fictional government in the film used avian bird flu as a tactic for scaring and controlling the masses, I half-expected Fingermen to burst through the theatre doors and arrest everyone for taking part in blatant treason.      

The acting in this film was superb, the action sequences were brilliant, and the story still maintained a lot of intricacy, even while making the over-all message painfully overt.  Still, what speaks to me most about this film is its fighting spirit.  This film truly functions as a version of V, itself; throwing truth in the face of its viewers, robbing them of their innocence and their right to inaction.   

1. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (Animated Film 1993)

Though there have been many excellent adaptations of Batman over the years, Mask of the Phantasm was the first and only one to truly capture Batman as I’ve always known him best.  To me, Batman is the ultimate mourner, donning his cape and cowl each night as an act of penance, never able to outrun the guilt of his parents’ death, and so wearing it proudly like a cloak instead.

Perhaps it was the 1989 Tim Burton film that led me to see Batman in this way.  In an otherwise silly film, Burton spent a lot of time emphasizing how profoundly this loss had affected Bruce Wayne.  We see it again for a moment in Batman Begins, but even Rhas Al Ghul warned Bruce in that film that he needed to get past his anger to draw strength from his pain.  I never saw this happen in Batman Begins.  Nolan's Batman even had angry eyebrows etched into his cowl.

Then there was Mask of the Phantasm, a brilliant film that, while marketed as a kids movie, went deeper into the depths of Bruce’s soul than any other incarnation of the Batman to date.  In this version, we saw a Bruce Wayne tormented by his past, making a solemn oath to his parents and then pleading at their gravesites to be released from it, sobbing that he never expected to find happiness in his life.  Ultimately, as his enemy’s struggle runs parallel to his, Bruce learns that there’s a careful balance to be maintained, fulfilling the oath while not allowing it to control him.  The film manages to resonate heavily in the heart as Bruce is forced to learn this painful message.

Add to this Mark Hamill playing the best damn Joker in the character’s sixty seven year history.  Not only are the voice and delivery perfect, but both Mark and the writers find that perfect balance between the Joker feigning insanity and experiencing the real thing.  We can truly see in this portrayal that there’s a rational man somewhere beneath that makeup that doesn’t want to be found.  That amazing moment when Sal grabs the Joker and tries to remind him of his past was amazing.  The entire screen turns red with rage as the Joker’s face contorts and then relaxes into a joke.  This works in perfect contrast to the moment where Joker is struggling with the Phantasm, reaches for a knife, passes it up, and then selects a giant salami to pummel her with instead.  The performance of madness is everything to him.  It’s even worth losing a fight (and potentially being captured) to prove to himself that he’s insane.

Finally, of course, there’s that amazing animation, where shadows fall naturally upon the animated city of Gotham and action moves seamlessly, all backed by an amazing score that fully respects, yet builds upon Danny Elfman’s amazing work from the 1989 movie.  Gothic, creepy, powerful.  That’s exactly how a Batman film should sound.

In essence, for someone that adores Batman beyond all other characters and was raised on the 1989 Burton film, Mask of the Phantasm is the full realization of everything a Batman story should have been.  I don’t think anything else will ever be able to top it.