[CharlieRock]

What hero or heroine would you like to see Hollywood do a big budget movie of next?

I'm hoping to see Wonder Woman (or maybe Ms. Victory)

[Menticide]

Elric of Melnibone, Doctor Strange, Doc Savage, and Adam Warlock...

[narfstar]

Doc Savage is an ideal movie character if done right. I think The Avenger would make a great TV series. I also think Sugar and Spike would be one of the best cartoon series to rival Rugrats. Fox's version of the Phantom Lady would top my chart for new movie. Not sure who could "fill" the role. I would like to see a new breakout star.

[disknerd]

I've been hoping to see Doctor Strange hit the big screen for years. 

[narfstar]

I am not a fan of magic comics or characters. While I am not a fan of magic or much of Ditko, I find his Doctor Strange an exception. He did some great otherworldly work on that title.

[disknerd]

I suppose it's the magic characters I want to see most.  There's a lot more room to be imaginative, instead of fighting to try to make sense of the characters in terms of the real world.

[narfstar]

A big problem I have with magic characters is their lack of boundaries. To me the lack is the writer can make them do whatever he wants them to do just because that it was he wants them to do. That is why I stopped watching Naruto and One Piece. There was no rhyme or reason in how the characters were able to do just phenomenal things with "chakra." The could create an entire mountain just because they mastered that technique. I was a science major in college and teach math.  Some magic/demonic characters I have religious problems with.

[josemas]

A big problem I have with magic characters is their lack of boundaries. To me the lack is the writer can make them do whatever he wants them to do just because that it was he wants them to do. That is why I stopped watching Naruto and One Piece. There was no rhyme or reason in how the characters were able to do just phenomenal things with "chakra." The could create an entire mountain just because they mastered that technique.

   

This was pretty much the same problem I had with magical characters.  Superhero characters might have almost magical powers but they were given pseudo-scientific reasons for them (with usually a set of limitations and weaknesses) that usually satisfied me. 

Of course, if I want to be honest, many of my superheroes had their "limitations" stretched too, over time, and depending on who was writing it.  I guess the best example would be Superman who went from lifting cars and leaping over tall buildings in the early days to pushing around whole worlds and flying to distant galaxies a couple of decades later.

Best

Joe

[narfstar]

Yeah Supes got out of hand. Didn't he even read minds in an episode or two. He has even flown through the sun

[Roygbiv666]

And magic characters are often essentially omnipotent, until like aliens invade and suddenly "they cannot interfere in Man's destiny" or some such nonsense. Magic makee no sense, even from an internal consistency perspective. Stupid magic.

[profh0011]

I think I got around that with the magician character I've written, as I spelled it out he was somewhat of an under-achiever (he wasn't that good at it), and went to great lengths to get around his own shortcomings.

In one of the more recent stories, he spends half the story tracking down the HQ of the bad guys, and within a minute of showing up, he gets tossed thru a plate glass window.  Picking himself up off the grass just as the cops are arriving, he says to himself, "How clumsy of me..."

I guess you could say it can be more fun working within set limits. I find it's better to have characters with well-defined personalities than to worry too much about "powers", supernatural or otherwise.



Hey, didn't the Siegel-Shuster SUPERMAN have more "personality" than the version in the 50's?

[josemas]

Hey, didn't the Siegel-Shuster SUPERMAN have more "personality" than the version in the 50's?

I don't know if he had "more" personality early on but it was certainly a "different" personality from the way he developed under Ellsworth and Weisinger's editorship.

Best

Joe

[paw broon]

I've often thought that Hawkman would make a good film. As long as we didn't get the the personal feelings coupled with inappropriate mood music so prevalent in t.v. shows.  I don't like being told when to feel what by incidental music.  If the story and direction are good, viewers can make up their own minds about what's going on.  Just do a well written action piece.  There's a descriptive phrase for Hawkman which circulates among some Scottish comics fans - unfortunately a bit sweary too repeat fully, but with blanks it goes something like;  "Hawkman, big b******, wings, f***-off mace. Belter."  I subscribe to that idea, if not the language used.  Don't fancy magic heroes, either, although I'm a big Mandrake fan.  Pity the serial is not very good.  And nowadays that costume and gesturing hypnotically wouldn't cut the mustard. 
If we want superhero or masked man movies, let's have a hero enjoying his powers and abilities and getting on with duffing up bad guys, with a bit of mystery and some shadows thrown in.  Black Terror from his early days with super strength and a bit of bullet resistance thrown in.  That costume would look great on screen.
As an aside, my favourite period for Superman and Batman is the late '50's to early '60's.  And that's despite being a big Adams fan and loving the Sand creature Superman stories.  Sad, isn't it?

[narfstar]

Hawkman could be cool on screen. Love to see MLJ's Hangman with some good moody Fuje style noir.

[disknerd]

The lack of boundaries certainly is the downside of magical superheroes. Looking back, I seem to remember a lot Doctor Strange stories get resolved via deus ex machina or some "fix everything" spell.  Strange is still at the top of my list, though.

I'd also love to see Luke Cage and Captain Marvel.  I know both of those were being tossed around a few years ago.  Too bad nothing ever came of them.


Now that you mention the Superman instance, I do remember a story where Doctor Strange and Baron Mordo had a chase that took them inside the sun...

[narfstar]

Luke Cage has a good back story and has had a good look.

[profh0011]

I can remember back in the late 70's some fans and pros were discussing possible Marvel movies, and HERO FOR HIRE was suggested, because unlike most Marvel characters, it would be so easy (and cheap) to do.  No flying-- no pyrotechnics-- no special effects (or very few). Nothing they couldn't have done on the George Reeves SUPERMAN show, probably.

All they need to do is find someone who looks like JIM BROWN...!




"What makes you think you can be a BLACK hero?"
"I'm an ex-football player!"
".............."

[profh0011]

Here's a funny one... all this talk of magicians, and while I was looking up some NERO WOLFE actors, I ran across Conrad Dunn ("Saul Panzer"), who I've never seen with a moustache before. He looks to me like he'd make a perfect MANDRAKE!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420718/

[narfstar]

Cuba Gooding Jr as Luke Cage

[CharlieRock]

Cuba Gooding Jr as Luke Cage

Not big enough really. Maybe Wesley Snipes.

On a side note I watched The Green hornet movie last night with MrsCharlie and I laughed so hard and was thoroughly wowed. It was nothing like the original material so just drop your expectations and it is a good one.

[narfstar]

That was how I planned on watching it. I will have to take it as is or get mad.

[josemas]

On a side note I watched The Green hornet movie last night with MrsCharlie and I laughed so hard and was thoroughly wowed. It was nothing like the original material so just drop your expectations and it is a good one.

Kinda' like the attitude you have to take toward the 1960s Batman television series.  If you go into not expecting it to be serious it can be fun to watch.

Best

Joe

[Red Skull]

Personally i would love to see Thor in a movie a combination Norsk Legends and modern day action.
Nice selection of villian characters Loki, The Enchantress and the more modern Wrecking crew add to that cameos from the Avengers and your on to a winner.

[profh0011]

"Not big enough really. Maybe Wesley Snipes. "


No, no, no! They already did that with BLADE!  (All those years I never had a clue who these characters were based on, then I found out BOTH Luke Cage AND Blade were based on the same actor-- Jim Brown. And Snipes looks nothing like him.)



Now Michael Clarke Duncan... HE's the guy they should cast if they ever do a remake of LIVE AND LET DIE!

[paw broon]

Often, the problem with shovelling comic book heroes onto the big screen is that the costumes that looked great in the strips, look awful in the movie, or serial.  I know things have moved on a lot since the Batman serials but super suits can still look a bit incongruous live. And I don't like cgi. Is it almost better to make superhero films that are a bit corny and fun, rather than go for shadows and seriousness?  Perhaps that's why Iron Man looked half decent because he's high tech and effects can handle that. But a skintight, classic cossy really has to be perfect or you're going to be distracted by smiling at the actors gut or wrinkly knees. Or, it's going to have to be a bulked out set of armour and then you realise the guy can't even turn his head.  You might have gathered I don't go to many superhero movies.
I'm still considering my opinion as to whether I think superheroes should stay in the comics.
If any of you have see the 2 Kriminal films, you'll see what I mean about costumes.  The posters were good but on screen the skeleton hood and suit looks cheap and unconvincing.
Not sure who some of these actors are, so off to look them up.