Saturday, May 03, 2008

An American Creation.

I watched IRON MAN yesterday. Freakin excellent,thanks for asking.

I sat and thought about it after and it came to me. The superhero is a uniquely American invention.

Really. I used to collect comic books years ago. Part of that phase of my life was understanding the history as well as the artists. (yes, I can look at it and know if it was drawn by Joe Kubert, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, Neal Adams, and others), and yes, we did it first, as long as you discount some of Nitsche's writings.

And we developed it. From the larger-than-life such as Superman, to Marvel's stamp on the superhero, which was to make them human...people with messy relationships, rent to pay, etc.

Which had me thinking...who might they make a movie of yet? The characters they have so far: The Fantastic Four, Spiderman, The Hulk, the X Men, and now, Iron Man. Teams are obvious choices: The Avengers, The Defenders, The Champions, Alpha Flight, The Invaders, but the characters? Doctor Strange, and Captain America come to mind. Maybe the Sub Mariner. Moon Knight? Rom? Omega?

So many opportunities. And that's just Marvel. I'd pay to see Green Lantern...Hal Jordan, of course.