With Batman Beyond doing impressively in the theatres, and Fantastic Four about to premiere, today's Los Angeles Times features a bunch of articles about comic books:
-- One about the various attempts over the years to make a movie out of the Fantastic Four:
http://www.latimes.com/business/custom/cotown/la-et-fantasticfour6jul06,1,7992411.story
The article includes a list (and in the original paper a bar graph) comparing the box office performance of the Marvel movies to date. Not surprisingly, the Spider-Man and X-Men movies rule the roost, with the Hulk movie (widely considered a flop) close behind. (I still find it mind-boggling that a movie that grosses over $130 million -- one of the few in history to do so -- could be classified a flop.) Languishing at the bottom is Elektra -- the bad film adaptation this year of a Frank Miller character -- with about $24 million.
-- One about how Batman Begins is appealing to right-wingers who admire a rich hero using his wealth for good:
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-et-batman6jul06,1,907312.story
Odd that they don't mention the Rutger Hauer evil industrialist character. (Why on earth would anyone trust Rutger Hauer to run their company? The man's a replicant, for god's sake!)
Batman, of course, is neither the first nor the last rich guy to go out and fight crime -- he comes from a tradition that includes Zorro and The Green Hornet; and Tony (Iron Man) Stark was his successor. Many other heroes have a convenient source of financial backing (such as Doc Savage and his Latin American gold mine) -- mainly because a rich hero can go places and buy cool stuff, as opposed to sitting around his apartment in his undershirt waiting for police sirens to go by his window.
Also, a couple of days ago, the Times ran an article about how the Jack Kirby estate is receiving nada from the Fantastic Four movie:
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-et-weekmovies4jul04,2,3606836.story
We're heading off tomorrow night for a preview showing of the Fantastic Four movie. More later.
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