Posted: 31 October 2021 at 1:55pm | IP Logged | 10
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When I was a kid, I took whatever they gave me. In comics or adaptations. Now, 40+ years later, I can look back on a wealth of reprint and streaming choices and pick the versions that appeal best to me.
BATMAN--Surprisingly, the very short Steve Englehart and/or Marshall Rogers run is my favorite to revisit, followed very closely by the Denny O'Neil and/or Neal Adams issues. Also a joy are all the Jim Aparo issues, with Bob Haney or others. For adaptations, nothing has really excited me except the first two Christopher Nolan movies, but the third one's missteps almost retroactively ruins those for me. The ANIMATED SERIES is the most consistent of the bunch, but those episodes were more enticing to a younger me.
WONDER WOMAN--I have read no great Wonder Woman stories, except possibly the Allen Heinberg & Terry Dodson issues, but that 5-issue run was so short as to be but a blip. George Perez is a great talent, but choices he made during his run make his WW "a" WW, not "the" WW. (WW is the only missing run in my JB checklist, so I reserve judgment on his issues.) I recently rewatched the entire Lynda Carter series as well as the two Gal Gadot movies and both actresses are just incredibly endearing but both versions suffer from some bad storytelling--the second WW movie almost ruins the first one for me, I think a third one will be the tiebreaker. I also just re-read WW's first Golden Age year and I'm surprised at how witty Marston's writing was and how capable his WW originally was--I finally feel like I have met the "real" WW. (Now if we could just get Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez to re-draw all those stories!)
SUPERMAN--With Batman, we currently have FOUR different Batmen in live action between Ben Affleck's version, the version on TITANS, the version alluded to on BATWOMAN, and now the Robert Pattinson version coming. With Superman, we have Henry Cavill on the big screen and the middle-aged father of teenagers on the small screen (echoing the present comic book version), but Dean Cain, Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, Christopher Reeve, and even George Reeves are still strong in my memory. Somehow, they all seem like Superman to me, and Lois also is presented strongly each time. In the comics, I do love JB's version, but, in the scheme of things, that ended up being a relatively short run. I wouldn't mind seeing the Roger Stern/Kerry Gammill/Bob McLeod issues, but, by that time, I had quit again and collecting the back issues seems ponderously confusing. But any time I find an old Curt Swan issue in a back issue box, I am filled with joy! I wish they'd collect them in something other than b&w or overpriced hardcover. That is MY Superman (and Swan's version went quite nicely with Garcia-Lopez's or Neal Adams' too).
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