Superheroes

Another "Best-Of" list - which are specifically designed to provoke indignant little tirades like this - this time via Newsarama on the All-Time Best Comic Book-based Movies. An utterly predictable roster of Hollywood-blockbuster bastardization of a worn-out, stereotyped genre. With the notable exception of 300 (Dark Horse) and Scott Pilgrim (Oni Press) - both of which bring up the surefire default critique that original source material is usually better than the movie - the list should probably be subtitled the best-of Marvel/DC movies.

Notably absent are such alternative titles such as Persepolis (Marjane Satrap), American Splendor (Harey Pekar) and Ghost World (Daniel Clowes), but one should consider the source, if not my own obvious bias. Hell, even Hellboy and Watchmen could have stood in for two of the three listed Batman movies.

One wonders when it will stop... Iron Man VII, Batman Again, X-Men XX? Will the current reboot of Spiderman get rebooted itself after an inevitable sequel and prequel? Not to conflate age versus maturity, but it amazes me to now be old enough to get thoroughly bored of traditional superheroes for the second time in my life: at some point there's more to entertainment than bigger boobs and louder explosions.

 

That said, adventures like this one make for better stories than most movies or comic books... way to go Spectral Motion, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Ron Pearlman.