Don't get me wrong... I used to love this stuff when I was a kid, and even as a young-ish adult, I enjoyed the late 80's-early 90's Batman movies. As a child, and I'm talking about 4 or 5 years old, I was up at the crack of dawn, staring at the TV test pattern with bowl of Cheerios in hand, awaiting the beginning of the broadcast day, and my fill of Hulk, Spider-Man, Underdog, and the other cartoon crusaders against crime.
A bit later on, I dedicated my valuable viewing time to live-action TV fare like the 60's Batman, then Shazam! and Wonder Woman in the 70's, and even that now-laughable attempt The Amazing Spider-Man. But I lapped it all up back then.
I was never super-serious about comic books, but I had my weekly ritual of walking or bicycling downtown to the IDA Pharmacy and the United Cigar Store, the only spots in town that diligently stocked their comic racks with the latest issues. In my earlier collecting days, I leaned toward Batman in the Detective Comics, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and Superman. Maybe the odd Flash and Green Lantern.
But my tastes were changing rapidly. After seeing Bruce Lee on TV for the first time, I was enamored with all things martial arts (not such a common thing then as today), and to my delight, discovered a new comic entitled Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu. So when I wasn't out on the front lawn, kicking and chopping the air or neighbourhood kids, I was engrossed in the exploits of Shang-Chi.
Around that same time, my fascination with horror movies found a new medium to play with... comics. It was 1972, and Tomb of Dracula captured my imagination. I was a huge fan of the Dracula character, having watched the old Universal monster movies, and built my own scale model of Bela Lugosi as the bloodthirsty count. It glowed in the dark and fed my nightmares - which I encouraged, for they were like cool little horror movies starring... me.
That thirst sated, I then moved on to the Werewolf By Night comic, which debuted later that same year. What a golden age of comics fun for me! Werewolves, too, were tops on my list of favourite scary beasts; again, I'd seen ol' Lon Chaney Jr. as The Wolf Man in the old classic film (and its monster mash-up spin-offs), and a gory scale model of Wolfy adorned my bedroom shelf. I've still got those old monster model kits (see 'em here)... a little dusty, but still intact.
Back to the superheroes... more recently, I checked out early TV/Web episodes of Arrow and Jessica Jones, and waded through full seasons of Iron Fist and The Punisher. I could take or leave any of these. Nothing really stuck, though Punisher held my attention better than the rest. Ant-Man was funny but forgettable.
Only the Supergirl series held my interest for very long... probably just the goofy cuteness factor there, though, since even that was getting pretty silly with the heat vision battles shtick and all. I was more interested in the non-superhero side of the show. Whenever things got "super", I found it corny and my eyes nearly got stuck in an eye-roll.
At the movies, I barely gave any attention to Batman (Dark Knight), Spider-Man, the X-Men, or Iron Man. I saw the first movie or two of each franchise, then promptly lost interest. I'll admit to really enjoying Logan, the X-Men spin-off, and even Wonder Woman kept me watching (the beautiful female lead sure helped). Oh, and the first Captain America film was cool and refreshing with its period piece setting.
I will forever be nostalgic about Superman, since I watched and re-watched that 50's TV series in re-runs endlessly as a kid. And the Christopher Reeve movies bumped the cheese factor into the new age via believable special effects and a solid cast of actors. I re-watched the first Reeve Superman picture about a year or so ago, and it actually held up pretty well. Not sure how its sequels would fare, though.
The modern era of Superman movies has been a lot shakier. Maybe die-hard fans love them, but the latest bunch have been very uneven. Superman Returns of 2006 wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. A new actor, Henry Cavill, was introduced in 2013's Man of Steel, which was fairly good but not quite a hit with me. And Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (that title is too long, for one thing) was no fun at all... these so-called comic book movies have grown so dark, grim, and violent that the original intent of the characters has been twisted beyond recognition.
Modern re-imaginings of Superman and Batman (and so many other heroes and anti-heroes) have taken them out of the realm of light entertainment (originally intended for kids) and into the world of much more mature (?) subject matter, more appropriate for teenagers and adults. What were once wholesome role models are today reduced to brutes not so different from the villains. In fact, even when superheroes are pitted against one another, they pulverize each other, bloody and beaten. Batman v Superman does that. So do Iron Man and Captain America in Civil War. Probably elsewhere, too, though I have not seen all of these movies.
I keep giving Superman a chance, for whatever reason, hoping for a revival of a really great set of movies. Bring back the fun kind of entertainment. We don't need drawn-out, overly violent fight scenes in all of these movies. But I won't hold my breath... DC and Marvel and their like seem bound to amp up the death and destruction with every film they release.
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