COMIC BOOK MOVIES: 'Guaranteed to make parents wallets lighter!'

When I was just a kid, comic book movies - that is movies based upon comic book characters, were my coffee, my caffeine; just thinking about them could sometimes give me an adrenaline rush. For me though, any talk of comic book movies back then was really more a discussion of super hero movies.

I think it was the fact that comics as a primary source material for movies was not so commonplace thirty years ago. Sure, there were movies made based on various comic book creations, however most of these were not made with anything resembling a serious budget, and almost all of these films suffered from the limitations of the special Effects ( or F/X ) that was available to them with those budgets at the time. Comic books may have been an inspiration for many filmmakers and duly acknowledged as such, but it seemed that Hollywood was so much more reluctant to take the financial plunge when it came to making movies based on comic book properties. It took time and the natural Hollywood reaction to seeing Iconic comic book heroes experience serious financial success on the silver screen ('Hey! We can do that, too!) before the idea of super hero movies having a super sized budget wasn't considered to be too crazy. Because of this, the release of a new comicbook / super hero movie was almost always a big deal for me.

It seemed like every time I got hooked on the latest comic movie it was just a matter of time before I got hooked on all of the predictable, and potentially costly, fallout from it. I would see the super hero movie trailers and that would get me chomping at the bit for the movie to come. I would start noticing the superhero movie posters up around everywhere and my inner slow-burn would pick up steam. Of course the day would come when I would eventually go and see said super hero movie and the sneaky movie marketing machine would have me screaming for all of the related tie-ins: I would want the mug and the glass or drinking cup; I would want the super hero socks to protect my little feet while wearing the super hero shoes; I would want the movie hat nestled on my head which I held high above the shoulders that were wearing the movie T-shirt. And if I were old enough to properly tell the time, I probably wanted a super hero movie watch on my scrawny un-super arm. Oh, and of course I would want the super hero movie comic book based on the super hero movie which was itself based on a super hero comic book!!

*Whew.* I really, really loved my comic books when I was a kid.

I would see the TV commercials for the line of super hero movie action figures or other assorted toys based on the comic book movie and I would want them - no need them, and need them bad!

Okay, maybe it would be more accurate to say that these movies were my Kryptonite.

Boy, who would of thought that Hollywood could make super heroes and their super hero movies so ... evil?