Two Guys, a Girl and a Blog

This has arguably been the summer of the Super Heroes. We had IronMan, The Incredible Hulk, Hellboy 2, Hancock, and the biggest one of them all, The Dark Knight. And with Watchmen and The Spirit already scheduled to come out next year, it doesn’t look like the audience’s fascination with men in tights will be ending any time soon.

But it’s not just in movie theaters where you can catch comic book heroes doing what they do best. Long before Hollywood had become interested in comic books, they could be found on the small screen. Both Marvel and DC have had a history of having their most popular characters show up on TV under various guises. In the spirit of that, I’m pitting three of the biggest comic book characters against each other to see not only who have had the most interpretations on the small screen, but also which one has had the best. So let’s have yourself a good old fashion SUPER HERO BATTLE ROYALE!

Let’s begin by setting up some ground rules shall we? I’ll count both cartoon and live action iterations, but no guest roles. Also, straight to video does not count, so you won’t see any of the later Superman animated movies on this list. With that said…Let’s get it on!!

Superman- Ah Kal-El, Earth’s adopted son. With powers of flight, super strength, x-ray, heat vision, and ice breath just to name a few, in a real comic book fight Big Blue would easily come out winning. While Superman might indeed be more powerful than a speeding locomotive, it’s his powers that has hurt him in the world of television. In order to be faithful to character, a live action show would have to have a tremendous budget to due justice to the character. Television writers also end up facing a problem comic book writers have been struggling with for years. How do you give an almost invincible man credible threats? Strangely enough, that hasn’t kept people from making live action shows. The earliest version of Superman was Max Flesicher’s Superman cartoon. This is the show that originated the “faster than a speeding bullet” line, and is also famous for using rotoscoping, which is the process of tracing drawings over live action figures. This not only provided a more realistic image, but has also made the show still look good by today’s standard. Supes cartoon history continued with ensemble shows such as The Superman-Aquaman hour, and the always popular 70′s version, Superfriends.

On the live action end, there’s been several iconic interpretations of Superman. From the Adventures of Superman, which is as well known for its tragic star George Reeves, to Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, with Dean Cain and Terri Hatcher.

TOTAL NUMBER OF SHOWS:12

WORST INTERPRETATION- Smallville. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as the creators of the show have admitted that they came in knowing nothing about the character. The changes can be spotted from the beginning of the show, where we see numerous comets crashing into the town of Smallville, instead of the solitary one that brought Superman to earth. Instead of the Elderly Kent couple found in the comics and other media, we see a much younger Martha and Johnathan Kent. Supporting characters from Superman’s past, such as Pete Ross and Lana Lang can be found in the show, but the show also introduced new characters such as Lex’s dad Lionel, or geeky Editor-in-Chief of the school’s newspaper, Chloe. For the most part, the show has focused less on the “Super” part and more on the “man” one..or I guess boy in the early seasons. The story lines, especially in the first few seasons revolved around Clark’s feelings of being an outcast more than bang up action. Now, while that can be an interesting approach to take for the character, before long you just want to see Superman beat up someone. In the latest season the characters have introduced Doomsday, who in the comic book bested Superman while managing to bring down most of Metropolis in the process. Oh, and he looks like this;

In the show, he’s a serial killer and looks like this;

BEST - Superman. This one was between either Max Fleischer’s 1940 version, or the Bruce Timm’s 1990′s version. I ended up choosing Timm’s version, because it adhered closer to the Superman that I was personally used to reading about. This, along with Batman: The Animated Series started the Timm/Dini universe that would continue on with Justice League Unlimited. Clancy Brown and Tim Daily’s version of Lex Luthor and Clark Kent/Superman have become almost as iconic as the characters themselves, and they provided a version of Darkseid that would wipe the floor with the Superfriend’s version.

WHAT’S NEXT? Smallville continues with its eight season.

SPIDERMAN- Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever, a spider can… who doesn’t know the catchy theme song from the 1967 cartoon? Spider-Man has had a relatively good luck with most of his television shows. He’s had a fairly  successful run of television shows, starting with that cartoon and continuing with Spiderman and his Amazing Friends, which featured my boyhood crush(uh, Firestar, not Iceman). The longest running show was Spiderman on Fox’s cartoon block of the 90′s. While the animation might not portray Spidey’s nimbleness, it stuck very close to the comic book. There was also the CGI Spiderman: The New Animated Series show on MTV, which had Neil Patrick Harris as Parker and Lisa Loeb as Mary Jane. While the CG was slightly blocky, it was probably the first show to truly capture Spiderman’s agility and way of moving.

NUMBER OF SHOWS: 8

WORST- It’s probably not much of a surprise that just like Superman, Spidey’s worst interpretation came out of live action. What might be surprising though is that not many people have seen it. Created for Japanese television, this is the description taken right out wikipedia:

Young motorcycle racer Takuya Yamashiro sees a UFO falling to earth, in fact a combat spacecraft named the “Marveller”. Takuya’s father Dr. Hiroshi Yamashiro, a space archaeologist, investigates the case. The incident also brings the attention of Professor Monster and his evil Iron Cross Army (Tetsu-Jyuuji-Gun), an alien group that plans to rule the universe.

I defy you to find anything related to the Spiderman you and I know in that synopsis.

BEST- Spectacular Spiderman. I had doubts about this show when it was first announced. It was being created by the same people that did The Batman, which I’ll write about soon enough, and the few images released in the beginning did not inspired much confidence. But I was pleasantly surprised upon seeing the first few episodes how good the series is. Taking place during Peter’s High School years, there are a few changes, such as Gwen Stacy being Peter’s nerdy friend who clearly has a crush on him, but nonetheless it simply captures Spiderman’s dual lives perfectly. Spidey quips just like he should, while Peter has the patented Parker luck that keeps him from getting on time to a date with Mary Jane. The animation is crisp, and at times even brutal, such as the scene with the Sinister Six. Definitely one to to check out.

WHAT’S NEXT? Season 2 of Spectacular Spiderman will begin to air later this fall. The question many are asking is if Gwen will die just like in the comic or not.

BATMAN- While Spiderman might have a damn catchy song, nothing beats the na na na song of 1960′s Batman. There’s been a dichotomy of sorts in how Batman has been portrayed in Television. You have the light, campy affair best highlighted in the 1960′s live action The Batman, along with the darker twinge of the Paul Dini/Bruce Timm Batman: The Animated Series. Batman Beyond, which is also in the same universe, except in the future was also a great series, dealing with a Batman living in a Blade Runner like future.

NUMBER OF SHOWS:5

WORST- You might think this would be an easy choice. Just pick Adam West’s version right? But see, despite how campy the show was, it actually did a good job of reflecting the tone of the comic book at the time. It might have had the Joker with a visible mustache, but it’s not the worst Batman interpretation. No, that honor goes to 2004′s WB cartoon The Batman. This was the main reason I was doubtful of Spectacular Spiderman. The main thing this show had going against it was the aesthetic. It’s okay to have a Batman who is not drenched in darkness, but when Bruce Wayne starts to look asian, eyebrows are raised. The show also tries to hip up the villains to a point where they start to become parodies of themselves. Okay, so the villain Scarface, with his history of being a mafia puppet(and I’m talking about honest to god ‘stick a hand up his back’ puppet) might seem ridiculous, but at least it was better than the show’s version, who had be a Tony Montoya puppet. Plus we have this Joker;

BEST- That’s an easy one. Nothing beats Batman: The Animated Series. The creators of the choice were clearly Batman fans, and more importantly than that, they just got Batman. There is a noir sensibility that ran through the entire show. Catwoman was sexy, Bruce Wayne was a playboy, and Batman was scary. Alot of this also had to do with the voices of the show. Before Heath Ledger came along, Mark Hamill’s(Yes, Luke Skywalker) Joker was the one everyone held in highest regard. His laughter is still pitch perfect. And Kevin Conroy as Batman is just as great. Just as importantly though, the series actually created two characters that would move on to the comics. Harley Quinn, Joker’s female sidekick, and Renee Montoya, who went on to become The Question.

WHAT’S NEXT- It was just recently announced that a new Batman series would start up, titled Batman: The Brave and The Bold. Inspired by the comic of the sane name, every episode will have Batman teaming up with another DC character. Sounds pretty good right? This show is being pegged for a younger audience, as Batman looks to be taken right of Adam West’s version.

AND THE WINNER IS…

SUPERMAN!

Through his history in television, Superman has had more than double the amount of shows than either Spiderman and Batman. And more than that, most of them have remained pretty damn true to the character. The main reason I had to give him the win was because Superman: The Animated Series created the DC animated universe and that ushered in not only the best Batman cartoons, but also the epic Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.