Hellhunters, from Marvel

In this alternte 1944, Col. Nick Fury has yet to lose his eye. Sgt.Sal Romero will lose something even greater: his very soul. At least he contracts with a better class of demon. Before Johnny Blaze, Zarathos resurrects Romero as Ghost Rider ’44 in Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s Hellhunters, illustrated by Adam Gorham, which is now on-sale at your local comic shop.

On the brink of death by exposure, a platoon of retreating National Socialists are offered a Faustian bargain by the demons known as the Unhallowed. When their senior Juncker officer hesitates, Captain Felix Bruckner accepts, by putting a bullet in his commander’s head. Transformed into demons, Bruckner’s undead men start turning the tide of the war. Unfortunately, they start with Romero’s squad of paratroopers.

Bruckner is particularly sadistic when killing Romero. That makes the Sergeant amenable to Zarathos offer of vengeance. Technically, he is also a demon, but Zarathos and the Unhallowed are sworn enemies. Romero will be his tool for vengeance, rather than the object his torments, but it was still a pretty lousy deal.

Regardless, what is done is done, so Romero teams up with an elite Allied unit already hunting the Unhallowed. The Howling Commandos currently number only three, but Agent Carter and the mystical Sebastian Szardos (a.k.a. Soldier Supreme), commanded by Col. Nick Fury, have no fear of the supernatural. They are soon joined by a relentless Canadian soldier named Logan and Bucky, Captain America’s teenaged sidekick, who takes macabre pleasure in killing National Socialists and taking trophies. Unfortunately, Eisenhower cannot spare Cap from the Normandy landing.

It is fantastic to see Marvel return to their WWII era characters and timelines. Johnson makes smart use of the Howling Commandos, Logan, and Bucky. Yet, Ghost Rider ’44 emerges as the star of Hellhunters, who deserves his own series. He shares a kinship with Blaze, but also forges his own identity. (Plus, just the idea of a WWII Ghost Rider summons memories of Steve McQueen in The Great Escape).

Marvel’s Holiday Tales to Astonish

Old school comics fans miss Marvel’s penchant for hyperbolic superlatives. The Hulk was “incredible,” Iron Man was “invincible,” Spiderman was “amazing” or “spectacular,” and many staple characters debuted in Astonishing Tales. That is why it is nice see this one-shot collection of holiday stories intends to “astonish.” Marvel was not stingy with the characters, giving fans seasonal tidings from their three most important heroes or teams: the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and Spiderman (both Peter Parker and Miles Morales). They also do some superheroing in Holiday Tales to Astonish, which is now available at your LCS.

“’Twas the Fight Before Christmas,” written by Gerry Duggan, features the best image of the entire issue, when the Human Torch kicks off the Four’s holiday party by lighting up a flaming Menorah in the sky for Ben Grimm. The story itself is a little jokey and the stakes are relatively low when a group of anonymous crooks reprogram a Doombot to steal the season’s hottest toy from underneath trees. However, fans will always enjoy seeing the Fantastic Four battling Doctor Doom, even if it is a phony. Plus, they technically save Christmas, so bonus points for that.

“Festival of Fights,” written by Daniel Kibblesmith, is even more jokey, but fans should appreciate the concept. Way back when Kitty Pryde was an X-Men rookie, she wanted to find an opportunity to buy her new teammates Hannukah presents, but every night they had to jet off to save the world. Again, it is nice to see inclusion for Hannukah, especially given the horrifying explosion in antisemitic violence this year. So, the good holiday vibes continue.

Arguably, Gene Luen Yang’s “Resolutions” delves the deepest into the challenges the holidays offer its heroes. In fact, the Miles Morales Spiderman is getting a little discouraged on New Year’s Eve, but the Peter Parker Spiderman has his back. In fact, this seems like the only constituent story that might be referred to in later storylines.

Regardless, they are all fun and they amply fulfill the holiday theme. Also, there is nothing political or objectionably about any of the stories, so it would make a nice stocking stuffer for young superhero fans. Recommended for casual Marvel consumers, Holidays to Astonish is now on-sale wherever weekly-release comics are sold.

Venom: The Last Dance

He is an alien body-snatcher who decided to become a good guy—sort of. Sure, he still bites off heads, but only those of bad people. Granted, in most films, Venom would be the monster, as indeed he was during most of his first film. Nevertheless, Eddie Brock learned to share his life and his headspace with his parasitic companion. Currently, they are fugitives from justice, but no arrangement is ever perfect. Unfortunately, something from the symbiote’s world starts hunting Venom and Brock, with no regard for human collateral damage, in director-screenwriter Kelly Marcel’s Venom: The Last Dance, which opens tomorrow only in theaters.

Currently, Brock and Venom are laying low (but not low enough) in Mexico, where Venom’s margarita mixing techniques draw unwanted notice. Brock wants to return to America, where he can work to clear his name, so he figures New York City will be the one place where they will not stand out. Getting there will be the trick.

They also need to put some distance between themselves and the large assassin kaiju that tracked Venom from his original space-time-dimension-continuum. As Venom explains to the alarmed Brock, they carry an alien artifact that would free the creature’s master, a malevolent titan intent on destroying all organic life, in all the various universes. That would be a bad thing. Fortunately, the codex-thingy is only visible to the hunter-creature when Venom takes his full black spiderman-looking form—but it is hard to keep the symbiote bottled up.

Eventually, Brock and Venom encounter more symbiotes in a secret government facility cleverly located below Area 51. Unfortunately, that location prompts discussion of the worst aspect of Last Dance: its pronounced and persistent hostility to the American military. There is not one single military character presented in a positive light. That definitely includes the judgmental, shoot-first-ask-questions-later Gen. Rex Strickland, despite his third act heroics. Most are just faceless grist for the mill, so viewers are expected to feel nothing when Venom kills several of them.

Let’s be honest, there is no way any film would portray multiple school teachers or public defenders as soulless villains. Why does Marvel consider it acceptable to uniformly demonize American military personnel, especially when they sacrifice so much more than teachers to serve our nation? In the case of Marcel’s screenplay, this bias is distractingly noticeable.

It is a shame because the symbiotic rapport between Brock and Venom still works. You can say Tom Hardy has good chemistry with himself. His Venom-psycho voice still gets big laughs. It is also cool to see some of the best Venom CGI effects are reserved for comedic bits, like the symbiote’s titular last dance with fan favorite character Mrs. Chen, again played by the returning Peggy Lu, who can hold her own opposite the big serpentine guy.

Werewolf by Night, on Disney +

Believe it or not, Marvel’s dirty little movie secrets are mainly horror films. In the 1970s, they integrated many public domain movie monsters into Marvel Comics, with titles like The Tomb of Dracula. Subsequently, licensing the Marvelized monsters to Japanese anime producers might have seemed like a good deal in the early 1980s, but now they pretend Dracula, Sovereign of the Damned and The Monster Frankenstein never existed. Later, Man-Thing premiered as a Syfy movie in 2005, just as the MCU franchise was about to take off. Since then, Marvel has been gun-shy with respects to its old monster characters. However, for this year’s Halloween season, they have produced a one-hour special featuring two of their 1970s era monsters. The good news is Man-Thing gets some redemption in Michael Giacchino’s Werewolf by Night, which premieres today on Disney+.

Ulysses Bloodstone is dead, so his custody of the mystical Bloodstone must pass to another. It should have been his estranged daughter Elsa’s birthright, but she must also participate in the ceremonial contest devised by her spiteful stepmother Verussa, along with the other monster hunters. They are mostly a nasty, sadistic lot, except Jack Russell, but he doesn’t really belong there. He is actually a monster (the original “Werewolf by Night” and friend of all terriers), who infiltrated their ritual gathering.

We soon learn Russell’s good friend Ted Sallis, a.k.a. Man-Thing, was abducted by Verussa to serve as the quarry in their competitive hunt. Russell does not want to kill anyone—and he shouldn’t have to since the moon is not yet full, but the other hunters are perfectly willing to slay their competition, including him and Elsa Bloodstone, for the sake of the prize.

Somewhat counter-intuitively given the title, Bloodstone is the focal protagonist of Werewolf by Night, rather than Russell. Maybe they should call here “Elsa the She-Wolfhunter of the MCU,” to attract Nazisploitation fans. Regardless, throughout most of the special, the aloof, mercenary Bloodstone is much harder to root for than the loyal and affable Russell.

In fact, the screenplay credited to Heather Quinn and Peter Cameron has several conceptual problems. Most fundamentally for a Halloween special, it refuses to be a satisfying monster-hunting horror movie, instead becoming a deadly Kumite/Most Dangerous Game-style thriller, with supernatural characters involved. After watching the special, we’d really like to see Russell and Man-Thing take on a demonic Jack the Ripper in New Orleans and the surrounding bayous (Disney+, email me if you’d like a treatment).

Alas, Werewolf by Night is never scary, but the opening sequences designed to evoke vintage Universal monster movies are very cool. The black-and-white cinematography (with spot-red for the Bloodstone) is nostalgic in the right kind of way. Depicting Russell’s transformation in silhouette is a similarly clever through-back device. The detailed design work of the Bloodstone trophy hall is also terrific. Everything looks great, the story is just underwhelming.

Slugfest, on Roku Channel

It was a powerful comic book tag-teaming, but it was completely uncoordinated. In 1940, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon created Captain America (first comic book appearance March 1941) to fight Nazis. That same year, DC produced a special issue of Look Magazine, featuring Superman beating the heck out of Hitler. Those were the days. In many ways, it was the big comic publishers’ finest hour and a good example of their “friendly rivalry.” Directors Don Argott & Sheena M. Joyce chronicle the competition and occasional cooperation between Marvel and DC in the 10-mini-episode Slugfest, produced by the Russo Brothers, which is now streaming on Roku Channel.

Slugfest, based on the non-fiction book of the same title by Reed Tucker (who also appears as a talking head) was greenlighted for Quibi, but the bite-sized streaming service folded before it could premiere, so here it is now. The six-to-eight-minute installments are punchy, but together they do not tell a cohesive narrative.

Regardless, the first installment, “Nazis are Bad,” is easily the best. You have to give Simon and Kirby credit for taking on Hitler and the National Socialists. Cap was a hit, but he was not universally popular. In fact, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia dispatched police guards to protect Timely Comics (as Marvel was then known) from violent Bund protesters. What would Kirby and Simon think to see the current management of their old company desperately currying favor with a CCP regime currently conducting a campaign of genocide in Xinjiang, just to get Chinese release dates for their movies.

In contrast, “Halloween Hero” is a fun footnote explaining how the first unofficial Marvel-DC crossover story was hatched by a group of writers and artists for both companies. Throughout the series, Argott and Joyce stage the sort of quirky reenactments they used in Framing John DeLorean. The most colorful is Ray Wise, slyly chomping on his cigar as the older Jack Kirby in “Funky Flashman,” which chronicles the artist’s departure from Marvel to DC, where he infamously mocked his old boss Stan Lee.

“Reverend Billingsley” plays up the 1970s trippiness of Doctor Strange, which does not have much to do with DC (and the whole Age of Aquarius vibe of the mini-sode gets tiresome). “Superman vs. Spiderman” is a cool look at the crossover fans always wanted, but the two companies never thought they could pull off (with an appearance from Ron Perlman, as a bonus). Likewise, “Cancelled Cavalcade” is a fascinating chronicle of the dramatic 1978 “DC Explosion” of titles and the sharp contraction that soon followed.

“Kill Robin” and “A World without Superman” both present solidly entertaining (and weirdly nostalgic) pop culture histories of the murder of the second Robin and the hyped-up “death of Superman,” which of course, it wasn’t. “Send in the Clones” tries to do the same for Spiderman clone storyline, but it won’t have as much traction for casual comics fans. However, the series ends with what could be its second-best episode, “Just Imagine,” a tribute to Stan Lee, with an emphasis on his once in a lifetime stint at DC, reimagining their signature characters, the Stan Lee way.

Pyun at HIFF ’21: Captain America (1990)

The Spiderman movie notorious wheeler-dealers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus tried to produce at Cannon is easily one of the most famous unmade movies ever, up there with Jodorowsky’s Dune. However, Golan eventually realized his Marvel superhero ambitions when he took the rights to Captain America to his 21^st Century Film Corporation. Who did he turn to bring Cap to the big-screen? It was Hawaii’s own Albert Pyun, who directed Van Damme’s second film, Cyborg. Quite fittingly, Pyun’s Captain America screens online as part of the Hawaii International Film Festival’s Pyun filmmaker-in-focus sidebar.

To atone for her unwilling role in the creation of the super-fascist villain, the Red Skull, defector Dr. Maria Vaselli oversees the U.S. Super Soldier program that transforms Steve Rogers into Captain America. Unfortunately, her double-secret process dies with her when she is assassinated by an Axis mole. Therefore, Rogers will be the only Super Soldier deployed to stop the Red Skull’s missile attack on the White House. He succeeds, but cruel fate consequently freezes him in suspended animation for decades.

Once Rogers revives, old school journalist Sam Kolawetz eagerly seeks him out, hoping to gain insight into the Red Skull’s identity. Of course, agents of the super-villain are also on his trail. Meanwhile, the fascist mastermind is hatching an evil scheme to brainwash and enslave Pres. Tom Kimball (from Springfield, Ohio).

Admittedly, the special effects are totally cheesy in the 1990 Captain America, but that also makes it feel human. In all honesty, it represents the sort of grungy Marvel adaptations Gen X grew up with and still love nostalgically. Despite the superior effects of the films, Nicholas Hammond’s TV Spiderman is the one we love in our heart of hearts. When it comes to guilty favorites, Dolph Lundgren’s Punisher is tough to beat. Pyun’s Captain America shares a kinship with both.

Matt Salinger certainly looked the clean-cut part of Captain America and his unflagging earnestness is sort of refreshing (you really don’t see that in Marvel movies anymore). Ronny Cox (Robo Cop, Total Recall) and Ned Beatty (Network, etc.) are totally great as Kimball and Kolawetz, who happen to be old childhood friends, with a contrived (but in a likably old fashioned and outlandish way) connection to Captain America.

Scott Paulin is respectably villainous as the Red Skull, but his Euro super-model hench-women have no personality and are obviously linguistically challenged. Frustratingly, the great Darren McGavin is wastefully under-employed as traitorous Gen. Fleming and the character is an annoying defamation of the American military.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, on Disney+

Serious question: did Disney/Marvel accidentally hire the wrong Tony Leung? They were quite distressed when their first martial arts film was not granted a coveted release slot for Chinese theaters, despite their profuse, prostrating apologies for the original comic book licensing Sax Rohmer’s notoriously stereotyped villain Fu Manchu, way back in the 1970s. Yet, it is worth noting Tony Leung Chiu Wai had issued statements in support of Umbrella protestors, whereas Tony Leung Ka-fai publicly backed the abusive HK police. (Also, it was partly filmed in Australia, a nation the CCP has been particularly belligerent towards.) Regardless, it seems Hollywood has been hellbent on selling its soul to a devil it does not understand. There is still no Mainland release date for Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, but it finally starts streaming on Disney+ this Friday.

Shaun is not merely a laid-back valet attendant. He is really the son of powerful crime-lord Xu Wenwu, a.k.a. “The Mandarin,” but absolutely, positively not Dr. Fu Manchu. He came to America to break ties with his father’s organization, but they inevitably come looking for him. Fortunately, he manages to fend of his father’s unnaturally enhanced henchmen, much to the surprise of his hard-drinking platonic bestie, Katy. Fearing Xiu will next come after his estranged sister Xu Xialing, they rush off to Macau to warn her.

Now the leader of a rival Triad, Xu is less than thrilled to reconnect with Shang-Chi, but their father’s assassins essentially force them into a truce. The reunion with Dad is even more awkward, but eventually they get a warmer reception from their Aunt Ying Nan, a mystical guardian of the legendary city Ta Lo. They will help her protect their late mother’s idyllic home from Xu’s army and the power of the titular ten rings that keep him looking so youthful.

From the CCP’s perspective (and maybe Marvel’s) Tony Leung Chiu Wai might have been the wrong Tony, but for anyone who believes in principles like freedom of expression, democratic governance, human rights, and free enterprise, he is the right Tony—and he is indeed terrific in Ten Rings. Despite the plentiful CGI, his training for The Grandmaster clearly did not go to waste. More importantly, he truly humanizes the super-villain, while brooding like nobody’s business. Twenty years from now Ten Rings will probably be programmed alongside In the Mood for Love and 2046 during “Little Tony” Leung retrospectives.

Leung makes the movie, but Simu Liu holds up his end as the action lead. He also has winning chemistry with Awkwafina, providing non-cringy comic relief as Katy. You can sort of see her coaxing Liu out of his dramatic shell, just as her character draws his out socially. As Xialing, Meng’er Zhang matches Liu step-for-step in their fight scenes. Yet, nothing can match the thrill of seeing the great Michelle Yeoh continue to command the screen as Ying Nan. It is also fun to see Benedict Wong briefly turn up as Wong from Dr. Strange. However, Sir Ben Kingsley inspires face-palms with his shticky sad clown routine as Trevor Slattery, the woeful actor set-up to be the Mandarin’s fall guy (and supply a link back to Iron Man 3).

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse—Marvel Animated

You have to give Marvel credit for not playing it safe with their first theatrical animated feature. For starters, they revisit the “Ultimate Marvel” continuity universe that they essentially put on indefinite hiatus in 2015. It also prominently features Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham (he’s a pig, get it?), whom Time magazine dubbed one of the “Ten Oddest Marvel Characters,” not without justification. Yet, all the unlikely elements combine into a rather inspired whole: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (trailer here), which opens this Friday nationwide.

Miles Morales is a bright prep school scholarship kid from Brooklyn, who is pushed hard by his police officer father. Most of the time, he feels like his black sheep Uncle Aaron understands him better, especially when it comes to his passion for graffiti art. Then one day, he is bitten by a radioactive spider. You know how that works. In fact, screenwriter Phil Lord frequently revisits that familiar origin story throughout Spider-Verse, for sly comedic effect.

Young Morales has trouble mastering his new powers, but he soon comes mask-to-mask with a potential tutor. That would be Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man. Thanks to a rift in the multiverse caused by the recklessness of Wilson Fisk (a.k.a. The Kingpin), several more alternate Spider-Beings cross over. Most of Morales’ lessons will come from Peter B. Parker, who is a lot like the Parker we know, but slightly schlubbier. He is not perfect, but the black-and-white, tough-talking Spider-Man Noir is not exactly the mentoring type and it would be embarrassing to get schooled by Spider-Ham.

It is usually a bad sign when comic book companies resort to reboots and alternate continuities, but Marvel has repurposed the Ultimate experiment quite shrewdly. Waste not, want not. Visually, Spider-Verse is a trip and a half, incorporating elements of the entire history of comic books, including manga—as represented by Peni Parker—all of which is rendered in a unique style of CGI animation, with traditional hand-drawn elements layered on-top.

Spider-Verse looks terrific, but what really distinguishes the film is the quality of the writing. Morales and his family are all fully developed characters, who have very real issues to deal with. Morales also has a smartly developed relationship with an alternate Gwen Stacy, a.k.a. Spider-Woman, a.k.a. Spider-Gwen (not to be confused with the deceased and resurrected Jessica Drew Spider-Woman). Frankly, there are some shockingly poignant moments in Spider-Verse, especially for viewers who are or ever have been Marvel fans.

Marvel really tempted the fates by enlisting Nic Cage, who nearly played Superman in Tim Burton’s never-realized Superman Lives, to give voice to Spider-Man Noir, but once again their gamble paid off with some fantastic hardboiled voice-over work. The rest of the voice cast is quite strong as well, particularly Hailee Steinfeld as Spider-Woman and Brian Tyree Henry as Morales’ father, Jefferson Davis (is that irony intentional?).

Regardless, all superhero movies should be as well-written as Spider-Verse. The animators produced some striking cityscapes and a truly dynamic sense of motion. Watching their work recaptures the feeling of seeing the first two Sam Raimi live-action Spider-Man movies and being blown away by how good the web-slinging looked. Even if you love GKIDS and Studio Ghibli, you will be impressed by what the filmmakers have done here. Very highly recommended, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse opens this Friday (12/14) across the country, including the AMC Empire in New York.

Doomed: The Curse of Corman’s Fantastic Four

It was the ashcan copy of all ashcan copies. It was also the only film Roger Corman produced that he never released. We were not supposed to see the 1994 Fantastic Four, but where there is a rabid cult following, there is always a way. The speedy production and unfortunate fate of the most notorious Marvel movie ever are chronicled in director-editor-screenwriter Marty Langford’s documentary Doomed: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four (trailer here), which releases today on VOD.

As most fans know by now, Marvel has stringent use-it-or-loose-it clauses in their film licensing contracts. Bernd Eichinger had acquired the rights to The Fantastic Four, Marvel Comics’ flagship superhero team, but his hold on the property was soon to expire. He needed someone who could produce a film quickly and on the cheap, solely so he could retain control of the property. Naturally, he thought of Roger Corman. Apparently, he also approached Lloyd Kaufman, who wisely declined, but the mind reels at the thought of a Troma Fantastic Four.

Eventually, Langford and company give us reason to suspect the fix was in, right from the start. However, the cast and crew went into the project with high hopes and the best of intentions. In fact, they apparently bonded almost immediately and promoted the film as a team, often on their own dime. Of course, there were those colorful tell-tale signs that this was a Roger Corman joint, but they had reason to believe this would be different. Then suddenly, the film was withdrawn and the rights were transferred to Fox, leaving director Oley Sassone and his cast feeling confused and betrayed.

Langford scores interviews with all the principal cast and just about every crew member with a story to tell. He certainly has Corman’s New Horizon’s poverty row studio covered, but the surviving players at Marvel and Constantin Films were much more camera shy. Frankly, this might be the only Marvel film Stan Lee chose not to appear in—but have no fear true believers, we still see him in some rather illuminating fair use video clips. While Langford is pretty tough on Lee, one could argue he goes easy on the other icon, Corman, who unflappably answers questions and apologizes for nothing.

Although we all know the general upshot, there are a number of genuinely surprising twists and turns. Doomed is breezy and comprehensive. However, it rather diplomatically refrains from gloating over the obvious ironies—despite its cheesy effects and the dubious legality of bootleg copies, the Sassone Fantastic Four is still most fans’ favorite. The strange backroom maneuvering also taught Fox precisely how to deal with Marvel. Hence, all the unwanted sequels and reboots. Frankly, if Marvel had gotten behind the Corman-Constantin co-production, the Fantastic Four film rights they now so desperately covet would have safely reverted years ago. That’s karma.

Regardless, Langford lucidly explains every strange legalistic detail, shaping the assembled testimony into a highly compelling narrative. More than just a “making of” film, Langford exposes some real Hollywood sausage-making, but it leaves viewers’ fanboy enthusiasm undiminished. Highly recommended for Marvel and cult cinema fans, Doomed is now available on VOD platforms.

Superheroes: PBS Goes to ComicCon

For many kids, comic book collecting provided lessons in duty and sacrifice as well as their first practical experience with the laws of supply and demand.  Ironically, just as the bottom fell out of the collectible market, the intellectual property value of Superhero franchises climbed to all time highs.  This Tuesday, PBS chronicles the development of the costumed crime fighter in American culture with the three-part, one-night special broadcast of Superheroes: a Never-Ending Battle (promo here), co-written by Michael Kantor & Laurence Maslon.

There will always be a demand for Action Comics #1.  In fitting superhero style, part one, Truth, Justice, and the American Way begins with the origin story: the first proper comic book appearance of Superman.  Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Man of Steel almost immediately captured the public imagination.  Siegel and Shuster churned out adventures like assembly line employees, with all rights to their iconic creation retained by the company, DC Comics.  Eventually, Siegel and Shuster will re-enter the narrative, like long lost characters resurrected to shake up the heroes’ universe.

Without question, part one is dominated by DC.  This is the Golden Age of comics, when patriotic superheroes like Wonder Woman and Captain America brought the full force of their powers to bear against the National Socialist war menace.  There was no question whose side they were on.

However, superheroes face an identity crisis in part two, Great Power, Great Responsibility.  After pulling no punches against America’s enemies, do-gooder child psychologists started a hand-wringing campaign against comic book violence.  The majors formed the self-regulating Comics Code Authority and watered down their content to conform to the new guidelines. Still, an upstart company was able to appeal to a new generation with a roster of characters who had to navigate real world problems as well as battle super villains.  That would be Marvel.

Naturally, Stan the Man Lee is a prominent presence throughout Never-Ending.  He was a game-changer.  However, Steve Ditko is given rather short shrift for his contributions, including co-creating Spiderman and Doctor Strange. (It is an unfortunate omission many might suspect is motivated by the Objectivist influence reflected in Ditko later work).  On the other hand, Great Power pays proper homage to the bold modernist style of Jim Steranko that re-invigorated the pages of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Superheroes truly arrive when technology can finally do them justice on the big screen.  Part three, Anyone Can Be a Hero, identifies Richard Donner’s Superman as the first and still perhaps the best realized example.  It also celebrates edgier storylines while dismissing the recent decline in comic book sales as an unavoidable consequence of the E-Book age.  Yet, the comic industry’s rather Hollywood like agnostic response to post-September 11 terrorism, which part three covers in extensive detail, could just as easily be depressing single copy sales.  Would Captain America have been as popular in the 1940’s if he never fought the Axis?

It is not an idle question.  As one commentator argues, it is the regularity of comics that prevents these characters from becoming ossified artifacts, like The Shadow or Mandrake the Magician.  Ironically, the movie business seems to get the appeal of these characters today better than many of their daily custodians.

Breezily directed by Kantor, Never-Ending is like a greatest hit package, delivering plenty of television and film clips for fans.  It features a first class battery of expert talking heads, including many of the medium’s most influential artists and writers, including Steranko, Joe Simon, Len Wein, Louise Simonson, Jim Lee, Denny O’Neil, Todd McFarlane, Jerry Robinson, and Chris Claremont.  Liev Schreiber is also a perfect choice to narrate, as an experience voice-over performer and an alumnus of the Wolverine series, but the video-backdrops he periodically strolls through looks like the old In Search of show’s set updated for the ComicCon crowd.

Obviously, Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle is an attempt to broaden PBS’s audience.  It hits all the necessary bases, but its biases periodically peak through.  It is cool hear from so many comic luminaries on national television, but there is still room for a definitive Ken Burns-style history of the American superhero.  Recommended for casual fans looking for something easy to digest (and diehards eager to pick it apart), all three installments of Superheroes air this Tuesday (10/15) on most PBS stations nationwide.

Better Late Than Never: The Wolverine vs. the Yakuza

China recently surpassed Japan to become the world’s second largest film market.  Yes, China is number two with a bullet, but Japan is hardly chopped liver.  As an extra added benefit, studios do not have to debase their product or sell their souls to export films into Japan.  Yet, they seem to take perverse pleasure in kowtowing to Chinese Communist Party censors.  However, the latest Japanese-centric installment of the X-Men franchise surely understood where its international bread would be buttered.  Better than initial reviews gave it credit for, James Mangold’s simply titled The Wolverine (trailer here) is worth a look-see in theaters now.

As most guys between the ages of thirteen and fifty know, Logan is a mutant, whose uncanny healing powers were augmented with an adamantium skeleton and retractable claws.  You cannot kill him, because he simply heals too fast, but you can definitely tick him off.  At least that used to be the case.  While visiting the deathbed of Yashida, the Japanese industrialist who knew Logan during dark days past, his healing powers are drastically impaired by Yashida’s strange physician, Dr. Green, who also happens to be a rather nasty mutant known as Viper.

At Yashida’s funeral, an attempt is made to kidnap Mariko Yashida, the granddaughter and surprise heir to the Yashida empire.  Suspecting the yakuza assassins are in league with her somewhat disappointed father, Logan and Mariko go underground.  However, the anti-hero mutant just isn’t shrugging off shotgun blasts to the gut like he used.  At least, he still has the claws and the temper, which are considerable.  Nevertheless, he will need a bit of help from Yukio, a mutant orphan adopted by the Yashida family to serve as Mariko’s friend and confidant.

Wolverine works surprisingly well, because most of the time it is not operating as a superhero movie, but as a blend of the yakuza and ninja genres.  No longer immortal, Logan follows the tradition of other noir gaijin hard-noses, like Robert Ryan in Sam Fuller’s House of Bamboo.  The claws versus swords fight sequences are well staged and have real stakes.  Unfortunately, the film makes a tactical mistake in the third act, veering into Iron Man territory not in keeping with up-close-and-personal hack-and-slashing tone it had so nicely established.

Regardless, The Wolverine has a real ace-in-the-hole in the person of supermodel turned thesp Rila Fukushima.  As the trusted Yukio, she shows gobs of screen presence and wicked action chops.  Frankly, many fans will want to see her and Logan walk the earth together, “like Caine in Kung Fu,” but the franchise seems to have different plans for the future (judging from the stinger-tease).

Tao Okamoto (another model) is also quite engaging as the dutiful Mariko, but probably Royal Shakespeare Company and Lost alumnus Hiroyuki Sanda is the most recognizable face after Hugh Jackman, bringing Shakespearean heaviness to the homicidal father, Shingen Yashida.  Although clearly comfortable with the character by now, Jackman admirably digs into this grittier detour into mortality.  On the other hand, Will Yun Lee (so good in Witchblade and the cool b-movie Four Assassins) is woefully under-utilized as ninja-protector Kenuichio Harada, while Svetlana Khodchenkova’s Viper is a bland standard issue super-villainess.

Just like leaving New York for Match Point helped reinvigorate Woody Allen, the Japanese setting ought to jump start the Wolverine sub-series.  It should also herald Rila Fukushima’s arrival as an international action star.  Had Mangold not been so tied to the big set pieces-go-boom superhero climax, The Wolverine could have really been an impressive fusion of Marvel mythology and Asian martial arts and action movie aesthetics.  Despite the late adherence to convention, it is still consistently entertaining.  Recommended for Marvel and yakuza genre fans, The Wolverine is still playing in theater nationwide, including the AMC Empire in New York.