Before the 1978 Superman film, the idea of taking a comic book and doing it as a large scale movie seemed impossible and ludicrous. But after the success of Superman, it didn't seem quite so daunting. After the Superman films burned out, Tim Burton brought Batman to the big screen in 1989's megahit Batman. Then the Batman films burned out (Joel Schumacher, neon sets, campish humor, nipples on the bat suit, George Clooney), and a few years later Bryan Singer gave us X-Men, followed by Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, and the honorable mention of Guilermo Del Toro's film version of Mike Mignola's quirky Hellboy (starring the mighty Ron Perlman in the lead). But we've had some clunkers which would include Mark Steven Johnson's poorly made 2003 Daredevil, Ang Lee's The Hulk (although the Hulk was not completely uninteresting), and the craptacular 2004 film Catwoman (I know Halle Berry was going through a tough time, but what was she THINKING?!). Later this year we're going to be reintroduced to Batman, in the guise of Christian Bale, in Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan, and I'm pretty sure we're going to get a new Fantastic Four movie, starring Welsh actor Ion Gruffud as Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Jessica Alba(!) as the Invisible Woman/Sue Storm-Richards, Michael Chikilis as the Thing/Ben Grimm and some guy who's name I can't remember for the Human Torch. Did I miss any? Oh yeah, I think Keanu Reeves as a Hellblazer movie coming out this year. And next year, Bryan Singer is going to present us with Superman Returns, starring little known, 25 year old soap actor Brandon J. Routh as the title character (it had better be good, seeing as how he abandoned X3 to do it). There's also rumor of an Iron Man film and a new Captain America (with Brad Pitt having been in talks to play the lead).

So before you all here and now, I'd like to ask you what you think of these comic book movies and rate their relative pros and cons and any fears you may have with upcoming comic book adaptations (personally I'm getting a really bad vibe from this new Fantastic Four flick). Any comic books you would like to see done as films are also welcomed (personally I'd like to see movies done on Marvel's Mighty Thor, DC's Aquaman, Dr. Fate, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter) And while we're on this subject, is there anyone here who is really annoyed with this whole concept of casting unknowns in the lead parts (I'm sorry but this whole unknown actor stigma is really starting to bug me).

I enjoyed the X-Men films and Spider-Man films, but I don't know if they're as great as all the critics like to say they are. Hulk and Daredevil deserved much better than what they got.