Legends of the Not-So-Dark Knight (Why Space Ghost Deserves Your Respect!)

While he may be primarily known today as a doofus talk show host, to a generation of older fanboys, Space Ghost is a true-blue superhero who, with his teenage partners Jan and Jace (and their space-monkey, Blip) tools around the universe in the Phantom Cruiser, battling the forces of evil with unmatched panache!

As Batmania swept the country in the 1960s, Hanna-Barbera Productions set out to add some animated superheroes to their Saturday morning slate. Designer Alex Toth was given the task of coming up with a “Batman in space,” resulting in the mysterious avenger who could fly, turn invisible, and by way of his forearm-gauntlet power bands, shoot various force rays that could freeze, burn, destroy or pile-drive anything in his way.

Premiering on CBS in 1966, each episode of SPACE GHOST featured two 7-minute adventures sandwiching a DINO BOY tale (about a lad in a prehistoric land). Simple kid stuff, to be sure, but Space Ghost stood apart from the legion of Saturday morning superheroes due to Toth’s sleek design, personified by the inimitable voice of future LAUGH-IN announcer Gary Owens and set to a jazzy soundtrack suitable for slaying insectoid villains.

Merchandising came quickly in the forms of coloring books, puzzles and bubble bath. In 1966, Gold Key Comics produced one issue of a SPACE GHOST comic book and the character appeared in the anthology HANNA-BARBERA SUPER TV HEROES alongside Shazzan (not to be confused with Shazam!), the Galaxy Trio and others. Those tales, however, despite being beautifully drawn, were usually as slight as their animated inspirations.

A bit more depth was found in the 1968 Big Little Book, SPACE GHOST AND THE SORCERESS OF CYBA-3, written by Don Christensen and illustrated by Dan Spiegle (who also drew most of the Gold Key comic stories). In the book, our heroes are tricked into returning the beautiful Queen Satanari (that name shoulda’ been a tip-off) to the planet from which she’d been exiled after using scientifically-enhanced magic to burn its cities and force men to battle to the death!

The growing fear of cartoon violence by hand-wringing watchdog groups put Space Ghost into limbo in 1968, but the character had made too powerful an impact to lay dormant forever.

Marvel Comics’ HANNA-BARBERA TV STARS #3 (1978) included a Space Ghost story, “Pilgreen’s Progress” about an old man flying an electric-powered flivver-ship through space in search of a low-tech world. Written by Mark Evanier (a proficient scripter for comics and TV), this charming tale was the only time Alex Toth ever drew the character in a comic book.

1981 saw Space Ghost return to Saturday mornings on NBC’s SPACE STARS, alongside the Herculoids, Teen Force and Astro and the Space Mutts (yes, the Jetsons’ dog). But the violence-neutered (and poorly-animated) superhero cartoons of that era left little room for any stylized action, and those cartoons are best left forgotten (along with the clunky redesign of SG’s spaceship).

In 1987, Evanier teamed with Toth acolyte Steve Rude to produce a deluxe SPACE GHOST one-shot for Comico in which the heroes battled all of their major adversaries. While beautifully done, it was such a slavish tribute to the original series that it ultimately felt like a wasted opportunity.

And then, in 1994, Space Ghost was resurrected for a new audience in Cartoon Network’s SPACE GHOST: COAST TO COAST, a Dadaist comedy positing the helmeted hero as a clueless talk show host. Alongside enemies / co-hosts Brak, Moltar and Zorak, Space Ghost cracked wise with celebrities, ushering in the Adult Swim era and paving the way for HARVEY BIRDMAN, ATTORNEY AT LAW and THE VENTURE BROS.

The show was a hit, but ironically had a similar effect on Space Ghost that his original inspiration, the ‘60s BATMAN TV show, had on that hero. It took decades (and Tim Burton) for the general non-GEEK populace to think of Batman as anything other than a campy caped crusader. And many old Space Ghost fans were uncomfortable with the new image. Evanier, for example, believes “as much as its makers insisted it was done out of love and respect for the original, it felt the opposite to me.”

But SG:CTC did raise the Astral Avenger’s visibility, and longtime fans could revel in the fact that there was finally a Space Ghost action figure (even if they didn’t display the accompanying talk show desk and mug). In 1997, Archie Comics published a rather forgettable one-shot SPACE GHOST comic set in the original milieu, while DC Comics dedicated numerous issues of their Cartoon Network tie-in comics to the comedic version.

And then, after almost forty years, Space Ghost was finally given a serious comic book treatment; Some say TOO serious. DC Comics’ 2005 SPACE GHOST mini-series presented a grim origin story, in which interplanetary policeman Thaddeus Bach discovers that the force is corrupt, and refuses to play ball. In a scene more suited to the Punisher, Bach’s pregnant wife is murdered and he is left for dead on a desolate planet. Bach is nursed back to health by the alien Salomon who gives him the tools that allow him to become Space Ghost and enact his revenge (begrudgingly picking up Jan and a newly-spelled Jayce along the way).

The story was written by Joe Kelly and painted by Ariel Olivetti in a steroid-infused style that’s more Tom of Finland than Alex Toth. Hyper-realist Alex Ross provided some nice covers, but the look was again at odds with the essence of the character (SG’s diaphanous cape shouldn’t look like real fabric).

The thing is, making Space Ghost angsty and realistic (Blip is nowhere to be found) is as ill-advised as a gritty Captain Marvel or Frank Miller making THE SPIRIT (you heard us). Certainly Space Ghost as a concept is loaded with potential to tell fully fleshed stories, with deeper characterization and MAYBE an origin. But it needs to be FUN, and this series was anything but. Artist / Sculptor Rubén Procopio (who designed a Space Ghost bust for Cartoon Network) recalls Toth’s opinion on the new direction. “As much as I can appreciate the artistic challenge that everyone involved had, my memory of Space Ghost was as a more lighthearted, brighter character. Having gotten to know Alex, I can say that he preferred the characters in a more upbeat, less dark setting.”

So what’s the future hold for the Guardian of the Galaxies? How about a live action SPACE GHOST movie directed by Brad Bird, whose THE INCREDIBLES was a perfect balance of whimsy and superheroics? We cast Bruce Campbell as our square-jawed hero (with Jan, Jace AND BLIP by his side), battling a slinky Spider-Woman (Julianne Moore) and a CG-rendered Zorak! Maybe Gary Owens could even loop the hero’s dialogue, although the legendary voice actor has another idea. “I could play Zorak because that’s how I look in real life.”

It’s surely only a matter of time before someone else tackles the Interstellar Spectre. Mark Evanier summarizes the character’s appeal: “There’s something very primal about him. I remember watching the first episode and thinking he felt like a hero who’d been around forever with a fully developed universe and backstory.” Adds Procopio, “Not to mention those wonderful villains and secondary characters that Alex designed. The show inspired a whole generation of artists.”

In the meantime, fans of the character can geek out to both CTC and the original 1966 series on DVD (the latter of which also features a great documentary on Alex Toth, who died in 2006) and yell along with Gary Owens as he bellows the eponymous battle cry of the coolest space hero ever: SPAAAAAAACE GHOOOOOOOOST!

Sorry, it’s a written law that all articles on the character need to end that way.
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED in GEEK MONTHLY #20, October 2008

A sticky tangle: SPIDER-MAN 3 and beyond...

SPIDER-MAN 3 may well be the weirdest superhero movie ever. Yes, even weirder than Ang Lee’s 2003 misfire, HULK, which was at least interesting because of its bizarre eastern-sensibility meets western pop culture tenor. That Sam Raimi went so far off the deep end with Spider-Man’s third installment (especially after crafting a pitch perfect second film) makes it all the more confusing.

First of all, while there’s a tendency for female leads in superhero films to mistakenly refer to the project (as Kim Basinger did in every interview for BATMAN) by saying, “It’s a love story,” this movie truly is; the hearts of the characters take center stage. Peter and MJ love each other and Harry and Harry loves his father and MJ and ultimately Peter and Aunt May loves everyone and the Sandman loves his daughter and Eddie Brock loves himself and ENOUGH ALREADY!

And then there’s all that crying. I mean, Jesus, EVERY SINGLE MAJOR CHARACTER with the exception of J. Jonah Jameson weeps at least once in this film. Spidey cries (a lot). MJ cries. Aunt May cries. Harry cries. The Sandman cries. Uncle Ben cries in flashback. Even freakin’ Venom cries! Maybe the symbiote suit works better for the web spinner. He wears black on the outside because black is how he feels on the inside!

But if S3 is a romance first, it’s a musical second. From the opening scene, with MJ’s awkward crooning on Broadway, the tone is off. I could practically hear the kids squirming in their seats as they tried to deal with a scene better suited for the Thin Man than Spider-Man. And while I did enjoy Dark Peter’s Maneroesque strutting montage, I wasn’t prepared for his humiliating (in more ways than one) dance routine at “the Jazz Club” (great name).

Believe me, I appreciate that Sam Raimi’s esthetic is different from Michael Bay’s. I like that he’s an old school filmmaker with a quirky style and a weird sense of humor. I appreciate his off beat casting and attention to detail. I like that he brings a retro feel to very modern movies. But he totally lost the balance this time. There’s very little that’s super in this superhero film.

But even the action in this movie is pretty bad. The FX scenes are all so jumbled with hard-to-read, yet obvious CG that they carried no oomph at all. I can barely even remember anything from any of Spidey’s various fights with any of the villains. The only really exciting sequence involves the runaway crane. I jumped in my seat as the various pieces of building and office furniture came crashing onto the streets of Manhattan. So how come when Spidey swoops in, all he does is save Gwen Stacy and then swing away? Is that poor crane operator still stuck up there? It’s such a missed opportunity. Like much of the movie.

SPIDER-MAN 3 ironically falls into the standard superhero movie traps that the first two Spidey films so smartly avoided. The main one being, of course, too many villains. One gets the sense that Raimi only wanted the Sandman and the New Goblin, but the studio got tired of having too few characters to license, so they pushed him to include the fan-favorite Venom.

Now, I’m about the same age as Raimi and it seems as if we had a similar relationship with Spider-Man. I read Spider-Man regularly from approximately 1973 through 83, which means, like Raimi, I was long done by the time Venom was introduced. It’s already been widely reported that Raimi wasn’t interested in including the character, as Venom wasn’t a part of his nostalgia either, and it shows. Even I could tell the character was underdeveloped (and I don’t mean physically).

You could also feel the egos of the leads on display, no longer willing to sublimate their faces to masks. Spider-Man spends more time with his mask off than on (I guess the people who saw his face on the subway, uh, el train he saved in S2 promising to keep his secret identity gave him an exaggerated sense of security) and the new Goblin actually has a mechanism that allows his mug to be on display… to what end? Hey, lookit me! I’m Harry!

I know, I know, Superman puts on glasses and nobody knows he’s Clark Kent, but every movie, especially a genre film has its own internal logic, and suspension of disbelief is a relative thing. So we can buy that a kid bitten by a genetically altered super-spider takes on its powers and abilities. Fine. But Peter Parker’s just a bit to blasé about using his Spidey powers in public (the web in Central Park?). Also, the alien symbiote just happening to crash land near Peter Parker’s moped and Eddie Brock just happening to be in the same church where Spidey’s ripping off the costume in the bell tower are too coincidental to buy.

Anyway. It’s just sad to see a once great franchise fall so far. You know it’s a weird superhero movie when the most memorable part of it is Bruce Campbell’s cameo as the funny French Maitre D’.

I can’t help but compare this film to SUPERMAN RETURNS in how it’s being received by the general public, far more accustomed to slam-bang action in a superhero movie than any kind of emotional heft. The impatience of the audience was palpable at the sold out showing of SPIDER-MAN 3 I saw, to the point where people were leaving after the action ended but before the movie was over. And I get the feeling that, record breaking opening weekend aside, this movie is going to have terrible word of mouth and fade pretty fast.

Still, that crazy money of the opening weekend pretty much guarantees that we’ll see SPIDER-MAN 4, but based on the ennui that the principals have outwardly shown during the press junket for this one, it seems unlikely they’ll be along for the ride. Which means that 4 could well be the BATMAN AND ROBIN of the Spidey franchise (with this film kinda being its SUPERMAN III).

But, assuming there will be another, where does Spider-Man go from here?

First and foremost, who could take over for Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Sam Raimi? While I always thought Maguire was good casting and did a great job, it does feel like someone else could fit under the mask. Jake Gyllenhaal (once rumored to take Maguire’s place when he hurt his back before S2) would actually be okay. What about Justin “I’m a Mac” Long? It’s too bad Daniel Radcliffe isn’t a little older, he’d be perfect (you watch, though, it’s gonna get offered to Shia LaBeouf)... For MJ, I’ve only got one pick: Laura Prepon. And behind the camera… maybe KUNG FU HUSTLE’s Stephen Chow or, call me crazy, but I’d like to see what Richard Linklater would do with a comic book movie, especially one with a geeky outsider as its hero.

Now that the precedent has been set of multiple villains, it seems unlikely they’ll go back. So I again have to suggest aping Bond films and including an all-action pre-credits sequence with a lesser villain who requires no exposition, but allows for the requisite merchandising. Have 4 open with Spidey in an all-out bash with the Rhino or a sparky confrontation with Electro that concludes quickly and doesn’t clog up the main story.

So who could be the next major villain? How about Kraven the Hunter, who comes to Manhattan to stalk the web-slinger and releases a bunch of wild animals from the Central Park Zoo to give Spidey something new to battle? Maybe Clive Owen or LAW & ORDER’s Christopher Meloni? Maybe the Kingpin could be done right, erasing the memory of the abysmal DAREDEVIL (too bad James Gandolfini would never touch it). If Mary Jane’s acting career picks up again, she could get a movie gig and become the object of obsession of a re-worked (and redesigned) Mysterio, a special effects guy turned villain in the comics.

Regardless of Dr. Curt Connors’ appearances in the film (played by Dylan Baker), it seems as if his transformation to The Lizard might be too much of a stretch for a movie. Similarly, while I’ve always liked the character of Morbius the living vampire, he also doesn’t seem like a live translation would work. And despite the fact that at one point, Ben Kingsley was in talks to play the Vulture in S3, trust me, it’s a good thing that didn’t happen.

Maybe it’s time Spidey fought a female villain… of course, his primary female adversaries (at least the ones I know) ended up being more anti-heroes than villains (much along the lines of the Catwoman). Still, it’d be nice to see him tussle with Medusa, the Black Widow or (most likely) the Black Cat (may I suggest Rose McGowan?).

The notion of Spider-Man teaming with a Marvel B-lister could bring something fresh to the franchise. While there aren’t too many of Marvel’s big name superheroes left to be optioned for film or TV, there are a handful of Marvel Universe dwellers that could work. Dr. Strange, the master of the mystic arts, is a good enough of a character to headline his own movie, but he’s also a great foil for ol’ Web Head (my favorite team up of theirs remains the 1973 Buddha Records Rockcomic, “From Beyond the Grave” in which the Kingpin kidnaps Aunt May in order to force photographer Peter Parker to bring him Spider-Man, who teams with Doc, who ends up sending the villain to Hell!). Dr. Strange (a fellow Manhattan dweller) could bring something otherworldly to the series, breaking fresh ground for Spidey (besides, he was also, like Spidey, co-created by artist Steve Ditko). And Hugh Laurie would be perfect.

Spidey and the Human Torch have always had a cantankerous but brotherly relationship in the comics, and the prospect of Chris Evans from the FANTASTIC FOUR movies (the only good casting in those films) trading barbs with Peter Parker is intriguing. But considering that Spidey is produced by Columbia and FF is a 20TH Century Fox franchise, that seems unlikely.

If Sam Raimi is truly done with ol’ web-head, however, it is inevitable that one super villain, first featured in SPIDER-MAN #2 in 1963, will be the one to rear his ugly head: The Terrible Tinkerer. Only he’ll be behind the camera.

POSTSCRIPT, MARCH 2011:

The Raimi-less reboot, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is currently filming, and while I shall keep an open mind, my expectations are pretty low; All indications seem to point to this new version being aimed at the TWILIGHT crowd, so we'll see.
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ORIGINALLY POSTED in BLA BLA BLINKY BLOO on TOUGH GUY GOODS & SERVICES, May 2007

Mighty Marvel Movie Missteps

Riding flaming motorcycles up the sides of buildings is tricky; Getting a comic book adaptation right is even trickier.

Nicolas Cage plays Johnny Blaze, the tortured “Ghost Rider” in the latest big screen Marvel Comics adaptation. But will it connect with audiences ala “X-Men” or miss the mark like “Hulk?” Over the years, Marvel has had spotty luck with live action incarnations of their roster of superheroes, both on the big and small screen.

The first Marvel hero to be brought to life was “Captain America” in the 1944 Republic Pictures serial. In what may have been a precedent-setting bad move, they ditched the comic book backstory (frail Steve Rogers volunteers to be the human guinea pig for a super-soldier serum during WWII) in favor of turning Cap into Grant Gardner: district attorney by day, star-spangled crimebuster by night. But this pistol-packin’ Captain America doesn’t even carry the iconic shield, which is kinda like Wolverine without the claws. As with many early superhero adaptations, there’s really no reason for the costume at all.

The good Captain wouldn’t fare much better in his other manifestations. 1979 saw two cheesy “Captain America” TV movies starring the beefy but dim Reb Brown as the son of the WWII hero who assumes his father’s mantle. This modern Cap is a surfer dude who tools around sunny California in a van and sports a redesigned costume that’s every bit as silly as the star-and-stripes original (which returned in the sequel).

Captain America couldn’t even get respect with a 1991 feature film that went straight to video. Matt Salinger (son of J.D.) plays Steve Rogers in a story that sticks to the comic book basics with one major alteration: Cap’s Nazi arch-enemy the Red Skull is turned into an Italian fascist (?). An ill-advised attempt to incorporate the comic’s suspended animation plot (in which Cap gets frozen in ice at the end of WWII and is thawed out in our time) just muddles the campy tale even further.

Of course, Cap wasn’t the only Marvel hero to hit the small screen in the 1970s. “The Incredible Hulk” (1977) led to the TV series and was by far the most successful live Marvel adaptation up to that time. A 1978 “Dr. Strange” telefilm is also warmly regarded by the fanboys (despite a master of the mystic arts who sports a Brady-worthy perm). But Marvel’s most popular character didn’t come off so super.

Following some short adventures battling grammatical villains on PBS’s “The Electric Company,” “Spider-Man” starred in a 1978 TV movie with Nicholas Hammond (one of the von Trapp kids from “The Sound of Music”) in the sloppiest, most ill-stitched superhero costume ever put to film. Shooting ropes (there was nothing weblike about them) from an enormous charm bracelet, awkwardly climbing Los Angeles buildings (it was only nominally set in New York) and exhibiting piddling super strength, this Spidey was little more than an investigative photographer in pajamas. The movie spawned a sporadically-aired TV series (meanwhile, an entirely different live action Spidey was fighting monsters and robots in a far more action-packed Japanese Tokusatsu TV series).

Every fanboy knows the story of the first “Fantastic Four” movie, a 1994 cheapo Roger Corman production that was made to retain the rights before they expired. The film was never intended for release, but bootlegs are widely available, giving curiosity seekers a look at just how schlocky a superhero movie can be. Then again, we’re of the mind that Tim Story’s 2005 “Fantastic Four,” despite being a huge hit, was likewise a poorly-conceived and blandly executed take on the cornerstone of the Marvel universe. If ever a character were designed to be brought to life by CGI artists, it’s the Thing (no offense, Michael Chiklis).

But Marvel’s greatest motion picture indignity wasn’t a superhero flick. In the late 1970’s, “Howard the Duck” was Marvel’s hippest title, a smart satire on everything from religious cults to presidential politics (KISS even made their comic debut in Howard’s pages). By 1986, Howard’s cult had already cooled, but that didn’t stop Lucasfilm from releasing a live action adaptation pitting the misplaced drake against the Dark Overlord of the Universe. The effects were awful, the tone was off, the casting was bad (Lea Thompson?) and the general public had no idea what to make of Howard. The movie has gone on to become (ala “Ishtar”) one of those infamous flicks that’s synonymous with a true turkey.

The late 1980s saw new “Incredible Hulk” TV movies, reuniting the original cast of the series and teaming the big green guy with other Marvel heroes, although with less than spectacular results. In “The Incredible Hulk Returns” (1988), David Banner meets a comedic version of the Mighty Thor who’s as different from the comic hero as Adam West’s Batman is from Christian Bale’s. The following year, “The Trial of the Incredible Hulk” introduces a black-clad Daredevil played by former teen heartthrob Rex Smith, who’s only slightly less believable than that character’s later incarnation.

In 1989, another Marvel cult figure hit theaters with Dolph Lundgren in the title role as the vengeful, gun-toting Frank Castle, aka “The Punisher.” But this was another film to turn its back on the source, changing Castle from an ex-soldier to an ex-cop, eliminating a key element of the characters’ psychological underpinnings. Adding insult to injury, they ditched the comics’ look of the Punisher, an odd choice considering at the time, the Punisher was one of the only comic book crimefighters who DIDN’T sport colored spandex… he simply wore black with a huge white skull emblazoned on the shirt (although he did sometimes wear some pretty fancy white boots).

The Punisher’s second shot came in 2004, with Thomas Jane starring in a film that was somewhat more faithful to the comics (Castle is a war veteran and sports the skull), but still met with cries of sellout by fans of the hyper-nihilistic anti-hero. Turns out the comic book Punisher may well be TOO dark and violent to be made franchise-friendly, perhaps revealing Hollywood’s relative lack of cojones compared to comics.

Still, the Punisher retained some cred in comparison with a kindred spirit in the Marvel universe. Since the 1960s, the covert government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been led by Nick Fury, a gruff, cigar-chomping, one-eyed ex-GI who can give Wolverine a run for his money as Marvel’s toughest bad-ass. So who gets cast as Fury in the 1998 TV-movie? Cheese-king David Hasselhoff, who comes off as an “Austin Powers” parody, especially alongside soap queen Lisa Rinna as the Contessa Valentina de Allegro Fontaine… oh, never mind.

Luckily, that same year, Marvel’s big-screen fates began to change with the first “Blade” movie, which received decent reviews and did fairly well. But the real boost came with Bryan Singer’s critical and commercial smash “X-Men” (2000), which both took away the bad taste of the 1996 TV movie, “Generation X” and proved that a film about a whole team of superheroes could click with both fans and the general public. In 2002, Sam Raimi’s nostalgic but thrilling “Spider-Man” (2002) smashed box office records opened the floodgates for more Marvel movies.

Of course, a bigger budget and high-profile stars don’t automatically equate success on any level. 2003’s “Daredevil” was loudly thumped by fans who dissed the casting of frat boy Ben Affleck as the blind superhero (as well as African American Michael Clarke Duncan as the traditionally-white Kingpin and a very WASPy Jennifer Garner as the Greek Elektra) in a film that tried too hard to squeeze too many of the comic book’s storylines into 103 minutes. Garner’s “Elektra” spin-off (2005) was practically ignored at the box office (although we think it’s a better picture).

Similarly, audiences didn’t quite know what to make of Ang Lee’s interpretation of “Hulk” (2003). Dropping both the article-adjective descriptor “The Incredible” as well as traditional slam-bang action in favor of an introspective rumination on the effect of repressed memories and emotions as well as family dynamics, Lee’s film is best viewed as an interesting experiment in Eastern – meets - Western sensibilities (in Marvel movie tradition, the Hulk will get a second shot that ignores this film altogether).

Over the past few years, the results have remained mixed: Both “X2” (2003) and “Spider-Man 2” (2004) bettered the first films, but the “Blade” movies saw diminishing returns (despite spawning a short-lived TV series) and many fans felt that last year’s “X-Men: The Last Stand” missed the mutant mark. A 2005 “Man Thing” (don’t ask) video/TV flick seemed like a bad idea from the get-go.

Now that Marvel has its own production company (aptly named Marvel Studios), it’s unlikely the cinematic torrent of heroes, mutants and monsters is going to slow, regardless of what happens with “Ghost Rider.” Coming next: “Spider-Man 3” and “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” followed by “Iron Man” next summer, with prequels for Magneto and Wolverine in the works as well as many more. At this rate, it can’t be too long until we get “Forbush Man: the Motion Picture.” Excelsior!

POSTSCRIPT, January 2011:
Much has come and much more is coming since this piece was written, of course, with IRON MAN being the highlight... as of this postscript, THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA are coming out this year, and THE AVENGERS hits next year.... Ooh, what will happen?
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ORIGINALLY POSTED in REWIND on MTV.COM, February 2007