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From Dennis Tayé Allen:

The U.S. media seems obsessed with these ancient comic books that were all created about 50 years ago when "faster than a speeding bullet" was WEELLY, WEEELY FAST! to a kid.

Today?

Today's kids like "Bleach" and want to go see Ichigo decimate the whole battalion of 13 protection squad captains without having to use his bankai. (If you don't know what that means, then you shouldn't even be discussing a comic book in 2008.)

The comic book was replaced by the graphic novel about 15 years ago, and since then the genre has moved from kids play to serious art. Japanese artists were the moving force behind that with manga titles that took on epic proportions, 200-page books that had adult readers lining up around the block to buy them. Japanese anime, too, has taken its unique storytelling forms into adult homes in prime-time slots and was highly successful.

American artists saw those movements and evolved their own: the serial. Books like "300" and "Dark Knight" gave artists like Frank Miller new blood in their veins and transfused that Japanese-style adult appeal into what used to be a childhood indulgence. Finally, Hollywood caught on.

Iron Man and Batman (the new series) made the leap too -- from family film to adult interest, and with that the genre of "comic book" died (which it actually did nearly two decades ago). From the ashes arose the "film based on the graphic novel."

Now, your job, should you accept it, is to coin a new term that fits within one column line and that rolls off the tongue easier than "based on the graphic novel" ...

(And while I'm here, let me rant on why 007 is totally irrelevant. No, that's all I want to say about 007. He's totally irrelevant. There, I said it.)

From Raymond Boettner, Pittsburgh:

I am 59 years old and grew up with superhero comics. I had many first issues such as Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Avengers, Justice League, Fantastic Four, X-Men and Green Lantern, just to name some -- magazines worth much money today if I still had them. I really enjoy these kinds of films, even the Hulk ones that are not rated that high. I am looking forward to Thor, God of thunder -- son of Odin -- heir to the throne of Asgard. I still remember what Dr. Blake found inscribed on the Uru hammer after his first transformation into the God of thunder in Thor 1: "Who so ever holdeth this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." It is going to be much harder for Hollywood to fill the lead role in this movie than any other so far. I can't think of a single good candidate. He would need to look and sound like a 30-year-old Hulk Hogan but have a Christopher Reeve or Brandon Routh personality.

By the way, I thought "Superman Returns" was the best of the Superman movies and I liked Reeve in the originals, but they were too fantasy. Brandon Routh was very believable and human in "Superman Returns." He struggled with things. I liked the expressions on his face while saving the plane.

From Douglas L. Pinkard:

Rather than continuing to make comics-based films, couldn't someone just kill me now?

Thanks,

A. Literate Human
123 Main Street
Planet Earth

From Johnny Lovely:

Do you all think "The Dark Knight" was really that good? Sure I liked it, but really it was just OK -- not the best film ever. Despite Heath Ledger's great performance, I thought they went too far with the Joker. The Joker is not this terrorist that Bob Kane had portrayed in his work. No, the Joker is supposed to be this psychopathic gangster, a clown that uses guns and laughing gas, not this terrorist figure that looked like he came out of a Steven King novel.

So, if they decide to make another Batman film, they should fix their mistakes. They should make a new one where the Joker comes out of the asylum a cured man. He was roommates with Scarecrow and knows how to make his fear formula. So Joker, or Jack, since that's his real name, decides to make an antidepressant out of Scarecrow's formula. Yet the Falcone, the crime lord that works with Scarecrow in the first Batman film, wants him dead for killing some of his men in "The Dark Knight." So a hit man tries to overdose him with his antidepressant but Joker lives and becomes the same villain we love in the comics.

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