Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 108

This Looks Like a Job for Condorman

Recently a friend on Facebook reminded me of one of my favorite comic book movies---Condorman. I have the VHS, but DVD is out of site with a retail price of $41. However, Condorman is also available through Amazon Instant Video for a sawbuck.

So I hought it and have promised Andrea that I'll only subject her to it at once a year. At that rate, I'll break even on the Rental v. Buy ratio in 5 years.

Condorman is a 1981 Spy Spoof starring Michael Crawford as Woodrow Wilkins, a comic book writer extraordinaire staying with in Paris with a friend and CIA Clerk Harry (James Hampton). Woody is the ideal Disney hero-a dreamer.

He begins the story flying off the Eifel Tower dressed as his greatest Superhero creation Condorman, complete with a homemade pair wings and he nearly drowned on the process, but was saved by Harry.

In turn when the Russians demand that an exchange of secret papers in Istanbul be completed by civilians, Harry sends Woody to do the job. Woody hams it up with hat, trench coat, and sunglasses, and goes to Istanbul where he pretends that he's really a spy. There he meets Natalia, a Russian agent pretending to be a civilian. She's spotted by some Turkish Agent and Woody He ends up taking them on and defeating them in a beautifully comic fight scene. He returns home with vision of Natlia in his head and immediately uses her as a model for his a superheroine named Laser Lady.

Natalia, after a creepy encounter with her boss Krokov (Oliver Reed) decides to defect but she wants an agent codenamed Condorman, which of course is Woody's codename. When Woody finds out its Natalia that wants to defect, he agrees to do it, provided the CIA give him his dream comic book designs for a wide variety of different spy gadgets. Because the defection is important, the CIA agrees, and we're off on an adventure.

Condorman features some great action and comedy and a nice touch of romance. My favorite scene has to be the classic chase scene where Woody and Natalia are chased by a squad of assassins through a Yugoslavian highway. The specially fabricated vehicle looks like a gypsy truck but transforms into a race car armed with a variety of weapons,then at last into a speedboat.

Of course, not all of Condorman's toys work as well. His machine gun cane is clearly beyond his ability to handle, and many scenes he really stumbles through. However, by the end of the movie, Woody has truly become the hero he writes about, as his courage motivated by his love of Natalya leads him to take on amazing odds to beat the bad guys.

Nope, it's not a classic and critics hate it. (Partially because the Russians are the bad guys) but it's one of the most wonderfully entertaining movies that will always be one of my favorites.

2nd Audiobook Released

My 2nd Audiobook, "Your Average Ordinary Alien" has been released on Audible.It's a bit of an experiment with short fiction. Hope people enjoy it.

Powerhouse Hard Pressed: 1st Draft Done

The first draft of Powerhouse: Hard Pressed is complete at around 64,000 words.

Of course, the book itself is far from complete. It's got several edits ahead, cover, layout, etc. All in hopes of beating Man of Steel to Theaters.

The book is finished. The work has just begun.

Rise of the Robolawyers Free Today Only

My novella Rise of the Robolawyers is available free today only at Amazon, so today would be a great day to download.

Too Good to Last...The Quick Rise and Fall of the Comic Book DVD

I own every Iron Man Comic story written between 1963 and 2006.

Every single one.

And I have it, not in dozens of boxes piled up to the ceiling, but on a single DVD.

The DVD is one of several CD and DVD collections from 2005-2008 by Graphic Imaging Technology for titles such as The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Silver Surfer, the Amazing Spider-man, Captain America, the Avengers, and the Incredible Hulk.

The collection contain massive number of comics, complete story lines and make them viewable on the computer as PDF files.

It can be a pain to read comic book after comic book at a computer, but thanks to advances in technology in the past five years, I have no problem reading this on my Android Tablet.

Most of these DVD collections are out of print, particular the ones from Marvel. You can still some of the other ones such as the Star Trek Comics or the Golden Age Jughead Stories.

Marvel has instead focused on its unlimited access to old comics through its Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited service which is strictly web only and doesn't have all issues.

There are a couple reasons why it doesn't make sense for Marvel to produce. In some ways, it never made sense for them to produce it. PDF Files are all ready way too easily pirated, uploaded, and shared across the net. Secondly, the price is borderline insane, given that these disks originally sold for $45. That's less than any three Black and White trades containing 60-80 issues cost and they're selling the whole series.

Of course, there is that loss of being able to hold books in your hands, but for 500 issues for about 9 cents each would you let go of that?

The one good reason for them to do this was that it undercut the efforts of comic pirates who sell a lot of fully copyrighted comics on DVD.

However, many don't like buying bootleg. So, a lot of people would and so these five year old marvel are sets increasingly rare, at least the official ones. You can get 'em on Ebay, and there are still some on Amazon: The 44 years of the Fantastic 4 is available for around $30 and is still available on CD. Most of the others are a little harder to come by. Star Trek fans can rejoice as they can gather up every Star Trek Comic made from 1967-2002 for only $30.

Review: Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks Volume 1

Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol 1. by Stan Lee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book collects Spider-man's first eleven adventures in Issue 15 of Amazing Fantasy and Issues 1-10 of the Amazing Spider-man in full color.

The introduction by Stan Lee is well worth reading. Perhaps the most amazing fact about Spider-man is how people at Marvel didn't want to green light Spider-man. Some feared he'd have too many problems to be heroic or that Spider-man was originally a teenager and that teenagers could only be sidekicks. Perhaps the strangest objection was that people didn't like Spiders. (Note to: Ancient Marvel editors: People aren't too thrilled about Bats either.) So Lee wrote the Spider-man story in the last issue of the anthology series Amazing Fantasy. With Spidey on the cover, Amazing Fantasy sold like crazy. Seven months later, Spidey hit as an every other month magazine in March 1963 before becoming monthly.

Reading through the book, it's easy to see the appeal of Spider-man to young readers of the time. Peter Parker was a quiet kid who had been orphaned and lost his Uncle. He was picked on by his peers and misunderstood both as Peter Parker and Spider-man.

I was surprised to find that even I had a misunderstood Spider-man along with the Fantastic Four. I read an extended version of Spider-man Attempt to join the Fantastic Four in Amazing Spider-man #1 in Fantastic Four Annual #1. The FF Annual version tells the the tale strictly from the Fantastic Four's perspective and it has Spider-man looking money-hungry as his interest in joining the Fantastic Four fades when he finds out there's no money in it. The context in Amazing Spider-man #1 tells that he needed money because his Aunt May was in bad financial straits.

The word relate-able was used often to describe the character and it fits. He is an every kid struggling with life, that's often hard, and is at least once left sobbing. And not without good reason. His Aunt who is constantly concerned with him and is broke and ill. Peter Parker can get money, but only by selling Spider-man snapshots to a man who will use them in crusader to turn Spider-man into Public Enemy #1.

However, what makes the character is heroic is that somehow or another after each defeat and hardship, Peter Parker and Spider-man come back again. It's truly reminiscent of the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song.

The key foundations of the Spider-man world are introduced: This book includes the introduction of J Jonah Jameson, the Chamelon (though a pathetically low tech version of that character), the Vulture, Dr. Octopus, Sandman, Dr. Doom, the Lizard, and Electro. Most of these characters have been around for years in one form or another to torment Spider-man. There are many memorable battles in here including Spider-man playing hurt against the Vulture and a kind of throwback against the Vulture.

The interaction between Spidey and the Fantastic Four is interesting as well. While Spidey is inspired to try again after Johnny Storm speaks at the school, he clearly envies their respectability and this book chronicles tensions between Spider-man and Marvel's First Family that would last well into the late 70s.

There are negatives in the book. J Jonah Jameson is really too much of an unsympathetic villain. If his mustache were the right style, he could twirl it. He admits to his staff that he's only crusading against Spider-man for money and then later admits to himself that he does it because he envies Spider-man and knows he can never be as good a man as him, so he has to bring Spider-man down. Both are unlikely admissions and most people would practice some self-deception on that point. As it is, Jameson worst than most of the criminals Spidey faces.

In addition, there are a few amazingly unrealistic occurrences such as Peter Parker collecting six months rent for a picture of Spider-man. (Stinginess would be worked into the Jameson character later.)

However, Spider-man gives us a 360 view of the danger of a heartless media persecution. Jameson's crusade ruins Spidey's show biz career which he desperately needs to help his family financially survive. It also speaks to the dangers of judging and unkindness. Jameson was going after a "faceless menace" but was really hurting an orphaned boy.

Overall, this is a great collection that highlights Spidey at the beginning of his silver age run.



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Writers and Fan Fiction

The first story idea I ever had came after having seen Superman IV and Batman: The 1966 Series. I thought wouldn't it be great if these two characters got together. So I excitedly wrote my story in a yellow spiral notebook when I was just turning.

Of course, I couldn't know that someone had beaten me to the idea of a Superman-Batman team up by a little bit. In fact, Bill Finger wrote the first team up for the Comics in Superman #76 in 1952-37 years previously and the over-the-radio version was done in 1943-before my mother was even born.

However, unoriginal it was, the point is my first story would be considered fan fiction which was a point brought to mine by my publisher Grace Bridge writing about writing Dr. Who Fanfiction.

Fanfiction has some issues. Technically, publishers and TV creators can create problems if you use their copyrighted characters in fanfiction. However, if no profit's made on it, usually they won't raise a stink. It doesn't make sense to raise a stink because no one is not watching your show to read the fanfiction. The fanfiction is feeding fans obsession with your show and guaranteeing they'll watch it.

Perhaps the bigger issues with fanfiction are that it's got a bad reputation in terms of quality. There are many reasons for it. The chief one is that it can make writing easier. It's writing without having to do serious world building or creating characters. They're all created for you. That leads to people who can't write well writing fanfiction for reasons such as creating implausible crossovers OR having a couple of their favorite characters get together.

However, just because there is a lot of bad fanfiction, it doesn't mean all of ifs bad, and if you get a good writer writing fanfiction, there's some very interesting potential.

The big upside for fan fiction is that it can be relaxing and it can be fun to apply your writing talents to a franchise that it may be hard or impossible for you to actually write in real life.

There's an added benefit as well. If you develop a good enough story, you can develop into one you can use your own universe. You just want to be sure you still don't have a strong resemblance to lead to a copyright suit, but it can be done. Fifty Shades of Grey was originally Twilight Fanfiction. Though perhaps, that's not the best example of quality fiction.

My preferred approach when getting fan fictiony ideas is to write the stories in my own world in the first place. I had an idea recently for a Batman-Superman story. By the time I write it, it will feature neither Batman or Superman and will be in my own story world, but it'll be the same story.

And who knows maybe you'll be able to get good enough writing the characters to write something for them. Stranger things were happened and if these companies were smart they'd be watching Fanfiction websites for authors who write popular and well-written fanfiction to see if they might be able to recruit them for their team.

Stranger things have happened.

The strangest writing story I've ever heard is of a 13 year old boy who said that DC Comics needed better quality stories and he was the one to provide them and DC comics hired him to write the Legion of Superheroes.

So have fun fanfiction writers. Who knows what the future holds.

Review: Brave and the Bold Archives

The Brave and the Bold Team-Up Archives, Vol. 1 by Bob Haney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Brave and the Bold is a title that's become associated with Batman. For the last 130+ issues of its pre-Crisis run, Brave and the Bold was Batman + guest star battle bad guy. However, before the title was annexed by Batman with Issue #67, the title went through many incarnations. 50 Issues were a mixed bag, Issue 28 introduced the Justice League of America, with Issue 49 being Strange Sports Stories. With Issue 50, the title became a Superhero team up magazine where two different superheroes would join forces. It was key in establishing a DC Universe. As the introduction of this book states, Superman had already established quite a family of supporting characters, but it takes more than that to build an interconnected hero universe.

Issue #50-Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow: Two back up characters. You could really sense that the publishers were tenatively dipping their toe in the water to see how this team up thing would work. It was striking because Martian Manhunter had to fight other Martians and mind control's a big thing leading to a real nice plot twist. Overall: A-

Issue #51-Aqauman and Hawkman-The King of the Sea and the Master of the Air against an Atlantean menace and due to mind control, their own reliable allies are turned against them including both sea animals and Hawkgirl. Overall: A.

Issue #52: A team up from the war comics as Lt. Cloud has to get a key agent to headquarters. But to succeed he'll need a little from the Haunted Tank and Sergeant Rock of Easy Company. Really out of place among these superhero stories but surprisingly good. No wonder Sergeant Rock has been so popular through the years. Overall: A-

Issue #53: The Atom and the Flash are duped by a scientist under alien control into being part of his plot to expand a microverse and destroy the Earth. Lots of pseudoscience but plenty of excitement. Overall: A

Issue #54: This was not an official Teen Titan Adventure and there's no Wonder Girl here but we can consider it a pilot for the Teen Titans as Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash race to a town where there's a misunderstanding between kids and parents and the evil Twister steps in. Good Silver Age story that proves Robin's worthy as leader of the Titans even without superpowers. Overall: A-

Issue #55: The Metal Men are falling apart and the Atom is called to investigate. The culprit is Uranium, a rogue rejected Metal Man. I've never read the Metal Men and this story didn't make them all that appealing, but it was still a good solid Atom Story. Rating: B+

Issue #56: A strange creature appears who can mimic the powers of the Justice League, any two heroes at a time. It turns out an alien creature who received rejection on its own world. Think Super Skrull with a love story element. Overall, still pretty good. Rating: B+

Issue #59: Issues #57 and 58 took time off from the team up to introduce Metamorpho. This picks up the concept with Batman and Green Lantern against the Time Commander. The story is strong overall despite the Time Commander making a very stupid mistake to allow our heroes to defeat him. However, the ending where they forget each other's secret identities is a little weird. Rating: B+

These are solid all-star stories and this whole series is one I wish would see another collection. However, most other team up issues have been collected. Issue 60 with the Teen Titans in their own Archive/Showcase, Issues 61 and 62 in the Black Canary Archives, Issue 66 in the Metamorpho Showcase case collection and most other issues in Batman and the Bold Showcases. However, uncollected anywhere is Issue 63 with Wonderwoman and Supergirl and 65 with the Flash and Doom Patrol.

Still, this is an enjoyable collection filled with some of the best DC superheroes of the Silver Age and a great read if you can find it.



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Parent's Rule of Thumb on Comics: Use Comics Before 1980

I was surfing Amazon reviews and found some sage wisdom in regards to a reviewer who was disappointed that Superman in the Eighties left a bad impression of the Man of Steel with his kids. Advises the responder:

With few exceptions, the best mainstream comics were done in the 40 year span between 1940 and 1980. Just as history will show that the worst mainstream comics were done in the 40 year span between 1980 and 2020.

Therefore the most solid advice I could give is to keep all kids away from anything done after 1980. I've always followed that principle and it has served me very well.

Whether things will get better after 2020, I don't know, but the suggestion is worth some thought. Often, there are parents who would like to introduce their kids to superheroes but would rather not get into all the darkness as well as all of the other content issues of today. 1980 could be a good "line in the sand" point for that purpose.

As the poster indicated, there are exceptions and there have been some decent comics in modern times and also there have been some weird stuff happen in the 1970s, but for a quick and dirty rule, the pre-1980 one makes sense.

The Challenging World of Speculative Fiction

The topic of Christian Speculative Fiction is often an interesting one. On one hand, it is tough for some people to fathom that such a thing can legitimately exist. Many Christians even place speculative fiction on a list of "don'ts." Others insist that there is completely safe and that people who have problems with books such as Harry Potter or vampire stories really are just out of touch with reality.

There is perhaps a healthier way to look at it. Reading speculative fiction is like many things in life. It can be dangerous if done in the wrong context or viewed in the wrong way.

Does it mess you up? I was at a meeting of fellow writers in December and we discussed many things including Star Trek, Star Wars, and Dr. Who. Some of them were even into the novels for them which is pretty hardcore. Yet, they are all very committed believers who have not followed wholesale the various ideologies taught or practiced therein.

On the other hand, one famous pastor has to explain the relationship between God's power and the Devil's by first having to deal with popular misconceptions Christians picked up from Star Wars. The pastor says, "That's good Star Wars, but bad theology."

The greatest problem with any sort of speculative fiction for Christian readers is where their own knowledge and immersion in the Christian Faith is weak. Then when reading fiction, we begin to accept many of the premises laid down. I can read through a given work of a fiction and quietly reject the fiction author's premise as relates to real life. And that's the key.

As well, there are certain works that are best consumed. They come with a bad spirit or a bad feel about them. I've encountered those books and movies and when I've continued to view or read them, I've felt the regret later.

For the writer of Christian speculative, it's even more challenging because most of us had our imaginations fired by people like George Lucas, Gene Roddenberry, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov. None of these people were Christians. Many held beliefs that were antithetical to Christianity, a big example of course is Heinlein's Job: A Comedy of Justice. Many of these authors believe(d) in Atheism, Humanism, the New Age, etc.

Our challenge then as writers is to learn the great things about character development, story, and world building from these authors without also applying the troublesome aspects of their theology and ideology into the stories and the way we write.

And I think to a certain extent, it applies to other types of fiction as well. For example, there are themes in romance novels that are problematic and set unrealistic expectations for relationship even if you clean up the physical aspect of relationships. Certain genres of mysteries can get almost a flippant thought on the value of human life.

I think it's challenging, but I think that the call of Christians in whatever their field is to be a redemptive presence whether its in business, politics, or writing.

This means not abandoning or destroying things in culture that are not sinful, but redeeming them. To do that, we have to be bionically aware and discerning in how we approach our writing.