As the Suicide Squad movie proved once again over the weekend, the comic book movie isn’t going away anytime soon! While the last few years have seen an explosion in comic book adaptations, it’s a tradition that goes back several decades. And as demonstrated in this new supercut, not all of them involve superheroes!
Moon Film’s new 50 Years of Comic Book Movies supercut starts in 1966 with the Batman movie starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as Robin, the Boy Wonder. It could have actually started much earlier, since Captain America, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Batman, and Superman were all featured in black and white film serials during the ’30s and ’40s.
The video is set to Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries,” and it’s a largely complete accounting of the comic book movies from the last five decades, including titles like Ghost World, American Splendor, A History of Violence, and Road to Perdition that had no capes and tights…at least not of the superhero variety.
However, there are some surprising omissions, including Howard the Duck and Whiteout. Howard the Duck is still one of Marvel’s beloved cult characters, even if the film didn’t do him much justice. And Whiteout was based on an acclaimed comic book series by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber. We can understand some of the other omissions like the Captain America film from 1990 and the Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie that was never officially released. Those movies were, to put it charitably, not great.
Captain America: Civil War serves as the last film in this supercut, which leaves Suicide Squad and Doctor Strange out of the mix. But the video was still an enjoyable way to revisit some of the highs and lows of the last 50 years of comic book films.
What did you think about this supercut? Let us know in the comment section below!
Here are what critics said about Suicide Squad.
Image: Warner Bros. Pictures