In recent years Marvel Comics has become remarkably successful when it comes to translating their properties into live-action films. This was not always the case.
Through the Seventies, Eighties, and Nineties, Marvel's failure rate was phenomenal, although not always warranted. Over twenty-one years, from 1977 through 1998, the Marvel brand produced some of the worst, and at the same time, some of the most unfairly maligned, superhero films in history.
But each of those productions was a learning experience. And while the lessons of one film didn't always translate immediately to the next, ultimately Marvel realized just what it took to bring their larger than life characters to the big screen in ways that not only respected the source materials, but sometimes improved upon them.
And that is the focus of this column and those that follow. We will be taking a look at the history of Marvel live-action films from their humble beginnings on TV to their domination of the latest summer movie season.
And don't worry; DC will get their shot, too.
But 1977 was the year that Marvel properties entered the world of Prime Time Television, stepping away from the Saturday Morning Animation ghetto they'd been stuck in for over ten years.
On April 19, CBS presented the debut of the first live-action Marvel film, The Amazing Spider-Man. It was produced by Columbia Pictures Television, starring Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and was quite the ratings success, if not a critical darling.
The ninety-minute pilot film, written by Alvin Boretz and directed by E.W. Swackhamer, made some strange choices dramatically, going for an already college-aged Peter Parker working on his Ph.D. in physics while making extra cash by selling photos to the Daily Bugle. One day in the lab, he is bitten by an irradiated spider and, as we all know, gains the proportionate strength and powers of said spider.
And then he goes out and stops a mind-controlling self-help guru and his mind-controlled samurai warrior guards.
It's actually nowhere near as interesting as that sounds. Trust me. "Spidey Super Stories" on The Electric Company were more entertaining and true to the comics.
Boretz and Swackhamer, after an intriguing opening sequence, botch nearly every other aspect of this film. If you ask me, casting the blank-eyed Hammond was the first mistake, and ditching the entire "With Great Powers Come Great Responsibility" aspect of the story by eliminating everything relating to Uncle Ben (except Aunt May) was inexcusable. Without that, this is just a bland guy in a costume being pulled up buildings on a cable (when he's not scurrying around on his hands and toes against a blue screen), and occasionally-- very occasionally-- fighting stunt men poorly.
And there were no super-villains! As a nine year old child I was horrified, and then bored to tears, by this development.
Paul Brian McCoy's series will continue next week with a look at The Incredible Hulk followed by the 1970's versions of Doctor Strange and Captain America the week after.