10 Comic Book Movies That Aren't Based On Comic Books

By Steve Palace /

7. Condorman

Sky High wasn't Disney's first go at a superhero-derived movie, as unfortunately the 1981 Michael Crawford vehicle Condorman shows. He played Woody Wilkins, a milder-than-mild-mannered illustrator who wound up becoming his own feathery, fist-flinging creation. Part-nerd, part-bird, part-kite, he romanced KGB spy Barbara Carrera and tangled with Oliver Reed's formidable Krokov. Robert Sheckley's novel The Game Of X provided the source material, though it appears Uncle Walt took this and surgically-grafted a comic concept over the plot. It didn't help that the poster for Charles Jarrott's picture depicted Crawford in a beige mac, an image associated with his legendary role, Frank Spencer. In a strange twist, the character who emerged from a fictional comic book into the real world was then converted into an official print version by Whitman Comics. Unlike the cinematic adventure, that one got a follow up.