4. The Justice Age - 1975-1986
Warner BrothersDuring the Pop Art Age there had been two attempts to bring the greatest female comic book icon to screen in a manner fitting the era, 1967's sitcom-ish Who's Afraid of Diana Prince? an unfilmed script commissioned by Batman producer William Dozier, and 1974's Wonder Woman, a pilot movie featuring a superpower free spy in a jumpsuit that eschewed the character's traditional patriotic colour scheme. By the time Wonder Woman came to TV screens in 1975 in the still definitive version played by Lynda Carter, though, there was a new Diana for a new era. With this Wonder Woman fighting for her rights in her (star-spangled) satin tights in the less morally murky Nazi bashing 1940s there was no subversive archness, just old fashioned American heroism. We were now entering an age in which Superman could introduce himself as "here to fight for truth, justice and the American way" without a hint of irony or awkwardness. By the late 1970s the war in Vietnam was over, Nixon and the Watergate scandal had passed and the edgy anti-establishment films of the New Hollywood were giving way to a new age of optimistic, large scale crowdpleasers. This was the dawn of the modern blockbuster and its main exponents, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, hearkened deliberately back to the thrilling adventures and cliffhanger crises of classic serials with the enhanced budgets and effects of the 70s. With the likes of Star Wars and Indiana Jones simply Buster Crabbe starring Republic serials writ large there was no surprise to see a big screen remake for the original comic-to-screen hero. Barbarella and Danger: Diabolik producer Dino De Laurentiis' 1980 take on Flash Gordon struggled to find a tonal balance between the parodic campness of De Laurentiis' 60s comic adaptations and the earnest heroics of the original comic strip and film serial, resulting in a film that flopped despite some cult popularity. Other square jawed all-American heroes fared a little better than Sam Jones' football star Flash. Captain America's wartime Republic serial was the only Marvel (then Timely Comics) based film for generations and he returned in a pair of TV films for CBS in 1979 and 1980. Reb Brown, in a stars and stripes costume more akin to Evel Knievel than Chris Evans, played Steve Rogers as the son of a patriotic wartime spy in a set of cheap and cheesy adventures. These films came about as a result of a Marvel-CBS deal that saw the channel become "the superhero network". The Amazing Spider-Man appeared in a 1977 TV film that served as a backdoor pilot for a cheap looking TV series, while The Incredible Hulk proved more popular and enduring. The considerably more ambitious Superman series brought such old fashioned American adventure to a much larger scale as the first comic book superhero films made as blockbuster features. 1978's Superman and 1981's Superman II were smash hits with high critical regard for their mix of action and comic elements and fine chemistry between Christopher Reeve's affable Clark Kent and Margot Kidder's sparky Lois Lane. By 1987's dreadful and ultra-cheap Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, however, the series was well and truly over. It would take a different type of hero to the Big Blue Boyscout and a different tone to revitalise the superhero movie a couple of years later.
Key Film: Superman (1978)
Warner Bros.Costing $55 million, an enormous sum in 1978, Superman: The Movie was the first film to consider a superhero a subject for a big mainstream hit and to try and use effects properly to realise the true extent of superpowers onscreen. As the tagline famously had it: "You'll believe a man can fly". Every blockbuster superhero picture since owes it a debt for showing it was possible.