Superman videogames of the 80′s

Kids today are mega spoiled. Their movies feature special effects that MUST be up to par or the audiences leave the cinema and slam the studios online for incompetence and video games are subjected to criticism so intense that it reaches back in time. Reviews of retro games are lots of fun to watch but they also hammer home a reminder that criticiques are only really valid in the time they were written.

A review of the 1979 Superman videogame released for the Atari 2600 says more about the way we look at video games now that it does about the short-comings in the game itself. Even so, is the negative criticism valid?

Eh… It was 1979… we didn’t know better.

The game is really an excercise in weird sounds and moving images, isn’t it? It makes little sense and has the flow of a fever dream bolstered by an overdose of cherry Nyquil (not that I’d know).  After much analysis, I have discovered that the game actually has a plot. Clark Kent witnesses a bridge explosion and must put the pieces back together. Along the way he places Lois Lane back in her Daily Planet office and crooks in jail (I’ve seen my 8 month old son place his toys where they belong with the same logic).

Looking at the footage above none of this is really made clear. The game makers also inserted several super powers into the game such as ‘X-Ray Vision’ which is what is happening when the screen strobes between two sets of images. Superman is somehow looking into other screens for clues… or something… which might actually work if the screens looked different in any way.

Check out this cool and informative video about the unreleased Superman III game from 1983 to see the evolution of a bad idea.

Superman III has many problems, one of which is that audience members were not given any of the prescription medicines that Richard Pryor was apparently on during filming. I’m not dissing the guy, but look at any scene that he is in and it appears that he is the only one having a laugh. Even the camera feel awkward being near him.

This movie also is the only instance I can think of where Superman aggressively hits on a single mom and then drinks himself into a stupor mid-way through.

What makes all of thid even weirder is that Superman III enjoyed some of the most lavish attention a movie can get including a private screening for President Ronald Regan at the White House. What must that have been like?

However, the movie did give kids something they always want a super-powered villain… kinda This translated into the bizarre moment when the villain’s super computer merges with a human (think Brainiac).

It also featured real videogame graphics that touted the same game seen above… or so they said.

Superman III may count as the first video-game/movie tie-in that went to such lengths to obtain an audience.

With Warner Bros. looking to completely restart and ‘darken’ the image of Superman in their next movie effort, I can only ask that they too revisit the past… and play the 1979 Atarai game. It may give them ideas for some whacked-out action sequence filled with computerized blips and squeaks.

The kids today would love it.

The all new Strange Tales

Strange Tales #1 cover by Paul Pope

Marvel Comics is proud to announce the release of STRANGE TALES MAX #1 (of 3) in September 2009, featuring the most acclaimed creators in independent comics today! This landmark three-issue limited series, overflowing with 48 pages of all-new stories, features your favorite Marvel heroes—from Spider-Man to the Hulk—like you’ve never seem them before! Paul Pope, Peter Bagge, Molly Crabapple & John Leavitt, Junko Mizuno, Dash Shaw, James Kochalka, Johnny Ryan, Michael Kupperman, Nick Bertozzi, Nicholas Gurewich, Jason and more unite for the all-new STRANGE TALES MAX!

Pinch me.

Coober Skeber cover by Seth

I had just been perusing the Bizarro Comics hardcover DC Comics published back in the day. For those unfamiliar with the book, it featured off-the-wall short stories by creators more familiar to the independent comics set such as Paul Pope, Jay Stephens, Kyle Baker, Eddie Campbell and James Kochalka. I was pining over my long gone copy of Coober Skeber (pictured to the left) which featured short stories by creators more familiar to the independent comics set such as James Kochalka, but using Marvel Comics characters (illegally). I wondered if such a thing was ever to be possible again… and here it is.

Perhaps as an answer to DC Comics’s current foray into the land of high quality comics by some of the best creators in the  business (and Dan DiDio) known as Wednesday Comics this anthology series will also be ‘out of continuity’ appealing the the comic book collector who dislikes super hero books. Related to Wednesday Comics or not, Strange Tales looks like a fantastic read.

With creators such as Peter Bagge (of HATE and the Megalomaniacal Spider-Man), James Kochalka (indie darling superstar), Paul Pope (Batman Year 100, 100% and THB) and Dash Shaw (of Meathaus)  in the mix and what looks like an assemblage of characters from the heyday of Marvel’s ‘pop art’ era Strange Tales will surely generate a lot of attention.

A series carried over from the days when Marvel was Atlas comics, Strange Tales was a monster book debuting such creatures as Fin Fang Foom, Groot and Spore. With the revival of the superhero set, the series changed gears and starred Johnny Storm and the Thing sharing the spotlight with Dr. Strange. In time, Johnny Storm departed and Nick Fury arrived before Dr. Strange graduated to his own monthly comic.

The new 3-issue series promises to be something wholly other:

Just what does Peter Bagge have planned in “The Incorrigible Hulk,” a story so incredible that we had to serialize it over all three issues? Will Spider-Man make it out alive of Jason’s thrilling story? This first issue comes wrapped in a marvel-ous cover by Paul Pope and Jose Villarubia!

“Flat out, this is the apex of human artistic achievement,” says Editor John Barber. “This is it. The end. The crowning result of tens of millions of years of evolution, right here, in three packed-to-the-gills issues. The philosophy of the book was to have these creators from ‘indy’ or ‘alternative’ or ‘literary” or ‘art’ comics come in and do what they do best. I think Marvel readers will really dig seeing radically different versions of their favorite characters, and the fans of these cartoonists will get to see the creators work in a milieu they never thought they’d get to see. It’s win-win. It’s really the best of both worlds.”

Editor Jody LeHeup adds, “This book is a metric ton of solid gold awesome. The talent we’ve got lined up are without hyperbole some of the greatest creative minds working in comics today. I mean, who wouldn’t want to read a Spider-Man story by Jason? Or an Iron Man story by Tony Millionaire? Or anything by any of the contributors we’ve got attached to the project? I’ve been reading independent comics my whole life and I’ve always wanted to see what those creators could do with Marvel characters if they were given free reign to tell their stories. Well, now that vision’s becoming a reality and I can’t tell you what an incredibly special thing it is to see the final result. If you’re a fan of comics of any school, do yourself a favor and pick this up.”

Click on the image below for an interview with Dash Shaw about his Dr. Strange story.

The first issue hits the stands in September.