The Evil Brain from Outer Space

Cribbed from nine separate films centered on the Japanese superhero Super Giant, The Evil Brain from Outer Space is a trip to say the least. I recently caught the film as part of Nightmare Cinema‘s line of films. For any fellow MSTies out there, it’s hauntingly similar to Prince of Space and Attack of the Neptune Men… in fact it is so similar that if you have seen one of those movies you have seen all of those movies. In many ways, Super Giant is a precursor to Ultraman and Kamen Rider who both followed.

Super Giant (or Starman, as he is known in the English translation), is an alien from the Emerald Planet sent to Earth to defend us from alien invaders called the ‘Semarians.’ The mutant invaders are capable of assuming any form and have a devious nature. Operating undercover, Super Giant would transform into a suited Japanese man complete with fedora, becoming Super Giant when he was needed. Able to fly and deflect nearly any form of attack, he is also incredibly strong and agile, possessing the power of teleportation.

From what I can gather, the Super Giant films operated as serial-style adventures spread over 9 stories with individual plots, villains and supporting cast members that cropped up from time to time. Stringing portions of the nine movies into one feature film is a maddening experience as the end result is a barrage of unconnected plot points and monsters that fly across the screen with wild abandon.

Veteran actor Ken Utsui dons a costume that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination, as each distinct feature of his body is hugged in his leotard topped with a darling deely-bopper. Apparently the producers stuffed his shorts with cotton to impress any ladies in the audience. To this day, Utsui refuses to discuss the films and is embarrassed by them, but they remain an important series of film that influenced many a young movie maker, I’m sure. The acrobatics exhibited in The Evil Brain from Outer Space is astounding. I decided to study the fighting techniques closely so that the next time I faced insurmountable odds in a nightmare I would simply channel Super Giant and flip them all into the air like so much pizza dough.

A cult film, The Evil Brain from Outer Space is also a gem as far as cutting edge special effects. Fades, super-imposed images, duplications and other digital effects can be found throughout the movie. The creature design is also just bizarre and somewhat iconic, symbolizing a specific style of sci-fi/comic book schlock that evokes the 50′s and 60′s.

Sure, this is not a movie to sit down and watch with a glass of port and some fine cheeses, but if you ever have some mates over to hang out and drink cheap beer, this would be an ideal accompanying piece of entertainment.

The new Power Man and Iron Fist (and Spider-Man)

I’m not a fan of back-up stories. Of late, I have found that these added on tales exist merely to justify the soaring prices of comics and little else. I’d gladly not have the Nomad back-ups if I could pay $3 for the latest issue of Captain America, for instance. But in the case of the new Amazing Spider-Man, I find myself enjoying the back-up more than the feature (sorry, Dan Slott, I’m having trouble getting invested in the latest Spider Slayer plot).

The two-part back-up in Amazing Spider-Man is centered on Power Man and acts as a kind of pull toward the new Power Man and Iron Fist mini-series on the stands this week.

A successor to Luke Cage’s abandoned title, Power-Man (Victor Alvarez) was introduced in the Daredevil event story Shadowland, which is unfortunate as I want to pretend that story never really happened.

Back in May, Van Lente talked to CBR.com about the creation of the new Power Man and his relationship with Danny Rand, Iron Fist:

“Shadowland: Power Man” came about because of the way Marvel is approaching its event-style storylines. “The great thing about events as they’re currently constituted, at least at Marvel, because that’s where I work – I’m not trying to diss DC – is that we’re always trying to look for permanent things to take from the event. We ask ourselves, ‘How can events matter and last beyond the actual mainline story itself?’ So you’ve got ‘Secret Warriors’ coming out of ‘Secret Invasion.’ You’ve got ‘Dark Avengers’ coming out of ‘Dark Reign’ and ‘Incredible Hercules’ was spawned out of ‘World War Hulk,’” Van Lente told CBR News. “So the theme of ‘Shadowland’ is the battle for the soul of New York and in many ways Power Man is the soul of New York. He’s the critical component of the storyline.”

When Van Lente accepted this assignment, the writer began reading scores of old “Power Man” and “Iron Fist” comics for research. “I worked my way backwards. I started with ‘Power man & Iron Fist,’ their team book and I enjoyed it. In a lot of ways it reminded me of ‘Incredible Hercules,’ because it’s a book about this totally mismatched pair of buddies,” Van Lente said. “So it’s a lot of fun now writing and reading the interplay between Danny and Luke because their backgrounds are almost ludicrously dissimilar. Luke is a blue collar kid from Harlem who ran with a bad crowd, ended up being framed for murder, got super powers in prison and has been clawing himself back up from obscurity to being the leader of the Avengers. Luke Cage has had this incredible arc.

“Iron Fist obviously was born to wealth, but grew up in a very sheltered existence in one of the Immortal cities of Heaven,” Van Lente continued. “I like that because with these two characters you have that contrast of idealism versus street smarts. You’ve got rich man/poor man. It’s just really a fun dynamic and I can see why fans have always reacted to it so well.”

The new Power Man isn’t exactly what he appears to be, either. “He has sort of a split personality. He’s a bombastic, sort of over-confrontational personality when he’s Power Man. Then, in his civilian guise, he’s considerably different and I think that’s going to surprise people,” Van Lente explained. “What’s exciting about this new character is that there is a lot of mystery around him and we’d kind of like to leave it that way for right now. He’s half Hispanic. So it’s been exciting to write a Hispanic character in the Marvel Universe. He’s half Dominican. His family and his connection both to Luke Cage and the events of ‘Shadowland’ play a major part in his origin and his storyline.”

Alvarez is a step back in time toward the street style character that Luke Cage embodied back in the day before he became an Avenger. A free-wheeling brash and wild youth, this Power Man has put his services up for grabs only to be pitted against Spider-Man. It’s a trap, of course, and allows the Looter to operate in the background and steal the key to New York City during a presentation ceremony.

Like other Van Lente stories, the back-up comic feels like vintage Marvel Comics and is very welcoming. I enjoyed the witty banter, convoluted yet thought-out villainous plot and action mixed with humor. If the new Power Man and Iron Fist is anything like this, I’ll glady be collecting it and hoping for more!

With the new Herc series on the horizon, it may be too much to ask for another ongoing title from Fred Van Lente, but I do hope that he has a chance to further explore the new Power Man.