Picking up the pieces
Picking up the pieces |
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Page 32 of 38  Cover, Action Comics (DC Comics, 1961), an example featuring 'super-pets' in a tug-of-war. Art: Curt Swan. Conan was followed by various other 'barbarian' comics in the 1970s. Kull the Conqueror (1971) and Red Sonja (1977) were adapted by Marvel from Howard stories, and the latter became a movie in 1986 starring Bridget Nielsen. DC Comics hit back with Sword of Sorcery (1973), an innovative anthology which only lasted a year, while other companies cashed in with less high-profile superhero-cum-barbarian titles. But there were other developments on the superhero front, albeit of a more traditional nature. DC Comics' top creators now included Neal Adams, who took responsibility for steering Batman back to his sinister roots, and ex-Marvel stalwart Jack Kirby, who created a completely new line of superheroes, who inhabited a universe which he called 'the Fourth World'. Marvel, meanwhile, experimented with magazine-format superhero stories, and were briefly controversial for three issues of Spider-Man which dealt with the dangers of drugs; they also scored a remarkable hit with a revamped X-Men under writer Chris Claremont. Finally, towards the end of the decade, there came the release of the eagerly awaited Superman movie (1978), which gave a temporary boost to comics sales. This was not the first attempt to bring the 'Man of Steel' to the silver screen, but it was by far the most successful: Christopher Reeve made a charismatic lead, and the special effects were indeed special for their time ('You'll Believe a Man Can Fly!' ran the advertising blurb). It led to a number of follow-ups, which proved beyond any doubt that Hollywood could make a profitable job of translating superheroes to the screen for a modern audience. It would be a lesson well learned for the 1980s, when Batman was given the big-budget celluloid treatment. |