Tag: Superheroes

Electra Woman & Dyna Girl (2016)

Mistakes were made. Nostalgia for the 70s Sid & Marty Kroft show Electra Woman and Dyna Girl prompted me to watch the 2016 remake.

It was about as good as you’d expect a movie starring two YouTube personalities.

The original had 70s saturdary morning live-action kid show sets, costumes and actors, yet combined the goofy fun of 60s Batman and empowered female leads.

The remake … well … For some reason writers seem to want to tear down their heroes, both in the 2016 remake as well as the 2001 unaired pilot. Of the two leads, Hannah Hart is far better of an actor.

It’s another example the theory that the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that they are films that are often about another genre (70s political thriller, heist movie, etc) that just happen to have superheros. This remake is just a “superhero comedy”. Like My Super Ex-Girlfriend.

If you want to watch one of those, you’re better off with 1999’s Mystery Men. Or, of course, Deadpool, which is really a “screwball romantic comedy” that just happens to have superhe– well, Deadpool.

WTAM 1100 – Comic Book Apps for Comic Con

Play Audio – WTAM 1100 Newsradio – Tech Tuesday – February 17th, 2015:

WTAM 1100 Newsradio Cleveland OhioWizardWorld’s Comic Con finally coming to Cleveland, the birthplace of Superman. Running this weekend (Feb 20th-22nd) Comic Con Cleveland will feature comic book, sci-fi and fantasy genre stars like William Shatner, Bruce Campbell, and yes, the guy who played the Green Power Ranger.

Here are some smartphone and tablet apps to get you ready for the weekend:

  • Comics by ComiXology – One of the largest digital comic book stores with over 50,000 titles you can download and read on your iPad, Android, Windows and even Kindle Fire tablets. The app even has a special mode that pans through the comic panels to keep the action flowing as you scroll through.
  • Marvel Unlimited – Access to over 15,000 Marvel Comics for $9.99 per month. It’s like Netflix for capes. This is a great way to catch up on decades worth of backstory for your favorite characters.
  • CLZ Barry -This app allows you to scan the barcodes of movies, books, even comic books, to help add them to your collection database through the collectorz.com website. Other CLZ apps allow you to bring your database with you on your device for your next trip to your favorite store, so you don’t end up with duplicate purchases.
  • ComicBook! 2 – Create your own comic books with this iOS that comes with layouts, text and caption tools and comic stickers to make your own action. Android users can also check out the Comic Strip It! to turn photos into halftone comic book art. Be your own hero!

The 1980s – Cars as Superheroes

I know that I watched entirely too many “genre” shows growing up during the 1980s. This is clear from a work conversation about Knight Rider, which reminded me about how many “vehicle as superhero” series existed during the early part of the decade:

Less remembered are the shows that appeared mostly in syndication a few years later:

And of course, the return of Knight Rider in 2008.

Unfortunately, I think the overuse of cheap computer effects really hurt the genre with Viper and the 2008 KITT having ridiculously impossible transformations and silly “powers” that appeared out of nowhere and were sometimes never used again. But superhero cars will likely always be with us in some form, like Coulson’s Lola from Agents of SHIELD.