A few years ago I got to meet Lou Ferrigno at a Philadelphia comic con. That's where the above picture is from and it's the perfect place for an actor that used to play a green skinned comic character called the Hulk. He was engaging to chat with and cool to fans. The guy has a great story - an American dream type - of going from picked on teen to successful body builder to TV star.
Lou Ferrigno's birthday was a few days ago - November 9th to be exact. It seems he's 63 and still looks great. He's left behind his days of hulking out and being green, but the Hulk's still out there in comic books and films. People age, comic characters get rebooted.
Marvel Comics - the company that contains the Hulk - is more active then ever at bringing their colorful creations to the screen. The Hulk has had his own movies and appeared within the highly profitable Avengers franchise. In fact recently there has been news regarding a slew of new Marvel characters slated for the silver screen - including such established characters as Black Panther and Dr. Strange. Of course recent favorites must return like Thor and Captain America. Marvel apparently plans to have its characters cross over in films and there is apparently a release schedule set for as yet unmade films over the next five years.
I suppose all this is splendid news for fans, but I wonder if the folks at Marvel productions aren't pushing things a bit - overloading its cash cow to the extreme. It's happened before. My prime interest in comic characters was my teenage years, namely the late 80's to the start of the 90's. It was quite an invigorating time for comics. Chris Clarmont's X-Men were the rage at Marvel while DC was launching artistic triumphants like Frank Miller's Dark Knight and Watchmen. Yes, as I grew up I watched comics mature in content from recounting the adventures of super heroes to exploring the dark psychology of masked crusaders. Alas, as the comic book grew as an art form, so did the financial greed of its publishers. Of course comic's success meant that each company adopted an attitude of multiple covers and crossover storylines to get readers to buy as many comic books as possible. Eventually I experienced a burn out on trying to keep up with all that. Apparently a lot of readers and collectors did as well and the lucrative comics industry sort of collapsed.
Before 1990, comic book film adaptions were a rarity. There had been black and white serials, but the only big budget color productions were the Christopher Reeve Superman films - in which there was plenty to savor there.
Comic book characters had experienced more success and longevity on the TV screen before 1990. DC adaptions include such fondly remembered shows as Adventures of Superman from the 1950's with George Reeves as the ultimate straight laced super hero, the 1960's camp classic Batman starring Adam West and Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter from the 1970's. The later era also saw a number of Marvel TV adaptions - the most successful being The Incredible Hulk with Lou Ferrigno. While these series lacked the CGI marvels of today's Marvel film adaptions, I liked the earnestness and creativity associated with them I guess it just ages me, but I prefer these old adaptions to today's, which seem everywhere. But then so did Marvel comic books in the 80's. We shall see how long the film franchise thrives.
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