That might be the trampoline!

The thing is, when I was a kid Superman was a real hero to me. And a kid sees things a lot differently than adults. Honestly, I have a hard time understanding the fascination that some adults seem to have with comic book characters.

No, not hard to understand. It's the same need for a sense of wonder that we get from a magic show. Plus comic books have enthralling graphics. It's a unique art form which combines words with pictures. Nowadays it has gone beyond the label of "comic books" by becoming sequential art. A good example is the late illustrator Will Eisner whose character The Spirit had the atmospheric stylishness of NOIR, similar to those black&white films called Film Noir.

Escapism seems more important the longer I live...

Ahhh! So you've decided on your preferred direction of magic?

No reality can hold..!

How many times has Superman raced against the Flash? Unless I'm mistaken, the first time that they competed, the Flash raced by running but Superman raced by flying. To me, Superman had an UNfair advantage because he flew but Flash had to run on the topographically-uneven surface which has mountains and houses and numerous other obstacles on the terrain.

But wouldn't Sups be going further?

Saw the first two episodes of "Gotham." I like it.

Depends on the altitude at which he flies. But even that would be miniscule compared to the Unfair disadvantage of the FLASH, with his confinement to running on the surface and dealing with all the obstacles I described.

The Flash and Superman are two of the many examples of terrible DC heroes, along with Aqua-Man and Green Lametern. Not that Marvel hasn't had some lame ones, but DC's core line-up seems to be made to avoid any actual effort on the part of the writers. With the exception of Batman.

When they took a new look at Aquaman they did a good job. Once he lost his hand, they turned him into a legitimate hero I would say. They started to look into what would be the truth if he could move so fast under the ocean on the bottom and how that would translate to his speed, strength and his hardness of skin and body. They really started to make him interesting.

Sups got sort of the same treatment as well as the Flash. Old school books yea they were pretty lame. In later years it actually became interesting.

Though I COMPLETELY agree about the Bat. They spent some good energy on writing the back story, the character and the stories.

There was a one-hour tv-documentary about Batman that made the point the Bat is NOT even a superhero since he does not have any superpowers at all. So to call him a superhero might be a misnomer. All he is, is just a detective who wears a fancy costume. If not for his costume, he would not even be in the comic books.

On the other hand, Superman is a superhero because he has superpowers. But like the other hero, The Spectre, he is too powerful, so that omnipotence might leave many fans cold and make the character boring.

When all is said and done, Batman has No superpowers, and Superman is too powerful, therefore many fans prefer the FLASH because he's "middle of the road."

The Bat and green arrow and Hawkeye and some others are just guys with a grievance and money.

On the bright side The Flash premier was pretty good. Hope Arrow is good tomorrow.

Okay, comic book experts. As I say it's been a long time, but I remember this:
Superman had his fifth dimension nemesis Mr. Mxyzptlk (many school days spent memorizing that spelling). Now IIRC Batman had a similar nemesis. What was his name?

Bat-mite. An inter dimensional powerful creature who hero worshipped batman and put him in situations where he would have to show off his skills and abilities. He was a pest without meaning to be. In the 70s or 80s cartoon, the mite was the to de-grim the character and make him more appealing to little kids.

Agreed, I was impressed with THE FLASH premiere too. When I saw the initial promo, I wondered about those flames he causes when he runs. Because in the comics, he never had those flames. But now it's explained as Air-Friction caused when he runs at super-speed. Frictional heat, similar to when a Space-capsule catches fire as it plummets down through the atmosphere. The way I see it, the reason the Flash never had those flames in the comics version is because his special AURA prevented it.

When I was a kid, I really liked DC characters and owned quite a few of those comics. As an adult, I'm more into the TV shows, movies, and kids cartoons, and I'm beginning to appreciate Marvel much more. I'm watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Gotham, Arrow, and The Flash.

One thing I really appreciated about Marvel was how they meshed the TV show and the movies. I've seen all of the movies, and I've been watching "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." weekly on TV since it started. I was watching "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." weekly on TV right before "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" came into theatres. The TV show changed the next week to reflect an important plot twist that happened in the movie. You had to be watching the TV show as it aired (not watching them on Netflix later on, etc.), and also see the movie on the opening weekend, to appreciate that they meshed the Marvel Universe on TV and on the Big Screen as being "real-time." Not only did I think it was well planned, I thought it was pretty awesome!

- Donald

Http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2014......ero.html

Today Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara announced plans to release at least 10 new superhero films based on multiple DC comics over the next six years. The ambitious slate of upcoming films, according to a press release, will include:

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, directed by Zack Snyder (2016)

Suicide Squad, directed by David Ayer (2016)

Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot (2017)

Justice League Part One, directed by Zack Snyder, with Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill and Amy Adams reprising their roles (2017)

The Flash, starring Ezra Miller (2018)

Aquaman, starring Jason Momoa (2018)

Shazam, (2019)

Justice League Part Two, directed by Zack Snyder (2019)

Cyborg, starring Ray Fisher (2020)

Green Lantern (2020)

2020?! I don't think I can extend my adolescence much longer!

Well Dc may not be making good movies. But I think The TV work that they have done with Young Justice, Batman, Superman, The Justice League, Batman Beyond and Justice League Unlimited have been very good. Much better than the old Batman Superman hour. The Batman Aquaman Hour and Super friends that was the kind of junk that was on TV on Saturday Mourning.

I did not like most of the Superman movies but I did like Superman Two. I did not like any of the Batman Movies except the one Starring Adam West. I also loved the Adam West Batman TV show. It hit the TV when I was in Third grade.

The only Superman that got it right was the old Adventures of Superman Starring George Reeves. The thing about it was that Superman was not on the screen for very long. The stories were mostly about Clark and his friend reporters. Superman would often show up at the end just in the nick of time. Clark Kent had to be written and acted so it was interesting and entertaining to the audience. When Superman showed up that he was in costume and there was automatic interest, action and entertainment.

Ty Power did this in the Mark Of Zorro. And this was done not long ago in the three Iron Man Movies where Tony Stark was very interesting and fun and entertaining to watch.

DC's thing is that they seem to push the big three all the time (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) ahead of all the other super hero's in the Justice League. Where Marvel has let many super hero's become popular like Spider man and the X Men.

Marvels movies seem to have a lot of people that were fans of Marvel on staff. On one of my DVDs in the extras one of the people that was doing the First Captain America movie. He said something like that they had a staff of people that worked for Marvel and they have their choice of ideas from the Marvel stories that are in the comic books for inspiration.

However the movie people that do the DC movies seem to want to re-write all the hero's and do some epic thing. And reinvent. That Batman VS Bane was in my opinion was one of the worst super hero movies I have ever seen. They totally missed who Batman was. Having Batman/Bruce lose all his Billions. Needing help from Catwoman to find Bane. And that junk with that guy they called Robin. And having Bruce end up turning his home into a children's home. And staying dead missed the boat big time. Batman is "driven" to clean up crime and used to be written that way. More than any other hero in DC. So for him to lose all his money - fake his death at the end and then pass the Bat cave onto that Robin - was in my opinion one of the many many bad writing and directing choices that were in all the Batman movies.

I saw the Batman VS Bane twice. It dragged on and on. And I have no interest in getting any of the DVDs.

I saw the Avengers 12 times and I have a copy of the DVD.