Me and The Cap’n Make It Happen…

I went to the midnight showing of Captain America: The first Avenger last night. This is for two reasons. The first is that Captain America and The Hulk are my childhood heroes. I love them both, I love the characters they are and next to Star Wars,  Marvel Superheroes could do no wrong in my childhood eyes. The second reason is since I was a sci fi kid, I grew into a sci fi man. (AKA nerd) Now in today’s culture, being a nerd is seen as “cool” or “hip”. Indeed there are tons of nubile young hot girls with Captain America tshirts or Star Wars purses. Like punk rock, outfitting yourself with nerd culture is as simple as talking to the cute yet underage girl at the local hot topic. I shrug… born in the wrong time? Maybe. But maybe not. What most of you youngin’s get nowadays are watered down versions of the awesome I used to get when I was younger. Hollywood (and Marvel) have messed with and rebooted superheroes over time to always try to please the status quo. I mean fans are great…. but why stop at loyal fans when you can sell out? I don’t hate it. I mean I get disgruntled when they mess up comic book and video game movies. But I understand why they do it. I am not mainstream America. Not by a long shot. I dont have the money the big guys want. But mainstream America… they look at people like me… the weirdos, the guys who don’t care what people think and have brains of our own. Mainstream America looks at real nerds and comic book dudes because well… they need to be told what is cool. So we told them.   Captain America is the latest in a slew of Movies by Marvel that has been leading up to this big ol’ honkin’ Avengers Movie for several years now. There is no way to escape the train that is coming. It’s like that annual exam middle age men are going to have to take every year. It’s gonna be rough, painful, and leave you with a big bill…. The inner child in me is leaping for joy. The old cynic in me is groaning aloud. The old cynic in me knows that comic book movies are hard to shake. Especially team movies. There is not one team movie (Watchmen came close) that is actually really any good. Most superhero team movies go through what I call the “Schumacher” effect. This is when they try to make too much happen with too many things at once. (Batman Forever anyone) and it just comes up looking over done, cheesy and lame. The characters don’t seem to mesh and it is a cluster of well… stupid and all to make people think that’s what they want. Then after a few weeks, the movie isn’t really that good, and it goes back to being a joke and once again comic movies are a joke. For the most part Marvel has been doing a good job keeping the movies edible for humans. Captain America is actually the best one I’ve seen since maybe spiderman 2 or the Iron Man movie. It’s actually funny. Great cast, and it seems to hold up well. I only have two complaints. (and for me that’s good marvel…   1. So the Red Skull has the cosmic cube and the power of the Gods.. yet he uses it to basically make rayguns? Really? 2. The movie is basically a two hour trailer for the Avengers. We get it. Even though they don’t look good in my eyes all standing together. It is what it is.   Even though I complain and the movie will almost certainly not be what I want… I’m still going to see it. Why? I’m a sci fi fan. True Blue. I colllect 5 avengers titles plus an infinite number of marvel titles. I know that for the genre to survive… we must see these movies. Truthfully, a superhero movie is better than a romantic comedy any day.