Bob Sabella, Budd Lake New Jersey USA

Thanks for Challenger 20, another excellent issue. Having been a big fan of DC comics for many years, I was saddened at the death of Julius Schwartz, and I appreciated all the tributes to him. The tributes by Mike Friedrich (a truly underrated comic book writer; I'll never forget the classic scene in one of his JLA in which Hawkman was feeding the remnants of the sacred rock to the undersea people, in imitation of a priest distributing communion) and Alan Moore were wonderful, as was the article from The Amazing World of DC Comics.

Which brings me to Mike Resnick's article "Why Carol Won't Sit Next to Me at Science Fiction Movies." I tend to stay away from sf movies for many of the reasons he describes: an emphasis on special effects and thrills (and stupidity) over logical characterization and plotting (and common sense). The trailers they've been showing for the upcoming I, Robot are ludicrous; I don't recall anything in that book reminiscent of an action-thriller!

Certainly not one about a “revolt of the robots” – which is not only antithetical but insulting to Asimov’s vision. And did you get a load of Hollywood’s idea of Susan Calvin?

I avoided the Superman movies because of Gene Hackman's hamming it up as Lex Luthor. but perhaps the worst movie version of a comic character was Tommy Lee Jones playing Two-Face as a buffoon. Obviously Jones did not read a single Batman comic involving Two-Face or he would have realized he was an utterly-serious, tortured personality, not a Joker wannabe (which is how all Batman villains were portrayed after Jack Nicholson, alas). I dread seeing what they do with Scarecrow and Ras al Ghul in the next movie.

You shouldn’t blame Jones for the Two-Face travesty; when he made Batman Forever – or was it Batman and Robin? – the directorial duties in the series had slipped from Tim Burton’s talented and informed vision to the hack perspective of Joel Schumacher. The fault lies with him. The smirky homoeroticism – rubber nips on the Bat-suit! – and hammy guest stars of his movies were a throwback to the character’s atrocious “camp” era – mocking the characters without any trace of humor. Early indications are that the new movie will avoid such drivel in favorite of seeing Batman, once again, as a Dark Knight, and let us pray that Schumacher will inflict no such insults on The Phantom of the Opera, due this Christmas.

There are exceptions. X-Men 1 (I haven't seen 2 yet). I haven't seen either of the Spiderman movies, but reviews are good [and accurate – it’s written by the producers of Smallville and they know how to approach a super-hero story] so eventually I’ ll watch them. But the percentage of bad sf and comics movies far surpasses Sturgeon's 90%. Maybe 99%? *sigh*