MY SON IS A PROPHET...

My son, Jonah, has always loved super heroes. He's never been a "train kid" or "sports kid." Ever since he was old enough to know the difference, he's been fascinated with the supernatural. Heroes, Star Wars, aliens, robots...the kid digs.

When he was really small, he got a lot of hero stuff for Christmas. In fact, Marvel used to make these kid-friendly hero action figures...little squatty versions of Captain America and Hulk and Wolverine...all smiles and age appropriate. He dug the Spider-Man movies because the commercials played constantly. Pretty normal hero fan stuff. Until we rented an animated Avenger's movie.

The movie was filled with heroes we had never heard of. Jonah enjoyed the movie, but he was most fascinated with a hero called IRON MAN. Suddenly, our four-year old could think of nothing else but Tony Stark's titanium alloy hero creation. The problem was that no one else seemed to know who Iron Man was. You couldn't find toys or movies or pajamas or anything with this little red man on it. But strangely, as Jonah turned five, we began to see more Iron Man toys. Why? Because Marvel knew something that we didn't.

When Jonah heard that there was an actual Iron Man movie being made, he lost his mind. It was a dream come true, and trust me, now we have the Iron Man pajamas. (They even light up.)

I found a strange pride in it...like my son had some sort of unique sense of what was cool long before the other kids did. (I'm kinda' messed up.) But we didn't dwell on it.

Chapter 2....

When we moved to Tyler, Jonah discovered a video game at a friend's house. The game was Marvel Ultimate Alliance. It had all the guys Jonah liked. But he didn't come home talking about Hulk or Iron Man. Suddenly, he was all about Deadpool. I'd never heard of Deadpool. I researched it a little, found out that Deadpool was one of the more creative, if lesser known, Marvel characters, and didn't think much of it.

And then, I see this...



Did you see the guy with the two swords? Red shirt? Flying around like a crazy man? Yep, you guessed it.

DEADPOOL.

Somehow, Jonah has picked another winner. And now, I'm reading rumors of a Deadpool movie in the works. Can it be? Does my son have some sort of sixth sense for marketable hero blockbusters?

Man, I hope so. Somebody get me Jerry Bruckheimer.

Why This Movie Is Awesome...

I have a strange history with Superman Returns.

Early on, when I found out the film was in the works, I got really excited about it.

I was born in 1976. That places me squarely in the "child-of-the-80's" crowd. Which means Superman was the baddest cat I had ever seen.

There are lots of us out there - kids who grew up watching Christopher Reeve as the Man Of Steel.

When this new version came out, I didn't get to the theater in time, which was frustrating. However, once it came out on DVD, I couldn't wait to rent it.

And then I didn't watch it.

I'm not sure what happened - I think Kristen and I started watching it and then I had to a meeting at church or something (story of my life.) Unable to really dig into the Bryan Singer's new addition to the Superman mythology, I wasn't able to really decide how I felt about it.

Thankfully, it showed up on HBO or something last week and I recorded that dude! And I think I can safely say that I love this film. It's not perfect by any means, but here's why I think it's great.
1. BRANDON ROUTH
This kid pulled off Clark Kent flawlessly. I guess it could be said that Reeve did it flawlessly and this kid just copied that, but I'm still impressed. I think he mastered both characters masterfully. From vocals to the physicality to the smallest of facial expressions, Routh did a great job in this movie.
2. COMIC CONSISTENCY
I think the recent Batman franchise has done two things for hero movies...first off, it dialed down the silliness of comic book films, adding a more realistic texture to the films. For movies like Batman, that's a great thing. It's added a whole new dimension to that character. But, unfortunately, it's made us suspect of films that stay true to their comic book beginnings. "Superman Returns" does stay true. Every one of the original Superman films was silly - Lex Luthor wore silly clothes; Clark Kent looked exactly like Superman; the one-liners weren't all that funny. But we loved it. And Singer's film stayed true to those qualities. I just hate that so many cynics couldn't see or respect that.
3. SOUNDTRACK
I think one of the smartest things about this movie is its soundtrack. I love that the original scores were recorded with orchestra, and not modernized, looped up and made trendy. (I'm looking at you, Michael Bay...) I mean, come on...is there any cooler music than Superman? And don't say Star Wars. 'Cause it's the same song.

4. SKILLFUL ENDING
The old Superman movies had great endings. They were great because even though you could theorize that a sequel would come, but you were never sure. Superman Returns did that, too. They left lots of room for additional films, but didn't write themselves into a corner, thereby forcing themselves to make one.

Super Hero Shootout

Who would win in a fight? Captain America, Wolverine, or Ghost Rider?