**sigh** If Only I Had A Time-Machine

**sigh** If only I had a time machine.

At the end of 2000 and beginning of 2001 the comic book company Marvel's stock was hitting below $1.00 per share.

This was after the acclaimed release of the first X-Men movie.

I remember the late '70's early '80's live action Spider-Man and Captain America shows. This was when I thought Beast-Master was the most awesome movie I had ever seen, and yet I knew these shows were lacking. Spidey would crouch down with palm up, thumb out and middle 2 fingers clutched to his palm. The scene cut to the group of bad-guys standing all in a bunch, then a net would drop on 'em! When Spidey climbed the wall, you could see the rope pulling him up as he waved his arms and legs incongruously with the rate he was "climbing".
I saw the Cormen Fantastic Four ash-can bootleg.

So naturally, I thought: "C'mon, just keep doing what you're doing and stick to the print media. You want to branch out? Fine! Release some novels." 'Cause you know I was going to watch the movies no matter how bad I thought they would be. Any super-hero movie or TV show I have to watch! Call it a compulsion. Remember: I watched the hokey FF movie.

But they plowed ahead (they never listen to me) and for good reason: They're master story-teller's. Some of your favorite movies, in fact, may be comic-book creations and you might not know it, such as the Road to Perdition. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying they're all winners, but the hits definitely out-weigh the flops! In fact I would love to see a great writer and artist to storyboard, team up to redo the flops just to show that it can be done better. Just to say to the mainstream audiences that turn their noses up at comic book movies "Hey! This is what we do!"

Now other comics are making it to the big-screen too, but Marvel is leading the way with their sequels. Just look at what they've got coming: Spider-Man 3, FF 2 Rise of the Silver Surfer (honestly, I thought the first one was a little flat, so this surprises me) not to mention the success they had with the Blade and X-Men series. Also coming is Ghost Rider; and Iron Man, Luke Cage, Deathlok, Gargoyle, Magneto, Namor, Wolverine, Punisher 2, The Incredible Hulk (2008), Ant-Man (2009), Captain America (2009), Nick Fury (2010), Thor (2010), The Avengers (2011), Black Panther, Hawkeye, Shang-Chi, Cloak and Dagger, Power Pack and Iron Fist are all pre-production or otherwise in development stages. And did I mention Marvel's cutting out the middle-man and filming most of these movies themselves at Marvel Studios?

Movie technology has finally caught up to keep pace with the most creative of writers and directors, so with the right combination, there's nothing that can't be done!

Oh, and just in case you're interested, Marvel stock is now over $25 per share! **sigh** I wish I had a time machine.