With all of the upcoming Marvel movies being set for production ( Thor, Deadpool, The Avengers, Spider-Man 4, The First Avenger: Captain America and probably X-Men Origins: Wolverine 2) and a whole list of possible candidates for the big screen (Ant-Man, Nick Fury, Sub-Mariner) I thought I would take a look back at the Marvel heroes that have already hit the small screen in TV movies and shows.

Oh man was I excited about this show.
And oh man was I disappointed in this show.
I had such high hopes, and maybe they did the best that they could.
The costume was pretty much spot on, but the web-shooter bracelets and the belt?
I know special effects weren't what they are today, but how hard would it have been to just animate the webs shooting out of his palms?
He did have the Spidey tracers though.
Nicholas Hammond was Peter Parker/Spider-Man.
David White (Yes that's "Larry Tate" from Bewitched) was J. Jonah Jameson in the pilot.
Robert F. Simon was Jameson in the series.
The pilot TV-movie was released theatrically overseas.
Several of the TV series episodes were spliced together and released on VHS as a movie.
None of Spidey's rouge's gallery made it to the small screen.

Dr. Strange was a made-for-TV movie that was aired in 1978.
The movie really wasn't all that bad.
True it could have been closer to the comic, but it looked like that at least did try on this one.
Peter Hooten starred as Dr. Stephen Strange, Clyde Kusatsu played Wong, Eddie Benton (later Anne-Marie Martin) was Clea, Michael Ansara was the voice of the Ancient One and they actually had a super villian from Marvel, Jessica Walter as Morgan Le Fay.
Okay I know Morgan le Fay came from Arthurian legend, but DC and Marvel have both used her as a bad guy. I think Marvel actually used her first since she originally showed up in Black Knight #1 (May 1955).
Ted Cassidy was the Demon Balzaroth, and again I cant figure out why instead of a giant lizard, they just couldn't have dressed "Lurch" up, animated some flames on his head and called him Dormammu.
You can actually watch the movie on YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFCL0eCjnsA

Okay, in my Captain America Hub I noted that Cap has been widely used in mass media, but not very well.
Case(s) in point, Captain America and Captain America II: Death Too Soon.
Both were shown in 1979 and both starred Reb Brown as Cap.
The less said about these two the better.
Although the second film did have a little better costume and believe it or not, Christopher Lee.
No Red Skull in sight though.
It's kinda sad when the old Captain America cartoon is almost better than the live action films....

Yes Thor actually showed up in live action on TV.
It was in the 1988 Hulk TV movie The Incredible Hulk Returns.
In the movie, Banner meets up with a former student of his, Donald Blake (played by Steve Levitt), who has a magical hammer that summons Thor (played by Eric Allan Kramer), a Viking warrior prevented from entering Valhalla and sent to Earth to learn humility.
Even though the Thor in the movie was not the Thor in the comics, I kinda liked him.
And again, just how hard would it have been to use the comics costume?
One shining thing in the movie is that one of my cult movie favorites, Tim Thomerson, is in it.
BTW, like Dr. Strange, this TV movie was a pilot for a "Thor" TV series that never went into production.

Yep, DD was on the small screen before there was a Daredevil movie on the big screen courtesy of yet another Hulk TV movie.
In The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989), Banner get arrested for a crime he didn't commit (again) and his blind defense attorney is none other than Old Hornhead himself, Matt Murdock.
This was yet another television pilot for a series starring Daredevil.
In the movie, Daredevil wears a black costume, although I swear in some shots I could see some deep red highlighting (maybe it was just me).
And for the bad guy in the film, they actually cast John Rhys-Davies as Wilson Fisk, even though they never referred to him as Kingpin in the show.
I suppose the black ninja-like costume and the Kingpin was inspired by Frank Miller's run on Daredevil.
BTW, DD was played by 70's teen idol Rex Smith.

Even though their comic only lasted 62 issues, Power Pack got their own TV movie.
Not only that, but in 2008, Power Pack was on the list to have a major motion picture made.
Huh?
Well I guess being a cult hit has it's advantages.
In 1991, Power Pack was made into a live-action show for the NBC Saturday children's television lineup.
A pilot was shot, but the series wasn't picked up.
I wonder with Disney taking over Marvel, will Power Packs' worth shoot up?

In 1996, Generation X was made into a TV movie.
I was really excited about this because from what I had heard, the movie was going to have most of the characters from the comic including Emma Frost and Banshee!
In the film, Banshee and Emma Frost are the headmasters of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and in a cool bit of cross-overness, the mansion used for the Xavier Institute is the same one used in X-Men, X2: X-Men United, and X-Men: The Last Stand.
Two major problems with this movie for me...
Finola Hughes as the White Queen, Emma Frost. Finola is a beautiful woman but I had some trouble seeing her as the White Queen.
Changing Jubilee from an Asian.  Why?

What can I say?
David Hasselhoff as Nick Fury?
Visually almost perfect.
He looked like what I thought Fury would look like in real life.
I actually didn't think the movie was that bad (as in nothing to do on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon let's watch this).
It had almost the whole SHIELD cast, Dugan, Val, Gabe, Clay etc.
SHIELD meant "Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division" not "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division" and they had the Helicarrier.

Besides the live-action motion picture planned in the late 1980s (She-Hulk would have been played by Brigitte Nielsen), She-Hulk was rumored to have been considered for the last Hulk TV movie.
This never happened of course, but with the right actress, it could have been awesome.

Okay, I know this is a bit of a stretch, but in the NBC TV series Chuck, Chuck "kinda" met the Black Widow.
In the episode "Chuck Versus the Seduction", Chuck runs into a Russian agent named Sasha (Natasha?) Banacheck played by the gorgeous Melinda Clarke.
Her nickname is "The Black Widow", she has red hair cut in a style similar to the 60s and 70s Widow and she wears mainly black.
I fully expected her to come out dressed in the black leather catsuit with the bracelets.
I have to think that the writers are Marvel fans.
Like I said, I know it's a stretch.

And speaking of stretches, we have Eureka's Dr. Nathan Stark.
Stark looked like the comics Tony Stark and in an interview with Ed Quinn who played Stark, he said....
"It’s absolutely true that Nathan Stark is inspired by Tony Stark, and he came from straight from the mind of a comic book aficionado. It’s no secret that the creator of the show, Andrew Cosby, is also the co-creator of Boom comics, with Ross Richie. And they are huge fans of Iron Man."
You can read the full interview here

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