Tights, Camera, Action: We Note Notable Superhero Fan Films

by Glen Weldon

Last Sunday's launch of an ambitious, technically impressive Tolkien-geek fan film shows how far the medium has come.

Where once uberfans were content to tromp out into the backyard to videotape themselves lightsabering the snot out of one another, new technologies have rendered the days of rough in-camera edits and hand-puppet dianogas obsolete. And even though any Fett with a Flip camera can turn out a respectable product, many fan films represent sizable investments of time, resources and effort.

Take, for example, the genre of comic book fan film.

Batman: Dead End (above) is perhaps the most famous example of the form. The 8-minute film went live on the Web right around Comic-Con 2003, setting off a nerdsplosion of interest in director Sandy Collora, who's gone on to helm an actual, you know, movie.

To my way of thinking, Dead End is notable for two reasons:

Dispelling the Memory of Adam West's Bat-Belly
Dead End proved that simple, true-to-the-comics circus tights can look great — as long as the guy who's sporting them has 4 percent body fat and biceps the size of your head.

Okay, Did NOT See That Coming
Right around the three minute mark — after Batman and one very aggressively eyebrowed Joker trade blows and bon mots, events take a turn. A silly, silly turn.

After the jump: We scour the tubes for the best and the brightest superhero fan films. Also the weirdest.

Many creators of superhero fan films don't bother making fan films at all. They make fan trailers.

Which is both smart and all kinds of meta, because it allows them to produce what's essentially an action-fueled highlight reel without ever having to mess with more irksome stuff like plot and character development.

Or, as we will see, acting.

Collora followed up Dead End with World's Finest, a trailer for a team-up between Batman and Superman:

In World's Finest, several hallmarks of the superhero fan film emerge:

Why Are They Called "Comics" When Everyone's So Mopey?
Comic book fans want their funnybooks taken seriously. DON'T YOU LAUGH AT THEM! So whimsy, humor, any acknowledgment that the whole superhero schtick is sort of inherently, objectively, wonderfully goofy? Yeah, not so much. In its place: Brooding!

The Gang's All Here
Put a camera in their hands, and comic fans just can't resist. Why tell a lean, sharply focused tale when there are all kinds of beloved secondary and tertiary characters who've never gotten the screen time they deserve? Now's their chance! Everyone into the pool!

The Mighty Marvel Power Vacuum
Can't say why exactly, but one comic-book company's characters have cornered the fan-film market. Oh, sure — Marvel's got the box-office mojo. But when it comes to getting folk to dress up in capes and duke it out in parking garages, it's DC Comics by a mile. Field for study there.

Batman Family Values
And of all DC characters, it's the Caped Crusader who continues to send more besotted fans into the nation's editing bays and Foley stages. Case in point:

Grayson follows the adult Dick "Robin" Grayson, who returns to Wayne Manor to avenge the death of Batman. As a technically proficient (and cheesily fun) bit of superhero movie making, it succeeds. As a trailer, however — well, put it this way: The thing's six minutes long and gives away every possible (hypothetical) plot point. So yeah, pretty spot on.

And then there's the acting. Hoo boy.

"Careful, this kitten still bites!" Yes. Yes, she really does.

The Batman Legends trailer is a mashup of several produced and never-produced fan films by the same outfit. Stuffed with Bat-villains and references to moments of comics continuity (his back gets broken!) (Robin dies!) this is fan service at its most serviceable. Plus, creepiest-looking Joker of the bunch.

The big screen debut of DC's ring-wielding space-cop, Green Lantern, meanwhile, seems consigned to perpetual turnaround. But his fans are tired of waiting.

There's a teaser trailer, and a trailer for a straight-ahead origin flick.

(I feel compelled to point out here that in the comics, GL's magenta-skinned nemesis Sinestro — yeah, the name's a little on-the-nose — looks LESS like Freddie Mercury. LESS.)

There's a workmanlike Wonder Woman mini-film, meant to serve as a demo reel for an actress back when Joss Whedon's Wondy film was still in the works. As a superhero film, it's a competent demo reel.

But perhaps most gratifying is the love fan filmmakers have shown for oft-overlooked heroes. Trust me, this may be the only time you ever see a live-action Blue Beetle flick.

Or Hourman. I mean, seriously, Hourman?

Or Iron Fist. (Marvel, represent!)

Or Green Arrow. (Actually, there have been several attempts to get a GA film project off the ground, and the guy does show up on Smallville, so who knows?)

And finally, there's this: The Greatest Fan Film of All Time.

I'm gonna venture to say that this dryly funny animated (50-minute!) flick lives up to its chest-beating title. How? By defying all laws of God, man and intellectual property and cramming vastly different fictive universes — Marvel, DC, Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, you name it — into one great big ball of nerd.

Loaded with obscure references and NSFW shout-outs (are there hacky Aquaman jokes? Yes, there are hacky Aquaman jokes), this thing is, indeed, the apotheosis of the superhero fan film: obsessive, quirky and — more than anything else — a labor of exquisitely geeky love.