Kevin Fiege is our unicorn

Don’t you hate it when some old shit starts blathering on about “back in MY day…”? Well don’t worry, I’ll change the wording. We are truly living in the golden age of live action superhero films. It’s almost a disservice to call the Marvel ones that, even though it’s technically true. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was more of a political thriller/action film than superhero film. Ant-man was a heist film, GOTG was a space opera, Thor was mythological, etc. Even with the varying quality films from other companies, this is a wonderful time for this genre. And we have Kevin Fiege to thank for it. 

Oh, and as for the contrast between live action superheroes *now* as opposed to *then*. The pickings we’re very, very slim. We did have old bxw movie serials of Batman, Superman and Captain Marvel back in the ’40’s but they, much like the ’50’s George Reeves’ Superman tv show were all low budget, low quality kiddie fare.

Yes, we had the comedic Batman tv series in 1966, which honored the caped crusaders very nicely, even if played for laughs and they did a theatrical release too, which was great. Unfortunately, we had to wait ten years for more. We did have the 1978 Superman the movie, which was a godsend, and which holds up pretty well today, even with the dated clothing. It also has the greatest musical theme song ever,  not only for superheroes but it ranks up there as maybe the best cinematic theme of all time. 

But after that, the ’70’s live action menu was anemic to say the least. We had various Saturday morning cartoons aimed at 8 year olds like the Shazam/ Isis Hour (no relation). She had an amulet that turned her into Isis, the god of something. Can’t remember. Meanwhile, Billy Batson would travel the countryside with an old dude in a safari jacket called Mentor. When trouble arose, Billy would shout Shazam and turn into Captain Marvel to rout the bad guys. Mentor would… advise. And each week, Billy would have a chat with the gods whose initials spelled out Shazam. It’d be six guys dressed like gods standing in a cloud bank. It was great if you were eight.

We also had prime time tv live action superheroes. Lynda Carter was Wonder Woman! The first season was set in WWII and was alright — Carter being the big draw here because you couldn’t help but fall in love with her. The stories were so so at best. Then in the second season and on, it was set in present day, where the quality really went down the toilet. 

But what about Marvel you say? This is all DC stuff! Yeah, well, even worse pickings there. The one lone win for Marvel during this time was The Incredible Hulk, which was decent, with Bill Bixby as David (?) Banner, and Lou Ferrigno played ol’ green jeans with a bad wig and prosthetics. It was very formulaic with Banner getting picked on twice each ep and Lou coming out to roar in his sandals. Went for four seasons though! Like I say, slim pickings. We then had the Nicholas Hammond Spider-man. This was not good. They tried to affix ropes to this Spidey to give the effect of him actually swinging through the city but it just didn’t work. The tech wasn’t there. Nor was the acting. And yet this was Olivier compared to Reb Brown’s Captain America. These two horrific, TV movies were a testament to why spandex is not an option, this piece of crap had no acting whatsoever (thanks Reb) and a shield made out of transparent, lightweight, flexible, harmless material. Cap could not take out a Nazi toddler by throwing this shield at it. It was a weaker version of a household frisbee. Guh.

The ’80’s had Superman 2, which still had a certain level of quality but sank steadily as Superman 3 and worse yet, Superman 4, the Quest for Peace infected our screens. S4 is right down there with Batman & Robin and the Spirit. Best not to even get into it. It was crap. There was also a live action Superboy series that is totally unmemorable. No, the true Highlight of the ’80’s happened in 1989 with Batman. Michael Keaton was absolutely physically wrong for the part of Batman, as was Director Tim Burton’s reasoning for him putting on the suit. It didn’t matter though because Keaton’s Bat-attitude, his costume and his Batmobile were all incredible and picked up the quality baton from the 11 years previous Supes. Marvel’s contribution in the ’80’s was some Hulk TV movies with unrecognizable guest stars Thor and Daredevil. Pass.

The ’90’s was a mess as well. The Batman franchise sunk lower with each sequel, with Returns, then Forever, then the previously aforementioned Batman & Robin, which was a humiliation and an insult. Speaking of insults, Marvel tried to do a Captain America movie which went nowhere, which featured an Italian Red Skull, no acting and Cap had rubber ears. Roger Corman also tried to give as an extremely low budget Fantastic Four that never saw the light of day– but I’ll be looking at that phenomenon soon enough in another entry. They tried a Dolph Lundgren Punisher movie which also went nowhere. Marvel did score points with the Blade trilogy though, their only win of that decade. 

But of everything I’ve mentioned so far, maybe only Superman 4 was close to being as low down as the very worst of the worst. Frank Miller’s The Spirit. If Will Eisner wasn’t already dead by then, he would have come up out of his grave and cut his own throat with a butter knife, no matter how long it took, to end the embarrassment. Watching this piece of dreck may also lessen your opinion of Samuel L. Jackson who really will take any goddamn part, it turns out. 

The point I’ve been driving toward is that by and large, before the turn of the century, it was really really REALLY  rare for us to get quality live action superhero stuff on tv or film. Maybe four or five quality productions in 60 years, from 1940 to 2000. And look what we’ve gotten on the last 20 years alone. The last 12 just with the MCU! And that’s mostly thanks to Kevin Fiege. The cinematic Stan Lee of our generation, pulling the strings and creating the coherent, quality Marvel universe in theaters with his directors, much the way Stan did it in the 1960’s with his illustrators in the comics. 

Little known fact, Fiege was part of the Fox team that kicked off the X-men franchise in 2000. He also had a hand in the Fantastic Four 2005 film. He then moved to the big chair for Marvel and the rest is history. Fiege has gone on to achieve what’s NEVER been done before in cinematic history, creating an interlocking film universe the likes of which have never been seen. The 22 film epic, The Inifinity Saga. Think about just how rare such an accomplishment is.

When it comes to film “universes” it’s simply not that easy to provide a quality product. Of the 11 Star Wars entries, there hasn’t been a quality film to satisfy its fans since the early ’80’s.

Warner Bros. Has been flinging crap against the wall non stop since 2008’s Dark Knight, throwing out about a dozen films with little quality to show for it. They’re still scrambling in the dark.

Universal tried to launch their Dark Universe group but that’s floundering as well. 

It all comes down to having an organized, guiding hand at the wheel and Fiege has been that. So what I’m saying is, enjoy him while we have him because his ilk is RARE. Kevin Fiege is our Unicorn and we better appreciate him, because the thing IS.