Spider-Man Vs. Freddy Krueger

Happy Halloween!  I was the perfect age when the first Nightmare on Elm Street hit theaters.  I'm not a huge horror fan these days but back in high school there was nothing more fun than popping in a scary flick with a bunch of friends and junk food.  This franchise was especially fun because of the creative ways they used dreamscapes and Robert Englund's darkly humorous performances.  I think my favorite outing  was the third one - I was a big fan of Kincaid.  I haven't seen the updated version featuring Jackie Earle Haley - hopefully they kept in the laughs as well as the kills.

The Doom Patrol and The Fantastic Four

I was really digging how the Doom Patrol seemed to be getting back to basics prior to the New 52 reboot.  Sadly, they seem to be another casualty.  Robotman has appeared in a somewhat altered form, but I don't know how long it will be before we see the proper Doom Patrol in action again.  The Fantastic Four are about to  get a new series, along with the rest of the Marvel Universe with the Marvel Now titles just on the horizon.  I am not sure what the new creative team has in store, but the title looks to be focusing on family and adventure, so that's a good start!

The Green Lantern Corps and Captain Marvel

Just when I was getting into the new Green Lantern CGI series, with it's cool action sequences featuring various members of the GLC, The Cartoon Network has yanked it from the schedule - along with Young Justice and the DC Nation shorts.  I think it really hurts the momentum of a series when it is constantly shifting air times.  Hopefully when the DC block of shows returns in 2013 they will have a bunch of episodes stored up and can be given a nice long uninterrupted run.

Boba Fett Vs. Godzilla

I have to say, I don't know who I would root for in this match up.  They were both introduced as antagonists, but are so cool that you can't help kind of rooting for them anyway as an audience member.  Whoever ends up standing at the end, it would be a fun battle to watch!

Wonder Woman and Captain America in "The Break-Up!"

Superhero marriages almost never end happily.  If one spouse or the other isn't killed off, they are usually torn apart anyway to increase the dramatic tension.  Heck sometimes the entire union is dissolved through a reboot or a deal with the devil!  Even Reed and Sue Richards, with their long marriage, have had many a bump in the road.  No wonder there's the stereotype of the single male comic reader... the stories have frightened us as to what happens after the wedding!

Dick Tracy Vs. Superman (Plus Tintin)

I'm not sure what the rights situation is, but I think the time is right for another crack at a live-action Dick Tracy.  I still think a series would be the way to go, that way the producers could take their time with Tracy's great rogues gallery rather than have to choose only a couple (or cram them all into one film like the last attempt).  If another Tracy movie happens, maybe they could go the motion capture route, like Tintin.  That would give it a look distinctive from the Beatty film and the classic Chester Gould designs could be presented accurately.  Hopefully it will not be too long before we hear an announcement on the property.

Starman (Prince Gavyn) and The Silver Surfer

DC has had many versions of the character Starman, but as far as I have heard they have yet to introduce a Starman into the New 52 reboot. The closest we have gotten is Stargirl, who is scheduled to be a member of the new Justice League of America. With James Robinson writing Earth-2, that title is probably the most likely place a new Starman will appear.  Still, I hope that DC revives the Prince Gavyn version of Starman.  I  have always liked him and would be very interested in seeing his continuing adventures.

The Atom and The Wasp

Marvel's Ant-Man finally has a release date and hopefully Edgar Wright also has plans for Janet Van Dyne in the film.  Ant-Man and the Wasp were founding members of The Avengers and they both really deserve to be in the sequel.  DC's Justice League finally got a tentative release date was well this past week.  While I would love to see The Atom show up, I don't think that's going to happen, at least in the first installment of the franchise.  The Atom may very well show up in a sequel, but DC may opt to skip over Ray Palmer and go with the Ryan Choi version for the sake of diversity, just as they have done in the New 52.  Whichever Atom they choose, let's hope we see Atom's little floating chair that he used for JLA meetings - I ued to love that!

Manhunter and Iron Fist

I like the idea of these two sharing an adventure together.  They both have has their fair share of secret societies, martial arts and distant lands and it is not hard to envision a mission that would involve them both.  One thing is for sure - it wouldn't be short on action!

Green Arrow and Hawkeye (Vs. The Hulk & Solomon Grundy)

I caught the Premier of the new Arrow series, and the verdict is still up in the air for me.  The action scenes were done well and the actor playing Oliver Queen is good, but I wasn't crazy about Green Arrow killing so many people and there were a lot of pretty cliched moments.  A mysterious Arrow guy shows up exactly at the same time that Queen miraculously reappears and nobody seems to make the connection especially when all he uses is a smear of paint for a mask.  I don't know why they can't explain away a cool looking mask by saying it has special lenses that help with his eyesight - perfect for an archer character.  The same goes with Hawkeye in The Avengers... let's give him a proper cowl again!

Space Ghost and Space: 1999

My earliest memory of Space: 1999 is a coloring book I had as a kid.  The idea of The Moon being knocked out of orbit and hurtling through space is a crazy one, but just the kind of big concept that a budding comic reader like me loved back in the 70's.  I am a fan of Martin Landau's work in films like Ed Wood and Crimes and Misdemeanors and I recently checked out the original pilot for Space: 1999 on YouTube.  It was a kick seeing the "futuristic" world of 1999 with Landau in his prime.

Firestorm and Iceman

This is a pairing I would have loved to see as a kid. Iceman was a favorite of mine from his appearances on Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, and Firestorm was one of the first DC characters that I was able to follow from his first appearance.  They were both the youngest members of their respective teams, which would give them some common ground.  I can see Killer Frost manipulating Iceman into turning against Firestorm, kicking off 44 pages of action... or a 22 minute cartoon at 10AM on Saturday... yeah, that would have been a good time.

Superman and Doctor Strange

It appears that Superman will be getting yet another costume change with the upcoming Scott Snyder/Jim Lee ongoing series.  I'm not sure if this will be a permanent thing, but I hope so as the high collar just wasn't working for me.  I also wouldn't be at all surprised to find that DC is attempting to get Superman looking closer to his big screen counterpart, due to hit theaters next summer, much in the same way that Marvel's characters are all starting to look like their corresponding movie versions.

Power Girl and Daredevil

This is another case where I got lucky and found a couple of images that looked like they were made for each other.  I had to do some tweaking to the building ledge and the background, but the figures worked perfectly.   I really love the clean styles of Scott Kolins and Amanda Conner and they blend together well.

Green Lantern Vs. Wolverine

I am surprised at how much I am enjoying the current CGI Green Lantern Series.  I guess between the movie version and my initial take on the character designs, my expectations were lowered before I checked it out.  The designs I was worried about look great in motion and the action scenes are a lot of fun.  The last episode had a battle with none other than Anti-Monitor and my personal favorite GL - Chaselon - so I was in heaven!

I also checked out the anime Wolverine series on G4, but just couldn't get into it. Milo Ventimiglia just seemed off for the voice of Logan and the animation didn't really wow me.  My favorite animated Wolverine can still be found in the Hulk Vs. Wolverine short released a few years back.

Hawkman and The Sub-Mariner

Hawkman is an impressive looking character in the comics, but is quite tough to pull of in live action.  No matter how well built the performer may be, their arms and chest still tend to appear scrawny when wearing the large helmet and wings.  I am sure some costume designer will crack that issue one of these days, but so far I have yet to see a convincing live-action Hawkman.  Namor also needs someone with a perfect physique to play him as well - you have to appear imposing while wearing just a speedo and ankle wings, and that's no small feat.  It will be interesting to see which of these bare-chested badasses shows up on the big screen first.

Spider-Man and Star-Trek

I was laughing recently when I watched an episode of the original Star Trek.  The Enterprise flew through some kind of space cloud that caused the crew to rapidly grow old.  Now that we have actually seen what the members of the bridge look like in their 60s and 70's for comparison, the make-up used for the "old" versions of the cast seemed very forgiving to me.  Sure, they had a few wrinkles here and a few wisps of grey hair there, but they didn't quite match up with their real life counterparts.  At any rate, it wasn't enough to sully my enjoyment of the episode, the original crew is always fun to watch together.

Legion of Super-Heroes and The Rocketeer

The Legion of Super-Heroes is a great team but can be a challenge for it's writers due to the sprawling cast.  One technique that DC has used a few times is to separate the team by time and space into different groups for long stretches.  I get a kick out of those tales because it's cool to see the Legionnaires outside of their futuristic setting and reacting to contemporary characters.  It might be interesting to see the LSH in a wartime setting, and seeing who they run into as they try not to alter history.

Justice League of America and The Squadron Supreme

George Perez' run on Justice League of America was way too short.  It was the best the book had ever looked and after only a few issues, he left to concentrate on New Teen Titans.  While that obviously turned out to be a wise move on his part, I always hoped he would return to the JLA one day.  Prez is still at the top of his game, so perhaps it will still happen sometime down the line.  I've seen his rendition of The Squadron Supreme in The Avengers and he is great on those JLA-inspired heroes as well.  How cool would it be to see Perez illustrate a JLA/Squadron team up?

Black Canary and The Beast

The Beast is one Marvel character that I am surprised has never been given a shot at his own ongoing series. He is super agile, has a brilliant mind and has ties to the Avengers, Defenders and The X-Men (OK, that last thing isn't so rare anymore, with Marvel mixing and matching most of it's teams recently).  I think there are a world of story opportunities with Hank McCoy and he could definitely support his own title.  Black Canary has had her own title, but I do feel she works better when interacting with other heroes, like Green Arrow, The Birds of Prey, or the Justice League.  These characters are both victims of unflattering redesigns  - Hank still looks like a kitty cat and Dinah has one of the ugliest costumes in the New 52 - so I hope they both return to something closer to their classic looks from the 80's.

Man-Bat Vs. Morbius

I wouldn't be surprised to see Morbius appear in the sequel to The Amazing Spider-Man.  The first film seemed to be trying to capture some of the Twilight crowd, so why not go all the way and include Spidey's vampire rogue?  Still, I would prefer to see Man-Bat in a future Batman flick.  Using Batman's more outlandish and powerful foes would set the movie apart from both previous franchises and Man-Bat has the coolest visual of the bunch.  He might not be able to hold a whole film, but teaming him with Hugo Strange and Killer Croc for a "Monster Men" type plot (where Batman convinces Langstrom to switch sides at the end) could be very cool.

Robo Force (Versus Ultron)

I wanted to give myself a challenge and see if I could create a second cover featuring one of my new teams, and here is the result.  These heroes are of course searching for the reason behind humanity's disappearance, and that would naturally lead to a prime suspect in Ultron.  Here's hoping we will see Hank Pym's unruly problem child facing off against the Avengers on the silver screen sometime down the line...

The Fantastic Four and Tom Strong

There aren't a lot of heroes that would be a true intellectual match for Reed Richards, but I think Tom Strong could give him a run for his money.  I have always thought that it would be a challenge to write for super-genius type characters, but writers like Stan Lee and Alan Moore did a great job at it.  Lee and Kirby provided Reed with an unending supply of futuristic inventions and Alan Moore layered one amazing concept onto another for Tom Strong's adventures.  I guess that it's no surprise that such brilliant creators were able to write so well for high-IQ characters.