Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Hawkman and Condorman



Young comic fans don't know how good they have it these days.  Long before the age of Marvel Movies, or even Tim Burton's Batman, superhero movies were few and far between.  Condorman came out right at the advent of VHS recorders, and I remember it being one of our first rentals - I must have watched it 5 times over the course of a weekend.  Watching Michael Crawford with his flying suit and array of trick vehicles and gadgets was a blast, and made me long for more comic book heroes on the big screen.

19 comments:

AirDave said...

Wow! How could I totally miss a cool movie like Condorman? I looked it up on Wikipedia - it reads pretty awesome!

Cavillier1970 said...

LOL I love this one- it was /is one of my favorite non-animated Disney movies. I think it was Golden Key that put out a 3 book run on Condorman. Pts 1 & 3 were a retelling of the movie, Pt 3 was an original story were a Soviet agent known as the Minx was assigned to bring back /capture the Bear/Natilia, and they created a number of new Codorgear; a bug like crawler tested on Mt. Rushmore, a vibro-fist shatterer, and a Condor jetfighter. Wish this had been a sequel

-> Ray said...

I saw Condorman at the theater as a kid, and I loved it. The 3-issue comic book series was great fun, too.

The Irredeemable Shag said...

I saw Condorman in the theaters too!! And it’s always stuck with me! :) So happy to see this!

TJW said...

Ross, have you ever considered doing a Justice League or Avengers style group composed of non comic book movie superheroes such as Condorman, Hancock, G-Girl from My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Darkman, Meteor Man, etc?

Ross said...

It would have to be a Photo cover and those are tough with just 2 characters.

BigMike20X6 said...

Heh. I was just thinking about Condorman after seeing the Incredibles and wanted to suggest a photo cover of him and the Hulk (Ferrigno, of course)

Anonymous said...

This was never shown on television cuz i grew up in the '70s/'80s and have no recollection of it. But my favorite live action Disney characters that were close to being superheroes were the siblings from Witch Mountain. I loved Escape from Witch Mountain and Return To Witch Mountain. Both were televised on ABC I believe (The Wonderful World of Disney?) I imagined I was thier third sibling who also had witch powers.

Carycomic said...

It was one of my first rentals, too. Like the original TRON, this Disney flick was ten to twenty years ahead of its time. And, like the 1960's Bat-series, it was both a spoof of and a tribute to an (all too-often) unjustly maligned literary genre.

So, thank you for posting this, Ross; and, in the immortal words of Super Goofy: "YA-HOO-HOOEY!"

Bob Buethe said...

I've never seen Condorman, but I've heard about it. The hero was a comic book artist, and "his" artwork in the film was actually drawn by Mike Sekowsky.

Count Petofi said...

Saw it on VHS did you? Hah! You're just a youngster. I saw it at the theater. I suppose you'll be doing Infra-Man next!

Anonymous said...

Did My Hero ever make it out to the US? It was a very funny British sitcom about a decade ago, starring the alien hero, Thermoman, who really did not understand social mores on Earth

jackel said...

...to Anonymous above...yes My Hero ran on PBS and was very funny...
...Ross perhaps you should revisit todays cover but an all Mike Sekowsky version....it would be neat to see...

Bob Greenwade said...

I'd never heard of this movie, and now I'm interested. I looked to see if it was possible for my local public library to obtain it, and so far I don't see how, but I'll keep trying.

On a related topic, I checked to see what other bird-wing-wearing heroes Hawkman has encountered before, and saw Falcon, Birdman, Darkhawk, and Angel. There are probably a few others who could be brought together to form: The Wingmen!

The Answer Man said...

Do you remember the episode of Fantasy Island where Bob Denver wishes to become the superhero Eagle Man in order to impress his son?

Anonymous said...

And Michael Keaton's "Birdman" is like an amalgam of Condorman and Batman '66!

jackel said...

....in fact Michael Keaton could be a whole "Wingmen" group by himself...
...as Batman
....and Birdman
...and as The Vulture....

Anonymous said...

@Jack-El: good point! :-)

Unknown said...

Had this on my Beta VCR machine

Support STF: The Lost Issues!