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Rank the Superhero serials!

A beaker full of death

A beaker full of death

Vice Admiral
Admiral
Superman (Kirk Alyn)
Batman (1943)
Batman and Robin (1949) (Thanks Broccoli!)
Captain America
Captain Marvel
Blackhawk
Zorro (multiple serials)
Lone Ranger (multiple serials)
Masked Marvel
The Phantom
Green Hornet (multiple serials)
The Shadow
Captain Midnight

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The 1949 Batman serial was actually titled Batman and Robin. And don't forget the second Superman serial, Atom Man vs. Superman, which featured the first non-comic appearance of Lex Luthor!
 
Batman (1943)
Batman & Robin (1949)

Daka's a better villain than The Wizard, Batman had more of an edge in the earlier serial, and it has the added bonus of being WW2 propaganda.

I saw a very small part of the Superman serial, on a TV in a comic book store, but not enough to judge it. I really do need to see more serials at some point. I could rent them through Netflix.
 
I admit I haven't seen most of these. I loved looking at those old posters and stills, though. The guy playing Captain Marvel certainly looks the part!
 
Lord Garth said:
I saw a very small part of the Superman serial, on a TV in a comic book store, but not enough to judge it.
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I love it. It sounds absurd that they replace him with animation when he flies, but it's so fluid that it really works!
And Noel Neill was surprisingly hot back then.


Lord Garth said:
I really do need to see more serials at some point. I could rent them through Netflix.
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Hulu sometimes has serials available. I recently watched some truly ancient Sherlock Holmes episodes on it.
 
I loved the two Superman serials, but I think "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" was superior in both story and special effects (on the low budget they had).

Just curious, why aren't the Flash Gordon serials included? I have all of those plus the serials I mentioned in the first paragraph.
 
The Adventures of Captain Marvel
Zorro's Fighting Legion
Batman & Robin
The Phantom
Superman
Batman
Captain America

Not that anyone cares, but Tom Tyler an awesome western star of the 30's and 40's played Captain Marvel. For those of you have seen Stagecoach he is Luke Plummer, the guy that John Wayne is going after.

And Captain America is barely even related to the comic book character. The good captain uses a gun as his weapon and is not even Steve Rogers, but a Lawyer!

Batman And Robin was the very first serial I ever saw as child of 3 years old and I loved it to death. In my opinion Robert Lowery was a much tougher Batman than Lewis Wilson.

And for serial lovers did you know that John Wayne made 3 serials?
 
Lt. Brannigan said:
And Captain America is barely even related to the comic book character. The good captain uses a gun as his weapon and is not even Steve Rogers, but a Lawyer!
?
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Several years back, Marvel actually provided a funny explanation for the serial's inaccuracies. According to the comic book, Cap agreed to let the serial be made, because it would be good for the war effort, but, of course, they couldn't reveal his real secret identity and origin, so the serial had to make something up.

So, you see, they screwed up his origin on purpose--just to protect his identity!

On other fronts, Tom (Captain Marvel) Tyler also played the Mummy in THE MUMMY'S HAND. How's that for versatile?
 
Greg Cox said:
Several years back, Marvel actually provided a funny explanation for the serial's inaccuracies. According to the comic book, Cap agreed to let the serial be made, because it would be good for the war effort, but, of course, they couldn't reveal his real secret identity and origin, so the serial had to make something up.

So, you see, they screwed up his origin on purpose--just to protect his identity!
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That is something I never knew till today, and it all makes sense now. How silly of me to think that all superheroes want their secret identity revealed on celluloid.

On other fronts, Tom (Captain Marvel) Tyler also played the Mummy in THE MUMMY'S HAND. How's that for versatile?
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It's quite interesting where Mr. Tyler pops up at from time to time. He was also in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and Red River.
 
A beaker full of death said:
Unsurprisingly low response rate. It's sad that so few people see these.
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I have the DVD's of

Both Batman
Both Superman

^My favorites off this list.

Captain Marvel
The Shadow.

I've enjoyed these (among others) for some 22 years.

I haven't seen The Phantom, Captain America, or The Masked Marvel (didn't even know about that one, and I thought I had all those old tapes), But plan to.

There's another superhero serial not on your list. The Mysterious Dr. Satan. That's the villian's name. The hero is the Copperhead. Legend has it that this one began life as a third Superman serial, but some legal stuff got in the way, so Republic changed the names of the hero and the villain. The girl is still called Lois, but with a different last name.
 
Greg Cox said:
Lt. Brannigan said:
On other fronts, Tom (Captain Marvel) Tyler also played the Mummy in THE MUMMY'S HAND. How's that for versatile?
Click to expand...
It's quite interesting where Mr. Tyler pops up at from time to time. He was also in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon and Red River.
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According to IMDB, he was also the Phantom!
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Not that much confirmation is needed, but he is indeed The Phantom... whose alias is Geoffrey Prescott. You know, I always thought that Kit Walker (or at least a Walker) was the Phantom till I started doing looking up why in the world the serial used a different guy.

Pretty much anything with Tom Tyler is worth watching because Tom Tyler is awesome.
 
A beaker full of death said:
Right, a D.A., as I recall. But, to its credit, it did put him on a motorcycle!
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Yeah... but Captain America using a gun is like The Punisher using a Rubber Chicken to beat up bad guys.

]Yeah, they actually started him out as a singing cowboy!
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Actually he they didn't attempt to make him a singing cowboy until 3 years into his career with "Riders of Destiny"
 
My favorites are "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" and "Zorro's Fighting Legion". Its the best of the Zorro serials by far. Very influential to the later Zorro movies and tv shows, and to Indiana Jones as well.

While not the best that the serials produced I am a big fan of the Superman serials two. Great casting of the characters and just fun to watch.

Good topic. It reminds me I need to track down more of these two see. Ever been to http://www.serialsquadron.com/ ? Its worth a look for anyone who is a fan. Its a great way to find these things on DVD.
 
Perhaps. But should be worth noting that the serial was most likely going to feature a different character and they shoehorned Captain America in at the last minute.

And as for Bucky... he used to irritate the rip out of me.
 
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