As SPIDER-MAN swings off, a look back at superhero musicals.

Whoops! Link fixed.

Don't forget that Ethel Merman guest stared on Batman!

Dan what super hero would you like to see on Broadway next?

Third times the charm...

SidebySide, I had forgotten about the Merm on Batman.

And I would actually really love to see an earnest, heightened take on Batman. I think going back to the 1930s and going down a noir detective route could be really effective. You've got some very innate theatricality with the Joker, and there's a lot of room for Follies-esque "ghost" staging with young Bruce Wayne. At the same time, it would break my heart to see that character done dead wrong more than any other...

After Eight, I personally wouldn't count Tarzan, though the character does share a lot of pulp DNA with comic book superheroes. And yes, that show was truly dismal! I can't remember the last time I gave it a thought. Awful.

As for comics...well, it's a big topic to essentialize. But there are two wonderful books by Scott McCloud on the specific advantages to graphic storytelling: Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics. I think that it's always easy for us to dismiss an art form as trash if we haven't spent a lot of time with it, and aren't really familiar with what it's really doing. I'm guilty of that with video games, I'm sure. It's why rock and roll sounded like noise to boomers' parents, etc. Comic books are able to manipulate their storytelling in infinitely variable ways. The side-by-side juxtaposition of images can provoke specific associations and emotions in a way that is truly unique. Chronology can be controlled and played with, etc., etc. Of course, if we're talking strictly about superheroes, that's a unique barrel of monkeys. A lot of people would argue that they are the closest thing America has to mythology. While I think that's a little hyperbolic, there's an argument to be made...

Thanks for reading!