Thursday, September 8, 2016

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE

In my continuing quest to see if I can get someone to make even one comment on this blog, I'm introducing a game devoted to tracing (1) actors from films and TV with metaphenomenal content to (2) actors in films and TV that include superhero-like figures.

Here's some stuff I printed on a forum outlining the game:

The idea here is to assert that one can connect any American actor (with a fair number of credits, obviously), even if he/she has never been in anything remotely like a superhero film or TV show, to a costar who has been in same.
I won't get into a long definition of the very malleable term "superhero" except to say that *I* think it can include not only costumed characters but also (1) superspies like James Bond and Man from Uncle, (2) animal-skinned jungle heroes like Tarzan and Sheena, (3) space-opera heroes like Flash Gordon, Luke Skywalker, and Captain Kirk, (4) post-apocalyptic heroes (Mad Max), (5) supervillains a la Fu Manchu, (6) "fantasy-adventurers", i.e., ordinary guys who encounter lots of weird menaces, a la Dick Tracy, Indiana Jones and (sometimes) Sherlock Holmes, and (7) spoofs of all the above. 

Later, I modified the game to be just about actors with metaphenomenal credits (and not just Americans):

A new wrinkle to this game struck me: instead of being able to draw matches between actors from any type of film or TV show, the player would be limited to drawing only from what I choose to call "metaphenomenal" film and TV-- a term which takes in a lot of stuff that isn't exactly "horror, fantasy, or science fiction"-- say, HAMLET and FAUST.
Thus, if you decide from the start that nothing in Kate Hepburn's oeuvre conforms to the metaphenomenal tag, then she couldn't be matched to anyone. I've never seen her 1971 TROJAN WOMEN, which might *barely* squeak in, depending on what the film has Cassandra do, or not do-- but that seems to be the only likely exception.
If nothing else, it narrows the player's choices, and helps you remember important things, like which HELLRAISER film Craig Sheffer appeared in.

Actors-- whose names I'll take alphabetically, from one of my reference-books-- will either be PRIMARIES, meaning that they're in a "quasi-superhero" work of some sort, or PERIPHERALS, meaning that they connect to someone somewhere in a superhero work. I'll probably also highlight any work that I've reviewed.


First up, going alphabetically:




ANGELA AAMES (in foreground), from THE LOST EMPIRE (1984), is a PRIMARY.



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