Thank goodness.  Don Blake has always been horrible. 

I was very disappointed when J.M. Straczynski not only brought Blake back as Thor's alter ego, but also found a way to give him a new lame leg. As the song says, "forget about the future, let's get on with the past".

9. Supergirl



It's not that this show is entertaining, it certainly is that. It's not just that it's fun, because it's that too. And it's not like it's a helluva superhero/sci fi action series, because yup, that too... but that it manages that juggling act so damn well. And makes it look so freaking effortless. Of all of DC Comics recent forays into live action tv series of late, this was the one I expected to like least, but it just charmed the hell out of me straight out of the gate.
It's light-hearted and fun, but there's enough substance there from the cast and script to stop it just being all froth. There are some genuine dramatic moments and story arcs, but it refuses to wallow in drama for its own sake. The show walks a tightrope. Too far one way and it's a soapy morass, too far the other and it's trying to combine a sort of turgid joylessness with people in bright coloured tights and superpowers... and the thing about this series is it walks that tightrope like there's no chance it could possibly misstep.

I've tried to watch this movie 5 times. I've never seen the end. I've fallen asleep less than an hour into it every time, including in the theatre when I paid to see it the first time. I could be hyped up on a caffeine overdose (and I was the first time having gone to see it at the theatre during an Origins convention in Columbus after consuming vast quantities of caffeine all day with a bunch of rowdy gamer friends who then gave me all kinds of hell for falling asleep) and I still nod off after about a half hour of this movie. I gave up on trying to watch it after the last time. The thing is, I am a big Singer fan too, but this, this is just about the least compelling thing he has ever done in my estimation. Kudos to those of you who made it through and liked it, but I'm not inclined to give this one another try.

-M

The actress was 23 at the time.

But perhaps she was playing a 36-year old.

#9: Marvel Super-Heroes (Grantray-Lawrence Animation, 1966)
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Perhaps one reason I adore this is because I almost never got to see it when it was running. In Memphis, it aired on a daily cartoon show ("The Happy Hal Show") twice daily, but the Marvel Super-Heroes segments always seemed to air after I left for school or before I got home. I saw plenty of commercials, and occasionally caught an episode, and at my age (6 or 7), the "animation"--as I suppose most of us are aware, the cartoons used actual published Marvel Comics for both the stories and the artwork, barely animated via zooms, pans, and occasional moving parts--looked fine to me. 
These were my first exposures to these Marvel Superheroes, never having paid attention to the comic book rack (I probably wasn't allowed to even wander off over there during trips to the store, I suppose).
Remembering my response to these cartoons helps me to remember the specific triggers that excited me about superheroes, triggers that were forgotten as I saw more and more of the genre.
I watched Captain America to see when he "throws his mighty shield". That one bit made the entire cartoon worthwhile for me. That was part of Kirby's genius, coming up with dynamic gimmicks that a reader--or in this case, viewer--could *feel* himself doing, imagining just how satisfying it would feel to sling that thing, knock out the bad guys, and have it swoosh back into your hands!
What I loved most in Thor was seeing him transform. Again, I could imagine and *feel* striking that cane against the ground, with a burst of thunder transforming me into a powerful hero!
The Hulk really fascinated me. Again, the transformations were intriguing, especially in the adaptations of the Ditko issues, when Bruce would intentionally turn into the Hulk with a gamma ray projector. But I liked the off-beat weirdness, this surly monster hero who meant well but was constantly hounded.
Iron Man turned me off a little, because as a tyke, I didn't like mustaches, but I did like the concept of the armor, and flying on jets was cool.
I was always disappointed when a rare chance to see an episode turned out to be a "Sub-Mariner day". I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to watch this jerk swimming around in ordinary swim trunks. This colored my opinion years later, when I began to read the comics themselves, and it took a while before I really became attached to Namor. Now he's one of my favorites at Marvel, but I'm still not especially fond of the Gene Colan-drawn stories that these were adapted from.
Today, I find these episodes to still have a very strong appeal. When I chance across one on youtube, I end up watching several. They covered a lot of classic Marvel territory, and would have gotten many a viewer caught up and prepared to jump into the comics. That move was still 5 or 6 years away for me, but these helped plant that seed.