Summer Movies (That I Might Actually See)

Yesterday (or maybe it was Saturday--I don't remember), I fell asleep on the couch and woke up to one of those inane early evening Hollywood gossip shows. Just as I was about to turn the channel, however, there was a video montage featuring, among other interesting characters, the God of Thunder.

Yep, it's summer movie time, and with that first Saturday in May right around the corner now, comic book fans know what's about to happen.

For a few weeks at least, people from all walks of life will flock to movie theaters to watch the likes of Thor, Captain America, the X-Men, and Green Lantern up on the big screen.

And, while it still might not be "cool" to actually stop into a comics shop and buy books featuring those characters, it is definitely cool to drop cash on the comic book movie experience.

Even though, to me at least, that experience features such Wonderful as a crowded theater filled with too-loud people, and, somehow, a crying baby sitting next to me. Most times with parents blissfully ambivalent to their child's screaming.

But $8.00 popcorn and wailing children aside, I do think it's pretty awesome that people still dig the comic book movie.

Despite Hollywood's best attempts to ruin that particular genre, it seems that most people are willing to forgive (or ignore, completely) films like The Spirit, The Green Hornet, Daredevil, and any non-Thomas Jane Punisher flick.

We want to be entertained, and on a hot summer day, sometimes there's just nothing more entertaining than watching Superman punch something. Which, if you're wondering, is why Zack Snyder will be directing the relaunch of that series. But that's still a ways off.

This year's crop of comic movies is a good one, and with each flick comes high, big-money expectations.

Thor leads things off, opening on May 6, and as such, becomes the big Free Comic Book Day movie event for 2011. Free Comic Book Day, which is Saturday, May 7, this year, always coincides with a big movie release, usually by Marvel.

I think it's a safe bet that a great many geeks have a similar tradition on that day--pick up your books at either one or a variety of local shops, then head out to the theater.

And, for one day a year at least, we're not the only ones talking about Captain America and Hal Jordan. And that's pretty cool.