Who says fifty isn't fabulous? Certainly not Captain America who is celebrating five decades as comicdom's undaunted defender of democracy with a dazzling movie debut. Coming to theatres nationwide in 1990 is a major motion picture from 21st Century Film Corporation starring Matt Salinger as Captain America, a.k.a. Steve Rogers, and Scott Paulin as archfiend The Red Skull.
Filling out the stellar cast are familiar favorites like Ned Beatty, Darren McGavin, Ronny Cox, and Michael directed by Albert Pyun. Our own Stan Lee and Joseph Calamari are executive producers.
Of course, movie stardom seems no more than the next logical step for a Super Hero who has long enjoyed a position of prominence in our stable of properties. The star of his own top-selling monthly comic book, Cap often makes frequent guest appearances in other Marvel titles and special editions.
Not surprisingly his winning ways have been exploited by national organizations which have relied upon to deliver important messages. Among Cap's proudest achievements are his efforts as March of Dimes 1989/1990 celebrity ambassador and his association with FBI Director William Sessions to combat crime.
Captain America also appears annually in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and makes hundreds of personal visits to shopping malls, state fairs and other special events.
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Editor's note: This Captain America movie was supposed to be major motion picture release, but went straight to video. It wasn't a very good movie. Marvel Comics worked hard at bringing their superheroes to the big screen, but more often than not they did not have sufficient resources to succeed.
It is a very tricky endeavor to take a superhero from the pages of a comic book to the world of live action. Throughout the years Marvel has employed industry leading artists who have filled their comic books with tightly drawn action sequences that look pretty darn cool in pen & ink, but....having a real live actor run around in colorful tights, well, it's tricky --- very tricky.
One way to pull that off successfully is to go "over the top". DC Comic's Batman enjoyed a briefly successful tv series in the 60s by purposely being campy and stylistic. One could easily overlook the fact that Adam West didn't exactly have abs of steel because it was all tongue-in-cheek anyway.
It remains tricky to this day , but advancements in special effects continue to improve the transition from pen to live action. The recent success of the Spiderman & X-Men movies is proof of that.
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