Superhero film as action, horror, fantasy, comedy etc. Almost immediately after superheroes rose to prominence in comic books, they were adapted into Saturday film serials aimed at children, starting with "Mandrake The Magician" (1939). Serials such as "Adventures of Captain Marvel" (1941), "Batman" (1943), "The Phantom" (1943), "Captain America" (1944), and "Superman" (1948) followed. In the following decades, the decline of Saturday serials and turmoil in the comic book industry put an end to superhero motion pictures, with the exception of "Superman and the Mole Men", starring George Reeves, which was a trial balloon for the television series "Adventures of Superman", compilations
The Ultimates (comic book) The Ultimates (comic book) The Ultimates is a thirteen-issue comic book limited series written by Mark Millar with art by Bryan Hitch. The series introduces the superhero team the Ultimates and was published by the Ultimate Marvel imprint of Marvel Comics. "The Ultimates" debuted in February 2002 (cover date March 2002), and ran for thirteen issues. Bryan Hitch describes his Ultimates work as "widescreen, cinematic compositions" and has expressed his interest of translating his work for movies. This miniseries was affected by delays and the artist admits to having to work hard to recover from reputation as a slow artist