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Why Batman is really a turkey

Clare Garner
Tuesday 23 February 1999 01:02 GMT
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FANS OF comic books have branded Batman and Robin, starring George Clooney and Uma Thurman, the worst film ever made involving comic characters.

Kev Sutherland, who is organising Comics 99, the UK's comic festival, asked 200 members of the Comic Creators Guild, and readers of magazine produced by the companies Comics International and SFX magazines, to name their top 10 worst comic movies.

The "absolute stinkers" will feature in an all-night film show called: "Comic Book Turkeys" at the festival in Bristol between 2 and 4 April. "A fundamental problem with many comic strip characters is that they look good on the page but when you try and dress people up in those clothes they can look frankly ludicrous," said Mr Sutherland.

The second worst film was Howard the Duck, directed by George Lucas, who also made Star Wars and "should have known what he was doing," said Mr Sutherland. "Unfortunately the film technology wasn't as advanced enough to make a convincing duck."

Among the other films singled out for criticism were The Fat Slags based on characters from Viz magazine. "The comic, Viz, is fast-moving and original," said Mr Sutherland. "The fat slags were animated in clay and failed to bring life even to that medium."

Judge Dredd was deemed so bad that the editor of the original comic, 2000 AD, is to give delegates at Comics 99 a frame-by-frame talk on its faults. "He will be explaining the hundreds, possibly thousands, of faults," said Mr Sutherland.

The full list is: 1 Batman and Robin (1997); 2 Howard the Duck (1985); 3 Spawn (1997); 4 Judge Dredd (starring Sly Stallone, 1995); 5 Superman IV (starring Christopher Reeve, 1985); 6 Dick Tracy (1991); 7 Prince Valiant (starring Joanna Lumley, (1998); 8 The Fat Slags (1993); 9 The Punisher (starring Dolph Lundgren, 1994); 10 The Fantastic 4 1993).

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