Super Heroes on screen (or attempts at)

Both DC Comics and Marvel would have you think that big-budget, blockbuster films like Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, Green Lantern and The Avengers are their only attempts to bring popular comic book characters into the live-action arena. They would like everyone to forget the sometimes absurd, ridiculous and often ugly reality: that there were numerous early - and failed - attempts to bring super heroes to both the big and small screens.

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Lots of stories from the "numerous" link above.  Like this one from Patton Oswald on Blade: Trinity.  (And I always liked that movie..)  And minutes later, it's not there..

More..  The evolution of Nicolas Cage's hair

OK, that's enough.

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How did I get all this?  Well, I was looking at this review of the Birds of Prey DVD set (bought on eBay) which I got in the mail yesterday.

Here's a quickie technical review.  The menu fills the wide-screen but the TV shows are in non-anamorphic wide-screen (so it doesn't fill my HD TV screen).  And even putting my Panasonic plasma in wide-screen mode doesn't do it either.  I think it might be the Sony Blu-Ray player is upscaling the signal and the TV doesn't zoom properly the hi-def signal (even though I'm connecting the player with composite cables and not HDMI).  I think if I connect my DVD-recorder to the TV, it might zoom properly.

One plus that I like is that there are subtitles.  Also included (somewhat oddly) as a bonus feature is the Gotham Girls animated series (maybe they figured it would help sell the set).  This one is full screen without subtitles.  And the last bonus is the unaired pilot which is similar to the official pilot but with a different actress playing the Huntress.  This one doesn't support subtitles but oddly IS anamorphic wide-screen.