Superman Analogue: Meteor Man (Jefferson Reed)
18Bear with me at the opening, I swear this is a video about the early 90's superhero comedy, Meteor Man.
Music: “The Smell of Success”
by Shane Ivers – https://www.silvermansound.com/
Original Thread: https://x.com/CaseAiken/status/1127801387717419008?s=19
Original Text: Today is (was?) Mother's Day so I wanted to discuss a rather rambling connection between that and my #SupermanAnalogue posts. Frank Gorshin was in "Where the Boys Are" which my mom insisted we watch for a family movie night because of her fond memories of it from her youth.
This movie is a trip. Its tone bounces around and just meanders into a rape story off a sequence of poppy musical numbers. I can't say that I recommend it, but Frank Gorshin was pretty funny in it.
Frank Gorshin who some remember from "that" Star Trek episode with the aliens with the bisected color scheme and the whole "racism is bad" heavily handed to the audience.
(Not criticizing the episode, just noting it wasn't subtle)
More people know him from his role as the Riddler in the 60s Batman show.
But he also appeared in a superhero from the 90s: The Meteor Man! (and, yeah, I had to look this all up. I haven't seen the movie in 20 years)
The Meteor Man tells the tale of Jefferson Reed who was struck by a meteor and gains basically Superman's powers plus the ability to absorb knowledge from a book by touching it (always wished I had that) and telekinesis (which is always sweet).
It's interesting to note how similar this is to Ultiman from Big Bang Comics. Like Ultiman, Reed's powers fade over time and requires recharges from the original meteor.
As Meteor Man, he goes on a quest to clean up a crime ridden Washington DC (which as a Washingtonian I really felt as a child, even in my own naive way).
Robert Townsend, who wrote, directed, and starred in the film had a great interview reflecting on its creation (https://shondaland.com/live/a22641376/looking-back-at-the-meteor-man-with-robert-townsend/). It was an early black super hero film and an admirable goal.
Clearly, fans have been inspired by it and continue to invoke it.
It also had a plethora of up and coming actors, like Don't Cheadle and Eddie Griffin
Not to mention some famous established ones, like James Earl Jones... And others...
The movie had a tie comic published by Marvel (pretty common at the time)
My recollection of the film was that it was campy fun. The costume was an interesting color scheme, primarily gray, accented by green. The padded look was fine here, but it did feel goofy. Y'all superhero costumes are hard to make look good on screen so I don't judge often!
Frankly, the thing I remember the most is the book reading super power. It's probably one of the abilities that I've wanted most in my life.
Master Thread:
https://twitter.com/CaseAiken/status/1346189702580342785
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