Fresh Homemade 3D--Straight from Your Own Computer

If you've been following the news that has been circulating through the home video market, 3D television has finally arrived for the general consumer. Following hot on the heels of James Cameron's blockbuster 3D film Avatar last December, video equipment companies such as Panasonic, Samsung and Sony have been slowly releasing 3D-ready blu-ray players and flat screen TVs, with the promise of compatible 3D video content (both in broadcast and on disc) arriving in the near future. I've seen an in-store display of a Samsung blu-ray player/flat screen bundle which was playing the 3D blu-ray version of Monsters vs. Aliens. I was very impressed with what I saw--the images were crisp and smoothly achived the illusion of depth, while the shutter glasses fit well over my own glasses.

Unfortunately, there are two big problems facing the release of this particular wave of home 3D products: high prices (this stuff ain't cheap, folks) and lack of content. Some alternatives are available that you can use to bide your time until home 3D comes into its own as an affordable, high-quality entertainment option with an ample selection of content. There are cheap field sequential converters avaiable which will allow you to watch full-color 3D on your TV and computer (more about that later). Yet while this kind of field sequential 3D does have some DVDs available in this format, many of these titles are obscure, low-budget cheapies that don't hold up to repeat viewings (or even a single viewing, depending on the title). The best option would be to take the DVD titles which are already available in the anaglyph (i.e., red and blue) format and make them field sequential-ready. Fortunately, there is a way to do this, thanks to Underground 3D Cinema. Read on . . .

I've gone to Underground 3D Cinema many times in the past to purchase all of my home 3D equipment and content. The prices are reasonable, and they always respond to whatever questions I have. In keeping with their customer service philosophy, they posted on their site a free tutorial, complete with screen shots, on how to convert red and blue anaglyph 3D DVDs into full-color field sequential 3D DVDs. The best past about the tutorial is that not only is the tutorial itself free, but the software involved--which includes DVD Shrink--is also free. All it will cost you is the purchase of blank recordable DVDs so you can store your finished conversions for later playback.

I'm sure you're wondering just how effective this anaglyph-to-field conversion process is. While I haven't done it myself, I have seen converted versions of the anaglyph DVDs of Coraline, My Bloody Valentine, and Friday the 13th Part 3 and they all look amazing in full-color, field sequential 3D. I have the Virtual FX Converter/3D Viewing System, which you can get at Underground 3D Cinema for less than $100. It can be used to watch both 3D DVDs converted from anaglyph and DVDs which were originally released in the field sequential format, and it's easy to hook up to your TV set. There are also field sequential hardware/software packages available for watching 3D movies and playing video games in 3D on your PC. Given how cheap field sequential converter units are, it still surprises me that the entertainment industry hasn't done more to provide 3D home video equipment and content prior to now.

That said, while there are many anaglyph DVDs of recent movies available for field sequential conversion, many of the original 3D classics--such as Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dial M for Murder, and It Came from Outer Space--have not been released on anaglyph DVDs. Some of them can be found on anaglyph VHS tapes (see the Amazon ads at the bottom of this post), while others can be found on laserdiscs and VHD video discs from the 1980s. In those cases, I've been told that converting these into full color field sequential DVD could be done, but it would require an analog-to-digital converter to capture the movie on your computer before you can convert it to field sequential 3D. While purchasing the classic titles on older media formats and the analog/digital equipment for your computer will cost extra, I have yet to hear that any of the original 3D classics will be released for the 3D blu-ray players and flat screens. Thus, this may be the only option to see the 3D classics the way they were meant to be seen for the foreseeable future.

If you need help with the tutorial, or if you are just interested in buying any 3D players and discs, feel free to contact Underground 3D Cinema either directly or through their online store. Purchases made through the store will keep their site running, and they also sell additional stuff that's not on the site in case you're looking for that hard-to-find 3D item. Good luck!

Deca Trek-A-Thon Coming to DC

For all of you Washington DC-based Star Trek fans, this is for you. Travel the Galaxy this Summer with Crystal Screen: Star Trek Crystal City BID Arlington, VA. Crystal Screen will be showing all ten Star Trek movies, outdoors and in order, from June to August. Click the link above for more details. Each night will also have special giveaways and other activities, but the big highlight (at least for me) is that the Washington Shakespeare Company will be doing performances in Klingon as part of the movie showings. What's not to love?

Jaws East Coast Tour '88: Experience the Toothy Magic (Updated)

Way back in August of 1988, my folks were kind enough to take us to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA for an exhibit about movie special effects. This was the first time I had ever seen a museum of any sort devote space to the art of creating illusions in cinema, so that in itself impressed me to no end. However, what really knocked this exhibit out of the park is that it included a working mechanical shark from the Jaws movies. Click below to see the pictures I took of the mighty animatronic beast.

Even though the full-body shark on display was the one used for Jaws: The Revenge, some modifications were made to the shark for the exhibit. Every few minutes, the shark would roll its eyes back (a feature I didn't see in any of the four Jaws movies) and its head would move back and forth while snapping its jaws. The rest of the shark's body--namely, the torso and the tail--didn't move at all. I tried to get pictures of the shark doing its jaw-snapping routine, with my only regret being that I couldn't get it recorded on video tape.

It should be noted that the exhibit only featured a full-body mechanical shark, not any of the other partial sharks that were used in the Jaws movies. Also, the full-body shark did not include the larger mechanical apparatus that was used to move the shark around in the water, so I guess you could say that the exhibit only had a partial full-body mechanical shark.

The exhibit did include special effects props from other movies, such as matte paintings and demon dog stop-motion puppets from Ghostbusters. Yet the other big attraction at the exhibit was a full-sized Alien Queen and Power Loader from Aliens, which you can see in the pictures below. Unlike the Jaws shark, neither the Alien Queen nor the Power Loader moved--no Alien Queen vs. Jaws action at this exhibit, unfortunately. (I think the emergency lights on the Power Loader and the display background flashed every few moments, but that was it.)

What I didn't know at the time was that after the Franklin Institute, the exhibit was moved northward to the Boston Museum of Science, where it stayed until January 1989. Below are some pictures of the shark in transit to Boston and a copy of an exhibit flier from the museum, courtesy of the Jaws Collector site.

More exhibit pictures can be found at Jaws Collector, which features a searchable inventory that is filled with pictures of Jaws merchandise from all four movies and beyond (t-shirts, toys, posters, video games, etc.) and readable scans of Jaws articles from magazines and newspapers. If you're either a die-hard Jaws fan or just someone who is really into movie collectibles, Jaws Collector is the perfect reference site for you.

Alas, this traveling exhibit was a swan song of sorts for the Jaws franchise. As far as I can tell, the exhibit was the last time the public could see a working mechanical shark that was used in a Jaws movie; none of the mechanical sharks from the four films were preserved and all of them were junked at various locations. The only places where you can see an official Jaws-licensed mechanical shark these days would be at one of the Universal Studio theme parks in California, Florida or Japan, each of which feature a Jaws boat ride. However, each of these other sharks were built exclusively for the theme park rides, so it's just not the same.

Yet all is not lost, Jaws fans. A group called Shark City Ozark is determined to write a different ending to this fish tale. Their sculptor Mike V. Schultz built a 37" long "Bruce Nose-to-Tail (NTT)" maquette, a scale-accurate replica of the full-body shark used in the first Jaws movie. So even though all of the original mechanical sharks are gone, they live on through groups like Shark City Ozark. Their Bruce NTT maquette is a dead ringer for the original mechanical shark used in Jaws, unlike the Jaws maquette which was released by Sideshow Collectibles back in 2006.

Update, 06/07/10: A few days ago, NPR ran a story called "Hunting Bruce" about reporter Cory Turner's search for one of the surviving shark models from the original Jaws movie. He eventually found a shark cast from the original Bruce mold, which was made for use at the Universal Studios Theme Park in Hollywood between 1975 to 1990. It now is mounted on two poles at Adlen's U Pick Parts auto yard in Sun Valley, CA. However, while I was looking around the Internet for this article, I found a photo of another shark instead:

I can't find the details behind this picture (such as location and date), but between the shape of the snout, the empty eye sockets and the width of the mouth, I think that this is the same shark that I saw on display many years ago. For shame Universal Studios, for shame.

Tony Stark, Clean and Sober: A Review of Iron Man 2

I saw Iron Man 2 last weekend, after carefully dodging the opening weekend to avoid the crowds. In a nutshell, it’s a great film. It does everything a good sequel should do: It advances the plot from the first movie, while at the same time adding new elements to the story to keep things interesting. The script is witty and fun, the direction by Jon Favreau bounces seamlessly between snappy character interactions and explosive set pieces, and the cast delivers good--and in the case of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, GREAT--performances. Furthermore, the special effects are top-notch, featuring the best scenes of military machinery run amuck since last summer’s Terminator Salvation.

Superhero stores are at their most compelling when they act as parables of power--both its use for good and its misuse for evil--and its effects on the human condition. Thus, what makes Iron Man 2 really stand out among recent superhero movies is that it directly overlaps the super powers of superheroes with the fire power of the contemporary military industrial complex, allowing for commentary on the relationship between technological development and international conflict. Read on . . .

As the first Iron Man movie understood, there is no shortage of ironic humor and plot developments when one takes a story that fits into the superhero genre, a genre rife with villains who commit acts of evil genius, and make its protagonist a leading figure in weapons technology development, a field that (for a lack of a better description) heavily relies upon evil genius to earn its money. For example, in Iron Man 2, Stark interrupts a Congressional hearing regarding his Iron Man technology with video footage of attempts by weapon researchers in other counties to copy Stark’s technology. The footage is filled with sudden, brutal failures, failures reminiscent of the ED-209 demonstration scene from Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop (1987), the spiritual predecessor of the Iron Man movies.

As a rule of the genre, the most compelling, memorable villains in a superhero’s rogues gallery are the ones who are reflections of the superhero. For example, Batman’s most notable villains are brilliant loners with costume fetishes (Joker, Scarecrow, Bane), while Spider-Man’s most notable villains are the end result of science gone wrong (Dr. Octopus, The Lizard, Sandman). The enemies of Tony Stark in Iron Man 2 are Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), a duplicitous military contractor, and Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), a brilliant weapons specialist who has an obsessive, rage-filled grudge against Stark and his late father, Howard Stark (John Slattery). This duality--the Starks being shown as idealistic dreamers and charismatic showmen who happen to deal in the technology of war, and Hammer and Vanko being shown as savvy, amoral weapon experts who are driven by greed, envy and revenge--reflects America’s own contradictory, ambiguous relationship with military technology.

This contradictive, conflicted relationship is reflected in many areas within Iron Man 2, particularly within the Stark family itself. Early in the sequel, Tony Stark learns that the technology he developed in the first film is slowly killing him in the second. In scenes where Tony Stark watches his father in film footage promoting Stark Expo ’74, the footage parallels Walt Disney’s promotional film of EPCOT in 1966. This film within a film, Howard Stark talks about technology’s role in achieving utopia while standing in front of a miniature model of an ideal, futuristic city. These scenes serve as a reminder of what Stark Industries was originally supposed to be, which grimly contrasts what Stark Industries has become in the time of Tony Stark: a maker of multiple weapons that leave nothing but ugly dystopias in their wake.

The first Iron Man movie showed Stark coming to grips with the legacy he inherited and his determination to move Stark Industries away from weapons development through his development of Iron Man technology. The dramatic weight of the sequel focuses on Stark’s realization that by creating Iron Man, he has opened a figurative Pandora’s Box that could lead to new kinds of war. This realization, along with the health problems he suffers from the technology he created, puts Stark into an emotional freefall that he attempts to compensate for through a number of megalomaniacal acts of bravado, each more reckless and self-destructive than the last. Stark eventually regains stability in the face of these personal challenges, and Iron Man 2’s exploration of Tony Stark’s growth as a character in relation to his actions, his situation, and the world in which he lives is enough for me to highly recommend this film.

It’s uncertain whether Stark’s character trajectory will be continued in Iron Man 3 or scrubbed completely for the upcoming Avengers movie. Furthermore, Iron Man 2 glamorizes technology as much as it casts doubt on its reliability and potential (much like its predecessor), so it can be hard to discern exactly what the makers of this film are trying to say about technology and war. Yet any film that encourages people to consider that what we’re promised regarding technological advancement (by industry and government alike) isn’t always what we get, as well as the physical, emotional toll such shifting expectations takes on many, is a welcome addition in my book.

Honey, I Shrunk the Blockbuster Space Opera Franchise

With the summer blockbuster movie season officially at hand, I suppose I should get around to saying something about Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, since this year marks the 30th anniversary of its release. I could go on and on about what it was like to be there to witness the arrival of the first Star Wars sequel (the giddy anticipation of waiting in a long, long line just to get into the lobby of the movie theater, the thrill of buying new sets of Star Wars merchandise, the tireless effort of annoying my parents for hours on end when I didn't get the Star Wars stuff I wanted, etc.), but I don't think I could say anything that hasn't already been said before by other Star Wars geeks of my generation. So, this post is dedicated to a brief post-Empire moment of Star Wars toy history that has sadly gone unappreciated by many: Kenner's Star Wars Micro Collection series. Read on . . .

By the time Empire came and went, Kenner had established their 3 and 3/4 inch action figure series to be the cornerstone of their Star Wars merchandising campaign. (Kenner also released a brief line of 12 inch figures shortly after the first movie, but that line came to an end shortly before Empire.) The action figure line had been growing by leaps and bounds, including both main characters and characters who only appeared for a minute (or less) on screen. The action figures also had vehicles and playsets, each made so that avid Star Wars toy buyers could re-create their favorite scenes from the movies.

However, one thing that the action figures and their accessories couldn't capture was the vast scale of the battles in Star Wars. Sure, Star Wars and Empire featured scenes which were crowded with Stormtroopers and Rebel soldiers (particularly the Hoth battle in Empire) but unless you had parents who were super-rich pushovers who catered to your every whim, you probably only had one action figure for each kind of Stormtrooper and Rebel soldier. So, re-creating scenes featuring individual characters such as Luke, Han, Leia and company were easy with the toys provided, but re-creating scenes of huge battles required LOTS more imagination. Indeed, it felt counter-intuitive to have Star Wars toys that could not be used to recreate said "wars".

(Kenner was particularly cruel about this: The pictures on boxes of vehicle toys such as the Millennium Falcon and the AT-AT were almost always crowded with Stormtrooper action figures. Great way to taunt your consumer base, Kenner.)

To compensate of the lack of scope which dogged the action figure line, Kenner briefly tried something similar to the classic army men toys, dozens of tiny plastic green soldiers--and maybe a military vehicle or two--which were sold in one bag. Thus, 1982 saw the launch of the Star Wars Micro Collection series. (Pictures and links below provided by the Star Wars Collectors Archive site and 12back.com.)

The Micro Collection series featured three "worlds": Death Star World, Hoth World, and Bespin World. The worlds themselves consisted of multiple playsets which could be linked together to form a single world. The playsets were sold both individually and (with the exception of Hoth) as complete world sets. The figures which came with the playsets were tiny, painted figurines made of die-cast metal. The figurines included the main Star Wars characters in various poses and outfits, as well as multiple Stormtroopers and Rebel soldiers (depending on the playset).

The Micro Collection line also released four vehicles: the X-Wing Fighter, the Snowspeeder, the TIE Fighter, and the Millennium Falcon. Each of the three smaller vehicles came with pilot figures and "battle-damage" stickers, and could be made to "crash" by pressing a button; releasing the button would cause the vehicle to reassemble, ready for its next mission of damage-inflicting star warring.

The best thing about these Micro Collection toys was their scale. Even at an early age, I could tell that Kenner had to adjust the sizes of the vehicle and playset toys to fit the action figures, thus making them less movie-accurate (yes, I was THAT anal-retentive). Thus, the TIE Fighter toy had smaller solar panels (gasp!), the X-Wing Fighter toy had a stubbier nose and stubbier wing-mounted laser cannons (sacrilege!), and the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon toy could only fit two figures, not four (have they no shame!!!). The playsets were likewise stunted. With the exception of the Death Star playset, most other Star Wars playsets were simple, molded plastic bases with cardboard backgrounds. Three playsets--Land of the Jawas, Hoth Ice Panet, and Rebel Command Center--featured bases made from the same plastic mold, while the Creature Cantina playset was even re-painted for Kenner's short-lived Real West toy line.

(It should be noted that the modern Star Wars toys by Hasbro had been overcoming the scale problem by releasing scale-accurate-yet-much-more-expensive vehicle toys for their action figures. The re-scaled vehicles so far include the X-Wing Fighter, the TIE Fighter, the AT-ST, the Millennium Falcon, and the AT-AT.)

The Micro Collection sets didn't have the scale problem; in fact, Kenner used the smaller size to the greatest extent possible. The Micro Death Star playsets were much more movie-accurate: Not only did they feature the detention cell block where Princess Leia was held, but it was also placed right over the trash compactor (just like in the movie!). The Micro Hoth playsets were much more ambitious than the Hoth playsets for the action figures: They came with dozens of Stormtrooper and Rebel soldiers in Hoth gear (to re-create the epic Empire battle), and they also featured other Hoth-specific elements such as the ion cannon, secret Rebel base with opening and closing blast doors, and the base's generator. As for the Micro Bespin playsets, what made them special was that the bigger action figures didn't even have a Bespin playset (unless you count a small set made entirely out of thin cardboard with Bespin images printed on it an actual playset). The Bespin playsets featured a working carbon freezing chamber and a circular control room window through which Luke could be spring-launched. The Micro Millennium Falcon had more features than its larger counterpart for the action figures, including a cockpit that could fit more than two figurines.

Unfortunately, the Micro Collection series never found success and it disappeared from toy stores shortly before Return of the Jedi hit the theaters in summer 1983. Maybe it was that the action figure line had already cemented its role as the toy of choice for Star Wars collectors, or maybe it was launched too late after the release of Empire to really make much of an impact on the fans.

Nevertheless, the possibilities would have been amazing had the Micro Collection been popular. There could've been more Micro Collection sets, with interlocking playsets for Tatooine World and Endor World. Additional scale-accurate vehicles would've also been a blast, such as a Micro AT-AT, a Micro Imperial Shuttle, a Micro TIE Bomber and TIE Interceptor, and Micro A-Wing, B-Wing, and Y-Wing Fighters. (Even the remote-controlled Sandcrawler, which was originally released for the action figures, would've been a perfect fit for the Mirco Collection series because the scale would've been more accurate.) Given such a small size, even non-scale-accurate-but-still-awesome vehicle/playset toys such as a Micro Star Destroyer (complete with a hangar bay for two Micro TIE Fighters), a Micro Jabba's Sail Barge, and a Micro Blockade Runner (complete with an exploding airlock door for invading Stormtroopers and ejectable escape pods) would have been possible. Furthermore, they all would have been cheaper than the Lego Star Wars sets, the closest modern analogs to the Micro Collection series.

The Star Wars Collectors Archive site has the most extensive information about the Star Wars Micro Collection series, including pictures and details about the following prototypes which were designed but never released for sale to the public:

• Bespin Torture Chamber set
• Dagobah set
• Death Star II Emperor’s Throne Room set
• Hoth Bacta Tank set
• Jabba the Hutt's Dungeon set
• Jabba the Hutt's Throne Room set
• Micro Slave I vehicle toy.

Nightmare on Elm Street (2010): A Nightmare Remade

I watched the Nightmare on Elm Street remake a few days ago (sorry--I've been busy in my non-blog life, so this was the earliest I could get my review online). I wanted to see it before the new Iron Man movie uses its repulsor rays to blast it off of my geek to-do list. While I'll try to avoid any major spoilers in this review, those who wish to watch the new Nightmare with fresh eyes should probably steer clear of this review. My opinion in a nutshell is that the film as it stands now is just OK, and nothing more than that. For those wishing to be spoiled, read on after the break.

I'll get the good parts of the movie out of the way first. Overall, the film was well cast (particularly Jackie Earle Haley as the new version of Freddy Krueger) and each actor puts in a good performance based on what the script gives him/her to do. The new post-burn Freddy makeup is particularly impressive, because it is more accurate in terms of what severe burns do to human flesh and it makes Freddy look much less human than his predecessor. With his pointed noes and ears and broken smile, the original Freddy was somewhat reminiscent of a gargoyle or a demon. In contrast, with his diminished brow, nose, chin and lips, the new Freddy almost looks like one of those gray-skinned aliens that the UFO abduction crowd keeps talking about. The remake goes to great lengths to emphasize the helplessness and desperation of Freddy's victims, how the lack of sleep is slowly, inevitably wearing them down--to the point of waking hallucinations--and that there's nothing they can do about it. I always felt that this sense of desperation was lacking in the original Nightmare movies, so I'm glad to see it done in the remake.

Unfortunately, these strengths cannot overcome the remake's many weaknesses. The heroine Nancy Holbrook (replacing Nancy Thompson in the original) really doesn't get much of a chance to assert herself as the main character, even though that's who she ends up becoming just by default towards the end. She's a gothy wallflower throughout most of the film so she's easy to overlook, and the filmmakers' inital approach to Freddy's teenage targets has more of an ensemble feel to it, thus watering down that audience's chance to invest emotionally in a central character. (In fact, the remake changes the back story of Freddy and the town of Springwood just enough that the significance of Elm Street itself is greatly reduced; thus, this film's title could've dropped the words Elm Street and it wouldn't have made a difference.) While there is an effective attack sequence which takes place in a pharmacy, where Freddy attacks a teenager who is fluctuating between a sleep-deprivation-induced hallucination and reality, most of the other attacks lack the suspense and personality that distinguished the original Nightmare.

The film's greatest drawback is its attempt to provide a more detailed explanation of Freddy's motives and his relationship to his victims. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but the filmmakers' lack of willingness to follow these changes through to their logical dramatic conclusion, which would have made this Nightmare considerably different than the original, hobbles the remake's attempt to succeed as a horror film.

Watching this remake reminded me of The Invasion, the 2007 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The Invasion changed the Body Snatcher story by switching the alien pods--giant plants which generate emotionless clones to replace people--with microscopic alien spores which infect people and take over their minds. Changing this narrative detail should have made The Invasion a leaner, meaner version of the Body Snatchers story; after all, without the aliens having to lug around bluky pods in order to facilitate their invasion of Earth, their attack on humanity should have been relentless, nerve-jangling nightmare. Yet The Invasion was determined to maintain dramatic beats similar to the previous Body Snatcher films (I suppose so it would qualify as a "remake") even though they didn't fit the changes to the narrative, thus resulting in a film that fails to generate any real suspense, surprises, or terror.

The same problem applies to the new Nightmare. In the original film, Freddy was a serial killer of children who somehow beat the criminal charges filed against him but was killed by a lynch mob of angry parents. He later gets his revenge by using nightmares to kill the children of the parents who killed him. In the remake, the pre-lynch mobbed Freddy is not a child killer but a child molester, and the teenagers he is killing were kids he molested many years earlier. This back story isn't revealed until just after the halfway point of the film, which then raises the question (at least for me) of why Freddy is killing his victims at all when he wasn't a killer before he was mobbed. Such a revelation also renders Freddy's iconic razor-fingered glove and the "Freddy's coming for you" chant rhyme meaningless within the context of the movie. Towards the end of the film Freddy himself says, "Your memories of me keep me alive", which further emphasizes the narrative contradiction of Freddy killing the only people who would remember him in the most nightmarish way.

One of the characters mentions the idea that people can fall into a coma if they are deprived of sleep for a long period of time; if that's the case, then it would have made more sense for Freddy to drive his victims into comas where he can then torment them in nightmares that will never end. Yet because this is a remake of a slasher film, Freddy has to kill his victims in ways similar to the original Freddy instead of following means and methods that would've better fit his new motives. Then again, the remake itself would have probably raised oodles of controversy of they completely changed Freddy from nightmare killer to nightmare sex criminal--the scene where Freddy tells Nancy how she was his "favorite" was nauseating enough--so one can only wonder why this change was even put in the script in the first place.

If the filmmakers behind the Nightmare remake had more freedom in exploring their interpretation of the original story, the remake might have been a more interesting and evocative horror film. Unfortunately, its desire to be both something new and something nostalgic at the same time without resolving the unavoidable contradictions make this film fizzle, with little more than its name to generate interest.

Oh, A Wise Guy, eh?

With all the doo-dads and gizmos floating around in various hero and villain arsenals out there, it's a wonder everyone in comic book land doesn't carry some personal force field device or something. But it's all got to come from somewhere, and somebody has to think it all up. Looking over all the characters in the Marvel and DC universe, there are quite a few smart guys out there dreaming of some ingenious ways to kill each other off.

Reed Richards

Mister Fantastic isn't necessarily the backbone of a team with his powers. Let's face it: he's basically the Elongated Man (at least Plastic Man turns himself into cool stuff like mailboxes and such). Fortunately for him, he's got bunches of brains to keep Sue attracted to him.

Though he's had his share of failures (the Thor clone), he's also saved the world a time or two from Galactus and various other cosmic villains Spider-Man wouldn't have been able to take down.

There must have been something special about him, because the Skrulls wouldn't invade until they knew he was taken down and captured. His people skills and common sense might need some work, but no one can knock his talents in creating gadgets.

Lex Luthor

He's not necessarily the smart one here, but he has the money and power to get what he wants. His scheming and manipulating ways make him a force to be reckoned with.

He's come very close in the past to taking down Superman, though he did meet his match when he tried to tackle Bruce Wayne (not realizing he was Batman). Still, Luthor has this ruthless greed that got him an Orange Lantern ring for a while, and still makes him someone every hero would be smart to steer clear of. He might not create toys like Reed Richards does, but he can sure turn a situation into his favor and devise some wicked schemes.

Tony Stark

With all the different types of Iron Man armor he's come up with over the years, there's no way he could stay off this list. Even though he was responsible for the Marvel Civil War and the Skrull Invasion that followed, there's no denying he has technical smarts if nothing else.

He had problems with alcohol (and his "Ultimate" version still has some issues with it), but he seems to have rebounded nicely. At one time he was the head of SHIELD, and really started losing his way, but after Norman Osborn, the Skrulls, and the death and rebirth of Captain America/Steve Rogers, Stark seems to be leveling off again.

Hank Pym

He's called the "Scientist Supreme" in the Marvel Universe. That means he's officially been crowned the smartest man in the Marvel U (though he's got perhaps the lamest title).

Pym has been responsible for a lot of big developments in the Marvel world. His most nefarious is Ultron, though in his defense he didn't create the robot to rule the world...he just did an incredible job of it.

Hank seems to perfectly illustrate what Marvel tries to convey about their characters: they are all only human. A man who constantly shrinks and grows has to have some side effects from that over time, and the constant pressure of being a hero, scientist, and husband has to wear on you. Pym has lost his way more times than any other hero on the list, but he always drifts back.

Mister Terrific

The one-time leader of the JSA is also a brilliant man in the DC world. He holds several doctorates and has come up with some pretty cool gadgets of his own.

I'm not a fan of this character's gimmick. This is one of those characters that is rebooted just to add diversity to the team. Rather than create a new character, they just named him "Mister Terrific" and made it seem like he was carrying on the previous version's work...except this guy is super smart and can't be seen by computers, whereas the original was just a fighter.

Still, you have to give him credit, he's created those T-Spheres that help him out a lot, and always seems to find a way to help the JSA out. When he and Doctor Midnight were forced by Roulette to play a "loser dies" game of chess, Terrific took the game to a stalemate and then got away before they could reset the board. Pretty smart!

Doctor Doom

He could be considered the evil version of Reed Richards, except Doom doesn't stop with science. He includes magic and whatever else it takes to help accomplish his goals.

While ruling the world has constantly evaded his grasp, his rule over Latveria has been fairly consistent. He's also created armor that's arguably comparable to Iron Man's. He also created a group of "Doombots" that take his place in most confrontations so there's seldom the opportunity to really take him down. He found a way to steal the Silver Surfer's power cosmic, and even almost outsmarted the Beyonder.

It's hard to think of a hero he hasn't faced. Everybody from Spider-Man to Power Pack can claim at least one run in with him. Still, he seems most closely linked to the Fantastic Four. Now that Norman Osborn's empire has been drastically reduced, it'll be interesting to see where Doom goes from here for revenge.