In the comics, Mignola’s shadowy, Gothic-drenched artwork tends to be more stark and his dialogue more spare than their equivalent images in the Hellboy movies. There are two animated Hellboy films, but perhaps the best cartoon showcase for the tone and look of Mignola’s work is “The Amazing Screw-On Head.” This exceedingly odd 20-minute animated horror spoof features the voice of Paul Giamatti as a low-tech mechanical secret agent circa the Civil War called “The Screw-On Head.” (Yes, other characters, like Abraham Lincoln, address him as “Screw-On Head.”) David Hyde Pierce voices his arch-villain, the foppish ghoul Emperor Zombie. From Bryan Fuller, creator of “Pushing Daisies,” the 2006 pilot film looks exactly like what you’d get if the creators of Adult Swim made a Halloween-themed version of “Wild Wild West.” The introductory scheme perfectly captures Mignola’s penchant for occult action scenes and demented whimsy:

Speaking of Hellboy II, have you seen the viral videos of James Lipton interviewing Hellboy, as well as Hellboy’s public service announcement? Funny.

Black superheroes have a spotty history in comics, cartoons and movies. Before the mid-1960s, you’d be hard-pressed to find any African-American comic book superheroes, and the ones who subsequently emerged were frequently treated as tokens with either utterly bland or highly stereotypical characterization. With so many real-world heroes breaking the color bar in arts, sports, politics and civil rights over the past generations, it’s not a surprise that the likes of, say, Black Vulcan from “Super Friends” never made much of an impact. For simplicity’s sake I’ll focus here (mostly) on the black superheroes who have crossed over to other media, with varying degrees of success.

Blade

By default, the character to make the most successful leap from comic books to other media is Blade, played by Wesley Snipes. The super-powered vampire hunter first appeared in Tomb of Dracula in 1973, remained on the margins of Marvel Comics but in 1998-2004 received the big-screen treatment in three films (not to mention a short-lived TV series with Kirk “Sticky” Jones). The success of the Blade films blazed the trail for higher-profile Marvel Comics adaptations like X-Men and Spider-man. Despite his pointy silver weapons and vampire-type powers, Blade is arguably more of an R-rated horror/action hero than an iconic superhero in his own right. Still, director Guillermo Del Toro made Blade II into one of the most surprisingly entertaining guilty-pleasure hero films. The clip above features Ron ‘Hellboy’ Perlman as a racist vampire and includes some of Snipes’ liveliest macho posturing.

Storm

Perhaps the most respectable black big-screen hero would be the weather-controlling Ororo, better known as Storm of the X-Men. Halle Berry, an Oscar-winner for Best Actress, plays her in all three X-Men films, and she becomes the superteam’s leader in X-Men: The Last Stand. The clip above showcases her tornado powers from X2: X-Men United (one of the best, smartest hero films ever made), but the trouble is that Berry displays little of the charisma she brings to roles like Jinx in that James Bond film, so Storm seldom stands out amid the zillion other X-Men and X-Women.

Catwoman

Berry also most of her X-Men good will for her solo stint in Catwoman, which awkwardly reimagines the Batman villainness/dominatrix as a sort-of superhero. There’s absolutely no reason that an African-American actress couldn’t play the role, but probably nobody could have reconciled Catwoman’s kinky sexuality, campy heroics and corny cat jokes.

Steel

Catwoman felt like an unwelcome reprise of the spate of terrible African-American superhero movies from the 1990s, which include Robert Townsend’s Meteor Man and Damon Wayans’ Blankman (a variation of Wayans’ disabled hero “Handiman” from his recurring “In Living Color” sketches). At least those films were would-be comedies based on original characters, keeping expectations low. None proved as clunky as Shaquille O’Neal’s Steel, a character with Iron Man-type armor and loose connections to both the Superman mythos and the John Henry tall tale. One of the problems of the film (apart from simply requiring Shaq to act) is that Steel arguably looks less impressive than Shaq himself in his street clothes, holding a big sledgehammer. He makes his hilarious, costumed entrance at the 7:30 mark in the clip above.

Spawn

A little better, but still pretty crummy, is Spawn (1997). Michael Jai White plays an assassin for a covert government agency who is killed by his employers, but accepts a literal deal with a devil by returning to Earth as a “Hellspawn,” with powers that include magic, whipping chains and a flowing, malleable cape. Spawn deserves a little credit for carrying the broody, Gothic, Tim Burton-era superheroics into weird territory, and for taking the protagonist’s race as a given, but the film’s execution is still largely unpleasant.

The Black Panther

Considered the first black comic book superhero, The Black Panther originated in The Fantastic Four in 1966. Known in real life as T’Challa, he’s the prince (and later king) of the African nation of Wakanda, which sort of resembles the idyllic African kingdom on the other side of the Paramount logo in Eddie Murphy’s Coming to America. T’Challa has feline-style powers, but as an African head of state, you’d think he has better to do than fight costumed ne’er-do-wells. Marvel seems to be testing the waters for a Black Panther live action project and showcased the the character in the DVD animated feature Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise of the Panther. Here he’s fighting the Fantastic Four in one of their old cartoon series.

Luke Cage, a.k.a. Hero for Hire, a.k.a. Power Man

A wrongfully-incarcerated ex-con who specializes in helping out people in Harlem, Luke Cage debuted in 1972 as Marvel Comics’ answer to blaxploitation icons like Shaft. The 1970s stories have dated rather embarrassingly — the slideshow above shows how the title evolved, giving him the more conventional name “Power Man” — but Cage was my favorite black superhero from the 1970s. There’s rumor that John Singleton intends to direct a Luke Cage film with Tyrese, but so far, the character’s only connection to the big screen is that movie star and comic book fanboy Nicolas Cage named himself after the role.

Green Lantern (John Stewart)

Occasional comic book publishers have allowed black characters to take up the mantle of heroes established by white ones. (In Iron Man, Jim Rhodes has worn the armor for extended periods, frequently coinciding with Tony Stark’s alcohol problem; Terence Howard winks at this bit of history in the new film). In Green Lantern mythos, ex-Marine John Stewart has wielded the power ring and provides a particularly strong take on the character in the animated “Justice League” and “Justice League Unlimited” TV shows. Voiced by Phil LaMarr, John Stewart’s Green Lantern doesn’t take a backseat to the better-established superheroes, and is one of the show’s most well-rounded characters: he keeps ties with his old Detroit neighborhood and is one of the points in a romantic triangle with Hawkgirl and Vixen, a promising African-American heroine in her own right, voiced by “Firefly’s” Gina Torres. Reportedly, director George Miller cast Common as John Stewart in the aborted Justice League movie. The clip above shows him in action in a guest appearance on “Static Shock” which showcased a young African-American hero who never really caught on.

Verb

Is it wrong of me that my favorite African-American superhero is “Verb” from the old “Schoolhouse Rocks!” shorts? As the cartoon shows, Verb is clearly a movie star and an inspiration in his own right: “Verb tells it like it is.”

I read the Wanted graphic novel over the weekend, after I’d seen and reviewed the film, and must acknowledge that my last line, though technically correct, deserves elaboration. While the Wanted film depicts a thousand year-old group of assassins called The Fraternity, the graphic novel is about comic book-style supervillains, not hitmen (or superheroes).

The trajectory of the story is much the same: a put-upon, cuckolded office drudge named Wesley Gibson discovers that his long-lost, recently murdered father had a superhuman talent at killing people. His father’s old colleagues, including the alluring Fox, forcibly recruit the hapless yuppie and teach him that he has much the same abilities, which include the ability to shoot the wings off flies in fast succession. Wesley discovers the joys of a “macho” lifestyle, which includes plenty of sex and violence.

The graphic novel, however, envisions a world ruled in the shadows by supervillains, who have killed off or lobotomized all superheroes. The book offers raunchy parody versions of DC Comics bad guys like Mr. Mxyzptlk, Bizarro and the Parasite. “Clayface,” a shape-shifting villain of Batman, is reimagined as “Shithead: The collected feces of the 666 most evil beings ever to walk the Earth!” Wesley becomes a sociopathic murderer with fleeting pangs of conscience. He’s unmistakably an antihero meant to subvert comic book conventions.

Ironically, the most “comic booky” details in the Wanted movie are not in the original comic book, like the way the Fraternity receives their assignments from the Almighty via “The Loom of Fate.” The film fatally overlooks the book’s sense of irony, taking Wesley’s high-testosterone lifestyle at face value and fudging the notion of whether it’s cool to be a mass murderer. The graphic novel’s satiric intentions are hard to miss, but the film somehow does exactly that, while leaving the middle-finger attitude intact.

1) The Wrights perform at Eddie’s Attic with Scott Miller.

2) Tibetan Sacred Arts, a night of cultural art and philosophy, is at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.

3) Dunwoody Library hosts screenings of new independent and foreign films at the Film Series Movement.

4) Denis Johnson discusses and signs Trees of Smoke at the Decatur Library.

5) Flicks on Fifth continues with The Bourne Ultimatum at Technology Square in Midtown.

(Photo courtesy the Wrights)

(Photo by Lorenzo Agius)

Editor’s note: In the spirit of George Carlin, here’s a hilarious early clip of Eddie Izzard riffing on religion. Somewhere up there, Carlin must be smiling at one of the best contemporary observational humorists out there.

1) Spike and Mike’s Animation Fest continues at the Plaza Theatre.

2) Women and a Claw Foot Tub continues at Apache Café in conjunction with Art Mondays.

3) Michael O’Neal Singers perform at Ahavath Achim Synagogue.

4) Author and music industry insider Ellis Nassour discusses his book, Honky Tonk Angel: The Intimate Story of Patsy Cline, at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse.

5) Rancid performs at the Masquerade with the Legendary Shack Shakers.

(Image courtesy Spike and Mike)

1) Comedian Bill Burr finishes his three-day run at the Punchline.

2) Sha’ni and the Tiger’s Eye Collection host A Midsummer Night’s Dream with world-renowned dancer Ava Fleming at Sketchworks Theater.

3) Lakewood Amphitheatre strikes a fun trifecta: R.E.M., Modest Mouse and the National perform.

4) Leslie Jordan reads and signs My Trip Down the Pink Carpet at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse.

5) Blues Traveler and more perform in Candler Park for the Midsummer Music Fest.

(Photo courtesy APA Agency)

2) Monster Mayhem opens at the Gallery at East Atlanta Tattoo, with more than 50 artists paying homage to their favorite monsters.

3) Local cool-kid outfitter Wish launches its own clothing line with Block Party, featuring entertainment by Just Blaze, DJ Don Cannon and more.

4) Comedian Henry Cho performs at the Punchline.

5) Wordsmiths Books celebrates its one-year anniversary with a weekend of poets, music, authors, food and festivities.

(Photo courtesy Nick Longo)

2) Masaru Emoto, author of Hidden Messages in Water, discusses his photographic process at Georgia World Congress Center.

3) Comedian Dale Jones begins his three-day stop at the Punchline.

4) Stevie Nicks performs at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.

5) Whole World Theatre hosts Improv Comedy.

(Photo courtesy Variety Playhouse)

2) Virginia-Highland Summerfest wraps up its final day on Virginia Avenue.

3) Jim Breuer finishes his four-day stop at the Funny Farm.

4) Apache Café hosts FFX: Free Forum Exchange spoken-word open mic.

5) Atlanta Stage Write Productions presents the second annual 9 x 9 ‘08: Nine Plays by Nine Playwrights at Norcross Cultural Arts and Community Center.

(Photo courtesy Don Dixon)