Danger Diabolik

Recently in "Total Film" they had an article that selects the mightiest comic-book movies. I've used their list and wrote my comments alongside and added a few extra things myself. Initially I wanted to do a long page with 20 of the films highlighted, but this was proving a formidable challenge, so I decided to break the series down into bite size chunks.

• Danger Diabolik (1968) Mario Bava's 60's comic strip curio about a leather clad super criminal. Dynamic, Camp, Stylish.

I'll be honest I've never heard of this so had to look it up, why they couldn't put something like The Incredible Hulk in here I'll never know! They probably liked the Ang Lee one, though the 2nd one was better with Ed Norton, but to me and everyone else it looked like 2 films glued together. One with a moody action packed chase in the darkest depths of South America and the other a great big monster film with 2 creatures beating one another up! Anyway I digress... 

"IMDb" Quotes "Fey super-thief Diabolik runs around stealing jewels, gold, murdering innocent people, and being a nuisance to the government of a generic European country. "

From what I found out about the Diabolik, it is based on the Fantômas (France, 1913) and retells the exploits of a sadistic masked criminal. Originally written by Marcell Allain and Pierre Souvestre in 1892, these tales became a series of novels that have been adapted as films, a television series, and comic books.

In 1962, the Fantômas character was recreated in Italy as Diabolik, in a digest-sized comic book that’s still allegedly reprinted and sold at Italian news stands today. The comic is famed for it's adult themes and lurid depiction of violence and sex.  The main character is a the Lycra-masked Diabolik, abetted by his lover Eva Kant, as the ultimate master criminal, ripping off the law and other lawbreakers with equal aplomb.

One can't help to think that these characters were to become the start of the anti hero which is now gripping hold of the nation. If you think of "Dexter" a TV series that makes you feel for a serial killer, or "True Blood" based on a more romantic version of Vampires, we have seen this pour into our comic stands with the likes of Mark Millers "Nemesis" or Garth Ennis "The Pro" or "The Boys!"