There seems to be a trend, lately, that when a franchise loses steam, rather than continue with the series and try to correct the errors with a quality film, the movie studio simply takes a scorched earth, return-to-zero approach with the characters. Much of the "Reboot Mania" is due to the successful relaunching of the Batman franchise by Christopher Nolan. Hollywood executives, being some of the great "joiners in" of our time, looked at this success and said, "We should do THAT." This is somewhat understandable, given that every ten years or so, the studios have to appeal to a whole new audience. People who were seven years old when the first Spider-Man film was released will be sixteen-year-old movie-goers this year. Counting on these guys having seen the previous three films is a risky venture, as they see it. The home video market, and the presence of these characters on television in a variety of formats makes this a specious argument, but that seems to be the way they view the situation. So we, the loyal fans, get to see roughly a decade of films (usually about three, but sometimes more or less) before someone decides to press the reset button. This can be frustrating, because we wish to see the characters move forward, facing new challenges and growing in the face of escalating adversity. Instead, we see them trapped in a decade-long "Groundhog Day" loop. Peter Parker, it seems, is destined to be bitten by that spider every ten years, whether he wants to or not. It's like the Ragnarok cycle.
But there are some intellectual properties which have had a shot on the big screen, but have been languishing in the back rooms ever since. More than enough time has passed for these characters to be taken out, given a shave and a shower, and allowed to work their magic. Some of these concepts are the prototypes and archetypes of the heroes we know and love today, the ones whose DNA arose from the primordial ooze of the pulp magazines and newspaper strips of yesteryear to influence the later generations of writers and artists who would build the worlds of tomorrow.
The first of these characters is Buck Rogers. Debuting in a 1928 story called "Armageddon 2419 A.D." in the pulp magazine AMAZING STORIES, this man, displaced almost 500 years into the future who becomes a leader of a rebellion against an oppressive government, became the archetypal template of much of the Science Fiction which would follow. The gifted everyman who, due to circumstances beyond his control, is thrust into the spotlight of a large geo-political conflict predates "Star Wars" by fifty years. Elements of Buck Rogers can still be found in Characters like "The Green Lantern" and "Nova." Buck Rogers seems like an ideal candidate for reintroduction to a contemporary audience, and it is high time someone created a nice palette cleanser to wash away the cheese of the '70's Gil Gerard television series.
Similar in tone and overall concept to Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon has, perhaps, suffered more indignities. Beginning as a newspaper comic strip in 1934, Flash Gordon was inspired by, and meant to compete with the lightly older strip Buck Rogers. Rather than displaced in time, Gordon, along with his love interest and a Physics professor, were transported to a "galaxy far, far away." Once again, our hero is set against a totalitarian government and must rally the troops. Flash differs from Buck, however, in that his new home is populated by all manner of fantastic alien races, including hawk-men, shark-men, and the forest-dwellers of Arboria. (The leader of the Arborians bore more than a passing resemblance to Errol Flynn's Robin Hood.) Like Rogers before him, Flash Gordon had his own movie serial (three, in fact) and a feature film. The film, released in 1980, though much loved by fans of campy Sci-Fi, suffers from its own cheekiness and '60's Batman style humor. (Great soundtrack, though.)
We are often confronted with the argument that there is not enough diversity among our heroes. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...Zorro! Zorro (the fox) first appeared in 1919 in ALL STORY WEEKLY, and has had numerous print, film and television appearances since. The most recent revival, 1998's "The Mask of Zorro," and it's 2005 sequel "The Legend of Zorro," both starring Antonio Banderas, were somewhat successful, but failed to make a significant impact. Zorro was the inspiration for much of the Batman mythos, including the rich, layabout alter-ego, the black costume, and the crusade against corruption. Zorro, however, seemed to be having a GRAND time of things, while Batman tends to be a professional brooder. I'm not certain if we'll see a swashbuckling Zorro film anytime soon, but my fingers are crossed.
These three characters, handled correctly, could be amazing franchises. The stories are all there, waiting for the right visionary creator to take them to places they have not yet gone. I'm hoping that, someday soon, we'll see one, or maybe all of these important and influential characters return to the silver screen. Let's just hope they aren't rebooted ten years later.