Supermoon to the Rescue! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Scott Pilgrim

Scott is a slacker, fronts a garage band called Sex Bomb-omb and has relationship issues in a delightful 2010 film called "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World". He meets the girl of his dreams (literally) and is infatuated with her. However, all her exes have formed the League of Ramona's Evil Exes and Scott is forced to prevail against each of them individually. This has the effect of turning the film into an extended video game, which allowed the screenwriters, Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright, to unbridle their imaginations and use a "try anything" attitude, giving the film an extra dimension.

The film was based on a series of graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley. It follows the first five novels fairly closely but the sixth and final book had not yet been written by O'Malley by the time filming was due to commence. Accordingly, O'Malley stressed, that whilst he had input and gave the screenwriters an outline of his ending, the film's ending is not his.

Answer: To Riverdale and Back Again

This 1990 film is set fifteen years after the gang have graduated from Riverdale High. Archie Andrews, who's made a name for himself as a lawyer, is engaged and returning to Riverdale for a high school reunion and, in the process, saves the Chock'lit Shoppe from the sly workings of Reggie Mantle. All the comic book gang return with personalities intact. The spoiled Veronica has been married (and divorced) on four occasions, the "girl-next-door" Betty is a school teacher with a poor choice in boyfriends and struggling to hold down a job, Reggie runs a gym and the non-conformist Jughead is now a psychiatrist.

Archie first appeared in Pep Comics in 1941.

Answer: Hellboy

In 1944, with the aid of Rasputin, the Nazis are on the verge of opening a portal in deep space with the aim of bringing the monster Ogdru Jahad to Earth. The plan is to have the monster aid the Nazis in their battle against the Allies. The Allies, however, learn of the plot and are able to close the portal, almost instantly. They succeed in locking Rasputin within it though, in the process, a red-skinned baby with an arm made of stone is spat out. He is then raised to become Earth's defender against the forces of darkness.

The 2004 film was directed by Guillermo del Toro and was met with favourable reviews. Mignola's novel would earn him the 1995 Eisner Award.

Answer: Carrot

Bill Burden's award-winning comic book series is based on a superhero called "The Flaming Carrot", a man who wears a giant carrot mask that extends from above his head down to his waist line. He first appeared in 1979 and develops his powers after suffering brain damage from reading 5,000 comics in a single sitting. Unfortunately, for our carrot top, when it came to creating a movie script in 1999, Burden considered that the character was too bizarre to launch onto a viewing audience and was replaced with the new man, Captain Amazing. The "Mystery Men" were support characters in "The Flaming Carrot" series and Burden turned to them as the true heroes of this film. However, only Mr Furious and the Shoveller would make it to the screen.

The film, which boasts a bevy of stars, including Ben Stiller, Geoffrey Rush, Greg Kinnear and William H Macy failed to fire the public's imagination.

Answer: Ghost Rider

The original "Ghost Rider", created by Marvel Comics in 1972 was a stunt rider who surrendered his soul to save the life of his father. The villain, believed to be Satan, is later revealed to be Mephisto. In the 2007 film version stuntman Johnny Blaze, played by Cage, inadvertently seals the deal with Mephistopheles when he accidently (paper) cuts his finger on the contract and a drop of his blood falls on it, ensuring his fate.

The demon eventually turns Blaze into the "Ghost Rider" and makes him his personal bounty hunter.

Answer: The Secret Service

Mark Millar's and Dave Gibbons' comic was released in 2012 under the banner "The Secret Service" but was re-branded later as "Kingsman Vol 1: The Secret Service" when it was decided that a viable series could be extracted from the original. A stand-alone sequel was written to this story "The Big Exit" and released in 2017, just prior to "Kingsman Vol 2: The Red Diamond".

The film, "Kingsman: The Secret Service", which draws solidly from the original, was released in 2014. It stars Taron Egerton as " Eggsy" Unwin, a young man who has dropped out of the Royal Marines and, after being nabbed for stealing a car, is recruited by Harry Hart (Colin Firth), a friend of Eggsy's father, as a Kingsman.

Answer: Sin City

The majority of "Sin City", which was co-directed by Frank Miller, is built around the first, third and fourth books in Miller's series. These tales are sandwiched between an intro and an outro called "The Customer is Always Right". This tale was drawn from a section in Miller's sixth book "Booze, Broads and Bullets".

"The Hard Goodbye" (13 issues, 1991-92) sees Marv (Mickey Rourke in the film) go on a killing rampage as he hunts down the killer of his girlfriend, Goldie. "The Big Fat Kill" (5 issues, 1994-95) sees Jackie Boy (Benicio del Toro) harassing a sweet prostitute and is cut down by a martial arts expert. Caught in the middle is Dwight McCarthy (Clive Owen) who realizes that Jackie Boy is a hero cop and decides to dispose of the body. "That Yellow Bastard" (6 issues, 1996) shows an aging police officer (Bruce Willis) protecting a young lady from a seriously disfigured serial killer.

Answer: Jonah Hex

Jonah Hex, played by Josh Brolin, is a Confederate soldier during the American Civil War who has been ordered by his superior (played by John Malkovich) to burn down a hospital. Hex refuses and is then forced to watch his own house being burnt down with his family trapped inside it. His face is then disfigured with a branding iron (hence the tagline) and he is left for dead. He is rescued by a Native America tribe who revive him and, through their mystical powers, are able to gift him with the power to raise the dead for a short period of time. Hex turns to bounty hunting as a means to quench his desire for vengeance.

According to critics, the film, which was released in 2010, was also ugly. The audience seemed to think so as well and stayed away from it.

The character, Jonah Hex, was created by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga. He first appeared in issue ten of "All Star Western" in 1972. Hex would continue as a comic book favourite for many years. Whilst his distinctive features certainly made him stand out amongst his contemporaries, it was more that he was blessed with many interesting storylines that kept readers interested and propelled him into the "Top 100 List of Comic Book Characters" compiled by IGN Entertainment.

Answer: No

In this outing Arnold Schwarzenegger is everything "Conan", except in name. He looks like Conan, walks like Conan and talks like Conan but, he's not Conan. Instead, he is Lord Kalidor. Why, remains a mystery. Some have suggested that there was a conflict in respect to rights. Whilst the Dino De Laurentiis Company made both movies, the two "Conan" films were completed under the Universal Studios banner and "Red Sonja" through MGM/UA. Others have intimated that Marvel no longer had the rights to "Red Sonja" and, the creation of the comic did switch from Marvel to Dynamite Entertainment in 2005.

Enough of that, the film, which stars Bridgette Nelson as the flame-haired, sword wielding Sonja, maintains the same origin as Roy Thomas' revised outline of a young seventeen year old girl whose village is attacked and destroyed. She is raped and sees her parents killed. In desperation she calls out to the gods. Her plea is heard by the red goddess Scathach, who imbues her with great strength, agility and fighting prowess so that she can exact her revenge. The original outline was based on a short story by Robert E. Howard in which Sonja is a swashbuckler in the sixteenth century. Thomas shifted her to the Hyborian Age so that she could interact with Conan the Barbarian.

Answer: Watchmen

Alan Moore's satirical look at the superhero genre was first published in 1986 and was received with critical acclaim. It shows superheroes coming into existence just prior to the start of World War II and having a significant impact on history as we know it. To this end, the United States wins the Vietnam War, Watergate has not occurred, and Richard Nixon is still the President. By 1977 superheroes are "on the nose" and have been outlawed by the Keene Act. Moving forward to 1985 most of the heroes have now retired while some, like Dr Manhattan (Billy Crudup in the film), the only one with any "real" super-powers, are still active but are working for the government. In the midst of this, one their kind, the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), is murdered and Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), who is still working outside the law, investigates.

Attempts to bring the novel to the screen started as early as 1987 but, for eighteen years, it resided in, what has been termed, "development hell". The project was beset with budget disputes, copyright violations and directors screaming that the novel was "unfilmable". Taking over the project in 2005, Zack Snyder remained faithful to the book. A number of critics have praised Snyder, declaring that he brought a brand of inventiveness, darkness, grittiness to it. On the other hand he has also received his share of criticism from some quarters who claim that by following the book so closely he failed to introduce originality on his part as the director.

(Notes) "X-Men" is a 2000 film whose storyline is requiring mutants (not superheroes) to be registered (not outlawed). "The Vigilante" is a 1947 serial and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is a 2003 film that is set in 1899.