I agree. It's just as stupid as the lights inside the space helmets so you can see "the talent's" face. Thoroughly stupid, of course. I suspect actor vanity and brain dead agents are involved at some level.

Anyone who doesn't get why should just take a drive away from the city lights some dark night, then turn on the interior lights in the car. When you get tired of looking at your reflection in the windows, you'll get it.

I think it all started in Batman Returns. Keaton was pissed because Bruce Wayne got very little screen time in the first movie, so if you remember correctly, at the end of the movie, he removes his mask for Catwoman...blah blah blah. That kind of set the precedent.

It does annoy me, especially in the Spider-Man movies, I swear he takes his mask off more than he actually wears it. Obviously Peter Parker never worries about people trying to take his picture or anything...

Actually, the Spider-Man movies pretty much follow the pattern of the comics when it comes to unmasking the hero (either fully or partially). It's always the same thing: during the climactic battle, Spider-Man gets the ever-loving crap kicked out of him by the villain, so much so that at a minimum his mouth and one eye are exposed. Spidey is on the ropes and then gets one last surge of strength so he can defeat the villain.

It's true that this has been taken advantage of in the movies to allow the star more face time on screen, but it's definitely faithful to the source material.

As an aside, Iron Man is hands-down the best superhero movie to date.

The only time a superhero should take off his mask is to eat or blow his nose. And I'm sure Iron Man's suit blows his nose for him.

The unmasking(s) in Spider-Man 2 drove me absolutely nuts. I've yet to see Iron Man but I'm sure they're just as unnecessary.

And I always thought there was some "Holy Book" written by some Joseph Campbell wanna-be that claims this is a necessary step in the superhero's path.

Lately though, it seems like many (not all) superheros don't even have secret identities to mask/unmask... Heroes, 4400, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, etc. (I never finished 4400 or Buffy, so I suppose I can be wrong). Instead, they run around and hide their abilities and/or attempt to live normal lives. Even Clark Kent in Smallville has been following this formula, although we know he will ultimately become Superman.

Off topic, but blame Kris & PMD for triggering some proto-senile memory cells.

It is indeed true that the Marvel movies, Spiderman for example, follow the comics pretty closely. That scene in the first movie with the Spidey suit in trash can could have come right out of the drawing in the original comic--probably did. I think the success of most of the Marvel character movies, verses the DC flops, is due in large part to the makers of the Marvel-based films sticking with the comics they are taken from.

I've not seen Iron Man yet, but it looks like they've monkeyed with the original character a bit. It probably doesn't matter--after all the first appearance of IM was 45 years ago (Tales of Suspense, March 1963) and you could hardly have the guy getting blown up in 'Nam like in the comic..

As for Smallville, good riddance. All the top actors have bailed or are about to do so and they've painted themselves into a corner. My own opinion is that the hacks who write the thing ran out of ideas when the kids got out of high school and started bringing in characters that didn't appear in the comic book story lines until years later. Not to mention that it's looking like half the population of Krypton seems to have survived in the Phantom Zone, it's a piece of cake to break out of and everybody hates Kal-El because his father invented the thing.

The whole Superman backstory started showing up in the 1950s and 1960s in the comics, including a single scene explaining how Lex and Superboy were friends until the lab accident that resulted in Lex being a teen aged baldy. Superboy saved Lex's life, but Lex blamed Superboy for the incident.

Smallville kind of reminds me of the Iraq war--no "where do we go from here" plan.

The main problem with DC all boils down to the "Superboy Punch". 'Nuff said.

The only real monkeying they did with Iron Man was to forklift the origin story and move it forward by 45 years. The faces and names of the bad guys have changed, but the origin remains true in spirit to the original version.