I don’t know whether I should be ashamed of this bit of obscure knowledge or not, but does anyone remember the short lived Fox series MANTIS? Don’t feel too bad if you don’t. I only bring it up because my memory was refreshed while flipping through one of my old comics from that time. For one month in 1994, MANTIS received the coveted inside cover ad space just before the first page of comic story. The same space that was occupied by ads from films like Meteor Man and the Super Mario Brothers movie from around the same time.
The show itself attempted to introduce a new super-hero into popular culture, which has not been an easy task in the past 20 years. We can look back now and laugh a bit about how dated it looks, but I give it marks for effort when it comes to putting sci-fi super-heroics in prime time on a major network which happened in a time when shows like that looked really bad. For those unfamiliar, MANTIS (or Mechanically Automated NeuroTransmitter Interactive System) was the story of scientist Miles Hawkins who becomes paralyzed from the waist down as a result of a criminals bullet severing his spine. Hawkins invents a mechanical exo-skeleton which gives him the ability to walk (Why didn’t he patent it and let other paralyzed people benefit?) and decides to us his new suit to fight crime. Like Batman with more of a tech-savvy sci-fi flair, MANTIS uses an array of gadgets as well as a vehicle called the Chrysalid which can fly as well as double up as a submarine. Not too surprisingly, the show lasted one season with 2 unaired episodes premiering on the then Sci-Fi channel (now Sy Fy) I’m going to go ahead and spoil it for you here: MANTIS dies in the last episode.
I give the show an A for effort considering the era it was released, but sadly it is relegated to the realm of 90’s nostalgia. I had totally forgotten about it until I cracked open that comic book from 1994. Most attempts at super-hero shows in the late 80’s and the early 90’s fell short on quality as further evidenced by shows like Nightman, but that’s a story for next time.
-Jim
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One of my favorite bookstores in St. Louis. Star Clipper offers not only the best selection of comic books and graphic novels in the city, but also a cornucopia of art, design and pop-culture related books and magazines. 
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdpig1_city-of-scars_shortfilms
Does it bother anyone else that Valiant Comics had a saxophone playing jazzbo superhero named Shadowman, and Malibu/Marvel had a saxophone playing jazzbo superhero named Nightman? (Seriously, if this fact doesn’t prove the 90s was a terrible time to be a comic fan, I don’t know what does). It bothers me, because I have labored under the assumption that the TV show was based on the Valiant character, when the credits clearly state the show was based on the Marvel character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL71mUJm4FY
Also, that show as terrible. That guy’s roundhouse kick in the intro looked more like he was trying to sit on an invisible Shetland pony. And that power is clearly identified with Li’l Horseman of the Apocalypse.