A strange new power

"Iron Man," "Hancock," "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and "The Incredible Hulk" were other major hits in a season that might be remembered as the Summer of Glove. More than that, you have to go back to 1998's "Saving Private Ryan" to find a year when the top movie wasn't a hero movie or an animated film.

The Scream Awards presented a pop-culture environment where filmmakers like "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan shared the same stage as comic-book writers such as Mike Mignola, creator of "Hellboy," who said that in the old days Hollywood would strip-mine comics and scoff at the creators. Now, they walk on the same red carpet, which on Saturday night had giant posters of the Green Lantern and Spider-Man above it.

"Comic books have given birth to all of this," Mignola said. "Comic books are the baby that gave birth to a giant. And sometimes it was a difficult delivery.

"After this summer, everything is getting green-lit in Hollywood; there are so many projects in the pipeline that they won't all fit into the summer release schedules," he added. "So you're going to see summer last all year long. Comic-book movies are going to be year-round. It's the center of entertainment right now."

Casey Patterson, executive producer of the award show, said the event began three years ago with an emphasis on horror, a genre that was surging at that time thanks to movies such as the "Saw" films and "Hostel." But in subsequent years, the show widened to embrace comic books and fantasy.

Burton, Lucas and horror icon Wes Craven were handed career awards on Saturday night, underlining the range of Scream constituencies. The biggest winner was "The Dark Knight," with 12 awards.

The winners for the Scream Awards are determined by fans who vote at the network's website; nominations are influenced by an advisory board that includes author Stephen King, filmmaker Kevin Smith and graphic novel writer Neil Gaiman. The categories picked by the Viacom-owned Spike aren't especially staid -- there's a trophy for most memorable mutilation, for example.

It will be interesting to see whether Nolan and the late Heath Ledger, who played the Joker in "Dark Knight," will be in the running for Oscars, Patterson said. Traditionally, old Hollywood ignores superhero fare in the marquee categories.

"It's not that comic-book movies are coming to the mainstream; it's that the mainstream is coming to comic-book movies," Patterson said.