One of the driving forces behind the extraordinary proliferation of comic-book action heroes in cinema in recent years is the great technical leap forward in computer animation that can subtly augment Batman's agility in The Dark Knight or completely replace an entire superhero team in The Incredibles.

Undaunted by the output from million-dollar server farms in the service of big budget Hollywood productions, though, is the fan-film subculture which, as we've seen in these pages before , continues to tilt quixotically at the superhero windmill.

The best way to carve your own niche in the film-fan universe is not to throw money at the problem but instead display a more fertile imagination than your peers. For example, the Arkham after Midnight series, which envisions the Batman legend as it might have been presented by the creators of The Cabinet of Dr Cagliari.

The first chapter of this silent gem, with its creepy, scratchy, scary underscore, tells of Batman's visit to Gotham's eerie asylum for the criminally insane in search of an illegal drugs factory. By carefully combining dozens of forgotten 1920s features and newsreels the clip creates a mood of horror and foreboding around the comic-book hero's quest for justice. More chapters are promised, building into a feature-length assembly of half-decayed footage telling the story of the Dark Knight's most deadly investigation.

By contrast, The Inevitable Alliance is a brightly coloured glimpse into the mind of a sugar-rushing young boy as a colossal collection of Marvel comics action figures duke it out in a veritable superhero Götterdämmerung. If you've ever looked at a young relative while he is locked in that secret imaginary world of plastic Hulks and X-Men, this is what he's really seeing.

Meanwhile, dispensing with narrative altogether in favour of a technical demonstration of sheer geek power, is CurrentTV's hallucinatory home movie footage of the Galactic Empire's occupation of San Francisco.

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