All I really wanted as a kid was to see a movie based on characters from Marvel Comics on the big screen. Growing up there were movies based on DC characters like the Superman and Batman but none from Marvel.
And it wasn’t like Marvel wasn’t trying. Their first movie in theaters Howard the Duck (1986) seems like an odd choice now but for a time the character was extremely popular and seemed like it could be a crossover hit but instead was a colossal flop. And there were a few more attempts shortly after with films like Captain America and The Punisher that went direct to video and Fantastic Four that went direct to nowhere and has never officially been released.
Still, reading the back pages of the magazine Comics Scene which each month teased that a James Cameron directed Spider-Man movie was in the works and Tom Cruise was set to star as Tony Stark in Iron Man –– movies based on Marvel characters seemed to be closer than ever and further away too.
In 1998 my prayers were answered with Blade and then in quick succession X-Men and Spider-Man. Over the following years some of these movies would be good, mostly sequels to X-Men and Spider-Man, and some not so good, Ghost Rider, Daredevil, Elektra, another Fantastic Four… Which is kind’a how I thought comics based on comics would be, a few gems mixed in with the dung.
But all that changed ten years ago with the release of Iron Man on May 2, 2008. This movie wasn’t just based on a character from Marvel, it was also produced by Marvel too which meant the people working on Iron Man actually understood how to translate the character to the big screen. Iron Man was great, quickly becoming a fan-favorite film and was one of the biggest movies of 2008. The Incredible Hulk would follow that same summer and while not attaining anything near the box office of Iron Man was still a good movie none-the-less.
In quick succession Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger would follow over the next few years. And while I don’t think any of these three movies are great, I still think they’re good. And, more importantly, they all made loads of money at the box office.
In fact, Marvel went from a company in the 1990s that was on the verge of bankruptcy to one that was bought by Disney for a reported $9 billion dollars based on the strength of the characters and movies alone.
What would change everything was the release of The Avengers in 2012. That movie was well-written, acted, had amazing action sequences… that I think from The Avengers on audiences would no longer accept mediocre comic book movies, or just about every comic book movie released prior to this point, and would only accept great ones.
Great movies like Iron Man 3 and Thor: Ragnarok would follow and would be embraced by audiences. Not-so-great movies like The Amazing Spider-Man and yet another Fantastic Four would also follow and would be condemned by those same audiences.
Which is a double edged sword. When a movie can’t be just “good” anymore and has to be groundbreaking and “great” it sets an artificially high standard. I thought films like Suicide Squad and the condemned Fantastic Four were good, but since they’re not great it means that fans of the genera feel safe openly deriding them.
Still, this artificially high standard has produced a lot of classic movies over the last decade that I think people will still be talking about generations to come.
And now we enter another decade of movies based on Marvel Comics with more than ten films featuring their characters due out over the next few years. I don’t see any sign of movies based on Marvel comics slowing down anytime soon — they make way to much money at the box office to do that. Still, I can’t imagine if there was some way I could magically send a message to myself as a kid wishing for these movies that I’d actually believe my older self that there would one day be so many good Marvel movies out there.
After having spent so much time wishing for a good Marvel movie such an embarrassment of riches these days wouldn’t seem to have been possible.
