Variety‘s Brian Lowry wonders what future superheroes have on the big and small screen once DC Comics and Marvel run through their catalog of “household names”:
Strictly surveying comic books, once you exhaust major stars at Marvel and Time Warner-owned DC Comics — Spider-Man, X-Men and the Hulk in the former’s arsenal; Superman, Batman and perhaps Wonder Woman in the latter — the pickings become decidedly slim. Marvel is taking another pass at the Hulk after Ang Lee’s overwrought stab, rolls out Ghost Rider next year and has Iron Man on the launchpad. Based on the track record of films like The Punisher, Hellboy and Constantine, none of these figure to give Spider-Man a run for his money.
With most of big guns already discharged, that raises the specter of marching into battle with titles like DC’s the Flash and Green Lantern or Marvel’s Captain America and the Black Panther.
Lowry notes, somewhat approvingly, the publishers’ moves into direct-to-DVD projects, such as Ultimate Avengers and the upcoming New Frontier.
However, in his overview of lucrative franchises, he neglects Marvel’s Blade, which starred a character known only to superhero fans, yet went on to gross $130 million worldwide. I can’t even guess what it made in DVD sales.
Sure, the final installment of the series was a dog — Parker Posey, why did you foresake us? — but the first two demonstrated that a third-tier character could successfully translate to film. Of course, on the downside, the profitability of the Blade franchise probably contributed to Marvel’s belief that everyone from Ant-Man to Gargoyle has big-screen potential.
November 8th, 2006 at 8:04 am
Firstly, is Iron Man a B-lister? Secondly, Men In Black also did pretty well for a C-list comic book.
November 8th, 2006 at 8:16 am
In comparison to Spider-Man, Superman, et al, I’d say he is. I’d wager that outside of comics fans, few have ever heard of Iron Man.
November 8th, 2006 at 8:29 am
Well, comic readers and fans of Black Sabbath…
November 8th, 2006 at 8:31 am
Ha!
November 8th, 2006 at 9:26 am
Most of those movies that didn’t do so well also sucked. For example, Catwoman.
November 8th, 2006 at 10:40 am
Years ago, somebody was talking about adding Morbius to the Blade franchise, but it never panned out. He seems perfect for a movie, like Blade: a cool character that’s never, ever had a really great story in the comics.
It just popped into my head: Goran Visnjic from E.R. would be a perfect Morbius. Too bad Electra probably put him off the comic movies…
November 8th, 2006 at 11:24 am
In comparison to Spider-Man, Superman, et al, I’d say he is. I’d wager that outside of comics fans, few have ever heard of Iron Man.
You’re right. But also most people who aren’t comic fans hadn’t heard of the X-Men before the film (I remember newspaper articles coming out before the first X-Men film explaining who the X-Men were).
Same, I expect, goes for Captain America (not in the UK anyway). And Green Lantern. And Black Panther.
The above article seems to consider Green Lantern and Black Panther A-list but not Iron Man (the current Civil War headliner).
November 8th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
I thought that he was saying that the Flash et al are also B-listers. The only A-listers being Spidey, X-Men, Hulk, Superman, Batman and WW.
How did Daredevil and the Fantastic 4 do in the US? They’re potential A-listers, or at least halfway between A and B.
November 8th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
Nimbus -
I think you’ve misread it. They’re saying that Captain America, Black Panther, Flash and Green Lantern are the B-listers. The A-listers have already had movies made or have movies in development. I’d put Iron Man in the same league as these guys, I suppose.
And Kevin, a LOT of folks don’t know that Blade was a comic book character before becoming a movie franchise. You might expect that a reporter for Variety would do his homework on that, but I no longer expect reporters to do homework on important stories, let alone puff pieces about comic-book movies.
November 8th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
Really the quality of the movie and the marketing play into it more than name recognition.
November 8th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
I’d say that the A-Listers are:
Superman
Batman
Spider-man
Hulk
Wonder Woman
X-Men/Wolverine
Those are the ones EVERYONE knows…