Last week I looked at the special about Marvel comics. They were talking about the Marvel comics biz and the new anticipated Avengers: Age of Ultron movie that is set for next summer. They were talking about how all of a sudden their back catalogs of comics were being successful as movie franchises. I enjoyed the show for the most part especially hearing the new movies being slated for release soon. I couldn't help but be a little disappointed though when they omitted two very important reasons that the comic book movie adaptation had become big business of late. They gave credit to the Iron Man movie as being the big surprise hit that set the comic book adaptation biz on fire. They didn't mention the failed attempts with ben afleck's Daredevil or Electra with Jennifer Garner. Both movies I enjoyed but they were bona fied flops. But two movies breathed life into the comic book adaptation biz and we know both of them. One starred one of the biggest stars of the NBA and one of hollywood's biggest action stars!
The first movie surprisingly enough didn't come from a seasoned hollywood veteran but from the NBA. Shaquille O'neal was a fan of the comic book series Steele, basically a DC comics version of Iron Man only starring a black man. John Henry Irons appeared on the scene after DC surreptitiously killed off their major character Superman basically in an attempt to replace the man of steel himself. Hence the name of this new series Steele. The comic was quite successful (which makes you wonder why DC discontinued it) but eitherway, Shaquille wanted to do a movie version of it and somehow the project got put together. They omitted many many major elements of the comic book story (him not flying really pissed me off) and they made the movie at a very low-budget. Quincy Jones helmed the project for he also was interested in adapting this DC character. Though they took out a lot of familiar elements in the comic book for the film and a low budged the movie was a tremendous hit! It made millions of dollars world-wide and helped to stimulate the idea to make more comics related movies.
Now on a side note the next offering from DC was a movie based on the Green Lantern series which flopped miserably! Now I enjoyed the movie but no one else did. DC though dropped the ball and deprived themselves of a tremendous hit because they ignored one important fact; the original comic book of Green Lantern had stopped selling a long time ago. This generation was watching the Justice League of America cartoon series (which was very good) and Green Lantern on this series is African American! Now had they used Jon Stewart the BLACK Green Lantern for their movie, it would have been a huge hit! But DC has never been known for it's open-mindedness when it comes to race hence their refusal to do a sequel to their hit Steele.
The next movie that knocked the ball out of the part was made by another African American this time a veteran actor and martial arts and comic book enthusiaist Wesley Snipes and we know the movie; Blade! Blade was a minor character in a Spider Man back story from years ago. I barely remember the character for being we weren't made of money I would buy one comic book and would wait ages to buy another and yes they were only about .15 cents then. But Wesley Snipes managed to get permission to do a movie using this character (I guess they felt little could be done with it) and made movie history. Blade has earned over $200 million worldwide at the box office and spurred two more sequels! It helped to make the over-talented Wesley Snipes an international movie star (even though the little state of florida locked him up on trumped up charges of tax evasion) and spurred Marvel Studios to open their own movie studio and mine their other successful catalogs for more superhero gold! Iron Man came next and Captain America and then of course the most successful adaptation of all; The Avengers!
Well this is the TRUTH behind the interest in comic books as blockbuster movies. Oh there had been attempts before to adapt comics to movies, but until Shaquille O'neal and Wesley Snipes none of the other ones had been SUCCESSFUL! Now the lone exception may have been Spider Man but I think Blad was put out even before Tobey Mcguires interpretation of the iconic role. Because of Blade and Steele though other comics franchises were given new life with Batman, Man of Steele, the Fantastic Four, the Xmen and on and on. I don't know why the Marvel special omitted these BIG facts, but here it is now.
Get ready, Asamota's Corner will be moving from Blogger soon. It's been a long time and a lot of thought about this, but I feel Asamota's Corner will fare better on it's own site. Blogger was an ok start, but I've been suspecting for a long time that blogger has been a very bad relationship and it's time for a di vorce! So be looking for Asamota's Corner to move soon and we do appreciate all of the support we've had thus far from you.
The first movie surprisingly enough didn't come from a seasoned hollywood veteran but from the NBA. Shaquille O'neal was a fan of the comic book series Steele, basically a DC comics version of Iron Man only starring a black man. John Henry Irons appeared on the scene after DC surreptitiously killed off their major character Superman basically in an attempt to replace the man of steel himself. Hence the name of this new series Steele. The comic was quite successful (which makes you wonder why DC discontinued it) but eitherway, Shaquille wanted to do a movie version of it and somehow the project got put together. They omitted many many major elements of the comic book story (him not flying really pissed me off) and they made the movie at a very low-budget. Quincy Jones helmed the project for he also was interested in adapting this DC character. Though they took out a lot of familiar elements in the comic book for the film and a low budged the movie was a tremendous hit! It made millions of dollars world-wide and helped to stimulate the idea to make more comics related movies.
Now on a side note the next offering from DC was a movie based on the Green Lantern series which flopped miserably! Now I enjoyed the movie but no one else did. DC though dropped the ball and deprived themselves of a tremendous hit because they ignored one important fact; the original comic book of Green Lantern had stopped selling a long time ago. This generation was watching the Justice League of America cartoon series (which was very good) and Green Lantern on this series is African American! Now had they used Jon Stewart the BLACK Green Lantern for their movie, it would have been a huge hit! But DC has never been known for it's open-mindedness when it comes to race hence their refusal to do a sequel to their hit Steele.
The next movie that knocked the ball out of the part was made by another African American this time a veteran actor and martial arts and comic book enthusiaist Wesley Snipes and we know the movie; Blade! Blade was a minor character in a Spider Man back story from years ago. I barely remember the character for being we weren't made of money I would buy one comic book and would wait ages to buy another and yes they were only about .15 cents then. But Wesley Snipes managed to get permission to do a movie using this character (I guess they felt little could be done with it) and made movie history. Blade has earned over $200 million worldwide at the box office and spurred two more sequels! It helped to make the over-talented Wesley Snipes an international movie star (even though the little state of florida locked him up on trumped up charges of tax evasion) and spurred Marvel Studios to open their own movie studio and mine their other successful catalogs for more superhero gold! Iron Man came next and Captain America and then of course the most successful adaptation of all; The Avengers!
Well this is the TRUTH behind the interest in comic books as blockbuster movies. Oh there had been attempts before to adapt comics to movies, but until Shaquille O'neal and Wesley Snipes none of the other ones had been SUCCESSFUL! Now the lone exception may have been Spider Man but I think Blad was put out even before Tobey Mcguires interpretation of the iconic role. Because of Blade and Steele though other comics franchises were given new life with Batman, Man of Steele, the Fantastic Four, the Xmen and on and on. I don't know why the Marvel special omitted these BIG facts, but here it is now.
Get ready, Asamota's Corner will be moving from Blogger soon. It's been a long time and a lot of thought about this, but I feel Asamota's Corner will fare better on it's own site. Blogger was an ok start, but I've been suspecting for a long time that blogger has been a very bad relationship and it's time for a di vorce! So be looking for Asamota's Corner to move soon and we do appreciate all of the support we've had thus far from you.
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