How the Avengers Went From B-Team to A-Team.

Once those films dropped, that all changed and now the benched players were delivering highly-rated films. Marvel was swimming in money. Meanwhile, two of the three A-tier players were mostly dropping the ball as far quality films but still generating hundreds of millions.

With that, The Avengers, Captain America, and Iron Man became A-tier players and that was reflected in the comics and other media.

5 Things To Love About X-Men Vol. 2.

It’s a fun read for fans of Marvel Comics’ mutant franchises or if you fancy yourself a bit of a historian and want to check out the writing and style from this period in comics.

Judge Dredd vs. Judge Death: Round 1.

In the last encounter of the story, Judge Death has already started reviving—or reanimating—his body. Dredd comes out of nowhere and blasts the skeleton to fragments! Death is annoyed and goes to escape but Dredd has the room sealed off tight. His foe returns to Anderson’s mind, aiming to kill Dredd only to get sprayed with something call “Boing” which encased her in an unescapable bubble. This meant Judge Death couldn’t’ escape either.

Comic Book Revamps Are A Mixed Bag.

It’s kind of rare to find long-running series that have just rolled along with new publisher-wise comic book revamps. Image Comic’s superhero side kept soldiering on from the early 1990s and have made some retcons to story elements, powers, and individuals. It also has a lot of series that actually end, something that has become more commonplace in comics.

That doesn’t mean that we can expect Tony, Steve, Peter, Clark, and Ollie to all die, stay dead, and new heroes take up their mantles. That would smack too much of progress.

Panels On Screen: Spawn.

None of those films really stole the show revenue-wise to warrant sequels or spin-offs. I mean, we got some strong acting performances but studios look at sales and drawing potential. Waiting to Exhale came close enough while 1998’s Blade which had a balance similar to Spawn’s blew the doors off for comic book films and Black leads in comic book films. It’s an honor that should’ve gone to Spawn since it was actually hot in the 90s.

Remember Those Holographic Edition Comic Books?

As you probably guessed, there were a ton of holographic covers and even more special editions for these big story events and debuts. People who collected purely to collect and resell the comics didn’t know that publishers tend to roll back story decisions regularly. It’s very rare that a character just stays dead or remains powerless in comics. The late 80s and the 90s were a big period for significant deaths such as The Death of Superman.

Nighthawk: The Batman Marvel Deserve.

Low-to-no potential of a breakout star is enough to kneecap a potential series. It also results in some ideas never seeing the light of day. In that same stroke, those ideas can be considered groundbreaking years later. Nighthawk and Squadron Supreme always seemed like a group of characters made as a knock-off Justice League.

However, it also seemed like something more could be done with Nighthawk and the crew. Sometimes Marvel were on the right road with them and other times—not so much.

Comics Are Soap Operas With Worse Relationships.

Now, it would probably be difficult to recommend comics to most people by saying they’re soap operas in page form.

The Comic Book Industry Should Bring Back Anthologies.

Speaking of that character, the post-Marvel Civil War Initiative period could’ve been a starting point for this. This part of the storyline introduced several interesting characters and put a spotlight on others. I’d never figured Constrictor could be that funny. An anthology series covering this would’ve been nice but probably would’ve interfered with the larger story being told.

Panels On Screen: Spider-Man.

Now, the web-slinger’s TV history is longer and more involved. It got its first cartoon in 1967. In 1981, Marvel began producing its own Spidey cartoon. The cartoons didn’t become good in quality until 1994’s Spider-Man on FOX.

While it ended on a cliffhanger, for the most part it was a good series that drew heavily from the comics. However, the best of Spidey’s animation came with the 2003 cartoon which was based the first film. The Spidey series that came after it in 2008, 2012, and 2017 have all been really good cartoons as well. Particularly 2012’s Ultimate Spider-Man.

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