By: Rashad Uhuru, Follow South Jersey Community Journalist
SOUTH JERSEY – On August 19, 1998, Blade was released in theaters. Wesley Snipes embodied the Marvel half-man, half-vampire on a quest to rid the world of all vampires. The movie did well commercially, and more importantly people loved it.
The success of Blade culturally opened the eyes of studios and filmmakers on the real potential of comic book characters being adapted to the big screen.
In 1999, Sony bought the rights to Spider-Man for $7 million. They saw him as the true champion of Marvel and the character that had the great power to headline a comic book movie project.
Tobey Maguire was cast as the web-slinging hero as director Sam Raimi helped complete the vision from Sony over the course of three movies. Maguire’s Spider-Man has become a cemented part of pop culture from these appearances across the 2000s.
On May 2, 2008, Robert Downey Jr. brought Iron Man to life. This has become one of the strongest and most notable tethers between an actor and a character in film history.
This buy-in of Downey Jr.’s portrayal from fans and the overall win Iron Man was for Marvel Studios has led to one of the most prominent and long lasting franchises we have ever seen with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
These are three of the pillars and foundational factors for why the comic book movie is so prevalent in the film industry in the current day.
It’s why you have a month like this past July where two comic book movies released with some of the most popular characters in both the Marvel and DC universe just over two weeks apart with Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Companies like Marvel and DC date back to the 1930s. The comic book fandom is one of the most passionate that there is out there.
Stories span across years as readers grow and change with the characters on the page. Providing a temporary but necessary escape, or just pure entertainment.
Comic book stores are the gateway into this world for passionate fans. A world where they can be completely enveloped by characters of all types.
They allow dedicated readers to find everything they are looking for to scratch that itch while helping new fans get started on their comic journey.
They make the enjoyment of these stories readily available for their community.
As much of a great phenomenon as the modern comic book movie has been, they have become a lot more polarizing over the last several years.
The MCU has somewhat faded as this great cinematic universe with a clear interconnection between movies in the hearts of fans.
They’re calling it “superhero fatigue.” Fans have claimed repetitive stories and a high frequency of releases that are too much to keep up with as reasons why they are more out than in.
With comic book shops as the key keepers of comic books, I was curious as to what they thought about these on screen counterparts of these written heroes and villains, and if they agreed that they have lost the way of the comic book.
The best of the best
All of the owners that I spoke to from these shops have been reading for years and years. They were reading before this live action adaption revolution started, and a couple of them had great reactions to their increase.
The Comic Book Store in Glassboro has been a South Jersey comic and gaming staple for over 15 years. They can and want to help you start your journey with reading these books and getting into these characters.
I spoke to the shop’s owner Tim and he said he was very excited when all of these characters started to come to live action. Something he’d never thought he’d see. He noted Blade as the first of the modern comic book movie wave.
He also spoke about the true impact that it had culturally as we talked about before. He says “Comic Blade became Wesley Snipes”.
Because the movie was so popular, writers couldn’t help but take inspiration from the actor’s performance. Snipes became bigger than Blade.
Ron’s Comic World in Mount Holly describes itself as a place to buy what you love, talk about comics, play for fun, and make new friends. They pride themselves on providing the best selection of comics and games in the area as well as a family friendly environment.
Ron has been a comic reader since he was a kid favoriting some of the pillars of the DC Universe like Superman and Batman.
He highlighted Downey Jr’s portrayal of Iron Man saying “He was Tony Stark”.
He applauded the MCU for its build up to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame and how 11 years of story was executed so well.
With Superman as his favorite hero he enjoyed the character’s latest adaptation played by actor David Corenswet saying “it got the whole thing right”.
Ron has high hopes that the MCU can once again provide fans with exactly what they want.
There is a lot of good with the live action versions of these characters, but these shops made sure to let me know what doesn’t work.
Different mediums
I am a comic fan myself but for knowledge of the medium I defer to these experts. Their decades and decades of knowledge has led to true understandings of these characters and I was curious as to what they thought about the job the movie adaptations do.
Panther Comics located in Turnersville has a wide array of books to choose from, as well as collectibles. I spoke to the shop’s owner Chris and he told me why the difference in mediums, books vs movies, leads to these theatrical releases falling short for him.
He first highlighted drawn out origins as something that simply takes him out of these movies.
He wants to see Spider-Man, so having to watch Peter Parker for longer than desired before he even touches that radioactive spider doesn’t do it for him. He wants to see Venom, not the drag that is watching Eddie Brock fumbling around as a reporter before infusing with the symbiote.
Drawn out first acts become boring for him.
Even outside of comic book movies, Chris is still much more a fan of books.
“I am much happier reading something and filling in the visuals with my imagination. I feel more connected to written stories because I am able to contribute to the experience of the story I’m reading versus sitting quietly and experiencing something I have no vested interest in.”
The more observational interaction with watching a screen isn’t as interesting for him as the collaborative potential with reading a page.
Tim from the Comic Book Store had a similar sentiment. He rated the accuracy of these live action iterations at around 70%, but is unsure of the validity of the comparison to begin with.
Reading a 50 page graphic novel is much different than watching a 2 hour movie.
Although they may be based around the same characters and movies take from written source material, these two different mediums are trying to do very different things.
For Chris, books simply do it better. They allow him to be more a part of the story and they waste less time.
In Tim’s mind the two are so different that we should probably treat them as such.
Mishandlings from studios
Comic book companies, writers, and illustrators have created, developed, and cherished their characters for many years. Much longer than studios have been producing these movies.
These writers and creators, as well as fans, have to trust that these studios will do right by these characters, but this isn’t always the case.
Again for Chris, not exclusive to comic book movies, he believes studios can be lazy with how they go about things. Taking vaulted scripts and plugging in actors and characters without much thought.
When this happens with comic book movies he says this can make for storylines that do not fit the character specifically. He recalls watching one of Fox’s Wolverine movies and following a plot that more resembled a Jason Bourne film than one anything close to the comic book mutant.
He felt they simply picked an unused and available action plot and stuck any random character in.
Ron has enjoyed seeing these stories come to the big screen when they’re done well but he isn’t always satisfied.
For Ron, sometimes the rich storytelling of the books is absent. He highlighted the focus on action in recent movies, but sometimes it’s shallow otherwise.
For Fantastic Four: First Steps, he loved what he saw in the scenes with Galactus, the movie’s antagonist. But it was “just okay” outside of that.
He and his son thought “It’s over?” at the end, leaving them wanting more.
Because of Chris’ fundamental preference for books and critiques on studios production processes these comic characters are very rarely done justice in his mind or are of any worth of his viewing.
Ron does enjoy the movies, but what got him into comics was always the storytelling which is sometimes lacking comparatively.
Final verdict
Overall, for me these movies have been great. Not even necessarily speaking about their quality, although there are many that I would consider top tier, there are many I do not care for at all.
I’m really speaking about their impact. Every individual feels the way they feel about them but the sweeping effect they have had on the world of film is undeniable.
Personally, they have been a big part of my life. I have loved to discuss with family and friends and break down each one I’ve had the pleasure of watching.
But I do believe the tight grasp on the understanding of how to make a compelling comic book movie has slipped a bit from the hands of something like the MCU. Subsequently, the grasp they have had on fans has slipped too.
Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps were pretty good in my mind, but more work will need to be done and more will need to be proven in order for the comic book movie to retain its positive reputation.
Again, naturally I went to who I consider the experts of the core of these movies, the comic characters themselves from the written stories that have been around for almost a century.
To these comic stores, sometimes an adaptation is done so well that it takes the character to a new level, but things like lax attitudes from studios and the fundamentally different mediums of books and movies can make things shaky.
These movies will and I believe should continue, but with proper care and time. I trust they will return to form and become very worth watching once again.
It was a treat to speak to these comic book shops. I’ve always been a fan of the movies. They pulled me in and made me want to learn more so I could actually participate in conversations about these storied characters. Shops like The Comic Book Store, Panther Comics, and Ron’s Comic World helped me to do so.
Linked above are each one of their websites so you can check them out!
Chris has helped to collect thousands of pounds of food for his Read 2 Feed program which is in its 12th year of collecting non-perishable food items for the Food Bank of South Jersey.
In 2025, they are on pace to hit 10,000 pounds in a single year.
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