Luke Cage

[JudgeDredd]

He's very much a good supporting character. Nothing I've heard or read even from people who liked the show, sounds to me like they succeed in making him more than that.  :(

For the past 30 years, Iron Man was essentially a supporting character
Dr Strange was a supporting character
Yes, they carried their own books...  barely
Jessica Jones - supporting
the Agents of SHIELD - supporting, and not even in their own books!
Black Panther - supporting
Ant-Man - the ultimate supporting character
The Inhumans have had multiple books canceled out from under them; still getting their own movie

Bingo. Marvel had sold away the rights to most of its A-list lineup before it struck gold with the first Iron Man flick. Most of the MCU characters are historically lesser heroes in the comic books. Who the hell had heard of the Guardians of the Galaxy before the movie? Only a few diehard Marvel fans. The rest of us were on wikipedia trying to figure out who Star Lord was.

I know nothing about any of these universes or comics or books - nothing.

The only thing I recall is Batman and Robin and the villains - and not even all of them.

So if Iron Man etc are not the A-listers - then who were?

[mirth]

Spiderman and the X-Men top the list. Fantastic Four is up there too.

Cap and Hulk are A-listers who have made into the MCU. Though it took a long while for them to cast Banner correctly and they have yet to do a really good standalone Hulk movie.

[Sir Slash]

My Marvel Nerd-Cred extends from the 60's through the 70's only. I am often confused and feel left-out concerning all things Marvel after than time period. Girls became the new 'Marvel' for me by then.

[mirth]

Girls became the new 'Marvel' for me by then.

Hence why Brant is such a Marvel expert.

[Nefaro]

So if Iron Man etc are not the A-listers - then who were?

For Marvel?

The X-Men
Spider-Man
Incredible Hulk


I think Iron Man, Captain America, and a couple others were quite recognizable by the general public, to some extent, in the past.  But they didn't have as good or regular exposure as the above, for many years.  Until the Marvel movies started making it big in recent years.  Mainly because the above had been around, in various television series for awhile, and people recognized them from those.  The '70s Hulk tv series, Spider-Man cartoons in the 80s, for example.

IIRC actual comic-wise, the X-Men series was probably their biggest & most popular one in the 80s and 90s.  I've seen it cited as boosting a resurgence in comic purchasing, back in the late 70s/early 80s, and again in the early 90s.  Guess it had some popular spurts.  I recall reading a couple, myself, in the early/mid-80s, and I never went out of my way to read comics as a kid.  So it must've been widely available.  Their popularity is why Fox Studios wanted the exclusive IP so bad (and got it).  I'm not sure how many more years Marvel is locked out of doing X-Men stuff, before they get the rights back, but I imagine the current people running the Marvel business would do better than Fox has with it.  They just got the Spider-Man IP back (from Sony?), so that may highlight the differences between plain 'ole Hollywood doing superhero movies, and the company that lives & breaths it.


Stuff like Fantastic Four, and Captain America, were pretty old and became less popular later in the 20th C.

[bayonetbrant]

My in-depth Marvel knowledge starts to fall off in the mid-00s.  But 80s-late 90s is pretty good.  I worked next to a comic book store for a year, and was good friends with all the guys there, and I've got 8-10 full-length boxes of my collection up in the Man Cave™

[mirth]

I think the licenses are tied to how often movies get made. So, if Sony didn't do a Spiderman movie for x-number of years, the rights would revert to Marvel. That's why you see these franchises rebooted with new movies churned out so frequently. It's to maintain the license.

It's also why you don't see more marketing support in the way of new comics and merchandise built around the Xmen and Spiderman movies. Marvel/Disney controls those rights and doesn't want to support the movies from competing Studios.

[mirth]

I've got 8-10 full-length boxes of my collection up in the Man Cave™

O0

[mirth]

I really, really, really hope a Moon Knight series happens.

[BanzaiCat]

Moon Knight? Sure.

Micronauts and/or ROM: Spaceknight? AWW HELL YEAH

[bayonetbrant]

I really, really, really hope a Moon Knight series happens.

Just make sure to keep the full schizophrenic nature of him and not water it down with too much mystical Khonshu bullshit. He's a low-rent Batman with copycat gadgets but more mental issues and it's the craziness that makes him work

[bayonetbrant]

Moon Knight? Sure.

Micronauts and/or ROM: Spaceknight? AWW HELL YEAH

They're all toy licenses that marvel got the rights to from the manufacturers, but they don't have the movie rights to comics from 30+ years ago

[Sir Slash]

ENEMY ACE!  Bring back Enemy Ace Dammit! And give him a brooding, movie role too along with his Fokker DR 1 that calls him "Killer" every time he shoots-down a Spaz in a Spad. I'd pay $8 to see that.

[BanzaiCat]

Moon Knight? Sure.

Micronauts and/or ROM: Spaceknight? AWW HELL YEAH

They're all toy licenses that marvel got the rights to from the manufacturers, but they don't have the movie rights to comics from 30+ years ago

Way to go, Captain Buzzkill.

[JasonPratt]

Isn't ROM still in continuity? Anyway, yeah it would be kind of like Marvel doing Godzilla again (which was great -- Toho even still uses the design Herb Trimpe drew as their official product icon!). Or Star Wars again (which was great, but owned by Disney... now... ........)