Marvel has hit 20 #1 films in a row!

[Gaastra]

If you don't count the inhumans imax movie marvel has hit 20 #1 films in a row!


Not bad for a gamble that would have killed marvel if it failed with a lesser known hero called iron man!

[Mormel]

Not bad indeed, but to be fair they put their money on the Big Three of the Avengers (Tony, Cap, and Thor), who had sizeable fan followings from both their appearances in thecomics as well as other media like cartoons and video games.

Now a true gamble would have been if Marvel had decided to make movies about Stingray, Arachne, or Sleepwalker. =P

[Jokerz79]

Not bad indeed, but to be fair they put their money on the Big Three of the Avengers (Tony, Cap, and Thor), who had sizeable fan followings from both their appearances in thecomics as well as other media like cartoons and video games.

Now a true gamble would have been if Marvel had decided to make movies about Stingray, Arachne, or Sleepwalker. =P

I really do think comic fan over estimate the knowledge the average person had of most Marvel Characters until the X-Films probably the most visible characters to the general public were Spider-Man I mean he was a Macy Parade float, Hulk due to his TV series, and Captain America just do to his cultural status in America. But Iron Man was better known for the Black Sabbath song and Thor for being a Norse god not a comic character.

[Cyke]

If you don't count the inhumans imax movie

No one ever should count it for anything.

Not bad indeed, but to be fair they put their money on the Big Three of the Avengers (Tony, Cap, and Thor), who had sizeable fan followings from both their appearances in thecomics as well as other media like cartoons and video games.

Now a true gamble would have been if Marvel had decided to make movies about Stingray, Arachne, or Sleepwalker. =P

Kind of, yes and no. When Iron Man came out in 2008, among Marvel comic books the Avengers' popularity was still behind the X-Men and Spider-Man (though steadily on the rise with Bendis). Cap and Thor were roughly in the same ballpark, but Iron Man's success exceeded even Marvel's simply because Iron Man was a grade behind them -- Iron Man was the perfect candidate because while he was popular and a mainstay, he wasn't *that* popular that it would be brand-damaging risk should the movie fail (see: Ang Lee's Hulk); his own movie was kind of a testing ground. Now he's clearly an A-lister but a combination of the big push in comics (after his horrific 90s era) and the movies helped get him there.

I really do think comic fan over estimate the knowledge the average person had of most Marvel Characters until the X-Films probably the most visible characters to the general public were Spider-Man I mean he was a Macy Parade float, Hulk due to his TV series, and Captain America just do to his cultural status in America. But Iron Man was better known for the Black Sabbath song and Thor for being a Norse god not a comic character.

Yep. I get that Iron Man is popular and he's an A-lister now, but the 90s-mid 00s were a dark, dark time for anyone who wasn't in an X-Book. Even the FF had some memorable ups in the early 00s to make up for their own terrible 90s. It's kind of revisionist to say that Iron Man was always an A-list representative mascot for Marvel when really his star status is fairly recent.

[XPac]

It is pretty impressive if you think about it.

Being able to create nearly two dozen successful movies in a row. Most franchises struggle to even pull off a good sequal. If you can pull off a solid trilogy without any weak links, that's an accomplishment. But having an entire universe of movies created this way is a pretty darn amazing feat.

[Carabas]

If you don't count the inhumans imax movie...

A tv pilot is not a movie, no matter what kind of screen it is playing on.

[Powerboy]

Indeed, no other franchise in history has ever done that. For some bizarre reason, I feel compelled to say, "Take that Jody Foster and pout somewhere else" even though I understand her arguments.

[Gorthon616]

I really do think comic fan over estimate the knowledge the average person had of most Marvel Characters until the X-Films probably the most visible characters to the general public were Spider-Man I mean he was a Macy Parade float, Hulk due to his TV series, and Captain America just do to his cultural status in America. But Iron Man was better known for the Black Sabbath song and Thor for being a Norse god not a comic character.

To be honest, I don't even think Captain America has much of a cultural status prior to the movies. In terms of patriot characters, I think he's was pretty much a B-lister.

It less has to do with some innate popularity these characters had, and more to do with the fact that they had more developed identities and origins. This gives two benefits 1) they have inborn stories, so they don't have to be made up and 2) weirdness and oddities can be punted being "faithful to source material."

The reason you don't see many D-listers (and I would argue the Guardians were historically D-listers) is that most of them are terrible characters.

[CliffHanger2]

Not bad indeed, but to be fair they put their money on the Big Three of the Avengers (Tony, Cap, and Thor), who had sizeable fan followings from both their appearances in thecomics as well as other media like cartoons and video games.

Now a true gamble would have been if Marvel had decided to make movies about Stingray, Arachne, or Sleepwalker. =P

I do agree, Iron Man was not as obscure as ppl say. Even Ghost face from Wu-Tang had a Tony Stark alter-ego and that was in the late 90s.

[Midvillian1322]

Not bad indeed, but to be fair they put their money on the Big Three of the Avengers (Tony, Cap, and Thor), who had sizeable fan followings from both their appearances in thecomics as well as other media like cartoons and video games.

Now a true gamble would have been if Marvel had decided to make movies about Stingray, Arachne, or Sleepwalker. =P

Cap sure but your overselling the other 2. Xmen and Spiderman were the only animated shows for Marvel that were big enough to really develop a fan base. Ironman had some name recognition but not enough to help. But yes GOTG as they're first movie woulda been a bigger risk because alot of Comic readers barely knew them. But it's such a small part of the movie going audience I dont think it mattered. Though Ironman did star in a popular avnegers game for the SNES. But so did Hawkeye cap and Vision