25 Years Ago, Blade Was A Great Comic Book Movie Before Comic Book Movies Were Cool
In the Marvel vs. DC debate, it’s important to remember that the latter had a headstart of several decades. Some of DC Comics’ most popular characters were introduced on the page in the late 1930s and early 1940s, allowing them to stand at the very base of the pop culture firmament. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman both enjoyed massive success on the page and on the screen before the hotshot company Marvel entered its Golden Age in earnest. Marvel’s star characters Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, et al, didn’t hit shelves until the early ’60s. While Marvel found its footing, Batman was starring in one of the best superhero movies ever made.
In cinemas, it took Marvel equally long to find a toehold. Films like “Superman” and “Batman” were overwhelmingly huge for decades, while Marvel had to be content with the success of “The Incredible Hulk” on television. 1986’s “Howard the Duck” was a notorious bomb, and some Marvel fans may have seen Oley Sassone’s notoriously cheap 1994 film “Fantastic Four” … which was never officially released. It wasn’t until the Man of Steel petered out with “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” and Batman crashed into the ground with 1997’s “Batman & Robin” that DC’s ascendency in theaters drifted slowly to the ground.
By then, it was the ’90s and everything was edgy and self-aware. Beavis and Butt-Head commented on MTV videos and “Mystery Science Theater 3000” blended comedy and criticism. It was the age of deconstruction.
In this milieu, superheroes could not be bright and traditional. They had to be violent and edgy. They had to live in stylized universes (see: “The Crow”), or they had to be ultra-cool, black-clad sword warriors at a vampire rave.
Enter Stephen Norrington’s 1998 film “Blade.”