Comicbook Movies of the Millennium: 2002

 This film turned out to not only be the biggest comicbook to date, but also became the fastest grossing film of all time. Based on Marvel Comics' most popular superhero, this story is about Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), a nerdy high-schooler who accidently acquires superpowers and becomes driven by his Uncle’s legacy of “With great power must also come great responsibility.” (Perhaps one of the greatest hero mantras of all time.) One day while on an excursion to a laboratory a runaway a radioactive spider bites him, changing his live forever. Meanwhile an eccentric millionaire Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) injects himself with a performance enhancing drug unleashing his maniacal alter ego the Green Goblin. Now Peter has to become Spider-Man for real and take out the Goblin.  This is the sequel to the 1998 film, Blade that was adapted from the Marvel Comics vampire slayer, and starring Wesley Snipes.  A rare mutation has occurred within the vampire community, creating a whole new classification of vampire, called a Reaper — a vampire so consumed with an insatiable bloodlust that they prey on vampires as well as humans. One bite from a Reaper transforms victims who actually survive into Reapers themselves. The quickly expanding population of Reapers threatens the existence of not only humans, but vampires as well, and soon there won't be enough humans in the world to satisfy their bloodlust. Blade, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) and an armory expert named Scud (Norman Reedus) are summoned by the vampire Shadow Council who reluctantly admit that they require Blade's assistance. Blade reluctantly agrees to ally himself with The Bloodpack, an elite team of vampires trained in all modes of combat in order to defeat the Reapers.  Adapted from the Paradox Press comic by Max Allan Collins, and illustrated by Richard Piers Rayner, the story follows Mike Sullivan (Tom Hanks) who works as a hit man for crime boss John Rooney (Paul Newman). Sullivan views Rooney as a father figure. However after Sullivan’s son (Tyler Hoechlin) witness a killing Sullivan has done the pair find themselves on the run while looking for revenge on those who wronged him. Complicating their lives is that they are also being pursued by Harlen Maguire (Jude Law) another hit man who has been hired to kill Sullivan.View the list »
“With great power must also come great responsibility.”

Animation newsletter

Yes, we totally love comicbook movies, and just over a decade into the new Millennium we have nearly 100 movies that have been based upon comics appear on the Silver screen. In 2003 there just four comicbook movies that were released; two based on Marvel comics, one on a Malibu Comic (an independent company that was eventually acquired by Marvel) and the fourth that was published by Paradox Press (an imprint from DC Comics). Given that our love of popular culture began with comics and grew into movies, we have determined to briefly chat about all of the comicbook-related films that have been made since the year 2000. (The first part of this series appeared here, while the second part appeared here).

Related topics

Advertisement

The criteria that we are using throughout this series of essays is specifically films that either started off in comics, are clearly influenced by comicbooks and/or comicbook superheroes, or have an appreciable amount of their history connected to comicbooks. Films we won’t be discussing any films that appeared on TV (either live action or animated), theatrically-released films that were strictly animated, films that may have had been adapted in comics, but were best known from another medium (i.e.; Star Trek, Star Wars), or films that were released to DVD.

__________

Robert J. Sodaro has been reviewing comicbooks for some 30 years. During that time, his reviews and articles have appeared in numerous print publications, as well as on the web. Subscribe to receive regular comicbook articles and reviews.

View the list
  •  Adapted from the Paradox Press comic by Max Allan Collins, and illustrated by Richard Piers Rayner, the story follows Mike Sullivan (Tom Hanks) who works as a hit man for crime boss John Rooney (Paul Newman). Sullivan views Rooney as a father figure. However after Sullivan’s son (Tyler Hoechlin) witness a killing Sullivan has done the pair find themselves on the run while looking for revenge on those who wronged him. Complicating their lives is that they are also being pursued by Harlen Maguire (Jude Law) another hit man who has been hired to kill Sullivan.
  •  This is the sequel to the 1998 film, Blade that was adapted from the Marvel Comics vampire slayer, and starring Wesley Snipes.  A rare mutation has occurred within the vampire community, creating a whole new classification of vampire, called a Reaper — a vampire so consumed with an insatiable bloodlust that they prey on vampires as well as humans. One bite from a Reaper transforms victims who actually survive into Reapers themselves. The quickly expanding population of Reapers threatens the existence of not only humans, but vampires as well, and soon there won't be enough humans in the world to satisfy their bloodlust. Blade, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) and an armory expert named Scud (Norman Reedus) are summoned by the vampire Shadow Council who reluctantly admit that they require Blade's assistance. Blade reluctantly agrees to ally himself with The Bloodpack, an elite team of vampires trained in all modes of combat in order to defeat the Reapers. 
  •  This film turned out to not only be the biggest comicbook to date, but also became the fastest grossing film of all time. Based on Marvel Comics' most popular superhero, this story is about Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), a nerdy high-schooler who accidently acquires superpowers and becomes driven by his Uncle’s legacy of “With great power must also come great responsibility.” (Perhaps one of the greatest hero mantras of all time.) One day while on an excursion to a laboratory a runaway a radioactive spider bites him, changing his live forever. Meanwhile an eccentric millionaire Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe) injects himself with a performance enhancing drug unleashing his maniacal alter ego the Green Goblin. Now Peter has to become Spider-Man for real and take out the Goblin. 
  •  Another sequel (this time from ’97) has Agent J (Will Smith) needing to seek out and reactivate his old partner, Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) from retirement to confront an old enemy of MIB, a Kylothian named Surleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) who is searching for a powerful artifact called The Light of Zartha. Now the partners must attempt to halt Surleena’s plans before she can succeed. 
View the list
Suggested by the author:

, Comic Books Examiner

Robert J. (“Bob”) Sodaro is an American born writer, editor, and digital graphic production artist. Sodaro was born in Norwalk, CT and is best known for writing for numerous publications in the comicbook industry press during the ‘80s & ‘90s. He is currently the Vice President of Media Relations...

Advertisement

Today's top buzz...