Movie production companies and TV have been creating feature length movies, movie
serials and TV shows for years exploiting the public fascination with Superheroes. But as
special effect technology and costume designs became better and better, Hollywood
kicked it up a notch with feature-length high budget productions. Superman, the Movie
and the 3 sequels started in the 1970s and the '90s and beyond brought us Batman, The
Hulk, the X-Men and the now infamous Spider-Man, to name a few.
Why all this interest in producing Superhero movies? Big bucks!! The two Spider-Man
movies alone have netted about 800 million dollars apiece in worldwide ticket sales.
That's not chicken feed. This kind of income could not be generated without an avid
public interest in Superheroes. So if you feel you are alone in your voracious passion for
your own comic book collection, think again.
And now a new twist has been added. Directors, screenplay writers, and even actors are
writing for, of all things, comic books now. Big name Hollywood writers are helping to
sell more comics. For example, Joss Whedon, perhaps best known for creating Buffy the
Vampire Slayer, has written stories for Marvel in the series Astonishing X-Men. Back in
the 90s, who would have known that all these fan boys had been hiding in the Hollywood
woodworks waiting for comics to gain some cultural credibility?
If you haven't followed some of the comic news of the last several months, Stan "the
man" Lee has been fighting his personal battle with His life long employer, Marvel
Comics. Stan is probably one of the most well known character creators in the comic
book industry. He has characters like Batman, Spider-Man and the Hulk credited to his
creative imagination. Seems Stan had a contractual agreement with Marvel for 10% of
any revenue acquired by Marvel from movies and TV projects centered on Stan
characters. But apparently the high dollar superstructure of the corporate mind doesn't
want to part with all their income. Now this is nothing new, but Stan Lee managed to win
the first round for the little guy. The judge presiding over Stan's case agreed that Stan
should receive his share of the agreed on profits. Now maybe Stan will get his share and
maybe he won't. Sounds like Marvel will be appealing the decision. At any rate, if there
weren't big bucks involved in the production of comic book Superhero movies, this case
would not have been such an issue.
I believe the near future is going to bring many more of my favorite heroes to the silver
screen. I have already started my own DVD collection and as more heroes get transferred
from the screen to round disc, I will continue to increase the size of my collection. Do
you think a DVD superhero collection will be worth as much as a comic book collection
in the future? Probably not, but that won't stop me from building my collection anyway.
About the Author
Dave Gieber, a former rocket engineer, has decided to take up residency on the Internet.
He is the owner and editor of several websites, one of which was built around one of his
childhood passions; www.comic-book-collection-made-easy.com. You can visit here to
keep up to date on the world of comic books and comic book collecting. Feel free to sign
up for my comic book ezine at www.comic-book-collection-made-easy.com/comic-book-ezine.html