[sum1]

dp

[sum1]

Never saw the Lundgren Punisher film. I generally try to steer clear of his films. He can fight, but he can't act. I also generally try to stay clear of Marvel-based movies from before the late '90s, seeing as those tend to be low-budget, amateurish crap. The real Marvel movies started with Blade in the late '90s and then X-Men 1 in 2000.

The Punisher I'm most familiar with is the '90s version, particularly the first 8 issues of the original Punisher War Zone comic, drawn by JRJR and written by Chuck Dixon. The Punisher was a huge sensation in the first half of the '90s. They had another comic called Punisher War Zone in the 21st century, written by Garth Ennis. I've no interest in that one.

[PhoenixRising]

Yeah, I remember both The Punisher and Wolverine became hugely popular in the 90's, probably reflective of the culture of the time. And I missed out because of my dad's damn bankruptcy.

[sum1]

Wolverine was hugely popular since the '80s.

[PhoenixRising]

Yes, I know, sum1. But he got more popular in the 90's. Fox originally was going to make a Wolverine movie in the 90's before they even considered an X-Men movie. The Wolverine movie would've ended with Logan joining the X-Men.

[sum1]

Well, Marvel was thinking of an X-Men movie long before Fox got the rights.

[PhoenixRising]

Yeah, but not seriously. Cannon Films and Golan/Globus had the rights to Marvel's characters in the 80's, if you can believe it. That's the studio that did all those Missing In Action films with Chuck Norris, along with a lot of other Chuck Norris films like The Delta Force. They also did all the Death Wish sequels, and a bunch of other Charles Bronson films, Enter The Ninja, Revenge of the Ninja, American Ninja, The Punisher, Masters of the Universe, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace, Jean Claude Van-Damme's early films like Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Cyborg, etc. You name the piece of crap, they did it in the 80's. They also did three Marvel films - The Punisher, Captain America, and Fantastic Four. Punisher and Captain America went straight to video without a theatrical release, and Fantastic Four was so bad it wasn't realeased at all. Cannon was going to make a Spider-Man film, but their contract said the rights would revert back to Marvel if they didn't make a film by 1990. Cannon didn't make the film and went bankrupt by 1990, thank goodness.

I remember hearing about the Wolverine movie back in the mid-1990's. Getting comic book movies made back then was a real pain.

[sum1]

Yes seriously. During the '90s, the Marvel editorial staff kept going on about trying to get Marvel movies made, including X-Men. I think I know '90s Marvel better than you, seeing as that was my biggest comic-collecting period, while you had to cut down on comics then due to your family's bankruptcy.

[PhoenixRising]

Yes, that is true, sum1. I unfortunately had to pull back from comics in the 90's as I was both dealing with my dad's bankruptcy and I was in a very dark place at the time due to my own personal issues. It wasn't a good decade for me. Marvel was also dealing with bankruptcy in the 90's, so that probably hindered them. I think it was a mistake for them to not join with a major studio back then the way DC did with WB back in the 70's. Now their film franchise is a holy mess with three or four different studios owning the film rights to Marvel properties.

On a side note, Cannon did do one good film during their tenure in the 80's. Runaway Train, starring John Voight and Eric Roberts, which earned them both Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. It was the film that directly influenced the movie Speed.

[sum1]

I hate the way Marvel's franchises are split up.

[PhoenixRising]

So do I, but that's what bankruptcy did to them. They should've held on to their properties, but they instead chose to just throw them to the wind to get out of bankruptcy. Now Fox has them by the balls when it comes to the X-Men films. Like I said, I wish they'd gone into a partnership with a studio the way DC did with Warner Bros., but I don't think any studio was serious about making Marvel movies back then. Cannon Films was mostly a joke of a company. I think Hollywood thought that DC's characters were more recognizable and iconic at the time, as well as perhaps easier to adapt to the screen than Marvel's characters. Before CGI it would've been really difficult to bring characters like Spider-Man and Iron Man to the screen.

[sum1]

Well, we'll see what happens if Disney buys Fox.

[PhoenixRising]

Do we know this is happening for certain?

[sum1]

We know it may happen.

[PhoenixRising]

Let's hope so. But if it does, I don't want them to merge the two universes until later, when they can start over again. That way everyone can be in the MCU and the Avengers that are supposed to be, including a certain Pym/Van Dyne duo, as well as Ms. Jen Walters and Mr. Simon Williams. And hopefully Mr. Peter Parker the Richards/Storm family will be permanent MCU residents. Having the X-Men and Avengers in the same movie universe will certainly be awesome.