Every Movie Marvel Made Before The MCU In Chronological Order

Every Movie Marvel Made Before The MCU, In Chronological Order

While the MCU may have taken center stage over the last decade, there were still quite a few Marvel movie adaptations made before Iron Man in 2008.

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Marvel Studios released the ground-breaking Iron Man in 2008 that ushered in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which spent a little over a decade exploring a shared storyline known as the Infinity Saga that brought a number of Marvel characters to the big screen for the first time.

However, there were still quite a few movies that appeared before the MCU began to develop in 2008 that have been celebrated on their own in fan-favorite franchises, though there are a few that have also been forgotten over the years.

20 Howard The Duck (1986)

Marvel’s first foray into live-action adaptations was also its first bomb, as Howard The Duck flopped into theaters in 1986. George Lucas produced the film that adapted the popular comic series, though it lost much of the surrealism that made the comic work so well.

Howard the Duck starred Lea Thompson, Tim Robbins, and Jeffrey Jones, as well as Chip Zien as the voice of Howard— though he was brought to a life by a team of puppeteers combined with several people in a (sometimes) animatronic suit.

19 The Punisher (1989)

1980s action superstar Dolph Lundgren starred as Frank Castle in Marvel’s first live-action take on The Punisher in 1989 alongside Lou Gosset Jr., though it was easily missed by Marvel fans on video store shelves due to a lack of the character’s recognizable iconography.

After the murder of Castle’s wife and children, he begins his one-man war on crime that brings him into a confrontation with both the mafia and the Japanese Yakuza that forced him to ally with his greatest enemy to take on a new threat. The Punisher joined Howard The Duck as one of Marvel’s early cinematic failures.

18 Captain America (1990)

Albert Pyun directed the first cinematic Captain America in 1990, though it went unreleased for a couple of years before finally hitting shelves as a direct-to-video release that was panned by fans and critics alike.

There were a lot of changes made to the characters for the live-action adaptation, which included a reimagined Red Skull (Scott Paulin) who was now Italian instead of German and an undeveloped Steve Rogers (Matt Salinger) with a cheap costume that was probably best left in the forgotten VHS bin.

17 The Fantastic Four (1994)

While it wasn’t officially released, Roger Corman’s 1994 live-action adaptation of Marvel’s First Family earned its own place in history. The Fantastic Four was filmed with a low-budget and actors who were unaware of the producers’ ultimate goals.

With the Fantastic Four’s film rets set to expire, The Fantastic Four was filmed only to keep hold of the rights for a later adaptation. The film was shelved as intended, though fan demand eventually led to a leaked bootleg version that finally revealed the FF movie that was never meant to be seen.

16 Blade (1998)

It wasn’t until 1998’s Blade that Marvel finally saw success with a live action-adaptation, as Wesley Snipes impressed as the vampire hunter in the R-rated action/horror movie that some viewers didn’t even realize was a comic book movie when it was released.

Blade introduced the character and his ally Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) as they waged war against Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), the vampire who turned Blade into a human/vampire hybrid and the leader of a vampiric uprising attempting to carry out an ancient blood ritual.

15 X-Men (2000)

Director Bryan Singer kicked off 20th Century Fox’s blockbuster franchise with 2000’s X-Men, the first live-action adaptation of the hit Marvel comic that featured a small roster of mutants as Professor Xavier’s (Patrick Stewart) X-Men and Magneto’s (Ian McKellan) Brotherhood faced off for the first time.

X-Men also introduced fans to Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who would be welcomed onto the X-Men following the Brotherhood’s attempts to kidnap young Rogue (Anna Paquin) before spinning off into his own franchise.

14 Blade II (2002)

The success of 1998’s Blade launched a successful franchise that saw visionary director Guillermo del Toro take over for 2002’s Blade II. Snipes was joined by future The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus and frequent del Toro collaborator Ron Perlman.

Blade was forced to work with an elite vampire death squad known as the Bloodpack to take on a new strain of vampires that fed on their own kind to transform them into even more terrifying monsters.

13 Spider-Man (2002)

Sam Raimi launched the successful live-action Spider-Man franchise in 2002 for Sony Pictures, which starred Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker alongside Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane and James Franco as Harry Osborn.

Willem Dafoe also appeared as Norman Osborn, whose transformation into the villainous Green Goblin occurred at the same time as Peter became Spider-Man. Spider-Man quickly became a fan-favorite and still remains the standard that all other adaptations of the web-slinger are judged.

12 Daredevil (2003)

20th Century Fox brought the first big-screen Daredevil to theaters in 2003, with Ben Affleck starring as blind attorney-turned-costumed vigilante Matt Murdock. He was joined by Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin, and Colin Farrell as Bullseye.

The movie adapted a number of classic comic storylines with a focus on the work of Frank Miller. Unfortunately, the adaptation failed to bring the depth of the character to the big screen, though it did feature future MCU director Jon Favreau as Foggy Nelson.

11 X2: X-Men United (2003)

The X-Men returned with a bigger roster in 2003’s X2: X-Men United, which featured one of the franchise’s best mutant scenes with the opening attack on the president by Nightcrawler (Alan Cummings) that went unmatched in the franchise for years.

An enemy from Wolverine’s past launched an attack on the Xavier Institute that left the X-Men divided and their students captured by anti-mutant government forces, forcing the team to join forces with the Brotherhood to save mutantkind from those that hate and fear them.

10 Hulk (2003)

Visionary director Ang Lee brought Hulk to the big screen for the first time in 2003’s Hulk, which reimagined the experiment that transformed Burce Banner (Eric Bana) into the Hulk while also merging a few different villains like Absorbing Man and Zzzax into his father, David Banner (Nick Nolte).

Lee used interesting comic transitions that stood out to fans along with the dynamic battle scenes, though there were other unusual creative decisions that made this adaptation fall behind later cinematic versions.

9 The Punisher (2004)

Thomas Jane starred in 2004’s reboot of The Punisher that was loosely based on The Punisher: Year One and the “Welcome Home, Frank” comic storyline that explored the death of his entire family at a tropical reunion getaway before he ultimately returned to find a new home while he prepared for his new mission as the Punisher.

John Travolta also starred as gangster Howard Saint, though the movie suffered a bit from the focus on the villain and his various family problems instead of just letting the Punisher do what he does best, which later adaptations achieved well.

8 Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Tobey Maguire and the rest of the cast reprised their roles for Sam Raimi’s 2004 sequel Spider-Man 2, which also starred Alfred Molina as Dr. Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus in what has come to be considered as not just one of the best superhero movies ever made, but also one of the best sequels in cinematic history.

Peter Parker’s troubled relationship with both Mary Jane and Harry Osborn was further explored along with Otto’s transformation into Doctor Octopus which brought new depth to the fan-favorite character that led to his future appearance in the MCU.

7 Blade: Trinity (2004)

Wesley Snipes returned for a third and final outing as Marvel’s vampire hunter in 2004’s Blade: Trinity, which also introduced Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel) as members of the vampire-hunting Nightstalkers.

Blade: Trinity also introduced a new take on Dracula (Dominic Purcell) known as Drake who planned to wipe out all inferior species on the planet, which included both humans and vampires in the action-packed conclusion of the trilogy.

6 Elektra (2005)

While 2003’s Daredevil wasn’t highly regarded amongst fans, it proved to be enough of a success that Jennifer Garner returned for the 2005 Elektra spinoff that explored some of Elektra’s training from The Chaste and the mystical organizations like The Hand that opposed them.

While the movie introduced a few other Marvel villains and developed an interesting backstory for the Elektra, the movie fared even worse than Daredevil with both fans and critics and failed to capture the essence of Marvel’s tortured assassin.

5 Fantastic Four (2005)

Director Tim Story brought the first official live-action Fantastic Four to the big screen in 2005, with Ioan Gruffud, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, and Chris Evans as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Susan Storm/Invisible Woman, Ben Grimm/The Thing, and Johnny Storm/Human Torch, respectively.

Julian McMahon played villain Doctor Doom, whose origins were reworked to fit with the Fantastic Four’s own transformation. The film was incredibly light-hearted and the extreme differences in characters like Doctor Doom didn’t sit well with fans, but the movie was still a financial success for 20th Century Fox.

4 X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

The original X-Men trilogy came to its first conclusion in 2006 with Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand, which loosely adapted the iconic “Dark Phoenix Saga” alongside Astonishing X-Men’s “Gifted” storyline about a mutant cure.

X-Men: The Last Stand also introduced quite a few new mutants that further cluttered up the trilogy’s finale, which featured the deaths of established characters that made this one of the least successful entries in 20th Century Fox’s long-running franchise.

3 Ghost Rider (2007)

Daredevil director Mark Steven Johnston returned to the Marvel universe for 2007’s Ghost Rider, starring Nicholas Cage as Johnny Blaze alongside Eva Mendez, Sam Elliot, Peter Fonda, Wes Bentley, and others.

Ghost Rider followed the titular hero’s transformative deal with the devil that led to his service as the Spirit of Vengeance, which brought him into conflict with Bentley’s demonic Blackheart as Blaze learned more about his multi-generational curse. While not a critical favorite, the film did well enough for a later sequel in 2012 called Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

2 Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Sam Raimi’s original web-slinging franchise reached its conclusion in 2007 with Spider-Man 3, which added Thomas Haden Church as Flint Marko/Sandman, Topher Grace as Eddie Brock/Venom, and Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy.

Spider-Man 3 explored the “Alien Costume Saga” from the comics, though it was heavily influenced by Spider-Man: The Animated Series’ take on the symbiote’s origin. It also featured Harry Osborn’s transformation into the New Goblin and reworked Uncle Ben’s death to include Sandman, which made for a packed ending to the fan-favorite series.

1 Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

The success of 2005’s Fantastic Four led to a 2007 sequel that reteamed director Tim Story with the cast from the original film in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Laurence Fishburne voiced the Silver Surfer, though it was famed “monster actor” Doug Jones who brought the character to life on the big screen.

Rise of the Silver Surfer doubled down on the cheesy qualities from the first movie, though adapted Doctor Doom’s attempts to steal the Surfer’s Power Cosmic. The last Marvel movie before the MCU is well known by comic fans as a failed attempt to adapt the cosmic devourer of worlds known as Galactus, which ultimately ended the franchise as well.

Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/every-pre-mcu-marvel-movie-chronologically/

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