Marvel comics that turned into Movies and Games!

While Marvel Studios continues to change the landscape of superhero adventures on the big screen, it’s easy to forget that there was a time when all of Marvel’s big name heroes weren’t part of a series where any one of them could pop in to wreck shop then go for a sneaky swarm. But this crazy time did happen, and one of the guarantees of seeing your favourite hero of the big screen was that you be able to mess about with him on your favourite games console later. So let’s take a look at some of the gems we could find from this time.

While Deadpool may be currently flying the R-Rated superhero flag, it wasn’t the first movie to fully exploit the ‘superhero + OTT bloodletting = success’ formula. That honour belongs to 1998’s Blade, and fans of Wesley Snipes’ bad ass vampire slayer could slice and dice the undead horde on the Playstation and Gameboy Colour, albeit two years later. It’s safe to say that the two experiences really didn’t match up, with a wonky camera, frustrating gameplay, and dated graphics going a long way to suck all the joy out of the concept. Blade II on the Playstation 2 came our way two years later, and not much had changed. With a narrative that actually had nothing to do with movie that it took it’s name from, picking up six months after the movie, the combat system was the biggest offender. What promised Devil May Cry levels of insanity actually provided dull and receptive slogs through same environments and Blade had somehow developed the ability to dust a vampire with just a punch. Blade’s bad track record on consoles saw to it that when it came to the video game adaption of Blade: Trinity, it went straight to mobile platforms. Says it all really.

Keeping the R-Rated theme going, and one game that blows all three Blade titles out of the water: 2005 ’s The Punisher. Marvel’s resident gun loving vigilante saw plenty of video game action throughout the years (one where his co-op partner was Nick Fury, the head of a peace keeping organisation, something that still doesn’t make any sense), but it was the tie-in game for Playstaion 2 and X-Box that everyone remembers. Using the 2004 movie as a jumping off point, and even having Thomas Jane reprise the role, it was actually inspired by Garth Ennis' tremendous run on the series from 2000 and 2001, specifically the Welcome Back, Frank miniseries, and saw players gleefully employ Frank Castle’s extreme methods to satisfying effects, from mowing down an entire chapel full of mobsters after bursting out of a coffin to torturing victims with trash compactors and broken glass. It was so successful; other versions of the game came out. For example, The Punisher, even had its own Punisher online slots version, created for adults who like to gamble.

Another R-rated game that really opened the story of the lacklustre movie it was based on is X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the only good thing to have that name. Bringing back most of the cast for voice work, the game followed the plot of the god awful movie pretty closely, veering off every now and again for more comic inspired moments like encounters with the mutant hunting Sentinels. Blade II could have actually learned a thing two from X-Men Origins: Wolverine, transplanting a Devil May Cry-like combat system onto the gameplay, which saw Wolvie unleash devastating attacks that saw enemies get gruesomely dismembered while using the characters healing factor to great effect showing the effects of the characters healing factor, displaying the toll the game was taking on his body.