By: Ben “Zombie” Bedgood, Reporter

Deadpool has been crushing box office numbers over the past few weeks, kind of like a boot on a sun-bleached skull. The excitement this has brought for the possibility of more R rated comic movies succeeding has been great. However, many have forgotten the comic films that paved the way for Deadpool to do what he does best on the silver screen. The lack of knowledge swarming on social media has prompted me to bring you a history lesson in R rated comic movies. EDUCATE YOURSELF, FOOLS! (you’re not really fools, I love you guys)

It all started with a cult classic from those distant 1990’s. Ah the 90’s, how I miss them. They were some great years and with the exception of Dolph Lundgren’s Punisher which came out in 1989, the ‘90’s were the first decade to embrace the R rated comic book film genre. After seeing the success of comic book movies like Tim Burton’s Batman in the 1989, it was a natural progression for Hollywood to start making more. In 1994 we received the cult classic The Crow. It had a budget of $23 million and more than doubled that at the box office bringing in $50.7 million. This was the movie that cost Brandon Lee, son of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee, his life. That horrible accident on set was the catalyst for newer, stricter safety standards for the use of firearms. Initially, it was well received for a lesser known comic title. In the 22 years since its release, The Crow has moved into cult fandom status.

I know some of you may be sitting there yelling “Wait! Darkman was released in 1990!” Yes, yes it was. However, it was not based directly on a comic book. It was a film about a comic-like super hero, and it was the brain child of Sam Raimi. He created the character after he could not secure the rights to do a movie about neither Batman nor The Shadow. That is why I have not included it in the listing.

Now the 1990’s carried on with the R rated comic book movies. Tank Girl was next, in 1995. Sadly, Tank Girl was a box office flop (Judge me, I don’t care, this movie is guilty pleasure). Tank Girl fell drastically short on making back its $25 million budget when it only brought in $6 million at box office. 1995 also brought us Judge Dredd with action movie superstar Sylvester Stallone. Judge Dredd brought in $113.4 million at box office, surpassing its $90 million budget, in spite of its horrible adherence to the source material, poor reviews…and Rob Schneider.

As the years went on, we saw Todd McFarlane’s Spawn in 1997, a movie that more than doubled its $40 million budget with box office total of $87.8 million. 1998 brought us the R rated box office power house Blade. The Daywalker went on to bring us two additional R rated sequels, Blade 2 (2002) and Blade Trinity (2004). There are rumors floating around recently of a possible fourth installment to the franchise. In total the Blade movie franchise has been a box office success with a combined $415 million box office and total combined budget of $165 million.

With the 1990’s sadly at a close we entered the 2000’s. This decade brought us quite a few more R rated comic movies.  The Punisher (2004), Immortal (2004), Constantine (2005), V for Vendetta (2005), Sin City (2005), Man Thing (2005), 300 (2006), 30 Days of Night (2007), Wanted (2008), Punisher: War Zone (2008), and last but not least Watchmen (2009). These movies fluctuated all over the board on box office success and adaptation accuracy, but overall, have held up to the test of time. They also helped to pave the way for the movies of next decade.

We now find ourselves in the 2010’s, GREAT SCOTT! We’re back! In just the last six years we have seen a large number of R rated comic movies. Kick Ass helped kick off the decade in 2010, no pun intended. Starting things off right, it was a box office success to the tune of $96.2 million. In the coming few years we saw Dredd (2012), Kick Ass 2 (2013), Kingsman (2014), and the recently released Deadpool (2016).R rated comic book movies have been around for quite some time. Similar to movies of other genres, we see some that are box office blow outs and some that never should have happened.

Deadpool is already a massive success, now sitting at $325.4 million as I write this. An R rated comic movie is nothing new, or anything ground breaking. What we can hope for is, after seeing Deadpool’s box office dominance, that studios will follow suit and stay true to a comic’s origins and story. It’s proven to be a successful venture.