Blade started its movie run in 1998, and is considered to be the first GOOD movie from Marvel comics, and is honored as the spark that ignited Marvel's characters onto the big screen. Unlike their earlier efforts (Punisher, Fantastic Four, Captain America), this was no straight-to-video feature. Blade had decent production value and they stuck to the comics history. Plus, it helped to have their character played by a fairly big star in Wesley Snipes. Its success at the box office ($131 million) guaranteed that two more movies would be made.