The Amazing Spiderman (1977)
Peter Parker, a not too hip cat, is bitten by a radioactive spider and given amazing powers. Meanwhile, a bad guy in a penthouse uses hypno-movies to make everyday people his willing criminals. Peter soon dawns a homemade Spider-Man costume and ends up knocking heads with the bad guy, or more specifically - his samurais! Our hero nearly dies after exposure to the hypno-movies and goes knocking on the bad guy's front door.
Spiderman Strikes Back (1978)
At the New York State University, one of Peter Parker's tutors has accidentally given three students all the materials they need to create an atomic bomb. While Peter Parker tries to find out what's happened, the police suspect him of the crime, and Peter has to deal with an attractive journalist determined to get an interview with Spider-Man. Then dastardly millionaire Mr. White shows up, and will stop at nothing to get his hands on the atomic bomb. Spider-Man must defeat this scheming villain and stop him blowing up the World Trade Center.
Dr. Strange (1978)
A young woman named Clea Lake becomes a pawn of the sorceress Morgan Le Fay. The primary defender of our world against threats of a magical nature, the Sorcerer Supreme, is presently a man named Thomas Lindmer (pronounced as Merlin, the Arthurian sorcerer, with the two syllables inverted). He and his man-servant Wong contact a psychiatrist named Stephen Strange, who is the heir to his father's potential to become Lindmer's disciple and the next Sorcerer Supreme. Strange bears his father's magical ring as a sign of this, and he has already sensed something wrong, but does not recognize the importance of these feelings of apprehension. Lindmer must convince Strange of the reality of the mystical world wherein the battle between good and evil is played out on a magical level, all unbeknownst to the mundane world, to save Clea and thwart Morgan's plans.
Spider Man: The Dragon’s Challenge (1979)
Spiderman (alias News reporter Peter Parker) gets tangled up in a web of international espionage and oriental intrigue. The Minister of Industrial Development of The People's Republic of China, Min, has been falsely accused of selling Chinese military secrets to the Americans during World War II. Forty years later he arrives in New York to clear his name, and enlists the help of his old friend, newspaper publisher J. Jonah Jameson, to find three American ex-marines who can prove his innocence. Meanwhile back in Hon g Kong, there is a wealthy industrialist who has a multi-million dollar project riding on Min's removal from office. In New York, Peter Parker becomes involved in both the investigation and protecting Min. Ultimately the trial leads to Hong Kong, where Spiderman faces a host of Martial Arts masters in order to save Min's life and reputation.
Captain America (1979)
Steve Rogers is a character in contemporary times whose father was a 1940s government agent. The very patriotic attitude of Steve's father earned him the nickname Captain America, and his father is spoken of as having been murdered. Rogers, a former Marine now making what little living he makes as an artist, was inspired by this story to sketch a super-hero. After receiving potentially fatal injuries in an accident, he was administered an experimental chemical called the FLAG—Full Latent Ability Gain—formula (at one point referred to as a "super-steroid") which not only saves his life but also enhances his body with heightened strength and reflexes. These new abilities lead Dr. Simon Mills, the research biochemist and intelligence official who had told Rogers about his father, to recruit him and give Steve a costume based on his drawing. As Captain America, he also makes significant use of a specialized reconstruction of the van he has been driving, out the rear of which can be launched a modified motorcycle. The bike has a round windshield, described as being made of "Jet-Age plastics," with concentric circles that alternate between red and transparent around a centered star, blue in color. He is able to detach this, and he uses it as his shield when he goes on foot. At the end of the first movie, Rogers briefly appears in a redesigned costume--more accurately a uniform--that bears a stronger resemblance to the uniform Captain America is seen wearing in the comics
Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979)
Steve Rogers is first shown sketching a portrait of a Mrs. Shaw, who complains to him about a gang of muggers who have been stealing the proceeds from cashed Social Security checks; she denies having cashed hers. He bids her do this in order to set a trap for the muggers, and springs the trap as Captain America. In the meantime, a free-lance revolutionary terrorist calling himself General Miguel, planning to fight an unspecified war, kidnaps a Professor Ian Ilson and forces him to resume his research in manipulative gerontology. Ilson has managed to formulate both a chemical that accelerates aging and the antidote to the same chemical, and Miguel, posing as the warden of a prison in Oregon near Portland, plans to use the chemicals in question to hold Portland hostage for a multi-million-dollar ransom. Ultimately, Captain America and General Miguel directly clash face-to-face, and when Miguel throws a glass bottle of the aging accelerant into the air, hoping it will shatter against Captain America's body, the Captain throws his shield into the air, where it shatters the bottle in such a manner that the aging accelerant splashes Miguel instead, aging him literally to death in less than a minute.
Howard the Duck (1986)
The film begins with Howard the Duck, who lives in a parallel universe inhabited by anthropomorphic ducks. Howard spends his days smoking, drinking and reading the latest issue of ‘Playduck’. One day, as Howard relaxes in his armchair, it begins to quake violently and propels him out of his apartment building and into outer space. He eventually crosses dimensions and ends up in Cleveland, Ohio. Howard encounters a woman being attacked by thugs and decides to help her out with his unique brand of "Quack Fu". After the thugs scamper, the woman introduces herself as Beverly. She decides to take Howard into her apartment and let him spend the night. The next day, Beverly takes Howard to a supposed scientist named Phil Blumbertt, whom Beverly hopes can help Howard return to his world. As Phil is revealed to be only a janitor, Howard resigns himself to life on Earth and rejects Beverly's aid. Howard later lands a job cleaning up at a local romantic spa. Due to unfair treatment by his boss, Howard quits the job and returns to Beverly, who plays in a band called "Cherry Bomb". At the club Cherry Bomb is performing at, Howard comes across Cherry Bomb's manager and confronts him when he bad-mouths the band. A fight ensues, in which Howard is victorious.
Howard rejoins Beverly backstage and accompanies her back to the apartment, where Beverly elects Howard to be Cherry Bomb's new manager. The two begin to flirt and almost engage in sex, but are interrupted when Blumburtt and two of his colleagues, Doctor Walter Jenning and Larry, arrive and reveal how Howard came to this world: earlier, the scientists have been working on a dimensional-jumping device that just happened to be aimed at Howard's universe and brought him to Earth when it was activated. They theorize that Howard can be sent back to his world through this same process. They drive Howard to the lab planning to send him back. However, the device malfunctions upon being used a second time, arousing the possibility of something else being brought to Earth this time around. Around this time, Jenning's body is taken over by a life form from another alternate dimension. At a diner, the life form introduces itself as the "Dark Overlord" and demonstrates its developing mental powers by assassinating table condiments. Howard then gets into a fight when the truckers in the diner begin to insult him. The fight results in Howard's capture and near-decapitation at the hands of the diner chef. However, the truckers are scared off when the Dark Overlord destroys the cafe and kidnaps Beverly, escaping in an articulated truck.
Meanwhile, Howard finds Phil and frees him from a police car. On the run, they discover a light aircraft, which they use to hunt down the Dark Overlord and Beverly. Having returned to the lab, the Dark Overlord ties Beverly down to a metal bed, hoping to transfer another Dark Overlord into her body with the dimension machine. Howard and Phil return to the lab and supposedly destroy the Dark Overlord with an experimental "neutron disintegrator" laser. However, the Dark Overlord reveals itself as a monstrous stop-motion creature, forcing Howard to once more fire the neutron disintegrator at the beast. All the while, the dimension machine is in the process of bringing more Dark Overlords to Earth, leaving Howard with no choice but to destroy the machine. Howard has now lost his ride home, and comes to accept Earth as his new home, now that it is safe. Howard becomes Beverly's manager and hires Phil as an employee on her tour.
The Punisher (1989)
Frank Castle is the city's most wanted, and most mysterious, vigilante, known as "The Punisher". He has killed 125 people in the last 5 years. In reality, the Punisher is Frank Castle, an ex-police officer whose family was murdered in a mob hit. Living in the sewers and waging a one-man war against organized crime, his only friend is an old alcoholic named Shake. Now legally declared dead, he strikes back from beyond the grave, killing mobsters wherever he can find them. Because of this, the mobsters' families have weakened, forcing Gianni Franco, one of the leaders of one of the Mafia families, to come in and take control of the families. Franco has a plan to bring the families together as one unit. However, this has attracted the attention of the Yakuza, Asia's most powerful crime syndicate, led by Lady Tanaka, who decide to take over the families and all their interests. In order to sway the mobsters to their cause, they kidnap their children and hold them for ransom in order to bring the American underworld under their control. Now the Punisher must fight to save the lives of the children of the people he has fought against for five years, while at the same time fighting alongside the man who killed his family.
Shake pleads with the Punisher to save the children, who are likely to be sold into childhood slavery no matter what their criminal parents do. While he is able to save most of the children, the Mafia leader's son is taken away to the Yakuza headquarters. Furthermore, the Punisher is taken into custody by the police, only to be freed by Franco's men. Franco persuades the Punisher to help him save his son, and stop the Japanese criminal underworld from taking root in America.Franco and the Punisher raid the Yakuza headquarters, fight and kill all the thugs and Yakuza, including Lady Tanaka and her daughter. Upon being reunited with his son, Franco betrays the Punisher in an effort to kill him, but the Punisher wins the duel, killing Franco. As the police arrive, Castle warns Franco's son not to follow the sins of his father, and vanishes from the scene.
Captain America (1990)
The film starts in 1936 fascist Italy, where the government kidnaps a talented boy from his family. The boy is needed for an experimental project to create a fascist super soldier; however, Dr. Vaselli objects to using the boy, and under the cover of gunfire flees to the United States of America to help create an American super soldier.
Seven years later, the American government finds a volunteer in Steve Rogers, a loyal all-American that is excluded from the draft because of his polio. The formula successfully transforms Rogers into a superhero, but before any more super soldiers can be created using the formula she keeps in her head, Dr. Vaselli is murdered by a Nazi spy. Meanwhile, the Italian boy has become the Red Skull and is planning to launch a missile at the White House. Rogers, code named Captain America, is sent in to defeat the Skull and deactivate the missile. However, after an initial battle, the Red Skull defeats Captain America and ties him to the missile as it is about to launch. Captain America is able to grab a hold of the Red Skull, forcing him to cut off his own hand in order to avoid being launched into destruction with his "American brother." While the missile is over Washington, D.C., a young boy named Thomas Kimball takes a photograph as Captain America forces the missile to change course and land somewhere in Alaska, where he remains frozen until 1993.
Kimball goes on to become an honest politician and Vietnam War hero until being elected the President of the United States of America. In 1993, a year into his term, he is pushing for pro-environmentalist legislation that is angering the military-industrial complex, who hold a secret conference in Italy that is led by the Red Skull. After the War, the Red Skull had extensive plastic surgery done in a partially successful attempt to alter his disfigured features, raised a daughter, and became the leader of a powerful crime family. In the 1960s, this American military-industrial complex hired the Red Skull and his thugs to murder various Americans who were against their militarism and Red Skull's fascism, such as Dr. Martin Luther King, President John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. Now, Red Skull is targeting President Kimball for assassination.
Captain America's frozen body is found in Alaska by researchers, and he awakens still thinking that it is the 1940s. After battling some of the Red Skull's thugs, he brushes off Sam Kolawetz , a reporter and childhood friend of President Kimball, and hitchhikes his way back to his wartime girlfriend, Bernice, in California. While Bernice still lives at her old residence, she has long since married and raised her own daughter, Sharon, who subsequently gives Rogers a series of VHS history tapes in order to catch up on what has happened while he was frozen in ice. Meanwhile, the Red Skull's thugs, lead by his daughter, break into Bernice's house and kill her. They also cause her husband to have a heart attack during their efforts to find where Captain America is hiding out. Rogers and Sharon visit the secret underground base where Rogers gained his superpowers in the hopes that Dr. Vaselli's diary is still there and contains the original name of the Red Skull. Although Rogers and Sharon find the diary, the Red Skull's thugs attempt to grab it. Rogers and Sharon vow revenge as well as the rescue of the recently kidnapped president. They travel to Italy and locate the Red Skull's home and an old recording of the murder of his parents. Sharon agrees to be kidnapped in order to allow Steve Rogers, who once again dons his costume, to enter the Red Skull's castle. In the midst of their battle, the Red Skull pulls out a remote trigger for an explosive device, but Captain America knocks him off a cliff with his trademark shield before the bomb can be set off. When Red Skull's girlfriend gets a gun to kill Captain America, she is then decapitated by his shield. The United States Marines show up to save the President and arrest the Americans involved in the kidnapping. The credits roll with a comic book image of Captain America in the background and a plea to support the United States Environmental Protection Act of 1990.
Fantastic Four (1994)
The film begins with Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom, university friends, decide to use the opportunity of a passing comet to try an experiment; however, the experiment goes wrong, leaving Victor horribly scarred. Sue and Johnny Storm are two children living with their mother, who has a boarding house where Reed lives. Ben Grimm is a college friend of Reed’s. The film then fast forwards to the early 1990s, where Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben go up into an experimental space craft as again the same comet would pass by the Earth. They are hit by cosmic rays by the same passing comet due to a necessary diamond being exchanged for an imitation of itself. Reed would dedicate this mission to his friend Victor, believing he had died years before.
Upon crash-landing back to Earth, the four of them soon discover that the cosmic rays gave them special powers: Reed's bodily structure has become elastic, Sue can become invisible, Johnny can generate fire on demand and Ben has transformed into the rock-like Thing. They are later captured by Victor's men, who pose as soldiers of the Marine Corps. After escaping from Doom's men, the four scientists regroup at the Baxter Building to try and decide what to do with their gained superpowers. An angry Ben leaves the group to go out on his own, feeling that he has become a horrible freak of nature. Ben would be found by homeless men and join them in the illicit Jeweler's underground lair.
It is revealed that Victor Von Doom had needed the diamond necessary to capture the comet's powers. The Jeweler would then give the real diamond to the blind artist Alicia, who was also kidnapped by homeless henchmen working for the Jeweler. The Jeweler wants Alicia to be his bride, with the diamond as his wedding present to her. However, Doctor Doom and his henchmen locate the Jeweler's lair. Doom's henchmen first try to make a deal with him, but with no luck. Doom, displeased, seizes the diamond by force. Doom threatens to kill Alicia, whereupon Ben, as the Thing, comes into the room – only to revert to human form. Pursued by Doom, Ben runs out onto the city streets, frustrated at his helplessness. He is somehow changed back into the Thing, whereupon he rescues Alicia.
A gun fight ensues between Doom and the Jeweler’s men. Doom takes the diamond to power a laser cannon that will destroy New York City. Ben returns to his friends. By now, Reed has learned that Victor was the mastermind behind their kidnapping. Realizing that they are the only ones that can stop Doom, the protagonists don costumes and travel to Doom's castle. At the castle, the Fantastic Four battle a series of Doom's military. Reed has a final battle with Doom. Doom is defeated and possibly killed. Johnny becomes the Human Torch (shown via computerized animation) to stand between the laser cannon's shot and the city. He survives this, as does the city. Thereafter, the Fantastic Four dedicate themselves to fighting evil. The film ends with Reed and Sue marrying.
Generation X (1996)
Banshee and Emma Frost are the headmasters of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. They recruit Jubilee, and introduce her to her fellow students: M, Skin, Mondo, Buff and Refrax. The students are learning to cope with their mutant powers, and come into conflict with the "townies" who mock the students. Emma Frost worked previously with a mad scientist named Russel Tresh who felt that he could extract part of mutant's brains to develop psychic powers. Russell is back and wants to use Skin's brain in his experiments.