How MARVEL STUDIOS Lost the Right to One of It’s Biggest ALIEN Villains

As you know, following Marvel’s bankruptcy in the mid 90’s, they decided a quick and easy way to earn revenue (and increase interest in their brand) was to sell film rights for their most famous characters to Hollywood’s big studios. Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, Thor, Namor. Nearly everything went!

Now, this was well before the current superhero zeitgeist, and no one was certain whether or not these caped crusader flicks would succeed. Until the release of X-Men, of course. That mutant flick single handedly unleashed the torrent of superhero films we see today. Still, the landscape of vigilante cinema was uncertain. While some movies like Spider-Man and X-Men were riotous blockbusters, others like Daredevil, Hulk, and Fantastic Four weren’t. As we’d soon discover with Marvel Studios own inhouse endeavors with projects like Iron Man and The Avengers, the failures of those older licensed movies were due to unfaithful adaptations. Fearing the innate “cheesiness” of comic book movies, they either deviated too far from the source material in order to make their own version more realistic (like the focus on psychological trauma in Hulk) or they semi-parodied the tales in hopes that ridiculing the ridiculousness of superheroes would make the film more palatable (like the first Ghost Rider).

But that’s all a bit of a tangent. While Marvel Studios is now the one to beat for quality superhero flicks, they’re suffering from their greedy past. In one of their “Sell it while it’s hot!” binges, the studio sold the rights to one of their classic Alien villains, the Badoon. While not quite as seminal as the Kree or Skrull, the Badoon are a classic Silver Age nemesis. I’ve only read their tales in relation to the Silver Surfer, in that chromed demigod’s first solo series, but I’m well aware that the Badoon are central to the original Guardians of the Galaxy. During the Annihilation Wave, a time of interstellar conflict which first united the new team of Guardians, the Badoon controlled more than 30% of the Milky Way.

That’s quite a feat for a bunch of weird looking green dudes who were only ever Marvel’s 2nd tier alien threat.

Well, James Gunn decided it wasn’t too big of a deal, and decided to exchange his Badoon characters with the Sakaaran. You know, those people responsible for the trails of Bruce Banner in Planet Hulk.

I really hope Joss Whedon doesn’t cast Mark Ruffalo into deep space, but is a Planet Hulk movie possible?

SOURCE: SUPER CREATIVE