Marvel Super Heroes: The Actors Who Made Me Care [Op-Ed]

Marvel super heroes are a varied lot, though some of them didn’t really make me care until certain actors portrayed them.

I was once that guy who could care less about half of the characters in the comics. I was a strict Wolverine fanatic. If my yellow-spandex-toting ball of anger management issues wasn’t in it, I didn’t really care. There are still some characters whose popularity astounds me, though certain films have made me care about the characters because of the actors who ended up playing the roles.

In some cases I didn’t care because the powers or abilities just didn’t impress me. So Cyclops has an optic blast that can level mountains, so what? The Thing is made of rock, so what? Venom and Carnage are just evil versions of Spider-Man, but why should I care?

The first Marvel super hero that changed my mind was Spider-Man. I always thought the character was just some happy-go-lucky idiot who spun a web and said things that were more cocky than funny. I didn’t care about him. Then Tobey Maguire played the role in the first film from Sam Raimi, and I actually felt something for Peter Parker. He was a regular guy riding a huge wave of bad luck, and I could actually relate. Yes, his costume looked a little bit stupid with the piping all over it, but it was Peter Parker’s personality that made me root for the web-slinger. It’s too bad Andrew Garfield turned him into a cocky hipster with an Edward Cullen haircut. I don’t really care any more.

Another Marvel super hero that got changed for the better due to casting was Iron Man. Face it, the original Marvel character is just a straight-faced businessman with a slight case of the emo he doesn’t show the public. He had absolutely nothing interesting about his personality. Then they cast Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, and he was funny, cocky, he had an alcohol problem … he seemed human for once. Even though he was basically a jerk to everybody, you could tell there was something driving him deep down, and he covered it up with a snarky sense of humor. Iron Man had become the lovable jackass.

Then Hulk surprised me with Edward Norton’s calm facade as a man searching for a cure. Captain America surprised me all the way, as I really thought there was nothing interesting about him. Chris Evans showed me he could play a serious role and I actually enjoyed the origin film.

All in all, a few Marvel super heroes I didn’t care about completely changed my mind about them after seeing their movies. Sometimes casting is everything.

Are there any Marvel super heroes you didn’t care about until you saw their movies?