The buried Roger Corman production was the stuff of pop culture lore for decades before anyone saw it. Tim Story's two titles from the 2000s were critical disappointments and poor representations of some of the comics' most iconic arcs.
The two films embody a retreat from the dark, gritty, real-world templates that ran amok once the genre really took off over the last couple of decades. They offer a vision of heroism that includes self-sacrifice and protection of the innocent.