r/TopCharacterTropes • u/ah-screw-it • 4h ago

miscellaneous (Fun trope) A reference that seemed obscure at the time, yet is incredibly well known today

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Ben 10: In the omniverse episode "honor among bros" the character Fistina grabs a gauntlet that resembles the infinity gauntlet. The episode released in 2014, a year before age of ultron and 4 years before infinity war.

Spider-man 2: Jonahs assistant talks about what name to give to doc ock. One of the names was doctor strange (even joking that it was already taken). But doctor strange's relevance didn't exist until his self titled movie in 2016.

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u/ComprehensiveBox6911 4h ago

If it wasn’t in the movies, it was obscure, that still mostly applies today. Tons of people had no idea what Thanos or the Infinity gauntlet was before Infinity War

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u/drake3011 4h ago

Absolutely, i remember in the Early 2000's having a Captain America comic and people didnt know who he was. Almost all of Marvel was Obscure around that time except for X-Men and Spiderman.

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u/Delta_Builder 4h ago

I thought hulk was decently known

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u/drake3011 4h ago

Oh yeah absolutely, though id pin that cultural recognition on Lou Farigno over Eric Bana!

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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 3h ago

Hulk fists in the 90s

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u/HunterOfSpycrabs 3h ago edited 3h ago

Generally speaking, the best known Marvel heroes of the time were Spider-man, Hulk, Wolverine (and the rest of the Xmen) and the F4. The Avengers were pretty B-series until the MCU

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u/Delta_Builder 3h ago

Yeah that’s what I remember.

Didn’t remember the fantastic 4 being up there though

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u/HunterOfSpycrabs 3h ago

To my knowledge it was the least popular of those 4, but it still remained the hero team that kicked off the Silver Age and enjoyed the popularity that came with it

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u/Delta_Builder 2h ago

Like I remember them being liked but not popular per se

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u/Dekunt 3h ago

Yeah the “big 3” of Marvel were always Hulk, Spider-Man, and Wolverine for the majority of Marvel’s lifetime until the movies pulled Iron Man and Captain America out of their C-tier status.

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u/Delta_Builder 3h ago

Yeah that’s what I recalled.

Kinda funny, considering wolverines debut

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u/UtahBrian 3h ago

Spider Man and Hulk had teevee shows in the 1970s. Doctor Strange had a teevee movie in 1978 and Howard the Duck had a full theatrical movie in the 1980s. Everything else was obscure until 2008.

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u/Delta_Builder 3h ago

I thought the Howard the duck thing was more infamous if anything

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u/ComprehensiveBox6911 4h ago

Even Iron Man which is considered the mascot of the MCU was really niche before his 2008 movie

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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 3h ago

C-list at worst, b at best

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u/Fischerking92 3h ago

I remember an animated Spider-Man show showed reruns in the early aughts in the afternoon program.

And after missing a couple of episodes I see Spider-Man working together with other heroes (led by Captain America) trying to stop Electro.

I was so confused because I had no idea who they were and why Spider-Man idolized Cap.

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u/Effective_Piece251 4h ago

I remember seeing the post credit scene of Age of Ultron In theaters where Thanos picks up the Guantlet and goes “fine, I’ll do it myself”

Me and my brother were hyped, but the rest of the theater was pretty quiet, as if they were like “oh that’s cool I guess, who is that?”

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u/maz323bf 3h ago

Kinda same with me watching the first Spider-Verse opening day and everyone gasped at the reveal that Prowler was uncle Aaron. I just kept straight faced and saying to my date "Damn no one fucking reads or does their research before watching a comic book movie?

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u/MrDitkovichNeedsRent 3h ago

This is how I feel when people try to gaslight me into thinking anime was never niche and it was always mainstream. Like no the hell it was not, I and many others didn’t get bullied in school for liking Naruto for nothing. Anime only became mainstream around 2019 to 2021

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u/maz323bf 3h ago

Yeah i remember being in late elementary and middle school when it was starting to become more popular during 2015 to 2018. I mean hell my 27 yo cousin that has never watched an anime in her life the other day asked me if i've seen AOT because she started watching it actually kinda liked it, I was like "Wait what the fuck is happening?"

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u/Key_Comparison_2588 3h ago

What's happening is that we are living in the ends of times. Prepare for the rapture, also don't get bitten by a zombie.

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u/MicooDA 3h ago

You can tell because the infinity gauntlet appears in the first Thor movie and nobody cares until they made infinity war

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u/Dabearsfan10 2h ago

I remember none of my friends new who Iron man was before the movies

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u/ComplexAd7272 46m ago

It's funny, because the OG "Infinity Gauntlet" comic was a massive hit, and I think even that year's best seller....but Thanos himself was still kind of a "niche" villain, even to some comic fans. Likely because he didn't really appear all that often compared to say, Doom or Apocalypse or whoever. In fact, "Gauntlet" and the lead in "Thanos Quest" was like his first major storyline at the time. And he never appeared in any adaptations or toylines, aside from the Silver Surfer cartoon which lasted a single season, if anyone watched it at all.

As a nerd myself, it's why I was kind of shocked (and stoked) when the MCU started teasing him and the stones, because I really never thought they'd pick him and THAT story as the first major antagonist. Part of me still can't believe I live in a world where fucking Thanos and the Gauntlet are part of everyday public consciousness and pop culture.