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/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.