“The closest equivalent”: the movies Quentin Tarantino called the Marvel universe of the 1970s
He might be one of the many filmmakers who’ve spoken out against the comic book company’s monopolisation of modern Hollywood, but Quentin Tarantino doesn’t necessarily hate Marvel.
The two-time Academy Award winner has always had a soft spot for Luke Cage, a character he wanted to adapt for the big screen in the 1990s, and he called Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu “my favourite comic book in the mid-1970s when it came out,” with Simu Liu playing the titular role in the 2021 blockbuster.
The writer and director has also spoken glowingly of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, so he’d not quite on the same level as Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, or Francis Ford Coppola, who’ve all openly trashed Marvel for being a scourge on cinema that’s only serving to drag the industry closer to the brink of disaster.
On the other hand, the infamously opinionated Tarantino hasn’t exactly held back in that regard, describing Marvel movies as jobs for directors who don’t mind being a hired hand, and suggesting that the people who headline those films can’t be called movie stars when it’s the brand that does the heavy lifting, which are points it’s difficult to argue against, albeit only in certain respects.
For better or worse, Iron Man changed the business in the summer of 2008 when it laid the groundwork for a series of interconnected stories that played out on the big screen, igniting the obsession with shared universes and long-term franchise planning that’s provided more failures than it has successes.
However, ask Tarantino, and the formula was first perfected in the 1970s. Specifically, Jimmy Wang Yu’s Yu Tien Lung, the protagonist of the 1972 martial arts flick, One-Armed Boxer, its 1976 sequel Master of the Flying Guillotine, the Wang Yu-less prequel Fatal Flying Guillotine, and the unofficial Flying Guillotine companion pieces, Palace Carnage and Vengeful Beauty.
“The One-Armed Boxer movies are comic book-inspired gonzo extravaganzas, filled with superpowered superheroes fighting an array of superpowered supervillains that engage in battle royals that seem orchestrated by Jack Kirby himself,” Tarantino explained, name-dropping the legendary artist who co-created Captain America, the Hulk, the X-Men, Iron Man, Black Panther, and many more Marvel favourites.
“In the ’70s, these movies were the closest equivalent to the Mighty Marvel Universe that cinema had to offer,” he elaborated, pointing to how the names and the associated powers of the One-Armed Boxer saga’s villains, which included Kung-Fu Beast, Karate Killer, Tibetan Tiger Men, Siamese Devils, and others, “All sound like an Asian-themed line-up of a whole year’s worth of Fantastic Four foes.”
As if to clarify his point, and pat himself on the back for being ahead of the curve, Tarantino was at pains to point out that he wasn’t “just making that comparison now” in the midst of Marvel’s cinematic takeover, but “used to say that back then” when those martial arts movies were rolling off the production line, presenting the closest thing the industry had to imitating the style of comic book crossovers.
This being Tarantino, it’s no surprise that his pick for a proto-Marvel universe was the B-tier martial arts movies he grew up obsessed with, even if it’s unlikely that a young Kevin Feige was watching them and planning for the future.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.