Superheroes owe a debt to monster movies. Universal’s iconic monster franchise drew the blueprints for today’s Marvel crossovers, and some of the superhero flicks that augured the genre’s 21st-century boom were the horror-tinged Spawn (1997) and Blade (1998). Superheroes and monsters are kindred spirits. Their stories revolve around beings who, through wild and often tragic circumstances, are changed in ways that make them question their humanity.
