So far, though, Valerian hasn’t been one of the winners of this summer blockbuster season, as it’s received mixed reviews and only made over $59 million worldwide.
Superhero stories make up the majority of comic book adaptations, but Luc Besson provided one of the exceptions with Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
Still, in an industry that’s superhero crazy right now, at least Valerian is exposing the masses to a different kind of comic book property, and a visually dazzling one at that.
While superheroes have been part of pop culture ever since Superman hit the scene in 1938’s Action Comics #1, the movie genre centered around these comic book tales has only exploded within the last two decades.