Hasta Los Huesos (Down To The Bone).

Darkman by Sam Raimi.

Along with Batman (1989) and Spider-Man (2002), this signals the birth of quirky, inventive, modern comic-book movies. This film was very close to the genre, and it wasn't even based on a comic!

Note: I think the explosion that originates Darkman is meant to be an Alec Holland wink to the masterpiece: Swamp Thing.

The Phantom Stranger (Volume 2) #19.

"Return to the Tomb of the Ice Giants".

Frank Frazetta's "Self Portrait".

Where you can go on the ride of your afterlife.

"Unable to discern the form of You,

I see Your presence all around.

Filling my eyes with the love of You,

my heart is humbled,

for You are everywhere."

- Sana'i Ghaznavi, The Book of Everything: Journey of the Heart’s Desire: Hakim Sanai’s Walled Garden of the Truth

2001 test for film adaptation of Paul Chadwick's Concrete comics.

I loved the superhero boom from the 90s/2000s, seeing mega hits like the Spider-Man films (which are some of my top favorite superhero movies, I think the first Spider-Man movie was developed before even X-Men was on film). The superhero set I would've loved to visit the most is Mystery Men. To me, the first Blade movie was instrumental in showing how superhero movies could exist at the end of the 20th century. There was a collision of Dark City and Blade that somehow, in subtle ways paved the way, via anime/manga, for The Matrix to spawn into the world. 

But, still, back then it was a countermovement to try to do superhero films, especially with material that didn't have Marvel or DC numbers. For many years, the proto-comic book movies were Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (one of the best Judge Dredd movies) and Sam Raimi's Darkman in so many ways.

In my opinion, Paul Chadwick's Concrete is ripe to be adapted (there was a script written by Larry Wilson and Paul Chadwick, but it didn't go through).

Connection/Fate

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein

Time Bandits by Terry Gilliam.

This just might be one of the very best "children's story" films ever produced. Outstanding imagination and poignant humanism.

It's a Roald Dahl–esque landmark to all fantasy films.

"Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail." - Tao Te Ching (Chapter 76, translation by Stephen Mitchell)