Published May 3, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT Barb Wire has one weirdly prescient element Image: Gramercy Pictures/The Everett Collection “ Blade did it first.” That’s the refrain you’ll hear from any Blade fan whenever somebody mentions that the current, although now waning, trend of comic book movie blockbusters began with 2000’s X-Men and 2002’s Spider-Man . And yes, it’s true that Blade was a successful comic book adaptation, pulling in $131 million at the box office. But compared to X-Men ’s nearly $300 million haul, and Spider-Man ’s more than $800 million success, Blade isn’t quite in the same category. Of course, the “ Blade did it first” argument also ignores that there’d been plenty of successful Batman and Superman films before that, and there were a variety of other, smaller comic book adaptations including The Mask , Men in Black and 1996’s Barb Wire , a movie that has aged pretty badly in every single way, save one. Barb Wire was released three decades ago on May 3, 1996.…