Published Jun 19, 2026, 7:04 PM EDT
**Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with a substantial amount of experience under his belt. **Collier, or “CJ” to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. Using his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he’s been able to tackle a wide variety of articles.
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The age of streaming has come with plenty of ups and downs. On the one hand, it’s seen the birth of iconic series like Stranger Things, Ted Lasso, and The Bear. On the other hand, the rush to make streaming services and develop movie and television projects for them often leads to mixed results, not to mention the dreaded news that a show you’re enjoying was abruptly canceled. Perhaps the worst element of the streaming age is “churn”: users canceling and renewing their streaming subscriptions in response to rising prices or changes in a streamer’s library. One streamer is not only managing to avoid churn, but is quickly becoming one of the top services in the game. Who’s the lucky streamer? None other than Prime Video.
According to a report on the Business of Apps website, Prime Video is tied with Netflix for first place in the U.S. video streaming market. On top of that, it boasts a staggering 210 million users at the time of writing. Most folks would chalk this up to the wide range of programming Prime offers, from genre hits like ***The Boys ***and ***The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power ***to military thrillers like ***Reacher ***and gritty procedurals like Bosch. In reality, there’s another reason why Prime Video has climbed to the top of the streaming mountain.
Like most streamers, Prime Video is owned by a larger business; in this case, that business is Amazon. What most people forget is that Amazon is connected to other services, like the comic book reader Comixology, the podcast hub Audible, and, of course, the Amazon Prime shopping service. Those connections play into the streaming aspect, as Prime Video users are more than likely to use Amazon’s other services. Loved ***Spider-Noir? ***The original comics are a click away on Comixology. Want to relive ***Project Hail Mary? ***Audible has you covered with the audiobook. Are you a ***Fallout ***fan? You can probably find a Ghoul costume on Amazon Prime just in time for San Diego Comic-Con.
The series that has benefited the most from the connection between Prime Video and Amazon Prime is Invincible. Not only are the original comics by **Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, **and **Ryan Ottley **continuing to top the sales charts, but it’s also lead to more *Invincible *media like the ***Invincible VS ***video game and the ongoing ***Invincible Universe: Battle Beast ***comic by Kirkman and Ottley. On top of that, Prime Video is announcing a slew of new shows based on Image Comics titles, including Ed Brubaker’s ***Criminal ***and **Matt Fraction **& Chip Zdarsky’s Sex Criminals. If either of those series has a fraction of Invincible’s impact, it means more traffic to Comixology, a bigger spotlight on Image’s library of titles, and more subscribers for Amazon Prime.
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Prime Video doesn’t just benefit from being supported by Amazon’s other ventures. It can also afford to drop blockbuster-level budgets on its television shows** because Amazon Prime is the main driver of its business**. Buisness of Apps’ report shows that Amazon spent a whopping $18.9 billion on streaming projects in 2023, with the figure rising to $21 billion in the last two years. Most of that is due to people still using Amazon Prime and its benefits; even if someone does cancel Prime Video, they’ll still stick around for what Amazon Prime offers. While other streamers like Netflix have tried to branch out with their own unique marketing ventures, they don’t hold a candle to the variety of services Amazon Prime offers.
Even Amazon’s higher ups are touting Prime Video’s model as the future of entertainment. During the APOS conference held this week in Bali, Prime Video’s vice president for Asia-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand **Gaurav Gandhi **said that Prime Video is part of a central “entertainment hub” which makes it a bigger draw over other streamers. It’s hard not to argue his point; even when you’re done with your latest binge, there’s still plenty of entertainment value left to wring out of your Amazon subscription.
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