Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was out recently. Then we have Captain America: Civil War and X-Men: Apocalypse out this month (and the covers of this issue no less). We just had Deadpool, too, and while the Avengers have already been established in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, DC is doing its best to complete the Justice League and put that team out there as fast as they can. We are surrounded by superhero movies today and given the cross-movie world-building trend set by Marvel that won’t change anytime soon. In the current situation then, can you really blame someone for commenting on the huge number of superheroes currently in big screens across the world?
I think this phenomenon can be understood in a number of ways. First and foremost is the apparent lack of originality in the films Hollywood continues to make. There seems to be a trend of films based on material from other mediums. Other than comic books, best-selling novels have also been routinely converted into movies in the past years. Young adult novels have especially been prone to getting film adaptations—they even started the trend of splitting the last movie into two parts just to continue milking the franchise.
Personally, I believe that Harry Potter was justified in this while Twilight was not. Moviegoers today can also observe a good number of reboots. While old novels like The Great Gatsby have had their film adaptations using modern techniques, old movies like Godzilla and Robocop have also been given the 21st-century Hollywood facelift, even old TV series like Star Trek aren’t immune. In this context, the ascendency of superheroes in movies can be seen as part of an ongoing trend in films in general.
It can also be argued that studios are jumping on the bandwagon of superhero movies, especially given the huge success of the recent Marvel creation and prolongation of a cinematic universe for its characters. If you think about it, the age of standalone superhero movies (or trilogies in the case of the first Spiderman films) because what is happening now is the steady migration of the DC and Marvel universes to the big screen. Their age-old rivalry in the colored panels of pages is now made available to a new generation using new technology for an even more spectacular experience. Superhero movies, and the superhero universes being built around all these interrelated films, are a juxtaposition of the Marvel vs. DC corporate saga onto the big screen, if observed under this frame.
However, I like to see this supposed oversaturation of superheroes in movies under a different light. More than the lack of originality or the encroachment of two entertainment giants into another popular medium, I believe that this trend is a product of the ascendency of what I like to call geek culture.
Let’s define some things first. A geek is different from a nerd or a dork. The latter two are often associated with either academic excellence/obsession or plain social awkwardness. Geek, on the other hand, refers more to that type of person who has devoted an extreme level of time and effort towards a certain passion or hobby that doesn’t fall under the common understanding of what is popular. When you hear the term “comic book geek” that’s simply a person who knows a lot about comic books—it isn’t necessarily his job to know all that stuff, he learns them because he wants to.
When I talk about geek culture ascending, what I mean to say is that a revolution seems to have happened in the past two decades when it comes to social norms in pop culture. It used to be that what persons “geeked over” were things outside the mainstream, and so these people and their passions were sidelined. We all know the stereotype that Spiderman represents of course: that nerdy kid who got bullied by the popular jocks. I think that’s a reflection of where geekiness used to be in our everyday lives.
Today, however, being a geek can be seen as cool. At the very least, a person’s geekiness is much more accepted these days. And the things people used to geek over in the sidelines of society are now mainstream: video games, fantasy and science fiction novels, comic books, tabletop games, etc. Knowing lots of stuff about these things now makes you just a normal person, not a focus of ridicule. And if you think about it, what separates a comic book geek, who knows all the heroes and their powers and the dates and issues major events happened in, from a huge basketball fan, who knows all the statistics of his favorite players? Not much, in my opinion.
I like seeing the trend as a change in demographics as well. Those kids who were so crazy about video games and frequented the arcades are now the ones designing all these cool games and gaming platforms for today’s generation. Fans of comic books, who grew up with the characters in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, are now the ones writing, drawing, and adapting them to the big screen. They’re pretty good at it, too.
However, it’s also important to note that simply being a superhero movie doesn’t equate to success. Sure, they’re popular today, but there have been some major failures in this regard as well. We can look at the Wolverine movies, and the Green Lantern, and let’s not forget how hard it’s been for Marvel to create a real vibrant franchise out of the Incredible Hulk. They’re popular but they’re not all successful.
For those who complain about there being so many of them, let’s just remember that there continues to be other movies out there. Good ones, too. If the thought of another superhero movie makes you puke then watch Creed, The Revenant, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Good Dinosaur, The Hobbit, The Martian, Inside Out… there are so many other good movies that came out at the same time as the huge blockbuster superhero ones that, really, I don’t see it as such a big deal.
In the end, I think it’s really just about a movie being a good movie, whether it’s set in a world of superheroes or not. The comic book trend will die out eventually I think, to be replaced by something new. Or it may just become a new constant genre that will fade into the background of normalcy. What matters is that the characters are interesting, the plot is engaging, and the movies enjoyable, superheroes or not.
