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Now with X-Men: Apocalypse going through its theatrical run, we are on the fourth of the six superhero movies coming out this year. While opinions have varied greatly on the quality of the movies, it seems like one notion gaining traction is superheroes are going to fade away as people no longer want to see anything involving them. This notion is typically paired with the analogy of how the once-popular Western genre is now as unpopular as can be and this is proven by how rarely one gets made nowadays.
I can see where people may think this, but it is completely wrong. Are superheroes films at an all time high? Of course and that’s proven by the fact you can’t go two weeks without seeing a new poster for the newest film. Have they maybe peaked? That can be debated for hours on end, but they aren’t going to fade away and the proof is in how resilient they have been throughout the decades.
Ever since the Superman radio shows in the 40s, spandex heroes have been in popular media consistently. Whether it is in the aforementioned radio shows, TV cartoons, live-action TV shows, serials, or full-blown movies, superheroes have never been far from mainstream audiences. Even when a movie comes along that is so bad it actually makes the superhero genre toxic and people claim it has imploded, it doesn’t stay down for long.
For example, when the worst Superman movie ever made, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, came out, people claimed it had ruined the entire genre. There was good reason to think this considering how bad it was. Here’s the kicker though, that movie was in 1987 and in 1989 Batman came out and revitalized the genre. That means the “implosion” only lasted two years. Fast-forward ten years to 1997 and the panned Batman & Robin is made. The same allegations are made about the genre and it seemed to really be true this time, but then Blade came out in 1999 and X-Men in 2000. Once again, the genre that was supposed to be near death was only put on the shelf for a couple of years before having new life breathed into it.
Seeing a pattern? The genre itself is a lot like the heroes themselves, they can be beaten down and at times, even seem defeated, but in the end, they always find a way to bounce back. So will the movie bubble eventually pop? Most likely, but the movies aren’t going away permanently. They will most likely go away for a couple of years before being brought back with a new direction.
Of course none of this takes TV into consideration. Heroes have been a mainstay there since the 60s. Now with how successful Daredevil and Jessica Jones have been on Netflix, streaming is a viable option as well. When you also factor video games as well, then it becomes clear that the day superheroes fade into obscurity and only on the pages of comics isn’t going to be happening anytime soon.
So if you are tired of superheroes movies, then you won’t find much solace in the near future. Heroes are a lot like cop shows, they are always going to be around, whether we want them to be or not.
