You’d think we would’ve gotten sick of ’em by now.
I’m talking superheroes. And before y’all start throwing rocks at me, let me remind you I’m a longtime fan. Like, the first words out of my mouth were “up,” “up” and “away” kind of fan. I grew up watching many of them on TV, from the old black-and-white reruns of Superman and the campy 1960s Batman to The Electric Company’s perpetually mute Spider-Man.
But while my affection for caped crusaders is well documented, I’ve always figured that the rest of the culture would one day move on. After all, superhero stories have long been a niche product. One did not flaunt one’s superhero-themed socks in high school or watch Superfriends reruns in college. Never mind that Batman was the biggest cinematic hit of 1989: It was only cool because it was so dark and brooding and had Jack Nicholson in it. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, there were socially acceptable pop-culture interests that we were allowed to like—early rap music, video games and Tom Cruise movies. Those who professed an unironic yen for superheroes were sequestered to the end of the lunch table.
But for the last dozen years—since, really, the release of the original Spider-Man movie, culture has been all about our do-gooding guys in tights. And it’s only getting more pronounced.
Consider that Guardians of the Galaxy—Marvel’s heretofore little-known band of star-hopping rebels—is the biggest money-making movie of 2014 so far, pushing another superhero flick (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) down to No. 2. And Guardians looks likely to repeat as the weekend’s top movie again. That’d make it No. 1 for the fourth time in six weeks, for those of you keeping track.
Since 2002, a superhero movie has finished as the year’s top-grossing cinematic release four times. Four! Not bad for a niche subgenre, right? And next year will see the release of three more big-budget superhero flicks: Ant-Man, Fantastic Four and, of course, Avengers: Age of Ultron. In 2016, according to superherostuff.com, there could be as many as six more, including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
And television—already home to ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and CW’s Arrow (based on D.C.’s Green Arrow)—has gotten positively Hulkian hungry for superheroes. The Flash zips onto CW’s schedule this fall. Marvel’s Agent Carter (that’d be Captain America’s love interest in the first movie) is coming to ABC come January. Daredevil will get his own show on Netflix by May.
And then, of course, you’ve got the Sept. 22 premiere of Fox’s Gotham, arguably the most anticipated new show of not just the superhero genre, but all television.
This small-screen superhero influx is interesting, given that television is in what many reviewers have called a golden age of sorts. Content-laden prestige dramas are filled with complex storylines, deeply compelling antiheroes and enough thematic meat to sate the most ardent storylover. By comparison, superhero stories can feel a little superficial. A little light. Darker than the superhero shows I watched as a kid, most certainly. But none are Breaking Bad, either.
But maybe that’s the point. Maybe sometimes, even in this jaded and prickly age of ours, we just need someone we can root for—people, be they mutants or aliens or troubled millionaires who broke good.
Our love of superheroes isn’t eternal. But our love of heroes, and the ideals they represent, may be.
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