What Happens After the Super-Hero Movie Bubble? 339
mattnyc99 writes "In the wake of a not-that-exciting Comic-Con come some (perhaps premature) reports on the so-called "Death of Superheroes" — what one financial group calls "the top of the (comic book) character remonetization cycle." In response, Esquire.com's Paul Schrodt has an interesting look down Hollywood geek road. From the article: "What happens after The Avengers, or Christopher Nolan's third and final Batman movie — after we've seen all there is to see of the best comic-book blockbusters ever made?""
More Comic Books Than You Think (Score:4, Interesting)
I think that if Hollywood and the comic publishers had more fairly compensated the original artists that they wouldn't be facing a lack of material. Here's a research exercise I'll leave to the reader: Who personally profited more from Spiderman: ${Sony CEO} or co-creator Jack Kirby (and his estate)? If a large enough percentage of profit is pumped back into the creators, you'd see an explosion of people vying for that market with new and original ideas.
More and more with the creative art that I consume I strive to make purchases directly from the artist themselves because we have the internet and the internet enables this so why not? Hollywood and their accounting methods are absolutely horrible about this so why should I worry that they're not going to have anymore comic books left to rape soon?
Re:Reboot (Score:4, Interesting)
Exactly. Super heroes stories are the modern mythology; they never die they just keep being told and retold just like people have been doing for thousands of years before. And, despite all the haters hating the lack of "originality", I personally think that's pretty cool.
No hate here, but I've never seen a more succinct reason to outlaw perpetual copyright protections granted to our "modern mythology". What I hate is that only DC and Marvel and Hollywood moguls will profit indefinitely from what is OUR culture. Imagine how much more interesting culture would be if the everyday person was allowed to tell and retell these stories, too.
All we have are Origin Stories (Score:5, Interesting)
This is getting ridiculous. I have read comic books for 45 years, and hardly ever read an "origin" story. They are there, but THEN THEY MOVE ON!
The movies can't seem to get past origin stories, and their direct aftermath.
Why not do a Starwars? Just leap into the story, and let the audience figure it out? Maybe do a flash back here and there, and move on with the plot?
We have the technology to tell the stories now. But we can't get to the meat of what it means to be Spiderman when every time we have to switch out an actor, we are forced to see the one plot we (comic fans) really know well, over and over again. We know these heros had an origin. We know they have to come to terms with their power. We know they have to find balance between being a hero and being a person. There are so many possible stories to tell! Tell one of them already!
I would point out that if comic movies suffer the flaw of origin focus, fantasy suffers the flaw of world wide destruction. Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, the Matrix (really, this is just a tech fantasy), The Mummy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars (really, another tech fantasy), etc. are all driven by the idea that unless the unlikely hero beats some terrible foe, the world will end.
There are many films that escape the terrible gravity wells of these plot paths, so maybe I troll when I say "All we have are...", but I just wish sometimes there were more standout exceptions to the rule....
Re:This will never end (Score:5, Interesting)
A friend and I were discussing the cyclic nature of comics the other day and how it relates to movies today. I was a big comics fan in the 80s and 90s 9less so today). Comics then were generally pretty formulaic until Watchmen and the Dark Knight Returns cast aside the status quo. The publisher's seemed to think that 'gritty' was what people wanted and the anti-hero was on the rise. Wolverine became huge as well as grim takes on Green Arrow and Daredevil among others. The grom stories were everywhere. The other big thing in comics then was the grand crossover event, starting with Secret Wars.
Now, in movies, the success of the Dark Knight has forced reboots that are grittier and brooding -- like the new Spiderman and Man of Steel. The movie crossover is coming as The Avengers.
I'm a little concerned about the moves in the film. Batman is compelling as a dark, moody prick. Spiderman is not. Some characters are just not suitable. The crossovers can be great, like Secret Wars, or awful, like any of the DC Crises (except Identity Crisis, that was ok).
I fear that the rush for grittiness will wind up with some really bad movies and this will sour the studios on more super hero movies. They seem to think that if a movie does bad its because the genre is stale when often the movie was a huge misstep. If gritty Spiderman and Man of Steel don't work and the Avengers is a mess (which is a very likely scenario) then comic book movies are is for a rough ride.