Marvel Madness

Scott Hardie | October 31, 2014
I've been wondering when superhero fatigue was going to happen in this country. Now that Marvel has announced a million more movies, I no longer bother. It will still happen, eventually, but the marketing for those movies (which started with this very announcement) will whip everyone back into a frenzy even if they're tired of all superheroes all the time, which is what the movie business seems to be turning into.

The first two points on EW's analysis of the announcement ring especially true for me. We are getting worked up about movies that won't be made for several years yet. Whoever wins the presidency in 2016 will be in full-swing campaign mode for re-election by the time some of these titles come out. Why are we supposed to care about movies that won't become actual things for some time? "We as a movie culture are beginning to treat movies like Fantasy Football," indeed.

I'm enjoying the Marvel movies, don't get me wrong. Most of them are pretty good. Marvel clearly has the best approach of the major studios: Sony is working the golden goose to death by pumping out little-wanted Spider-Man spin-off titles that dilute interest in the character, Warner Brothers is making (imo) a huge aesthetic and tactical mistake by trying to apply Christopher Nolan's dark and gritty take on Batman to the rest of its DC movies, and Fox is leaning too heavily on Hugh Jackman (what will they do when he retires?) and trying to stuff a Fantastic Four crossover into X-Men movies that barely have enough time for the X-Men. Meanwhile, Marvel seems to place an emphasis on quality control: They care deeply about getting their own characters right after seeing other studios ruin some, and they're nurturing the brand by hiring the best storytellers to work within the framework of their house style. They are rushing some titles (Ant-Man seemed plagued by endless production troubles) for the sake of appeasing investors, which means they're bound to have a creative flop sooner or later. But they keep surprising me: I didn't expect much out of a sequel for the least interesting Avenger or a feature about underdeveloped cosmic nobodies, but Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy both turned out to be pretty good. If Marvel can keep up the quality control, then fine, they can keep having my money through 2019 and beyond.

What do you think?

Samir Mehta | October 31, 2014
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Scott Hardie | November 2, 2014
Marvel is drawing from so many recent storylines in the comics that it makes me feel old. :-) I worked at a comics store in the mid-nineties and was fairly knowledgeable about the history of the characters up to that point, but new stories since then are big blind spots for me. I guess that's good, since it means I can be surprised.

I can't find it now, but I read an article early this year praising the Iron Man film series as Marvel's best work, for daring to have shades of darkness and meanness to their character, true to his comics treatment. Captain America is too perfect all the time and boring, while Thor lost what few sparks he had in the first act of his first movie, and the other heroes are seen in too-small doses to register. I wonder what the author of that piece would think now that The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy have come along and shaken up that status quo.

Evie Totty | November 3, 2014
I don't know. I like good movies. I don't care what the genre is or how the characters are dressed. As long as they keep making good movies who cares if they happen to have superheroes as the main character.

Can we all agree that The Dark Knight series was more of gritty crime dramas that happened to have a superhero? That Winter Soldier was a spy flick that happened to have superheroes? IM3 was even about a soldier who was dealing with PTSD to complete a mission ... who happened to also be a superhero.

Smallville enjoyed a 10-year run and could have easily continued past that mark. And when did Superman fly in that series? The very last episode. (And if you haven't watched Smallville - you should).

Many movies are centered around exceptional folks. Now that they happen to wear brightly colored (and/or ab molding) uniforms shouldn't change anything.

As far as the silliness of announcements - well this is simply a different situation. The comic book universe is quite large and has been around for some time. People are looking forward to hearing their 'favorite books' will be made into movies. And the people who love them... REALLY love them. I'm reminded of that comic book collector in Rocko's Modern Life - clean your hands, turn the page. Clean your hands, turn the page (or is it wash? same difference).

Marvel knows their audience and are giving us what we want.

Erik Bates | November 12, 2014
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Scott Hardie | November 27, 2014
Evie, I definitely agree that those "superhero" movies had a foot in other genres as well, like you said, and I appreciate the variations on a theme. But the same thought also makes me sad, because those titles are as close as we seem to get any more to what used to be commonplace. Why can't we just have a gritty crime drama, or a spy flick, or movie about a soldier with PTSD completing a mission, without superheroes in them? Ben Affleck is celebrated for making films for grownups like Argo and Gone Girl, but they're not exceptionally *good* movies; they're just the kind of movie that Hollywood used to make but gave up on.

I want a Black Widow solo movie as much as anyone (well, maybe not this writer), but I don't think it's because Marvel lacks vision or trust in female characters or anything like that. They exist to make money and a Black Widow movie would reap tons of it. I suspect that the real reason the movie isn't happening is failure to negotiate a contract with Scarlett Johansson. She must have been hired for supporting roles only, and can now demand a high fee for a starring role because the character turned out to be so popular, but Marvel are notoriously tough negotiators (see the firing of Edward Norton in favor of Mark Ruffalo), so I can easily imagine a standoff between them that neither side will acknowledge publicly.