Super heros are back in style

[CarlAlves]

I think the trend started with Spiderman, and the movies were such high quality with a great story and great action that it appealed to the masses. Subsequent movies have also generally been good, which I think has caused people to be into them. The other part is that I think Marvel has done a great job of marketing to kids. I should know since I have a six year old boy who is a big fan. The upside is that you don't have to be a geek to be into superheroes.
Carl Alves

 

[KatG]

You are a geek if you are into superheroes. It's just that a lot of the population doesn't want to admit that the majority of us are geeks.

I do think a lot of people see superheroes as "safe" to like if they are on film and sometimes books. That this won't be seen as too strange. Same with zombies. So that does keep up their popularity. But mostly they are a very potent symbol -- with great power comes great responsibility. And that's good fodder for stories.

 

[Wojciehowicz]

It has to be remembered, that when it comes to movies and television scripts with full bibles, pitches, and even little loglines will sit in drawers for a while until someone begins to move, buzz inside the industry starts (long before we hear anything, before the actors ever do either), drawers are opened, papers dusted off and... Hence, floods of movies in a certain vein for a while. Even stuff that has been in development hell can suddenly be green lit because they feel like a surfer trying to get on the board at just the right moment.

Superheroes are no different. Sure, it's cynical, but the object is to make money so you can feed your family and put a roof over your heads. The more, the better. So, if the public is starting to respond to the already building insider buzz, and it looks good, jump the wave.

I think we'll see a dearth of it after a short while (12-18 months) and they'll move to something else again. I just think the extreme cynicism of rebooting only just established stuff has to go. Fantastic Four is the biggie. I expect they will reboot Daredevil soon enough even though I loved Affleck's performance. Spiderman did not need to be rebooted; it's way too early. If they reboot Blade I'm going to stop watching superhero movies altogether and forever. CONTINUE a story, even if there are new actors (they use different actors over the years to play Oliver, Peter Pan, etc.), but don't keep restarting the storyline and disavowing what went before.

Actually, I felt that about comics first. Crisis on Infinite Earths, Marvel's constant reality mind-frells and time travel abuse, etc. I gave up on comics before 1990 thanks to all that nonsense. Okay, so Liefeldian art also turned me off, and let's hope that the movies never go there.

EDIT: Actually, let's go there. It might be funny for ONE movie to have absurd superhero outfits with absurd body parts. Heck, muscle magazines are full of people who are Liefeldian. A little forced perspective abuse as if it were mere incompetence in cinematography and we're there. Of course, the nasty underage girl motif should be avoided after Kick Ass. I shook my head enough to get whiplash back when Kitty Pryde was given endowments worthy of the Chatsworth crowd and illustrated in a bikini nearly as slight as a Wicked Weasel. I can do without that trope for a while.

 

[Chekhov]

Of course, the nasty underage girl motif should be avoided after Kick Ass.

That was my favourite part of the movie.

But yeah, it would lose its appeal as a cliché.