Are critics & general audiences feeling burnout over the constant exposure of superpowered heroes in modern media?

We are currently in the midst of the 2023 summer blockbuster season. Movies like Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 and upcoming films like Barbie are projected to help raise up dwindling numbers for public movie theatres and the general box office. However, considering the public trend that has been plaguing modern cinema in the past decade or so, we started to notice a trend that has been circulating around the superhero genre. With the Hollywood engine back in full force after COVID-19, audiences aren’t so starved for content anymore, and they’re starting to notice lots of small cracks have been appearing throughout the year, showcasing a figurative “burn out” when it comes to audiences viewing media in this similar field.

Struggling on the Silver Screen (& my impressions of Secret Invasion)

If we’re looking for a figurative person to blame, i’d personally argue that this issue was caused & began with the demand for streaming content. Imagine that you’re Disney for example in the late 2010’s. You own one of the most profitable movie franchises out there, alongside your other major companies & production houses, & you want to capitalize on it while the iron’s hot. So you launch Disney+, a streaming service where people can watch all their Disney, Pixar, & Marvel content, all in one convenient place. But once people stop watching your old content, you decide that it’s time to create some original content. I mean The Mandelorian did well critically and got you some public buzz, imagine what a Marvel product would do. So you announce a Marvel Disney+ show, then another one, then three more, then your Marvel release schedule balloons from three movies a year in 2019 to nine overall projects alone in 2021 (four movies and five tv shows). In the eyes of the fans, Disney was asking for too much from its already dwindling fanbase. 2019’s Avengers Endgame served as a great conclusion to the MCU Infinity Saga, but also became a great jumping off point for plenty of fans who had been watching the MCU since Iron Man come out in 2008. Then Disney starts stuffing their faces with content that ranges in quality, and fans start realizing that it isn’t worth it afterwards. I stopped watching Marvel projects consistently after I nearly fell asleep during Hawkeye, only really watching major releases like Spiderman: No Way Home, Doctor Strange 2, & the most recent MCU film, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3.

For a consumer like myself, there’s no reason to watch a lot of the Disney+ exclusive content. WandaVision had a drop in quality around the end of season one, Hawkeye was so boring that I can’t even remember anyone outside of Hawkeye and Kingpin, She Hulk was atrociously written and somehow had worse CGI than Ant Man, and their newest “creation”, Secret Invasion ruins so much of the MCU history with clumsy writing and a plot that feels like Disney tried writing a spy thriller for teenagers. What’s the plot? Well Nick Fury needs to stop the Skrulls (the aliens from that Captain Marvel movie that nobody liked) from infiltrating Russia so they can start WW3 with America & claim Earth for themselves. Sounds good on paper but a lot of the reasoning starts to fall flat once you use any brainpower to think about the Skrull plot. Why do they want Earth instead of a more uninhabited, less polluted, less volatile planet? Not explained. Why aren’t the Avengers or any superhero group helping Nick Fury? Not explained. Why are the Skrulls mad at Nick Fury especially. Because Nick Fury promised them a new world to live in but since he’s been busy with Shield, The Avengers, Ultron, & Thanos wiping out half of existence, the Skrulls got tired of waiting & thought mass genocide was an appropriate answer. Even outside of these inconsistencies, the show is just boringThe show ends up feeling like they gave a bunch of amateur film students a massive Hollywood budget and let them spend it freely without consequence. Overall, this show has nothing to do with the original Secret Invasion storyline in the comics. It ruins a plot that’s already written for the show runners to adapt, but ends up being under-utilized and ruined, alongside wasting the star studded cast including Samuel L. Jackson, Emilia Clarke, and Ben Mendelsohn. The show is still in its initial season, and maybe I’m wrong and Secret Invasion could be the best thing ever, but after watching the first few episodes, I don’t have a reason to watch on, just like plenty of those before me.

The DCEU, a Universe Not Worth Saving

As previously mentioned, this issue of “modern superhero movie fatigue” came into question with the overexposure of content through services like Disney+, yet movie releases like The Flash prove that this issue is also more widespread than just streaming, and not only a Marvel exclusive problem. While public opinion on the quality of the movie is mixed, the movie underperformed like nothing of its nature, with opening weekend only pulling in $55 million (via Box Office Mojo) compared to almost $200 in producing and an additional $150 million solely in marketing (projected via Collider). So what went wrong? Well, I attribute the movie’s failure to two major reasons. The first (& most blatant reason) can be attributed to how the public perceives the film, but more importantly, the film’s star, Ezra Miller. Looking past everything that he’s said on Twitter & Instagram livestreams, the guy’s a complete lunatic, and the fact that Warner Bros. kept him on the project through completion showed many a lack of common sense & a mass level of corruption, considering how much of Miller’s actions were swept under the rug by WB. Public opinion on actors like Ezra lead to projects their tied too performing poorly almost as a form of protest. However, the second reason has more to do with the die hard fans (a.k.a the ones supporting these films in the long term). You see, since the original DC Extended Universe wasn’t performing as well as Warner Bros. originally expected, they brought on superhero veteran James Gunn to oversee the creation (and reset) of a new DC Universe. This decision was met with a bunch of criticism and overall praise, but the main issue that arose was that James Gunn, and WB were basically telling audiences that any movie released from DC didn’t matter because nothing would carry over, so don’t bother watching it. It’s a big reason why Shazam 2 bombed and a bad precedent for future projects like Blue Beetle & Aquaman 2. If you’re a fan, why bother watching if there’s no final goal in sight?

Well what about the “golden boys” over at Marvel. 2023 hasn’t really been a banner year compared to how untouchable they were during the 2010’s. Most of their projects this year have been either spaced out to release at the end of the year, or just dropped from Disney’s release schedule all together with a fat “TBD” on the end. Well why is Marvel sitting on such a bad omen for the remainder of the year? Well it’s because a fun movie named Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania performing poorly critically, financially, and socially. In the eyes of Marvel, Quantumania was supposed to be the start of a new era in Disney/Marvel, where stories outside of the usual cookie-cutter mould could be told, and where the next generation of heroes could showcase what they’re capable of, all being capped off by Kang, the next Thanos-level threat that the Avengers would have to fight. So what happened? Well the movie was basically another rushed MCU project that set up Kang as a nothing villain, with audiences showing a mixed to negative response to the film. I even rewatched the movie just to remember what happens but it all meshes together into a mass grey blob of mediocrity. Even during a period where the box office wasn’t putting up much of a fight (The movie to knock it out of the top spot in the box office, Creed 3, released about two weeks after Quantumania released). Even prior to the release of Quantumania, many argued at Marvel for poor practices in treating their production staff (& especially their VFX artists) poorly due to how many projects Marvel was pushing out & not allowing any breathing room between projects. Remember that these heroes have to shoot fire, or fly through massive cities, VFX work is going to be about 90% of the work, and when the VFX work looks half-assed, you’ll end up with a half-assed product.

Is Superhero Media Doomed?

Looking back on Marvel ironically, they have produced movies like Across the Spider-Verse and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 that prove superhero movies are still profitable, if done PROPERLY. Having watched these movies, I can say whole heartedly that they were created to tell a story, not to push a franchise, or trying to sell me on something. Across the Spider-Verse serves as a great continuation of what was introduced in Into the Spider-Verse, and while I do think that the first movie was leagues better than the recent film, Across the Spider-Verse felt fresh, as we saw the struggles and flaws that goes into being a Spiderman. Yet movies like Shazam 2 told us that Shazam was having problems finding himself, yet these issues were never brought up or touched upon afterwards, & the story was solved in a formulaic manner. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 served as a great finale to the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, giving the characters satisfying conclusions as James Gunn leaves Marvel to (hopefully) give DC a needed kick in the ass. Meanwhile Ant Man & the Wasp: Quantumania barely even felt like the end to a trilogy, and nothing resembling an Ant Man film. If you’d told me that this is probably the final Ant-Man film, i’d probably say it was due to awful box office results compared to them finishing a trilogy. As for DC, you’re probably going to be waiting until late next year for Joker 2, and if you want a proper DC superhero movie, it’ll be more than two years until Matt Reeves The Batman Part 2 drops.

Look the point that i’m trying to convey here is that audiences aren’t dumb. Sure you can load your product with plenty of legacy characters & returning favourites but what keeps them talking is how you use them in your movie. One of the main reasons I love Spiderman: No Way Home is because it shows you the emotional sacrifice & suffering that a superhero goes through to protect everyone, including those you love. The story was told beautifully, and having characters like Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman & Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin helped further this idea that they were trying to present. Audiences are deciding with their money on which projects deserve that attention, and with this broken path of sub-par superhero flicks, more and more people are jumping ship & supporting more unique and original forms of media. If you want to keep audiences from getting bored, challenge them & how they perceive the films they watch. Maybe the hero isn’t the “golden boy” that they’re perceived as, or show us how those without superpowers can change the world for the better. It’s why shows like The Boys works so well & why complex characters like Batman keep getting films. Otherwise, it’s only a matter of time that Superhero movies go the way of the western and die out, but I wonder what might become the “next big thing” in Hollywood…

(and no, the answer isn’t a strike)