In the last few years there have been an influx of superhero movies and they have subsequently dominated the box office. The pro-comic book inspired attitude is fairly recent but not necessarily new in terms of fandom. Things like comic-con have been going on for years, but lately they taken taken on epic proportions. Why our society crave and eat up the classic comic hero's journey again and again and again?
Yes, they are but I love them anyway. – Munjeera7 years ago
Yes, the are, but I mostly dislike them anyway. An exception is the new Wonder Woman movie, which my daughter and I enjoyed quite a bit.
– Ben Hufbauer7 years ago
Hi Ben, What about Captain America: Winter Soldier? You can't hate Captain America can you? What about Black Panther? I am waiting with bated breath for BP. The music from the trailer sounds awesome. The best soundtrack yet I am guessing. – Munjeera7 years ago
Perhaps you could discuss history f superhero fandoms and the fandoms about the superhero franchises generally. – J.D. Jankowski7 years ago
They're the popular way to tell the heroes journey. They're importance varies from character to character, but at the very least they'll have a solid core emotional story to them. They can be pretty simple as well. Ant-man has a nice father daughter theme in it. The Sam Raimi Spider-man films have "with great power comes great responsibility" down to a t. Also, if you're just talking about their monetary success, it's pretty simple: kids. – KyleThomson7 years ago
Quite broad. As others have noted, the big-ticket superheroes today have disparate origins, purposes, and journeys. The "superhero" movie subgenre might deserve some questions, but whoever wanted to tackle the questions would need to establish the themes common to the superhero journey and the outliers to those themes. That is, do *Deadpool,* *Guardians of the Galazy Vol. 2,* and *Wonder Woman* offer parallel themes? If so, what are they? – Paul A. Crutcher7 years ago
I think we have become obsessed with superheroes because we lack real heroes. Heroes in the past have fallen and it seems as if there is a disappointed generation out there. Also, these are scary times. Is it any wonder we take solace in the idea that someone will rescue us from ourselves? – Munjeera7 years ago
Every new interpretation, every re watch and every new instalment brings with it excitement, apprehension and familiarity. whats wrong with craving a bit of hope, humour and strength? – miaraszewski7 years ago
Superhero movies can be considered to be over the top and overdone. But before applying a binary yes no response to this questions, I think it would be helpful to examine this from a different paradigm. If we look at the geo-political state of the world over the last 15-20 years, things have been rapidly declining. Superhero movies offer what the real world cannot - a form of escapism that is affordable, relatable and has generated a lot of buy-in from fandom the world over. Lets be honest, we have all wished for some type of supernatural ability or power at some point in our lives to help us deal with a real world issue we were dealing with in the hopes that it would solve the problem and we would emerge victorious. We have all fantasied and wished for it at some point. Superhero movies are an extension of that inherent wish/fantasy. It is appealing to us to see average people go through a transition of some kind (spider bite/gamma radiation exposure/ being born on another planet/ or a genius tech billionaire) and able to overcome adversity of all types. – mattcarlin7 years ago
Not at all! Movies such as superhero movies, activates our imagination to believe the most unimaginable scenarios. For the duration of that movie, we forget the rules of reality and get absorbed in another world, where we are not limited by our human potential. We are indeed able to explore feeling extraordinary. – poojanair7 years ago
Superhero movies to me do not activate the imagination. Rather they are are a reinforcement of everything that is wrong with the world (fictional or not). This is why most superhero movies are being set in the modern real world. Granted, movies like batman etc who make up their own dystopian world are the exception, but look at captain america and the fact it was set it WW2 their battle with hydra. This is drawing an abstract parallel to the political state of Germany and Europe at the time. Then fast forward to modern day, we are still fighting racists, biggots and other closed minded people. Superpower or no, this still has the ability to be subversive and abusive to people. – mattcarlin7 years ago
I gave up on superhero movies after CA:Civil War. Gone are the good old days of old where we had one Batman/Spidey film every 2-3 years. – Vishnu Unnithan7 years ago
Well, I have heard about the marvel comics that they are going to introduce more characters in their upcoming movies and I think it would be fun for super hero lover. – sarahharvey7 years ago