Commentary

The Golden Age of Comics in Hollywood

Brittany M.

Hello Filmsters!

Today I’m going to talk about the comic book movie genre. 

Comic book movies have been on the rise of popularity since the 70s. Today, the highest-grossing film of all time (“Avengers: Endgame”) is a comic book movie. Comic book stories have had their place in Hollywood for years, but recently they have dominated the box office and most of our pop culture. Let’s dive in and explore how and why comic stories have become a phenomenon. 

The History of Comic Book Movies

The first comic book ever adapted to the big screen was Captain Marvel (Shazam) in “Adventures of Captain Marvel” in 1941. This was a 12-chapter film serial that would play before a bigger motion picture. Following the success of sci-fi fantasy films, Richard Donner’s “Superman” in 1978 was the first big-budget superhero film. It received both critical and commercial success.    

The 1980s and 90s brought about many comic book movies such as

  • Tim Burton’s Batman (1989).
  •  Supergirl (1984)
  •  The Punisher (1989)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
  • Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

During the 21st century, interest in the comic book genre increased. At this time, movie franchises started to rise with many comic book movies at the helm. Marvel licensed the rights to their characters such as the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man to other film studios such as 20th Century Fox and Colombia Pictures. These studios produced and made the films. Some comic book films that came out at this time were

  •  Spider-Man (2002)
  • Daredevil (2003)
  •  Fantastic Four (2005)
  •  Batman Begins (2005)
  • Iron Man (2008)

Since 2008’s “Iron Man” brought about massive success for Marvel, they were able to create their film studio; called Marvel Studios and make their own movies. They created the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) which is a franchise where all of their characters exist in the same cinematic universe. The success of the MCU inspired other film studios to attempt a cinematic universe with their franchises. Warner Brothers created their cinematic universe featuring all of their DC Comics properties. They call it the DC Extended Universe or DCEU. Some other comic book movies to come out during the 2010s were

  • Green Lantern (2011)
  •  X-Men: First Class (2011)
  •  The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
  •  The Amazing Spider-Man (2014)
  •  Fantastic Four (2015)

Why Comic Book Movies Have Become so Popular 

There seems to be a correlation between tragic events and interest in comic book movies. Let’s look at the terrorist attacks that happened in America on September11, 2001. After that event happened, Colombia Pictures released “Spider-Man” directed by Sam Raimi. The film was very well received by audiences. Comic book movies were on the rise again during the economic recession in 2008. In the same year “The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” were released. Both of those films were also well received by audiences. 

During this time people wanted escapism into a different world where the distinctions between good and evil are easy to tell. Movies in which a hero wins the day, became more appealing to people than movies with more depressing endings. 

It should be noted that also during this time, Hollywood special effects were getting much better. The emergence of computer-generated graphics made recreating images from comic books easier than ever before. The special effects became more realistic and believable, something that limited superhero movies in the past. 

Will Comic Book Movies Continue to Dominate the Box Office?

The main thing to note about the comics is that it is a vast medium. There are so many stories within the comic book world. This means that Hollywood could potentially make films with these characters for a long time. They would always have new stories to tell, which means they wouldn’t have to tread the same waters. Unlike romance and horror movies, which have to have the same cliche story beats, comic book movies have plenty of material to pull stories from. 

The downside to the comic book movie genre is that unlike the comics, the actors who play these characters change. The same actor cannot play the character for 50+ years. This means that eventually, the character may be rebooted and a new actor will have to play the character instead. While this isn’t inherently a bad thing, the problem is people may grow tired of the same character being rebooted with different actors. Take characters like Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man for example. Each of these characters has gone through many reboots with different actors taking the roles. If comic book films continue like this, it’s only a matter of time before we have different versions of Iron Man, Captain America, Shazam, Wonder Woman, and many more. 

As I said, this isn’t a bad thing necessarily, but it might get a little tiresome for people and they may lose interest in the comic book movie genre. If Hollywood can manage to get audiences past their superhero fatigue, then the comic book movie genre could survive for many years to come. 

Comic book movies have become a large part of our modern pop culture. They have completely taken over as Hollywood’s highest-grossing films. As someone who is a huge superhero fan myself, I would like for the genre to continue in the future. I love seeing characters that I read about growing up portrayed in live-action by some of the most brilliant actors in Hollywood. 

So what do you think about the comic book movie genre? Do you think it should stick around or should it go away? 

Until next time,

HAPPY VIEWING FILMSTERS! 

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