This week Rob Wallis tackles the predominance of superhero films in modern popular culture and the decline towards which the genre is inexorably rolling…
What was the last film you went to see in the cinema? Dramedy? Rom-com? Sci-fi musical thriller?
Well, statistically speaking, it was probably a superhero film: of the 10 top grossing films of last year, three of them – indeed two of the top three – were superhero films – The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Amazing Spider-Man – adding up to a worldwide gross of over $3 billion. Admittedly 2012 was an exceptional year for superhero films, but nowadays it seems no longer has one big-budget comic book adaptation left the cinema than another one arrives: The Wolverine‘s not yet on its way out and already Kick-Ass 2 is looking to vie for the top spot.
What is it about superheroes, though, particularly superhero films, that so enraptures us? Comic books have been around for decades – Batman and Superman are both pushing 70 – but for many years they were seen as the sole province of kids and geeks. So, where has the mass appeal come from? Is it simply the spectacle of toned men and women in skintight suits battling outrageous villains on a grand scale? Is it pure escapism or does it connect to something deeper within us, the way that ancient Greek audiences once thrilled to stories of Heracles? Overtly true in the case of Wonder Woman, who is Superman if not our Perseus or, more likely, our Achilles?
In any case, the superhero is arguably the most accessible type of fictional character there has ever been: on the Internet, the TV, in the cinema, on lunchboxes. The superhero is a big part of our lives, enough so it could almost (to stress a point) be said we worship them. If comic books were our cave painting or bas relief, our attempts at images etched in stone, then – in terms of time and energy, the blood and sweat committed – the motion picture is more akin to human sacrifice. Of course, there’s more to the superhero craze than sheer idolatry: there’s a whole lot of money behind them, too. And money is what will destroy the superhero.
As recent flops like John Carter, Battleship and most recently The Lone Ranger has proven, the Hollywood movie system cannot survive as is. When a $200-250 million summer tent-pole collapses, it can wipe out a studio, and these risks are only going to get greater. The superhero movie is evolving, getting more sprawling and interconnected: when DC finally get their Justice League project off the ground, it’ll likely be the most expensive ever made. The superhero franchise is seen as reliable, a money-spinner, but all it takes is for one to fail – the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past, for instance – and the whole edifice will come tumbling down.
This can’t go on indefinitely. As Spielberg and Lucas have pointed out, there has to be an overhaul. What then, when its no longer possible to throw half a billion dollars at the latest Superman/Batman/Wolverine? Will these figures just fade back into the pages? Who knows. What is clear, however, is that these are stories that endure, stories with the potential to capture the imagination of the world. If Superman is our latter-day Achilles, safe to say he’ll survive the passing of a few studios, even if we’re never again told “You’ll believe a man can fly”. Money or not, as long as these stories are worth telling, there’ll be someone telling them in whatever form.
How does a legend become a legend? It endures to a point where nobody knows where it first came from. Even with contemporary record-keeping, it could well happen that the day comes when we look back at can no longer say when or where these characters began. Then who knows, perhaps that Justice League film will finally come about, long after we’re all dead, when cinema-goers look up at the screen and see not just fantasy but historical reinvention. After all is the story of a man who came from the stars, who flew, any more fantastical than one of a man bathed in the River Styx or the trick of wooden horse that led a people to victory?
The age of the superhero film may come to an end, as may the age of films altogether, but the superheroes may outlast the lot of us.
