Have we reached peak superhero?

[mathew101281]

On a cultural level part of me feels we are about to see a slight decline in the prevalence of the genre. Superheroes will still be around but I feel their reign as the primary driver of pop culture might be coming to an end.

Then again popular genres of the past (Western movies and gangster flicks) didn’t just end. They were replaced by something. And I really don’t see anything out their right now with the potential to replace superheroes as mass popular fiction.

[shooshoomanjoe]

I don't see this happening in US comics. When DC and Marvel put out comics with other genres, they don't do well as superhero comics. I know Image and Indies publish non superhero hero comics that fans like but do they sell as well as superhero comics?

[Kirby101]

In comics or movies?

[Zelena]

Already superheroes are less heroic than in the past, I see a decrease in quality and enthusiasm… They are morphing into something darker, with less ideal and moral.

It’s the writers who believe less in superheroes… but, after all, in this era of crises, who can still believe that an individual can make things better while holding the moral high ground?

[mathew101281]

In comics or movies?

movies, I'm talking about movies.

[Kirby101]

I think they probably peaked with Endgame. They will continue, and as long as they make a billion dollars they will be made, but I see a trailing off.
Replaced by...who knows?

[achilles]

Judging from how I feel, and I'm a long time comic book fan, yes. I have no desire to see any of the superhero movies I'm aware of in the pipeline. It's just so much overexposure, I've seen so many, and by now, I've seen all the minor variations in how they're able to make these movies. I'm just...bored with them, and am more than ready to see things like new, good Westerns, suspense movies, and smaller scale actions movies, or those weird things the 80s and early 90s seemed to kick out, those largely one-off things, (okay, a few, like Back to the Future, Robocop, and Stargate lived on long after, as did John Rambo and Rocky after their first, offbeat and totally unlike the rest of their series entrants, but other things didn't. The point being, more original movies, and less reboots, reimaginings, or whatever they like to call it. And especially less comic book movies.

A few years' break would be nice, and then only resume making them when they can come up with a new take on the comic book movie.

[Powerboy]

movies, I'm talking about movies.

I think we've hit a point where it cannot help but decline because of the absolute peak it has it. As Kirby said, Endgame was the culmination of a 20+ movie buildup. It's hard to imagine everything else won't be "So, this is what happens after the big culmination". Then again, it depends on what they do with mutants. That is kind of an ace.

Also, though I've made it clear I love many of the DC movies, it was Marvel that took it to this peak.

I know there will be those who point at Marvel and say, "See. I told you it wouldn't last".

Old joke:

There was a baseball team that won five games in a row.

Naysayer: "It won't last".

They win ten games, twenty, fifty, a hundred in a row. Finally, on the 117th game, they lose.

Naysayer: "See, I told you it wouldn't last. They're losers".