As Daredevil: Born Again debuts, I ask: Are audiences done with the "super" part of superheroes?
With a deluge of new superhero film and TV projects coming, has Hollywood learned to tell these stories any better?
It’s been tough to be a fan of superhero movies in the last few years.
Like so many things in showbusiness, the film and TV industry have overdosed on stories about heroes and heroines with extraordinary abilities. And while it has been amazing as a fan to see flesh and blood depictions of Sam Wilson as a Black Captain America, or Nick Fury facing rogue Skrulls in Disney+’s Secret Invasion and Colin Farrell get an entire TV show to astound with his transformation into a disfigured, overweight crime boss in Max’s The Penguin, there is also a simple, discouraging arithmetic at the heart of it all.
Make this many TV shows and films about a subject, and most of them will not be as good as you want them to be.
More than anything, it seems these big media companies – Marvel Studios and DC, especially – have forgotten how to build compelling projects around these classic characters. I rewatched parts of the last two Avengers movies on a long flight recently, and I was astonished, yet again, at how filmmakers gave this sprawling story which took loads of risks so much heart, pathos, anger and redemption.
Why haven’t we seen anything remotely close in the years since?
Now that we’re past the pandemic, actors and writers strikes and a gigantic election, Marvel and DC are trying again to rebuild their superhero blockbuster business. I wrote a piece for NPR.org, where I used the debut of Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again to look at the avalanche of superhero product coming our ways this year, including Thunderbolts*, James Gunn’s reimagined Superman, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and new season of Peacemaker, Disney+’s Wonder Man and more.
You can feel the industry aching for good old fashioned tentpole movies again. And Marvel is similarly desperate to get its streaming game together, offering the new Daredevil as proof that it has moved past disappointing efforts like Hawkeye, Echo and What If?
Looking at the success of stories in superhero and fantasy universes which don’t have actual superheroes – like The Penguin and Andor from the Star Wars franchise – I wonder if audiences aren’t signaling that they like these stories a bit more when people aren’t flying around, swinging batarangs and lightsabers.
Read my NPR piece to see my deeper thoughts on all this. And feel free to leave some of your own musings in the comments here.
Because, much as I am jonesing to see Galactus face the Fantastic Four and Krypto save Kal-El’s behind on the big screen, I know these types of films won’t last long if storytellers don’t find new ways to make us care about people who can move faster than a speeding bullet.