Superhero Fatigue and How to Fix It

Hello, people.

So, word around the superhero movie biz is that Marvel and DC are going through superhero fatigue.

And while I do respect the cast and crew for working so hard, I believe the end result is said fatigue.

For probably the last two years, I’ve been catching up with some comics of Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, X-Men, even Flashpoint to see whether the films stuck to the original material, were just Hollywood big-budget rewrites, or both.

For example, Doctor Strange’s amulet, the Eye of Agamotto, is not an Infinity Gem in the comics as it was portrayed in his first film starring Benedict Cumberbatch. While it did capture his tale of damage to his hands and arising from arrogance to open-mindedness about sorcery, the rest of it was probably Hollywood trying to link it with the Avengers’ Infinity Saga.

And Flashpoint, spoiler alert, in the comics, Thomas Wayne was alive, Bruce wasn’t, but Thomas became Batman, and the world and Justice League were falling apart. The Flash barely pretty much eschewed that and just made it Hollywood to try to compete with Spider-Man: No Way Home.

My point is these organizations are trying so hard to make big bucks that they don’t follow the original comic book plans, whether it be the original stories, or just the fun they brought men, women, and children in the first place.

Now between the collaboration in chem lab with Holland, Garfield, and Maguire’s Spider Men, the mismatched buddy time with Momoa and Wilson in Aquaman in December and the three Marvel ladies in November, there were some good displays lately. But when it comes to work like WandaVision, it’s like people are still wounded without the Avengers and they’re displaying the pain of those wounds and translating it into trouble with Love and Thunder, GOTG3, and who knows what’s next?

It may be fun to see Wolverine come back, but there’s part of me that thinks they’re jumping the shark. And as for DC, it’s been dark with Batman trying to get rid of Superman instead of them both combining Bats’ detective, genius, and martial arts with Superman’s All-American hope and heat vision. That same unhappiness is the same thing that briefly fractured Rogers and Stark in Captain America: Civil War. Maybe if both industries would stop trying to copycat, make Hollywood a few bucks, and just tried to make the fun of the comics on camera, maybe things would be better.

I’m not calling out anyone, I’m just saying, just stick to the fun those comic book characters brought you, and go from there.