The words “superhero fatigue” are everywhere lately. After years of comic book movies, it’s as if viewers have finally hit their limit. Yet, the truth is viewers are not fatigued with the superhero genre — they’re tired of the standardized superhero formula. The issue isn’t superheroes themselves — it’s an excess of projects released with a marked decrease in creativity and true investment in characters and planning.
The film and TV market is frankly oversaturated with superhero content. Between 2021 and 2024, Marvel alone has released 12 seasons of TV, 10 feature films and two television specials. This is a 300% increase from the Infinity Saga, which included all of the Marvel projects through “Avengers: Endgame.” Within this increase, Marvel has also experienced a decrease in both box-office performance and viewership. In recent years Marvel has released more projects but drawn less viewers with less profit.
This shift has also created an increasingly convoluted Marvel timeline, involving multiple instances of time travel, alternate realities and a lack of central characters at its core. The post-credit scenes — for which Marvel became infamous — have become unimportant, confusing and slightly boring. They’ve repeatedly introduced characters and concepts that they never follow up on in future projects. The DC Extended Universe — starting with “The Man of Steel” in 2013 and concluding with “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” in 2023 — faced a similar issue. The films often felt disjointed and disconnected. This was largely due to the fact that the films for individual DC characters attempted to pull off their own aesthetics and tones, then squashed them in team-up films like “The Justice League.” The individual tones of the characters disappeared, and a standard dark and serious tone imposed upon the entire film. This darkening and drabness of the DCEU — without authentic or even differential representations of the characters — is a large part of what led to the DCEU’s eventual downfall.
However, even in these years of downward spiral, there have been breakout hits. These success stories include Marvel’s “Into the Spiderverse,” “Across the Spiderverse” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” as well as DC’s “The Batman.”
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” is the only film among these that is a part of the main universe of either the MCU or DCEU. The film, which grounded itself in the core character of Rocket Raccoon, features bold stylistic choices, a plotline grounded in connection over action and its signature audacious soundtrack. Guardians would become not only an audience and critical success, but also a box-office one — it made over $124 million in profit.
Meanwhile, both “The Batman” and the two Spiderverse movies take place outside of their official comic book cinematic worlds, and all found incredible success. All three of these films share a deep commitment to creativity and aesthetic flare grounded in the comic book characters and stories they stem from. The Spiderverse films are animated in the art style of the characters in their comics. Many of the characters within the films who come from different multiverses have their own unique design, making the films a feast for the eye. In terms of “The Batman,” Matt Reeves’ film grounds itself in the grittiness of Gotham and the loneliness of its main character Bruce Wayne. The film invests in both its characters and the aesthetic of its world, culminating in a movie that feels grounded and totally envelopes the viewer. “The Batman” made over $128 million in its first weekend debut, and it remains a smash hit both critically and among its audience.
Taken together, these films have a clear message for the superhero genre — superhero films that are deeply invested in their characters, their world and the authentic grounding of their story can achieve success. The audience wants creativity and innovation, not the same tired plotlines swapped out with different characters. It is not enough to just be making content. That content needs to be high quality and thoroughly developed.
To do this means taking time in character, world and plot creation while also choosing to prioritize quality over quantity of content. As the success of these select films has proven, viewers will still come out en masse for superhero films of depth, quality and style. Film creators need to fully commit to these films to be willing to fully dive into the comicness of it all.
This approach has proven to be vital for the most successful superhero film of the past summer — “Superman.” “Superman” marks the filmic beginning of the new and rebooted DCEU film canon. It relishes in its comic book origins, rooted explicitly in the kindness and care of the Superman character, while also featuring a brighter color palette and more cartoonish suit design. This new “Superman” is one injected with hope and optimism, a desire to do as much good as can possibly be done. This film also marks the new framing of the rebooted DCEU, which leader James Gunn has cited as including finished scripts, character driven content and collaborations with exciting creators across multiple genres to bring to screen both mainstream and niche characters. This could — as recent evidence has shown — be the path to not only continuing the superhero genre, but creatively expanding it, perhaps making it better than ever.
Lauren is a senior studying English literature, communications and film. You can connect with her at [email protected].