The Dark Knight and What the Future Holds for Super Hero Movies

by Larson Hill

Now that a new record breaking era of lucrative comic book movies is in full swing, will big screen comic book translations always be this popular? Will our favorite super heroes eventually become as roll-your-eyes cliché to a new generation as Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Van Damme? After the recent box-office success of Iron Man and The Dark Knight, and with so many comic book properties in development, those questions keep rolling over in my mind like my own imaginary trailer for Iron Man 2 on continuous loop. What does the future hold for the comic book universe on the big screen?

After years spent playing the "What if?" game with regard to comic book properties, namely the question of whether Hollywood would ever get around to making a Spider-Man movie, comic book geeks can finally enjoy "their" time on the big screen. To be perfectly honest, I never ever thought a live action X-Men movie would ever get off the ground, let alone be executed properly and go on to spawn two sequels. It seemed like something that would never happen and too large of a project to be done right. It wasn’t that long ago when any notion of an X-Men movie being made was met with, "Yeah, whatever." Now that technology and the releases of Spider-Man and X-Men ushered in a new era of comic book movies, the real question becomes - How long will it last? If this is truly the dawn of a new era of comic book movies, with fans currently soaking up the rays of a rising super hero sun, wouldn’t the next logical assumption be that at some point the sun will set?

Am I wrong? Is it blasphemous to even suggest such a thing? Maybe to some diehard comic book geeks, but I certainly don’t feel compelled to like every comic book on the market simply because it’s a "comic book" or "graphic novel". Although I’m caught up in the excitement of the current wave of super hero movies, I sometimes wonder when we’re going to reach a point when too much of a good thing will have an adverse affect. To think that even more comic book movies will be coming down the cinematic pike (possibly double the amount) when 2008 is already bubbling over with comic book goodness is a bit mind blowing. Aside from super heroes on the big screen, in the last few years movies like Wanted, 300, Sin City, A History of Violence and 30 Days of Night have hidden their comic/graphic novel roots well to the mainstream moviegoer not familiar with pages and panels. It's just not as obvious as a guy running around in tights and a cape.

The reason why I’m pondering this stuff after the gargantuan success of The Dark Knight is that, despite my own unique comic book tastes - Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men, and the old school Sgt. Rock, and Jonah Hex - it only means we’re going to see a huge tidal wave of super hero movies for the next few years. And I’m not complaining at all. There’s no way you can convince me that on the Saturday morning following the The Dark Knight’s whopping $67 million one-day take, executives in Hollywood weren’t on the phone green-lighting every comic book property they could get their hands on. I mean even more than the ones they snapped up after Iron Man and the ones they already have in the development coffers. What does that mean for the future? Well, from this side of the fence, it looks bright and bleak at the same time.

Look, in broad strokes throughout the 1980s and’90s filmmakers tried really hard to kick-start the comic book to film revolution. Unfortunately, for every Batman or Superman there was also a Darkman and The Phantom. To a large degree, many were also limited by what was technologically possible. You’d go to the theater and, for the most part, pretend your favorite hero was all that you really hoped he would be on the big screen. Don’t get me wrong; it was a fun time and a fun ride to be sure. But deep down you knew there was still something missing from the equation. Something that still wasn’t quite right that you couldn’t put your finger on. For comic book geeks who grew up in the ‘80s, you know what I’m talking about. Deep down, I know you do. It wasn’t necessarily the fault of the filmmakers, it was the fact that we knew comic book/super hero movies were almost there, but not quite to the level that matched the comics.

Almost twenty years after Tim Burton’s Batman, the franchise is now where every comic book fan wants it to be after the success and reception of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. Finally, comic book movies are being made the way fans want them to be made. That could only mean we’ll see more quality comic book/super hero-to-film adaptations in the coming years. Or does it?

Maybe, maybe not, but we’re going to see more of them. A LOT more of them, and that could very well be the problem. If you believe in life cycles and see how the sun rises each morning and sets at night, it probably will be. Do comic book movies have the same staying power as science fiction and horror?

The interesting thing about the dawn of the new comics to film era is that while comic book movies have been hit and miss on the big screen in previous decades, comic books in print have had huge staying power in a different medium. We all know comic books are, and have been, wildly popular since the birth of Superman in the 1930s. In fact, comics themselves are as old as the movies, dating back the late 1890s with the introduction of the dialogue "balloon" in a comic called "The Yellow Kid". So, seeing how The Dark Knight is the new record holder for the biggest three-day box-office take in movie history, will the same type of print popularity and longevity finally be duplicated on film? Will comic book movies stay as popular as they are at this current moment in cinematic history?

It’s easy for a lot of fans to say, "Hell, yeah!" But predicting the longevity of comic book/super hero movies isn’t easy, especially when there are never guarantees in the film world. We all know, or should know, Hollywood is a business. As soon as studios/companies stop making money from super heroes, that’s when it ends. Case in point - the eight year gap between Batman & Robin and Batman Begins. What about the nine year gap between Superman IV and Superman Returns? If it wasn’t for X-Men and Spider-Man and their box-office windfalls, it's doubtful we would we have even seen the return of Batmanand Superman. Some comic book properties will always be popular, but timing plays a huge part in all film releases, as proven by the fact that Batman Begins hauled in $48 million during its opening weekend in 2005 as compared to the $155 million opening weekend of The Dark Knight. Obviously, three years makes a big difference. When looking ahead to the next the years, it’s a gap that could very well predict the future direction - short and long term - of comic book movies and super heroes on the big screen.

The good in all of this is that comic book adaptations are finally giving geeks what they’ve wanted for so long. Christopher Nolan has raised the bar with The Dark Knight and we’ll finally see more sides of our heroes from real human perspectives, either light or dark. It’s the grittier, ballsy territory that held many earlier mainstream comic book movies back from matching their print counterparts. As long as we see deeper character driven adaptations with well-written stories that can match the intellect and emotion within the pages of a comic, we’re in for a completely new ride than in years past. I hope the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine is all that a stand alone Wolverine movie should be, especially after TDK. The downside of this new era is that once we reach a point where every second or third trailer we see is for a comic book/super hero movie, the non-comic book segment of the movie going public will undoubtedly say, "Enough already!" It’s likely that comic book/super hero movies will go through a natural life cycle, ebbing and flowing through the next few years before fading in popularity only to return a few years later. Until the current bubble bursts, the future looks amazingly bright, even if it isn’t forever.

Original here