People aren’t tired of superheroes, they’re tired of bad superhero movies

28.12.2023 - 17:03 / polygon.com / Tom Hiddleston

It’s the final days of 2023, and voices everywhere are predicting the final days of the superhero movie. Even that bastion of the mainstream, the New York Times, is getting in on the eulogies. It’s no wonder, with this year’s solid string of financial and critical flops ebbing into 2024’s low-tide lineup of a mere three “interconnected universe” movies, Deadpool 3, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter.

But in the final days of 2023, one thing remains clear. People aren’t tired of superheroes — they’re just tired of bad superhero movies.

Yes, superhero films and TV shows floundered consistently in 2023, as a whole crop of delayed productions finally hit screens and were not worth the wait. The Flash, first announced in 2014 and slated for 2016, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which wrapped filming in January 2022, both hit to snores. The Marvels is officially the MCU’s lowest-grossing film, and it doesn’t really deserve it, especially in the year with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It’s very possible that you’ve already forgotten about Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Secret Invasion.

This year, the extended universes ran out of things to do except gesture at the extended universe: Kang getting second billing in Ant-Man and Loki, Wonder Woman saving the day in Shazam, and the cast of 2013’s Man of Steel and 1989’s Batman in The Flash. Warner Bros. ended 2023 with the final movie connected in any way to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, while Marvel found itself dropping Jonathan Majors from its roster.

These superhero movies took the audience for granted. Companies considered the simple existence of an extended universe and the affection for recognizable characters as a core selling point, when it is, and should always be, the sauce and not the meat. What failed this year was the interconnected universe. But superheroes themselves succeeded.

What worked? The rejuvenating Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, television shows like Invincible and The Boys spinoff Gen V, and the adorable, all-ages, action-romance cartoon My Adventures with Superman, which bids 2023 farewell with an ardent following and a season 2 renewal.

What succeeded for the MCU was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, a demonstrably heartfelt sendoff and inarguably the most comic book-honoring ending the MCU has yet produced. What succeeded was Loki season 2, which, its numerous faults aside, delivered on what hardcore fans of the character wanted: Tom Hiddleston’s puppy-dog eyes and their fave secretly becoming the most important person in the universe.

In 2023, Hollywood didn’t just make superhero movies, it’s started repeating history — comics history, that is.

Bear with me while I