The Superhero Genre is Over-Saturated - Opinion
In my What's Up Next article, I made mention of doing other articles outside of simply reviews and discussions of films. This is the first of many opinion pieces that I plan on rolling out in the future. These pieces give me time to work through more shows while still bringing content to my readers and not going long periods of time without having anything new. These also will not be as formal as usual reviews or discussions so keep that in mind.
Whether it be the CW Universe of shows, the MCU, or shows like the newly minted Runaways from streaming service Hulu; there is one thing we can all agree upon: there is A LOT of superhero content out in the movie and TV landscape now a days. I'm a huge connoisseur of this content as I happen to also be a major nerd outside of my general film and TV interests. With all of this content coming weekly, a question needs to be asked and most certainly has been asked: is there too much?
If you were to ask the pure superhero fan in me he would most certainly say something along these lines, "What?! Are you crazy?! We need more!! I love every single thing out there!" The truth of the matter, in my opinion, is that yes there is too much superhero content available to be consumed. The reality of the situation though as with any genre of media is that when someone strikes gold, everyone jumps on board the band wagon and wants to get a bit of that money. That is just the business that is television and film. We can see this in TV especially with lesser known properties such as Runaways and Legion coming to fruition. While neither of these shows are bad there is something that is to be said when studios begin to stretch out and seek out characters that haven't been touched by others. This brings me to a major point I wanted to make in some form: the quality and differentiation of the content is a major key as to whether it helps the genre.
Anyone reading this I'm sure has at some point or another heard of the CW. Once a network based around simply soap-operas and weird sitcoms: they had a major breakthrough with Arrow. Based on the life of billionaire playboy Oliver Queen, Arrow was arguably the first major superhero property to hit television since Superman in Smallville (which also was a CW show). The success of Arrow has led to a slew of new properties at the CW including The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, and now Black Lightning. One thing these shows all have in common and generally started is the mixture of fun superhero happenings, along with soap-opera style drama. While it most certainly isn't for everyone it still managed to create a following and a unique formula. This is what I mean in grand scheme of the superhero world. In a world where superhero media is constantly growing, if there is no means to cut back on this type of content, the only way to keep the genre growing in a positive direction is if new players bring something different to the table.
When Netflix and Marvel partnered up to create the darker, grittier universe based on some of their street level characters I was extremely excited. Having come off of Arrow and The Flash, along with the bright and happy MCU, I found myself wanting something a bit different. So to conclude this article I want to make a quiet plea to major studios around the world who are looking into getting invested in this filled to capacity genre:
Be different, don't do something generic that already has an existing audience. Create a new subsection of the genre that will make people want to follow along. If you don't do this, we all will see a fast decline in quality for the superhero genre and none of us want this great content rich market to go away.
