Which Fad Will Die First? Cinematic Universes, or Comic Book movies?
It seems that comic book movies monopolized the concept of a cinematic universe. Even through comic books and TV shows it wasnormal to see team-ups and crossover villains. With the creation of King Kong vs. Godzilla, and even James wan’s conjuring universe, which is more relevant? The cinematic universe? OR Comic book movies?
A couple years ago, with the stall in Summer blockbusters, the decline of comic book movies revealed its true colors. It ishard not to compare these movies to the westerns of the 60’s, but is that fair?
Let’s look at the genre of the Western, and more specifically the generalizations of what the themes should be. A typical western follows the same narrative, of good vs. evil, with the occasional revenge. Man in black against the man in white, which fit well with Jim Crow laws. This contributed to the hero’s journey justwith repeaters and smith and Wesson, instead a horse and sword.
Now when we look at the quicklydeveloping super-hero genre its hard not to see the similarities to the Western. Super-hero movies are westernslike how Westerns were justlike vintage Samurai pictures, and them before that. This constant “fad” is justthe hero’s journey being retold over and over again, our imagination areready for it.
Back to the original question of which cinematic element will die off faster, it has to be comic book movies. They suffer from the same problem every new genre has — overuse. Eventuallythese movies will overlap a little too much, and the quality will disperse. A reason there aren’t western movies coming out every summer, they lost their novelty in the new society, and so will Comic-book movies.
What makes Cinematic universes so special??
The Western brought us anti-herosand typical black and white heroes who manage to save the day. That’s it. They are visual master pieces that illuminated the mind and made cowboys out of all us. Sowhy didn’t they last? Because they are onlyan idea, not a way to tell a story.
The cinematic universe allows for unmentioned n lore to finallyconnect to a bigger narrative. This literary device makes sequels unnecessary and respects its audience as competent people.
Of course this way of story telling isn’t new, as Stephen King has been doing it for years, so if the new way to create franchises were to eliminatethe comic book movie genre; how and why?
How to defeat comic book movies!
The cinematic universe needs to act like Sony and say mine to their lovely partnership with comic-book movies. This process is happening, justslowly. Comic books have been around since world war two and sat on the sideline while westerns dominated Hollywood. This genre didn’t take off until the partnership with a cinematic universe.
Comic books aren’t the onlygenre that can have cinematic universes. Rocketman(2019) was close to having Rami Malek shows up, and I would’ve accepted it. Too long have we decided that certain characters must be separated. Who are these people who keep thing pushing segregation?
Cinematic Universes will take over the 2020s justas the comic book franchise fizzles out. Don’t believe me? Look at Fast and Furious, and The Conjuring, it can work, and once it’s perfected, it will be used to death.
