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A superhero film is a genre centered on superheroes and their exploits. These characters often possess superhuman abilities or exceptional skills. Superhero films typically blend elements of action, adventure, fantasy, or science fiction elements. The first film about a particular character often focuses on the hero's origin story and typically introduces the hero's nemesis.
The highest-grossing superhero film to date is the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Avengers: Endgame released in 2019, grossing over $2.7 billion world-wide. At one point it was the highest-grossing film of all time[4] until it was ultimately overtaken by the previous record holder Avatar.[5]
The kaiju monster, Godzilla, originally a villain, began to be portrayed as a superhero in the Godzilla films.[10] He has been described as "the original radioactive superhero," due to his nuclear origin story predating Spider-Man (1962 debut),[10] although Godzilla did not become a hero until Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964).[11] By the 1970s, Godzilla came to be viewed as a superhero, with the magazine King of the Monsters in 1977 describing Godzilla as "Superhero of the '70s." Godzilla was "the most universally popular superhero of 1977," according to Donald F. Glut.[12]
The year 1966 saw the debut of the Ultra Series, with the kaiju TV show Ultra Q. However, with the release of the original Ultraman, the franchise started focusing on superheroes. In 1967, Ultraman started expanding to films. Early films, such as Ultraman: Monster Movie Feature, were compilations or theatrical releases of TV shows' episodes. The first original Ultraman film was a co-production with Thailand, The 6 Ultra Brothers vs. the Monster Army.[13]
The popularity of television superheroes in Japan led to the start of the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai franchises by famous manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori in 1971 and 1975, respectively. Just like with Ultraman, many early Kamen Rider and Super Sentai episodes were released as films. Original Kamen Rider films released before 1978 include Kamen Rider vs. Shocker, Kamen Rider vs. Ambassador Hell, Kamen Rider V3 vs. Destron Mutants, and Five Riders vs. King Dark.
Alex Proyas' The Crow (1994) became the first independent comic superhero film that established a franchise.[17] It brought in a new realm of violence absent in previous popular superhero films targeted at younger audiences and bridged a gap to the more modern action film.[21] The success of The Crow catalyzed the release of a film version of Spawn (1997), Image Comics' leading character. After Marvel bought Malibu Comics (the company that owned The Men in Black comic series), Marvel and Columbia Pictures released the Men in Black film in 1997.[22] The film became the first Marvel property to win an Oscar and the then-highest-grossing comic book adaptation.[23] While a box office success, Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin (1997) was critically panned for its campiness[24] and for straying too far from the darker style of the series' first two films directed by Tim Burton.[25] As a result, it has sometimes been credited with nearly killing the superhero movie sub-genre.[26][27]
In 1998, Marvel released Blade, a mix of a traditional action film and a darker superhero film, with the title character having vampiric powers as well as carrying an arsenal of weaponry.[21] The success of Blade began Marvel's film success and set the stage for further comic book film adaptations.[29][30] Meanwhile, thanks to the popularity of Ultraman Tiga TV series, several films based on it and later installments were produced. These include Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light (1998), Ultraman Gaia: The Battle in Hyperspace (1999) and Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey (2000). The Matrix (1999) also had an impact on superhero films. Influenced by comic books, cyberpunk fiction, Japanese anime, and Hong Kong action films, The Matrix effectively reinvented the superhero film, according to Adam Sternbergh of Vulture.com, who credited The Matrix with setting the template for modern superhero blockbusters and inspiring the superhero renaissance in the early 21st century.[31]
John Kenneth Muir in The Encyclopedia of Superheroes on Film and Television called the film a revolutionary re-imagination of movie visuals, paving the way for the visuals of later superhero films, and credits it with helping to "make comic-book superheroes hip" and its bullet time effect effectively demonstrating the concept of "faster than a speeding bullet" on-screen.[32]Inspector Gadget and Mystery Men would then follow to close out the decade for the sub-genre.
After the comic book boom and the success of several comic book adaptation films (including superhero films) in the 1990s,[33] the first decade of the 21st century brought increased interest in superhero films and some of their most profitable franchises, many from Marvel Enterprises. The success of the X-Men TV series made 20th Century Fox license the film rights in 1994.[34] After the success of Men in Black in 1997, Columbia Pictures licensed the film rights of Spider-Man in 1999.[35]20th Century Fox's X-Men (2000) became a film franchise by its surprise hit,[36] and M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable (2000)[37] also succeeded and added an element of more urban naturalism.[38] Later, one of the largest blockbusters of all time was released with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002).[39] In 2004, Ultraman: The Next was released, which was the remains of the original series and the franchise as a whole.[40]
Although the film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance was released on February 17, 2012 to little audience interest,[50] superhero films dominated that year's lucrative summer film market with three superhero films occupying the top three positions of the box office chart.[51] This includes the May 2012 release of Marvel's The Avengers, which broke the box office record as the highest-grossing superhero film of all time,[52] the next Batman film from Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight Rises was released on July 20, 2012 in the second place, and the reboot of the Spider-Man franchise, The Amazing Spider-Man, directed by Marc Webb and produced for Columbia Pictures in third.
A Superman Returns sequel was planned for 2009 but was delayed and later scrapped in favor of the reboot, Man of Steel (2013).[53]
At the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel confirmed that an Ant-Man film was in development, as well as a film based on 2008 comic series Guardians of the Galaxy, which was released in August 2014. Iron Man 3 was released in May 2013, Thor: The Dark World in November 2013, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier in April 2014. The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the sequel to the 2012 reboot was also released in May 2014 and became the lowest-grossing and poorly received film in the Spider-Man film series. In 2013, a sequel to the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, titled The Wolverine was released. In 2014, X-Men: Days of Future Past was released to critical acclaim and financial success; the film became the highest-grossing film in the X-Men series, and effectively rebooting the franchise.
On March 9, 2015, publishing house Valiant Comics reached an unprecedented nine-figure deal with Chinese company DMG Entertainment to produce their own series of superhero movies, set in their own cinematic universe.[55] The series will be co-produced by Sony Pictures and will start with a movie adaptation of Bloodshot for a 2016 release, followed by Harbinger, both movies receiving a sequel and ending in a crossover movie based on the Harbinger Wars arc from the comic books.[56]
In 2015, Italian filmmaker Gabrielle Mainetti directed a superhero film, titled They Call Me Jeeg starring Claudio Santamaria.[57] Its original title is Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot, from the Italian name of the anime and manga series Steel Jeeg. It was released in Italy on February 25, 2016.[58]
January 2017 saw the release of M. Night Shyamalan's Split, which served as a standalone sequel to Unbreakable. The first Finnish superhero film, Rendel: Dark Vengeance, was released in September 2017 and it won the Best Action Movie award at the Erratum Film Festival in Mexico.[60]Power Rangers, a movie reboot of the TV series, was released in March, with Lionsgate planning a seven-film franchise; however, it was a commercial disappointment. By contrast, the film Logan, which was Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart's last appearances as their characters in the X-Men film series prior to Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, proved to be a major critical and commercial success. This film was the first ever canon X-Men movie to be rated R and the first superhero movie to receive an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In the summer movie season, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Wonder Woman and Spider-Man: Homecoming confirmed the superhero film dominance of the mainstream movie market.[61] That dominance continued into the fall with the success of Thor: Ragnarok, but Warner Bros.' attempt to consummate its attempt to have its own shared universemedia franchise, the DC Extended Universe, with Justice League was critical and financial disappointment.
In 2018, Marvel Studios released Black Panther on February 16th, featuring the solo film adaptation of the first mainstream African-American superhero, the Black Panther. It was a commercial and critical success in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. Furthermore, it became the first superhero film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.[62]
This MCU project was soon followed up by Avengers: Infinity War, released on April 27, 2018, which earned both critical acclaim[63] and worldwide financial success earning an excess of $2billion.[64] Soon after, 20th Century Fox released Deadpool 2 on May 18, 2018[65] In addition, Incredibles 2, the long-awaited sequel for the Academy Award-winning animated film The Incredibles, had its wide release on June 15, 2018, met with considerable critical acclaim[66] and earned $182.68million on its premiere weekend.[67] The next superhero film in the Marvel Universe Ant-Man and the Wasp was released on July 6th, with competing studios declining to release major films on American Independence Day in the face of the reliably popular film franchise.
The anti-hero film Venom, based on the comic book character was released on October 5, 2018, to poor reviews, but great box-office success. In December 2018, Warner Bros. released Aquaman, a film about the DC Comics superhero of the same name, which became the DCEU's most successful film in the box office grossing $1.148 billion worldwide.
2019—present
2019 began with M. Night Shyamalan's Glass, the culmination of Unbreakable and Split, in January. In March, the MCU's Captain Marvel overcame online hostility, in part because of star Brie Larson's comments about lack of diversity in the film and film criticism industries,[68] to become the next film in the franchise to earn over $1 billion worldwide[69] amid largely positive reviews.[70] Later in April, the DCEU's Shazam!, featuring the lead character who was previously known as Captain Marvel himself, had decent box office success for its relatively low budget,[71] which has been seen as further evidence of the revitalization of the Warner Bros. media franchise. That same month, Avengers: Endgame ended the Infinity Saga with widespread acclaim and broke numerous box office records and became the fastest film to exceed $1 billion worldwide, doing so in just five days. Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing James Cameron's Avatar, for over two years, before the latter retook its place.
By contrast, the June X-Men film, Dark Phoenix performed poorly critically and financially upon release.[72] In addition, it was observed that there was noticeable fan indifference for a concluding film series of a property that would be put in the complete control of Marvel Studios producer, Kevin Feige, along with the Fantastic Four, for integration into the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise in due time considering Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox.[73] In July 2019, Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was concluded with the Sony film, Spider-Man: Far From Home which was released to critical and commercial success.
In August 2019, Joko Anwar's Gundala was released in Indonesia.[74] It was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival later in September and is set to be the first entry in the Bumilangit Cinematic Universe (BCU) film series based on characters of comic books published by Bumilangit.[75] The second and third films in the series, Sri Asih and Patriot Taruna: Virgo and the Sparklings, were announced for a 2020 release but were pushed back to 2021 as production was significantly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.[76] The production company's strategy of announcing films in volumes with a team-up film as the climax has led to the media dubbing it the "Indonesian equivalent to the MCU and DCEU".[77]
In 2022, Warner Bros released The Batman, a reboot for the Batman film series, and unconnected to the DC Extended Universe. It was a critical and commercial hit, with particular praise for the film being a 'grounded detective story,[90]' due to Matt Reeves' direction and Robert Pattinson's performance as the titular hero.[91] It went on to become the second biggest pandemic debut, after Spider-Man: No Way Home.[92]Morbius, starring Jared Leto and based on the Spider-Man villain of the same name debuted that April as another chapter in Sony's Spider-Man Universe. The film was critically panned and a box-office bomb.[93]Variety reported that whilst the initial opening was hopeful for Morbius, "The character is not nearly as recognizable to general audiences as Spider-Man, Batman or Venom, nor is the film clearly connected to a larger story like Eternals or Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Thus, Morbius wasn't expected to match the receipts for recent comic book tentpoles based on those characters."[94] Scott Mendelson further stated that Sony seemed to rely on the film's connection to the Spider-Man universe, the success of Venom and a misguided assumption that audiences were interested in villain movies.[95]
In May, Sam Raimi returned to the superhero genre with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The film was met with mixed-to-positive reviews and earned $187million on its opening weekend, becoming the eleventh-best domestic debut of all time, the best summer debut for a Disney release during the pandemic, and Raimi's best opening.[96] In its second weekend, the film earned $61 million, becoming one of the MCU's biggest second-weekend box office drops. The 67% decline was attributed by Deadline Hollywood to the "bad word of mouth" on the film and its CinemaScore grade, while Intelligence saw more than 17% downsize of available seats for the film, resulting in a lessen showtimes which also led to the decline.[97] In its third weekend, the film earned $31.6million, contributing to the 800-million-dollar mark at the box office to become Hollywood's second-highest-grossing film released during the pandemic behind No Way Home.[98] The film earned $16.4million in its fourth weekend, contributing to the total box office that helped it to become the highest-grossing film of 2022 previously held by The Batman.[99] As of June 2022, the film stands as the 11th highest-grossing of the MCU worldwide.[100]
As of 2022,[update] superhero films have become essential for the entertainment industry. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "With rare exception, even A+ stars aren't making what they used to" making it "one of the last ways for an actor to earn a major payday". The article quotes, "If you want to get paid, you have to put on a cape." The article also states that characters like Spider-Man and Batman are more important than the actors themselves.[106]
As superhero film production increased during the latter end of the 2010s, the genre's contribution to cinema was questioned. Martin Scorsese, in an interview with Empire magazine, commented that "the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn't the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being." He stated that the Marvel films were not "cinema".[114] He later added that he was worried about studios' overreliance on the format because in "many places around this country and the world, franchise films are now your primary choice if you want to see something on the big screen. It's a perilous time in film exhibition, and there are fewer independent theaters than ever."[115] In that New York Times essay, he also credited the work of people who make these films, writing "Many franchise films are made by people of considerable talent and artistry. You can see it on the screen. The fact that the films themselves don't interest me is a matter of personal taste and temperament. I know that if I were younger, if I'd come of age at a later time, I might have been excited by these pictures and maybe even wanted to make one myself," he wrote, adding "but I grew up when I did and I developed a sense of movies — of what they were and what they could be — that was as far from the Marvel universe as we on Earth are from Alpha Centauri."[115]
Criticism of Marvel Studios' films continued with Jennifer Aniston stating that Marvel movies are "diminishing" and believed that there should be a "resurgence" of "the era of Meg Ryan." "Let's get the Terms of Endearment back out there. You know, Heaven Can Wait, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, Goodbye Girl."[116]Denis Villeneuve dismissed "too many Marvel films" being "a cut and paste of others"[117] and Roland Emmerich stated that large blockbuster films such as the MCU and Star Wars films were "ruining our industry a little" since "nobody does anything original anymore".[118] However, in March 2022, Nicolas Cage stated that "Marvel has done a really excellent job of entertaining the whole family. They put a lot of thought into it. I mean, it's definitely had a big progression from when I was doing the first two 'Ghost Rider' movies. Kevin Feige, or whoever is behind that machine, has found a masterful way of weaving the stories together and interconnecting all the characters. What could be wrong with wholesome entertainment that is appealing to the parents and the children, and gives people something to look forward to?" Cage asked. "I just, I don't see what the issue is."[119]
However, there is additional questioning as to how broad or vague the superhero genre is – and whether it could be legitimately classified as a film genre at all – when the basic definition is that of a benevolent hero or antihero with superhuman abilities, in which case many other films not traditionally associated as superhero plots would fall under the description.[124]
Writer Alan Moore, a veteran of the comics industry known for his work on Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Batman:The Killing Joke, and From Hell, amongst many more, has expressed criticism of modern superhero movies in general, which he once called a "blight" to cinema and "also to culture to a degree." He said in an October 2022 interview with The Guardian that the popularization of the genre on the part of adults is an "infantilization" that can act as "a precursor to fascism." Lamenting at how deeply such films became part of the culture, Moore commented:[125][126]
"I will always love and adore the comics medium, but the comics industry and all of the stuff attached to it just became unbearable...Hundreds of thousands of adults [are] lining up to see characters and situations that had been created to entertain the 12-year-old boys – and it was always boys – of 50 years ago. I didn't think that superheroes were adult fare. I think that this was a misunderstanding born of what happened in the 1980s – to which I must put my hand up to a considerable share of the blame, though it was not intentional – when things like Watchmen were first appearing. There were an awful lot of headlines saying, 'Comics Have Grown Up'. I tend to think that, no, comics hadn't grown up. There were a few titles that were more adult than people were used to. But the majority of comics titles were pretty much the same as they'd ever been. It wasn't comics growing up. I think it was more comics meeting the emotional age of the audience coming the other way."[125][126]
In the course of a September 2023 interview with The Telegraph, Moore reiterated this view, saying that what had appealed to him most about output from comics publishers was "no more", saying, "Now they're called 'graphic novels', which sounds sophisticated, and you can charge a lot more for them. These innocent and inventive and imaginative superhero characters from the '40s, '50s and '60s are being recycled to a modern audience as if they were adult fare." During that same interview, journalist Jake Kerridge asked Moore if it was true that he divided the money he had received from onscreen adaptations of his work among the writers and other staff persons of those productions. Moore replied, "I no longer wish it to even be shared with them. I don't feel, with the recent films, that they have stood by what I assumed were their original principles. So, I asked for DC Comics to send all of the money from any future TV series or films to Black Lives Matter."[127][126]
By the 2020s, the term superhero fatigue had emerged to describe audiences' increasing exhaustion of overly homogeneous superhero films, as evidenced by diminishing box-office returns and poor critical reception. In particular, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been criticized for over-saturating the market with its expansion to streaming beginning with Phase Four, prompting Marvel Studios to begin rethinking its annual output.[128][129][130]
Another comedic play on superheroes is The Specials, a 2000 film in which the title team is more concerned with their public image than actually being superheroes.
Kevin Smith's 2001 film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, parodies film companies' seemingly compulsive purchase of comic book film rights with "Bluntman and Chronic". In the film, the character Brodie Bruce (played by Jason Lee) describes the process: "After X-Men hit at the box office, the movie companies started buying out every comic property they could get their dirty little hands-on".
2008's Hancock saw a subversion of the genre by having the title character become a reluctant superhero. The movie grossed more than $629 million at the box office.
Matthew Vaughn directed the 2010 film Kick-Ass which saw a normal teenager turn to crime fighting. A sequel, Kick-Ass 2 was released in 2013.
Alejandro González Iñárritu's Oscar-winning 2014 film Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) satirizes Hollywood's reliance on superhero and blockbuster films. In the film, Michael Keaton portrays Riggan Thomson, a washed-up Hollywood actor famous for playing the superhero Birdman in blockbuster movies decades earlier. He is tormented by the voice of Birdman, which mocks and criticizes him, and he sees himself performing feats of levitation and telekinesis.[133]
Philippe Lacheau's 2021 French movie Super-héros malgré lui or Super Who? in English follows an actor who landed the role of a superhero named "Badman", but suffers an accident that caused him amnesia, and so he starts believing to be an actual superhero. The movie references DC and Marvel while making fun of the superhero film genre.[134]
Quentin Dupieux’s 2022 French film Fumer Fait Touser (Smoking Causes Coughing) follows a team of five superheroes who called the Tobacco Force, following a battle against a diabolical giant turtle that goes wrong, go on compulsory retreat in order to strengthen cohesion within their group until an enemy named Lézardin interrupts the retreat to destroy the planet Earth.
Marvel Comics is a New York City-based comic book publisher, a property of The Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin Goodman as Timely Comics, and by 1951 had generally become known as Atlas Comics. The Marvel era began in August 1961 with the launch of The Fantastic Four and other superhero titles created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and numerous others. The Marvel brand, which had been used over the years and decades, was solidified as the company's primary brand.
A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses superpowers or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero; typically using their powers to help the world become a better place, or dedicating themselves to protecting the public and fighting crime. Superhero fiction is the genre of fiction that is centered on such characters, especially, since the 1930s, in American comic books, as well as in Japanese media.
A secret identity is a person's cryptonym, incognito, cover and/or alter ego which is not known to the general populace, most often used in fiction. Brought into popular culture by the Scarlet Pimpernel in 1903, the concept was widespread in pulp heroes and is particularly prevalent in the American comic book genre, and is a trope of the masquerade.
Tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live-action films or television programs that make heavy use of practical special effects. Credited to special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, tokusatsu mainly refers to science fiction, war, fantasy, or horror media featuring such technology but is also occasionally dubbed a genre itself. Its contemporary use originated in the Japanese mass media around 1958 to explain special effects in an easy-to-understand manner and was popularized during the "first monster boom" (1966-1968). Prior to the monster boom, it was known in Japan as tokushu gijutsu or shortened tokugi.
Nelson Alexander Ross is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries Marvels, on which he collaborated with writer Kurt Busiek for Marvel Comics. He has since done a variety of projects for both Marvel and DC Comics, such as the 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come, which he also cowrote. Since then he has done covers and character designs for Busiek's series Astro City, and various projects for Dynamite Entertainment. His feature film work includes concept and narrative art for Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004), and DVD packaging art for the M. Night Shyamalan film Unbreakable (2000). He has done covers for TV Guide, promotional artwork for the Academy Awards, posters and packaging design for video games, and his renditions of superheroes have been merchandised as action figures.
In comic books and other stories with a long history, first appearance refers to the first issue to feature a fictional character. These issues are often highly valued by collectors due to their rarity and iconic status.
The Modern Age of Comic Books is a period in the history of American superhero comic books which began in the mid-1980s and continues through the present day. During approximately the first 15 years of this period, many comic book characters were redesigned, creators gained prominence in the industry, independent comics flourished, and larger publishing houses became more commercialized.
The Ultra Series, also known as Ultraman, is a Japanese science fiction media franchise owned and produced by Tsuburaya Productions, which began with the television series Ultra Q in 1966 and became an international pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into many television shows, films, comic books, and other media publications, becoming one of the most prominent productions in the Japanese tokusatsu and kaiju genres and pioneering the Kyodai Hero subgenre. The Ultraman series is centered on a fictional alien race of superheroes who often combat kaiju or other aliens.
The Bronze Age of Comic Books is an informal name for a period in the history of American superhero comic books, usually said to run from 1970 to 1985. It follows the Silver Age of Comic Books and is followed by the Modern Age of Comic Books.
Gurihiru, also credited as Illustrator Unit Gurihiru and Gurihiru Studios, is a Japanese illustration team, consisting of Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano. Both originating from Sapporo, Japan, they are currently based in Saitama, mainly working as artists for American comics.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a 2016 American superhero film based on the DC Comics characters Batman and Superman. Produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, DC Entertainment, Atlas Entertainment, and Cruel and Unusual Films, and distributed by Warner Bros., it is a follow-up to the 2013 film Man of Steel and the second film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film was directed by Zack Snyder, written by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer, and features an ensemble cast that includes Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman, alongside Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, and Gal Gadot. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is the first live-action film to feature Batman and Superman together, as well as the first live-action cinematic portrayal of Wonder Woman. In the film, criminal mastermind Lex Luthor manipulates Batman into a preemptive battle with Superman, who Luthor is obsessed with destroying.
The Batman franchise, based on the fictional superhero Batman who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics, has seen the release of various films. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, the character first starred in two serial films in the 1940s, Batman and Batman and Robin. The character also appeared in the 1966 film Batman, which was a feature film adaptation of the 1960s television series starring Adam West and Burt Ward, who also starred in the film. Toward the end of the 1980s, the Warner Bros. studio began producing a series of feature films starring Batman, beginning with 1989's Batman, directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton. Burton and Keaton returned for the 1992 sequel Batman Returns, and in 1995, Joel Schumacher directed Batman Forever, with Val Kilmer as Batman. Schumacher also directed the 1997 sequel Batman & Robin, which starred George Clooney. Batman & Robin was poorly received by both critics and fans, leading to the cancellation of a sequel titled Batman Unchained.
Superhero fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction examining the adventures, personalities and ethics of costumed crime fighters known as superheroes, who often possess superhuman powers and battle similarly powered criminals known as supervillains. The genre primarily falls between hard fantasy and soft science fiction in the spectrum of scientific realism. It is most commonly associated with American comic books, though it has expanded into other media through adaptations and original works.
Superhero comics is one of the most common genres of American comic books. The genre rose to prominence in the 1930s and became extremely popular in the 1940s and has remained the dominant form of comic book in North America since the 1960s. Superhero comics feature stories about superheroes and the universes these characters inhabit.
In superhero comic books, a team-up is a fictional crossover where two or more superheroes or superhero teams who usually do not appear together work together on a shared goal.
Lego Super Heroes is a theme and product range of the Lego construction toy, introduced in 2011, owned by The Lego Group and licensed from DC Entertainment, Marvel Entertainment, Warner Bros., The Walt Disney Company and Pixar.
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is a 2018 American animated superhero comedy film featuring the DC Comics superhero team, the Teen Titans. Based on the Cartoon Network animated television series Teen Titans Go!, it was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was directed by Peter Rida Michail and Aaron Horvath and written by Michael Jelenic and Horvath. It features the voices of Greg Cipes, Scott Menville, Khary Payton, Tara Strong, and Hynden Walch, reprising their respective roles from the series, while Will Arnett and Kristen Bell join the cast.
↑ Iñárritu, Alejandro G. (November 14, 2014), Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Comedy, Drama), Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, New Regency Productions, M Productions, Grisbi Productions, Le, retrieved September 13, 2024
↑ Lacheau, Philippe (February 2, 2022), Super-héros malgré lui (Action, Comedy), Philippe Lacheau, Julien Arruti, Tarek Boudali, Cinéfrance Studios, Baf Prod, StudioCanal, retrieved September 13, 2024
Graeber, David (2012). Super Position (Essay). The New Inquiry.*Graeber, David (October 8, 2012). "Super Position". The New Inquiry. Retrieved January 26, 2023.
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