Superhero television is starting to resemble its comics counterpart but in a manner that's tragic. There were superhero programmes and movies aimed at adults before but they were sporadic and some of them featured their own characters. Wildcats, Spawn and Witchblade have had their own telly programmes before. Spawn even had its own movie and there are many movie serials based on Superman, Shazam and Batman.
There were a lot of superhero programmes made before I was born. There was even Legends of the Super-Heroes, which featured Huntress and Black Canary. There was even a water-skiing event featuring some of these same characters and that was popular with actual kids.
Fast forward to today and superhero media increasingly target a niche audience. Along with that came a greater reliance on shock value to get publicity. Iris and Barry were a happily married couple on Young Justice before they became an incestuous one.
If that's not enough, we'll get a Kon-El who's related to James Olsen, a punk detective Barry Allen and a masturbating Felicity Smoak. When these happen, ratings temporarily go up and everybody sends death threats to Greg Berlanti and company.
Eventually Marvel follows suit and everybody else starts sending death threats to it as well. This turns into word of mouth and one could see Suicide Squad and Dawn of Justice bomb the box office big time. No more superhero films from now on.
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An Incoming Decline Part Four
Non-FictionA series of essays on superhero fatigue and backlash. These range from predictions to reminisces and mentions of prior controversies that will repeat itself again if producers and writers aren't careful.
