Golden age of superhero movies arrives

When “Iron Man” opened last month, it helped cement an era started by “X-Men” and “Spiderman” - the dawn of the golden age of comic book movies.

“Iron man” grossed more than $100 million in its opening weekend domestically and was the top grossing film for two straight weeks. Since its opening 13 weeks ago, it has made more than $314 million and is still playing at more than 200 theaters. You can expect that margin to more than double when the DVD comes out, which will most likely be near the holidays.

The “Dark Knight” is doing even better and breaking many financial box office records.

Why?

To get the answer, you have to travel back to 1978 to the father of modern super hero movies – “Superman,” staring Christopher Reeve. When the movie first came out, the caption read, “You will believe a man can fly,” and we did.

“Superman” grossed more than $300 million world wide. A nice tidy sum back then, as it is now.

Up until “Superman,” comic book fans were subjected to “Howard the Duck,” “Punisher,” Conan” and the 1966 adaptation of “Batman” starring Adam West. Television adaptations were no better. The special effects were horrendous and the plots were worse.

The biggest problem with most superhero movies until “Superman” was that Hollywood believed special effects were more important than story, even through they had evidence to the contrary.

The one exception to the bad superhero TV adaptations was “The Hulk” starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. In “The Hulk,” special effects amounted to giving Bixby green contacts and painting Lou Ferrigno green. Still, the show endured.

Why? Because “The Hulk” stories dealt with emotions, something they forgot in the 2003 movie version. In this year’s do-over, they got it right.

“Superman,” also dealt with human emotion. “Superman,” has always been a hard superhero to write for. How do you make an invincible man engaging and likeable? How do you keep him from taking over the world?

Answer: You humanize him and the movie did an effective job of giving superman human frailties.

With the superb acting of Christopher Reeve, “Superman” set the bar for superhero movies that no others were able to achieve until the 2000 release of “X-Men,” which grossed $296 million world wide by the time it was done. In 2002, “Spiderman” did exactly what “Superman” and “X-Men” did, deal with human emotion. The special effects were there, but they took a back seat to the story. That’s not to say the special effects were not top notch, but they didn’t dominate. Instead, they helped advance the story.

“Iron Man” and the “Dark Knight” used the same formula, good acting, good story and good special effects.

“Iron Man” was the classic story of redemption. Can a man who has caused so much pain in the world ever be forgiven or forgive himself? The movie does a good job of answering that question.

In “The Dark Knight” there are several questions. “How far can you push a man, what are your limits and can people do the right thing under extreme circumstances?

The “Dark Knight,” isn’t the last of the superhero movies this year. We still have “Punisher: War Zone” starring Ray Stevenson and “The Spirit” starring Samuel L. Jackson.

That is only the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of other movies coming up in the next couple of years including, from D.C. Comics, “The Watchmen” (2009), “Wonder Woman,” (2009), “The Man of Steel” (2010), The Green Lantern” (2010), “The Flash” (TBA) and “The Justice League” (TBA).

From Marvel Comics we have the much anticipated “Wolverine” (2009), “Magneto” (2009), “Luke Cage” (2009), “Iron Man 2” (2010), “Thor” (2010), “Spiderman 4” (2010), “Ant-Man” (2010), “Nick Fury” (2010) “Captain America” (2011) and “The Avengers (2011).

Also in development is “Witch Blade,” “The Black Panther,” “Dr. Strange,” “Ghost Rider 2,” “Deathlok,” “Venom” and the “Silver Surfer.” I’ve also heard rumors that Deadpool and possibly Cable are also in development.

I have a feeling that the comic book industry is going to run out of heros before Hollywood and the public run out of superhero gas, especially if the industry keeps highlighting emotions over special effects.

Based on the above list, there is no doubt Hollywood is going to beat the dead horse until we get sick of it, but as long as they keep pumping out story lines in keeping with the original “Superman” and “Spiderman” the next 20 years should be a true golden age of superheroes.