From their black-and-white cinematic debuts to the blockbusters of the last decade, superheroes have transcended the two-dimensionality of print to conquer a global audience unaccustomed to reading comics. Protagonists of a narrative genre that has conquered Hollywood, Marvel and DC characters (and others) have starred in award-winning films, which have contributed decade after decade to consolidating their fame in the eyes of a largely intergenerational audience.
Many are amazed by the seriality and narrative continuity of Marvel Studios films, but when Superheroes first arrived on the big screen, way back in the 1940s, the films were conceived as sequences of episodes lasting fifteen to thirty minutes each, shown in theaters weekly until the narrative arc was completed. Just as Modern Mythology explores the cultural roots of the past, its cinematic form also seems to return to its origins, adapting
to the contemporary.
When Richard Donner’s 1978 film Superman became a worldwide success, such hype was not enough to effectively launch Superheroes into the Hollywood universe and their rise has been slow and gradual, thanks to directors such as Tim Burton, Sam Raimi and Bryan Singer, since the late 1980s. It is undeniable that the contribution made by Marvel Studios’ titles over the last ten years has allowed the identification of a precise new genre, the “Superheroes Movies”, totally autonomous from Science Fiction, with which it was improperly grouped for decades.