Superheroes never get old

“From the ashes of failure, came triumph.” If someone decided to write a recent history of Marvel – creator of characters including Spider-Man, X-Men and Captain America – then this would probably be an apt intro-duction. Because when Marvel Entertainment Group filed for Chapter11 bankruptcy protection in the US in 1996, it felt like all might well be lost. Instead, in true superhero form, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) – the US media franchise and shared universe that has helped define the past 15 years of pop culture – has risen from the ashes and surpassed all expectations for the continued evolution of the 20th-century comic-book characters.

For years Marvel had been struggling to achieve the big-screen success that it felt its characters deserved. After the 1996 bankruptcy filing,Marvel Enterprises emerged to try again. It was one of the production companies behind Stephen Norrington's Blade in 1998 and Guillermo del Toro's Blade II in 2002. It had the same role for the X-Men series that started in 2000 and the 2002-07 Spider-Man trilogy, directed by Sam Raimi – even though 20th Century Fox and Sony Pictures respectively had previously bought the film rights to those characters. Daredevil (2003), starring Ben Affleck, should also be added to the list, though it has one of the most divisive reputations of comic-book inspired films.

But it was the release ofIron Manin the US in May 2008 that could be seen as the “big bang” moment that changed the history of American cinema and world entertainment. It was the first independent movie to be released by Marvel Studios and introduced the idea of an interconnected universe of Marvel superheroes in the shape of the Avengers Initiative that would go on to feature Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America,Black Widow and Hawkeye. The next year Marvel was bought by Disneyand the Marvel Cinematic Universe unfolded.This linking of characters, plots and imaginary worlds was new for films, as Iron Man's producer Kevin Feige told entertainment news website Mov-ieWeb in 2010: “It's never been done before and that's kind of the spirit everybody's taking it in. Filmmakers aren't used to getting actors from oth-er movies that other filmmakers have cast, certain plot lines that are con-nected or certain locations that are connected, but I think for the most part, in fact entirely, everyone was onboard for it and thought it was fun.”What was new for film wasn't new for comic books. It was in the 1960s thatStan Lee and Jack Kirby – among many other writers and artists – built their shared Marvel Comics universe on the page. They created so many of the stories we've seen on screen large and small in recent years, as interpreted by MCU.The films that in recent years have dominated the world box of-fice and written a new chapter in film history are all “old” sto-ries. The oldest ones even date back to the Second World War:Captain America became a well-known character throughout theUnited States thanks to a cover in which he's seen punching AdolfHitler. It was the first issue of Captain America Comics, a propaganda comic designed to keep American morale high, dated March 1941. Veryfew of the superheroes we have seen in the cinema or on TV were “born”after the 1970s. Take the latest Marvel movie released in theatres, the third volume of the adventures of the Guardians of the Galaxy. As contemporary as they may seem with their pop quotes and hyperactivity, the Guardiansof the Galaxy first appeared on the pages of a comic book in 1969.

How is it possible that such old stories and characters still work and ap-peal today? It surely has to do with the fact that superheroes originated as fiction for children and adolescents, and young people will always have a passion for fantastical stories and surreal characters. This is also behind the eternal appeal of Star Wars or the (relatively) new appeal of Harry Potter.In an age when going to the cinema was expensive and a television was a luxury household appliance, superhero comics were the cheapest, most accessible and easiest form of entertainment – in the US and throughout the world. Thanks to this, certain stories, characters and adages have entered the collective imagination of millions of people around the globe. Even those who have never read an issue of Spider-Man surely know that “with great power comes great responsibility”. The modern success of superhero films is based on the existence –sometimes latent and unconscious, but still a presence – of those stories,characters and phrases in the collective imagination. In addition, we live in an age of nostalgia, where children today share some of the same cultural references that their parents enjoyed when they were young – fuelling the interest. The success of superhero films mirrors the success of the live-action adaptations of Disney cartoons (such asBeauty and the Beast) and that of the umpteenth remake,sequel or prequel of many beloved sagas from the past. It is the nostalgic draw of remembering our younger selves and the reliving of childhood memories.

The fact that these comic-book inspired films have become such a cultural staple is almost entirely a matter of timing. They arrived at a moment when all the necessary conditions were in place. The economic urgency of an entertainment giant. The advent of relevant technologies to depict them (try to imagine Avengers: Endgame in a pre-CGI era). The Ideal cultural predisposition of a public eager for simple, dichotomous narratives where the good guys take on the bad guys and superheroes triumph over villains.They represent nostalgic narratives for those who have already experi-enced childhood. Not to mention that years of overexposure to television series have changed our viewing habits. The serialisation of stories is now taken for granted. There is the expectation, and often demand, for a next episode. And what is MCU if not the greatest television series ever made– a series of movies with multiple interlinking connections? There has been a lot of talk lately about the crisis of superhero films:movies that are becoming less interesting to audiences and box-office revenues that, while still high, are starting to decline. Maybe the fad is over, maybe we are all starting to feel what the US has already dubbed“superhero fatigue”. But in all this debate, one fact – the most important of all – is often overlooked.There is a generation of boys and girls all over the world who have grown up watching superhero films for 15 years. If the past is a clue to the future, we might expect to see history repeating itself. Child readers of superhero comics in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s grew up to make andwatch comic-book inspired films as adults. Now it's time to see what the generation that grew up watching superheroes in the cinema will come up with. For while superheroes may sometimes go out of fashion, they will always return.