Who doesn’t like a superhero?
Most of the established superheroes that are with us today began life in comics. Batman, Superman Wonder Woman and Captain America have all been around since the late 30s and early forties, even Spiderman, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor etc have been around for 60 years, but all of them are still going strong today. All of them have undergone reboots to keep them relevant and fresh to contemporary audiences, but they have migrated and expanded into other media.
Beginning with the hit 1998 film “Blade Vampire Slayer” superheroes have really come to prominence in cinema and TV over the last 30 years, with the overwhelming success for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For those of us with longer memories, the big tent pole releases before this were Superman (I still get goosebumps from the theme tune) of 1978 and Batman of1989. But if you are of a certain vintage, you’ll have grown up on repeats of the wonderfully campy Batman TV series of the 60s, not to mention the classic X Men cartoon of the 1990s.
(Luke Cage / Power-Man, Moon Knight & Iron Fist, facing the Hand)
The transition hasn’t always gone one way from comics to screen, elements of the big characters were added in the TV shows and films along the way. Batman fan favourite Harley Quinn made her debut in the classic animated series of the 90s, in Superman Daily Planet Editor Perry White was originally created for the 1940s radio serial.
Movie making technology and budgets have caught up with comic creator imagination and has made what originally looked great on the page, but weird (if we’re being polite) on celluloid. Now, they look like could exist, the viewer still being asked to maintain a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief and defiance of the laws of physics and biology (cosmic radiation can give you body stretching powers now?)
Superheroes have become incredibly popular and inescapable, why? Who knows, cod psychologists may point the finger at power fantasies, or for your writer, its more likely that they provide a means of escape to a literally fantastic world of science, wonder and adventure. For the most part they are fun (Snyderverse excluded obvs) and exciting.
Aside from a few dead ends, the superhero juggernaut keeps on rollin’. DC have had success with the recent “Superman” film, “Deadpool and Wolverine” was the 2nd highest grossing film of 2024. The incredible success of the Images Comics series “Invincible” (by a co-creator of the Waking Dead ) has spun out into an adult animated series on Netflix and trading cards : “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” was a huge break out hit in the black and white indie comics boom of the 1980s, itself inspired by a classic run of Marvel’s “Daredevil” (your correspondent’s favourite superhero, and with its own Disney Channel series) “cleaned up “ for kids continues to be an enormous multimedia phenomenon.
Of course, such is the following of characters and stories, fans will want to buy merchandise and that has come a long way as well. TGC Collectables offer a wide range of superhero related shelf porn in its action figure range from high quality manufacturers like Hasbro and McFarlane (as in Todd, the creator of “Spawn” and a hugely successful comic artist). We have figures and a range of toys from a variety manufacturers in differing styles.
(Lobo, Supergirl Movie MacFarlane Action Figure)
If it’s card games you are interested in, check out the Invincible and Magic the Gathering Marvel universe , Spiderman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Our sister site, The Game Collection has a huge range of superhero titles for all current systems, including the recent hit Lego Batman : Legacy Of The Dark Knight and the upcoming Wolverine for PS5 on pre order.
Love them or loathe them, superheroes aren’t going anywhere for a while.
