Superhero Crossover Fatigue
In the last year (2017) there were 2 major
Superhero crossovers, one taking place in the ever expanding Marvel Cinematic
Universe and the other taking place in DC's slowly imploding Cinematic
Universe.
I'm of course talking about about The Defenders
(miniseries)
And Justice League.
The Superhero Crossover trend was kickstarted back
in 2012 with the monumental success of The Avengers and of course, like Harry
Potter launched a bunch of would be fantasy film series rivals such as Eragon
& The Golden Compass, studios immediately set plans for their own
multiverse crossover event films. In the wake of The Avengers we had Avengers:
Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War.
The Arrowverse has a annuel crossover event between
Green Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow which air on The CW.
I'm comparing these two pieces of superhero
entertainment because while they be different mediums, as far as Superhero
Crossovers go, they never seemed to cut the mustard.
Superhero Crossovers are for audiences who want to
move about in a big pantomime. Massive Broadway spectacle full of colour and
noise and both Marvel's The Defenders and Justice League didn't seem to tick
those boxes.
Of course being different mediums aside, there is
the subject of behind the scenes, Marvel's The Defenders went through principle
photography without a hitch whilst Justice League initial filming also went by
without a hitch, there came director Zack Snyder's decision to leave during
post production due to the untimely death of his daughter and DC hiring Joss
Whedon (The Avengers & Avengers: Age of Ultron) for rewrites and reshoots
which cost $25 million and ultimately flushing all their work or lack thereof
down the toilet in favour of something lighter, shorter, simpler and ultimately
more shallow and rushed.
The Defenders premiered on Netflix on August 18, 2017 and Justice League was released 3 months later on November 17, 2017. Both crossovers were met with at best, a mild reception, while reviews for Marvel's The Defenders were far from terrible, they weren't ecstatic either. A large majority of the criticism steamed from that there didn't seam to be a big enough threat for the MCU "Street Level" Heroes to face. While Sigourney Weaver was met with praise for her individual performance, her character known only as "Alexandra" was panned for being "one note" & "boring" as well as that the villainous ninja group, The Hand never seemed to pose that big a threat to the team.
In the comics, The Defenders dealt with otherworldly/interdimentional threats and were a much different roster (consisting of the Hulk, Doctor Strange, Namor and the Silver Surfer)
The truth is we already have a Sorcerer Supreme for that.
A fundamental flaw with making a superhero crossover with "Street Level" heroes is that their status means it doesn't lend itself to a bigger scope for a crossover when compared to The Avengers i.e. it's incredibly small scale meaning that the stakes were unusually low for a superhero team up.
The Defenders premiered on Netflix on August 18, 2017 and Justice League was released 3 months later on November 17, 2017. Both crossovers were met with at best, a mild reception, while reviews for Marvel's The Defenders were far from terrible, they weren't ecstatic either. A large majority of the criticism steamed from that there didn't seam to be a big enough threat for the MCU "Street Level" Heroes to face. While Sigourney Weaver was met with praise for her individual performance, her character known only as "Alexandra" was panned for being "one note" & "boring" as well as that the villainous ninja group, The Hand never seemed to pose that big a threat to the team.
In the comics, The Defenders dealt with otherworldly/interdimentional threats and were a much different roster (consisting of the Hulk, Doctor Strange, Namor and the Silver Surfer)
The truth is we already have a Sorcerer Supreme for that.
A fundamental flaw with making a superhero crossover with "Street Level" heroes is that their status means it doesn't lend itself to a bigger scope for a crossover when compared to The Avengers i.e. it's incredibly small scale meaning that the stakes were unusually low for a superhero team up.
Marvel Television head, Jeph Leob even admitted that the format was chosen because
of the success of The Avengers (2012), which suggests that they purely wanted to jump on the bandwagon, but then if Marvel wanted to rip themselves off then there's hardly any need to file lawsuits.
This doesn't however spell the end of the superhero crossover necessarily. Around the same time that Justice League flopped, the Arrowverse aired its fourth annual Crossover, Crisis on Earth X
A few months later in May 2018, Avengers: Infinity War is release to rave reviews from critics and fans and over $2 billion in the bag. This can be attributed to the 10th anniversary of the MCU, the culmination of 3 Phases of movies, the film's marketing placing it's Voldermort of the MCU, Thanos (Josh Brolin) front and centre and highlighting the Universal stakes at play.
To sum up there will always be a market for Superhero Crossovers if they look appealing and they have a strong hook.
This doesn't however spell the end of the superhero crossover necessarily. Around the same time that Justice League flopped, the Arrowverse aired its fourth annual Crossover, Crisis on Earth X
A few months later in May 2018, Avengers: Infinity War is release to rave reviews from critics and fans and over $2 billion in the bag. This can be attributed to the 10th anniversary of the MCU, the culmination of 3 Phases of movies, the film's marketing placing it's Voldermort of the MCU, Thanos (Josh Brolin) front and centre and highlighting the Universal stakes at play.
To sum up there will always be a market for Superhero Crossovers if they look appealing and they have a strong hook.
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