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Comic Book Franchises: A Poppable Bubble or a Concrete Bunker?

From the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the DC Extended Universe to Fox’s X-Men franchise, we have enjoyed consuming a growing media-culture of comic book adaptations over the last decade. Since the 1940s the comic book industry has experienced as many booms and crashes as Wall Street and its presence on the silver screen has been no different. However with the genre producing more and more film and television adaptations with every year, one has to ask when or if the superhero bubble will finally pop.

The Problems

First of all we have to look at the practicality of having a shared universe. The formation of the MCU was a bold and daring move back in 2008 when such different properties seemed as if they could never co-exist in one cinematic franchise. But now, as of this writing, there has been 16 feature films released with a further 8 announced to be coming in the near future. Even more impressively, the Disney-owned studio has developed a meta-TV franchise on the streaming service Netflix. Although the streamlined universe has attracted a dedicated fan-base now, the format of the franchise makes it increasingly difficult for newcomers and casual viewers to freely enjoy the latest adaptations. The MCU has essentially become one massive jigsaw puzzle with each film acting as a new piece. As glorious as the picture is, keeping track of all the pieces means that it can be difficult to appreciate them individually if one of them is missing. 

So when do we reach the point where there’s one too many? Well... it’s hard to say. Convoluted continuities is a trade mark of the comic book industry and it’s one that comic book geeks, like myself,have long become conscious and tolerable of. But this is a new ball park for the mainstream audience and so it is hard to predict when (or if) a comic book fatigue will be experienced. Unfortunately, we can’t dig deep into many older franchises as their lifespan is limited and - in terms of horror franchises such as Friday the 13th - are of little box office success and dwindling popularity. However there is one franchise that stands the test of time: the James Bond flicks. Similarly to the MCU, the James Bond films have maintained a consistent popularity and financial success. But unlike the MCU the Bond films took hiatuses, shared little continuity and recast their characters an impressive amount of times with only Doctor Who giving the franchise a run for their money. 

The aforementioned hiatuses that the Bond franchise undertook appear to be out of the question when it comes to the MCU. Of course money moves the wheels of any studio and with four films breaking the ‘platinum’ billion dollar mark at the box office, the studio is beginning to turn out three movies each year starting in 2018. For some, the cinema is becoming a special occasion with the hike of the admission price parallel with the economic spiral. With this being the case one has to wonder if the Marvel films will always be a priority or if some will forego the comic book pictures in favour of other critically acclaimed films, other popcorn flicks or just the occasional guilty pleasure. And if we consider this to be the case for some then the MCU-jigsaw begins to look incomplete and throws them out of the loop, diminishing the amount of future film-goers. With such a vocal fan-base it’s easy to forget that the casual moviegoers contribute greatly to the box office receipts and so it’s crucial to include them within the franchise-equation.

The final issue I would like to touch on is the heart and soul of these franchises: the characters and their respective actors. Within the MCU, DCEU and the X-Men franchises there have been some casting calls lauded both by critics and by fans and the actors’ increasingly popular portrayal of these characters had led to some to become synonymous with their respective character. A vast amount would associate Robert Downey Jr. with Iron-Man; Hugh Jackman with Wolverine; Ryan Reynolds with Deadpool; and, more recently, Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot as Batman and Wonder Woman respectively. We’re all content to let the good times roll but unfortunately the reality is that actors are going to age and they won’t be able to play these roles forever. Recasting a character that has become synonymous with their actor would lead to a great deal of disappointment from fans and may be the start of alienating many from the franchise. An even more controversial decision would be to kill off the character completely from the franchise. If the death is not satisfying nor handled respectively, the decision could spark protest and boycotting of the franchise.

Fail-safes and Evolution

Now that we have looked at the underlying weaknesses of these franchises it’s time to ask: is there a way forward? Well, while there is no concrete security these franchises can deploy certain “fail-safes” to keep a strong flow of consumers. The first of which is ‘the prequel’. Prequels are the jump-start of any franchise one film away from a recession. Prequels by definition take place before the main series and chronological continuity, which opens the doors to films that aren’t tightly tied to the pre-existing continuity. As well as giving directors and writers additional creative freedom, they act as great gateways for new viewers to enter the franchise due to they not needing any prior knowledge to understand the events of the film. The X-Men franchise has already released both critically and financially successful prequels in X-Men: First Class (2011) and X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), which re-vitalised the franchise following the disappointing X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). Furthermore, prequels can bridge new viewers into the original film series of the franchise thus strengthening the franchise’s consumer base.

Following on from the problem we’ll call “convoluted continuity”, franchises could start trading in their iron chains for twine when it comes to tying their films together. ‘Stand alone’ films have the wonderful attribute of being completely watchable with no prior knowledge of what’s going on. These films are easy for casual viewers to approach and make for a great “first taste” for the wider franchise. Typically, the stand alone films often feel much more complete and well-rounded than those of the main continuity, which can make viewers feel dissatisfied with the unresolved story arc. We can see this practice developing in all three franchises with Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) in the MCU, Suicide Squad (2016) and Wonder Woman (2017) in the DCEU, and Deadpool (2016) and Logan (2017) in the X-Men franchise.

In order to examine the “ultimate” solution for fixing convoluted continuity within these franchises, we’re going to need to look back to these films’ roots: the comic books. With so many writers and titles being released every month in DC and Marvel it can become very easy for one writer to kill off a character that another writer would have liked to use in their own title later on. Eventually the shared continuity begins to show its cracks and gaps and becomes near-impossible for new readers to make sense of. Thus the ‘soft reboot’ was born. A soft reboot creates a new access point for new readers but keeps enough of the old continuity to please long-time readers. Soft reboots are usually delivered as a big event packaged in a limited mini-series. The original and most famous example of the soft reboot is DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-1986), which saw the deaths of many popular characters and shed a large amount of its then-50 year old shared continuity.

Now that we have established the fundamentals it’s time to look at the benefits the soft reboot could provide to the comic book film franchises. First of all we have to look at the characters. By this point in a franchise’s lifetime some of the original actors may have become disinterested in continuing their roles due to increasing age or fear of being type-casted, and others may have become tired of being tied down to one character for such an extended period of time. The soft reboot creates the possibility of recasting a character with an in-continuity explanation. An example of this would be through DC Comics’ Flashpoint (2011) event where ten years are removed from the continuity in the climax, providing much younger and inexperienced characters. 

However, more often than not it is much easier for writers to simply kill off their characters during the big event. If treated with care, writing off characters can bring a satisfying conclusion to their character arc and ultimately please the fans. This later leads to a new character taking up the mantle of the late superhero. A popular example of this is Wally West becoming the second Flash after the first Flash, Barry Allen, perishes during one last act of heroism. Sometimes a new incarnation of a character can prove to be more popular than the original as was the case with the former. This forges a gateway for new viewers who will tend to identify the first incarnation that they see as their definitive one. I personally predict that Steve Rodgers will perish in Avengers Infinity War (2018), with either characters Bucky Barnes or Sam Wilson taking the mantle in subsequent films. 

Finally the soft reboot event will act as an epic climax for the first series of films, which will make for a new and fresh starting point for new viewers. As a climax the event will also act as a grand finale and reward for the dedicated viewers that have watched all of the entries in the first series of films in the franchise.

These fail-safes could be enough to keep the shared continuity framework intact and accessible to a wider audience, but now we have to ask ourselves the biggest question that’s hung over the comic book genre for years: Will comic book movies feel too repetitive? Fortunately for us fans we can boil the answer down to a simple “no.” Despite what perceptions people might have about comic books, they’re not much different than novels. They all have their own tones and genres and a variation of character-types so it’s just a matter of whether studios are willing to diversify the adaptations that they put out every year. Fox’s X-Men franchise is well underway in its process of diversifying the genres of their comic book films. For example, Deadpool (2016) stars a comedic and overly violent anti-hero while Logan (2017) acts a dramatic sci-fi Western. The franchise will be continuing this trend with New Mutants (2018) which will tackle the horror genre in a comic book adaptation. The DCEU has also begun diversifying with a villain-led film in Suicide Squad (2016) as well as the first major female-led superhero film in Wonder Woman (2017); the MCU too plans to diversify soon with Black Panther (2018) and Captain Marvel (2019), and has already begun developing a sci-fi pocket-universe with Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

No franchise is full-proof. Not even the ones that have delivered some of the most iconic films. For every ‘Empire Strikes Back’, there’s a ‘Phantom Menace’ to knock the franchise back down. Precautions and evolving your media will help to consolidate your franchise in pop culture but are completely redundant if you’re not providing entertainment. Not every films in a franchise is going to be a gem but so long as the films are made with heart and with an eagerness to please the fan base then any franchise can come out on top.