"Superheroes wear snow pants?"

"When there's snow out they do!"*

(*This is copyrighted by Bill Watterson and by stating this and not using it in an inappropriate way, I hope he doesn't sue the snow-pants off me!)

If that's true, what do they wear when there's a flurry of movies?

What is it with the recent resurgence in making super hero films?  Has Hollywood run out of other story-lines?
It has gotten so bad, they remade Batman.

Now don't get me wrong, when I was growing up, my brother had a large collection of mostly Marvel, but also some D.C. comics.  I enjoyed reading Spider-Man, X-Men, The Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Dr. Strange.  He even had large size issues of Conan the Barbarian (Arnold looked the part, but that was about it.)

So I remember the wedding of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, and I remember how Spider Man got the black suit that would eventually turn into Venom.  I remember the original X-men outfits when they were all matching blue with yellow costumes, and there was The Beast and Phoenix before Hugh Jackman burst onto the scene as the wisecracking Wolverine.  We had a cubbyhole under the last set of stairs (my parents had a raised ranch) which my father had installed a set of swinging louvered bar doors and some shelving and a light with a pull string where we kept toys, and where my brother kept two corrugated boxes filled with comic books.  Lamentably, all these carefully preserved plastic sleeved treasures were lost when my brother's basement flooded.

Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine (by extension X-Men) The Hulk and Iron Man have all made multiple movies the past couple of years.  (Don't make me even mention crappy movies like "Daredevil" and "Elektra." Damn it!  I just mentioned them! Why did you make me mention them???)  With new releases slated or in the works for Captain America (commercial seen during the Super Bowl, not impressed), Thor (commercial ALSO seen during the Super Bowl, less-not impressed), The Avengers and Green Lantern, not to mention a few I'm sure I missed, it would seem the need for spandex-wearing, testosterone oozing excitement has never been higher, and that includes the super women ("Is Amazon Girl's super power the ability to squeeze that figure into that suit?"  "Nah, they can all do that.")

My question is, why now?  Comic books have never been more expensive.  They don't appeal to a mainstream audience and don't have many mainstream titles left.  Walk into a comic book shop and the newest items are all "graphic novels" such as the one made into the movie "300."  Graphically appealing, loosely based historically and extremely bloody and violent.  That just about sums up most of what sits on the shelves that I can see (ok, take out "loosely historically based" for most of the rest of them, like all the Vampire crap) and what you have left are a lot of "Watchmen" wannabees.  So why would a 15 year old want to go see a movie about Thor?  For that matter, why would a 40 year old, or is that the audience they are targeting (40 Year Old Virgin? Anyone? Buehler? Buehler?)  Those people who, like my brother and myself, still nostalgically remember the storylines and have even attempted to pass on some sense of that excitement to their children?  Probably, but knowing the nature of what is between those covers, Zach isn't getting near one of those until he's old enough to legally drink, maybe later.

I'm just not sure that re-creating the comic books to be movies is going to reel in a younger audience, not without the comics themselves to fall back on, or to generate that interest in the first place.  I could be wrong (obviously or they wouldn't have made 3 Spider-Man or 2 Iron Man movies.)  But I can still hold out hope for that favorite spin-off..."Wonder Twin Powers, activate! (GLEEK, stop humping my leg!)"