Even through the worst of the pandemic, the superhero genre continued to prove itself as the most bankable genre in the industry, and 2022 has simply carried on from where almost every other year dating back to the turn of the millennium has left off. We might have only just crossed the halfway mark on the calendar, but is The Batman still the comic book blockbuster to beat?
That’s the argument fans are having on social media as we speak, and as you’d expect, virtual hands are preparing to be thrown. Based entirely from the perspective of Rotten Tomatoes critical and audience scores, Matt Reeves’ dark and atmospheric reboot is at the head of the pack, but it’s never quite as cut-and-dried as that.
To be fair, only four such adaptations have hit theaters so far, but they’ve all gathered plenty of buzz for a variety of different reasons. Morbius was panned by almost everyone, but the self-aware and ironic memes saw it become a minor cultural phenomenon, even if Sony hilariously failed to read the room when the studio decided to re-release it, only to see Jared Leto’s Living Vampire flop for a second time.
The target audience enjoyed Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder a great deal more than the critics did, but The Batman left both sides of the divide suitably impressed. Much like assholes, though, everyone has an opinion, and they want to make it heard.
To be fair, we’ve still got the superhero shenanigans of DC League of Super-Pets, Black Adam, Samaritan, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Secret Headquarters, and Shazam! Fury of the Gods still to come, so this one is far from over.
Published: Jul 14, 2022 02:18 am