Superhero Movies

By NOAH WOYAK

The Mirror Reporter

One of the biggest genres of film today is the superhero movie. Superhero movies have been around for years but recently they have seen giant amounts of success. They have been so prominent within the last decade that this era has been dubbed the “Golden Age” of superhero movies.

Superhero movies first started to emerge in the early 40s, with movies such as Batman, The Adventures of Captain Marvel, and The Phantom. These films weren’t full-length and instead were broken up into small parts, known as chapters.

In the late seventies, Richard Donner released his first Superman movie. This was the biggest superhero movie of the time and helped to spark the popularity of superhero movies. Following Superman, many other superhero movies were released including Batman (1989) and  Flash Gordon(1980).

The beginning of the current superhero movie era began in 2008 when Marvel Studios released Iron Man, the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU. Marvel helped hint at a multiple movie series when, in a post credit scene, Nick Fury appeared in Tony Stark’s mansion and talked to him about forming The Avengers. This post-credit scene became a staple in Marvel movies as it has appeared in every Marvel movie since Iron Man.

Marvel has released 15 other full-length movies since Iron Man. In the same span of time, its competitor DC has put out 11 movies. The large number of movies released in the past nine years is one of the reasons many consider it to be the “Golden Age” of superhero movies.

“It is really cool to see superhero movies get so much time in the spotlight,” said junior Ben Jessee. “I feel like they’ve always been a part of our culture but they’ve never been such a common thing before.”

The recent superhero craze doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon, either. Both Marvel and DC have movies planned through 2019.