Have Your Say: Crisis On Infinite Universes

Editor, Europe; Rotterdam, The Netherlands (@ardvark23)
Have Your Say: Crisis On Infinite Universes
Fans of super-hero films sure will not have experienced a shortage of them in the past decade. Ever since Marvel's massively successful Avengers film, their "Cinematic Universe" has been a purring engine, raking in cash for Disney in jaw-dropping amounts for years now already.

And of course when one studio has such a magnificent shiny toy, all others want one as well. Warner Brothers had the benefit of having their own comic-books empire attached and began setting up their "DC-Extended Universe", and is even trying to make a mega-monster-verse out of Godzilla and Skull Island as well. Universal tried to do a similar thing with its own recent re-imaginings of their horror classics.

That's not to say Marvel's success is easy to copy though. Universal already has thrown in the towel on their "Dark Universe". Warners has been struggling to get their superhero franchise working as planned, to say the least. Though fair enough, each film in it has made plenty of money so far, and they have finally reached their own Avengers-level with Justice League. Time will tell what their mega-monster-verse will turn into...

But back to the posterboys of Marvel. How are they doing with their universe? Their newest addition Thor: Ragnarok is performing really well, both a critical and audience success. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has a healthy line-up of popular characters, and even its spin-off films are anticipated rather than dreaded. But after the huge pile-up being planned for the next two Avenger films, which will have EVERYONE in it... where to go next? How do you escalate this any further? Already I hear an increasing number of people muttering about there being too many superhero films, and too much death-and-destruction in each of them. Is there really any benefit left in getting even bigger?

In the comics, both Marvel and DC had to reboot their franchises often. Superman would always get too strong after a while, pushing entire planets out of the way, while Marvel's stories would get too convoluted and have too many continuity problems. The movies are fast approaching similar thresholds.

So our topic of the week is: what are the ways forward for these movie universes, if any? Go bigger? Go smaller? Go television? Will they explode like a supernova and die out? Or whither away?

Chime in, in the comments below, and HAVE YOUR SAY!


(NOTE: the picture above is the awesome Alex Ross tribute to the awesome "Crisis on Infinite Earths" storyline, which was probably the most epic comic-book reboot ever).
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