What the Term “Superhero Fatigue” Actually Means

In the past few years the term “Superhero Fatigue” has been thrown around each time a new superhero movie or show has come out. People are claiming they are bored of superhero content and are seeking something new. However, the term seems to be nothing more than a way for people to complain without providing input into how this content could be improved, or what the real issues are. COVID shifted the entertainment industry in a negative way, and superhero content was affected to an extreme that even casual viewers were no longer interested. But what are the real issues in the superhero content? They are rushed VFX content, discrepancies within plot, poor character choices, and a general rush to produce content. In this article we will dive into each issue and discuss ways the industry can improve.

The Post-COVID Content Push
The VFX Rush and Toxic Work Conditions
Plot Discrepancies/Issues
Poor Character Choices
How Can it Improve?

The Post-COVID Content Push

COVID-19 shut the world down in less than a month, and forced many industries to reassess how they can move forward. While many industries, such as Tech, were able to adjust and move forward, others were left floundering. The Entertainment Industry, made-up of entirely in-person interactions and creation, had no choice but to put everything on hold until it was possible to film again. TV shows were pushed back or canceled, movie release dates were changed to TBD, new ideas were scrapped, and movie theaters nearly lost their relevance.

However, the moment they could force people back to work, studios started the push to film as much as possible and chop up what they could. While other studios freely canceled or chopped their shows and movies, superhero studios had to reassess what they had planned.

Marvel, for example, had just started its TV show push and had several TV shows planned that were pushed back and rewritten during 2020. This greatly affected the content, creating shows that were good but could have been better, and shows that were lacking but still successful because everyone was home. Following this, and as people got COVID-19 shots, they made a big push to create as much content as possible between 2020 to now. This has negatively affected the work environment and quality of the content. Marvel took “quantity over quality” too far, putting out a few movies that were DC-level failures.

DC was also pushing to make content, but their main goal was, and still is, to compete with Marvel, instead of trying to make something good. Their HBO TV shows tend to do better, but their movies are always hit or miss. DC’s big push following 2020 was not to make more content, but to make better content that could compete with Marvel. Unfortunately, they managed to fall flat again and again, pushing them to the point where they are completely throwing the current DCU out the window in favor of a new one. Their shows are still going to a degree, but they’re starting to cut back on those and may not revive that department.

Other superhero shows, such as The Boys, are doing well for their audience, but have found limitations due to the gory and intense nature of the content. The audience for that content is large, but nothing compared to the MCU, even now. While every studio is trying to create content that is good but comes out fast, fans are finding themselves frustrated with the lack of quality and the choices being made overall.

Watch What You Say

Alongside this push to create content, Marvel Studios thought it would be a good idea to share what their original plans for shows were instead of keeping it secret that they drastically changed things. This worked against them as fans grew frustrated that they were writing out great story-lines in favor of rushed releases. WandaVision was supposed to introduce Reed Richards and set up the Fantastic Four in the MCU, they even kept the setup in the show, but changed the ending to not include him and then announced it as if it was something to be proud of. They also had intended to include Doctor Strange in the end, but managed to fix that error with the Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness movie. What If…? was supposed to feature an episode with an alternate Tony Stark, a fan favorite character, but pushed it back to season two. And Loki was chopped up into two seasons instead of one. Change whatever you want, but don’t tell fans about those decisions.

The VFX Rush and Toxic Work Conditions

As content production was pushed, teams of VFX artists were being forced to work unreasonable hours to create the scenes and imagery being requested. To break it down, studios would tell VFX studios that they needed 24 scenes in 3 months and the VFX studios would pitch their prices to be able to work on the scenes. However, the needs and length of the scenes were not provided in the information, so VFX creators would either have to create a simple background or change the entirety of a huge scene by a deadline that could not be met. In order to meet these deadlines so the studios could continue working for Marvel or DC, they’d push their employees to work 60-70 hours a week to get things done. They weren’t sleeping, eating, and were suffering severely to get these things done. A large portion of them quit, others called out the studios, and some acknowledgements/repercussions came of it as everything fell apart. Marvel fired the person in charge of hiring these studios and pushing them to the limits and promised to focus more on quality over quantity. Only time will tell if this is true.

To read more about it from VFX artists and the VFX strike, here are some interesting articles:

Plot Discrepancies/Issues

Even if we were to look past the issues discussed, plot lines and characters not following the written rules of their universes is also causing superhero content to fall flat. An audience member cannot enjoy a story-line if it does not make sense or they are unable to follow along. While this is done well in some cases, in other cases it ruins the content or gets drowned out by other plot points to try and cover it up. In this section we will discuss a plot discrepancy that worked well, and others that nearly ruined their content.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

This film created a huge plot-discrepancy that many people missed, but it’s actually a great choice that intensifies and deepens the overall story. In the film, Miguel O’Hara (Spider-Man 2099) runs the secret Spider-Society on the basis that they have to protect each universe and ensure that cannon events (a death of a loved one) happen. His argument is that if you change a canon event, the universe will fall apart, something he claims happened to him. However, this is not true at all. Miguel had lost everything and wanted a family, so he stepped into another universe where he died and took the place of himself, living with a wife and kid that were not technically his. Overtime, his universe began to collapse on the one he was living in, destroying an entire universe to serve his vanity. He claims it is because he changed a canon event, but that is not the case. The canon event of that specific Miguel’s death happened and was not changed. What caused the destruction of the universe was 2099 Miguel stepping into it, thus bringing their universes together and ultimately destroying one. In Spider-Man India’s universe, the Spot blows up the reactor and sets off the destruction of the universe, but Miles is blamed for this after stopping a canon event even though it was clear the universe was being destroyed before Miles stepped in. While the “canon” events seem to happen a lot, there is no real evidence about the effects of preventing one, and many spiders are missing from the society because they didn’t fit with the tale Miguel is spinning. Miguel is gaslighting an entire society of Spider-People into thinking they cannot change their stories because he refuses to take responsibility for his actions. Also, only Spider-People who are on his side are there, he has excluded others and attempted to exclude Gwen, proving that others know he is lying and would try to advocate against him. Miles knows in his heart he can stop his fathers death, which would not even be his canon event because that was his Uncle Aaron dying. This is proved again when Gwen’s father quits being a Captain, canceling out her “canon event” which was technically Peter’s death. Miguel is a gaslighter, but this actually makes the story incredibly well-thought out and impressive. This is a great example of how to create plot-discrepancies that add to the story.

Secret Invasion

From the start to the end of Secret Invasion, people did not like the story being told and many have refused to acknowledge it as part of the canon. The biggest issue with the show is them undoing so many things that were well-done and carefully thought out, as well as introducing an overpowered and unrealistic character. Characters, such as Rhodey, were diminished to a man in a tube while Skrulls were impersonating him and other important people. It is hard to believe that this is true because none of it was hinted at in the other movies and shows, so going in and claiming that those people were Skrulls just for the sake of drama diminishes the original story being told. If the story had started to build up in the show, instead of jumping in as if the Skrulls had always been there, it could have been a better story. However, the entire Secret Invasion run in the comics has always been lacking, so it was a poor choice for a show and created an extreme amount of plot discrepancies and issues.

Loki

While people are raving about this show, one major issue has yet to be addressed: Sylvie is a failed attempt at mashing two characters together and everything she has claimed cannot be true by the rules set out in the TVA. Sylvie is a combination of Lady Loki and Enchantress, two entirely different characters who were never meant to be the same person. Because of this odd combination, her personality is severely lacking and she is unable to achieve greatness as either. For the plot issues she’s created, the entire plot revolves around the idea that you cannot stray from your designated story, otherwise creating variants and opening up the chaos of the multiverse. Meaning the moment something happens that varies from the sacred timeline, the TVA shows up to stop it. Sylvie claims she was born a girl, raised knowing she was adopted, and was taken by the TVA when she was a child (between the age of 7-10). However, by TVA rules, she would not have been able to be born a girl at all, would not have been able to know she was adopted, and would not have made it that far in life without being taken to the TVA. This is a huge plot discrepancy that is being looked over by everyone and, for the fans who see it and recognize her character failure, is ruining the show. I can only hope that everything she said has in fact been a lie and she is really another character, but that seems unlikely.

Poor Character Choices

Part of story creation is character creation, but when working with pre-existing comic book characters the choices should be simple, right? Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Multiple movies and TV shows have fallen flat because the choice of character or the decisions the character made were not thought-out. Other characters have sparked debate about if their comic-accuracy was what ruined the content. In this section we will review multiple characters (both good and bad) and the content they exist within.

Moon Knight

Moon Knight, a 2022 MCU show that premiered exclusively on Disney+, overall did well and had strong viewership. The main character, Marc Spector/Steven Grant, was a well-written character played by Oscar Isacc, who played each personality well and was able to clearly show the audience the switch between Marc and Steven each time. Moon Knight is not an easy character to write, displaying 3 personalities, a twisted mind, and a complicated past with family abuse. Telling his story well was something fans were concerned about. However, the show and character were a success because the time was taken to write him well and an actor, capable of playing such a character, was chosen. They were able to stay fairly comic accurate and portray Moon Knight as a character any fan could appreciate. The show stood on its own, so people could watch with no MCU knowledge, and the character backstory was built-up well. Overall, this is an example of a good show that was led by a strong character.

Eternals Family

Eternals, a 2021 MCU theater release film, did not do well for multiple reasons. The main reason is the large amount of new characters being introduced in a short time-frame. In order to write a successful character, they need time to be developed and opportunities to show their true selves. Throwing in five or more characters at a time is a recipe for disaster, and that is what happened with this movie. In order to show their entire story for the sake of the main plot, the movie begins with jumping through time to tell the tale of the Eternals. However, each character was not given proper focus and left a lot of fans questioning the decisions they made. If audiences cannot understand a character’s decision, they cannot support it and end up losing enjoyment from the content. For general audiences, this movie was too vague and complex at the same time, unable to achieve success. For Marvel comics fans, there were some frustrations with the way characters were changed. Some of it stemmed from obvious racism, other issues stemmed from confusion as to why a character needed to be changed. The Eternals are not super popular characters, so changing them shouldn’t not have been a big deal because not that many know who they are. But adding so many new characters to one movie was unrealistic and the reason it failed.

She-Hulk

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, a 2022 MCU show that premiered exclusively on Disney+, had extremely mixed reviews from audiences, but financially did well for the studio. While several issues with the show stemmed from the rushed VFX, the main issues were lack of knowledge of the character and sexist audiences. Not many people know who She-Hulk is and don’t care enough to investigate. But her character is a strong one who is a great role model for women trying to achieve their dreams. She also has an interesting origin story and, while the ending of her show was a bit chaotic, the overall representation of Jenn Walters/She-Hulk was good. It was intended as a comedy, and she was pretty funny, breaking the fourth wall and just trying to live her life, and I believe her character has a bright future in the comics and MCU. But many did not like the way her character broke the fourth wall, interacted with others, or rewrote the ending of her show, leading people to start making comments and reviews that became focused on being sexist instead of the character representation. She-Hulk is a strong character who was represented well in the show, and her fight for independence is well-deserved.

Ms. Marvel

Ms. Marvel, a 2022 MCU show that premiered exclusively on Disney+, has gone up and down with its success. While the show itself was well-written and entertaining, the character of Kamala Khan is a huge failure, both in the comics and show. Every character needs something to motivate them to make the choice to be a hero. Some characters do it out of self-appointed obligation (Spider-Man) and others do it because they feel they should be using their abilities to help others (Captain America). However, some of the younger group of heroes seem to be struggling with having proper motivation and have made their characters difficult to enjoy. Kamala is one of those struggling characters, and with her inconsistent powers and off-putting excessive personality, it is hard to enjoy content that involves her. She is a fangirl of Captain Marvel (an extremely flat character to begin with) and that is the only reason she wants to be a hero. She has no real motivation to be one nor the toughness needed to deal with the intense situations heroes face. While she was fun in the show, she is nothing more than a delusional teenager who was a poor choice to have a show on.

Sylvie

Just to reiterate the points made earlier: Sylvie is a failed attempt at mashing two characters together and everything she has claimed cannot be true by the rules set out in the TVA. Sylvie is a combination of Lady Loki and Enchantress, two entirely different characters who were never meant to be the same person. Because of this odd combination, her personality is severely lacking and she is unable to achieve greatness as either. Her writers have failed her character and the actress.

How Can it Improve?

Improving content overall is a difficult challenge, and needs to be broken down to the beginning of the process. The first step is story-line analysis to ensure it makes sense and doesn’t have any huge plot holes that ruins the content and fans will pick apart. The second step is utilizing characters that will benefit the story and are well-rounded enough to stand on their own. The final step is creating realistic timelines for VFX expectations and providing them the resources needed to create the content requested. Quality over quantity is the only way these studios will improve content. And, should content worthy of criticism still come out, be sure to use legitimate reasons for disliking something instead of “superhero fatigue” excuse. As broken down in this article, “superhero fatigue” is not a real thing and people need to stop using it as an excuse to not watch something that simply doesn’t interest them!

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