There’s been a lot of talk recently that the past decade’s obsession with superheroes is bound to crash and burn in the coming years as we head to overkill. A particularly evil supervillain called ‘Audience Apathy’ is threatening the genre’s time at the top. We’ve already had the Fantastic Four reboot prove, urm, not so fantastic at the box office this summer and there’s bound to be a few more superhero movies not exactly being up to scratch. In my opinion though, the genre can take a few punches and they might even be beneficial in the long run as it takes away studio complacency. Every good superhero knows, when facing increasingly stark odds there’s really only one thing to do and that is adapt or die. And that is why I don’t think this genre is going anywhere any time soon and has probably got good legs for the long term. The superhero model, in the original comics and graphic novels, has been an ever-changing landscape of different takes and genres within genres. The writers have known that to keep it fresh the stories have to be adaptable with different themes and cater for the constantly mutating tastes of the audience. This has created a wealth of material for the studios to raid when addressing the superhero movie - all with a different take on how to approach the genre. The problem with The Western as a long term genre, although brilliantly done, really comes down to one simple thing - that it is essentially one type of story. White knight saving community. I know that is a huge generalisation and don’t get me wrong I absolutely love Westerns but we can now only take a handful a year. The fact that The Western is set solely in the wild west probably didn’t help it as a genre that could stay at the top as there’s only so much tumbleweed action that audiences can take. The superhero genre also does exactly the same with this ‘white knight’ business but is able to do it in a myriad of different ways that addresses different issues and stories that a modern day audience can really relate to. We’re already seeing the adaptability of the superhero genre. This year’s Ant-Man is a case in point. This was not your normal superhero movie of cities being threatened and heroes flying to the rescue. In fact it was a comedy heist movie. Great stuff. Another example was the high sci-fi of last year’s Guardians of the Galaxy which was basically The Usual Suspects does Star Wars. And over on Netflix, Daredevil went all dark, brooding and adult to amazing results. But one film that we’re really looking forward to is next February’s Deadpool starring Ryan Reynolds. The film that will see Marvel go down the ‘R’ rated route. If you’ve ever read the comics you’ll know that this particular superhero is a swearing, fourth-wall breaking violent sociopath and is funny as hell. With a good script this could well be the Porkies of superheroes. DC and Warner Bros as always are a bit behind Marvel when it comes to adapting but with the forthcoming Suicide Squad that could all be about to change as well. Superhero films have a long way to go before they run out of steam and I think there’s definitely a bit of life in the old dogs yet.