Are There Too Many Comic Book Movies?

by Annice Brooks
Style and Focus Lifestyle PR

Is Hollywood over doing it with the comic book and graphic novel movie adaptations or are they just supplying a demand? Is this the new Hollywood cash cow? With the huge success of "Batman: The Dark Knight", "Sin City", "Iron Man", "V for Vendetta" and "Wanted"; Hollywood is hitting the comic book stores and are finding not just the most popular ones but also some that are obscure and forgotten. Even more movies in the works to be adapted to the screen including the upcoming "Sin City 2" and in December, "The Spirit" based on a popular graphic novel and Marvel's "Punisher: War Zone" will be out.

Marvel seems to be really churning out movies, they already had "The Incredible Hulk" and "Iron Man" out earlier this year and have announced a series of upcoming movies: "Spider-Man 4", "Iron Man 2" (2010) & 3, "The Avengers" (2011), "Thor" (2010), "Captain America" (2011), and "Ant Man" (2010). Plus, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" will also be gracing the screen next year and not surprisingly it already has a huge Internet following.

DC comics also has a huge list of films in the works with "Superman: Man of Steel" (2011), "Billy Batson and the Legend of Shazam" (2011), "Jonah Hex" (2010), "The Flash" (2010), "Teen Titans" (2009), "Green Lantern" (2010), and also rumored Justice League and Wonder Woman movies. There is also the highly anticipated film "Watchmen" that hopefully will hit the theatres next year.

These movies are popular because they are full of action and visually stunning. A pro for making these movies for Hollywood is the built in fan base thus reducing the need for a large promotional budget. The budget will include advertising and promotion but mainly to promote to potential viewers who may not be familiar with the characters.

The comic book adaptions are not just limited to film. BET network has partnered with Marvel to create an animated series based on the character "The Black Panther". The CW network currently has the popular TV series "Smallville" although rumored to be nearing it's end and has announced a possible new show "The Graysons" based on a Batman character Richard "Dick" Grayson (Robin), but the show will take place pre-Batman. However, since the announcement of "The Graysons" it has been strongly opposed from bloggers, online forums posters and hardcore comic enthusiast calling it "the worst idea ever". The Cartoon network will premiere a new Batman cartoon "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" on Friday, Nov. 14th.

Hollywood does have a tendency to latch on to one thing until fans become tired of it and then move on to the next hot thing. Is the creativity in Hollywood lacking so much that they are focusing a great deal of time on comic books?