Well folks, we made it! Somehow, someway, we’ve arrived at 2024. Now, I’m not one to be super dramatic but I gotta say, 2023 was brutal. I mean the highs were super high. Caught two Metallica shows. Bummed around Disney World. Went on a camping trip from hell. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t end the year with a serious burnout.
Now, I’m not really one for the burn. Yeah, I can catch a sunburn in my living room if too many lights are on. However, that’s more an issue with my pale-ass complexion than my general outlook. But that’s the extent of it. Still, the combination of full-time adulting and some legitimate challenges had me running on empty, Jackson Browne style. Not to contradict myself immediately, I did actually suffer from one other form of burnout throughout 2023: superhero films. As much as I wish I would get burnt out on stuff like Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Marlboro Lights or Doritos, I found myself so incredibly tired of one of my favorite genres of film and the PhD level of research I felt you had to consistently do to keep up with the ongoing narratives. Still, we made it. New Year, New Me—or whatever the hell the saying is. So let’s talk about burnout and why 2024 may signal the return the genre back to its glory days.
Too much of a good thing?
It’s hard for me to believe I even got to this point. I love comics. I love superheroes. Maybe it’s a life imitating art kind of thing. You know, it’s a blessing and a curse to walk around with the charisma, sharp looks, and rugged masculinity of Bruce Wayne. I used to love being immersed in these worlds. I mean, I have a long history of using vacation time on opening day of the bigger comic film releases so I could fully bask in the awesomeness of the experience. Yelling and screaming and hollering in a theater full of other dorks like a bunch of tweens at a Taylor Swift “Eras” concert. It was glorious! But you know, 15 years into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the never-ending onslaught of Disney + shows and the insane inconsistency of live action DC films, I just felt like I’d had enough.
[now]… every other week some third-rate character has a new show popping up…”
In the chorus of my all-time favorite Nirvana song, “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle,” Kurt Cobain hauntingly sings, “I miss the comfort in being sad.” That really sums up how I feel in this post “Avengers: Endgame” world. For as amazing as that conclusion to the ‘Infinity Saga’ was, it was kind of sad and emotional to see some of our favorite characters call it a day. A real end of an era. I guess I don’t literally want to be sad. But I want to have that emotional pull I had from that conclusion. That emotional connection that made these films “must-see.” That made these characters feel like friends we were watching up on the big screen. And since Phase 4 of the MCU has started, with the exception of “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” I just haven’t felt the tugging on the old heart strings.
Two films to redeem the respective studios
“She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” is just one example of Marvel trying too hard. (Photo: Marvel Studios).
I still want to care. Marvel really wants me to care. They want all of us to care to the point that since then, they’ve literally bashed us over the head with a barrage of new content and new characters. In a way you can’t blame them. We live in a society of immediate gratification. And don’t I know it. If a YouTube video about the Knicks takes more than three seconds to load, I want to Hulk-Smash my iPhone. And so with that, Marvel and Disney have gone full steam ahead with quantity over quality. But the stark difference between now and then, is that the MCU had a real slow burn to it. Excitement and anticipation built over time. You could digest what saw. You had a minute to theorize about what was to come next. Everything felt like an event. Now it’s like every other week some third-rate character has a new show popping up and because of FOMO, you are forced to watch like some sort of self-induced torture. I’m just not here for it. I never thought I’d prefer “Top Chef” to the MCU, but I’m sitting here way more invested in “Restaurant Wars” than “Kang the Conqueror.”
Like I mentioned earlier, though, new year new me… and maybe new MCU and more so a new era of comic book films. This year we will see only two major comic book releases: “Deadpool 3” and “Joker: Folie a Deux.” The former really seems like the exact thing the MCU needs to supercharge people like myself’s interest back into the franchise. I mean, just the excitement of an R-rated flick from the House of the Mouse is enough to get me at least curious. And the latter, a sequel to the fantastic Joker, this time with Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, has people talking. So yeah, maybe a less is more approach will help reset the balance and allow all of us a chance to breathe. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway. Plus, there’s only so much “Top Chef” one can watch.
