Moviegoers are now the reluctant contestants in a game to figure out how many actors can play Spider-Man in a movie before the universe implodes in on itself. There have been more movie Batmen in the last two and a half decades than Presidents of the United States. Movie studios are determined to reboot Fantastic Four until some random sequence of events causes it to be successful. Mark Ruffalo is probably not the last Hulk we're going to see on the screen this decade. I know that criticisms about constant reboots are nearly as old as reboots themselves, but this whole "next man up" philosophy is getting a little tiresome, isn't it? But it's a trend that's not going away anytime soon. The idea that superheroes can be so easily replaced is a little disconcerting, because it says that audiences don't really care about characters so much as they care about spectacle. And if comic book movies are to survive as a genre, there has to be an investment in characters. Because there are only so many spectacles you can show people. Do you think comic book movies can survive their own success? Share your reactions below in the comments thread.
