It’s the final days of 2023, and voices everywhere are predicting the final days of the superhero movie. Even that bastion of the mainstream, the New York Times, is getting in on the eulogies. It’s no wonder, with this year’s solid string of financial and critical flops ebbing into 2024’s low-tide lineup of a mere three “interconnected universe” movies, Deadpool 3, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter.

But in the final days of 2023, one thing remains clear. People aren’t tired of superheroes — they’re just tired of bad superhero movies.

Yes, superhero films and TV shows floundered consistently in 2023, as a whole crop of delayed productions finally hit screens and were not worth the wait. The Flash, first announced in 2014 and slated for 2016, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which wrapped filming in January 2022, both hit to snores. The Marvels is officially the MCU’s lowest-grossing film, and it doesn’t really deserve it, especially in the year with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It’s very possible that you’ve already forgotten about Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Secret Invasion.

This year, the extended universes ran out of things to do except gesture at the extended universe: Kang getting second billing in Ant-Man and Loki,........

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