Why superhero movies don't seem interesting to me

It happens every couple of months.

Someone at my office or at church or online will be excited. Perhaps I'll see a news item about it. Or will overhear someone else talking about it in the grocery store.

"I can't wait! The new Green Salamander movie is coming out next month!"

Or, "Finally, they're making a 'Fishman' movie. I hope it's true to the real story."

People love superhero movies from Marvel or DC. (I think. Other superhero comic companies may exist, and Marvel and DC may be the names of insurance companies.)

People love superheroes. They love the comic books and they especially love the movies. Superhero movies (by this, I include fantasy movies that seem superheroish to me) dominate the box office every summer. Black Panther. Spider-Man (why the hyphen?). Deadpool. Wolverine. Batman. Dr. Strange. (Superhero? Seems superheroish to me).

Here's where I'm an outlier. I don't love superheroes, I don't care about them, I've never read superhero comic books and I haven't seen a superhero movie since the 1978 Superman with Christopher Reeve (which I didn't like and contributed to my not returning to the genre).

This makes me strange, the same way not liking Star Wars does. (I don't hate Star Wars, I just don't care about it. I think of Star Wars in the same way I think of the Orlando Magic or raisins or AC-DC. I don't have strong feelings one way or the other.)

But superheroes. People love superheroes and I remain slightly baffled.

Perhaps it comes from my childhood, which didn't include superheroes. Oh, I read comic books. But the comic books I read were Archie or Richie Rich or Sad Sack or Donald Duck.

Superheroes seemed like something little boys should like, although it's not true. There's an entire genre of literature devoted to such things: The graphic novel (confession: The first several times I heard the term "graphic novel," I presumed it applied to novels that were explicitly sexual in nature. You know, graphic).

Adults buy and read graphic novels. They like the superheroes.

The same thing is true with manga, the Japanese graphic novel genre (another confession: I presumed manga was a fruit since I never heard anyone say manga and mango in the same sentence).

There are plenty of reasons people like superhero movies. There's long-form storytelling (people follow characters through development). There's a sense of justice or injustice. There's the opportunity for extensive backstories on secondary characters.

There's nothing wrong with superheroes. In fact, I kind of like the fact that people get so excited about the new movie about the Grape Bucket or Fat Cat (not real characters. I think.). But it's a culture in which I'm an outsider.

In fact, when the first Black Panther movie came out, I expected it to be about Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and the late 1960s political movement. Nope.

So keep watching the superhero movies (and manga and Star Wars). Just realize that some of us (I presume I'm not alone) don't know the Green Salamander or Grape Bucket. We're waiting for the next (first?) movie about Jughead, Archie's goofball friend.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.