Our superheroes, flaws and all

The world never really started to take the superhero genre seriously until Christopher Reeve donned a pair of blue tights and fronted up as Superman in 1978.

The waters, and the audience, had previously been tested with the likes of Hollywood's first big-screen adaptation of the Batman story in 1966 and, out here in Asia, filmmakers had looked to tap into local comic crazes through such success as Japan's Ultraman TV series, which also had its first airing in the late 1960s.

There were comic-inspired franchises that never travelled beyond their own borders, such as the Darna series from the Philippines in the 1970s - she was an intergalactic warrior disguised as an earthling - and which helped actress Vilma Santos turn the fame she achieved into a political career that still sees her serving as governor of Batangas province.

These days, though, such efforts are revered only as camp cult classics and it was Reeve's breakthrough role - directed by Richard Donner, backed by Warner Bros and a hit with more than US$300 million in takings - that is now seen as the beginning of the modern age of the cinematic superhero, with their occasional frailties and trips into the darker side of the (super) human psyche.

Warner Bros struck box office gold again when revisiting the genre in the late 1980s and the 1990s, but the studio veered between productions that stuck close to the source material, such as Batman (1989) which saw funnyman Michael Keaton turn serious in the lead, and those that hammed things up in a desperate search for a wider audience (such as 1997's lamentable Batman & Robin).

In recent years, superheroes have been produced as though from a factory line and there is no end in sight, with Amazing Spider-Man 2 rolling out around the world this week. Disney, now owner of most of the Marvel Comics character catalogue, reportedly has projects lined up until 2028, including more from The Avengers expected next year along with the debut of Ant-Man.

As a collective audience, we just can't seem to get enough of them. Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the latest addition to the multi-platform that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has stretched its worldwide takings now to nearly US$500 million, not that far behind its most recent rival in Thor: The Dark World, which has about US$650 million - and they are both still in cinemas.