A Word: A Multiverse of Problems

Slate Books

Slate Podcasts

Arts

3.8 • 546 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2024

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Comic book films have dominated the box office for a generation, and gave many diverse actors and artists an opportunity to shine. But the genre struggled during 2023, and fans are worried that the golden age has ended for those movies and the culture that inspired them. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by journalist David Betancourt, who covered comic book movies and culture for The Washington Post for more than a decade. They talk about why superhero films may be going through a rough patch, and whether they can rebound. Guest: Journalist David Betancourt, author of The Avengers Assembled: The Origin Story of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes Podcast production by Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for $15 for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a Word, a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson. Like gangster movies in the 30s,
0:05.7	cowboy movies in the 60s, and vigilante cop movies in the 80s, superhero and comic book movies
0:11.1	have dominated the culture and the box office in the 2000s. They've turned actors into stars and
0:16.8	legends. But it looks like 2023 was the kryptonite to the comic book industry. And after years of
0:22.5	ongoing success, it looks like the genre is at a crossroads. Am I really inclined to go spend
0:27.6	a movie ticket and expensive popcorn to go see that when it's going to be streaming on max in 30, 40
0:32.6	days? Those are the things you have to think about now. Is America going through superhero fatigue
0:36.8	coming up on a
0:37.7	word with me, Jason Johnson? Stay with us. Welcome to a word, a podcast about race and politics
0:46.9	and everything else. I'm your host, Jason Johnson. New Year's is the season when trend watchers
0:51.0	are telling us what's going to take over our cultural conversations and ideas are going to be packed into our mental addicts to gather dust. And among the cultural
0:58.6	forces on the endangered list heading into 2024 are comic book movies. Not long ago, the comic
1:04.8	book genre was being touted as the ultimate renewable resource for Hollywood. One blockbuster
1:09.4	film could generate years of profitable sequels, spinoffs, and origin
1:13.6	stories, not to mention a multiverse of merchandise, books, and television.
1:19.0	Like Spider-Man, which spawned the 2023 summer blockbuster film Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse.
1:26.1	Who are you?
1:36.3	Yeah. Spider-Man across the Spider-verse. Who are you? I'm Miles Morales.
1:40.3	But you, you can call me the proultin.
1:51.0	If I don't get home, our dad is going to die. You're dead.
1:52.0	Please. You have to let me go.
2:06.0	Why would I do that?
	...

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