This past week, the trailer for Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron  quickly became a hot topic on social media and in conversation among those eagerly anticipating the film’s release in May. In just three days, the trailer on YouTube had more than 36 million views. 

And yet, this sequel to the widely popular superhero team-up movie from 2012 is just one of dozens of comic-based blockbusters to hit theaters in the next few years. According to a Screen Rant article published on Aug. 7, more than 40 DC and Marvel movies are set to arrive in theaters over the next six years, including Justice League, X-Men: Apocalypse, Doctor Strange and a Fantastic Four reboot. 

Despite the enormous success and popularity of these films in mainstream entertainment, one might wonder what fanboys have to say about the number of comic-book movies we are witnessing in today’s pop culture. After all, it’s hard to listen to Jackson 5’s hit song “I Want You Back” without envisioning a dancing Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy.

    Rick McGee, the owner of Foundation’s Edge, a comic shop on Hillsborough Street, said he has been buying and selling comics since the 1970s. According to McGee, the amount of movies these days has helped usher in a new wave of younger readers. 

“The movies have clearly helped bring people into the stores,” McGee said. “Our median age for customers went from 34 to 24 in the last five years.” 

Unlike a number of commentators on Screen Rant and IGN Entertainment, McGee said there’s “no sense of saturation” regarding the number of comic book movies these days. 

“As far as people and comic movies coming out, not everyone loves every movie of course, and they love to pick them apart,” McGee said. “But they have no problem with the number of them coming out.” 

McGee also said that because younger readers generally aren’t familiar with a lot of the older story lines, it doesn’t bother them when the movies take significant liberties from the source material. 

In addition to the sheer amount of films, there’s also the fact that multiple cinematic universes exist. DC and Marvel have their own properties, whereas Sony and Fox own characters such as Spider-Man and the X-Men, respectively, which is “not problematic,” according to McGee.

Jonathan Page, a senior in mathematics and new comic book collector, also doesn’t have a problem with the amount of superhero films these days. 

“I think it’s good we have variety and multiple cinematic universes,” Page said. “I actually wouldn’t mind having the same character show up in multiple cinematic universes and get to see different interpretations of them.”

Page, whose comic reading was heavily influenced by the movies, said he’ll continue to see them as long as the studios release quality films. 

But Zack Smith, an NC State alumnus and freelance writer at the Indy Week and Newsarama, remains less optimistic. 

“Here’s what I’m seeing with things right now: Too much of anything is bad,” Smith said. “Superhero movies, by their nature, are gloriously dumb. And you have to have both of that there, the glorious and the dumb.” 

Smith has been collecting comics since he was a kid, and classic cartoons, such as Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and Super Friends, had a huge influence on him. Both shows saw their popularity peak during the 1980s. 

The popularity of comic book movies shows parallels with the Western movies that once dominated the industry, according to Smith.

“At one point in the history of television, there was one season where there were 30 Westerns on air at the same time,” Smith said. “Most of them lasted just that one season. When you have an awful lot of everything, it all blurs together.” 

Smith said he gives credit to Marvel Studios for finding a way to do something other than an origin story, as well as expanding into other genres. 

“The biggest problem for superhero movies is that in the first movie you get a great uplifting story about someone who realizes they can be amazing and stopping bad guys and learning to believe in themselves,” Smith said. “We’re going to get sick of it eventually.” 

Smith said he intentionally avoided seeing a number of blockbusters in recent years, including this year’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Due to the trailer looking “overstuffed and awkward,” bad critic reviews and complaints from friends, Smith decided to skip this Spidey flick. 

For Smith, finding an effective counterpart to balance the amount of superhero movies will require material that is “smart, engaging and dramatic.”

“I think it will be very interesting to see, one, if the glut of superhero movies ultimately leads to crashing into themselves a bit, and, two, if, from there, what kind of films will come to take their place,” Smith said.