by Can Tran

Created on: March 31, 2007   Last Updated: May 13, 2007

Over the last few years, there's been a trend in the theme of superheroes since it's turned into a major money maker. Ever since 2002 with the debut of the Spiderman movie, studios have been buying up film rights to various franchises such as Daredevil, X-Men, Incredible Hulk, Ghost Rider, Hellboy, Superman, Batman, etc. Some paid off and some didn't pay off. That aside, the theme itself has been gaining popularity and momentum.

From there, they made movies that revolved around the lives of superheroes in general. One example is the Disney-Pixar film known as "The Incredibles." Incredibles is a very good movie in my opinion. Had a very good plotline with superheroes not allowed to use their superpowers anymore. In revolved around one family where two of the superheroes got married and had three children and the first two children developed powers and had to cope with them which was a pretty fresh approach with the direction of superhero genre. It was a more action, sci-fi, and comedic oriented movie.

A few years back there was a live action movie with Kurt Russell known as "Sky High." Kind of like the same basis and plotline as Incredibles. Revolve around Will Stronghold the son of legendary superheroes. But the basis of Sky High revolves around a school in the sky known as Sky High. It was a secret school for superheroes and sidekicks. Sky High went into an interesting direction as life around Sky High was just like normal life at high school but add in superpowers. They all had their cliques. It also went in depth on what it was like to be a sidekick who was pretty much unappreciated and forgotten.

Incredibles and Sky High were very fresh directions when it came to superheroes. I was wondering what direction this genre would go next. And then around August, I saw the preview for the now hit TV series on NBC called "Heroes." It was a pretty fresh and original approach to the superhero genre. What caught my attention were the two characters Claire Bennet a high school cheerleader with an indestructible body and Hiro Nakamura a comic and anime fanatic with the powers to bend time and space.

It was definitely a fresh approach and it's now one of my favorite shows. Though it's off the air at the moment, it should come back on April 22nd. Heroes went in the direction of the most realistic approach: people developing superpowers at the same time having to conceal them due to today's political climate. Also, Heroes introduced a wide variety of people with superpowers

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