Photo courtesy of ScreenRant.

  Superheroes have been around for a long time, but it was only until recently that superheroes became a staple of entertainment.

After the wildly successful Spider-Man films of the 2000s, the movie industry capitalized on the popularity and soon superheroes dominated the film industry and the imaginations of students at San Luis Obispo High School.

  However, there is one major problem with the onslaught of new films, a problem that lies in what made the superhero movies so popular in the first place. The problem is that superhero abilities have gotten increasingly formulaic.

  “There isn’t very much originality that comes with [superpowers],” said senior Lindsay Smith.

  Marvel is an excellent example of this new trend. There appears to be a formula for their superheroes that is easily categorical; No powers, flying and energy blasts, or something unique. Sadly, as more and more films and TV shows are released, there are fewer unique superheroes. For instance, “Eternals”, a film released on November 5, 2021, had ten introduced superheroes.

  Of those superheroes, three of them involved energy blasts (Ikaris, Kingo and Phastos), one of them was a speedster (Makkari), and one had super strength (Gilgamesh). Already, half of the introduced characters have superpowers very similar to those of other superheroes.

  Even in “The Avengers”, two-thirds of the team have very traditional superpowers. THe protagonist in “Captain America” is essentially a human with increased strength and agility, Black Widow and Hawkeye are basically humans with unique weapons, and Iron Man flies around with energy blasts.

  While this formula of superpowers requires less effort from the writers and is easier to explain, there’s a reason that Spider-Man is so iconic. His powers are dynamic and his character design is unlike that of any other superhero.

  When new superheroes are introduced, people should introduce new powers along with them. If people would stay away from super strength, speed, agility and energy blasts, it would allow for better action and more distinct characters.