As Subversive Superhero Movies Become Mainstream, Can Conventional Comic Book Cinema Compete?

When 'The Boys,' 'Joker' and 'Deadpool' remain in vogue, to what extent will moviegoers show up for the more conventional likes of 'Superman' or 'Fantastic Four'?

Expanding to 100 theaters this Friday, 19 months after its late-2022 TIFF debut, Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker is likely to be an SEO-friendly movie that’s more blogged about and discoursed-about than seen by paying moviegoers. That may explain why Warner Bros. Discovery was initially crankier about its existence, even noting the Streisand Effect, compared to Walt Disney’s “ignore it and nobody will care” reaction to Randy Moore’s secretly shot in Disney World family melodrama/thriller Escape From Tomorrow. The film’s high profile – disproportionate to its likely audience – justifies both the “fair use” of existing IP for worthwhile art *and* a studio’s desire to protect its brands. 

Like many high-profile films from underrepresented filmmakers, The People’s Joker is less an outwardly unconventional work and more a traditional story from a new/less culturally validated demographic. It’s a coming-of-age story about a young adult who (vague, genre-specific spoilers) asserts their independence, comes to terms with childhood trauma and realizes to what extent their goals will bring them the happiness and acceptance they crave.

The “twist” is that it’s a transgender melodrama, one directly (while obviously flirting with copyright infringement) tied to both the characters within the Batman mythos and the hold those characters (Joker, Harley Quinn, Jason Todd, etc.) have on our pop culture. Drew’s film, co-written by its director and Bri LeRose, mostly works on its own specific terms as a specific and personal character study. It arguably learned the lesson of Barbie and The LEGO Movie in using a safe brand to offer more than just by-the-book fan service.

In the early-to-mid 2010s, an openly LGBTQIA flick using the Batman mythology and Dark Knight tropes might have been more confrontational in terms of “challenging” the overall Marvel/DC industrial complex. However, The People’s Joker is now a more indie variation on what has become comparatively mainstream. It is one of many openly critical or self-aware superhero melodramas today. Fair or not, it arrives in theaters (and into the discourse) via Altered Innocence at a time when many of the current comic book superhero fare are closer to dissections than straight-ahead offerings.