In recent years superheroes have exploded in popularity on an almost unprecedented level. That’s not to say they haven’t always held a level of popularity. Batman is celebrating his 75th anniversary this year for a reason. Never before however, have they been embraced with such wild abandon. Just about any product nowadays, whether it is a shirt, coffee mug, or commemorative underwear, can be bought with Superman’s familiar logo stamped on them. And much of this can be blamed on movies.

Superhero films have been around for decades, but the first to truly achieve success was 1978’s Superman with the iconic Christopher Reeves filling in for the man of steel. It was a box office triumph, grossing over 300 million dollars at the box office and becoming a critical darling. A strong sequel followed, but a glut of box office bombs of other heroes, such as Fantastic Four and Howard the Duck, sunk the promising genre. Star Wars came out and sci-fi became the new big thing, pushing superheroes back to the comics they came from.

While there were some huge hits in the genre, particularly the Tim Burton Batman films, they didn’t explode again until 2000’s X-men. A massive hit, X-men spawned a franchise currently seven films strong with an 8th upcoming and perhaps more importantly, proved to investors that comics were a bankable market. The following years led to many films based on graphic novels of all kinds, with superheroes leading the helm. Everything from Spiderman, The Hulk, and Sin City got their film adaption, often directed by notable filmmakers like Sam Raimi and Ang Lee.

It makes sense with all the box office success, and with films like The Dark Knight even winning academy awards, that the films would only get more popular, and they have. Marvel has been pumping out a film or two every year for its cinematic universe, with its other creations like Spiderman being licensed out to third parties. This presents a worrying conundrum however. How much superhero is too much? There were 4 superhero films this year, 5 if you’re going to count Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and already some of the wear and tear is beginning to show.

Both movies released to Marvels Cinematic Universe this year were excellent films. Captain America: The Winter Soldier provided solid action, some big twists to the standard formula, and excellent developing for its characters, with Guardians of the Galaxy did likewise while being the funniest comic film I’ve ever seen. Both of their endings though were eerily similar to that of The Avengers. And Ironman 3. And Ironman 2. All these films are ending with what essentially amounts to “invasion by flying robots/aliens/starships/whatever” and with Age of Ultron having The Avengers fight off a robot army, the trend doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.

With 18(!) Marvel films coming out in the next 4 years there certainly some worry of the genre running out of gas. At 10 dollars or so a ticket, not to mention the god awful prices for popcorn, that’s a hefty chunk of change and time, even spread out over a decent stretch of time. But that’s not the only issue poking its ugly head. DC, owner of Batman and Superman, have been watching marvel the whole time and they want a slice of the currently still fresh pie, with 10 films of their own slated for release around the same time.

Superhero films are still a big money making genre, but film makers are starting to get greedy and lazy, rehashing plots and over diluting the waters. For now were still in the golden age of comic cinema, but a serious question needs to be asked. How long can it last?