Bevendre

It’s not a question of how many are being done, but how well they’re being done.  Superhero movies have been pretty common since the late ‘90s, and not necessarily rare before that.  The advances in technology, and interests of the viewers have shifted enough to make superhero movies generally very profitable ventures.  If they’re done well.

I have no problem with revisiting characters throughout movies, it lets us as the audience experience their growth, and see the changes they go through that can’t necessarily be covered in the few hours that a single movie allows.

Trilogies and tetralogies can work so long as the character progresses and doesn’t face the same internal struggles again and again, and I think for the most part this is what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has succeeded in.  The movies are all interconnected, and the characters act and interact in a way that shows that very well.

Captain America is a great example of this.  I don’t much care for Captain America as a character, for some of the same reasons that I don’t care for Superman.  The first Cap movie didn’t grab me, though it was okay.  His interactions in Avengers however I found to be really good.  The writers knew what they were doing with the character, and he grew through the movie, becoming closer to people he would have loathed in his first flick.  This is continued in Winter Soldier where we see his views and values challenged much more heavily, but it still feels natural.

DC thus far hasn’t managed series as well, largely from a general lack of experience in inter-connectivity, but that may change in the next 5 years or so as they release more movies.