This past summer, a veritable film-festival’s worth of super hero movies have emerged from Hollywood and to at least one silver screen in the area.

The summer started out with the Scandinavian god/Marvel hero Thor hitting the theaters on May 6 and opened to fairly good reviews. According to the aggregate movie rating website Rotten Tomatoes, Thor garnered a 77% favorable rating from both critics and ordinary moviegoers.

X-Men: First Class was marketed as a reboot of the famous X-Men franchise, showing the first mutants educating themselves in their powers during the trying and stressful times of the Cold War, ultimately averting the Cuban Missile Crisis. The movie however, was not as critically acclaimed as Thor. The Green Lantern made his appearance on June 17 and was said to have critically acclaimed CGI affects but was criticized for its poor story and one-dimensional characters. To end the summer, Captain America: The First Avenger was released on July 22 and documented the origins and rise of the Nazi-fighting, shield-wielding hero, Captain America.

This is not the first summer chock-full of superhero movies either; 2010 also had its fair share of comic book flicks as well, with Iron Man 2, Jonah Hex, and other movies premiering during the summer, according to MovieInsider.com. Many are asking what has sparked the rise of these superhero revivals and furthermore, their continued commercial success.

Part of the increase in this genre of movies is due to a phenomenon more often seen in economic textbooks: a bubble. When one of the more original superhero movies became very successful, studio execs saw a gold mine in the making of movies based around caped crusaders due to their marketing appeal and the massive amount of assorted paraphernalia often associated with such movies—like action figures. Senior Tyler Coughlin thinks that the revival of super hero movies is good, asserting, “they [movie executives] are going back to what works because they are out of fresh new ideas.”

Other explanations offered include the idea that in an economic downturn, people who lack actual means to get out of unfortunate economic or social situations look to the movies with the hope of escapism. They may indeed look towards a god-like figure to save the day using sheer courage and strength, metaphorically speaking. Another proposed reason is that adults who grew up reading about such figures as Green Lantern, Iron Man, and Batman are starting to wax nostalgic about the superheroes of their past and so Hollywood obliged them with a stunning volume of such movies. Sophomore Lawrence Johnson recalls watching these old superheroes on TV and says, “Every Sunday, I would sit on the couch and watch The Amazing Spider Man till the point that I knew some of the words the characters would say by heart.” This level of fandom is what movie moguls are counting on to sell merchandise with many of those looking to reconnect with their childhood and past.

Although some of these films have been of stunning quality and have even won Academy awards, like the Dark Knight, the vast majority are not quality works of art and instead make money through relentless marketing strategies targeted at hard-core fans who see the movies and buy all associated gear. Junior Devon Minnick says, “it seems that a lot of people who are young and old seem to prefer buying superhero actions figures because of the movies.”

Of course as with any bubble, the current Superhero fad will probably “pop” within the decade as the marketplace becomes saturated with mediocre and one-dimensional movies that only seek to make a profit. As such, people will probably begin to turn away from such poorly made movies and thus there will be a more sustainable amount of superhero films in the box office. As of now, however, sit back with some popcorn and enjoy the next masked vigilante movie coming soon.