I don't think it's super-heroes that is the problem-super-heroes are as popular if not more popular now than at any point since the introduction of the modern super-hero in 1938 with Action Comics #1. The problem is the modern super-hero comic book-as I have stated time and time again. It is a niche product, aimed at a niche audience that is a but a feeble fraction of the once large audience that consumed them that has not evolved with the times to remain a storytelling product that appeals to a wider mass audience. It is the format, frequency, price, marketing rather than story driven shared universe events, lack of availability on the mass market, and inability to evolve into something that provides real stories with beginnings, middle and ends to satisfy audiences other than the hardcore continuity porn-addicted niche.

Image and others are offering story products that appeal to the storytelling senses of modern audiences-not because they don't have super-heroes, but because they are actual stories with beginnings, middles and most importantly endings and allow for character growth and development-something that once defined the halycon days of Marvel and the House of Ideas and then emulated by DC, but which has long been abandoned for marketing driven IP status quo non-story serials and events appealing only to the hardcore audience that was left after they abandoned the newsstands and lost now 2 generations of potential new readers.

So I don't think super-heroes are past their prime, I think monthly 20 page never-ending serials that feature super-heroes are past their prime. A better format, a new emphasis for the stories they will tell, a product that works in the 21st century not one that is a 20th century dinosaur, etc. and they might find a new larger audience, the problem is that current hardcore audience won't evolve or move along with the industry (clinging with almost Luddite level fanaticism to the format and ways of the past) and the threat of losing that guaranteed revenue, as small as it is, prevents the suits at the big 2 from considering the change. Instead you get folks like Didio who are obsessed with the monthly Diamond marketshare numbers and let it define their ego self image so they constantly look for ways to reslice that pie with "initiatives" like DCYou, Convergence, Rebirth (or on the Marvel side Marvel Now, Secret Wars, All New Marvel Now, All-New All Different, etc.) and variant covers meant to reshape the existing pie of marketshare to see who can be the biggest fish in a very small pond. Perhaps they are too afraid to try to swim in the larger pond but the smaller pond will dry up as the little fishies swimming in it that feed them die off and no one restocks the pond.

-M

I think superheroes, as a genre, has evolved past the original concept. None of the superheros in the hot new films go out on crime patrols, looking to catch bad guys in the act. That style of superhero is long gone, except in the case of Batman at times. What we have now is more like costumed, super powered soap operas, or possibly sustained wrestling narratives, with vendettas and origin stories, but without "crime fighting" at the core of the concept. The Avengers are trying to save the world, I suppose, but that's never the conflict that really draws us in. Most times, though, it seems like trouble comes to the heroes and not the reverse.

I enjoy manga as well, but my main issue with it is that "Battle Shonen" seems to be the only thing that sells these days, with precious few series being actually worthwhile

There's always a place for super-heroes. But as one gets older and hopefully matures, its only to revisit your childhood pleasures. Truth be told, they are only childish power fantasies with no connection to real life, or if it tries to behave as real life it just exposes how silly they really are. Taken in small doses they can entertain. But I can't have a serious conversation with someone who only reads superhero comics or kiddie cartoons their whole life. They never grew up

This is so sad to me and I grew up reading comic books that promote justice and the great good and now days majority of the comics do not do this and that's makes it sad for me to read them. That's why I'm staying away from most of the comics that DC and Marvel produces and sticking with one that I enjoy the most.

I have been reading many Marvel Masterworks and DC Archives Editions these days to recapture the glory of yesterdays of where Superheroes uphold law and order and fight for justice and the greater good.

I want Comic Books to be more like the glorious days of the Golden Age and Silver Age of Comics of where Superheroes shines their brightest! ... Sigh!

In Marvel's case, I think it's gotten worse in that they've devolved into the 'hero-vs-hero' motif. Civil War, Avengers vs X-Men, the X-Men Schism, Secret Invasion, Hickman's Avengers run, now Civil War II. It's hard to stand for justice and fight crime when you're too busy fighting your supposed partner (let alone trust them).

I haven't actually read too much manga. The series I'm reading now is the first one I've ever read very much of.