Comic-Con wrap-up: Are superheroes done for?

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But if this year's Comic-Con convention, which wrapped up Sunday,has demonstrated anything, it's that comic-book and superheromovies are not what they used to be.
If anything, they're the opposite.
Gone are the lantern-jawed heroes whose raison d'être was tosave mankind from villains threatening to wipe out the populace.
Instead, the anti-hero rules. He drinks heavily. He has problemsperforming in bed. He's as likely to kill an innocent as anevildoer. Often, he doesn't care that much for people.
And he's getting hired by the truckloads by Hollywood. After asummer that has seen antithetical superheroes rack up nearly $1billion, studios can't get enough crime-fighter movies intoproduction, even ones with some unlikely protagonists.
There are more than 42 comic-book and superhero movies inproduction, and the heroes range from the obvious (Robert DowneyJr. and Tobey Maguire reprising their roles as Iron Man and Spider-Man ) to the head-scratching (Seth Rogen as the Green Hornet?).
Even Haley, who returned to big-screen prominence as a pederast in Little Children , concedes he never saw himself as the crusading type.
"When I first started acting, the last thing I thought of was beinga superhero," he says as he walks through the spaceship used in Watchmen , the ultimate anti-hero film, due March 6. The 9,000-poundspaceship was rolled onto the floor of the convention and becamethe most popular display of the five-day pop-culture festival.
"I'm probably the last guy you'd think of playing a superhero,"Haley says, signing autographs and taking pictures with fans, someof them dressed as his character, the shadowy hero Rorschach. "I'mno Superman."
Superman seems too earnest
Of course, as this summer and this comic-book convention haveunfolded, it has become clear that no one is Superman anymore.Perhaps, says Watchmen director Zack Snyder, Superman is gone for good.
"They asked me to direct a Superman movie, and I said no," Snydersays. "He's a tricky one nowadays, isn't he? He's the king daddy ofall comic-book heroes, but I'm just not sure how you sell that kindof earnestness to a sophisticated audience anymore."
So studios are selling everything else, including bitter themes andobscure heroes.
Consider the summer slate. Few read the comic book Wanted , but Universal turned the violent, R-rated adaptation of theassassins' story into a $100 million blockbuster. The Dark Knight bordered on R-rated violence and became the biggest opener of alltime. Iron Man cast a former drug abuser in the lead role and received praisefrom all corners.
"We're casting people not for their names but for their actingability, even if they're not the obvious choice," says Kevin Feige,president of Marvel Studios. "Sometimes, the least obvious is thebest choice."