Ahead of today's opening of the New York Licensing International Expo, The Hollywood Reporter looked at what it means to have a successful superhero movie these days:

"On a big movie, you probably will find something related to the movie, whether it's a product or promotion, in almost every major retail outlet you could imagine," said Brad Globe, president of Warner Bros. Consumer Products, which will be trumpeting its Batman lineup at the licensing show. "We have our core companies like Target, Toys "R" Us, Wal-Mart, Kmart. all names cq Then you have more specialized stores," including Neiman Marcus, which has upped the merchandising ante by selling fashion-plausible T-shirts for $40 each.

Another example of upscale merchandising is Estee Lauder, which got into the Iron Man game. A page on the beauty company's Web site offers tips on how women can achieve the look of Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), Iron Man alter ego Tony Stark's sexy spokesperson.

"With the amount of activity surrounding our properties, it's enabled us to create a resurgence in the marketplace for superheroes in general," [Marvel's president of consumer products, Brad] Gitter said. "Unlike in the 1990s, where you didn't have many superhero films, now you have a tremendous amount of marketing, theatrical activity, animation, theme parks, product expansion and other synergies in place to really ride the market."

No matter how cynical you might think you are about today's blockbuster movies, there's always something like this that appears and makes you even less convinced that anyone working in media today has any pure love of telling stories anymore, isn't there?

Cheryl Rubin, senior vp brand management at DC Comics, said she sees no end in sight for superhero blockbusters.

"2007 proved that 10% of domestic boxoffice gross was based on comic books and graphic novels," she said. "Consumers love superheroes."

As superheroes proliferate onscreen and off, consumers could suffer from superfatigue as the movies begin to turn to second- or even third-tier characters.

That saturation point doesn't appear to be on the near horizon, though.

All I'm saying is, it's a sad, sad day when you feel nostalgic for the days of Prince doing "Batdance" every time you turned on the radio.

Superheroes bulk up on licensing deals [Hollywood Reporter]

You can blame EW's Chris Nashawaty for starting the whole thing off with his essay, subtly titled "Superheroes: How They Ruined Summer Movies":

Looking back now, I can pinpoint the exact moment I fell out of love with summer movies: May 3, 2002. I ducked out of work early that afternoon to wait in line for the first screening of the first blockbuster movie of the summer. I remember looking around at the swarm of hooky-playing droolers and fanboys and knowing I was precisely where I was meant to be. I would've taken a bullet for these people. After all, we'd shared some indelible event-movie moments over the years. July 3, 1991: Opening day for Terminator 2. June 11, 1993: Jurassic Park. July 3, 1996: Independence Day. Hell, I'd even saved the ticket stubs. Now it was Spider-Man's turn.

Sitting in the darkness of the theater, beaten numb by the whining adolescent angst of Peter Parker, fighting back a yawn during his schmaltzy rain-soaked smooch with Mary Jane Watson, nearly going into diabetic shock from all of the sugar-spun F/X eye candy that honestly couldn't have looked more bogus, I felt...well, I felt really bored. At some point during those endless 121 minutes, I'd changed. And when the audience started whooping as the end credits rolled, I realized that my beloved summer movies were changing too.

Yes, he's really arguing that Spider-Man ruined the good name of Jurassic Park and Terminator 2. But wait — it gets better:

Just 10 years ago, summer had real movies — the kind without genetic mutants whose tortured origin stories are shamelessly cribbed from Freud 101. In the summer of '98, you could go to a multiplex and see Out of Sight, The Truman Show, or Saving Private Ryan. And if you wanted ear-shattering bombast, there was Armageddon. Don't laugh, Michael Bay's starting to look more and more like Antonioni these days.

Apparently, someone's forgotten to tell Chris that there are actually some other movies coming out this summer besides Iron Man, The Dark Knight and The Incredible Hulk. Either that, or he thinks that Sex and The City was originally created by Stan Lee (Chris, if it helps, here's a list of what's being released this summer).

Television Without Pity's Zach Oat speaks up for sanity:

I feel for you, Chris, I really do, because you seem to have gone to see every terrible superhero movie ever made. I presume it's because of your job as a writer at EW and not out of some assumption of quality, but I'm a long-time comic book fan, and even I knew not to go see Catwoman or Ghost Rider or The Punisher in theatres... My advice? "Just walk away," as the great Humungus said in the summer of 1981. Stay away from the movies that are clearly causing you grief. Don't buy that ticket to Hellboy II (the original made $100 million globally, by the way); instead, go see Eddie Murphy in Meet Dave.

Nashawaty's essay is a strange piece (especially for Entertainment Weekly to run), and it feels like he hasn't thought through his argument, but does he have something resembling a point amongst his bitter ramblings? There are a lot of comic-book related movies this year (Besides the three mentioned above, add Hellboy II and Wanted to the list, and you could potentially throw Speed Racer on there if you squint hard enough as well). Maybe it's not "when did comic movies kill summer," but instead "how many comic movies are too many?"

Superheroes: How They Ruined Summer Movies [Entertainment Weekly]

How Chris Nashawaty Ruined My Summer [Television Without Pity]

Despite news that the movie - originally completed two years ago, but subject to controversial re-shoots last year - will now be released in two different versions on DVD (with nerd dying of cancer) and theatrically (without the cancer), the (original) filmmakers aren't convinced of the studio's good intent. Producer Kevin Mann says that the studio is just trying to persuade fans not to boycott their other geek-friendly movie in protest:

This is more about avoiding picket lines at 'Superhero [Movie]' than it was about making a decision about the release of our movie.

Faced with a grass-roots boycott of its films, bicoastal protests at screenings of its Friday opener "Superhero Movie" and a campaign calling its co-chairman "Darth Weinstein," the Weinstein Co. said Monday that it now plans to release two versions of "Fanboys."

Fans press Weinstein on 'Fanboys' [Hollywood Reporter]

Now that Hancock director Peter Berg is officially remaking Dune, it's hard not to see his superhero romp as a bad omen. Official synopses of Hancock have portrayed it as the story of a drunken has-been superhero (Smith), who gets a press agent (Jason Bateman) but then has an affair with the agent's wife (Charlize Theron). But a rough cut of the film just screened in Texas, and attendees came out with much, much weirder plot descriptions.

According to the early reviews, Will Smith's Hancock is an immortal god, created thousands of years ago. But he's suffering from amnesia and doesn't realize his true nature. Plus he got mugged 20 years ago (when he'd lost his powers) and remains traumatized by the experience. Now he's a superhero who abuses his powers and does more harm than good.

Then Hancock saves Bateman's marketing exec, who offers to salvage his image in return. Bateman's big idea: Hancock should turn himself in and offer to go to jail for all the damage his heroics have caused, plus an underage girl he had sex with. (Apparently, when Hancock ejaculates, his sperm blasts through the roof of the trailer he lives in.) But then it turns out that Bateman's wife (Theron) is also a superhero, and is actually married to Hancock from thousands of years ago. But when Smith and Theron are together, they lose their superpowers for some reason.

When Bateman learns his wife is an all-powerful god who was created thousands of years ago to be Will Smith's perfect mate, he's somewhat distraught. Then Smith and Theron have to stop some escaped convicts, but can't get too close to each other without losing their powers. [Superhero Movie clip from MTV Movies. Hancock reviews at Ain't It Cool News.]

David Zucker has been producing and directing comedy movies sporadically since Airplane!, and most recently directed Scary Movie 3, 4, and 5. I suppose if you're on a roll, why not stick with what you know... but do people care anymore? I seriously kept waiting for something funny to happen in this trailer, thinking it would elicit at least one laugh. Well, I was wrong. It devolves quickly into tired jokes and a superhero getting partially pantsed. Whoa! You can see his skivvies! Haw haw. The trailer for Hancock had more laughs than this did. In fact, remember Will Smith talking to the mannequins in I Am Legend? That was comedy gold in comparison.

We don't want to see Leslie Nielsen brought to this. But at least now you know what Brent "Data" Spiner has been up to. Please tell us their next project isn't Science Fiction Movie.