Superhero cinema has entered a rough stretch. Even Marvel — usually a reliable box-office engine — endured a disappointing year: well-reviewed entries like Thunderbolts and The Fantastic Four: First Steps struggled to find an audience. Superman offered some encouragement in 2025, but the wider future of the rebooted DC Universe remains uncertain amid talks about Warner Bros.’ ownership. The situation looks bleak at times — yet it’s worth remembering that five years earlier the outlook was even grimmer.
The pandemic and its lockdowns upended release plans: 2020 was the first year since 2010 without a new Marvel theatrical release. DC opened that year with Birds of Prey, which underperformed, and closed the cycle when Wonder Woman 1984 went straight to streaming. While Princess Diana dominated headlines on HBO Max, a quieter, more provocative superhero film slipped past most viewers — one that now feels especially relevant.
Premiering on December 11, 2020, Archenemy casts Joe Manganiello as Max Fist, a man who claims to be a displaced hero from another dimension. To most people Max appears to be a down-and-out drifter, but his insistence that his powers were lost and his resolve to take on a local drug lord spark belief in a desperate teen nicknamed Hamster (Skylan Brooks).
Directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer — coming off the psychological oddity Daniel Isn’t Real — the film was produced by Manganiello, Elijah Wood and others. Mortimer keeps viewers unsteady, balancing gritty street-level detail against flashes of the uncanny so the audience is never sure whether Max is a fallen demigod or a convincing fantasist. Manganiello later discussed these ambiguities in an interview with Variety.
In a 2020 interview with The Mary Sue, Mortimer credited comic-book writer Grant Morrison as a major influence, praising Morrison’s focus on emotional, reality-bending storytelling rather than straightforward action. Mortimer described Morrison’s interest in superheroes as conduits for transcendent, almost religious experiences rather than just figures who fight in warehouses.
Mortimer puts that approach into practice. Archenemy benefits from multiple viewings: scenes tighten into new meaning on repeat watches, and the film’s strongest moments are contemplative rather than combative. Echoing the grittier, more subversive corner of the genre seen in films like Deadpool and Logan, Mortimer mines a darker emotional territory that comics have explored for decades but that mainstream Hollywood only occasionally embraces.
Now, five years on, Archenemy reads like a small prophecy for the genre’s uncertain moment. With studios recalibrating and corporate shakeups looming, Mortimer’s bleak but humane vision feels especially timely. Maybe we’ve invested too much in superhero salvations; or perhaps, when optimism is scarce, it’s reasonable to cling to the smallest sparks of hope.
Archenemy is currently streaming for free on Tubi.
Source: Polygon
