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Super Max, the jailbreak Green Arrow movie, won't be graced with the Joker's presence, due to the character's memorable stamp into the public consciousness this summer. Writer David S. Goyer (Batman Begins) told MTV News that because of Heath Ledger's untimely death and the iconic portrayal he brought to the screen in The Dark Knight, they're written out all of Joker's appearance, demoting his cameo to a mere nameplate on his cell door. No sense in stepping on that legacy's toes.

That might not even matter, however, since even without such an appearance, Super Max might be the one to propel the superhero movie into the next evolutionary step and save the genre from becoming stale.

The project, which changed its name to Green Arrow: Escape from Super Max last June, tells the story of a framed Green Arrow being sent to a maximum security prison designed to detain supervillains, and how he has to break out of there to stop the real perp. When first announced, it's said that the prison would be populated by B and C-level DC Comics villains—characters obscure to non-comic fanatics—but that might not be the case anymore. Though Joker won't be in it, co-writer Justin Marks (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li) confirmed that we'll get to meet Batman and Superman foes like The Riddler, Icicle, and—this is the big one—Lex Luthor.

Not bad for a superhero many people might not have heard of before. Then again, that might be why they're taking this unusual "hero-in-prison" approach. It's also why Super Max might be the harbinger of the next generation of superhero movies.

Let's face it—and this is a huge comic geek/collector talking—the market is flooded by superhero movies nowadays, and even as a fan, it's getting awfully trite. The problem is that these movies are stuck in one genre: the summer action movie. And not just an action movie, but an action movie that always follow a similar pattern. Hero wronged, hero finds superpower, hero realizes his folly, villain emerges, big battle at the end. Done right, this pattern can still deliver a fine movie (case in point: Iron Man), but as a result, studios don't see a reason to expand the trend. All they want is the next Spider-Man franchise, and that even translates into original creations.

Hancock, for example, was originally a serious drama about a fallen alcoholic superhero who develops a relationship with a troubled kid, and they in turn save each other's souls. After over a decade in development, it turned into what it was, just another summer CGI-fest with big action and big laughs. In that regard, The Dark Knight, despite being based on such a popular character, is more original in a lot of ways. It turns the superhero movie into a sobering crime thriller with political undertones, and not just a Batman-chasing-the-Joker picture. The superhero movie is in a stalemate, and we need it to expand to other types of movies for it to survive the Hollywood flavor-of-the-decade curve. My Super Ex-Girlfriend was a terrible movie, but it was at least on the right track. Why not a superhero romantic comedy? Or a superhero drama? Imagine if they did that movie as an epic love story that truly examines a superhero-human romantic entanglement.

I like the concept of superheroes because, like science fiction, they're rich for social commentary, but they're also a great conduit for explorations of mythology. But what I want to see is expanding the genres and ideas on how movies treat superheroes. I'm tired of every superhero movie trying to be the next big hit, the next blow-em-up-CGI-spectacle summer popcorn movie. There's nothing wrong with it and if it's done well I'll probably enjoy it, but the lack of variety truly saddens me.

And before we start mentioning Watchmen (which is admittedly even more divergent from the superhero movie norm), I'll say this... To me, it's unnecessary to adapt graphic novels like Y: The Last Man or V For Vendetta or Wanted or Watchmen. They're already a finite story in a visual form I enjoy. But that's me personally because I read those things. I treat comics as a very serious medium. The problem is that whenever they adapt that kind of finite story, the result is always inferior, because you're just translating one medium to another. There's nothing new there, there are only cutbacks. If we're to make the superhero movie a legitimate genre that's not just property-snatching, we need more original stories. Superhero movies are a different story because it's not an adaptation so much as it is a compartmentalization; you're taking decades of history and distilling it into two hours of celluloid. The Dark Knight, for example, was not an adaptation but an original story through and through. But even then, I think that unless you can have something relevant to say with the character or offer a definitive take, don't even bother. Take the Captain America movie Marvel is planning. A politically-fueled Cap movie, examining what it means to be a patriot or representing a country with ideals you sometimes don't agree with? That's warranted. That's great. A Cap movie with him running around New York throwing his shield at some supervillain, I'm less enthused about. You have to boil the character to its core and then create a story around that. That's what Iron Man did. That's what Batman Begins did.

Super Max could be interesting because it doesn't bother with the usual origin story and defeat-the-villain arc. It tries something different, and if successful, it could be a gateway to all kinds of different superhero movies. Yes, it's still an action/adventure story, but the setting and objective set it apart.

Unfortunately, Hollywood has found a very viable self-serving market here. By adapting comics and cartoons, not only do they have a built-in fanbase, but the community connects with each other and every hit serves to market the next project. You don't really have this with novels. It's not like people are going, "Hey! I liked Kite Runner a lot, and this new movie is based on a novel, too! Maybe I'll give it a try." With comic books, you do have non-readers going "Hey, X-Men was good. Marvel superheroes are cool! I'm gonna go see Avengers!" There are also people who equate Transformers with G.I. Joe just because they belong to the same bubble, even though one has nothing to do with the other production-wise.

It would be a shame to have Hollywood finally allowing filmmakers to treat these properties with respect, only to have audiences be sick of them from over-exposure. Let's try something different. Let's do what superhero comics did to survive for so long: evolve.