Superheroes are everywhere these days.

And with comic-book maestros Marvel and DC both looking to translate their back catalogue into profitable movie money-spinners (let alone web-spinners) for the forseeable future, it looks like they're here to stay.

Want to get in on the action? Here's our step-by-step gude to creating your own superhero franchise. Get it right and see your popularity soar. Get it wrong, and be forever mocked by legions of nasal fanboys...

Think Up A Hero

The Cliché: Sort of an important one. Every superhero movie needs, um, a superhero.

Appears In: Spider-Man, Superman.

How To Make It Real: First let’s get the difficult stuff out of the way. You need to come up with a supercool superhero, one that the world didn’t know it needed until he (or she) pitches up and starts saving the day.

Problem: loads of superheroes already exist, which means coming up with something original is going to be a tricky task. Manimal hybrids have been done to death (Spidey, Antman etc), experiments gone wrong are so passé (Captain America, Hulk), and gadget whores are way over (Batman).

How about a hybrid hybrid? So, a dolphin + fly + man combo? Or… rhino + leopard + woman?

Key: keep it simple. Make sure your hero has a few flaws (Kryptonite, anger management problems), a day job we can all associate with (bin man, pizza delivery bloke) and a handful of ‘real life’ issues (death in the family, overbearing father) to keep him/her grounded.

Next: Come up with a villain