Personally, I enjoy reading about debates more than engaging in them. My opinions tend to be pretty fluid on most points, evolving as I absorb new information, so unless it's an issue I have strong feelings on, I tend to drift and enjoy the flow of conversation. I love other people's opinions for the most part. Kinda why I cross-post these bits in several different places.
Did have one idea for a new argument to have though...considering the evolution in the overall level of storytelling across the comics spectrum, why are super-heroes still the default? Detectives, horrors, cowboys, adventure-heroes, mystery men and romantics all dominated the earliest comics before the advent of the four-colour titans. But, by and large, while the pendulum has swung back towards the more realistic, adult themes that those type of books exploited, the method of delivery-guys in colourful tights-hasn't.
I mean, I get that the current generation of comics professionals cut their teeth on super-heroes, but at some point and time you have to look and realize that the story you want to tell-the points you want to make-might work a bit better without the super-people in it. So why include them at all? Look at Garth Ennis' Punisher run. Nary a super-type to be seen, and the book was insanely popular. Howsabout Sandman Mystery Theatre? Criminal? 100 Bullets? And those are just the mystery and crime comics.
If you want more adult themes, more realism, more grit, doesn't it stand to reason that it might be more effective without the demi-gods?
4 comments:
I'm guessing it's because that's what sells. I remember an interview with Dave Gibbons, where he was talking about/bemoaning how he couldn't think of any other area of the arts where one specific genre had come to define the medium. superheroes sell would be the short answer, I think.
See, that's what I thought. But now, not so much. Superheroes sell, true, but so do other things.
I mean, Hellboy isn't about superheroes, but it sells like gangbusters, insofar as I know (which, admittedly, is as far as carp can fly).
Maybe, to take your point further, it's not because superheroes sell particularly well, but that they're a 'guaranteed' sell.
I can only assume that the superhero is an icon that human minds are drawn to. Despite their amnazing acheivements ancient mankind wanted stories about gods. Throughout history no one seemed to be interesting unless they were kings or noblemen. Today it's superheroes. It's like a colourful placeholder for the pinnacle of human strength, endurance, what have you.
It seems that presenting these ideas works best with a visual "shorthand". My favourite hero is Doc Savage. He is so much more than a weird haircut and a ripped shirt, yet whenever he gets depicted anywhere... there it is!
Hmm. Kinda like how Nazis are shorthand for 'evil'? That makes sense.
Post a Comment