A Trend in Superheroism

Yesterday my one-time writing partner (I guess he's not really anymore) asked me to give notes on a short script he and my friend Matt were pitching to Disney. Without going into details, it centered around someone with a somewhat supernatural 'feature' (I hesitate to call it an ability) that causes problems in his personal life and that he has to struggle against to lead a normal life.

That's my take on it anyway. It was really a lot simpler and visceral than that, but in my notes I was free to pontificate and so that's how I interpreted what he had.

And today I got to thinking as a result - it's sort of a trend in our true superhero stories in the modern era: The superhero's greatest obstacle is themselves.

Think about the latest Superman movie. Now, when Superman was created he fought Nazis and Gangsters. He'd hear Lois Lane or Jimmy Olsen call for help with his super-hearing, fly to where they were with his super-flight, and knock out the bad guys with a super-punch, all while deflecting bullets with his super-skin. His powers were 100% ASSET.

But in the latest Superman movie, what's the big threat? A giant island created from a piece of Superman's own Fortress of Solitude. If Superman didn't exist, everything would be pretty much fine. Maybe that plane would have crashed at the beginning, but compared worldwide destruction, not so bad. Now Superman IV had a similar thing, with that Nuclear Man being created from Superman's DNA, but let's stick with the big hits for now.

How about the X-Men? Who are the heroes? Mutants. Who are the bad guys? Mutants. In the first X-men movie, everyone is in danger because of Rogue (a good guy). Sure she's being taken advantage of by the bad guy, but the lesson is that it is the hero's job to control the power they have.

Spiderman is the most old school of recent entries. I haven't seen Spiderman 3, in which Peter's bad side comes out, but the first two movies really have him fighting against something that isn't his fault - although Doc Oc blames Spiderman for his accident/failure, as does the Green Goblin. So...it's still sort of Spiderman's fault and something that he has to set right.

Increasingly blatant are the new Batman films. The current trailer for The Dark Knight features Alfred saying "You crossed the line first Sir." As Detective Gordon says at the end of Batman Begins: It's escalation. The villains exist BECAUSE Batman exists. His efforts to destroy crime have created even more crazy criminals.

It used to be that we looked at superheroes as fantasies we wished we could have: A man who can beat the Nazi's single-handedly, and solve all mankind's woes with his powers. The colorful villains were just there because it was too easy otherwise.

But now our artists are framing the superhero in a different way. Now the superhero is an allegory for the dangers of super powers. If the hero doesn't use his powers responsibly and carefully, he creates enemies and obstacles for himself, and endagers the people he is supposed to be protecting.

Dare we draw the parallel to America's place in the world? Yeah, pretty much. Would there be terrorist acts if not for the way America wields its power? The use and misuse of the tremendous power we have is what prompts others to rise up against us, and necessitates our using that power to defend ourselves.

Now in the comics and movies, the hero is always a good guy. Peter Parker wasn't out to sabotage Doc Oc's project, he just got blamed for it because Doc Oc is crazy. Superman didn't ask Lex Luthor to throw the crystal into the water, Lex is just greedy. The X-men are just trying to get along in a world of mutants, and only the bad ones want to lord their powers over anybody. In this sense, the hero is more analogous to the average American citizen - we don't want to opress anybody else, but it just happens because we like to drive big cars and have things cheap, and then when the bad guys attack "us" we want to be the hero that fights back. Our artists are trying to remind us that it is the misuse of our power that started this fight, but they don't go so far (at least not in the mainstream) as to suggest that it's our "fault".

But isn't it sort of Superman's fault that he left this dangerous crystal lying around? Shouldn't Charles Xavier have the X-men spend more time solving world hunger instead of hanging around the X-mansion waiting to fight the Brotherhood? Maybe. But story-wise we get that the heroes in these situations have the moral high ground. Batman and Superman refuse to kill. Charles Xavier has ethics regarding invading people's minds. Peter Parker is just a straight up good guy.

But if our government could read peoples' minds, do we think they'd restrain themselves? That's the difference between the fantasy and the reality it's making a statement about.

Funny story about that last post...the spot I went to 'approve' was actually incorrect, and because of my erroneous approval there was a small to medium sized mess the next day, with an order involving thousands of dvds having to be stopped midway and redone. So Friday wasn't a great day. I felt really bad about it since it was entirely my mistake. In the end the damage was undone and nothing terrible happened, and everyone was very cool about telling me not to worry about it and that it happens to everyone sooner or later and it being a good learning experience, etc.

I have to say that the people I work with are one of the big plusses of this job. If they weren't so cool I wouldn't like it nearly as much.

Today I'm feeling a little under the weather, possibly because of the whirlwind trip to Notre Dame this past weekend. The plan was for Mo and I to fly with her friend on Friday night after work and drive from Chicago to South Bend. Our flight was delayed, luggage lost, we had to stay in the Hilton at Logan overnight and leave the next morning. But we got there in the end and met up with their college friend crowd, tailgated and Mo and I got to go in and see the game. There was lots of beer to be had and Sunday we spent the whole day traveling back home. It was lots of fun but the combination of drinking and all that travel has left me a little drained.