I'm a very recent convert to the Marvel movies (my single foray into superhero comic books was Deadpool; other than that I'm completely restricted to the movies). I just didn't enjoy the Spider-man films or some of the other earlier ones and I'm just generally biased against the superhero genre. I didn't see the point of giving people random magical abilities, especially since most of the time they all seemed to be mopey and depressed (Christopher Nolan's Batman films being an exception, where there was no magic and a very good need for the character to be mopey and depressed). I enjoyed the middle third of the first Thor film though, but found the other two thirds to be boring, pointless over-exaggerated melodrama.
Then, having nothing better to do at the time, I saw Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and I loved it. Here were a bunch of characters who were misfits, but not the classic uber-misanthropes that seem to dominate modern British sitcoms. They were, generally speaking, fundamentally happy about their existence. They enjoyed their abilities, for the most part. There was no needless angst, no pressing weight of boring responsibility, and it was very, very funny. The whole thing didn't take itself too seriously without sliding into farce. Since then I've been slowly but happily catching up on the large backlog of Marvel movies I'd unwisely dismissed as trite. Stan Lee seems like he was a thoroughly good egg.
Born in 1922 to poor working-class Jewish immigrants from Romania, Stanley Martin Lieber got a job in Timely Publications - that would eventually become Marvel Comics - a company owned by a relative. He was assigned to the comics division and - thanks to the reach of his imagination - rose to editor by the age of 18.
He was to become an icon of modern popular culture. Spidey, as he is affectionately known, had quite extraordinary powers - yet he had problems at work, at home and with his girlfriends. At last, the teenager was no longer just the sidekick, but the main hero. And the hero was no longer just brawn, he had brains too. "Just because he's a hero and has super powers doesn't mean he doesn't have problems," Stan Lee told the BBC.
The Hulk, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man and the rest all grappled with problems like drug abuse, bigotry and social inequality. Other superheroes broke new ground in other ways. Daredevil was blind, Black Panther was black and Silver Surfer pondered the state of humanity. Lee's influence remains. Some years ago the Marvel hero, Northstar, came out of the closet.
Radically, Lee gave the artists responsible for the comic designs credits for their work. Jack Kirby, Frank Miller, John Romitaand and others achieved cult status in their own right.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-39267963
The "superhero with problems" was actually a stunning innovation.
ReplyDeleteStarting with Superman the superhero originally was a person with superpowers and zero problems, which was incredibly boring.
The important thing is they have to be the right kind of problems. Superman has godlike powers but wants to disguise himself as a mild-mannered reporter for some reason. It's hard to sympathise with a boring god whose only real problems are entirely of his own making.
ReplyDeleteIn contrast, Thor actually is a god, but has a dysfunctional family and, more importantly, is very silly. "Find me a dog large enough to ride" was a great moment, and much more fun than Superman's brooding over being discovered or emotional battles with the burden of crushing responsibility.
This list. Went through and watched the whole canon in order and what a difference it made.
ReplyDeletem.imdb.com - All Marvel movies in chronological order
Sometimes, a writer can make Superman work. He is functionally a god, and that comes with a lot of responsibilities. The most obvious case is the lengths he will go to not actually seriously physically harm the criminals he stops. And of course, some problems and conflicts cannot be solved by simply using unlimited force (which, for a symbol of the USA, is actually rather spot-on).
ReplyDeleteThe problem is, that is a rather fine line to thread, between the boring invincible brick and the boring angst addict, and few writers can manage it.
An interesting half-missed opportunity is from the 1978 film.
As a teenager, as he has already started to discover the vast extent of his physical powers... his father has a heart attack. And there is literally nothing he can do.
At the end of the film, when even he is overwhelmed by the extent of the disaster, and he cannot save the woman he loves. Which makes him snap, and transgress what is hinted as a capital rule, changing the past (leaving aside the goofy way he does it).
And that's the missed opportunity - another writer would have shown why the rule exist, and why breaking it could only make things much worse. Or this would have been previously established, and he would have had to resist the temptation to break the rule, knowing that while he could save her, there would be an even heavier price to pay.
While the film itself left me lukewarm, there was something there.
In fact, making a good Superman-type story may be a good exercise for writers...
Oh, Rhys Taylor
ReplyDeleteMan of Steel,
Woman of Kleenex
By Larry Niven
http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html
The hydraulic catastrophe. Humanity weeps...
ReplyDeleteThat's a significant reason they keep coming back to batman, he's not an excuse for a random set of powers that make no sense. As such, he doesn't really belong in the same universe as superman etc, but they shove him there anyhow, with the resulting awful movie.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the marvel stuff is pretty silly too, but with more believable personalities and less absolute power. And some of the movies have actually been fairly good. The key difference being dc movies seem to take themselves way too seriously when the topic is about as cheesy as it comes.
https://www.vulture.com/2016/02/stan-lees-universe-c-v-r.html?mid=nymag_press
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