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From	Message
jimjano 15-Jan-12, 03:17	Super Heroes in Current Cinema Spiderman, Ironman, Captain America, Thor and the list goes on... Is it a marketing gimmick by Hollywood in order to tap into the pocketbooks of the ever more nostalgic baby-boom generation or does it play into more primal instincts? Do we feel at the mercy of hyper-technological society and therefore have the desire for "super powers" to help us cope and control a life run amok on the mud flats of silicon chips and fiber-optic cables? Does anyone care to discuss these or other possibilities?
shamash 15-Jan-12, 04:37	those comic book heroes with powers we all have Some of the old comic book heroes DID NOT have super-powers -- their resurrection in current cinema DID NOT catch on: One example is THE PHANTOM.
obsteve 15-Jan-12, 05:48	Hi Jimjano I think there's a couple of things going on here. Firstly it's to do with trends within the cinema world. One year we pump out swashbuckling blockbusters, the next we go for space odesseys, western epics, or high school dramas. And yes, it is sadly to do with extracting money from punters. Despite the qualities of the heroes within these films being dictated by the different genres they inhabit, comic book superheroes are not that different from the heroes of other genres, stretching right back to classical Greece. One thing which is a fairly new trend, is our appetite for the antihero. We have an overload of seriously flawed heroes, "bad boy" protagonists, etc. I'm watching a great series called "Dexter" at the moment, where the protagonist is a serial killer. It can't get much more antihero than that, can it? Can it?
jimjano 15-Jan-12, 08:16	Greek Mythology Titans, gods and demigods had fantastic powers but mortal heroes succeeded in their labors with the aid of strength, prowess in battle, their intellect and wits. Even the gods had their foils. Zeus, himself had the keys to the cabinet that held his lightning bolts kept by Minerva, lest he abuse his power. The super heroes of pop culture have very few foils besides super-villains imbued with complementary powers enabling a story line. Superman had his kryptonite but he was created much earlier in the 20th century. I think the anti-hero can be traced back a ways also. Loki of Norse mythology is a classic anti-hero. Without him, that mythology lacks punch. I won't deny that there is truly nothing new under the sun but the super hero is less balanced than the characters of mythology. Good post, on the whole I tend to agree with you.
obsteve 15-Jan-12, 12:54	Thanks :) You too Our changing treatments of superheroes across the decades show clearly how audiences' appetites change. These days we like to look for the gritty, the dark and the twisted (and, I suppose) more human and vulnerable aspects in our superheroes. You just have to look at the difference between Batman in the 70s and Batman now. Comic strip superheroes will always have their antagonists (the goodie-baddie formula is an inescapable part of the genre), but today's superheroes suffer in large numbers from internal conflict, Jekyll and Hyde style. Today's hero (more anti-hero) struggles to overcome not only an evil nemisis, but also their internal demons. We are bringing the "Hamartia", or fatal flaw, back to the superhero. It's more than just an achilles heel, like an aversion to Kryptonite; it's a failing within the hero himself. A human quality of nastiness or failure which the audience can identify with and enjoy
rilke 08-Oct-12, 09:15	Japanese Super Heroes They might have the largest comic books industry in the world.

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