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Super Heroes
Batman began. Spider-Man swung in twice. The Hulk wasn’t that incredible. Catwoman barely scratched up a nod. DareDevil dared, then stumbled blindly into the Elektra spinoff. HellBoy, Constantine, and Blade Frankensteined horrorific comic book ink into blockbuster celluloid. This month the Fantastic Four came flamed back to earth after an 11 year stretch.
Super hero movies are all the rage. More are on the horizon. The super hero sub-genre of films is enjoying huge box office draw even among non-comic book readers because of the super hero archetype. We all need heros, even–and perhaps especially–larger than life icons. Super heroes are surrogates, acting out our secret desires and calibrating our collective moral compass in a world appealingly more simple and black and white than reality. We need real life heroes, and, in a time when they are few and far between, super heroes step in to give hope that real heroes will one day return.
For such characters to fulfill their role as icons of hope and promise, they must contain qualities with which the audience can identify. Few can’t identify with the constant real-life troubles and moral dilemnas of Spider-Man. In Batman, a non-super-powered man pushed to the limits of his body and psyche, is an almost realistic potential for everyone faced with trajedy. We may even see ourselves in the Hulk, who is a metaphor for passion stripped of the restraints of civilization–an alterego for us all.
Which super hero or heroine do you identify with most? Who would you most like to see leap from the comic book pages to the silver screen? Why that character? How do you identify with him or her? And, lastly, how would you like to see that character treated in film?
How are other people Slanting? Check the comments! Leave a link to your Slant there!
How to play. Link to the Saturday Slant. Or, get notified of new Slants.
Are you going to do any more slants?
Hi, VirusHead.
As much as I tried to keep the Saturday Slant going, fewer and fewer people were interested in the meme. So, after nearly 3 years of Slants, I’m afraid this is the last.
I wrote the Saturday Slant for the blogging community, for other people. That community isn’t interested in it any more, so I’ve moved on to building projects for other communities.