With America on high, ecstatic about the order to kill Osama Bin Ladin...

I have discovered that politics is once again not taboo for the superhero world...one step at a time, of course.

Why am I so fascinated with Captain America?

An interveiw with my foul-mouthed facebook friends:

Response to comment:

"Superheroes are so greatly admired because at the end of their struggles they make the right choices."

This used to be the case, but in today's media the term "hero" as it applies to a superhero has less to do with morality and more to do with a capacity to do good, aka their power.

One example: Think about My Super Ex-Girlfriend... did Uma Thurman's character do the right thing when she threw a live shark into her love interest's apartment? No, I venture to say that was not the moral choice.

Hancock throwing the boy who called him an a-hole into the air? Mr.Incredible going behind his wife's back to follow a crazy mission? Iron Man drugging himself? None of these are the right choice...though out of the many I would most like to avoid the shark in my apartment.

However, the super ex-girlfriend was still a do-gooder who helped society- rendering her a superhero nonetheless.

Its a toss up, and I'm not saying the comment was incorrect- rather I want readers to note that they don't always do good. It is becoming far more acceptable for our superheroes to make the wrong choice.

Re-paint of original on left, rendition on right. Note: There are no swastika in the "new" cover.

Guess which cool kid got the 70th anniversary of the first Captain America comic re-print

Me:)

Comics online

JUST CLICK HERE and you will be on your way to some free comic book access. The internet has made this really inexpensive (free) and easy (just a click away)!


My favorite, though it doesn't have to do with superheroes but rather the pop culture phenomenon of zombies, is The Walking Dead! (Recently turned into an awesome show on AMC, I hope it gets a second season!)


And though this really has more to do with comics than superheroes, I would just like to point out how increasingly acceptable it has become to read graphic novels in a scholarly setting. Maus anyone? (Maus is a graphic novel depiction of the holocaust)


Here is a really neat strip I was required to read for my English class this year: New Orleans After the Deluge 

Cool things, I would recommend checking them out :)

Understanding Superhero movie references better!

These are the films and shows I find myself referencing the most- for a better understanding without running out and watching all the movies, just check out these videos (embedded from Youtube)!

My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Hancock

The Watchmen

The Incredibles

Heroes (TV series)

Watching: The Watchmen (and other superheroes who struggle to fit in with society)

Before getting into a scholastic rant, I would like to express my absolute delight that the topic of superheroes came up in one of my honors seminars this week. We were talking about how deep and meaningful graphic novels can be, despite the general stigma of them being worthless picture books with the sole purpose of entertaining children. It arose that these themes are often beyond a child's comprehension. Would children really understand why Batman can't work with the police? Unlikely. And they surely wouldn't understand the complex of the "sublime" as it comes up in The Watchmen. In fact- they likely wouldn't understand most of the psychological themes represented in the graphic novel (and later the 2009 film).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGl_if3tXBc

This is a very powerful scene from the film in which Dr.Manhattan has retreated to Mars in an effort to escape society. He feels detached from humanity, as he has lost his own humanity. This human-Dr.Manhattan disconnect is portrayed in his very symbolic mannerism. One great example is that he is building a symbolic clockwork on Mars that can be interpreted to symbolize the inter-workings of both individuals, societies, and the universe. I interpreted this as his way of understanding and accepting that several parts (in this symbol, gears) come together to create one functioning entity.
Besides, Dr. Manhattan has been pretty detached the whole story-

 There is a proper time and place to clone yourself, Dr.Manhattan! Great themes for children, right?

 

The Incredibles (2004)  also show us a group of heroes struggling to fit in with society, as you may recall its the main theme of the film. After more bad than good resulted from their crime fighting, all heroes were asked to go into hiding and live as their secret identities alone. Viewers see from the start, however, that Mr.Incredible and his best friend Frozone are having more trouble than others accepting this.

Listening in on the police radio to help fight crime, the duo end up acting as vigilantes.

Come on, they're actually helping unlike the star of Hancock (who I have not included in this because he was still expected to act like a hero, its sort of opposite what this post discusses)!

So what are we expected to conclude from these more recent films that only focus on how heroes DO NOT belong? Has our society deemed them unnecessary? Not a chance! We are just as obsessed as we were 60 years ago, and this is only a way of questioning and affirming their place in our media.

Comic Books and WWII

Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero that appears in comic books (published initially by Timely Comics but now by Marvel Comics). He first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. In this image of the cover of the first issue, Captain America can be seen punching Hitler.
Captain America was the ultimate symbol of the American hero, in case his name didn't already give this away. American society, in the early 1940s, was distressed about global issues. Children took a fancy toward comic books, such as this one, and sought the comfort that they offered. Young Billy was likely sure that Captain America really had beat up Hitler. Though extraordinarily political by the standards of a child's book today, parents were accepting of the literary works because they put children at ease and even settled some of their own nerves.
Today we would call a fictional tale such as this a political cartoon. It is no longer socially acceptable to have "perfect" heroes defeating our nation's foes. Yet it is acceptable for The Incredibles to depict selfish former hero parents who let their children face death in the name of justice? Just as it is acceptable for Hancock to be a selfish drunk who does more damage than good? Oh, and let us not forget the hit series Heroes, lines of good and evil have never been blurred quite this way before. Point being: Society demands a very different Superhero today, in fact, maybe these are just humans with powers- magicians and freaks that we call our 'superheroes'.