Ending a prolonged period without a blog post with – a blog post.
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Having just read an article from Escapistmagazine.com about how peculiarly relatable Tina Fey’s character Liz Lemon is on the hit NBC show 30 Rock – which I highly recommend, both the show and the article - I couldn’t help but think about the ramifications of one line in particular from Ms. Grunewald’s piece:
“She’s a bastion of normalcy. She’s not like so many female characters on television today, police officers and doctors who may experience turmoil in their lives, but are designed without recognizable human flaws.”
… and I guess what I got from that statement is the notion of how similar some of my favourite DC and Marvel superheroes are to these female police officers and doctors: experiencing turmoil in their lives, but designed without recognizable human flaws.
Uh oh. Better get a new one
Okay, quick explanation. Sure, Tony Stark like-ie the booze in Iron Man 2. Bruce Wayne is slightly miffed over the tragic death of his folks one night in Crime Alley. Steve Rogers feels the occasional moment of alienation in these newfangled modern times. But these guys are still so high functioning in their day jobs (or night jobs, as the case may be) as to render these flaws moot. A little alcohol dependency didn’t prevent Tony Stark from defeating Justin Hammer and Whiplash, or improving his life sustaining ARC reactor.
These are supermen (by reputation, if not by name) and I think they’ve always had the kind of appeal that they have because of their abilities that set them above us: their discipline, their athleticism, their bravery. And that’s where my realm of interest diverges from that of Ms. Grunewald’s. As she puts it (in a different article, but with some similar themes and ideas):
“If these characters [from shows like 30 Rock and Arrested Development] lived in a non-fictional sense… my life would be no different. I probably wouldn’t know them, and the events in their lives would have little to no influence on mine.”
If Iron Man, Batman, and Captain America were cavorting around you can bet it would have somewhat of an influence on people’s lives, in as much as their actions would receive top billing in the local media. If they managed to pull off some of grand acts of heroics the news might even go international. Of course, if they just stuck to preventing car jackings or pegging thugs like your Matt Murdocks or your Frank Castles or Phoenix Jones’ than they might remain as more of an (underground phenomena).
Where's my Giant Man movie dammit?
Well, it’s these acts of grand heroics people have been flooding box offices to come check out. But it’s not like you can just throw a cape on a guy, throw some paint on the face of another guy, and make him hold onto a bag with a dollar sign on it, and you’re going to make a million dollars.
When Dark Knight came out, Batman was practically a can’t miss franchise since it has so much history in movies by this point. Iron Man was a little more surprising of a success since, for most people, the saga of Anthony Stark was a little Anthony Vague. Of course you had Robert Downey, Jr. to star, not to mention a fairly straightforward (and awesome) origin story with a retell-ability (if not relatability) on par with that of Batman’s. I mean he engineers the vehicle of his own escape from captivity! He’s a bloody Andy Dufresne with repulsor beams.
Will as many people check out unrelatable men 35 through 37 in the coming months when Thor, Green Lantern and Captain America hit theatres? Or will these prototypical uber-hunks be the tipping point where people decide ‘you know what? Fuck super heroes!’ as they once turned on Westerns or Paulie Shore?
AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! THIS DESK FROM IKEA!
Having never been much of a fan, I can’t speak to that of Hal Jordan, but Thor and Captain America, at their core, have some pretty solid origins to base a film off of – even if they have been rebooted and reimagined and ‘alternate dimensioned’ almost beyond recognition.
Thor is banished from Asgard to Midgard (Earth) after angering his father (Odin) and must redeem himself, in large part by thwarting the evil deeds of his brother (Loki) who has his eyes on the throne of Asgard.
Steve Rogers becomes Captain America during World War 2 after being injected by the super soldier syrum (which is dusted off in the most recent Incredible Hulk film to aid the military in fighting off the Angry Green Giant) and… is thawed out of a glacier in the 21st century for some reason. Okay, not as great a story – but definite potential. The biggest thing I see going against these films is the sheer number of characters they’ll be cramming in to please fans and for possible sequelling purposes.
They’ll definitely spend some time fleshing out the rogue galleries in these pictures to give a better understanding of the motivations of the villains (I’m guessing, Loki = evil and Nazis = evil); but they’d better not do it at the expense of developing ol’ Goldilocks and the Star Spangled Avenger, because there sure won’t be much time dedicated to exploring flaws and depth of humanity by the time they roll out the crusader-crammed Avengers film. Maybe they’ll make one brief picturesque character piece for each guy doing his own thing in his own respective city or environment before we hear a mighty ‘AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!’ shout and shit starts to go down… It’s already giving me goosebumps.
But what I’m really trying to get at is that these pin up heroes lack some of the qualities that define us everyday saps as living, breathing people. You’ve got to put in a little work to take them off the page and put them on the big screen in a manner that is at all believable. There aren’t any thought bubbles in the movies. And there probably won’t be a helpful editor narrating every little detail.
Deadpool: A bastion of normalcy
This may have been kind of an oblique way of getting to my secret ulterior motive… but it is for this reason I think the world needs a Deadpool movie. Because he is a bastion of normalcy.
Now, I know – he’s not the most likable guy in the Marvel universe. And, as a world class mercenary with an implanted mutant healing factor arguably stronger than that of Wolverine’s (which is seemingly put to the test more often), he’s not exactly the most relatable fellow either.
But let me try to construct a case for why Deadpool could make for a better film than some of those other bozos that have led the way…
next time.
