Category: Superhero

No More Gritty Reboots: Why Lego Batman and Legion Are the Future of Superheroes

On By DFLovettIn 2016 Election, 2017, Bale, Batman, Batman 1989, Batman Begins, Batman v Superman, Comics, Dark and Gritty Reboot, Fargo, Film, Legion, Reboot, Superhero, Superheroes, Television, The Lego Batman Movie

Yes, this blog is dedicated to “an ongoing exploration of the dark and gritty reboot.” But, as written about in the previous post on this blog, The World Needs Bad Men, it’s time to admit that the dark-n-gritty reboot has run its course. The anti-heroes have ascended to the White House. It’s time for a new superhero narrative.

The last week has given us two new incarnations of the superhero show: Legion, a television show on FX, and The Lego Batman Movie, a family-friendly animated feature.

lego-batman
Perhaps the first Batman promotional image to show a smiling Caped Crusadser.
The Lego Batman Movie is as meta as any superhero film has been, and that includes 2016’s Deadpool and 2015’s Ant-Man. The jokes are more family-friendly than those of Deadpool, but TLBM is arguably the more mature of the two films. TLBM, coming on the heels of The Lego Movie and followed soon by The Ninjago Movie, is the sign of much more to come.

Legion, meanwhile, is a serious and frightening television series about a man in a mental hospital who is either mentally ill, a mutant with superpowers, or both. It’s from Noah Hawley, the creator of the Fargo television series, and unravels in a non-linear manner.

But I’ve come here not to review these two works. Enough people are already reviewing these two works. The reviews are both positive and, in my opinion, accurate. What I’m here to say is that these works are two complementing examples of what we should start demanding from our screen adaptations of superhero tales.

The superhero is tired; these narratives give him hope. Let’s look at why they work, and how other narratives can learn from them.  Continue reading “No More Gritty Reboots: Why Lego Batman and Legion Are the Future of Superheroes” →

Made Fun Of, For Liking Superheroes…

On By DFLovettIn A Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, Bullying, Made Fun of For Liking Superheroes, Superhero, Superheroes, The Avengers

Yes, this blog post has an unusual title.

That’s because this blog post has unusual content, especially for this blog.

Captain America. Not a real person, but not someone you should get mocked for admiring.
Captain America. Not a real person, but not someone you should get mocked for admiring.

I often use this blog in critical or cynical ways.  Mocking things like Ocean’s Eleven, Fast and/or Furious films, House of Cards, etc.  I call things dumb or bad.  The specific article that I previously wrote about this was “Guys, Let’s Take it Easy on the Superhero Shaming Concept.”  And I still do agree with my concept in that, which is we should be careful about creating buzzphrases like “superhero shaming” and that the director of Guardians of the Galaxy probably isn’t really getting “shamed,” whether he wins an Oscar or not.

But I recently saw, when reading through the search terms that have lead people to this blog, that someone stumbled across it as the result of searching “made fun of for liking superheroes.”   Because of the possibility that someone might end up on this site as a result of searching for help after getting made fun of for liking superheroes, I felt obligated to write a blog post to assist the next person who might end up here for that reason. Continue reading “Made Fun Of, For Liking Superheroes…” →

Guys, Let’s Take it Easy on the “Superhero Shaming” Concept

On By DFLovettIn Bale, Batman, Birdman, Oscars, Superhero, Superheroes

I watched only a little bit of the Oscars, mostly because I didn’t really want to watch the Oscars.  But it’s hard to miss all the things people talk about afterward.  The biggest topics seem to be a) Birdman is good, but maybe it’s not as good as some people say, or maybe it’s better  b) Neil Patrick Harris wasn’t that funny, or maybe he was  c) it was too white, d) it was very very very white  e) etc.

I'm not sure who the person singing is, but I am distracted about how the floor under her kinda looks like it has a Star Wars theme going.
I’m not sure who the person singing is, but I am distracted about how the floor under her kinda looks like it has a Star Wars theme going.

So all of that seems pretty standard.  No major surprises.  What surprised, and annoyed, and irritated, and flabbergasted me is one of the ideas that seems to have floated out of the mess, which is the concept of “superhero shaming.”  Apparently, in addition to the racism, sexism, and classism, the Oscars are guilty of a very bad crime: making fun of superhero movies. And yes, the label of specifically referring to this as “superhero shaming” has happened multiple times. Continue reading “Guys, Let’s Take it Easy on the “Superhero Shaming” Concept” →