"Do or Do Not, There is No Try" - Avoiding Failure in the Superhero Genre

        This week's topic of discussion was superhero failures. We had a lot to say about this subject, especially as it relates to our project's mission statement, and so I will try to be as brief about each point as possible, though this may be a longer entry.

        To open our discussion, we talked about the prescribed topic for superhero flops: female superhero films. Having just watched the monolithic masterpiece Supergirl (1984), a few ideas emerged about why female superheroes may have been unsuccessful thus far. The first, and most comical in the film, is that the female superhero is almost always involved in a schoolgirl crush with a “brawn over brains” type male character. At the risk of reinforcing stereotypes, comic readers and frequenters of superhero films aren't necessarily the type to want the sexy and powerful female lead to end up with what essentially amounts to the high school jock that perpetually tormented them in adolescence. A second idea that emerged is that the female hero is invariably pitted against a female villain. Elektra's (2005) final battle is against Typhoid, a female villain who “breathes death,” while Catwoman's (2004) big baddie is a the cosmetics mogul Laurel Hedare. By focusing on final conflicts with other female characters, female superhero films do two injustices. Firstly, they seem to suggest that woman will always fight with women, especially when a man (or cosmetics) are involved. Secondly, the fact that female superheroes are rarely given the chance to fight against well established male super villains suggests a marginalizing of the female superhero in power. Even in Batman & Robin (1997), a film with two male heroes and one female hero, there is a divide between the female hero's battle with “danger” and the male heroes' battle with DANGER. Batgirl is first given the task of fighting the only female villain, Poison Ivy, and then plays a supporting role in Robin's fight against Bane, a juiced up brute with muscles piled upon muscles. The female superhero genre is one that is repeatedly trivialized by a seeming unwillingness to allow female superheroes to “kick ass” the same way male heroes traditionally do. Hyper-sexualization and reliance on “romantic” sub-plots don't seem to help either. However, females aren't the only group of superheroes that are marginalized.

Batgirl vs. Poison Ivy

And this is what Robin gets to fight.

         It is no small wonder that North America is so safe a place to live. We have thousands of superheroes. In the Marvel Universe alone, there are dozens of heroes in New York City: Spider-man, The Fantastic Four, Luke Cage, Daredevil, Elektra and several others. How bizarre it is then that the entire continent of Africa should be allocated one single superhero in the Marvel Universe. Black Panther, the king of Wakanda, seems to be the sole protector of one billion people. Surely, however, there are many African-American superheroes in superhero movies that do well. Right? Perhaps not so many as you would think.

        The majority of these heroes, primarily sidekicks, are stereotypes and parodies. So, just like female superheroes, black superheroes are marginalized. This extends to almost every other minority and everywhere that isn't the United States. In order to understand what constitutes a “real” superhero, we need look no farther than the upcoming The Avengers (2012). The line up thus far includes: Iron Man aka. Tony Stark, a rich white American playboy who gets bored and decides to go fix problems in the middle east, Thor, the blond haired blue eyed Norse God of thunder, living in exile in America, Captain America, the All-American war machine from an era gone by. This “super-team” hardly seems to represent anyone but the white Anglo-European demographic. In particular, this film seems to be pandering exclusively to American audiences who want to see American heroes fight to better America.

I'm tired of the motha%$^*in white, upper/middle class American superheroes on this motha%$^*in stage!

         It is at this point that our mission statement becomes key. We don't aim to pander to any one audience or any one demographic. It is an integral part of the narrative behind our source comic that race, gender, nationality, and even species should never be a boundary between what is heroic and what is trivial. Having characters like Ken Hale, a gorilla with a gun, and Bob Grayson, an alien from Uranus, may initially prove to be comical, but ultimately helps to show the viewer that everybody has some part of themselves that is unique and interesting, no matter who or what they are or where they're from. When our characters come together, from America, Asia, Africa, the ocean, and another planet, they fight not for one specific country and one specific way of life, but for the collective betterment of humanity. It is this inclusiveness that will set our property apart from flops like Supergirl (1984) and help to offer something different from expected successes like The Avengers (2012).

Catwoman. Dir. Pitof. Perf. Halle Barry, Sharon Stone and Benjamin Bratt. Warner Bros., 2004. DVD.

Elektra. Dir. Rob Bowman. Perf. Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic and Will Yun Lee. 20th Century Fox, 2005. DVD.

Parker, Jeff. Agents of Atlas. New York: Marvel, 2009. Print.

Supergirl. Dir. Jeannot Szwarc. Perf. Helen Slater, Faye Dunaway and Peter O'Toole. Artistry Limited. 1984. DVD.