Poll: What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way? - Real Issues in Entertainment

[TheIronRuler]

The poll wen't crazy, so here it is:
Question : Should we include real issues in our entertainment or stick to escapism?
1: Escapism all the way!
2: We have to talk about this...
3: There is always a middle-ground.
4: We're already doing it!

What we get from the little comic backlash that's "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?" is that most comic-book fans don't like to get reminded of the real stuff that's going on out there in the real life. Neither are most of the people that consume mass entertainment such as movies, tv-shows and sappy books - we want to escape from reality, not confront it.

To the uninformed, the comic book "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?" is a story of Superman, the incarnation of God Almighty in the DC Universe fighting a Group of Superheroes named "The Elite", or as I like to call them - "The Authority Ripoffs". You see, a separate company used to publish a series called 'Stormwatch' - a gritty depiction of a UN sanctioned superhero team that got things done, no-matter what you thought or the consequences. It didn't get the attention it deserved, but the sequel - named "The Authority" - which brings the whole idea up to eleven got a lot of feedback from the community. It's a story of a group of superheroes, after the liquidation of most of the Stormwatch crew - that do pretty much what the previous one did. Now, what's the shtick? Well, they actually addressed topics that needed talking about. They didn't fight iconic villains which they would then beat down and allow them to live to fight another day - they killed the bad-guys - and the bad-guys were bad. Dictators, Corrupt Corporations, Global Terrorism - this all went into the mix, and "The Authority" dealt with what we have to deal with in the real world but really can't do jack shit with. It had an openly gay superhero duo who mirrored Batman and Superman! It was dark - it was edgy! ...and DC had to buy 'em up and screw them up as a revenge. At the end of the day, they showed how Superman and his brand of justice was what's what - by having him beat "The Elite" in his own terms, and make a mockery of them to the whole world.

This brings up to the topic at hand - Real Issues in Entertainment. We don't see it as often. Actual problems that plague our society are ignored and remain unmentioned in our entertainment. Most of the stuff we consume doesn't tackle issues such as homosexuality, fanaticism, abortion, racism or the world's failing economy. It's about escapism, really, just like this website and video-games - we don't want to be reminded of the homeless man around the block that's been living there for the past three years. We don't want to be reminded of our uncle's robbed pensions, or our government's corruption. We keep it on the back burner. It's too 'serious', we just want to lighten up and have fun - and ignore the whole thing - it'll surely blow away!

I'm sorry to say, but it won't blow away. Some things need to be addressed, need to be taken care of. We aren't Punisher - we can't pick up a gun and kill off the corruption in our city. We're not Spiderman - we can't catch the bad-guys in webbing. We're no almighty Superman, the paragon of virtue and justice - we're just normal people, and we want to forget about our problems and enjoy a bit of fiction and have a round of laughs.

Anyway, I got this upset after doing a little digging, and the idea popped to my head. Can we portray real world problems and address them in our entertainment? Can this sink-hole of time be used to create awareness and discuss these things we usually like to block out of our view? What's your opinion?

 

[seaweed]

Why not have both?

Sci-fi often does both of those at the same time, especially stuff like cyberpunk.

And personally, as someone who is poor as shit I need some escapism in my life sometimes. Being poor is a hole that I'm probably never going to drag myself out of and it's nice to be able to escape to something else once in a while.

 

[Erttheking]

Why not have both?

Sci-fi often does both of those at the same time, especially stuff like cyberpunk.

And personally, as someone who is poor as shit I need some escapism in my life sometimes. Being poor is a hole that I'm probably never going to drag myself out of and it's nice to be able to escape to something else once in a while.

I'm gonna have to second this. Star Trek managed to have all sorts of dilemmas that dealt with racism, political tensions, corruption, international conflicts, just as much as it threw quirky all powerful gods, time travel and different dimensions at us. And it worked very well. You can very easily strike a balance in things like science fiction between making it its own world and still talking about real world problems. Such as making the majority of the story do its own thing but still take time to show problems that we have to deal with today. It makes a good impact and it'll probably come off as less preachy, meaning people will be more likely to listen to it.

And while I can appreciate why someone would like the Authority, and as someone who is rather irritated how superheros can never kill with no exceptions (I can understand them not killing regular criminals but when Darkside is coming to conquer the planet for the umpteenth time and humans can't even scratch him, can you please make an exception Clark!?) the animated version of this very story did show exactly how terrifying an out of control superman would be, especially when he answers to no one but himself. Plus there's that whole "we as a society really shouldn't celebrate killing because we're not neanderthals" thing.

 

[TheIceQueen]

Why not have both?

Sci-fi often does both of those at the same time, especially stuff like cyberpunk.

And personally, as someone who is poor as shit I need some escapism in my life sometimes. Being poor is a hole that I'm probably never going to drag myself out of and it's nice to be able to escape to something else once in a while.

To help your point, someone once told me that for any sci-fi to be truly good, its narrative should make you think or inform you of something. I'm not big into that genre myself, but it makes sense from what little I do know about it.

So, why not both? Stories can tell anything from a silly story to a serious story. Of course there's room for both.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I voted for 3 (middle ground). Sure just like videogame, anime/ video or reading a storybook are all about escapism like comicbook but it shouldn't be a absolute escapism, sure it is to escape but you cannot run away from the problem forever or rahter you should be reminded once in a while.

By the way OP, did you know they had turned that comic into an animated film called Superman Vs The Elites?

 

[TheIronRuler]

I voted for 3 (middle ground). Sure just like videogame, anime/ video or reading a storybook are all about escapism like comicbook but it shouldn't be a absolute escapism, sure it is to escape but you cannot run away from the problem forever or rahter you should be reminded once in a while.

By the way OP, did you know they had turned that comic into an animated film called Superman Vs The Elites?

.
Yeah, I do. The animation isn't that great, but the movie was average. Compared to other DC animated stuff, this isn't as good as Batman Year One of the Flashpoint Paradox.

 

[Xeorm]

I personally always think of pieces of entertainment that deal with big issues to be better than the stuff that doesn't. It's easy to screw up though, and that makes things much worse, so that needs to be taken into consideration.

For your example, I've unfortunately not seen them before, but it sounds like an issue with how we see heroes. We tend to consider heroes those that go above and beyond what should be done, even if it's stupid if it fails. We condemn killing, and so Superman not killing is good...even though it later ends up as being stupid because the criminal inevitably gets free. Which does rather detract from the message, but I'd consider that more an issue with comics and them not being able to finish a storyline ever.

 

[Vegosiux]

I don't mind "issues" in my entertainment, after all, it reflect life.

To me, it's more about whether or not those issues and dilemmas are there just there, part of the world, seamlessly integrated into it; or have they been shoehorned in by an author who decided they needed a soap box.

Basically, if they exist in entertainment for the benefit of the entire experience, then it's a-OK. If it's the other way around, if the rest of the piece exists for the benefit of political statements, then, yeah, no. I'd tell such authors to either make documentaries or write political columns or blogs instead, or something.

 

[Pink Gregory]

If you go into a narrative with the express idea of 'tackling' an issue; then that gives me the impression that, when you're done, the objective is to be all 'problem solved!'.

I'm just arguing with your language here, really, but there's a difference between exploring issues and going on a crusade. You aren't going to solve problems through an entertainment medium, that comes in the real world, but exploring them helps it to happen.

Of course, naturally, it depends on avoiding pitfalls.

 

[DefunctTheory]

We've been doing both at the same time for years. Remember Dirty Harry? Robocop? Rambo? All of those movies actually had real world problem at their core, not just obscene awesome.

The problem is mostly in execution. In games it hard (Spec Ops: The Line being an example of sorts). Comic book writers have done it well, but also have a history of ranting.