The Big Picture: Done With Dark

[maximara]

Good video, Bob, with once concern as a viewer.

This video calls out the desperate need of movies to 'grit' up their franchises to appeal to older audiences instead of the original market for which they're more naturally inclined. In other words, making the goofy space people go through depression and a couple of other psychoses is shoe-horning in concepts that don't need to be there to grab an older market since it was originally made for a younger group. Ok, I get that and I see the logic in it.

This comment highlights the REAL problem with comics--like cartoons they have been pigeonholed into "children's literature" when they are simply *a form of media*. Comic books originally started as collection of comic strips. The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats (1897) was aimed more toward adults then kids and the Dick Tracy comic strip was aimed at both.

In their earliest versions Superman and Batman were cast in the Philip Marlowe-Sam Spade molds and Wonder Woman had a serious bondage fetish. While Superman and Batman toned down in the 1940s (partly because they were being used as escapist literature with simple stories of good besting evil) Wonder Woman's tendency to get tied up continued even after Marston's death in 1947.

As WWII ended the popularity of superhero comics diminished and so publishers went into war, Western, science fiction, romance, and the pulp inspired crime and horror comics. Even after the Comics Code various publishers like Gilberton, Dell Comics, and Gold Key Comics continued to print horror themed comics aimed at both young and adult readers (Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, Twilight Zone, and Ripley's Believe it or Not!)

Even in the 1960s a strong adult themed undercurrent can be found. Racism, bigotry, intolerance and secret immoral government projects have been part of the X-men nearly since their beginning. By the 1970s (the Bronze Age) comics were already dealing with very sophisticated story lines to the point that by the time Watchman and DKR came out that grim and gritty was about the only place to go.

The problem as I see it and as MovieBob pointed out elsewhere is the wrong messages were gleamed Watchman and DKR--instead of the writing being kept at the Bronze Age level we got a gore and T&A fest. Add in a gimmick of the year thrown in and the implosion of the comic industry was a forgone conclusion.

The current situation is no better as you have a rose colored glasses nostalgia for the Silver Age being mixed with some of the worst elements of the 1990s.

 

[RTR]

WHOOOOOOOO I GOT TO SEE THOR EARLY!!

 

[guntotingtomcat]

Fair point, well made.

Some things, like Batman, are well suited to becoming violent and unsettling (and by batman, I mean the Joker).
Other things, like Spiderman, should really focus on a wide audience.

Transformers should have stayed a cartoon.

 

[Mr_Jellyfish]

Agreed!

 

[Sonicron]

... I have Spawn issues #1-120 on my shelf.

I think I'll read 'em again sometime, see how they hold up now that more than half a decade has passed since I last touched them.

 

[DevilWolf47]

I never watched The Watchmen, but i find the premise fascinating in that superheroes fuck the worlds shit up. Speaking as an adult with a modicum of emotional maturity, i rarely find superheroes interesting. I want more food for thought, not just "Good guy beats the bad guy up." Elements where the morality is so skewed in the situation that you can't actually agree on who is the good guy and bad guy are good, stories where there is nothing but bad guys are fucking beautiful, but still... i think superheroes are better off aimed at kids who don't need that much complexity to be entertained. Kind of like The Transformers. Robots turn into cars, basically the X-Men only with synthetics, best aimed at kids. Besides, just because it's aimed at kids doesn't mean it's unapproachable to adults, speaking as someone who still watches Digimon for the absurd humor to it all, and who still plays some Nintendo games. The only difference between an adult and a child is a learning curve in standards, not dark gritty realism.
...something the video game industry needs desperately to learn as well...