Amen. The rise of comic book cinema always seemed to me to be a back-handed slap by Hollywood at real men and real heroes by making a joke of the concept.
Another great article from Steyn. It really gets to the heart of why I can’t stand comicbook movies. There’s just no there there.
Yes. In Stan Lee’s world the people, or lumpenproleteriate as they are known by the Left, are a helpless mass that absolutely requires the leadership and action of a dictatorship of “Super heroes”. Individual choices and initiative by “ordinary” people to solve problems is not allowed. Yet Stan Lee knew his world and market. America has devolved into a place where the dependent who scream “ take care of us” are now a near majority.
A great analysis. I suppose that is why I liked old westerns. The hero would know how to throw a punch (or take one), but in the end was typically a down on his luck wage earner (or small businessman) making a living on the back of a horse 12+ hours a day who finds himself needing to rise to the occasion. Even John Wayne, all 6’5” of him, looked small riding in Monument Valley or in True Grit. There was always a moment of truth: Push on, or back down - and no one will blame you if you back down.
But of course, the hero didn’t back down. That is what made him a hero. Not super strength, or a magic suit. “Grit” was called for, not a radioactive spider!
Non-Super Heroes?
My wife is sitting right next to me? That’s where they are.
Steyn is Super, man!
Thank you for posting FRiend.
When I was growing up, I didn’t read comic books because I couldn’t buy them. Of course, I read them when I went to friends houses, but rarely had any of my own.
I know this sounds corny, but my heroes were men like my dad...I hero worshipped my dad. But the astronauts were my heroes. Marines were my heroes. SeaBees were my heroes. The Vietnam POW’s were my heroes. (I grew up in a military family, so I guess this is natural.)
Sure, when I was about five or six, I had a cape I wore like Superman. Show me a little kid who didn’t!
But fictional characters, sports figures, entertainment figures, musicians, etc. were not my heroes. That just seems wrong.
Great Steyn as always. Yes the comic book movies are movies about nothing. Personally I have no interest in them.
Steyn shows he knows absolutely nothing about comics. He should be ashamed at being so completely and utterly wrong in every single sentence.
Former comic collector here. I see both sides.
Firstly, to the hardcore fan, this is mythology, not merely adventure and action, as it is to the casually-viewing concretist who sees it all as absurd. Lewis and Tolkien would have understood that, whether they liked the medium or not. I started out in Norse Mythology (like Lewis and Tolkien) before I got into comic collecting.
I strongly suspect that Steyn is such a concretist, to whom such a medium holds no personal appeal.
Secondly, Steyn is half-right but half-wrong about real heroes:
Were the two men on the Thalys train really ordinary men? No, they were trained military men in their youthful prime.
Was Sergeant York really an ordinary man? No, he was an experienced hunter and sharpshooter who used his vast skills against the German nests. Further, like Desmond Doss, he was motivated by the spiritual desire to save lives, not end them.
Was Chuck Yeager truly an ordinary man? No, he was gifted with 20-15 eyesight, which made him not only a great hunter, but, as he said, allowed him to see the enemy before the enemy saw him.
Why are Navy Seals so highly extolled? Because they are extraordinary. Can a truly ordinary person become such a potential hero? Not likely.
Was Moses ordinary? No. He was raised in Pharoah’s household, with all the attendant advantages that gave him.
Were Hector and Achilles ordinary? No. Was Odysseus? No.
Speaking of Tolkien, was Aragorn truly ordinary? No, he was descended of Elves, a Maia, and kings, and raised by Elrond. In fact, the only ordinary hero in the central story is Samwise:
Legolas was a prince, son of Thranduil. Gimli was in the royal family. Pippin was son of the Thain. Merry was in line to be Master of Buckland. Frodo was upper class, and independently wealthy. All the four hobbits (including even Sam, thanks to Bilbo) were better educated in language and history than most, and thus were able to deal with Elves and wars better than any ordinary hobbit.
Most people who are successfully - note well: successfully - heroic are usually not really ordinary. They are typically extraordinary in their ordinariness. They are human, not superhuman, but also not ordinary.
Trump connects with ordinary people, but is he ordinary? No, he was raised in wealth, learned how to use it and make, and is highly gifted in that. He is not ordinary.
I really enjoy hearing Mark Steyn, but he is only partly right about this - and is over-reacting to thus cultural phenomenon. Greek and Nordic Myth show that humans historically associate genuine and effective heroism with persons who are, in some way, extraordinary. The comic book medium has simply become a more extreme, modern vehicle for that, fueled by a dearth of mythology coupled with an abundance of technology.
My problem with the medium is not its mythologizing, hut with its propagandizing, a separate issue.
Was Homer a Social Justice Warrior? I think not. Conflating superhuman heroism with the other socio-political factors at play is misleading.