Posted on 11/17/2018 6:01:43 AM PST by Twotone
On Friday I was back behind the Golden EIB Microphone on America's Number One radio show. (You can find a few moments from my guest-hosting stint here.) We were preoccupied, as apparently we will be well past Thanksgiving, by the third Broward County hand count of the fifth Palm Beach machine count, or whatever rubbish we're up to now. But I also mentioned, towards the end of the show, my ambivalent feelings about Stan Lee, the phenomenally successful Marvel Comics impresario who died a few days ago at the age of 95. Meeting him was one of the great moments of my life. He looked dapper and tanned, fabulous and ageless, as he always did, and it was a delightful and unexpected encounter ...save that I was wandering through the 2000 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles.
"You're a Democrat!" I said, aghast.
"Are you kidding?" he beamed.
I should have known. Stan's comic books (The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor) were "inclusive" and "diverse" and "multicultural" long before the terms ever occurred to any politicians. The X-Men were especially ahead of the game: they were mutants, evolutionary quirks who found themselves persecuted because they were "different". Stan had been working at what became Marvel Comics since 1939 but it wasn't till the Sixties that he started creating superheroes tailored for the sensibility of the age.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
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!
While I agree with Mark about the absurdity of “superheroes” our boys are losing because of politicians running “wars” (you hardly can even call them that from our side) instead of warriors.
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.
Pretty broad statement. I never read comics as a kid. Just wasn’t interested. Many Marvel movies have great moral dilemma’s in them. Captain America, The Winter Soldier is a great story about two friends and comrades that have taken different paths. Iron Man movies are full of the consequences of good and bad choices.
Uhhh nope. Sorry but you’re so full of crap the bits smell. In Stan Lee’s world the people are what’s worth saving, and those that get powers have a duty to protect the ordinary. And the heroes don’t want to be in charge, they just follow the call to action. Heck most of them don’t even like being in charge of their own superhero teams.
Steyn shows he knows absolutely nothing about comics. He should be ashamed at being so completely and utterly wrong in every single sentence.
Sure. But these things are set in a fantasy world within a fantasy world (a superhero 'universe' within the fantasy of a film). One could argue 'hey, it's just a movie', and even the originators of plays / popular entertainment, the Greeks, had the intervention of their gods and the deus ex machina... And they're all just tales, stories to pass the time. But I prefer something a little more real world in my fantasy, if that makes sense....
With so much happening in that real world, there is plenty of material to work with. But Hollywood prefers not to deal with real-world stories. The superhero universe is safer. You won't offend anyone. And do a Black Panther and suddenly you're leading the civil rights movement.
Maybe you could give us an example or two?
I did right there in the post. Brubaker is fantastic. Gail Simone is also great. Gaiman has started a bunch of Sandman spinoffs, he’s not writing just supervising, so far those are good. American Judge Dredd runs pretty solid, not 2000AD good but good. And that’s just current. And non superhero. When I got back in I decided the hero side had rebooted and retconned enough it wasn’t my world anymore so I didn’t head there. But I hear good things about some of it. I’m having more fun with Image and IGW.
Oh whoops wrong comic thread. Examples of what? Stan Lee heroes not taking over the world? The most famous line in all of comics comes from Stan Lee and completely disproves they guy: with great power comes great responsibility. That’s not taking over the world, that’s helping people. And a good moral lesson not to turn away against problems you can fix.
Big Bang Theory - Well Played
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsn2qMMmgKk
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