Superhero comics v superhero films and shows

By BILL CHAISSON
In the Stream
Like a lot of people I am astonished by the plethora of superhero-based programming that is being produced right now. I read comic books as a kid, but didn’t collect them, nor did I follow any particular series. In that I am in a majority, I believe. While the superhero films and television programs are a dream come true for some comic book fanatics, in order to have mass appeal they had to be understandable to a broader audience. I say, “some comic book fanatics” because there are those fans who can not go along with any narrative departures in the films and television shows that aren’t in the comics. There are others who will not like the choices that were made when a single new narrative is cobbled together from multiple past ret-cons.

But most of us will judge these new interpretations on their own merits. I was amused to leave my second theater viewing of “Thor: Ragnarok” and walk down the sidewalk behind two fans who were very upset that Thor was suddenly an hilariously funny superhero. Again, I haven’t read enough of the comics to know if his character ever included any wit, but my own memory of Thor is that he was pretty serious and self-important.

In the comics Thor once had an alter ego, Dr. Donald Blake, a disabled physician. Blake more or less disappeared from the Thor story for many years and then was revived in the 2000s. Fans are perhaps waiting for him to show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The tension between the possibilities offered via decades of comic books and what can be introduced to the MCU films is one of the things that perpetuates buzz about this franchise in social media and at entertainment sites.

DC has not managed its pantheon anywhere near as adeptly. I am only vaguely aware of the massive across the board reboots that the DC comic book catalogs have received since the 1980s. DC has been at once more high concept and incoherent compared to Marvel. It is widely accepted that their films have been unsatisfactory because they are too dark and self-serious, while their television shows generally succeed because they are lighter and genuinely funny. Exceptions include the Christopher Nolan-directed trilogy of Batman movies starring Christian Bale, which pulled off dark and self-serious by being beautifully made and sprinkled with mordant humor. The television show “Arrow,” on the other hand, is regarded as less entertaining than “The Flash” or even “Legends of Tomorrow” because it is relentlessly dark and its narrative tone is uneven, ricocheting back and forth between self-parodic and grimly dour.

DC media has a tougher time building that valuable tension between the comic book canon and the film/television interpretations. The multiple-Earth aspect of the DC Universe works well in “The Flash” because one of that hero’s powers is to be able to move among these dimensions. “Supergirl” can perhaps do so as well, but as far as I know (I haven’t watched much of it) that show has other fish to fry, namely making extended hay of the superhero-as-dangerous-alien trope that it shares with Marvel’s “X-Men.” However, unlike the X-Men, which are mutants and only metaphorically alien, Supergirl (and Superman, of course) are literally aliens who immigrated to Earth when their world exploded. The political metaphor here is very “on the nose” and in the context of current events, much is being made of it.

At their peril, DC seems to favor dabbling in political commentary over trying to knit together a coherent relationship between its print universe(s) and its film and television narrative. Marvel’s politics are less obvious, but hardly absent. The struggle within the Avengers between the factions led by Iron Man and Captain America is the most obvious example. Iron Man/Tony Stark believed in registering aliens and “Cap”/Steve Rogers was against it. Stark the industrialist/capitalist trusted the government with that kind of power, and Rogers, the soldier and World War II veteran, did not. Hmmm. Right. Makes you think instead of telegraphing a political message straight at you. In other words, good stuff.

These movies and television shows are assumed to be escapist entertainment, but in fact they are modern day morality tales that comment on current events and given that millions and millions of people watch these films and shows, often more than once, one has to wonder what kind of political opinions they subtly insinuate into the minds of viewers, many of whom may otherwise pay little attention to actual news about what is going on in the world today. This is perhaps why critics get upset about unrelievedly gloomy offerings like “Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice.” This film was viewed as a colossal drag by critics and its box office fell off at a record pace after its opening weekend. As Stan Lee told us all “With great power comes great responsibility.”