Social Meaning and Impact of Super Hero Origins

[NexusOfLight]

This is Hank, whose real name is William, but that's another story. Hank is smarter than me in many regards, and I like people who are smarter than me which is why I try to always keep up with Linda and Pinds. This is a video made for his brother, John, but he's more than happy for the rest of us to watch it.

Hank is a biochemist, which explains why he stuck to the science based heroes. The same points he makes holds true for the mythology/magic superheroes in that the science based heroes have their origins rooted in what we are scared of/fascinated by now, and the myth heroes have their roots based in what people were scared of/fascinated by long ago.

Not sure how much discussion this will generate, but its a very interesting perspective that deserved being brought to the table.

Quite honestly, this has the potential to generate a lot of discussion. (The underlying reason I sorta stole this topic from Gaia Online's comic forum.) So what are your thoughts on how super heroes, particularly science based ones, have started out and sorta evolved over time? What do you think of Iron Man, the so called futurist? How about Doom? Let's get a nice, rational, discussion about these things. I think it's safe to say that like all media, comics strive to both inspire and reflect on the state of society.

[Phantom Stargrave]

LOL Zombies. ;D


... Sorry, I just had to get that out of my system. Carry on.

[Erik-El]

Spider-Man's origin was never 'revamped'. It was still a radioactive spider.

Ultimate Spider-Man is the genetically modified spider.

Get your facts straight and switch to decaf.

[Phantom Stargrave]

It does get his point across though. Spiderman made in the 2000s rather than the 1960s has taken up the boogieman of the new generation rather than sticking with the original because the myths about nuclear energy have dispersed by now.

TV tropes has a trope about that.

[NexusOfLight]

Mar 12, 2011 19:39:52 GMT -5 Erik-El said:

Spider-Man's origin was never 'revamped'. It was still a radioactive spider.

Ultimate Spider-Man is the genetically modified spider.

Get your facts straight and switch to decaf.

LOL, because I think the point was Ultimate Spider-Man, the Spider-Man that was created with the idea of bringing in a newer generation of readers from the 2000's as opposed to the 616 Spider-Man's inception in the 1960's made that change for a reason.

LOL again, because I'm pretty sure you knew that's exactly what he meant to begin with.

So yeah, the origin was "revamped," just not retcon'd in 616. They also went with the genetic modded spider for the movie if I recall correctly.

[Erik-El]

@nexus:

Yeah I knew what he meant. But I thought it fit so well with my decaf comment, I could not resist.

[NexusOfLight]

So any real thoughts on this? If it helps, we could broaden the topic to just include how all characters in comics are shaped by the times.

[Erik-El]

I think that is pretty accurate. Comics are based on what interests people to boost sales.

[Power NeXus]

If the popular superheroes always get their power from something we're obsessed with or afraid of, I guess it says something that the X-Men are still so popular. Awesome technology and radioactive spiders are one thing, but race is something that always causes divisions.

[Erik-El]

Mar 13, 2011 16:17:35 GMT -5 Power NeXus said:

If the popular superheroes always get their power from something we're obsessed with or afraid of, I guess it says something that the X-Men are still so popular. Awesome technology and radioactive spiders are one thing, but race is something that always causes divisions.

It probably always will. I saw a study that showed that everyone (even those who normally would not be thought as such) has a little bit of racism. It is kind of sad as a species.

[Killshot Caine]

I kind of agree with what was said in the video but I think also alot of characters get their persona from things that we find hip at the time even if they don't actually get powers.A character like Rocket Racer was created because of the growing popularity of skateboards and extreme lifestyle and that also reflects in a character like Screwball (Spider-Man villain) who commits crimes to upload the footage on her website to get hits.I'm very aware that we see a little bit of our style and principles based on the time period in the characters that are created to in some way relate with us in fictional stories.I think most characters are a direct reflection of what's "in" at the time.