The Genre of Superheroes

During a recent beach BBQ, a classmate of mine (Jeff Fong) said something pretty interesting about superheroes. It went along the lines of:

“Don’t you think Iron Man and Batman are roughly the same? Think about it – both rich guys with super-cool gadgets but no superhuman abilities. Using force to fight evil…same concepts aren’t they?”

Of course, being a huge Batman fan, I immediately refused to believe the claim. But now, upon reflection, perhaps Jeff’s right.

Honestly…same type of superhero aren’t they? Tells us something about our society…we love those who are rich and justice-orientated. They’re the current wave of heroes.

Some old school, not-so-popular, superheroes include:

Yep, those with ACTUAL powers.

Then again, there are the bad guy heroes….

There superheroes, one way or the other, have something similar – they’re forced into their roles through the might of destiny. With great power comes responsibility…right?

So what’s next? What other superhero will we encounter in the near future? I actually wonder what would happen if the protagonist becomes a henchman of a supervillain…like in the Joker comic for example. It’d be pretty interesting….you’d have a monologue guy like in Matt Damon’s ‘The Observer’, and then that one petty thief will share his experiences of the joker with you. Of course he will be given emotional depth – with his background and everything explained, but the main focus would be why he’s working for the joker, and how the joker operates – and how the batman comes and saves the day FROM A VILLAIN’S perspective.

Why not just have the supervillain become the protagonist? Well, I think consumers like me are generally more interested in a mysterious, unpredictable villain. But that’s just my take. We also want the protagonist to win (we hate greek tragedies). But it’d also be very interesting if someone made a movie with the Joker as the protagonist. He’d have to be locked up in the end by Batman, but in the process of him working…maybe we’ll start rooting for the Joker since he’s the protagonist. The possibilities are endless when we shift the perspective away from the superhero himself.