June 2, 2008

Wanted: Superhero

Posted by Anika Brown at 5:11AM

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A well coiffed offering from comedy king Will Ferrell couldn’t deliver, nor could a steamy bodice-ripper from It Girls Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson. The Wachowski brothers (the duo behind The Matrix) bombed spectacularly with their $160 million revision of Speed Racer. The standard formulas for Hollywood hits -- marquee actor, pricey special effects, sexy starlets – just aren’t working like they used to.

A look at the year’s most talked about films and recent box office numbers shows the public wants more than big names. From well-known icons like Iron Man, Batman, and the Incredible Hulk to fringe characters Hellboy and The Spirit, the public is on a full-on superhero binge.

Although the comic book genre has been around since the late 1930s, it has generally been dismissed as an esoteric subculture meant for little kids and awkward adults. Now superheroes are no longer just a guilty geek pleasure; they are standards of mainstream cool.

Of course, there have been other periods when comics have achieved wide spread popularity. The first came in 1938 when the country was clawing its way out the Great Depression and about to enter into the deadliest war in world history. In an effort to boost morale, the first superheroes personified the righteous, invincible spirit promoted by the government. Led by prototypical do-gooder Superman, characters went toe-to-toe with Hitler and encouraged people to buy war bonds. This Golden Era lasted until the end of World War II when the adult public began to lose interest.

The Silver Age of comics occurred from the mid-1950s through the beginning of the seventies when the nation was again in turmoil. Unlike their perky predecessors, these new personalities – including The X-Men and even Spider Man – reflected the tension and moral ambiguities brewing in society at the time.  In the midst of the Civil Rights struggle and Cold War anxieties (and with the Vietnam War barreling toward them), readers required a more complex, more relatable band of saviors.

As much as the superheroes changed during the respective periods, the cultural conditions that brought about the glory days were remarkably similar. Social unrest, economic disparity, institutional corruption, a devastating war…does any of that sound familiar?

I’m not saying we’re looking for someone to magically vaporize the deficit, but you need only look at the current administration’s disapproval ratings to see that the nation is looking for a change in leadership.

We no longer want the guy we can hang out with, the C student, the one who flubs multi-syllable words because (like us) he’s never seen them before. We need someone who can go beyond the status quo.

Fittingly, the showdown between the year’s most anticipated cinematic superheroes parallels the philosophical differences between the top presidential campaigns.

Thanks to the former’s record setting success and the latter’s inspired casting, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk are the most buzzed about movies of the summer. Beyond the inevitable box-office comparison, the two represent a classic clash of brain versus brawn.

Unlike most superheroes, Tony Stark (the guy inside the iron suit) isn’t from some faraway planet nor does he have a genetic mutation. His powers come from his intelligence and ingenuity.

The Hulk, on the other hand, is a full-on bruiser whose power is contingent on his emotional instability. The madder he gets, the stronger he gets.

If recent reports hold true, the battle for the Whitehouse will comedown to a similar face-off of ideologies.