The Superhero Of Superhero Movies

Adam Hogue, in his article “Why Do Americans Love Superheroes So Much?,” discusses the reasons behind the popularity of the superheroes. Hogue’s purpose is to instill the idea that superheroes are popular due to their static personalities. First, he illustrates his opinion with his anecdote about Captain America: “Sure, there were some slightly different nuances here and there, but for the most part, he was the same man…The superhero is someone we deeply trust” (para 9). Here the author describes how his personal attachment to Captain America was due to his unchanging personality and how the Captain “wasn’t going to be dead forever” (para 9). Not only this, Hogue demonstrates his ideas by using Spiderman as an example: “With

The superhero comic landscape during the Golden and Silver age of comics was saturated with comics that were very similar in structure. In The Revisionary Superhero Narrative, Geoff Klock points out that comics like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman followed an established set of conventions where each issue only mechanically added another story to their respective folklores (117). It would not make much of a difference what order they are read in because they do not take into account the history of the character or what lasting impact their actions will have on the world. The complexity of these comics do not go far beyond commercial literature, and they only seek to prolong their lifespan. However, author Alan Moore challenges this view of superhero comics by creating Watchmen, a revisionary comic series that redefines the purpose of the superhero and explores how superheroes can greatly impact the world in a political and social context. By incorporating these ideas in Watchmen, Moore effectively creates a more realistic, and ultimately a more novelistic, depiction of the superhero figure.

Superheroes can be defined in many ways by many experts. Clare Pitkethly’s academic background consists of comparative literature, culture and communication as she also speaks and writes comic books and superhero, defines a superhero to be different. In Pitkethly’s article “Straddling a Boundary: The Superhero and the Incorporation of Difference,” talks about

I believe we as a society are intrigued with shows like Dexter because they allow us a temporary escape from reality. A reality in which we witness injustices occur in our court systems such as a legal loop hole allowing a guilty person to essentially walk free and justice not being served for the victim. I will attempt to explain why these characters are thriving as pop culture icons.

The portrayal of superheroes in films has changed in terms of their character, appearance, style and strength. Superheroes has been a popular theme in hollywood films since its inception. They are what peoples imagination can only think of. A perfect human being who saves the world .The first time superhero appeared on T.V was “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” in 1941. Superheroes was on the rise within popular comic books in 1930′s to the 1940’s as well in which they were considered the ‘Golden Age of Comic Books’ . Comic books became widespread and popular which translated into making films about them.

Superhero movies have been on the rise lately. These movies are often looked at as entertainment for people who play Dungeons and Dragons and are simply mindless pleasure; however, this is not the case. The reason behind the popularity of superhero movies is more than just the want of the common comic book reader. The superhero movie industry has made a sharp incline in popularity; in fact there are more superhero movies now than ever before. A website called Fights, Tights and Movie Nights listed all of the superhero movies made since the 1980’s by year and these were their findings. In the 1980’s an average of three to four super movies came out a year. In the 1990’s these movies were made on average five to six times per year. In the 2000’s the movies doubled to 12-13 produced on average each year. Today, 2010’s, the average number of superhero movies has again doubled in size with it now resting at twenty-two to twenty-three superhero movies made on average each year. The drastic increase of the number of superhero movies leaves the average movie attendee wondering why they are seeing this spike of superhero movies. The increase of superhero movies can be contributed to a few key factors: the advances of technology in the movie industry, the movie genre’s adaption to be socially relevant, and the characters now possessing more humanistic qualities (Fights…).

This source discusses the most popular superheroes and how they relate in their own given time period. It makes connections with the major time periods in and the location of the publications. For my essay I intend to use the time period and publication locations to show relation in the societies culture through their superheroes. This source is also very credible being that the author Joseph Darowski has not only a BA and MA, but a PHD as well. He’s written 15 other books that been published.

During the significant changes in American history, comic books contributed information that described what was happening during a specific event. Starting with Superman, battling against the corrupted ceo’s and government politicians to Batman being a juvenile delinquent who eventually became one with the law. Yet with these comic book characters relating to everything around a human beings life, changed the American youth culture in a great way.

Having built an empire on which the marketing sun never sets, Marvel should now be facing audience fatigue—how many stories of superheroes can this world bear?

Comic book industries have been the main establishers for the new American youth culture. This has also been well used to settle a cultural representation for communism, wartime-propaganda, and, to those adults who thought their child acting rude was caused by comics, a sign of the decline of comic books, thus making the industry fall into consensus and conformity. Ever since the first comic book was created in the 1930’s, Americans have been greatly influenced because of its vast enjoyment. Whether from romance to war or justice to crime, comic books have forever changed popular culture and can definitely portray how, at different times in U.S. history, people understood and interpreted events around the globe. This becomes apparent in the film Comic Book Superheroes: Unmasked when the

For centuries, man has struggled with the concepts of good and evil and have produced astounding works as a reflection of it. This is ideally the foundation of early fables and folklore dating back to ancient civilizations. Stories about famed heroes and the battle of good and evil woven into extravagant tales of danger, destiny, and triumph. These stories were often assimilated into individual societies, told from generation to generation until eventually finding themselves becoming an integral part of the culture. In 1938, a new era began to emerge known as the “golden age” of superheroes. Superman made his first appearance in action comics, forging a unique identity as the first comic book superhero in American culture and quickly

The number of movies adapted from comic books has, in recent years, become more and more popular, and more comic book films are being released now than in the past. In this essay I will explore the reasons why this pattern has emerged and potential reasons for 'the prevalence of comic book adaptations in post 9/11 cinema'.

1938 saw the first appearance of Batman. More of a mystery comic than a superhero comic book, Batman was inherently different from the pure and clean Superman. He was a gritty and depressing character that has been able to remain in print even to this day. Rather than using superpowers, Batman uses detective abilities that allowed him to solve cases and find perpetrators. (“The History of Comic Books.” TheComicBooks.com.) But not even Batman, Superman, or even Captain Marvel could brace themselves for the arrival of the Marvel comics.

Through my analyzation of these values, I have assessed the relevance of superheroes in cinema through the impact of American popular culture, the contrast of gender roles, and their impact on children. As a result, society should be gracious toward the immense popularity of superhero films, as they bolster American popular culture and positively impact children from a young age. Although the gender roles might be a bit skewed, many film companies are taking steps to include women in more empowering roles such as Wonder Woman in the DC cinematic universe. Therefore, superheroes in cinema tend to only create and preserve positive characteristics within society, which is glorious in the future of mankind. In closing, I end with the question, “Which superhero best depicts

When you think of a superhero one normally thinks of Spiderman, Batman, or Superman, but there were superheroes long before these characters were created. First one must understand that the basis of this name is hero. What is a hero? A hero is a person who does something special or out of the ordinary in order to help others. It could also be someone who is admired for a characteristic about them, be it physical or mental. They are individuals that normal everyday people can look up to. This being the case, a superhero is nothing more then someone who is a hero, but not just that once and for that one person, but someone who helps many people, or leads them. As time went by the number of people who were true heroes diminished and just