Why is it important to dissect our favorite films, books and fictional characters? This all goes back to “have a reason to write your story.” If you don’t know what makes something good, than the message could be completely lost. Haven’t you ever wondered why we’ve retold the same stories a thousand times in a million different ways? Spiderman, Batman, wonder woman, Superman, Iron man—all have been adapted over and over. Being a writer whose created characters of my own, I have. I’m of the opinion that what truly makes a super hero movie is far more complex than the recent string of MCU films would make us believe. It’s not the terrible puns, the costumes, the super powered fights or even the extremely talented actors portrayals that bring them to the screen.

Comic books are fiction: What does a hero story mean when paralleled with reality? This sounds kind of complex so I’ll break it down: comic book super heroes don’t exist (and I’m sorry if any children who want to be Batman read this and have their life aspiration spoiled!). There has never been a teenage boy bitten by a spider who could then walk on walls, there is no such thing as an Amazonian warrior who comes from an island of immortal women, or a man who fights crime in a bat costume with his fists.

Why does fiction matter?: Since we know the stories are fiction, the only reason we would bother recreating them so much is if they had a meaning that still rang true. If the sum of a superhero movie were just action, comedy, and expensive special effects than it would be pointless and I’d walk away feeling I hadn’t watched anything. A large reason anyone read Frankenstein (since there has never been a monster brought to life by man like that) is because of the perspective it took on humanity, creations vs. the creator and what really is their relationship? If a superhero movie isn’t saying something true about humanity, or giving me a parallel to reality that I can actually take to heart than it’s meaningless. Avengers Endgame would be the chief example of this (but I’ll review that another time).

What are Examples of themes or good parallels for reality in fiction? I had my disappointments with the film wonder woman 1984 but one of the things I applaud is the theme “You cannot have it all, you can only have the truth.” Other examples of themes from super heroes would be :

·         “With great power comes great responsibility (Spiderman).”

·         “Only love can save the world (Wonder woman).”

·         “What’s right isn’t always legal, and what’s legal isn’t always right (The Punisher).”

·         “I would keep my promise; I would help those that others wouldn’t. I would seek justice one way or another (Daredevil).”

Or you could think of the X men, that Stan Lee designed in the 1960’s to represent every persecuted minority group. They have great abilities, and the world hates and fears them—but they feel obligated to use their powers to protect that world regardless. This is something still applicable today, the world may not like or understand you but you have an obligation to do what’s right even if no one will acknowledge it or give you credit.

 The list goes on and on, but these always ring true and they relate to the character personally. Basically, create a fictional character who believes something that we can think about, consider or hopefully uphold in actual reality. We watch them because comic book heroes can do things we can’t, and in doing so they set an example for us to consider their beliefs. We aren’t billionaire Bruce Wayne who can go out and fight crime. But we acknowledge that seeing something wrong in the world and taking action is a worthy aspiration and we enjoy watching characters that do it in phenomenal, emotion, and action packed ways.

There are a million ways to do this: There is no set boundary for what a super hero exactly has to look like, whether they’re portrayed in a film or a comic book. It’s been done a thousand ways and as long as you stick to your guns with the most important aspects you’ll nail a top notch hero story. The 2004 Punisher film takes a much darker tone because that’s fitting with the character and the particular type of crime he fights as well as his tragic back story. Spiderman Into the Spider verse is a cartoon and takes a more humorous tone but it still nails the serious moments that are intended to move us emotionally. The theme is still there, and so are the values. As long as your theme and true meaning isn’t lost in the materialistic content of the story then you’re on your way to making something good.

Hero stories can be more tragic, and focus on the darker side of humanity (The Dark Knight, The Daredevil series etc.). Or they can blend both dark and light (Spiderman 2002, Wonder woman 2019 etc.) A good hero film should show both the light and dark side of mankind (actually it absolutely HAS to), but how dark you want to make your story is entirely up to you.

There must be a light at the end of the tunnel: You might think this goes without saying….but it doesn’t. The recent obsession with making movies about villains (Joker, Suicided Squad, Birds of Prey, Cruella Devil etc.) is partially due to Hollywood being out of ideas, and largely because they understand the genre of comics is successful but they don’t understand the values behind the heroes we know and love. In other words, they can’t make good hero movies anymore because they don’t understand where their values come from them but they’re able to understand villains. In the Netflix Marvel genre there aren’t many heroes who understand why they must fight and what they’re fighting for, but the villains are flushed out and quite specific as to their motives. This is because Hollywood is predominantly Godless—so writing destructive atheistic or nihilistic characters comes naturally to them. But if you’re creating a hero story than it MUST have a light at the end of the tunnel, a good, or empathetic character who shows us the right choice in a slew of horrific wrong ones.    

For example, the only thing that made Dark Knight ( a film+ that merits essays and articles on its own) a hero movie was in fact the protagonist, and his steadfast obligation to justice and belief in helping the innocent. Also, the twist at the end that gives us a mixed but still hopeful picture of humanity was necessary to keep the film from being too nihilistic. In today’s world what the creators of films and shows have largely done is remove the empathetic protagonist, or the core belief that makes the story meaningful, and then just focus on the negative character arcs. Examples of this would be Joker 2019 and Suicide squad 2016. If you remove a moral, empathetic perspective and only have the worst parts of humanity displayed, then it’s not a hero film. It’s simply a movie show casing the depraved nature of man without a single character to voice a hopeful perspective. A hero’s story has to have a voice of morality, ideals, and faith somewhere in it—otherwise the overwhelming narrative is bleak and hopeless.

-Jubilee